Worplestrop Case Study Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Worplestrop Case Study Report - Essay Example Cost accounting method of accounting is employed in this to achieve the aims. In doing this planning as a measure of review is established, in this case budgets will always be developed to show the stakeholder the progress level reached. The reports produced and provided will be of utmost importance in that they are employed in the evaluation of the performance of the business in place and as well to motivate the workers. Total production costs in any industry are the total cost incurred in both manufacturing and service provision. In the production process, various cost elements are normally involved: - These are material, labor and overhead costs including other relevant expenses (Polimeni, 2000). When all these costs are summed up, we arrive at the production cost of a product. The determination of material and labor cost is easy and quite simple since such costs are direct. While material costs are read directly from the receipts, labor costs are determined from the payroll sheet s of the employees (Davis, 2005). The payroll indicates both the salaries and the expenses of the company employees in all the ranks. The challenging aspect of cost to determine involves those for the overhead and other expenses, the determination and valuation has posed a serious challenge to cost accountants (Polimeni, 2000). They have though employed various cost accounting methods to allocate such costs to the products to help in the product cost determination. Cost of products are fundamental for decision making purposes hence the need to find for the means of costing products. The following methods have therefore been devised to help determine costs of products:- First, cost of a product can be calculated using the marginal costing system (Davis, 2005). In determining costs using this system, variable costs are given a major weight to help in valuing products for decision making. Both the fixed and sunk costs are not integrated in this case since they do not affect the future decisions made given they are already incurred in the past. The reports formed based on this measure are only for use internally and not for external decision making purposes. Secondly, absorption or total costing method can also be used to value and determine the costs of products. Here as opposed to marginal costing, all the costs are summed up including the fixed costs and the sunk overhead costs. In the process of manufacturing, the products all these costs were incurred hence deemed valuable in product cost determination (Davis, 2005). This method is the mostly preferred even when determining selling prices of goods and services since it entails all the costs incurred and would give a fair selling price. The method aids the organization achieve a desired profit margin as they simply add it up on the selling price set. Additionally, activity based costing can be used to determine costs as well. This form of costing is used in the allocation of overheads, which are in turn summed up together with the variable costs to lead us to the cost of the product. Here, various cost drivers are use to allocate the overheads to their respective cost centers hence the method is important in charging costs to their respective activities. With decisions involving activities that should be done and those that need to be done away with in an organization, this method has been instrumental for managers of manufacturing companies (Davis, 2005). This realizes effectiveness and efficiency in an organization by the management through elimination and replacement of non-useful activities in an organization. Lastly, throughout costing can also be employed in cost determinatio

Politics - Is the War on Terror an invented conflict Essay

Politics - Is the War on Terror an invented conflict - Essay Example This single incident was by itself proof that the threat of terrorism was real enough, perceptible enough and urgent enough to merit the highest degree of priority, attention and action. â€Å"Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history. But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.† (Bush, 2001, pp. 5) The President then went on to state in no uncertain terms that the United States â€Å"is fighting a war against terrorism of global reach.† (Bush, 2001, pp. 5) Subsequent references to a concerted fight against terrorism on a worldwide scale by the President and others of the administration finally led to the coinage of the now formal and widely accepted term ‘Global War on Terrorism’ along with its acronym GWOT. If the 9/11 attacks were not ‘invented’, then it follows logically that all efforts to fight and eradicate those who were behind the attack and others who pursue the path of terrorism, are also real enough. The objective of this paper is to present an analysis of what makes the Global War on Terrorism a very real effort fighting a very real danger to the world. The paper will, however, also examine the drawbacks and weaknesses in the formulation of GWOT, that have resulted in the misconception that the entire effort is an invented one – that it is the fantasy of some collective devious mind. In order to be able to do so, we must first examine what is exactly implied by the term ‘Global War on Terrorism’. ‘War’ as implied in the GWOT is a very different kind of war compared to conventional warfare. Traditionally, war has involved military conflict between well defined entities such as states or insurgent groups trying to take over the control of a state. The primary medium for war has been combat between fielded military forces, be they regular (state) or

Managing business ethics in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing business ethics in China - Essay Example In the modern day business world, a manager needs to ensure adherence to business ethics in a firm’s quest for profiteering motives. However, recent developments have resulted in varied definitions of ethics, and each person has to use own judgement to differentiate between ethical and unethical practise. Moreover, the capacity of a business to adhere to ethical expectations is dependent on political, social, economic, and environmental factors of a market. This means that a firm should balance its business practice with environmental and social responsibility, and in adherence to the ethical guidelines stipulated by the government in the country of operation. In essence, the highest level of ethical practice involves business practices that aim to ensure economic, environmental and social sustainability. The Chinese economy is characterized with widespread criticism on high levels of unethical practices; including corruption that is touted to be the most detrimental factor of the economy. However, recent changes have seen a change in focus to adherence to ethical guidelines by managers, most of whom are learning how to incorporate the system into their businesses without seeming to suffer from the alienation by western values. The Chinese investors insist on charting their own path to ethical practice despite the assimilation of various western characteristics into its economic system. On august 26, 2010, Landau reported on BBC about a businessperson who tried to incorporate Christianity as a tool to entrench ethical practice among his employees, mainly by encouraging his employees to convert to the Christian faith. While this practice is not illegal, it brings up the question of how far managers can go to ensure ethical practises in their firms (Landau, 2010). Factors Influencing Et hical Practice in China Many factors have been blamed for the widespread unethical practices in China, but the most outstanding ones are philosophical beliefs, globalisation and the rapid changes that the Chinese economy undergoes. Philosophical Beliefs The main philosophical approaches taken by the Chinese are Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, all of which are based on the teachings of prominent thinkers who resided in the Far East. Confucius, the father of Confucianism, taught that the first obligation of every person is to the family, such that everyone is expected to take care of the needs of family members and close friends before extending favours to others. While this is a convenient way of living in day-to-day life, the philosophy may be destructive in the business world, as managers tend to hire their family members regardless of their qualifications. This has resulted in poor quality of Chinese products; erosion of work ethics since a favour leads to another, and the cycl e goes on despite detrimental effects to the economy. However, this does not mean that Confucianism only has negative effects on ethics; in fact, if applied correctly, the philosophy has three main aspects that promote ethical practise. These include the teachings on obedience, following laid down guidelines, and humanity (Suen, Cheung and Mondejar, 2007). Taoism incorporates the principles of learning the details of one's profession for improved workmanship, and promotion of maximum good for the greatest number of people. In addition, Taoism results in increased efficiency at the workplace though this is not the prime concern of the philosophy. Buddhism is the philosophy that encourages business personality to respect and preserve the business environment; and to create a healthy relationship between the business and the community around it. Any manager intending to do ethical business in China has to have an understanding of the perceptions of

Open Source Versus Closed Source Software Essay

Open Source Versus Closed Source Software - Essay Example Currently, there are a huge number of categories of the open source software that include but not limited to the Application Software, Operating Systems, Programming Languages and Server Software. Under each category there are many items / applications, for example, the application software include: Mozilla Firefox – a web browser, OpenOffice – an office suit, Eclipse – an integrated development environment, 7-zip – a file archiver or compressor etc. The operating systems include: the Linux, Android – a mobile OS, FreeBSD etc. The open source computer programming languages include: PHP – a scripting language used to develop websites, Perl, Ruby etc. The open source server software include: Apache – a web server, Joomla – a web content management system etc. Closed Source Software Closed source software also known as proprietary software is computer software which is only available without source code and licensed under limited l egal right as per provided by the copyright owner. The buyer of the propriety software is permitted to use the software having restrictions on modifications, redistribution, update / upgrade or reverse engineering and it is typically owned by a single organization. The vendors usually provide an executable or compiled form of the software application’s source code so that only the central processing unit of the computer can understand the machine language that cannot be converted into the source code. The propriety software is not allowed to redistribute or sharing the software with others, in case anybody else wanted to use the proprietary software it is required to purchase another unique license of the software. In other words, the proprietary software is the property of the owner / developer / publisher that cannot be copied or modified, with an appropriate price and need to comply the license agreement (National Taiwan University, 1991). Like the open source software, th e proprietary software has much more categories of the software include: Operating System, Computer Programming Languages, software applications, public domain software, private software etc. There are several examples including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Programming languages – ASP.Net etc., Microsoft Office etc. Open vs. Closed Source Software – Advantages and Disadvantages For every advantage there exists disadvantage, therefore, both types of software have there exist advantages as well as disadvantages. Let’s talk about the advantages of both types, the advantages of the open source software include: free of cost, right to modify and redistribute the source code, the technology neutral or the open source software can be used with other software, freedom and flexibility of having multiple vendors, high security, quality, customizability, interoperability and audibility. "Open Source software tends to be free of dependency on related products. Purchasers of ten perceive that the product works best with other products from the same manufacturer. Open Source software offers its users greater freedom to purchase other products, avoiding lock-in to particular manufacturers." (QinetiQ, 2001) There are many disadvantages of the open source software as compared to the closed source software that include but not limited to the less availability of support, updates, less reliability as anyone can change / edit the code and

Blighs Claims and Liabilities in Tort Case Study

Blighs Claims and Liabilities in Tort - Case Study Example Tort may include that this personal violation or wrong can be negligent or intentional such as battery or defamation of character. Torts can also be violations of personal property as well. Strictly speaking, torts are called civil wrongs as opposed to criminal wrongs. However, torts like battery can be both a tort and a crime and the defendant can face both civil and criminal penalties. Torts may be committed with force or without force to the person or to the property in possession. Tort laws have been enacted to provide relief for the damages incurred and deter others from committing the same injurious acts. Under most tort laws, a person can sue for an injunction to stop the continuation of an injurious act or for monetary damages. Under Tort law, a person can also sue for loss of earnings capacity, pain and suffering, and reasonable medical expenses in the present and projected into the future. Some of the more specific torts include trespass, assault & battery, negligence, products liability, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Tort liability fall into three categories: intentional, negligent and liability. (i) Negligence: Negligence is a tort which depends on the existence of a breach of duty of care owed by one person to another. In order to claim damages under 'negligence', the following conditions must have been satisfied. In the above case, the de... b) The defendant breached the duty of care c) Breach causing harm in fact d) The injury / loss was caused by the breach and damages need to be awarded e) Breach being a proximate or not too remote a cause, in law In the above case, the defendant Mr. Hood had negligently left the keys in the ignition, because of which, Mr. Fletcher took the cruiser without Mr. Hood's permission and hit Mr. Bligh's barge. This has resulted in damage to the property of Mr. Bligh. If Mr. Hood had properly locked it, and had not left the keys in the ignition itself, the damage wouldn't have happened. As such, 'negligence' has provided a cause of action against Mr. Hood. In Donoghue v. Stevenson's case , Mrs Donoghue could sue the manufacturer of Ginger Beer for negligence, since he had not exercised due care in checking the contents of Ginger Beer which had decomposed snail in it. (ii) Vicarious Liability: It is not sure whether Mr. Fletcher is an employee of Mr. Hood. If he is an employee of Mr. Hood, Mr. Bligh can claim damages from Mr. Hood under Vicarious liability as well. "Since his employee harmed the barge of Mr. Bligh in the course of his employment, he is required to bear responsibility for it. In one of the tort cases, the conductor of a bus drove the bus negligently and injured a pedestrian. The court ruled that the owner of that bus is liable for conductor's irresponsible act, since the accident happened during the course of employment. (iii) Intangible Economic Interests / Monitory loss: Because of the above act of Mr. Fletcher, the barge was damaged and took a day to repair. As a result, Mr. Bligh was unable to use it to carry on his transport business and lost a day's profit, there being no other barge available. Mr. Bligh, can claim the monitory loss

FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS - Assignment Example The first store to be opened globally was in Middle East in Dubai. (i) Current Ratio: The current ratio signifies a company’s ability to pay off its short term obligations that is the ability to cover up short-term liabilities (debt and payables) with short-term assets (cash, inventory and receivables). The higher the current ratio, the higher the ability of the firm to payoff short-term obligations but it can also depict inefficiency in handling illiquid assets such as inventory. AEO depicts a favorable trend in terms of this ratio as it has elevated from 2.9 in 2010 to 3.0 in 2011. In contrast with the industry average, the company has performed quite well. But such a high current ratio can also show inefficiency in handling illiquid assets such as inventory but this cannot be determined without the help of Quick ratio. (ii) Accounts Receivable Turnover: This ratio talks about the management efficiency of a firm in collecting cash from debtors who were sold goods on credit by the firm; the ratio is computed in times and shows how many times a firm generates and collects cash from debtors in a year. The higher the turnover, the more the efficient the firm is but this would also depict an aggressive or tightened credit policy and can lead to lesser sales generation. American Eagle Outfitters’ trend of Accounts receivable turnover is favorable as it has increased from 2010 to 2011. This compared to the industry shows a way higher ratio and depicts that it operates a very aggressive credit policy. (iii) Inventory Turnover: This ratio again comes under management efficiency of a company and depicts that how many times a year the inventory had been sold for cash and re-stocked; the higher the turnover the more efficient the management of the firm is. The trend of this ratio is favorable for American Eagle as it has increased in the two years

Army Overseer Tells of Ouster over KBR Stir Essay

Army Overseer Tells of Ouster over KBR Stir - Essay Example According to this article, conflict between the KBR and American Army a rose when Mr. Smith an Army official failed to approve KBR payments claiming that the expenses were not justified. This article highlights that the conflict between American Army and KBR would pose impacts on society. KBR put it that if the government failed to pay the debt, it will no longer provide services. If this happened, American troops will not be able to fight their opponent hence the society will run out of protection (Army, 6/17/2008). On the other hand, if Mr. Smith had approved payments for goods and services that were never supplied it would have been a misappropriation of tax payers efforts. Considering the fact that this army official was holding a public office, he was right to protect misuse of public funds through halting these payments. His actions, although might have some negative impacts on the war, were ethical. The role of KBR Company in the business field is to provide American troops wi th essential services such as housing, food among others during the time of war. The case in this article can be regard as a market failure simply because KBR lacked knowledgeable auditors who could keep proper records. Further more, if the KBR Company was serious in its business it would have met the customer’s needs by providing the US troops with all that they had been contracted to supply. The government might have failed to some extend in its tendering policy because in order to award such a sensitive tender they should have scrutinized the bidding company to ascertain its credibility. This should have involved the analysis of KBR’S performance in the past and its capital to determine whether it could afford to finance those supplies of goods and services. The government has a role to ensure that the American troops access credible services from KBR. The government failed to ensure that KBR provided quality services. It must have auditors who could audit what has been spent on the troops. The policy that the Army or the government should hire external auditors on their operations ought to be changed because it does not portray an aspect of integrity. KBR lacked evidence that the amount due payment was genuine because it does not have credible records of its expenditure (Army, 6/17/2008). The government should also check on its tendering policy which had led to picking such a company for the supplies. The kind of policy that should be formulated for such situations should be able to evaluate suppliers before warding those sensitive responsibilities. On the other hand, the government should lay down strategies that would see suppliers who fail to adhere to their contracts, compensating for any inconveniences caused. In this way, suppliers who enter into contracts with any arm of the government would be afraid of such consequences and hence fulfill such contracts in time. Groups Sue after E.P.A fails to shift Ozone Rules This article focuses on the Obama administration and the Ozone rules. It is an amusing article in that it highlights the rejection of the proposed new standard by President Obama and his administration. According to this article, the Ozone rule set by the President Bush was 75 parts per billion. Lisa P. Jackson wanted to shift the standard from75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion mainly to reduce risks on people health. Earth justice, the natural Resource defense, the Environmental