Monday, January 27, 2020

Emerging Trends in Education

Emerging Trends in Education For individuals, the potential benefits lie in general quality of life and in the economic returns of sustained, satisfying employment. For countries, the potential benefits lie in economic growth and the development of shared values that underpin social cohesion. This statement highlights the importance of education not only from individuals point of view but also from the nations perspective. Through this project I would highlight the changes in the educational trends since years and the present scenario of education system. Apart from it I would also throw light on the future prospects of such changes. Education plays a major role in individuals growth as well as in nations development. There are certain factors which have led to the changes in the educational system like liberalization, globalization, growing demand etc which would be discussed in detail in the later stages. This project would tell us that what are the major areas where changes in education has taken place and in what form. CHAPTER 1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE The study on Online education and the challenge of MOTIVATION (Timothy .Arnold) This case examines the increasing importance of online education and some of the problems related with it due to a wider and new concept. Many students get demotivated since online education classes are a new education format, it also does not possess many of the known support systems that we can find inside a traditional school structure. These support systems are what helps keep students motivated. Though online education is very important to be competitive but still due to lack of efficient faculty it is becoming a difficult concept for learning. The lack of social interaction can also be a significant contributing factor for online education students easily losing the motivation to study. The case also tells us that problems could be overcomed through identifying a goal and work towards its attainment. This process helps you build up your pride in your accomplishments. It could also be overcomed by increasing chat with the instructors. The study on Benefits of Online Education And Degrees in India This case tells us coming age is of online education. Online education gives students an opportunity to have greater control over their own schedule compared to traditional education opportunities and settings. Time and money are two of everybodys most precious commodities these days. Online degrees have been wisely accepted in job market, most online students have no problem to use their online degree to start their career or find a job. Taking an online education course also saves time. Online education is a relatively new field that depends on the Internet to provide the delivery of instruction to students. THE STUDY ON DISTANCE LEARNING Through this case I have analyzed that what student expects from distance education. It tells us that students who have family pressure and due to some reason can not attend regular classes, distance learning / distance education is mainly meant for those students. The reason for that, they did not want to leave their present job and want some success in their life after getting higher degree courses. if we talk about the number of colleges that offer distance learning, the list is like annamalai university, Delhi university, Panjab university, Guru Nanak Dev university, IGNOU, JAMIA HAMDARD university, Kurukshetra university are some of the famous distance learning centers that offers various types of distance education courses in the fields of arts, science, medical, accountancy, it, engineering and many more. This shows that day by day distance learning is gaining its importance. THE STUDY ON ROLE OF EDUCATION IN ECONOMICS GROWTH (SANA) This case highlights that the growth of the economy and development of a country is depending upon the education system of that particular country. European countries have already opened doors for international students and these countries are always emphasis on improving their education structure, developing more colleges and universities on country side areas and always in a way to update their course content on regular basis. The study on Higher Education in INDIA (BY Suma Chitnis) It concludes the era of how the higher education exist in India after the independence: First, higher education was to provide the manpower required for economic growth and for an efficient delivery of services such as healthcare, transportation, communication and community welfare -considered basic to a developed society. And, it was to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the manner required to place India on par with the developed world. Second, higher education functions as an instrument of equality. It was recognized that these objectives were the very opposite of those that universities had served in British India. ROLE OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN BASIC EDUCATION (ANURADHA DE, MANABI MAJUMADAR, MEERA SAMSON AND CLAIRE NORONHA) it tells us that private schools have been expanding rapidly in recent years. It cautions that increasing privatization will only increase the already strong gender bias in schooling. The number of private institutions is expected to increase, if government system is allowed to deteriorate further. CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCTION Education is important not only for the full development of ones personality, but also for the sustained growth of the nation. Education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. The growth of the economy and development of a country is depending upon the education system of that particular country. Most of the developed countries and other developed European countries already open doors for students and these countries are always emphasis on improving their education structure, developing more colleges and universities on country side areas and always in a way to update their course content on regular basis. There have been some significant changes of emphasis between subjects, most notably the raising of the status of basic literacy and numeracy. Educations nowadays have been totally technology based. Online education, though a comparatively new system of delivering education, has come a long way to be recognized. More and more colleges and universities have started adding online courses as well as other forms of distance learning. As compared to other countries, India has also launched many types of different degree courses offered by various universities and colleges of India. Like education degree courses have played an important role in improving and developing education sector of India. Education is chosen to be the principal instrument for the countrys transformation from a poor, dependent, economically and technologically backward imperial colony into an advanced nation. In the larger design for this transformation which calls for economic development as well as extensive social and political change higher education is given much importance. Education is the only possession no one can ever take away from you. It offers a multiplicity of top quality education programs of interest to international students. Efforts to make learning more interactive and more fun for students appear promising. COMPARISON OF EDUCATIONAL TRENDS IN PRE ERA AND POST ERA In contrast with the traditional situation in which teaching staff develops courses on their own, and choose the way they teach and assess student progress (the teacher as king of his class) but now with the changing times, learning environments of the future will be designed by multi-disciplinary teams of experts. Experts in developing course material, programmers, graphical designers, and experts in assessment, all work together in designing rich modularized learning environments that offer alternative learning routes to different types of students. Earlier students focused more on the primary learning materials that was offered by teaching staff. But now the emphasis is on developing competencies needed to become knowledge workers, and if work and learning are more interconnected, one expect learning environments to become more open. Students nowadays with the changing times go beyond the primary learning materials offered by teaching staff and are expected to explore independently other information sources as well. With several educational options available to students today, newer trends are emerging in this field which has completely changed the traditional held perceptions about education in India. Several career options that were earlier not considered to be traditional have emerged as the most sought after education and career options. Various career options in like radio jockeying, radio management, news anchoring, program anchoring, news reading and reporting for the electronic media, content writing, fashion designing, event management, hospital management, medical transcription etc, have opened up several newer avenues for education. Traditional study courses like medicine, engineering and other subjects still have lots of demand. However, with the changing trends in the global and national economic scenario newer courses are fast emerging as alternative. The recent trends in education have certainly shown a deviation from the earlier trends. Online Education is fast becoming a major preferred mode of education among students. Enrolling to regular courses is increasingly getting highly competitive in India; So online education and distance education has come as a wonderful alternative and several students opt for this. Online education means web based learning, but there is no universally accepted definition. One of the main reasons for this is the provision that one can get degrees from various renowned universities from anywhere in India. Distance education is given through correspondence courses, where the student and the teacher are separated in time and space and sometimes both. Distance learning is doing a wonderful job by enabling the less advantaged sections of the society have an opportunity to get educated. CHANGES IN EDUCATIONAL TRENDS There are profound changes going on in the educational system. Almost every aspect of primary and secondary education has changed. These changes are needed because of ever growing pressure in the school systems themselves, partly because society itself is changing into one in which knowledge work becomes ever more important, and partly because of the very information and communication technologies which are transforming the economies. By confronting trends and technological developments, a new concept is emerged with a vision of a global learning infrastructure in which the role of schools and universities will be drastically changed, a radical transformation of the educational system. Major reasons behind these changes are:-: Globalization and liberalization Changes have led to more flexible learning arrangements. Education is under constant budget pressure, thus there is a need for more efficient and effective education. There are too many dropouts in the current educational system. Demand for more professional and skilled employees is increasing. Following are some of the examples of changes in educational trends:- MOBILE LEARNING- Todays students expect constant access to information-in the classroom and beyond. As educators all over the world are discovering, mobile learning has solved many problems. Students devour engaging, customized curricula when its delivered on the iPod or iPhone.Audio and video podcasts let students study at their own pace, wherever and whenever they want. ONE-TO-ONE COMPUTING- One-to-one computing means that every student or teacher is given to a computer, the internet and software anytime and anywhere. This way they can make maximum utilization of their time and become more efficient. PERSONALIZED LEARNING- Personalized Learning is a unique, blended classroom-based and non classroom-based public educational model that is tailored to the needs and interests of each individual student. The key attributes that comprise the Personalized Learning model are based upon how students learn most successfully, including a strong emphasis on parental involvement, smaller class sizes, more one-on-one teacher and student interaction, attention to differences in learning styles, student-driven participation in developing the learning process, technology access, varied learning environments, teacher and parent development programs, and choices in curriculum programs. VIDEO TRAINING- To enhance the quality of teaching and learning of pre-service training. The use of digital video was introduced. As a result of the use of video, trainees are able to improve their teaching performances in areas such as classroom management, group work, and motivation and presentation skills. PRIMARY EDUCATION The proposed changes to primary education seek to ensure that students are equipped not just with content knowledge, but also with the necessary skills and values to thrive in a fast-changing and globalised future. They build on the strengths of the current system, and seek to raise primary education to a new level. ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHER-The most important aspect of the approach is the attitude of the teacher, which highlights that learning is a form of play which fosters the blossoming of the childs natural development. Learning is made interesting, enjoyable, and full of fun. A large portion of the teaching materials are produced at the school by the teachers, who customize their teaching aids to suit the interests and knowledge levels of the students. HEALTH AND NUTRITION- First attention is given to the health and nutrition of the children to ensure that they have the physical energy and natural attention span needed for learning. Nutritional and medical supplements are provided to under-nourished children from low income families. Free exercising and play are encouraged to build strength and stamina. STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO IS KEPT VERY LOW- The student-teacher ratio is kept very low to enable the teacher to work with small groups of children at a time while others are absorbed in learning games or recreational play. The most effective ratio is 10 students per teacher during pre-school, LKG and UKG and twenty five students per teacher during standards 1 to 5. However, since the teaching methods are intense, each student actually needs to attend only 2Â ½ to 3 hours of class per day, enabling each teacher to effectively handle double the number of students. TEACHING CONFINED TO BRIEF PERIODS- Children learn spontaneously when their interest and curiosity are awakened. Teaching is confined to brief periods according to the natural attention span of each child, which is normally 15-30 minutes daily during the first two years. It is never extended beyond the childs span of interest. STORY TELLING- Story telling is used to make learning fun and to communicate basic values of goodness, beauty, harmony, responsibility and right conduct. Information on people and other living things, places, history, geography, and other cultures are presented to the child in the form of stories, pictorial information and explanations combined together to present facts in a living, integrated context rather than as a series of separate divorced subjects. NUMBER LINE METHOD- Rapid acquisition of basic math skills is achieved through the use of number line method which enables the child to physically experiment and act out different combinations of addition and subtraction. HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education is not only a tool for economic development but a means of bolstering the confidence of a country and bringing about social change. Todays students are consumers looking for quality of service and recognition, access and equity, financing and cost, building of intellectual capital and capacity as well as policy coherence. QUALITY, ASSURANCE AND RECOGNITION It focuses on providing information and capacity to empower higher education stakeholders to make better informed decisions in the new world of higher education. This initiative aims to provide information to protect students from inadequate learning resources and low-quality provisions. Recognition refers to the acceptance of a foreign certificate, diploma or degree of higher education as a valid credential by the competent authorities and the granting to its holder the same rights enjoyed by persons who possess a national qualification for which the foreign one is assessed as comparable. DIGITAL LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION. More and more information is made available through the web. Search engines assure the accessibility of this material. Groupware allows synchronous communication between teachers and students worldwide. Online market research is quick and easy, and this market information can be combined with transaction log data allowing institutions to monitor consumer (i.e., student) response on an ongoing basis. Through the Internet, course material can be offered independently of time and place. Modularization makes it possible to offer different and flexible learning routes. INTERNSHIPS AND INDUSTRIAL VISITS Additions of internships and industrial visits have encouraged students to be more interactive and develop their skills in a better way. Industrial visits help students to take full advantage of learning opportunities and also helps students to become more effective and competitive. On the other hand by doing internship one can gain valuable work experience, apply classroom knowledge, gain confidence, increases interaction and creates opportunities to know and understand people better which would also help individual to be flexible. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (VET) Due to vocational education more students are getting employment quickly as it involves more involvement of industry, internships and due to this there is also less efforts thats needs to be taken by the institutions in order to train employees as students are already well versed and familiar with the work to be undertaken so it helps industries to save their training costs. TECHNICAL EDUCATION As the technical education courses in India are quite diverse, the number of institutes providing technical courses in India is also huge. More than 33o universities and 18000 training colleges are providing technical education. Technical education is day by day becoming the need of the hour. Technical education is given importance because without technical education one would not be able to handle work efficiently as would find it difficult to cope up with as changing world would involve more of technicalities and without much of its knowledge one cannot survive in industry for long. Nowadays technology is used as an additional tool for traditional teaching and learning processes and also technology is used as the center of an innovative teaching and learning process DISTANCE EDUCATION One of the main reasons for this is the provision that one can get degrees from various renowned universities from anywhere in India. Distance education is given through correspondence courses, where the student and the teacher are separated in time and space. Distance learning is enabling the less advantaged sections of the society have an opportunity to get educated. There are different types of distance learning options available to students. Some of them are Postal correspondence courses interactive CD-ROM courses pocket PC/mobile learning course Telecourse/ broadcast course through radio or television and synchronous or asynchronous internet courses. Just like online education, in distance education too, students will not have to relocate to new places or make any changes in their existing work. PRIVATE EDUCATION The concept of private education has been increasingly given importance. Private schools often provide superior results at a fraction of the unit cost of government schools. It has been pointed out that private schools cover the entire curriculum and offer extra-curricular activities such as science fairs, general knowledge, sports, music and drama. FACTORS LEADING TO CHANGE IN EDUCATIONAL TRENDS Several developments in the workplace, changes in student demographics, and the economic trends are forcing educational institutions to change. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE WORKPLACE Employers are seeking employees who are technology and information literate. The education of new knowledge workers requires emphasis on information access, problem solving, analysis, evaluation, and decision making. Rapid change and uncertainty in the workplace encourages employers to seek individuals who already have the required skills. The increasing number of part-time workers require more flexible access to education. Knowing how to access information rather than memorizing information is central to coping with this rapid change. ECONOMIC PRESSURES Economic pressures are one of the reason for educational change. As most of the faculty is already working as hard as they can. And by trying to get the faculty to work harder will not produce greater efficiency. Due to increasing demand and to reduce unemployment rate changes in education is necessary. COMPETITION Private business has begun to see profit potential in offering short, inexpensive market-specific training that appears to be highly relevant to students. This training directly competes with traditional college programs. Access to the Internet allows learners to take courses virtually anywhere in the world. There are currently hundreds of courses available from accredited North American colleges in all academic disciplines. Geographic location is no longer relevant. Global competition is increasing constantly. INTERNATIONALIZATION, REGIONALIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION Internationalization, regionalization and globalization are key factors that shape Higher Education. The development of regional education and research areas in various parts of the world challenges national values and cultures and calls for new regional instruments (e.g. for quality assurance and recognition). The specific challenges facing small states, whether island or landlocked, requires special attention in the context of globalization. FUTURE PROSPECTS The pace of change is mandating to produce a faster, smarter, better grade of human being. Future education system will be unleashed with the advent of a standardized rapid courseware-builder and a single point global distribution system. SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS With the introduction of changes in education system it would give rise to successful entrepreneurs. As sound and capable executives are rendered completely ineffective in a startup environment but as the concept of provision of education has changed and more emphasis is laid on technical and managerial skills these executives are emerging or found more immensely. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Changes in education would also lead to development of the nation as individuals would be more efficient and capable which would directly contribute to the nations growth and development. It would also lead to more innovations and raise the standard of living as individuals would be more organized. With more knowledge and high skills one would become highly competitive and could easily adapt in any part of the country. It would also lead to better functioning of the units. TECHNOLOGICAL ERA Coming era would be technological era, The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age, is an idea that the age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. The idea is linked to the concept of a Digital Age or Digital Revolution, and carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based around the manipulation of information. SKILLED AND HIGHLY EFFICIENT WORKERS It would also lead to highly skilled and efficient employees who have been provided quality education. The employees would carry a positive framework or outlook and would be very effective in their decision making and would also carry technical and managerial skills which would help them to be more productive and qualitative in nature. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY OBJECTIVES To study the comparison of educational trends in the past era and the present scenario. To study the effects of changing educational trends on the Indian society. To study the changes in the present educational system To know about the factors leading to the change in the education. CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION In this study I have analyzed that globalization has played a major role in changing educational system. Foreign culture has a direct impact on the country. The companies that are entering Indian market are looking for the individuals who are highly qualified and consists of a mix of technical and managerial skills i.e. person should have complete technical knowledge and must have skills of leadership and should also be highly efficient. Changed educational system would lead to successful entrepreneurs. And these Successful entrepreneurs would be those who innovate, plan strategically, hold the risk bearing ability and stand strong against all the stumbling blocks transform them into stepping stones by bringing sweeping changes and revolutionizing. There had been lot many changes in the educational system whether it is incase of primary or higher education. In case of primary education stress have been reduced as education is taught keeping in mind the health of the students. Visual aids, gaming, story telling etc are given much importance in order to provide education to the students. More emphasis is laid on this method because it is found that this is much faster means of learning and also helps students to develop their personality and leads to more interaction. Whereas on the other hand incase of higher education more emphasis is laid on imparting quality education .quality education helps individual develop better learning skills. Internships have been introduced which encourages students to relate their college based knowledge with the practical knowledge and they can visualize the work actually done in the industry. Through this one can also focus on their goals more accurately. With the increased industrial visits one can develop its interactive skills and also improve its learning. It has also been analyzed that with the increasing competition changes in the educational methods are equally important as traditional method of teaching have become totally obsolete. With the changing time, the era would be totally technology based. Lack of computer education could also lead to unemployment as it would become need of the hour. Without computer education one would become unable to work efficiently and effectively. It would also lead to wastage of time and also resources. Such individuals would not be as productive as computer learning nowadays have become a necessity for every individual. Due to this fact most of the colleges have increasingly introduced more of computer aided programs and also included its training as a part of their curriculum. This case also highlights the introduction of new courses and learning programs. It also had laid emphasis on new educations systems like distance learning, mobile learning, online education that includes learning through interaction with faculty on cams. FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS FINDINGS A change in education has led to better individual development as well as development of the nation. Technology plays a major role in imparting education. Burden of students during primary stage is reduced as the education is conducted more in informal manner through role playing, story telling, conducting games etc. Higher education is improved by introducing internships, projects and by introducing industrial visits which adds more value to it. Globalization, liberalization and demand of the hour has led to educational changes. Educational change has bought a positive impact on the society.it would also improve literacy rate. SUGGESTIONS As per my opinion more emphasis must be given on e-learning than to book learning as it would help individual to conduct its operations easily in any part of the country as technology is improving day by day and access to it is equally important. More emphasis should be laid on industrial visits, technology accessibility i.e. theoretical learning should be directly linked with practical learning. More of practical approach should be used. Lectures and interaction with renowned personalities in the concerned field should be increased. It would help students develop their intellectual level, motivate them and develop confidence in them. Last but not the least as per my viewpoint more informal method of learning should be used, as it would help individual to develop its skills at a faster pace than the formal approach. CONCLUSION India is a developing nation and it has been expanding is every fields. Education saw an essential change gradually after Independence. Development of education in India brought about a transformation and the concept of education got modified. All levels of education in India, from primary to higher education portray a challenge. India got well-known educational institutions such as the IITs, IISc, IIMs, NITs, AIIMS, ISI, JU, BITS, and ISB. The higher education system of India is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States. Education travelled a long way and thus Indian education system introduced certain advantageous system such as online education In India. Online education is a system of education training which is delivered primarily via the Internet to students at remote locations. Online education encompasses various degrees and courses. Indian education has different phases. Students are provided with extensive scope and courses to choose from. One enjoys the opportunity of selecting the required field. The system of Distant Education in India is becoming increasingly popular. The students choosing distance learning process are benefited with the modern pattern followed. The availability of distance learning courses has assured that a person can pursue education from any state or university accordingly. So this highlights the increasing importance of changes in education and their benefits and effects on Indian society. CHAPTER 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Sites referred:- http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html www.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Comparing Cantebury Tales and The Decameron Essay -- Papers

Comparing Cantebury Tales and The Decameron There are many different roles for women shown in â€Å"The Canterbury Tales† and â€Å"The Decameron†. Both books take place around the same time frame, 1300AD. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales†, takes place in London, England and â€Å"The Decameron† takes place in Florence, Italy. It would be just to think that since both books take place in a western civilization, both books would reflect the same morals and daily life styles. This is not the case at all. Throughout this paper I will attempt to show how these two books portrayed a totally different lifestyle. In â€Å"The Decameron†, by Giovanni Boccaccio, the rolls of men and women are what you would expect of a western society in the 1300’s. Women are generally seen as gentle beings that were somewhat naà ¯ve. There was a very distinct line that separated men from women. Through out the stories I noticed a consistent story line of women being very loyal to their men. The men would end up doing terrible things to the woman. In some cases the husbands would actually put the wife through massive suffering and n... Comparing Cantebury Tales and The Decameron Essay -- Papers Comparing Cantebury Tales and The Decameron There are many different roles for women shown in â€Å"The Canterbury Tales† and â€Å"The Decameron†. Both books take place around the same time frame, 1300AD. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales†, takes place in London, England and â€Å"The Decameron† takes place in Florence, Italy. It would be just to think that since both books take place in a western civilization, both books would reflect the same morals and daily life styles. This is not the case at all. Throughout this paper I will attempt to show how these two books portrayed a totally different lifestyle. In â€Å"The Decameron†, by Giovanni Boccaccio, the rolls of men and women are what you would expect of a western society in the 1300’s. Women are generally seen as gentle beings that were somewhat naà ¯ve. There was a very distinct line that separated men from women. Through out the stories I noticed a consistent story line of women being very loyal to their men. The men would end up doing terrible things to the woman. In some cases the husbands would actually put the wife through massive suffering and n...

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Accounting Profit vs. Economic Profit. the Necessity of a Management Performance System to Boost Organization’s Performance

Accurate information is a critical input in a decision making process that targets real value creation for shareholders. The objective of this paper is the analysis of two articles of Stern Steward Research, namely â€Å"Accounting is Broken. Here’s How to fix it. A Radical Manifiesto† and â€Å"The capitalism Manifesto. The Transformation of the Corporation – Employee Capitalism –â€Å". Both papers propose a roadmap to fix the conventional accounting shortness through the use of Value Based Management (VBM) as a real and effective management system of value creation and measurement.Economic Value Added (EVA) plays the main role in this management approach, as a very effective performance metric in the alignment of the organization with its ultimate goal of shareholder’s value creation. VIEW OF THE READING In the first paper â€Å"Accounting is Broken. Here’s How to fix it. A Radical Manifiesto†, the accounting related aspects of EV A are discussed, providing a comparison between accounting earnings and economic earnings. Weaknesses of accounting standards are exposed here.The authors suggest a serie of radical reforms for the conventional accounting in order to align conventional with economic accounting in order to provide managers with the information that really matters and avoid mispreactices to deceive shareholders. The paper proposes EVA as a rock solid measure that provides a very clear picture of the organization’s performance. According to the paper accountants should start using economic profit (EVA) to better reflect the economic reality of the organization.Economic earnings underpin the decision making process, clarifying the economic objectives and setting up a target for value creation. The paper highlights the capability of EVA measure to fix some weaknesses of the accounting earnings perspective and proposes some reforms: †¢Cost of equity must be brought into the light of day as a k ey element for the economic profit. Shareholders need and deserve to be compensated for the risk they are taking by investing in a company. †¢Operating decision must be separated from investment and financing decision to avoid manipulation. Intangible assets should be capitalized as investments aimed at the creation of economic profit. †¢Stock options have to be expensed and depreciation and amortization must be better measured. The second paper â€Å"The capitalism Manifesto. The Transformation of the Corporation – Employee Capitalism –â€Å" analyzes the role of EVA measure as a metric of the total organizational productivity and the role it plays or can play in a pay-per-performance incentive plan to align the interest of the owners with the interest of the employees to enhance organization performance.Empowerment and accountability are seen as the basis to boost employee’s performance and the basis to set up incentive programes to stick the gains . The paper presents a deep analysis on the implementation of effective business management and incentive systems down to the shop floor in the European Union. Some examples are presented to explain the potential role of EVA in the implementation of a European policy for incentive plans. According to the paper, executives and frontline employees can or should unify their efforts within the EVA proven management system, to maximize value creation within the organization.The authors propose that decision making process at all levels should be implemented within a management framework where short- and long term incentive plans will be linked to results in form of value creation. Incentive plans should also be linked to cash and equity to guarantee the sustainability of the organization. If the employees can invest in the organization, they will start acting like owners taking right decisions and fostering sustainable growth. MY POINT OF VIEW Both papers assume a shareholder’s va lue perspective: the first and foremost purpose of a Corporation is to maximize shareholder value.This perspective should be brought in balance with the stakeholder’s perspective. Profitability has to be combined with responsibility. According to S. David Young and Stephen F. O’Byrne (2000), the economic pressures that organizations are facing nowadays induce managers, in some cases, to use bad practices in order to deceive shareholders by inflated earnings or not sustainable growth. EVA alone cannot solve this issue. A very clear management system has to be set up with guidelines and accountability for executives. Corporations cannot become economic machines.Responsibility for stakeholders (employees, society, environment, customers) has to play a central role as well. Economic earnings should be the main target, but corporations should be able to provide the needed environment to create the expected value based on ownership, clear economic and financial information, moral recognition, personal growth, empowerment and training. The first paper is a very interesting approach to EVA and to accounting practices. It sheds light on the issue that accounting is not what is used to be and cannot account anymore for what it has to account.Accounting standards lack the ability to control and guide executive behavior. On the other hand, the paper tends to fully disqualify accounting. Conventional accounting has played and will play its role in the society. It is hard to say that accounting is completely responsible for all bad practices and mismanagement cases (Enron, Worldcom, etc). Accounting has its weak points and these weaknesses have been used by irrational managers to inflate value in the shareholder’s eyes. The question is if we are talking about a symptom or about a root cause.We cannot solve the problem working on the symptoms. The root causes have to be found and addressed. In the current competitive environment, managers are struggling with the value creation process. Fierce competition and growing expectations of the shareholders is a killing combination to push managers in the bad path. It is not rare then that some of them make use of bad practices in order to boost value on the short-term, but putting in serious dangerous the future of the organization.In such situation is fair to say that accounting cannot account anymore for what really counts. Accounting standards allow these bad practices. A superior management system is in need. S. David Young and Stephen F. O’Byrne (2000) states that EVA can actually boost productivity and is able to match the interests of shareholders and stakeholders. Decision making process must be decentralized and roll down to the floor. In my experience, executives lack the ability to empower employees.Maybe it is the fear to lose power or that they don’t trust the subordinates. In any case they are missing the possibility to stimulate and motivate employees and the m ost important they are failing to use the advantage of impacting decision making by the ‘time and place’ factors. I think one of the reasons can be that they lack a measure like EVA that can set up the targets for the whole organization, allowing the cascading of the decision making process, improving the performance of the organization through more motivated employees and ownership boosting.EVA can be used at all levels within the organization, stimulating the decision making and risk taking attitude of the employees, since EVA will bring transparency and direction to the objectives to be met to create true value. In this case owners don’t have to worry about the earning sharing and they can start seeing employees as partner with the same objectives and motivations. Nowadays the intellectual capital of a corporation is one of the strongest competitive edges they can create. Employee’s satisfaction must be one of the goals within the organization to make i t sustainable.Employee’s satisfaction cannot be based only on cash or equity. People need a trusty environment where they can interact and reach high productivity levels, based not only on economic incentives, but on total ownership, supported by an increasing role in the decision making process, contributing to the value creation process and ensuring a sustainable growth of the organization. If one takes a closer look at EVA methodology to demonstrate that EVA is not as simple as supporters tell. EVA is a performance measure capable of reliably indicating the intrinsic value of all companies in all times.As a performance metric, EVA remains in control of the corporation and should impact Market Value Added (MVA) on the long term creating true value for the shareholders. With EVA managers have a more effective tool to support their decision making process. The entire metric was developed based on the following three ideas : 1. Cash flows are the best indicators of performance . The accounting distortions must therefore be â€Å"fixed†. Accrual based accounting should be transformed into cash-flow accounting. 2. Some expenses are really investments and should be capitalized on the balance sheet.True investments must therefore be recognized as means to create future cash flow. 3. Equity capital is expensive (or, at the very least, not free). This expense must therefore be accounted for. Investment is an economic decision and opportunity cost should be taken into account. To calculate EVA, two sets of information’s are needed, namely the Net Operating Profit After Taxes (NOPAT) and the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). NOPAT is first calculated based on the Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA).Some adjustments are needed here to account for the correct operating profit of the corporation. Important here is to understand that operating and financing decisions must be evaluated separately. NOPAT provides a very clear picture of the organization operating performance, excluding potential manipulation through financing decisions. On the other hand, WACC is the average of the costs of the financing sources, each of which is weighted by its respective use in the given situation. By taking a weighted average, we can see how much interest the company has to pay for every dollar it finances.WACC demands a very clear policy from the organization about its financial structure (debt and equity relationship) to calculate the cost of the capital. This is a fundament to avoid bad practices, manipulations, abuse of leverage technique through cheaper debts and ineffective decision making process. A very strong and reliable financing structure is needed in order to not compromise the future of the organization and to provide a very solid platform for the economic growth, by choosing projects with a really economic impact on the bottom line. Generally speaking, EVA has a big drawback.As we could se e above, EVA is very far from being a simple metric. The point here is that the implementation of value-added measures such as EVA into a company is a costly and time consuming process . Substantial costs and time are justified only if benefits of optimizing the company’s strategy for value creation can be achieved. A transition to value-added measurements requires serious commitment of the board of directors and senior management to use these measures to manage the business. Every individual in the company must buy into the plan to make it successful.Extensive training and communication effort directed to everyone in the company is also required. EVA may be a complex concept and may not be something the average person/employee/manager/investor is going to understand without big efforts. When it comes to the organizational change required to implement something like EVA, you need to get people on board and it could be a very difficult task and therefore a major obstacle for i ts adoption. EVA should not be viewed as the answer to all things either. It doesn’t solve business problems, which is the manager’s responsibility.In conjunction with MVA, it does provide a meaningful target to pursue for both internally and externally oriented decisions. Managers remain the leaders within the corporations and the one who has to drive the value creation process. Generally speaking, shareholders must be provided with clear data on the corporation performance and on the decision making process. They need and deserve a return on their investment, but it should not be forgotten that their investment decisions involve risk and they must be compensated for this.The cost of the capital should be incorporated. Value creation should be calculated as the difference between NOPAT and capital and its cost. Accounting earnings don’t mean value creation. A Corporation can report net profits that don’t actually mean value creation from the shareholderà ¢â‚¬â„¢s viewpoint. To accomplish this, managers need clear and strong performance metrics able to stretch the corporation to achieve clear performance targets properly aligned with the ultimate goal of creating value. EVA is a metric upon which the whole organization can be build.In the current high competitive market, Value Based Management is a competitive advantage. It aligns the organizations with the expectations of the shareholders, facilitating the decision making process, avoiding accounting manipulation, targeting the ultimate goal of value creation, providing a very unambiguous metric such as EVA to guide the organization through the value creation process and ensuring the long term economic growth of the organization based on clear and transparent management practices.CONCLUSIONS Both papers offer a very clear perspective of the advantages of using EVA. Value Based Management provides Senior Management Teams with a clear benefit since it is able to close the gap between accounting earnings and economic earnings, driving the value within the organization. With EVA, the corporations possesses a metric that drives value and supports the incentive plans to motivate employees and make them to act like owners.Effective implementation could be an issue due to the complexity of the concept, but EVA is nowadays the most effective management approach connecting shareholders and stakeholders to accomplish the ultimate economic goal of the corporation, the value creation. EVA creates a very transparent environment providing more qualitative data to the shareholders about the organization’s performance and the use of the resources. It also provides a more qualitative decision making process in order to satisfy shareholder’s expectations.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Hamlet, By William Shakespeare - 1237 Words

In Hamlet, Gertrude is the mother of Prince Hamlet and the queen of Denmark. She was the wife of King Hamlet, but after his death she married his brother, Claudius. Poor Gertrude is put through a lot in this play. Between the death of her husband and her son becoming crazy, it becomes a lot for one person to handle. Gertrude has often been seen as a flawed leading lady because of her lack of knowledge in some situations and her insensitiveness to the place she has put Hamlet in; however, Gertrude is respected because of her care towards Hamlet and his welfare and her care for the other people in the kingdom. There were many instances in which Gertrude was clueless as to what was going on around her. She did not realize, when she married Claudius, that Hamlet was angry with her about marrying her late husband’s brother. She thought that Hamlet was going crazy because of his love for Ophelia, when actually Hamlet was becoming mad because of his father’s ghost and the reve nge he was supposed to get on Claudius. Most likely, she did not know that her new husband, Claudius, killed her late husband, King Hamlet, to get the throne. She also completely missed the fact that her son was looking for ways to kill her husband. Above all, she was clueless to the fact that her new husband was trying to kill her son, so clueless that she ended up drinking from a poisoned cup and killing herself. In the end, her cluelessness and lack of knowledge of the things going on around her killedShow MoreRelatedHamlet, By William Shakespeare880 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Shakespeare is praised as the pioneering English poet and playwright whose collection of theatrical works is regarded as the greatest artistic value throughout the history of English literature. Shakespeare delved into the spiritual and mental component of humanity and the consequences that arise from this human spirit when it is disputed. The most famous revenge tragedy play, Hamlet, is an excellent ill ustration of Shakespeare’s philosophical study of human nature. In Hamlet, the arguableRead MoreHamlet, By William Shakespeare899 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Shakespeare, author of Hamlet, was a well-known author in the 1500s and is still popular today. He was born on April 24, 1564 in London, England. Although there were no birth records at that time, it shows he was baptized one year prior to that, which leads us to believe his birthday was in 1564 because children were normally baptized a year after their birth. Shakespeare’s writing style was very different than others at that time. 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A result from this isolation leads Hamlet to become melancholy. Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts, wants to kill King Claudius, and is distraught over his mother’sRead MoreHamlet, By William Shakespeare846 Words   |  4 Pagesalways been a contemplative topic. In Hamlet, the main character Hamlet thinks to himself about suicide. Hamlet was written by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet between 1599 and 1602. William Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights in history. Hamlet is about Prince Hamlet of Denmark who is trying to find out about the death of his father after his father s ‘ghost’ comes to him telling him it was his uncle who had killed him. While Hamlet contemplates suicide he gives his famous