Democracy Is the Best Form of Government

Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.The term originates from the Greek (demokratia) â€Å"rule of the people†,[1] which was coined from (demos) â€Å"people† and (kratos) â€Å"power† in the 5th century BCE to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens; the term is an antonym to â€Å"rule of an elite. † The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French and Middle Latin equivalents.A democratic government contrasts to forms of government where power is either held by one, as in a monarchy, or where power is h eld by a small number of individuals, as in an oligarchy. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy,[2] are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic, oligarchic, and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution. 3] Several variants of democracy exist, but there are two basic forms, both of which concern how the whole body of eligible citizens executes its will. One form of democracy is direct democracy, in which eligible citizens have direct and active participation in the decision making of the government. In most modern democracies, the whole body of eligible citizens remain the sovereign power but political power is exercised indirectly through elected representatives; this is called representative democracy.The concept of representative democracy arose largely from ideas and institutions that developed during the European Middle Ages, the Age of Enlightenment, and the American and French Revolutions Definition While there is no universally accepted definition of â€Å"democracy,†[5] equality and freedom have both been identified as important characteristics of democracy since ancient times. [6] These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes.For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has equal weight, no unreasonable restrictions can apply to anyone seeking to become a representative, and the freedom of its eligible citizens is secured by legitimized rights and liberties which are generally protected by a constitution. [7][8] One theory holds that democracy requires three fundamental principles: 1) upward control, i. e. sovereignty residing at the lowest levels of authority, 2) political equality, and 3) social norms by which individuals and institutions only consider acceptable acts that reflect the first two principles of upward control and political equality. 9] The term â€Å"democracy† is sometimes used as shorthand for liberal democracy, which is a variant of representative democracy that may include elements such as political pluralism; equality before the law; the right to petition elected officials for redress of grievances; due process; civil liberties; human rights; and elements of civil society outside the government. [citation needed] In the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute, but in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the dominant principle is that of parliamentary sovereignty (while maintaining judicial independence). citation needed] In other cases, â€Å"democracy† is used to mean direct democracy. Though the term â€Å"democracy† is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are applicable to private orga nizations. Majority rule is often listed as a characteristic of democracy. [by whom? ] Hence, democracy allows for political minorities to be oppressed by the â€Å"tyranny of the majority† in the absence of legal protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of an â€Å"ideal† representative democracy is competitive elections that are fair both substantively[10] and procedurally. 11] Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are considered to be essential rights that allow citizens to be adequately informed and able to vote according to their own interests. [12][13] It has also been suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of eligible voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. [14] With its emphasis on notions of social contract and the collective will of the eligible voters, democracy can also be characterized as a form of political collectivism because it is d efined s a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. [15] While democracy is often equated with the republican form of government, the term â€Å"republic† classically has encompassed both democracies and aristocracies. Democracy is the best form of government. Yes because†¦ Freedom Democratic states nearly always have freer people than autocratic states. They obviously have the right to vote for their government so by extension deciding the policy of their nation and what their nation should be like.They have more freedom of speech and expression than in autocracies. In particular they are free to criticise their own government. Represents the people The biggest virtue of Democracy is that it is government by the people for the people. The government represents the views of the people who elect them and can throw them out if the government does things that the people do not like. Unlike other forms of g overnment democracy is about the little man, everyone rather than the elite that are often disconnected from how everyone else lives their lives.Better governance due to transparency Democracy is as much about having checks and balances to the executive and having transparency of decision-making as it is about elections and the populace throwing governments out of power. In a democracy the parliament, the media and sometimes the judiciary all keep an eye on the executive and what is being done with the people’s money. They are therefore able to see if the executive is doing things that are detrimental to the country, are immoral, or even illegal. This can then be brought to a halt.Even where such actions are not visible on the surface there are separate institutions that have the power to investigate the executive and watch any ‘secret’ deals or actions that are going on away from public view. Respect of Human Rights Democracy as much it is understood, is the gov ernment of the people, by the people and for the people. If democracy is put at it appropriate performance, then, all facet of human rights is respected. The citizens would have the rights to exercise freedom of speech concerning the well-being of the populace in areas of the economy, education, health, infrastructural development, etc.Promotes Human Rights As much as Democracy is understood, it is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The ability of the people to have a voice in the running of the State, in the economy, health, education, infrastructural development, etc creates a bit-balanced environment for governance to thrive; this can only be achieved in a democratic governance. This is not the case. The most developed and richest countries are all democracies.While they may well have been developing their democracies during their initial industrialisation democracy and the freedom it brings is increasingly necessary for economic growth once the country has moved to being mostly dependent upon services rather than manufacturing or natural resource exploitation for economic growth. Once this occurs then creativity becomes important and the freedoms associated with democracy are needed to foster this creativity that is needed for industries such as information technology, creative arts, research and development etc.Democracy is the best form of government. No because†¦ Freedom Except for the freedom to choose the government there is no reason why people cannot be as free under an autocracy as in a democracy. Represents the people Democracy does not do very well at representing the people. In first past the post systems a government may not even have the support of a majority of those who voted not even including that many will not have votes and many more will not have the vote. This means that it is often a small minority of the population who determines which party gets in to government.Once they are there they are rarely rep resentative of the people as they have several years to do what they like. Yes they need to think about re-election but that simply means they need to do more that the people like than the people dislike (or else have a good advertising campaign). Better governance due to transparency While this is mostly found in democracy it is not something that has to be exclusive to democracies. Autocracies can potentially be transparent and have checks and balances they however often do not simply because an autocracy often has the time, and the willingness to use force to prevent these from occurring.Economic growth Autocracies are better at big projects, they can get things done and as such they are likely to be better at creating economic growth if they have the will. In an autocracy there are not the avenues for dissent that can block building projects, the police or troops can be used to clear protests that in the west would slow down large infrastructure projects. As a consequence of thi s all the infrastructure that is needed to create a modern economy can be produced quicker and cheaper than would be the case in a democracy.Also the resource base of the country can be accessed faster (no pesky environmentalists preventing drilling and mining! ) and used more efficiently. Increasingly about money In some countries democracy seems to be increasingly about money. The U. S. is the obvious example where millions are spent on elections with big events and glitzy advertising campaigns. This is not what democracy should be about and it discourages other countries from moving along the path to democracy. Indeed it undermines the very idea of democracy. Democracy when money is involved to the extent that it is in the U. S. A. ecomes elitist and corporatist because only the elite and rich businessmen can afford to fund the campaigns for congress let alone for the presidency. The 2008 campaign for the White House cost $1. 6 billion and the whole 2008 election including senate and house of representatives races cost $5. 3 billion. Autocracies obviously avoid this immense expense by avoiding elections. Is democracy the best form of government? Disagree : By Richard What if someone was in power who cared about the people, stood for the people, was in touch with the people and was not corrupted by the power that Dictatorship brought him.Yes, it seems unlikely but what if? We could have the ability to do more, faster with less red tape, paperwork, and continual discussion (as with a dictatorship) coupled with the freedoms of democracy. The problem is the people always believe the mob (majority) to be right. The truth is people are easily manipulated when in a crowd or together as a majority on an issue. It takes but one person to convince 10 000 that his conviction is the right one. Nevermind what the minority of free thinkers, academics, intellectuals, or revolutionaries have to say or have warned against. Political Ideology is not the problem.Humans are. W e are self-righteous, greedy, self-serving, destructive, and worst of all manipulative. People always point me to the selfless acts of others they have witnessed in order to prove me wrong on my previous statement. But the fact is these selfless people are in the tiny minority, or as with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, already have 10 houses, 4 cars, 2 security guards and a 10 mil bank account. â€Å"Giving† to the poor doesn't detract from their riches as they resupply their wealth with shares bought and sold or actually working. Thus, they aren't losing wealth. They simply aren't gaining more.We need the minority just as much as we need the majority. That minority of free thinkers, academics, intellectuals, and revolutionaries are the ones that changed the world. They brought us medicine, computers, a better understanding of science and space, but most important of all a curiosity for knowledge. Democracy should protect the rights of the minority more often than it does. We r ely too much on what the mob thinks, when in actual fact they don't think. They just regurgitate the drivel fed to them by some sob who knows how to manipulate the mob for his own profit. And that is the biggest problem facing democracy.How do you overcome the this human condition where if we are in large groups, emotion replaces logical thought? Disagree : By Prashanth I think there are better forms of government other than democracy. Dictatorship is not completely bad neither is democracy completely good. Consider this form of government– Instead of having bulky political parties why not have leaders of parties etc stand as candidates for the post of President/Prime Minister. The people can directly vote for them. Better still we could invite applications for this post from the citizens. Based on screening them for leadership track record,no criminal cases etc. e could select the top 5 or 10 most eligible candidates. People can select the candidate who is most popular/likab le for 5 years. He could then select experts from different sectors as ministers. He could hand pick distinguished people from different sectors as expert advisory group who could debate/discuss proposed laws. He can hand pick worthy local people for mayor position in cities/villages who should interact directly with people and pass immediate orders to solve their problems. He should have a citizens forum where people directly give ideas to the Prime Minister/President.The judiciary to oversee the constitutional validity of laws passed,Election Commission,Constitution and an ombudsman to check corruption etc all of them will be there. This form of government will cut flab,be efficient and agile. It will eliminate unworthy but popular people from getting elected. Also the people debating will be experts in their field. There is greater likelihood of better decisions. As it is today the party leaders only call the shots. Then why not have worthy leaders directly elected by the people. These leaders will keep a balance between expert opinion,constitutional provisions and public opinion.

Evaluation of Leadership Development Plan of Maersk Oil in Qatar

1.0 Introduction One of the biggest challenges of the modern business era is the retention of a talented and skilled workforce for business organizations, and the development of future leaders within a company. Business organizations are required to employ a dynamic strategy to respond to the needs and aspirations of their workforce. A smart, well-designed employee development program can benefit a business organization to great extent in this regard and shape the future of the company by individually shaping the leaders of the future. Prior research indicates that employee development program is linked to higher levels of performance and output. It can create a reservoir of knowledge that can enable business organizations to do better than their competitors. The most important development aspect of any employee is training them in leadership skills which can benefit the business as a whole. Transformational Leadership is a framework which, according to Barling, Christie and Hoption, promotes the qua lities of â€Å"idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration† (reference). By displaying motivational qualities and attitudes a leader can improve the efficiency, proficiency and well-being of employees. The aim of the proposed dissertation would be to investigate employees’ leadership development plan at ‘Maersk Oil’, particularly in reference to transformational leadership training. Maersk Oil has been operating in Qatar since the 1990s as a major oil company. It works on the Al-Shaheen Field which produces significant amount of petroleum. The company’s current production level stands at 300,000 barrels of oil per day. As a result of that, Al-Shaheen Field is predicted to be the biggest contributor to oil production in Qatar, making the company significant for the Oil industry and the overall economy of the country. Maersk Oil is a multinational company which is part of A.P. Moller â€⠀œ Maersk Group, operating in various parts of the world. Like any major multinational firm, Maersk Oil Qatar has a diverse workforce belonging to various nationalities (Maersk Oil, 2012). The diverse workforce present in the organization needs to be managed in an efficient and effective manner. The dissertation will try to identify the importance of a leadership development plan, investigate the current practices of the company, evaluate its effectiveness, and identify common obstacles for employee’s leadership development plan at the company. The dissertation will also propose some recommendations based on its findings for creating a viable improvement to the leadership development program. The dissertation will be divided into five chapters. The first chapter will be comprised of the introduction, overview of the research, background, and research objectives. The second chapter will detail the research methodology. The third chapter will present a literature review and the oretical background of the research. Fourth chapter will present the findings and analyze the data. Finally, chapter five will present the results and conclusions of the research. 1.1 Research Objectives Investigate to what extent does the company care for its employees through its leadership development plan Identify the significance of employees leadership development plan Investigate practices of employees leadership development plan Evaluate the effectiveness of employees leadership development Identify most common barriers for employees leadership development plan 1.2 Research Questions What is the employees’ attitude towards the company regarding its transformational leadership development program? Is transformational leadership more efficient than other forms of leadership? How does the transformational leadership benefit the objectives and goals of the company? What is the significance of the transformational leadership development plan for both the company and its employees? To what extent do the employees consider the development plan at the company efficient? What are the common barriers associated with the transformational leadership development plan at the company ? 1.3 Rationale for the Current Research Although there is a large array of literature on human resource development, practitioners often come under criticism for doing very little to evaluate the learning and development solutions that have been designed to deliver whereby significant and often scarce resources are allocated blindly in development plans that are considered to be effective (Harisson, 2005). When undergoing financial stress, organizations often downsize human resource development budgets. Human resource development personnel undergo tight scrutiny in justifying their expenditures and are required to prove the effectiveness of their employee development plans. Thus evaluation of employee leadership development plan is a viable solution. The importance of evaluation in further signified as the learning and development theory and practices in the modern day is undergoing a considerable change in order to keep up with new circumstantial requirements. In fact, one of the major changes occurring nowadays and in th e upcoming years is the organizational changes driven by ‘higher integration between coaching, organisational development (OD) and performance management’ (CIPD survey, 2010: pg.6). Similarly Sloman (2007) made several important propositions regarding the ongoing change in the employee development practices and approaches (see appendix 1). The shift in the learning and development approach and employee development practices signifies the importance of evaluating the current practices of an organization to see whether they are abreast with the prevailing best practices. Additionally, employee development approaches and practices of the oil and gas rich Middle Eastern countries and the Gulf Nations is an under-researched area in HRM literature. Moreover, the available literature regarding employee development practices generalizes the Middle East and the Arab World rather than addressing individual countries or companies (Harry, 2007). The existing gap in the literature p ays way for the current proposed study to evaluate the leadership development plan at Maesrk Oil in Qatar. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Definition of employee leadership development Employee development plans have been defined as a set of planned efforts by an organization which facilitates the learning and acquaintance of knowledge, specific skills and behaviors for its employees; all of which are essential for them to be successful in their current jobs (Goldstein, 1993). Dotta (2009) defines it as a â€Å"sequence of concurrent activities, initiatives and programs that an organization is involved with to maintain, improve and enhance the skills, capabilities and performance levels of its workforce and other staff members†. Employee development plan encapsulates various individual development plans. A leadership development plan goes one step further than this: as well as providing all of the support listed above the employee is also being trained for a management role through the subtle development of the most desirable qualities. According to Department of Defense of USA (2006), an individual employee development plan is â€Å"a tailored written plan developed by the supervisor and employee outlining the employee’s developmental objectives and the developmental activity for achieving these objectives. The purpose of an employee development plan is to increase the current proficiency, development, and progression of the employee through a systematic development plan†. The personal progression of an employee can only be realized if they have been instructed in the transformational leadership qualities which will optimize the business as a whole. Based on aforementioned definitions, several important points can be stated: Employees’ development plan is aimed at enhancing the capabilities and competencies of an organization’s workforce. Employees’ development plan is also crucial for the progression of a career path. Through leadership development it is common for organizations to train and develop their employees to occupy critical positions in future. A transformational leadership development pro gram helps employees to understand the key roles of leadership and develop qualities which will make them an inspirational motivator to their workforce. 2.2 Significance of transformational leadership development In today’s business environment, which is characterized as multi-faced, highly complex, extremely competitive, and dynamic, organizations are required to be very flexible and adaptable in order to survive and succeed. Employee development, a practice that seeks to assist organizations in meeting their business goals through continuous learning and development (Harisson, 2009) is a critical element for achieving that flexibility and adaptability. So much that often human resource development personnel are qualified as ‘agents of change’ (Harisson, 2009). It is only through continuous, effective learning and development of employees that modern day organizations can acquire the essential competencies to adapt to a new conjuncture. Transformational leadership is significant as it not only benefits the leader in question, but also the morale of the employees. Candidates for the development program will be taught the traditional methods of leadership, such as how to ta ke responsibility and effectively manage a team, while also being taught to be motivational, inspirational and influential among their colleagues (Barling, Christie and Hoption). 2.3 Best Practices in Employee Development Plan Numerous studies have recommended several successful approaches towards employee development programs. There is a general consensus among researchers regarding the foremost need for an organization to conduct an analysis of its existing needs and requirements (Jacobs and Jones, 1995; Clegg et al, 2005). According to Jacobs, (1995) an employee development can be rendered meaningless if it does not respond to the organizational needs. Existing needs and requirements can be identified through an effective market analysis, analysis of existing and future labor trends. (Clegg et al, 2005). Since every organization needs to secure its’ future in the business industry it stands to reason that leadership is a high priority in the organizations needs, and transformational leadership can arguably give the best opportunity for employees to grow and develop along with the requirements of the company. Apart from the needs’ assessment, several best practices have been identified by h uman resource practitioners and researchers. A survey of best practices of 71 companies practicing employee development activities identified three underlying factors important for an effective employee development plan. These are: (1) individual development plans should be developed for key and high potential employees with the ability to become future leaders (2) the individual development plans and practices should be strictly aligned with organizational strategies and goals, with the future of the company in mind and (3) the entire workforce should be facilitated for its progression through the developmental process (Reynolds, 2005). 3.0 Research Methods and Approach 3.1 Research Philosophy Identifying a research philosophy is imperative for designing a viable research method as it determines the manner in which information regarding a research problem/question is collected, evaluated and applied. Researcher have identified mainly three research philosophies namely positivist and interpretivist and realist (Galliers, 1991). A positivist research philosophy perceives reality as a constant phenomenon; something that can be perceived objectively (Levin, 1988). It is a stance of a natural scientist. According to Hirschheim (1985 p.33), â€Å"positivism has a long and rich historical tradition. It is so embedded in our society that knowledge claims not grounded in positivist thoughts are simply dismissed as ascientific and therefore invalid†. Interpretivism, on the other hand, seeks to understand reality from a subjective perception in order to make sense of motives, actions and intentions of those that they study. They emphasize the social construct of the reality (H usserl, 1965). Interpretivists contend that reality and its perceptions can be better understood by placing people in their social contexts (Hussey and Hussey, 1997). Realists believe that the existence of reality is independent of human thoughts, emotions and beliefs. The research philosophy underpinning the proposed research is interpretivism. The research aims to evaluate the employee leadership development plan of Maersk Oil through the perceptions, attitudes and beliefs of its employees, managers, and executives; thus it aims to gain subjective insights for evaluation. 3.2 Research Approach and Strategy A research approach can be either deductive or inductive. The premise of a deductive approach is to test a hypothesis, explain casual relationships and enable generalization of a theory. On the other hand, inductive approach focuses upon building a theory by understanding a phenomenon seeking an answer for a question. The approach adopted for the proposed research is inductive, as this study will look to identify the weaknesses or strengths or the current employee development plan at Maersk Oil Qatar, and answer several proposed questions pertaining to its evaluation. The research strategy for this study will be exploratory as it will aim at providing insights and understanding of the nature of the phenomenon under study in new light. Within the exploratory approach, this study will utilize both qualitative and quantitative data. On one hand, statistical analysis will carried out for the survey responses which will be distributed among the employees of a company, whilst interviews wi ll be conducted with some senior officials and employees in order to gain insights regarding the evaluation of the employee development program. It will complement the understanding gained through the data analysis results. 3.3 Data Collection According to Yin (1994), there are five ways of collecting data; these are â€Å"experimental, surveys, archival analysis, history, and case studies†. This research will utilize a survey strategy. According to Kelley et. al, (2003) â€Å"the survey strategy refers to the selection of a relatively large sample of people from a pre-determined population, followed by the collection of data from those individuals. The researcher therefore uses information from a sample of individuals to make some inference about the wider population†. For the purpose of evaluating the employee leadership development plan, a questionnaire will be prepared, reviewed, and distributed to a random sample of Maersk Oil Qatar employees and people in leadership roles. Survey strategy will allow the researcher to collect a large amount of data within in short time with minimum costs and efforts (Naresh et.al, 2003). Interviews, the qualitative form of collecting data within survey method will be use d concurrently. Semi-structured interviews will be designed and conducted of several senior officials at the company. References CIPD (2010), ‘Annual Survey Report : Learning and Talent Development’, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, {online} http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/BC060DD1-EEA7-4929-9142-1AD7333F95E7/0/5215_Learning_talent_development_survey_report.pdf (cited on 13th September, 2012) Clegg ,S. et all, 2005: Managing Organizations: An introduction to Theory and Practice. Sage Cohen N., 2002?Pressure on AP Moller to Be Open,† Australasian Business Intelligence, April 23, Department of Defense of USA (2006) The individual development. {online} http://www.usuhs.mil/chr/idp.pdf (cited on 13th September, 2012) Dotta, P.(2009) ‘What Is an Employee Development Plan?’ {online}: http://www.ehow.com/about_5161579_employee-development-plan.html (cited on 13th September, 2012) Goldstein I. L., 1993 â€Å"Training in Organizations† (3rd Ed.) Pacific Grove, California: Books Cole Harrison, R. (2005) Learning and development. 4th ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Harrison, R. (2009) Learning and development. 5th ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development . Harry. W (2007) Employment Creation and Localization. The crucial human resource issue for GCC. Int Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol. 18, no.1, pp 132-146. Husserl, E. (1965), Phenomenology and the crisis of philosophy, New York: Harper Torchbooks. Hussey, J. & Hussey, R. (1997), Business Research: A practical guide for undergraduate and post-graduate students, London: MacMillan Press Ltd Jacob, R L and Jones, M J. (1995) Structures on Job Training- Unleashing Expertise in the Work Place. San Francisco. Berrett Koehler. Kelley, K., Clark, B., Brown, V., and Sitzia, J (2003) Good practice in the conduct and reporting of survey research. Int. Journal for Quality in Health Care. Volume 15, Issue 3 Pp. 261-266. Levin, D. M. (1988). The opening of vision: Nihilism and the postmodern situation. London: Routledge. LSA Global (2008) ‘Top 10 training best practices for effective learning and development programs’. {online} http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?do cid=375846 (cited on 13th September, 2012) Maersk Oil (2012) ‘About Us’ {online} http://www.maerskoil.com/ABOUTUS/Pages/AboutUs.aspx (cited on 13th September, 2012) Naresh,M. et.al.,(2003) Methodological issues in cross-cultural marketing research. International Marketing Review. 13 (5) 7-43 Reynolds, S.(2005) Training and development managers share best practices and courseware through LearnShare. Toledo Business Journal. 5(2) 155-163. Sloman, M. (2007) ‘The changing world of the trainer: emerging good practice’, Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Yin, R. K. (1994) Case Study Research. Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

Aplikasi Endnote

Contoh Aplikasi Software EndNotes Researches on value relevance of accounting information in Indonesia an d other developing countries generally suggested that accounting numbers are relevant to measure firm value (1, one author of journal). However, value relevance of accounting information in Asian countries are also found to fluctuate over time as a result of financial crisis, negative earnings, accounting scandals and violation of regulations in the capital market. These events have negatively affected value relevance of accounting information.Researches on value relevance of accounting information have continued to develop following such changes (2, three authors of journal) investigate the value relevance of book value and earnings between two different financial reporting regimes i. e. during MASB and FRS period in Malaysia. The result of the study suggests that book values are value relevant under both regimes but earnings are value relevant only during the MASB time period. That means that the change in financial reporting regime also affects significantly the value relevance of book value and but not earnings.Another study which investigates the value relevance between aggregated and disaggregated book value and earnings among Malaysian high-tech firms is performed by (3, three authors = 2). The result of the study shows that the explanatory power of both book value and earnings are fluctuating, book value is in a decreasing trend, while earnings show an increasing trend. In addition, the result also suggests that disaggregated book value and earnings could explain the variation in market value better than aggregated book value and earnings.The relationship between earnings management and value relevance of accounting information can also be explained through earnings quality. (4, two authors of book) argue that earnings management is associated to earnings quality. (5, single author of journal) also states that highly managed earnings have low qualit y. It means that earnings management actions will reduce earnings quality i. e. reliability of earnings. The relevance of accounting information in valuation of a firm can be affected by market’s insight of the reliability of the information (6, four authors of book series).This means earnings management actions negatively affect value relevance of earnings. Most of the studies on the relationship between earnings management and value relevance of accounting information are conducted in the West or developed countries. These studies attempted to examine earnings management using discretionary accruals (7, three authors of journal; 8, two author of journals; 9, single author of journal). Governance system plays an important role in the financial reporting process.As suggested by prior researches, rules and regulations formulated to protect investors are key institutional factors affecting the corporate policy choices (10, three authors of conference proceding; 11, two authors of journal). The researchers find that the protection level performed by institutions are associated with the usefulness of accrual-based accounting information. The level of protection imposed by the capital market supervisory agency plays a role in reducing the level of manipulation that can be conducted by managers and controlling shareholders through accruals transactions. Several international studies provide evidence on the association between earnings quality and the degree of protection to investors from the expropriation by controlling shareholders and managers. These studies assert that the characteristics of earnings are affected by the degree of investors’ protection (12, same aurhor with no 11 and 2). As an emerging capital market, many of the listed companies in Indonesia have evolved from the traditional family owned enterprises with highly concentrated ownership structure (13, single author of thesis).In the context where firms have a controlling block of shar es held by the major shareholders, the key agency problem is between the controlling (majority) and minority shareholders. The condition gives great opportunities for managers to engage in real earnings management especially in Indonesia. Under the condition of a highly concentrated ownership structure, it is argued that the controlling shareholders effectively possess greater control rights than the control rights provided through their voting shares as they are also involved in the management decisions (13, three authors of electronic article).Concentrated share ownership thus creates opportunities for controlling shareholders to expropriate the resources of an entity. Expropriation is a process of using one's control rights to maximize their welfare through the distribution of wealth from others to him (14, four authors of book series). Expropriation is one of the earnings management tactics conducted by management for the benefit of the controlling shareholders. Furthermore, (15 , same authors with no 14) state that the monitoring function will be hard if managers are part of the majority shareholders when their ownership increases to a certain level.If one’s voting shares have reached a certain threshold, then he/she can have a full control and tend to steer the company to accomplish his/her personal objectives (16, two authors of journal). In addition, it is also argued that to engage in expropriation in countries that adheres to the civil law is easier as compared to countries which practise common law legal system (17, three authors of journal; 18, two authors of journal).Under the Common Law system, accounting standards and policies are more stringent and protection of the rights of shareholders and creditors is greater with the implementation of various contract system (19, three authors of book series). It is perceived that a country like Indonesia which has its legal tradition originated from the civil law has relatively weaker development in its capital market and various financial institutions as compared to those countries which have legal environment rooted from the Common Law system.The evidence is consistent with study conducted by (20, same authors with no 19). On the contrary, The German’s companies with principle-based accounting standards would prefer to perform accrual earnings management because lenient standards still allow the conduct of accrual earnings management whichis less costly. The findings are in line with (21, same authors with no 17) which found that accounting standards which are more stringent (tighter) is able to reduce the practice of accrual earnings management, but triger real earnings management.

A Soldier's Story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Soldier's Story - Essay Example The story revolves around the lives of four Chinese women who were born in America while their own respective mothers had been born in feudal China. These women go on a quest to explore their past and try to understand it better and make their lives more meaningful and happy. "Saving Face" is a popular movie written and directed by Alice Wu. The genre of the movie revolves around romance and drama interspersed with comedy and has a very interesting tagline that says, "A romantic comedy about right, wrong and everything in between." It is a different kind of movie and not the run of the mill kind. The story is based upon lesbianism of Asian women who speak in Chinese language occasionally. It is a touching story that plays upon the emotions and feelings of its audience. 'A Soldier's Story' deals with ethical issues of race and class that existed in the USA over sixty years ago. The murdered victim was a Black and this case is investigated by another Black military lawyer who was sent from Washington. Captain Davenport Battles amidst prejudice and deceit while in charge of uncooperative Black troops. Investigations proved that the dead soldier was very unpopular. There are a lot of ups and downs in the movie involving issues of color, caste and background which adds spice to the situation, but inspite of the many negative forces acting against him, Captain Davenport pursues his mission of finding out the exact murderer of Sergeant Waters. The Joy Luck Club (1993) is a film that is deeply immersed in ethical issues of caste and class of the important characters that is shown against an American background. Four young Chinese women born in America face racial discrimination and therefore embark on an important search of their identity in order to give them a better understanding to analyze the strained and difficult relationships shared presently between the respective mothers and their daughters. The movie is infused with a lot of pain and emotion as the characters try to grapple with the own feelings by making sense of it. The eventful search that they undertake helps to guide these feelings and solve the many mysteries they had faced. The film is considered to be a Classic because the stories of each of these women are not only heartwarming but would also make the audience cry and laugh. "Saving Face" is a very popular film that reached a wider audience and even though the movie dealt with such an ethical and sensitive issue such as 'lesbianism' involving Asian women, yet it was very well appreciated by its audience. The story revolves around a brilliant surgeon Wil who is a Chinese American lesbian based in Manhattan. Wil is surprised by Ma who is a widow of 48 years, who gets banished from Flushing, Queens when her father found out that she was pregnant. The story of Ma touches the heart and personal life of Wil, who goes out of her way to get a suitable Chinese bachelor to marry Ma since only then she could return to her own country Flushing because of the promise made by her grandfather. According to me, the film that deals the best with ethical issues of race and segregation is "A Soldier's Story." The story that is narrated through

Philosophy Functionalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosophy Functionalism - Essay Example Its core idea is that mental states can be accounted for without taking into consideration the underlying physical medium (the neurons), but instead attending to higher-level functions such as beliefs, desires, and emotions. For (an avowedly simplistic) example, a functionalist theory might characterize pain as a state that tends to be caused by bodily injury, to produce the belief that something is wrong with the body and the desire to be out of that state, to produce anxiety, and, in the absence of any stronger, conflicting desires, to cause wincing or moaning. According to this theory, all and only creatures with internal states that meet these conditions, or play these roles, are capable of being in pain. Suppose that, in humans, there is some distinctive kind of neural activity (C-fiber stimulation, for example) that meets these conditions. If so, then according to this functionalist theory, humans can be in pain simply by undergoing C-fiber stimulation. But the theory permits creatures with very different physical constitutions to have mental states as well: if there are silicon-based states of hypothetical Martians or inorganic states of hypothetical androids that also meet these conditions, then these creatures, too, can be in pain. ... satisfy the descriptions - then it's also logically possible for non-physical states to play the relevant roles, and thus realize mental states, in some systems as well. So functionalism is compatible with the sort of dualism that takes mental states to cause, and be caused by, physical states. Still, though functionalism is officially neutral between materialism and dualism, it has been particularly attractive to materialists, since many materialists believe (Lewis, 1966) that it is overwhelmingly likely that any states capable of playing the roles in question will be physical states. If so, then functionalism can stand as a materialistic alternative to the Psycho-Physical Identity Thesis, the thesis that each type of mental state is identical with a particular type of neural state. This thesis, once considered the dominant materialistic theory of the mind, entails that no creatures with brains unlike ours can share our sensations, beliefs, and desires, no matter how similar their behavior and internal organization may be to our own. This is a consequence that many regard as implausible. Thus functionalism, with its claim that mental states can be multiply realized, is widely regarded as providing a more inclusive, less "(species-) chauvinistic" (Block, 1980) - and thus mo re plausible - theory that is (at least arguably) compatible with materialism. Within this broad characterization of functionalism, however, a number of distinctions can be made. Functionalism has three distinct sources. First, Putnam and Fodor saw mental states in terms of an empirical computational theory of the mind. Second, Smart's "topic neutral" analyses led Armstrong and Lewis to a functionalist analysis of mental concepts. Third, Wittgenstein's idea of meaning as use led to a version of

Personal Development As a Strategic Leader and Strategic Performance Essay

Personal Development As a Strategic Leader and Strategic Performance management - Essay Example It is an exercise in helping me hone my skills, boost my strengths and improve on my weaknesses. In creating this Personal Development Plan as a Strategic Leader (PDP), I shall follow assessment criteria as my outline so I am ensured that nothing will be missed. The Department of Transportation (DoT) in Abu Dhabi upholds lofty ideals in professionalism. It honors its commitment to serving the people by providing quality service in terms of transportation. Its vision is as follows: Streamline the Department of Transport: More efficient delivery to the public sector the services and processes and provision of greater transparency and accountability to all stakeholders. This is made possible through five key policy divisions. Such divisions will be responsible for policy and strategic planning, regulation and relevant programs in Aviation, Maritime, Public Transport, Roads Safety and Highways Management. It is the Chairman of the Department of Transport, assisted by an Undersecretary, who oversees the regulation and supervision of transport conducted by these divisions. Two departmental functons have been created for purposes of assisting the Chairman, namely an integrated planning and performance management function and an internal audit capability. Expand Etihad Airlines and the Abu Dhabi International Airport: In an effort to expand its customer base and promote Abu Dhabi as a tourist destination, the DoT strategizes plans of increasing the number of destinations of Etihad Airlines, Abu Dhabi’s official air transportation to significantly more destinations by the year 2018. Apart from this, plans for the improvement of the Abu Dhabi Airport are under way. -The requirements of DoT for leaders seem to be call for mature individuals who can handle the multiple tasks embedded in the position with efficiency and deliver a high quality of input

The City of Hong Kong Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The City of Hong Kong - Research Paper Example The city is surrounded by the South Sea of China on the south, west and east and borders Shenzhen city to the northern part over the river of Shenzhen. The 426 sq m. territory consists of Kowloon peninsula, New Territory and Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong’s land area is the 179th largest populated territory in the globe. Despite of being intensely urbanized, the city has tried to promote a green pollution free environment. Recent growing concern of public about the environment has prompted the harsh restriction of future land reclamation. The city’s environment has suffered from the increasing population as well as from the ever increasing rate of pollution (Goldcast, 167). Nearly about 80% of the smog of Hong Kong used to originate from several parts of Pearl River Delta. Population Density The population density of Hong Kong is 6782.92 as reported in the year 2010. Population density in Hong Kong is 6696.5. In terms of population, it is the largest city within China. In Hong Kong, urban agglomerations’ population of more than 1 million is 6982287.0. In terms of percentage, it is more than 100%. Raw Material, Principle Products and Industries The city is not enriched with raw materials. The territory has limited natural resources and little arable land. Therefore, the city used to import most of its raw materials and foods from other countries. The agricultural activity is not that much important to the economy of Hong Kong. The agricultural activity used to contribute just 0.1% of its total GDP. The city is the 11th major trading entity of World. Moreover, Hong Kong is world’s largest re-export sector. The city is the major and one of the leading producer and exporter of textiles, watches, toys, apparels, plastics and electrical appliances (Siu & Ku, 159). In Hong Kong, the major leading industries are financial services, Tourism, Logistics & Trading and professional & producer services. These industries are the driving force of the e conomic growth of the country under consideration. These specific industries used to provide impetus to growth of various sectors and help to generate employment. Competitive Advantage and Production of Goods The logistics and trading industries used to consolidate different production and economic activities. Moreover, it used to help the problem of unemployment. This particular industry currently has employed more than 770,000 employees. This industry significantly contributes to one quarter of the Chinese GDP. Due to the drastic change in the market demand, the trading industry is tending to provide highly value added trading and logistic services. Hong Kong is gradually developing into regional distribution centre for its highly valued products. This used to differ from the conventional role in the transporting elements such as finished and semi-finished goods. The city has superior control over the distribution system of superior valued goods. Moreover, the logistics industry o f Hong Kong has the potential to expand its regional services of trading and logistics. These are the competitive advantages of the Hong Kong trading that have strengthen the position of Hong Kong as the logistical hub. It has been discussed earlier that Hong Kong is not enriched highly with natural resources and raw materials. The city is famous for the apparel and textile goods, toys and electronic appliances. Currently the city has increased its import activities of these goods. It is

Economic of race and gender Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Economic of race and gender - Essay Example Question One Emergence of changing gender roles and family in the modern society and women are advancing in their career and taking even more challenging roles at work that were believed to be men oriented. One of the factors that have contributed a lot to the shift to the joint conjugal roles is the mobility with respect to work and career (Kirby, 54). Most of the families with one couple being challenged physically may have the man performing the housework and childcare tasks. This is because those who are disabled may not fully perform these tasks or even go to work hence the other partner will have no choice but to do these duties. However, in certain modern families, there are women going to work while the man remain in the homes to take care of the children and do the housework (Kirby, 55).. By default assumption some family set ups and communities believe that the women are supposed to perform the housework and take care of the children while the men are supposed to work and p rovide; food, shelter and clothing to the family (Blundell & McNeill, 65). Question Two Lack of employment in most developing countries is also a major contributor to the inequalities in the pay. Low economic growth rate accompanied by bad governance is the source of unemployment and low paid jobs in most African countries compared to Europe (Clegg 23). He also argues that there are so many people looking for few jobs and in some cases the jobs are not even there. Corruption which is rooted in these countries also denies the right persons of the opportunities in the public sector thereby leaving most skilled labor. Some of which are exported to other countries which have their own legislative restrictions and therefore they encounter discrimination in those jobs. Question Three Discrimination against the tribes and races also contributes to the differences in the pay even if two different people working in different nations or in the same nation have the same qualifications (Blau & Winkler, 243). It is common to find that international companies which have gone global in terms of their operations do not provide similar work conditions for their employees. You find that a marketing manager for the Coca-Cola Company is paid higher in the United States of America than in South Africa. Even though the differences may be attributed to by the kind of profits that is realized and the size of the market that one has to capture as a manager, the differences are relatively not realistic. The variation in the pay is seen across all the nations across the world. However, there is a pattern for the relatively low pay for women in all the nations. Question Four Family serves as an economic unit since it constitutes members who determine the highest level of satisfaction that they can derive from different activities. The family provides the education and other important services in the process of raising the members of the society. It is therefore noticeable that the family plays an important role in determining the structure of employment in the overall economy. Discrimination in the pay that begins from the family persists in the society. The traditional roles of women and other discrimination with respect to the education of

Management Control & Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management Control & Accounting - Essay Example The costing can be improved by taking a different approach such as activity-based costing. In activity based costing, activities regarding the factory overhead costs will be classified, and the costs will be broken down according to the level of activities. In this way, the cause and effect between the overhead items in the factory overhead schedule and the activities will be more established, resulting in a more accurate costing. 2. Athena Ltd is an engineering business doing work for its customers to their particular requirements and specifications. It determines the full cost of each job taking a job costing approach, accounting for overheads on a departmental basis. It bases its prices to customers on this full cost figure. The business has two departments: a machining department, where each job starts, and a fitting department, which completes all of the jobs. Machining department overheads are charged to jobs on a machine hour’s basis and those of the fitting department on a direct labour hour basis. The budgeted information for next year is as follows: a) Prepare a statement showing the budgeted overheads for next year, analysed between the two departments. This should be in the form of three columns: one for the total figure for each type of overhead and one column each for the two departments, where each type of overhead is analysed between the two departments. Each column should also show the total overhead for the year. Please use the template below. c) Athena Ltd has been asked by a customer to specify the price that it will charge for a particular job that will, if the job goes ahead, be undertaken early next year. The job is expected to use direct material costing Athena Ltd  £ 1200, to need 50 hours of machining time, 10 hours of Machine Department direct labour and 40 hours of Fitting Department direct labour. Athena Ltd charges a profit loading of 20% to the full cost of jobs to determine the selling

HRM INCIDENT 1 - Should He Be Fired Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HRM INCIDENT 1 - Should He Be Fired - Case Study Example There are certain situations that an employer needs critically to evaluate before deciding whether to fire or discipline an employee (Paetkau, 2007). Firing an employee means that an employee has to leave his or her job, while disciplining might mean suspending the employee with or without pay or resorting to corrective action based on the offence. Toni Berdit, area supervisor for Quick-Stop, a chain of convenience stores in Washington D.C was on his normal supervisory duty on one of the Sundays in the Center Street Store. According to the company’s policy, when the safe is being emptied, the manager has to be present, and the employee present has to place each $ 1000 in a brown bag and leave it on the floor next to the safe until the manager checks to be sure that the amount is accurate. That day Bill decided to save the supervisor’s time, as he was not there when the safe was being emptied; so he had counted the money before he arrived. The store got busy, and Bill accidentally mistook one of the moneybags for a bag that contained the customer’s groceries while packing, so he put the money in with the groceries. The supervisor arrived later on, and after noticing the money was missing, they began searching. Lucky enough the customer came back and handed the bag of money. Bill had violated the money-count ing procedure, so he was prior to losing his job. He complained to Toni how this would have a bad impact on his family and even promised to be the best store manager they could ever get in case he’s not fired. Toni then called his boss and after his approval, Bill was not fired. I agree with Toni’s decision of not firing Bill. This is because although the company’s policy was to terminate anyone who violated the procedure, it happened once and for the first time. Firing employees is not healthy for an organization because if Bill were fired, the company would have been forced to

The safety issues in the Ford Motor Company Essay

The safety issues in the Ford Motor Company - Essay Example In addition, the company is likely measuring the costs of replacing the part to the amount of money it might cost to pay off those who are injured or die in car accidents. Casualty costs sometimes are less than fixing a problem.  I understand your concerns and I am going to take a look at the issue with what you have told me and consider some of the ethical issues you are facing.  Ã‚   The first issue that we need to discuss is the idea that a cost/benefit analysis is appropriate where safety is concerned. According to the cost/benefit analysis that has been done on this vehicle and its safety issue with the placement of the engine, it is expected that there will be 180 deaths and 180 injured. These deaths are valued at 200,000.00 and the injuries at 67,000.00. Although that seems low, even twice that would equal less than the expected cost of putting in the part that would have saved all those lives and injuries. The question that arises is how a dollar value can be put on a dea th when that death could have been prevented? A death that happens when that is the result of the faulty design, but was not expected nor the system evaluated for that risk may create a dollar value to a jury when taken into a court of law. How should that be valued? Harley, I hate to say this but I believe it is your responsibility to go to the public before the car is released and let the world know that if they buy this piece of machinery they are vulnerable to this design flaw that can easily take their life.... How should that be valued? Harley, I hate to say this but I believe it is your responsibility to go to the public before the car is released and let the world know that if they buy this piece of machinery they are vulnerable to this design flaw that can easily take their life. This car has been rushed into production at a quick pace in order to compete with Volkswagen. In addition, I have already heard that they are lobbying in Congress to make sure that certain government safety standards are not made into regulations, which would affect their design and force them to make the car safe (Dowie, 1977). This vehicle is not meeting any form of reasonable safety standards, let alone expected regulations from the government and even though they are not yet in place, they should be considered when thinking about releasing this care into the public. The ethics of an engineer are important to think about as you face this dilemma. It is your responsibility to create objects that are safe to t he general public. Having knowledge about a vehicle that is not constructed in a safe manner makes you responsible for that knowledge and for whatever else happens if you fail to act. The first code of ethics for an engineer is that it is the responsibility of the engineer to uphold the safety for the public with which they have been entrusted. This would mean that you have an obligation to make sure this vehicle never emerges into the market. The problem with this decision is that it is going to come into conflict with another ethical mandate that you do not reveal information about the products of your clients and that you â€Å"Act as a faithful agent† of your client (Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board, 2012, p. 3). I think that the public safety is going to come before

Child Obesity Essay Example for Free

Child Obesity Essay Who’s To Blame for Obesity? Do you want to be surrounded with a society filled with obese children? Obesity has become a big problem in America. Parents are not being careful with the amount of junk food they’re allowing their kids to take in. According to Daniel Wientraub’s article â€Å"The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home†, he claims that parents are in the position to fight the epidemic of overweight children, not the government or fast food companies. I agree with Daniel Wientraub because parents should be held accountable for the obesity of their children. Advertising has become Americas biggest tool for manipulating kids in the U.S as indicated in David Barboza’s â€Å"If you Pitch It, They Will Eat It†, New York Times article , professor Linn of Harvard says â€Å"The programs have become advertising for the food and the food has become advertising for the programs (Barboza,P.39,Par.33).† Children are getting attached to television and programming, which is where the fast food commercials vastly appear. For example, kids begin to ask their parents for fast food just because there happens to be a toy in their â€Å"Happy Meal†. Parents don’t have the strength needed to continue managing on telling their children â€Å"No!† because they will cry, nag, and proceed to bug their parents to take them. Marketing strategies aim on manipulating kids, and the more being targeted, the more money they continue making. Parents need to start saying â€Å"No!† and begin acting like the boss, instead of it being the other way around. Exercising is a huge factor on staying healthy. A vastly amount of kids in America are not participating in physical education. In the article â€Å"The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home† Daniel Weintraub indicates â€Å"We limit television and encourage our boys to get out the house, either to participate in organized sports or to ride their bikes, skateboards, or roller blades(Weintraub,P.43,Par.15).† This particularly indicates that parents need to push and motivate their children to exercise daily, to remain active. Staying fit is more important because it prevents obesity. The majority of children lack exercise and stuff themselves with fast food but it isn’t their fault because their too young to comprehend any better. Parents need to step it up and provide their kids with consistent physical education to prevent their children becoming obese. Adolescents need to start noticing what they are feeding their children. A great amount of food comes from the home kids are living in. in Daniel Wientraub’s  article â€Å"The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home†, he states that, â€Å"We try to cook as many meals as possible on the theory that even the last healthy home cooked meal is probably better for our children than the healthiest fast food serving (Weintraub, P.43, Par.15).† I support this claim because when kids are given a meal at home, their parent can provide and control the ingredients they are feeding them, in contrast to when they are eating out. Therefore, kids can consume vegetables and healthy edibles that their parents are serving at home, without worrying about the bad factors that fast food is giving them. In other words, cooking at home is a veritable good way for parents preventing obesity. Others may suggest that fast food services are at fault for childhood obesity. However, I believe this is faulty reasoning because fast food places provide a great amount of high fattening food that makes kids gain weight. Support of my position can be found in the following â€Å"Fast foods marketing strategies, which make perfect sense from a business perspective, succeed only when they induce a substantial number of us to overeat (Brownie, P.33, Par.6).† This clearly substantiates my position by illustrating that purchasing fast food products may be cheap and less time consuming, but it is a bad decision for parents to make on their children. In conclusion, I am adamant that parents are responsible for what they feed their kids. As such, in my opinion it would be in our best interest for parents to stand up and help children at most they can. If parents follow this course of action, I am confident that child obesity will decrease not only in America, but all over the world.

Risk management and hedging

Risk management and hedging Risk Management And Hedging In Derivatives Market Risk management can be undertaken in several different manners, which often depends on the structure and initiatives for the specific firm. One commonly used approach is to hedge in the derivatives market, which consists of futures, forwards, swaps, CFDs, warrants, convertibles and options. Derivatives are financial instruments whose value and performance depends on the value of underlying assets, for example equities, stock market indices, exchange rates, commodities etc. The main argument for hedging is for companies to minimize risks that may arise from interest rates, exchange rates, and other market variables and volatilities. By engaging in derivatives companies manage their various risks by hedging a position, to be more certain what the outcome will be. For example, one can hedge a certain amount of currency at a future point in time, in order to know exactly how much that will be received/paid at the specific time thereby avoiding the risk of losing value because of the exchange rate risk. There are however also arguments against hedging in the derivatives market. Establishing hedging programs may be very costly, and if there are alternative and more cost efficient ways to reduce risks, such as operational and financial strategies, that could be preferable. Furthermore, sometimes hedging may lead to losses even though there is a gain on the underlying asset, which is a scenario that is difficult to explain to stakeholders. If losses appear too often, this could cause mistrust from the shareholders, and should then be avoided. One has to consider the overall trade-off between costs and savings when engaging in hedging to manage and reduce risks. It is therefore also necessary for management to undergo thorough risk assessments and to construct firm specific schedules, in order to identify the most significant risks and subsequently to establish risk preventing actions. Hedging is in addition mostly used by institutions that are extensively exposed to the various busines s and market risks, and who most of the time would benefit from undertaking such actions. However, derivatives may also be used by the private sector if necessary. The article Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in the Gold Mining Industry by Peter Tufanoexamines a new database that details corporate risk management activity in the North American gold mining industry. The article claims that academics know remarkably little about corporate risk management practice, even though almost three fourths of corporations have adopted at least some financial engineering techniques to control their exposures to intresest rates, foregin exchange rates, and commodity prices. There is little empirical support for the predictive power of theories that view risk management as a means to maximize shareholder value. The article furthermore describes risk management practices and tests their conformance with existing theory by analyzing an industry that seems almost tailor-made for academic investigation: the North American gold mining industry. These firms share a common and clear exposure in that their output is a globally traded, volatile commodity. Firms can manage this exposure using a rich set of instruments, including forward and futures contracts, gold swaps, gold or bullion loans, rolling forward commitments called spot deferred contracts, and options. Perhaps most importantly, firms in the gold mining industry disclose their risk management activities in great detail. The gold industry has embraced risk management: over 85 percent of the firms in the industry used at least some sort of gold price risk management in 1990-1993. Using industry-specific measures for firms exposures, cost structures, and investment programs, Tufano tests whether cross-sectional differences in risk management activity can be explained by academic theory. For example, theory predicts more extensive risk management by firms more likely to face financial distress, which in this industry can be measured by operating costs and leverage. Other theories posit that corporate risk management activities might be linked to risk aversion of corporate managers, and the form in which they hold a stake in the firm. These theories would predict that firms whose managers hold greater equity stakes as a fraction of their private wealth would be more inclined to manage gold price risk, but those whose managers hold options might be less inclined to manage gold price risk. This article tes ts the predictive (as compared with the prescriptive) power of the various theories, i.e., whether they help describe the choices made by firms. He finds that gold mining firms risk management decisions are consistent with some of the extant theory. Managerial risk aversion seems particularly relevant; the data bear out Smith and Stulzs (1985) prediction that firms whose managers own more stock options manage less gold price risk, and those whose managers have more wealth invested in common stock manage more gold price risk. These results seem robust under a variety of econometric specifications, and using a number of alternative proxy variables. In contrast, theories that explain risk management as a means to reduce the costs of financial distress, to break the firms dependence on external financing, or to reduce expected taxes are not supported strongly. He also finds that firm risk management levels appear to be higher for firms with smaller outside block holdings and lower cash balances, and whose senior financial managers have shorter job tenures. â€Å"Managing Foreign Exchange Risk with Derivatives†by Gregory W. Brown is a field study of HDG, a multinational manufacturing company of durable equipment with sales in more than 50 countries that actively encounters 24 different currency exchanges. Although multinational companies like HDG are always exposed to foreign exchange risk, this is one of very few studies that investigate the risk management operations for a non-financial corporation. Since multinational companies tend to be very complex, while using multiple strategies, a field study of this nature provides a deeper understanding of how the risk management process works. Dr. Brown attempts to answer to three main questions. First he wants to understandhowthe Forex risk management program is structured; second,whythe firm focuses on management of exchange risk; finallywhatHDG uses within their hedging derivative portfolio in order to minimize their foreign exchange risk. In order to get a comprehensive understanding Dr. Brown investigated HDG over 14 quarters starting from 1995 and ending in 1998. The structure of HDGs foreign exchange group consisted of 11 employees who were not considered â€Å"traders†, with an average experience of 4 years, whose focus was not only hedging foreign exchange risk. The program cost which included salaries and overhead was approximately $1.5M annually, and the overall transactional costs averaged around $2.3M annually. HDG had an actual foreign exchange risk policy which focused to reduce transactional, translational, and overall economic exposures. In order to meet this policy the group actively engaged in spot and forward contracts, currency put option, and currency call options. Traditional economic theories usually illustrate hedging Forex risk for benefits such as reducing taxable income, protecting against potential costs of financial distress, and reducing overall volatility of wealth. HDG however, focu sed its risk management program on smoothing out earnings impacts, providing the company with competitive pricing, and enabling improved internal control management. In some ways it seemed that HDG was attempting to use Forex risk hedging in a speculative attempt to increase potential income and thereby increase overall firm value. The procedure used in Forex risk hedging was quite simplistic. The department would not use live market feeds but rather sources such as Bloomberg to signify a â€Å"hedge rate† from current market rates and overall cost of derivatives. This information would then be passed onto the tax department and after review would be developed into a hedging strategy to forecast future hedging activity. Browns statistical studies of HDGs hedging activities concluded that the models R-squared value increased as the time horizon decreased. This indicated that the companies hedging activity was dramatically affected by its most recent hedging transactions. This may seem rather obvious but the strongest tests only indicated 55% in accuracy. In all Brown explains there is much more in the way of testing that needs to beconducted in order to better evaluate which additional factors significantly influence the Forex risk management of multinational non-financial companies. This study should be the start of a new investigation in understanding currency risk perspectives. In Risk Measurement and Hedging: With and Without Derivatives, Petersen and Thiagarajan (2000) explore the reasons for two gold mining companies to use opposite approaches in managing their risk, namely American Barrick, which aggressively hedges its gold price risk with derivatives, and Homestake Mining, which uses no derivatives. By studying two firms from the same industry, which hardly has any variation in product quality, the fundamental differences that lead to the different approaches in risk management can be examined. Homestake Mining is focused on developing its own properties and hence, spends more on exploration costs (capital and labour costs), which makes high gold prices profitable if they are not correlated with exploration costs. The greater need of investment capital Homestakes Mining has when gold prices are high makes reductions in the volatility of operating cash flow less valuable to it as a complete hedging would take cash flow away when gold prices are high, i.e. when Homestake Mining is in need of it. The different opportunities companies possess of also explain some reasons for different risk management strategies. Homestake Mining has for example lower costs of adjusting the mining output than American Barrick as the former can (over a short period) alter the quality of the ore that is mined. This mining strategy creates costs that vary positively with the price of gold and thus provides the firm with a natural hedge, which American Barrick does not possess of. As managers will act differently according to the risk they are personally bearing, compensation strategies is of upmost importance when it comes to risk management. Both the American Barrick and Homestake Mining use options to link the managerial wealth to the shareholder wealth, however, American Barrick does so more intensively. Also, its compensation is equity-focused where the bonuses are linked to the stock values, whereas Homestake Miningss bonuses are linked to the profitability, which explains why the latter adjusts its costs as gold prices change. The earnings are quite volatile, however through this can be reduced by different choices of accounting techniques, which is the reason for Homestake Mining to changes them in opposite direction to gold prices, where American Barrick rarely alters its accounting choices at all. From the above findings one may conclude that the choice of managing risks depends on various firms specific characteristics; their firm structure, management contracts and incentives. Specifically, it is a matter of the trade-off between costs and savings/benefits. Establishing and maintaining derivatives program is often quite costly, and therefore the alternative of using other methods to hedge risks may be preferable. In the article Hedging and Coordinated Risk Management: Evidence from Thrift Conversions, the writers argue that the firms risk management can be used to reallocate the firms total risk between different sources, rather than reduce it. So in this case hedging doesnt necessarily equal total risk reduction as often stated, but rather a technique of risk-reallocation or as an essential part of a firms profit-maximizing strategy. This becomes clearer if we separate risk in to two types, based on the activities where the firms have their comparative information advantages, namely: -Core business risk: Firms earn rents or economic profit for taking on activities bearing this risk. -Homogenous risk: Financial risk as interest rate changes, foreign currency exchange rates, or commodity prices. By contrast there is no compensation for bearing this kind of risk. (This doesnt necessarily apply if the firm has a comparative information advantage in the financial risk sector, then financial risk can then become core business risk. If we now consider a risky asset, it may be viewed as a portfolio of multiple claims from the owners. These claims are bundled together which basically means that the firm must take on all the projects if it wants any of them. A subset of these projects may be â€Å"core business projects† which have a positive NPV for the firm, and the remaining subset may be projects bearing homogenous risk with NPV = 0 (the firm hasnt any disadvantage/advantage compared to others in assessing the unsystematic risk). The total variability of a portfolios cash flow of course includes both risk types. An example of this could be a farmer expecting payment for breeding pigs. Then his superior equipment or animal feed preparation would be categorized as activities bearing core business risk, while the price of pork would be homogenous risk. When increase in total risk is costly, risk composition becomes more important as the firm value becomes a concave function of the expected cash flows. Therefore if the risky asset was separable (which it is not), we would only seek to invest in positive NPV projects with core business risk. However this is not the case and therefore we can instead make a trade off by decreasing homogenous risk while gaining additional exposure to core business risk and still maintain the target level of total risk. This substitution is called â€Å"coordinated risk management† and can be attained by the use of derivatives. They test for coordinated risk management in a sample of thrifts that convert from the mutual to stock form of ownership. These conversions have been used to recapitalize the thrift industry since 1982 where legal barriers were cleared. From 83 to 88, 571 conversions issuing stock totaling over $10 billion were completed, compared to only 130 mutual-to-stock conversions between 75 and 82. At the end of 82, stock saving and loans managed only 30% of the industrys assets, but by the end of 88, stock saving and loans controlled 74% of the industrys total assets, going from $686 billion to $1,4 trillion. These converting thrifts provided an interesting sample to test whether the use of hedging can be part of an overall strategy to increase total risk. They argued that converting thrifts will attempt to increase their overall level of firm risk following conversion due to changes that occur at the time of conversion. In other words, these institutions are a unique case relative to empirical studies of risk management that focuses on firms with incentives to decrease total risk. The reasons for converting institutions to increase total firm risk are likely because of these two major reasons: 1. A converting institutions ability to take risk increases at the time of conversion, even though the investment opportunities do not change. This is because conversion provides financial slack and access to capital markets. A conversion typically proceeds at least the book value of equity of the mutual thrift. Assuming that pre-conversion mutual equity meets regulatory capital requirements, doubling the capital ratio creates a larger borrowing capacity that can be used to double the asset size of the thrift. Increasing thrift size does not necessarily imply an increase of thrift risk. However, thrifts usually have incentives to grow by investing in riskier assets because of flat deposit insurance premiums that allow thrifts to shift risk to the government. 2. Converting institutions are predicted to increase the total firm risk following because of the change in their managers incentives for risk taking. Before the conversion, managers receive a fixed salary. But upon conversion, shareholders are able to include stock and stock options in a managers compensation contract, aligning the managers interest with the shareholders. In this situation, the manager will typically be more willing to take risks in order to maximize firm value. The Test Schrand and Unal has used sample data from conversions completed between January 1, 1984 and December 31, 1988. They have also made some selecting in the sample excluding the supervisory mergers and merger-conversions. Also they further exclude smaller companies by having a minimum limit of $100 million among the sample companys. As of the methodology Schrand and Unal have used a quantitative time-series study, where they have analyzed the changes in total risk, interest-rate risk and credit risk using an ordinary least squares method. The model is a form of a least squares method where they have added the term Time(t+k). The extra term is an indicator variable which is equal to one if quarter t is k quarters from the conversion quarters, and if not the term equals zero. As of the independent variables in the model, they can be seen as tests, indicating the differences between the risks of the average converting institution and the risks of the average institution in the control group. However the model doesnt indicate whether the interest risk and credit risk are coordinated. Therefore Schrand and Unal have used another model to analyze if there is an association between the interest risk and the credit risk. The model which is a pooled time-series cross-sectional regression is computed as follows: Here Schrand and Unal predict a positive slope between the interest risk (XSNET) and the credit risk (XSHIGH). The Empirical Results The study show that the converting institutions capital position increases with roughly 70 percent after the conversion. Also the study shows that the converting institutions significantly decrease their exposure to interest risk. However the Credit risk increases when converting, because of taking more risk in their loan portfolios. Further the study indicates that the investment patterns are related to the actual conversion rather than the time-trend within the industry. Also they conclude that the increased use of derivatives is a strategic decision and not a mechanical phenomenon. References Brown, G. W. (2001), â€Å"Managing foreign exchange risk with derivatives†, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 60, pp. 401-448. Naik, N. Y., and P. K. Yadav (2003), â€Å"Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Market†, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 58 (5), pp. 1873-1904. Schrand, C., and H. Unal (1998), â€Å"Hedging and Coordinated Risk Management: Evidence from Thrift Conversions†, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 53 (3), pp. 979-1013. Tufano, P. (1996), â€Å"Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in Gold Mining Industry†, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 51(4), pp. 1097-1137. Petersen, M. A., and S. R. Thiagarajan, (2000), Risk Management and Hedging: With and Without Derivatives, Financial Management, Vol. 29(4), pp. 5-30.

Five Functions of Management: Advantages and Disadvantages

Five Functions of Management: Advantages and Disadvantages Henri Fayol is widely acknowledged as the earliest pioneer and advocate of the task of management Parker and Ritson, 2005 His management theories were first proposed in the early 1900s. Despite many criticisms, Fayols theories still form the basis of management practices and teachings in the 21st century. Taking some articles for reference, this essay will mainly analyse the advantages and disadvantages of Fayols concept of five functions of management in modern enterprises by some examples. There are about three main parts in this essay beginning with the introduction. And in the main body of this article, based on some academic researches, there are about seven parts discussing the advantages and disadvantages of Fayols concept of five functions of management. A conclusion will be made at last. There is no doubt that Fayol is best known for a three-fold contribution to management theory. Among his contributions, the concept of five functions of management is worth discussing all the time. Fayol identified five key functions of management and these functions of managerial activity are: forecasting and planning, organizing, coordination, command and control. According to Fayol, forecasting involves analyzing the future and drawing a plan of action (Pugh ad Hichson, 2007). And as for organizing, Fayol believed that an organizations structure was important, as it can facilitate the optimum conduct of its business activities (Pugh and Hichson, 2007). According to Pugh and Hichson (2007), in his original writing, Fayol used the term command to illustrate a managers responsibility to lead and direct employees towards the achievement of organizational goals and strategies. About the function of coordination, Fayol made a suggestion that managers should bind together, unify and harm onize all the organizations activities and efforts. In contemporary management practice, this can be explained into that the managers should be responsible for making sure that all the organizational business activities are coordinated to make the employees can unify together within one department or among different departments. The last not the least function of management is control. Fayol recognized the importance of control within an organization and support that it ensures everything occurs in conformity with established rules and expressed command. In the article of Fayol-standing the test of time, McLean (2011) firstly introduced the contents of the five functions of management and stated that in contemporary society, there are some advantages of these functions to development of the enterprises. First, McLean (2011) stated that with the development of globalized knowledge economy, the abilities of forecasting and planning can gain success in the competition. Second, organizing can ask the managers to carry out an appropriate infrastructure, which will optimize the organizations system, resources, procedures, processes and services and enable knowledge to be disseminated to those who need it, when they need it. Third, McLean (2011) also stated that control is one of the most important responsibilities of a manager and under the control of the managers. Under control of the managers, the policies and strategies can be implemented according to plan and within budget, set timescales and allocated resources. Fourth, under the func tion of command, the managers can develop a thorough knowledge of their employees, which can generate a positive psychological contract that engages employees with their jobs and the organization. Whats more, Fayols managerial functions are frequently cited as the inspiration for the contemporary practice of dividing managerial activity (and management textbooks) into the functions of planning, leading, organizing and controlling (Davidson and Griffin, 2000; Lewis, Goodmand and Fandt ,1995). As for the organizing, Fayol believed that an organizations structure was important, as it facilitated the optimum conduct of its business. Whether there are advantages of this concept or not remains an open question, In the article of Fayol-standing the test of time, Miss Jacqueline McLean stated that in contemporary society, organizing can ask the managers to carry out an appropriate infrastructure, which will optimise the organizations system, resources, procedures, processes and services and enable knowledge to be disseminated to those who need it, when they need it. Meanwhile, organizing also can integrate all kinds of resources of the companies, including human resources, financial and material resources. So there are some advantages about the concept. And this concept is also influencing the structure of the companies and most of organizations pay more attention to the building of the organizational structure. The KFCà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’one of the most famous and important fast food chain restaurants, is always paying its attention to the building of the structure all the time. In 2004, with the AIV spreading quickly in Asia, most of the KFC consumers quitted the line of waiting for KFC, never eating chicken. Especially in Vietnam, the most AIV-hit country, KFC business was confronted with a crisis. But KFC then changed its organizational structure, replacing the Fried Chicken with Fried Fish. So, finally it regained a big success. Under the guidance of Fayols concept about the organizing, many organizations know about the importance of the structure and pay attention to building their organizational chart and thus gain success. In fact, the building of the organizational structure should fit the development of the organization. As the saying goes, preparedness ensures success and unpreparedness spells failure. So does the development of one organization. According to Fayol, forecasting involves analysis of the future and drawing up a plan of action. About this Fayols concept, some authors viewed that there are some advantages. In the article of Fayol-standing the test of time, McLean (2011) stated that with the development of globalized knowledge economy, the abilities of forecasting and planning can gain success in the competition. In the article of The foundation of Henri Fayols administrative theory, Mr. Wren, Mr. Bedeeian and Mr. Breeze stated that the most important of the means which one must use to ensure business success was planning. To create a business, the founders need capital manpower and time and should have outlets for the products or service. To forecast these needs and providing for them is the main responsible of the managers. So Fayols concept about planning has its own advantages. And i t also improves the development of the companies in contemporary times. Due to the loss of electronic mail, Morgan Stanley paid out more than billions of dollars. But this event is just one tip of the iceberg of the suffering a great number of cost which is caused by the inappropriate information management. Confronted with this problem, British Airway made plan and forecasting and declared its commercial goal: to automate more and more function and try their best to develop customers self-help service system , such as electronic ticket, and even that customers can printed their tickets in their own home. This strategy made British Airway protocol the development lifeline of the companies designedly. Although there are lots of advantages of Fayols concept of the five functions of management, there are some disadvantages of them. As for the forecasting and planning, if a business made a good planning, it will get a great success. If not, there will be a big failure, just as the saying goes Changes always go beyond plans. As McLean (2011) stated in the article of Fayol-standing the test of time that the globalised knowledge economy and the presence of ubiquitous change and competition make forecasting, planning and strategising key managerial activities, forecasting and planning are at the same time the main cause of an organization failure. HP, a big technological products supplier of the world, is always encouraging its employees to go forward to their goals, which are planned by the organization. According to HP official Website, in 2010à ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’in accordance with its plan, HP purchased Palm company with the Web-based Operating System to get itself to a higher level. But as a result, the new product with the WebOS could not compete with ipad and was not popular with the consumers. In 2011, HP declared to cease the research of WebOS. So to purchase Palm with a whole $1.2 Billion is really not a wise choice. Many other organizations in the world are also always following the rules of forecasting and planning concept in Fayols management theory, but only a good plan is far from enough in contemporary competitive context. The other disadvantage comes from the function of command and control in Fayols theory. According to Wren, Bedeian and Breeze (2002), the command made by the higher authority and which, be it direct or through successive levels in the organization, should reach all parts of the organization, and the responses should return in the reverse sense, either directly or through the levels, to the central authority. Thus an organization can operate smoothly. But there are also counterviews, who consider that the excessive command and control will harm personal satisfaction and their self-respect. In the article of Fayols 14 principles of management then and now: a framework for managing todays organizations, Rodrigues stated that if the managers can separate their managerial work from the actual work clearly, they can have energy to focus on the target of the development of their own enterprises and deal with the public relations outside the companies. In the article Henri Fayol as strategie s: a nineteenth century corporate turnaround, Wren stated that due to the hierarchy, the managers can conduct the enterprise toward its objective. The branches of Nokia in China adhere to the principle of the former, the strict command and control. Under this circumstance, the managers cannot handle the managerial work since they have to help employees to deal with lots of trivial problems. After discussion, they changed the operation strategies and set up the system of hierarchical transmission of orders, in which the employees in the lower class should report their work to his/her own managers. Whats more, as McLean (2011) stated, although Fayol had a great contribution to management theory, he has been accused of the romanticism of management and presented an almost unrealizable approach to management theorisation. He gave a clear definition to each of the functions of his management theory and some principles to carry out them, but in concrete circumstances, some of them can not be realized. As Pryor and Taneja (2010) stated that in practically Mintzberg vehemently disagreed when he went on to say that if you observe managers at work you will find what they do is quite different. According to Lamond, Fayol gave us management as we would like it to be and Mintzberg gave us management as it is (Pryor and Taneja, 2010). Therefore, today many managers favour the important role of practice and experience. They think that practice and experience are the only way to get a management qualification. In conclusion, Henri Fayol, as a founding father of what has become known as the administration school of management, made some contributions to the management theories. This essay mainly aimed to discuss some statement about Henri Fayols contributions to management today and criticism of any of his contributions under the topic of Discussion on Advantages and Disadvantages of Fayols Concept of Five Functions of Management in Modern Enterprises and then to learn about the influence of Fayols management theories to the management practices and teachings in the 21st century. It focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of forecasting and planning, the disadvantages of excessive command and control and the impracticability of the theory in the main body by taking some articles for reference. All in all, Fayols theories are valuable and relevant for organizational leaders on the one hand and debatable on the other hand.

Waste Land Essay: All is Not Well :: T.S. Eliot Waste Land Essays

All is Not Well in The Waste Land Eliot's "The Waste Land" doesn't make sense. No matter how many symbols and allusions are explained by critics or Eliot himself, no matter how many fertility gods and Eastern philosophies are dragged into it, the poem does not make sense. But then, it doesn't need to in order to be good or to have a purpose. All it needs is to have meaning, and something need not make sense to mean something. The meaning "The Waste Land" holds for me is of something wrong - something so twisted and "rotten," as to be intrinsically wrong. For me, this wrongness winds itself in and out of the passages and images of the poem and doesn't seem to have any hope of being righted until the end - in the last few lines. In every time, in every place in "The Waste Land," something is wrong. The world of the poem is one where April, the season when growing things return after winter, is "the cruellest month, breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land," the "son of man" knows only "a heap of broken images," and there is "fear in a handful of dust." Each symbol and each allusion contains a grotesque element - one that was already there or one incorporated by Eliot. Lines 72-73 are such a nice, normal way to speak about a garden ("'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?/'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?'"), except that the thing which has been planted is a corpse, and it's in danger of being dug up by a Dog. T'ie different ways of looking at life are all tainted. Someone says, "'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street/'With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow?/'What shall we ever do'?'" The talkative woman gossips of the problems in another woman's marriage and of her abortion, ending with the last words of Ophelia, spoken in her madness. Tiresias, the blind prophet, foretells the scene of a woman who endures the caresses of her lover, and, glad when they are over and he is gone, forgets about the incident entirely. She merely "puts a record on the gramophone." The descriptions are often shocking and ugly, especially in the midst of a beautiful scene.