Work-Life balance in Emirates Group Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Work-Life balance in Emirates Group - Essay Example This implies a point of equipoise or stability between two equally demanding things – in this case, work life and family life. People have a natural inclination to seek challenge and achievement as much as the desire to enjoy family relationships and the leisurely company of other people they have an affinity for. WLB is now considered as one of the most important qualities of the workplace, second only to the pay rate, because the physical and psychological stability of workers and employees directly impact on the performance of business firms. The usefulness of WLB in enhancing the operations of firms has been the topic of many academic researches, with varying outcomes. WLB has been known to impact positively on workers’ levels of job satisfaction and morale, reduce stress in both work and family life, enhanced organisational efficiency and effectiveness, and reduction in problems experienced in both areas (Kumar & Chakraborty, 2013). As beneficial as WLB sounds, the practice, while gaining legitimacy as a general principle, has received less than enthusiastic response at the execution level. WLB has not been effectively implemented in many organisations; the causes were determined in a survey conducted by Kumar & Chakraborty (2013), some of which are as follows: Negative or indifferent attitude on the part of top management Lack of faith of supervisors in the effectiveness of WLB benefits Uncertainty and reluctance among employees in adopting WLB in their work schedules Stringent work schedules Dictatorial behaviour of supervisors and top management, and their refusal to plan out flexible work schedules Unavailability and inaccessibility of WLB tools and techniques for workers to implement flexible work schedules. Unsupportive organisational culture for the implementation of WLB Bureaucratic procedures and delay in the formulation and execution of WLB policies and practices. Poor structural framework of the planned WLB programme Inconsistency in infrequency of interaction between management and workers in order to assimilate WLB as a transformative element in organisational life. The foregoing enumeration of impediments to what should be an effortless adoption of WLB is evident in many companies, and will likely continue to pose obstacles to its implementation. According to Smith (2010), however, each succeeding generation of workers tend to come to a greater understanding and acceptance of WLB, thus as they advance in the organization into the supervisory and managerial levels it is expected that the attitude of management towards WLB will also eventually change. So far, what has not appeared to be evident to management is the strategic usefulness of WLB as a competitive advantage, in terms of improved quality of work, improved job performance, ethical decision-making and long-term job satisfaction (Smith, 2010). Four areas for flexible work or leave arrangements Industrial Relations Victoria (IRV), a government sub-uni t under the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, is tasked with monitoring industrial relations in the State’s public and private sectors, and with supporting innovations to address the increasingly competitive business environments without engendering additional industrial (IRV, 2013). According to the IRV, a compilation of the research of several government agencies have identified 27 model family friendly clauses that were directly included in various collective agreements. The 27 clauses (which represented the best practices in the industry) may be classified into four based on their nature and subject. They are as follows Services – This refers to the provision of service options by the employer organisation for the

Responding to Groupthink and Faulty Reasoning at NASA Case Study - 6

Responding to Groupthink and Faulty Reasoning at NASA - Case Study Example From this paper it is clear that if group members have doubts but lack appropriate evidence to support their position, their doubts and concerns should still be communicated to authorized personnel who have the competencies and qualifications to evaluate the matter and substantiate whether there are valid support for the doubts. The important thing is that the concern has been effectively communicated and relayed to higher authorities.  The reporter stresses   "if I were head of NASA, I would have launched a rescue shuttle in as far as I am confident that the second shuttle would not meet the same fatal accident regarding the first foam strike that happened with Columbia. I would also solicit as much information as evidently possible to determine alternative courses of action where the Columbia crew could make it back to Earth as innovatively possible.   As indicated, NASA has followed these steps to change its culture and to resist groupthink: safety worries are encouraged to be communicated and are not out rightly dismissed; teams of engineers conduct simulations on diverse scenarios to assist in addressing problems and concerns; cross-checking of interventions, suggestions and recommendations from one team of engineers are validated by another group of engineers from a different research center to avoid group think and to encourage taking diverse perspectives; worst case scenarios are proactively established including establishment of contingency plans in these situations. If these changes and activities are continued to encourage innovative thinking, the agency could indeed continue with its progress. Progress could be slow at first but it is always better to be slow than sorry. "

Personal Leadership Development Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Personal Leadership Development Plan - Essay Example As is basic for these groups, I might be working in moderately little, cross-utilitarian assemblies with others, on the whole working a little set of records. Inside that group, my particular obligations could extend from City Manager, City Planner, Government Manager, Non-Profit Manager, Executive Assistant, or Chief of Administration, all of which I have experience finishing now through my different employments, volunteers, internships, and grounds associations. Imperative authority aptitudes in aggregations of the sort incorporate high assignment introduction, capacity to oblige and team up both remotely with the customers and inside the group, and the ability to boost bunch effectiveness through fitting undertaking division. While the examination of my outcomes from the collection of overviews and evaluations will offer a more definite dissection of how my current qualities play into or challenge those obligations, I feel that I to a great extent have a solid premise in those mea surements with evident room to develop and enhance later on. In general, I observe that I am a legit and minding diligent employee who values productivity and close flawlessness. Not just do I accept that these are critical models throughout my life, I observe that I proclaim these characteristics to others, on occasion setting a bar excessively high for any other person to arrive at. While I value the general capacity to be both strongly meticulous and for the most part minded, I do periodically become involved with the particulars of an assignment, staggering to demand that everything is executed simply right. Humorous in view of the extent to which I get a kick out of the chance to arrange things, I get amazing delight and fervor from spontaneity, maybe due to its irregularity. All the more formally, I have wide arriving at abilities, running from different sorts of managerial

Community Impact And Practice Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Community Impact And Practice - Research Paper Example Reflective practice as a concept has been extensively used as applied to education for a considerable amount of time. Its success in education has seen it being adopted by health workers and other professionals over time. This has played a pivotal role in causing reflective practice to become widely regarded as being one of the key defining features marking competence. There are a number of different Reflective Practice models available and their use and applicability is seen to be largely varied from one organization or writer to the next one (Smith and Roberts, 2011). The different models of reflective practice in use have caused what is understood to be reflective practice to be quite different within a number of different disciplines and intellectual traditions. It is now quite common to find a number of multiple and contradictory understandings of what exactly are reflective practice within the very same discipline. ... In addition to the examination of the assumptions made in everyday practice, Engaging in reflective practice is also seen to generally involve causing the individual practitioner to become self-aware and resort to critically evaluating their very own responses to the practice situations. The main objective of this is to attempt to recapture practice experiences and subsequently mull them over so as to be able to gain relevant new understandings and consequently be in a general position to improve future practice. 1.1.1 Importance of Reflective Practice Reflective practice is generally promoted as being a key element in the general delivery of effective services to the rather diverse populations of children, infants and families. Reflective practice has been touted as improving the engagement with clients as well as aiding practitioners in seeing a number of strengths and differences that they might normally not be able to perceive (cacenter-ecmh.org 2013). It helps individuals access the â€Å"how† of how things are supposed to be done and includes both the unspoken and spoken processes. Reflective practice has been variously described as being the bridge from theory to practice (Hirst, 2005) as it offers processes that aid its various practitioners in taking concepts that they happen to believe and know and effectively apply them to the myriad real-life situations that are normally seen to be fraught with complexity. 1.1.2 Reflective Practice in the Enhancement of CPD and PDP The population changes seen to be affecting most of Europe and the United States that have mainly resulted in an increasingly aging workforce and ever decreasing pool of highly qualified professional talent is seen to be critically affecting the modern day workforce. It is

Internet Culture Is a Good Thing for Pop Culture Research Paper

Internet Culture Is a Good Thing for Pop Culture - Research Paper Example These communications are either formal, informal or for purposes of entertainment. Although internet use is yet to hit all countries in the world, it registers significant influence on many modes of lifestyle either directly or indirectly. Indeed, internet use has no age restrictions, is largely accessible, is authoritative, and comes at a reasonable price. Internet culture emanates from the use of  computer networks for entertainment and the study of various social phenomena associated with the internet like online games, social media, and online communities (Hermeking Web). Pop culture famously known as popular culture is the combination of all perspectives, ideas, and attitudes that deviate from the common culture in the society (Danesi 1-7). It concurs with the Western culture of the early to mid-20th century and that of the late 20th and early 21st century. It involves the aspects of social life that are more dominant in the public. It is indeed, defined by social interactions between people in their everyday activities in form of styles of dress, the use of slang, greeting rituals and the foods that people eat (Philosophy Now Web). It demonstrates a lot of influence from the media and as such by internet culture. In the past, pop culture spread through print, radio, movies, or television. However, the impact of media like television and radio is decreasing at big rate following the emergence of the internet culture, which is taking over the spread of pop culture. Indeed, there is a direct correlation between internet culture and pop culture with pop culture drawing many benefits from internet culture. Internet culture contributes to changes in civic engagement in the USA (University of California, Berkeley Web). It can equally function as a space of new divisions of labor between civil society organizational actors and lay activists. One of the most important elements of internet that greatly supports pop culture is the ability to download files. Undeni ably, pop music, trends, and cultural events can seep to a large pop population through massive sharing of files. For instance, it is possible for pop fans to download music videos immediately their favorite artists release them. Additionally, internet makes it possible for pop artists to participate on pop culture activities without having to be physically present. For instance, thousands of artists are able to participate in real time when special pop culture events are held. Actually, the remarkable increase in internet penetration and high speeds makes streaming possible and therefore, able to stream videos as pop events happen. This has been a great boost to pop culture, which has also recorded a remarkable shift to internet interaction. One important thing about internet culture that makes it important to pop culture is its contribution the fast spread of pop lifestyle. Pop lifestyle, especially trends in dressing, are able to reach many people simultaneously and instantaneous ly. Ideally, internet has also been a platform in which, pop culture has also been able to disseminate to different parts of the world. This has been a boost to increased adoption of pop culture to many people across the world. The use of the internet have in a big way led to the spread of more information on pop culture as many people can now access this information over the internet with ease and no restrictions. However, pop culture does not necessarily depend on

Why Do Many People Choose to Illegally Download Music Essay Example for Free

Why Do Many People Choose to Illegally Download Music Essay Maybe it is all to do with the possibility at each one of us has purchased and album or a c.d. in the past with high expectations of it being all great, only to be completely let down and left un-impressed with your latest  £15 Investment which you and i both believe that is worth much less . Maybe then â€Å"steeling† that artists next album by downloading it for free from many different sources scattered across the internet is your way of letting them know of your frustration. If you dont like it , you have no loss i guess ! Should we be paying for music, still? The more I think about it, the more I question it all. But there is one thing I don’t question, as it is fact: when I get music and don’t pay for it, nobody but myself benefits. I am the only one coming out ahead. Ive paid nothing for what i have got. I’ve acquired something for nothing. Did I just steal? Is it stealing if I can justify to myself that it isn’t? Is stealing even wrong anymore? In this moderen day and age looking through the iPods of others i am fully aware that i am definatly not the only one that is not paying for the music that i have on my computer, does this mean that we are all criminals? But first, I’ll explain to you that I didn’t always purchase music. I’m sure you all remember The Pirate Bay. There were many other bit torrent sites avaiable at the time , however this is the one that has been brought to the publics attention over the past few years due to its founders being sent to court and charged millions in costs and left them facing a jail sentence. This site, as you all know, allowed people to download music for free. Well, as a teenager with little spare cash to actually buy albums, I just went ahead and downloaded and basically â€Å"stole† hundreds of songs for free. Aside from the personal benefits of purchasing music, I do it to support the artists that make it for me to enjoy. I’d like to think that if I poured my heart and soul into something, they’d return the favor by spending some money on it. It’s a sign of respect and gratitude. If I enjoy an artist’s music, why wouldn’t I purchase an album to support them so they can continue to make more music? Having said all this, I mentioned that I still download free music on occasion, and this is not something I’m ashamed of. The offering of â€Å"free music downloads† is a relatively new marketing technique first popularly attempted by Radio-head back in 2007 when they self-released their album In Rainbows online for a â€Å"pay what you want† price. Since then,  many musicians have adopted this marketing technique under the premise that if you allow people to pay a price of their choosing—even if it is zero dollars—more people will pay something for your album than if you have a higher, set price. There are many other examples and variations of this â€Å"free music† regime, including iTunes’ free Single of the Week, along with Starbucks offering a free iTunes download each week, as well. Several online artist friendly sites such as amazon.com have emerged, giving artists control over how much they wish to charge their listeners for their music, or if they want to charge them anything at all. This is all well and good, but it still begs the question of why we should pay for music, especially since some artists are willing to literally give it away? I read recently stated that musicians should no longer feel entitled to be compensated for their music. The argument to support this claim explained that nowadays, one can simply record a whole album on one’s computer avoiding the high costs of producers, recording studios, and mixing and mastering engineers. I think my point is clear: if we don’t invest in the arts by way of purchasing music, we will eventually extinguish the option of even listening to it. There’s only so long that musicians will be able to make quality music for the masses without being compensated or receiving funding for it. Thanks to the Apple’s revolutionary iTunes store, as well as sites like Amazon.com, this is no longer valid. All these sites allow you to purchase an artist’s single for between  £0.89  £1.00 per song. You no longer need to pay for a whole album to get those one, two, three songs you want and the ones that you like. This new format of purchasing music has also inspired bands to write and record better albums, as they can no longer rely on one radio single to sell their whole album when people can sample the thing on the internet and realize the rest of it isn’t any good. It’s a win for the artists and maybe even more-so for the fans. With all of the options these days for sampling and purchasing music that are both artist- and listener-friendly, it still surprises me how many people still aren’t willing to pay for music. I know that we all struggle with finances as students, and can understand that money is in short supply for many of us, so paying for something you can get for free doesn’t make a ton of sense; I just hope that if you are saving your money right now by not  paying for music, you’ll remember this and not hesitate to throw a abit of money in the way of the artist that have spent their own time, money and energy creating music for all of us to enjoy.

The Limitations Of Activity Based Costing Accounting Essay

The Limitations Of Activity Based Costing Accounting Essay ABC Costing is a modern costing technique that is used to determine the cost of the product for the management reporting purposes. ABC Costing System is a tool that is used in decision-making process. However, it has some certain limitations. ABC Costing System is very costly to implement and maintain in a manufacturing and serving departments. Data concerning numerous activity measures must be collected, checked, and entered into the system. Which raise the labor requirement and need to be scrutinized on activity basis? ABC costing systems produces the reports that are different from the profit and loss reports produced through traditional costing systems. As most of the companies are using traditional costing systems, so because of the difference in the costing basis the costing and financial reports of the two companies of the same industry could not be compared for performance evaluation purposes. Adaptability of ABC Costing System is not suitable for all kind of companies because small companies have not many resources to adapt it and have too many activities but size of transactions is too low.   Data Produced through ABC Costing System can easily misinterpret and can lead towards wrong decisions. So manager should use the data produced through ABC Costing System with extreme care and should assign the costs that are relevant to the products, customers and should not consider the other cost objects that are irrelevant. ABC costing system does not comply with the GAAP and a company has to produce its reports for internal and external purposes by using traditional and ABC costing system both at a time. In ABC costing system costs are allocated on the base of cost drivers and activities undertaken to manufacture the product, definitely, it provides the accurate and proper allocation of the costs to the products but there is a danger of over or under costing of the products when irrelevant cost drivers or activities are assigned to the products or services produced. Q2) Please explain the differences between FIFO and Weighted Average Method in the process industry. How are units accounted for?   How are costs accounted for?   In periods of low inflation what method would make a difference? From a TAX point of view, does it make a difference? Differences in Weighted Average and FIFO Costing Systems: The main difference between FIFO and Weighted Average Costing systems is the method of calculation of the inventory and cost of goods sold in process costing system. Valuation Method: In FIFO costing method, costing department assumes that the goods that are sold earlier are the goods that are brought earlier and so on. The cost of goods sold is calculated on the base of the sequence of goods brought and sold. In Weighted Average costing method, goods are valued on the base of total goods available for sale and ignore the sequence of their arrival in inventory and sales to the customer. Formula of the cost of goods available for sale or cost of sale is as follows: Cost of total available for Sales ($) Per Unit Cost of Goods Sold = Total No. Of Units available for Sales Suitability: FIFO method can only be used where inventory can be separated easily and the cost of the inventory can be determined like computer, vehicles and other industries of the same nature. Weighted Average Method is the most commonly used method and can be applicable in all industries but the organizations engaged in those products that could not be separated like oil; Natural Gas and LPG etc use particularly weighted average costing method. In calculation of units accounted for FIFO method consider the units started and completed in the current period only and the beginning work in process units and its cost remain separate and it is considered that the opening work in process units are completed first and then new units started and completed in the same time period and units costs are calculated separately for beginning work in process units and units started in current period. While in average costing method, equivalent production is calculated and based on equivalent production the cost of unit is determined and allocated to the production. Q3) Can you explain the advantages and disadvantages of the Standard Cost system? Advantages / Benefits of Standard Costing System: Standards are the key factors that are used in management by exception approach. If costs remain within the standards, managers would be satisfied and would concentrate at routine activities but if it across the standards then it would be an alarming situation for the managers and they would try to analyze the reasons of inefficiency. Standards are the targets that have been set by the management to achieve and they compare the actual performance of the employees with the standards. Standard costs simplify the book keeping process as well by charging the standard cost to the job or product and by making the adjusting entry of the variance at the end of the period. Standard costs fit naturally in an integrated system of responsibility accounting. The standards establish what costs should be, who should be responsible for them, and what actual costs are under control. Disadvantages / Problems / Limitations of Standard Costing System: Frequency of reporting the variance is too low that make the prà ©cised and useful data useless due to its release too late when it became out of date. Labour variances consists mainly on labour quantity standards and labour efficiency variances and in both variances it is assumed that the production is highly labour intensive and the factor of machines performance is ignored. There are some cases where a favourable variance can be as bad as or worse than an unfavourable variance i.e McDonalds has a standard for hamburger meat that should be in a Big Mac. A favourable variance would mean that less meat was used than standard specifies. The result is a substandard Big Mac and possibly a unsatisfied customer. In standards costing system, meeting the standards of production and cost efficiency has more importance and other factors like quality of the products and satisfaction of the customer have been ignored. In standard costing approach, the standards are considered the final destination and improvement process become very slow or stopped. Q4) Please explain the following:   NET PRESENT VALUE CONCEPT.If the NET Present Value is   Then the PROJECT ISPositive .Acceptable since it promises a return greater than the required rate of return! Net Present Value Approach: NPV is a technique used in the management accounting for the decision-making and covered under the head of capital budgeting. In NPV approach the present value of the net inflow and outflows are compared by taking the effect of inflation and other factors influencing the value of money. The present value of the cash outflow is adjusted against the present value of the inflows resulting from the investment and multiplying with the discount factor to equate it to the present value of this future inflow. Then the results are compared with the following table. If the net present value is Then the project is Positive Acceptable since it promises a return greater than the required rate of return Zero Acceptable, since it promises a return equal to the required rate of return. Negative Not acceptable, since it promises a return less than the required rate of return Q5) Please explain a comparison of the Net Present Value and the Internal Rate of Return Methods. Which method do you like?   What are the strengths of each.   Comparison between NPV and IRR Method: In most of the conditions, Net Present Value Approach and Internal Rate of Return Method provide the same results. However, some times these present opposite results. When we compare both methods, we consider the mechanism working behind both techniques. In internal rate of return, a rate of return is calculated based on the future net income arising from the investment by using given formula: IRR = Initial Investment Net Income Then this required rate of return is compared with the required rate of return from investment, if IRR of the investment is greater than the required rate of return then the project is accepted otherwise the project is rejected. This method is much better than payback period and other old methods, because it considers the income of the projects to evaluate the project and also take account the inflows after the completion of payback period. In NPV method the present value cash outflow is matched with the present value of the cash inflows arising from the projects and if the NPV is positive then the project is accepted otherwise rejected. NPV Approach is better approach then IRR because IRR completely ignores the time value of the money and just consider the net income arising from the project whereas NPV is based on the time value of the money by considering the inflation factors. Q6) Managerial Accounting can work in many fields manufacturing and in the service industry. Provide some examples of how Managerial Accounting can work in your industry using some of the tools you learned in this course?   If in the Health Field, Could Relevant Costs be of use?   Application of Managerial Accounting: Managerial Accounting has equal application in the service and manufacturing industry as well. There are three major an aspect for which managerial accounting is widely used. Decision Making Products Pricing Performance Evaluation Decision Making: One of the most important functions of the management is to make the right and timely decisions for the development and security of the going concern status of an organization. This function is required in all kind of industries whether services or manufacturing. Managerial Accounting tools are used to provide the basis for comparison and making the accurate decisions. Product /Services Pricing: Every business has been established in order to earn some financial benefit and every business whether it deals in goods or services have to charge a price from its customers for the use of products or clients against the services provided. So managerial accounting tools and techniques would be used in order to determine the price of the goods or services to achieve the targeted profit. Performance Evaluation: Performance evaluation is required in all business areas and managerial accounting techniques would be used to evaluate the performance of a particular organization by comparing it with the same kind of industry or performance of the departments and businesses could be compared but all of these tasks are accomplished by the effective use of managerial accounting. Relevant costing techniques are used in all industries and have application in the health field as well. The price charged to the patients should be formulated by keeping the factors of relevance in mind and historical costs should be eliminated when there are surplus capacity is available.