Notes Receivables

NOTES RECEIVABLE * Represents claims for which formal instruments of credit are issued as evidence of debt, such as promissory note. The credit instrument normally requires the debtor to pay interest and extends for time periods of 30 days or longer. Notes receivables are considered current asset if they are to be paid within 1 year and non- current if they are expected to be paid after one year. NEGOTIABLE PROMISSORY NOTES * Unconditional promise in writing made by one person to another, signed by the maker, engaging to pay in demand or at the fixed determinable future time a sum certain in money to order or to bearer.An entity owned a tract of land costing P 800,000 and sold the land for P1,000,000. On January 1, 2011 the entity received a 1- year note for 1,000,000 plus interest of 12% compounded annually. Journal Entry: First year: Note receivable1,000,000 Land800,000 Gain on sale of land200,000 # DISHONORED NOTES * Promissory note matures and is not paid. * When the maker of a n ote fails to pay on the due date, the note receivable is considered to be dishonored. A dishonored note is no longer negotiable. Journal Entry: 2012 Jan. 1 Accounts receivable1,120,000 Notes receivable 1,000,000Interest income 120,000 # INITIAL MEASUREMENT * Conceptually, notes receivable shall be measured initially at PRESENT VALUE. * However, SHORT TERM NOTES are measured at FACE VALUE. * The initial measurements of LONG TERM NOTES will depend on whether the notes are INTEREST- BEARING or NONINTEREST- BEARING. INTEREST- BEARING LONG TERM NOTES are measured at FACE VALUE which is actually the present value upon issuance. NONINTEREST- BEARING LONG TERM NOTES are measured at PRESENT VALUE which is the discounted value of the future cash flow using the effective interest rate. SUBSEQUENT MEASUREMENTAmortized Cost * the amount at which the note receivable is measured initially minus principal repayment, plus or minus the cumulative amortization of any difference between the initial car rying amount and the principal maturity amount minus reduction for impairment or uncollectibility. For long-term noninterest-bearing notes: Amortized Cost = present value + amortization of the discount Or Amortized Cost = face value – unamortized unearned interest income Accordingly, only long-term notes receivable will be discussed in conjunction with the present value concept under the following situations: . interest-bearing note b. noninterest bearing note Problem 7-2 â€Å"FATHOM COMPANY† (INTEREST- BEARING NOTE) 2011 Jan. 1Cash1,000,000 Notes Receivable6,000,000 Land5,000,000 Gain on sale of land2,000,000 # Dec. 31 Accrued Interest Receivable720,000 Interest Income720,000 (6,000,000 x 12%) # 2012 Dec 31 Accrued Interest Receivable806,400 Interest Income806,400 # 6,000,000| +| 720,000| =| 6,720,000| | | | *| 12%| | | | | 806,400| 2013 Jan. 1Cash7,526,400 Notes Receivable6,000,000 Accrued Interest Receivable? 1,526,400 #Accrued interest receivable? 2011| | | 720,00 0| 2012| | | 806,400| | | | 1,526,400| Problem 7-3 â€Å"BUG COMPANY† (NONINTEREST- BEARING NOTE 1) 2010 Jan. 1Note receivable600,000 Sales540,000 Unearned interest income 60,000 # DATE| NOTES RECEIVABLE BALANCE| FRACTION| INTEREST INCOME| Dec. 31, 2010| 600,000| 1/2| 30,000| Dec. 31, 2011| 400,000| 1/3| 20,000| Dec. 31, 2012| 200,000| 1/6| 10,000| | 1,200,00| | | Dec. 31Cash200,000 Notes receivable200,000 # Unearned interest income30,000 Interest income30,000 # 2011 Dec. 31Cash200,000Notes receivable200,000 # Unearned interest income20,000 Interest income20,000 # 2012 Dec. 31Cash200,000 Note receivable200,000 # Unearned interest income10,000 Interest income10,000 # PROBLEM 7-4 â€Å"IMPRESS COMPANY† (NONINTEREST- BEARING NOTE 2) 2010 Jan. 1Cash100,000 Note receivable900,000 Sale? 820,540 Unearned interest income? 179,460 # Face value900,000 Present value (300,000*2. 4018)720540 Unearned interest income? 179,460 Present value720,540 Cash received100,000 Sales price? 82 0,540DATE| ANNUAL COLLECTION| INTEREST INCOME| PRINCIPAL| CARRYING AMOUNT| Jan. 1, 2010| | | | 720,540| Dec. 31,2010| 300,000| 86,465| 213,535| 507,005| Dec. 31,2011| 300,000| 60,841| 239,159| 267,846| Dec. 31,2012| 300,000| 32,154| 267,846| ? | Dec. 31Cash300,000 Unearned interest income 86,465 Note receivable300,000 Interest income 86,465 # 2011 Dec. 31Cash300,000 Unearned interest income 60,841 Note receivable300,000 Interest income 60,841 # 2012 Dec. 31Cash300,000 Unearned interest income 32,154 Note receivable300,000 Interest income 32,154 #

Stock Track Simulation Sample

PART1-Investment Policy Statement Purpose of Policy Statement The purpose of the Policy Statement is to create an agreement between XXXX, YYY, and ZZZ to collectively manage a mock $1,000,000 portfolio during the 2011 fall semester. It will define the investment objectives, strategies, and risks associated with this portfolio. Investment Objectives The objective of our team is to seek capital appreciation of portfolio in three months.Moreover, given the little risk tolerance of the team, our nominal return should exceeds the rate of inflation over some period of the time through capital gains, and increase the purchase power of our group. The chosen benchmark to beat is the S&P index. Investment Strategies Our investment strategies are somewhere in between to maximize expected returns and to minimize risks. We use Market timing as one of our strategies to maximum our returns. The market timing strategy is to making buy or sell decisions of financial assets by attempting to predict fu ture market price movements.The prediction is based on an outlook of market or economic conditions resulting from technical or fundamental analysis. Also we another strategy is to analysis base on performance of a particular financial asset. The start-up fund was divided into six parts: 10% cash, 5% mutual funds, 55% stocks, 30% bonds, and may vary by+/-5%. Given the short time frame, liquidity is a concern and as such long-term speculative investments such as real estate, art and antiques, and collectibles will be avoided.Only those investments than can be traded on a short-term notice will be used. Taxes and trading costs will not be considered since this is a simulation. Investment Risk On the grounds of strong risk aversion expressed within the team, risk bearing in excess of general market risk is not tolerated. Moreover, the team strives to mitigate the inevitable share of market risk as much as possible. As to the weight assigned to each stock that is central to risk control, there is a cap of 25% of the fund that is available to each stock.No extra use of fund is allowed on single stock basis. PART2-Methodology 1. Well-Diversified & Best Risk-Return Trade-off Portfolios After we established the investment policy that specified our investment objectives, risk tolerance, allocation of different types of securities in details, we then sought for the best selections of securities. Generally, our first methodology was very simple but useful: maintain an appropriate level of portfolio diversification, and maximize the total return on our investment meanwhile limit the total risk.According to this basic approach, firstly, we divided our bond investment into four portions equally in Treasury Bonds and different corporate bonds, which enjoyed good credits, rated above A, and operated stable and profitable in the long-run: |Table1 Bond Selections | | |Coupon Rate/Maturity |Rating | |T-Note |3. 75%/15-Feb-2013 |AAA | |MetLife Inc. |5. 000%/15-Jun-2015 |A | |Morg an Stanley |5. 250%/02-Feb-2012 |A | |Merck & Co Inc. |4. 000%/30-Jun-2015 |AA | Secondly, with respect to the reserved attitude for mutual funds, our team decided to only invest in two of them, taking up 5% of our whole portfolio value totally.The following table provides summary information on these two funds: |Table2 Mutual Fund Selections | | |Blackrock Aggressive Prepared P (BCAPX) |Goldman Sachs Trust Equity Growth (GAPAX) | |Category |Large Blend |World Stock | |YTD Return |-3. 94% |-5. 30% | |Morningstar Overall Rating | | |Beta |1. 01 |0. 96 | |Mean Annual Return |1. 02 |1. 00 | |R-squared |96. 63 |95. 10 | |Standard Deviation |20. 05 |22. 64 | |Sharp Ratio |0. 0 |0. 52 | |Treynor Ratio |10. 53 |10. 21 | |Source: www. yahoo. com/finance | |www. reuters. com/finance | |All information are based on 3 years performance of the mutual funds |Finally, we would invest into two major kinds of stocks with different risk-return trade-offs. We would buy and hold value stocks from well-known, high-credited and strong firms with the attempt to diversify our portfolio and gain a stable growth. On the other hand, we would also choose some other growth stocks, which were generally characterized as higher-risky, non-US and more volatile, aiming at buying them low and selling them high to â€Å"speculate† or â€Å"gamble† the extraordinary gains in a relatively short period.Due to the complex and crucial features for stock selection, we thereafter developed a comprehensive procedure particularly, called a blend of â€Å"Specific Analysis† and â€Å"Overall Analysis† by our own, to help us select our portfolio wisely. 2. Specific Fundamental Analysis When choosing the value stocks, we primarily applied the fundamental analysis including different kinds of analyses for sectors, firm’s specific potentials, cash flows, earnings, and dividends. This procedure had approximate four steps: To begin with, we would view the sector and firm ’s overall ability because we were buying a business, not a stock.Generally, corporates in prosperous industries and growing stages would likely take our prior consideration. An important indicator to show whether a corporate has potential ability was the historical prices of its stock. Therefore, a long-run descend stock price usually implied the decline of the firm, which largely against our favor. Then we needed more fundamental analysis for a firm’s earning ability in depth, such as earning per share that shows how well earning support its shareholders’ benefits and the P/E ratio that indicates how investors expect its future earning power.General speaking, we preferred earning growth at least 7% annually and P/E ratios at the lowest 10% of all equity securities when selecting the growth stocks. After viewing a firm’s possible return, we next looked into another important factor-the risks along with the firm. Basically we would like to know the firmâ €™s Beta that measures how much the systematic risk affects the firm’s stock and the leverage ratio that discloses its financial stability and stress. Thus we were looking for firms having low Beta and D/E ratio of no more than 1.Finally, we would use the discounted cash flow model to find out the reasonable market value for the firm’s stock and to see whether it is incorrectly undervalued by the market. The following table provided the summary of our holding-oriented equity securities: |Table3 Stock Selections | | | |Google Inc. (GOOG) | |New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. EDU) | 3. Overall Performance Analysis After well knowing the firms and their stocks we chosen from the comprehensive selection procedure, we took one more step to mix then together and see how much our portfolio’s overall proposition fits our objectives and expectations. We decided to combine all equity securities, bonds and mutual funds, which we would like to hold for a rel atively long time span and calculate the overall expected rate of return and risk using Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). 4.Tracking and Monitoring Process While the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) claimed that the stock prices were reflecting all relevant news and information and always showing the inherent value of the company, valuing a stock was just a vain attempt. Our team members, however, were more inclined to believe that the EMH was honestly set up in the academic wonderland. Thus, beside the stock valuation analysis addressed above, we also made the agreement that paying attention to both whole market and firm specific news on daily basis and making appropriate adjustments according to the news in time.In addition, we would keep tracking and recording our portfolio’s overall performance and rating on a week basis meanwhile monitoring the growth stock’s specific performance on daily basis because day-time monitoring and trading could enable us to avoid th e big loss due to the high volatility of them and grab the best time to gain the extraordinary profits. PART3-Microanalysis of the Market During this stock simulation, our group has learned that it’s quite instrumental to analyze and, if possible, follow the market trend for the sake of wise investment.Hence, microanalysis of the market is equally, and sometimes more important as the number analysis. Since the stock simulation only lasted for three months, out group mainly did the short-term analysis. Depending on our analysis, world’s financial market has become more volatile and unpredictable for the short run, primarily because the global economy grows sluggishly and involves more risky events. Several reasons are illustrated as follows. The euro zone debt crisis is the number one big headache. The debt problem in Europe has become persistent and pervasive. Greece experienced the most serious situation.Simply, Greece has borrowed much more money than they can pay ba ck. Italy is in better financial shape, but still risky since investors continued demand high interest rate of its bond. Other countries, such as Spain and even France, the second largest euro zone economy, have also been under pressure as investors question the creditworthiness of every euro zone government. Consequently, the global stocks, especially European and American Stocks have caught the euro zone flu. Investors have become super sensitive about each piece of information associated with the term, euro zone.Our group has recorded that the Dow Jones Industry Average index fluctuated mostly following the euro zone policy changes. It soared rapidly when European Union announced the Greek rescue plan and plumped immediately when the Greek government announced the Greek referendum the next day. â€Å"Markets always want short, sharp, simple solutions. † said Bob Janjuah, fixed income analyst at Nomura Securities (‘The eurozone†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, 2011). † In additi on, the future of U. S. economy is ambiguous. U. S. has been through a tough time since the subprime mortgage crisis. Analysts share different point of views about whether U.S. is experiencing a recovery or recession. First, the macroeconomic data tells an unclear story. The growth rate of real GDP (As illustrated by the figure below) in the third quarter is 2. 0%, higher than the previous two quarters. While compared to the previous year, we can see the U. S. economy has slowed down. Though the U. S. economy has jumped out of the mire in 2008, it remains unstable. While we focusing on the recent year data, we can see no big signal of an up-coming boom or bust. As showed below, the unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent.New jobs are created, but not sufficient. Average Hourly Earnings remains the same. CPI and PPI both declined on October, primarily due to the decline of energy price. In addition, the 2011 U. S. fiscal policy remains neutral. The market is unlikely to get fu rther stimulus. Also we can forecast an increase in the rate of fiscal tightening at the federal level over the next period of time. Overall, U. S. economy still remains unsustainable and U. S. financial market is highly sensitive, which can be immediately shocked by each piece of up-coming information, whether positive or negative. Table4 United States – Monthly Data | |Data Series | | |Our Value |Rank |S&P500 |Comparison with peers | | | | | |Google |Kraft |BRK-B |BP | |09/13/2011 |529. 2 |34. 23 |68. 85 |36. 45 | |09/20/2011 |546. 63 |34. 52 |69. 72 |38. 77 | |09/27/2011 |539. 34 |34. 93 |72. 07 |37. 94 | |10/4/2011 |501. 90 |32. 86 |73. 17 |35. 42 | |10/11/2011 |543. 8 |34. 40 |73. 41 |38. 36 | |10/18/2011 |590. 51 |35. 24 |75. 07 |41. 11 | |10/25/2011 |583. 16 |34. 93 |75. 74 |43. 52 | |11/1/2011 |578. 65 |34. 56 |75. 52 |42. 72 | |11/8/2011 |612. 4 |35. 48 |78. 16 |44. 70 | |11/15/2011 |616. 56 |35. 48 |75. 93 |43. 70 | |11/18/2011 |594. 88 |34. 77 |75. 37 |42. 48 | |To tal Return |12. 34% |1. 58% |9. 47% |16. 54% | Source: www. google. com/financeFrom the table and graph above, we could clearly see that the best performer in our portfolio was BP with a 16. 54% total return, while the worst one was Kraft with a total return of 1. 58% during the holding period. Among all of the four holding-oriented securities, the only one underperformed than the benchmark, namely S&P500, was Kraft. All other three stocks had much better return than the S&P500 of 3. 64%. Overall, these observe actually proved that our selection approach for holding-oriented stocks was successful. PART5-Conclusion What we did successfully:Generally speaking, the first class we learned from this three-month stock simulation is how to select stocks and establish a portfolio wisely and systematically. From initially setting up the investment policy, we explored how to select and allocate the individual securities, how to diversify our portfolio to minimize the risks, and how to find th e best return-risk trade-off for our portfolio. Through this procedure, we really needed to use all financial knowledge we have learned before, including fundamental analysis, ratio analysis, technical analysis, free cash flow analysis and so on.Another significant difference is that we did pay a lot attention to follow macroeconomic and financial news, as well as particular news about our securities. It brought us more quickly and sensitive observe ability to what happened all over the world than before. In addition, we did well on diversifying our portfolio and minimize the systematic risks. Since we established an investment policy in details that we strictly implemented, we had everything under control and didn’t expose to any extraordinary risks out of our expectation.What we would improve in the future: Unfortunately, we did beat the benchmark performance finally, although we once did well and ranked better during the trading period. Firstly, we had to admit that someti mes we have delayed trading and tracking our portfolio, resulting in great losses on some particular stocks. Besides, we had limited experience on daytime trading and using on-time information, so we sometimes encounter unexpected results. For example, we sold Apple’s stocks immediately after we got the news about its CEO, Steven Jobs’s death.However, as we all know, the Apple’s price wasn’t affected a lot in the next trading date. In the way that was expected, unlike our holding-oriented stocks, our gambling-oriented stocks general performances were typically unsatisfied. Therefore, we concluded that wisely selecting stocks according to the macroeconomics and fundamental analysis and then holding them for a relatively long period would be the best way to gain profit from security market.Interestingly, we also found that people might not that know themselves on risk tolerance. Whatever from our investment policy or our trading strategy and results, our po rtfolio is somewhat risk-averse, so we well diversified our investment and always holding a relatively high level of bonds and mutual funds, as well as some excess cash. Interesting finding is that, however, our group members got all high-risk-tolerance ranking in the survey that we finished on class. Appendix1 Ratio Calculation Spreadsheet pic] Appendix2 Class Ratings [pic] References â€Å"The eurozone debt crisis just won't quit†, retrospect from: http://finance. yahoo. com/news/eurozone-debt-crisis-just-wont-211300837. html â€Å"StanChart warns on China’s local-government debt†, retrospect from: http://www. marketwatch. com/story/stanchart-warns-on-chinas-local-government-debt-2011-09-20 Data, retrospect from www. yahoo. com/finance Data, retrospect from www. reuters. com/finance Data, retrospect from www. google. com/finance

Resolving Ethical Business Challenges Essay

Peter had been a human resource (HR) manager for 18 years and vice president for 2 more years for Zyedego Corporation, a small company in New Orleans. In the last decade, there have been many changes to what potential/actual employees can be asked and what constitutes fair and equitable treatment. Frankly, the situation Peter was in was partly his own fault. The first issue began when Gwyn, one of Peter’s HR managers, was planning on rehiring Dana Gonzales but found out that Dana was pregnant. Because of the â€Å"rough† condition of the workplace, Gwyn was concerned for Diana’s safety. If Dana were rehired, employees’ hourly wages should be decreased by 25 percent because the company had experienced setbacks during the hurricane and had to work with a reduced budget. In addition, Gwyn had some concerns over Dana’s citizenship because her passport appeared to be questionable. Dana had been slowing providing the documents since the flood destroyed th e original documents. Then Dana stated that if not rehired she would go to a competitor and expected the company to pay severance of two weeks’ wages for the time she was out of work during the hurricane. Another issue is the hiring of truck drivers. Zyedego hires many truck drivers and routinely requests driving records as a part of the preemployment process. Several of the potential new hires have past DWI records. Gwyn has hired some drivers with infractions to secure the necessary number of drivers needed to the company. Zyedego has even deeper problems when Hurricane Katrina killed Guy Martin. The company’s death benefits provide only 50% of the deceased pension for a surviving spouse. Also, because the body had not been found, there was legal question of death. Darell Lambert, the chief adjuster for Zyedego’s insurance and pension provider, proposed that it will be helpful for the company’s recovery and survival to reduce the total reimbursements by 40%. Here is the point where Peter’s decision making comes to play. QUESTIONS: 1. What are the legal and ethical risks associated with the decision about hiring truck drivers at Zyedego? * 2. What should Peter recommend to Gwyn about Dana’s case? * Peter should recommend to Gwyn not to rehire Dana due to questionable citizenship. The company may be liable if proven that Dana is not a resident of New Orleans. 3. Do you think Peter is too emotionally attached to the Martin case to make an objective decision? * Yes. Because Peter wanted to help the 100 families even if there is a need to cut down the total reimbursement by 40%. There is the assurance that the 100 families will receive financial assistance from the company but not the exact amount as stated. Conclusion: * Regarding the issue of hiring the truck drivers, it is unethical for Gwyn to hire employees only for the sake of securing the numbers of workers needed to perform the job. Gwyn should take consider of the implications of her ineffective decision making on hiring drivers with records of infractions. Still, there is a probability of recurrence. * On Dana’s case, it will be ethical for Peter to recommend not rehiring Dana because of the â€Å"uncertainty† about her citizenship. If proven that Dana is not a citizen of New Orleans, then there is misconduct on Dana’s point of view because she had not provided a reliable document regarding her nationality requirements if she is really permitted to work in New Orleans. * On Martin case, Peter had to take some considerations of implementing some actions for the survival of the business. As an ethical leader, Peter should consider stakeholder’s interest at the same time. His decision should be in the process that is respectful of them not only for the firm’s survival.

Great Works of Western Philosophy pre-final paper 2 Essay

Great Works of Western Philosophy pre-final paper 2 - Essay Example While Anselm’s ontological argument achieved a good amount of support, Aquinas’ cosmological outlook was the result of his strong criticism of the views of the former. However, what seems to be evidently noticeable is that Aquinas’ argument is another improvement of the ontological view of Anselm. Saint Anselm proposes his ontological view on the existence of God in Proslogion, one of the most discussed philosophical discourses of all time. As Anselm argues, he makes certain key points in favor of the existence of God: So the ontological argument states that God is the greatest possible entity to be conceived, and God exists in both reality as well as in our understanding. Whatever we can assume in the mind, it can also be conceived of as existing in reality too. Therefore, God is the greatest being existing in both reality and in the mind. However, Anselm’s ontological theory has been criticized and strongly rejected by a number of Catholic theologians as well as non-Christians, and particularly by Thomas Aquinas, another Italian theologian. Aquinas’ most acclaimed work is Summa Theologiae or ‘Summary of Theology’, where he discusses his outlook on the existence of God. Criticizing the ontological argumentation of Anselm, Aquinas elaborates his cosmological view on the existence of God in terms of five arguments or proofs. The first proof is argued from the point of view of motion that everything on earth undergoes change with regard to something existing in reality. That means there must be a first mover from which it starts. This mover is constant and known as God. The second proof argues that every effect must have a cause. The first and efficient cause of everything is known as God. The third proof states that God is the main cause for the necessary existence of everything. The fourth pr oof argues that God is the most perfect thing to possibly conceive of. The fifth proof argues that God is the master planner of everything

The BuyRite Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

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Significant event in your life - Assignment Example My liking for horses became stronger with every passing day. I repeatedly asked my parents to get me a horse, but they kept giving me the same answer: that a horse was expensive, and that I needed money that I would use to was and feed it. This information almost dashed my hopes of ever riding a horse, let alone owning one. I reverted to my television shows, every day seeing someone on horseback, galloping away. Somewhere deep down in my heart I knew that one day I would ride a horse across the plains and into the jungle. A few years later, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I was taking a walk in the country. The air was humid and the sky was clear. The strong wind blew dust into my eyes as I turned my eyes towards a group of people gathered in some field. I quickly rubbed my eyes to have a clearer view. On looking, I saw a group of people on horsebacks and in helmets, with a stick that appeared to be a hockey stick, chasing at a ball-like thing. I innocently inquired from a stranger what they were doing, and the stranger whispered the word ‘Polo’. I decided to go back home, excited at hearing a new word which I was sure was connected to the horses that I had just seen. I searched the dusty magazines that my father stacked in the library adjacent to his room. At first, I almost gave up because of the huge piles of books, some of which spread all over the floor. I took a deep sigh and embarked on my search. Almost an hour later, I found an old magazine, tattered at the borders. The magazine was in bad shape; the cover page, which had a woman in a helmet that resembled the ones I had seen the riders in earlier that day, had coffee spilt all over it, some pages were missing from the inside and some were folded at the edges. I dusted it off and looked inside. That was my first encounter with Polo. Since that day, I always talked about Polo with every chance I would get. I kept saying to my friends that I wanted to play Polo

Online Consumer Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Online Consumer Behavior - Essay Example In the physical commercial world, the IT used for operations remains mostly in the background, invisible to the consumer. In e-commerce, however, the technology has been moved to the foreground and has become the store itself as a Web site. Such Web-based stores that use "networks and Internet technology for communications and transactions between various groups of stakeholders like businesses and consumers" have recently also been called Net-enabled organizations (NEOs). A key difference between online and offline consumer behavior is that the online consumer is generally more powerful, demanding, and utilitarian in her shopping expeditions. As a result, customer loyalty on the Web is low overall; although, as in the physical world, it is influenced by the availability of good, relevant content in an enjoyable context. Now that nearly all marketers have accepted that tapping a promotion's full potential requires strategically integrating the online and offline components, considering the differences between online and offline consumer behavior becomes important. Some professionals contend that these differences are enormous; a common refrain, for example, is that where consumer behavior offline is passive, the Web is all about engagement. But what those observers really are comparing is consumer behavior relative to advertising media; they're comparing how consumers interact with ads on television as compared with ads on the Internet. Where online and offline promotions are concerned, the differences are far less pronounced. In many cases, a Web site is really just a digitized retail store. Still, the simple insight that the exact same triggers motivate transactions both on- and offline has tended to become obscured amid the excitement accompanying the rise of online marketing. Promotions that focus on connecting the dots between in-store and online merchandising have, in fact, proved highly successful. Pepsi enjoyed runaway success with its E-Stuff promotion, which drove traffic from the store to the Web and back again. Simon Brand Ventures similarly fielded an online promotion that drove online shoppers to the company's malls, and mall shoppers to the Web. That's not to say that anyone who knows everything about offline promotions can consider himself armed and dangerous when it comes to online promotions. Some interesting, and sometimes surprising, trends and patterns have emerged with regard to online consumer behavior. One such interesting development concerns the profile of the online population: According to a recent newspaper report, the fastest-growing consumer segment on the Web is blue-collar workers---up 52% since spring 2001. A separate and somewhat contradictory report has it that seniors actually are the fastest-growing segment, even though 87% of people over age 65 don't yet have Web access. Meanwhile, a third survey found that online games, in particular, hold surprising appeal among older consumers. This survey discovered that 42% of frequent online garnets are over age 35, while just 30% are 18-to-35 years old. These groups have nowhere to go but up in terms of their online use; still, their growing ranks among the wired population point to as-yet uncharted opportunities for promotion marketers, and their online behavior bears watching. Plenty of opportunity remains among the younger set, to

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

Goverment 2 - Essay Example In Texas, the governor could fill any position in an Appellate or district court left vacant by resignation, death, or new positions created by the county commissioners’ court which is the governing body. The vacant positions are filled until the next election is conducted and then they seek re-election. The judicial system in Texas has had numerous appointments by the governor as the judges upon retirement they resign to allow the governors fill the positions as they can be trusted with choosing a replacement unlike the voters would o in a ballot. The straight – ticket voting in Texas has led to many Democratic office holders lose their positions to the unknown Republican challengers who have minimal or no judicial and courtroom experience; in 1994, Republican candidates who lacked judicial experience defeated 16 incumbent Democrats while one Democrat was re-elected in Harris County. In the same year, Steve Mansfield was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest court for criminal cases in Texas whilst he lacked experience in criminal law. The other problem is the effect of candidate judges campaign contributions so as to secure a position in the judiciary; Chief Justice John Hill spent over $1 million so as to ensure a win in the elections in 1984, a prospective candidate spent over $2 million in the 1988 elections, and the contributions for the campaign usually come from the law firms that need to do business with the judges they give money. In 1995, the Supreme Court of Texas established a commission to solve the problems and queries of the judicial selection system. The commission was referred to as the Commission on Judicial Reforms (Geyh, 2006). According to Missouri plans, appointments in the judiciary, the arrangement permitting lawyers to create power centre within the judiciary. This is to ensure that judiciary maintains some corrective

The Geopolitics of Oil Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Geopolitics of Oil - Assignment Example Hence, it got imperative for the West to dominate the politics and economy in the Middle East, a resolve that only strengthened with time. As the world began to reap the benefits of industrialization signified by mechanization and automation of most of the salient aspects of social, industrial and economic existence, oil and natural gas emerged to be the primary drivers of industrial growth, economic progress and social mobility in the developed world. The developing nations were still marred by colonial suppression, conventional economies, poverty, political marginalization and scientific backwardness. Thereby, the expected outcome of this scenario was that if on the one side the industrialized West became the primary consumer of the world oil and gas resources, the concentration of the world petroleum reserves in the Middle East made it a strategic imperative to tighten the Western grip over the region. The following decades only saw a continuation and expansion of this planned Western hegemony. The meddlesome mentality adopted by the political class in Europe and the US was conveniently followed by the Western corpo rations, once they realized that petro resources surpassed any other sector, when it came to maximizing returns on investment. In a post World War II scenario, the victorious powers that are the UK, France, and the US did assure that the nations they had artificially carved out of their erstwhile fiefdoms were governed by autocratic rulers, who relied on their military and political backing to hold on to power. In contrast, the common populace in the region deeply resented these West backed dictators. Consequently in many Middle Eastern nations, this popular aversion for the meddlesome, oil hungry West led to the rise of nationalist, Islamic or socialist political forces, the most salient examples being Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Egypt. This didn’t change the Western mentality or the urge to control petroleum wealth in the

Army Regulation Essay Example for Free

Army Regulation Essay Chain of command a. The chain of command assists commanders at all levels to achieve their primary function of accomplishing the unit’s assigned mission while caring for personnel and property in their charge. A simple and direct chain of command facilitates the transmittal of orders from the highest to the lowest levels in a minimum of time and with the least chance of misinterpretation. The command channel extends upward in the same manner for matters requiring official communication from subordinate to senior. b. Commanders are responsible for everything their command does or fails to do. However, commanders subdivide responsibility and authority and assign portions of both to various subordinate commanders and staff members. In this way, a proper degree of responsibility becomes inherent in each command echelon. Commanders delegate sufficient authority to Soldiers in the chain of command to accomplish their assigned duties, and commanders may hold these Soldiers responsible for their actions. Commanders who assign responsibility and authority to their subordinates still retain the overall responsibility for the actions of their commands. c. Proper use of the chain of command is vital to the overall effectiveness of the Army. Commanders must acquaint all their Soldiers with its existence and proper function. Effective communication between senior and subordinate Soldiers within the chain of command is crucial to the proper functioning of all units. Therefore, Soldiers will use the chain of command when communicating issues and problems to their leaders and commanders. Open door policies Commanders will establish an open door policy within their commands. Soldiers are responsible to ensure that the commander is made aware of problems that affect discipline, morale, and mission effectiveness; and an open door policy allows members of the command to present facts, concerns, and problems of a personal or professional nature or other issues that the Soldier has been unable to resolve. The timing, conduct, and specific procedures of the open door policy are determined by the commander. He or she is responsible for ensuring that Soldiers are aware of the command’s open door policy. Performance counseling Commanders will ensure that all members of their command receive timely performance counseling. Effective performance counseling of officers, noncommissioned officers (NCO), enlisted Soldiers, and DA civilian employees helps to ensure that they are prepared to carry out their duties efficiently and accomplish the mission. AR 623–3 and AR 690–400 contain counseling requirements in conjunction with the evaluation reporting systems. Unit commanders will determine the timing and specific methods used to provide guidance and direction through counseling. FM 6–22 provides advice and makes suggestions concerning effective counseling. Providing regular and effective performance counseling to all Soldiers, not just those whose performance fails to meet unit standards, is a command function. All commanders will ensure that their subordinate commanders have implemented and are maintaining an effective performance counseling program. Staff or technical channels Staff or technical channels may be used for sending reports, information, or instructions not involving variations from command policy and directives. Command of installations, activities, and units a. Responsibility. The senior regularly assigned United States Army officer present for duty normally has responsibility for the command of units, platoon level and above, except as shown in paragraphs 2–8a, 2–15, and 2–16. b. Command of installations. Command of Army installations is subject to policies, procedures, and regulations promulgated by HQDA. (1) Command of Army installations is exercised by a senior commander (SC). The SC is designated by senior Army leadership. The SC’s command authority over the installation derives from the Chief of Staff, Army (CSA) and Secretary of the Army’s (SA) authority over installations. This is a direct delegation of command authority for the installation to the SC. The SC’s command authority includes all authorities inherent in command including the authority to ensure the maintenance of good order and discipline for the  installation. (2) Army installations are identified in one of two categories as follows: (a) Installations managed by Installation Management Command (IMCOM). Installations that are managed by IMCOM are discussed in paragraph b(4)(e), below. (b) Installations not managed by IMCOM. Installations that are not managed by IMCOM are discussed in paragraph 2–5b(4)(f), below. (3) Joint bases. Army installations designated for management under Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Basing 6 AR 600–20 †¢ 18 March 2008  Guidance shall be operated in full compliance with DOD requirements. In the event of a discrepancy between this regulation and the DOD policies or procedures for Joint basing, the DOD policies or procedures take precedence. (4) Roles and responsibilities. (a) Senior commander. The SC is normally the senior general officer at the installation. The SC’s mission is the care of Soldiers, Families, and Civilians, and to enable unit readiness. While the delegation of senior command authority is direct from HQDA, the SC will routinely resolve installation issues with IMCOM and, as needed, the associated ACOM, Army service component command (ASCC), or direct reporting unit (DRU). The SC uses the garrison as the primary organization to provide services and resources to customers in support of accomplishing this mission. All applicable commands support the SC in the execution of SC responsibilities; therefore, the SC is the supported commander by the IMCOM region director (RD), the garrison and tenants. The SC— 1. Normally is a dual-hatted position. When this occurs the commander exercises discrete authorities as the SC and as a mission commander. The SC responsibilities and authorities are installation focused; the responsibilities and authorities as the mission commander are mission focused. 2. Can, in rare cases, be an HQDA-appointed civilian versus a uniformed SC, who will assume the SC roles and responsibilities with the exception of UCMJ and command authority. In these instances, the individual will be referred to as the senior manager. Prior to the appointment of the senior manager, command and UCMJ authorities for the installation will be specified. 3. Is responsible for synchronizing and integrating Army priorities and initiatives at the installation. On IMCOM managed installations there is a requirement for a strong collaborative relationship between the SC and the IMCOM RD. The SC commands the installation but funding of almost all installation activities flows through the RD. 4. Assumes the duties and responsibilities of the installation commander where that title is mentioned in U.S. Code or DOD or Army policies and regulations. 5. Assumes the duties and responsibilities of the senior mission commander where that title is mentioned in Army regulations except for regulations involving operational duties and responsibilities. Mission commanders will retain operational duties and responsibilities. 6. Unless prohibited by law or regulation, the SC may delegate, as necessary, assigned duties and responsibilities to the garrison commander (GC). Such delegation shall be made in writing and specifically state the duties and responsibilities so delegated and the termination date of the delegation. 7. Establishes installation priorities among all resident and supported units. 8. Prioritizes base operations support consistent with HQDA priorities and approved common levels of support (CLS) bands. 9. Oversees the CLS services and capabilities provided to customers. Ensuring that those services are provided within the HQDA guidance, designated priorities, and approved CLS bands and coordinates with the IMCOM RD to change HQDA approved CLS from green, amber, or red. 10. Approves and submits the installation master plan consistent with HQDA long-range plans and goals through the ACOMS, ASCCs or DRUs, and IMCOM. For IMCOM installations the SC collaborates with the IMCOM RD before the SC submits the installation master plan. 11. Approves the military construction, Army (MCA) and military construction, Army Reserve (MCAR) project priority list at the installation level. For IMCOM installations the SC collaborates with the IMCOM RD before the SC  approves the MCA and MCAR project priority list for the installation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers executes MCA/MCAR projects for the Army. 12. Reviews and approves the prioritization of Family and installation programs. For IMCOM installations the SC collaborates with the IMCOM RD before the SC approves Family and installation programs for the installation. 13. Installation force protection (FP) is as follows: (a) continental United States (CONUS) SC: as directed by U.S. Army North (USARNORTH) and in coordination with the installation management headquarters (IMCOM and Non- IMCOM), oversees FP on the installation; (b) outside continental United States (OCONUS) SC: in coordination with the ASCC and IMCOM is responsible for FP oversight on the installation. 14. Is normally designated as a General Court-Martial Convening Authority (GCMCA). The GCMCA orders will specify the appellate and review channels for SC GCMCA actions. 15. The appellate and review authority for administrative actions taken by the SC pertaining to individual Soldiers and DA Civilians will flow through ACOM, ASCC, or DRU channels unless otherwise specified in Army regulations. The terms next superior authority, next higher authority, next higher commander, and next higher headquarters as used in other Army regulations, mean ACOM, ASCC, or DRU commander or headquarters. 16. Serves as the senior Army representative to the surrounding community. 17. Senior rates the GC. (b) Garrison commander. The GC is a military officer, lieutenant colonel or colonel, selected by HQDA. The GC commands the garrison, is the SC’s senior executive for installation activities, is rated by the IMCOM RD, and is senior rated by the SC. The GC is responsible for day-to-day operation and management of installations and base support services. The GC ensures that installation services and capabilities are provided in accordance with HQDA AR 600–20 †¢ 18 March 2008 7  directed programs, SC guidance, CLS, and IMCOM guidance. The GC provides additional service support in accordance with HQDA directives and provides reimbursable services in accordance with memorandum of understanding or agreement (MOU/MOA). The GC is responsible to deliver Family and  installation programs, coordinates and integrates the delivery of support from other service providers, and obtains SC approval of the installation master plan. The GC may be appointed as a Summary Courts-Martial Convening Authority or the Special Courts-Martial convening authority for the installation and its support area; in rare cases the GC may be appointed as GCMCA. In some cases, the senior official on an installation may be the garrison manager. A garrison manager (the civilian equivalent of a GC has the same responsibility and authority as the military counterpart with the exception of UCMJ and command authority. Prior to the appointment of the garrison manager, command and UCMJ authorities for the garrison will be specified. The GC responsibilities are— 1. Represents the Army and the installation in the surrounding community as directed by the SC. 2. Approves and issues garrison policies in accordance with respective Army regulations, or installation level policies involving tenant units as directed by the SC. 3. Approves and issues policies for IMCOM civilian workforce. 4. Develops and implements the Force Protection Program. 5. Supports mobilization station requirements. (c) The ACOM, ASCC, or DRU on IMCOM managed installations. 1. Provide to IMCOM a prioritized list of MCA/MCAR projects and requirements that impact subordinate units to support the development of the military construction (MILCON) program and the program objective memorandum. 2. Provide IMCOM with subordinate mission priority requirements for MILCON and base operations. 3. Identify to IMCOM, through the CLS process and other requirements development processes, the required levels of garrison support needed to meet mission requirements. Also, identify to IMCOM any support requirements not included in CLS services. Collaborate with IMCOM in developing garrison support requirements that are applicable to all garrisons. 4. Evaluate the effectiveness of installation services and support and participate in the prioritization of these services and support. 5. Responsible for mobilization of subordinates as specified in AR 10–87. 6. Provide prioritization requirements for information technology and training enabler support to IMCOM. 7. Responsibilities for FP are: (a) OCONUS: The Geographic Combatant commander exercises Combatant Command (Command Authority) (COCOM) authority over all aspects of FP in the AOR and delegates authority for FP as deemed appropriate and necessary. This includes all aspects of FP on Army installations without exception; (b) CONUS: Commander, USNORTHCOM has tactical control (for FP) over all DOD personnel and assets in the AOR. USARNORTH is designated as USNORTHCOM’s ASCC; the authority to execute the FP mission in CONUS is delegated from Commander, USNORTHCOM; (1) USARNORTH has direct command and control authority over commands when executing FP responsibilities for installations/facilities (FP reporting commands/SCs when executing FP responsibilities for installations/facilities); (2) USARNORTH has a supported/supporting relationship with commands not executing responsibilities for installations/facilities (FP supporting commands). (d) Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management. The ACSIM is the proponent for all Army installations and in this capacity is responsible for installation policy development and implementation Armywide. The ACSIM does not exercise command authority over Army installations. 1. The ACSIM ensures that real property accountability and reporting is implemented at all installations (see AR 405–45). 2. The ACSIM manages HQDA level MILCON in accordance with HQDA priorities and guidance. 3. The ACSIM is the proponent for environmental policy Armywide. (e) Installation Management Command. The ACSIM is dual-hatted as the Commander of IMCOM. IMCOM is a DRU reporting to the ACSIM as described in AR 10–87. IMCOM manages Army installations assigned to it. IMCOM executes installation readiness missions, provides equitable services and facilities, optimizes resources, sustains the environment, and enhances the well-being of the military community. IMCOM is accountable for the efficient delivery of installation services and support. The IMCOM is responsive to ACOMs, ASCCs, and DRUs through a supporting to supported relationship. 1. IMCOM commands the garrisons assigned to it. 2. IMCOM and its subordinate organizations are supporting commands to the SC  on IMCOM installations. There is a requirement for a strong collaborative relationship between the SC and the IMCOM RD. The SC commands the installation but funding of almost all installation activities flows through the RD. 3. The relationship between IMCOM and the commands of tenant organizations is analogous to the supporting to supported† command relationship described in Joint Doctrine. 4. The IMCOM RD rates the GC. 5. IMCOM ensures compliance with HQDA directed programs and CLS bands. IMCOM staffs and coordinates with 8 AR 600–20 †¢ 18 March 2008  HQDA funding requests for garrison support requirements identified by ACOM, ASCC, or DRUs that are not included in CLS services. 6. There is a difference between command relationship in CONUS and OCONUS for IMCOM installations. These relationships are depicted in figure 2–1..

Significance Of Recruitment And Selection Business Essay

Significance Of Recruitment And Selection Business Essay Recruitment and selection process in an organization is important in order to attract an effective workforce. This is important because it would determine the business success and would affect the whole organization operation. One of the most valuable assets in an organization is the employees. Recruitment is defined as the process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers, and with appropriate qualifications, and encouraging them to apply for jobs with an organization (Mondy Noe, 2008). There are two main stages of recruitment. Firstly, strategic planning is needed to define the objectives and goals of the organization. Next, human resource planning is needed to identify the whether there are surplus or shortage of workers or just enough workers to achieve the organizational goals. The objective of recruitment is to attain the number and quality of employees that can be chosen to help the organisation achieve its objectives and goals. It also helps to create a pool of potential employees for the organisation in order for the management to select the right applicant for the right job. Selection is the process of choosing from a group of applicants the individual best suited for a particular position and organization (Mondy Noe, 2008). The vital goal of selection is to hire the candidate who is most suitable for the job duties and the culture of the organization. Using the right selection methods and delivering them effectively is important. Human resource managers can determine effective selection tools with the job when job analysis is carefully done.( Neil Kokemuller) Proper selection of candidates can reduce the cost of training because qualified candidate can perform well and achieve organizational goals. Selection can also reduce employee problems in the organization such as labour turnover and absenteeism. 2. Content Since recruitment and selection cost are significant, there are some alternatives to solve shortage of employees. The alternatives to recruitment are outsourcing, contingent workers, professional employer organization and overtime. Outsourcing is when the organization uses an external company to perform task and function of the organisation. Contingent workers are also known as temporary workers, part-time workers and just-in-time workers. When there is not enough full-time employees to complete some task, using contingent workers is a good choice. Professional employer organisation is companies that lease out their employees to organisations for a certain period. Overtime is when employees work for extra hours to deal with a large workload that is temporary. This way organisations save money on recruiting, selecting and training new employees. 2.1 Recruiting methods Recruitment source is the place where qualified individuals are found (Mondy Noe, 2008). Recruitment method is defined as the ways in which potential employees are attracted to an organisation (Kleynhans, 2006). Internal recruiting methods are employee database, employee referrals, job posting and job bidding. Employee database is able to show the organisation whether current employees have the required qualifications for filling the vacancies. Furthermore, an employee referral is when employees mention someone who is capable and suitable for the job opening to the recruiter. Job posting is a procedure of letting employees know there is a job vacancy whereas job bidding is a procedure that employees who believe that they possess the required qualifications to apply for the vacant position. There are several external recruiting methods. The methods commonly used are media advertising, job fairs, internships and employee agencies. Media advertising is a popular method. The organisation can put up its employment needs through various advertising means such as newspaper, internet, radio and television. Other than that, job fair is a recruiting method used by employers to attract large number of applicants to one location for interviews. Internship is where students are hired by an employer for a period of time into professional or technical position that relates to their area of study and prepare them for the workforce (Internship Definition, 2008). Employee agencies are organisation that aids to recruit employees and also help individuals to find for jobs. 2.2 Selection process The first step of selection process is preliminary interview. This step is to eliminate obviously unqualified candidates. The HR manager can conduct this step via telephone, video or virtual job interview. Telephone interview is commonly used as it saves time. The next step in selection process is review of applications and r à ©sumà ©. Evaluation of the applications of employment is done by the employer to determine whether the applicant is suitable for the position. Subsequently, the organization will administer some test such as work sample, job knowledge, psychomotor abilities test, vocational interest, and personality. Work sample test is used to test the ability of an individual to perform task that represent the job itself. Job knowledge test are used to test the applicants knowledge on duties of the job applied. Psychomotor abilities test assess the strength, coordination and agility of the applicant. Vocational interest test are used to test ones satisfaction or interest on the occupation. Personality test measures trait, temperaments and characters of the applicants. Employment interview is the oral examination of candidates for employment. The employer will exchange conversation with the applicants to evaluate them. There are two types of interview; structured and unstructured. Structured interview ask about questions related to the job whereas unstructured interview ask open-ended question. There are also four methods of interviewing which are one-on-one, group, broad and multiple interviews. Following the employment interview, investigation of the applicants background and reference are done to determine the truth of information stated. Previous employment, education verification, criminal history and personal reference check are some elements to verify. Next, selection decision is conducted. This is the most crucial step in the process. Candidate with the best qualification would be recruited by the organization. Lastly, medical examination is administered to see whether the candidate is physically capable to execute the job functions. If the applicants pass the whole process successfully, they will be notified to commence work as soon as possible. 2.3 Significance of Recruitment and Selection Recruitment and selection process is important for an organization to achieve its goals. When the right people are selected, the employee will produce productive results and stay with the organisation longer hence having a low employee turnover. If selection is not carefully done, the employee may make mistake which leads to a financial loss. It also wastes the time of human resource managers to go through the recruitment and selection process again. 3. Case development 3.1 Company description The company that we have chosen for our assignment is Public Bank Bhd. This company was start up in August 1966 by its Founder and Chairman, Tan Sri Dato Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow. Public Bank is a top-tier bank in Malaysia. Public Bank Berhad is engaged in investment holding, stock-broking, provision of related financial services, management of unit trust funds and sale of trust units, underwriting of insurance. Furthermore, Public Bank also emphasises on a wide range of banking services such as commercial banking, investment banking, financing Islamic banking business and card businesses. In the market of banking services, Public Bank is the market leader in consumers banking and retail commercial lending to SMEs in Malaysia. Besides, Public Bank has about 250 branches throughout Malaysia .The company employs 90% in Malaysia which mean more than 14,000 people are employed by the company and the services that provides in each of the branches include deposit accounts, insurance plans, loans, insurance plan and as well as credit cards. In addition, it has more than 100 overseas branches in countries including Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. The Public Bank Group has demonstrated powerful capacity of transporting exceptionally high rates of organic growth in its core businesses. In other hand, this company perform six segments. Retail operations which concerning on transferring the products and services to all small and medium-size businesses. Second, hire purchase operations, the provision of passenger vehicle financing to all levels of customers are being concerned by hire purchase operations. Furthermore, corporate lending operations provide the financing needs of corporate customers. In addition, trading treasury related products and services is engaged in the treasury and capital market operations. Investment banking operations which provide the business needs of business customers. Last but not least, fund management operations which consist of sale of trust units and the management of unit trust funds. Besides, Public Bank`s banking and management excellence has continued to be accorded prestigious domestic and international recognition. Furthermore, its excellence performance has received several awards granted by highly reliable institution and magazines. These awards included the Best Domestic Commercial Bank in Malaysia by Asiamoney and The Asset, Best Local bank in Malaysia by FinanceAsia and Euromoney, Best Bank in Malaysia by Global Finance and the Most outstanding Annual Report Award. In other hand, Between the 40 mainly well regarded Malaysian companies, Public Bank was ranked at 2 in year 2003. The bank also won the KLSE Corporate Excellence Award for the fourth consecutive year and the inaugural Malaysian Business Corporate Governance Award in year 2003, becoming the standard bearer of good corporate governance practices in Malaysia. Human capital is the most valuable assets for Public Bank Group. The Public Bank Group is committed in generating its human capital and determine the need for a powerful performance reward system to encourage their employees to perform better by rewarding their employees. Previously, Public Bank Group still stands out as one of the strongest and successful financial services group during the global recessionary economic conditions. Besides, Public Bank Group reward the staff with higher bonus as a result of their excellent performance. The compensation make up of a basic salary of RM 2,800 per month for entry level, other benefits and caring environment for the right applicants. With increasing online purchasing, Public Bank is now providing internet banking services, PBeBank.com .The security of the internet banking was improved with an alert mechanism that is well-qualified to identifying and diminishing doubtful account activities and preventing unauthorised access. Besides, this internet banking system allows customers to make payment for regular bills. In branches, every customer service delivery is improved with special care counters for senior citizens, expectant mothers and the disabled. Moreover, in each of the branches it provide convenient one-stop assistance for customer enquiries on loans. 3.2 Company recruitment practices and implementation There are two recruitment methods; internal and external. Public Bank uses both methods but mainly on external. Internal recruitment method Promotion from within The internal recruitment source that used by Public Bank is promotion from within. In general it is a procedure that the manager has stated a promise to consider promoting current employees for an opportunity before employing applicants from outside the organization. One of the employees, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Utama Thong Yaw Hong who was the Director in June 1986 and made Chairman in October 1986, now serves as Independent Non-Executive Co-Chairman of the Board at Public Bank Bhd (Reuters). External recruitment method Online Recruiting Method Public Bank is using external recruitment sources to find qualified individuals. One of the external recruitment source that usually used by Public Bank is online recruiting. Public Bank post their job vacancy on their company website and job search engine such as jobstreet.com. Media Advertising Besides, external recruitment method that used by Public Bank to attract potential employees is media advertising. The most common media advertising that used by Public Bank to convey their employment needs is through newspaper namely in The Star Jobs section. Job fair Moreover, Public Bank also used Job fair as one of the external recruitment method. Job fair is a exposition or fair that organized by an organization for the purpose of matching job seekers and people who seek for a job. One of the job fair that Public Bank has involved is the MCTF 12( Malaysia Career and Training Fair 2012). Before the Job fair Public Bank may posted their vacancy job detail on their website. The detail included minimum qualification, previous employment, communication skill and so on. Public Bank usually will transfer their employees from one department to another department. And this could bring the benefit of providing a excellent candidates for Public Bank to fill a vacancy. 3.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Recruiting Methods Promotion from within . Because the current employees had gone through the training that provide by company and it take the current employee much less time to become efficiency and effective to the new job because current employee is already familiar with their job, so the current employees is someone who is capable for the empty job in the company. Besides, it is economical. By using the internal recruitment source, Public Bank has eliminated the cost of advertising, interviewing, training and development since the current employee has familiar with their works. In other hand, current employees have worked for the company for a period of time. So they are able to fit in with the company culture. It is very important because it could help to achieve organization efficiency. For example, employees who can work well with their colleague improve the efficiency in productivity of the organization because a person work in a warm and good culture environment could improve the productivity of the organization. Besides, this internal recruitment practices could motivate the employees. It encourages the employees to work hard and get promoted. One of the disadvantages of promotion from within is limited choice for the company. The selection of applicants is forced to be done from a limited pool. Due to this, the quality of applicant may need to be sacrificed and resolved in applicants that have less qualification. Other than that, candidates from within do not have a new ideas. Employees from within could not bring in outside talents and skills to maintain new ideas and plans to come in. And this will not make the company grow and improve. Moreover, promotion also can be resulted in inefficiency as it only focus on the services length rather than value, and it may be a good thing for inefficient candidates as they will not need to work hard in order to prove that they are worth to stay in the organisation. Online Recruiting The advantage of e-recruiting is that it saves cost on promoting company vacancy because it is free for Public Bank since it is placed on their website. Secondly, it is also easy to place an online advertisement. HR Managers dont need an in-depth knowledge on IT since most job sites and CV database are user-friendly. By using the external recruitment source of online recruiting, it is also time-consuming because it will generate many unqualified candidates. The human resource managers will waste time trying to filter and sift out all of the unqualified candidates. When they are choosing candidates, they will become confused because there are too many candidates. Media advertising The reason that Public Bank using this method is newspaper advertising can appeal to a wider audience. Those audiences have different backgrounds, specialized knowledge and experience. Public Bank can refer to their viewpoint and try to apply in their business. It can also help to fill the vacancies fast. However, there are many disadvantages for advertising too. Advertising will waste a lot of money. It will not be cost-effective. It is also time-consuming because it will generate many unqualified candidates. The human resource managers will waste time trying to filter and sift out all of the candidates. When they are choosing candidates, they will become confused because there are too many candidates. Career Fair Through this career fair Public Bank had the chance to meet up large number of applicant in a short time. Besides, this fair allow the employers to meet their potential employee face to face, exchange information and impress them. However there are some cons on job fair too. One of the cons is during the job fair the environment may be very noisy and overcrowded. This could affect the recruiting process. Besides, it is time consuming, the employers may meet a lot of unqualified employees and it may take some time to filter the unqualified employees. 3.4 Selection Process After the recruitment process, Public Bank will undergo selection process. Selection means choosing the best individual best suited the particular position in Public Bank from a group of qualified applicants. Public Bank want to make sure that the applicants is properly matched with jobs and organization by selection process. The selection process in Public Bank is done step by step after Public bank recruited qualified people throughout the selection methods. The first process is preliminary interview. The main objective Public bank do this process is to eliminate the obviously unqualified individuals. Public bank will phone the candidates recruited to have a telephone conversation. In the conversation, the applicants will be eliminate once they are found not fulfill the qualification. Second process is review application and resumes. Qualified applicants will send their resume according to the jobs they apply. Summary of experience, education, training development must include in the resume for the process of selection. Public Bank will check for the validity and reliability of the resume in different ways such as make a phone call to the university he or she graduated, make a phone call to his or her last company to check for his or her experience and personality. The third process is having a selection test. In Public Bank, they basically will have cognitive test, job knowledge test and work sample test. Public Bank will give the applicants an IQ test form to fill up, to make sure the ability of applicants and how well he or she can perform a job. After that, Public Bank will give them job knowledge tests to measure how deep their knowledge about the position. After that, Public Bank will create a situation and require applicant to solve it based on their experience. This is the best way to test the ability of the applicant, to find out how applicants deal with the uncertainty and solve the problem with best solution. Fourth process is employment interview. Public Bank will ask the applicants come to branch to have a face-to-face interview. Basically, the interviewer will ask about occupational experience, academic achievement, interpersonal skills and how well applicants try to fit into the organization. Public Bank will uses both structured and unstructured interview. First ask applicants to introduce themselves, lists out their strength and weaknesses. After that, the interviewer will ask about the job related question. Public bank usually uses one-on-one interview method. Fifth process is pre-employment screening. Public Bank wants to determine the accuracy of information submitted by applicants. Public bank will checks applicants previous employment, education, criminal history, compensation history and credit history. The validity of information is very important; this is to make sure they hire the best workers among the applicants. Sixth process is selection decision, the most important and critical step. Interviewer will discuss with their head of department and head of human resource management to choose the person most closely conform to the open position and organization. Final process is to notify the applicant who being chosen. Public Bank will inform them as soon as possible by email and formal letter. 3.5 Advantages of the practice of Selection methods in H.R management Save time and cost When Public Bank does the preliminary interview, it helps to reduce time and effort. This method can eliminates weak candidates and send the high quality applicants for the second interview. Phone call will not cost Public Bank as much as compare to face-to-face interview and effort of interviewer. It is also a way to test for the verbal skills by having tele-conversation. If the applicants cannot perform well in tele-conversation, for sure they will also not perfom well during face-to-face interview which require higher verbal skills include body language, eye contact and movement. Increase efficiency Applicants will be given a selection tests. All the results obtain from the selection test will be standardize and uniform. Hence, it will be faster during make comparison between applicants, directly increase the efficiency of selection process. Other that, structure interview also will increase the efficiency of selection process because the question is similar for the entire applicant such as introduce yourself. By this, interviewer will have a best formal answer and determine which applicant will give the answer most close to the formal answer. Increase reliability and accuracy Public Bank will have a background and references checks after face-to-face interview with the applicants. They want to make sure that information given by applicants is not fraud and certificates and documents submitted are recognized by the issuing units. Once the issuing units confirmed the certificates and documents thus prove the applicants have the qualification with proper education background. If records are not found when refer to the issuing units, thus can eliminate the applicant to prevent organization hire the unqualified worker. Disadvantages of the practice of Selection methods in H.R management Interviewer may have bias to certain group of people Public Bank is using one-on-one interview method. This method is quite inappropriate when the interviewer is biased to certain group of people. The performance of applicants is very subjective due to the perspective of the interviewer. For example, when the interviewer believe that man will perform better in banking industry compare to woman, no matter how well the women performance during the interview or having higher education of that area, having more experience, she will still not been selected because of the point of view of the interviewer. This may cause Public Bank lose a better worker thus directly reduce competitive advantage. Time consuming Public Bank want to increase reliability and accuracy but in another hand waste time. To check for the validity of certificates and documents, the issuing units need time to proceed. While waiting for the feedback from issuing unit, applicants may search for other jobs. Once they found the information given by selected applicant is fraud, they need to select another applicant and go through this process again. Besides that, by having one-one-one interview method, it takes times to review all the applicants. As we know time is crucial because when the applicants wait for a long time and do not receive any feedback, they may search for other job opportunity.

Quantum Phase Transition Between U(5) and O(6) Limits

Quantum Phase Transition Between U(5) and O(6) Limits Critical Exponents of Quantum Phase Transition Between U(5) and O(6) Limits of Interacting Boson Model Abstract In this paper, Landau theory for phase transitions is shown to be a useful approach for quantal system such as atomic nucleus. A detailed analysis of critical exponents of ground state quantum phase transition between U(5) and O(6) limits of interacting boson model is presented. Keywords: Landau theory, quantum phase transition, critical exponents, dynamical symmetry limits. PACS: 24.10.Pa; 21.60.Fw; Introduction Studying the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density, including possible phase transitions, is one of the most interesting subjects in recent years. Drastic changes in the properties of physical systems are called phase transitions which these properties have been characterized by order parameters. Phase transitions occur as some of parameters, i.e. control parameters, which have constrained system, are varied. Temperature-governed phase transitions in which the control parameter is temperature,, have been known for many years [1]. Landau theory of phase transitions [2-3] was formulated in the late 1930s as an attempt to develop a general method of analysis for various types of phase transitions in condensed matter physics and especially in crystals .It relies on two basic conditions, namely on (a) the assumption that the free energy is an analytic function of an order parameter and on (b) the fact that the expression for the free energy must ob ey the symmetries of the system. Condition (a) is further strengthened by expressing the free energy as a Taylor series in the order parameter. For fluid systems, as we become close to the critical point, some of the quantities of system are related to the temperature asfor some exponents of. The similar behaviors may be seen not as a function of temperature but as a function of some other quantities of system, e.g.. These exponents,, are called critical exponents and naturally defined as [4]. Some basic critical exponents in thermodynamics have been employed to describe the evolution of considered systems near the critical points [5-6]. Quantum Phase Transition in the Interacting Boson Model (IBM) In nuclear physics, quantum phase transitions, sometimes called zero temperature or ground-state phase transitions can be studied most easily with using algebraic techniques that associate with a specific mathematical symmetry with different nuclear shapes. Interacting Boson Model (IBM) as the most popular algebraic model in description of nuclear structures was proposed in 1975 by Iachello and Arima to describe the collective excitations of atomic nuclei [7-10]. In this model, nucleons in an even-even isotope are divided into an inert core and an even number of valence particles. These particles are then considered as coupled into two kinds of bosons that may carry either a total angular momentum 0 or 2, and are respectively called the s and d-bosons. The bilinear operator that may be formed with s and d-boson creation and annihilation operators close into the U(6) algebra whose three possible subgroup chain match with the U(5), SU(3) and SO(6) solution of the Bohr Hamiltonian, i.e. respectively with spherical, axially deformed and ÃŽ ³-unstable shapes. It is of great interest to be able to describe the evolution of considered systems near the critical points. Lets consider a general form of IBM Hamiltonian as [7] where is the d boson number operator and, i.e.explores the quadrupole interaction. Also, other terms of Hamiltonian are This general Hamiltonian can describe three dynamical symmetry limits with different values of constants, i.e.,ands. We must consider a transitional Hamiltonian to describe the critical exponents at the critical point of phase transition. To this aim, we propose the following schematic Hamiltonians for transition [11,21] Where we have introducedand. The limit of IBM is recovered viaandreproduces the limit. It means one can describe a continuous, e.g. second-order shape phase transition by changing between these two limits. On the other hand, classical limit of transitional Hamiltonian, Eq.(3), is obtained by considering its expectation value in the coherent state [12-14 ] Whereis the boson vacuum state,andare the creation operators of s and d bosons, respectively andcan be related to deformation collective parameters,,and. The energy surface which follows from expectation value of transitional Hamiltonian in the coherent state, Eq.(4), is given by Critical point of considered transitional region have obtained via [15] condition which gives in this case. We show the dependence of energy surface on the order parameter,, above and below of the critical point of phase transition, xcritical, in Figure1. In phase transition from, i.e. spherical limit, to, namely,-unstable limit, one sees that, the evolution of energy surface goes from a pureto a combination ofand that has a deformed minimum. At the critical point of this transition, energy surface is a pure. These results interpret thatcondition corresponds approximately to a ‘‘very à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡at energy surface’’, similar to what have happened for the E(5) critical point [ 16], i.e. critical point of transitional region. The typical behavior of the order parameter,, at a phase transition is shown in Figure 2. Hereis small and close to xcritical and we assume that energy surfaces can be expanded around Or can be rewritten in the form The behavior of, near the critical point is determined by the signs of the coefficients. The coefficientswhich are functions of, are written as functions of the dimensionless quantity,, where. Stable systems have on both sides of; therefore is represented only as. The condition for stability is that, must be a minimum as a function of. From Eq. (7), this condition may be expressed as where terms aboveare presumed negligible near [17]. For , only real root is; on the other hand, for, the rootcorrespond to a local maximum, and therefore not to equilibrium. The other two roots are found to be. Consequently, our analysis predicts, the equilibrium order parameter near the critical point should depend on theas which means, critical exponent for order parameter is.The behavior ofis depicted in Figure 3 which is in perfect agreement with general predictions derived in Ref.[2]. On the other hand, a very sensitive probe of phase transitional behavior is the second derivatives of the ground state energy (per boson) with respect to the control parameters [18] ( allwithare kept constant). In the above discussed thermodynamic analogyis replaced by the equilibrium value of the thermodynamic potential. In our descriptions, by use of Eq. (7), ground-state energies are forand respectively. From Eq. (11) the specific heats are These results propose any dependence of C oneither above or below ofand therefore, the values for the specific heat exponents are both zero. Also, this result suggests a discontinuity in the heat capacity in the phase transition point which in the agreement by Landau’s theory .We have represented the behavior of specific heat in Figure 3 which one can find that it has a jump at the critical point. The classification of phase transitions that we follow in this paper and that is followed traditionally in the IBM is the Ehrenfest classification [17,19]. In Ehrenfest classification, first order phase transitions appear when there exist a discontinuity in the first derivate of the energy with respect to the control parameter. Second order phase transitions appear when the second derivative of the energy with respect to the control parameter displays a discontinuity. It can be seen from Figure 4 that first derive of the energy surface has a king at xcritical. This corresponds to a second order phase transition, as the second derivate is discontinuous. In order to identify other critical exponents, according to the Landau theory, by use of Eq.(7), the potential energy surface becomes as[4,20] Where,, represents the contribution of intensive parameter,, for points off the coexistence curve. The equilibrium equation of state is which cause to (for any small) On the other hand, it reduces to its former representation for. The susceptibility may be found as it introduced in Ref.[ 4,20] , namely, Forwhich we haveand consequently we get , which gives the critical exponent equal to 1. Forwith, Eq.(13) gives and therefore or the critical exponent equal to 1. Along the critical isotherm, i.e. in the phase transition point, namely, andwhich this means, critical exponent is equal to 3. table 1 summarize the values of the critical exponents. Our results, i.e. behavior of order parameter about critical point, discontinuity of the second order derivative of energy respect to order parameter, suggest a second order shape phase transition between U(5) and O(6) limits of IBM. Also, critical exponent and their capability to describe the order of quantum phase transition may be interpreted a new technique to explore shape phase transitions in complex systems. TABLE 1 Critical exponents of ground state quantum phase transition between and limits. Exponent definition values of the critical exponents Order parameter Specific heat Susceptibilityfor 1 for =1 Critical isotherm 3. Summary and conclusion In this contribution, we show that,shape phase transition are closely related to Landau theory of phase transition and explore some of the analogies with thermodynamics. Also, a detailed analysis of the critical exponents of ground state quantum phase transition is presented. We find that, critical exponents in two frameworks are similar. Based on a discontinuity in the heat capacity in the phase transition point, we can conclude the order of the phase transition. Figures Figure1. Energy surface of transitional Hamiltonian. Different panels describe dependence of energy surfaces on the order parameter,, above and below of phase transition point, xcritical. Figure 2.Typical behavior of order parameter,, at a second order phase transition. Figure3. Equilibrium deformation,for second order phase transition (a) and (b) specific heat of the ground state. Figure4. Variation of energy surface and its first derivative respect to order parameter. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure4.

The Structure of Chinese Language and Ontological Insights :: China Chinese Language Essays

The Structure of Chinese Language and Ontological Insights ABSTRACT: Through a comparative analysis of the Chinese language, this paper discusses how the structure and functions of a natural language would bear upon the ways in which some philosophical problems are posed and some ontological insights are shaped. By this case analysis, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the elucidation of the relation between language and philosophy in this regard. 1. Introduction Through a comparative case analysis regarding the Chinese language, this paper discusses how the structure and functions of a natural language would bear upon the ways in which some philosophical problems are posed and some ontological insights are shaped. In so doing, I suggest and argue for a mereological collective-noun hypothesis about the denotational semantics of Chinese nouns. By this case analysis, the paper aims to contribute to the elucidation of the relation between language and philosophy in this regard. My discussion begins with a puzzle: why the classical Platonic one-many problem in the Western philosophical tradition has not been consciously posed in the Chinese philosophical tradition and why, generally speaking, classical Chinese philosophers seem less interested in debating the relevant ontological issues. (1) One suspects that the structures and uses of different languages might play their roles in pushing philosophical theorization in different directions; the ways of speaking and writing of the Chinese language might reveal and reflect Chinese folk ideology and then influence the ways in which certain philosophical questions are posed and certain ontological insights are formed. This puzzle is significant because it is concerned with a fundamental philosophical question about the relation between thought and language. The problem of relating Chinese thought to the structure and functions of the Chinese language has for generations tantalized sinologists and those philosophers who are concerned with the problem. Nevertheless, in the last decade, some significant progress has been made in this regard. In his book Language and Logic in Ancient China, (2) Chad Hansen advances a novel and provocative theory about the nature of the classical Chinese language. (3) The central thesis of Hansen's theory is his mass-noun hypothesis. Its main ideas are these: (1) the (folk) semantics of Chinese nouns are like those of mass-nouns (i.e., those nouns referring to the so-called interpenetrating stuffs, like 'water' and 'snow'), and naming in Chinese is not grounded on the existence of, or roles for, abstract entities (either on

Wedding Speech for a Maid of Honor or Best Woman -- Wedding Toasts Roa

Wedding Speech for a Maid of Honor or Best Woman Good evening. I would like to thank all of you for attending this joyful occasion. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Hanah's friend Erica, sometimes known as "Natasha" or "Hanah's foot taller twin sister". I'm sure you read in the playbill/program that I used to work with her in the accounting department. We hit it off from the start - both having a love for drama, we spent not only our working days together but every night as well. We got into trouble a lot for talking too much - so much that it became necessary to write notes, crumple them up and throw them at each other when no one was looking. Through the years we kept in contact while she went away to College and I even got to visit her in Seattle for a short period of time - a tip for everyone - the romantic-looking horse drawn carriage rides that take you through old town Seattle - aren't very romantic when the horse has gas problems...... Anyway, she finally came back from school and we spent practically everyday hanging out eating taco bell - she brought me ice cream in the hospital when my second child was born and became Auntie Hanah to both my girls. She had finally come to the point of accepting the fact she was going to be an old maid at 24, when she called me one day and said she had lunch with some people from church and this guy named "Ray", who afterwards had asked her to com... ...e only time that you will have the upper hand in this union. And to both of you a little advice: "To keep a marriage brimming with love in the loving cup- When you are wrong, admit it and when you are right, shut up!" I now invite you all to stand and raise your glasses in a toast To Hanah and Ray, "Here's to marriage, that happy estate that resembles a pair of scissors: 'So joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet punishing anyone who comes between them.' - 'May your imperfections make you perfect for each other.' - 'May your wedding days be few and your anniversaries many.' - and 'May God bless your marriage and your home!' To love laughter and happily ever after!

Components of Open Marriage & Polyamory and the Ethics Thereof Essay

In America, the values of monogamous, heterosexual marriage are drilled into the fabric of the society – so much so that the prospect of any other setup becomes virtually unthinkable. However, in an ever-evolving semiosphere, these other setups are emerging from their hiding place in order to find a forefront spot in contemporary culture and establish themselves as legitimate lifestyles. Education and understanding become paramount as new ideas and formations appear, necessitating tolerance and even acceptance. One of these new formations is what’s known as an â€Å"open marriage,† in which one or both members of a dichotomous marriage seek sexual satisfaction through extraneous partners. Anyone who has ever truly invested their emotions in a relationship might look at this setup with a skeptical, even disgusted eye, and wonder how the marriage could last when sexual exclusivity is not maintained, but regardless, an estimated 6% of married couples are involved in open marriages and are perfectly content to be. â€Å"While many of today's adherents are aging swingers from the old school, a new generation - well organized and committed to legitimizing a lifestyle -- continues to push traditional notions of marital fidelity by having sex with people other than their spouses† (Goldman). A second lifestyle is called â€Å"polyamory,† meaning â€Å"many loves†. In these relationships, one or more members will â€Å"jointly date† and establish emotional connections with other people. Their original lover is called their â€Å"primary,† while everyone else is considered â€Å"secondary†. Polys – as participants are sometimes called – seek to experiment with human’s seemingly endless capacity for love and pursue deeper forms of self-discovery. Originally, marriage ex... ...nd Koray Tanfer, comps. Journal of Marriage and the Family: Sexual Exclusivity Among Dating, Cohabiting, and Married Women. Brigham Young University, Battelle Memorial Institute. 10 May 2008 Betsworth, Roger G. Social Ethics: an Examination of American Moral Traditions. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox P, 1990. 99-103. Goldman, Russell. "Are Open Marriages More Successful?" ABC News. 10 Aug. 2007. 07 May 2008 . Hesse, Monica. "Pairs with Spares." Washington Post. 13 Feb. 2008. 07 May 2008 . O'Neill, Nena, and George O'Neill. Open Marriage: a New Life Style for Couples. Avon Books / the Hearst Corporation, 1973.