Strategic management final exam bachelor degree Term Paper

Strategic management final exam bachelor degree - Term Paper Example This relationship identifies validity of the statement from the perspective that organizations can focus on their microenvironment and manage the factors to overcome any possible effects of the macro environment. This is because microenvironment such as organizational behavior and employee efficiencies are easily manageable as they are under organizations’ powers. A consideration of a business’ long-term scope and effects of the macro environment however invalidates the statement because micro environmental factors influence many organizational activities. The economic environment that includes economic conditions and economic policies is the first significant factor to organizations. Factors such as inflation rates, unemployment rates, trade regulations, and interest rates have significant effects on productivity of and profitability of an organization and therefore affect sustainability. Political environment is another significant macro environment factor and plays a significant role in influencing success of business organization. Political stability establishes investors’ confidence and therefore facilitates commercial activities, especially at global level and political ideologies and relations with other countries facilitate ties for favorable business environments. Socio cultural environment that include people’s preferences, â€Å"family systems, caste systems, education, marriage,† among other social and cultural factors determines markets and revenue levels to businesses (Mukesh and Trehan n.d, p. 12). Technological environment with its characteristic advantage of facilitating operational efficiency and demographic factors that determine volume and trend of demand for products is also very important to business’ organizations’ lives. The significance of macro environment that dictates sustainability and efficiency of organizations’ internal factors therefore identifies relevance of the environment to businesses. This means

South Korea Country Risk Analysis Research Paper

South Korea Country Risk Analysis - Research Paper Example South Korea is politically stable and has excellent infrastructure. With consistent reformation policies, the Government has been able to transform the country into a knowledge-based service-oriented economy. The labor market is flexible but the wages are higher than the neighboring countries. The workforce is highly qualified but the country has an aging population as the population growth rate is extremely low. Unemployment rate in the country is very low. Having a culture of uncertainty avoidance, risk assessments would be done and precautions and risk measures adopted. Being a collectivist society, loyalty is given importance. Economically too, the country is sound with low inflation rate, and the currency resilient to shocks. South Korea is an open economy ranking among the top 20 economies in the world. The private sector can operate freely without Government interference. The two major concerns are the aging population and corruption prevalent in the country. However, with the right business partner and sound knowledge of the economy, would help foreign businesses achieve the desired objective. Introduction South Korea, the Republic of Korea, is a presidential republic, a developed country with high standard of living. Having its origin in the World War II, South Korea is a fully functional modern democracy. However, political and economic analysis would help a multinational evaluate investment decisions. Location/Climate South Korea is strategically located on the Korean Strait covering a total area of 99,720 sq. km with a coastline of 2,413 km (CIA, 2012). This mountainous peninsula has the Yellow Sea on the west, and the Sea of Japan on the east. The southern tip of the peninsula lies on the Korea Strait and the East China Sea (Southkoreangovernment, 2012). Most of the land in South Korea is not arable. The peninsula comprises of about three thousand islands that are mostly small and uninhabited. South Korea has a temperate climate with very cold wint ers and a short rainy season. The average January temperature range is -7Â °C to 1Â °C (19Â °F to 33Â °F) in Seoul. Along the southern coast the winter temperatures are higher but they are lower in the inner mountainous areas. June through September is the rainy season. Population The population of South Korea as of July 2012 was 48, 860,500 with 73% of the population being in the 15 to 64 years age group. Population in South Korea has been growing at the rate of 0.204 percent which is considered a very low rate, leading to an aging population (Datamonitor, 2009). The population is mostly homogenous with just about 20,000 Chinese residing in South Korea. However, people of South Korea are either Buddhists or Christians and almost half the population (49.3 percent) does not follow any religion (CIA, 2012). The literacy rate is 97.9 percent while the unemployment rate is 9.8 percent. Most South Koreans live in urban areas because of the excessive migration that took place during t he country’s expansion between 1970 and 1990. As of April 2005, the number of foreign laborers in South Korea was 378,000 and 50% of these were without official authorization. Most foreign workers are from South Asian and Southeast Asian nations in addition to workers from the former Soviet Union countries and Nigeria. About 11,000 expat English teachers also live in South Korea apart from 31,000 US military personnel (Southkoreangovernment, 2012). Cultural Values The cultural dimensions of any nation are essential

The Role And Importance Of Palliative Care Nursing Essay

The Role And Importance Of Palliative Care Nursing Essay When the patient has serious illness like cancer and came to the hospital and complaining from pain, anorexia and fatigue at this time what can he is suppose to do? The answer of this question is in the definition of palliative care. What is palliative care? Palliative care according to (World Health Organization [WHO], 2010) it is a medical profession stand up to helps the patients and families to come over the pain and other problems like physical, psychosocial and spiritual with life-threatening illness. This can be done by the prevention and relief of suffering and early assessment and treatment of pain. Palliative care according to (Get palliativecare.org, 2010) is provided by a team of professionals working together with your primary doctor. It is appropriate at any point in a serious illness and can be provided at the same time as treatment that is meant to cure. Moreover, patient in the end of life can face and experience a host of distressing symptoms such as pain, dyspnea, and delirium are reported to be among the most feared and burdensome. Also, pain can be influenced by many factors, including the patients prior experience with pain, meaning given to pain, emotional stresses, family, and culture influences (Mcphee papadakis, 2009). (Mcphee papadakis ,2009,p.70) stated that the common problem for patients at the end of life up to 75% of patients dying of cancer is the pain and it is what people say they fear most about dying. Therefore, nurses must be aware about the barriers to good care ,which including the lack of knowledge about the proper selection and dosing of analgesic medication ,limited training and clinical experience with pain management, addiction which can occurs if the patient and caregivers misused the medicines (Mcphee papadakis, 2009). In addition, there are 20 reasons can make the palliative care difficult to the nurses (Becker, 2010). I am going to mention some reasons; Shortage of staff. Shortage of nursing staff is one of the reasons which can make the palliative care difficult. In my experience in the hospital where I was working the staff nurses are in limited numbers , especially in the word the staff nurse can handle 9-12 patients some of these patients are having cancers and some time one staff nurse for 6 rooms each room has 5-7 patients!. Cancers patients cannot bear the pain and the staff nurse wants to do other work like inserting intravenous fluid for diabetic patient with hypoglycemia, so how the nurse can concentrate in doing that? Here the staff has to prioritize her work, some staff nurses finding difficulty to do that. Therefore the hospitals administration has to find and create a policy change in response to the nursing shortage as supported by Twigg , Duffield , Thompson Rapley (2010). In addition to that, as Abrahm(2010) stated that due to shortage of staff palliative care in oncologists, intensivists, advanced cardiac, pulmonary, renal, and hepatic diseases needs to be improved. Lack of knowledge of some medications and symptoms control. There were 146 surveys distributed to care providers from multiple settings. Out 135 0f 146 reported that there are several problems can make the palliative care difficult like poor pain and symptoms control, lack of education for care providers as stated by Sellick , Charles , Dagsvik , Kelley (1996) The availability of clear polices in dealing with death issues. In my experience only in some hospitals we can find clear polices in dealing with death issues especially brain death , this matter can involve many elements like; patient himself if he/she recommended before death if his/her brain died the caregiver can remove the supporting equipments, family according to the religion. So the staff nurse must be a wear about many religions. In understanding of the reasons and finding solutions to make the difficulties easier to the nurses can make too much improvement in quality of life. Quality of life can be affected by the level of education in heart failure patients. Patients with high education level often can improve more than low education level which usually reported to care givers in bad physical and functional condition as supported by Barbareschi, Sanderman, Leegte, van Veldhuisen Jaarsma (2011). In addition, there are two factors are related to quality of life in heart failure patients, demographic and clinical. Also physical excises one of the main elements of disease management program. (Jaarsma, Johansson, Agren , Strà ¶mberg ,2010) I want to stress in one point from my experience I did not see patient with heart failure has been cured totally from the disease, so I think the palliative care can play role to help this patient to enhance his quality of life. For example, one of the patients I was taking care of him he told me I am useless now! So for this type of patients I have to help him to move this idea from his mind, and let him to understand that the life did not end yet and we are finding developments in medical field, and give him task and encourage him to do it, after of compilation I have to enhance the feeling which he can feel it and let him to understand that he is worthfull and useful. Since I chose the heart failure I want to mention how the staff nurse can manage the pain in this case, which include: Pharmacologic treatment: like angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, ÃŽÂ ²-blockers, diuretics, and possibly aldosterone antagonists and angiotensin receptor blockers (Lewis, Heitkemper, Dirksen, OBrien Bucher, 2007). Diet and body weight: the recommended diet for these patients is low sodium diet to reduce body edema; recording upon admission body weight can detect the body weight if increased or no (Lewis et al., 2007). Behavioral and lifestyle management: exercise/physical activity: as stated by Benetti, Araujo, Santos (2010) exercises can improve the quality of life for heart failure. Therefore, the nurses must promote home and community-based care by taking the responsibility and contribute in education of patient and involve him to implement the therapeutic procedure to improve the quality of life. Teaching the patients and family how the progression of the disease is influenced by compliance with the treatment plan (Johnson, 2008, p.428). One of the most important points in improving quality of life as human being in my point of view is being opened to others .By this way the person can share others experience which can teach him/her something can change or improve the quality of life. In addition to that some patients need spiritual support which can make the life of some patients running in smooth way as supported by Hegarty , Abernethy , Olver Currow (2011). Also, the quality of life can enhanced by the disable patients rehabilitation. As will as, mixing patients with disabilities in right and balance way can improve the quality life as supported by (Fadyl, McPherson Kayes, 2011). So how the caregivers can measure the quality of life? The relationship among patients and families with caregivers can detect the quality of life as Hasson-Ohayon, Roe, Kravetz, Levy-Frank Meir (2011) stated in their article. And, in my opinion quality of life is not easy to measure it because different criteria. The quality of life can make the measurement is so complicated, but generally speaking the improvement of individual health can indicate in quality of life. Conclusion: The palliative care profession is can plays important role in professional healths fields by helping the patients and families to understand the serious illness and how to manage and improve the quality of life .By educating the nursing staff and they must be in university level in both arts and sciences (McEwen willss, 2007). As deeply supported by Henderson theory which stressing on the important of education for the nurses. In addition to that the caregiver should try their best to improve the quality of life which can lead to improve the palliative care, by understanding each individual is unique in many aspects and trying to deal differently accordingly. The hospitals managers should understand the teamworks conflict and create polices to solve the shortage of nursing staff can enhance the palliative care to reach to optimal quality of patients life.

The Dismal Washington Square, by Henry James :: Washington Square Henry James

The Dismal Washington Square, by Henry James Curiosity about how Washington Square was received at the time it was written lead me to search for a review done at the time the book was published. Expecting that the late nineteenth century reader would have a different view of the work than a late twentieth century reader, it came as a surprise to find that an anonymous review in the February 1881 issue of Spectator related views similar to my own. The reviewer described the book as "dismal," filled with a "leaden-coloured group of emotions," while still conveying a "genius" for "painting character, and genius for conceiving unalloyed dismalness of effect, without tragedy and without comedy" (Gard 88-90). While I agree that the book was dismal and lacked a certain depth of emotion, I did not think it was without tragedy in the character of Catherine, or comedy courtesy of Aunt Penniman. The anonymous reviewer asks the question: "why is the whole painted against that blank, leaden sky, not merely of absolute hopelessness, but absolute indifference to hope?" (Gard 89) To me, this clearly referred to Catherine for whom hope is an alien concept. Her everlasting endeavors to please her father who perceived her as inferior because of her gender and her singular lack of distinction, eliminated hope from her reservoir of emotions. The tug-of-war between Townsend and her father over Catherine, not for her own sake, but for money, robbed "her of her admiration for her father" (Gard 89), and a fickle fiancà ©e. These loses she suffered behind "her ancient facility for silence" (James 216). Catherine lived her life trying to please others in a bid for love and approval, and ended up without love from anyone or the hope of acquiring it, which made her a tragic figure. Others might consider having to live with Aunt Penniman ad infinitum to be a tragedy. Aunt Penniman did, however, offer some moments of comic relief with her "silly love of intrigue" (Gard 89) and her romantic flights of fancy. Who could not be amused by Aunt Penniman describing Morris Townsend as an "imperious" man "of great force of character," and saying to herself , "That's the sort of husband I should have had!" (James 38) The anonymous reviewer indicts James as showing genius in creating his characters, but showing no caring for their fate, which leads to his final comment on the book, "If you desire a consummately clever study of perfect dreariness, you have it in

Which Stakeholders Can Currently Be Considered to Be Part of the “the Company” for the Purpose of the Director’s Duty to Act in the Best Interests of the Corporation?

which stakeholders can currently be considered to be part of the â€Å"the company† for the purpose of the director’s duty to act in the best interests of the corporation? Company is a form of corporation and regulated by the Corporations Act. The legal significance of being as a company is it exists as a separate legal entity and dependent upon human beings to make decisions on their behalf. The person who makes or participates in making decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the company’s business can be defined as a director. The legal definition of director is stated under section 9 of the Corporations Act[1] which indicates that, it is more appropriate to look at the function of the people rather than at the job title itself. Duties are imposed on the directors to regular illegal behavior and ensure that they act for the benefit of the company. All directors and officers of a corporation are bound by a number of general law and statutes which include that: a) act in good faith in the interests of the company; b) act for a proper purpose; c) avoid conflicts of interest; and ) retain discretion Moreover, care, skill and diligence in the performance of their duties must exercised by directors. Stakeholder can be defined as a party that affects or can be affected by the actions of the business[2], which may be include shareholder, creditors, employees, customer, supplier and government. Under the principle of the company law, directors and officers owe duties to the company as a whole but not to the other p erson or group rather that shareholder as they are the residual owners of the company’s assets. As a result, it can be said that a scope is limited by the statutory duties to the company’ director and officer is to act the best interest of shareholder, any benefit is acting on the other group of the stakeholder (such as the creditor) will beyond the scope of director’ power. In addition, an essential problem might be arisen between the director and the shareholder is known as â€Å"agency costs† that is the cost incurred by company to ensure that the director (who manages the company) is acting on the behalf of shareholders (who is the owner of the company) and make decisions onsist with their best interest. The duty will be breached by each director if there is no action done to avoid a conflict of interest[3]. A director can not use his or her power to profit personally interest at expense of the company. An action may be brought against the company where it has managed in an oppressive, unfairly prejudicial or unfairly discriminatory against shareholderà ¢â‚¬â„¢s interest. Therefore, it seems that the company (shareholder) is the only beneficiary by the regulation of director’s duties. In other words, the enforcement of director’s duties is for the benefit of the shareholders. 2) Should directors duties, and corporate responsibilities, be extended to a wider group of stakeholders? What are the lessons from the James Hardie and the Waterfront Dispute experience? It is a challenge for the current legal framework to consider a wider group of stakeholder’ interest, as in modern society that greater deal of business and activities conducted by a company. Elena suggests that balance between the different groups of stakeholders is essential to the long-term viability of the corporation and the long-term shareholder’s value can be increased by taking account of the other group of the stakeholder. 4] For example, an under market salary is paid to the employees or the employees are scheduled in an inefficient way w ill result in a decreasing of shareholder’s wealth as the productivity of the company is affected by the dissatisfied employees. Hence, according to the definition of the stakeholder, employee can be classified as a stakeholder who will maximize shareholder’ wealth in a long-term. As a result, the maximization of stakeholder’ value goal might not only be concentrated on the shareholder but the other group such as creditor and employee. The reasons why the director’s duty might be extended to the group of creditor can be stated as: creditor is a important stakeholder in the company and their interest should be taken into account; and also, based on the judgments of the decided case, it also indicates that there is a demand for director to regard the interest of creditor. Firstly, a company is a separate legal entity[5]. Therefore, the debt of the company is separated from its directors and shareholders. In addition, the money borrowed will be recorded under the name of the company and the creditor will sue the company if there is any unpaid account. However, creditor is playing an important role in providing funds to assist company to manage its cashflow and expansions. Hence, it can be said that creditor is the stakeholder and can effect the action of the business. Nevertheless, according to the passage Re New World Alliance Pty Ltd (1994) 122 ALR 531 at 550,[6] there is not direct duty owed by the director and officer to the creditors because their duties are owed to the company. However, in the situation when the directors of company consider a high risk project or it is in a financial distress, the creditor has to occupy a weakness position. This is because, if the project fails, shareholder will lose nothing but the money they have invested due to the limited liability then the risk of filature will shift to the creditor. Hence, it seems unfair for creditor who has not fiduciary protection and whose right is limited by the contract. On the other hands, according to the passage Re New World Alliance Pty Ltd (1994) 122 ALR 531 at 550,[7] there is not direct duty owed by the director and officer to the creditors because their duties are owed to the company. The only time that the director’ duties are owed to creditor is when company is insolvency[8] and during that time, the creditor is entitled to displace the power of the directors and shareholders to deal with the company’s assets[9]. It can be argued that it is riskless for the secured creditor who holds a charge over a part or all of the company's assets during the company’s insolvency. If the company is in financial distress, a receiver is appointed by the secured creditor to collect and look after the company’s asset in order to obtain money for them[10]. However, it is not easy for the creditor to claim all their money back according to: firstly, the money collected has to pay the certain priority claims, including employee entitlements (such as wages, superannuation contributions and leave payments) before paying to creditor; and secondly, director does not owe directly duty of care for the interest of creditor, this might result in a less consideration of managing and taking care of the asset that is held by the creditor. Therefore, creditor who provides fund for company to operate or expand is playing a significant role to a company and their weakness position should be taken in to account and redeemed by the director’s duty and the corporate responsibilities. In addition, duty has been referred to the judgments of the decided cases. The emergence of the issue to regard the creditor’ interest is from the leading judgment by Mason  J in Walker v Wimborne. 11] His statement has been acknowledged by the other courts such as in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Also, according to the obiter comments in the recent case Spies v The Queen, the court has again acknowledged that there is an existence of the duty to creditor. As a result, it seems that protection for creditor’s interest is required in some certain circumstances. [pic][pic][pic] ———————– [1] Section 9 defines a director as: a) a person who: ) is appointe d to the position of a director; or ii) is appointed to the position of an alternate director and is acting in that capacity; regardless of the name that is given to their position; and b) unless the contrary intention appears, a person who is not validly appointed as a director of: i) they act in the position of a director; or ii) the directors of the company or body are accustomed to act in accordance with the person’s instructions or wishes. [2] http://www. scu. edu. u/schools/gcm/ar/arp/stake. html [3] Relevant section under the Statue Law: Section 182(1) – Use of Position; Section 183(1) – Use of Information; Section 191(1) – Disclosure of Interest. Also, under the Common Law – Fiduciary Duties. [4] â€Å"Corporate governance: shareholders’ interest and other stakeholders’ interest. † http://www. virtusinterpress. com/additional_files/journ_coc/full-text-papers-open-access/Paper006. pdf [5] The principle is established in Salomon v Salomon & Co ? 1897? AC 22 [6] Harris, Hargovan and Adams: Australian Corporate Law, 1st ed, Page417. [7] Harris, Hargovan and Adams: Australian Corporate Law, 1st ed, Page417. [8] A company is insolvent if: 1. It is unable to pay its debts as they fall due. 2. Its assets are less than the amount of its liabilities, taking into account its contingent and prospective liabilities. [9] Kinsela v Russell Kinsela Pty. Ltd. (in liq. ) (1986) 4 NSWLR 722. [10] In some special circumstance, it may appointed by the court. Eg: where there is a dispute between the owners of the company or the property over which the receiver is appointed [11] His Honour said: In this respect it should be emphasised that the directors of a company in discharging their duty to the company must take account of the interest of its shareholders and its creditors. Any failure by the directors to take into account the interests of creditors will have adverse consequences for the company as well as for them.

Autocratic Management Have No Place in Today’s Business World- Discuss Essay

Many people think nowadays that autocratic management is bad and doesn’t motivate employees. They believe this type of management will never work in today’s business world. However, it is not entirely possible for today’s world to have everyone as democratic people, nor is it true that most people are ‘Theory Y’ type. Autocratic management used to be the most effective management technique, as well as the simplest. Employees are told what to do and expected not to question back, like in the army. If the worker fails to accomplish the task then he/she either gets fired or disciplined. Managers always expect his/her decisions and orders to be obeyed without question, and everything will go fine. Managers tend to be in control of nearly everything within a firm, and make all the decisions. They also believe that workers are only motivated by incentives such as money and are lazy, which is based on McGregor’s ‘Theory X’ and Taylor’s theory. The advantages of this type of management are that it is quite efficient, as there are no disputes of any sort between the employees and the management. Secondly, the decisions within a firm could be done very quickly and efficiently as there is practically no such thing as a discussion and opinions. The drawbacks of this style of management, however, are that employees won’t have a sense of self-esteem or self-actualization, which is specified in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is not possible to fully motivate an employee if this management is used. Also, communications within the firm will almost be non-existent, which is a problem for social needs. Workers will feel bored or demotivated if they even can’t establish any relationship within the workplace. The business world today can be considered as different to the world in the past. However not everything would change in such a swift pace, therefore it is not possible that all employees are ‘Theory Y’ type workers. The initial statement that claims autocratic management has no place in today’s business world is practically impossible to be true, because there are still people in this world that still supports this type of management. There are still lazy and selfish people in the world that fit perfectly into McGregor’s Theory X. Some people might not like the idea of making their own decisions as they fear it might affect the business in a negative way so they would rather rely on management to do all the decision making. Also, workers who, in the past, had worked in an autocratic environment will tend to act the same as their superiors when they become part of the management. It is similar to child abuse, where the child grows up to be a very aggressive person. Autocratic managers obviously wouldn’t like to work in a democratic firm, as the manager tends to refuse any delegation to his/her subordinates. It is believed that autocratic management is very effective in the short-term but would be devastating in the long-term. This is because there is a high chance of a large number of labour turnovers within the business and the morale of existing workers would rapidly decrease. Eventually the employees would probably go on industrial action or, in worse scenarios, sue the business for unfair treatment. The quality of output from subordinates will also decrease, as they are highly demotivated due to the fact that they are like puppets, doing what they’re told. They don’t feel as if they’re a part of the company. It is successful in the short-term because employees are initially motivated by money, which explains the high output. Also, as stated before, decisions are made very quickly therefore the firm can achieve their objectives in no time. Of course, as time passes employees are no longer interested in money that much as before, so they start to get demotivated. In conclusion, there is a place for autocratic management in today’s business world. It is just not as widely accepted as before because humans believe that they can think for themselves and never needs to be commanded by another being. Nevertheless some might say democratic management tends to do better than autocratic management, but that all depends on the employees themselves.

Learners Profile for DE essays

Learners Profile for DE essays The impact of Distance Education on the process of learning defines not only distinct roles for the instructor, the instruction and the technology involved but also the role of the distance learner who faces a change from the traditional learning environment to a new setting. The learner is face with new challenges of anticipation, distress and the need to balance the responsibilities of the forthcoming tasks with the conditionings of work, family or life circumstances (Thompson, 10). The distance learner is, however, characterized by self-reliance and a natural intent to pursue individual achievements on an environment different from the traditional one. The distance learner must be able to do the following: juggling a range of responsibilities on a daily basis, does not need constant reassurance and direction from faculty, likes working independently and can manages their time well, enjoys working on their own, but also appreciate some interaction with faculty and peers, busy and/or frequently changing schedule. However, some distance education learners do not do well because they need constant contact with the instructor in the traditional MWF or TTh pattern of classes. This usually includes students (despite age or previous education) with deficient reading, writing, computing, studying, test-taking, and critical thinking skills. Some students right out of high school are at high risk if they do not have the appropriate skills. They may need more experience with how to pursue a college class by taking a few classes on-campus. The research clearly shows many different motivational factors that are contributing to the distance education learners. Many of the learners find this an effective method of teaching and learning. Listed below are some of the characteristics, which have been found for the distance education learner. ...