Monday, September 30, 2019
Cell Phone Should Never Be Used While Driving Essay
Cell phones should never be used while driving no matter what the circumstances are. There are many reasons why it should be banned. It causes the driver to think about something other than driving. It causes the driver to have to look away from the road to dial, answer, etc. It doesnââ¬â¢t allow the driver to hear whatââ¬â¢s going on around him or her such as ambulances or police sirens. These reasons are a major contributor to death. Using cell phones while driving can cause the driver to think about something other than driving. When the driver gets a call or a text message, it can distract him or her by not paying attention to the road. This is a major cause for many accidents that can lead to injuries or even death. When you use your phone when driving, you are putting your life at risk by answering it and getting distracted. When using your cell phone while driving it can cause the driver to look away from the road to dial, answer, etc. Say you look down at your phone and you take your eyes off the road for just a couple seconds. For those two seconds while not looking at the road, you could run into the vehicle in front of you or swerve into other lanes. This can happen just because of getting distracted for a couple of seconds. Lastly, you should not use your cell phone while driving because it doesnââ¬â¢t allow the driver to hear what is going on around him or her such as ambulances or police sirens. If you answer your phone everything around you is being blocked except for the conversation with the person you are talking to. Say an ambulance is rushing a dying person to the hospital and you are on the phone or texting. You donââ¬â¢t pay attention to the sirens or the people in front of you pulling over to the side of the road. If a cop sees that you donââ¬â¢t pull over then this will result in a ticket. It can also be embarrassing for yourself because the ambulance will have to wait behind you causing the person who is dying a lesser chance at life. So you can be the reason why that person in the ambulance can die. In conclusion, you shall never use your cell phone while driving because it causes the driver to think about something other than driving. It causes the driver to have to look away from the road to dial, answer, etc. And it doesnââ¬â¢t allow the driver to hear whatââ¬â¢s going on around him or her such as ambulances or police sirens. Every time you are behind the wheel, your primary focus should be on driving to your destination safely without any distractions. This is why you should never use your cell phone while driving.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Case Study â⬠AES Corporation Essay
Dennis Bakke, the CEO of AES, a company that develops, builds and operates electric power plants, sat in his office late in 1996 and thought about the question that was perennially posed to him: could AES, soon to have some 25,000 people located literally all over the world following a recent purchase of power plants in Kazakhstan, continue to operate with virtually no staff functions and, specifically, without any human resource staff anywhere in the corporation? The absence of centralized staff ââ¬â or, for that matter, much staff at all ââ¬â had been one of the themes guiding the design and operation of the corporation since its founding. The company, in addition to having no personnel department, had no public relations, legal, environmental, or strategic planning departments. Its chief financial officer, Barry Sharp, saw his job not so much as running a centralized finance function but rather as helping all the AES employees as they made important decisions about financi ng and investments in a very capital intensive business. But the company was becoming much larger and increasingly geographically dispersed. Perhaps those early decisions needed to be rethought. Could what worked for so long continue to work as the corporation grew and operated increasingly on a global basis? Could the advantages of flexibility and having virtually every employee feel responsible for almost all aspects of the corporationââ¬â¢s operations continue to outweigh the costs of an absence of specialization and the need to have people always learning new tasks and new things? Was this continuous learning of new things really a disadvantage at all, or as Bakke thought, how one created a real ââ¬Å"learning organization?â⬠What Bakke recognized was that AES was different from most other corporations. How different should and could it remain? And if it remained different, how should it deal with the strains that growth and geographic differentiation would inevitably place on an organization that had always been managed by a strong set of values and a shared culture? This case wasà prepared by Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Support for this case was provided by the Human Resources Initiative of the Graduate School of Business. The author would also like to acknowledge Robert Waterman for his introduction to the company. BACKGROUND AND HISTORY AES (originally called Applied Energy Services) was founded in 1981 by Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke. Originally supplying consulting services to the energy industry, the company began operating its first power plant in Houston in 1986 and went public as AES in 1991. By the end of its 1995 fiscal year, AES was selling electricity to customers in the United States, England, Northern Ireland, Argentina, and China, and had plants under construction in Pakistan. A list of AES operating facilities, their size, and fuel source, is provided in Exhibit 1. The company saw itself as ââ¬Å"the global power companyâ⬠and had as its mission ââ¬Å"supplying electricity to customers world-wide in a socially responsible way.â⬠ââ¬Ë The electric power generation business has always been very competitive and the competition was increasing. Many subsidiaries of large oil and gas companies, organizations with substantial financial resources, were entering the business. The business was also complex. Building or purchasing existing power plants was a process that was heavily influenced by governmental decisions and actions, and often took two to four years at least to complete. AES owned and operated its plants under a number of different financial arrangements. Some plants were whollyowned by AES. Others were owned under various joint venture arrangements. For instance, the Medway plant in England was joint venture between AES and two privatized British utilities, Southern Electric and SEE-BOARD. The plant in San Nicolas, Argentina was owned by a partnership in which AES held 70% interest and Community Energy Alternatives, Inc. and the people at the plant held the rest. AESââ¬â¢s operations in China were conducted by a separate subsidiary, AESà China Generating Company Ltd., that was capitalized in February, 1994 with funds from AES and an initial public offering. The company was traded on the over-the-counter market, but recently AES had announced plans to purchase the interest in the subsidiary it did not own. Thus, financing and ownership arrangements were varied and often required protracted negotiations and the ability to work with a number of different partners. Most of the growth in demand for electricity, as well as most of the privatization opportunities, were occurring in developing or emerging economies and three-quarters of AESââ¬â¢s development people and financial resources were focused on those markets in 1996. AES saw as its competitive advantage against larger and better financed competitors its agility or speed and its ability to commit corporate equity and to arrange complex financial transactions. It also had some ââ¬Å"disadvantages,â⬠particularly its emphasis on integrity that precluded the company from doing some things to obtain business that not all of its competitors were as reluctant to do. The companyââ¬â¢s two founders both had extensive experience in government prior to founding AES, and to some extent this helped steel their determination to avoid creating a bureaucratic organization resembling the government. Bakke, a 1970 MBA graduate from Harvard Business School, had worked following graduation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and then in the Office of Management and Budget before moving to the Mellon Instituteââ¬â¢s Energy Productivity Center in Washington, D.C. There, he and Sant, another Harvard MBA who had headed the Ford administrationââ¬â¢s energy conservation efforts, worked together and AES 1995 Annual Report, p. 1. wrote a book, Creating Abundance: Americaââ¬â¢s Least-Cost Energy Strategy. Out of the research for that book and their work on energy policy for the Ford and Carter administrations came the idea to start AES as a participant in the new independent power producer industry. Both Bakke and Sant are individuals with strong moral convictions and indeed both have a touch of the missionary in them. Bakke is very active in both charitable andà Christian church (Baptist) activities. This social conscience and sense of a higher purpose or calling has pervaded the operation and management of AES since its inception. For example, Bakkeââ¬â¢s description of the purpose or mission of AES is ââ¬Å"to steward resources to meet the needs of society.â⬠2 From the beginning, AES has had a strong set of core values and beliefs about people that it works hard to operationalize on a continuing basis. The four core values are: Integrity â⬠¦ Integrity comes from the Latin word, `integra,ââ¬â¢ which means `wholeness.ââ¬â¢ By carefully weighing all factorsââ¬âethical concerns, stakeholder interests, and societal needsââ¬âAES strives to act with integrity in all of its activities. Fairness . . . the term `fairnessââ¬â¢ means `justice.ââ¬â¢ Often `fairnessââ¬â¢ is confused with `samenessââ¬â¢ â⬠¦ We donââ¬â¢t mean that. AES aspires to give everyone special treatment. Everyone is unique â⬠¦ And the effects of treating people justly in corporate systems and organizations can be profound. Social responsibility. The most socially responsible thing a corporation can do is to do a superb job of meeting a need in society. Therefore, companies must carefully manage capital, employees and intellect to meet a societal need. For AES, the first step in this process is to ensure that every generating plant is operated in a clean, reliable, safe, and cost-effective manner. But we have chosen to go beyond these essentials â⬠¦ That is why we plant millions of trees to offset carbon dioxide and build new schools and take numerous other steps to improve our environment and build communities. Fun â⬠¦ For us, `funââ¬â¢ means establishing an environment in which people can use their gifts and skills to make a difference in society without fear of being squelched. Creating a fun workplace environment requires a positive view of humanity that begins with the people who work in the corporation.3 AES also has a set. of core assumptions about people that it tries to use in design ing and managing its organization. These assumptions are that AES people: 1) Are creative, thinking individualsââ¬âcapable of learning and making decisions, like to control their environment and can be trusted; 2) Are responsibleââ¬âcan be held accountable; An important element of AES is its commitment to four major ââ¬Å"sharedâ⬠values .. . AES believes that earning a fair profit is an important result of providing a quality product to its customers. However, if the Company perceives a conflict between these values and profits, the Company will try to adhere to its valuesââ¬âeven though doing so might result in diminished profits or foregone opportunities. Moreover, the Company seeks to adhere to these values not as a means to achieve economic success, but because adherence is a worthwhile goal in and of itself The Company intends to continue these policies after this offering.s To AES, simply maximizing profits is not the primary objective of the corporation. Dennis Bakke has written: Where do profits fit? Profits . . . are not any corporationââ¬â¢s main goal. Profits are to a corporation much like breathing is to life. Breathing is not the goal of life, but without breath, life ends. Similarly, without turning a profit, a corporation, too, will cease to exist. . . . At AES we strive not to make profits the ultimate driver of the corporation (although I admit we slip from time to time in this regard). My desire is that the principles to which we strive would take preeminence.6 AES operationalizes its values and its commitment to them in myriad operating policies and practices. An example, drawn from a common stock offering prospectus in 1993, helps to illustrate how the company turns its values into actions: Most of the Companyââ¬â¢s plants operate without shift supervisors. The project subsidiaries are responsible for all major facility-specific business functions, including financing and capital expendituresâ⬠¦. Every AES person has been encouraged to participateà in strategic planning and new plant design for the Company. The Company has generally organized itself into multi-skilled teams to develop projects, rather than forming `staffââ¬â¢ groups â⬠¦ to carry out specialized functions. Two examples illustrate these principles of decentralization and empowerment in action. Most financial decisions at this financially-leveraged company are not made by the chief financial officer, Barry Sharp, but rather by AES project teams comprised largely of people with no formal training in finance. For instance, ââ¬Å"hard as it is to imagine, CFO Sharp has raised less than $300 million of the approximately $3.5 billion of funding for AESââ¬â¢s 10 power plants. The multidisciplinary project team working on each new plant is charged with that task, even if the team has little finance experience. Bankers phone Sharp expecting him to call the shots, but he demurs and instead gives the bankers a list of the team members so the bankers can call them directly. At the AES plant in Thames, Connecticut, a task force including front-line people invest the plantââ¬â¢s debt reserves, negotiating directly with investment bankers and, in the process, learning a lot about finance and fi nancial markets. Pam Strunk, the financial superintendent at the plant, said that it was important that ââ¬Å"they have the fun and novelty of doing something thatââ¬â¢s different from what they do all day. If we lose 100 basis points for a few days, then thatââ¬â¢s the price we pay.â⬠8 Another example comes from a description of how the corporation built a $404 million project in Cumberland, Maryland. The project took ten years to put together and was handled by a team of 10 people who ââ¬Å"secured 36 separate permit approvals involving two dozen regulatory agencies and arranged financing that involved tax-exempt bonds and 10 lenders. Normally, such projects require hundreds of workers, each with small specific tasks to perform within large corporations.â⬠9 What is particularly noteworthy is the composition of the team. With two exceptions, they were all under 40 years old and many had little or no previous experience doing what they did on the project. Paul Burdick, a mechanical engineer with no MBA or any formal training in finance, handled the complex financing of the project. Ann Murtlow, the team leader, was a thirty-five year old chemical engineer who also did not have an MBA degree. The composition and operation of the team illustrates a core AES concept of allowing people to try new things. Although eschewing the pursuit of profits or maximizing shareholder value as the primary objective of the company and, in fact, doing numerous things to operate according to the four core values, the company has nonetheless been very financially successful. As seen in Exhibit 2 using data drawn from its 1995 Annual Report, the firm enjoyed a 105% growth in revenues between 1991 and 1995 and during that period grew its earnings per share more than 113% while its total assets grew almost 70% and its shareholdersââ¬â¢ equity grew 289%. The annual report also illustrates some other unique things about the company and how it views itself. The document lists by name each of the 1,258 people who work for the company on pages 49-53. The discussion of operations in the letter to the shareholders has, as its first section, one on Shared Values/Principles. That section reported on the results of the annual employee survey and discussed both improvements (ââ¬Å"there is less concern this year about an imbalance between shareholder and other stakeholder interests. There is also less fear that our principles will erode as we create businesses in many nationsâ⬠) as well as problems (ââ¬Å"Some of our people at Thames . In eight years, the value of a share of AES stock went from $2 to $250, and $10,000 invested in AES in 1982 would now be worth $10 million. In late 1996, the companyââ¬â¢s shares were near an alltime high and were selling at a multiple of about 30 times earnings, indicating that Wall Street appreciated ââ¬â even if it did not always fully understand ââ¬â at least the financial aspects of the AES story. THE THAMES, CONNECTICUT PLANT Although no plant at AES is exactly like any other, in part because of the value placed on decentralization, the operation in Connecticut is typical of AES. The Thames plant is located in Uncasville, Connecticut, near New London, and about 45 minutes from Providence, Rhode Island. The plant is located on only seven acres and is in close proximity to neighboring houses. The plant cost $260 million to construct and uses coal for fuel. It began commercial operations in March, 1990, supplying 181 megawatts of electricity to Connecticut Light and Power and up to 100,000 pounds of steam per hour to Stone Containerââ¬â¢s paper recycling plant that is adjacent to AESThames. The plant has operated on average at over 95 percent of capacity since it opened, compared to 83 percent for the industry as a whole. Consistent with the AES value of social responsibility, the plant strives to be a ââ¬Å"good neighborâ⬠to those living nearby. A visitor to the plant is immediately struck by its cleanliness, and the people who work in the plant are proud of its appearance. The walls of the plant exterior are very light colored (off-white), so that any dirt would be immediately visible. The color of the walls was intentionally chosen to encourage respect for the physical environment and cleanliness. The place where the coal is unloaded from the barges that bring it up the Connecticut River is also immaculate. The coal handling system is covered toà avoid excess dust or debris getting into the surroundings and the unloading dock and surrounding area is swept by a mechanical sweeper after the once a week delivery. There is no smell of sulfur in the air, and in fact, no odor at all. The attitude of cleanliness extends inside the plant as well. For instance, there are two ââ¬Å"lunch rooms,â⬠although both have stoves, and one has a microwave oven, cooktops, refrigerator, and à dishwasher as well, which makes them more than a typical plant eating area. Quite elaborate meals are cooked there. Both lunch rooms are clean with no dirty dishes sitting around. The cabinetry is of excellent quality and appearance as are the appliances. The turbine rooms are also imma culate. In keeping with AESââ¬â¢s social responsibility and concern for the environment, the AES Thames plant has funded a project to plant 52 million trees in Guatemala, designed to reduce the greenhouse effect produced by the burning of coal to produce power. The number of trees was selected based on estimates of the number required to absorb the entire amount of carbon dioxide produced in the plant during its anticipated 40-year life span. In the fall of 1996, Thames employed a total of 59 people, including five in adininistration, seven area superintendents, nine in maintenance, five in material handling and processing, eight instrument and electrical repair technicians, and 20 operations technicians. The full staffing level for the plant is 63 positions, and hiring was occurring at the time. A number of the plantââ¬â¢s employees had previously worked either for the Navy or General Dynamics at the nearby Groton, Connecticut shipyard. About 20% of the people in the plant have college degrees, including Associateââ¬â¢s degrees. Recall, these are the people that are handling the investment of the plantââ¬â¢s debt reserves of several millions of dollars and essentially making all of the decisions in a collaborative environment. There is very little emphasis onà formal credentials in the hiring process. And this is true throughout AES. The company has about twenty to thirty MBAs, many of whom have been in the company a while. Most have come from their home (non-U.S.) countries. At AES, no one gets hired into the company at a senior level, and the company tends not to use headhunters for jobs at any level. The company also has tried not to hire directly into project director (new development) positions. AES-Thames has an extremely low turnover rate, as does AES generally. One of the reasons for the low turnover is that AES is a different and special place and people know it and value that fact. To be written about in the Wall Street Journal and other publications, to receive many visits, reinforces the pride and feeling of uniqueness that AES people share. People do often move within the company. Out of perhaps 70 people who were in the Thames plant when it began, only 4-5 people have left the company in seven or eight years. The low turnover is also because, as one person put it, ââ¬Å"we all have the ability to expand what we do.â⬠The plant organization has three levels ââ¬â the plant manager, the seven area superintendents, and the front-line people. Because the facility operates continuously, there is some shift work. After some experimentation, people now work three twelve-hour shifts and then have three days off. They then rotate between the night and day shifts. The first shift is from 6:30 in the morning until 6:30 at night, and the second shift is from 6:30 P.M. to 6:30 A.M. Maintenance has a standard 40 hour week but the individuals have pagers, and they rotate responsibility for off-hours coverage.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Career management in business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Career management in business - Essay Example These are the active and passive forms. The active strategies are implemented for the purpose of career management and they involve training of employees and organization of career workshops. The passive strategies, on the other hand, involve organizational practices such as performance indicators and reviews (Arnold, 1997) Although many organizations put a lot of effort in the facilitation of career management through passive activities, a few of them have incorporated both active and passive strategies into their business operations. Career management, therefore, provides an opportunity for an organization to achieve its aspirations and interest through a convergence of individuals who possess these with the business needs. The organizational leadership can provide development and direction to the individuals who seek career progression. The ever-changing global market place is always a challenge for organizations to recognize and improve. With the current trend of market dynamics, there is increasing demand for creative and effective recruitment and retention of workforce. Supportive career management practices where employee career development and satisfaction in the workplace are emphasized (Arthur, Inkson and Pringle, 1999). Organizations should seek to implement management practices in order to facilitate and encourage employees to find value in the organizations (THORNTON, 2007). A supportive career management practice ensures that the expectations of the employee are clearly set. This enables the employee identify what is expected of them in the organization throughout their career. This is also beneficial in self-evaluation where the employee can determine if they are making any impact in the organization. When an organization does not place clear expectations for employees, it makes them uncertain about the development of their careers in the organization. This in turn affects the employee output and contribution in the organization as well as the ge neral output and performance of the organization (BILIMORIA & PIDERIT, 2006). Employees are also given clear succession plans in the organization. This ensures that they do not stay in uncertainty about the future of their career in the organization. This clear communication of such plans between the organization and employees helps in the development of confidence in the organization. When employees have confidence in their employers, the quality of their input into organization improves. The employees are also sure about their career development in the organization and, therefore, may choose to stay with the organization for the rest of their careers. This is not the case with organizations, which do not plan for the career growth and development of their employees. These types of organizations have a high rate of employee turnover since the employee are uncertain of their future and career developments in the organization (GREENHAUS, CALLANAN & GODSHALK, 2010). Through the differ ent strategies for supportive career management practices, employees have the resources and time to consider both their long- and short-term goals. This self-evaluation and assessment helps the employees make reasonable career plans according to their abilities and commitment to the organization (HUNTER, 2006). With the time and resources to make these considerations, the employees are able to make accurate and honest assessments of themselves. The set long- and short-t
Friday, September 27, 2019
Enterprise Resource Planning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Enterprise Resource Planning - Case Study Example The first stage was of the implementation of The Advantage 2000 was the development process. The development process involved four steps where business team members would design the global process, business and IS team members would look at SAP as the preferred platform, identify the gaps in the current system and work through them. Along with the development stage was the enterprise resource planning (ERP) that would simplify the support of common, global business processes and enable OC managers to do the following (pg. 667): During the development and planning stage Deloitte & Touche CG/ICS experts were actively involved to develop and deliver training to the project teams on process simplification. They were OCââ¬â¢s top management prior to Radcliffââ¬â¢s arrival due to their expertise in organization design, BPR, and change management. The next stage was the sourcing where talents and resources were sought that would enable the project become a reality. In May 1994 Michael Radcliff was brought on board as the companyââ¬â¢s chief information officer. Along with the sourcing of talent was also the outsourcing of vendor that would serve as the transition system from the old legacy systems to the new system. In early 1995, project teams for the Advantage 2000 project started to form. Workshops then ensued to communicate and enable the entire IS community of the new high performance objective of a process oriented organization. Team members were trained to juggle from one function to another to enable systems integration a possibility on various business units of the organization under the auspices of its new CIO Radcliff. Among the teams that were created were Global Development Teams which were made of composite members from business and IS to form the new business process model whose objective was to develop and delvier process and systems solutions on time. R2 -included a
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Blog # 6 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Blog # 6 - Assignment Example Women love the love stories that men from these films display where they appear to end up overly happy. The women also deem that by involving themselves with Korean men, they will have the same feeling (Onishi, 2008). One significant long-term effect is that this might lead to cultural degradation because the women are rushing to intermarry with different cultures, which will, in the long run degrade the two cultures that are involved in the matrimony. This is because as cultures intermarry, they tend to endorse other cultures apart from theirs, thus leading to clashes in between (Onishi, 2012). Finally, the short-term effect the clashes that women in Korea would have with Korean men for choosing to go abroad to marry instead of marrying their own. It is not significant because it is important to reserve ones culture in order to ensure continuity of the culture. Chan, B., & Xueli, W. (2011). Of prince charming and male chauvinist pigs: Singaporean female viewers and the dream-world of Korean television dramas. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(5), 291-306. Onishi, N. (2012). For some in Vietnam, prosperity is a South Korean son-in-law. Retrieved from
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Management. Performance Based Budgeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words
Management. Performance Based Budgeting - Essay Example While traditional budget tends to attach budget based on expense on specific items, PBB is concerned with general event outcomes (Last, 2009 p.2456). The planned and actual performance are both evaluated in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and the assessment used to allocate resources rather than using blind resource allocation system which emphasizes on organizational units and line item expenses. PBB has an objective of improving efficiency and effectiveness in public expenditure by linking allocation of funds to public organizations to their actual and projected performance (Guajardo, 2001 p.457). A basic form of PBB has a design, which ensures that the participating decision makers provide a systematic consideration to the results achieved by the expenditures at various government units when formulating budget on government expenditure. Performance Based Budgeting needs the following essential elements for proper budgetary planning. First it requires a measurable quantity of inputs available for the given project. These include monetary value of all resources ready to be injected in the project. Another requirement is units of output from the project. This involves assessment of the outcome of the project (Hughes, 2012 p.1004). Next is calculation of efficiency. This involves assigning an amount of input to each unit produced in order to get productivity per unit unit or activity. Lastly is analysis of achievement of the predetermined level of performance. The organization must have set goals, which it wants to accomplish; hence, it is necessary to measure the effectiveness of the management system used in terms of objectives achieved. Policy objectives and organizational goal development is the starting point in the PBB process. The achievement of goal and objectives should be reflected using developed performance measures. In the process of budget preparation, the main considerations are, past performance, current performance and projected future per formance information (Hood, 2009 p. 456). A detailed decisional analysis is undertaken in order to come up with the best and the most appropriate decision. The final decision should be the best in interlinking resources allocations to the measures, objective and goals. The outcome is a final report financial details and the recommended performance information. The report has a description of how the initiated measures taken influence the strategic plan and the projected result from the project. PBB is effective in Periodic project evaluation as regularcheckup is performed as the project proceeds. Financial information and performance information should be appropriately aligned and coincided during the duty execution in order to enhance efficiency in its implementation. Performances audit is done at the end of the financial period or project to determine the effectiveness of the PBB system used. PBB is beneficial in the sense that it raises accountability of an organization, as it se ts targeted outputs that enable the organization to work hard towards achieving. It encourages proper decision-making that are aimed at reducing the gap between the desired level of output and the actual level of output. PBB ensures that government strategic decisions are carefully implemented in terms of financial analysis. It is a tool of trigger to policy makers, customers and service
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Corporate Social Responsibility of IKEA company Essay
Corporate Social Responsibility of IKEA company - Essay Example 47). Consumption rate is expressed in terms of preference to the products and services and the way customers feel and perceive they can associate with the values of the organization or its cause. Pressure to be the best corporate citizen also emerges from the business consumers who buy the components as well as raw materials from the dealers and desire them to act in an ethically acceptable way and environmentally sound manner. This study analyses the case of IKEAââ¬â¢s corporate social responsibility initiatives, devotions and communications and relation to various stakeholders in the Soviet Union. IKEA as a company provides an amazingly rich case for analyzing CSR. IKEA is the biggest global firm dealing in furniture retail chains. The company has enjoyed the privilege of high profile marketing achievements. The retail turnover of the organization has risen up by about 400% in the past ten years (Porter and Kramer, 2006; p. 57). The business model of the firm is based on the concept of getting the control over tactical resources especially via logistical management of a network that consists of 1,500 dealers in 50 emerging and developing nations. The dealers assume the mediators and supply the materials straight to IKEA, which reduces the costs associated with retailers to enable the company to provide low cost furniture to the consumers. Nonetheless, the seeming elimination of the globeââ¬â¢s natural forest has led to a piling pressure on IKEA from various advocates of environment and its global outlook which has made it a spotlight of protesters of anti-globalization. Hence IKEA has included concerns of sustainability, in particular the CSR principles (Economist, 2005: p. 13). With approximately 298 retail stores in about 26 country outlets and 139, 000 employees across the globe, IKEA Group has continued to grow its services in wood sourcing, value chain sales to
Monday, September 23, 2019
Gender Roles in Classical Cultures Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Gender Roles in Classical Cultures - Term Paper Example Theogony by Hesiod (circa 700 B.C.E. or before current era) is a very long poem of about a thousand lines that details the genealogy of Greek gods. It was written in the style of a Homeric epic and goes all the way back to the mists of time, in fact, to the very beginning of the world similar to the Genesis in the Christian bible. It is a very massive collection of local Greek cultural traditions and stories that details how the gods came to be. In the story or poem there is the first hint of an attempt to establish a logical reality based on the observations seen in the universe or cosmos. This is a long narrative about ancient Greek mythology in which there is already discernible the underlying theme of gender roles even among gods. In Theogony, the male gods were often in conflict with their female god counterparts. As mentioned earlier elsewhere, this narrative was written by a male Greek bard and as such it had a decidedly male viewpoint. Female gods were portrayed as necessary to the world in the extent these females were to provide companionship to male gods and of course, for purposes of reproduction to bring forth offspring. Other than these requirements, there is a clear line of misogyny thinking throughout the whole poem. Women and girls were shown to be causing all the troubles of the male gods by their machinations, intrigues, and manipulations. There is a feeling that the world is a much better place if only these female gods had behaved. An overall impression a reader gets is that women are better relegated.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Cheating and plagiarism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Cheating and plagiarism - Essay Example It is therefore, important to give their meaning in order to fully understand their difference. Cheating is a broad term that is used to describe behaviour that is characterised by any of the following elements: being dishonesty, untruthful or unfaithful where an individual intentionally uses falsehoods that are unacceptable to gain advantage over other people. On the other hand, plagiarism is loosely defined as the act of stealing or using other peopleââ¬â¢s ideas without properly acknowledging them. This is a form of cheating but is mainly focused on the area of academic work in schools or colleges. As going to be highlighted in detail below, the main difference between the two is that cheating is intentional in most cases and is a broad term while plagiarism may be unintentional and is particularly limited to academic circles. As noted above, when one is being untruthful or unfaithful to other people, it can be said that the person is cheating. Having extra marital affairs or being adulterous is another form of cheating that has gained considerable concern from the members of society especially during this current period. For instance, a married person who indulges in adulterous behaviour is likely to cause conflict if the unsuspecting partner discovers the bad behaviour of the other partner. Socially, it is generally agreed that cheating behaviour is not a good thing to partners who love each other as this is likely to cause misunderstandings that can lead to the disintegration of that relationship. Such behaviour is outside the generally acceptable rules or societal standards of living and the judgment given to the people who are caught on the wrong side of the rules depends on the nature of the offence and the rules of the society. In some instances, people tend to use falsehoods or deception in order to gain advantage over
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Local and Foreign Entertainment Appreciation Essay Example for Free
Local and Foreign Entertainment Appreciation Essay Our topic for research is about ââ¬Å"Level of Appreciation of Filipino Teenagers between Foreign Entertainment and Local Entertainment in terms of Television Shows.â⬠Nowadays, people have different ways of entertaining themselves. Entertainment consists of any activity affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement. Entertainment can be in passive such as watching movies or active forms such as sports. It also provides a lot of fun and enjoyment. In todays technologically advanced living style, people have no time to spend for leisure. Life is too fast and the people have little time to spend with their friends and family. Unlike the good old days where people used to work and relax, go back home and have a good time with the friends, people nowadays tend to move with the work. Entertainment has an important role in socialization, relaxation, family ties, community structure and forms of expression beyond sheer logic. It strengthens the emotional ties between individuals and around groups of individuals. A well rounded individual, and also society as a whole, benefits from many activities and interest beyond those just needed to provide food and shelter. One form of entertainment is mass media. Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are used for mass communications (delivering messages to a large audience), and to the organizations which control these technologies. Included in this collection is television. Television nowadays has a great effect, especially in entertainment. As stated in previous paragraphs, entertainment has a lot of importance and it is expressed in many ways. Also, it can influence the lives of the people, especially in terms of our country, which may be considered a small country in some terms. There is no doubt that we can see a trend towards a global culture but westerns dominate. Our traditional culture is overwhelmed by the ââ¬Å"Westernâ⬠kinds of entertainments in our country, especially when it comes to television shows. It is obvious that poor countries do not have adequate resources like skills, technology, funds and human resources to develop their own high quality TV programs. Due to these limitations of local production, educated people may complaint more about inappropriate supplies. At the same time the lower educated people and children accept the harmful culture directly. On the other hand, if majority imported shows and entertainments still dominate the whole market, it will affect the creative ideas by native talented producers because of limited resources. This will show now if a student chooses our locally-made television shows or those famous shows in abroad.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Theories of Authority and Obedience
Theories of Authority and Obedience Ioannis Sakarellos Obedience has always been ubiquitous while while at the same time was easily overlooked. According to Milgram, obedience can be defined as ââ¬Å"the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. It is the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authorityâ⬠(1). This paper claims that ordinary people who have a strong personal moral code tend to blindly follow orders given by an authoritarian figure when they become part of a structured organization governed by authority. This action of blindly following orders to do things that they personally know are wrong and can cause horrible results is referred by Zimbardo as ââ¬Å"turning evilâ⬠(The Lucifer effect). What is meant by blindly following orders is that people fail to think of the consequences of the actions that they have been ordered to undertake. Many researchers have come to the conclusion that it is not the mentally ill or the ones with behavior problems who end up doing the most harmful things but rather the normal people. The key concept of the paper is that ordinary people by ââ¬Å"simply doing their jobâ⬠with a sense of obligation towards an authoritarian figure can cause immoral and unethical circumstances to arise (Milgram 6). The main source to be analyzed will be Milgramââ¬â¢s book Obedience to Authority, which examines his teachers and learners experiment. The end result of the experiment is that average people did ââ¬Å"become agents in a terrible destructive processâ⬠(6). However, the process by which people become evil is of equal importance. Moreover, the second source of the paper is Zimbardoââ¬â¢s book, The Lucifer Effect, which further examines the main concept of the research through real-life examples. It mainly focuses on how good people can turn evil by obeying someoneââ¬â¢s orders under certain situations. Directly connected with this outcome is the term ââ¬Å"Banality of evilâ⬠, which comes from Arendtââ¬â¢s book Eichmann in Jerusalem (xiv). This term means that evil things occur when ordinary people follow orders and feel that the evil things they are doing are normal. In this paper, both experimental and real life situations are examined in order to illustrate the power that authority has on individuals who have normal codes of morality and behavior, and how they will perform ruthless acts they wouldnââ¬â¢t have done otherwise. Milgram states that our own nature is the root of being obedient since ââ¬Å"we are born with the potential for obedience.â⬠This inborn structure, along with the influences each person has from society, ââ¬Å"produce the obedient manâ⬠(125). He states, the reason ordinary people blindly follow orders given from an authoritarian figure lies in the changes that occur in peopleââ¬â¢s behavior when from acting individually they enter a hierarchically coordinated organization. He concludes that the conscience an individual has about moral and ethical standards, and what that person thinks is right or wrong, is not further followed with the orders given from an authoritarian figure. Individuals will act blindly without thinking whether the actions they have to undertake conform with their personal values. When ordinary people enter a hierarchical structure system, they lose their personal judgment of each order given from someone who is higher in the hierarchical ladder. T herefore, the nature of the action ordered is not filtered by the personââ¬â¢s own belief, and as a result, heinous consequences might occur. Milgramââ¬â¢s teachers and learners experiment is one characteristic situation of blind obedience that occurs due to the change in peopleââ¬â¢s behavior when moving from the individual function to the organization function. ââ¬Å"The main question is how far the participant will comply with the experimenterââ¬â¢s instructions before refusing to carry out the actions required of himâ⬠(Milgram 3). Before mentioning the results of the experiment and how the participants who had ordinary behavior managed to turn evil by obeying the experimenter and conducting immoral and unethical actions, I want to highlight one of the keystones in this research; Milgramââ¬â¢s agentic state. The agentic state, or state of agency, is ââ¬Å"the condition a person is in when he sees himself as an agent for carrying out another personââ¬â¢s wishesâ⬠(Milgram 133). As individuals enter an authoritarian system which is hierarchically organized and moves away from being autonomous, they fail to follow their own beliefs and perceptions and they turn into an agent who follows blindly and uncritically the orders given from above. Most importantly, when the person is in the agentic state he ââ¬Å"no longer views himself as responsible for his own actions but defines himself as an instrument for carrying out the wishes of othersâ⬠(Milgram 134). People, by being in the agentic state, are becoming blindly obedient to the authority figure. Especially, if the actions ordered are unethical and immoral, as it is in the teachers and learners experiment, people can become evil and cause severe pain for example, by giving electric shocks to the learners. In order to examine the consequences of the agentic state on participants, the most vital factors that lead the subjects in this state and transform them into blind obedient servants, need to be mentioned first. One of the factors is the perception of authority. According to Milgram, authority can be defined as ââ¬Å"the person who is perceived to be in a position of social control within a given situationâ⬠(138). Milgram declares that what matters is how the individual perceives authority in a social structure. Specifically, the experimenter and the set-up of the situation, which seems like a scientific laboratory, create authorityââ¬â¢s appearance, which is what influences the participants. Two other main factors he suggests are the entry into the Authority System and the Overarching Ideology. In order for a person to fully become an agent who only follows orders, he or she has to become part of the authority system. The entry into the laboratory serves the role of enteri ng into the authority system. It is very important that the participants enter voluntarily since in that way, a sense of commitment and obligation towards authority is created. Regarding the overarching ideology, ââ¬Å"science and its acceptance as a legitimate social enterprise provides the overarching ideological justification for the experimentâ⬠(Milgram 142). The ideological justification of the experimentââ¬â¢s purpose is what drives participants to obtain willing obedience, perceiving their behavior as helping a desirable end to occur. The three factors (perception of authority, entry into the Authority System, the Overarching Ideology) are necessary in shifting into the agentic state. Once the participants are in this state of altered personality, two main consequences arise which cause the former ordinary people to transform into evil servants. One of the consequences is the process of tuning, when the subject has ââ¬Å"maximal receptivity to the emissions of the authority, whereas the learnerââ¬â¢s signals are muted and psychologically remoteâ⬠(Milgram 144). Milgram states that learners are viewed as simple obstacles rather than human beings that need to be overcome in order for the authoritarian relationship of experimenter-learner to be satisfied. In addition, authority is perceived as an impersonal force and the experimenter as a suprahuman character, having powers above and beyond a normal person. Orders given exclusively by the authoritarian figure will be followed whether they promote immoral and unethical actions and severe negative results ensue. The other main consequence is the loss of responsibility and is characterized as the most far-reaching one in the agentic state. ââ¬Å"A man feels responsible to the authority directing him but feels no responsibility for the content of the actions that the authority prescribesâ⬠(Milgram 145). The people believe they have an obligation towards the authoritarian figure and their accountability depends on how well they have performed the actions called for by the authority. The heinous nature of the actions ordered are not taken into consideration simply because ââ¬Å"they see them as originating in the motives of some other personâ⬠(Milgram 146). Also, because they are not in the autonomous state, the superego cannot control their actions and the inhibitory forces are not capable of examining whether the orders given compromise their moral values and principles. Hence, the people end up being blindly obedient and they adopt a different personality which forces them to do terrible actions with even more harsh results. According to Zimbardo, the experts predicted that most subjects would not give strong electric shocks when orders to do so. They forecasted that on average ââ¬Å"less than 1 percent would go all the way to the end, that only sadists would engage in such sadistic behavior, and that most people would drop out at the tenth level of 150 voltsâ⬠(271). However, the shocking truth was that ââ¬Å"two of every three (65 percent) of the participants went all the way up to the maximum shock level of 450 voltsâ⬠(271). The key factor that made the participants obey and continue even after the point where the victim-learner was not responding was the experimenterââ¬â¢s reassurance that he will take the responsibility of their action. A characteristic example is a teacherââ¬â¢s report which states the initial refusal: ââ¬Å"I didnââ¬â¢t know what the hell was going on â⬠¦ I was not taking responsibility for going further. Thatââ¬â¢s it.â⬠(271). Although, the los s of personal responsibility is one reason for continuing, Zimbardo suggests another reason. He highlights that the participants did not know how to exit the experiment. ââ¬Å"It is a simple matter of up and then out.â⬠(272). The results of the experiment reveal exactly what the purpose of the paper was; to prove that it is not the sadists or the psychopaths who conduct the most unethical, immoral and cruel actions but the ordinary people. The normal people are the ones who, under specific situations and by the influence of an authoritarian figure, will blindly follow orders. A real-life example of every-day men becoming evil and being indoctrinated into extraordinary killing occurred during the 2nd world war. It was the actions of Reserve Battalion 101, a unit of the German Order Police, consisting of approximately 500 men from Hamburg, which played a crucial role in the extermination of Jews in Poland and the implementation of Hitlerââ¬â¢s Final Solution. According to Browning, the members of the Unit were middle-aged ordinary men, neither sadists nor Nazi fanatics. However, despite the option they were given from their commander not to participate in the Unitââ¬â¢s actions, 90 percent of the men didnââ¬â¢t refuse and took part in the shootings. The Unitââ¬â¢s inhumane and unethical achievement was the death of at least 83,000 Jews (142). Browningââ¬â¢s conclusion is similar to the one given by Milgram in the teachers and learners experiment. The members of the Battalion were as normal as the participants in Milgramââ¬â¢s experiment, a nd the reason for the unrealistic killing lies in their blind obedience to the authoritarian figure. Browning suggests that ordinary people will tend to obey and follow orders given from above, even though the orders might come into conflict with their personal judgment and values. The explanation for this statement was given by Milgram: specifically, in both cases the people were placed in a hierarchically organized structure; therefore, peopleââ¬â¢s ethical boundaries didnââ¬â¢t apply to the orders given from authority. People lost their personal identity related to the orders given: their inhibitory forces were no longer able to inspect whether the orders were within their ethical limits. As a result, both participants of the experiment and members of the Battalion ended in conducting actions they wouldnââ¬â¢t have done otherwise. Last but not least, one of the most vital historical examples that clearly illustrates that the ones who tend to blindly follow orders given from authority are ordinary people, is the case of Adolf Eichmann. Despite Eichmannââ¬â¢s cruel actions of arranging the execution of millions of Jews, he was completely normal without any trace of abnormal behavior: ââ¬Å"Half a dozen psychiatrists had certified him as ââ¬Å"normalâ⬠ââ¬âââ¬Å"More normal at any rate â⬠¦ ââ¬Å"not only normal but most desirableâ⬠(Arendt 25ââ¬â26). Arendtââ¬â¢s concluded that ââ¬Å"the trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were â⬠¦ terribly and terrifyingly normal.â⬠She states that this ââ¬Å"new type of criminal â⬠¦ commits his crimes under the circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or feel that he is doing wrongâ⬠(276). ââ¬Å"It was as though in those last minutes [of Eichmanââ¬â¢s life] he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught usââ¬âthe lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought defying banality of evilâ⬠(252) . Hannah Arendt, through her detailed analysis of the war crimes trial of Eichmann, was the first to present the fundamental phrase ââ¬Å"Banality of evil.â⬠She showed that ââ¬Å"social forces can prompt normal people to perform horrific actsâ⬠(Zimbardo 289). The experimental and real-life examples that were examined in the paper suggest that the key factor for ordinary people to blindly obey an authoritarian figure is their entry into a hierarchically organized structure, and the loss of their individuality. By entering in such well-structured system, people turn evil and they conclude horrible actions they wouldnââ¬â¢t have done if they werenââ¬â¢t part of it. Therefore, it may be possible that the conclusion drawn from these examples could be applied in todayââ¬â¢s highly coordinated world. The modern militaries, the business, political and governmental organizations are also hierarchically structured. This may indicate that nowadays people within these organizations can still be transformed into modern evil servants who will serve and obey the interests of the most powerful people. However, it might also be plausible that due to the more liberalized world we live in, people instead of obeying they could actively resist the or ders given from above or they may even act in an aggressive and violent way against authority. Obedience to authority will always be a theme available for further research and with more than one possible explanations of why people obey and follow orders.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Shakira is a Pop Poet :: essays research papers
The poem, Hips Don't Lie, represent for me, pop poetry of the highest quality: Hips Don't Lie Ladies up in here tonight No fighting, no fighting We got the refugees up in here No fighting, no fighting Shakira, Shakira I never really knew that she could dance like this She makes a man want to speak Spanish Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa Shakira, Shakira Oh baby when you talk like that You make a woman go mad So be wise and keep on Reading the signs of my body And I'm on tonight You know my hips don't lie And I'm starting to feel it's right All the attraction, the tension Don't you see baby, this is perfection Hey Girl, I can see your body moving And it's driving me crazy And I didn't have the slightest idea Until I saw you dancing And when you walk up on the dance floor Nobody cannot ignore the way you move your body, girl And everything so unexpected - the way you right and left it So you can keep on taking it I never really knew that she could dance like this She makes a man want to speak Spanish Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa Shakira, Shakira Oh baby when you talk like that You make a woman go mad So be wise and keep on Reading the signs of my body And I'm on tonight You know my hips don't lie And I am starting to feel you boy Come on let's go, real slow Don't you see baby asi es perfecto Oh I know I am on tonight my hips don't lie And I'm starting to feel it's right All the attraction, the tension Don't you see baby, this is perfection Shakira, Shakira Oh boy, I can see your body moving Half animal, half man I don't, don't really know what I'm doing But you see to have a plan My will and self restraint Have come to fail now, fail now See, I am doing what I can, but I can't so you know That's a bit too hard to explain Baila en la calle de noche Baila en la calle de dia Baila en la calle de noche Baila en la calle de dia I never really knew that she could dance like this She makes a man want to speak Spanish Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Ulysses Alighieri Essays -- Dante Inferno Essays
Ulysses Alighieri In Danteââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Infernoâ⬠, among many other sins, in Canto XXVI the ââ¬Å"counselors of fraudâ⬠are being punished. These people are being constantly consumed by flames, and more importantly, as Dante points out, are forced to speak through the ââ¬Å"tonguesâ⬠or fire, which pains them greatly. This follows Danteââ¬â¢s idea of punishment that is the same as the sin -- just as they spoke falsely at ease, they should have great difficulty speaking now. The most prominent man in this bowge is a legendary figure -- Ulysses. The description of his sin, which Dante creates for Ulysses, is an account that conflicts with some of the previous works about him, like Homerââ¬â¢s, so we are forced to assume that Danteââ¬â¢s Ulysses is completely, save for his name, the authorââ¬â¢s creation. The beginning of Canto XXVI is Danteââ¬â¢s reproach to the people of Florence, whom he places in almost all layers of Hell. Dante uses irony in his reproach: ââ¬Å"Florence, rejoice, because thy soaring fame / Beats its broad wings across both land and sea, / And all the deep of Hell rings with thy name!â⬠(Canto 26, 1-3), but after these few lines of insulting his fellow citizens, he completes the Canto without mention of any Flourentines. There can be many interpretations to this fact, and one of them is that Dante wanted to show that evil in men has existed since much earlier times, and it is not only their generation of Florentines that goes to Hell, but many legendary figures from other great nations as well. Also I believe Dante is also trying to have all sides ââ¬Å"representedâ⬠in Hell -- the Italians, as well as their legendary enemies -- the Greeks who conquered Troy, and tried to destroy their ancestors. However Ulysses is not placed with Brutus into the m outh of ... ...by his utter shame in his position, for in the next Canto, another ââ¬Å"flameâ⬠, Guido da Montefeltro, is very anxious to speak to the poet. I think that Ulysses does not talk freely because he does not completely deserve to be punished for his sin, since he did not fully intend to fool his crew into killing them, but rather he was driven by the desire for good, for searching out a new way, which Dante holds in high esteem, but he accomplishes this through sin, and must therefore be punished. He is therefore reluctant to speak of his sin, for he believes there was none. I believe that in part of Ulysses, Dante is trying to see himself, with the difference that Ulysses strives for the exploration of the forbidden, while Dante strives for the exploration of the divine and righteous, but otherwise the same, with the same desire to explore previously untouched territory.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Deciphering RU-486 Essays -- Biology Essays Research Papers
Deciphering RU-486 When told there is a drug available that may prove useful in the treatment of everything from cancer to HIV to Alzheimerà ¹s Disease (1), the tendency would be to ask why its use isnà ¹t more pervasive. Conversely, when told there is a drug that functions to terminate unwanted pregnancies as well as preventing them from occurring at all (1), it would be more likely to call into question the ethics of such a design. However, when considering a drug that does all these things, the need to see everything as black and white suddenly becomes less easily met. The drug RU-486, simultaneously vilified by anti-abortion advocates and praised by many research scientists, is just such a drug, and it presents a decidedly modern moral dilemma. Its inhibitory effects on the hormone progesterone are fairly effective in ending a pregnancy in its early stages (1), with this aspect of the drug being successfully marketed in Europe (6) prior to its more recent entrance into this country (13). Its othe r uses have been less widely publicized, largely because to an extent they are just being developed. RU-486 appears to also have an inhibitory effect on the class of stress hormones known as glucocorticoids, which have been recognized as being extremely harmful to the body in a whole host of ways given a high enough concentration. With the high-stress lifestyles we lead today and little evolutionary back-up to deal with that, it is imperative that we come up with a method of treating stress-related illness. It is worth considering at what point the more controversial use of RU-486 should be put aside to allow its beneficial features to achieve their fullest potential. The clinical efficacy of RU-486 comes in its ability to bind to... ... 6) Feminist Majority Foundation Reports on Mifepristone http://www.feminist.org/gateway/ru486one.html 7) Unleashing the Killer Pill: RU-486 Dangers, Lies, and Nazi/Communist Roots Exposed http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a21faea3ba6.htm 8) The RU-486 Files http://www.ru486.org/ 9) Penn Scientists Identify New Pathway in HIV Cycle http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/features/1995/042595/Vpr.html 10) AIDS-related Kaposià ¹s Sarcoma: evidence for direct stimulatory effect of glucocorticoid on cell proliferation http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/cancernet/95/may/705001.html#6 11) Cushingà ¹s Syndrome http://medhlp.netusa.net/lib/cushings.htm 12) Treatment of Cushingà ¹s Syndrome http://www.uptodate.com/patient_info/topicpages/text/10348A3.asp#19 13) Time Magazine: The Pill Arrives http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,56387,00.html
Monday, September 16, 2019
Touching Essays
Idiom| Explanation + Example | 1)| Don't give up the day job. | You are not very good at that. You could definitely not do it professionally. ââ¬Å"I really like the way you sing, but don't give up your day job. | 2)| Cash cow. | An easy way to earn money regularly. ââ¬Å"Income tax is a real cash cow for the government. â⬠| 3)| Bite off more than you can chew. | Trying to do something that is too difficult or time consuming to finish. ââ¬Å"I'm glad you want to prepare the report by yourself. Just be sure that you don't bite off more than you can chew. â⬠| 4)| Clear the air| Discuss something that was causing people to feel upset. There seems to have been a misunderstanding. I'd like to explain what happened, just to clear the air. â⬠| 5)| Turn your back on| Give up on, or abandon. ââ¬Å"I needed your help but you just turned your back on meâ⬠| 6)| Not cut out for| Not suitable for something. ââ¬Å"He tried mountain climbing, but he simply was not cut ou t for it. â⬠| 7)| Scrape the bottom of the barrel| The very last, or the very worst. ââ¬Å"These are the last volunteers we could find. We really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find them. â⬠| 8)| A class act| Sophisticated, above average. ââ¬Å"He offered to help, even though he doesn't know me.He's a real class act. â⬠| 9)| Clean up your act| Improve your behavior. ââ¬Å"If you are ever going to improve your English skills, you must start getting in to class on time and doing your homework. Why don't you clean up your act? â⬠| 10)| Get your act together| Get more organized. ââ¬Å"You have been late for work every day this week. If you want to keep this job, you must get your act together. â⬠| 11)| A piece of the action| Participation in an activity. ââ¬Å"I heard that you are looking for partners in your new investment. If you don't mind, I would like to get in on a piece of the action. â⬠| 12)| Actions speak louder than words. Pe ople's intentions can be judged better by what they do than what they say. ââ¬Å"Why don't you give her a hug instead of saying you are sorry, actions speak louder than words. â⬠| 13)| In the air| Being discussed, generally obvious. ââ¬Å"The days are getting longer and the flowers are blooming. Spring is in the air. â⬠| 14)| Go ape| Go crazy. ââ¬Å"Jack was really angry. I thought he was going to go ape. â⬠| 15)| A grey area| Something that is difficult to define. ââ¬Å"I researched your case, but there are not any black and white answers. Your situation seems to fall into a grey area. â⬠| 16)| Up in arms| Angry. The crows was agitated. Everyone was up in arms over the government decision. â⬠| 17)| Be glad to see the back of| Be happy when a person leaves. ââ¬Å"That guy bothers me, I'll be glad to see the back of him. â⬠| 18)| Give him/her credit| Acknowledge an achievement or contribution of a person. ââ¬Å"Although he is not easy to work for, you have to give him credit for managing the company well. â⬠| 19)| Go behind someone's back| Do something without telling someone. ââ¬Å"Don't trust Jane. She acts friendly but she's always going behind someone's back. â⬠| 20)| Each to his own| Everyone is entitled to his own individual opinion. I can't say that I like George's new furniture. It seems very plain and uncomfortable. Oh well, each to his own. â⬠| 21)| Eager beaver| Enthusiastic person. ââ¬Å"John did all of his homework before supper. He sure is an eager beaver. â⬠| 22)| Early bird| A person who is early, or gets up early. ââ¬Å"Dave was in class 30 minutes before anyone else. What an early bird. â⬠| 23)| Scratch the surface| Examine only a part of something. Uncover only a few facts about something ââ¬Å"Cancer research is a very long-term process. So far, we have just begun to scratch the surface. â⬠| 24)| Give him the slip| Leave him.Hide from him. ââ¬Å"I think that m an is following us. Let's give him the slip. â⬠| 25)| Cold shoulder| To treat someone in an unfriendly manner. ââ¬Å"I don't think Jim likes me. I tried to speak with him but he gave me the cold shoulder. â⬠| 26)| Get the ball rolling| Start something. ââ¬Å"All right everyone, we spent a lot of time planning this project. Now, it's time to get the ball rolling. â⬠| 27)| Jump on the bandwagon| Join a popular trend or activity. ââ¬Å"I like that new procedure and I've decided to jump on the bandwagon. â⬠| 28)| A losing battle| Something that cannot be accomplished. I've tried fixing this phone many times, I just can't do it by myself. It's a losing battle. â⬠| 29)| Keep something at bay| Keep something away. ââ¬Å"Sarah found it difficult to keep the salesperson at bay. â⬠| 30)| Spill the beans| Tell a secret. ââ¬Å"I won't be the one to spill the beans. â⬠| 31)| Beggars can't be choosers| People cannot complain about something they get for free. ââ¬Å"I don't like the color of the sweater she gave me, but beggars can't be choosers. â⬠| 32)| Flesh and blood| A relative. ââ¬Å"I must help him. After all, he's my own flesh and blood. â⬠| 33)| Give the benefit of the doubt| Believe someone's statement, without proof. The teacher's explanation did not seem logical, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. â⬠| 34)| A safe bet| Probably true. Will probably happen. ââ¬Å"It's a safe bet that your English skills improve quickly if you study at Elanguest. â⬠| 35)| Fit the bill| Seems correct. ââ¬Å"That seems to fit the bill. I'll take it. â⬠| 36)| Black and blue| Bruised. ââ¬Å"He was beaten until he was black and blue. â⬠| 37)| In cold blood| With no compassion or mercy. Usually associated with ruthless murder. ââ¬Å"The assassin was evil. He killed him in cold blood. â⬠| 38)| Out of the blue| Unexpected. ââ¬Å"A great idea just came to me out of the blue. â⬠| 9)| Cal l someone's bluff| Make someone prove what they say. ââ¬Å"He implied that he would terminate my contract, but I called his bluff. â⬠| 40)| Rock the boat| Create problems for other people. Everyone likes Anthony. He doesn't rock the boat. â⬠| 41)| By the book| Doing something according to rules. ââ¬Å"He's a good cop. He does everything by the book. â⬠| 42)| Give someone the boot| Dismiss or get rid of someone. ââ¬Å"Mr. Smith is an easy boss to work for. He doesn't like to give someone the boot. â⬠| 43)| Get to the bottom of| Learn about and understand fully. ââ¬Å"We are not sure what happened, but we intend to get to the bottom of this. | 44)| Out of bounds| Not permitted. ââ¬Å"Hans wanted to ask Mary out on a date, but I explained that she is out of bounds. Mary is engaged to Jack. â⬠| 45)| Bread and butter| Regular income. ââ¬Å"We are very dependent on our advertising revenue. It's our bread and butter. â⬠| 46)| The best thing since s liced bread| A good invention or innovation. ââ¬Å"I love this paper folding machine. It's the best thing since sliced bread. â⬠| 47)| Give me a break| Don't expect me to believe or agree with that. ââ¬Å"You think the teacher is joking? Give me a break. â⬠| 48)| Don't hold your breath| Don't wait too long because it might not happen. Yes, it's possible that they will lower taxes, but don't hold your breath. â⬠| 49)| Cross that bridge when you come to it| Deal with a problem if and when it becomes necessary, not before. ââ¬Å"I'm not too wirried about a possible downturn in the economy. Anyway, let's cross that bridge when we come to it. â⬠| 50)| The bubble has burst| A previously positive situation has encountered a serious problem. ââ¬Å"Last year, the stock market was doing very well. Unfortunately, it seems that the bubble has burst. â⬠| 51)| The buck stops here| Problems are resloved here. ââ¬Å"A lot of people try to pass problems to other pe ople.At my desk, however, the buck stops here. â⬠| 52)| Burn your bridges| make it impossible to return. ââ¬Å"Be polite when you hand in your resignation. After all, you don't want to burn your bridges. â⬠| 53)| My ears are burning| I think someone is saying something about me. ââ¬Å"Pierre is talking again. My ears are burning. â⬠| 54)| Put on the back burner| Leave it for later. ââ¬Å"I don't think we'll have time to complete it this year. Let's put it on the back burner. â⬠| 55)| Someone means business| Someone is serious ââ¬Å"Watch out for Harry. He's someone who means business. â⬠| 56)| At the touch of a button| Quickly and easily. ââ¬Å"No problem.I can change your account information at the touch a button. â⬠| 57)| Have your cake and eat it| Enjoy something without paying for it. ââ¬Å"He expected to pass without studying. Unfortunately, you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. â⬠| 58)| A close call| Something (usually bad) almost happening. ââ¬Å"That car almost hit us. That was a close call. â⬠| 59)| Enough is enough| This should stop. ââ¬Å"I have listened to his complaints for years but enough is enough. â⬠| 60)| A fat cat| A wealthy person. ââ¬Å"He has everything he needs. He's a real fat cat. â⬠| 61)| My two cents worth| My humble opinion. ââ¬Å"He seems like a corrupt politician.That's just my two cent's worth. â⬠| 62)| Hang out| Be together, spend time with each other. ââ¬Å"Hey Lauren, let's get together tonight, we can just hang out and practice our English. â⬠| 63)| A change of heart| A changed opinion. ââ¬Å"At one time, I supported George Bush. As time went on, however, I had a change of heart. â⬠| 64)| Get something off your chest| Explain something that is bothering you. ââ¬Å"Gary, you don't seem happy. Is there something you would like to get off your chest? â⬠| 65)| Don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched| Don't make pla ns for something that might not happen. Yes, I think we will probably get a raise in pay this year. Remember, though, don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched. â⬠| 66)| A chip on his shoulder| He is angry about something. ââ¬Å"I don't know why he's so unhappy. He seems to have a chip on his shoulder. â⬠| 67)| Come full circle| A process has been completed. ââ¬Å"The salmon has returned to the place where it originally hatched. Its life cycle has come full circle. â⬠| 68)| Squeaky clean| Legitimate and proper. ââ¬Å"We checked all of her references. She's squeaky clean. â⬠| 69)| In the clear| Out of trouble. ââ¬Å"His innocence has been proven. He's in the clear. | 70)| Steer clear of| Avoid. ââ¬Å"She's not very nice. I think we should steer clear of her. â⬠| 71)| Round the clock| All day. ââ¬Å"She's a very hard worker. She usually works around the clock. â⬠| 72)| Turn back the clock| Go back in time. ââ¬Å"I feel old. I wis h I could turn back the clock. â⬠| 73)| Like clockwork| With mechanical efficiency. ââ¬Å"He's very predictable. He always eats at the same time, like clockwork. â⬠| 74)| Wake up and smell the coffee| Think more realistically. ââ¬Å"He doesn not respect you as much as you think. Wake up and smell the coffee. â⬠| 75)| The other side of the coin| Another version of a story or event. The global summit will encourage meaningfull dialogue. On the other side of the coin, it might result in violent protests. â⬠| 76)| Left out in the cold| Left unaided or unprotected. ââ¬Å"They don't include me in their group. I feel left out in the cold. â⬠| 77)| With flying colors| With enthusiasm and exuberance. ââ¬Å"I can't wait to see you all. I'll be there with flying colors. â⬠| 78)| Scrape by| Have just enough but not more. ââ¬Å"Our budget is not satisfactory but we will find a way to scrape by. â⬠| 79)| A tough cookie| A stubborn, strong person. â⠬Å"Don't get Shirley upset. She's a tough cookie. â⬠| 80)| Keep your cool| Don't become upset. Relax, keep your cool. â⬠| 81)| Lose your cool| Become upset. ââ¬Å"Don't get upset. If you lose your cool, it will make matters worse. â⬠| 82)| In a tight corner| Without any good options. ââ¬Å"Milo has run out of options. If he takes any more chance, he might find himself in a tight corner. â⬠| 83)| A couch potato| A lazy person. ââ¬Å"Luis just watches tv all day. He really is a couch potato. â⬠| 84)| Takes its course| A situation develops naturally. ââ¬Å"There is nothing we can do to relieve the effects of her disease. We can only wait and let the illness take its course. â⬠| 85)| Up the creek| In trouble. ââ¬Å"I warned Bill but he would not listen.Now, he's up the creek. â⬠| 86)| Crocodile tears| Exaggerated or faked sympathy. ââ¬Å"She told me she was sorry but she was not, it was just crocodile tears. â⬠| 87)| When it comes t o the crunch| When there are no more possibilities. ââ¬Å"Victor seems to have a casual point of view. When it comes to the crunch, though, he is a real professional. â⬠| 88)| A far cry from| Very different from. ââ¬Å"His personality is a far cry from his father's. â⬠| 89)| Off-the-cuff| Without research, planning, or considering. ââ¬Å"I haven't had the time to think about it. My off-the-cuff impression, however, is that it is a good idea. | 90)| Can't cut it| Cannot do it. ââ¬Å"Kim shouldn't be working here. She just can't cut it. â⬠| 91)| In the dark| Ignorant. ââ¬Å"They didn't tell me anything. I felt like they had left me in the dark. â⬠| 92)| A shot in the dark| A guess. ââ¬Å"I'm not sure but I could take a shot in the dark. â⬠| 93)| Call it a day| Stop. ââ¬Å"I'm tired. Let's call it a day. â⬠| 94)| Late in the day| (Almost) too late. ââ¬Å"The government just decided to buy new helicopters, but it seems a little late in the day to make such a decision. â⬠| 95)| In broad daylight| Without trying to hide it. ââ¬Å"They robbed the bank in broad daylight. â⬠| 6)| Makes someone's day| Make someone happy. ââ¬Å"Your letter made my day! â⬠| 97)| Wouldn't be caught dead| Would never. ââ¬Å"I hate that dress. I wouldn't be caught dead wearing it. â⬠| 98)| Get a raw deal| Receives less than what is deserved. ââ¬Å"Be sure to read the contract carefully before you sign it. You don't want to get a raw deal. â⬠| 99)| Runs deep| Entrenched, or ingrained. ââ¬Å"He loves his country. Patriotism runs deep in his veins. â⬠| 100)| Out of your depth| Beyond your existing knowledge or ability. You don't seem to have much experience in this subject. Are you sure you're not out of your depth? â⬠| |
History of Accounting
Accounting has a history that is usually discussed in terms of one seminal event- the invention and dissemination of the double entry bookkeeping processes. Paul Garner and Atsuo Tsuji (1995) report that the first printed treatise of bookkeeping in the world is the Summa de Arithemetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita written by Luca Pacioli. The treatise was published in Venice in 1494, and was reprinted at Toscolano in 1523. This work is one of the most important books on mathematics and has had an enormous impact on the field of accounting ever since. The Treatise 11 of Section 9 of this book ââ¬â that is, ââ¬Å"particulars de Coputis et Scripturis,â⬠is a treatise about double entry bookkeeping. The system of bookkeeping that Luca Pacioli described first introduced the practice and theory that had developed in commercial cities in Italy, particularly in Venice. Pacioli wrote in the first chapter of his treatise, ââ¬Å"We will here adopt the method employed in Venice which among others is certainly to be recommended, for with it one can carry with any other methodâ⬠. Pacioli was born in Borgo San Sepolcro, lived in Venice and became the tutor of the three sons of a rich merchant, Antonio de Rompiasi. It seems that he could have had the chance to see the account books of the Venetian merchants and to study the method of double entry bookkeeping in Venice. The bookkeeping system that Luca Pacioli has several distinct characteristics: 1. Pacioli wrote that there are three things needed by one who wished to carry on business diligently. The most important of these is cash or any other substantial power. The second is a good accountant and a sharp bookkeeper. The third is good order in order to arrange all business to debit and credit. 2. Pacioli explained the opening inventory, but he did not describe the closing inventory. 3. Pacioliââ¬â¢s account book system is three account books- that is, a day book. The day book is the first book, the journal is the second book and the ledger is the third book. Pacioli thought of the day book as the formal account book, because he wrote that the day book must be presented to a certain mercantile office. 4. All things pertaining to a transaction must be written in the day book, without omission. Pacioli wrote that no point must be omitted in the day book. 5. Pacioli described debit and credit- that is, ââ¬Å"perâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Aâ⬠in the journal, and ââ¬Å"die have reâ⬠in the ledger. However, any view of accounting history that begins with Luca Pacioliââ¬â¢s contributions will overlook a long evolution of accounting systems in ancient and medieval times. In attempting to explain why double entry bookkeeping developed in 15th century Italy instead of ancient Greece or Rome, accounting scholar A. C. Littleton describes seven ââ¬Å"key ingredientsâ⬠which led to its creation. -Private Property: The power to change ownership, because bookkeeping is concerned with recording the facts about property rights. -Capital: Wealth productively employed, because otherwise commerce would be trivial and credit would not exist. -Commerce: The interchange of goods on a widespread level, because purely local trading in small volume would not create the sort of press of business needed to spur the creation of an organized system to replace the existing hodgepodge of record-keeping. -Credit: The present use of future goods, because there would have been little impetus to record transactions completed on the spot. ââ¬â Writing: A mechanism for making a permanent record in a common language, given the limits of human memory. ââ¬â Money: The ââ¬Å"common denominatorâ⬠for exchange, since there is no need for bookkeeping except as it reduces transactions to a set of monetary values. ââ¬â Arithmetic: A method of computing the monetary details of the deal. Many of these factors did not exist in ancient times, but, until the Middle Ages, they were not found together in a form and strength necessary to push man to the innovation of double entry. Writing, for example, is as old as civilization itself, but arithmetic- the systematic manipulation of number symbols- was really not a tool possessed by the ancients. Rather, the persistent use of Roman numerals for financial transactions long after the introduction of Arabic numeration appears to have constrained the earlier creation of double-entry systems.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Personal Statement: Who Am I?
Olivia in the dictionary, and you might find; noun, a female given name. From the Latin word olive. But this name doesn't define me. I could also tell you all the things I do; school, yearbook, HOSE President & Treasurer, but those don't define me either. I ask myself simple questions to find out who I really Am I the leader of a crowd, or a background follower? Do I direct groups or do I get directed? Am I the thinker or do I let others think for me? Am I part of the in- rood, or am I an outsider looking in?Who truly am l? To find the answer I look deep inside myself and discovered the truth. I am a uniquely defined Individual. I don't go to parties every weekend nor do I consider myself as weak minded. I am simply neutral in the world. I have friends of both sides of the spectrum and I feel free to talk to whomever I want regardless of what others around me think. I am bossy, and I personally hate people telling me what to do, I am a natural fighter. I fight for what I think Is rig ht, some may call me obelisks, but I keep the respect between adults and myself.The activities I listed above Just show that I am a hardworking-dedicated individual who doesn't quit at the first sign of trouble. I don't let the teacher who constantly looses my homework get me down; I Just work extra hard and redo all the work required of me. I am simply Olivia, and no one can take that away. People may tear me down emotionally but mentally I am stronger than anyone can Imagine. I am the girl defined by no one but her own standards, standards that continue to grow thicker every day.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Treating Animals with the Same Respect as Humans
Treating animals with the same respect as humans In 2012 there were 35 000 animal cruelty cases reported in the media all over the world. What is more, there are many atrocious videos posted on the internet in which animals are being ill-treated or killed. Statistically, one fifth of all domestic animals are not well treated. These facts arouse the question: ââ¬ËShould animals be treated with the same respect as humans? ââ¬â¢. In spite of the fact that animals are not conscious thinking creatures, they should be treated as humans because they are biologically similar to us and they are our companions.First and foremost, animals are biologically similar to humans. Their genetic code is similar to ours because it is made of the same nucleotides that encode amino acids. DNA is the carrier of genetic information in which our behaviour, appearance and genetic predispositions are encoded. Human and animalsââ¬â¢ structure of DNA is almost the same. The best example is the DNA of th e great apes which is in 95 percent similar to the human. Even though many people can say that animals do not feel anything, animals are able to feel pain, happiness or anger owing to the developed nervous system.The typical examples of that are a dog which howls when it feels pain and a cat which purrs when it is being stroked. Many experiments were held in which e. g. chimpanzees were learnt how to count fruits shown on the screen and with the right answer they were getting a reward, and they were able to learn it which is the clear proof that they are able to learn certain conducts in the course of time. Furthermore, many species of animals are human companions. Choicely trained dogs are used to help blind people function in the world. Jack is one of the many people who without his dog would only have to stay at home and be dependent on his family.However, it is not the life that those people want to live and dogs are the unbeatable mean of helping them in their day-to-day activi ties. Secondly, enormously keen sense of smell that sniffer dogs have is most useful in rescuing people who have been trapped under the rubble because they can smell the scent of human in the places where the sight of rescue team is limited. Cats or hamsters are bred because of the very simple reason ââ¬â they are ideal for children. Most of them are tame and they like being stroked. On the other hand, opponents say that animals should not be treated as humans because they are not conscious thinking creatures.The only way of communication between them is using primitive codes, not developed language e. g. bees are dancing in order to communicate something to others or elephants are making sounds that are not audible for humans. What is more, these codes are only used by them in order to survive their assemblage. All in all, no matter what opponents may say, animals should be treated with the same respect as humans. They are biologically similar to humans at the DNA level and the y are perfect human companions used in order to help people and beguile their free time. They should not be treated as if they did not feel anything.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Global warming essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Global warming - Essay Example Since 1980, there has been a massive change in global average temperatures and this has certainly risen significantly within the last century. The core reason behind such indefinite rise in temperature has been caused due to the constant increase in greenhouse gas emissions which has been produced due to various human activities. As a matter of fact, most scientists have agreed on the fact that the atmosphere of the planetââ¬â¢s temperature has risen approximately by 0.7 degree Celsius since 1980 and it there is a threat that it may even continue to increase at this astounding rate in the near future. According to many scientists and researchers, 1990 has been recorded as the hottest ever year in the 20th century. Apart from that, the years 1991, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1989 have been recorded as some of the warmest years in the 20th century. As a consequence, the constant rise in temperature has also been felt all across the globe. Reportedly, temperature of the earth may rise from a reported 1.6à °C to 5.9à °C within the next century (Hughes, pp. 56-61). A huge increase in the quantity of greenhouse gases definitely leads to an increase of global warming in the atmosphere. The increase in greenhouse gases leads to an increase in CO2 emission, which is proposed to be the single largest contributor for global warming because it has the largest share among green house gases within the atmosphere (Schneider, pp. 23-29). However, there are ways through which this issue can be mitigated. A good way to solve this problem is forestation. Plantation of trees can help in restoring the balance which was disturbed by greenhouse gases. The utilization of vehicles which are fuel-efficient and which have lower C02 emissions of dangerous gases can be used to control this global issue. There have been growing concerns regarding CO2 emissions and a massive increase in global temperatures have
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Developing nations' (Brazil) specific challenges and triumphs in the Research Paper
Developing nations' (Brazil) specific challenges and triumphs in the face of rapid economic change and growth - Research Paper Example This paper focuses on Brazil, one of the developing countries, that is growing at a rapid speed and is intensely getting affected by globalization (Schirm, n. d.). Globalization and Economic Expansion: After globalization Brazil is undergoing many of the economic changes. Its net amount of business with the rest of the world has increased significantly after globalization. The country is now experiencing large volume of flows of economic resources (form human capital to natural and physical capital). The volume of trade is significantly increasing overtime (Schirm, n.d.). The close association of economic expansion and globalization is also true in case of Brazil. Due to economic expansion (the effect), after globalization (the cause), Brazilââ¬â¢s economy is experiencing much higher level output as well as much higher rate of growth. Since the level of trade is one of the most important measurements of judging whether an economy is expanding, it can easily be said that over the l ast twenty years Brazil is going through the take-stage. These economic factors are affecting the countryââ¬â¢s social and cultural aspects also (Tucker, 2008, p. 408). Both these aspects together are creating rapid economic growth throughout the world and these are significantly affecting the world economies. ... After following a method of import substitution and separation or a considerable period of time Brazil entered the global scenario. Fernando Collor was the first voted president of Brazil in 1960 to initiate an impression of stabilizing currency, lower tariffs and destabilize the public administration via budget cuts. This marked the beginning for Brazil of opening up into the world economy (Fishlow, 2000). Globalization and Brazil: Due to the occurrence of globalization the developing nations, such as Brazil, are experiencing rapid changes in their economic, social and general lives. Brazilââ¬â¢s economy has largely been changed after globalization. Its economy is now hugely dependent upon the world economy. Brazilââ¬â¢s overall income level or GDP is much higher now. This economy is much more open. This openness ensures the high income level. Not only that, the rate of growth of Brazilââ¬â¢s economy is much higher now. The economy is experiencing every bit of the progress of the global economy. The level of trading, i.e. the volume of exports and imports are growing in number. The infrastructural improvements are considered as one of the measurements of impact of globalization, then it can easily be said that this impact has been very positive on Brazilââ¬â¢s economic structure. It is quite clear that like all other developing nations Brazil has properly used the benefits of globalization. It is now a globally recognized economy in terms of the ranges of exports and imports and also in terms of the level of income and the rate of growth of income (Globalization and Emerging Economies, 2009). Economic expansion and Brazil: The financial system of Brazil is budding fast. After liberalization of the economy, it is experiencing significant growth path in terms of
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Assignment 1. Apex Training Company Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Assignment 1. Apex Training Company - Coursework Example Thirdly, formation of a sole-proprietorship firm helped Martha to save taxes related to business and professional revenues. Fourthly, setting up a sole-proprietorship business helped Martha gain on profits and revenue solely. She was not obliged here to share the revenues and profits earned with other business partners (Madura 160). Concerns about Sole-proprietorship Sole-proprietorship business, although it does have the above advantages, also has certain grave shortcomings, for which Marthaââ¬â¢s accountant related his concerns. The salient disadvantages or shortcomings emanating from sole-proprietorship business can be underlined as follows. Firstly, it would be difficult for Martha, operating as a sole proprietor, to obtain loans from banks and financial institutions. Thus continual stress is imposed on personal finances of the sole proprietor. Moreover, the accountant was further concerned wit that the corporate investors tend to abstain from investing in sole-proprietorship firms owing to a greater fear of loss than in a partnership or other limited liability ventures. Thirdly, the clause of taking decisions in an autonomous fashion by the sole proprietor, though acting as an encouraging factor, can happen to create separate risks owing to possibility of different emergencies. Fourthly, the accountant was also concerned that running a sole-proprietorship firm, though encouraging, invites a large number of uncertainties owing to the possibility of an accident happening to the sole proprietor. At that time it would become difficult to carry on the business operations of the firm in an effective fashion (Williams and Murray 45). Advantages and Disadvantages of Partnership and LLC form of Business Formation of partnership form of business would relate the following advantages for Martha. Firstly, partnerships, being based on the mutual understanding of two or more people, are easy to form and are also supported by state legislation. Secondly, unlike sole-p roprietorship, the partnership form of business has the applicability for gaining loans from financial corporations. Thirdly, the business being formed with the help of two or more people would help Martha in gaining due help pertaining to business and operational expertise. Fourthly, the operation of the firm based on the decision of two or more members would help the business operate flexibly in changing external conditions. Fifthly, partnership form of business is exempted from income tax. The only tax levied is on the personal income of the partnership members. However, the partnership form of business also suffers from certain pitfalls like it makes the individual members liable for the total debt and malpractices irrespective of the conduct. Secondly, loss of mutual consent leads to conflicts among the members. Thirdly, profit sharing in partnership is a difficult affair owing to difference in time and capital rendered. Finally, calculation of a share of a member during his or her exit is a tedious affair in partnership business (Gitman and McDaniel 103-104). Again formation of a Limited Liability Company or LLC would help Martha in defining the limit of liability of the different members in the firm thus reducing the threat of bearing total losses. Secondly, a LLC company has the potential to perpetually exist unlike a partnership or
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Literature Review - How Sustainability Strategies can be measured A
- How Sustainability Strategies can be measured A of GRI and RepRisk - Literature review Example on what companies across the globe can do to attain sustainability and the important role that sustainability plays for them in their daily corporate management tasks. This review therefore looks into the definition of sustainability as well as the strategies that come with sustainability practices. Lastly, there is a focus on sustainability and trust and why it is important that stakeholders have sufficient trust in companies. Two major theoretical approaches to the definition of sustainability were identified in the extant literature. The first of these had to do with the view of sustainability from the perspective of efficiency, where companies are expected to show maximum expectation in their approach to social, economic and environmental utilisation of resources (Adams and Geoffrey, 2008). Those who argue for efficiency have generally debated that companies should be able to take the minimal level of social, economic and environmental resources and turn this into a viable end product that benefits an ordinary person in the community (Nidumolu, Prahalad and Rangaswami, 2009). This means that such theorists believe that where there is the excessive use of resource, this can result in waste. There is a second school of thought that focuses on sufficiency perspective, arguing that sustainability should be a framework of how well a company can measure what is sufficient for its need in the production of so cial, economic and environmental outcomes (Sparkes and Cowton, 2013). This means that the issue of quantity should only be factor when resources used are seen to be resulting in waste. Both definitions admonish sustainability to be a three-tier concept having components of economic, social and environmental outcomes. The first school of thought would however be noted to have failed to appreciate the fact that quantity is always relative to an expected outcome (Szejnwald, de Jong and Levy, 2009). In this end, the second school of thought on sufficiency is adopted
Monday, September 9, 2019
Noise at workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Noise at workplace - Essay Example People play music in high volume and dance whether one is sitting at concerts or in a party or at homes. Most of the people are exposed to high pitch of music without any concern that it may cause detrimental effects to their hearing ability. Manufacturing unit is one of the worst places where usually one exposes to noise for quite a long period ââ¬â mostly all eight hours of the shift. That noise is torturous and debilitating for the health of workers. Noise is measured in decibels and often it is found at a very high level exceeding 85 dBAââ¬â the threshold limit prescribed by OSHA. Manufacturing units particularly process and chemical industries where steam is used in the process has its own typical noise emanating without any break. Tools and tackles continue to throw varied and shrill noise that not only affects hearing but mental health too. Drivers who drive heavy trucks and huge trolleys to transport goods from one place to another are continuously exposed to the engine noise. That noise is often found to be at high levels and damages the hearing in the long run. At work places, it is recommended to use ear muffs or earplugs. Ear muffs cover entire outer ear blocking entire ear canal. Earplugs fit into the outer ear canal. They are easily available in variety of shapes and sizes at local pharmacies to fit into the ears of each
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