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.

Childrens literature Essay

Child development was broken down into four theories. These theories focused on intellectual and cognitive development as well as social development and moral judgment development. Theoretical models can be applied to children’s literature by different kinds of books. Children in the younger ages enjoy books like Dr. Seuss the cat in the hat or The Bernstein bears books that focus on things like right from wrong and education. Children learn from these kinds of books at a young age and the books can be related to their lives. As children get older books become more meaningful and become something they can relate to. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the book I chose, because I felt like it was well known and something children could connect to and enjoy. The story of Harry Potter can be related to by many children. The trials the he faces as a boy living with his aunt and uncle in the â€Å"non-magic† world can be understood by some who have encountered the same things. He was unappreciated, bullied, made fun of, and treated unfairly just because he was unliked. On his eleventh birthday he finds out that he is actually a wizard and there is a school for kids just like him. His parents, who were killed when he was a baby, were also magic people, and he was excited to be able to learn about them. At the school, Hogwarts, he is befriended by two people who truly become his best friends and family, and he is finally happy to know there are people who care about him. I think this book can be related to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory of Development. Piaget’s cognitive theory of development was outlined into four periods of intelligent development. The sensorimotor period, the preoperational period, the period of concrete operations, and period of formal operations. The period of formal operations hits right at the age group that the Harry Potter series was intended for. This period occurs between the ages of eleven and fifteen when young people begin to use formal logic, engage in a true exchange of ideas, comprehend the viewpoints of others, and understand what it means to live in society. Most readers of this stage have entered adolescence and are ready for more mature topics. I think that this theory applies to this book as kids can relate to Harry’s life with the Dursley’s and the world he is living in. After finding out he is a wizard they can also relate to all the situations he will face while  there at Hogwarts. Children can use their imagination to take them away into their own world where they can get away from reality even for a moment. As far as the book itself goes, literary criticism is meant to interpret the meaning of literature. I believe this book is approached by formal criticism. Formal criticism focuses on the work itself rather than the literary history of the book. When I read this book I am not worried about the author and her life or anything about the literature. I am focused on the action and story itself and the suspense it brings to its readers. I found this criticism part of the paper a little more challenging, but I agree with my decision as I did not think that any of the others fit. There is much that children and even adults can learn from reading books. There are books for children ages zero to three that focus mainly on shapes, colors, animals, and numbers. There are books for younger children up until age ten that are about little girls or boys and their adventures that they go on with their imaginary friends. Books about friendship and forgiveness that teach children to be kind and considerate of others as well as unselfish and giving. Books for ages eleven to fifteen that focus on life as a teenager when your mother or father does not understand you and you are desperately trying to figure out who you are. Books that can teach compassion and loyalty to family and friends and just overall make you imagine worlds you could have never dreamed of. Finally to the ages of sixteen to nineteen when you are googling over that boy or girl you so wish would notice you or even if you are interested in the fantasy world of dragons and wizards, there is a book out there that can teach every one of us something about ourselves. Books are out there to teach us new things and take us places we never knew we could go. It is all about actually reading what the author has to say and listening. For me reading was a way of life and something that made me who I am today. I encourage reading for everyone and I hope that my son is as passionate about reading as I am. References Russell D. L. (2008) Pearson education, Ch. 2: The Study of Childhood: pg. 1 The Discover of Childhood. Russell D. L. (2008) Pearson education, Ch. 3: The Study of Literature; para. 20 Literary Criticism.

The United States And Cuba Essay - 1008 Words

The United States and Cuba The United States is the leader of the free world. The United States exercises strength in this role through trade agreements and military strength. Because of this, the foreign policies the United States puts into place greatly affect the economies of other countries. This is especially true of Cuba. The island of Cuba is just over 100 miles south of the Florida border. The United States and Cuba have struggled to find common ground in regards to foreign policy over the past few decades. In the Cold War, Fidel Castro, who would later become the dictator of Cuba took control of Havana and with his revolutionaries overthrew Fulgencio Batista. The United States disagreed with the communist ideology of Castro, but let him rule anyway. The United States took economic issue only after Cuba began increasing trade with the communist Soviet Union. What began as a reducing sugar imports from Cuba soon became a ban on almost of the products Cuba was exporting. The Bay of Pigs invasion, where the United States tried to oust Fidel Castro with help from the Central Intelligence Agency, was unsuccessful and deepened the rift between these two countries. Cuba retaliated by granting permission to the Soviet Union to construct a missile base on Cuba. The United States then threatened to invade Cuba. This famous Cuban Missile Crisis was eventually averted. Mor e importantly, it effectively demonstrates the mistrust between the United States and Cuba. ItShow MoreRelatedCuba And The United States864 Words   |  4 PagesCuba and the United States are two very different countries. Although they are only nearly 90 miles away from each other it has been over 50 years since both countries have had any real relationship towards each other, other than the hatred that seems to shown by the two countries’ politicians. In October 1960 the United States began to impose its first round of embargoes towards the small island when Cuba decided to nationalize all of the American Oil on its county after the United States withoutRead MoreThe United States And Cuba1491 Words   |  6 Pages Before the conflict between the United States and Cuba, the two countries were strongly connected in terms of trading, with the US purchasing 87% of Cuba’s exports (CITE). However, once Fidel Castro came to power in Janurary 1959 after successfully overpowering President Batista and established Cuba as a communist state, relations became strained. In the following year, $1.8 billion US assets in Cuba were taken by Castro and the newly Communist state created close ties with the Soviet Union (CITERead MoreCuba And The United States1217 Words   |  5 Pageshe U.S and Cuba officially cut ties in January of 1961, meaning that there have not been any high-level diplomatic relations with Cuba for 54 years. 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A body of people, who for almost 55 years, have been given the cold shoulder by one of the world’s biggest superpower and the only superpower in close proximity to their own island. The U.S. implemented sanctions on Cuba in 1960 and 1961, with President John FRead MoreThe Embargo On Cuba And The United States1781 Words   |  8 PagesIn December 2014, President Obama started restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba. Cuba and the United States have been hostile since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, when Fidel Castro overthrew the US-supportedbacked dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and established a Communist regime. The US rejected Castro’s bid for equal economic partnership because they wanted to maintain economic dominance. As such, Castro began seizing US assets, causing back-and-forth actions that culmi nated in Presidents Eisenhower