Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. It maps the path from where the organization is to where it wants to be. The planning function involves establishing goals and arranging them in logical order. Administrators engage in both short-range and long-range planning.
Organizing involves identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments or divisions, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to achieve coordinated effort among all the elements in the organization (Coordinating). Organizing must take into account delegation of authority and responsibility and span of control within supervisory units.
Staffing means filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It involves determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting and screening people to fill the positions.
Directing (Commanding) is leading people in a manner that achieves the goals of the organization. This involves proper allocation of resources and providing an effective support system. Directing requires exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate people. One of the crucial issues in directing is to find the correct balance between emphasis on staff needs and emphasis on economic production.
‘Controlling’ is a function that evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential or actual deviations from the organization’s plan. This ensures high-quality performance and satisfactory results while maintaining an orderly and problem-free environment. Controlling includes information management, measurement of performance, and institution of corrective actions.
Budgeting, exempted from the list above, incorporates most of the administrative functions, beginning with the implementation of a budget plan through the application of budget controls.

Article from:Journal of Business Administration and Policy Analysis Article date:January 1, 1999 Author:Pardy, Bruce Copyright
Should sustainable development be a domestic legal rule? What role could it play? What would it mean? Before considering these questions, I will briefly describe their legal context.

THE LEGAL CONTEXT

The emergence of the concept international environmental law

In 1983, the United Nations established the World Commission on Environment and Development. [1] In 1987, in its report Our Common Future, [2] the Commission recommended sustainable development as a strategy to combat the world’s accelerating environmental problems and the growing divide between rich and poor countries. Sustainable development was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” [3] The report identified the objectives of sustainable development as reviving growth, changing the quality of growth, meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation, conserving and enhancing the resource base, reorienting technology, managing risk, and merging environmental and economic decision making. [4] It was described as a multi-faceted concept consisting of ecological, social, and economic sustainability, and encompassing the ideals of environmental health, social justice, and qualitative improve ment in living standards.

Since then, sustainable development has become one of the dominant concepts in international environmental law. The 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development [5] articulated 27 principles directed at achieving sustainable development. Several environmental conventions and other international instruments refer to sustainability and sustainable development as guiding principles. [6] The Preamble of Agenda 21, A Global Programme of Action on Sustainable Development7 drafted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 states:

1.1. Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being. However, integration of environment and development concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future. No nation can achieve this on its own; but together we can – in a global partnership for sustainable development.

International versus domestic law

International law governs relationships between states. [8] It does not directly govern the actions of persons within those states. In contrast, domestic law is intra-national law. It is the law that exists within a country that proscribes certain behaviour from individuals, and governs relationships between persons, including corporate entities, and between persons and the government of that state.

International law is dependent upon voluntary submission and observance. International conventions and treaties are essentially agreements between or among countries that are entered into voluntarily, as a result of political negotiation. They are statements that define how signatory states are expected to behave. When a treaty is breached, the consequences are largely political and symbolic. Other countries may retaliate in an economic or political manner; or the offending state may be challenged in an international forum, such as the International Court of Justice. Such bodies do not have the coercive power to enforce their judgments. If the regime includes binding arbitration, as in the case of international trade law, there may be consequences for the terms of the offending country’s continued participation in the pact. But whatever the consequences, there is no supreme authority with the power to make laws and enforce them unless states voluntarily submit themselves to that authority.

Unlike the non-coercive nature of international law, domestic laws are rules with sanctions imposed by the state. Obedience to these rules is mandatory, not voluntary. Any breach can result in some form of liability, leading to criminal punishment like a fine or imprisonment, or a civil order to pay compensation. Both types of order may be enforced by the coercive power of government. Not all breaches lead to liability, since minor breaches may be ignored or overlooked by enforcement agencies, or not sued upon by people whose rights have been injured. But such circumstances do not change the basic definition that laws are rules that have sanctions enforced by the state. Governments create and enforce laws without seeking the consent of those who will be subject to them, except in the most general way by holding elections. An election can be seen as the delegation of coercive law-making authority from the populace to the elected legislative body.

Domestic environmental law

Identifying the central features of domestic environmental law is difficult for at least four reasons. First, it is not a formal legal category. Domestic law can be split up into distinct subject areas, such as contracts, commercial law, family law, and the law of restitution, but environmental law is not one of these. Instead, it is a somewhat haphazard collection of statutory provisions, regulations, common law rules and principles. Some statutes and regulations have been created specifically for the purpose of environmental protection, but there are also many other laws that have some role to play in the environmental arena. The term “environmental law” is merely a label used to refer to the group of laws that impact upon environmental matters in some way. Second, explanations for environmental problems differ in science, philosophy, economics and politics, and environmental law is the place where the explanations collide. A way to reconcile the different perspectives has not yet been developed. Third, env ironmental law exists in both the international and domestic spheres, described above. Because of the fundamental differences in the nature of international and domestic law, it is not a simple matter to take a concept from one area and apply it to the other. [9] This problem is related to the fourth difficulty, which is that there is a gap between “soft” environmental law, which consists of philosophical and jurisprudential writings and much of international environmental law, and “black letter” environmental law, which consists of provisions in statutes, regulations, treaties, and judgments from courts. As a discipline, environmental law has yet to confront, much less resolve, its central dilemmas, and its core principles are in a state of flux.

Sustainable development in federal and provincial statutes

Sustainable development is not yet a core principle of domestic environmental law; but in Canada it has been incorporated into some environmental statutes. For example, one of the purposes of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is “to encourage responsible authorities to take actions that promote sustainable development and thereby achieve or maintain a healthy environment and a healthy economy.” [10] The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 declares that “the protection of the environment is essential to the well-being of Canadians

Did you wash your hands?”

How many times did you hear that today? Probably a lot. But why are adults so hung up on hand washing? Why are they so in love with lather?

Washing your hands is the best way to stop germs from spreading. Think about all of the things that you touched today – from the telephone to the toilet. Maybe you blew your nose in a tissue and then went outside to dig around the dirt. Whatever you did today, you came into contact with germs. It’s easy for a germ on your hand to end up in your mouth. Think about how many foods you eat with your hands.

You can’t wear rubber gloves all day long, but you can wash your hands so those germs don’t get a chance to make you or someone else sick. When germs go down the drain, they can’t make anyone sick.

So when are the best times to wash your hands?

•before eating or touching food (like if you’re helping cook or bake, for example)
•after using the bathroom
•after blowing your nose or coughing
•after touching pets or other animals
•after playing outside
•before and after visiting a sick relative or friend
Now you have the when and the why of hand washing. But did you know that a lot of people don’t know how to get their paws perfectly clean? The next time you’re told to step up to the sink and scrub up, remember these handy hints:

1.Use warm water (not cold or hot) when you wash your hands.

2.Use whatever soap you like. Some soaps come in cool shapes and colors or smell nice, but whatever kind that gets you scrubbing is the kind you should use. Antibacterial soaps are OK to use, but regular soap works fine.

3.Work up some lather on both sides of your hands, your wrists, and between your fingers. Don’t forget to wash around your nails. This is one place germs like to hide. Wash for about 10 to 15 seconds – about how long it takes to sing “Happy Birthday.” (Sing it quickly two times or just once if you go nice and slow.)

4.Rinse and dry well with a clean towel.

Updated and reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

One third of full time employees have health concerns resulting from the levels of stress caused by their jobs, research has found.

A survey of more than 2,000 people commissioned by insurer Legal & General (L&G) found that a quarter of respondents said they were generally stressed at work, while two in 10 complained that they worked too many extra hours. A quarter admitted to never taking a break at work.

“We have demonstrated that with the early intervention of the most appropriate support to help an absent employee, whether that is career counselling, stress management, cognitive behavioural therapy, (CBT) or a physical evaluation, we have been able to get over 50% of absent employees back into work in the first year,” she added.

Stressed’ workers told toughen up by leading health expert
16 October 2009 11:48

Workers have convinced themselves they cannot cope with their daily grind and suffer from stress, according to a leading health expert.

David Wainwright, from the University of Bath, said the phrase ‘work stress’ should be banned, according to a report in the Metro.

In a speech to the Royal Society of Medicine, he outlined how a ‘generational shift’ has made people today far softer than their grandparents. He accepted work could be “challenging”, but said modern-day professionals were too quick to hit the panic button.

Wainwright said people were “actually incredibly resilient” and should toughen up.

But Neil Shah, director of the Stress Management Society, said it was rubbish to compare people’s lives 60 years ago to modern society. “People don’t switch off, you’re always working, we don’t have any downtime.”

Earlier this week, it emerged that a retired NHS manager has been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for a stress-related injury after a West Midlands hospital trust “reluctantly” accepted it had no choice but to pay

Objective. To determine the operational cost of a hospital’s surgical unit, compare those results with standards, and determine the incidence of the costs; to produce an effective methodology for this purpose that can be applied to all kinds of medical units using any low-cost widely available computer database system, with that methodology being utilized for ongoing management control.
Methods. This study was carried out in 1999 in the Orthopedics and Traumatology Unit of the “Domingo Funes” Public Hospital, in the province of Córdoba, Argentina. Of the 817 patients who underwent diagnostic or therapeutic procedures in that unit during the year, we selected the 154 of them who were hospitalized and required surgical or instrumental procedures. The study used the tracer event method described by Kessner. Through a consensus process, medical specialists and health economists selected and defined these indicators, which were categorized in relation to their complexity (high, medium, limited, or none). Direct and indirect costs were assessed in order to study their contribution to total cost. Total cost was estimated using nine variables that were applied to the different tracer events.

Results. The largest portion of total cost, both real and standard, was based on the “bed-day” variable. Of this bed-day cost for all tracer events, 51.2% was due to an indirect cost of “social hospitalization” (keeping patients hospitalized for such reasons as transportation difficulties or delays in receiving requested medical supplies) and 48.8% to a direct cost of true therapeutic hospitalization. This bed-day cost was 117% higher for the real costs as compared to the standard costs. The indirect costs of social hospitalization and of therapeutic supplies made up nearly half of the total real cost. Excluding the indirect costs, the real cost of all the tracer events exceeded the standard cost by only 6.4%. Including the indirect costs of social hospitalization and of therapeutic supplies, the real cost exceeded the standard cost by 39.8%. The amount spent on medical staff and support personnel represented just 11.5% of the total cost.

Discussion. Suggestions are provided in various areas, including solutions for the high cost of social hospitalization and therapeutic supplies, the cost-control benefits of creating protocols for procedures and treatments, and the rational utilization of technology in order to improve efficiency and reduce risks. The wider application of this procedure is recommended for cost-management control in all hospital units carrying out surgery or other medical procedures.