Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Organizational Culture Essay Since there are so many other competitors suddenly appear on the horizon, and Samsung have to create a lot of new creativity to face all the compete, they have to create their new organization culture. The new theme of corporate culture is â€Å"Creative†, to building a creative corporate culture, Samsung have to set a few characteristics to put into practice. Based on the research, Samsung adopting a program which is â€Å"Flexible Time† tp maximize employee creativity and another program is monitoring â€Å"Over-time Work† to help improve life quality o employees in year 2008. The material that issues regarding â€Å"Building a Creative Corporate Culture† was identified as : Samsung also promoting a creative organizational culture using some organization behavior concepts which are: * Encouraging Suggestions for Work Process Improvement Samsung Electronics implements various programs to support employees’ suggestions so that ideas can bear fruit. They offer incentives for the filing of patents, provide a knowledge management system to share expertise and knowledge amongst employees, and support community activities. They also offer incentives for idea suggestions to encourage their employees to proactively participate in knowledge sharing within Samsung Electronics. As a result, a total of 3,515 patents were filed in the U.S. in 2008. * Adopting a Flexible Time program Samsung Electronics adopted a â€Å"Flexible Time† test program in 2008 in selected business divisions to maximize the creativity of its employees. This test was the expression of their determination to shift from a time management-based corporate culture to a creativity-oriented corporate culture. Under the program, employees are empowered to flexibly manage their office hours as long as they work a total of eight hours each day. If this test proves successful, Samsung will expand the program to a company-wide level. * Work-Life Balance Because social norms have changed, an increasing number of female workers are participating in economic activities and retaining high potential employees has become the key to successful business operations. Happiness has become the overarching value of employees’ quality life, giving rise to greater social interest in balancing work and life. Therefore, Samsung Electronics also supports and encourages the employees to balance their work and life. In case anyone works overtime, their supervisor and the employee are notified to insure they comply with the legal overtime work requirements. For the creativity of the employees, Samsung Electronics also provides vacations for self-management and other vacation programs including family theme tour packages. * Welfare Programs Samsung Electronics shares and cares about its employees’ concerns over their health, children’s education and post-retirement life and helps them prepare for their future in order to enhance employee satisfaction and provide better working environments. In addition to the basic legal welfare programs such as premium subsidies for National Pension, Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance and Employment Insurance, they also provide medical subsidies, a corporate pension program, work-out facilities and condominium rental services. Samsung Electronics believe that a creative corporate culture grows out of the technological search for innovation and its application. , researchers inherently looked for â€Å"innovative† ideas and technologies. A number of failures and prejudices from the trials and errors of the development process were the largest obstacles in putting â€Å"innovative† ideas into practice. This barrier can be broken down to build stronger assurances through a number of verifications and databases. Nevertheless, these procedures can sometimes result in a waste of time. I think Samsung Electronics need to reduce the waste with more open-minded thoughts and perspectives. With an aim to realize a â€Å"Great Work Place (GWP),† Samsung Electronics has analyzed its corporate culture by utilizing the confidence index of âÅ'Å"The 100 Best Companies to Work For by Fortune Magazine since 1998. In 2007, Samsung concluded a global contract with the â€Å"Great Place To Work (GPTW)† of the U.S. for a confidence index survey of their domestic and overseas workforces, which contribute to building a corporate culture that fits their global stature. Based on the GWP analysis results, each division and department prepare and implement improvement plans to build a GWP by filling the gaps in the five survey categories which are of trust, respect, fairness, pride and solidarity. Also, 400 GWP officers supervise and implement corporate culture improvement activities at each workplace.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The Significance of Gender Roles in Shakespeares The Taming of the Shr

Gender roles are undeniably a fundamental topic of critique in literature, particularly since expected gender roles have evolved in recent years. More importantly, the transcendence of these gender expectations indicates the possibility for transformation and increasing liberation in society. History explores many different stages for the sexes and their respective roles, from traditional anti-feminist times in which certain roles were strictly enforced, to more modern beliefs entailing free will and a lack of restrictions. In spite of this progress, there are always those who expedite the process while there are others that hinder development from occurring, even when it is necessary. Literary works in particular serve as a showcase for the progression of gender roles, but nonetheless reveal that through time certain elements remain consistent. Two authors who wrote in radically different time periods, William Shakespeare and Lorraine Hansberry, wrote plays that pose a threat to expected and traditional gender roles. The Taming of the Shrew (1623) is an example of an earlier work, which involves characters that manage to defeat their expected roles by acting out of the ordinary. A shrew, which is literally defined as either a small rodent-like animal or a woman with a harsh and nagging temperament (American Heritage Dictionary 1285), is used in reference to Katherine, the daughter of Baptista, who counters the expectation of women to act submissive by being loud and outspoken. In the end, even though Katherine seems to have submitted herself to society’s expectation of women, she is really only conforming in order to benefit her social role, since she realizes that accepting her role in society will be easier than counteri... ...ple are cruel, she still has big dreams of going to Africa with Asagai and becoming a doctor. In their plays, Shakespeare and Hansberry share a common element, which seems to say that some things, such as society and its expectations, are timeless. Society sets up expectations that are accepted and preferable to other members of society, and Katherine and Beneatha serve not only to demonstrate this ideology but also to argue against it and draw attention to the perpetual gender expectation of society. Works Cited Hartwig, Joan. â€Å"Horses and Women in The Taming of the Shrew†. 45. 4. (1982:Autumn): 285- 294. Newman, Karen. â€Å"The Taming of the Shrew A Modern Perspective†. 229-238. â€Å"Shrew†. American Heritage Dictionary. 4th ed. 2002. Wilkerson, Margaret B. â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun: Anniversary of an American Classic†. 38.2. (1986: Dec): 441-453.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Classification of Computer Users

Steven Cespedes Egan College Writing January 9th, 2012 Classification of Computer Users The sound of the keyboard typing away and the clicking of the mouse throughout the night has become a normal occurrence in  every  American household. Staying up until two or three in the morning browsing the web has become a characteristic of many computer users today. Since the personal computer has been invented life, work, and pleasure have changed drastically. With the creation of the internet, the possibilities with computers are all but endless. People now have the ability to communicate with others from all over the world. With both of these technologies  working together, computers have become a necessity for homes and businesses everywhere. Although the majority of computers are similar in concept, different people use them in different ways. Some use their computers for work and others as a source of entertainment. As long as the world exists, there will be several different types of computer users. The hacker is one type of computer user, they spend most of  their  time electronically breaking into other computer’s. The word hacker is synonymous with internet crimes, however hackers are highly intelligent individuals with a vast knowledge of computers. They spend their time trying to break through security systems of various networks connected to the internet. Hackers are infamous for infiltrating CIA databases, credit card companies, or more recently the PlayStation Network and wreaking havoc. These people stay up for hours looking for codes and passwords for various systems on the internet in the hopes of obtaining some sort of valuable information. There are many websites and forums dedicated to this past time which educates the general public as well as new hackers to their game. They know how the computers operate and are usually very familiar with programming languages, so they can create their own programs to break passwords. Half of the time hackers are not hurting anybody by the activities they perform, they just do it for the experience and for bragging rights within the hacker community. [pic] The gamers are the people who spend their time playing games online. These are the people who stay up to till dawn raiding, shooting, and racing with other people on the internet. There are many games which incorporate the online play such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty to name a couple. However there are many other games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Half Life 2 that offer offline play that is just as popular. The first thing that gamers do when they get on the computer is to check if their friends are playing online. Most of these gamers even add special accessories to enhance their online gaming experience such as a microphone to talk to other players or a joystick that can be used instead of a keyboard. These types of computer users are easily identified, as they often wear licensed game t-shirts around town. The main purpose of the computer for a gamer is to play various games and learn everything they can about each game. These individuals are addicted to playing games online, and can be found staring at their computer screen until the sun comes up. The shoppers are the people who are constantly surfing the internet searching for the newest clothes or gadgets. These are the people who watch Ebay auctions for days, waiting until the last second to outbid everyone else. They will browse hundreds of websites looking for the best bargain. Instead of going to the malls and doing their shopping, they will sit in their chair for hours on end, visiting various websites on the internet. They use the internet to research the newest fashion rather than spending that time to work or study. Internet shoppers are addicted to purchasing goods online because of the ease of having it shipped straight to their door. This use of the computer usually serves to be the most expensive because of all of the money involved in purchases. Downloaders are the people who use the computer mainly for the purpose of downloading anything that is free. These are the people who leave their computers on all day and throughout the night downloading music, movies, and anything else that is available. Torrents are very popular due to the ease of access to the mass amounts of data made accessible to anyone with internet access. The legality of these acts is questionable, but torrent sites somehow manage to get around copyright infringements. Downloaders are constantly working under the radar to get their hands on the newest software for no charge. Downloaders are usually interested in computers with lots of hard drive space to store their data on. [pic] The workers are the people who use their computer for no other purpose than making money. These are the people who are constantly checking if a client has emailed them back, or making corrections to tomorrow's sales report. Workers usually prefer to use laptop computers for the ease of transporting their data from home to work. Many workers may actually own two computers, one for business and one for pleasure. They usually have the newest and fastest computers, since they can afford them. These people have no problem sitting in a chair typing for eight hours a day if they are paid well to do so. Workers may be the most proficient with a computer due to the fact that they are professionals. [pic] The Social Networkers are the people who spend most of their time socializing over the internet. These are the people who spend may spend more time on Facebook and Twitter than they do talking to real people. They are constantly updating their status and sharing links on their friend's walls. They spend hours typing away, meeting new people, and making new friends in this online community. Social Networkers enjoy posting about their everyday life, letting every one of their friends (or followers) know exactly what they're doing around the clock. They will â€Å"like† pages to notify others of their interests, and seek others with similar interests. Social Networks have turned into a competition of who can get the most friends or followers, which draws attention whores by the dozen. These are the people who you can see online Facebook chat half of the day even when they are at work or in school. Each type of user is similar in the way that they spend many hours in front of their computer screen typing away the day and into the night. Computers have made life much easier for some people and have opened numerous doors to many others. The computer has had a major impact on life as we know it, creating jobs everywhere, giving us entertainment when we are bored, and connecting everyone no matter their location in the world. No matter what lifestyle you live, the computer can cater to each one.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Data Approaches For Identifying Input And Output Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1773 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? According to prior literatures, it is very important to identify the input and output of the depository institution (bank) in the production process when evaluating bank efficiency. Casu and Girardone (2004) stated that the analysis of bank efficiency or profitability might be limited and influenced by the different banking concepts. Since no unified rules had been documented, there was no explicit definition for the determinants of both input and output. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Data Approaches For Identifying Input And Output Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Different authors applied different approaches when they analyzed bank efficiency. For example, Sherman and Gold (1985) considered number of transactions as outputs in their research; while Favero and Papi (1995) treated loans and deposits as outputs. In Freixas and Rochet (2008), they summarised and distinguished three branch approaches in identifying inputs and outputs: the production approach, the intermediation approach and the modern approach. The first two approaches apply the classical microeconomic theory of the firm to the banking sector (p.77) and they are widely used methods of collecting outputs and inputs to evaluate bank efficiency. The modern approach goes further and modifies the classical theory of the firm by incorporating some specificities of banks activities (ibid), such as information processing and risk management. This approach also mentioned some form of agency problems, which are crucial for explaining the role of financial intermediaries (ibid). Since this approach focused on the micro-economic functions and the former two approaches concentrate on the large scale economic, in order to find a more suitable approach to address the input and output, this paper will discuss the production approach and the intermediation approach in further steps. The Production Approach Based on the researches of Benston (1965) and Bell and Murphy (1968), the production approach considers banking activities as the production of services to depositors and borrowers. Specifically, in this approach, banks play the role of producer who use labour and physical capital as input and its services to depositors and borrowers (deposits) as output. As mentioned before, Sherman and Gold (1985) employed the production approach, in which the number of transactions was treated as outputs and labour, capital and cost of supplies were viewed as inputs. Later, more authors such as Rangan et al. (1988) and Ferrier and Lovell (1990) applied this production approach as well. The former author considered labour, capital purchased funds as inputs, while loans and deposits were outputs; the latter author defined occupancy costs labour and expenditures on materials as inputs, while the number of deposits, accounts and loans were treated as outputs. The Intermediation Approach Sealey and Lindley (1977) sketched the intermediation approach. This approach took banks as financial intermediaries to flow funds between depositors and borrowers. This would require some conditions, which Freixas and Rochet (2008) concluded as follows: deposits are typically divisible, liquid, short-term and riskless; loans are typically indivisible, illiquid, long-term and risky. Hence, in this approach, the inputs are usually financial capitals (borrowed funds, loanable funds, short-term funds) and labour while the outputs are loans, securities and other earning assets. For example, Aly et al. (1990) used labour, capital and loanable funds as inputs and loans, demand deposits as outputs to evaluate U.S. banking efficiency. Altunbas (2001) et al. studied the bank efficiency and ownership while applying this approach as well. They chose labour, deposits and physical capital as input and loans and other earning assets as output. Choosing approach and identifying inputs and outputs Literarily, the intermediation approach differs from the production approach by the specification of banking activities. The production approach suits well when investigating more basic level cases, such as local branches. Branches played the producer role as they are in contact with customers and providing their services to both depositors and borrowers directly. When analyzing efficiency of banks in large scale, e.g. headquarters, the intermediation approach is the more appropriate one. Freixas and Rochet (2008) processed several data sets and many authors researches. (e.g. Murray and White (1983) for Canadian credit unions and Mester (1987) for California savings and loans cited in Freixas and Rochet 2008, p.79). They found out that these studies applied both approaches and surprisingly found that the results of applying both approaches were not significantly differ from each other. For evaluating Japanese banking efficiency, this paper will choose intermediation approach and view fixed assets, deposits and short-term funding and personnel cost as input while consider loans and other earning assets as output. Most of authors utilised fixed asset as an input because fixed asset is the physical capital which usually considered as a basic input element. Similarly, labour is another basic element of input. Since it is not possible to find formal and well-statistic labour information for all these banks, this paper will use personnel cost to substitute it. Personnel cost stands for the emolument which employees had been paid. This information is equivalent to the labour element. Deposits and short-term funding meet the condition for intermediation approach as deposits need to be typically divisible, liquid, short-term and riskless. Loans and earning assets are the basic output element under the intermediation approach. After identifying inputs and outputs, panel data set of 21 Japanese commercial banks from 2004 to 2009 will be discussed and utilised in this paper. Details will be discussed in next data selecting part. Data selecting The sample set this paper utilises came from Bankscope database. It is a database of banks financial statements, ratings and intelligence, with very detailed accounts. It contains comprehensive information on banks across the globe. It is very useful when researching specific individual banks and to find banks with specific profiles for further analysis. Specifically, when searching the data for Japanese banks in Bankscope, there were 1275 Japanese banks by March 2009, in which 345 banks are commercial banks. Within these commercial banks, 21 relatively high-ranking banks with available information have been chosen to evaluate the efficiency of Japanese banks. The chosen banks used unconsolidated statement report basis and local GAAP account standard. The list is showed in Table 1. By March 2009, the ranking one bank in Japanese banking system is the Japan Post Bank Company Ltd with total assets 194.678 billion Japanese Yen. Since it was established on 1st September 2006 and started operation in October 2007, it is not possible to get the pervious data of this large bank from Bankscope. Moreover, the other high-ranking banks (such as Resona Bank Ltd, ranking 8; Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, ranking 9) are excluded from the list because that very key information on the statement of these banks is not available, e.g. the personnel cost data is not available for Resona Bank Ltd for year 2006 and 2008. The selected sample banks are the relatively highest-ranking banks with all key information available from year 2004 to 2009. The efficiency results of these selected banks may represent the Japanese banks efficiency at certain level and show the general trend of its development. Additionally, there is no foreign bank in the selected sample. The highe st ranking foreign bank is the Citibank Japan Ltd., ranking 28 with total assets 6057 billion Japanese Yen. With the same reason as those excluded high-ranking banks, key information is not available for this bank in Bankscope. Table 1 Bank list Number of bank Ranking Bank name 1 2 Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd 2 3 Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation 3 5 Mizuho Bank 4 4 Mizuho Corporate Bank 5 10 Sumitomo Trust Banking Company Ltd 6 12 Chou Mitsui Trust Banking Company Ltd 7 14 Bank of Yokohama, Ltd 8 15 Shinsei Bank Ltd 9 19 Chiba Bank Ltd 10 21 Bank of Fukuoka Ltd 11 22 Joyo Bank Ltd 12 25 Bank of Kyoto 13 24 Nishi-Nipon City Bank Ltd 14 27 Hiroshima Bank Ltd 15 31 Gunma Bank Ltd 16 30 Hachijuni Bank 17 32 Chugoku Bank, Ltd.( 18 34 77 Bank 19 33 Hokuriku Bank Ltd. 20 35 Yamaguchi Bank 21 29 Aozora Bank The bank ranking refers to the banks overall ranking in Japan by March 2009. As mentioned before, this paper will adopt intermediation approach. The key information data collected from Bankscope is showed in Appendix 1 in detail. A brief preview is presented below in Table 2. Table 2 Overview for input and output variables of sample banks from 2004 to 2009 in billion Japanese Yen Year Variables 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Fixed Assets Mean 202.13 191.43 184.86 173.69 173.9 176.04 Standard Deviation 296.4965 279.0659 271.0223 249.2493 249.3533 248.9635 Deposit Short-term funding Mean 19265.98 19263.00 19897.68 19498.6 20169.20 20773.1 Standard Deviation 31075.46 31007.2887 31155.867 29457.58 30323.99 30990.05 Personnel Cost Mean 71.53 63.0 63.609524 59.70 62.47 71.08 Standard Deviation 103.5786 87.26643 86.49363 82.84263 84.34491 96.33516 Loans Mean 12401.21 12109.64 12635.00 12836.10 12934.55 13589.89 Standard Deviation 18329.46 17613.32 18193.85 18153.49 18497.02 19127.04 Other Earning Assets Mean 9078.33 9308.54 9684.96 9177.21 9157.18 9551.52 Standard Deviation 15634.77 16279.31 16290.36 14896.1 14573.84 15748.24 The blue numbers stand for decreased data compare to the previous year; the red numbers stand for increased data compared to the previous year. Two input elements, fixed assets and deposits and short-term funding, had a dramatic decrease when comparing the variables number between 2004 and 2009. Another input element, personnel cost, changed very little by result but showed a fluctuate process between these two years. The output elements showed very healthy increase though there was a small decrease in 2007. In general, it is obvious that almost all variables number are decreasing in year 2007, the only exception is the average loans, which showed a very promising continuous growth from 2006 to 2009. Another obvious change could be concluded that almost all variables number increased right after the decreasing gap year 2007, with the exception of one output element other earning assets, which showed an increasing trend later in 2009. The 2007 financial crisis would be a reasonable g uess for these changes before analyse the result. Moreover, the immediate rising back trend might indicate that the Japanese banking industry somehow avoided the major impact of the financial crisis and showed a promising recovery. The reasons will be discussed in the next finding chapter with the interpretation of the DEA results. Reference (Data chapter) Altunbas, Y., Evans, L. and Molyneux, P. (2001), Bank Ownership and Efficiency, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp926-954. Bell, F. W., and N. B. Murphy, (1968) Economies of scale and division of labor in commercial banking, National Banking Review, Vol.5, pp.131-139 Beston, G.J. (1965) Branch banking and economies of scale, Journal of Finance, Vol.20, pp.312-331 Beston, G,J., G. A. Hanweck, and D.Humphrey, (1982), Scale economies in banking, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Vol.14, Issue 1, pp.435-546 Casu B. and Girardone C. (2004), Large Banks Efficiency in the Single European Market, The Service Industries Journal, Vol.24, Issue 6, pp.129-142 Favero, C.A. and Papi, L. (1995) Technical Efficiency and Scale Efficiency in the Italian Banking Sector: A Non-Parametric Approach, Applied Economics, Vol. 27 Issue 4, pp385-395. Ferrier, G.D. and Lovell, C.A.K. (1990), Measuring Cost Efficiency in Banking Econometric and Linear Programming Evidence, Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 46 Issue 1-2, pp229-245 Rangan, N., Aly, H.Y., Pasurka, C. and Grabowski, R. (1988) The Technical Efficiency of US Banks, Economic Letters, Vol. 28 Issue 2, pp169-175. Sealey, C.W. and Lindley, J.T. (1977) Inputs, Outputs, and a Theory of Production and Cost at Depository Financial Institutions, Journal of Finance, Vol. 32 Issue 4, pp1251-1266. Sherman, H.D. and Gold, F. (1985) Bank Branch Operating Efficiency: Evaluation with Data Envelopment Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 9 Issue 2, pp.297-315. Xavier Freixas and Jean-Charles Rochet. (2008), The Microeconomics of Banking, 2nd edn, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. xxi + 363.