Martha Mccaskey Case Study Essays

Martha Mccaskey Case Study Essays Martha Mccaskey Case Study Paper Martha Mccaskey Case Study Paper Veronica Koskovich-Underwood MgtOp 587 Martha McCaskey Case Study Ethical Issues At issue in the Martha McCaskey case is a question of proprietary information. More specifically, McCaskey is faced with the question of what constitutes proprietary information and what is safe to give to the client without breaching any trade secrets. According to DeGeorge, proprietary information, or trade secrets, are a right of each corporation that they can legally and morally protect and refuse to divulge to the public. The types of information that Seleris client is asking for about their target company are held tightly by the target to ensure their market share. If the information is given to competitors, they will lose their advantage. However, if specific information as to the new chip is not released but instead is based on industry standards and already publicly-held information, the trade secrets would still be upheld, as there is no way to know for sure that the target is using exactly what has been found. Another issue that McCaskey faces is the methods used to obtain the information to be given to the client. As mentioned above, if it comes directly from the target, it would be releasing trade secrets and infringing on the targets right to hold those. In this case, McCaskey has been asked to not contact the target in order to keep them from knowing that the client is looking into the new chip. In order to get the specific information that they are after, McCaskey will have to use alternative means such as contacting other competitors in the industry, vendors of the target, and possibly ex-employees of the target. Hackert and Malone are pushing for McCaskey to use Phil Devon after learning that he worked for the target in the past. Devon seems open to supplying McCaskey with any information that she needs, but she may be breaching the targets right to trade secrets by doing so. If he has stayed in the loop with the target and has direct knowledge of the new chip and the procedures being used there, she would ultimately be passing on information that the client has no right to. However, there is a chance that he has no direct knowledge of the new chip nd would only be giving her information that he has obtained in helping other clients out. Even that could be breaching areas of confidentiality though, as she would not know if the other companies held that information closely so the possibility of breaching other trade secrets is unknown. Also at issue is management encouraging what could be seen as unethical methods to complete the projects. As discussed in the Don Taylor case, management has a duty to operate the company as ethically as possible. By encouraging these unethical activities to McCaskey, Malone and Hackert are saying that they are supportive of using unethical methods in order to further IAD and Seleris, as well as their clients. The case material discussed that IAD did not have any written policies in place in regards to solicitation and acceptable methods to complete contracts. Richardson would occasionally hold lunch meetings in which he would state that no one should use unethical behaviors, but remained vague in just what that meant. DeGeorge notes that a business has the duty to give clear policies to its employees in order for them to complete their jobs accurately and as desired. Employees also cannot be required to act unethically on the job. Malone and Hackert are impeding McCaskeys responsibility to complete her job ethically by encouraging her to use Devon no matter what the cost. Another issue that should be noted is the personal issue that McCaskey has in deciding between staying silent on the matter and completing her job as requested, or in voicing her concerns. In the â€Å"Conflict on a Trading Floor† case and the Don Taylor case, it was noted that it is our duty to report any unethical proceedings in the work place. However, DeGeorge notes that employees do not have an obligation to create serious risk to themselves without some compensation to be gained. In McCaskeys case, she knows of no immediate benefit to her calling out the policies that are being implemented by the old guard. In fact, she has been all but guaranteed a promotion, raise, and easier job duties if she successfully completes the project. It does not appear that those in the new guard are using the same methods and there has been a significant amount of turnover in the past couple of years at IAD. There is a chance that future replacements will not be willing to use the same methods and the problem will eradicate itself. But by remaining silent, she becomes part of the problem and may have to violate her own moral beliefs. On the other hand, if McCaskey brings attention to what she considers an unethical procedure, she could be at risk with her job. She could be seen as a troublemaker and put back on team projects that are not to her liking. She would almost certainly be pulled from this project which would result in no promotion, further hurting her own well-being. A fourth issue that may not deal directly with McCaskey would be whether it is appropriate for Phil Devon to be releasing the information that he may have on the target company that he used to work for, or from other companies that he has assisted on new projects with since leaving the target. As an employee of the target, he would be directly breaching the right of the target to have trade secrets. However, as he no longer works there, Devon is not obliged to consider the interests of the target any longer. Unless a noncompete agreement was signed when he left, he is technically not doing anything wrong by divulging information that he may have on the company. This same logic would apply to any of the other companies that Devon has consulted with recently. Case Analysis The three primary alternatives that are to be considered are: 1) hiring Phil Devon and Martha McCaskey working with him directly; 2) hiring Phil Devon and having another associate work with him while Martha McCaskey remains project leader; and 3) Martha McCaskey stepping down from the project and voicing her concerns about the methods used within IAD. The primary stakeholders that have been identified are: 1) McCaskey; Tom Malone and Bud Hackert; Seleris; Target company; Client; and Phil Devon; 2) McCaskey; Malone and Hackert; Seleris; Target company; Kauffman (or the employee chosen to work with Devon; and Phil Devon; 3) McCaskey; Malone and Hackert; IAD; Target company; and Client. From a utilitarian perspective, option one woud result in the greatest net welfare for the stakeholders identified. While it goes against what McCaskey believes in and hurts the target company the most, all other layers considered receive the greatest benefit out of this option. Under the utilitarian method, more of the stakeholders receive benefits than costs with option one. Malone, Hackert, Seleris, and the client achieve the end result that they are ultimately wanting from the situation. Malone and Hackert retain a major client for Seleris and IAD remains in good standing with corporate. Seleris sees growth as a company and retains a large portion of their current business. The client receives the information they are seeking and is able to better compete with the competition. However, all of these stakeholders are setting precedence in the methods that are used to obtain the information and completing projects. Phil Devon receives a large financial consideration for his assistance on the project, but risks possible lawsuits or future retribution from the client for releasing sensitive information on them. The target company sees the greatest cost by having confidential information leaked to a competitor and no longer having the niche in the industry that they would have otherwise. McCaskey sees the greatest mixture of benefits and costs, but ultimately sees more negatives than positives. She successfully completes the project and receives the promotion and raise, follows her superiors wishes, and retains a major client for IAD and Seleris. However, she does not follow her own moral judgement and is directly responsible for the way the project is completed. She also is setting a precedence of methods that she is willing to use and for methods that will be acceptable under her as manager. Under the second option, assuming that the project is successfully completed to the clients liking and McCaskey receives her promotion, many of the same costs and benefits come into play. The additional player in this scenario, Kauffman, would most likely receive praise and possibly compensation for his role in the completion of the project, but would be being used to do the unethical activities that no one else is willing to. McCaskey does have the added benefit of not directly doing the unethical research, but she is causing Kauffman to act unethically by having him work directly with Devon. With the third option, assuming that the project is not successfully completed without McCaskey and she does not receive her promotion, more costs occur for the stakeholders identified. McCaskey would be upholding her moral values, but she would not receive the promotion and would have to continue doing the tedious fieldwork that she has been doing. This option could result in being given only problem projects that no one else wants in the future, she could be labeled a troublemaker, and she would lose her good standing with upper management. A slight possibility would exist that her actions would bring about positive changes in the division and/or corporation, if management takes note of her concerns and decides to implement policies that would prevent these happenings from occurring again. Malone and Hackert would lose McCaskey as a good candidate for group leader, as well as a major client and future additional projects. IAD not only would lose a major client and future business from them, but would also most likely come under scrutiny of corporate. The client loses the ability to compete head on with the target company by not receiving the information they requested. They would also lose a consulting firm for future projects if they decide Seleris is no longer fulfilling their duties as their consultants. The target company would see the largest benefit from this option, as their trade secrets would not be leaked and they would retain their market niche with the new chip. From a rights and duties perspective, even though a greater number of rights and duties are upheld with options one and two, option three is preferred in that it upholds the more important rights and duties of McCaskey and the target company. When adding weight for importance to the rights of performing your job ethically and retaining trade secrets, the greatest good comes from option three where both of these rights are upheld. An analysis of rights and duties shows a greater number of rights and duties upheld than not with option one. By hiring Phil Devon and completing the project successfully, all stakeholders except for Devon and the target are fulfilling their duty to maximize profits and act in the best interest of their immediate stakeholders. For example, McCaskey is acting in the best interest of IAD by retaining a client and bringing in future profits from this client. The client is acting in the best interest of their own shareholders by finding a way to compete directly with the target and thereby maximizing profits. McCaskey is also upholding her duty to obey her supervisors and to act in her own best interest by ensuring she receives the promotion and raise. However, she is defying her duty to not harm others by completing research that she knows will directly harm the target and their business interests. She is also denying herself the right to perform her job ethically and not upholding the norms of her profession. Malone and Hackert see their authority rights upheld, but dont uphold McCaskeys right and duty to perform her job ethically. The target companys right to keep trade secrets is being denied. Devon is acting in his own best interest, as well as his familys, but he is not conducting business ethically and is denying the target the right to have trade secrets. With option two, most of the rights and duties remain the same. Regardless of whether McCaskey performs the research herself or just oversees it, she is not changing the overall picture. She has actually brought someone else into an ethical dilemma by choosing not to address it head on. Now Kauffman is not upholding the duty to perform his job ethically, nor does he uphold the norms of his profession. Option three results in more rights and duties being denied to the majority of the stakeholders. McCaskey sees more of her rights and duties upheld than the other options, as she is using her right to voice ethical concerns in the workplace and upholding her duty not to harm others and to uphold the standards of her profession. The target company is also seeing more rights upheld, as they retain their right to hold trade secrets and to fair competition in the marketplace. Malone, Hackert, IAD, and the client, however, see more rights and duties denied. All fail at their duty to maximize profits for the division and company, while Malone and Hackert lose their right to authority. But all are now upholding the individual rights and duties held by McCaskey and the target. From a justice perspective, option three upholds fairness for the target company by not releasing confidential information, for McCaskey by not requiring her to do something that could be considered ethically wrong, and for all others by not allowing them to profit from unethical behaviors. In all three options, distributive justice is more of a concern than any other kind. By completing the project and obtaining the data from Devon, regardless of whether done by McCaskey or by Kauffman, all stakeholders except for the target receive benefits from unethical proceedings that are not right. McCaskey receives a promotion and higher pay, IAD and Seleris receive full payment on the contract and even receive additional contracts because of the successful completion, Devon receives a large payment for releasing information that is confidential, and the client will most likely receive a greater market share of the new chip than they would have otherwise. The target, however, loses market share from the divulgence of this information. However, in option three, all parties receive the compensation that they deserve from the situation. The target retains its market share while the others lose out on money from their unethical dealings. While option one or two could be argued from a utilitarian perspective, the added weight of importance to the rights and duties method, as well as the clear indication by the justice perspective, option three supports more of the prominent concerns in this case. I therefore propose option three as the best option for McCaskey to move forward with. Broad Implications of the Case One of the more prominent themes to this case is the issue of proprietary information and means used to obtain it from competitors. According to DeGeorge, businesses have the right, both legally and morally, to have trade secrets to help protect specific facts about their products or processes. However, it is not discussed who outside the immediate company employees have any duty to protect those secrets. As technology moves further and further ahead, the implications of trade secrets being leaked becomes greater. Without the trade secrets, there is no way to protect yourself from a competitor moving in on your niche in the market that you may otherwise have had they not obtained the secrets. But on the other side is the right to a competitive marketplace and the duty to maximize profits for the competitor. Consulting firms such as Seleris in the case are becoming a more common option to obtain trade secrets. But employees of these firms eed to take into consideration the ethical connotations to what they are doing by assisting in the gathering of this information. While they have no immediate duty to the competitors to help protect the information, from an ethical perspective the methods that they use to obtain it could be negative. Trade secrets are at a greater risk as the present trend in the workplace continues of employees moving around from job to job during their careers. No l onger are employees with the mindset that they should stay with the same firm throughout their career to ensure a better retirement package. If an employee is not guaranteed to stay with a firm, what information should they actually have access to? In most cases, this is now limited to only what they need to know to complete their individual job. Also of note is what constitutes proprietary information. DeGeorge defines it as any trade secrets that a company can legally and morally protect from others. But in order to legally defend data in the current day, you would need a patent or trademark, which often times can’t be obtained until the item has a prototype developed. This makes it more difficult to protect new projects from being copied by competitors. Another theme that is touched on in the case and brought out in the issue of proprietary information is employee loyalty and duties to their current employers. DeGeorge explains that while companies would like to have both loyalty to the firm during employment, it cannot be demanded. Corporations want employees to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities and to do what needs to be done to ensure the success of the company. However, in the present day workforce, it is more common to hear employees talking about what the company can do for them. It is not uncommon to switch jobs several times during your career, nor to apply the knowledge that youve gained from a past job on a current one. DeGeorge states that while workers have rights on the job, they also have duty to perform the job for which they are hired. That being said, the employer cannot require an employee to do something that is illegal or unethical. Usually businesses have policies in place that help define what workers rights and responsibilities are. Employees need to take the time to review this information and ask questions about the policies prior to being hired on to ensure that they are comfortable with what is being asked of them. However, policies will not address every instance that could possibly occur during an employment. Employees need to know their basic rights and processes available to them so that they can address any conce rns as they arise. While employed by a particular organization, the employee has a responsibility to not sabotage the activities of the company. However, once employment ends, that responsibility is gone. But is there still a responsibility to protect trade secrets and sensitive information that you may have had access to once in a new position? A trend that is starting in the current workforce is to impose noncompete agreements with employees who are leaving and who had access to sensitive information to help curb this issue. Overall, the protection of proprietary information seems to have a direct relation to the loyalty and obedience that employees show a firm. Ultimately, it is the individual employee who needs to make the conscience decision to help protect the information. While competitors may be able to gain some insight on what is going on behind closed doors through competitors and basic industry trends of the time, without firsthand knowledge of what a specific company is pursuing, it is more difficult to know for sure if your recreation of their item will be better than what they have done and win you the market on the item.

Designing a balance scorecard for the american university in the Essay - 1

Designing a balance scorecard for the american university in the emirates - Essay Example An American University aims to open an affiliate in the United Arab Emirates. However, in order to ensure effective establishment and development of this University, the management needs to develop a comprehensive strategic framework such as Balanced Scorecard. However, there is limited knowledge and understanding of how to apply this framework to educational sector as Balanced scorecard model is mainly applied in commercial sector (Karathanos & Karathanos, 2005). The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of how the framework of a balanced scorecard can be applied to the education sector. Based on the research findings it will be possible to design a balanced scorecard for educational institutions at University level. Furthermore, this paper aims to develop some recommendations in relation to the American University in the United Arab Emirates. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a framework used for tracking and measuring performance. Robert Kaplan and David Norton have introduced the BSC in the early 1990s as a new way for organisations to measure their performance in a comprehensive and integral way. Before, organisations relied only on financial indicators in order to monitor their achievements (Bakhtiari, et al. 2012). However, Kaplan and Norton have expanded this approach, offering a more balanced system. This system is comprised of four major perspectives: financial perspective, customer perspective, internal processes perspective, and learning and growth perspective (Bakhtiari, et al. 2014). All these perspectives have causal relationship among performance indicators and performance measures should be linked to the results (Sudirmann, 2012). The financial perspective is viewed to be the primary perspective of any commercial activity. The primary goal of any commercial activity is to generate revenue and create wealth for its shareholders. The companies set financial goals and develop strategies how to achieve

Dynamic of percussive enginnering Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Dynamic of percussive enginnering - Dissertation Example Oil wells were considered as the prosperity of a nation and the quantity of oil that was taken out from these oil wells originated to fall with the passage of the time. Thus the contemporary technical community has prepared vast scientific advances in the modification of the drilling methods that was tracked in the past. The oil well drilling systems that were utilized in the older age convoluted the conventional drilling technique which was named as the percussion technique (Beck, 1995). This technique was being extensively used in nearly all the oil wells throughout the world. In this oil well drilling method the earth's crust is infiltrated by the help of a very weighty device that take out the oil by way of a hole. The chief drawback of this technique was that this procedure was actually time based method and the drilling had to be irregularly suspended. Now along with new methods of drilling, the percussion drilling is also modified with latest technologies in order to improve i ts performance (Hartman, 1959). In the incident of the contemporary drilling techniques the oil well drillers utilize the horizontal drilling process, which came to be really efficient technology when matched to the conventional drilling technique that was utilized till then. The utmost benefit of this technique was that the wells, which were penetrated by the horizontal method, had greater surface area which consecutively prepared the well to be tremendously productive (Hartman, 1963).... agmented rock characteristic of geothermal developments is compatible to impact drilling because there is diminutive or no plastic distortion of the rock (Harpst and Davis, 1949). Percussion drilling utilizes a back and forth down-hole piston/anvil structure to put on impact loading either to a custom roller-cone bit or to a one-piece bit set with diamond coated insertions. CONTENTS S.no Topic Pages 1 Introduction & literature Review 1-2 1.1 Introduction 1-2 1.1.1 Background and context 1 1.1.2 Thesis objectives 1-2 1.2 Literature Review 3-15 1.2.1 Drilling Methods 4-5 1.2.2 Examples of drilling methods 5-12 1.2.2.1 Rotary drilling 5-8 1.2.2.2 Percussive drilling 9-10 1.2.2.3 Rotary – Percussive drilling 10-11 1.2.2.4 Other drilling 11-12 1.2.3 Drill bits 12-15 2 Percussive Drilling 16-27 2.1 Introduction to percussive drilling 17 2.2 Principle of Operation 17-19 2.3 Pros and Cons of percussive drilling 19-21 2.3.1 Pros 19-20 2.3.2 Cons 21-22 2.3.3 Percussive drilling developm ent 22-23 2.3.4 Mathematical Models 23-27 3 Non-linear dynamics techniques 28-31 3.1 Introduction 28-29 3.2 Bifurcation, Poincare map and chaos 29-31 3.2.1 Bifurcation 29-30 3.2.2 Poincare map 30 3.2.3 Chaos 31 4 Mathematical modelling 32-40 4.1 Description of the mathematical model 32-34 4.2 Numerical results 34-36 4.2.1 Steady state response 26-39 4.2.2 Bifurcation and progression of the model over a range of static force 39-40 Â  5 Conclusion 41 Bibliography 1. Introduction & literature Review 1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 Background and context Material removal rate in the drilling region is one of the significant factors of determination of drilling economics. Over-all drilling expenses can be solved by forecasting the material removal rate and employed for pit preparation. The features which upset

Effect of Middle level managers on Employee Turnover

Effect of Middle level managers on Employee Turnover Abstract Management at any organization can be classified into three levels and they are Top level, middle level and low level management. Each level of management has its roles and responsibilities to be executed for the better functioning of the organization. Middle level mangers play a key role in any organization. They are point of contact for many of the resources across the top level and low level management. There were many cases where high level management contacts the middle level mangers for several operational issues with low level management and even low level management has made the middle level managers as the single point of contact in order to resolve their issues. Usually the job profiles in middle level management differ based on the organization structure and number of employees operating in a particular division. There were many research and theoretical aspects, that has proved middle level management has nothing to do with turnover of an organization. This particular turnover is not and no where related to revenue terms and this entire discussion is based on the turnover of employees and their work done. Here, we can review an article â€Å"Effect of Middle level managers on Employee Turnover† published by Mr. Morgen S. Johansen. In this particular article author mainly concentrates on High level and middle level manager and their impact on the overall employee satisfaction that results in the turnover of the organization. This review is published in â€Å"Department of Political Science, Texas AM University†. The results and their impact are discussed in the public management literature. Introduction Public management is a vast subject and if any one is interested in studying this particular subject, the most important area to be concentrated is the relationship and level of interactions between mangers and workers, and the result of work done which is affected by their levels of interactions.(Frederickson and Smith 2003, p98 ). After much research, the most important aspect came in to light is that, maximum study of public management is concentrated on the relationship between management activities and output of work and has neglected the relationship between management and workers (Meier and OToole 2002, 2001; Goerdel 2006; Brewer and Selden 2000; Walker and Boyne 2006; Moynihan and Pandey 2005; see also Lynn, Heinrich, and Hill 2001; although see Ingraham, Joyce, and Donahue 2003). This particular negligence of management on employees has become the main drawback and is affecting the organization performance a lot. The management should understand this effect of performance on organization turnover and proper steps are required to get rid of these activities. Lack of attention on workers may definitely affect the employee performance. A deep focus on relationship between management and workers is required to understand the few aspects like whether management is effecting the employee performance or employee performance is effecting the management. To concentrate more on this, the basic management activity like Human Resource can be considered, as it is the core functionalitys of any management (Daley 2005). Typical management activities include providing better workplace needs, recruiting right resources, training them to develop their skills and finally motivating and encouraging them in many aspects (Ingraham, Joyce, and Donahue 2003). In simple words Human Capital can be considered as biggest asset of any organization. Short Literature Review As per the previous discussion, Human Resource can be considered as the biggest asset of any organization and maintaining it effectively will always result a positive impact on both employee and organization performance (Ingraham, Joyce, and Donahue 2003;Daley 2005). According to Author, for better understanding of relationship between management and work outcomes, one should concentrate on the missing term i.e. Workers. Thus, in determining how management matters, the question becomes, what effect does management have on workers? In order answer these questions, author mainly concentrated on the effect of management on the turnover of street level. Turnover has a major role in building the organization performance. As per author, turnover is directly related to work satisfaction and this particular work satisfaction from workers side is essential for any organization for its effective operations and performance. Workers may not perform well and in some cases, they may leave the org anization, if the work or job satisfaction is not up to the level. All these factors make turnover as a bad thing for any organization and should be managed properly (Mobley 1982). Consequences and causes of Turnover As per author reviews, high turnover always poses a negative impact on organization performance (Meier and Hicklin 2008; Brill and McCartney 2008). Turnover has much importance, as it could be considered as the main factor that affects the costs in many aspects like lost recruiting, interviewing, training, and socialization investments (Mobley 1982). Apart from all these factors, turnover can also affect the morality of any company (Rainey 2003) and can cause a huge of scope of disturbance is in the smooth flow of the organization like social and communication platforms (Mobley 1982). Economy, inflation and labor force composition can be considered as external cause, that cant be controlled with in management. Several organization factors also effects the turnover and few of them are size of organization and each department, work pressures and salary (Mobley 1982). The compensation workers receive is a strong predictor of turnover (Mobley 1982; Moynihan and Pandey 2008; Selden and M oynihan 2000; Theobald 1990). Workers should be at a satisfaction level of their pay. This particular satisfaction can be measured with respective to their cost of living and the work place conditions. Even the fiscal resources of the organization affect the turnover. The fiscal resources of an organization matter because an organization with more resources is more likely to provide supplies, training, and other resources that better enable workers to do their jobs. Apart from these, there were many individual factors that effect the turnover and one among them is the work satisfaction (Nigro, Nigro, and Kellough 2007 ), for all these managers are responsible for building up the confidence levels and turnover too. Methodologies and drawbacks The basic methodology implemented by author is to study the relationship between management and workers and their total effect on the turnover. He has collected data from many aspects and concluded that middle level management poses a negative impact on the turnover. Turnover and Management Turnover is something that must be managed (Mobley 1982). The impact study of Human resource management can be considered as the best among the methodologies used by author to explain the turnover. HR management is directly related to job satisfaction and it strongly influences the organization performance (Mobley 1982; Riccucci 2005). In simple words, management can impact the job satisfaction, as mangers are the key persons who can make the workers not to dissatisfy (Riccucci 2005). Job satisfaction can be considered as a typical measurement factor, that how an organization body behaves and treats the employees (Mobley 1982; Morrell, Loan-Clarke, and Wilkinson 2001). Hiring the right persons, who can adjust to the organization environment and worker, is the primary task of any manager. Moreover, the support workers have from management (Parker 2002; Moynihan and Pandey 2008) also matters. Apart from HR management, budgeting also effects the job satisfaction of employees (Donahue et al. 2004). As per author methodology, there is a very tight relation between pay of the organization and turnover (Mobley 1982; Moynihan and Pandey 2008; Selden and Moynihan 2000; Theobald 1990). Managers are responsible here because, they were the key persons t decide the word on budgeting and many other aspects like distributing the available budget to several departments, employee salaries and reserves etc (Gulick 1937; Mintzberg 1979; Donahue et al. 2004). Drawbacks and un-answered questions on this methodology Author has given an excellent discussion, on the relationship between mangers and covered all important aspects of management activities. Apart from the positive aspects, there were many aspects author could not cover and few questions that were un-answered, and few of them are discussed below †¢ Author has missed to clearly explain the exact level of management that was affecting the turnover and job satisfaction. He always refers that it the responsibility of management, but no where he mentioned that middle level mangers are responsible and this does not fit as per the article title. †¢ Human resource management is directly focused in this article. Even there were many cases, where HR is not morally responsible for job satisfaction. The best example could be, even there exists a separate policy to motivation and job satisfaction, the attitude of any single employee can effect the entire division. †¢ There were no special case studies included, where the author can support that budgeting can effect the job satisfaction. Even a good budget can meet the requirements of workers. Multi-level management The second methodology considered by author is the important aspect and is Multi-level management. In a multinational organization, there could be always a scope for multi levels of management. At each level there are different managers with their own roles and responsibilities (Riccucci 2005; Lynn, Heinrich, and Hill 2001). Thus, to really determine if management affects workers, we need to look at managers at more than one level and their effect on street level bureaucrats. So, they can directly effect the salaries and the respective job satisfaction with respective to the pay outs. Organization goals are also set by top level management and as per first hypothesis of author â€Å"Hypothesis 1: Upper level managers will have an impact on turnover†. Apart from Upper level manger, middle level mangers are also responsible for many factors that directly affect the turnover. This is because; middle level mangers are the key persons, with whom the low level managers and workers are in contact (Mintzberg 1979; Barnard 1938). As middle level managers are close to workers, all the issues related to worker job satisfaction are directly influenced by middle level managers and thus author concludes his second hypothesis as â€Å"Hypothesis 2: Middle level managers will have an impact on turnover †. Drawbacks and un-answered questions on this methodology Author has justified the classification of levels in management in an organization and their respective impact on the job satisfaction and turnover. Apart from these, there were many points that were missed and few of them are highlighted below: †¢ Author could have classified the roles and responsibilities of different management levels, but failed to explain their respective level of impact on the overall job satisfaction. †¢ There was no percentages sort of things, like what percentage of upper management affects the turnover when compared to middle level management. †¢ Again the focus has been divided among upper and middle level mangers, but there is no special theory that could explain the view of author, that only middle level management has imposed negative effect on turnover. Organization size The third and most important methodology considered by author is the Organization size. Organization size badly affects the turnover of any organization and this is due to the reasons that big organizations are designed in a critical and more complicated manner (Rainey 2003). Considering all these reviews, author concludes that smaller organization pose more negative results on turnover when compared to larger organizations and came up with his third hypothesis on this as â€Å"Hypothesis 3: Management will have an impact on turnover in smaller organizations but not in larger organizations.† But when inner details are considered and also in ideal cases, even there exists many issues that effect the turnover with HR managers and this does not support the third hypothesis and author has came up with his fourth hypothesis as â€Å"Hypothesis 4a: In large organizations, upper level management will have an impact on turnover †. As already discusses by author, upper level ma nagers are always responsible in setting high level standards like budgeting and financial issues. But if a smaller organization is considered, both the upper level and middle level managers are responsible and author came up with newer version of his hypothesis as â€Å"Hypothesis 4b: In small organizations, upper level and middle level management will have an impact on turnover †. Drawbacks and un-answered questions on this methodology In this particular methodology, author has came with good hypothesis on the organization size and its relation with upper and middle level management, apart from these, there are many issues with his and few of them are discusses below †¢ As per author, organization size effects the turnover and here he could not explain the how the organization size is effecting the job satisfaction of employees. †¢ Author has mixed his hypothesis with the previous methodologies and could not justify the hypothesis as it was done in the previous case. †¢ Again upper level and middle level management were brought into picture, but no justification was done how, only middle level managers are responsible for turnover of employees. Review and critics on methodologies followed When the employee turnover does become complicated? Author could not to able to explain the intensity of effect caused by the employee turnover. As per the review of author, he could not explain the range of turnover tolerable in any organization. There were cases, where employee turnover can positively affect the organization performance and author could not cover the positive side of this article. (http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm) How to measure employee turnover? Author is successful in explaining the levels of management and their effect on turnover, but failed to explain the methodologies adopted to measure the employee turnover. The best way to measure this employee turnover is as below (Total number of leavers over period/Average total number employed over period) * 100 (http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm) Author could not justify the reasons for which the employees leaving the organization and special definition is derived for this. How employee turnover does effects the cost to organization? Author could not explain the effects of employee turnover on the cost perspective of any organization. As per this article, middle level mangers are posing negative employee turnover rates, and let us the actual ones as below The following are the cost terms to be measured †¢ recruiting costs †¢ training cost †¢ administrative costs †¢ induction costs If one can observe these cost factors, all these are related to middle level managers and at the same time, cost cutting activities are no where related to middle level management and directly related to upper level of mangers, as they are responsible for budgeting issues. Thus even HR activities and their impact on employee turnover are related to upper level management indirectly and could not justify the authors review discussion. (http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm) Why do people leave organization? Usually employees resign, to the job because of many reasons like getting a good offer and may be due to many personal reasons. All these are missing in authors discussion, where he just concentrated on the management defects. How to retain employees? Author is successful in explaining the bad affects of employee turnover, and failed to give methods to retain the employees. When coming to management side, even they are responsible to retain the employees and this part is completely missed in authors review of the article. (http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm) Lack of any survey reports Author has missed the practical implementation of things. He could have managed to explain the hypothesis derived by him, and failed to submit any practical reports on his discussions. The actual survey reports may not be in synch with authors discussion and few of them can be downloaded from the below referred URL (http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm) How to prevent turnover? Author could not explain and suggest any preventive mechanisms for low employee turnover rate and few of them can be found under (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnover_(employment)) Arent Middle level managers employees in an organization? Author has concluded that middle level managers are more responsible for high employee turnover. Here, he has just failed to explain, if the job satisfaction of middle level mangers is low, even there are chances, where they may skip the organization and he could not suggested how upper level managers are responsible in retaining the middle level employees. Conclusion Employee turnover, which is rate of gaining or loosing the employees in an organization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnover_(employment)) has become major disadvantage for many organizations and there were many factors to cause this. The most important aspects to be considered are the management issues (Riccucci 2005). Different levels of organization have their own impact on employee turnover these days. As per discussion on the review part, it the middle level mangers, who effect the employee turnover of the organization. There were multi-level organization and each of them has their own standards to measure the turnover. Upper level management is responsible for high end activities like budgeting and designing organization size. Middle level management is mainly responsible for typical HR acts like hiring, training and development. The main focus is done middle level managers as per the title of the article, but fewer topics were covered to explain the same, as per author. Proper set of standards while hiring the employees can be the best solution for this situation. The quality in training and motivation to employees can stop them in jumping here and there. Good development opportunities and job satisfaction for employees can make middle level managers more confident in reducing their part in turnover aspects. If author could have covered inner details of management, this article could be the best. Author has given excellent justifications for many aspects like, level of management and organization size and their effect on turnover. All the methodologies covered by him are much qualitative approaches and could have suggested methods for less employee turnover rate. Examples could have helped for better understanding of the article. References Aldrich, Howard and Ellen R. Austere. 1986. â€Å"Even Dwarfs Started Small: Liabilities of Age and Size and Their Strategic Implications.† Research in Organizational Behavior 8: 165-198. Bamboo, Thomas, William R. Clark, and Matt Gilder. 2006. â€Å"Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses.† Political Analysis 14: 63-82. Brewer, Gene A. and Sally Coleman Selden. 2000. â€Å"Why Elephants Gallop: Assessing and Predicting Organizational Performance in Federal Agencies.† Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 10(4): 685-711. Brill, Sam and Abby McCartney. 2008. â€Å"Stopping the Revolving Door: Increasing Teacher Retention.† Politics and Policy 36(5): 750-74. Daley, Dennis M. 2006. â€Å"Strategic Human Resources Management.† In Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges, 4thed. Ed. Norma M. Riccucci. New York: Pearson Education. Donahue, Amy K., Willow S. Jacobson, Mark D. Robbins, Ellen V. Rubin, and Sally C. Selden. 2004. â€Å"Management and Performance Outcomes in State Government. † In The Art of Governance, Patricia W. Ingraham and Laurence E. Lynn, Eds. Georgetown University Press. Ehrenberg, Ronald G., Richard P. Chaykowski, and Randy A. Ehrenberg. 1988. â€Å"Determinants of the Compensation and Mobility of School Superintendents.† Industrial and Labor Relations Review 41: 386-401. Frederickson, H. George and Kevin B. Smith. 2003. The Public Administration Theory Primer. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Goerdel, Holly. 2006. â€Å"Taking Initiative: Proactive Management and Organizational Performance in Networked Environments.† Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16(3): 351-67. Hayes, William. 2004. So You Want to be a Principal? Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield. Ingraham, Patricia W., Philip G. Joyce, and Amy Kneedler Donahue. 2003. Government Performance: Why Management Matters. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Jencks, Christopher and Meredith Phillips. 1998. The Black-White Test Score Gap. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Johansen, Morgen S. 2008. â€Å"Measuring Middle Manager Quality and Its Effect on Organizational Performance.† Paper presented at the Third Conference on Empirical Studies of Organizations and Public Management, College Station, TX, May 2-3. Meier, Kenneth J. and Alisa Hicklin. â€Å"Employee Turnover and Organizational Performance: Testing a Hypothesis from Classical Public Administration.† Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 18(4): 573-90. Meier, Kenneth J. and Laurence OToole, Jr. 2002. â€Å"Public Management and Organizational Performance: The Effect of Managerial Quality.† Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21(4): 629-43. - 2001. â€Å"Managerial Strategies and Behavior in Networks: A Model with Evidence from U.S. Public Education.† Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 11(3): 271-93. Mobley, William H. 1982. Employee Turnover: Causes, Consequences, and Control. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Moynihan, Donald P. and Sanjay K. Pandey. 2008. â€Å"The Ties that Bind: Social Networks, Person-Organization Value Fit, and Turnover Intention.† Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 18(2): 205-228. Nigro, Lloyd, Felix Nigro, and J. Edward Kellough. 2007. The New Public Personnel Administration. 6thed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadwsorth. Parker, Victoria A. 2002. â€Å"Connecting Relational Work and Workgroup Context in Caregiving Organizations.† Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 38: 276-97. Rainey, Hal G. 2003. Understanding and Managing Public Organizations. 3rded. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Riccucci, Norma. 2005. How Management Matters: Street Level Bureaucrats and Welfare Reform. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Selden, Sally C. and Donald P. Moynihan. 2000. â€Å"A Model of Voluntary Turnover in State Government.† Review of Public Personnel Administration 20(2): 63-74. Theobald, Neil D. 1990. â€Å"An Examination of the Influence of Personal, Professional, and School District Characteristics on Public School Teacher Retention.† Economics of Education Review 9(3): 241-50.

Germany :: essays research papers

And in the midst of the Japan crisis there is Germany. Germany had no idea that they were really losing WWI. They finally found out by reading it in the paper and this caused great psychological shock. Their leaders had lied to them. Germany thought they had lost in an unfair fight. Nazi’s said that the Jews had stabbed them in the back. And they were humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1923 the currency was so inflated that it wiped out the savings of the middle class of Germany. They did recover some prosperity during 1923-1929 but the economy had not completely recovered. By the 1930s their economy had stabilized due to American loans. The Great Depression had really hit Germany hard. This is what gave Hitler is chance to move. He promised to restore jobs to Germans, which he did to some degree. Hitler was a Nazi. Nazi’s denounced communism, rejected democracy, believed in the right of the individual, and anti-seminitism (Jews were to blame for all the Germany’s problems). Germany had no universal knowledge. They said that there was only a German science and a German math. And that Physics was a Jewish discipline. Germany lost some of it’s leading physicists because of this view, and even today in 1999 they have never regained their stature in science. Hitler wanted to reunite all the German people. He wanted to restore Vokdeutsch. So he took over the Rhineland and Austria. Then he stepped into Sudetenland and that’s when problems began. He said that they were German and that it should be his land. Well, Chamberlain basically gives Sudetenland to Hitler because he thought it was a way to avoid war with him. But Hitler wants a war really bad. But March 15, 1939 Hitler takes over ALL of Czechoslovakia. This is a clear sign of aggression. But he didn’t want to fight a two front war, so on Aug 23, 1939 he signed a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin of Russia. This amazed the world because this was his biggest enemy. Well, this freed Hitler’s hands to make war in the east. And on Sept 1, 1939 German army invades Poland. Poland quickly falls to Hitler’s blitzkriegs. Well, Britain and France had given Poland sovereignty so they go to war with Germany. Well, Russia then moves in to Poland and basically splits it down the middle with Germany.

Agency Problem Essay

Financial Management (Agency problem) Prepared by: Sami Hassan Saeed Singabi August 2008 Introduction Economic science teaches us that due to their subjective needs, individuals have subjective preferences, and hence different interest. Occasionally different subjective interests give rise to conflicts of interest between contracting partners. These conflicts of interest may result in turn, in one or both parties undertaking actions that may be against the interest of the other contracting partner. The primary reason for the divergence of objectives between managers and shareholders has been attributed to separation of ownership (shareholders) and control (management) in corporations. As a consequence, agency problems or principal-agent conflicts exist in the firm. Agency theory deals with such problem. Agency theory is concerned with how these agency problems affect the form of the contract and how they can be minimized, in particular, when contracting parties are variously informed (or uncertain). Agency problem A problem arising from a conflict of interest between principals such as investors and agents acting for them, such as brokers or managers. Agency problem refers to a conflict of interest arising between creditors, shareholders and management because of differing goals. It exists due to problems in corporate governance. A typical problem is that of senior management of a company, who are charged with running the business in the interests of shareholders; choose instead to operate to maximize their own interests. A simple example is the hired anager who fills his pockets at shareholders’ expenses. For example, an agency problem exists when management and shareholders have conflicting ideas on how the company should be run. Agency problems that arise in a corporation have troubled economists for some time. There are a number of mechanisms that have been used to try and reduce these agency problems. Many of these mechanisms try to link the manager’s compensation to the per formance of the firm. Typical examples include performance shares, restricted stock grants, and executive stock options. This dissertation is an empirical study of whether the use of executive stock options has in fact reduced the agency problems between managers and stockholders. In this dissertation, two different testing methodologies are used to address the agency problem reduction issue. One methodology looks at some significant event such as a merger or divestiture to see if an executive’s holding of stock options affect what decisions are made. For example, do larger holdings of stock options motivate managers to take on riskier investments? By increasing the risk of the firm, managers can increase the value of the stock options. Another question of interest is whether in taking on risky investments; do executives increase the leverage of the firm? By increasing the leverage of the firm, the executive might increase the risk of the firm and thus the value of the option holdings. An agency relationship An agency relationship arises whenever one or more individuals, called principals, hire one or more other individuals, called agents, to perform some service and then delegate decision-making authority to the agents. The primary agency relationships in business are those :- (1) Between stockholders and managers and 2) Between debt holders and stockholders. These relationships are not necessarily harmonious; indeed, agency theory is concerned with so-called agency conflicts, or conflicts of interest between agents and principals. These relationships are not necessarily harmonious; indeed, agency theory is concerned with so-called agency conflicts, or conflicts of interest between agents and principals. Expansion increase potential agency problems, if you expanded to additional locations you could not physically be at all locations at the same time. Consequently, you would have to delegate decision-making authority to others. Creditors can protect themselves by: (1) Having the loan secured. (2) Placing restrictive covenants in debt agreements. (3) They charge a higher than normal interest rate to compensate for risk. Agency cost A type of internal cost that arises from, or must be paid to a manger acting on behalf of shareholders. Agency cost arises because of core problems such as conflicts of interest between share holders and management. Shareholders wish for management to run the company in away that increases shareholders value, but management may wish to grow the company in away that maximize their personal power and wealth that may not be in the best interest of shareholders. Agency costs are inevitable within an organization whenever shareholders are not completely in charge; the cost can usually be best spent on providing proper material incentives and moral incentives for agents to properly execute their duties, thereby aligning the interests of shareholders (owners) and agents. The principals (the shareholders) have to find ways of ensuring that their agents (the managers) act in their interests. This means incurring costs, ‘agency costs’, to (a) monitor managers’ behavior, and (b) create incentive schemes and control for managers to pursue shareholders’ wealth maximization. Various methods have been used to try to align the actions of senior management with the interests of shareholders, that is, to achieve ‘goal congruence’. Linking rewards to shareholder wealth improvements: Owners can grant directors and other senior managers share options. These ermit the managers to purchase shares at some date in the future at a price, which is fixed in the present. If the share price rises significantly between the dates when the option was granted and the date when the shares can be bought the manager can make a fortune by buying at the pre-arranged price and then selling in the market place. The managers under such a scheme have a clear interest in achieving a rise in share price and thus congruence comes about to some extent. An alternative method is to allot shares to managers if they achieve certain performance targets, for example, growth in earnings per share or return on shares. Sackings: The threat of being sacked with the accompanying humiliation and financial loss may encourage managers not to diverge too far from the shareholders’ wealth path. However this method is seldom used because it is often difficult to implement due to difficulties of making a coordinated shareholder effort. Selling shares threat and the take- over: Most of the large shareholders (especially institutional investors) of quoted companies are not prepared to put large resources into monitoring and controlling all the firms of which they own a part. Quite often their first response, if they observe that management is not acting in what they regard as their best interest, is to sell the share rather than intervene. This will result in a lower share price, making the raising of funds more difficult. If this process continues the firm may become vulnerable to a merger bid by another group of managers, resulting in a loss of top management posts. Fear of being taken over can establish some sort of backstop position to prevent shareholder wealth considerations being totally ignored. Corporate governance regulations: There is a considerable range of legislation and other regulatory pressures (e. g. the Companies Act) designed to encourage directors to act in shareholders’ interests. Within these regulations for example, the board of directors is not to be dominated by a single individual acting as both the chairman and chief executive. Also independently minded non-executive directors should have more power to represent shareholder interests; in particular, they should predominate in decisions connected with directors’ remuneration and auditing of firm’s accounts. Information flow: The accounting profession, the stock exchange, the regulating agencies and the investing public are continuously conducting a battle to encourage or force firms to release more accurate, timely and detailed information concerning their operations. An improved quality of corporate accounts, annual reports and the availability of other forms of information flowing to investors and analysts such as company briefings and press announcements help to monitor firms, and identify any wealth-destroying actions by wayward managers early. Conclusion Diffuse ownership of publicly held companies reduces the owners’ ability to monitor managers because they would have to bear the full monitoring costs while gaining only a small marginal benefit. Managers may therefore act to maximize their wealth through personal use of corporate assets, stock manipulation and sub optimal decisions at the owners’ expense. Thus agency theory practical mechanism is weak, because it is unable to provide practical conclusions with regard to agency problems. References: 1. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. htm 2. www. referenceforbusiness. com 3. Financial-dictionary. The free dictionary. com

A Guide to Caring for Pet Millipedes

If youve never cared for an arthropod pet before, a millipede is a good first choice. Millipedes are herbivorous, so they are easy and inexpensive to feed. Theyre fairly low maintenance pets and can be handled even by young children, with supervision, of course. Many pet stores sell African giant millipedes, which grow to 10 inches or more in length. You can also try keeping millipedes you collect in the wild, but keep in mind that brightly colored millipedes usually secrete hydrogen cyanide, which can cause an unpleasant burning sensation on sensitive skin. Things You Should Know About Keeping Pet Millipedes Before bringing home any live animal, its important to know what to expect. Does a millipede require a lot of care? Can you keep more than one in the same enclosure? Do they bite or sting? Though pet millipedes are a good choice in most circumstances, you should weigh the pros and cons of keeping them before you bring one home. Choosing a Millipede at the Pet Store As with any pet, its important to choose a healthy individual. In general, millipedes have few health issues, and youre unlikely to find sickly millipedes at your local pet store. Still, its good to know how to recognize an unhealthy millipede before you make a purchase, so you can avoid problems once you bring one home. Housing Your Pet Millipede The key to caring for millipedes successfully is to provide them with the appropriate habitat. Millipedes require ample floor space, while the height of the terrarium is less important. You can use a number of different materials for the substrate. An appropriate water source for your millipede is important as well. Maintaining the Proper Environment for Your Pet Millipede Most large millipedes you can purchase from pet stores or science catalogs come from the tropics. They require a higher temperature and humidity level than other arthropods commonly kept as pets. All pet millipedes need adequate moisture, which means you must use a proper substrate and mist the terrarium regularly. Feeding Your Pet Millipede The herbivorous millipede will happily munch on almost any fruit or vegetable you offer, although they do have favorites. They also require calcium in their diets in order to molt and grow properly. Youll need to know how to prepare their food, how to supplement their diet with calcium, and how often to feed them. Handling Your Pet Millipede Even a millipede can feel nervous! You should always strive to keep your millipede feeling secure and comfortable, even when you are handling it. Its also important to know how millipedes defend themselves, in the event your pet millipede does feel threatened in your hands.