Musa

Satisfied with the public transport regarding safety, cleanliness, frequency, Station service and Mike. And vast majority of students agreed that Melbourne public transport system work effectively; however, all the students in the survey are international and they believe they must get a travel concession card. Table of contents 1 Introduction 1 Background 2 Scope 3 Aim 4 Hypothesis 2 Methodology 3 Result 4 Conclusion 5 Recommendation 6 Bibliography 7 Appendix 05 10 Australia public transport fare is increasing every year, and for many years were the most expensive overall.Melbourne fares are the most expensive in Australia. Public transport cost is much higher than petrol in the car. Based on primary and secondary research, this report will analyze whether MIT students are satisfied with public transport or not . The aspects are 1 . Money, 2. Usage, 3. Satisfaction 1. 1 Background It has been said that Melbourne public transport service levels are unattractive to those with the opti on of car travel, and as a result public transport is neither convenient nor cheap.What it needs is a planning overhaul and competitive fares. This idea also support by survey â€Å"Melbourne fares are comparatively cheap â€Å". However on the other side, the statistics tell different story about the cost of the public transport. Recent figures from a Federal Government report suggested that the Variable cost' to households of commuting by car is $63 per week in the inner city and $82 per week in the outer suburbs, while the cost of commuting by public transport is Just $36 and $41 per week respectively. Melbourne fares are comparatively cheap† Another survey (Department of Infrastructure and transport, 2013) has shown that Australian use passenger vehicle vastly more than public transport. This survey also shows that , males use more public transport than female o get work or study,but older men prefer public transport and older women prefer passenger vehicle according to survey. In term of satisfaction, Australian satisfied with tram, bus and train. According (Public Transport performance, 2012) that overall satisfaction is increased recent year.It also provided that Australian satisfied bus more than tram and train. When it comes to frequency again bus performed vast more than tram and train. Bus and tram both performed same amount of service, train service is performed 98 percent but it is 1 percent less than bus and tram. Bus performed more in all the section of satisfaction performance. . 2 Scope : This report is limited to three aspects of the broader question â€Å"Are MIT students use public transport? † The aspects are 1 . Money, 2. Usage, 3. Satisfaction.Furthermore, the sample of the research is only 51 subjects. This is due to constraints of MIT students. 1. 3 Tit-n The aim of this report is to find out whether MIT students prefer public transport or not if yes then how often they use and how much they pay. This also depends on the ir satisfaction toward public transport. 1. 4 Hypothesis : This report assumes that MIT students spend more money than the rest of the Australian on public transport. In terms of Public transport use, it is believed that MIT student use more public transport compares to Australian.When it comes to satisfaction both MIT student and Australian are satisfied with public transport. 2 Methodology: This research project was carried out was through a survey. This survey consists of 17 questions and the sample size is 51 who are students from MIT. The nationalities are: Pakistan , India, Vietnamese, China, Nepal. In total there were 39 Male and 12 Female. 3 Results: fig 1 Usage By Gender fig 2 MIT Students prefer Public Transport significantly more than Private, is nine times ore popular than private. So the given pie chart shows that student use more public transport .And the most interesting figure 2 in Bar chart is Female use less public transport than Male. Male use 92% and female use l esser than it is 83%. So female more prefer her own transport. The bar chart shows about the experience of public transport regarding to cost . More MIT Student are reasonably to very satisfy with the cost. While the other major proportion is good, mostly MIT student are satisfied with the cost of the public transport . An the other hand, only 15% student doesn't satisfied with cost. This is the most popular question in our survey .The vast majority 74% MIT student want 50 percent concession on their mike . 8% students demand 40% concession on their tickets. And half of that want 30% concession. Interestingly, not a single student demand concession less than 20%. Melbourne Public Transport Work Effectively Bar chart shows that vast majority of MIT students are agree that public transport in Melbourne work effectively. 76% of the Male student happy with the public transport as same as female students, while one third female are disagree with this statement and half of that male stude nts are also have same opinion.The vast majority of students think that Public transport is cheap to get to MIT. Graph shows that 80% students prefer public transport on car ;however, one fourth of the students prefer car . 4 Conclusion: The aim of this report is to find out whether MIT students prefer public transport or not if yes then how often they use and how much they pay. This also depends on their satisfaction toward public transport. The original hypothesis of this report shows that MIT students spend more money than the rest of the Australian on public transport, which is similar to the result of the secondary research.The reason is that secondary research shows that Australian cost of commuting by public transport is not much higher. The Hypothesis stated that MIT students spend more than Australian and this is what result shows because of more usage of public transport. This Research looked at in terms of Public transport use, it is believed that MIT student use more pub lic transport compares to Australian, which is similar to the findings of secondary research. The Reason is that mostly MIT students have international students and they did not have other option than public transport.Also remarry research static shows that MIT student more public transport as compared to Private. Finally, When it comes to satisfaction both MIT student and Australian are satisfied with public transport, which is similar to the result of secondary research. Because Majority of MIT students are Satisfied with the public transport regarding safety, cleanliness, frequency, Station service and Mike. And vast majority of students agreed that Melbourne public transport system work effectively. 5 Recommendation: It is highly recommended that to the Government must give concession card to the international students .Also frequency of the public transport should be increased. One of the common recommendation from the students to give free internet in the public transport. So, figures make clear for us that public transport is cost saving but fares are only part of the public transport choice equation. Just as important – indeed, probably more important – are ‘convenience' factors such as short waiting times, decent travel speeds, reliable and plentiful service, cleanliness, and friendly staff. One needs a good quality of service as well as competitive pricing. 6 Bibliography: Australian Social Trends. (2013).

Library catalog Essay

Today, libraries are intensified and triggered by many advances and rapid inventions of science and technology that are greatly affecting the library operations as a whole. The non-stop discoveries of this new technology, particularly computers, redefined the role of libraries. A library is a collection of information, sources, resources, books, and services, and the structure in which it is housed. It is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In a more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books (â€Å"Library†, 2009). The library, more than any instrument of the society, is open to public use and the knowledge embodied in books are the foundation of a society to attain or develop more the potentialities of man which in return, will be a great factor in the progress of a nation. The library has the responsibility to upgrade its status through open access to these advances, to develop a plan of action in order to contribute and to become an effective partner especially in instruction, research and extension programs of an educational institute (Enem, 2002). From the statements above it is proven that the library has a big role not only to the students but also to the society and our country. Through the help of modern technology and information system, the library circulation system can improve. Library circulation or library lending comprises the activities around the lending of library books and other material to users of a lending library. A circulation or lending department is one of the key departments of a library (â€Å"LC†, 2009). Library circulation provides lending services and facilities for return of loaned items. Renewal of materials and payment of fines are also handled at the circulation desk. Circulation staff may provide basic search and reference services, though more in-depth questions are usually referred to reference librarians at the library reference desk. The circulation desk is in most cases staffed by library aides instead of professional librarians. The functions of the circulation desk staff may include the lending materials to library users, checking in materials returned, monitoring materials for damage and routing them to the appropriate staff for repair or replacement, troubleshooting circulation technology, i.e. library circulation software, scanners, printers, etc. , and collecting statistics on library use, i. e. patron transactions, material checkouts, etc. The two categories of Information System (IS) are the manual or traditional system and automatic or also known as Computer-Based Information System (CBIS). Before the use of CBIS, all the data are processed manually in a traditional system, where all the information are written and stored in different files. Sometimes, this process is called non-computerized system. Non-computerized is not efficient because it consumes a lot of time to find and update the information. To eliminate this problem, a new system was created which is known as computerized system or CBIS. Computer-Based Information Systems (CBIS) is composed of hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, people, and procedures that are configured to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into information (Abraham, 2009). The library of University of the Philippines Diliman was established in 1922 has grappled with four basic concerns: the book fund, staff development, library services and information technology. And in 1999 the university had opened an online public access catalog and launched the university library web. Another school that has a library system running in web based is the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in 1999. Each year, the school library acquires new resources and upgrades equipment for the use of students. As of august 2009, the library has a collection of over 122,000 book titles and more than 45,000 titles of electronic books. Using CBIS nowadays as a tool for development not only uplifts a company’s reputation, but also help fix things to the best. And also by using the intranet as a platform of the system can be a great help for improving the services of the library. An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization’s information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization’s internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization’s computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration (King, 2002). Mr. A. T. Valdes, the librarian of NPCMSTI said that the library is an instrument that is used to provide data and information needed by the student in his study by collecting books that are important in their subjects as references. He added that from the books collected and selected, they are maintained in  order to be available to the students when the need it (personal communication, April 6, 2002). In addition, there are problems encountered in the manual or traditional library system of NPCMSTI based from the study conducted by the students of NPCMSTI. These include more effort and slow inventory of books, inefficient searching of books, inefficient generation of reports, and inefficient monitoring of books. The library has more than 4000 number of books and monitoring all these books require a lot of time and effort (Carreon, Delmendo, Maala, Mendoza & Penequito, 2008). Considering the advantages brought by CBIS and the problems encountered in the existing library system of NPCMSTI, the researcher decided to propose a computerized library system for NPCMSTI. Company Background The vision of the NPCMSTI library is to be a functional media center for meritorious resources especially in Nautical Science or Marine Transportation, Marine Engineering, Computer Science, Criminology, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and Technical Vocational courses towards an excellent training development of professionals, diligent seafarers and skilled workers in the community. Its mission is to seek endeavor to provide quality service and to support the school’s educational programs, planning, research and extension services and instructional needs of the academic through stipulating bits of information comprehensively in any structure, in any part of the country, and of the whole world. Quality Objectives. The school library has the following objectives: (1) to strengthen and upgrade the library resources; (2) to upgrade library facilities and equipment;(3) to train personnel to enhance their technical skills and competitiveness; and (4) to link and network with local, national and international institutions. The library has a total of 11,832 book collections from the Degree courses to Non-Degree courses. The primary function of a library system are to facilitate the loan of books to borrowers, record receipt of returned books, and keep track of the status of books that should be returned. Reference Services. The obligation of the library is to render full assistance to readers in using the library and its contents. The librarian handles library resources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, biographies, atlases, and gazetteers. Orientation. The librarian’s unique responsibility is to utilize fully his resources in making as nearly certain as possible that the best materials for the particular purpose find their way to the readers. Also, the librarian serves as the mediator between man and the graphic records that he and his previous generations have produced and that the goal of the library is to maximize the social utility of graphic records for the benefit of the society. Library Hours. The library is open with its continuous hour service, from Monday to Friday which starts from 7:30 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. Responsibilities of the Library Staff. The Northern Philippines College for Maritime, Science and Technology Library is manned by a Librarian, Assistant Librarian, and Library assistants. The Librarian shall administer the library, direct the activities of the staff, keep financial records of the library, keep records of the replacement of books, in charge of collecting and monitoring late fees, select and purchase books, library materials and supplies, stimulate growth of library services, attend library meetings or seminars, undertake indexing, classification and cataloging books and non-book materials and maintain relations to publishers and distributors. The Assistant Librarian shall take charge in absence of the librarian, help the librarian in indexing, classifying and cataloging of books and responsible for materials like clippings, periodicals and other documents, take charge in clipping and binding press and reviews, undertake the processing of books and non-book materials from putting accession number and stamping ownership mark to shelving. The Library Assistant shall issue and retrieve books at the circulation section, do the shelving and shelf reading of books retrieved, Paste torn pages of books and periodicals, undertake filing of clippings in the vertical file, type book cards, paste pockets and date due slips in books, cover books with plastic cover, stamp on books and periodicals, and file cards in the card catalogue. Cataloging and Classification. In the cataloging and classification of the book collections, the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules is adopted and the method used to describe an item that the library acquired. Also, the Dewey Decimal Classification System, the Sears List of Subject Heading and the Cutter Number of Tables are used in the NPCMSTI library. Borrowers. The student registered in the college, faculty members, staff, administrators, alumni of the college, and scholars or researchers from other institutions or organizations with endorsement letter from their librarians can use the services of the library. Importance of the Study This study is important to the following entities: To the Community. Through the help of this study it shall uplift the community’s education of the Filipinos by improving the services of the library. To the NPCMSTI. The output of the study shall be a great aid to the people using the library in the school. By improving and implementing the computerized system, books are monitored and also the quality of service that the school renders shall be uplifted and it also helps meet the vision and mission of the school. To the Staff-in Charge. The output of the study shall help easy recording and accessing of books records. By this study, librarians can monitor the status of the book at the library if it is available or borrowed. They can easily generate book reports such as available books, borrowed books, and inventory of the books by category. From this they shall save time and effort, and they can do more output in simple way. To the Faculty. The study would be beneficial to them for faster searching of the book information. By using the computerized system, the instructor can determine the book information in which they can use as their references in their subjects that they are teaching. They can also determine the book status whether it is available or borrowed by using the search feature of the system. From this they can save more time and effort. To the Students. The study would be beneficial to them in which searching of the book information would be faster. By using the computerized system, the student can determine the book information and also the book status if it is available or borrowed by using the search feature of the system or if they know the title of the book they want to borrow, they can easily determine if that book is available at the library, from this study they can save more time and effort. To other Researchers. This shall be a reference in conducting studies related to computer on wider prospective and may also serve as a basis for further study related to computer program. To the Researcher. Through this, the researcher shall be able to determine and appreciate the impact using technology for the productivity of every individual. Statement of the Problem The main aim of the study was to design and develop a computerized library circulation system for NPCMSTI. Specifically, the project aimed to answer the following questions: 1. What are the processes involved in the existing library circulation system of NPCMSTI along the areas on: a) borrowing and returning of books and other reading materials, and b) inventory of books and other reading materials, and  report generation? 2. What system features can be incorporated in the proposed library system in terms of: a) functionalities, b) back-up and restoration facilities, and c) security and control measures? Objectives of the Study The researcher aimed to design and develop a computerized library circulation system for NPCMSTI. Specifically, the study aimed to achieve the following: 1. Identify the processes involved in the existing library circulation system of NPCMSTI along the areas on: a) borrowing and returning of books and other reading materials, and  b) inventory of books and other reading materials, and report generation. 2. To determine the system features that can be incorporated in the proposed library system in terms of: a) functionalities, b) back-up and restoration facilities, and c) security and control measures. Definition of Terms The following terms are operationally defined: Administration. This refers to the supervision of the library by full-time, professionally-trained staff under a well-defined organizational setup. Back-up. This is the capability of the system to create a copy of the database. Book Category. The classification of a books as Filipiniana or Foreign. Borrowing of books. This is the process of lending available books and reading materials at the library. Inventory of Books. The process of generating a list of books borrowed, list of books available, and list of Filipiniana books and Foreign books by course. Filipiniana. These are books and non-book materials, published in the Philippines or abroad, written by Filipinos in any dialects or in English. Foreign. These are books and non-book materials, published in the Philippines or abroad, written by foreigners in any dialects or in English. Library System Functionality Features. These are the functions that are incorporated in the system such as searching of books, and verifying of borrowed books and returned books. Library Automation. It is an innovation using the computer to enhance the operation of the library. Library Circulation. It is comprised of the activities around the lending and borrowing of library books and other material to users. Library Environment. This refers to the physical condition, site, facilities and equipment of the library. Library Resources. This refers to the library personnel, book collection, services and use of the library. Non-print. These are non-book materials in various formats and style. Readers Services. These are services provided to customer such as bibliographical instruction on the effective use of the library, abstracting, information retrieval, reader’s guidance, and indexing. Report Generation. The process of generating a report on books needed by the librarian. Restore. Capability of the system that restores backup database into the system. Returning of Books. The process of returning the borrowed book at the library by the borrower. Searching of Books. The process of searching books at the library. Security measures. These are the computer controls that the library system will adopt in-order to protect the information or data in the database. Services. These are the activities that ensures maximum access and availability of resources and satisfactory use of the Library. Staff. They are the human resource of the library that maintains the services. This includes the professionals and the non-professional staff.

Smallpox Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Smallpox - Essay Example Even when not fatal, the disease can cause significant disfigurement and scarring. It was once the scourge of mankind, wreaking havoc across the European continent for centuries. Fortunately, modern medicine has determined the variola virus to be the only known cause of smallpox, making it possible to contain the illness by eliminating the variola virus. Uncontrolled, a smallpox outbreak can be expected to infect approximately 30 percent of those individuals exposed to it. Approximately 30 percent of these can be expected to die from the infection. The potential of the illness for use as a biological weapon has been proven in the past with its introduction to the ‘new continent’ and its use in decimating the American Indian tribes while more recent research suggests it retains a highly dangerous potential in the modern world setting. According to Henderson (et al, 1999), â€Å"researchers estimate that only 10-100 virus particles are necessary to infect someone† w hile inoculation supplies and efforts are insufficient to meet the challenge. An understanding of the history of the illness illustrates the importance for the nation’s healthcare workers to be familiar with the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, prevention efforts and gaps in information regarding this illness. For centuries, the smallpox virus plagued mankind, regularly decimating populations in Europe and Asia as the virus was passed from person to person throughout the world on a continuous basis. Smallpox does not survive in animals nor is it known to be a carrier disease, in the sense that individuals might carry the illness without suffering its ill effects, so it can only survive as long as there are humans to suffer from it and more humans for these to pass it along to. With all the devastation that the illness caused, it wasn’t until 1796 before the first experimental vaccine against the illness was

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Customer Satisfaction Assignment

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Customer Satisfaction strategy - Assignment Example The success of a product often related to the influence of the advertisement performed. Sometimes the lack of advertisement may kill the product whereas at times attractive advertisement may save a poor product. So the planning of different types of advertising activities through Medias such as Television, Print media, internet, etc is very important. People respond to new products in different ways. Customer feedback is another area which the new product developers should concentrate. Based on the feedbacks, the product may require some fine tuning. Beta testing is a strategy adopted by even biog companies like Microsoft when they introduce a new product in the market. Windows Vista and Windows 7 etc entered the market after beta testing. This chapter briefly analyses the advertising and promotional strategies, effectiveness of advertising, measuring customer satisfaction etc with respect to the new product virtual sex software. Identification of the target market is the first step before planning the advertising and promotional strategies for the virtual sex software. Li (2007) has mentioned that identification of the demographics and psychographics is important for the successful marketing of a new product (Li, 2007). Virtual sex software mainly targets the sexually disabled persons and the teenagers and hence the advertising strategies should focus to address such people in the market. Advertising channels like internet, e-mails, Short Messaging Services (SMS), television, print media etc can be used effectively for giving details about the virtual sex software to the customers. It is better to advertise the new product with the help of a brand ambassador. A well known celebrity can be utilized for the advertisements of this product. Attractive captions and audio visual advertisements may develop enthusiasm among the customers about the new product. Some case studies and testimonials from the satisfied customers may better influence the target

How should one live Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

How should one live - Coursework Example However, we should not forget that all people are linked to the earth. In this regard, we are all connected, and this connectedness requires us to live in harmony and ecologically conscious. The question on how an individual should live is significant to human existence. Aristotle provided an explanation on how one should live through the concept of eudaimonia (Pojman, 2005). This concept was translated to imply happiness, fulfillment and human flourishing. Aristotle gave this answer because he established that eudaimonia was the only goal of life that could be taken into account as "an end in itself, and not a means to another end" (Pojman, 2005). Aristotle can be viewed to have offered an appropriate manner to live, if such a thing subsists. He came up with eudaimonia through observing the virtues that were portrayed by people who seemed happy and flourish (Pojman, 2005). As it was, such people conducted themselves with some degree of courage, honesty, integrity, honor, fairness and rationality. Therefore, how one ought to live is concerned with ethics, which develops an individual’s virtuous character (Pojman, 2005). Notably, if an individual develops such a p ersonality, he or she understands the right thing to do and do

American Architecture in the Gilded Age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

American Architecture in the Gilded Age - Essay Example The researcher of this essay focuses on the discussion of The Gilded Age, that is a term that came to reflect the time of the greatest economic, territorial, industrial, and population expansion in American history. It was Mark Twain who gave us the Gilded Age, a novel that humored this period and most importantly portrayed its people , the time and the structures that can only be measured in the standards of opulence and fast transformations. The researcher states that although there are two sides on this term as it was coined as a satire, the period, which started from 1876, indeed, marked an epoch whose achievements are felt in the great men it has produced and the monuments that would influence what is to be the modern American architecture. Thus, it is not surprising to know that the â€Å"Gilded Age† provided a period of dynamism in the area of American architecture, that is a main focus of this essay. Firstly, the researcher discusses the Chicago World Fair of 1893 or m ore popularly known as the Columbian Exposition, that brought together the brightest minds of the â€Å"Gilded Age† in the field of architecture. Seconsly, the researcher discusses The Central Park, also called as â€Å"the Greensward,† designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux and was build in the 19th century. The researcher then concluds that architecture provides us not only an unparalleled insight if we are to study a society, but also an era or history as a whole and a sphere that will shape the history and the public.

Media kit for small business. Galaxica Media Essay

Media kit for small business. Galaxica Media - Essay Example The role of media in the sustainability of business assumes importance as media largely act as a tool for communication and have a significant role in positioning the firm in the business market. This is completely in tune with the Morgan’s metaphors which states that the business leadership should have abilities to analyze activities and devise alternative strategies. The study would contain the media kit for the firm with regards to its maintenance of sustainability while including elements like company policies as well as financial and human resource strategies of the organization. Company Fact Sheet Company Name Galaxica Media Location & when it was founded Galaxica media was established in November 2010 in London, UK. The company is presently headquartered in London UK. Mission Statement The mission statement of Galaxica media is stated below: The company aspires to be a customized service provider that provides multimedia solutions to businesses. The company aims to provide clear and simple multimedia programs designed to meet the individual needs of retail as well as corporate clients. The company would also provide multimedia solutions at an attractive price and provide continuous customer support to ensure complete satisfaction of the customer. Products Offered Galaxica media is mainly engaged in the entertainment business industry with its main product portfolio being in the area of animations and multimedia. The company’s product offering includes customized support for web design and multimedia effects for the entertainment industry. The company also provides web design support to different organizations. The company also provides 3D visual interfaces to customers engaged in the business of providing fun and entertainment. The web design team helps different organizations to design their websites according to their individual needs. This includes use of high end graphics that are designed keeping in mind the individual needs of the customers. Customers Targeted Galaxica media targets corporate clients which includes participants of the media industry. The company’s customized products are largely being used by media houses for their entertainment programs. The main clientele of the company forms the media a nd advertisement industry players who normally outsource some of their content creation and design to other players that have expertise in the area of graphics and multimedia. The clients of the firm also include business houses that generally outsource their web design aspect to include better graphics and looks. The company also targets different public sector organizations for design and development of their websites. Corporate Social and Ethical Responsibilities of the Company Corporate social responsibilities at Galaxica media would include strategies that tend to

Role of Strategic Information Systems in Airline Industry Essay

Role of Strategic Information Systems in Airline Industry - Essay Example At the end of the report a conclusion is given that further emphasizes the vitality of information technology in the industry, in general, and relates this importance with the business objectives of the organizations and their need to maintain a competitive edge in their current market. Every organization in modern business world, from and medium organizations to larger ones, depends on the updated use of information technology for their survival. For the larger companies the use of information technology is vital to maintain and control the amount of data involved. For example, Organizations like oil and gas supply companies, telecommunication giants and power and water companies cannot cope with the amount of customer bills every month or every quarter with out the use of information technology. The manual route to handle these jobs would be excessively complicated and will not allow the companies to make any profit. Such is the case with all the larger organizations such as banks and product based companies to all the major governments and government entities. The According to an article published in the IT supplement of The Daily Telegraph; larger organization today cannot last for as short as 24 hours if the IT support they enjoy is taken away from them (Laudo n & Laudon, 2006). Airline industry is one of the largest industries in the business world today. The amount of administrative and operations activities that are required is huge and extremely specialized in nature. The need of every small to medium and larger companies, in the airline industry, to remain in the development stage of their life cycle demands the usage

My Favorite Place Essay Example for Free

My Favorite Place Essay My favorite place is my grandmother’s house, and l like to be there every weekend. It’s large and big, almost two thousand meters in front of sea side. Every Thursday, we gather there with all family members. Sometimes we invite our friends to join us there. There is no place like my grandmother’s house. It is always welcoming everybody. It has two gardens, a swimming pool, a long car garage, and domestic animals. I will give you a small description for the two gardens at my grandmother’s house. When you enter through the gate, you will find on your left hand the first garden. My grandmother and the gardener were planting the beautiful trees and plants you have ever seen in Kuwait. Also you can hear the sounds of birds chirping and the sounds of pets. The next garden is on the other side of the house, facing the seaside. When you enter, you will smell scents. Such as; Jasmine, basil, cloves, and sea smell. The house from inside is very interesting because it has a modern mixed with classic furniture. It has a huge classic gate. Then on the right hand, you will find long stairs, and on the left side a wide area and in the middle a round table. In front of you, there is a living room, where we sit together there. It always feels cheerful, enjoyable, and welcoming. Next to the living room, you will find the dining room with a huge long table, enough for almost all the family members. My aunty always adds other long tables for the kids. We spend amazing time when we eat there; it is crowded and noisy when everyone wants to talk. On the second floor, you will find eight bedrooms with their bathrooms and a little preparatory kitchen. In the summer, we spend all of our time swimming in the pool or in the sea. It has a large and deep swimming pool. My aunt bought a jumping slide for the children to jump. That item makes us crazy and mad. Sometimes we sleep in my grandmother’s home specially to swim at nights in the moonlight. It is an amazing feeling. In the summer holiday, we were spending wonderful when my mother and father decide to let us sleep at my grandmother’s house. We are three sisters, three brothers, and with my cousins. We are about fifteen kids. We look like a gang and make my grandmother and aunt angry. We spend the most enjoyable days at my grandmother’s swimming pool and gardens. At the end, I like my grandmother’s house, and I have plenty of good memories with all my family members. Now, the house has the same smell. It is mix between flowers and incense smells. In weekends and summer holidays’ we spend the most enjoyable time there. My grandmother let to us sleep in her house, plays in the garden, and swims in the swimming pool or the sea. Thanks to my grandmother, mom, dad, aunties, uncles, and nannies who had been patient with us.

HR Activities: Nestle, Pakistan

HR Activities: Nestle, Pakistan Abstract The research pursues an eminent theme of human resource management, the costs and benefits of human resource activities in an organization. Importance of the HR-activities in an organization can not be under estimated, as the HR-activities directly or indirectly influence the performance of the organization. The following research will study the costs and benefits of HR-activities and its long-term and short-term influence on the performance of Nestlà ©, Pakistan. The study will be useful in those organizations which prospect an increment in the performance related to the HR-activities. The study will also identify if which activities are beneficial and less cost incurring for the organization, and how managers can make the investment decisions regarding the HR-activities. The positivism along with qualitative method of research have been adopted for the study, data will be collected from primary and as well as secondary resources. Research will be pursuing the objectives of the stu dy and will contribute to the vast subject of human resource management, namely the Human resource activities, the costs and benefits associated and its influence on the performance and management decisions. 1. Introduction: 1.1. Nestlà ©: The Case under Discussion Nestlà © headquartered in Switzerland, is a multinational organization carting the human needs and having its substantial presence in more than 86 larger countries of the world. Nestlà © has been serving Pakistani consumers since 1988. With market capitalisation increasing yearly at average rate of 28% till 2008, Nestlà © Pakistan having great diversity of workforce, employed 2377 people in 2008, with a net profit of 3005 (PKR) billion, which grew by 94% in 2009, Nestle shared 20.7 % of its profit to its employees in 2009. Nestlà © Pakistan has designed a number of programs to develop the human resources activities e-g world-wide training programs, benefit and compensation programs, adoption of new technologies etc. The following research will look into the costs and benefit of HR-activities of Nestlà © Pakistan, how these activities are conducted, invested and developed to achieve the objectives of the HR-unit and organization as a whole. 1.2. Background Good people produce good customers; is the philosophy of modern era. Efficient and effective human resources are vital for the successful organizations. An organization is said to be exultant if its human resources activities enhance its performance. It is very difficult task to manage the human resources in competitive and challenging environment. Organizations should consider specific proportion of the profit for investment in Human Resources to achieve high returns. Human resource activities mean the actions performed within all functions of the human resource management. Usually Human Resource activities include Payroll, Benefits, Recruiting, Training, Labour Relations, and Human Resources Information Systems. The reason of the following research is to study the costs and benefits of the HR-activities of Nestlà ©, Pakistan, to know that how Nestlà © develop and use its HR-activities to run its business successfully. What value the HR-activities are adding towards the Nestlà ©. 1.3. Rationale HR activities play key role in the development of organizational performance. So investment in Human Resource activities is an important decision to achieve the various objectives of the organization. However, investing without setting the clear objectives can prove to be disastrous for the business. Cost-benefit analysis should be kept in consideration before making the investment plan for HR-activates. Nestlà © has strived to achieve the best results through the strong strategies related to the investment in HR-activities. The intention to conduct this research is to explore the issues related to the costs and benefit of HR-activities at Nestlà ©, how Nestlà © develop its cost-benefit analysis, how it makes its HR related decisions and to what extent these decision are successful. Nestlà © has to evaluate the cost and benefit of an activity before investing in it, e-g should Nestle invest in training of existing employees or recruit new people with the required skills. To know whether to invest in the training program or in the recruitment program, organization must project the costs and possible benefits of the both HR-activities, and then take the relative decision. The research will probe that how Nestlà © decides about the human resource activities, how it considers the costs, benefits, and how it decides that whether the activity will be outsourced or will be performed within the organization. The research will be helpful to the small and large organizations working in the same industry. It may help managers about how to decide about investing the different HR-activities and what could be the possible choices and ways they can perform these activities, and which activities can be beneficial and less cost incurring. The research has been divided into five sections, after covering the detailed introduction, the next section will discuss the preliminary review of the literature, and the third section of the research will cover the methods. Fourth section of the research will consist of the interpretations and findings and fifth section of the research will comprise of the discussion, limitations and recommendations. 1.4. Research Question The research will focus on the costs and benefits of the human resource activities at Nestlà ©, Pakistan. Hence the research question is, Why to invest in the HR-activities, the costs and benefits of HR-activities at Nestlà © Pakistan. 1.5. Aims and Objectives Besides pursuing the research problem, the research will pursue the following aims and objectives: To elaborate that which human resource activities are being conducted at Nestlà ©. How these activities affect the overall performance of Nestlà ©. To investigate that how Nestlà © make investment decisions about different HR-activities To explore that how much human resources costs to Nestlà © and how much return the it is getting back from these activities in both monitory and non monitory terms, and which are the activities giving higher return and incurring lower costs at Nestlà © To describe that how Nestlà © , Pakistan is deciding about the HR-activity, whether it is out sourcing the activities or performing it within the organization To discuss the issues related to human resources at Nestlà © To achieve the following objectives, firstly research will study the organization (Nestlà ©) thoroughly, its HR Unit, and HR-activities will be studied deeply, and related data will be gathered from available resources to achieve research objectives. 2. Preliminary Review of the Literature Human resources are the part and parcel of the management from the day of commencement of the idea of a business; According to Guest (1997) human resources are required to carry the business activities of the organization. In the past, HRM was known as the personnel management. However, with the advent of humanistic movement the concept of personnel management was broadened and it covered many other aspects which were not included previously in the subject. It was the time when HRM was realized as a vital part of the business to sustain. It was the time when researches on recruitment, wages, leave and leisure were revised, Employees and employers relations were redefined and concepts of monetary benefits for the workers were introduced with social benefits. Today human resources are considered the most important asset of an organization and the philosophy of having good human resources is vital to ensure the good customers and better performance of the organization. 2.1. HR Activities: Human resource activities are the functions and actions performed with in the business by the people of the organization. Armstrong (2006) conducted a study; the purpose of the study was to analyse the importance of the activity and suggest the HR-managers to evaluate the benefit of the HR-activity under consideration. Human resources in any organization have to perform some stereo type functions like Payroll, Benefits, Recruiting, Training, Labour Relations, employees planning, selection, interviews, placement, transfers, development and Human Resources Information Systems etc., and a crucial practice is to calculate the benefit of each single activity, because every organization incurs a cost on each HR-activity. The justification of the existence of the activity must be provided. In the broader perspective it is one of the basic jobs of HR department in the recent era of high competition to justify the existence of a particular activity to interpret the costs incurred and benefits gained out of the activity. Study concluded that without calculating the benefit for a HR-activity, organization may invest or incur cost on a wasteful activity and benefit out of that activity may be less than the cost incurred. Managers should first conduct the cost-benefit of the activity; this way organization minimizes the wastes. 2.2. Why to invest in HR-activities? There might be an argument as to why invest in HR-activities, which activities to be invested in and why? Amit and Shoemaker (1936) conducted a study according to which, human resources becomes the invisible tools to promote the organization and develops the core competencies. According to Becker et al. (2001), the purpose of the study was to know that how investments in HR-functions create value through out the organization. It directs the managers to project that which activity should be invested and why. Managers should clarify their goals before embarking on costing a project to ensure that the return over the investment exceed the cost. The more worthwhile activity according to the authors is to calculate the cost-per-hire or to determine the most effective way to increase employee competencies (training) in a certain area; HR-score card can also help managers to identify the most salient HR achievable(s) and deliverables. These elements should be primary focus of cost-benefit analysis of the HR-activities; strategic importance, financial significance, widespread impact, links to a business element of considerable variability, focus on a key issue, problem, or decision facing line managers. Study concluded that the HR-activities influence the over all performance of the organization, so when investing in these activities managers should keep in view that how a particular activity will be beneficial for the organizational performance and for its long term and short term objectives. According to Arthur (1994), the role of HR-activities for the organization is very crucial. This causality may or may not be calculated in term of money only. The monetary or non-monetary aspect of the correct selection of the activity could lead towards the corresponding performance of the selected activity and the benefit towards the organizational goals. For example, the training cost incurred on an employee can be seen as expenditure but when these employees help the organization to have a competitive advantage, it is not calculable in terms of money only, but it will enhance the performance of the organization may be in terms of higher quality of the product, higher productivity, lower absenteeism, lower turn over or greater satisfaction from the job. So the research concluded that it is necessary to invest into the HR-activities. However; According to Barney (1986), organizations that compare the costs and benefits of these HR activities, Should keep into consideration that the benefits out of the HR-activities will be received into the future. 2.3. Cost-benefits of HR practices: All HR practices involve a substantial level of costing but there is a resultant benefit out of the activities for the organization. The realization of the cost of the whole process or any of the practice therefore may easily be identified but the benefits of the whole process and its parts, are not identifiable just in terms of money but there can be some non-monetary benefits as well, (Becker and Gerhart, 1996). Boudreau (1990) conducted a research; the purpose of the research was to apply the cost-benefit analysis to HRM decisions. Cost-benefit analysis is a technique through which the decisions regarding the human resources activities can be made. The cost and benefit analysis consist of the relevant cost of the activity and the benefit out of it, which assist in decision making. It is widely used to make consistent, organized and accurate decisions. Although most of the decision making techniques focus on dollar value but the cost-benefit analysis can be used to improve the decisions and can make usage of the information more effective. Therefore, cost-benefit analysis is a simple method that assists to recognize the positive and as well as the negative outcomes of the decision choices to improve the quality, efficiency and communicability of the decision. The research concluded that the cost-benefit analysis can be used; to justify the expenditure on HR-activities and programs, it can he lp in improving the quality of the human resources, it can help in decision making regarding the investment in alternative HR-activities (such as training versus selection, or two different compensation systems), it can help in managing the uncertainty and reduces the risk of failure, and it can help in determining that when to invest in human resources and to forecast the outcomes. Further the research concluded that the cost-benefit models are compatible with financial analysis, but they are different from human resource accounting, because it focuses on HR-decisions. According to Rauschenberger and Schmidt (2005), methods that allow estimating the dollar impact of human resource programs are now available to Industrial-Organizational psychologists and other human resource professionals. These Dollar estimates have been established for numerous recruitment, selection and training programs. But even then the large part of the work has gone unobserved by typical business communities. The human resource professionals and Industrial-Organizational psychologists are unable to communicate their research findings in a clear and credible way to organizational decision makers. The research concluded that Industrial-Organizational psychologists and other technical human resource professionals should place more emphasis on adequately communicating cost-benefit estimates to managers and other organizational decision makers, to improve the decision making regarding the HR-activities. Cost-Benefit Analysis can also help in knowing that whether it would be beneficial for an organization the in-house production of its HR-activities or not and what will be the cost-benefit of outsourcing it. Brown and Wilson (2005) have defined the outsourcing as the act of obtaining services from an external source, while elaborating information technology (IT) outsourcing Kern and Willcocks (2000) state that outsourcing is the practice of contracting out or selling the organizations IT assets, people and/or activities to a third party supplier for monetary payments over an agreed time period. Patry et al., (1999) conducted a study in Canada to develop and estimate a descriptive model of Human resource outsourcing. Six HR-activities were taken into consideration: Payroll, Benefits, Recruiting, Training, Labour Relations, and Human Resources Information Systems. As per the question that what will determine that whether the organization should outsource the HR-activities are not, the field of the organizational analysis, strategy formulation methods and transaction-cost theory were used. The results of the study indicated that the factors of the outsourcing the HR-activities are specific to each type of activity. Prior experience of the organization with outsourcing the other activities, business stability/instability, and the existing union have a powerful influence over the decision that which activity will be out sourced and which will not be out-sourced. However cost-benefit analysis can also be used to compare the costs of performing the HR-activities in-house or outsou rce it, and benefits against the both can be compared to improve the decision. The previous research has identified many HR-activities but the following research will only discuss the major HR-activities; Payroll, Benefits, Recruiting, Training, Human Resources Information Systems and the costs-benefits of the following HR-activities at Nestlà ©, Pakistan, in order to achieve the prescribed objectives of the following research. 3. Methodology It is very significant to plan which data will be useful and how it will be collected to achieve research objectives. The data in the following research follows case study on human Resources. Mostly this research covers qualitative method and will include quantitative, if needed in future to obtain research objective. 3.1. Data Collection Methods The following sources are used to collect the data, in order to achieve the objectives of the study. Primary Research Secondary Research 3.1.1 Primary Research Primary data will be collected to gather information about the HR-activities and to conduct cost and benefit analysis. The research will assemble the results by the study of Nestlà ©s website and case studies of Nestlà © Pakistan and will conduct interviews with peoples working in different sections of Nestlà ©, by online communication, phone calls, emails, instant massaging. 3.1.2 Secondary Research Secondary research will help the researcher to obtain the data which will covers different aspects of the research topics. Following sources will be used to collect the data; online HR journals and articles, newspapers, books, publications of Nestlà ©, magazines, financial statements, business news letters, articles, annual reports and records. 3.2. Instruments The following Instrument will used in the study: 3.2.1. Interviews The research will use online interviews to collect the required data. Following questionnaire will be used to collect latest and effective information about the subject area. What are the Human Resource activities being conducted at the Nestlà ©? What Role the HR- activities play at Nestlà © and generally why these activities are important in any organization? What are, the investment decisions regarding the HR-activities and how they are made? How costs-benefit analysis is conducted at Nestlà ©? What is monetary performance of the organization regarding the HR-activities? Which activities are the value additives and less cost incurring? What are the non-monetary benefits of the HR-activities? Can these activities be conducted differently? If yes then why? What innovations can be brought into the ways of conducting the HR-activities? Does Nestlà © need to conduct the activities in a particular fashion according to its operation or it just do it conventionally? What are the various possible alternatives of the current HR-activities at Nestlà ©? Does Nestlà © consider the ethical issues regarding its HR-activities? What is Nestlà ©s philosophy about the worldly issue changing the machines with human beings? What are other issues related to the HR activities? How the issues related to HR-activities are handled at Nestlà ©, Pakistan? Does Nestlà © consider the cultural constraints, demographics, geographic, various labour laws, environmental constraints, while making policies related to HR-activities? What cultural, environmental and geographical constraints might affect the HR-activities at Nestlà ©? How these constraints are handled? 3.2.1.1. Interviews framework The interviews have been scheduled as follows, to complete the primary research and to collect maximum information possible related to the following research. Table: 3.1. Interview Framework No. Interview Date Interview Time Interviewee Name Designation of Interviewee 1 22,September,2010 12:00 pm Raymond Franke Chief Financial Officer 2 24,September,2010 3:00 pm Uzma Qaiser Butt Head of Human Resources 3 25,September,2010 3:00 pm Ali Sadozai Head of Legal Affairs No. Interviewee Name Responsibilities Discussion Topics 1 Raymond Franke Manages the finance department, facilitate the investment decisions, sets the profit goals, financial goals, finance the business operations etc. Investment decisions regarding the HR-activities; how they are made? How costs-benefit analysis is conducted at Nestlà ©? Monetary performance regarding the HR-activities Value additives and less cost incurring activities 2 Uzma Qaiser Butt Head of Human resource department handles all the issues related to the human resources, plan, career development, organizational development, people development, compensation and benefit programs and all HR-functions are handled under her supervision. What are the Human Resource activities? Role of HR- activities at Nestle Non-monetary benefits of the HR-activities Can these activities be conducted differently? If yes then why how? What innovations can be brought into the ways of conducting the HR-activities? Does Nestlà © need to conduct the activities in a particular fashion according to its operation or it just do it conventionally? What are the various possible alternatives of the current HR-activities at Nestlà ©? What is Nestlà ©s philosophy about the worldly issue changing the machines with human beings? 3 Ali Sadozai Looks after and handles all the legal affairs of the company, related to all departments including finance, HR and marketing. Does Nestlà © consider the ethical issues regarding its HR-activities? What are other issues related to the HR activities? How the issues related to HR-activities are handled at Nestlà ©, Pakistan? Does Nestlà © consider the cultural constraints, demographics, geographic, various labour laws, environmental constraints, while making policies related to HR-activities? What cultural, environmental and geographical constraints might affect the HR-activities at Nestlà ©? How these constraints are handled? 3.2.2. Other instruments Required data will also be collected from: Calculated costs and benefits from HR-score cards (last 5 years) ROI(s) Financial statements (2005-2010) Published Business news letters Articles Annual reports and records 3.3. Sample of the study As the research is about the case of Nestlà ©, related to the costs and benefits of its HR-activities, hence the sample of the study is Nestlà © Pakistan. 3.4. Techniques of the Analysis Due to the most up-to-date information primary research data is considered more reliable and significant. To check the validity of the data, contents of the data will be checked through face- validity technique which involves an expert opinion and the expert opinion will be taken from Nestlà ©s Head of Legal Affairs; Mr. Ali Sadozai, after taking the notes from the interview. 3.5. Strengths of the Methodology The strength of the research methodology depends upon the relevance with the topic and objectives of the study. The following methodology provides all the relevance provided; the requisite data is retrieved from the quarter concern. As the data is to be gathered from the internal sources of the organization, it is therefore supposed that management and the staff will facilitate with the required data, the best results may be achieved, as the source of the data is quite reliable. 3.6. Ethical Considerations As the research focuses on role of HRM in multinational, no ethical issues is involved in the study apparently, however, if during the course of the study any ethical issue arises, then it will be dealt in accordance with the best practices available. 3.7. Project plan The research has been planned as follows, and will be completed with the given objectives and concerns. The time schedule will be strictly followed, in order to conduct the research successfully. S. # Month( Days) Task 1. August 25-30 Introduction 2. September 01-15 Literature review 3. September 21-29 Methodology 4. October 01 -15 Data collection, Analysis 5. October 18 -28 Conclusion and Finalizing 6. November 01-15 Proof reading 4. Analysis Data collected through primary research is usually considered as important because of the high reliable source of the data, besides it also provides up-to-dated information. So secondary data will be used to support the research objectives and primary data will be collected to deeply analyse the issues. The following research will cover the in depth analysis of the issues raised into the research, using primary and secondary sources of data to fulfil the various objectives of the research effectively. 5. Conclusion The following research will analyse the issues regarding the HR-activities at Nestlà ©, Costs-Benefits of these activities for Nestlà © and for other organizations in general, and will probe that what are the issues which the other organizations working on same level and in same industry might face. The research will then provide the various recommendations and suggestions and limitations of the following research to help the future researcher to increase the effort in the following subject area.

Health Essays Medical Errors Hospitals

Health Essays Medical Errors Hospitals Medical Errors Hospital Disclosure of Medical errors in every day clinical practice. Introduction Medical errors are very common in every day clinical practice. Even taking serious caution does not make the error free hospital any where in the world. According to British Medical Journal ( cited in Adams 2005), â€Å"about 850,000 medical errors occurs in National Health hospitals every year resulting in 40,000 deaths†¦. Adverse events occur in 10% of all hospital patients (p. 274). Today’s times 2004 ( cited in Adams 2005) claims a cost of 2 billion pounds per year due to medical errors. The data shows the magnitude and the significance of the problem. In fact medical errors are preventable in most of the cases. But the sad part of the story is these errors are not disclosed to the patients or the family. Disclosure of medical errors is a very big issue for the leadership and management of a hospital in terms of institutional ethics. This paper will discuss about medical errors, the issue of its disclosure , its outcomes, current trends regarding disclosure of errors , application of theories and implementation in our context. Medical Errors Albert , Cavanaugh, Mc Phee , Bernard , and Micco ( 1997) define medical error as â€Å"Commission or omission with potentially negative consequences for the patient that have been judged wrong by knowledgeable peers at the time it occurred , independent of whether there were any negative consequences† (p.770). In this regard understanding of the error and realization that it is an error is very important. The issue is if it is internalized that error has occurred, then should it be disclosed or not. Non disclosure of medical errors There is a very strong culture of a number of hospitals world wide and the hospital where I belong to that health care professionals hide and do not disclose medical errors to the patients or their families. Errors come on the picture if by any means the patient or their family comes to know about the error. Kaldijan ,Rosenthal, Reimer, and Hillis (2005) did literature review of 316 articles on medical errors and came up with four categories which include attitudinal barriers, helplessness from the institution, uncertainties about how to disclose and its outcomes, and fears and anxieties. In addition to it, risk of ruining person’s as well as the hospital’s reputation, legality issues, low self esteem in the profession, mistrust of the patient and the family, and hindrance in professional progress are also some of the very important barriers to disclosure. (Boyle, Connell, Platt, Albert 2006, Fischer et al 2006, Albert et al 1997). Besides organization’s culture, policy and the colleagues’ attitude also impacts error disclosure. Non disclosure of errors can have some beneficial effects for the patients as well as for the physician. Patients do not become emotionally upset on hearing the news of occurrence of unexpected event during the hospitalization. Boyle, Connell, Platt, and Albert (2006) have cited that American college of physicians has given the liberty of not disclosing the error if the disclosure can cause more harm than benefit as in the case of psychiatric or depressed patients. But the worse part of it is this concept of deception for the benefit of patient is misused in the name of the health care personnel own interests. Similarly risk benefit ratio of disclosure should be calculated or in ethical terms beneficence versus non maleficence should be judged. Furthermore health care personnel do not have to fear for legal issues and the reputation. However they suffer emotional distress if they do not disclose. Disclosure of Medical Errors Medical errors should be disclosed as an ethical and moral responsibility of the health care personnel and the institution as whole. JCIA and JCAHO has made it a standard in 2001 that disclosure of errors should be implemented in hospitals. (Connell, White, Platt 2003, Henry 2005, Gallagher, Studdert, Levinson 2007). In addition The code of ethics of American Medical Association, The American College of Physicians and the National Safety Foundation have also emphasized on disclosure of errors.( Boyle, Connell, Platt, and Albert 2006 ). The standardization of disclosure by so many international organizations particularly JCIA and JCAHO gives the message that the culture and the approach towards the issue of disclosure is changing. These bodies are international standardized bodies and the change in the approach must be evidenced based. If disclosure was not that important it would not have been the part of these quality improving bodies. Literature supports disclosure of errors. According to Connell, White, Platt (2003) , response of participants who attended the workshop about disclosure of medical errors was 90% affirmative . In a study done by Hobgood, Peck, Gilbert, Chappell ( 2002) on patients and their familys’ perspective of error disclosure gave interesting results. 258 surveys were filled in an emergency department and it revealed that 76% of patients wanted disclosure in case of any error, and 88% felt to its full extent. This clearly indicates the significance of disclosure as an issue and patients need regarding the issue. Disclosure of medical errors has many benefits. Initially the reaction of patients may be negative as error could never be expected from patients’ side. But later they get settled .Studies show positive outcomes from patient as well as the health care personnels’ angle because of disclosure. Error disclosure helps patients to get any compensation in the form of additional treatment or financial help. Most of health care personnel believe that disclosure can ruin their relationship with patients and can bring law suit as well as their image down among their collegues. However according to Witman ( cited in Boyle, Connell, Platt, and Albert 2006 ) patients felt to claim law suit if they were not disclosed about errors. In addition University of Michigan Health System reported that â€Å" the cost and frequency of litigation decreased substantially in 5 years after implementation of an open disclosure programme , with annual litigation †¦reduced from $3 million to $1 million and †¦ claims by more than 50%† ( Gallagher, Studdert, Levinson 2007 p. 2716). Error disclosure also brings a positive impact on learning for the person who did the error as well as for others in the organization. Hence mistakes done once may not be repeated next time , system improvement and therefore improvement in the quality of patient care. ( Albert 1997, Mazor 2005, Boyle, Connell, Platt, and Albert 2006 ). Moreover patient physician relationships do remain intact in most of the cases. Trends in application of disclosing errors and comparison in our context Disclosure of medical errors is gaining its significance in so many health care organizations because of the outcomes of it as well as the realization of doing disclosure. Gallaher, Studdert, and Levinson ( 2007), have stated that 2002 survey of institutional risk mangers showed that 36% of the institutions have adopted disclosure policy and the percentage increased to 69% in 2005. They further quoted that Austarlia and United Kingdom in 2003, National Quality Forum safe practices and Harvard in 2006 emphasized and provided guidelines for full disclosure of medical errors to patients. The trend shows that awareness for disclosing medical errors is gaining its popularity. If we compare the scenario in Pakistan, we have a culture of not disclosing errors in most of the hospitals. In addition to the reasons discussed in the literature regarding non disclosure of medical errors, most of the times it is taken as for granted by the health care professionals that the patients belong to low socio economic status, less educated, low level of understanding and therefore errors need not be disclosed. It has been observed in clinical practices that errors are considered most of the time as side effects and untoward result because of certain treatment and there is no internalization that it is an error. In addition there is also a misconception that since the error did not bring any harm to patient so need not to be reported to the hospital management team and therefore no disclosure to the patient. It is interesting to know that most of the hospitals in Pakistan do not have any policy for disclosing error. However in Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) the polic y for disclosure of errors exists and it is mentioned in the sentinel events policy that there should be disclosure of medical errors and it is mentioned in the patients’ bill of rights that patients have right to have all information .( Multi disciplinary policies and procedures sentinel events policy no: MDP-S-002). But the sad part of the story is there is no proper implementation of the policy as well as proper explanation of patients’ rights to them. In fact there is no such culture for the individual to share errors to their supervisors as an ethical and moral responsibility until the error is identified by someone else. Reviewing the issue in the light of Theories To support that medical errors should be disclosed, we will be utilizing the following theories of ethics as well as leadership and management. Kant’s Theory of Deontology Immanuel Kant a German philosopher has given the theory of deontology or duty based theory. According to Kant (cited in Bernstein and Brown 2004), act should be done on the basis of the duty or obligation regardless of the consequences. He also believed that the intention behind the act justifies the action done. If we try to understand the disclosure of medical errors from Kant’s perspective, disclosure should be done as it is the duty of the health care personnel. It is the right of the patient and duty of the personnel to share all information including the errors if occurred. Kant believes in telling the truth which is the duty in all conditions and deception is un tolerable. The debate that if truth telling causes harm should be told to patients or not , goes against Kant’s philosophy. If health care professional feels that deception of the truth will give more benefit than there should be a very strong rationale for it and should not be taken as for convenience. K ant (cited in Bernstein and Brown 2004) has discussed about one’s conscience which play a major role in making right decisions according to his duty and states, â€Å"consciousness is an internal court †¦before which a human being’s accuse or excuse one another†¦an internal judge, and this authority watching over the law in him is something that he himself makes, but †¦incorporated in his being† (p.172). Heifetz’s perspective on Ethical leadership Heifetz ( cited in Northouse 2007) explains that leaders help followers to help resolve conflicts by using their authority. He further explains that â€Å"Heifetz’s perspective is related to values of workers, organizations and communities in which they work† (p. 347). In the light of this perspective, leaders need to have a clear idea of what is the value of the organization which in all circumstances is the best quality care given to its customers and taking care of their wishes and doing what is right. Leaders need to persuade people to do the right thing and therefore the culture of disclosure of medical errors should be inculcated by the leaders. Burn’s perspective on Ethical leadership Burns gave the theory of transformational leadership in 1978. According to Burns (cited in Northouse 2007), leaders have an important role in motivating people to identify their values and to help them reach to a level where the principles of â€Å"justice, liberty and equality† should be incorporated in practice. This clearly indicates the moral aspect of leadership which leads that disclosure of errors should be done as moral obligation of the organization. Significance of medical error disclosure from leadership and management perspective The issue of medical errors disclosure is very important from leadership and management point of view because this issue is not confined to a particular institution but it is a global issue. As discussed above that leaders have a very important role in pursuing and motivating people to follow morality in practice. Ethics has a very important place in leadership and organization. Leaders give direction to the followers or subordinates. They have a very strong impact on their followers. Therefore if leaders will have strong value on creating an environment and culture whereby every individual gets rights and do their duties, then this gives rise to an organization following ethical principles. This is only possible if and only if the leader values that act. In the issue of medical errors disclosure, leaders should play their role to first get the issue internalized and get it inculcated in the organization’s culture. Implementation of disclosure of errors in our context In order to address the issue in our Pakistani and in particular AKUH the most important aspect is first internalizing that the error occurred and not getting defensive. Internalization can be done by leading seminars, discussions, conferences and bioethical grand rounds where issues of error disclosure can be discussed and health care professionals can clarify their misconception about errors. They should have a very clear understanding of what are medical errors. Once the understanding of error is there, the next step is reporting of errors in the organization through the in built system of error reporting. Unfortunately AKUH Karachi does not have a very good system of error reporting. Errors are reported when someone identifies it but the person involved rarely reports the error. On conversation with clinical affairs person of AKUH , centralization of errors reporting is under process. At present if errors are reported it is not centralized to one place. Centralization will assist in getting the picture of medical errors occurring in the hospital as a whole. There should be reinforcement at the academia level of medical and nursing education about errors and its disclosure .Adams ( 2005) has given a very practical approach towards identifying our own errors. He has shared his example how he started writing all the errors which he identified during his practice and it was interesting to see that the identified errors were between one to six per week for 29 weeks . This data was for those errors which he identified himself and may not have captured all the errors done. This practice will help us identify and internalize that how many errors are made by health care professionals. Besides , voluntary electronic reporting of medical errors can also be implemented . The results of one study where 92,547 reports from 26 hospitals were evaluated showed that 47% of the registered nurses did voluntary reporting of errors compared to intern doctors which was 1.4%.( Milch, et al 2006). Jones, Cochrane, Hicks and Mueller ( 2004) asserts that success of voluntary error reporting depends upon the organizational culture where confidentiality is maintained and a â€Å"non punitive culture† exists which promotes error reporting. Once the error is reported, the question comes for the disclosure of error. Henry (2005) asserts that there should be clear policy for disclosure and this helps in creating an open organizational culture for disclosure as well as promotes patients autonomy. He further adds that managerial support should be there and as leaders they should be promoting disclosure in their organization. Organization’s culture needs to be formulated which best supports the disclosure policies. Giganti( cited in Henry 2005) claims that â€Å" one must approach culture change with systems thinking†¦.organization’s culture is built up over time and is based on the assumptions , beliefs and values that drive the organization† (p. 132). Hence the cultural change involves evaluation of systems to see why there is hesitancy and reluctance in disclosing errors to patients and their families. Persons should not be blamed instead system should be analyzed .Cultural change at the institut ional level will lead the policy makers to consider it at the health ministry level because there needs to be law to address this issue. Disclosure is not an easy task keeping into considerations the so called consequences afterwards. There needs to be special trainings in this aspect. Hobgood, Hevia and Hinchey ( 2004) suggest for disclosure in terms of promoting safe environment to the patients and that there should be open conversation during disclosure expecting any reaction from the patient. Therefore communication plays a very important role. Furthermore Connell, White and Platt ( 2003) have given the steps for error disclosure which includes â€Å" apologize and take responsibility†, â€Å"determine who will be involved†, and â€Å"be proactive in addressing the patient’s financial needs† (p.27). However the concept of becoming proactive in identifying our system gaps and root cause analysis of the problem will promote a safety culture and hence less medical errors and therefore less issues of disclosure. Conclusion Medical errors cause huge number of deaths which can be prevented. Medical errors do occur every day in our clinical practices but there is under reporting of the errors. And if reported there is culture of non disclosure of errors until it comes to patient’s knowledge by any means or the outcomes of that error are such that it cannot be kept hidden. The reasons identified through experiences and literature are fear of destroying relationships with patients, loss of patients trust on heath care personnel, legal issues , loosing the credibility in the profession, shame , guilt and not realizing to disclose considering it better from patients perspective. However recent trend suggests that institutions who developed and implemented disclosure policy had very positive results . Patients felt that they were apologized for that and were brought into confidence. This led to less law suits and decrease in the cost given for legal issues. Besides patients were able to participate in t he compensation or adjustment for the loss due to error. Hence the above mentioned literature and practical experiences suggest that medical errors should be disclosed. Leaders need to help their subordinates or the followers to apply Kant theory of deontology but justify if they feel error should not be disclosed. Moreover it is the responsibility of the leader and each and every individual of the team to help creating an open environment of disclosure and to follow it. References Adams,H. (2005). â€Å"Why there is error, may we bring truth.† A misquote by Margaret Thatcher as she entered No 10, downing street in 1979. Anaesthesia, 60 , 274-277. Berstein, M. Brown, B.(2004). Doctors’ duty to disclose error: a deontological ethical analysis. The Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences,31, 169-174. Boyle, D., O’Connell, D., Platt, F. W., Albert, R. K.(2006). Disclosing errors and adverse events in the intensive care unit. Critical Care Medicine,34 (5), 1532-1537. Connell, D. O., White, M. K., Platt, F. W. (2003). Disclosing unanticipated outcomes and medical errors. JCOM, 10(1), 25-29. Fischer,M. A., Mazor,K.M., Baril,J., Alper, E., Demarco,D., Pugnaire,M. ( 2006). Factors that influence how students and residents learn from medical errors. Journal of General Internal Medicine , 21, 419-423. Gallagher, T. H., Studdert, D., Levinson, W. (2007). Disclosing harmful medical errors to patients. The New England Journal Of Medicine,356, (26), 2713-9. Henry, L. L. (2005). Disclosure of medical errors: Ethical considerations for the development of a facility policy and organizational culture change. Policy, Politics, Nursing Practice, 6(2), 127-134. Hobgood, C., Hevia, A., Hinchey,P.(2004). Profiles in patient safety: when an error occurs.ACAD Emergency Medicine,11(7), 766-770. Hobgood, C., Peck, C. R., Gilbert, B., Chappel, K., Zou, B. (2002). Academic Emergency Medicine, 9(11), 1156-1161. Jones , K. J., Cochran, G., Hicks, R.W., Mueller, K.J.( 2004). Translating research into practice: voluntary reporting of medication errors in critical access hospitals. The Journal of Rural Health, 20 (4), 335- 343. Kaldijan,L. C., Jones , E. W., Rosenthal, G. E., Reimer, T. T., Hillis, S. L. (2006). An empirically derived taxonomy of factors affecting physicians’ willingness to disclose medical errors. Journal General Internal Medicine, 21, 942-948. Mazor, K. M., Reed, G. W., Yood, R. A., Fischer, M. A., Baril, J., Gurwitz, J. H. (2006). Disclosure of medical errors: What factors influence how patients respond? Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21, 704-710. Mellisa, A. F., Mazor, K. M., Baril, J., Alper, E ., DeMarco, D., Pugnaire, M. (2006). Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21, 419-423. Milch, C. E., Salem, D.N., Pauker, S. G., Lundquist , T. G., Kumar, S., Chen, J.(2006).Voluntary electronic reporting of medical errors and adverse events : an anlysis of 92,547 reports from 26 acute care hospitals. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21, 165-170. Northouse,P. G. ( 2007).Leadership Theory and practice .(4th ed).Sage Publications: London. The Aga Khan University Hospital Multi disciplinary policies and procedures. Retrieved March 22 , 2008, from http://intranet/jcia/jciapp/searchpolicy.asp Wu, A. W., Cavanaugh, T. A., McPhee, S. J., Lo, B., Micco, G. P. (1997). To tell the truth: Ethical and practical issues in disclosing medical mistakes to patients. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 12, 770-775. Winslade, W. McKinney, E. B. (2006).The ethical lawyer. Journal of Law, Medicine, Ethics, Nantechnology, Winter, 813-816.

Hydrogels Essay -- Ethics, Bioprinting, Artificial Tissues

Tissue or organ printing approaches became popular due to lack of organ donors. To address this need, cells or biological molecules are embedded within hydrogels and these mixtures are printed with computer controlled rapid prototyping systems to yield printed organs (9). Bioprinting approaches are promising high-throughput techniques to create artificial tissues and organs for tissue engineering. Gels with or without cells/biological factors are printed on predefined positions layer by layer fashion (Figure 1) with the final goal of fixing damaged or diseases tissues (8, 9). Using this technique, cells can be homogeneously distributed within a hydrogel matrix on predefined positions. This technique is a potential remedy for the cases where cell seeding results in random cell distribution on solid scaffolds. Nozzle diameter, cell density, liquid rheology and operation temperature are the main factors, which affect printing quality in bioprinting based techniques (11, 33, 34). Patterning of cell or biological molecule loaded hydrogels have been widely performed by computer controll...

Anthropologie du Bo (Théorie et Pratique du gris-gris) :: French Essays

Anthropologie du Bo (Thà ©orie et Pratique du gris-gris) ABSTRACT: Subjective knowledge should not be separated from anthropology. But, unfortunately, this is the prevailing practice. The anthropology of Bo expresses the presence of Africa in anthropology. The authenticity of the African is found in his fervent practice of Bo. His thought, action, relations with others-his entire way of life-is based on the practice of Bo insofar as he wears Bo names. Bo is deeply rooted in his cultural values and comprises the background for all social organizations and thus acts as a social regulator. In Western anthropology there is a scientific mind; in African anthropology there is a Bo mentality that attempts to understand the world and then conquer it. Problà ©matique Le premier devoir de l'homme selon Socrate, est de se connaà ®tre soi-mà ªme. De philosophique cette connaissance est devenue anthropologique de nos jours. L'anthropologie est une science qui tend à   l'exclusion des autres, des autres hommes, des autres socià ©tà ©s, des autres cultures. L'homme qu'elle connaà ®t n'est pas un à ªtre abstrait, mais un homme concret, de tel continent, de telle race, de tel pays, de telle culture. C'est par exemple l'africain en gà ©nà ©ral ou le bà ©ninois en particulier. Ainsi nous allons au cours de ce vingtià ¨me (XXà ¨me) Congrà ¨s Mondial de Philosphie, rà ©flà ©chir sur l'homme en nous appuyant sur sa pratique du Bo (concept fon traduit en franà §ais par gris-gris). Dans l'Homme et l'adaptation au milieu, Renà © DUBOS à ©crit à   la page : "On a gà ©nà ©ralement tendance à   considà ©rer que les actività ©s scientifiques (recherches, etc...) sont à   mettre à   part de l'ensemble des manifestations de la vie humaine, et mà ªme qu'elles sont au-dessus ; cette tendance est dangeureuse pour l'humanità © ; elles risque mà ªme de freiner le progrà ¨s scientifique. En fait, vu les rapports à ©troits qui existent entre l'entreprise scientifique et la totalità © de la vie sociale, il est probable que la poursuite de la science ne sera possible que si les savants parviennent à   rattacher leur curiosità © professionnelle aux intà ©rà ªts et aux aspirations de l'humanità © en gà ©nà ©ral... Le choix des priorità ©s ne pourra plus se faire uniquement selon les crità ¨res de prà ©fà ©rence presonnelle ; de plus en plus il sera fonction des exigences de la socià ©tà ©. La science est comparable à   un organisme qui ne peut survi vre qu'en s'adaptant à   l'à ©volution de la socià ©tà © au sein de laquelle elle fonctionne". Cette longue citation de l'anthropologue amà ©ricain à ©claire d'une lumià ¨re vive nos prà ©occupations dans le choix de notre sujet "ANTHROPOLOGIE DU BO" (thà ©orie et pratique du gris-gris).

Finance Project

Note: Below are some of the topics of projects for example only. You may visit the organization and the guide (Manager from the particular Organization may suggest you some suitable topic related to the Organization) Suggested topics are Projects topics for MBA but are not limited to: Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Project Topics PROJECT TOPICS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT A study of performance appraisal / performance management system in XYZ organization Assessment of role stress amongst the employees of XYZ organization Job satisfaction survey at XYZ organization Competency mapping in an organization Training effectiveness in an organization Study of organizational culture OCTAPACE profile. Motivational analysis of organization A comparative study of team effectives in an organization: Team effectiveness assessment measure. A study of Compensation Management System A detailed study of promotion and reward policy of organization A study of quality of work life in an organization. Mapping training need of employees: Training Need Analysis PROJECT TOPICS RELATED TO MARKETING Formulation of Marketing Strategies to Improve Market Share of LG Microwave Ovens Improving the Effectiveness & Efficiency of Operations at Cox & Kings India Ltd. Demand Forecasting for Orion-ERP Package for ICICI Infotech in Bangalore, based on Small & Medium Enterprises. Developing a Service Delivery Model to bridge the gap between services expected & provided by ICICI Home Loans. Strategies for Increasing the Occupancy Rate of the Taj West End Hotel, Bangalore A Market Feasibility Study for New X-ray Machines from Wipro-GE Medical Systems Distribution Mapping & Dealer Satisfaction Survey for Nokia Mobile Phones. A Study of Marketing Strategies & Distribution Channels in North Karnataka for Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company Ltd. A Study to improve Awareness level of Triraksha Welfare Scheme among farmers for Tractors & Farm Equipment Ltd A Study to increase Penetration Level & Brand Loyalty among existing consumers of Samsung India Electronics Ltd. 3 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 PROJECTS TOPICS RELATED TO FINANCE The study on Indian Financial System post liberalization The impact of Global recession on Information Technology sector in India The impact of recent global economic slump on Indian capital market A comparative study of bancassurance products in banks A Compara tive study of Equity linked Savings Schemes floated by domestic Mutual fund players. A Comparative Study of cost of capital in Automobile /Steel/Pharma/Finance industry A comparative study of Finance performance of banks using various ratios. Profitability and Operational Efficiency of Public Sector banks Profitability and Operational Efficiency of banks in India A study of working capital management in small scale industries The scope of Microfinance in Indian context. Financial Inclusion- The scope and effect in Indian economy Rural banking in India Dematerialization – The scope and effect. The future of Investment banks in the post Lehman Brothers era PROJECTS TOPICS RELATED TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS Role of software agents as a collaborative tool-Ecommerce Hospital Management System-Database Approach, Mangala hospital, Hassan Automation of Banking database, XYZ Bank. Automation of Customer Relation Database, A SAP Product A study on Electronic data storage- Steel factory, Mumbai A webpage design using JAVA-Google page Projects topics for MBA – Project Management Application of Project Management Processes to the Global Product Development System TRIZ applied in Product Development Project Prioritization. Project Cost Estimation Virtual Project Management Continuous Business Process Improvement (CBPI) Force Field Analysis Information Risk Management SEI – CMM & ISO Certification Recent Revolutions in Project Management Modern Trends in Project Management Perception Knowledge Management in Project Management Project Management Application Softwares Project Risk Management Project Administration Project Feasibility Studies Importance of Human Resource Management in Project Management. Projects topics for MBA – Operations Management Concepts and Techniques related to materials management 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 Computer and Quantitative models used in formulating managerial problems. Concepts and Techniques of Value Analysis to effectively control costs. Deterministic and Stochastic inventory models. Just In Time Production. Logistics Management. Project Scheduling. Manufacturing strategy. Site and Location Analysis. Application of Quantitative Analysis and Computers for managerial decision making in operations problems. A study on tools and techniques (e. g. , CPM and PERT) developed to aid the planning, scheduling, and control of projects. Quality issues related to enhancing customer satisfaction (both internal and external) to ensure long-term customer loyalty. Ethical Issues in Operations Management Studies and conclusions of McGregor, Maslow, Herzburg, Likert, Aggyris, and Blake on Operations Management Behavioral Science. The use of material and supply chain management in manufacturing and service organizations to reduce inventory levels while providing adequate service to customers. Problems encountered in planning, operating, and controlling production of goods and services Tools in project management A study on the methods of planning, organizing, and controlling maintenance. A study on Production and inventory control, procurement, distribution, and their interrelationships. A study on Total Quality Management, human resources, finance and accounting, information systems, and their interrelationships Investigation into computerized production technology Study on Plant layout design depending on type of production system. Flexible Manufacturing Systems Computer Integrated Manufacturing Workforce Management Work study, Method Study and Time Study Modern Trends in Project Management

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Northwest Missouri State University 51-646-40 – Managerial Accounting January 12 – February 14, 2013 – St. Joseph site Instructor: Dr. R. WoodOffice: Colden Hall 2100 (Maryville campus) Telephone: 562-1759e-mail: [email  protected] edu Secretary: 562-1835 COURSE DESCRIPTION: A graduate level course in the principles and theory of managerial and cost accounting information. The course firsts develops an understanding of the concepts and procedures for a topical area and then through questions, problems, and case readings applies them.The major topical areas include the role of accounting information to management, cost concepts, cost behavior, costing systems, budgeting, allocation, relevant costs, variances, capital budgeting, planning and control. TEXT: Managerial Accounting, Fourth Edition (2010), James Jiambalvo, Wiley, ISBN # 978-0-470-33334-1 Textbooks can be ordered through, http://www. nwmissouri. bncollege. com the Bearcat bookstore (660. 562. 1246), Am azon, or other online vendor. ARTICLE READINGS: In addition to the textbook there are required article readings.These are listed in the syllabus and at the eCompanion site under the â€Å"Articles by Chapter† heading or in the webliography. Alternatively the articles may be found at most any University library, the full reference is given in the syllabus and online. eCOMPANION SITE: The site is primarily organized by chapter. Each chapter lists the assigned review questions and problems along with their solutions, PowerPoint slides, additional problems for selected topics, and readings for some articles. Other article readings are found under the Webliography tab.A copy of the daily schedule and general syllabus items is also at the site. OPTIONAL MATERIALS: http://www. wiley. com/college/jiambalvo (click on the â€Å"Student Companion Site† link) the site offers PowerPoint slides for each chapter, review questions and quizzes. Availability is not guaranteed, it is sub ject to Wiley Publishing. COURSE OBJECTIVES: The course is designed to add understanding of management information needs, develop managerial accounting concepts, and the application of managerial accounting methods.The use of accounting data in aiding, planning, control, and decision making and its relationship to the management function is of primary importance. In addition the student will understand many of the various accounting analysis procedures available to management as well as their limitations. Upon completion of the course the student should have a broad understanding of the concepts and practice of managerial accounting, and how it aids managers in manufacturing and service environments. ATTENDANCE: Successful completion of this course requires regular class attendance, especially in this short and condensed schedule.It is the student's responsibility to obtain any information missed in class from other students, including any announcements that may affect the schedule. Lectures, discussion, announcements, or assigned material will not be repeated for the benefit of absent students. Missing four classes or half the contact hours, whichever comes first, will result in a grade reduction of one letter grade, missing five classes will result in administrative withdrawal from the course or a grade of â€Å"F† as appropriate. Northwest Missouri State University 51-646 – Managerial AccountingPREPARATION and PARTICIPATION: Preparation for class is reading all chapter and article readings prior to class, you will obtain more and contribute more to class discussion. Assigned questions, exercises, and problems are optional in that they will not be collected, however it is expected that they will be completed, they are for your benefit and will help on exams. Assignments will be reviewed in class as time permits and when requested by the student. Cases or articles will be collected and graded as noted below. Students will also be called on to pa rticipate in discussing questions, roblems, cases, and readings. GRADE DETERMINATION: 90- 100AMidterm Exam45% 80 -89BFinal Exam45% 70 –79CCollected Cases or Articles10% below70D (Failure)Total100% EXAMS: Two closed book exams will be given will be given over the chapters and material covered. The exams will cover the text (chapters, questions, problems, and cases), additional readings, any handouts, and class discussion. MAKE-UP EXAMS: No tests will be repeated for the benefit of absent students unless there is evidence of sufficient weight in the instructor's judgment to merit it.Extenuating circumstances must be verifiable with an independent source. In no case will an exam be repeated if the student fails to notify the instructor or department secretary in advance of the absence. WRITTEN CASE REPORTS: A total of two cases and/or articles will be collected and are due immediately after class discussion, they will not be accepted afterwards. It must provide a description of the case or article, the major issues of concern to management, answer the questions in the case or article, and when appropriate provide resolution to the problem(s) in the case or article.Note that the daily schedule also has additional questions for some cases. The length of the report is determined by the case or article, but should not exceed four pages. It must be typed using standard margins and type, and/or a (Excel) spreadsheet as appropriate. Cases for collection will be assigned as the semester progresses but will come from those denoted with a double asterisk (**). DISABILITY ACCOMODATIONMS: Students in this course who need disability accommodations/modifications should present a copy of their official Northwest accommodation letter from the LAP/S Committee to the instructor uring private office hours as early in the term as possible. Additional information can be found in the â€Å"Services for Students with Disabilities† brochure available at the Student Service s Center or online at www. nwmissouri. edu/swd. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Per University and departmental policy, academic dishonesty will result in failure and dismissal from the course and possible dismissal from the University. A more detailed description of the policy is in the graduate catalog and in the last page of the syllabus. IMPORTANT DATES: Class meetings; Saturday – January 12, 26, February 9Thursday – January 17, 31, February 14 51-646 – Managerial Accounting August 4 – September 6 2012 Daily Schedule The schedule will likely change some as the semester progresses to accommodate for class discussion and unforeseen changes. For each day the chapters to be discussed, homework and case discussion points are listed. Half-way and at the end of the course there will be an exam. Cases denoted with a double asterisk â€Å"**† may be collected and counted towards the grade. At the eCompanion site some article readings are under the chapter tab and others are linked through the webliography as noted.January 12, Saturday 9-5 pm Q=Question, Ex = Exercise, Pr = Problem CH 1: Managerial Accounting In The Information Age; Q 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 Case: 1-1 Local 635 Case 1-2 Boswell Plumbing Products CH 2: Job-Order Costing For Manufacturing And Service Companies; Q 1- 10 Ex 12 Pr 1 Case: 2-1 Brixton Surgical Devices (additional question: How are costs allocated to the product such that producing more units would result in more of overhead being buried in inventory? ) Case 2-3 Dupage Powder Coating CH 3: Process Costing; Q 1, 4, 5, 6, 10 Pr 2, 3, 8 and supplement (online) Case: 3-1 Tech-Tonic Sports DrinkJanuary 17, Thursday 6-10 pm CH 5: Variable Costing Q 1 – 5, 9, 10 Ex 4, 5 Pr 4, 12, 15 CH 6: Cost Allocation And Activity-Based Costing (and handout on service department allocation) Q 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 Pr 1, 5, 6, 12, 16 Case: 6-1 Eastside Medical Testing** Devices (additional question: Why or why not is Eastside better or worse off economically if they keep Nuclear Systems business at existing prices? ) * Estrin, T. J. Kantor, and D. Albers, â€Å"Is ABC Suitable for Your Company? † Management Accounting, April, 1994: 40-45. * Tatikonda, D. O'Brien, and R.Tatikonda, â€Å"Succeeding with 80/20,† Management Accounting, February, 1999: 40-44. January 26, Saturday 9-5 pm Complete our discussion of chapter 6 CH 4: Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis (and appendix on regression); Q 1, 3, 4, 6-10 Pr 2, 3, 4, 12, 15, 17 Case: 4-3 Krog’s Metalfab, Inc. ** (Additional requirement: estimate the lost profit using three methods or variations in the data used, one of which must be simple regression. ) CH 8: Pricing Decisions, Analyzing Customer Profitability, and Activity-Based Pricing Q 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 Ex 6, 9 Pr 3, 4, 9 Shim, E. , and E. Sudit, â€Å"How Manufacturers Price Products,† Management Accounting, February, 1995: 37-39. Midterm (chps 1, 2, 3, 5, 6) starting at about 2:30 pm January 31, Thursday 6-10 pm CH 9: Capital Budgeting And Other Long-Run Decisions (Including Appendix A, B), and handout (online); Q 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 Ex 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18 Case 9-2 Sergo Games** (Case clarification: use NPV analysis for each option; additional requirement: identify four qualitative considerations that would impact the decision) * Shank, J. and V.Guvindarajan, â€Å"Strategic Cost Analysis of Technological Investments,† Sloan Management Review, Fall 1992: 39-51. CH 10: Budgetary Planning And Control; Q 4, 7, 9, 10 Pr 3, 4 * Hope, Jeremy, and R. Fraser, â€Å"Who Needs Budgets? † Harvard Business Review, February, 2003: 108-115. Webliography** * Fisher, J, L. Maines, S. Peffer, and G. Sprinkle, â€Å"Using Budgets for Performance Evaluation: Effects of Resource Allocation and Horizontal Information Asymmetry on Budget Proposals, Budget Slack, and Performance,† The Accounting Review, Vol. 7, No. 4 October 2002: 847-865. Webliography. February 9, Saturday 9-5 pm Continuation of Chapter 10 discussion CH 11: Standard Costs and Variance Analysis (including the appendix) and supplement (online) Q 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 Ex 13 Pr 5, 15 Case: 11-1 Jackson Sound Case: 11-2 Champion Industries CH 12: Decentralization and Performance Evaluation (include the appendix on transfer pricing); Q 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 Ex 6, 7, 8, 10 Pr. 8 Case: 12-1 Home Value Stores * Lipe, M. G. and S.Salterio. â€Å"The Balanced Scorecard: Judgment Effects of Common and Unique Performance Measures,† The Accounting Review, July, 2000, 283-298. Webliography. * Ittner, C. , D. Larcker, and M. Meyer, â€Å"Subjectivity and the Weighing of Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard† The Accounting Review, July, 2003, 725-758. Webliography. February 14, Thursday 6-10 pm Review as requested Final exam (chps. 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or chapters/material covered since the mid-term)