Sunday, October 6, 2019
Interrelationship between Leadership and Organizational Commitment Literature review - 1
Interrelationship between Leadership and Organizational Commitment - Literature review Example Leadership is an ability to persuade any group towards the attainment of goals. In the year 1964, Tannenbaum and others have considered leadership as an influential factor in human relations. Leadership is an attribute guiding a group of people to achieve preset goals through communication. According to Fiedler, leadership can be assumed to be a type of relationship to make the group members work together and achieve common goal. Rauch and Behling in 1984 and Hsieh in the year 1993 considered leadership as a process to influence any group to approach the goals. Since twentieth century, a number of theories and literature had been introduced to prove different standpoints. Four major perspectives had been shown through these theories. Some of the theories are articulated in the later segment (Wu et. al., 2006, p.438- 440). In 1957, Halpin and Winer had introduced two dimensions, initiating consideration and structure. Following the same, a number of studies conducted by Stogdill, Like rt and Kotter also introduced certain behavioral attributes of leadership. In the year 1967, Fiedler has introduced the contingency model of leadership. In the year 1971, House came up with a path-goal theory by extracting details from the research carried out by Ohio State University as well as the expectancy theory of motivation. In the year 1977, Blackchard and Hersey introduced situational leadership theory considering two leadership sides. On the other hand, transformational leaders possess significant personal.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Managing Organizational Change (2) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Managing Organizational Change (2) - Essay Example The transformation may not make one satisfied completely but it will still be better to have it then to not have it at all. I feel that the technology evolution as spoken by Ray Kurzweil would be incredible. It will pave way for an organizational culture wherein human labor will not be overburdened. As said by Ray Kurzweil â€Å"Technology will always hurt less and benefit more†. It will lead to an atmosphere wherein organizations would be compelled to cut down on work hours requiring man power. Right now the trend is more towards letting people work over time then hiring more people. This trend will change post singularity. On the negative side, human dependency on machine will increase exponentially and manifold. Technology will completely handicap humanity. It will be difficult to convince employees who have become accustomed to the old format to adapt to the rapidly emerging technology. (Kurzweil,
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Financial Management Questions Essay Example for Free
Financial Management Questions Essay Question 1:            Medwig Corporation has a DSO of 17 days.  The company averages $3500 in credit sales each day.  What is the company’s average account’s receivable?            Answer / Solution:            Accounts Receivable = Days Sales Outstanding * (Sales / Days)                                                         = 17 * (3500/1)                                                         = $59,500 Question 2: Discuss some of the techniques available to reduce risk exposures?            Answer:            Insurance is one of the simplest and most available ways to reduce exposure to risk.  It involves the transfer of risk to another company.  Depending on the amount and nature of the risk involved, risk retention by self-insurance might not be a practical option, especially if the cost of transferring the risk (insurance premiums) is reasonable enough to not add significant costs.  Risk transfer is not done always through insurance, however. Outsourcing some operations to a company who agrees to take on the risk involved is another type of risk reduction.  Some tasks are best suited for specialized companies, and large organizations might outsource such activities as customer support, software development and internal security. Derivative hedging is also an option, depending on the nature of the company.  Futures contracts, for example, reduce the risk of price fluctuations in a particular commodity, and are very useful to transfer it to a speculator.  A company producing commodities would benefit from this type of hedge.            Aside from transferring risks, a company might try to reduce risk by reducing the inherent cause of the risk.  Instead of hiring a single custodian for cash transfers, a company might hire another one to reduce the risk of employee theft.            The last method is to avoid the risk completely.  This will completely circumvent possible losses, but it also precludes any possible gains from taking on the risk.
Global population aging trends and issues
Global population aging trends and issues Population aging, as a global issue, has become increasingly important in these few decades. Regarding to this issue, the U.S. State Department and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has hosted a report named Why Population Aging Matters: A Global Perspective in March 15, 2007. This report covered nine trends related to population aging which present a snapshot of challenges and opportunities showing why population aging matters. In which the first five trends describe the global demographic changes in recent years and the last four trends show the challenges and opportunities that caused by population aging. We appreciate the effort of the authors in raising global awareness. Every report, however, have strengthens and limitations. By arguing with some points mentioned in the report, we try to perfect it by replenishing it with more information. Methodology Aimed at raising public awareness about global aging problems, encouraging more cross-nation scientific research and international studies and stimulating biochemical, economic, behavioral and political dialogues, this report used plenty of statistics to show the impacts of population aging on nations. To show the whole picture of the global issue, the researchers did not conduct interviews and solicit the statistics by themselves; rather, they gathered the existing data from different part of the world. Generally, these data are from the United Nations, US Census Bureau, and the Statistical Office of the European Communities as well as some regional surveys. Summary of the report Trend 1 The overall population is aging According to the research done by United nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the global percentage of young children is decreasing while the percentage of older people increases sharply especially in the coming decades. In around 2017, older people will outnumber young children in estimation. In 2006, almost 500 million people are older people, who share 8% of global population, and it is expected that the number will increase to 1 billion in 2030. Besides, the speed of population aging is higher in developing countries than in developed countries. For example, France, as a developed country, has taken 115years for the proportion of the older people to increase 7%. However, in some developing countries like Singapore, 19 years is enough to reach the same rate. Population aging is a global trend in which the degree of development of the countries affects the rate of it. Trend 2 Life expectancy is increasing Change in Life expectancy reflects a health transition which is characterized by many changes including a shift from high to low fertility, a steady increase in life expectancy at birth and at older ages and a shift from the predominance of infectious and parasitic diseases to the growing impact of non-communicable diseases and chronic conditions. Some scientific research shows that the human survival curve in both women and men shifted upward. The life expectancy at birth has increased from 45years in 1950 to more than 79 years today. It implies that the life expectancy increases in every single age and deaths are highly concentrated at older ages. Trend 3 The number of oldest old is rising People aged 85 or about are defined as the oldest old. Currently, the oldest old constitutes 7% of the worlds 65- and-over population, in which 10 % was in more developed countries and 5% was in less developed countries. On a global level, the 85-and-over population is projected to increase 151% between 2005 and 2030.More than half of the worlds oldest old live in China, the United States, India, Japan, Germany, and Russia. Living from birth to age 100 may have risen from 1 in 20 million to 1 in 50 by 2030 for females in low-mortality nation, say, Japan, in estimation. Trend 4 Non-communicable diseases are becoming a growing burden There is an epidemiological transition that the non-communicable diseases have become the focus in light of global aging. In the past, a large number of people were killed by infectious and parasitic disease. However, non- communicable and chronic diseases are the major cause of death in both developed and developing countries nowadays. Regarding to this trend, there are three elaborations of the situation: 1) Compression of morbidity decrease in disability as life expectancy increases; 2) expansion of morbidity increase in disability as life expectancy increases; and 3) decrease in severe disability but increase in milder chronic disease. With the increase in life expectancy in general and the non-correspondent disability rate in different countries, it requires more studies and research to see which elaboration offers a better explanation of the real situation Trend 5 Aging and population decline Simultaneous population aging and population decline are happening in some countries. Where the global population is aging, more than 20 countries are projected to experience population declines in the upcoming decades. A research done by U.S. Census Bureau shows that Russias population declines the most rapidly (-18 millions) between 2006 and 2030. Following is Japan. The projected population decline in Japan is 11 millions between 2006 and 2030. Trend 6 Changing family structure In trend 6, it is about the world trend of changing family structure. Low fertility rate means older people have less family care and support. Family structure is change from nuclear or extended family change to other types e.g. divorce, remarriage, non marriage, voluntarily childless. Many people are living alone in older age. According to the reading, in some European countries, more than 40 percent of women age 65 and older live alone. And the diagram also show the trend in Japan, the older people living alone have growing faster in 1960-2000. Therefore, the cost of long-term care is a burden to families and society. Trend 7 Shifting patterns of work and retirement People tend to work at older ages. From the figure, we can see the European employment rate at age 55-64 have clear increase during 1994-2005. Beginning in the 1990s, a workforce participation rate for older women has been a steady increase. That means women have ability to accumulate and control economic resources in older age. But the job types of elderly are from full-time job changing to part-time job or transition job. According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), life expectancy has increased and the retirement ages have decreased. In 1960, men on average could expect to spend 46 years in the workforce. In 1995, the number of years in the workforce had decreased to 37. Therefore, if we want to increase workforce, we should set up a high retirement age to maintain enough workforce in the market. Trend 8 Evolving Social insurance systems As the situation of population ageing, the increasing pension expenditure. According to our readings 25 EU countries consumed one-eighth of gross domestic product in 2003. Many countries reform their old-age social insurance programs. For example, Japan rose the pension age: mens pension age from 60 to 65, women from 57 to 65. In order to support the economic security, some government Increase tax rate on workers e.g. Twenty-four Europe countries now have payroll tax rates that equal or exceed 20 percent of wages.(P.21) Trend 9 Emerging economic challenges It says that population ageing is affecting on local and global economies. Therefore many countries have some social programs that are target to the older population- principally health care and income support programs. 1) Fully fund program: This describes a superannuation fund whose assets are sufficient to meet all the funds liabilities 2) Pay-as-you-go system: A method of paying income tax in which the employer deducts a portion of an employees monthly salary to remit to the IRS. On the other hand, we should be concern is high level of population aging, labor force tends to decline. That make government need high tax rate to solve the problem of growing older populations. The tax burden may discourage future workforce participation. Overall review Significance of themes Population aging is a global issue that can affect many parts of our society in the sense that it takes parts in the changes and adjustment in the economy, labor force, medical system, residential issues, continued development etc. It is important and meaningful for us, the people, to realize the effects it may bring. Though population aging is a global trend, there are only a few governments had taken actions to plan for the long term and tackle the possible challenges that may soon happen in their societies. Clearly, more research and policies are needed regarding to this problem. Raising global awareness regarding to the population aging issue is significant. Use of data In this report, many statistics are used to illustrate the trends. However, as a report talking about the global situation, we expect the data should provide us with the whole picture of the world. Since the data are not collected for the sake of supporting this report, some data are not general enough to explain the global situation. Say for example, when illustrating the increases in life expectancy in every age, data of white female survival in the US between 1901 2003 is used. Yet, the situation in the US, a developed country, may differ from other developing countries. Race and sexual difference may also lead to different outcome. In-depth review Population aging is driven by declines in fertility and improvement in health and longevity. [1] This statement is partially right. It is true that population ageing arises from increased longevity and decreased fertility. An increase in longevity rises the average age of the population by increasing the numbers of surviving older people and a decline in fertility reduces the size of the most recent birth cohorts relative to the previous birth cohorts, hence reducing the size of the youngest age groups relative to that of the older ones. Apart form these, migration, as another demographic effect, also contributes to population aging. Thought immigration usually slows down population aging, for example the women holders of One-way Permit in Hong Kong are likely to be younger and have more children, the other types of migration tend to worsen the situation that the immigration may not make up for the population aging. Obviously, emigration of working-age adults fastens population aging especially in some Caribbean nations. These people migrate for career development or for money, so they tend not to have or have fewer children. There is also immigration of elderly retirees from other countries. Return migration of former emigrants who are above the average population age is common in some region. It is estimated that migration will have a more prominent role in population aging in the future, particularly in low-fertility countries with stable or declining population size. The effects of migration on population aging are usually stronger in smaller populations, because of higher relative weight of migrants in such populations. [2] Non-married women are less likely than non married men to have accumulated assets and pension wealth for use in older age. [3] We agree with the statement because we find some support from studies. In the table from Health and Retirement Study Wave 1(1992), it shows that the total wealth of non married men is $191,836 and the total wealth of non married women is $157,098. And a finding of the International Longevity Center-USA, it found that unemployment of women who are in the labor force: in 1993 the rate was 24% for women compared with 8% for men.(ILC-USA, 2002) The high rate of economic activity for older men may make low level of old-age pensions. Preparing financially for longer lives and finding ways to reduce aging-related disability should become national and global priorities. [4] As suggested in trend 6 to 9, it is true that population aging leads to great challenges and demands for changes and adjustments in policy making. Financial preparation and improvement in reducing aging-related disability are important as the large number of old population will definitely increase the burden of the economy as well as the social insurance system. However, in tackling aging problems, we consider other aspects as the same important as the two mentioned in the report. Firstly, increase fertility is fundamentally important to deal with aging population. As it is rather impossible to shorten people life expectancy and disallow people to migrate due to econ reason, increasing fertility rate seems to be the only feasible way to deal with aging population; in which subsidized child care and childcare leave are possible ways to increase fertility. Subsidized child care enables women to combine work and family. When comparing the levels of womens labor-force participation and family size country by country, Daly, an economist, found that in societies that made it easier for women to combine paid employment with children Sweden, for example the rate of womens employment and the birth rate were both high. Also, High employment rates for women would also help countries with aging populations cope with a shortage of workers [5] . Moreover, baby bonus and childcare leave can also boost fertility. Parents in those countries who can get more help from the government will have relatively high fertility rates. Consider the experience in France. Pregnant women has at least 16 weeks of mandatory, paid maternity leave, as well as guaranteed job security and get a monthly stipend of up to 1,000 euros for a year if she has the third child. The fertility rates of those countries which practice these policies for decades are approaching 2.1, roughly the point where a population can sustain itself without immigration [6] . Secondary, for the problem of elderly living alone, we think that consolidating the traditional value of Filial piety is rather important. In the table below, we can see most of older people are living with children or grandchildren in Asian country. However, older people who are living with children or grandchildren are three times more compared to Europe and North America. Asian country can have such result because they have strong value of Filial piety. Such as China, they have strong confusion value that adult children may think take care of the older parents is their responsibilities and they do not think living with elderly is burden. Because elderly not only is care receiver but also can be the care giver. Nevertheless, adjustments in policy that favorable to longer working life are also the way out. Population ageing is a burden of government in the sense that it increases the pension expenditure and decreases the supply of labor force. It may lower the economy growth of the country. For that reason, increase the pension age is a good suggestion to tackle the aging problem. Elderly also have their ability to work. We can see the example of Singapore. The Minister for Manpower in Singapore wants to encourage older workers to stay active: 1) to remain at work to pay for a more comfortable retirement 2) to ease financial strains on the government 3) to ease strains of reducing younger workforce. As a result, the retirement age in Singapore increased to 62, . According to preliminary results from Ministry of Manpowers comprehensive mid-year Labor Force Survey, the employment rate for older residents aged 55 to 64 in Singapore is 57.2%, said Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower. Therefore, the employment rate for older men in Singapore has increased from 73.8% to 74.7% in 2008 to 2009. After increase the pension age, the supply of workforce will increase and the pension expenditure of government will decrease. Supplementary information As we know that, as other parts of the world, population aging becomes serious in recent decades in Hong Kong. We provide the below information about Hong Kongs welfare provision towards the elderly as supplement of the report in hope of that more people, including the government, can aware of the aging trend happened in our society and take active roles in planning our future. According to the social welfare department, there is about 60% of elderly who are receiving CSSA. It is a burden of Hong Kong economy. As the World Bank published the report Averting the Old-Age Crisis: Policies to Protect the Old and Promote Growth. Therefore, the government provides some scheme to solve the problem. They are the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), the Universal Retirement Protection Scheme and the Mandatory Provident Fund Scheme (MPF) respectively. In the following, a slight discussion will be provided in comparing these social insurance schemes. Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) is the layer of social safety net. Nowadays, People seem to more relay on the safety net because we see the increasing tend on application. The value of Hong Kong people had changed, people try to fight for more welfare from the government. And people think that government had the responsibility to care of the elderly. So the government spending on CSSA is higher in these years and she need to concern. Universal Retirement Protection Scheme is a retirement fund that can cover the basic spending of the retirement life. In case of many poor elderly in Hong Kong, Legislative Council urges the Government to set up a sustainable universal retirement protection scheme, so that all senior citizens can enjoy financial security to maintain a basic standard of living immediately after retirement. proposed by Hon Lee Cheuk-yan. But this scheme may be a burden of Hong Kong government. Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (MPF) is a financial security system to protect the working population in their retirement years. After the implementation of MPF, around 87% of the total employers are now covered under retirement schemes. However, it cannot solve the problem immediately because the scheme is only practice for a few years, the fund may not have enough financial support for the elderly and the cumulative of the fund highly depends on the employees salary and whether the investment program can receive a good return. Therefore it has limitations that may not be able to protect all people after retirement. Conclusion: To conclude, the nine trends suggested in the report are significant in the sense that a global perspective is useful for us to understand the challenges and opportunities brought by population aging. However, we think that both of the method of data collection and the content of the report are to general that may ignore many parts in illustrations. We argue some points mentioned in the report by providing more information regarding to the issue. Moreover, we think the views on population aging held in the report are a bit negative. Actually, older people have ability to contribute to the society by involving in social service. For example, Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) announced that there are more than 135,000 new volunteers in America last year. Last but not least, the report only pointed out the trends without many suggestions and solutions to the problems. It is hope that more international studies can be done to determine the best ways to address the situation before it is too late.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
lorraine hansberry-an annotated bibliography :: essays research papers fc
Lorraine Hansberry: An Annotated Bibliography      Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago and raised in a middle-class family. When Hansberry was only eight years old she had her first experience with civil rights. Her father fought a lengthy legal battle in the late 1930’s against harsh covenants which kept Chicago’s blacks in the ghettos. To make a statement the family moved into an all white neighborhood which was against the law at that time. The house was often vandalized and the children were faced with hostility as they walked to and from school. Hansberry’s father fought the city’s Jim Crow laws all the way to the Supreme Court and won. This whole experience would later serve as an inspiration for Lorraine Hansberry’s play â€Å"A raisin in the Sun†.      Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin for two years and then studied painting in Chicago and Mexico, before she realized she had no talent for it. Moving to New York in 1950, she held many jobs, while perfecting her skill as a writer. Hansberry said, â€Å"A woman who is willing to be herself and pursue her own potential runs not so much the risk of loneliness as the challenge of exposure to more interesting men- and people in general†. She became involved in the civil rights movement and married a white jewish man; their marriage would only last a few years before Hansberry began exploring her feelings for women. She joined the Daughter of Blitis, a pioneering lesbian organization and had two letters published in their journal, â€Å"The Ladder†. However, it was for her play â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun†, that she received her praise.      Hansberry was the first black to direct a play on Broadway since 1907. â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun†won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Hansberry was also named
Major Features of the Vedic Religion :: Papers
Major Features of the Vedic Religion The Vedic Religion is based on the teachings of the Vedas, which signifies the way of living a sin free life. The Vedas are the teachings of the religion Hinduism. There are different types of Vedas, each signifying different facts and opinions about the religion. The main text of the Vedic religion is the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda itself contains some 1,028 hymns of praise to a predominantly male group of deities who seem to personify various powers of nature such as fire, sky and rain. The fact that the hymns demonstrated a strong relationship with the presence of nature illustrates the Aryan feeling towards nature. The Rig Veda mainly concentrates on symbolism rather than mythology. Although the hymns are based on symbolism, it is sometimes possible to gather various mythical themes. Another aspect that is mentioned in the Vedas is the 'panch mahabhutas'. These are the five constituents which makeup life on this planet, they are: * Aakash (sky), * Vayu (air), * Agni (fire), * Jal (Water), * Prithvi (earth). Although the Vedas are very much alike except in their content of hymns, they all have the same principle, all Hindus should lead a sin free life. Within the Vedic religion, Hindus believe in many gods and goddesses. Some of them are human (e.g. Krishna, Rama , some animals (e.g. fish, monkey, rat, snake), (some animal-humans as in the case of Ganesh who has the head of elephant with trunk and the body of a human), and some others are natural phenomena (e.g. dawn, fire, sun). Their number is generally believed to be 330 million. According to Hindu belief, god incarnates and for example takes the form of human being and other animals and appears in this earth in that form. Gods and goddesses were born like human beings and had wives and children. No god possesses absolute power; some of the gods are weaker than each
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Chuck Taylors All Stars Essay
A.) Marketing Channel Converse uses a distribution channel when marketing the Chuck Taylor All Stars basketball shoes; they have two distribution centers in Ontario, California that uses an automation system to get the shoes into their reserved racks and shipped out to their destinations. These distribution centers handle both Converse and Hurley products as a multi-channel distribution in retail, wholesale, and e-commerce processing. Through this the company has increased the speed of their production by taking two days off the retail order processing timeline and reducing the CPU of apparel by 20 percent. They follow the APCD format which stands for Act, Plan, Check, and Do. The company â€Å"acts†by deciding on the changes needed to improve processing, â€Å"plan†by designing or revising business process components to improve results, â€Å"check†by assessing the measurements and reporting the results to decision makers, and â€Å"do†by implementing the plan and measurin g its performance (Webstoryteller, 2012). B.) Type of Distribution Converse is an intensive distributor because their products and footwear are aimed at maximum market coverage; they try to have the shoes available in every outlet where potential consumers are willing to buy them. The strategy is to sell a large percentage of their products to wholesalers and retailers that are trying to stock their own products. (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, 2012) C.) Maintaining Channel Cooperation For the most part, Converse has no problem maintaining their distribution channel since they follow the APCD guidelines. The distribution centers’ warehouse management and control systems manages the daily order requirements due to the coordination of their employees, processes, and systems all working together. The company operates a 2 shift/5 day schedule that allows them to receive over 20,000 cases per day, stored over 9 million units of footwear, replenish their orders within 48 hours, and perform dynamic routing (Webstoryteller, 2012). D.) Physical Distribution In footwear, Converse has 12 automated value add and 5 case sealing stations that print of RDIF tickets that are required by client contract services. The shoes are packaged and then shipped off to retailing stores like Target, Kohls, Journeys, Journeys Kids, Macys, Nordstrom, Foot Locker, Champs, Finish Line, JC Penny, Lord & Taylor, Converse Outlet, Nordstrom Rack, Famous Footwear, Foot Action, Amazon, eBay, Sears, Sports Authority, Dicks Sporting Goods, and Zappos (Webstoryteller, 2012).
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