Thursday, October 31, 2019

Efficient Market Hypothesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Efficient Market Hypothesis - Essay Example Importance of efficient market hypothesis can be identified from empirical implications of it in many pieces of research and studies by empirical researchers. Literature on efficient market hypothesis before LeRoy (1973) and Lucas (1978) was evolved around the random walk hypothesis and magnitude model. These are statistical description of price changes that can be Lo and McKinley (1988) forecasted and initially taken to be implication efficient market hypothesis. The first test of random walk hypothesis was developed by Jones and Cowles (1973), and they compared frequency sequence and reversal in historical return of stocks. They identified same sign of former pairs of consecutive return and the opposite sign of latter pair of consecutive return. Osborne (1959), Fama (1963; 1965), Cootner (1962; 1964), Fama and Blume (1966) conducted tests of random walk hypothesis and supported previous studies of random walk hypothesis using historical stock return. Lo and McKinley (1988) reported that variance of two week stock return is double the variance of one week stock return. They conducted this test on US indexes from 1962 to 1985. French and Roll (1985) identified from their study that variance of stock return over weekends and holidays are much lower than variance of week days, especially first three weekdays of a week. Poterba and Summers (1988) and Fama and French (1988) found out negative correlation in US stocks indexes return from stock return data of 1962 to 1986 actually occurs.... In the process they use different forecasting techniques as well as some valuation methods. The combination of the techniques helps them in their decisions regarding investments. However, the hypothesis states that the techniques are not effective and no one has the capability to predict the outperformance of the market. If the investors enjoy any advantage, it is supposed not to exceed the incurred cost of transaction and research (Timmermann, & Granger, 2003, p.5). Literature review The origin of efficient market hypothesis can be traced back in the studies of two individuals in 1950s. One is Paul A. Samuelson and the other one is Eugene F. Fama. They identified the notion of market efficiency from two different research agendas. Samuelsson’s contribution in the invention of EMH was great, and the researcher summarized that in efficient market, changes in asset (stocks, bonds and other traded instruments) price can be forecasted if these are properly anticipated. This means price should fully incorporate all the information and expectation of all the market participants. In contrast to Samuelsson, Fama concentrated on statistical measures of stock price and resolving the debate regarding technical analysis and fundamental analysis of stock price. This researcher summarized that current price stocks fully reflect all information available to market participants. These two empirical research studies on this critical area of finance have helped many researchers thereafter to develop several econometric single or multifactor linear asset pricing models (Seweel, 2011, p.4). Random walk hypothesis Importance of efficient market hypothesis can be identified from empirical implications of it in many pieces of research and studies by empirical researchers.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Accrual Accounting in Public Sector Essay Example for Free

Accrual Accounting in Public Sector Essay In the present age, accounting seems to be an indispensable tool for modern business activities. However, not only for the profit orientated commercial business, it also plays an important role in the non-profit profit organizations, such as public sectors. Moreover, due to several deficiencies and drawbacks of government accounting and financial-management systems, such as unclear accountability, poorly maintained assets and hided losses and long-term liabilities, reforms in the public sector have been conducted over the last several decades across the word from New Zealand, Australia to England (Ball and et al, 1999). Accounting innovation by implementing accrual accounting in the public sector is one of the major part of the reforms and an important element of the wider concept of the so called New Public Management, and draws much of public concern and debate (Connolly and Hyndman, 2006). Under this background, this essay is going to discuss the implications arising from the process of implementing and actual using of accrual accounting in the public sector in several aspects, and try to put forward some possible solutions. See more:  Perseverance essay Generally, two main accounting methods are use to determine when and how to record income and expenses in the books, namely, cash accounting and accrual accounting. The major difference between these two is the timing of when the transactions are recorded in the account (Tudor and Mutiu, 2006). To be specific, under the cash accounting method, income and payment are not counted until cash is actually received or made; while under the accrual accounting basis, transactions are recorded as soon as they incurred, regardless whether the cash is received or made. Comparing to cash accounting, accruals accounting place more emphasis on how the capital assets used and recorded (Connolly and Hyndman, 2006). More reliable figures of performance based on revenues earned and resources consumed will be achieved through accruals accounting. Owning to this, it is believed that accruals accounting will contribute to better longer-term perspective of governmental policies, resource management and decision making (Ball and et al, 1999); and both internal and external transparency may be enhanced. Moreover, it is also considered that comparability between different government departments will be improved, even between the pre and post privatization (Wynne, 2004 and FEE, 2006). Although several potential advantages are suggested that will be brought by implementing accrual accounting in the public sector, it is still under debate that whether it is really appropriate to use accrual accounting system, which is initially devised for private sector, in the public sector (CESifo, 2007). In the private sector, commonly, accounting tends to be seen as a neutral technology to record past activities and provide financial and other necessary information to operate the business more efficiently and profitable. However, due to the difference in the nature and role of the public sector, this description seems not appropriate. For example, the primary purpose of public sector accounting is not serving to generate more profit but controlling people’s behavior to protect public money (Ellwood and Newberry, 2007), and the ultimate users are electorate instead of stakeholders (CESifo, 2007). Due to the fundamental mismatch of the objects, potential inadaptable problems may emerge during utilization (Carlin, 2005). As for the incurred cost of implementation and operation of an accrual accounting, in the North Ireland (NI) case study conducted by Connolly and Hyndman (2006), almost all the â€Å"overseers† and â€Å"Operational Accountants† believed that the views of cost neutral of the transition process, which came up by the UK HM Treasury, are not conform to the reality. Besides that, another case study based on UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI) , the result also revealed that all the interviewees questioned the value of the changes whether can justify the substantial cost (Connolly and Hyndman, 2010). Usually, the additional introducing cost will occur mainly in four aspects, identifying and valuing existing assets, developing accounting policies, establishing accounting systems (such as computer systems), hiring or providing training for both the preparers and users of financial information; and some of those cost will persist (Wynne, 2004). The amount of the cost is significant, for example, according to the New Zealand Audit Office, there is about NZ$160-180 million expenditure accrued by the financial-management reform during 1987 to 1992 (Ball and et al, 1999). Upon the previous experience and data, special resource should be added to the budget separately to ensure that the normal department services will not be impacted by the implementation of accrual accounting. The actual cost associated with process can also be reckoned more easily by doing this. Through comparing several case studies, the perceptions of usefulness of accruals information and the extent of the information used in reality tend to be very different in different cases. Both of the two researches conducted by Connolly and Hyndman (2006 and 2010), based on UK and RoI, showed that almost all the interviewees agreed that the accrual accounting information was limited used or even not used and helpless for decision making; and several â€Å"Operational Accountant† participants expressed the view that the very complicated process may be one of the leading factors. Nevertheless, the situations seem to be rather dissimilar in Australia and New Zealand, where more comprehensively accrual accounting have been adopted. Especially in New Zealand, a significant decrease, from about 52% of GDP to just above 10%, of net debt could be found after the reforms during 1992 to 2005 (Champoux, 2006). The differences of performance of implementation of accrual accounting may attribute to three main reasons, the extent of the whole reform involved, insufficient implementing time and relevant people lack of professional knowledge. One of the possible reasons for the success of New Zealand is that New Zealand was the first country which had completely implemented accrual accounting system at both national and agency level (Carlin, 2005). According to Lye and et al (2005), the reform process in New Zealand not only occurred in economic level, but also extended to a much broader aspects, such as simplifying the machinery of government and changing industrial relations. In contrast, the extent of reform in the other countries which were also implementing accrual based accounting system, like the UK and the USA, is in a rather surface degree. Furthermore, the politicians who were responsible for the reforms in those two countries were right- wing, and may always hold conservative attitude to the reforms (Lye and et al, 2005). However, a thorough reform could generate many benefits and potential advantages. Turning to the issue of implementing time, â€Å"Overseers† participants in the research of Connolly and Hyndman (2006) also typically emphasized that the ineffectiveness of utilization could be a result of being the early stages of the development, and some â€Å"Operational Accountant† also showed positive attitude to the future through time increasing. The process of implementing accrual accounting in the public sector takes far more than 1 or 2 years until the whole system working effectively and efficiently. According to previous experience, the process of fully implementing the new accounting system and necessary reforms will take about 8 to 10 years; and it may be take even longer in the UK case (Wynne, 2004). Upon this, it can be found that the process may take a relatively longer time than people used to expect before the benefit being realized. One other reason is that relevant staffs and managers are unqualified because of lack of professional accounting knowledge. It is commonly accepted that better insight information, such as more complete financial performance and position, which could reveal the features of operation of public sector may be provided by accrual accounting. However, those characteristics make the statements more difficult to understand, especially for people with inadequate accounting knowledge. Comparing to cash accounting, the information provided by cash accounting seems more easily to understand and more straightforward for the general public (CESifo, 2007 and FEE, 2006). Moreover, in Connolly and Hyndman’ s research (2006), both â€Å"Overseer† and â€Å"Operational Accountant† participants particularly complained that, mostly, their efforts, spending extra time to process the complex information, are useless, because the potential users are lack of relevant accounting skills. Several participates also believed that the majority of senior managers are not equipped with necessary accounting knowledge and do not have a strong desire to learn and adopt the new accounting system. Besides that, in another Connolly and Hyndman’s research (2010), according to reflection of politicians to the new accounting information, the interviewees believed that not only the senior managers, but also the politicians, who are essentially responsible for decision-making, had inadequate accounting knowledge and superficial level of understanding of accrual accounting system. However, if politicians do not have certain level of accounting knowledge, they will not be able to evaluate and act upon accrual statements (FEE, 2006). The following is a case in point. Wynne (2004, p10) states that â€Å"only 20% of ministries had a director of finance who was a professionally qualified accountant and not all these were members of the ministry’s management board† in the UK central government. In order to ensure implementation of accrual accounting more smoothly, several approaches could be taken to achieve that. Firstly, one of the most effective ways is providing more accessible accrual information for the public, for instance, summarizing the important information and presenting it without using specialized vocabulary. Secondly, it is vital to provide more training programmes, which teach practically useful accrual accounting knowledge, for both the staffs and managers. Finally, based on the New Zealand experience, it was found that a strong communication with politicians is an indispensable part in the implementation process. The politicians need to realize the potential value of which the accrual based accounting system can bring. Thus, practical strategies, such as illustrating the core concept and benefit of accrual accounting and providing key figures, which can show the features of accrual information, will be needed. (FEE, 2006) In conclusion, through analyzing and comparing several case studies of implementation of accrual accounting, it can be found that a significant number of countries had already started to implement accrual accounting and use accrual information in practice, and the number is still increasing. However, only minority of them realized the substantial benefits from the new accounting system. The reasons for this status can be vary, such as Insufficient implementing time and relevant people lack of professional knowledge mentioned above. Several possible solutions can be used to tackle those problems, but it can be more complicate in the real case; and some gaps still exist in understanding of the implications of use of accrual accounting in the public sector (Carlin, 2005). For this reason, further research based on each countries own circumstances is still needed. Moreover, it is also quite certain that for many countries there are still a number of barriers to be overcome before accrual accounting can be utilized to its full potential. List of references Ball, I. and et al. (1999). â€Å"Reforming Financial Management in the Public Sector: Lessons U.S. Officials Can Learn from New Zealand.† Policy Study No. 258. Reason Public Policy Institute. Carlin, T, M. (2005), â€Å"Debating the Impact of Accrual Accounting and Reporting in the Public Sector†, Financial Accountability Management, 21(3) Center for Economic Studies., the Ifo Institute. and the CESifo GmbH (CESifo). (2007). â€Å"Accrual Accounting in The Public Sector†, CESifo DICE Report, 5 (3), pp. 43-45 Connolly, C. and Hyndman, N. (2006), â€Å"The actual implementation of accruals accounting: Caveats from a case within the UK public sector†, Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, [e-journal] 19 (2), pp. 272 – 290. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570610656123 [Accessed 1 December 2012] Connolly, C. and Hyndman, N. (2010), â€Å"Accruals accounting in the public sector: A road not always taken†, Management Accountin g Research, 22 (1), pp. 36–45 Ellwood, S. and Newberry, S. (2007), â€Å"Public sector accrual accounting: institutionalising neo-liberal principles ? †. Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, [e-journal] 20(4), pp. 549 – 573. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570710762584 [Accessed 1 December 2012] Federation des Experts des Comtables Europeens (FEE). (2006), â€Å"Accrual Accounting for More Effective Public Policy†, paper of the FEE Public Sector Committee. Lye, J., Perera, H. and Rahman, A. (2005), â€Å"The evolution of accruals-based Crown (government) financial statements in New Zealand†, Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, [e-journal] 18(6), pp. 784-815. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570510627711 [Accessed 1 December 2012] Tiron-Todor, A. and Mutiu, A. (2005), â€Å"Cash versus Accrual Accounting in Public Sector†, Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai Oeconomica 1990, available at SSRN: http//s srn.com/abstract=906813. [Accessed 1 December 2012] Wynne, A. (2004), â€Å"Is the Move to Accrual Based Accounting a Real Priority for Public Sector Accounting†, Public Fund Digest, [e-journal] 6(1) . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1320219 [Accessed 1 December 2012]

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Influence of Media on Young Peoples Opinions

Influence of Media on Young Peoples Opinions The mass media has a great influence on people and especially on the younger generation. It plays an important role in shaping the opinions and positions of young people. Argue for or against this statement. Quynh Huong Ly As communication technologies and platforms continue to advance and evolve, the mass media is increasingly becoming a more influential factor in modern society. It is a powerful tool that has a strong impact on the population as a whole and in particularly on the younger generation. In modern society, the mass media has the ability to shape both the opinions and positions of the younger generation who are more curious and can more easily be influenced. This can not only create new cultures, but can also change lifestyles to some degree by shaping opinions and positions. This essay will discuss the three major influences that the mass media has on the younger generations and their effects in supporting the statement â€Å"The mass media has a great influence on people and especially on the younger generation. It plays an important role in shaping the opinions and positions of young people†. Firstly, advertisements are changing young peoples views on beauty concepts and stimulat e consumption. Secondly, the influences of social media platforms such as Facebook are shaping behaviour trends and lifestyles. Finally, music has shape emotions and a source of inspiration in creating new career ideas for the younger people. Nowadays, advertisements have great power to impact minds and create new habits amongst the younger generations. Large parts of their lives are connected with advertisements through various forms of media such as the radio, films and magazines. And according to Vitelli (2013) â€Å"Television, Commercials, and Your Child†, advertisers try to target young people by: concentrating on new products with special features, producing advertisements which are familiar with daily life so audiences do not realize they are watching commercials and making them lose the ability to distinguish between reality and the advertising that they are watching every day. More recently, with the development of more far reaching platforms of mass media, the thousands of messages about perfect the body images presented on posters and on television shows have re-shaped opinions on what is the ideal body shape for women. The powerful messages have made women obsessed with the new female body standards. T rying to fit into what is represented as attractive by the mass media, have caused stressed and have had a negative effect on some women, in particular the younger women who feel the need to comfort more. An example about the negative influences of advertisements on the young generations is building up their impossible expectations about attractive appearances by using luxury images of supermodels and celebrities, who they hope to look like (Wikipedia 2014). Therefore, teenagers tend to try keep their body thin through putting themselves on a diet, doing exercise or even getting cosmetic surgery while they are never satisfied with their bodies. In addition, it is suggested that using the dynamic beauty of young people for fast food advertising is also one of the causes of changing eating habits and rising obesity rates on the youth (Ashton 2004). In some cases, they are attracted by the advertisements when people with good shape, are eating fast foods and might think that it is heal thy foods or even eating them will help to keep their bodies as good as in the advertisement. The rates of obesity in children and youth have almost tripled in the last quarter century. Approximately 20% of youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed (The impact of food advertising on childhood obesity 2014). Although the role of advertising in modern society is undeniable because it is used to both introduce new products to the public and is the shortest way to motivate consumption, it is generally believed that advertisements have consequences on peoples mind, especially on the younger generations because advertisements generally have always exaggerated the truth, also changed the opinions and positions of young people. In recent times, social networking sites have become more popular than ever, they also directly impact on behaviour of people, particularly on adolescents in what way as they decide how to connect each other and how to respect their relationships. Social networking sites have become a major revolution in society. There are a lot of advantages that can be associated with this, but an alarming tendency out of this, is that the young people seem to be more isolated in their own world and don’t learn how interact with society As a result, they gradually lose their communications skills and the intimacy of face-to-face interactions (Dakin 2014). ) In the past, face to face was the best way which people chose to communicate to each other. With the appearance of Facebook, peoples’ lives, minds and the behaviours of the youth have changed. Young people are highly addicted to Facebook as they spend a lot of time on the internet to update status, post on walls, and even whateve r they make. This leads to them ignoring spending time with families or hanging out with friends in order for them to sit in front of computer screen to validate their importance in society. The number of â€Å"Likes† they have, the more this validates their confidence (Sameer 2011). In addition, the development of social networking is one of the reasons why the young people are becoming the narcissist. According to Harrington (2013), in â€Å"Hey you, it’s all about me†, the teenagers are documenting everything they do in their lives and posting selfies on social networking to get more attentions from others, and falling in love themselves. Young girls are more likely to be dissatisfied with their shape and weight, even if they are very healthy and balanced from this (Sameer 2011). For example, with the support of Photoshop technologies, the photos on Facebook are probably more attractive than the real life. This creates pressures on teen girls try to keep thei r appearances as perfect as the pictures on the internet. The revolution of social networking sites impacts strongly on the younger generations through changing their views about communications in a virtual world. One product of the mass media that is a big influence on the youth is music, which deeply affects the lifestyles of teenagers, the controlling of emotions and building up personality on people. In modern society, there are many technologies such as iPhone, iPod which can effectively connect the youth to music where they go. It is believed that the young generations listen to music while they are eating, studying and sleeping. Therefore, music seems to play a special role in shaping their opinions and positions. The explosion of music videos on YouTube brings young people to a new fashion culture when they tend to copy images of their idols (Wixom 2013). For example, new fashion trends often approach the public through the superstars in their music videos. When the youth search and watch the videos on internet, they are easily attracted in styles of celebrities, so they try to dress or let their hair similarly to famous people and might think they look more attractively. Nowadays, the re are young teenagers develop their music career in that way they produce videos, update them on online websites to share with people. If the music products were successful, they could become famous people even after one day. Actually they have made career decisions based on factors of the mass media. Consequently, benefits of music are inspiring and creating a lot of opportunities for the youth to make their dreams come true (Wixom 2013). Furthermore, the lyrics on music songs strongly influence on minds, emotions and behaviours of teenagers. The information on the internet is generally uncensored and young people also are supported by many search tools. Therefore, they can easily be impacted their spirit by the unconformable lyrics which can create rebellious tendencies or the early sexual awareness of young people (Holden 2014). For example, many songs are composed based on the love story and the events in real life. Although the messages on those songs might be given by the ind ividual views, but they still have a great power. Especially, when young children listen to music constantly, they generally tend to react and think as lyrics in songs. As a result, they are aware of the problems in society very soon and grow up faster than their real old. Although the influence of music to young people with both negative and positive, but it is gradually becoming one of the determinants of behaviour and thinking of the younger generations. In conclusion, modern society has created a major mass media revolution with the help of the availability of all the new technologies available such as television, magazine, music, social media and the internet. This has given the mass media an enormous power in influencing the perceptions and lifestyles of the younger people. It could even be stated that the perceptions and lifestyles of the younger generations are mostly influenced by the information provided by the many forms of media, as they search based all decisions from the information provided on the internet. The internet is used for scientific information, entertainment and connecting friends. The ideas and views from the internet are usually derived from the masses, so they have both positive and negative, but young people are given the choice to see and believe what is of value to them. Therefore, they should choose the most appropriate approach in order to get the best value that the mass media are contributing to human . All things as above have proven the mass media shape opinions and positions of youth. References American Psychological Association 2014, ‘The impact of food advertising on childhood obesity’, American Psychological Association, viewed 13 November 2014, http://www.apa.org/topics/kids-media/food.aspx Coleman, R 2008, ‘The becoming of bodies’, Feminist Media Studies, vol.8, no.2, pp.163-179, viewed 12 November 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680770801980547 Dakin, P 2014, ‘Social media affecting teens concepts of friendship, intimacy’, CBC news, 24 February, viewed 18 November 2014, http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/social-media-affecting-teens-concepts-of-friendship-intimacy-1.2543158 Harrington, S 2013, ‘Hey you, its all about me’, The Sydney Morning Heralb, 20 September, viewed 12 November 2014, http://www.smh.com.au/comment/hey-you-its-all-about-me-20130920-2u5fe.html Holden, M 2014, ‘The Influence of Pop Music on Teens in the US’, Global post, viewed 26 November 2014, http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/influence-pop-music-teens-17843.html Media Smart 2014, ‘Televisions Impact on Kids’, Media Smart, viewed 13 November 2014, http://mediasmarts.ca/television/televisions-impact-kids Pediatrics 2006, ‘Children, Adolescents, and Advertising’, Pediatrics, vol.118, no.6, pp.2563-2569, 01 December, viewed 18 November 2014, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/6/2563.full Sameer, M 2011, ‘Impact Of Social Networking Sites On Youth’, Youth Ki Awaaz, 02 June, viewed 20 November 2014, http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2011/06/social-networking-impact-youth/ Shah, A 2012, ‘Media and Advertising’, Global Issues, 04 March, viewed 15 November 2014, http://www.globalissues.org/article/160/media-and-advertising Vitelli, R 2013, ‘Television, Commercials, and Your Child’, Psychology Today, 22 July, viewed 17 November 2014, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201307/television-commercials-and-your-child Wikipedia 2014, ‘Effects of advertising on teen body image’, Wikipedia, 24 November, viewed 24 November 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_advertising_on_teen_body_image Wixom, R 2013, ‘The Influence of Music’, The Church of Jesus Christ of latter – day Saints, September, viewed 26 November 2014, https://www.lds.org/youth/article/the-influence-of-music?lang=eng

Friday, October 25, 2019

Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Essay -- Ken Kesey Flew Ov

Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey's use of symbolism in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest transforms the novel and the hospital within the novel a microcosm of society, a battle between the sane and insane, the conformist and the non-conformist. Randle McMurphy's arrival influenced the lives of almost every person, whether patient or employee. Whether or not his motives and actions were moral or good-hearted is difficult to conclude, however. On one hand, he undoubtedly saved the patients from losing their souls, so to speak, to Nurse Ratched and her ward. Without him, they would not have been able to stand up for themselves or grow a sense of self-appreciation and competence. On the other hand, there was a price to pay for these freedoms. McMurphy's and Billy Bibbit's deaths showed just how much control The Big Nurse had on her patients. The role each character plays in this showdown symbolizes the realistic confrontations between the mentally unstable and the rest of society that has been going on for centu ries. Randle Patrick McMurphy is a powerful, intelligent man, a true non-conformist. He comes to the mental institution to avoid the tedious work forced upon him at the prison he was assigned to. His playful, jolly attitude towards the patients surprises them since they have not seen such contention since they came to the ward. It is obvious from the beginning of the novel as to McMurphy?s most superficial motives. He is a con man, constantly making bets with naà ¯ve, mentally ill men. The fact that he never tries to outsmart or cheat them, however, makes him respected and admired by the patients. McMurphy?s tattoo, a poker hand with ace?s and eight?s, the ?dead man?s hand?, symbolizes both his obsession with gambling and his eventual death. Despite his consistent attempts to make a profit, McMurphy?s main concern is the welfare of his new friends in the hospital. He sees how they can no longer think for themselves or demand their civil rights. Even beyond that, he cannot fathom the fact that many of the patients voluntarily checked themselves into the ward, and may leave at any time. McMurphy starts out as somewhat conceited and self-absorbed. As the novel progresses, he becomes a role model for the other patients, showing them how to take control of their own destinies and rebelling against the overwhelming power of the ?Combin... ...ever, Ratched seems to accept it and sets out to beat him. In the end, Ratched does win by giving McMurphy a lobotomy. This perhaps symbolizes the thousands of deaths of men and women rebelling against the system, doing whatever it takes to win their freedom. Nurse Ratched symbolizes several different things. First and foremost, she portrays the control of society over what is normal and acceptable. Any resistance to this order will be ?fixed?, using any means necessary to force him to concede. She also represents the views of the author on women. A consistent theme of misogyny exists throughout the novel. Women are seen as either submissive prostitutes or controlling ogres. Whether it be Chief Bromden?s cutthroat mother, the Big Nurse, or Candy, women are never seen as equals to men or even remotely affable. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched go through a finely crafted and strategic battle of good against evil, man against woman, the individual against society. Although it seems that the individual will never beat society, the sacrifices made by brave people like McMurphy are never forgotten. Works Cited: Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. London: Pan, 1973.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Logistics costs

Logistics cost form an important part of the overall cost structure in any organization. Focus needs to be on renegotiating freight and shipping rates, reduction in overall freight costs and streamlining operations. The following are the measures (ways) that can be used to reduce cost in logistics New carriers: The use of Constant market rate check is a best practice. Usually, logistics managers get into a comfort zone with the existing carriers. The organization should look on other carriers which offers lowest cost of transportation. Market rate check will bring to light other more economical perations.New carriers may be more flexible in their price. Freight costs: There are several options to optimize freight costs. Renegotiation of minimum billing to a minimum for a zone needs to be explored. Product delivery coordination is another useful tool to streamline freight costs. Arrangements with a number of smaller carriers also provide the best rate/best service combination. Interne t offers excellent tools for comparing and optimizing freight costs. Improve shipping and receiving: Streamlining shipping and receiving practices will offer savings. This can happen hrough reduction of long time for receiving.Starting point should be mandating delivery appointments. A flow chart needs to be made of all the operations to determine wasteful processes and combining existing processes. Technology: Internet tools enable substantial reduction in paperwork. Documents are scanned and emailed to customs, ports etc. In case of cross border trade, documents needs to reach at least twenty four hours in advance to avoid delays at the border. Technology also allows coordination of all shipments to optimize loading. This minimize delays in delivery. Managing returns: Reverse logistics is an important element of freight costs.Most companies offer a liberal returns policy. If the customer is not satisfied with the product, it can be returned in a certain period depending on the sel ler. At times, the seller also arranges to pick it up. There should be streamlined processes so as to minimize costs associated with reverse logistics. Audit of freight costs: Use specialized agencies that provide post payment audit of freight bills. These agencies are usually paid on a profit sharing basis. These audits also provide valuable insight nto patterns and other cost reduction opportunities.Deborah Catalano Ruriani explained other ways (measures) of Cost reduction as: 1 . Eliminate supply chain bottlenecks. By periodically reviewing and analyzing their supply chain networks, companies can be able to pinpoint issues and proactively address them. Strategies to reduce or eliminate bottlenecks include addressing vessel schedule planning, ensuring proper documentation and regulatory compliance for imports and exports, and revamping network design. 2. Reduce inventory at the port, manufacturing sites, and warehouses. Companies often stock excess inventory because they lack supp ly chain visibility.To effectively reduce excess inventory, you have to gain reliable information on future orders. Visibility software can help. 3. Cut demurrage and detention tines. While an occasional tine may not seem like much, these costs can add up. Auditing carrier bills and tracking where issues occur in the supply chain can substantially cut fine payments. 4. Identify opportunities to shift modes. Without adequate visibility into logistics operations, a company may not realize that an air shipment could move by sea at a much lower cost. Companies that use technology to evaluate modal options typically see a five- to eight-percent cost reduction. . Use postponement strategies to divert inventory at an international gateway. A successful postponement strategy can dramatically lower forecasting errors as well as improve customer service by reducing out-of-stocks. Companies also can cut transport costs by reducing inventory misallocations and shipping more items in bulk. 6. Us e preferential trade agreements. Companies that take advantage of preferential status can save millions in duties and taxes. A software system that automates the ualification process can save time and effort, as well as improve compliance and data accuracy. . Rebalance supply and fulfillment networks by determining tax- efficient sourcing and distribution strategies. Companies must periodically review their supply chain networks to assess duties and logistics costs, labor costs, regulatory controls, and global political climates. By comparing geographic options, taking into account the costs and regulations of each option, companies can optimize their supply chain. 8. Become a self-filer. Using technology to connect electronically ith brokers lowers entry filing costs and reduces manual entry errors.It also can enable pre-clearance of goods at borders and reduce the number of staff needed internally to manage logistics operations while boosting productivity hence reduce cost. 9. Con trol your procurement process. By implementing a process-based workflow that includes tracking and managing order acceptance, consolidating invoices, creating shipments and generating documents† and by extending that process to trading partners† companies can reduce cycle times, cut supply chain execution costs, and better support compliance initiatives. 10. Implement performance management metrics and tools.Companies need a system, data, and tools to benchmark actions and make informed decisions. Developing a performance management process allows companies to manage service providers and critical cycle times to lower costs and continually improve performance 1 1 . Understand the true costs of sourcing overseas. Calculate freight, duty, brokerage, and inventory carrying costs to support these lengthened supply chains. Also factor in such items as the costs of engineers flying overseas. Once you understand the true total landed cost and total impact to the business 12. Fo cus on eliminating the variability out of transit times.The more variable the transit times are, the more likely it is that the receiving party is using more premium freight, building buffers of inventory, or ordering more often and more quantity than necessary to compensate for the uncertainty. Understanding these dynamics can lead to the conclusion that paying higher freight costs to insure higher variability actually saves your company in total costs. 13. Control your express shipping costs. Typically when a company runs into a supply chain issue, it will have an entire shipment sent on an express/expedited highest cost) service level basis.Panicking often results in higher costs. If the company would Just do a little bit of calculating it can determine the amount of goods that are needed immediately and have that amount sent using express/expedited service level, while the balance ot the shipment can be sent using a standard (lower cost) service level. 14. Informed decision-maki ng. Provide to the decision-makers/ customers of your logistics network the cost of freight for each service level, the reliability of each lane for each service level, and the true cost of carrying inventory so they can make informed decisions.People generally want to be good corporate citizens and will select the less expensive option that still meets their needs CHARACTERISTICS OF COST REDUCTION (HARD COST SAVINGS) The following are the characteristics of â€Å"Hard† cost savings, which is understood as tangible bottom line reductions are: year-on-year saving over the constant volume of purchased product/service, actions that can be traced directly to the Profit and Loss Account, direct reduction of expense or a change in process/technology/policy that directly reduces expenses, process improvements that result in real and measurable ost or asset reductions, examination of existing products or services, contractual agreements, or processes to determine potential changes th at reduce cost, and net reductions in prices paid for items procured when compared to prices in place for the prior 12 months or a change to lower cost alternatives. COST AVOIDANCE (SOFT COST SAVINGS) â€Å"Soft† cost avoidance is much more difficult to define.The following are Suggested definitions, which includes: Cost avoidance is a cost reduction that does not lower the cost of products/services when compared against historical results, but rather inimizes or avoids entirely the negative impact to the bottom line that a price increase would have caused, when there is an increase in output or capacity without increasing resource expenditure, in general, the cost avoidance savings are the amount that would have been spent to handle the increased volume or output, and Cost avoidances include process improvements that do not immediately reduce cost or assets but provide benefits through improved process efficiency, employee productivity, improved customer satisfaction, improv ed competitiveness, over time to mention the few, cost avoidance often becomes cost savings. N. B: Cost avoidance is a cost reduction that results from a spend that is lower than the spend that would have otherwise been required if the cost avoidance exercise had not been undertaken.This accounts for the situations where spend is higher due to higher demand but overall cost per unit is lower, where up-front investments reduce overall spend in one or more categories over a multi-year initiative, and where a process improvement or product replacement resulted in a lower operating cost or cost per unit compared to what the company would have spent had the company not improved the process or replaced the product. To Sum up, if the organization adopts this open definition of cost avoidance, and maintains a document of common examples and their associated metrics, which is updated each time a new type of project is encountered that could result in a cost avoidance, the organization can fu lly quantify the â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† savings delivered by the sourcing team to the management team.Measures of Cost Avoidance: Resisting or delaying a supplier's price increase, this is one of the ways of cost avoidance whereby the organization use techniques to resist or delay supplier price increase in avoiding cost. Use of purchase price that is lower than the original quoted price, The organization purchases its requirements at a lower price than what was initially quoted by the supplier so as to avoid cost. Value of additional services at no cost, the firm makes sure it avoid or prevent cost by making sure after sale services are obtained for free for instance installation, free training. Long-term contracts with price-protection provisions,the firm enters into long term contracts with the aim of cost sharing with the supplier. Introduction of a new product or part number requiring a new material purchases and spend is lower.COST REDUCTION CHALLENGES Some of the challenges faced by a company as they seek to assess cost reduction include: Cancellation of net savings due to an increase in the business unit's cost structure, Supply management's role in the cost savings allocation decision, Chronology of supply management's involvement and the need for budget cuts, Visibility, in terms of systems, people, and metrics, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concept for purchases items/services, Multi-year issues in cost savings, and Creating a proper incentive structure for supply management personnel. TYPES OF COST REDUCTION AND AVOIDANCE The following are types of cost reduction and avoidance that need to be recognized as valid cost savings. This section presents some types of cost reduction and cost avoidance that can contribute significantly to the organization's bottom line.Negotiated Discounts against Material Cost Increases If the products being sourced are primarily made from a commodity whose average market price or index has increased si gnificantly since the last sourcing cycle, and a buyer manages to negotiate a price that increases less than the increase in underlying material costs since the last sourcing event, this is a valid cost avoidance. Substitution If a buyer manages to find another product that performs the same function, or is able to collaborate with a supplier to produce a functionally equivalent specification that is more economical to produce, then the buyer has obtained a cost reduction on behalf of the organization.. Waived Fees This form of cost avoidance is quite self-explanatory.For example, if a supplier normally charges an installation fee for a new piece of equipment, but the buyer is able to negotiate free installation, than this would be an example of cost avoidance of the waived fee variety. Another example would be free training or services. However, this is one example where the cost avoidance is not equal to what the vendor quotes, but what the market average for the service is.. Inve ntory Reduction This occurs when the buyer comes up with a strategy to reduce the inventory that the organization needs to hold at any given time. Since all inventories is associated with a carrying cost, inventory reduction often represents significant cost savings to an organization over time.Inventory can be reduced when a buyer finds a supplier who can handle a snorter lead time or when inventory is turned over to a vendor who pecializes in inventory management (Vendor Managed Inventory). Process Improvement Processes consume overhead, and overhead costs money. Thus, any significant process improvement could represent a significant cost avoidance to an organization. However, unlike the other types of cost avoidance, process improvement cost reductions can be a bit tricky to evaluate. The key is to look at the average number of units of product or work produced per day, week, or month prior to the improvement and the number of units of product or work produced per day, week, or m onth after the improvement and calculate a percentage improvement N.B: By doing this, the organization will have clearly defined cost reduction efforts, tied them to savings, defined their relative importance, and defined the share of the credit that will go to supply management in a cross-functional initiative. The organization will also have avoided the problem where the team over concentrates on finding â€Å"hard† dollar savings, which is a serious problem if raw material and energy costs keep rising significantly and the largest savings potential is in the â€Å"soft† savings realized by long- term process and product improvements. Transloading to Maximize Cost Savings By Deborah Catalano Ruriani Tags: Transportation Management Transloading offers a cost-effective way to bring ocean containers inland to distribution centers.By transferring cargo without sorting the contents for shipment to a single destination, transloading services can reduce total landed costs, and† when combined with value-added services such as palletizing and shrink-wrapping† reduce handling at the destination. Jeff McCorstin, senior vice president of air and ocean products for UPS Global Freight Forwarding, offers these tips for maximizing savings with transloading services. 1 . Understand general transloading rules. Transloading offers the greatest cost savings when ocean containers can be consolidated into fewer, larger domestic trailers. The cargo in three 40-foot ocean containers typically fits into two 53-foot domestic trailers. . Ensure overall transportation savings outweigh additional handling costs. Sometimes the savings are negated for destinations located farther east from the U. S. West Coast discharge port. 3. Consider palletizing cargo during transloading. To best use space in ocean containers, cargo is rarely palletized at the point of origin. Palletize during the ransloading process to improve distribution center (DC) handling efficiency. 4. Factor transloading into transit time estimates. Unloading, handling, and reloading ocean container cargo near the port of discharge takes time. Allow up to three days to ensure customer delivery commitments are met. 5.Ensure your cargo fits the bill. Transload operators charge additional fees for containers with more than a certain number of cartons. The additional costs for containers with several thousand small cartons could offset any transportation savings. 6. Ensure handling flexibility by making Customs entry at the port. While it is a common practice to clear ocean containers at their tinal inland destinations, it is better to make entry at the port ot discharge. This ensures maximum flexibility in handling cargo, and eliminates the need to move the shipment in-bond, saving additional costs. 7. Increase supply chain efficiency with merge-in-transit offerings.This type of deconsolidation allows importers to combine products arriving in containers from different origins/shipp ers by transloading near the port of arrival into domestic trailers. And if importers source from domestic suppliers†who may also have product arriving via container†this argo can be merged in transit to arrive together at the designated DC. 8. Use transloading to expedite delivery to final destination. Transloading near the port of discharge provides the flexibility to bypass DCs and speed delivery to the end customer. The reduced DC handling charges and improved time in transit can help trim supply chain costs. 9. Avoid costly containers.Instead of shipping less-than- containerload, 20-foot, or light-loaded 40-foot containers from multiple overseas vendors to your inland DC, ship fully loaded/optimized containers to a single container freight station near the port of discharge. From there, they can be transloaded, merged in transit with other inbound cargo, and shipped to the final destination using the transport mode that best fits the importer's needs. 10. Set up tra nsloading programs in advance. Having your service provider involved in coordinating with the origin forwarder translates into better service levels and reliability. Flexible Structure Flexible operations are preplanned contingency strategies to prevent logistical failures.A typical emergency occurs when an assigned shipping facility is out of stock or for some other reason cannot complete a customer's order. For example, a warehouse may be out of an item with no replenishment inventory scheduled to arrive until after the customer's specified order delivery date. To prevent back- ordering or delivery cancellation, a contingency operating policy may assign the total order, or at least those items not available, for shipment from an alternative warehouse. The use of flexible operations is typically based on the importance of meeting the needs of a specific customer or the critical nature of the product being ordered.A flexible logistics capability that has gained popularity as a resul t of mproved communications involves procedures for serving predetermined situations as part of the basic logistical strategy. The flexible logistics rule and decision scenarios specify alternative ways to meet specific service requirements, such as assignment of the order to different shipping facilities or changing methods of delivery. A strategy that utilizes flexible operations is common practice in four different situations. First, the customer designated delivery facility might be near a point of equal logistics cost or equal delivery time from two different logistics facilities. Customers located at such points offer the supplying firm an opportunity to fully utilize available inventory and logistical capacity.Orders can be serviced from the facility having the best inventory position or the available transportation capacity to achieve timely delivery. This form of flexible logistics offers a way to fully utilize system capacity by balancing workloads between facilities while protecting customer service commitments. The benefit is operating efficiency, which is transparent to the customer, who experiences no service deterioration. A second situation Justitying lexible distribution is when the size of a customer's order creates an opportunity to improve logistical efficiency if serviced through an alternative channel arrangement. For example, the lowest-total-cost method to provide small shipment delivery may be through a distributor.In contrast, larger shipments may have the lowest total logistical cost when shipped factory direct to customers. Provided that alternative methods of shipment meet customer delivery expectations, total logistical cost may be reduced by implementing flexible policies. A third type of flexible operation may result from a selective inventory stocking strategy. The cost and risk associated with stocking inventory require careful analysis to determine which items and how much to place in each warehouse. With replacement parts, a common strategy mentioned earlier is to stock selected items in specific warehouses with the total line being stocked only at a central facility.In general-merchandise retailing, a store or distribution center located in a small community may stock only a limited or restricted version of a firm's total line. When customers desire nonstocked items, orders must be satisfied from an alternative facility. The term master facilities is ften used to describe inventory strategies that designate larger facilities for backup support of smaller restricted facilities. Selective inventory stocking by echelon level is a common strategy used to reduce overall inventory risk. The reasons for selective stocking range from low product profit contribution to high per-unit cost of inventory maintenance.One way to operationalize a fine-line inventory classification strategy is to differentiate stocking policy by system echelons. In situations following such classified stocking strategies, it may be ne cessary to obtain advanced customer approval for split-order delivery. However, in some situations firms that use differentiated inventory stocking strategies are able to consolidate customer orders while intransit for same-time delivery, thereby making the arrangement customer transparent. The fourth type of flexible operations results from agreements between firms to move selected shipments outside the established echeloned or direct logistics arrangements.Two special arrangements gaining popularity are flow through cross-docks and service supplier arrangements. A cross-dock operation involves shipments from multiple suppliers arriving at a designated time at the handling facility. Inventory receipts are sorted by destination across the dock and consolidated into outbound trailers for direct delivery. Cross-dock operations are growing in popularity in the retail industry for building store-specific assortments and are common methods of continuous inventory replenishment for mass m erchants. Cross-docking of merchandise direct from manufacture to a customer's retail store eliminates the work and cost associated with utilizing distribution warehouses.Another form of flexible operations is to use integrated service providers to consolidate products for delivery. This is similar to consolidation for ransportation purposes discussed in the previous section of this chapter. However, as a form of flexible logistics, specialists are used to avoid storage and handling of slow-moving products through the mainstream of the echeloned logistics structure. Such service providers can also provide important value-added services. For example, Starbucks Coffee Company has a long standing relationship with OHL, a logistics service provider. Starbucks has approximately 17,000 company-owned and licensed retail outlets.O L provides logistical support to Starbucks by ottering the typical range of 3PL services plus technology support. This operating relationship has existed for over a decade. Figure 2. 5 introduces flexibility to the logistical operating structures previously illustrated. A prerequisite to effective flexible operations is the use of information technology to monitor inventory status throughout the logistical network and provide the capability to rapidly switch methods for servicing customer orders. The use of flexible operations in emergency situations has a well-established track record. The overall improvement in information technology is resulting in flexible operations becoming an increasingly important part of basic logistics trategy.Cutting Costs From Your Logistics Budget Tags: Supply Chain Management If you want to reduce logistics costs, you have to take the time to review your processes. Nathan Pieri, senior vice president of marketing and product management for Rutherford, N. J. -based Management Dynamics, offers these tips for trimming your logistics budget. 10 tips for reducing supply chain logistics costs Aug. 9, 2005 Berme Hart EMAIL Tweet Comments O As companies continue to manufacture and source materials from overseas, controlling costs remains a top priority for those involved in international trade. One ey factor that should be monitored more closely is logistics management, which covers all activities relating to the procurement, transport, transshipment and storage of goods.Depending on the industry sector, supply chain logistics costs account from 5% to 50% of a product's total landed cost. Some issues effecting logistics costs: Fuel prices remain high and ports continue to experience delays, resulting in higher transportation fees. Increasingly complex international trade laws and security measurements threaten to lengthen delivery times and increase warehousing costs. According to a recent report by TechnologyEvaluation. om, a typical air-freight shipment takes eight to twelve days. Of this, the cargo is en route only 5% of the time. The rest is spent sitting in warehouses waiting for the require d documents and compliance checks.Following are 10 Tips on Reducing Supply Chain Logistics Costs: 1 that domestic buy may look a lot better. Sourcing from Ohio to your U. S. plant, distribution center or customer may, in the long run, be more cost effective than sourcing from China. Taritt engineering. Strategically source and manutacture products to take advantage of classification duty rates and eligibility for special trade programs such s NAFTA. 4. Consolidate. If you have multiple suppliers in one country, consolidate their goods into one shipment. In addition, if you always have LCL (less than container load) shipments out of one country, try to find another LCL importer of goods from that country.You may be able to partner and consolidate to a more cost-effective FCL (full container load) shipment. 5.. 6. Sometimes insurance doesn't pay. Often when a company has a shipment of premium goods they tend to use the Carrier's Insurance. Carriers Insurance is very expensive. If the company is self insured, which most companies are, they should heck their insurance policy to see if it covers shipment of goods. If it does, then they do not need to add the extra cost of Carrier's Insurance. 7. Automate compliance processes. Companies that implement software solutions to automate trade compliance are able to speed the cycle times associated with tasks being performed manually, such as document preparation, and eliminate the associated errors.Automated compliance procedures also bring fewer delays at border crossings, resulting in on-time delivery, adequate inventory levels, increased customer satisfaction, and the avoidance of fines. 8.. 9. Planes, trains and automobiles. Which is cheapest? In general, rail is more cost- effective than trucking or air. Water is cheaper than air shipment. No matter the mode of delivery, always try to get three quotes for movements. 10. Be aware of non-tariff trade barriers. Companies need to be more aware of the increasing level of non-tariff trade barriers that are in force to reduce sweat shop labor and support human rights and animal welfare issues. These restrictions can bring importers increased liability and compliance costs.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Promote equality and Inclusion in health and social Essay

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. Diversity Diversity is the difference between individuals and groups. This can be the differences in culture, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, gender, age, social class or abilities. Equality Equality is the promotion of individual’s rights; it is giving the individual choice and opportunity. It is giving the individual respect and treating them fair. As a health and social care worker you should provide care and support to meet the own individuals needs and preferences. see more:inclusion in health and social care Inclusion In health and Social care Inclusion is when the individuals are at the centre of planning and support. An example of this is providing person centred care plans and ensure that the individual was part of putting this together. Discrimination and Inclusive Practice There are many different forms of discrimination, ‘direct discrimination’, ‘indirect discrimination’, and ‘institutional discrimination’. Discrimination can lead to individuals being treated less favourably than others, losing chances for opportunity, become labelled and be stereotyped and can cause a loss of self-esteem. Inclusive practice promotes equality and supports diversity. In health and social care settings there are policies and procedures that promote inclusive practice and challenge discrimination, they promote rights, empower individuals and remove any barriers restricting them. Individual’s differences should be valued and celebrated. Working in an Inclusive way. In health and Social care there are legislations, codes of practice and policies in the workplace setting relating to equality, diversity and  discrimination. These include the human rights act 1998, the disability discrimination act 2005, Special educational needs and disability act 2001, Race relations (Amendment) act 2000, The equality act 2010, and the European convention on human rights. The way you interact with an individual can show whether you respect that individuals beliefs, culture, values and preferences. In your workplace setting, whether you are interacting with colleagues or service users it is important that you use active listening and is helpful if you have a knowledge of individuals, for example beliefs, cultures, values and preferences. Be able to maintain and individual’s confidentiality where appropriate and communicate in the individuals prefer method. Promote diversity, equality and Inclusion An example of Inclusive practice is encouraging choices, independence, empowering them as individuals and removing any barriers to access. Promote equality and rights, for example opportunity’s should be provided and the access according to the individuals needs. As a health and social care worker it is important that you can recognise discrimination and challenge it. Recognise stereotypes in attitudes or written materials and understand and be able to adapt own beliefs and attitudes. You should know how to report concerns regarding discrimination according to own policy and procedures.