Benefits of Hosting Major Sporting Events Essay

1. When bidding to host an international sporting event, there is always the possibility that revenue will not exceed expenses. How would you respond to a local group that would rather have the city’s money spent on social programs? When a city is preparing a bid to host an international sporting event, some parts of the community will argue that the taxpayer’s money should be invested into social programs that will benefit the community, rather than into sporting events. It is a valid argument that hosting an international sporting event can have a substantial financial impact on a city. An example of this is the great debt incurred by Montreal when they hosted the 1976 Olympic Games (p.89 Thoma and Chalip). It could be argued that the huge amounts of money that were spent on building new stadiums or arenas, and modernising existing infrastructure, may have been better spent on education, health care or subsidised housing. While there is some merit to the above argument, bidding and hopefully hosting an international sporting event can bring significant benefits to a city. The following are a range of benefits that can be presented to the local community: i. A significant international sporting event should not be viewed as a single event in isolation. The event should be considered as part of a broader calendar of events offered by the city and the direct positive impact to the economy that this derives. An example of this is the calendar of events that Melbourne and the state of Victoria hold. Events held include the Formula One Grand Prix, UCI Track Cycling World Championships and FINA World Swimming Championships. These and other major sporting events contributed  to over AU$1 billion to the Victorian economy (dpcd.vic.gov.au/sport/major-events). The success of hosting an international sporting event can further support the host city’s claim as being an attractive destination to hold other major sporting events. ii. Second, the successful bid can lead to a number of approaches to urban regeneration, which can ultimately benefit the host ci ty’s population. Tallon (p.5 urban regeneration in the UK) defined four approaches of urban regeneration: a. Economic – an international sporting event can enhance the employment opportunities in the short- and long-term, increase labour supply and increase economic activity. b. Social/Cultural: the international sporting event can instil a sense of national pride, strengthen values and tradition of the host city and increase the level of interest and participation in the activity associated with the event. c. Physical/Environmental: in the event of a successful bid, the host city can invest in constructing new facilities, improving existing facilities and promoting environmental or ‘greener’ sporting initiatives that can benefit the community in the future. d. Governance: the event will allow the engagement of the local community and the involvement of other groups, and for the host city’s government to review their administration and public policy (p.67 Sports Marketing M elissa Jane). Having the opportunity to host an international sporting event, can allow the host city to revitalise itself through urban regeneration. As a consequence of this regeneration, the host city has the potential to become more efficient and effective, and be able to provide further support and resources where needed. iii. Third, a strong vision in promoting the host city and the region for the international sporting event can attract visitors from other regions of the country and from overseas. This gives the host city the opportunity to showcase itself to the across the globe. This can have a positive economic impact during the event as a result of the influx of visitors and afterwards through the generation of new tourism markets (Cooper, Contemporary Tourism, p.169). The promotion of the host city can also achieve a greater awareness of the community in the wider sporting and tourism spheres. iv. Lastly, the improved infrastructure can enable the city to host further sporting events a nd serve the community for many years. The creation of an improved image, the attraction of economic development and the increase in civic pride  (Urban Tourism, Law p.149) has the potential to create a lasting legacy for the host city. An international sporting event has the potential to create an image that can potentially provide the host city with new levels of global recognition and opportunities for economic, political and social development (Pellergrino and Hancock p.2 2010 Deloitte). Although there is a valid argument for a city to invest into social programs that may benefit the local community, the points presented to the local group can hopefully allay those fears that the city is wasting the taxpayer’s money bidding to host an international sporting event. The event itself can be viewed as a part of a broader calendar of events, the community can benefit from the urban regeneration of the city, promotion of the international sporting event and the city can attract visitors from all over, and the event can leave the host city with a positive lasting legacy. 3. Explain how the Americans deal with China with respect to the defection of tennis player Hu Na from the Peoples Republic of China. Over many years, we have witnessed the entanglement of politics and sport. From the boycotting of international sporting events, such as the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games where the United States and many other Western countries refused to participate due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan; protests from individuals like Arash Miresmaili of Iran who sympathised with the oppression of Palestinians (p398 comparative politics Hauss) and refused to compete against Ehud Vaks of Israel; and the expulsion of South Africa from many international events due to apartheid that was prevalent in the country. Another occurrence of politics interfering with sport is evident in the ‘Hu Na Incident’, which as Pendleton (p.13) pointed out was a two-way interaction between sport and diplomacy, resulting in decisions being made at the highest political levels. The ‘Hu Na Incident’ started in July 1982, where Hu Na disappeared from her hotel room whilst touring with a Chinese government sponsored tennis team. Days later, papers were filed with the Immigration and Naturalisation Service requesting political asylum on the grounds that Hu Na had been pressured and persecuted by the Communist Party of China. Hu Na was a rising tennis star in China. She won several tournaments, including the National Sparetime Schools Tournament in 1975, the National Junior Singles crown in 1978 and the National Singles title in 1981. Her success was not just limited to China, she also won the doubles (in 1981) and singles (in  1982) titles at the Casablanca Cup held in Mexico. Initially, the United States had announced that any decision in regards to Hu Na would be based upon the advisory opinion of the State Department. Members of the United States Congress also urged the State Department to grant Hu Na’s request for political asylum. This announcement provoked an immediate diplomatic crisis (p.190 women, sport and society). Upon hearing this, a Chinese spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that China would hold the United States responsible for Hu Na’s safe return and that such an incident would harm the cultural exchanges between the two countries (Pendleton 14). The Pro-China newspaper Wen Wei Po also argued that Hu Na’s visit to the United States was in accordance with the Sino-America agreement. Thus, the United States government had a duty of care for her safety, regardless of whether the invitation came form a governmental or non-governmental organisation (Pendleton 14). In April 1983, after almost ten months, the decision to grant Hu Na political asylum was finally made by the State Department. At the time, Arthur P. Brill of the United States Justice Depa rtment, released the following statement (Pendleton 15): Hu Na has been granted asylum under the Refugee Act of 1980, which provides asylum in cases where the applicant establishes a well-founded fear of persecution, due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a special social group. The decision drew support from several quarters in the United States, most notably that of then United States President, Ronald Reagan. After the United States had granted political asylum to Hu Na, Beijing reacted sharply claiming that the decision to grant asylum to Hu Na had been immoral and a grave incident harming relations between the two countries (Nafziger and Wei p.135 Pandektis). The decision was also described as ‘a grave political incident long premeditated and deliberately created by the United States’ (Pendleton p.16). As a result of this decision, Ding Gu, the Director of the Bureau for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of the Ministry of Culture, cancelled nine bilateral exchanges that inclu ded art exhibitions, performing arts group tours and a film festival. After citing that the United States could not guarantee the safety of its participants, the All-China Sports Federation announced it would also withdraw from ten international events that were to be held  within the United States. China further threatened to retaliate against future incidents, and that it would ‘never for the sake of relations with the United States, abandon its principled stand of safeguarding its state sovereignty and national dignity’ (p27 Chinese Security Robert Ross). During all this posturing by China, the United States demonstrated its resolve by refusing to send Hu Na back to China and granting her political asylum. Ronald Reagan’s administration publicly affirmed that the United States policy would remain constant whether Beijing decided to retaliate or not, or threatened to downgrade relations by withdrawing its ambassador from Washington, or some other action (p86 US-Chinese Relations Sutter). Beijing had clearly miscalculated when it thought it could threaten the United States on this issue, considering this was the period that the Sino-America relations had become normalised. It was a clear win for United States foreign policy, as they were prepared to reject any unreasonable Chinese demands, whilst seeking to improve relations with them.

Research Survey on Use of Opportunity Cost in Project Evaluation

RESEARCH SURVEY ON USE OF OPPORTUNITY COST IN PROJECT EVALUATION AT SELECTED COMMERCIAL BANKS IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN A RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTED TO THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE AMA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN BY MUBEEN FATIMA August, 2012 ABSTRACT Accounting and Economics work for two different purposes. Today managerial decision making uses economics, as well as accounting concepts, methods & practices of scrutiny given by decision sciences.Literature shows that there are four basic tools and techniques of decision making used by economists, these are; augmentation, statistical valuation, projecting, numerical study, and game theory, most of which are equally procedural in nature they helps us to gather the idea of how decisions are made in economics. Since resources are limited relative to wants, the usage of resources in one way hinders their use in other means.This implies the cost of opportunity, which is lost, is actually the profit of whose output is given up, this indicates that, lost time, satisfaction or any other benefit that provides usefulness should also be taken as opportunity cost. Opportunity cost in literature is the cost referred as the next-best choice available to a rational consumer who has to select between a number of mutually distinct projects. It is, thus the key concept in economics. It has been illustrated as conveying â€Å"the basic relationship between deficiency and choice. Yet its relation to the economic profit is seldom discussed.CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Prior research work provides us the idea that opportunity costs is one of the key differences between the concepts of economic cost and accounting cost. Being treated as a cost, opportunity cost had always been considered vital in calculation of the true cost of a project & has always effected a management accountant decision However the modern economists, particularly the Austrian school of thought treats opportunity cost as something that has neither existence nor has any importance in decision making.Though the field of economics gave birth to the concept of opportunity cost, the awareness about assessing the second best alternate is now taken over by management accounting, today this concept is being taught in academic graduate courses of economics however; in practice, the economists today emphasize on mathematical techniques in decision making there by ignoring various conceptual factors like opportunity costs and worth of projects being missed. Evaluating opportunity costs is important to find out the true cost of any project under consideration.If the financial worth of second best alternative of an investment project is low, then, overlooking that opportunity costs, gives an impression that benefits of next best alternative, cost practically nothing. The invisible opportunity costs then become one of the hidden costs of that particular project. Mr. John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher and a civil servant was the first man to give the idea of Opportunity Cost in his economic theory of free markets as well as explaining his concept of liberty and an individual and freedom of choice.Opportunity costs are thought of as the retrospective costs that cannot be recovered in the field of Economics and Corporate decision making. Opportunity costs are occasionally compared with â€Å"potential costs† which obviously are the future costs that may or may not incurr depending upon the decision taken. Both past aswell as prospective costs can be either static or dynamic Austrian school of thought pay attention to the concept of opportunity costs on both sides of the market links very deeply to the importance of finance and economic profit estimation in their model of the market process.They argue that the money of an investor having opportunity cost means that his money has many uses but the uses are not unlimited. With the assumption of a market with seamlessly exclusi ve capital goods, those goods will have no opportunity cost as every exclusive good has only one yield. In a market of seamlessly standardized capital goods, they have no opportunity cost because all of the goods are same in terms of use and benefit thus can be used equally well for each yield. In practice the calculation of project cost by an accountant is different from that of an economist.This variance is not grounded in different fundamentals on what to assess or how, but lies in the basic difference in understanding-of costs and profits. However if opportunity costs are not ignored by the economist then while calculating the GDP of Country the economist must also consider the large scale pearl diving industry in certain areas of Bahrain. Statement of the Problem The study aims to discuss the relevance of the concept of Opportunity Cost in project evaluation procedure adopted by commercial banks in Kingdom of Bahrain.The opportunity cost has different importance in the opinion of economists and accounts professionals and therefore the use of this concept in project costing . This research will attempt to find out importance of Opportunity cost while considering an investment proposal. Specifically it sought to answer the succeeding questions. 1. What is the status of the opportunity cost in project evaluation at Selected Commercial banks in Kingdom of Bahrain? 2. What are the banking operations where opportunity cost is deemed important by Commercial Banks in Kingdom of Bahrain? 3.What are the factors effecting the importance of opportunity cost faced by Commercial Banks in Kigdom of Bahrain? 4. What are the problems encountered in application of Opportunity cost concept by the Bankers while evaluating a project? Assumption The study assumed that the respondents are honest in answering all the questionnaire Significance of the Study The study is beneficial to the following: Decision Makers: the study will help the decision makers in Commercial Banking ind ustry to find the true cost of a project and therefore finding the true profit or loss generated by itFuture Researches: the study will help in relating the two concepts i. e, opportunity cost and Project Costing by using the quantitative methodology of research. It will further help in decision making and project evaluation for the accounts Managers and Economists. Scope and Limitation The aim of this study is to deliberate the significance of the concept of Opportunity Cost in project evaluation procedure adopted by Commercial banks in Kingdom of Bahrain. The opportunity cost has different importance in the pinion of economists and accounts professionals and therefore the use of this concept in project costing . The study includes Bank Officers at selected Commercial Banks working in Kingdom of Bahrain. The target population is Executives and managers (top and middle level ) who are directly involved in decision making This research focused on finding out importance of Opportunity cost while considering an investment proposalstudy is conducted in Commercial Banks of Bahrain, the responses therefore reflect the most important sector of Bahrain economy. The study is conducted in the natural settings i. during the business hours and responses are taken while the samples are on their work places, therefore 100 percent reliability of responses is not possible due to various un controllable distractions. The period covered by this study is January till December 2012. All the data is collected in Bahrain and responses therefore will represent the local population. Definition of Terms Opportunity Cost (OC) The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action (John Stuart Mil)Economic Value Added (EVA) A measure of a company's financial performance based on the residual wealth calculated by deducting cost of capital from its operating profit (Stern St ewart) EVA is also referred to as â€Å"economic profit†. CHAPTER 2 Review of Related Literature and Studies Foreign Literature Mankiw ( 2000) from Harvard University USA and the author of† Principles of Microeconomics† explained here that Economic profits are calculated by using both explicit as well as implicit costs however Accounting profits are calculated using only explicit costs.Therefore , accounting profits are higher than economic profits Neale( 2001) have found that due to forgoing opportunity costs, delayed decisions can be seen as option between certain loss and the risk of greater or zero loss. Chung, (2005)from Princeton University have conclude in their work â€Å"The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities† that economic cost of a decision relies on the cost of the project that is selected and also the profits that the second best alternative project may had given if selected.This perspective of scarcity of resource leads to the dimension of opportunity cost. Hawkins et. al ( 2008 ) in their article â€Å" Cost and benefit Analysis† are of the view that the â€Å"next best alternative† is an important concept in cost and benefit analysis (CBA). The benefits gone by not implementing the second favorite choice are known as opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are relevant in calculating costs of a project. Opportunity costs help in economic scrutiny. In financial investigation market values are used as the market price for man power has the market value same as a person’s wageThe Indian scholars are also of the view that Opportunity Cost of Idle Capacity Zero, supporting the work of (Coase 1938). The researchers of M2 Presswire publications have found that opportunity cost of ignoring the markets, have disastrous results as eBay failed to beat yahoo in this regard. Buchanan (1969 ) says that it is just to bind the term opportunity cost to this idea that only decision changing cost represents an analysis of given up â€Å"opportunities. † and to invent other vivid terms to mention ecision altering cost in a logic of choice and to the objective cost of the predictive theory. Hebert (1985 ) gave a very comprehensive idea about the market value. Yet his belief of fundamental value has quite possibly been a red-herring in the antiquity of economic analysis, according to him market value is sensitive to elements other than â€Å"on record costs† few of them are independent. Horwitz (2010) identifies the partiality of opportunity costs on either sides of the market connections so well to the importance of capital and economic calculation in the Austrian theory of the market process.Aherns (2008) says that management accountants’ most prior duty is to relate the available reserves with the future dealings of the business. Whereas this process is rather simpler in economics to determine which of the available alternates is going to pay off h ighest future cash flows Kearing et. al (2005) are of the view that multiple allocation of capital funds , commercial analysis and manufacturer side opportunity costs are all the unified part of the Austrian ideology. Woodbery (2000) says that the true opportunity cost of using the additional capability is the change in the worth of the firm's choices.By emphasizing on the state-contingent nature of best decisions, his framework distinguishes that the cost is not always identical to the present value of explicit venture or manufacturing decisions. Taylor (2005) suggests that many proficient economists may not completely comprehend opportunity cost. Frank (2005) said that comparative prices helps in finding out the comparative worth of ordained opportunities. His hypothesis is based on an indepth study of consumer indifferense curves. According to the author the economic cost is virtually the opportunity cost.Samuelson( 2009) puts stress on a close link between opportunity costs and cost of available resources. Economic cost consist of not only the noticeable monetary purchases or on record financial transactions but also more indirect opportunity costs, such as the profits on the manpower supplied by the owner of a resource company and other returns of similar nature. The factors mentioned are firmly controlled by the quotations available and demand in competitive markets. Henderson (2011), said that by â€Å"opportunity cost† of a resource, the economist mean the financial worth of the second favourite utilization of the available resource.Opportunity costs as in (Lawrance Gitman 2000) are those profits or returns that could be obtained from best alternative use of an a retained asset. So opportunity cost is the cash that shall not be obtained because of engaging an asset in project under consideration. Due to this, opportunity cost should be included as an expense or loss while doing the project evaluation. Raftery et. al(1999) writes that considerati on of opportunity cost is essential for the economist's while determining the costs. As resources are less compared to the needs, so application of resources in one profitable project hinders their use in other profitable pojectsBauman (2011) says that opportunity cost is the second best choice, he said that it is difficult to clearly frame the opportunity cost as identifying second best choices is a knotty matter. According to him the concept of opportunity cost can only be clearly defined in academic problems as in practical field a project â€Å"price to worth† calculations are complex Kimberly (1998) said that computerized accounting systems today solely emphasize on cash in and out of the firm, this eventually attracts clever dealers to dump credits that produce a big accounting profits.By the introduction of opportunity cost in persuit of calculating the true costs enforces further control on reporting process. Such concept implication helps the auditors to identify the fake earnings shown in the financial statements made in the year end. Recklies (2001) argues that from economic perspective the cost include all those expenditures that are crucial for perpetual succession of a business as as going concern, it also consist of the reimbursement for owners in shape of profit so that they maintain their investment portfolio within the firm.Marshall (2009) identifies the income as a total of personal skills, capital funds invested, assets possessed and the reputation of the business. Leeson (2008) has explained in his research work the uses if the concept of uncertainty and derives from this concept of the value of information and how it can be calculated. And emphasized upon the role of management accounting in the decision-making Berntell (2005) have focused on the optimum utilization of scarce resources like water to give maximum utility by reducing various costs and losses. For which economist must make a clear cut cost and benefit analysisDmytrenk o (1997 )has elaborated in his price to value investigation the opportunity cost of increased automation in a firm via changing the human resource by computers and equipment Caplan (2003) says that the term opportunity cost is sometimes confusing. Sometimes it is used to submit to the profit foregone from the next best option, and Often it is used to mention the difference in benefit of decision made and the benift of second favourite decision that is given up Fraker( 2006) suggests that EVA is a unique financial performance determining tool .Unlike other financial efficiency ratios, it gives a different outlook of a Bank’s financial health by including the cost of Capital employeed in the business and is more of concern to its shareholders. Shcherbakov( 2012) explains that implication of the concept of EVA is an enhanced measuring technique to find out the effect of internationalization on the commercial performance of any business King (2009) explained that Accountancy and Economics work for different purposes. He explained the multi-national corporation scenarios and compared the use of economic profits with that of accounting profitsLocal Literature (Hasan Al-Basteki 1998) worked on the use of modern Accounting techniques in the decision making in Bahrain and he concluded that not just the western world is implementing the new costing techniques but the middle east is also adopting the modern techniques Synthesis of the Literature Review The synthesis of the literature reviewed enlightens few similarities and differences with this research studies . The main similarities found in the literature are as follows i) Opportunity cost has been used in different parts of the world particularly in Banks and Construction industry ii) The No. f alternatives available influence the Opportunity Cost iii) Economic factors like inflation has effect on the project evaluation by the Banks . A closer review of these research papers show that Economists belonging to the Austrian school of thoughts are of the view that i) Opprtunity cost is not as important as Economic Profits are for economic decision making ii) Scarcity of resource is a factor which effects the decision makers approach The literature explains the significance of opportunity cost in framing the actual picture of the financial position of a company, same is the case evaluation of an investment project.Opportunity cost helps identifying the true cost of a project Opportunity cost is important in the determining the accurate financial position, hence in this research the relationship between the factors effecting opportunity cost and decision making is under study Theoretical Frame Work The study tends to explore the Opportunity cost and EVA for a given project in order to understand their relationship with each other. Very little literature is available in Economics and Accounting to determine the true profits of an organization(Denise Woodbery).The idea behind this research is t o establish the nature of relationship between Economic value added that reflects the monetory importance of a given project or in other words the economic profit and that of Opportunity Cost that reflects the accounting profit of the same project. Conceptual Frame Work The idea behind this research is to find out how effective is Opportunity cost in project evaluation perceived by the Bankers in the Kingdom of Bahrain.The data is collected and analysed to understand what status opportunity cost concept holds in project financial evaluation and its relative efficiency perceived by the bankers at selected commercial banks of Kingdom of Bahrain The study tends to explore the two concepts for a given project in order to understand their relationship with each other. The Opportunity cost as discussed in literature like any other relevant cost adds to the overall project expenditure (Ferraro & Laura O Taylor)Opportunity cost effects the total Cost of a Project , any increase in Opportuni ty cost means increase I nthe total cost of the project The higher the Opportunity Cost of a Project is the Smaller will be the net profit of it However the higher the net profit of the project is Opportunity Cost of the Project will be lower. Financial decision making tends to go for a project with smaller cost and hence inclusion of opportunity cost will alter the project cost and alter the decision ultimately.Various factors like availability of alternatives (James Raftery 1999), Scarcity of resources (Robert Frank 2005), Economic factors like trade cycle recession, inflation (Peter T leeson 2008) effects the use of opportunity cost in Project costing CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter presents the research design and methodology, sampling design, respondents of the study, research instrument, validity and reliability of the instrument, data gathering procedures, and statistical treatment of the gathered data.Research Design This study used the descriptive type of resear ch which involves assembling data which provide knowledge about the variables and then systematically tabularizing, portraying, and defining the data gathered (Glass & Hopkins, 1984). To get evidence concerning the current standing of the incidences to describe what happens in terms of change in value of the variables or settings in a state of research.. Opportunity Cost reflects the monetary importance of the next best alternative project.The study helps to find out how effectively this concept is incorporated in project evaluation procedure Research Design This is a descriptive research in which the population from which data is collected are the Management Personals from different business concerns established and working in Kingdom of Bahrain, directly or indirectly associated with the decision making and investment evaluation . Respondents of the Study The target population includes the working class particularly the managers , assistant managers and executives who work in Bahr ain and their field esponsibility include Investment Analysis ,Project evaluation and decision making of similar nature. Sample Size The sample size is 50 and the response rate is well above the international standard of quantitative research required to validate the result of the study Sampling Design There are many methods of sampling; however for this study Random Sampling is used that is from the target population a sample of 100 is collected on random basis.The study uses random sampling for convenience and to avoid bias of respondents that work in one organization have one opinion(as in cluster sampling) Research Instrument The instrument used in this study is Questionnaire, the content of the questionnaire that consist of 20 queries the first five of which are about the general information of the respondent, remaining queries for which the respondents will answer on a Likert Scale. All the queries will help to find the relation between the two variables Opportunity Cost (IV) and Decision Making (DV)Part I: Provide demographics of the respondents in terms of age , gender, educational attainment, work experience in years Part II: Provide the data about the respondents opinion on various factors that influence their decision while making financial evaluation of a project. The answers to these questions will be given on a five point rating scale. 5. Strongly Agree 4. Agree 3. Moderately Agree 2. Disagree 1. Strongly Disagree Validity of the InstrumentThe validity of instrument is carefully checked by the research committee that includes research professors, statisticians and advisors. The recommendations were incorporated. The justification of this validation was to avoid vague items and bias statements which have been correctly achieved. Reliability of the Instrument The questionnaire is pre-tested to test the reliability of it, with a small group of individualsworking in different companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in order to check their understanding of the questions.Data collection Method Questionnaire copies were distributed among bank officers in different branches of distinct commercial banks in various regions of Kingdom of Bahrain. The target respondents are expected to be acquainted with the subject and questions, included in the questionnaire. There are other methods of data collection like documentary analysis and interview however for this study survey methodology is opted. A copy of questionnaire is provided in the appendix Statistical Treatment of the DataThere are many choices of appropriate statistical methods however Correlation Coefficient as statistical method is used, so to find out the relation between the two variables. The survey form was used the Likert five point scale for the respondents to choose from as follows: [pic] Very few enterprises are using opportunity cost for just one reason. It is clearly evident that Opportunity cost related information is being used to accurately manage wide range of activi ties across a banking organization. Activities influenced by Opportunity cost calculation Activities |% of respondents | |Product Costs & Profitability |65 | |Performance Measurement |47 | |Shared Service Costing |41 | |Planning & Budgeting |40 | |Customer costing |38 | |Customer/Channel Costs & Profitability |38 | |Transfer pricing |25 | |Outcome / Output based management |25 | Expectedly, opportunity cost is used for product costing by approximately two by three of those respondants working in banking sector. It’s precision over traditional costing methods is borne out later in the survey with 87% finding that their Opportunity Cost product costs differed substantially from traditional costing methods, leading around 50% to reprice their products as a result!Validating the views expressed by Kaplan & Norton in their latest book ‘Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes’, which lays emphesisis on the importance of using Opportunity Cos to support a Balance Scorecard, nearly half of all respondents are using their Opportunity Cost data to support their Performance Management The use of Opportunity Cost to support Shared Services costing has increased in popularity over the last few years. Now that internal services are represent up to 30% of an organisation’s costs, it has become imperative to accurately reflect how those services are consumed by business units. Over 40% of respondents are using opportunity cost to support Shared Service costing, enabling them to understand who and what is driving consumption of their internal services, and thereby increasing the effectiveness of their focus an core business. These trends are repeated by those who do not yet use opportunity cost, but are planning to. They want to use opportunity cost to support Initiative |% of respondents planning to use OPPORTUNITY COST | |Product Costing |55 | |Planning & Budgeting |36 | |Customer costing |27 | |Process/Continuous Improve ment |27 | The most noticeable difference is that only 18% are planning to use the information to support Performance Measurement. This could well be because the ease of which opportunity cost lends itself to Performance Measurement is not evident until an opportunity cost is up and running.Alternatively, the respondents may be looking to introduce opportunity cost to solve a pressing business requirement, and the links between Opportunity Cost and performance metrics are not immediately apparent. Opportunity Cost for Planning The emphasis of Bankers has moved from historical costs to future costs. An enormous 94% of those questioned are now using opportunity cost, or plan to use, opportunity costs for developmental drives. Opportunity cost Planners are looking at all aspects of their organisations in order to identify improvement opportunities. Some 60% are looking to identify process improvements, with 55% looking at activity level improvements via resource planning, and 49% looki ng to affect strategy formulation. However, only 13% are questioning their organisation’s process design in a fundamental way.Consistent with historic uses of opportunity Cost planning data is being used to support a variety of initiatives, although there is a surprising focus on opportunity cost for goal setting. |Initiative |% of OPPORTUNITY COST Planners | |Shared Service Costing |51 | |Product Costing |49 | |Defining team/dept goals |27 | |Defining organisational goals |13 | Product/Service Costing and Customer ProfitabilityBy using cause and effect tracing rather than allocations, opportunity cost better reflects the value chain of how organisations consume costs and provides more accurate product, service and customer costings than achieved using traditional costing techniques. The difference in opportunity cost product costs to absorption or other allocation based costings can be dramatic. The survey shows that 87% of practitioners found that their product and service costs differed from traditional costings markedly. The majority had an average variation of between 5 and 10%, which can be dramatic at a gross or net margin level. However, a surprising number of respondents (11%) experienced variations of over 100%! |Average variation |% |Maximum variation % | |0 |13 |; 10% |25 | |1-5% |15 |10-25% |17 | |5-10% |26 |25-50% |25 | |10-15% |13 |50-75% |14 | |15-20% |10 |75-100% |8 | |; 20% |23 |; 100% |11 | Cost Reduction and Process ImprovementThat ABC can improve your bottom line is beyond doubt, with potential cost savings amounting to 25% of cost bases being identified. Some organisations are yet to find where they can reduce their costs, but it is worth noting that over 70% of those who have not identified cost savings have less than 100 activities in their model. Whilst it is important to prevent ABC models become too large and unmanageable (primarily because they can induce analysis paralysis), it is essential that a reasonable level of detail is available, so that there is sufficient information on which to make cost reducing or revenue enhancing decisions. After all, profit outcomes are the result of process design and activity workflow†¦ Maximum potential cost saving as a % of cost base |% | |0% |18 | |1-5% |21 | |5-10% |33 | |10-15% |8 | |15-20% |13 | |20-25% |2 | |;25% |5 | A variety of methods are being used to help organisations translate their ABC data into real cost reductions. Cost driver analysis is the most frequently used method for aiding cost reduction and/or process redesign, with 67% of organisations using this technique. Process mapping and benchmarking are also popular, as is repricing of products and/or services, and analysis of the value that an activity adds to an organisation. Top techniques used to aid cost reduction |% | |Cost driver analysis |67 | |Process mapping & redesign |52 | |Benchmarking |52 | |Repricing |50 | |Value adding analysis |42 | |Product rationalisation |38 | |Value chain an alysis |32 | Conclusions ABC can, and does, add value to organisations. 96% of respondents have found the experience to be beneficial to their organisations, and 98% are expecting their implementations to deliver even more positive returns on their investment in the future Level of benefit delivered by ABC |% achieved |% future | |Adverse impact |4 |2 | |Negligible benefit |22 |13 | |Moderate benefit |54 |60 | |Substantial benefit |20 |25 | Regardless of the benefit analysis above, respondents recommend the use of ABC unanimously! In particular, practitioners recommend using ABC for product costing and cost reduction, to derive the most benefits, although there is a general belief held by ABC practitioners that the methodology should be broadly used as shown below. ABC supporting |% of organisations | |Product/service costing & profitability |80 | |Cost reduction |65 | |Continuous Improvement Program |56 | |Business Process Re-engineering |55 | |Shared Services Costing |51 | |Custom er, channel or value chain analysis |44 | ABC is generating real benefits for all sorts of organisations across Australia. These benefits can only increase as more organisations are looking to start an ABC project for the first time, but the full potential of ABC will not be realised as so many existing ABC users are still not employing ABC to its full capabilities. It is important that experienced ABC companies capitalise on their implementations to achieve the maximum possible benefits.Increasing the scale of an ABC project need not be an expensive, time-consuming process. There are cost-effective solutions that combine ABC, Process Mapping and Balanced Scorecard, to produce automated, regular reports with a minimum of manual intervention. With organisation-wide implementations providing much greater cost savings, expanding your ABC project can only be advantageous to your organisation’s bottom line. CHAPTER 4 Analysis and interpretation The data collection method for this study is survey questionnaire conducted face-to-face with 51 randomly chosen Bankers from various commercial banks in Bahrain from various cities. The questionnaire includes multiple choice, open-ended, and Likert scale questions.Some questions of the survey were adopted form various previous studies (Brierly et al. , 2001; Van Triest and Elshahat, 2007; Wijewardena and Zoysa, 1999). The data collection period ranges from October 2012 to November 2012. (1) general information on the business organizations and respondents; and (2) cost and management accounting practices. Table 4. 1 Information gathered from the first part of the questionnaire. |Bank Classification |Percent | |Commercial Banks |  40 | |Islamic Banks |  10 | |Other Banks |  1 | |No. f Employees |Percent | |10 to 49 |   | |50 to 99 |  90% | |100 and more |  10% | |Age of the Banks |Percent | |10 years or less |  10% | |20 year or less |  80% | |20 years or more |  10% | In the Table 1, Bank classifica tion, position of respondent, number of employees, and age of Banks are presented. In Bank classification, the highest percentage belongs to commercial banks (5banks), and â€Å"others† includes Banks dealing particularly in investment (1 bank) 4. 1. Product costing methodsThe respondents were asked to specify the cost factors they implement in an investment project costing. According to the answers, the most widely used costing factor is Financing cost (31 respondent), followed by opportunity cost (11 respondent) and loan process cost (9 respondents). In Table 2, which shows the detailed answers to this question, the most significant points are the financing cost widely by lower managerial levels, and that of opportunity cost largely by top managerial level. Primary cause for the financing cost by banks is that they offer more of the saving accounts than fixed deposit accounts. Table 4. 2 Most important Cost elements in an Investment Project Bank Classification |Financial Co st |Loan Processing Cost |Opportunity Cost |Other | |Commercial Banks |  20 |  3 |  3 |  0 | |Islamic Banks |  6 |  3 |  5 |  0 | |Other Banks |  5 |  3 |  3 |  0 | |Total |31 |9 |11 |0 | 4. 2. Complications faced in product costing The respondents were also asked to point out the difficulties they encounter in Investment project costing. Out of 51 respondents, 22 see the limited Complexity in cost evaluation as top difficulty (43 percent), availability of alternative resources(33. 3 percent), followed by economic instability (24. 7 percent). 4. 3. Role of Opportunity Cost in Management Accounting PracticesIn another part of the survey, which was adopted from Van Triest and Elshahat (2007)’s study, respondents were asked to score the role of opportunity cost in various financial analysis on a Likert scale of 1 (no role) to 5 (major role). To evaluate the results, one sample t-test was conducted (Table 4). The results showed that pricing decisions are t he most important area where opportunity cost is deemed important at an average of 4. 16, followed by customer profitability and activity analysis at 4. 07. Performance measurement and make or buy decisions with an average of 4. 04 and 3. 96 respectively are also important areas where opportunity cost is used. However, opportunity cost is not seen important in product mix decisions, and adding or deleting products as much as other areas. Management Accounting Practicies |Mean |S. D |t-test | |Pricing decisions |  4. 15 |  1. 146 |4. 29 | |Customer profitability |  4. 08 |  1. 034 |  4. 01 | |Performance measurement |  4. 03 |  1. 071 |  3. 714 | |Activity analysis |  4. 08 |  1. 120 |  3. 793 | |Make or buy decisions |  3. 96 |  0. 62 |  3. 576 | |Product mix decisions |  3. 54 |  1. 168 |  0. 289 | |Adding or deleting products |  3. 47 |  1. 370 |  0. 199 | Table 4. Results of one sample t-test for use of Opportunity cost in management accoun ting practicies (Test value=3. 5) |Management Accounting Practicies |Mean |S. D |t-test | |Pricing decisions |  4. 15 |  1. 146 |4. 9 | |Customer profitability |  4. 08 |  1. 034 |  4. 01 | |Performance measurement |  4. 03 |  1. 071 |3. 714 | |Activity analysis |  4. 08 |  1. 120 |  3. 793 | |Make or buy decisions |  3. 96 |  0. 962 |  3. 576 | |Product mix decisions |  3. 54 |  1. 168 |  0. 289 | |Adding or deleting products |  3. 47 |  1. 370 |  0. 199 |Furthermore, the findings are compared with the results of Van Triest and Elshahat (2007). The comparison indicated that two studies yielded parallel results. As seen in Table 5, first three items with the highest mean are the same. In both countries, pricing decisions, customer profitability, and performance measurement are the most prominent areas in which costing information is applied. Among the remaining four application areas, the rank of activity analysis is different. In this study, ac tivity analysis is the fourth in ranking, but it is the last in ranking in Van Triest and Elshahat (2007)’s study. Table 5. Comparison of results with the results of Van Triest and Elshahat (2007) Management Accounting Practices |Mean |Rank |Mean* |Rank* | |Pricing decisions |  4. 15 |  1 |  4. 44 |  1 | |Customer profitability |  4. 06 |  2 |  4. 19 |  2 | |Performance measurement |  4. 06 |  3 |  4. 11 |  3 | |Activity analysis |4. 08 |  4 |  2. 33 |7 | |Make or buy decisions |3. 99 |  5 |  3. 5 |  4 | |Product mix decisions |  3. 54   |  6 |  3. 33 |  5 | |Adding or deleting products |  3. 50 |  7 |  2. 89 |  6 | * The results of Van Triest and Elshahat (2007) 4. 5. The ratio of opportunity cost to total cost In the questionnaire survey, the ratio of opportunity cost to total cost (O. C/T. C) was also questioned. Overall mean for all the banks is 34. 48 percent. (Table 6) was conducted to see the significant differences a mong banks. The results showed that there is a significant difference among industries (significant at 0. 10).Duncan test from Post Hoc tests showed that Commercial Banks has the highest OC/TC ratio and is significantly different than Islamic Banks and Investment Banks and miscellaneous Banks. Table 6. The ratio of opportunity cost to total cost (percent) 4. 6. The reasons for the increased interest in opportunity cost manifestation in banks dealing The respondents were asked to score the reasons for the increased manifestation of Opportunity cost in their daily dealing on a Likert scale of 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). A list of reasons was provided for the respondents so that they evaluated each. The results of one-sample t-test in Table 7 showed that decreasing profitability (4. 9) is the primary reason which increases the importance of opportunity cost. Other reasons which increase the importance of opportunity cost are increasing costs (4. 57), increasing dom estic and global competition (4. 30), and economic crises (4. 23). Actually, means of four items above 4. 00 indicate that they are all factors considered important for the increased interest in opportunity cost . This means profitability of companies is decreasing, possibly due to increasing costs, and increasing domestic and global competition. Economic crises which hit companies from time to time are also important reason for the increased interest in opportunity cost identification and implication. Table 7.The reasons for the increased interest in opportunity cost Calculation (Testvalue=3. 5) |Mean |S. D |t-test | |Decreasing profitability |  0. 566 |14. 170   | |Increasing costs |  0. 666 |  11. 929 | |Increasing domestic and global competition |  0. 940 |  6. 450* | |Economic crises |  1. 020 |  5. 399* | Significant at 0. 001 level 4. 7. Perceived importance of opportunity cost in overall Banking Operation Lastly, the respondents were asked to evaluate the per ceived importance of Opportunity cost that are utilized in banking organizations on a Likert scale of 1 (unimportant) to 5 (very important). The results of one-sample ttest in Table 8 indicated that the most important management accounting practices in decreasing order are budgeting (4. 48), planning and control (4. 33), cost-volumeprofit analysis (4. 3), target costing (4. 16), quality cost reporting (4. 09), performance measurement and evaluation (4. 02), responsibility accounting (4. 0), standard costing and variance analysis (3. 89), and strategic planning (3. 78). Transfer pricing (3. 65) is unique practice that is significantly not important based on test value of 3. 5. These findings indicate that companies perceive traditional management accounting tools still important. For example, budgeting, planning and control, and cost-volume-profit analysis are perceived the most important of all management accounting practices. Quality costing and target costing as new management acc ounting practices are utilized by the companies. However, strategic planning, and transfer pricing are perceived the least important ones. This may be due to size of the sample firms.Since the sample consists mostly of small and medium-sized enterprises (according to number of employees), some tools may be too sophisticated to be utilized. Szendi and Shum (1999) states that the larger the firm the more sophisticated the management accounting system and the more likely isthe firm to utilize sophisticated management accounting techniques and practices. Abdel-Kader and Luther (2008) also proved that large firms adopt more sophisticated management accounting techniques and practices than small firms. Table 8. Perceived importance of Opportunity Cost in routine banking operations (Test value=3. 5) |Mean |S.D |t-test | |Budgeting |0. 754 |  9. 911** | |Planning and control |0. 819 |  7. 500** | |Cost-volume-profit analysis |  0. 871 |  6. 900** | |Target Costing |  0. 849 |  5 . 820** | |Total Quality Management |  1. 115 |  3. 890** | |Performance measurement and evaluation |  1. 027 |  3. 39** | |Responsibility accounting |  1. 056 |  3. 450** | |Standard costing and variance analysis |  1. 140 |  2. 480* | |Strategic planning |  1. 011 |  2. 050* | |Transfer pricing |  1. 300 |  0. 860 | ** Significant at 0. 001 level * Significant at 0. 05 level CHAPTER 5 Summary and Conclusion The survey revealed the perceived importance of Opportunity Cost at selected commercial banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain.The findings are expected to contribute to the existing literature about the subject, especially in developing markets. The major findings of the study are as follows: The most vital cost element for Commercial Banks is financial cost The complexity in loan costing poses as the highest ranking difficulty due to the availability of alternative projects, Customer Activity Analysis and pricing decisions are the most important area where op portunity cost is calculated (parallel to the finding of Van Triest and Elshahat, 2007), Overall mean of the ratio of overhead to total cost is 34. 48 percent for all Commercial Banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain,The highest opportunity cost/total cost ratio belongs to non-islamic Commercial Banks, Decreasing profitability, increasing costs and competition, and economic crises are reasons which increase the importance of opportunity cost The most important use of Opportunity Cost is in Budgeting out of all routine functioning of Commercial Banks (parallel to the finding of Chenhall and Langfield-Smith, 1998) The findings indicate that Banks perceive traditional management accounting tools less important. The new management accounting practices such as strategic planning, and transfer pricing are perceived more important than traditional ones. Therefore, the banks have been calculating the Opportunity Costs for these management accounting tools. Scope for further researchSince the sampl e consists mostly of medium sized local branches of International banks , they may not reflect the applications of large scale banking corps. Secondly, the results are confined to the Commercial Banks and should not be generalized to the other sectors. Thirdly, since the survey conducted on companies operating in Bahrain , the findings may not be generalized for the worldwide policies of the Banks. For future research, whole region wide and more comprehensive survey could be conducted with the participation of more banking companies from different countries. Moreover, case studies can be conducted to make more in-depth analysis about cost and management accounting practices.

An Analysis Of Education History Education Essay

An Analysis Of Education History Education Essay Introduction The analysis of education history in any system involves many concepts such as renaissance, reformation and Counter Reformation. Such concepts significantly affect educational with regard to systems, content, teachers and curriculum amongst many other aspects. In Kenya, the British colonialists introduced the first system of education. The formation of Ominde commission after independence saw the introduction of many changes in the educational system (Bogonko, 1992). At that time, issues of unity and identity were very critical and the authority largely focused on them. Following this, subject content changes were made in fields of geography and history to reflect aspects of national cohesion. A common curriculum for all schools was adopted between 1964 and 1985 involving a 7-4-2-3 system. This system involved seven years for primary education, four years for lower secondary, two years for upper secondary and three years for university education. In 1981, there were eff orts to reform the entire educations system through the Presidential working party commission. The committee tabled recommendations on changing the educational system from the 7-4-2-3 to the structure of 8-4-4 (Sifuna & Otiende, 2006). In 1985, the new system was launched that put more emphasis on subjects considered as vocational. The new structure would theoretically enable school leavers at varied levels to be self-employed or acquire informal sector employment. According to Sifuna & Otiende (2006), a detailed development of educational theory through the ages is presented. With vested interest in African education context, this book highlights the plight of education in Kenya through the ages to the 8-4-4 system. The credibility of this text is guaranteed by its diversity in approach with reference to African Islamic education. It is inevitable that African education has its roots in the western world hence Sifuna & Otiende included the history of western education in this book. Educational significance of concepts Renaissance concept. This concept involves the activity of educational and cultural reform spearheaded by writers, scholars and civic leaders. Such pioneers in the history of education are as of today referred to as humanists. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the development of this concept because of the challenges brought forth by the mediaeval scholastic education. This activity emphasized on scientific, practical and pre-professional studies as a response to the inherent challenges. Under the scholasticism, men were prepared to become lawyers, doctors and professional theologians through approved textbooks (Court & Kinyanjui, 1980). On the other hand, to change from training professionals in strict practice and jargon, the humanists emphasized on a citizenry creation hence enabling people to write and speak with clarity and eloquence. In addition, these professionals were capable of better engaging their communities’ civic l ife and hence persuading people to prudent and virtuous actions. The renaissance concept in education which is also known as the learning re-birth started in the 14th century in Europe and reached its peak in the 15th century. Humanist educators designed and formulated teaching methods for the education system that would prepare liberal and well-rounded persons. The educational renaissance in England saw the improvement of women’s educational opportunities especially for those women from upper classes. The renaissance concept in Kenya’s educational system can be explained through the analysis of the history of education. Prior to the gaining of independence in Kenya, there were three divisions in the education system with schools for Asians, whites and Africans. In such a system, there was segregation in that, whites attended the best schools, the middle class schools were reserved for Asians especially Indians and Africans attended the lower class schools (Sifuna & Ot iende, 2006).

Green Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Green Supply Chain Management - Essay Example Green et al (2008) have described supply chain management as integration and coordination of strategy alignments such as responsiveness, customer focus, quality, efficiency etc and business processes such as purchasing raw material, manufacturing product, logistics, marketing and (IS) or information system in the supply chain with an intention of satisfying purpose of end users. Zelbst et al (2010) have found that, activities throughout the supply chain causes environment pollution but if organizations manage its supply chain activities then it will not only decrease environmental pollution but also help the organization to decrease costs related to fuel fed transportation system which is an integrated part of supply chain management. Vachon and Klassen (2007) have found that environment sustainability is more of supply chain imperative in contrast to organizational imperative. Green et al (2008) have raised question over the holistic nature of the term â€Å"sustainable supply chai n management† and stated that, it is necessary for every supply chain partner to act responsively otherwise it is not possible to design a sustainable supply chain framework. In such context, Vasileiou and Morris (2006) have stated that green supply chain or sustainable supply is the environment friendly version of supply chain activities, for example, in the green supply chain; products are manufactured through environment friendly manner, transported through environment friendly vehicles and stored in environment friendly manner. Research scholars have argued that, manufacturing companies were forced to think about a greener supply chain management due to increasing pressure of governmental environmental regulations. It is evident from the above discussion that green supply chain is highly debatable topic among research scholars; hence study will dig deep on the topic by reviewing the existing literature on green supply chain and find how companies can improve their green su pply chain management. Any discussion on green supply chain will be incomplete without defining or understanding core elements of green supply chain management, hence in the next section the study will try define the concept of green supply chain management. Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) According to Handfield and Nichols (2002, p.8), â€Å"Supply chain management is an integrated management system of supply chain organisations and activities through cooperative organisational relationships, business processes, and high levels of information sharing systems that provide member organisations a sustainable competitive advantage.† In such context, Van Hoek (2002) has pointed out that organizations need to work on improving social and environmental benefits for its value chain partners, which means organizations, need to implement greener technology in order to decrease carbon emission in the value chain. Organizations need to think about environmental impact of the supply chain on consumers, for example, fuel fed transportation between supplier and the consumer not only creates negative impact on the environment but also increases cost for customers. Zhu et al. (2008, p. 262) have given a holistic definition of GSCM by taking account the concept of value chain, â€Å"green purchasing to integrated life-cycle management of supply chains flowing from supplier, through to manufacturer, customer, and closing the loop with reverse logistics.†

What is a 'conceptual scheme' Do different people have different ones Essay

What is a 'conceptual scheme' Do different people have different ones If so, can they understand each other - Essay Example The moment that one starts discussing ‘conceptual schemes,’ one knows that one is to be dealing with ‘concepts.’ But what are concepts? Philosophers, since perhaps the time of Ancient Philosophy, have tried to understand what concept is. And one of the more common definitions of the term ‘concept’ is that it is the innate, intrinsic ability of man to formulate ideas inside his mind. It presents the idea that the moment that we try to clarify the term ‘concept’ itself it implies that one is going to look into the deep recesses of man’s thoughts, private thoughts. Because that is what concepts are all about, it is how man appreciates things that he perceives. But then, the problem with this is that it is something internal meaning that whatever maybe presents in one’s thoughts may not necessarily be what it is. Why? For the simple reason that concepts are part of man’s internal world. And as such, under this valua tion of concept, it can thus be considered that concepts do not possess any truth-value at all. It can only be considered as right or wrong the moment that concepts are no longer working within boundaries of one’s mind but is now being given an external representation through the utilization of language. The general use of speech, is to transfer Mentall Discourse into Verbal; or the Trayne our Thoughts, into a Trayneof words; and that for two commodities; whereof one is the Registering of the Consequences of our Thoughts; which being apt to slip out of our memory, and put us to a new labour, may gain be recalled by such words as they were marked by. So the first use of names is to serve for Markes or Notes of remembrance. Another is when many use he same words, to signifie (by their connexion and order,) one to another what conceive, or think of the matter;and also what hey desire, feare, or have any other passion for. And for this use they are called Signes.1 Thus, Hobbes looks at language as

Radisson hotels and resorts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Radisson hotels and resorts - Essay Example Accounting plays a very crucial and essential role in every trade, business and institution. A lot of people is under the assumption that accounting is similar to book-keeping, but in actual sense, book-keeping is just a subset of accounting. So, what is accountingAccounting is a system that provides quantitative information about finances. ("The Free Dictionary" by Farlex). Accounting covers a wide range of tasks from updating and maintaining of accounting records; recording of business transactions; accounts balancing and reconciliation; accounts reporting amongst others. An accounting system is in short, an information system that facilitates the process of accounting: bookkeeping (recording), classification, reporting and interpretation of business transactions.In the conventional form of accounting (manual accounting), multiple books are being kept for different tasks/different accounts and this resulted in data duplication. As with data duplication: increased data means increas ed possibilities of errors; updates to data has to be ensured that all the matching records are updated- otherwise it will result in data being out of synchronisation. Manual accounting is a very labour intensive and time consuming process.However, the modern day technology has brought about various accounting systems that optimise the accounting process, resulting in greater efficiency and increased effectiveness. The automated accounting systems also promote a higher level of accuracy and tighter security. This paper is written based on the implementation of SAGE ACCPAC accounting system by the Radisson Hotels and Resorts. Brief Overview: Radisson Hotels and Resorts (Carlson Hospitality Worldwide) Radisson Hotels and Resorts operates, manages and franchises over 430 hotels and resorts, in 59 countries. It is part of Carlson Hospitality Worldwide whose parent is Carlson Companies, Inc., one of the largest privately owned corporations in the United States. As their hotels and resorts were using a wide variety of accounting systems, it resulted in reduced efficiency and higher operational cost. It was also more time consuming and staff intensive to consolidate the financial data from the different systems. These prompted Radisson to sought for a better solution to integrate their financial systems. (ACCPAC International Inc, 2002) SAGE ACCPAC ERP (formerly known as ACCPAC Advantage Series ) Sage ACCPAC ERP is a sophisticated, robust accounting and operations system. Radisson opted to implement the Sage ACCPAC with ACCPAC online. The ACCPAC Online provides the same power and flexibility as SAGE ACCPAC, and has an additional benefit: complete accessibility to the accounting system through a standard web browser. Because Sage ACCPAC ERP is very robust, its capability can be extended to be more than just an accounting system. Sage ACCPAC has built their software solution in a modular design, which means, customers can 'mix and match' the modules to fit to their needs. Radisson's customised solution is a combination of the following Sage ACCPAC modules: General Ledger Accounts Payable Accounts Receivable Inventory Control Module Purchase Orders Module Payroll Module General Ledger Module The General Ledger module is the main module (foundation) of any accounting system, and therefore, understanding the capability of this module is the most important. This ACCPAC General Ledger module fully integrates with the other ACCPAC advantage Series modules. It offers a flexible account structure, and budgeting capabilities. It is also used to generate financial reports, and provides the ability to drill down to originating transaction in other modules such as Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. Accounts Payable Module The Accounts Payable module provides a set of accounting and reporting features to manage the detailed information such as vendor record, transaction processing, flexible cash disbursement and full check reconciliation. The database is designed in a way where user can access

Humanities II week one Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Humanities II week one - Essay Example His explanation is "If all men were good this precept would not be a good one but as they are bad and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them† (Cunningham, & Reich, 2010, p.290). At present, I believe that there are Machiavellian politicians today and they are Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte. Adolf Hitler is a Machiavellian politician, because he criticized the role of the Church in society. It is unclear what Hitler’s religion is, though in principle, he admired Christian heritage, German Christian culture, and an Aryan Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, as shown in the Holocaust and some resources, he was bent to destroy the influences of Christianity and Judaism on his subordinates. This indicates his desire to control the Church and subjugate it under his political leadership. Furthermore, Hitler is Machiavellian, because he led with his mind and ruthlessness. He was a brilliant military leader who won several wars across Eur ope and developed widespread control in a small duration of time. He is also renowned as a seasoned politician, who knows what to say to inspire his people to support him. The German rearmament program gave full employment and an unreserved expansion of production, which strengthened by his foreign policy successes, through the Rome-Berlin pact of 1936, the Anschluss with Austria and the "liberation" of the Sudeten Germans in 1938, made Hitler popular and powerful. Hitler also used the Holocaust to advance racial cleansing. He believed that no matter how inhumane it was, it was part of the means to political greatness. Hence, Hitler justified the need for power to rationalize his means to his ends. Napoleon Bonaparte is Machiavellian, because he influenced the Church to reduce its hold on the people. Like Machiavelli, Napoleon believed that religion is like cement which can bond society together. According to Napoleon, religion advanced national unity and stopped class war; it made people weak and obedient. Unlike Machiavelli, however, he wanted to unite the State and the Church. He negotiated an agreement with the Pope. The Concordat of 1801 distinguished Catholicism as the favored religion of France, but not the state religion. The clergy would be chosen and paid by the State, but consecrated by the Church. Despite these laws, Napoleon was able to a have tighter leash on religion. In addition, Napoleon also addressed opposition with grand promises of success of his ruling. He is also a fox like Hitler, when dealing with his enemies. Lastly, Napoleon is also Machiavellian, because of his views of power. Even after being an Emperor of France in 1804, for the next eight years Napoleon dominated Europe through battling with a wide range of alliances, such as the combinations of Austria, Britain, Russia and Prussia. Many of his military victories were shrewdly planned. He believed in his power to stay in power and to keep his ruling intact. Adolf Hitler and Napol eon Bonaparte are Machiavellian politicians, because they were the fox and the lion. They ruled and expanded their dominions through power and persuasion. They were influential speakers and affected their people emotionally. Furthermore,

Comparative essay that focuses on two different genres from the Old

Comparative that focuses on two different genres from the Old Testament - Essay Example Several books of the Bible are entirely poetry—Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Psalms), and several books simply have some stanzas like in Luke. Song of Songs is a perfect illustration of Hebrew poetry. It was initially penned as a love verse to depict the bliss and huge delight of two individuals infatuated with each other. However, it has also been interpreted in certain Christian institutions as a portrayal of Jesus Christ’s adoration for the Church, and in certain Jewish institutions as a depiction of God’s love for Israel. On the other hand, the Wisdom books are Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Job. Every Wisdom text is poetry, yet not every poetic literature belongs to the Wisdom genre. Two forms of Wisdom prose are found in such books. One is reflective. This includes a description of life’s ambiguities and mysteries, such as in Ecclesiastes and Job. The second is proverbial prose, found in Proverbs. The axioms or proverbs are universal truths rooted in general observation and experience. These are guiding principles which are usually true generally. They are guiding principles, not assurances; principles, not pledges. For instance, although it is largely true that an individual who is indolent will suffer from hardships; some exemptions to that universal axiom could be seen or experienced in life. In addition, divinity usually leads to an individual having a long life, as several maxims explain, yet several exemptions to this have been experienced or seen. Much poetry was written in Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt way prior to the emergence of the biblical book of poetry. The melodic poem, which is composed of poems in Psalms, resembles the wide-ranging melodic poem of Babylon, Sumer, and Egypt. The earliest Near Eastern texts originate from the first inhabitants of the Mesopotamian Valley, the Sumerians, whose literature is comprised of numerous psalms or songs of prayers and praise in poetry. The art of composing psalms in

Iran Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Iran - Case Study Example This major concern is accompanied by a negative attitude towards Iran’s growing influence in post-war Iraq, which potentially can threaten the security and stability of the region. However, some analysts believe that Iran’s enrichment activity has another explanation besides the intention to build a nuclear weapon. They suggest that Iran’s leaders are seeking to empower their influence in the region and create destabilization in the Eastern hemisphere by spreading a word about their enriching uranium. This is what experts call â€Å"strategic ambiguity† – sowing doubt instead of building an actual bomb. Iran is a party of The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, however, its status of Iranian nuclear program is in dispute due to the fact that the leaders of Iran refuse to reveal their uranium enrichment program. This fact seems to be suspect for other countries as they are afraid that the activity of Iran is not peaceful. At the same time, Iran insists that all countries have the right to enrich uranium and that this activity in Iran has nothing in common with the production of nuclear weapons, because it would violate the religious principles. International Atomic Energy Agency could not find any evidence that Iran produces the materials for a nuclear weapon, but Iran refused to provide the agency with information that could prove that their activity is peaceful, so this question remains in dispute. Hezbollah is a leading political force in Lebanon, which brings more strength to Iran with its links to this Shiite organization. However, Lebanon is no longer an Iranian satellite, it has become a fully autonomous partner, keeping within Iran’s strategic direction. Iran is striving to protect Hezbollah as an important element of its defense system against the USA and Israel. Iran has a power potential as a second larger producer of OIL among OPEC countries and it is one of the biggest crude oil experts in the world, however, this potential is not likely to be completely realized. After the Revolution, the Iranian economy has been poorly managed and it does not have enough resources to fight for and support the dominant position in the region.  

Gender Stereotypes and Discrimination in the Workplace Essay

Gender Stereotypes and Discrimination in the Workplace - Essay Example 3-6). People of either gender have come under common discrimination factor in areas of not only jobs but also trainings and wages or salaries are also the universal aspects of discrimination, regardless of their capabilities, competence, or skills. This practice is not only limited to underdeveloped countries but urbanized nations also practice the same to great extent (Cleveland, Stockdale and  Murphy, 2000, pp. 3-6). Until the twenty first century, the subject matter of gender discrimination with reference to diversity management has not come under limelight by the researches and very little information came under provision. In fact, the diversity management only came under reference to elucidate how the employees would come under administration and management to the organizational culture on an international and local basis. However, as time passed by, this matter came into numerous discussions and studies (Klarsfeld, 2010, pp. 101-102). Diversity Management" is one of the tacti cs and approaches that can promote and uphold the opinions, acceptance, and execution of diversity or multiplicity within organisations. Diversity is a method that emerge the creativity and innovation amongst people as every individual belongs to different social, national, and ethnic background with different skills. Indeed, diversity management has come under perception as a primary source of development and growth in the today's competitive world (Wrench, 2007, pp. 18-19). The following theses paper would include how diversity management pertaining to gender discrimination help to make the workplace a better environment for all, a wide range of theories defining the gender discrimination at workplace. In addition, the report would also state how men and woman are different in the workplace, the characteristics of gender, and types of sexism in the workplace. Based on the empirical studies, recommendations for HR managers and employees would also take account into the report. Lite rature Review Discrimination is one of leading unfair conduct that demoralizes the person to great extent that might even devastate his or her personality. However, it has come under observation that females are the majority coming under the adverse impacts of discrimination in every facet of life. This might be because the men have always come under reflection as the breadwinners of the families and women only comes under supposition to take care of all the matters related to household like cooking, taking care of children and many other. Gender discrimination at workplace can have several forms, which includes sexual harassment, wages, or salaries inequality, unfairness based on job descriptions, and a plentiful of others (Gregory, 2003, pp. 1-5). On a general perception, employers look for people who can best match with the job descriptions, for instance, a male person comes as a first choice when technical, manual or production work is the primary requirement, however, employers seek for female staff for the job of public relations or

Sodium Thiosulphate Coursework Essay Example for Free

Sodium Thiosulphate Coursework Essay We must produce a piece of coursework investigating the rates of reaction, and the effect different changes have on them. The rate of reaction is the rate of loss of a reactant or the rate of formation of a product during a chemical reaction. It is measured by dividing 1 by the time taken for the reaction to take place. There is five factors which affect the rate of a reaction, according to the collision theory of reacting particles: temperature, concentration (of solution), pressure (in gases), surface are (of solid reactants), and catalysts. I have chosen to investigate the effect temperature and concentration have on a reaction. This is because they are the most practical to investigate it would take longer to prepare a solid in powdered and unpowdered form, and it is difficult to get accurate readings due to the inevitabilities of human errors, and as gas is mostly colourless it is difficult to gauge a reaction changing the pressure, and if a substance is added to give the gas colour, it may influence the outcome of the experiment. Similarly the use of a catalyst complicates things, and if used incorrectly could alter the outcome of the experiment. Experiment 1 Changing the concentration 5 cm3 of HCl (at concentration 1 mol./dm3) and 15 cm3 of sodium thiosulphate (at varying concentrations 10 to 35 g/dm3) are poured out into two measuring cylinders and then poured into a conical flask, which is placed on top of a board marked with letter X. The stopwatch will now be started. When the mixture has turned sufficiently cloudy so that the letter X can no longer be seen the stopwatch will be stopped and the time will be recorded. The experiment is repeated with all the concentrations. The whole procedure is then repeated. Experiment 2 Changing the temperature 5 cm of HCl (at concentration 1 mol./dm3) and 15 cm of sodium thiosulphate (at varying concentrations 10 to 35 g/dm3) are poured out into two measuring cylinders. A beaker is half filled with hot water from a tap. The water is placed on top of a Bunsen on a blue flame and the two measuring placed inside the water bath. The water is heated to the necessary temperature (30?C to 70?C) then the two measuring cylinders are taken out and the contents of both are poured into a conical cylinder. The time it takes for the X to disappear is timed and recorded. The experiment is repeated using all the temperatures. The entire procedure is the repeated. Repeat results and averages will be taken to improve the credibility of the findings, and present solid grounding for the final conclusion. The repeat results will help to iron out any anomalies and the average will give a good summary of the results of the experiment. However if one set of results is entirely different to the other, a third experiment will be performed to replace the anomalous set of results. Safety A pair of goggles will be worn during the heating part of the experiment in order to protect the eyes. An apron will also be worn to protect the skin and clothing. When handling hot beakers and measuring cylinders a pair of tongs will be used. A gauze and heatproof mat will be used while heating to avoid any damage to the equipment. Fair Test In order for my findings to be valid the experiment must be a fair one. I will use the same standard each time for judging when the X has disappeared. I will make sure that the measuring cylinders for the HCl and thiosulphate will not be mixed up. The amount of HCl will be 5 cm3 each time, and the amount of thiosulphate will be fixed at 15 cm3. During the heating stage of the experiment, a blue flame will be used throughout. Also the same Bunsen burner and gas tap will be used to maintain continuity. All of these precautions will make my final results more reliable and keep anomalies at a minimum so thus make the entire investigation more successful. Prediction I predict that as the temperature is increased the rate of reaction will increase. I also predict that as the concentration of the sodium thiosulphate increases the rate of reaction will increase. This means that both graphs drawn up in my analysis will have positive correlation, and will probably be curved as the increase in rate of reaction will not be exactly the same as the concentrationtemperature is increased. This can be justified by relating to the collision theory. When the temperature is increased the particles will have more energy and thus move faster. Therefore they will collide more often and with more energy. Particles with more energy are more likely to overcome the activation energy barrier to reaction and thus react successfully. If solutions of reacting particles are made more concentrated there are more particles per unit volume. Collisions between reacting particles are therefore more likely to occur. All this can be understood better with full understanding of t he collision theory itself: For a reaction to occur particles have to collide with each other. Only a small percent result in a reaction. This is due to the energy barrier to overcome. Only particles with enough energy to overcome the barrier will react after colliding. The minimum energy that a particle must have to overcome the barrier is called the activation energy, or Ea. The size of this activation energy is different for different reactions. If the frequency of collisions is increased the rate of reaction will increase. However the percent of successful collisions remains the same. An increase in the frequency of collisions can be achieved by increasing the concentration, pressure, or surface area. Concentration If the concentration of a solution is increased there are more reactant particles per unit volume. This increases the probability of reactant particles colliding with each other. Pressure If the pressure is increased the particles in the gas are pushed closer. This increases the concentration and thus the rate of reaction. Surface Area If a solid is powdered then there is a greater surface area available for a reaction, compared to the same mass of unpowdered solid. Only particles on the surface of the solid will be able to undergo collisions with the particles in a solution or gas. The particles in a gas undergo random collisions in which energy is transferred between the colliding particles. As a result there will be particles with differing energies. Maxwell-Boltzmann energy distribution curves show the distribution of the energies of the particles in a gas. The main points to note about the curves are: 1. There are no particles with zero energy. 2. The curve does not touch the x-axis at the higher end, because there will always be some particles with very high energies. 3. The area under the curve is equal to the total number of particles in the system. 4. The peak of the curve indicates the most probable energy. The activation energy for a given reaction can be marked on the distribution curve. Only particles with energy equal or greater than the activation energy can react when a collision occurs. Although Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution curves are for the particles in a gas, the same distributions can be used for the particles in a liquid or solid. Effects of a temperature change The graph below shows Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution graphs for a fixed mass of gas at two temperatures T1 and T2, where T2 is roughly 10?C higher than T1. The total area under the curve remains the same, since there is no change in the number of particles present. A small increase in temperature causes significant changes to the distribution energies. At the higher temperature: 1. The peak is at a higher energy. 2. The peak is lower. 3. The peak is broader. 4. There is a large increase in the number of particles with higher energies. It is the final change that results increase in rate, even with a relatively small increase in temperature. A small increase in temperature greatly increases the number of particles with energy greater than the activation energy. The shaded areas on the energy distribution curves show this. Effect of a catalyst A catalyst works by providing an alternative reaction pathway that has lower activation energy. A catalyst does not alter the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Because a catalyst provides a reaction route of lower activation energy, however, a greater proportion of particles will have energy greater than the activation energy. Analysis In this experiment I have found that as the temperature and concentration is increased the time taken for the reaction to take place decreases. This means the rate of reaction increasers as it takes less time for a reaction to take place, so more take place per second. In the temperature experiment the time taken for a reaction to take place decreased by roughly 10 to 15 seconds for every 10?C increase in temperature, with the one anomaly being the 30?C reading. There is also a trend in the increase in rate of reaction as the temperature increases. The difference is always more or less 0.02 s-1, with the same exception. Using the graphs, with lines of best fit, I can draw a conclusion from my experiment. Firstly I can see that with the time graphs (that plot temperature and concentration against time taken for the reaction to take place) the graphs have negative correlation in both cases, meaning that as the temperatureconcentration increased the time taken for the reaction to take place decreases. The time graph for the temperature experiment has a much steeper curve than the one for the concentration experiment, meaning that the decrease in time taken for the reaction was far more rapid. Naturally, the above means that the both the graphs plotting rate against temperature and concentration have positive correlation as the temperature and concentration are increased so does the rate of reaction. This is because when the temperature is increased the particles will have more energy and thus move faster. Therefore they will collide more often and with more energy. Particles with more energy are more likely to overcome the activation energy barrier to reaction and thus react successfully, and when solutions of reacting particles are made more concentrated there are more particles per unit volume. Collisions between reacting particles are therefore more likely to occur. The graph for concentration shows that when the concentrations were relatively low (10, 15, 20 g/dm3), the increase of rate x1000 was also fairly small (increasing from 4.47 to 6.71 to 9.47). There was then a gradual increase in the difference, and between 30 and 35 g/dm3 the rate more than doubled from 17.90 to 37.56s-1. This shows that there are far more collisions at a concentration of 35 g/dm3 than at 30 g/dm3. The graph plotting time against the rate of reaction x1000 shows that the difference of rate between increasing temperatures (excluding the anomaly of 30?C) was pretty much regular, increasing in steps of 6-10 (9.17 to 15.37 to 24.28 to 31.67). However, once again there is a giant gap in the last temperature increase at 60?C the RoR x1000 is 31.67 s-1, and at 70?C it is 57.03 s-1. For this to fully make sense it is necessary to recap the collision theory briefly: For a reaction to occur particles have to collide with each other. Only a small percent result in a reaction. This is due to the energy barrier to overcome. Only particles with enough energy to overcome the barrier will react after colliding. The minimum energy that a particle must have to overcome the barrier is called the activation energy, or Ea. The size of this activation energy is different for different reactions. If the  frequency of collisions is increased the rate of reaction will increase. However the percent of successful collisions remains the same. An increase in the frequency of collisions can be achieved by increasing the concentration, pressure, or surface area.

To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter Essay At lunch, Scout rubs Walter’s nose in the dirt for getting her in trouble, but Jem intervenes and invites Walter to lunch (in the novel, as in certain regions of the country, the midday meal is called â€Å"dinner†). At the Finch house, Walter and Atticus discuss farm conditions â€Å"like two men,† and Walter puts molasses all over his meat and vegetables, to Scout’s horror. When she criticizes Walter, however, Calpurnia calls her into the kitchen to scold her and slaps her as she returns to the dining room, telling her to be a better hostess. Back at school, Miss Caroline becomes terrified when a tiny bug, or â€Å"cootie,† crawls out of a boy’s hair. The boy is Burris Ewell, a member of the Ewell clan, which is even poorer and less respectable than the Cunningham clan. In fact, Burris only comes to school the first day of every school year, making a token appearance to avoid trouble with the law. He leaves the classroom, making enough vicious remarks to cause the teacher to cry. At home, Atticus follows Scout outside to ask her if something is wrong, to which she responds that she is not feeling well. She tells him that she does not think she will go to school anymore and suggests that he could teach her himself. Atticus replies that the law demands that she go to school, but he promises to keep reading to her, as long as she does not tell her teacher about it.

The Importance Of Recruiting Proper Employees Tourism Essay

The Importance Of Recruiting Proper Employees Tourism Essay 1. Introduction: In todays competitive hotel and resort industry in china, the delivery of consistent quality service is imperative to success. As we all know, the hotel service starts with employees. They represent the human side of the brand; they are also the personality and face of a hotel. It is often these employees who create the most compelling points of differentiation between one hotel and another. Every hotel want to recruit the proper and excellent employee, so the hotel management must anticipate changes in the hospitability industry environment to ensure that people who are recruited have the unique skills, know-how, values required by the hotels strategic business objectives and proper for the position. Efforts to recruit proper employees have evolved to meet the growing demands of the industry and expectations of guests. We can also find that many hotel companies have begun treating employee recruitment with the same level of importance they would a consumer branding campaign, portray ing emotion-based messages to potential employees the way an image marketing campaign might be used to generate interest among potential guests. Instead of the traditional recruitment effort, hotels and resorts are using different kinds of ways to recruit proper employees, such as colorful full-page ads in lifestyle magazines, witty dialogue in radio advertising and dramatic visuals on outdoor billboards to attract the best of the best. This is no doubt a large investment, but when a hotel is looking to find the highest quality people to bring their brand to life and deliver its promise on a daily basis, the investment is nothing short of critical. It is evident that if the quality of services rendered is ensured, the benefits that the hotel enterprises reap will be substantial, first and foremost, in terms of customer satisfaction and consequently in terms of an increase in customers, financial gains, prestige and reputation. 2. Importance of recruiting proper employees More and more hotels attach importance to recruit proper employees, because that recruitment is a form of economic competition, one hotel competes with each other to identify, attract and employee qualified human resources. investment in HR practices impacts on the processes of creating customer value; through the attraction, selection and retention of high quality employees, providing appropriate skills.( AgustÄ ±Ã‚ ´n Quintana-De ´niz, 2007)It means that recruitment is a key marketing tool for hotel seeking competitive edge.The way in which the recruitment process is handled affects the hotels image as an employer, in turn, its ability to attract qualified people, so the HR department in hotel must ensure that applicants do not receive misleading or inaccurate information. Failure in this task can create unrealistic expectations among candidates. In turn, this may produce job dissatisfaction, lower commitment and high turnover. Recruitment begins identifying HR requirements and ends with receiving applications. It involves determining where qualified applicants can be found and choosing a specific means of attracting potential employees to the hotel, it immediately precedes the selection process and involves attracting qualified and interested candidates from either inside or outside who have the capacity to generate a sustainable competitive advantage for the hotel and to be effective, recruitment must satisfy the needs of the candidate as well as the needs of the hotel. You have to tell candidates what you have to offer as well as finding out what they can offer you The point here, however, is that recruitment and selection practices should reflect actual expected occupational standards and overall management philosophies. It also indicates the current use of recruitment practices in Chinese hotels. More use of appropriate applicant testing schemes, site tours and probationary periods may yield considerable benefits to potential employers. Innovativ e sources and recruitment practices will ensure value-added recruits who are already oriented to the demands and opportunities of a career within the hotel industry. 3. Recruiting problems in Chinese hotel It is a common knowledge that hospitality front-line employees frequently encounter demanding and difficult customers. Although it is not a pleasant experience, Hospitality service agents are often required to be polite and smile in front of the customers. (Hyun Jeong Kim, 2008) As a long time in China, many people consider that hospitality work is perceived as a servile, it means that in peoples eyes hospitality work is dirty, low skilled, low paid and therefore as capable of attracting only the young, women or the marginal in society , but now many people change their attitude among the hospitality work, especially the staff where work in some international 5-star hotel particularly may carry with it a high status, because the 5-star hotel need high-quality staff that willing to help people and project genuine smiles, they also should have professional hospitality skill and good communication skill. The fact is that more and more 5-star hotels need high-quality employees to join them, but the proper employees are very limited. If a hotel can not recruit proper employees for different department, it will impact the quality of services and r aising the turnover rate, because the employee who is not proper for their job will be stress at work. In general, work-related stress has been shown to result in declines in the quality of employee job performance (Gilboa et al., 2008) that is costly for organizations because it contributes to expensive voluntary turnover, (Villanueva and Djurkovic, 2009). Recent research has found that employee stress in the hospitality industry is important because it can result in work- ers becoming exhausted and cynical (Kim, 2008) which can have negative effects on service delivery. It is no doubt that is not good for hotel operating and competing with other hotels. 4. Preparing for recruiting proper employees If a hotel wants to recruit proper employee, they must do some good preparing for recruitment. The development of a proactive strategy and approach needs to be supported and backed by the organizations key decision makers and should be highlighted in company documents such as the mission statement or company values declaration.(Stefan Groschl,2007) Strategic recruitment does this by linking recruiting activities to the organizations business objectives and culture. Proper planning also helps hotel operators draft strategies to cope with the ever-changing HR demand, to improve training and to enhance the quality of human resources (Noe, 2008) Before the recruitment, HR department must communicate with line managers carefully and clearly, because line managers play an important part in recruitment process, the line managers know their departments very clearly and roundly, they can identify recruitment need, so they should help HR ensure what kinds of staffs are proper. After that deter mining number and type of jobs to be filled and match HR supply with job opening. The job analysis is also very important part; the HR people must analyze the attractive and unattractive features of the job first, the HR also should collect job information include job description (such as job title, duties and circumstances responsibilities, relationships, know-how, accountability, authority, special) and job specification(such as experience, qualifications, skills, abilities knowledge, personal qualities, special requirements) .More clearly and carefully prepare for recruiting , more effectively the recruitment results will appear. Preparing also can help HR determine which recruitment method they will choose. 5. Choosing a right recruitment method for hotel After preparing for recruitment, HR must choose a recruitment method. Regardless of whether recruitment is done internally or externally, effective planning and strategizing are essential to the success of the process. The hotel needs to know that it has the right employees with the right skills in the right places at the right time. 5.1 Internal recruitment If a hotel decides to hire permanent employees, the first critical question it needs to address is whether to recruit internally or externally. Recruiting from the current employee pool can benefit the hotel in a numbers of ways. The hotel already has performance dada on employees. The qualifications of internal candidates are already well known to the employer. The chance has been afforded to observe the applicants working performance, skills and capabilities, ability to get along with others and fit with the hotel. In addition, employees feel that the hotel is trying to provide them with promotional and development opportunities in reward for their performance and loyalty. Nevertheless, managements perceptions of an employee are likely to be more accurate, thus providing a better prediction of success than information gained about external candidates. Human resources department constitute an enormous investment for most hotels and it makes economic sense to try to improve the retur n on this investment by making full use of the abilities of existing employees. Finally, current employees know the hotel, its culture, politics and customers and have already established relationships with partners and thus require less orientation and training. Consequently, they need far less formal or informal socialization time than those hired form the outside. Internal recruitment is often much faster and far less expensive than going outside of the hotel for applicants Although internal recruiting has advantages, this approach also has some disadvantages. Internal recruitment can become very political and competitive, particularly when coworkers apply for the same position. Dysfunctional conflict may result and collegiality and interpersonal relationships can be strained, they may be promoted beyond their level of competence. In addition that, those employees not selected for the position can suffer from diminished morale and performance, particularly when they feel equally or better qualified than the candidate selected. The hotel can become inbred through excessive internal recruitment. Continuing to promote from within can encourage maintaining the status quo. A hotel need to improve organizational processes should usually recruit from outside. Finally, excessive internal recruitment can cause inefficiency by creating multiple vacancies. As this promotion chain continues down the hierarchy, an initial vacancy could spur promotions for a large nu mber of people. Nearly all employees require a certain period of time to learn a new job. Even when an employee has worked in the hotel for several years, a new position requires adjusting to new responsibilities and redefining interpersonal relationships with coworkers. Internal recruiting can exacerbate this effect by creating a large number of employees having new positions. Until these employees gain the level of competence that their predecessors had and sufficiently redefine their working relationships, inefficiency will result. In this method of internal recruiting, supervisors could choose an individual whose work capabilities are well known to them. The other way most commonly used approach to internal recruitment is job posting. Internal recruitment not only has its advantages but also disadvantages. It is probably best utilized when the hotel pursues a strategy related to stability, faces few major threats from its external environment, and is concerned with maintaining the status quo relative to its operating system. When time or money is limited, internal recruitment can be beneficial, as well. 5.2 External recruitment A hotels human resources department can use various approaches to locate and attract external candidates, often looking to more than one source. To choose an approach, the HR manager must know which recruitment channel is likely to be most successful in targeting a particular labor group. An electrician, a computer specialist and a general manager will each have their own preferred recruitment channels. Not surprisingly, the advantages of external recruitment are consistent with the disadvantages of internal recruitment. External recruitment facilitates change and tends to be more useful for hotels with volatile external environments. External recruitment can allow expanding its knowledge base beyond that of its existing employees and bringing in new ideas and viewpoints; external recruits are not bound by existing ways of thinking or doing things. Outside employees are not members of existing cliques. They can bring a fresh approach to problems that have plagued the hotel. At the senior level, candidates are often recruited for their history of bringing about high-level change in other hotels. External recruiting, however, can be expensive and time-consuming. Employees from outside the hotels will often need a longer socialization period to know the hotels cultures, services, coworkers and customers, they adjustment and orientation takes longer. External recruits are also unknown entities in that hotel has no experience working with them. Although an applicant may have outstanding skills, training or experience in and may have past success in another hotel, those factors do not guarantee similar success with a new hotel or an ability to fit with a new hotels culture. Finally, external recruiting can have detrimental effects on the morale of those employees who have applied for the job internally, but have not been selected. A variety of methods can be used to recruit candidates externally, such as employee referrals, applicant-initiated recruitment, help-wanted advertisements, public employment agencies, private employment agencies, executive search firms, campus recruitin g and online recruiting. Furthermore, Web-based recruiting is not limited to external applicants but can also be used to attract current employees. For instance, job openings can be posted on an organizations intranet in order to announce opportunities for current employees to move into an e-service position.( Karen,2008)The choice of an external recruitment method depends on the circumstances surrounding the recruitment situation. 6. Interviewing Choosing a right recruiting method is not enough to recruit proper employees for a hotel; it also needs a comprehensive and impersonal interviewing. It is no doubt that interviewing is a vital selection tool to ensure the candidate whether is proper for the position. Interviewers should include HR professionals, the manager of viable candidates and upper-level manager. Interviewing applicants involves making subjective assessments of each applicants qualifications for a job. It is easy to find that more and more group interviewing are used now, group interviewing allows different interviewers to contrast and compare their interpretations of the same interview information. Consequently, this type interviewing often helps overcome many of errors that individual interviewers might make, it also can save time for the hotel and applicant, but they often involve creating a less personal atmosphere for applicants. Sometimes group interviewing may make it more difficult for interviewers to g et a sense of the applicants interpersonal style. In more recent years, however, a growing interest among strategy researchers has emphasized the importance of behavioral explanations to strategy development. ( Baker M. Ayoun, 2008)If you work in a five-star hotel, good behavior is very important for your career. The hotel management also pays more attention to that, so in recent years, behavioral interviewing has become increasingly popular, which involve determining whether an applicants anticipated behavior in a variety of situations scenarios posed in interview question with experienced applicants as well as with those who have limited professional hospitality working experience, because that interviewers will ask some situations that the candidates will face on their jobs in the future. Thus, new templates of organizing for the hotel industry seemed to evolve over time.(Pà ¤iviKarhunen,2008)Before the behavioral interviewing, the interviewers must determine the most important behavioral characteristics required for given a job , it is very important for choosing proper employees form the candidates, because these can be identified by examining the key traits displayed by high performing incumbents. The hotel management can use this interviewing to looks for the candidates problem-solving ability, interpersonal communication style, decision making ability and problem analysis ability. If interviews are structured, the interviewers should pay attention that all candidates are asked the same questions and are given the same chance to respond and explain their views, it becomes easier to compare applicant responses to identical questions. If interviews are unstructured, the questions can be flexible. The hotel can choose the style of interviews depends on what kinds of people you will recruit, if you interview a job that require creativity ability, such as marketing job, the interviewers may choose less structured or unstructured interviews. On the other hand, attitude, self-efficacy and subjective norm were related to behavioral intention of adopting IT (Terry Lam, 2007 ) It is meaningful for asking candidates to describe their behaviors or actions they have taken in specific situations, it can help HR and line managers to estimate and ensure whether he or she is proper employee for this department in hotel. It also can assist the hotel in determining the fit between the applicants and hotels culture and processes. The interviewers should also pay attention that Candidates are just as interested in making the right decision as the client; they want as much information as possible, they want to feel welcomed when they interview, and they want to know they will be properly supported if they accept the position(Karen K. Kirby,2008) 7. Testing If a hotel wants to ensure whether the employee is proper for his position, testing is very important part .The needs of the hotel and job structure include specific responsibilities, interpersonal relationships with others and so forth will determine whether any or all of the following should be assessed: technical skills, interpersonal skills, personality traits, problem-solving abilities or any other job-related performance indicators. The key variable that should influence testing is job requirements. Any testing that is not specifically job-related could be legally challenged, particularly if adverse impact can be shown. The timing of testing can depend on hotels, traditionally, testing has been conducted after the interviewing and screening process due to the expense of testing and time required scoring and evaluating test results. However, some hotels are now testing earlier in the selection process because costs involved with interviewing often exceed the costs of testing. Clearly, it makes sense for an employer to use more cost-effective screening earlier in the selection process. Perhaps the most useful types of tests are work sample and trainability. Work sample is similar as on-job testing, it involve giving the applicant a representative sample of work that would be part of the job and asking the individual to complete it. These tests are useful when the management needs employees who will be able to perform job responsibilities from the first day of employment. Trainability tests measure an applicants aptitude and ability to understand critical components of the job that the company may be willing to teach once the employee is hired. They are useful when the management needs some familiarity with the nature of the work but seeks to train the new employee in the hotels way to do right things. 8. Summary After the explain in this article, you can find out how important to recruit the proper employees for 5-star hotels, only have the high-quality staff, the assessment and expectations of hotel will keep on the high level and compete with other hotels. So before the recruitment, HR people should communicate with line managers comprehensively to identify recruitment needs. HR also need do some other preparing such as job description and job specification. After preparing for recruiting well, HR should choose the recruitment method depends on the situation, no matter choosing internal recruitment or external recruitment, the HR needs to ensure that it has the right employees with the right skills in the right places at the right time. If hotel wants to recruit proper employees, only well preparing and choosing right recruitment method is not enough, it also need a comprehensive interviewing and testing. Management should pay attention to using behavioral interviewing, because those inter viewers will ask some situations that the candidates will face on their jobs in the future, the interviewers will determine whether the candidates have the most important behavioral characteristics required for given a job. Management also can use some testing to identify whether the applicant is proper for the position. 9. Conclusion As the hotel industry is labor intensive, its products and services rely to a great degree on people, which amount to a huge proportion of overall costs. (Lin Lin, Jeou-ShyanHorng, Yi-ChenChen, Chang-YenTsai, 2010) It is also widely accepted that the quality of services offered by Hotel personnel and the resulting customer satisfaction are key to the survival and success of Hotel units. In addition, it is very important that the assessment and expectations of hotel directors regarding the quality of services extended to their customers as well as the hotel personnel available be considered and understood in order to ensure that these expectations are met at the desired level. Especially in China, hospitality industry is developing faster and faster, more and more foreigners come to china to visit or have a business trip, so Chinese hospitality industry need lots of high-quality staffs, but in fact, the hospitality professionals are very limited, so hotel management should pay attenti on to recruit proper employees that with the right skills in the right places at the right time, so HR should do some well preparing for recruitment and choose the right recruitment method. While HR and management are interviewing and testing, they should focuses on candidates behavioral interviewing to identify whether they have the most important behavioral characteristics required for given a job. All in all, hotel should try their best to ensure the employees they recruit are proper for their job, and work as the professionals. Therefore, enhancing the quality of employees is a must in the hospitality industry (Collins, 2007)