Memo for ABC Complete Kitchens Inc Essay

â€Å"Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved†- Bill Gates. Introduction Having the right man for the right job is imperative for corporate success. The person that installs the cabinetry for ABC Inc. is probably not the same person you want managing the financial responsibilities and obligations. Employees of ABC Complete Kitchens Inc. encompass a similar work ethic, professionalism and accountability however; their skills vary and need to be accommodated suitably within the company. Maintaining this level of expectation is imperative to achieve organizational success. Maturity, health, financial stability and the ability to compensate accordingly to current and long term fiscal challenges is the responsibility of the financial manager and within this organization or for ABC Inc. the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The CFO assesses, directs, monitors, controls, develops strategies, plans for current and long term financial goals and most importantly determines the organizations investment decisions. The CFO and/or financial manager must â€Å"weigh the costs and benefits of all investments and projects and decide which of them qualify as good uses of the money† (Northcentral University, 2011. 7; 709). This is money invested by others as well as yourselves within this company. There are three main tasks financial managers are responsible for beyond applying management  standards to financial capital or income of this conglomerate. These consist of; making (preferably good) investment decisions, financial decisions and managing the company’s cash flow on a day to day and a long term basis. In order to stand behind these investment decisions, it is imperative to understand the terminology and processes within the financial systems development. Assets Assets are items of ownership that can be converted into cash or have an exchange value. They are investments this company has made. From an accounting point of view, assets can be divided further into two categories, current and long-term assets. Current assets are cash or other liquid items that can be turned into cash within one year. Marketable securities are short term, low risk investments such as, the current stock you hold and what it is worth or can be sold at. Accounts receivable are debts owed to this company by consumers for products and services provided already on credit. Inventories are assets comprised of raw materials such as cabinetry, sinks, and appliances including kitchens being currently installed that ABC Inc. still owns. There are other current assets that we will view on our balance sheet later on and they are mostly prepaid expenses and deferred assets as well as expenditures for future costs such as insurance, rent and interest. Intangible assets have no physical existence. These can include intellectual property or employees who attain knowledge and skill (NCU, 2011. 7:13). If the employee leaves to go to another organization, this is considered an intangible asset. Perception of the company within the community is important. Take for example the communities perception of the company. Wal-Mart and most recently Target with their credit card theft issue experienced intangible assets. Copyrights, patents and goodwill are also intangible assets. â€Å"Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?†-Thomas J. Watson (founder of IBM). Liabilities A liability is an obligation to creditors, an entity arising from past transactions, where the settlement can result in the transfer of assets,  services or other yielding of benefits in the future. They include any type of borrowing from persons or banks for improving on a business or increasing personal income. Liabilities of this company are duties or responsibilities that require settlement by future use of assets at or by a specific date, over a short or long time period or possibly on demand. Liabilities are categorized as current and long-term classification. Classifying liabilities as either current or long term will assist ABC Inc’s CFO assess if the risk of these liabilities will involve disbursement of cash or further company assets in the near or distant future. A current liability will be satisfied within one year. Diving deeper into the definition of current liabilities, a company also identifies them as debts that are expected to be taken care of with current assets or with the use of other current liabilities. Accounts payable are considered the total sum of monies or obligations owed to purveyors for goods and/or services purchased with credit. When accounts payable are paid off, it represents a negative cash flow for the company. Short-term debt otherwise known as notes payable is the reimbursement that will occur within the next year to satisfy a debt. Items that are known monies of the company that have not been paid such as the salary for employees or taxes and deferred or unearned profit that has been received for products that have not been distributed are classified within the current liability category (NCU, 2011. 7:23-24). Long-term liabilities are debts payable over a longer period of time and unlike current liabilities, extend beyond one year. Examples of these are long-term debts, a capitol lease and deferred taxes. Long-term debt involves the obligation of our company to compensate our providers for a period of time that extends beyond one year. Currently, ABC Inc’s long-term debt consists of the construction of buildings overseas as well as most of our products utilized in the assembly of the kitchens. A capitol lease is a contract that requires this organization to make scheduled payments in exchange for the use of a certain asset. An agreement is made between ABC Inc. and another proprietor to compensate for use of things such as equipment, the plant or property. ABC Inc. needs to bear this risk and act as if it is owned as a company asset. Deferred taxes are taxes this company owes but has yet to pay. They appear as a liability because eventually they will be paid for however currently the company has exceeded its financial  income. Owners Equity or Shareholders Equity Owners or shareholders equity is the ownerships interest in a corporation in the form of common or preferred stock. This amount is calculated and identified as shareholders equity, net worth or book value (Averkamp, 2013). The equity a company has is determined by taking the total assets and subtracting the total liabilities. Equity is the quantity of ABC Inc’s assets that you as shareholders own, as opposed to what the company borrowed. Owner’s equity is also classified as net worth or net assets; it’s your interest as owners in this company. Equity can be considered as the calculation of a company’s money that is left over if an asset were converted to cash and all of the current and long-term liabilities against it are paid. Equity is the stock this company and you as individuals possess, it is the value of the assets that you the proprietor actually own. Assets are equal to equity plus liabilities, thus indicating how much of the company’s asset s belong to or are owned and by whom. The Balance Sheet The balance or statement of financial position lists the company’s assets and liabilities, providing a model of the corporation’s financial position at any given time. The balance sheet summarizes the remainder of all the assets, liabilities and overall worth of a company’s accounts as of a specific date, usually the last day of the accounting period or the last day of the quarter or fiscal year (Thomsett, 2011). The fundamental accounting equation is; the sum of all asset account balances is equal to the sum of liabilities plus net worth accounts. It can at times be utilized and analyzed as an estimate of the liquidation worth of the corporation, aiding in foreseeing the value that would be left if the assets were bought and liabilities remunerated. A balance sheet must provide a fair and valid view of an organization’s state of affairs as well as abiding by the provisions of GAAP in its preparation. A balance sheet states: What assets the company owns How assets are paid for What the company owes or what they are liable for Amount left after satisfying their debts Balance Sheet Analysis and Current Ratio Analyzing the balance sheet assesses the company’s value, control and short term cash needs. The balance sheet is a quantitative summary of a company’s financial situation or condition at a specific point in time, including but not limited to assets, liabilities and net worth. The first part of a balance sheet shows all the productive assets a company owns, and the second part shows all the financing procedures, the liabilities and the shareholders equity. This is better seen from the table demonstrated on the next page. The asset accounts are added together, providing the total amount of the corporation’s properties prior to being decreased by debts and obligations. The balance sheet is comprised of assets and liabilities, each with similar sub-groups providing a final explanation of the balance sheet subsection for reference. The total of all liabilities plus net worth accounts is always equal to the total of all assets, WITHOUT EXCEPTION! â€Å"How is the balance accomplished? The sum of liabilities and net worth is always equal to the value of all asset accounts because of double-entry bookkeeping. Every entry has a debit and a credit and these are equal in value. They may also be thought of as a plus and a minus. At any time, the sum of all accounts in the corporate books will add up to zero, because debits and credits offset one another â€Å"(Thomsett, 2013). It is important to remember that creditors often compare a company’s current assets and current liabilities to evaluate whether or not the company has adequate working capital to endure their short-term financial needs. This comparison can be summarized in the company’s current ratio. The current ratio is the percentage of current assets in relation to their current liabilities. A higher current ratio gives the implication of the company experiencing less risk of a cash deficit in the near future (NCU, 2011. 7:727). The Income Statement The income statement shows the company’s net income or profitability during a specific period of time. The income statement can also be referred to as the profit and loss, or â€Å"P&L† statement, and the net income is also referred to as the company’s earnings (NCU, 2011). The income statement is based on the accounting equation that; income equals revenue minus expenses which in turn illustrates the value of the owner’s equity as increasing or decreasing. The income statement analysis explains how the profitability of  the company relates to the company’s shares. Different ratios are used providing information on ABC Inc’s operation and worth (NCU, 2011). Conclusion This leaves us now analyzing not only the national but also the international fiscal aspects of ABC Complete Kitchens Incorporated. Generating sales overseas is taking this company to new heights within the business world. The income statement or statement of financial performance catalogs the company’s revenues and expenses. It is putting our name on the map while increasing profit, employment opportunities and as the Board of Directors; you are responsible for maintaining this stature. This position is not only exciting, it is manageable as well. As a project manager I foresee significant advancement within all of the departments. If everyone involved collaborates cohesively, communicates respectfully and complies with ABC Complete Kitchen Incorporated’s mission and vision, the finality will be a company that ultimately produces an exceptional product with complete customer and corporate satisfaction. References Averkamp, H. (2013). What is owners equity? Accounting Coach, LLC. Fort Atkinson, WI Retrieved from: http://www.accountingcoach.com/privacy-policy (2011). SKS 5000- Business strategies for organizational effectiveness within the global perspective. Pearson Learning Solutions ISBN: 9780558870447 (2013). List of key accounting terms and definitions. InvestorGuide Staff. Retrieved from: http://www.investorguide.com/article/13789/list-of-key-accounting- terms-and-definitions/ Thomsett, M., C. (2013). The balance sheet. Getting Started in Stock Investing and Trading Retrieved from: http://www.investorguide.com/article/12689/the-balance-sheet-ws/

How useful are the following sources in arriving at an accurate understanding of Dartford high street in the mid nineteenth century?

There has been much development and change in Dartford after the eighteenth century. One of the many reasons for this is the growth of industry and the manufacture of the railway, this town has gone from being solely from being a market-town and coaching post to developing more towards industry. The High Street has changed a lot since the nineteenth century in terms of functions, shops, conditions, etc. There are many ways of finding out what it used to be like, including sources, the census, and the existing buildings. There are six main buildings in Dartford high street which I am studying. These buildings are generally quite simple to put a rough date to them. The rough date that we can confidently give these buildings is that they are from the Georgian era, with a couple also being from the Victorian era. Some of these buildings, such as the Bull's Head yard building have certain features about it which can help give details about the actual street and its functions, not just the building. The Bulls Head yard building has a pulley system attached to it, which could suggest a warehouse and cart way on the other hand this does not necessarily mean that the street had many carts going over it. Although, source C (the engraving of Dartford high street), suggests that carts were common in Dartford high street. Moreover, the Bull and Victoria Hotel gives some evidence to suggest that coaches were popular in Dartford as well. We can see this because the entrance is fairly wider than it would normally be for an ordinary building or hotel, therefore suggesting that this building could have been a coach house. So overall, although the buildings show individual purpose and use, they in themselves, do not necessarily show what the high street was like in the 1800s. The strengths of this source are that this report gives detailed information on the conditions of Dartford High Street concerning matters of hygiene and sanitation. It is an official enquiry by the General Board of Health and written by William Ranger; therefore, it must have some reliability. It was also written in the nineteenth century so Ranger would have known exactly what it was like. The report implies that Dartford is not a very prosperous town, saying things like ‘The general character of this place is such that humans ought not to be allowed to occupy it. This tells us that the area being described has very poor sanitary conditions. The report therefore contrasts with Dunkin's description of a wealthy, aesthetically-pleasing town. There are also weaknesses to the report. Firstly, it only focuses on Clark's alley rather than the High Street itself and therefore it does not directly tell us about the High Street. Furthermore, only the conditions are described, rather th an other aspects such as its function and people. Also, as the report was written for the Board of health, it describes the worst case scenario of the conditions of the High Street so that the Board of Health would know where to improve-due to the government Public Health Act of 1848, people were hired to report on the sanitary conditions of places. Dunkin's history of Dartford is a detailed description of Dartford. It was written in 1844. Due to the fact that it is a book, it could be said that there were bias motives for writing it, as there is an advertising side to it, not just an informative side. This is because the source comes across a bit like a brochure, which means that Dunkin could be promoting Dartford and its shops in particular since he himself owned one. So this could be seen as not very helpful in gaining an understanding of Dartford High Street. Although, Dunkin was a local man which means that he should know what he is talking about. Moreover, he was also a historian, which also means that he uses factual information, and has researched what he was writing. The reliability of the source could be questionable, as it doesn't actually tell us a lot of information about the function or look of the buildings themselves. The report to the general board of health was an official document which means that the likeliness of the report being bias is very low. This source contradicts Dunkin's view of the appearance and prosperity of the high street saying how it may be incorrect. It gives information on what life may have been like for the ordinary working people in Dartford. However, it is a limited discussion regarding the appearance of the high street itself. It refers more to the alleys and side streets than the high streets. Peter Boreham was a historian who relatively recently wrote an overview of Dartford for the book ‘Dartford Through Time'. The strengths of Boreham's account are that the fact that Boreham was a historian gives this source reliability due to the fact that his aim would have been to report the truth, as that was his job. He also has the advantage of hindsight and neutrality, as he was not there at the time. Boreham describes the function of the High Street in his account when he talks of â€Å"Dartford's role as a shopping centre†; this tells us that shopping was one of the High Street's major functions. This is supported by the evidence from the census which says that 30% of all of the jobs in the High Street were as shopkeepers. In fact, Boreham probably used the census in order to obtain this information. We can tell from Boreham's account that he has used other sources, including the census as mentioned previously, when writing this. For example, he says: â€Å"Housing conditions†¦ were atrocious. † This is probably based on Ranger's report to the Board of Health which states a similar thing. He also writes how the shop windows are â€Å"tightly packed with as many goods as possible† which could refer to when Dunkin writes about â€Å"handsome shops, well stocked with a choice assortment of goods tastefully displayed†; as well as referring to the photographs mentioned. The wide range of sources used adds reliability to the account, as it means that he has not just used a narrow perspective of the High Street but has considered many points of view. The book Boreham wrote was written for schoolchildren in 1990. Therefore, in order to provide the right information to the children, he would have had to have made it as accurate as possible. However, the weaknesses are that Boreham was not there at the time and therefore did not know for sure exactly what the High Street was like. In addition to this, the book was published by Dartford Borough Council and therefore they might have edited it in favour of Dartford. Also, Boreham's account was aimed at secondary school pupils so it might not include all of the information in order to make it more interesting or easier to understand. Furthermore, Boreham's source lacks detail and can only give us an approximate overview of the function of Dartford, rather than a detailed description. Although Boreham used some sources, there are some which he did not use. For example, the engraving was probably not used, as he does not describe the appearance of the High Street. Therefore, we do not know what other important information he has left out. Overall, Peter Boreham's source gives a reasonably reliable overview of Dartford High Street in the mid-nineteenth century, which uses a wide range of sources to help give us an idea of some of the functions and buildings of Dartford High Street at that time. The engraving of Dartford high street was done in 1860. It is a Detailed engraving which gives a clear and complete view of the high street itself, and also a large range of buildings. It gives great detail on the appearance of the buildings, showing all the architectural styles of the buildings, such as Tudor, Georgian, and early Victorian architectural styles are all visible. Although it gives great detail on the appearance of the buildings and the high street, it doesn't give a lot of detail towards the actual functions of the high street in the mid nineteenth century. However, it does show some basic information which can help us gain an understanding of what Dartford high street was like, such as in the engraving, we can clearly see carts and carriages in the street. This shows, as mentioned in previous sections, that carts and coaches were popular in the high street, which is backed up by the image of the Bull and Victoria Hotel. Also, some other functions are visible, these include: trade, shopping, and transport. From this engraving, we can also see evidence of prosperity in Dartford. This is made apparent by the obvious wide open ‘airy' streets', the fashion, street lighting, and it is obviously clean. We don't, however, know who drew this engraving, which means that it could actually be very unreliable, or it could be reliable. Overall, although it doesn't give detailed evidence of the high street, it does give sufficient evidence of the functions, appearance and prosperity of the high street to give us a rough understanding of what Dartford high street was like in the mid nineteenth century.

Identify Some of the Factors That Make People Help Others.

Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples. Giedrius Statkus Department of Psychology, Keynes College, CT2 7NP Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples. Many different factors have been shown to influence people’s willingness to help others. The motive behind certain type of help can be certain rewards for helping however other types of help do not always appear to have a clear motive. This was noted by Comte (1875 as cited in Batson & Shaw 1991, Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) who studied the question of helping others, philosophically and suggests that there are two key types of help displayed by people. He describes these as either Egoistic Helping (EH) or Altruistic Helping (AH). The former refers to the type of help where an individual is clearly aware of a reward for performing the help, such as can be seen in some volunteers workers, whose clear reward is experience and recommendations. The latter however refers to situations where an individual’s willingness to help is unaided by any conscious reward. AH behaviour can be seen in such examples as helping a broken down stranger fix a car tyre on a road (Pomzal & Clore, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). The factors influencing the latter type of help are the ones mainly considered throughout this essay. However these factors have a varied effect on different people, this variation can be based on gender, age and other individual differences. It has been suggested that one major factor influencing the willingness of people to perform AH is empathy (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna & Todd, 1991). The theory suggests that individuals witnessing someone in need of help, as they are displaying distress or pain, will experience similar feelings themselves. This is supported by many studies (Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) however of key importance are studies conducted via observing the process of empathy in the brain using Functioning Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (Singer, Seymour, O’Doherty, Kaube, Dolan & Firth, 2004). In their study participants were subjected to electric shocks while undergoing an fMRI scan, after that they had to watch as their spouses undergo the electric shocks. The scans showed that the brain’s responses were similar, for both conditions, and that witnessing the shocks and receiving them affected the same areas of the brain. Other studies have also found empathy between emotional states such as happiness or sadness and other situations (Singer, Seymour, O’Doherty, Kaube, Dolan & Firth, 2004). Therefore this confirms Batson’s et al. (1991) suggestion that if an individual is witnessing someone in distress, he also experiences some distress and therefore helping that person would be the fastest way to relieve it. There are many other factors playing roles in influencing willingness to help, however many of them may also be explained via empathy. As these other factors may increase or decrease empathy which could result in increased willingness to help. The fact that reward in AH is not obvious is not to say that it does not exist. As mentioned previously the relieving of distress may be one form of reward experienced through AH. Other rewards to be considered may be the need for praise or some sort of award (Batson, et al. 1988 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). Another motivation may be fear of punishment, often in the form of social disproval, the fear of people knowing you could of helped, but did not. This can aid understanding of AH on an evolutionary and survival basis. As in some cases AH may mean less resources or putting oneself in danger (Dawkins 1988 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) it can be said that such behaviour is counterproductive to survival. Except in clear cases of close family AH, where the help would favour the survival of the helping individual’s genes either way. However modern human survival, and therefore chance of reproduction, is highly dependent on social acceptance (Coie, Dodge & Coppotelli, 1982). Therefore avoidance of punishment, in the form of social disproval is often a sufficient reward for AH. Empathy can be seen as a major aspect of other factors influencing willingness to help too, for example it has been shown that people feel more empathy for people similar (Frans, 2008) and are more willing to help based on similarity between them and the person needing help, such as similar clothes (Eimswiller, Deux & Willts, 1971 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011), personal values (Batson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley & Birch, as cited in Batson & Shaw, 1991) and other features. This may be because people are more likely to experience empathy for people who are ore like them instead of someone who is very different. This can be seen in Batson’s et al. (1981 as cited in Batson & Shaw, 1991) study where participants who believed a person undergoing electric shocks held personal values that were very different to the participants’ values, were less likely to take the victim’s place and receive shocks instead of them. This is supported by the green beard theory, a term coined by Dawkins (1976 as cited in West & Gardener, 2010) in reference to a theoretical gene that would encode the information of a green beard and make green bearded people more likely to help others with a green beard. In this theory the green beard is an example of an obvious visual feature. Although just a theoretical principal for which the relevant genes have only been observed in the study of micro-organisms (West & Gardener, 2010) and other far less genetically complex, than humans, life forms (Fostner, Wensler & Ratnier, 2006). It is suggested that a much more complex system may be a viable genetic explanation for the way in which AH is influenced by people with similar features. Although the theory is criticised in its current state as it has been said that one allele would be incapable of encoding and identifying all the relevant information necessary (Henrich 2001). This however led others (Jansen & Baalen, 2006) to suggest that, instead, a number of genes could encode some features of appearance, or a â€Å"visable tag† (West & Gardener, 2010, p. 1344), and a separate, gene would encode the ability to recognise similarity and influence AH when it is recognised. For example it has been shown that people empathise more with close members of their family (Frans, 2007). As well as being more willing to help them (Burnstein, Crandall & Kitayama, 1994). This was especially true for close members of the family such as siblings. The willingness to help was found to decrease as the family ties grew weaker. In all cases people were three times more likely to help close family members such as siblings than nephews and cousins, they were even less likely to help strangers or friends. This was especially true if the sibling in question is a monozygotic twin of the individual (Burnstein, Crandall & Kitayama, 1994). The willingness to help for un-identical twins was considerably lower, by up to half as willing, suggesting that AH is an important behaviour for successful evolution and survival as it favours identical genes. This staggering difference between identical gene siblings and dizygotic twins could also be related to the green beard theory mentioned earlier. As the perfect visual tag for an altruistic gene to identify would, in the case of monozygotic twins, be a completely identical appearance. AH was also found to be dependent on age (Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). For example Burnstein et al. (1994) found that people’s willingness to help young children of age 1 was identical to the amount of willingness seen at age 25. Overall, willingness to help was found to quickly reach a peak at the age of 10 and then steadily decrease as people get older. For the final recorded age, of 75, willingness to help had decreased by a quarter when compared to age 1. People’s health was also noted as an important factor in influencing willingness to help. It was found that people are more willing to help healthy individuals than those suffering from ill-health. This may be due to survival reasons as healthy individuals are much more likely to help the person in return and therefore increase their rate of survival. In cases of AH, it can be said that, the evaluation of ability to reciprocate may be performed unconsciously. The same concept applies to old and very young individuals who are also less able to reciprocate the help they receive. The attractiveness of an individual is also a recognised factor in one’s willingness to help (Harrel, 1978 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). This is often hard to explain in regards to evolution and survival theories. One aspect considered is that attractiveness may be evaluated as health, as attractiveness and health evaluations have been shown to positively correlate (Taylor and Brown, 1988). However a study by Juhnke et al. (2001) found that attractiveness does not necessarily rely on physical features. He found people dressed more attractively are also more likely to receive help. A possible critique of this finding could be that in this case the more attractive people were seen as richer, and therefore their ability to reciprocate would be higher. This would however contradict Burnstein’s et al. (1994) finding, which demonstrates that people would be significantly less likely to help rich people than poor people across every situation. And although based on participants’ conscious evaluation of their willingness to help, the results are consistent across all participants and therefore suggest that Juhnke’s et al. (2001) findings were related to attractiveness, if not as the sole factor than at the very least more than the effect of a ealthy appearance. This finding is also more supported by the survival via reproduction theory since in some cases it appeared to have a sex specific effect, (Pomzal & Core, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) where male participants were found to be more likely to help females than males, especially if the female is attractive. They also report that males are more willing to help than females overall which is an important finding as this slightly contradicts Batsonâ €™s et al. 1991) theory, of empathy being the most important factor in AH as Davis (1980) has pointed out that females display a much higher level of empathy across many different AH related situations. This may be related to Dawkin’s (1989 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) theory. He proposes that willingness to help is directly affected by the loss incurred in the process of helping. Therefore although women may want to help more than males, as they feel higher empathy, they may be prevented by fear of loss. This is because most AH requires a form of loss of resources, time or putting oneself in danger (Batson & Shaw, 1991) as only in cases of unconscious and reflex powered reactions are people willing to put their survival over the person in need of help. This sort of behaviour is most often seen in combat situations and almost never occurs if people are able to consider the threat posed to them (Batson & Shaw, 1991) Individuals’ willingness to help people is affected by many factors as discussed. This can be seen in many forms. Some forms of help are motivated by feelings of distress caused through empathy. This coupled together with unconscious reward seeking and punishment avoidance influences people in making the decision of whether to help or not. Although empathy may be the predominant factor it is also important to mention that it is heavily influenced by other factors such as age, gender, family ties and physical or mental similarities. However empathy at times is affected by other factors such as the cost of helping someone. For example men are less likely to be helped, however are more likely to be willing to help than females. Females, although experiencing higher empathy and therefore maybe higher willingness to help are said to be more aware of fear of loss. This may also be influenced by the fact that males feel higher social expectations, to help, than females. Although another reason may simply be survival as the people most likely to be helped are often the same people who are most capable of reciprocating the help. In the case of 10 year old children and young adults receiving more help than elderly people or young children it may be because they can be said to be evaluated as having more chance of reciprocating this help. Same can be said for the health bias influencing willingness to help. Healthy people are more likely to receive help as they are more likely to have the ability to return the help. The fact that attractive people are more likely to be helped than less attractive people is thought to be highly linked to peoples’ willingness to help healthy people. Helping close family is also affected by health although the predominant factor here is the closeness of the family relationship. Children and parents are as willing to help each other as siblings who are significantly more willing to help each other than they are willing to help nephews, cousins or other family members. The only group more likely to help each other are identical twins, this evidence fits in with the selection of kin theory of evolution and therefore is most likely based on survival of the genes. Genes appear to be the most likely explanation for the fact that people are very likely to help individuals who appear similar to them. As suggested by the theory that certain genes may help their own survival by creating visual tags in people who share the same genes or by encoding recognition of similarity. This visual tag would be recognised by the other individuals carrying the same genes and therefore AH would be increased. When all the discussed factors are considered it can be seen that people’s willingness to help and their choice of whom they help, is motivated and influenced by many factors which all interact in a complex manner. References Batson, C. D. , Batson, J. G. , Slingsby, J. K. , Harrel, K. L. , Peekna, H. M. , & Todd, R. M. (1991). Empathic Joy and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 413-426. Batson, C. D. , & Shaw, L. L. (1991). Evidence for Altruism: Toward a Pluralism of Prosocial Motives. Journal of Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 107-122. Baumeister, R. F. , & Bushman, B. J. (2011) Social Psychology and Human Nature (2ed. ). Belmot, California: Wadsworth. Burnstein, E. , Crandall, C. , & Kitayama, S. (1994). Some Neo-Darwinian Decision Rules for Altruism Wighting Cues for Inclusive Fitness as a Function of the Biological Importance of the Decision. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(5), 773-789. Coie, J. , Dodge, D. K. , & Coppotelli, H. A. (1982). Dimensions and Types of Social Status: A Cross-Age Perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18(4), 557-570. doi:10. 1037/0012-1649. 18. 4. 557 Davis, M. H. (1980). A Multidimensional Approach to Individual Differences in Empathy, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85-104. Foster, K. R. , Wenseler, T. , & Ratnieks, L. W. (2006) Kin Selection is the Key to Altruism. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 21(2), 57-60. Frans, B. M. (2008). Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy. The Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 279-300. Henrich, J. (2001) Cultural Group Selection, Coevolutionary Processes and Large-Scale Cooperation. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 53, 3–35. Jansen, V. A. , & Baalen, M. (2006). Altruism Through Beard Chromodynamics. Nature, 44(30), 663-666. Juhnke, R. , Barmann, B. , Vickery, B. , Cunningham, M. , Hohl, J. , Smith, E. , & Quinones, J. (2001). Effects of Attractivness and Nature of Request on Helping Behaviour, Journal of Social Psychology, 127(4), 317-322. Singer, T. , Seymour, B. , O’Doherty, J. , Kaube, H. , Dolan, R. J. , & Frith, C. (2004). Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain. Science, 303, 1157-1161. Taylor, S. E. , & Brown, J. D. (1988) Illusion and Well-Being: a Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193-210. doi: 10. 1037/0033-2909. 103. 2. 193 West, S. A. , & Gardener, S. (2010). Altruism, Spite, and Greenbeards. Science, 327, 1341-1344.

Victim support and the criminal justice system Essay

Victim support and the criminal justice system - Essay Example Previous Governmental Approaches to Victim Support Over the years, the government has created a great deal of reports on the issue of victim support particularly in relation to domestic violence. The main aim of its 2003 report stated that it was â€Å"determined to prevent domestic violence happening...and to protect and support all victims†.1 As the years have passed, governmental approaches towards victim support have recognised that victims need to be given greater access to and degrees of support, yet this has so far failed to be implemented. It is evident however that the government’s focus on making â€Å"the sentence reflect the crime†2 has caused it to place more focus on the offender’s punishment rather than the victim’s need for support. This is particularly the case in instances of domestic violence. Endless references have been made which recognise the need to support victims in order that they be given help to â€Å"rebuild their live s†,3 yet interest in and focus on this need has been sporadic and never a central aim of the government in the past. However, 2009 saw a renewed need to support women and girls who were victims of domestic violence in particular, and the government once again quoted an onslaught of promising plans and strategies to increase access to support, advice and services.4 Arguably, these were never properly implemented, or were applied in a piecemeal fashion, causing support for victims to be patchy and incomplete at best. The approach of the government has certainly not been without its critics; it has been often commented that years after plans were published, they still have yet to be properly implemented in order to provide the support that victims so evidently need.5 There is evident focus placed on the criminal justice aspect of crime, which greatly derogates attention from providing victims with the requisite support. Indeed, it is often claimed that the government has missed t he point in attempting to support victims,6 a result of its mistaken assumption that â€Å"the criminal justice system alone can deal adequately† with victims of crime.7 The reality of proposals and plans is greatly different from the theoretical promises of those plans; funds have been pumped into arresting offenders while victim support services took a step back due to lack of funding and importance. For example, despite research proving that refuges for victims has a major positive effect, minimal funding was assigned to the creation and maintenance of refuges for victims of domestic violence in particular.8 There is blinding evidence that funding has been improperly directed towards offenders rather than victims; promises to increase the number of Rape Crisis centres have actually resulted in many centres being closed down due to major underfunding.9 The government has placed much focus on and investment in convicting offenders, while studies show that over 90% of victims who were given access to shelters felt that they had majorly improved access to safety.10 The acts of the government and its plans and promises have simply not be implemented in reality: victims still stand in the shadow of inappropriate focus placed on offenders and criminal justice.11 There is little doubt that the approach of the government has been unorganised, unstructured and incomplete, despite reports recognising that it should be the complete opposite.12 Such failure on the part of the

Global City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global City - Essay Example It was in the 1960s that the world saw crucial changes in the organization of economic activity (Sassen 2001). These changes manifested in the economy of the world, as well as in different forms specific to particular regions. Some of these changes are recognizable even after half a century in the modern world. These include the loss of the power and authority of the industrial centres set up in the US, UK and in Japan as well. Other changes that can be recognized include the rapid increase in the industrialization process of many developing countries and the fast pace of the financial industry in taking on, and making its own, the extensive structure of transactions spread all over the world (Sassen 2001).Sassen (2001) observes that all of these changes had an impact on the connection between the cities and the global economy. In the years immediately after the Second World War, the world saw a dominance of the US over various aspects of the global economy. However, a few decades la ter, the trend started to change, and the early 1970s were witness to dissolution of the control that the US held. With the fall of the central power of the US, a chasm was created in the global economic activity, which was quickly filled by US transnational industrial firms and banks. During the time period after the fall of the transnational elements, the reins and the subsequent nature of the activities of global economy were in the hands of the US transnational firms and banks. However, within the space of a few years, the Third World debt crisis shattered the control of these US firms and banks, resulting in huge losses for them. The international economy was not broken into splinters by the debt crisis; its survival transformed it into a complicated hybrid of duality: â€Å"a spatially dispersed, yet globally integrated organization of economic activity† (Sassen 2001). The creation of spatial dispersal, coupled with global integration, has

Sustainable Energy Resourses vs. Climate Change Essay

Sustainable Energy Resourses vs. Climate Change - Essay Example 3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Solar, Wind, Hydropower, and Geothermal Energy over Fossil Fuels Because of environment, health, long-term cost efficiency and other practical reasons, generating electricity out of the wind turbine, hydroelectric power plant, geothermal energy, and solar energy can be more advantageous as compared to the use of fossil fuels. When using either fossil fuels or biomass combustion, the Science Daily reported that approximately 20% of the energy produced is actually wasted as heat. Based on this context, fossil fuels and biomass are inefficient sources of electricity (â€Å"Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030†). Depending on the availability of renewable energy resources, the use of the wind turbine, hydroelectric power plant, geothermal energy, and solar energy system can provide us with more economic advantages since the overall supply of energy will be greater than our daily consumption needs ( "Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030†). Furthermore, the use of these renewable energy resources can provide us with long-term ready supply of energy without the possibility of causing serious damages to our health and environment. Among the available sources of renewable energy, the solar system is considered a very good source of electricity since the process of generating electricity from the sun can provide us with 30 times more than the total electricity that we actually need to run the entire U.S. economy (â€Å"Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030†). On the other hand, wind turbines are also considered as another powerful source of electricity since the energy generated from the wind... It can be derived from the report and the previous research conducted on the topic that a sustainable community is attainable provided that there is a balance between the economy, the society and the environment. During the third quarter of 2011, The Economist reported that â€Å"the global population is likely to reach 7 billion†. Due to the growing population of human beings around the world, increased in human activities could alter the climate condition of our natural environment. As a common knowledge, the existing energy sources in the United States are vital to the economic development and progress. In fact, a significant increase on the demand for energy would mean the need to increase the energy supply coming from different sources of energy. In response to the increasing demand for energy resources, the United States government is spending approximately US$500 billion each year in the development of energy sources alone. With the presence of sufficient energy supply, the local manufacturers will be able to produce consumer good items to meet the increasing local and international demand. For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has been relying over the use of different energy sources including: bioenergy, coal, electric power, fossil fuels, fusion, geothermal, hydrogen, hydropower, natural gas, nuclear, oil, solar and wind energy. The negative long-term socio-economic, environmental, and health benefits associated with the use of fossil fuel is more than the challenges associated with the use of renewable energy resources.

What are the effects of using ICT and Media in the 'English Classroom' Essay

What are the effects of using ICT and Media in the 'English Classroom' - Essay Example In general, the learning and teaching behaviour between the students and the school teachers, is an important factor that contributes to the success of using computer-based technology in education (Karasavvidis et al., 2003). For this reason, the design of a virtual classroom for English language has to be easily accessible, reliable, user-friendly, and interactive. For this study, the types of ICT and other related media technology used in the English Classroom settings has to be identified first. Eventually, the researcher will conduct a literature review about the positive and negative effects of using the ICT and other forms of media in the English classroom. In the process of going through the main discussion, several issues and problems associated with the use of ICT and other media technology will be identified followed by discussion of the impact of using these technologies on the teaching and learning process of the English language. Based on the gathered peer-reviewed journals, improvements on the students’ academic performance concerning the use of each type of media technology will be tackled in detail. With regards to the school improvements, some of the existing teaching and learning theories will be applied to the practice of using ICT and other forms of media technology. Under the supervision of the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa), UK government is strongly committed in supporting the use of ICT within the classroom settings (Becta, 2009). Similar to the personal opinions of the secondary school teachers (Clarke, 2003: p. 3), the UK government also finds the promotion of using ICT as one of the best way to improve and strengthen the learning experience of the students. As a result of the rapid development in the use of ICT and media technology, educational settings like the English classroom has been using digital technology in order to support the learning

Decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Decision making - Essay Example Consequently, modern day decision makers are biased, especially given the deeply-rooted perceptions of success and failure that have been inherited from ancestors. According to Cialdini (2013), bias in human decisions is not just a cause of deficiencies that results in poor decisions. On the contrary, bias is associated design features and not flaws, and this is crucial in understanding consumer behaviours as a result of their decisions. The three major decision making models are rational decision making, descriptive, and natural settings decision models. Each set of models explain the extent of human decision subject to different conditions. For instance, rational decision models such as multivariate utility theory and Bayesian inference models involved breaking down problems into small elements such that uncertainties, choices, and consequences were explicitly provided. In descriptive models, humans are perceived as incapable of making rational decisions due to deviations in terms of heuristics and biases. The explanation of irrationality in descriptive models is elaborated by bounded rationality. Today, decision making within everyday setti ngs focuses on serving the attainment of a goal and not learning the choice. ­Ã‚ ­ Decision making in natural settings focuses on perceiving aspects within the environment restricted by space and time; understanding the meaning of such elements; and forecasting their future status (Polic, 2009, p. 79). This means that at any given time, decision makers are neither fully aware of all possible alternatives for their decision nor the possible outcomes tied to each option, and are never infinitely sensitive to unique distinctions that distinguish one option from the other or the extent of rationality each decision carries. Conventional originates from traditions and customs. A rational decision-making process involves making decisions that result in optimal benefits and operate under the

Awareness, extent and nature of Business Continuity amongst managers Essay

Awareness, extent and nature of Business Continuity amongst managers - Essay Example This review examines one such document that has used statistical data inaccurately to bolster its claims. In the present document by the Chartered Management Institute (2002), responses of participants over three sets of similar data are reviewed and compared to try and understand trends that exist in some areas of business management. The survey results have been based on a response rate of just over 13%, with no observation about the representativeness of the responses collected. When the response rate is so low, it is difficult to establish the representativeness of the report (Burns,  Burns and Burns, 2008). This can pose a challenge, since it is quite likely that the responses received may be skewed to favour a certain type of respondent and may thus not be representative of the entire business community at all (Downing and  Clark, 2010). This makes many of the conclusions drawn by the report suspect. A second glaring issue that comes across instantly is that while the survey makes claims about changes in the trends observed from 1999 till 2002, no tests have been reported that test the actual significance of these changes (Burns,  Burns and Burns, 2008). For some of the categories reviewed, there are changes as small as a couple of percentages across the three surveys reported. From the data used, it is difficult to verify whether these changes have occurred due to an actual change is the experiences of respondents or whether the observed changes are due to sampling error (Guilford and Fruchter, 1973). Thus, it is quite likely that some of the variations in responses could be due to natural fluctuation and may not be true chances in trends at all. In some parts of the report, only a part of the trends observed have been used to define the nature of changes. Although the report claims to be studying changes as they occur from 1999 till 2002, when discussing some of the fear of threats and the extent of business plans

Introduction to the business of Investment Banking Assignment

Introduction to the business of Investment Banking - Assignment Example An ardent need was felt for having a regulator which would ensure that the trading takes place keeping the interest of the investor in the mind. Hence in 1984, a ministerial committee was formed with the sole motive of regulating the capital market of Saudi Arabia (Tadawul, 2014, p. 1). The Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange is mainly run by the Board of Saudi Arabia which includes 9 members. The Capital Market Authority of the country takes care of the recommendation through which the members of the Board are nominated. The board comprises of the Chairman as well as the Vice Chairman apart from 7 other members. The operations of Tadawul are conducted in the electronic mode. Most of the orders of buy and sell as well as the ordering system or the trading procedure take place with the help of the electronic modes. This was started since 1990 and ensures that there is very little scope for fraudulent activities or illegal trading practices in Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange. The trading session of the exchange takes place between 11 am in the morning and 3.30 pm in the afternoon. The Tadawul All Share Index or the TASI is the index which indicates the performance of the stocks which are listed in the Tadawul Stock Exchange. The stocks of more than 168 companies are traded in the stock exchange. There are a number of sectors under which he stocks are traded. These sectors include the financial, consumer goods, Healthcare, telecoms, oil and gas as well as the industrial goods and materials. The products that are mainly traded in the Tadawul Stock Exchange include the Equities, Sukuk and Bonds, Mutual Funds as well as Exchange Traded Funds. The investment banks have a very active role in the entire process of the listing of the shares as well as in the raising of the funds from individual investors as well as the corporate clients when a company goes public. The investment bank ensures that the interests of

750 to 800 Word Limit Final Assessment Paper to be done in APA format Essay

750 to 800 Word Limit Final Assessment Paper to be done in APA format - Essay Example Their duties include the safeguarding of the university charter; the implementation of performance evaluations; budget allocation and fundraising; the election or appointment of the university president; and the performance assessment and monitoring of the president. President/Chancellor – The University President generally ensures that the university is run properly and that the university’s standards are maintained and sustained; provides overall leadership to the university and its academic and non-academic departments; acts as the mediator between the board and the university administration; and is responsible for the public image of the university (Puss and Loss, 2009). Provost – Also called the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the provost is in charge of everything that relates to academics and student affairs like performance evaluations of professors and students and student disciplinary measures; ensures that the curriculum of every course is complete; works closely with the president; recommends curriculum changes and additions; and acts as the mediator between the academic community within the university and the administrative bodies (Puss and Loss, 2009; Lombardi, et al., 2002). Executive Vice Presidents/Vice Presidents – The various administrative duties of specific departments rest on the shoulders of the university’s vice presidents. They work in close contact with the provost and the president in order to discuss and resolve issues, like finance. Heads of Colleges – The heads of these various schools and colleges are responsible for ensuring the stability and he smooth running of operations in the specific college he or she is assigned to. These academic heads report to the provost to make recommendations on positive changes, as well as resolve issues within their respective colleges. Academic Deans – Academic

The True History of the Conquest of Mexico Essay Example for Free

The True History of the Conquest of Mexico Essay The True History of the Conquest of Mexico by Bernel Diaz Castillo started with the events leading to the discovery of the province of Yucatan. Following the coast to the west, they discovered reefs and coves, resulting to the ordering of the governor of Cuba to send out a Navy to investigate.   A series of events followed, from the discovery of one coast to another and finally reaching San Juan de Ulua, a small island. From the Indians, they found out about Mexico, a then undiscovered land. How the formalities went about and finally setting out to discover Mexico. Castillo also talked about the courteous reception they have received from the natives, and how, in the turn of events, the war between them and the Mexicans started. He related what went on in the war, both the battle itself and the legalities. He talked about how, eventually, they were able to conquer Mexico. One of the most important factors in the turn of events was the discovery of the Yucatan province. If it had not been found, everything would not have fallen into place. Don Hernà ¡n Cortà ©s’s letters to King Charles V are also very important in the sense that it was the main source of communication, though vague, and of course, a bit relative as a source. Diego Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, ordered to send a Navy to the new land they discovered.   They arrived at the river of Tabasco where they all got together. They followed the coast ahead, towards the west and arrived at the river of flags, from there arriving at a small islet that is now called San Juan de Ulua. They joined forces with another Navy to discover the new land. Diego Velasquez sent a servant to Gaspar de Garnica with orders and provision, in case they get caught, Don Cortez and the Navy will be taken to him. The Indians not only welcomed them, but treated them like Gods who came from the water and to them; Cortez became the light accompanied by horsemen and soldiers for the island of Cozumel. It was through words that they were able to get their way among the natives, a great communication skill that led them to these success. But the natives had other vicious traditions that had placed the fear of God in them, and circumstances that only God could have saved them from.   Complications arose in relation to the language, resulting to a change in course of actions. They were able to side-step this obstacle for Cortez knew of two Spaniards who were knowledgeable about the ways of Indians in the End of Cotoche and he aided their help. Cortez divided the ships and assigned who will captain in each one of them, also the instructions regarding the signals and other stuff. They got into the Indians small community and tried to befriend them, with the intentions of gaining their trust. Learning their customs, and gaining their friendship, the Spaniards started inserting their own ways, these of course is after gaining alliance with more than 30 communities of the mountain ranges.   They won the favors of the Indians by serving them and showing utmost respect. The Spaniards were all too careful in making their actions, taking every consideration and every possibility they can come up with. A proof of the smooth maneuvering of the Spaniards with careful planning and step by step take over. Hernando Cortez became the Commander in chief and Greater Justice of the small Indian island until the king Henry V gave out his orders. The Spaniards decided to populate Villa Rica with the Side Cross to strengthen and establish their grounds, close to the port where their ships were anchored. They also started integrating their Catholic religion when Cortez ordered the building of an altar with the image Mother Mary, a cross and the baptism of eight Indians, the natives accepting it. They returned to Villa Rica and conflicts gave them reason to set out for Mexico. They were ordered to go to Mexico and by the councils, an encounter forged the gap within their army. Castillo related of the great battle they faced from there and that it was only God’s mercy that lent them strength to overcome it. They had been trying in futility it seems to ask for reinforcement and how Cortez sent him to the King eighty thousand pesos in gold and silver, and sent a shot that was a very rich wrought of many figures, age of shaken gold under with silver, that by name said the Fenix, and also sent to its father, Martin Cortez, on five thousand pesos of gold. And of course, relating to corruption even at the time. In the latter part of their quest to conquer Mexico, the Spaniards branded them by establishing the Catholic religion, emphasizing the strong religious qualities that had been their main stronghold in every facet of their lives. Cortez has clearly dominated the scene and has in a lot ways disregarded the orders of his superiors. Religion is a great way to conquer people because there is no need for so much brute for. The main concern is their psychological aspect. Spaniards showed them the consequences of people without a religion. They introduced a concept of life after death, wherein you have to be a Catholic in order to be saved, to be ensured that you have a wonderful life after death. Throughout the literary piece, Cortez has expressed his side of the story, his views and how he perceived them. He talked about the blind obedience they had to their king and how even when Indians ate their fellow soldiers, they will not back out. He talks about the anomalies inside the church, the indulgences and the gold and all the other violence inflicted, but also his almost acceptance for he says they serve their own way and purposes. He talks about the land they were able to conquer, and the lives they have sacrificed and all for the wishes of their king, and yet bemoans the fact that credit is not given where it should be due. The way he talked about the church and their King relates to the very foundation of their society. It is the church that tells them how to live their lives by the way it dictates their being. What they do and how they do it is for the God above and the King. The implication of their blind obedience to their king is a touch of loyalty but also integrated duty. It is a realization of how the smaller designation of power works, how higher orders are side-stepped and how the one who holds that power can be formidable.

Sustainable Public Procurement vs Green Public Procurement

Sustainable Public Procurement vs Green Public Procurement This section provides the background to the research and overview or outlines the overall framework of the dissertation. It describe the research process that include research problem, problem statement, aim, and objectives of the research, the scope of research being investigated, methodology adopted and finally the summary of the overall research structure undertaken. 1.0.2 Background Sustainability have become a widespread issue in developing countries as the effort to develop the country and conserving the Mother Nature at the same time increased. This effort is also due to the commitment agreed after United Nation Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 established Agenda 21. The Agenda 21 which contains blueprints on sustainability in 21st century was agreed by most of the governments to incorporate the sustainability concept in developments and economic area but still preserving the environment and natural resources. The construction industry is in no exception. Construction industry contributes 3.5 per cent to the countrys gross domestic product in 2011 (Jabatan Statistik Malaysia,2011) . These consist mainly of public sector projects under governments development programme. This indicates that the government have a big role to encourage the sustainability concept since they are the client with the biggest purchasing power. The sustainability developments by the Malaysian Green Technology Policy 2009 are the development of products, equipment and systems used to conserve the natural environment and resources, which minimizes and reduces the negative impact of human activities. While procurement is defined as a process that produces, manages and fulfils contract relating to various works such as construction, leasing properties, discarding properties or give permission for a project (Watermeyer,2004). The local government have the power to incorporate sustainability in its project through sustainable procurement. Sustainable procurement ensures that the project tendered by contractor have the element of sustainability incorporated inside the documents. By using their leverage to opt for goods and services that also respects the environment they can influence the contractor to include more energy efficient building system (Walker H., Brammer, 2009). This give a clear signal to the procurement parties to use environmental efficient technologies in the buildings as stated in the contract. Among the local government in other country that used sustainable procurement system is the Dutch Ministry for Economic Affairs. Their agency, Senter Novem defined sustainable procurement as applying environmental and social aspects in all stages of the procurement process to ensure that it results in the actual delivery of product, service or work in line with such environmental and social aspects. It is also defined as construction that brings about the required performance with the least unfavourable ecological impacts while encouraging economic, social and cultural improvement at local, regional and global level. (Taipale, 2010) 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT Sustainability is one of the five main areas of the Government Transformation Programme. Therefore, in order to achieve this, the policies need to be enforced. This is to ensure the implementation will take place and change can be seen. However, sustainable procurement is also important which are not well known in Malaysian construction industry. There is a need to know the level of awareness of this procurement so that it can help policy makers to do policies that are applicable to Malaysian environment. This is because Malaysia have a strong foundation in the sustainability issue but still lacking in implementation level. As stated by Perera et. al (2007), law and policies are not enough to change the usual traditional procurement system which are based on value for money rather than the whole life of value of the project. According to CIMP 2006-2015, road to sustainability is expected to come by 2015. However, 2015 is getting near and the changes are still yet to be seen. 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 AIMS This paper aims to discover the awareness of construction industry players of the sustainable procurement. It is can be used to discover the problems that hinder or cause the industry players hesitant to incorporate sustainability in procurement even though there are various policies available nowadays. By using natural materials in the design does not mean the building is sustainable. Everything that came from the Mother Nature does not necessarily sustainable to begin with. For example, tyres which made out of 100% natural ingredient which is rubber. Therefore, it is hoped that the understanding of sustainability itself and the ability to incorporate sustainable into procurement can be done. 1.2.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES a. To identify the awareness of the construction industry players about sustainable procurement. b. To identify the problems in implementation level. c. To find appropriate recommendation to encourage the use of sustainable public procurement in public projects. 1.3 SCOPE OF RESEARCH The scope of this paper will limit on the procurements for public projects as the projects in Malaysia are mostly from the Government development programmes. The scope will limit for government projects in Sarawak only. 1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research methodology will explain how the objectives of this study can be achieved. This chapter will show the flow and the method used to gather the data and information to achieve the objective of study. The data and information will be adopted by specific approach depend on the nature of the investigation. It can be categorized into two stages: Data collection methods are an integral part of research design in any research. Data can be collected in variety of ways and in different setting. Data can be obtained from primary and secondary data. The primary data refer to information which gathered from first hand experiences in the specific of studies. Then, the secondary data is the data which are collected from the publish data or the data collected which are already existed. Primary Data Questionnaires Questionnaires will be given out to Quantity Surveyors, Engineers and other construction industry related job such as contract administrators and others. The questionnaires are intended to assemble all the information that needed to prove the objective of the research paper. Secondary Data The Literature Review was carried out to establish some general knowledge of the research topic. A clearer framework of the research was established for secondary data. These are all obtained from: Journals Articles Information from internet Dissertation Publisher research work Books 7.0 TENTATIVE CHAPTER HEADINGS Chapter 1: Introduction The introduction will discuss on issues relating to sustainable construction and sustainability in procurements. Other items included under this heading are problem statements, aim and objectives and scope of the study. This chapter will also line out the research methodology of the research paper and its significant to the construction industry. Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 2 will review on the sustainable procurement principles, the distinction between sustainable and green procurement. The chapter will also review the other countries that have taken steps to implement sustainable procurement in the public projects. The characteristics, benefits and the procurement practices in Malaysia will also be reviewed under this heading. Chapter 3: Sustainable Procurement This heading will further discuss on the integration of the sustainability into procurement. The chapter will also discuss the application of sustainable procurement in other countries such as United Kingdom. The National policies on sustainability issues will also be discussed in this chapter. This is to show that Malaysia have strong foundation on policy but lack in implementation. The roles of Government in implementing sustainable procurement will also be discussed. Chapter 4: Data Analysis And Findings This chapter will discuss on the data obtained and findings on the research. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations This chapter will conclude on the overall issues and recommend the suitable solution. CHAPTER 2:Â  LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the consumption of goods and services causes the emission of chemical substances, mass use of natural resources and other activity generates waste and pollution. Sustainable procurement ensure the environmental, social and economic objective is achieved. The construction industry uses a lot of natural resources, waste and pollution. In order to control these problems, the solution must start from the procurement itself. Malaysian construction industry has no problem in adopting and implementing the sustainable practices however, due to lack of knowledge and due to financial constraints the progress are slow (Othman R., 2008). 2.1 SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT: AN OVERVIEW 2.1.1 Principle According to United Nation, sustainable principle is based on environmental, social and economic consideration. These three objective must be combined together to produce a sustainable procurement. The procurement strategy must consider the life cycle value of the project, social impact and the economic benefits. The life cycle value of the project does not means the value in terms of financial value only. The life cycle value of the project in sustainable procurement also means the project have lower environmental impact. This ensures that the building is not only green initially, but also after end of use. The building components must consist of materials that are Eco labelled. Among the energy rating label on product is Energy Star. Energy Star is an international recognized standard for electrical product. A procurement officer can check whether the product such as air conditioner have an Energy Star label. Other than that, the procurement officer can refer to the specification i n Energy Stars website. This is to ensure the product is energy efficient and have lower environmental impact. Sustainable procurement gives impact socially by supporting the local businesses. Supporting businesses by single mother is also considered helping the social level to progress. When support is given to these local businesses, their business will eventually grow and job opportunity created. Economically, if there is a demand for green innovative product the market will try to supply more of the similar products and probably more competitive price can be obtained from the market. This opens up a bigger market for sustainable products. More variety of products with reasonable price will be available. The assessment of economic sustainability considers not only the initial investment in land and construction, but also questions such as the cost of maintaining and operating a building over a longer period of time. Social and societal sustainability covers issues which are often closely linked with economic and environmental ones, such as access to basic services, upgrading poor housing conditions, creating decent jobs, fair trade of construction materials, transparency. of tenders for contracts., cultural values embedded in old buildings, and accessibility to buildings. (Taipale, 2010). 2.1.2 Sustainable VS. Green Although the term green and sustainability used interchangeably, there is a difference of green and sustainable construction. For green buildings (the middle-size box), common phases of the life cycle for the building are incorporated into construction. Indoor environmental quality is a variable added into the green building model compared to the conventional building model. In green building, the stage of incorporating green character of a building only started during design stage. While for sustainable, the concept are incorporated since the pre-design stage. During pre-design stage, all the design team, owners and all other parties involved need to establish and understand the objectives on sustainability. They also need to share their opinions on sustainability and agree on common priorities including the potential challenges on reusing and refurbishing the building. They need to learn lessons from best practices on other projects to examine possible changes or innovations for th e proposed building. (Taipale, 2010) In sustainable buildings (the bigger box), the numbers of variables and stages of the building life-cycle considered are even larger. Based on the figure 2.1, the concept of sustainability comprises of whole building life cycle value. Variable such as site selection, project planning and urban design, service quality, social and economic aspect and cultural and perceptual aspect are added to this model. In pre design stage, site selection is considered important. Selection of site must not give negative impacts to the surrounding environment. Impacts on groundwater, natural resources, decrease in accessibility, pollution to soil and orientation of sun and wind are several items that need to be considered for site selection. 2.1.2 Why sustainability need to be integrated with procurement? Through procurement that requires sustainability to be incorporated in the construction, the market will see a signal to supply more sustainable products to meet the criteria. This is because where there is demand, there will be supply. Laymans checklist shows that procurement is one of the issues that need to be taken account during construction of sustainable buildings. 2.1.3 Sustainable Procurement: A Global Issue Sustainable procurement is already enforced in New Zealand, United Kingdom..___. The Marrakech Project is a task force formed to do the framework on sustainable procurement as a result from Agenda 21. According to Marrakech Force, Japan According to Shohei Yamada from Ministry of Environment Japan, the key Japans success in green purchasing is due to the law in green purchasing that are strictly enforced and implemented in by Japans government. Switzerland Marrakech Task Force United Kingdom Sustainable Procurement Action Plan 2.2 National Policy On Sustainability Issue Malaysia had taken a step towards sustainability after Rio Summit in 1992. The summit requires various countries to commit on the sustainable development issue. There were 27 principles of sustainable development identified during the conference. During Rio Summit, there is also a guideline on sustainable development which is known as Agenda 21. After Rio Summit in 1992, Malaysian government introduced the Malaysian National Environment Policy. (elaborate) The development of various initiatives and policy of sustainable development in Malaysia started since the Kyoto Declaration in 2002 is signed by various countries. Benefits of Sustainable Procurement There are several benefits listed by Kennard (2006) for sustainable procurements. Among them are: Control costs by adopting a wider approach to whole life costing. When wider approach to whole life costing is adopted, the once considered expensive item will be seen as cost saving in long term. This is through the efficient use of the sustainable material and products. Several research and best practices proved that by evaluating the life cycle value of the building, positive social and environmental impact can be achieved. For example in choosing the type of bulb to be used in a building. The energy saving bulb initial cost is expensive. But it uses less energy which brings to less electricity current. The bulb also long lasting therefore it does not require change regularly. This reduces the maintenance cost of the building operation. Comply with environmental and social legislation. There are various tools implemented by the Government in environmental and social legislation to improve sustainability such as transforming Ministry of Communication, Water and Energy to Ministry of KETTHA. There are also guidelines in developing a sustainable development in National Urbanization Policy. Incentives are also given such as exemption from tax if a developer achieves the Green Building Index certificate. There is also a Green Technology Funding Scheme (GTFS) where the construction fulfils the criteria in Table 2.0. No. Criteria Elaboration Requirement 1 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy By using the building orientation as a method to optimise the consumption of energy. For example to get good natural lighting, the orientation of the building must be towards the sunlight. The building also need to use building services that use renewable energy, ensure proper testing made to the services and do regular maintenance. Minimum Energy Efficient Performance Compliance to minimum requirement of MS1525:2007 Renewable Energy 2 Indoor Environmental Quality Good indoor air quality, acoustics, visual and thermal comfort. This includes using a low volatile organic compound materials, use a quality air filtration system, proper control of air temperature, movement and humidity. Minimum IAQ Performance Minimum indoor air quality (IAQ) performance to enhance indoor air quality in building, thus contributing to the comfort and well-being of the occupants. Low indoor air pollutants, mould prevention 3 Sustainable Site Planning and Management Selecting appropriate sites with planned access to public transportation, community services, open spaces and landscaping. Avoiding and conserving environmentally sensitive areas through the redevelopment of existing sites and brownfields. Implementing proper construction management, storm water management and reducing the strain on existing infrastructure capacity. Environment Management Conserve existing natural area Restore damaged area to provide habitat Promote biodiversity Maximize open space by providing a high ratio of open space to development footprint to promote biodiversity. Earthworks Construction activity pollution control and Reduce social impact to surrounding. Public transportation access Reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use. Storm water design to limit the disruption of natural hydrology Reduce heat island effect. 4 Materials and Resources Use products that are from environmental friendly and recyclable source. Implement a proper waste management system, with storage, collection and reuse of recyclables and construction waste and formworks. Materials reuse and recycle content materials and construction waste management. Use of environmentally-friendly Refrigerants and Clean Agents. 5 Water Efficiency Practices rainwater harvesting, water recycling and water saving fittings Rainwater Harvesting to reduce potable water consumption. Water Recycling to reduce potable water consumption. Water Efficient Irrigation/ Landscaping Encourage the design of system that does not require the use of potable water supply from the local water reticulation. Water Efficient Fittings Encourage reduction in potable water consumption through use of efficient devices. Metering Leak Detection System Encourage the design of systems that monitors and manages water consumption. 6 Innovation Use an innovative design and initiatives in promoting energy efficiency that meets the goal of Green Building Index Innovation in design environmental design initiatives that contribute to reduce impact to the environment. Green building accredited facilitator To support and encourage the design integration required for green / sustainable building rated buildings and to streamline the application and certification process. Table 2.0 : Criteria and Requirements for obtaining Green Technology Funding Scheme (GTFS) (Source : http://www.gtfs.my/page/criteria-building-and-township-sector) There are also rebates for those who procure the air conditioning, refrigerator or chiller which are rated 5-star by Suruhanjaya Tenaga. The Government are encouraging the consumers to use energy efficient appliances by listing the 5-star rated products in the website. They also provide a savings calculator to show how much saving the consumer can get if they use an energy efficient electrical appliances. This is to help create a culture of efficient use of energy into consumers and business entities. Manage risk and reputation. In order to implement the sustainable procurement, an organization needs to fully change its policies and procedures. It is vital that the sustainability criteria are integrated into the management itself before it is applied to other areas such as procurement. The existing procurement practice and policies need to be evaluated to clarify what the organization really needed to purchase. The procurement policies need to adopt sustainable strategies in order to manage unnecessary consumption and demand thus reducing the impact of energy use to environment. By producing a guideline of the procurement policy, the performance of sustainable procurement can be measured in future. Thus sustainable procurement goals can be developed from time to time. This process will provide a measurement for re-evaluating the sustainability of the supply chain and build a reputation for the organization as an organization that practices good ethical value of sustainable in procurement. (Kennard, 2006) CHAPTER 3 3.0 INTRODUCTION According to Kallet (2004), a studys validity is judged based on the method section of a research paper which provides all of the information in a study. Therefore, a solid research methodology planning precise description of each action must be prepared prior to the commencement of a particular research study. The credibility of the outcome of the research and how the research can be applied in a general population interest is referred as validity (Kallet, 2004). Therefore, the authenticity of content in a research paper are depending on the degree of the validity of its outcome to the overall population and ability of the research paper to be used as future reference. Hulley et.al (1988) as cited by Kallet (2004), stated that the credibility of a study is solely determined by the degree to which conclusion drawn from a research correctly what actually transpired during a study, known as Internal Validity. Moreover, Kallets 2004 study (Hulley et.al, 1988) stated that as for External validity refers to whether the result of a study depending on the degree of the study can be generalized to a larger population. Planning a research methodology before the execution of a research study is essential in ensuring that the outcome of the study which was based on its objectives can be reached and its degree of validity is credible for future reference. 3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OF THE TOPIC 3.1.1 Objectives of the Study The research on the has three most important goals or objective which comprises of the following: To identify the awareness of the construction industry players about sustainable procurement. To identify the problems in implementation level of sustainable procurement in construction industry. To find appropriate recommendation to encourage the use of sustainable public procurement in public projects. These three main objectives were set out as a guideline in executing the research study on the topic. The methodologies used in order to obtain valuable information for this research study are based on sources from both Primary and Secondary Data. Primary Data for this research study was obtained by means of interviews with numerous individual and site visits. Among the barriers in obtaining the primary data was the restriction due to governmental policies, availability of the person in- charge, communication barriers, bureaucracy hassle, public transportation breakdown, financial limit, time constraint, and weather condition. As for the Secondary Data, the information was obtained from journals, articles, electronic information, dissertations, publisher research work, and book of related topic. 3.1.2 Summary of Research Methodology 3.1.2.1 Primary Data Due to the effect of degree of validity of a research study to the credibility of the outcome of the study, the data obtained for executing the study is scrutinized and filtered in order to obtain only the worthy information. Primary data can be defined as the first hand data that was obtain by the researcher prior to the commencement of the research, it is the foremost sources of information which was obtained from both interviews and site visits. Prior to the these data gathering can commence, a letter of consent for request of approval for using the project as a case study was submitted to the responsible being for approval and official notification. The interviews were carried out largely at the mentioned public department. Among the individual interviewed was the Head of the Developers, Quantity Surveyors, Civil Engineers, Architects, and Contractor and also other parties that involved and understand the procurement content. 3.2.2.2 Secondary Data According to Stacks (2002), secondary data can be defined as report on the outcome of the primary data. It is not as authoritative as the primary data as it often provides broad background and readily improves ones learning curve. Therefore, obviously the secondary data is not as reliable as the primary data. The secondary data used in this research is obtained from books related to the research topic, articles, journals, electronic information, dissertations, and public works research. 3.2 SOURCE OF RESEARCH DATA 3.2.3 Primary data Primary data obtained for the purpose of the study consist of interviews and site visits. Interviews The interviews carried out for the purpose of this study can be divided into two, namely : Semi structured interviews. Informal interviews. 3.2.3.1.1 Semi Structured Interviews Rashid (1998) suggested that it is more desirable to conduct a semi-structured interview which is closer to the qualitative research method in order to be balanced and attempt to obtain additional information that would enrich the quantitative data obtained through questionnaire survey. As the nature of the investigation is a combination of qualitative and quantitative that seek for the answer for open-ended and close-ended questions of why and how therefore, it is more appropriate to conduct semi-structured interview in which it provides opportunities to researcher to capture both data. To ensure the smoothness and to facilitate the respondents in answering the questions, the following guides and procedures were followed: The main instructions were clearly explained during the beginning of interview sessions. Each respondents were requested to discuss on one or more specific projects that has been selected during content analysis prior to the interview in which they were directly involved in the strategic briefing process. The respondents were allowed to express their opinion freely in the future outlook of sustainable procurement in construction industry, in order to explore potential variables and concepts that may have been overlooking during literature review. The questions were design to be short and simple, which developed from objectives of the research. A five-point rating scale were used for close-ended questions with choices of responses of : 1 Not at all aware 2 Slightly aware 3 Somewhat aware 4 Moderately aware 5 Extremely aware 3.2.3.1.2 Informal Interviews Informal interviews were carried out by means of telecommunication such as telephone calls, emails, and Short Messaging System or better known as SMS. This type of interview were conducted in order to acquire basic information such as the availability of the person in charge, hardcopy information for appendix purposes, and other related references. 3.2.3.1.3 Questionnaires The final stage of data collection is a postal questionnaire survey. The primary objective of postal questionnaire survey is to measure the level of clients practices during briefing. It also carried out to measure the level of project success based on perception of the architects in-charged for the selected project. Responses and variables on clients practices during briefing and level of project success obtained from the survey were used to validate findings on semi-structured interview on the previous stage of data collection, in order to have reliable, unbiased and meaningful data. Given that the location of the respondents were relatively remote, financial limitation and constrained by timeline of the study, a postal questionnaire survey was observed as the most appropriate method to collecting data from the respondents. According to Sekaran (2003), the main advantage of mail questionnaire is that a wide geographical area can be covered in the survey. Naoum (1998) added it is more suited to assembling a mass of information at a minimum expense in terms of finance, human and other resources. A set of question was developed for the purpose of the survey in which divided into several sections that covered background of the respondents, level of knowledge and concept of sustainable development and construction, application of sustainability in procurement, barriers to implement sustainable procurement in construction industry and future outlook of the sustainable procurement in construction. To encourage high response rate and to ensure the required information were obtained, the following guides and procedures were followed: The questions were design to be short and simple, and were formatted on A4 sizes paper. The main instructions were clearly printed in the front page of the questionnaire form. The questionnaire was divided into several sections, according to research objectives and category of information required. Refer to Appendix 1 for copy of questionnaire used in the postal questionnaire survey. Secondary Data According to Ober (2008), secondary data is not as good as the primary data , however, it is not the worst kind of data that can be used in completing a research study. Moreover, there are many advantageous in applying the secondary data as a method in completing a research study, this is due to the facts that it is low in term of cost and less time consuming than gathering primary data, therefore, secondary data will help save money, energy, and time. However, it also holds its own disadvantages in terms of the quality of the available data and its availability for a particular topic of a research study. Most of the secondary data gathered in this study was obtained from construction journals and articles. The secondary data for this research was also gathered from the electronic

Does Nuclear Deterrence Work In Preventing Conflict Politics Essay

Does Nuclear Deterrence Work In Preventing Conflict Politics Essay In the post world war II era there have been fewer wars (and no third world war since the second world war took place just 20 years after the first), today countries engage in dialogues in order to solve problems rather than blindly declaring war against each other. After the explosion of the first nuclear bomb by the US on Japan in Nagasaki and Hiroshima the world saw the destruction the bomb caused killing over 200,000 people in the two cities and the people who were affected by the bomb died because of radiation and the future generations were deformed at birth. The explosion of the bomb scared the world of the consequences of the bomb, no one not even the pilot of the plane carrying the bomb had any idea what would happen once he drops the bomb. He later wrote a book about the time during WWII, when the bombs exploded and he regretted the fact that he carried out the operation. The Nuclear deterrence theory is when a country which possesses a nuclear arsenal threatens its enemy nation (also a nuclear armed country) that it will retaliate if attacked. This theory is a strategy which is used to avoid armed conflicts between the countries. Examples of this is during the cold war (when this strategy was first adopted on a nuclear level) both the United States and the USSR used this strategy however this never resulted in the use of nuclear weapons. Another (recent) example of this is India and Pakistan (in 2001 the President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf had threatened India that it could use its nuclear weapons in case India attacks Pakistan) these countries use this strategy against one another . but both countries have never engaged in a nuclear war against one another. The total number of countries with nuclear weapons has increased to 7 the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France, India , Pakistan. However Israel has neither accepted nor denied the fact that they possess nuclear weapons although many analysts believe that they do. After 1945 the nuclear bomb has never been used again against a country. China built its nuclear arsenal in order to become a regional power and India built its weapon in order to threaten its enemy Pakistan. Pakistan also built its weapon in its defence, fearing a possible nuclear attack from the neighbouring India. It has been claimed that Israel has built a nuclear arsenal in order to defeat the threat of the Arab nations like Iran and Egypt whose President Nasser had threatened to attack the country at that time. Ever since the countries have built their weapons, there has been no serious war since each nuclear armed country fears that if they attack the enemy country, they will also suffer so, to some extent the possession of nuclear weapons has prevented a major war against the countries. However there has been nuclear standoffs between countries like India and Pakistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is also said that both the countries had detonated their nuclear missil es ready to be fired. Today people also fear that the nuclear weapons may fall into the wrong hands example terrorist groups that could use the weapons for their personal gain and bomb their enemy countries this could lead to a conventional nuclear war that could harm the countries and lead to the deaths of millions or even billions of people. Israel has a reason to build a nuclear weapon since it is surrounded by enemy territory. Ever since the neighbouring countries have become aware of the fact that Israel has become a nuclear power, there has been no major or direct war by countries like Egypt and iran who always threaten to attack Israel. Also during the cold war period, there was no direct war against the USSR and the usa except for the mujahedeen war during the late 1970s to the 1980s. Even then the USSR refrained from using their nuclear weapons against Pakistan and the usa fearing retaliation from the USA. These are instances that have proved that nuclear deterrence has prevented nuclear conflict against countries. . This theory encourages proliferation since once a country possesses a nuclear weapon, they will always try and improve their weapons(in order to feel safe) and make duplicates, examples of this is both Pakistan and India who have conducted multiple tests of their missiles trying to improve their current models. Also countries like the US and Russia build missiles that could counter nuclear attacks. I fear for the future of the world today, the 6 billion people living on this earth today, if countries shed their nuclear weapons then the world will be a safe place again. I fear that this is not going to happen I fear that if a third world war breaks out, it will lead to the destruction of our planet resulting in over a billion deaths and the future generations of those affected to be deformed due to the radiation( all it needs is a spark that can be caused by an accidental activation of the nuclear weapon by a particular country and the country affected would retaliate leading to a nuclear war or if the leader of a nation possessing the weapon makes an irrational move by attacking its enemy would also lead to a nuclear war ). It could take us back to the Stone Age and destroy our civilization the reason being, over a thousand nuclear missiles would be detonated all around the world leading to destruction of land, loss of human life. Also the long term effects could also be deadly resulting in a change of the climate because of hyper global warming, food shortage due to destruction to agricultural land causing it to be infertile in fact poisonous. Therefore what needs to be done is that all the nuclear armed countries should decide before it is too late and regret like Albert Einstein ( who encouraged the then American President Roosevelt to develop the atomic bomb before Germany succeeds in creating the atomic bomb) the consequences of the nuclear bomb, therefore all the countries should take this problem seriously and should avoid ignoring it by eliminating and dismantling all their nuclear weapons and make the world a nuclear free , a safe world once again!