Employee retention Essay

Employee retention is very important to organizations. If employees can not be retained, the company will have to invest money for training new employees time and time again. The cost of replacing an employee is high not only financially, but in terms of lost productivity, the time taken by the employer to go through the resumes and the cost incurred to conduct interviews. The best away to avoid this costly affair is to focus on the retention of employees as otherwise it will have a castigating effect on the organization as a whole. By taking a look at the past it is possible to avoid the mistake of losing your central operating powers in the future. When an employee leaves the organization, the employer must make it a point to conduct exit interviews to know the reason for him to quit the organization.(pg 161 Dessler) The employer’s real skill lies in identifying the real motive of the employee to quit the organization, because most of the employees reveal the false reasons. At the same time he/she must also equally concentrate on the rest of the employees who have not yet left and indulge in casual conversation to keep their morale high. Turnover can be a positive process when an employer manages to bring new recruits, along with their new ideas and vigor into the organization. Yet, unmanaged employee turnover can easily steal your company’s knowledge base, profits and competitive edge in the market. With today’s high employment levels, organizations that don’t actively manage turnover’s impact, find that the balance of power has shifted from the employer to the employee. Excessive turnover is often a symptom of fundamental problems within the business. It’s critically important to retain them; to do this one must know what motivates an employee to stay at a particular company. â€Å"The top two reasons employees stay with a company are (1) they feel the company cares about them and (2) they feel their work efforts are important to the growth of the company.† (Saxby) Many companys make the mistake of thinking base salary is the only aspect of a retention plan for important employees. Employee morale is more important than money. Family-friendly policies are the blending of family and work, which has increased significantly in the last 20 years. This phenomenon has created a need for growing interest in workplace policies and programs to enable  workers to balance their work and family responsibilities. Corporations seeking to attract new employees and hold onto their existing work force are attempting to be creative with the promise of flexible schedules, flexible benefits, job sharing, onsite day-care facilities, telecommuting, special deals on parental leave, generous family health care packages and numerous additional individualized incentives that respond to the work- and home-life balance. The appearance of family-friendly policies help employees balance their lives between work and their families. That can mean higher productivity, better morale, and fewer turnovers among staff. To humanize the work setting it would be appropriate to set up day-care facilities at working companies. This gives the working parents the security that their child is being taken care of within the same premises. Not only will it benefit the parent, but also the company, for it would make the company more prosperous. Such cases in which parents would stay late the parent could finish their work without any worries. Establishing a day-care center will cause no worries for the parent in finding a babysitter, reduce absentees or tardiness of the employees, and parents would be able to spend time with their children. Another retention method used is flexible work schedules. The impact flexible work schedule’s have had on organizations have been quite positive, benefiting both the employer and the employee. Such benefits include increase in productivity, employee retention, motivation, and a decrease in absenteeism, tardiness, stress, and turnovers. Companies that have successfully adopted this method include Hewlett-Packard, Baxter International, Nabisco, and Dupont, among others. Do flexible work arrangements really improve employee retention? A recent survey, sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), found that CPAs on flex become more efficient with their time and, because they are grateful for the arrangement, work harder. More than 80 percent of the CPAs surveyed, reported that if their flexible work arrangement had not been approved, they would have left the firm. (PCPS) Flexible benefit plans can be a positive resource for retaining employees. Employers’ that provide flexible benefit plans show the desire to increase  employees’ loyalty to the company. In an increasingly tight labor market and faced with the necessity of operating as efficiently as possible, in order to remain competitive, employers view the flexible benefit plan as a tool to enhance employee morale. Flexible benefit plans are also used to improve employer-employee relationships, reduce overall costs of providing benefits, and reduce the incidence of employee turnover. Compensation issues focus on the diversity of worker needs, pay-for-performance plans, and the regulation of employee benefit plans. Flexibility and adaptability in HRM practices are primary keys in addressing worker needs. Job sharing, staggered scheduling and flextime are some of the outcomes generated by creative approaches to HRM practices. Pay-for-performance plans hold the allure of rewarding productivity while providing monetary motivation. Successful implementation of such practices, however, requires effective performance evaluations. Incentive pay plans can be advantageous to both the employer as well as the employee. The success of an incentive pay plan depends on the organizational climate in which it must operate, employee confidence in it, and its suitability to employee and organizational needs. Importantly, employees must view the incentive plan to be equitable and related to their performance. Performance measures should be quantifiable, easily understood, and bear a demonstrated relationship to organizational performance. The role of Human Resource Management must constantly be refined to add greater value to an organization. HRM has a responsibility to employees to provide for their long-term development and a commitment to continuously afford employees with opportunities for personal and professional advancement. Today, many companies are providing incentives for employees to stay with the firm and allowing them to share in the growth of the company. One major concern employers often have is whether or not the resources committed to employee development will benefit business performance. That concern however, should not discourage corporations from offering assistance to employees. If a business has the time, wherewithal and the know-how to aid and assist its employees, it should, by all means, do so. As the turnover rate continues to rise to its highest levels in nearly a decade, it’s good  to know that finding, hiring and keeping the right people can be accomplished today with more than just subjective observation, opinion and emotion. Dessler, Gary. Human Resource Management. Prentice Hall, 2003. PCPS NEWS RELEASES,http://www.pcps.org/member/releases_may22_02.html,2002 Saxby ,David. What Can Retailers Do About Employee Turnover? http://www.measure-x.com/tips/empturnover.html

Solution of Managerial Accounting

Chapter 5: Cost Behavior: Analysis and Use As we shall see in later chapters, the ability to predict how costs respond to changes in activity is critical for making decisions, controlling operations, and evaluating performance. Three major classifications of costs were discussed in this chapter—variable, fixed, and mixed. Mixed costs consist of variable and fixed elements and can be expressed in equation form as Y = a + bX, where X is the activity, Y is the cost, a is the fixed cost element, and b is the variable cost per unit of activity. Several methods can be used to estimate the fixed and variable cost components of a mixed cost using past records of cost and activity. If the relation between cost and activity appears to be linear based on a scatter graph plot, then the variable and fixed components of the mixed cost can be estimated using the quick-and-dirty method, the high-low method, or the least-squares regression method. The quick-and-dirty method is based on drawing a straight line and then using the slope and the intercept of the straight line to estimate the variable and fixed cost components of the mixed cost. The high-low method implicitly draws a straight line through the points of lowest activity and highest activity. In most situations, the least-squares regression method is preferred to both the quick-and-dirty and high-low methods. Computer software is widely available for using the least-squares regression method. These software applications provide a variety of useful statistics along with estimates of the intercept (fixed cost) and slope (variable cost per unit). Nevertheless, even when least-squares regression is used, the data should be plotted to confirm that the relationship is really a straight line. Managers use costs organized by behavior to help make many decisions. The contribution format income statement can aid decision making because it classifies costs by cost behavior (i. e. , variable versus fixed) rather than by the functions of production, administration, and sales. In this chapter, the following learning objectives will be covered: In this chapter, the following learning objectives will be covered: | |Understand how fixed and variable costs behave and how to use them to predict costs. | |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | | | |Use a scattergraph plot to diagnose cost behavior. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | | | |Analyze a mixed cost using the high-low method. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | | | |Prepare an income statement using the contribution format. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | | | |(Appendix 5A) Analyze a mixed cost using the lea st-squares regression method. | Key terms: Account analysis  Ã‚   |A method for analyzing cost behavior in which an account is classified as either variable or fixed based on | | |the analyst's prior knowledge of how the cost in the account behaves. | |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Activity base  Ã‚   |A measure of whatever causes the incurrence of a variable cost. For example, the total cost of X-ray film in a| | |hospital will increase as the number of X-rays taken increases. Therefore, the number of X-rays is the | | |activity base that explains the total cost of X-ray film. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Committed fixed costs  Ã‚   |Investments in facilities, equipment, and basic organizational structure that can't be significantly reduced | | |even for short periods of time without making fundamental changes. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Contribution approach  Ã‚   |An income statement format that organizes costs by their behavior. Costs are separated into variable and fixed| | |categories rather than being separated according to organizational functions. | |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Contribution margin  Ã‚   |The amount remaining from sales revenues after all variable expenses have been deducted. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Cost structure  Ã‚   |The relative proportion of fixed, variable, and mixed costs in an organization. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Dependent variable  Ã‚   |A variable that responds to some causal factor; total cost is the dependent variable, as represented by the | | |letter Y, in the equation Y = a + bX. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Discretionary fixed costs  Ã‚   |Those fixed costs that arise from annual decisions by management to spend on certain fixed cost items, such as| | |advertising and research. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Engineering approach  Ã‚   |A detailed analysis of cost behavior based on an industrial engineer's evaluation of the inputs that are | | |required t o carry out a particular activity and of the prices of those inputs. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |High-low method  Ã‚   |A method of separating a mixed cost into its fixed and variable elements by analyzing the change in cost | | |between the high and low activity levels. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Independent variable  Ã‚   |A variable that acts as a causal factor; activity is the independent variable, as represented by the letter X,| | |in the equation Y = a + bX. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Least-squares regression |A method of separating a mixed cost into its fixed and variable elements by fitting a regression line that | |method  Ã‚   |minimizes the sum of the squared errors. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Linear cost behavior  Ã‚   |Cost behavior is said to be linear whenever a straight line is a reasonable approximation for the relation | | |between cost and activity. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Mixed cost  Ã‚   |A cost that contains both variable and fixed cost ele ments. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Multiple regression  Ã‚   |An analytical method required when variations in a dependent variable are caused by more than one factor. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |R 2  Ã‚   |A measure of goodness of fit in least-squares regression analysis. It is the percentage of the variation in | | |the dependent variable that is explained by variation in the independent variable. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Relevant range  Ã‚   |The range of activity within which assumptions about variable and fixed cost behavior are reasonably valid. |[pic] | |[pic] | |[pic] | |Step-variable cost  Ã‚   |The cost of a resource that is obtainable only in large chunks and that increases and decreases only in | | |response to fairly wide changes in activity. | Review Problem 1: Cost behavior Neptune Rentals offers a boat rental service. Consider the following costs of the company over the relevant range of 5,000 to 8,000 hours of operating time for the boats: |Hours of operating time | | |5,000 |6,000 |7,000 |8,000 | |Total costs: | | | | | |Variable costs |$20,000 |$ ? $ ? |$ ? | |Fixed costs |$1,68,000 |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? | |Total costs |$1,88,000 |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? | |Cost per hour: | | | | | |Variable cost |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? | |Fixed cost |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? $ ? | |Total cost per hour |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? |$ ? | Required: Compute the missing amount assuring that cost behavior patterns remain same within the relevant range of 5,000 to 8,000 hours. Solution to Review Problem 1: Per Unit Variable Cost = 20,000/5,000= 4. 00 per Unit. |Hours of operating time | | |5,000hr 6,000hr |7,000hr |8,000hr | |Total Costs Variable costs |$20,000 |$24,000 |$28,000 |$32,000 | |Fixed costs |1,68,000 |1,68,000 |1,68,000 |1,68,000 | |Total costs |$1,88,000 |$1,92,000 |$1,96,000 |$2,00,000 | |Cost per hour: |$4. 0 |$4. 00 |$4. 00 |$4. 00 | |Variabl e cost | | | | | |Fixed cost |33. 60 |28. 00 |24. 00 |21. 00 | |Total cost per hour |$37. 60 |$32. 00 |$28. 00 |$25. 0 | Review problem 2: High Low Method The administrative of azalea hills hospitals would like a cost formula linking the costs involved in admitting patients to the number of patients admitted during a month. The admitting department’s costs and number of patients admitted during the immediately preceding eight month are given in the following table: |Month |number of patients |admitted dep. Costs | |May |1,800 |14,700 | |June |1,900 |15,200 | |July |1,700 |13,700 | |August |1,600 |14,000 | |September |1,500 |14,300 | |October |1,300 |13,100 | |Nov |1,100 |12,800 | |Dec |1,500 |14,600 | Required: 1. Use the high low method to establish the fixed and variable components of admitting costs. 2. Express the fixed and variable components of admitting costs as a formula in the linear equation form: Y= a+bx. Solution to Review Problem 2 1. |Number of Patients Admitted |Admitting Department cost | |High activity level (June) |$1,900 |15,200 | |Low activity level (November) |1,100 |12,800 | |Change |$800 |$2,400 | Variable cost per unit of activity: Variable Cost = 2,400 / 800 = 3 Fixed cost = Total cost – variable cost = 15,200 – (3*1,900) = 9,500 2. The cost formula expressed in the linear equation form is:Y= $9,500+$3X Problem 5-12 House of Organs, Inc purchases organs from a well-known manufacturer and sells them at the retail level. The organs sell, o n the average, for $2500 each. The average cost of an organ from the manufacturer is $1500. House of Organs, Inc has always kept careful records of its costs. The costs that the company incurs in a typical month are presented below in the form of a spreadsheet Costs |Cost Formula | |Selling: | |Advertising |$950 per month | |Delivery of organs |$60 per organ sold | |Sales salaries and commissions |$4,600 per month plus 4% interest | |Utilities |$650 per month | |Depreciation of sales facilities |$5,000 per month | |Administrative: | |Executive salaries |$13,500 per month | |Depreciation of equipment |$900 per month | |Clinical |$2,500 per month plus $40 per organ sold | |Insurance |$700 per month | During November, the company sold and delivered 60 organs. Required: 1. Prepare an income statement for November using the traditional format with costs organized by function. 2. Redo (1) above, this time using the contribution format with costs organized by behavior. Show costs and revenues on both a total and per unit basis down through contribution margin. 3. Refer to the income statement prepared in (2) above. Why might it be misleading to show the fixed costs on a per unit basis? Solution 5-12 1. House of Organs, Inc. Income Statement For the Month Ended November 30 |Sales (60 organs ? $2,500 per organ) | |$1,50,000 | |Cost of goods sold (60 organs ? 1,500 per organ) | |90,000 | |Gross margin | |60,000 | |Selling and administrative expenses: | | | |Selling expenses: | | | |Advertising |$  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  950 | | |Delivery of organs (60 organs ? $60 per organ) |3,600 | | |Sales salaries and commissions [$4,800 + (4% ? 150,000)] |10,800 | | |Utilities |650 | | |Depreciation of sales facilities |5,000 | | |Total selling expenses |21,000 | | |Administra tive expenses: | | | |Executive salaries |13,500 | | |Depreciation of office equipment |900 | | |Clerical [$2,500 + (60 organs ? 40 per organ)] |4,900 | | |Insurance |700 | | |Total administrative expenses |20,000 | | |Total selling and administrative expenses | |41,000 | |Net operating income | |$? 19,000 | 2. House of Organs, Inc. Income Statement For the Month Ended November 30 | |Total |Per Unit | |Sales (60 organs $2,500 per organ) |$1,50,000 |$2,500 | |Variable expenses: | | | |Cost of goods sold (60 organs ? $1,500 per organ) |90,000 |1,500 | |Delivery of organs (60 organs ? $60 per organ) |3,600 |60 | |Sales commissions (4% ? $150,000) |6,000 |100 | |Clerical (60 organs ? 40 per organ) |2,400 |40 | |Total variable expenses |1,02,000 |1,700 | |Contribution margin |48,000 |$  Ã‚  800 | |Fixed expenses: | | | |Advertising |950 | | |Sales salaries |4,800 | | |Utilities |650 | | |Depreciation of sales facilities |5,000 | | |Executive salaries |13,500 | | |Depreciation of office equipment |900 | | |Clerical |2,500 | | |Insurance |700 | | |Total fixed expenses |29,000 | | |Net operating income |$  19,000 | | 3. Fixed costs remain constant in total but vary on a per unit basis with changes in the activity level. Problem 5-15: High-Low Method, Predicting Cost Golden Company’s total overhead costs at various levels of activity are presented below: Month |Machine-Hours |Total Overhead Costs | |March |50,000 |$1,94,000 | |April |40,000 |1,70,200 | |May |60,000 |2,17,800 | |June |70,000 |2,41,600 | Assume that the overhead costs above consist of utilities, supervisory salaries, and maintenance. The breakdown of these costs at the 40000 machine-hour level of activity is as follows: |Utilities (variable)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. |$52,000 | |Supervisory salaries (fixed)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. |60,000 | |Maintenance (mixed)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. |58,200 | |Total overhead costs†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. $1,70,200 | The company wants to break down the maintenance cost into its basic variable and fixed cost elements. Required: 1. As shown above overhead costs in June amounted to $241600. Estimate how much of this consisted of maintenance cost. (Hint to do this, it may be helpful to first determine how much of the $241600 consisted of utilities and supervisory salaries. 2. Using the high-low method, estimate a cost formula for maintenance. 3. Express the company’s total overhead costs in the linear equation form Y=a+bx. 4. What total overhead costs would expect to be incurred at an operating activity level of 45000 machine-hours. Solution 5-15 . Maintenance cost at the 70,000 machine-hour level of activity can be isolated as follows: | |Level of Activity | | |40,000 MH |70,000 MH | |Total factory overhead cost |$1,70,200 |$2,41,600 | |Deduct: | | | |Utilities cost @ $1. 0 per MH* |52,000 |91,000 | |Supervisory salaries |60,000 |60,000 | |Total maintenance cost at the low activity level |$  58,200 |$  90,600 | |$58,200 | | | | | | | *$52,000 ? 40,000 = $1. 30 per MH 2. High-low analysis of maintenance cost: | |Maintenance Cost |Machine-Hours | |High activity level |$90,600 |70,000 | |Low activity level |58,200 |40,000 | |Change |$32,400 |30,000 | Variable cost per unit of activity: [pic] Total fixed cost: Therefore, the cost formula is $15,000 per month plus $1. 8 per machine-hour or Y = $15,000 + $1. 08X, where X represents machine-hours. 3. | |Variable Rate per Machine-Hour |Fixed Cost | |Maintenance cost |$1. 08 |$15,000 | |Utilities cost |1. 30 | | |Supervisory salaries cost | |60,000 | |Totals |$2. 8 |$75,000 | Therefore, the cost formula would be $75,000 plus $2. 38 per machine-hour, or Y = $75,000 + $2. 38X. 4. |Fixed costs |$? 75,000 | |Variable costs: $2. 38 per MH ? 45,000 MHs |1,07,100 | |Total overhead costs |$1,82,100 | Problem 5-17: High-Low Method cost of Goods Manufactured. NuWay. Inc, manufactures a single product. Selected data from the company’s cost records for two recent months are given below. |Level of Activity | | |July-Low | | |October-High | | | | |Number of units produced |9,000 | | |12,000 | |Cost of goods manufactured | | | |$2,85,000 | |Work in process inventory, beginning |3,90,000 | | | | |Work in process inventory, ending |14,000 | | |22,000 | |Direct materials cost per unit | | | |25,000 | |Direct labor cost per unit |15,000 | | | | |Manufacturing overhead cost, total |15 | |15 | | | | | |6 | | |6 | | | | | |? | |? | | | | The company’s manufacturing overhead cost consists of both variable and fixed cost elements. In order to have data available for planning, management wants to determine how much of the overhead cost is variable with units produced and how much of it is fixed per year. Required: 1. For both July and October, estimate the amount of manufacturing overhead cost added to production. The company had no under-or over applied overhead in either month. Hint: A useful way to proceed might be to construct a schedule of cost goods manufac tured. ) 2. Using the high low method of cost analysis, estimate a cost formula for manufacturing overhead. Express the variable portion of the formula in terms of a variable rate per unit of product. 3. If 9500 units were produced during a month, what would be the cost of goods manufactured? (Assume that the company’s beginning work in process inventory for the month is $16000 and that its ending work in process inventory is $19000. Also, assume that there is no under or over applied overhead cost for the month. Solution 5-17: High Low Method, COGM 1. Nu Way Inc. Schedule of Cost of Goods Manufactured |July—Low |October—High | | |9,000 Units |12,000 Units | |Direct materials cost @ $15 per unit |$1,35,000 | |$1,80,000 | | |Direct labor cost @ $6 per unit |54,000 | |72,000 | | |Manufacturing overhead cost |1,07,000 |* |1,31,000 |* | |Total manufacturing costs |2,96,000 | |3,83,000 | | |Add: Work in process, beginning |14,000 | |22,000 | | | |3,10,000 | |4,05,00 0 | | |Deduct: Work in process, ending |25,000 | |15,000 | | |Cost of goods manufactured |$2,85,000 | |$3,90,000 | | 2. | |Units Produced |Cost Observed | | |October—High level of activity |12,000 |$1,31,000 | | |July—Low level of activity |9,000 |1,07,000 | | |Change |3,000 |$  24,000 | [pic] |Total cost at the high level of activity |$1,31,000 | |Less variable cost element ($8 per unit ? 12,000 units) |96,000 | |Fixed cost element |$  Ã‚  35,000 | Therefore, the cost formula is: $35,000 per month plus $8 per unit produced, or Y = $35,000 + $8X, where X represents the number of units produced. 1. The cost of goods manufactured if 9,500 units are produced: Nu Way Inc. Schedule of Cost of Goods Manufactured |Direct materials cost (9,500 units ? $15 per unit) | |$1,42,500 | |Direct labor cost (9,500 units ? $6 per unit) | |57,000 | |Manufacturing overhead cost: | | | |Fixed portion |$35,000 | | |Variable portion (9,500 units ? 8 per unit) |76,000 |1,11,000 | |Total manufacturing costs | |3,10,500 | |Add: Work in process, beginning | |16,000 | | | |3,26,500 | |Deduct: Work in process, ending | |19,000 | |Cost of goods manufactured | |$3,07,500 | Edition 11: Problem 5-18: Marwicks pianos inc. purchase pianos from a large manf. And sells them at the retail level . the pianos cost on the average $2450 each from the mnf. Marwicks pianos inc. sell the pianos to its customers at an average price of $3125 each . the selling and adminis trative costs that the company incurs in a typical month are presented below: Costs |Cost Formula | |Selling | | |Advertising |$700 per month | |Delivery of organs |$30 per organ sold | |Sales salaries and commissions |$950 per month plus 4% interest | |Utilities |$350 per month | |Depreciation of sales facilities |$800 per month | |Administrative: | | |Executive salaries |$2,500 per month | |Depreciation of equipment |$400 per month | |Clinical |$1,000 per month plus $20 per organ sold | |Insurance |$300 per month | During august, marwicks pianos inc. sold and delivered 40 pianos REQUIRED: 1. Prepare income statement for marwicks pianos inc. for august. Use the traditional format, with cost organized by function. 2. Redo 1 above, this time using the contribution format, with cost organized by behavior. Show costs and revenues on both a total and a per unit basisdown through contribution margin. 3. Refer to the income statement you preferred in 2 above. Why might it be misleading to show the fixed costs on a per unit basis? Problem 5-19: Amfac comp. manf. A single product. The company keeps careful records of manufacturing activities from which the following inf. Have been extracted. |Level of Activity | | |March –low | | |June – high | | | | |Number of units produced |6,000 | | |9,000 | |Cost of goods manufactured | | | |$1,68,000 | |Work in process inventory, beginning |2,57,000 | | | | |Work in process inventory, ending |9,000 | | |32,000 | |Direct materials cost per unit | | |15,000 | |Direct labor cost per unit |21,000 | | | | |Manufacturing overhead cost, total |6 | | |6 | | | | | |10 | | |10 | | | | | |? | | |? | | | Required: For the both March and June, estimate the amount of manufacturing overhead cost added to production. The comp. had no under O. H . IN either month Using the high low method, estimate a cost formula for manf. O. H. expresses the variable portion of the formula in terms of a variable rate per unit of product. If 7000 units are produced during a month, what would be the cost of good manufacture? Work in process is same. Problem 5-24 High-Low Method; Predicting cost [L01, L03] Nova Company’s total overhead costs at various levels of activity are resented below: |Month |Machine-Hours |Total Overhead Costs | |April |70,000 |$1,98,000 | |May |60,000 |1,74,000 | |June |80,000 |2,22,000 | |July |90,000 |2,46,000 | Assume that total overhead costs above consist of utilities, supervisory salaries and maintenance. The breakdown of these costs at the 60,000 machine- hour level of activity is: |Utilities (variable)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. |$48,000 | |Supervisory salaries (fixed)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. |$21,000 | |Maintenance (mixed)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. |$1,05,000 | |Total overhead costs†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. |$1,74,000 | Nova Company’s management wants to break down the maintenance cost into its variable and fixed cost elements. Required: 1. Estimate how much of the $246,000 of overhead cost in July was maintenance cost. (Hint: to do this, it may be helpful to first determine how much of the $246,000 consisted of utilities and supervisory salaries. Think about the behavior of variable and fixed costs! ) 2. Using the high-low method, estimate a cost formula for maintenance. 3. Express the company’s total overhead costs in the linear equation form 4. Y=a + bX 5. What total over head costs would you expect to be incurred at an operating activity level of 75,000 machine-hours? ———————– Page4

Candide. Everything Has a Cause Essay -- voltaire, philosophy

Pangloss is one of the most significant figures around Candide. His central philosophy that â€Å"things cannot be other than they are, since everything was made for a purpose† (Voltaire 20) has been attacked by Voltaire in Candide. Voltaire criticized Pangloss’s philosophy by using the story of Candide killing Baron’s son – Cunà ©gonde’s brother. Candide told Baron that he wanted to marry his sister, and Baron exclaimed to disagree. Irritated by Baron’s words, Candide killed him. Later Candide and his servant escaped, but they were caught by Oreillons and were ready to be eaten until Candide told them that he was not a Jesuit as he killed one Jesuit – Baron. Because of this, Candide was freed from being eaten, and he said: What grand people they are! What fine fellows! And what culture! If I had not been lucky enough to spit Lady Cunà ©gonde’s brother, I should infallibly have been eaten. What all is said and done, there is a sterling goodness in an unsophisticated Nature†¦ Candide believed that the effect of him not being eaten is caused by the fact that he killed Baron and hence he was naively â€Å"full of admiration† to those peoplongly influenced by scientific revolution, the spirit of skepticism, brought forward by Pierre Bayle, also showed to us that there is cause and effect. He emphasized that nothing can ever be known beyond all doubt, and being skeptic encourages people to discover people why things take place. In other words, people should begin to focus more on reasoning rather than accepting the fact that â€Å"natural force† affects our life. From scientific revolution to our current era of Enlightenment to the emergence of skepticism, cause and effect kept playing a great role in leading scientists and philosophers to move forward. Consequently, Voltaire’s attack of cause and effect seemed to be gossamer and powerless since in our daily life, cause and effect can help us understand things that happen in our life and its impact on everyone living in Enlightenment cannot be overlooked.

Tangible and Intangible Assets Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Tangible and Intangible Assets - Research Paper Example Intangible assets cannot be seen or felt that is they are non-physical in nature and they are usually non-monetary. Intangible assets are basically the long term resources of the given firm, usually the legal rights of the firm including patents, trademarks, goodwill and copyrights. Intangible assets cannot be destroyed by fires or other tragedies and they usually add value to the company’s financial worth. Tangible assets are physical and identifiable and can be seen and touched. Since businesses are different they also have different tangible assets depending on their type of business. A company’s financial worth is determined by the amount of tangible assets that it has in its possession. Tangible assets can further be categorized into current and fixed assets. Current assets consist of assets that can be easily converted to cash/liquidated. An example is the firm’s bank accounts and its inventory (Hoffman, 2012). Fixed assets are not easily liquidatable and most generally depreciate with time except land. Fixed assets are usually used up in the production process and they may include machinery, equipments, vehicles, land and buildings. Financial recording of tangible and intangible assets is usually done differently, with the tangible assets further divided into current and fixed assets. ... Current Assets A company has these assets on hand and easily available. Companies can easily liquidate these assets. Current tangible assets would include inventory and bank accounts that a company or a business has. Fixed Assets These kinds of assets are exactly the opposite of the current assets. Fixed assets are depreciated over time and they are not easy to liquidate compared to current assets. Fixed tangible assets would include land, building, furnishings, art, historical treasure, and equipment. Tangible Assets Tangible assets have a physical form and can be seen and felt. As discussed above there are two types of tangible assets current and fixed. Current assets can be easily liquidated and converted to cash. They can also be used as collateral for the company to acquire loans. Current assets also have a shorter lifespan and are utilized in the daily operations of the company. Inventory or the stock falls under the current tangible assets and it usually has a life span of les s than a year. A company’s inventory basically is the products it produces to sale or the goods it distributes at a profit (Capital Fixed Asset Guide, 2013). The inventory is recorded daily, weekly or monthly in the company’s balance sheet. To record the inventory as well as other current assets they allocate the expense of the asset to the year the business purchased the asset. Another type of current asset is the business bank account, and it is recorded in the same way as the inventory in the balance sheet. Fixed assets are recorded differently since they have a longer lifespan of more than a year. They are usually purchased to be used for a long time in the firm’s production process. Examples of fixed assets are buildings, land, equipments, machinery and company

Critical Evaluation of your documentary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Evaluation of your documentary - Essay Example This documentary was to look into the different models of cars and what makes them unique from each other. The original documentary was to look at how cars have evolved from the year 1970 to present, their speed limits, designs, engine types and sizes. Several ideas influenced my original proposal for a documentary. The documentary, Car of the Future, talks of the various models of cars that are to hit the roads by the year and their effect on the environment. The documentary would have projected the models that were before and those that have come to be. Another documentary that inspired my thought on the car documentary that I was to make was that of â€Å"Who killed the Electric Car.† In this documentary, several issues are looked into; the eventual downfall of the car model, how it was made and its branding type. The documentary also looks into duties of government, consumers and the oil industry. The PowerBlock TV show was also a force behind my original proposal for a do cumentary. Different car models are showcased in this show bringing out clearly the many changes that have occurred in the motor industry. The final film turned out to be different from what I had in my original proposal for a documentary. My documentary is about making a confectionary that is liked by most consumers. The inspiration was drawn from a documentary I later saw about a man who was an expert at making sushi. Together with his son who is also his heir, they set out in the basement of an office to show their prowess on sushi making. The relationship that the man and his son share was phenomenal. Their attention to detail and their enthusiasm to give the best of results motivated me. I thought of the issues that are overlooked by people regarding the end results of food. This documentary brings out a clear explanation of how confectionaries are prepared and how good results can be achieved. Another idea that

ENG Comp II- TCP Task 1 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

ENG Comp II- TCP Task 1 - Research Paper Example In this context, Al-Azmi (2013) has provided lots of information on how user behaviors, expectations, and needs are being studied. This paper is selected as a reference since Al-Azmi’s (2013) excellent literature review helps the reader to understand the might of cognitive technologies at full length, especially in the realm of business intelligence. Al-Azmi is a qualified computer engineer with extensive experience in writing journal articles and scientific papers. Bentivoglio, C. A., Bonura, D., Cannella, V., Carletti, S., Pipitone, A., Pirrone, R., .Rossi, P.G. & Russo, G. (2010). Intelligent Agents supporting user interactions within self regulated learning processes.  Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society,  6, 27-36. The authors of this journal article clearly show that how adoption of cognitive technologies has proved to be instrumental in improving user satisfaction and performance. Hence, Bentivoglio et al (2010) are of the opinion that development of cognitive tools and techniques with self-regulatory capabilities can give better results. This paper has been selected because the authors have explained several advanced concepts with the help of real world examples. Carlo A. Bentivoglio is a science education specialist from the University of Macerata. Implementation of cognitive technologies in education is one of his team’s current research interests. In this journal article, Dascal and Dror (2005) have successfully attempted to contextualize cognitive technologies as per the demands of contemporary world. The authors show that the cognitive tools can be put in use to improve user performance by the means of process redistributions, semantic understanding of things, text mining, etc. The paper is selected for present research because it contains an exhaustive coverage of the topic that how people can benefit most from intelligences tools and cognitive methods. The authors Dascal (Tel-Aviv University) and Dror (University College of London)

RESPONSE PAPER for Comparative Politics class Essay - 1

RESPONSE PAPER for Comparative Politics class - Essay Example According to the research article by Questia, the capacity of a party-state aimed at preserving both communist rule and social harmony was lightweight when placed close together against a global and interconnected world. The preference for a panoptic control shows strict constraints deserving a strong emphasis which is the nature of the medium in connection with political context requiring further exploration. This exploration is the communist heritage that is a matter of interdiction as of social mobilization. The Society of China has begun putting into use the resources of new information technology to put effectively pressure on the authority regarding social and economic issues (Questia, 2015). Wider patterns of social privileges and disadvantages remain as an influence on the public society. Some accounts show that new ways of state-society relations have reduced the influence of class and race on politics and policy (Orvis & Drogus, 2015). Shifts in modes of state-society relations have tampered with the mechanisms of racial influence and social class in ways that sometimes reward economic and social benefits. For example, business mobilization and citizens around economic development and environmental issues in some parts of France and USA has reinforced the local governance against most disadvantaged neighbor-hoods (Orvis & Drogus, 2015). Elsewhere, more so in the northern part of Europe, a great local participation is working to the advantage of marginal groups in social policy. In other developing cities in the world, a growing opposition from the middle and upper-class car owners are underestimating initiatives to curb vehicle pollution. How do institutions affect sate-society interaction? Although institutions are important, other types of institutions have emerged to control and regulate governmental and state-society relations.

Critically Assess the Scope, Meaning and Relevance of Essay

Critically Assess the Scope, Meaning and Relevance of Non-Discrimination in WTO Agreements - Essay Example Introduction WTO (World Trade Organisation) is a global institution that facilitates a free trade to happen in the world. The phrase â€Å"free trade† is always misconstrued since it does not connote that it is a free to trade from one nation to another nation. The WTO rules permit tariffs and other varieties of restrictions that assist to safeguard a nation from unfair trades. Thus , the phrase â€Å" free trade â€Å" can better be explained as a market where business can happen in an open and a fair field where there exists no ingenuous competition. By including a non-discrimination clause, WTO facilitates that a free trade exists in the international level. All countries that are members of WTO have consented to play fair in all their business transactions. This is made possible by demanding all trades to be made in the public eye. A WTO member country should not have a restriction to any trade that is being offered to one company and the same restriction would extend to all the companies which indulge in the same type of commerce. Among the non-discrimination measures, the most renowned ones are the national treatment and the most favoured nations. These two clauses under the guise of non-discrimination appear in some form or other in the† GATS (The General Agreement on Trade in Services), the GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the TRIPS (the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)† and in other numerous WTOs agreements1. In addition to â€Å"National Treatment (NT) and Most Favoured Nations (MFN), WTO also have more commonly termed anti-discrimination provisions, some important illustrations of which contain non-discrimination clauses in GATS Article XIV, other Agreements on the... Non-discrimination principle mainly revolves round the concept of treating all foreign services or products equivalent to the like domestic services or products. The doctrine of non-discrimination was intended specifically to thwart protectionism and to make sure that equal treatment is being given to both domestic and foreign goods. A question arises whether goods may be treated diversely since the manner in which they have been manufactured, even if the manufacturing process employed does not put down a mark in the end product. Further, it is to be noted that when contrasting two goods, different production methods or processes (PPMs) might have been employed in the manufacture of such goods, which do not per se make these goods â€Å"unlike.† For example, governments may like to differentiate between wood where the production process is not known and wood products emanated from the sustainably grown forest. Under these circumstances, the evaluation of similarity between two kinds of wood if the two varieties of wood may be especially difficult. For this, the evaluation of likeness between two goods or products should be done on each case basis, which was mentioned by the Appellate Body in EC-Asbestos case to find out whether there is a discrimination or not.

The end of Lehman Brothers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The end of Lehman Brothers - Essay Example The scandal that brought the Lehman brothers to their knees was one that involved financial and accounting fraud, which was no new case for the firm since its inception. Following the release of reports following the bankruptcy of Lehman, scandals are cropping up showing that the Lehmans have been cooking their books, also known as creative accounting since before the financial crisis hit the world in the last years of the previous decade. The precise time would be around the year 2007, when things began to go downhill for them. The scandal goes by the name â€Å"Repo 105† following the textbook application of previously used antics to bring about a scandal (Sharp). The scandal begins with deals involving banks in the Cayman Islands relating to repurchase agreements. In this case, Lehman planned to dispense toxic assets to the banks that got into the deal, on the condition that, after a given short period, Lehman would repurchase them. This deal made the Lehmans appear to be an honest organization dealing as per the law. However, the whole issue was only on paper, while the actual organization of the firm revolved around dirty dealings and fraud (Sharp). All the above was in an attempt to pull a fast one on investors and credit rating agencies to maintain their prestigious position. In the meantime, the Lehmans brothers were quite busy embezzling funds and finances from their organization on a colossal scale to a pint of no return. In their creative accounting, the Lehmans went beyond themselves in defrauding the public and investors by using the toxic assets as leverage. This is by balancing their books with the said assets as sales and not as loans, as is common practice in the financial world. The implication was that the firm reflected having more liquid cash in their books, as opposed to having more assets in mortgages as would be expected. This marked a calculated move to defraud every one off their keenness and trust in the firm by

Homeland Security HLSS311 Forum 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homeland Security HLSS311 Forum 5 - Assignment Example Sometimes, immigrants are not those good people you expected to be. In the case whereby the immigrants have some unfinished business with the host nation, they might come and cause insecurity in the host nation. They come expecting to kill and perform acts of terrorism. In such cases, illegal immigration should be made a priority in dealing with a countrys security. Sometimes, when the illegal immigrants are running away from their country because of certain contagious and infectious diseases, they will pose the host country at a risk of spreading the diseases. This will not auger well with the welfare of this country (Peter, 2000). The enemy is that person who comes illegally into another country with the intention of doing some arm there. The enemy might come to conduct illegal business, cause insecurity or cause war. We are, therefore, supposed to protect our borders from such illegal immigrants who come in the form of an enemy. Through protecting our borders, we will be able to control spread of diseases, prevent illegal trade, prevent human trafficking and other illegal activities that immigrants might want to perform in the new country. A terrorist is one of the enemies that were protecting our boarders from. Therefore, being an enemy cannot be categorized as being more than terrorism since all cause us harm as a country. Terrorism, therefore, causes destruction just the same way enemies can cause destruction (David, 2008). Border enforcement enhances health concerns. This is to say, when we take good care of our boarders, we can prevent transmission and spread of some transnational diseases, hence making a country remain safe from such kind of diseases. Therefore, it is important to improve border enforcement in order to improve public health and safety concerns (Marc, Jerome, & Kristin,

Urban Design, Architecture, Art in Rome Essay Example for Free

Urban Design, Architecture, Art in Rome Essay Rome was one of the prominent cities to show a distinct example of urban architecture. As according to Frechtling (2001), urban design had always been attached to the Romanesque tradition wherein the arrangements of their architectural designs usually form single composition (p. 2). The roman architecture had significantly been influenced by the vast traditional constructs of architecture through the Etruscan perspective, and combined with their use of arch, which showed relevance to their Greek adaptation of columns. Added by Crouch (1993), the very process of urbanization in the Roman perspective entailed the arrangements of elements in order to attain maximum beauty and agreeable provisions (p. 10). Romans were the first to consider the utilization of construction techniques in order to further manipulate large interior spaces and monumental architecture. Much of these were evident in their building designs and those established monuments (Buden, 2000 p. 10). One of the historically recognized urban designs of the Roman period was Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio or the Capistoline Hill. The plateau of Piazza del Campidoglio had been the centre of Roman political atmosphere throughout the Middle Ages. The transformation that Michelangelo rendered to the Campidoglio in offering to the Pope Paul III during 1538 has become the prominent highlight of renaissance architecture, more significantly in the rise of urban design application. As supported by Watkin, the design of Michelangelo’s Capitoline Hill had greatly impacted the designs of urban perspective. The most significant characteristic in his Piazza del Campidoglio was the presence of spatial manipulation of voids and masses in his urban design. The concept of architectural design employed by Michelangelo had been the center of commotion with respect to the influence of his piazza design in the aspect of urban art. Furthermore, the features he had utilized in his piece had significantly triggered the argument on the type of design era symbolized by his concept. Within the study, the main scope was to scrutinize and analyze the presence of urban design patterns in the architectural art of Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio. The study centered on the idea of urban designing in architecture in the highlights of historical trends developed from baroque, medieval and contemporary designs. Furthermore, the study developed an argument within the architectural concepts of Michelangelo to further illustrate how it influenced the styles, symbolism and trends of urban designing in architecture. Discussion Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio In the Piazza del Campidoglio designed by Michelangelo in Rome in the sixteenth century, the grand flight of steps, which leads to the square, is in fact situated on the axis in considerable distance from the steps to the building, and its great width that provides it certain autonomy (Meiss 1990 p. 67). Michelangelo design his piazza in an orderly state with five entrances and three palaces. In the section of Senator’s Palace constructed during the medieval era and located on the east side and Conservator’s Palace on the south side were formed in 80 degree angles, which created a trapezoid-shaped piazza. In addition, this constituted an even more inlaid pavement that highlighted an oval pattern embossed in the middle of the piazza. With this architectural design, critiques (Watkin, 2005; Meiss 1990) had very well linked this idea of Michelangelo in providing a sense of baroque style in his piazza architecture. According to Crouch (1993), the Roman architectural design mainly depended in two primary urban patterns, specifically the regular rigid mostly associated with veteran’s colonies and the towns that developed from them, and the jostle of monumental buildings set close together and at angles to one another without a regular pattern of streets to set them off (p. 10). In addition, the concept of Piazza del Campidoglio comprised the initial ideas of Etienne Duperac, who greatly contributed to the first blueprint of the site. After which, it is Michelangelo who admonished the modification and transformation of these engravings. The architectural design of Michelangelo comprised the square that should be composed of three distinct palaces and a balustrade wherein he would also place five roads or flights of steps that should lead to the square. The presence of oval feature in the piazza’s design somehow illustrated the idea of baroque implications, most significantly with the oval-ended pedestal designed by Michelangelo himself. Added by Braunfels and Northcott (1988), the oval in which the statue had been erected was also part of the motive in illustrating the Capitoline Hill. Within the interiors of the Campidoglio, Michelangelo provided an intensively designed double-ramped staircase in front of the remodeled Senator’s Palace. He employed organization in the blueprint of the Capitoline Hill that does not close the aspect of tradition. According to Watkin (2005), Michelangelo very well adapted this from the designs of the facade of a palace under a theatrical design featured in civic ceremony. He also added that the flanking palaces on either side of the piazza had also created an evident impact in urban designing (p. 235). Considering the square character of Michelangelo’s piece, he very well emphasized the coherent spatial allowances and diversion of architecture in this Campidoglio. He incorporated steep topography and irregular shaped site with an intention of creating an illusion of spatial characteristics. Michelangelo altered the distinct features of the facades and alignments of the three surrounding buildings in order to transform the area from a derelict piece of land to an organized elemental fashion. As supported by Trancik (1986), Michelangelo evidently took the advantage of the triangular site in order to further form elliptical paving pattern to establish a stable center of the piazza (p. 65). Originally, the design of the Campidoglio was only two buildings; however, in order to provide more control and distinction in the spatial character of the central piece, Michelangelo had admonished the construction of the third building. In analyzing the placement and order of the building, the two buildings present at the sides of the oval shaped increment were two stories and slightly offset to 80 degrees. On the other hand, the Palazzo del Senatore or the Senate Palace that provided the most essential part in spatial enclosure had constituted three stories. The reconstruction of the Facades of the conservatoria had been reconstructed from 1563 to 1564, while the Senate Palace took from 1598 to 1612. According to Rubenstein (1992), the main characteristic the Piazza was emphasized in the placement of the central, slightly-sunken, and paved star-shape symbol that surrounded the plaza and provided linkage to other surrounding areas (p. 8). This urban design placement had created an oval volume of space that further increased the spatial feature of the trapezoid enclosed by the three surrounding sites. The concept of design utilized by Michelangelo had significantly provided unity and coherence in the overall design.

Performance Appraisal Essay Example for Free

Performance Appraisal Essay Appraisal is a procedure by which an organization assesses employee performance based on present standards . The main purpose of appraisals is to support managers effectively, staff companies and deal with human resources, and to develop efficiency . Being â€Å"part of an organization measurement process†, performance appraisals serve that purpose by showing employees how to improve their performance, establish goals for employees and helping managers to evaluate subordinates’ efficiency and take actions related to hiring, promotions, training, job design, compensation and terminations. In the last 30 years companies use the employee evaluations not only for administrative purpose, but also for motivational and organizational planning purposes. The object of this paper is to understand and explain the role of human resources which to ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish organizational goals in a company. Human Resources Management deals with what can or should be done to make working people more effective and satisfied. In a few words, the management of human resources means that they must be recruited compensated,  trained, and developed. It is HRM’s responsibility to make job analysis (describe work and personal requirements of a particular job), to communicate to the employees performance standards (translate job requirements into levels of acceptable / unacceptable performance) and to coordinate performance appraisal programs. Thus, all aspects of human resources managements are critical to an organization’s ability to adequately effectively provide a quality work force. In fact, performance appraisals are a significant part of performance management system responsible for designing a work environment in which â€Å"people can perform to the best of their abilities.† Job description The focus in this paper is on presenting information about conducting a performance appraisal for a bus driver position. I choose this position because, bus drivers are important for our contemporaneous society which is in a continued development. This aspect implies the need of more connections between places, more transits and travel for people. It is essential that this action be done in the most safety and comfortable ways. The behaviour of each bus driver employee has to be evaluated and improved if it is necessarily. The training programs are the key in helping drivers learn how to deal with difficult people and avoid violence while on duty. Making a job analyse, bus driver is a position is responsible for transporting people from one place to another for work, errands, school, or other reasons. Takes fares from passengers, issues receipts, announces routes, and ensures passengers get out safety. Their primary responsibilities imply transport people, operate bus, and drive regu lar routes on a schedule or on chartered trips. They obey traffic laws, stop frequently and check the bus tires, lights, and oil and other basic maintenance. They have to report mechanical problems and accidents. May load and unload passengers’ luggage. A bus driver has to deal with unruly passengers, assist disabled ones and keep passengers informed of delays. Bus drivers are employed by urban transit system, elementary and secondary schools and private transportation companies. According to Service Canada the job prospects in this occupation is good having an annual average salary of 43,895. Thus, customer service skills are important because of the interaction with passengers. For a school bus driver is essential to ensure the safety of the children, which  may include accompanying students across the street and providing first aid in emergencies. The following skills are very important for a bus driver: active listening, operation monitoring, social perceptiveness – being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do, equipment maintenance, operation and control, reading comprehension, coordination, time management, speaking, and critical thinking using reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. Performance appraisal method Measurement of bus driver performance starts with the evaluation of skills and effectiveness during and following the year of work. The primary objective of performance appraisal is to establish whether drivers are performing their job safely serving the customer adequately, and following work rules, policies, and procedures that ensure efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Analyzing the above information and knowing the job description for a bus driver, the behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS) would be a good method for performance appraisal. This method scales points and is defined by statements of effective and ineffective behaviours. It puts together the benefit the benefits of narratives, critical incidents and quantified scales by attaching a rating scale with specific behavioural examples of good or poor performance. It provides better appraisals than the other tools. The evaluator has to show which behaviour on each scale describes an employee`s performance. For constructi ng the BARS process imply the generation of critical incidents the development of performance dimensions, the relocation of incidents, the scale of the incidents and the development of final instrument. Managers have a file folder for each employee, which can be hard copy or electronic. Critical incidents are important employee actions which help or hurt performance. The BARS is developed by a committee that includes both subordinates and managers. Thus, the main advantage of this method is that personnel outside HR department join with HR staff in its development. Of course, the employees will have a greater acceptance of the performance appraisal process and its measures. In the same time BARS requires considerable time and effort to develop it. Another disadvantage is that a  scale designed for one job might not apply another. For example, the BARS for a bus driver will contain the rating scale from 4 (exceeds expectations) to 1 (unsatisfactory) and its evaluation of safety, timeliness, student conduct, bus cleanliness and care, and attitude. Identification of appraiser Appraisal and feedback system should be made by a multi-rate assessment because bus driver position is multifaceted and people see different things. A range of people are asked to assess an individual against company framework. The feedback can be from subject`s staff, from their bosses and from colleagues and clients and passengers. This is called 360 ° appraisal. The intention of it is to give a boarder and more objective assessment of employees’ competence. This multi-rate feedback is only use when manager has 4-8 people reporting to them. It is important that the employee do not know how any evaluation team member responded ensuring the anonymity concept of 360 ° system. The exception of this rule is the supervisor`s rating. When this feedback comes from more people, it may lessen bias or prejudice. In the same time, feedback from peers and other may increase employee self-development. In the conclusion of this paragraph, remind that HR department has the primary responsibility for supervising and coordinating appraisal program. Conclusion A valuable performance appraisal program makes feedback and instruction to employees and gives a useful framework to the managers and to the supervisors which asses their staff’ performance. The conduct appraisal program should be set up once and reviewed whenever the manager and the employee meet for the regular performance report or periodically: annual or once every six months. Preferable, managers and supervisors should consecutively estimate and direct employees so that performance imperfections do not go unexamined for a long period of time only to be discerned and debated at the functioning appraisal survey. In summary, the performance appraisal for a bus driver position it’s important for the evaluation of this position’ skills but also for the safety of passengers in  their work and personal environment and their daily activities. That’s why a serious and concrete performance and appraisal method should be applied in a schedule planed time in al l the transportation company. Bibliography Belcourt, Monica, Singh Parbudyal, Bohlander George, Swell Scott. Managing Human Resources. Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education, 2014. Service Canada, http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/7412.shtml Sage Publication, http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/45674_8.pdf Transportation Research Board, www.30hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2006/Profile

Reflection on the Role of Consumption in Everyday Life

Reflection on the Role of Consumption in Everyday Life Meghan Tenorio Consumption in Everyday Life Eating a hamburger. Buying a t-shirt. Buying a car. Buying gasoline. Just a few things that everyone will do or will most likely do in their lifetime. Consumption is the using up of goods and services by consumer purchasing or in the production of other goods. Someone in the field of international studies can be looking for a relationship between consumption and its role in the environment, national identity, gender, and economic development. Consumption’s role in daily life is inevitable, and as we advance further into the 21st century we can see just how much it connects the people as a whole. â€Å"A pound of sugar is only a quantity, a convenient load, not an object in itself. The book, however – and here it prefigures the durables of our time – is a distinct, self-contained object, exactly reproduced on a large scale. One pound of sugar flows into the next; each book has its own eremitic self-sufficiency† (Anderson 34). This quote is just an example of the simultaneous consumption of the newspaper-as-fiction. Consumption may never be predictable. While â€Å"particular morning and evening editions will overwhelmingly be consumed between this hour, and that, only on this day, not that; sugar, the use of which proceeds in an unclocked, continuous flow; it may go bad, but it does not go out of date† (Anderson 35). Consumption is also not limited to one thing at a time; it may be and usually is simultaneous. As the same newspaper reader reads on the subway or in the barbershop while getting his hair cut, he is performing multiple acts of consumpt ion at once. This assures the reader that the world is visibly rooted in the act of consumption in everyday life. Print-capitalism, a possible form of consumption, is a way that communities can achieve a sense of national identity and connect on a profound level. â€Å"Hence, the printer’s office emerged as the key to North American communications and community intellectual life† (Anderson 61). Assuming that consumption is a social process says that our identity focuses on symbolic aspects rather than the actual material consumption. In the book Eaarth by Bill McKibben consumption is spoken about in the sense of environment – water, land, and especially forms of energy. It is one of the main reasons that the earth is where it is right now – slowly (or perhaps not as slowly as we thought) degrading into earth where any kind of adaptation will prove impossible. As he states, â€Å"Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It’s our reality. We’ve changed the planet, changed it in large and fundamental ways†¦ We need now to understand the world that we’ve created, and consider – urgently – how to live in it† (McKibben Xiv). The Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius offers the idea a century ago that we were â€Å"evaporating our coal mines into the air,† and calculated that this could eventually raise temperatures, but nobody seemed to pay much attention. We’re not going to get back th e planet we once had. â€Å"We’re like the guy who ate steak for dinner every night and let his cholesterol top 300 and had a heart attack. Now he dines on Lipitor and walks on the treadmill, but half his heart is dead tissue† (McKibben 16). Through high levels of consumption, we’ve burned the coal and the oil, and released the first dose of carbon, that carbon that raised the temperature enough to start the process in motion. Once it’s in motion there is nothing to shut it off but can only be slightly lessened. Without even realizing it â€Å"†¦now, we’ve turned our cars and factories into junior volcanoes, and so we’re not just producing carbon faster than the plant world can absorb it; we’re also making it so hot that the plants absorb less carbon than they used to† (McKibben 23). From the time that we wake up, the second we turn on that coffee pot till the second we turn off the lights and go to bed (don’t forge t the furnace or the air-conditioner that is probably still running) we are burning coal and gas and oil. Our tendency for consumption – not only consumption but more specifically over-consumption – is why we are where we are environmentally. â€Å"Richard Heinberg, the analyst who was one of the first to alert the world to the impending oil peak, once compiled a list of things made from oil that ran from computer chips, insecticides, anesthetics, and fertilizers, right through lipstick, perfume, and pantyhose to aspirin and parachutes† (McKibben 30). These are just a few products that we all consume in one way, or another. This consumption, the overuse of oil, is leading to global warming. It is possible to slow down the growth but only with the cooperation on a small scale – â€Å"small, not significant; dispersed, not centralized† (McKibben 120). All this can add up to the results we are looking for. This means reshaping our society. Growth and expansion requires a kind of centralization: a concentration of resources and the need for consumption. What we are looking for is the opposite. Our earth may never be the same, but at least we will still have an earth to thrive on in whatever shape or form. Consumption has a huge involvement in economic development in the way that whatever we consume benefits the economy. This holds true to many products: food, beauty products, intangible items, and even something as simple as a plain white cotton t-shirt. In the book The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli it shows many examples of how consumption all over the world can have effects on the growth of the economy in the U.S. The shirts that have the â€Å"Made in China† label are usually made out of cotton that comes from Texas. Texas cotton doesn’t brag about where it was born and raised: †Desolate, hardscrabble, and alternately baked to death, shredded by windstorms, or pummeled by rocky hail, west Texas will never have much of a tourist trade† (Rivoli 3). However, there is a very good chance that your t-shirt and mine were born there in a city called Lubbock, the self-proclaimed â€Å"cottonest city† in the world. Cotton may see m like an unlike candidate for economic success in the United States, but the consumption rates prove it to be a good candidate as most of cotton comes from the U.S. Cotton growers can also appeal to other aspects of consumption than only t-shirts. â€Å"Connoisseurs agree that when it comes to frying chips, cottonseed oil is best† (Rivoli 52). Colgate-Palmolive is also a major customer when it comes to cottonseed oil. This just proves the fact that consumption occurs in multiple ways at once – from the cotton to the cottonseed oil – and, therefore, can help the economic growth and stability more rapidly. Although, because of the abundance of cotton growers in the U.S., other countries fail to find economic stability through cotton production itself as well as the U.S. has. Consumption is an everyday thing and starts as soon as you wake up right up until you turn the lights off at night. It has its benefits up to a set point but also needs to be regulated if we want to maintain a livable planet. Consumption can be a social act, as well as materialistic. Either way, consumption as a whole benefits our national identity and economic development, though if not taken down to the local level it could be harmful to our environment and planet as we know it. Works Cited Anderson, Benedict R. OG. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. Print. McKibben, Bill. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. New York: Times, 2010. Print. Rivoli, Pietra. The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power and Politics of World Trade. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons, 2005. Print.

Race Relations :: essays research papers

1 Race Relations and Modern Church-State Relations Thomas C. Berg* This article concerns religion and race – two controversial subjects that have figured prominently in America’s constitutional and political debates since World War II. In particular, I wish to trace some connections in the last 50 years between developments in church-state relations and developments in race relations. Recently scholars of the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses have shown interest in how the Supreme Court’s modern decisions on that subject might have been influenced by the political, social, and cultural context of recent decades: such factors as the changing attitudes toward Roman Catholicism,1 the rise of secularism in culture,2 the position of religious minorities,3 and so forth. Like some of that other work, this Article traces the course of churchstate relations not only in the Court itself, but in the broader society. It would hardly be surprising if developments concerning church and state in the last 50 years interacted with developments in the area of race, since the latter have been so central to * Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis). I presented portions of the material here at the Boston College Law Review Symposium on Separation of Church and State, in April 2002; at a Federalist Society program on â€Å"Faith Under Democracy,† in March 2002; at a summer 2001 symposium on Spirituality and Social Justice, sponsored by a grant from the Lilly Endowment; and to a fall 2001 meeting of the Colloquium on Religion and Philosophy at Samford University. I thank David Bains, Hugh Floyd, Penny Marler, [OTHERS], and the participants in those sessions for their comments on the various versions of the paper. 1See, e.g., John C. Jeffries, Jr., and James A. Ryan, A Political History of the Establishment Clause, 100 Mich. L. Rev. 279 (2001); Thomas C. Berg, Anti- Catholicism and Modern Church-State Relations, 33 Loyola U-Chi. L. Rev. 121 (2001); Douglas Laycock, The Underlying Unity of Separation and Neutrality, 46 Emory L. J. 43, __-__ (1997). 2See George W. Dent, Jr., Secularism and the Supreme Court, 1999 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 1. 3See Stephen M. Feldman, Religion-Clause Revisionism: Minorities and the Development of Religious Freedom (unpublished draft, on file with author). 2 constitutional law and moral-political debate – from the constitutional success of Brown v. Board of Education4 to the moral-political triumph of the civil rights movement to the current conflicts over how to define and achieve racial justice. The central story in church-state relations in the last 50 years has been the rise of a fairly strict separation of church and state as the overriding constitutional and moral ideal in the 1960s and 1970s, and the partial decline of that ideal from the 1980s

Essay --

The Virgin Queen of England Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn, a reputable young queen who was only 25 years old when she earned the title The Queen of Great England in 1558. After being crowned a queen, Elizabeth started bringing success to her people and country that she had been recognized as one of the most successful and significant monarchs England ever had. Her noticeable character was engraved deep inside the history of England as a country and Europe as a continent; her mark could not have been passed by unnoticed, and it is only appropriate to bring light upon it. Early Life of Queen Elizabeth I: She witnessed her first hardship when she had been only three years old. Her father, King Henry VIII, had ongoing suspicions about her mother’s strange behaviors, for he had suspected his second wife, Anne, to be performing the dishonorable act of adultery with more than five men of the palace’s chambers, one of the suspects being her own brother, stirring out a crime of incest and linking it to Anne. He then ordered the execution of Anne on the false charges of adultery which then stripped Princess Elizabeth of her title and left her going by Lady Elizabeth instead. Since Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate, many believed that she would never obtain the title queen. Fortunately for her, fate had it differently planned it out, and she grew to be the famous Virgin Queen of England. Elizabethan Reign: Queen Elizabeth was an intelligent, courageous person. She could be described as the ideal queen of all times. Her bravery is one of the most admired traits which caused everyone in England to love her, based on her grand encounters. It was quite a popular detail of Elizabeth’s life th... ... the greatest and most powerful leaders that the world had ever known, when queen Elizabeth started to rule England, the country was already facing it’s hardest times ever, England was weak and poor more than that the army wasn’t stable and wasn’t strong enough compared to other countries and it had a very weak government, but just few weeks after she started to rule England, everything had changed for good, and things that she could have made it in years she did it only in few weeks , by having all the support and love of her people she was able to push Britain on top of every country to be one of the most powerful and feared countries, queen Elizabeth was one of the most effective rulers she didn’t just effect history but she also effected great writers and explorers, that without her being there England will never be known as much as it is in history right now. â€Æ'

Sir Gawain Preparing Himself and His Neck :: Arthurian Legands English Literature Essays

Sir Gawain Preparing Himself and His Neck Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous fourteenth-century poet, describes the Arthurian legend about the Green Knight’s game with Sir Gawain. Now almost a year passes since the Green Knight has started a friendly challenge of a blow for a blow. And it is time for Sir Gawain to prepare and to meet the Green Knight to receive his strike. Sir Gawain sees how the people around him care for him and wish he didn’t have to go. He probably feels that the first part of the game wasn’t completely fair, because the beheaded Green Knight survived what a mortal man cannot. Nevertheless, Sir Gawain acts like a true honorable knight and decides to face his destiny: 'Why should I tarry?' And smiled with tranquil eye; 'In destinies sad or merry, True men can but try.' (Norton 561 - 565) Click here to listen to this monologue Realizing that he is just human and is predestined for a test he isn’t fully aware of, the only thing he can do is to do his best and not worry about the outcome. Sir Gawain decides to fully prepare himself for this ordeal and goes alone to pray humbly to G-d. He feels very humbled now, more than before when he was willing to take the Green Knight’s challenge after Arthur had already accepted it. Now he realizes that what seemed like a sure thing doesn’t always turn out that way and that he has to take responsibility for his actions. Sir Gawain prepares for the journey and takes his favorite horse, Gringolet, with him. Gringolet is his special horse, and for this special occasion, he is honored with many golden fringes everywhere, perhaps for Gawain to feel more angelic as he leaves his life behind: By then Gringolet was grit with saddle That was gaily agleam with fine gilt fringe, New-furbished for the need with nail-heads bright; The bridle and the bars bedecked all with gold. (Norton, 597 - 600) His horse is his only companion on his long way to the Green Chapel.

Medicine Men of Oglala Sioux Indians of Nebraska Essay

The  Oglala medicine men belong to the Sioux Indian Community in Manderson, Potato Creek, Kyle, Oglala, No. 4, Red Shirt Table, Wanblee. This Indian Tribe in Nebraska is watched over by a branch of the Office of Indian Affairs located within its territory. Civilizations have used different ways of curing their sick. The bible states that Jesus cured the sick by using miracles. The Chinese cure their sick using reflexology, acupuncture as well as the taking of the root of the plant ginseng. The American doctors use manufactured drugs like Tylenol or Aspirins to cure the pains of their patients. Admittedly, the different ways of curing the sick has been handed down from generation to generation. In fact, in some countries, the faith healers believe that they have the inner power to heal the sick if their patients will have faith in the doctors. Currently, many born again fellowships are centered on a pastor who cures the cancers (Aldredge-Clanton 11), diabetes, high blood and lets the invalid throw away his crutches because he can now walk. This type of healing is called miracle healing where the pastor impresses on the minds of their church members that Jesus and around and will remove their affliction. The following paragraphs explains the uniqueness of the Oglala Sioux Indians of Nebraska as they go about their daily festive activity of maintaining the community’s health by curing the ailments and the sufferings of their Indian neighbors. BODY His role in the community The role of the medical doctors or so called healers is to cure the sick and alleviate the pain of the dying Indian person. The healer brings hope the suffering and pain of their Indian neighbors. And the healers include in their medical armory the Sun Dance. The Sun Dance is the ritual part of the Indian doctors’ healing procedure. This dance is performed during the midsummer and indeed that most intricately complex part of the Indian healers curative process. Thus, their role in the community is to heal the patients using many processes. One such process is the ritual method. For, ritual and reciprocal communication between the patient and the medicine men and women is designed to start a biological and social rhythm motion through by influencing the neurophysiologial structures of the patients’ ailed body parts. Likewise, the Indian medicine man’s way of curing their patient is blanketed with myth which includes the use of the environment in the healing process (Lewis 169). To reiterate, the medicine men’s role is to keep as many of their Indian neighbors as healthy as possible. Evidently, a healthy people would spur the community’s economy to a more frantic pace. However, a population with many sick neighbors would eat away the community’s money because the government has lesser people to spice up the community’s economy. The medicine men and women here also help the community by influencing the policy makers in their community to craft laws, ordinances and statutes that focus on maintaining the health of the Oglala Indian community of Nebraska, USA (Lewis, 41). Thus, the role that these Oglala Indian medicine men play is very important. His status The status of the Oglala American Indian of Nebraska, USA’s medicine men and women here is such that they are being trusted and asked for advices in terms of health. In fact, many politicians in their community approve of the teachings and activities of the medicine. This is their way of enticing the medicine men and women to recommend to their patients, friends and every day contacts to vote for the politician and to support him or her plans and programs for the Oglala Indian community. Unquestionably, their major role is to keep the people healthy. (Lewis 71). For, these medicine men of Oglala, Nebraska exude an air of authority for what they tell their patients to do will often be done in most cases because the patients want to live longer. His knowledge The Oglala medicine men and medicine women are mostly comprised of senior citizens who started their medicine practice late or after the prime of their life. For, they had to gather enough experiences in life as well as theoretical knowledge that will give them necessary medical knowledge as they take up administrative positions in their Indian tribe. Many of the older women and men of the Oglala Sioux Indian settlement absorbed all they could to gain expertise in the field of medical practice that included the use of herbs as medicines. Specifically, many of the medical practitioners of this small United States tribe specialized in the study of the symptoms, causes and the herbal cures for various diseases. Also, some of the medicine men and women generally studied how to cure the physical and mind -related sickness (Lewis, 10). The Oglala medicine men are generally well versed in terms of which herbal plants will be very effective in alleviating many of the health risks of their constituents. Beliefs, and similar type of information that relates to the Medicine men. The people of the Oglala Indian settlement believe that some ritual songs can hasten the healing process. One such popular song is the Oglala’s Indian song. This magical song is believed to sprinkle the patients with the powder of cure. The Indian medicine men believe that this song is embodied with syncretistic and revivalist. For, this song brings out the embodiment of syncreustic and revivalistic elements of the Sioux faith and Pan –Indian movements. The Indian medicine men and women believe that the current ailments afflicting their constituents were caused by their intermingling with the White Americans. For, they believed that the normal Indian was healthy before these whites visited them and imprisoned them in Indian settlements. Thus, the present Indian sickness have been brought about by their change in lifestyles. For, The Indians freely roamed the prairie and other lands as they followed where the roaming animals would go during the pre –white days. This lifestyle had been cut because the whites placed them inside their Indian settlements for fear they Indians would endanger the lives of the Whites. The Indian healers believed that the Whites had forced them to live in log cabins. This is what caused their health to deteriorate to the level of the white’s health conditions. Also, the Indian lifestyles of free roaming of the desserts to search for their main dish of buffalo meat to their new log cabins resulted to a crowded home and school (Carter 103). Thus, their physical power to repel viruses and bacteria that is the root cause of many of the unhealthiness continues to this day. For, the Indians believed that living in their teepees ( Indian tent houses) brought them good health (Fletcher 81). Reference ceremonies or events the medicine men conducts or participates in. The medicine men and the medicine women of the Oglala Sioux Indian settlement studied how some of the herbs cropping up around their community could alleviate or even eradicate some or all their community members’ ailments. This also includes other mundane treatments of many of the diseases plaguing the Indian Territory. Also, the Oglala medicine men conducted their normal Sun Dance in their community to usher in health into their community. In addition, the medicine men and women of the Oglala United States Indian reservation included in some of their jobs to cure their fellow Indian tribesmen and tribeswomen several repertoire of what they identified as Sacred Indian songs. In fact, some of the tribe men and tribe women native doctors use a unique Indian method described as calling the healing process to start immediately. Normally, the healing process is a two way succeed. Meaning, the tribesmen and tribeswomen and their Indian patients must literally put their trust and fate in the medicine men and women to pluck them out of their pain or injustice. This trust is influenced by the strength and intensity of the medicine men, medicine women and their patients to have an unwavering conviction that their local community doctors here would cure them of their pain and suffering. Further, this only shows that the entire healing process of their local healers falls beyond man’s control and ambition. In short, the Indian healing process is classified by something clearly outside the normal realm of human control and ambitiousness. The medical training here is uniquely their own. Meaning, their medical procedures clearly run one hundred eighty degrees around the normal medical procedures that non –Indian medical practitioners use to cure or just alleviate their sick patients. Thus the long and energy sapping training that the Indians studying medicine in their local community willingly undergo in order to reach the prestigious status in their locality as a medicine man. In fact, only a few of the fresh graduates of formal schools are willing to continue their education in the new field of local Indian medicine. In contrast, many of the people studying medicine in this local United States Indian tribe in Lakotas (Faller 64) have also been introduced of the United States’ white men’s medical school among the Navajo Indians. However, this Navajo idea is not part of the wishes of the Oglala Indians because they do not aim to set up their own medicine schools. Here, the local Indians can sell their medical materials like the medicinal herbs as well as the ceremony programs. Usually, these Indian health programs allow the selling or giving of medicine materials and ceremonial disease -curing processes to be sold or given to another person needing them. The medical training of Indians aspiring to be medical practitioners includes starting out as assistant singer or drummer in a real live medical hearing process for several years. The Indian medical student must blend into the environment with their participation of much needed Sun Dance and other medicine rights so that the medicine trainees so they could increase their powers as well as reputation with their patients handled. For, the medicine men and women believe that they have reached that pinnacle in life where they could qualify as a representative of the spirit world. For the medicine men and women in this tribe normally also use the power of conjuring spirits to help them in their day to day medical practices (Lewis 39). A healing process includes consulting the parents and relatives of the sick patient in order to get a historical background the patient from the patients’ health issues as well as the sickness that the patients parents, grandparents and the like normally have. Also, the medicine men and women ask additional information from their patients’ advisers as well as intermediaries. Also, the Indian healers show the same techniques and processes as they go about curing sick patients with the same illnesses. A formal healing session always starts with the patient visiting the Indian healer several times in a casual way in order to entice the Indian healers to accept this person as a new patient. Accepting this patient is a new contract. The medicine men and women normally command the patients to first fast, to seek visions, to abstain on some things, to pray for divine healing from God, and to prepare food for inns. Accepting the new patient is then followed by the Indian healers’ full concentration of healing powers and time to a full implementation of the proper medical healing procedures to be imposed. In turn, the patient can now sit back, relax and wait for their medicine man or medicine woman to help him or her cure his or her medical condition. The medicine men and women recognize some of the medical practices of white doctors. One such belief shared by both types of doctors is that time is an ally in many medical cases. For, these Indian healers believe that time helps in their patients’ recovery process. Also, time heals some fears or phobias like what the white psychologists and psychiatrists adhere to. Naturally, the arrival of the medicine man or woman ushers in the patient a sign of relief because finally something and something will step into the painful world to extricate them from their miseries (Lewis 40). Normally, the Indian medicine man or woman’s healing repertoire includes a drama –like presentation. Meaning, the curing process includes a stage, actors as well as music. For, the patient is now transported into a world where the patient is not placed in darkness, immobility and a world of healing songs which sometimes includes dances. Consequently, the patient is healed because of the trance they enter into where the medical songs bring healing into their afflicted body part or parts (Lewis 42). This picturesque orchestra –like description of the medicine man’s or medicine woman’s work shows that he or she plays a pivotal part in the Oglala Nebraska, USA Indian community. On the other side of the United States, the Navajo Indians also use their kind of traditional healing. The medicine men here use the medical technique of gazing. The medicine men just gazes in their patients to feel the aura of the patient. For, the Navajo Indian medicine men will feel the vibrations that tell him what caused the patient to fall victim to a virus, bacteria, to succumb to high blood, diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and the like. The Navajo Indian doctor then moves some of the patients’ parts like the hands and feet to confirm his first impression of what the patients’ ailment is (Davies 83). The medicine doctors of Oglala Sioux Indians of Nebraska, USA’s main role is to maintain the health of their small Indian community. The medicine men use primitive ways of curing the sick. One such way is to use the Sun Dance. The Sun dance brings health to the community because this festive dance is believed to absorb the vital elements of the environment and funnel it to the people in the community. Also, the medicine man uses the communication process as part of his healing procedures. Here, he gathers much needed information from the patient, his family and his relatives in order to come up with the cause or causes of his unhealthiness.

Compare and Contrast: Schools Essay

Choo criminalityg a college could be hard a uniform if your choosing the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or University of calcium, Los Angleos. They discombobulate numerous similarities hardly on that point has to be something polar about them that helps you consider a decision nevertheless you hypocrisy find it. Is it the environment that surrounds each of the trails. perchance the different academics, does it have what I involve to succeed in one day. Or what if it has the sports I love to play and remark and ar they good at them. Choosing a college is a choice that is apart of your conduct forever. Its where one day you hopefully leave alone get your degree and have the oppurtunities of a life clip.Is the University of calcium, Los Angelos a better school past the University of Nevada, Las Vegas? The environment in Las Vegas is non as big and open as Los Angelos. They both have umteen simularites such as the culture, opportunities, experiences, and walking distance in many places. But Las Vegas is cognize as sin city and if your for the partying, and having the fun its a striking environment for you to be around. Like Los Angelos, Las Vegas is known to many big businesses. There are 20,000 lot that attend this university which seems like a lot In contrast the University of California which is located in Los Angelos.When many deal think Los Angelos they think gangs and violence simply there is an up part to that. The University of California is one the highest known schools in the fall in States. The environment is a lot like Vegas but there are 40,000 people that attend the school and wheres there much people usually means to a greater extent surroundings and a bigger space. It may have some of the same things like culture, opportunities , and experiences. Like UNLV, UCLA is a lot of walking distance from dorms to school, and many things in surrounded by those are things like food, gyms and etceteraVegas is a great place fo r learning It has many things to volunteer just as easily as Los Angelos. The environment is great but academics is the real reason you are discharge to college unless your the next Micheal Phelps, Lebron James , or a nonher(prenominal) athletic star. In the University of Nevada they protract 220 undergraduate, get the hang , and doctoral degree program. It might broaden less due to the smaller school. Unlv is establish on a medical school. As for UCLA, it offers 5,000 courses that could end in 125 different majors. UCLA has a lot more to offer its not really based on just one thing.With the bigger classes it maybe a little crowed but the professors are there to help you. They may not care as much as they do it the classrooms but it would be your responsibility to go after to ask for help. Or even join tutoring which Im sure is offered at both schools. With over 109 academic departments it would help you decided on what you want to do in life. world Micheal Phelps, LeBron J ames, or even Alex Rodriguez, you would have to deduct somewhere in life. College is where e very(prenominal)thing hits the big time because the superior teams or even Olympics starts to really look at you.Both UNLV and UCLA have many sports to offer. The University of Nevada is the fireside of the red and facile Rebels. They offer the normal football , baseball, basketball, swim, golf, soccer,and etc. They do offer men gibe which not many schools do not offer. Although UCLA doesnt offer male recommend it offers others things like track and theater of operations, mens volleyball, water polo, women gymnastics, women rowing,and women spine volleyball, otherwise it offers the same basic sports. UCLA is home of the blue and gold Bruns. They are very high in there department because of the level of talents they have on the field and/or courts.UCLA is a better school it offers a more experience environment that will prepare you more for the future, has a better verity of academic s, and more sports to offer for the people who have dreams to become professional athletes. College is very stressful itself but determination one right for you is even harder. The University of Nevada in Las Vegas offers many things but it isnt just as big and have more opportunity then the University of California in Los Angelos. With the environment, academics, and sports its a bigger and better school. approximately people might disagree but thats what I think.

Reasons for bullying behaviour Essay

Olweus (1980) determine that tittuping children ar usually impulsive and conduct an ravening temperament and children who are bullied have a shy or weak temperament. Some of the children who are bullied want assertive mantle skills. Also, creation different in some way such as be from a different ethnic root pluss the chances of being bullied. In addition, children with special educational needs, with a carnal disability or mild or temperate learning difficulties are also at pretend of getting bullied.Researches conducted by Petterson, DeBaryshe and Ramsay (1989) also identifies factors at situation as reasons for strong-arm. Factors such as lack of love between the parents or among otherwise members of the family, use of material violence indoors the family or lack of piss guidance for behaviour to the children or even lack of observe of childrens activities. Study conducted by Olweus (1980) in Norvegia also indicated links of family background to bullying. F or bullied children, Olweus (1993) imbed that over-protective parenting may increase the risk of being bullied.Children in over-protected family environments usually do not develop skills as practically as children who are independent and hence render vulnerable by the bullies. Bowers, Smith and Binney (1992) conducted research on the childrens, who are either the bullies or the victims, perception of their families. They analyse and compared the perceptions of bullies, victims, bully/victims and control children. The admit indicated that many bullies and bully/victims perceived that their families were relatively lacking affection among the family members.The study also revealed that there were very poor monitoring procedures. The children who are only involved in bullying perceived that their families have power relationships between the siblings and the other members of the family. In this case of bully/victims the children perceived difficulties with the paternal behaviour such as punitive ness and lack of involvement. The children perceived that their parents were more concerned nigh their own position in the family. (Smith, P. K. et al, 2007) Peer-level characteristics associated with bullying and developmentPeers are considered to be the most influential group in issues related to bullying. Various studies such as Espelage et al (2003), Pellegrini & Long (2002), Rodkin et al (2000) have analyze the influence of lucifers in how individuals take to ill will and bullying. Homophily surmise This hypothesis is base on the similarity of individuals inwardly a group. In the late childhood and archaean adolescence, the peer group becomes extremely of import for the individuals. During this time, the peer group involves in similar behavioural dimensions such as smoking, academic achievements and so on.This similarity within the group is called homophily. In studies conducted on middle enlighten students, homophily was found to be true in explaini ng the finale of how much the peer influenced each other in bullying their peers. The effect of peers was found to be high for bullying than fighting. This provided evidence that peer influence plays an important role in low-level aggression than fighting. It was found that students generally hang proscribed with the kids who bullied others. It was found that the students who bullied at similar frequency were found to hang out more.Dominance supposition Dominance theory is base on the observation that during the early adolescence, children look to increase their dominance. Pellegrini (2002) observed that the transition to middle school requires children to renegotiate their dominance relationships. Bullying is found to be a deliberate strategy for attaining the dominance, especially in a newly formed peer groups. Studies indicate that bullying was used more frequently by boys who targeted their aggression towards other boys during this transition.This theory is structured arou nd the abstruse interaction among the adolescent for the need of dominance, changes in the complaisant surroundings and peer-group structure and the desire to interact with the icy sex. Attraction Theory Attraction theory is based on the change in behaviour of youth adolescents. It focuses on their need to establish a breakup from their parents and also become attracted to other people in their age group who possess characteristics that is a coefficient of reflection of independence. This independence can be interpreted as delinquency, aggression, disobedience and similar characteristics.In this period, these adolescents are slight attracted to individuals who possess characteristics of childhood such as accord and obedience. This makes these early adolescents attracted to peers who are aggressive. This was also found during a study of 217 boys and girls by Bukowski, who found that the girls and boys were more attracted to aggressive peers when they entered the middle school. The increase in attraction for belligerence was more for girls. The different theories, especially the homophily hypothesis, dominance theory and attraction theory demonstrate the complex temperament of bullying during the early years of adolescence.