Ethical Decisions in Business Essay - 2256 Words

Throughout the ages businesses have developed through technological advancements and innovative ideas but there has always been a common struggle that they are faced with, ethical decisions. Everywhere we look there is some level of ethical deterioration (Norman V. Peale, 1988), immoral millions made through inside trading information, a day hardly passes without the head of some major organisation who has been involved in some aspect of an ethical dilemma. This essay will break down why businesses struggle with ethical decisions but before examining such a sensitive issue we must understand what an ethical decision really is. Within the process of decision making, ethics are the personal standards of right and wrong. They become the basis†¦show more content†¦The element of outcome is an influencing factor in how ethical decisions are made, the theorists of fifty years ago such as Levitt(1958) and Friedman(1962) shared the view that the only outcome that is valuable to anal yse is whether the business made a profit or not (Gà ¶ran Svenssona, 2009). This is the approach many businesses still take to an extent today and is a reason for the struggle with ethical decisions and especially now with the arrival of such things as corporate social responsibility and corporate governance which point out the shift in the modern day business world. In order to apply some degree of sustainability into their everyday practises, businesses must work at becoming a good corporate citizen for long-term viability in their particular field so that their negative business reputation does not affect their dealings in the future. The question is does becoming a good corporate citizen conflict with the performance of the business. This is debateable, whichever way you turn there are arguments to be had and instances where profits could be made at the detriment of human ethics. Looking at this idea it becomes clear that making ethical decisions is increasingly difficult as i n some cases businesses must choose what they see as the greater importance and what they value more, profits and a successful business or human ethics. In business, the conflict betweenShow MoreRelatedEthical Decision Making in Business639 Words   |  3 Pagesbetween the demands of the workplace and those of their families and other personal responsibilities. In a bid to meet targets and other organizational goals and objectives, business executives in addition to traveling extensively also tend to dedicate long hours to office work. 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So, laws were created to set guidelines, companies started to use risk assessment to see if a decision would lead to any legal recourse that would make them

American Government And Politics The Melting Pot

America has always been referred to as a melting pot. According to The Dorsey Dictionary of American Government and Politics, a melting pot is a sociological term that â€Å"implies (1) that each succeeding wave of immigrants to the United States blends into the general society and (2) that this melting is ideally what should happen† (Shafrtiz 348). The term is originally from Israel Zangwill’s play The Melting-Pot. In this play, he wrote â€Å"America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all races of Europe are melting and reforming† (Shafritz 348). The term refers to the diversity of races, ethnicities, and cultures in America, as expressed by Israel Zangwill. However, within many cultures are subcultures, and America is not only a melting-pot of races, ethnicities, and cultures, but also of subcultures such as hip-hop. Culture has several, sometimes contradictory meanings, in which its uncertainty of a definition can be found in its different uses in history. Williams describes it as a Particular way of life which expressed certain meanings and values not only in art and learning, but also in institutions and ordinary behavior. The analysis of culture, from such a definition, is the clarification of the meanings and values implicit and explicit in a particular way of life, a particular culture (Brake 1). In this definition, culture is a way of life. In Swingewood’s definition, culture is the result of consumerism. He writes Consumer capitalism, rather than creating aShow MoreRelatedCultural Mosaic826 Words   |  4 Pagesrefer to this as the â€Å"melting pot† of the world because of how different we are from each other as well as how all of our different cultures interact with each other. Another term some use is there expression â€Å"cultural mosaic†, this phrase is used to describe the mix of ethnic group, languages and cultures that coexist within Canadian society. 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Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development †Free Sample

Questions: 1.There are three basic features that should be present in any theoretical framework. Discuss these features? 2.(i) Is there or are there any alternative approaches that would allow jesse to develop a conceptual model? (ii) Describe the advantages and disadvantages of undertaking a literature review to develop a model? (iii)Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative approaches that you have come up with? 3.(i)label the variables of jesses conceptual model in terms of independent, dependent, moderating and /or mediating variables? (ii)Explain the general difference between the moderate and mediate variables? 4.Develop the relevant hypotheses based onJesses model (use directional hypotheses)? 5.(i)Provide a thorough evaluation of Jesses argument? (ii)Provide a better explanation of why we would expect these relationship to exist? Answers: 1. The basic features of theoretical framework are:- i- The factors which are considered to explain the study should be clearly discussed and labelled. The relationship between these factors and how they are interrelated. ii- Literature survey i.e the facts from the previous research and findings. iii- Graphical representation or schematic diagram of the theoretical framework that reader can easily understand what the researcher wants to represents. The theoretical framework is the comprehensive way of researcher how to show the facts about the study he is doing clearly and precisely. The proper labelling of the facts he wants to highlight about the study. Like if we take the example of the given topic of the social network, the proper framework of the study done is given with the help of the examples ofApple community, Harley Davidson community etc. how managers of the community attract the people and engage them with it. This help in dispersion of the various new ideas with community members. The discussion of the previously found facts and relating it with the newly found variables should be comprehensively shown in the theoretical framework. This will help the reader to have a keen look on labelled features. The most important feature in the theoretical framework is the graphical representation of schematic diagram representation of the variables which are discussed in the study. This is a clear picture which shows and helps the reader to comprehend the theoretical explanation of the variables. 2- a) As the study shows that jesse has only considered the literature survey of the online communities. There are some other ways in which jesse could develop the conceptual model. These are:- By collecting the real and practical facts by working on the subject .This would make the conceptual model more accurate and healthy. Comparing the real and literature survey features together could make the model quite attractive and effective. Filtering the facts which are highly discussed about the social media could make it nearest to accuracy. b) The following are the advantages and disadvantages of literature review:- Advantages :- Deep learning of the subject of research. Develop basic understanding of the subject. Ideas of the resources which we reuse for fact findings. Help reducing time consumption. Comprehensive look on previously found facts and the work done required at various stages of research. Disadvantages:- The literature review sometimes does not clear some factors in the variables. This cause wastage of time and resources. Proper guidance of the supervisors is required to every researcher especially for the inexperienced students (Garrett, 2010).. It is time consuming for teachers to provide feedback and correct them where they are wrong. c) The following are the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative approach:- Advantages:- By collecting the real practical facts by doing it yourself will make the previously found facts more exact and near to accuracy. It increase the practical experience of the researcher and build its confidence to explain the things in more better way. It easily differentiate between the practically found by itself and previously found facts. Disadvantages:- It increase the time consumption where facts are not clear. Without proper guidance of the supervisor or teacher the researcher may got confused sometimes. 3.a) The following are the variables of jesses conceptual model:- Independent variables:- In the independent variables , it consist of two variables which are considered:- Informational value:- The information about the subject is taken by researcher on its own. It is totally independent which topic to choose and where to take information about it. Self discovery value:-The discovery of the certain facts about the subject is the outcome of the independent research done on it (Garrett, 2010). So these variables are totally independent variables. Dependent variables:- In the dependent variables, it consists of two variables which are considered as follows:- Social interactivity value:-The increase in the knowledge about the subject is done by social interactivity at the social media sites. Likewise if we take the examples of apple community and Harley Davidson riders community. These are brands community where people get to know about various things about their devices and bikes by interacting with the members of the community. So it dependent on the knowledge which you get by interaction with social websites. Social enhancement value:-The eagerness to enhance the knowledge about the subject , researcher try to meet various people to know about it and social media help in enhancing the knowledge by getting into touch with outside community people. This increase the dependency on the social sites and social life of the people. Moderating or mediating variables:- In this also there are two variables considered according to jesses conceptual model:- Entertainment value:-The entertainment provided by social websites eventually increase the usage of the social networking sites. Actually entertainment value is different from other social networking sites because in this we can stream live on various things, playing games, online challenges and etc.(e.g:-dholakia,bagozzi,mckenna and bargh 1997) experiences with functionality, and different people i.e it basically maintains relationship with other users. Reward value:- Many social websites increase the attraction by offering rewards on various things . This increase the social involvement of the people. This means that it plays a moderate part of the conceptual model. 3.b) The following are the differences between the moderate and the mediate variables:- Moderators:- Moderator variable is basically a qualitative and quantitative (like reward level) variable. Like if we talk about the social networking sites which attract people by placing rewards on certain items and things, this make this variable a dependent variable. Moderator represents the interaction between independent variables and appropriate condition of a factor in operation (Teel,1983). Mediators:- Mediators are the variables which work between the independent variable and outcome variables. Like we talk about the entertainment value of the social networking sites it plays a mediate variable between the independent variable and the outcome variables. 4.As the model developed by Jesse after the literature survey of the social networking sites. The following hypotheses can be done:- To increase the satisfaction of the member in a particular community the basic variable needed is the informational value from which the researcher get to know about the study and concluding independently discovering the facts from the information give huge encouragement to get deep into the study of brands or anything else. With the increase in the knowledge about the particular brand the social interaction of the member increases(Garrett, 2010). This means that self-discovering of the ideas has higher value to provide satisfaction the member than just collecting the information when dependent variable social interaction and social enhancement values are considered. If we talk about the entertainment value (like playing games or listen music online) provide higher level of satisfaction to the members and further reward value helping as a moderator to make it an outcome variable. If the satisfaction of the member increase higher that it further increase his/her loyalty towards the particular brand community. These are the hypotheses which can be done by considering the Jesses conceptual model. 5.(i)According to Jesses argument, people who love some particular brands will access it from the comfort of their home by showing intentions to join that online brand community. The increase in the driving values from the online brand community will rise the eagerness of the member to join it and start participating in it. Therefore it always important to know from which values the members got drive to join the community. These values include the informational values, self discovering values, self- interaction values, self-enhancement values, entertainment values and the reward values. These values will play a role to rise the satisfaction of the member and this satisfaction will make him to join the community. Once the member got completely satisfied with it, its loyalty towards the brand community will keep on rising and shows his future intentions towards community. This is how Jessecomes into the conclusion about the online networking sites. (ii) The research details shows that there are certain values which rise the relationship between the members and the community. The entertainment provided by online communities through fun by playing games or interacting with others( Dholakia, Bogozzi and Pearo 2004) or by encountering and solving the online challenges or contests(Mckenna and Bough, 1999). This participation of members rise the entertainment value of the social networking sitesand attract other outside members to join the community. This rise the perceived value of site and increase in the satisfaction of the members. These variables increase the relationship between the member and the community. References: O'reilly, T. (2007). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software.Communications and Strategies,65(1), 17-37. Garrett, J. J. (2010).Elements of User Experience, The: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond. Pearson Education. Bearden, W. O., Teel, J. E. (1983). Selected determinants of consumer satisfaction and complaint reports.Journal of marketing Research, 21-28.

Analysis of Microsoft Financial Statements free essay sample

Financial statements are frequently a key source of information for financial decisions and taking a look at Microsoft’s financial statements can help us decide certain things about the company. There are three different types of statements that will be discussed in this section. These include: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows. They are discussed here in either the sense of quarterly or yearly statements and will be noted as so. All information has been derived from Yahoo Finance. (http://finance. yahoo. com) The first statement that will be analyzed for Microsoft is the balance sheet. The balance sheet is essentially a snapshot of what the firm owns (assets), what the firm owes (liabilities), and the difference between the two (equity) at a single moment in time. When we analyze a balance sheet, we must keep in mind that the values on this statement are the book values and are not necessarily what the company is worth at this exact moment in time, or the market values. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Microsoft Financial Statements or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Something we can see right away is an estimate of how much net working capital Microsoft has by analyzing the quarterly data of the period ending December 31, 2011. Net working capital shows how cash that will become available fairs with the cash that must be paid over the next twelve months by taking current assets and subtracting current liabilities. For Microsoft, this is $72,513,000,000-$25,373,000,000=$47,140,000,000 and is looked upon positively for a healthy firm. The use of debt in a firm’s capital structure is called financial leverage and the more debt a firm has (as a percentage of assets), the greater the financial leverage. If we take a look at the yearly balance sheets for 2009, 2010, and 2011 for Microsoft, we can see that each year debt becomes a bigger percentage of total assets. In 2009, debt is 4. 8% of assets. In 2010, it is 5. 7%. In 2011, it is 11%. This could be viewed at in either a positive or negative light because high financial leverage can increase potential rewards to shareholders, while low financial leverage can possibly decrease the potential for financial distress and business failure. The second statement that will be analyzed is the income statement. The income statement measures performance of a company over some period of time. It shows both revenues and the subtracted expenses with the result being net income. When we take a look at the annual income statements from 2009, 2010, and 2011, we can see that net income has increased each year and this is clearly a positive trend. Also, we can look at specific categories like research development and observe that it increased from 2010 to 2011, which shows that Microsoft may be trying to expand their products and innovations. The third, and final, statement that will be analyzed is the statement of cash flows. Overall, what the cash flow statement provides is crucial to financial statement analysis and financial decisions. It illustrates the difference between the number of dollars that came in and the number that went out. The statement of cash flows provides us with a fundamental principal, which is known as the cash flow identity. It says that the cash flow from the firm’s assets is equal to the value of its liabilities plus the value of its equity. The first section of the statement of cash flows deals with the cash flows from operating activities, or the firm’s day-to-day activities of producing and selling. In Microsoft’s case, this total result has increased from 2009-2011, from $19,037,000,000 to $26,994,000,000, and this is positive because it displays the fact that they are able to cover their everyday cash outflows with their everyday cash inflows more efficiently. The next section of the statement of cash flows is the investing activities section. As we can see, total cash flow from investing has decreased from $15,770,000,000 to $14,616,000,000, from 2009 to 2011, and there may be various underlying reasons for this occurrence including more investments to improve Microsoft in several areas. The final section of the statement of cash flows is the financing section, which shows the dividends paid, the purchases of stock, the net borrowings, and other possible cash flows from financing activities. A positive trend for investors is the fact that dividends paid has increased (even though it is negative to the firm) as well as sale purchase of stock, from 2009 to 2011 and even increased quarterly in 2011. The net borrowings is off an on from 2009 to 2011 possibly because of certain funds needed in particular years. In 2009, it was $5,746,000,000 and in 2010, it was $190,000,000. It shot back up again in 2011, with $5,960,000,000. The three statements that were provided in this section provide possible investors, competitors, and even those within the company with useful information to make important decisions that could affect their livelihood or the livelihood of Microsoft. Keep in mind that even though financial statements are a solid indicator of how a company is performing, one key principle about must be known when viewing them to make decisions. They do not always provide all of the information that you may need. There are usually underlying topics that could affect the company that are not necessarily showing up on their financial statements. These topics are discussed in other sections of this report on Microsoft. We feel it important to compare Microsoft’s ratios not only to other companies and industry norms, but also to some of their own ratios from 2010 . From 2010 to 2011 Microsoft saw an increase in their current and quick ratios, which is typically good because high liquidity ratios display a greater ability to repay short term debt. Compared to Google which has a quick ratio of 5. %, Microsoft has less cash on hand. Although, it is not necessarily a good thing that Google’s liquidity ratios are so high because they have little short term debt, which indicates that Google could potentially be investing some of the excess cash to generate more revenue. Microsoft’s return on assets only decreased by one percent which articulates to investors how much profit Microsoft made on $1 worth of assets. A common return on asset ratio is 20% for software companies; Microsoft is slightly below the 20% norm, but they are close which is good. When considering a good return on assets, commonly the lower the ROA ratio the more asset-intensive a business is which simply means more money must be reinvested into the business to generate earnings. Apple’s return on assets stands at around 24% and Google’s is about 12%, which indicates that Google must make higher investments in their assets to generate profit. If Google were in the manufacturing industry this ratio would be acceptable since that is an asset intensive industry, but it is too low for the software industry. Microsoft’s return on equity ratio is possibly one of the more important ratios that investors will be concerned about. The higher a company’s return on equity, the easier it is for them to generate cash internally. Since Microsoft’s ROE increased from 41% to 42% in 2011, we feel they are in good standing in regards to this ratio. They are making significant amounts of money for their investors, which will encourage new and existing shareholders to buy new and more stock in Microsoft. This in turn allows the company fund operations. In comparison to Apple and Google which have ROE’s of 46% and 20%, Microsoft is in a good position. Again Google’s ratio is quite low for the industry trend, although compared to other industries their ROE is significant. Microsoft’s gross margin is fairly normal for the software industry. Their gross margin tells us how efficiently the company is able to use labor and supplies in production. The higher the gross margin, the more money the company has to spend on the funding of other operations. Respectively, Apple and Google have gross margins of 42% and 65%. Microsoft is most efficient in keeping a high percent of their sales revenue after labor and production costs are covered. Now we will discuss turnover ratios and the importance of these ratios to a company. Total asset turnover is an indication of how much sales are generated for every dollar worth of assets. Being that Microsoft has a total asset turnover of 70% which is down 3% from 2010, they are still efficient in using their assets to generate revenue. Correspondingly, Apple and Google have asset turnovers of 101% and 60%. Apple is generating more revenue than they are spending on assets while still maintaining a fairly high profit margin, which is very good since the two ratios tend to have an inverse relationship. Microsoft’s accounts receivable turnover compared to the other two companies indicates that it may be necessary for Microsoft to reevaluate its credit policies in order to ensure a more timely collection of funds. Their accounts receivable turnover rate is only 5. 4% for 2011 and was even lower in 2010 at 4. 8%. Apple has a strong receivables turnover of 17% and Google shows a turnover rate of 8. 5%. Apple’s very high AR turnover rate may be due to one of two things, they run mainly on a cash basis or that they are extremely efficient in collecting on their accounts. In comparison to the two other companies we selected Microsoft fixed asset turnover is 9. 1% which is lower than Apple’s (18. 7%), yet higher than Google’s (4. 4%). This ratio is an indicant of how efficient the companies are at generating net-sales from fixed assets. This ratio actually means very little to a software company, it is crucial in the manufacturing industry where large capital is required in order to generate sales revenues. A ratio that is quite important to the software industry is the turnover ratio. Microsoft could potentially have a much higher turnover ratio than it does (15. times). Most software companies have low inventory levels since software can be reproduced simply. Apple has a normal inventory turnover ratio for the software industry at about 69 times per year. What is implied if a company has a low turnover rate as Microsoft does is that they have poor sales rates and excess. Compared to Apple it is fair to say that Microsoft has sales numbers that are significantly lower, as well as a higher amount of money tied up into inventory. Microsoft has a total debt to equity ratio of 20% and Google shows only a 12. 5% total debt to equity ratio. Microsoft most likely has such a high ratio because they are financing their growth with debt as opposed to assets. Microsoft is likely to generate more earnings this way than they could have by using more outside financing. However, it is possible that the cost of financing this debt may outweigh the return that the company generates, which will make the debt hard for the company to manage. Every company is different and financial professionals must find the balance that best suits their company. The debt to equity ratio is considered good for the software industry so long as the company keeps the percent below 50%, which Microsoft has done.

The Great Gatsby - symolism

The Great Gatsby - symolism There is much color symbolism in this novel, but there are two main colors that stand out more than the others. The colors green and white influence the story greatly. Green shows many thoughts, ideas, attitudes, and choices that Gatsby has throughout the story. White represents the stereotypical faÂÆ'Â §ade that every character is hiding behind.The color green, as it is used in the novel, symbolizes different choices the character, Gatsby, can make during his life. The green element in this novel is taken from the green light at the end of the dock near Daisy's house. The color itself represents serenity, as in everything is perfect. This warns Gatsby that he should not pursue his dream for getting Daisy back, because his chance has passed and everything is as it should be. This is shown with Nick's insight, "...His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.The Great Gatsby (1974 film)He did not know that it was already behind him... (Pg.189)"Another sy mbolization of the color green, which contradicts the first, is the meaning "go." As in a traffic light signal, most people associate green with the word and action "go." This can be interpreted as meaning Gatsby should go for his dream without hesitation. It implies that Gatsby and Daisy are meant to be together and nothing should stop Gatsby from his destined happiness and love with Daisy. It inspires hope for Gatsby that he is on the right path, heading towards the best years of his life. He believes that things will soon be as they once were, only better. ""I'm going to fix everything just the way they were before," he said nodding determinedly. "She'll see."(Pg. 117.)"The last symbolization the color green has in this novel is an urge to strive...

A Rhetorical Analysis of James Ladsen and Joseph Epstein Essay

A Rhetorical Analysis of James Ladsen and Joseph Epstein - Essay Example The essay "A Rhetorical Analysis of James Ladsen and Joseph Epstein" talks about the hubris that can be defined as tempting to face, or otherwise thumbing one’s nose at that which is already predetermined. This ancient Greek term for insolence and arrogance to fate plays a powerful role with respect to the way how current culture is defined and practiced. Essentially, the culture that exists within the United States, and to a large part around the globe as a result of globalization, can be understood as one that places a fundamental level of importance on maintaining youth and vitality; even at ages in which these are all but an unrealistic hope. Accordingly, the following analysis will seek to engage the reader with a rhetorical response to Ladsen’s â€Å"The Natural Order† as it relates to the idea of hubris. Likewise, this rhetorical response will be compared and contrasted with Joseph Epstein’s essay â€Å"Perpetual Adolescence†. Through such a level of analysis, it is the hope of this author that the reader will come to gain a more valuable and nuanced interpretation of why our current culture is so fixated on the idea of perpetual youthfulness; and whether or not this is a positive or negative attribute. Firstly, in terms of Ladsen’s story, entitled â€Å"The Natural Order†, the author represents the internal and external dialogue that is taking place between a middle-aged married man and one of his longtime best friends. The middle-aged married man is indicative of what might be termed as a â€Å"conservative†.

Article critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Article critique - Essay Example Paragraphs are used to structure the arguments and to give a sequence to each point made. The language is quite concise and simple to understand. Not all important terms have been clearly defined. There is some assumption on the part of the author that the reader of the text is already familiar with the subject of Islamic tradition and culture to some extent. For example, terms such as ‘Sharia law’ and Gallup poll’ are not clearly explained but are used within the text. These terms are quite specific and require elaboration for those unfamiliar with such terminology. There is sufficient evidence for the arguments. Each point is very well backed up by reference to existing laws, literature, examples, quotations and arguments for powerful individuals in the field and supporting evidence of all kinds. Yes the arguments support the main point as they are highly relevant to the subject matter. By arguing and highlighting various differences in Muslim men’s and women’s rights under Islamic law and offering examples, this supports the overall claim that there is an injustice in this area which needs to be addressed. The text is appropriate for the intended audience for the most part. It offers a basic summary of the issue with some background and historical and political context and it is explained in a clear and structured way. However, there is room for improvement in that some terms should be more clearly explained. To an extent, the text helps me to understand the subject. It gives a background and societal context to the argument which is very helpful and it offers case studies and examples to highlight the points. In this way, it is quite simple to comprehend. One particular sentence evoked a strong response from me; â€Å"In the United States, many Muslim girls and women choose to wear hijab†. I found this sentence to be very surprising. The author states this sentence in the first paragraph immediately after