NATIONAL LIBERATION, INTERNAL STRIFE AND INTERNATIONAL MACHINERY Essay

NATIONAL LIBERATION, INTERNAL STRIFE AND INTERNATIONAL MACHINERY - Essay Example The oil industry went ahead to create an industrial proletariat, but the numbers remained quite low in the capital-intensive industry. When oil workers made demands on their flushed proprietor, they did not earn any redress. The foreign management recycled prejudices that did not respond to the workers aspirations. W. T. Wallace, who was the vice president of Venezuela Gulf at that time, felt that taking care of these workers did not matter much, and there was no need for listening to their demands. In the 1950s, the country’s oil production doubled. Between 1948 and 1957, the oil industry managed to earn the government $7 billion in terms of revenues (Prashad 177). This amount was the highest compared to the previous public revenues ever since the country became colonized by Spain. This money gained from revenues and the enormous capital from foreign investment flooded the country. It was used in the construction boom at the Caracas city. Freeways circled the valley, enclosing European-style apartment buildings and enormous shopping arcades which included the world’s most profitable branch of Roebuck and Sears (Prashad 178). Between 1952 to1958, Venezuela’s dictator Marcos Perez used the revenues gained from the oil industry for reconstructing urban Venezuela. The rich created a paradise Caracas valley while an enormous migration began to settle on the hillsides. These were not oil workers, which in most cases lived in company housing near the oil field to the west of the country. The migrants came in response to the great social upheaval in Venezuela, caused in large part by the rapid economic growth which resulted from the steady growth in oil profits. The country experienced an enormous increase in its gross national product that hit 95 percent, and this was a great boost for the construction trade and the service industry for the wealthy (Prashad 178). From 1950 to 1965, the country experienced an

Organizational studies Essay Example for Free

Organizational studies Essay The Functional -Structural Approach has dominated organizational studies. Describe and discuss the paradigm fully and assess the challenge posed to it by Postmodernism. Introduction Functional approach Is considered the second very essential paradigm In psychology. Functional structural approach in psychology deals with cognitive processes that Incorporate consciousness (Burrell and Gareth, 41). William James the father of functional approach came up to this paradigm from a viewpoint that functional approach in psychology is very important biological function. He also postulated that sychologists ought to understand the functions related to cognition so as to comprehend how mental processes in humans operate. Organizational studies is the study that Involves examining how individuals build organizational processes, structures, and practices, moreover, it studies how these phenomenon in turn shape social Interactions and creates organizations that impacts individuals (Knights, and Glenn, 252). Remarkably, organizational studies incorporate diverse areas that consider varied features of the organization. Arguably, cognitive oriented psychologists often describe human behavioral activities rom the perspective of mental constructs; they argue that classical conditioning as a means of behavior change is due the construction of associations within the individuals cognition. Postmodernism in philosophy is a movement that is very precarious of the Introductory assumptions and the propensity of western philosophy. Generally, postmodernism emphasizes the significance of personalization, power relationships and discourse in construction of the world views and truth (Alvesson, 5). It can be described as a set of strategic. critical, and rhetorical activities incorporating the use f concepts that Include trace, repetition and hyper reality to subvert other concepts such as Identity epistemic certainty, unlvoclty of meaning and historical progress. Following the present dominance of functional structural approach in organizational studies currently. this paper will present how functional structural approach has dominated organizational studies. Moreover, it will discuss this paradigm fully and further assess the challenge posed to It by postmodernism. Functional Structural Approach As a structural tneory, Tunctlonal structural approacn vlews tne organlzatlon In tne ociety being more important than any other individual within the society. Arguably, functional structural approach is a top down concept; individuals in the long run become products of societal influences as they become socialized by the institutions around them that include media, religion, family, and education. Functional approach is very important in the study of organizational studies because it offers a perspective of viewing the society as a set of interconnected parts that in the long run function as a whole. It is therefore of great importance to acknowledge he importance of functional structural approach in the study of organizational studies. Other than explaining the cognitive operations of human beings, the functional structural approach offers a platform of understanding the relationships that exist between these parts in the society hence contributing towards the maintenance of society. Through the notion of structural functionalism approach, the use of cognitive analogy in the tradition of Spencer, Comte and Durkheim has greatly influenced upon sociological thought (Burrell and Gareth, 43). By deriving upon the concepts of interrelationships between parts, holism, functions and needs the biological equivalence has been constructed in varied was to develop a social science perspective firmly linked to the sociology of regulation. Following the functional structural approach, the study of organizational studies have simplified in that functionalist believe that sociological matters should be approach from a perspective of scientific facts, a concept otherwise known positivism. According to the father of positivism Anguste Comte, functionalism should be based n primary facts and objectively weighed hence making it possible to note issues in the society that impact individuals hence providing a framework for innovation in law and implementing new legislation (Siebert, 36). The functional structural approach has been established to be of great significance in the study of organizational studies in that, by adopting the use of methodology in natural science and focusing on direct observable social facts, one is able to understand how parts that exist in the society function, hence the organizational behavior, organizational culture, organizational psychology, and organizational heory. Functional structural approach in sociology stresses the significance of the existing interdependence among various patterns and institutions within a social setting for its long term subsistence. According to †°mile Durkheim, functionalism is essential in understanding the utility of cultural and social traits, because it enlightens its contribution to the maneuvering of the overall system. Functionalism is therefore of great importance to the study of social behavior, organizational culture, organizational psychology, and organizational theory, because It OTTers a platTorm 0T crltlcally revlewlng tne reasons Denlna ce rtaln Denavlor patterns based on cognitive analysis. Arguably, functional approach is very significant in the study of attitudes (Herbert, 10). Understanding attitudes is very important to organizational studies. From a psychological point of view, the reasons behind changing attitudes are derived from the functions they accomplish to the individual specifically incorporating value expression, ego defense and knowledge. It is therefore very important to note the dominance of functional approach not only to the study of patterns in the society but lso to the changing attitudes from a cognitive perspective. In the recent years, organizational studies have been established to be increasingly important in social scientific investigation. Based on the number of research studies related to functional structural approach, it is important to note that organizational studies have claimed a better part of the functional approach (Crowther and Green, 50). Most research these days seeks a functional explanation of organizational studies, thus a societal functioning. What is the future of functional approach in organizational studies? Despite the opposition encountered by scientifically oriented organizational studies from some British organization researchers, their support on qualitative studies failed to yield credible knowledge. Their qualitative studies on organizational studies were not incorporated in the literature of organization studies because it produced no generalized knowledge. Following the failure of qualitative studies from these researchers, there has been a great increase in the number of researchers that incorporate the use of functional approach when researching issues that relate to rganizational studies. Majority of these researchers are oriented to the functional structural approach. Remarkably, the functional paradigm in psychology have hampered the rapid development of organizational studies, this will benefit the future due to the increased use of cognitive perspectives to in understanding patterns and structures in the society. Arguably, organizational studies will always provide knowledge about the performance within a society to the succeeding generations by incorporating and applying the use of functional approach hence making progress in social science. According to Hawthorne studies, functional approach has been helpful and dominant in studying and analyzing the behavior patterns among employees (Burrell and Gareth, 131). The conclusion made from these studies emerged based on conceptual scheme explanation of employee complaint which was determined drawing explanations from the functional approach. It is important to note that functional approach has dominated research pertaining to industrial problems, the interface which occurs due to the changes in the physical environment and the equilibrium established in such settings . Remarkably, theoretical views have changed overtime, nese views nave Decome more certain ana amDlvalent. I nese views nave Deen integrated to become more determinists, functionalists, more generalizing, and more organizationally rational. It is acknowledgeable that the functional approach has played a huge role towards explaining organizational studies. The challenge posed to Functional-structural approach by Postmodernism Despite the success and dominance of structural functional approach, postmodernism poses a great challenge to its subsistence and persistence. According to the post modernists, their theory is critical on the claims about bjectivity. The idea of grand theory is viewed by the postmodernists as skeptical and is viewed as unwarranted at its very least. This critique posed by the postmodernists to the structural functional approach has hindered the prosperity of this approach in the present times. Despite the importance of structural functional approach to organizational studies, postmodernism presents the dangers that the grand theory can pose, when not viewed as limited perspective when analyzing the society (Kilduff and Mihaela, 94). To some extent, the functional approach is not applicable in the postmodern society ecause norms and family structure within the society have incredibly changed overtime (Lord, 509), the changes realized in the postmodern times can be attributed as a move towards the idea of a new explanation of organizational studies. From this perspective, the use of functional approach is not useful anymore since it does not apply to postmodern society. The functional approach has been highly criticized for being more of teleological. It is has been viewed to be reverse the cause and effect order. Functional structural theory has faced a lot of criticisms from other social theories articularly the postmodernists. The most prevalent criticism faced by the social structural function from the postmodernists and other sociological notions, is the fact that most of these notions particularly the postmodern theory criticize the structural functional theory on the grounds that the concept systems of this theory offers too much unnecessary weight to consensus and integration, hence neglecting the concept of interdependence and conflict. In this theory, Parsons gave no satisfactory explanation as to how actors exercise their agency in antagonism to inculcation and socialization of the accepted norms. Generally, the structural functional theory does not offer a credible explanation as to why individuals accept or choose some values and norms within the society. From a postmodernist approach, the prominence of structural functional approach is heading to its end. This is based on the view that feminism is on a high rise and has launched critics on the functionalism theory. Considering that the functional approach did not incorporate the suppression of women in the society and the family, feminism and the post-modernist are at high opposition to the existence of this theory. Desplte tne Tact tnat Parsons aescrlDea sltuatlons tnat lead to tne rlse 0T women state of affairs and that some feminists agree that he provided accurate information concerning these situations. Parsons admits that he oversimplified his analysis concerning women in relation to family and work; moreover he postulates that he focused more towards the positive functions within the family rather than its dysfunctions towards women. The postmodernist criticize this theory because it lacks the feminist stability. Arguably, the postmodernist are likely to pose a huge challenge o the prevalence of this theory because it views the theory as a one that does not incorporate all the necessary elements. One major difference between modernism and any other notion paradigm in psychology particularly the functional approach is the fact that; whereas the structural functional approach seek universal laws for social behavior important in the study of organizational studies, the postmodernism views that the aim of social science should not be generalizability but rather innovation and discovery (Kilduff and Mihaela, 97). Remarkably, the catastrophe experienced in functional approach while analyzing rganizational studies can be attributed to postmodernism. Postmodernism is more likely to pose a huge challenge to the prevalence of functional approach, according to postmodernism, multiple contingencies upset outcomes while the historical and the cultural conditions can be ignored by people are well conversant with this knowledge. Conclusions In conclusion, it is evident that functional structural approach has dominated organizational studies. Despite its prevalence, postmodernism post a huge challenge to its development and growth.

The Background Of Human Resource Management Commerce Essay

The Background Of Human Resource Management Commerce Essay Human resource management is an important asset for any company. First, human resource management is between employer and employee. These two groups are the determining factor of the company. The challenges faced by human resource management include the number of people is needed, being employed and to train them. If employees are hired, employer must give them an appropriate compensates. Employee should be given a reasonable salary for their effort. Without this, employer must grant awards to employees merits and carries out penalty to those employees that do not abide to the rules and regulation of the company fairly. Subsequently, the connection between employer and employee is important for success of the company. Definition Human resource management is a personnel management that focuses on one individual rather than a group of people. The human resource management responsibility is often devolved to line management. It is illustrated by stressing on strategic integration, employee commitment, workforce flexibility, and quality of goods and services. Theories/concepts of human resource management Recruitment Recruitment which is a part of the human resource management, it is a behavior impact achievement of an organization. It determines the internal or external of a candidate whether they are the best, and choose suitable applicants. Selection Selection which is gathering information and decide that who should be hired, and choose the best for the whole organization. Selection is a very important process in all business; because it will give an impact to the whole organization achieve its goal. Training Training is also a part that very important in an organization, because it to let employee need to know the way how to apply the equipment when work. The purpose of training to the employee is to improve more productivity by increasing each of the employee ability to perform. Development Development and training are impact with each other, training is a focus on short-term skills while development which is a focus on long-term skills. Both of these two functions which is a assess needs of the organization. Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) is one of the largest research-based pharmaceutical companies in the world that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets human health products. An innovative company that produces branded products only, which it has develops itself. Pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare is the two main division of the company. The pharmaceuticals division is the biggest division in the company and is divided into prescription drugs and vaccines. GSK headquarters is located in London, United Kingdom. GSK manufactures pharmaceutical as well as consumer healthcare products. GSK marketed pharmaceutical products like Zentel, Pentosam, Tuberculosis, vaccines and anti-malarial products and anti-retrovirals products. And for the consumers healthcare products, such as the toothpaste brand Aquafresh, Macleans and Sensodyne, and nutritional healthcare drinks. Based on one of the GSK Malaysia employees explanation, GSK Malaysia company structure is manage by Managing Director and supported by Finance department, Business Units and the Human Resource (HR) department. In the business units, they have four business units and in each unit, there are marketing staff and sales staff. Under marketing, consist of product managers and product executives. Under sales unit, consist of sales managers, sales executives and medical sales reps whereas in the HR department, the head of department is assist by managers and executive. The finance department operates by the financial controller, managers and executives. Mr. Andy Lim (GSK Senior Professional Medical Representative) confirmed verbally that the information on the company structure is true on 25 May 2010. In order for GSK to achieve their business goal; to be the world leader in the pharmaceutical industry, GSK would have to enhance their Research and Development (RD) pipeline. With that, the company can maximize their RD portfolio and linking RD closely to commercial operation. Furthermore, by increasing the brand recognition among costumers and seeking to improve version of older products is one of the companys marketing strategies. Besides that, GSK is using the Direct-to-consumer (DTC) method and it is the most important element of their marketing strategy. From DTC advertising, consumers will be updated with the latest information about their products. Subsequently, consumers may request specific brands of medicines to their physicians. Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), Human Resource Management process. GSKs Human Resource Management (HRM) process consists of recruitment, selection and training and development. Firstly, the company requires the applicants to use the search functions in the particular companys website to search for their desired vacancy. Fill in the online application form and submit the application. Then, the company will inform applicants by an on-screen message that stated that the application has successfully been submitted. By providing a valid email address, applicants will receive a confirmation email that their applications arrived in the recruiters inbox. The recruiters will review the applicants applications. If the applicants resume fulfils the job requirements, the applicants resume will advance to the appropriate hiring manager. The company will only inform applicants that are granted an interview. The recruiter will contact the selected applicants to make them a verbal offer and a written offer letter will be followed up and the company will also explai n the next steps include their pre-employment screening process. The selected applicants will go through the pre-employment screening, which after the company will finalize their starting date and induction detail. The selection process used by GSK was designed to give an opportunity to these ambitious and talented applicants, to exhibit their leadership quality so that these applicants can lead the company. The company is interested not only in the qualification of the applicants but also the personality in each applicant. Performance is not the only factor that the company would put into consideration to hire new employee; they are also interested in the level of integrity, initiative and the passionate commitment by the applicants towards the people that they may work with. Furthermore, GSK would prefer the applicant to have a degree in science or pharmacy, experience in healthcare/pharmaceutical industry, then applicant also need to be good in the communication skill and especially in English language. Applicant need to have the spirit of highly self-motivated and result-oriented. The company requires the applicant to have their own car and willing to travel. GSK gives the employee training and development. Their training includes training, mentoring, coaching, performance appraisals and volunteering opportunities. Such training will help the employees to upgrade themselves to a higher level and it will help to develop the employee to advance in their career. For the training, the employees are provided work-related training courses. GSK offered learning programs in 19 languages to their employees in over 100 countries and these programs were offer through the company online learning management system. Furthermore, project secondments were offered to help the employee to develop new skills. In mentoring system, the high-performing employees are given support and inspiration; this will help to create leaders of the coming years and another important component of employee development is coaching. Internal and external coaching resources will help to speed up growth and develop leadership skills. Performance and development planning (PDP) is a key people process in the company. This is the basic on how the company establishes what they will achieve through the company personal objectives, as well as how the company will achieve through GSK behaviours and most of the employees take part in performance appraisals through the PDP process. GSK promote employee volunteering. Through employee volunteering process, employees will gain new experiences and skills, and it will also help the employees to deepen the understanding of the patients need. Human Resource Management Process Highlight any positive and negative effects of implementation. (Recruitment, Selection, Training and Development) There are a few of positive and negative effects when you are working with this company. After I done my research on this company, I found that only those who are highly educated are qualified to work in this company. For this reason, I can conclude that most of the human resources management process designed by this company, demonstrates a positive outcome. In recruitment, the positive effect shown in this company is online application. With the presence of such technology, employer can reduce their work by only contact those applicants who are granted an interview. This type of recruitment widely used because it works faster and easier. The positive selection on this company depends on the employees qualification. Basically, the selection requires at least three years of working experience. Although an employee maybe a PhD holder, experience is equally as important in order to have a job. The negative effect identified is that the probability of employing experienced employee is low compared to fresh graduates. This is because in this century, the number of unemployed fresh graduates is high. There are a few highlight positive effects about training for employees in this company. Their training process is designed to give an opportunity to all those talented and ambitious students to demonstrate their potential, to be the leaders of the future. The company are not just seeking performance, but also integrity, initiative, and a passionate commitment to the people they work with-whether theyre at the next desk or on the other side of the world. In the other hand they also had learning opportunities that teach flexible thinking skills, employment practices that support career development, benefits and rewards that reflect changing needs, and performance-based flexible work practices and policies that meet both business and personal life needs. Of course there are also had a negative effect about the worker selection on this company. For those who want to get a career on this company must a person that have a high self-confident, because this company wanted to train their wor ker to become a very strong leader ship worker as what this company requite. The positive effect can be shown on this company development when everyone who works in this company can enjoy a work-life balance. With this, you are able to have a Flexible Working Policy, which applies to all staff, covers a variety of working patterns, including home working, part-time working, annualised hours and term-time working. Of course, these kinds of flexible working options are particularly attractive to parents and care-givers. This approach is to support flexible working arrangements wherever this company can make life better for their employees, while ensuring business needs are met. While the negative effect on this company development on flexible working is employer or the manager will faced some problem when they want to give training or speak for their employee because employer need to separate it into two sections, so that it will cause more expenses and time are needed. Example of the implementation of human resource management process in GSK (Recruitment, Selection, Training and Development) After doing some research on this company regarding their recruitment, selection, training, and development process, it shows that this company is quite strong, but theres more to improve for a better. In my opinion, this company should implement new strategy on their recruitment and selection by set a higher standard recruitment. For example, for those who wanted to work in this company should have a minimum working experience of three to four years with other pharmaceutical company and at least a degree holder. With such requirement set by the company, the employees that work in the company are efficient. In addition, this company must also improve their training by instil job management skills. For example, as a result of the training given by the company, employees will possess leadership quality in them as to prevent any of the employees to cross over the moral codes of the company. Does the companys development important? It is important as it will determine the future of the c ompany. Therefore, they should improve further on their development. For example, employer should give more incentives to their employees as to reduce the frequency of absence of employees and to increase the efficiency of the employees. Subsequently, the employees will work harder for the company and it may contribute to improve the companys profit. Conclusion In a nutshell, I have learned that the human resource management is a significant asset for any company to grow and advance further in the future. Furthermore, human resource will also assist to nurture the employers and employees in their self-development, so that they will be more productive to the company. In human resource management, I have learned that, in order to work with people effectively, well have to be aware of various type of human behaviour in them, and to be knowledgeable regarding various systems and practices available in order to facilitate in building a skilled and motivated workforce.

Why Are Gasoline Prices Going Up So High? Essay examples -- essays res

Why Are Gasoline Prices Going Up So High? If everyone else in the world is paying a lot more for gas, why shouldn't Americans? Take your average spoiled American who blames the Arabs for raising the gas prices unfairly in order to make a bigger profit. It's true, gas prices have gone up by a lot in the last few months, but is that unfair? Prices still are a lot higher in Canada, Europe and just about any other developed nation, according to Mike Royko in the May 2, 1996 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Ted Z. Manuel in a letter entitled "Voice of the People" of the Chicago Tribune, said "Most anywhere in Europe, gas costs are from $3.00 to $5.00 per gallon. We scream when it hits a $1.35 to $1.75 a gallon, which if adjusted for inflation actually is cheaper than 25 years ago." It seems that Americans just think the world owes them a favor. Maybe it's time that they start playing fairly and stop feeling so sorry for themselves!!! According to many articles, Americans have a lot more to be thankful for than they do to complain about. For one, cars use gas a lot more efficiently than they did in the past. According to Royko, "even today's luxury cars give you better gas mileage than the cheapest Chevies, Fords and Plymouths did not that long ago." What does this mean? This means that gas prices should logically go up. It's the basic law of supply and demand. It's true that more Americans are driving, but the gasoline suppliers still deserve to get p...

Ethics In Health Care Essay

Because there are not enough organs available for everyone, some system for allocating scarce resources is needed. Currently there is no one method used to decide who should get an available organ first. The decision making procedure is sometimes called distributive justice theory [1] which states that there is not one â€Å"right† way to distribute organs, but rather many ways a person could justify giving an organ to one particular individual over someone else. Criteria can include: 1. To each person an equal share; 2. To each person according to need; 3. To each person according to effort; 4. To each person according to contribution; 5. To each person according to merit; 6. To each person according to free-market exchanges. Both Mickey Mantle and Todd Krampitz were entitled to a transplant by at least one of these criteria. According to equal access, organs are to be allocated based on objective factors aimed to limit bias and unfair distribution, but there is no truly fair criteria. Length of time waiting, should be balanced with rate of health decline, and age discrimination is unfair as well. The dilemma of whether Mantle or Krempitz should have gotten their transplants is based on our human desire to establish the â€Å"worthiness† of the individual case. Because Mantle caused his liver deterioration by the choice of excessive drinking, it is easy to think him less worthy than a child or adult who had no opportunity to avoid their situation [2]. No one said Krempitz would not have gotten a transplant eventually, or that his need for the transplant was avoidable by his prior actions. Krempitz took advantage of the situation that a clear pathway for transplant decisions does not exist, and bypassed the doctor-valuation process. If the source of the organ would not have donated otherwise, then Krempitz did not do anything unethical since he did not take away someone else’s chance to have that particular organ. If the ad led to additional unplanned donations, then he even helped others. However, if he did step in front of someone else who was â€Å"in line† that would be breaking the rules. But it is unclear whether it is unethical, since it is possible that the rules of the queue are unethical themselves. At best what he did can be considered crass and dangerous, since the possibility existed that someone could have killed someone to get the money offered for the implant. The problem with equal access approach is that some human has to make the value judgment of what is fair and equal access. Some who believe in equal access distribution would also like to have an organ distribution process free of medical or social worthiness biases. Making a decision on whether a person could have avoided their problem by lifestyle choices is effectively a social punishment on those who squandered their health. On the other hand maximum benefit criteria is to maximize the number of successful transplants and minimize waste. This is a resource responsible approach and seems a more reasonable way to make the choice. It also covers those whose lifestyle caused their problems, since more often than not someone who has abused their body has other damage in addition to the organ in question, and should have higher likelihood of dying from other factors, making them less potentially successful than others. According to the Pope [3]: â€Å"The decision on who’s first in line to receive organs can be based only on medical factors, – not a person’s age, sex, race, religion, social standing, usefulness to society or any other criteria.† Personally I think that the choice of who gets the transplant ought to be made first based on the expected prognosis (likelihood the procedure will be successful and the patient have full recovery). For two people for whom there is equal chance of success, then money or insurance should not be the deciding factor on who gets the organ. Instead the age of the person, their responsibilities to other dependent humans (many children etc.), and possibly waiting period should be considered. In this case Mantle probably would not have gotten the transplant since he was not expected to survive long, anyway. [1] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy webpage. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/. [2] Ubel PA, Jepson C, Baron J, et.al. Allocation of transplantable organs: do people want to punish patients for causing their illness? Liver Transplant, 2001; 7(7):600-7. [3] Norton, J., 2000 Catholic News Service http://www.catholicherald.com/cns/transplants.htm SUPPORTERS OF

Audit Delay

Pg1Pg1 International Bulletin of Business Administration ISSN: 1451-243X Issue 10 (2011) EuroJournals, Inc. 2011 http://www. eurojournals. com Audit Report Lag and the Effectiveness of Audit Committee Among Malaysian Listed Companies Ummi Junaidda Binti Hashim Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin E-mail: [email  protected] edu. my Tel: 609-6653760; Fax: 609-6669220 Rashidah Binti Abdul Rahman Accounting Research Institute, Universiti Teknologi Mara Shah Alam E-mail: [email  protected] uitm. edu. my Tel: 603 55444745; Fax: 603 55444921 AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the link between audit committee characteristics and audit report lag among 288 companies listed at Bursa Malaysia for a three year period from 2007 to 2009. The characteristics of audit committee examined are audit committee independence, audit committee diligence and audit committee expertise. In this study, audit report lag refers to the number of days from the company’? s year end (financial year ) to the date of auditor’? s report. The results of this study show that audit report lag for the listed companies in Malaysia ranges from 36 days to 184 days for the three year period.The results of this study also show that audit committee independence and audit committee expertise could assist in reducing audit report lag among companies in Malaysia. This study however could not provide any evidence on the link between audit committee diligence on audit report lag. Overall, the findings in this study provide some evidence supporting the resource based theory, whereby characteristics of the audit committee as the resources and capabilities could improve companies’? performance as well as corporate reporting. Keywords: Audit Committee, Audit Report Lag 1.Introduction Financial reporting in general will provide useful information and assist users in decision making as capacity of capital providers in companies. Particularly users rely on the audited financial reports i n their assessment and evaluation of companies’? performance. The audited financial reports will increase its reliability and users will feel affirm on the reports verified by the auditors and would be able to make decision wisely (FASB, Concepts Statement 2). Timeliness itself will enhance the usefulness of the information. There are many ways to define timeliness.Commonly known that timeliness is the reporting delay from the company’? s accounting year end to the date of the audit report completed (Chambers and Penman, 1984). Audit report lag would lead the shareholders and potential shareholders to postpone their transaction on shares (Ng and Tai, 1994). This in turn, would provide negative effect to the company. 50 Pg2Pg2 Bursa Malaysia1 has demanded for timely financial reporting through the provision of Chapter 2 and Chapter 9 of the Listing Requirements (2009), Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.Bursa Malaysia listing requirement under chapter 9. 23 (a) provides t hat a public listed companies must submit its annual report to Bursa Malaysia within six months after the company’? s year end. To prevent companies from late submission of their audited financial reports, Bursa Malaysia in consultation with Securities Commission has imposed penalty to public listed companies for failure to disclose the material facts such as the annual report within the time frame. However, despite the penalty being imposed, there are companies that could not meet the submission deadline.This current scenario as reported in Bursa Malaysia website 2010 (www. bursamalaysia. com). Many professional and regulatory bodies have taken various actions to identify the factors that hinder companies in delaying the submission of financial reports. Bursa Malaysia highlighted that corporate governance mechanisms which is audit committee would play a significant role in the company to ensure that the objective of Bursa Malaysia on timely reporting can be achieved. The ame nded Bursa Malaysia Listing requirement in 2009 provides that the members of audit committee must not be less than 3 persons.All members of the audit committee must be non-executive directors, with a majority of them being independent directors and at least one member is a member of the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA). If the member of the audit committee is not a member of MIA, the member must have at least three years of working experience. Malaysian Government has recommended Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG, 2000) which was later revised in 2007. The revised code recommends that member of audit committee to comprise of fully non-executive directors, be able to read, analyse and interpret financial statements.This is to ensure that they would be able to effectively discharge their functions. Since audit committee has a close working relationship with external auditors, the audit committee would able to assist the level of audit coverage and assurance. This cou ld be done by employing knowledgeable members in the audit committee (Abbott et al. 2003), thus, would improve timeliness and reduce audit report lag. Past studies that have examined the determinants of audit report lag among companies focused only on company’? specific variables such as company size, (Al-Ajmi, 2008), profitability (Ahmad and Kamarudin, 2003), year end (Ahmed, 2003); leverage (Owusu-Ansah and Leventis, 2006), industry type (Jaggi and Tsui, 1999), audit opinion (Ng and Tai, 1994), and type of auditor (Afify, 2009). However, these studies did not examine corporate governance mechanisms in relation to audit report lag. Afify (2009) and Tauringana (2008) examined the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on audit report lag. Both studies were conducted in a non-Malaysian setting.Within the Malaysian context, studies that have examined the issue of timeliness using firm’? s specific variable include those by Ahmad and Kamarudin (2003) and Che-Ahmad and Abidin (2008). These two studies did not examine the issue of timeliness in relation to corporate governance mechanism. The current study extends the corporate governance literature by examining the issue of timeliness of annual reports in the Malaysian market by incorporating corporate governance, firm’? s specific variables in relation to audit report lag.The aim of the current study is to examine whether the existence of audit committee could assist in reducing audit report lag. Such examination is important since the audit literature has identified the role of audit committee in reviewing the financial statement. This study aims to answer the following research question: â€Å"? Could audit committee play an important role in effectively monitoring the timeliness of audit report? This study contributes to the corporate governance and audit literature by examining association of corporate governance; audit committee and the audit report lag.The findings of the study would have policy implications for MCCG. It provides supporting evidence on whether the development of corporate governance could significantly increase the timeliness of annual reports among companies in Malaysia. This study could assist Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance 1 Bursa Malaysia was previously known as Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. 51 Pg3Pg3 (MICG) to provide best practice in order to enhance corporate governance mechanisms. The findings could also assist external auditors in evaluating the effectiveness of the audit committee in their audit planning.Such assistance would assist the external auditors in identifying the best time to be allocated for their audit engagements in terms of effort such as whether to reduce or increase effort and the amount of fees to be charged. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. First, it discusses on literature review and hypotheses development. Next, it describes on research design to conduct the study. It further provides the results of the analysis and discussion. The final part concludes and provides suggestions for future research. 2. Literature Review and Hypotheses DevelopmentWithin the corporate governance mechanisms, audit committee plays an important role in the monitoring process as well as its reporting role in companies. These members would reduce auditors’? task complexity and increase timeliness. Therefore, arguably, audit committee would be able to reduce audit report lag. This is because the appointment of audit committee are in line with the agency theory (Jensen and Meckling 1976) where agents act on behalf of principles in ensuring the company is performing well and provides quality annual reporting.The following sections develop three hypotheses to meet the objectives of the study which are related to the characteristics of audit committee. 2. 1. Audit Committee Independence According to the agency theory, the independent members in audit committee could help the principals to monitor the agents’? activities and reduce benefits from withholding information. This is because audit committee with more independent directors is considered as being a more reliable group other than board of directors in monitoring the company.The effective role provides by audit committee would be appropriate to represent the rights and privileges for all stakeholders. An independent audit committee enhances the effectiveness of monitoring function since it serves as a reinforcing agent to the independence of internal and external auditors in a company. Menon and Williams (1994) posits that an audit committee must comprise entirely of independent directors in order to be more effective. Klein (2002) shows that independent audit committees reduce the likelihood of earnings management, thus improving transparency.Carcello et al. (2000) found that audit committee independence have positive significant relationship with audit fees. This provides evidence that independence of the audit committee would lead to higher quality of financial report. Further, Ismail et al. (2008) found that the independence of audit committee would not influence the quality reporting of the companies. They argue that this is due to the companies only fulfilling the requirements, rather than the impact of the requirements. In contrast, Ali Shah et al. 2009) found that companies in Pakistan are having good corporate governance through having independence of audit committee. Bursa Malaysia Listing requirements (2009) and MCCG (2007) have highlighted that the audit committee might institute stronger internal control and good monitoring of financial reporting process in a company. The strong internal control managed by audit committee would lead to auditors reducing their work on the company’? s accounts because of their reliance on the internal control of the company. This would subsequently lead to the decrease in audit delay.Therefore, the first hypothesis is develope d. H1: There is negative relationship between the audit committee independence and audit report lag. 52 Pg4Pg4 2. 2. Audit Committee Diligence Ismail et al. (2008), measure audit committee diligence based on actual number of audit committee meetings held in a year. Audit committee meetings are considered as an important tool in ensuring audit committee members are fulfilling their responsibilities towards the company. Audit committee must carry out activities effectively through increased frequency of meetings in order to maintain its control functions (Bedard et al. 2004). Abbott et al. 2000) in their examination found that audit committee that meets at least twice annually is subjected to less exposure of sanction by the authorities. This is because regular meetings conducted would indicate that the audit committee discharges their duties in a well manner as an agent in the company. They also noted that audit committee that is wholly independent is also active by way of having mee tings. Dechow et al. (1996) argue that audit committee is an integral part of a company that emphasises high level monitoring. Moreover, the monitoring function would be more effective in terms of financial reporting.American Bar Association posits that an audit committee which holds less than 2 meetings annually is considered not committed to their duties. This indicates that the audit committee is unable to contribute to the internal control in that situation. Auditors who really monitor the internal control function of the company would reduce their works. However, Ismail et al. (2008) found that frequency of audit committee meeting could not influence the quality reporting of the companies. They argue that this is due to the companies only fulfilling the requirements, rather than the impact of the requirements.Razman and Iskandar (2004) found Malaysian companies that have good reporting meet more frequent than poor reporting companies. This is because, during the meeting, they c an monitor the management activities. Of consequence, this will lead to the decrease time taken on auditing by the auditors and reduce the reporting lag. Therefore, following hypothesis is developed. H2: There is negative relationship between audit committee diligence and audit report lag. 2. 3. Audit Committee Expertise Audit committee expertise is important in order to deal effectively with external auditors.This is because audit committee typically acts as the mediator between the management and the auditors. DeZoort et al. (2003) note that audit committee members with experience in financial reporting and auditing especially those who are CPAs would understand auditors’? tasks and responsibilities. They would become more supportive of the auditors compared to audit committee members who do not have similar experience. Audit committee members who are experts are more ‘? friendly’? with the auditors, comprehensible, logical and coherent when they are discussing with the auditors regarding the financial reporting of the company.Audit committee with more expertise would be more concerned about the financial reporting quality of the company. DeZoort (1998) contends that an audit committee with more internal control experience makes decisions or judgments similar to auditors compared to those audit committee members who are without experience. This reflects that experience in the accounting, internal control or auditing is fundamental to enable the audit committee to understand and cater on the problematic issue on the financial reporting system of the company. They would also realise the benefits of producing financial statement on time at the market.It is also identified that audit committee with financial expertise are going to facilitate each other. As discussed in resource based theory, the resources and capabilities that audit committee posses with financial expertise may assist in improving the firm performance. Listed companies in Mal aysia that have financial literate members of audit committee would have ability to end up with good financial report (Razman and Iskandar, 2004). This is because audit committee who has knowledge in accounting and auditing is able to demonstrate their ability in monitoring of internal control and reporting.Strong internal control also would lead the auditors in 53 Pg5Pg5 reducing their work because of their reliance on the credibility of the internal control. Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed: H3: There is negative relationship between the audit committee expertise and the audit report lag. 3. Research Design Sample covered in this study are among 288 companies listed at Bursa Malaysia for three years from 2007 to 2009. The samples are chosen randomly from 806 of the population. Table 1: Total number of companies and sample based on industry IndustryPopulationSample of companiesPercentConstruction49197 Consumer1395318 Hotel521 Industrial2658830 Infrastructure731 Prop erty883111 Plantation43166 Technology29124 Trading & services1816422 TOTAL806288100 The companies listed at Bursa Malaysia are selected for this study because they are governed by the rules and regulations imposed by MCCG and Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements. The companies selected include consumer, industrial products, trading and services, construction, infrastructure, hotel, property, technology and plantation. Table 1 provides the number of companies selected from each of the sector.There are seven operational variables which comprise of one dependent variable, three independent variables and three control variables as describe in Table 2. Table 2: Variables Measurements VariablesDefinition Dependent ARLAudit report lag Independent ACINDAC independence ACMEETAC meeting (ACdiligence) ACEXPAC expertise (AC experience) Control SIZECompany size AUDIT TYPEType of audit firm PROFProfitability Measurement Represents the number of days elapsing between the end of the fiscal year of t he company to the completion of the audit for the current year for each individual firm (the audit report date)Percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members Number of audit committee meeting No of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting (such as MIA,MICPA) to the total of audit committee members. Natural log of year end total assets Dummy variable, ‘? 1’? if auditor is one of the former Big-4 audit firms, ‘? 0’? otherwise PROF = Return on asset, measured by net income divided with total assets 54 Pg6Pg6 4. Results 4. 1. Descriptive Statistic Table 3: Descriptive Statistics for Audit Report Lag (N= 288) YearNMinimumMaximumMeanMedian 2007ARL28840. 00184. 00103. 14110. 50 008ARL28840. 00146. 00103. 42111. 00 2009ARL28836. 00136. 00102. 46110. 00 2007- 2009ARL86436. 00184. 00103. 00111. 00 Notes: ARL = number of days between the end of the fiscal year to the date of completion of audit As shown in Table 3, the mean score of audit report lag for the pooled sample is 103 days with a maximum and minimum days of 184 and 36 respectively. This indicates that on average, the companies took 103 days to complete their audit report. Using the pooled sample from period from period 2007 to 2009, the results indicate that the companies did comply with Bursa Malaysia listing requirements and he Companies act where they submit their report within six months except for one company which took 184 days to submit the report. It shows that companies are improving over the years on the number of days taken to complete the annual reports. The results of this study are somewhat similar to Afify (2009) that found the maximum and mean score number of days to complete the annual report was 115 days and 67 days respectively. The results indicate that the number of days that the companies took to complete the audit report has reduced from 2007-2009 by 48 days. Results on previous study show relative di fference with the current study.Che-Ahmad and Abidin (2008) found that 442 days while Ahmad and Kamarudin (2003) reveal 273 days on the maximum of days to complete the annual report. Table 4: Number of companies and audit report lag for 2007 – 2009 Audit report lagNo. ofNo. ofNo. of ARL (within)companiescompaniescompanies Year / percentage2007Percent2008Percent2009Percent 1 month (30 days)00. 0000. 0000. 00 2 months (60days)227. 64206. 94258. 68 3 months (90days)4214. 584114. 244114. 24 4 months (120days)19868. 7521173. 2620872. 22 5 months (150days)258. 68165. 56144. 86 6 months (180days)00. 0000. 0000. 00More than 180days10. 3500. 0000. 00 Total288100288100288100 Table 4 shows that for the three year period, no company has completed and submitted their annual report within a month. The results also show that for the three year period, 41 to 42 companies have completed and submitted their annual report within 3 months. None of the companies have submitted their audit reports exceeding 6 months except for one company which managed to submit their audited report only after 184 days in year 2007. The results in Table 4 shows that most companies reports way ahead the date stipulated by Chapter 9 (9. 3a) of Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirement that the annual report shall be issued and submitted within a period not exceeding 6 months from the financial year end of the company. Such results indicated that the companies are concerned and realised that audited reports are useful for users’? 55 Pg7Pg7 decision-making. The results support the notion that excessive delay in publishing financial statements would increase uncertainty in relation to investment decisions(Ashton et al. 1987; Ahmad and Kamarudin, 2003). Table 5: Descriptive statistic for Audit Committee Characteristics and Control VariablesIndependent VariableNMinimumMaximumMeanMedianStd. Deviation ACIND8640. 601. 000. 931. 000. 18 ACDIL8641. 0012. 004. 845. 001. 67 ACEXP8640. 001. 000. 400. 330. 19 Control variable SIZE TOTASSET (RM BILLION)8649 -336. 640. 790. 242. 86 TYPEAUD864010. 580. 000. 49 PROFITABILITY864-1. 8811. 0590. 030. 030. 40 Notes: ACINDP= percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members ACDIL= number of audit committee meeting ACEXP= no of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting TOTASSET= total assets that the companies have at the end of the financial year.TYPEAUD= ‘? 1’? if audited by Big-4, ‘? 0’? if otherwise PROFITABILITY= net income divided with total assets Table 5 presents the characteristics of the audit committee among the listed companies. The results show that audit committee independence (ACIND) has a mean score 93 percent. The results also show that the listed companies minimum score of 60 percent of their audit committee member being represented by independent directors. The results indicate that the companies comply with the Bursa Malaysia listing require ment (2009) which requires a company to have majority of the audit committee members being ndependent directors. Although the requirement of Bursa Malaysia on the number of independent directors in a board of directors is different from MCCG’? s (2007) requirement, the requirement of Bursa Malaysia listing requirement prevails MCCG’? s requirements2. Table 5 also presents the results on the number of meetings held by the audit committee. The results show that almost all audit committee in the listed companies discharge their duties appropriately in which on average 5 meetings were being held.The highest number of meeting held by the audit committee during the three year period was 12 times. MCCG (2007) provides that companies should have their audit committee meeting at least 4 times a year. Table 5 also shows the mean score of audit committee expertise (ACEXP) as 0. 4 (40 percent). Such results indicate that most audit committee in the listed companies have audit comm ittee members with experience in financial reporting. Only 24 of the companies (2. 78 percent) formed their audit committee with members not having accounting qualification.The later results did not comply with requirements of Bursa Malaysia listing requirements and MCCG that states at least one member of the audit committee must fulfill the financial expertise requisite. In fact, two companies for the three year period have yet to comply with the requirement to have one of the audit committee members’? with financial expertise. 4. 2. Correlation Matrix Analysis Table 6 shows a non-significant value (0. 333) which is more than 0. 05, indicating data normality. Based on Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro Wilk tests, this study concludes that audit report lag is normally distributed. MCCG (2007) provides that, all members of the audit committee should be non-executive directors. 56 Pg8Pg8 Table 6: Normality Test for Audit Report Lag Kolmogorov-SmirnovaShapiro-Wilk StatisticdfSig. S tatisticdfSig. NARL0. 0348640. 0210. 9988640. 333 a. Lilliefors Significance Correction Table 7 shows no correlation problem among the variables since the value is less than 0. 5. The variance inflation factor (VIF) indicates all variables have a value below two which is within the acceptable range of 10. Table 7: Correlation Matrix Table ARLACDILACINDACEXPLog_AssetTYPEAUDROA ARL1 ACDIL0. 096**1 ACIND-0. 68*0. 0301 ACEXP-0. 0190. 0220. 0131 LOG_ASSET-0. 170**0. 093**0. 078*-0. 0031 TYPE AUD-0. 170**-0. 088**0. 010-0. 0210. 195**1 ROA-0. 076*0. 0330. 029-0. 032-0. 0210. 0061 **Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0. 05 level (2-tailed) Notes: ACINDP= percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members ACDIL= number of audit committee meeting ACEXP= no of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting LOG_ASSET= natural log of total assets (in billions of ringgit Malaysia) TYPE AUD= ‘? 1’? f audited by Big-4, ‘? 0’? if otherwise ROA= net income divided with total assets 4. 3. Fixed Panel Regression This section presents the results of the fixed panel regression using Eviews. The panel data analysis is an increasingly popular form of longitudinal data analysis among social and behavioral science researchers (Hsiao, 2003). A panel is a cross-section or group of people who are surveyed periodically over a given time period. In this study, the group is the listed companies selected and the time is the duration of the data collected, which is the three year period of 2007 until 2009.Since the data is bound to be heterogeneity, the panel data technique could take such heterogeneity explicitly into account by allowing individual specific variables (Gujarati, 2003). Normal regression does not adjust firm’? s specific effect which would lead to variables being omitted and mis-specified the model (Fraser et al. 2005). Fixed effect mo del could overcome such problem by adjusting the effects through firm’? s specific intercept by capturing immeasurable firm’? s specific characteristics (Fraser et al. 2005). Panel data provides more informative of data, variability and efficiency.Under the panel data, the model is generated as follows: ARL = 1ACINDP + 2ACMEET + 3ACEXP + 4SIZE+ 5AUDTYPE + 6PROF + it Table 8: Fixed Panel Regression Result VariableCoefficientProb. ACIND-0. 0217060. 001* ACDIL-0. 0098350. 899 ACEXP-0. 0400840. 001* LOG_ASSET-0. 1297820. 012* ROA-0. 0021460. 264 TYPEAUD0. 0025350. 294 C5. 7867340. 000 N864 57 Pg9Pg9 Table 8: Fixed Panel Regression Result – continued Adjusted R-squared0. 802562 F-statistic12. 811 Prob(F-statistic)0. 000 Notes: ACINDP= percentage of non-executive directors to the total of audit committee members ACDIL=number of audit committee meetingACEXP= no of audit committee member with background experience in financial reporting LOG_ASSET= natural log of to tal assets (in billions of ringgit Malaysia) TYPEAUD= ‘? 1’? if audited by Big-4, ‘? 0’? if otherwise ROA= net income divided with total assets Adjusted R2= adjusted R2 coefficient determination F stat= indicate how much variation is explained by the regression equation. *significant at 1%. Table 8 shows that the audit committee independence (ACINDP) and audit committee expertise (ACEXP) are significant at 1% level. Thus, accepting hypotheses one and three respectively.On the other hand, the results show that there is no relationship between audit committee diligence and audit report lag. Therefore, hypothesis two is rejected. The results indicate that audit committee independence and audit committee expertise may reduce on audit report lag but audit committee diligence could not influence audit report lag. Carcello et al. (2000) found that audit committee independence and audit committee expertise have significant relationship with audit fee while audit co mmittee diligence did not provide any relationship on audit fees.The results in this study shows significant relationship between audit independence and audit report lag which is similar to Klein (2002) that found that more independent audit committee members would effectively influence financial reporting quality. The results of this study support the view that audit committee with a simple majority of independent audit committee members are more likely to fulfill its duties effectively compared to an audit committee members that have no independent audit committee members.This is consistent with agency theory where independent members in an audit committee could assist principals to monitor the agents’? activities and reduce benefits from withholding information. They would have had provided more effective roles in monitoring the companies. Further, the number of financial experts on audit committee will reduce incident of fraud (Farber, 2005). A member with financial exper tise demonstrate a high level of financial reporting knowledge and thus expected to lead the committee, identify and ask knowledgeable questions that challenge management and external auditor (He et al. 009). In practice, it is a general belief that more meeting and discussion of the committee would improve the performance of the company. However, similar to the study done by Uzun et al. (2004), the results in this study show that the number of audit committee meeting held is not significantly associated with audit report lag. More frequent meeting that the company has does not necessarily provide better achievement to the companies. Thus, the company needs to ensure audit committee member raised and resolved issues with management during the meeting, and as a result improve the quality of reporting. . Conclusion The results of this study show that audit committee characteristics: audit committee independence and audit committee expertise contribute as important factors that affect audit report lag of the companies. Such results correspond to the resource based theory where those characteristics of audit committee as the resources and capabilities that may improve companies’? performance as well as on the corporate 58 Pg10Pg10 reporting.These two characteristics represent the Bursa Malaysia listing requirement that require audit committee compose of not fewer than 3 members with majority of them being independent directors and requires at least one member of the audit committee to have financial expertise requisite. Audit committees with those characteristics could assist the companies to be timely in their annual reporting. Finally, this study could not find significant link between audit committee meeting to audit report lag.This study suggests that audit committee could prioritise important things that need to be resolved during the meeting in order to improve the performance of the company as well as in assuring audit report lag. This study is not w ithout limitations. This study does not include other factors such as government policy or political issue that also might affect audit report lag. McGee (2007) noted that the influence of timeliness might be attributed by culture, political and economic system of the country.Secondly, covering a bigger sample would provide greater generalization on the Malaysian listed companies on audit report lag and corporate governance characteristics. Finally, this study only covers a three year period from 2007 until 2009. A longer period such as ten year period data would be more interesting as it can show the trend on audit report lag. For future research avenues, a possibility is to examine other corporate governance mechanisms; characteristics of board of directors in assuring audit report lag.Future research can also examine which parties are liable for the delay of annual report, either on the hands of the preparers or auditors. References [1] Abdul Rahman, R. and Mohamed Ali F. H. , 20 06. â€Å"? 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The Effectiveness of Audit Committee in Monitoring the Qu ality of Corporate Reporting†? , A Chapter in Corporate Governance: An International Perspective. MICG Publication: 154-175. [41] Tauringana, V. , Kyeyune, M. F and Opio P. J. , 2008. †? Corporate governance, dual language reporting and the timeliness of annual reports on the Nairobi Stock Exchange†?. Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies, 8, 13-37. [42] Uzun, H. , S. H. Szewczyk and R. Varma. , 2004. â€Å"? Board composition and corporate fraud†?. Financial Analysts Journal, May/June, 33-43. 61

Ballet I Terms Essay

Ballet I Terms Essay Ballet I Terms Essay Natasha Pineda Professor Simone di Pietro Reche Ballet I 27 August 2013 1. Five positions of the feet I. First (Premiere)- The feet form one line, heels touching to one another. II. Second (Seconde)- The feet are in the same line as first position but with a distance of about one foot between the heels. III. Third (Troisieme)- One foot is in front of the other, heels touching the middle of the other foot. IV. Fourth (Quatieme)- The placement of the feet is similar to that in third, but the feet are parallel and separated by the length of one foot. This is the classical fourth position but it may also be done with the feet in first position, only separated by the space of one foot. The former is known as quatrieme position croisee, and the later is quatrieme position ouverte. Today the quatrieme position croisee is done with the feet placed in fifth, rather than third, position, parallel and separated by the length of one foot. V. Fifth (Clinquieme)- The feet are crossed so that the first joint of the big toe shows beyond either heel. Sometimes the feet are completely crossed with the heel of the front foot touches the toe of the back and vice versa. VI. Sixth- The feet are parallel with the knees, ankle bones, and big toes touching. 2. Positions of the arms(French method): the positions of the arms are not standard in all methods. The Cecchetti method has 5 standard positions. The French school has a preparatory position and five standard positions. The Russian school has a preparatory position and 3 standard positions. I. Bras au repos- Preparatory position where shoulders are pushed down and arms are down and wrists are about hip-level II. First- arms are bought up from the preparatory position with fingertips at about level with the belly button. Arms should be rounded as if holding a beach ball. III. Second- arms are extended from the first position opening out. Shoulders, elbows, and wrists should descend downward. IV. Third- one arm is in second position while the other is held at a high fifth position V. Fourth- one arm is extended in high fifth and the other id extended at a first position. VI. Fifth- arms are extended high from the first position. Arms are raised above the head, shoulders pressed down, arms imitating holding a beach ball 3. Plià © - A bending of the knee or knees. There are two principal plià ©s : a grand plià © or full bending of the knees and demi plià © or half-bending of the knees. 4. Battement tendu- An exercise where the working foot slides from the first or fifth position to the second or fourth position without lifting the toe from the ground. Both knees are straight, and when the foot reaches the position pointe tendue, it returns to the starting position. 5. Battment degage/jette- This is similar to battment tendue, bit is done at twice the speed and the working foot rises a small amount from the floor with toes pointed. It then slides back into first or fifth. 6. Releve- Raised. A raising of the body on the points or demi-pointes from plià ©. You can releve smooth and continuous, or with a little spring. Eleve- A releve but without the plià ©. 7. Fondu- Sinking down. A lowering of the body made by bending the knee of the supporting leg. It can also be the ending of a step when the working leg is placed on the ground with a soft and gradual movement. 8. Passà ©/ Retire- Withdrawn. A position were the thigh is raised to the second position with the knee bend and turned out. The toe rests in front of, behind or to the side of the supporting knee. 9. Pas de Bourree- A movement, executed on the balls of the feet or on pointe, in which the you either skim smoothly across the floor or transfer the weight from foot-to-foot three times as a transition into another movement. A pas-de-bourrà ©e consists of bending both legs, extending one, then stepping up, up, down, finishing with bent knees. 10. Grand Battement- The working leg is raised from the hip into the air and brought

Pfizer organizational structure Essay Example

Pfizer organizational structure Essay Example Pfizer organizational structure Paper Pfizer organizational structure Paper Pfizer is one of the biggest bio pharmaceutical companies out there. They are cue reentry looking at the efficiency and effectiveness of their new functional strategy. This new strategy is being implemented in their daily operations. The new functional strategy is called Office of the future or the Magic button. It is a tool used by Pfizer employees to increase their work productivity. Pfizer has implemented this function because of a study conducted by Harvard employees. They found that almost 40% of the time spent at work was spent on support tasks. This made for a compelling case to mind a solution to tactically enhance the time spent during work hours so that employees could effectively complete all their tasks. The Magic button is an outsourcing function that Pfizer has implemented as one of their functional strategies. What it does is that it outsource basic tasks to one of two different companies in India. What the company does is that it receives a tasks, all the information regarding it, a time frame and completes the tasks by the given time. Pfizer uses this method as a type of employee empowerment by giving them the opportunity to decide what tasks needs to e outsourced to make their jobs more effective. Work specialization is in focus in this strategy because employees are dividing their tasks into separate jobs and outsourcing the tasks that would help make their job more efficient and effective. The decision to implement this function would focuses be a form of centralization, but the function itself is a form of decentralization. The function redistributes power by allowing employees to outsource work. This gives employees line authority, responsibility and accountability of tasks being outsourced. Pfizer has found a good balance between centralization ND decentralization and understand the importance of having both. I would assume that formalization is low at Pfizer because employees decide how to complete their tasks. This changes the span of control within the company because the outsourced tasks can no longer be monitored and controlled to the same degree as the employees. Top and middle management might find their span of control being slightly altered, but by trusting the front line employees they have increased the efficiency and effectiveness of their company. Top and middle management also uses this function to increase heir productivity. However this changes the employees span of control because the jobs that are being outsourced by them is now within their span of control. This makes for a narrow span of control because employees suddenly assume some kind of managerial role. This extends the chain of command within the organization. In this new strategy the chain of command becomes more important than ever. In order to make sure this new function is not being misused managers must implement new levels of control, which allows them to monitor the progress and results of the new function. Managers must use afterwards control to a new extent to make sure that the right tasks are being outsourced. They must also use concurrent control to monitor the progress of the employee to make sure that the employees time is spent efficiently and effectively. Feedback control should also be implemented to make sure that the outsourcing company is increasing their effectiveness. Monitoring the employees by receiving feedback from the outsourcing company. Also strategic flexibility has never been more important because the external change of outsourcing work could how to be a mistake because of the company that the work is being outsourced to. This all would support my theory that Pfizer has a divisional structure, because outsourcing costs are being billed at the department of the employee who ordered the job. This means the company has different budgets and financial reports depending on division or department. If It was a simple structure their would be a budget specifically for outsourcing costs. 1 . What role do you think organizational structure plays in an organizations efficiency and effectiveness?

A Proposal for Defense Against the War on Christmas

A Proposal for Defense Against the War on Christmas A Modest Proposal for Defense Against the War on Christmas Leah Abrams Across this great and beautiful nation, bombs are dropping. Swords are being raised, grenades are being launched, and battalions are being activated. What aim do our aggressors pursue? What is the flag flown in this frightful fight? The bloody battle being waged against hard-working Americans everywhere is the most outrageous and troubling issue facing our generation†¦ The War on Christmas. The War on Christmas is just the next scheme on the liberal agenda attempting to turn us all into atheist, sexually immoral deviants. However, in recent years, they have escalated this ambush on Christmas spirit to an unprecedented extreme. At this point, the forced removal of Christ from the holiday season is the most preposterous violation of liberty in this nation’s history. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached a juncture at which the Christmas season lasts only from November 1st to December 25th. I know- despicable. The War on Christmas is a threat to Christians everywhere. PC-police and social justice warriors are attempting to bring about a world in which we say â€Å"happy holidays† instead of â€Å"merry christmas;† a world in which Starbucks cups are merely red and green for a few weeks- with no sign of Christ, a tree, or Santa Claus on the entire cup. Where is our love for religion? Where is our dedication to Christian values? Where is our deeply held belief in Santa Claus, Rudolph, and that little New Year’s Baby? Obama has even renamed the White House Christmas tree the â€Å"Holiday Tree.† Why must they target Christmas? I hold that Christmas remains the primary target of all grinches because it is objectively and undoubtedly the best holiday of all time. Our assailants know that they must defeat us by attempting to abait our Christmas cheer, by attempting to destroy our love of mistletoe, and by attempting to remove our favorite carols from malls across America. But we can withstand this injustice no longer. It is time to launch back with all of our effort, spirit, and stamina. It is time to muster all of our strength and defend the true Christmas spirit. For this reason, I’ve drawn up a modest proposal for a counterattack in the heart wrenching War on Christmas. I propose that we pass a national law mandating an extension of the Christmas season to 365 days per year. You heard me right, folks. I am proposing a year-round celebration of Christmas. Every mall in the United States will echo with Christmas carols 24/7, spurring on Christmas gift shopping. Every home will be decorated with a fragrant, beautiful pine tree in its living room. Santa Clauses will be set up on every corner, and ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas will become ABC Family’s 365 Days of Christmas. Even better, federal law will require a detailed depiction of the crucifix on each and every grande Starbucks cup. Tall cups will be decorated with a holly wreath, and ventis will display the three wisemen. I suppose that my heartless opponents will attempt to find flaws in my foolproof plan. They may argue that celebrating Christmas all year round diverts attention from lesser-known, less important holidays- that it’s unfair to people who celebrate things like Divalidan or Chanukwanzah. However, Christmas is simply a better holiday, and deserves more attention, joy, and frenzy surrounding it. I know that people of other religions will agree, and eventually, through the constant celebration of Christmas, they will come around to join us. Never fear, dear readers, I have nothing to gain from this proposal. In fact, I am far from having any sort of monetary or power-seeking motive in this endeavor, as I do not celebrate Christmas. The war on Christmas is an inherent violation of our God-given right to shove our religion down everyone else’s throats. Never again will someone tell me â€Å"happy holidays† or to enjoy my â€Å"winter break.† It’s time to take a stand in defense of the Christmas spirit. My fellow Americans, join me in defending your Christian morals. Join me in defending Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty. Join me in celebrating the best movies, songs, and sweaters of all time. Join me in saying â€Å"Merry Christmas-† all year.

Stock Price and Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Stock Price and Information - Essay Example This will benefit existing shareholders.however; the potential new shareholders are not stupid. They will infer overvaluation from the new issue, thereby bidding down the stock price on the announcement date of the issue. So, for the information asymmetry stock price is raised.therefore, information affects stock price in many way. There is substantial evidence of short-term stock price continuation, which the prior literature often attributes to investor under reaction to new information. 1 By information uncertainty, it is meant that ambiguity with respect to the implications of new information for a firm's value, which potentially stems from two sources: The volatility of a firm's underlying fundamentals and poor information. Here, main hypothesis is that if investors under react to public information, they will under react even more in cases of greater information uncertainty. The testable implication is that greater information uncertainty about the impact of news on stock value leads to higher expected stock returns following good news but lower expected stock returns following bad news relative to the returns of stocks about which there is less information uncertainty. ... Several papers including Chan, Jegadeesh, and Lakonishok (1996) attribute price continuation to a gradual market response to information. Hirshleifer (2001) and Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Subrahmanyam (1998, 2001) posit that psychological biases are increased when there is more uncertainty. New information is public, easily categorized as good or bad, and occurs fairly frequently. There are six proxies for information uncertainty: Firm size, firm age, analyst coverage, dispersion in analyst forecasts, return volatility, and cash flow volatility.2 For each of the six proxies, greater information uncertainty leads to relatively lower future stock returns following bad news and relatively higher future returns following good news, suggesting that uncertainty delays the flow of information into stock prices. In other words, the market reaction to new information is relatively complete for low-uncertainty stocks, and there is little news-based return predictability. For high-uncertainty stocks, on the other hand, the market reaction is far from complete. Good news predicts relatively higher future returns and bad news predicts relatively lower future returns. This relation between information of uncertainty and future returns has used in prior empirical studies. Further assu rance that is missing risk factors does not drive the results by documenting a similar return pattern around subsequent earnings announcement dates. The opposite effects of information uncertainty on stock returns following good vs. bad news amplify the results of trading strategies. As a result, trading strategies that buy good-news stocks and short bad-news stocks work particularly well when limited to high-uncertainty stocks. For example, a momentum

Critique 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Critique 2 - Essay Example The theater also had a set stage where piano presentations were well orchestrated. Seok-Min having had the exposure and years of training on the piano. He got the opportunity to present his skills to the audience. The Sonata in C Major was a very slow and subtle piece written and composed by Joseph Haydn in the 17th and 18th century. There was also another piece B Minor composed by Franz Liszt and written in 1811 to 1886. The piece was long and well separated with hype and the mid and a slag finish. Although the piece was no interactive as then, performers had a fixed position as they keyed their way in the performance. In the recital hall, a number of musical pieces such as the piece by Claude Debussy, Etudes (1915). The piano presentation was primarily a senior grounds on which, I had the opportunity to get in touch with the other professional artist such as on ever. The piano presentation hall lacked proper organizations as the viewers were a section the performance was not as wel l orchestrated. The coordination and rhyme of the pattern lines as Seok-Min played were not in line with the other beats from the backup singers. The soprano presentation was very well planned but at the begin the lack time conscious meant that the piece had to be fast passed in order to appear like it was perfectly matched with the real thing. Seok-Min performance, on the other hand, was perfect as the support his musical pieces came through swiftly in the end. Their dressing also made the event look well organized as they marched to suit the theme they were reflecting in their musical pieces. The piano performers Seok-Min on the piano was also able to make his piece Sonata in B minor a success as his esteemed practice showed perfections as his confidence on the piano was visible although the theater. His mode and sample piece were different from the other one before him as it allowed for a chance in the treble. He incorporated major

Essay topic in reference to Personally Identifiable Information and

Topic in reference to Personally Identifiable Information and ethics - Essay Example This paper describes ethical issues and their relationship to the use of information technology the paper delves trends as well as impacts of the ethics of individuals and organizations Ethical actions of a person are defined as activities that are performed with a particular criterion of what is good. It thus relates to the question of what is regarded as good or bad by humans. Just like the other fields, information technology is aided by a particular code of ethics (Floridi, 2008). Privacy is an issue that has both external as well as internal implications. Keeping in mind that all organizations often collect their employee’s data, data that is not safeguarded properly can lead to various implications to an individual. Such information includes background data, compensation, and personal identification data such as account identifiers and social security numbers. This type  of information is maintained as well as accessed by authorized personnel. Systems that are used in tracking sensitive information are secured, though at some point data must be used in other systems. To ensure that information is secured, operational procedures and policies are used to handle data, in case these policies and procedures are not properly enforced, they can be accessed by unauthorized personnel and can be used to commit crimes. All Employees activities as well as the use of technologies are monitored by their organizations. Thus, employees are notified that when they are using organizational assets, they should not expect any privacy; such corporate assets include network and internet access. Even without such disclaimers, there is no need to notify that they are being monitored (Mason, 2006). The major issues in monitoring of employees activities include whether organizations have obligations to notify their employees the extent of

Literary works comment on society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Literary works comment on society - Essay Example These all show her vacillation between tradition and modernization, comfort and progress, and that Tess is unable to decide which is right for her. The new order seems to ignore emotion, but the idea of condemning the baby Sorrow to eternity in purgatory for the sake of her anti-Christian beliefs makes â€Å"her nightgown damp with perspiration† (Chapter XIV). Tess becomes the unsure frontrunner of the new, twentieth-century combination of Christian doubt and personal spirituality. Tess is personified as a â€Å"daughter of Nature† (Chapter XVIII), with religion as a function of civilization, and as such she cannot quite choose which authority to be persuaded by: tradition deems that she should follow Christian law closely, although certain allowances are made in her hometown. For example, near the start of the novel, Tess participates in Cerealia, a festival for the Goddess of the Harvest (Chapter II).

Cognitive And Neuropsychological Models Of Mathematical Processing Essay

Cognitive And Neuropsychological Models Of Mathematical Processing Have Advanced Our Knowledge Of How We Do Mathematics - Essay Example Number sense may is indispensable to judge the number of predators or the quantity of food or the size of the turf indispensable for survival (Gallistel C. R., Rochel Gelman. (2003)). Research to understand brain mechanisms underlying mathematical ability have included not only normal human subjects but infants, patients with injured brains and even animals. While an unequivocal proof is still illusive, several interesting finds have helped make progress. Studies confirm the mathematical prowess all of many animals like chimpanzees, birds and even the lions (Gallistel C. R., Rochel Gelman.(2003)), (Brian Butterworth.1999. ) Human understanding of mathematics is more complex and advanced as it involves the verbal pathways as well. According to Butterworth, human cognition of numbers begins from the first day of life. Studies were performed with babies by increasing or decreasing the number of dolls shown to them. A perceptible, intelligent change in their response confirmed the presen ce of mathematical hardware in the brain right from Birth. In fact Butterworth calls this an, â€Å"instinct.† (Brian Butterworth.1999.)

Essay topic in reference to Personally Identifiable Information and

Topic in reference to Personally Identifiable Information and ethics - Essay Example This paper describes ethical issues and their relationship to the use of information technology the paper delves trends as well as impacts of the ethics of individuals and organizations Ethical actions of a person are defined as activities that are performed with a particular criterion of what is good. It thus relates to the question of what is regarded as good or bad by humans. Just like the other fields, information technology is aided by a particular code of ethics (Floridi, 2008). Privacy is an issue that has both external as well as internal implications. Keeping in mind that all organizations often collect their employee’s data, data that is not safeguarded properly can lead to various implications to an individual. Such information includes background data, compensation, and personal identification data such as account identifiers and social security numbers. This type  of information is maintained as well as accessed by authorized personnel. Systems that are used in tracking sensitive information are secured, though at some point data must be used in other systems. To ensure that information is secured, operational procedures and policies are used to handle data, in case these policies and procedures are not properly enforced, they can be accessed by unauthorized personnel and can be used to commit crimes. All Employees activities as well as the use of technologies are monitored by their organizations. Thus, employees are notified that when they are using organizational assets, they should not expect any privacy; such corporate assets include network and internet access. Even without such disclaimers, there is no need to notify that they are being monitored (Mason, 2006). The major issues in monitoring of employees activities include whether organizations have obligations to notify their employees the extent of

Cognitive And Neuropsychological Models Of Mathematical Processing Essay

Cognitive And Neuropsychological Models Of Mathematical Processing Have Advanced Our Knowledge Of How We Do Mathematics - Essay Example Number sense may is indispensable to judge the number of predators or the quantity of food or the size of the turf indispensable for survival (Gallistel C. R., Rochel Gelman. (2003)). Research to understand brain mechanisms underlying mathematical ability have included not only normal human subjects but infants, patients with injured brains and even animals. While an unequivocal proof is still illusive, several interesting finds have helped make progress. Studies confirm the mathematical prowess all of many animals like chimpanzees, birds and even the lions (Gallistel C. R., Rochel Gelman.(2003)), (Brian Butterworth.1999. ) Human understanding of mathematics is more complex and advanced as it involves the verbal pathways as well. According to Butterworth, human cognition of numbers begins from the first day of life. Studies were performed with babies by increasing or decreasing the number of dolls shown to them. A perceptible, intelligent change in their response confirmed the presen ce of mathematical hardware in the brain right from Birth. In fact Butterworth calls this an, â€Å"instinct.† (Brian Butterworth.1999.)

Breakfast Club Analysis Essay Example for Free

Breakfast Club Analysis Essay The well-known song â€Å"Don’t You Forget about Me† plays at the end of the movie The Breakfast Club, signaling not only the end of the famous movie, but also the end of the transitory group that had developed in the earlier scenes. Although movie was released over twenty years ago, high school students today can still use the labels that are examined in the movie to identify themselves in the cruel world they call high school. With the final lines â€Å"you see us as you want to see usIn the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions,† the point of the movie finally becomes apparent; stereotypes are not accurate representations of teenagers, but instead they accurately represent who teenagers think they are. There is no doubt that students all come with labels; it is inevitable. But whether a student is a brain, a jock or a princess, they are all greatly impacted by the stereotypes and boundaries that are a part of each of their social groups. To teenagers, being a part of a social group is huge, as portrayed in The Breakfast Club. As soon as the movie starts, viewers can decipher the cliques that each student is in. When the students are being dropped off, viewers assume which cliques each student is in by their appearances, how they respond to their parents, and how they react to coming to school on a Saturday. The most important identification of each student’s clique is seen by where they sit in the library. Much like the school cafeteria today, the students sat where they felt comfortable. In this case, it was away from everyone else in the room, with the exception of Andrew and Claire who were already in similar social groups and had similar friends. Bender eventually approaches the topic of the students’ separate cliques by asking Andrew, â€Å"Do you think Id speak for you? I dont even know your language.† The students, while all in similar situations have trouble effectively communicating because they do not really know each other. This proves how drastically different teenagers are from those not included in their immediate friend group. Humans in general, especially teenagers, are greatly influenced by their peers and the activities that their peers participate in. This means that they are also largely impacted by the stereotypes that are associated with their cliques and social groups. Stereotypes change who teenagers think they are based upon what others are saying about them. Being forced into a role can completely change who a person is or how someone acts. For example, Andrew felt genuinely bad about taping together Larry Lester’s butt cheeks,  but he was influenced by his friends and by the expectations that he thought his father had for him. These expectations can drastically impact how teenagers treat one another. At the end of the movie, the boundaries outlined earlier in the film are semi-broken. Although, Claire tells Bender that she hates her friends, she remains friends with them because she does not feel like she would belong in another clique. The boundaries that are formed from the very beginning, such as the language each teenager uses or the lunches that they have, are finally broken when Allison takes the varsity letter off of Andrew’s jacket and when Claire gives Bender her earring. Although neither of these actions is huge, and none of the students will leave their prior friend group, they are beginning to break the boundaries that separated them in the first place. And though the breakfast club may never speak to each other again, they have developed a greater sense of understanding for each other and the cliques that they are all in. While Brian, Allison, Bender, Claire, and Andy may never talk to each other again, they may reconsider how they treat someone in a different social group than them or how they perceive someone who is different than them. The cliques are still going to exist, yet the students will be able to see others for who they really are, not for who others think they should be. Whether a student is impacted directly by their friends and peers, or by the boundaries that tie them to a specific group, the fact that there mindset is shifted by these pressures is unavoidable.