Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Public Education Financing Essay
In the present modern economics, public education financing is considered as one of the flourishing characteristics for the economy of any country. However, a wide variation has been observed in the financing practices related to the public education in the United States, as well as, across different parts of the globe. In this regard, differences and diversification can be observed in various economical activities that are considered especially for the public education system of a country. (Cubberley, 1916) For instance, the American educational system may also provide huge differences in terms of distribution and expenditures across the country. However, significant and noteworthy alterations have been observed in the public educational system of the United States. Over the last few years, the abovementioned theme has been a major concern of public debate at all levels. (National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1972) During the last few years, in order to get maximum funds for pubic education, different states of the US have made significant changes in public education funding system. In this regard, various experts believe that little analysis of the subject has been done in the past, and more considerations should be provided to the subject, which has an influencing effect on the education system of every country. (Rice, 1893) One of the biggest sources of public education financing is national funding system, as community wide funding system is implemented for the financing of educational activities across the country. In this regard, most of the public education financial expenses are funded at national level. In this funding system, all nationals of a country bear a substantial tax rates on income for pubic education financing. (Fitch, 1904) The important thing in this funding is that all the tax collected from individuals are funded and distributed equally among all the students, which is one of the major characteristics of a public education financing system. (Jordan, 1992) At community level, public education financing occurs at a certain community level and students receive sponsorship according to their requirements. Moreover, at community level education funding system, parents of the students support all the costs of their children’s education, which is same as private education funding. Nonetheless, at community level funding system, funding for public education is collected on behalf of communities and sorted randomly into communities contrary to perfect sorting. In this system, all contributors of the public education finance contribute same tax rate fixed by their community. Certainly, at community level, public education financing contributes a small share in overall education expenses, and this thing does not have a great impact on wide economic variable elements, such as social security benefits, etc. (National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1972) However, according to one of the experts in education, a rapid concern in the development sector has been observed in recent years, and a vital role has been played by the federal government. One of the reasons of expression of this concern is that more diversification has been observed in the capabilities of funding by the state governments. Moreover, steady increment has been observed in the mobility of these states. Lastly, the federal government has observed an important change in its perspective regarding the public education, and social welfare of the people has been given due importance during the recent years. On all the aforementioned public education-financing categories, finance education schedule is selected by agents through voting, which is carried out by either the community or federal government. It has been observed that balancing of the educational budget is performed by the provision of different taxation options to the voters by the government, and similar funding is provided according to the taxation level selected by the voters. However, it has been observed that young generation has not been given due significance by disallowing them from the voting, and education can be supported by only the voters who face the political decision.  The level of taxation is represented by a tax rate and the tax is levied on capital and labor income of all agents residing in the relevant area. When setting up the tax schedule, policy makers care only about being elected, and so they maximize the number of votes. As a result, any party in office will follow the same policy and that policy is the one that is voted for by the greatest number of agents. (Garber, 1964) During the period 2001-2002, the US spent approximately four hundred and twelve billion dollars in both elementary, as well as, secondary levels of the public education system. This budget on public education was spent with a view to declaring it the biggest single field of direct public expenditures, even beyond the national defense figures. Approximately, in the educational ground, this fund benefited around forty seven million public school students and five million of private schools. (Ana, 2004) Interestingly, per student expenditure during that period was $8,685 yearly. It has been noted by most of the experts that aforementioned budget was collected from federal, state and local sources. However, the amount spent during the year 2001-2002 on public education finance was varied form one state to another. In this regard, Connecticut was the state, which got the highest per student education funding fund, and Utah got the lowest fund for public education. In the United States, the state and the local government are responsible for public education funds. In the fiscal year of 1999, forty-nine percent of the funds for public education financing came from state appropriations in which, forty-four percent came from domestic revenue and the US federal government contributed seven percent funds for public education financing. In this regard, domestic government raised funds for education mainly through property taxes. On the other hand, for public education financing state rely on numerous funding sources such as corporate & personal income taxes, sales & excise taxes. However, public education financing from the US federal government remained constant if compare to past figures. (Jordan, 1992)            Historically, with the passage of time, a constant rise has been observed in school funding from the perspective of states. In this regard, the state contributed thirty percent in 1940, which was raised by 40 and forty-nine percent in the year 1970, as well as, 1999 respectively. However, figures of each state observed substantial variations by one another. Throughout the history of public education funding, funding sources of each state varied from others, and most importantly, the tax rates such as personal and property tax rates were varied according to states. In this context, Hawaii’s funds for education mainly came from state sources, and New Mexico public education funds came from both state and domestic sources. In this regard, it has been believed by Richard W and Lindholm that the provision of education as a local responsibility has been closely related with the imposition of property tax as a local tax in the United States. Every year, all the states contribute hundreds of billions of dollars on education financing. In order to distribute collected funds among different territories, states have designed some ground elements that differentiate territories from one another, as well as, estimate the affect of those differences on the cost of furnishing educational services, and distribute funding consequently. Besides all the factors discussed above, territory wealth in school funding is one of the most important elements that distinguish one territory to another. In this context, it has been believed by some of the experts in education, such as Torres and Puiggros that overall capability for the maintenance of students, as well as, the promotion of higher education has been improved and enhanced by the public schools, in addition to increasing the equality of educational opportunities. Actually, some territories are wealthy as compare to others. In this regard, states have designed a number of fundamental funding systems that evaluate the estimation of school territories funding levels and distribute it in keeping different grounds, such as domestic differences of wealth element. Although, different states have designed different public education funding system, but one can found many similarities in school funding structure system. Under the flat grant approach, in spite of domestic particular context, every territory gets the same flat grant for each student entered in any educational institute. Obviously, in this public education funding system it ponders that the state must assure a minimal level of funding for all educatees and then gives domestic territory liberty to increase funding beyond that level as they think fit for it. During the period of 1960s and 1970s, the power equalization funding approach arose out of the work of education crusaders; actually, they were the people who observed the huge deviations among different territories in the ability to lift domestic funds ensued in education funding inequalities. (Ana, 2004) The solution was to assure all territories a standard amount of fund for each educatee for each unit of taxation. For instance, every state is liable to determine that all school territories must be able to increase hundred dollars on each student, per mill of property tax rate. In any case, where school territory’s tax base does not able to rise forty dollar per student, in this case, the state will fulfill territory’s education funds demand of equal to difference between 100 and 40, or sixty dollar per student, per mill. (Garber, 1964) However, all districts which are considered as wealthier districts and whose tax base rate rises seventy dollars per students, per mill, will only get thirty dollars per student, per mill from the state. â€Å"In this way, the state â€Å"levels the playing field†for school districts in terms of the ability to raise revenue, ensuring that funding disparities are a result of differences in taxpayer preferences, not taxpayer wealth.†Undoubtedly, this approach shows the responsibility that all states all responsible for education funding according to their wealth and resources. The funding approach of foundation plans is presently use in almost forty states. This approach integrates components of the former described two approaches. Nonetheless, every state furnishes the deviation between the totals of revenue-raised form the domestic tax and the foundation funding level.            For instance, a state can found a foundation funding level of six thousand for each student. However, in a territory having one thousand students this will reflects a total funding of six million dollars. In this regard, if the state calculates a minimal domestic tax rate of two hundred mills increased two million in domestic property taxes, the states will have to furnish an extra fund, which will equal to the deviation between two million and six million. (Richter, 1986) In this approach, if employing the two hundred-mill lower limit tax rate in a wealthier territory with the same number of educatees increased five million, in this situation, the state is bound to furnish only one million in state’s education funds. In this regard, both territories ends up with the similar domestic tax rate and the similar combined state and domestic funding point for each student, though the proportional weight of those 2 sources is different to a great extent. It can be evaluated that this approach is designed to extenuate inequalities in domestic wealth. However, it takes the idea of equality in further steps; in this approach, typically, both outcome and opportunity are taken into consideration and rates are determined with respect of varying degrees of different states. (Williams, 1980) This foundation plan has designed to keep in mind that the domestic school territories must not enjoy limitless prudence while setting funding levels that are intolerably different from other states norms. The full state-funding plan is practically an uncommon approach for funding public education funds, in this approach of public education funding; the state is responsible for all education expenses. Hawaii is completely fit for this example; Hawaii within a single school territory combines full state funding. In suggesting or deciding public education funding policies, Hawaii is capable to eliminate, any deviations occur between domestic and state governance. Interestingly, in this public education funding system, domestic authorities have no control over levels of funding. (Ana, 2004) All the four aforementioned public education-funding categories show only the fundamental structure of public education funding plans. Nevertheless, in order to collect funds for public education most of the states use schemes that joint components of some or all of these funding plans. For instance, a state may distribute some funds through a flat grant education funding approach, or other may apply foundation plan to collect public education funding. In lieu, a state has an authority to give territories permit to raise tax rates in order to collect maximum funds for public education. It can be analyzed that the prime motive behind the public education funding is to get maximum funds, which can be used, effectively in public education. According to some public education funding reformers, public education funds schemes is just a technique to give equality among taxpayers at all levels such as property and other tax burdens. Domestic property taxes such as sales and income taxes are some of the main sources of California’s pubic education funds. In addition, these collection sources are supplemented with money from the California’s state lottery, federal government and other sundry public education funds collected domestically by school territories. The following diagram represents that how the public education funds were collected in California during the period of 2002-2003. K-12 Funding Comes From Five Sources (Ana, 2004) State Aid State aid collected mostly from California’s sales and income taxes. Property Taxes During the period of 2005-2006, property taxes were collected domestically and distributed to all schools through a formula determined by state.  Federal Aid Federal aid was appropriated for some especial purposes such as special children’s education, child nutrition programmes, child left behind programmes and so forth. Domestic Miscellaneous            Domestic miscellaneous funds included, interest income, revenue generated from domestic parcel tax elections, communality contributions and so on. Lottery California state lottery funds were collected on behalf of public education funds on per student basis. Proposition 98 Proposition 98, the provisions of a voter initiative, this law define the responsibility of each state, under this rule every state is bound to contribute in K-12 community and education colleges. This public education funding contains both domestic property tax revenues and state monies. As far as amount of guarantee is concerned, it is determined by using a set of formulas dictated by law. Since the year 1988, one of the most crucial factors for the determination of amount of revenue received by the public schools is the calculation of the minimum guarantee, because of the passage of Proposition 98. In addition, proposition ninety-eight insures a minimal level of funding for public education. Proposition ninety-eight funds represents about eight dollar out of every ten dollar apportioned to K-12 education in California. As mentioned above, California’s public education funds, other sources include domestic sundry resources, federal government, and lottery, which shared twenty percent in Public education funds.  (Williams, 1980) Legally speaking, a minimum of thirty-four of the receipts from the California state lottery should have to be allocated to public educational institutes. Moreover, the apportioned money for each student basis, should have to be used only for instructional uses and not for research and development (R&D) purposes. In the year 2000, Proposition 20 was approved and accepted by the voters, which required that instructional materials should be considered and given due importance by half of any increment in the share of revenue collected from the lottery for the education. For the year 2005, as well as, 2006, approximately $146 per pupil was received by the districts from the above-mentioned source, from which, instructional materials were bought by roughly $25 from the total amount per student. The domestic sundry category of funds per annum shows about six percent of entire revenue collected for K-12 schools. Moreover, this public education funding was separate from domestic tax incomes the state control. It came from the sources that were domestically administered, that income generated from cafeteria sales, income from lease, income from sale of territory property and so forth. Interestingly, for less than twenty percent territory in the state, a significant source of domestic sundry income was the voter-approved domestic parcel taxes. In reality, these were some of the special types of property taxes, which were not related to the value of property. Nonetheless, according to some of the experts, one of the most important policies on the domestic level is the education system in the United States. The implementation of American ideology in the lives of American people is represented by the education system of the country, and due significance should be provided in this regard, which has been given in the past, and must be given in the coming years. (Hutchins, 1961) In the United States, both government and public are expecting a lot from educational institutions like school and colleges. In the past, educational institutes were being gainsaid to fit the demand of a country’s economy that is increasingly oriented towards knowledge in all respects and information skills. (Hutchins, 1961) At both federal and state level, present American legislative has made some changes in educational funding system and have created some new systems that will test educational institutes’ teachers’ and students’ performance. In the light of present ongoing changes in public education financing system, many experts have already said that these ongoing policies will advance education level. Conclusively, the paper has tried to study different aspects and perspectives of public education system across the world, and specifically, in the United States. It was noted during the paper that during the last few years, in order to get maximum funds for pubic education, different states of the US have made significant changes in public education funding system. Every year, all the states contribute hundreds of billions of dollars on education financing. Moreover, various features of the government financing on the federal, state, as well as, community level were discussed in the paper. Lastly, different characteristics related to the funding of the education system in the country were studied and evaluated during the paper, which will support the better understanding of its funding by the students, experts, and policy makers in the future.  References            Kenneth Forbis Jordan. (1992). Financing Public Education in an Era of Change. Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.            National Association of Secondary School Principals. (1972). Financing Public Education. National Association of Secondary School Principals.            Lee Orville Garber. (1964). The Law Governing the Financing of Public Education. Interstate Printers and Publishers.            Mary Frase Williams. (1980). The Public School and Finances. Pilgrim Press.            Clayton Darius Hutchins. (1961). Trends in Financing Public Education, 1929-30 to 1959-60. U.S. Department of Health Education.            Otto Santa Ana. (2004). Tongue-Tied. Rowman & Littlefield.            Ellwood Patterson Cubberley. (1916). Public School Administration. Houghton Mifflin Co.            Charles Elliot Fitch. (1904). the Public School. J. B. Lyon Company Printers.            Joseph Mayer Rice. (1893). the Public-School System of the United States. The Century Co.            Albert J. Richter. (1986). the Impact of the Rural Recession on Public School Financing and Programs. NEW Professional Library.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Apple Powerbook Case Write-Up
After the failed release of Apple’s first miniaturized computer, the Portable, the company was faced with the likelihood of losing significant ground in the mobile computing market if it didn’t bring a product to market at record speed. Apple had anticipated the Portable would be competitive enough to maintain market share until its longer term â€Å"Companion†project was complete. However, thirty-six months remained until Companion would be ready. Weak sales coupled with Compaq introducing the far superior LTE notebook created intense pressure to bring a product to market in the next 18 months that could serve as a placeholder until the Companion arrived. Bringing a product to market this quickly was no easy task. The new portable needed to be small and compact, yet the short timeline meant only existing technologies would be available. If that was not challenging enough, the company culture was such that most products had a time-to-market of 48 months and involved a slow bureaucratic process with multiple departments needing to sign-on for each decision. Additionally, Apple still had not fully confronted the notion that their desktop core competencies were not necessarily going to translate into success in mobile computing. Despite these long odds, Apple not only prevailed, but created a revolutionary product called the PowerBook that brought in billions of dollars in revenue and revolutionized the conventional wisdom behind the company’s design philosophy. Part of Apple’s struggle in mobile computing stemmed from being the pioneer of desktops. The company felt it knew what the market wanted based on its previous success. It was with the desktop in mind that Apple released the Portable, a mobile computer designed to do everything that a current desktop could do with the added benefit of being able to collapse into a carrying case and be taken on the road. At a staggering 17 pounds and a cost of $5000, the Portable was met with plenty of skepticism and was doomed for failure. The company had simply failed to take the customer’s needs into consideration. Instead of making it smaller and lighter, as the market demanded, Apple focused on functionality and battery life. This contributed to problematic weight and size problems for the machine. The failure to recognize what consumers demanded wasn’t Apple’s only development flaw. They also failed to recognize how quickly technological trends and consumer tastes were changing. The company was still developing products on a three to four year cycle and had yet to embrace a time-to-market philosophy. Instead priorities were still â€Å"time-to-perfection†with the company maintaining that it would not bring anything to market ‘before its time’. Additionally, they still had a desktop mentality, which meant strict design regulations that hindered the development of a sleeker, lighter computer. It was a combination of these factors that led to the failed release of the Portable and created the immediate need to development the PowerBook. As Apple scrambled to assemble the PowerBook team, the project objective was clear; get a mobile computer to market at record speed and keep the size and weight to a minimum. The speed of develop was a major challenge to overcome and it was mainly due to the organizational structure. Apple structured its company by functions and departments. And instead of dedicating specific resources for a project, each department supported all projects. This led to a cumbersome and lengthy decision making process which typically involved project managers struggling to get objectives accomplished. Often times the project manager was relegated in authority and routinely superseded by functional heads with all decisions inevitably at the mercy of the president of Apple Products, John Louis Gassee. Apple realized its current structure lacked the dexterity to meet its time-to-market objective and driven by necessity made several key decisions to secure time-to-market success. First, Apple made the decision to organize the company into separate divisions: desktop and portable. Second, they decentralized engineering and product marketing, with the immediate goal of building a new portable engineering group. Lastly, although their Product and Industrial Design teams remained centralized, it was agreed that personnel from those teams would co-locate for the PowerBook project to ensure everyone was â€Å"breathing the same air and talking the same talk†. Revamping the organization structure was a key step but there were still many missteps and obstacles that nearly derailed the project. One major issue was the allocation of personnel. Despite the intense pressure and importance of the PowerBook, the company still listed the project very low in terms of priority. All of the â€Å"A†talent was dedicated to the Companion project and the PowerBook team was left with either junior level engineers or employees with only desktop computer experience. Inexperience coupled with intense pressure produced multiple mistakes along the way. Design standards were initially poor and prototype builds revealed several critical errors with manufacturing tolerances. All together, a list of 150 items was compiled of issues that the team felt needed to be addressed but it looked unlikely that the time and resources were available to make all the changes. Additionally, the PowerBook team had to overcome intense resistance from its manufacturing department. Manufacturing was accustomed to snap-together desktops and had a very difficult time coming to grips with how they could possibly assemble a portable with 47 screws. The initial reaction from manufacturing was â€Å"we can’t build this thing†. Product verification testing also proved to be treacherous. The deadline was so tight that after the manufacturing process was well underway and thousands of displays were already in inventory the risk was still present that changes may be needed. This would produce a significant waste of resources. Lastly, the PowerBook team was confronted with bringing its new creative, ergonomic design to life, while dealing with size constraints as well as a mechanical engineering team who was on the critical path and working under a â€Å"we’ll do it if we have time†approach. Despite the long list of reasons why the project should have failed, it didn’t. In the midst of all the missteps, Apple made several key decisions which propelled the project to success. One area where Apple thrived was in staffing. Although the engineers lacked experienced, the management involved in the project were innovative, creative, passionate, and practical. They worked tirelessly to make the project a reality and cared very deeply about its success. It was their innovation and tireless effort that slowly caused the project to transform. The team came to the realization that â€Å"a notebook was not a piece of business equipment that someone operated; it was a personal object with which they formed a relationship. †It was this realization that drove the project’s success. The project became not only about size but about ergonomics and about finding a way to form a connection with the user. It was with this approach that ingenious designs such as the center-mouse trackball and the use of curves took hold. Slowly the PowerBook was morphed from a product simply meant to catch-up to the market to something that surpassed any other notebook available. The team also made several other key decisions that made the PowerBook a success. One key determination was to include the internal floppy drive. There was much discussion if this was a necessary component yet key members of the project argued for its inclusion and it was later determined the product would not have been nearly as successful without it. Another key decision was dealing with the 150 issues that were identified after the prototype build. Originally, only 5 to 10 items were going to be changed. However after much discussion, it was determined the PowerBook would not be a success unless they fixed every last issue. To complete such a major overhaul in a short period of time they pulled all resources from the entire portable organization and were able to complete all the modifications in a reasonable amount of time. As one project member later admitted, fixing all 150 items turned the PowerBook into â€Å"something that I would be proud of versus a piece of junk†. One final trait that the PowerBook team used to make the project a success was persuasiveness. There was organizational resistance throughout the project. From convincing senior management to embrace the ergonomic design to convincing manufacturing that they had the ability to assemble a computer with 47 screws, the team used persuasiveness throughout the project to eventually turn a vision into reality. Apple ultimately took a big risk with the PowerBook and it paid tremendous dividends. Along the way they learned a great deal about listening to their customer and designing to their preferences. The company transformed from designing around homogeneous parameters to instead designing to the customer’s specific desires. Consequently, their product line became more flexible and adaptable to the marketplace. Apple also matured operationally during this process. Prior to the PowerBook, the organization was not designed to be time-to-market, however necessity forced Apple to restructure to keep pace with competition. The company’s human capital also benefited heavily. Mobile computer experience was at a minimum prior to the project, however the process eventually led to a much smoother release of the Companion computer several years later. The PowerBook project was fraught with potential disaster. But inevitably the company overcame many adversities and released a revolutionary product that redefined the standard of excellence in mobile computing.
Monday, July 29, 2019
Attitudes to Language Essay Example for Free
Attitudes to Language Essay Language clearly plays a major role in all aspects of society. The most obvious is its social role of allowing people to relate to each other in all facets of their lives: to share information, emotions and ways of life. We use language as a means of navigating our daily lives and it plays an integral role in most of our interactions. Perhaps for this reason, French is regarded as an elegant and romantic language, while German is considered to be guttural. Additionally, ever since mankind evolved into different language communities, it is commonplace for people to adopt various attitudes towards the language(s) spoken by others, as well as towards the dialects of the language they speak. These attitudes are motivated by different factors, including pride in or shame regarding one’s own language, confidence or embarrassment about how one sounds, nationalism and a sense of personal dignity, one’s status and values as well as the prestige some languages are given in international interactions. A well known attitude is the desire for foreign speech patterns; another is the rejection of certain dialects. People form impressions of your personality, emotional state, geographic origin, education, experiences, age or socioeconomic status from the language you use and the way you use it. We often witness the amusement of an audience when someone speaks in the creole, for not only does the system of sound evoke laughter, but the assumption that the speaker is an uneducated serf is then made. Ridicule and contempt for the vernacular, creoles and dialects are common responses from some members of society, even within the Caribbean society, where dialects are rich, strong and the first language. Dialects develop under various circumstances as well as geographical locations and are varieties of languages. A creole could be a dialect within a language. Because of our history, people of the region tend to place a high premium on the standard languages (the language of power and economic might). Many people believe that upward mobility is largely dependent on one’s ability to fit in with the predominant socioeconomic class, and language is the main signifier of this fit. Many Caribbean writers have described scenarios of people who went overseas, were generally expected to return with a new command of the target language and often demonstrated their new found ‘status’ by emphasizing their foreign accent of ‘twang’. While some might be impress ed by the ‘twang’, others view such pretensions with derision. Attitudes to language may vary from one sector of the society to another and some people demonstrate self-conscious behavior when speaking the standard language. This is largely a result of the fact that in most societies one is often judged on the basis of the variety of language that one speaks. This is even more prevalent in societies with a colonial legacy, like the Caribbean, where certain dialects are associated with the institution of slavery or conquest. Increasingly, educators are becoming aware that a person’s native language is an integral part of who that person is and marginalizing the language can have severe damaging effects on that person’s psyche. Many linguists consistently make a case for teaching native languages alongside the target languages so that children can clearly differentiate among the codes ( a term used synonymously with language or dialect but generally refers to a linguistic system of communication. A code can also be non-linguistic such as a dress code or code of conduct) and hence be less likely to mix the two. This approach has been adopted in Haiti, where schools teach both Standard French and French Creole (Haitian) and children are expected to be fluent in both. Additional prominence has been given to Caribbean Creoles with the publication of Creole dictionaries and with the translation of the New Testament from the Christian Bible into French Creole in St. Lucia. A similar project is under way in Jamaica. While attitudes to local dialects have been slowly changing, many people still associate the use of Creole with negative images and believe that its use should be relegated to specific circumstances and occasions. However, the fact that non-standard language varieties are the most widely spoken in the Caribbean makes them the choice of persons trying to get information to large sections of the society. For example, many advertisers use the Creole language to ensure that their message appeals to most people. At the same time, because of the prestige attached to the standard language, it tends to be the language of choice on formal occasions, like church services. A language variety is usually chosen because of its perceived social functions. You may have noticed that, the more formal the occasion, the more likely the use of the standard language, while for everyday interaction, popular music or emotional appeals, people tend to gravitate towards the non-standard varieties. You would have noticed that, even in a formal situation, non-standard dialect might be used for anecdotes, to inject humour or in a quotation. In the Caribbean, people switching from one code of language to another, often without thinking. However, there are times when the use of standard langue would seem totally out of place and would even interfere with semantics. For example, folk stories, folk songs and proverbs seem to lose a certain essence when translated into standard. The role of language as a vehicle for sharing culture is indisputable. Caribbean writers, singers and oral poets have played a major part in fostering acceptance of the Creole languages of the region, by incorporating them into their work and exposing them to the world. Nonetheless, negative attitudes to these languages persist in the minds of many. Attitudes to Language. (2018, Oct 28).
Critical Thinking Assignment Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1
Critical Thinking Assignment - Coursework Example 2. Consumers’ data will become safer as the bill will preempt organizations from sharing personal information with third parties, without their consent. Thus, firms will be forced to use discretion while exchanging personal data. Besides, it will also help ensure that the consumers are â€Å"informed of the purpose†for which such data are being collected or used. It will also save the consumers from the hassle of having to deal with unsolicited marketing calls (Ramesh, 2012). (71 words) 3. Organizations like telemarketing companies will have to exercise extreme caution when contacting prospective customers. The bill will restrict the availability of personal data as organizations that currently share information will be hesitant to do so in the future. It will also considerably decrease our volume of sales as we will not be able to contact as many customers as we want, with our sales pitches. With the Do Not Call Registry, many people will â€Å"opt out of marketing calls and SMS-es by signing up with the Registry†there by preventing us access to customers (Ramesh, 2012). Thus, we will have to evolve other ways to conform to the regulation. (108 words) 4. The article titled, â€Å"Bill Introduced to Protect Personal Data,†written by S Ramesh, deals with the introduction of a new bill by Singapore government â€Å"after several rounds of public consultation†(Ramesh, 2012). The bill, which proposes penalties including fines for the misuse of personal data, is expected to bring dramatic changes to the concept of personal data protection. It will restrict organizations from indiscriminately obtaining, storing and exchanging personal data of individuals without their informed consent. There will be a separate Personal Data Protection Commission for enforcing this law. The â€Å"key concept of the legislation†will be to introduce a â€Å"Do Not Call Registry†where people can sign up to stop any marketing calls or text messages. This will be a great step towards
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Assignment paper week 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Assignment paper week 1 - Essay Example SJM is a model company in its diversification efforts, but practice will have to catch up with policy in the time that is needed for people’s attitudes and behaviors to gradually adapt to change. St. Jude Medical (SJM) is an American company that develops medical technology products and services, with the objective of advancing the practice of medicine by reducing risk and increasing the chances of success for the patient. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., the company has 20 international offices and markets its products in more than 100 countries (SJM, 2012). The position of SJM on diversity and inclusion is embodied in its Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, which encompasses all its employees and applicants for employment as far as concerns, the hiring, placement, promotion, demotion, terminations, transfer, recruiting, advertising, treatment during employment, selection for training, and compensation (SJM, 2012). The company presently employs more than 16,000 people in both its U.S. and overseas operations, and as a multinational corporation, it is committed to a program of diversity in its workforce. Organizational diversity and inclusion is crucial to advancing SJM’s collective knowledge base, as well as creates an environment wherein employees may grow and develop their full potentials (SJM 2011 Annual Report). Diversity in SJM is taken seriously because the company sees it not only as a matter of compliance with affirmative action mandates, but also as a source of creativity, innovation, and other possibilities. SJM is aware that diversity/inclusion efforts do not redound solely to the employee’s benefit, but also to the benefit of the individual. Thus the firm has set up a Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee in its U.S. Sales Division, and it provides domestic partner benefits to employees in same-sex couple relationships. Furthermore, SJM professes inclusion as a
Saturday, July 27, 2019
How do psychological mindsets act as enemies of intelligence How does Essay
How do psychological mindsets act as enemies of intelligence How does this influence surprise or failure Can the Intelligence - Essay Example It means that there will always be some cases wherein some members of the intelligence group can unconsciously destabilize the goal of being able to come up with a timely and accurate intelligence report (Betts, 2007, p. 264). Whether deliberately or not, the act of destablizing the goal of intelligence can happen each time the members of the intelligence group would manipulate or falsely interpretate the gathered information. Eventually, the use of distorted information can lead to inaccurate conclusions or wrong reactions. It means that each time a member of the intelligence community failed to identify misinterpreted data, there is a higher chance wherein the intelligence group can end up making wrong or inaccurate predictions (Betts, 2007, p. 6). How does psychological mindsets influence surprise or failure? There are cases wherein some members of the intelligence group tend to make use of their own biased personal judgment when making important decisions. Within this context, ps ychological mindset can pertain to a scenario wherein the human mind would considered some false information as something that is accurate and highly reliable. Therefore, aside from the risk of passing around some out-dated information in different agencies related to intelligence, one can argue that the use of a false mindset can distort the ability of the intelligence in terms of being able to accurately interpret or analyze the gathered information. Often times, the use of a false mindset can trigger the risk of intelligence failure. Each time intelligence failure happens, the members of the intelligence group can be caught up in a surprise because of the falsely predicted outcome. A good example of such case is the September 11 attack. Despite the number of agencies set out to protect the national security of the United States, the intelligence community ended up pretty much surprised by the attack (Betts, 2007, p. 4). Can the intelligence community overcome or optimize analysis despite these obstacles? To prevent the risks of national disaster, the main role of the intelligence community is to collect, correlate, and analyze information that are useful in terms of maintaining the national security (Betts, 2007, p. 1). However, intelligence group often faces obstacles which could prevent them from effectively fulfilling their goals. Among these obstacles include: (1) the outside enemies – which are referring to the main subject of intelligence such as a terrorist group or any groups or countries that are currently in conflict or are totally against the United States and are trying to mislead the intelligence community from performing their tasks in terms of preserving the national security; (2) the innocent enemies – which are referring to individuals who aim to destabilize the goal of being able to come up with a timely and accurate intelligence report; and/or (3) the inherent enemies – which are usually triggered by human interventio n that can affect the overall function of the intelligence group (Betts, 2007, p. 9, 12, 264). Despite all these obstacles, it is possible for the intelligence community to overcome or optimize the analysis of the gathered information. However, it will never be easy on the part of the intelligen
Friday, July 26, 2019
Public Speaking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Public Speaking - Essay Example The truth is that the basic and daily communication amounts to some form of public speaking only that there is no conscious effort to perfect on it (Scherer and Volk, 2011). This paper will explore a few aspects of public speaking like the importance of public speaking, anxiety and skills and techniques of public speaking. Efficiently delivered speech is one that effectively communicates to the audience. Excellence public speaking has, for many people, defined their success or failure. First, public speaking enhances self confidence which boosts self esteem (Scherer and Volk, 2011). One is able to feel more comfortable interacting with people around them. Effective public speaking means better delivery of the message. For an employee, one stands above the rest and is more promotable to manage higher responsibilities owing to the confidence portrayed and the perception of being more knowledgeable. Knowledge increases owing to the fact that one researches deeply for every topic of discussion. Therefore, it is highly beneficial for one to speak in public as many times as opportunities may allow. The common problem with many people is the management of their anxiety while in front of gazing eyes and attentive ears. One all over sudden loses control of body actions at the most critical moment. One starts to sweat from everywhere; hands, face, feet and armpits and so on. The mouth mysteriously runs dry while the knees feel weak and start shaking. The heart beats faster and harder and the stomach feels full with butterflies and the voice becomes distorted (Bodie, 2010). This problem is best solved by properly and fully researching beforehand one’s topic and audience since this will create confidence. One needs also to set the goal of offering the best speech and focus on doing it and when a flaw happens, one should just proceed. In short, when delivering a speech, one needs to hold positive
Thursday, July 25, 2019
U.S - European Ties with Obama as President Essay
U.S - European Ties with Obama as President - Essay Example â€Å"The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States opened a new chapter in transatlantic relations, transforming European assessment of the American president, U.S. standing in Europe, attitudes toward U.S. global leadership, and perceptions on both sides of the Atlantic of the U.S.-EU relationship†(Transatlantic Trends Key Findings, p.6). It is a fact that Obama enjoys heavy support from the European countries compared to his predecessor. Obama’s handling of international affairs has already attracted many Europeans. The handling of Afghan crisis, economic crisis and climate change has helped Obama to acquire support even from the traditional anti- American publics in Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe. On the other hand, Western Europe is almost unique in supporting Obama’s policies. In fact Obama enjoys more support from the European publics than from the Americans at present. In America at least the Republicans are strongly oppo sing Obama’s economic and foreign policies whereas in Europe, irrespective of the political difference, Obama enjoys strong support at present. The recently concluded G20 summit and the winning of Nobel Prize for peace have helped Obama to polish his face among the Europeans. â€Å"People in the European Union and Turkey have fallen under the Obama spell..In 2008, their assessment of Bush was 18 percentage points lower than Bush’s approval in the United States. In 2009, the situation was reversed. Their positive judgment of Obama (77%) was 20 percentage points higher than in the United States (57%)†(Transatlantic Trends Key Findings, p.6). The leadership of America in global matters is more acceptable to the Europeans at present compared to the Bush regime. But it is a fact that the former socialist countries like Bulgaria, Slovaks, etc are still keeping reservations about the American leadership in global matters. Europeans are more
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Microsoft and Monopoly Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Microsoft and Monopoly - Essay Example Monopoly as such is stated to have negative connotations, as it tends to do away with healthy competition, resulting in costly products and services to the customer. But, in the software industry things are quite different. In the software and services industry, there are a number of key players offering their products and services. The products and services being offered by the companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Firefox, Linux, Mac, Oracle, Sun etc. are different from each other in many features. These products might be useful for similar computer applications, but some of the features are quite distinct from each other. In such a scenario, when most of the companies produce 'similar yet not perfectly substitutable products' is termed as monopolistic market (Investopedia, 2009). Microsoft is an international company, in the software industry, with stakes in almost every nook and corner of the world. As the industry needs to cater to almost all other industries, the global software and services industry has become worth $2,239 billion, registering a growth of 10.5 percent in the year 2008, i.e. even during the period hit by recessionary trends (Datamonitor, 2009). This goes on to prove that the industry is indeed quite attractive. Microsoft is a well known brand the world over. Anybody having anything to do with the field of IT, computers or technology finds the italicized brand name easily distinguishable and identifiable. Microsoft, with a brand value of $76,249 million was firmly placed at second position after Google in the ranking of brands prepared by MillwardBrown for the year 20091. In order to protect the industries and give room for healthy competition countries and regulatory authorities come out with anti-trust laws. Such antitrust policies and regulations are meant to safeguard the interests of companies carrying out their business operations in fair manner. Such laws encourage healthy competition; discourage monopolistic trade practices, while coming down heavily on unfair trade practices. For the overall economic development of the country, what is more important is to see the economic welfare of the country and its populace while guarding the business interests of the corporate world. For example, 'United States antitrust law' is a set of 'such laws' which discourages anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices from the corporate world. The stated objective of the antitrust policy of US government2 is to promote and protect the competitive and the American economy, by using a host of antitrust laws. Microsoft, has been at number one in position in system software as well as application software. Despite their best efforts, no other company is able to match the power of its operating system software. Windows is the first name that comes to our mind when we talk about operating system. In fact Windows itself became a brand identity for operating software. Now with valuable upgrades like Vista, the OS range is quite wide. While trying to propagate its cause, the company has been accused many a times of adopting unfair trade practices. Having corporate rivalries or business disputes is not uncommon amongst leading companies. Such disputes arise on account
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Human identity and relationships Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Human identity and relationships - Assignment Example Evidently, from the film there are instances of distortion on the character Shaw by the mother. On that note, she is seen referring to him as his little monster. In addition to that, the film also outlines the discrimination and the misinformation regarding punks as a possible source of stigma. The underserving of the population on the basis of the provision of essential services has contributed to the development of stigma in the society. Apparently, through the unequal serving of the population due to the inequity of resource distribution, stigma development has been boosted greatly. Apparently, the onset of mental conditions for instance stress and anxiety serve to drive an individual to engage into drug and alcoholism which consequently, leads to addiction thus when diagnosed, the two conditions are present. Notably, the model describes a simple way of enhancing the resilience in order to boosting the mental health. On the same point, mental health can be boosted through the promotion of resilience strategies and the minimizing of adverse experiences in the childhood stage. 10. What are some examples that you use for your own self-care in tending to your mental well-being. (Identify whether positive or negative)on the positive side, the engagement in playing computer games aids in the exercising my brain thus inhibiting the onset of mental conditions. Om the contrary, I enjoy watching movies over night as opposed to sleeping which serves to impact negatively on my mental
Child family relationships in Praise Essay Example for Free
Child family relationships in Praise Essay The connection between family members is bond as strong as Titanium and flexible as elastic, in fact many different poets represent their thoughts and emotions through their poems. Here, we are bestowed with two poems that are an accolade to the parents of two poets, by Grace Nichols, and Stephen Spender, with their poems Praise song for my mother and Childhood. The two poems contain a heavily nostalgic tone throughout the poems, through the use of this I have established that the poets are attempting to communicate their memories through the poems. Spender, though he titled the Poem My Parents has little obvious relation to the poem at face value other than the starting sentence of the first stanza My parents kept me from children who were rough where he almost has connotations of blaming them for separation from what they thought were lesser citizens, he tends to refer to the childhood he lived as a young boy who was bullied on his way to and from school. However when one delves deeper into the poem and attempts to read between the lines the reader can pick up a tone of blame, a tone of resentment and a tinge of sorrow! It would seem as though Spender, through his writing, is revealing his resentment towards his parents for isolating him from his peers, sheltering him from the real world and being overprotective! Maybe even snobbish as the poem also hints at the child being of a higher class than the rough children. However in the poem Childhood the poet is not referring to his parents, but an Aunt of his own; it seems that Cornford is trying to portray the ignorance of his youth when he says in the opening line of the first stanza I used to think that grown-up people as grown-up is not a term used by one who is of middle age or in their teenage years. The poet doesnt seem to have that close a relationship with his great-aunt Etty by the way he described the elderly throughout the poem prior veins like small fat snakes . The poem also shows how the boy matures in time, by the end of the poem the reader can recognise that the poet now fully understands the process of age with the quote I knew that she was helplessly old. As I was helplessly young. My Parents, once you dig deep shows both how the parenting of middle class children could often lead to bullying as they planted the insinuation that the lower class children where not respectable or real people in a sense of dignity. The poet shows this through animal imagery ran in the street, feared more than tigers, they sprang out and finally Like dogs to bark at my world. It also shows that the author deep in his heart admired these boys for their carelessness and meshing with the world around them rather than himself who avoids such things, this is shown by the quote I longed to forgive them (which could also relate to his parents) but they never smiled:. Childhood is a lot more basic in its message, that being that the ignorance of youth often leads to their life being wasted on trivial things; what is quite surprising is how the author has used the flow of the poem to demonstrate the movement of time itself, by the time he has reached the end of the poem he had realised the facts of life, in that way he had matured from the childish ignorance that was portrayed in the initial stages of the poem. To state the obvious both poems have fewer similarities compared to other such poems, however both do relate to family and the young author or character attempting to get a grasp on the situation at hand whether it be why his parents are turning him into an apparent introvert to those at school which leads to bullying of him or the mystery of old age to a young child.
Monday, July 22, 2019
Development of tourism in Scotland Essay Example for Free
Development of tourism in Scotland Essay For a country to be a successful tourist destination, the normal impression that anybody has is that the country must be easy to access, with modern means of transport and good communication, unlike Scotland. A small country located on the periphery of Europe, Scotland is characteristic of tartans, highlands, mountains, castles and bagpipes etc, and for long, poor accessibility and transportation persisted in the country. Nevertheless, Scotland is among the most successful tourist destinations. Many have tried to bring about development of tourism in the country. The Scotts, in particular, were worried that the country’s inaccurate historic description might taint its image as a tourist destination. But little did they realize that in fact, portraying the country in modern perspective could cause considerable harm to its established image, which attracted a good number of visitors. [Butler, Richard. Tartan Mythology. 1998. p. 122. The traditional tourist image of Scotland. ] Besides the residents, the country saw noteworthy visitors, who contributed, directly or indirectly to its tourism development. The visitors can be distinguished into three groupsâ€â€those from the field of military and administration, those involved in scientific studies and those who were engaged in works of music, art and literature. All these three groups had different approaches towards development in the country. The group involved in military and administrative activities was not directly related to the development initiative. However, their work involved a lot of traveling within the region. In their journals and writings, the group brought to light the difficulty in traveling in the region and the need for improving the transportation system there. Also, the scientific visitors wrote journals that described the physical features of Scotland and emphasized its historical heritage, which in turn, attracted more visitors. However, the group that comprised authors, and those involved in the works of art and music, was which made a significant impact on the development of Scotland’s tourism. Their approach was the most dominant and certainly the most effective. The works of renowned authors like Scott, Dickens, Wordsworth, just to name a few, described the country as a place with a romantic appeal. They gave vivid accounts of the scenery, the landscapes, the chivalry of the people and the military expeditions, which helped the country to establish a powerful image as a tourist destination. Not to forget one more group that did much to popularize the countryâ€â€the absentee landlords and their friends. They engaged in sports like shooting and fishing that also made the country very popular and a coveted tourist destination. However, when more and more people started indulging in these sports, they were called off and Scotland remained a limited small tourist spot. [Butler, Richard. Tartan Mythology. 1998. p. 123-125. The traditional tourist image of Scotland. ] The development approaches resulted in improvement in many areas in the country like better communication and transportation facilities, better accommodation arrangements for tourists and the preserving of its natural heritage and culture, the established image of the country. The biggest strength of the development approach in Scotland is the realization that the tourists consider the natural heritage of the country as genuine and they are attracted to it because of its originality, unlike other places that are meretriciously ornamented. Only Development of tourism in Scotland 3 those who tried to fiddle with the traditional image of Scotland and try to portray it modernly reflect a weak approach towards its development. [Butler, Richard. Tartan Mythology. 1998. p. 132-135. The traditional tourist image of Scotland. Yes, the rising participation in adventure activities like skiing and wearing the highland dress, along with the popularity of golf rising significantly, reflect acknowledging of policies to sustain its image. If I were to manage its development, I too would go in for preserving its natural heritage so that visitors could get a real taste of the place. After all, tourists do come to have a bite of the place they visit and their nothing like getting a real taste of it! Reference citations Chapter 7: Butler, Richard: Tartan Mythology. 1998. The traditional tourist image of Scotland, p122-139.
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Reducing The Incidences Of Malnutrition Nursing Essay
Reducing The Incidences Of Malnutrition Nursing Essay -Reducing the incidences of malnutrition that often occurs during admission to hospital has been a priority within the nursing care profession for many years. There have been various explanations for this such as lack of staff, patients not able or are unwilling to admit they require assistance, poor use of assessment tools and care pathways. A key factor in the prevalence of patients presenting with malnourishment is the disturbances patients endure during mealtimes, such as ward rounds, non urgent medical interventions, housekeeping activities and visitors. This essay will explore the incidences of malnutrition, and those who are most at risk and the changes that have been made to reduce such incidences. Change management should be regarded as an ongoing process, which requires good communication, planning, positive leadership and cooperation. This essay will endeavor to explore the change management processes, leadership and team management skills used in the implementation of protected mealtimes. It will explore the negative aspects and problems encountered when implementing a change and the ongoing management skills required to maintain such changes. For many patients admitted to hospital, in particular the elderly, malnutrition is a common occurrence. It is the nurses fundamental duty of care to provide patients with the highest of care possible, a major requirement for any human being to survive and live a healthy life is the intake of a healthy nutritious diet, be that by conventional methods or artificial measures suitable for the patients state of health at that time (Royal College of Nursing 2007). Studies into hospital malnutrition show that as many as four out of ten elderly patients admitted to hospital are already malnourished and as a result of a hospital admission as many as six out of ten elderly patients, become malnourished, their situation worsens and their illness very often escalates (Age Concern 2006; BAPEN 2007). The NHS Improvement Plan (2004) set standards to deal with the increasing incidences of malnutrition within hospital settings; it has become apparent that these examples of good practice recommendatio ns have not been implemented in every hospital in the country, as incidences of malnutrition continue to exist. Davidson and Scholefield (2005) reports that inadequate nutrition can lead to longer hospital stays, impairs the recovery of patients and increases financial costs; several hospitals have indeed planned and implemented changes to reduce such incidences but on the whole have had limited success. The authors found that constant interruptions from drug, rounds, clinical activities and lack of nursing staff being on the ward at mealtimes (due to lunch breaks coinciding with mealtimes) all accounted for patients being provided with very little or on occasion no nutritional intake at any given mealtime. Savage and Scott (2005) does agree with this statement to some extent but argues that it is all to easy to blame nursing staff alone, it is the responsibility of each individual NHS trust to implement managerial changes and policies and ensure that they are monitored, evaluated a nd improved to provide the best care possible for each patient. Mamhidir et al (2007) argues that since the implementation of protected mealtimes in some hospitals there is substantial evidence to suggest that patients, particularly the elderly benefit immensely; patients gained weight, healing time reduced, were discharged earlier and mealtime experiences were a more pleasant experience for patients as well as nursing staff. Mooney (2008) argues that there is evidence to suggest even after hospital trusts have been presented with unarguable evidence that malnutrition is a major problem and a catalyst for longer hospital stays, only 43 percent of those trusts have not yet provided evidence that they have implemented schemes in order to reduce hunger and malnutrition. The Hospital Caterers Association (2004) further comment that mealtimes should not primarily focus on the provision of nutrition, it also makes way for social interaction between patients and carers, they further commen t that in general the quality of the food provided is not the issue, the inability of the patient to be able to feed themselves is far more the worrying issue. Council of Europe (2003) comment that hospitals should be designed to be patient centred, ensuring that the delivery of nutrition is flexible and all deliverance of care is set within a framework; all staff should work together in partnership to ensure that incidences of poor nutrition are dealt with. Repetitive reports of malnourishment is evidence enough to suggest that current practices are no longer working, change is a necessary force to ensure incidences are reduced. It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure this is tackled (Age Concern 2006). Change Management can be described as the process of developing a planned approach to change within an organisation. The objective should be to maximise the collective benefits for all stakeholders involved in the change and minimise the risk of failure implementing the change. Change involves assessment, planning and evaluation; changes in which people are nursed should always be focused on the benefits patients will receive if change is implemented (National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, 2007). Welford (2006) writes that there are many theories which explore the need for change; the goal should be the provision of the highest quality of care, each individual involved in the delivery of such care should work together, be committed and supportive of each other during times of change. Change within a team which leads to new practices and ideas affects each individual differently; it can be a very daunting task for some and for others it is embraced to allow for personal development and the sharing of knowledge (Murphy 2006). There are many theories which uses steps or phases that can evaluate if a change is needed and if the changes that are implemented work. For the purpose of this essay the author refers to a popular theory developed by Lewin in the 1950s which requires three stages to implement effective change the acceptance and participation of all those involved in the area requiring change. The first phase, commonly referred to as the unfreezing stage of this theory requires the participants to acknowledge the need for change; evidence should be provided to encourage new thinking and beliefs about current practices. Hallpike (2008) writes that there is evidence to suggest that teams can be divided into groups who have their own individual opinion on certain regimes, practices and care deliverance. This can be said for the provision of nutrition to patients. In this particular study the author reports that some team members did not think the re was a problem with the current provision, some were not convinced that changes would be made and others did not have faith in a holistic approach across the team. In this situation it is the responsibility of the team leader to persuade all the team members that the need for change is necessary in order to provide the best service possible, that the whole team work towards a common goal. Welford (2006) discusses the second phase of Lewins theory; describing this stage as the moving stage, allowing individuals to voice their own ideas, experiment with different regimes, it allows time for reflection, to discuss positive or negative findings. Past practices may have seen some team leaders adopt the belief that employees were seen to work better when the leader provided strict job descriptions and a clear plan of what was expected of them; their opinions and ideas were not of value to the overall success of a team. Major (2002) argues that for a leader to adopt such thinking will on ly lead to flaws and a feeling of negativity within a team; the leader should adopt good communication skills and openness to allow for effective team building, positive group dynamics, all working efficiently and productively. Dennis and Morgan (2008) suggests that although change is the responsibility of the service provider, input from the service user is without doubt a valuable tool in assessing if a change is working for the greater good. Feedback, regardless of being positive or negative ascertains if the change has been a positive one. If the new change has a detrimental affect to the service user then the change has been a negative one, this requires a return to the freezing stage to allow the team to make further changes to increase the benefits to the service user. The authors further comment that managers should be seen as advocates for the service user; it should be the responsibility of the manager to challenge team members over poor practice, poor attitudes and resist ance to change for the better. Conflict within a team leads to unrest, a disbelief that change is for the greater good leading to a dysfunctional team. The third phase of Lewins theory can be commonly referred to as the refreezing stage, where new ideas and behaviours become a new or common practice. Pearce (2007) argues that to name this phase as such denotes that the change remains static, leaders should continuously strive to make changes for the better, communication across the whole team allows for individuals points of view to be exposed and discussed; feedback on how a new change is working is necessary in order to achieve the highest levels of quality care. Leadership styles become a key issue when developing, implementing and upholding change. Motivation of staff also plays a key role in the acceptance of change; leaders should demonstrate that they are a good role model, adopt a friendly attitude towards team members, accepting of criticism and be willing to provide positive feedback, when the team endeavour to believe in and implement the change (Darlington 2006). Corkindale (2009) argues that leaders need balance their role within a team to ensure that they do not become too over familiar with individual team members, as this may lead to team members relying too heavily on the leader to make all the decisions and authority may be compromised. Murphy (2006) writes that leaders need to adopt a style of leadership that suits the workforce; a laissez-faire approach can be seen as the leader not taking into account individual team members ideas, work ethics and commitment seriously, it can lead to a team feeling devalued and unorganised. The National Institute for Mental Health (2007) further suggests that leaders who show their commitment, by working alongside their colleagues, adopting and maintaining the changes themselves demonstrates a leader who is at the forefront in the deliverance of quality care. They further suggest that each leader will bring their own set of ethics, life experiences and education to a team, will often adopt their own style of leadership that may be a mixture of several styles moulded to suit the team and the area of practice they are employed to manage. Opportunities for team members to voice their opinions and concerns are invaluable; they are after all the main implementers of the change and wil l have be the first to recognise if the change has gained positive or negative results. The change can only work if leaders allow for reflection, discussion and adaptation of the change to suit each individual involved in the change process. A change that is difficult to implement or maintain will end in failure, this leads a team adopting negative feelings and a resistance to change in the future. Goleman (2000) suggests that to adopt an authoritarian approach, can at times be a positive approach to leadership especially if some team members resist change or there is a need to produce quick results. Goffee and Jones (2000) disagree with this statement and suggest that a good leader is someone who other people want to follow without bullying, threats or the fear of reprisals; they lead by communicating effectively and adopt a style of leadership that allows the team to understand what is expected of them. RCN (2007) writes that the only way malnourishment can be identified and managed effectively is with effective use of recognised screening tools.Perry (2009) argues that in many cases nursing staff are given the means and tools to assess a patient, but many are inadequately trained to understand the findings of the assessment or are unwilling to involve other health professionals in the care of the patient. A multidisciplinary approach to tackle such problems should be used. Protected mealtimes have been proven to be useful to not only the patient but to the whole care team, it allows for assessment in areas such as speech and language, mental health issues and other physical problems which can affect the nutritional intake of individuals. South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (2009) reports that protected mealtimes affects and involves all staff within in the organisation from physiotherapists, domestic staff, maintenance staff through to outside professionals such as social worker s. It involves all areas of clinical practice where patients require nutritional intake, not only for patients who are unable to feed themselves but for those patients who require and deserve a quiet, interruption free period to eat, drink and relax. To maintain and monitor the change process and may require several attempts before the target is reached. takes time and may not always be successful first time. National Patient Safety Agency (2008) states that many clinical staff referred to the implementation of protected mealtimes as a hindrance to their daily routine, but once the benefits for patients as well as the staff members were explained they became more compliant and understanding for the need to change.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920s America :: American America History
Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920's America Beginning in the early nineteenth century there were massive waves of immigration. These "new" immigants were largely from Italy, Russia, and Ireland. There was a mixed reaction to these incomming foreigners. While they provided industries with a cheap source of labor, Americans were both afraid of, and hostile towards these new groups. They differed from the "typical American" in language, customs, and religion. Many individuals and industries alike played upon America's fears of immigration to further their own goals. Leuchtenburg follows this common theme from the beginning of World War I up untill the election of 1928. If there was one man who singlely used America's fear of immigrants to advance his own political goals it was Attorney General Palmer. The rise of Communism in Russia created a fear of its spread across Europe, and to America. Palmer tied this fear to that of immigration. He denounced labor unions, the Socialist party, and the Communist party in America, as being infultrated with radicals who sought to overturn America's political, economic, and social institutions. Palmer exasperated this fear in Americans and then presented himself as the country's savior, combatting the evils of Communism. He mainly centered his attack on Russian immigrants. During the infamous Palmer raids thousands of aliens were deported and even more were arrested on little or no evidence. Their civil liberties were violated, they were not told the reasons for their arrests, denied counsel, and not given fair trials. What followed was an investigation of Palmer led by Louis Post which overturned many of Palmer's actions. Palmer's cretability was shattered after in a last minute attempt to gain the 1920 presidencial nomination, he made predictions about a May Day radical uprising, the nation perpared itself, but on May 1st 1920 all was peaceful. While the raids had stopped, the hostilities towards immagrants still remained prevelent. Immigrants were used by organized industries as a source of cheap labor. But as labor unions began to form and push for better pay, shorter hours, and improved working conditions industries saw that it was not as easy to exploit these immigrants as it had been before. Like Palmer, they tied the American's hostilities towards immigrants to the newly emerging fear of radicalism. When workers struck, industry leaders turned public opinion agains them by labling the strikes as attemps at radical uprising. As a result, workers were often left with no other choice than to accept the terms of industry management. The fight for prohabition was aided by America's antagonism for immigrants. Protestants and "old-stock" Americans attempted to link alchol
Paradise Lost Essay -- essays research papers
Peter Schrag presents the ills of California?fs current politics in an angry and persuasive tone. He says California used to be ?gboth model and magnet for the nationâ€â€in its economic opportunities, its social outlook, and its high-quality public services and institutes?h; however, California started to fade after the passage of Proposition 13, the initiative of tax limits (7). Schrag?fs work clearly shows what is the problem in today?fs California, and it is easy to understand even for those who have little knowledge of politics. By focusing on issues of ?gneopopulism?h which is easy to find in California?fs diversity, he succeeds in giving his readers the sense of crisis not only about California?fs politics, but also the national wide politics because California is the place ?gwhere the new American society is first coming into full view?h (23). Schrag says, about California politics, that: For nearly a generation, there has been increasing focus among scholars, politicians, and journalists on the growing gaps in Californiaâ€â€ethic, social, economicâ€â€between those who exercise political power and the larger population, and particularly those who are the most immediate users of its public services. What has gotten little discussion is the dynamic of the plebiscitary process itself. While it?fs ad hoc in natureâ€â€each measure is decided by voters on its own apparent merits without much reference to the wider contextâ€â€it has a larger cumulative effect through which statewide majorities restrict the powers of local political majorities, which are often nonwhite. Almost by definition, it is also a device of impulse that tends to be only marginally respectful of minority rights or interests, and that lends itself to demagogic wedge campaigns designed to boost voter turnout for other political purpose. (21) Schrag divides his project into five sections. The middle sections, ?gThe Spirit of 13,?h and ?gMarch of the Plebiscites,?h in which he carefully discusses each important measure in the last two decades, show why so many issues rose. In the first section, ?gGolden Moment,?h Schrag describes ?gCalifornia?fs heyday of post-World War †¡U optimism?h and how it crumbled. Citations from magazines prove that California was a really paradise even from the nationwide view. Schrag also notices that the demographic change deeply relates to California?fs politics in the last t... ...comes clear in this chapter is that the plebiscitary process is problem in California. Most voters and a large portion of media pay attention not on the government and the social welfare, but on their individual benefits. Much amount of money was spent on each measure, and supporters and opponents vehemently argued by using the mass media. Schrag says that the state government of California became a ?gmedia-based?h government. It is clear that California had anti-immigrants climate by Schrag?fs selection of measures. California politicians attacked programs for low-income Californians precisely at the time when California?fs demographic was changing rapidly. Politicians have been urging white voters to cut back on beneficial public services to original Californians. Finally, Schrag concludes his work with some suggestions for ?gthe possibilities for a new political integration and a revitalized social ethic in California?h while he describes ?gthe contrary forces pushing even fur ther toward a market-based governmental ethic?h (20). His work gives us a good opportunity for rethinking recent California and how voters, not only California?fs voters but also the others, should be.
Friday, July 19, 2019
The Problem of Security Tools and Advisories Essay -- Internet Securit
The Problem of Security Tools and Advisories Introduction Whether the intent be malicious or merely curiosity, people will always try to circumvent barriers. Physical locks have bread lock picks, and so digital barriers have bread hackers. In the new ethereal world of the wired, this common problem has developed a new dimension. Whereas physical security measures for business, banks, and the like is at a more sophisticated level than for home users, the digital security is similar at just about any level. And, because everyone is connected, and its difficult to know what is behind a given IP address, everyone is a target. Clearly there is a problem, and something needs to be done to make sure the "bad guys" can't get into critical systems. The obvious fix is to write superior software. Unfortunately powerful software is extremely complicated, and even the most valiant efforts to build impenetrable system such as OpenBSD, have fallen short[1], and require post release patches. Given that holes are inevitable, the next line of defense is for the "good guys" to break systems faster than the "bad guys", and alert the proper people to produce and release patches as fast as possible. Unfortunately, if the details of the exploit are made known, it makes it that much easier for less skilled malicious parties to take advantage of unpatched systems, and therein lies the problem with the solution. Personal Inspiration Exploration of this problem is of particular interest to me, as it relates to my current work. The current biggest source of tech support calls at SCU is viruses. Unfortunately, in that group, the largest virus attacks have been though E-Mails that the users must open in order to get infected, which could have ... ...rnegie Mellon University, 2003. <http://www.cert.org/meet_cert/meetcertcc.html> "Online NewsHour: L0pht on Hackers", PBS, 1998. <"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cyberspace/jan-june98/l0pht_hackers.html> Martin, Kelly, "Delivering the 12kb Bomb", SecurityFocus/The Register, 2004. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36345.html> "Limitation on exclusive rights: reverse engineering", U.S. Code : Title 17 : Section 906, 2002. <http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/17/chapters/9/sections/section_906.html> "Reverse Engineering" IEEE, June 2003 <http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum/POSITIONS/reverse.html> Mishra, Rohan "Reverse Engineering in Japan and the Global Trend Towards Interoperability", Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law , 1997. Volume 4, Number 2 <http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v4n2/mishra42.html#[52]n>
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Cases for Management Decision Making
Cases for Management Decision Making CA-1 suggested uses of cases Case CASE 1 Greetings Inc. : Job Order Costing CASE 2 Greetings Inc. : Activity-Based Costing CASE 3 Greetings Inc. : Transfer Pricing Issues CASE 4 Greetings Inc. : Capital Budgeting CASE 5 Auburn Circular Club Pro Rodeo Roundup CASE 6 Sweats Galore CASE 7 Armstrong Helmet Company Overview This case is the first in a series of four cases that presents a business situation in which a traditional retailer decides to employ Internet technology to expand its sales opportunities. It requires the student to employ traditional job order cost- ing techniques and then requests an evaluation of the resulting product costs. (Related to Chapter 2, Job Order Costing. ) This case focuses on decision-making benefits of activity-based costing relative to the traditional approach. It also offers an opportunity to discuss the cost/ benefit trade-off between simple ABC systems versus refined systems, and the potential benefit of using capacity rather than expected sales when allocating fixed overhead costs. (Related to Chapter 4, Activity-Based Costing. This case illustrates the importance of proper transfer pricing for decision making as well as performance evaluation. The student is required to evaluate profitability using two different transfer pricing approaches and comment on the terms of the proposed transfer pricing agreement. (Related to Chapter 8, Pricing. ) This case is set in an environment in which the company is searching for new op- portunities for growth. It requires evaluation of a proposal based on initial esti- mates as well as sensitivity analysis. It also requires evaluation of the underlying assumptions used in the analysis. Related to Chapter 12, Planning for Capital Investments. ) This comprehensive case is designed to be used as a capstone activity at the end of the course. It deals with a not-for-profit service company. The case involves many managerial accounting issues that would be common for a start-up business. (Related to Chapter 5, Cost-Volume-Profit; Chapter 7, Incremental Analysis; and Chapter 9, Budgetary Planning. ) This case focuses on setting up a new business. In planning for this new busi- ness, the preparation of budgets is emphasized. In addition, an understanding of cost-volume-profit relationships is required. (Related to Chapter 5, Cost-Volume- Profit, and Chapter 9, Budgetary Planning. ) This comprehensive case involves finding the cost for a given product. In addi- tion, it explores cost-volume-profit relationships. It requires the preparation of a set of budgets. (Related to Chapter 1, Managerial Accounting; Chapter 5, Cost- Volume-Profit; Chapter 9, Budgetary Planning; Chapter 10, Budgetary Control and Responsibility Accounting; Chapter 11, Standard Costs and Balanced Scorecard; and Chapter 12, Planning for Capital Investments. CA-2 case 1 ?Greet ings Inc. Greetings Inc. : Job Order Costing Developed by Thomas L. Zeller, Loyola University Chicago, and Paul D. Kimmel, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee THE BUSINESS SITUATION Greetings Inc. has operated for many years as a nationally recognized retailer of greeting cards and small gift items. It has 1,500 stores throughout the United States located in high-traffic malls. As the stock price of many other companies soared, Greetings’ stock price re- mained flat. As a result of a heated 2010 shareholders’ meeting, the president of Greetings, Robert Burns, came under pressure from shareholders to grow Greetings’ stock value. As a consequence of this pressure, in 2011 Mr. Burns called for a formal analysis of the company’s options with regard to business op- portunities. Location was the first issue considered in the analysis. Greetings stores are located in high-traffic malls where rental costs are high. The additional rental cost was justified, however, by the revenue that resulted from these highly visi- ble locations. In recent years, though, the intense competition from other stores in the mall selling similar merchandise has become a disadvantage of the mall locations. Mr. Burns felt that to increase revenue in the mall locations, Greetings would need to attract new customers and sell more goods to repeat customers. In order to do this, the company would need to add a new product line. However, to keep costs down, the product line should be one that would not require much addi- tional store space. In order to improve earnings, rather than just increase rev- enues, Greetings would have to carefully manage the costs of this new product line. After careful consideration of many possible products, the company’s management found a product that seemed to be a very good strategic fit for its existing products: high-quality unframed and framed prints. The critical el- ement of this plan was that customers would pick out prints by viewing them on wide-screen computer monitors in each store. Orders would be processed and shipped from a central location. Thus, store size would not have to in- crease at all. To offer these products, Greetings established a new e-business unit called Wall Decor. Wall Decor is a â€Å"profit center†; that is, the manager of the new business unit is responsible for decisions affecting both revenues and costs. Wall Decor was designed to distribute unframed and framed print items to each Greetings store on a just-in-time (JIT) basis. The system works as follows: The Wall Decor website allows customers to choose from several hundred prints. The print can be purchased in various forms: unframed, framed with a steel frame and no matting, or framed with a wood frame and matting. When a CA-3 Greet ?ings CA-4 ase 1 Cases for Management Decision Making customer purchases an unframed print, it is packaged and shipped the same day from Wall Decor. When a customer purchases a framed print, the print is framed at Wall Decor and shipped within 48 hours. Each Greetings store has a computer linked to Wall Decor’s Web server so Greetings’ customers can browse the many options to make a selection. Once a selection is made, the customer ca n complete the order immediately. Store em- ployees are trained to help customers use the website to shop and to complete their purchases. The advantage to this approach is that each Greetings store, through the Wall Decor website, can offer a wide variety of prints, yet the indi- vidual Greetings stores do not have to hold any inventory of prints or framing materials. About the only cost to the individual store is the computer and high- speed line connection to Wall Decor. The advantage to the customer is the wide variety of unframed and framed print items that can be conveniently purchased and delivered to the home or business, or to a third party as a gift. Wall Decor uses a traditional job order costing system. Operation of Wall Decor would be substantially less complicated, and overhead costs would be sub- stantially less, if it sold only unframed prints. Unframed prints require no addi- tional processing, and they can be easily shipped in simple protective tubes. Framing and matting requires the company to have multiple matting colors and frame styles, which requires considerable warehouse space. It also requires skilled employees to assemble the products and more expensive packaging pro- cedures. Manufacturing overhead is allocated to each unframed or framed print, based on the cost of the print. This overhead allocation approach is based on the assumption that more expensive prints will usually be framed and therefore more overhead costs should be assigned to these items. The predetermined over- head rate is the total expected manufacturing overhead divided by the total ex- pected cost of prints. This method of allocation appeared reasonable to the ac- counting team and distribution floor manager. Direct labor costs for unframed prints consist of picking the prints off the shelf and packaging them for ship- ment. For framed prints, direct labor costs consist of picking the prints, framing, matting, and packaging. The information in Illustration CA 1-1 for unframed and framed prints was collected by the accounting and production teams. The manufacturing overhead budget is presented in Illustration CA 1-2. Illustration CA 1-1 Information about prints and framed items for Wall Decor ?Unframed Steel-Framed Print, Wood-Framed Print, Volumeâ€â€expected units sold Cost Elements Direct materials Print (expected average cost for each of the three categories) Frame and glass Matting Direct labor Picking time Picking labor rate/hour Matting and framing time Matting and framing rate/hour Print 0,000 $12 10 minutes $12 No Matting 15,000 $16 $4 10 minutes $12 20 minutes $21 with Matting 7,000 $20 $6 $4 10 minutes $12 30 minutes $21 ?Greet ?ings ?case 1 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-5 Illustration CA 1-2 Manufacturing overhead budget for Wall Decor ?Manufacturing Overhead Budget Supervisory salaries Factory rent Equipment rent (framing and matting equipment) Utilities Insurance Information te chnology Building maintenance Equipment maintenance Budgeted total manufacturing overhead costs $100,000 130,200 50,000 20,000 10,000 50,000 11,000 4,000 $375,200 Instructions Use the information in the case and your reading from Chapters 1 and 2 of the text to answer each of the following questions. 1. Define and explain the meaning of a predetermined manufacturing overhead rate that is applied in a job order costing system. 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the cost of each print as a man- ufacturing overhead cost driver? 3. Using the information in Illustrations CA1-1 and CA1-2, compute and interpret the predetermined manufacturing overhead rate for Wall Decor. 4. Compute the product cost for the following three items. a) Lance Armstrong unframed print (base cost of print $12). (b) John Elway print in steel frame, no mat (base cost of print $16). (c) Lambeau Field print in wood frame with mat (base cost of print $20). 5. (a) How much of the total overhead cost is expected to be allocated to unframed prints? (b) How much of the total overhead cost is expected to be allocated to steel framed prints? (c) How much of the tot al overhead cost is expected to be allocated to wood framed prints? (d) What percentage of the total overhead cost is expected to be allocated to un- framed prints? . Do you think the amount of overhead allocated to the three product categories is rea- sonable? Relate your response to this question to your findings in previous questions. 7. Anticipate business problems that may result from allocating manufacturing over- head based on the cost of the prints. case 2 ?Greet ings Inc. Greetings Inc. : Activity-Based Costing Developed by Thomas L. Zeller, Loyola University Chicago, and Paul D. Kimmel, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee THE BUSINESS SITUATION Mr. Burns, president of Greetings Inc. created the Wall Decor unit of Greetings three years ago to increase the company’s revenue and profits. Unfortunately, even though Wall Decor’s revenues have grown quickly, Greetings appears to be losing money on Wall Decor. Mr. Burns has hired you to provide consulting serv ices to Wall Decor’s management. Your assignment is to make Wall Decor a profitable business unit. Your first step is to talk with the Wall Decor work force. From your conver- sations with store managers you learn that the individual Greetings stores are very happy with the Wall Decor arrangement. The stores are generating addi- tional sales revenue from the sale of unframed and framed prints. They are espe- cially enthusiastic about this revenue source because the online nature of the product enables them to generate revenue without the additional cost of carry- ing inventory. Wall Decor sells unframed and framed prints to each store at product cost plus 20%. A 20% markup on products is a standard policy of all Greetings intercompany transactions. Each store is allowed to add an additional markup to the unframed and framed print items according to market pressures. That is, the selling price charged by each store for unframed and framed prints is determined by each store manager. This policy ensures competitive pricing in the respective store locations, an important business issue because of the intense mall competition. While the store managers are generally happy with the Wall Decor products, they have noted a significant difference in the sales performance of the unframed prints and the framed prints. They find it difficult to sell unframed prints at a competitive price. The price competition in the malls is very intense. On average, stores find that the profits on unframed prints are very low because the cost for unframed prints charged by Wall Decor to the Greetings stores is only slightly be- low what competing stores charge their customers for unframed prints. As a re- sult, the profit margin on unframed prints is very low, and the overall profit earned is small, even with the large volume of prints sold. In contrast, stores make a very good profit on framed prints and still beat the nearest competitor’s price by about 15%. That is, the mall competitors cannot meet at a competitive price the quality of framed prints provided by the Greetings stores. As a result, store managers advertise the lowest prices in town for high-quality framed prints. One store manager referred to Wall Decor’s computer on the counter as a â€Å"cash machine†for framed prints and a â€Å"lemonade stand†for unframed prints. In a conversation with the production manager, you learned that she be- lieves that the relative profitability of framed and unframed prints is distorted CA-6 ?Greet ?ings ?case 2 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-7 ecause of improper product costing. She feels that the costs provided by the company’s traditional job order costing system are inaccurate. From the very beginning, she has carefully managed production and distribution costs. She explains, â€Å"Wall Decor is essentially giving away expensive framed prints, and it appears that it is charging the stores too much for unframed prints. †In her office she shows you her own product costing system, which supports her point of view. Your tour of the information technology (IT) department provided additional insight as to why Wall Decor is having financial problems. You discovered that to keep the website running requires separate computer servers and several in- formation technology professionals. Two separate activities are occurring in the technology area. First, purchasing professionals and IT professionals spend many hours managing thousands of prints and frame and matting materials. Their tasks include selecting the prints and the types of framing material to sell. They also must upload, manage, and download prints and framing material onto and off of the website. The IT staff tells you much of their time is spent with framing and matting material. Only a highly skilled IT professional can properly scan a print and load it up to the site so that it graphically represents what the print will look like when properly matted and framed. In addition, you discover that a different team of IT professionals is dedi- cated to optimizing the operating performance of the website. These costs are classified as manufacturing overhead because a substantial amount of work is required to keep the site integrated with purchasing and production and to safe- guard Wall Decor’s assets online. Most time-consuming is the effort to develop and maintain the site so that customers can view the prints as they would appear either unframed or framed and matted. A discussion with the IT professionals suggests that the time spent develop- ing and maintaining the site for the unframed prints is considerably less than that required for the framed prints and in particular for the framed and matted prints. Developing and maintaining a site that can display the unframed prints is relatively straightforward. It becomes more complicated when the site must al- low the customer to view every possible combination of print with every type of steel frame, and immensely more complicated when one considers all of the pos- sible wood frames and different matting colors. Obviously, a very substantial portion of the IT professionals’ time and resources is required to present the over 1,000 different framing and matting options. Based on your preliminary findings, you have decided that the company’s ability to measure and evaluate the profitability of individual products would be improved if the company employed an activity-based costing (ABC) system. As a first step in this effort, you compiled a list of costs, activities, and values. Your work consisted of taking the original manufacturing overhead cost ($375,200, provided in Case 1) and allocating the costs to activities. You identified four ac- tivities: picking prints; inventory selection and management (includes general management and overhead); website optimization; and framing and matting cost (includes equipment, insurance, rent, and supervisor’s salary). The first activity is picking prints. The estimated overhead related to this ac- tivity is $30,600. The cost driver for this activity is the number of prints. It is ex- pected that the total number of prints will be 102,000. This is the sum of 80,000 unframed, 15,000 steel-framed, and 7,000 wood-framed. Illustration CA 2-1 Information for activity 1 ?Estimated Activity Cost Driver Overhead Picking prints Number of prints $30,600 Expected Use of Cost Driver (80,000 15,000 7,000) 102,000 prints Greet ?ings CA-8 case 2 Cases for Management Decision Making The second activity is inventory selection and management. The estimated overhead related to this activity is $91,700. The cost driver for this activity is the number of components per print item. An unframed print has one component, a steel-framed print has two components (the print and the frame), and a wood- framed print has three components (the print, the mat, and the frame). The total number of components is expected to be 131,000. Illustration CA 2-2 Information for activity 2 ?Activity Inventory selection and management Cost Driver Number of components: Print (1) Print and frame (2) Print, mat, and frame (3) Estimated Overhead $91,700 Expected Use of Cost Driver Prints: 80,000 components Print and frame: 15,000 2 30,000 components Print, mat, and frame: 7,000 3 21,000 components Total 131,000 components The third activity is website optimization. The total overhead cost related to website optimization is expected to be $129,000. It was difficult to identify a cost driver that directly related website optimization to the products. In order to re- flect the fact that the majority of the time spent on this activity related to framed prints, you first split the cost of website optimization between unframed prints and framed prints. Based on your discussion with the IT professionals, you de- termined that they spend roughly one-fifth of their time developing and main- taining the site for unframed prints, and the other four-fifths of their time on framed prints, even though the number of framed prints sold is substantially less than the number of unframed prints. As a consequence, you allocated $25,800 of the overhead costs related to website optimization to unframed prints and $103,200 to framed prints. You contemplated having three categories (unframed, steel-framed, and wood-framed with matting), but chose not to add this addi- tional refinement. Illustration CA 2-3 Information for activity 3 ?Activity Website optimization: Unframed Framed Cost Driver Number of prints at capacity Number of prints at capacity Estimated Overhead $25,800 $103,200 Expected Use of Cost Driver Unframed prints: 100,000 print capacity Framed and/or matted prints: 25,000 print capacity (16,000 steel; 9,000 wood) Once the $129,000 of the third activity was allocated across the two broad product categories, the number of prints at operating capacity was used as the cost driver. Note that operating capacity was used instead of expected units sold. The overhead costs related to website optimization are relatively fixed be- cause the employees are salaried. If a fixed cost is allocated using a value that varies from period to period (like expected sales), then the cost per unit will vary from period to period. When allocating fixed costs it is better to use a base that does not vary as much, such as operating capacity. The advantage of using operating capacity as the base is that it keeps the fixed costs per unit stable over time. ?Greet ?ings ?case 2 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-9 The final activity is framing and matting. The expected overhead costs re- lated to framing and matting are $123,900. None of this overhead cost should be allocated to unframed prints. The costs related to framing and matting are rela- tively fixed because the costs relate to equipment and other costs that do not vary with sales volume. As a consequence, like website optimization, you chose to base the cost driver on levels at operating capacity, rather than at the expected sales level. The cost driver is the number of components. Steel-framed prints have two components (the print and frame), and wood-framed prints have three components (the print, mat, and frame). The total components at operating ca- pacity would be steel frame 32,000 or (16,000 2) and wood frame 27,000 or (9,000 3,000). Illustration CA 2-4 Information for activity 4 ?Activity Framing and matting cost (equipment, insurance, rent, and supervisory labor) Cost Driver Number of components at capacity Estimated Overhead $123,900 Expected Use of Cost Driver Print and frame: 16,000 2 32,000 components at capacity Print, mat, and frame: 9,000 3 27,000 components at capacity Total 59,000 components To summarize, the overhead costs and cost drivers used for each product are expected to be: Illustration CA 2-5 Summary of overhead costs and cost drivers ?Cost Activity Driver 1. Picking Number of prints prints Steel- Wood- Framed, Framed, No with Unframed Matting Matting Total 80,000 15,000 7,000 102,000 80,000 30,000 21,000 131,000 Overhead Cost $ 30,600 91,700 25,800 103,200 123,900 $375,200 ?2. Inventory selection and management 3. Website optimization 4. Framing and matting Number of components Number of 100,000 prints at capacity Number of components at capacity na 16,000 32,000 9,000 27,000 100,000 25,000 59,000 Instructions Answer the following questions. . Identify two reasons why an activity-based costing system may be appropriate for Wall Decor. 2. Compute the activity-based overhead rates for each of the four activities. 3. Compute the product cost for the following three items using ABC. (Review Case 1 for additional information that you will need to answer this question. ) (a) Lance Armstrong unframed print (base cost of print $12). (b) John Elway print in steel frame, no mat ( base cost of print $16). (c) Lambeau Field print in wood frame with mat (base cost of print $20). ? Greet ?ings CA-10 ase 2 Cases for Management Decision Making 4. 5. 6. 7. In Case 1 for Greetings, the overhead allocations using a traditional volume-based approach were $3. 36 for Lance Armstrong, $4. 48 for John Elway, and $5. 60 for Lam- beau Field. The total product costs from Case 1 were Lance Armstrong $17. 36, John Elway $33. 48, and Lambeau Field $48. 10. The overhead allocation rate for unframed prints, such as the unframed Lance Armstrong print in question 3, decreased under ABC compared to the amount of overhead that was allocated under the traditional approach in Case 1. Why is this the case? What are the potential implications for the company? Explain why the overhead cost related to website optimization was first divided into two categories (unframed prints and framed prints) and then allocated based on number of prints. When allocating the cost of website optimization, the decision was made to initially allocate the cost across two categories (unframed prints and framed prints) rather than three categories (unframed prints, steel-framed prints, and wood-framed prints with matting). Discuss the pros and cons of splitting the cost between two categories rather than three. Discuss the implications of using operating capacity as the cost driver rather than the expected units sold when allocating fixed overhead costs. 8. (a) Allocate the overhead to the three product categories (unframed prints, steel- framed prints, and wood-framed prints with matting), assuming that the estimate of the expected units sold is correct and the actual amount of overhead incurred equaled the estimated amount of $375,200. (b) Calculate the total amount of overhead allocated. Explain why the total overhead of $375,200 was not allocated, even though the estimate of sales was correct. What are the implications of this for management? case 3 ?Greet ings Inc. Greetings Inc. : Transfer Pricing Issues Developed by Thomas L. Zeller, Loyola University Chicago, and Paul D. Kimmel, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee THE BUSINESS SITUATION Two years ago, prior to a major capital-budgeting decision (see Case 4), Robert Burns, the president of Greetings Inc. , faced a challenging transfer pricing issue. He knew that Greetings store managers had heard about the ABC study (see Case 2) and that they knew a price increase for framed items would soon be on the way. In an effort to dissuade him from increasing the transfer price for framed prints, several store managers e-mailed him with detailed analyses show- ing how framed-print sales had given stores a strong competitive position and had increased revenues and profits. The store managers mentioned, however, that while they were opposed to an increase in the cost of framed prints, they were looking forward to a price decrease for unframed prints. Management at Wall Decor was very interested in changing the transfer pric- ing strategy. You had reported to them that setting the transfer price based on the product costs calculated by using traditional overhead allocation measures had been a major contributing factor to its non-optimal performance. Here is a brief recap of what happened during your presentation to Mr. Burns and the Wall Decor managers. Mr. Burns smiled during your presentation and graciously acknowledged your excellent activity-based costing (ABC) study and analysis. He even nodded with approval as you offered the following suggestions. 1. Wall Decor should decrease the transfer price for high-volume, simple print items. . Wall Decor should increase the transfer price for low-volume, complex framed print items. 3. Youranalysispointstoatransferpricethatmaintainsthe20%markupovercost. 4. Adoption of these changes will provide Wall Decor with an 11% return on investment (ROI), beating the required 10% expected by Greetings’ board of directors. 5. Despite the objections of the store managers, the Gr eetings stores must ac- cept the price changes. Finishing your presentation, you asked the executive audience, â€Å"What questions do you have? †Mr. Burns responded as follows. Your analysis appears sound. However, it focuses almost exclu- sively on Wall Decor. It appears to tell us little about how to move for- ward and benefit the entire company, especially the Greetings retail stores. Let me explain. CA-11 Greet ?ings CA-12 case 3 Cases for Management Decision Making I am concerned about how individual store customers will react to the price changes, assuming the price increase of framed-print items is passed along to the customer. Store managers will welcome a decrease in the transfer price of unframed prints. They have complained about the high cost of prints from the beginning. With a decrease in print cost, store managers will be able to compete against mall stores for print items at a competitive selling price. In addition, the increase in store traffic for prints should increase the sales revenue for related items, such as cards, wrapping paper, and more. These are all low- margin items, but with increased sales volume of prints and related products, revenues and profits should grow for each store. Furthermore, store managers will be upset with the increase in the cost of framed prints. Framed prints have generated substantial rev- enues and profits for the stores. Increasing the cost of framed prints to the stores could create one of three problems: First, a store manager may elect to keep the selling price of framed-print items the same. The results of this would be no change in revenues, but profits would de- cline because of the increase in cost of framed prints. Second, a store manager may elect to increase the selling price of the framed prints to offset the cost increase. In this case, sales of framed prints would surely decline and so would revenues and profits. In addition, stores would likely see a decline in related sales of other expensive, high-quality, high-margin items. This is because sales data indicate that customers who purchase high-quality, high-price framed prints also purchase high-quality, high-margin items such as watches, jewelry, and cosmetics. Third, a store manager may elect to search the outside market for framed prints. †Mr. Burns offered you the challenge of helping him bring change to the company’s transfer prices so that both business units, Greetings stores and Wall Decor, win. From his explanation, you could see and appreciate that set- ting the transfer price for unframed and framed prints impacts sale revenues and profits for related items and for the company overall. You immediately rec- ognized the error in your presentation by simply providing a solution for Wall Decor alone. You drove home that night thinking about the challenge. You recognized the need and importance of anticipating the reaction of Greetings store customers to changes in the prices of unframed and framed prints. The next day, the market- ing team provided you with the following average data. For every unframed print sold (assume one print per customer), that cus- tomer purchases related products resulting in $4 of additional profit. †¢ For every framed print sold (assume one print per customer), that customer purchases related products resulting in $8 of additional profit. †¢ Each Greetings store sets its own selling price for unframed and framed prints. Store managers nee d this type of flexibility to be responsive to com- petitive pressures. On average the pricing for stores is as follows: unframed prints $21, steel-framed without matting $50, wood-framed with matting $70. Instructions Answer each of the following questions. 1. Prepare for class discussion what you think were the critical challenges for Mr. Burns. Recognize that Wall Decor is a profit center and each Greetings store is a profit center. ?Greet ?ings ?case 3 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-13 2. After lengthy and sometimes heated negotiations between Wall Decor and the store managers, a new transfer price was determined that calls for the stores and Wall Decor to split the profits on unframed prints 30/70 (30% to the store, 70% to Wall Decor) and the profits on framed prints 50/50. The following additional terms were also agreed to: †¢ â€Å"Profits†are defined as the store selling price less the ABC cost. †¢ Stores do not share the profits from related products with Wall Decor. †¢ Wall Decor will not seek to sell unframed and framed print items through anyone other than Greetings. †¢ Wall Decor will work to decrease costs. †¢ Greetings stores will not seek suppliers of prints other than Wall Decor. †¢ Stores will keep the selling price of framed prints as it was before the change in transfer price. On average, stores will decrease the selling price of unframed prints to $20, with an expected increase in volume to 100,000 prints. Analyze how Wall Decor and the stores benefited from this new agreement. In your analysis, first (a) compute the profits of the stores and Wall Decor using traditional amounts related to pricing, cost, and a 20% markup on Wall Decor costs. Next, (b) compute the profits of the stores and Wall Decor using the ABC cost and negoti- ated transfer price approach. Finally, (c) explain your findings, linking the overall profits for stores and Wall Decor. The following data apply to this analysis. (Round all calculations to three deci- mal places. ) Average selling price by stores before transfer pricing study Average selling price by stores after transfer pricing study Volume at traditional selling price Volume at new selling price Wall Decor cost (traditional) ABC cost Unframed Print $21 $20 80,000 100,000 $17. 36 $15. 258 Steel-Framed, No Matting $50 $50 15,000 15,000 $33. 48 $39. 028 Wood-Framed, with Matting $70 $70 7,000 7,000 $48. 10 $55. 328 3. Review the additional terms of the agreement listed in instruction 2 above. In each case, state whether the item is appropriate, unnecessary, ineffective, or potentially harmful to the overall company. case 4 ?Greet ings Inc. Greetings Inc. : Capital Budgeting Developed by Thomas L. Zeller, Loyola University Chicago, and Paul D. Kimmel, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee THE BUSINESS SITUATION Greetings Inc. stores, as well as the Wall Decor division, have enjoyed healthy prof- itability during the last two years. Although the profit margin on prints is often thin, the volume of print sales has been substantial enough to generate 15% of Greetings’ store profits. In addition, the increased customer traffic resulting from the prints has generated significant additional sales of related non-print products. As a result, the company’s rate of return has exceeded the industry average during this two-year period. Greetings’ store managers likened the e-business leverage cre- ated by Wall Decor to a â€Å"high-octane†fuel to supercharge the stores’ profitability. This high rate of return (ROI) was accomplished even though Wall Decor’s venture into e-business proved to cost more than originally budgeted. Why was it a profitable venture even though costs exceeded estimates? Greetings stores were able to generate a considerable volume of business for Wall Decor. This helped spread the high e-business operating costs, many of which were fixed, across many unframed and framed prints. This experience taught top manage- ment that maintaining an e-business structure and making this business model successful are very expensive and require substantial sales as well as careful monitoring of costs. Wall Decor’s success gained widespread industry recognition. The business press ocumented Wall Decor’s approach to using information technology to in- crease profitability. The company’s CEO, Robert Burns, has become a frequent business-luncheon speaker on the topic of how to use information technology to offer a great product mix to the customer and increase shareholder value. From the outside looking in, all appears to be going very well for Greetings stores and Wall Decor. How ever, the sun is not shining as brightly on the inside at Greetings. The mall stores that compete with Greetings have begun to offer prints at very com- petitive prices. Although Greetings stores enjoyed a selling price advantage for a few years, the competition eventually responded, and now the pressure on sell- ing price is as intense as ever. The pressure on the stores is heightened by the fact that the company’s recent success has led shareholders to expect the stores to generate an above-average rate of return. Mr. Burns is very concerned about how the stores and Wall Decor can continue on a path of continued growth. Fortunately, more than a year ago, Mr. Burns anticipated that competitors would eventually find a way to match the selling price of prints. As a conse- quence, he formed a committee to explore ways to employ technology to further reduce costs and to increase revenues and profitability. The committee is com- prised of store managers and staff members from the information technology, CA-14 ?Greet ?ings ?cacaseses 14 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-15 marketing, finance, and accounting departments. Early in the group’s discussion, the focus turned to the most expensive component of the existing business modelâ€â€the large inventory of prints that Wall Decor has in its centralized ware- house. In addition, Wall Decor incurs substantial costs for shipping the prints from the centralized warehouse to customers across the country. Ordering and maintaining such a large inventory of prints consumes valuable resources. One of the committee members suggested that the company should pursue a model that music stores have experimented with, where CDs are burned in the store from a master copy. This saves the music store the cost of maintaining a large inventory and increases its ability to expand its music offerings. It virtually guarantees that the store can always provide the CDs requested by customers. Applying this idea to prints, the committee decided that each Greetings store could invest in an expensive color printer connected to its online ordering system. This printer would generate the new prints. Wall Decor would have to pay a roy- alty on a per print basis. However, this approach does offer certain advantages. First, it would eliminate all ordering and inventory maintenance costs related to the prints. Second, shrinkage from lost and stolen prints would be reduced. Finally, by reducing the cost of prints for Wall Decor, the cost of prints to Greetings stores would decrease, thus allowing the stores to sell prints at a lower price than competitors. The stores are very interested in this option because it enables them to maintain their current customers and to sell prints to an even wider set of customers at a potentially lower cost. A new set of customers means even greater related sales and profits. As the accounting/finance expert on the team, you have been asked to per- form a financial analysis of this proposal. The team has collected the informa- tion presented in Illustration CA 4-1. Illustration CA 4-1 Information about the proposed capital investment project ?Available Data Cost of equipment (zero residual value) Cost of ink and paper supplies (purchase immediately) Annual cash flow savings for Wall Decor Annual additional store cash flow from increased sales Sale of ink and paper supplies at end of 5 years Expected life of equipment Cost of capital Amount $800,000 100,000 175,000 100,000 50,000 5 years 12% ?Instructions Mr. Burns has asked you to do the following as part of your analysis of the capital investment project. 1. Calculatethenetpresentvalueusingthenumbersprovided. Assumethatannualcash flows occur at the end of the year. 2. Mr. Burns is concerned that the original estimates may be too optimistic. He has sug- gested that you do a sensitivity analysis assuming all costs are 10% higher than ex- pected and that all inflows are 10% less than expected. 3. Identify possible flaws in the numbers or assumptions used in the analysis, and iden- tify the risk(s) associated with purchasing the equipment. . In a one-page memo, provide a recommendation based on the above analy- sis. Include in this memo: (a) a challenge to store and Wall Decor management and (b) a suggestion on how Greetings stores could use the computer connection for re- lated sales. case 5 Auburn Circular Club Pro Rodeo Roundup Developed by Jessica Johnson Frazier, Eastern Kentucky University, and Patricia H. Mounce, University of Central Arkansas THE BUSINESS SITUATION When Shelley Jones became president-elect of the Circular Club of Auburn, Kansas, she was asked to suggest a new fundraising activity for the club. After a consider- able amount of research, Shelley proposed that the Circular Club sponsor a profes- sional rodeo. In her presentation to the club, Shelley said that she wanted a fundraiser that would (1) continue to get better each year, (2) give back to the com- munity, and (3) provide the club a presence in the community. Shelley’s goal was to have an activity that would become an â€Å"annual community event†and that would break even the first year and raise $5,000 the following year. In addition, based on the experience of other communities, Shelley believed that a rodeo could grow in popularity so that the club would eventually earn an average of $20,000 annually. A rodeo committee was formed. Shelley contacted the world’s oldest and largest rodeo-sanctioning agency to apply to sponsor a professional rodeo. The sanctioning agency requires a rodeo to consist of the following five events: Bareback Riding, Bronco Riding, Steer Wrestling, Bull Riding, and Calf Roping. Because there were a number of team ropers in the area and because they wanted to include females in the competition, members of the rodeo committee added Team Roping and Women’s Barrels. Prize money of $3,000 would be paid to winners in each of the seven events. Members of the rodeo committee contracted with RJ Cattle Company, a live- stock contractor on the rodeo circuit, to provide bucking stock, fencing, and chutes. Realizing that osts associated with the rodeo were tremendous and that ticket sales would probably not be sufficient to cover the costs, the rodeo com- mittee sent letters to local businesses soliciting contributions in exchange for various sponsorships. Exhibiting Sponsors would contribute $1,000 to exhibit their products or services, while Major Sponsors would contribute $600. Chute Sponsors would cont ribute $500 to have the name of their business on one of the six bucking chutes. For a contribution of $100, individuals would be included in a Friends of Rodeo list found in the rodeo programs. At each performance the rodeo announcer would repeatedly mention the names of the businesses and in- dividuals at each level of sponsorship. In addition, large signs and banners with the names of the businesses of the Exhibiting Sponsors, Major Sponsors, and Chute Sponsors were to be displayed prominently in the arena. ?CA-16 case 5 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-17 A local youth group was contacted to provide concessions to the public and divide the profits with the Circular Club. The Auburn Circular Club Pro Rodeo Roundup would be held on June 1, 2, and 3. The cost of an adult ticket was set at $8 in advance or $10 at the gate; the cost of a ticket for a child 12 or younger was set at $6 in advance or $8 at the gate. Tickets were not date-specific. Rather, one ticket would admit an individual to one performance of his or her choice Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The rodeo committee was able to secure a location through the county supervisors board at a nominal cost to the Circular Club. The arrangement allowed the use of the county fair grounds and arena for a one- week period. Several months prior to the rodeo, members of the rodeo commit- tee had been assured that bleachers at the arena would hold 2,500 patrons. On Saturday night, paid attendance was 1,663, but all seats were filled due to poor gate controls. Attendance was 898 Friday and 769 on Sunday. The following revenue and expense figures relate to the first year of the rodeo. Illustration CA 5-1 Revenue and expense data, year 1 ?Receipts Contributions from sponsors $22,000 Receipts from ticket sales 28,971 Share of concession profits 1,513 Sale of programs 600 Total receipts Expenses Livestock contractor 26,000 Prize money 21,000 Contestant hospitality Sponsor signs for arena 1,900 Insurance 1,800 Ticket printing 1,050 Sanctioning fees 925 Entertainment 859 Judging fees 750 Port-a-potties 716 Rent 600 Hay for horses 538 Programs 500 Western hats to first 500 children 450 Hotel rooms for stock contractor 325 Utilities 300 Sand for arena 251 Miscellaneous fixed costs 105 Total expenses Net loss $53,084 ?3,341* ?61,410 $(8,326) *The club contracted with a local caterer to provide a tent and food for the contestants. The cost of the food was contingent on the number of contestants each evening. Information con- cerning the number of contestants and the costs incurred are as follows: Contestants Friday 68 Saturday 96 Sunday 83 Total Cost $ 998 1,243 1,100 $3,341 On Wednesday after the rodeo, members of the rodeo committee met to discuss and critique the rodeo. Jonathan Edmunds, CPA and President of the Circular Club, commented that the club did not lose money. Rather, Jonathan said, â€Å"The club made an investment in the rodeo. †CA-18 case 5 Cases for Management Decision Making Instructions Answer each of the following questions. . Do you think it was necessary for Shelley Jones to stipulate that she wanted a fundraiser that would (1) continue to get better each year, (2) give back to the com- munity, and (3) provide the club a presence in the community? Why or why not? 2. What did Jonathan Edmunds mean when he said the club had made an investment in the rodeo? 3. Is Jonathan’s comment concerning the investment consistent with Shelley’s idea that t he club should have a fundraiser that would (1) continue to get better each year, (2) give back to the community, and (3) provide the club a presence in the community? Why or why not? 4. What do you believe is the behavior of the rodeo expenditures in relation to ticket sales? 5. Determine the fixed and variable cost components of the catering costs using the high-low method. 6. Assume you are elected chair of the rodeo committee for next year. What steps would you suggest the committee take to make the rodeo profitable? 7. Shelley, Jonathan, and Adrian Stein, the Fundraising Chairperson, are beginning to make plans for next year’s rodeo. Shelley believes that by negotiating with local feed stores, innkeepers, and other business owners, costs can be cut dramatically. Jonathan agrees. After carefully analyzing costs, Jonathan has estimated that the fixed expenses can be pared to approximately $51,000. In addition, Jonathan estimates that variable costs are 4% of total gross receipts. After talking with business owners who attended the rodeo, Adrian is confident that funds solicited from sponsors will increase. Adrian is comfortable in budgeting revenue from sponsors at $25,600. The local youth group is unwilling to provide con- cessions to the audience unless they receive all of the profits. Not having the person- nel to staff the concession booth, members of the Circular Club reluctantly agree to let the youth group have 100% of the profits from the concessions. In addition, mem- bers of the rodeo committee, recognizing that the net income from programs was only $100, decide not to sell rodeo programs next year. Compute the break-even point in dollars of ticket sales assuming Adrian and Jonathan are correct in their assumptions. 8. Shelley has just learned that you are calculating the break-even point in dollars of ticket sales. She is still convinced that the Club can make a profit using the assumptions in number 7 above. (a) Calculate the dollars of ticket sales needed in order to earn a target profit of $6,000. (b) Calculate the dollars of ticket sales needed in order to earn a target profit of $12,000. 9. Are the facilities at the fairgrounds adequate to handle crowds needed to generate ticket revenues calculated in number 8 above to earn a $6,000 profit? Show calcula- tions to support your answers. 10. Prepare a budgeted income statement for next year using the estimated revenues from sponsors and other assumptions in number 7 above. In addition, use ticket sales based on the target profit of $12,000 estimated in 8(b). The cost of the livestock con- tractor, prize money, sanctioning fees, entertainment, judging fees, rent, and utilities will remain the same next year. Changes in expenses include the following: Members of the Club have decided to eliminate all costs related to contestant hospitality by soliciting a tent and food for the contestants and taking care of the â€Å"Contestant Hospitality Tent†themselves. The county has installed permanent restrooms at the arena, eliminating the need to rent port-a- potties. The rodeo committee intends to pursue arrangements to have hotel rooms, hay, and children’s hats provided at no charge in exchange for sponsorships. The cost of banners varies with the number of sponsors. Signs and More charged the Circular Club $130 for each Exhibiting Sponsor banner and $48 for each Major Sponsor banner. At this time there is no way to know whether additional sponsors will be Exhibiting Spon- sors or Major Sponsors. Therefore, for budgeting purposes you should increase the cost of the banners by the percentage increase in sponsor contributions. (Hint: Round ase 5 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-19 all calculations to three decimal places. ) By checking prices, the Circular Club will be able to obtain insurance providing essentially the same amount of coverage as this year for only $600. For the first rodeo the Club ordered 10,000 tickets. Realizing the con- straints on available seating, the Club is ordering only 5,000 tickets for next year, and th erefore its costs are reduced 50%. The sand for the arena for next year will be $300, and miscellaneous fixed costs are to be budgeted at $100. 11. A few members in the Circular Club do not want to continue with the annual rodeo. However, Shelley is insistent that the Club must continue to conduct the rodeo as an annual fundraiser. Shelley argues that she has spent hundreds of dollars on western boots, hats, and other items of clothing to wear to the rodeo. Are the expenses re- lated to Shelley’s purchases of rodeo clothing relevant costs? Why or why not? 12. Rather than hire the local catering company to cater the Contestant Hospitality Tent, members of the Circular Club are considering asking Shady’s Bar-B-Q to cater the event in exchange for a $600 Major Sponsor spot. In addition, The Fun Shop, a local party supply business, will be asked to donate a tent to use for the event. The Fun Shop will also be given a $600 Major Sponsor spot. Several members of the Club are opposed to this consideration, arguing that the two Major Sponsor spots will take away from the money to be earned through other sponsors. Adrian Stein has explained to the members that the Major Sponsor signs for the arena cost only $48 each. In ad- dition, there is more than enough room to display two additional sponsor signs. What would you encourage the Club to do concerning the Contestant Hospitality Tent? Would your answer be different if the arena were limited in the number of additional signs that could be displayed? What kind of cost would we consider in this situation that would not be found on a financial statement? case 6 Sweats Galore Developed by Jessica Johnson Frazier, Eastern Kentucky University, and Patricia H. Mounce, University of Central Arkansas THE BUSINESS SITUATION After graduating with a degree in business from Eastern University in Campus Town, USA, Michael Woods realized that he wanted to remain in Campus Town. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at getting a job in his disci- pline, Michael decided to go into business for himself. In thinking about his business venture, Michael determined that he had four criteria for the new business: 1. He wanted to do something that he would enjoy. 2. He wanted a business that would give back to the community. 3. He wanted a business that would grow and be more successful every year. 4. Realizing that he was going to have to work very hard, Michael wanted a business that would generate a minimum net income of $25,000 annually. While reflecting on the criteria he had outlined, Michael, who had been president of his fraternity and served as an officer in several other student organizations, realized that there was no place in Campus Town to have cus- tom sweatshirts made using a silk-screen process. When student organiza- tions wanted sweatshirts for their members or to market on campus, the offi- cers had to make a trip to a city 100 miles away to visit â€Å"Shirts and More. ’’ Michael had worked as a part-time employee at Shirts and More while he was in high school and had envisioned owning such a shop. He realized that a sweatshirt shop in Campus Town had the potential to meet all four of his crite- ria. Michael set up an appointment with Jayne Stoll, the owner of Shirts and More, to obtain information useful in getting his shop started. Because Jayne liked Michael and was intrigued by his entrepreneurial spirit, she answered many of Michael’s questions. In addition, Jayne provided information concerning the type of equipment Michael would need for his business and its average useful life. Jayne knows a competitor who is retiring and would like to sell his equipment. Michael can purchase the equipment at the beginning of 2011, and the owner is willing to give him terms of 50% due upon purchase and 50% due the quarter following the purchase. Michael decided to purchase the following equipment as of January 1, 2011. CA-20 case 6 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-21 Hand-operated press that applies ink to the shirt Light-exposure table Dryer conveyer belt that makes ink dry on the shirts Computer with graphics software and color printer Display furniture Used cash register Cost $7,500 1,350 2,500 3,500 2,000 500 Useful Life yrs. 10 yrs. 10 yrs. 4 yrs. 10 yrs. 5 yrs. Michael has decided to use the sweatshirt supplier recommended by Jayne. He learned that a gross of good-quality sweatshirts to be silk-screened would cost $1,440. Jayne has encouraged Michael to ask the sweatshirt supplier for terms of 40% of a quarter’s purchases to be paid in the quarter of purchase, with the re- maining 60% of the quarter’s purchases to be paid in the quarter following the purchase. Michael also learned from talking with Jayne that the ink used in the silk- screen process costs approximately $0. 75 per shirt. Knowing that the silk-screen process is somewhat labor-intensive, Michael plans to hire six college students to help with the process. Each one will work an average of 20 hours per week for 50 weeks during the year. Michael estimates to- tal annual wages for the workers to be $72,000. In addition, Michael will need one person to take orders, bill customers, and operate the cash register. Cary Sue Smith, who is currently Director of Student Development at Eastern University, has approached Michael about a job in sales. Cary Sue knows the officers of all of the student organizations on campus. In ad- dition, she is very active in the community. Michael thinks Cary Sue can bring in a lot of business. In addition she also has the clerical skills needed for the posi- tion. Because of her contacts, Michael is willing to pay Cary Sue $1,200 per month plus a commission of 10% of sales. Michael estimates Cary Sue will spend 50% of the workday focusing on sales, and the remaining 50% will be spent on clerical and administrative duties. Michael realizes that he will have difficulty finding a person skilled in com- puter graphics to generate the designs to be printed on the shirts. Jayne recently hired a graphics designer in that position for Shirts and More at a rate of $500 per month plus $0. 10 for each shirt printed. Michael believes he can find a uni- versity graphics design student to work for the same rate Jayne is paying her designer. Michael was fortunate to find a commercial building for rent near the uni- versity and the downtown area. The landlord requires a one-year lease. Although the monthly rent of $1,000 is more than Michael had anticipated paying, the building is nice, has adequate parking, and there is room for expansion. Michael anticipates that 75% of the building will be used in the silk-screen process and 25% will be used for sales. Michael’s fraternity brothers have encouraged him to advertise weekly in the Eastern University student newspaper. Upon inquiring, Michael found that a 3 3 ad would cost $25 per week. Michael also plans to run a weekly ad in the local newspaper that will cost him $75 per week. Michael wants to sell a large number of quality shirts at a reasonable price. He estimates the selling price of each customized shirt to be $16. Jayne has sug- gested that he should ask customers to pay for 70% of their purchases in the quarter purchased and pay the additional 30% in the quarter following the purchases. After talking with the insurance agent and the property valuation adminis- trator in his municipality, Michael estimates that the property taxes and insur- ance on the machinery will cost $2,240 annually; property tax and insurance on display furniture and cash register will total $380 annually. CA-22 case 6 Cases for Management Decision Making Jayne reminded Michael that maintenance of the machines is required for the silk-screen process. In addition, Michael realizes that he must consider the cost of utilities. The building Michael wants to rent is roughly the same size as the building occupied by Shirts and More. In addition, Shirts and More sells ap- proximately the same number of shirts Michael plans to sell in his store. Therefore, Michael is confident that the maintenance and utility costs for his shop will be comparable to the maintenance and utility costs for Shirts and More, which are as follows within the relevant range of zero to 8,000 shirts. Shirts Sold January 2,000 February 2,110 March 2,630 April 3,150 May 5,000 June 5,300 July 3,920 August 2,080 September 8,000 October 6,810 November 6,000 December 3,000 Maintenance Costs $1,716 1,720 1,740 1,740 1,758 1,818 1,825 1,780 1,914 1,860 1,855 1,749 Utility Costs $1,100 1,158 1,171 1,198 1,268 1,274 1,205 1,117 1,400 1,362 1,347 1,193 Michael estimates the number of shirts to be sold in the first five quarters, beginning January 2011, to be: First quarter, year 1 Second quarter, year 1 Third quarter, year 1 Fourth quarter, year 1 First quarter, year 2 8,000 10,000 20,000 12,000 18,000 Seeing how determined his son was to become an entrepreneur, Michael’s fa- ther offered to co-sign a note for an amount up to $20,000 to help Michael open his sweatshirt shop, Sweats Galore. However, when Michael and his father ap- proached the loan officer at First Guarantee Bank, the loan officer asked Michael to produce the following budgets for 2011. Sales budget Schedule of expected collections from customers Shirt purchases budget Schedule of expected payments for purchases Silk-screen labor budget Selling and administrative expenses budget Silk-screen overhead expenses budget Budgeted income statement Cash budget Budgeted balance sheet The loan officer advised Michael that the interest rate on a 12-month loan would be 8%. Michael expects the loan to be taken out as of January 1, 2011. Michael has estimated that his income tax rate will be 20%. He expects to pay the total tax due when his returns are filed in 2012. Instructions Answer the following questions. 1. Do you think it was important for Michael to stipulate his four criteria for the busi- ness (see page CA-21), including the goal of generating a net income of at least $25,000 annually? Why or why not? case 6 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-23 2. If Michael has sales of $12,000 during January of his first year of business, deter- mine the amount of variable and fixed costs associated with utilities and mainte- nance using the high-low method for each. 3. Using the format below, prepare a sales budget for the year ending 2011. SWEATS GALORE Sales Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Quarter 1 2 3 4 Year Expected unit sales Unit selling price x Budgeted sales revenue $ 4. Prepare a schedule of expected collections from customers. SWEATS GALORE Schedule of Expected Collections from Customers For the Year Ending December 31, 2011 Quarter 234 Accounts receivable 1/1/11 –0– First quarter Second quarter Third quarter Fourth quarter Total collections 5. Michael learned from talking with Jayne that the supplier is so focused on making quality sweatshirts that many times the shirts are not available for several days. She encouraged Michael to maintain an ending inventory of shirts equal to 25% of the next quarter’s sales. Prepare a shirt purchases budget for shirts using the format provided. SWEATS GALORE Shirt Purchases Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Quarter 1 2 3 4 Year Shirts to be silk-screened Plus: Desired ending inventory Total shirts required Less: Beginning inventory Total shirts needed Cost per shirt Total cost of shirt purchases 6. Prepare a schedule of expected payments for purchases. SWEATS GALORE Schedule of Expected Payments for Purchases For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Quarter 1234 Accounts payable 1/1/11 –0– First quarter Second quarter Third quarter Fourth quarter Total payments CA-24 case 6 Cases for Management Decision Making 7. Prepare a silk-screen labor budget. SWEATS GALORE Silk-Screen Labor Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Quarter 2 3 4 Year Units to be produced Silk-screen labor hours per unit Total required silk-screen labor hours Silk-screen labor cost per hour Total silk-screen labor cost 8. Prepare a selling and administrative expenses budget for Sweats Galore for the year ending December 31, 2011. SWEATS GALORE Selling and Administrative Expenses Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 201 1 Quarter 1 2 3 4 Year Variable expenses: Sales commissions Total variable expenses Fixed expenses: Advertising Rent Sales salaries Office salaries Depreciation Property taxes and insurance Total fixed expenses Total selling and dministrative expenses 9. Prepare a silk-screen overhead expenses budget for Sweats Galore for the year end- ing December 31, 2011. SWEATS GALORE Silk-Screen Overhead Expenses Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Quarter 1 2 3 4 Year Variable expenses: Ink Maintenance Utilities Graphics design Total variable expenses Fixed expenses: Rent Maintenance Utilities Graphics design Property taxes and insurance Depreciation Total fixed expenses Total silk-screen overhead Direct silk-screen hours Overhead rate per silk-screen hour case 6 Cases for Management Decision Making CA-25 10. Using the information found in the case and the previous budgets, prepare a bud- geted income statement for Sweats Galore for the year ended December 31, 2011. SWEATS GALORE Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Sales Cost of goods sold Gross profit Selling and administrative expenses Income from operations Interest expense Income before income taxes Income tax expense Net income 11. Using the information found in the case and the previous budgets, prepare a cash budget for Sweats Galore for the year ended December 31, 2011. SWEATS GALORE Cash Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 2011 Quarter 1234 Beginning cash balance Add: Receipts Collections from customers Total available cash Less: Disbursements Payments for shirt purchases Silk-screen labor Silk-screen overhead Selling and administrative expenses Payment for equipment purchase Total disbursements Excess (deficiency) of available cash over disbursements Financing Borrowings Ending cash balance 12. Using the information contained in the case and the previous budgets, prepare a bud- geted balance sheet for Sweats Galore for the year ended December 31, 2011. SWEATS GALORE Budgeted Balance Sheet December 31, 2011 Assets Cash Accounts receivable Sweatshirt inventory Equipment Less: Accumulated depreciation Total assets ? CA-26 case 6 Cases for Management Decision Making Liabilities and Owner’s Equity ? 13. (a) Accounts payable Notes payable Interest payable Taxes payable Total liabilities Michael Woods, Capital Total liabilities and owner’s equity Using the information contained in the case and the previous budgets, calculate the estimated contribution margin per unit for 2011. (Hint: Silk-screened labor and the taxes are both fixed costs. ) (b) Calculate the total estimated fixed costs for 2011 (including interest and taxes). c) Compute the break-even point in units and dollars for 2011. 14. (a) Michael is very disappointed that he did not have an income of $25,000 for his first year of budgeted operations as he had wanted. How many shirts would Michael have had to sell in order to have had a profit of $25
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