Viacom Essays -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Viacom formed when FCC rules had forced CBS to spin off some of its cable TV and program operations, this happened in 1971. Viacom then buys WAST-TV in 1979, in 1985 Blockbuster Video is founded, in 1981 the NAI buys majority interest ( Sumner Redstone owns this), in 1994 Viacom announces multi-transponder, multi-satellite agreement with PanAmSat. Also in 1994 Viacom and Paramount announces 8.4 billion dollar merger, Viacom then sells its 33% share of Lifetime. In 1995 Viacom spins off its cable systems for Tele-communications, in 1999 Viacom bought CBS for 50 billion dollars. There are other acquisitions and selling’s through which Viacom became so large, but I did not include every little thing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sumner M. Redstone has been chairperson since 1987, he did not become CEO of the company until 1996. However, Mel Karmazin became president and CEO of Viacom in May 2000. He was previously the president of CBS and he oversees all the operations of the corporation. He joined CBS in 1997 where he was chairperson and CEO and when Infinity merged with CBS radio he was chairperson there from 1981, until Infinity became a full subsidiary of Viacom in Feb. 2001.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Viacom is a leading global media company, with many positions in broadcasting cable, television, radio, outdoor advertising, and online. With programming it appeals to audiences in every category across all media, the company is a leader in the creation, promotion, and distribution of entertainment, news, sports, music, and comedy. Viacom’s well known brands include CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, VH1, BET, Paramount Pictures, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, UPN, TV Land, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, and Showtime.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some of the Broadcast and Cable Television that were by Viacom are some of the following: CBS Television Network is the Number one most watched network with more than two hundred stations providing viewers with some of the nation’s best entertainment, news and sports programming. Popular programs include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Everybody Loves Raymond, Survivor, the Late Show with David Letterman and 60 Minutes. Sports stations however, include the NFL and the NCAA Basketball Championship. Daytime drama The Young and The Restless leads a daytime pr... ... however promise by Viacom itself. The $50 billion merger between Viacom and CBS Corporation was completed in May 2000. Viacom is now the second largest media worldwide after AOL Time Warner, with 1999 sales of over $12 billion. The CBS-Viacom merger creates the second largest media conglomerate, controlling more TV and radio stations than any other and the feature of the announced takeover of CBS by Viacom was how little public attention it attracted. There the deal was announced by Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone and CBS President, Viacom now has its eye on synergy, one of the world's largest media companies in the world. Viacom spans movies, television, radio, the internet, and it owns BET (Black Entertainment Television), CBS, Paramount Pictures, the United Paramount Network (UPN), MTV.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, Viacom productions is used everywhere in the world today, many of it’s business are dealt with motion pictures, broadcast television, cable television, radio and outdoor, retail and recreation, publishing, online, and many other things around us. Viacom is one of the best programs I think we have as far as the TV programs much more.

Shays Rebellion :: American History

Shays Rebellion 1) Shays' Rebellion, the post-Revolutionary clash between New England farmers and merchants that tested the precarious institutions of the new republic, threatened to plunge the "disunited states" into a civil war. The rebellion arose in Massachusetts in 1786, spread to other states, and culminated in an abortive attack on a federal arsenal. It wound down in 1787 with the election of a more popular governor, an economic upswing, and the creation of the Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia. Shay's Rebellion was the first armed uprising of the new nation. It was caused by the absence of debt relief legislation in Massachusetts. When the Revolution ended, merchants and creditors lobbied for high taxes and against paper money. They were successful. These procreditor polices underminded farmers' finances. The legislation, including foreclosure laws, were extremely taxing to farmers and caused many to go into great debt. Many farmers were dragged to court where they faced high legal fees and threats of imprisonment because of their debt. In 1786, farmers in Massachusetts attended extralegal meetings where they protested against high taxes and aggressive eastern creditors. Bands of angry farmers joined together to close law courts with force and freed debtors and fellow protesters from jail. Resistance to the legislation climbed to a full-scale revolt. John Adams, president at the time, answered with the Riot Act, which outlawed illegal assemblies. The rebellion was suppresse d by military force. The rebellion prompted leaders with national perspective to redouble their efforts and create a stronger central government. 2) Economic crisis: high taxes, mounting debt A series of tax revolts by Massachusetts farmers against the Massachusetts legislature in 1786-1787. After the Revolutionary War, the Massachusetts legislature imposed high taxes to pay war debts. Rural farmers could not pay their taxes and faced forfeiture of their farms. Resentment of the taxes increased to the point that the farmers began to break up court sessions to prevent judges from ruling that specific farms should be sold to pay tax bills. These minor acts of rebellion turned violent in January 1787 when Daniel Shays, a farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, led 1200 people into Springfield to seize weapons from a national government arsenal. Massachusetts State military troops quickly put down the rebellion, but the event shocked the nation at the time. Shays' Rebellion hinted that law and order were seriously breaking down across the new United States to the extent that the national government, under the Articles of Confederation, could not even protect its own arsenal.

Ethnic Diversity Essay

Answer each question in 50 to 150 words. Provide citations for all the sources you use. 1. What is diversity? Why is diversity valued? Diversity is the combination of different races of people, religions, and culture. Diversity is important to constantly grow and learn new ideas that will help our society become a better environment to live in. Diversity is value because it allows us to learn different things that may help up us in life, that our own culture does teach, or provide. 2. What is ethnocentrism? In what ways can ethnocentrism be detrimental to a society? Ethnocentrism is a term that is used to describe the tendency that someone will believe his or her own customs and traditions are better than anyone else’s. It is determined that no culture is perfect, and closing society from the great custom of other cultures does not allow one a chance to solve all problems, and learn what others know that we are custom to disbelieve in. 3. Define emigration and immigration. Emigration is a person leaving a country, and Immigration is a person entering a country. E in Emigration can mean exit, and I in immigration can mean in. Many get these to word mixed up, mainly in ones English or History class as a student. For example the United States are prompt with immigrants with an I, and Mexico are accounted for emigrants with an E. 4. What are some of the ways groups of people are identified? Some ways groups of people are identified are by race or creed, gender, religion, raised by one or both parents, or raised outside of their original family. In addition, American cultural group people by age, until you reach 18, one is considered an adolescent, and when one reaches 21, they are considered an adult. 5. Why do people label and group other people? People label and group other people as a barrier to not be taken by surprise. If a certain Copyright  © 2012 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Diversity Worksheet ETH/125 Version 8 2 person done something wrong, and we see more people like that person doing the same, we now label that entire race of people to be the same. The labeling part works as a defense mechanism to not allow someone that we think is bad or good, take advantage of us or we lock out someone we think can be a good friend. 6. Define culture. Is culture limited to racial and ethnic backgrounds? Explain. Culture is the customs of a group of people, by race, religion, beliefs, and tradition. Culture is not limited to racial and ethnic backgrounds. Because there are many different races that have the same religious culture and traditions. For example Indians, Blacks, Iranians, and I am sure there are others that believe in the Islamic religion, and have the same beliefs and follow the same religion traditions. Copyright  © 2012 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

Social Life of Small Urban Space

It has been approved that people like to get involved in social life. They are interested of being a part of the universal. The study of Whyte agrees with that. Observing what other people are doing is a valuable tool used by the majority of people to understand the behavior of others. Public plaza is a good example to practice that so when isolating people and not allowing them to observe, the public place will not have any meaning. Forcing people to sit in certain way without any connection with other activity is boring so people try to avoid it (Almansoour). The direct area in front of a building should always communicate with the buildings form, entryways and design style. A building that lacks communication with the street level will be perceived of as cold and uninviting (Perry). The study of deferent plazas in New Yurok city by Whyte shows that people tend to sit whenever there is a place to sit. If a plaza is close to the street or in front of public place such as the library it becomes more occupied then others. The study indicates that observation is an important key when design a plaza(Almansoour). The amount of sitting area as well as width of sitting area should be adjusted based on context that urban part is in (Hirose). Also, it has become necessary to characterize open spaces in areas that have more density. As long as the open space is planned in the right place within its area it can provide such a positive effect to those people who use them (Alotaibi). Variety of factors would effects whole operation of designing sitting area such as occupants’ moral, culture, life style, physical size, and combination of above. Urban spaces are mixed areas of characteristic yet they have some distinguished characteristics from other spaces, therefore I agree with flexible zoning ordinances on designing sitting area in urban park (Hirose). Regulation is uncomfortable, but it may provide a more uniform approach to design. Why shouldn’t every building have plentiful and inviting exterior sitting spaces? But what would that regulation look like. The author’s data seems a bit confused. Analyzing light, square area, and open spaces did not seem to direct any relative findings. Even their data on amount of seating did not perform as the authors would have us believe. Plazas with large amount of seating were still often underused (Perry). Finally, the difference between good plaza design and poor plaza design is a combination of personal experience and trial and error. A designer may have good intentions, but if everything is to not look the same a designer has to be given the opportunity to experiment (Perry).

Money and Banking

Chapter5 4. Explain why you would be more or less willing to buy long-term AT&T bonds under the following circumstances: a. Trading in these bonds increases, making them easier to sell. More, because if it is easier to sell bond this means that liquidity of bonds increase. b. You expect a bear market in stocks(stock prices are expected to decline) More because these bonds’s expected return will increase compared to stocks. . Brokerage commission on stocks fall Less because the decrease in brokerage commissions on stocks makes them more liquid. d. You expect interest rates to rise Less because when interest rates increase the expected return decreases. e. Brokerage commission on bonds fall. More because the decrease in brokerage commissions on bonds makes bond more liquid. 7. Using both the liquidity preference framework and the supply and demand for bonds framework, show shy interest rates are procyclical If the economy is growing there is a business cycle expansion witch will result to a increase in supply of bonds this means that the supply curve will shift to the right if this happens there will be a new equilibrium point and if everything is constant the new equilibrium point will be lower witch means that price of a bond will decrease and the interest rate will increase. If the economy grows the first effect we can see Is that the income will increase. When income increases the demand for money will increase shifting the demand curve to the right if every thing else is constant this will mean that the equilibrium point will change thus moving up and showing an increase in interest rate. 9. Find the â€Å"Credit Markets† column in the Wall Street Journal. Underline the statement in the column that explain bond price movements, and draw the appropriate supply and demand diagrams that support these statement. The column describes how the price of treasury bonds rose when the stock market faltered. The higher relative expected returns on bonds would then cause the quantity demanded to rise each price, shifting the demand curve to the right. The outcome is a rise in the equilibrium price and a fall in interest rates. Massive amount of supply of bonds is set to enter the market over the next month. The increase in supply would shift the supply curve to the right, causing the equilibrium price to fall.

Attribution Theory Definition

Attribution Theory Definition Attribution theory is concerned with how people interpret events and relate them to their thinking and behavior. It's a cognitive perception which affects their motivation. This theory was first proposed in a book called, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations by Fritz Heider in 1958. According to Heider, men behave as amateur scientists in social situations. He also said that, we generally explain behavior in two ways; either we attribute the behavior to a person or a situation. Attribution literally means a grant of responsibility. Albeit, the theory was first proposed by Heider (1958), later Edward E.Jones (1972) and Harold Kelley (1967) developed a theoretical structure, which is now seen as an epitome of social psychology. The theory divides the behavior attributes into two parts, external or internal factors. Internal attribution: When an internal attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is within the person, i. e. the variables whic h make a person responsible like attitude, aptitude, character and personality. External attribution: When an external attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the situation in which the behavior was seen.The person responsible for the behavior may assign the causality to the environment or weather. In 1967, Kelley tried to explain the way people perceive internal and external attribution. He tried this, postulating the principle of co-variation. This model was known as Covariation Model. The basic principle of the covariation model states that the effect is attributed to one of the causes which co-varies over time. It also means that the behavior at various occasions varies. The covariation model considers three major types of information to make an attribution decision and to observe a person's behavior.The three types of information are: Consensus information: This responds to the fact, how people with similar stimuli behave in similar situations. If mo st people behave alike, i. e. their reactions are shared by many, the consensus is high. But, if no one or only a few people share the reactions, the consensus is low. Distinctiveness information: This is about, how a person responds to different situations. There exists a very low distinctiveness if the person reacts similarly in all or most of the situations.However, if a person reacts differently in different situations, it is said that the distinctiveness is high. Consistency information: If the response of a person to different stimulus and in varied situations remains the same, then the consistency is high. But Kelly's covariation model has some limitations. The most prominent being that, it fails to distinguish between the intentional and unintentional behavior. Read more at Buzzle:  http://www. buzzle. com/articles/attribution-theory-of-social-psychology. html Kelley's Covariation Model Kelley’s (1967) covariation model is the best known attribution theory.He develo ped a logical model for judging whether a particular action should be attributed to some characteristic (internal) of the person or the environment (external). The term covariation simply means  that a person has information from multiple observations, at different times and situations, and can perceive the covariation of an observed effect and its causes. He argues that in trying to discover the causes of behavior people act like scientists. More specifically they take into account three kinds of evidence. Kelley believed that there were three types of causal information which influenced our judgments.Low factors = dispositional (internal) attributions. * Consensus: the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar situation. E. g. Alison smokes a cigarette when she goes out for a meal with her friend. If her friend smokes, her behavior is high in consensus. If only Alison smokes it is low. * Distinctiveness: the extent to which the person behaves in the same w ay in similar situations. If Alison only smokes when she is out with friends, her behavior is high in distinctiveness. If she smokes at any time or place, distinctiveness is low. Consistency: the extent to which the person behaves like this every time the situation occurs. If Alison only smokes when she is out with friends, consistency is high. If she only smoke on one special occasion, consistency is low. Let’s look at an example  to help understand his particular attribution theory. Our subject is called Tom. His behavior is laughter. Tom is laughing at a comedian. 1. Consensus: Everybody in the audience is laughing. Consensus is high. If only Tom is laughing consensus is low. 2. Distinctiveness: Tom only laughs at this comedian. Distinctiveness is high.If Tom laughs at everything distinctiveness is low. 3. Consistency: Tom always laughs at this comedian. Consistency is high. Tom rarely laughs at this comedian consistency is low. Now, if everybody laughs at this comedian, if they don’t laugh at the comedian who follows and if this comedian always raises a laugh then we would make an external attribution, i. e. we assume that Tom is laughing because the comedian is very funny. On the other hand, if Tom is the only person who laughs at this comedian, if Tom laughs at all comedians and if Tom always laughs at the comedian then we would make an internal attribution, i. . we assume that Tom is laughing because he is the kind of person who laughs a lot. So what we’ve got here is people attributing causality on the basis of correlation. That is to say, we see that two things go together and we therefore assume that one causes the other. One problem however is that we may not have enough information to make that kind of judgment. For example, if we don’t know Tom that well we wouldn’t necessarily have the information to know if his behavior is consistent over time. So what do we do then?According to Kelley we fall back on past ex perience and look for either 1) Multiple necessary causes. For example, we see an athlete win a marathon and we reason that she must be very fit, highly motivated, have trained hard etc. and that she must have all of these to win 2) Multiple sufficient causes. For example, we see an athlete fail a drug test and we reason that she may be trying to cheat, or have taken a banned substance by accident or been tricked into taking it by her coach. Any one reason would be sufficient.

HRD Sample

Drawing from theories and models that inform adults and organisational learning, critically evaluate an HRD program or intervention that you deliver or have personally experienced. Introduction This essay looks into a learning program which was personally delivered. It aims to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the program by drawing upon relevant theories and models revolving around adult and organisational learning.Theories are used to substantiate the step by step processes undertaken in the program as well as to critique the areas which could have been performed better or were carried out uccessfully by the program coordinators. This essay is told from the perspective of a facilitator's role in which I was primarily involved in. At the end of this essay, we hope to understand how a successful HRD learning program should be run and what factors significantly influence its success.Learning Program The selected program used throughout this essay as a case study is the ‘C ombat Medical NSmen Ops Refresher Training. The program involved me as one of the key facilitators which was conducted during my national service time. The objective was to ensure the competence of the National Service (NS) men in carrying out their edical responsibilities and performing up to expectations when the time arises for them to do so in future. This was carried out by first refreshing the NSmen's theoretical knowledge of specific medical subject matter, i. . various emergency surgical procedures, that was taught during their NS days. Typically conducted annually, the refresher training would see the NSmen undergoing classroom learning followed by a practical hands-on session of role playing, after which they would be tested under a controlled, simulated setting as a form of learning assessment. The refresher training was a one-day program carried out in the compounds of the Singapore Armed Forces Medical Training Institute (SMTI).The facilitators comprised of regular seni or medical officers and fulltime national servicemen (NSFs), of whom I was one of them. The seniors acted as supervisors while the NSFs were more primarily involved in running the program on the ground. Teaching and demonstrations were conducted by NSFs while assessment was done by the senior officers. The age group of the NSmen participants ranged from 30 to 40 years old, thus the target audience was specific to older adult learners who were most likely married or some even fathers.The program was catered to a batch group of 20 NSmen with 2 facilitators assigned. The four stages of HRD HRD is an ongoing learning process involving training and development activities which seek to groom individuals' skills for the purpose of enhancing organisational productivity (Swanson & Holton 2 ) Adult learning talls within the HRD learning process. Knowles (1998) mentioned that adults tend to follow andragogical assumptions of learning such that firstly, the learning should have practical value for applying in real-life situations and problems.Next is for the learning to utilise the knowledge inherent in the adult and lastly it should actively engage him/her. All hese are reflected in the medical refresher program and will be explained through a series of four step by step stages namely the needs investigation, design, implementation and evaluation stages. HRD Needs Investigation (HRDNI) HRDNI refers to the process of identifying how much is known by the participants prior to the program against what is expected of them to know based on the learning objectives set out (Tovey & Lawlor 2008; Rothwell & Kazanas 1989).It represents an organized way to determine if a HRD solution is needed in the first place. It helps identify the content and learning objectives, the population, resources required, as ell as context and organisational politics. Behind every successful HRD learning program is a good HRDNI carried out in the beginning. The refresher program showed that HRDNI was conducted successfully as clear learning objectives, competencies and learning outcomes were established (Delahaye 2011). The needs were determined through the two levels of HRDNI: surveillance and investigation (Delahaye 2011).Program coordinators had long been monitoring how competent NSmen were in carrying out their medical duties upon completion of their NS time. Through the observation of several past reservists' in-camp trainings where these NSmen were required to demonstrate their medical proficiency in a simulated battlefield environment, their quality and competencies were analysed. Data was gathered through the means of organisational records and observations (Delahaye 2011). It was found that most NSmen were unable to remember much of what they had learnt during their NS days and thus, lacked in several key competencies.One of which was the ability to remember the medical apparatus to be used in assisting the surgeon in the surgical procedures. Thus, as a result of HRDNI, the ‘Combat Medical NSmen Ops Refresher Training learning program came about as form of HRD ntervention. Its aim was to keep NSmen constantly up to date with their medical roles so that when a real emergency breaks out in Singapore, they would be ready for it. Although the need for refresher training was correctly identified by program coordinators, the HRDNI could have been more specific to seek the opinions of the participants as well.Conducting such a program meant that more time, be it for work or family, had to be sacrificed by the working adults so that they could attend. Moreover, not all might feel the need for the refresher as they might be confident of their own knowledge. Thus one investigatory method to gather their opinions would be through holding an online survey questionnaire weeks before the commencement of the program. The questionnaire could ask them for their current level of knowledge and ask if the refresher would be effectively catering to their needs, also for their level of interest in participation.Curriculum Design This is the second stage once HRDNI nas been completed Curriculum represents tn systematic process of putting the learner through action (Smith & Lovat 2003). This stage involves matching the learning structure to the characteristics of the adult learners (Delahaye 2011). To do this, constructive alignment needs to take place. This means that the expected actions the learner has to emulate based on the learning objectives must be coherent with the teaching and assessment style (Biggs & Tang 2007).The refresher program was successful in achieving constructive alignment as the objective to instil confidence in the NSmen to showcase their medical proficiency in carrying out the surgical procedures was well reflected by the practical role- playing sessions demonstrated and taught by the facilitators. The design structure of the refresher program followed closely to Delahaye's (2011) Hierarchy of Learning Outcomes (HLO) model. The model emphasizes the progression from explicit to tacit knowledge and this was seen in the program as facilitators made use of instrumental to communicative learning.The program outlined movements from basic to intermediate to complex, Just as how HLO mentions in its five categories of programmed knowledge, task, relationship, critical thinking and meta-abilities. The refresher program started off with programmed knowledge which was in the form of classroom-based learning to provide the factual and theoretical knowledge to the NSmen. It then moved into task where they were required to be analytical in a role- laying scenario. That involved a linear, diagnostic and complex analysis which in short, refers to using simple information-processing, interpretation, problem solving and decision making skills.The role-playing session incorporated discussions and effective team play as well, which in turn worked on a relationship level of interpersonal communication between partici pants. The program ended off with action learning where participants were encouraged to use mental agility under the meta-abilities category to be able to think clearly under pressure, when performing their learning assessment in a controlled environmental setting. The HLO progression was mapped in accordance to the learning characteristics of the NSmen participants.Facilitators took into consideration that because the participants were older learners, the learning environment created was a similar aged batch of between 30 and 40 years old so that they would feel more comfortable and safe (Delahaye ; Ehrich 2008). Older learners tend to be involved in complex learning, occasionally switching from being dependent to independent learners and thus passively seeking and actively seeking knowledge, respectively. Hence, the design of the refresher program ensured a combination of various learning trategies to meet to these adult learners' characteristics.These strategies will be covered u nder the implementation stage later. It was indeed a good initiative by the facilitators to find out the basic characteristics of their adult learners and thus used HLO as a step by step process to teach them. However, there is room for improvement. All adult learners have different learning styles and so a good HR designer would pay close attention to finding out what styles their participants fall under. This can be done by issuing out a learning style questionnaire which will seek o determine if a participant is a reflector, theorist, pragmatist or activist (Honey & Mumford 1992).Each learning style will differently influence the way an individual learns, and so will impact the design ot a learning program. However, an individual may also have at times a combination of both styles. Thus, a good designer should strive to integrate all four styles in any learning program. Implementation This third stage of the HRD process covers the skills required of a HR developer who is also kno wn as the facilitator. In other words, this section analyses how effective or killed the facilitators are in conducting the learning program, based on the participants' level of engagement.It also covers the various learning strategies used. As one of the facilitators of the refresher program, I exhibited strong micro-skills of questioning and responding, and a high level of enthusiasm, channelling the energy positively to the participants. Delahaye (2011) pointed out that such skills are important in the delivery of a learning program, but are often overlooked by HR developers. Feldman (2007) agrees that with greater enthusiasm demonstrated, the higher are the chances of learner accomplishment. As for the learning strategy, a structured style was used in the beginning stage of the refresher program.This took the form of lecture-style learning. Delahaye (2011) regards lecture as structured due to the teacher-student controlled form where the teacher assumes full responsibility over the learning of the student and controls what and how the student will learn. Facilitators conducting the lecture used PowerPoint presentation to recap the relevant theoretical knowledge of the emergency surgical procedures. The slides included detailed photographs showing how each procedure was to be carried out step by step. This was complemented with a set of the hardcopy handout slides so that the NSmen could write notes throughout.On top of that, the whiteboard was used simultaneously by the facilitator to Jot down the key points of the presentation. This ensured an appropriate usage of visual aids to appeal to the adult learners (Delahaye 2011). The lecture-style teaching made use of instrumental learning, one of the three transformational adult learning domains (Mezirow 2009). Instrumental allows learning to be controlled and can manoeuvre the environment. Under it is the knowledge generation process of combination which sees a transfer of explicit to ven more complex explici t knowledge (Nonaka ; von Krogh 2009).The PowerPoint presentation, for instance, got the NSmen to combine the explicit knowledge they were looking at and listening to with their own explicit knowledge, thus leading into a process of re-sorting and re-understanding of their inherent knowledge. Another point to make was that sufficient breaks were given throughout the lecture presentation so as to space out the learning and carry out part learning so that participants could digest the information better, especially since older learners dislike having big chunks of information (Grattan 1955; Miller 1956).These were some of the principles of learning highlighted during the structured strategy. Subsequently, in the refresher program, the learning strategy shifted from structured to semi-structured. After the theoretical bit was covered, facilitators proceeded onto the practical, hands-on session. The knowledge Just learnt or recapped was to be applied on mannequins which acted as causali ties. Here, the actual whole tray of medical apparatus needed for the surgical procedures is introduced to the NSmen participants, after seeing pictures of them in the PowerPoint slides and the hardcopy andouts.Participants were divided into 4 groups ot 5 in which each group nad a mannequin and a set of tools to work with. Each facilitator was assigned to 2 groups to firstly demonstrate the correct techniques and steps to perform the emergency surgical procedures, using the apparatus provided. Participants observed carefully to learn the steps that they would later be tested, in what was actually known as modelling, one of the 3 basic types of learning. Modelling refers to copying an action after observing how it is done (Bandura 1977; Gardner et al. 1981).Facilitators of the efresher program aimed to see an exchange of tacit to tacit knowledge between the participants and themselves in a socialisation process. This was achieved through the modelling learning behaviour. The semi-str uctured strategy using the mannequins was a form of role-playing as within each group, participants took turns to role play as surgeons and assistants to the surgeons. This role-playing also helped to strengthen the HLO in areas of forging better interpersonal relationships and the use of group processes, Just to name a few (Delahaye 2011).On a separate point, ole-playing illustrates that the NSmen participants also underwent communicative learning, which is known to be a learner's effort to relate to another to understand each other's viewpoints (Mezirow 2000). Evaluation This last stage of the HRD process signifies the importance for proper assessment methods. The evaluation technique that was used for the ‘Combat Medical NSmen Ops Refresher Training program was the assessment of learning.This assessment, as stressed by Delahaye (201 1), paves the way for measuring the effectiveness of the learning program, allowing the examiners to gauge how useful the program had een for t he participants as well as to see if the learning objectives set out from the start had been met in the end. In addition, assessment offers feedback for both the adult learner and HR developer. Through it, they can identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can make necessary amendments to make their learning processes more effective in future.Out of the six types of assessment of learning methods available, the refresher program used performance tests, which proved to be the most suitable form of evaluation due to the complex nature of the program (Delahaye 2011). Following on after the role-playing session of using the mannequins and medical tools, the NSmen participants were made to undergo a performance test in the outdoors open field which simulated an actual situation of what it would likely be in an actual war zone battlefield environment where the NSmen would encounter multiple casualties suffering from different kinds of wounds and war injuries.They would be requi red to think on their feet using mental agility, under a stressful environment, of which of the following emergency surgical procedures learnt would be best used for treatments. As said by Delahaye (201 1), performance tests need to be conducted by highly skilled trainers whose evaluation makes use of their tacit knowledge. Thus, the assessment of the program was a success as it brought in the senior medical officers, who have years of experience in the field, to evaluate the performances of the NSmen. This also served to be a non-biased evaluation as the seniors were not involved in running the on ground training.In evaluation, a pre- designed evaluation criteria form was used by the senior officers so as to quantify the observed results (Thorndike 2007). The results were then snowed to the NSmen articipants during the program debrief. The outcome of the performance test showed a match to the adult learners' HLO, identified in the curriculum design stage, in the categories of progr ammed knowledge; and task and relationship. It also successfully tested the learners' action learning process of critical thinking and meta- abilities.Conclusion This essay has looked at the ‘Combat Medical NSmen Ops Refresher Training' as a learning program which served as an HRD intervention based on the needs investigation conducted. It found that a refresher program would be beneficial to the NSmen in helping them to familiarise with the medical proficiency knowledge they are required to demonstrate in their annual reservist in-camp trainings. This essay thus went on to elaborate the four stages involved in influencing this successful HRD learning program using theories primarily from adult learning.Following on from a thorough HRDNI, the design of the program saw that a necessary constructive alignment was made between the teaching style and the characteristics of the adult learners. The HLO model was used in this stage. As for the implementation, the acilitators of the p rogram demonstrated strong micro-skills as well as using structured and semi-structured learning strategies through a PowerPoint presentation and role-playing session which reflected on instrumental and communicative learning for the adult learners, respectively.The final stage was the evaluation of the program in which a performance test was carried out as a specific assessment of learning method. Word Count: 2566 Reference List Bandura, A 1977, Social learning theory, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Biggs, JB & Tang, C 2007, Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does, 3rd edn, Open University Press, Maidenhead. 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