Name = Jung Soo Kim Essays - Russia, French Emperors,

name = Jung Soo Kim email = [emailprotected] distribute = yes subject = History title = Reasons on why Napoleon had lost the Campaign of 1812 papers = Please put your paper here. Napoleon's Reasons for Defeat The Campaign of 1812 ought to have been an another campaign for Napoleon, yet, he presently confronted 2 new arrangements that he had never confronted, the serious Russian winter and the famous singed earth strategy. On June 23, 1812 Napoleon's Grande Armee, more than 500,000 men solid, poured over the Russian outskirt. An equivalent measure of Russian powers anticipated them. The aftereffect of the battle was a shock. Two creators, General carl von Clausewitz and Brett James, appear likenesses in reasons why Napoleon had lost this battle to Russia. Napoleon accepted that after a couple of speedy triumphant fights, he could persuade Alexander to come back to the Continental System. He likewise concluded that on the off chance that he involved Moscow, the Russian government would fold and request harmony. A solitary blow conveyed at the core of the Russian Empire, at Moscow the Great, at Moscow the Holy, will in a flash put this entire visually impaired, indifferent mass at my benevolence. pg 6, 1812 Napoleon's Defeat in Russia This was his conviction he communicated in March 1812. In any case, when Napoleon in the long run took over Moscow, the Tsar despite everything didn't give up. Napoleon, sent a message to the Tsar, requesting a quick acquiescence. Nonetheless, the Tsar could not give up supposing that he did, he would be killed by the aristocrats. Clausewitz answers by saying, Napoleon couldn't get a handle on the way that Alexander would not, couldn't arrange. The Tsar knew well that he would be arranged and killed in the event that he attempted so. pg 256, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia General Clausewitz stated, Napoleon accepted in the event that he vanquished the Russian Army and involved Moscow, the Russian initiative will self-destruct and the legislature would call for harmony. pg 253, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia Brett James likewise concurred that Napoleon's occupation had no outcome. The control of Napoleon in Moscow didn't have an impact on the legislature. pg 13, 1812 Napoleon's Defeat in Russia With his fight plan set, Napoleon arranged his soldiers for the assault on Russia. Be that as it may, Napoleon didn't consider the savage Russian winter which anticipated him. As indicated by Ludwig Wilhelm Gottlob Schlosser, a passerby, he depicted the military by saying, The French, down to the lowliest drummer were demanding. These poor French fallen angels were not happy with not as much as soup, meat and vegetables, cook, what's more, plate of mixed greens for their late morning feast, and there was no indication of their celebrated thriftiness. They were totally without the coming winter. pg 13, 1812 Napoleon's Annihilation in Russia Napoleon was even cautioned by General Rapp about the furthest points of the approaching winter in Russia. The locals state we will have a serious winter, Napoleon countered derisively, Bah! You and your locals! We will perceive how fine it is. pg 147, 1812 Napoleon's Defeat in Russia Napoleon ought to have noticed Rapp's words. As the Grand Armee walked toward Moscow, numerous ponies and men were lost in the freezing day off, for the individuals who remained, their confidence and adequacy was at the nadir. General Clausewitz expresses his point by saying, With more precautionary measure and better guidelines as to resource, with progressively cautious thought of his walks, which would have forestalled the pointless and huge amassing of masses on indeed the very same street, he would have saved his military in a more powerful condition. pg 255, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia Brett James likewise had a similar sentiment, Napoleon seemed to have made no exertion to find the realities in Russia, or set up his soldiers for it. pg 140, 1812 Napoleon's Defeat in Russia As Napoleon and his military was advancing toward Moscow, they experienced typhus, colds, and loose bowels. Indeed, even the compelling Napoleon had gotten a gentle instance of this season's cold virus. Nonetheless, his troopers had gotten the brunt of the assault. Skipper Thomas-Joesph Aubry remembers this trial, After this the typhus made shocking advances in our positions. We were fourty-three officials in our ward. All of them passed on, in a steady progression, and woozy from this repulsive ailment, the vast majority of them singing, some in Latin, others in German, others again in Italian - and singing hymns, canticles, or the mass. pg 210, 1812 Napoleon's Defeat in Russia General Clausewitz composed, The terrible water and the air-borne bugs caused loose bowels, typhus, and looseness of the bowels. pg 136, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia Brett James additionally composed, Bad water, terrible

Composition and Properties of Bronze

Arrangement and Properties of Bronze Bronze is perhaps the most punctual metal known to man. It is characterized as a combination made of copper and another metal, generally tin. Pieces fluctuate, yet most present day bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin. Bronze may likewise contain manganese, aluminum, nickel, phosphorus, silicon, arsenic,â or zinc. Despite the fact that, at once, bronze was a composite comprising of copper with tin and metal was a compound of copper with zinc, present day use has obscured the lines among metal and bronze. Presently, copper amalgams by and large are called metal, with bronze once in a while thought about a sort of metal. To keep away from disarray, galleries and verifiable messages ordinarily utilize the comprehensive term copper compound. In science and designing, bronze and metal are characterized by their component sythesis. Bronze Properties Bronze as a rule is a brilliant hard, weak metal. The properties rely upon the particular organization of the amalgam just as how it has been prepared. Here are some run of the mill attributes: Profoundly ductile.Bronze shows low grating against other metals.Many bronze composites show the surprising property of extending a limited quantity when setting from a fluid into a strong. For design throwing, this is attractive, as it assists with filling a mold.Brittle, however less so than cast iron.Upon presentation to air, bronze oxidizes, yet just on its external layer. This patina comprises of copper oxide, which in the long run becomes copper carbonate. The oxide layer shields the inside metal from further erosion. Be that as it may, if chlorides are available (as from seawater), copper chlorides structure, which can cause bronze malady a condition wherein consumption works through the metal and pulverizes it.Unlike steel, striking bronze against a hard surface wont create sparkles. This makes bronze helpful for the metal utilized around combustible or dangerous materials. Starting point of Bronze The Bronze Age is the name given to the timeframe when bronze was the hardest metal that was broadly utilized. This was the fourth thousand years BC about the hour of the city of Sumer in the Near East. The bronze age in China and India happened at generally a similar time. In any event, during the Bronze Age, there were a couple of things made from meteoritic iron, however the refining of iron was extraordinary. The Bronze Age was trailed by the Iron Age, beginning around 1300 BC. In any event, during the Iron Age, bronze was broadly utilized. Employments of Bronze Bronze is utilized in engineering for basic and structure components, for heading in light of its erosion properties, and as phosphor bronze in instruments, electrical contacts, and boat propellers. Aluminum bronze is utilized to make machine devices and a few course. Bronze fleece is utilized rather than steel fleece in carpentry since it doesnt stain oak. Bronze has been utilized to make coins. Most copper coins are really bronze, comprising of copper with 4% tin and 1% zinc. Bronze has been utilized since antiquated occasions to make figures. The Assyrian ruler Sennacherib (706-681 BC) professed to be the principal individual to cast colossal bronze models utilizing two-section molds, despite the fact that the lost-wax strategy was utilized to cast designs some time before this time.

An Easy Introduction to Nonfiction The Essay

An Easy Introduction to Nonfiction The Essay One of my reading goals for this year was to read an essay every single day. Reading essays both online and in collections has helped remind me about all the great, short nonfiction there is out there. And, I think were living in a particularly robust time for long-form writing, which makes it easy for  readers that are tentative about trying nonfiction to find something to enjoy. Good old Merriam-Webster defines an essay as “an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view.” While that’s a pretty clinical definition, it does get at the idea that an essay is both literary and limited, but doesn’t go on to dictate subject or specific style (other than “literary,” but that basically doesn’t mean anything literary fiction, anyone?). I’ve been interpreting the idea of an essay pretty broadly, everything from Katy Butler’s incredibly beautiful piece in the New York Times Magazine, “What Broke My Father’s Heart,” to a sports story about Tom Brady’s first hour after losing the Super Bowl on Sunday with a particularly lovely sense of structure. If you’re into some very, very recent writing, there are two stories, just published, about the exotic animal shootings in Zanesville, Ohio last year that are must reads “Animals” by Chris Jones in Esquire and “18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque, and 1 Man Dead in Ohio” by Chris Heath in GQ. And then you could read about the story trailer that Esquire made and  how the Internet is disrupting the traditional magazine publishing cycle. I’m fascinated. And a total dork. Anyway, if youre interested in exploring some of todays best narrative nonfiction, I have three websites to suggest: Longform: Longform.org is a website that collects old and new nonfiction articles from across the Internet that are “too long and too interesting to be read on a web browser.” The site is set up to easily work with read later services like Instapaper or Read It Later, and just recently launched an iPad app. I love the variety that comes from this site. I find a new essay to read almost every day. Byliner:  Byliner.com is a little more in-depth than Longform. The site is a publishing company and social network that centers around narrative stories. The site publishes original pieces, Byliner Originals, that are typically between 10,000 to 35,000 words that are available to purchase digitally. The site also collects narrative journalism from around the web that can be sorted by topic or author. Nieman Storyboard: If you’re a bit of a narrative nonfiction wonk, Nieman Storyboard is the blog to check out. A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, the site looks into storytelling across mediums and offers a place for conversation about how long-form writing is changing in the digital age. I’ve read some fantastic author interviews (this one with Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is awesome), and I love the way they dissect contemporary writing to see how it works. If youre the kind of reader that feels intimidated by book-length nonfiction, the essay can be a great way to ease into the genre. Do you have any favorite essays or long-form journalism sources (books or websites) to share? Sign up for True Story to receive nonfiction news, new releases, and must-read forthcoming titles.

Phishing An Example Of Social Engineering Techniques...

1. Introduction Phishing is type of computer attack that communicates through messages to humans via email or web page to perform certain actions for the attacker’s benefits. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to financial gain identity thefts Phishers are targeting the customers of banks and online payment services, Emails. 2. Rationale and significance of the study Social networking sites are now a prime target of phishing. the personal details in such sites can be used in identity theft. 2.1 phishing types Phishing Types Above Fig.1 shows types of phishing. we are mainly address phishing, link manipulation, website forgery, convert redirect. 2.1.1 Phishing- An attempt to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by electronic communication. 2.1.2 Spear phishing -Phishing attempts directed at specific individuals or companies have been termed spear phishing Attackers may gather personal information about their target to increase their probability of success[1,2,3,4 ,19-20]. 2.1.3 Clone phishing- A type of phishing attack whereby a legitimate, and previously delivered, email containing an attachment or link has had its content and recipient address(es) taken and used to create an almost identical or cloned email[1,2,3,4 ,19-20] 2.1.4 Whaling-- Several recent phishing attacks have been directed specifically at senior executives and other high profile targets within businesses, and theShow MoreRelatedSocial Engineering954 Words   |  4 PagesSOCIAL ENGINEERING INTRODUCTION Social Engineering is using non-technical means to gain unauthorized access to information or system. Normally a hackers would use exploit a systems vulnerabilities and run scripts to gain access. When hackers deploy social engineering they exploit human nature. Social Engineering is represented by building trust relationships with people who work in the inside of the organization to gain access or who are privilege to sensitiveRead MoreIdentity Theft and Possible Risk in Technology1713 Words   |  7 PagesIdentity Theft and Possible Risk in Technology Identity theft has been a major issue of privacy and fraud. In the data breach analysis from the Identity Theft Resource Center (2013), the number of data breaches from the year 2005 to 2012 increased. In 2012, there had been 49% where the data breach exposed people Social Security Number. The data breach of 2012 has a rate of 27.4% caused by hackers. 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Spoofing/Masquerading Overview †¢ To gain an illegitimate advantage, a spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data. †¢ Below are the Popular Spoofing Techniques †¢ Man-in-the-middle attack (MITM): A middle man which can read, insert and modify messages between two parties without either party knowing that the linkRead MoreNetwork Security Is The Procedure Of Computer Or Any Computer On Your Network1430 Words   |  6 Pagescomputer such as financial statements . Unfortunately, intruders have many ways and are always discovering new vulnerabilities to exploit in computer software and ways of getting into your network. To combat intruders from finding their way into your network, the first line of defense are firewalls. Firewalls are a barricade between two networks that when used properly, can provide a substantial proliferation in computer security. 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Today social networking and education have dramatically benefitted from this increase in information and accessibility. But this can also be a very bad thing, there are also people who take advantage of this accessibili ty to information in a negative way, with public information being as accessible as it is it makes it a lot easier for people to steal others information. For example identity thieves can steal people’s information they find online and gain access to their identity, because a

The Atomic Bomb Right Or Wrong - 1642 Words

Matt Waitt History 3683 10:30 am Dr. Shedd 11/10/15 Word Count: 1517 The Atomic Bomb: Right or Wrong On August 6th, 1945 the very first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki a few days later. This was the largest attack a country had ever seen before and there were many different views on whether the bombs were necessary or not. Like any conflict, there were groups that were against dropping the bomb such as the Wall Street Journal and groups that were backing the decision to drop the bombs such as the New York Times. Each of these newspapers interpreted the bomb’s necessity to end the war, the way that the United States viewed the use of the atomic bomb, and the feelings of the public towards the atomic bomb very differently. During the period before and during World War II, many significant events happened such as Harry Truman becoming president, Hitler becoming the Fuhrer of Germany, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and maybe the most devastating event, the dro pping of the atomic bomb on Japan. This event was almost definitely what most considered to be the end of the war. After the bomb was dropped, there was question to whether or not it was the right choice or if the bomb was even worth being used in a war that the United States did not actually have to be in. The New York Times was all for backing the dropping of the atom bomb. In their eyes, dropping the bomb was necessary inShow MoreRelatedAtomic Bomb : The Right Of The Wrong1368 Words   |  6 PagesAtomic Bomb: The Right in the Wrong Bryce K. Richards The splitting of the atom in 1917 by Rutherford [1] brought with it an unimaginable amount of rapid advancements leading up to the world’s first successful atomic bomb explosion on July 16 1945 at Trinity Site near White Sands Air Force Base [3]. This bomb proved that the atomic bomb was a possibility definitively which led to two more bombs, of similar properties and destructive power, being dropped on Japan in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki onRead More Was the U.S. Right or Wrong Using the Atomic Bomb in ?Hiroshima?674 Words   |  3 Pagesopposite opinions about the necessity of using the atomic bomb to the end of World War II. Gar Alperowicz, in his article, â€Å"Hiroshima Remembered: The U.S. was Wrong†, the evidence to prove that America didn’t need to use atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagashaki to end the war. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Contrary to this article John Connnor in his article â€Å"Hiroshima Remembered: The U.S. was Right† is trying to prove and convince reader that using atomic bomb on Hiroshima was necessary to end the war andRead MoreTruman and Atomic Bombs649 Words   |  3 Pageswrite an editorial on Harry S Truman’s decision to order the dropping of the atom bomb. HARRY S TRUMAN amp; THE DECISION TO ORDER THE DROPPING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB Boom! Boom! Seventy thousands Japanese citizens were perished instantly after the first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Japanese still refused to surrender to Allied forces. 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Truman did the right thing while others disagree that it was a horrible decision. There is technically not a right or wrong answer because no one knew what could have happened if the United States did not drop the bombs on either cities. There can only be disagreements over the decisions a leader could make inRead MoreThe Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki1174 Words   |  5 Pagesnecessary or morally right to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Depending upon whose side of the argument you have heard causes one to question whether this was a morally right or wrong decision that was made. Serious reconciliation is needed due to this event, and both sides of the argument need to be strongly considered (Shin, 663). There are various possibilities the United States had greater reasoning that pushed them to drop the bombs and view their decision as morally right. On the other hand itRead MoreThe Atomic Bomb Was The Right Decision835 Words   |  4 Pageswas the first country to use the atomic bomb in warfare. On August 6, 1945, the first of two atomic bombs were dropped. The first bomb was named, â€Å"Little Boy,† and was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The second bomb was named, â€Å"Fat Man,† (History.com Staff 2009) and was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later. The bombs resulted in thousands of casualties and radiation among the civilians. Dropping the atomic bomb was the right decision because the bomb would end the war, it was revengeRead MoreIn August 1945, a uranium-type atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan,900 Words   |  4 PagesIn August 1945, a uranium-type atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, during the final stages of World War II. The following months after the bomb was dr opped, many people were killed by burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries. These effects lasted about 4-6 months. Around 90,000 to 166,000 people died either instantaneous or the lasting effects. On August 15th, just days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan announced their surrender to the AlliesRead MoreThe Atomic Bombs910 Words   |  4 PagesDuring the 20th century, specifically the year 1945, the United States of America had two atomic bombs that the commander and chief, and president at the time, Harry Truman, knew about. President Truman plan was to drop the bombs on two of Japans cities, Hiroshima first and then Nagasaki. Truman’s plans went accordingly, which to this day leads to a very controversial topic on whether or not dropping the atomic bombs was a good or bad thing. There is evidence and reasoning to back up both claims, inRead More Drop The Bomb? Essay656 Words   |  3 Pages U.S. History - Grech Atomic Bombs Dropped on Japan, Justified? nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;On August 6th and 9th of 1945 U.S. bombers dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing utter destruction and many deaths. These bombs were dropped as the Pacific battles of World War II were coming to an end. Soon after Japan surrendered, ending the war. But, was the use of atomic warfare necessary? Was it too harsh and cruel to the Japanese

Itgs Exam Questions and Full Mark Answers Free Essays

ITGS Homework Area of impact- Science and the environment A) Identify two input devices that are required in order for Jules to interact with a real person. There is several input devices required in order for Jules to interact with a real person, these include a microphone, a web cam or digital camera, normal camera and speakers so the person can hear Jules. B) Describe the steps that Jules would take in order to follow the movement of the person talking to him. We will write a custom essay sample on Itgs Exam Questions and Full Mark Answers or any similar topic only for you Order Now There are several steps that Joules would take to interact with a real person. . Jules could capture the initial image of any human being using its camera or webcam sensors to capture an image. 2. Jules would have to use facial recognitions software to determine the parts of the face to face tracked (reference points) or identify different parts of the face such as skin colour or your eyes. Laptops these days also have sensors built into them. 3. Record an initial position; of the face which is to be tracked/ set the position of the human in relation to the robots own position. 4. Recording of time lapse intervals 5. Capture images at new positions 6. Determine the location of the new position 7. If there is no movement, then no movement is detected and there is no adjustment. 8. Jules can adjust to the movement if there is one 9. Jules can now communicate with the human being 10. So this process can be repeated. C) Jules may have difficulty understanding a sentence in a conversation with a human, explain why this could happen. If a word that is said that is not in the language database of the robot the sentence that is said by the human will not be comprehended by the robot. Unusual grammar and sentence structure that is not programmed in Jules language database will cause difficulties. Jules may understand only one type of accent and may struggle to communicate if Jules communicates with someone with a different accent. Colloquial expression was used. Unclear speech due to unclear conversion of human sound converted to digital sound files which cannot be matched will cause Jules to not understand the human being. Background noises can cause Jules to misinterpret human voices. Linguistic differences- Words may have different meanings depending on the context. D) Evaluate whether the organizers should go ahead with this decision to replace human umpires with robotic umpires such as tennis-umpire There are several positives and negatives of this. Positives include 1. The robot would consistently determine the outcome of each play, so human reaction is not present. So reviews won’t be needed. 2. Any robot will not ever get tires or struggle due to physical conditions. (Reactions of crowd, weather). 3. There is no chance that a robot will be biased towards another player, something that can be present when a human referee is officiating. So they don’t care who win. Robots are more likely to make the right calls first time so this will save time from reviews. 4. Another positive is that robots will not face pressures of the crowd when making a decision because they feel no pressure due to their lack of emotions. Negatives include. 1. Even though robots may be accurate, because of the quick movement of the ball, it may take time for the robot to make the decision; this will make games go a lot slower. 2. Players may block the view of the ball or other obstacles which the robot will find impossible to avoid. . There are ethical issues present as well because the robots can actually replace human umpires if several of them are present within a game. 4. Cost maintenance of robots are very high, example are a lot harder/ more expensive to maintain than human umpires. 5. Players and the crowed might react negatively to robot umpires as they have never been used before. 6. Robot umpires are not designed to argue with players so if any supporter or player disagrees with the ref even with their accuracy what happens then? 7. Robots will not be able to detect any misconduct any player does during the match, something that humans are capable to do because robots do not understand human emotions. 8. Robots aren’t programmed to do the unexpected so anything that happens not regarding to tennis for example a fan interrupting the game by running onto the court, robots will not be able to do anything about or they might hurt the fan that runs onto the court. 9. If let’s say a player wasn’t ready for the ball, a human umpire could call a replay. This is something a Robot cannot interpret. How to cite Itgs Exam Questions and Full Mark Answers, Essay examples

Computerized Maintenance Management Systems Essay Example For Students

Computerized Maintenance Management Systems Essay Facilities departments are under tremendous pressure to provide more information faster, and at a lower cost to the company. At the same time many companies have reduce staff to the bare minimum. Maintenance professional are presented with more difficult challenges today than at any previous point. The biggest obstacle of all confronting maintenance professionals is being forced to do more with fewer resources. Maintenance departments must deliver superior service, comply with regulatory requirements and provided detail financial accountably all within the confines of limited and/or reduce budgets. In order to meet these challenges, maintenance professionals are arming themselves with economical computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS). In recent years flexible, dependable and economical computerized maintenance management systems have become available to help fight the never-ending struggle to operate and maintain the built environment. But what are computerized maintenance management systems? They are management information systems that utilize the technologies of computers, telecommunications, etc. to executed the maintenance management processes and provide management with information for decisions making process.Figure # 1 Maintenance Management ProcessWork IdentificationWork PlanningWork SchedulingAnalysisHistory RecordingWork ExecutionLike any other computerize information system it is made up of the following:We need to acknowledge at the outset that CMMS are not for every organization and that current research shows that as much as fifty percent of all CMMS start up have failed to pay back a meaningful return on investment after two years of operations. That is to say in many cases the heavy investment in CMMS information technologies have failed to live up to the much publicized benefits of automation and have delivered some disappointed results. So we do not want to give the impression that CMMS in themsel ves will cure all the ills of the profession and to advice against walking into the same technology trap that are endemic to the business community at large. In a rush to automate every job function that affects organizational efficiency and bottom line profits, many managers are overlooking important caveats inherent in all information technology implementations. This highlights the point that an organization needs to know how to find the right CMMS and how to implement and maintain the system. The decreasing costs of computer hardware, and the emerging power of microcomputers and software technologies, have disguised the question of feasibility. Many maintenance professionals, in their haste to keep up with contemporary information management technologies, unwittingly, neglected to evaluate these important questions before automating:1.Do we have an information management problem, or a business management problem?2.Have we thoroughly evaluated the real benefits and cost of a CMMS implementation?3.Do we have the internal knowledge and commitment to complete the CMMS effort?If an information system already exists in the organization then the concerns of integrating a new system could also be look at. The purpose of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) seems to change constantly. The software initially was designed to assign maintenance tasks to the staff within a company in a more organized manner than the paper method. More recently, it purpose has expanded to include assuring the higher quality of equipment and facility condition and out put, as well as assisting administration and management in increasing production and overall efficiency. To deliver maximum benefit to a facility, a CMMS has to be efficient, address a wide range of demands and be able to expand with evolving needs. With technology exploding throughout the CMMS market, planning that maximizes your system is essential. The decision-making process managers go through in selecting an ideal computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is often formal and logical. The process includes a needs analysis relative to the CMMS architecture. A resource analysis is also required for the introduction, startup and continued support of the system. The best way to find the right (CMMS) is to look at your current situation. Consider the following area:Organization. An excellent system run by poorly trained or under-motivated people will be adequate at best, but well-trained people with positive attitudes can make an excellent system world class. You will need to know how many people are requesting maintenance services, who the most frequent requesters are, what there needs are, and how many and what kinds of maintenance people you have. Equipment. Maintenance workload is determined by equipments and facilities. Find out about the numbers and kinds of equipment. Find out from client what their top 10 equipment or facility problems are. Operation people will tell you what equipment problems they have, and maintenance people will know the most frequent building system problems. Work orders. You need to know how many work orders you generate each week. A rule of thumb is that the average work order takes an hour. From this and the number of workers, you can estimate the number of work orders per week. After you have determined your current status and needs for computerization, you can start specifying CMMS that can deliver these benefits. The proliferation of software targeting commercial and institutional facilities maintenance continues with no visible signs of letting up. New application and upgrades of existing CMMS appears regularly, and each new generation offers more in the way of flexibility, power and user friendliness. When evaluating CMMS software there are eight major factors that should be considered. These factors are:1.Comprehensive maintenance management functionality2.Management reporting capabilities6.Reliability centered maintenance integration7.Harness the power of Microsoft windows8.Proven expertise and on-going supportComprehensive Maintenance Management FunctionalityThe main factor to consider when selecting a CMMS is the core product. It should be made up of three major elements: Work Management, Physical Asset Management and Resource Management. The Work Management component of the CMMS optimizes day to- day operations, manages corrective work orders and supports a preventative maintenance program. In addition, some CMMSs offer and added feature for detailed management of short duration on-demand work. The Physical Asset Management component acts as the filing cabinet of the CMM, providing quick and easy retrieval of important information, warranty and service contracts, nameplate data, scanned documents, libraries of CAD drawing and complete descriptive information. After all, what good is all of the extensive information if you cannot access it easily?The Resources Management component of a CMMS supports a full inventory and purchasing system. Furthermore, it tracks in-house labour and contracted service costs. Premier CMMS suppliers have field proven experience in data transfer of inventory, purchasing, and time card information to external financial systems. A CMMS is only as good as the information that can be retrieved from it. CMMSs provide extensive management reporting capabilities that include detailed and summary report, graphical reports, and easy to use report writing tools that do not require programming knowledge. We will want to select a system pre-loaded with mechanical and building PM procedures. This PM procedure library will minimize the start up necessary to establish and implement your PM program and provide conformance to generally accepted PM inspection schedules. We should select a CMMS with tools that will assist in achieving compliance with an array of regulatory standards. To achieve compliance, premier maintenance management systems support the work flow process necessary to record, assign and account for both the work and the measures taken to correct and/or prevent maintenance related problems. Look for quick one button access to equipment histories and a flexible, detailed, and graphical reporting mechanism for problem and resolution trending (quality assurance) analysisThe type of CMMS we should be looking for should be capable of working together effectively and transparently with multiple systems. Direct interface between the CMMS and other diagnostic and monitoring systems such as building automation, predictive maintenance, etc can assist greatly in streamlining the maintenance process, by allowing maintenance personnel to respond to early warning signals before they escalate into critical repair problems. CMMS build upon these ty pes of interfaces to automatically create work orders and update facilities histories based on alarms and test result received through these interfaces. CMMSs are also capable of interfacing with other technologies such as bar coding for quick and accurate data entry. Reliability Centered Maintenance IntegrationSelect a CMMS system that fully integrates and takes advantages of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). RCM uses the full capabilities of the modern PC and Microsoft Windows software development environment to provide an interactive method for problem resolution. RCM provides maintenance professional with: (1) an easy to-use library of possible problems for major capital expenditure assets, (2) problem diagnostic techniques and (3) a recommendation to repair the cause of the problem and avoid wasting money fixing its symptoms. Harness The Power of Microsoft WindowSelect a PC based CMMS solution that is compatible with Microsoft Window. Look for a CMMS design that is founded on an industry standard programming architecture like Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, and SQL. Todays CMMS objectives are fully realizable using the Microsoft Windows environment. User-friendly, yet powerful features such as: one button access to history, pending work orders, future PMs, electronics file folders for organization information, and notification of duplicate work orders, now allows the maintenance professional to maximize time and effort. Proven Expertise And On-Going SupportRounding out the eight factors for CMMS success is the expertise and support of the CMMS suppliers. The supplier of choice should be that has field proven longevity and offers a complete suite of services to complement the software system. Services to expect include: engineering consulting, data collection, data entry, training, implementation and post implementation support. We have highlighted the eight factors we should evaluated in choose the right CMMS but before we can leave this topic we need also to briefly look at what are called Target Software Solution. These are software application targeted to very specific functions within the scope of the maintenance management process. Such task-specific application offers maintenance professional the power to address and successfully manage these often complex and involved tasks. Among the operation targeted by such software are regulatory compliance, roof inspection, space management and key-and-lock management. Task-specific software application address a range of pressing needs within facility maintenance departments, and since they focus only on one issue, the tend to do so effectively and efficiently. Before buying a task-specific program, make sure the desired function doesnt already exist in your CMMS. Review the manufactures manuals and literature and talk with all users of the system in the facility who may be more familiar with the systems intricacies. Also, consider whether a current function or module in your CMMS can duplicate the function properly and effectively. We should ensure that the initial design of the system encompassed all the major tasks that we are likely to meet and so diminishes our reliance on theses task-oriented software. They do however have a part to play in the continued evolution of the maintenance management process and technology. We will now look at the selection of the hardware to support the software. When buying a computer system they are four main components you must decide upon: the operating system, the processor, the hard disk and the amount of memory. Making a decision on these components will be either deceptively easy or nearly impossible. The decision should be guided by the type of software application you wish to use on the system. The following questions might be helpful:Will the system be used for one function or many?Will the system be a standalone or network?If networked, will it be connected to an outside system, i.e. the Internet, CompuServe, a vendor etc.?What application might you need in the near future?What standard does your company have for hardware?They are both like desk space no matter how much you have you will always use and need more. A CD-ROM is recommended even if your application doesnt require it. Most software is shipped on a CD-ROM. It is less expensive to obtain it on a CD, and the manufactures usually provide additional utilities or programs on the CD version of the software. The only way to overcome the rapidly changing, highly technical world of computers is always to get a consensus of opinions. Ask at least three vendors for three recommendations: high end, middle of the road and the least expensive. Ask for the name of the manufacture of the major components, namely:The whole system if buying a turnkey systemHard disk and type of disk controllerThe challenge for maintenance professionals is to find a hardware system that meets departments needs and support current and future software as well as possible. Implementation of a Computerized Maintenance Management SystemThe Systematic Approach to Computerized Maintenance Management is a practical strategy for designing, developing, and implementing a complete computerized maintenance management system. This comprehensive approach is comprised of two proven implementation methodologies:1.The System Approach to Maintenance Management (SAMM)2.The Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) Life Cycle. These concepts have proven through practical applications in various maintenance environment, to be valuable aids to guide companies through the design and implementation of benefits-producing computerized maintenance management systems. At the core of both the SAMM and CMMS implementation Life Cycle is the concept of developing a complete system. The SAMM model is used to establish the relationship between the individual elements that comprises the complete maintenance management system. The CMMS Implementation life cycle lay out the process or series of activities to design, develop, implement, and effectively use the system. Mother theresa Persuasive EssayThe technology installation should be coordinated and micro managed to the implementation schedule. This requisite planning activity should be a collaborative effort involving the entire maintenance department. The purpose is to elicit commitment throughout the department to accomplish all implementation tasks according to a predetermined schedule. The importance of planning the system installation can not be overemphasized .the schedule should lay out the activities and allocation of resources to accomplish the following:3.Technical installation of hardware and software5.Establish (rearranging) and staffing the work control center6.Initializing the computerized work management program. Step 10 Education and Training ProgramThe education and training program should provide the answers to why, and how to use the computerized maintenance management system. The educational process that began during the second phase should continue to support the issue: why are we computerizing. The training program should be directed towards enhancing users skill. The main objective of training is to teach how to proficiently use the computer equipment and software technology. Comprehensive training will also provide input into the setting up the database schemes and assist the transition to new management procedures. Step 11 Developing the Database(s)Developing the database(s) is one of the action steps that never appear to have a distinct beginning or final ending. The reality is that the database is a dynamic medium that continually changes, usually growing with the increasing proficiency of system users. In terms of overall effort required to complete the CMMS installation, the database is generally the most resource intensive task. For this reason, consideration must be afforded to insuring that all requisite data is collected and entered into the CMMS database. Step 12 Initializing the Work Management ProgramInitializing the work management program is a comprehensive task, which completes the transition from preexisting (paper-based or semi-automated) systems to a fully computerized mode of operation. It will not happen overnight and should be conducted in phases. In other words, install one function at a time, e.g. the work order process, and get it operating to plan, before implementing the others. Work order planning and performance tracking, preventive maintenance scheduling, and maintenance-repair operation (MRO) inventory control are among the many functions often targeted for computerization. The benefits to the organization for computerizing these work control functions will be maximized through the integration of the business processes with the information technology. Process re-engineering applied to these various work management functions will accelerate the return on the investment of the CMMS. The benefits to be gained through computerization will not be achieved through the retooling of technology only. Throughout the CMMS implementation process, maintenance managers must continually rethink business practices and aim to break loose from outdated and inefficient work management routines. Thereby using the power inherent in the computer tools to enable more efficient means, of planning, scheduling, and directing maintenance efforts. The CMMS is a big investment and warrants ongoing monitoring. Facilities can get the most out of their CMMSs by using them as fully as possible, measuring the benefits they add to facility operations and using that information to continue increasing overall efficiency and savings. We will now look at some of the benefits that can result from implementing and maximizing a CMMS. Most maintenance department functions have been affected in some way by the arrivals of CMMS. Among those function affected the most are: generating work orders, tracking inventory, setting up preventative maintenance (PM) and producing reports. The CMMSs can provide can both be short- and long-term benefits. Some of these benefits are:Standardized work order will reduce time, and paper work. All information combined into a central location decrease work time. Permanent, accurate records will help reduce equipment down time. Standardized format aids organization and collection of information. Long-term benefits should be apparent through weekly and monthly production reports. These include:Parts and materials availability will be increase. Maintenance labour effectiveness will increase. More regulated preventive maintenance will increase equipment life and help to reduce emergency maintenance costs. Production saving will increase as unscheduled downtime decrease. Purchase costs of parts and materials will be reduced. Outside contract costs will be reduced. Regular report gives a more effective and up-to-date record of inventory/stores reports, work orders and physical maintenance reports, which will reduce cost of parts, inventory and labour. Reports also help increase management control. We will now look at some of these benefits in details:Currently most form of CMMS are based on forms printed out for use by the maintenance workers. Workers enter information on the forms, which is re-entered into the system after the work is finished. Because the work order contains data entered directly by the technician, it is the focal point of a CMMS. The ability to prioritize work orders so they can accommodate each facility and functions has helped maintenance department considerably. For example some CMMS can prioritize work orders for each day so that those designated, as high priorities will automatically be first on the list orders to complete. Maintenance departments, therefore can more easily discern a high-priority task from one that is routine, helping organized and improve the departments efficiency. Inventory modules on a CMMS have become especially helpful for facilities with more than one stores area. They allow the maintenance department to carefully track parts from the time they are logged in/or scanned in, in departments with bar coding capability to the time they are used. The module have been essential in helping departments set up purchasing schedules and track parts costs more carefully. Inventory modules also help streamline maintenance departments when they are linked to work order modules. I this scenario, the work order screen can display whether the parts needed for the service work are available, saving time that would be spent checking individual parts lists or going to the stores area. Also, the module can alert a facility when parts are almost gone, so parts can be reordered before they run out. This helps the maintenance department avoid extra downtime waiting for parts. Setting up preventive maintenance (PM)Maintenance departments are realizing the benefits of PM, and CMMS are essentials in helping establish such programs. The PM module reminds the maintenance department each time routine work is needs to be performed and alerts the department when a task is coming due, helping reduce the risk of missing regular maintenance work and lengthening the life of the equipment. Developers of maintenance software, who keep a close watch on the many changes that are taking place in the maintenance management profession, say that their products in the future will continue to address and anticipate the many problems related to keeping commercial and institutional facilities operating both efficiently and cost-effectively. Data that is collected by the CMMS including hours worked, failure codes, equipment and system downtime, repair costs, and repair time are been used to support operational decisions, such as reliability analysis to compare manufactures, maintenance effectiveness, and justification of outsourcing specific maintenance functions. Most regulatory agencies expect to be able to review and audit regulatory compliance through a CMMS. Not that long ago, paper records were the default standard for documentation. The latest crop of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) tend to reflect the general advances in software that have been occurring at an exponential rate. Five years ago, Window based program were the exception rather than the rule, and larger, multi-user systems were at best serve by mainframe or mini-systems. Todays CMMS releases are invariably 32-bits Window programs able to scale from a single-user standalone system to a 100-user client/server system. Handheld data collection units and pen-based computer transferring data to and from a central database via the Internet are readily available, and historical data is analyzed for maintenance reliability information and for management and budgetary support. Most CMMS started out as either work order management system or inventory control systems designed to be used by the maintenance the department to tract equipment/facility maintenance and to manage their spare parts inventories. In most cases manager made limited use of the historical information available. The role of CMMS system in many organizations, however, has started to transcend simply supporting the maintenance department. In many of todays CMMS implementations, significantly greater requirements are placed upon the CMMS to provide tangible benefits and information to the company. What will the next generation of CMMS bring to maintenance? Developer point to advances in ease of use, ease of integration with other applications, flexibility and speed. They also acknowledge that the rapid rise of the World Wide Web as an information resource and conduit will continue to have tremendous effects, though in concrete terms, many questions remain about precisely what shapes those development will take. Perhaps most provocatively for maintenance departments, developers say, a future generation of CMMS will go well beyond data collection, storage, retrieval and analysis. Future CMMS applications, developers say, will have the ability to learn within parameters preset by users and will be able to offer maintenance technicians a series of options in a particular situation. There is a major push a among CMMS developers to eliminate paper from the maintenance process with the next generation of software. Several developers pointed to the advent of personal digital assistants (PDAs) as an example of more accessible CMMS of the future. PDA are portable handheld computers that allow users to bring computer functionality into areas of facilities that before had not been accessible. PDAs, a well as CMMS that operate on them, will allow the technicians to more easily take work order information into the field, access this information, as well as the departments database and collect information on the project for future downloading back into the database. A soon-to-typical process might start with a telephone call from a building occupant reporting a problem, continue with an automatically generated work order prompted by the telephone call and end with a technician in the field receiving a message via pager alerting him of the reported problem. Accessing the departments CMMS through a PDA, the technician finds the work order request, complete the work and downloads the completed electronic work order back into the system all without the need for paper. The process cuts down on paper handling by creating essential data that is readily available by other software applications. The CMMS application of tomorrow will give facility executives, maintenance and engineering managers and front-line technicians an unprecedented palette of options for collecting, reconfiguring and analyzing information than ever before. Armed with this enhanced ability, as well as additional pieces of complementary technology, developer say workers will be better able to anticipate system and equipment problems, detect trouble spots, spotlight potential saving and, in the end, prepare more effective solutions to these situation. The impact of the Internet on future CMMS is hard to overestimate. This will result in:Expanded data sharing capabilities. Companies with facilities miles or even thousand of miles apart will be able to use the internet to share a wide range of data related to all aspects of operations, including such key areas as inventory and project costs. Greater access to CMMS to casual users. More companies are realizing every day that their business performance is closely related to how they manage their facilities and workplace assets. Operating expenses can be reduced at the same time real estate assets are maximized and employee productivity and the quality of worklife are enhanced. Facilities-related expenses represent most companies second-largest operation cost, next to personnel and their greatest capital asset. As companies look for opportunities to improve financial performance and competitiveness new opportunity have to be explore. Success will depend upon the ability to identify, communicate and manage opportunities to support the companys business objectives. The following processes needs to be examined:1.Monitoring how facilities are being used and managed2.Evaluating whether facilities are best serving corporate objectives3.Anticipating how facilities might better support the organization and respond to its changing needThe design/selection, development, im plementation and monitoring of a CMMS is one opportunity which companies must take advantage if they are to succeed in the dynamic business environment. The introduction of a CMMS and its monitoring and upgrade will enhance the companys competitive edge. Benchmarking, that is researching how best-in class have benefited from CMMS is a clear indicator that only those organization who implement proper CMMS will survive in the global market. It is therefore imperative that organizations that have not implemented a CMMS should investigated the feasibility of implementing a system and organization with a system should ensure that the system is operating at optimum level and upgraded as required to effective and ensure that the organization is competitive. The benefits to the organization includes:Reduce overall facility operating costsBoost productivity and product qualityImprove resource utilization enhance warranty trackingImprove analysis and decision makingBibliography:

Outsiders Essays (601 words) - Pony, English-language Films

Outsiders The following is a transcript of the recent hearing of the Curtis brothers. RANDY L: Randy were you there the night of Bobs death? R: Yes your honor. L: What happened that night and how did it happen? R: Well it all started when we all saw the two Greasers (Pony and Johnny) in the park. We were completely drunk and had no idea what we were doing so I guess we all just wanted to beat the two of them up, no really big reason it is just that the we hate the Greasers and the Greasers hate us. So we got out of the car and started to gang beat pony, when I think of it now it is kind of harsh, we mostly just tried to drown him but we ended up not harming either one of them that much it was Bob that was going to pay the consequence. I turned around and there was my best friend Bob laying there, choking over blood and dieing right before my eyes. I had no idea what to do so I ran . L: Thank you Randy you my go sit back down now I would like to call Sherri Vallance to the stand please. Cherry Vallance L: So how much of the murder do you know about? S:Well awile ago I had gone to the Drive In Movies. Bob and Randy had been drinking lots that night so we decided to leave them there alone. We met Pony boy and Johnny, we had stayed with them most of the night. Bob and Randy saw Marsha and I with them and I guess they got a little jelous, and they looked very mad at pony and Johnny. I don't really know what happened when they murdered Bob but I know that Im still aching from it. L: Thank you Cherry L: We call Darry curtis to the stand please. L: Darry were you very good friends with Dally? D: Yes I was your honor we were the best of friends. L: What did you do when you found out that Pony was missing and was wanted for murder? D: I cried all day long every day and I searched the city for him every day also. L: Thank you , you may have a seat now. L: I call Soda Pop Curtis to the stand please. L: Soda Pop what happened before Pony Boy ran off out of your house and went missing? SP: Well Pony came home late the night he left and we were up all night worried sick about him. Well when he did come home I guess Darry was a bit mad so I guess we all got into a little yelling fight and darry got very mad and ended up hitting Pony, and that was when Pony left and didn't come back till a week ago. L: Thank you Soda Pop you may have a seat now too. L: Now last of all I would like to call Pony Boy Curtis to the stand please. J: Pony boy tell, me do you like living in the house that you are living in right now with you r brothers? PB: Yes I do I love living with them it is great I have alot of fun. J: And do you like the school that you are going to is it a healthy environment to be in? PB:Yes I have lots of friends and I really enjoy going there. J:What kind of grades do you get in school? PB: I have almost all As and the rest are Bs Im a good reader and I really like to do school work all the time. J: Thank you Pony Boy that is all this case is closed with no further adieus.

Erik A Man Filled With Desires... essays

Erik A Man Filled With Desires... essays God bestows you with a variety of gifts. He gives you what He decides to give you and takes away from you what He decides. For Erik Weihenmayer sight was what God took away from him. Erik was a blind man because God wanted him to be so. It was his fate to be blind. He knew that whatever he did cannot be undone. So he accepted his fate and fought to improve his destiny. He was not blind. He could see the truth. Bestowed with the gift of rigid will, Erik was a man filled with desires. He had the desire to be the best, to have the best family, and to conquer the best mountains. To become the best, Erik trained the best he could. He overcame many obstacles in life, married the woman of his dreams, and climbed the towering peaks of Kilimanjaro in Africa. However, his lifes dream had yet to be fulfilled; he had yet to defeat Mount Everest. By climbing this mountain, he would prove to many and especially to himself that blindness is not a curse. Many people including Erik himself had doubts about finishing the mission. The journey was long. The summit was far, far away. Everest, Eriks dream, seldom forgave climbers. However, with high challenges come high responsibilities. Erik could not let his family or team members down. He fought and struggled for two months and managed to reach the peak at last. He surmounted the blistering winds, the spiky rocks, and the freezing snowstorms of Mount Everest. The mission was completed. Erik has climbed to the tallest point on earth. He literally stood over the top of the world. Everyone had to acknowledge Eriks courage a nd success. Erik could not see, so some people assumed he could not walk, talk, rock, shock, or mock. Alas! He had done what very few humans could do. Blind impressions, such as being lucky to have the first shot of the blind man dead, were forced to fade away. These impressions were replaced with new ones. Erik is now a role model in the community. Erik was blin ...

Individual Assignment of Managing Global Alliances Essay

Individual Assignment of Managing Global Alliances - Essay Example John and Gilles (1996) cite the case of the 1990 merger of the French-owned Renault and Swedish-owned Volvo which ended up in a disaster. The shareholders of Volvo got very upset about the happenings and trends and led to a revolt which resulted in Volvo abandoning merger talks in December 1993 (John and Gilles, 1996: 255). In another twist, the Dutch-Belgium banking merger collapsed in 1989 and this led to several losses in rebuilding (Cartwright and Cooper, 2012). Clearly, these two incidents show that mergers of businesses from two national jurisdictions have some fundamental problems. In trying to explain these issues, Arns identify that before these mergers and strategic alliances can be carried out, there is the need to delineate priorities, goals and motives before these joint legal activities can be carried out (2005). These adjustments come with major structural problems which are sometimes never resolved. In other situations, there are major cultural differences which fuel the dissatisfactions of the key players. These cultural disparities are usually at the corporate and national levels (Arns, 2005). Another theory that explains the collapses of mergers and strategic alliances is that these alliances are often due to economic challenges and scarcity (Pahl and Richter, 2009). This induces businesses with extremely different cultural views to come together to attain given ends. These businesses are so different that they work together and achieve the economic goals. Once those goals are attained, the businesses become sensitive to their cultural differences and this leads to major tensions which often leads to the collapse of mergers. In all these situations, it is apparent that cultural differences play some kind of role in the break up of strategic alliances, joint ventures and mergers. This means that culture is very important and vital in these things. Research Problem This paper sets out to identify the main roots and actual effects of cultural di fferences in the break up of strategic alliances. In this situation, there will be the need to identify the role of culture in strategic alliances and similar ventures. Also, if this is identified, it is necessary to find ways of effectively dealing with cultural situations and problems to provide results that would enable strategic alliances to thrive. Aims and Objectives The aim of the paper is to â€Å"identify the extent to which cultural variations contribute to problems in strategic alliances and examination of the best methods of dealing these cultural problems in strategic alliances†. In attaining this end, the following objectives will be explored: 1. The definition of the key concepts and ideas that intervene with culture in strategic alliances. 2. An examination of how these key ideas and concepts in culture affect strategic alliances. 3. Identification of the key approaches to dealing with cultural problems in strategic alliances. 4. An evaluation of the effective ness of these alternative approaches in dealing with cultural problems through the analysis of three practical cases of strategic alliances. Literature Review This section of the report would examine key issues and pointers that are necessary to attain a meaningful understanding of the ideas and concepts that are being discussed in this project. The section would draw on ideas and concepts that define and describe the key elements and aspects of the paper

Catfish Reflection Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Catfish Reflection Paper - Essay Example But this backfired to Angela also, when she (Meg) became careless with her facts especially with that song she claimed to have written for Yaniv was found out to be in Youtube. This triggered an investigation on the part of Yaniv’s company which they found out that Angela was not exactly truthful. Angela on the other continued her story without a cue (due to the absense of non-verbal cues) that Yaniv is already â€Å"giving her a ride† after finding it out that she is a fake. 2. How did the relationship between the two people making the film, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, and the brother of Ariel, Yaniv Schulman (the film was focused Yaniv) affect the actual design/filming of the documentary (group outcome)? The relationship between the two people making the film, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, and the brother of Ariel, Yaniv Schulman actually made the documentary and filming of the film more interesting. It add spice to the film and made the film to have a â€Å"raw† design because of the candidness of the interaction of the people in the film. In the opening of the documentary, it actually shot Yaniv at close up range while Yaniv showing discomfort because the film was â€Å"too close† that it was already dictating his personal life. This discomfort and sometimes protestation of Yaniv actually brought flavor to the documentary. This was very evident and even made the film very realistic when Yaniv complain that his brother Ariel and friend Henry Joost talked him into documenting his relationship with Abby and her family (particularly Meg) and then bully him. Ariel retorted that he was actually just directing. 3. Did the relationships (group dynamic) change when the virtual relationshp became actual? Or were the others (Angela Wesselman-Pierce and her family) always members of the documentary project/group in

Management Accounting: Information for Decision-making

Management Accounting: Information for Decision-making Management accounting information should comply with a number of criteria including verifiability, objectivity, timeliness, comparability, reliability, understandability and relevance if it is to be useful in planning, control and decision-making. Explain the meaning of each of the criteria named above and give a specific example to illustrate each. Give a brief explanation of how the criteria detailed in (a) might be in conflict with each other, giving examples to illustrate where such conflict might arise. Question 2 : (Information for decision-making) The overriding feature of information for decision-making is that it should be relevant for the decision being taken. However, decision-making varies considerably at different levels within an organization, thus posing a particular difficulties for the management accountant. Describe the characteristics of decision-making at different levels within an organization. Explain how the management accountant must tailor the information provided for the various level. Question 1 (a) Management accounting information should comply with a various number of criteria including verifiability, objectivity, timeliness, comparability, reliability, understandability and relevance if it is to be useful in planning, control and decision-making. Below we are discussing about the criteria needed to achieve its natural reason which is for planning, control and decision- making. The first criteria of management accounting information is verifiability. It means the ability through consensus among measurers to ensure that the information represents the purposes and the right method of measurement has been used without any errors or bias. It also means that it is observable to outsiders, in the context of model of information. Verifiability refers to the ability of accountants to ensure that accounting information is what it is meant to be. The outsiders cannot see the accounting informations and the references to those variables in a contract between the two parties cannot be enforced by outside authorities. An example of verifiability is that of two accountants looking at the same information like inventory valuation and coming to similar conclusions. There are three key aspects in verifiability. The first aspect is consensus among observers. The second one is the assurance of correspondence to economic things and events. The third key aspect is direct verifi cation versus indirect verification. Besides that, objectivity is another criteria that is also another useful aspect in planning and making decisions. Most accountants these days rely on verifiable evidence. Example of verifiable evidence are invoices, delivery notes, receipts, physical counts or even financial statements. By practicing objectivity, it is now possible to compare financial statements of different firms with an assurance of reliability and also uniformity. In another words, when the management accountant is providing information to the top-level management, they should provide the accurate result without altering or changing anything so that the manager will be able to make a accurate decision without being influenced by anyone. Moreover, Timeliness is one of the important parts for management to balance the relative merits of timely reporting and the provision of reliable information. Timeliness is concerned with having information to meet needs of decision makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions. More accurate information may take a longer time to produce. Thus, to provide information on a timely basis, it may often be necessary to report before all aspects of management accounting transactions or any other event. Example, a firm may test-market a potential new product in a city. Despite a long wait for the accurate marketing report may cause a slight delay in the managements decision to launch the new product nationally and the information will be useless to the decision making process. Thus, it is one of the managerial accountants role in the decision-making process which will decide what information is relevant to each decision problem and provide accurate and timely data. Not forgett ing that its a conflicting criteria. Delaying information can significantly influence decisions and can rob information of its potential usefulness. Timeliness can have a direct impact on stock prices. Late reporting can represent bad news or a negative forecast. If the delay is great, it allows the opportunity for more information to be reported and to be supplied or maybe even speculated on by other sources. The next criteria is comparability. This criteria helps us to compare the financial statement of an entity through time in order to identify trends in its financial position and performance. At the same time, this criteria also helps to evaluate and compare the financial statements of different entities. It provides information about a particular entity that can be compared with information about other entities and with similar information about the same entity for some period or some other point of time. For an example, the management accountant should prepare the accounting information in a consistent way using historical concept for every year so that it will be much easier for the company to make comparison with the past accounting information or related entities. The heads of the company must determine if they want comparability to be driven by the type of instrument or other factors such as management intentions and industry segments. For an example, financial service, software and also manufacturing. Another criteria which is also needed is reliability. It is the quality of information that assures that information is reasonable free from any errors and are bias and faithfully represents what it purports to represent. It related to faithful representations and verifiability. An aspect in the context of reporting for financial instruments is the reliability of measurements including relevant disclosures about such reliability. For example, the staff has observed that many constituents seem to equate reliability with verifiability, not representational faithfulness. For purposes of discussion at this meeting, the staff plans to collect those sub-characteristics into three groups. The first one is, Faithful representation, including completeness and substance over form. The second one is verifiability, including precision and uncertainty. The last one is neutrality, including freedom from bias, prudence, and conservatism. The second last criteria is understandability. It relates to the users perspective and financial informations that are useful. It could be increased by reducing complexities for users through reporting information that represents the underlying economics, or by reducing the number of alternative accounting methods applicable to a subset of asset. Informations that increases the understandability are definitely very useful. Understandability is known as when the users have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and a willingness to know more the information with reasonable diligence. Information about complex matters that should be included in the financial statements because of its relevance to the economic decision making needs of users should not be excluded merely on the grounds that it may be too difficult for certain users to understand. For the example, management accountant should prepare the accounting information or summarize of the report and analysis that easily understood to the decision maker in order to let them easy to make final decision. One other noteworthy aspect of the interaction of the financial statements and Management Commentary is the understandability of the information provided in the financial reports. Understandability can be adversely impacted by placing related information in different parts of a report and not providing the user with a cross reference. If the IASB does add guidance on Management Commentary to its existing guidance on financial statement disclosures, this would provide an opportunity to better integrate related information. The last criteria is relevance. It is also very important in the planning, control and decision-making. Relevance is the capacity of informations that are needed to make a difference in a decision by helping the users to form predictions about the outcomes of the past, present and future events or even to confirm or correct prior expectations. Relevance may be represented by determining which values assigned to financial instruments allows user to make better decisions based on the information provided to them. Informations may be deemed more or less relevant based on which measurement basis is being used. Different decisions basically will require different type of data. For example, an analysis on a project should not have any information on indirect costs because it is not relevant for making decision of the project and should include any prime cost because it is relevant cost for the decision-making. Question 1 (b) Management accounting information is used to satisfy the management needs. Those informations are useful for planning, controlling and decision making. However, these criteria also face conflict amongst one another. Conflict simply refers to the incompatibility or interference of ones idea, event, or activity with another. In this case, the conflict between criteria will happen when satisfying a criterion affects another criterion being difficult to fulfill as they are in collision with each other. They are few types of conflicts involved. Below are the conflicts. Relevance vs Reliability Relevance and reliability are two important criteria which are needed while making a decision. However, often there are some conflicts occur because of these two conflicts, requiring a trade-off between various degrees of relevance and reliability. A forecast of a financial variable may possess a high degree of relevance to investors and creditors. However, a forecast necessarily contains subjectivity in the estimation of future events. Therefore, because of a low degree of reliability, generally accepted accounting principles do not require companies to provide forecasts of any financial variables. Reliability and relevance often impinge on each other. Reliability may suffer when an accounting method is changed to gain relevance and vice versa. Sometimes, it may not be clear whether there has been a loss or either on relevance or reliability. The introduction of current cost accounting will illustrate the point. Proponents of current cost accounting believe that current cost income from continuing operations is a more relevant measure of operating performance than is operating profit computed on the basis of historical cost. They also believe that if holding gains and losses that may have accrued in past periods are separately displayed, current cost income from continuing operations better portrays operating performance. The uncertainties surrounding the determination of current costs, however, are considerable, and variations among estimates of their magnitude can be expected. Because of those variations, verifiability or representational faithfulness, components of reliability, might diminish. Whether there is a net gain to users of the information obviously depends on the relative weights attached to relevance and reliability (assuming, of course, that the claims made for current cost accounting are accepted). Comparability vs Consistency Comparability is another important criteria for planning control and decision making. Comparability which enables users to identify similarities in and differences between economic phenomena should be distinguished from consistency; the consistent use of accounting methods. Concerns about comparability or consistency should not preclude reporting information that is of greater relevance or that more faithfully represents the economic phenomena it purports to represent. If such concerns arise, disclosures can help to compensate for lessened comparability or consistency. Timeliness vs verifiability Timeliness and verifiability is needed all times for decision making. Information is useful when it is timely. To be timely, the information must be available when needed to define problem or to be begin to identify possible solutions. Those criteria might conflict with verifiability. It is because when needed verifiability information, it may take time to calculate or to get it after production process is end. Verifiability is the useful information when it is accurate. Before relying on information to make decisions, it is important to ensure that the information is correct. For example, a production manager has to decide the actual amount of lychee to be used in produce of 10000 units of lychee drink. But, because of the time given is limited, he has to prepare the report to the top management by forecasting the amount of lychee that will be used. Although he has meet the criteria of timeliness, he is might not meet the criteria of verifiable. This is because, he did not use the a ctual amount of lychee that will be used. This might cause some problems to occur during the production process. The cost of lychee is lower or others factors. When the production has come to an end, he will be able to know the actual amount of lychee that was been used. So, there is a conflict between timeliness and verifiability. Timeliness vs reliability Another conflict is between timeliness and reliability. Information is said to be reliable when they incorporate all aspects of a transaction as well as other events in order to facilitate users in deciding on any issue regarding the latter. However, most of the times in providing timely reporting, those aforesaid transactions or events are never taken into account as it occurs after the report is prepared and thus impairing reliability. In interest of timeliness, the reliability of the information is sacrificed, every loss of reliability diminishes the usefulness of information and as time pass, and either the reliability of the information drops or increase accordingly. For example, the material supplier decides to supply only one of the Material A. Company Y is very interested and is capable to buy the Material A. The supplier is interested on selling the Material A to Company Y, but there is no contract signed between them. As time passes, the supplier received an offer from Comp any Zs, with a higher price and shorter time compared to Company Y. Therefore, Material A is selling to Company Z and Y loses the Material A. Company Y is reliable on material supplier to get the Material A yet the supplier needed to sell the Material A in a shorter time to get the profit. So, supplier decides to sell it to Company Z. Thus, the criterion of timeliness is conflict with criteria of reliability. Question 2(a) The process identifying problems and opportunities and resolving them is called as Decision Making. Decision making is intertwined with the other functions such as planning, coordinating and controlling. Decisions are made in order to change the companys current status to a more desirable state of affair. Managers, teams, and individual employees make company decisions, depends on the scope of the decision and the design and structure of the organization. Organizations which have decentralized structures will delegate more decisions to teams and front-line employees. Programmability, uncertainty, risk, conflict, scope, and crisis are the characteristics of decision making. Programmability is divided into two. They are programmed decisions and non-programmed decision. Programmed decision means identifying a problem and matching the problem with established routines and procedures for resolving it. Whereas, the non-programmed decision is the process of identifying and solving a problem when a situation is unique and there are no any previously established routines or procedures that can be used as guidelines. Uncertainty also has two types. They are certainty and uncertainty. Certainty is the condition when all the information is needed to make a decision. However, uncertainty is the condition when the information available to make a management decision is incomplete. Risk is the level of uncertainty as to the outcome of a management decision. Risk has positive and negative aspects too. Decision environment for risk vary depending on company size and culture. Those who work in entrepreneurial firm must be more comfortable with making risky decisions than those who work in large corporations with established procedures. Next characteristic of decision making is conflict. It is always hard to get everyone to agree about what to do. Conflict over opposing goals, utilization of scarce resources, and other priorities are often characterized in decision making. Decision scope is the effect and time horizon of the decision. The effect of a decision includes who is involved in making the decision and who is affected by it. The time horizon of a decision may range from a single day to five years or more. There are three different level of management. They are the top-level management, middle level management and the lower management. The top-level management takes the strategic decisions. The middle level management takes tactical decision. And the lower level management takes the operational decision. The top level management who makes the Strategic decisions encompasses a long term perspective of two to five years and affect the entire organization. Top level managers, or strategic manager are also called senior management and executives. They are those individuals who are at the top one or two levels in an organization. Examples of top level management are The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operational Officer (COO), Chief Informational Officer (CIO), President, Vice President, Chairman and Board of Directors. They have the long-term vision for the company. They are not involved in day-to-day tasks need to possess conceptual skill so as to set the goals for the organization as a whole. For example, Jerry Yang, the former chief executive of YAHOO, was criticized when a $44.6 billion acquisition bid from Microsoft failed under his watch. They frame the organizational policy. They are also responsible for mobilization of resources. They generall y make large budgetary decisions for the company and are responsible to the shareholders and the general public. The success or failure of the organization rests on the shoulders of the top level management. Middle level managers are those in the levels below the top managers. Middle level management makes Tactical decisions which have a short-term perspective of one year or less and focus on subunits of the organization, such as departments or project teams. Tactical decision is the mixture of strategic decision and operational decision. Example of middle management is General Manager (GM), Plant Manager, Regional manager and Divisional manager. Middle level managers are responsible for carrying out the goals set out by top management with setting goals for their departments and other business units. Tactical decisions, the medium term decisions about how to implement strategy, are delegated to middle managers. Middle management decisions might include marketing a new product, communicating with and managing lower management and determining what issues need to be addressed with top level managers. Each individual middle management department develops a strategy to meet its inner departm ental goals. Lower level management makes Operational decisions which cover the shortest time perspective, generally less than a year. Operational decisions, short term decision or also called administrative decisions about how to implement the tactics affect daily tasks and generally handled by lower level managers. They are often made on a daily or weekly basis and focus on the routine activities of the firm such as production, customer service, and handling parts and supplies. Office managers, shift supervisor, department manager, foreperson, crew leader and store manager, are responsible for the daily management of line workers. For example, supervisor may decide to reward the most productive employee with an employee of the month award, or offer incentives such as gift certificates. The last characteristic of decision making is Crisis. Decision making during crisis is more challenging and difficult than under ordinary conditions. Making a decision in a crisis situation can make or break the career of a manager.   Question 2(b) A management accountants duty is to provide information to users who are part of the organization from various levels. However, different level of management has different information needs. Thus, a management accountant has to tailor the information for them. The first step that should be taken before the management accountant provides any type of information is that he should be clear and understand the company vision as the top, middle and bottom management of an organization. The top-level management is responsible for the long term strategis plan with strategic decisions for about 5 to 10 years time. Therefore the top management will create a mission, which will consist of a more specific goal that unifies companys efforts. So, the management accountant should prepare budgets for top management accountant to decide which projects have to undertaken to achieve the companys goals. Budget is a strategic plan that details the action that must be taken during the following year. It also pinpoint the responsibility of achieving the budgets to respective managers inline the company policies. For example, management accountant prepare the imposed budgets to top management before imposed to middle management to achieve targets. In the top-leve l management, a management accountant should be responsible for all or a part of a companys financial status, actions and transactions. The management accountant should also maintain budgets, perform financial analysis, build business strategies and also manage their relationships with investors and auditors. In middle management, they are responsible for developing and carrying the tactical plans to accomplish the organizations mission. Tactical plans specify how company will use resource, budgets and people to achieve company goals within its mission. In this level, management accountant will use various methods to decide the profit with minimum production costs. Profit volume analysis is one of the methods to calculate changes in cost and sales in determine the profit. Management accountant will calculate breakeven point where the level of sales of company needs to achieve at zero profit. After that, management accountant also prepared the report on scare resources which the supply of resources is limited by define the limit factor. Then, management accountant will produce the product that give higher contribution per limiting factor and take considerations of qualitative factors before final decisions is made. Final decisions is means whether to make or to buy the decision. It is situ ation where an organization is given a choice to produce by own resources or pay other organization to make the product. After management accountant prepare the information in form of cost volume profit, limiting factors analysis and decisions about activities either to buy or to make, middle management have to decide, carrying the tactical plans and delegating the responsibility of jobs to the operational management. In a summary, the types of information that a management accountant should tailor to middle-level management is like preparing financial statements, assess internal controls, supervise accounting staffs, complete and review tax returns and also help to manage the general ledger. Lower lever management is responsible to carry the operational plans where it is related to day to day plans in producing products or services. For example, management accountant will determine the economic order quantity for lower management to know the amount of inventory they should reorder order to minimize ordering cost and holding costs. Therefore, lower level management will order the maximum order. In the lower level, the types of informations a management accountant should tailor are receivables and payrolls, financial statement and compliance audit, help in the budget department and also prepare reports for the controllers department. Question 2(c) An example of a typical management decision is Strategic Decision. Strategic Decision would normally be taken at first level which is top management. A top management approach is one where an executive, decision maker, or other person or body makes a decision. This approach is disseminated under their authority to lower levels in the hierarchy, who are, to a greater or lesser extent, bound by them. For example, a structure in which decisions either are approved by a manager, or approved by his or her authorized representatives based on the managers prior guidelines, is top to bottom management. Top management translates the policy (formulated by the board-of-directors) into goals, objectives, and strategies, and projects a shared-vision of the future. It makes decisions that affect everyone in the organization, and is held entirely responsible for the success or failure of the enterprise Strategic decisions are broad based, qualitative type of decisions which include or reflect goals and objectives. Strategic decisions are non quantitative in nature. Strategic decisions are based on the subjective thinking of management concerning goals and objectives. Besides that, there are impact of mergers and acquisitions on top level management. Impact of mergers and acquisitions on top level management may actually involve a clash of the egos. There might be variations in the cultures of the two organizations. Under the new set up the manager may be asked to implement such policies or strategies, which may not be quite approved by him. When such a situation arises, the main focus of the organization gets diverted and executives become busy either settling matters among themselves or moving on. However, the decision maker must be well equipped with a degree or must have sufficient qualification to solve the problems that arises. Knowledge of management accounting is needed by the decision-maker to come out with relevant information. A part of that, there might be an impact on tax because of this decision made. The information provided not only for the inside people but also for the external people such as shareholders or supplier. On the other hand, top management will practises non-routine concept for all the activities held. Non-routine is known as nonrecurring decision such as the following to accept or reject a special order; to make or buy a certain part, to sell or process further, or to keep or drop a certain product line or division. In these types of decisions, the decision maker must have knowledge of relevant costs and contribution margin.

Applied Concept Paper: Critical Thinking Structures for Business Ethics Essay

Executive Summary The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate my understanding of the previously mentioned fundamental concepts and capability in order to relate them to the actual business world through applications of my critical thinking skills. Key concepts such as ethics, social responsibility, whistle-blowers, sustainability, stakeholders, and environmental stewardship are mentioned in Chapters 3 and 4 of (Wheelen, 2012). This paper discusses recent articles regarding ethics in the Atlanta Public School Systems, a violation of the code of ethics by the former HealthSouth CFO back in 2010, and Wal-Mart’s latest ethics controversy. In addition, this paper targets important concepts such as social responsibility, sustainability; environmental stewardship and how they affect the stakeholders of Patagonia Clothing Company, Carlportland, U.S Silica and Lucky Stone Company. These companies have proven themselves to be in the forefront of sustainability initiatives through their everyday practice s. From this research, I learned that adhering to the Code of Ethics in the business world is important on many levels. It guides all managerial decisions, creating a common framework upon which all decisions are founded. In order for companies to fully meet their social responsibility, they should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical and human rights concerns into their business operations and core strategy. Furthermore, the concept of sustainability has come to the vanguard of the global understanding that economics, environmental health and human well-being are interconnected. This ultimately demonstrates that generating high-quality products in a responsible way increases brand reputation, competitive advantage, and most importantly financial success. Abstracts * Investigation into APS Cheating Finds Unethical Behavior Across Every level This article talks about how across the Atlanta Public School system (APS), staff members worked in secret to cheat on testing results. The report accuses top district officials along with school teachers and administrators, of wrongdoing which had been happening for years. In some schools, cheating became a routine, a part of administrative duties during the annual state examinations. It grew into an organized crime of falsifying test results for children who could not score high enough to meet the district’s self-imposed goals. In addition, Beverly Hall, former superintendent, and her top aides, lied to top investigators, destroyed and altered public records, tampered with information, and misled police to avoid taking responsibly for their unethical behaviors. This resulted in a culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation in the APS. * Former Health South CFO Talks to Business Students About Wo rkplace Ethics This article discusses the ethical challenges that many CFOs face in the workplace. Aaron Beam, former HealthSouth CFO, served prison time for forging the company’s finances and breaking the code of ethics. Beam warned students of the ethical dangers in today’s workforce. He mentioned why accountants and CFOs get trapped into lying, and feel intimidated by their superiors. In this article, Bean touches on many important points, such as, how money changes people, how having more personal possessions does not guarantee happiness, and most importantly, how we need to stand by our principles and ethics all the time. After spending three months in the Montgomery jail, Beam learned his lesson; he wrote a book, opened a lawn service business, and decided to share his experience with business students in universities across the nation. * Wal-Mart’s Ethics Controversy This article debates how an employee ended up jobless after following the Wal-Mart ethics guidelines. Chalace Epley Lowry started working for Wal-Mart in January of 2006, and after a few days at the job, she witnessed unethical behavior from the VP of her department. Lowry suspected that Ms. Williams, the VP of Corporate Communications might have traded inside information about the company’s stock. She questioned it and filed a formal complaint with her immediate supervisor; she thought that it was the honorable thing to do. In return, her identity got disclosed to the offender, making it uncomfortable in her position since Mona Williams was effectively her boss. Also, she got a lower performance review, and when she complained, she was told to find another job. * Patagonia: Blueprint for Green Business The above article is the story of how Patagonia, an outdoor-clothing and equipment firm, and its founder, Yvon Chouinard, took his passion for the outdoors and turned into a successful business. By conducting business in a non-traditional way, Chouinard created a company with a different outdoor style that makes $270 million in yearly revenues. This organization is among one of the first in America to provide onsite daycare, as well as both maternity and paternity leave, and flextime. Patagonia reuses materials, questions growth, ignores fashion, makes goods that last, and discontinues profitable products. With a laidback atmosphere for employees, its production is at full capacity. Mr. Chouinard’s biggest dream is to turn Patagonia into a totally sustainable, ECO friendly company, where people enjoy coming to work, and he can sleep well at night. * Pursuing Sustainability Business Initiatives, a Large Business In this article, the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) recognizes their large producers’ member companies, which are pursuing sustainability initiatives through their everyday practices. The first one, CalPortland Company, one of the major producers of Portland cement, has been pursuing environmental stewardship for years. The second one, Lucky Stone Company, one of the largest family-owned and operated aggregates companies in the U.S, has an excellent environmental reputation. And the third one, U.S. Silica, is a leading producer of industrial minerals which recently adopted a formal sustainability policy. This article also emphasizes what these companies have in common and highlights the benefits companies will obtain by making sustainable decisions now. Concepts Ethics is defined by the textbook as the consensually accepted standards of behavior for an occupation, a trade, or a profession. There is no worldwide standard of conduct for business people. This is especially true given the global nature of business activities. Cultural norms and values vary between countries, ethnics groups and even among geographic regions (Wheelen, 2012). A Code of ethics specifies how an organization expects its employees to behave while on the job. â€Å"A code of ethics, (1) clarifies company expectations of employees conduct in various situations and (2) makes clear that the company expects its people to recognize the ethical dimensions in decisions and actions.† (Wheelen, 2012). Whistle-blowers are defined by the author of the textbook as those employees who report illegal or unethical behavior on the part of others. Even though the Sarbanes-Oxley Act forbids firms from retaliating against anyone reporting unethical acts, 82% of those who uncovered fraud reported being ostracized, demoted or pressure to quit (Wheelen, 2012). The concept of Social Responsibility as it is explained in the textbook proposes that a private corporation has responsibilities towards the society that extend beyond making a profit. Many business people have agreed upon the main responsibilities of a business, which are Economic, Legal and Ethical. Being socially responsible does provide a firm a more positive overall reputation (Wheelen, 2012). Sustainability may include more than just ecological concerns and the natural environment. It can also include economic and social aspects. In the business environment, in order for a firm to be sustainable, it must be successful over a long period of time; and it must satisfy all of its economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities (Wheelen, 2012). Stakeholders are a large group of people with interest in a business organization’s activities. This group gets affected by the achievements or failures of the firm’s objectives (Wheelen, 2012). Some examples of Key Stakeholders are: creditors, directors, employees, government agencies, shareholders, suppliers, unions, and the community where the business operates. Environmental Stewardship refers to responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices. Environmental stewardship defined in simple terms as â€Å"dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it† (Leopold, 2013). Analysis The article about the APS unethical practices touches on one important concept: Ethics. For years the Atlanta School District produced gains on state curriculum test by cheating on student’s exams. Years of misconduct took place at all levels of the organization, from the top of the chain of command to the Superintendent’s office. The cheating prevented many struggling students from getting the extra help they needed (Vogell, 2011). It also created an atmosphere of stress and deception among school employees. Top investigators in the case came up with three possible reasons that cheating flourished in APS. 1. The district set unrealistic goals, and pensions and raises were based on the test results. 2. Because the target test results rose every time the school reached the goal, the pressure rose. Cheating was, therefore, the only way to obtain the results. 3. The top officials refused to accept responsibility. However, I disagree with those three reasons. Just because g oals are unattainable, that does not mean we have to act unethically. Once the cheating started, it could not be stopped. It collapsed on itself, as lying usually does. If top leaders refused to take responsibility, it was their choice. We, as individuals, have to be responsible for our own actions. Teachers are responsible for helping students become better members of society; this includes teaching them good citizenship skills. There are always grey areas in professional codes of ethics because there are many areas that are subjective. Personal integrity and honesty are required by all who agree to follow a code of ethics. If an educator observes someone practicing unethical behavior, it is his/her duty to report such behavior through the proper administrative channels. In the article that talks about the former CFO of HealthSouth, Aaron Beam, he warned students about the ethical challenges that are in the workplace. I especially enjoyed this article because it touches an important subject, the code of ethics. Even the most ethically-aware professionals find their standards challenged on a daily basis . As accountants, part of the code is to represent the public interest, and sometimes that may mean putting it ahead of the company’s interest. As a CFO, that duty is heightened. In addition, the first people employees look to are the CEO and CFO to see if they have a real commitment to ethics. If they behave unethically, employees are likely to do so as well. A respectable CFO must be able to stand up to his/her boss with integrity and to speak unpleasant truths when necessary. Not only can inappropriate behavior lead to compliance failures, fraud, and theft, but the consequences can adversely affect employee morale and the firm’s reputation. An ethical framework is built by making the right choices in the little things. â€Å"Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching† (annonymus). In the third article about Wal-Mart, we see an employee who is following the company’s code of ethics and acts as a Whistle-blower when she suspected an unethical act was committed by her department head. It is important to note that â€Å"Wal-Mart prides itself on having one of the strictest and most st ringent ethics policies in the retail industry† (Gogoi, 2007). However, that was not true in this case. Instead of rewarding Ms. Lowrey for such a heroic act, her identity got exposed, and she was encouraged to find another job within the company in 90 days. She even experienced a lower performance evaluation after the incident. She felt disappointed to see the way an ethics complaint was handled by a corporation like Wal-Mart. Most of Wal-Mart scandals are perpetuated by a culture of silence. Rather than addressing the concerns that are affecting workers across the country, Wal-Mart has attempted to silence those who speak out for changes that would help the company, workers, and the community. As front line Wal-Mart workers are facing hardships, the company is making almost $16 billion a year in profits. Meanwhile, the Walton Family (heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune), are the richest family in the country. All of this has taken a toll on Wal-Mart’s image. Some people will not shop at Wal-Mart because they do not want to support a company t hat they perceive is unfair to its workers. Reading about Patagonia got my attention, since I have purchased their outdoor products without really knowing the company’s history. This unique business is conducted upside down and inside out. Decades before recycling became a common practice, Patagonia was already reusing materials. The company’s founder believed in putting the Earth first, by attaining sustainable practices, while making unbelievable profits ($270 million in revenues yearly). This company would not release toxins into rivers or chase endless growth. All of Patagonia’s products are produced with the highest level of quality and manufactured in the most socially responsible way. Patagonia became the first company in California to use renewable sources, like wind and solar energy, to power all its buildings and one of the first to print catalogs on recycled paper. With a payroll of 350 employees, the boss greets them by name. At the sweatshops facility, workers overlook a playground of the comp any’s day care facility. The people that works there are anything but slackers: â€Å"it was impressive to see how involved in sustainability their employees are,† said Matt Kristle, a senior vice president of Sam’s Club (Casey, 2007). In addition, the owners agree to keep Patagonia privately held and say no to anything that may compromise their values. Also, a good portion of the company’s profits is being donated to grass roots organizations, $26 million since 1985. As a company, all of the stakeholders are really committed to doing the right thing. That is why Patagonia serves as a blueprint for future businesses that want to follow this path. In the last article I chose, there are three companies within the same industry that pursue sustainability initiatives through their everyday practices. They all agree that environmental stewardship and social responsibility can interact to increase stakeholder value as well as shareholder value, (Schlett, 2011). U.S Silica, CalPortland and Luck y Stone voluntarily assist their communities in resolving the issues that affect them. For example, CalPortland, does material donations for the City of DuPont’s war memorial. Lucky Stone collaborates with the James River Association to create a spawning reef for the endangered Atlantic sturgeon species. U.S. Silica’s effort to protect an endangered turtle species near Pennsylvania plant is admirable, as well as helping feed local homeless people once a month. By helping their communities to resolve social issues, these companies are helping themselves by increasing brand value and reputation, improving their license to operate, and reducing their risks. Conforming to environmental laws is not enough anymore. Consequently, pursing environmental stewardship elevates an organization into the â€Å"Risk Management† category. And that, when implemented together with social responsibility initiatives for greener products and processes, moves the company into the â€Å"Business and Sustainable Development.† A good example of that is that all three companies have been working through their environmental management systems to go beyond compliance by implementing Best Management Practices. By encouraging a culture of environmental and social stewardship, these three large producers are at the forefront of sustainability, and as a result they are recognizing financial and sustainable success. Conclusion After carefully analyzing all the articles, I came to the conclusion that all those concepts are intrinsically related. It is important to understand that business ethics go beyond legal issues. Ethical conduct builds trust among individuals and in business relationships, which validates and promotes confidence between people. One of the principal causes of unethical behavior in organizations today is overly aggressive financial or business objectives. Abusive or intimidating behavior is another of the most common ethical problems for employees. Making ethical choices is sometimes the most difficult thing, especially when the one losing out is you or your business. Yet, for the greater good and the sake of mankind, one has to look at business as well as personal ethics and evaluate them periodically. All professions have a set of values that are the cornerstone of their belief system and the foundation of their practice. A Code of Ethics is important on many levels. It sets the â€Å"tone from the top† of the company’s culture. An effective Code of Ethics establishes the ethical expectations for employees and management alike and sets forth the mechanisms for enforcement and consequences of noncompliance. There are four dimensions of social responsibility: economic, legal, ethical, and voluntary, including philanthropic. Earning profits is the economic foundation of any company, and complying with the law is the next level. However, a business whose sole objective is to maximize profits is not likely to consider its social responsibility, although its activities will probably be legal. Sustainability is the balance between people and the environment. Air, water, and land are all impacted by the behavior and actions of human beings, but these impacts can be controlled. The challenge for companies in the twenty-first century is developing an environmentally responsible strategy that keeps them ahead of the game, helping them maintain an advantageous position in the marketplace. It is not enough to simply check boxes, publish a sustainability report, or reduce waste in factories. Companies must be truly innovative in terms of how they manage their relationship with the environment. Works Cited Casey, S. (2007, May 29). Patagonia: Blueprint for Green Business. Retrieved from http://cnnmoney.com. Gogoi, P. (2007, July 13). Wal-Mart’s Latest Ethics Controversy. Retrieved from http://www.Bloomberg Businessweek. Leopold, A. (2013, January 31). Aldo Leopold Quotes. Retrieved from aldoleopold.org: http://www.aldoleopold.org/greenfire/quotes.shtml Schlett, W. (2011). Pursuing Sustainable Business Initiatives, a Large Business. Stone, Sand & Gravel Review , 44-48. Vogell, H. (2011, July 26). Investigation Into APS Cheating Finds Unethical Behavior Across Every Level. Retrieved from http://www.ajc.com. Wheelen, T. L. (2012). Strategic Management and Business Policy: Towards Global Sustainability (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NY: Prentice Hall.