Financial Decision Making and Theory

Financial Decision Making and Theory Abstract The aim of this research is to provide an overview of financial decision making and theory and practise according to which the decision has been taken. In this research the risks faced by any person or company in financial decision making and the strategies adopted by companies will be discussed. Decision making is plays an important role in progress of any company. Basically there are some set goals and objectives according to which company make their strategies and take financial decisions. Intelligent decisions put company on a progressive way and all this depends on the financial manager that how to make the strategy, how to follow a set plan of strategies and how much will be the success. Making right decision at the right time will lead a company to success, for this purpose one have to analyze the resources and then define some goals. Different strategies will be brought in to action to achieve those objectives and goals. Afterwards what will be the impact of investment for the company and how much profitable it will be also the role of taxation will be discussed. Chapter 1: Background and Introduction Introduction: Decision making is an important and necessary part of everyones life. When it comes to making business decisions i.e. where huge money is involved, and loss and profit make a big difference then financial decisions will be more risky, and difficult, however there will be certain rules and procedures by which risk of financial decision can be reduced or minimize the loss. The process of corporate decision making is the most important decision for effective management. Decision making process is based on experts knowledge and experience. The good financial decisions help the organization to generate profit effectively, if the decision is accurate, business in specific time will be successful, and however poor decision could lead to failure of business (Mind tools 2007). Every firm have some objective and goals because if there are no objectives and goals, then there is no point to struggle and hard work and therefore no development and success. According to those goals and objectives there will be a vision and mission of company and then some strategies will be defined to achieve those objectives. Profitability is the basic aim behind every strategy because it will help the company to forecast their profits, revenues and profits according to each strategy.(Lumby,S 2004) When deciding on an investment opportunity, one has to consider the risks involved. As an investor or manager makes decisions on which project to invest, consideration must be given for the Net Present Value (NPV) of the different projects from which to choose. Afterward, a good investor should conduct sensitivity and scenario analysis as well as a risk analysis. Sensitivity analysis shows NPV under varying assumptions, giving managers a better feel for the projects risks (Ross et al, 2005). In the real world, it is likely that there will be many variables affecting a project. The sensitivity analysis only modifies one variable at a time. This is where the scenario analysis comes into play. Scenario analysis examines a projects performance under different scenarios (Ross et al, 2005). Finally, the break-even analysis helps to calculate the figure at which the project breaks even. This is useful as Company want to know how bad forecasts must be before a project loses money. All three analyses help an organization or individual understand the risks involved in a project. The goal of dissertation is to analyze the risks associated with the investment that will help to make financial decision. Profitability index is a good tool to help determine which of the projects will give the company the highest value after investment. As a financial analyst, it is extremely difficult to eliminate bias for analysis. One has the option to adjust his or her stance and can choose to be conservative, moderate or aggressive. The value of the NPV, IRR and PI can be higher or lower based on the position that the financial analyst favours the most. This is a risk as it also poses some form of bias relating to the financial analysts view. The results would not show the true stance of the company, rather it would show the analysts view. To mitigate this risk, a strategic analyst will make decisions based on a combination of results and abstain from decisions based on his or her own stance (Ross et al, 2005). The fact that no one can be certain as to how the economy or market will perform in the coming years also poses a major risk. As the values are selected and decided, outside factors might have a major effect in the following years that will skew the current values. In the Financial decision making, no information is given on the stability of the market. If the market is not stable, predictions could not be made to a certain extent, thereby making investment decisions risky. To mitigate this risk, the concept of forecasting needs to be applied. Although forecasting would not eliminate all risks associated with the future, it may help identify and evaluate risks, clarifying factors and reveal assumptions (Veryard Projects, 2001). Forecasting will help to identify future risks in order for the companies to create a backup plan. Environmental scanning is also another mitigation method as it will help identify external factors that might pose a threat to their decisions (Veryard Projects, 2001). The Risk element in concept of investment decision is an imperative factor in the valuation of likely investments. Risk and risk management are at the core of an investments success. Risk refers to the volatility of unexpected outcomes, usually relating to the value of assets or incomes gained from them (Jorion and Khoury, 1996). In simple words, risk refers to a measure of the possibility of being surprised. A key concern for financial institutions and investors is the enormous issue of market risks. Risk can be categorised into number of types but a clear understanding of Financial Risk is beneficial in evaluation and monitoring of investments. Financial Risk is the variability in the investors returns. Investors can considerably reduce the variation in returns by carefully investing in two or more assets. Finally it is concluded that decision making is all about compare possible options and alternatives and financial decision is totally based on the theory of valuation because company valuation is necessary in order to make multiple alternatives and in all types of decisions there are same essential concepts involved which has exclusive features in the valuation and later on decision making process (Lumby, S 2004). These strategies help in making intelligent decisions by analyzing the given or required information. These strategies also help in selecting the best possible action based upon the consequences of decisions and also work out the significance of individual aspects (Mind tools 2007). Aims and Objectives The aim of this dissertation is to reduce the risk of financial decision making. To define a way for the managers by which they can reduce the risk of uncertainty and they can identify that whether to invest in this business is profitable or is there any risk of loss. There will be certain processes and procedures. By following them financial decision making will not very difficult and after investing these process will also make an estimation of the profit or loss. The main objectives of this dissertation will be as follows:- Identify the risks in financial decision making process. Define the methods and procedures to minimize the risk. To calculate that after investing in certain project what will be the impact of that investment i.e. Profitable or not. What will be the taxation effect? These objectives will be addressed in the different sections and then based on the research and findings a conclusion will be defined at the end. Chapter summaries This dissertation consists of an Abstract and five further chapters. In first chapter will be a thorough introduction of dissertation and about the aims and objectives In second chapter the literature review will highlight different areas of research and about the objectives to be achieved. Research methodology will be described in the third chapter and in this chapter different methods using during the research will be explained and also the collection of data. Chapter four will be about the outcomes of the research and there comparison with literature. Chapter five will be about the conclusion and recommendation by analyzing the objectives through different methodologies that what the final outcome of the dissertation is. Chapter 2: Literature Review Responsibilities of Financial manager in investment decision making The financial manager is the person whom primary responsibility for financial management in a firm. The financial manager must act as an intermediary standing among financial markets and the firms operations, where the firms securities are traded. The role of financial manager is very complicated its a two way process. Firstly, maintain a cash flow from shareholders to company and secondly from company to shareholders. This cash is for the purpose to acquire real assets used in and by the company operations and expanses. Later on if the performance of company is good and progressive these real assets generate profits for the company which works as cash inflows and finally this profit is returned to the shareholders who have earlier made the investment (BusinessCreditInfo.com, 2006). This shows that the financial manager has to deal with capital markets as well as the firms operations. Therefore, the financial manager must understand how capital markets work. The financial manager must undertake certain specific duties to carry out the responsibilities satisfactorily. Some of the main duties are summarized by the following; 1. The financial manager is continuously involved in financial analysis to monitor the financial performance of a firm. For example, financial manager has to ensure and provide adequate financial control such that funds are allocated in an efficient manner. 2. The financial manager must ensure that the firm meets its day-to-day cash requirements. 3. The financial manager advises on the acquisition of fixed assets such as cash, market securities, accounts receivable and inventories. 4. The current and fixed assets of a firm are usually financed through a combination of current and long-term liabilities, and equity, or shareholders money. The financial manager must ensure that a firm invests in the types and amounts of fixed assets needed for efficient operation. 5. The financial manager must pay attention to the welfare of the firms shareholders. In this regard, financial manager needs to develop and implement a dividend policy which is acceptable to these shareholders. The fundamental financial goal of any organization is to maximize the stockholders value. In general, an increase in stockholders wealth means that value has been added to firm assets and wealth of society has generally increased. In addition, stockholders are satisfy to contribute cash only if the decisions made to generate at least equal to the returns that stockholders could earn by investing in financial markets. Otherwise, shareholders might be wanted their money back. (Ardalan, K 2003) According to Van Horne J., (2007) stated that maximization of profits is regarded as the proper objective of the firm; however, maximization of profits is not as inclusive a goal as that of maximizing shareholder wealth. For one thing, total profits are not as important as earnings per share. A firm could always raise total profits by issuing shares and using the proceeds to invest in Treasury bills. The viewpoint of financial manager and stockholder regarding to maximizing share value are as following (Arcas, 2007); 1. The viewpoint of financial managers is creating high retained earning or profit to the company. Whereas, Shareholders consider to dividend and stock price of the company so the aim of the management is always to make the company profitable and progressive to maximize shareholders value. The makeup of the shareholders can change without affecting the operation of the corporation whereas the decision from financial manager could imply the trend of shareholders wealth. 2. Long-term and Short-term; financial managers: good financial managers will have a long-term plan to increase share value along with the current market situation. Meanwhile stakeholders and shareholders may desire to get the higher return with short-time period. Therefore, they may change and move around to find more profits. 3. Ethics in management; unethical financial manager may attempt to find the short-term prosperity and give him/herself a return in many kinds from company compensation. Meanwhile stakeholders: the inappropriate practice may lead to the unacceptable image and may relate to the industry wealth. In addition, shareholders: the unethical decision from manager could pull down the share value and may result in bankrupt if the owners are not promptly action to solve the issue. 4. Different Opinion in a type of investment to increase the shareholder wealth between financial manager and Shareholders because each person may see the high return from different perspective and the best decision can not be concluded. For example, stockholders may not think about risk of the possible earnings stream. Stockholders want to increase stock price by increasing the risk. On the other hand, financial manager who looks at the overall pictures for long-term goal, financial manager want to accelerate good performances of the company by limiting the risk that the company should take. Market price is the performance indicator for any company. It tells that how much company is earning and also the management performance on their shareholders behalf. The management is under continuous review. If a shareholder is dissatisfied with managements performance, he/she may sell his/her shares and invest in others company. This action, if taken by other unsatisfied shareholders, will put downward pressure on the market price per share. Therefore, the company cannot survive and raise the fund on as favorable terms as possible in the market which impact directly to the financial manager. In short, financial manager has important roles in managing financial in the firm, dealing with conflictions either boards of director, employees or shareholders, which made financial manager requires short-term and long-term viewpoint to increase financial status and to maximize shareholder value. Techniques used in financial decision making and risks involved Researches show that investment decisions which are made, no matter in large or small businesses are mostly dependant on Capital Budgeting techniques. According to Jones and Smith (1982), an American engineer has first use the present value calculations to calculate non financial investments back in 1887 who were really concerned with the railway construction economies (Jones and Smith, 1982). It is also seen that Fishers (1907) seminal work called The Rate of Interest is first discussed by an American economist evaluating in finding net present value.(Fisher, 1907). Capital Budgeting, frankly speaking is the process of generating, evaluating, selecting and following up on capital expenditures (Study Finance, 2007), or in other words the planning process used to determine a firms long term investment. According to Maccarrone (1996), in the last few years capital investment has boost in decision making and further believes that most of the theories about capital investments behavioural aspects and about the association between investment decision. (Maccarrone, 1996). Also looking at the research paper by Fourcans (1987), where he says that, in the success of all big names and multinational companies capital budgeting is the most popular strategy and plays very important role in the development of any organization. As other techniques there are some drawbacks, ambiguity and risks involved in using capital budgeting as Fourcans (1987) focused that when you use certain strategies in business, a certain risk level is associated with each technique (Fourcans, 1987). As mentioned before, majority of investment decision which take place are mostly backed up by capital budgeting techniques, but in real life, not all companies follow the same type of techniques. The type of techniques they use sometimes depends on their size or on the position of the business in the market. In this report wewill be looking at different business positions and list the type of techniques they use based on research. Also there will be a discussion on looking at the risks and uncertainty involved in capital budgeting techniques because theories and researches suggest that quite a lot of time the results from capital budgeting are inefficient and in-accurate. Technically speaking, every investment project is worth the go if the net present value (NPV) is positive, but according to Holmà ©n (2005) this is not always the case. For the calculation of NPV, different cash flows of a project required and then discount them at a given discount rate. Discount rate is the risk of cash flow for which the price is charged by capital markets. The formula for NPV is Where t is Time of the cash flow. r is The discount rate. Ct is the net cash flow. The stockholders from big organizations think that discount rate is a risk according to the strategy that affects the project value. During capital budgeting, the deficiency of capital markets, bankruptcy costs were mostly ignored when there is capital market imperfection (Holmà ©n, 2005). This reason is also backed up by Stulz (1999) who believes that there are certain aspects which are neglected while making decisions based on NPV (Stulz 1999). There is no doubt that NPV is the most commonly used technique, but there are also other alternates like payback period etc. The payback method used is consider the most imperfect method because firstly it overlooks cash flows and secondly time value of money; this factor is ignored. According to Graham and Harvey (2001), which is also a surprising fact that 57% of Corporate Finance Organizations (CFo) apply payback method for capital budgeting decisions and 76% use NPV method (Graham and Harvey, 2001). Koedik et al (2004) says that the met hod of payback is widely used not only in Europe but also in UK, Germany and France. It is second largely popular technique in Netherlands subsequent to NPV (Koedjik et al, 2004, pg 71-101). As stated previously in the report, most of the organization use capital budgeting in different ways and techniques depending on the size and growth because if a company is bigger in size and position is stable then they have higher expectations and they will use more complex techniques because they have extra shares in the markets and they have got enough time to achieve what they have budgeted. As mentioned in the research done by Holmà ©n (2005), large and growing organization, the majority of them use NPV more willingly then other techniques (Holmà ©n, 2005). Even Ryan AND Ryan (2002) states in his research that NPV and IRR is most popular capital budgeted technique in progressed organization. Patricia and Glenns research was done on 1000 companies and the outcome was, about 49.8% big organizations use NPV and on the other hand 44.6% use IRR with the possibility of using each more commonly being 85.1% and 76.7% respectively (Ryan and Ryan, 2002). Collis and Jarvis (2000) say that in small companies financial decision is all depends on owners and managers that how they use their resources and information to manage and control their process (Collis and Jarvis, 2000). Consequently, According to Peel and Wilson (1996), if financial management practices in the small firm sector could be improved significantly, then fewer firms would fail economic welfare would be increased substantially (Peel and Wilson, 1996). Normally in practise small companies tend to follow the criterion of big financial names but according to their size and growth they make their own policies and strategies with clear intention keeping in mind their objects and goals and are quite similar like the big organizations are following. These can be explained critically as follows. First, the financial management practices of large firms are neither conclusive nor indisputable. On the contrary, they are controversial and continually changing (Johnson and Kaplan, 1987). Second, the larger companies themselves, even with highly skilled and experienced staff, do not always stick strictly to standards defined by them so could not avoid the serious failure in real practise of financial decision making (Jarvis et al., 1996).Third, many research studies have demonstrated that because of the structure small companies do not function in the circumstances as large organizations because of the different environment, economy and financi al restrictions (Curran, 1990). According to McMahon and Stanger (1995), because of different size and growth there is a difference in operation environment and so in the level of risk and uncertainty (McMahon and Stanger, 1995). So it can be said that uniqueness of small firms required financial strategies which suits to its requirements and which are designed to fulfil its requirement according to their scale and quite similar to the strategies of big successful organizations (Jarvis et al., 1996). Small organizations have limited resources to manage the strategies in the real world as compare to the big organization (Jennings and Beaver, 1997). So the fact is that small companies have different environment and conditions as compare to large organizations because the decisions making capability of small firms is often unstable by success point of view which big organizations dont face many times. According to Taylor III (1998) research, when assess the investment management there are two perspective namely local and global. In local perspective company performance can be calculated by its smaller units and then combine them on a local level. If performance of the company at the local level is good then it will maximize the performance of the organization as a smaller component. Local measures include usually Pay back method, IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and NPV (Net Present Value). On the other hand global measures assess any company performance as complete unit. If the performance of company as complete unit is fine it will maximize the performance of the organization completely. In global measures ROI (Return on Investment) net profit and cash flow techniques are being used (Taylor, 1998). As above explained that the difference of capital budgeting techniques in small and big organizations. Now see that do these techniques make any difference in public and private sector. According to Habib et al (1997) tells how financial decisions made. In his paper he said, Recent developments, such as privatization and the private finance initiative, have raised the issue of which assets should be owned by the public sector and whether assets have different values in the public and private sectors (Habib et al 1997). The research shows that there is a difference between capital investment in each sector and in different organizations depending upon their size, capabilities and growth and how well establish companies maximize shareholders value and how finance managers take decisions for the benefit of shareholders. As the research continues it tells us that NPV (Net Present Value) is used to calculate shareholders value but calculation by NPV shows a risk in the financial market and more research shows that calculation by NPV calculation in evaluating the risk factor is efficient or not. Further research shows that projects using NPV in most of the public sectors are quite similar so the outcome is also similar which will help in getting the profitability and maximize the shareholders wealth (Habib et al,1997). Capital budgeting techniques which are frequently used these days in every organization do involve certain amount of risk. In investment decisions the techniques involved not always give perfect outcome. Drury andTalyes (1997) in their research say that for a long time capital budgeting techniques in UK and USA and using all four techniques of capital budgeting i.e. NPV, IRR, ARR and PBP. Further says despite the increased usage of the more theoretically sound discounting techniques, several writers in both the UK and USA have claimed that companies are under investing because they misapply or misinterpret discounted cash flow techniques(Drury and Tayles, 1997). Other writers like Finnie (1988), Hodder and Riggs (1985) and Kaplan (1986) say that firms are guilty of rejecting worthwhile investments because the improper treatment of inflation in the financial appraisal; inflation affects both future cash flows and the cost of capital that is used to discount the cash flows (Finnie, 198 8; Hodder and Riggs, 1985; Kaplan 1986). Amongst the risk involved in the investment appraisal techniques is the use of excessive discount rates. Dimson and Marsh (1994) say that many UK companies may be using excessively high discount rates to appraise investments and, as a result, these companies are in danger of under investing (Dimson and Marsh, 1994). Porter (1992) says that in the USA it has also been alleged that firms used discount rates to evaluate investment projects that are higher than their estimated cost of capital (Porter, 1992) Ehrhardt and Daves (1999), in their research for unusual and extraordinary cash flows, say that by ignoring cash flows, capital budgeting results are incorrect which are Quite large From normal operating cash flows risk are quite different Not part of companies normal operating cash flows. There are some risk avoidance methods which can be used to get more accuracy in investment decisions. These methods and techniques can be used for the future purposes in taking financial decisions (Ehrhardt and Daves, 1999). Take right decision at the right time is important so to get good outcome from capital budgeting it is essential to use right technique at the right time. (Pollet et al, 2006). Research shows that there is a difficulty in calculating the theory of capital budgeting and find different opportunities of investment and when making investment decisions the market should be consider positive. Further it is observed that organization using complex budgeting techniques to achieve their high standard goals and objectives for short term and in order to gain maximum market share, but on the other side companies with high goals for long term use target oriented strategies which are not very difficult to achieve (Della Vigna and Pollet, 2006). Chapter 3: Research Objectives Research questions How much external and Internal funds impact on Corporate financial decisions and how? How corporate capital structures effect the financial decision making? Has tax effect in corporate financial decisions? If yes how and how much? Objectives To find out the financial decision making process of a company and the basic ideas on which that decision is based. To identify how taxes affect the process of financial decision making process and how much the effect will be? To find out how different type of investments effect the financial decision making process and how much the effect will be? To research how can we reduce the risk of decision making in the industry using corporate financial decision, how a company should make its decision and which aspects a company should be concerned about while making an investment decision? Chapter 4: Methodology Research Philosophy According to Remenyi et al (2003, p.32) positivistic philosophy aims at the derivation of laws or law-like generality which are related in natural and physical sciences. In quantitative research the researchers are allowed to understand the concept of the problem which is under observation. Facts and the causes of behaviour is the major emphasis area(Bogdan and Biklen 1988), in which the numeric information can be calculated, and summarized using a mathematical process and then the final outcome which is in statistical terminology is formulated (Charles 1995). There are two features common in realistic philosophy and positivism philosophy: a belief that for data collection in social and natural sciences the approach is almost same and for explanation and assurance to the view that scientists normally pay attention to the external reality (Bryman 2001). The interprevistic philosophy in contrast, emphasize that the suppositions of both philosophies are unnecessary; especially in cases where many factors manipulate the objective of the study, very complex to separate and control in experimental laboratory settings (Hirschheim and Klein 1994). Qualitative research, generally defined, means any kind of research that generates result not arrived at through quantification (Strauss and Corbin 1990, p.17) and which take place from real-world circumstances (Patton 2001, p.39). In this situation this study is using interprevistic approach because the findings i.e. how to make investment decisions and how much will be the risk in that decision and how much will be the impact of that investment afterwards is really difficult to calculate exactly and also is a complex collection in real-world scenario, so it will not appropriate to use positivistic approach. Research approach Inductive reasoning implement to the situations where measurements or some particular observations are formed towards formulating broader conclusions, generalizations and theories (Saunders et al. 2003, p.87-88). The deductive reasoning is the approach in which one start thinking about generalizations, and then continues towards the particulars of how to implement the generalizations (Saunders et al. 2003, p.86-87), mostly applicable in disciplines where agreed facts and established theories are available (Remenyi et al. 2000, p.75) From the following table will tells the major differences among inductive and deductive approaches and in this research, inductive approach will be used as it is best suitable for an interpretivistic research. Deduction Induction Processing from theory to data high structured approach collection of quantitative data independence to researcher understanding research context closely realization that the researcher is the part of research process collection of qualitative data providing flexible structure allow to change the research emphasis by the progress of research <

Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

Twilight Zone The series Twilight Zone is a show that combines science fiction with society. Every episode ends with a shocking, unexpected twist. â€Å"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street† is an episode that informs society about the fear of prejudice and hysteria. In this episode, a loud shadow in the sky passes through Maple Street. The shadow is actually a meteor. Unexpected and strange things start to happen like the electricity and cars turning off. The people who live on Maple become very curious on what the meteor has done to the neighbors living on the street.A young boy named Tommy tells the adults that everything weird happening is because of the aliens from outer space, which he read about in a comic book. First the adults refuse to believe a child, but then they unconsciously start pointing fingers at who can and cannot be aliens. People were getting blamed for doing normal things such as insomnia, looking at stars, and experimenting on a radio, but then the neig hbors would exaggerate and make it sound suspicious, strange and unusual. As the episode continues, the adults become paranoid and start to lose their minds.This twilight zone episode reveals to us that the real monsters in society are ourselves. The neighbors were very eager to figure out who and what was the cause of the power outage. Neighbors would blame other neighbors for the outage because they believed that one person was an alien. Even though they had no proof or evidence, they used their words to blame the suspects. A ruckus of mass paranoia occurs and everyone believes that everyone is an alien. Tommy compares the real life situation to a similar problem he read in a comic book about aliens taking over a town.The power outage that happened in the comic book is also occurring in real life. The adults do not believe him at first, but then they begin to slowly and senselessly start blaming other people for being an alien because they are afraid. Just like the media nowadays, mass paranoia affects everyone. The media exaggerates how something â€Å"might† happen and society makes it a big deal before anything is really happening. They cause concern and stress upon themselves because of what the media says. The central theme that exists within the episode is that words are mankind’s reatest weapon. I believe that words may not be able to physically hurt someone, but they can emotionally. Emotional pain is sometimes harder to endure than physical pain. In the neighborhood, some of the neighbors like Les Goodman are accused of being a suspect because his car randomly turned on, while everyone else’s didn’t start. Though he has no effect on the aliens, a woman claims that she has seen him look up at the sky late at night, as though he is waiting for something. She thinks he is waiting for the aliens or something from outer space.Therefore Goodman becomes an immediate suspicion to all the neighbors. Everyone in the neighborhood is now more aware of him, claiming that his family isn’t human, but aliens. The woman was being the real monster to society because she had no idea what she was talking about and jumps to conclusion about Les Goodman. Since she made a comment that didn’t have supported evidence, she dug Les Goodman into a hole, making people think he is an alien because everyone starts to believe her. This episode conveys propaganda to the audience. Everyone is following everybody else’s opinion, and they are all being biased.Just like in real life situations, propaganda occurs in the media. We are informed about a particular person’s point of view and their idea soaks up into our brain. Towards the end of the episode, all the neighbors are at their highest point of terrorization and fear. The mob starts to panic as they see a shadow figure approaching their neighborhood. Charlie assumes the shadow to be a monster. Therefore, he starts to act malicious and grabs a gun to sh oot the shadow. Everyone comes near the monster and it turns out to be Pete Van Horn, who was one of the neighbors coming home from town.The lights in Charlie’s house randomly turns on and everyone starts to tell him that is he held responsible for the death of Pete. He is now accused of being a monster because of the electricity in his house turning on, and a murder of an innocent man. Charlie was trying to protect his people, but he ends up accidently shooting a person. Everyone starts to blame him for being a monster and throws rocks at him. He did something to help, but since someone said that he is a monster for killing and having his light turn on, he is evil.This shows that all of society is influenced to have the same viewpoint of a specific person, and sometimes they tend to follow counter-information. This episode challenges social convention because society expects us to have the same perception as what the government wants us to think. The people living on Maple w ere so afraid of what was happening that they believed anything anyone said. Steve has a radio in his garage which he has been working on by himself, and they assume that he is working on an odd electronic related to the aliens. Steve was one of the first to be suspicious of Les Goodman.When Steve was blamed of being an alien, he becomes hypocritical and yells at the neighbors and tells them they are all standing out on the street to crucify someone, and that they are all set to find a scapegoat. Steve knows the only thing that will happen to the neighbors is that they will all become obsessed with finding a scapegoat, and in result they are going to eat each other up alive. Out of fear and panic, they all ruin themselves and each other. Like social convention, Steve and Les have done something odd and different, so they have been frowned upon.In the beginning of the episode, everyone on Maple Street seems happy and cheerful. It is sunny outside and kids are playing in the streets. Once it gets darker at night, the power is still out and there is no more light outside or inside. Everyone is using candles for light, there are no more children around, and the streets seem very dark and mysterious. The neighbors are portrayed as mobs. They all stick together and follow each other wherever one goes. This shows society believing one person’s point of view. The people in the back of mob don’t have much to say.Instead they just stand there and agree with the main person speaking because they are weak and do not have anything to say. Their faces have a shadow and it is dark surrounding all of them leaving making it very suspenseful. The darkness adds a more mysterious effect. The secretive aura of the darkness represents a hidden truth behind society’s lies that are spoken to us. In the end, no one living on Maple Street was an alien. Though there really was an alien, the aliens believe that stopping a few machines, putting the street in darkness will ruin the neighbors without the aliens even being round the humans. The aliens assume that all the neighbors will pick on the most dangerous enemy and be prejudice towards the enemy and to others. But as this all happens, the neighbors’ most dangerous enemy is actually themselves. They destroy themselves by panicking and finding a scapegoat. Everyone is torn apart and no one knows or believes the truth. â€Å"There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men† is said at the end of the episode. I believe this quote sums up the people living on Maple Street perfectly.Their suspicion destroyed the neighborhood to a point where an innocent life was taken. The people are all thoughtless and frightened and are lying just to protect themselves. Community and society are easily manipulated when they are terrorized. The government tries to takeover some of society’s weak minds and influences them to believe what i s right and what is wrong. The community and society speaks before they think, even though sometimes it is not true. They create a monster to themselves because they are creating false facts for everyone to be concerned about.

Budgeting Is Useless on Managers Essay

I disagree that budgeting is an unnecessary burden on many managers to a large extent. This isbecause budgeting provides an opportunity to reevaluate existing activities and evaluate new ones. Compel managers to think ahead and estimates of unit and sales during operating period as well as selling expenses, so as to estimate the profit target. Once the budget is set, region, product groups and/or account types can break it down. Also, budgeting talks about the optimum profitability in a given period; since firms typically look for profit maximization in the long term; while it seeks sales maximization in the current period. By providing and opportunity to reevaluate existing activities and evaluate new ones, managers are able to get a further understanding of the sales, production, distribution and finance on their current activities. Hence with the above that they have found out they are able to enhance and create new ones. In additional, budgeting compel managers to think ahead as they have to consider factors when forecasting sales. This factors include: past patterns of sales, market research studies, advertising and sales promotion plans, competitors’ actions and general economics conditions. While considering these factors, managers will have to do a research studies on the past and present and make a comparison on these and estimate sales in the future. In order for a company to have a good budgeting or performance, manager will need to foresee what will happen in the future and engages it’s staffs on the budget processing, creating and environment where there is a true two-way flow of information. Example from the top down, the top management gives sales and profit targets to various organization units and unit heads make plans to achieve the objectives. From the bottom up, Unit heads and their subordinates team up in the setting of the sales and profit objectives and also plan to meet them. As from the example above, top management is away from the realities in the field; but at the same time, juniors may tend to understate what they can achieve in the period. However, budgeting takes up too much time of all managers. As they have to stay focus on their current project and to make sure that is an active participation of all the employees. Reason why the failed to budget can be due to an error in the message conveyed by the budgeting system that maybe misaligned with incentives provided by the compensation system as budgeting is a detailed and comprehensive analysis upon any miscommunications it may result in more time spend by the managers. In conclusion, I do disagree to a large extent that budgeting is an unnecessary burden on many managers as they can provide good analysis while ensuring of all participation of the management be it the employees all the managers despite the risk.

Ch 16 Reconstructed - 1096 Words

Brian Sandoval 11/15/10 AP U.S. History Ch: 16 The Union Reconstructed 1. Explain how blacks responded to their former masters after the Civil War had ended. After the Civil War had ended, blacks responded to their former masters in two different ways. They would either return to their former masters for work and every time they would leave the plantation they would go farther claiming they didn’t want to stay on the plantation forever. This caused them to continue to have communication with their former masters and never completely became independent. The second response was they would chose to become entirely independent to their masters. They would seek work in the city and began their new free lives. Often times they†¦show more content†¦They would gain the black vote and be capable of gaining more power. So they limited the power of the former Confederates and attempted to have everything in their favor. 7. Discuss the economic conditions of poor blacks and poor whites during the period of Reconstruction. The economic conditions of poor blacks as well as whites differed. They both struggled financially due to crop shortages and other such things. However the blacks also were being aided by the Bureau of Freedom. They northern financed organization was created in order to help newly freed blacks to get on their feet. They helped them financially and helped with education. However they also in a sense forced blacks to accept low paying jobs when they didn’t want to. Even with this though they helped to get the blacks going in society. 8. Was the Republican administration that controlled the southern state governments during the period of Reconstruction a success or failure? The Republican administration that controlled the southern state governments during the period of Reconstruction was more of a success than it was a failure. They were able to stabilize the south in this time. They eliminated undemocratic features from prewar state constitutions as well as provided a universal male suffrage. They even loosened the requirements for holding office. They reconstructed the South financially and physically by overhauling taxShow MoreRelatedThe Revival Of Christianity During The Late Roman Empire1357 Words   |  6 PagesConstantine helped move the revival along by ordering the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which started around 326 CE, and was completed in 335 CE. Throughout its existence, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, which means that the current Church in Jerusalem is not the original building. However, the significance behind the building remains. When the first iteration of the Church was built, it strengthened the legitimacy of ChristianityRead MoreDiscovering The American Past : The Port Royal Experiment, 1861-1865 ( 237-274 )1562 Words   |  7 Pages APUSH: Juniors Seniors 1st Period 8:20-9:06 Monday: 11/30/15 Discovering the American Past: Ch 10: â€Å"No More Pint o’ Salt for Me†: The Port Royal Experiment, 1861-1865 (237-274) In Class Read: 1. Problem 237-238 Task: Analyze evidence in order to answer the following two questions A. Would the Sea Island blacks be able to use the educational, economic, and military opportunities made available to them to become knowledgeable, responsible, and productiveRead MoreThe Oli Theory10470 Words   |  42 Pagesvariables to be EX, and we assume that changes in EN and EX do not affect the firms’ strategies, then we can rewrite equation (1) as: OLIt1 = f (OLIt0 St-n D S t0  ® t0 D ENti  ® t1 D EXt0  ® t1 ) (3) Equation 2 can be similarly reconstructed and it is easy to incorporate any change in strategy which embraces the response to D EN and D EX if it occurs before t1 is reached by adding * to D St0 ® t1 in the equation. Of course, it may be argued that this drives a coach and horses throughRead MoreSoil Compaction9893 Words   |  40 Pagescolumn 14 are based on compaction at OMC for the CE 55 compactive effort. The curves of Figure 8-2 indicate that soils with moisture contents somewhat less than optimum react differently to compaction. Moisture content is less critical for heavy clays (CH) than for the slightly plastic, clayey sands (SM) and silty sands (SC). Heavy clays may be compacted through a relatively wide range of moisture contents below optimum with comparatively small change in dry density. However, if heavy clays are compactedRead MoreEssay on A Case Study on Vat9414 Words   |  38 Pages....  16   Primary  Sources  ............................................. ................................................  16   Secondary  Sources  ........................................................................................  16   3.3.1   3.3.2   3.4   3.5   3.6      Data  Collection  Technique  ....................................................................................  16   Presentation  and  Analysis  of  Data  ........................................................................  16   Population  and  Sample  Read MoreHistory of Cryptography6313 Words   |  26 Pagespoint or full stop. Some signs were different in other parts of the armed forces. The Wehrmacht replaced a comma by ZZ and the question sign by FRAGE or FRAQ. The Kriegsmarine however, replaced the comma by Y and the question sign by UD. The combination CH, as in Acht (eight) or Richtung (direction) were replaced by Q (AQT, RIQTUNG). Two, three and four zeros were replaced by CENTA, MILLE and MYRIA. The Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe transmitted their messages in groups of five characters. The KriegsmarineRead MoreAwareness6564 Words   |  27 Pagesexperience and asserts that memories only belong to the individual and characterize his personal life. 4 Joà «l Candau, Mà ©moire et Identità © (Paris: PUF, 1998), pp. 21-25 and Ricoeur, pp. 120-124. 5 Maurice Halbwachs, La Mà ©moire Collective (Paris: PUF, 1950), ch. I. 6 Forgetting would thus be caused by keeping ones distance from the group and from social interactions. 7 Halbwachs’s theories have been criticised by numerous scholars, including Joà «l Candau, who admits the existence of a collective memory butRead MorePublic Fe Reference Handbook.Pdf46179 Words   |  185 Pages Structural Design 10% VIII. Construction Management 10% IX. Materials 8% 8 EXAM SPECIFICATIONS—CIVIL AFTERNOON SESSION IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING (60 questions in 9 topic areas) Approximate Percentage of Test Content 16% Topic Area I. Circuits E. Impedance I. Laplace transforms II. Power 13% III. Electromagnetics 7% IV. Control Systems 10% V. Communications 9% EXAM SPECIFICATIONS—ELECTRICAL 9 VI. SignalRead MoreAn Article On Earth Essay10094 Words   |  41 Pages1/298.257222101 (ETRS89) Circumference 40075.017 km (equatorial) [9] 40007.86 km (meridional) [12][13] Surface area 510072000 km2[14][15][n 3] (148940000 km2 (29.2%) land 361132000 km2 (70.8%) water) Volume 1.08321Ãâ€"1012 km3[3] Mass 5.97219Ãâ€"1024 kg[16] (3.0Ãâ€"10-6 solar mass) Mean density 5.514 g/cm3[3] Surface gravity 9.807 m/s2[17] (1 g) Moment of inertia factor 0.3307[18] Escape velocity 11.186 km/s[3] Sidereal rotation period 0.99726968 d[19] (23h 56m 4.100s) Equatorial rotation velocity 1,674Read MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 PagesCONTENTS A Note on the Translation by Bertrand Augst, ix Preface, xi A Note on Terminology, xiii I Phenomenological Approaches to Film Chapter I. On the Impression of Reality in the Cinema, 3 Chapter 2. Notes Toward a Phenomenology of the Narrative, 16 II Problems of Film Semiotics Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. The Cinema: Language or Language System? 31 Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema, 92 Problems of Denotation in the Fiction Film, 108 III Syntagmatic Analysis of the Image Track