Academic Autobiography Essay - 922 Words

Galindo 1 Juan Galindo Professor Student Success September 9, 2013 My Academic Autobiography Thinking about college and your future career can be very overwhelming at the beginning. There’s so much to consider when it comes to getting ready for college: where to go and what to study. I’ve heard it said that sometimes a student will enter college fully aware of what they want to do in life, and doggedly reach their undergraduate goal after four years of diligent study. My college career didn’t start off on the best footing. I was a dreadful student in high school, chronically absent, and not doing homework even when I could be bothered to attend class. My Arlington, Virginia high school was competitive, and my†¦show more content†¦After a year of this mediocre performance, the worst possible thing happened from the perspective of academic success: I fell in love with a graduating senior. She was returning to her native Delaware on graduation, and with the finely honed reasoning that only eighteen year olds can display, I decided the obvious response on my part was to drop out and go with her. Rather than bore the faithful reader with the details, suffice it to say that over the course of the next ten years, while moving around the East Coast, I amassed piecemeal credit from Shepherd College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Northern Virginia Community College, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and Strayer University. Meanwhile, I had changed majors from Music Composition to Music Education to Communications before finally becoming involved with information technology. The ‘90s were a great time for technical people. No one cared about college degrees, as demand for competent labor was too high for employers to care about anything other than ability. After the burst of the dot-com bubble, however, things changed completely. One of those changes was my attitude toward completing my degree. Since the ads for jobs in my field had gone from saying â€Å"Associate degree preferred† to â€Å"Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred,† it seemed that the time had come to finish what I had started. ThereShow MoreRelatedMy Learning Autobiography : An Explanation Of Prior Academic Learning Essay2060 Words   |  9 PagesLearning Autobiography This autobiography will suffice as an explanation of prior academic learning that I’ve acquired over a 31-year span of my work and educational lifetime. My learning autobiography will display how I’ve been promoted through the ranks of each company I spent the most time with, gaining lasting knowledge along the way, it is here that I will demonstrate my experiential learning. 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Regime, Religion and Politics - 670 Words

Regime, Religion and Politics For many years, religion has been peripheral to the concerns of political philosophers, but it actually means the connection between human beings and God or gods, or whatever they consider sacred. On the other hand, there is another crucial factor called â€Å"Democracy†, which is by far the most challenging form of the state - both for politicians and for individuals. The term â€Å"democracy† comes from Greek language and it means â€Å" rule by the people†. In this essay, I will mention about how religions and politics are intertwined these days, and the ways goverments try to find the best solution for managing people. My specific focus here will be religious law system called Sharia. I believe this system can be an alternative regime for humanity, thanks to the fact that Islam is the most equitable and fair management system. 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His main idea was that People naturally have the rights of life,liberty, and property.

Relationship And Employee Motivation

Question: Discuss about the Fundamental Rewards are Fundamental Part of the Employment. Answer: Introduction Employee motivation is described as employees zeel to perform work and achieve their objectives in their roles. Employees are motivated by what happens in their life. Managers can invest and drive performance based on motivations demonstrated by the employee by fulfilling the various expectations and needs of their workers. Financial reward involves giving out the cash prize to encourage employees and staffers for the accomplishment of the specific goals of the organization. Also, it is the use of monetary incentives to enhance the performance of the employees through motivation and fostering the employer/employee relationship. The pros of financial incentives outweigh the cons that provide a chance for the improvement of the benefits. The management of the organization can manage disadvantage of financial rewards, therefore, most of the companies are encouraged to adopt strategies on how to manage issue concerning employee compensation and rewarding. Employers of the top most organi zation are looking for ways and means of increasing productivity and efficiency of employees and their thinking capacity limits at the monetary rewards. For example, a cash reward might be given to the best-producing sales employee or the person with the newest leads. Financial compensation can be in the form of closed percentage sales, profit sharing, and an organization bonus programs. Furthermore, financial incentives can be given on the spot for the recognition of innovation or any form of creativity and individual achievement in the organization. Financial rewards are a fundamental part of the employment relationship and employee motivation,' is a debatable statement. Reasons for the statement It is an easy way of influencing specific behaviors of employees. Each employer has a dream to employees with developed behaviors, which facilitate easy management of employees task in the organization (Leigh and Marcin 2012, p.445-450). An employer would be triumphal to receive a reward of an employee who does not create issues at the workplace. The developed behaviors of an employee include the following; Positive can do attitude This attitude involves readiness, availability and willingness to get the job done at the right time. Can do attitude is a behavior that every employee would keep at the frontline of the organization to ensure the success of the business (Bryant and Allen 2014, p.171-175). Employers need to appreciate such attitudes from their employees to enable them to be focused, busy and productive for the company. Employees with this kind of behavior are eager to extra miles beyond their regular duties to promote the further success of the organization. Friendly and courteous Employees who exercise courteous and friendly to other people such as coworkers, managers, and customers would create a favorable environment in the workplace and make a pleasant office for the manager than those who cause interference day by day (Leigh and Marcin 2012, p.445-450). Courteous and friendly in an organization brightens the office, maintain a good atmosphere and create a problem-free organization. Meets deadline Employees who meet deadlines in a team are always described as organized and responsible for their duties. When a particular deadline is given to an employee, a good worker will ensure meeting the deadline by maintaining a clean and well-arranged workspace (Bryant and Allen 2014, p.171-175). Meeting project deadline promotes the relationship between the employer and the employee as well as motivating every individual to work towards the achievement of the organizational goals. Responsibility taker An employee need to responsible for his or her duties. Those who consider and value their work and the future of the company will take the responsibility of telling the truth. The mistake is not an error unless it is recurrent (Panaccio and Vandenberghe 2014,p821-848). An employee who is capable of explaining the nature of his or her mistake in an organization set up would have an opportunity to be understood better by the employer. Punctuality and good attendance Regular attendance and arriving on time at the office help one to know the trust among the employees (Whitaker 2009). An individual who attend morning meetings arrives in time and ensure that the working environment is ready for production has a peace of mind with the organization (Anitha 2014). Employers are aware of all the employees who usually not punctual at the workplace and possibly missing staff meetings. A reliable and available worker would always be at peace with everyone. Secondly, the financial reward does not allow for personalization. Each is paid according to the organization salary regulations, and no one will mind about other employees salary (Whitaker 2009). The paid employee is motivated to work more than before knowing that hard work pays. Hard working employees are considered first during the promotion, and this virtue encourages everyone to perform their duties towards achieving the company goals and objectives (Stanely 2013). Personalization of payment might create worry in other employees mind, which reduces their rate of work performance, morale decreases, and loss productivity hence failure to accomplish the business goals. Moreover, many workers do not allow to be identified and appreciated for good performance, which in turn improves retention and morale of the employees. Improving employee retention is an important strategy in the organizational management (Gupta and Shaw 2014,p.1-4). Providing proper incentives and rewards to workers facilitate a high degree of workers retention and minimize employee turnover. Other than financial compensation, the employee morale, and retention can be improved by proper engagement, equal and fair treatment of all the staff, training, fun making and being transparent to the organization. Also, financial reward aids in the accomplishment of short-term goals of the organization such as maximizing productivity, increasing stock, replacement of existing machinery, establishing of another product line and creating new policies. Incentive provision minimizes problematic behaviors in the organization such as employee turnover, employee absenteeism, gossip and rumors within the organization and inequality in service delivery (Gupta and Shaw 2014,p.1-4). An incentive scheme also improves employee attitude and working environment of an organization. The incentive scheme is a program established to encourage productivity of the company through accomplishing important objectives such as decreasing the number of staff-hours lost. Monetary rewards in an organization are a way of providing extra compensation of workers who are constraints and do not suitable for promotion. Promotion is not for every hardworking employee, therefore, financial reward would play a role of compensating the workers who have not been promoted (Gupta and Shaw 2014, p.1-4). Compensation aids in the company to be competitive and fruitful. Strategic compensation ensures that personnel budget is in control by the organization as a whole and such systems might be perceived as fair in a manner that extra effort is equated to extra money compared to other systems whereby all the workers are paid equally regardless of their effort. Another reason for financial reward is showing esteem. Provision of financial rewards shows that employers value the employee's work and contribution to the organization. Though appreciation can sometimes be a motivating factor as well cash bonus or incentive impart an expression of esteem. Workers who are valued usually work hard to meet their personal and company goals since they expect for the financial increase in future and their participation are identified and treated as important in the business set up. The practical financial benefit is one of the major significance of financial reward in the organization because extra income is ever useful. For example, in U.S.A 40% of Americans spend more than they earn per year and this shows the spread of nature of an individual income being inadequate to cover daily requirements. The extra money in the cash bonus provides additional revenue for employee hence practical benefit. Reasons against the statement When an excess of financial rewards are in place, many workers may use ethical means of earning them persuading themselves that the mean is justified by the end (Chiang and Birtch 2012,p.532-571). When employees value reward so much, they become less active towards achieving organizational goals and setting their mind into money (Gerhart and Fang 2014,P.41-52). The short cuts and easy ways of accomplishing the company goals will be developed, and that tendency might cause dangerous and unethical activities in the society. Secondly, financial reward encourages creation of pay inequality, which can elevate employee turnover and reduce work performance (Gerhart and Fang 2014,P.41-52). Financial reward can be based on job performance that leads to different compensation to managers and employees hence inequality in payment facilitate frustration, hatred, upset and resentment (Ledford and Gerhart 2013,p17-29). Incentives not only enable employees to boost themselves and their families but also to identify the personality of every individual, value, and status in the society. Notre Dames Matt Bloom demonstrated that organizations with higher pay inequality encounter major problems such as employee turnover, loss of morale and lower performance. He used an analogy of league baseball players whereby lowly paid players lost more games and scored few goals compared to players that earn a high salary (Sparrow 2013,p.233). The advantage of best performers is outweighed by the price of low performers who are usual ly treated unfairly, which decreases their effort. Likely, Rutgers and Donald Hambrick also demonstrated that high inequality payment in the top management team experience lower market to book value as well as shareholders of the company (Grandey, Chi and Diamond 2013,p580-612). Researchers have illustrated that pay scheme for individual rewards depend on the perspective value of the organization, which is regarded as unhealthy that can generate adverse effects on collaboration by engaging in a bad comparison to one another (Ledford and Gerhart 2013,p17-29). Some studies have shown that stakeholders are most likely to quit companies with high pay inequality arguing that incentives provide inequalities that cause poor performance, low retention, and less collaboration. Also, the third risk of financial incentives relates to the reduction of the motivation of employees. In 1970s, Mark Lepper came up with a study whereby participants were appointed to play the game for fun as the rewards were presented to the successful person (Chiang and Birtch 2012,p.532-571). When the rewards were withdrawn, the participants stopped playing the game. The researchers then concluded that work is for incentives (Thompson, 2014). This indicates that rewards interfere with motivation to work and it becomes a challenging responsibility more so when produced in a controlling manner. Moreover, motivating employees with financial rewards such as bonuses and commission cause inconsistency (Thompson, 2014). For instance, a small organization may a profitable year hence can be able to provide rewards to the employees and workers but if the organization realized no profit, there would be no rewards even for the hardworking individuals (Aguinis and Joo 2013,p.249). This reduces the morale of work performance when the employee's expectation is not targeted. Teamwork is also another drawback to financial rewards. Team workers perform better than the individual performance to accomplish the organization goals (Zhang and Chang 2013, p.531-535). These incentives may interfere with the teamwork because rewarding only goes to the individuals who have achieved their personal objectives of the company hence causing divisiveness in the teamwork. For instance, most organizations present bonuses depending on the quantity of task an individual performs at a given duration of time. Burn out is also another adverse effect of financial reward (Sparrow 2013,p.233). Bonuses are meant for workers with extra working hours while other employees may work for long days with an objective to boost the opportunity of getting rewards, which may cause employ to be overworked hence leading to low morale and productivity per hour spent at work (Grandey, Chi and Diamond 2013,p580-612). Performance that depends on incentives can have an adverse effect on customers if workers are rewarded based on customer interaction (Mohamed 2016). For example, many sale agents obtain their payments based on commission and bonuses upon some sales. This provides sales representative with a chance to push for more sales, which can be a turn off to the customers. Finally, employee turnover is facilitated by the financial reward to an employee, which may be in the form of dismissal and attrition (Zhang and Chang 2013, p.531-535). An employee may see others being rewarded because of their good performance and feel disappointment. The rationale behind understanding employee motivation cannot be truly tolerated by others, which may lead to the resignation of members of the organization (Mohamed 2016). Dishonesty is also encountered by financial rewards. The motivation of employees can lead to integrity failure. When an employee does not tie satisfaction of the customer in sale statistics, the default may endorse sales at any cost, which can lead to employee quarrels over customers. Conclusion Financial reward in many organizations plays a role in promoting accomplishment of goals and objectives of the company. The pros of financial incentives outweigh the cons that provide a chance for the improvement of the benefits. The management of the organization can manage disadvantage of financial rewards. Therefore, most of the companies are encouraged to adopt strategies on how to manage issue concerning employee compensation and rewarding. If the company suffers on financial rewarding of employees, it may be promoted to avoid monetary compensation and shift to more of non-financial incentives such as training and other forms of compensation. Reference Bryant, P.C. and Allen, D.G., 2013. Compensation, benefits and employee turnover HR strategies for retaining top talent.Compensation Benefits Review,45(3), pp.171-175. Panaccio, A., Vandenberghe, C. and Ayed, A.K.B., 2014. The role of negative affectivity in the relationships between pay satisfaction, affective and continuance commitment and voluntary turnover: A moderated mediation model.human relations,67(7), pp.821-848. Whitaker, P., 2009. What non-financial rewards are successful motivators?.Strategic HR review,9(1). Gupta, N. and Shaw, J.D., 2014. Employee compensation: The neglected area of HRM research.Human Resource Management Review,24(1), pp.1-4. Sengupta, I., Reno, V.P., Burton Jr, J.F. and Baldwin, M.L., 2012. Workers compensation: Benefits, coverage, and costs, 2010.National Academy of Social Insurance. Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance.International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. Stanley, L., Vandenberghe, C., Vandenberg, R. and Bentein, K., 2013. Commitment profiles and employee turnover.Journal of Vocational Behavior,82(3), pp.176-187. Moore, M.J. and Viscusi, W.K., 2014.Compensation mechanisms for job risks: wages, Workers' Compensation, and product liability. Princeton University Press. Leigh, J.P. and Marcin, J.P., 2012. Workers' compensation benefits and shifting costs for occupational injury and illness.Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,54(4), pp.445-450. Grandey, A.A., Chi, N.W. and Diamond, J.A., 2013. Show me the money! Do financial rewards for performance enhance or undermine the satisfaction from emotional labor?.Personnel Psychology,66(3), pp.569-612. Aguinis, H., Joo, H. and Gottfredson, R.K., 2013. What monetary rewards can and cannot do: How to show employees the money.Business Horizons,56(2), pp.241-249. Chiang, F.F. and Birtch, T.A., 2012. The performance implications of financial and non?financial rewards: an Asian nordic comparison.Journal of Management Studies,49(3), pp.538-570. Sparrow, P.R., 2013. 11 International reward management.Reward management: a critical text, p.233. Gerhart, B. and Fang, M., 2014. Pay for (individual) performance: Issues, claims, evidence and the role of sorting effects.Human Resource Management Review,24(1), pp.41-52. Ledford, G.E., Gerhart, B. and Fang, M., 2013. Negative effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation: more smoke than fire.World at Work Journal, Second Quarter,22(2), pp.17-29. Thompson, N.C., 2014.Investigating talent attraction: percieved attractiveness of non-financial reward elements by means of an experimental design(Doctoral dissertation, University of Cape Town). Zhang, W.N., Chang, S.H., Guo, L.Y., Zhang, K.L. and Wang, J., 2013. The neural correlates of reward-related processing in major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.Journal of affective disorders,151(2), pp.531-539. Mohamed, R., 2016. The Relationship Between Strategic Performance Measurement Systems and Organisational Competitive Advantage.Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal,5(1).

Ratio Analysis - Yum! Brands free essay sample

Yum! Brands’ consolidated net profit margin lies within the industry average and for 2 years have shown slow yet steady growth. While sales from US operations declined by 5%, the company continued to gain momentum in China, where operating profit increased at an average of 26% year-on-year. Meanwhile, their Return on Assets fairs better than competitors such as McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza, showing that management efficiently manages its asset base. The company’s efficiency can be seen in its Cash Conversion Cycle, with -49. 2 in 2009. This number is much lower from its competitors, which suggests a liquid working capital position. Yum generates sales from its inventory and cash from its sales at a faster rate than the time its pays its suppliers. This means that it utilizes the average 60-day period before it has to fully purchases with suppliers, giving them â€Å"free cash† in principle. However, while this suggests less need to borrow, the company still received cash by issuing long-term debt in 2008 and 2009. We will write a custom essay sample on Ratio Analysis Yum! Brands or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Due to the nature of the business, on average, 56% of its total assets are fixed. And as Yum ventures into Asian countries, especially China and India, it allocates part of its cash to capital spending. However, in utilizing its fixed assets to generate sales, Yum scores lower compared to Wendy’s and McDonald’s. This may be due to its focus on aggressively adding new stores, with 2008 and 2009 serving as introduction years, before sales can fully pick up.One could also note, however, that sales in the US and International Divisions (ex-China) have decreased from 2007 to 2009. The company’s solvency, however, provides another story. As mentioned, Yum reported negative equity in 2008 mainly due to repurchase of sales. The company used its cash surplus to repurchase sales at a time when its stock price decreased, making it gain economic profits. This may also show the company’s belief and commitment that the stock price will increase again, especially because of the surge in opportunities in China.In addition, it reported accumulated other comprehensive loss in 2008 and 2009. As stated in its 2008 annual report, this loss was attributable to a decline in the â€Å"unrecognized funded status† of U. S. pension plans and foreign currency translation adjustments brought by the strengthened position of the U. S. Dollar. What is alarming in this situation is that the company is riding on a debt level that is 30% higher than its competitors. Majority of its liabilities are long-term debt, with some maturing in 30 years.Moreover, its current ratio appears to be very much lower than its peers, due to its massive use of cash for buybacks, and which suggests increasing risks to the company. It is hence surprising to note that despite this, the company still continues to distribute dividends with an average payout ratio of 36% year-on-year. This then hints at a possibility that Yum is inflating its dividends to continue attracting investors, at the expense of paying their debt position. Source: YUM! Brands Annual Report 2008 2009