Wyndham Adopts a Stakeholder Orientation Marketing Strategy Case Study

Wyndham Adopts a Stakeholder Orientation Marketing Strategy - Case Study Example The case study "Wyndham Adopts a Stakeholder Orientation Marketing Strategy" shows how the hotel giant Wyndham Worldwide has gained its brand image in the global market and has a huge reputation. It also shows how the company faces problems from its competitors, substitutes and also because of the wrong promotion. The company grew at a fast pace and merged with Patriot American hospitality in 1988. This new company was named as the Wyndham International Inc., this company started to implement a new aggressive strategy of acquiring hotels and companies across the globe in different parts of different countries. In 2005, Cendant Corporation took over Wyndham hotel brand and started its lodging, vacation and also in the retail business and was able to create the worldwide presence of Wyndham Worldwide and it replaced the name Cendant. Porter’s five forces are generally used for the industry analysis and for understanding the business strategy. It includes the five major factors that help to determine the competitive intensity and the competitive edge that the co0mapny has in the market. The three of Porter's five forces are related to the external sources that affect the business strategy and also results in either success or failure of the business strategies. While the other two are generally the internal factors the influence the business operations. The threat of New Entrants with respect to Wyndham Worldwide is very Low as the company has a huge capital and also a good chain present across the globe.

Clinical Intervention Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Clinical Intervention Paper - Essay Example Arc of Westchester is the most extensive care-giving agency in the county of Westchester. The agency cares for both children and adults who have been affected by autism coupled with other developmental problems or disabilities. It was founded in 1949 and has over 800 employees serving over 1000 special-needs individuals. Other services provided by the agency include family services, education services for its occupants and employment for persons with disabilities. The agency receives the funds necessary for its operations from donations. The Westchester Arc understands that some families who have a child with intellectual disabilities have difficulties in coping with the unique behavioral problems of their children with special needs. Medicaid Service Coordination helps individuals and their families who are eligible for Medicaid, to coordinate a wide range of services. These include access to government services and advocacy for services, including medical assessments and appointment, training and professional development, educational, recreational resources and housing. The county experienced a population growth of 3%, that is, from 923,459 to 949,113 according to the census conducted in 2010. The population growth was as a result of the increase in the number of people of Hispanic and Latino origin in the county. The increase in the Hispanic population was registered as 62,908 and now accounts for 22% of the total population in the county. The Chester port and Sleepy Hollow are majorly occupied by People of Latino and Hispanic origins. The Hispanic and Latino population constitutes 59% of the total population in Port Chester and 51% in Sleepy Hollow. Katonah defines a minute town within New York. The people of Katonah reside within small settlement schemes and their population density is low because the city is considered as being a hamlet. According to the US Census 2010, the Katonah

Network security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Network security - Research Paper Example This study proposes a number of ad hoc network protocols that will operate during on-demand basis or situations because on-demand protocols are known to have faster reaction and lower overhead compared to other routing protocols considering proactive mechanisms. Recently, there have been many developments as concerns mounting secure routing protocols for ad hoc networks incorporating a significant number of on-demand secure routing protocols to shield a number of probable attacks. In this study, a new attack that causes denial of service when exposed to all the previous on-demand network protocols is presented; it is referred to as rushing attack. Ad hoc network protocols like AODV and DSR with all security protocols imposed on them can’t discover routes which are longer than 2 hops when subjected to this attack. This is a serious attack because it can be propagated by even relatively very weak attackers. This study pays close attention to the setbacks that previous protocols had hence failing to counter this grave attack and come up with a RAP (Rushing Attack Prevention) which is a standard protection against on-demand protocols rushing attack. This protection provides a provable security feature to weak and even the stronger rushing attackers at no cost provided the underlying protocol does not fail to identify the working route. Topic description Nowadays the WSNs or Wireless sensor networks is gaining a global interest of its usage of minimal power radio skills and microelectronic systems. Its Sensor nodes are able to use batteries as a major source of power as well as harness energy from the environment as the case of solar panels. However the wireless sensor network architecture for WSN like any other wireless technology, it is subjected to a number of security attacks because it uses broadcast way of a transmission channel. A number of limitations in including security in WSN are prevalent e.g. : communication, storage limitations, processing capa bilities and computation, therefore, to plan a security protocol one has to understand all these challenges if acceptable performance is to be achieved (C?ayirci and Rong 187-202). This study will therefore, elaborate certain kinds of attacks over the ad hoc and wireless sensor networks as well as doing security analysis of the main routing protocols in these networks as pertains security goals and design. Ad hoc network can be described as a group of mobile nodes or computers that collaborate with each other by forwarding packets to each other; this enables them to extend their limited communication range for each computer’s wireless network interface. This study shall produce a number of established protocols in ad hoc networks. These networks are mostly preferred in situations where the communicating computers are mobile and wired network use is not economical or generally not present. These nodes may run applications from un-trusted sources and therefore a need of a secur e routing protocol. Secure routing protocols shouldn’t only be implemented only because of known attackers but even for the unforeseen ones because it will provide resilience to misconfigured computers. Routing tables for misconfigured nodes poses a

Intro to Linguistics Essay Example for Free

Intro to Linguistics Essay The study of human languages; including the influence of one language on another; how language and words are formed and change within time; the rules of the language- how words are formed, the structure of sentences and words; relationship between culture and language; how language is acquired- the process of language acquisition (foreigner verses mother tongue language). There are two approaches/types of linguistics: 1. Traditional Linguistics- the only field that ruled until the 20 century. 2. Modern Linguistics Traditional Linguistics. Characteristics: 1. Proscriptive approach- according to this approach, linguists tell native speakers how to use their own mother tongue- what are the rules: set norms of/ dictating the right use of the language, the rules and the right use of the language- educating the native speakers. The goal is to tell the speakers what is considered right or wrong language. 2. Focus on the written language- Most of the focus is on the written text, which is considered superior to the spoken language; the base of the rules. 3. Diachronic Research (etymology) Historical research- the study of the origins of words and languages, which reveals many connections between different languages. Due to technological developments, the influence of one language on another is even higher these days. Modern Linguistics At the beginning of the 20 century, there was a shift of interest to the following: The human languages are more complex and highly different than animal communication systems- due to amazing cognitive human communication ability (the language faculty). A known Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Sassure- the first linguist to pose the following question: what do we know when we know a language (mother tongue)? By asking this question the focus of linguistics was shifted from grammar to the study of human language as a cognitive ability (cognitive science). The focus shifted to Language faculty ( ) and what it consists of. Characteristics: 1. Descriptive approach- we observe native speakers use the language, both in writing and in speaking, and try to draw conclusions out of it- learn about the changes that the language undergoes through time. Not interested in what should be, but rather in what IS. There is no judgment of the use, just observation and description of the current use, in order to analyze and find correlations. 2. Focus is on the spoken language- point of departure is that the spoken language is more important to the research because of the following: * It is less conscious, more natural, spontaneous and dynamic and therefore it reflects better the current use of the language. * Not all languages have a written system, but everyone has at least one mother tongue language. * The written language is less natural- one needs to study it in a very logical way; whereas the spoken language –mother tongue is acquired in a natural process, common to everyone (normally in the early years of 3-4). 3. Synchronic Research (current) the focus is not on the origin/History of the words; but on the current use of the words today. We are less interested in what happened; but rather in what is happening today. Knowing The whereas knowing about! 07/11/11 Linguistic Fields 1. Phonetics- the study of linguistic sounds (also called phones) which are consisted of consonants and vowels. The focus is on the articulation and pronunciation of sounds (independent of the letters/ graphics). How the sound is produced. It is independent of the letters (which is just the graphics). How we produce and perceive sounds. 2. Phonology- deals with sounds in interaction, and when they are brought together into words- they usually affect each other. Cats(s), dogs(z)- something very systematic- ( )) 3. Morphology- examines words structure, and the ways words are added into our vocabulary, i. e. how we form new words. Ex- dis/content/ed/ness (the parts are also called Morphemes- small units of words) 4. Syntax- deals with sentence structure and the meaning of sentences. We also examine differences between languages- the order of verb and its subject, adj, nouns etc. In addition, we examine Syntaxic Processing , for example: Without her contributions/ are hard to find. At first glance- it looks like something is missing in the sentence, when actually we did not process it in the right way- we can look at the sentence as: without her, contributions are hard to find. 5. Semantics- the study of meaning- both of words and sentences, and the logic behind them. 6. Pragmatics –deals with meaning in context- how we understand one another beyond what is actually said (the use of the language). For example: do you have the time? – One wont answer: yes; but rather tell the person what time it is. Not like the dry literate meaning, Pragmatics deal with the actual use of language – meaning in context- beyond the literate words that were actually said. 2 - : * 6 ( = 6 ) * 6 ( = ! ) 7. Discourse Analysis- Like Pragmatics, this also examines the use of language, but the focus is on the text. Written vs. spoken text; Narratives vs. expository text; the use of conjunctions; types of text; different tenses; complex vs. simple sentences; the length of sentences; vocabulary etc. 8. Language acquisition- we examine the process of acquiring a language- mother tongue and then foreign languages. How children acquire their mother tongue so quickly? How does the process happen? Which words are produced first etc. It is related to all the other fields mentioned above. 9. Neuro Linguistic- examines how linguistic knowledge is represented in the brain. For example: aphasia- brain injury that affects the part of the brain that understands linguistics. 10. Psycho Linguistic- a very big field that examines the correlation between language and psychological cognitive processes (for example: lexical retrieval). Sometimes one meaning of a word is more prominent than the other, depending on the context. For example: bug- insect/ computer related problem. The field also examines what happens when there is no context- how we associate between words and its meanings. For example: word priming- Duck-(goose/ book)- the word duck primes with goose, faster than with the word book. 11. Historical Linguistics- examines the evolution of languages, the origin of words, and the relation between languages- how they genetically related to one another (Etymology). 12. Computational Linguistics-deals with building artificial intelligence, creating models that try to imitate how language works and use it in different applications. Related to the implementation of linguistics. Information extraction, more practical. (for example: Google translate). 13. Clinical linguistics ( )- the use of linguistic tools for speech therapy, for people who have language disorders (both kids and adults). 14. Social Linguistics- the field that examines the interaction between language and society (socio economic and cultural factors). Socio-linguistics We distinguish between dialects- different varieties of the same language, as a result of many factors. Types of Dialects- 1. Geographic Dialect-changes according to region (city, country). In the states there are so many different dialects, depending on the area one grew up in. 2. Sociolect-typical for a certain group in the society, which has its own social, economic and cultural characteristics. 3. Idiolect-dialect that is typical to an individual. It is sometimes gradual, and we dont always notice it. Usually bases on imitation. Each of us speaks a little bit differently (intonation, pronunciation, vocabulary etc). 21/11/11 Linguistic knowledge- every 4-5 year old can speak the mother tongue language. Where does the ability to understand and speak a language comes from? The 2 opposed approaches argue on the source of that ability/knowledge Is it innate (genes) or acquired (comes from the environment, stimulates, feedback)? Two opposed currents in science, which have great debate on the nature of human knowledge in general. They argue on the source of the human knowledge: 1. Empiricism (John lock; Hume) -every person comes to the world, as a clean slate- have no knowledge, which means that human knowledge equals the sum of experiences. Nothing is innate, we are only equipped with the ability to respond. Everyone are born equal- with nothing innate. This means humans can be shaped- their thought can be manipulated using feedback and exposure. 2. Rationalism (Decardes)-claim that human knowledge does not equal the sum of experiences: we are born with some innate material- we are equipped with some ability, to which experience is added. Experience is not the only thing! All people are equal, but this equality is based on richness- we all share something very basic and innate, to which environment is added. At the beginning of the second half of the 20 century, the argument of human knowledge continued with regards to the human language – mother tongue (different theories): Behaviorism- As continuance of Empiricism- there was a current called Behaviorism (BF Skinner, wrote the Verbal Behavior, 1957). B. F. Skinner claimed, based on Empiricism, that Linguistic knowledge is based solely on exposure and the ability to react- to learn from experience. That means everything is acquired, nothing is in the Genes. Skinner also claimed we expand our sets of sentences, by analogy (differ in only one thing- thus it is able to expand ones use with the other). For example: a kid only heard John ate an apple- but he will be able to create the following sentence: John ate an Orange; using Analogy. This means, we learn and use language, by: exposure +analogy. - In the following sentences, configuration of who does what changes (relationships between the entities) when changing the word told to promise and still, it is automatically understood by a child in his mother tongue: John told bill to clean the room; John promised Bill to clean the room. How? -analogy is not enough to explain the above. - Noam Chomsky (Influenced from Rationalism; wrote the Syntactic Structures, 1957) -a linguistic who argued against Skinners observations, claiming Analogy is not enough; and we have to assume inborn/innate linguistic knowledge, common to all human beings (regardless of their language or culture), which is also known as the Hypothesis of innateness. The experience and the feedback are mapped on to these language biological properties (encoded in our genes). The experience and feedback are not enough to explain mother tongue knowledge! We have to add it to something innate. Language is partially innate! Evidence Chomsky proposed to enforce his theory: 1. Properties of human languages (natural languages, animals communication systems are excluded)- * Homogeneity- except for pathological cases, all human beings acquire at least one mother tongue; more or less at the same time; regardless of their region, culture, socio-economical condition etc. This implies there is something biological in the acquiring of a mother tongue language- we are all the same. * Infiniteness- language is infinite- we have the ability to produce and understand an endless number of sentences, including sentences that we have never heard before. We have the ability to expand the language (for example- we never count to 1,000,000 but we can). * Identical properties across languages- there are some properties that all languages share (therefore- it has to be in the genes, otherwise – how can it be explained? ). For example: * All languages have nouns and verbs –thus, it has to be some inborn categories. * Universal grammer rules/structures, that all languages share: * John said that Mary bought a car. What did John say Mary bought? * Bill said that John said that Mary bought a car. What did Bill say that John said that Mary bought? * John spread the rumor that Mary bought a car. What did John spread the rumor that Mary bought? Ungrammatical sentence- any speaker will know this sentence is ungrammatical- impossible in English. What prevents speakers of using the above structure intuitively (in other languages as well)? Chomsky claimed that there are universal constraints (in all grammer of all languages) that prevent it. 28/11/11 2. Properties of the process of language acquisition (mother tongue) * Process is quick and efficient- child has to acquire a very complex system of rules, and he does it by the age of 4-5. By the age of 5 he already masters the language (in comparison to the long and complex process of learning a foreigner language). It shows that there is something innate behind it, otherwise- it would have been a quick process also when learning foreigner language. * Critical period/age- there is a certain age in which the child must be exposed to a language (the innate system has to be stimulated, activated), in order to acquire it- the age is usually around 6-8, and in some extreme cases it can go until adolescence (16). If it was not activated during the critical period, the child will have no mother tongue- he will have no grammer. He will be able to communicate in a basic function, but without the richness and infinity of the mother tongue acquisition, since the brain is no longer elastic enough to acquire a mother tongue. The issue of critical period provides support for the importance of both exposer and innate theories. Chomsky agrees that exposer is crucial, but it is crucial to activate innate abilities. If it was only exposer – it would have been possible to acquire a mother tongue at any age. * Process is spontaneous/ immune against external interference- the process happens by itself and the teacher/ parent cannot manipulate it. MCNeal (1964)-research that shows you cannot manipulate childs grammer, it will eventually change by itself with exposer. * Identical stages across languages- children acquire their mother tongue in parallel stages across linguistics, more or less at the same time, regardless of the language. This shows that there is some biological aspect to the process of mother tongue acquisition we have to assume something innate in order for the process to be so universal. (First they babble, then acquire first words, combining 2 words together, then start using sentences). * Poverty of stimuli- stimuli(the input) is poor- it is not enough to explain completely how a child acquires and masters his mother tongue: a. The stimuli is partial and consists of errors- the child can never be exposed to everything, still he makes up sentences he has never heard before. What he is exposed to is limited, yet what he can produce is endless. In addition, the stimuli consist of errors- he child doesnt always listen to complete/ grammatical correct sentences: the input he hears consists of partial sentences and grammatical errors; yet the children know how to filter the errors and eventually acquire a perfect grammer. b. There is no teaching- the process of acquiring a mother tongue involves no methodological and pedagogical process (in regard to grammer). c. No negative evidence- there are mistakes that no child will ever make, even though he is not told ahead not to make them. For example: John thinks he is smart (he can be either John or somebody else) VS. He thinks John is smart (he can never refer to John). When examining language acquisition, we see children making many mistakes, but no child will ever use the second sentence when he wants to refer to John. No child will make such mistakes to begin with- they just know, without being told ahead. De Sassure was the first one to ask what do we know when we know a language? What does it mean to know a language? He distinguished between the following terms: * Langue-the rules of the language, that are agreed upon by some society. The rules of a language, but from a social point of view (a social term). * Parole-everything we use or say- the way we actually use the language (What we actually do, language wise). Linguists are generally more interested in the Langue (the knowledge). De Sassure didnt relate to the question of innateness- what abilities, if any, we have in our minds†¦ 12/12/11 Noam Chomsky used 2 other terms: Competence vs. Performance. 1. Performance: the same as Parole: performance is how we actually use the language: what we actually write or say. 2. Competence: is not exactly the same as Langue. Both relate to the rules of the language, but Langue is about the society, the community (grammer is something social, that we all agree on- social interaction creating social agreement) and Competence is about the individual (the system one has in his mind: some of it comes from the genes and some from the environment). Competence is the ability that each of us has to produce and understand an endless number of sentences. Every speaker of every language, has the ability (whether it is innate or not). The point of view of Chomsky and De Sassure is different when relating to the rules of the language. In modern linguistics- the focus is on the Langue- competence and not directly what we say/do with the language (the main goal is to crack the black box and understand how the system works). The performance is the mean to learn about the competence, not the direct end. It teaches us/indicates about the competence: the way we speak or write tells us about how the knowledge is organized in ones mind. The main question that linguists ask is: what does competence consist of? Chomskys Model: UG+EXPOSER= G. Chomsky assumes innateness and that language faculty is to some extent universal (some things are common to all languages). He Offers a SPECIFIC model for this question: When a child is born he is in the initial state. In this state, he has some specific knowledge, shared by all languages: Universal Grammer (UG) it is the grammer that is common to all languages. In addition to the difference in vocabulary, there are grammatical differences between languages: by the end of the critical period, he has more than the UG, he ends up with Particular Grammer (PG, G)- specific grammer of a specific language. There are many Gs, as many as the number of languages in the world. A child is equipped with universal grammer, common to all languages, and during the first years he is exposed to his mother tongue and how it takes place (feedback, corrections, mistakes etc)- and acquires particular/specific grammer. UG+EXPOSER= G. The G is a combination of something innate and something that comes from the environment. What does the UG consist of? According to Chomskys model, UG consists of two things: 1. Principles- rules that are innate and that are common to all languages (things that dont change at all from one language to another, such as: the existence of nasal consonants). 2. Parameters- those are also rules that are innate, and are also part of universal grammer; but in contrast to principals, these are open rules, whose values (fillings) are acquired during the exposer. The values are not common to different languages, Thus they have to be acquired via exposer. For example: in all language there is a subject in every sentence; but in some languages the subject must be a separate entity- which means the subject position is always occupied vs. in some languages the subject can be dropped (English does not allow the dropping of a subject: cant say ate an apple. We must add a subject; vs. Hebrew- represents the subject. In the French language, we are not allowed to drop the subject, even when it is known who did the action: Jai mange la pomme- the French ai is like the Hebrew , yet we still cannot drop the J: we have to have a separate entity for the subject). This parameter is called the Null subject parameter ( )- The Parameter: the subject must be pronounced separately; The Values of the Parameter: (that has to be filled- determined through the acquisition process) Yes or No. In Hebrew and Italian the value is no (in some cases, we can have a sentence without a subject), in English and French the value is Yes. During the critical period, the child is exposed to the data in his mother tongue and they acquire the values to the fixed parameters (the parameter is innate, its values though are not innate- they change from language to language and acquired in the childs critical period). Another Parameter is: * It is hot outside- * It seems that Marry is late- * There is a cat in the room- In English the occurrence of the pronouns (functioning as the sentences subject) it and there is a must: they cannot be dropped (it is not grammatical, although one will be perfectly understood if hell say it); in Hebrew, we can drop them. Even though semantically we dont need the subject, in English it must be filled. These pronouns are called: Expletive / Pleonastic Pronouns- pronouns that do not refer to an entity, but theyre only function is to fill the subject position. They HAVE NO SEMANTIC ROLE, THEY ARE ONLY THERE TO FILL THE POSTION OF THE SUBJECT. We distinguish between pleonastic pronouns and referential pronouns, which refer to some kind of entity (he, she, w, they etc). It and There are not always expletive pronouns- they can also function as referential pronouns: It is hot outside (expletive) vs. I cant eat the soup, (referential); the cat is there (referential) vs. there is a cat in the room (expletive). We can relate to it as two parameters: 1. Parameter: an expletive pronoun exists; values: yes/no. (In English- yes, in Hebrew- no). 2. Parameter: a subject is a must; values: yes/no. (We can say that if a language must have a subject, it will necessary have Expletive pronouns; and vice versa: If the subject is not a must- there are no expletive pronouns. there might be, but they will not be a must). The two things come together- * Cluster of properties- The Parameters come in clusters- one affects/ can teach about the other. The existence of Principles and Parameters strengthens the hypothesis of innateness, because it shows the occurrence of certain grammer structures is not random- there is something consistent across different languages, which therefore must be predetermined, innate. 19/12/11 Some languages require an independent subject and in addition- they have expletive pronouns (it seems that the quiz will be difficult- expletive; this soup is not tasty because it is cold. The it is referential- points to an entity). Proposition Stranding and Pied Piping Who did you speak to? can also be asked as followed: To whom did you speak? - These are two possible grammatical structures that manifest the same idea. It is not possible in Hebrew: : : This construction is called- Preposition Stranding- you desert the proposition by itself: leaving the proposition by itself at the end of the sentence. It can be viewed as a parameter, differentiating languages. Another construction/parameter is: Pied Piping- locating the proposition at the beginning of the sentence. This parameter is valued yes in both English and Hebrew (allowed in both languages). Material for the quiz is up to here! - Phonetics and Phonology- These are both fields that deal with sound and specifically linguistic sounds (phones- ) sounds that are parts of a language. Phones are divided into: consonants (b, l, r, m†¦) and vowels (e, a, i ). The differentiation doesnt refer to the letters, but to the sounds that are used naturally/ automatically. (Since the same sound can be expressed/ represented by different symbols/letters, for example: the sound K- is represented by 4 letters: k, c, q, ch. We will refer to all 4 as K). In Phonetics- Different sounds are examined in different languages: how they are produced and how they are perceived- it is a technical field regarding how pronunciation works. One sound can be expressed/ represented by different symbols/letters or one letter u represents many sounds: university, fur, put, cut etc. Conclusion: there is no correspondence between sound and symbol. Phonetic systems (systems of symbols- used for transcription- write exactly as you here it- distinguish between spelling and pronunciation) 1. International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) – a system of symbols, used mainly by linguists, in which every sound corresponds to one symbol and vice versa. 2. American Phonetic Alphabet (APA) similar, yet competing system to the IPA. These are two similar, yet competing, artificial languages/ systems, dealing with the ambiguity of the languages/ with the lack of correspondence between sound and symbol. Both systems are based on English letters, other than special sounds/exceptions (that have no one specific letter in English that prescribe them) such as: * in order to indicate/transcribe sh we use: stretched big s (IPA) or s^(APA)- (the ^ should be upside down) * ch= t+stretched big S with a bow on top of them (IPA) or c^ (APA) * for th (such as in thin) = 0 with a line across it (APA+IPA) 26/12/11 A minimal pair- * big- pig * sing- sang. * dean- teen (The only difference is the phone- t vs d. The spelling is irrelevant) * knight- light These words are different in meaning, yet they are different in only one sound. The switch of the consonant g/ p changes the meaning of the word. This kind of word pairs are called minimal pair-a pair of words that differ from one another in meaning and in one phone (sound) only. (Only one difference in pronunciation- the spelling is irrelevant) * night- knight : are not a minimal pair, because there is no difference in pronunciation. Phoneme- Phoneme- a minimal linguistic unit that can change the meaning. One of the goals of recognizing minimal pairs is to recognize the basic sounds in a language, that can cause a change of meaning. We use the tool of minimal pairs to identify and distinguish between the Phonemes of a language. Aspirated consonant ( ) * Spy vs. pie- when we pronounce pie, there is a greater puff of air when pronounced. This is also the case in: stole vs. tall (in tall we puff much more air). These are aspirated consonants, which are marked with a little h on top of the consonant. They are two types for the same consonant- the regular and the aspirated one, where we puff a greater amount of air (pie; tall). Are the aspirated consonants phonemes? (Can they distinguish between a minimal pair? -can we find a pair of words that the only difference between them is aspirated consonant vs. non-aspirated). In English, there is no such pair; yet in the Hindi language we can find several examples. Conclusions: 1. In English, they are not phonemes (vs. Hindi), because they can never occur in the same environment/location of the word, which means they are 2 manifestations/versions of the same thing. We can predict in which environment/ when the aspirated consonant will occur. 2. Minimal pairs are used to distinguish between phonemes and also to determine which consonants and vowel are not phonemes. 2/1/2012 Pig – big (minimal pair) vs. Pie, spy (not a minimal pair since there are 2 differences in pound). In English, aspirated and regular – Complementary Distribution- these two sounds never occur at the same environment/ same location of the words, which means they are two manifestations of the same thing – of the phone p. This means P is the phoneme which has two manifestations: aspirated and regular (non-aspirated). This means that this phone has two allophones. Two ways of language representation- 1. Phonemes- the general term for linguistics sounds. These are the basic sounds of a language, and are language specific (are not the same in different languages). They are part of the Underlying Representation (UR): the way and the place words and sounds in specific, are represented in our mind- in the backstage- abstract representation. The phoneme has two manifestations: one is the actual p and the other is the aspirated one. 2. What we actually say are allophones. Allophones are in the Phonetic/ Representation (PR) what comes out of our mouths (articulation). Every phoneme is also an allophone, but not the other way around! Thus, there are some things that are represented in the PR, yet are not represented in the UR (like the aspirated p). In the Ur we have the regular P phoneme, which has two manifestations in the PR: In English, the only case we see an aspirated P is in the beginning of a word and before a vowel (both must occur together). In all other case the P will not be aspirated. For example: Possible, put, pink, pan, etc. vs. apply, spring, play etc. This means the aspirated P has no independence existence- we can predict its occurrence. The default is the regular P and only in a specific environment will have an aspirated P. The aspirated P doesnt exist in the UR! Another example is: regular N vs. the back N: They cannot distinguish between minimal pairs in English- will never occur in the same environment. We will find the back n only before the sounds k and g- in specific environment, which is predictable. For ex: bank, Bangkok, rank, chunk, rang, ring, thanks, bring. The normal N is the default – will occur everywhere else, except for before the sounds: g and k sounds. These two allophones are two versions of the same thing (of the one phoneme) that never occur in the same environment- complementary distribution. N is the phoneme, which has two allophones: n and back n. We can predict exactly where each of the manifestations will occur. * The phoneme is in the UR and the allophones are in the PR. * The default is always in the UR! – The phoneme. * The allophones are always in complementary distribution- meaning they never occur in the same environment and will never distinguish between minimal pairs. You can nver find in English 2 words where the only difference between them will be n and back n. * Minimal pairs are the tools to identify phonemes. Distinctive Features 1. Aspiration The pair pal- pal (with aspirated p) in Hindi – these two words are different in meaning and in one phone only. In specific, they are different in one feature only: aspirated vs. non-aspirated. This means, they constitute a minimal pair (In Hindi). Aspiration – this feature in Hindi unlike the English, we have both – because they have independent existence- each of them is a phoneme on its own. Aspiration – this feature in Hindi, unlike English, is a Distinctive Feature- a feature that distinguishes between 2 phonemes in the same language and as a result it can create a difference between minimal pairs. Aspiration is not a distinctive feature in Hebrew and English. It is a distinctive feature in Hindi language. 2. Voicing ( )- Dean – Teen: d- Is a voice (+voice) consonant ( ) and t is voiceless (- voice). This feature, called voicing, creates different meaning in both words. Thus, it is a distinctive feature in English, because it can distinguish between minimal pairs. Minimal pair- a minimal pair is a pair of words that differ from one another in one meaning, 1 phone (sound) only, and the 2 phones must be different in one feature! 9/1/2012 Phonetic features of consonants- What makes sound/phones different from one another? Linguistic sounds are called phones, and are divided into: consonants and vowels. The difference between the two: in the production of vowels the air flows freely, however in the production of consonants the air is blocked to some extent. The speech organs- body organs that are involved in the production of phones (Lips, tongue, nose, teeth, and palate). Generally, the following are involved: the oral cavity and the nasal cavity ( ). The consonants differ from one another according to 3 criteria: 1. Place of articulation- the location in which the air is blocked and the consonant is produced (B- in the lips; T- in the tongue; P-in the lips and teeth) 2. Manner of articulation ( ) relates to the manner of the air flow and the degree of blocking. For example: n- blocked in the nose. 3. Voicing- relates to the vibration/ the lack of vibrat.

The Usefulness Of Financial Statements To Stakeholders

The Usefulness Of Financial Statements To Stakeholders Introduction: Finance for managers is very important subject for businesses. All stakeholders must have to know about it. Because it helps their businesses to run properly and make profit. Finance for managers helps people to know about the purposes and requirements for keeping financial records, what are the techniques for recording financial information, what are the legal and organisational requirements of financial recording, the usefulness of financial statements to stakeholders, what is the difference between management and financial accounting, the budgetary control process and so on. It also helps people how working capital can be effectively managed, how calculate and interpret variances from budget, how to evaluate business project, how business organizations can effectively manage working capital etc. Businesses are mainly depend on finance, managers and budget etc. So if people want to start business they have to know about finance for managers. It helps them to learn some most important things about business. Thats are: what are the legal responsibilities, how to keep financial record, how to control finance, how to control budget, what are the costing and pricing, what are the financial statements, project appraisal methods, usefulness of financial stakeholders etc. Evaluate the purpose and requirements for keeping financial records: In business there are many purposes and requirements for keeping financial records among of those this three are mainly important. Thats are: Legal requirements: It means when people start businesses they need to follow business rules, laws and regulations to run their businesses. Almost every business has some form of legal ruling. Particular forms, licences and other documentations is field with state and local government offices in order to begin. And these documentations may be tax forms, shareholders and payments etc. Without this documentation you may given up from opening. Tax requirements: In every business people must have to pay tax and this tax depends on business structure its called tax requirement. This tax also sometimes depends on business profit, business types, and business quality and so on. Internal control requirements: Internal controls are policies, procedures and mechanisms used to decline business risk. In order to check employees and member from committing a dishonest act the control must be via and wide. It helps business to run properly and to achieve business goals and also help to make good relationship between all business staffs. Analyses the techniques for recording financial information. Analyses the legal and organisational requirements of financial recording: Financial recording is a process and procedure that is used by an organisation to control finance and accountability. This process and procedure include recording, verification and timely reporting of transactions that affect revenues, expenditures, assets, and liabilities. To develop business and making profit accountants have to keep financial records or information. There are some techniques for recording financial information that are given below: Double entry book keeping: It is an account technique which records each transaction as a credit and a debit. Day books and ledgers: A book with an account of sales and purchases made each day is called day books. For example: sales day books, sale return day books etc. On the other hand ledger is an accounting book of final entry where transactions are listed in different accounts. For instance: sales ledger, purchase ledger and general ledger etc. The trail balance: It is totalling of debit balance and credit balance to make sure that total debits equal total credits. From the trail balance figure end of the year an organization can make balance sheet of the business to show the financial position at a particular moment in time. Manual and computerised systems: Manual systems means those transactions are enter manually in business. It is a risky system for business because there are many chances to make mistakes. On the other hand those transactions are enter by computer is called computerised system. It is a very safety system and never makes mistakes. Nowadays most business systems are computerised systems. Because it can also keep more records than manual system. In business there are some requirements for financial reporting and these financial reporting requirements are for sole traders, partnerships, limited companies and public limited companies etc. Financial reports are the documents and records that how much money your business is making or not or how much money your business have to pay or how much money your business already paid etc. Basically it is the documents of money transaction of all purposes that where your business invest money. There are different types of financial reports or statements. These financial statements can be cash flow statement its a summary of the actual incomings and outgoings of cash in a firm over an accounting period (month, quarter, year), it can be also profit and loss account it shows your business that how much money is your profit or loss. And the final statement is called balanced sheet. It focuses on what asset the entity owns, how it paid for them, how much profit or loss etc. This statement is p repared at the end of the year. The purpose of financial reporting is to deliver this information to the lenders and shareowners (the stakeholders) of your business. Because in business we have mainly two types of stakeholders thats: internal and external. Internal means those stakeholders are dwell inside the company for examples: managers, employees, board members etc. On the other hand those stakeholders are not directly a part of a company is called external stakeholders for examples: shareholders, customers, suppliers etc. Financial reporting must be part of the essential contract between you and them. Your lenders and investors have the right to know if their money is being spent wisely and returning a profit. Besides these the usefulness of financial statements are that: by doing this stakeholders can know that how much is their profit and loss, how do assets stack up against liabilities, where did the business get its capital, and how is it making good use of the money, what s the  cash  flow  from the profit or loss for the period, did the business reinvest all its profit, does the business have enough capital for future growth and so on. Evaluates the usefulness of financial statements to stakeholders: In business there are two types of stakeholders thats: internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders mean those stakeholders are dwell inside the company for examples: managers, employees, board members etc. On the other hand those stakeholders are not directly a part of a company is called external stakeholders for examples: shareholders, customers, suppliers etc. All shareholders want to see the use of their investment and thus asses the management through the financial statements. Because financial statements are very useful for businesses. The usefulness of financial statements to stakeholders is given below thats are: how much is the profit and loss in their business how much money the invest how do assets stack up against liabilities where did the business get its capital how is it making good use of the money What is the  cash  flow  from the profit or loss for the period did the business reinvest all its profit how much is their costs how much money they paid Does the business have enough capital for future growth etc. Explains the difference between management and financial accounting: Financial accounting is concerned with financial transaction and statements that have already taken place. It is a gathering of information about business transactions. For example: profit and loss. These processes are controlled by finance manager. On the other hand management accounting is concerned with providing management of an organisation with recommendations based on accounting information, in order to help in making day to day decisions and in longer term planning. These processes are controlled by management manager. Financial accounting and management accounting provide information into two different user groups. Financial accounting primarily provides information for external users of accounting data, such as investors and creditors. On the other hand, management accounting provides information for internal users of accounting data. Internal users include employees, managers, and executives of the company. Financial accounting is reporting on historical information. The i nformation is reported regularly. It is often broken down into monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting periods. On the contrary, management accounting information is reported continually. Internal users need to evaluate past, present, and potential future information in order to make decisions. Therefore, these users continuously need information in order to make the appropriate decisions. These two accounts are very important for a business. Without these two businesses cannot run properly or cannot make profit. So always try to keep proper account of these two accounting sector. 5 Explain the budgetary control process: To make effective decisions and coordinate the decisions and actions of the various departments according to the capital is called budget. Because every business have a limited budget so it is necessary to control budget. There are many types of budget in businesses such as: advertising budget, purchasing budget, sales budget, cash budget, development budget etc. There are some process to control budget thats are: Good communication and good coordination between departments and authorities can control budget. Besides this well planning helps managers to decide the most effective ways for controlling budget. On the other hand cash flow forecasts are also helpful to control budget. It shows if a firm needs to borrow, how much, when and how it will repay the loan. However evaluation can control budget. Because it means a manager is to compare the budget with actual performance by each person sector. In here control action is also related. Without budgetary plan running a company is difficult. Budget is also important for management. Because managements are also depends on budget and every departments have its own budget. Among them zero based budgeting can control budget because it is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. Its starts from a zero based and every function within an organisation is analyzed for its needs and costs. Budget is then built aro und what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether the budget is higher or lower than the previous one. Another important process is incremental budgeting. It forecast fixed overhead costs, computed by adding or subtracting a predetermined percentage from the historical costs. There are also some advantages and disadvantages of the budgetary control system. Thats are: It enables the management of a business concern to conduct its business activities in the efficient manner. It provides a yardstick for measuring and evaluating the performance of individuals and their departments. It reveals the deviations to management, from the budgeted figures after making a comparison with actual figure. Effective utilization of various resources like men, material, machinery and money is made possible, as the production is planned after taking them into account. It helps in the review of current trends and framing of future policies. It creates suitable conditions for the implementation of standard costing system in a business organization. It inculcates the feeling of cost consciousness among workers. Budgets may or may not be true, as they are based on estimates. The assumptions about future events may or may not actually happen. Rigidity: Budgets are considered as rigid document. Too much emphasis on budgets may affect day-to-day operations and ignores the dynamic state of organizational functioning. False Sense of Security: Mere budgeting cannot lead to profitability. Budgets cannot be executed automatically. It may create a false sense of security that everything has been taken care of in the budgets. Lack of coordination: Staff cooperation is usually not available during Budgetary Control exercise. Time and Cost: The introduction and implementation of the system may be expensive. Evaluates the use of different costing methods used for pricing purposes: In business there are different types of costs. For pricing purposes industries need to classify there costs. For example: direct costs, indirect costs, fixed costs etc. Each of these costs has separate unit. For pricing and costing a business must calculate unit cost to make sure how much are their costs. Then they have to deal with over heads thats are: raw materials, utility, rents etc. After that they have to make sure about pricing but it is depends on the firms average costs and on the customers opinion of a product value. For pricing purposes some important costs have to be calculated, such as: cost plus, marginal cost, price taker etc. In here they have to identify that which contractor is paid for the costs incurred and is paid an agreed upon percentage of such costs as contractors profit is called cost plus. Besides this a firm have to calculate marginal costs, its allocates only variable costs i.e. direct materials, direct labour and other direct expenses and variable over heads to the production. It does not take into account the fixed cost of production. This type of costing emphasizes the distinction between fixed and variable costs. However most investors are price takers as their actions in selling and buying stocks isnt enough to change the price. Also note that a company can be regarded as a price taker if the price sets and quantity of the goods it produces doesnt have any influence on the actual market price, so forcing the company to go with the market price. Any individual consumer is also considered to be a price taker; this is because the purchase made doesnt affect the price a company sets for its products. There is also an important costing method that is break even it means neither a profit nor loss has been gained, this can be seen after balancing the costs. Conclusion: We can learn a lot of about Business by reading finance for managers. Business is everywhere in the world, it help us to know about the purposes and requirements for keeping financial records, what are the techniques for recording financial information, what are the legal and organisational requirements of financial recording, the usefulness of financial statements to stakeholders, what is the difference between management and financial accounting, the budgetary control process and so on. It also helps people how working capital can be effectively managed, how calculate and interpret variances from budget, how to evaluate business project, how business organizations can effectively manage working capital etc. Its also help u to know what are the legal responsibilities, how to keep financial record, how to control finance, how to control budget, what are the costing and pricing, what are the financial statements, project appraisal methods, usefulness of financial stakeholders etc. From our point of view the most important aspects are finance, budget, stakeholders etc. Failure and success of a business fully depends on theses aspects. There also varies minor aspects to consider also as well, these are also vital to grow your business and gain profits. To grow your business you have look into ways on increasing the amount of sales, both to existing customers and new customers, improving your products and services by researching and testing changes with your customers. Furthermore, developing new products and services, and selling them to new or existing markets, also taking on staff or training your current staff includes working with apprentices and mentors. Lastly you can look for additional sources of funding, such as binging in new investors. To know about businesses very well people have to know about finance for managers because all these things are related here. So it is necessary to learn finance for mangers because it helps quite a lot for businesses.

The Government Should Make Use Of Revenue Sharing :: essays research papers

The Government Should Make Use of Revenue Sharing Federal grants have become more common over the last 60 years, due to the expansion and retraction of the size of the federal government. The federal government began expanding in the 1930s to deal with the Depression. It used federal agencies to directly deal with problems. As time went on, the tasks were turned over to the states, but the federal government still remained involved through the use of federal grants to states and localities. In the 1970s, Nixon's New Federalism put a heavy emphasis on federal grants. Revenue sharing gave federal dollars to localities and states that had never received very much or any federal money before. This increased local interest in receiving federal money in many localities. In order to deal with the federal bureaucracy and receive federal money, localities and states have to develop efficient and effective bureaucracies of their own. These state and local bureaucracies must understand the federal rules and requirements for receiving federal aid. Some states routinely receive a greater amount of federal money than other states with similar populations due to the differences in state bureaucracies. The state which has an effective grant-writing bureaucracy and maintains relations with federal bureaucrats and leaders is often able to get more money. Federal bureaucracies are often very regionalized. They are staffed by people from a certain region, and they primarily deal with people from that region. They give more federal assistance to these regions too. The overall trend in federal spending in a state may be different from a particular agency's pattern of spending. Some states may get very little overall federal funding, but may get much more than the average amount of money from a certain federal agency's grants. American state-level politics can be divided up into 3 categories: traditional, moralistic, and individualistic. Traditional areas are heavily elitist, and social elites are the primary leaders of society. They have less reliance on government programs, government spending, and government in general. They are not as democratic as in other areas of the country. Moralistic cultures put a heavy focus on government taking an active role in society. There is more emphasis on democratic methods in government, government funding, government programs, and the provision of services. The individualist culture sees government as only being important when it can help the individual succeed. It should never hamper the individual from attaining personnel success. The South is considered more traditionalist. The midatlantic states and other areas which have descendants of the original settlers of the midatlantic states are considered individualistic. The northern states are moralistic. All of these

Performance Appraisals Essay

There are three fundamental questions every business organization must consider. The first is how are the employees doing? The second is why? The third is what should the employees be doing? In this of advancement of technology and rapid obsolescence of knowledge, every business organization must continuously assess the performance of its most important asset and determine what needs to be done to improve their performance. The effective assessment and evaluation of employee performance is one of the goals of performance appraisals. Early studies conducted by companies reveal that performance appraisals may serve as an effective motivating strategy to boost employee performance. This conclusion was reached after these companies noticed that employees with the same skills, abilities, educational background who are generally given the same compensation package perform differently at work. Some perform very well, while some were performing poorly. As a result, the emphasis for reward was gradually replaced by other motivational tools. One of them is performance appraisals. Some managers however find performance appraisals as one of their most difficult function. (Linda Gravett p. 1) They fail to realize that the managers have been doing this function for a long time even at the time they were still supervisors. As a human resource management function, performance appraisal has started only in the 20th Century. However, the essence of performance appraisals which is judging the work of employees has been practiced by employers and managers since time immemorial. According to Shannon Burger (2006) it is a basic human tendency to make judgments about those one is working with, as well as about oneself. †(Burger p. 11) Recently, however, some practitioners in the field of Human Resource Management that and Human Resource Managers are questioning the effectiveness of the performance appraisal System as an effective motivational strategy. A research on this issue shows that about 80 percent of companies in the United States use annual performance reviews of some kind. Yet 85 percent of these firms are dissatisfied with employee appraisals. Also, surveys conducted by Mercer and Wyatt consulting firms report that a majority of the firms are currently experiencing problems with their performance appraisal. (Chalmer E. Labig Jr. & Tan Yew Chye, p. 1) On the other hand, some are in favor of the continuation of the performance appraisal systems in company arguing that the performance appraisals help motivate and change the behavior of employees. It helps in measuring the performance of every employee and his effectiveness on the job. It also is a good mechanism by which the employers may provide feedback to their employees on their performance. This research paper seeks to determine whether performance appraisals indeed can motivate the employees and help result to a change in their behavior and attitude toward their work. This research paper proceeds on the theory that performance appraisals are effective in motivating the employees and that any misconception on the nature of performance appraisals stem from a lack of understanding on the part of the managers and supervisors on how to effectively perform this function. Performance Appraisals: The Two Sides One of the most often reasons why performance appraisals are criticized is its lack of objectivity of the Human Resource Manager or the person conducting the performance appraisal. The idea behind performance appraisal is that it is intended to evaluate work performance based on pre-set goals and objectives. The problem with this is that human factor always comes in the way of producing an objective and accurate performance appraisals. It is always possible that the person conducting the evaluation may rate the employee on the basis of his personal opinion. As a result, it is feared that the evaluator may make a mistake which have a serious impact not only on the present salary of the employee but also on his performance. In response to this objection, it is common knowledge that no human resource function is perfect and is 100% objective. Human Resource Management in essence is about people who are very complex and have different skills, motivations, character and personalities. Unlike the other managerial functions which deal with other company resources that are predictable and controllable, Human Resource Management function deal with unique individuals. It is to be expected that emotions will become part and parcel of the performance of their functions. The important role of managers now is to become aware of their own biases and prejudices and make sure that this does not interfere with their important function of measuring employee performance. The Halo Effect is anther most commonly raised argument against performance appraisals. This means that the person who conducts the evaluation has the natural tendency to rate an employee high in one particular area simply because the subject rated high in other areas. Thus, an employee who may have the excellent technical skills but low on customer relations may still get a high mark in customer relations because of the evaluator may give more emphasis on technical knowhow of the employee under the Halo effect. In addition, some people also object to performance appraisal because of the Horns effect. The Horns effect is the opposite of the Halo effect which is the tendency of the appraiser to rate the employee low because the employee rated low in some aspects of his job. Thus, if an employee is not good in one aspect of his job such as customer relations, if the person conducting the evaluation considers such function as his more important then it is highly possible that he may get a lower rating for his other function even if he may be excellent in these other functions. In answer to the second argument, it is always to be borne in mind that when a company conducts performance appraisal of its employees it is to be expected that the company only had the best interest of the employees and the company in mind. Every company desires to know the strengths of its employees and their weaknesses. Weaknesses must be identified so that the employees can be given the proper training. No company would purposely do anything that will prevent them from attaining this objective. Thus, there is no reason for the employees to feel that the person conducting the evaluation will purposely do any act that will lead to the failure of the performance appraisal. After providing counter arguments to the objections against Performance Appraisal, we now turn to the reason why Performance Appraisal can change human behavior. An ideal performance appraisal has two basic elements: a) the evaluation system and b) the feedback system. (Margaret J. Palmer, 2007, Ch. 1) The first element of performance appraisal is the evaluation of employee performance. Here, the person conducting the evaluation seeks to find out whether the performance level of the employees is at par with what is expected of them. In case the performance is below what is expected there is what is known as the performance gap. Those who are determined to be performing below what is expected of them are required to undergo training which is in essence a good thing also since the employee will be able to learn more about his job. For those who performed well in the appraisal, it can also be used to determine which among the employees are entitled to promotion, pay increases and bonuses. (Tznier, p. 282) Performance Appraisal is therefore very important since it can be used as basis prior to any action that may be done by the company. According to Richard Rudman (2003), Expectancy theory tells us that, if people want more pay and believe that working harder will get it for them, they will work harder and perform better. (Rudman p. 173) The second element of performance appraisal is the feedback which in essence is the opportunity for the employees to hear from their superiors how well or how poorly they are doing from work. In most companies this is the only time where the employees can actually know from their superior what the latter thinks of their performance. According to Manuel London (2003), â€Å"feedback is an important part of the education process†¦It helps newcomers learn the ropes, midcareer employees to improve performance and to consider opportunities for development, and late career employees to maintain their productivity. Managers are an important source of feedback because they establish perform objectives and provide rewards for attaining those objectives. † (London p. 11) A positive feedback from his superiors will help boost the morale and confidence of the employee in performing his functions. It may also help in defining the career path of the employee. On the other hand, negative feedbacks from his superiors will help identify the particular areas where the employee needs to be trained. This will help in the improvement of the skills and knowledge of the employee. Conclusion Based on the arguments for and against performance appraisals, it is clear that the objections against it are mainly because of the employee’s lack of understanding of the very nature of performance appraisals and the role this play in maintaining the company’s competitive edge. I am in favor of the conduct of performance appraisals in business organizations. It is effective in changing employee behavior. It helps boost employee morale and helps help open up channels of communication between the employer and the employee. The most important role of performance appraisal is actually the communication between the management and the employees. Proper communication to the employees of the conduct of the performance appraisal helps strengthen and improve their working relationship.