Monday, September 30, 2019

Common Sense Economics

Macroeconomics Professor Coppedge December 5, 2011 Common Sense Economics Common Sense Economics is packed with valuable information, and approaches presenting this information in a way that is less dry than a conventional textbook. Although there is a lot to learn in this book, I feel like I have already been introduced to 90% of the content in class, this book is simply a supplement and review. The book is broken down into 4 sections: Ten key elements of economics, Seven major sources of economic progress, Economic progress and the role of government, and Twelve key elements of practical personal finance.I believe the discussion of personal finance outlined in the fourth section, while important, is outside of the scope of this course and will therefore not be discussed in this paper. This book is very much a textbook, therefore going through the material and listing off what is in the book will not be feasible in such a short paper, I will however cover the information that struck me as the most interesting or important.Almost everything in the first part of the book is common sense, there is nothing free, people respond to incentives, decisions are made in the margin, profit drives business decisions, the invisible hand. The points that I found more interesting were points 7 and 10: People earn income by helping others and too often long-term consequences of an action are ignored. The book states that if you figure out a way to help other people you will be rewarded with a large income.Even people who are damaging themselves believe that they are getting what they want, for instance cigarette smokers, they are ruining their bodies and destroying their lives, but they want the cigarette and by helping them get the cigarette, companies make a very large amount of money. Cigarette smoking can also tie into point 10: Too often long-term consequences, or the secondary effects, of an action are ignored. Many people who smoke will tell you that they simply â€Å" don’t think about it† because they know if they consider the secondary effects, or he opportunity cost of their decision to smoke, they would quit. Of the second section in the book: Seven major sources of economic progress, I find point number 4 the most interesting. An efficient capital market, this is something that I had not thought of when considering things that need to happen for the economy to grow, it is something that happens behind the scenes and you don’t hear much about it, but it seems like one of the more important driving forces.If there is no-one investing capital into wealth creating projects then the economy will continue to only grow minimally until there is a way of getting money into the hands of investors. I believe that investors need to have low barriers to entry, IE taxes and fees, but they do need to be held accountable for any botched projects, this will give investors a reason to seek out good investments and let the bad investments s ink rather than making Americans pay for them.Perhaps one of the more interesting topic of discussion is: Economic progress and the Role of Government. This topic can go on for days, but the basic functions that the government needs to fulfil in order for the economy to progress are: protect the private rights of individuals and supply goods that cannot be provided through markets. There are many things that can impede the government from doing it’s job, the most prevalent in my opinion is human nature. Voters vote for politicians promising the most benefit to them, ignoring rule 10 of part 1.The book states that â€Å"unless [the government is] restrained by constitutional rules special interest groups will use the democratic process to fleece taxpayers and consumers. † The reason this happens is because of rule 1 in part 1, incentives matter, everyone is attempting to get the most out of the system for themselves, without considering external costs. Overall, this boo k breaks down complex economic ideas into something that is easily understandable and the examples given are easily relatable. I will definitely keep this book for my reference, and I will refresh my self on it every couple of years.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel Essay

The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as â€Å"the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century†¦possibly of all of it†. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of â€Å"social responsibility† of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008. In order to address this problem, it is important to discuss the fundamental view behind Friedman’s idea since it needs to be fully understood and interpreted. He stated that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits and to create value for stockholders within the bounds of the law. Furthermore, he thought that using corporate resources for purely altruistic purposes would be socialism. Moreover, corporations had no social responsibility other than to spend its resources to increase the profits of its investors since only investors as individuals could decide to engage in social contributions. Thus, he believed that the corporate executives, who were appointed by investors to make profits on investments, could not engage in social contributions using the corporate money. As a result, they could only do so as a private individual on their own behalf. Friedman devoted â€Å"social responsibility† to violating the interest of the manager’s employers. In other words, if managers invest in â€Å"social responsible† projects, they will harm the business since these investments will result in inefficiency and lost production leading to a reduction in shareholder’s wealth. His idea and the logic behind it have proven unconvincing to many scholars (Mulligan, 1986; Feldman, 2007; Wilcke, 2004). Indeed, several arguments can be shown which offset his idea. Firstly, his theory does not allow for the possibility that profits and social responsibility can ever exist together. It is necessary to consider the constraint noted by Jensen (2002) who indicated that it is â€Å"logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time unless the dimensions are monotone transformations of one another†. This constraint implies that profits and social performance cannot be maximized simultaneously. That is why there is a trade-off between profits and social performance. Still, it does not mean that profit maximization and social performance cannot be congruent. In reality, there are many examples which show that both can coexist. Several reasons are to be mentioned here. Nowadays, banks and financial institutions are more aware of their role towards the society since they realize that they are an integral part of it. Furthermore, they notice that they can contribute positively to the environment and society with a positive effect on their reputation, creating a higher firm value. Furthermore, since numerous scandals of firms violating morality and ethics in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e. g. WorldCom and Enron) the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing tremendously and included in the business culture of most of the financial institutions today. The concept of CSR means that â€Å"corporations have ethical and moral responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law† (Munstermann, 2007). So, almost every large corporation is increasingly investing to improve its performance on sustainability assets. Banks and financial institutions know that society is always enlightened when it sees that a firm is engaged in charity and donating projects. While it is true that engagement in â€Å"social responsible† projects, for example donating for orphans of the developing countries means explicitly higher expenses and hence, reducing the profit, it has a long term profit as well. Engagement in donating projects has a positive effect on the reputation of firms, thus, affecting positively the consumer behavior of customers who will buy more products of firm, thus creating profit. Friedman also never considers the very real possibility that companies engaging in â€Å"social responsible† projects gain the support from the community and polity that might, otherwise, eventually turn against them. Nowadays, almost all companies working in the financial sector are in some kind of way socially engaged. Looking at websites of famous big banks like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, one can find headings of Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the pages. Deutsche Bank has its own report on CSR for each year which reports engagement in AIDS projects in South Africa and support of education for children in India. JP Morgan reported an annual donation amount of $110 million for organization in 33 different countries and Goldman Sachs is actively involved in environmental projects. This shows that almost 4 decades after the famous essay of Friedman, companies do not follow his sole idea anymore but are – or are forced to – act socially responsible. On the other hand, a business should try to make profit since it is inherent in its nature and by definition (except for non-profit organization). According to the Business Dictionary, a business is an â€Å"economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. † If a company does not make profit on a consistent and long-term basis, it will face financial distress and bankruptcy. Then, employees and workers will become unemployed which will affect the society negatively. For example, all the employees of banks going bankrupt in the financial crisis like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and Lehman Brothers were facing hardship. Hence, it is true that businesses are to a certain extent socially responsible to make profit in order to ensure job security and to create more jobs. This helps the society and improves the economy of the society. But Friedman does not consider the fact that if companies’ sole interest would be profit making, they can harm people and the surrounding environment. What if firms poison the water by disposing chemicals in rivers and sea – disposing toxic that leads to illnesses and death of animals and human beings? Friedman also fails to argue whether profit-generating actions like selling nuclear bombs to terror organizations, or knowingly manufacturing and selling defective, health-threatening products count as social responsibility as long as the company makes profit. Evidently, in the financial sector there are not activities such as producing bombs or life-threatening drugs. Even though this sector cannot produce life-threatening products, it can create a value chain of unethical and careless activities that can damage the whole world as well. One example is the Asian financial crisis in 1997 where moral hazards were mentioned as a major cause. Moral hazards are â€Å"negligent and fraudulent insureds† (Baker, 2000). It also refers to situation that tempted otherwise good people. The problem with moral hazards in the Asian financial crisis was that Asian banks thought that they would receive implicit guarantees that they would be bailed out if they encountered financial distress. Hence, these banks and companies were much more speculative in their investments and kept investing increasingly. If the investments fail, they will not have to bear the cost since it will be picked up by the government. They were playing with people’s money and did not act in the social interest of their customers. Instead, they were only focussing on making as much profit as possible. The result is known to everybody: In 1997 the nations of East Asia experienced the worst economic crisis they have never seen before. Obviously, the latest and most discussed topic on morality in the two recent years has been the culpability of shareholders and banks along with board directors for failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, the crisis can be blamed on mortgage brokers, investment bankers and banks’ executives. Skewed incentives and greed contributed too much of the crisis. For example, mortgage brokers generate sub-prime mortgages but were paid regardless of the outcome. That is why they were selling unscrupulously assets with high default risk to clueless customers in order to receive high commissions. Not to mention â€Å"Wall Street Executives† who were focusing solely on how to increase their bonuses and remuneration packages. Also, Banks who took on these mortgages were accused of shoddy risk management and unethical behaviour, since they knew from the beginning that these subprime mortgages would eventually be securitized and removed from the bank’s balance sheet. Again, the originating banks got paid up front for processing the mortgages without having to retain part of the risk. Another factor is the misleading ratings of financial instruments credit agencies that were by far from independent. Arrangers of the secured assets were allowed to manipulate the creation of secured assets by mixing good assets with high risk assets to the point of getting a triple A-rating. If they did not get this rating, the assets were withdrawn, reconfigured and resubmitted. Since agencies are owned by banks, they were subjected to give best ratings to these dangerous assets and mortgage brokers knowing the risky idea behind those assets sold them to unsuspecting investors. According to Friedman, every party involved in the actions mentioned above showed â€Å"social responsibility† since they did not care about their social responsibility to the world but only about maximizing their profits. Evidently, the aftermath of the American financial crisis has shown that the social responsibility of business is definitely not only to increase their profits. If banks, brokers and lenders, accountants, the government and important financial organization did not incorrectly assessed or even ignored the magnitude of the risks mentioned above, if managers and investment bankers were not greedy and showed herd investment behavior, it can be argued that the crisis could have been prevented. But the various parties acted immorally and socially irresponsible not caring about the social consequences of their actions. Consequently, the Asian crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 are two memorable examples that offset Friedman’s idea. In conclusion, this paper has shown that Friedman’s request of being socially responsible by focusing solely on increasing profits is nowadays theoretically not accepted by banks and financial institutions. In contrast, in the 21st century social responsible corresponds to the alignment of business operations with social and ethical values. It is seen as the key to beat the competitor and to ensure sustainable growth. But the latest financial crisis has shown that even though CSR is part of the business culture of the large corporations, the key players in the large corporations do not practice social responsibility in a proper manner. It seems that CSR and corporate governance are a compilation of words and rules that adds only little value to the everyday businesses. Money has made everybody blind. Everybody wanted to have a piece of the big cake leading them to lower their inhibition threshold. The â€Å"social responsibility† of businesses should not be increasing profit but focusing on what it really means in practice to encourage stewardship. As a matter of fact, banks and financial institutions first need to show social and ethical manner in order to prevent another disaster like the financial crisis of 2008. All in all, businesses need to focus on environmental and social issues in the arena of corporate responsibility since the society expects and demands responsibility of organizations. In fact, the law expects it as well. Banks and financial institutions are challenged after the aftermath of the financial crisis – they have to find a way how to act in the best interest of stakeholders, society, the government and the environment, still being able to make sustainable profit. It is now a request from the society. ? References Baker, T. (2000). Insuring Morality. Business Dictionary. Definition of business. Homepage: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/business. html [1. 2. 2010]. Feldman, G. (2007). Putting Uncle Milton Friedman To Bed: Reexamining Milton Friedman’s Essay on the Social Responsibility of Business. Labor Studies Journal (32), 125-141. Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2002 (12), 404-437. Milton Friedman, a giant among economist. The Economist. Verfugbar unter: http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=8313925 [28. 1. 2010]. Mulligan, T. (1986). A Critique of Milton Friedman’s Essay â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits†. Journal of Business Ethics (5), 265-269. Munstermann, T. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility: Gabler. Skypala, P. (2008, 17. November). Time to reward good corporate governance. Financial Times, S. 6. [28. 1. 2010]. Wilcke, R. W. (2004). An Appropriate Ethical Model for Business and a Critique of Milton Friedman’s Thesis. The Independent Review (2), 187-209. The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as â€Å"the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century†¦possibly of all of it†. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of â€Å"social responsibility† of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008. In order to address this problem, it is important to discuss the fundamental view behind Friedman’s idea since it needs to be fully understood and interpreted. He stated that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits and to create value for stockholders within the bounds of the law. Furthermore, he thought that using corporate resources for purely altruistic purposes would be socialism. Moreover, corporations had no social responsibility other than to spend its resources to increase the profits of its investors since only investors as individuals could decide to engage in social contributions. Thus, he believed that the corporate executives, who were appointed by investors to make profits on investments, could not engage in social contributions using the corporate money. As a result, they could only do so as a private individual on their own behalf. Friedman devoted â€Å"social responsibility† to violating the interest of the manager’s employers. In other words, if managers invest in â€Å"social responsible† projects, they will harm the business since these investments will result in inefficiency and lost production leading to a reduction in shareholder’s wealth. His idea and the logic behind it have proven unconvincing to many scholars (Mulligan, 1986; Feldman, 2007; Wilcke, 2004). Indeed, several arguments can be shown which offset his idea. Firstly, his theory does not allow for the possibility that profits and social responsibility can ever exist together. It is necessary to consider the constraint noted by Jensen (2002) who indicated that it is â€Å"logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time unless the dimensions are monotone transformations of one another†. This constraint implies that profits and social performance cannot be maximized simultaneously. That is why there is a trade-off between profits and social performance. Still, it does not mean that profit maximization and social performance cannot be congruent. In reality, there are many examples which show that both can coexist. Several reasons are to be mentioned here. Nowadays, banks and financial institutions are more aware of their role towards the society since they realize that they are an integral part of it. Furthermore, they notice that they can contribute positively to the environment and society with a positive effect on their reputation, creating a higher firm value. Furthermore, since numerous scandals of firms violating morality and ethics in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e. g. WorldCom and Enron) the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing tremendously and included in the business culture of most of the financial institutions today. The concept of CSR means that â€Å"corporations have ethical and moral responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law† (Munstermann, 2007). So, almost every large corporation is increasingly investing to improve its performance on sustainability assets. Banks and financial institutions know that society is always enlightened when it sees that a firm is engaged in charity and donating projects. While it is true that engagement in â€Å"social responsible† projects, for example donating for orphans of the developing countries means explicitly higher expenses and hence, reducing the profit, it has a long term profit as well. Engagement in donating projects has a positive effect on the reputation of firms, thus, affecting positively the consumer behavior of customers who will buy more products of firm, thus creating profit. Friedman also never considers the very real possibility that companies engaging in â€Å"social responsible† projects gain the support from the community and polity that might, otherwise, eventually turn against them. Nowadays, almost all companies working in the financial sector are in some kind of way socially engaged. Looking at websites of famous big banks like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, one can find headings of Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the pages. Deutsche Bank has its own report on CSR for each year which reports engagement in AIDS projects in South Africa and support of education for children in India. JP Morgan reported an annual donation amount of $110 million for organization in 33 different countries and Goldman Sachs is actively involved in environmental projects. This shows that almost 4 decades after the famous essay of Friedman, companies do not follow his sole idea anymore but are – or are forced to – act socially responsible. On the other hand, a business should try to make profit since it is inherent in its nature and by definition (except for non-profit organization). According to the Business Dictionary, a business is an â€Å"economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. † If a company does not make profit on a consistent and long-term basis, it will face financial distress and bankruptcy. Then, employees and workers will become unemployed which will affect the society negatively. For example, all the employees of banks going bankrupt in the financial crisis like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and Lehman Brothers were facing hardship. Hence, it is true that businesses are to a certain extent socially responsible to make profit in order to ensure job security and to create more jobs. This helps the society and improves the economy of the society. But Friedman does not consider the fact that if companies’ sole interest would be profit making, they can harm people and the surrounding environment. What if firms poison the water by disposing chemicals in rivers and sea – disposing toxic that leads to illnesses and death of animals and human beings? Friedman also fails to argue whether profit-generating actions like selling nuclear bombs to terror organizations, or knowingly manufacturing and selling defective, health-threatening products count as social responsibility as long as the company makes profit. Evidently, in the financial sector there are not activities such as producing bombs or life-threatening drugs. Even though this sector cannot produce life-threatening products, it can create a value chain of unethical and careless activities that can damage the whole world as well. One example is the Asian financial crisis in 1997 where moral hazards were mentioned as a major cause. Moral hazards are â€Å"negligent and fraudulent insureds† (Baker, 2000). It also refers to situation that tempted otherwise good people. The problem with moral hazards in the Asian financial crisis was that Asian banks thought that they would receive implicit guarantees that they would be bailed out if they encountered financial distress. Hence, these banks and companies were much more speculative in their investments and kept investing increasingly. If the investments fail, they will not have to bear the cost since it will be picked up by the government. They were playing with people’s money and did not act in the social interest of their customers. Instead, they were only focussing on making as much profit as possible. The result is known to everybody: In 1997 the nations of East Asia experienced the worst economic crisis they have never seen before. Obviously, the latest and most discussed topic on morality in the two recent years has been the culpability of shareholders and banks along with board directors for failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, the crisis can be blamed on mortgage brokers, investment bankers and banks’ executives. Skewed incentives and greed contributed too much of the crisis. For example, mortgage brokers generate sub-prime mortgages but were paid regardless of the outcome. That is why they were selling unscrupulously assets with high default risk to clueless customers in order to receive high commissions. Not to mention â€Å"Wall Street Executives† who were focusing solely on how to increase their bonuses and remuneration packages. Also, Banks who took on these mortgages were accused of shoddy risk management and unethical behaviour, since they knew from the beginning that these subprime mortgages would eventually be securitized and removed from the bank’s balance sheet. Again, the originating banks got paid up front for processing the mortgages without having to retain part of the risk. Another factor is the misleading ratings of financial instruments credit agencies that were by far from independent. Arrangers of the secured assets were allowed to manipulate the creation of secured assets by mixing good assets with high risk assets to the point of getting a triple A-rating. If they did not get this rating, the assets were withdrawn, reconfigured and resubmitted. Since agencies are owned by banks, they were subjected to give best ratings to these dangerous assets and mortgage brokers knowing the risky idea behind those assets sold them to unsuspecting investors. According to Friedman, every party involved in the actions mentioned above showed â€Å"social responsibility† since they did not care about their social responsibility to the world but only about maximizing their profits. Evidently, the aftermath of the American financial crisis has shown that the social responsibility of business is definitely not only to increase their profits. If banks, brokers and lenders, accountants, the government and important financial organization did not incorrectly assessed or even ignored the magnitude of the risks mentioned above, if managers and investment bankers were not greedy and showed herd investment behavior, it can be argued that the crisis could have been prevented. But the various parties acted immorally and socially irresponsible not caring about the social consequences of their actions. Consequently, the Asian crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 are two memorable examples that offset Friedman’s idea. In conclusion, this paper has shown that Friedman’s request of being socially responsible by focusing solely on increasing profits is nowadays theoretically not accepted by banks and financial institutions. In contrast, in the 21st century social responsible corresponds to the alignment of business operations with social and ethical values. It is seen as the key to beat the competitor and to ensure sustainable growth. But the latest financial crisis has shown that even though CSR is part of the business culture of the large corporations, the key players in the large corporations do not practice social responsibility in a proper manner. It seems that CSR and corporate governance are a compilation of words and rules that adds only little value to the everyday businesses. Money has made everybody blind. Everybody wanted to have a piece of the big cake leading them to lower their inhibition threshold. The â€Å"social responsibility† of businesses should not be increasing profit but focusing on what it really means in practice to encourage stewardship. As a matter of fact, banks and financial institutions first need to show social and ethical manner in order to prevent another disaster like the financial crisis of 2008. All in all, businesses need to focus on environmental and social issues in the arena of corporate responsibility since the society expects and demands responsibility of organizations. In fact, the law expects it as well. Banks and financial institutions are challenged after the aftermath of the financial crisis – they have to find a way how to act in the best interest of stakeholders, society, the government and the environment, still being able to make sustainable profit. It is now a request from the society. ? References Baker, T. (2000). Insuring Morality.Business Dictionary. Definition of business. Homepage: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/business. html [1. 2. 2010]. Feldman, G. (2007). Putting Uncle Milton Friedman To Bed: Reexamining Milton Friedman’s Essay on the Social Responsibility of Business. Labor Studies Journal (32), 125-141. Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2002 (12), 404-437. Milton Friedman, a giant among economist. The Economist. Verfugbar unter: http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=8313925 [28. 1. 2010]. Mulligan, T. (1986). A Critique of Milton Friedman’s Essay â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits†. Journal of Business Ethics (5), 265-269. Munstermann, T. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility: Gabler. Skypala, P. (2008, 17. November). Time to reward good corporate governance. Financial Times, S. 6. [28. 1. 2010]. Wilcke, R. W. (2004). An Appropriate Ethical Model for Business and a Critique of Milton Friedman’s Thesis. The Independent Review (2), 187-209.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Research proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Research proposal - Essay Example A detailed literature review focusing on the works of Duncan Brown and Michael Armstrong (Paying for Contribution), Michael Armstrong and Murlis, H. (Reward Management) and Michael Armstrong (Employee Rewards). The Human Resources departments of various companies and corporate who are actively working on improving the performance appraisal processes or are preparing proposals to the management on implementing the performance appraisal process Initially a detailed review of the literature available on the topic is conducted. Based on these reviews, a case study is carried out for a company selected. The various aspects of the performance related pay prevalent in the company are discussed. Based on the literature review and the case study, the research objectives are drawn, both from employers’ and the employees’ perspectives. The research objectives will mainly focus on the best practices for performance related pay and also the effects it has on employees, such as productivity, satisfaction level, etc.., In order to conduct a credible research for the objectives that fall under the first category, it is essential to conduct a qualitative research. A questionnaire is prepared based on the research objectives under this category. This questionnaire is then presented a list of employers, HR professionals and experts in the field and an In-Depth interview is conducted. If viable, an in-depth interview will also be conducted with a representative from the HR department of the company that has been discussed in the case study. For the second category, as the research objectives focus on a wider population, it is essential to conduct a quantitative research. A questionnaire is designed based on the research objectives. An appropriate scaling method is used and the dependent and independent variables are fixed based on the objectives. Once the questionnaire is finalized, an online survey is then conducted to a

Friday, September 27, 2019

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and How It Mirrors the United Essay

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and How It Mirrors the United States - Essay Example Importantly, the rise of both Roman and American empires follow almost same trajectory of consolidation of ‘pockets of power’ to large scale annexation through combined constitutional, economic and military assaults. The American quagmire in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the growing fallacies of the American empire gives a sense that its doom too would follow the Roman course. The purpose of the paper is to give a glimpse at the rise and fall of Roman empire and see the parallels with the case of the America empire, by examining some of the constitutive features of both the political formations in a brief and concise manner. The Making and the Unmaking of the Empires From the ancient period to the present time, world has seen the rise and fall of many empires. Roman, Greek, ancient Egypt, Persian, British, and American empires are a few to name. The timeline of these empires varies from each other. The chances of survival of an empire in ancient times were more than the mode rn ones. However, a country has more chances to survive than an empire. Decline or fall of an empire is inevitable and only depended upon on time whereas a country can survive for longer period. When a country goes for territorial expansion and succeeds in it, the country then transforms itself into an empire. After acquiring a status of an empire, the nation precipitates the unavoidable decline and fall of the empire. This is the basic but generalized story both the Roman empire and the American empire tell to us. The fall of empire reflects the decaying of the society. After the disintegration of an empire, the society experiences too much hardships and the life of the people become miserable. Experiences of fall of the Roman, ancient Egyptian empire show that the lives of the citizens later were never as good as it was during empires’ height. Now itself, we can sense that America citizens’ hardships are growing day after day and it certainly sheds light into the wea kening core of the American empire. Roman Empire lasted around one thousand years whereas American empire started stumbling only after two hundred and twenty years. There are certain parallels between fall of Roman Empire and the contemporary scenario in the United States. Romans started up with a republic, later transformed it into an Empire. The twentieth century saw America metamorphosing from a nation into an empire. It is very interesting to see that how these two most sophisticated republics of their times ended up as being vicious empires! Importantly, cold war with the former Soviet Union and the subsequent triumph of an American new global order have many parallels between the Romans’ eternal tension with the Carthage. Same as in the case of American empire, the Roman empire was also fully constituted only with the complete disintegration of Carthage. America too became an empire with truly global capabilities only after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. It is im portant to remember that â€Å"the Roman Republic was an unabashed plutocracy; the citizen-body was carefully graded according to stringent property qualifications. In turn, this classification regulated voting rights: all adult male citizens were enfranchised, but a system of electoral colleges guaranteed that the rich, if united, would always be able to out-vote the poor. In addition, the heavy costs of electioneering and office-holding ensured that all who were most prominent in government were

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Advanced Nursing Role Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Advanced Nursing Role - Essay Example n FNP is an educated professional possessing a Masters Degree in Nursing and credentials as per the state board of nursing or national certification offered by several agencies i.e. American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. From this education, the FNP provides ample medical care to children and adults. Depending on the setting, the degree of independence for an FNP varies. This means that an FNP at times may work together with a physician and at other times completely independent of a physician. According to Poghosyan et al., (2013) independent advanced nurses produce impeccable results in the workforce, promoting ideal practice and services (p. 325-334). The role and other medical duties of the FNP range as per the state of the licensure. Below are the roles of an FNP as discussed by Poghosyan et al., (2013); Hansen-Turton et al., (2009); Jones et al., (2011) The nurse practitioner provides direct health care services. An FNP gets health histories of patients as well as performs the necessary physical examinations. Moreover, this health practitioner also performs functional, development, and psychosocial assessment. The FNP has the capability of interpreting any medical situation. An FNP also has the role of performing minor surgery or procedure for any age group. These duties outline the role of health promotion, disease prevention, health protection, and treatment (Hansen-Turton et al., 2009). An FNP’s duty is to diagnose and develop a management plan for chronic such as HTN, diabetes, asthma and acute conditions such as cardiac diseases and neuromuscular conditions as well as monitor the patient’s response (Poghosyan et al., 2013). An FNP has the power to order and interpret any diagnostic study, and come up with a therapeutic plan. This is inclusive of prescribing medications as per the given case study. However, the prescription of medication is dependent as per state regulation. An FNP ought to handle situations well in the achievement of improved

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Clsoe Analytical Reading Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Clsoe Analytical Reading - Research Paper Example The dwarf’s performance pleases her so much especially, the way that the dwarf dances as back in the forest and unaware that the children and other attendees were laughing at him. The Infanta, in fact, enjoys the performance so much that he asks for another performance following her dinner. The dwarf, apparently, never realizes that the people laugh at his expense, mistaking it for the Infanta’s love for him because of a white rose that she had handed to him. This leads to the dwarf attempting to find the Infanta one day, where he needs to go through gardens and face the ridicule of even the fishes and the sundials, as well as the flowers who claim â€Å"he should be kept indoors for the rest of his natural life† (Wilde 10). The dwarf finally gets to the interior of the palace and, while searching through the rooms, comes across a mirror that shows him as a grotesque monster and even thinks for a while that the monster simply mimics his movements. On realizing th at, he looks upon his own reflection; he suddenly understands that the Infanta does not love him at all, and this causes him to fall down screaming and kicking. While in this state, the Infanta and the other children happen upon him and assume that the dwarf wants to put on another show, which causes them to start applauding him and laughing. Even after the dwarf drops, they still insist, â€Å"Yes†¦you must get up and dance, for you are as clever as the Barbary apes, and much more ridiculous (Wilde 15). While this goes on, the dwarf’s heart stops beating, to which the Infanta makes a demand that he continues the act, which cannot happen as the dwarf’s heart already stopped. The short story by Oscar Wilde stands as one of his most meaningful and fantastic fairytales. The time when the whole incident with the dwarf takes place holds special significance as the twelfth birthday of the Infanta, which sees the entire kingdom and its servants prepare for the Infantaâ €™s special day. The kingdom does not overlook any expense in catering for the Infanta’s needs, which makes for a very joyous occasion. In fact, the King seems the only person who cannot find any joy in the occasion, which explains why the chamberlain claims that, â€Å"he is so ugly†¦he might have made the King smile† (Wilde 15). The story tells us that the king had behaved this way ever since the king had died just six months after she had born him a child. The sight of the Infanta made him especially upset as she reminded him of her. However, the king’s sadness apart, the entire party goes off without a hitch as the party planners produce a dwarf whom some noble men had captured in the woods the previous day. The dwarf treats the audience, including the Infanta, to a spectacular show, which includes a dance performance. The dwarf, however, acts in ignorance of his true appearance, thinking that the audience loves him; although they find him as monstr ous, going on to mock him. The realization of this fact causes his death in the end, as from the passage above. The flowers, which the Infanta gives to him, further confirm his belief, although the flowers cannot stand him, commenting on his â€Å"hunched back and his crooked legs† (Wilde 10). The birds and lizards can see his inner beauty, however, claiming that the dwarf â€Å"is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course; that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him† (Wilde 9). When the dwarf gets to the palace, he cannot help but notice the

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Sales Management Question Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sales Management Question - Term Paper Example 2004). The sales person requires information about the product, its competitors, and account gaining strategies to successfully close a sale (Johnston and Marshall, 2005). This technique although out-dated is till used in many industries such as automobiles where the focus of the sale is short-run (Johnston and Marshall, 2005). Trust based relationship selling is considered more personal selling in contrast to transaction-focused selling. Relationship selling is now-a-days the core of selling strategies. Trust-based relationship selling is based on the gaining the trust of the customers by focusing the sales strategy on the communication, creation and delivery of the customer needs and values (Ingram et al, 2004). In this approach to selling, the solving the problems of the customer is the top most priority followed by providing them opportunities and adding value to the business provided by the customers in the future (Ingram et al, 2004). While using the trust-based selling approac h, it is important to have knowledge about the product, competitors, the need of the customers, their level of current knowledge, trust-building strategies and so on to successfully bring the customer in the business (Ingram et al. 2004). ... This makes this approach to selling, short-sighted resulting in defection and dissatisfaction of the customers. This is also referred to as the maximizing the sales in the short run (Johnston and Marshall, 2005). In contrast to this, trust-based relationship selling follows continuous follow-up to keep the customer well-informed about the added values of the product which ensures high level of satisfaction and gives rise to many other opportunities (Ingram et al, 2004). As many scholars and practitioners regard transaction-based traditional selling inefficient in today’s selling environment, trust-based relationship selling is more preferred by many industries today because of high cost of customer switching to other similar products (Ingram et al, 2004). Instead of experiencing costs of losing customers, businesses invest in retaining those customers which can also lead to prospective customer base (Johnston and Marshall, 2005). In addition to this, this approach gives the bu siness the competitive advantage of building long-term relationships with the customers. If you pay a sales person enough money you will have a well-motivated sales person. Do you agree? Explain your reason.   The management of sales and most importantly sales person is a great task as it controls and at the same motivates sales person to work (David, 2008). Since sales person are not directly controlled, they require more motivation to perform their selling tasks. In addition, interaction levels also vary between sales person and sales managers depending on the positions which causes more difficulty in motivating them (Rosen, 2008). As a result, money could be one of the best motivational tools for the sales person. If sales person are asked that

Monday, September 23, 2019

Culturological Assessment of Domestic Violence Against Hispanic Women Essay

Culturological Assessment of Domestic Violence Against Hispanic Women - Essay Example (Powell 1) The purpose of this paper is to evaluate three aspects of domestic violence as it relates to Latinas. A review of the broad societal issues inherent within this ethnic community, an idea of some of the specific reasons why Hispanic women will stay in an abusive relationship, and a look at a few of the cultural values that make this segment of the population particularly vulnerable will yield insight into the problem and its intricate components. To gain a more complete understanding of the domestic violence plague faced by women in the Hispanic community, it is important to understand the broad contributory issues specific to the Latin community at large. Without over-simplifying the factors that contribute to domestic violence perpetrated against Hispanic women, there are three general segments of social integration which are understood to pre-condition these women to a higher risk of incidence of abuse; acculturation, citizenship status, and economic condition. Acculturation is the process of acquiring the different traits and social patterns reflected in the new society. It is the natural human adaptation to a different environment. We know that the "process of acculturation to American values and norms is an important factor influencing help-seeking behavior." (Yoshioka 172) Other studies suggest that this progression of acclimating to a foreign atmosphere "has been found to affect the risk of partner violence." (Frias 554) The course of adjusting to a new society is particularly fraught with hazard for Hispanic women. Whether it is the challenge of learning a new language or developing a sense of belonging, the degree to which an individual has been assimilated into her surroundings impacts her ability to respond to a crisis, particularly one of violence in her home. The calculus is fairly straightforward; the more comfortable a woman is within her new world, the better equipped she is to deal with the adverse circumstances into which d omestic abuse thrusts her. Surprisingly, the citizenship status of individuals has a direct bearing upon the frequency and severity of domestic violence. Generally, it is clear to the casual observer that non-citizens "have taken enormous risks and...continue to be threatened daily with a fear of deportation and the ever-looming presence of the INS." (Community Partnership 1) The stress associated with large-scale disruption of life and home can easily contribute to an environment of hostility between domestic partners. Specifically, studies show that "immigrant women who arrived before the age of 15 are at a higher risk of partner violence." (Frias 561) While the minutiae of various causes of this phenomenon may be debated, citizenship status appears to impact the resolve of these women to end the domestic abuse cycle. It could be posited that once citizenship is established, there is an emotional ownership of the new country that reduces a woman's willingness to tolerate abuse in the home. The economic situation of Hispanic women also has a role to play in domestic violence.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

MKT Assignment 02 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MKT Assignment 02 - Essay Example Gucci. Prada. Louis Vuitton. Coach. Herms. Chlo. Not anymore. Price - a meaningless word in accessories and leather product industry - is one now echoing deep. Interestingly, feminine sensibility has changed at industry's heels or, conversely, has prompted an unlikely change. Handbags - a long-standing feminine companion, a stamped LV projected for all eyes to see - have given way to shoes. In response to current crisis, major brands are working out marketing strategies stressing less on "new" and more on loyalty to existent classic offerings. Wall Street Journal Magazine qualifies current economic crisis as "Fact": Evidence suggests that after a long shopping hiatus last winter and spring, consumers have been tiptoeing back into stores to buy shoes, handbags and sunglasses, selectively [emphasis added]. (Bannon) "Selectively" is, in fact, telling. Indulgent consumers, losing huge financial assets, are psychologically speaking no longer interested in luxury per se but to keep up an image damaged hard in elite circles. In response, industry giants are adjusting to perceived shifts. Thus, a Prada bootie priced at $800+ during shopping splurge heydays now costs $495. Yet, bags are a standalone symbol for femininity - hence industry's, led by Louis Vuitton's, marketing strategy to enhance brand image of classic models. Saks Fifth Avenue and Chlo are following suit. Interestingly, an industry traditionally geared up to high-end, well-off, older consumers is currently turning to 18-to-25-year-olds stamped -by luxury industry - as "bunkie". Coach's Poppy - featuring sequins, jewels, bright colors, logos and metallics - is a clear example. Notwithstanding Coach's turn to, well, "bunkies" Poppy's features still retain an industry's hold [Insert Your Last Name] 2 on luxury values. Thus, in a mix of new market segmentation and pricing strategies, accessories industry eyes unlikely (untapped) markets during business-as-usual days. Yet, some big brands (e.g. Bottega Veneta) still refuse, at all costs, to compromise on price and stress more on quality and value. Consistently, Italian manufacturers show reluctance to offshore - an indication of still entrenched Italian all-in-the-family business culture. Major retail stores in major markets such as U.S. have, however, responded more briskly catering to more diverse global consumer segments. Indeed, one great opportunity current economic crisis offers to accessories industry leaders is including broader global market segments formerly inadequately served. Historically, market segments for accessories industry have taken as central to global marketing strategy North America, Western Europe, Australia, and Russia. As part of global marketing strategy, global brands such as mentioned above have enjoyed constant featuring in major fashion weeks in Paris, London, Milan and New York. Comparatively, little attention has been directed to emerging fashion weeks in Middle East (e.g. Dubai Fashion Week) and Indian Sub-Continent. In current global economic situation rethinking global marketing strategies becomes a mandate not only for expansion and growth but even for survival as global tastes

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Winter season Essay Example for Free

Winter season Essay It was the Khandpaath of Baishakhi Gurpurab in 2010 at our local gurdwara Metiabruz, Khandpaath: it is an unbreakable continous reading of SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB (HOLY BOOK OF SIKH, Total pages 1430), Readers are changed frequently after like 2 hours and it takes approx 50 hours to complete. It was a sunny day, saturday afternoon, after day time langar or lunch, i was sitting alone, i had no idea that this day going to impact my life forever. PUJA was very naughty and fool, i was very shy to girls from the beginning because i did not know how to talk with them and what they like, i was not used to, girls like appreciation, no matter who is the person and even if it is a false applause, i did not want to hurt them and that is the bad and last impression. She asked me for whom i am dreaming, but i was not, but i told her funnily that yes i was dreaming of a girl, she asked, who is she?, tell me, i know everyone, I will try to make your match for sure . i said, i really do not know who is she, but if i need your help, i will ask you for sure. she went away. My friend, Mantej, was present there and he was not good in study at all, he need someone to write his project, he asked me if i can write on his behalf, i told him better you tell puja, she is very helpful. He was scared of being rejected by puja, but puja asked for some choclates as a fees, project was very important to him but it did not seems. one can never rely on someone if its too important, he was happy that someone took charged for his project, i was doing something on Mantejs mobile , suddenly i got a missed call on his no., i told him you got a missed call, he said just feed it, it is no. of puja, he exchanged mb. no. to get updates, i saved it but dont know what happened wrong i thought to tease her because she offers me her help. Puja was not good looking at all with no personality and unattractive. I remember few days ago at Rashbehari Gurudwara, baikshaki gurpurab, she made her identity as a SIKH by performing religious rituals. I messaged her that now you are follower s of a sikh religion so stop your foolish activities like flirting with different guys at one time, she replied in curiousity, who are you? , do not preach me. It was a beginning of a chat, puja tried herself very hard to reveal my identity but not succeeded. One evening i got message from two mb. nos. , one was new and the other one was of puja. i was sure  that the new no. is any of pujas friend because she asked me that who am i after she told me that she lives in B.N.R, behind Marine club, in family was only dad mom and a brother. Though she addressed her punjabi, i was failed to identify her because i knew everyone almost in radius of 2km. B.N.R is like 2km from my home and there was no punjabi family behind Marine club. I also told that my name is Tejpal singh, resides at Ekbalpur, study in st. Thomas school, where puja is used to study, now my this fake address confused them more because i told the name of pujas school. The very next morning, i and new no. were chatted something about sex and ended up the chat with abusing each other. i thought it was the end of chatting new no. but it was not. it was now like a daily schedule, at night both puja and new no. used to chat with me. After in few days, i got addicted with chat of new no. and attention from puja got divert. It was obvious because puja had number of boy friends and she was not going to spoil her time with an unidentify personality. now even i got excited to disclose who the new no. is. puja had strong feelings that i am tejpal singh because one day new no. called me for a minute to listen my voice. i had a different tone of punjabi. punjabi language get change a little bit after a district. In punjab, i was from MOGA district and she was from HOSHIRPUR, so there is quite differences in the same sentences. On sundays, puja used to ask my friend about my mb. no. but i told earlier everyone that if puja asked you about my new relaince no. th en just tell i have only hutch no., they all said all right. First puja asked me that it was you who message me, i simply said no, why i will do. she told that i know it was you. she asked my every friend but no one said truth to her because they were also enjoying. But that day i came to know that the new no. is her cousin sister SONA.

Friday, September 20, 2019

What Makes It An Imagist Poem English Literature Essay

What Makes It An Imagist Poem English Literature Essay When one thinks of the conventions associated with a rose they think of love. This is the symbol a rose endeavours. However this meaning is not static and for many a rose symbolises many different things. In literary convention terms a rose is associated with delicate love, appreciation, romance, beauty and roses portray the positive feelings inside one. There are many different rose colours each portraying a certain meaning and in each case a positive meaning. While bearing these conventions associated with a rose in mind I am going to analyse H.D.s Sea Rose. H.D was a literary woman of the twentieth century who became profoundly interested in the imagist movement. H.D is a modernist poet and one can see from reading her poetry that there is strong feminist principles expressed throughout. Her poems came too early for an audience who were not ready to respond to these feminist principles (Pound, 1997-2010). One can characterise H.Ds poetry by the strength of her images, economy of language and use of classical methodology (Pound, 1997-2010, http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/234). The poetic form of imagism is clearly seen in H.Ds poems. Imagism was a huge part of modernist writing, it is a literary movement launched by British and American poets early in the 20th Century that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism (LoveToKnow Corp, 1996). H.D.s poem the Sea Rose can be seen as an imagist poem due to its expression of visuals images throughout the poem . These visual images can be seen through the clarity of expression throughout the poem. Imagism poetry aimed to replace muddy abstractions with exactness of observed detail, apt metaphors, and economy of language (Pound, 1997-2010, http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5658). This new movement of imagist poetry has had a huge impact on many poets throughout the 20th Century. H.Ds Sea Rose poem is about much more than a rose. It reveals to the reader that one should look through the image to see the eternal condition and this is what imagist poets write about. The literary conventions that one associates the rose such as soft and the typical red rose of romanticism is not the same here, its not a soft rose but instead harsh(1), its not sweet like one would expect a rose to be but instead its acrid (15). Throughout the poem we are not told of the colour of this rose or indeed of any colour. One could say through this poem H.D is saying there is no exact meaning of a rose and that these symbols that one associate with a rose are not exact, however instead the rose itself defies its own symbolic representation. One can see the poetic form of imagism throughout the poem through H.Ds observed detail of the rose. This rose is a clear exposition of a single flower from the garden. As stated by Nelson the short, carefully measured free verse lines, together with the slightly archaic (though still direct) diction and the insistence on the sparseness of the flower tend to give the poem a simplicity and solidity, a feeling of the visual or sculptural realness of the sea rose-Sea Rose could almost be a poem of image and little more. (Nelson, 2000) Gender is also prevalent throughout Sea Rose. One could say that the first few lines of the poem symbolises the non-conforming woman of the twentieth century- the rose is harsh (1) and living on the boundaries of different worlds. There is a gender issue present, if one was to perceive this rose as the twentieth woman who was primarily a housewife and mother and only part of the private sphere but who is fighting to enter the public. When bearing this in mind, one can see the rose as been a metaphor for the movement of women into the public sphere and then one can see that the rose is portraying the rough time that women of this era have to go through to seek this independence, similar to the rose who is having a rough time caught between the sand and water. Just like the rose is caught in a drift (8) between the sand and water so too are these women caught in the drift (8) of a masculine society. The environment which this rose is placed is not stable as the tide it is constantly mo ving. The rose is been moved around by the sand which is been moved about by the sea. This can be seen as H.D portraying society, everyone is been flung (10) about by these more dominant forces which one can interpret as male forces. To me these dominant forces can be perceived as the patriarchal male society of the time. This is an imagist poem where nature is predominant, the climate in which surrounds the rose is not welcoming crisp sand that drives in the wind (12-13) just as society of the time is not welcoming of women entering the public sphere. The rose is in isolation single on a stem (7), alone in the wilderness. The rose can be seen as an allegory of a woman who too is similar to this rose who is alone in the wilderness and caught between two worlds. Through this analyse I hope I have conveyed that there is a deeper hidden meaning to be seen in H.Ds poem Sea Rose and given thought you a thought of what H.D may be trying to portray through this poem. While there are many different perceptions to be gotten from Sea Rose it is clear that H.D is talking about much more than a just a rose and instead the deeper meaning can be seen when one studies the object in isolation.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Modern Marvels :: Technology

As vainglorious as it may seem, there are actually a few people out there who think they are the picture of perfection. I definitely excluded myself from that group when I was born, on October 29, 1991, with 3284932273 flaws. Although the list of my short-comings is extremely extensive there is one that is leading to my inevitable downfall, my dependency of technology is extremely high! If my memory serves me correct, when I was younger I had an excellent memory. I was able to recall almost any information within the blink of an eye. Whether it was a telephone number or an address I knew it. It took one piece of technology to change this virtue, that device was a cell phone. When I was 12 years old, I obtained my first cell phone for my birthday. Prior to that day there wasn?t a thing in the world I thought I needed more. I stored phone numbers and other important information that at one point in time I remembered unmistakably. Now it?s as if I suffer from a mild case of amnesia. If I can barely keep in mind school deadlines, how can I retain a phone number from the lost portion of my brain? When I have my ?senior moments? and I can?t remember a thing, I am in total distress. I suffer mentally and physically, my headaches are unbearable at times. My computer has made just as much of a contribution to my demise as my cell phone, over the years it as accomplished myriad milestones. The internet is better than it has ever been, information can be quickly retrieved, and entertainment is around nearly every corner. Although the computer conveniences millions of people it hurts them just as much. I don?t know a person in the world (familiar with technology) who doesn?t like technological advancements, but it encourages laziness. There are a lot of people in the world who sit around and use the computer for every aspect of life. They basically live their life through a computer screen, they schedule, pay bills, organize financial information, shop, and a slew of other activities. Not looking on the brighter side of things, this lifestyle can lead to ghastly consequences such as obesity and many other health problems. Many people take for granted the technology that we abuse and habitually overuse in our daily lives.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

No Child Left Behind Will Reform Our Educational System Essay -- Finan

No Child Left Behind Will Reform Our Educational System (this essay is missing the works cited) Just three days after taking office in January of 2001 as the forty third president of the United States, George W. Bush announced his plan of No Child Left Behind. Signed January 8, 2002, it was the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the central federal law in pre-collegiate education. (Rebora) No Child Left Behind cleared Congress in a landslide with overwhelming majorities. (Seligman) It was said to be the most ambitious school reform effort in at least a generation. (Symonds) No Child Left Behind, is a landmark in education reform, designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of America's schools. Bush describes his plan as 'the cornerstone of my administration' (Rebora). At a time of wide public concern about the state of education, the legislation sets in place requirements that reach into virtually every public school in America. The law emphasizes accountability, teacher quality, parent choice, improved teaching methods, and flexibility. (Correa) Strict requirements and deadlines have been set for states to expand the scope and frequency of student testing, revamp their accountability system and guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a ?highly qualified? teacher in his or her own subject area. (I ed) The plan also mandates annual student testing in reading and math by 2005, and requires all school districts to allow students in consistently low-performing schools to transfer to higher performing schools, at the districts expense. (Hull) From year to year, states are required to improve the quality of their schools. No Child Left Behind has expanded the federal ... ...spects that put too much of a burden upon the teachers. All children deserve an excellent education, but it takes more than the teachers and the school system to ensure the success of a child. The child must have the drive and parents as well must be involved. Although the plan has many great ideas, the school system should not be punished if a small group fails what about the large amount that is doing wonderfully? This law was an outstanding start. Now that lawmakers are aware of the problems, they need to act. The worst that could happen is that No Child Left Behind is unchanged, leaving behind yet another child. (Symonds) ?Reform is no longer about access or money. It is no longer about compliance or excuses. It is about improving student achievement by improving the quality of the education we offer American students.? Secretary of Education Rod Paige.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Behaviorism - A Methodological Proposal of Explaining the Behavior Essa

Behaviorism must be seen as a methodological proposal of explaining the behavior of organisms from the lowest to the highest. Explaining human and nonhuman behavior by reference to scientific laws and the theories expressed of physical states, events, and entities. Because modern psychology emerged roughly in the mid-19th century, information of behaviorism was gathered in its early stages by introspection (looking at your own inner states of being; your own desires, feelings, and intentions) then linking them to the outside observable state. Introspection is a notoriously unreliable method for gathering information for scientific theories. There are 2 problems: 1) The introspection data is private. It is impossible for someone from the outside to know the inner states of someone else. Science demands publicly observable events for a community of scientists to confirm or reject empirical hypothesis by designing and testing experiments in an open arena for all other scientists to observe. 2) There is very little access to one’s total mental being (consciousness) since so much of it has been repressed into the unconscious. 1913 - J.D. Watson proposed the only proper object of study in psychology is behavior. Behavior is publicly observable . A team of scientists can observe the same phenomenon under investigation. They can then formulate a hypothesis to account for those behaviors. They can then form experiments so they can confirm or reject those hypothesis designed to explain the behavior of organisms. â€Å"the father of behaviorism† Exclusive attention given to publicly observable behavior. There will be no discussions on dreams, hopes, desires, feelings, or internal events. They must be avoided since they don’t offer explanatory value. Skinner deserves most of the credit. Behavior is the product of heredity (5%) and environment (95%). Marx is an economical determinist, Freud is the mental determinist, Skinner/Watson are environmental determinist - all events that occur in nature including those that we single out that are important (human actions) are themselves the inevitable common product or outcome of prior anteceded forces over which the individual has very little control over (determinism). We know man as an autonomous being (one whose choices are the result of decisions made, on our part, freely). The person is then responsibl... ...culture when he himself is conditioned by one? D. Logical fallacies: Reductionism. Whatever the theory doesn't account for does not exist. "Whatever my net can't catch ain't fish." Since Skinner cannot "catch" freedom or dignity, mind, morals, reasoned thought, or God, he insists that none of these things exist. E. There is no place for a rebel in Skinner's ideal society. But rebels are what bring about the intellectual and moral growth of a society. F. Ideas from modern physics and parapsychology seem to stand in opposition to Skinner's theories. IV. SUMMARY The teachings of behavioral technology are a useful educational tool but must not become a tool of manipulation. We find fault with Skinner's starting point, i.e., his assumptions about God, man and his environment. Skinner is a good technician, but a poor philosopher. Skinner asks us to replace the myth of freedom and dignity for the myth of scientism (naturalism). V. CONCLUSION Getting back to freedom and dignity involves acceptance of an infinite reference point. Darwin All organisms produce more offspring than that can possibly survive All organisms vary within a species Some of this variation is inherited

Monday, September 16, 2019

Lord of The Rings/Kite Runner Compare and Contrast Essay

What objects do you associate innocence with? Marriage, virginity, a childhood toy? When we think of dominance we think of war; we think of negativity. When the phrase ‘parental influence’ comes to mind, we go to our mothers tucking us into bed and watching the game with our fathers—at least that is what us lucky ones think of. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that innocence stored forever, violent free lives, and a mother and father by our side.The Kite Runner and Lord of the Flies have many similarities, particularly when comparing themes such as loss of innocence, power and dominance, and paternal influences and the ways in which they are depicted through symbolism and irony. From the beginning of The Kite Runner Hoseinni showed innocence through Amir’s passion and longing for kites, but not any kite; Amir longed for the winning kite in the annual kite flying tournament. Kites were constantly present during Amir’s childhood. They were his good ness and his purity; the goodness and purity of Afghanistan at that time.Amir’s innocence was stolen by him when he was twelve-years-old by the neighborhood bully, Assef. Amir longed for the winning kite, but at the expense of his friend, Hassan: â€Å"But there were two things amid the garbage that I couldn’t stop looking at: One was the blue kite resting against the wall,† (75). Amir witnessed the rape of Hassan, and after he took his trophy kite home and hung it up on the wall it mocked him, reminding him of his cowardice, and the purity and the innocence that were taken from him. When Amir returned to Kabul as an adult there were no kites.Afghanistan had been run over by the Taliban and everything had been destroyed, just like the innocence that was taken by Amir and the goodness and that was stolen from him. In The Kite Runner, Amir wanted the winning kite. After witnessing the rape of Hassan—witnessing his beloved friend sacrifice himself for the fi rst place kite and seeing Kabul in ruin with the kites gone and the tournaments ended, he craves the innocence and goodness of his past. In Lord of the Flies, Golding used symbols very similarly to Hoseinni’s use of the kite as a symbol of innocence.Instead of an object or toy, Golding used Simon to show purity. Simon, the quiet and kind hearted boy, was murdered savagely by his peers. Simon had been the good and the innocent on the island; unlike the other boys he knew that the evil was inside of the others, though he himself had been too good for the evil. Simon was taken away from the boys but not by outsiders, like the Taliban; the boys themselves took Simon away, unlike The Kite Runner where Assef and the Taliban took the innocence away from Amir. â€Å"There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws† (153).The boys turned into savages and took Simon away from themselves. Unlike The Kite Runner, Simon and innocence were not wanted and were easily thrown away. As goodness was being murdered, the boys turned into monsters. Not once did they think of what was being depleted. Another theme shared by the two novels is the idea of power and dominance. In The Kite Runner, Hoseinni showed this through the bully Assef, who later became a Taliban official. Not only did Hoseinni use Assef and the Taliban as symbols of power, but he enforced them through irony.One example of dramatic irony in The Kite Runner took place when Baba was talking to Amir as a child. Baba said to him, â€Å"’God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands! ’† (17). Baba was referring to the Taliban and how he hoped they would never come into power, though consequently, the Taliban later dominate Afghanistan. Baba pleads to God for help if the Taliban run over, he pleads to a God that he doesn’t necessarily believe in, and ironically, the Taliban justify all of their actions with the word of God. Likewise, Golding used Jack and his hunters to illustrate power and dominance in Lord of the Flies.In order to assert their dominance Jack and his hunters murdered the pig in an ostentatious manner thinking that being flashy and strong will bring respect. Not only did Jack allege his power through conspicuous hunting acts, but he also imposed power with his violent mannerisms towards Ralph, Piggy, and the others. Jack is not the only power figure in this story. In turn, the British official that appeared to rescue the boys has a stature of power along with the British army. Golding expressed his love of irony with the British soldier on the island as well.The boys had been creating their own war on the island, and they were, in a way, mimicking the war that had been happening on a world-wide scale. Golding did not stop here, as the British soldier then observed the boys savagery, he reprimanded them for not being more proper and British. â€Å"’I should have thought that a pack of British boy s—you’re all British, aren’t you? —would have been able to put up a better show than that—‘† (202). How ironic, that despite the soldier’s talk of being proper and â€Å"English,† he too was being a savage. He too, was in the middle of a war.Not only do The Kite Runner and Lord of the Flies share themes of innocence and power, but they both partake in the lack of positive parental influence. In The Kite Runner, Amir envied the father-son relationship that Hassan and his believed-to-be-father, Ali, shared. Like his stolen innocence, Amir yearned for his father’s approval, for these were the things he could not have. â€Å"He’d close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown-ups’ time with him† (5). Here, Hoseinni clearly illustrates that as growing up, and even as an adult, Amir never received the love and the affection that he so craved from his father.At every turn he would find a cl osed door; Baba would see Amir as a calamity. The one person who gave Amir positive parental influence was his father’s friend and business partner, Rahim Kahn. Amir did not take this influence to heart; his longing for approval from Baba and a mother he did not have created a hole that Rahim Kahn could not fill. With a deceased mother and apathetic father, Amir had a deep hunger for a father figure to such a degree that the lack of a parental influence caused self destruction and mental instability. In contrast to The Kite Runner, the boys in Lord of the Flies did not care for paternal influences as Amir did.In fact, they rejoiced because there were no adults on the island to keep them in check; â€Å"’Aren’t there any grownups at all? ’ ‘I don’t think so. ’ The fair boy said this solemnly; but then delight of a realized ambition overcame him’† (8). From the start, Amir wanted the parental influences that he grew up with out; the boys on the island were more than happy to be rid of them. The consequences of the lack of parental influence did not make an appearance right away, but contrary to what the boys believed, not having a parental figure did have its repercussions.One can take Roger, in consideration. At first he could not bring himself to throw stones at the smaller, younger boys. The memories of civilization and punishments still had their hold on him, but as the story progresses, Roger finds himself becoming less and less humane; much like Assef, in The Kite Runner, who as a child, subconsciously knew he could be punished for his bullying, but as he grew older and as the influence of his parents lessened, he was able to use his wrath however he pleased.The lack of parental influence in Lord of the Flies through the immature, adolescent behavior of the boys and lack of adults residing on the island leads to destruction and chaos, similar in ways to that of Amir’s, but far more externa lly dramatic. Indeed, Golding and Hoseinni share many tastes when it comes to writing, and that becomes quite apparent when one looks at the themes of the two novels. Through the loss of innocence, power and dominance, and the lack of those positive parental influences Golding and Hoseinni manage to paint the picture of a life different than the life of the average American youth.Amir kept his innocence in a kite. In his homeland. The boys on the island never knew that their innocence lay within one small boy. They didn’t have a father to look up to, a mother to run to, and neither did Amir. Now, innocence is mocked. Parental figures are pushed away, but most don’t know what it is like to lose that innocence. To not have a mother or father there in times of need. Where is your innocence stored? Where do you find the comfort and protection that are craved through a mother’s love and a father’s adoring pride?

Focused on the sport Essay

â€Å"This is perfect! Just like I had dreamt of it; the lush green grass, the beautiful uniforms, a brilliant coach and a team full of exuberance. This is my day; I am living my dream to be the best soccer player! † Andi could not control his ecstasy of being at a soccer practice club on this bright day under the clear sky after finally having convinced his father after months to let him excel in this field of sport. With the whistle of the coach, the boys started chasing the ball and striving to get to the goal by saving their moves very closely from their competitors. Andi, a tall and lanky 16 year old boy with tanned skin and hair falling at his forehead, was one player that stood out of the team because of his incredible swiftness and strategic positioning while he was tackling players. The soccer coach named David has immediately pointed him out in his head as somebody who could even be the captain of the team. After the practice, David approached Andi and asked, â€Å"Wow! You were brilliant out there at the field; great work, Andi! What inspires you to be so focused on the sport? † Andi responded beaming, â€Å"My grandfather. In my opinion, he was the best soccer player alive on planet earth – and that’s what I want to become. One day, I will show the world what I have in me. I would love to talk to you, coach, but I have to rush home because my homeroom teacher is waiting to prepare me for my final exam next month. See you tomorrow! † As Andi walked out of the club, David watched him with a gratifying smile on his face and said to himself, â€Å"The future of soccer looks bright with these little hero around† After a short walk home, Andi was engrossed into his books in no time and listening intently to whatever his teacher, Mr. Jeremy was explaining along with questioning actively whenever he was baffled by the complications of mathematics. The teacher was genuinely impressed by Andi’s concentration and complimented Mr. Budiman, â€Å"If all parents groom their kids the way you did, sir, no power on earth can stop this country from prospering. † This left Mr. Budiman’s chest heavy in pride for the rest of the two weeks, when things were perfect and he was happy that he let Andi go for soccer practice 5 days a week. After the two weeks of perfection had passed, Andi returned home after furious, intense and extremely tiring soccer practice and slumped on couch without being bothered about Mr. Jeremy waiting for him. â€Å"Aaaaah, can’t I get a day off today? I am in no state of solving math problems or understanding scientific theories. The practice left my entire body aching; it’s horrible, sir! † Before Mr. Jeremy could respond, Mr. Budiman glared at Andi with his face turning red and fists clenched and before even he could say something, Andi shot up from the couch within a millisecond and sat across Mr. Jeremy on the study table. â€Å"I better watch out for daddy; he will jeopardize my soccer practice if I fail this stupid exam,† Andi mumbled under his breath while opening his books. Andi managed to put up a straight face and seem interested with lines on his forehead but clearly, he was sleeping with his eyes open. Not only did he manage to fool Mr. Jeremy, but also David, when he lost focus and concentration on the game but pretended to be vigorous about it. It would not have been this disappointing if the entire team was not suffering because of his performance. The radiance from his face had vanished and was replaced by constant yawning, heaving and frequent â€Å"Oh god, when will this practice end? † expressions. While running towards the soccer ball, Andi ran out of breath and slowed down and eventually bent with hands on his knees to catch his breath and regain his strength. During the act, a team member came running passionately towards the ball and bumped into Andi with such an impact, Andi toppled over twice. David blew the whistle instantly and the team members gathered around Andi in no time to find a sprained ankle. David came running with a sprain spray and held Andi’s Ankle, â€Å"Ouch! Don’t touch it, it hurts! Oh no, not this spray, it burns like no tomorrow! Don’t! STOP! DAVID! NO! † But David was wise enough to ignore Andi and spray on his ankle. David lifted Andi in his arms and took him to the first aid corner of the club and laid him on a bed. â€Å"Sssh! Just stay right here. Rest until you think you can go home, I will call your father till then and ask him to get you† said David sternly. â€Å"Don’t call my dad; you will put my soccer career on stake! † blurted Andi. â€Å"What are you talking about, young man? Injuries are part of sports† said David calmly. â€Å"You don’t get it! My dad didn’t want me to play soccer because my grandfather was a soccer player himself and got paralyzed during a match injury. My father will never let me play if he hears about this† expressed Andi exasperatedly. Listening to his plea was definitely not what a good coach should do, thus, David called Mr. Budiman explaining the entire situation; he also added, â€Å"I’m very worried about Andi personally; he doesn’t seem to be the same fire starter Andi anymore. He’s losing his concentration and is always exhausted; in fact, he is not as fit as he used to be, which means his health is also suffering. He should take time off and rest till he’s fresh and ready to be back on the field† The next week was tense – the air around the house was tough on Andi; suffocating at instances. Andi’s vibrant face was melancholic and he would just stay in his room and only come out for meals (which he would skip at times) and when Mr. Jeremy came for lessons. Mr. Budiman naturally did not like the state his son was in, so he entered Andi’s room one day, sat besides him on the bed and after relieving a long sigh, said, â€Å"Look son, I want the best of the future for you. The decisions I make for you are all based on what’s best for YOU. Just concentrate on your exam for the time being. Things will be better soon. † Andi nodded lightly. Andi worked hard for the exam with Mr. Jeremy but could not take his mind off the green fields and the smell of victory, so he went and watched his team play at times. The soccer competition has 8 teams, if Andi’s team can go through to the finals, they will have 4 games in totals (Huddleston, N. D). Andi’s team clears the first two rounds despite facing challenges and hurdles due to Andi not being present. Andi’s depression grew when he imagined the semi finals and finals without him even after knowing that his recovery had been quick and smooth. But something inside of him rekindled the fire and passion for soccer and he decided to speak to his father. â€Å"Dad, you have seen me work hard for the exam; I did what you wanted. Can’t I deserve another chance? Soccer is my dream, dad! How can I just let it go? † After a long discussion, Mr. Budiman agreed but on the condition of Andi clearing the finals with good grades. David had a hard time deciding too, because a new player cannot enter the match at this stage, but thinking in favor of the team, he knew it was sensible to let Andi play. Before he knew it, Andi was in the team once again with the zeal and fervor doubled! The big day was here and the entire team was pumped up to get the cup; the audience was cheering loudly for Andi’s team on the bright sunny day of Sunday. Mr. Budiman was also surprisingly very charged up for the match and was waving a banner that said â€Å"Go Andi! † in the air. The next 50 minutes for which the match lasted were extremely magical; Andi was like a rocket on fire and his performance kept soaring higher like a bird; expectations grew and the crowd was fanatically cheering for Andi who very shrewdly, strategically and athletically earned goal after goal. Mr. Budiman could not help but jump on his seat and sing victory songs for his son with face shining and a permanent smile. To nobody’s surprise, Andi’s team won the finals before the competitors could even gear up. Andi, the best player, was summoned in the air on the team’s shoulders after which the players hugged each other so tight that the bond seemed to be unbreakable. Mr. Budiman could not control and he ran into the field and hugged his son teary eyed saying, â€Å"You played just like your grandfather, like a true hero! I’m so very proud of you, son! † Celebrations were inevitable but Andi focused on making his dad even more proud by taking a great final; which he clearly managed to do. He got an A grade on his exam and announced it proudly with a â€Å"I did it, dad! †, which resulted in a father-son relationship that was incredibly beautiful. Andi and Mr. Budiman both realized the importance of balancing life between studies and sports, taking up challenges, risking life, living for each other and most importantly, loving life! Works Cited David and Kay Huddleston (Copyright 1999-2009) From www. soccerhelp. com

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Ford Pinto

In 1968 Lee Iacocca and the Ford Motor Company wanted to produce a inexpensive vehicle to appeal to the first time buyers market. Mr. Iacocca philosophy was for consumers to remember Ford as the very first vehicle that they owned so that when it was time for them to invest in another vehicle it would be a Ford. But, in order for Ford to develop a inexpensive vehicle to fit the philosophy of Lee Iacocca, they had to cut corners. Unfortunately, the one corner they cut was the placement of the fuel tank, causing catastrophic failure in rear end collisions resulting in loss of life, serious injury, or burned out vehicles. Daniel Boyce, author of The Ford Pinto Cade Information, cuts to the chase, â€Å"The Ford Pinto is known to be one of the most dangerous cars produced in automotive history due to several serious design flaws† (Boyce). This is a crucial statement that can affect the reputation of a company and have serious consequences financially. If it was my ultimate decision to either engage in a recall or to settle the cases in which injury occurred I would have to choose the decision to recall. Not only would that decision be the correct ethical decision in my mind, it would be a decision, one that would have been very costly, that would have saved the reputation of Ford Motor Company and would have paid off with future sales. There are two different stakeholders in this situation. The first and most important in my opinion would be the consumer, those buying the Ford Pinto. The second stakeholder would be the investors, stockholders, of Ford Motor Company. My decision to recall the Pinto, spending $11 per vehicle for a total of $121 million, would be to benefit the life of those that had purchased the vehicle. Those individuals that had put trust in the Ford Motor Company to develop a safe and reliable product have more value than that of a dollar figure. Though my decision to recall might not sit right with the investors of Ford Motor Company, in my opinion it is the moral and ethical decision that could pay off financially in the future. Pay the $121 million now, fix the 11 million Pinot’s that are out on the streets, establish a reputation of doing what is right for the safety and well being of your consumers, and the sales of your future vehicles would drastically improve. To have a reputation that Ford cares more about the bottom line than the consumers that purchase their products, that human life has no value, can be detrimental to the future sales of Ford products. With my decision to recall obviously the immediate inancial impact of Ford Motor Company would be significant, $121 million to be exact. In my opinion, this initial investment of fixing the Pinto will bring bigger profits to Ford Motor Company in the future. Andrew Bouman wrote an article regarding the Ford Pinto and addressed future car sales, â€Å"When people are purchasing vehicles now days they still think back to the ford pinto and think that hopefully this same issue isn't going to happen with this car. This has affected the sales of F ord vehicles† (Bouman, 2009)†. Other car manufactures have had safety issues and the company chose to fix the problem, putting human life in front of the bottom line. This philosophy has been successful for other automobile manufactures, a philosophy Ford should have followed. Bouman goes on to say, â€Å"If ford would have thought about their future they definitely would have spent the money to fix each one of the vehicles and then their sales would be doing a lot better today and they would not have lost as much money† (Bouman, 2009). The question Ford Motor Company had to deal with was; does the human life have a value? Their decision to place a $200,000 figure for each individual that was negatively affected by the Pinto tells me that Ford placed a dollar value on human life. Michael Zimmerman writes, â€Å"The intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that that thing has â€Å"in itself,† or â€Å"for its own sake,† or â€Å"as such,† or â€Å"in its own right† (Zimmerman, 2002). We are talking life; a value in itself, a value for its own sake, and a value in its own right. Ford was talking value of life that would affect them, Ford motor Company, not the life of the consumer. The instrumental value is the value of the object, and in this situation the object is the human life. Ford Motor Company valued the human life at $200,000; this dollar figure was a life value that benefitted Ford Motor Company, not those that purchased Ford Motor Company products. But does human value have a monetary price associated with it? In my opinion no; there is no dollar figure that can be substituted for life. But life does have a value, a purpose, a stake, but it is just not financially connected. I think that with human life the intrinsic and instrumental values are connected, not separated. The human life has value in itself, has value for the individual; but it also has a value as an object, it has a purpose and stake what happens within the future, it just doesn’t have a dollar figure attached to it. Stanley Riukas explains, in an article discussing intrinsic and instrumental value, inherent and instrumental values are inseparably connected, that they are strictly parallel as regards their quantity, quality and other characteristics, that they are reversible, and that their richness determines the richness of human life† (Riukas). The richness of human life places the instrumental value upon it. In conclusion, the decision I would have made in regards to the defective design of Ford Motor Company’s Pinto would have been drastically different than that of Lee Iacocc a. I would have placed the value of human life over the value of the company. In my opinion this decision would have financially benefited Ford Motor Company in the future. A reputation of doing what is best for the consumer rather than what is best for the company has a direct impact on the success of the company in the future, Making the initial investment of $121 million would have gone farther that having the reputation of putting life second and the thought of unreliable vehicles manufactured by Ford Motor Company in the minds of all consumers. References Andrew Bouman. (October 14, 2009). The Ford Pinto. In Ezine Articles. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Ford-Pinto;id=3044629. Daniel Boyce. (n.d.). The Ford Pinto Case Information. In The Ford Pinto Case. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://fordpintoethics.webs.com/. Stanley Riukas. (n.d.). Inherent and Instrumental Values in Ethics. In The Paideia Project On-Line. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Valu/ValuRiuk.htm. Zimmerman, Michael J. (October 22, 2002). Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Value. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition). Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/#WhaHasIntVal.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

FedEx Corporation Essay

Complete the following exercise (Research and Application 11-30) and submit to your instructor. The questions in this exercise are based on FedEx Corporation. To answer the questions you will need to download FedEx’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2005 (file date July 14, 2005). You do not need to print this document to answer the questions. Required: †¢What is FedEx’s strategy for success in the marketplace? Does the company rely primarily on a customer intimacy, operations excellence, or product leadership customer value proposition? What evidence supports your conclusion? †¢What are FedEx’s four main business segments? Provide two examples of traceable fixed costs for each of FedEx’s four business segments. Provide two examples of common costs that are not traceable to the four business segments. †¢Identify one example of a cost center, a profit center, and an investment center for FedEx. †¢Provide three examples of fixed costs that can be traceable or common depending on how FedEx defines its business segments. †¢Compute the margin, turnover, and return on investment (ROI) in 2005 for each of FedEx’s four business segments (Hint: page 99 reports total segment assets for each business segment.) †¢Assume that FedEx established a minimum required rate of return of 15% for each of its business segments. Compute the residual income earned in 2005 in each of FedEx’s four segments. †¢Assume that the senior managers of FedEx Express and FedEx Ground each have an investment opportunity that would require $20 million of additional operating assets and that would increase operating income by $4 million. If FedEx evaluates all of its senior managers using ROI, would the managers of both segments pursue the investment opportunity? If FedEx evaluates all of its senior managers using residual income, would the managers of both segments pursue the investment opportunity?