Is Our Political Process Fair

Is Our Political Process Fair Many people would argue that the American political process is unfair, but they would say that for different reasons. Some people would say that the American political process does not accurately reflect the will of the people and that this is unfair. Other people would argue that it is not feasible for this to be the case and that certain people deserve more influence in American politics because of their greater contribution to society or because they are more qualified for the job. These two sides have been in conflict since the early days of the American political process. Pure Democracy The representative democracy of the United States does render the opinions of individual voters relatively unimportant. While voters and their votes do matter and candidates spend millions of dollars trying to sway the opinions of voters, many individual voters are frustrated with the fact that it barely seems to make a difference whether they vote or not and the  voting seems to be a matter of principle.However, the fact that every voter is in the same situation does seem to make the process fair in its own way. People have been arguing since the beginning that American democracy has to be representative. Pure democracy with no representatives is very rare when the voting public has hundreds of millions of people. It usually only works in much smaller societies. While some people would argue that this does not mean the situation is fair, they might still make a case for the system in a pragmatic sense. Democracy requires an educated middle class to be sustainable, or people will often vote for the very same individuals that democracies seek to eliminate. You may also like these articles: The Value of Academic Debate Womens Right to Education Combining Academic Knowledge and Practicality Torture Is Never Justified Is High IQ a Guarantee to Academic Success? In Principle and In Practice It should be noted that a lot of Americans functionally never vote for reasons beyond their control. Even getting to the polling booths or getting absentee ballots is tough in some areas, which is genuine discrimination against poorer people and people who live in certain regions. Disabled individuals often find it difficult to vote for various reasons, so their voice gets excluded from American politics. Some wealthy people argue that since they pay most of the taxes, they deserve a bigger voice in American politics. However, wealthy people pay fewer taxes in America than they do in other countries. Also, wealthy people have more control over American elections than almost anyone even though they each have one vote. Wealthy people can give campaign contributions to the candidates of their choice, so the candidates of their choice will have an advantage during the election. Elections are automatically slightly biased in favor of the wealthy on this basis alone. Wealthy people represent a small portion of the population, and the policies that favor lining their pockets further will directly go against the interests of most of the country. More and more wealth has been directed to the wealthy over the past thirty years, and campaign contributions towards certain candidates have had a huge impact on that. The situation involving wealthy people buying elections is reflective of faulty laws in the sense that there could be laws limiting campaign contributions. However, this situation does not directly reflect a problem with the baseline American political process or democratic structure itself. If anything, this problem demonstrates that the American political process is not working as it was intended. Wealthy people who have no political experience and who are acting purely in their own self-interest have more political power than many politicians. The overall system for American voters and the American representative democracy isnt perfectly fair, but having a direct democracy that was perfectly fair would be too difficult. However, the fact that wealthy people are able to subvert the political process and control it so substantially automatically taints the American political process, rendering it unfair even though there are no laws mandating that this should be the case. The disproportionate influence of the wealthy has made the American political process unfair, and not the representative democratic structure.

How an Executive Coach Can Help Boost Your Career

How an Executive Coach Can Help Boost Your Career Eden Abrahams has a life so fascinating, we almost wanted to interview her on that alone. She’s worked internationally as a strategist and corporate communications expert, and moved on from there to become a respected executive coach and the head of Clear Path Executive Coaching. She took some time out of her busy day to speak with us about the challenges a modern executive faces.Why would an executive need coaching?To borrow an acronym used by the U.S. military, we are living in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, which demands a different kind of leader than the old command-and-control model that worked when companies were hierarchical and the operating environment wasn’t in a continuous state of flux. Executives today in just about every sector are grappling with increasingly complex challenges that demand new ways of thinking, problem solving, decision making and relating to others. High-performing leaders aren’t born with these skills. They develop them by cultivating self-awareness; a flexible, adaptive mindset; and a commitment to continued learning and experimentation.Executive coaches can play a valuable role in helping leaders and managers clarify their goals at critical junctures in their career and acquire the right tools and perspective to evolve, advance, and thrive. Partnering with a coach can help executives improve their emotional intelligence capabilities, learn from past mistakes, strengthen their reflective and strategic thinking capabilities, and create time for meaningful non-work pursuits that provide balance and perspective. In many cases, executive coaching engagements also focus on building or improving skills related to effective communicating, executive presence, and time management.What unique challenges do executives face in their careers?Executives face many external challenges as they navigate their careers. Flatter, leaner organizations mean there are fewer opportunities for linear adv ancement, and even relatively senior managers need to be skilled at the art of influencing without authority to operate successfully in these environments. Trends like globalization, rapid technological innovation, and demographic shifts have dramatically altered the employment landscape, resulting in a â€Å"new normal† characterized by job insecurity, a more opportunistic and less loyal workforce, and greater pressure on executives to deliver results in a shorter time frame.Concurrently, the search for meaning at work is a powerful internal driver that is redefining – for many of us, at all stages of our careers – what a fulfilling career looks like. Particularly in wealthy, developed economies, the belief that we should find purpose and self-actualization at work – and not just in our extracurricular activities and relationships – is much more prevalent than it was even a generation ago. Executives who work in organizations that don’t off er significant opportunities for professional development, personal growth or community service should be thinking proactively about how to address that deficit, both for their own benefit and to promote greater employee engagement.On a practical level, the takeaway is that all of us, executives included, would do well to adapt an entrepreneurial mindset when it comes to managing our careers. Because in a VUCA world, thinking of yourself as â€Å"labor for hire† is a far riskier strategy than remaining nimble, dynamic and in perpetual upgrade mode – just like any good start-up does.When transitioning to a new career, what should an executive be aware of?Whether you’re looking to change jobs, employers or careers, making the transition successfully requires having 1) a good understanding of your value proposition, including your transferable skills, 2) a compelling story that highlights your professional journey, noteworthy accomplishments, interesting experience s and personal interests, and 3) a robust, diversified network that will help you learn about interesting opportunities, make serendipitous connections and explore new directions and possibilities that may not yet be on your radar screen. Finally, before you accept an offer, make sure you’ve done adequate due diligence on the company culture and have a clear understanding of your role, your mandate and how your performance will be evaluated.Is it really â€Å"lonely at the top†? What should executives do when they feel overwhelmed?In a 2013 poll conducted by Stanford University, nearly two thirds of the CEOs surveyed said they lacked outside leadership advice – but nearly 100% of them said they wanted it. So yes, it can definitely feel lonely at the top, but it doesn’t have to. When you’re taking risks with limited visibility, making decisions that have enterprise-wide impact and communicating a vision to inspire and motivate your team, it’s critical to have a robust support network. Many senior executives, including CEOs, find value in joining small, facilitated peer discussion groups where they can confidentially talk through critical issues with others who’ve grappled with similar challenges. Having an objective, outside collaborator to serve as a sounding board and confidante – someone who’s invested in your success and isn’t afraid to ask tough questions or offer an alternative perspective – can also be quite helpful. An executive coach can play that role, as can a trusted mentor or advisor.What trends in executive hiring should we be keeping an eye on?Here are two that I find particularly interesting:1. According to a recent survey conducted by HBS professor Boris Groysberg, along with the executive skills that are considered most desirable by companies today – leadership, strategic thinking and execution, technical and technology skills, team- and relationship-building, communication and presentation, change management and integrity – having a â€Å"global outlook† and â€Å"meaningful international experience† are becoming increasingly sought-after attributes for C-suite hires. Another evolving trend is the preference for team-player leaders vs. bossy stars.2. One of the key findings that emerged from a â€Å"source of hire† survey conducted last year by performance-based hiring expert Lou Adler is that interpersonal loyalty is an increasingly important factor in securing a new job. In a recent LinkedIn post, he wrote that â€Å"being referred by someone you know – whether the person contacted you or you contacted them – seems to be becoming the new default for getting another job. While company loyalty might be on the decline, it appears interpersonal loyalty is on the rise.† According to Adler, over half (56%) of all jobs are either filled by internal candidates or by people the hiring manager kno ws personally or has sourced via trusted peers and colleagues. So, more than ever, it pays to keep your contacts current, and close.

Overall do you think the new global economy is a good thing or a bad Essay

Overall do you think the new global economy is a good thing or a bad thing - Essay Example The new global economy would not be a positive thing to United States economy, which operates a free- market capitalism. The increased production in numerous growing economies such as China and India will infiltrate the United States leading to the decline of the exportation income. Dahlman and Renwick (483) state â€Å"The United States has generally eased import restrictions in hopes that U.S export to other countries will increase†. The dwindling exportation created by the new global in the United States would adversely affect many industries, which may cause some employees to be laid- off. With the wide- ranging areas of production in China and India, the new global economy would highly benefit these emerging economies. The youthful generation augmented by a growing population in both China and India would stretch the production and utilization further, which would encourage these countries to absorb much of their production, while importing more from other

Tipping point Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tipping point - Essay Example Connectors are perceived to be the trendsetters because of their rich network of acquaintances and friends. They know many people and keep in touch with them. Simply put, connectors strive to bring the world together not for their benefit, but for the benefit of humanity. On the other hand, Mavens are people who take delight in finding new information and share that information with connectors. Unlike connectors who simply wish to have a vast network of friends around them, mavens strive to have hottest esoteric scoops on specials and gadgets, and share that information with consumers. Hence, they fundamentally connect consumers to the marketplace due to their aptitude and capability to be informed on functionality of products, prices, and market trends. While the Mavens provide the message and connectors spread it, salesmen are skilled in persuading people to believe in what they hear. Their ability to easily build a rapport makes them good in expressing feelings and emotions, and o ften use their charisma to manipulate others. A striking difference between salesmen and connectors is the sheer fact that connectors think not as individuals, but in nodes and are more obliged to first help you then money later; however, salesmen are apparently money-oriented as they hugely motivated by money when packaging and pricing innovations (Gladwell, 82). Similarly, while connectors seem to rely on more general information to connect the world, Mavens dig deep into ideas and innovations and give detailed and unambiguous information regarding it. Apparently, I am more similar to the Connector personality type. Over the past few decades, with the dawn of technology I have been finding myself more engaged with the social media including Facebook and Twitter. I start each day on Facebook and Twitter by posting and twitting unpretentious questions such as â€Å"How can I help you?†, â€Å"Is anything the matter?† Through these platforms, people have been able to express

Health and Social Care Management Essay Example for Free

Health and Social Care Management Essay Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), defined management as the art of getting things done through people. This may seem a very narrow angle for some, however, the philosophical concept of management, relies on results being obtained through people. The nature and role of managers has been an emerging concept since the early 19th century, often linked to  administration and being the middle ground in organisations allowing to filter objectives to employees and vice versa, filtering employees needs to senior staff within the organisation. In my view management is a set of hierarchy working to achieve a common objective. As a Patient Advise Liaison Service (PALS) and Stakeholder Engagement and Involvement Manger, my role is predominantly to manage the customer service role for the Care Trust. Up until recently the Care trust was specialist in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities. The Trust is now at the stage of applying to become a member of Foundation Trust Status, which involves recruiting members to help shape the future of the organisation (BDCT, 2013) My role can be viewed in favour of Mintzbergs headings: Liaison, Monitor, disseminator and spokesperson. I am the Liaison between the organisation and the team, and also the wider service users. I monitor the teams performance, activities and disseminate information from the organisation to many third sector organisations, such as BAMHAG and ACAS, both of which are advocacy services for Mental Health service users As cited in Mullins (2010) by Crainer, management is making things happen. My role can also fit in with Crainers model as I am heavily involved in making sure that the team can meet objectives. The difficulty with the statement of making things happen is dependent upon each individuals motivation and their individual circumstances. I feel that as an individual I am in the infancy stages of my career and have motivation with clear defined, SMART, goals (Mullins, 2010). The managers role and activities have a different number of models and theories which are used to explain what a manager does, or should do. Some of these are explained by the following: Fayols model looks at: Planning, organising, command, co-ordinate and control. My management role does have a certain element of Fayols model, but I found this view to be quite restricted, my role involves a lot of motivation, or the fact that is how I manage. Druckers model looks at settings objectives, organising, motivating and communicating. I feel that this is the best fit for my style and role. The limitation of this model is that it has a less authoritarian approach to it, and as I have discovered in my experiences can lead to the team that is being managed almost abusing a level of candour. Stewart describes the management role as to say the activities and role dependant on demands, constraints, and choices. Again, this can also fit in with my role and management style but is demanding on some of the authority that is needed. The management style as described by Blake and Moulton in their grid looks at manager effectiveness versus efficiency. These are what I believe to be key qualities, attributes and skills of a successful manager. There is however room for a change in style dependant on circumstances. My role is to manage the Patient Advice and Liaison Service for the Trust to ensure the service is visible and accessible to patients, their families and carers through analysis of contact information and evaluation of experience. To develop procedures to ensure effectiveness of core business of service. The implementation of a telephone rota and advertised business hours has been an issue. Service users that are known to the team through historical working practices often end up having adhoc meetings in the office. This is both disruptive to other staff and can also be deemed as unprofessional. However, the particular service users have a high level of dependency on the PALS officers. My initial reaction to this as a manager was that we needed to have a timetable for appointment, so that PALs officers are not severing a link with the service users but for an element of empowering o take place, as explained by Banduras self -efficacy service. If an individual is told they cannot look after themselves, eventually they believe that. However using empowerment can allow for service users to identify their own strengths. As a manager the challenge I face is that PALS officers have  different levels of motivation and different triggers for motivation. Mullins 2010 defines motivation as why people behave in a certain way, why people do what they do. This is explained further to say that the direction and persistence of action. It is concerned when people choose a particular course of action in preference to others, and why they continue with a chosen action, often over a long period of time and in the face of difficulties and problems. This is true of both in a positive and negative light. An example form the team that I manage is that PALS officers are often on the in-patient wards to promote the service of PALS and to ask those people that would otherwise not be able to raise a concern. My critique of this situation was that a service can only be promoted to a certain level, otherwise it can be over promoted and this is where we find the leaflets that are handed out, just thrown about. My view is that each interaction should make a difference to the PALS officers. They should be able to understand that unless they found a new way of working, they are offering a counselling service, for which they are not qualified to do or paid to do. Again the discussion around empowerment was quite useful in highlighting to PALS officers that they are not there to nanny service users. I provide day to day management for PALS staff including provision of formal supervision; there is also need to provide ad hoc supervision, this may be in order to support staff in dealing with sensitive, upsetting, distressed cases / clients. I also receive and deal with complex cases or where cases require escalation from offices; dealing with sensitive, highly emotive issues and dealing with clients who may be extremely upset and / or distressed. My role is also that of a Stakeholder engagement and involvement manager, which has a very corporate approach. I am responsible for forging relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. As discussed, the roles of PALS manager and stakeholder engagement and involvement manager does occasionally cause conflict, they are not natural roles that would come together. My understanding is that my predecessor had an interest in this area and so the role became theirs, and as such has been handed over. Another challenge to the above is that my role is job-shared. My co-colleague also works to manage PALS and stakeholder engagement. The conflict in that situation is that this individual is also a PALS officers, this means balancing three work roles out of which the Since the Mid Staffordshire Enquiry (2012) a huge push has been taking place to ensure processes and procedures are in place for service users/patients, carers and communities to have their say. The Francis Report (2013) highlights 290 key recommendations for organisations providing care. As part of my role I had to identify the key areas for development which are most relevant to the PALS officers and stakeholder roles. Prior to my joining of the team, an internal consultation was underway and when I joined the deadline for the consultation period was looming, however, I was able to be a spokesperson for the team ( Mintzberg) by keeping up to date with PALS policy and guidance and develop local procedures for the Trust in relation to PALS. This had to be robust process which could iron out some of the concerns I also work with the Head of Involvement and Equality to develop the PALS service to ensure the service meets requirements for the transformation agenda. At the moment I do this by having monthly meetings and adhoc regular contact. Again fitting in with Maslows hierarchy of needs I need this regular contact to maintain and improve my effectiveness as a manager. One of the challenges that I face is to maintain an overview of the system used to record PALS cases. This is to ensure information related to quality of services including equality data and patient experiences are recorded and effectively used across the organisation. I also develop local and Trust wide reporting mechanisms to do this. The challenge is the operational side of getting staff to actually record. I will need to consider the barriers to this during the one to one supervision sessions. The involvement function of my role is quite wide but a lot of the work involved looks at developing systems using IT based programmes to support the equality and involvement agendas including development of effective  stakeholder engagement mechanisms to record stakeholders and involvement activities. I also keep up to date with patient experience guidance and to work alongside the Patient Involvement and Experience Manager by ensuring that PALS contacts are recorded accurately and are reported in line with patient experience indicators and commissioning requirements. The NHS has undergone a huge change in the direction of strategies and financial decisions that are made. (DOH, 2013) The failure of previous managing organisations such as the Primary Care Trust, has meant that a lot of the workload from there PCT has now moved over to the Care Trust. The experience of patients is very important in this process as it highlights that poor management can leave patients to have poor experience. (Patients Association, 2013) I MANAGE A TEAM, BUT ALSO HAVE TO WORK AS PART OF A TEAM. MY MAIN ROLE IS THE LEARNING CURVE FOR MYSELF AND TO OBTAIN THE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE HELD BY THE PALS OFFICERS. I DELIVER REGULAR TEAM BRIEFING SESSIONS, SHARE INFORMATION, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES WITH COLLEAGUES LISTEN AND ARE OPEN TO THE VIEWS OF OTHERS. I ACTIVELY WORK TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE AT ALL LEVELS. BY DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING CONSTRUCTIVE WORKING RELATIONSHIPS WITH LOCAL SERVICE USER, CARER AND COMMUNITY LED ORGANISATIONS. (MULLINS, 2010) An effective team, as stated by Mullins and other literature surrounding management, is a group of people that work together to achieve outcomes. This is a multidisciplinary approach, using a matrix style of working. I am comfortable with this description as I also feel that a team is a group of individuals that work together to use skills and expertise and team working to complete tasks assigned to the group. The defined role of a team looks at defined roles, skills and expertise. An important part of the team is to maintain regular contact, collaboration, co-ordination. These regular and frequent interactions give the team a more defined purpose. I also feel that a team needs skills and knowledge to carry out capability. The challenges that I face in my role are that the role is of an evolving nature with and increased demand and support should be given by other colleagues in a matrix style of working. However, due to the lack of clarity from senior management and the fact that the job description is very new can lead to an impact on day to day management of the PALS team. Another significant challenge is to performance manage the PALS team. The team has been working together for approximately 8 years, with some of the newer members joining around 4 years ago. This has led to a culture of working to our way. The concern with this approach to team working is that it may not necessarily meet the objectives of the organisation. In the scenario of the PALS team we constantly seem to cover ground rules and not be able to get past that, this can be seen as a level of non- compliance. As a manager my role is to steer the team to meet the teams objectives, but this can be difficult due to the complex dynamics and individual personalities. To combat this I arranged individual sessions with staff to generate discussion around what each member of staff feels that they have done well, what can they do better and what would help them to get to that stage. The challenge that I face with the team during this period of consultation is to maintain a positive working environment and culture which actively improves the performance of the department and teams within it in relation to involvement, patient experience and equality. This id due to the motivation levels within the team. As cited in Mullins 2010, Team working is no more than a fashionable term used by management to give workers an exaggerated feeling of importance my view on this is that team working has to be used in the right context. There are times as a manager where you can be led by your team however, overall the manager has to set the scene and highlight the core areas for team working and independent work. My role in terms of the day to day management of PALS Team including objective setting for individuals and team; allocating work to staff, completing monthly sickness returns. I ensure PALS staff are up to date in terms of all mandatory and required training and development is up to date  at all times. It is imperative to my role to identify and arrange appropriate training and development for PALS staff, via the appraisal and KSF route, to ensure successful delivery of business and to keep staff motivated and engaged in their roles. This is also as described by Druckers management model, which asks the questions of what do managers do? The managers role according to Drucker: Sets objectives. The manager sets goals for the group, and decides what work needs to be done to meet those goals.I engage in this process by using supervision and team meetings, to set objectives but also to understand that the objectives are clear and clarified 2) Organizes. The manager divides the work into manageable activities, and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done. I am in a job share situation, where my colleague is also a part time PALS officer. This has meant that I have had to revise the workload, so that both my skills and management tasks required are delegated appropriately between us and also to staff within the team that have the right skills. The challenge that I face in this situation is that I do not have a PALS background; however, it is important for me to be objective and put simple plans in place to have the team working effectively. I aim to pick up a lot of these conversations during the supervisions that I have with staff. 3) Motivates and communicates. The manager creates a team out of his people, through decisions on pay, placement, promotion, and through his communications with the team. Drucker also referred to this as the integrating function of the manager. My main style of working and management is to use motivation as a contributing factor, by looking at the motivators and demotivates and allowing staff to make their own decisions, using coaching and facilitation. Once aims and objectives are agreed, this allows me to measure the progress during meetings and one to ones 4) Measures. The manager establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyzes, appraises and interprets performance. This goes hand in hand with  motivation, my main role is to measure the outcomes and also to measure underperformance. I aim to try and do this in a facilitating manner and not punitive. My own experiences of being managed in a punitive manner led me to completely switch off. I believe that the right skills and appreciation is at the heart of trying to get a team or individuals to work together. By using reflective practice I can also measure the performance of the team. I recently asked for team to bring figures of complaints/ concerns and issues to team meetings, so that we can be measurable and auditable. 5) Develops people. With the rise of the knowledge worker, this task has taken on added importance. In a knowledge economy, people are the companys most important asset, and it is up to the manager to develop that asset. During the one to one sessions, I have designed a template to ask staff what works well, how we can do it better, looking at ways of improving stakeholder work, raise the empowerment level of individuals to take on responsibilities once involved, i.e. chair meetings etc. Managers born or made, Mullins states a combination of both, my roles both professionally and personally have evolved through needs (Maslows Hierarchy of Needs). The need to bring a substantial income into our family home coupled with the determination of having a professional post. I also feel that as described above I am working using Druckers model for my personal development. One of the main aspects being that I am constantly setting measurable targets for myself and constantly reviewing progress and working to timescales. One of the constant reminders that I have to keep addressing in my role as a manager is that motivation is not linked to ability. As Mullins points that an individual can be motivated but not have the right skill set or resources to carry out their ability. This is quite fundamental to bear in mind as often motivation and ability can be seen as the same, in my view they are co-dependant but need to be addressed individually. Motivation means doing the best of ability, understanding what you can cope with and enjoy. Motivation is possibly the best way of doing something,  taking into account individual characteristics and drivers. What motivates one individual may not motivate another (Mullins 2010) The definition of motivation is to keep the momentum going, having the drive to achieve objectives, achieving and keeping a check on self-motivation. Motivation is linked to rewards which are individual to different people. Mullins (2010) states motivation is why people behave in a certain way, why people do what they do, the direction and persistence of it is concerned. Having a sense of achievement is important to all; Organisations are now buying into the fact that staff needs to be kept motivated and engaged. As a result of Staff surveys, (BDCT 2012) organisational aims as well as individual aims are driven by certain motivating factors. These as discussed previously are dependent on individual circumstances. In a team of staff the motivation will be at different levels as people are at different points in life. A lack of motivation has the effect of having a destabilised work environment and an impact on staff morale. Motivation is not performance. Performance = motivation and ability levels (UoB 2013) this phrase sums up for me what motivation means as a manager Within motivation there are different theories. Buchanan and Huczynskis theory on goals looks at main motives for our behaviour, wealth status and power trigger. Our behaviour towards attainment is encapsulated as the Content theory. Mullins 2010 looks at content theories as the drive and need of motivation. Decisions: why do we choose to pursue certain goals is termed process theory, the focus is on how choices are made with respect to goals. Job enrichment theory looks at influence and how can we motivate you to work harder. According to Maslows Hierarchy of needs (Buchanan and Huczysnki) an individual, team or manager has the following needs: 1, physiological needs 2, safety needs 3, social needs 4, ego needs 5, self-actualisation Maslow states that the lower needs have to be satisfied first. My role as PALS Manager came as a result of national changes within the NHS. My previous role was in commissioning and due to move over to the Commissioning Board, however due to geographical challenges; I applied for a local job so that it could fit in with my need of being a carer to my family. In my role as Stakeholder Manager, I collaborate and facilitate corporate events, raise service user and carer profile both inward facing across the organisation and outward facing. The Care Trust has made a huge effort to recognize and reference to the Francis Report, patient experience is at the heart of patient care. As stakeholder manager I am constantly reviewing, what does this mean? To take a proactive approach I take the comments from the board to team meetings to raise awareness of issues and concerns that have a potential to take place, based on Mid Staffs Enquiry (Francis Report, 2013) and vice versa from stakeholder groups back to team meetings. It is critical in my role is to keep a balanced view between the organization and the stakeholders. I am able to agree with the rhetoric assumption of we have been here before in terms of making service better for people , but I believe that the catalyst for change is always evolving and by using reflective practice I am able to highlight the positive changes that have taken place. An example of this is that carers are invited to Board meetings to share their experiences so that the senior management has some idea of the situation at grassroots level. Historically this was not taking place, however due to the feedback received regarding involvement activities from service users and carers, the Trust Board invite Service users and carers on  a regularly basis. This allows service users to be an advocate for others but also with regular contact to become almost semi-professional and understand some of the concerns faced by large organisations. The history of service user movement groups is well documented (Everett 1994, Campbell 1996, Wallcraft J, Bryant M 2003) and awareness of this literature enables an understanding to develop of the gigantic steps that have been made in the area of user involvement. The past quarter of a century has witnessed a dramatic change in the way that those using mental health services are perceived, represented and valued, not least as contributors towards their own care as opposed to purely receivers of it. The role of service users in the 2007 mental health service is far removed from the role they played just decades previously (Campbell 2005) and the increasingly used term experts by experience highlights the value placed on service user contribution in all aspects of their care planning. This patient expertise is also fundamental to service user involvement, which not only takes many forms, but occurs on many varying levels. Involvement ranges from the macro level of service planning and evaluation through to involvement at the micro level of service user participation and decision making regarding their own care (Braye 2000). Recognised by the DoH (Department of Health, 2001b) in their Expert Patient document. In my role of team management I am faced with conflicting demands upon my time and within the members of staff. Conflict resolution has become an important part of the managers role, the questions can be asked as to why there can be conflict. One of the reasons that I have uncovered during my research is that individuals can make organisational objectives, become personal objectives, this may not be fitting to everyone, due to individual circumstances. Job purpose and job crafting is linked to my personal beliefs and motivation theory. There are two factors that motivate people in their jobs. These two factors are: Hygiene factors affecting job dissatisfaction are qualities of supervision, pay, company, policies, physical working conditions, relations with others, and job security. Motivator factors affects motivation are promotional opportunities, opportunities for personal growth, recognition, responsibility, and achievement. Herzberg argued that Hygiene factors do not contributes towards higher performance instead they are for prevention of dissatisfaction in jobs. True motivators are impacting motivation and hence organisational performance. In my view hygiene factors are not contributors to motivation is not entirely true. Based on individual factors like responsibility, economic situation, opportunities available, these factors may act as motivators to work. In evaluating the effectiveness of my role as a manager, I am not able to constructively measure my performance in this role as it too early to measure, however, in other areas of my life and on requesting regular feedback from my peers and previous colleagues, I would say that I am an effective manager in terms of motivation, objective setting and team working. I am able to synthesise and analyse my own development to better inform myself and the team that I manage. This role in particular is a short term contract and because of this I feel that my delivery of results is paramount to my reputation as an effective manager. Some of the challenges that I have faced include the spontaneous nature of the team. The embedded dynamics means that it was difficult for staff in overcoming the initial authority and assertiveness of my role. Staff were working to their own demands; they were working hard and trying to give all they can in their roles but not working as effectively as they possibly could. I detected certain levels of non-compliance and lack of respect towards me as a manager from colleague and staff. This may be due to the fact that they consider themselves to be local experts in their respective  roles. This became an apparent weakness; due to unclear nature of my role and lack of management support this had a knock on effect in my management role. Staff felt that because I was unclear they could also have become complacent in their roles and resisting much required change. I gained support from my manager to facilitate those discussions with my job-share and focussed on the need to work more effectively and efficiently. Following on from the Francis Report, the Trust have decided to conduct an external consultation of the department, this will have an impact on the PALS team, both positively and negatively. Positively the recognition and the importance of service user involvement in mental health care are possibly at a higher level now than it ever has been. The Care Trust was up until a couple of years ago a mental health and learning disabilities, specialist trust. Due to the many changes taking place in the NHS this has now changed and the Care Trust has taken on other responsibilities, the challenge that I am facing in my role is that the service users and carers are mostly from the mental health background, therefore the diversity of involvement from a wide range is restricted, however, this is critical to my role and to the wider role of the organisation. Personal development plan An analysis of my personal development plan will allow me to face some challenges constructively. One of the main concerns is that I have no clear definition of role and therefore unable to set objectives for my team. I aim to seek clarification from my manager and also from the organisation in terms of what the PALS team should be doing, especially in light of the Francis Report. I will be arranging staff supervision sessions and also identifying key areas for development of staff. Regular feedback and appraisals will help in setting the teams objectives. The workload will be reviewed and I will be reviewing time on activities so that a rota can be in place for manning the office and the telephones. I will be able to manage conflict regarding the workload, once the discussions around caseload management have taken place. This will allow cases to be appropriately handled and in a timely manner. References Blake, R. R. and Mouton, J. S. The Managerial Grid III, Gulf Publishing Company (1985) Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text, Third edition, Prentice Hall (1997) Department of Health, DoH, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recognised-valued-and-supported-next-steps-for-the-carers-strategy accessed June 2013. Drucker, P. F. The Practice of Management, Heinemann Professional (1989) Everett 1994, Campbell 1996, Wallcraft J, Bryant M 2003 Fayol, H. General and Industrial Management, Pitman (1949). Francis Report and Mid Staffs enquiry: http://www.midstaffsinquiry.com/pressrelease.html accessed June 2013. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B. and Snyderman, B. B. The Motivation to Work, Second edition, Chapman and Hall (1959). Maslow, A. H. A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, 50, July 1943, pp. 370-96 and Maslow, A. H. Motivation and Personality, Third edition, Patients Association, http://www.patients-association.com/ accessed June 2013. Peters, G. Creating the Modern Organization, in Crainer, S. and Dearlove, D. (eds) Financial Times Handbook of Management, Second edition, Financial Times Prentice Hall (2001), Mullins (2010) Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Parker_Follett, accessed June 2013. Mintzberg, H. The Structuring of Organizations, Prentice-Hall (1979). Stewart, R. The Reality of Management, Third edition, Butterworth Heinemann (1999) WriteWork contributors. Management, Partnership and User Involvement in Health and Social Care WriteWork.com. WriteWork.com, 05 June, 2007. Web. 02 Jun. 2013.

Todays Mafia Essay -- essays papers

Todays Mafia Although many arrests have been made, organized crime and the Mafia are still very active. Organized crime and its families, particularly the Italian mafia, have increased their illegal activities significantly over the past few decades. The Mafia and organized crime go hand and hand, one cannot be spoken without the other. Both of these forms of criminal actions have been recognized since the late 1800's, and police say it is not disappearing too fast.(Widener 6) Migration from Italy, has brought over many Italian criminals and crime tactics. The Italian Mafia has always been based on the island of Sicily and the southern mainland provinces of Calabria and Campania. (Worsnop 273) Traffic in drugs, chiefly heroin, provides the bulk of the Italian Mafia's revenue from Sicily. Cocaine is becoming more important, however, as drug lords from Colombia try to expand beyond the Americas. To gain a foothold in Europe, the Colombians have got to strike deals with the Mafia, which ironically guards its home turf. (273) Italy in general, has added to the crime list of the Mafia for over 100 years. The famous Al Capone, the Italian-American gangster of the Prohibition era, also known as Scarface because of a knife cut to his cheek. (Nash 79) He was born Alphonse Capone in Naples, Italy, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He left school at an early age and spent nearly ten years "hanging-out" with gangs. In the 1920's he took over a Chicago organization dealing in illegal liquor, gambling, and prostitution from the gangster Johnny Torrio. (80) Convicted of income tax evasion in 1931 and sentenced to 11 years in prison, he was released in 1939. After obtaining syphilis, he went on to reside in Miami Beach, Florida. (80) Many Italian families are a major influence on the organized crime melting pot. Families such as the Colombo's, the Gambino's, the Bannanno's, and the Luchesse's have migrated from Italy, and play an important role in the organized crime system. (Worsnop 267) The Colombo family, which consists of approximately 100 members is currently led by Victor Orena. Victor is currently acting as boss due to the absence of Carmine Persico, who is serving a prison sentence for racketeering. (268) The Colombo families main activities include loan sharking, gambling, smuggling, and narcotics. This family guides much of its attenti... ...ses squirm under the heel of the mob." , 8 Jan. 1997. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton, FL: Social Issues Resources Ser., 1997. Crime vol. 1 art. 99. Inman, William H. "The Mob in the Sun Belt." , 26 Jan, 1993: E1+ . Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton, Fl: Social Issues Resources Ser.,1997 Crime vol., 3 art. 66. Nash, Robert. Organized Crime the Whole Story, New York: Da Capo, 1992. World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime, New York: Da Capo, 1990. Luciano. Soon he was arrested for extortion, theft, and murder. While in jail a brain tumor was discovered on the left side of his brain and he died in 1967. Ragle, Larry. Crime Scene, New York: Avon Books, 1995. Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime, New York: Smithmark, 1992. Trimble, Alan, "Top Sicilian Mafia boss gives evidence." Reuters 23 Aug. 1996. CD News from Newsbank, Inc. Wiedner, Sandra. "A deal America must Refuse.", April 1986: 22+ . Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton, FL: Social Issues Resources Ser.,1997 Crime vol., 3 art. 19. Worsnop, Richard, "Mafia Crackdown." 27 March 1992. Ed. Eleanor Goldstein, Boca Raton, FL: Social Issues Resources Ser., 1997. Corrections vol.4, art.86.

Aig Scandal

[pic] THE INTERNAL CONTROLS AND FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES THAT LED TO THE BAILOUT OF OUR NATION’S LARGEST INSURANCE COMPANY By: Monte Schwartz PREFACE Anyone who watches TV has most likely seen the American International Group (hereinafter AIG) commercial with the little boy who walks into his parent’s room while they are sleeping. When his mother asks if he had a nightmare, he says â€Å"no† and that he’s worried about his parent’s financial future. After a twenty-second spiel about his worries, the father says, â€Å"Buddy, we’re with AIG† and he goes, â€Å"Oh! and walks out of the room and (assuming) back to his bedroom. [1] AIG, established as a Delaware corporation in 1921 by Maurice â€Å"Hank† Greenburg, is primarily engaged in insurance-related and financial activities in the United States and European countries (over 130 combined total); including but not limited to home insurance, car insurance, life insurance and various investments. Imagine that this boys parents’ discover one day with their financial planners that they lost all of their investments and insurances in which they paid dearly.The parents had agreed to make an investment so they and their children could have a secured future protection against market risks. Well, it became a reality for many Americans. This devastating loss left many taxpayers with misappropriated assets along with a burden to pay the â€Å"bill† for the bailout of AIG. PART I: HOUSING MARKET SCANDAL: VIOLATIONS IN BUSINESS OPERATIONS To understand the accounting scandal of AIG, one must first understand its business transactions and operations leading up to the SEC investigations. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the OmnibusBudget Reconciliation Act, commonly known as the OBRA-93 or the Deficit Reduction Act. Part XIII, is our primary focus, the Revenue Reconciliation Act which allows limitations on executive compensations by limiting the deductible for tax purposes to $1 Million unless the compensation was earned through performance, bonuses or equity: ultimately increasing the average executives paycheck. [2] When an executive’s paycheck percentage is primarily a bonus, those profits can lead to decisions that are not in the best interest, short-term and long-term, of taxpayers or shareholders.You may think what this Act has to do with AIG, but this act is the very essence of why AIG failed as a business. AIG had paid its top executives a whopping $165 million in bonuses after it had received bailout funds. In early 1995, the Clinton Administration issued new and revised regulations to the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA (in which was created by the Jimmy Carter administration) which de-emphasize a lender to make subjective assessment measures in favor of strictly numerical quotas, or as others may say, racial quotas. 3] In simpler terms, private banks were compelled to provide loans to low income famili es and minority neighborhoods as long as the person was making some sort of income to repay the loan and did not require any initiation of a credit check. In more ways than one, this was a Federal scheme that pressured and extorted banks into loaning money to people at high-risk. The new regulations also instructed lenders to take into account how well they responded to complaints from groups such as Minority Community Activist organizations like ACORN.In December of the same year, Henry Cisneros (herinafter Cisneros), then head of Department of Housing and Urban Development (hereinafter HUD), moved Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac towards a requirement that 42% of the mortgages would now serve predominantly minority neighborhoods and low to moderate income families. In 2000, Andrew Cuomo (hereinafter Cuomo), Cisneros’ successor, established an even more aggressive social-engineering goal by increasing the number of mortgages to 50% by method of dramatically hiking Fanny Mae’ s and Freddie Mac’s mandates to buy mortgages to under-serve neighborhoods for the very low income. 4] Cuomo also encouraged them to strongly enter the sub-prime loan markets, which are credit-default swap markets. And who sold the credit-default swaps? AIG did, because it was an insurance on bonds. Large banks buy bonds and insurance policies so that if a company, say General Electric, should declare bankruptcy, the large bank is out on whatever premium amount it paid and receives money from whoever sold the insurance policy, which in this case was AIG since AIG was the biggest underwriter of credit-default swaps. 5] Take for instance, as an example, General Electric (GE)[6]. There are only two (2) reasons as to why a bank would purchase credit-default swaps. Either they do not want to provide the full credit amount as it may be a risk or they are looking to hide something, like a cash transaction. Suppose that Bank A wants to better its business relationship with GE and so GE asks for $70 million on credit. The bank, in return, speaks to their senior credit manager that the maximum they can provide is $50 million, due to risk exposure.However, in order to satisfy the customer, the bank lends the $70 million anyway and writes off the $20 million difference by purchasing a credit-default swap from Bank B. The only problem is, GE believes the entire $70 million came from Bank A. Now, Bank B was â€Å"AIG Financial Products† (hereinafter AIGFP), a division of AIG. Bank A was Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, etc. PART II: THE ACCOUNTING SCANDAL: VIOLATIONS OF INTERNAL CONTROL There are four (4) most common ways of distorting a company’s financial condition.They are revenue recognition, cost or expense recognition, accounting for reserves and accounting related to business combinations. [7] AIG distorted their financials via accounting for reserves. What does that mean though? In accounting, companies use reserves to cover future costs such as taxes, possible litigation and pay-off debts or other liabilities. When a company intentionally falsifies information and misleads auditors of true financial reports, these fake transactions are better known as â€Å"sham transactions†.In 2001, the Securities Exchange Commission (herein after SEC) began investigating and making allegations that AIG was providing investors, shareholders and auditors with false financial statements, showing two sham schemes where the company altered its balance sheets through bogus transactions in efforts to conceal the company’s losses on investments related to the credit default swaps. By September of 2003, the SEC filed a lawsuit against a company known as Brightpoint Inc. (hereinafter Brightpoint), in which is a wholesale distributor of electronics.Their allegations included, but not limited to, improper use of insurance policies in attempting to reduce a loss by 11. 9 Million in efforts to show the public a smaller lo ss. As a result, Brightpoint’s Financial Statements overstated their net income. The SEC found their net income overstated by 61%. [8] It was revealed later in the discovery period that AIG was involved in assisting Brightpoint to spread out their losses over a time period. This technique is known as â€Å"retroactive insurance† which combined two policies into one.The two policies were the Retroactive Coverage and a Prospective Coverage. The â€Å"policy† was supposed to cover the cost of losses over a three-year term. The idea was to â€Å"smooth† the financial statement so that the public did not see such an impact of losses by AIG clients. Brightpoint paid a monthly premium for this policy of $15 Million. This tactic, while completely fraudulent, allowed Brightpoint to show an Insurance Receivable of $11. 9 Million. See, SEC v. Brightpoint (2003). Retroactive Coverage is not insurance.It just moved cash from one place to another, which the SEC called a â€Å"round-trip of cash†. Brightpoint deposited monies with AIG and later on, AIG would return the funds; yet mark it off in their books as if they made an Insurance Claim Payment. There was no risk being transferred. Once Auditors realized that this policy wasn’t quite an Insurance Policy, Brightpoint began making â€Å"restatements† to their financial statements. It is obvious that there is fraud when the books require numerous â€Å"restatements†. After the SEC had filed their lawsuit, AIG quickly made agreements to settle for $10 Million.This was only a civil penalty. No criminal penalties were administered by the Federal Courts for this â€Å"Retro-active Policy†. This payment of $10 Million resulted in AIG’s profit a mere $100,000. See, SEC v. Brightpoint (2003). Brightpoint was not the only company received â€Å"assistance† from AIG around the same time frame. Another company, known as PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (her einafter PNC), was also involved. In short, PNC was a Pennsylvania bank holding company. AIG helped PNC to move $762 million of assets off of the balance sheets. 9] By now, it seems AIG was a â€Å"pro† at distorting balance sheets. They didn’t like low net incomes and they helped others by sharing their tactics of â€Å"distortion†. The SEC calls these â€Å"PAGIC† transactions, since net incomes magically show profit. PNC had transferred their assets to another entity which PNC held major interest. They had created three (3) transactions which were intended to reduce their losses in regards to loans and venture capital investments by â€Å"transferring†, according to the SEC summary findings.PNC had then failed to account for these transfers as an asset or a loan which failed to appear on their balance sheets. This reduced their exposure to â€Å"troubled loans and volatile assets†. (See SEC v. PNC Financial Services, Inc. ) These transact ions were obviously structured to benefit PNC and its interested entities by increasing the value of their net income. Recently, as of January 2010, the SEC has also filed a complaint against a company known as Gen Re (General Reinsurance Corporation) which SEC has evidence of involvement in assisting AIG and other Financial Companies in using this sham scheme.The SEC makes allegations that Gen Re â€Å"knowingly provided substantial assistance to both AIG and Prudential in connection with their own violations of the books and records and internal control provisions of the federal securities laws, Sections 13(b)(2)(A) and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1932. †[10] AIG falsely reported on its financial statements increases to both loss reserves and premiums written via sham reinsurance transactions. Gen Re helped AIG’s balance sheet transactions appear as thought AIG had an increase in loss reserves[11] by $500 million, which obviously was far from the ac tuality.The loss reserves should have been $250 million – half of the claimed amount – according to the SEC findings. There is also another accounting scandal involving AIG and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The individual parties involved Hank Greenberg, the CEO and founder of AIG and Timothy Geithner, then President of the NY Fed. Bank. The party investigating was the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (hereinafter Committee), whose senior chairman is Darrell Issa, also Republican Representative of California.Over twenty-two (22) hearings, discovery proceedings, interrogatories were produced on behalf of the Committee towards Timothy Geithner in why the Federal Reserve ordered AIG to refrain from disclosing in the notes of the financial statements all the facts of the bailout. Geithner, in hearings, attempted to defend the bailout by suggesting that had AIG collapsed, America would face a Great Depression. This answer was something the Committee h ad heard numerous times before. They demanded a new answer.Even if the case is true, that America would have faced a Great Depression, the Committee smelled a bad scene unfolding, especially since two of Geithner’s closest advisors, Mark Patterson (chief of staff) and Henry Paulson Jr. (former ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve), were both ex-employees of Goldman Sachs. In AIG’s bailout, Goldman Sachs had received $13 Billion. In defense to the bailout, Timothy Geithner’s general counsel had claimed that the disclosures were unnecessary since the company’s regulatory filings had offered more detailed information.In opposition to this statement, Issa released a five-page list of derivative transactions, also known as â€Å"Schedule A†[12] which is a comparative list of notional value, total collateral and negative mark to market values, respectively. Notional value is the value of the derivatives underlying assets at spot price (current price). The total collateral posted is the total securities for the guaranteed repayment of a loan and the negative mark to market measures the fair market value of accounts, which can change overtime.Between the three comparisons, it is clear that â€Å"Schedule A† shows little reason for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York insisted that information should be kept private. PART III: THE RESULTS: BAILOUT & BONUSES A â€Å"bailout† is the giving of financial assistance (via the Fed, therefore taxpayers) to a failing business to save it from collapse. A bailout can be through the use of cash or a loan; however it can only happen when a company faces potential bankruptcy.With AIG’s housing market scandal and accounting scandal, it faced bankruptcy because it reported an overstatement of net revenue on its annual financial statements leading investors and shareholders to believe the company was a success. AIG initially received $85 Billion from the government as a loan, and th en sometime in March 2009, they received another $88 Billion. Now that we know what financial assistance was received, term $173 Billion, what did AIG do with all the bailout money? Well, now we can look closer at Figure 1-1 in determine where the money has gone. 44 Million went back into the Banks of the United States. AIG paid itself $600 Million. Golden Sachs received $13 Billion and Merrill Lynch: $7 Billion. The chart also includes bailout money that each of the 50 states received, totaling $12 Billion, even though they were originally supposed to receive $15 Billion. $113 Billion went to guarantees, such as bond guarantees and securities guarantees. If you look closer, you will see that foreign banks and countries received more bailout money than the United States did. France, Germany and the United Kingdom received the bulk of the funds, a whopping $49 Billion.These countries received, rounded, 80% of the AIG foreign funds. See below figure for details of the funds AIG disbur sed to large banks and foreign countries. [pic] And what about that $165 Million â€Å"bonus† contract AIG had? Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano states that (1) the â€Å"existence of a contract is the building block to our commercial society† and that (2) therefore, the contract to pay top executives a $165 million cannot be broken because the â€Å"constitution prohibits the government, federal and state, from interfering with valid contracts and these contracts were valid when they were signed. [13] Much of the debate of where all of the taxpayer bailout funds come into scrutiny but that is another issue of AIG. The majority of the housing market and accounting scandals began during the Jimmy Carter administration when he enacted the CRA. Then, in the Bill Clinton administration, while he may have had good faith intentions to help the minority communities, he literally forced banks to handout loans when the applier had a high credit risk.Then, Cuomo increased the percentage of mortgages that were required to serve minorities via credit-default swaps which AIG were the primary underwriters. This factor, along with the sham balance sheet insurance transactions was the reason AIG nearly went bankrupt. While the bailout certainly helped AIG in avoiding bankruptcy, thousands of American citizens who file and pay annual income tax returns (the 50%), lost their investments and insurances to secure their futures all due to tax-schemers and executives who are high on themselves and want a bigger return. PART IV: AIG:WHAT IT IS NOW Since the discovery of AIG’s fraudulent behaviors in business and financial activities in 2001, the company has had to face many lawsuits from investors and shareholders; some are still pending. The CEO of AIG, Hank Greenburg as well as a few top executives were forced to resign. Some executives received a two (2) year prison term, which isn’t a very long time when considering how much money was misappropriated. Just recently, Oct 2, 2012, the company revealed a new image for their name. They have changed their logo which is the cover image above.They claim the new logo is â€Å"transparent† and â€Å"simplistic†. Does a new logo change the history of a company though? In a company that had so much potential yet failed to secure the futures of the Americans who they insured, the reputation is irreparably damaged and until it repays the billions of dollars back to the government (or, taxpayers). Until then, AIG is owned by the Federal Government. ———————– [1] â€Å"AIG Commercial†  © 2005 < http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=9VvGW98D3XA> [2] Korzenik, Jeffrey D. Forbes. om â€Å"The Tax Code Encourages Big Wall Street Bonuses† Feb 2009. < http://www. forbes. com/2009/02/04/wall-street-bonuses-opinions-contributors_0204_jeffrey_korzenik. html> [3] Money Gather: â€Å"Bill Clinton Helped Cau se the Housing Crisis† September 2008. [4] Morris, Dick. Take Back America. Pg 266, Harper, April 13, 2010. Print. > [5] The Big Picture. â€Å"Credit Default Swaps are Insurance Products. It’s Time we Regulated them as Much. † March 2012. [6] General Electric was in no way shape or form related to the AIG scandal; this is strictly an example. 7] See Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP, 2009 Securities Litigation Study 30 (2009), available at http://10b5. pwc. com/PDF/NY-10-0559%20SEC%20LIT%20STUDY_V7%20PRINT. PDF. [8] Securities Exchange Commission v. Brightpoint Inc. , (2003) http://www. sec. gov/litigation/complaints/comp18340. htm [9] Securities and Exchange Commission v. PNC Financial Services Inc. http://www. sec. gov/litigation/admin/33-8112. htm [10] Securities and Exchange Commission v General Re Corporation, 10 CV 458, PACER [11] Loss reserves in the Insurance industry are an estimate of the value of a claim or group of claims not yet paid. [12]

Erik Peterson Case Analysis Essay

Inefficient employees (Hardy), or line manager with inadequate knowledge Technical issues at lower level employees Handling his employees’ lack of work, inventory control etc. No. of cells to be operational (16) by the turn on date was too many to handle, yet it was vital to have them all operational Construction of towers were already behind the schedule; HQ reluctant to terminate the contract since the former company did a great deal of work on the construction Peterson’s management and leadership on the start-up? Raised the issues & problems with top management; replacing employees Appointing trusted people to other departments; Construction coordination Prepared to solve the zoning problems (failed to get the approval of the top management) Helped improve Curt in his job, but wasn’t quite successful since Curt was a technical person and didn’t have much knowledge on management. He provided technical support to him and others, but went too much into details. Kind of micro-managing He at least had identified the problems and causes Weekly construction Meetings to involve everyone, yet some people weren’t active enough Established an inventory control system Actions to be taken by Peterson to improve the situation and to prepare for his upcoming meeting? He should build a detailed organogram of the company and define the roles and responsibilities of each employee He shouldn’t get involved in each and every issues for which his staff needs to deal with. He should be more a result oriented leader. Staff mobility; the overall idea is good, but shouldn’t move in a way to change the reporting line He should prepare a list of his recommendations and the support required from HQ with concrete results on success or failure of his recommendations and do a follow up to those recommendations The first support he needs to ask from HQ, should be more authority to get control over his employees Since the project is in a critical phase to meet deadlines, the reporting line may change temporarily until everything gets on track

Free Essays on Pyrmamid Of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza The pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World to still exist and is the only one that has no arguments on its appearance, size, and shape. The Great pyramid is the oldest of all the wonders. It is located in the city of Giza, which was a necropolis of ancient Memphis, and is part of greater Cairo, Egypt, today. Not all three pyramids are considered as part of the Wonders. Only the Great Pyramid of Khufo is written as one of the seven wonders. The pyramid was built for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufo of the Fourth Dynasty around the year 2560 BC to serve as a tomb when he died. Pyramid building originated from the complex idea of a â€Å"mastaba† or platform that covered the pharaoh’s tomb. The Great Pyramid is believed to have built over a 20-year period. Although it is not known how the building blocks were placed, many theories have been proposed. One theory suggests the construction of a straight ramp was put in place and was adjusted as the building got higher. A second theory involves the blocks being placed using long levers with a short, angled foot. When it was built, the pyramid stood 481 ft. high and each side was 751 ft. wide at the base. Over the years, it has lost 30 ft. off its top. It was ranked as the tallest structure on Earth for more than 43 centuries. The Great Pyramid is made up of approx. 2 million blocks of stone, which weighed over 2 tons each. The great Pyramid of Giza is by far the most astonishing member of the Seven Wonders of the World. It has survived long and is made with such exact, precise measurements. The Pyramid has been measured, photographed, x-rayed, and studied more than any building in the world. Its existence really shows that the people of ancient Egypt were very hard working and extremely intelligent.... Free Essays on Pyrmamid Of Giza Free Essays on Pyrmamid Of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza The pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World to still exist and is the only one that has no arguments on its appearance, size, and shape. The Great pyramid is the oldest of all the wonders. It is located in the city of Giza, which was a necropolis of ancient Memphis, and is part of greater Cairo, Egypt, today. Not all three pyramids are considered as part of the Wonders. Only the Great Pyramid of Khufo is written as one of the seven wonders. The pyramid was built for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufo of the Fourth Dynasty around the year 2560 BC to serve as a tomb when he died. Pyramid building originated from the complex idea of a â€Å"mastaba† or platform that covered the pharaoh’s tomb. The Great Pyramid is believed to have built over a 20-year period. Although it is not known how the building blocks were placed, many theories have been proposed. One theory suggests the construction of a straight ramp was put in place and was adjusted as the building got higher. A second theory involves the blocks being placed using long levers with a short, angled foot. When it was built, the pyramid stood 481 ft. high and each side was 751 ft. wide at the base. Over the years, it has lost 30 ft. off its top. It was ranked as the tallest structure on Earth for more than 43 centuries. The Great Pyramid is made up of approx. 2 million blocks of stone, which weighed over 2 tons each. The great Pyramid of Giza is by far the most astonishing member of the Seven Wonders of the World. It has survived long and is made with such exact, precise measurements. The Pyramid has been measured, photographed, x-rayed, and studied more than any building in the world. Its existence really shows that the people of ancient Egypt were very hard working and extremely intelligent....

Making a video in ESL class

Making a video in ESL class Making a video in English class is a fun way to get everyone involved while using English. Its project based learning at its best. Once you finish, your class will have a video to show off to friends and family, theyll have practiced a wide range of conversational skills from planning and negotiating to acting, and theyll have put their technological skills to work. However, making a video can be a big project with lots of moving pieces. Here are some tips on how to manage the process while involving the whole class. Ideation Youll need to come up with an idea for your video as a class. Its important to match class abilities to your video goals. Dont choose functional skills that students dont possess and always keep it fun. Students should enjoy and learn from their experience filming, but not be too stressed out about language requirements as theyll already be nervous about how they look. Here are some suggestions for video topics: Study Skills - Students can break into groups and produce a scene about a specific study skill, or a tip on how to study.Functional Skills - Have students create scenes focusing on functional skills such as ordering at a restaurant, job interviewing, leading a meeting, etc.Grammar Skills - Students can include slides asking the viewer to pay attention to specific structures and then act out short scenes focusing on tense usage or other grammar points. Finding Inspiration Once youve decided on your video as a class, go to YouTube and look for similar videos. Watch a few and see what others have done. If youre filming something more dramatic, watch scenes from TV or a movie and analyze to gain inspiration on how to film your videos. Delegating Delegating responsibilities is the name of the game when producing a video as a class. Assign individual scenes to a pair or small group. They can then take ownership of this part of the video from storyboarding to filming and even special effects. Its very important that everyone has something to do. Teamwork leads to a great experience. When making a video, students who dont want to be in the video can take on other roles such as editing the scenes with a computer, doing make-up, making voice overs for charts, designing instructional slides to be included in the video, etc. Storyboarding Storyboarding is one of the most important tasks in creating your video. Ask groups to sketch out each section of their video with instructions on what should happen. This provides the roadmap for the video production. Believe me, youll be glad youve done it when editing and putting together your video. Scripting Scripting can be as simple as a general direction such as Talk about your hobbies to specific lines for a soap opera scene. Each group should script a scene as they see fit. Scripting should also include any voiceovers, instructional slides, etc. Its also a good idea to match the script to the storyboard with snippets of text to help with production. Filming Once youve got your storyboards and scripts ready, its on to filming. Students who are shy and dont want to act can be responsible for filming, directing, holding cue cards, and more. Theres always a role for everyone - even if its not on screen! Creating Resources If youre filming something instructional, you may want to include other resources such as instructional slides, charts, etc. I find it helpful to use presentation software to create the slides and then export as .jpg or other image format. Voiceovers can be recorded and saved as .mp3 files to add to the film. Students who arent filming, can work on creating resources needed or each group can create their own. Its important to decide as a class which template youd like to use, as well as image sizes, font choices, etc. This will save a lot of time when putting together the final video. Putting the Video Together At this point, youll have to put it all together. There are numerous software packages that you can use such as Camtasia, iMovie, and Movie Maker. This can be quite time consuming and aggravating. However, youll probably find a student or two who excel in using storyboarding software to create complex videos. Its their chance to shine!

The study of motivation in consumers which stimulates them to purchase Literature review

The study of motivation in consumers which stimulates them to purchase luxury goods despite the steep and increasing price - Literature review Example Again during 2004-2007, when the luxury industry was expanding and emerging into other markets, the CAGR was 8 percent (Amatulli and Guido, 2011). The growth of luxury goods market was caused by two important factors. Firstly the economic growth all throughout the world has lead to the creation of new class of rich people (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004) and secondly, the increase in the demand and range of products of luxury goods (Silverstein and Fiske, 2003). However, the sales of luxury goods were predicted to ease in 2013 due to the lower growth rate in China and subdued spending in Europe (Reuters, 2013; Wendlandt and Binnie, 2013). The sales are expected to hover around 4 to 5 percent as compared to the 5 percent sales in the year 2012 (Bain & Company, 2013). It is also expected that the revenue generated from the luxury market will rise 50 percent faster than the global GDP and the annual average growth rate will be around 5 to 6 percent in the year 2015 (Bain & Company, 2013). T he four main categories that come under luxury goods are Jewellery and watches Spirits and wines Cosmetics and perfume Fashion that includes accessories, ready-to-wear and couture (Jackson, 2004). Recently some other categories were also added like airlines, home furnishing, private banking, tourism, hotels and luxury automobiles (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2008). Fashion luxury goods include perfume, jewellery, watches, shoes, handbags, accessories and apparels, the display or use of which only brings prestige for the owner and functional utility takes a back seat (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). Some of the research scholars have previously tried to highlight on the profile of the buyer and understand the reason behind the consumption of luxury goods (Dubois, Czellar and Laurent, 2005; Husic and Cicic, 2009; Summers, Belleau and Xu 2006; Wiedmann, Hennigs and Siebels, 2007). Some others have focused on the role of brand in the consumption of luxury products (Fionda and Moore, 2009; Kap ferer and Bastien, 2009; O’Cass and Frost, 2002; Phau and Prendergast, 2000; Tsai, 2005). More specifically Vigneron and Johnson (1999, cited by Amatulli and Guido, 2011) has focused on the presence of interpersonal and personal motives behind the consumption of luxury goods. In this section the focus is on luxury branding, pricing and issues that influences buying behaviour. 2.2 Meaning of luxury The word luxury has been derived from the Latin word â€Å"luxus†, which signifies the pleasure of senses irrespective of cost. Vigneron and Johnson (2004) have created a framework that consists of five components, which provides the meaning of luxury. High quality is associated with luxury goods, which is perceived as a fundamental attribute. Quality signifies craftsmanship, utility, sophistication, technology, design and material etc. Origin and tradition of the product along with the perceived superiority and excellence of the products acts as the reassuring factors which is a motivating factor for the customers who are buying any luxury goods. Semiotics of luxury has identified hedonistic value, which signifies the emotional responses linked to the consumption of luxury goods like excitement, sensory gratification and aesthetic beauty. Consumption is about the experience and feeling of pleasure that the consumer gets from the ownership of the goods like self-indulgence, fulfilment and personal reward. Conspicuous is another value attached with the consumption o

Construction planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Construction planning - Essay Example The SHE provisions or specifications outlined for the project seek to reduce or eliminate and mitigate incidents, injuries and environmental harm at the construction site. The project relies on expertise in environmental management, system design and innovation in evaluating and reducing the environmental impacts of all its phases; initiation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and operationalisation. The envisaged solutions are suggested to increase the project’s market stability and guarantee sustainable benefits. The compliance of each stage of the project life cycle, starting with planning, will adhere to the set SHE standards. The on-site and off-site planning of project deliverables will have to be aligned with specific regulatory standards and requests. The standards cover dangerous substances traceability, recyclability of materials, supply-chain assessment, and obsolescence and substitution management. The planning must also consider environmental concerns and engage in long-term sustainable strategies, based on life cycle thinking (LCT). Through this approach, the planners will adopt a broader view of the project’s successful implementation, opportunities, viability and sustainability. The objectives set at the planning phase and the strategies and resources by which they will be achieved will also consider and address the SHE standards. The project will seek expert assistance in the implementation of the project and use astute management strategies to achieve sustainability, performance and reduce project risks. At the implementation phase, a checklist and design specification will be outlined and communication with all stakeholders managed properly. In addition, sustainable supply processes and implementation activities will be used. Equally important at this phase will be the integration of multisite and transnational