Cultural Differences of Effective Leadership

Cultural Differences of Effective Leadership Motivation: Cultural Differences of Effective Leadership 1. Executive Summary This concept is concentrated on important aspects of cultural dimensions of the effective leadership. The key idea behind this study is to examine or know about different cultures. Describing the different cultures of leadership between England and France countries. Describing briefly about different behaviours and skills of the effective leadership in England and France. This study gives the differences among leaders, as they are from two different countries. McClellands Research on motivation is used find cultures of countries. The important fact, relationship and activities about leadership for effectiveness. The Hofstedess five dimensional theory is used to explain the cultural differences of two different countries. Explaining the cultural differences of England and France. Lastly the conclusion part describes or summarizes the outcome or result of the theory and differences of effective leadership between two countries. 2. Terms of Reference I am working as a leadership trainer expert who trains people to become the good and effective leaders so that they are successful in their jobs as leaders. I have done my masters on cultures, language and Identity. My client is a Consultancy called VASA which helps people with the recruitment process in England and France. They also provide other kinds of suggestion and consultancy services like further studies to students coming from abroad, like recruiting people from abroad. VAS is a very well known name in the UK in terms of reputation as organization. They have consulted me with the need of proper assessment of leadership qualities with different cultures mainly England and France. They have chosen me because I have been training the leader from both the countries for a long time. They need the assessment regarding what the different leadership differences are there culturally according to background of the country. The cultural aspects which can help the manager to manage the organization in a much better way and simple steps take advantage of such situations. The client requires this information to implement in their organization and also help their partners achieve better performance from their managers with the help of this assessment. 3. Overview of the situation Introduction The introduction starts with good back ground information about motivation to study and research. Then discusses about the problems with a conclusion for the research question. After this we discuss about the objectives of the motivation. Background Now we are in modern computer age and we are thinking to get computer system to communication the economic, political, cultural, technological industries have come together. The management skills and abilities for every organization or management are important to study. We are searching more activities of the leader among the different culture. This interest will be helpful for the managers to explain about the cultural differences. We are Living in a different cultural backgrounds and identifying the culture difference between effective leaders is necessary. These days the European managers understand many ideas and values for their country business and management and they understand the cultures of others. Problem Discussion The reasons for effective leadership are similar theories. The approaches are based on attribute, behaviour, power, conditions that are integrated. These approaches focus on the characteristics of effective leader, the groups and condition. The above five approaches shows the important dimensions of effective leadership and also interrelated or connected to the cultural dimension of effective leadership. Today the analysis of culture is deciding factor for leadership. The culture of effective leadership has infinite dimensions. The individual, supporters and the organization are inclined by different culture in the particular environments. The many different approaches interrelated to the cultural dimension of leadership. The cross-cultural studies are very important field of research. Today analyses of cultures have no supporting theories and also reactions with organization and leadership practices. â€Å"This cultural difficulty or complexity perspective suggests that culture in management settings is much more difficult, different, and contradictory than previously assumed acknowledged.† The effective leadership needed for more study. The many cultural theories are written by Americans. There are many questions are exists for managers to place on local managements that describes on leadership and cultures. The questions which are arise for managers to place leadership to sub managements as follows: †¢ What is background culture of leader and of the management? †¢ What are the cultures of effective leader? †¢ How can manger can the manger should decide for the organization? The skills and behaviour differ between the cultures. The effective leader should required good management skills and behaviour to mange an organization. The study problem What are the cultures the effective leader? What essential determents necessary for a good leadership describe between England and france? Objectives I can easily find out by taking two different countries. We are mainly focused on the determining which is essential in one country and not essential in other country for effective leadership. We will compare our own results with theories of cultural leadership in order to find proof for this assessment. Finally we will conclude some related and the different cultures of the leader. 4. Analysis of the situation: Preunderstanding The preunderstanding is an essential concept for conducting a research. The pre-understanding is done by handling with some responsibilities and challenges. Gaining of individual facts and experience which may provide problem before starting to examine. The lack of information to research on preunderstanding will force the researcher to put more time and effort to analyze particular problem. The general knowledge, personal attributes these are the different categories of Preunderstanding required for researchers. The real experience gained by exact knowledge also we can see the technical background. The exact knowledge getting via good circumstances. The general knowledge and exact knowledge is helpful when writing our opinion. Our background means creativity, strength, feeling contributing the term preunderstanding. The personal attributes categories are good for understanding and determination of the problem. Today we are studying in abroad so we can easily identifying the cultural differences in daily life. This experience will help us for analysis. According to Gummesson preunderstanding is â€Å"a part of understanding as a complete. The output after analyzing the problem is called as experience.† The researcher can understand the problem more by process of studying getting a new knowledge. Therefore preunderstanding is an understanding the product output, results and outcomes. Theories in effective leadership The important theories about effective leadership and cross-cultural differences are analysed here. First I am going to concentrate on theories about leader facts and behaviour and also Hofstadters cultural five dimensions for explaining the cross-cultural studies. Leadership and Leadership Effectiveness â€Å"There is more different description or explanation regarding the leadership as the people who have tried to describe the concept of leadership.† There are many ways to describe the concept of leadership with different meanings but researchers can explain according to their opinion. The common definition for leadership is â€Å"as a process of planning control by the leader on other people to structure of organization, guide lines and making possible relationships and performance in an organization.† â€Å"Leadership is a process to achieve particular goal with a group of individuals† The above definition indicates the goals and achievements of an effective leader in an organization. Effective leadership in an organization provides the good performance. The different hypothetical approaches are used to explain or describe the effective leadership. The attributes of the effective leader. The personal attributes of leader includes the leaders behaviour and skills and also relationship to success. The many researchers who point out the attributes of effective leadership for an organization. All the attributes of leader from the researchers should be variety of different attributes. The researches on attributes of the good leader. These modern theories test the importance of the attribute and skill approach. McClellands Research on Managerial Motivation McClelland analysed and studied the leaders motivation theory and he classified in to three different needs of managers required for organization that control their performance. The three types of needs are as follows: †¢ Need for affiliation (relationship). †¢ Need for achievement (successes). †¢ Need for power (authority). The need for affiliation identifies manager or head of the organization the leader wants to be liked and he is avoiding problems between his subordinates and supervisors in an organization. The need for achievement is connected with happiness (satisfaction); there is an aim to solve the difficult task to achieve some organizational goal. McClelland and winter describe about the need for successes â€Å"as a key for economic growth it promotes entrepreneurship.† finally McClelland and winter come to the conclusion that â€Å"the need for success is a great value for the leadership.† A person who has high need for power he is interested to acquire the higher power (authority) positions in an organization. He has capable to resolve or solving the problems with others. The need for power (authority) and achievement both are highly related if the power increases automatically we achieve the goal or specific task. The types of managers distinguished by McClelland and Burnham during their research as follows: †¢ Institutional managers a person who have a high power (authority) and low need for affiliation. †¢ Affiliation managers a person who have more need for affiliation than the need for power (authority). †¢ Personal power managers a person who have more power and low need for affiliation. After comparing different types of managers the Institutional managers are more effective than the Personal power managers. Three Skill Approach The skills of an Effective administrator or manager categorized in to three types: 1. Human skills (social skills) 2. Technical skills (Decision making, problem solving, structuring) 3. Conceptual skills (Conceptual skills) The leadership depends upon above three general skills the technical skills includes the knowledge about some activities, process, procedures (rules), different methods. The technical skills depend on the experiences, education and training. The human skill includes personal skills or social skills working with people. Human skills are related to the relational behaviour. The conceptual skill describes the ability to distinguish the different dependencies between the functions of the management. Behaviour of the Leader and Effectiveness Many researchers focused on leaders behaviour with different skills and behaviour approaches of the organization performance. CPE (change production employee model)-model introduced by Ekvall and Arvonen. This model consists of three categories for the different leadership behaviours as follows: †¢ Task-oriented behaviours †¢ Relations-oriented behaviour †¢ Change-oriented behaviour The task-oriented behaviours are also called as structure-oriented behaviour identifies the all behaviour to improve the task. The relations-oriented behaviour also called as employee-oriented behaviour. This identifies the relation between manager and subordinates, this is mainly focus on understanding their problems, providing the solution and helping them to develop in an organization. The change-oriented behaviour is latest category contains behaviour concerned with encouragement and management development. Culture The culture helps to identify the different peoples from the world. This culture enables the people who have same values and same way of life (attitude). The culture is learned by own and this concept starts building through interface with others. This concept builds from the people who are living in the same culture. Organizational and national cultures are different concepts in which the national cultures differ more in values but in organizational level differ in symbols. When analyzing the different national cultural concepts through Hofstede dimensions the national culture is complicated due to ethical, regional groups. Hofstedes Five Dimensions Hofstede conducted information about the cross-cultural management. The main aim of Hofsteds was to identify the employee values in different countries from the world. The Hofstedes five dimensions which is used to identify the characteristics of every country. The five dimensions are a frame work to explain the different cultures of the every country. The Hofstedess Five Dimensions are as follows: 1. Power distance Index 2. Uncertainty avoidance Index 3. Individualistic or collectivistic beliefs 4. Masculinity and femininity 5. long-term orientation vs. short-term-orientation The first dimension called as power distance Index (PDI) and provides the relationship between the countries. The definition for power distance according to Hofstede â€Å"The degree to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.† The France is at 68th rank and England is at 35th rank according to theory. The low power distance shows low dependence between the subordinate and superior in an organization. If the result after identification the PDI is high means the dependence high between the superior and subordinates. The 2nd dimension is called uncertainty avoidance Index and uncertainty avoidance . This dimension defines uncertainty about future need for technology, laws and rules for reducing the uncertainty. The ratio of uncertainty avoidance between England and France, the France is at 68th rank and England at 35th rank. So the uncertainty avoidance in England is higher than the France. The third dimension is called individualistic or collectivistic beliefs. The individualism refers to single but collectivism refers to groups. The groups are important compare to individual. The England is at 90th rank and France is at 71th rank. So the individualistic are higher dimensional value in England compare to France. The fourth dimension is called Masculinity and femininity. It describes the varieties between work and goals existing between genders. The masculinity culture is related to work and describes the roles of gender. The masculinity culture gives more importance to relations. Then England is at 66th rank and France is at 43th rank in comparison of masculinity and femininity. England is in lower dimension value compare to France. The fifth and last dimension is called long-term orientation vs. Short-term orientation enables whether a culture is future-oriented or present-oriented. Comparison between England and France, the England (25th rank) is in higher dimension value according to Hofstedess theory. 5. Solutions and recommendations (conclusion) Lets specify conclusions about effective leaders in England and france. I have described the leadership attributes differ between these two countries. The differences are identified and analyzed with a cultural analysis. Concerning McClellands difference among three types of needs of a leader, I concluded that effective leaders are having low need for affiliation, a high need for achievement and strong social power orientation. In England the need for achievement even more important than in France. The effective French managers have a strong socialized power. I am also explained the three skill dimensions for an effective leadership. But French effective leader required most technical skills to solve the problem. The French leaders are friendly and worried about relationships. The results for cultural differences of the effective leader performance are slightly different in the skills. We could use Hofsteds theory to match the results to the cultural difference in England and France. The results are explained by using the Hofstedes theory. The France country have higher rank in uncertainty avoidance compare to England, this indicate a high need for structure to reduce irregularity. The Hofsteds five dimensions often give a way towards behaviour but do not cover information regarding leadership behaviour. This five dimension theory has been proved as highly significant to certain behaviour skills. This theory very useful to understand the cultures of different countries. 6. Forecast and Outcomes : From this study we can understand that the importance of different cultures and their diversity which has to be considered for becoming a good leader of the people with that cultural background. We can see in the future that there will be a lot of research to be done on the field of cultural leadership qualities. The possible outcome of this is that it will help us understand and manage people as leader in a much better and efficient way so that we can be more effective in the management. 7. References: Leaders who make a Difference. European ManagementJournal Hofstede Cultural Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors,Institutions and Organizations across Nations. pentice hall Europe .sondergaard,m(1994),hofsteds consequences:a study reviews citations and replications leadershipcrossroads.com/mat/Effective leeiwan.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/motivation-not-the-leaders www.essays.se/about/thesis+on+motivation+and+performance

Ethical and Legal Systems of Health Care Organizations Essay

Aetna Incorporated, a health care plan company, is one of the American leading companies in diversified benefits of a range of traditional and consumer directed health care insurance services. It includes vast service offerings in health care insurance from mental and behavioral health to long-term care benefits and other health-related care and concerns . (Aetna, 2007a; Wikipedia, 2007) Moreover, it is the nation’s pioneer in full-service health insurer that proffers a consumer-oriented health plan. Aetna provides its members with the opportunity to reach out on suitable tools and comprehensible information for them to perform based decisions regarding health and financial interest (Aetna, 2007a). For over 150 years, Aetna has been committed to supporting people in attaining health and financial security. The company establishes information and necessary resources to work for its members and clients for them to execute â€Å"better-informed decisions about their health care. Currently, Aetna membership numbers up to 15. 7 million (M) medical members, around 13. 7 M dental members and around 10. 5 pharmacy members (Aetna, 2007a). In terms of health care networks, it holds on more than 783,000 health care professionals, 458,000 major care doctors and specialists, 4,681 hospitals and a network called AexcelSM, of specialist physicians. Aetna is also the provider of benefits through national employers of small, mid-sized and large multi-state scales in all 50 states, as well as individuals and Medicare recipients in certain markets. Aetna: Code of Conduct The company’s Code of Conduct contains a unique and consistent set of values and standards of integrity and business practices. It mediates in guiding the company in complying with the laws, regulations and ethical standards that controls Aetna’s business functions (Aetna, 2006). According to the preface message of Aetna’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Dr. Ronald A. Williams, every company’s employee, officer, and director is expected to follow the Code of Conduct because: a) it is the expectations of the customers from the company; b) they have a vow to live b their values, and; c) they would be functioning with the utmost principles of fair and ethical business guidelines given that they follow the contained guidelines in all their business aspects. However, the Code cannot cover all situations and Dr. Williams encourages the assistance or guidance of The Aetna Way and their Ethical Decision-Making Framework (to be discussed later in this paper) to conduct sound decisions and take the right actions in performing Aetna business practices. Ethical System The Code of Conduct contains ten (10) specific areas of topics in which the company discusses some policies on specific matters. The first one or Statement 1 deals with Conflicts of Interest that in general regards with the company’s requirement that its employees, officers and directors to keep away form real or obvious conflicts of interest to protect Aetna’s reputation. There should be avoidance in ownership interests or participation in excluded activities that would create a conflict of interest or interference in performing of a job. This requires reporting to the manager and compliance officer for review and sanction of affiliations on hand or ownership concerns that involves him or her or a family member or even a close friend residing in a home such as any positions with any â€Å"business, nonprofit organization or government entity that is an Aetna competitor, customer, provider or supplier† or for other cause or motives that may induce conflict of interest, and; getting hold of a considerable amount of partnership in possession of interest in any business or even partnership. However, the determination of conflicts of interest might sometimes be blurry and hence, guidance of a compliance officer might come necessary. There are also guidelines in the affiliations and interest of the Director and are not far-related to what have been discussed previously, and the review by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee must also re regarded relevant. There are also guidelines and rules in accepting or giving gifts; travel, entertainment and honorarium; discounts and preferential treatment; and loans and guarantees of obligations. Statement 2 deals with record-keeping and use of the company’s property and resources which should be entirely legal and proper. This is so since Aetna and any other companies for that matter, is mandatory to submit relevant documents, reports and public communication to the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators that also includes disclosure in a manner that is whole, impartial, accurate, timely and comprehensible. All of the company’s resources and property such s e-mail, internet and other computing and communications systems should only be used for the company’s purpose. Bribes and other illegal payments are also strongly discouraged by the company. Statement 3 embarks on fraud, dishonesty and criminal conduct since these apparently affect Aetna’s reputation and continued success. Hence, all business functions must be performed with honesty and with compliance with applicable laws, regulations and ethics rules. Statement 4 is with regards with protecting member and other confidential information of members, employees and the company itself from any inappropriate access, use or disclosure. This is also in integration and compliance with federal and state privacy and security laws that is applicable to the company. Private company information refers to member information, the company’s professional interests, and other relevant information about its clients, subordinates and even suppliers that might be used against the company or for the benefit of its competitor. This is applicable in the course of being under Aetna or after the affiliation with the company. Statement 5 deals with the company’s business and trade practices which should be complied with honesty and integrity since Aetna has its own laws and regulations that apply to the company’s business which are under federal law. The company’s Record and Management Policy is also strongly encouraged to be followed. Statement 6 encourages the company’s subordinates to support Aetna to be a responsible and trustworthy government contractor since the company treasures winning and keeping government contracts. This can be achieved by following federal, state and local laws that regards with government contracting and procurement. Employment laws must be also strictly complied with. The Code is also concerned with proper employment practices and welfare as well as the appropriateness of its workplace (Statement 7). The company complies with policies and programs that ensure the inclusiveness and safety or the workplace for its employees and business partners, promote fairness and respect for all, and promote a working environment where diversity and inclusion are appreciated. Federal laws that discourage discrimination, harassment, special personal relationships, violence and vices are strongly administered by the company. Such laws that are complied with in the company are the Equal Employment Opportunity and the Affirmative Action, which takes away the basing of business decisions on individual’s characters (such as sex, race, color, nationality, age and others; and the company’s very own Alcohol and Drug Policy that prohibits distribution, possession, use, purchase or sell of alcoholic beverages and illegal or prescription substances and drugs. Statement 8 deals with Aetna’s securities transactions which prohibits trade securities if an individual has no material nonpublic information about particular securities. Under this code, all are expected to comply to all insider trading and securities federal laws and the company’s own relevant regulations. Also included dealing and transacting with securities matters and management and secrecy of private information. The company and a subordinate could face civil and criminal consequence for insider trading since insider trading is unethical and unlawful. The statement also discusses on â€Å"material information† relevant in decision-making that concerns any transactions on the company’s securities. Statement 9 deals with the company’s interaction whether private or public to any external institution such as media organizations and even with the federal government. Anyone in close relation to the company and even its subordinates should not speak in behalf of Aetna only there was consent or authorization from the Board of Directors to take such action. Personal views should also be kept separate from the company’s view. He funds of the company should not be also utilized to engage on a lobbyist or to make a political donation except authorized by the Government relations. These are for the protection of Aetna’s reputation and an individual as well, under compliance of laws. Finally, Statement 10 deals with Aetna’s intellectual property. Apparently valuable, such property must be protected from improper use or disclosure whether owned by the company or licensed from others. Intellectual properties of the company must be controlled the legal and proper way. Usage of such property must be under approval of an internal legal counsel and in accordance with the Aetna Intellectual Property Guide. Policies on Aetna’s intellectual properties are also extended to the websites, videos, music and publications. Aetna’s ethical system as contained in its own Code of Conduct presents a vast range of policies that protects the reputation, integrity, security and welfare of both the company itself and its subordinates and members. As discussed above there are specific policies or code of ethics from recordkeeping, employee’s equal opportunity and to intellectual property rights. According to the company, all policies are established in compliance with federal laws. The company’s policies regarding conflicts of interest and confidentiality have general basis as concluded by the study in a position paper from the Society for Health and Human Values and Society for Bioethics Consultation Task Force on Standards for Bioethics Consultation (Aulisio, 2000). One of their conclusions is that, abuse of power and conflicts of interest must be avoided in health care companies. This is so since ethics consultants have the authority and power to influence clinical care and such power can be exploited. Since conflicts of interest can be partial to consultants’ recommendations, important personal or professional linkages with one or more parties should be disclosed and be get rid of. In addition, the personal concerns of the consultants may be affected by giving advice that could act against the company’s financial or public relations concerns. Policies that concern on recordkeeping and use of the company’s property and resources, and insider trading are all in accordance to federal laws specifically in the Securites Exchange Act of 1933 and 1934 (USSEC, 2007). The two basic objectives of the former it that to mandate investors or companies receive financial and other relevant information regarding securities being offered for public sale and forbid â€Å"deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud† in the sale of securities. The latter states that insider trading is illegal when an individual trades a security while in ownership of nonpublic material information in disobedience of an obligation to withhold the said information or renouncement from trading. On the other hand, policies regarding the company’s employment practices are also observed in compliance with federal employment laws. Federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Laws prohibit job discrimination which covers almost all private employers, state and local governments, educational institutions and even the federal government (USEEOC, 2005). The said law is enforced by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and also complies with the American College of Healthcare Executives or ACHE (ACHE, 2003). Overall, Aetna covers the essential and core ethic issues in accordance to federal laws.

How Wind Energy Destroyed Our Wild Life - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 468 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/08/08 Category Energy Industry Essay Level High school Tags: Wind Energy Essay Did you like this example? Renewable energy is generated by a natural and unconventional source it only need to convert natural energy sources such as the sun, wind, and water into continual energy to facilitate their use in everyday life. Renewable energy is widely available in nature, unlike underground fossil fuels in limited forms like oil, gas, and coal and can be implemented from repeated use. The wind turbines are environmentally friendly and do not contaminate the air with carbon dioxide, sulfur, or hydrogen sulfide residues, as do traditional generation plants. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "How Wind Energy Destroyed Our Wild Life" essay for you Create order Wind turbines differ from power plants because they are confined to sites where the proportion of wind is high in the mountains or near sea currents. A question that has always been asked by scientists and friends of the environment is do wind turbines negatively affect the earth? and do they damage marine areas and the wind farm? Most people believe wind power is one of the best ideas to create clean and affordable energy. However, wind power does not respect its promise to respect the environment. Wind energy, with its giant turbines, destroys wildlife, interferes with radio signals, causes noise, and changes the oceans general circulation. Birds take many places to live by balancing between protection from predators and the zones to access food, taking into account the Effort to bring the food for their babies and the time-consuming. to achieve this balance birds especially migratory. take high places such as mountains, highlands and then the coasts. And all those areas are tempted the wind energy researchers, also those places the wind does not stop throughout the year. Some of the effects that wind turbines cause on birds: death through collision or decrease by altering the housing due to inconvenience, which leads to decreased births in birds. Director of Science Nature Conservancy in Wyoming, Holly Copeland remarked, Over a half million birds and about a million bats, a study in 2013 by Smallwood, et al showed. And if you run those numbers out for Wyoming there are about 5000 grassland birds, we would be losing every yearthere was a paper that showed 20 eagles and in addition to that Duke Energy reported 52 eagles as well. Bats live anywhere in the world except pole north and Antarctica, but they favor warm areas like rainforests and prefer mountains because of their dark caves with hardly any light and much to eat. Bats travel at night depending on their ears, not their eyes and with the presence of those giant wind turbines that occur strong voices, disturb and change bat tracks and push them to collide with those turbines. Coastal wind farms p rovide renewable energy, but the activities that accompany them during their construction and the local air circulation of turbines affect marine mammals that use sound as a means of communication, food creation, movement, and reproduction

Homicide law in the UK - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1274 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? 1. The current law of homicide has been criticised widely for being archaic, complex and in need of reform. The Law Commission has reviewed the state of the law and proposed a new statutory framework which simplifies the law of homicide.[1] One of the biggest criticisms of the current common law is the wide definition ascribed to murder. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Homicide law in the UK" essay for you Create order It is defined as when someone unlawfully kills someone with the intent to kill or to do grievous bodily harm.[2] The breadth of the definition can be seen in the following example. A kicks B who falls over hitting his head on the curb resulting in death. The conduct of A under the current definition could constitute murder because the definition includes the mens rea of intention to inflict grievous bodily harm. Clearly A is guilty of a homicide offence however it is nevertheless odd to find A guilty of the top tier homicide offence in the same category as serial killers and hitmen. By included an intent to do grievous bodily harm within the scope of murder, the current law has been criticised for being skewed and distorting the sentencing process for murder.[3] Judges will often treat cases involving grievous bodily harm as including mitigating circumstances and therefore not impose mandatory sentences. This results in a skewing the murder offence into two tiers. The law is there fore unsatisfactory because of its breadth. Currently judges are being having to ameliorate this problem upon sentencing. Research into public opinion also reveals that the public believes murder is reserved for when there is an intention to kill or a total disregard for human life.[4] The current law does not reflect the general societal view and leaves the judiciary in a quandary when sentencing. Reform is therefore essential. The Law Commissions proposals remove the intention to do grievous bodily harm rule from the definition of murder and introduce a ladder of homicide offences which reflect the seriousness of the crime in the sentencing guidelines suggested. The new offences would be split between first and second degree murder. First degree murder is defined as intentional killing or killing through an intention to do serious injury with an awareness of serious risk of causing death.[5] This offence would reflect the societys view of what constitutes murder and remove the current sentencing difficulties that judges may face. The current intention to do grievous bodily harm found in murder would be captured in the new offence of second degree murder which has a discretionary sentence attached. These two offencs would help better reflect in law public opinion and alleviate any sentencing difficulties faced by judges. 2. It has been firmly established that in English law that there is no defence of necessity in cases where a doctor administers drugs causing death to save a patient from pain.[6] However, according to case law this does not mean that a doctor has to calculate the effect on a patients lifespan of administering drugs down to the day or the week.[7] The critical factor in such cases is mens rea of the doctor. Clearly, if the doctor knew that the act of administering the drugs was only to kill the patient and not to give pain relief he/she will be guilty of murder. This distinction was shown in R v. Cox[8] where the doctor administered pot assium chloride with the sole intention to end the life of a woman in severe pain. A subtle distinction revealed in that case was that if the doctor had instead administered a high dose of pain killing drugs it would be more difficult to prove the intention was to kill the patient. Therefore it appears that the law will tolerate doctors shortening the lives of patients only where this is done under the guise of treating the patient for pain relief and not where it is blatantly intended to end the life immediately. Applying this to the present circumstances it is possible that the doctor could be found guilty of murder or manslaughter depending on the intention which can be shown from the facts. In the event that the doctor did admit to intending to kill the patient there is no defence in law. 3. It is likely that Pip will be charged with murder. It is clear that he pushed Victor into the river knowing that he could not swim; but is that enough to show causation? There are two tests to determine whether a person’s actions caused death. The first test asks ‘but for’ the person’s actions would death have occurred.[9] The second test is used where there was an novus acteus interveniens. It asks whether the person was the â€Å"operating and substantial cause† of death.[10] In this case there was no intervening act therefore the ‘but for test’ will be employed and probably conclude that ‘but for’ Pips actions the death would not have occurred. However, this on its own is not enough to convict Pip of murder. It must also be shown that he possessed the mens rea to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.[11] This question will be decided by a jury on hearing further evidence. In the event that Pip can show that he did not intend to kill or cause grievous bodily harm he may be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter is distinguishable from the offences of murder and voluntary mansl aughter because the defendant lacks the mens rea required to establish those offences. For constructive involuntary manslaughter to be proven the offence requires that: the defendant committed an unlawful act; that the unlawful act was a crime; and the unlawful act was a substantial cause of death.[12] Clearly Pip committed an unlawful act when he pushed Victor into the river. The question remains whether Amys omission to help Victor as he drowned in the river constitutes an offence. By and of itself, Amys failure to help or summon assistance is not an offence because there is no general duty of care between private individuals to be ‘good samaritans’ recognised in English law. Hence, any charge of gross negligence manslaughter would be difficult to prove because the offence requires a duty of care to be owed by one party to the another, for example between and parent and child.[13] It is arguable that because Amy is a police officer, albeit off duty at the time, she may owe a duty of care to Victor. The direction of the judge was wrong in law as section 8 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967 states that a person cannot be held to have intended the natural and probable consequences of his act just because they were natural and probable. The common law requires that a jury must consider all the relevant evidence before they decide whether they are satisfied of having the necessary intention.[14] 1 Footnotes [1]Law Commission, A New Homicide Act for England and Wales, Consultation Paper No.177: Law Com No. 304: ‘Murder, Manslaughter and Infanticide’ (2006). [2]See R. v. Vickers [1957] 2 Q.B. 664; Hyam v. D.P.P. [1975] A.C. 55; R. v. Cunningham [1982] A.C. [3]Above ft 1 at p 5. [4]Ibid. [5]Above a ft 1 page 8. [6]Bodkin Adams [1957] Crim LR 365 [7]Ibid at 368. [8](1992) Winchester Crown Court [9] R v White 2 KB 124. [10] R v. Smith [1981] 1 AER 332. [11] Cunnigham [1982] AC 566. [12] See R v Creamer [1966] 1 QB 72, 82C–D where Lord Parker CJ stated that: â€Å"A man is guilty of involuntary manslaughter when he intends an unlawful act and one likely to do harm to the person and death results which was neither foreseen nor intended. It is the accident of death resulting which makes him guilty of manslaughter as opposed to some lesser offence†. [13] R v Bateman 1925 Cr. App R. 8. [14]See Moloney [1985] 2 WLR 648; and Han kcock and Shankland [1986] 2 WLR 257