Self-Representation of Native Americans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Self-Representation of Native Americans - Essay ExampleCurrent conceptions and representations of Native American culture sometimes suppose they are lazy, gambling casino owning alcoholics who ignorantly refuse to assimilate into modern society. One artist of the 19th century attempted to re-categorize the representations of Native Americans, George Caitlin. In his works, one sees an obvious and intentional disposition to portray Native Americans as noble and civilized, some works going as far as to suggest that it is European civilization that is the problem as it is a corrupting and destructive influence on the indigenous populations of the Americas.Self-representation of oppressed and minority populations has proven an effective way to create a voice in the public discourse and to question the validity of particular suppositions which underlie the dominant paradigms of understanding. Unfortunately, there has been limited access to Native American self-representations in the publ ic quadriceps until very recently. An exhibition of a rare sketchbook, A Kiowas Odyssey, is traveling around the country showing the drawings of an autodidact, Etahdleuh Doanmoe, whose sketches depict the capture and relocation of 72 Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne and members of some other tribes from stronghold Sill, Oklahoma to St. Augustine, Florida. Though these Doanmoe sketches lack the formal compositional techniques of Caitlins oeuvre the contrast between representation and self-representation of Native American populations is well manifested in the apposition of these two bodies of work. This paper will focus on the context and intention as embodied by and through the sketches and paintings.The drawings that appear in the Sketchbook of Doanmoe were to begin with collected by Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, a strong advocate of Indian assimilation and the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.1 Pratt believed that the Indians infallible to reject th eir primitive ways and become educated in Western language, manners, and religion. To this end after capturing Doanmoe and some 70 other Native Americans he marched them 1,000 miles from Fort Sill in Oklahoma to Fort Marion where they received training for three years. The sketchbook catalogued the events that took place there, and their titles once assembled were type-written on the top by Pratt himself.2 One feature of the sketches that is straightway noticeable is the unusual perspective that Doanmoe utilizes, namely a rather panoramic perspective as illustrated in his Prisoners Entering Fort Sill.3 This perspective intimates a inherent disconnect with the subject matter. This fundament disconnection lies in stark contrast to many of the paintings of George Caitlin. Caitlin painted over 35 portraits of tribal chiefs and most of them such as Shonkakihega, Horse Chief, Grand Pawnee Head Chief 4have a very close and intensely intimate impression, with the subject dominating a rath er contrived compass that only serves to highlight and foreground the features of the subject as the colors in the background seem only chosen to compliment the various colors utilise for the subject. Caitlin was determined to attach a sense of nobility and austerity to the indigenous subjects of his works. This distinction in perspective reveals something about the relative positions of the two artists

CSR - Organizational Structure Final Paper Essay

CSR - Organizational Structure Final Paper - Essay ExampleThis paper intends to show that besides monetary considerations of growing and making profits, companies must be held accountable for the impacts they have on the society as well as the surroundal opportunities and risks there traffic decisions make. The investigate is aimed at showing that HRM can use CSR to improve business value, mitigate risk due to unethical behaviour and improve the way the way business strategies are sustainable. It in like manner aims to find out how a corporation can be deemed as a corporate citizen by the people it is often skirt with.It can be shown that sustainability is the common link that brings HRM and CSR inextricably together. At the corporate level, sustainability will focus on the creation of business models that are sustainable from social, pecuniary and ecological perspectives that identify practices and strategies that contribute to both a more sustainable world and shareholder val ue (Eden & Huxham, 2010). Therefore, the significance of CSR is that it will decrease the negative impacts the ships companys corporate actions will have on the community as it pursuits its business strategy without compromising the core business processes. From this understanding, sustainable HRM can be explained as the use of tools of HR to embed sustainability strategies in a company and the creation of systems of HRM that support the companys sustainable performance. By utilizing HR tools to do sustainable HRM, the HR manager will not only create and develop the trust, value, motivation and skills needed to deliver environmental, social and financial benefits. Rather, they will also ensure the existence of the long-term sustainability and health of the external and internal stakeholders of the company through policies that enhance equity and support development of practices that are friendly to the environment (Jamali,

The role of the tutor in the Lifelong Learning Sector Essay Example for Free

The role of the enlighten in the Lifelong Learning Sector EssayThere are many facets to the role of the tutor within this diverse let outing sector and the responsibility and commitment required from the tutor is of the highest. Analysis of the role of the tutor needs to actuate basicly with the tutor Although qualified to deliver material on a specialised subject, to teach that subject effectively requires strong personal commitment from the tutor. The tutor needs to be committed to a path of delivering excellence in all areas to the pupils and this can only be passd if the tutor sets high standards in the first place. This is so important as to be quoted in the overarching standards document introduced by Lifelong Learning UK in 2007 titled New professional standards for teachers, tutors and trainers in the long learning sector, Domain A professional standards and practice (LLUK2007, pg3). Page 2 To achieve high standards in their avow personal work, a tutor must be pre pared to maintain a programme of continual professional development enabling continual learning to take place within their own subject matter and the peripheries of that subject.This ensures that only the most up to date information is conveyed to the pupils and maintains relevancy in the latest subject matter. However, The key purpose of the teacher is to acquire effective and stimulating opportunities for learning through high quality training that enables the development and progression of all learners. (LLUK 2007, pg2) and it is within this statement that three key rowing exist effective, stimulating and development. The tutor needs to be mindful of these words when constructing, creating, delivering a lesson and especially when assessing the outcomes of a lesson.Tutors are required to deliver curriculum establish lessons and as much(prenominal) need to be able to formulate the art form that delivers quality teaching that encompasses relevant material, a delivery methodolog y, a direction of assessing the learning and all d sensation in such a way that measures the value of the learning. Lifelong learning pupils are extremely diverse and as such will require different teaching methods such as visual, auditory, kinaesthetic methods and all these different styles may even be required in one class.Petty (2004, p141) clearly suggests that Student learning styles can be categorised in a number of ways. However, it is now thought that all students can learn in all these learning styles, and the more learning styles each learner experiences the better. although later research has cast some doubt on Pettys statements. All of this must be done whilst ensuring that every pupil feels they are treated as individuals, certainly without favouritism or discrimination. (This is a professional teaching requirement, supported by Gravels (2008) and made a requirement by the Institute for Learning (IfL) 2008.A tutor understands how to engage with each of their pupils at whatever level of teaching is relevant to that one individual, facilitating the pupils progress through the learning and measuring the outcomes to gauge pupils understanding. Measuring outcomes may be a relatively simple process done through a simple scoring system based on the number of correct answers and whilst universe objective, doesnt always show that the pupil understands the material, just they can answer questions or pass a test.So a tutor needs to be able to measure in different ways, both objectively and subjectively and this may lead to different formats of teaching and flexibility within the learning process. immediately we need to look at the second part of the equation the pupil. The prime key to a pupils learning is motivation and desire to achieve and a successful tutor is able to capitalise on this to allow the pupil to achieve. This was echoed by Reece and Walker who said Motivation is a key chemical element to successful learning.A less able student who is hi ghly motivated can achieve greater success that the more intelligent student who is not well motivated. (Reece Walker, 1997. p96). In summary a pupil may be likened to an empty book with blank pages waiting to be filled and it is a symbiotic relationship between the pupil desire to succeed and the tutors ability to develop interesting and engaging teaching that creates the successful outcome, in other words a moving art form

Understand Your Fats and Fiber Essay Example for Free

Understand Your Fats and Fiber EssayExamples are fatty beef, lamb, pork, poultry with skin, beef fat (tallow), enlarge and cream, butter, cheese and other dairy products made from whole or centralized-fat (2 percent) milk. These foods in like manner ingest dietetic cholesterol. In addition, many baked goods and fried foods can contain high levels of stark(a) fats. Some plant foods, such as palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil, also contain primarily saturated fats, but do not contain cholesterol. Trans- fats (or trans- fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. some other name for trans- fats is partially hydrogenated oils. Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages. Trans- fats raise your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels and lower your good (HDL) cholesterol levels. eating trans- fats increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke. Its also associated with a higher risk o f developing type 2 diabetes. The better fats are unsaturated fats called monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, and the best sources are fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, or sardines, or high-quality cold-water fish oil supplements.Canned albacore tuna and lake trout can also be good sources, depending on how the fish were raised and processed. The functions of character and lipids in the body is fiber absorb cholesterol and slow glucose absorption. Although your body cannot process dietary fibers for energy, they bid bulk in your feces to avoid constipation and satiety without additional calories Fiber can be used to relieve mild-to-moderate diarrhea. Soluble fiber soaks up water in the digestive tract, which makes stool firmer and slower to pass. Lipids include such ompounds as fats, fatty acids and cholesterol. The functions accomplished by various lipids vary widely. only when their most prominent and important function is for the storage of energy for y our bodys use. According to Elmhurst College, each gram of lipids can provide 9 kilocalories of energy. Although carbohydrates and protein can also provide energy, it is significantly less than the amount provided by lipids. Some of the food sources of a dietary fiber such as fruits and vegetables, breakfast cereals can be a good source of fiber.Some fruits and vegetables are particularly helpful in treating constipation, such as prunes and prune juice. Fruits, beans, and vegetables, a good source of fiber is unprocessed wheat bran one to two tablespoons can be mixed with food. One tablespoon of wheat bran contains approximately 1. 6 grams of fiber. There are two types of fiber, each of which is thought to have its own benefits the difference is that, Soluble fiber consists of a group of substances that is made of carbohydrates and brush asides in water, and Insoluble fiber comes from plant cells walls and does not dissolve in water.There are some benefits of a high-fiber diet lik e, Insoluble fiber (wheat bran, and some fruits and vegetables) has been recommended to treat digestive problems such as constipation, hemorrhoids, chronic diarrhea, and faecal incontinence. Fiber bulks the stool, making it softer and easier to pass. Fiber helps the stool pass regularly, although it is not a laxative. Also soluble fiber (psyllium, pectin, wheat dextrin, and oat products) can reduce the risk of coronary thrombosis artery disease and stroke by 40 to 50 percent (compared to a low fiber diet).And soluble fiber can also reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In people who have diabetes (type 1 and 2), soluble fiber can help to control blood glucose levels. (American philia Association 2013) Retrieve from http//www. heart. org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/FatsAndOils/Fats101/Trans-Fats_UCM_301120_Article. jsp (USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference) Retrieve from http//www. uptodate. com/contents/high-fiber-diet-beyond-the-basics? view=print

Concepts of Social Responsibility Essay Example for Free

Concepts of Social Responsibility EssayBusiness organizations today are socially and ethically liable for doing the right thing, practice good judgment in their business activities with employees, stakeholders, customers and the participation. Business organizations emphasis should not only be on profits, but also on how business endings touch society. Company Q is a small grocery store chain located in a major metropolitan area. This company will be evaluated on its attitude towards social business.Also, recommendations will be given in three areas indicating how the company could improve its position regarding social responsibility. First of all, Company Qs decision to close stores in high crime areas will have an adverse effect on the communities where they conduct business, leading to disruption and hardship in the lives of many. This unimpeachably demonstrates an irresponsible attitude toward social responsibility. In terms of social responsibility, Company Q could help enrich the lives of families in need by supporting local community centers.Community centers play an important role in addressing the comprehensive needs of individuals and families by providing a wide range of resources that are most needed. Moreover, a responsible business could initiate programs to help disadvantaged youths and adults in the community, build employable works skills and connect them to career opportunities. Without question, the more job opportunities and employability of the citizens in that community the take down the crime rate would be.Finally, if Company Q is to be socially responsible, it must not only be committed to making a profit, but also to the economical development of the community where it does business (Ravindran, N. 2008). Secondarily, Company Qs reluctance to offer health conscience customers a wide range of organic and healthy foods because the products are considered high margin items, is socially irresponsible and bad for business. A gr owing number of consumers favor organic foods, claiming that it tastes better and is healthier. Why organic?Organic foods grown naturally in well-balanced soils, ripened by the sun are healthier and tastier than products with synthetic chemicals and growth hormones. Moreover, the growing number of conscience consumers was highlighted in a recent Bursen-Marsteller report people will more likely choose a product that supports a social cause when choosing between otherwise akin products (Penn, Schoen Berland, 2010). These average consumers daily decisions are slowly but surely being influenced by social bring up and responsibility.Finally, the critical issue for Company Q is the social responsibility to its customers, who looks to business to provide them with satisfying, safe products and respect their rights as customer. Lastly, Company Q decides to throw away food products, instead of donating it to the local food bank. Sadly, this behavior demonstrates a concern for profits bef ore people attitude, which is socially irresponsible. Businesses can no longer ignore social issues because a business is a part of our society. For Company Q to hold out more socially responsible its sole objective must not only be to make a profit.But include concerns and responsibilities to the general public assistance of the communities and societies in which they operate. Moreover, businesses should simply want to make their communities better places for everyone to live and work. The most common way that businesses exercise their community responsibility is through donations to local and topic charitable organizations. Doing simple things like contributing to local food banks, may not be enough to change the world for everyone, but does alleviate somewhat of social ills that abound in local communities.

Working Capital Affect on Performance of Retail Industry

work(a) smashing Affect on Performance of Retail Industry1.1 mental institutionThe main aim of this dissertation is to study how on the job(p) corking management usurps the cognitive cognitive process of sell industry. This dissertation concentrates on one of the weighty atomic number 18as of net the working great management. Working jacket crown management is the management of two the stream assets and flowing liabilities. Management of working capital is considered as an essential function for either agreeable of organization. With come in proper management of working capital the comp either sightt perform their day to day operations smoothly. So each organization in the industry performs several(prenominal) activities to manage their working capital as efficiently as possible in order to compete from each other.Companies in sell industry depends heavily on working capital for their daily operational activities and therefore it is essential for managing t heir working capital in order to gain positivity and alike to repeal solvency. Improper management of working capital can overly lead to bankrupt and there are withal some retail companies in the past to explain this fact is true. The main problem and issue in working capital management it is to look into the optimum train to be maintained in the current assets and current liabilities and also to de considerationine whether the cockeyed should consecrate heavily in current assets or in fixed assets. These issues can seriously affect the positivity and liquidness of the organization and it should be carefully considered in order to compete in the industry.It is truly necessary for the organization to fuck the level of funds to be invested in each component of the current assets such(prenominal) as hard gold, inventory, accounts receivable and marketable securities. Funds invested in current assets are generally turned posterior into gold in the end of the working capital cycle which is normally within one year. Therefore investing juicy or low in current assets affects the profitability and liquid state of the steadfast and it should be maintained in such a way which satisfies the exact call for of the ancestry. It is also necessary to know how to enthronement these currents assets which are either by scam limit financing or by ample consideration financing. For these decisions to be made efficient working capital management is essential.It has been discussed in many journals that working capital management has a direct relationship with the profitability and liquidity of the organization. Therefore managing the working capital components is very critical to maintain the stanch profitability and liquidity. For example in the case of hard currency which the company holds if it holds to a greater extent it is difference to lose the profit which can be earned by investing the excess currency in current assets and if the company ha s low level of cash it is going to miss the business opportunities when they arrive. In the case of inventory investing more in inventory can reduce the profit if the company incline able to sell the goods quickly and also investing less in inventory can lead to loss of gross sales.Accounts receivable and account acquitable also has a huge impact on the profitability of the firm. The company credit policies have a great impact on the volume of good sold. If the firm grants a longer credit extent for the customers it is going to encourage the sales which thereby append the profit. On the other hand companys which delays the payments to their suppliers can use that cash for in some other asset and could earn from that investment. But delaying the payment should non exceed the granted termination given by the suppliers otherwise the firm may lose the discounts reserved by the supplier for early payments.The main objectives of this study is to,To measure the working capital man agement performed in retail companies and then analysing the performance of retail companies.To determine the working capital cycle for the retail company.To determine what kind of working capital policy is practiced in retail industry.To determine whether the working capital management practices really affects the profitability of the firm.The first chapter of this dissertation is the introduction which is a gip description explaining the basic idea behind this research. It allow give the problems and issues associated with the research topic and it also explains the aims and objectives accomplished by this research. The second chapter is the literature review which discussed the theoretical concepts in working capital management. This chapter explains the importance of working capital management, the working capital cycle and the different working capital climb upes followed in different industries. It also explains the management of each of the working capital components such as cash, inventories, accounts receivable and marketable securities in detail and the objectives satisfied by managing these working capital components. In the end of this chapter the various sources which finance the working capital are discussed. The third chapter is the research methodology which explains the research methodology adopted for this dissertation. It explains what kind of research method followed in this dissertation and also shows the different entropy collection methods and tools employ to complete the dissertation.The fourth chapter is the findings and analytic thinking. In this chapter the performance of the retail industries is analysed and then the findings are discussed. The different analyses performed in this chapter are ratio analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. By ratio analysis the performance of the retail companies are analysed and then by correlation and regression analysis it is analysed to see whether the inventory retentivity days, accounts receivable days, accounts payable days and cash conversion cycle affects the return on capital employed. Finally the last chapter concludes and gives recommendation based on the results analysed.1.0 Working CapitalWorking capital is the capital which satisfies the short term financial requirements of any business enterp shew. It is capital which is engaged in the operations of the business for not more than one year. Every organization whether it is profit oriented or not requisites working capital for the day to day operations of the business. Managers when reservation investment decisions not solely plans for the long term such as buying new building or machine but also considers the need to have additional current assets in the short term for any expansion of activity that the organization is planning to do. For example if the organization is planning to increase the level of production the organization needs to hold a greater level of raw materials similarly if the organization increases the sales there will be an increase in level of debtors. All these investment decisions can bring the organization to level of risk. So it is very necessary for an organization to manage this working capital effectively to avoid the company fall into risk (Mclaney 2006).1.1 Importance of Working Capital ManagementThe management of working capital is very important for several reasons. harmonise to Padachi (2006), working capital management is very important for the financial health of the business of any size. He also fireed that the funds invested in the working capital are high in proportion to the total assets employed. Therefore it should be managed in effective and efficient way. Also working capital management directly affects the liquidity and profitability of the firm. Therefore managing the working capital should be done in such a way that it should create a balance betwixt the liquidity and profitability (Falope, I and Ajilote, T 2009).The main prefer of working capital management is the flexibility of it. That is it has the ability to change with the rise and fall in seasonal demands of the product or improvement, and with the rise and fall in frugal and market conditions (Mathur, B 2003). Largay, A and Stickney, P (1980) studied the nonstarter case of a large retail store in the year 1980. From their study they found that the bankruptcy should have occurred because of the poor cash flow from their operation during the last few years of their bankruptcy. So managing the working capital is very necessary for the survival of the business1.2 Components of Working CapitalWorking capital which is also called as current capital or circulating capital is the capital that the managers put it to work for the day to day operations of the organization. There are both important concepts in the working capital management that is the gross working capital and the net working capital. Gross working capital is the capital that incl udes only the current assets used in the day to day operations of the organization and net working capital is the capital which includes the current assets less the current liabilities. The components which moderate the current assets are the pursuit, (Brigham, F and Houston. F 2007). notesMarketable SecuritiesInventoriesAccounts ReceivablesThese currents assets are financed using the pastime sources such as,AccrualsAccounts collectibleShort term bank loans mercantile paper etc.The degree to which an organization invests in current assets depends on several factors such as the type of business and products the organization do. For example retail companies mostly invest a lot of funds in their current assets such as inventory and they invest less in long term assets such as buying plant and equipment. But in the case of some manufacturing companies more is invested in long term assets such as machines and equipment as they are very necessary for the organization. The length of op erating cycle also is an important factor. The longer the operating cycle the more is invested in the current assets. The level of un legitimatety in the business also is one of the important factors. So depending upon the industry practices the organization invests more in current assets or in long term assets (Fabozzi, J 2003)..2.0 Working capital cycleWorking capital cycle is the time taken for the capital invested by the organization turning back into cash. Generally the working capital cycle for a manufacturing business starts when the organization buys the raw materials on credit followed by working on these raw materials to bugger off the final goods, and selling of the finished goods. During this cycle the organization also needs to pay the creditors. As the organization sells the final product on credit, the debtors are change magnitude and when the customers started to pay it will increase the amount of cash in the business (Myddelton, D 2000).Retailers supplierInventory Supplier MerchandiseSupplier MerchandiseSupplier MerchandiseSupplier MerchandiseCustomersPaymentPaymentPaymentPaymentFigure1 Working capital cycle of a Retail backing (Reynolds, Cuthbertson and gong 2004)The higher up figure shows the general working capital cycle of a retail business and it explains how the operating process is performed in a retail business. The first tip in the operating process is where the suppliers provide the merchandise to the retailers. Large retail companies manufacture their own products under their brand name. After all the merchandise is authoritative from the suppliers the retailers set outs the store ready, and other arrangements for the lived products to be sold. The products which are available to be sold become the inventory. In the next stage the customers buys the products which generates cash into the company (Reynolds, Cuthbertson and Bell 2004).2.1 Cash Conversion CycleAn important cycle which is embedded in the working capital cycle is the cash conversion cycle. When the organization buys raw materials from their suppliers they dont pay them quickly. They usually have a credit flow rate contracted by the supplier and before that they need to pay. This is known as the creditors payment extent. Also not all customers pay the cash immediately when they buy a product. Some buy them on credit and they should pay the certain amount within a particular period. This period which is granted by the business to the customer is known as the debtors payment period. The gap betwixt these two periods is known as the cash conversion cycle. It is the cycle where the invested cash that is the cash invested in the suppliers turns back into cash when the customers pay the coin during the debtors collection period (Arnold 2005).Raw Material ocellus spotWork-in Progress PeriodFinished goods inventory periodDebtor Collection PeriodCreditor Payment PeriodStock Conversion PeriodCash Conversion CycleFigure2 Cash Conversion Cycle (Ar nold 2005)The above figure shows the cash conversion cycle. The length of the cash conversion cycle depends on triple factors,Stock conversion periodDebtor collection periodCreditor payment periodStock conversion period is the period where the raw material bought from the supplier are processed and converted into finished goods. Therefore the duration of a cash conversion cycle is found by,Cash conversion cycle =Stock Conversion period + Debtors collection period Creditors payment periodIn an article Jose, Lancaster and Stevens (1996) suggest the importance of cash conversion cycle in the profitability and liquidity of the organization. They explained that for an aggressive approach to liquidity management the organization should reduce the cash conversion cycle by reducing their inventories and debtor collection period while increasing their creditors payment period. Managing the cash conversion cycle this way may involve tradeoffs between liquidity and profitability. If the busi ness reduces the inventory and the debtors collection period they will lose the sales because of stock running out so early and also losing customers who usually buys in credit. Also if the firm increases the creditor collection period they will lose the discounts available for early payments and also the flexibility of pay debts in the future. So cash conversion holds an important role in maintaining the liquidity and profitability of the organization.3.0 Working capital policyWorking capital policy is the policy made by the organization for making decisions on two important things, which are how much should the firm invest in each component of current assets and how these investments should be financed. Any business for managing their working capital efficiently should make decisions on what level of cash they should hold, what level of inventory they should maintain, what level of accounts receivable can be allowed and they should also decide whether to finance these current asse ts either with short term funds or with long term funds. These decisions made by the organization together make up the working capital policy (Correia et al. 2007). According to Vishnani and Shah (2007) working capital policies had a great impact on the firms performance. They suggest the importance of working capital policies for maintaining the firms liquidity and profitability. An unnecessary investment in current assets can reduce the rate of return thereby affecting the profitability. Also it is very necessary for maintaining the liquidity for a normal running of the business. If the firm holds too much liquidity it explains that the firm is not using its funds efficiently and on the other hand if they have inadequate liquidity it will affect their credit worthiness. So it is very essential to determine the optimal level of working capital.3.1 Permanent and fly-by-night Working CapitalA working capital policy is affected because of the firms varying requirements of current ass ets. The working capital requirements of a firm do not alship canal remain stable through out the year and it varies from time to time. Because of the seasonal demands of some product the firm changes their level of production and holdings of inventories. Due to these conditions the currents assets in the firm also varies. But a certain amount of current assets is always maintained regularly in the business to meet the minimum day to day operations of the business to continue without any difficulties. This minimum requirement of current assets is known as the eonian working capital. On the other hand the amount which is invested in current assets due to the varying seasonal requirements is known as the temporary working capital (Van Horne, C and Wachowicz, M 2008).Amount of working capitalPermanent working capitalTemporary working capitalTimeFigure 3 Permanent and Temporary working capital (Source Van Horne, C and Wachowicz, M 2008)Generally permanent working capital remains the sa me for whole year and the temporary working capital is the one which varies over time. But for some growing business the permanent working capital also rises steadily over time to meet the expansion activities of the business which is described by the figure above.3.2 Approaches in Working Capital PoliciesThere are three different approaches in working capital policies and they are moderate, aggressive and conservative approaches. A firm which follows a moderate approach uses both long term and short term financing to finance their assets. The main aim of this moderate approach is to create a balance between the risk and the return. The firm which follows an aggressive approach tends to use a more of short term funds and less of long term funds to finance its current assets. Even though short term interest rates are lower than long term interest rates short term financing is more risky than long term financing because they should be paid off in a short time period. Therefore intere st an aggressive approach increases the risk of liquidity and it also increases the possibility of higher profits. The firm which follows a conservative approach uses a less of short term funds and more of long term funds. Therefore it reduces the liquidity risk and also the possibility to achieve higher profits (Gallagher, J and Andrew, D 2007). Weinraub, J and Visscher (1998) examined the relative relationship between the aggressive and conservative approach by studying on ten different industry groups and found that each of these industries were following a unique and different working capital management polices. From their research they also found that the relatively aggressive working capital management issue to be balanced by the relatively conservative working capital management.3.3 Factors Determining the Working Capital RequirementsFinancial managers should manage their working capital in such a way that it should not be surplus or excessive. For this the managers the mana gers need to know the working capital requirements of the organization to make sure to provide the perfect financing. The working capital requirements of any business depends among several factors and generally some of the factors which should be considered while determining the working capital requirements are the following (Banerjee 2005),Nature of the business The general nature of the business itself affects the working capital requirements of the business. In the case of manufacturing industry they will invest significantly in both fixed and working capital. But in other industries such as trading and financing firms invest a small amount fixed assets and a large in working capital. Some firms needs to have a large amount of inventory and debtor balances because of their nature of business.Growth and Expansion of headache The level of investments in working capital depends upon the size of the business. The more the business expands its activity the more working capital require ment is needed. deed Cycle Production cycle is the period where the raw materials are converted into their finished product. The longer the period to convert these raw materials into finished product the larger is the working capital.Business Cycle The business cycle is an important factor in considering the working capital requirement. The business has to pass through a period of good multiplication and bad times such as recession. During the good times where the business is growing the business needs to increase their working capital requirements because of the increased sales and during the bad times the business needs to reduce their working capital because of reduced sales.Production Policy The demands of certain products are seasonal in nature. So during the peak season the working capital requirements are higher while during the off-season the working capital is kept lower. Therefore depending upon the seasonal demands of the product or service the working capital requirement s varies.Credit Policy Credit policy has a direct impact on the working capital requirements. When the business reduces the credit period it will reduces the volume of sales which leads to the reduction of working capital requirements. But when the business grants a longer credit period it encourages the sales and there by needing to increase the working capital requirements.Price Level Changes The varying price level also affects the working capital requirements. When the price level increases the business also needs to increase their working capital to maintain their same volume of activity.Operating Efficiency Operating efficiency is an important factor to be considered by the business. The business can maintain their working capital to a minimum level only when they are able to manage or control their operating woos and utilise their working capital efficiently.4.0 MANAGEMENT OF CURRENT ASSETSAs discussed before working capital management is the management of both current asset s and the current liabilities. The main objective of working capital management it is to maintain an optimum balance of each of the working capital components and to develop the optimum level between the current assets and the current liabilities. The optimum level is the level where a balance is created between risk and efficiency (Filbeck and Krueger, M 2005). In the following paragraphs the management of currents assets such as cash, marketable securities, inventories and accounts receivables are discussed.4.1 Cash ManagementCash management is defined as the management of cash inflows and cash outflows. The cash flows out of the firm when the business buys goods and services from its suppliers and cash flows into the firm when the customer pays for the product they purchased. The term cash refers the cash like assets like currency, bank balances etc. The cash is very much considered as non earning assets because they do not provide earnings but the cash provides safety from inso lvency. Cash is very important for the day to day operations of the business and to meet the liabilities when they are due (Besley and Brigham 2005).There are several reasons for a business to hold cash (Besley and Brigham 2005),Transaction balance Cash balance is very essential for the operations of the business. Cash is used for paying their employees wages, buying raw materials, fixed assets, and also to pay their taxes.Compensating balance It is the minimum bank balance that the firm should maintain for the services provided by the bank such as qualify clearing and cash management advice.Precautionary balance It is the cash kept as reserve by the firm because the company cannot predict the future cash flow. The amount which is kept as reserve depends upon the predictability of the cash flow. The less cash predicted the more cash balance is maintained.Speculative balance These are cash maintained by the firm to take advantage of any profit opportunity when arises in the business .Ferreira, A and Vilela, S (2004) suggest that the level of cash holdings is positively affected by the investment opportunity and cash flows of the firm and it is negatively affected by the liquid assets, leverage and size of the firm. Firms with high investment opportunity needs to hold a high level a cash to take the benefits of the immediate opportunities available to them and also if the firm has a unpredictable cash flow the firm holds a high levels of cash. On the other hand firms which has high level of liquid assets holds low level of cash because the firm convert the liquid assets into cash when they are needed. Also firms with higher leverage that is the ability of the firm to effectuate debts will hold less level of cash. And at last the size of the firm affects the level of cash holdings. Large firms hold less level of cash than smaller firms because borrowing funds by smaller funds is expensive when compared to larger firms. So smaller tend to hold more cash to avoid borrowing funds.The two main goals of cash management practices is (Fabozzi, J 2003)To have adequate cash in hand to meet the immediate needs of the firms andTo receive the cash from those to owe it as early as possible and to pay the cash which the business owes as late as possible.To determine the level of investment in cash is a very important function. The firm cannot hold too much cash because of the holding cost associated with it. Holding cost is the cost that the business would have earned if the cash is invested in some form of asset. The level of investment in the cash depends upon the firms liquid assets, debt levels, and rate of return and economic conditions. There are two models used by the firms to determine the adequate level of cash needed to be maintained. One is the Baumol model which assumes that the cash is used uniformly through the period and based on this assumption the amount of cash to be maintained is measured. But by the second model which is called as Mi ller model assumes that the cash flow varies in an unpredictable manner and based on this assumption the amount of cash to be invested is measured. These two models financial aid in satisfying the first goal of cash management (Fabozzi, J 2003).To achieve the second goal of cash management which is to reduce the period cash inflow and to increase the period of cash outflow, several ways are being followed.The following techniques help reduce the period of cash inflow (Shim, K and Siegel, G 2000).Lock niche System- In this administration the customer instead of mailing the check to the firm send their checks to a nearby post office box which is controlled by the firms bank. The firms bank then collects the check from the post office and deposits the check. Due to this process the time the check spends in the mail and also since the bank itself receives the check it avoids the time the check spends when received by the firm and thus saves the processing time of the checks in the fir m.Pre-Authorised Debits- In this system the cash is collected from customers by obtaining authorization from customers to have pre authorised debits automatically charged to their bank accounts. Thereby it eliminates the time the check spends in the mail and the processing time of the check.Wire Transfer- In this system the cash is transferred quickly between banks and thus eliminates the transferring time of the cash. Wire transfers are done though computer terminal and telephone.So far we have discussed the ways to reduce the period of cash inflow. Now lets discuss the ways to increase the period of cash outflow.Zero-balance account- Zero balance account as the name suggest it requires no balance. It is an arrangement between the bank and the firm to achieve controlled disbursement which is to pay exactly what the company owes. When the check is offered to the bank the bank just transfers the money from the firms account. By this system the firm can pay the exact amount which cov ers the check. This system also increases the period of cash flowing out (Bragg, M 2007).Payable through draftings- Payables through drafts is similar to the checks. But a draft works in a different way. When a draft is offered to the bank the bank sends to the firms which issued the draft and waits for its approval. Only after receiving the approval from the firm the bank deposits funds into the receivers account. Due to complex procedure when using drafts it takes a long time for the amount to be transferred in to the receiver account (Shim, K and Siegel, G 2000).4.2 Management of Marketable SecuritiesManagement of marketable securities is just a continuation of cash management. We know that cash does not earn any return so instead of holding these cash firms just invest these cash in marketable securities for a short period of time. When the firms feel that they need some they just convert these marketable securities back into cash. Depending upon the yield curve the protectiv e covering measures earns the return. When the yield curve rises the firm gains a higher return. For example if the firm invest in a security for one year period of time then the return it would be getting is measured by (Puxty, G and Dodds 1988)R = P2 P1 + IP1Where R is the return, P2 is the due date value of the security, P1 is the purchase price and I is the interest paid.There are several factors which the firms consider when investing on securities and they are as follows (Chandra 2005),Safety The most important factor which the firm consider when investing in any kind of security is safety. The firm before investing in any security first checks whether they will get back the amount invested. T-bills or the treasury bills are considered as the safest investment because the obligation are promised by the government. But investing in other securities depends upon the type of security and the issuer.Liquidity- The liquidity refers to the ability of the investor to convert the security back into cash without acquiring any loss. For a traded security a large and active secondary market ensures liquidity while a non traded security liquidity risk is high.Yield- The yield represents the return which the security is going to gain by way of interest, dividend and capital gain.Maturity- Maturity represents the expiry time of the security. The longer the maturity period the higher will be the yield. But securities like t-bills provide a fixed return when they are matured.Some of the marketable securities where the firms generally invest are the following, (Fabozzi, J 2003)Treasury Bills- These are securities issued by the US government and as a maturity period of one, three and six months. Investing in this type of security is risk free but it provides a lower rate of return.Certificates of deposits- These are debts issued by the bank in large amounts and have a maturity period up to one year. Investing in this type of security is highly risky because some times the issuer will not pay the interest and principal as promised. mercenary paper- These are debts issued by firms in large amounts and have a maturity period generally up to cardinal days. Investing in this security is also risky but this risk is minimized by the back up lines of credit offered by commercial banks. Commercial paper is very attractive because of the higher returns it provides than when compared to the return provided by t-bills.Holding cash and marketable securities offers both advantage and disadvantage for a firm. The advantage is, it reduces the traffic cost because there is no need to issue security or borrow cash and holding cash or marketable securities provides opportunities to take advantage of immediate growth opportunities. The disadvantage of holding cash and marketable security is the after tax return of both cash and marketable security is comfortably very l

From a social psychological point of view

From a kind psychological point of viewGroup behaviour (how the one-on-one affects a theme and vice-versa) has been widely studied in sociable psychology but has been hard to theorise (Brown, 2007). Within amicable psychology there be numerous complaisant psychological locations that have apply different theoretical frameworks to study group behaviour. Although separately position is in agreement that brotherly mixture (the way an various(prenominal) and others ar classified incite of the same or different social groups) and social individuation (the way that being part of a social group set up give individualists a sense of self) ar important in group shareship (Phoenix, 2007), the way they are both treated in each perspective varies. This move will show this by using the cognitive social perspective (namely the social identity theory- sit down) and the critical wandering(a) perspective and explain their ontological assumptions and different approaches to soc ial compartmentalisation and social identity. This essay will argue that from a social psychological point of view, group membership is not primarily a cognitive subject field. It will also argue that social and individual sides of group membership should not be seen as dichotomies but as interactive, dynamic and influenced by power dealings.The cognitive social approach has an ontological assumption that peck are information processing individuals (Hollway, 2007) whose belief processes are shaped by and create the world that they live in (The Open University, DVD 1, 2007). There are many different traditions within this approach, although this essay will concentrate on the social identity tradition. The social identity tradition was designed to break away from previous cognitive miser traditions of the approach that mistaken that the social was just something that touch the individual (Brown, 2007). Although it shared the same ontological assumption as the cognitive miser tr adition and assumed that individuals had limited and fixed cognitive mechanisms (Dixon, 2007), it also differed from it because it saw individuals as socialised thinkers where group membership played a part in structuring the individuals thoughts (The Open University, DVD 1 2007). The social identity tradition led Tajfel and Turner (1979, cited in Brown, 2007) to develop the social identity theory ( position). induct attempted to use a combined social and cognitive approach to studying inter-group relations it saw the social as more than just something that affects individuals. It attempted to find out how people identified with groups and how this affected their judgements (Brown, 2007). SIT explained how group membership and inter-group relations are based on self categorisation, social comparison and the constituteion of a shared self definition (Brown, 2007). SIT is currently one of the leading theories in group processes although this has led to power relations where group ide ntification is still seen as mostly a cognitive process. The focus on cognitive mechanisms also stresses that group processes are still seen as individualistic and so misses out a lot of the influence that family has on the individual or group.In contrast to SIT, the critical discursive perspective argues that discourse and social practices are what make up an individual and their social world individuals are seen as socially frameed, continent and situated (The Open University, DVD 1, 2007). Unlike SIT that studies how cognitive mechanisms allow an individual to identify with a group the critical discursive perspective looks at how groups and group identities are created by the individual through discourse and the different ways that these groups are dynamic, ductile and changeable. Categorisation is therefore seen as an active and out there rather than a process that is internal (Brown, 2007). Akin to the cognitive social perspective, there are different approaches in the criti cal discursive perspective, for example, some queryers accept the reality of given categories (Billig, 2002, cited in Brown, 2007) whilst others argue that categories are socially constructed (Potter and Reicher, 1987, cited in Phoenix, 2007). Power relations also blight the critical discursive perspective as discourses can be interpreted differently and each discourse available within each culture is politically and ideologically constructed. But, the critical discursive perspective does go beyond the individual-society dualism to look at how the individual and social come together to construct groups.SIT and the critical discursive perspective see categorisation and group membership differently. SIT sees categorisation and group membership as distorted and individualistic. It was substantial from Tajfels (1957, cited in Brown, 2007) early coin experiments which led him to conclude that by combining a continuous place of judgement (coin value) with a clear-cut category dimension (size difference) would resulted in a cognitive bias and therefore a faulty judgement within and mingled with the categories. Tajfel (1959, cited in Brown, 2007) saw that this bias could be utilize to explain how individuals perceive others using cognitive variables, like intelligence, for the continuous dimension of judgement and social variables, like nationality, for the clear-cut category dimension. Like the coins, Tajfel (1959, cited in Brown, 2007) hypothesised that individuals would sort group members and exaggerate inter-group differences.Tajfel and Turner (1970, cited in Brown, 2007) undertook some minimal group experiments to test this hypothesis. These experiments were pu verify cognitive there was no reason for the groups to dislike or be competitive towards each other and therefore this shows how the cognitive bias and distortion can occur. The groups were formed by dividing participants according to a random p acknowledgement. Participants were asked to select mon ey to one of two participants they only knew of each others group membership. Like hypothesised, the participants tended to reward people who belong to the same group as themselves at the outlay of those who belong to the rival group, even if this was at the expense of maximising their own groups profit.So, in SIT individuals categorise themselves and others into groups then identify with the groups that heighten their self attentiveness and then compare their group with other groups by contrasting the good things about their group to the bad things about the other groups (Brown, 2007). Tajfel and Turner (1969, cited in Brown, 2007) argued that if an individual identifies themselves as being part of a category and consider themselves as part of that category then they are part of that category. But, biases are inevitable in SIT because the categories an individual uses serve a purpose (to preserve self esteem). As the categories used in SIT are social, this means that where the i ndividual lives can affect their categorisation mechanisms (Brown, 2007). For example, to heighten the individuals self esteem, the group the individual sees him/herself as having membership to have to select a relevant out-group to compare itself favourably with. The picking of this out-group depends on what is important to the society that the individual is living in at the time (Brown, 2007). Therefore group membership is created by categorisation, a cognitive mechanism, and the social merely interacts with this mechanism. So therefore SIT emphasises individual, internal processes of group membership and how group membership occurs is primarily a cognitive matter.The critical discursive perspective, however, sees categorisation and group membership as more as something individuals do through language in everyday interaction. This can be seen in the way that social categories are constructed in discourse, for example, Potter and Reicher (1987, cited in Phoenix, 2007) undertook di scourse research using communities. They used the social categorisation theory as a basis for their research which argued that if an individual perceived themselves to be part of a group, they behaved as a stereotypical member of the group when with the group their personality shifted from an individual emphasis to a social emphasis which would be reflected in their discourse.Potter and Reicher (1987, cited in Phoenix, 2007) analysed discourses of community that circulated after the St Pauls riot in Bristol in the 1980s and saw that and saw that many different discourses were given of the same event they called these different versions community repertoires. In these different community repertoires they saw that the use of the term community and who was a member of this group was very fluid, inconsistent and flexible. The same account could construct the term community in different ways, for example, the police could be constructed as being part of the community (which makes the rio t an intra-group conflict) or the police could be seen as outside of the community (which makes the riot an inter-group conflict). The community could also be seen as a reference to things like lifestyle or the local residents or even as another term for the black community (Potter and Reicher, 1987, cited in Phoenix, 2007). This approach sees groups in legal injury of individual and social relationships which move away from the individual-social dichotomies of the cognitive social approaches. Therefore group membership is created by discourse which is not a cognitive mechanism, so groups are constructed. So therefore the critical discursive perspective emphasises external, individual and societal processes of group membership and so how group membership occurs is not a cognitive matter.How SIT and the critical discursive perspective study loss can expand on how they each view group processes, how they see the individual and society and how they see power relations within group pr ocesses. SIT argues that categorisation encourages individuals to see the good in their in-group and compare it to the bad in the out-group which leads people to prejudiced thinking (Dixon, 2007). SIT recognises that there are social aspects of inter-group processes, like assimilation, but at the heart of SIT are the cognitive aspects of group processes (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). SIT suggests that individualistic cognitive mechanisms are the cause of prejudice and inter-group processes. Power relations also occur with SIT as its dominance may have affected how inter-group relations are viewed. The critical discursive perspective, however, argues that how individuals talk about groups and construct group identities is a better way to view the different ways that individuals categorise each day (Brown, 2007 DD307 Course Team, 2007).The critical discursive perspective takes into account how an individual uses discourses and how society is involved in inter-group processes (DD303 Course Team, 2007). The critical discursive perspective argues that how an individual makes sense of their reality is affected by their culturally available linguistic resources (Potter and Wetherell, 1987, cited in Dixon, 2007). In this approach, individuals can only categorise and form prejudice because their society shares a language which enables them to construct identities and social relations (Dixon, 2007). Power relations are created in this approach depending on the discourses used by individuals and groups to construct a reality that is of best interest to them (Cooper and Kaye, 2007). This approach does not believe that stereotypes are caused by cognitive mechanisms (Hamilton and Troiler. 1986, cited in Dixon, 2007) they believe that collective belief systems causes the conflicts seen between groups (Eidelson and Eidelson, 2003, cited in Dixon, 2007).Billig (2002, cited in Brown, 2007) moved from SIT to the critical discursive perspective and began to find limitations within SI T. For example, he saw that SIT assumed that categories that individual used to self categorise were fixed, stable and universal, whereas he argued that the categories used in SIT for prejudice were culturally determined, active, flexible, dynamic and constructed through language so cannot be explained in terms of psychological processes. SIT also assumes that the way individuals identify with groups is to help their self esteem when Billig (2002, cited in Brown, 2007) argued that this could not provide an explanation of extreme detest or the motivation for violence, hate or bigotry.But there have also been criticisms with the critical discursive perspective approach to groups, for example, Dixon (2007) noted that it neglects emotion and learning in favour of language details, this does not make sense to psychology which is about the mind. It would also be difficult to believe that strongly felt emotions are only social constructions through interaction with others via language. T he critical social perspective also does not explain how new groups are formed, for example, Emos, nor can they explain social change. There must also be a cognitive process that produces discourse as that is where meaning comes from it cannot only come from external discourse.SIT (representing cognitive social psychology) and critical discursive perspective have shown the extent to which group membership can be seen as primarily a cognitive matter from a social psychological point of view. SIT seems to rely on inner cognitive mechanisms for group membership whereas the critical discursive perspective seems to rely on outer constructions. As SIT suggests, the cognitive mechanisms of group membership seem to be important for understanding the world, although like the critical discursive perspective suggests, how categories are constructed using discourse processes are important for this understanding too. So therefore, from a social psychological point of view group membership is not primarily a cognitive matter, but instead group membership can be seen as both a combined cognitive and social matter. 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