The Truth On Empowerment

1. Empowerment has been criticized since it leaves no one in particular accountable. The goal of empowerment is to provide power to the individual. Each individual is trusted to make his or her own decisions regarding his or her life and work. In this way the individual is also provided with the opportunity to take responsibility for his or her own situation in life and work. Empowerment of course has many levels. Politically, it means that each group of individuals within a society is given the same power and rights as all others. All sectors of society are for example allowed to vote, voice their opinions and follow political channels for change without the need to fear unreasonable persecution or other repercussions. In work, empowerment means that all individuals are allowed to apply for jobs where the likelihood of being accepted for employment depends on nothing except their qualification level. In life, empowerment means that each individual has the same rights to do the same things in society, i.e. enter public places, make use of public transportation, and the like. In terms of accountability, I do not believe that the criticism leveled against empowerment is valid. Instead of only a single entity being accountable for the actions within the whole of society, every individual is now required to take his or her own responsibility for his or her own life and actions. Individual accountability means that responsibility for individual actions lies with the individual. Collective actions are accounted for by groups of people. In this way accountability cannot be required only of leaders or other empowered individuals. Empowerment has the advantage of placing accountability at the location of every person taking certain actions. Indeed, this results in a more responsible society where fewer crimes are committed. Individuals know that certain actions will lead to certain consequences, and this knowledge leads to the accountability necessary to ensure a stable society (Dewettinck, Singh, & Buyens, 2003). 2. â€Å"We practice empowerment because we don't expect our employees to leave their brains at the door.† In the current workplace situation, a business is held to function much better when individuals are given the opportunity to develop to their full potential. Workplace empowerment then means not only empowering individuals to enter any workplace for which they adequately qualify, but also that they function as intelligent beings within this situation. Employees are given the power to think critically about the tasks they are assigned, in order to do these tasks to the best of their ability (Dewettinck, Singh, & Buyens, 2003). Employees are therefore expected to think for themselves. This allows for much more creativity within the company. Leaders who empower their employees have the advantage of a large amount of creative energy to provide solutions to difficult problems. Sharing the power in this way therefore means that the collective company ultimately possesses greater collective power in the business world. Furthermore empowerment within a company means that individuals are recognized for their ability to think individually and creatively. A possible drawback of this approach is that all employees may not be ready to use their individual thinking skills in order to provide the company with creative energy. Indeed, empowering individuals who are not ready could mean disaster for such a company, as incorrect, unmonitored decisions and actions could be very detrimental. It is therefore probably a good idea to first monitor all decisions for which an individual is newly empowered (St. John's University, 1993). Basically, empowerment within a company can greatly enhance its decision-making and creative power. Such empowerment has to be handled with great care, however. Individuals need to be monitored for their readiness to take responsibility within the company. 3. Leadership Style(s)that are related to the statement â€Å"Empowerment has been criticized since it leaves no one in particular accountable†. There are mainly two leadership styles that may criticize empowerment for its apparent lack of particular accountability. These include the directing and coaching style of leadership. With all three of these, the ultimate responsibility lies directly with the leader, although the level of employee responsibility varies (Dewettinck, Singh, & Buyens, 2003). Directing leadership entails a high level of directing and low supportive behavior. All employee actions are directly supervised by the leader, and the leader also takes responsibility for all the decisions. Low supportive behavior then means that the leader determines the tasks necessary, and seldom listens to input from employees. Employees are expected to do what they are told without critically examining decisions. Accountability is then directly with the leader, as employees are in a state of receiving orders and carrying them out without question. In coaching leadership, there is a high level of both directive and supportive behavior. As in the directing style, the leader makes all decisions. However, this process contrasts with the first style, as employees are more actively included: decisions are explained, while the work is continually monitored. Feedback is also given on a continual basis, and employees are expected to learn from their work. All final decisions and responsibilities are with the leader, although employees are allowed to provide input (Chimaera Consulting Ltd, 1999). The argument against empowerment here is then that too many decision makers within a company could defeat the purpose of a company to act as a single entity. There would be no overall leadership paradigm, where a single entity could take the responsibility for any problems. Empowerment in this way would then undermine the collective purpose of the company to conduct their business in a single-minded and focused manner. 4. Leadership Style(s) that are related to the statement â€Å"WE practice empowerment since we don't expect our employees to leave their brains at the door†. Leadership styles that support the above statements include the delegating and supporting leadership styles. The paradigm behind these styles of leadership is, as mentioned above, to make full use of the inherent and creative brainpower of each employee for the benefit of the company. While the overall directive and responsibility for unity still lies with top management, leadership is seen to a great degree as a partnership rather than an unequal power relationship. The delegating style of leadership entails low directive as well as low supportive behavior. The leader provides each employee with tasks. The employee is then expected to carry these out individually, with responsibility, and with the minimum supervision. In this style, the ability of individuals to make critical decisions and carry out tasks unsupervised is recognized. Individuals are therefore empowered to make most decisions, because this leadership style recognizes their ability to do so. Low support means that monitoring is absent to a great degree, while employees are expected to implement their own thinking skills without necessarily first consulting the leader. Problems could arise when incorrect decisions are implemented. Nevertheless, the responsibility for such results then lie with the individual who made the decision, and not with the leader (Chimaera Consulting Ltd., 1999). The supporting leadership style entails low directive, but high supporting behavior. This means that employees are still empowered to make their own, self-reliant decisions, but that they are encouraged and given feedback while doing so. The risk of faulty decision making is lower, as supporting leaders take a more active role than delegating ones. Other behaviors included in this paradigm are collaborating and appreciating actions. Individuals are therefore empowered and recognized for their brain power, but also monitored and led more actively. 5. Situational Leadership and Empowerment. Situational leadership is seen as the new leadership style in order to optimize business practice and revenue. Not only employees, but also leaders, are empowered under this paradigm. Situational leadership means to incorporated whichever leadership style is most appropriate for particular situations. This is done by monitoring the development level of employees. Situational leaders recognized that not all employees may be ready at all times to receive full empowerment, and leadership styles are adjusted accordingly. It is furthermore recognized that development may cease or even regress, and once again leadership flexibility is of the highest importance (Chimaera Consulting Ltd., 1999). In terms of empowerment, situational leadership does not see this as the most important element of business. Although empowerment does play a powerful role, leaders recognize the changing nature of humanity, and adjust their leadership style accordingly. Employee development therefore plays a more important role than empowerment itself. Empowerment is only bestowed when employees are ready for it. Furthermore, the level of empowerment is carefully monitored in order to fit the development of the employee involved. If an employee is for example very developed in his or her assigned job situation, the delegation leadership style would be used. For employees just entering their profession on the other hand, a leadership style with a low empowerment level such as directive leadership would be used. Situational leadership therefore incorporates all of the leadership styles as it suits each particular situation. Flexibility rather than empowerment is the most important element in situational leadership. This requires continual monitoring of each employee situation within the company. Through situational leadership then, each employee is monitored for the maximum benefit of both employees and management.

Gmo Lab Report

Introduction During the course of this lab, we explored whether or not certain processed foods contained Genetically Modified Organisms. Genetically modified food is an important subject in the world today. Ever since Flavr Savr came out with their tomatoes grown from genetically modified seeds in 1994 genetically modified foods has become ever more popular amongst distributors of produce (Mestel, 2013). The world’s population has grown by around one billion in the last decade (US Bureau of the Census).At this rate, Genetically Modified Organisms within food products will increase dramatically, but is this for the best? There are many risk factors that have been brought up with genetically modified foods such as potential increase of cancer according to a French study conducted by Dr. Giles Eric Seralini (Kilham, 2012). Genetically modified food is a popular subject among scientists, as it has been researched quite often. A study was done in the Czech Republic over a course of five years (2002- 2007) to test many foods, such as tomatoes and rice, for approved and unapproved Genetically Modified Organisms.Similar to the experiment conducted in the botany lab, the scientists involved in this study used a Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR, method to determine their results (Kyrova, Ostry, Laichmannova, Ruprich, 2010). Enrico Dainese and his partners did another similar study, on soybeans specifically. Like our experiment conducted on the cornbread mix, Dainese and his colleagues followed their PCR results with an Agarose Gel Electrophoresis (Dainese, Angelucci, De Santis, Maccarrone and Cozzani, 2004).An additional experiment closely related to the one performed by my partners and I is a study done in Brazil to better detect for GMO within their foods sold in markets a other places (Cardarelli, Branquinho, Ferreria, da Cruz and Gemmule, 2005). These articles show how GMO within foods are present all over the world. The reason my fellow group members and mys elf are conducting this experiment is to test a sample of processed food (in this case cornbread mix) for any existence of Genetically Modified Organisms using PCR methods. We hypothesize that the cornbread mixture has been genetically modified and herefore will show that in the results. Materials and Methods The purpose of this experiment is to use PCR method to identify genetically modified foods. During the experiment we, as a group, tested a known non- GMO food sample, oatmeal, along with our cornbread mix. We first weighed out 0. 77 g of the non- GMO oatmeal. We then proceeded to add 3. 85 ml (5. 00 ml per 1. 00 g) of distilled water (DW) to the oatmeal and ground them together with a pestle. The same was done with 0. 99 g of the cornbread mix and 4. 95 ml of DW. We pipetted each of these into separate screw-cap tubes consisting of 500 l of an InstaGene solution.These we incubated and centrifuged for approximately 5 minutes each. We then took six PCR tubes and filled them each up, 2 with the non- GMO oatmeal mixture, 2 with the cornbread mixture and 2 with a known GMO positive substance. The Non- GMO and GMO positives served as controls for the experiment. One of each of the two tubes contained 20 l of plant MM and GMO MM. The PCR tubes were then placed in a thermal cycler and after this we did an agarose gel electrophoresis to provide us with the necessary data received from bands that should’ve shown up n the gel. ResultsEven though we had followed procedure and accurately mixed the correct amount and type of DNA and Master Mix together, as shown in Table 1, we ended up getting shocking results. Photos were taken of the final gel slab the morning of the experiment (Fig. 1) and that same afternoon (Fig. 2). There seemed to be very little signs, if any, of Genetically Modified Organisms within the cornbread mixture. TABLE 1. PCR Tube Contents: Tube Number| Master Mix| DNA| 1| 20 l Plant MM (green)| 20 l Non- GMO food control DNA| 2| 20 l GMO MM (re d)| 20 l Non- GMO food control DNA| | 20 l Plant MM (green)| 20 l test food DNA| 4| 20 l GMO MM (red)| 20 l test food DNA| 5| 20 l Plant MM (green)| 20 l GMO positive control DNA| 6| 20 l GMO MM (red)| 20 l GMO positive control DNA| FIGURE 1. GMO Morning (AM) Agarose Gel Electrophoresis results FIGURE 2. GMO Evening (PM) Agarose Gel Electrophoresis results Discussion: The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether or not a sample of an off-brand cornbread mix had contained Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). As a result, we determined that there were no GMO traces located in the cornbread mix.This could be due to mistakes that may have been made during the procedure such as poor measuring or mixing, misreading results, or the cornbread mix really was not made with genetically modified foods. These results disprove our hypothesis, which stated that we believed there would be GMO traces found within the cornbread mix. It was disappointing to see that we had a negative resul t while many of the other groups received bold lines on their arag gel indicating that their foods contained high amounts of GMO. I was glad to see that not all processed foods contain it though as in with the results of the Czech Republic study.Out of all the tomatoes and papayas they tested, not one had resulted in the detection of GMO traces (Kyrova, Ostry, Laichmannova, Ruprich, 2010). We knew that the gel was accurately detecting GMO traces in foods by using the GMO positive control. Also to back up our assumptions that the Agarose Gel Electrophoresis results are accurate, it is shown in Dainese’s, and other’s, work. He used this method of GMO detection in his study to show that this is an effective way of detecting GMO traces (Dainese, Angelucci, De Santis, Maccarrone and Cozzani, 2004).It is interesting to see how genecticall modified foods are not only in the US but also in the Czech Republic and even in Brazil markets, where Cardarelli and his associates looke d into Roundup Ready soybeans and checked other substances for GMO traces (Cardarelli, Branquinho, Ferreria, da Cruz and Gemmule, 2005). Though I was disappointed to get negative results, I am happy that there was a variety in GMO traces within the whole lab. I don’t know if we would have learned much if we all got positive results. It would cause us to just assume that all processed foods have been genetically altered.The other researchers’ results intrigued me as to how different they all were yet they were all about the same thing in a sense. This lab has helped me realize how GMO within foods is affective all around the world and doesn’t just mean that the food is bigger or tastier, but has been affected by chemicals, both good and bad. Literature Cited: Cardarelli, Paola; Branquinho R, Maria; Ferreria T. B. , Renata; da Cruz P, Fernanda; Gemmule L, Andre. 2005. Detection of GMO in food products in Brazil: the INCQS experience. Food Control. 16(10): 859-866. Dainese, E; Angelucci, C; De Santis, P; Maccarrone, M; Cozzani, I. 004. A multiplex PCR-based assay for the detection of genetically modified soybean. Analytical Letters. 37(6): 1139-1150. Kilham, C. What You Need To Know About GM Foods Is Half The Story. 2012 Dec. 07. Forbes Magazine. Kyrova, V; Ostry, V; Laichmannova, L; Ruprich, J. 2010. AN OCCURRENCE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODSTUFFS ON THE CZECH FOOD MARKET. Acta Alimentaria. 39(4): 387- 396. Mestel, R. 2013 Feb 23. Genetically modified foods: Who has to tell?. Los Angeles Times. US Bureau of the Census. Current Population Projections. 2013. www. census. gov.

Research project Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Research project - Case Study Example Manufacture and consumption of hard liquor poses a number of threats to the environment. Irresponsible disposing of wastewater can threaten the heath of immediate communities. Equally, this water when directed to water bodies can lead to the death of aquatic life and further contaminate such water making it unhealthy for domestic use (Grant & O’Connor 24). Additionally, emission of gases to the air can lead to formation of acid rain and consequently wilting of plants. Gases emitted during the manufacture of hard liquor can also contribute to global warming. When manufacture of hard liquor uses nonrenewable sources of energy, this can lead to environmental pollution because of waste materials from these sources. For instance, use of coal as a source of energy produces several solid wastes collectively referred to coal combustion waste. It is, therefore, important that companies manufacturing hard liquor adopt sustainable development policies such as use of renewable energy sour ces. Similar to other industries, the alcohol industry has both legal and social responsibilities. Among the legal responsibilities of this industry is environmental conservation. Under this responsibility, the alcohol industry is expected to address issues related with packaging, recycling, shipping, and water usage (Banco 1). Apart from environmental conservation, the industry is expected to address the issue of workers compensation, health, and general wellbeing. More critical to this industry probably is its social responsibilities. The industry’s social responsibilities stem mainly from the effects of unregulated alcohol consumption on the society. Consequently, the industry is expected to demonstrate its efforts toward addressing concerns such as drunk driving, domestic violence, alcoholism, and vandalism (Banco 1). Due to increased pressure by governments and the public, more companies in the alcohol industry are realizing

Predictiveness and the Level of Processing Research Paper

Predictiveness and the Level of Processing - Research Paper Example Once when the results are arrived at, there will be a clear difference in regard to response towards the predictive words of the people who participate in the experiment. Since this paper is all about Predictiveness, it is very important to know what the word predictive exactly means, according to the dictionary the word means foretelling or foreboding, to simply the same it is the ability to know something which has not happened, to be very precise it means to be able to know and forecast about something which has not happened previously. Our memory plays a key role in this process because human beings carry out many processes depending on their memory. According to Craik, "the longevity of the memory and its qualitative nature is purely dependent on the depth of processing." Memory does many processes and one of the most important processes is of remembering and it has some vital subdivisions such as attention, encoding, rehearsal and retrieval. It is believed that the durability of the memory depends on the functions of the depth of processing. Going by this statement it is believed that the deeper the functions of various processes which go on in human mind, sharper the memory. According to Koriat, Ben-Zur, &Sheffer, "older adults suffer from many problems related to their memory, some of the common problems are that they tend to forget names very easily because of the unfamiliar words which make up the names of the people, another problem is supposed to be that they fail to link information or in other words connect a sequence of events because of their memory." This paper will conduct research to prove that when people come across predictive words it becomes easier for them to anticipate and get the predictive words right, the performance of the memory in relation to the predictive words will be highlighted in the paper. The relation between Predictiveness and the level of processing will be arrived at the end of the paper. Method The whole concept can be better understood by conducting an experiment; the experiment involves 132 students of which 82 are females with a mean age of 19.8. The experiment conducted required the students to watch a power point presentation, which consisted of 40 sentences of which 20 sentences were predictive and the rest 20 were non-predictive. The series of the sentences was in random order to have better results from the experiment. The experiment showed the students the 40 sentences and the arrangement was such that the final word of the sentences was not shown to the students and they were asked to think about the final word. After sometime the sentences were shown with the final word and each sentence stayed on the screen for 2 seconds, which is a very short duration. Some examples of predictive sentences shown to the students are, she put the new picture into a frame, when the music started he asked her to dance and some of the examples of non- predictive sentences shown to t he students are, she went down town to see the new frame, she developed a severe headache at the dance. To get the results right, the predictive and t

Paul Brown Stadium Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Paul Brown Stadium - Essay Example The cost rose from $280 to an all inclusive costs of nearly $555 million (Albergotti & McWhirter). The county took out $1 billion in bonds to finance these projects. The county and its taxpayers are paying a hefty price for the bad decision that was made. In 2009 Hamilton County had to pay $34.9 million in costs related to the stadium deals which represent 16.4% of the county’s general fund. The normal cost to budget ratio in other counties that help finance stadiums is less than 2%. The county when the proposal was on the table exaggerated the economic benefits the new stadium would bring. Their absurd estimate was $300 million in benefits. These multi-million benefits never manifested. The stadium deal Hamilton County signed with the Bengals is considered the most lopsided deal in favor of a team in NFL history. It was a bad decision that will ruin the fiscal health of the county until the maturity date of the bonds. Currently 1 of 7 residents in Hamilton County is living be low the federal poverty line. 2) Who had ultimate responsibility for the problems? The person that is ultimately responsible for this debacle is the mayor of Hamilton County. He selected a team of three negotiators that acted as puppets of the Bengals. There was corruption and collusion in this deal evidenced by the fact that one of the negotiators, Bob Bedinghaus, joined the Bengals organization in 2001 as the team’s director of business development. The mayor should have never approved the project and he should have been the person negotiating the deal. He delegated a function that he is supposed to perform. Now the damage is done and the taxpayers of Hamilton County are paying a hefty price. That money that is being wasted paying for the expenses of billionaires could have been used to help a community that has 14.28% of its population living in poverty. Other political leaders in Hamilton County should have stepped in and spoke out against this move. Only a few political leaders spoke out against the deal. If the majority of the political leaders would have formed an alliance against issuing the bonds this whole fiscal mess would have never occurred. 3) Discuss the ethical implications of what occurred. This case study is an example of an ethical dilemma regarding governmental spending. The taxpayers are crying wolf now, but when the deal was signed thousands of fans were happy both teams stayed in Cincinnati. The Bengals deal was horrific. It does not make any sense why the county and its mayor approved such a lopsided deal. Hamilton County paid for the entire cost of building the new stadium, they have the Bengals a preferential lease agreement, they let the team keep all the parking revenues and the city is paying for all the securities costs. Hamilton County under any circumstance could not afford to pay for these stadiums themselves. They needed the help of other nearby counties, the city, and the state. They did not receive their support. It w ould have been better to let the Bengals go and keep the Reds in town. The Bengals deal was the deal breaker that destroyed the finances of Hamilton country for decades. 4) Are there any internal control issues to be addressed? A preliminary audit performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that there were insufficient financial controls by the project managers. The location move was a bad idea that increased the cost of the project by $70 billion. The contract could have had stipulation that mandated the stadium be

Nationalized Health Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nationalized Health Insurance - Essay Example hree major areas of concern: loss of health decision choices and lack of privacy, a decline in the quality of health care and the creation of new inequalities. Proponents of nationalized health insurance focus predominately on the issue of monetary savings. They claim that the cost of consumer products is reduced when health insurance is nationalized because savings made by employers who are no longer liable for their employees health insurance are passed on to consumers. In turn, this lowering of the cost of products ensures more local jobs for employees because companies are more able to compete in global trade. Supporters of nationalized health insurance also maintain that employees are more mobile because they are more confident and thus more able to change employment if they are no longer happy with one employer; they are also less hesitant in setting up their own business or company without the anxiety of losing their health insurance. In reality however, while these arguments may be acceptable in terms of monetary savings and mobility, other costs are heavier. Canada and Britain both have nationalized health insurance but with differences. Britain employs a ‘single-payer system’ and people are unable to avoid the system and use private insurers. The government covers all health care costs, with money coming from tax incomes. Patients are not required to pay for any services other than some small amounts towards optical and dental care and treatments bought on prescription. Most doctors and nurses are direct employees of the government and thus paid by the government (Tanner, 2008, p.31). Canada’s system is different to Britain’s in that responsibility is divided between ten provinces and two territories. In other words, the federal government and provinces cover all costs but medical staff are not direct employees of the government. Federal taxes pay for around sixteen percent of health care costs with the remainder covered by provincial taxes.

Market equilibrium Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Market equilibrium - Research Paper Example The law of supply suggests that if prices for commodities are high, then the supply of the commodity will rise. The supply will diminish if the prices go down. In this case, the price of the materials used for constructing houses will determine the supply. If the materials and land are at a low price, then more homes will be supplied (Salunke & Bagad, 2009). Taxes and subsidies will determine the quantities in the market. If there are expectations of price increase, suppliers are likely to withhold the commodities (Salunke & Bagad, 2009). The market theory suggests the presence of succinct information in the market. This is an indication that the information on the stock is visible to all investors (Salunke & Bagad, 2009). With the same information on commodities, the price available is an expectation of all purchasers. This aspect is suitable in equilibrating the market because it prevents tentative trade (Tucker, 2011). If the price of homes in the market is greater than that of equilibrium, amounts availed into the market become larger than those in demand. In this case, a surplus arises and leads to reduction of prices. With the prices below stability, amounts availed into the market become lesser than those inquired. A shortage occurs and leads to rise in prices of the commodity (Salunke & Bagad, 2009). In order to ensure equilibrium, buyers and sellers drop and raise the amounts of commodities and supplies to the extent of reaching stable prices where demand and supply are the same (Salunke & Bagad, 2009). If the demand for homes becomes too high, the supply increases and makes sellers reduce the prices. As the price drops, the supply diminishes and creates a need to raise prices. When the prices rise, demand reduces and supply increases. The process proceeds until there is market equilibrium (Tucker,

Business career of Sam Walton Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business career of Sam Walton - Research Paper Example In the same year, Walton paid $25,000 to the owners of the Ben Franklin stores for the rights to franchise the store. According to Tedlow (2001) Walton was inexperienced at running a business and he did not know what to do with a variety store. In fact, the only experience Walton had was from working retail at J.C. Penny’s (Brooks, 2012). Walton had paid too much for the store and was also paying too much for rent. Both of these issues could have meant failure for Walton but he did not fail. The first step for him was to go to a two week training program that was provided for franchise owners. Next, he studied his competition that happened to be across the street from him, and he read retail publications (Tedlow, 2001). He soon learned how to run the business, learned all the rules, and then found ways to break the rules that did not make sense to him. Walton was inspired by what he learned in retail and wanted something bigger. He also wanted to provide more value for his customers. He decided it was time to open a larger store, which became the first Walmart (Walton, 2012). Walton had backers until he decided to cut prices, and his backers felt this was not a good idea. He started Walmart with his own funds (Brooks, 2012). One of the reasons that Walton was successful was because in the early days, he cared about his employees and his customers. He realized that if he had lower prices than his competitors, he would have satisfied customers. He also realized if he treated his employees well and taught them how to take care of the customers, he would have successful employees and customers (Walton, 2012). By 1967, Walton owned 24 stores and was making $12.7 million in sales (Duke, 2012). In 1969, Walton incorporated Walmart and by 1970 they went public (Duke, 2012). Walton attributed the success of Walmart to his employees who were the ones who worked directly with the customers (Walton, 2012). In 1971, Walton opened his

Analyzing Cost of Capital 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Analyzing Cost of Capital 2 - Assignment Example The greatest advantage that one gets, in debt financing, is the maintenance of complete ownership of the business, in comparison to equity financing. It is of great importance to also note that, banks usually expect you to put up assets to back up loan, inform of security. These assets could include property, your personal investments, equipment or other tangible holdings that the bank could seize if you default on the loan (Pratt, 2010). Equity financing is especially very common among small business owners, because of the concerns they have about either qualifying for a loan or having to channel too much of their profits into repaying the loan. Investors and partners can provide equity financing, and they generally expect to get profits from their investments. Moreover, if no profit materializes, you aren’t obligated to pay back equity contributions. The major drawback of equity financing is that, you are no longer the full owner of a business once you have other financial contributors who expect a share. As such, you will be relinquishing not just financial control, but will no longer be the sole arbiter of the business’s creative and strategic direction (Plath, 2006). There are two main things to consider when working out the cost of capital: WACC, Weighted average cost of capital and the MCC, which is the marginal cost of capital. This basically is the comparison of how much of new capital is raised in comparison to what was injected at the start of the business. WACC on the other hand is basically the average rate of return a company expects to compensate all its different investors. The minimum return that a company must earn on its existing asset base to satisfy its creditors, owners, and other capital sources.It aims at measuring the capital discount of the company’s income and expenditure and it represents the

How to Describe Yourself Essay Example for Free

How to Describe Yourself Essay You could ask a hundred people to describe themselves and what they like least and most about themselves, and I bet you would get the same answer every time. People would say they are caring, sweet, loving, forgiving, nice, and respectful. The thing is though not everyone is what they say they are. Some people say they are forgiving but the still hold grudges and other may say they are truthful but tell that one white lie. So how can I describe myself to you? I would have to start with being honest about who I really am. I would describe myself as being honest, caring, loving, nurturing, forgiving, and a lot of other things. But I am not completely honest or completely loving or forgiving, no human being is. I tell that one white lie every now and again like: no that top looks great on you, or no you don’t look fat in those jeans. And to say that I am completely loving is not true either. There are some things I hate in life such as: tomatoes, bad hair days, and snow. Finally to say that I am forgiving would be a lie, I hold grudges longer than most people, and if you cross that certain line there’s no coming back and there is no forgiveness for you. So to say I am completely truthful, loving or forgiving would be a lie in itself. The qualities I would like to see flourish and whither about myself are the same qualities everyone has. I would like to see my bad habits of biting nails, or eating when I’m bored to wither away. But some of my best qualities I would like to see grow and expand are, being caring, putting others before myself, or helping someone in need whether my needs are more important or not. This entire thing comes back to what I describe myself as and how I really am. Some qualities about myself I want gone in a second but others I wouldn’t trade for the world. It all depends on how you view yourself. The qualities I like about myself the most are the fact that I can overlook whatever a person has done in their life and still see the good in them that’s trying to break free. Also no matter when or where if someone needs help and I know I can help them I will do it no matter what the cost. On the other hand the qualities I don’t like about myself are just like everyone else’s. I don’t like that fact that I have low self-esteem, or that I don’t have the same characteristics of other people. Also I don’t like that I sometimes judge a person just by looking at them and then I have my mind made up. But these are the qualities that make us human. Over all everyone has a good and bad quality about themself, no matter what race, religion, ethnic background ,everyone has something in common and that is the thing that makes us unique and separates us from each other. I wouldn’t trade any of my best characteristics or my good qualities. I would however change some of my bad qualities, or at least try to improve them. I as a human being have my ups and downs and have my flaws but that’s what makes me so special and so unique. So asking me to describe myself as a human being is really a trick question because it’s all a matter of my own opinion mixed with how the world sees me.

Child development and social learning theories

Child development and social learning theories The three theories that I want to talk about are social learning theory, psychoanalytic theory, and psychosocial theory. These are three theories that have related to me in so many ways. However, there were also quite a few discussion questions, which related to some of my experiences in life. Throughout this course, I also will talk about what have learned taking this course. One assignment being experiential learning this assignment made me think about what I have accomplished and different experiences that I have a lot through over the years with my family and how I am raising my children Child development focuses on sciencetific studies and processes of stability in human children. There are many changes that children go through during development or being domains of development that consist of physical,cognitive,and psychosocial development. Psychical development is a child that may have problems with development of their motor skills, for example, a child that may not learn how to walk until they are two years old. Cognitive development a child whom has problems with speaking around others may have tendencies of being shy. Psychosocial a child that may have low self-esteem and social acceptance, these three domains are very important during child development that is why it is very important what children see and do during these stages this has a major affect on their lives. Influences on development There are many different influences on children many influences come from heredity are culture, race, and religon. The environment is also a major influence on children being raised in poverty can have a big influence on children most children think beyond and in their adult lives they become successful and many children settle for less and continue to live their lives in poverty. Culture has a lot to do with influence for example Jehovah witnesses they do not celebrate many holidays and being a child raised around this type of environment will look at the world with different perspectives. Basic theoretical issues However, basic theoretical issues many children are active and passive in their development. The English professor John Locke held that a young child is a tabula meaning blank slate at how they look at society. Children have their own internal drives and needs that influence development there are five major perspectives and theories of child development. Psychoanalytic learning, cognitive, contextual, and evolutionary, this considers evolutionary and biological underlings of how a child behaves. Psychoanalytic Psychoanalytic are views development of the unconscious forces that motivate human behavior that is referred to as psychoanalysis. The unconscious mind lies outside vague and boundaries of consciousness these things are too painful to remain in the conscious part of the mind. That are considered as repressions this is the egos defense mechanism. this could be many different things that people are unaware of these are thing that lead to serious mental behaviors in my earlier discussion question I said that these are things that trigger OCD patients they are so used to doing things like washing of the hands so much they are unaware that they are doing it too much. According to Freud2008, the ego is an aspect of the subject that emerges from the id that are biological, inherited, and unconsciousness of sexual drives and irrational impulses. The ego also develops the ids acceptation with the world. The stages of child development would include super ego is placing rules and demands of re ality. The ego demands both the id and the superego that may be called constructive acceptance that are demands made both by id and super ego these are important to mental health. Self identity and gender identity are also important stages the child realizes to identify them self of who they are and who they are going to be gender identity would be the child would be the child realizing if they are boy are a girl they are developing of self concept. Psychosocial crisis at different stages of development Crisis that develops at this stage of development would be depression the child has to much pressure to meet certain expectations and feeling to overwhelmed or the child has permissive parents that have made the child feel ashamed about what he or she is supposed to be doing. Low self-esteem child has no self worth about what he or she are doing they may also have identity crisis not really knowing who they are in this world. This is the main reason why we have so many children that commit suicide it is very important that we show our children love and support no matter what they may be doing in during this stage of development this will matter as they grow into adults. Social learning theory However,learning is very important during child development this learning comes from observing others behavior. Social learning is a transition between learning theories and cognitive learning theories. Observational learning is learning by choosing models to imitate when a child has watched someone do something for instance, my daughter has watched me fold the linen over the years now she helps me fold this is because she has learned from watching me since she has been a baby. Observational learning is very important this is a very critical time in a childà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s life they want to learn and do everything possible. Bandura makes a distinction between learning through observation and imitation of what has been learned. There are four conditions that are used before a person can model behavior paying attention being able to remember having the ability to replicate and motivation being able to show what they have learned throughout the observation process. Modeling behavior Modeling teaches new behaviors influences frequencies and encourages many different behaviors. Self efficiency plays a big role in learning the child has to be able to believe in themselves in order to have confidence to succeed towards the learning process this affects behavior because if they do not believe in their self they will not feel successful in doing certain activities. Self-regulation is also important this is when one has their own ideas of choosing what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior setting standards and goals. Self-instructions are strategy that teaches learners instructions to guide their behavior this would be cognitive modeling, external guidance, selfguidance, and self-instruction. Associative learning, and Psychosocial tools Associative learning are two kinds of learning operant conditioning, and classical conditioning classical conditioning being would be fearing something this fear would be from something that has happened to someone for instance a tornado if you have experienced something like this every time you hear strong wind this can make you become fearful that another tornado may hit. Operant conditioning would be for example, if a child is rewarded for good behavior in school, it is most likely that the child will always show good behavior to receive rewards. Classical conditioning is a natural process of learning different from operant conditioning this learning involves voluntary behavior learning from consequences. Cognitive learning theory Cognitive learning focuses on the thought process and a behavior that reflects on these processes J Piaget (1896-1980) described to processes used by the individual in its attempt to adapt assimilation and accommodation. Both of these processes are used in life as the person increasingly adapts to the environment. Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the environment and placing them in to structures. There are four stages of development in cognitive development the sensiormotor stage this is a period of development when thie child demomstrates activities and knowledge of the world. Pre-operational stage is when the child demonstrates the usage of the memory and imagination. Operational stage is when the child shows actions that can be reversed. Formal operational stage the child begins to use egocentric thoughts intelligence is demonstrated. At this stage of development it is very important that we challenge our children ablilities during this developmental stage. Infromation processing Information is a process that explains cognitive development by analyzing the mental processes that are involved in perceiving and handling information. This processs consist of usage of the brain. Vygotskys(2008) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ theory says that the brain is similar to the computer.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  This approach helps researchers to estimate the intelligence of a child. Different studies are put into place to see how much data can be stores in the brain. This is put into place to study and to put a handle on the conscious an uncouncious parts of the memory for example, the child memory is very difrrent from the adult memory for instance there is generic memory that comes from remembering basic routines that a child may do on a daily basis. Script would be from repeated or familiar events that take placethis could be a family gathering. Episodic memory are longterm memories this is a family vacation. Autobiographical memorys are events that take place in a persons life that have spec ial meaningthis could be a memory that had negative affects on the child and is always remembered because of that. Memories have a lot to do with information processing if a child is unable to remember this can affect the way that they learn, and also affect the developmental process. My experience taking this course This course has taught me a lot about child development new things that I have never thought about before. I will be able to utilize these new skills when I am done with this course. For instance, you think about things that may be going on in your everyday life you also a good understand about child development, experiential learning was one of my favorite assignments. For example, experiential learning for me is the best way to learn I am the kind of person that if you show me something one time I take it and run with it. I also enjoyed talking about Psychoanalytic perspective I learned from this perspective that there are th ings that people do on a daily basis without even realizing that this is being done this has a lot to do with the unconscious part of the brain.