Friday, August 30, 2019

O’Grady Apparel Company Essay

Analyzing Risk and Return on Chargers Products’ Investments Junior Sayou, a financial analyst for Chargers Products, a manufacturer of stadium benches, must evaluate the risk and return of two assets, X and Y. The firm is considering addng these assets to its diversified asset portfolio. To assess the return and risk of each asset, Junior gathered data on the annual cash flow and beginning-and end-of-year values of each asset over the immediately preceding 10 years, 1997-2006. These data are summarized in the table below. Junior’s investigation suggests that both assets, on average, will tend to perform in the future just as they have during the past 10 years. He therefore believes that the expected annual return can be estimated by finding the average annual return for each asset over the past 10 years. Junior believes that each asset’s risk can be assessed in two ways: in isolation and as part of the firm’s diversified portfolio of assets. The risk of the assets in isolation can be found by using the standard deviation and coefficient of variation of returns over the past 10 years. The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) can be used to assess the asset’s risk as part of the firm’s portfolio of assets. Applying some sophisticated quantitative techniques, Junior estimated betas for assets X and Y of 1.60 and 1.10, respectively. In addition, he found that the risk-free rate is currently 7% and that the market return is 10%.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

An Analysis of the Categories of Qualitative Research Methods Used By the Coca-Cola Company

An Analysis of the Categories of Qualitative Research Methods Used By the Coca-Cola Company Numerous organization have used organizational development techniques to achieve organizational effectiveness. According to Najmin (2012), organizational effectiveness makes use of applied psychology to bring change to different aspects of the organization. Such elements include culture, management styles, as well as communication techniques in a business. Similar techniques apply to Coco Cola Company that have had poor use of its staff leading to high employees’ turnover. Moreover, the company had little innovative strategies until lately when there has been a change in the soft drinks market driven by sensitive health companies. Accordingly, the company requires organizational development interventions that would enable it to achieve higher levels of effectiveness. Given that, research reviews other researchs on organizational development as well as an evaluation of other organizations that have used OD interventions to achieve organizational effectiveness. The current research will make use of three qualitative research methods to capture relevant data that will help identify the best OD interventions that Coco Cola might use. First, the study will interview executives, middle-level managers, and general level employees of organizations such as JetBlue and Google that have had successful OD interventions at their workplace with permission from the top executives. During the interviews, I will record respondent’s responses into a paper and after that into computer files for analysis purpose. Moreover, there will be an option for over-the-phone interviews or busy managers that I will record and store in a computer in an electronic format. Secondly, I will use questionnaires to reach general-purpose employees on their view of their organization’s OD interventions. Lastly, I will obtain information from secondary sources such as peer-reviewed Journals and textbooks to decipher the best interventions applicable to Coco Cola In c. The research had four central hypothesis. First, interventions that were successful in other organizations are relevant at Coco Cola Inc. Most OD interventions apply to numerous organizations, as they tend to target human behavior as an agent of organizational change. Consequently, interventions that worked in other agencies could also work for Coco Cola Company. Secondly, the research would establish that the top management had significant influence on the success of the OD interventions. According to Najmin (2012), most ineffective organizations have weak leadership. As such, the top leadership has to change so that junior employee can follow in their steps. Moreover, through evaluation of other researchs on organizational development interventions, it would be possible to find interventions that would work for Coco Cola Company. Most of the researchs under evaluation had evaluated interventions from different companies working in various part of the world. The findings would offer invaluable insight to the type of interventions that would work for Google given it is a multinational company. Lastly, the paper anticipates finding that some interventions are only effective to certain companies while non-applicable to others. For instance, interventions applicable to Apple Inc. might not apply to Coco Cola Inc. since the two firms operates in different industries hence serving customers with different needs. I conducted two interviews in different places. The first one was at Facebook Inc. at its Menlo Park, California Headquarters. The interview was on 16th of October 2015 from 11 am. During the discussion, three middle-level managers and five junior employees gave their responses. The interview had the permission of the company’s vice president making the process very smooth. Moreover, the employees were very free to share with a student. A week later, I conducted another interview at JetBlue headquarters in Long Island City, New York. The interview was on 23rd October 2015 from 9 am. Due to its great organizational development interventions key to the research, five senior managers, and ten middle-level managers gave their responses. Moreover, ten junior employees also gave their answers. There were several comments from the qualitative research. First, the respondents from both companies seemed eager to share different interventions applied in their organizations and the favorable change that came afterward. My interpretation was that the interviewees felt the pleasure of sharing a success story of positive change in their organization’s life due to OD interventions. Secondly, respondents in both cases decried the high level of resistance emanating from managers during induction of OD interventions. My interpretation was that most managers felt they were losing some power since most OD interventions require managers to collaborate with junior workers to realize the company’ goals. Lastly, I noted the warm relationship between junior employees and their managers in both companies. Najmin (2012) indicates that OD interventions promote collaboration between managers and their juniors. As such, I interpreted the cordial relationship between different levels in the companies as the fruits of successful application of OD interventions that are making the companies efficient. The qualitative research supports my thesis statement in different ways. The thesis statement of my paper is to find various OD interventions applicable to Coco Cola Company. As such, the qualitative research assists in identifying interventions that have worked in other companies and are the applicable to Coco Cola Inc. case. Moreover, it offers insight to some of the challenges that Coco Coal might have to encounter as it endeavors to achieve effectiveness using OD interventions. Such information would be imperative in helping the company design contingency plans. Qualitative research make is essential as it uses theoretical frameworks to provide accurate conclusions. From the research, companies such as JetBlue and Facebook have used OD interventions to achieve effectiveness. Such responses offer an insight to the type of interventions that Coco Cola might adopt to realize efficiency.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Object Choice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Object Choice - Term Paper Example Hence the difficulty of relating to other people is likely to lead to uncertainty. The relationship between the drive and objects results from the inside pressure of the organism and the corresponding nee. It is by this relationship that the aim is achieved. The valuable thing is the element of the drive and therefore not fundamentally connected to the drive but has to be constructed. An object does not need to be uncommon but should be anything that is vulnerable to human soul including his body through object human soul and narcissistic. Freud described a sequence of pre-genital stage, that is more understood as defined by the component drives than the genetically terms. Contentment of each part was connected to anal, oral, and phallic. The idea of part object exists in partial drive. The choice of the object therefore unifies the sexual yearning in genetic factors, and orients to others do not occur until puberty. The drive that specifically relates to the part or total object, a part of a person or a whole person, and to total object i.e. love or hatred are clearly differentiated. An object is renowned as a source of pleasure and love which are converted into an ego in the Narcissistic stage (Roussillon 42). In Freud’s, points out that hate and love should not be referred as drives for their objects but reversed for the relationship with the total ego of objects. Therefore, the choice of an object refers to the love object and not the drive object (Mitchell). In ego libido as opposed to object libido as referred by Freud, the object appearance is expressed in terms of limited sense of the external part of an object, which does not involve the ego. Moreover, it vividly emerge that he concentrates on psychological and intra-psychological theory. Roussillon analysis of Freud’s Anaclisis theory in chapter eight required more from self-preservation than is crucial from the object (Roussillon 232). The child was

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Managed Care Overview Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Managed Care Overview - Assignment Example The members can change the providers by filling the form and submitting it to the HMO. IPA, on the contrary, provides assistance to HMO by way to legally contracting with physicians to provide their services to its members. PPO provides a network of physicians that is accessible to the HMOs or IPAs to connect with and charge a fee for it. POS is an upgraded plan that has elements of each of HMO, IPA and PPO. However, it is flexible as the members are allowed to use the services or move to another choice of service. PFFS is a combination of managed care and health insurance. They include a large number of physicians and hospitals and they are all paid for their services. The member however, has to choose the plan they want depending upon their needs and budget. HMO is more traditional and has set rules as it is based on Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973. IPA and PPO both work as network providers to HMO members. POS and PFFS both are flexible plans in terms of budget plans to its members. The managed indemnity plan also now includes managed care in the shape of certifications to the admissions in non-emergency situations as well as utilization reviews. The patient can take a second opinion in case of doubt by informing the provider and making a formal request for it if it is included in the grievance policy (‘USAMCO’, 2013). The insurance card requires particulars of the applicant, any licenses or previous attachment with any provider, health related certifications and identity proofs through mail. In case a provider wants to quit the service of providing access to managed care to the members, it can under the HMO Act, 1973 file the related form and request for closing the provision of service (‘FAQ’, 2013). In PFFS, the providers make payment to physicians once the service has been provided. A formal letter detailing the problem that provider is not accepting the guidelines or

Monday, August 26, 2019

Negative or Bad News Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Negative or Bad News - Assignment Example At this point of time, we cannot hand over speakership to Ms Rivera because her technology is different from what we want to highlight in this session of Annual Conference. So we can say that specifically we have to refuse Ms Rivera about her request. It might be possible that Ms Rivera will think that we do not value our working relationships. She may also feel that her sacrifices for our company had no worth at all. She will feel down and negative about the company because she is very much willing to promote her latest technology in the High Tech Annual Conference. It can be expected that Ms Rivera will not be on the same good terms after this refusal just because we are not agree to give her company the speakership of the Annual Conference. In our case, the primary audience is Maribel Rivera, the owner of another manufacturing company who is supporting our company and this Annual Conference from last 8 years. She is always there for handling any problem. She even took the responsibility of a presentation at the last moment when one of our presenters refused to take part in the conference in the last years’ conference. It may be possible that this message will put a negative effect on our good and sound relationships. In addition to it, it is also possible that she will not attend our Annual Conference for the appreciation of technology. In order to minimize the negative impact of the message, it is quite necessary to communicate the actual reason of refusal of request in a sugarcoated manner, so that the working partner may not feel bad for it. We need to inform them about the main idea of the High Tceh Annual Conference of this year i.e. we are focusing on the Robotics and Technological interventions in medical fields. Another highlight should be the purpose of grabbing the national and international media attention. We can also tell her that if she would participate in the conference then it is quite possible that her technology is

Managerial decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managerial decision making - Essay Example A hallmark of today's business environment is its chaotic nature. This chaos is rooted in unprecedented rates of change and high levels of complexity. In turn, rapid change and effective decision-making create an environment of high risk in which decision makers possess little certainty about what the future holds. They perceive events through opaque lenses and base their decisions on large measures of speculation and only small doses of certainty. A large part of the complexity of today's projects is tied to the variety of options facing all project players, from project managers to team members to customers. Naturalistic decision making helps managers to understand how decision are made in complex situations, uncertainty and changing conditions.Research and understanding of naturalistic decision making helps organizations to interpret cognitive functions and improve their everyday performance. Following Cannon-Bowers et al 1996: "There is no doubt that the overriding strength of th e NDM perspective on decision making research is its focus on how decisions are made in complex, real-world environments" (p. 193). Managers do not always remember and thus learn from their mistakes, because they do not realize they have made mistakes. A naturalistic decision making gives managers means to disengage themselves from a particular situation, from its narrative, from one's roles, and from a dominating conceptual scheme. Effective application and understand of naturalistic decision making enables one to assess one's situation, to evaluate present and new possibilities, and to create decisions that are not parochially embedded in a restricted context or confined by a certain point of view. Naturalistic decision making takes into account ethical theory but not abstractly (Flin 1996). In complex environment, naturalistic decision making is crucial for organizational behavior and effective performance. This is because in the first instance ethics has to do with human relationships and human activities, not with abstract formal principles. It generates conclusions from that particular set of events, taking into account not merely the situation but its narrative and the set of mental models or conceptual schemes that frames these events. Naturalistic decision making and cognitive processes are essential to get one from a particular situation to a more disengaged perspective (Bazerman 1995). It is often argued that human beings are motivated primarily by self-interest; in business, managerial or corporate self-interest, sometimes even greed, accounts for questionable and even egregious behavior. Moreover, none of us is perfect, so in large companies there are bound to be errors of judgment. Other explanations also attempt to account for these events and their perpetra tors (Flin 1996). It is then sometimes argued that social, political, and legal institutions, along with the corporate culture and the particular roles and role responsibilities of the managers and companies in question, create a causal nexus that constrains what might consider morally appropriate behavior and often precludes the consequential avoidance of harm. In contrast to traditional decision-making, "Under naturalistic decision making a similar emphasis on task complexity has not been made explicit. In fact, attention to factors that contribute to decision complexity, and how decision makers cope with these, must be examined more fully if the definition of core NDM features is to be fully realized" (Cannon-Bowers et al 1996, p. 193). Following naturalistic decision making approach, organizations and managers understand that acting in one's own interest where one's well-being is the object as well as the subject of action does not necessarily exclude taking into account the interests of others, for those interests are almost always necessary to achieve success. Third, acting in one's own self interests in either sense is not necessarily evil. One must be careful to distinguish not only the quality of the action itself and

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Data analyses & Findings Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Data analyses & Findings - Dissertation Example However, student response rate was poor even though they had been informed of the purpose of the research. Anonymity too was assured but due to reasons unknown to the researcher, the students were not too willing to participate in the study. The findings from the survey are presented separately and then the interview findings is discussed and compared along with relevant theories. Some of the important data from the survey has been presented in the form of bar charts for convenience of understanding. The interview finding is not presented separately as there was just one interview taken. 4.2 Student Survey Questionnaires Distributed: 250 Responses received: 23 Response Rate: 8% It must be noted that 8% is considered a poor response rate. 4.2.1 Marketing efforts of the College The first set of responses reveals the marketing efforts made by the college. Student demographics Out of the 23 responses received, the highest number of students is from Nigeria (17%) but countries such as Ind ia, China and Pakistan too have a strong presence (Chart I). Chart I Country of Origin Source of information Students have cited different sources of information but an equal weightage has been found for recommendation from ex-students, word-of-mouth from friends or relatives and many have even come to know of the college through overseas seminars conducted by the college (Chart II). A very small percentage of respondents have obtained information through the internet. Chart II Source of information Various reasons have been cited for selecting this particular college. Almost 37% of the respondents selected the college because of the affordable fees while other prominent reasons include recommendation from others, reputation and the courses on offer (Chart III). Some have decided to study at this college because there were representatives of the college in their own country (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka). In fact 91% of the respondents have found the fees affordable and the others t hat did not find it affordable, opted for the college because of support in visa process. The college does not offer scholarships and despite this, students have decided to study at this college. This only demonstrates that fees are affordable as has been admitted by 91% of the respondents. Chart III Factors influencing college selection College website Eighty three percent of the respondents accessed the college website to gather information although only 61% were satisfied with the available information (Chart IV). Many (22%) were not satisfied with the information and details on hostel accommodation, faculty, and overview of London and college life in general, were found to be lacking. However, some even found that course details and affiliations with universities helped them decide for this college. Chart IV Information through website 4.2.2 Student experience during and after the admission process Many students (39%) faced immigration and visa problems. People from countries su ch as India, Nigeria, Philippines, Pakistan and Mongolia faced problems. They all found the process very lengthy and involving too much of paper work. They found it ‘painfully complicated’ and ‘time-consuming’. Upon arrival also only 61% of the respondents admitted that their expectations were met. The others faced problems as they were not allotted accommodation