Leadership and Groups FMC Green River Essay - 1447 Words

Leadership and Groups: FMC Green River Background FMC is and has been a successful company for the last fifty-six years. First originated in 1948 and produced 1.3 million tons of various grades of soda ash a year. The success of the first business brought about a second refining plant in 1953, which was completed in 1970. FMC Aberdeen, located in South Dakota with a population of 30,000 is also a successful subsidy of FMC. FMC Aberdeen employs one hundred people, produces one product, which is a missile canister for the U.S. Navy. FMC Green River managed by Mr. Dailey, produces various chemicals, has over 100 domestic and international customers, 1,150 employees, creates several products and works closely at times with†¦show more content†¦At Aberdeen while forming these small groups, the groups themselves have the ability to choose their leader and also, decide on how long they want a specific person to lead that group. The groups also have a unique ability to work within their groups on work schedules. If a person needs some time off, the flexibility of the group will allow it. One important aspect of the groups at Aberdeen is the ability for the groups to counsel others in either a positive or negative situation. Social loafing is practically non existent due to the rotating of team leaders and responsibility placed on each individual of a group. The family like atmosphere at Aberdeen naturally creates a strong group cohesiveness, which is very effective and creates a positive working environment. At Aberdeen, with only 100 employees the need for virtual teams via internal communication networks such as email or net meetings is impractical and could create slow downs in their processes. The overall work group and team structure at Aberdeen minimizes the process losses due to poor coordination and motivational problems. The end result is a great atmosphere to work and solve processes to produce a quality product. Clear leadership at Aberdeen with the exception of the CEO could be a little difficult to grasp on whom is in charge. Within the groups, the positive input from each member and close working relationships have almost made it possible to do away with leaders. It appears atShow MoreRelated Organization Design in FMC Green River Essay1319 Words   |  6 PagesOrganization Design in FMC Green River Organization design is a formal, guided process for integrating the people, information and technology of an organization. It is used to match the form of the organization as closely as possible to the purpose of the organization. This design process seeks to improve and facilitate the efforts of members within the organization. With respect to FMC Corporation’s Green River, Wyoming facility, under the guidance of this entity’s site manager, Kenneth DaileyRead MoreEssay on Organizational Management1583 Words   |  7 Pagesdecrease the other. Over the course of change of structural ‘eras, so too will the culture change. Culture is more than just a word; it embodies several ideas: Culture refers to the perspectives, practices and products of a social or professional group. An organizations culture holds within it, its integrity, its ethics, its personality and attitude. Organizational culture is the invisible billboard and silent announcement proclaiming its rules of engagement. Culture is a groups particular ideasRead MoreEssay about Motivation for Work1207 Words   |  5 Pagesanalyzing Aberdeen and Green River I found that the Green Rivers employees are motivated mainly by personal rewards such as higher rates of pay, and benefits. They basically only do what they have to or the minimal of what is needed in order to get that higher rate of pay or bonus. On the other hand, things like total accomplishment motivate Aberdeens employees; they thrive on bettering the work environment, learning new skills and getting to participate in-group leadership. You could say thatRead MoreProject Mgmt296381 Words   |  1186 Pages6.5.2.3 Critical chain method Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Reducing Project Duration Leadership Chapter 2 Organization Strategy and Project Selection 1.4 Projects and programs (.2) 1.4.1 Managing the portfolio 1.4.3 Strategy and projects 2.3 Stakeholders and review boards 12.1 RFP’s and vendor selection (.3.4.5) 11.2.2.6 SWAT analysis 6.5.2.7 Schedule compression 9.4.2.5 Leadership skills G.1 Project leadership 10.1 Stakeholder management Chapter 11 Teams Chapter 3 Organization: StructureRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesappropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, website www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, (201)748-6011, fax (201)748-6008, website http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. To order books or for customer service please, call 1-800-CALL WILEY (225-5945). DeCenzo, David A, Robbins, Stephen P. Fundamentals of HumanRead MoreManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 Pages The University of Dayton E. Wainright Martin Kelley School of Business, Indiana University William C. Perkins Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen AVP/Executive Editor: Bob Horan

Romeo and Juliet vs Wuthering Heights Essay example

How is love portrayed in â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† and â€Å"Wuthering Heights† and how do settings affect and reflect the characters? William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† and Emily Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s â€Å"Wuthering Heights† are widely considered to be two of the most influential and popular romances in English literature. The way setting is used to reflect the mood of the scene, using variations of light and dark as well as weather and nature, is very stimulating to the imaginations of the audience. This essay will discuss how Shakespeare and Brontà « portray love through intelligent language and how the setting can deeply influence our perception of the characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines love as a warm affection or fondness. It can be shown†¦show more content†¦The gothic feel is less obvious in â€Å"Romeo and Juliet†, but it can still be detected at times. Particularly when Juliet is given the sleeping draft or â€Å"potion† to induce a death-like state. Similar to â€Å"Wuthering Heights†, there is a suggestion of the afterlife, as when Romeo and Juliet die, their love remains strong, which is the same for Cathy and Heathcliff who are said to haunt the moors. In both stories the main characters meet a grim end, and many of the secondary characters suffer the same fate as a consequence. The dark events of both tales are relatively alike; each containing complicated family trees that live in a constant rivalry, backstabbing (quite literally in â€Å"Romeo and Juliet†) and a tragic romance. These themes may have been induced by the times in which the stories were written. Both when William Shakespeare and Emily Brontà « were living in England there was a queen on the throne, which brought about much opposition and assassination attempts were not uncommon. These uncertain times certainly influenced their writing, and Brontà « especially had reason to weave depressing matters into her novel. It becomes quickly apparent to the reader of â€Å"Wuthering Heights† that very few mother figures appear in the plotline; this is probably because Emily’s mother died of cancer when she was just a young girl, and so she was raised by her father and olderShow MoreRelatedRomeo And Juliet Parenting Essay1601 Words   |  7 PagesShakespeare drilled into the minds of many through his play, Romeo and Juliet, and as other authors have done in their stories, that teenagers are lazy and can’t carry the responsibilities of an adult, the truth is quite the contrary. Although the point being argued is that teenagers can fulfill the responsibilities of an adult, here are some examples of how the opposite idea is so widely believed. Now throughout William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, there are examples littered around the story of the

Morning Fog Free Essays

Jennifer Cudmore Prof. L. Gertsma English Composition 1 6 September, 2012 â€Å"Morning Fog† I often wonder how many opportunities I’ve let slip by throughout my life. We will write a custom essay sample on Morning Fog or any similar topic only for you Order Now Countless colorful sunsets, too many moons rising into the night sky to even count, or even something as simple as a glance in the mirror at my own reflection. Far too many times I have been too busy or too tired to stop and notice what I’m missing. On one particular morning a few days ago, I awoke to the piercing sound of my alarm blaring in my ear. Even though the piece of technology had merely sprouted legs of its own to bury itself under my pillow, I could still hear it as clear as a bull horn through my sleepiness. I managed to groggily press the correct button on the flat piece of glass that was the surface of my cell phone. There’s two buttons to choose from and if I’m not careful, I would find myself pressing the button that would allow me to drift off to the land of odd happenings, to unicorns and fairy dust, and to the place where time seems to stand still. Often times, when this unfortunate mishap has occurred, I would wake in such frenzy that I could feel the labored breaths as they attempted to escape from my lungs. My heart was beating in such a fashion as to erupt straight through my chest. Luckily this was not one of those days and I began to untangle myself from the covers that so gently held me throughout the night. The temperature change was abrupt and waves began to rush over my skin like lake water lapping the rocks of a shoreline. My long, cold fingers reached through the darkness toward the switch on the wall. My eyes quickly clenched shut as if anticipating the searing pain that was about to commence once the switch was turned. With a loud click, electricity rushed the filament of the crystal globe and exceptionally bright light stretched through every corner of my room that was just as dark as dirty oil a moment ago. Making the unbearable attempt to adjust to the sudden change from darkness to light, my eyes began to blink repeatedly and tears formed at the corners of each eye. With each blink, it became apparent very quickly that contacts would not be an option today. I could almost hear the pleading of each eye screaming out to me saying, â€Å"Please go back to bed! We’re not ready yet! † With the moon still hanging high outside my window, I turn to my closet. I remember thinking to myself that the moon looked particularly bright this morning and perhaps that was the first sign that I was looking a little closer at what I was doing than I usually did. I quickly chose my outfit for the day and began down the hallway towards the steps. The potent aroma of coffee hit my senses as my feet landed on the fourth step from the top of the narrow stairwell. My â€Å"lifeline† is what I officially dubbed this miracle liquid for no matter how many hours of sleep I had shorted myself the night before, coffee had always helped me push through. I made my way down the remainder of the steps and into the coffee scented kitchen where I find a mug to place sugar and creamer in. I managed to pour a cupful without spilling even a drop of the precious, blistering hot liquid. Even with the first few sips of the coffee within the cup, I start to feel my body slowly awaken from the sudden surge of caffeine and I push forward. With a quick glance at the clock on the wall, I make the decision that there is no time for a piece of toast or bowl of cereal. Almost as if hearing my thoughts, an animal like growling emanated from my stomach in an attempt to change my mind. The plea was quickly ignored and I walked past the refrigerator door. A mental note formed in my mind of yet another missed opportunity, as I walked past my father who was so intently focused on the plate of breakfast sitting in front of him. With cup in hand I enter the bathroom, where I finish getting ready for the day. With a quick glance around, as if taking a mental inventory of what would be needed, a hairbrush, toothbrush and toothpaste quickly make their way to the countertop, lining up like patrons at a checkout in a supermarket. It wasn’t until my hair was done and teeth were brushed that I made the connection. How many years had I gotten myself up? How many times had I dressed myself and how many cups of coffee had it taken to get me going in the morning? I had come to the shocking realization that in the past 15 minutes of my 32 years I managed to get myself ready in the presence of 3 different mirrors in 3 separate places of my house but not once did I take the time to gaze into one. I had looked long enough to guarantee that every hair was in its place and that every pearly white tooth got its own little one on one with the toothbrush but not once did I truly look at the reflection that was quietly standing there staring back at me. I stopped and forced myself to truly look and realized that the reflection was the same with the exception of a few extra lines, or that the shine of my hair wasn’t quite as luminescent as it once was. However, when I actually looked into my eyes it came quite apparent that the many years of broken hearts, lost loves, and life experiences had changed them in such a way that it was almost unrecognizable. There was pain there, yet an even stronger wisdom irradiated brighter than the moon or the sun combined. Sometimes, all it takes is a little time to really appreciate who you are and what you have accomplished in your life. How to cite Morning Fog, Essay examples

Essay about Unemployment Rates in Australia

Question: Discuss about theUnemployment Rates in Australia. Answer: Introduction The unemployment rate has been increasing in Australia since last many years. Now, the unemployment rate of Australia has increased from 7.61 in August 2001 to 13.19 in July of 2016. After calculating since the last 8 years, it is found that the unemployment rates have been increased or the number of unemployed people is increased in Australia. Australia is facing the biggest economic challenges because of the high unemployment issueas currently there are more than 80,0000 youth unemployed or jobless in Australia. The high unemployment ratesadversely affect the GDP of the Australia(Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2016). The high unemployment rate creates economic challenges for the Australian country as well as causes for the failure of the gross domestic products. Currently, Australia unemployment rate is at 5.7 percent which is pretty low because the Australian country has lots of unemployed people. In Tasmania, Queensland, and South Australia, the unemployment rates are higher in comparison to Northern territory of Australia. According to the recent figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in August 2016, the employment increased at an average of month growth rate of 0.1 percent as the unemployment rate fell from 5.7% in July 2016 to 5.6% in August 2016. It was the lowest unemployment rates since after 2013 as the Australian economy lost 3,900 jobs and the number of unemployed or jobless people decreased by 10,500 persons. The part time employment growth continued with an increase of 10,200 employees, while the full time employment decreased by 400 people(Australian Government, Department of Unemployment, 2015).Since 1978 to 2016, the unemployed rate in Australia has grown at an average of 6.93%, in October 1992; the unemployment rate was the highest of this time duration as it was 11.10 percent, while in February 2008 it was recorded the lowest which was 4.0 percent. The unemployment rates for different regions/territory of the Australian country in August 2016 wererecorded as for the Northern territory (3.5%), Australian Capital Territory (3.6%), New South Wales (5%), Victoria (5.5%), Queensland (6.2%), Western Australia (6.3%), South Australia (6.8%), and Tasmania (7.2%).In August 2016, 11963.72 thousands were employed persons and 713.28 thousands were unemployed persons throughout the Australian country. The youth unemployment rate was increased 13.19% in July 2016 to 13.24% in 2016. The unemployment trend statistics show that the unemployment rate remained almost steady at 5.7%, and unemployed participation rate steady at 64.8%(Murphy, 2016). The month hours worked in all jobs increased from 1.7 million hours to 1657.1 million hours. The employment rate decreased from 61.24% in July 2016 to 61.16% in August 2016. The youth unemployment rate has been increased from 13.24 to 13.16 in August 2016 and the productivity increased from 102.30 to 103 .50 in August 2016. Over the past twelve years, the full time employment increased by 83,800 at an average of 1.04% and the part time employment increased by 160,900 at an average rate of 4.48%. Over the past year the unemployment rate has decreased by an average of 6.0%. New South Wales recorded the lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rates of 5.3% unchanged from March 2016. While, for Victoria and Western Australia recorded the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 5.6%, Tasmania 6.3%, Queensland 6.5%, and South Australia at 6.8%. Below mentioned chart shows the unemployment rate in Australian states: Source: Australian government, (2016) Source: Australian government, (2016) The above chart shows that unemployment rate of Tasmania is high as compare to other state or Territory in Australia. The rate of Tasmania in the year 2016 is 7.2%, which is highest unemployment rate over all the Australian states. South Australia had an unemployment rate of 6.8%, Western Australia 6.3%, Queensland 6.2%, Victoria 5.5%, New South Wales 5%, Australian Capital Territory 3.5%, and Northern Territory 3.5%. The people of the South Australia and Tasmania are struggling for jobs because the tax policy of the Australian government as it reduces the profit of the companies (Australian government, 2016). Due to this, Australian companies are being offshoring companies, which maake some people unemployed. On the other hand, low rate of the northern territory indicates that in these Australian states; business is growing continuously that creates the job opportunity for unemployed people. Issues: Australia is facing some common unemployment causes like industry shutdowns, recession, infrastructure, technology, natural disaster, and offshoring (Mavromaras et al, 2015). The shutdown of the industries is the major cause of the unemployment in Australia. Due to this, the many of the South Australia peoples out of the work that increases the unemployment rate. Apart from this, the worldwide recession also has the negative impact on the economic growth. It slow down the growth of Australian economy and develop the strict rules and regulation. To overcome the recession, if the company follows the rules and regulation of government, then it increases the unemployment rate of the economy. On the other hand, harder economic time of the Australian economy decreases the public and private companies investment on infrastructure. This affects the skills of the engineers and forces them to move overseas, which increase the unemployment rate of the economy (Sebastian, 2015). Furthermore, development of the technology is also a major cause of unemployment in an economy. Along with this, the tax rate of the Australian government is higher than western countries rate that influences the companies to offshore. The low tax rate and incentives policy of western countries increase the rate of Australian unemployment. As many of the Australian textile companies are going offshore. Due to tax benefit and incentives, Australian economy is becoming the service economy (Blackwell and Dollery, 2013). Furthermore, Australian economy faces the natural disaster like cyclone, flood, and earthquake. In Queensland people, works on banana implantation and Queensland is a cyclone-affected area. If cyclone hit the banana implantation then huge amount of unemployment will occur there. The unemployment rate affects the value of Australian Dollar, exchange rates, and GDP of the country. It also affects the industrial growth, exporting trade, trade economies, and economic conditions in the country. The Australian Government Department of Employment is responsible for formulating the national employment policies for creating safe, fair, and highly productive workplace. Government Policies The Australian Employment Department intervenes to reduce the unemployment rates by incorporating several employment policies for providing employment to the different kinds of employees after reducing the employment barriers. The Australian government focuses on two strategies for reducing unemployment in different regions/territories of Australia. The first policy is demand side policy for reducing the demand-side unemployment and the second policy is supply side policy related to reducing structural unemployment(Scutt, 2016). The Australian Employment Department has been adopting several initiatives for reducing unemployment throughout the Australian country. It has been focusing on reducing unemployment through decreasing interest rates, lowering tax rates,promoting training and educational facilities, facilitating geographical subsidies, lowering minimum wages to reduce the real wage unemployment, and flexibility of the labor markets. The Australian government intervenes to reduce the unemployment rates for providing the unemployed or jobless persons a range of employment opportunities in order to ensure the high GDP or economic growth of the country. The high employment rates will encourage more national and international business activities and mobility of the Australian labors in the Australian industries. The Australian government invests huge expenditure on the employment infrastructure for providing more jobs to the jobless persons or the job applicants who are seeking for new jobs. The Australian employment department is continuing its efforts to determine the minimum wages for enhancing the living standards of the employees in the country(Trade Economics, 2016). The Australian government is also investing hugely in the training, education, and industrial infrastructure for enhancing the employment opportunities in the country. The lower tax rates will assist to decrease the cost of borrowing and encourage people to spend and invest. The lower tax rates will be effective to increase GDP as well as reducing the demand deficient unemployment. References Australia Bureau of Statistics (2016).Increasing part-time employment continues. [Online]. Available at: https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/46DFE12FCDB783D9CA256B740082AA6C?OpenDocument. (Accessed: 28 September 2016). Australian Government, Department of Unemployment (2015).Labour Force Region (SA4) - Unemployment Rate by State and Territory.[Online]. Available at:https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/LFR_SAFOUR/LFR_UnemploymentRate. (Accessed: 28 September 2016). Australian government (2016) Labour Force Region (SA4) - Unemployment Rate by State and Territory. [Online]. Available at: https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/LFR_SAFOUR/LFR_UnemploymentRate (Accessed on: 29 September, 2016). Blackwell, B. and Dollery, B., (2013) Resource taxation and remote Aboriginal expenditure. Economic Papers: A journal of applied economics and policy,32(3), pp.360-382. Mavromaras, K., Sloane, P. and Wei, Z., (2015) The scarring effects of unemployment, low pay and skills under-utilization in Australia compared. Applied economics,47 (23), pp.2413-2429. Murphy, J. (2016). Hopeless cases: The bitter taste of Australias employment problem. [Online]. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/hopeless-cases-the-bitter-taste-of-australias-employment-problem/news-story/ae4504c4341e10b27098ef1680edc8fd. (Accessed: 28 September 2016). Scutt, D. (2016). Australia Unemployment Steady at 5.7%.[Online]. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/here-comes-australias-jobs-report-2016-5. (Accessed: 28 September 2016). Sebastian (2015) Causes of unemployment common causes in Australia. [Online]. Available at: https://www.adelaide-southaustralia.com/money/causes-of-unemployment/ (Accessed on: 29 September, 2016). Trade Economics (2016).Australia Unemployment Rate.[Online]. Available at: https://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/unemployment-rate. (Accessed: 28 September 2016).

Nike Essays - Nike, Inc., Employment Compensation, Labour Relations

Nike The athletic apparel industry in which Nike is involved is a major money maker in the United States, but the fact that none of the factories are located in North America has brought some heat to the company. Nike controls more than 40 percent of the U.S. Market for sports related goods, but doesn't have a single sneaker factory in this country (Miller 1). Nike continues to make millions of dollars yet exploits workers overseas by paying them very little, while requiring long hours without overtime pay in factories that are not up to ?American? standard. Nike subcontractors employ nearly 500,000 workers in plants in Indonesia, China and Vietnam (Saporito 1). The exploitation of workers in Third World counties, where the majority of Nike's labor is done sparks a controversial issue. People question why is it that Nike continues these practices. According to ?Just do it, Nike,? Nike seems especially fond of doing business in undemocratic countries like China and Indonesia, where the military can be relied upon to ?crack heads? if workers get out of line (Miller 2). The military monitoring has been a large controversy due to the fact that these are often Chinese working against other Chinese workers, or Vietnamese against their own people also. For Nike there are two benefits: it it's a cheap way to monitor in an overseas factory and it creates a sheaper labor workforce. In turn making the labor cheaper for Nike. This makes it possible for Nike workers from the states to work on other things and only tour the factories when nessecary. While still assuming a stable workforce without good pay. The critics of Nikes labor practices have taken tours and witnessed the mistreatment firsthand. Time magazine reported saying,? The plants were found to be modern and clean, well lighted and ventilated and paying a decent wage by local st andards?although by no means are they trouble free. Make no mistake: these are factories not amusement parks, and even in developing Asia, where jobs are scarce and getting scarcer, this is not the job of choice.? (Saporito 1) The wages that the workers overseas are paid is nothing when compared to how much we pay for a pair of shoes or the profit that CEO Phil Knight is making off his sportswear giant he once operated out of the back of his car as a college student. ?A big issue that surrounds sweatshops is wage. The minimum wage often does not reflect the cost of living.? (Hepner Online) Is the wage fair? There are many people who feel the wage is fair and the cost of living is taken into account when the wage is looked at, but studies show otherwise in many factories. Just recently, CNN reported a raise to entry level workers in Indonesia, Nike officials said ?the increase will raise the minimum monthly compensation package?which includes bonuses, housing, healthcare, transportation and meal allowances to approximately $37.14 a month.?(Nike Establishes Labor? Online) To many people living in the U.S., that package may sound good however the compensation package doesn't do away with the long hours, the poor conditions or the low rate of pay. Many of these workers are young children working to help support their families. The benefits do not make up for the low pay rates that keep them in the work force. The pay is only enough to get by where these children want to be saving in order to leave the factories and return home. In ?Taking a Look inside Nike's Factories?, part of Bill Saporito's, ?Can Nike Get Unstuck this is what was found. ?Americans pay $100 for a pair of shoes that a worker gets less than $3 a day to make. They pay Michael Jordan $40 million to endorse them. Can't they find more money to pay the workers? The short answer is no, because corporations pay the going rate for labor whereever they are.? (Saporito 1) If this statement is true Nike pays the wage for the country the factory is in, then what is the controversy about? Much of it stems from the overtime that these workers are forced to work without over time compensation. Here in the United States there are regulations placed

Odgovori Vikend Essay

Odgovori Vikend Essay Odgovori Vikend Essay BUSINESS STRATEGY 1. Outside stakeholders often demend that inside stakeholders' be suportinated to the greater good of society (ousiders). They believe that such issues as pollution, the disposal of solid and liquid waste, and the conservation of natural resources should be principal consideration in strategic decision making. On the other hand, inside stakeholders tend to believe that the competing claims of outsiders should be balanced against one another in a way that protects the company mission. For example, they tend to believe that the need of consumers for a product should be balanced against the water pollution resulting from its production if the firmcannot eliminate that pollution entirely and still remain profitable. Some insiders also argue that the claims of society, as expressed in government regulation, provide tax money that can be used to eliminate water pollution and the like if the general public wants this to be done. There are four types of social commintment that managers must consider regarding social responsability: Economic responsabilities represent the duty of managers, as agents of the company owners, to maximize stockholder wealth. Legal responsabilities represent the company's obligations to comply with the laws that regulate business activities. Ethical responsibilities represent the strategic managers' notion of right and proper business behavior (example: distibution of cigarettes is legal, smoking is unethical). Discretionary responsabilities are responsabilities voluntarily assumed by a business organization (public relations, good citizenship, full corporate social responasibilities). 2. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has redefined the structure of corporate governance and responsibility. This has heightened the priority of boards of directors’ thinking relative to business ethics and social responsibility as they are now directly involved in corporate audits. There are no longer layers of management between internal auditors and top managers as the officers are not allowed to be the sole provider of financial data. Sarbanes-Oxley also includes new certifications and regulations for financial statements as well as new disclosure requirements and penalties to those who fail to comply. With greater accountability placed on board members, both business ethics and social responsibility have become key obligations for them to uphold. 3. Five principals of collaborative social initiatives are: Identify a Long-Term Durable Mission: Firms make the greatest social contribution when they indetify an important , long standing policy challenge and they participate in its solution over the long term. (Examples: Avon Poducts Inc., Home Depot). Contribute ''What We Do'': Firms maximize the benefits of their corporate contributions when they leverage core capabilities and contribute products and services that are based on expertise used in or generated by their normal operations. (Example: Starbucks Coffee Company, IBM) Contribute Specialized Services to a Large-Scale Undertaking: Companies have the greatest social impact when they make specialized contributions to large-scale cooperative efforts. Those that contribute to initiatives in which other private, public, or non-profit organizations are also active have an effect that goes beyond their limited contributions. (Example: AES company). Weigh Government's Influence: Government's support for corporate participation in CSIs can have an important positive influence.Tax incentives , liability protection, and other forms of direct and and indirect support for business all help to foster business participation and contribute to the success of CSIs. Assamble and Value the Total Package of Benefits: Companies gain the greatest benefits from their social contributiors when they put a price on the total benefit package. The valuation should include both the social contributions delivered and the reputation effects that solidify or engance the company's

Three sides of abortion debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Three sides of abortion debate - Essay Example The legal right of a woman to undergo an abortion has not resolved many ethical issues that surround the procedure of abortion (Fry, Veatch and Taylor, 2010). There are three stances people have on abortion include pro-abortion, middle ground that abortion can be accepted, and anti-abortion, and the arguments for these stands are discussed. There are individuals who support abortion on the basis that it is not wrong, and does not need the involvement of undesirable consequences. To look at this argument in another way, it tends to neglect the rights of the fetus or even acknowledge the fetus as a person. There are individuals who consider abortion as the right of a woman hence she is solely liable to the way she controls her body. Moralists who take part in judging actions argue that abortion is simply a deliberate failure to conceive a child, and with availability of contraceptives in mind, abortion should be too. By contrast, there are those who think that the fetus being a person, has limited rights that has no significant weight on the interests of the people already born who include the parents and children of that particular family. All the same, people supporting abortion do so on the fact that the overwhelming principle behind abortion is the woman and her rights to choose what to happen to her body.

Contract Law Problem Question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Contract Law Problem Question - Essay Example According to Beatson and Anson, contract law is defined as the branch of law that ensures legal binding of the promise between two parties and makes them fulfill it. Whereas French Civil Code defines contract law as convention and agreement in which one party or several parties bind themselves to serve a specific purpose or to restrain from some. So, all in all what contract law adhere is that there lie a duty on both parties in a contract to execute their obligations. The ultimate examination of both the definitions of English Law and French Law confirms some essential features of the contractual relationship and that is the performance of the contract. Contractual performance is sole principle of contract law which must be kept and fulfilled at any cost. This principle of contract law is the backbone of the whole contractual relationship2. Generally the contract law is defined as an agreement that creates obligation enforceable by law. This obligation is based upon the mutual accep tance, consideration, legality and capacity to perform. In this process of conformity, fulfilment and binding, there may arise number of problems if in case contract is not implemented properly or if one party rejects to perform according to the obligations. Thousands of contracts are agreed upon and signed in the world every day and most of them are not performed in their full essence according to the terms3. Whilst many of them are resolved by negotiations and discussions but there comes cases under which hostilities are not that easy to resolve breach of contract informally. In this regard law provides remedial measures to provide justice to distressed party. These remedies help aggrieved party to either recover performance based upon the contract or ensure provision of some compensation for the damage caused by the breach of contract. Some possible remedies renowned for breach of

The History of Toyota Corporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The History of Toyota Corporation - Essay Example   Accordingly, the reporters averred that â€Å"safety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius, and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour† (Ross, et.al., 2009, par. 2). As a result, there have been congressional hearings scheduled to investigate the complaints and the cases focusing on the safety problems posed by Toyota cars in the US. In this regard, this essay aims to evaluate whether or not Toyota was treated fairly in those hearings. When evaluating the congressional hearings, there are diverse sides that must be considered, to wit: Toyota’s explanation, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), testimonies from safety research institutes and other automotive authorities, the victims of the runaway cars, and the public. Toyota’s defense through James Lentz, president, and COO of Toyota US revealed in his testimony that â€Å"no proble ms exist with the electric throttle control system in our vehicles. Rather, floor mats and sticky accelerators are to blame" (Farber, 2010, par. 7). Two testimonies, however, blamed the accidents on the electrical malfunction with testimonial reports and personal testing and analysis. The side of the NHTSA is being criticized due to previous agency investigators subsequently being employed by Toyota. Any investigation on the sudden acceleration accidents could have been influenced and biased due to connections with Toyota. However, the hearings found â€Å"no violation for these two employees† (Schone & Rhee, 2010, 3). The victims have filed legal cases against Toyota for having sustained injuries with deaths to family members. Also at risk are the public who could be victims of these kinds of car accidents.

Using RStudio to Prepare and Clean Data

Using RStudio to Prepare and Clean Data There is now more data available than ever before, the depth and scope is increasing daily. The explosion of the internet and connected devices has increased this and big data is now big business. With the increase in data available to us, so has the need for analysis of this data. Many companies use this data to predict future trends. Also, what has changed is the tools we use to analysis and present this data in a meaningful way. In the past statistical software was very expensive and often with no graphical capabilities. Enter the R programming language a tool that supports both, first released in 1995 with the first stable build in 2000, now on version 3 which was released in 2013. R is a free open source project with over 7000 add on packages available. Many companies such as Google and Facebook are using R for their data analysis. In this lab book we will look at cleaning and preparing data so it can analysed. We will use R Studio which is an IDE (Integrated development environment) for the R programming language. R Studio is available as an open source or commercial version, it has two editions R Studio desktop and R Studio Server and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems. The dataset we have is from the UK government, and is based on MOT outlets in England, Scotland, and Wales, it contains data such as name, address, post codes, telephone numbers and categories of vehicles tested. On quick analysis of the dataset there are a lot of blank fields, extra white spaces, typos in the telephone column as well as second telephone numbers separated by the / symbol. Using R Studio we will attempt to tidy and clean the dataset. In this lab book we will explain the various commands and techniques used to prepare the data for analytical analysis. Make a copy of the data to work with: Method: Here we make a copy of the original dataset x2016motsitelist and call it MotList, this is good practice as you will not contaminate the original dataset. Test: Result: From the above screen shot you can see we have renamed our dataset to MotList, by using the name of the dataset in R studio it lists the dataset in a screen dump on the console. Get the Stucture of Our Data Frame Method: by using the str() command in the console we get the structure of our data. Test: Result: by using the structure command str() we can see that our dataset has 22,980 objects and 14 different variables. The next lines which contain $ indicate column headings and display some of the components included in these columns. This command just provides a list with components and names. View the data Method: Using the Head command to view the data. Test: Result: using this command the first 6 records are displayed in the console window. ID names of columns Method: We use the Names command to display column names. Test: Result: this displays the names of our columns in the console window. Summary of what is contained in the columns Method: we use the Summary command to get an overview of the data in our columns. Test: Result: the summary command gives us an overview for every vector in the data frame, tells us in our case that the length is 22980 rows, that all vectors are character classes. Missing values Method: we will use the is.na command, combination of is.na with the any command and lastly the sum command to check for missing values in the data. Test: Result: the result of the is.na command returns a Boolean true or false result on the data set to tell us if a missing value is present or not. Test: Result: with the use of the any command we find that there is indeed missing data in the dataset. Test: Result: with the use of the sum command we get the number of missing records, which is 149097 in this case. Rename columns in our data set. Method: we use the colnames command to change the columns in our data set that are numbered 1,2,3,4,5 and 7. Test: Result: with the use of the above commands we change the name of the columns using the name to identify which column to apply the name change to. We use the names(MotList) to verify the result. Test: Remove NA from the different categories of vehicle that are Mot tested Method: we create another copy of our dataset and call it MotListMod, on this dataset we will change the NA values in the columns that we renamed earlier so that the different categories of vehicles tested will have complete values and no missing data. We do this by giving the dataset name and then the $ column name, we then use the which command and is.na to change the value to the desired result. Test: Result: As can be seen from the screen shot above, we have changed the NA values in the six columns of our dataset, our dataset now tells us if a Mot test centre carries out tests on the different vehicle categories Y or N, were as before it only told us the if the centre did Y with a blank field for N. Again, we run the sum is.na command on both datasets we have, now the MotListMod dataset has far less Nas in the dataset. Remove and tidy up VTS Telephone column. Method: Firstly, using the GSUB command we removed instances of Tel. and TEL. from our column, secondly, we separate the column in two sections number 1 and 2 with the SEPARATE command as some of the test centres have two telephone numbers separated by / in the dataset, thirdly we tidy up the white space. Test: Using GSUB wrongly above didnt produce the desired outcome, but in the two screens below we get the desired outcome. The above screen shows were the VTS Telephone column is split into different sections. Trimming white space from the front of the telephone numbers. Removing the NAs from the VTS Telephone number2 Result: By using GSUB and identifying the column we wanted to target, we replaced the instances of Tel. and TEL. in our dataset with whitespace, we then proceeded to split the column into two different sections, when we did this it created a lot of NAs in the second column because not every test centre has two telephone numbers, so to counter act this we replace the NAs with the value 0. We then tidy up the white space at the start of the two columns. Write to CSV file in R studio Method:ÂÂ   We will write the MotListMod3 dataset to a CSV file with the WRITE.CSV command. Test: Result: The above command writes the dataset to a csv file and can be viewed or shared with others, see above screen shot of the file in excel. Outliers and plot function. Method: using the HIST command we produce a histogram of the cars column, the columns class had to be changed to a factor form to make the function work, also we used the Table command to count the number of Y and N in this column. Test: In the screen shot above you can see a histogram of the cars column. Result: No outliers are present as our columns only have a Y or N present in the different type of vehicles tested columns. Also, our data was of class character, this had to be converted to a factor form so as we could use the histogram function on the column cars. We used the table command on the column to display a numeric result for N = 1054 and Y=21926.

AA Meeting :: essays research papers

Open AA meeting Since this was my second AA meeting, I was still open but didn’t know what to expect. The last meeting was at a church is an African American neighborhood. To get a different experience I wanted to change the nationality. So even though I was a little nervous I decided to attend a meeting in Ridgewood, Queens. It was still at a church however the population consisted of Caucasian. When I came into the room, everyone looked at me, however this was expected because I was the only African American in the room. The meeting started with a prayer and then everyone introduced themselves to each other. The issue that most concerned me was that half of the people in the room was younger than 25 years of age. That let me know right there that this was a global issue and not a issue concerning one race. As one of the young men began to share his story, I almost began to cry. He grew up in a household in which his father was an alcoholic and also was very abusive towards his mother. He sh ared with us that after his father used to beat his mother, he and his dad use to drink together. Therefore he drank with his father 3 times out of a week. As sad as it may sound he looked forward to his father beating his mother because he liked to drink. So that is how he began with his father and that was at the age of 12. He was now 24 and a alcoholic and he began to see the traits of his father in him. Therefore he needed to get help and that was the reason why he came to AA. Another person that touched me was a young girl who was 18 who wanted to be in the crowd. She began to drink because all of her friends drank however she was not able to control her and her drinking. She stated to us that on numerous occasions from being drunk that she was raped. It was sad because a lot of people want to be in the crowd and that is how they get hooked.

Pvsyst Tutorial

PV-SYST Tutorials All the tutorials in this series will teach you how to use the basic functions of PV-SYST to design a PV system. This set of tutorials works through how to use the software in both preliminary and project design modes. The basis for this tutorial will be to design a PV system that fits on the area defined by the LDK roof of the model used in the Ecotect_Tutorial. A 30 day full functioning demo version of the program can be downloaded from the PV-SYST website.Figure 1 presents the opening screen for PV-SYST upon starting the program. From this initial window you can choose whether to undertake an analysis via â€Å"Preliminary design† or â€Å"Project design† mode. Figure 1: Opening screen for PV-SYST1. Start PV-SYST from Start>>All Programs>>PV-SYST. The icon for PV-SYST is presented to the right.2. Select â€Å"Preliminary Design† from the available options. This will bring up a new panel called â€Å"System†.3. Select â€Å"Grid-Connec ted† in the System panel. Then select OK to continue.4.A new pop-up window titled â€Å"Grid system presizing project† will appear, as presented in Figure 2. Click on the â€Å"Location† button to continue.5. A 2nd pop-up window will appear called project’s location. In the Project name call the file â€Å"PV-SYST tutorial location Melbourne†6. Under the â€Å"Location† heading change the â€Å"Site† entry to â€Å"Melbourne Meteonorm†.7. Leave the other default parameters, and click OK to continue. Note: In this preliminary design we are going to assume that there is no near or far shading on our designed PV system.8.In the â€Å"Grid system presizing project† window select the â€Å"System† button.9. This opens another pop-up window titled â€Å"System Specifications† Note: In preliminary design mode you have three options to design the system.System size can be set by 1) Active area; 2) Nominal Power or 3 ) Annual yield.Figure 2: Pop-up window Grid system presizing project 10. 11. 12. 13. Select Active area (m2) as the method to determine the system size. This will bring up a field titled â€Å"Area† enter the area 54m2. This is the area of the LDK roof. Enter 3 ° for tilt and 180 for Azimuth, i. e. ndicating that the roof is sloping towards south. Click the â€Å"Next† button to continue. Note: Within the â€Å"System Specification† window you can quickly view how your system causes losses in comparison to a system with optimum tilt and orientation.In this scenario the loss with respect to the optimum is 12. 2%. 14. In the next window of the â€Å"System Specification† wizard select the module type and specifications. For this tutorial select: a. Module Type: Standard b. Technology: Polycrystalline c. Mounting disposition: Facade or tilt roof d. Ventilation property: Ventilation . Click OK to continue. This will take you back to the â€Å"Grid system p resizing project window† 15. Select â€Å"Results† in the â€Å"Grid system presizing project window†. A new pop-up window titled results will appear. 16. The default results page appears as presented in Figure 3. From this window you can see the nominal power and annual yield from the system. 17. Click on the third graphical icon button (which looks like a table) located down the left hand side of the results page, as highlighted by the blue circle in Figure 3. This will bring up the results in table format. 18.The results page should now display the results on a monthly basis, for the level of insolation falling on a horizontal plane and on the tilted plane that you designed your system on (i. e. 3 ° sloping facing south). 19. The results also present on a monthly basis the output of the PV system. Note: the results for a PV system designed on 54m2 area at 3 ° sloping facing south achieves annual output of 6835 kWh. However an optimally designed system at 3 0 degrees tilt facing north can achieve an annual output of 7787 kWh for the same array area. Therefore our system has a loss of 12. % compared to optimal tilt and orientated system. Figure 3: Results page for â€Å"Preliminary Design† mode Project Design 1. Upon opening PV-SYST select the â€Å"Project Design† option under the â€Å"Option† heading. Note: If you are continuing from the following tutorial, close all the open windows to return to the main PV-SYST window that was presented in Figure 1. 2. Select â€Å"Grid-Connected† under the â€Å"System† heading and click â€Å"OK† to continue. This will bring up a new pop-up window pictured as presented in Figure 4. 3. If you wish to save a copy of your file, click on the â€Å"Project† button and fill in the respective details.For this tutorial we will not worry about saving any details. 4. Click on the Project Button then click on the â€Å"Site and Meteo† button. This will bring up a pop-up window titled â€Å"Project: Situation and Meteo†. Make the following adjustments: a. Country: Australia b. Site: Melbourne Meteonorm c. Meteo File: Melbourne_syn. met: Melbourne, Synthetic Hourly data. d. Click â€Å"Next† to continue. Then click â€Å"Ok† in the new pop-up window that appears e. Finally click â€Å"Back (Calculation)† to return to the main window. Figure 4: Project window for â€Å"Project Design† mode. 5. Click on the â€Å"Orientation† button 6.Within the Orientation pop-up window change the following parameters a. Plane tilt: 3 degrees b. Azimuth: 180 degrees c. Field Type: Fixed Tilted Plane. d. Leave the other parameters at default settings and click OK to continue Note: The horizon tool is used to designate shading elements that appear off in the horizon that will block out access to the sun. For example a hill or mountain may block out all the afternoon sun. For this tutorial there is no Horizon s hading. 7. Click on â€Å"Near Shading†. This element defines elements that are close to the PV array which can cause shading on the system. 8.In this tutorial we will construct a 3D scene to indicate the shading surrounding the PV system we want to put on the LDK roof of the Ecotect tutorial house. 9. Click on the â€Å"Construction/Perspective† button. This will bring up a drawing window as presented in Figure 5. 10. First we will draw a rough version of the LDK zone to place the PV plane. Select Object>>New>>Elementary Shading Object from the main toolbar menu. 11. Under the Parameters heading change the following elements: e. Shape type: Select â€Å"House, asymmetric roof† from the drop down box f. Width (DX): 8. 1m g. Length (DY): 7m h. Height at top: 2. 9m i.Roof 1 tilt angle: 3 degrees j. Roof 2 tilt angle: 3 degrees k. Roof 1 ratio: 0 m l. Click Ok to continue. This will put the building we just dimensioned in the modelling window. Figure 5: Constructio n/Perspective drawing window Note: You always need to check the orientation of any plane or building you draw. The building you just drew will have the slope pointing in the west direction. Click on the element you want to adjust, then select Object>>Position in scene from the main toolbar menu. This will make an object positioning toolbar active in the top right hand corner of the modelling window as presented in Figure 6.Figure 6: Building object in modelling window with object positioning toolbar active. 12. Within the â€Å"Object Positioning† toolbar change the Azimuth entry from zero to 90 degrees. 13. Next we will include the tree that causes shading. Select â€Å"Object>>New>>Elementary shading object† from the main toolbar. 14. Under the Parameters heading change the following elements: m. Shape type: Tree n. Medium-point height: 2. 7m o. Medium height: 2. 7m p. Low part height: 2m q. Trunk height: 2m r. Medium diameter: 4m s. Trunk diameter: 0. 5m t. Click OK to continue u. Move the tree position 11. 5m in the north direction and 3. m in the east direction 15. Next we will include the Neighbouring buildings that may cause shading. Select â€Å"Object>>New>>Elementary shading object† from the main toolbar. 16. Under the Parameters heading change the following elements: v. Shape type: Parallelepipede w. Width (DX): 11. 3m x. Length (DY): 11. 5m y. Height: 5m 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. z. Click OK to continue aa. Move the neighbouring building 12. 8 m east and 3. 4m south Repeat and create a second neighbour building 3m high, 10. 2m wide, 14. 1m long and offset 26. 77m west and 12. 3m south. Next we will draw in the PV Surface plane.Select â€Å"Object>>New>> Rectangular PV Plane† Under the collector plane heading change the following elements: bb. Nb. Of rectangles: 1 cc. Plane Tilt: 3 degrees dd. Width: 8. 1m ee. Length: 7 ff. Click OK to continue Adjust the Positioning of the PV plane to: gg. Tilt: 3 degrees hh. Azimuth: 180 degr ees ii. West: 7m jj. Height: 2. 5m Now you have detailed the plane the PV is located on and the elements that can possibly cause shading. Your drawing window should appear as presented in Figure 7. Figure 7: Shading scene for PV located on 3 degree sloping facing south 22. Select File>>Close.This will return you to the near shading window Note: If you already have a built shading file you can load it directly into the â€Å"Near Shading† window by clicking the â€Å"Open† button under the model library heading, and selecting the near shading scene. Only files that are located in the file location C:Program DataPV systDataShadings can be opened. 23. Select the â€Å"Table† button to generate the shading factors calculated from the model just built. Once generated close the window. 24. You can view the effects of the shading on an Iso-shading curve by selecting the â€Å"Graph† button located under the â€Å"Linear (rough) Shading Factor† heading.Fig ure 8 presents the results. 25. In the Near shading pop-up window select Ok to continue. Figure 8: Iso shading diagram from PV-SYST for the shading model built 26. In the Project window now select the â€Å"System† button. This will open up the â€Å"Grid system definition window† 27. In the â€Å"Grid system definition window† select â€Å"†¦or available area† as the method to define the system size. Type in 54m2. 28. In the â€Å"Project Design† mode you have the ability to select the actual brand, type and size of module you want in your system. 29. For this tutorial select â€Å"Sort Modules† by â€Å"Power†.The PV Modules are then ordered by Watt peak output and voltage. You can choose which ever module you would like to test for your system. For this tutorial, let’s select the SunPower 200Wp 34V Si-mono Modules. 30. The next step is to select the inverter. Sort the inverter list via Manufacturer and scroll down to th e top of the available Sun Power inverters. Note: PV-SYST can automatically determine the number of modules in series and the number of strings per inverter, and the number of inverters required, based on your module and inverter selection.It should be noted however, that the majority of combinations are not compatible. PV- SYST has a grey indicator box, as highlighted by the green square in Figure 9 that provides detail about your chosen combination. For example, if a message in red text is displayed, the combination chosen is not viable, i. e. The Sun Power models we chose in combination with 30kW 420-800V Sunways inverter achieve a message that reads â€Å"The inverter power is strongly oversized†. If a message in orange text is displayed, the combination is potentially viable, but there are likely to be better combinations. . e. The SunPower models we chose in combination with the 3. 3kW 195 550V SunPower inverter achieves a message that reads â€Å"The inverter power is slightly oversized† or with the 5. 2kW 240-450V Sun Power inverter achieves an orange message that reads â€Å"The array Vmpp at 60 °C is lower than the inverter minimum operating voltage†. The best combinations of PV modules and inverters occur when no message is received. For example the combination of the Sun Power modules we chose with the 4kW 195-550V Sun Power inverter. 31.Choose the Sun Power inverter that is rated at 4kW 195-550V SPR-4000x 32. This combination of PV modules and inverter results in a system that requires two inverters, with 7 modules in series and six strings. 33. Select OK to continue 34. In the Project window select the â€Å"Simulation† button. This will open the Simulation pop-up window. 35. Accept the default parameters and click on the â€Å"Simulation† button to begin the calculation process. 36. Click the OK button once the simulation calculation process is complete. This will bring up the Results window

The Progression of American Music in the 20th Century essays

The Progression of American Music in the 20th Century essays It is Americas music born out of a million American negotiations: between having and not having; between happy and sad, country and city; between black and white and men and women; between the Old Africa and the Old Europe which could only have happened in an entirely new world. (Ward 2) Jazz was truly the music of America. It is a mixture of the musical roots of all the people in America at that time. It borrows European classical themes, using harmonious melodies and peculiar scales, which allows it to be one of the only improvisational art forms allowing the artist to literally make up music on the spot. Many composers, both European and American, introduced aspects of jazz into their concert music. Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Milhaud at one time or another imitated the rhythms of jazz, its typical harmonies, or its improvisational manners of playing the trumpet, saxophone, or percussion. (Hanning 542) Through all that it fuses the rhythmic percussion and bac kgrounds of African music, incorporating many gospel themes and complicated drum patterns, even often borrowing Latin styles. Prior to jazz, ragtime music, which used complicated chord structures with confusing rhythms and tempos, was very popular. Jazz used these theories and mixed them with powerful brass sounds found in Dixieland music, which sprouted from the south, often using gospel hymns and spirituals in an upbeat style; Dixieland was popular since the Civil War. One of the musicians who had the one of the biggest impacts in jazz, if not the biggest, was a New Orleans trumpeter named Louis Armstrong. With his simple, upbeat melodies and the invention of the Bebop Scale, Armstrong is undoubtedly the founder of true jazz. (Ward 43) Armstrong was famous for his bebop trumpet sound and remarkably gravely voice, perfect for a scat solo, which is just gibberish sung in different key...

buy custom The Role of Social Work essay

buy custom The Role of Social Work essay Social work, also a social science, is a relatively new discipline that is still evolving. Various scholars have defined it in different terms. According to Llewellyn, Lorraine and Mercer (2008 p. 1), social work is a contested area that has evolved within the wider political, economic, policy and social context in the social sciences. Among the definitions for social work is, social work is a socially constructed phenomenon...defined by the economic, social and cultural conditions in which it takes place, (Llewellym, Agu Mercer, 2008, p 1). This definition puts emphasis on the uniqueness of societies across the world; therefore each society has its form of social work taking place. The uniqueness in societies has seen social work evolve in different forms found in different societies. This divergent forms of social work are seen in the way different societies defines social care within the domain of their cultures. Llewellyn (2008) insists that it is a necessity that social workers understand the social conditions and processes within the context of the society. This denotes that different social workers have different roles defined by the groups they are working in, but the underlying aspect is that, they all work for the improvement of the society. The International Association of Schools of Social Work, 2001, defines the role of social work as the promotion of social change, problem solving in human relations, and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance their well being. This definition is closely linked to the earlier one as they are all centred on the improvement of the society in a defined way. Beckett (2006, p 12) in his definition of social work also emphasizes on the uniqueness of society and the changing roles of the social worker dependent on the problems in the society. He emphasizes on the role of control and coordination as unique to social work so as to help the members of a society attain their potentials. Social care, provided for by the government and other key agents of development such as non-governmental organizations, and the private sector is important for the well being of the society as a whole. Many people across the world cannot cater for their social care needs; hence rely on free social care services provided for by the government. This is all in the realm of social work. Social work is closely linked to sociology with many people confusing the two terms (Llewellym, Agu Mercer, 2008, p. 2). Social work has evolved within the discipline of sociology, but has ended up taking a role and significance of its own, such that it is considered as an independent discipline from sociology. Much as sociology emphasizes on understanding the dynamics of society with an emphasis on social science research, social work tends to take a more practical approach in tackling the problems that arise within societies. The two disciplines borrow a lot from each other, especially in the theoretical aspects and research. Social work is dynamic and keeps evolving to take in to account the changing needs of society (Jorrin, 1973). As the problems being encountered by members of society change with the development of new technologies that have enabled people to be in contact at a level never seen before, social work has been changing to take this new development in to perspective. Originally social work entailed tackling societal problems as they arose, such as substance abuse, child welfare and sexual abuse. This was done without much involvement of the society as a whole, but the social workers took it up on themselves to be the community watchdogs. Overtime time this has changed to facilitating the elimination of such problem with empowerment of the community to develop their capacity to tackle the problems without much assistance from outsiders (Beckett, 2006). Social workers have changed their roles to that of facilitators where they work on the improvement of the societies ability to tackle social problems (Llewellym, Agu Mercer, 2008, 2008). This is achieved through the use of research methods and statistics to collect relevant information that would help the social workers understand the dynamics of particular societies. The information gathered helps in the generation of techniques and tools necessary to alleviate the problems. Social work needs to have relevance of sociological perspectives in understanding societal and structural influences on human behaviour (Llewellym, Agu Mercer, 2008, p. 5). This enables the social worker to get better collaboration from the members of society. Every society has opinion leaders and leadership structures that influence the activities of the members. Such leaders can provide massive assistance to the social worker if they are adequately involved in decision making, and creating awareness in the society. Social work tries to understand and explain the links between definition processes contributing to social differences; problems of inequality and differential needs (Llewellym, Agu Mercer, 2008, p. 5). In tackling problems such as child abuse, social workers need to have an understanding of the way culture has contributed to the continuity of the vice over time, and whether there are any mechanisms to stop the continuity of the vice. In so doing, social work plays a role of trying to formulate solutions from the structure of the society, while at the same time using the members of the society to tackle the problems they are facing. This will lead to a situation where cultural and social changes occur, a necessary condition in overcoming the problems once and for all. Apart from problem solving, social work plays a fundamental role in human empowerment and liberation as stated in IASSW (2001). The human potential is unimaginable, but largely remains unfulfilled. This is as a result of lack of opportunities and knowledge on how to use this potential. Social work plays a pivotal role in the fulfilment of such potentials by engaging in empowerment campaigns that highlight the opportunities open to members of society. Closely linked to empowerment and a major role of social work, is the role of creating cultural and social changes in societies. This is a necessity in societies who hold fatalistic beliefs such as female suicide and child abuse. Social work serves the role of being the agent of change in such societies, a slow and tedious task. Beckett (2006), talks of the role of social workers as the control agents, this is the regulation and enforcement of behaviour change with the aim of protecting the vulnerable from being harmed or harming themselves. This distinguishes social work from other disciplines in the social sciences. Control agents provide mechanisms for members of society with guidelines on how to lead a fulfilling life. The presence of social workers acts as a deterrence to the people (Beckett, 2006 p. 12), who would otherwise have engaged in dangerous activities which could be harmful to others. Social work also serves the role of coordination (Beckett, 2006, p. 13), especially when working in a multidisciplinary environment. Unlike care management which regulates the activities of a multi-disciplinary team, social work coordinates the activities of other professionals, so as to be in line with societal needs. This assists the society as a whole, as the team works with the objective of improving the condition of the socciety as a whole. Much as social work serves important roles in societies, it has been faced by a number of challenges that have hampered its roles of improving the human conditions, as discussed below. Many people view social work as performing the role of care takers when the society faces a breakdown. There is some truth in this assumption, but it ends up leading people to view social workers as the solution to problems that could otherwise have been solved in the community. Beresford (2007) asserts that the over reliance on social work sometimes leads to a breakdown in the community, as people wait on the social workers to provide every form of social care. This problem can be tackled through education and empowerment of the people, this is in order to change their worldview and reduce dependency on social care. This will create a sense of responsibility within societies, which is beneficial for the people in the long run. Some people attach stigma to getting assistance from social workers, where people look down upon members of society receiving social care from the government. This leads to a situation where people fail to air their grievances and bottle up their problems, resulting to a condition detrimental to society such as increase in suicide cases. The belief that things need to be critical before the intervention of social workers is a widely held belief. Many people assume that social workers only intervene when there is an emergency, thus fear to be associated with the activities of social work, lest they be prejudiced by members of society. Fatalistic beliefs held by various cultural groups have undermined the importance and effectiveness of social work (Beckett, 2006, p. 24). Such beliefs are usually hard to change and more often they act as inhibitors to growth and development. Social workers sometimes are viewed with suspicion and hatred, especially when they attempt to influence culture change where fatalistic beliefs have created obstacles to progress. Conclusion Social work is a relatively new field of study that has evolved within the social sciences and closely linked to sociology. The IASSW (2001) explains that social work utilizes theories of human behaviour and social systems to intervene at points where people interact with their environment. This is more fundamental when such interactions become injurious to the people or the environment. Social work serves the roles of controlling and coordinating social care and other development programmes in close collaboration with experts from other disciplines, all with the aim of improving the human condition. The changing role of social work lies in the structure of the discipline, which views communities as unique entities with different problems and needs. Social work puts emphasis on the need to develop social care programmes with the unique needs of different people in mind. This ensures that each members need is taken in to account and does not lead to the exclusion of some members. Social work differs from other social sciences as it has increasingly changed to accommodate the indigenous communities and the most vulnerable members of society in decision-making processes. This accommodation brings a sense of importance within the society and serves the role of empowerment. It can be conclusively stated that social work puts an emphasis on people centred development, where the major aim is in empowering people to be their own actors of development. This is achieved through the enhancement of peoples capabilities and potentials by increasing their choices in life. This makes it an important discipline in the pursuit of development by many societies. Buy custom The Role of Social Work essay

Australian Economy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Australian Economy - Assignment Example The government, on the other hand, utilizes fiscal policies to ensure the economy grows at stable rates. The Reserve Bank and the government have ensured stability in the economy of Australia using fiscal and monetary policies since November 2011. The fiscal policy is in form of taxation and government spending; while the monetary regulation is in form of the cash rate and open market operations. The government and the Reserve Bank have succeeded in stabilizing prices and economic growth through the policies. The bodies have not managed to achieve full employment and balance of payment. Performance of the Australian Government and the Reserve Bank in running the economy from November 2011 to November 2013 Price Stability Price stability is achieved when the annual rate of inflation in a country is zero. However, it is hard for a country to achieve a zero rate of inflation because of price and wage rigidities. Price and wage rigidities refer to those charges that do not decrease below certain levels, for example, salaries of executive officers in organizations. The Reserve Bank of Australia set an inflation target of two to three percent (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2013); after taking into account price rigidities in the economy in 2010. Other countries that target the same figure include Hungary, Mexico, Spain, Japan, and Canada among others. This means that the rate that Australia set is favorable and it is widely accepted in the world. The Reserve Bank set the low inflation rate target to avoid the undesirable consequences of high rates of price instability, which include uncertainty, unfair distribution of wealth, and increasing tax benefits for businesses (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2013). These effects, consequently lead to low annual economic growth rate. The bank has managed to maintain the target inflation rate since November 2011. Year January -March April-June July-September October-December Annual 2013 2.5% 2.4% 2012 1.6% 1.2% 2% 2.2% 1.7% 2011 3.3% 3.5% 3.4% 3% 3.3% Quarterly inflation rates since January 2011. (http://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/australia-historical-inflation-rate) The above figures show the rates of inflation in Australia since January 2011. The study, however, aims at determining the average rates from November 2011 to 2013. These include all the quarters of 2013 and 2012, and the last section of 2011 whose rate was 3%. The rate has remained within the 2-3% range in all the relevant quarters of the study. This means that the Reserve Bank has managed to stabilize prices in the country by use of monetary policies. Unemployment Unemployment is the inability of a qualified person to fail to secure a job at the prevailing wage rates. The unemployed people are willing to take jobs at the given wage rates, but they fail to find jobs in the market. Unemployment leads to undesirable consequences in the economy, for example, it lowers the per capita income, increases dependency, and leads to theft and prosti tution among others. The government and the Reserve Bank have failed to ensure low rates of unemployment in the country since 2011 because of the instability of some sectors in the economy. Long term unemployment has remained above 5% in the country since October 2011; whereas the velocity was below that amount before this period (Chua, 2013). This means that the management of unemployment has been inefficient, and this pulls down the economic growth

Journalism Mass Media and Communication Research Paper

Journalism Mass Media and Communication - Research Paper Example How is this history displayed for the audience? Is this history conveyed effectively? Is Kaufman constructing a history from above, from below or something in between? The Laramie project is based on a true story about voices of real people grappling with prejudice and tragedy in their small town (Bollas, 26). In 1998, Matthew Sheppard, an explicitly gay college student was beaten, tied to a fence, and let to die on the outskirts of Laramie in Wyoming. These actions lead to the small town being thrust into national spotlight revealing prejudice and the harsh truth of violence that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) community often faces in the contemporary society. After the event, Moises Kaufman and other members of the New York-based tectonic theater project traveled to the place. Through the utilization of interviews, theater techniques news report and interviews, the Laramie project was born. Moises Kaufman and other members of the tectonic theater project made 6 trips to Laramie in the aftermath of the beating and when the two young men accused of killing Sheppard were being tried. The Laramie is a breathtaking melodramatic collection that explores the height of compassion of which human beings are capable of as well as the depth to which humanity can sink (Elsbree & Wong, 100). The play is based on a true story of October 1998 when Matthew Sheppard, a gay student who was attending the University of Wyoming in the town of Laramie was murdered by two young men. Matthew was taken to a spot that was isolated by two local young men with the intent of robbery, Russell Henderson, and Aaron McKinney beat him up by using the butt of the butt of their guns and left him with injuries but tied to the fence. However, Sheppard was found eighteen hours later exposed outdoor and died a few days later. After the trial, Russell and McKinney were convicted and imprisoned for life.

E-Commerce and IT Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

E-Commerce and IT Security - Essay Example initial forms, cell phones had specific and limited operational potentials; today cell phones have development a lot in order to respond to their new role as a primary mode of communication – an indicative example is the BlackBerry, a cell phone with advanced capabilities – for instance the Organiser or the GPS (referring to the Smartphone features, see the firm’s website); on the other hand, the fact that mobile phone has become the primary mode of communication has led to another problem: the social life of people takes new forms; the isolation of individuals is promoting; in this context, the mobile phone is no longer just a convenience; this change of the role of mobile phones should be reviewed. It should be noted that the above initiative is expected to face strong opposition if taking into consideration the fact that mobile phone is regarded as related with daily life at such a level that the warnings on the risks from its extensive use are ignored  œ like in the case of ‘electrosensitivity’ a health problem related with the use of mobile phone (Rubin et al., 2008, p.1). On the other hand, even in cases that rules were set for the use of mobile phone (for instance, when driving) these rules were not applied (Walsh et al., 2008, p.1893). Current paper examines key points on the use and the advances of mobile phones, e-commerce and IT-security aiming to explain their development internationally. Airtexting offers the ability to communicate ‘in silence’ – i.e. without actually speaking. This means that the people around are not likely to notice the specific activity; however, in practice this benefit of airtexting is lost because of a severe disadvantage: the ability of anyone near the sender to read the text of the message. At this point a dilemma is set? Is privacy of higher importance than the need for communication? It depends on each person’s perceptions and experiences. From a personal view, I would characterize this feature as

Hunting and animals Essay Example for Free

Hunting and animals Essay Charles Dickens once said, â€Å"There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast. † I agree with this quote. Hunting is very exciting and fun. However, many disagree with me. No one rides the fence though. You either think that hunting is good or that hunting is bad. What do you believe? Do you think hunting is positive or negative? I believe hunting is good because it helps feed those in need, it helps control the population of wild animals, and it helps farmers who may have animals on their land they want to get rid of. A lot of people look at hunting and think of all the gruesome things we are going to do to Bambi. They never stop to think about what the hunter is doing with the game. Hunters aren’t just killing animals for fun, they use the meat to either eat or donate it. Several hunters give their game to people in need. They donate their meat to homeless shelters or food banks for less fortunate people that might not be able to afford to put enough food on the table. That way the people in need will be able to have a little bit extra on their plate. Hunting also helps control the population of wild animals. You can only hunt during a certain period of time during the year so that the animals are able to reproduce and won’t become extinct. You are also limited to the amount of game you can get. That way it won’t become a chaotic free-for-all and protects the animals from being wiped out. However, if hunting wasn’t legal, the population of wild animals would skyrocket. This would cause a boost in the already high number of car crashes due to animals, such as deer standing in the middle of the road. According to State Farm, an estimated 1. 5 million vehicles collide with deer in the United States. This caused over $1. 1 billion in property damage. These crashes also caused several injuries and deaths. Hunters must also pay to get their hunting license. The money they spend for their licenses go back to the conservation of the environment. Finally, hunting also gets rid of unwanted pests. Several animals annoy farmers and other land owners by messing with the farmer’s crops. Animals will go through the fields and eat the crops that the farmers can go out of business because the crops aren’t plentiful or good enough. For this reason we need hunters because farmers wouldn’t be able to succeed and all of us would suffer because the less crops coming into the stores, the more money the stores are going to ask for the customers to pay for the product. So actually vegetarians depend on hunters. Most vegetarians buy their vegetables from local stores. Hunters get rid of the animals that would ruin the food vegetarians would buy. Many people think hunting is wrong simply because they don’t look at the benefits that come with hunting. Hunting has many benefits including feeding others, controlling wildlife population, and helping farmers get rid of unwanted pests. For most hunters, the reward isn’t killing animals, it’s knowing they helped people that may not be able to survive or succeed without them. That’s what boosts my passion to hunt.

Study Of The Vat System In Ethiopia Finance Essay

Study Of The Vat System In Ethiopia Finance Essay Government collects revenue from different types of sources to invest for public services like education, health, road and infrastructure distributes equally to the public. This revenue will be the one in which it levies from different income is called a tax. A tax is a blood vessel of a country for development, most of developed countries their tax harmonies are very attractive and strong, the people are well known about the tax what and why you are pay, if you are not pay you accept like you didnt accomplished your duty even your right. How ever in most Sahara counties like Ethiopia the people do not well understand about the necessity of the tax what and why you are pay, thats why the fraudulent and smugglers would be many and high developing country. Hence the problem of tax collection and assessment in Ethiopia is the gap between the taxpayers willingness to pay tax is as a major with different implementation and other problems by the tax collectors. In general in Ethiopia, where the awareness of taxpayers, the culture of paying taxes and the capacity of tax administrators appear poor. The tax system should be balance the economic activity and expected the people on the ability to pay a tax in proportion to their level of income. From the broad concepts of taxation the tax should be divided in to two major groups. These are direct and indirect tax, from these indirect tax the one in which highly Comprehensive that includes producers, wholesalers and retailers is the value added Tax (VAT). The value added tax (VAT) is a new tax system introduced in Ethiopia since 2003 as a Replacement to sales tax.This tax collects from domestic transaction and importation of goods. Where this tax is replaced the sales tax the assumption was the sales tax does not collect on added value, the value added tax minimizes the damage that may be caused by attempts to avoid and evade the tax and helps to ascertain the profit obtained by the tax payers and the tax initiates saving and investment because the tax is levied on consumable goods and services and does not tax capital and enhance economic growth and improves the ratio relationship between gross domestic product and government revenue. And has a proclamation, cites as a proclamation No. 285/2002. This paper will state the current main issues of VAT administration like organizational structure, staffing and training, Tax Payers Identification and Automation, invoicing and book keeping Requirements, controlling of filing and payment, Audit of VAT, Refunds management, penalties and cost of administration and compliances with its strength and weakness in Ethiopias as follows 2. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY How it works the Administration and compliance of VAT system in Ethiopia with its positive and negative during implementation of the current system and explains what compliance risks there are and why and how the risks occur over all those problems will be discussed and further the solutions shall be recommended in the report of study. 3. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY The study is gathered from different secondary data of annual reports and from assessment of different researches of administration of VAT system In Ethiopia by different Authors. 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study is limited on the current of VAT administration in Ethiopian and compliance risks With its strength and weakness in which applies will be generalized. 5. DEFINITIONS A value added tax is a modern tax system and broad based .It replaces the sales tax, have two rates 15% and 0% with exemptions of the tax. The threshold is based on the annual sales of goods and services above 500,000 Ethiopia birr. Have two types of registration that is obligatory and voluntary registration, the voluntary registrants are registered when 75% their sales are supplied for VAT registered. The reports are monthly which provides in the declaration format whether it credit or nil. Any taxpayers who are not registered for VAT automatically payable to turn over tax (TOT). The exemption in VAT also applies in TOT. 6 .ANALYSIS (MAIN BODY) Value added tax in Ethiopia introduce in the year 2003 cited as proclamation No. 285/2002 which replaces the sales tax with the assumptions mentioned in the introduction part. The current Ethiopia Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) was Federal Inland Revenue Authority (FIRA) before 2008. During the period of FIRA the VAT would introduced and implemented in our country and still exercises after merging of FIRA and Customs Authority. The administration of VAT includes organizational structure, staffing and training, Tax Payers Identification and Automation, invoicing and book keeping Requirements, controlling of filing and payment, Audit of VAT, Refunds management, penalties and cost of administration all these activities are pertain to how applies and affects the government revenue and strategy properly will be describe as follows: 6.1 Organizational structure, staffing and training Ethiopia Revenue Authority should be taken an organizational structure for VAT to be implemented through the branches of the Authority and the staff recruited and trained during the preparation of the VAT introduced. Hence due the complication of the system in the Ethiopia case a special VAT unit in FIRA was setting up. Along this line, there were efforts to design the organization structure and to determine the number of staff to be trained and deployed. Some have been taken from the ex-sales tax unit, some have gone from the tax reform program and the Ministry of Revenue and some have been newly recruited. At present, the newly introduced Value Added Tax is administered by a newly established department located at the Mexico square and some branches in the country and by the Ethiopian Revenue and customs Authority. The new department in ERCA is answerable to the General Manager. The staffs are graduates of accounting, economics and the management profession. The organo-gram and staff assignment is depicted in the following diagram. General Manager ERCA Tax Payers registration and Education Division (7) VAT DEPARTMENT Head (5) VAT Administration (2) Revenue Collection and Enforcement Assessment and Audit Division Revenue Accounts and Consolidation Diagram 1:- Organo- gram of the VAT Department By: Arega Hailu Teffera June/2004 Even though, the VAT is computerized, considering the current and future challenges, the VAT department requires additional personnel in all areas- taxpayer education and service, accounting and collection, enforcement and audit. Efforts currently underway within the Ministry and ERCA to strengthen the VAT administration, to improve service delivery, training of staff should continue to address the shortfall encountered. Specially, the administration should focus in strengthening its audit and enforcement wings. 6.2 Tax Payers Identification and Automation Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and VAT SIGTAS were implemented during 2000-2003. These systems have been operational by the FIRA and regional states and city administrations revenue authorities through country-wide network As earlier described the system introduced during Federal In land Revenue Authority where it is Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA). The system is an important for efficient and effective tax and customs administration. Any taxpayer has only one identification number; this will be used for VAT purpose, for with holding tax, for property tax e.t.c. In our country case taxpayers couldnt used different identification number. Except The trade license number issued by Ministry of Trade and Industry Automation of VAT administration commenced with a simple software developed by a local IT firm. In an attempt to deploy better software that integrates the different functions and processes of VAT administration, the government entered an agreement with a Canadian firm known as CRC-SOGEMA in April 2003. The software development project, VAT SIGTAS, was finalized and made operational at the VAT Department during February 2004. Later on, the new software rolled out to the regional branches of the ERCA. It was also made operational in four regional states and two city administration revenue authorities following the delegation of VAT administration. Large taxpayers, started applying VAT SIGTAS in October 2005 upon the decision of the tax authority to administer all taxes of large taxpayers under one office. Previously the large taxpayers used to settle their VAT obligations at the VAT Department. The proper implementation of SIGTAS all taxes would help realize the following anticipated benefits of the project: increased revenues and enhanced control, better service to taxpayers, standardize practices throughout operational departments, reduction of non-value adding activities, real-time management (reminders, remittances, etc.), and Integrated management of all taxes (especially for audit). The regional and city administration tax offices are also using the new system for their VAT operations with the previous VAT functionalities provided unchanged. Efforts are underway to deploy SIGTAS all taxes, with certain modifications, in all regional states and city administrations. The CRC-SOGEMA has already conducted requirements study. 6.3 invoicing and book keeping Requirements Is a very important for issuance of invoices during transaction of VAT system these invoices are printed by registered printing press after getting approval from ERCA. The invoices are separately printed for taxable and exempted transactions. In addition to the printing of invoice recording are mandatory for every VAT registered and required separate of taxable invoice and exempted. The VAT proclamation stipulates that VAT registrants should keep records of account for at least 10 years. However, due to lack of tax administrators follow-up and control, lack of awareness among the society and the prevalence of poverty.these rules are not applied perfectly as to the law required many problems faced with getting invoices, using duplicated invoices, lack of consistency in using invoice, most business holds two books ;one for tax Authority and for Banks . usually the understated income holds book for tax Authority and the over stated book would be for Banks, Do not use invoices approved by the Authority, dealing with buyer to issue the lower price in the invoice , also issue fraudulent invoices using invented VAT numbers of their own and collect VAT for their own e.t.c. These will be paralyzing the function of revenue as a whole. In order to solve this problem of invoicing the ERCA gets the expiriance from Latine America to be used the electronical cash registered at retailer on a net work with the SIGTAS. 6.4 controlling of filing and payment According to proclamation No. 285, Article 26/1, every registerd person is required to file VAT return with ERCA for each accounting period and to pay the tax for accounting period by the deadline for filling the VAT return. Article 26/2 , the VAT return for every accounting period shall be filled no later than the last day of the calendar month following the accounting period, where as VAT on taxable imports is collected at Customs and made by C.P.O automatically. The VAT liability is computed based on the invoice credit method in that the registered person will remit the difference between VAT received and VAT paid during transactions conducted during the accounting period. ERCA made a controlling and filing of VAT using computerized system to administer VAT properly authorities use computer programs, namely: Standard Integrated Government Tax Administration System (SIGTAS) and Automated System for Customs Data Management (ASYCUDA). The computer programs are used to maintain taxpayer register and process VAT returns. Detection of non-filers seems to be carried out mainly manually. The authority tries to identify non-filers in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In Ethiopia every trader is required to renew business license annually with the pertinent offices under the Ministry of Trade and Industry or regional governments. To renew business licenses, traders are required to produce evidence from tax authorities that all taxes have been Paid. The tax authorities on their part, before providing the evidence to taxpayers, 6.5, Audit of VAT Auditing is a basic measuring of for effective tax collection, Audit of VAT in our country was very complicated before the introduction of computerized the tax system, due to different fraudulent of using invoice as mentioned in the above invoicing and book keeping requirements. However, the audit case by the audit selection committee. The selection criteria include; credit declaration, nil VAT declaration, non filers, unusual VAT filing and information obtained from third parties and customs decleracion. Based on the above selected criteria would be subject to audit. Most of VAT registrant provides monthly report as credit or nil. This is the effect of tax evasion by the taxpayers. All these problems affect the potential of revenue this would be due to lack of taxpayers awareness, human resources auditor in particular, the number of VAT registrant compare to auditors or the employees in tax authority is very low they cannot cover by the actual current employees in the ERCA. 6.6 Refunds Management The VAT proclamation No. 285/2002 Article 27/1 stated that at least 25% of the value of a a registered persons taxable transaction for the accounting period is taxed at zero rate, the ERCA shall refund the amount of the VAT applied as a credit in excess of the amount of VAT charged for the accounting period within two months after the registered person files an application for refund, accompanied by documentary proof of payment of the excess amount. The second Article 27/2 relates to unused excess credit. For non-zero rated transactions, the amount of VAT applied as a credit in excess of the amount charged for the accounting period is to be carried forward to the next five accounting periods and credit against payments for these periods. The registered person can claim refund if it has still unused excess credit at the end of the five month period. Refund claims are subject to checks and audit by the tax authority. In view of promoting export supplies, the tax authority effects VAT r efund for exporters in 15 days after checking and verifying the documents presented to it. 6.7. Penalties Taxpayers that are not compliant to the VAT law are subject to administrative criminal penalties. According to the VAT proclamation, articles 45-47 administrative penalties are imposed while persons are not registered for VAT where registration is required, when any registered person issued incorrect tax invoices, where invoices are issued without being registered, where there is underpayment and late filing of returns. Administrative fines range from a fine 100 percent of the amount of tax payable and a fine of up to 50,000 Birr. According to articles 48-59 criminal offences are liable to prosecution. A tax offence is a violation of the criminal law of the country and thus is subject to criminal charge and prosecution. Tax evasion, obstruction of tax administration, failure to notify changes in business address and business line, unauthorized VAT collection, improper tax debit and credit notes, aiding or abetting, offence by entities, offence by tax officers, offence by receivers are liable on convection to monetary fine of Birr 1000- 200,000 and imprisonment of not less than 1 year to not more than 15 years depending on the gravity of the offence. 6.8. Cost of Administration In the case of Ethiopia the cost of VAT administration must be proportional with professional standards of like developing countries. The researches indicate in most developing countries cost of administration estimates the range between 1 2% of collection. Actually low collection may not reflect efficiency but rather indicate unused of resources may occurred. In our country the administration costs are: salaries and wages and top-ups to staff deployed to VAT department, the cost of fixed assets and consumables including telephones, faxes, internet, electricity and power, fuel and lubricants etc. Since customs collects duties and taxes in a single administrative document, i.e. the customs declaration, it is very difficult to apportion the cost of administration for VAT all these costs are the total consumable of ERCAs administration cost for VAT (the above costs are only for VAT actually expend ). Therefore when take 2003 2004 FIRA Customs report the total cost of administration for VAT was 9,718,848 birr and total collection of VAT during the year would be 5,234,730,000 birr, so total administration cost was 0.00186 this is under the standard from the point of professional standards sited. ( I think this information is too late, but it can see or indicate the current performance, how ever now a day there are a lot changes to use resources effectively like the deployment of automation, recruitment of employees by allocate more budget how ever, it is not researched, but still it has a limitation) (Source: FIRA and Customs- Administration and Finance, Budget for 2003/2004 fiscal year.) Tax Payers Compliance From any taxpayer that expected they must comply with the laws and regulations of tax and customs duty. How ever as an employee of tax and customs authority the real situation of the taxpayers behavior is not what we are expected them. They are not complying with the tax and customs law. For instance with the fulfillment of the VAT registration requirement, timely reporting with the actual transaction they did, using authorized VAT collection, making true financial statement for tax purpose, providing the correct VAT invoice for any client e.t.c. consider the above issues; most of our taxpayers are not compliance. This would be faced in daily activity during tax and customs assessment and collection. Even there is a positive improvement to comply with law in changing the taxpayers attitude through different way of awareness creation. Strength on VAT administration When ever the VAT administration in Ethiopia has a problem, but there are positive actions are taken off by the Authority to facilitate the tax and customs servies with strong enforcement for non compliance taxpayers. Basically the Authority pursued the reform program in order to achieve the main objectives that are tax policy and administration reform, and customs reform and modernization. From the reforms the tax policy and administration reform have a result during the implementation would be : income tax law that was in force for more than 40 years was replaced in July 2002; VAT was introduced on January 1, 2003 to replace sales tax. Turnover tax was introduced on January 1, 2003 to apply to those taxpayers whose annual turnover is below VAT threshold. Excise tax was rationalized to more accurately reflect the current market situation. National implementation of the TIN network through the installation of communication equipment at FIRA, and City and Regional administrations sites. And taxpayers were registered for TIN. The replacement of the estimated assessment method with the more standard assessment method in order to achieve equity and administrative efficiency in connection with presumptive taxation. Tax collection and audit manuals prepared and put in use. Large Taxpayers Office and VAT Department established. Operational departments are automated as part of the modernization of the FIRA. TIN system interface with the Ethiopian Customs Authority is operational.(before merging the two Authority) Using this in mind the strength way of FIRA, currently ERCA would be perform many activities to improve services delivery and the potential of revenue on VAT administration. Thus are; The reform introduced during FIRA would take as a base to perform effectively and introduced BPR. Make extensive consultation with stake holders, comprehensive taxpayers education program and aggressive advertisement campaign. strongly used of computerized tax and customs system ( SIGTAS, TIN, ASYCUDA ++) Create positive attitude for the tax collector with good payments. Conducted comprehensive trainings on the VAT law, regulation, directives and administration techniques for tax officers drawn from different area of the country. Create strong enforcement unit on VAT 7. Measures were taken to enforce registration: for non compliant 8 Administrative and criminal cases are strongly followed-up 9. Strongly applied deterrent provisions: penalties and prosecution e.t.c, thus would be Taken to improve performance of VAT administration. 9. Basic Weakness 1. Lack of strong and follow up for non complaints 2. Lack of human resources specially VAT auditors 3. Lack of taxpayers awareness. 4. In some lack of ethics . Although VAT was successfully introduced in Ethiopia due to adequate preparations, different challenges have been faced in implementation as I have stated in VAT administration. In general ERCA faced the following challenges in VAT administration still- Resistance against VAT registration, Failure to register due to the prevalence of large informal sector, Low level of tax awareness, Suppression of taxable sales, Failure to issue invoices during transaction, Negotiate with customers during transaction to account VAT or not, Print and use of identical invoices, one registered by the FIRA and the other not, Issuance of fictitious invoices among related persons without actual transaction to overstate input VAT and claim refund, Prevalence of significant number of constant credit filers, nil-filers and non-filers, Non-remittance of VAT collected, Prevalence of missing traders, poor audit and enforcement capacity of the tax authority, and Mal-practices in the administration aspect. Recommendations From the above study I recommended as following: Recruit quality and quantity of human resource to be deployed and Training and development for staffs who will join and who have already joined. All liable businesses registered for VAT in all sectors of the economy must be registered and it needs strong and practical monitoring and controlling system. that fall within the threshold should be identified and an action to be compliant.. Must be apply frequent audit system ,donot delay the auditing. Due to lack of auditor, the auditors must selective based on the size of the business with return of tax from these. Make consistent tax educations for taxpayers in each tax Authority to create awareness. Create ethical tax servants e.t.c All the basic challenges that mentioned must be change and improve with substantial monitoring and controlling effort. Conclusions Ethiopian Government committed to improve the tax harmony in each stage of the tax authority by allocating resources with the efforts of ERCA. The effort which applied is the introduction of tax reform in Ethiopia. The Government introduced the VAT since 2003, mainly to broaden the tax base, and to compensate for revenue loss as a result of duty reduction at customs, to reduce distortions by other indirect taxes, and to encourage trade and investment. With the challenges that already stated, the performance of tax from VAT would be increase. For the increasing of VAT collection the introduction of IT has great role. The implementation of SIGTAS increases revenue collection, Real-time Management of Non-compliers, Facilitation of Assessments and Reassessments, Prompt Calculation of Penalty and Interest, Provision of Better Service to Taxpayers, these are facilitated the collection of VAT progressively. Appreciating the role of IT in VAT administration, during FIRA decided to automate the administration of all taxes in an integrated manner. Thus, the functionalities of VAT SIGTAS were extended to embrace the other taxes and ERCA would be catch-up the system and implemented successfully. SIGTAS all taxes was tested at the Large Taxpayers Office in August 2006. Currently, all tax centers of the FIRA are using SIGTAS all taxes software. The application of SIGTAS has been instrumental in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the tax administration. And Extensive consultation with stakeholders, comprehensive taxpayer education programmed, aggressive advertisement campaign and an intense registration drive did help the tax authority. Over all the experience of Ethiopia in automating tax administration, including VAT, shows that success in IT implementation is mainly dependent upon: aggressive implementation as per schedule, strict control over procedural issues, active action in case of peculiarities, monitoring and feedback, continuous manpower development, timely provision of hardware and supporting services, and proactive and genuine participation of every member of the tax authority.