The Main Purposes Of Budgeting Accounting Essay

As Bhimany et Al. stated in 2008 â€Å" A budget is a quantitative look of proposed program of action by direction for a future clip period and is an assistance to the coordination and execution of the program. It can cover both fiscal and non-financial facets of these programs and acts as a blue-print for the company to follow in the extroverted period † . The budgeting system is a conventional manner of managing and directing companies. Fiscal sections use the budgeting method to program and form them company ‘s concern activities in the undermentioned twelvemonth of their company. Budget is a criterion with which the existent informations can be compared. ( Joshi et al. , 2003 ) Some of the primary intents of the budget are to actuate employees, allocate resources and organize operations within an organisation. Budgeting is aimed to ease duty distribution and is used to measure public presentation ( Libby & A ; Lindsay, 2003 ) . Particularly today, because of the fiscal crisis that Greece and many other European states are traveling through, concerns runing in those states need to experience secured and protected. This is where budget gets involved in order to inform the direction of the company on what will be the disbursals for the approaching twelvemonth.Main Purposes of BudgetingCompanies used budget at its really first old ages of being as a control map merely ( Libby & A ; Lindsay, 2003 ) , but today there are several aims and intents of the budget and the intents differ from company to company. Drury ( 2004 ) references that the chief intents of budgeting are: Planing Companies must cognize that they act in the best manner in order to accomplish their ends and marks. This is where budget is coming to be after the future activities of the organisation. Planing budget is used to be after gross revenues, fiscal issues, purchase of stuff, etc. Through planning, a company can be cognizant of how many resorts are needed, giving the possibility to be after influxs and escapes of liquidness. The directors, who set a budget, must be cognizant of any future alterations or jobs that may happen. This gives the privilege to take actions in order to avoid that job before it strikes the company ( Granof & A ; Khumawala, 2010 ) . Coordination All units within an organisation are, more or less, dependant on each other. By utilizing a budget the units have to collaborate and compromise when it concerns limited resources. Every unit has their ain budget and when these budgets are compiled, defects and inaccuracies are revealed. The budgets can be a manner to detect coordination and cooperation jobs. The budget is meant to do it possible to see the organisation as a whole and seek to work out struggles. If sections have different ways of making things, the budget makes the sections ‘ via media and work together, in order to do the budget for the whole organisation complete. To cut down the hazard of overcapacity within the company it is of import to dimension the organisation. By comparing budgets from sections they contribute to organize the size of production. Communication Budgets contribute to good communicating through the exchange of information that takes topographic point during the budgetary procedure. The budget procedure enables employees to pass on and portion their thoughts with other workers within the organisation. Through treatments, employees can portion their sentiments and thoughts with each other. For directors, the budget can be used to pass on and explicate schemes and ends within the company to the employees. Furthermore it connects sections and gives insight and understanding for each other. Resource allotment Budgets are aimed to ease resource allotment within companies, secure that the resources are being used efficaciously and that the right sum is distributed to the sections, which is important. Unit of measurements in the organisation acquire different precedences. By administering resources to units, resource allotment could be seen as a control tool. However, this kind of direction requires that the directors take an active portion in the budgetary procedure. They need to be good informed about the factual inquiries and have all refering facts and inside informations. Performance rating The budget maps as a control system for public presentation rating. By puting budget marks the accountable are held responsible for making the aims. Through a follow up of the budget, which means when the budget is being compared with the existent result, directors can be evaluated. When followups are made it is possible to detect fluctuations from program. Concentrating and seting attempt into divergences from program is called â€Å" direction by exclusion † . By look intoing the grounds to why the fluctuations occur, actions can be taken. When budgets are made for shorter periods than a twelvemonth, it can be valuable to do follow-ups every month and this enables alterations if the existent results vary from program. Therefore, this requires that the original budgets are distributed right over the twelvemonth and that directors have made an attempt to do budgets every bit realistic as possible for every month. Analyzing the budget every twelvemonth and examine if there are any big fluctuations can ease to more useable budgets in the hereafter. Responsibility distribution Budgets are frequently used for distribution of duty. A survey proved that utilizing a budget for administering answerability is more of import than utilizing it as a control tool. During the budget procedure, duty is assigned to employees and it is critical that the directors clarify what is expected from the employees. A followup is being made to vouch that the managers/employees have lived up to their committedness. It is a common committedness between the company and the accountable. The company contributes with the resources needed and the accountable are responsible for making what they said they would make. Further, the budget is a tool to do directors responsible for their actions and to work in the best involvement of the organisation. Establishing aims In organisations the budget is used for puting marks for directors. It is common that directors receive a fillip if they are able to â€Å" lodge to the budget † and make the ends. The aims indicate what is of import in the organisation and what it is seeking to accomplish. Different marks for each unit within the organisation are aimed to demo what is expected of them. The aims for the organisation are being divided into ends for every section. When puting a budget for a decentralised organisation it is a requirement that the chief budget is divided into budgets for every unit. Drury ( 2004 ) states that there are three different sorts of marks for an organisation: mission, corporate aims and unit aims. The mission of an organisation is the ground to why the company exists ; it describes in general footings, which the clients are, and what the construct of the company is. Corporate aims are specific ends for an organisation and the board of managers frequently set up them, e.g. return on equity, market portion etc. Unit of measurement aims are the ends for the units in the company. While corporate aims are seen as ends for the organisation as a whole, unit aims are made for different parts of the organisation. Motivation Budgets are used as a motive tool. When employees are involved in the budget and mark setting-process, they are frequently more motivated to seek to accomplish the ends. By puting clear and defined marks based on the budget, employees understand what is expected of them and can therefore experience more motivated. Though, this requires that marks are set on an appropriate degree and that they are disputing but realistic. Meanwhile, if the marks are excessively hard to accomplish they could alternatively be de-motivating. The chief intents stated above are complemented with two intents by Ax et Al ( 2009 ) : Awareness The budget creates awareness about the organisations ends and to do workers understand the â€Å" large image † . Forces can understand how their work is lending to the organisation as a whole alternatively of merely seeing their ain unit ( Ax et al, 2009 ) . Incitation Normally, organisations use the budget as an incitation for the employees. The budget becomes a benchmark for what is a sufficient degree to make. By comparing the budget with the existent result, a wages for the accountable can be made ( Ax et al, 2009 ) . Budgeting is a time-consuming and dearly-won occupation. The development of a budget includes many insistent stairss before the budget is eventually approved. As an illustration, participative budgeting ( which is supposed to be a better theoretical account ) involves directors at all degrees ( and sometimes all of the employees ) developing their ain initial estimations for gross revenues, costs, etc. This procedure requires tonss of dialogues between directors at different degrees until a budget evolves which is acceptable to all degrees ( Langfield-Smith, Thorne & A ; Hilton, 2006 ) . Bartrum ( 2006 ) cites the Hackett Group ‘s research to show that even the most efficient companies take 79 yearss to be after their budgets, while the worst take 210 yearss to finish the whole procedure. The Ford Motor Company has calculated that they spent $ 1.2 billion yearly for budgeting ( BBRT, 2006 ) . This is because it involves many people in the organisation and absorbs up to 20-30 per centum of top executives ‘ and fiscal directors ‘ clip.Stairss in fixing a budgetHarmonizing to Bragg ( Bragg, 2011 ) these are the stairss that should be done in order to fix an efficient budget: Update budget premises. Review andA conveying the premises which were used in the latest budgeting theoretical account to day of the month. Reappraisal constrictions. Determine what is restraining the company from bring forthing farther gross revenues, and explicate how this will act upon any auxiliary company gross growing. Available support. Determine the most expected sum of support that will be available during the budget period. Measure bing points. Determine whether any measure costs will be sustained during the likely scope of concern activity in the approaching budget period, and specify the sum of these costs and at what activity degrees they will be incurred. Create budget bundle. Copy forward the basic budgeting instructions from the direction package used in the old twelvemonth. Update it by including the year-to-date existent disbursals incurred in the current twelvemonth, and besides annualize this information for the full current twelvemonth. Add a commentary to the package, saying measure bing information, constrictions, and expected support restrictions for the upcoming budget twelvemonth. Issue budget bundle. Publish the budget bundle separately, where possible, and reply any inquiries from receivers. Besides province the due day of the month for the first bill of exchange of the budget bundle. Obtain gross prognosis. Obtain the gross prognosis from the gross revenues director, formalize it with the CEO, and so administer it to the other section directors. They use the gross information as the footing for developing their ain budgets. Obtain section budgets. Obtain the budgets from all sections, cheque for mistakes, and comparison to the constriction, support, and measure bing restraints. Adjust the budgets as necessary. Obtain capital budget petitions. Validate all capital budget petitions and send on them to the senior direction squad with remarks and recommendations. Update the budget theoretical account. Input all budget information into the maestro budget theoretical account. Review the budget. Meet with the senior direction squad to reexamine the budget. Highlight possible restraint issues, and any restrictions caused by funding restrictions. Note all remarks made by the direction squad, and frontward this information back to the budget conceivers, with petitions to modify their budgets. Process budget loops. Track outstanding budget alteration petitions, and update the budget theoretical account with new loops as they arrive. Publish the budget. Make a bound version of the budget and administer it to all authorized receivers. Load the budget. Load the budget information into the fiscal package, so that you can bring forth budget versus existent studies.Budget ArgumentsHope and Fraser ( 1997 ) argue that with the large alterations in the concern universe, rational assets accounting for 80-90 % of market capitalisation. While many companies recognize that the underlying beginning of future hard currency flows progressively comes from the effectual direction of rational assets, it is beyond the capableness of budgets to properly history for these rational assets. In other words, merely 10-20 % of a company ‘s value can be analyzed by its budget. Banks in Scandinavia utilizing budgets have an mean 70 % of cost/income ratio. In contrast, Svenska Handelsbanken, which does non use budgeting, has a 45 % cost/income ratio ( Hope & A ; Fraser, 1997 ) . This shows that budgets add small or no value to stockholders ‘ assets. Budgets are stiff, restricted and fixed to unreal period. The budget period can be excessively long to accommodate today ‘s dynamic and rapidly altering market ; conversely, the financial twelvemonth may be a excessively short-run skyline for planning and maneuvering some major activities of today ‘s companies, like R & A ; D, trade name development or turning concern relationships between spouses and possible clients. So budgets can curtail or impede concern and organisational development in the long tally while adding small, if any, value to the concern.How make budget enhances control?Owing to the inauspicious effects of go againsting budgetary authorizations, both authoritiess and nonprofit organizations can construct precautions into their accounting systems that help guarantee budgetary conformity. These include fixing journal entries both to enter the bud- get and to give acknowledgment t o goods and services that have been ordered but non yet received. We begin the treatment by depicting the basic books of history maintained by authoritiess and nonprofit organizations and demoing how they accommodate these precautions. The basic books of history of both authoritiess and nonprofit organizations correspond to those of concerns. They consist, either in manual or electronic signifier, of: Diaries, in which journal entries are recorded. Most minutess are entered ab initio in a particular diary, such as a belongings revenue enhancement hard currency grosss diary, a parking mulcts hard currency grosss diary, a purchases diary, or a hard currency expenses diary. Both no everyday minutess and history sums from particular diaries are recorded in a general diary. Ledgers, in which all balance sheet and operating histories are maintained. The general leger consists of control histories that summarize the balances of the elaborate subordinate histories that are maintained in subordinate legers.Key stages of budget rhythmBudgeting patterns in neither authoritiess nor nonprofit organizations are standardized ; they differ from entity to entity. However, irrespective of whether the budget is of object categorization or public presentation type, in most organisations budgeting is a uninterrupted, four-phase procedure: Preparationaˆ? Legislative acceptance and executive blessing Execution Reporting and scrutinizingBudgetary ControlThe budgetary control provinces: The designation of controlled and non-controlled points On the issue of the hierarchy of control The effectivity and impact of control The importance of divergences and bounds of control The positive and negative facets of Budgeting Control Controlled and non-controlled points The budgetary control requires: The separation of disbursement controlled ( elastic ) and uncontrolled ( inelastic ) costs. The separation of concern centres or countries of duty. Should endeavour to increase the governable costs, otherwise we will stop up in bureaucratic disposal, which is distant from the centres of outgo and hence non cognizant of the existent demands.Hierarchy Of ControlChiefly, the content of feedback at different degrees of authorities. The information about the consequence of the modulated harmonizing to the degree of duty and authorization in which the auditee is under budget. Each officer is informed of the result of its country of aˆâ€ ¹aˆâ€ ¹responsibility and the lower. The separate and elaborate information moves from the lower to the upper degrees of authorities progressively centralized and ensures the undertaking rating in upper and cardinal authorities on the province of the concern.Effectiveness Of ControlThe effectivity of control depends chiefly The acceptableness of the budget of those who would hold to implement. The grade of power in relation to the duty assigned to each degree of the hierarchy. The duty must travel manus in manus with duties. Easy flow and completeness of information. The budgetary control is simple, apprehensible, and paperss the findings.Signifocance Of GapsA divergence is important when taking the disposal to take disciplinary steps. Specifying the boundaries of allowable differences are either statistically or through empirical observation. Deviations must reply the undermentioned inquiries: Where are due The factors that cause is inadvertent or non They could supplyPositive and negative elementsThe budget establishes quantitative and temporal action plans The budget control gives specific content to power and duty of direction. The budgetary control system is an information and coordination activities. The budgetary control minimizes clip sensing of mistakes and accelerates the procedure of work outing. There is besides the possibility that the budget will do jobs in effectual concern and human relationships, based on defective projections imposed by autocratic no overall premiss of aims and a agency of patroling instead than encouragement of people in taking the right enterprises.Puting The TargetThe budget is based on normal and non standard. Serve short-run ends but must be aligned with a long-run strategic end. When you enter this strategic nonsubjective all waies and programs of action plans seek to accomplish. Such strategic aims are: Addition market portion Decrease of production costs Addition Net income Increasing Competitiveness Goal scene is necessary because: Establishes a disciplined attack to work outing jobs Enters individual mindset in concern Coordinates the execution of plans and budgetsImportant FactsThe design can be long and short term. The strategic end is non structured job but a vision. The long design gives waies taking to vision. Long-run plans covering a period of 3-5 old ages and up to 10 old ages. The plans cover a short period of 6 months to 1 twelvemonth. The short plans are characterized by lucidity, truth and item points non qualify long. It should nevertheless be noted that the

The Main Cause of Global Warming

Pollution Is not a simple problem that the world Is facing; actually pollution Is the reason behind the occurring of global warming. Global warming refers to the increase of temperature on the earth's surface. For every action there is a cause and effect. Global warming is one of the biggest problems that the world is facing nowadays. There are many solutions that we can go for to prevent the massive problems that might happen later on in the future. Introduction: â€Å"We† as human beings we want to survive and live in a planet that might not be armful for our health.Sadly we're not recognizing what damages we're leaving behind us because of the several kinds of pollution that we made by ourselves. There are several kinds of pollution some are visible like air, water, and human pollution while others are invisible. Those kinds of pollutions are affecting our planet In a dangerous way that might lead us to a global warming one day. â€Å"Air pollution occurs when the air cont ains gases, dust, fumes in harmful amounts. † Air pollution is affecting humans health in a negative way like causing cancer, birth effects and genetic mutations.Air pollution is affecting our environment as well, since its affecting â€Å"the ozone layer in the atmosphere and it can increase the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth, where It damages crops and plants and can lead to skin cancer and cataracts. † According to the UNEVEN scientists, they estimated that the pollution in the cloud contributes to at least 700,000 premature deaths every year. This shows how the air pollution is affecting our environment and human beings.Some of the everyday things are the main things of causing air illusion like: automobile emissions, tobacco smoke, combustion of coal, acid rain, noise pollution from cars and construction, power plants, manufacturing buildings, large ships, paint fumes, aerosol sprays, wildfires, and nuclear weapons. To help the environment and t he human health we should work on keeping the planet clean from air pollution. â€Å"The number one way to prevent air pollution is to walk or bike more and drive less. This will prevent fossil fuels from polluting the air. â€Å"Water pollution Is the Introduction of chemical, biological and physical matter Into argue bodies of water that degrade the quality of life that lives In It and consumes It. † Factories, refineries, waste treatment facilities, mining, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, human sewage, oil spills, failing septic systems, soap from washing your car, oil and antifreeze leaking from cars, household chemicals, and animal waste are the main sources that can cause water pollution. â€Å"The best way to prevent water pollution Is to not throw trash and other harmful chemicals Into our water supplies. Construction. Agriculture can cause land pollution because of â€Å"the local pests that have existed for hundreds of years along with the new invasive speci es so they are laden with chemicals that are not found in nature†. Soil pollution and waste disposal are examples of land pollution. Deforestation can cause land pollution as well because of the endless trees that people are cutting every single day and this causes the land to be imbalanced. Construction can release chemicals that can inhibit the growth of plants and animals.By decreasing the amount of papers we're using we can decrease the amount of trees that we're cutting every single day which this is the reason behind the land pollution. Global warming is happening now. Our planet temperature is increasing way more than it is supposed to be. Obviously â€Å"we† are the reason behind what's happening in the world. Since we're overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide it's raising the planets temperature. Before its too late, we should follow some instructions to prevent the global warming from getting worse.

Capital One Case Study Essay Example for Free (#3)

Capital One Case Study Essay 1. What is Capital One’s business and who are their competitors? Capital One’s business deals with a bank financial servicing company. They specialize specifically in banking, credit cards, home loans, auto loans and savings products. Capital One was founded by Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris in 1988. Fairbank highly focused on the marketing and customization of credit card use and information. The company is very analytical and is very technological when gathering data information. They were basically put together centering around the idea of technology within the company itself. Some of their direct competitors would be against Bank Of America, American Express and Barclay’s bank. 2. What is their strategy to grow profitably and compete? Give examples. Capital One was put together with technology right at the core of their business. This makes them different from their competitors since most other companies had a business model first before technology was every involved. The technological part of their company is very important since they use it to analyze and comprehend their customers characteristics such as credit risk. This is basically their way of improving customer service and to increase profitability. Fairbank developed a data machine that was able to access a customer risk factor from each product as well as detect fraud. At Capital One’s point of inception, the online communication was making its way in our society so the company focused on highly internet marketing. This strategic action lead to 2.5 millions customers signing up as this online banking systems was the new and improved way to make payments. 3. How do they use information to implement their strategy? What kinds of information do they use and where does it come from? They vastly use their information system and technology to help during day to day activities. Their main use of this information is to analyze customer data and make appropriate suggestions and choices regarding their marketing strategy. They implement many â€Å"tests† and have used their idea of diving up their customer population by segmenting their data. This was a success and was a high profit for capital one. This lead to their improvement of customer relationships since they had vast information of them and had technology that could easily access and identify their customers through a digital fingerprint. This company focuses on personal information from their customer base to make decisions and access which one of them will be able to pay them back after a loan. One of the ways capital one has access this information is through the post office’s file and other checking agencies as well. Capital one basically takes information from any pertinent source that can provide then with reliable data. 4. List and describe the information technologies used to support their strategy? Information-based strategy – company focuses on high credit risk\low credit risk – this helps them comprehend their customer’s data and to make sure that their choices are made with those people who are actually going to pay them back – their information-based system collects and analyzes the information which helps them market to their customers as it attracts various aspects of customer’s needs Data Warehouse & Mining Infrastructure – this is to support their information based system while having shared communication between different branches – Their offices in UK and US can have clearly make accurate decisions since they can both have access to each others database – This software analyzes their customer data with such intelligence that it is used to help them with final decision making – It is also used for customer service support 5. Describe their notion of a â€Å"scientific test†. Contrast this approach to product development and launch with a more traditional approach that a manufacturing company might use. Capital One’s scientific test was used with their software to collect test data information while enhancing the data they already had as well. They used this software to analyze and collect information from potential customers. They conducted over 45,000 tests at one point which helped them comprehend customer information while identifying any fraudulent activity as well. They grew every day and had millions of customer signed up online at the end. Capital One had a great relationship with their IT department since technology was part of its core competencies. Fairbank even allowed anyone to propose an idea for a test if it was profitable looking enough. This showed that the company wanted to involve each and every employee to work with them on their marketing strategy. The process for product development occurs when an idea is started, to the design and then with the actual product being manufactured and engineered. Capital One way of working with this process involves having their marketers research and access the information and data to understand their customers tendencies and preferences. A more traditional approach that a manufacturing company may use is having Capital One is started with a strict business model and then having to computerize it later on. Everything is first manually done and analyzed in this case. The technology and use of software would be used later on in terms of Capital One’s informational strategies. Capital One Case Study. (2016, Dec 08).

Compare and contrast narrative family therapy, multigenerational Research Proposal

Compare and contrast narrative family therapy, multigenerational family therapy, experiential family therapy, structural family therapy - Research Proposal Example Narrative therapy s used by Narrative therapist when a person suffers major setbacks due to problems that had a great influence on his present life. This approach is essentially used by the therapist to help the person to describe the different trajectories or stories of their lives to understand how it impacted on their present situation. The person needs to describe his mode of living and the different possibilities associated with them to give the therapist a better advantage of meting out the right treatment. The focal point of the narrative therapy is not to focus on the problem itself, but to project how these problems have influenced and taken their toll on the person. Such an approach is termed as â€Å"externalization† or â€Å"objectification†. The Narrative† approach helps the person to re-frame, re- group or re-author various conversations, values and incidents that have had a powerful influence on them and has created a great impact on their present lives. The Narrative approach enables the person to understand their beliefs, principles and skills in a better light and thereby encourages them to weigh the pros and cons, examine and evaluate themselves and their relationships after a thorough investigation. The primary duty of the therapist is to pose such questions that would encourage the patient to externalize the problem and thereby investigate it to find the right solution. The therapist poses questions that help the person to examine the bitter areas and find alternatives to the problem which had caused all the pain. By talking to the person, the therapist is in a position to help him change the direction of his thoughts and restore some of the values and principles that were lost due to its influence. By the end of the session, the therapist would know clearly, whether there is scope for turning around the problems in a positive manner or if the problems have been too strong and

Group Meeting Minutes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Group Meeting Minutes - Essay Example UML were used to describe the current system on how it operates. Use case were in this study used to demonstrate this below are the minutes of the group that took place while looking at this case study. Further consultations about the group activities were done via social media where we created a group page on Facebook. Members with issues, suggestions could raise it here before or after the meeting. [Inception Phase Meeting 1] [ Group Name] Date: 5/31/2015 Location: Lab Group Members Present: Abdu, chairperson Benjamin, Benson, Emily assistant chairperson Fatima Hassan, Jason, Jennifer, Joseph, Karen organizing secretary to the group Shirntel 1. First Agenda Item The first meeting was held in a class with an aim of Identifying the need or usefulness of a project. The group members were to establish the following a. Establish a vision for the solution or enhancements planned b. Develop a business case statement for the project Decision(s): 1. The group agreed on a project which is a Fitness Centre that is planning to upgrade it information system to have modern and up-to-date cards for its members and backup procedures for its data. The group was to evaluate the current system what it does with an aim of proposing an appropriate upgraded system for the clients. 2. The vision for the project was established which was To Provide Better Services to the Clients. 2. Second Agenda Item Members sought to establish the requirements and the scope of the project which they had decided to undertake. The agenda was to: 1. Initial list of requirements 2. Identify scope or boundary of the new system or system enhancement Decision(s): a) The listed the initial requirements of the project as: i. Having the knowledge of the previous system, how the customers accomplish their tasks using the system. ii. Having the estimated time for the installing of the new project iii. Having possible tasks that will take place iv. Cost estimations from the time, tasks and what is already avai lable. How will the new system improve service satisfaction to the members and how will the staff benefit from the new system. 3. Third Agenda Item Develop preliminary schedules indicating areas of individual interests Decision(s): b) The following schedules and individual tasks were established Task Assigned Individual Responsible Additional Information Requirement engineering Benson, Jennifer Analyzing the user requirements Feasibility study Jennifer, Karen Study if the system is doable System analysis Jason, Emily & Benson Analyse the current system and define the system requirements according to priority Scheduling of the tasks to be done Joseph, Abdu, Hassan, Fatima Looking at what the group should do. UML designs Karen, Emily & Shirntel Design the system basing on the methodology(incremental) Looking the benefits of the new system Abdul, Benjamin, Emily Looking at the cons and pros of the proposed system in terms of cost and services delivery Presentation of the analysis to th e tutor/class All the team members The findings of the current and proposed systems Minutes prepared by: [Karen / Date ] Minutes Approved: [Abdul , signature] [Inception Phase Meeting 2] [ Group Name] Date: 5/31/2015 Location: Lab Group Members Present: Abdu, chairperson Benjamin, Benson, Emily assistant chairperson Fatima Hassan, Jason, Jennifer, Joseph, Karen organizing secretary to the group Shirntel 1. First Agenda Item Notes: the main objective of this second meeting was to allocate responsibilities to

Obama and National Security (NASA) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Obama and National Security (NASA) - Essay Example Nonetheless, this paper focuses on discussing effects of changes in security and their effects on American citizens. Some of the changes that have occurred in NASA include lying off thousands of employees, thereby resulting to loss of pertinent skills and experience. Moreover, some of these changes have led to difficulty in reconstructing complex and reliable space system that can lead to increased effectiveness for security systems (Dinerman, 1). Therefore, it is evident that these changes are leading to deterioration of state security, which increases the vulnerabilities of the citizens. In this case, NASA has to be maintained for it to continue making relevant contribution on the American global power. Apparently, this agency is likely to succumb to confusion and lack of comprehensible directive that can assist in facilitating America security. In that case, Americans are likely to experience a future with increased vulnerability due to threats of terrorism. In conclusion, this paper has offered an overview of the function taken by NASA in facilitating security of Americans and effects of chang es occurring within this agency such as increased vulnerability of American citizens. Neal-Jones Nancy and Steigerwald Bill. â€Å"New NASA Mission to Help Us Better Estimate Asteroid Impact Hazard†. NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. February 7, 2013. Web June 23 2013

Rousseau's view on language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Rousseau's view on language - Essay Example This means that at first the worlds did not have meaning per se and acquired stable meaning only later in history when speech lost its original characteristics. Furthermore, Rousseau suggests that the theories which argue that the origin of language might be easily explained by the necessity of the people to communicate about future actions and coordinate them are mistaken. He points out the fact that when a person is crying, the situation is understandable without any words as the person feels compassion and might comfort the other person without even knowing the language. As has been mentioned before, one would make no mistake pointing out that speech and song originate for a common source: the desire to convey inner feelings. While they were developing together, there are several factors that accelerated evolution of the former, such as the invention of writing. Indeed, people started to record what they say much earlier than they invented ways to record

Summary of Articles Concerning Semiotic Pedagogy Annotated Bibliography

Summary of Articles Concerning Semiotic Pedagogy - Annotated Bibliography Example In the past, learning art only entailed being taught the history of art, art aesthetics, and art criticism. This approach relied on the concept of art being a disciplinary subject where signs and codes were disregarded. However, involving semiotics enables the development of this approach in order to perceive art as interdisciplinary. In other words, Smith argues that art also involves the coding and decoding of visual culture. This approach has largely depended on the current technological innovations, especially in the IT sector. Charles Pierce, in the nineteenth century, predicted this development in the literature by saying that further instructions in the process of teaching and learning will need to be included n the future as the world evolved. For instance, art teachers base their ideas on their own reflections, experiences, and interests. Understanding, thinking, and making connections between these factors enable their ideas to make sense. Moreover, Pierce argues that these factors describe the goals of contemporary semiotic pedagogy. The author tries to aid the location of the exact intersection points of semiotics and art education. Furthermore, other than find this point of intersection, Smith-Shank (2003), seeks to identify the signs backed by symbols in different cultures that contribute to the formation of art education. Therefore, this research aims at discovering the fine art and artifacts, inclusive of cultures that contributed to their formation and pinpointing their relevance in art education. On attainment of this relevance supported by the surrounding values, then it can be incorporated in art education for purposes of instilling knowledge or such. Moreover, for decades now, art serves the purpose of bridging the transmission of diverse cultures in different communities.

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 3

Report - Essay Example After World War II Nestlà © saw a boom period and since then it grew at a faster pace leaving behind all the competitors of the market. Nestlà © is also listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange. It is also ranked at the number 1 position in the Fortune 500 companies in 2011. Nestlà © is serving over 150 countries at this time with almost 461 factories or operations in 83 countries. With the help of these facts and figures we can imagine the huge network of Nestlà ©. The basic key factor behind the foundation of Nestlà © Company was the research to find out the alternative for the infants whom mothers cannot feed. This was an intense social thinking and thus we can say that from its origin Nestlà © Company is aimed to work for the people and not for gaining profits. Nestlà © have taken many steps in the social concerns. They always try to satisfy their customer base not only with their products but also with the communication skills. Through this way they give value to the potential customers. Customer and supplier relationship management is an important tool to create a good company name. Nestlà © has always differentiated itself as the company focusing on the people who are very much health and nutrition conscious (Raza 2013). As per recent information, Nestlà © has announced to expand its research and development centre in Singapore. The primary focus of this R & D centre will be health and nutrition. The Nestlà © team also says that th e core aim of their company’s presence is to enhance the quality of people’s lives every day. This is also shown If we consider the world wide operations then there are almost 8000 brands which have been offered by Nestlà ©. As a result they have captured a huge market share and thus achieve success as compare to many other competitive firms. According to a news report Nestlà © is such a biggest company in the food industry that its financial results can predict the

Effective and Ethical Leadership Essay Example for Free

Effective and Ethical Leadership Essay Page 2. Throughout the evolution of modern business, leaders have strived to be effective and profitable. However, due to unprecedented business scandals throughout the past decade, strict adherence to the principles of business ethics has become more prominent and expansive than ever before. In light of scandalous and unethical business practices, as exuded by Enron and WorldCom for example, business leaders and governing agencies realize the importance of ethical behavior. Although there is not a clear cut or standard set of attributes that constitute an effective and ethical leader, there are several common aspects that can be identified. The most important attributes of an effective and ethical leader are trustworthiness and accountability. Employees must feel that they can trust their managers in any and every situation. Team members must believe that a manager has immaculate intentions for the well-being of the project and the team. Employees will work harder towards the goals of the organization as well as towards the goals of individual assignments if they feel that management is looking out for their best interests. Team members should not look at business management as an entity of oppression. Employees should be able to approach managers without intimidation or prejudice. In other words, workers should feel free to address concerns and express opinions. Experienced front line workers are more privy to minute details regarding the daily operations of the business. A worker that trusts his or her superior is more likely to express opinions and concerns that can enhance business activity or correct errors. Employees that trust the management of the organization will be more willing to work diligently towards the company’s goals. Employees that do not have a trustworthy management team can suffer from a reduction in morale. Overall, a lack of trust leads to a distant and less productive work environment. Page 3. Another equally important attribute of an effective and ethical leader is accountability. Effective managers should not be afraid to admit when they are wrong. Even the best managers make mistakes. In essence, a manager with a strong ethical track record will be able to address tough questions with realistic answers. Transcending departmental and hierarchal barriers, accountability promotes communication throughout the entire organization. For example, after years of slumping car sales coupled with rigid hierarchal divisions, Ford Motors decided to embark in a new direction with Alan Mulally as CEO in 2006. Throughout its century of existence, Ford â€Å"developed a very tall hierarchy, composed of managers whose main goal was to protect their turf and avoid any direct blame for its plunging car sales (Jones 2010). Even the COO Mark Fields stated that â€Å"at Ford you never admit when you don’t know something (Jones 2010). † New CEO, Alan Mulally, diligently worked to demolish the communication barriers between the divisions of production and to develop new ethical norms. For instance, he instituted weekly meetings where department heads were encouraged to openly share problems. Mulally promoted a new culture that was more accepting and open about mistakes. Moreover, sharing all a spects of production information through a universal lens can help to promote decreased production costs on a company-wide level. Organizations will prosper under a management that promotes and radiates accountability and trustworthiness. Employees are more prone to open lines of communication with trusted superiors. Managers that can accept responsibility for errors while co-piloting new plans of attack on pertinent issues can help to eliminate unnecessary depletion of organizational resources. A corporate culture that is built upon these attributes will be poised for future success. Page 4. Works Cited Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change (6th ed. , p. 14). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Martin Luther And His 95 Theses

Martin Luther And His 95 Theses Nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 on the eve of All Saints Day (according to Philip Melanchton, Luthers colleague in Wittenberg University), Martin Luthers 95 theses paved the way for the birth of a great spiritual movement called the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation ultimately signaled the end of the Medieval Age and the inauguration of modern times. What Luther intended to be a set of propositional statements to be debated upon over the abuses associated with the sale of the indulgences very soon became the key that unlocked the door towards the long-awaited reformation of the church of the late Medieval Christendom. The Sale of the Indulgences The doctrine of indulgences is peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church, unknown to the church fathers, and most importantly, to the apostles of Christ. It is basically defined as a certificate of forgiveness granted by a bishop or an archbishop within his diocese for the remission of the temporal punishment of sin both on earth and in purgatory, the alleged source of which was the surplus of merit and grace accumulated through the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints of the Church. What most particularly attracted Luthers attention in this regard was the extravagant preaching associated with the sale of the indulgences in Germany by a Dominican friar Johann Tetzel. Tetzel was commissioned by Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, to raise funds for the rebuilding of Saint Peters Basilica in Rome. As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, Tetzel proclaimed, the soul from purgatory springs. Luthers long quest for truth that resulted in his discovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone must have been the reason why he indignantly reacted to such a deceptive message that offered false hopes to those who bought the indulgences for themselves and their departed loved ones on account of their ignorance of the true gospel of Christ. The 97 Theses Before the 95 Theses Convinced that he must challenge the traditional views purported by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries, he published a set of 97 theses to be debated in an academic setting among his colleagues at Wittenberg University. The theses attacked many of the major tenets of the Church with a clear message in mind: that the gospel was entirely different from what had been commonly held. Luther expected the theses to cause a stir among the participants which in turn would allow him to divulge his great discovery. To his disappointment, they only mustered little interest. Martin Luther and His 95 Theses Despite such a cold response to his 97 theses, Luther composed another set of theses which he called The Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of the Indulgences, now popularly known as the 95 theses. Like the 97 theses, this new set of theses was also meant to provoke academic discussion among his colleagues in the university. They may have been an afterthought to a letter he sent to Albrecht through which he aired his disagreement on the sale of the indulgences. However, scholars are divided whether the Luther of the 95 theses was still a Roman Catholic clergyman at this time or already a Protestant Reformer. On the one hand, Luther appeared to have thought Pope Leo X was on his side in this matter. Some scholars even suggest (probably following the church historian Philip Schaff) that he was not protesting against the indulgences, but only against its abuse. On the other hand, a closer look at the document would reveal one thing for sure: what Luther was up against was not simply the sale of the indulgences but its theological underpinnings. As Princeton theologian Benjamin Warfield puts it, They constitute, in point of fact, a theological document of the first importance, working out a complete and closely knit argument against, not the abuses of the indulgence traffic, and not even the theory of indulgences, merely, but the whole sacerdotal conception of the saving process an outgrowth and embodiment of which indulgences were. While there may be apparent remainders of Roman Catholicism in the theses, they nonetheless assert the evangelical Protestant doctrine of salvation that refuted the sacerdotal system that was largely built on tradition instead of the Bible. In summary, the 95 theses proclaimed that indulgences cannot remit guilt as such a work belongs to God alone, that they are unable to make souls spring from the Purgatory, and that the truly repentant sinner has already received the forgiveness of God and is justified by faith alone. Sources: Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity Volume 2. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1985. Schaff, Phillip. History of the Christian Church Volume VII. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997. Warfield, Benjamin Breckenridge. The Ninety-Five Theses in Their Theological Significance. The Princeton Theological Review, xv. 1917, pp. 501-529. Copyright Edwin Vargas. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Greenwich Theatre: Be My Baby Essay -- Drama

Greenwich Theatre: Be My Baby Staging ======= The audience was seated in a "square u" shape around the square stage, which faced the audience at a right angle. There were two exits, one at right back and one at left back stage with room to walk between them. There was a curtain in the style of a hospital ward, which was pulled around one of the exits; the exact one depended on the scene, which worked well when it was pulled across the whole stage when Mary was giving birth. The stage was set out with all the scenery incorporated into one set, this included the laundry, Matron's office and Mary and Queenie's Bedroom. When extra scenery was needed, for example, laundry baskets, they had wheels fixed to the bottom so they could be wheeled in and out with ease as needed. The lighting was very effective in that it made the set look like a hospital ward. It also showed the different times of day, as there were different colours behind the window, orange for daybreak, and to set the time of year and temperature. Theatre The theatre was quite small making the audience feel more intimate with the play. Also, the size of the theatre meant that all of the audiences' attention was focused on the actors. There was a tension between the girls when Mary first enters the home. They build the audience up to a climax when Mary Gives birth, using the curtain as a screen as if in a hospital. The play highlighted the problems faced by pregnant girls in the 60's. The theatre, itself was different to those I am used to, it felt more welcoming to walk down a warmly lit narrow staircase. Towards an intimate seating area where the staff showed the audience to their seats in a similar way to that used in a cinema. Characters Mary Mary was portrayed as a bright girl with more confidence than I imagined her to have when I read the script. She walked with her chin up and her back straight. She seemed to be less friendly with Queenie than I thought she should. She also seemed to be a bit too snobbish and "above" everyone else. She spoke with a predominantly English accent, which abruptly changed to northern when she first entered the home, however, after the interval, it changed back again. Mary seemed very set in her ways and to the point in the way that she was portrayed. If Mary were an animal, she would be a peacock as they ar... ... directing the play, I would make her less confident and more eager to fit in. Also, if Mary was seven months pregnant, her father would've noticed so she would dress in baggy clothes or clothes that were too big for her, however, she entered the home wearing a fairly tight skirt and jacket set. The play highlights the problems and flaws in 1960's society, what pregnant girls had to go through and their feelings. They used the stereotypical northern teenager and divided it into four, adding feelings and history. Setting the play in northern England, using northern accents makes the girls sound "backwards" and poor. Audience Reactions The audience laughed mainly at Dolores. Norma made the audience nervous and made them pity her. Mary made the audience feel as if they could relate to her. Queenie was the leader of the girls, and so led the audience into the home and into the other girls' lives. Matron made the audience look up to her, as she was responsible for running the home. Mrs. Adams made the audience feel sorry for her to have to give up her own daughter, but at the same time hated for being so obsessed by her status and what others would think of her.

Modernist Movement in Fords Good Soldier and Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway Ess

Ford Madox Ford and Virginia Woolf were major contributors to the modernist movement. They, as well as others (such as James Joyce), were trying something new, by breaking down the boundaries of traditional writing. Ford's Good Soldier and Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway are two particular examples of the genre. These novels were not well-received in their own time. As time went on, however, the attitudes of the literary world changed and were able to finally see these works for what they really are – exemplary pieces of fiction, certainly worth merit. The Good Soldier was first published in 1915. Rebecca West penned a promising review for the year, ending with â€Å"Indeed, this is a much, much better book than any of us deserve† (40). Theodore Dreiser, in his review published in the New Republic in June of the same year, is not as kind. He disdains John Dowell as narrator, particularly his unreliable and meandering style, calling it a â€Å"bad method† (Dreiser 41). Dreiser goes on to explain that he finds no fault with the plot, just with the way Ford went about telling it. It is interesting to note that Dreiser states that a story must proceed in a linear fashion, bemoaning the fact that The Good Soldier does not follow this form, but yet winds up his article by calling the book â€Å"fairly representative of that encrusting formalism which, barnacle-wise, is apparently overtaking and destroying all that is best in English life† (43). In the early 1950s, there was a resurgence in interest (and criticism) of The Good Soldier. Mark Schorer, in his introduction to the 1951 reprint of the novel, called it a â€Å"great work of comic irony† (44). Where Dreiser denigrated the form of the novel as if it were sloppy and slapdash, Schore... ...so did literature, and eventually, critics began to come around and focus on particular aspects of these works, rather than dislike for them. Works Cited Author Unknown. â€Å"Book Notices.† The English Journal 14 (1925): 738-744. 4 Nov. 2014. Bullett, Gerald. â€Å"Virginia Woolf.† The English Journal 17 (1928): 793-800. 4 Nov. 2014. Cassell, Richard A., ed. Critical Essays on Ford Madox Ford. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co., 1987. Cheng, Vincent J. "Religious Differences in `The Good Soldier': The `Protest' Scene." Renascence 37 (1985): 238-247. Literature Resource Center. Infotrac. U of South Florida, Tampa. 18 Nov 2014. . Hoffman, Charles G. Ford Madox Ford. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co., 1990. Wright, Nathalia. â€Å"Mrs. Dalloway: A Study in Composition.† College English 5 (1944): 351-358. 3 Nov. 2014.

The Importance of Family in McCullers The Member of the Wedding Essay

The Importance of Family in McCullers' The Member of the Wedding "I don't need my mother or my father anymore. I am a teenager, who needs them? I can definitely live on my own." Carson McCullers wrote a novel, The Member of the Wedding (1946), which put a twelve-year-old girl, Frankie, in the situation of leaving her family and hometown. After last year, her best friend moved away and she was left alone. She used to be very popular and hung out in all of the clubhouses around town. Now, she was not invited to any of them. Frankie is also very jealous of her older brother and his fiancà © because they get to travel all over the world. At their wedding, she plans to go off with them, and explore the world as three. Her father's helper, Berenice Sadie Brown, who is an African-American, tries to explain why she needs to stay here with her father. Not listening, she packs her bags with all of her belongings, and waits for the wedding. The wedding is celebrated an hour away from her hometown, so they are going to travel on a train. Every night, she would think about the long train ride over, but knew in the end, she would be away from the awful town. John Henry, her six-year-old cousin, always follows her around everywhere that she goes. He told her that he was running away with her, where ever she decided to go. After realizing that her brother was not going to let her stay with them, she runs away into the night. J... ...d pretty much helped Frances change her mind as well. Now, all she wanted was to be with her father. Carson McCullers wrote an extraordinary novel called, The Member of the Wedding. This novel shows real life situations to a teenager's mind. Frankie hated the town she lived, and hated living with her father. She wanted to explore the world at the age of twelve. Finally, after all of the obstacles she went through, she realized that family is exactly what she needed in her life at that moment. Although some teenager may not understand, family is one of the most important things that anyone will ever have in their life. McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding. Boston: Haughton Mifflin Company. 1973.

Fred Maiorino Case Study Essay

Overview Fred Maiorino began his career at Schering-Plough in 1958 at the age of 28. He had been a successful sales representative till Jim Reed took over the position of General Sales Manager for South Jersey sales district in 1987. In 1988, Fred received his lowest ever performance evaluation of â€Å"Good† which was lower than any other sales representatives’ in the district. In fact, Fred’s salary increase at the end of the quarter was less than half of the average of other sales representatives who were at least 20 years younger to him. When Reed first came to New Jersey sales district, he turned to Fred for help and leadership. He implemented a new performance evaluation measuring system which rated salesmen according to two different measures. This new system included evaluations based on product market share gains and critical incidents of effective and ineffective salesmen actions recorded during joint calls made by district managers and sales reps. Moreover, Reed began coaching his subordinates and providing them with medical journals to help improve sales pitches. Unfortunately, even after working at Schering-Plough for over three decades as a highly successful salesman, Fred was terminated over coffee with Jim Reed at a local diner. This paper discusses why the different initiatives taken by Schering-Plough to motivate Fred Maiorino had failed. It also examines Reed’s role in the alleged breach of psychological contract and, contributions to the injustice and discrimination against Fred. Finally, this paper will provide recommendations for alternative coaching, goal-setting and leadership approaches that Schering-Plough could have adopted instead to ensure employee retention and loyalty. Breach of Psychological Contract At the beginning of their relationship, Jim Reed informed Fred that he would require Fred’s help in leadership. Although Reed may have made the remark in a casual manner, Fred took it seriously as he was able to recall the conversation even after a few years. Older employees tend to enjoy collaborative tasks through social interactions more than competitive tasks (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004, p. 441). In fact, employees in their midlife  respond more positively to managerial strategies that promote cooperation instead of competition (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). In this case, it is fairly logical to think that Fred may have assumed that he would be promoted or provided with a salary hike if he was successful in helping Reed design a leadership plan for the district. In fact, this particular conversation with Reed may have led him to believe that Reed would acknowledge his hard work and loyalty by actually taking Fred’s advice or letting him help with the new strategy thereby , creating a psychological contract between the two parties involved. A psychological contact emerges when an employee believes that a promise of future benefit or return has been made in return for his contributions and, an obligation has been created for the employer (Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994). In other words, a psychological contract refers to the belief or perception of mutual obligations of an employee (Rousseau, 1989). Unfortunately, the assigned case does not indicate that Reed lived up to his promise of taking Fred’s help in motivating, mentoring and training new employees. According to Humphrey (2003) such acts can be deflating as the motivational benefits of bottom-up empowerment are forgone or lost. Moreover, violation of psychological contracts may lead to lower motivation and increased intentions to quit (Raja, Johns & Bilgrami, 2011). Thus, breach of such emotional contracts in the workplace may give rise to distrust, dissatisfaction and in extreme cases dissolution of the relationship between an employee and his employer (Roehling, 1997). In fact, breach of the psychological contracts lead to behaviors that undermine organizational effectiveness and efficiency (Lemire & Rouillard, 2005). Reed’s behavior increased Fred’s state of vigilance to the point where he began to actively monitor how well Schering-Plough was meeting the terms of their psychological contract. Moreover, in Fred’s eyes, Schering-Plough has breached the psychological contract with Fred. Fred had dedicated over 35 years of him life to the company only to find out it had made plans to make him retire early. Furthermore, Fred began to lose his faith in Schering-Plough when he realized that younger salespersons were being hired to replace long-term hard-working employees like him. In addition, Reed referred Fred’s decision to decline the early retirement plan as a foolish act. According to Zagenczyk, Gibney, Kiewitz, and Restubog (2009), supervisors’ supportiveness/discouragement strengthens/weakens the  relationship between employers and employees. A study that included 297 responses from 31 organizations confirmed a relationship between the existence of psychological contract and employee commitment. In fact, those with relational psychological contract exhibited more commitment to the workplace than those with transactional contracts (Chiang, Liao, Klein & Jiang, 2012). Violation of Procedural Justice Reed’s evaluation and spying on Fred resulted in the latter being suspended without pay for two days. This led to an increase in Fred’s feelings of injustice and violation. Additionally, Fred and Reed held different views of the measurement of Fred’s performance at work, flexibility, goal-setting and the purpose of coaching. In fact, Reed’s communication of matching market share goals and what was expected of Fred was highly complex and ambiguous. Such behavior on Reed’s part raised questions about procedural justice at Schering-Plough. Procedural justice is determined on the basis of the quality of what is being communicated an employee. In other words, procedural justice is based on the extent to which an employee feels whether his employer communicated crucial decisions in a sensitive and ethical manner (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). In other words, how a decision is made and communicated is what counts most (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). Unfortunate ly, Reed’s behavior implied that he regarded Fred as someone worthy of respect. This was further attested when Reed felt that it was not important to let Fred know the dates when he saw Fred’s company car parked in his driveway during work hours. Moreover, the new performance evaluation system implemented by Reed showed that Fred was doing â€Å"very good†. However, Reed decided to focus more on the least desirable component of Fred’s evaluation and give Fred and overall â€Å"good†. The results of the evaluation were humiliating for Fred as it was his lowest ever rating and was certainly lower than all other new hires who were at least 20 years younger to him. The assigned case study does not tell us how exactly Reed communicated his evaluations of Fred’s performance to Fred, but it does tell us that he evaluated Fred the very same way the second time. This time he sent Fred a memo letting him know that he was capable of doing better. The procedures involved in decision-making and the method of communication used affect employ ee behavior at work (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). Ineffective  Performance Appraisals and Goal-Setting Systems Right after Reed informed Fred that he would need the latter’s help, he implemented a new appraisal system that evaluated employees based on new criteria. However, this new system seemed to worsen his relationship with Fred. Job relatedness, formalization, reliability, open communication, trained appraisers, ease of use, employee accessibility and appeal procedures are among some of the characteristics of an effective appraisal system (Caruth & Humphreys, 2008). The newly implemented system barely met any of the above categories. General guidelines instead of comprehensive policies and written instructions were used by the company. It is important to use appraisal systems that encourage improvement and are not regarded as threats to be feared by employees (Hammer, 2007). As such, performance evaluations should be followed by accurate description and diagnosis of the ratings so that employees are able to discuss, understand and prevent future problems (Lee, 2005). This was lacking in Reed’s appraisal system. Moreover, recording and monitoring employee behavior during joint calls may have led Fred to be more cautious and nervous during client interactions. According to Gray (2002) such systems do not encourage competency or loyalty as they are distorted by evaluator bias. Fred never thought his performance rating was fair – in fact, he resisted it because older workers are more likely to avoid situations that put them at a disadvantage when compared to younger employees (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). The following paragraphs discuss what Reed could and should have done better to improve Fred’s situation and circumstances. Improving Leadership Style One of the major issues that led to Fred’s decision to take Schering-Plough to court was Reed’s ineffective leadership style. It is important for managers to know what behaviors promote achievement of results and what behaviors are plain ineffective (Lindbom, 2007). In fact, one of the most important job duties of a manager is to improve his followers’ performances. This meant, Reed should have communicated better with Fred. In fact, he should have asked Fred about his problems and listened to him instead of simply pushing him and sending him memos for poor performance. Continuous feedback and dialog would have allowed Reed to understand Fred’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses better while building a stronger bond with him.  Once this bond was built, it would have been much easier for Reed to alter Fred’s behavior according to the interest of the organization. An effective manager is attuned to individual followers and takes the right decision at the right time (Buzady, 2011). This allows the manager or leader to interact and alter workloads during difficult times. Transformational leaders focus on matching behaviors and communication instead of goals and skills (Humphreys & Einstein, 2004). Therefore, Reed could have improved Fred’s motivation and performance by communicating in a way that would have been easy for Fred to understand and relate to. Moreover, a leader must encourage and understand the ideals and values that his followers share. In order to come to a common ground with followers, an effective leader must think less about himself and more for others (Kerfoot, 2004). Congruency can only be reached when a leader looks beyond himself and more toward the opportunities for advancement of his followers. Leaders should ensure that challenging work that is valued is provided to subordinates while considering the followers ability. He should always consider the followers self-esteem and self-concept, communicate goals clearly and understand the relationship between paying attention to individual followers and job satisfaction (Isaac, Zerbe & Pitt, 2011). Moreover, it is recommended that sales leaders employ a more active style of leadership in order to improv e participation and performance. Therefore, Reed should have considered adopting transformational leadership style (Bass, 1993). Transformational leaders are those who are able to develop the ability within their subordinates to look beyond their own self interests and align their goals with that of the organization. Although transactional leadership style is more popular among sales managers and is believed to induce desired responses in employees, transformational leadership has been found to produce higher such results (Dubinsky, Yammarino, Jolson & Spanger, 2001). Transformational leader hold deep personal value systems that allow them to unite their followers while modifying their goals (Bass,1999). Moreover, transformational leader demonstrate individual consideration, charisma and inspirational motivation – all of which were lacking in Reed from Fred’s point of view. Improving Coaching Furthermore, Reed needed to change his way of coaching his subordinates.  Reed’s concept of coaching included handing out manuals and writing memos that stated Fred was capable of doing better. Today, most organizations are determined to improve the ability of managers to coach their subordinates effectively. Many organizations shelve out millions of dollars to promote and facilitate a health coaching environment. In fact, coaching is considered a manager’s top priority in many companies. Therefore, Reed should have designed one-on-one monthly meetings with his subordinates where he could have discussed ways to improve individual sales performance. Moreover, instead of punishing Fred for products that he was selling less of, Reed should have first appreciated Fred’s top selling products. Subordinates look forward to reinforcement when they do the right things and welcome constructive criticism when they recognize their work needs improvement (Robinson & Roussea u, 1994). Improving Reward System . A sudden change in the reward systems is usually not well accepted among employees who perform consistently. Therefore, it was critical for Reed to first speak to his subordinates regarding changes in Reed used a highly ineffective reward system where the company ended up awarding Fred less than his expected salary increase. Instead, Reed should have made every effort to determine what rewards his subordinates valued and how much effort they were willing to make to attain the rewardsperformance and work with them to improve on it. Constant coaching, mentoring and one-on-one monthly individual performance evaluations would have given employees an idea of what rewards to expect from the new system. In fact, the unexpected and unprecedented reward might have actually de-motivated Fred to the point where he did not find it necessary to work on his weaknesses in selling the two major products of the company. References Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re†examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72(4), 441-462. Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1993). Transformational leadership: A response to critiques. Braun, C. (1997). Organizational infidelity: how violations of trust affect the employee-employer relationship. The Academy of Management Executive, 11(4), 94-95. Buzady, Z. & Georgiu, A. (2011). Riding the waves of the motivation cycle. OD Practitioner, 43(1), p. 35-41. Caruth, D. L. & Humphreys, J. H. (2008). Performance appraisal: essential characteristics for s strategic control. Measuring Business Excellence, 12(3), p. 24 Chiang, J. C., Liao, C., Klein, G., & Jiang, J. (2012). Consequences of psychological contract violations for IS personnel. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 52(4), 78-87. Dubinsky, A. J., Yammarino, F. J., Jolson, M. A., & Spangler, W. D. (1995). Transformational leadership: An initial investigation in sales management. The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 17-31. Hammer, M. (2007, Spring). The 7 deadly sins of performance measurement and how to avoid them. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(3), p. 19-28. Harvey, S. & Haines III, V. (2005). Employer treatment of employees during a community crisis: The role of procedural and distributive justice. Journal of Business & Psychology, 20(1), p. 53-68. Humphreys, J. H. (2003). Xenophon as leadership theorist: an early model of leader behavior and follower work motivation. Academy of Management Proceedings, D1-D6 Humphreys, J. H., & Einstein, W. O. (2004). Leadership and temperament congruence: Extending the expectancy model of work motivation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 10(4), 58-79. Isaac, R. G., Zerbe, W. J., & Pitt, D. C. (2001). Leadership and motivation: The effective application of expectancy theory. Journal of Managerial Issues, 212-226. Kanfer, R. & Ackerman, P. (2004, July). Aging, adult development, and work motivation. The Academy of Management Review, 29(3), p. 440-458. Kerfoot, K. (2004, October). The shelf life of leaders. MEDSURG Nursing, 13(5), p348-350. Lee, C. D. (2005, Autumn). Rethinking the goals of your performance-management system. Employment Relations Today, 32(3), p. 53-60 Lemire, L. & Rouillard, C. (2005). An empirical exploration of psychological contract violation and individual behaviour. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(2), 150-163. Lindbom, D. (2007). A culture of coaching: The challenge of managing performance for long- term results. Organization Development Journal, 25(2), pP101-P106. Raja, U., Johns, G., & Bilgrami, S. (2011). Negative consequences of felt violations: The deeper the relationship, the stronger the reaction. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 60, 397–420. Robinson, S. L., Kraatz, M. S., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Changing obligations and the psychological contract: A longitudinal study. Academy of management Journal, 37(1), 137-152. Robinson, S. L., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of organizational behavior,15(3), 245-259. Roehling, M. V. (1997). The origins and early development of the psychological contract construct. Journal of Management History (Archive), 3(2), 204-217. Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2, 121–139. Zagenczyk, T. J., Gibney, R., Kiewitz, C., & Restubog, S. L. D. (2009). Mentors, supervisors and role models: Do they reduce the effects of psychological contract breach? Human Resource Management Journal, 19(3), p. 237-259.

A long walk home Essay

The whipping wind tossed and hurled the icy rain in countless directions, saturating the now shiny country cliffs. The tall huddles of trees were disrobed; leaving them exposed and stripped of their summer coats. Rays from the sun, were banished by the copious clouds that filled the once blue skies, and the raging storm antagonised the ocean until its fury could be heard from afar. Emerging from the evergreen woods, clinging vehemently to his school bag and protective coat, stood a young, well-mannered lad. This lad went by the name of Jack. Jack was a sprightly, yet gracious boy, tall, lean and of medium build, his skin was fresh and his eyes sparkled with a loveable mischief, which would captivate and sway any mother. Jack walked steadily against the elements, homeward bound. The wind bit at his flesh, like an adder bites its victims. He tugged at his hood, hiding himself from the driving unforgiving wind. And it was for this reason, this reason alone that Jack decided to take the short cut through the steep, sheltered cliffs. Read more:  Heavy School Bags Essay As the day closed in, Jack became ill at ease with his own redirected route. Oh! He had climbed the cliffs before, but never in these weather conditions, and certainly not this late in the evening, he knew oh so well, that if he didn’t make haste, the night would close before he reached the top. As luck would have it, the weather abated, the rain had eased to a mere drizzle, the wind to a light breeze. And so he made his way carefully and cautiously up the steep winding cliffs. He was nearing the top, when he suddenly realised he had taken a wrong turn, the path, such as it was, had petered out, leaving a very tricky way forward indeed; across slippery rocks and shingle; with a sheer drop either side. But, if he were to turn back now, it would be hours before he reached his destination; his parents would be gripped in the throws of panic. So, resolute and unrelenting, Jack continued along his arduous mission, until he reached a point from where he could no longer proceed, retreat offered no solution. Jacks dilemma seemed mountainous; there seemed no easy exit. The day’s light was diminishing rapidly. Jacks panic gripped him tightly; he needed to reach the top before the light faded. He scrutinized his location, scanning for any signs of help. Just then, a voice, a sweet friendly voice belonging to a girl, filled the air. â€Å"Are you alright there? You look as if you are in a bit of a pickle, would you like a hand?† Jacks anguished eyes searched for the source of these utterances, he saw nothing. Did his ears deceive him? Was it the wind playing tricks on him? â€Å"Hey! Don’t look so shocked and worried,† Came the sweet voice once more. â€Å"Who is that?† Spluttered Jack nervously, â€Å"where are you hiding?† â€Å"I’m here silly.† And there, in front of Jack, true enough, stood a girl about the age of himself, her wavy, blonde hair flowed to her waist, she was waif like, pale in complexion, slightly gaunt, but her piercing blue eyes sent out a radiation of warmth. She walked sure-footedly across the rocks towards Jack. † Follow me, I’ll show you the way,† whispered the girl, † that is, if you want to?† The girl offered her hand to Jack, Jack hesitated, she seemed friendly enough, but he really didn’t know her. â€Å"Honestly!† giggled the girl. † I wont bite you.† With that, they exchanged smiles, held hands and continued on their way, the girl obviously knowing the cliffs well, so assured did she place her feet. As they neared the top of the cliff, the boy asked. â€Å"Do you ever get scared, in case you fall?† â€Å"Oh no!† said the girl, â€Å"I fell once, I will never let that happen again†. â€Å"Were you hurt when you fell?† queried Jack sincerely. † It could have been very serious.† † What happened?† The girl sighed deeply, â€Å"I too got lost once. If it weren’t for this stranger, I surly would have died. He offered his helpful hand to me, but as I reached out, I lost my footing and slipped, I ending up clinging to the edge of the cliff.† † That must have been so scary!† exclaimed Jack. † It was, but scarier than that, was the fact that the stranger disappeared right after rescuing me.† † How odd! Maybe he was a ghost,† chuckled Jack. â€Å"Ghost? I don’t believe in ghosts,† said the girl, plainly amused by Jacks comments. † Neither do I,† said Jack defensively, in an attempt to mask his fears. Embarrassed at this, Jack thanked the girl profusely, bid her farewell, and continued his journey home. â€Å"Ghosts!† said the girl as she watched him leave. â€Å"What a peculiar notion.† Most close-knit neighbourhoods have strange ghost stories, as it happened, this community was not unusual in that fact. As this urban- legend would have it, the cliffs were inhabited by a ghost, a ghost who lead people to their deaths, an offering of a helping hand soon saw those who trusted it, plunged fatally off the treacherous cliffs. Was this just a legend to stop foolish children climbing the cliffs and hurting themselves? Or, was it something, far more supernatural? What do you think? Jack never saw the girl ever again.

Costco Wholesale Case Study

Stakeholders invest money with the intent to gain return in the future. It is important for stakeholders to gain access to information and evaluate the firm’s performance before they put money in it. On the other hand, it is the firm’s management team job to make decisions that would maximize the long term value of the firm’s common stock. The intent of this paper is to analyze Costco Wholesale Corporation’s financial performance and to assess how efficient the business has been over a five year period as well as to provide recommendation for financial management strategy. The problem identified in this paper is the low margins in the industry. Because margins are low, the profitability of individual companies depends on high volume sales and efficient operations. Costco Wholesale Corporation is high-growth Retail Company. The company has experienced significant growth from 1997 to 2001, which has caught the attention of the competition. However, the numbers are decreasing because return on assets, return on equity, and asset turnover ratios have declined within the same time frame. Costco Wholesale Corporation has been a major player in the retail industry. It is the largest wholesale club operator in the US. â€Å"The company operates about 555 membership warehouse stores serving more than 53 million cardholders in some 40 US states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and the UK, primarily under the Costco Wholesale name. † (Hoover's, Inc, 2010) Costco’s strategy is low prices strategy. The management team has been able to pass savings to customers, keep low prices and maintain healthy margins at the same time. This has been a result of the company’s ability to become more efficient over time. The company saves on operation costs in order to provide low price while still keeping high quality products for customers. It has been constructing warehouses with inexpensive concrete floors. Selling items in bulk has allowed for operating efficiencies. Also, carrying less variety of products than other competitors has contributed to keeping inventory costs down. High sales volume and rapid inventory turnover are very important for a firm’s financial performance. Therefore, they should not be overlooked by investors. Costco’s inventory turnover ratio of 11. 7% in 2001 is the highest compared to its competitors. It is a result of operating principle that allows Costco to improve its working capital and operate much more efficiently than its competitors. For instance, Costco buys directly from manufacturers and routes purchases directly to customers in less than 24 hours. â€Å"Cross-docks never stored inventory, so all of the items delivered were reloaded and shipped that same day. † (Case study, p. 6) This has increased efficiency by ensuring the trucks are operating at full capacity. It also has allowed Costco to receive cash in hand before it has to pay for the original merchandise from the manufacturer. This has resulted in a very high operating cash flow for the business. Cash is important to any company’s financial performance. It allows the company to pay its bills and invest in the business without having to use debt. According to Torres’s Common Size Financial statement Interest expense has decreased from – 0. 35% in 1997 to – 0. 09% in 2001. This has demonstrated Costco’s ability to reduce its overall amount of debt during these years. For example, the fact that short-term debts have increased from 0. 46% in 1997 to 1. 93% in 2001 and long-term debt have decreased from 16. 74% of sales in 1997 to 8. 2% in 2001, relates back to the decrease in Costco’s interest expense. This is a representation of the management’s team decision turn on to short-term and move away from long-term debts. In addition, the decrease in long-term debt has helped reducing total liabilities from 53. 32% of total assets in 1997 to 50. 46% in 2001. Costcoâ €™s current ration in 2001 is 0. 94, which is below its competitors. This could be a sign for weak liquidity position. However, the high inventory turnover ratio analyzed earlier in this paper in combination with the low current ratio is an indicator for efficient assets management. The competitors’ higher current ratio might also be a sign for too much inventory that might have to be written-off or too many old accounts receivables that could turn into bad debts. Sears and Walmart’s account receivables are a way higher than Costco and BJs, confirming that there is no significant reason for considering Costco’s current ratio a weakness. Costco’s gross margin has been well maintained over the five year period. Their gross margin of 10. 4% is much lower than Sears’ of 26. 6% and Wal-Mart’s of 21. 5%. Only BJ’s has a lower gross margin of 9. 2%. Costco’s 2001 gross margin suggests ability to remain profitable and very competitive at the same time. The company has been able to provide goods to customers at a very low mark-up and at a lower per unit cost. According to the case study Costco’s management team has decided to reinvest net income back into the company instead of paying dividends. This decision has resulted in earnings retention ratio of 100% as shown on Torres’s sustainable growth model. Absence of dividends could lead to some investor dissatisfaction in the short term. The return on equity (ROE) also has been decreasing during the five year period. It has dropped from 18. 6% in 1998 to 14. 2% in 2001, which could also lead to investor dissatisfaction. ROE tells how well stockholders are doing in term of return on their money. Costco’s 14. 2% return in 2001 is consistent with the current average industry ROE is 11. 5%[1]. Costco’s ratio is consistent with the industry average, but appears to be on the decline. A look at Costco’s ROE since 1997 shows a steady decline. Consistent reinvestment into the company has occurred in the form of new store construction and efficient modifications of old stores during these years. Such capital investments would take time to generate profits. Even though Costco’s ROE in 2001 is lower than in 1997 it still remains a large positive figure. As long as Costco’s management team continues demonstrates ability to successfully reinvest and improve efficiencies, stock price would most likely increase in the future and stockholder would be satisfied with long term returns on their investment. Economic factors should be considered when determining the future of the retail business. Economic factors include the economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. Economic downturns have forced customers to cut back on expenses. . Any significant decrease to consumer spending has to be considered as a threat. In 2000/ 2001 tough economic environment Costco has shown the ability to persevere and continue growing their business. Passing cost savings to customers is even more important in times of economic slowdowns when businesses and individuals are trying to do more with less. Economic constraints play a major role in wholesale business by forcing companies to be more creative and come up with higher efficiencies in order to provide lower prices. On the other hand, economic growth provides opportunities not only to Costco but to other rivalry as well. Social factors influencing the retail industry include culture, population growth, age distribution, and importance of safety. Costco warehouses are located further away from residential areas such as cities and older suburban areas. This creates inconvenience for customers as they would have to drive further to shop at Costco than a local grocery store. Costco has overcome this with a much better customer environment, larger discounts on bulk purchases and various incentives through their membership programs. Ecological factors include ecological and environmental aspects. For instance, Costco has been offering boxes to customers instead of plastic bags. Such green initiatives are necessary to address environmental concerns. They could also contribute to increased market share. Other factors that should be considered are customer demand, cultural changes, and technology. Today’s advanced technology provides opportunities for higher efficiencies as well as cultural changes. For instance, the internet has been a great shopping resource lately. It gives retailers the ability to offer lower prices and customers the convenience of shopping from their own homes. Costco’s management team should continue to work closely with customers in order to identify their needs and behavior. Costco’s mission is â€Å"To continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices. † (Costco, 2010). The management team should ensure that systems and processes are in place to carry on the mission. Ensure open communication channels between employees and management. Employees should be considered when the strategy is being implemented because successful strategy implementation requires motivation. The company should clearly communicate its vision and mission to all levels throughout the organization. Communicating the company’s vision and employees involvement in the decision making process would give them a stronger sense of job satisfaction. That would increase motivation and contribute to creativity enforce. Also to increase motivation the executive team should review management’s compensation and rewards. As part of trategy implementation the leadership team should develop support among stakeholders. One aspect of that is to establish global network of strong suppliers and ensure availability of strong partners who share technology, development cost, and speed to market Costco’s goal is to â€Å"Reward our shareholders. † (Costco, 2010) This analysis proves that Costco remains one of the industry’s leading players and there seems to be no reason for Torres to sell her shares. References Brigham, Eugene, & Houston, Joel. (2008). Fundamentals of financial management. South-Western Pub. Brigham, & Houston, 2008) Carpenter, M. A. , & Sanders, Wm. G. (2009). New Jersey, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. Costco wholesale corporation . (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. hoovers. com/company/Costco_Wholesale_Corporation/rkfjif-1. html Costco, Initials. (2010). Costco wholesale corporation. Retrieved from http://www. csrglobe. com/login/companies/costco_wholesale_corporation. html Jun, J. (2009, January 19). Taking stock in costco. Retrieved from http://www. oldschoolvalue. com/featured/taking-stock-in-costco/ ———————– [1] Data collected from Google Finance

Conflict Process Analysis

My thesis is a story of a dispute about a mobile phone and phone expenses between Telecommunication (a Chinese mobile telephone operation company) and me. I will use some organizational conflict theories, several types of conflicts and methods to handle with them to finish my dissertation. Telecommunication offered considerable discounts, while the rules were harsh. Staffs did not know the specific regulations, and I lost the best opportunity to undo the damage. The conflict occurred because of those things.Finally we overcame these obstacles with a good alternative. Handing with mobile phone affairs is close to our daily life. Moreover, it includes interest between the customer, Telecommunication and its staffs. My counterparts and I were strangers originally. Then we became game rivals through the event, and after that we became friends. Describe the situation of this dispute, the analysis of the situation and evaluations for Telecommunications are integral to my paper. Description of the Situation The owner of a branch of B & you, Flavor, two staffs, Julie and Sophie were involved in the conflict.Flavor is the boss of Julie and Sophie, and I was their customer. In August 2010, I got an admission to the university. Meanwhile, I received two discount coupons from Telecommunication (for you easy to understand, I use the B &you replacing the Telecommunication, and Flake and Julie replacing the owner's and the staffs original names). At the end of August, I went to university and went to B , planning to use the two discount coupons. One of them is for a new smart phone with which I can use it as 1700 RMI cash, and another one is for phone expenses with which I can use it as RHOMB.Julie, as a staff off branch of B (as most of TTS colleagues, she has a high quit rate because of low salary), told me that, with the voucher 1700 RMI, I could only pay 800 RMI and got a brand new Samsung phone whose price Is RHOMB. In addition, the voucher RHOMB can be sent to my phone account Into 24 months, 37. 5 RMI per month. This means that If I choose 68 ARM'S package (including mobile phone calls, text messaging, Internet), I can only pay 68 mines 37. Arm's part, which is 30. 5 RMI. Meanwhile, the contracts of the smart phone and the package were for two years.I had four years of college life. Obviously, this combination was very worthwhile. I signed a contract, paid REARMS in cash, got the phone. In the end of August, I had missed a strange call, and I did not put that In mind. On September 2nd, Julie called me to Inform me to go to B with my mobile phone. Intuition told me that something wrong happened, so I came to B with my phone and the contract. Julie told me B requested the customers to buy a mobile with the voucher in your hometown-City Changes, and to use the phone expenses voucher in your university city- Nanjing.I didn't meet the requests simultaneously, so I have to give up one discount. Due to the mobile phone cannot to e back, so I have to pay the whole package fee 68 RMI without any discount. That telecommunication company. And the regulation was too sudden for me to accept it. There was no such rule cited on our contract. Because it involves the interests of the owner of B &you branch, Flavor, she also came forward. She gave rise to the conflict. I asked to cancel the contract, however, Julie explained it was impossible. Because all the data about me has been uploaded to corporation, and the contract has been activated.She added that on the last day of August, she tried to inform about it and anted to ask me if I accept it or not, but the call was not connected. We cannot comprise with each other. Flavor insisted the contract can not be cancelled. If it was cancelled, she had to compensate for this phone (this phone belonged to B &you company). At the same time, I cannot accept the full price of the bill. For a student, 68 RMI per month was expensive. And B &you are not the most popular mobile companies. My friends tend to use Orange, whose services are better.If there had not been two vouchers, I would have not considered to use B &you. From my point of view, there are three reasons contributed to the conflict. The rules of you were harsh. Staffs do not know the specific regulations. And I lost the best opportunity to undo the damage. Julie would view the event as a big mistake, complaining about the complex rules of company. Flavor would regard the conflict as a loss in business. Apparently, the main issue was that we should we cancel the contract which the company added some rules in or not. Who should be the compromiser?The situation was deadlocked. Clerk Julie distressed. She did several things wrong. Firstly, she was not familiar with the company policy, not following the company's rules. Secondly, she id not contact me successfully at the critical moment when we can limit the damage. 1700 Arm's damage was almost half a month of her salary. I could see that she wanted to escape from the situation. Flavor did not understand the actual regulations, and she asked me blindly to compromise to reduce her loss, regardless of our contract. My feelings were angry and frustrated.At that time, another staff Sophie came over. She came up with a solution. She provided a very favorable B &you card, only 20 RMI per month, including telephone calls, text messaging, Internet. If I use this card, I still continue to use the B &you hone and SIMI card, and reach a two-year contract period. Meanwhile, owner Flavor losses can be minimized, because I follow the regulations, I only use the phone vouchers and do not cancel the contract. We have come to an agreement. After several hours' debate, we agreed with Sophie's proposal to resolve the conflict.Flavor, Julie, Sophie and I became friend from then on. We chat happily when I go to B &you branch for doing cellophane's affairs. I was lack of experience at that time, but I should say to myself for sticking to it and not compromising easily Just because the rival was a competitor. Analyzing the situation Obviously, the whole matter was an organizational conflict rather than an interpersonal conflict , as it focused on the matter itself than the relationships between the staffs and me. When Sophie supplied her free phone card, the entire conflict entered a controlled phase.If we did not enter the controlled phase, we would fail to reach any consensus. The owner may be forced to take the phone out of me, and my friend and I may be fight for it. Flavor has run a B shop at my university for almost five years, enjoying a certain reputation. She cannot make things wrong as a businesswoman, continuously asked us to comprise. , as a student, would not be allowed to use violence to resolve this conflict. The relationship between the owner and the customer restricted the conflict, and a good proposal ended the dispute. We all wanted to solve this conflict, because we were all stakeholders.In fact, there is no right or wrong in this conflict, and it is B complicated rules that resulted to the conflict. Flavor, Julie and I wanted to minimize our own losses. Flavor did not understand the actual regulations, and she asked me blindly compromise to reduce her loss, and regardless of our contract expressly provided. Apparently, she an be defined to be a competitive negotiator. Flavor only believed in something specific and credible, for instance, her less cost about the phone. So she adopted Sophie' proposal, it cost her little. Obviously, Julies response to the dispute can be defined as an avoiding approach.The avoiding approach (uncooperative, unassertive) neglects the interests of both parties by sidestepping the conflict or postponing a solutions. She was under great pressure. When conflict happened. Her body appeared compressive reaction, accelerating the secretion of adrenaline, showing rapid breath and a flushed face. She had a tendency to break down. Such reactions were bound to damage her health. When conflict was resolved, we were very satisfied. Apparently, Flavor, Julie and I will be the first three persons who observed the conflict resolved.At the time, the other staffs would notice that. This matter would bring to our friends and family later. In this conflict, no one will benefit from our conflict unresolved, so no one would want to keep the conflict. Finally, our outcomes were good. We did not lose a cellophane or paying high-priced charges. We minimized our lost and maintained a very good staff-customers relationship. Julie embedded this fault and spent more time in learning company's rules. Wrong interpretation of company policy caused this conflict between shopkeepers and the customer. Roles determine the ideas and behavior.We all tend to meet our own personal goals, as an assertiveness rather than cooperativeness when faced with the conflict. There is some potential opposition between us. They are businesswomen, paying attention to their profits and reputation, and I am a student, trying to get more discount. When conflict happened, we tend to a win- lose situation. Sophie was a mediator. Bonuses for collaboration reduced the conflicts. With her help, the estimation became an integrative bargaining rather than a distributive bargaining. We accepted the new proposal and created a win-win situation.It seems that providing a less expensive SIMI card was the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. To be honest, without the help of Sophie, I had no better way to resolve this matter. Such weakness will only make the problem deadlocked. Maybe I will consult the teacher or my parents to see if they have any good way. Recommendations The conflict was all about an up-to-dated contract should be canceled or not, including the shopkeeper Flavor, the staff Julie and the customer me' s interests. We signed a contract about two discount coupons at first. Then B & you added some harsh rules about it.