Philosophy- Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Philosophy- Business Ethics - Essay Example of the business is to protect the environment than a business shall be held accountable on ethical, moral as well as legal grounds however, if this is not the case, an organization shall only be bound by the violation of laws rather than violation of its implicit responsibilities. The businesses are only responsible to the extent of the law and it is the responsibility of an organization to follow the law in its true spirit however, externalities can result into significant deviation in the roles and responsibilities of the organizations. Bowie’s arguments are convincing due to the fact that there is an implicit difference between a consumer and a citizen. Segoff’s distinction between a consumer and a citizen is largely based on the ability of each to derive the value and is correlated with the preferences of both. However, Bowie does not make this distinction because a consumer and a citizen are considered as both the mass consumers of the goods and services produced by the organization. The distinction made by Segoff is firmly based on the assumption that an individual at one point in time can be a consumer as well as a supporter of the environment also. This potentially overlapping role of a consumer and a citizen therefore results into the i nstitutional change which can ultimately force the authorities and government to pass laws which can protect the environment and redefine the role of organization with the external world. Bowie’s ideas are however slightly different because of the distinction made between the legal and ethical responsibilities of the organization. Further, Bowie also attempted to define the role of organization from the perspective of its core competencies i.e. if an organization’s role is to protect the environment than any violations shall be the moral as well as legal responsibility of the organization however, if it is not than an organization shall not morally and ethically held accountable. What is also important to consider

Case Study Analysis Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Analysis Paper - Case Study Example The fact is that the summer is approaching and Arthur does not have a reliable pool of workers (replacement or otherwise) to run his business during this period. He is likely to face a high turnover and incur heavy losses because of a lack of workers to keep his business operational. His losses are likely to stem from spending more than he is earning – the replacement workers are actually more expensive than his normal permanent employees. Arthur’s turnover is too high to keep his business running during the summer. Since summer vacations are quite long, the losses incurred must be incredibly high during this period. An interesting fact is that turnover is higher in replacement employees than permanent workers who normally work for the company. Since his fulltime workers always return at the end of the summer or when they recover from their various illnesses, Arthur cannot afford spending a lot of money on temporary workers who are not always available and are too expensive to keep on the payroll. The solution to this problem is to do away with temporary workers permanently (Uhl, 2013). The solution is to develop a schedule whereby there are two pools of workers: permanent and fulltime. However, the replacement workers are only hired during the summer and paid decent wages to keep them on the job. Arthur’s method of looking for new workers every summer is flawed and will only lead to losses in productivi ty and revenue. He should always have replacement workers on standby. Ideally, they should be working in all the other seasons except summer, when they replace all the permanent workers. So, regardless of whether a permanent worker is sick or on vacation, there is a steady pool of replacement employees ready to take their place (Bridger, 2014). Arthur should change the summer vacation to a permanent off season for permanent workers. As soon as summer reaches all the permanent workers are given leaves and they only return

The Computer Mediated Communication Media Essay

The Computer Mediated Communication Media Essay Computer-mediated communication is defined by Metz as cited in Miller Brunner, 2008 as any communication patterns mediated by a computer. The notion of CMC was first discussed in Licklider and Taylor (1968), which posits men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine (i.e., a computer) than face to face. After almost two decades of studies, researchers have found it increasingly useful to regard computers, through which communication is mediated, as a mass medium (Morris Ogan, 1996). With changes taking place in various aspects of life today due to proliferation of communication, Miller Brunner (2008) hold that research into CMC has become increasingly prominent. CMC studies in both education and business domains have been concerned about the effects of computer as a medium of mass communication (Morris Ogan, 1996). This is largely due to the following characteristics of CMC that Morris (as cited in Chen, 2009) has identified: ubiquity, transparency, asynchronism, hyper-reality, and interactivity. Contrary to its actual potential, earlier ideas about CMC advocated a lack of capacity to deliver rich social information due to text-based and visually anonymous environment (Yao Flanagin, 2004). CMC had been criticised to have inherently prevented interpersonal communication and encouraged impersonal interactions such as bashings on the Internet (Kiesler, Siegel, McGuire, 1984). Siegel, Dubrovsky, Kiesler, and McGuire (1986) find that computer-mediated groups tend to demonstrate more aggressive behavior such as name-calling and swearings, as compared to groups that use face-to-face interactions. Nevertheless, such a deterministic view was challenged in subsequent studies. For instance, it is claimed the email plays a positive role by deconstructing organisational structures, allowing for greater information exchange among more people, and improving socialisation (Spence, 2002). Besides, CMC users are found to be able to adapt to the virtual environment and develop interpersonal relationships that resemble relationships formed face-to-face (Yao Flanagin, 2004). It is also found that group collaboration in CMC has contributed to group processing outcomes deemed innovative and democratic (Miller Brunner, 2008). 2.2 A shift on the Internet The Internet is evolving into a PeopleWeb, which indicates a shift from a web comprised of pages to one populated by people and their artifacts and interactions (Ramakrishnan Tomkin, 2007). In that regard, social networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster that allow information sharing and sourcing, have become extremely popular in the new media (Lipsman, as cited in Pfeil et al., 2009), and according to Bausch and Han (2006), will continue to attract users in a large number. Users are moving away from a state of anonymity on the Internet (McKenna Bargh, 2000) with the evolvement of computer technologies. For instance, popular Chinese social networking site RenRen is concluded to be an extension of users real life as self-disclosure phenomenon elicited by reality rather than anonymity is found present on the site (Yu Wu, 2010). While web 1.0 is getting replaced by applications in the web 2.0 era such as blogs, wikis, and collaborative projects (Kaplan Haenlein, 2009), content now can be modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative manner rather than on an individual basis (Kaplan Haenlein, 2009; Cheung, Chiu, Lee, 2010). With the rise of the social networking sites, their popularity is gauged not only by the size of the user base, but also the ability to provide users with the most significant amount of interaction (Cheung et al., 2010). It is reported in Bausch and Han (2006) that users of the top ten social networking sites in the U.S. had grown from 46.8 million in 2006 to 68.8 million in the following year. The growth of social media has influenced social interaction among people and contributed to a new meaning of the interaction, where scholars have begun looking into (as cited in Lipsman, Pfeil et al., 2009). The ramification of the new media is, as Grossman (2006) puts it, a community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. The web 2.0 a revolution is as if a new version of some old software (Grossman, 2006). Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) have identified online empowerment of individuals linking to instrumentality, interactivity, activity, and involvement as the causes of influence of the new web. On the other hand, Jacobs et al. (2009) attribute the rapid growth of social media to its ability to allow users to produce and share content. While the active audience theory has been shunned as far as traditional media is concerned, Livingstone (1999) highlights the importance of audience activity in both the design and use of interactive media. In fact, the shift in media user activity has been discussed since as early as 1963, when Klapper (as cited in Chigona et al., 2008) put forth the idea that UG focuses on what people do with mass media, rather than what mass media does to people. Shin (2009) calls the UG approach a paradigm shift from traditional media research, where focus was placed on media effects (e.g., what media does to people). A review of the UG theory can be found after this sub-chapter. 2.3 Uses and gratifications (UG) theory The UG theory, otherwise known as the needs and gratifications theory (Roy, 2009, revolves around why and how people use certain media (Lo Leung, 2009). The term gratifications was coined by psychologist Herta Herzogto in 1944 to illustrate specific dimensions of radio audiences usage satisfaction, following which mass communication theorists had adopted and adapted the concept to study various mass media such as TV and electronic bulletins (Luo, 2002). The UG theory is built upon the basic assumption that audience has their own agenda and is deemed as active and goal-oriented rather than passive consumers of information (McQuail, Blumler, Brown, as cited in Katz, Blumler, Gurevitch, 1974). By assuming the audience to be active and goal-directed, the UG perspective posits that they opt for and consume certain media and content that would satisfy their psychological needs, which explains the motivation of their media use (Katz, Gurevitch, Hass, 1973; Rubin, as cited in Roy, 2009; Katz, Blumler, Gurevitch, as cited in Kim, Sohn, Choi, 2010). Such fulfillment of needs as a source of motivation, is proposed to be affecting user gratification of media use (Sangwan, 2005). The UG theory has been adopted and adapted over the years to study the use of various media ranging from the more conventional mass media to the new media and later to mobile technology (Stafford et al., 2004; Chigona et al., 2008; Roy, 2009; Shin, 2009; Liu et al., 2010). Although some scholars have questioned UGs utility in studying the digital media, Ruggiero (as cited in Quan-Haase, 2012) posits the need to seriously include the UG approach in any attempt to speculate on the future direction of mass communication theory. Besides, it is contended that whenever a new technology makes its way into the arena of mass communication, users underlying motivations and decisions to use the new communication tool could be explained by applying the UG paradigm (Elliott Rosenberg, Liu, Cheung Lee, 2010). However, in order to effectively study and measure the new media by using the UG scales intended for traditional media research, Lin (as cited in Shin, 2009) holds that a revision to the scales will be required. Consistent with Lins idea is Angleman (as cited in Shin, 2009), who believes existing theories require amendments in order to fit new media studies. Application of the UG theory in various new media studies has been reviewed and an overview of those studies with their respective motivations is presented in Table 1. Table 2.1: Overview of Prior Studies on New Media UG Author and year Research area Motivations identified James, Wotring, Forrest (1995) Electronic bulletin board (i.e., forums) Transmission of information and education, socialising, medium appeal, computer or other business, entertainment Korgaonkar Wolin (1999) Internet Social escapism, transaction, privacy, information, interaction, socialization, economic motivations Papacharissi (2002) Personal home pages Passing time, entertainment, information, self-expression, professional advancement, communication with friends and family Stafford et al. (2004) Internet Process: resources, search engines, searching, surfing, technology, web sites Content: education, information, knowledge, learning, research Social: chatting, friends, interactions, people Ko, Cho, Roberts (2005) Internet Information, convenience, entertainment, social-interaction Diddi LaRose (2006) Internet news Surveillance, escapism, pass time, entertainment, habit Cheung Lee (2009) Virtual comminity Purposive value, self-discovery, entertainment value, social enhancement, maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity Haridakis Hanson (2009) YouTube Convenient entertainment, convenient information seeking, co-viewing, social interaction Mendes-Filho Tan (2009) User-generated content Content: information consistency, source credibility, argument quality, information framing Process: medium; entertainment Social: recommendation consistency, recommendation rating Liu, Cheung Lee (2010) Twitter Content: disconfirmation of self-documentation, disconfirmation of information sharing Process: disconfirmation of entertainment, disconfirmation of passing time, disconfirmation of self-expression Social: disconfirmation of social interaction Technology: disconfirmation of medium appeal, disconfirmation of convenience 2.4 Media user gratifications Katz et al. (1974) suggest research on gratifications has revolved around media-related needs that serve to satisfy media consumers at least in part who are deemed active and goal-oriented. Despite having a problem with ambiguity as far as definition is concerned, Weiss (1976) asserts that related key terms like uses, needs, satisfactions, gratifications, and motives are being used interchangeably across different papers and within single papers. Stafford et al. (2004) define gratifications as some aspects of user-reported satisfaction. It has been found that satisfaction of user motivations is positively correlated with future internet usage (Papacharissi Rubin, 2000). Before resorting to a certain behavior of media use, past experiences of individuals and whether or not their motivations can be satisfied by certain behaviors will be evaluated (McLeod Becker, as cited in Johnson Yang, 2008). Sangwan (2005) puts forth the idea that gratification can be used as a proxy measure to evaluate the success or failure of a virtual community, which is similar to that used in information systems. He proposes that gratification of media users will be affected by fulfillment of media needs that acts as a motivator. In this research, a total of 22 questions on social media use are employed as the instrument to evaluate and explain users motivations. By taking up the proposal by Sangwan (2005), the research outcome will tell if users motivations have an effect on the gratifications or satisfaction of media users. Detailed information on the research instrument can be referred to in Chapter 3. 2.5 Categorisations of needs and gratifications The UG theory proposes five categories of needs, namely cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension release needs (Katz et al., 1973). Over the years, researchers appropriating the UG theory to study various media have discovered a plethora of different needs. While some of these needs are rather consistent with one of the earliest classifications of needs by Katz et al. (1973), others are not. In a study that examines the relations between web usage and satisfaction, Luo (2002) employs three constructs drawn from previous traditional media UG research, namely informativeness, entertainment, and irritation, in order to assess how each of them affects user attitude towards the web. Research results have confirmed the said constructs were what determine users attitude towards the web. Also employs similar constructs include such researchers as Eighmey (1997), Eighmey and McCord (1998), as well as Kargaonkar and Wolin (1999). Livaditi, Vassilopoulou, Lougos, and Chorianopoulos (2003), in their interactive TV applications UG study, catogorise media needs into the two basic constructs of ritualised and instrumental. Other researchers who have adopted such a classification of needs are Metzger and Flanagin, as well as Rubin (as cited in Ran, 2008), who have found that gratifications, as motivations, do lead to both ritualised and instrumental use of media. In Sangwan (2005), several types of needs have been identified to explain the motivations behind the use of virtual community platforms, such as forums: functional, emotive, and contextual needs. However, it is posited that although the research sample has been assumed to be active participants of virtual communities, there are also passive participants whose latent needs have yet to be identified (Sangwan, 2005). Cutler and Danowski, as well as Stafford and Stafford (as cited in Chigona et al., 2008) divide motivations into the categories of process and content. Later, an additional category known as social motivations has been identified and included (Stafford Stafford, as cited in Chigona et al., 2008). Stafford et al. (2004) describe this additional social dimension as unique to Internet use. Although found to be the weakest variable among others, social motivations serves as a vital construct in the Internet-specific UG research (Stafford et al., 2004). Chigona et al. (2008), who appropriate the motivation categories verified in Stafford et al. (2004) to study mobile Internet UG, have confirmed the presence of all three constructs. Peters, Amato, and Hollenbeck (2007), as well as Mendes-Filho and Tan (2009) are among other researchers who have adopted the three constructs in their respectively studies of wireless advertising and user-generated content. Also adopting the instruments is Shin (2009), who, on top of the three motivation types, has added embedded gratifications to study wireless Internet use. Besides, Liu et al. (2010) also employ the three motivations types on top of an additional technology gratification to study Twitter use. 2.6 Process, content, and social motivations This study bases its main framework on one developed by Stafford and Stafford (as cited in Chigona et al., 2008), and later verified by Stafford et al. (2004): the three motivation types of process, content, and social. The rationale behind this choice has been explained in Chapter 1 under Statement of problem (p.zz). What is defined by each of the process, content, and social motivations, is illustrated in the next few paragraphs. Content gratifications from the UG theory are characterised by their relation to information content, such as product or store information (Stafford Stafford, as cited in Stafford et al., 2004) and place concern on messages carried by the medium (Stafford et al., 2004). Such motivations are stemmed from the use of mediated messages for the receivers intrinsic value (Cutler Danowski, as cited in Chigona et al., 2008). Content motivations take consideration into to the messages that a medium carries (Stafford et al., 2004; Stafford, 2009), which may be informative or entertaining (Stafford, 2009). Roy (2009) asserts that content is normally skewed towards entertainment and dispersion in UG studies of non-Internet media, as compared to informativeness in those of Internet. Nevertheless, certain Internet users may be motivated by such usage process as random browsing and site navigation (Hoffman and Danowski, as cited in Stafford et al., 2004). Process motivations are driven by the actual use of the medium per se (Cutler Danowski, as cited in Chigona et al., 2008; Stafford et al., 2004; Stafford, 2009), such as enjoyment of the process of using the Internet (Hoffman Novak, as cited in Stafford et al., 2004; Stafford, 2009). On the other hand, social motivations include such aspects as chatting, friendship, interactions, and people (Chigona et al., 2008). 2.7 Social dimension and the rising impact Social contacts and interactions have shifted from offline to online realms (Boyd, as cited in Smeele, 2010) and this social dimension defines what users understand about themselves and their relation to the communities (Dyson; McMillan Chavis, as cited in Jacobs et al., 2009). Stafford et al. (2004) posit the importance of looking into the potential UG of the Internet as a social environment, as researchers may be expected to discover emergent social gratifications for Internet use. Research by Jacobs et al. (2009) shows a majority of the students utilise social media in a manner that resembles the social friends and family setting. Besides, Ellison, Steinfield, ande Lampe (as cited in Ross, Orr, Sisic, Arseneault, Simmering, Orr, 2009) also assert that maintenance of pre-existing social relationships has been made possible and may be stronger through online platforms. Users now turn to the Internet more frequently to socialise with people they know and expand their circle of friends (Jones, as cited in Correa, Hinsley Zà ºÃƒ ±iga, 2010). Active participation on sites like Facebook, communication via texting and chat programmes, as well as creation of blogs have become a way of life for the new generation according to Jacobs et al. (2009). Correa et al. (2010) are of the opinion that individuals who choose not to engage online may be limiting their ability to advance socially as it is an increasingly user-generated environment. 2.8 The need to quantify social dimension Stafford et al. (2004) concede that there is limited evidence in support of the distinct social aspect to Internet use. Following the identification of social motivations in Stafford and Stafford (as cited in Chigona et al., 2008), researchers are trying to validate this emerging motivation type, which eventually has been found present in studies by such researchers as Chigona et al. (2008), Haridakis and Hanson (2009), as well as Norway Brandtzà ¦g and Heim (as cited in Kim et al., 2010). Miller and Brunner (2008) hold that studies that focus specifically on the social aspect of online communicators and its theoretical foundations are lacking. For instance, although the social dimension is found present in a mobile Internet UG study by Chigona et al. (2008), the researchers merely confirm its existence without providing much elaboration into how it fares in contrast to content and process motivations the latter of which according to Aoki Downe; Leung Wei; Rubin; Stafford Gillenson; Stafford et al. (as cited in Chigona et al., 2008), are the most pronounced motivation types found on traditional Internet use. Besides, several social media studies also show that the social dimension does not live up to the medias supposedly social nature (e.g., Liu et al., 2010; Smeele, 2010; Xu, Ryan, Prybutok, Wen, 2012). 2.9 Genders and UG Gender differences have been identified as an important aspect in computer-related research (Gunawardena McIsaac, as cited in Kim Chang, 2007). The issue of limited women in the fields of technology and ICT remains a topic of interest for both the scientific community and decision-makers today (Sà ¡inz Là ³pez-Sà ¡ez, 2010). Some studies have suggested that females may be more inclined to have computer anxiety and lower self-efficacy due to the socio-cultural background of gender (Halder, Ray, Chakrabarty, 2010). Gutek and Bikson (as cited in Harrison Rainer, 1992) also find that men tend to demonstrate computer-related skills at workplace. In another instance, Wilder, Mackie, and Cooper (as cited in Harrison Rainer, 1992) find that males show greater interest in using a computer compared to females. In more recent research, Leung (2003) finds socioeconomic status such as gender, with the exception of age, to be predictive of Internet use, and that heavy users of the web are usually males. Although Okazaki (2006) asserts that effect of gender on mobile Internet service adoption is uncertain, married women indicate more negative perceptions than married men. Besides, a study on mobile phone UG by Ran (2008) reveals that males are significantly skewed towards a certain news-seeking need. Roy (2009) also discovers gender-related differences in perceived Internet use. In terms of social media UG, gender-related differences have also been found in a slew of studies such as Sveningsson Elm (2007), Joinson (2008), Jones, Millermaier, Goya-Martinez, and Schuler (2008), Thelwall (2009), as well as Thelwall, Wilkinson, and Uppal (2010). Volman, van Eck, Heemskerk, and Kuiper (2005) contend that the development of software, websites, and even teaching materials needs to have gender sensitivities taken into consideration in order to facilitate better learning among male and female pupils, who demonstrate very different preferences and attitudes towards ICT. Also in line with their idea are Halder, Ray, and Chakrabarty (2010), who suggest the importance of studying behavioral differences between people with respect to information processing and searching as such behaviors have to be more holistically understood and generalised before information retrieval systems and user support services are designed. Those are some implications of how gender differences could impact human behavior associated with the acceptance of information and technologies. With gender being neglected as a significant variable, studying human information behavior will remain incomplete (Nahl Harada; Roy, Taylor, Chi, as cited in Halder, Ray, and Chakrabarty, 2010). It is, therefore, of the essence to find out if the influence of gender is valid in this social media UG study. If valid, which aspect of motivations is users social media experience influenced the most?

Essay on Animal Imagery in A Dolls House -- Dolls House essays

Animal Imagery in A Doll's House    Animal imagery in Henrick Ibsen's play, A Doll's House is a critical part of the character development of Nora, the protagonist. Ibsen uses creative, but effective, animal imagery to develop Nora's character throughout the play. He has Torvald call his wife "his little lark"(Isben) or "sulky squirrel"(Isben) or other animal names throughout the play. He uses a lot of 'bird' imagery-calling her many different bird names. The name Torvald uses directly relates to how he feels about her at the time. The animals Ibsen chooses to use are related to how Nora is acting, or how she needs to be portrayed.    For instance: Not even a dozen lines into Act I, Torvald asks (referring to Nora), "Is that my little lark twittering out there"(Isben) and "Is that my squirrel rummaging around?"(Isben) A lark is a songbird; a happy, carefree bird. It is can also be used as a verb that means to engage in spirited fun or merry pranks. A squirrel is quite the opposite: it is a small, furry rodent. If you are to squirrel away something, you were hiding or storing it, kind of like what Nora was doing with her bag of macaroons. Torvald calls her these names to fit the situation. Nora was definitely a care free woman, just like a lark, and Torvald refers to her as such: "my little lark"(Isben). When he says that, Nora is moving around the room and humming with a carefree spirit that would characterize a lark. Whenever she has this spirit, Torvald refers to her as his "little lark."(Isben) On the other hand, Nora must be some sort of scrounge, because Torvald also refers to her as his "little squirrel."(Isben) He asks if "that is my squirrel rummaging around"(Isben). It seems that maybe Ibsen was usi... ...al in the character development for both characters, showing really how both sides perceive the other.    Works Cited and Consulted: Baruch, Elaine Hoffman. "Ibsen's Doll House: A Myth for Our Time." The Yale Review 69 (1980): 374-387. Durbach, Errol. A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Ibsen, Henrick. A Doll House. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th   ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 1564-1612. Northram, John. "Ibsen's Search for the Hero." Ibsen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Rolf Fjelde. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965. 107-113. Salomà ©, Lou. Ibsen's Heroines. Ed. and trans. Siegfried Mandel. Redding Ridge: Black Swan, 1985. Templeton, Joan. "The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen. PMLA   104.1(1989): 28-40.

Maria Hernandez Case

MARIA HERNANDEZ VAN NESS TEAM 10 The Story: Maria Hernandez & Associates is a company that started its business with a cash deposit. On June 20,2004 Maria Hernandez transferred all her savings of $30,000 into a new Bank account under her company’s name, two days later she transferred another $20,000 which she had borrowed from her father on a 6% p. a. interest rate. Thus, with an amount of $50,000 in its bank account Maria Hernandez and Associates was ready to start its life in the Webpage designing sector.After the Bank account transactions, Maria Hernandez quickly took care of the initial expenses that included pre-paid rent for the new office, giving a security deposit for the same, buying used computers and software from her previous employers and also ordering and acquiring office stationary. On July 2,2004 Maria Hernandez & Associates opened its doors for business. The substance of our report covers the first two months of the company’s operations. At the start of the operations i. e.July 2nd, 2004 the amount in the company bank account was $12,000; however on August 31st, 2004 (roughly two months of operations) the amount had declined to $6,600. We are therefore left with two key questions to answer. 1. How would we report on the operations of Maria Hernandez & Associates through August 31, 2004? Had the company made a profit as Maria Hernandez believed? If so, how can we explain the decline of cash in the bank? 2. What can we say about the status of the business on August 31, 2004?To answer these questions we analyzed the company’s income statement and balance sheet for the months of July-August, 2004 and have come up with the following analysis and suggestions: Financial Ratios: Through the analysis of the Income Statement and Balance Sheet, we were able to extrapolate the following Ratios, which gave us an insight into the workings of Maria Hernandez & Associates |Financial Ratio |Figures | |Current Ratio |4. 17 | |Return on Equit y |13% | Return in Assets |7% | |Profit Margin |9. 8% | |Debt to Equity |0. 74 | By and large, the ratio’s displayed are lower than ideal. However, given the fact that the operation is only 2 months old, the figures are very promising; especially since there was an increase in workload of the company in early August with four new clients by way of referrals. Considering all the ratios in more details we would like to start our analysis with ROE ratio that measures a company’s profitability.We have 13% what means that the company is making 13 cents out of every dollar invested. This figure is relatively low, but for a start-up company it is rather satisfactory, because it indicates a growth opportunity with increasing operations. ROA ratio shows us how many dollars the company makes in relation to its assets, thus 7 cents per 1 dollar. The ratio is deceptive because by definition a lower ratio denotes inefficient use of assets. But considering a start-up that operates f or only 2 months, there is a scope for improvement since the number of operations has been increasing.In addition, this ratio can vary depending on the industry in which the company operates. This is why our suggestion to Maria Hernandez is to compare ROA every month in order to be able to realize how productive or unproductive the business is. Profit margin represents the percentage of revenue that a company keeps as profit after accounting for fixed and variable costs. In other words, it is company’s health indicator. The company is keeping 9. 8 cents of sales as earnings for every dollar that the company earns.It is a good sign because the company was able to recoup the initial fixed costs and also showed a profit in the books within 2 months, on the other hand the usual trend for web-page design companies to show a profit is 1-2 years. Debt to equity ratio indicates extend to which the business relies on debt financing. As we know, Maria Hernandez borrowed $20,000 from he r father at 6% interest rate and invested $30,000 cash from her own savings. In addition, the company made revenue of $40,000 in cash that helped to cover all the expenses and operational purchases.So, we can conclude that the company is growing on cash mainly and in the tech industry this ratio is bound to go down, because once the assets [computers and software] are acquired there is no need to take on debt to grow the company, as the growth can come from the revenue itself. On an average computer companies have a Debt to Equity ratio of under 0. 5 Current ratio that shows the ability of the company to pay off its liabilities at a given period of time is the only point of concern. As a rule the acceptable figure is between 1 and 2, in our case we have 4. 7, what means that Maria Hernandez can pay off her loan with interest however, she has some excessive cash on hand what indicates inefficient management of funds. Suggestions: We would first like to address the matter of treating the Interest and Depreciation. The interest is accumulating and since the interest has to be paid at the end of the year, the amount at the moment is incomplete. Therefore, the interest payable should be accounted in the Balance Sheet, and interest expense in the Income Statement. In case of the equipment, accumulated depreciation is to be taken into consideration.The depreciation per month is $750, thus the accumulated depreciation is $1500 after 2 months of operation. As the expected life of the equipment is 3 years Maria Hernandez should credit the accumulated depreciation for 1/3 of the value of the assets, subtract accumulated depreciation from the equipment in the Balance Sheet and include depreciation expense in the Income Statement. An analysis of the Expense to Income ratio showed that currently 86% of the income is being used to write off expenses such as rent and salaries, which explains the decline in the bank balance as on August 31st.We recommend reducing such expenses by keeping fewer full-time staff and hiring interns or keeping staff on a part-time basis at least for the initial period of the companies life. Conclusion: In conclusion we would like to say that Maria Hernandez & Associates is doing rather well as a Start-up company. The numbers are mostly in its favor, and are bound to get better as the life of the company progresses. The only flaw in the design is by way of the expenses incurred in form of Salaries, which can easily be fixed.

Love vs Punishment Essay

In the article â€Å"Justice: Childhood Love Lessons† bell hooks claims that â€Å"there is nothing that creates more confusion about love in the minds and hearts of children than unkind or cruel punishment† (hooks 27). In other words punishment of any kind, let it be pinching, flicking or spanking will result in disorientation in a child’s mind. This statement is true to some people, false to others, but overall hooks tends to be bias in her argument. She doesn’t explore the different variations of physical punishment and how these punishments affect the child’s thought about love. There are many different types of punishment out there in this cruel world, but not all of them can disorientate a child’s mind or heart about love. Simple physical punishments; such as pinching, flicking, and spanking, are carried out on us at a very young age, and all throughout life. Our parents are here to discipline us, to teach us the difference of right and wrong. When we first misbehave, our parents might tell us to â€Å"knock it off† or â€Å"stop† and they may raise their voice when asserting these commands. We sometimes stop when told to, but sometimes we ignore their commands and keep misbehaving repeatedly. This is where physical punishment comes into play. A form of physical punishment would and will be carried out on us. At first it may be a simple punishment, but gradually the punishments intensify. Once a punishment has been carried out, many of us become cloaked in fear of punishment and from this fear we learn not to do that mistake again. Read more:  Persuasive Speech About Love Simple punishment is used for the good of children and to discipline them, â€Å"Dr.  David Safir, father of five and grandfather of five, CNN asked him to talk to us about his views on spanking. He said he was spanked as a child, spanked his own children when necessary and believes the occasional use of physical punishment — not abuse — can be an effective tool for parents† (Zeidler) If these simple punishments are executed out appropriately by the child’s parents, the child will be certain to remember why he/she was punished. These simple and effortless punishments will certainly not disorientate the child’s mind about love, instead it will discipline the child and help them in their future. Cruel and intense physical punishment do exist, these types of punishments may scar the child for life, and may even lead to behavior or personality change. For example, â€Å"As one man bragged about the aggressive beatings he had received from his mother, sharing that ‘they had been good for him,’ I interrupted and suggested that he might not be the misogynist women-hater he is today if he had not been brutally beaten by a women as a child (paragraph 8). These types cruel, harsh and brutal form of physical punishment will certainly cause confusion about love in a child mind. As the above example states â€Å"he might not be the misogynist women-hater he is today if he had not been brutally beaten by a women as child. † If this man was cared for and loved by his mom, then he certainly would have not been the misogynist he is now. He was confused and he never knew the true meaning of love, because all the overwhelming pain caused him to change. Millions of children across the world are brutally punished by their parents, siblings, family members and/or relatives. These children grow up to punish their children the same way they were punished and their children grow up to do the same and so on. These children and all the generations of children after them will be confused about love, their behaviors and personality are certain to change. Hooks fails to explain which types of punishment can cause confusion about love. Her entire argument is biased, she explains everything from her point of view and doesn’t put herself in others shoes. Her statement itself doesn’t make sense, saying that physical punishment will lead to the confusion about love in a child’s mind. Basically she is trying to imply that if I did something wrong and my parents were to physically punish me that would mean that they don’t love me anymore. Physical punishment if carried out in a appropriate manner will prevent the child from carrying out the mistake again. But if intense and brutal punishment is carried out on a child, the result can be devastating. The child will grow up filled with hatred, anger and resentment, leading to personality and behavior changes. A child will only be disorientated about love when they have been brutally punished by their parent and later imply that they love them by saying â€Å"I’m doing this because I love you† (hooks 27) or â€Å"It hurts me more than it hurts you† (hooks 27) In conclusion, â€Å"Kids need to be taught right and wrong, but the presumption we need to punish them to teach them this is not supported by the science. It’s not clear at all that punishment — in any form — is the answer, even though every culture uses punishment in some form. † (Zeidler) A loving parent would want their child to know what is right and wrong, to do the right and not the wrong, and to succeed at this they might use simple forms of physical punishment. But an irresponsible and careless parent wouldn’t care about their child at all, in which they will carry out brutal forms of physical punishment leading to major changes of how that child views the world. Explaining and giving more detail about the different types of punishment, would have led hooks into writing a better article. Physical punishments can nurture or completely change a child, but it all depends how the parent chooses to use it. Punishment can exist in various ways even with love.