Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Risk and Return Journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Risk and Return Journal - Assignment Example This journal examines the importance of risk and returns balance (De Bondt and Werner, 1993). Investing in a risk-free portfolio leads to low or no return on investment. For example, an investment in risk-free government bonds yields slight returns on investments. Investors tend to increase their profits by venturing into riskier portfolios. Increasing income is the primary function of doing business, so it is necessary to venture into a substantial amount of risk to achieve this objective. Keeping this in mind it is necessary also to note that taking on a large risk does not necessarily guarantee high returns. There are two aspects of risk, first is the probability of loss on investment. For example, if an investment yields lower returns than expected. Then there is the possibility of earning more than what is. For instance waiting to get 11% return rate but getting a 13% return rate (Bailey, 1994). It is important to maintain a risk and return balance to reduce exposure to losses brought about by risk. When evaluating the risk and return balance, the investment period is arguably the most important factor to be. If the investment period is long, it is advisable to maintain a relatively higher risk tolerance level. If the investment period is short, an investor is advised to maintain a lower risk tolerance level. Another equally important factor is risk capital that is the amount of funds available to trade without affecting daily business operations. Having many risks capital gives one freedom to trade in high-risk investments. On the other hand, having a small amount of risk capital limits one’s freedom to sell in high-risk investments (Bailey, 1994). The amount of investment experience held is another important factor. Relatively new investors are not advised to commit significant sums of capital. However, experienced investors with enough knowledge on risk can invest

Monday, October 28, 2019

Principales Temas Essay Example for Free

Principales Temas Essay Este viaje, alegi ricamente representa la trayectoria de la vida de Blanche. Los Campos Eli seos son la tierra de los muertos en la mitologi a griega. La bi squeda de toda la vida de Blanche de sus deseos sexuales ha conducido a su desahucio de Belle Reve, su ostracismo del Laurel, y, al final del juego, su expulsii n de la sociedad en general. El sexo conduce a la muerte. En todas partes del juego, Blanche es atormentada por las muertes de sus antepasados, El suicidio de su marido es el resultado de la desaprobacii n de su homosexualidad. En la Escena Nueve, cuando la mujer mexicana aparece vendiendo flores para los muertos, la reacciona Blanche con el horror porque la mujer anuncia el destino de Blanche. Su locura es el final causado por sus defectos duales su inhabilidad de actuar de manera apropiada sobre su deseo y su miedo desesperado de mortalidad humana. El sexo y la muerte esti n unidos fatalmente en la experiencia de Blanche. LAS PASIONES: LOS RECUERDOS: DEPENDENCIA DEL HOMBRE: Un Tranvi a Llamado Deseo presenta una cri tica aguda del camino, las instituciones y las actitudes de Ami rica de la posguerra y las restricciones contra la mujer. Williams usa la dependencia de Blanche y Stella de los hombres para exponer la cri tica y el tratamiento de la mujer. Tanto Blanche como Stella ven a sus compai eros masculinos como su i nico significado de felicidad, y ellas dependen de los hombres tanto para su sustento como para su autoimagen. Blanche reconoce que Stella podri a ser mi s feliz sin su marido. Cuando Stella decide permanecer con Stanley, ella decide confiar y creer en un hombre en vez de su hermana. Williams no necesariamente critica a Stella sino que lo que hace es limpiar hacer ver que Stanley representa un futuro mucho mi s seguro que Blanche. Blanche ve el matrimonio de Mitch como su medio de destitucii n. Blanche tiene una reputacii n pobre. Esta reputacii n hace que Blanche tenga una perspectiva del matrimonio poco atractiva, pero, porque ella es indigente, Blanche ve el matrimonio como su i nica posibilidad para la supervivencia. Cuando Mitch rechaza a Blanche inmediatamente piensa en otro hombre el millonario Shep Huntleigh quii n podri a rescatarla. Blanche no comprende que su dependencia de los hombres la conduciri a su cai da mas que a su salvacii n. Por confiar en los hombres, Blanche pone su destino en las manos de otros. LUZ En todas las partes del juego que aparece Blanche no aparece la luz directa, brillante, sobre todo delante de su pretendiente, Mitch. Ella tambii n rechaza revelar su autentica edad, y esta claro que ella evita la luz para impedirle ver la realidad de su belleza. En general, la luz tambii n simboliza la realidad del pasado de Blanche. En el que ella estaba atormentada por los fantasmas como su primer amor, su objetivo en la vida, su dignidad, y la sociedad distinguida de sus antepasados. Blanche cubre la luz con una linterna de papel de arroz, y rechaza las citas con Mitch durante el di a. Mitch se da cuenta, y sera en la Escena Nueve, cuando i l se enfrenta y cuenta las historias de Stanley y la habla de su pasado. Mitch entonces fuerza a Blanche a ponerse de pie bajo la luz. Entonces la que no le preocupa su edad sino su falsedad, Blanche responde diciendo que ella no pensaba hacerle dai o. La inhabilidad de Blanche de tolerar la luz significa que se acerca su realidad final. En la Escena Seis, Blanche dice a Mitch que esta enamorada de su marido, Allan Grey, era como tener el mundo lleno de luz brillante, viva. Desde el suicidio de Allan, Blanche dice, la luz brillante desapareceri. Los encuentros sexuales de Blanche con otros hombres, han experimentado la luz si lo di bil. La luz brillante, por lo tanto, representa la joven inocencia sexual de Blanche, mientras la luz pobre representa su madurez sexual y desilusii n. BAi O- En todas partes de un Tranvi a el Deseo Llamado, Blanche se bai a. Sus experiencias sexuales la han hecho una mujer histi rica, pero estos bai os, como ella dice, son para tranquilizar sus nervios. Sus esfuerzos por olvidar y deshacerse de su pasado, estos bai os representan sus esfuerzos por limpiarse de su historia odiosa. Stanley tambii n se bai a para deshacer una fechori a, cuando i l se ducha despui s de la paliza de Stella. La ducha sirve para calmar su cari cter violento; despui s, i l abandona el cuarto de bai o se siente arrepentido y llama con ansia a su esposa. ALCOHOLISMO Tanto Stanley como Blanche beben en exceso en varios puntos de la obra. La bebida de Stanley es una actividad social: i l bebe con sus amigos en la barra, durante sus juegos de pi ker, y para celebrar el nacimiento de su nii o. La bebida de Blanche, es antisocial, y ella trata de mantenerlo en secreto. Ella bebe para eludirse de la cruda realidad. Un estado de estupor borracho le permite imaginar, preparar una huida con Shep Huntleigh. Para ambos caracteres, la bebida conduce al comportamiento destructivo: Stanley comete la violencia domi stica, y Blanche se engai a. VIOLENCIA-Otro tema que obsesioni a Williams fue la violencia. A lo largo de esta obra la violencia se palpa en cada escena. Hay distintos tipos de violencia: La violencia verbal(Stanley habla de forma brusca a su mujer y a la hermana de esta, Blanche. Blanche tambii n habla con cierto tono de superioridad a Stanley, recordandole que ellas provienen de una familia acomodada y i l es solo un polaco)y la violencia fi sica( Stanley descarga todas sus frustraciones en Stella. Este le pega por que se siente inferior y no acepta que Stella le diga lo que tiene que hacer. Stanley tambii n viola a Blanche, para demostrarle quien manda en su casa). La violencia fi sica siempre aparece despui s del alcohol. Blanche no acepta esta violencia pero su hermana Stella ya esti acostumbrada a ella y le resta importancia. El resultado de toda esta violencia es la locura. Con este final Williams nos quiere dejar ver que no se puede vivir fuera de las reglas de la sociedad. Si eres lo suficientemente valiente para mostrarte tal y como eres, el resultado es la locura causada por la intolerancia de todo el mundo. HOMOSEXUALIDAD- El personaje homosexual ausente (muerto antes de levantarse el teli n) impregna la atmi sfera opresiva y oni rica de la obra y ayuda a dar sentido a todo lo que ocurre. El recuerdo de Allan el joven casado con Blanche, y se suicida. En los dramas de Williams de esta i poca el homosexual sale del armario para ser expulsado del texto. Sus personajes mueren porque no pueden afrontar un mundo real donde su diferencia sexual es un hecho socialmente inaceptable y ellos mismos no pueden vivirla con total franqueza. Los personajes gays de sus obras mi s conocidas y de mayor i xito han muerto antes de que se levante el teli n. Han muerto o se han suicidado en un arrebato de pi nico homosexual como Allan. En ella se inclui an de pasada temas como el incesto, la homosexualidad o el canibalismo aunque el verdadero eje de la trama en el filme fuera el miedo la locura y la confusii n entre fantasi a y realidad.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Sufi Teachers and Redefining the Traditional Student-Teacher Relationsh

Sufi Teachers and Redefining the Traditional Student-Teacher Relationship "What does it mean-and more important, what should it mean--to be educated?" (58) A response to Spayd's begs another question. Is education the objective itself or the means to the objective? For some people education is just a degree, a piece of paper framed on the wall. One can say, a person with a diploma has received an education, but it is not certain that the person is educated. This paper relates to those individuals who use education as a means to reach their objective. For them, education is not a straight line with a definitive start and finish. It is a journey full of crossroads and choices, which require direction from a guide. For a student, the teacher is that guide. The teacher teaches the student how to find the right way in his journey and from time to time, help redefine student's objective. The teacher's role in a student's journey is a central issue for a fruitful education. A teacher's methodology and the relationship between student and teacher greatly affect the content of education and its relevance to real life. A student's role is equally important in an effective teacher-student relationship. As a receiver of information and training, the student must respect and love the teacher and also have keen interest in the subject matter. This paper is intended to focus on the importance of a teaching methodology, content and philosophy of teaching and learning for an effective and fruitful student-teacher relationship. A dramatic example of a powerful teacher-student interaction is found in the Sufi Order and the way the Dervish teach their students. By understanding the teacher-student relationship in the Sufi Order, one may... ...espect and admiration for the teacher in addition to having a keen interest in the subject matter. A Sufi Master's relationship with his student, however dramatic it may be, is the most productive and rewarding model for a life-long student-teacher relationship. Works Cited Helminski, Kabir. "Dervishhood". http://www.sufism.org/books/sacred/dervish.html (9 March 2002). Spayde, John. "Learning in the Key of Life." The Presence of Others Voices and Images That Calls for Response. Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford St.Martin's, 2000 , 58-64. Lessing, Doris. "On Sufism and Idries Shah's The Commanding Self (1994)". January 31, 1999. http://www.sufis.org/lessing_commandingself.html (9 March 2002). "Initiation and search for a murshid". Hazrat Sultan Bahu . November 24, 2000. http://www.bahu.co.za/hazrat_sultan_bahu.htm (9 March 2002).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Analysis of My Big Fat Greek Wedding

During the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, there was a lot of positive and negative communication that influenced the main character’s life decisions. The story is about a young woman, named Toula, that is of Greek decent who is fearful of being stuck in the life she is now living. She is a frumpy girl that works in her family’s restaurant because she has not been able to find a Greek man to marry, and because of this, her family claims that she is old and has failed in life. She is allowed to attend college, which in turn, gives her new confidence and she is able to fall in love with a non-Greek man that is named, Ian.During the movie she struggles to get her family to accept him as the man she loves, and she also finally comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity. At the end of the movie, Ian is accepted into the family, he becomes a baptized Greek, agrees to marry in the Greek Orthodox Church and participate in the Greek culture. Despite the happy ending of the movie, Toula struggled to follow the rules and values of her culture, practiced nonverbal communication with Ian, and received empathy from her mother while Ian had to deal with a language barrier of English and Greek.Toula has a hard time accepting the culture of her family. From the movie, it seems as though the Greek culture is a high context culture. High context cultures have a strong sense of tradition and history, and they do not change much over time. In the beginning of the movie, Toula states that her family expects her to â€Å"marry a Greek boy, make Greek babies, and feed everyone in the family till the day she dies. † Since she has not been married she is stuck working in the family restaurant until she does. She breaks tradition when she starts dating and then marries, Ian, because he is not a â€Å"Greek boy, and not from a Greek family. She also does the unthinkable since she marryed Ian and changes the history and tradition of the culture, as high c ontext cultures do not change over time. It is also a tradition for the Greeks to have big families; Toula explains to Ian that she has twenty-seven first cousins and Ian seems to be very interested in what she is telling him because he only has two cousins. Ian’s family is American and they are the opposite of Toula’s family, they are part of the low context culture, like many other American families.One of the biggest differences is that Toula’s family is loud, big and always together and Ian’s family is small, quite, and only see each other on special occasions. Toula and Ian practiced different forms of nonverbal communication during the movie. Nonverbal communication means messages expressed by nonlinguistic means. Ian and Toula have both used face and eyes as a form of nonverbal communication. When Toula was still working as a waitress in her family restaurant, the dancing Zorba’s, she was caught staring at Ian by Ian and his friend.Her stari ng suggests that she was very interested in Ian and thought that he was handsome but Ian’s friend assumed that she was crazy because of how she was staring at Ian. Toula also caught Ian staring at her in the window of the travel agency that her aunt owns. Ian’s staring at Toula suggested that he was interested in her and thought that she was pretty. Ian used substituting, a form of nonverbal communication, to say hi to Toula in the window of the travel agency by waving and smiling at her. There were no words spoken to each other during this scene.Toula used body orientation to hide from Ian in her family’s restaurant behind the counter as he was leaving. She did this because she may have been embarrassed for getting caught staring at him and she may have also been shy. The same thing also happened in the travel agency when Toula hid behind the water dispenser when Ian turned his back to her to talk with his friend. When he turned back around he could not find he r and he walked off. Before Ian ran into the older lady on the street in front of the travel agency, he was using the gesture of possibly a duck, to get Toula’s attention and to make her laugh.This gesture made her laugh and smile and it was able to help her loosen up and feel a little more comfortable. Ian had to deal with the language barrier a few times in the movie, but there were two scenes that were quite comical. Ian asked Nick, how do you say â€Å"thank you† in Greek and he also asked Angelo, Toula’s cousin, how to say â€Å"everyone let’s go in the house,† and both times he was told something entirely different. This is similar to the â€Å"English-speaking representative of a U. S. soft drink manufacturer naively drew laughs from Mexican customers when she offered free samples of Fresca soda pop.In Mexican slang, the word fresca means ‘lesbian’(Adler). † In both of these cases, Ian and the representative thought they were saying one thing but it meant something else in the other language. Empathy was shown in the movie when Toula was turned down by her father for wanting to go to college for computer classes. When this happened her mother, Maria, showed empathy. Empathy means being able to experience the world form the other person’s point of view. Maria explained to Toula that Toula was just like her when she was her age.Maria stated that she knew how she felt and she would talk to Toula’s father about the computer classes. Maria showed the emotional dimension that helped her to get closer to Toula’s feelings. She also showed genuine concern for the welfare her daughter Toula. I can relate to people being interested in my culture just as Ian was very interested in Toula’s culture because it is different, but unlike Toula, I enjoy my culture and I embrace it. I have found that having a different culture, because most of my family is not from America, as a good thing.E ven though it makes you a little different, it also makes you unique and it adds to your identity as a person. If I were in the situations that Toula was in, I would have done some things different. If I were her, I would have told my parents before anything got serious, because it was shown in the movie that lies only lead to more problems. Telling them early that she found someone non-Greek would have also cause problems but because they wanted her to get married so bad, I think they would have became welcoming sooner.It is important to be proud of your culture and not ashamed because your culture and the people that raise you make you who you are. Also, many facial expressions can be perceived as in ways that you would not want or expect, like Toula getting caught staring at Ian and his friend, thinking that she was a little crazy. So sometimes when communicating nonverbally, it may be best to use words to communicate your actual feelings. ? Works Cited Page(s): 187, Looking Out, Looking In, 13th Edition by Ronald B. Adler, Cengage Learning

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

President Obama: Analysis of the 2014 State of the Union Address-Job Security and Future Essay

The State of the Union is an annual address the President of the United States delivers to a joint session of the United States Congress, and it’s now broadcasted on live television. It fulfills Article II; Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution—requiring the President to periodically give Congress information on the â€Å"State of the Union† and recommend any measures that he believes is necessary and expedient. The first State of the Union address was delivered by President George Washington on January 8, 1790, in New York City. The most recent address was delivered by President Barrack Obama on January 28, 2014, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. Mr. Obama talks about various topics that America currently needs to focus on: improving American health care, enacting immigration reform, a smarter national security approach, moving America on from war, calling for Congress to allow more room for U.S. Diplomats to maneuverer and education imp rovements for American job in tomorrow’s economy. Jobs consequently affect everyone and these people need to be aware of what the president has in store for their current situation and stability. In his speech, Mr. Obama specifically focuses on jobs, job security and job improvements. President Obama begins this aspect of his State of the Union address by calling all business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders and law enforcement leaders—to repair the failing immigration system. He acknowledges how Democrats and Republicans, respectively, have already initiated the process to repair the immigration system and acknowledges that members of the House have intentions to follow suit of their Senate counterparts. According to Mr. Obama, independent economists have stated that our economy will improve expeditiously and will shrink the U.S. deficit by $1 trillion over the course of the next two decades. Obama says that immigrants play a vital role in the United States’ economy and growth; saying, â€Å"When people come here to fulfill their dreams — to study, invent, contribute to our culture — they make our country a more attractive place for business es to locate and create jobs for everybody.† (Barrack Obama. State of the Union. Washington, D.C. January 28, 2014) President Obama stresses the importance of have a plan in place by the end of 2014. However, Mr. Obama doesn’t just focus on immigrants realizing the â€Å"American Dream.† He has a vision for all Americans to have the necessary skills to  fill jobs. He talks about an inspiring woman, named Andra Rush; who had a vision to be an entrepreneur of her own auto parts manufacturing plant. She made a faithful call to the American Job Center, and received the workers that she needed to establish her company. Today, her company, Detroit Manufacturing Systems, has a workforce of 700 strong. Obama says this is the standard of â€Å"how it should be† for every American. President Obama made public that he called on Vice President Biden to lead America into a new, reformed training system. Vice President Biden is to ensure that every American has the opportunity to receive the necessary skills and training for a successful career. Mr. Obama gives Congress challenge—to concentrate on funding for proven programs. Mr. Obama publically displays his pleasure to Congress for letting unemployment insurance expire for an astounding 1.6 million people. He is convinced that if Americans had these benefits, they will be more readily to see k and gain employment. He tells of a letter a woman wrote to him and pleaded her case for unemployment insurance. She states that she’s never been dependent on government assistance, pays her taxes, and cares for her family and in time— confident that she’ll find a job. Obama demands that Congress to give hardworking Americans, like her, a fighting chance. He says he’s been asking C.E.O.s to give unemployed workers a fair chance for employment at their respective companies. He pleads with all business leaders to join him in the fight to end unemployment. Training children for â€Å"tomorrow’s workforce† is an essential part of the President’s speech. He believes that every child should be guaranteed access to a world-class education. He gives an inspirational story of a young immigrant boy, named Estiven Rodriguez. Estiven didn’t speak any English at the age of 9 when he moved to New York City. Obama praises Estiven because he not only shown perseverance through the language barrier, but he led his classmates on a journey to mail their college applications, having the love and support from parents and neighbors. Mr. Obama says proudly that Estiven is starting college in the fall. He proclaims that his administration, along with various government leaders, have already reformed how accessible student loans are readably available for aspiring college students. Obama states that all states should have a high standard in sending their children to college to pursue a successful career. He believes it is essenti al for schools to provide a more challenging curriculum to their students and  demands for parents to be more supportive for teachers—to help teachers find the most effective way to challenge their students to use their innermost thinking and problem solving. Obama stresses the importance it is to begin challenging children in the very beginning; by establishing high-quality pre-K guidelines. President Obama vows for the children to get quality pre-K then need. He reiterates his pledge that he guarantees high-speed internet access to 99% of the nation’s schools. He states proudly that over 15,000 schools and 20 million students will have that access over the next two years, without raising the national deficit. President Obama vows to help Americans, whom seem trapped by their delinquent student loan payments, to lower the monthly payment to 10% of their income. Mr. Obama makes a pledge to help American minorities and women obtain and maintain employment. He stresses how vital these Americans play a key role in the economy. Mr. Obama admits that it’s embarrassing that women only make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. He believes that both groups of people should have a fair shot to live the â€Å"American Dream† and not be discriminated against and calls for the rest of their counterparts to be unbiased. The president makes a proclamation that everyone should agree, despite their success, that no one should be subjected to raise a family in poverty. The pleas with employers to raise their wages—so families can strive and succeed. He then shifts his focus and calls for every mayor, governor and state legislator to no wait for Congress to initiate a move to raise the federal minimum wage. He praises corporations, as in Costco, who pay the employees high wages, and in turn see higher productivity and lower turnover ratio. Obama then claims that if an American is a federal contractor, they should not live in poverty, and vowed to hold an executive order to raise their wage to at least $10.10 per hour. President Obama proclaims he has a vision—for every American to strengthen their credit, reward their hard work and for them to have a strong, stable pension plan. This moves President Obama into the conclusion of his promises to Americans for tomorrow’s economy and workforce. He promises to help Americans save for retirement. He admits that most workers don’t have a pension plan and says that Social Security does little to relieve the stress for the elderly. He calls on the Treasury to create a new, innovative way to start their independent retirement savings—MyRA—which is a new savings bond that encourages people to build a  foundation, with no risk of losing what’s put in. He again calls on Congress to help him give fair tax breaks to everyone and to offer every American access to an automatic IRA. He concludes this portion of his speech by again making a vow that he wants to avoid another housing crisis and keep the dream alive for future Americans. President Barrack Obama has a broad, well-placed plan in effect. He stresses the importance of how vital each and every American plays a key role in the development of tomorrow’s economy. He wants to start from the beginning and train every American at an early age so th an America can thrive among world powers. He wants to do everything in his power to ensure that every American, regardless of race or sex, to have a fair shot at a successful future. Most importantly, he wants to ensure that every American should have the opportunity to earn a fair income during their working days and building for their future—American’s future.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Essay Editing Service

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Monday, October 21, 2019

Should Historic Buidings be Destroyed

Should Historic Buidings be Destroyed Free Online Research Papers The issue of whether to preserve, or destroy historic buildings is complex. Many feel that it is most important for a society to stay current, even if that comes at the expense of destroying historic landmarks. Others feel that history is not something you can rebuild once a building is destroyed, and that we must preserve or physical history at all costs. I feel that it is most important to preserve historic landmarks, and that there are many ways that the desire for modernization and for preserving historic landmarks can coexist. Historic buildings represent the life and culture of a society. They are records, and memories of times past. Historic buildings allow people to feel connected to a time past, and serve a valuable tool in teaching about history. When we have historic buildings to visit, we can teach our children about the history of an area, thus connecting future generations to their past. Historic buildings cannot be replaced. We can build replicas, but we cannot replace a historic building once it has been torn down. When such buildings give us a connection to our past and where we came from, it is tragic to destroy such relics. Memories can exist without buildings, but fade away even further when there is no physical reminder. And when there is no physical reminder, we have nothing for future generations to see. It is also tragic to destroy historic relics when old historic buildings can serve two purposes at once. There are probably a number of instances where historic buildings are altered slightly to serve modern purposes. An old run down theatre could be fixed up to look like it used to, but the seating could be changed to be more comfortable to people. There are a number of other examples of how old historic buildings could be altered to provide both modern and historic purposes. There are a number of reasons that preserving history is more important than becoming more modern. Historic buildings are a reminder of where we came from, which in itself is very valuable. They provide culture and a sense of connection to times that have passed. Once a historic building is torn down, we no longer have that link to the past. Such an outcome is unnecessary, especially considering that there may be acceptable compromises that involve slightly altering existing structures to accommodate for modern purposes. Research Papers on Should Historic Buidings be DestroyedPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionGenetic EngineeringTwilight of the UAWCapital PunishmentBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesRiordan Manufacturing Production PlanQuebec and Canada

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How Static Fields in Java Work

How Static Fields in Java Work There can be times when its useful to have values that are shared across all instances of a particular class. Static fields and static constants enable this type of sharing by belonging to the class and not to the actual objects. The Static Modifier Normally fields and methods defined in a class can be used only when an object of that class type has been created. For example, consider a simple Item class that keeps track of goods in a store: public class Item {   Ã‚  private String itemName;   Ã‚  public Item(String itemName)   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName;   Ã‚  }   Ã‚  public String getItemName()   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  return itemName;   Ã‚  } } To be able to use the getItemName() method, we must first create an Item object, in this case, catFood: public class StaticExample {   Ã‚  public static void main(String[] args) {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Item catFood new Item(Whiskas);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  System.out.println(catFood.getItemName());   Ã‚  } } However, if the static modifier is included in a field or method declaration, no instance of the class is required in order to use the field or method - they are  associated with the class and not an individual object. If you look back at the above example, you will see that the static modifier is already being used in the main method declaration: public static void main(String[] args) { The main method is a static method that does not require an object to exist before it can be called. As main() is the starting point for any Java application, there are in fact no objects already in existence to call it. You could, if you felt like having a program that continually calls itself, do this: public class StaticExample {   Ã‚  public static void main(String[] args) {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  String[] s {random,string};   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  StaticExample.main(s);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  } } Not very useful, but notice how the main() method can be called without an instance of a StaticExample class. What Is a Static Field? Static fields are also known as class fields. They are simply fields that have the static modifier in their declarations. For example, lets go back to the Item class and add a static field: public class Item {   Ã‚  //static field uniqueId   Ã‚  private static int uniqueId 1;   Ã‚  private int itemId;   Ã‚  private String itemName;   Ã‚  public Item(String itemName)   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  itemId uniqueId;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  uniqueId;   Ã‚  } } The fields itemId and itemName are normal non-static fields. When an instance of an Item class is created, these fields will have values that are held inside that object. If another Item object is created, it too will have itemId and itemName fields for storing values. The uniqueId static field, however, holds a value that will be the same across all Item objects. If there are 100 Item objects, there will be 100 instances of the itemId and itemName fields, but only one uniqueId static field. In the above example, uniqueId is used to give each Item object a unique number. This is easy to do if every Item object that is created takes the current value in the uniqueId static field and then increments it by one. The use of a static field means that each object does not need to know about the other objects to get a unique id. This could be useful if you wanted to know the order in which the Item objects were created. What Is a Static Constant? Static constants are exactly like static fields except that their values cannot be changed. In the field declaration, the final and static modifiers are both used. For example, perhaps the Item class should impose a restriction on the length of the itemName. We could create a static constant maxItemNameLength: public class Item {   Ã‚  private static int id 1;   Ã‚  public static final int maxItemNameLength 20;   Ã‚  private int itemId;   Ã‚  private String itemName;   Ã‚  public Item(String itemName)   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  if (itemName.length() maxItemNameLength)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName.substring(0,20);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  }   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  else   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  }   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  itemId id;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  id;   Ã‚  } } As with static fields, static constants are associated with the class rather than an individual object: public class StaticExample {   Ã‚  public static void main(String[] args) {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Item catFood new Item(Whiskas);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  System.out.println(catFood.getItemName());   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  System.out.println(Item.maxItemNameLength);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  } } There are two important things to notice about the maxItemNameLength static constant: It is declared as a public field. Generally its a bad idea to make a field public in any class you design but in this case, it doesnt matter. The value of the constant cannot be changed.The static constant is used from the class name Item, not an Item object. Static constants can be seen throughout the Java API. For example, the integer wrapper class has two that store the maximum and minimum values an int data type can have: System.out.println(The max value for int is: Integer.MAX_VALUE); System.out.println(The min value for int is: Integer.MIN_VALUE); Output: The max value for int is: 2147483647 The min value for int is: -2147483648

Saturday, October 19, 2019

The New Right Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The New Right - Essay Example First coined by the YAF or Young Americans for Freedom in a 1962 article, it became widely used in the late 70s. I was also able to trace it back, in part, to the American â€Å"New Deal† opponents Brent Bozell and Clarence Marion, both writers who were pioneers of what later became a Southern strategy. Other major proponents of the movement were Friedrich Havek and Peter Viereck, whom I believe were two of its most eminent intellectual forbearers. The social changes that were blowing through America in the 60s and 70ms were not well received by everyone. Following the Roe vs. Wade ruling that established abortion rights; a fervent movement for the protection of unborn children was established1. I also see the Equal Rights Amendment as the driver of anti-feminism, which took root with some Americans contending that it eroded the traditional unit of the family and its values. From the readings, there was obvious shock among some Americans at what they viewed as sexual permissiv eness in magazines and film, whereas the gay and lesbian rights movement was attacked as sinful. With ever-increasing rates of crime and divorce, some Americans increasingly blamed the social maladies on America’s liberal welfare system2. ... However, by this time, there was not a lot that was new about this economic and political conservatism. In 1964, I already see that Barry Goldwater had made the repudiation of the â€Å"New Deal† his presidential campaign driving point, declaring that the government was running a dime store New Deal3. Increased welfare and social spending was to be cut to reduce tax burdens on families and individual Americans, whereas government regulations also needed to be reduced in order to re-establish personal freedoms and economic growth. In my opinion, the idea of a â€Å"New Right† took off in the 70s with foreign competition penetrating American markets, which caused people to believe that Goldwater was right. The New Right movement, therefore, was and not surprisingly, strengthened by the financial resources of big American corporations. The Christian Right was another linchpin for the movement, especially with numbers that had swelled since the 50s in the evangelical denomi nations. In fact, between 1963 and 1978, the number of born-again Americans had risen from 24% to 40%4. They had numerous faces, although I think the most important were fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell and the Pentecostalism leader Pat Robertson. I find it remarkable that, in spite of their deep theological divisions, all leaders in evangelical America agreed that there was moral decay in the country. The main points they rallied against were homosexuality and its effect on the family, the â€Å"abandonment† by the woman of her family role, liberal media, and its effect on the youth, and courts for â€Å"banning† religion public schools. In fact, even Catholic Americans agreed with their sentiments, claiming that the Democratic Party had been spending time chasing gays,

Friday, October 18, 2019

Econometrics Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Econometrics - Literature review Example gh ROA are sure that the same success will transform into a better market price for its stock as fundamental profitability exploration is a true indication of a firm’s performance. Similarly, it has been comparatively challenging to identify the exact value of a firm since stocks are subjected to speculative swings. Noteworthy, there has been an increased prominence and concentration on the dingy outlook for social security and personal retirement plans, factors that make it exceedingly important for people to comprehend the factors that drive a company’s profitability to enable them make sound investment decisions. Apparently, considering the dynamism that is prominent in the corporate world, it becomes imperative that even managers and investors gain a candid understanding of how the various activities that a firm engages in affects its profitability and how that affect its dividends pay-out, performance in the industry and how its projection on sales and other long-term assets and liabilities is affected. This study will investigate the effects of factors such as the sector the firm is classified in, capital expenditures, debt-to-equity ratios, sales and R&D (research and development) expenditures on a firm’s ROA. To gauge the importance of these factors, I will conduct a multivariate regression analysis of the presented data. However, prior and the analysis and setting up of a model that describes the effects of the factors, a comprehensive literature review regarding the aforementioned factors is inevitable. McLaney & Peter evaluate the dependability, uses and elements of market-value and accounting measures of profitability. Apparently, they find that variations between market-value and accounting measures of profitability connote the cogency of cautionary remarks regarding the use of accounting data (McLaney & Peter 122). Additionally, there exists an important explanatory role for industry growth, leverage, TV advertising and R&D intensity as

Performance Appraisals at Head Office Assignment

Performance Appraisals at Head Office - Assignment Example Before moving into the main aims and objectives of performance appraisals, it is essential to gain a brief idea of performance appraisals. Performance appraisal was started as a simple method to provide income justifications, i.e. to explain if the salary drawn by an individual was justified or not based on their performance (Lawrie, 1990). This was a consideration since the human tendency to judge others work and performance created a lot of problems related to the motivation, ethics, legal ruling etc. at workplaces. To ensure that the appraisal systems were just, lawful, fair and accurate, performance appraisal was introduced. The process was linked to the material outcomes, i.e. if an employee’s performance is to less than ideal then there would be a cut in pay, however if the performance was better than the ideal level set by the supervisor, then there would be a rise in pay. Performance appraisal is a very essential part of employment. There are several reasons for performance appraisals to be conducted. As mentioned earlier, human tendency is to judge how a person is performing at the job and to try to eva luate if the ideal level of performance is met up to (Runion, Brittain, 2006). To understand performance appraisal better it is essential to focus on the elements that are taken care of by performing appraisals. The main aims and objectives of conducting performance appraisals on a regular basis are to assist the employer provide the employee with feedback and advice on how to improve in areas that require correction (Mohrman, et.al., 1989). This is the best way to communicate any strength the employees have and also to discuss the weaknesses and provide possible solutions. Since most of the performance appraisals are very open and it allows employees to rate their supervisors as well. This allows a better understanding and better relationship among the employer and employee. The

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Platos Republic and Modern Day Totalitarian Politics Term Paper

Platos Republic and Modern Day Totalitarian Politics - Term Paper Example In the contemporary society, every individual identifies themselves to political legitimacy while, elected leaders believe their election provides them with a political mandate, and also legitimacy. Conversely, authoritarian leaders or politicians believe their decisions are in line with citizen’s interest and suggest their rule only prevails until the citizens can take over. Hence, when viewed in popular discourse, it can be said that authoritarians too claim that their legitimacy is depended on a popular mandate. Most leaders, and especially dictators often reiterate that their acts are not against the popular legitimacy. Plato is viewed as being anti-democracy, and among the originators of the school of thought of totalitarianism. Plato himself believed it is ideal to appoint one supreme guardian also referred to as, the philosopher king (Michels 522). This according to Plato should be individuals withholding proper education and is competent to implement legislative polici es. Further, as reiterated by Plato, the philosopher king needs to be someone incorruptible as a result of his own desire being, knowledge. The Republic described by Plato presents various dialogues between Socrates and other observers in regard to political theory resonating with a just state. Plato never believed in democracy and focused on a perception that not every individual in the society had the ability to make wise choices or decisions. As stated by Socrates, the Platonic principle revolves around a few people within a just city considered possessing wisdom. Further, the Platonic principle suggests that the majority should place their trust in the few people whose desire is truth and wisdom, to provide leadership. In addition, such people are considered to be rational, and as a result, provide a ruling cadre that is just, and ensure the city that they rule is also just (Michels 526). According to Plato, Justice is not a tenet for the ruling within a capitalist society, and contribute minimally within a democratic republic. Plato never admired or believed in money since he regarded its power as corrupting the mind. Plato believed the society would exist in harmony without the presence of money. When a question was raised in the Republic of how the city could protect itself, yet there is no money, Socrates responded that the neighbouring cities would come to their aid if promised what remains after a war. In the world today, as part of advancing democratic principles, war is seen as a source of amassing national wealth. In essence, leaders who are motivated, not by justice often find means for rationalizing their immoral actions and use the ends for purposes of justifying the means. As a result, The Republic advocated for a view where morality should outweigh rationality (Brooks 51).The Plato’s assertion of leaving power into the few chosen who have the wisdom and desire to make the right choice can be associated with the emergence of totalitaria nism in the modern world. Individuals gain power today and form a belief system that power is a reserve for a few and establishes a dynasty, as a result. A number of governments across the world that today practice a totalitarian rule push their way into power as a result of popular consent from the population believing in their ability to make wise choices for the benefit of the entire population.  Ã‚  

Global Industries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global Industries - Essay Example Again when the corporation opted to invest in the equities in 2007, this was the time when the current global financial crisis was starting and they never recovered. Proper timing and a lack of diversity in investment may be attributed to the failure experienced by the corporation (Palacios & Musalem 2003). Given that the US economy may not improve much in the next three years, there is a need for Global Industries to consider investing in the developing economies, such has India and China. Other emerging markets in South America such as Brazil, and also Africa, may be another option worth exploring. In the past, pension fund managers have been known to risk with the money of taxpayers in equity markets that are characterised by a high level of volatility. The operations of our pension fund system has been such that the decision to take investment risks in the equity markets is often arrived at by a few individuals at the management level but when we experience a market crash, the taxpayers have to bear this risk. Often times, pension fund managers are quick to attribute the loss of taxpayers' money on the world financial crisis and bad markets (Mangiero 2009). It is not often that pension fund managers shall be awake to the realisation that the fund may be governed by investment models that are quite faulty, coupled with crooked actuarial theories. According to a majority of the economists that specialises in the assessment of funds, such plans may at best be viewed as risk time bomb that shall in the long-run result in losses. Inevitably, it is the taxpayer that shall be required to pay for such losses. For this reason, one could argue that the reason why we have had such a horrible experience in our pension fund is because our pension plans and models are faulty, and we have never taken the initiative to revise them accordingly (Caulkin 2009). The practice by the pension fund in the past years has been to heavily invest in equities. What appeared to have led the pension fund managers to such a decision was due to the assumption that the short-term meltdowns that they were experiencing would be offset by the ensuing financial gain in the long-term. Apparently, these fund managers seems not to have heeded the advice of financial economists, as regards the conventional model of investment markets; that "equities provide guaranteed returns over the long term" (Pension pulse 2009). This is a goal that economists have proved to be quiet untenable. Clearly, no one anticipated a global financial crisis of the magnitude that we are faced with, at the moment. It is imperative therefore that we do not repeat past mistakes. What this means is that we should learn to diversity our investments, at least as a cushioning effect against losing all the taxpayers earnings. In high investments such as the stocks or the equity funds, perfect timing is very important. Apparently, Global Industries appears to have opted to make investments at a time when disaster was just about to strike. Another characteristic of the past investments since the early 1990s is that the corporations have failed to adequately diversity its investments. For example, at one time, the corporation was into

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Platos Republic and Modern Day Totalitarian Politics Term Paper

Platos Republic and Modern Day Totalitarian Politics - Term Paper Example In the contemporary society, every individual identifies themselves to political legitimacy while, elected leaders believe their election provides them with a political mandate, and also legitimacy. Conversely, authoritarian leaders or politicians believe their decisions are in line with citizen’s interest and suggest their rule only prevails until the citizens can take over. Hence, when viewed in popular discourse, it can be said that authoritarians too claim that their legitimacy is depended on a popular mandate. Most leaders, and especially dictators often reiterate that their acts are not against the popular legitimacy. Plato is viewed as being anti-democracy, and among the originators of the school of thought of totalitarianism. Plato himself believed it is ideal to appoint one supreme guardian also referred to as, the philosopher king (Michels 522). This according to Plato should be individuals withholding proper education and is competent to implement legislative polici es. Further, as reiterated by Plato, the philosopher king needs to be someone incorruptible as a result of his own desire being, knowledge. The Republic described by Plato presents various dialogues between Socrates and other observers in regard to political theory resonating with a just state. Plato never believed in democracy and focused on a perception that not every individual in the society had the ability to make wise choices or decisions. As stated by Socrates, the Platonic principle revolves around a few people within a just city considered possessing wisdom. Further, the Platonic principle suggests that the majority should place their trust in the few people whose desire is truth and wisdom, to provide leadership. In addition, such people are considered to be rational, and as a result, provide a ruling cadre that is just, and ensure the city that they rule is also just (Michels 526). According to Plato, Justice is not a tenet for the ruling within a capitalist society, and contribute minimally within a democratic republic. Plato never admired or believed in money since he regarded its power as corrupting the mind. Plato believed the society would exist in harmony without the presence of money. When a question was raised in the Republic of how the city could protect itself, yet there is no money, Socrates responded that the neighbouring cities would come to their aid if promised what remains after a war. In the world today, as part of advancing democratic principles, war is seen as a source of amassing national wealth. In essence, leaders who are motivated, not by justice often find means for rationalizing their immoral actions and use the ends for purposes of justifying the means. As a result, The Republic advocated for a view where morality should outweigh rationality (Brooks 51).The Plato’s assertion of leaving power into the few chosen who have the wisdom and desire to make the right choice can be associated with the emergence of totalitaria nism in the modern world. Individuals gain power today and form a belief system that power is a reserve for a few and establishes a dynasty, as a result. A number of governments across the world that today practice a totalitarian rule push their way into power as a result of popular consent from the population believing in their ability to make wise choices for the benefit of the entire population.  Ã‚  

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Tourism policy assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tourism policy assignment - Essay Example The first step is to understand the socio-economic framework (or development philosophy) within which the industry operates. To this end, what is the underlying philosophy that governs the development of tourism in your policy area Why is it necessary to have this information when devising policy (Please provide the diagram and the explanation.) The west London tourism policy is developed keeping in view of the developing the overall standards of the society. The global slump in the tourism industry due to a series of issues like the 9/11,the Sars and mad cow diseases has created new challenges and decreased the tourist inflow both domestic and international. The increase in competition between nations has poised new challenges for tourism development in UK. The national authorities have had a daunting task of locating the regional vide inequalities in the services and infrastructure. The centre immediate challenge is to extract various local concerns and develop or encourage a regional policy for individual policy development. The West London tourism development being one of the major aspect of tourism development has created an interest. The key developments like the population growth, the decrease in the manufacturing jobs, the increase in the demand for the services and business functional job have create new challenges. The growing population are in need of infrastructure which is an essential component of the tourism development. The more and more shopping facilities and other amenities create an ideal ambience for a distinct life style. The decentralization of the governance and providing more representation will open up new opportunities. The authorities had highlighted some key factors that could be most influential in making the West London as a renowned tourist organisation. The west London tourism organisation having important tourism and sports facilities had to capitalize on the events like Olympics lined up in the future. The U K tourism department in line with global demands has evolved a strategic policy to chart out various tourism enhancing initiatives for various affiliated tourism governing bodies . The key factors are the enhancing the economy in the west London region Creating a congenial atmosphere in West London Enhancing the living standards of the people and encouraging the social equality among the residents. The West London tourism policies support the national vision of enhancing the value of the tourism in London and in UK and create a prosperous society with overall socio-economic

Monday, October 14, 2019

Study Objective Essay Example for Free

Study Objective Essay Been working for more than two years at the Bank, I have come to understand that people really need a good consultation when deciding on what to do next in their lives especially when choosing a career. Some people have for so long worked on the things they have not learned at schools but still perform well because they love the jobs while some, even got degrees in that fields, still find it difficult to focus on the job just because they do not have passion in it. I believe this could not have been worse, if these colleagues have initially been advised by profession counselor back when they were at schools to carefully look for their potentials and work their ways to success. My five week-trip for an exchange program to the States enabled me to discover more about the education system there and how students can access to wide varieties of information available to find the potentials within themselves and what schools or education institutions they should go to. There are school counselors and teachers who are willing to spare times discuss with students on what their study plans and the problems that might distract them from performing well. Given that I also hold a bachelor degree in Education, this has inspired me to devote my time pursue my Master degree in school counseling to come back and serve my country the same way those people in the States are doing. My study will focus mainly on the techniques of counseling with students at their young age related to their major selection and career planning. This year is the third time I assist the Fulbright and Undergraduate State Alumni Association of Cambodia to organize Major Career fair to provide clearer definitions of various university’s majors to high school students and the jobs they should expect to get in those fields. What I have observed from this fair is that those students are very interested and pay so much attention to what each speaker has to say about his/her experiences. I believe this is the rare occasion where they can listen to full descriptions of what they are going to study in the next 1 or 2 years ahead. My study, in the same way, will make me a qualified counselor to actually look into their inner self, find their real passions and provide them with the information they will need to get ready for their chosen futures. In addition, I will look into the emotional growth and relationship of the students with their family members especially parents. They both play an important role in the performance of their children in schools. In most Asian families especially Cambodian, family members tend not to show their loves and supports toward each other openly and as a result making the gap between them wider. Some parents are too busy with their business that they forget to look at how their children are doing at schools with friends while some trying too much to put pressure on their children to study what they do not really like. I am particularly interested in finding ways to engage family members in student’s activities in attempt that the students will not be involved in inappropriate actions with their peers. Hopefully, I can use what I have learned to introduce this concept to the school and family in so there would be less conflict internally that might affect the studies of the kids I want this study to provide me with sufficient qualifications to turn those kids who have already lose themselves in just the materialism society and who are no longer believe that education works to have faith in themselves, get up and start the journey with their classmates to realize their dreams and keep fighting. Apart from doing this as my job, I also plan to utilize these skills to the students in provinces where I volunteer myself to be guest speakers there. I am positive that the knowledge and skills, commitment and passion of mine supported by Fulbright are going to make this developing country full of rich human resources to continue to stay strong for years to come.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Impact of FDI on the growth rates in agriculture in India

Impact of FDI on the growth rates in agriculture in India Abstract Foreign direct investment (FDI) is taken as one of the key factor of rapid economic growth and development. FDI, it is believed to stimulate domestic investment, human capital, and transfers technology. It is associated qualities which causes the faster economic development in the host countries. India, for instance was one of the poorest economies after the post independence era, but yet achieved economic growth with substantial amount of FDI inflows and become one of the fastest emerging economies in the world in a half century and witnessed unprecedented levels of economic expansion, along with countries like China, Russia, Mexico and Brazil. This paper evaluates the impact of FDI in Indias economic growth employing macro economic time series data from 2000-2010 on the growth of Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service sectors of the Indian economy as well as the economy as a whole. This study uses the endogenous growth model to explore the role of FDI in economic growth. The role of FDI in economic growth is not statistically significant; however, the interaction between FDI and human capital, export and domestic capital is of utmost importance. This study supports the findings of Laura Alfaro (2003) in the study of which shows that the benefits of FDI vary greatly across sectors by examining the effect of foreign direct investment on growth in the primary, manufacturing, and services sectors. Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the difference in growth rates among the Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service Sectors of the Indian Economy due to the uneven flow of Foreign Direct Investment in these sectors. The research work also aims at analysing the growth of Indian economy from 2000 to 2010 based the inflows of Foreign Direct Investment and the factors such as Government Spending, Inflation, GDP Per capita, Trade Openness and Human Capital Formation affecting it. Introduction: The United Nations 1999 World Investment Report defines FDI as an investment involving a long term relationship and reflecting a lasting interest and control of a resident entity in one economy (foreign direct investor or parent enterprise) in an enterprise resident in an economy other than that of the foreign direct investor ( FDI enterprise, affiliate enterprise or foreign affiliate). In the recent years, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies have become one of the central economic policies for the developing countries, learned from the experiences of newly industrialised countries (NICs) like South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan which promoted FDI as the catalyst of rapid economic growth in the early stages of their economic development. Empirical studies on the impact of FDI on economic growth have shown positive impact in the host countries. Hence, it has become an area of great interest with empirical determinants of policy implications for enhanced FDI inflows and the mechanism through which it facilitates growth and structural change in recipient countries. The role of FDI in economic growth in the developing countries is that FDI generate more benefits to the recipient countries rather than just full filling the short-term capital deficiency problems. Transfer of technologies and its spill over effect to the local firms will make the local firms more competitive and high standards which is necessary to compete with the foreign products. Another, spill over effect of MNEs is that MNEs may provide training and labour management which may make them available to the economy in general. The training to local suppliers by MNEs may increase the high standard production and managerial standards. The relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth is one of the well studied subjects in the field of development economics. Especially, after the advent of endogenous growth model (Borenzteins, et al, 1995, Balasubramanyam, et al, 1996) made this relationship more vital for long run economic growth. The research interest in this field has increased after 1990s wave of globalisation and massively increased FDI across the globe and economic growth of FDI receiving countries. According to UNCTAD (2009) foreign direct investment has potential to generate employment, raise productivity, transfer skills and technology, enhance export and continue to the long term economic development of the worlds developing countries. FDI is also the largest source of external financing for developing countries. Foreign Direct Investment is directly linked to the international trade of the country which provides the opportunities to integrate the local economy with the world economy. Enormous literatures on significance of FDI has shown positive role in the economic growth (Borenztein, et al 1995, De Mello, 1996 and Balasubramanyam, 1996). However, there are controversies as some academics argue that the relationship between FDI and growth is non-linear. This is a complex issue whether FDI cause growth or growth causes the increase of FDI. Multinational companies go across the world with the objectives maximizing profits. Hence, countries are providing most suitable investment environment to MNEs to attract the investment. Policy reforms, political stability, domestic growths, increased domestic entrepreneurial skills might cause to grow the FDI in host countries. Inflows of FDI can be important vehicle for technological change and human capital. Blomstrom et al (1994, 1996) emphasized FDI that induced human capital augmentation and economic growth by the help of the technology transfer, accumulation of human capital and knowledge spill over in the FDI receiving countries. There are two ways to deliver goods and services to foreign markets: international production and trade. This means that there should be some interrelationship between the two. This is confirmed by the positive correlation between world Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and world exports. Thus, economic growth and trade and investments are interconnected. Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth Foreign Direct Investment plays important role in economic growth as FDI not only increase the capital stock in the country but also brings the technology which increases the productivity of the resources. The massive increase in FDI in India from 1990 to 2010 raises important queries about the possible impact of FDI in economic growth. The studies of Borenzstein et al. (1995) and Balasubramaniyam, et al. (1996) demonstrate that FDI induces human capital and transfer technologies and this spillover effect of knowledge lead the economic growth in the host countries. They argue that the effect of FDI remains permanent in the host country because of the development in the infrastructures of the host country. Therefore, there exist the long rung relationship between level of GDP and foreign capital stock. Depicted below are the trends in FDI, GDP and Inflation in the post liberalisation period in India. Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ The cumulative effect of FDI,GDP and Inflation factors determine the growth of an economy. The sectoral breakup of flow of FDI in India is as follows: Source: Adapted from the data given on http://www.indiaonestop.com/FDI/sectorwisefdiinflows%282000-2009%29.htm Hence it is clear that the major share of FDI flows into the Service Sector. The share of each of the sectors in GDP is as below: Source: Adapted from the data given on http://business.mapsofindia.com/india-gdp/sectorwise/ It is clear from the above two depictions that the service sector has majority share in GDP as well as FDI, followed by Manufacturing and then Agriculture. The research aims at comparing the difference in growth rates of these sectors due to the flow of FDI. Current state of the literature related to the proposed topic: Economic policymakers in most countries go out of their way to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). A high level of FDI inflows is an affirmation of the economic policies that the policymakers have been implementing as well as a stamp of approval of the future economic health of that particular country. There is clearly an intense global competition for FDI. India, for its part, has set up the India Brand Equity Foundation to try and attract that elusive FDI dollar. According to UNCTAD (2010), India has emerged as the second most attractive destination for FDI after China and ahead of the US, Russia and Brazil. While there is an intense global race for FDI, how important is FDI to a countrys economic growth? It is certainly a difficult ask to separate and quantify the complex package of resources that FDI confer to the host country. There have been a number of macro studies attempting to determine the nexus between FDI and growth. The massive literature on role of FDI on economic growth has shown various types of affects (positive, negative or insignificant) of FDI in various countries. This study aims to explore the impact of FDI on the growth rates of sectors in Indian economy. Berry and Kearney(2006) the most common character through which spillover are understood to operate include technology transfer, demonstration effects (through management skills and training to export) and greater competition(leading to productive efficiency). A significant presence of MNEs can bring about fundamental changes in industrial structure, particularly for smaller and medium sized countries. If foreign MNEs operate in sectors that are imperfectly correlated with those dominated by indigenous firms, FDI can help create a better diversified economy. Chung et al (2003) Technology transfer occurs when there is contact between foreign and local firms. Japanese auto transplants increased production process in North American significantly influenced the industrys productivity growth during this period (1982-1991). Caves (1974) argued that FDI also improves the allocative and technical efficiency through competitive pressure. Foreign entrants break down entry barriers, compete for factor inputs and customers and reduce the market power of entrenched firms. Zhang et al (2004) studied on impact of MNEs behavior through FDI on international trade and vice versa. They used Granger causality co integration approach to observe the direction of FDI and trade linkage of Chinese economy in 1980- 2003 period. They found that more imports lead higher level of FDI, more FDI leads to more exports and more exports FDI. This virtuous process reflects Chinas open door policy. Chakraborty and Basu (2002) study showed two-way link between foreign direct investment and growth for India using structural co integration model with victor error correction mechanism. They found strong evidence of GDP Granger causing FDI flows for India, there was not significant role in the short run adjustment process of GDP. Short-run increase in FDI flows for India is labor displacing in nature. The technology transfer brought in by FDI causes an excess supply of labour creating downward pressure on unit labor cost. Borenzstein et al (1995) introduced a new model showing the impact of FDI in economic growth using an endogenous model growth model. They analyzed FDI flows from industrialized countries to 69 developing countries during 1970-1989. They argued that due to the direct FDI there is increase in capital accumulation and in host countries and transfer of technology lead increases productivity which causes the economic growth of the host countries. Their result showed that FDI is an important vehicle of technology transfer, contributing more economic growth than domestic investment where they make a case of minimum threshold stock of human capital necessary to absorb foreign technologies and linkage between FDI and human capital and domestic investment are crucial to achieve the economic growth. Other subsequent studies by Subramanyam et al., (1996) within the growth theory frame work analyzed the role of FDI in growth process in the context of 46 developing countries with different trade p olicy regimes. From their cross-sectional panel data analysis, they found that countries that pursue all outwardly oriented trade policies are strongly benefited from FDI than those countries adopting an inward oriented policy. De Mello (1996) based on neoclassical approach argue that FDI affects only level of income and leaves long run growth unchanged. They argue that technological progression and other external factors main source of economic growth. Their argument is that long-run growth arises because of technological progress and population growths both were exogenous. Hence, according to neoclassical models of economic growth, FDI will only be growth advancing if it affects technology positively and permanently. Endogenous growth theorists believe that economic growth is generated from within a system as a direct result of internal process. Aghoin and Howitt(1998) the enhancement of nations human capital by investing more on human capital formation would lead to faster economic growth. The recent endogenous models show that FDI can affect growth endogenously growth models if it generates increasing returns in production via externalities and spillover effects Deme and Graddy (2006). In these models, FDI is considered to be an important source of human capital and technological diffusion. According to Romers (1990) endogenous growth model; growth is driven by technological change from intentional investment made by profit maximizing firms. He argues that stock of human capital determines the rate of growth. In his view, there is increasing returns scale (IRS) in aggregate level where as constant returns to scale (CRS) in the firm level and firms dont take account of spillover effect of externalities but economy as a whole experiences the increasing returns to scale which causes the endogenous growth. Endogenous growth theoreticians FDI and trade stimulate the technological diffusion and contribute economic growth. Barell and Pain (1996) studied the econometric model of foreign direct investment and examined the extent to which the model explain the level of outward direct investment by U.S companies over last two decades. Their analysis show that market size and factor cost, both labor and capital are important factors in the investment decision because MNEs are trying to maximize the value of the firm by allocating the resources in right place. Feder et al. (1983) analyzed export-led economic growth hypothesis. They argued that exports increase factor productivity because of the better utilization of resources and economies of scale. Some economists argue that open trade policies foster FDI because of the conducive economic climate for the MNEs. In this regard, Rodrizguez and Rodrik (1999) presented a skeptical view by linking between opentrade policies and economic growth. They argue that previous studies didnt consider the institutional differences among countries in an upwardly biased estimate of trade and other policy restrictions. Their analysis showed that the relationship between average tariff rates and economic growth is only slightly negative and nowhere near statistical significance. The issue whether FDI and trade trigger economic growth or economic development attracts FDI and trade is unsolved (Makki and Samwaru, 2004) since past studies were one sided i.e. analyzed the impact of FDI and trade on economic growth (Borensztein et al, 1995 and Balasubramanyam et al, 1996) or analyzed the effect of economic growth on FDI (Barrel et al, 1996). The recent study on role of FDI in economic by Kim and Hwang (2000) focused on spillover effects in different six sub sectors. They examine the effects by using random effects model employing the annual data for the period of 1970. They find that FDI played a negligible role through out Koreas economic development. Despite the quantitative insignificance of FDI, they accepted the qualitative role of FDI on Korean economy by knowledge spillover from foreign firms. Dhakal et al. (2007) conducted a research on relationship between FDI and economic growth using granger causality test for 9 Asian countries where they find there is no direct causal relationship in two countries, causality ran from growth to FDI in 5 countries including South Korea and causality ran from both sides in two countries. Kim and Seo (2003) analysed the dynamic relationship between FDI and economic growth and domestic investment in Korea for the period of 195-1999 using vector auto regression model. They found that there some positive effects of FDI on economic growth but insignificant. However, their findings show that domestic investments negatively affected by FDI shock, and FDI does not crowd out domestic investment in Korea. In a recent survey of the literature, Hanson (2001) argues that evidence that FDI generates positive spillovers for host countries is weak. In a review of micro data on spillovers from foreign-owned to domestically owned firms, Gorg and Greenwood (2002) conclude that the effects are mostly negative. Lipsey (2002) takes a more favorable view from reviewing the micro literature and argues that there is evidence of positive effects. Surveying the macro empirical research led Lipsey to conclude, however, that there is no consistent relation between the size of inward FDI stocks or flows relative to GDP and growth. He further argues that there is need for more consideration of the different circumstances that obstruct or promote spillovers. This study revisits the FDI and economic growth relationship by examining the role FDI inflows play in promoting growth in the main economic sectors, namely Agricultural, manufacturing, and services. Often-mentioned benefits, such as transfers of technology and management know-how, introduction of new processes, and employee training tend to relate to the manufacturing sector rather than the agriculture or mining sectors. For example, the theoretical work of Findlay (1978) and Wang and Bloomstrom (1992) that models the importance of FDI as a conduit for transferring technology, relates to the foreign investment inflows to manufacturing or service. He warned that in the absence of linkages, foreign investments could have limited effect in spurring growth in an economy. About the consequences in potential linkages effects differences in manufacturing and agriculture, Hirschman (1958:110) wrote, the absence of direct linkage effects of primary production lends these views (enclaves) a plausibility that they do no have in the case of foreign investment in manufacturing. More recently, the theoretical work on linkages, by Rodiguez-Clare (1996), shows that multinationals intensive use of intermediate goods enhances production efficiency in host economies. In this framework, increased demand for inputs leads to a positive externality to other producers owing to an increase in variety. Greater varieties of inputs, however, seem to be more relevant to the manufacturing than to the agricultural sector. In addition, FDIs potential to create linkages to domestic firms, as Albert Hirschman (1958) described in his seminal book on economic development, might also vary across sectors. Hirschman (1958:109) emphasized that not all sectors have the same potential to absorb foreign technology or to create linkages with the rest of the economy. He noted, for example, linkages are weak in agriculture and mining. However, seem to be more relevant to the manufacturing than to the agricultural sector. Markusen and Venables (1999) analyze the effect of foreign firms on the development of domestic firms in the industrial sector. In their model, foreign companies compete with domestic producers while creating additional demand for domestically produced intermediate goods through linkages with local suppliers. This can lead to domestic firms entering into the intermediate goods sector, which can result in lower costs that, reflected in lower final prices that increase demand, can benefit domestic firms producing final goods. Proposed Research Work: Statement of Problem Today, India stands as one of the fastest emerging economies in the world. The country has a land of 3,287,240 Sq Km with 1,188,859,000 populations. India enjoys a per capita income of US $757 (World Bank, 2009) as compared to US $ 318 in the pre liberalisation era. This study explores the role of FDI in this remarkable growth of India as well as the growth of every sector of the Indian economy. FDI has been seen one of the big resources for industrial development in India over the years. FDI stock increased to US $ 34.577 billions in 2009 from US $ 236.690 millions in 1990 (WIR, 2009) and has gained the name of The Asian Tiger. It is interesting to explore the impact of FDI on the rapid growth of Indian economy. Despite the natural resources availability in the country, economic policies and political environment also influence the inflow of foreign investments in the countries. The theoretical concept of impact of FDI is that FDI does not only bring capital but also it brings technology, knowledge and due to the spill over effect development of process remains for the long run. FDI works as the catalyst for the economic growth of a country, especially for the developing countries. FDI is not only a single factor determining the economic growth, rather foreign trade, domestic investment, employment level, government consumption are also major factors affecting growth. On the other hand, stock of human capital is factors determining the level of FDI inflow besides the resources available in the host countries. How the growth is affected by these variables? Does high level of FDI increase the higher level of economic growth? What would be the interaction between FDI and Trade, human capital an d domestic investment? The study examines the effect of this variable in economic growth. Purpose of this study At a theoretical level, FDI brings both capital and technology which makes the local firms more competitive and encourages the economic development in the faster way. The spill over effect of foreign companies will have a long-term effect in the host countries. In the practical level, this study explores the role of FDI in economic growth in India. This study explores, whether FDI plays a role in economic growth or not? Another reason for the study is to compare the rate of growth of the key sectors of the Indian economy. India is able to attract a significant amount of FDI among Asian countries. This study verifies the theoretical model of endogenous growth theory of economic growth by using the macro economic figures of India. The present study examines the empirical assessment of the impact of FDI in difference of growth rates of Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service sectors of India as well as the growth of the economy as a whole over the period of 2000-2010. Scope of the Study Foreign Direct Investment has emerged as a major macro economic indicator of the growth of an economy. In recent years, the Indian Economy has opened up to foreign flows at a tremendous rate. These foreign inflows have contributed to the overall development of the economy in areas like technology, innovations and human capital formation but are being hindered by high rates of inflation, low yields, lack of infrastructure, skilled labour as well as low per capita GDP in various sectors. The study is aimed at analyzing the impact of FDI on the growth in various sectors considering the control factors. The research will also provide insights into the lop-sided flow of FDI in some sectors as compared to others. The impact of flow of FDI on the growth of Indian economy will also be estimated over the period of 10 years from 2000-2010. The study tries to explore the question whether high level of FDI cause higher level of economic growth. Research Methodology This section describes the research methodology of the study which explains the conceptual framework, research design, data collection method and data analysis methods of the study. The main objective of the study is to compare the difference in growth rates among the Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service Sectors of the Indian Economy over the period of 2000 to 2010. India received a huge amount of FDI and achieved high economic growth rate with gradual liberal trade policy regimes. This study analyzes the linkage between FDI and economic growth in India. Conceptual Frame work Basically, the conceptual frame work of the study is derived from the works of Borensztein et al. (1998), Carkovic and Levine (2002), and Alfaro et al. (2003). They have shown the impact of FDI on economic growth in the following linkage. Source: Adapted from How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth? References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article. E. Borensztein, J. De Gregorio and J-W. Lee According to their argument, Foreign Direct Investment accelerates capital accumulation in host country by increasing total investment and lowering the cost of innovation and indirectly by crowding in domestic investment and scarce resources of the economy and productivity is enhanced by technology transfer but it is constrained by human capital in the host economy. They argue that FDI develops stock of human capital. There should be a linkage between domestic investment and human capital to achieve the higher productivity. Research Methodology and Model The present study is focused on the compare the difference in growth rates among the Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service Sectors of the Indian Economy over the period of 2000 to 2010. Only secondary data are used for the analysis of the research objectives. The uneven inflow of foreign capital and growth of certain sectors in the economy in India has attracted the research interest on it. This study employs the endogenous growth theory as developed by Balasubramanyam, Salisu and Sapsford, 1996 and Borensztein, Gragorio and Lee 1998. This model assumes that FDI contributes to economic growth directly through new technologies and other inputs as well as indirectly through improving human capital, infrastructure and institutions and countrys level of productivity depends on FDI, trade and domestic investment. The impact of overall FDI inflows on economic growth can be based on the following equation: Growth= ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1 Initial GDP + ÃŽÂ ²2 Controls + ÃŽÂ ²3 FDI + vi Here Growth is the dependent Variable which equals per capita GDP, FDI and the control factors. For most of the variables in the regression, the values represent the average of the period for which sector FDI is available. The variables are determined as follows: Output levels and growth: Output level and growth data reflect the growth of real per capita GDP (in constant 1995 US$). Source: World Bank Development Indicators (2001). Foreign Direct Investment: FDI inflows are generally defined as the measure of the net inflows of investment needed to acquire a lasting management interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor. FDI by sector as a % of GDP was used in the regression analysis. Sources: For OECD countries, the International Direct Investment Statistics Year Book (2001); FDI by sector for other countries in the sample was calculated using UNCTADs World Investment Directory (7-volume series 1992-2000). Government Spending: Comprises general government final consumption expenditure as a percentage of GDP. Source: World Bank Development Indicators (2001). Inflation: Percentage changes in the GDP deflator. Source: World Bank Development Indicators (2001). Institutional Quality (INSTQUAL): Institutional Quality is measured as the average of the 12 sub-indices of Political Risk as measured by the International Country Risk Guide: Government Stability, Socio Economic Conditions, Investment Profile, Internal Conflict, External Conflict, Corruption, Military in Politics, Religion in Politics, Law and Order, Ethnic Tensions, Democratic Accountability, and Bureaucracy Quality. Source: International Country Risk Guide (ICRG). Inflation: Percentage changes in the GDP deflator. Source: World Bank Development Indicators (2001). Openness: Trade Openness is defined as the average of exports and imports as a percentage of GDP. Source: World Bank Development Indicators (2001). Private credit (PRCREDBANK): The value of credits by financial intermediaries to the private sector divided by GDP, this variable excludes credits issued by central and development banks and credit to the public sector as well as cross claims of one group of intermediaries on another. Source: Levine et al. (2000). Schooling: Average years of secondary schooling of the total population. Source: Barro and Lee (1996) and World Bank Development Indicators (2001). The same equation can be used to determine the economic growth in each of the sectors of the Indian economy. Based on the results obtained, relevant conclusions can be drawn about the growth rates in the Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service Sectors of the Economy and the difference between them. Analysis of the FDI over the period of 10 years can also be derived by employing the equation to each year. The stock of efficient human capital is required to absorb the technologies brought by FDI and it determines whether the potential spillover effect is realized. The host country requires sufficient number of human capital to utilize the technologies brought by FDI, meaning that higher the level of human capital in the host country, higher the effect of FDI in economic growth of the host country. The study assumes a positive relationship between FDI and GDP growth rate as well as a positive interaction between FDI and human capital in accelerating the economic growth. The issue relating to the interaction between FDI and domestic investment; it is assumed that there is positive interaction between FDI and domestic investment because FDI has is considered as an important medium for transferring capital, technologies and host countries that encourages the domestic investment level. This study uses the time series data for the period of 2000-2010 for the analysis of the objectives and uses the multivariate regression analysis (OLS) for the analysis of data. Data Collection Method and Sources The research is based on Secondary sources of Data Collection. Detailed information on FDI by sector for India is available in OECDs International Direct Investment Statistics Yearbook (2009). The OECD data can be complemented with information obtained from the World Investment Report seven volume series by UNCTAD, each volume of which contains FDI information for countries from different regions (e.g., Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, etc.). The per capita growth rate of output is measured as the growth of real per capita GDP in constant dollars using data from the World Banks World Development Indicators (WDI) (2009). Inflation, measured as the percentage of change in the GDP deflator and used as a proxy for macroeconomic stability, is taken from WDI (2009) as well. In order to capture institutional quality and stability, data from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG), a m

Saturday, October 12, 2019

The Organisational Structure, Culture and Management Style of Sainsbury

The Organisational Structure, Culture and Management Style of Sainsbury A1.How the organisational structure, culture and management style inter-relates in the business and evaluate their impact and that of ICT on the performance of the business. The organisational structure in which Sainsbury’s uses is how Sainsbury’s move the ranks from highest to lowest. For Sainsbury’s to not have levels of different hierarchy then it would not give anybody a rank, which would make the aims of Sainsbury’s not do well in terms of not having someone to be a manager and manage all the staff and make decisions. Without the chain of command workers would be lost and would not know what to do. The way in which the hierarchal structure works for Sainsbury’s is that they have one Manager who looks after all of the operational staff by making the decisions of what they should do and guiding them with any queries or problems. The hierarchal structure in which Sainsbury’s has yet not been put down in terms of not working as they are very good in their selling of products and fails not to impress by being one of the most popular product chains in the UK as well as making a lot of profit on there way to success. The management style in which Sainsbury’s uses is autocratic where as explained before that there is only one manager on the store floor who watches over the other operational staff who are making orders from customers and serving the customers at the tills, also f...

Friday, October 11, 2019

Organizational Behavior: Personality and Values Essay

In today’s modern society, personality and values play a critical role in the stability of an organization. Today, diversity is the key to the success of most organizations. However, diversity goes beyond merely race, religion, color, national origin, gender, age, and disability. The diversity of personality and the appreciation of the variety of talents and skills of our co-workers will go far in helping us make our lives less stressful. The human resource department and hiring managers need to consider personality and values when they hire new employees. It is also important that they understand and appreciate the different personality and values of their current employees. Personality and Values In today’s competitive market it has become extremely important to hire the right people to help execute the mission and vision of a company. The employee helps bring the slogan on the wall into existence; therefore, it is important that employees display the right personality and values the company would like to show the world. Gordon Allport produced the definition of personality we most frequently use nearly 70 years ago. Allport said personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment (Robbins & Judge, 2013, p. 133). However, the definition has been tweaked over the years. For the purpose of this paper, personality is defined as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others. The most important reason managers need to know how to measure personality is that research has shown personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers for ecast who is best for a job (Robbins & Judge, 2013, p. 133). Values are another area where companies need to ensure the employees and managers are on the same page. When values are divided, problems with the organization closely follow. Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state existence. They contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute says a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. When we ran an individual’s values in terms of their intensity, we obtain that person’s value system (Robbins & Judge, 2013, p. 144). When a company considers the personality of their employees and the value system of the owners and shareholders the company had now developed a company personality. Personality Traits Corporations often use personality assessments to understand how the people that belong in their organization interact. Two popular frame works for indentifying and classifying traits are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Big Five Model. According to Robins and Judge, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most widely used personality assessment instrument in the world. It is a 100-question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in particular situations. Respondents are classified as extraverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F), and judging or perceiving (J or P). These terms are defined as follows: * Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I). Extraverted individuals are outgoing, sociable, and assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy. * Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N). Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order. They focus on details. Intuitive rely on unconscious processes and look at the à ¢â‚¬Å"big picture.† * Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F). Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems. Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions. * Judging (J) versus perceiving (P). Judging types want control and prefer their world to be ordered and structured. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 56) These classifications together describe 16 personality types, indentifying every person by one trait from each of the four parts. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has been widely used by organizations including Apple Computer, AT&T, Citigroup, GE, 3M Co., many hospitals and educational institutions, and even the U.S. Armed Forces (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 135). The Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator may lack strong supporting evidence, but an impressive body of research supports the thesis of the Big Five Model – that five basic dimensions underlie all others and encompass most of the significant variation in human personality. Moreover, test scores of these traits do a very good job of predicting how people behave in a variety of real-life situations (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 136). The following are the Big Five factors: * Extraversion. The extraversion dimension captures our comfort level with relationships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timed and quiet. * Agreeableness. The agreeableness dimension refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm, and trusting. People who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic. * Conscientiousness. The conscientiousness dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable. * Emotional stability. The emotional stability dimension – often labeled by its converse, neuroticism – taps a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure. * Openness to experience. The openness to experience dimension addresses range of interests and fascination with novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the other end of the category are conventional and find comfort in the familiar (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 136). Generational Values Values within a person are oftentimes shaped by what generation and life events they may have experienced during their formative years. Researchers have integrated several recent analyses of work values into four groups that attempt to capture the unique vales of different cohorts or generations in the United States workforce (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 145). There are some limitations to this theory because a person born in one generation can have the characteristic of another generation. Just because you are born on a certain date, does not automatically make you have the same values as everyone in your own generation. Despite these limitations, values do change over generations, and we can gain some useful insights from analyzing values this way. Boomers (Baby Boomers) are a large cohort born after World War II when United States veterans returned to their families and times were good. Boomers entered the workforce from the mid-1960’s through the mid-1980’s. They brought with them a large measure of the â€Å"hippy ethic† and distrust of authority. But they placed a great deal of emphasis on achievement and material success. Pragmatists who believe ends justify means; they work hard and want to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Boomers see the organizations that employ them merely as vehicles for their careers. In terms of seniority, baby boomers make up the bulk of the employees in most large corporations, so it is imperative that co-workers understand the values of the person sitting or standing next to them. Terminal values such as a sense of accomplishments and social recognition rank high with them (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 146). The lives of Xers (Generation Xers) have been shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers. Xers value flexibility, life options, and the achievement of job satisfaction. Family and relationships are very important. Xers are skeptical, particularly of authority. They also enjoy team-oriented work. In search of balance in their lives, Xers are less willing to make personal sacrifices for the sake of their employer than previous generations were. Generation Xers rate high on true friendship, happiness, and pleasure. The most recent entrants to the workforce, the millennials (also called Netters, Nexters, Generation Yers, and Generation Nexters) grew up during prosperous times. They have high expectations and seek meaning in their work. Millennial have life goals more oriented toward becoming rich (81 percent) and famous (51 percent) than do Generation Xers (62 percent) and 29 percent, respectively, but they also see themselves as socially responsible (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 146). They are more ethnically and racially diverse than older adults. They’re less religious, less likely to have served in the military, and are on track to become the most educated generation in American history. They embrace multiple modes of self-expression. Three-quarters have created a profile on a social networking site. One-in-five have posted a video of themselves online. Nearly four-in-ten have a tattoo (and for most who do, one is not enough: about half of those with tattoos have two to five and 18% have six or more). Nearly one-in-four have a piercing in some place other than an earlobe- about six times the share of older adults who’ve done this. But their look-at-me tendencies are not without limits. Most Millennials have placed privacy boundaries on their social media profiles and 70% say their tattoos are hidden beneath clothing (Millennial, 2010). Policy on Ethics Often times the value system of a company can clearly be seen with the company’s ethical code. Chrysler actually posts a code of ethics brochure on their website to ensure all employees and customers know their value system. According to the website, Chrysler expects all of its employees to contribute to a cooperative working environment in which the dignity of each individual is respected. The conduct of management personnel should set an example to promote positive employee morale and the open exchange of ideas. Chrysler is committed to high ethical standards in business transactions. Chrysler does not tolerate unethical or corrupt practices by its employees or its business partners. Chrysler strictly forbids engaging in or tolerating bribery or any other form of corruption. High standards require hard work, courage and often present difficult choices. At times, choosing the proper course of action means foregoing business or personal opportunities. The â€Å"integrity code,† while not all-inclusive, reflects the basic standards of ethical behavior expected of Chrysler employees and should be read in conjunction with the company policies, guidelines, and standards of conduct that also apply to Chrysler employees (â€Å"Integrity Code,† 2009). Ineffective company ethics policies can also be a detriment to the company’s public image, stature in the business community, and ultimately to their profitability. Many people assume that running a successful business often entails a systematic approach, however the personality and values of employees of a company plays a crucial role in its success as well. It is can be detrimental when executive decisions are not made and could result in them being extremely costly. For example, according to Academy of Management executives â€Å"clean up costs are sometimes difficult to attribute to any particular ethics failure. Consisting of such things as attorney and audit fees , investigative costs†¦medical actions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The Enron scandal being the root example of a company destroyed due to simply unethical individuals. Not implementing ethics in any company will always fail in some way whether a small loss to an incomprehensible one (Schermerhorn & Dienhart, 2004). That is why it is imperative to ensure a code of ethics as part of the system. The dynamics of decision making for any individual who is often faced with issues regarding â€Å"ethics† becomes far more complex than it sounds. Every company, in one way or another, are faced with difficulties of employees making decisions that sometime seem ethical or not. Not everyone can make such decisions. The downfall of those who lack the ability to make ethical decisions can be costly. A company’s inability to reinforce â€Å"ethics† in their business can quickly become detrimental. One only has to look at Enron, Arthur Anderson, and Worldcom to understand the catastrophic effects of having ineffective ethical policies and values (Thomas, Schermerhorn & Dienhart, 2004). Company Values In regards to company values and ethics, Chick-fil-A has been in the news because of the words of their owner in regards to â€Å"Christian values.† His comments have caused the business world to examine the role of a business owner’s personal values and company values. At issue was the CEO’s opinion of same sex marriage. The controversy came to a boil after an interview with the fast food restaurant chain’s president and COO Dan Cathy appeared in The Baptist Press on July 16 and he weighed in with his views on family. â€Å"We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,† Cathy said. â€Å"We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.† Proponents of same-sex marriage spread Cathy’s comments, eventually creating a firestorm of criticism on social media, including assertions that his comments and position were bigo ted and hateful (Brumfield, 2012). Internships Corporations often demonstrate their values to customers by the way they treat their employees and the opportunities that are available for citizens to become a part of the company. One way to quickly rise in a company is to connect to their intern program. Chick-fil-A boasts about their internship program on their website. According to their corporate website, the purpose of the Chick-fil-A Internship Program is to provide a high-caliber group of students an opportunity to enhance their educational experience and improve their career preparation. A key objective of the intern experience is to help students and recent graduates understand and appreciate the importance of building and maintaining strong work relationships in accomplishing results. We have designed the program to involve students in real work projects while also allowing them time to experience many aspects of the Chick-fil-A corporate culture. The cultural experience includes significant executive exposure and numerou s development opportunities (â€Å"Internship,† n.d.). The Chrysler Corporation also has an intern program that is called the Chrysler Leadership Development program. The Chrysler Leadership Development (CLD) Program is a highly selective two-year program that develops leaders by incorporating intensive on-the-job learning opportunities with supplemental development and interaction with our global business leaders. You’ll have the guidance and support of Chrysler leadership throughout your experience and opportunities to build on your talents through high-impact assignments. The program will provide you an accelerated opportunity to learn our business, executive mentor support, and an investment to grow your leadership abilities (â€Å"Leadership Development Program,† n.d.). As with most intern programs, the potential employee must meet minimum requirements. To be considered for the Program, you must meet the following requirements: * MBA/Master’s degree with a minimum 3.2 GPA * 2-6 years of professional business experience * Demonstrated leadership experience (â€Å"Leadership Development Program,† n.d.). According to Chic-fil-A’s website, the organization values diversity. What is diversity? According to the Civil Rights office of the Department of Interior, the term â€Å"diversity† is used broadly to refer to many demographic variables, including, but not limited to, race, religion, color, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, age, education, geographic origin, and skill characteristics. America’s diversity has given this country its unique strength, resilience and richness (â€Å"Diversity,† 2012). Diversity management makes everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others. Diversity is much more likely to be successful when we see it as everyone’s business than if we believe it helps only certain groups of employees. One method of enhancing workforce diversity is to target recruiting messages to specific demographic groups underrepresented in the work force. This means placing advertisement in publications geared toward specific demographic groups; recruiting at colleges, universities, and other institutions with significant numbers of underrepresented minorities; and forming partnerships with association like the Society for Women Engineers or the Graduate Minority Business Association (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 56). Values and Ethics Organizational Development is an emerging profession, and its practitioners tend to describe themselves as professionals. However, individuals working in the field may vary greatly in respect to their degree of professionalism. By professionalism, we refer to the internalization of a value system that is a part of the concept of the profession. Whether a person can be deemed a professional is determined by the degree to which he or she has internalized certain values pertinent to the profession. Although there is some disagreement, four areas appear to be important. * Expertise. The professional requires some expertise. This includes specialized knowledge and skills that can be obtained only through training (usually through academic study and experience). * Autonomy. The professional claims autonomy. Professionals reserve the right to decide how their function is to be performed and to be free from restrictions. * Commitment. Professionals feel a commitment to the discipline. They a re more likely to identify with members of their profession in other organizations that with their own organization. * Code of ethics. Finally there is a responsibility to society for the maintenance of professional standards of work. They adhere to professional self-discipline and a code of ethics (Brown, 2011, p. 71). The values and ethics of prospective employees and the alignment of the values and ethics advocated by the company are important consideration when it comes to hiring practice considerations. If a company’s hiring practices are ineffective, it can have detrimental effects to its bottom-line. According to a survey conducted by online payroll company SurePayroll, it found three out of four surveyed business owners admitted to hiring at least one employee they later wished they never had, and many indicated that the mistake resulted in a significant financial loss of more than $10,000 per bad hire, according to 12 percent of respondents (Eddy, 2009). Most companies react to hiring situations as emergencies; that might explain why so many do it so poorly. One Survey of fifty CEOs of global companies along with a pool of executive search consultants who rated about 500 firms found the hiring practices for many of those companies are disturbingly vague. Part of the findings, according to the respondents, indicated to a heavily reliance on subjective personal preferences or on largely unquestioned organizational traditions, often based on false assumptions (Fernà ¡ndez-Arà ¡oz, Groysberg & Nohria, 2009) It is therefore imperative to avoid making bad hiring decisions. As such, your hiring practices should have procedures that need to be followed to ensure the candidates being considered for employment are good matches. Procedures should contain effective methods for screening candidates during the pre-employment phase. Some of these methods should include background checks or skills testing (Eddy, 2009). In order to avoid ineffective hiring practices companies should consider seven steps within their hiring practices to cover the full recruitment spectrum to include: anticipating the need for new hires, specifying the job, developing a pool of candidates, assessing the candidates, closing the deal, integrating the newcomer, and revi ewing the effectiveness of the hiring process (â€Å"Harvard Business, 2009). Continuous training and educational should be a part of everyone’s personal value system as well as remaining as ethical as possible. The best way to stay smart when facing ethical dilemmas is to remain current in your ethical training. In regards to ethics training a team of management researchers recommended the following actions for improving on-the-job ethics. * Behave ethically yourself. Managers are potential role models whose habits and actual behavior send clear signals about the importance of ethical conduct. Ethical behavior is a top-to-bottom proposition. * Screen potential employees. Surprisingly, employers are generally lax when it comes to checking references, credentials, transcripts, and other information on applicant resumes. More diligent action in this area can screen out those given to fraud and misrepresentation. Integrity testing is fairly valid but is no panacea. * Develop a meaningful code of ethics. * Provide ethics training. Employees can be trained to identify and deal with ethical issues during orientation and through seminar, video, and internet training sessions. * Reinforce ethical behavior. Behavior that is reinforced tends to be repeated, whereas behavior that is not reinforced tends to disappear. Ethical conduct too often is ignored or even punished while unethical behavior is rewarded. * Create positions, units, and other structural mechanisms to deal with ethics. Ethics needs to be an everyday affair, not a one-time announcement of a new ethical code that gets filed away and forgotten. â€Å"A growing number of large companies in the United States have chief ethics officers who report directly to the CEO, thus making ethical conduct and accountability priority issues. * Create a climate in which whistle-blowing becomes unnecessary. Whistle-blowing occurs when an employee reports a perceive unethical and/or illegal activity to a third party such as government agencies, news media, or public interest groups (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). On May 15, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act to increase federal agency accountability for acts of discrimination or reprisal against employees. The No FEAR Act became effective on October 1, 2003. This act requires that federal agencies post on their public web sites certain summary statistical data relating to equal employment opportunity complaints filed against the respective agencies (State, n.d.). Project Team Project teams have two universal measures; to satisfy the customer, and to deliver on time, on budget and within specification. The rationale for using teams is simple: high performing teams save money and satisfy customers. Unfortunately, there is the other side of the coin: poor performing teams cost money and disappoint customers. In many cases, individuals are assigned to a cross functional team and attempt to jump right into work without first attempting to address the relationship of team members and the behavioral disposition of the individuals. If the behavioral aspects of the team are not understood, then the team can become mired in conflict and lose momentum which results in lost time and effectiveness. Behaviors that can affect productivity include: the inability to work together towards a common goal, fear of sharing ideas, fear of negative feedback, self interest driving actions, expectation that the team leader will solve all of the problems and assume all of the respo nsibility, confusion between individual tasks and relationships with other people, and lack of appropriate acknowledgement for accomplishments (Henkin, 2012). The other consideration in deciding to form teams is what size team should be put together. When it comes to the workplace, teamwork is increasingly widespread. Research indicates there is not a fixed or optimal number to have on a team. Professor Wittenberg, Director of the Wharton Graduate Leadership Program, notes that team size is â€Å"not necessarily an issue people think about immediately, but it is important.† According to Wittenberg, research on the optimal team numbers is not conclusive. In the work world, Professor Wittenberg suggests that it has been â€Å"reinforced that five or six is the right number (on a team) but it really depends on the task† (Knowledge@Wharton, 2006). The other dynamic that needs to be addressed relates to teams is how they resolve conflicts. Conflict management is a very important part of team dynamics. Choosing the right members for a group can help prevent some of these issues. One strategy involves designating a project manager, a strong individual that can competently take charge. The project manager must be experienced and understand how to deal with both the interpersonal as well as behavioural aspects of the teams. They must also understand the normative stages of development most all teams go though as they come together. The project manager must allow the team to communicate effectively, create rapport, resolve conflict, lead team members, and motivate the whole team (Gountanis, n.d.). Team Development Team development is an iterative process. This is readily understood when looking at the ‘forming-storming-norming-performing’ model for team development that has become a standard team development model introduced by Bruce Tuckman. The theory is based on the premise that each team goes through a distinct iterative process. The first phase is described as the forming phase where the team first comes together with energy, expectation, and limited knowledge of assigned task. The next phase is the storming phase where individuals start jockeying for position and recognition. The team internally struggles with why and how decisions made will affect the individual members. The next phase is the norming phase where stability starts to emerge and goals are established with plans and associated defined roles/responsibilities. The last phase is the performing phase where the plans are implemented, outputs are generated, and work gets done. Every team goes through these phases. (Tuckman, 1965). Therefore, it is natural to expect conflicts to arise between team members; however, management as well as the project manager must be cognizant there can be both constructive conflict and destructive conflict. Constructive conflicts exists when people change and grow personally from the conflict, the conflict results in a solution to a problem, it increases involvement of everyone affected by the conflict, and it builds cohesiveness among the members of the team. Destructive conflicts exist when no decision is reached and problem still exists, it diverts energy away from more value-add activities, it destroys the morale of the team members and it polarizes or divides the team (Cappozzoli, 1995). Diversity within the team is another consideration with respect to group dynamics. Professor Klein from the Wharton School of Management and Professor Lim from Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore as part of their research looked at the value of diversity and found that there was conflicting theory. Some research suggests diversity represented by gender, race, and age leads to conflict and affects behavioral integration among team members. The general assumption is that people tend to associate better with people who are similar to themselves which suggest too much diversity is bad for cohesion. Other research suggests diversity helps creates more ideas, more perspectives and more creativity for better solutions. In their research, Klein and Lim found a distinct value in having some similarity between team members which enhances coordination and effectiveness in performing tasks that are complex, unpredictable, urgent, and/or novel (Klein & Lim, 2006). It is possible that a balancing of both theories within a team construct might be beneficial in forming a high performance team. Conclusion Employees’ performance and satisfaction are likely to be higher if their values fit well with the organization. The person who places great importance on imagination, independence, and freedom is likely to be poorly matched with an organization that seeks conformity from its employees (Robbins & Judge, 2013, p. 154). Chick-fil-A’s senior leaders are very vocal about the fact their company is owned and operated on Christian values. In fact, their policy and procedure of closing on Sunday so their employees can enjoy time off with their family and perhaps even attend church is rare in the quick service restaurant business. Chrysler is also very serious about their company values and has placed a code of ethics manual on their website to remind internal employees and external customers about their value systems. One of the roles of managers is to both exhibit and vocalize company values. This works well when your personal values are similar to the company and other senior leaders. The higher an individual rises within an organization, the more important it is that your personality and value system aligned with your company. Both the hiring process of the employees and the ethical standards of behavior for those employees are a critical dynamic supporting the mission objectives of the company. When a company fails to implement effective hiring and ethical policies, the implications can be costly in a variety of quantifiable ways. Finding the right mix of individual employees is a difficult task in terms of attracting and retaining people who are the best fit to the company. The success of the company relies on both the individual as well as those members who become part of teams. The composition of those members to a particular team must be carefully considered by management. The size, makeup, diversity, selection of the team lead, and objective of the team are all important considerations to ensure success. Management must recognize there is some inherent inefficiency in putting teams together as they go through an iterative process of maturity but they must be convinced the benefits of the outcomes out weigh the delays by putting together that particular team. Recommendations The profitability and long term survivability of companies are keys to their success. One of the most important assets to any business entity is human capital resources or personnel. As with any asset, management and leadership hire personnel with the belief they will contribute to the company in a positive manner and demonstrate a return of investment from the standpoint that the hiring and training process requires an investment of both time and money. Therefore, it is imperative that companies seek out, attract, and retain individuals whose personality and values match that of the company. In addition, they must be able to work well within teams to further the objectives of the company. It is also important that the company’s continue to communicate and reinforce their values to the workforce. That message must come from the top down. Senior leadership must convey that message at stockholder meetings, all hands meetings, town hall meetings, and via electronic means. While i t is imperative that message be communicated, it must be supported and reinforced at all levels of management. In addition, the compensation and reward system must recognize behavior and performance consistent with that message. The other important consideration is that leadership and management must be conveying the right message, with the right behaviors, and enveloped by a sense of ethical behavior. One only has to look at Enron, Worldcom, and Arthur Anderson to recognize the catastrophic and costly effects of engaging in behavior as individuals, groups, or management that is conflict with stated values. The recent Chick-Fil-a statements made by Mr. S.T. Cathy where personal views were replaced by those of the corporation started a media firestorm and backlash from many interest groups. The result was negative press for the company and eventually the announcement by the corporation of a customer appreciation day that cost the company tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to counteract the negative events. References Academy of Management Executive, Volume 18, No. 2, (2004), Strategic leadership of ethical behavior in business, Schermerhorn, Thomas, and Dienhart, John, retrieved from http://home.sandiego.edu/~pavett/docs/msgl_503/leader_ethic_behave.pdf Brockmann, Erich. (1996, May). Removing the paradox of conflict from group decisions. Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Brumfield, B. (2012). Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-01/us/us_us-chick-fil-a-controversy_1_civil-unions-marriage-glaad Cappozzoli, Thomas K. (1995, Dec). Resolving conflict within teams. Journal for Quality and Participation. v18n7, p. 28-30 Eddy, Nathan (June 25, 2009). Businesses Losing Money on Bad Hiring Practices Retrieved from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Businesses-Losing-Money-on-Bad-Hiring-Practices-Survey-Finds-482198/ Gountanis, Chris (n.d.). Team Dynamics – Conflict Resolution Strategies. [ONLINE (htt p:// www.chrisgountanis.com/written-works/50-team-dynamics-conflict-resolution-strategies.html) [Last Accessed 24 September 2012]. Harvard Business Review (May 2009), The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad, Fernà ¡ndez-Arà ¡oz, Claudio; Groysberg, Boris; and Nohria, Notin, retrieved from http://hbr.org/2009/05/the-definitive-guide-to-recruiting-in-good-times-and-bad Henkin, Sid (2012). The Behavioral Side of Project Team Effectiveness, [ONLINE (http:// www.prismls.com/PDF_docs/Behavior.side.of.team.effectiveness.pdf)) [Last