Essays (550 words) - Copper Sun, , Term Papers

Copper Sun Do you think only certain individuals are given strength and strong spirit to survive the challenges of life? I believe that only certain individuals are given the strength to survive. In the book Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper, this strength is only shown within certain individuals. For instance, a young teenager who must quickly become a woman has to lead a group of runaways to freedom. A four year old struggles to stay alive as a alligator has him in his sights. Another teen like Amari gives up because her family was killed. This shows that only certain people are given the will to survive. Some people are born with the confidence and strength to live, but some some have to seek out that strength. It depends on what your parents taught you and if you have the will, But some may never find that will. One reason I believe this statement is when a young woman watched her friends and family being killed and tortured,and then decided to give up. She said "I cannot live like this Amari. My parents, my sister, all whom I love, are all dead. I would rather die than be enslaved like this" (Draper 19). This again, shows that only certain individuals are born with that strong will. Another example of the certain individuals given strength is when a 4 year old boy is thrown into a river as gator bait. The boy is thrown in and the current is very strong for him. The gator sees the boy and is closing in on him. The group of men were laughing and making fun of him. So why should the little boy try to stay alive? "Now, would you look at that, the tallest one called out, pointing to tidbit struggling in the water. The little boy can swim" (Draper 159). This boys desire to live shows that he was given the strength to survive. One specific girl with a strong spirit and strengths lead a indentured white girl, a 4 year old slave boy, and a dog along the coast of the Carolinas'. This strong girl is Amari. She was only fifteen years old when her village was destroyed. Her mother, father, and little brother also along with her friends and community, her home. How could she still live with everything she loved snatched right out of her hands? Amari this is possible because she is a strong girl with alot of hope. She lead the three runners to what they are not sure even exists But her strength gave her the motivation to keep going. Darren 2 These are the reasons why I believe that only certain individuals are given the will to survive. Do you have that strength to survive? As you can see, it depends on your strength and spirit to stay alive. A four year old enslaved boy struggles to stay alive, as an alligator approaches him. Amari watched a close friend, just give up, because she lost her family. Amari showed that she was born to be a leader. weather you have this mental and physical strength or not will determine how your life goes or how it might end up.

The Texas Revolution essay

The Texas Revolution essay The Texas Revolution essay The Texas Revolution essayHistorically, the territory of contemporary Texas once used to belong to Mexico, however, as soon as the proportion in population changed towards the dominance of the American frontiersmen by the middle of 1830’s, and by that time, their rights were no longer respected properly by the conservative Mexican authorities, the emergence of the national liberation movement was inevitable. At the same time, one of the questions history doesn’t have yet a complete answer to, is how exactly the revolutionary forces that were several times weaker than the Mexican army could eventually win the war of independence. In this paper, the author claims that the reasons for that go far beyond military tactics applied by the Texans on the final stages, in particular after the loss in the Battle of the Alamo, but, not least of all, consist in the underlying social and political miscounts of the Mexican government.IntroductionIn the early 19th century, Texas was pa rt of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, a sparsely populated territory that was intensively developed by American slave-owning planters. However, in the course of its development and growing significance, the region became less tolerant of Mexican government initiatives, which by the 1830’s led a policy oppressing the rights and freedoms of migrants. As a result of separatist sentiment, Texas independence war began in October 1835 and ended in victory for the Texans over the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto April 21, 1836, despite the fact that the parties’ forces were not equal throughout the course of the revolution (Hardin, 57-59). Thus, at some stages, the Mexican army exceeded the Texas guerrillas’ army by 5-6 times, and the rout of the Texans at the Battle of the Alamo was expected to break the resistance. Despite this, the strengthening of dictatorship of the Mexican government, the growth of Santa Anna’s army brutality, and major mis counts in social policies had the opposite effect, contributed to increase in Texas protest moods as well as made the national liberation movement resistible and mighty to counteract the Mexican army to the level the latter was not prepared for (Johnson, 46).The course of the Texas War of IndependencePrehistorySince its independence in 1821, Mexico received a legacy of vast areas in the north with a very low population density, and the country faced the problem of their colonization and protection of the new boundaries. Thus, in 1825 the state legislature of Coahuila and Texas passed a law which enabled the settlers from the United States to obtain land plots at low cost with payments to be made in installments, as well as tax exemption for ten years. Number of colonists increased rapidly, and by the mid 1830’s more than 30,000 Americans lived in Texas, whereas the actual Mexican population counted 7,800 people (Lack, 24-25).However, in 1829 during presidency of Vicente Guerr ero in Mexico a law was passed abolishing slavery of blacks, which was common among American settlers. Furthermore, in 1834, through a military coup President-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna established the dictatorship. According to historian Alan Huffines, Santa Anna deliberately carried out several liberal reforms and supported the idea of federalism to win the supporters and come to power. However, having seized power, Santa Anna dismissed Federalist Vice President, disbanded Republican Congress and the state legislature, dismissed all the members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Mexico, and overturned the liberal constitution of 1824 allowing Mexico’s states to settle internal governing issues individually (Huffines, 34-36). In particular, the local legislative council in Monclova was disbanded leaving the Texans without their government representatives and without their own local government which was also disbanded. In addition, under the new laws, the English-speakin g population of Texas had to pay higher taxes than the Mexicans; the government ran the policy of expulsion of immigrants and attempted to take planters’ lands.Fearing protests in Texas, Santa Anna also adopted a decree on disarmament of the population of Texas despite the constant threat of Indian and bandits attacks in the region. Texans made numerous attempts to negotiate with the dictator peacefully, but Santa Anna interpreted any proposal by the Texans as an attempt to revolt, the ambassadors were thrown to prison and Santa Anna’s placemen in the region increased the pressure on the population suppressing any discontent by force of arms (Manchaca, 35-38). Such a situation could not last long, and the outbreak of revolutionary moods was now inevitable. According Huffines, Mexicans did not consider the specifics of the formation of the American nation differing a lot from theirs. Thrust in achieving the goal, Americans are used to cope with difficulties that confron t them. It is possible that the Mexicans simply were not able to timely assume that if all these enterprising and courageous people turned against them, it would have been extremely difficult to cope with them (Huffines, 41-42). In 1835 the Texans having lost hope for the return of the liberal constitution, rose to fight for Texas independence, despite the obvious disparity and lack of a professional army.Measuring military forcesEarly stages. Clash of 150 Texans under the command of John Henry Moore with a detachment of Mexican cavalry (100 people) near the town of Gonzales October 2, 1835 is considered the official start of the war for Texas independence. Initially, the Texans did not have a regular army, their guerrilla squads consisted exclusively of volunteers. Despite this, they have successfully and consistently established control over a number of cities. For example, 90 Texans under the command of Stephen Austin won October 28, 1835 at the Battle of Concepcion over 450 Mexi cans (300 dragoons, 100 infantry, 2 cannons), with only one Texan killed, while the Mexicans lost for various data, 14-76 people killed. October 9 Texans captured a small town of Goliad, where December 10 the declaration of independence of Texas was proclaimed (Robinson, 87-88).One of the reasons for early wins of Texan rebels was the use of hunting rifles that fired at distant targets much more efficient than outdated Mexican muskets Brown Bess. In addition, the siege tactics they used was effective as well. In particular, October 12 Steve Austin’s squad (about 600 Texans) besieged Mexican town of San Antonio de Bexar that was defended by 1200 soldiers of the Mexican army under the command of Kos (Procter, 51-55). December 11 Mexican garrison suffering from a lack of provisions surrendered; Mexican artillery (19 cannons) and Texans got big part of handguns. Later, Jameson noted that with this artillery Texans could defend against the forces ten times superior.However, after the insurgent army expelled all Mexican troops from Texas, many Texas settlers deserted from the Texas army as they were not ready for a long campaign. Since the battle at Bexar the Texas army got a lot of newcomers who recently arrived in the region, primarily adventurers from the United States, to help the colonists gain independence. These volunteers were formed into two regiments of regular Texas army. According to historian Alwyn Barr, their presence pushed Mexicans to the conclusion that the Texan resistance was fueled by outside forces. Angered by the thought of the American intervention in Mexican affairs, Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna personally led a new invasion trying to regain control of the area. It is worth noting that due to the hasty preparations the invasion force, called the Army of Operations, initially consisted primarily of inexperienced recruits, conscripts and convicts. As a result, the Mexican troops had reached the number of 6,000. At the sa me time, Santa Anna ordered the Mexican Congress to authorize the army to handle any foreigners fighting in Texas as bandits, i.e. they were subjected to immediate execution. That moment made a turning point in the war marked by extreme brutality of the Mexican army (Barr, 34-36).The Texas Revolution essay part 2

Report on oncology nursing career Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Report on oncology nursing career - Essay Example Oncology Nursing Oncology nursing involves the task of conducting research on cancer, taking care of cancer patients directly and performing administrative functions to treat cancer incidents. Thus, an oncology nurse is responsible for providing care and supervising cancer patients whom are chronically or critically ill (Williamson, 2008). Furthermore, an oncology nurse is expected to monitor the physical condition of the cancer patients, formulate strategies to manage the symptoms and give medical prescription. Consequently, owing to the critical roles the oncology nurses are expected to conduct to protect and treat chronically ill cancer patients form deaths, they should possess intensive qualifications. Indeed, for an individual to be become an oncology nurse, the individual should undergo a comprehensive training on psychological and physiological needs of cancer patients. This involves understanding the prevention and detection of cancer, diagnosis and treatment, survivorship, e nd-of- life care and rehabilitation of cancer patients (ONS, 2007). Thus, the oncology nurses are prepared through the educational system with the knowledge of providing primary, sensitive and painkilling care to cancer patients by applying genomics and genetics knowledge. This is done through educational program that gives the students teachings on advanced pharmacology, physical assessment and pathophysiology (Williamson, 2008). Consequently, upon graduation the oncology graduates gain additional skills, knowledge and abilities during their practice experience which may not be provided during the entry educational competency qualifications. Owing to this high demands for one to admitted in the oncology nursing profession, the remunerations have been relatively growing over the last couple of years and second after the medical and surgical nursing (Williams & Wilkins, 2011). Indeed, latest empirical findings have shown that the salary increment over the last five years between 2006 and 2011 surpassed the inflation change in the same period. The salaries increased by a rate of 22% between 2006 and 2007 while inflation increased by 11% in the same period (Williams & Wilkins, 2011). This depicts that the salary of oncology nurses have been fairly increasing since they are able to compensate for the hiking change of money value in the market. Another aspect that is witnessed in the salary reward of the oncology nurses is that they face differential remunerations according to their level of study, specialisation or healthcare organization they serve. Indeed, on average the nurses earn a salary of $60,000 per annum. However, depending on the number of years the nurses has spent in their current position, the rate of reward increases. This is also, replicated in rewarding the nurses according to their job title. Furthermore, if an oncology nurse is a registered member of a given union, they earn more than those not registered. Similarly, oncology nurses working in r ecognized Magnet facilities enjoy higher pays than those in Non-Magnet facilities. This is also, witnessed in private hospitals, community hospitals, university hospitals and military hospitals where the salaries differs in an increasing rate respectively. Moreover, an oncology nurse whom has higher level of education enjoys a higher reward compared to other. This is also, applied by segmenting the rate of rewarding the nur

Achievement Motive Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Achievement Motive - Essay Example With the specific focus on whether or not knowledge of achievement motive would be of any value to expatriate managers in Madruga’s Singapore subsidiary, the report will argue that even though it is of value, the said value can only be realized if pre-existing achievement motive knowledge is adjusting to correspond with the culture in question. Worker motivation can be either internal, brought about by the personal interactions with his own set of beliefs about what will satisfy his needs, or external, brought about by interactions with one's environment. Motivation can result from something as complex and volatile as how a person's attitudes were formed in the womb and in the crib, to how a supervisor uses language and the meanings of words in describing tasks and providing feedback (Sullivan, 1988). In reality, it appears that the dynamics that move a worker toward particular activities come from a constant interaction between both internal stimuli and external stimuli. Concurring, Vroom (1964) indicates that managers must understand the principles of motivation, and, in fact, must create the right kind of motivational environment, in order to ensure that employee activities result in preferred organizational outcomes. This fits very well with Maslow's suggestion (1954) that in order to determine human needs and identity, it is necessary to set up special conditions that foster expression of these needs and capacities. Issac, Zerbe, and Pitt (2001) agree, suggesting that organizational leaders must determine their follower's interests, aspirations, and goals of both a short and long-term nature and creativity frame the organizational vision in such a way that the follower perceives congruency between personal and organizational ends. Gellerman (1963) goes so far as to describe managements "great task" as shaping the environment into a stimulus instead of a suppressor.  

Reflective Personal Leadership Development Plan Assignment

Reflective Personal Leadership Development Plan - Assignment Example From the report it is clear that transformational leaders are exceptional in the fact that they possess a positive and optimistic general outlook and still understand about others’ needs. Such leaders have open communication that lays a platform for his followers to be aware of situations as well as understand the company happenings. More so, transformational leaders are capable of managing conflict and promoting team cohesion, which in turn improve team performance through teamwork. As the study declares the qualities the author posses as a leader are not enough to bring the needed impact and the author needs to capitalize my strength in order to fit the top range. In order to achieve this, the author will need to add up more in social sensitivity and charisma because the author believes that these two missing aspects are magical and the driving force behiand effective leadership. Social sensitivity encompasses vision, and when the author combines vision with charisma; the author will be in a position to transform the organization. More so, charisma will help me manage my high temper because in the first place, it will grant me a great emotional appeal and I will be in a position to connect with the feelings and the values of my followers. More so charisma will offer me a chance to understand the social environment hence cultivating for my vision. The gap between what the author is and what he would like to be is nothing but improvement on my weakest points. ... Prior to being angry, I am an exceptional kind of person because I possess numerous leadership strengths that include patience, understanding, and competence and above all, I am visionary and focused (Gallos, 2008). What I will do to capitalize on your strengths and modify your weaknesses In growing modern organizations, the qualities I posses as a leader are not enough to bring the needed impact and I need to capitalize my strength in order to fit the top range. In order to achieve this, I will need to add up more in social sensitivity and charisma because I believe that these two missing aspects are magical and the driving force behind effective leadership. Social sensitivity encompasses vision, and when I combine vision with charisma; I will be in a position to transform the organization. More so, charisma will help me manage my high temper because in the first place, it will grant me a great emotional appeal and I will be in a position to connect with the feelings and the values of my followers (Avolio & Yammarino, 2002). More so charisma will offer me a chance to understand the social environment hence cultivating for my vision. Gaps between the leader I am now and the leader I would like to become The gap between what I am and what I would like to be is nothing but improvement on my weakest points. Currently, I have succeeded in inspiring my followers and motivating them into being a better work force. I have also laid out plans to empower them more despite that the plans have not yet undergone implementation. Though I have interacted well with my followers, and laid plans to motivate them better, the relationship between us is a weak one (Avolio & Yammarino, 2002). My followers are unable

How small firms differ from large businesses

How small firms differ from large businesses Penrose (1959) stated that small and large firms are as fundamentally different from each other as a caterpillar is from a butterfly; they identify those characteristics of the small firm, other than size, which distinguish it from the larger enterprise. Thus, while creating, establishing and running a small business, these characteristics will influence the small business owners approaches and management style compared to large ones. Wynarczyk et al (1993) argue that there are three central respects in which small firms are different to large firms: Uncertainty The first key area of differences is uncertainty. With regard to uncertainty, three dimensions have been identified: The first uncertainty is the lack of market power, Thus, when creating and establishing a small business, the owner should have a clearer approach of the lack of market power as an external uncertainty. This associates small businesses as the price-taker as they have no power to set prices, as the threats of new entrants is high. However, it can be argued that it depends on what type of small businesses does the owner want to create, establish and run. For instance, focusing on niche markets with good customer-engagement approach, such as a small holiday agency, will make small businesses to have an influence in setting their prices. Hence, small businesses have to seek to compete in other ways such as service, quality, and timeliness. In contrast, large businesses are the price-maker due to high market power; this has to be used carefully to avoid attracting the attention of competition authorities. So, market prices are strongly influenced by large businesses that, through scale economies, should be able to set low prices. The marketing approach would be to use an integrated communication mix such as, mass advertising and PR, as their financial resources allow them to do so. Thus, the competitive focus of small and large businesses is likely to differ sharply. The second source of uncertainty for small firms is their limited customer and product base. A classic example is where small firms simply act as subcontractors to larger firms. Such firms are open to subcontractor vulnerability (Lyons and Bailey, 1993), which is created not only by dependence on dominant customers, but also upon the extent to which output is specialised to particular customers. The smaller firm clearly perceives to be more vulnerable than the larger firm and acts accordingly (Lyons and Bailey, 1993). The third uncertainty relates to the much greater diversity of objectives of the owners of small firms, compared with large firms. Many small business owners seek only to obtain a minimum level of income rather than maximising sales or profits (Storey 1994). Small business owners do not have to concern themselves with reporting their actions to external shareholders and so performance monitoring effectively do not exist. For a small firm, the relationship between the business and the owner is very much closer than it is between the shareholder and the large firm, and so the motivation of the owner of the small firm is a key influence upon the small firm performance (Storey, 1994). Large firm emphasises the importance of control. The central issue is how the owners of the business ensure that the managers of the business act in their interest, and how senior managers exert control over more junior managers. This form of internal conflict is largely absent in small firms (Storey, 1994) where ownership and control are located in the hands of a few people or even a single individual, thus, while running a small business, the owner will adopt a more dynamic and organic management style. In contrast, large businesses are more likely to suffer from internal uncertainty, defined by Curran and Blackburn (2001), as an inability to deliver a product or service consistently throughout the organisation. Much managerial time in large businesses is devoted to address this issue with therefore formality and procedures implemented. Hence, the large businesses tend to have a bureaucratic management style with formal control over performance. Innovation A second key area of difference between small and large firms is their approach to innovation. The role small firms play in innovation relates to their niche role where: it is the ability of the small firm to provide something marginally different, in terms of product or service, which distinguishes it from the more standardised product or service provided by the larger firm (Storey, 1994: 11-12). Small firms are more likely to introduce fundamentally new innovations than larger firms, a feature often attributed to small firms having less commitment to existing practices and products (Pavitt et al. 1987). However, Schumpeter (1934) has provided empirical evidence that large businesses use static measures, and are more innovative than smaller businesses. This is because most small businesses do not set out to be innovative: at best, their key innovation is just to enter a given market. Furthermore, Van Praag and Versloot (2007) stated that small businesses are likely to commercialise innovations but less likely to adopt innovations. However, large businesses innovation capitalise on heavy expenditure on formal research and development. While most small businesses do not innovate, and many fewer undertake formal research and development, those that do are able to bring ideas to the marketplace quickly if they are able to access suitable funding. Evolution The third area of difference between small and large firms is the greater likelihood of evolution and change in the smaller firm (Storey, 1994). Small firms that become larger undergo a number of stage changes which influence the approaches and style of management as well as the structure of the organisation (Scott and Bruce, 1987) than is the case for larger firms (Storey, 1994). Thus, creating, establishing and running a new small business has different approaches, management styles and skills learn through experience, at different stages of the small business development. Churchill and Lewis (1983) summarised the Five Stages of Small Business Growth stating that small businesses have varied management styles and approaches according to the stage the small business is in. For example, being at the existence stage (creating and establishing), the owner has direct supervision management style; his major strategy approach would be to stay alive, thus, there would be no formal systems to follow. Figure : source http://www.tameer.org.pk/images/The_Five_Stages_Of_Small_Business_Growth.pdf [accessed on 17/11/2010] However, not all small businesses grow; some of them fail to survive due to the lack of environmental scanning; finance or planning. Moreover, Hakim (1989), in her survey of approximately 750,000 UK businesses, 55 per cent had no plans for growth, at a time when the economy was growing. The finding was clearly influenced by business size, with 60 per cent of businesses with fewer than 3 workers having no growth aspirations, compared with only 2 per cent of those with 25-49 employees. Hence, the smaller the operational size of the business the less likely it is to seek to increase its scale or growth. Skills Required to Create, Establish and Run a Small Business A skill is simply a knowledge which is demonstrated by action. It is an ability to perform in a certain way. The Five-Must Skills Requires when creating; establishing and running the Small Business Planning skills Personal skills and characteristics Sales and marketing skills Accounting and financial skills Administrative skills These are the basic skills necessary to enable the small business owner to start, develop, finance, and market his small business. Apart from all these skills mentioned, other important skills are needed to run a business mainly: leadership skills; human skills; conceptual skills and technical skills. Planning skills Creating a new business is the pre-start-up phase where planning skills are very important. While creating the business, an appropriate business plan is required which explain the business concept and model (Justin et al 2002). The business plan will require the owner or shareholder to have an organisation-wide approach skill as it consists of the business model, financial, marketing and operational management plan. The approaches towards the business plan in small and large businesses differ. According to (Bridge et al. 1998), the preparation of business plan may be unsuitable for small businesses due to the dynamic changes in the environment. Small business has a more tactical approach to planning as they concentrate on the survival and stability strategy at the creating and establishing stage and an emergent strategy at the running stage In addition, Paul D. Hannon and Andrew Atherton (1997) developed a model of planning in the journal of small firm success and show that there is a critical relationship between planning in small business and strategic awareness capability which lead to the small business success known as the successful orienteer. Nevertheless, this is not always the case for small business owner to be a successful orienteer due to the internal and external factors affecting them. However, in large businesses, they have a strategic (long term vision) approach as regard to their business plan. They emphasised the corporate level of strategy (Philip S, 2003) which aim for the stability and growth. The corporate strategy seek to grow the business by implementing long term marketing strategies (the Ansoff Matrix) and also to achieve higher profitability, sales revenue and to have better competitive advantages over its rivals. Figure : Ansoff Matrix (2007 When creating; establishing and running a small business time management skills are also essential. The small owner should be able to create a work life balance. Small business owner may spend too much time at work. Moreover, their main motivation is their income to satisfy their family needs, thus, they should make effective decisions to balance their business life with their personal life. Figure : The business/Personal overlap In contrast, large businesses have an effective time management skills, due to formal procedures of meeting deadlines and being compliance with legal proceedings. Personal skills In the early stages of business development, the personal characteristics and skills of the small business owner will influence the management style of the business. Thus, the individual attributes influence the skills of the owner which shapes the leadership outcomes. General cognitive ability Motivation Personality Individual attributes Problem solving skills Social judgement skills Knowledge Competencies Leadership outcomes Effective problem solving Performance Table : the three components of the skills model pg. 41 According to Lundberg (1985), the personal skills and characteristics such as problem-solver, determination, self-discipline, analytical skills, good judgement of characters and so on, motivate the small business owner to create and establish and also run his business successfully, and as Birley (1996) mentioned à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.The owner perceives the business as an extension of his or her personality, intricately bound with family needs and desires. However, many small businesses fail compare to large businesses because they run their business as an extension of their personality. For example, if the small business owner is introvert, quite assertive, make his own decision rather than consulting subordinates or explore the external environment, he/she is more prone to adopt the closed and indirect management style rather than open and direct management style (David A 1993) which may result in failure. The self-motivating skills and aspirations of small business owners are also different from those who operate large businesses. Miner (1997) concluded that small business owners are motivated by their performance, independence, status and family needs. Gray (2002); Hart and Oulton (1996), some are lifestyle owners of small businesses whose object is primarily to obtain a comfortable living for themselves, it may be a hobby that generate incomes or to pass on their business to family members. In contrast, a minority may wish to grow their business rapidly. However, owners or shareholders of large businesses seek to maximise the value of the company. The task management is to achieve this maximisation of shareholders value by seeking profit maximisation and continuous growth and expansion. In addition, the management style will be mostly influenced by the organisational culture, which consists of six elements according to Johnson and Scholes (1992). Figure : Johnson Cultural Web (1992) Networking skills including interpersonal skills are also important. Networks can be defined as: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a firms set of relationships with other organisations (Perez and Sanchez 2002:261). In essence, what Birley (2002) suggests is that individuals use their networks to gain legitimation and resources for their established business. Without the benefit of such support, the implication is that many new established (start-up) businesses would be stillborn. The social network approach differ from the way small businesses use it compared to large ones in order to support the development of their business. Small businesses uses the support of its family, limited customers base and other owners of small businesses to develop the establish organisation whereas, large businesses use a pool of social network (stakeholders). Thus, Birley states the credibility is lower in small businesses, than in large businesses due to the lack of market power and sources of funds to satisfy the suppliers and customers. Figure : The credibility cycle (Sue Birley and David Norburn, 1976) Sales and Marketing skills The business should create awareness of his product or service and distinguish them from their competitors by effective marketing skills. The business then needs to be able to convert interest into cash! This is where sales, oral communication, negotiation skills and interpersonal skills come in. Thus, the small business owner should rely on their effective sales and marketing skills to maintain and acquire good customer relationship. For example, identify the sales opportunity, be confident to handle objection and negotiate to reach win-win situation (Fred E, 1987). In large business, lot of finances are put towards sales and marketing. In addition, specialist sales and marketing manager, with high competence, expertise and knowledge, are those who deal with different sales and marketing techniques to be implemented in order to have good customer relationship and expand their product/market portfolio. Besides, in large businesses, brand positioning plays a big role in their marketing strategy. Shocker et al. (1994) and Hatten and Schendel (1977) reveals that in large businesses, brand can be a positive factor influencing sales. It provides the customer with the awareness leading to confidence and ultimately loyalty. They also showed that small businesses such as hairdresser; pubs, corner shops etc., have no brand value, apart from some local loyalty. Thus, protecting a positive brand image is vital for large businesses. Accounting and Financial skills When creating, establishing and running a small business, the most important skill that the owner should possess is the financial skill. To implement the business idea, source of finance is required to start-up and run the establishment. Financial skills include: planning annual budget; cash flow forecast, effective management of the cash cycle; avoid overtrading and the profit and loss account should be analysed. In small businesses the owner has hands-on skills, thus, such financial skills are needed to survive and remain in existence. However, large businesses are in better advantage as they not only have specialist financial analysts to analyse their accounts and prepare their budgets, but the banks and building societies also help them. In addition, Ang (1991), conducted empirical evidence and stated that small businesses are funded primarily from the owners savings and retained profits and the use of external equity is rare. Small businesses pay higher interest rates on borrowed funds than large businesses, which have a wide choice of sources of finance. Thus, the small businesses faces lots of financial difficulties as mentioned in the figure below. Figure : The Financial Skills face by Small Business Owners by Jonathan Tucker and Jonathan Lean -2003 Administrative skills Administrative skills include a wide range of organisational and technical skills from planning, organising, scheduling and to staffing. Thus, a small business owner should possess administrative skills, such as good filing procedure for the billings, invoices and so. In contrast, large businesses normally have the finance to invest in latest technology in order to manage their administrative skills. Key Differences in Running Small businesses and Large Businesses: Skills; Approaches and Management style The management styles are distinctive ways of making decisions and relating to subordinates. Different management styles can be used dependent on the culture of the business, the nature of the task, the nature of the workforce and the personality and skills of the owners or leaders. As discussed in the essay, the small business owners skills are more or less the same as the entrepreneurial skills, they adopt an adaptive and organic management style whereas large businesses ownership skills are more predictive and mechanist which relate to their autocratic management style. Figure : Differences between the small business management skills and management style compared to large ones (Beaven and Jenning- 1995) However, stating that large businesses have a more autocratic management style due to its bureaucratic organisational structure, is too generalised, ignoring the fact that the management styles and the relative importance of the skills (technical; decision-making and interpersonal skills) varies within the level of management. Management level Primary Management Skills needed Primary Management Functions Performed Management or leadership styles Top Decision-Making and Interpersonal skills Planning and Organising Participative leadership style Middle Balance of Interpersonal; Technical; and Decision-Making skills Balance of all five functions (Planning; Organising; Controlling; staffing and Leading) Balance of autocratic; democratic and paternalistic as result to circumstances First-Line Technical and Interpersonal Skills leading and controlling Balance of democratic and autocratic as result to circumstances Table : Skill needed; Function performed and Management styles used at different management levels. Source: lassier (2002) In addition, the culture prevails in the organisation will shape the organisational structure. Nowadays, many large businesses, such as BQ are concentrating in developing a flat structure, with more flexibility. Besides, approaches and management styles changes according to circumstances and objectives. Skills can quickly become obsolete if owners or shareholders are not constantly updating them. Thus, training and development and knowledge management of the owners and employees are very crucial. In small businesses, owners management style will be influenced by their skills and characteristics, thus, stating that due to informal control and undifferentiated roles, the small businesses have an organic or flatter structure due to fewer tiers is not always the case. Some small businesses fail as some owners are autocratic as they want things to be done their way and are often the one who makes decisions without consulting the employees and analysing the external environment. The table below will provide evidences of the key differences between small and large businesses as regard to the running of the business which will influence the owners skills, approaches and management style. Aspect (Evidence) Small Business Large Business What difference does it make? Strategy (Man et al. 2002; Rangone 1999) Has to be flexible since it lacks the opportunity to reap scale economies. So, more likely to develop an emergent strategy The large business will seek to exploit its price advantages, and advantage obtained by heavy investment in people, fixed assets or research and development The development of new markets and particular new industries has often been pioneered by smaller businesses. Once, those industries have become established, average business size increases because economies of scale become important Political influence (Dannreuther 1999) The individual small business, acting alone, will have minimal impact on government. Large businesses are widely consulted by governments, even at the early stage when legislation is considered. Large businesses have considerable power and can influence the formulation of government policy. If legislation. However, large businesses argue that, whilst they comply fully with legislation, smaller businesses can avoid enforcement by avoiding the scrutiny of government. Wages and benefits for workers (Brown et al. 1990; Troske, 1999) Small businesses generally pay lower wages and provide fewer fringe benefits Larger businesses pay higher wages and provide more fringe benefits Large and small businesses hire different types of worker. The small business worker is more likely to be either old or young, attracted by a team ethnic and less likely to have formal qualifications. Human resources (Vickers et al. 2005; Forth et al. 2006) At their best, small businesses provide a happy environment in which to work. At, their worst, they can be unsafe, exploitative, working environments. Large businesses are more likely to attract prime age workers, with formal qualifications, and those seeking a career. Overall, job satisfaction appears to be higher in small than in large businesses. Large business workers are likely to receive a higher remuneration package but small business workers may derive greater satisfaction from flexibility and sense of teamwork. Training and Recruitment (Carroll et al. 1999; Storey 2005) Small businesses provide less training and recruit new staff through informal channels. Large businesses are much more likely to provide formal training and use formal channels to recruit new staff. Small businesses, because they emphasise the use of informal procedures, are viewed by some as backward. But this is to misunderstand the motivations and constraints of small business owners. What is less clear is whether small businesses provide more informal training than large ones. Competitive advantages (Jennings and Breaver 1997) Flexible, responsive to the customer. Able to undertake investment and provide a more comprehensive service. Large businesses can reap scale economies, so they are more likely to be able to compete on price. They are also able to supply a wider range of liked services, avoiding the need for customers to have to shop around. Table : The key differences between small and large businesses; Source: Storey and Greene (2010) Conclusion Thus, creating, establishing and running a small business does require some of the skills as operating large ones, but the approaches and management styles will be different to large and small businesses due to their differences in characteristics and the different factors affecting them internally and externally. Besides, the small business owners do have different goals, plan, skills and approaches. For example, a small business owner has undifferentiated roles, thus need to have a hand-on skills to promote diversity and flexibility. However, it was also mentioned that skills and management style varies upon the levels of management and also people are different individuals who use different management styles according to the circumstances and objectives. The key advantage of the small business is that while the external uncertainty they experienced are greater than large businesses, they experienced less internal uncertainties due to their close control over the business. In addition, small businesses see themselves as customer focused, placing emphasis on service. However, generalisation is untrue: that all small businesses have lack of market power and do not grow. For example, the crematorium, a small business was able to exert real market power over a competitor. We should not forget as well that skills; approaches and management style of small businesses would be different to large businesses because small businesses tend to be higher in the risk of failure. The main reasons are normally lack of contingency plans, poor risk assessment done and lack of leadership style. This is why small businesses concentrate on cash rather than profit (Birley, 1992).

Accounting :: Accounting Finances Money Essays

Accounting On September 28, 1998, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Arthur Levitt sounded the call to arms in the financial community. Levitt asked for, "immediate and coordinated action†¦ to assure credibility and transparency" of financial reporting. Levitt’s speech emphasized the importance of clear financial reporting to those gathered at New York University. Reporting which has bowed to the pressures and tricks of earnings management. Levitt specifically addresses five of the most popular tricks used by firms to smooth earnings. Secondly, Levitt outlines an eight part action plan to recover the integrity of financial reporting in the U.S. market place. What are the basic objectives of financial reporting? Generally accepted accounting principles provide information that identifies, measures, and communicates financial information about economic entities to reasonably knowledgeable users. Information that is a source of decision making for a wide array of users, most importantly, by investors and creditors. Investors and creditors who are responsible for effective allocation of capital in our economy. If financial reporting becomes obscure and indecipherable, society loses the benefits of effective capital allocation. Nothing illustrates the importance of transparent information better than the pre-1930’s era of anything goes accounting. An era that left a chasm of misinformation in the market. A chasm that was a contributing factor to the market collapse of 1929 and the years of economic depression. An entire society suffered the repercussions of misinformation. Families, and retirees depend on the credibility of financial reporting for their futures and livelihoods. Levitt describes financial reporting as, a bond between the company and the investor which if damaged can have disastrous, long-lasting consequences. Once again, the bond is being tested. Tested by a financial community fixated on consensus earnings estimates. Th e pressure to achieve consensus estimates has never been so intense. The market demands consistency and punishes those who come up short. Eric Benhamou, former CEO of 3COM Corporation, learned this hard lesson over a few short weeks in 1996. Benhamou and shareholders lost $7 billion in market value when 3COM failed to achieve expectations. The pressures are a tangled web of expectations, and conflicts of interest which Levitt describes as "almost self-perpetuating." With pressures mounting, the answer from U.S. managers has been earnings management with a mix of managed expectations. March of 1997 Fortune magazine reported that for an unprecedented sixteen consecutive quarters, more S&P 500 companies have beat the consensus earnings estimate than missed them.

Business Applications quiz

The Dutton turns open windows transparent to reveal the desktop, letting you B) Show desktop C) peek D) Display desktop 5. To turn off the computer, you would open the Start menu, then click the on the right bottom of the menu. A) hibernate B) Turn off C) stop D) Shut down 6. Button A bar that appears on the right side of the menu when all items are not visible on the menu list is the B) Jump bar C) roll bar D) scroll bar 7. . A) scan bar When you have multiple windows open, you can minimize all but the active window by . A) dragging the title bar to the top of the windowB) using Rare Flip D C) using Shake D) closing all windows except the active window 8. A Windows 7 feature that allows you to capture screen shots of any object on your screen is the . A) Snipping Tool B) Screen Shot Tool C) Print Screen Tool D) Capture Tool 9. The time before the screen saver starts is called the B) watt C) Delay D) Pause 10. Time. A) Start Virtual folders that display the contents of multiple folde rs as though the files were stored together in one location are B) Libraries C) Archives D) Collections 11. . A) AlbumsAnother name for a hard drive is USB Flash drive. B) False False 12. Two or more windows can be active at the same time. A) True 13. Shortcuts can ONLY be added to the desktop. 14. You should extract files before sending them as e-mail attachments. A) True 15. You can double-click the of a window to maximize it or to restore it. Title bar 16. When a program is pinned to the 0. 0/8. 0 task 17. Only one click is required to open it. In the Windows Explorer window, Local Disk (C:) refers to the computer. 8. 0/8. 0 hard drive on your

International Terrorism and Global Politics Essay

In the 21st century, it would seem that the term â€Å"terrorist† has become an all encompassing description of anyone whom civilized people feel is a threat to innocent civilians, domestic tranquility, and the everyday life that most people take for granted. Government officials declare â€Å"war on terrorism† and the like. Expanding upon, and deviating from the typical definition of a terrorist, Charles W. Kegley’s 2002 edition, The New Global Terrorism: Characteristics, Causes, Controls, contains a chapter entitled â€Å"Is There a Good Terrorist? †, which asserts that one nation’s terrorist may fairly be considered another nation’s patriot. This paper will maintain the argument that no terrorist is a â€Å"good terrorist†, in contrast to the presentation of Kegley in his volume. Defining Terrorism To begin, a valid argument can be made against so-called â€Å"good† terrorists by establishing a baseline definition of terrorism. In some of his other writings, Kegley has maintained that one of the problems in condemning terrorists is that the act of terrorism itself is so hard to define; in other words, as was mentioned previously, a terrorist may not be considered a terrorist by everyone, because ultimately, some group of people or nation is supposedly benefitting from the terror inflicted on another group. However, by fine tuning the definition of a terrorist, it will be possible to reinforce and build upon the argument of this paper- that there is no such thing as a good terrorist. In order to make that assertion solid and tenable, one must realize that the term terrorism should in fact refer to acts of violence, war or sabotage inflicted upon innocent civilian populations by a person or persons not affiliated with an organized army and outside of the scope of declared warfare. Within this context, we are not talking about the soldier who serves his country by defeating enemies in combat, but we are talking about extremists who detonate car bombs near schools and hospitals. In using this definition, it is possible to further bolster the argument. Terrorism is about Targets as Well as Intentions A second assertion that can be made in critique of Kegley’s presentation comes from a discussion of the issue of the targets of terrorism as well as the intentions of terrorists, as earlier defined. For example, a terrorist, for all of his claims that he is trying to free other people from the oppression of another group, change a bad situation, avenge previous wrongs and the like, is violating international law as well as the basic moral codes when the terrorist inflicts casualties among defenseless civilians, such as when terrorists launch attacks on religious centers, public places or even private residential areas, there is a tremendous wrong being done, no matter what noble cause the terrorist claims to support or advance. Simply put, the means do not justify the end. A Fine Line between Patriotism and Vigilantism A key point continues to echo throughout this research- the fine line between defeating enemies and violating the written and unwritten laws of humanity. Indeed, one could make the argument, for example, that the founders of the United States in some ways inflicted terrorism according to our previously stated definition, for many of them were un-uniformed, taking up arms against an organized, sovereign government, no matter how noble the cause was for which they were fighting. However, when looking at terrorists in regard to being those who step over the line of legality and morality for the sake of their causes, again the message returns that there must be at least some level of decency in the world, even among those who adamantly oppose one another, for if opposing groups are allowed to continually launch terror attacks upon each other, all of humanity will soon degrade to chaos and anarchy, serving no one’s interests. Indeed, it is morally, ethically and legally wrong for people to take the law into their own hands; therefore, all potential or actual terrorist acts must be dealt with in the harshest possible terms. Conclusion In this paper, the argument has been made and supported that there is no such thing as a good terrorist, no matter what the intentions, motivations or goals of the terrorist, keeping in mind that there are certain criteria which define what makes a terrorist. Therefore, it must be remembered that patriots are not those who blow up women and children, poison reservoirs or destroy public gathering places, nor are those who wear the uniform of their country and fight in declared wars terrorists. Once that differentiation is made and adhered to, all of humanity will be all the better for it. Conversely, if we allow these grey areas to exist where a potential terrorist thinks they will receive rewards, either in this world or the one to come, the death toll of innocents will continue to swell. Hopefully, this key distinction will be realized by the people of the world before it is too late.

Basic Healthcare Service Should be Free to All Cit Essays - Health

Basic Healthcare Service Should be Free to All Cit Essays - Health Basic Healthcare Service Should be Free to All Citizens Mohamad Fikri Nizam Bin Mat Ghani 1412309 Soris Bin Hamadul 1412451 Madam Zuridah Hayati Binti Abdul Hamid Section 5 International Islamic University Malaysia 8 th December 2017 Basic Healthcare Service Should be Free to All Citizens Every living human needs to take care of their lives and health, making that basic healthcare is one of the important aspects in human beings life. The meaning of basic health services is the minimum degree of health care considered to be necessary to maintain adequate health and protection from disease. Basic health service also can be describe as benefits that all federally qualified health maintenance organisations (HMOs) must offer. For example, the diagnose of the patient, use of ambulance and issuance of non-controlled medicine or the medical service that does not need an extensive care such as flu where the patients can go to clinics and leave at the same day. In Malaysia, basic health service are mainly offered and maintained by government, although there exist private hospitals and clinics, public hospitals still the main choice for majority of the citizens. Furthermore, as quote from website of expat.com, "Malaysia offers some of the best healthcare in South-East Asia" (expat, 2011, p. 2). This proves that the Malaysia government have done their best in providing good health care service. However, the health service offered is not free of charges, instead the citizen needs to pay a small fee to get the treatment in public health institution, even if the fees is small and only nominal fees needs to be paid to get healthcare service especially in public clinic the citizen still have to paid for it (expat, 2011). This raise an issue because the citizens have paid the tax and even if they does not receive all health service free of charges they should at least receive basic health service free of charge but that did not happen. The basic healthcare service here are the services such as use of ambulance, diagnosis and issuance of non-controlled medicine which should be free to the citizens because the citizens have already paid the public healthcare through the general taxation of income like income tax (expat, 2011). Thus, it is agreed that basic health care service should be free to all citizens. Furthermore, to strengthen this view the point on the economic, social and psychology perspective will be provided in the following paragraphs. In Economic Perspective, it Increase the Purchasing Power In the Economic perspective, by giving free basic healthcare, it can cause individual buying power to increase because the disposable income will increase. The cost for people to acquire the health care has caused the increase in spending because they have to spend more money for the things related to health making their consumption to be limited (Kumar, 2014). Their limited consumption can be related to the decrease of their disposable income because they have to set aside a portion of their income for health use especially when there are emergencies and also for the precaution in the future. Moreover, according to Keynesian theory, when the disposable incomes of the individuals become lower, it will affect their consumption to be also lower (Riley, 2015). This theory is based on that the miscellaneous consumption of the people will change based on their disposable income, where in this case the income that individuals can use after deducting amount for their responsibilitie s such as paying tax, insurance and emergency precaution. It can be explained that people will consume less if they are worried for the future when there is emergency situation that occurs and the needs to use of money, this situation caused them the need to save the money for the emergency health use of the future. This is because the amount of disposable income will affect the level of consumption of people. Other than that, the economic activity of a country also will become slower or lower because of the low consumption level (Mandel, 2011). According to both Classical economic theory developed by Karl Marx and Keynesian economic theory that been developed by an English economist, John Maynard Keynes , it also mentioned that the level of consumption of

Position Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Position Paper - Essay Example by Michael Pollan poses a very important question that will circle this discussion, that is, â€Å"What should we have for dinner?† According the his book, the nature offers varieties of food choices and through the years, humans were successfully able to take note which of these food choices are essential and detrimental to the health. Pollan’s work focuses more on the dangers of eating food from what he called â€Å"the modern supermarket†, which in his point of view leads humans to go back to discerning if the food is good or bad for the health. But the omnivore’s dilemma is far more than just the confusion on what food to eat. It opens up a more important question in the factors that affect a person in choosing that food and the economic, as well as the social disposition, of a person plays an important role in one’s food preferences. According to Julie Guthman, some of these considerations are the â€Å"policies not even directly related to food and agriculture, such as taxation, financial regulation, and economic development policies that have created huge disparities between rich and poor† (Merberg, 2012). Looking across cultures, indeed, there are people who are not well-enough to be able to think of what they will have to eat three times a day. Some people are considered lucky if they have something to eat just to surpass the challenges of the entire day or two. Take for example the people in the African region who are suffering from severe malnutrition due to starvation caused by financial challenges and insufficient resources. More than choosing and contemplating on what food to eat, they are thinking on where to get the food to eat. As observed, people in the African region are relatively thin compared to those living in a more civilized nation like the America, where most percentage of people suffers from obesity. Take into consideration the statistics that Pollan presented. â€Å"One in every three American children eats fast food every day. One in

State Bank of India Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

State Bank of India - Essay Example In fact, after five years of deliberations, the chairman reflected bank’s achievements on the attribute of positive attitude regained by leadership thought. This opened up avenues through which the chairman shifted the focus to start aiming at being among the top twenty banks in the world. With such deliberations, the concern is on how the bank has been performing, what contributed to its advancements, the challenges it met along the journey, the opportunities available, its current weaknesses, and the potential it has in order to go to higher horizons. In light with this, the following section will evaluate on the current bank’s situation. This will give an insight and overview of the potential that the bank has in terms of advancing or deteriorating (Samuelson 1980). SBI profile: the primary internal and external influences on State Bank of India One theory that can be put into the context of explaining the primary internal and external influences on state bank is the ory of planed behavior. This theory can be applicable in explaining why, for example, people have a perception the SBI is a good bank. It takes several strategic measures for the internal management of the bank to put incentives that change the view of customers in relation to services offered by the bank. In order for employees to be able to perform well in their duties, they need to have a good attitude towards both the organisation and the customers. In essence, theory of planned behavior argues that, the attitude toward a behavior changes individual behavioral intentions (Ajzen 2007). In this regard, due to good employee incentives offered by the bank, employees are able to have a positive attitude towards the bank, something that results in top performance. In addition, organisation and management theory argues that organisations must understand both internal and external factors in order to succeed in their business. This can be analyzed to be the case in SBI. For example, on his reflection of the journey, in 2011, the chairman admitted that the bank has been the largest commercial bank in India. According to the chairman, this has been a journey full of transformations, which focused on changing its hierarchy, transaction orientation, customer focus, government ownership, and change of technological advancement, which has made it to be a universal bank. After Bhatt took over its leadership, he talked of transforming the leadership of SBI in order to propel it further. By 2010, SBI had doubled its profits and regained market share, something that led to the bank being awarded the ‘achievement award’ for the strongest bank in the Asian pacific region. In this regard, it is apparent that the change of leadership exhibited by Bhatt was very instrumental in taking the bank to new levels (Rust and Zahorik 1993). Therefore, analytically, it can be argued that apart from adopting all necessary technology and other strategies in business, leadership plays an indispensable role in development of any organisation (Yeung, Ging and Ennew 2002). By 2011, SBI was 43rd largest bank in the world taking a capitalization of over $ 36.5 billion in. By that time, SBI had more than 267,000 employees and with 18,000 branches and 25,000 ATMs. In this year, it made profits of $ 2.6 billion. However, the journey of SBI has been a long one since its establishment in 1806. Some years down the line, the bank was granted the right to issue currency; something updated it into the status of a presidency bank. At that time, the bank was partly owned by the government and part by private individuals. One of the parties that have had influence on