Social performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Social performance - Essay Example IT infrastructure in health care institutions is also available. Health care facilities, institutions for aging and social challenges, as well as in home solutions for health care technology applications all are available through this multi-capacity ICT based company. ICT can be viewed as a type if IT, thus IT companies has been used for comparison. Apple is a large company that has IT solutions that come in the form of the development of devices and equipment. Apple has a comprehensive code of ethics which includes fair trade issues, supplier responsibility, fair labor, audits around the world, and methods for corrective measures (Apple, 2013). An independent IT consultant, in contrast, has an ethic code that includes information on the rights of his clients and how he will conduct himself in relationship to the work he has been contracted to perform (Camden, 2008). While Apple must address international manufacturing and trade, an independent consultant must be far more concerned with the immediate needs of the individual client relationship. Semprus Bio (2013) is a company concerned with medical IT solutions. The company has similar ethics as most companies but have recently created additions to their ethics codes which include prohibiting entertaining clients in order to gain their business as this can be seen as a form of bribery. Semprus Bio (2013) also has a program to provide items at no cost to the clients that are intended for educational purposes. Some of the issues that this company will need to address in an ethics program is off-sight behaviors, customer relations, and safety concerns during installation. Other ethical considerations that are specific to ICT include cyber theft issues, confidentiality, and customer interrelations. A code of ethics should address how workers will be treated and how they will treat one another. Any legal issues that can

Knowledge Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Knowledge Management - Essay Example Keywords: knowledge management, organizations, Siemens, organizational culture. Knowledge Management Knowledge management is one of the most popular objects of scholarly and empirical analysis. Much has been written and said about the principles of effective knowledge management in organizations and factors affecting it. Despite the growing body of literature, many organizations fail to implement KM practices properly. â€Å"The major problems that occur in KM usually result because companies ignore people and cultural issues† (Geisler & Wickramasinghe, 2009, p.12). For organizations that seek to establish themselves as repositories of knowledge, creating a culture that rewards individuals for knowledge sharing and recognized the value of tacit knowledge is crucial (Geisler & Wickramasnighe, 2009). This paper presents an analysis of the human and cultural issues involved in knowledge management in Siemens and, actually, many other organizations. In this paper, the examples of Texaco, Semantech, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, General Motors, BP Amoco and others are used to substantiate the argument. Knowledge Management as Human Resource Management Randall Sellers stated that â€Å"the challenge is managing the people who manage the knowledge†. In other words, the human dimension is believed to be an essential ingredient of knowledge management practices in organizations. ... ity is logical and reflects an ongoing tension between the growing role of knowledge and increasingly distributed structure of modern organizations (Swan et al., 1999). KM had to reduce this tension and enhance organizations’ capacity to generate and share knowledge. Unfortunately, failure to understand the basics of KM creates a situation, when organizations hide behind technologies and do not notice human resources which, in the meantime, are primarily responsible for creating this knowledge. Many organizations rely on the systems and tools that codify and commodify knowledge (Swan et al., 1999). Managers in these firms adopt an information-based perspective on KM, which interprets knowledge management in terms of information, not people, and emphasizes the importance of accessibility, availability, and real-time changes of information (Alavi & Leidner, 1999). In reality, the main challenge of knowledge management is in managing people who produce this knowledge, and there a re several reasons for this. First, knowledge is a human act (McDermott, 1999). Therefore, no knowledge management is possible without people. The essence of knowledge management is in generating knowledge, piecing information together, reflecting on individual and collective experiences, generating insights, and using the results to solve acute organizational problems (McDermott, 1999). â€Å"From the point of view of the person who knows, knowledge is a kind of sticky residue of insight about using information and experience to think† (McDermott, 1999, p.106). Yet, many organizations make one and the same mistake, when they limit their knowledge management solutions to IT systems and networks. The real challenge of KM is to manage people, who generate and possess this knowledge. Well-known is

Aufderheide, Defining the documentary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Aufderheide, Defining the documentary - Essay Example Documentaries take the form of an analytical argumentation combined with some educational animation and formal elements. The formal choices in documentaries make them more representative of the importance the content they show. Documentaries lack the natural representation as they are characterized by manipulation of content so as to shape the meaning around what the audience want to know. Documentaries share the narrative convention. They are based on stories with an introduction, body and end. They invest in taking their viewers into an emotional journey by sharing the perspectives of the documentary characters with that of the audience. They also share techniques employed in filmmaking such as editors, musicians, digital designers, cinematographers and sound technicians. Documentaries are governed by the economic context of business realities. Producers strive to make documentaries more appealing to the viewers in order to ensure that the documentary gains audience. This is because the appeal of the documentary is associated with the brand identity of the product in the documentary. Furthermore, sponsors such as the government affect the reality present in the documentaries by encouraging some aspects of the content while discouraging

Stage of sleep - psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Stage of sleep - psychology - Essay Example Going over the information covered in class, â€Å"Stage† 1 and â€Å"Stage† 3 read to me more like doorways to actual stages, instead of being stages themselves. The reason I felt that way was both because of the length of those two stages, and because of the way they seem designed to build up to the next stage. Neither one of them felt like they were defined individually, but were based on the stage that came after them. Stage 1 of the sleep cycle lasts only about 5-10 minutes, and was technically defined as the transition period between wakefulness and sleep. What came to my mind was the short period of grogginess people usually experience when they first wake up in the morning. They’re eyes are open, and they’re obviously not asleep any more. However, their minds and bodies haven’t fully reached alertness, so they’re not fully awake, either. That grogginess is kind of a limbo between being asleep and being awake, and I think that Stage 1 is the same thing, only going the opposite direction. Stage 3 is almost identical to Stage 1, with the only real difference being where it comes in the sleep cycle. It lasts about the same amount of time as Stage 1, and is also a transition period. Thinking of the transitional stages, particularly Stage 1, as being somewhat separate from the rest of the stages should help me get to sleep faster. One way I could to that would be to create a kind of transition period or routine before I try to get to Stage 1. Remembering that Stage 2 is where the body begins to relax and slow down—the heart beat and body temperature, specifically, go down—then Stage 1 can be thought of as designed to take us from being fully alert to being ready for a kind of light hibernation. If I were to spend some time just before going to bed listening to quiet music or reading a soothing book, I could potentially make Stage 1 of sleep easier to get in to and through. I was surprised to learn that t he stages of sleep do not follow a logical, sequential order of 1-2-3-4-5. When we first began covering the stages of sleep, that is the order I thought they would follow, and those five stages would somehow take up a person’s full night of sleeping. It would have made sense to me for some people to need each stage to last longer—meaning that they need to have more hours of sleep at night to feel rested—and others would be able to get by with shorter stages. However, what I learned was that the stages of sleep actually go a little out of order. According to an article entitled â€Å"Stages of Sleep,† the order is more like 1-2-3-4-3-2-5-2 and that order is repeated a few times every night (Cherry, 2011). Realizing that our bodies go through several cycles of the five stages of sleep throughout the night gives me some ideas for what to make my sleeping environment like. In going over the material from our class lectures, as well as reviewing the informatio n providing in the article â€Å"Stages of Sleep,† it’s apparent to me that people go through Stage 2 more times in a night than any other stage. Stage 2 is the one where the body begins to become more relaxed before going in to a deep sleep. In this stage of physiological change, people might be fairly easy to wake. So, I would take that knowledge and create an environment in my room that encourages me to stay asleep once I fall asleep. Maybe I could play some quiet music in the background that would minimize the effect of noises in the night on my subconscious. The idea

Report and Accounts for Tesco PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Report and Accounts for Tesco PLC - Essay Example The report provided shows an insight of supermarket sector, the emphasis majorly being on the analysis of its finances, competence, resources and culture. There are two options on future strategies that are suggested regarding financial strategies.This company is amongst the biggest in the globe, vested in operations in approximately 2,318 outlets and has employed over 320,000 employees. It also offers services only via its subsidiaries. The United Kingdom is its largest market, in which it runs in four ways superstore, extra, express and metro. The firm’s own labels of products are categorized under three levels inclusive of normal, finest and value. The firm makes sales of approximately 40,000 products of food inclusive of clothing and some other lines that do not deal in food stuff. Apart from convenient products, many stores contain gas stations, making them amongst the largest independent retailers of petrol in Britain. Other services offered by Tesco include personal fin ance. The main reason for the success of Tesco is the various products they deal in, popular products and the brand preferences. Furthermore, Tesco operate online sales of product which has seen them expand internationally and get customers all over the world. There are reasons as to why Tesco is customers’ favorite store in the UK. Tesco have got a well analyzed capital structure which supports the growth of business plan with consideration of their expertise in financial system and cash management. Financial Analysis In Britain, Tesco services offered by this firm are via Tesco bank. The main products offered are inclusive of mortgages, credit cards, savings accounts, and loans. They also offer insurance services like insurance on cars, travel and life. The awareness of these services is boosted by their website and leaflets given out in their stores. Tesco generated a profit worth 130 M pounds in 2007 which rated the value of shares at 66 M pounds. The impact that this mov e created towards the sector of finance brought diversification to the brand of Tesco. It also provided for growth opportunities in the external retail sector.In 2008, announcement was made on of purchase of 50% of its shares. In the year 2009, Tesco Finance changed to a bank. Other financial service was the intent to buy Dobbies Garden. This enterprise owns 28 gardens, almost half in the UK. In 2007, the deal had been sealed by BODs of Tesco on receivership of 53% of shares meeting the conditions that were set. This led to Tesco’s shares rising to 65% and in 2008, the acquisition was fully met. Tesco commenced selling of petrol in the year 1974.The main sources of finance for Tesco plc is long term debts, retained profits, commercial paper, leases, issues and bank borrowings.By the year 2006, Tesco was rated fourth biggest retailer after Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot. In 2007, this firm managed to jump Home Depotdue to the sale of division of Depot’s professiona l supply and fall in value of US dollar on Britain pound. Immediately behind was Metro which may also make its way ahead in case the euro becomes stronger against pound. Though, Metro has its sales inclusive of wholesale turnover in terms of billions and its turnover in regard of retail is less than that of Tesco’s.Instead of Tesco increasing its revenue by way of increasing its leverage, they take

Investing In mutual funds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Investing In mutual funds - Essay Example Banks, share markets, mutual funds, insurance sector and real estate are some of the common investment areas normal investors are looking for. Bank investments are normally the best method of investment because of the less risk associated with it. Most of the banks have insurance protection for the investor’s money and hence it is safer than other types of investments. Bank deposits normally divided into two categories like savings account which yields less interests and term deposit which yields higher returns. Share market investment is the most risky investment option since the value of money undergoes immense fluctuation every day based on the changes in the share values. There is no protection for the investors in this sector as we have seen in the destruction of share values due to the current economic crisis. The main attraction of share market investment is the possibility of high yield in a short term. Real estate and investment also depends on the market conditions. Investment in insurance sector is also comparatively a safer method of investment though the return may not be as good as that from share market investment or mutual fund investment. â€Å"Mutual funds can offer the advantages of diversification and professional management. But, as with other investment choices, investing in mutual funds involves risk. And fees and taxes will diminish a funds returns.† (Invest Wisely: An Introduction to Mutual Funds) Compared to share market investment, mutual fund investment is safer because of the professional management of our invested money. Share market investment is mostly controlled by the investor himself and hence the possibility of achieving a good return depends on the investor’s competence in analyzing the trends in stock market or company performances. On the other hand in mutual fund investment, the investor’s money is managed by fund managers. The mutual fund managers are highly skilled and they know better than us

Financial Research Report Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Financial Report - Research Paper Example Also, the company has an enviable customer base that is extremely loyal towards the iOS platform. The company has maintained historical records of maintaining a customer retention percentage of more than 90%. The analysts and the investors are considering Apple as a strong buy based on the Fibonacci model. The Fibonacci retracements state that the stock prices follow a trend of rising strongly, then falling down to a lower price followed by a significant upturn. This justifies the fall of the stock prices in the fourth quarter of 2012 followed by a steep rise in the stock prices starting from the first quarter of 2013. Apple is considered as a fundamentally and technically strong company ideal for investment in its stocks (Edwards, 2007). The value driven mutual funds consider Apple as an important stock for investment and almost 40% of these mutual funds hold positions in Apple with more than USD 1 billion of assets. The biggest investors of the world are expected to accelerate the growth of shareholder value of Apple through buy backs and dividend pay-outs. The balance sheet of Apple is strong with zero debt value and high cash reserves of more than USD 1.45 billion. Around 74% of the analysts in the Wall Street hold a strong buy on the shares of Apple Inc. Moreover, the company is projected to surpass the earnings expectations by the end of the last quarter of 2013. The stocks of Apple Inc. represent more than 13% of the 100 stocks in NASDAQ and remain the most famous stock to invest by the hedge funds. Ratio analysis   Ratio Analysis for Apple Inc. Ratios 2013 2012 2011 Return on assets 0.18 0.24 0.22 Current ratio 1.68 1.50 1.61 Quick ratio 1.64 1.48 1.58 Debt Equity ratio 0.68 0.49 0.52 Debt ratio 0.40 0.33 0.34 Price earnings ratio 13.96 11.75 13.77 EPS 39.75 44.15 27.68 Working Capital 29628000 19111000 17018000 Return on Assets The Return on Assets percentage indicates the profitability of the assets of a business in terms of earning revenue for the business (Brown, 2003). Ideally, the return on assets should be greater than 5%. In the case of Apple Inc. the ratio of net income to total assets decreases from 22% in 2011 to 24% in 2012 and to 18% in 2013. The return on assets ratio for Apple is quite high compared to the industry standards and indicates that the business is efficient in employing the stakeholder’s assets in generating income. The better use of the assets i.e. debt and equity in a business is represented by a higher percentage of ROA. Though the ROA percentages of Apple Inc. have decreased from 2011 to 2013, yet the investors would consider 18% ROA as a positive factor for investing in the stocks of Apple Inc. Current ratio Current ratio is used to measure how equipped the business ids to pay off its short term obligations like payables and debts using the current assets in the business like inventory, cash and other receivables. Current ratio is simply calculated by dividing the current assets by the curr ent liabilities which include short term debts and other liabilities that are due within a period of less than a year. An ideal current ratio is valued at 2:1. The current ratios of Apple Inc. are measured at 1.61 in 2011, 1.50 in 2012 and 1.68 in 2013. Thus, the current ratios of Apple Inc. are strong over the three years indicating that the business