Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Tax Havens or Offshore Financial Centre Research Proposal

Tax Havens or Offshore Financial Centre - Research Proposal Example You can have tax havens that charge virtually no tax at all or which just charge annual administrative sums of money for companies using its shores as a base for their operations, and you can have nations that simply charge a lower rate of taxation than competitor havens". (Barber, 2006) Recently some countries have emerged as evident tax havens and are attracting hefty capital inflow. Singapore, Hong-Kong, Barbdos etc are only a few to name. "In Asia, offshore interbank markets began to develop after 1968 when Singapore launched the Asian Dollar Market (ADM) and introduced the Asian Currency Units (ACUs). The ADM was an alternative to the London euro-dollar market, and the ACU rule enabled mainly foreign banks to engage in international transactions under a favorable tax and regulatory environment" (International Monetary Fund, 2000) Similarly in Europe, Luxembourg attracted investors from Germany, France and Belgium in the early 1970s (IMF, 2000) due to its low income tax rates, the lack of withholding taxes for nonresidents on interest and dividend income, and banking secrecy rules. On the same ground The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man provided very similar opportunities. Moreover Bahrain began to serve as a collection center for the region's oil surpluses during the mid 1970s, after passing banking laws and providing tax incentives to facilitate the incorporation of offshore banks. In the Western Hemisphere, the Bahamas and later the Cayman Islands provided similar facilities. Following this initial success by other countries, a number of other small countries tried to attract this business. Many had little success, because they were unable to offer any advantage over the more established centers. This did, however, lead some late arrivals to appeal to the less legitimate side of the business. "By the end of the 1990s, the attractions of offshore banking seemed to be changing for the financial institutions of industrial countries as reserve requirements, interest rate controls and capital controls diminished in importance, while tax advantages remain powerful. Also, some major industrial countries began to make similar incentives available on their home territory. For example, the U.S. established in 1981, in major U.S. cities, the so-called International Banking Facilities (IBFs). Later, Japan allowed the creation of the Japanese Offshore Market (JOM) with similar characteristics. At the same time, supervisory authorities, and to some extent tax authorities were adopting the principle of consolidation which reduced the incentives for banks to carry on business outside their principal jurisdiction. As a result, the relative advantage of OFCs for conventional banking has become less attractive to industrial countries, although the tax advantages for asset management appear to have grown in importance. In fact, reported bank intermediation on the balance sheet in IFCs has declined over the period 1992-1999, thus contributing to the overall decline in the share of bank cross-border assets intermediated through OFCs from 56 percent of total bank cross-border

Monday, October 28, 2019

Swot South Beauty Essay Example for Free

Swot South Beauty Essay A SWOT Analysis is a tool that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. This basic, straightforward model assesses what an organization can and cannot do as well as its potential opportunities and threats. The method of the SWOT analysis is to take the information from an environmental analysis and separate it into internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats). Once it is completed, SWOT analysis determines what may assist the firm in accomplishing its objectives, and what obstacles must be overcome or minimized to achieve the desired results. Strengths * Brand Strategy and positioning. The Group’s branding strategy focuses on brand differentiation to cater a wide range of customers. The newest brand of the group, SUBU focuses on innovative healthy food for younger and more fashionable office workers, the LAN Club is the luxury brand that targets the upper-class dining segment of successful businesspeople aged over 45 years, and South Beauty, the Group’s flagship brand that targets upper-middle class segment of businesspeople aged from 30 to 45 years. No competitor in the Chinese restaurant market has such brand format. Almost all of them operate their single brands without clear brand positioning so their brand image is quite inferior to the Group’s. * Consistent brand identities. The company has built consistent brand identities by launching some outdoor and print advertisement. The company also explore cooperation with certain international airlines, including Air France and KLM Royal Dutch airlines, to provide business travelers flying between China and Europe with South Beauty-branded Chinese dishes. * Innovation. The company is regarded as an innovative company, with 55 percent annual growth. The South Beauty restaurant also introduced several innovations and improvements with regard to traditional Sichuan food, not only in terms of new raw materials, but also the process of preparing the dishes and the customer experience. The Group developed a range of innovations with regard to Sichuan cuisine but also added certain Cantonese cuisine and other flavors to its menu. One of the group’s biggest and most ambitious innovations is the combination of Chinese and Western cuisine that breaks with tradition and creates original new flavors. It is the first Chinese restaurant to offer Chinese food in a western style, and the first to mix food presentation with artistic views. * Differentiation in cuisine. Some of the factors that make the Group’s cuisine different from others are the strict requirements placed on raw ingredients, the innovation on traditional cuisine, the exacting criteria placed on a dish’s nutritional value, and the strong emphasis on the visual appeal of each dish. * Location and Pricing. The Group’s restaurants are located in top-notch office buildings in key cities. Meals are also expensively priced to cover costs, but because of the brand’s reputation and image, consumers are willing to pay the high prices. This combination of high-end location and high pricing were helpful in developing the upper-middle class brand image. * Interior decoration and ambience. Each South Beauty restaurant had a different decor, designed by well-known artists in the field. It is Zhang Lan’s belief that people should come to the restaurant not only for the food but also for the ambience. * IT applications. Advanced IT applications enhanced the image of the restaurant and improve efficiency. For example, the Group built its own CRM system to record customer information and use that information to provide tailor-made services and make promotional communications. These IT applications give the Group an edge because they are quite innovative for the traditional Chinese catering industry as most restaurants remain committed to their old ways of operating their businesses. * People management. Zhang Lang was a firm believer that a dedicated workforce could overcome challenges pertaining to financial capital and market potential, so the Group strove to apply performance management techniques with regard to the management team. It also worked with a consulting firm to design a new people management system to motivate the staff. The group also initiated a large-scale training program for the staff. * Synergies. The use of the company’s central management to achieve synergies has caused the South Beauty Group to develop functional management expertise at its head office with a view to coordinating the management of its restaurants, all of this helps brainstorm ways to differentiate the Group from its competitors to capture market share. * Expansion. South Beauty Group is not only looking to expand further in China ut is also looking for an international presence. * Right target group. Because of the booming economy in China, the business meals had more potential than the other segments because they could absorb higher prices. These business-people were not satisfied with simple eating and drinking- they required more in terms of the restaurant’s environment or ambiance. These businesspeople are the target consumers of the South Beauty Group. * Leader in the niche market of high-end Chinese dinner: South Beauty’s share was more than 7%  Weaknesses * Ranking in the high-end Chinese dinner segment. Among the top 100 restaurant companies in China in 2007, 10 were in this segment, with the leader being Shanghai Jingiang (ranked 4) and Beijing Shunfeng (Ranked 18). South Beauty’s ranking was 72. * Poor diversity on types of cuisine. The high-ranked competitors focused on various Chinese cuisines, but South Beauty only focused on Sichuan cuisine, so it could not compete with these restaurants in terms of cuisine. * Fake Restaurants and inability to protect its brand. The most crucial issue for South Beauty was that of restaurants claiming to be South Beauty franchisees. In 2005, there were at least 16 â€Å"fake† restaurants in cities South Beauty has not penetrated. The imposters used the same Chinese name as South Beauty with one or two additional Chinese characters to attract innocent customers and provided them with poor service and atmosphere. The unhappy customers however, complained to the â€Å"real† South Beauty. This hurts the brand image and reputation of the Group. * Authenticity of Sichuan food. In cities with higher incomes (where South Beauty’s target customers are mainly located), consumers had more choices of restaurants and made selections based on word of mouth. 63 percent of consumers obtained restaurant information from word-of-mouth publicity, so while a restaurant review web site state that South Beauty promoted â€Å"Refined or Improved Sichuan Food†, in other places, such as Chengdu, the birth place of Sichuan food, customers were of the opinion that the Sichuan food offered by South Beauty was not as spicy as the original cuisine. Other did not view South Beauty as a genuine Sichuan food restaurant. If consumers were looking for authentic Sichuan food, after hearing these opinions on the street, they were more likely to pick another restaurant. * Inability to do things in a standardized way to cut down costs and improve efficiency. The management team did not halt their efforts to improve the Group’s operational efficiency through standardization, which was also the foundation for scaling up. * Minimal market share in the Chinese Restaurant Market. The market share in South Beauty in the total industry was less than 0. 1 percent. Opportunities * Expansion. The Group is seeking to expand its operations from the existing 20 restaurants in China to a total of 100 worldwide (35 in China and 65 in the international market) over the next three years. * Standardization. The standardization of the process of preparing the dishes is a big opportunity to increase efficiency and quality. * Entry into new businesses. The Group wants to diversify into business of partially cooked frozen foods for retail outlets and airline catering. The Group’s market share in the Chinese dinner category was an estimated 2 percent in 2006. There is great to room to increase this market share. * Ability to invest heavily in various elements, interior decorating being one of them. No competitor is able to invest so heavily. * Cuisine diversity. South Beauty only offers Sichuan cuisine. While a typical Chinese restaurant offers one or two cuisines, expa nding into more than 2 different cuisines could give the Group a source of differentiation. * Becoming an international brand. According to Zhang Lan â€Å" (†¦) Now is the time to expand. We have met success in China, and now we wish to build an international brand, which will have a presence in New York, Paris, London, Milan, Geneva, Tokyo and other important international cities of the world. † it is projected that the Group will have 30 restaurants in short term and 100 outlets in the next three years, of which 35 restaurants would be located in China and 65 in the international market in cooperation with strategic partners in Tokyo, New York, and other cities. Threats * Some competitors of South Beauty have been able to overcome the obstacle of production and prepare Chinese dishes in a standardized way faster than South Beauty, so they are able to cut down costs and realize bigger profits. * Belief among certain consumers that the Sichuan food that South Beauty serves is not authentic because this can cause consumers to search for more â€Å"authentic† options in competitors. * â€Å"Fake† South Beauty restaurants. They make the brand look bad and downsize the brand’s reputation and positioning. * With such large ideas for expansion, if the capital needed is not raised, this could pose a threat not only for future expansion but also for future growth in China. * Operational efficiency that needs to improve: the management team did not halt their efforts to improve the Group’s operational efficiency through standardization, which was also the foundation for scaling up. Each South Beauty restaurant carried 380 items on the main menu. Raw materials depended on local suppliers, and the quality of each dish relied on the experience of the chef. Although there was a team with three main chefs at the head office to develop new dishes and control the quality, the process of standardization is still in its beginning phase. If standardization is not achieved soon, the Group may lose some of its market share to competitors that do achieve it soon because they will be able to cut down costs that will translate into cheaper prices.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth A Man Of Evil :: essays research papers

Chillingworth: a Man of Evil   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the novel the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s character Roger Chillingworth is supposed to represent the evil in the story. Hawthorne shows Chillingworth to be evil by several means. The physical description of Chillingworth shows him as an evil character. Statements are also made by Hawthorne referring to the inner content of Chillingworth that would lead the reader to feelings of his evilness. Another good way Hawthorne expresses that Chillingworth is evil is his name. There are many methods Hawthorne uses to demonstrate the evil qualities of Chillingworth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Chillingworth first enters the novel he is seen in a crowd. Hester notices him because he stands out. Chillingworth is dressed all in black. Black is a color often used to represent evil, other famous characters that demonstrate this are Captain Ahab and Darth Vader. Chillingworth is also said to have a hump on the left side of his back. The left or â€Å"sinister† side is used to represent evil. Chillingworth is also gnarled and ugly. Hawthorne writes characters to appear on the outside the way he wants the reader to see them on the inside. Chillingworth appears to be an ugly person on the outside therefore he must be one on the inside. Chillingworth is shown as a dark, evil, ugly character.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first thin one usually notices about the man in question is his eyes. These eyes have the power to read deep into a human soul. He can see whatever hangs heavy on the heart of the person and bring it to light; for example Chillingworth could use this to bring out a person’s sins. Hawthorne sees this act to be the greatest sin of all, making Chillingworth evil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chillingworth is a name that has a strong connotation of evil. The word chill has meanings similar to that of the word cold. Having the suffix worth makes his name mean of cold value. Cold is usually associated with evil. This can be seen in expressions like cold hearted. Chillingworth is a human being of cold value therefore he is a man of evil.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

My Voice Matters Essay

There’s something marvelous about spoken words that differs from a written speech. Our emphasis, our expressions, every time we express some sort of sound from our thoughts, excreting noise from the depths of our being, that’s our true signature. Since I have such a powerful tool available to myself, I don’t understand why I never fully use it to the advantage. I believe, that since my voices matter, I should make more of an effort to talk to my peers face to face. In my day and age, my generation is known for its dependence to our distraction. I seem to have lost the ability to talk to my peers. Everybody is more confident over barriers, where it is not required to actually reveal one’s face. I yearn to be more interactive and communicative with my peers, but what is it that holds me back? I have all I need in front of me, but my youth is lost in the consolidation of corruption, and the decision is up to me to make the right choice either take the narrow path which leads to accomplishment or the broad path which leads to destruction. Friendship is a prime example of a troubling decision. Having a quantity of friends always bothers me, but finding the quality in people is harder to find. At time it feels as if I’m drowning in a sea of children, each step as I roam as a gadabout to find intimate relationship, but time seems to go and pass through my hand. Experiencing change is adequate to learning a second language or similar to expressive aphasia. Knowing what you want; however, you don’t know how to explain such a thing. I am missing out on the teenage experience of trial and error by taking life on precaution rather than taking risks. Furthermore, it’s not just me wasting my time on desires. I spend so much time on thoughts than pursuing my goals. Everybody is out there with set goals, accomplishing them, everywhere. Why has my voices lost importance? To add on, when I’m simply writing down words out to print, it is impossible to fully express myself. Parts of the words are lost, because one just can’t thoroughly share their emotion through written words. I need to talk to others, face to face. Humans instinctively and subconsciously judge. After I saw my realization I knew in fact I must surmount my barrier on my muteness, casting the burden by the interaction of all that shackles me down from my achievements. I have found my character of a man of compassion, integrity and hope for a brighter future in the world to guide meaning people who has gone through the similar pariah-ism of self-confidence. I was meant for more than that. My voice is important! I’m meant to speak with others, creating a fellowship, a community, with the power of our voice. My voice matters.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Tragic Hero: Creon or Antigone

Joachim Ogundipe English Comp 2 Tragic Hero: Antigone or Creon? In Antigone, a play written by Sophocles, the characters Creon and Antigone both fit into a few of Aristotle’s criteria. They are both choices of tragic heroes. They both are neither good nor evil in the extreme but just a man like any of us; they are both born of a better social status than most of us, and both have a tragic flaw in their characters. But even though the story is called Antigone, it is not necessary for Antigone to be the tragic hero. Other things that only Creon does that make him the tragic hero should be responsible for his downfall, the misfortune they get should be greater than what he deserves, and should also have recognition of a truth about himself. By many of Creons actions, he shows all of the characteristics of a tragic hero and fits in these descriptions perfectly. Creon fits in all of the characteristics of Aristotle’s criteria and is the tragic hero. Creon is neither good nor bad. He is not completely bad because he didn’t really want to kill Antigone. Instead, he just wanted to keep all of the laws in order to make his men follow his orders. He was just a stubborn man who wanted to show his people that he was a man of his word. Creon is the king in the play and he is definitely more powerful than the rest of the characters. Creon makes it a point to show of his pride. Self-pride is the tragic flaw Creon faces in this play. He showed so much arrogance in every decision he made. Creon insisted on punishing Antigone and would not change his mind. He is responsible for his own downfall. Even though Creon sentenced Antigone, his misfortune is way worse than hers. All he wanted was to keep his country at peace, and did not want to let people go against his laws. In conclusion, the play titled Antigone by Sophocles has Creon as the tragic hero. Creon shows all of the characteristics of a tragic hero. He is neither good nor bad in the extreme, he is in a high status than us, he receives pity through the audience, recognizes his weakness, and his downfall comes from his own self-pride. Therefore, he is definitely the tragic hero of this play.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Free Essays on Cowboys And Indians

and mannerisms. The Smurfs were just as torturous with their whinny, high pitched blather and Mr. Rogers was just plain creepy. I was more the outdoors kind of girl. Bike rides, monkey bars, swings, cardboard-box rides down bumpy, rocky, spur ridden hills all fun activities. Of course, my favorite activity was to run through the streets during a rainstorm. We lived in Hawaii at the time, in military housing. All the neighborhood kids would come pouring out of their houses the minute a rainstorm started. Warm rain water falling down on us, steam rising from the ground as the rain hits it and me getting as wet as can be. The best part about it is your parents could not really get mad at you for getting all wet and filthy. I was only five years old when I received my first real lesson (and probably my parents biggest lesson) on the power of television and the impressionability of a young girl. As I have said, most of the time television was of no interest to me. But, there were a few cartoon shows I liked watching. Loony Tunes being my favorite, and Bugs Bunny my idol. I used to love to imitate Bugs. I would wander around the house with a carrot in my hand (smacking and chewing loudly as I took bites off the carrot), tapping the end of the carrot like a cigar as invisible ashes fell from the end of it. While uttering â€Å"Eh...(smack, chew, smack)†¦What’s up Doc?†. Sometimes I would be stationary. At this point I would have my elbow resting up against a ledge of some kind, with my carrot in t... Free Essays on Cowboys And Indians Free Essays on Cowboys And Indians I remember as a child I never really liked watching television. My parents rarely watched it growing up. Only as I got older did they acquire a taste for the â€Å"boob tube†. To me most children’s programs and cartoons were â€Å"lameâ€Å". If I knew what drugs were at the time I would have thought the whole crew on Sesame Street was on them because of their wide eyed, overly expressive faces, exaggerated enunciations of words and mannerisms. The Smurfs were just as torturous with their whinny, high pitched blather and Mr. Rogers was just plain creepy. I was more the outdoors kind of girl. Bike rides, monkey bars, swings, cardboard-box rides down bumpy, rocky, spur ridden hills all fun activities. Of course, my favorite activity was to run through the streets during a rainstorm. We lived in Hawaii at the time, in military housing. All the neighborhood kids would come pouring out of their houses the minute a rainstorm started. Warm rain water falling down on us, steam rising from the ground as the rain hits it and me getting as wet as can be. The best part about it is your parents could not really get mad at you for getting all wet and filthy. I was only five years old when I received my first real lesson (and probably my parents biggest lesson) on the power of television and the impressionability of a young girl. As I have said, most of the time television was of no interest to me. But, there were a few cartoon shows I liked watching. Loony Tunes being my favorite, and Bugs Bunny my idol. I used to love to imitate Bugs. I would wander around the house with a carrot in my hand (smacking and chewing loudly as I took bites off the carrot), tapping the end of the carrot like a cigar as invisible ashes fell from the end of it. While uttering â€Å"Eh...(smack, chew, smack)†¦What’s up Doc?†. Sometimes I would be stationary. At this point I would have my elbow resting up against a ledge of some kind, with my carrot in t...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Parental Guidence on TV essays

Parental Guidence on TV essays Television is a problem that is affecting the way children behave in many communities in our country. Parents are seeking a way to educate the problem albeit they may be the biggest contributors of the problem by not checking on what their children are watching. It is the premise of the paper to show and discuss the new ways that parents can find out what is appropriate for their children to watch by using the new TV ratings systems. There have been many things that people have tried to help this problem. Research completed by Working Woman magazine shows that, July 1 was a landmark date for parents: the first time we can walk into a store and buy a television set with the much-touted V-chip. (Elliot 22) The V-chip was a breakthrough for technology and when it was released some parents thought that all their problems would be solved. Television and its programs have many things that parents dont want their kids watching. S. Elliot of Working Woman magazine says, Not everything on television is good for kids. The V-chip is a way our family keeps you safe. TV-Y shows are the ones for you. (Elliot 22) The V-chip was a way to block anything on TV that parents didnt want their children to see. Parents have to be careful about what their children are seeing where ever they are, in fact Barbara Meltz of the Boston Globe believes that, The same parent who cares enough to buy a TV with technology capable of blocking violent programming is probably the parent who pays attention to the movies their children see. (Meltz 1) Otherwise, make sure you know what your kids are watching while over their friends house or what the see when they are at the movies. Many TV shows are just too much for your kids to handle no matter what time of the day it is. Barbara Meltz points out, If a TV-14 is accompanied by V, S, L, and/or D, expect it to be very intense. (Meltz 3) This is ju...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How to Get the Most Out of ACT Math Practice Questions

How to Get the Most Out of ACT Math Practice Questions SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Now that you’ve gathered together all your ACT math study materials, it’s time to put together a plan of attack. Having the right study materials is key, but understanding how to use them to their best effect is just as important. (What good is a tool wielded improperly, after all?) We’ve put together a comprehensive plan on how to make use of your ACT math study materials and boost your math score. We’ll walk you through how to best use your math practice problems and how to make the best study plan possible to prepare yourself for test day. Importance of Using Proper ACT Study Materials Before we talk about how to use your study material, it’s important to make sure you have the best material possible from which to work. Unfortunately, the internet is teeming with â€Å"ACT study materials† of questionable quality, and using this material as a resource is more likely to hinder you than help you. Using poorly designed study material will give you a false sense of how you’ll do on the real ACT (whether better or worse), which is not helpful for your study time and test prep. The most accurate and highest quality study material will come from ACT, Inc. itself. After that, only prep programs that use and truly base their questions off this material are worth your time. We have gathered together all the best free ACT study material and practice problems, so definitely start there for all your ACT math practice problem needs. Ready, set, let's go! How to Begin - Identifying Your Current Strengths and Weaknesses Before you tailor your study plan to your needs, you must first find your current strengths and weaknesses by running a diagnostic on your current performance. Step 1: Take a Practice Test If you haven’t taken one already, start by taking a full practice test. This will give you the best sense of your current projected score and percentile rank. Though you may be more focused on improving your math score right now, you will still need to take a full test so that you can best replicate a real testing environment. Not only will taking a full test show you your current strengths and weaknesses, but it will also show you how your math scores fit into your larger test-taking picture. The ACT is a marathon, and your scores will fluctuate depending on your energy and concentration levels over the course of the entire test. So you’ll only get a full picture of your current levels per topic if you take the complete test all together. This is a baseline, so be honest. Only then will you be able to tell where you’re starting and how far you have to go. So take it as you would the real test, adhere to the timing rules and don’t stop and look things up. As you go through, make sure to also mark your test- put a mark any time you feel unsure about a question and cross out any eliminated answer options. This will help you to identify patterns in your overall test-taking later. Step 2: Examine Your Test-Taking Patterns Once you’ve corrected your practice test, look at your spread of right and wrong answers. Are there any patterns to the distribution? There are two general ways to categorize your mistakes: by location on the test and by content. If you can organize your errors accordingly, it will help you understand why you're missing questions and make a study plan to address your weaknesses. The ACT math section is 60 questions, and they are arranged in ascending order of difficulty, which means that location-specific errors are generally errors due to difficulty. To spot patterns of location-based errors, ask yourself whether you are: Missing questions over the entire math section, seemingly evenly throughout? Missing several questions in the 1-20 range? (Though it is normal to miss some or even several questions on the overall ACT math section, try to carefully analyze and improve upon your mistakes in this range. The earlier questions will be the quickest and "simplest" to solve and so will net you a nice cushion of points if you can grab them.) Missing questions in a cluster around the 30-40 marker? (This is where the test transitions from "easy" to "medium-level" difficulty and that transition can trip many students up.) Missing questions mostly in the 40-60 range? (This is the transition from "medium" to "medium-high" difficulty.) Missing questions mostly in the 50-60 range? (This is the "highest" difficulty range and so is tough for the vast majority of students.) You may also be getting questions wrong by topic. Though math topics on the ACT tend to cluster in certain locations (for example, more algebra questions appear at the beginning of the test than they do at the end), you will also find each topic scattered throughout the test (more on this in our ACT Math question distribution guide). As such, you must look at each of your errors closely in order to see if there is a topic-specific pattern to your errors. To spot trends in content errors, ask yourself whether you are: Getting all or most questions wrong in a particular topic, no matter where the questions are located in the test? (E.g., are you missing all triangle questions, whether they are appear as question 5 or question 50?) Getting questions wrong by topic only in the medium or high level difficulty? (For instance, can you solve "easy" slope questions, but miss all the "difficult" slope questions?) Having a seemingly even spread of right and wrong answers by topic throughout the test? (If you answered questions 12 and 48 on functions correctly, but missed question 20, it may have less to do with your understanding of functions as a topic and more to do with the phrasing of the question or the speed at which you were taking the test. Take a careful look at each problem to see if you can spot the pattern.) The less familiar you are with a particular math topic, the harder it will be to answer the variety of problems on it that you’ll see on the ACT. Take a look at our individual math guides for topic-specific help and practice questions for any of your ACT math topic problem areas. Most people will start out their ACT practice by missing a combination of location-specific and topic-specific questions, so don’t worry if your pattern starts out this way too. As you get more and more used to both the material and the way the ACT tests this material, you’ll narrow your range of wrong answers and increase your accuracy in both fields. Step 3: Make a List of Your ACT Math Strengths and Weaknesses Now that you’ve looked at your test-taking patterns, make a list on a separate piece of paper of all the math topics in which you missed questions. (For reference, we have put together a complete list of ACT math topics.) In addition to the topics missed, make a list of the types of errors you made. Why do this? There is a big difference between types of errors on the ACT math test- not knowing how to approach a question at all is very different than misreading a question. You’ll need to examine exactly what kinds of errors you’ve made so that you can learn to avoid them in the future. Finding the wrong variable or final value This is one of the most common errors, especially on problems where you must find an "unusual" final answer. For instance, the problem may ask you to find the value of x + y for your final solution, when your natural instinct is to find the value of x or y alone. Misreading the question This can include misreading any value or variable in the overall question or simply misreading what the question is asking you to do. For example, in a word problem, did you mix up "Andy" and "Amelia"? Did you read "subtract" as "square"? It is easy to make assumptions or to mix up similar words if you're going too quickly through your problems. Stopping your solve too early or too late In a problem that requires multiple steps, you may accidentally find yourself stopping a step or two too early or going a step or two too far. For instance, if you need to find the 10th number in a sequence and you're counting by hand, you might accidentally find the 9th or th number in the sequence instead. Many answer choices are generated by this type of error, so be extra cautious in only taking the exact number of steps necessary. Running out of time If you run out of time in the math section, you will likely start making several errors either because you didn't have time enough to solve the question properly or you didn't even have time to look at the question. Not knowing how to approach the question at all Whether it's the wording of the question or the math topic involved, sometimes you'll find yourself completely flummoxed. You may not know how to set up the solve to the problem in the slightest, or you may try and fail to set up the solve. Either way, this is a problem that you simply don't know how to approach. Mixing up or forgetting your formulas You will NOT be given any formulas, so it can be easy to misremember or mix up your formulas in your head if you aren't vigilant. If you need to find the area of a circle, make sure you're using the area formula and not the circumference formula. Note: don’t take â€Å"careless errors† like misreading the question lightly! It is easy to think that you wouldn’t make such an obvious mistake next time, but don’t underestimate the effects of adrenaline and exhaustion on your thinking patterns. With practice and diligence, you can avoid making these kinds of mistakes, but you must dedicate yourself to being very careful. Always double check to make sure your answer matches exactly what the test is asking you to find. Got all your ducks in a row? Excellent! How to Proceed - Using ACT Math Practice Questions to Raise Your Score Now that you’ve got your baseline, how do you use your practice material to raise your score? Let’s take a look. #1: Take a look at your list of strengths and weaknesses and brush up on those math topics that lie in your weak zone. If you’re simply unfamiliar with a particular math topic, then practicing problem after problem isn’t going to help all that much. You would never walk into French 4 without taking French 1, and math is exactly the same. So don’t dive off the deep end of polygon problems if you’re unfamiliar with their basic principles. For every topic on the ACT, you must first understand both the ins and outs of the particular math topic as well as how you’ll see it tested on the ACT. Our ACT math guides are tailored to reflect and demonstrate how each topic is presented on the ACT, so you won’t have to waste time reading and memorizing more strategies and facts than you absolutely need to. By studying the topic first (before diving right into all your practice problems), you’ll also keep your practice problems â€Å"fresh.† It’s no use throwing yourself against a wall of function problems if you’ve never studied functions in school- it will only leave you with no new material to study from once you’ve brushed up on how to actually solve function problems. Once you’ve refreshed your understanding of a math topic and learned what you need to learn, you can use your practice problems solidify the knowledge in your head and get you to where you need to be by test day. #2: When you do find practice questions, always try to solve them yourself first without looking to the answer. If you look at a problem and then look straight to the answer, you are not really solving the problem. The answer explanation might make sense to you and even make you feel as though you would have been able to solve the problem on your own, but this feeling can be deceiving. Solving a puzzle yourself and understanding how a puzzle was solved require two entirely different parts of your brain. Always (always!) try to solve a problem yourself first and commit to an answer choice, before you look up the final answer. Remember- you can only improve if you have an accurate picture of your current skill level. #3: Once you’ve brushed up on the topic, take practice problems in multiples at a time, as if you were truly working on the test. As you go through your practice questions, don’t solve questions one at a time and stop to look up the answer after each one (e.g., solve, stop to look up answer, solve, stop to look up answer, solve, stop, etc.). This kind of pacing does NOT give you an accurate picture of how you’ll do on test day and can hamper your progress. (Remember: you won’t be able to verify whether your answers are correct or not on test-day- you simply have to do your best and move forward on multiple questions at a time.) Even if you don’t always sit down to take a full test or a full math section at once, it is still better to answer two or three questions at a time and look up your answers at the very end than it is to simply answer one. #4: If you can use multiple solving methods on a problem, try all the different ways so that you can find the one most comfortable for you. Many ACT math questions can be solved in a variety of ways. Plugging in answers and plugging in numbers are strategies that work for many different types of math questions, but there are others as well. For instance, systems of equations questions can be solved by graphing, subtraction, or substitution, while sequence, polygon, and distance questions can be solved via formulas or by working them out by hand. These are just a few examples and each of our guides will go into further detail. The point remains that most every ACT question is purposefully designed to be solved in multiple ways and different methods work best for different people. Once you’ve finished solving your set of problems, go back and solve them again using a different strategy. Compare this to the first time- which method did you like better? Which was faster? Which made you feel the most confident in your answer? #5: Pace yourself (and your practice questions) Though it may be tempting to get your studying out of the way, do NOT cram all your studying in one go! Improvement happens over time, and you must pace yourself to get the most out of your prep time. In addition, if you blow through all your practice problems at once, you will not have anything else to work with fresh. Again, solving a puzzle yourself and understanding how a puzzle was solved are two very different concepts, so try to pace out your fresh material and your review material so that you can use both parts of your brain in your study prep. #6: Sign up for a test-prep program if you feel you need more material than the free practice questions available. If you feel you’ve exhausted your free study material, then definitely sign up for a test-prep program or buy one of the official study guides available, like the Real ACT Red Book. Not only can a prep program provide you with additional material, but can also help you make the most out of your study time. Our ACT study program at PrepScholar automatically targets your areas of strength and weakness and tailors your studying to you and your needs. No need to assess your patterns yourself- we’ll do all the work for you! And don't underestimate the power of a good nap after you're done studying. The Take-Aways The ACT is unlike most tests you’ll ever come across- it is long, comprehensive, and very specifically designed. Going into it blind (or poorly prepared) is difficult and rarely goes well. The more you can prepare, and the higher quality that preparation is, the better you’ll do. So make sure your study material always comes from the best sources and that you use this material to its absolute best effect while studying. Your goal is to train your brain to look at and solve puzzles in the way that the ACT wants you to, and most people can only do so with focused effort and practice. But always keep in mind too that the ACT is designed to be an achievable and trainable test. With the right practice, it is absolutely possible to succeed and get the scores you want. Once you know how to hone your focus and target specific areas to study, you’ll be mastering ACT math questions in no time. What’s Next? Now that you've looked at your ACT test-taking patterns, check out our individual ACT math guides to help you brush up on any topic that was less familiar to you. Running out of time on the ACT math section? If you found that you didn't have enough time to finish your ACT math section, check out our guide for how to beat the clock and maximize your ACT math score. Unsure about your ACT math formulas? Make sure you've memorized your most important formulas and then check out how to use that knowledge to its best effect. Looking to get a perfect score? Our guide to getting a perfect 36 on ACT math will help get you to where you need to be. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Math lesson, you'll love our program. Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Expatriate Training Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Expatriate Training - Research Paper Example This will require them to be trained on diplomatic and negotiation skills to enable them to have a niche over the rival firms such like eBay and especially in those countries where technology is in its penetration phase. Since environment is likely to change, the expatriates also need to be trained on ways to mitigate any negative effect and to capitalize on any opportunity that may come from shift in the external business environmental factors. These will include involving issues like building a strong customer relations and developing towards conforming to different situations of government policies that may affect their business in different countries. With Amazon being an online purchasing store, it is required that its employees should be able to work around the clock as orders come to process them for further ordering from the supplying firms and also to process payments for the orders. In this case, expatriate training will help to enhance the few interactions which employees will have with customers and in addressing governmental issues posed at different times during operation. The bulk of this work will require employees to be flexible, to work with minimum supervision and also to be self-driven. The expatriate training should focus on the qualities and skills that will enable them to be able to achieve the above goals and within the shortest time possible. This will require the expatriates to be taught on ways and tricks to process the orders within the shortest time possible and with minimal effort. Online businesses also require people who are enthusiastic with technology and the various software and application that are used. Amazon however has its own software and applications that it uses and the expatriates will be trained on how to use this software that are allowed in the country of deployment without putting at risk the security of any of the data belonging to Amazon (http://www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/business/amazon-external-environment.php) . An internal environment in any business organization is core to its success and Amazon is not an exemption. Thus to achieve the set targets, relationships between employees, and the clients and also with the management is very important to the organization. In Amazon, that culture, which is performance-based, must be upheld to ensure smooth running of all departments of the organization and that the company’s objectives are met. The employees should have an induction workshop to be briefed and informed about the organizations policy and culture; it is in that forum that they get to seek any clarification on any matters that they may wish to know about the organization. It is here that the expatriates should have some bonding sessions with their colleagues as they exchange ideas and share experiences. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, envisioned an online shopping where one can buy anything and everything at the convenience of one click of a computer. In line with this, the e xpatriates have to be encouraged to be innovative and help with this long-term vision of Amazon and spread it globally with excellent results and within a record timeframe. The training the expat are given should enhance their involvement by introducing

Chinese Economic Reform Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8000 words

Chinese Economic Reform - Coursework Example The introduction of the reforms in 1978 allowed China to be a part of the few countries who were quickly heading towards the economies which were growing rapidly. It is also ahead in the field of exporting as well as importing of goods. According to statistics, the rate of poverty has fallen down since 1981 till 2005 from a 40 percent to 29 percent (The World Bank, 2008) and that is due to their industrialization sector. But now today, there seems to be a major problem with the ever growing population and inflation. The income of the rural-urban sectors seems to be dwindling and that indeed is a problem which needs to be dealt with. So, my motivation behind selecting this topic is to prepare a report about the inflation crisis in China and also how the monetary bank with their policy is going to control it. Therefore, that is my research question also, My objective in writing this report is to present with a discussion concerning inflation and what it is. Specifically, inflation in China will be considered and also the policies that the Chinese officials have undertaken in order to control it. I would also like to introduce the term inflation briefly and then further in chapter 2 I will explain it in detail. In February since the last 11 years the rate at which China's inflation grew was tremendous but not in a good way. Due to this everything turned upside down; it added immense pressure on the Chinese government to come up with plans to hold or slow down the economy and for the central bank to make an increase in their interest rates. One can say that China has sealed its own economic doom but I am hopeful that with these policies the inflation will be under control. In the coming chapters I will be discussing in length about the 1979 economic reform background, the government policies, inflation situations, economic theory, bank of China, central bank monetary policies, literature reviews of China's rapid growth and at the end an analysis of the

Friday, October 18, 2019

Gender Differences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Gender Differences - Essay Example The preparation and the aftermath of any of the above mentioned occurrences requires special planning and assistance. The research will show that due to our "classic conditioning", we are systematically excluding a segment of our population from participating in an all important undertaking. The literature will use the educational system to show how we view gender, and how this time honored perception skews the method and attitude of instruction and attention, in fostering a mere tolerance, and not an equal commitment to the presence of girls in the classroom. The fact that gender differences in the classroom is not viewed as a significant entity, is stunting the growth and denying the full potential of a majority of the school age population. Additionally, the literature will also address the gap and the absence of ethnic gender diversity considerations in the educational system. The system addresses this matter as if the low income minority female is present in the classroom, only to bide her time, until something else comes along. She receives little credit for her achievements and given only casual acknowledgment for her efforts. The literature sets out to highlight the existence of gender differences and whether the presence of these differences is fertile ground for bias. And whether the bias results in a disadvantage for any of the groups affected. Is it a fact that boys are educated differently from girls, and if so, does the advantage have a positive or negative impact on the achievement of the gender or race of those without the advantage. Are remedial measures necessary to assist in obtaining gender and ethnic equality The review clearly points out the existence of gaps in standardized test scores among various students classifications, for example, a Caucasian female student who has a high GPA will invariably score, on average, 30 points less than her Caucasian counterpart on the SAT. Even if the male has a lower GPA than the female, his scores will be higher than the female.This phenomenon is so pervasive until college admission officers have adopted a policy to make a 30 point allowance between male and female scores when making admission decisions. 2.0 CHAPTER TWO 2.1 GENDER IDENTITY Gender identity is the individuals private experience of his/her gender; the concept of the self as masculine or feminine. This is such an important part of a person's self concept that in most adults it is virtually impossible to change it. There are several different perspectives on how gender identity is formed and this writer finds the following concepts the most appropriate; psychoanalytical, social learning, and cognitive development.Psychoanalytical theory describes a process in which the young child identifies3 with the same sex parent. She internalizes the characteristics and behavior styles of that parent and begin unconsciously to react in similar ways; Social Learning theory suggests that the child develops a gender identity through a learning process that involves modeling, imitation and reinforcement. The theory rests on the assumption that boys learn to be boys and girls to be

Contemporary Trends in the Global Business Environment Coursework

Contemporary Trends in the Global Business Environment - Coursework Example The researcher states that Qantas Company seeks to analyze its environment for a sustainable future in the highly competitive market. Indeed, various trends have characterized the market and it is important for a clear analysis to be made so that the business can evaluate its continued viability. To this end, the company seeks to introduce new flights to Tehran, Iran, which it hopes that the idea will put the company in a better position to beat its competitors like the Fly Emirates that have strongholds in the Middle East. This report assesses the business in terms of the goals it will aim at achieving in the future. Businesses analyze their environments and plan in many ways. Indeed, most of these trends have evolved from the 1950’s to their present form. From a background where planning was considered in the rubric of budget concerns, modern organizations largely embrace scenario-based planning which takes into account the future of the company. Qantas in this perspective u ses a variety of strategies in its environmental analysis. Recent studies into the external environment of the business reveal that it contains three components, including the market, industry and the expansive macro environment. As an important aspect of the external environment, the market defines the clients of the business who make it possible for it to conduct its operations. The market for any business is different from others and specific to the industry. The industry, on the other hand, incorporates all the businesses that are involved in the airline venture. Industries have trends such as the legal requirements for safety, purchases of new planes in the market as well as the increasing need to expand the number of destinations that the company operates. The macro environment, on the other hand, focuses on certain aspects such as political, social or technological issues that affect the business’s operations.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Systems Analysis and Design_Aug13 Assignment - Nancy's Novelty Cakes

Systems Analysis and Design_Aug13 - Nancy's Novelty Cakes - Assignment Example 24 Schedule 24 b) Spreadsheet program 25 Task 3- B Graph 26 Increase in Sales Each Year 26 The above given graph clearly indicates that this investment will bring increase to expected sales. 27 Sales v/s Revenue 27 27 Above given graph demonstrates the relationship between sales and revenue. This graph clearly shows an increase in sales due to the increase in revenue. 27 Task 3- C 27 In this analysis I have shown a relationship between different variables such as the overall sales and total revenue. These relationships are demonstrates over a progress of four years and in a steady fashion. These relationships outline a steady line of increase in sales and overall increase in revenue after 2 years. ... ign 33 References 34 Introduction Nancy’s Novelty Cakes is a small confectionery business, which is expert in making novel and special occasion cakes for customers. Up till now, this company has been using a traditional approach for the management of its business operations. In this scenario, it has developed and maintained a file of cakes designs along with costs associated with those cakes. With the passage of time the management realized that this traditional approach is not useful for the successful management of business operations. Hence, they have decided to develop and implement a new technology based system. In this scenario, Nancy’s Novelty Cakes business is looking for an effective way to replace its old manual system they have had for the last 5 years with a new computerised system. I am a member of IT Company that is specialized in design and development of computerised business systems. Our consultancy firm has won a contract from this client. In this case our team is responsible for the development and implementation of a new technology based system for the better corporate operational and procedures management. This report presents a detailed analysis of some of the important aspects associated with the development and implementation of this new system. This report will discuss the requirements specification and design related aspects of Nancy Nancy’s Novelty Cakes business. This report is divided into different tasks and each task addresses specific topic. Task 1 a) System lifecycle model Software/system development lifecycle or simply the SDLC is a theoretical outline or process that demonstrates the phases or steps required for the development of a software application. In fact, this process outlines all the steps from preliminary feasibility

Crime Rates Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Crime Rates - Assignment Example What are the forces behind these declines? How do the rates of crime in the U.S. compare with other countries? This paper will address these questions through analysis of crime data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the FBI. The aim will be to paint a picture of the relationship between geographical characteristics and crimes trends. In addition, the paper will outline the structure of the PowerPoint presentation for this topic and explain the rationale behind the outlined structure. According to various agencies including the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau, the rates of crime in the U.S. for the past decade have sharply declined. This presentation will focus on explicating on the proclaimed decrease in crime rates, analyzing crime data from the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau to ascertain reasons behind this decline, and analyzing the crime trends in relation to demographics. The presentation will first focus on the crime rates data between 1990 and 2010 in some of the largest metropol is based on the reports by the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau.It will analyze the changes in the rates of rime of this period. During this period, propertyand violent crime significantly declined by about 46 percent and 30 percent respectively. Demographically, the rate of crime in suburbs was lower than in the cities. In almost all large metropolis, crime rates difference between the suburbs and the cities declined by close to two thirds from 1990 to 2010 (FBI, 2010). In most of the cases, the crime rate either fell or rose at once. Suburban communities with a high-density population of older people had the greatest drop in crime rates. Both high-density suburbs and cities registered a drop in violent crime rates. The presentation will then focus on the reasons for the decline in crime rates and impacts of this decline. The decline in crime rates saw diversification of communities, which led to the weakening of the relationship between community demographics and crime. Over this pe riod, the relationship between crime and the characteristics of the community such as the proportion of the population that is poor, Hispanic, foreign-born or black, considerably diminished. For instance, property crime in black communities reduced by half, and violent crime in Hispanic communities disappeared. In comparison with the past, metropolitan areas are safer today. These trends of crime rate decreasehavelargely benefitted more urbanized, more minority, poor and older communities. This is the reason behind the decline inthe difference and contrast between the suburbs and the cities. Understanding this relationship underscores the notion that crime is not only an urban problem, but a metropolitan too. Structure of the PowerPoint Presentation The PowerPoint presentation to that will be used in this topic will be constructed in such a way that allows the audience to understand how crime rates have changed over the years, how and what forces are behind the changes in crime rate , and what difference is there between the U.S. and other countries in terms of crime rate. Introduction Slides The introduction part wil purpose to give a summary background account of the crime rates in the U.S between 1990 and 2010. This will be done by analyzing the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau crime data. Body Slide The body slides will analyze and outline the decline in crime rates in the U.S. in last two decades as depicticted by the crime data fro the U.S. Census B

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Systems Analysis and Design_Aug13 Assignment - Nancy's Novelty Cakes

Systems Analysis and Design_Aug13 - Nancy's Novelty Cakes - Assignment Example 24 Schedule 24 b) Spreadsheet program 25 Task 3- B Graph 26 Increase in Sales Each Year 26 The above given graph clearly indicates that this investment will bring increase to expected sales. 27 Sales v/s Revenue 27 27 Above given graph demonstrates the relationship between sales and revenue. This graph clearly shows an increase in sales due to the increase in revenue. 27 Task 3- C 27 In this analysis I have shown a relationship between different variables such as the overall sales and total revenue. These relationships are demonstrates over a progress of four years and in a steady fashion. These relationships outline a steady line of increase in sales and overall increase in revenue after 2 years. ... ign 33 References 34 Introduction Nancy’s Novelty Cakes is a small confectionery business, which is expert in making novel and special occasion cakes for customers. Up till now, this company has been using a traditional approach for the management of its business operations. In this scenario, it has developed and maintained a file of cakes designs along with costs associated with those cakes. With the passage of time the management realized that this traditional approach is not useful for the successful management of business operations. Hence, they have decided to develop and implement a new technology based system. In this scenario, Nancy’s Novelty Cakes business is looking for an effective way to replace its old manual system they have had for the last 5 years with a new computerised system. I am a member of IT Company that is specialized in design and development of computerised business systems. Our consultancy firm has won a contract from this client. In this case our team is responsible for the development and implementation of a new technology based system for the better corporate operational and procedures management. This report presents a detailed analysis of some of the important aspects associated with the development and implementation of this new system. This report will discuss the requirements specification and design related aspects of Nancy Nancy’s Novelty Cakes business. This report is divided into different tasks and each task addresses specific topic. Task 1 a) System lifecycle model Software/system development lifecycle or simply the SDLC is a theoretical outline or process that demonstrates the phases or steps required for the development of a software application. In fact, this process outlines all the steps from preliminary feasibility

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Sophocles Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sophocles - Research Paper Example It is known that he wrote around on hundred and twenty tragedies in his life. However, only seven of those writings are available in the present times (Sophocles, iv-vi). The present study makes a detailed research on the admirable tragic writer and discusses on his writings that are available and thus reflecting his excellence and talent. Sophocles: About the Man and his Writings: Sophocles had written several plays and he always used to remain present during the performances of his acts and received appreciations from his audiences. He had been crowned for his plays for around twenty times. It was Sophocles who had introduced the concept of a third person in speaking the dialogues of the plays. This concept had greatly contributed to the industry of drama. His plays had a soft and harmonious grace accompanied by his dialogues. The people of Athens had created a monument on his account that reflected the use of bees as could be associated with the softness and harmony of his plays. An understanding of his feelings, his selection of plots for his plays, and his style could be analyzed from the plays that are available till date. It has been observed that Sophocles presented his plays with simple and natural incidents, his emotions being gracious and inspirational, and reflecting his moral values to the public. The description of his writings revealed his power of thoughts being mirrored through his evaluations. His style of presentation involved a significant art of mastery in it. He lived his life from 497 till 406 before Christ and contributed significantly in the field of plays and drama (Sophocles, vi-xi). Writings of Sophocles: The tragedies written by Sophocles as available in the present times include Azax, Electra, Philoctetes, Antigone, Trachinle, Edipus Tyrannus, and Edipus Coloneus. The play of Ajax involves the death of the character called Ajax as a result of disappointment resulting from not receiving an honor after Achilles’ death which in stead was received by Ulysses. The story reflects disappointment, murders, and Ajax killing of own life. Other characters in the play also had significant roles to act on like Teucer who was the half-brother of Ajax. Sophocles significantly presented through this play the concerns for a master and the consequent disappointments from failure. The characters of the play had been created with great thoughts with their names having appropriate Greek meanings and presentation (Sophocles, x-22). Electra was another play written by Sophocles that represented the death of a character named Agamemnon by his wife. Electra saved her brother from the incident and let him grow up under the care and guidance of Strophius who was the king of Phocis. Years later when the child grew up and came to know of his father’s murder, he took revenge with the assistance from his sister (Sophocles, 53). Thus this presents a talent of Sophocles presenting another tragedy where there is pain, there is re venge and yet a tragic story to tell a tale of a lifetime. Similar to the above mentioned plays, the writer of his times successfully completed the other dramas, many of which are no more available. Of all his writings, Oedipus the King is known as one of his master piece. It contains surprising contents. The story reveals a tragedy where Oedipus kills his mother and gets married to his mother with intention to avoid circumstances he analyzed

Monday, October 14, 2019

Show an understanding Essay Example for Free

Show an understanding Essay I could almost imagine Ophelia as a lump of clay, but its not Shakespeare that models her, he gives us a simple character at the beginning symbolized by few words. She is then molded in our minds by the other characters. The same can be said about the way she is brought up, she has no apparent mother figure. Gertrude is the closest she gets, but is an incestuous women who may or may not have had knowledge of or taken some part in the regicide. Is she a good example of a mother? I think not! Yet she is brought up in part by Gertrude and also by a father who is no saint himself. In the Kenneth Brannah film interpretation he is seen during the scene with Reynaldo to be with prostitutes, while telling his companion to spy on his son whom he suspects of doing something similar. If her father were her role model I think it is not hard to see why Ophelia is not the complete women we would expect her to be. It was Sigmund Freud that said that we learn certain social, life and relationship skills from our parents especially the parent of apposing sex to the child therefore Ophelia will have become more like her father naturally. Although there is no evidence in the text to support this, it is what you would expect to happen in this relationship. In contrast to this Hamlet seems to be the only man in the play she can truly look up to or admire. He is charming and kind, writes her beautiful poetry makes her feel like a woman in many ways. So can we blame her for falling in love with him? As she knows no better, could we blame her for sleeping with Hamlet before marriage? The answer for both may be found in the text, the signals for both are clear in Act4 Scene5. She sings Quoth she, before u tumbled me, You promised me to wed. He answers- So I would I ha done, by yonder sun, ` And thou hadst not come to my bed. The words tumbled me means basically had sex with me, so we can clearly see that there relationship was sexual, if she is referring to their relationship. If she is speaking the truth but did she make love to him with no feeling just because she could, or, because she was in love with a chance to wed the man she wanted? I strongly believe the later to be true, I dont believe she would commit to having sex with Hamlet without love. Therefore I believe she asked for, or, was offered marriage. This is similar to what happens to Romeo and Juliet, but, unlike Juliet, Ophelia has sex on the belief she is to be married, whereas Juliet waits till she is married. Her innocence is shown in agreeing to this with out realizing first that Hamlet might just be after sex. Did they have sex before old Hamlets death or after? The answer to this question will greatly affect the above point. I think Hamlet told Ophelia he would wed her honestly but this was before his own father died changing him. (How much did the death of Old Hamlet affect Hamlets love for Ophelia? ) But from Ophelias point of view the man she loves goes mad and rejects her saying I never loved you her father dies and her brother is away in France. She has now no restraints, it almost as if her family and Hamlet were her anchor holding her to the ground, now that the rope as been cut she is drifting of up into a state madness until she reaches heaven. So therefore part of the madness is simple honesty mixed with the tragedies that have been placed before her. Her death is also interesting; Gertrude is the one who retells Ophelias story. To me, it seems her death was not suicide, but the act of a mad women not knowing what she was doing. Gertrudes description appears almost romantic and mysterious, hence inspiring Millais to paint her floating peacefully in the river. Gertrudes explanation of events is very much similar, a peaceful almost poetic end. She could be lying covering up the truth putting a gloss on it for Leartes to hear, I think it is the truth but it wasnt as simple and elegant as she makes it out to be. There on the pendant boughs her cronet weeds Clambring to hang, an envious silver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping Broke.. Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death. It was an accident her falling in, but she was mad, and too unaware of her situation to save her self. Shes not a madwomen who commits suicide but a women driven to madness ending in death. Her madness serves a purpose as well; we can use the different ways Shakespeare shows madness by comparing hers with Hamlets. When Hamlet is mad, or is faking madness, he is a comic character making sarcastic jokes using his intelligence and wit. Many critics have also defined hamlets behavior as melancholia. But Ophelia is truly mad singing and acting insanely. Shakespeare presents her in this way so that we can see the true Hamlet we can see he is sane and is playing everyone for a fool. Hamlets antic disposition affects Ophelia greatly, whether he does it to protect her, or because he is simply cruel he pushes Ophelia away. Hamlets plan is to act mad to hide his knowledge of the regicide, using it as a cover. In doing so, he is partly responsible for Ophelias madness, killing Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. If is behavior hadnt been seen as mad R and G would not have been called for, Polonius would not have been hiding where he was and he would not have treated Ophelia in the same cruel way. However more significantly people think less of him and use it against him. A good example of this is when Claudius sends him to England to be executed as a murderous madman. During his madness he has a very revealing scene (Act 3 Scene 2) with Ophelia where he brings out their secret relationship. He makes very rude jokes, which would only be funny and recognizable to an Elizabethan audience. Only on studying the text closer would a modern audience find the jokes humorous, and even then the most liberal society would still be shocked at what Shakespeare was suggesting. Imagine being in the Elizabethan period watching Hamlet and two of the lead characters flirting and using obscene jokes. They would find it initially funny in a vulgar sort of way. However their opinion of Ophelia, the daughter of a Lord, would be somewhat less than it should for apparently being able to understand such vulgarity. For them they would respond completely differently to a modern viewer, she would be instantly seen as a wanton whore as some critics such as Jeremy Collier suggests. But if we look at the scene does Ophelia understand Hamlet and play along or does she have her words twisted by a perverted young madman. Hamlet Lady, shall I lie in your lap? Ophelia No my lord. Hamlet I mean, my head upon your lap? Ophelia Ay my lord. Hamlet Did you think I meant count matters? Ophelia I think nothing my lord. Hamlet Thats a fair thought to lie between maids legs. Ophelia What is, my lord? Hamlet Nothing. Ophelia You are merry my lord. It is important to note that in the Elizabethan era the word nothing meant female genitalia, now is Hamlet meaning nothing simply as meaning nothing or is he referring to something much ruder. Does Ophelia understand him? Does she lead him on in this scene and flirt back? I would have to answer no to both questions. However in discussion with fellow students we have seen both sides. It is in some ways possible to see that they are openly flirting with each other, which would make you respond differently to Ophelia. I think what is most likely to be true is that she understands Hamlet, but she is too much of a lady to respond in the same way. What has become transparently clear from what has been written about Hamlet is that life in Elsinore castle is, to say the very least, strange or rotten. Ophelia has grown up with less than perfect role models and is in a very poor situation. The politics, which hold her in the castle, are intense. Enemies on all sides surround the country of Denmark. As a result both she and the rest of the residents are effectively, appear to be trapped or held within Elsinore. It comes across as being extremely claustrophobic; everyone knows each other private lives it appears. The only person that seems to get any space for himself is Hamlet. He has long soliloquies; these become more numerous as he fakes his madness. The point I am coming to is that Ophelia is set free when she dies, she escapes the repression and claustrophobia of Elsinore. Is Shakespeare making a comment about society? This is echoed in the history of Britain, at the end of Queen Elizabeths reign, she was set free and a new King came from the north to take the throne and set England on a whole new course. In conclusion Ophelia is a very simple character made complicated by others. She was an innocent young woman, to be eventually dragged up into women hood, to be used and eventually to death. This is a result of her environment-no mothers influence throughout, except for Gertrudes poor attempt, a father who is indifferent about his childrens welfare and a brother away. She falls in love with the crown prince of Denmark; he to loves her More than a hundred brothers. The madness within the castle reduces her to the same state and like Denmark itself dies. A case of innocence robbed? No a case of innocence mislead, but with out this innocence does she become a wanton whore? Im not sure what to think Im left wondering what Shakespeare intended. This Shakespeare play presents more questions than it answers and with out the answer I am still unsure on Ophelias intended character.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

finance :: essays research papers

-Todays international financial system is private with only marginal official participation. Showdown between government and banks during currency crisis of 1972. ?Smithsonian Agreement ,? allowed greater flexibility in currency values. In the 70?s U.S firms weren?t even loyal to the dollar. Sophisticated speculation playing a major role in international finance. Everyone is trying to cash in on exchange fluctuations ?leads and lags.? (I say why not) Central banks are big losers: their intervention, and inflow of dollars was so large that it was inflationary. Lesson learned is that they cannot control private capital flows. Firms did protect themselves against the anticipated devaluation over a longer term by shifting the currency composition of liquid assets and debts, and by prepaying accounts payable in currencies expected to be devalued. In 1973 we basically exported inflation to Europe. No one is sure how close we came to a financial disaster in the 70?s, but it?s a fact that w e were on the edge. *Franklin-Herstatt failure contained. Floating rates survived. Chapter Four-The Economics and Politics of Global Debt   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  -In the nineteenth century, private banks helped countries cope with swings in the trade cycle and made emergency loans to keep governments afloat. A reason why bankers disliked the Bretton Woods Conference was that it created a competing public sector institution, the IMF, to provide short-term loans to countries experiencing trade and financial difficulties. The Third World owes the Western banking system over half a trillion dollars. Lost cause thinking we will be payed back. Global debt crisis had two fundamental causes-importance of Third World countries in global banking revolution of 60?s and 70?s; series of economic shocks that hit the world economy in the 70?s.Richard Weinert lists four main factors that are responsible for the banks? expansionist thrust into the Third World in the 70?s: servicing client needs, defensive expansion to keep clients, earnings growth, and the opportunities offered by Eurocurrency markets. Economic shock of 70?s: inflation, dr amatic increase in oil prices, and slowdown in world economic growth (recession on 74-75), soaring interest rates.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Religion :: essays research papers

In 1886 the Catholic bishops of the United States published a pastoral letter entitled Economic Justice for All. There were two main reasons for this letter: first of all they wanted to illustrate an understanding of the nature and reason for economic activity from the view of the Catholic and theological thought; furthermore they also wanted to evaluate the workings of the American economy, both from a national and international point of view. As the letter states, â€Å"Every perspective on economic life that is human, moral, and Christian must be shaped be three questions: What does the economy do for people? What does the economy do to people? And how do people participate in it?† This pastoral letter symbolizes the most aspiring effort of the Catholic bishops of the United States. The bishops also put forth another aspiring effort to make the ideas and insights of people throughout the United States a reality. Even though the bishops of the United States were trying their best to make this a lasting and historical document, it unfortunately found a way to generate considerable controversy. There were critics who said that the bishops were going into an economic battlefield where they have little experience. However, this is a chance for the American people to help out and give their support to not only the bishops but the poor people too. The bishops were hoping that the Economic Justice for All will eventually have an impact, both on the political perspective and also the economic realities of the United States citizens. The Catholics in the United States hope that the social justice will set the stage for reflection and action for the future. Because of the many Catholics here in the United States the dioceses started to put forth their efforts in doing what was needed to get this program on its feet. This is what started the beginning of a new awareness of the relationship between the struggle for economic justice and the mission of th e church. Even though there were many people working hard the question still remains: When hard times start to arise will the American people create the opportunity for the poor to find a job in this economic and socialistically dominated world. If indeed the American economy is willing to accept, the pastoral can provide a powerful building block of the policies and programs which are necessary to create a society that will be for the justice for all.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Carer Definition Essay

First of all we need to look at what is meant by the word ‘carer’. A government website agrees â€Å"the word ‘carer’ means someone who looks after a friend, relative or neighbour who needs support because of their sickness, age or disability†. (Directgov 2006). A carer goes beyond what is expected from a relative, friend or neighbour; they are not paid like some professionals known as care workers, although they are vital to the government in providing care to some of the most vulnerable. The type of care given within the family environment saves the government billions a year which otherwise would be unaffordable. I am going to discuss throughout the assignment Anne Walker a stepdaughter caring for her stepfather Angus McPhail and touch upon the challenges both these people face in their daily life’s when giving and receiving care. There are many difficulties involved in giving care. Being a carer can be physically and mentally demanding and in some cases carers need to be on call anytime day or night. Caring for a family member can be hard work and your role within the family setting can change. You are no longer seen as a daughter, son, wife or parent but as a carer. This can be a change in identity within the family home which can strain the quality of relationships that already existed prior to taking on the caring role. For example if we look at the case study of Ann Walker who has a full time caring role for her stepfather Angus McPhail. Anne is also a wife, she lacks time to spend with her husband as she needs to attend to her stepfather for all of his physical needs. Her husband also has a difficult relationship with Angus which has led to Anne at times having to physically remove herself from the house.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Time and time again he practices his moves until

He kneels down, trying to lay low to avoid detection.   He has stalked his prey all day.   He has studied â€Å"the kill† from every conceivable angle.   He replayed every scenario in his mind.Time and time again he practices his moves until he is sure that there are no mistakes.   There can be no letting go of this one.   This is the big one that will make everything else seem so insignificant.This will be the last hunt.   It is as if his eyes are glued to this target.   Nothing will deny him this.   It is his birthright.   It is his destiny.   He approaches his prey confidently as his prey stares at him unaware of what will happen next.   As the first words are spoken, he knows that the game is afoot.   The mark has been engaged and the â€Å"con† shall now begin to unfold.It was a very simple transaction.   Legitimate on its face and humanitarian in character.   The young man’s life had taken on the most unfortunate of all turns.   In a span of one month, he had lost everything to the financial crisis.Formerly a successful trader on wall street, one error had cost him his entire life savings and even now threatened to ruin the futures of his daughters, whose pictures he was not slow to show.   â€Å"They are honor students in high school but I don’t know if I can afford to send them to college†, he claims.   The mark looks at him with compassion, reflecting a hint of suspicion.â€Å"Kind sir, I understand your wary nature and I would like to say that I do not appeal to your generosity but as an honest and working man who has fallen on hard times, I would just like to beseech you for an opportunity for me to redeem my pride and rebuild my spirit,† the con man begins his speech and he knows it is only a few more moments before the job is done.â€Å"If you would indulge me for a moment of your time to enlighten you about my situation for you see, I was not like this.   In fact, I liv ed among the haves and looked down on the have nots.   As luck would have it, however, I have fallen on hard times and seek only a way to redeem myself in my eyes so that I may have the courage to face my family when I return home to tell them of my tragic failure.†It is the perfect pitch.   Not an appeal to generosity but rather an appeal to the pride of all men; the need to be able to bravely face his troubles.   It strikes a chord in everyone’s heart, for who could ever deny a little help to a person who wants nothing more than a chance to regain his pride.   There has been no mention of money except that which has been lost by the con man.   Neither will there be a mention of money until the con man is convinced that he has secured his mark.â€Å"Dear sir,† he continues, â€Å"thank you indeed for this time and as you have given me the chance to walk with my head up high again, allow me to repay your act of kindness with a generous gesture.   I w as a trusted banker for a very wealthy family and as such, I am privy to many of their transactions.   If you are interested, I can invest your money in a few of their business that are already making so much money.The returns are not extraordinary but certainly better than normal bank rates.   I only offer this to you because you have been so kind.   Here is my card, please give me a call.   Have a nice day.†Game, set and match.   All he has to do is just sit and wait.   There is no cause for what he does.   It is simply just about the money.   For those who fall prey to the scam, the only cause is the money.   There is nothing more to it.   There are no deeper existential philosophies and moralities to wrestle with just the thought of having more cold hard cash or having none at all.Every con has an angle.   Every con plays on the emotions of people.   Logic never betrays its owner.   Every decision a person regrets in life can be traced back to a s ingle strand of emotion that clouded solid judgment.   This is something that every con man understands.   This is something that every con man counts on.   The cause is simply just money, for after all, a con is about the dollars and sense!

Forced distribution system

Though many researchers have pointed out several drawbacks in FADS, due to the absence of any suitable alternative, it has been (and continues to be) adopted by many industries over a long period of time. The purpose of this paper Is to point out some serious limitations of this system and propose a simple modification to overcome these limitations. Design/ methodology/approach – FADS determines the relative positions of the employees involved in similar work by comparing them against one another, and based on their performance, the employees receive different grades.Here the authors use the Likelier scaling method to convert these grades into numerical scores, then these scores are used to estimate the average performance of each group of employees, which Is referred to as the group Index. Taking these group Indices Into consideration, the authors propose a modeled performance score of each employee for their final evaluation. Efficiencies of the existing FADS and the propose d modified version are compared using a simple measure of rank correlation known as the Sandal's taut-statistic.Findings – Extensive simulation studies show that the modified algorithm is uniformly better than the existing one over different schemes for allocations of employees to deferent projects, and depending on the allocation scheme, It can lead to substantial Improvement. Relationally/value – This paper can be appraisal system based on a forced distribution and the first that provides a simple but effective solution which can be adopted by the organizations using FADS for performance appraisal.Keywords Performance appraisal, Statistical methods, Human resource management Paper type Research paper 1 Introduction Performance evaluation is regarded as one of the most powerful human resource raciest (Judges and Ferris, 1993; Murphy and Cleveland, 1995, p. 4). It provides a justification for human resource decision such as rewards, career planning, transfers, training , counseling, mentoring, termination, etc.Performance appraisal provides the employer an opportunity to communicate with the employees about the mission, strategy, vision, values and objectives of the organization, and it personalizes organizational strategy into individual performance criteria. It has been observed that employee motivations to perform, to develop capabilities and to improve future reference are influenced by the performance appraisal system (Land et al. , 1978; The authors thank the anonymous reviewer for providing several helpful comments and suggestions that led to substantial improvement of the article.Despite the importance of a performance evaluation system, extensive studies in this field have identified significant shortcomings in its applications that include different types of biases stemming from rating errors, sources of performance information and individual differences (Arrive and Murphy, 1998). Among these various shortcomings, rating bias is the most predominant area of research, which indicates the tendency of the raters to provide lenient or stringent rating (Beret et al. 992; Runes et al. , 2002). This systematic bias leads to lack of discrimination between high and low performance and automatically disrupts the whole essence of performance decades, several researchers have explored different methods to overcome the rating bias and to improve the accuracy of performance evaluation system (Goff et al. , 1996). Studies on performance evaluation are mainly focused on two types of appraisal systems – absolute and relative.In an absolute rating system, individual performance is evaluated against a pre-determined standard, whereas a relative evaluation yester determines the relative positions of different employees by comparing them against one another (Duffy and Webber, 1974). Though there are advantages and disadvantages in both of these systems, some studies have pointed out the superiority of the relative grading system over the absolute one (He-man, 1986; Nathan and Alexander, 1988; Wander and Goofing, 1997).Many renowned organizations including General Electric (GE), Hen, Microsoft, American Express and Goldman Cash have used and some still use relative grading system for performance evaluation in the form of a forced distribution system (FADS) (Grotto, 2005). FADS was developed in an attempt to directly deal with the problems of rater leniency and lack of discrimination while measuring an individual's performance (McCarty, 1988).This system forces the managers to discriminate between high and low performers either by sorting the employees into some pre-determined performance categories based on a pre-defined distribution or by ranking them on the basis of their relative performance (Gurgling et al. , 2004). The first process is also known as the criterion-reference rating, while the second one is known as the norm- reference rating (Visionary and Ones, 2000; Visionary, 2001).The wide use of FAD S as an objective measure of employee performance was mostly popularized by Jack Welch at the beginning of his tenure at GE under the name of â€Å"vitality curve† (Bossily and Charka, 2002; Itchy and Sherman, 2001). Welch introduced this system to develop an objective measure to discriminate between high and low performer so that the culture of â€Å"rewarding doers† can be established, which in turn can be helpful for â€Å"building muscle† of the organization. In GE and many other organizations, FADS is considered as a developmental instrument for achieving a performance-oriented culture.Though FADS has several advantages, many organizations have been observed to perceive this system negatively (Rock et al. , 2007). Many researchers and practitioners have also pointed out that a forced distribution in performance evaluation leads to extreme level of Job dissatisfaction among the employees with high potential to perform (Gray, 2002; Madman, 2006; Prefer and Su tton, 2006). In practice, a relatively low-performing member in a high- performing team can often be better than the best performer in an average performing team.The FADS is used to evaluate the members working in different roofs or teams separately, and the rigidity of this system forces the companies to reprimand all low performers of each and every group. As a result, some high-potential performers may be asked to leave the Job or they may leave the organization voluntarily due to dissatisfaction. The negative consequences of this performance evaluation system have been observed in many organizations. For instance, Ford had a well-publicized unsuccessful experience with a forced ranking support this ranking system at all.Many employees, who had received positive feedback for years, were suddenly categorized as under performers. As a result, dozens of Ford employees and ex-employees sued the company because of this system of evaluation. Vishnu et al. (2006) studied the long-term e ffect of the â€Å"bell curve†, which is a form of forced distribution, on organizational dynamics. According to their views, pressure of the bell curve can facilitate the performance to a certain level, but constant pressure demoralizes the employees. As the company shrinks, the rigid distribution of the bell curve forces the manager to categorize a high performer as a mediocre one.Also, it is often assumed that the employees identified as low reformers, on account of their unsatisfactory performance, are usually replaced every year by fresh talent, who can add up to the output of the organization. Here we may argue that the likelihood of the presence of poor performers amongst these new additions is another possibility, which can adversely affect the system. Moreover, from the financial point of view, replacement of the employees with the fresh talent is also a costly affair. Blame et al. 2009) conducted a study on a student population to understand their reactions towards different types of FADS, and pointed out that â€Å"less trending consequences for low performer† is the most powerful variable in determining the attractions towards different types of FADS. On the basis of this study, we may assume that the organization, where stringency is higher for the low performers, has less chance to get higher number of Job applicants. In order to overcome these limitations of the forced ranking appraisal system and to protect the employees with high potential, Vishnu et al. 2006) proposed to use an evaluation system based on the semi-bell curve, where instead of putting fixed proportions of employees into different groups of performance levels, an organization adjusts these proportions depending on the set of employees it is dealing with. However, the adjustment scheme they proposed was subjective and somewhat ad hoc. Instead of using the semi-bell curve, an organization can use any other curves as well, or it can even use different curves for diffe rent set of workers involved in different projects. It depends entirely on the company policy, and we have no prerogative to decide that.So, in this paper, we do not recommend the use of any particular curve. Here, we repose a modified algorithm for forced ranking performance appraisal that can be used irrespective of the nature of the curve(s) used by the companies for the evaluation of their employees. In the following sections, we assume the bell curve appraisal system for the demonstration of our method. However, the description of our method will make it clear that our modification is not limited to the bell curve system, and it can even be used when a company adopts different types of curves or distributions for evaluation of its employees involved in different projects. . Objectives of the study The main objectives of our study are given below: evaluation of the present appraisal system under different schemes of allocation of workers and identifying the limitations of the fo rced ranking appraisal system; propose a new method for performance appraisal to overcome these limitations; and extensive comparison between the proposed and the existing method of performance appraisal to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method. The next three sections address each of these objectives in turn. . Evaluation of the forced ranking performance appraisal system First, we carry out emulation studies to evaluate the performance of the existing forced ranking appraisal system. Let us consider an organization with 3,000 employees. Suppose that there are 30 projects run by the organization, and 100 employees are involved in each of these projects. For the time being, we assume that the potentials of these employees are known and they perform according to their potentials.We generate 3,000 observations from a normal distribution with mean 50 and standard deviation 10 (so that almost observation lie in the (O, 100) range) and consider them as true potentials of diff erent employees. Here we consider two different allocation schemes for assigning the employees to different projects, and we will refer to them as random allocation and extreme allocation, respectively. In random allocation, the employees are randomly assigned to different projects. In extreme allocation, employees having similar potentials are assigned to the same project.For instance, the 100 employees having the highest potentials are assigned to one project, the next 100 employees to another project and so on. In each of these two cases, we evaluate the performance of the employees involved in each project, and the grades are located to them following the bell curve system. Assume that the organization uses six different Grades A (best)-F (worst) for its employees, and in the bell curve system, the proportions of employees to receive these grades are PA h if h 1?F(2), BP h PEP h F(2)?F(1) and PC h PDP h F(1)?O. , where ? ) is the cumulative distribution function of a standard no rmal variant ( Johnson et al. , 1995). Now, one may be curious to know how FADS perform in such situations. In order to investigate this, we compute the correlation coefficient between the potentials of the employees and the grades obtained by them and use it as a measure of efficiency of the appraisal system. Same grade, we use the Sandal's t-statistic (Kendall, 1938) as an appropriate measure of correlation.Note that unlike the product moment correlation coefficient, this statistic is invariant under any monotonically increasing transformation. So, instead of normal distribution, if we generate 3,000 observations from any other distribution, the efficiency measure based on the Sandal's t-statistic will remain the same. In the case of random allocation, the existing method performed quite well, and it led to a rank correlation of 0. 716. But in the case of extreme allocation, it had drastically poor performance.The rank correlation turned out to be 0. 024. So, essentially there was no correlation between the potentials of the employees and the grades obtained by them, and the forced ranking system was as bad as random grading. Note that random allocation of workers to different projects is presumed rare in practice. Usually the employees are assigned to different projects based on their expertise, and also depending on the difficulty level of the project.Therefore, it is not so rare that the employees having higher potentials are assigned to high-end projects, and hose having relatively lower potentials are assigned to low-end projects. In such cases, the existing performance appraisal system will perform poorly, and as a result some of the high (low) potential workers will get lower (higher) grades. Being unsatisfied with the grading, some of these high-potential workers may lose motivation to work hard and some of them may leave the organization for a new Job.This is quite harmful for organizational functioning. In practice, in many cases, the allocation of the workers in an organization is somewhere between the totally random allocation and the extreme allocation. From the above discussion, it is quite transparent that in such cases, the existing appraisal system may only have a moderate performance depending on the extremity of the allocation scheme. This clearly shows the necessity to develop a new method for performance appraisal, which can have satisfactory performance even in the case of extreme allocation.We develop one such method in the next section. 4. Modification to the forced ranking performance appraisal system: a new method for performance appraisal The existing method of performance appraisal simply considers the present year's elating performance of the employees involved in the same project, and the grades are allocated to them only based on their present performance. Because of this relative grading, an employee in a high-performing team can get poor grades in spite of performing better than all other members in an average performing team.In order to overcome this limitation, here we take the previous year's grades of the employees into consideration. Suppose that there are n employees working in a particular project, and Gig is the grade obtained by the tit employee (I h 1, 2, y, n) in the previous year's appraisal. In order to develop a modified appraisal system, we assume that the individual performance of the employees may vary from their previous year's performance, but the average performance of these n employees remains almost the same. For computing this average performance, we follow the Likelier, (1932) scaling method.It is a statistical tool that converts the Grades Gig into numerical scores s(Gig) and makes it possible to calculate the mean score I h for this group of employees. Though here we assume that the performance evaluation is done once in a year, this method can be used when the evaluation cycle has shorter or larger eroticism or even when it is periodic. Let us assume tha t a company uses a total of K Grades AAA, AAA, y, AK in the appraisal system, where AAA and AK denote the highest and the lowest grades, respectively.Also assume that it puts the best performing Pl proportion of employees in AAA, the next up proportion in AAA and so on. Therefore, the worst performing PC proportion (here Pl up pep PC h 1) of employees receive the Grade AK. So, if we assume that the performance of the employees are normally distributed (this is the assumption the companies made when they adopt the bell curve system), the mean of a truncated tankard normal distribution with truncation at and above the (1 ?up)the quintile of the standard normal distribution can be used as the score function for AAA .