Loan Processing at Capital One Essay

This marketing effort, which was planned to take the form of a major mail drop, was designed to increase the volume of funded loans in about six weeks when potential customers start returning these applications. It was clear to everyone at Capital One that the operations of loan processing would play a major role in determining if the upcoming mail drop would be a success. With 14 funded loans processed per associate every month and a total of 25 associates on the team, the department does not have the capacity to handle the application volume leading to our target of 700 funded loans per month that we set following our increased marketing effort†, observed one of the managers working for Rick, â€Å"What we need is a significant increase in staff. We also need to heavily invest in information technology to further increase the productivity of the existing staff†. While it was clear that the forecasted increase in loan applications would provide a serious challenge for the underwriters, there was no consensus on what actions should be taken. As was observed by one of the executives in charge of consumer loans: â€Å"When I benchmark the productivity of our underwriting team with other companies in the industry, 14 funded loans per associate per month is not a number we can be proud of. It takes about 3 hours of actual work to fund a loan, and that includes everything from the initial interview to underwriting, quality inspection, and closing. We have 25 associates, that each works about 150 hours per month. So each associate should be able to process 50 applications per month, which gives us 1250 applications per month for the team. Even if we fund only every other loan that we underwrite, we would just need a little bit of over time to get 700 units funded. † Several others at Capital One agreed. As it was put by one of the associates in charge of direct marketing: â€Å"Frankly, if you asked me, there seems to be a lot of potential for improving productivity in our processes. I am optimistic that our upcoming mail-drop will lift productivity and utilization scores in the underwriting process since there will be a lot more work coming in. † As the person in charge for operations management, Rick had mixed feelings about these comments. On the one hand, it was true that his department’s productivity metrics had not been stellar in the past. But his associates worked very hard and were very capable. This case was developed solely as the basis for class discussion. It is not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary data or illustration of effective or ineffective management. All data in the case has been disguised. Rick was relatively new to this role, though he was a highly accomplished operations manager with a history of taking on tough challenges and producing strong results by redirecting his teams towards better prioritization, teamwork and focus on strategically important activities. As he looked over the marketing forecast and the target of 700 funded loans for the next month, Rick wondered what the upcoming mail drop would do to his department? And, more importantly, what could he do to help Capital One grow its consumer loan business in the most optimal way? Capital One: Background Information After graduating first in class from the Stanford business school in 1981, Richard Fairbank joined Strategic Planning Associates (SPA), a strategy-consulting firm. In 1986, Fairbank met Nigel Morris, a young associate at SPA. While analyzing the operations of a major money center bank, the two reviewed the firm’s credit card operations. Both of them were struck by the enormous profitability relative to the rest of the bank. The young consultants concluded, â€Å"Credit cards are not banking – they are all about collecting information on 200 Million people that you’d never meet, and, on the basis of that information, making a series of decisions about lending money to them and then hoping they would pay you back. † Fairbank and Morris recognized the potential of customizing credit card products based on characteristics and behavior of their customers and taking advantage of the technological advances in computers that offered companies the ability to record, organize and analyze large amounts of customer data. They realized that few products in the credit card industry were being direct marketed and that even fewer firms were fully exploiting the power of statistical analysis. Fairbank and Morris were able to convince the bank to run a test using this strategy. The test worked remarkably well, however, the bank was unwilling to adopt this new strategy. Convinced that they were onto something really big, the two pitched their idea to more than 20 national retail banks before Virginia-based Signet Bank invited them to launch its Bank Card division. Over the next several years, Fairbank and Morris ran thousands of statistical tests and eventually introduced the first balance transfer product in 1991 that revolutionized the credit card industry and saved a struggling Signet Bank. Four years later, in 1995, Signet spun off its credit card division to create the publicly held Capital One. Recognized for its innovation, customer service, information technology, and financial management, Capital One now is one of the largest issuers of Master Card and Visa credit cards in the world. Today, the company’s global customer base is close to 49 Million with managed loans totaling over $83 Billion. From its IPO in 1994 to 2005, Capital One’s stock price had increased more than 1400%. In recent years domestic diversification has become a primary component of Capital One’s strategy. After going public, the company progressed on geographic and This case was developed solely as the basis for class discussion. It is not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary data or illustration of effective or ineffective management. All data in the case has been disguised. product line expansion through organic growth in credit cards and a series of acquisitions in non credit card businesses. In 1998, the company acquired Summit Acceptance Corporation, an auto loan provider. In 2001, it acquired the nation’s largest online provider of direct auto loans – People First, and a leading provider of financing solutions – Amerifee. The acquisition of Onyx Acceptance Corporation ® made Capital One Auto Finance the second-largest independent auto lender in the United States. The company also acquired Kansas City-based eSmartloan, an online originator of home equity loans and mortgages; Hfs Group, a home equity loan broker in the United Kingdom; and InsLogic, an insurance brokerage based in Tennessee. A number of these diversified businesses along with some organically grown businesses reside in the Global Financial Services (GFS) organization of Capital One. The Loan processing center is one such business that supported a variety of loan products such as small business loans, Line of credits and Jumbo loans. The Loan Approval Process In the division in charge of consumer and small business loans, the marketing department solicits potential customers through direct mail and/or email campaigns, that highlight the loan product features and specials of various products that are offered by Capital One. These campaigns, which are typically carried out at a nationwide level, have an information card that can be returned by the customer. The customer uses this card to provide information concerning their name, the type of loan they are interested in and the phone number/time range that is best to reach them. Customers who respond by sending this information back enter the process and are referred to as an â€Å"App†. Each App flows through a process that consists of five steps: Interview, Workflow Coordination, Underwriting, Quality Assurance (QA) and Closing. Exhibit 1 shows the process flow with a brief description of the activities and the number of associates in each role. Interview The interview step consists of seven associates who call the telephone number specified on the information card. On a typical day between 200 and 500 potential customers are called depending on the incoming volume of customer requests. Federal privacy regulations require that financial institutions can speak about the loan only to the person who actually requested the loan. Hence, if this person is not home at the time of the call, the call has to be repeated at a later point. During the call, the associate interviews the applicant about her loan needs. Based on the customer needs, the associate offers a range of products to the customer and the loan terms such as the maximum loan amount and the interest rate associated with each product (usually a range of interest rates is provided). This case was developed solely as the basis for class discussion. It is not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary data or illustration of effective or ineffective management. All data in the case has been disguised. If the customer is interested in one of the products, she will start an application process with the associate. The associate follows a scripted questionnaire and enters the information being provided by the customer into a computer system. The interview associate sets the expectation with the customer on the next steps: if additional information is necessary to complete processing and approving the application, an underwriter will get in touch with the customer in 2-5 business days to get the necessary information. If all the information is complete and accurate, the applicant will receive a phone call from an Underwriter in approximately 5-10 business days outlining the next steps in the closing process. Exhibit 2 summarizes some sample data that was collected over the course of a week. The Exhibit shows it takes on average 22 to 24 minutes for an associate to process one extra app. This includes the time the associate spends talking with the applicant. It also includes the time it takes the associate to reach the applicant.

Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth Essay

1. Hero introduced in his ordinary world Odysseus is a strong ruler of Ithaca (Greek city-state), however lacks experience in war. He is also the son of Là ¤ertes 2. The call to adventure  He wins the Trojan war through his guile nature. As his fleet left for Ithaca, strong winds sweep them off course 3. Hero is reluctant at first Odysseus and his men get a little afraid after realizing that they had no idea where they were heading for 4. Encouraged by the wise old man/woman Along the way, Odysseus obtains lots of advice of how he should carry on with his expedition from Circe the Enchantress 5. Hero passes the first threshold The first issue that Odysseus faces would be in the beginning of the Odyssey, where his fleet land on the city of Ismara, and plunder the Cicones inhabiting the region 6. Hero encounters tests & helpers Other hazards for Odysseus were: Polyphemus, The Lotus-Eaters, Hades, The Sirens, Scylla etc. 7. Hero reaches the innermost cave The largest issue ever faced by Odysseus’s fleet would be the Man-eating Cyclops named Polyphemus. Being the son of Poseidon, Odysseus’s trickery angered the God of the sea, which would cause much more implications on them. This would largely affect Odysseus’s quality to a greater extent 8. Hero endures the supreme ordeal Odysseus try to escape Polyphemus’s island first, but Odysseus hubris turns against their own people. Polyphemus attacks Odysseus’s men with boulders and rocks. With luck, they escape into the waters, out of reach from danger 9. Hero seizes the sword Odysseus finally defeats all enemies 10. The road back Unfortunately, as he does so, he loses all his men, when Poseidon strikes his  fleet with the power of the raging sea 11. Resurrection He alone gets away from the impending danger and realizes his mistakes. He finally reaches the Phaeacians, and tells them his story, since it had been more than 10 year since he had left for battle 12. Return with the treasure His â€Å"treasure† is more in a form of a lesson, where he realizes that greed is something that corrupts a man. His adventure is definitely an example, since with his greed came the loss of his men and valuables

Compare and Contrast Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth Essay

Back to when the America came to Africa to capture many people over there and enslaved them to serve the high class of the America. That was started everything from the segregation to abolitionists. After about 400 years of slavery and bondage, it was time for descendants of African slaves can reconcile America’s bloody history of human bondage. Many African Americans was standing up and fighting back and Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth were known as the first out of so many brave people. Both Douglass and Sojourner just like many other African Americans were born into slavery and experienced many horrible treatments from their masters until they can escape themselves. D. By comparing and contrasting the life and accomplishment of the two ex-slave Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, I am going to analyze their upbringing as well as families broken apart, slavery for men vs. women and activism with historical legacy. From a very young age, Douglass as well as Sojourner never got to know about their age like other White kids or live under their parents’ protection. Douglass’s mother died when he was 10 and as he was described his feeling was not so upset toward her death because of the separation between them. Also, he heard his black-fellow predicted that his father might as well be his father but he never got a chance to find out the truth. On the other hand, Sojourner seemed to have a better relationship with her family. She was one of the 10 or 12 children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree who were slaves. The Baumfree family was enslaved by Colonel Hardenberg in a hilly area. They were together until the death of Charles Hardenbergh, her master; Truth was sold away at an auction. The separation at these early ages causes them to become stronger and grew up because that was the only way to service in that world. Through Douglass’s slavery life, he only had two masters and both of them were not very nice to him. Since Douglass was a smart little boy, he often got away with any unflavored situations. One of his unforgettable overseers was Mr. Severe. He was famous for his cruelty and brutal manner. At dawn, when all the slaves were summoned to the field, Mr. Severe was prepared to whip any unfortunate slaves that did not ready to start by the sound of the horn.

Family Cultural Values Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Family Cultural Values - Essay Example Filipino Americans have created a language that includes elements of English as well as Tagalog known as ‘Tag-lish’- and this is commonly used, particularly in the younger generation of Filipino-Americans. Filipino society places great emphasis on the practice of ‘kapwa’ or shared identity. This society emphasizes on the importance of developing strong relationships between all members of society. In traditional Filipino society, there were domains of interactions that marked all social as well as communal activities (Espiritu, 2007). The external domain was marked by civility, known as pakikitungo, pakikilahok- or participation in societal activities, pakikitungo – or mixing with others, and pakikisama, which literarily meant adjusting one’s perceptions in order to fit better in one’s society. All these stages were essential before one could be held in full trust- or pakiisa- by the society (Espiritu, 2007). The enduring values extolled by Filipino society could be said to be the result of years of having to share more than 7000 islands even though just 1000 are inhabitable. Religion also plays a central role in Filipino society. There are traditional animistic religions that are still practiced in some sections of the Philippines. Moreover, most Filipinos are Catholics. There are small minorities in Mindanao and Sulu that are Muslims, though (Espiritu, 2007). The central place of faith even among Filipino Americans is such that even matters of health are given interpretations based on issues of faith. The importance of prayer and faith as important aspects in securing healing from disease is a reality in Filipino-American society.... This essay stresses that In America, most Filipino Americans tend to combine aspects such as maintaining balance, exercising the body, and sustaining harmony to ensure that they remain disease free or fight off opportunistic infections. There is also an emphasis on maintaining social relationships with various important people in one’s life in order to keep the psychological man happy as well. The stress on the significance of maintaining balance within the body’s humors can be utilized as a cultural strength to improve the management of chronic illness as the patient can be educated on other aspects, discovered by modern medicine that could result in the body being unable to heal itself. This paper makes a conclusion that Filipino Americans also still observe traditional rules about the consumption of certain foods. Medical practitioners can use cultural norms on the best foods to consume when ill to stimulate their patients to play an active role in the process of their own treatment. In the case of terminally ill patients, it would be necessary to make use of the family members as nurses for the ill person. In most Asian American cultures, including the Filipino-American culture, decisions on how a sick member of the family is treated are made by the heads of families after a moment of consultation. Most families are more likely to feel comfortable with their terminally ill patient being looked after in their own homes.

Data Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Data Analysis - Essay Example Additionally, I recorded the observed behavioral and communication skills on a checklist. I observed that in each session that the student had, it improved his behavioral and communication skills. Observation requires attention; I took a period of about an hour to observe each student. In the process, I kept involving the student to ensure their attentiveness and reduce chances of boredom. Some activities were physical activities that included doing puzzles and job activities or super brain exercises which encouraged communication and interaction as well as developmental activities such as Webber Photo Cards and Jenga game. During data collection, I used the tally sheets to check on their behaviors both the desired and undesired. To enhance accuracy, I assigned a score sheet to each student where I recorded their outcome for every session. To ensure consistency of data, I held meeting twice every week for a period of five weeks with each session being one hour long. In the undesired tally sheet, it had four behaviors I was supposed to observe in each student. The first thing that I was checking was the capability of a student to pay attention. In this, I wanted to identify and then record on a tally sheet the number of times a student failed to pay attention in an ongoing procedure or activity. If in a day a student failed to pay attention three times, I would tally thrice for that student that day. The second thing I was checking was the number of times the student went off the allocated task. My observation was therefore based on the tendency of a student to leave the task for other activities. I rec orded data for three sessions in a week for five weeks. Additionally, I also checked for the student’s incomplete work behavior and out-of-seat behavior during all the sessions that I had with them for the whole duration. As for the behaviors, I was looking out for the desired behavior presented by each student in every session for five weeks. The first

Construction of the cash flows Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Construction of the cash flows - Essay Example The users of the financial statements are very interested to learn how the business generates and uses it cash and cash equivalents during a particular period. Thus, the statement of cash flows is very important because the company wants to control the timing of the receipt and disbursement of cash. For, the company needs cash inflows to pay the budgeted and maturing cash outflows such as payables. The cash flow statement clearly shows the company management's ability to juggle the incoming and outgoing of funds. Also, cash inflows from operating activities are defined as those coming from it revenue generating activities. In our case, the airline tickets are bought because they need to visit the different revenue generating shops in different parts of the United States. Capital Budgeting (Maher, 1997; 279-20) involves deciding which long term investment to undertake and how they are financed. Examples are buildings, land, factory site, factory equipment and others. Furthermore, an item is capitalized, meaning recorded as building, equipment, factory and others, if they are tangible assets held by the enterprise for use of production of goods for sale and rendering services. And, the asset bought will be used over a period of more than one year. Thus, the airline tickets only benefit the day or the current accounting period when the flight was taken. Thus, the airline tickets do not fall under capital expenditures but only operating expenses. In the construction of the cash flows associated with the commercial airline contract option, should the analyst include the average cost of business class tickets Yes, because the average cost of business class tickets involves cash flow or cash disbursement or cash payment. As discussed above in the theory of accounts it is part of operating expenses in the cash flow statement. Appendix A shows that for an annual average of 48 annual trips consisting of 4 travelers per trip at $1,000 per round trip ticket, the annual cost for this specific year is $192,000. Also, for the following year at 50 trips at 4 persons per trip the total cost for that year in terms of plant tickets is $200,000. the continues the computation until the year reaches 79 flights in 1 year at 4 persons per year totaling $316,000. QUESTION In construction of the cash flows associated with the commercial airline contract option, should the analyst include the cost of upgrading a business class fare to a first class ticket yes, for the same reason above. The average cost of upgrading a business class ticket to a first class ticket involves cash flow or cash disbursement or cash payment. As discussed in the theory of accounts, it is part of operating expenses of the company to support its day to day operational management Appendix B below shows that for the year when there are 48 airline travels consisting of 4 persons per trip, the first class ticket at $1,300 per ticket will increase the ticket cost on this particular year to $249,600. This is $57,600 bigger than the computation of ticket at costs in Appendix A below. Also, for the year when 50 flights with 4 persons at $1,300 first class, the total airline ticket costs for that year is $260,000 which is higher than the above data by where the business class total cost for the year is only $200,000.

Drug and Diseases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Drug and Diseases - Essay Example This saves resources and time for the FDA, making money available for other regulatory issues and increasing speed for other approvals. This method has no difference with current FDA drug approval regulations as reviewing justifications are low cost and effective at screening for possible candidates. For a generic drug, if bioequivalence with a non-generic drug is proven, than the two drugs have the same, or similar enough to be considered as same, function and effects. In this case, it is needless to conduct the many experiments on the drug’s pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics to show its function and effects. By proving only its bioequivalence, resources can be diverted to other uses. This method would be making the drug approval process more efficient. Thus, the FDA only need to make sure the generic drug is bioequivalent to its corresponding non-generic drug. As with innovative biologics, the company seeking approval is showing the drug’s bioequivalence to the FDA, while the FDA review the reports to save government resources 2. If the justifications are successful, then the FDA needs to duplicate only important experiments, and only if the results are the same or similar enough to be considered to be the same then can the proposal can continue. One of the main differences with the current approval process for generic drugs is the FDA needs to duplicate important experiments only. This is so that the FDA can make sure that important values are valid, as the peer-review process does not always ensure validity of experimental values. Since people would be consuming the drugs, it is important that these values are correct. There are many areas for drug firms to provide false data. Individuals must take full account of human errors that often occurs in non-academic research settings. Also, the peer-review process does

Networks and Security Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Networks and Security - Assignment Example On the other hand, it is not possible to have integrity existing without confidentiality. This is because the act of maintaining integrity concerns editing or changing the contents of data or a message. Therefore before integrity crime is committed then that person will have breached confidentiality (Cole, 2011). Since, he/she will have to be aware of the contents of the data or message. This occurs when the person involved is has access to the contents of the data or message either through authorization or not. Question 2 The random nonce in an SSL handshake is so that an attacker cannot replay the sequence numbers used in encrypting data sent over a network. This mechanism is effective in ensuring security of the data sent is highly secured. Random nonces are very effective in protecting data sent over networks. For instance, when Bob sends a sequence of data to Alice, an intruder by the name of Tom sniffs the message and wants to extract the data. Tom will set up a TCP connection with Bob and send the same sequence of message. Bob may think that Alice sent the same sequence of data (Lockhart, 2007). In this case, the solution would be for Bob to send different nonce for each connection. As a result, this will cause the encryption keys for the different days to be different. Random nonces are effective in providing adequate security especially when sending repeated messages over the same network. The main purpose of random nonce is to provide encryption and data security for messages or records. Question 3 An application gateway is a machine that is used in ensuring that used in proving relay services when there are different filters. Filters in most cases block the transmission of certain classes of traffic. As a result, it is possible for gateways to prevent the traffic leading to huge networks problems or bottlenecks. Although gateways provide good security for networks they may hamper traffic leading to total collapse of the network. For instance, packet filtering gateways are used in filtering data from networks (Lockhart, 2007). They do so by dropping packets which might cause problems in the network. Therefore the best solution for the case whereby gateways re used is to include a router. A router is used in routing traffic within the network and it is also utilized in connection to the internet. The advantage of a router is that it takes traffic and routes it to different machines in the network (Laet, 2005). Thus making use of a router with an application will be effective in keeping unwanted traffic out while at the same time improving efficiency in delivering data packets to different destinations. Question 4 The monoalphebetic cipher is one of the most secure data encryption methods that can be utilized in different scenarios. The monoalphabetic cipher utilizes around 1026 pairings of data in ensuring that a message unencrypted. This method utilizes paring of letter to encrypt a message. For instance in encrypting the messag e â€Å"I am a student of MSc IT† would equal to: I=s, a=m, m=h, a=m, s=I, t=u, u=y, d=v, e=c, n=j, t=u, o=k, f=x, M=h, S=I, c=b, I=s, T=u. As a result, Plaintext (I am a student of MSc IT) is equal to Ciphertext (s mh miuyvcju kx hisu). While translating cipher text â€Å"s vkjkuuasjfik† would equal plaintext: S=i, v=d, k=o, j=n, k=o, u=t, u=t, a=h, s=I, j=n, f=k, i=s, k=o. As

Role of Nursing in Healthcare Delivery Coursework

Role of Nursing in Healthcare Delivery - Coursework Example Therefore we can say that in this modern century the role of nursing managers has somewhat change now. In addition to the direct clinical and medical care, the nurses are involved in many other aspects of the health care industry. The additional duties may also include quality management and improvement, case management, data collection and analysis, insurance review analysis, patient educations and sometimes the regular training programs to train the rest of the medical staff (Cipriano, 2010). All of these additional tasks are included in the roles, duties or we can say responsibilities of a nurse manager. In modern times, the nurses are also named as the health providers and the health researchers. At higher level of nursing managers, the duties and the responsibilities of a nurse may change from others. A nurse manger may have to supervise all the staff and the hospital just to coordinate their activities. The budgeting activity may also fall on the shoulders of a nurse manger so that he or she can manage the allocated budget according to the proper planning. The hospital may get famous by the level of its services and the care, which they give to their patients; therefore, it is the role of the nurse manager to maintain the high quality or the standard of the health care services (Donovan, 2010). Nurses play an important or we must say a central role in the cost containment, quality and safety provision to the patients. Working at any level the role of nurse is to observe the current and emerging trends so that she or he can make innovation in their services and thus improve the quality of their health care provisions. The aim of the nurses and especially the nursing managers is to achieve the shared and mutual goals of efficiency and effectiveness in the practice (Tiffin, 2012). Tiffin, C. (2012), ‘Beyond the Bed Side: The Changing Roles of Nurses Today’, Huffington Post, Retrieved on July 22, 2014 from

Counseling and Methadone in Treatment of Substance Abuse Essay

Counseling and Methadone in Treatment of Substance Abuse - Essay Example Substance abuse, including tobacco use and nicotine addiction, is associated with a wide range of serious health and social problems. Recent epidemiological evidence demonstrates that 72 conditions requiring inpatient treatment are wholly or partially attributable to substance abuse. Consequently, the estimated annual cost for health care, law enforcement, motor vehicle crashes, crime, and lost productivity due to substance abuse is nearly 1 thousand dollars for every American citizen, including children (Austin, 2005). Such disturbing situation with substance abuse can not but appeal for immediate and effective actions from the government and local authorities. Although the problem is not new, the search for the most effective methods of coping with substance abuse is far from being over. Many different prevention and treatment options have been proposed up to date, but none of them can be addressed as the most effective. Partially this is due to the fact that substance abuse is a condition with extremely complex and often controversial etiology; partially due to lack of serious scientific research exploring specific mechanisms of recovery. The increasing use of psychotherapeutic interventions in both prevention and treatment of substance abuse suggests that modern researchers and practitioners are taking efforts to deal with the problem more effectively than before. This paper provides an overview of the most widely used type of interventions in treatment of substance abuse, namely psychological counseling. Counseling Despite the long history of use a lot of issues related to psychological counseling in treatment of substance abuse still remain poorly explored or unknown. There is one major reason for such situation listed in the substance abuse literature: counseling research projects have often been denied funding due to inability of the researchers to convince the funding authorities that their research standards for scientific investigation meet the conventional standards. Unfortunately, specifics of psychological research makes this task extremely complex: even the most fundamental traditional standard of experimental investigation, the double-blind method, is a "virtual impossibility in comparative psychotherapy research" (Onken & Blaine, 1990: 1). Instead, most of the research in the field has focused on medication treatments for substance abuse even despite the fact though non-pharmacological interventions (such as psychotherapy) are used more frequently, either alone or in combination wit h other methods of treatment (Carroll, 1998). However, the lack of funding have not prevented the researchers and practitioners from designing a number of psychological and psychosocial intervention strategies for treatment of substance abuse. Although the philosophies underlying various kinds of treatment are vastly different, almost all of them include, in some or other form, psychological counseling that has been used in substance abuse recovery and prevention programs since long ago. Thus, already in the early 1980s individual psychotherapy or psychological counseling were available in a stunning 99 % of the drug-free, methadone-maintenance, and multiple-modality drug abuse treatment units and almost 97 percent of the detoxification units in this United States (National Drug and

Matlab problem Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Matlab problem - Assignment Example It is to see to it that the resistors used are not unnecessarily too many and that the value of resistance that they form in combination are the closest to the desired value of resistance. Problem statement Resistors are measured in SI units known as ohms. In a bid to ease the process of manufacturing in bulk, the manufacturers of resistors usually do it in some standard set measures. These standard resistors are known as E12 resistors. They are the resistors with the values 10 ?; 12 ?; 15 ?; 18 ?; 22 ?; 27 ?; 33 ?; 39 ?; 47 ?; 56 ?; 68 ?; and 82 ? Designers of electrical components who which incorporate the use of resistors usually design for some arbitrary resistance values which shall best suit the requirements of the component under design. Given that resistors are manufactured in the 12 standard values, this implies that the designer shall have make an appropriate combination of a number of the standard resistors to form a value that is as close to the designed value of resistan ce as is practically possible. The combination should use as few resistors as possible to minimize costs and this calls for proper optimization. In this task, resistors are to be combined in series since resistors combining in series have the total resistance being the sum of the individual resistances of each one of the resistors connected in series. In this problem the designer desires to get optimization modes of combining resistors in series to get the following values of resistances:- 20 ?; 100 ?; 200 ?; 1k ?; 2k ?; 50k ?; 100k ?; 2m ?; 20M ?; 150M ?. Method The method employed in solving this problem takes advantage of the fact that each one of the E12 resistance values form a geometric series, they are all approximately 21% larger than the previous value. The method employed also takes advantage of the fact that for resistors in series, the total resistance is given by summing up the value of each of the individual resistances of the resistors connected in series. i.e, RT = R 1 + R2 + R3 The method employed also targeted at making the program user friendly. It was to engage the user in a human like dialogue and hence be usable even by people who have no knowledge of programming. In this regard, the method employed was to write a program code that would ask for some two information from the user of the program. The first information to be inquired from the user is the desired value of resistance (target value). In this case the user would input one of the following as desired; 20 ?; 100 ?; 200 ?; 1k ?; 2k ?; 50k ?; 100k ?; 2m ?; 20M ?; 150M ?. The second information to be inquired from the user is the maximum number of resistors that can be combined. This was introduced in a bid to cut down on the cost of manufacturing. The method employed also involved the use of shorthand in which case, M, K and R were used instead of M ?; K ? and ? respectively. So as to make it possible for the universally accepted and used shorthand used by electrical engineers be in put in the program by the users. Results and discussion The program so formed is user friendly and able to ask for the two values from the user, i.e. the value of resistance desired and the maximum number of resistors to be combined. The program is also able to accept values of input written in electrical engineers’

Ethical Behavior and Social Responsibility of Organizations Essay Example for Free

Ethical Behavior and Social Responsibility of Organizations Essay Introduction Proper ethical behavior is a significant part of conducting business. Organizations must therefore find ways to incorporate ethical considerations into their strategic plan. Firms need to practice self governance and obey existing laws if they are to ensure their survival and the well-being of the society in which they exist. The decisions made by an organization affect society as a whole. This paper will examine the social responsibilities of organizations to each of their stakeholders. These include: customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, the local government and the environment. Each section of this report is supplemented with a case study illustrating the consequences of unethical behavior in business. Defining Ethics Ethics is a ubiquitous term that is subject to personal interpretation. Individuals and groups are guided by moral principles or values. Their beliefs help them to set standards for deciphering right from wrong (Little, 2011). Ethical values are dynamic and are therefore subject to renegotiation and change. These changes are often influenced by periodic and contextual circumstances. As ethical beliefs differ from person to person, it may not be entirely possible to instill a universal set of values. Also, many individuals have different points of reference when determining what is right and what is wrong (Little, 2011). Domestically, ethical values tend to be closely aligned. Individuals who have been socialized in a particular region are more likely to have similar values, laws, religion, knowledge and culture. With the emergence of free-trade agreements, many firms have the opportunity to conduct international business. Although these organizations are usually successful in aligning their economic interests, many have failed to recognize or understand the cultural norms, laws and ethical practices of the country they are conducting business with. Defining Social Responsibility An organization’s approach to social responsibility can impact its image and reputation. Depending on how an organization addresses this aspect of business, ethics can either be a strength or a weakness. Social responsibility can be divided into three categories: obligatory, reactive or responsive behavior (Duening Ivancevisch, 2008). An organization that acts out of social obligation tends to direct its behavior to the legal pursuit of profit (Duening et al., 2008). Socially reactive organizations often adhere to social norms, values and performance expectations (Duening et al., 2008). These organizations must be accountable for the ecological, environmental and social costs incurred by their actions (Duening et al., 2008). Lastly, socially responsive organizations often engage in behavior that exceeds the actions taken by socially obligated and socially reactive organizations. For example, these firms take stands on public issues, account for their actions, anticipate future needs of society, move toward satisfying them, and communicate with the government regarding existing and anticipated socially desirable legislation (Duening et al., 2008). As illustrated above, social responsibility can mean different things to different people. In a broad sense, social responsibility is a compliance to the legal obligations, social norms and ethical standards of society. For the purpose of this paper, I will use the broad sense of the term, unless otherwise specified. Social Responsibility of Organizations to Internal Beneficiaries Social Responsibility to Employees Legally, organizations are responsible for providing their employees with a minimum wage, safe working conditions and the freedom to form a union (Duening et al., 2008). These laws discourage management from creating workplaces that violate employee civil rights (Duening et al., 2008). However, many part-time employers, fast food restaurants and retailers provide only the minimum. Historically, employee benefits emerged out of pressure from employees, unions and the community. Today, most organizations are expected to go beyond the minimum legal requirements by providing their employees with â€Å"fringe benefits†, such as retirement funds, health and accident insurance (Duening et al., 2008). Many socially reactive and socially responsive organizations have extended their benefits to include training, career development, counseling, employee assistance programs, day-care and flex-time policies. As employee family life becomes more complex, organizations must find ways to offer support. Many modern organizations are concerned about employee satisfaction and the benefits associated with it. Employees who are content demonstrate a higher commitment to the organization, which often translates into less absenteeism, higher morale and higher productivity. Overall, the modern worker wants his job to be both meaningful and fulfilling (Duening et al., 2008). Social Irresponsibility to Employees: Wal-Mart Wal-mart is one of the most profitable and efficiently run organizations in the world. In 2005, the corporation grossed two-hundred and forty billion dollars in sales, yet still failed to provide its employees with health care benefits and a livable wage (Greenwald Gilliam, 2005). On numerous occasions, the organization neglected to provide its employees with the basic legal requirements. As a result, Wal-mart is now facing a number of class action law suits. Reports suggest that the organization is also notorious for keeping its stores understaffed. Although overtime is rarely an option, employees are still expected to work off the clock to get the job done (Greenwald et al., 2005). Workers are ordered to complete their tasks and are often told that they can be replaced. Given their unfortunate personal circumstances, many employees put up with this abuse. In terms of employee well-being, a large majority of Walmart’s workers cannot afford the company’s basic medical insurance at just seventy-five dollars per month. (Greenwald et al., 2005). However, Wal-mart encourages its employees to seek out section-8 housing, food stamps and government-provided health insurance. (Greenwald et al., 2005). Evidently, Wal-mart’s everyday low prices are a result of taxpayer subsidies. Nationwide, Wal-mart is costing taxpayers over one and a half billion dollars a year in subsidies for its employees (Greenwald et al., 2005). As a result of these policies, Walmart’s average sales employee is living below the Federal Poverty Line. (Greenwald et al., 2005). In 2001, Barbara Ehrenreich conducted a sociological study to determine whether or not she could survive on a low wage. She found a job at Wal-mart in Minnesota. Her study reaffirmed the poor working conditions that Wal-mart employees often endure. In the following quote Ehrenreich talks about a shirt that she wanted to purchase for work: â€Å"One of the rules is that our shirts have to have collars, so they have to be polos, not tees. Somehow Id missed this during orientation At $7 an hour, a $7 shirt is just not going to make it to my shopping list† (Ehrenreich, 2002, p.88). Given the low wage that she earns, she has difficulty justifying the purchase of a seven dollar work shirt. In the next quote, her co-worker Alyssa finds herself in a more difficult situation: â€Å"Alyssa is another target for my crusade. When she returns to check yet again on that $7 polo, she finds a stain on it. What could she get off for that? I think 10 percent, and if you add in the 10 percent employee discount, wed be down to $5.60. Im trying to negotiate a 20 percent price reduction with the fitting room lady when rotten luck Howard shows up and announces that there are no reductions and no employee discounts on clearanced items. Those are the rules. Alyssa looks crushed, and I tell her, when Howards out of sight, that theres something wrong when youre not paid enough to buy a Wal-Mart shirt, a clearanced Wal-Mart shirt with a stain on it. I hear you, she says, and admits Wal-Mart isnt working for her either, if the goal is to make a living† (Ehrenreich, 2002, p.100). Wal-mart is also notorious for squashing unions. If a branch plans to hold a union vote, the organization will hire new employees to dilute the number of people who are pro union. Moreover, the organization allots each store a seven-thousand dollar anti-union package; a thirty-thousand dollar undercover spy van, access to the organization’s one hundred thousand dollar anti-union hot-line; and the use of its seven-million dollar corporate jet for rapid response (Greenwald et al., 2005). If a branch is successful in a union vote, Wal-mart will not hesitate to close down that particular retail outlet. In summary, with the absence of unions and the current mind-set of management, it is highly unlikely that employee working conditions will improve any time soon. Social Responsibility to Shareholders Organizations have a social responsibility to their shareholders and must provide accurate information for investment decisions. (Duening et al., 2008). As stated by Duening and Ivancevich, â€Å"the ultimate action a stockholder can take is to sell the stock† (2008). It is important that organizational information be transparent and accessible. Also, organizations must be as efficient and effective as possible with the use of their resources. Any process or product feature that does not add value is wasteful and has an adverse effect on the bottom line. Investors of the twenty-first century want instant gratification and are therefore often fixated on short-term earnings. As corporations and their managers face pressure from shareholders to produce appeasing quarterly results, they often fail to think about the long-term well being of the organization, its employees and the environment. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in performance-based bonuses. In many multinational organizations, executives earn exponentially more than their lowest paid employees. As an incentive, executives often receive options for shares in the company. The value of those options is contingent upon the company’s short, medium or long-term performance. In 2010, chief executives at the United States’ five hundred largest firms collectively took home four billion dollars (DeCarlo, 2010). The value realized from exercised stock options accounted for the main component of their pay (DeCarlo, 2010). When managers act in their own self interest, bonus-based compensation schemes can have dire consequences for all parties involved. Social Irresponsibility to Shareholders: Enron In 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy (Bryce, 2003). At the time, it was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States. The management cooked the books and misrepresented their position to shareholders (Little, 2011). Enron used mark-to-market accounting practices to manipulate earnings and to create a mirage of success. On several occasions, company executives lied to investors, overstated earnings and omitted critical information (Bryce, 2003). As a result, stakeholders lost billions of dollars. Also, the employee pension plan contained over two billion dollars in assets with sixty-two percent of the funds invested in Enron stock (Bryce, 2003). Thousands of Enron employees lost a bulk of their life savings. In addition, the California Public Employees Retirement system lost three billion dollars (Bryce, 2003). Many individuals, investment firms and hedge funds lost billions of dollars as well. While thousands of individuals lost large sums of money, Enron executives netted significant returns from their unethical stock manipulation and insider trading. Social Responsibility to the Supply Chain The supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from the supplier to the consumer (Shafer et al., 2010). Within the chain, an organization can be both a supplier and a customer. Today, many organizations realize the importance of strengthening relationships and working with fewer suppliers. In effect, suppliers and their customers have become interdependent on one another. Traditionally, customers pitted suppliers against each other in hopes of getting the best price. Today, however, many suppliers play a vital role in the operations process. Through vendor-managed inventory systems, organizations have been able to avoid stockouts, thus reducing inventory costs (Shafer et al., 2010). Corporations that rely on sole sourcing have a partner-like relationship with their suppliers. The just-in-time delivery system is based on customers pulling their orders through the supply chain while suppliers ensure the inputs arrive according to schedule. Companies are also responsible for ensuring that their suppliers are treated respectfully and paid on time. In this relationship, both organizations have to turn a profit to ensure their survival. Social Irresponsibility to the Supply Chain: Monsanto Monsanto is an organization that has little regard for the farmers who use its products or the end users that consume them. In 1994, Monsanto introduced Posilac to the American market. Posilac is a bovine growth hormone that was developed to increase milk production. Today, â€Å"the United States is the only developed nation that permits humans to drink milk from cows that have been given artificial growth hormone† (Laskawy, 2010, para 3). This product was banned in twenty-seven countries including Canada and the European Union (Achbar et al.,2004). Moreover, Posilac was tested for only ninety days to assess for human toxicity (Achbar et al., 2004). There is widespread concern regarding the long-term effects of this product on the well-being of humans and animals. Despite these concerns, this product was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Either Monsanto misreported its findings or the Food and Drug Administration did not look at them. Health Canada research showed that bovine growth hormone could be absorbed by the human body with the possibility of a link to cancer (Achbar et al.,2004). In addition to being harmful, Posilac is of little value to farmers and end users. Prior to Posilac’s release, there was an abundance of milk in the marketplace and farmers were told to produce less of it (Achbar et al.,2004) Monsanto is an organization that supplies harmful products and expects farmers to distribute them to the general population. This organization is responsible for the premature release of bio-engineered foods in the marketplace. The long-term effects of genetically-modified food are still unknown. However, Monsanto requires a high level of coordination to get its products to market. The firm often requires help from politicians, professors, scientists, experts, the general public, reporters, and the Food and Drug Administration (Achbar et al.,2004). Monsanto also engineers terminator seeds. These are seeds that terminate themselves through a suicide gene (Achbar et al.,2004). Since terminator seeds are only good for one season, Monsanto has lowered the intrinsic value of them. In nature, seeds are meant to be replanted annually. However, this product goes against evolution and human well-being. There are billions of people around the world who are starving to death and farmers have been denied the opportunity to replant their seeds on an annual basis.This product is immoral to its customers, the end users, and humanity as a whole. Nonetheless, Monsanto still expects its customers to distribute these products to the end users. Social Responsibility to Customers Value is defined as any action or process that a customer is willing to pay for (Shafer Meredith, 2010). To eliminate unnecessary waste, organizations should always be mindful of customer needs. Processes that drive up costs but do not increase the overall value of a product are wasteful. Firms should strive to reduce overproduction, inventory costs, unnecessary processing, wait times, transportation costs, and unnecessary human motions while minimizing the number of defects (Shafer et al., 2010). Competitive organizations continue to improve the quality and durability of their products (Shafer et al., 2010). However, if an organization fails to use its resources efficiently and effectively, it will likely be punished in the marketplace. A consumer has the ultimate decision on whether or not they will purchase a particular product. Therefore, companies should be adequately prepared to address consumer concerns and after-service needs, should they arise. Also, consumer goods should not do any biological or psychological harm to their customers. Products that have the potential to do harm to others should be put through rigorous testing to ensure they are safe for human use and consumption. Social Irresponsibility to Customers: Aguas del Tunari For twenty years, the World Bank has been working alongside successive governments toward independent development in Bolivia. The World Bank believes that a high proportion of leaders in developing nations are susceptible to corruption, including those in Bolivia. As a result, the organization has played a significant role in assisting the Bolivian government with privatization of its state-owned enterprises. In 2000, Aguas del Tunari corporation signed a forty-year contract with the Bolivian government to provide water to impoverished citizens in Cochabamba City, Bolivia. Aguas del Tunari was guaranteed a minimum annual return of fifteen percent on their two-and-a-half billion dollar investment (Salina Starr, 2008). As part of the deal, Aguas del Tunari Corporation agreed to repay thirty million dollars of debt accumulated by the state utility company (Salina et al., 2008). In an effort to pay off the debt, Aguas del Tunari corporation increased water rates to twenty dollars per month a thirty-five percent increase (Achbar, Abbott, Bakan Simpson, ,2004). However, the company failed to consider the fact that many of its new clients were surviving on only two dollars a day (Achbar et al., 2004). This meant that the cost of water would account for roughly twenty-five percent of their daily income (Achbar et al., 2004). To make matters worse, the government had privatized rain water, making it illegal to collect the rainfall (Achbar et al.,2004). When the newly-owned utility company shut off the water supply to non-paying customers, violent protests erupted across all classes of society. Ninety-six percent of citizens demanded that the contract with Aguas del Tunari be terminated (Salina Starr, 2008) . The government of Bolivia refused and told its citizens that there was nothing to negotiate. Protests spread to other major cities in Bolivia, eventually causing a ripple effect that would put the country into a state of emergency. To remedy this problem, the Bolivian government kicked Aguas del Tunari out of the country and resumed its role as the nation’s utility operator. In this unique case, it is difficult to conceptualize water as a commodity. Water is essential for survival and is seen as a birth right. Many would argue that the local government is responsible for regulating the cost of water and ensuring that it is affordable for all citizens. Since water surrounds us and falls naturally from the sky, it is difficult for a corporation to add value to it. Privatization of rain water is an extreme concept and certainly crosses some ethical boundaries. Social Responsibility of Corporations to External Beneficiaries Social Responsibility to Local Governments Elected officials have a social responsibility to the people whom they represent. Although corporations cannot directly cast a vote, they can leverage their power by donating large sums of money to political campaigns. In return, they often expect regulatory favors, exceptions, and preferential treatment. Corporations must however respect the local government and prohibit themselves from lobbying, bribing or manipulating local officials for the financial benefit of the organization. Although firms should not tempt government officials, politicians should also avoid situations where they may become vulnerable. As governments and organizations continue to work closely to achieve their objectives, they must ensure they maintain their ethical boundaries. When corporations gain power, the relative authority of local government diminishes and their authoritative power is often confined to their given jurisdiction. As organizations continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to be audited by local governments and regulatory bodies. For this reason, governments should consider implementing more rules and tougher sanctions to prevent legal and ethical misconduct. As history has shown, corporations are not always capable of self- governance. Social Irresponsibility to Local Governments: Long-Term Capital Management Deregulation of public enterprises and new business practices may not always be in the best interest of the general public. In 2000, the Clinton administration passed a bill that would deregulate the derivatives market and establish legal certainty for bankers (Lowenstein, 2002). The three major classes of derivatives are: futures, options and swaps. In detail, the derivatives market is not well understood by policy makers. There have been numerous cases of corporate fraud, financial mismanagement and unnecessary risk. Moreover, taxpayers have fronted billions of dollars to bail out financial institutions. In 2008, the value of the overall derivatives market was an astonishing six-hundred and sixty-eight trillion dollars (Sheridan, 2008). In 1994, Long-term Capital Management took the financial world by storm. This hedge fund was established by two proven Wall Street traders and two Nobel Laureates (Lowenstein, 2002). The fund started with four billion dollars in capital from its investors. The firm enjoyed four straight years of prosperity without a single monthly loss to be reported on their balance sheet. LTCM was thought to be the perfect hedge fund. It simply could not lose. LTCM leveraged its balance sheet trading by 30 to 1, while leveraging its off balance sheet trading by 250 to 1 (Lowenstein, 2002). At one point, the company had in excess of one trillion dollars in derivatives exposure (Lowenstein, 2002). In a short period of time, LTCM had lost nearly everything and turned to banks and the federal reserve for a bailout. At the time, this was the largest bailout ever. In Wall Street’s eyes, LTCM was simply too big to fail. It was thought that its demise would have had dire consequences for the entire economy. Since then, bigger investment firms have failed, bigger bailouts have been distributed and derivatives are still being heavily traded. It appears Wall Street still has a lesson to learn. It was the government’s deregulation of derivatives that allowed LTCM and other investment firms to behave unethically and do as they pleased. As a regulatory body, the Federal Reserve sent out the wrong message by bailing out LTCM. Condoning the behavior of this hedge fund created an environment that would encourage other financial institutions to take the same risks. Social Responsibility to the Environment and Future Generations Today, consumers and citizens increasingly expect more from organizations. Traditionally, firms externalized their costs while internalizing their profits. Today, however, many corporations are becoming ethically conscious and are working toward minimizing their carbon footprint. They have started to use mechanisms known as stakeholder management devices to respond to stakeholder claims (Duening et al., 2008). Progressive organizations have started working toward sustainable development to help create a world that is suitable for future generations. Many firms are also taking an interest in social issues. Some have started practicing corporate philanthropy. These positive efforts enhance a corporation’s good will and improves its overall image. This often translates into more sales and higher profit margins. Organizations that fail to take responsibility for their actions are often looked down upon. For example, an organization that shows complete disregard for the environment will likely tarnish their image and build up ill will. In effect, companies that act out of social obligation are viewed less positively than those that are socially responsive. Social Responsibility to the Environment and Future Generations: Tokyo Electric Power Company In March of 2011, the Japanese coast was rattled by a forceful 9.0 earthquake and a gigantic tsunami. The Fukushima Dai-chi and Fukushima Dai-ni power plants sustained critical damage (TEPCO to Compensate Nuclear Plant Victims, 2011). Both of these power plants are privately owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO to Compensate Nuclear Plant Victims, 2011). The nuclear disaster revealed the company’s misplaced confidence and a failure to adequately forecast its worst case scenario. Furthermore, the company chose to disregard Japan’s tsunami history and relevant GPS data. TEPCO engineers did not factor in earthquakes that occurred prior to 1896 (TEPCO Dimissed Important Scientific Evidence in Planning Nuclear Plant’s Defense, 2011). Tsunami modelers at TEPCO factored in an earthquake of 8.6 magnitude in its worst case scenario model (TEPCO Dimissed Important Scientific Evidence in Planning Nuclear Plant’s Defense, 2011). The earthquake that occured on March 11, 2011 was four times more powerful than the maximum presumed (TEPCO Dimissed Important Scientific Evidence in Planning Nuclear Plant’s Defense, 2011). Given Japan’s geographical position and the volatility of nuclear energy, TEPCO should have put more thought into their calculations. After much delay, the Japanese government has ordered TEPCO to pay partial retribution to the citizens affected by this nuclear catastrophe. Beginning on April 28, 2011, TEPCO has started to compensate families in the nominal sum of twelve-thousand dollars for losses attributed to evacuation, having to stay indoors and nuclear contamination (TEPCO to Compensate Nuclear Plant Victims, 2011). These partial retributions are miniscule. Often times it is cheaper for a corporation to hire a good public relations specialist than to rectify the actual problem. This nuclear disaster has crippled local businesses, fishing operations, tourism and the livelihood of citizens. TEPCO’s greed and irresponsibility has cost the citizens of Japan and the nation at large by causing tremendous losses. Moreover, citizens in neighboring countries and the Western part of the United States have grown concerned over their personal well-being. In TEPCO’s case, the local government should have taken extra measures to ensure the facilities were built to withstand an earthquake of great proportion. Local governments are elected and represent the interest of the people. Therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure private organizations behave ethically. Companies should be forced to take full accountability for their actions. In regard to privatization of nuclear energy, governments should pressure organizations to strive for seven-sigma quality. As we have witnessed, a defect in nuclear energy can have significant implications for the general population. Conclusion As illustrated in this paper, organizations have a social responsibility to both their internal and external beneficiaries. Firms should always conduct business with integrity and concern for others. Although many organizations may feel pressure to increase their short-term earnings, they must retain their focus and uphold their social responsibilities to their stakeholders. Through long-term objectives, organizations can set standards that will ensure their survival. It’s important to emphasize that the decisions an organization makes will often affect society as a whole. As illustrated in the case studies above, companies that go astray or act in their own self interest can adversely affect the well-being of many stakeholders. However, tougher sanctions and an organizational credo may help give an organization ethical focus. In conclusion, by practicing self-governance and obeying existing laws, corporations will be well on their way to becoming socially responsible and dependable organizations. Works Cited Achbar, M. (Director/Producer), Abbott, J. (Director), Bakan, J. (Writer), Simpson, B. (Producer) (2004). The Corporation (DVD). Canada: Big Picture Media Corporation. Bryce, R (2003). Pipe Dreams Greed, Ego and the Death of Enron. New York, NY: Public Affairs. DeCarlo, S. (2010). What the Boss Makes.Forbes.com.Retrieved on April 18th, 2011 from http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/27/compensation-chief-executive-salary-leadership-boss-10-ceo-compensation-intro.html Duening, T. N., Ivancevisch, J. M. (2006). Managing Organizations Principles Guidelines. Cincinnati, OH: Atomic Dog. Ehrenreich, B. (2002). Nickel and Dimed On Not Getting By in America. New York, NY: Owl Book. Greenwald, R. (Director), Gilliam, J. (Producer) (2005). Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price (DVD). United States: Brave New Films Disinformation Company. Laskawy, T. (2010). Court Rules rBGH-Free Milk Milk is Better Than the Kind Produced With Articifical Hormones. Now What? Retrieved on April 19, 2011 from http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-10-06-court-rules-on-rbgh-free-milk. Little, C. (2011). Ethics [class lectures]. Texas AM University-Commerce. Spring 2011. Lowenstein, R. (2002). When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-term Capital Management. Great Britain: Clays Ltd and St. Ives plc. Salina, I. (Director), Starr, S. (Producer) (2008). Flow: For The Love of Water (DVD). United States: Oscilloscope Laboratories. Shafer, S. Meredith, J. (2010). Operations Management for MBAs, 4th Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Sheridan, B. (2008). 600,000,000,000,000? Newsweek. Retrieved on April 20, 2011 from http://www.newsweek.com/2008/10/17/600-000-000-000-000.html. TEPCO to Compensate Japan’s Nuclear Plant Victims. (2011). BBC News Asia_Pacific. Retrieved on April 17, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13090304 TEPCO Dimissed Important Scientific Evidence in Planning Nuclear Plant’s Defense. (2011). Japan Today. Retrieved on April 24, 2011 from http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/tepco-dismissed-important-scientific-evidence-in-planning-nuclear-plants-defense.

History Of The Work Breakdown Structure Information Technology Essay

History Of The Work Breakdown Structure Information Technology Essay Projects developed with available time and budget are more useful for own as well as customers satisfaction. This process is completed through the mechanisms of planning, monitoring and also re-planning. This report supports the project scheduling, planning and analysis methodologies, modeling concepts and analysis technique. The report is presented using a theoretical contribution on process simulation to assist design planning. We have highlighted the design planning using Microsoft Project Design with key challenges of project management. The Microsoft Project is a flexible and competent program designed to administrate the projects and help to plan effectively. We can organize the lists of task and set the time frame and facilitates with quick planning of projects. Large and complex projects are more significant for the project management. The consequence decisions of projects as how the project is managed and role of the managers are portrayed. When the schedule is tight more need is magnified. Technical design of projects requires different skills and for the complex projects the technical aspects are out these areas which need to be well managed. For this reason project management is more emphasized backed by the specialized resources. The management team is responsible for the development, designing and delivery of the projects. Our project is based on the case study of the Pharmaceutical industrys Software development in Switzerland. Pharmaceutical industry management needed the software development for their indigenous business and in other countries of the world. It also addresses all the critical processes and operations which are required for its performance and successful business. The management system approaches to quality management and all the successful operations of Pharmaceutical industry. In this process the decommissioning of the business is considered to achieve the mandate and objectives. Work breakdown Structure Work breakdown structure (WBS) defines the total scope of our project. The WBS subdivides the project into smaller and manageable piece of work. This concept of the WBS is used to produce the work packages scheduled, cost estimated, monitored and controlled. The development team uses the WBS from the previous projects and works as a template for new project. The WBS involves the following activities Identifying the deliverable and other related work; Organizing and structuring the WBS; The decomposing of the upper work breakdown structure into lower level detailed components; Assigning and developing the identification codes to WBS. Finally verifying the degree of decomposition which is necessary and sufficient. Schedules Projects are complex endeavors and plan is a necessary guide for the execution of the project. The progress of the project is recorded on a project and remaining work is reassessed in the light of new information. It is rare that execution of a project proceeds as initially set plans. The purpose of the scheduling is to show a road map that when and how the project will deliver the products in the limits of the scope defined by the project team. For the project management planning and analysis the scheduling is one of the basic requirements. Its main aim is to set the time for the required project. The project management sets the time to complete the project. The management team engaged with our project manages the processes as given following. Many activities are performed by the management team accomplishing the project undertaken. Activity: To produce the deliverable projects many specific schedule activities are identified. Activity sequencing: The schedule activities are dependent and activity sequencing identifies these dependencies among the schedule activities. Activity resource estimating: This type of activity defines the resources to perform these schedule activities. Activity duration estimating: It identifies the number of work periods which are entirely needed to complete the individual schedule activity. Schedule Development: The process of analyzing the activity sequences, resources requirement, durations, and other schedule constraints required to create the project schedule. Schedule Control: It controls the changes made in project schedule. For our project we use the Microsoft Project 2010 where Gantt chart gives us visual representation. It represents the tasks and products deliverable within the time specified in schedule. It also provides the roadmap to execute the product its delivery, tracking the changes and also managing the changes. Microsoft Project Management has very powerful tools in it to perform the activities very quickly as in figure 1. Fig 1: Project professional 2010 We can manage the schedule tasking manually using the Project Professional 2010. Fig 2: Improved Top to down scheduling Managing team has option to schedule the task automatically as shown in figure 2. The design and developments tasks of our project are scheduled automatically. The project professional 2010 is more useful for the business managers and productivity of project. The concept of Precedence Diagramming Method (PMD) is used to represent the activities and show the dependencies of the activities with sign of arrows. There are four types of dependencies or called as precedence relationships. Finish-to-Start: Successor activity starts which depends upon the completion of predecessor activity. Finish-to-Finish: the completion of the successor activity depends upon the completion of predecessor activity. Start-to-Start: The successor activity starts and depends upon the completion of the predecessor activity. Start-to-Finish: The completion of the successor activity depends upon the beginning of the predecessor activities. Time constraints are very important during the schedule development. Start and Finish activities can be restricted by imposing the dates which affects the completion of the activities. Many other constraints are also present in the project management software but in our case Start No earlier than and theFinish no later than constraints are specifically used. Project customer, sponsor and stakeholders dictate the major milestones and affect the certain deliverable components to a specific date. The scheduled dates become the expected dates and only can be changed through the approval. Milestones only provide the schedules interface and are not part of the project data base. Fig 3: Milestone and Tasks Project is actually a list of tasks and manager reports and keeps track of it. Our project is broken into phases by the managers and completion of these tasks is called as milestone. Milestone of our projects are documented at the end of each phase which reduces the project operating cost. Planning and Control The planning process consists of the project maturity, scope, development and project management plan and schedule of project activities occurring within project. While control techniques are used to compare the actual performance with planned performance. It also analyses the variances and trend assessment to improve the process improvements and recommending the adequate corrective actions required. Monitoring and Controlling a Project When a project is planned then it requires to be started according to plan. Formal changes in plan are permitted and customers are informed about this change. If this process is not completed then it is not possible to get the approval for the extension of time. In our case the monitoring project ensures: development of the required products is ensured The required standard and quality are being met Products are ready in time according to the budget and planned resources Business case is achieved by the project products Using the planning and scheduling software three components are measured as Time, Resources and cost Planning Time Resources Cost The analysis of the project schedule is not taken lightly. Budget and timeline are the basic measures to analyze the quality of schedule. The budget and timeline are kept on track, if it is not on track then manager takes immediate action to cure the problem. For the project schedule a baseline was established, this baseline is used as starting point and performance on the project is also measured. This technique is used during the project execution when the project is on track. Cost Performance Baseline costs compared and variances are shown between these two variances. Earned Value Management (EVM) technique is used to monitor the IT projects in some ways as other projects. For the effective performance measurement EVM has proven itself and also feedback tool to manage the projects.EVM also informs us that where the project is and its comparison with the proposed project. Value of accumulated cost is also measured by the EVM as the amount of work and amount spent on it. PERT Analysis Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) back to its history was used to control the large complex projects in USA. PERT has become now the combination of the Critical Path Method (CPM) and is thus know as the PERT/CPM. For project in discussion Pert Chart is a five step process. Identifying the all tasks for the entire project i.e. planning to execution of the product. Amount of work required to complete the each task in development of the product. Identifying the immediate predecessor tasks. Entering each task in PERT/CPM chart. Calculating the time and duration based on the resources and durations. In above tasks first two tasks are always manual and completed in brainstorming session. Last three tasks are interacted with MS Project. The best advantage of the PERT is used for the most probable effort for the tasks. We want to know the ways of estimating the effort for each task. Pessimistic, most likely and optimistic estimates are combined together into a single value which gives the expected effort for the task. A weight average simply ensures that any deviation from the optimistic or pessimistic estimates is not so much effective to take away the duration from expected duration. These estimated are more valuable when right people are involved in it. First task needed the two days and second one 1 day each with two people working. We can say that first task requires the 4 person-days of work and second task needed two. Three kinds of dependencies are found during the third task. These dependencies include the (1) project mandatory (2) external mandatory (3) discretionary. It is clear that start of the new task depends upon the success or output of previous task. External dependencies are due to non-project occurrences for example the arrival of the new hardware and interface definition of another project. Discretionary dependencies are troublesome. These dependencies are based on the flexibilities which are used to build the schedule; but also add some complexities. When all rearranging and juggling is completed and hand written information is transferred to computer based applications like MS project. Toggling between views optimistic pessimistic Calculating the Pert Entering the weight for PERT calculation Entering the durations of optimistic, pessimistic and expected in one sheet Entering the durations of optimistic, pessimistic and expected Figure 4: Pert Analysis in MS project We have found that PERT methodology has number of limitations. The first problem lies in calculating the accurate estimates of duration of tasks. When a single dominant path is selected then it yields very accurate results. In case when there are number of parallel paths then it gives overly optimistic estimation. It is recommended that classical PERT model for the quantitative for the risk analysis when you require the accurate estimation for the optimistic, pessimistic and most like durations and our project has a dominant path through the entire network. Conclusions In this report we have discussed the project scheduling, planning and analysis methodologies, modeling concepts and analysis technique using the Microsoft Project. Delivering the IT projects on time and budget is very critical to companies success and their effective management of scheduling. The concept of WBS is an essential part of this report which has determined the scope of our project. Activities and tasks with allocated time and budget are also discussed in this report. For these tasks and activities Gantt chart makes a best visual representation and used to manage and track the changes in schedule. Earned Value Management (EVM) is a best tool to measure the progress of the project. PERT analysis is also a major part of this report to represent the tasks and durations using the MS Project.

Direct Advertising of Schedule 4 Medicines to Consumers

Direct Advertising of Schedule 4 Medicines to Consumers Abduwaysi Amie Should Schedule 4 medicines be directly advertised to consumers? This essay will examine a number of arguments for and against direct advertising of Schedule 4 medicines to consumers, but it will argue that schedule 4 medicines should not be advertised directly to consumers. In the last decades advertising has grown and pharmaceutical companies are advertising directly to consumers. These days, consumers are facing the most advance and domesticated advertised about medicine. The research suggests that direct advertising to consumers is both beneficial and disadvantageous to public health in general. The TGA is the only authority that regulates direct advertising to consumers, advertisements for all therapeutic goods must comply with therapeutic good regulation act 1989. There are limits on direct advertisement product containing schedule 3,4and 8 to be advertised to consumers in Australia. Some groups of people argue the rules are too relaxed and are inadequate to enforce the Low that protects consumers ,others supporting direct advertise to consu mers (Mangin 2006), this number is evenly distributed and balanced , both side have been supporting their arguments with evidence. Currently there are a number of methods of advertising medicines to consumers. First type provides information to the consumers to seek treatment from their doctor about a particular problem without naming the drug. The second method is those which advertise their medicine directly to consumers by naming the drug, what it’s used for, how it used, how many tablets you take per days and the price of the drug. The last one is the common type of advertising, product claims such as efficacy, safety and quality of the drug. The entire drugs are subject to different TGA regulatory restriction.(Shaw March 2008) The Therapeutic Good Administration (TGA) is the branch of the Australian Department of Health and Aging, responsible for regulating therapeutic goods, prescription medicines, medical devices and non-prescription medicines including over the counter medicines in order to protect public health and safety. The TGA put in place the systems of national scheduling or classifying medicines to control medicines and chemicals that pose risks to consumers. Medicine is classified according to the level of risk. The TGA classified medicines and poison in to schedule from 1-9.† Schedule 4 (prescription only) medicines and Schedule 8 (drugs of addiction) is regulated by the Poisons Act 1964 and the Poisons Regulations 1965 State legislation). Schedule 4 medicines are Prescription only Medicine are defined by the poison act as this medicines are needed to be evaluated for safety and efficacy and for safe and appropriate use due to the complex nature of the medicine potential toxicity, compar ed with relatively safe over counter drug which do not require a prescription.(Health 2008) Under section 23(2) (e) together with substance or preparations intended for therapeutic use. The safety, quality and efficacy require further evaluation; the prescribing of certain S4 medicines is restricted to medical specialists in some cases Prescription of certain medicines to patients, who are suffering from chronic disease like skin disease and cancer. There are some drugs prescribe by dermatologist, gynaecologist that are restricted to medical practitioners.(C. Lee Ventola 2011) New Zealand and the United States of America are the only countries allowed direct advertising Schedule 4 medicines. This is not allowed by law in the most countries around the world including Australia. Direct advertisements to consumers failed to provide necessary information about the drug, instead they appeal and tend to sell and promote their products. It also contains misleading, inaccurate information.(Barbara Mintzes 2006) Today medicines are available in markets in two main forms in Australia, those required prescriptions from general practitioners and those you can buy directly without prescription(over the counter drug). Pharmaceutical companies can directly advertise to health professionals but not to the general public at all, this will affects the relationship that existed between patient and general practitioner. The health practitioners have good relation with their patients; they have also a legal responsibility in both prescribing the medicine and also informing the potential risk. In 21st t the century people attitude is changing the use of health services by accessing many range of information’s from the media. Restricting direct advertises schedule 4 medicines to consumers are justified due to safety concern. (Mangin 2006) For instance, the most recent evidences direct advertising can cause harm risk to consumer come from Vioxx. There was no enough evidence to suggest that Vioxx is more effective to treat arthritis pain and inflammation it has only benefited reduced risk of gastrointestinal effect. However the trail shows disadvantage outweighs the benefit which increases in heart attack and stroke. Many discussions have raised about the safety effects of direct advertising schedule 4 medicine to the consumer. The US cardiologist argued that the FDA has failed to stop direct advertising; Vioxx to US public, they failed to protect the public health and safety while cardiac risk grew. During those periods Merck has spent more than 500m illion for direct advertising their wonder drug to the world in its five years in the market. Vioxx case was one of the examples about the effects of direct advertising prescription medicine to the public and its potential impacts on individual patients and public health at large, based on the available evidence. Advertising schedule 4 medicine should be banned; it may expose people with serious medical problems. (Barbara Mintzes 2006)It is possible to change the law to safeguard the public from direct advertisement prescriptions medicine. The changes in policy about direct advertise prescription medicine to consumers can assist the connection between public advertising and public health. The people who are supporting direct advertising schedule 4 medicines to consumer argue that freedom of speech, commercial freedom, the right to get important information to consumers, In order to enable them to make a decision. They think direct advertising prescription medicine is very important human right, to know more information about a potential treatment for the disease they suffered from. They believe also access to their health information can be available to them with the availability of the drug, and (Assistant Professor The impact of advertising prescription medicines directly to consumers in New Zealand: lessons for Australia)information what is best for them. Defenders of direct advertise prescription medicine to consumers focused their campaign on the particular class of medicines that treat illness that symptom are already known to consumers. The defendant argues allowing direct advertise to consumers enablement and autonomy. The argument highlights the types patient who will benefit from direct advertise including the following, people those are poor who are an ability to have access health information, those who have temporary conditions, would prefer direct access information and those who have experience managing chronic pain and recurring long term conditions. In general, consumers who are adult they have capacity, entitled and right to make a decision about the products and good and services. The pharmaceutical company believes direct advertising to consumer has played important role in informing and educating the consumer about the condition that are treated by brand name drugs. Advertising schedule 4 medicines to consumers is undesirable because direct advertising does not provide necessary information about adverse effects, alternative treatments and the cost of drugs. According ED Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S PIRG.Direct advertising causes â€Å"over prescription of drug for condition people weren’t aware of it, has resulted in massive profit for the industry by preying on vulnerableconsumers† in addition, to discouragement doctor and patient relationship. This advertisement can give misleading information about the brand drug, exaggerate the benefits and under reporting the side effect or risk. The consumers that are exposed to direct advertising constantly think drug is the only solution to a health problem, instead of taking up healthy living, good diet and exercise. The result clearly shows, advertising new drug before fully known serious adverse effects, and current post market surveillance sometimes fails to identify adverse events that of a particular drug, which is heavily endorsed early in the process of production, which can present public health. Vioxx was such drug that mostly advertised in the U.S from 1999-2004. 4On September 30, 2004, Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx from the market. Before it withdrew patients requesting for Vioxx by asking the drug relying on the company advertisement they believe the Vioxx is better than other drugs treat the same conditions, not knowing that this drug can cause stroke or other heart problems. benoxaprofen (Oraflex, Eli Lilly) for arthritis, troglitazone (Rezulin, Parke-Davis) for diabetes, cisapride (Propulsid, Janssen) for gastric reflux, ceriva statin (Baycol, Bayer) for high cholesterol, and tegaserod (Zelnorm, Novartis) are other drugs that were heavily advertised to consumers, which have linked to safety risk. .(C. Lee Ventola 2011) Advertising has been the major tools of marketing to consumers for pharmaceutical companies. The profit generated by increasing spending on direct advertisement to consumer by pharmaceutical companies is the main driver of increasing prescription drug and raised the consumer expectation of drug treatment that influence both patients and doctors. The claim direct advertising can provide necessary information that could help the patients about the drug. It has been a point of discussion among patients, pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals in relation to direct advertisement to consumer.one group argues the knowledge from advertising may assist the patients in making decisions with their doctors to have a choice of treatment they need. Others argue advertising new drug to the consumer led to aggressive marketing of Vioxx the drug, which has been found unsafe and risk to consumers, such a case has put big pressure on FDA not to speed up the release of a new drug without pro per clinical trials. In recent times, more people have been calling for cessation of direct advertisement to safeguard consumers from unnecessary effects of direct advertisement and to put limits into misleading and false information. To improve access option for drug treatment, we need comprehensive, unbiased and accurate information. References Assistant Professor, DoP, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada The impact of advertising prescription medicines directly to consumers in New Zealand: lessons for Australia, To ban or not to ban: direct-to-consumer advertising and human rights ( accessed 08/10 20140 Analysis , Australasian Medical Journal, vol. 2010,3,12, 749-766 pp. 2010,3,12, 749-766 2006, What are the Public Health Implications? ( accessed 09/10 20140 Direct- to- ConsumeAdvertising of PrescriptionDrugs in Canada, Barbara Mintzes, P, Health council of Canada. C. Lee Ventola, M 2011, Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising( accessed 10/10 20140 Therapeutic or Toxic?’ U.S national library of medicine, National Institute of Health, vol. 36, no. 10 pp. 669-74, 81-84. Health, PSBDo 2008, Requirements for the prescribing , of Schedule 4 and Schedule 8( accessed 15/10 20140 Medicines in Western Australia WA Australia. Show, A March 2008, Direct-to- Consumer S Advertising (DTC) of Pharmaceuticals, Discovery Guides, 14/10/2014. ( accessed 10/10 20140

Child Trafficking Essay -- Legal Issues, Sexual Exploitation, Forced L

Child Trafficking â€Å"The global market of child trafficking is at over $12 billion a year with over 2 million child victims† (â€Å"Stop Child Trafficking Now† 1). This statement from the article â€Å"Stop Child Trafficking Now† describes how serious this crisis is nationwide. Child labor, illegal adoptions and child prostitution are the three forms child trafficking typically exists as (â€Å"Riverkids Project† 1). There has been a rising number of Cambodian children being trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor because of poverty, unemployment and lack of education; however organizations such as the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) are trying to raise awareness of this crisis. There is a rising number of Cambodian children being trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Human trafficking is a major crisis that is rapidly growing, affecting many young women of Cambodia. In just one year the number of young women involved in prostitution grew from 6,000 to 20,000 trafficking victims (â€Å"No Trafficking† 3). In 2006 it was estimated 30,000 Cambodian children had been exploited in the sex trade (â€Å"Global Crime Case: The Modern Slave Trade† 1). Studies have shown although not all sex workers are human trafficking victims 1 in 5 women and girls working in brothels have been trafficked (â€Å"SSF Cambodia† 1). It is estimated 50 percent of Cambodia’s population comprises children younger than 15 years of age (â€Å"No Trafficking† 4). End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) reports as many as one third of the trafficking victims in prostitution are children (â€Å"Human Trafficking† 2). There are around 158 million children aged 5-14 engaged i... ...n Trafficking Data Sheet† 2). There are many organizations within the nation that are gaining awareness for child trafficking. Child trafficking is a rapidly growing crisis forcing young women of Cambodia into sexual exploitation and child labor. This issue is cause by many factors including the lack of education and high levels of poverty; however, there are many organizations such as the Somaly Mam foundation trying to gain awareness of this crisis. Citizens of the United States can help bring awareness to child trafficking by teaching young women of this issue. As stated by the article â€Å"Child Labor-Killing the Age of Innocence,† â€Å"Thus, one should be careful when saying that the future of the country lies in the hands of children, for the very hands holding the key to growth are clamped down in the innocence phase† (â€Å"Child Labor-Killing the Age of Innocence† 2)

Analysis of Abbey Tomb, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and To Aut

Analysis of Abbey Tomb, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and To Autumn ‘By using the first or second person – a poet creates a sense of direct dialogue with the reader.’ What is your response to this view? By the use of the first or second person a poet can establish a connection between the character and the reader because the poet can address the reader directly. The poems I have chosen to study are ‘Abbey Tomb’ by Patricia Beer, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by T.S. Elliot and ‘To Autumn’ by John Keats. Beer’s use of the first person in ‘Abbey Tomb’ creates the sense that the monk is confiding in the reader. In addition the link between reader and the Beer’s character is enhanced because the monk is talking through time, which makes the reader feel involved because the monk is intrusting the reader with his grievance that has lasted beyond the grave. ‘I told them not to ring the bells†¦their tombs look just as right as mine,’ it could be seen here that the monk is trying to get the final word to the reader as time has worn away the truth and there is no one alive who knows he was right. This also implies his frustration that the other monks did not listen to him because his complain is made directly to the reader. With the use of the first person Beer is able to create what resembles a first hand account of the incident, which is being retold to the reader. ‘We stood still†¦staring at the door,’ the monks were waiting for the Vikings. ‘We heard them passing by†¦only I could catch the sound of prowling men†¦everybody else agreed to ring the bells,’ the monks then think the Vikings had left and decided to ring the bells; again we see that the monk is trying to prove he was right by em... ...logue with the reader, even though the poem is written in the second person because is addressed to Autumn, as proclaimed in the title of the poem. Keats makes no reference to the audience throughout the poem, but personifies Autumn ‘sitting careless,’ ‘thy hair soft-lifted†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and ‘by a cider-press, with patient look, thou watchest.’ Therefore this demonstrates that a poem can be written in the second person and contain no sense of a direct dialogue with the reader. I believe that the statement is too specific; some poems in the first or second person, like ‘Abbey Tomb,’ are purely expressed to the reader because the use of ‘I’ can create the sense of a conversation. On the other hand, in ‘the love song of J.Alfred Prufrock’ and more directly in ‘To Autumn,’ another character is addressed beside the reader which weakens the sense of a direct dialogue.

National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal Essay

The life, works and writings of Dr. Jose Rizal is the most worthy to honor him our foremost National Hero and he was acknowledged to be â€Å"The Greatest Malayan†. Today, we enjoy more freedoms and material advantages, all thanks to the revolutionary heroes like Rizal, who led them all in the nobility of his character and life, the applications of his talents, and utmost sacrifice of his life. In an act of political martyrdom which he faced with serenity and dignity that converted even some of his enemies to his cause, Rizal destroyed the moral authority of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines. Besides, Rizal in his many travels abroad, they have come to appreciate our nation more. It is really difficult to compare heroes. But, even using different yardstick, like who was the one that succeeded in fighting for our freedom, then we shall have to admit that Andres Bonifacio failed against the stronger armies of Spanish and America, respectively. Now, as for Rizal, who used the pen (a weapon mightier than the sword), he waged a non-violent crusade and suffered political martyrdom. Now and then we come across some Filipinos who venture the opinion that Andres Bonifacio and not Jose Rizal, deserves to be acknowledged as our first National Hero. but, as far as what we know Rizal never held a gun, a rifle or a sword in fighting for the liberty of our country in the battlefield. His consuming life purposes was the secret of his moral courage, physical courage, was one of his inherited. But the high courage to die loving his murderers, which he at last achieved that cannot be inherited. By his writings of his Novel (NOLI ME TANGERE) which awakened Filipino nationalism and paved the way for the Philippine Revolution, he proved that the pen is mightier than the sword, and because in this writer’s humble opinion, no Filipino has yet been born who could equal or surpass Rizal. Lastly, the most admirable was his complete self-denial, his complete abandonment of his personal interest in order to think only of those of his country. Prepared by: Crestian D. Ras REACTION PAPER Income Taxation Taxation is a system by which a government takes money from people and spends it on things such as education, health, infrastructure, agriculture, and defense. Taxes are the lifeblood of the government. It is therefore necessary that they collected on time to defray the government expenses. It is a compulsory obligation by any individual who are resident on a particular community conducting such obligation. In terms of the distribution of taxes, and of the amount contributed by a taxpayer, the government imposed normal tax rate on individual taxpayer depending on its income. Besides, the government gives personal and additional exemptions to the taxpayer in order to reduce its contribution in taxes. For instance, the head of the family was given a privilege to deduct 50 000.00 pesos from its compensation as his personal exemption and with a minimum of four children as his additional exemption with the amount of 25 000.00 pesos each. In addition, it is important to file on time or in advance rather than to be delay in order to avoid surcharges, interest and other penalties. And it is to be noted that the late filling and payment is considered as one violation as long as the filling and paying to wrong Revenue District Office is another violation.