Essay Lev Vygotskys Theory on Cognitive Development

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian developmentalist who believed that adults in all societies â€Å"foster children’s cognitive development in an intentional and somewhat systematic manner† (Ormrod, 2011, pg.39). Vygotsky sociocultural theory focused on what a child could do merely with an adult’s assistance. Nature is the emphasis of this theory highlighting children’s cultural and social environmental experiences that influence cognitive growth. Two main terms that are of uttermost importance in this principle are a child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) and scaffolding (Ormrod, 2011, pg.39). Zone of proximal development will first be defined and explained to better understand and comprehend what is entailed within this popular method of†¦show more content†¦By using thee ZPD as a guide this gives the child an opportunity to work towards their level of potential development which is tasks they are unable to achieve with substantial adul t assistance. These can more positively be viewed as future goals. To summarize, it is the challenges in life, rather than the simple victories that stimulate cognitive development (Ormrod, 2011, pg.41). Introduction of the second key concept is scaffolding. According to Jeanne E. Ormrod’s book Educational Psychology Developing Learners, scaffolding can be better understood by describing two contexts that scaffolding can be inserted. The first would be a structure to where construction workers can stand until a building is sturdy enough to embrace their weight (Ormrod, 2011, pg. 45). The second meaning or contextual use defined by About.com author Beth Lewis: â€Å"Scaffolding refers to the idea that specialized instructional supports need to be in place in order to best facilitate learning when students are first introduced to a new subject† (Lewis, 2013). The key word in scaffolding is support. Support is given until the student is able to accomplish the tasks independently. Scaffolding is used to help individuals execute tasks in their zone of proximal development. With both definitions of scaffolding unveiled it is established that both educational scaffolding are temporary structures that are meant to be removed after stability is obtained (Ormrod, 2011, pg. 45). NowShow MoreRelatedLev Vygotsky s Influence On Development920 Words   |  4 PagesLev Vygotsky Introduction Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist during the Soviet Union. He was the founder of cultural-history psychology. His work concentrated on development psychology with children from an early age. He came from a Jewish family and attended Moscow State University for medical school. After time, he transferred to Law school and got interested in arts to become a literary critic. Then, he became a psychology instructor at a University as his theories came into place. Lev workedRead MoreLev Vygotsky Essay Outline835 Words   |  4 PagesLev Vygotsky was known as the creator of an original branch of psychology in the Soviet union. He is also known for writing many books on psychology. In the first part of my paper I will begin telling you how young Vygotsky got into psychology for the first time.Second, I will talk about his theories and thesis that changed the psychological world forever. Somehow our society has formed a one-sided view of the human personality, and for some reason eve ryone understood giftedness and talent onlyRead MoreTheories Of Lev Vygotsky1383 Words   |  6 PagesLev Vygotsky was a psychologist that emphasized that children learn through interactions with their surroundings. He was often referred to as the psychology of superman. Most of his work was in developmental psychology and he emphasized that interpersonal connections and the social environment had a lot to development. He had different theories on how biosocial development is an important aspect of a child’s development. Vygotsky felt that language and play had a lot to do with childrensRead MoreVygotsky s Theory And Development Of Higher Mental Functions898 Words   |  4 PagesIn Vygotsky’s theory, children have two basic kinds of functions or mental processes that Vygotsky entitled lower mental functions, and higher mental functions. Lower mental functions are defined as their natural way of learning or innate ways that one would respond to their environment. Higher mental functions are defined as a more complex way of thinking or processing. In Vygotsky’s view, the potential for acquiring lower mental functions is biologically built in, but society and culture are criticalRead MoreGeneral Theorists And The General Theories Essay1556 Words   |  7 Pagesgive an overview of their theories. It will discuss two critical points and explain how these points relate to the chosen theories. It will also relate to the theorists beliefs to the role as a nanny and provide examples of how the theories apply to the development of infants, toddlers, young children and their families. This essay will briefly outline the differences between the Maori theorist and compare the general theorists and include two examples of how these theories relate to Te Whariki. Read MoreEssay Sociocultural Theory: Lev Vygotsky1112 Words   |  5 PagesLev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist, born November 17, 1896, who had a wide range of interests that inclu ded the cognitive and language development of children. Vygotsky’s theories are somewhat incomplete due to his death at the young age of 38 from tuberculosis. Vygotsky faced many struggles in life that he was able to overcome, such as being a young Jewish boy who grew up in a time where the Russian District limited the number of Jews who were allowed to be educated at a University levelRead MoreLev Vygotsky And The Zone Of Proximal Development1522 Words   |  7 PagesLev Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development Under normal circumstances, a child will physically develop without outside assistance. While there can be variations by way of culture, class, and ability, it is difficult to contest that human nature is the driving force behind the bodily changes that take place from birth until adulthood. In contrast, when it comes to determining the ways in which a child thinks and learns, there are numerous theories on what primarily influences cognitive growthRead MoreThe Theory Of Cognitive Development1025 Words   |  5 PagesMany philosophers have developed theories of how individuals learn over the decades. As an individual progresses through life from childhood to adulthood, the manner in which they take in knowledge, and mature is the basic theory of cognitive development. Cognitive development can be described as how an individual’s thought process develops, and how these thought processes impact how an individual comprehends and interacts in the world. The psychology theorists o f the past have shaped the classroomsRead MoreVygotsky And Piaget s Theory Of Cognitive Development Innate Or Learned?1241 Words   |  5 Pageschicken or the egg? Is cognitive development innate or learned? These are two age old questions that have been discusssed extensively. The purpose of this paper is to offer insight into the answer of the latter by briefly comparing and contrasting Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theories. Both psychologists’ theories will be outlined, as will the similarities and differences between the two. Brief Summary of the Theories of Piaget and Vygotsky Piaget’s Theory Jean Piaget believedRead MoreTheories of Cognitive Development in Relation to Mathematical Knowledge1083 Words   |  5 Pagescapabilities through the theories of cognitive development presented by many influential theorists. The following essay elaborates a chosen theory of cognitive development in relation to mathematical knowledge with a link to the Australian Curriculum to demonstrate how the document chosen allows for scaffolding of children’s learning for kindergarten students. Also, it demonstrates a comparison of the chosen theory with other theories and an explanation on which theory is best suited to the learning

A Worn Path Free Essays

â€Å"A Worn Path† describes the journey of an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson who walks from her home to the city of Natchez to get medicine for her sick grandson. The landscape as Phoenix perceives it becomes a primary focus of the vividly evoked narrative; nature is depicted as alternately beautiful and as an impediment to Phoenix’s progress. As she walks, she struggles against intense fatigue and poor eyesight, as well as such obstacles as thorn bushes and barbed wire. We will write a custom essay sample on A Worn Path or any similar topic only for you Order Now The combined effects of her old age, her poor vision, and her poetic view of the world heighten the lyricism and symbolism of the narrative. For example, she mistakes a scarecrow for a dancing â€Å"ghost† until she draws close enough to touch its empty sleeve. A particularly tense episode occurs when she encounters a white hunter who appears friendly at first, but then makes a condescending suggestion that she is probably â€Å"going to town to see Santa Claus. † When he inadvertently drops a nickel, Phoenix distracts him and manages to pick it up, feeling that she is stealing as she does so. The hunter suddenly points his gun at her, and while he may have seen her pick up the nickel, it is unclear what his actual motivation is for this threatening gesture. Phoenix, however, does not appear afraid; the hunter lowers his gun and she manages to continue on her way unharmed and without returning the nickel. Finally reaching the â€Å"shining† city of Natchez, Phoenix enters the â€Å"big building†Ã¢â‚¬â€presumably a hospital—where a nurse questions her about her grandson, asking if he has died. Phoenix remains strangely quiet at first, as if deaf to the nurse’s questions. She then apologizes, claiming that her memory had suddenly failed her—that for a moment, she could not remember why she had made her long journey. The story concludes with Phoenix’s heartfelt description of her grandson, whose throat was injured several years ago when he swallowed lye. She declares that he is not dead, receives the medicine for him, along with another nickel, with which she decides to buy him a Christmas present—a â€Å"little windmill. â€Å" How to cite A Worn Path, Essay examples

Case Study of Week free essay sample

Analysis of the template is most suitable for Kinkead. The reason is based on the case, electricity meters (EM), power tools (EI) products for customers to perform the same basic function. So their alternatives, so it needs to calculate a sales combined variances template, template B did not provide this data. Part B Answer: According to the relationship between the BCG matrix, analysis of market share and market growth. First, for the EM 499 286 According to Table, the variance of the size of the market is unfavorable, the size of the market because their budget is 800000, but the actual market size of 650000, it does not implement the expectations. The EM market share difference to 0, with 10% of the actual and budgeted position, it will not change. Therefore, they are a cash cow. Therefore, EM is the Cash Cow. Additionally, the Kinkead has been a leading Australia firm, and EM is the older but still dominant technology. We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study of Week or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Followed by EI table EI of the variance of the size of the market for 374,464 budgets, the size of the market for 250,000, lower than the actual market size of 363,500, more than expected. The market share variance is 241,321 Unfavorable which has decrease from 10% to 8%. Therefore, EI question mark. In addition, EI technology is new, or experiment. EIs future is uncertain. Part C Answer: They seek cash cow product strategy, so there are two aspects of the important aspects of the performance, EM, reduce production costs and increase market share. More particularly, their market share of the difference does not change, which means it is a mature stage, and manufacturing has been standardized. So the company should take some new measures to reduce production costs. Secondly, the company should increase their market share, such as increased management fees. EI use of labeling strategies, there are three aspects of performance is very important to the EI. The first is the R D performance; they should increase R D costs continue to research new technologies for enterprises to create more profits in the future. Followed by market share, companies need to increase their market share of the product EI, because it is the mark phase of the problem, the future is uncertain. Thus, increasing its market share will change in the future star. Finally, production and sales is also very important, EI, because only effective production, to meet customer demand, increase the number of sales. Part D Answer: Assessment of the electromagnetic properties of the first actual sale price of $ 29, less than the standard price of $ 30, but only sold 65,000 units lower than planned sales of 80,000 units. There are two reasons led to this situation, first of all is their total market demand has been shrinking. Second, the actual sales commission EM is only $ 1, but the EI commission is $ 14. 9, which could lead salespeople do not want to sell the product. To evaluate the EI performance, the first problem is underpriced. Although the actual selling price is $153 which is higher than $150, the sale volume is 29,000 units which is large than budget 25,000 units. Secondly, although the size of the market from EI budget increase 250,000 units 362,500 units, the EI market share is not meet expectations, it has dropped from 10% to 8%. This means that the performance of the EI Company is not satisfied. Third, the staff may lack experience, because the actual manufacturing cost is $ 42. 1, higher than the standard $ 40. Finally, from a fixed cost analysis can be found, $ 121,000 of costs and unfavorable actual production costs are higher than the planned $ 11,000, from $ 1,388,000 to $ 1,399,000. Therefore, enterprises should improve production efficiency. On the other hand, the overall performance of EM and EI, and a profit of $ 51,000, cost of sales decreased $ 5,000 plans to invest $ 250,000 of the actual value of $ 245,000. The sales mix variance data can be found, there are more people choose EI, because the EI sales mix variance is $ 1,789,714! EM sales mix variance is $ 1,253, 571 should not be. The reason may be that the sales staff did not want to sell products EM, actual sales commission EI is 14. 9 dollars, but the commission is only $ 1. Second, EI is a new product and new technology, which will attract more customers to buy and more popular than the old.

Stanford University 2018-2019 Supplemental Essay Prompts

College essays required for top colleges and Ivy League schools are often known for their unusual, creative essay prompts. Stanford University is changing its set of essay prompts with an eye on making them more accessible for the Class of 2022. The university has rephrased a few long-standing prompts, discarded a couple, and added a few new ones.The format will remain the same with Short Questions limiting the applicant to 50 words and Short Essays between 100 and 250 words.Stanford University Short QuestionsRemember, you only have a 50 word limit, so get to the point. Most of these questions are quite straightforward and require you to give a straight answer. Of course, there are ways for you to try and incorporate who you are and highlight specific qualities about yourself. We are here to help you with that. Of the short questions, four of the question prompts remain the same, one is rephrased and two new ones were added: [NO CHANGE] Stanford Short Question 1: What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? TIP: Your answer is extremely important, but so is your reasoning. Explain why you think thats the most significant challenge, and in doing so youll show off your thought process. You can even consider answering this prompt by tying it to an extracurricular activity or cause that you’ve worked on and demonstrated leadership in. [NO CHANGE]Stanford Short Question 2:How did you spend your last two summers? TIP: This is a straightforward essay prompt. Answer it accordingly. However, we’d recommend including a standout anecdote that illustrates a lesser known aspect of your personality. Again, you can provide a short reasoning as to why you chose to spend the last two summers the way you did. To learn more? To experience different things? To make money? Let them know what motivates you. [NO CHANGE] Stanford Short Question 3:What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? TIP: If you have a particular penchant for history, this is your time to shine. If not, consider older mentors in your life. What are historical events that have occurred in their lifetime? [NO CHANGE] Stanford Short Question 4:What five words best describe you? TIP: Don’t overthink this one. The only thing to look out for is not choosing too many synonyms. You only have 5 words so vary them! Ask your friends, teachers, coach, family and see if they give you different words that you didnt even think of! [REPHRASED] Stanford Short Question 5:â€Å"When the choice is yours, what do you read, listen to, or watch?† TIP:This short question prompt used to be Name your favorite books, authors, films, and/or artists.† The broader wording of this prompt now allows applicants to move beyond what could be interpreted as more traditional forms of literature and the arts. Instead of choosing your favorite book or film, you now have the freedom to discuss your consumption of any form of media. Don’t worry about impressing the admissions committee with an answer that makes you seem super intellectual. Be honest. Make it unique by sharing your singular perspective about the content you prefer. [ADDED] Stanford Short Question 6:Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford. TIP: This is your chance to wax poetic about what draws you to Stanford. Whether it’s the student orgs or campus culture, talk about it here. Feel free to refer to student traditions in our 10 Fun Facts series to tackle this question. You can also look through our Admit Advice to read about what current Stanford students say about their school. [ADDED] Stanford Short Question 7:Imagine you had an extra hour in the day — how would you spend that time? TIP: You may not have had a chance to discuss a hidden passion or interest you haven’t yet explored and so it doesn’t appear on your activities lists. Explore that here. You may even want to answer this question last after youre done with all your personal statement and supplemental essays. Once you have everything else done, youll be able to look at your application and see what qualities about yourself is missing. The Stanford Short Questions removed from the Essay Prompts: âÅ"â€" â€Å"What were your favorite events (e.g., performances, exhibits, competitions, conferences, etc.) in recent years?† âÅ"â€" â€Å"What newspapers, magazines, and/or websites do you enjoy?† Some counselors theorize that the new additions will convey to applicants that Stanford values the free time of its students and wants its students to consider and pursue interests and activities that speak to them. Stanford University Supplemental Essay Questions There will still be three (3) short essay questions youll need to respond to for the Stanford University 2018-2019 application. Two remain unchanged and one has been rephrased. There is a 100-word minimum and a 250-word maximum for each essay.Stanford Supplemental Essay Prompt 1The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning.NO CHANGES: This used to be the famous Stanford intellectual vitality essay prompt that was removed last year. Experts believe the change will help students think beyond the classroom to also consider subjects and interests they want to explore in a non-academic capacity. TIP: This is where you traditionally talk about why you want to study what you want to study at Stanford. Or, take a different approach with this new phrasing to discuss the aspects about your life that drive you to ask questions. ESSAY EXAMPLE: This essay example is from the most recent Class of 2022 - the only application cycle so far that has been asked this new essay prompt. As youll see in this example, applicants are responding with more than what they want to major in, or what they are learning in the classroom. They have the option of taking it further and exploring issues that they care about that drive them to keep learning.Essay excerpt from StanfordNerd Sociology Major, Stanford University 22 Unbeknownst to me, my abnegation to analyze a different demographic stemmed from my female identity. Distanced from the effects of racial inequality, analyzing stereotypes apart from my own meant analysis from afar. Being catcalled as I walked through Queens or my mothers struggle to lead her male employees were irrelevant in my original project. Once I recognized that the source of my discomfort came from examining a topic too close to home, I faced an ethical dilemma: contributing to academic or my peace of mind. Unlock her Stanford application file to read her full personal statement and supplemental essays!Stanford Supplemental Essay Prompt 2Virtually all of Stanfords undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate—and us—know you better.NO CHANGES:There are no changes to this prompt. This has been one of the prompts to Stanfords application for a long time, because it gives the applicant a chance to be a little more casual and fun, and show off their personality outside of the classroom. Plus, Stanford puts a lot of effort behind the freshmen year roommate selection, so its a reflection of that aspect too! TIP: Have fun with this one! Let your personalitywhether it’s sarcasm, humor, self-deprecation, or love for analogiescome through. It’s a chance to share your values in everyday life. Read tried and true Stanford Roommate essay examples here. ESSAY EXAMPLE: This essay example is also from a Stanford applicant that applied to be in the Class of 2022. He takes a very straightforward approach with the roommate essay, which works here because its all about showing off who you are. If thats what youre like, go for it. Dont try to be too clever with it. Sometimes doing less is more.Essay excerpt from Htownbrown Political Science Government Major, Stanford University 22 Here are a few facts about me: 1. I am from Houston, TX where we are proud to be the fourth largest and most diverse city in the U.S.A.! 2. I love Netflix. We definitely have to spend some free nights watching House of Cards. 3. I love tennis. Im like a tennis encyclopedia, and Ive watched every Serena Williams match in the last four years. Let me know if you want to play a set or two. 4. Morning or night - Im up 24/7, so were good for many all-night study sessions. Unlock his Stanford successful application file to learn more about his journey! Stanford Supplemental Essay Prompt 3Tell us about something that is meaningful to you, and why?CHANGES: This prompt used to read What matters to you and why?. TIP: Consider discussing a cause you care about, a personal relationship that’s significant in your life, or a memory that you believe drives you to be the person you are today. ESSAY EXAMPLE: This last essay example is also from the Class of 2022. This essay prompt lets you talk about whats most meaningful to you, thereby allowing you to share what your values and perspectives are. When you choose what to write about, Id suggest waiting until youve written your personal statement and the above supplemental essays and see what youre missing. If theres nothing missing, then reiterate someone, some place or a moment that youve mentioned and further elaborate why its meaningful to you. This student here does exactly that. She uses this supplemental essay to talk more about her family background - something she touches on in other parts of her application, but was never the main focal point.Essay excerpt from ttk_thereza Chemical Engineering, Stanford University 22 My mom was the youngest one of twelve siblings. This guaranteed that, throughout my childhood, I was always surrounded by uncles, aunt, and cousins. We didnt all live in the same place, thought; the Moreiras are scattered all over Brazil, and it is hard to find a city where there isnt one of us. But every year, we all go back to my grandmas house and celebrate the holidays together. Unlock her Stanford profile to read his college essay and supplemental essays! Hope this was helpful as you write your supplemental essays! If you have any additional questions, please comment below and well give you more advice! Ourpremium plansoffer different levels of profile access and data insights that can help you with your application process. Unlock any of ourpackagesor search ourundergraduate profile databaseto find specific profiles that can help you make an informed choice about where to apply!

Teratogens essays

Teratogens essays To put a definition plainly, teratogens are agents responsible for many known birth defects. Research found suggests over eight hundred known teratogens. In this paper, you will find interesting facts based on research, the relationship between teratogens and developmental psychology and some personal views based on the information and research found for this piece. Teratogens are easily classified in three different groups, these being drugs, disease and environmental. These three classifications are very broad. To be slightly more specific some commonly heard of agents classified as teratogens are given as examples. Agents classified as drugs, include prescription, non-prescription and illegal. Some frequently heard of conditions requiring prescription drugs that are known teratogens are diabetes, hypertension, and Anxiety. Other commonly heard of non-prescription and illegal teratogens are cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, and marijuana. Environmental teratogens are agents that are man made or a product of industry. Some well-known teratogens are Lead, mercury, PCBs, radiation and arsenic. Lastly, we have teratogens due to disease. Some diseases known to cause prenatal complications are HIV, herpes, Rubella, and Syphilis. This information is very common and is all provided within the college text book and from research found by the Uni versity Hospital School of Iowa. The affects teratogens can have on the developing fetus can vary greatly. Research provided from the University of Iowa on teratogens explains some of the possible outcome to exposure to certain teratogens. Listed birth defects resulting from exposure to teratogens, range from prenatal death, to physical and mental abnormalities. Exposure to medications or drugs during pregnancy can result in abnormalities such as withdrawal symptom, respiratory problems, growth retardation, developmental retardation, congenital heart defects, caudal deficiency...

Characteristics of Giant Silkworm Moths and Royal Moths

Characteristics of Giant Silkworm Moths and Royal Moths Even people with no particular love of insects find the giant moths (and caterpillars) of the family Saturniidae fascinating. The name is thought to refer to the large eyespots found on the wings of some species. The eyespots contain concentric rings, reminiscent of the planet Saturns rings. These showy moths are easy to rear in captivity if you can find enough foliage to keep their very hungry caterpillars fed. Physical Characteristics Among the Saturniids, we find the largest moth species in North America: the luna moth, the cecropia moth, the polyphemus moth, the imperial moth, the io moth, the Promethea moth, and the royal walnut moth. The cecropia moth is a giant among giants, with the longest wingspan- a remarkable 5-7 inches- of all. Some Saturniids may seem dwarf-like compared to their gigantic cousins, but even the smallest of the wild silkworm moths measures a respectable 2.5 cm in wide. Giant silkworm moths and royal moths are often brightly colored, which may mislead first-time observers to refer to them as butterflies. Like most moths, however, Saturniids hold their wings flat against their bodies when at rest, and usually have stout, hairy bodies. They also bear feathery antennae (often bi-pectinate in form, but sometimes quadri-pectinate), which are quite conspicuous in males. Saturniid caterpillars are hefty, and often covered with spines or protuberances. These tubercles give the caterpillar a threatening look, but in most cases, theyre quite harmless. Do beware of the io moth caterpillar, though. Its branched spines pack a painful dose of venom and will inflict a long-lasting sting. Classification Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ArthropodaClass: InsectaOrder: LepidopteraFamily: Saturniidae Diet Adult silkworm and royal moths dont feed at all, and most have only vestigial mouthparts. Their larvae, however, are a different story. The largest caterpillars in this group can exceed 5 inches in length in their final instar, so you can imagine how much they eat. Many feed on common trees and shrubs, including hickories, walnuts, sweetgum, and sumac; some can cause significant defoliation. Life Cycle All giant silkworm moths and royal moths undergo complete metamorphosis with four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. In the Saturniids, an adult female may lay several hundred eggs during her brief lifetime, but perhaps only 1% will survive to their own adulthood. This family overwinters in the pupal stage, often in silken cocoons joined to twigs or nestled in a protective envelope of leaves. Special Adaptations and Behaviors Female Saturniid moths invite males to mate by releasing a sex pheromone from a special gland at the end of their abdomens. The male moths are renowned for their determination and unwavering focus on the task of locating the receptive female. They have a keen sense of smell, thanks to their feathery antennae brimming with sensilla. Once a male giant silkworm moth catches a whiff of a females scent, he will not be deterred by foul weather, nor does he let physical obstacles impede his progress. A Promethea moth male holds the long-distance record for following a females pheromones. He flew an incredible 23 miles to find his mate! Home Range References vary greatly in their accounting of how many Saturniid species live worldwide, but most authors seem to accept a number in the range of 1200-1500 species. About 70 species inhabit North America. Sources Family Saturniidae - Giant Silkworm and Royal Moths, Bugguide.net. Accessed January 10, 2013.Saturniidae, Butterflies and Moths of North America. Accessed January 10, 2013.Saturniid Moths, University of Kentucky Entomology. Accessed January 10, 2013.The Wild Silk Moths of North America: A Natural History of the Saturniidae of the United States and Canada, by Paul M. Tuskes, James P. Tuttle, and Michael M. Collins.

Human Resource Managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Human Resource Managment - Essay Example This paper approves this performance review will not only help the management grasp the magnitude of contribution made by each employee, but will also help the employees get a measurable perspective regarding their job expectations and requirements. Besides, the company could come out with a structured remuneration and compensation policy, based on the data collected from these surveys and reviews. All the existing research and experience corroborate to the fact that change always begins from the top. It is only when the top management evinces appropriate level of sincerity and commitment to change that the messages and policies eventually percolate down to the juniors. In that context, the senior management at GS Plumbing is loaded with ample issues. The owner of GS Plumbing is noncommittal towards the problems being faced by the organization and dedicates very little time and effort to the company. This essay makes a conclusion that that the human resources employed by GS Plumbing are being poorly managed and scheduled, resulting in employees resorting to cash-in-hand work after hours, by exploiting the company equipment and inputs. The employees are flouting the reporting procedures regarding safety, which may eventually lead to serious union problems. In that context, a timely HR audit on the part of GS Plumbing will lead to a formal identification of these issues and lacunas. As is the nature of problems, it is first important to identify a problem, before it is resolved.

Final Application Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Final Application - Term Paper Example It offers an overview on the management of diversity in the workplace. The paper will focus on the general concepts of managing diversity and its advantages to an organization. Managing diversity is defined by Taylor Cox as â€Å"planning and implementing organizational systems and practices to manage people so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized while its potential disadvantages are minimized† (University of California, Berkeley, 1994). Diversity among people can be with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, educational background, work experience and income. Today’s increasing globalization requires more interaction among people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Now more than ever, managing diversity becomes an important issue in the workplace. Managing diversity, in order for it to be successful requires certain skills from management. First, management must u nderstand that workforce diversity is a reality and that discrimination has its consequences. Second, managers must be able to recognize their own biases, prejudices and stereotypes. An example is in the area or recruitment where the HR manager is considering an Asian and an American for a certain job position. Although the manager is an American, he chose the Asian over the American because he was more qualified in terms of experience and educational background than the American. This case clearly illustrates that the HR manager put aside his biases/prejudices to come up with a decision that will be most beneficial to the company. Finally, managers must have the ability to recognize what will best work for the organization in terms of teamwork among its diverse employees and the dynamics of the workplace (Green, Lopez, Wysocki, & Kepner, 2008). If an organization is able to manage diversity effectively, it poses to gain several benefits. Foremost among these benefits is that it wil l be able to attract, recruit and retain people from a wide talent base. It will also reduce employee turnover and absenteeism. Management will also pave the way to develop the flexibility and responsiveness among its employees. Creativity and innovation is further enhanced by the heterogeneity of the workforce. The morale of the employees will be boosted; thereby, increasing their commitment towards the company. To illustrate, if one employee is physically disabled yet he feels that he is not discriminated and not looked down upon by his co-workers and by management, then he will be encouraged to perform his best at work because he knows that he is appreciated despite his handicap. Moreover, in this era of globalization and rapid technological advancement, a diverse workforce from all walks of life will certainly benefit the organization. One such example is when a company hired different nationalities in its sales force, their revenue incredibly increased. This was because they we re able to tap various markets and serve their clients better since their sales force understood the specific needs of their foreign clientele. To recognize diversity means understanding that people have differences and similarities which can be used for the benefit of both the individual and management. Managing diversity means that there is fairness and equality in the organization. â€Å"

Student Loan Summary Essay Example for Free

Student Loan Summary Essay Some future consequences of borrowing too much debt can consist of having trouble paying your bills to receiving dunning notices from your creditors due to late or no payments. This will cause your accounts to than be turned over to debt collectors. You can then be at risk of losing some of your personal assets such as a car, or home. If you find yourself going through these things this can be considered a financial crises. Before it is time to start repaying any debts back you should develop a strategic plan, say for instance, I need to plan on how I will repay my student loan. The first thing I will do is to shop for a reputable Credit Counseling Organization that can advise me on money managing and my debts. Help me in creating and developing a budget that will help me to successfully repay any unsecured loans (student loans) I have acquired. One positive thing to do to keep students loans under control. Student loans are loans that pay for higher Education there are two types of way that helps you pay your tuition, books food and housing. With loans and grants, subsidized and unsubsidized loans. A subsidized loan is based on the students needs and do not require payments or repayments of interest until six months after graduation. An unsubsidized loan builds interest upon the time it is a worded, And one positive way to keep my student loan under control. According to the student loan characteristics if I receive a disbursement of a subsidized loan and I am an independent student my first Year loan of 2,625 payments don’t start until six months after graduation and interest rates at 8. 25% for one year is 4. 06% after graduation. And an unsubsidized loan will build and you pay interest rates during the life of the loan with interest rates of 8. 25% for one year is 6. 8% six months after graduation. I think knowing the steps to managing your finances and loans will help you stay out of debt.

Ambiguity in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay -- Young Goodman Br

Ambiguity in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Peter Conn in â€Å"Finding a Voice in an New Nation† makes a statement regarding Hawthorne’s ambiguity:   â€Å"Almost all of Hawthorne’s finest stories are remote in time or place. The glare of contemporary reality immobillized his imagination. He required shadows and half-light, and he sought a nervous equilibrium in ambiguity† (82). There is considerable ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† and this essay will examine this and its causes.    R. W. B. Lewis in â€Å"The Return into Rime: Hawthorne† mentions the ambiguity associated with the key imagery in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†:   â€Å"For Hawthorne, the forest was neither the proper home of the admirable Adam, as with Cooper; nor was it the hideout of the malevolent adversary. . . . It was the ambiguous setting of moral choice. . . .† (74-75). Henry James in Hawthorne, when discussing â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† mentions how allegorical Hawthorne is, and how it is not clearly expressed with this author:    The only cases in which it is endurable is when it is extremely spontaneous, when the analogy presents itself with eager promptitude. When it shows signs of having been groped and fumbled for, the needful illusion is of course absent, and the failure complete. Then the machinery alone is visible and the end to which it operates becomes a matter of indifference (50).    When one has to grope for, and fumble for, the meaning of a tale, then there is â€Å"failure† in the work, as Henry James says. This unfortunately is the case of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† It is so ambiguous in so many occasions in the tale that a blur rather than a distinct image forms in the mind of the reader.    The Norton Anthology: Amer... ...    Lang, H.J.. â€Å"How Ambiguous Is Hawthorne.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Lewis, R. W. B. â€Å"The Return into Time: Hawthorne.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1965.    Melville, Hermann. â€Å"Hawthorne and His Mosses.† In The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.         

Supply and Demand and New Housing

Introduction to Microeconomics Fall 2012 Assignment 1 due on October 4 in class (Total 80 points) Q1. (15 points) The following table shows production possibilities for two items—chairs and tables. Combination| Chairs| Tables| A| 0| 6| B| 8| 5| C| 15| 4| D| 21| 3| E| 26| 2| F| 30| 1| G| 33| 0| (a) What is the opportunity cost of producing the first table? (33-30)/1=3 (b) What is the opportunity cost of producing the third table? (26-21)/1=5 (c) What is the opportunity cost of producing the sixth table? 8-0)/1=8 (d) Draw the production-possibilities curve for chairs and tables on a graph, placing tables on the vertical axis and chairs on the horizontal axis. (e) If the economy achieved greater efficiency in the production of tables, how would the production –possibilities curve change? (f) If a more efficient method of producing chairs were developed, how would the curve change? (g) Suppose more economic resources (labour, materials, and capital) became available. How wo uld the curve change?Q2. (15 points) The following table describes the production possibilities of two cities. Red SweatersPer Worker per Hour| Blue SweatersPer Worker per Hour| Montreal| 3| 3| Toronto| 2| 1| (a) Without trade, what is the price of blue sweaters (in terms of red sweaters) in Montreal? What is the price in Toronto? (b) Which city has an absolute advantage in the production of each colour of sweater? Which city has a comparative advantage in the production of each colour of sweater? (c) If the cities trade with each other, which colour of sweater will each export? (d) What is the range of prices at which trade can occur? Q3. 10 points) Canada has a mixed economic system, in which both marketplace and government play a role. For each of the following situation, explain why you think that it would be best dealt with by the market, or by government action. (a) There are too many restaurants in a town, and several are losing money. (b) The gap between the rich and the poo r is very wide, and the poorest citizens are unable to afford even the bare necessities of life. (c)The largest supermarket chain in the country is planning to buy the second-largest chain, which would give it a near-monopoly in many communities. d) A trend toward healthier eating has driven the price of chicken up so sharply that many consumers are complaining to the government about the increased prices. (e) Several manufacturers are cutting costs by dumping waste into a local river. Q4. (5 points) A customer is about to buy 4 shirts at $20 each. When she finds that they have just gone on sale for $15, she buys 5 shirts instead. Is her demand for these shirts elastic or inelastic? Explain the reason for your answer. Q5. (10 points) From 1997 to 2001, the price of coffee on world markets fell from $1. 60 U. S per pound to $0. 6 U. S. per pound— a decrease of 65 percent. (a) What is the most logical explanation for such a decrease in price? (b) What explains the large size of the price decrease? (c)Draw a graph representing the factors in (a) and (b). Q6. (10 points) Assume the demand schedule for ice-cream cones can be represented by the equation QD=160-3P, where QD is the quantity demanded and P is the price. The supply schedule can be represented by QS=140+7P, where QS is the quantity supplied. (a) Calculate the equilibrium price and quantity in the market for ice-cream cones. (b) The Canadian Association f Ice-Cream Eaters complains that the equilibrium price calculated in part (a) is too high, and their members cannot eat enough ice-cream cones at this price. They lobby the government to impose a price ceiling on ice-cream cones of $1. What is the quantity demanded at this price? The quantity supplied? Is there a shortage or surplus of ice cream? How big is it? What if a $2. 50 price ceiling was imposed instead? (c) Say instead that the Canadian Association of Ice-Cream Makers lobbies the government, arguing that the equilibrium price is too low fo r their members to make a decent living.They want a price floor of $3 per cone. What is the quantity demanded at this price? The quantity supplied? Is there a shortage or a surplus of ice cream? What is it? What if a price floor of $1. 50 was imposed instead? Q7. (15 points) One of the key prices Statistics Canada monitors is the price of new housing. The statistics do not show the actual price of housing in dollars, but rather an â€Å"index† of prices that is set at 100. 0 in 2007, with the index in each year after 2007 showing how much prices have increased since 2007.To see how the price of new housing has changed over the past 5 years, visit the Statistics Canada website at http://www. statcan. gc. ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/manuf12-eng. htm, and search for New housing price index for Canada. Calculate the percentage increase in new housing prices each year over the past five years (2007-2011). What trend do you see in new housing prices for Canada (national av erage level), and is there any noticeable trend for the Metropolitan areas? What demand side or supply side factors might explain these?

Progressive Case Study

Progressive Case Study Progressive Auto Insurance company is among many other competing firms in the industry. Some of the others include State Farm, Allstate, and GEICO. They are currently the third biggest private auto insurance industry. From the time they came into existence they have strived for being the most innovative company in the market and shared the values of â€Å"fair, fast, best. † Beginning in 1957 Progressive mainly dealt with standard drivers but soon after they developed a strategy that benefitted them greatly.For the next 25 years they started to focus on the nonstandard driver, who are the drivers that insurers would not cover. Particularly they segmented motorcyclists who had recently received a DUI. They priced the premiums high which resulted in high profitability. They found out that the motorcyclists were actually a lot lower risk than other companies originally perceived. Starting in 1990, they started a practice of immediate response which reduced trauma for the person involved and also helped them in getting an accurate quote for the damages.They also introduced the gold card which reduced the time it took for people to respond to Progressive. In 1995, Progressive became the first insurance company to expand its business to the world wide web essay writer website. The biggest innovative move they made was in 2000 when they introduced the concierge service which included full service repair and customer service at their own shops. Starting in 2006 Progressive was enjoying high profitability due to unanticipated accident frequencies.Thus many companies cut their prices to keep up with the competition. The problem with this is severe underwriting losses. They tried the tactic of reducing prices below their competitors in hope to gain market share but this was the opposite result for them. The CEO Glenn Renwick recommended slowly returning to the underwriting profits of 4% rather than the drastic price drops which could hurt the m if the accident frequencies increased.JD power and Associates gave Progressive a sub par score for overall customer satisfaction of 14. They also fared low on brand awareness ranking in at 57% unaided brand awareness. Their competitors were at GEICO(79%), Allstate(69%), and State Farm(74%). Although they increased their advertising from 8 million in 1997 to 263 million in 2006, they were lagging behind the leading competitors in the field. Although Progressive have been striving as an innovative insurance company they have been lacking behind a few leading companies.It appears that they may need to narrow in on their strengths and cut out some of their programs to make sure they are ensuring high customer satisfaction. After learning that there are many risks out there, people want to know that they will be in good hands after a major disaster or incident. People will always rely on insurance companies because there numerous risks out there that people face everyday. With these co mpanies people feel at ease about the everyday risks that they constantly endure.

Westinghouse essays

Westinghouse essays Most people know the name Westinghouse as the name of an appliance, but where did the name come from? Many people may not know that George Westinghouse was not only an inventor, but a visionary. George Westinghouse's many inventions fed the Industrial Revolution that swept through America in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution brought many changes to the United States. Even though America was progressing, many ill effects were brought on by this expansion. Westinghouse was one of the Industrialist that actually cared about the many problems he saw in urban America. Westinghouse, at the age of forty-two, could no longer ignore "the evils of social upheaval created by too rapid industrial development"(Levine, 2). George Westinghouse wanted something done, but it looked as if he was the only one that would do it. George Westinghouse had influenced many areas of his era and ours. His many inventions, his good-willed policy toward his workers and his business practices have affected all of us; but nothing will compare to the influences that he left on our country's upper-class - the concept that they had a responsibility toward the society that had made them who they were. George Westinghouse was born eight of ten children into a middle class family on October 6, 1846. Westinghouse's father ran a small machine shop in Schendectady, NY, that manufactured mostly farm implements; as a result, Westinghouse was introduced to the world of machines at a very early age. Due to curiosities he found during the Civil War, in which he served in both the Northern Army and the Navy, Westinghouse invented a rotary steam engine. At age nineteen, this was his first patented invention; however, the design proved to be impractical. Despite his troubles, Westinghouse went on to invent a device for placing derailed railroad cars back on their tracks. The next year, Westinghouse was riding on a train that was ...

Business System Analysis and Design Notes

Skills by System Analyst:Working knowledge of information technology(The analyst must be aware of both existing and emerging information technologies),Computer programming, experience and expertise,General business knowledge,General problem-solving skills,Good interpersonal communication skills,Good interpersonal relations skills,Flexibility and adaptability,Character and ethics. Info sys architecture:provides a foundation for organizing various components of any info sys you care to develop. a unifying framework into which various stakeholders with different perspectives can organize and view the fundamental building blocks of information systems. Views of knowledge System owners view: Interested not in raw data but in information. (Business entities and business rules) System users’view: View data as something recorded on forms,stored in file cabinets,recorded in books and spreadsheets,or stored on computer. Focus on business issues as they pertain to data. Data requirement System designers’ view: Data structures,database schemas,fields,indexes,and constraints of particular database management system (DBMS). System builders’ view: SQL,DBMS or other data technologies Views of process System owners’view:Concerned with high-level processes called business functions. A cross-functional information system System users’view:Concerned with work that must be performed to provide the appropriate responses to business events. Business processes,Process requirements,Policy,Procedure, Work flow System designers’view:Concerned with which processes to automate and how to automate them. Software specifications System builders’view:Concerned with programming logic that implements automated processes. Application program,Prototyping Views of communication System owners’ view: Who? Where? What? System users’ view: Concerned with the information system’s inputs and outputs. System designers’ view: Concerned with the technical design of both the user and the system-to-system communication interfaces. System builders’ view: Concerned with the construction, installation, testing and implementation of user and system-to-system interface solutions *Basic principles of system development: Get the system users involved. Use a problem-solving approach. Establish phases and activities. Document through development. Establish standards. Manage the process and projects. Justify systems as capital investments. Don’t be afraid to cancel or revise scope. Divide and conquer. Design systems for growth and change. The need to improve: Performance Info Eco/controlcosts Control/Security Efficiency Service Phases for system development: scope definition, problem analysis, requirements analysis, logical design, decision analysis, physical designand integration, construction and testing, installation and delivery. Cross life-cycle activity: Fact-finding, Documentation and presentation Documentation, Presentation, Repository), Feasibility analysis, Process and project management Routes through the basic systems development phases: model driven development strategies (process, data, object modeling), Rapid application development (RAD), commercial application package implementation, system maintenance *Benefits of use case modeling: Provides tool for capturing functional requirements. Assists in decomposing system into man ageable pieces. Provides means of communicating with users/stakeholders concerning system functionality in language they understand. Provides means of identifying, assigning, tracking, controlling, and management system development activities. Provides aid in estimating project scope, effort, and schedule. The relationships that can appear on a use-case model diagram: Use case association relationship, extension use case, abstract use case, depends on, inheritance Use case – a behaviorally related sequence of steps (scenario), both automated and manual, for the purpose of completing a single business task. Steps for preparing a use-case model: Identify business actors. Identify business use cases. Construct use-case model diagram. Documents business requirements use-case narratives *Data modeling(database modeling)–a technique for organizing and documenting a system’s data. Data Modeling Concepts:Entity(class of persons, places, objects, events, or concepts about which we need to capture and store data),Attribute(descriptive property or characteristic of an entity. Synonyms include element, property and field), Data type(property of an attribute that identifies what type of data can be stored in that attribute),Domain(a property of an attribute that defines what values an attribute can legitimately take on),Default value(the value that will be recorded if a value is not specified by the user),Key(an attribute, or a group of attributes, that assumes a unique value for each entity instance. It is sometimes called an identifier),Subsetting criteria(an attribute whose finite values divide all entity instances into useful subsets. Sometimes called an inversion entry),Relationship(a natural business association that exists between one or more entities),Cardinality(the minimum and maximum number of occurrences of one entity that may be related to a single occurrence of the other entity),Degree(the number of entities that participate in the relationship),Recursive relationship(a relationship that exists between instances of the same entity),Foreign key(a primary key of an entity that is used in another entity to identify instances of a relationship),Parent entity(a data entity that contributes one or more attributes to another entity, called the child. In a one-to-many relationship the parent is the entity on the â€Å"one† side),Child entity(a data entity that derives one or more attributes from another entity, called the parent. In a one-to-many relationship the child is the entity on the â€Å"many† side),Nonidentifying relationship(relationship where each participating entity has its own independent primary key), Identifying relationship – relationship in which the parent entity’ key is also part of the primary key of the child entity,Generalization(a concept wherein the attributes that are common to several types of an entity are grouped into their own entity),Nonspecific relationship(relationship where many instances of an entity are associated with many instances of another entity. Also called many-to-many relationship) ,Sample CASE Tool Notations Entity relationship diagram (ERD):a data model utilizing several notations to depict data in terms of the entities and relationships described by that data. Logical Model Development Stages:1Context Data model(Includes only entities and relationships;To establish project scope). 2Key-based data model(Eliminate nonspecific relationships;Add associative entities;Include primary and alternate keys;Precise cardinalities). Fully attributed data model(All remaining attributes;Subsetting criteria). 4Normalized data model Normalize a logical data model to remove impurities that can make a database unstable, inflexible, and nonscalable. First normal form (1NF):entity whose attributes have no more than one value for a single instance of that entity,Any attributes that can have multiple values actually describe a separate entity, possibly an entity and relationship. Second normal form (2NF):entity whose nonprimary-key attributes are dependent on the full primary key,Any nonkey attributes dependent on only part of the primary key should be moved to entity where that partial key is the full key,May require creating a new entity and relationship on the model. Third normal form (3NF):entity whose nonprimary-key attributes are not dependent on any other non-primary key attributes. *Model:pictorial representation of reality. Logical model:nontechnical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does. Physical model:technical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does and how the system is implemented Process modeling:a technique used to organize and document a system’s processes. (Flow of data through processes,Logic,Policies,Procedures) Data flow diagram (DFD):a process model used to depict the flow of data through a system and the work or processing performed by the system. Synonyms are bubble chart, transformation graph, and process model. The DFD has also become a popular tool for business process redesign. Processes on DFDs can operate in parallel (at-the-same-time). DFDs show the flow of data through a system. Processes on a DFD can have dramatically different timing (daily, weekly, on demand) Context data flow diagram:a process model used to document the scope for a system. Also called the environmental model. Think of the system as a â€Å"black box. â€Å"2Ask users what business transactions the system must respond to. These are inputs, and the sources are external agents. 3Ask users what responses must be produced by the system. These are outputs, and the destinations are external agents. 4Identify any external data stores, if any. 5Draw a context diagram. Decomposition diagram:a tool used to depict the decomposition of a system. Also called hierarchy chart. Business System Analysis and Design Notes Skills by System Analyst:Working knowledge of information technology(The analyst must be aware of both existing and emerging information technologies),Computer programming, experience and expertise,General business knowledge,General problem-solving skills,Good interpersonal communication skills,Good interpersonal relations skills,Flexibility and adaptability,Character and ethics. Info sys architecture:provides a foundation for organizing various components of any info sys you care to develop. a unifying framework into which various stakeholders with different perspectives can organize and view the fundamental building blocks of information systems. Views of knowledge System owners view: Interested not in raw data but in information. (Business entities and business rules) System users’view: View data as something recorded on forms,stored in file cabinets,recorded in books and spreadsheets,or stored on computer. Focus on business issues as they pertain to data. Data requirement System designers’ view: Data structures,database schemas,fields,indexes,and constraints of particular database management system (DBMS). System builders’ view: SQL,DBMS or other data technologies Views of process System owners’view:Concerned with high-level processes called business functions. A cross-functional information system System users’view:Concerned with work that must be performed to provide the appropriate responses to business events. Business processes,Process requirements,Policy,Procedure, Work flow System designers’view:Concerned with which processes to automate and how to automate them. Software specifications System builders’view:Concerned with programming logic that implements automated processes. Application program,Prototyping Views of communication System owners’ view: Who? Where? What? System users’ view: Concerned with the information system’s inputs and outputs. System designers’ view: Concerned with the technical design of both the user and the system-to-system communication interfaces. System builders’ view: Concerned with the construction, installation, testing and implementation of user and system-to-system interface solutions *Basic principles of system development: Get the system users involved. Use a problem-solving approach. Establish phases and activities. Document through development. Establish standards. Manage the process and projects. Justify systems as capital investments. Don’t be afraid to cancel or revise scope. Divide and conquer. Design systems for growth and change. The need to improve: Performance Info Eco/controlcosts Control/Security Efficiency Service Phases for system development: scope definition, problem analysis, requirements analysis, logical design, decision analysis, physical designand integration, construction and testing, installation and delivery. Cross life-cycle activity: Fact-finding, Documentation and presentation Documentation, Presentation, Repository), Feasibility analysis, Process and project management Routes through the basic systems development phases: model driven development strategies (process, data, object modeling), Rapid application development (RAD), commercial application package implementation, system maintenance *Benefits of use case modeling: Provides tool for capturing functional requirements. Assists in decomposing system into man ageable pieces. Provides means of communicating with users/stakeholders concerning system functionality in language they understand. Provides means of identifying, assigning, tracking, controlling, and management system development activities. Provides aid in estimating project scope, effort, and schedule. The relationships that can appear on a use-case model diagram: Use case association relationship, extension use case, abstract use case, depends on, inheritance Use case – a behaviorally related sequence of steps (scenario), both automated and manual, for the purpose of completing a single business task. Steps for preparing a use-case model: Identify business actors. Identify business use cases. Construct use-case model diagram. Documents business requirements use-case narratives *Data modeling(database modeling)–a technique for organizing and documenting a system’s data. Data Modeling Concepts:Entity(class of persons, places, objects, events, or concepts about which we need to capture and store data),Attribute(descriptive property or characteristic of an entity. Synonyms include element, property and field), Data type(property of an attribute that identifies what type of data can be stored in that attribute),Domain(a property of an attribute that defines what values an attribute can legitimately take on),Default value(the value that will be recorded if a value is not specified by the user),Key(an attribute, or a group of attributes, that assumes a unique value for each entity instance. It is sometimes called an identifier),Subsetting criteria(an attribute whose finite values divide all entity instances into useful subsets. Sometimes called an inversion entry),Relationship(a natural business association that exists between one or more entities),Cardinality(the minimum and maximum number of occurrences of one entity that may be related to a single occurrence of the other entity),Degree(the number of entities that participate in the relationship),Recursive relationship(a relationship that exists between instances of the same entity),Foreign key(a primary key of an entity that is used in another entity to identify instances of a relationship),Parent entity(a data entity that contributes one or more attributes to another entity, called the child. In a one-to-many relationship the parent is the entity on the â€Å"one† side),Child entity(a data entity that derives one or more attributes from another entity, called the parent. In a one-to-many relationship the child is the entity on the â€Å"many† side),Nonidentifying relationship(relationship where each participating entity has its own independent primary key), Identifying relationship – relationship in which the parent entity’ key is also part of the primary key of the child entity,Generalization(a concept wherein the attributes that are common to several types of an entity are grouped into their own entity),Nonspecific relationship(relationship where many instances of an entity are associated with many instances of another entity. Also called many-to-many relationship) ,Sample CASE Tool Notations Entity relationship diagram (ERD):a data model utilizing several notations to depict data in terms of the entities and relationships described by that data. Logical Model Development Stages:1Context Data model(Includes only entities and relationships;To establish project scope). 2Key-based data model(Eliminate nonspecific relationships;Add associative entities;Include primary and alternate keys;Precise cardinalities). Fully attributed data model(All remaining attributes;Subsetting criteria). 4Normalized data model Normalize a logical data model to remove impurities that can make a database unstable, inflexible, and nonscalable. First normal form (1NF):entity whose attributes have no more than one value for a single instance of that entity,Any attributes that can have multiple values actually describe a separate entity, possibly an entity and relationship. Second normal form (2NF):entity whose nonprimary-key attributes are dependent on the full primary key,Any nonkey attributes dependent on only part of the primary key should be moved to entity where that partial key is the full key,May require creating a new entity and relationship on the model. Third normal form (3NF):entity whose nonprimary-key attributes are not dependent on any other non-primary key attributes. *Model:pictorial representation of reality. Logical model:nontechnical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does. Physical model:technical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does and how the system is implemented Process modeling:a technique used to organize and document a system’s processes. (Flow of data through processes,Logic,Policies,Procedures) Data flow diagram (DFD):a process model used to depict the flow of data through a system and the work or processing performed by the system. Synonyms are bubble chart, transformation graph, and process model. The DFD has also become a popular tool for business process redesign. Processes on DFDs can operate in parallel (at-the-same-time). DFDs show the flow of data through a system. Processes on a DFD can have dramatically different timing (daily, weekly, on demand) Context data flow diagram:a process model used to document the scope for a system. Also called the environmental model. Think of the system as a â€Å"black box. â€Å"2Ask users what business transactions the system must respond to. These are inputs, and the sources are external agents. 3Ask users what responses must be produced by the system. These are outputs, and the destinations are external agents. 4Identify any external data stores, if any. 5Draw a context diagram. Decomposition diagram:a tool used to depict the decomposition of a system. Also called hierarchy chart.

Heat Emergency Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Heat Emergency Plan - Essay Example Many heat - wave plans for several communities from around the world have already been developed and these have been included in the bibliography for this report. 1 2 3 A heat - wave response plan is often a plan under a health emergency disaster plan and such a plan places an emphasis on helping people to protect themselves by seeking a cooler environment, with high quality medical assistance being extended to the community, especially the elderly. Although the precise procedures for presenting an alert warning about an impending heat - wave vary from country to country, France serves as a good example because of its experience with a recent devastating heat - wave. The biometrological advisory system in France presents a first forecast announcement to health professionals and civil service as well as social correspondents 4 to 7 days before the event. A further warning forecast is issued to professionals, the media and the public 1 – 3 days before the event and this is followed by a four – color biometrological advisory to the public one day before the event. The colors green, yellow, orange and red point to the intensity of the danger that can be associated with an impending event, including a heat - wave. 4 Thus, it is possible to predict a heat - wave emergency and to plan for recovery and response. Older people are often more seriously affected by heat - waves because they have lost the resilience to cope with extremes of temperature. The plan tries to provide a well coordinated response by public agencies to the heat wave and the agencies that are likely to be involved include hospitals and health services, education, Police, Fire Services and the Wildlife Service. The heat - wave plan is activated once an extreme weather event is certain and the authority to do this often rests with the Medical Controller or an equivalent office for a region. 5 Advising people

Role of Women in Shi'a Islam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Role of Women in Shi'a Islam - Research Paper Example There were two new major Islamic societies that emerged after Muhammad died, the Shi’a and Sunni. These societies are also Islamic in nature. It is difficult to identify a Shi’ite from a Sunni because they are almost the same in practice. More of their differences lie on the interpretation of some passages in the Quran that’s why there are some slight differences in their Islamic traditions (â€Å"The Legitimacy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Quran is the holy book of Islam religion. The Islamic societies strictly follow what is written in the book. Their way of living, principles in life, worship to God and allocation of roles are guided by the book (â€Å"The Legitimacy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ).Some passages in the book are not literal in nature that’s why there is difficulty in interpretation. This difficulty in interpretation resulted in differences of interpretation between Sunni and Shi’a. One of the differences is the interpretation of the role of women in the soci ety. The role of women in society mostly circles in the marriage. There is a tradition called Mut’a wherein a woman is married to a man for pleasure in a certain agreed time. Also the man pays the woman according to the agreed payment (â€Å"The Legitimacy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). This tradition was from one of the passages of Quran. Perceiving this tradition from a 21st century perspective, Islamic women are treated like prostitutes except that there was an actual marriage that happened between the woman and man. Analyzing the tradition of Mut’a, women can be married several times because the marriage is only under a contract. A marriage under contract may or may not be because of love. The main reason of this marriage is said to be for pleasure of the men. Another tradition in Shi’a Islam is the business of marrying a family member’s wife and taking over of the financial responsibilities. Women may be passed down within the family as long as they are not relate d in blood. Most of the time, the dowry plays a big role in marriage (â€Å"The Legitimacy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). This kind of tradition shows that women are treated like possessions and not as free people. It is also observable in Islam tradition the marrying of women in an early age. Women are being married right after reaching their puberty. This may range as early as below 10 years old as long as the girl started having puberty. It is being done to maximize the child-bearing capabilities of women for the men. Looking closer to this situation, women in Islamic societies are also treated like goods being taken care of for marriage. Women’s role, as can be viewed from their tradition, primarily concerns the pleasure of their husbands and child-bearing. However, women might not receive the exclusivity of their husbands because men in Islamic societies are polygamous. Also the sons and daughters in the family are primarily owned by the father (Offenhauer 57). The culture of Islam al so indicates the role of women in their society. Women are expected to wear long veils. This is a sign of protecting the purity of women. The men are expected to protect their wives and they are given the rights to limit the actions of their wives especially in public. One example of these is the establishment of partition between men and women (Offenhauer57). This practice shows the domination of men over women. The men being the protector of women imply that women are weaker. This limits the opportunity of women in the society. Another consequence form the early marriage of women in Islam society is

Letter of Complaint Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Letter of Complaint - Assignment Example I was put on hold for more than ten minutes. I waited patiently listening to boring adverts while the attendant at the airport looked on. When a Ms. Ann picked the phone eventually, she sounded disinterested and kept shouting at me to repeat myself. We did not have any constructive communication and I heard her curse rudely as she banged the receiver. I had to make other arrangements in order to book the flight. I have been a customer of the bank for the past seven years and I have never witnessed such inefficiencies. Money is important and any delays such as the one I experienced results in the loss of business. Kindly act on my concern in order to prevent similar occurrences in future. I could be voicing the concerns of several other customers who may not have the time and resources to communicate with you. Among the features of your customer service that I want you to address include the fact that you call system is clumsy making customers wait for as long as twenty minutes or more. Kindly note that money and related transactions are important issues that influence the lives of your customers directly. Five minutes or less is adequate for someone to lose his money to swindlers. It therefore surprised me when I had to wait for close to fifteen minutes just for someone to pick the phone. The other issue is the attitude of your customer relation officers especially those working on the call centers. This was a portrayal of poor attitude and disregard to work ethics because I do not believe that a call center agent can ever behave as she did.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Indian Banking Consolidation

Mergers and Acquisitions: Indian Banking Consolidation Globally it has been found that the mergers and acquisition have become one of the major ways to corporate restructuring which has also struck the financial services industry which has experienced merger waves leading to the emergence of huge banks and financial institutions. The main reason for mergers is intense competition among the companies in the same industry which put focus on economies of scale, efficiency in cost and profitability. Some other factors leading to the mergers is the too big to fail principle followed by the authorities. In few countries like Germany, weak banks were forcefully merged to avoid the problem financial distress arising out of bad loans and erosion of capital funds. Several academic studies have analyzed merger related gains in banking and these studies have adopted two approaches. The first approach deals with evaluating the long term performance of the merger by analyzing the accounting information such as return on assets, operating costs and eff iciency ratios. A mergers is considered to have led to improved performance if the the change in the accounting based performance is superior to the changes in the performance of the comparable banks that were not involved in the merger activity during that period. Another approach is to analyze the gains in stock price of the bidder and the target company around the announcement of the merger. In this approach the merger is assumed to create value if the combined value of the bidder and target banks increase on the announcement of the merger and the consequent and the stock prices reflect the potential value of the acquiring banks. The objective of this paper is to present a panoramic view of merger trends in India and to ascertain two important perceptions of stake-holders, shareholders and managers and to discuss dilemmas and other issues of this topic of Indian banking. Review of Literature for impact of mergers The two important issues which are examined by various academic studies relating to bank mergers are: impact of mergers on the operating performance and efficiency of the banks Impact of mergers on the market value of the equity of both bidder and the target banks. Cornett and Tehranian (1992) and Spindit and Tarhan (1992) provided evidence for increase in post-merger operating performance. However the studies of Berger and Humphrey (1992), Piloff (1996) and Berger (1997) did not find any evidence in increase in post-merger operating performance. Berger and Humphrey (1994) also reported that most of the studies that examined pre-merger and post-merger financial ratios found no impact on operating cost and profit ratios. The reasons for mixed evidence are: lag between completion of merger process and the realization of benefits of mergers, sample selection and the methods adopted in the financing of mergers. Further, the financial ratios may be misleading indicators of performance because they do not take into account for product mix or input prices. On the other hand researches may also could have confused scale and scope efficiency gains with what is known as X-efficiency gains. Recent studies have explicitly employed frontier X-efficiency met hods to identify the X-efficiency benefits of bank mergers. Few studies have also analyzed the potential benefits and scale economies of mergers. Landerman (2000) explored diversification benefits to be had from banks merging with non banking financial service firms. Simulated mergers of US banks and non-bank financial service firms demonstrated that diversification of banks into insurance business and securities brokerage is optimal for reducing the probability of bankruptcy for bank holding companies. Wheelock and Wilson (2004) found that expected merger activity in US banking industry is positively related to management rating, size of the bank, competitive position and geographical location of banks and is negatively related to market concentration. The second issue determined was the analysis of merger gains in terms of the gains in stock price performance of the bidder and the target banks on announcement of merger. In this case a merger is expected to create value only if the combined value of the bidder and target companies increases after the declaration of the merger. However a lot of studies have failed to find any direct relationship between the merger and the gains in performance or in shareholder wealth. But there are reasons for mixed evidence as a merger announcement also takes in to account the way the deal is financed .If equity offerings are used it may be interpreted as overvaluation by the issuer. Therefore the negative announcements returns to the firms that are bidding can be attributed to the negative signalling which is completely unrelated to the value which is created by the merger. Returns to the bidders companies shareholders is greater when the merger is totally financed with cash than in mergers in whi ch financing is done through equity offering. There is one more problem with this event study analysis as if there is a consolidation wave going on; mergers are anticipated by stockholders and analyst. Potential candidates for the mergers are highlighted and made popular by the financial press and the stock market analysts. In these cases the event study analysis may fail. Therefore an analysis of mergers across the world and a literature review does not provide strong evidence on the benefits gained by banks in the mergers in the banking industry. Also the findings of the literature also contrast with the findings of the consultants who find a considerable cost savings and operational efficiency achieved through mergers. The reasons why academic study do not find cost benefits and the consultants highlight this fact are Consulates may study a potential cost savings which may not materialize They tend to highlight potential cost saving activities and the economist study all the activities. They tend to be biased towards successful cases and ignore the unsuccessful ones. They tend blow up the benefits achieved while the benefits may be miniscule if accounted on a relative terms. The academic studies provide motivation for the examination and evaluation of two important issues pertaining to the mergers and acquisition to the Indian banking. Do mergers help in improving the operational performance and result in cost savings However in India most of the mergers are forced by the central bank in order to protect the interest of the depositors and avoid financial distress therefore the above mentioned reason is rarely found in the mergers activities. Do merger provide abnormal gains and returns to the acquirer and the target banks upon the declaration Consolidation Trends Observed in India Improving the operational performance and cost efficiency has always been a priority in Indian banking sector and has been a major issue of discussions in the policy formulation by the government of India in the consultation and with the central bank (Reserve Bank of India). Several committees have also been formed in order to suggest structural changes to achieve this objective. Some of the major committees formed are Banking Commission, 1972 Chairman R.G Saraiya, 1976 chairman : Manubhai Shah Committee for the functioning of public sector banks, 1978 chairman : James S Raj These committees have suggested the restructuring of the Indian banking system with an objective to improve the process of credit delivery and also suggested the idea of having around 3 to 4 large banks which have a pan India presence and the rest of the bank should be present at the regional level. The major thrust on consolidation started with the Narasimham committee in 1991. It emphasised and embarked upon consolidation and merger in order to make the Indian banks huge in size and also comparable to the global banks. A second Narasimham committe was also formed in 1998 which suggested mergers and consolidation among the strong banks in public as well as private sector and also with other financial institutions, NBFC (Non Banking Financial Companies). Now we will have a look at some of the recent trends in consolidation in Indian banking. Restructuring of weak Indian Banks Amongst other routes government of India has adopted mergers as a means to achieve restructuring of the Indian banking system. Many banks which are small in size and are weak are merged with other banks which are stronger and are larger to protect the interest of the depositors and also to avoid financial distress. These types of mergers can be termed as forced mergers. Hence when a banks shows symptoms of sickness like increasing size of NPAs, reduction in the net worth and substantial decline in capital adequacy ratio, RBI forces moratorium under the section 45(1) of the Banking Regulation act 1949 for a specified period on the activities and the operations of the working of the sick bank. In this period a strong bank is identified and asked to prepare and present a scheme of merger with the weak bank. In this case the acquirer banks takes hold of all the assets of the weak bank and ensures the depositors of their money in case they want to withdraw. The mergers which took place in the pre-reform period fall into this category. In the post reform period 21 mergers have taken place out of which 13 are forced mergers where RBI has intervened. The main reason for these mergers was the protection of the depositors interest and avoids the financial distress. Mergers which took place voluntarily Apart from forced mergers there have been few mergers in which expansion, diversification and growth were the major motives and in which RBI did not intervene or force. The first merger of this kind took place in 1993 when the Times Bank was acquired by HDFC bank which was followed by acquisition of Bank of Madura by the ICICI Bank. The latest of these is merger of Lord Krishnan Bank with Centurion Bank of Punjab. Although in all these deals the target bank suffered with low profitability, Increase in NPA and lack of alternate revenues in order to provide cushion for capital adequacy but these mergers were not forced. There was no regulatory intervention in these mergers however the motives behind these mergers may not necessarily be scale of economies and achieving market power. For instance ICICI bank acquired bank of Russia with a motive of entry in to Russia although it just had one branch. SBI acquired 51% stake in Mauritian Bank through Indian Ocean International Bank which wil l be integrated with the State Bank of Indias International business as a subsidiary. Integration of Financial Services and Achieving Universal Banking Model Several developmental financial institutions have been formed over a period of time in India in order to improve the efficiency of allocation of resources to different segments of the economy. However because of the flexibility given by the RBI to the banks in the credit delivery process the banks have increased and diversified their loan portfolio to various areas such as project finance, long-term loans, and other specialised sector lending. This is the reason why DFIs have become redundant. A working capital group (1998) was appointed by RBI which has recommended the universal model of banking by exploring the possibility of mergers between various sets of financial entities based on economical considerations. Similarly in the private sector ICICI merger with its subsidiary bank and IDBI (industrial Development Bank of India) was incorporates as a public sector bank which acquired private sector bank IDBI bank in 2004. In order to provide integrated financial services and achieve operation efficiencies many public sector banks have acquired their subsidiaries, for instance Andhra Bank acquired its housing finance subsidiary Andhra Bank Housing Finance LTD, Bank of India acquired BOI finance Ltd and BOI Asset Management Company Ltd. Acquisition of similar types took place in the private sector as well. Alignment of Operations of Foreign Banks with Global Trends As the Parent banks went under reconstruction process their parts operating in India also started restructuring. For example, Standard Charted Grindlay bank was formed due to acquisition of ANZ Grindlay by the Standard Charted Bank. Similarly due to acquisition of two Japanese banks like Sakura Bank and Sumitomo Bank Ltd the Indian operations of Sakura Bank were merged with Sumitomo Bank in 2001.Forign banks were permitted to enter into merger and acquisition transaction with any of the private sector bank in India with a condition that the overall investment limit limit will be 74 per cent after the second phase of WTO commitments which commenced in April 2009. This may lead to further consolidation in the Indian banking sector. Merger and Consolidation of Cooperatives, RRBs and UCBs Small banks present in India apart from other banks are co-operative banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs). These are formed for fulfilling the credit requirements of agriculture, small traders and SSI and other rural economic activities. All of these institutions are suffering from bad loans, operational inefficiencies, and Poor recovery of loans. This proved to be a barrier for further lending and financial intermediation. A committee formed under Jugdish Capoor suggested voluntary amalgamations or merger of these co-operatives based on various criterias like economies of scale, especially in areas where the operations of these banks have become unviable and there are no more in a position to supply credit to agriculture sector. 28 RRBs were consolidated into 9 new RRBs in September 2005.A high powered committee on Urban Co-operative Banks (1999) recommended that UCBs which are sick should be liquidated in a time bound manner as the operation of lar ge number of financially sick banks is devastating for UCBs and also for the interest of depositors. Due to this more mergers are expected in the future and RBI also has taken a lot of new initiatives for restructuring of banks including the issuance of guidelines in May 2005. Shareholders Perception of Merger As stated above the Indian banking sector has experienced two types of mergers – focussed and voluntary mergers. Forced mergers were initiated by RBI and their main objective was to protect the interest of the depositors and prevent financial distress of the banks. Whenever a bank showed symptoms of sickness like huge NPA levels, erosion of net worth etc, RBI intervened and merged the weak bank with a stronger one by force. Thus we can form a hypothesis that in case of forced mergers the target banks shareholders will gain abnormally with the declaration. The second type of merger is voluntary type where the motivation behind the merger is to achieve cost reduction, increase in size, diversification, strategic entry into a market. In these cases the acquired banks reaped the benefit of branch network and customer clientele of the banks acquired. In these cases both the acquirer bank and the target bank must have had benefit out of the merger. In this paper the mergers between 1993 to 2006 are considered. There were 21 mergers out of which only five were voluntary. These are mainly mergers of private sector banks with other private sector banks. Two cases are conversion of financial institution to commercial bank where the objective was to form a universal bank model which offers a wide range of financial services. Ina study conducted which is presented in this paper six cases of forced mergers were selected for the purpose of analysis as in other cases the target banks were not listed and the size of the banks were much lower than the acquirer banks therefore these cases are of less merit for further analysis. In this study the wealth effects of almost all the banking mergers during the period 1999-2006 is analyzed. The event study analysis used in this analysis is very straight forward and conventional. The merger period consist of four days prior and four days after the event. The reason for taking such window is to analyze the change in wealth of the shareholder around the day of the declaration on the merger. Daily adjusted closing prices of stocks and the market index is taken for the analysis. The abnormal returns are calculated as follows. ARit= Rit – [a + BRm] Here Rit: daily return on firm ‘i on day ‘t Rmt is the return on the bench mark index a and B are the regression parameters. The abnormal return is calculated for both the acquirer and the target firm and the significance of these values are tested by finding standard error and the t-value : Analysis of Research Results In forced mergers case the stockholders of target banks have not achieved any significant returns on the declaration of the merger. However in the case of Nedungadi Bank, the stockholder did gain significant on the 2nd day of the announcement but after that no abnormal returns were found. In the case of GTB the stockholders had deeply discounted the merger. As it was a case of serious case of bank failure the merger did give a confidence to the depositors but the merger declaration did not provide any abnormal returns. United bank did gain marginally on the announcement but it was not significant statistically. Thus the hypothesis that target banks shareholders welcome merger announcement as a safety net can be rejected. The shareholders of the acquirer bank lost their market value of equity. In case of ICICI bank, it was signalled as an emergence of a large private sector bank and hence due to which the banks shareholders expectations go up with significant increase in the returns. In other cases of acquisition the acquirer bank lost on merging with the weak banks. Hence in all the forced mergers neither the acquirer bank nor the target bank gained on declaration of the merger and the stockholders of the acquirer bank lost wealth as the announcement of the merger was taken as a negative signal. It is argued that merger of weak banks with strong ones is essential for restructuring of banking system and also a step in the consolidation of the banking sector. But in almost all the mergers it was found that the target banks for the merger were determined at the time when they were at the verge of getting collapse. The acquirer bank which was forced by RBI was left with no option but to accept the proposed merger. It is recommended that RBI should pursue Prompt corrective action system and should determine the weak banks on the basis of some defined criterias so that the acquirer bank can choose the target banks on the strategic issues which benefit all the parties . Abnormal Returns of Target Banks Abnormal returns of Bidder banks In case of voluntary mergers it can be seen that the target banks have obtained higher returns that the acquirer banks. Both the acquirer and the target banks stockholders benefitted on declaration of the merger. Therefore the stock market welcomed the merger which will lead to growth and efficiency aspects of the merged entity and benefitted the shareholders of both the banks. For instance in the case of acquisition of times banks by HDFC bank it was viewed as a positive signal by the shareholders of both the bank. At the time of the merger the Times Bank was crippled with increasing NPAs and low profitability, the acquisition by the HDFC bank gave relief to the depositors of the Times Bank. On the other hand HDFC bank emerged as the largest private sector bank by gaining from the retail portfolio of the Times Bank. In case of BOM acquisition by the ICIC bank the BOM gained the advantage of being able to provide services like Treasury management, cash management services to its cust omers and ICICI bank increased its size by acquiring BOM and reached the position of large private sector banks in 1999. At the announcement of the merger there was a steep rise in the gains which was reaped by the BOM shareholders however the stockholders of ICIC bank did not get any significant returns. In all the even study analysis revealed that neither the acquirer bank nor the target bank stock holders have perceived any potential gain on the declaration of the mergers. Hence the share holders who are important stakeholders of the banking companies did not consider the mergers as a signal of improving health, economies of scale and the market power of banks. Managers take on the Mergers Managers provide highest priority to the merger of the two public sector banks which provides a signals the banking sectors view on the need for consolidation of public sector banks. Managers do not prefer the merger of bank and NBFCs or financial services entities There are some issues which are needed to be taken care of while proposing a merger of banks according to the managers Valuation of the Loan portfolio of the target bank This is one of the main factor which is needed to be considered at the time of the merger. As in the management of the credit portfolio the accounting and the exposure norms suggested by the RBI are the same which helps in figuring out the book value of loans easily. However Indian banks have adopted divergent practices in rating the borrowers, loan pricing and maintenance of collateral securities therefore a detailed audit of the loan portfolio, cash flow generation and collaterals is very essential in order to get an opinion on the value of the loan portfolio of the target bank. Valuation of Intangible assets The valuation of the assets of the banks is a very critical factor for the success of any merger or consolidation. The tangible assets of the bank are loans, investment part apart from other fixed assets like buildings, ATMs and the IT infrastructure the bank owns. A commercial bank also holds a lot of intangible assets like clientele based on core deposits, safety value contracts, computer softwares, human resources, brands and goodwill. Determining the inherent strength of the bank based on the valuation of the intangible assets is also very important. Determination of the value of equity Determining the value of the target banks assets, liabilities and valuation of its equity value is the major aspect of a merger process. Various approaches can be used like dividend discount model, cash flow to equity model and excess return model. However banks have totally different operations than a normal manufacturing firm as they are highly leveraged because they have more than 90% of the resources as borrowed or as debt and banks are highly regulated institutions and regulatory instruction have vast implication in asset and income recognition. Interest rates volatility, regulatory capital adequacy ratios and restriction on dividend pay put ratios also have influence on the earnings of the banks. Human Resource Issues It is the most complicated issue in the merger process.HR issues like the service condition, strategy for rewarding people, employee relation, benefit plans and compensation, provision of pension, law suits and the trade union actions are very critical for the viability of the merger and the deal to go through. Cultural Issues This is also a critical issue in the pre-merger and post merger period. It is central to an organizational environment and recognizing cultural friction is very difficult as it results in various problems such as poor productivity, riff in the top management, increase in the turnover rates, delays in the integration process and failures in realizing the projected synergies. Information Technology platform integration In todays banking banks are highly dependent on the information technology. It has become a key strategic issue due to the impact it has on the operation of the bank. A significant portion of the synergy depends on the information technology integration. Divergent IT platforms and software systems have proven to be major constraints in the consolidation. Customer Retention Customers also major stakeholders of banks and are needed to be communicated properly about the merger and the customers of the target bank should be attended with utmost care. Various studies have shown that firms borrowing from target banks are very likely to lose their relationship with the bank on its merger.