Offer investors the highest expected rate of return - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2401 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? INTRODUCTION The main aim of this case is to find the portfolio that will offer investors the highest expected rate of return for any degree of risk they are willing to tolerate. Extra returns are needed by the investors for taken a higher level of risk and covariance measures the process in which the returns of two securities vary with each other. Sandra is a new investor; she needs the basic idea on risk-return tradeoff and on portfolio management from Bolton in order to make the right investment. When investors are considering investing in a security market, the problem they face is deciding how much to invest or hold and choosing the best security which depends on the characteristic of risk-return of different individual securities. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RISK AND RETURN People invest their money in order to have good income which will help them in the future; this investment involves risk and return. The risk and return are the process through which investors makes decision. The inv estment return is the compensation given to investors for the time spends waiting and the worries based on the risk of an asset invested. (Brealey,Myers Marcus, 2009,p.317). Investors uses the historical record to measure the current opportunity cost of capital which is the return that shareholders gives up for investing in a project and probability is used to estimate the possible situation which will occur within the period of investment. (Roses,Westerfield Jordan,1998,p.367). In appendix A, the risk premium serves as the compensation to investors for investing on that particular asset. When comparing individually, the utility-company is the best decision based on their coefficient-variation since it has the lowest value in units i.e. having 2.65% of risk, 9.7% of return and 0.27 of coefficient-variation. Then High-tech-company has 21.91% of risk, 10% of return and 2.19 of coefficient-variation. Counter-cyclical-company has 12.07% of risk, 5% of return and 2.41 of coeffici ent-variation. Therefore expected return depend on the risk involved and Investors uses the past record to estimates the future using the method of arithmetic average, variance, standard deviation since he assume that the future will be like the past. A good investor needs to choose a project which has higher return and lower risk but when its difficult to decide between two asset, then coefficient-variation may help. HOW BETA RELATES TO REQUIRED RETURN Pls draw another chart of beta in your tutorial paper at the back. figure1 Any potential investor that wants to get good return with better risk when investing on a market portfolio should able to understand the meaning of beta because it measures systematic asset or non-diversifiable risk in order to get a high return. Beta is the sensitivity of the return of stock over the variety in market portfolio return. (Brealey, Myers Marcus 2009,p.340). It is the measure of risk on the portfolio of an individual stock a nd it account for both stocks for standard deviation and correlation among other securities available in the market.(levy Alderson,1998,p.307). The market risk premium depends completely on the beta in order to get assets risk premium. Therefore beta is an important determinant of an asset expected return in order to eliminate a systematic risk which cannot be diversified. An average beta is 1.0, risk free rate is 0. Aggressive-stock shows that its riskier than the market portfolio but provides larger gain while Defensive-stock shows that stock will fluctuate less than the market which is relatively safer but provides lesser gain. Also based on the calculation in appendix C, the beta for the individual asset are Utility-company is 0.529, High-Tech-company is 0.207 and counter-cyclical-company is -0.356 showing that all the individual asset are on defensive-stock. The formula is Beta j = Covariance mj / rm. The company with the highest risk is Utility-company and the lowest ri sk is Counter-cyclical-company. Composite index is preferred more than index fund because is a standardized combined indexes which provides useful measures statistically in overall market performance. Also the expected return is more than the index fund and the chances of risk is very low compared with index fund as shown in appendix B, i.e. having return of 18.70% and risk of 4.96% while index fund has only 8.40% of return and 10.72% of risk. WHY WE HAVE TO DIVERSIFY OUR INVESTMENT Since investors cannot be able to reduce their risk and return of two assets based on each scenario performance then it is better to diversify in-order to balance the risk and return of any two assets. Diversification is a principle designed which reduces the variability of risk by spreading the market portfolio across many investment.( Brealey,Myers Marcus 2009,p.323). Its the distribution of investors saving among different securities and it reduces investors overall risk of their holding either as losses in one investment or partial profit attained in another investment. (Lee, Finnerty Norton,1997,p.39). Therefore diversification is the spread of risk and return of two or more assets with different characteristics. In the calculation shown in appendix D, the right choice is Utility-company which its risk is 2.65% and return is 9.70% while the risk for Counter-cyclical-company is 12.07 and its return is 5% but needs to be diversified in order to balance the scenario performance of both companies. Diversification is applied by Investing 75% in utility-company and 25% in Counter-cyclical-company which gives a portfolio return of 8.53% and 1.41% of risk. The portfolio risk of a stock depends on whether the return tends to vary or against the return of other portfolio asset. Not to put all eggs in one basket. Sandra diversify primary to reduce unnecessary risk in order to maximize the present-value of her lifetime consumption and diversification reduces risk by de creasing the amount of uncertainty of return without reducing expected return. The Possible situation which can affect the stock price may be as a result of macroeconomic factors. DETERMINING UNDERVALUE AND OVERVALUE FROM SECURITY MARKET LINE Figure2 Any investors who those not want to lose his or her investment in the market suppose to understand what SML means in order to make the right decision. Security market line shows the standard for investing different fractions of market fund based on the risk and expected return.(Brealey,Myers and Marcus,2009,p.349). SML signify or establish a linear relationship between beta and the expected return for all the assets.(Levy and Alderson,1998,p.319). In figure2 above calculated in appendix C, the individual stock at Beta 0.529 offers 12.24% expected rate of return, risk free rate of 5% and market risk premium of 13.7%. No investor will buy when the stock offered a lower rate of return. The price will drop if nobody decides t o hold the stock which is a better buy for investors. This will lead to a higher rate of return and the expected return will move to 12.24%, therefore at this point the capital assets pricing model holds at the expected return and the price. The Utility-company is overvalue because is below the SML line while High-tech-company and Counter-cyclical-company is undervalue because is above the SML. The Capital Asset Pricing Model helps to show that the expected rate of return of all securities and portfolio lie on security market line and also expected rate of returns depend completely on the beta. The CAPM is graphically represented by SML. EFFECTS OF INTEREST RATE IN A DIVERFISIFIED PORTFOLIO Investors needs to know what it means when the rate is high or low and focusing very well in the interest rate movement in order to make reasonable decision. Capital Asset Pricing Model is described as the relationship between return and risk which states that the expected risk premiu m on security is equals to its beta times the market risk premium.(Brealey, Myers Marcus,2009,p.348). It explains the exact linear equilibrium relationship between the beta and the expected rate of return of individual assets and portfolios. (Levy Alderson,1998, p.322) Based on the definition of diversification explained previously, if Sandra choose a well diversified portfolio, these will be as a result of when the stock more than 12.24%, then diversified investors will like to buy more of that stock which will automatically increase the price and the expected return will decrease until it is at the level of CAPM. CAPM is a recognized instrument or techniques which help to adjust risk discount rate through the analysis of portfolio i.e. risk are measured in beta factors and these measures the sensitivity of its return on a quoted shares based on the market movement as a whole. INVESTING ON FIXED-INCOME SECURITY Any Potential investor like Sandra who those not know whe n the investment is defensive or aggressive should better put her money bank on a fixed income security. A project NPV or cost of capital is the amount which is expected to multiply the wealth of current shareholders of a firm and the rules is that if the proposed projects NPV is positive, then invest but if not dont invest. (BodieMerton,2000,p.168). The project cost of capital is the acceptable minimum expected rate of return on a project with its risk given. (Brealey, Myers Marcus,2009,p.357). If Sandra prefers to put all her money in fixed income securities, then the cash-flow of the project needs to be calculated. If for example the future interest rate of return is 18%, risk free offers a return of 5% and expected market risk premium is 13.7% with zero beta: r=rf+B(rm-rf), = 5+(0x13.7)= 5%, then since the expected return is 18% while the cost of capital is 5%, Sandra should go ahead but if compared with the exact project return of 18.7% company cost of capital, then th e project is not worthwhile. Furthermore, in the cost of capital, if the market portfolio has the same risk with the project and the beta is 1.0, it means that its still worth investing on even though the project appearance is less attractive. GROWTH RATE A HOT TIPS FOR UNDERVALUE STOCK A hot tip is an important idea given to new investors like sandra in order to monitor its investment knowing whether it is in the right track or not. Growth stock: when firm stock are repurchased, the stock are considered to be undervalued, which means that the market is less than the present value of future stock expected cash-flow and this decision is concluded when management uses Present Value evaluation models. (Levy Alderson,1998,p.478). When the future investment opportunities which are expected to yield a rate of return is greater than the required risk adjusted rate of the market.( Bodie Merton,2000,p.242). Investors buy growth stock and income stock expecting to have capital gain s and cash dividends in the future.(Brealey, Myers Marcus,2009,p.201) Therefore hot tips regarding undervalue stock is an identified movement of stock growth knowing up-to-date and valuable information on when to buy stock which guarantees successful trading on the stock market. This superior knowledge and strategy makes investors like Sandra to have confidence, secure and buy right stock at the right time with excellent return not minding what the market will be in the future. DIVERSIFYING EQUALLY IN THE STOCK OF TWO COMPANIES Diversifying equally in the companies is a good choice for Sandra so as to balance her risk and return between the companies which can sometimes eliminate risk completely. the calculation shown in Appendix E, it explains that High-tech-company has higher return of 10%, higher risk of 21.91% and beta of 0.207 while counter-cyclical-company has lower return of 5%, lower risk of 12.07% and beta of -0.356, this is difficult to choose without beta but using the beta method will now help Sandra to make the right decision. When Sandra invests her money equally on the two companies through diversification then the expected return will be 7.50% and the risk will be 6.63%, these shows that when two companies are joined together, the volatility will decrease as a result of the performance in each scenario. Finally, the inverse relationship between the two companys return mean that adding Counter-cyclical-company in all the High-tech-company stabilizes the portfolio returns. The Counter-cyclical-company reduced the return performance of the High-tech-company but improving the worst-case return. Therefore every investor cares about its risk and expected return of their portfolio assets. INVESTING 70%:30% IN A DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO An investor that invested with index-fund with 70:30 is also a good choice except that the risk is very high compared with 50:50 above. Index fund is an investment collective scheme or rules set which is held constant not minding the movement of the market. it is usually an exchange trade-fund or mutual fund constructed with a portfolio to track the market index components. The calculation shown in appendix F, explains that High-tech-company has return of 10% and risk of 21.91% while index fund has return of 8.4% and risk of 10.72%. To stabilize the risk, the two components will be combined through diversification using 70:30 respectively for High-tech-company and index fund and the result shows a return of 9.52% and risk of 18.54%. This combination of 70%:30% is good but using 30%:70% is much better as shown in appendix G. The returns will be 8.88% and risk is 14.06. The reason is because the different between 70%:30% and 30%:70% for High-tech-company and index fund is that, the return difference is only 0.64 but the risk is reduced more with 4.48. also investing more on index fund is much better based on the definition explained above and also when measuring the amount of risk per unit of return, 70%:30% gives 1.95 but 30%:70% gives 1.58. BEST SUGGESTION ON DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO The possible portfolio combination for Sandra that is more better than 30%70% in High-tech-company and index fund is investing 10%:90% as shown in Appendix H, because when measured per unit of risk over the return it will be 1.38 even though the return is still reduced to 8.56% but the risk is also reduced more by 11.83%. If Sandra choose this diversified portfolio its a good choice since it is the principal key relies mainly on statistical approximations in order to stabilize any chances of risk and return in her investment, no matter the fluctuation in the market or economic crisis around the globe. CONCLUSION Any comprehensive collection of risk measures should capture the following characteristic of the entire financial system which includes leverage, liquidity, correlation, concentration, sensitivity and connectedness. Therefore weather a particula r stock moves up or down is not that important to investors but what is important is the return and risk of that portfolio stock. Also using beta to estimate a systematic risk which cannot be diversified or better still invest fully in a fixed market income. Risk aversion explains that high security risk result to low price and high required return. Don’t waste time! 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Examples Of Nature Vs Nurture - 1082 Words

â€Å"In the real world there is no nature versus nurture, only an infinitely complex and moment-by-moment interaction between genetic and environmental effects,† (Gabor Matà ©, goodreads.com). Nature is something no one has control over, but nurture is another story. Nature is what is passed down from the parents, such as eye, skin, and hair color. Nurture are the influences around someone, such as peers, the media, friends, and parents. â€Å"High school students them former classmates of Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, chanted cheerleader rhymes, bubbled, bubblegum, gobbled hotdogs, and soda pop† (The Answer, 192). In the following paragraphs, I will explain why I believe nurture is more overpowering than nature. Nurture is the first thing that babies†¦show more content†¦Like parents, peers and friends have a bad influence depending on who a person hangs out with. 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Diploma of management Free Essays

â€Å"Smart† Goals Kebab’s R Us is a company always striving to improve and gain a higher and greater market share. With our dedicated staff we were able to achieve all our major goals that were set out last year. These goals were to increase the number of kebabs sold throughout all caravans, to update 20% of caravans by replacing it with a new caravan and brand new catering equipment that was more efficient, to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, to create a ‘mini sub kebab’ that could be catered for functions, to improve profits from $1 1. We will write a custom essay sample on Diploma of management or any similar topic only for you Order Now Million to $12 million in the financial year ending 2014, to place leadership programs in place to help employees to be trained to become caravan managers and to stay injury free. Results over the last year have been quite positive, meeting all target goals have been a credit to all staff. Hard work and dedication had paid off once the yearly report came in which backed it up with evident numbers. Falling Just short of the profit margin at $1 1. 9 million is still a satisfactory result. These achieved goals are a credit to all staff and also to the senior management team for applying the S. M. A. R. T goals principle to reach each. The teeters of SMART each represent a meaning these are; S- Specific M- Measurable A- Accountable R- Realistic T- Time Bound Major goals for next year will be similar in terms of growth and profit. Important objectives of not losing any customers, providing kebabs of the highest quality possible, to reach those customers or to cater for a wider community. To update a further 20% of caravans by replacing it with a new caravan and brand new equipment that will be more efficient lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Improving turnover to $40 million from last year’s $38. Million whilst also improving profits to $13 million. To introduce a commission scheme of selling a min of 250 kebabs a day to caravan operators which would result in bonuses and to promote those already trained personal into the 20 caravans that’s planned to hit the roads. Further improvement training to all personal of customer service which is federal government funded. Hiring 40 new staff to fill into the new caravan positions that are going to be opening, surveying customers to help us improve our service and also to yet again remaining injury free. Having similar target goals from last year ensures a greater chance to achieve these goals through the usage of SMART. Major goal NO. I Specific – Update a further 20% of vehicles including company cars and caravans from the start of the new financial year in 1/7/14-30/6/15. To achieve this goal Kebab’s R Us will use clearly defined processes and guidelines that were also used from the previous year to achieve the same goal. Location of vehicles that are being upgraded is the Queensland region. Requirements of this goal are enforced by government legislation and also to have a better looking image. Measurable- This goal is measurable as we need to have 20 vehicles updated in one year. Every quarter the aim is to have 5 vehicles upgraded. A project manager with a team is in hare of this changeover and upgrade in which they closely monitor it. Every quarterly the project manager attends a senior management meeting to discuss progress. Accountable- Everyone working in the changeover and management team is all liable to work in conjunction with each to achieve this goal. Realistic- The same goal was set out last year and it was achieved so it makes it a realistic proposition this year. Time Bound- The time frame for this goal will start from the 1/7/14-30/6/15, in this timeshare 20 vehicles must be updated to accomplish this goal. Major goal NO. 2 Specific- Improving turnover to $40 million from last year’s $38. Million in the financial year starting on 1/7/14 till the end of that financial year in 30/6/15. To achieve this goal Kebab’s R Us will use clearly defined processes and guidelines which will set the foundation to hit the ground running with changes in certain areas which will help the growth of the company. Located nationwide this goal is every employees aim. Requirement for this goal is to improve our market share and our share prices. Measurable- This goal is measurable as the company needs to grow by only $1. 9 million in the next financial year. The lowly some is still good considering a few years back of poor results. The finance team along with senior management is responsible to monitor and innovate new ways of increasing funds. Every month a meeting will be held to monitor and discuss changes to this goal. Accountable- The recruiting team regional managers which is led by the HRS officer. Realistic- This goal is realistic as new caravans rolling out every quarter new positions will open up therefore creating the chance to hire 10 new casuals every quarter to achieve this goal. Time Bound-The time frame for this goal will start from the 117/14-30/6115. The first intake of 10 new employees is expected on the 1/10/14 followed by the next quarter at 1/111 5 in conjunction of the new caravans becoming available. How to cite Diploma of management, Papers

Business Process Model of Bakery Case Study

Question: Discuss the factors you have identified and expalin why they are more reliable then the cliches in the original article. Answer: 1. business process of b bakery B Bakery is a bakery company that sells products to supermarkets and different pub chains. They have mixed customer base with some prominent businesses as their customer. They produces bakery products and supplies those to another businesses, shops etc. A bakery business needs has some production unit, supply chain management, sales, marketing, accounts, finance and HR management process. The supply chain management will take care of buying raw material from other businesses, like poultry farm, fruit shop, flour supplier etc. Then the production using will produce bakery product. Then the inventory and logistics management will need to store those products and delivery the orders to different shops, pubs etc. Accounts will manage the accounting activities, payment to suppliers, payment from customers, payroll management of the staffs etc. The HR management will take care of the hiring, payroll etc. of the staffs. Finally sales will take order and sells the products by exploring prospective markets. Marketing will takes care of promotion of the business. Each of the business processes are dependent on each other. If one process is affected it will hamper the whole business process. For example, if there is problem with supply product ion will be affected, and that will affect sales, finally accounts. In the same way, if the business losses some accounts, then the business will have less sales, HR management will suffer. Thus for running a bakery, it needs to take care of each business processes, the resources like baking equipment, bakers, chefs etc. B. Bakery will follow something similar to what a typical baker does. 2. Business Requirements Each process of a bakery business, as discussed in the previous section, are important and indispensable. However the core business processes are, SCM, production, HRM and accounts. But, accounts is the most important for any business as it works like fuel to the whole business process. The business of B bakery has got significant growth in last few years. However, currently it is facing some difficulties with accounts. They have dedicated accountant team with accounting experts who takes care of the bookkeeping etc. for the business. But the accounts cannot help in competitive decision making activities. As a result the company has lost some of its important accounts by failing to offer products at competitive price. Now, it has realized that the business needs more information for running it smoothly in coming years. These information are likely to come from their business processes and market research. Based on these information the company will be able to make strategic decisions and that will help them to bring their business to next level of success. (John Wiley Sons, 2012) The business wants to have an accounting information system for its business. They want to invest in some available accounting software for that purpose. Thus the business requirements for B Bakery are, Enhancing their accounts. Integrating all business processes and accounting system for better decision making. Investing in some available accounting software and customizing it according to their business process. Implementation of ERP and AIS for their business. ERP will help in integrating the business processes and will provide a better platform for AIS or accounting Information System. The bakery business needs several key outputs from its core business processes to achieve better performance of their business in market. The first thing needs from the business processes are information. All transactional and operational information are required for processing and decision making. Accounting is a process in a business that is connected to all other business process. So, for getting more information from the accounts process, it will need information from all business processes that are present in the business. It will take information like payable to suppliers, stock in inventory, amount of sales, possible margins, cost of raw materials, costing, labor charge etc. All these are important to setting competitive price of some product. Other information are needed from the business processes are the payrolls of the staffs of the company etc. For acquiring these information from the business processes, it will need an integration of the business processes and the systems used for the business processes. Better integration will provide better compatibility and faster business process. Ultimately that will help in earning more revenue. The AIS implemented over the ERP or integrated to the ERP implementation will provide a structure to the business that will help the business to collect, process, manage, store and retrieve financial and accounts information by business analysts, managers, accountants, tax consultants, auditors etc. On the other hand ERP will integrate the functions and processes of the business. The integration of ERP and AIS will bring more valuable information from the business information. AIS will provide business forecasting information by analyzing historical information. (Romney Steinbart, 2014) 3. System Requirements The firm will need ERP and AIS implementation for their business. Both of the implementation are necessary for achieving the business objectives of the company. The ERP software will integrate all business processes and there will be a shared and central database for all business processes. The central database will be also available to the AIS process. Thus the AIS software will have access to information from the entire business process and the processing will be better and more accurate. (Gelinas Dull, 2008) Any AIS provides three fundamental functions to the business process. Those are, 1. An effective and efficient data processing using the data acquired from different transactions by the company. For that function it will need to capture all those transaction sources, documentation etc. All these transactions should be recorded to journals. A journal chronologically records each transactional event related to the company. Then it will need to transfer data from journal to ledgers. In ledger, it will sort data based on different accounts. 2. The AIS software will help the management in decision making by providing information from the databases and analysis. There are mainly two categories of information to be shared with management, managerial reports and financial statements. 3. The AIS software will provide all required internal control for ensuring the reliability of the information being produced by the software, for ensuring the efficiency of the business activities and accordance to the objectives of management. There are various sub systems of any AIS software. Those are, financial cycle, expenditure cycle, HR, revenue cycle, production cycles and general ledger and reporting cycle. 4. Selection of Software B Bakery is a family owned firm based business. It has near about 70 employees. The business has generated revenue more than $13.5 million in the last year. Thus the company can be categorized as medium to large scale company. So, it will need some suitable solution for their business. (Simkin, et al., 2014) Based on the industry research, there are three classes of accounting information system software for businesses based on the size of the business. Those are, 4.1 Entry level solutions The entry level accounting software are suitable for small businesses and home based businesses with one to five members. The software from this class is capable of delivering basic financial accounting functionalities, review, reporting etc. AIS like QuickBooks, SAGE 50 US Edition, XERO, FreshBooks, and Wave etc. are the examples of AIS software belonging from this class. 4.2 Small to Medium scale Business Solutions This class of AIS software are suitable for small and medium scale businesses with five to 100 active users. The software are able to support more functionalities than the previous class. There will be high demanding transactional information support for reporting etc. The software are highly scalable and the associated database will be robust. Some examples are SAGE 100 ERP, EXACT Max, QuickBook enterprise, CYMA, Microsoft Dynamics (GP, NAV, SP), SAP By Design etc. 4.3 Enterprise Accounting Software This class of AIS software are suitable for organizations having more than 100 active users. These systems has robust feature sets and extended functionalities. The Examples of such software are, SAP, Oracle, SAGE ERP X3 etc. Based on the business requirements and organizational details of B Bakery, the recommendation is for selecting a good SMB solutions. 5. Selection of Vendor Among the SMB accounting system solution providers, the prominent vendors are SAGE 100 ERP, Microsoft Dynamics (GP, NAV, SP), SAP By Design etc. Here is a discussion of these three systems along with available variations. 5.1 SAGE 100 ERP SAGE 100 ERP has different variation of AIS software for SMBs. Those are SAGE 100 Advanced ERP, SAGE 100 Standard ERP etc. It can support almost 50 active users at a time for diverse range of accounting and financial activities, business intelligence, HR, web services, manufacturing and distribution, CRM services. The solutions are highly customizable based on different business processes. The software are highly modularized, stable and flexible. It supports for recording unlimited historical budgets, creation of various financial reports from available templates, creation of BOM or Bill of Materials. (SAGE, 2014) It needs Microsoft Windows environment and Microsoft SQL based backend database. It can be implemented based on client server or online platform. There are wizard based support for setting up and using the software. There is a seamless integration among the modules of the software. It is easy to use and easily understandable. There are robust features that will help to maximize the ROI of the business. The software provides easy to build reports and presentation also. The Business intelligence module will help in better decision making. Users can add user defined fields, business rules etc. for performing specific tasks. However, customization like these are expensive and sometimes need up gradation. Personalization of workflows based on different users is also possible. 5.2 Microsoft Dynamics Microsoft Dynamics also has variations of AIS software available for SMBs like B. Bakery. The variations are Microsoft Dynamics NAV, GP, SL etc. Among these Variations Microsoft Dynamics GP is a general accounting software that offers functionalities for controlling resources, finance, decision making, HR etc. The ERP based AIS software is easy to deploy and use. The interface is similar to Microsoft Office. There are special support for tax and regulatory, online training etc. Microsoft Dynamics SL is another variation of Microsoft Dynamics and this is an AIS software suitable for medium scale businesses. The specialty of this software is, it is suitable for project focused accounting. Construction businesses, Government contracting etc. are suitable for this. Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a general purpose AIS software for any kind of medium sized business. It provides total control over the core business process like supply chain management, HRM, financial management, business intelligence, reporting etc. (Microsoft , 2015) 5.3 SAP Business ByDesign SAP Business ByDesign is a general accounting solutions for small to medium scale businesses. This is mostly suitable for SMBs that are looking for SaaS based cloud accounting solution. It gives a robust set of professional services along with integrated process for finance, CRM etc. The companies belonging to light manufacturing industry is also suitable for implementation of this system. (SAP, 2015)The advantages of this software are, The software is highly scalable. Addition of new users and increase the amounts of transaction is possible. There are support for international account and financial transaction support. Multi-currency and multi-language support. The cost of ownership is reduces. Management of the resources across the organization is more controlled and efficient. Cloud based solution and does not require any hardware infrastructure to be implemented. There is built is disaster recovery system. Enhanced support for security. 6 Recommendation B Bakery wants an AIS software to invest on. They want the software to work on an integrated platform connecting all of their business processes, capable of analysis more business operational and transactional data to the decision making process. The recommendation is to use SAGE 100 ERP accounting software for their business. There are numerous advantages of using the same in their business process. The reasoning behind the recommendation are, A connected and integrated platform for different parts of the business will be available through the software. Vendors, customers and in house users can connect to the same system through BYOD devices using phones and web interface. Managing CRM, sales etc. can be done from this integrated platform seamlessly. (SAGE, 2014) Transformation of raw business data into meaningful information will add advantages to the business process. There are special kind of dashboards in the software that will provide easy access to the business intelligence functions. These information from business intelligence analysis will help to discover potential customer, products, demands in market etc. These information will help to create competitive strategy. Historic data, inventory data management, safety stock control etc. are also possible. As the analysis helps in understanding potential customers, understanding customers requirements thus customer relationship management will be easier and better. There is an integrated CRM module with SAGE 100 ERP. It works like a CRM sales tracker. It helps in improving product stability, usability, manitance, integration, reporting etc. Collaboration with social media helps in delivering better CRM experience. The CRM collaboration module offers facilities like exchange of knowledge among user. These functionalities will not only help in delivering better customer relationship services, rather it will also help in building better workforce, more collaboration among the users and staffs in the organization. Organization culture will be improved along with performance of the business process. The billing and payment module of the software will help to in invoicing, quick payment etc. The expense for invoicing will be reduced, DSO or Days Sales Outstanding will be reduced, redundant data entries will be reduced, and time required for invoicing will be reduced. Tedious process of billing and invoicing will be automated and will take lesser effort. As a result, the time consumed in the process will be saved and utilized in other business processes. That may accelerate the performance and growth of the business. Mobile commerce is becoming a trend very rapidly. It is likely to grow in coming years. Businesses are interested and moving towards it. There is dedicated mobile sales module in the SAGE ERP 100 software that helps the managers in order processing, payment collection etc. These information can be added to the actual ERP system anytime. The company will be able to earn more revenue and benefits if they utilize the powers of the accounting software. Receiving ROI or Return on Investment will be faster and improved. Getting order and discovering potential customer will help in expansion of the customer base. Expansion of customer base means there will be more business and scopes for earning more revenues. Management and fulfillment of orders will be more organized and efficient. There are several value added services available in the software. The business can simply add it to their AIS implementation and stat receiving advantages of those. Overall the business process will be integrated, simplified, robust, efficient and scalable. 7 References Gelinas, U. J. Dull, R. B., 2008. Accounting Information Systems. s.l.:Thomson/South-Western. John Wiley Sons, 2012. Accounting Information Systems: Understanding Business Processes. 4th ed. s.l.:John Wiley Sons. Microsoft , 2015. Microsoft Dynamics. [Online] Romney, M. B. Steinbart, P. J., 2014. Accounting Information Systems. s.l.:Pearson . SAGE, 2014. Sage 100 ERP, s.l.: SAGE.SAP, 2015. SAP Business ByDesign. [Online] Simkin, M. G., Norman, C. S. Rose, J. M., 2014. Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems. s.l.:John Wiley Sons.

Teacher Cadet free essay sample

Ever since I was younger, I possessed unique individual qualities. I was always the girl in class who always reminded the teacher about homework, the one who never missed an assignment, and the one who always made the honor roll. In fact, I never settled for mediocre because I knew one day it will pay off. Throughout my educational career, I’ve learned that being yourself is the key to becoming successful. The world is filled with people attempting to duplicate someone which is why I’ve always pushed myself to be unique. I devote much time in expressing my individual capabilities. Whether it’s singing on the choir or going more in depth into my spirituality; I always leave room for me. I am a firm believer in devoting my time to my individualism. When a person knows there inner-self and can come to turns with their problems, it shows a high level of maturity. We will write a custom essay sample on Teacher Cadet or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page For me, learning is the foundation for education. And without education there is just nothing to rely on. There is not a day that passes that I do not learn something new. Surrounding myself around a diverse group of people has a lot to do with as well. Over the past years, I have learned to value my diversity and how it affects my everyday life. For example, since enrolling in Teacher Cadet, I have learned so much about myself and peers that I probably would have never known until now. I’ve also learned priceless values that helped shape me into the person I am today. In most cases, we do not consider that learning is necessary to move forward in life. Honestly, learning is my passion as a young adult. There is so much in the world that I am not aware of. So when someone enlightens me on unfamiliar topics, I immediately become intrigued and interested. In actuality, I enjoy learning new things from leaders and teachers who want to see me succeed in life. Leadership is attained by mutual cooperation between multiple parties. Usually, people who follow need inspiration so they will be able to eventually model the person’s behavior. Leading is not an easy task. It takes much patience, diligence and effort to fully lead a crowd of people. Throughout my day, I take the challenge as being the leader in many different things. For one, I am a squad leader in JROTC. That is a huge responsibility when you are in control of a lot of individuals. I believe responsibility and leadership are closely related because you cannot have one without the other. In my short career, I have accomplished many things. I’ve been nominated for national society of high school scholars and received an invitation to the  People to People. Leadership Symposium. Without perseverance, I would not have been able to accomplish these things. I always strive to be the best and to the best. I love going the extra mile in everything I do. Many people do not enjoy volunteering in the community. Well, I love to volunteer my quality time to organizations in need. Being JROTC has sculpted me into a volunteer worker that actually enjoy helping people. You will be surprised the amount of help many organizations request. On many occasions, I’ve volunteered at the Crisis Ministry of Charlotte. Assisting with folding, unpacking and stocking shelves were some of the few things I did. It was an amazing experience. I met a lot of people who were welcoming and assisted me with anything I needed. Ultimately, I enjoy being myself. It’s what I do best. My success is not measured on how perfect I am but what I obtain in life. Although, I fall short of my goals every day, I still manage to keep going. There’s nothing worse than a person giving up on something they really want. When I decide to give up, there’s always that voice in the back of my head that says â€Å"Tytiana, Keep on keeping on.† And of course I have no choice but to listen. Being a leader and a learner has changed my entire outlook and attitude toward life.

Double Edge Sword essays

Double Edge Sword essays After the civil war, we had thousands upon thousands of people looking for the "American Dream", and Horace Greeley, who stated the famous words "Go west young man", helped to start the great migration westward. There was plenty of cheap land west of the Mississippi, and gold was foud in the West, just waiting for those who could get there. The migration ultimately interfered with the Native Americans, which changed their way of life forever. Many poor souls tried to make it in the west at raising cattle, farming, and mining, but failed. Ther was also those who made it big with new inventions, hard work and lots of luck. The Native Americans were living on a valuable asset called land, and the government was looking to expand their territoty to the west. However, the U.S. had to do something with the Native Americans, so they strated to create reservation in hope to avoid land wars between the Native Americans and the new settlers. Tribes were congregated on small reservations; each tribes had their own culture and this caused friction among each other. Not to mention, there was already conflicts going on with their government caregivers. Futhermore, there were church-run boarding schools, which took the children away from theirr parents, so they could learnn the White man's way of life and that only added to their stress. Ultimately, many of the Native Americans died due to battles, disease, and the mistreatment on the reservations. For example, the Sand Creek massacre where 450 peaceful Indains were slaughtered. For those who survived, their lives changed forever. In the name of progress, we took their land and shattered their culture by trying to bring them into American's way of life. The farmers, who migrated westward, found themsevles in a strange land it was nothing that they were used to. The land was flat, dry praisie grass, and for the most part treeless. They had to learn how to biuld sod homes, and use buf...

Compose a report on management performance characteristics Essay - 1

Compose a report on management performance characteristics - Essay Example The author analyzed personal traits crucial in the workplace such as effective listening and communication skills, as well as, work as a team in order to accomplish organizational goals effectively. The author revealed significant strategies for developing work place effectiveness such as managing emotions and developing emotion competences. Lastly, the conclusion provided a brief summary of the study report. The recent economic recession has led to tremendous disruption in the global business; thus enabling many companies to employ effective management skills. Managers across the globe are nowadays trying to employ effective strategies and leadership styles that can enable them to achieve successful business performance. The research studies have made varied attempts of revealing relevant management practices and effective factors, which have a positive relation with organizational performance. They have made an attempt of revealing the management theory and the way this theory have been applied in varied companies to create organizational change. Managers exploit unique management performance characteristics in order improve organizational performance; thus enabling the company to achieve a competitive advantage. Thus, the report offer an analysis of effective management performance characteristics one can employ in order to improve organizational performance. The previous research on workplace management performance and practices has attempted to examine the effect of personality traits and work performance aspects. Barrick, Mount and Li (132) examine the core principle of personality trait theory and the purposeful goals it play in an organizational performance. The authors further argue that when the motivational forces are linked with job characteristics, individuals improve work performance. Personality traits plays significant roles in an organizational

Management Control System at a Publicly Listed Company Assignment

Management Control System at a Publicly Listed Company - Assignment Example So the objective of the study would be to assess the management control system of Vodafone. It is also important to assess the strategic management model to interpret the winning formula of Vodafone not only as a company but also as a brand name. A company is a place where a group of employees work together for common goals and to receive compensation in return for the service that they are providing to the company. The company is run by a group of top level managers and they divide the departments, units and groups under them to carry out the decisions and objectives that they plan for the company. The process of management control simply ensures that the strategies implemented and the goals set by the top management of the company is moving in the right direction and the human resource of the company are perfectly allocated for performing these activities are carefully carrying out their task (Anthony and Govindarajan 51-53).   The management control system involves communication of guidelines, decisions and the objectives of the company or the organization. Similarly strategic management planning also involves communicating similar functionalities as management control. But in a much similar way, strategic planning is a part of the management control process. Strategic planning is basically applied economics but management control is applied psychology. Both of these functions involve the top level management. It is a very important strategy that is often followed in companies practicing decentralized model. It is a well known fact that in order to survive in the global market, the company should possess competitive advantage over its competitors. Competitive advantage of the company involves two vital issues such as the cost structure and special features of the firm to differentiate with its competitors. Companies always try to increase their value chain in order to have an edge over

Analysis of Sequential Lesson Plans Dissertation

Analysis of Sequential Lesson Plans - Dissertation Example ed within the classroom due to constraints of time and space, the teacher can present guidelines to students encouraging independent study, by setting take-home projects or library assignments in such a manner that the student can work individually. In this manner, classroom space is optimized so that the teacher can regulate and direct work done outside the classroom. 3. Compacting is a process which allows students "to demonstrate proficiency in curriculum outcomes, units or courses and progress to more appropriate/challenging instruction." (Bosch 2001). It is a system of evaluation which takes into account students' various skills and learning abilities, which "reduces redundancy and allows for advanced programming" (Bosch 2001). The analogy of computer programming is used in the understanding of classroom strategy and curriculum development to demonstrate that differentiation procedures have a well-defined goal and flowchart to direct the process of imparting learning. The process of differentiation may be differentiated from the federal government's initiation of the No Child Left Behind program, which is designed to ensure that the learning needs of every student are met during the process of pedagogical instruction. In his Foreword to the federal document profiling the designs and outcomes of the program, President Bush has said: The quality of our public schools directly affects us all - as parents, as students, and as citizens. Yet too many children in America are segregated by low expectations, illiteracy, and self-doubt. In a constantly changing world that is demanding increasingly complex skills from its workforce, children are literally being left behind. (Bush 2001) Thus President Bush links the process of classroom instruction directly to the overall... As the discussion declares a differentiated classroom is one in which the teacher focuses on optimizing the efficiency of each student’s strengths, thereby prioritizing different learning skills with each student, depending on his or her individual requirements. Bosch has observed that â€Å"in a differentiated classroom, teachers differentiate content, process and product according to a student's readiness, interest and learning profile.† Learning profiles are therefore constructed for each student on the basis of his or her individual needs, and the student’s readiness to learn and interest in the learning process are also factored in to the development of the curriculum, thus ensuring that the learning process is made holistic. According to the report findings one of the most seminal contributors to the filed of curriculum and classroom differentiation had been Carol Ann Tomlinson. She writes: â€Å"squeezing students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum has left many behind. By differentiating your instruction, you can meet the needs of every child. She implies, therefore, that the curriculums that do not differentiate among learning levels create a constricting mould that propagates a â€Å"one-size-fits-all† design for the curriculum, which causes many students to be left behind in the process of education. Cooper presents an invigorating account of a practical lesson he had with a class, and interprets the practical aspects of differentiation in terms of Tomlinson’s principles.

Behavioral Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company Business Essay

Behavioral Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company Business Essay Leadership theories are widely spread around us with their roots emerging from different practical examples and real time implications from numerous organizations. The basic aim for the evaluation of leadership theories is to provoke an environment of successful management and maintain the smooth running of the management with management and leadership qualities. Following leadership theories are quoted from Coca Cola Company, how the company has gained such phenomenal success and a word from CEO. Coca cola Company mainly sees these theories to build the leadership qualities among their employees. Behavioral Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company: The developers of behavioral theory suggest that leaders can be made, they are not always born. They believe in the fact that leadership qualities can be learned over a period of time and they are not merely innate traits but they are successful behaviors of describable and explainable actions present in the behavior itself. These actions are easier to be learnt rather than adopting numerous different traits. CEO of Coca Cola Company persuades and ensures that the employees are given a chance to learn and develop leadership skills monitoring the improvement from time to time followed by selecting those employees who possess successful leadership skills. Developing a behavioral theory is comparatively easier assessing leaders and leadership success actions. Here CEO can recognize behavior use which raises to failure there it added a second layer of understanding. Trait Theory With Reference To Coca Cola Company: Trait theory suggests that successful leadership is an amalgamation of traits that defines leadership skills and qualities. Companies like coca cola assess the employees on psychological traits focusing on unique qualities. CEO of Coca Cola Company evaluates the employees on the basis of their behaviors and work structures. Trait theory suggests the possession of the following qualities and skills confirms successful goal leaders and Coca Cola Company focuses on retention of them. Qualities Skills Assertive Willing to assume responsibility Energetic Tolerant of stress Assertive Cooperative Adaptable to situation Persistent Desire to influence others Alert to social environment Achievement oriented and ambitious Decisive Persuasive Organized Fluent in speaking Conceptually skilled Diplomatic and tactful Creative Clever Knowledgeable about group work The above list of qualities and skills are essential in achieving organizational goals and serve as an inherent part of a good leader. Participative Leadership Theory: This theory aims at developing an understanding to decision making in different scenarios. The theory suggests that people working in teams must be more collaborative and less competitive. Team based decision making is better and more committed than individual persons. Coca Cola Company uses this theory and focuses on the development of teams for more focused and cooperative decision making rather than being alone. Leaders are selected for individual teams based on qualities as commitment, collaboration, cooperation, motivation friendly behavior etc. different programs are arranged so that the team member can participate and develop those leadership traits. Coca Cola Company effectively inculcates this process. Leadership Theories Development of Leadership Impact Of Managerial Styles On Organizational Effectiveness At Nestle: Democratic and Decentralized Management: This dynamic world is a constant threat to leaders bringing challenges and even opportunities. To achieve organizational effectiveness Nestle has thereby gained insight to developing and ensuring Democratic and Decentralized Management Style pursuing decision making. Nestle delegates the authority of decision making sharing it among the workforce whereby maintain team leaders to adhere to single coherent direction. The team members are all converged to individual participatory roles for full involvement pertaining to organizational effectiveness. It also believes in sharing of vision and goals and participation of all employees to gain operational speed, removing organizational barriers, leveraging strength of people, and focusing on organizational effectiveness. Nestle supports and employs the idea of minimal levels of management so that the information can be flown through all the levels and there is no communication gap pursuing organizational effectiveness. The idea of minimum spans of control and flexible authority and flatter organizations enable people development and also focusing on fulfilling of targets and goals. Nestle focuses on direct personal commitment and encouragement therefore decentralized management style is the best suited for this organization whilst seeking organizational effectiveness when all the employees will feel themselves a part of the organization and work in correspondence to that. All the above mentioned goals cannot be achieved and organizational effectiveness cannot be in full bloom if applied another management style known as Autocratic, which does not allow the information to be shared among workforce and discourages employees involvement in decision making and gives off a centralized organizational structure not suited to Nestle at this stage. http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/Documents/Library/Documents/People/Management-Leadership-Principles-EN.pdf Motivational Theory Impacting Employee Motivation: Maslows Hierarchy Of Needs: Motivation is defined as a driving force initiating a particular behavior in response to drive (external/ internal cues). A motivated employee is significant to organizational success. They make your organization lucrative and are highly productive and essential to different organizational working conditions. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs theory focuses on the employees internal needs that must be full filled at every level prior going to the next level to motivate their behavior. Considering five basic needs of Maslow involves the fulfillment of these needs along the pyramid as follows: Physiological needs: reflect the basic needs to be fulfilled in the first place which includes food, water, clothing, shelter etc Safety needs: are actually the security needs including medical treatment, adequate wages to support family, better household and the like. Belongingness needs: include the fulfillment of needs of social relationships, maintaining social circles of friends and social networks, being essential part of communities, an active member of society etc Esteem needs: encircle the aspiration for realization, ability, status, and acknowledgment. Self actualization needs: include the upbringing of yourself seeking new opportunities and looking for greater chances of growth in you. If the organization is fulfilling these needs, the employee is motivated and works in order to retain organizational success, development and growth. Example: This motivational theory is found to be in common practice by almost all the firms around the world today including IBM, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Nestle, and General Motors etc ascertaining to employee motivation and morale. http://hotelmule.com/management/html/07/n-2107-5.html Motivating Employees in a Startup Venture from Nataraj Pangal Theories Relating To Work Relationships and Interaction: As the organization continues to grow and expand globally, the evolving work relationships are placed continuously on a broader spectrum. This evolution put forth a challenge to management theory by continually changing the assumptions under which organizations are doing their work. Following theories are focused on work relationships among employees in an organization: Personal Flexibility and Adaptability: This approach is based on the removal of Inter-personal conflicts with its viewpoint to keep the group members appropriate likelihood to develop their own individual comfort zones as being essential part of the group. One way to remove and root out the interpersonal conflicts among the group members is through Mediation approach. http://jethrolmi.com/admin/uploads/attachment-35-J-0031.pdf Systems perspective approach of work interrelationships: This approach delivers the idea that communication is the binding stone as a result of which different systems and subsystems are retained by an organization. Positive synergy: Groups are considered to be more inclined towards performing faster and better when seen in a shared way rather than their individual output expectations. Positive synergy is useful in order to achieve more from the group performance as a whole. Interdependence: Interdependence reveals the fact that all the employees are dependent on each other. The output of one department and employees become the input for other department and employees, if a ball is dropped by one, the group as a whole is likely to meet failure and goals would not be achieved. Homeostasis: Homeostasis refers to the natural tendency of balance, synergy, coordination and equilibrium, maintained among homogenous or heterogeneous groups and teams of employees. Moreover it is also referred to as the propensity for a given system to continue to maintain its stability in the time of change. Politeness Theory: Politeness theory (PT) was developed by Brown and Levinson hence explaining the fact how interactions are maintained and delivered among participants (employees) by using politeness strategies. Based on Goffmans (1967) conception of individuality and face work, in the politeness theory by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) verified when, why, and how interpersonal communication is raised through, or in the absence of, politeness. http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/4984_Dainton_Chapter_3.pdf Characteristics of Different Organization Structures: Organizations are established based on various goals that need to be accomplished over the period of its life, and these functional/ operational goals are achieved by synchronizing the efforts of employees and various other participants of the organization according to the following organizational structures. Functional Structure Functional structure is the division of work force and work processes into separate respective departments. The different departments such as sales force, marketing, finance, research and development departments etc have their own functional perspectives pouring a single coherent outcome. Divisional Structure Divisional structure is used where larger organizations are taken into account, and when the larger organization is divided into different divisions and sub areas. For example, the now-defunct Nestle Company is organized into divisions for each geographic area to handle specific needs. Matrix Matrix structure is an amalgam of divisional and functional structure. Organizations like Nestle a large multinational company, the matrix structure allows for the benefits of functional and divisional structures to exist in one organization. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/different-types-organizational-structure-723.html Culture and Structure of Nestle and its Impact On Organizational Effectiveness: Organizational Structure Of Nestle: Nestle is a worldwide dairy and beverages organization tremendously successful across the world. Nestle exhibits a decentralized organizational structure minimizing the span of control and reducing the levels of management. Decentralized Organization: Organizational effectiveness is a function of organizational culture and its structure depending upon the operations it performs. Nestle is a decentralized organization and it contributes to the success and growth of this organization. Nestle allows its employees equal opportunity to enjoy and sustain a high level of autonomy. This gives them enough courage, sense of responsibility and motivation to perform their jobs fulfilling their job responsibilities. Major changes and the strategic decisions are executed and planned at the headquarters level but the daily routine based activities are handled by the employees. The subordinates are allowed to concentrate, derive and implement daily operations. The responsibility of taking operating decisions is pushed down to strategic business units. The employees enjoy a high degree of autonomy with regard to decisions involving pricing, distribution, marketing, human resources, and so on. SBU or regional managers are not allowed to make operational or strategic decisions on anything except for exceptional situations. Nestle follows a traditional top down hierarchical structure of command. The companys executive body is the Board of Directors. Leading the company is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Nestlà © therefore allows the unchanged person to hold both the positions. Organizational Culture Of Nestle: The culture of Nestle comprises of the distinctive behavior patterns and values that makes up the organization differing them from the rest. A simple and quick assessment of the organizational culture can be made by interacting with the people working in the organization and by exploring how people interact with each other and perform their jobs. A number of aspects of Nestlà ©s values and hence working practices relate to interpersonal relationships among employees, nestle believes in maintaining fair and unbiased relations without any disconcert of race, age, gender and other diverse cultures. All the employees are encouraged to embrace the Nestlà © way of working and interacting with fellow employees and subordinates. Nestlà © aims to maintain fair, sincere, direct, and caring work environment for people making up the organization. Nestlà © has therefore successfully developed a fair and unbiased set of values and principles enabling the employees to get maximum fair and honest treatment. These values and principles clinch the involvement and participation of diverse cultures, respecting them and developing long term relationships with all of its suppliers and customers. These values play a major role in building the organizational culture. The culture of an organization will alter and shift over time, both in response to changes in the external environment as well as to internal pressures within the organization. Nestlà © Lesson Plan from The Times 100 website: www.tt100.biz Case Study: Nestles Growth Strategy http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/261835.html Taking the present merger into account the new organization thus formed needs to be restructured on various grounds. I have thereby stated few dimensions that need to be discussed for employee effectiveness in the new organization: Meeting Notes: Organizations can facilitate information and creativity through effective communication and effective HRM. Creativity is at the heart of all organizations and recently has gained a principal focus. For example IBM focuses in innovative engineering and its success and growth depends on creativity in field of technology and newer unique outputs. While recruiting, strategic HRM is concerned with selecting those individuals who continues to elicit high level of creativity in their work, skills and abilities, who knows how to respond to various solutions in unique ways, and undergoing different problem handling parameters. As IBM has reported that one of the greatest achievement for any organization to have leadership competence is through Creativity http://www.cersi.it/itais2009/pdf/TR_3/itais2009_submission_25.pdf http://executivenewswire.com/2011/02/how-can-creativity-and-innovation-be-facilitated-within-a-company-by-emmanouel-perakis/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2012.690567 The importance of learning in organizations has been raised to a point that enables the employees to learn from their mistakes and a new organization that is undergoing restructuring after merger must take into account this parameter for performance. Hero merged with Honda Company in India and went into restructuring of organization leading to organizational learning, to help make the new management learn a blend of new and existing organizational operational styles. Organizational learning brings continuous improvement to employees performance and thereby facilitation organizational success, survival and growth. According to the book The Fifth Discipline  by Senge, explains his point of view as The ability to learn faster than your competition may be the only sustainable advantage for your organization in the long run. Moreover Learning organizations helps in generating and practicing new knowledge. This ability enables companies to stay ahead of change and the competition. http://www.leadershipandorganizationalculture.com/2012/04/importance-of-learning-in-organizations.html Effectiveness of Team Learning: Traditional learning had been the practice of the past when the peer team leader primarily acts as a disseminator of information responsible for ensuring learning, solely. On the other hand, team learning means to empower the team members giving them the opportunity to think, plan and act, enhancing their abilities to perform. According to the researches by various institutes including Stanford University and University of Michigan etc, team based learning is an important evaluator for effectiveness of employees (team members). Sharing of information among team members and flexibility to perform and cooperate within teams is essential to the completion of any task on a regular basis. Through team learning, members freely and easily recognize their shared and individual roles and responsibilities in an effective way. Team Learning Effectiveness is a proven and practical diagnostic tool for assessing team effectiveness and improving work group performance in any organization especially for a new restructured one like this. http://teaching.uncc.edu/articles-books/best-practice-articles/instructional-methods/building-learning-teams http://www.reliablesurveys.com/teameffectiveness.html Approaches To Organizational Decision Making: Valuable information is the building block to organizational decision making. Many firms such as Mckinsey and Co. provide consultation on how firms use the appropriate data. Organizations have preordaining access to large amounts of data, including consumers, economic concerns, employees, stakeholders, financial figures, competitors etc in raw and unstructured format. An organizational setting like this binding into a merger recently needs to focus on evaluating the importance of data collected since past. In order to realize value and to help organizations become more sustainable in the longer term, it is crucial to improve the ways they measure and manage their performance. Such mountains of data make decision making difficult and vague. Therefore value data is extracted from the raw data known as information which is meaningful to the organization when updated, relevant, timely and accurate. Using different information systems and information technology tools make effective decision making. Tools such as Decision Support Systems and Management Support Systems etc are of critical value. http://www.auditcommission.gov.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/AuditCommissionReports/NationalStudies/Cranfield_Information_use_review.pdf Approaches To Risk And Uncertainty In Decision Making: Different workshops are conducted enabling the participants to undergo decision making based on simulated situations. This enables them to perform well under actual circumstances. Workshops increase their level of performance and risk handling under uncertain conditions. In addition to this I also prefer the development of mitigation policies to be pursued under risky and uncertain circumstances while undergoing decision making. Integrated assessments can inform decision makers of the relationship between risk involving factors, adaptation potentials, and costs of emission reductions and the benefits of avoiding uncertain scenarios. These assessments have frameworks to deal with incomplete or imprecise data. As with Unilever and Procter and Gamble they estimate the demand and supply based on pre defined policies to handle the uncertain high or low demand times. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/tssts-ts-2-2-decision-making-risk.html Workshop on Risk Assessment and Safety Decision Making Under Uncertainty Evaluation of Effectiveness of Organizational Decisions: Organizations such as International Energy (a masked name) made critical mistakes in decision making incurring extra ordinarily high costs referred to as failure costs. Therefore successful organizations such as Wal-Mart employ a structured approach means establishing assumptions and procedures for the way we make decisions around here. There are five critical elements pursuing effective organizational decisions. The above diagram explains the systematic approach to organizational decision making including criteria, facts, alternatives, commitment, and closure. The main objective of decision making has high lightened that particular goal you want to accomplish in the long run through effective decision making, whereas having vague and incomplete goals leads to failure. Wal-Mart,an online retailer store focuses on goals and makes decisions accordingly. Companies like International Energy focuses on reliable and accurate use of facts when and where required. There is too much data but screening the necessary and vital valued data is an important step t effective organizational decision making. Gaining insight to application of alternatives is essential to making right choices while making critical and great decisions. Seeking for alternatives reinforce the need to examine more than one option and nearly always improves the quality of decision making as the CEO of International Energy reports. Companies like Dow Chemicals, Intel, and Wal-Mart etc embed decisions regarding business-unit strategy in contracts that detail the specific strategic decisions that have been made, the resources required to implement the strategy effectively, and the individuals who are accountable for delivering on the decisions. Moreover when the decision is not communicated,, responsibilities are established with their time frames implementation and a continuous feedback monitoring mechanism for performance, an effective decision will be of no use. Wal-Mart decided not to offer steep discounts during the holiday selling season. On Friday after Thanksgiving, competitors noticed Wal-Marts strategy and began trumpeting their own holiday discounts, sensing an opportunity to draw customers away from the retail giant. But Wal-Mart was closely monitoring results, and its executives figured out that the new scheme wasnt working well enough. They quickly reversed the decision and within days, every store in the Wal-Mart system had returned to the companys traditional practice of holiday discounting. http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/decision-insights-11-how-organizations-make-great-decisions.aspx Analysis of the Effective Management of Change in Organizations: Change management has always been a challenge to the organizations. The dynamic environment surrounding the organizations keeps on becoming uncertain and unpredictable. To manage the flow of events it the principle of change management must be of focal point. Moreover, for an organization undergoing a merger, the new management resulting from the combination of the two pre existing organizations, has to undergo challenging situations of change. This change is necessary as well provoking effective management styles. The change management is about maintaining a dynamic equilibrium within the environment you are operating. By diagnosing the situation which arises as the result of change management one can ensure that: The goals can be achieved as there is enough stability There must be operational continuity so that nothing would be distracted as the result of change The organization is adaptable to different situations and can manage the internal and external events as well as the change There is enough motivation so when the rite time comes the change can be adopted easily The management role is all about coping with the change so that the processes (internal as well as external) should only be minimally disrupted as accelerating change can increase the level of complexity and management problems. It can be a range of activities which can act as a trigger for change like old machinery is beyond repair , changes in legislations , changes in technology , merger and acquisition activity (as in our case) taking place as a consolidation in the banking sector , economic scenarios etc. according to Geliner and Earnst, 1996: The change will bring in Fresh challenges and tasks; this will largely offset the job security situation as more motivation can be gained http://www.mightystudents.com/essay/Managing.Change.Organizations.34325 Summary: The behavioral and traits theories are essential components for understanding the relationship of leadership styles and linking them with innate or learnt behaviors and/ or characteristics. The significance of participative leadership theory is through its implementation at various levels in every organization In addition to this, motivation at every level leads to success and growth promise on part of employees, fruitful for the organization. The different organization styles, structures and diverse cultures operate in large and small organizations. Their base is made stronger with the practice of such rules, policies, structures and cultures making them an inherent part of their organization and allowing new and existing employees to act in unison with them. Lastly the different modes of decision making and the risks in making decisions are also evaluated on experience and judgments based on knowledge and insight. The team based learning helps in better solutions to make the employees perform more collaboratively and less competitively. Conclusion: Lastly I have concluded through my vigorous analysis that leadership theories, motivation styles, organizational culture, structure and styles are most important for the proper functioning of an organization. The effectiveness of decision making factors are also very fruitful and their understanding of flow of information is significant to any organization whether big or small.

Down Syndrome Essay examples -- essays research papers fc

Down syndrome is a birth defect caused by a genetic disorder that affects 350,000 people in the United States. It is caused by abnormalities in the genes and is not inherited, meaning that parents do not pass this onto their children. Genetics is the study of heredity or how certain traits are passed from parents to their children. Genes are the basic unit of heredity. Cells are the building blocks of your body and each one of us has more than 100 trillion cells. Our genes are located in chromosomes. Each cell in your body contains 46 chromosomes or 23 pairs. In a person with Down syndrome, there are 47 chromosomes. In 1956, a French researcher named Jerome Lejeune used a new powerful microscope to view human strands of DNA. DNA is what holds an individual person’s genes. He studied these DNA strands and determined that there is an extra strand in chromosome 21, which is now called â€Å"Trisomy 21† tri meaning three and somy for the word chromosome – meaning th ree chromosomes. No one knows exactly what causes Down syndrome aside from it being genetic. Many years ago, this condition was known as â€Å"mongolism† or people that had it were called â€Å"mongolian idiots†. But in later years, Asian people as well as parents of these children protested these terms and in the 1960’s the condition became known as Down syndrome in honor of the English doctor John Langdon Down. Who, in 1866, studied people with mental retardation and noted distinct physical features in them. Some of the physical features associated with Down syndrome are low muscle tone, many newborns appear as floppy and not toned, they have flat facial features especially a small nose with a flattened nasal bridge. Their eyes are slightly slanted with small skin folds at the inner corner. The have a short neck, small abnormal shaped ears, and an enlarged tongue that often tends to protrude making speech difficult to understand. Many people with Down syndrome suffer from a variety of health problems. The most common and significant symptom is mental retardation, which ranges from mild to moderate. People with Down syndrome suffer from congenital heart defects, which affect approximately 40-50% of these people. Their poor muscle tone makes much physical activity difficult. There are many hormonal problems, mainly thyroid disease. People with Down syndrome suffer from circulatory problems, respiratory ailments, ... ...the placenta is removed and the cells are tested under a microscope for chromosomal abnormalities. The last test is Amniocentesis, which is where a sample of the amniotic fluid is withdrawn from the womb. This procedure is done during the 14th to 18th week of pregnancy. This is the most reliable and accurate test. It is 99.8% reliable in testing for Down syndrome. There is another blood test available called Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling (PUBS). The fact of the matter is no matter how different or unusual these people appear, people afflicted with Down syndrome should be treated with respect and dignity just like you and me. These people are productive individuals and have many things to offer. Just because they are different doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to us. We can learn patience and acceptance from them and until there is a cure, our acceptance and a positive attitude will help us all to move forward. Works Cited Diseases and Disorders - Down Syndrome, Christina M. Girod, San Diego, CA, 2001 Down Syndrome, Salvatore Tocci, Grolier Publishing Company, Inc., 2000 www.aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/article/1680.54172 www.my.webmd.com Down Syndrome Essay examples -- essays research papers fc Down syndrome is a birth defect caused by a genetic disorder that affects 350,000 people in the United States. It is caused by abnormalities in the genes and is not inherited, meaning that parents do not pass this onto their children. Genetics is the study of heredity or how certain traits are passed from parents to their children. Genes are the basic unit of heredity. Cells are the building blocks of your body and each one of us has more than 100 trillion cells. Our genes are located in chromosomes. Each cell in your body contains 46 chromosomes or 23 pairs. In a person with Down syndrome, there are 47 chromosomes. In 1956, a French researcher named Jerome Lejeune used a new powerful microscope to view human strands of DNA. DNA is what holds an individual person’s genes. He studied these DNA strands and determined that there is an extra strand in chromosome 21, which is now called â€Å"Trisomy 21† tri meaning three and somy for the word chromosome – meaning th ree chromosomes. No one knows exactly what causes Down syndrome aside from it being genetic. Many years ago, this condition was known as â€Å"mongolism† or people that had it were called â€Å"mongolian idiots†. But in later years, Asian people as well as parents of these children protested these terms and in the 1960’s the condition became known as Down syndrome in honor of the English doctor John Langdon Down. Who, in 1866, studied people with mental retardation and noted distinct physical features in them. Some of the physical features associated with Down syndrome are low muscle tone, many newborns appear as floppy and not toned, they have flat facial features especially a small nose with a flattened nasal bridge. Their eyes are slightly slanted with small skin folds at the inner corner. The have a short neck, small abnormal shaped ears, and an enlarged tongue that often tends to protrude making speech difficult to understand. Many people with Down syndrome suffer from a variety of health problems. The most common and significant symptom is mental retardation, which ranges from mild to moderate. People with Down syndrome suffer from congenital heart defects, which affect approximately 40-50% of these people. Their poor muscle tone makes much physical activity difficult. There are many hormonal problems, mainly thyroid disease. People with Down syndrome suffer from circulatory problems, respiratory ailments, ... ...the placenta is removed and the cells are tested under a microscope for chromosomal abnormalities. The last test is Amniocentesis, which is where a sample of the amniotic fluid is withdrawn from the womb. This procedure is done during the 14th to 18th week of pregnancy. This is the most reliable and accurate test. It is 99.8% reliable in testing for Down syndrome. There is another blood test available called Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling (PUBS). The fact of the matter is no matter how different or unusual these people appear, people afflicted with Down syndrome should be treated with respect and dignity just like you and me. These people are productive individuals and have many things to offer. Just because they are different doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to us. We can learn patience and acceptance from them and until there is a cure, our acceptance and a positive attitude will help us all to move forward. Works Cited Diseases and Disorders - Down Syndrome, Christina M. Girod, San Diego, CA, 2001 Down Syndrome, Salvatore Tocci, Grolier Publishing Company, Inc., 2000 www.aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/article/1680.54172 www.my.webmd.com

The Challenge Facing Managed Care Organizations

The greatest challenge for managed care organizations (MCOs) in our current time is how to obtain lower priced medical fees. As we all know, American health care should essentially be a nonprofit enterprise. However, the privatization of American health care holds that health care in general and hospitals in particular are increasingly operating on a for-profit basis. In fact, the for-profit hospital sector has accounted for a relatively constant share (about 15 percent) of hospital beds over the last twenty years (Morrisson, 1999). This is why recently the U.S. Congress tries to push more â€Å"consumer-directed† health plan options to avoid cash-strapped managed care organizations (MCOs) to boost their deductibles, raise premiums and even defy federal law by authorizing policy holders to buy prescription drugs from low-cost vendors in Canada (Smith, 23 September 2004). Managed care organizations (MCOs) often apply the traditional fee-for-service models, which do not provide adequate financial controls and utilization incentives for physicians and hospitals to contain the costs of providing healthcare. Under managed care, the needs of the patients are balanced with efforts to provide cost-effective care. Typically, MCOs enroll subscribers by promising to provide all necessary medical care in exchange for a fixed monthly premium. The MCO also contracts with hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers to dispense the necessary medical care to its enrollees at a discounted reimbursement rate. In exchange for accepting reduced fees, the caregivers gain access to the MCO’s enrolees (Kirby, Sebastian & Hornberger, 1998). A problem with managed care is that employers who offer a health maintenance organization (HMO) to their employees often pay the premium as long as the HMO premium was not higher than the fee-for-service premium. This behavior by employers creates distorted incentives for the HMO in controlling its costs. Enthoven (1993) suggested that this incentive distortion can be corrected when employers design better alternatives for their employer contributions. The employer could contribute a fixed-dollar amount for health insurance with the employee paying the full difference between plans. The greater the portion of the marginal premium paid by the employees is, the stronger the incentive is to choose lower-cost plans. For example, if the employer pays 80 percent of the premium and the employee pays the remainder, then the employee pays only 20 percent of the difference between the low (let’s presume here) HMO premium and the higher fee-for-service premium. HMOs and other managed care arrangements are organized on a prepayment basis that appear in a wide variety of forms. An HMO could hire physicians on a salary, contract with a preexisting group practice of physicians, or contract with physicians who maintain a fee-for-service practice. According to Luft (1991), â€Å"Because specific social, legal, historical, political, and economic aspects of the medical care environment have shaped delivery systems such as the HMO, it is not reasonable to expect that the typical HMO could be transplanted intact to another country† (p. 173). The key to HMO cost savings is the organization’s wide range of medical services, both inpatient and outpatient. In this way, the HMO can receive the cost savings implied by reduced hospital use. This may be difficult to manage in systems where there are separate financing mechanisms for primary care physicians and inpatient care. As Luft (1991, p. 180) remarks. â€Å"If there were no way to shift funds from the ‘hospital side’ to the ‘physician side,’ it would be difficult to reward clinical decision makers for the development of more cost-effective practice styles.† This is why three areas appear to offer a magnitude of opportunities where MCOs can assist patients, these are ambulatory care, mental health and the alternative therapies. Firstly, ambulatory care-sensitive conditions reflect the quality and availability of primary care services, since they are readily treatable without the need for hospitalization. There are differences in the hospitalization rate for ambulatory care sensitive conditions. Shenkman et al. (2005) had indicated that specialty ambulatory care is important for many children with chronic conditions. However, access to such care may be constrained within managed care environments. The use of primary care providers (PCPs) as gatekeepers for managed care organizations (MCOs) is one commonly used strategy to control specialty care use. Studies of the impact of gatekeeping on children's receipt of specialty care have resulted in mixed findings. Some studies found more specialty care use in gatekeeping MCOs, compared with non-gatekeeping MCOs. Other researchers found that the replacement of a gatekeeping system with an open-access model increased specialty visits among a group of children with chronic conditions. Although the focus on gatekeeping in general yields some important information, MCOs use many other strategies concomitantly with their PCP gatekeepers, such as capitated payments, financial incentives, and prior authorization procedures. The use of these concomitant strategies may meet the unique needs of children with chronic conditions, including their need for specialty physician care. On the other hand, managed care had been significant contributor on delivery systems for mental health services. Taylor et al. (2001) had indicated that direct and indirect persuasion to provide more cost-effective treatments has been one consequence. The cost-saving qualities and the effectiveness of group interventions have produced clear expectations for an increased use of therapy groups. In the research of Taylor et al. (2001), they compared perceptions and uses of group treatments on a national sample of managed care organizations and mental health providers. Implications of differences and similarities between directors of managed care organizations and treatment providers are examined and discussed across five response categories (familiarity/training perceived effectiveness, likelihood of reimbursement/referral, daily use and expectation for future use). Taylor et al (2001) favored the approach where MCOs calibrate treatment referral/reimbursement decisions. Recently published comparison outcome studies and meta-analyses can and should empirically guide the present treatment delivering systems. Lastly, many managed care organizations have already begun to integrate complementary and alternative medical therapies (CAM) with conventional medical providers. Medical practitioners are obligated to assess CAM therapy with patients. Alternative therapies require professionals to rethink staff competency, patient assessment, and patient-focused care. Medical leaders must understand CAM trends and therapies to better integrate these concepts into health care policy, standards of care, and ethical decisions (Parkman, 2001). Among ambulatory care and mental health care, alternative therapies, or CAM, offers the most favorable and cost-efficient strategy for MCOs. This is because the aging â€Å"baby boom† generation is beginning to experience chronic but non-life threatening conditions, such as joint pain, headaches and menopause-related complaints and they are willing to explore options other than prescription drugs. For health plans, the attraction of offering alternative care products lies in retaining and attracting new members, diversifying their services from competitors in a congested managed care market and in attempts to address current or proposed state mandates (West, 1997). In 1997 alone, expenses for professional services were $21.2 billion, a 45% increase over the earlier 1990 data. Expenses for professional services, herbals, vitamins, diet products, books, and classes totaled $27 billion. Five surveys conducted since 1990 have reported frequent use of CAM, ranging from 30% to 73% by patients suffering from conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, HIV and AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Furthermore, the demand for CAM by the general public is increasing, despite the fact that its use is largely paid by consumers without coverage by third-party payers. In 1997, Americans spent an estimated $13 billion for visits to CAM providers and an additional $2 billion for commercial diet supplements and over-the-counter megavitamins (Pelletier & Astin, 2002). Managed care should not only focus on cost savings, but they should also look into diversifying their services. MCOs have generally contributed to the decline in the U.S. health cost growth rate. Their potential will continue to be limited to the extent that employers fail to offer true financial advantages to consumers who choose the low-cost health plans. Thus, more reforms in the policies should be reviewed and revised so that more people could benefit from the quality health care everyone deserves. References Enthoven, A.C. (1993). The History and Principles of Managed Competition. Health Affairs, supplement, 24-48. Kirby, E.G., Sebastian, J.G. and Hornberger, K.D. (1998, Jan/Feb). The Effect of Normative Social forces on Managed Care Organizations: Implications for Strategic management/Practitioner Response. Journal of Healthcare Management. 43(1):81-106. Luft, H. (1991). Translating the U.S. HMO Experience to Other Health System. Health Affairs 10:172-186. Morrison, I. (1999). Health Care in the New Millennium. NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Parkman, C. (2001, February). Alternative Therapies Are Here to Stay. Nursing Management, 32(2): 36-40. Pelletier, K.R. and Astin, J.A. (2002, Jan/Feb). Integration and Reimbursement of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by Managed Care and Insurance Providers: 2000 Update and Cohort Analysis. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 8(1): 38-44. Shenkman, E., Tian, L. and Schatz, D. (2005, June). Managed Care Organization Characteristics and Outpatient Specialty Care Use Among Children With Chronic Illness. Pediatrics, 115(6): 1547-1555. Smith, C. (2004, Spetember 23). Senate Panel Examines Health Care Choices, Insurance Costs. Knight Ridder Tribune. Taylor, N.T., Burlingame, G.M., Kristensen, K.B., Fuhriman, A. et al. (2001, April). A Survey of Mental Health Care Provider's and Managed Care Organization Attitudes Toward, Familiarity With, and Use of Group Interventions. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 51(2): 243-264. West, D. (1997, November 10). MCOs Integrating Alternative Care. National Underwriter, 101(45): 58.