Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Animal Testing Should Not Be Banned - 1686 Words

Animal rights is the idea that all animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives and that they are entitled to their most basic needs. The topic of animals rights has been discussed in occurrences of illegal hunting, domestic animal abuse, and testing on animals for any purposes. There are a vast variety of reasons for why to test on animals, whether they be cosmetic or scientific. The most argumentative topic regarding animal testing is medical testing. The community that complies with medical animal testing does so because testing on animals for medical reasons helps researchers find drugs and treatments, proves the safety of products, and it is regulated. Those who protest testing on animals argue that it is expensive,†¦show more content†¦Other scientists seeing this knowledgeable man use animal testing made it okay for others to follow his footsteps and test on animals as well. Opposition to animal testing, mainly animal vivisection, began in the late 1800s when a group of women in Florence led the first anti-vivisection in 1863. Later in 1876, England passed The Cruelty to Animals Act, that only permitted animal testing if it were in correlation with saving and or prolonging human life, all the while the animal had to be under anesthesia. Animal testing became very important in the United Stated for assuring the security of pharmaceuticals after an incident in 1937 where diethylene glycol was used as a solvent to treat streptococcal infections. The pharmaceutical company was not aware that diethylene glycol was malignant to humans, the result were the deaths of over a hundred people due to poisoning, after this incident the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed that required safety testing on animals before they could be introduced to the public. The most compelling rationale for medical testing on animals is that the results from the tests conducted aid researchers in acquiring new drugs and treatments.A large amount â€Å"...of the drugs we currently use to prevent and treat serious conditions such as cancer, HIV and diabetes ae drugs that were

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Long Distance Discount Services ( Ldds ) - 1460 Words

1. Introduction Worldcom Group, formally known as Long Distance Discount Services (LDDS) and the second largest long distance telecommunications provider in the U.S., was involved in one of the biggest accounting frauds in history. The scandal, when unearthed in 2002, revealed that Worldcom had overstated it’s earnings in the five quarters between 2001 and 2002 by more than 3.8 billion. This was a result of inappropriate accrual releases and classifying periodic line costs as capital expenditures rather than treating them as operating expenses (Lyke and Jickling 2002). This report examines and analyses the underlying reasons behind how and why such a massive fraud took place, how it went unnoticed through the years and the actions taken†¦show more content†¦However, evidence has also been found of managers trying to influence analysts’ expectations downwards (Degeorge et al 1999). According to Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), when earnings increases are consistent firms’ price-to-earnings are normally higher but when the trend is broken firms experience a negative growth in stock returns. 2.1.2 Compensation agreements and Equity incentives Since the last couple of decades, it has become very common for companies to link CEO and executive pay to the stock prices of the firms. Companies try and use this strategy in order to align the incentives of senior management with shareholder interests. But, it has been found that this strategy might backlash and instead motivate managers to practice fraudulent methods in order to manage and increase the company’s reported earnings (Bergstresser and Philippon 2006). 3. Earnings Management at Worldcom (Q1B) Worldcom CEO Bernie Ebbers was instrumental in merging 75 companies with Worldcom including telecommunication giant MCI. But in reality, Worldcom was struggling to make these acquisitions work while it continued to pursue growth by trying to acquire more companies (Zekany et al 2004). In addition to this, there was increasing pressure to maintain the E/R ratio at 42% and this ratio was difficult to maintain as the industry was facing slow growth due to competition, excess capacity and reduced demand (Kiron and Kaplan 2004). Therefore, seniorShow MoreRelatedWorldcom : Case Analysis : Worldcom1193 Words   |  5 PagesFraud: Used fraudulent accounting methods to disguise its decreasing earnings to maintain the price of WorldCom’s stock. WorldCom began as small long distance telephone provider in 1983. Based in Jackson, Mississippi; the company provided long distance discount services to its consumers and operated by the name LDDS—Long Distance Discount Services, Inc.—In 1985 Bernard Ebbers became the CEO of the company, and would continue to be the company’s CEO up to the failing of the company on April 2002Read MoreWhy The Ceo Bernard Ebbers And The Cfo Scott Sullivan Committed Financial Statement Fraud1783 Words   |  8 Pagesas â€Å"Long Distance Telephone provider called Long Distance Discount Services, Inc. (later part of a holding company called LDDS Communications, Inc.). LDDS became a public company in 1989 through a merger with Advantage Companies, Inc.†(Report of Investigations). LDDS competed with major long distance carriers such as ATT, MCI, and Sprint; they grew steadily â€Å"purchasing small long distance companies throughout the early 1990s†(Report of Investiga tions). Between the years of 1991 and 1993 LDDS â€Å"acquiredRead MoreManagement Theories And Ethical Theories2085 Words   |  9 Pagesbusinessmen created a small telecommunication company called, Long Distance Discount Service which would later turn into the telecommunication giant known as WorldCom. In the beginning Long Distance Discount Service was backed by an investor named Bernie Ebbers. Bernie Ebbers was a gym teacher that would later make his way to be a hotel manager, he would later become the CEO of LDDS after the company was experiencing issues retaining cash. In 1989, LDDS would hit the stock market after acquiring AdvantageRead MoreBernard Ebbers And The Grand Success Of Worldcom1608 Words   |  7 PagesBernard Ebbers is an Ex former chief executive, and the co-founder of WorldCom. WorldCom was the second largest long distance phone company in the United States now known as MCI, because of the tremendous scandal that led to the company’s bankruptcy (Crawf ord, 2005). With the grand success of WorldCom, Bernard Ebbers became one of the most powerful American businessman ever to face a criminal trial. In 2005, Ebbers was found guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy, and filing false documents withRead MoreUnethical Business Practice-a Case Study of the Downfall of Two Major Companies2606 Words   |  11 Pagesfrom regulation as a utility company. The deal-driven atmosphere at Enron was the primary cause of its downfall. The focus was on quarterly earnings and this put pressure on employees to do deals with no regard as to how they would be managed. As long as they ‘made the quarter’ they wouldn’t be yanked. Unethical Business Practices 5 Employees’ compensation was also based on deals done and profits recorded in the previous quarter. The focus on earnings rather than cash led to a lot of unwiseRead MoreVerizon Wireless1280 Words   |  6 PagesDevon Daniel Verizon Verizon stars with WorldCom in 1983 when Murray Waldron and William Rector came together to sketch out a plan create a long-distance telephone service. Long Distance Discount service, became their new company that began operating as a long-distance reseller in 1984. The new company grew quickly in the next fifteen years, over time it change to WorldCom. The company became one of the largest telecommunications corporations in the world. They also became the largest bankruptcyRead MoreMission, Vision, Values, And Core Competencies Of Worldcom Inc. Essay1031 Words   |  5 Pageswill compare, identify, and examine the statements, core competencies, and strategic goals including current behavior and business goals aligned with its mission, vision, values, and core competencies of WorldCom Inc. Organization LDDS (Long Distance Discount Service) acquired a voice and data transmission company in 1995 and named it WorldCom Inc. Within four years of being in business, WorldCom Inc. completed three successful mergers with MCI, Brooks Fiber Properties, CompuServe Corp and the mergerRead MoreEssay about Worldcom: Organizational Culture and Unethical Safeguards1195 Words   |  5 Pagesinvestors of Long Distance Discount Services (LDDS) whom was appointed to run the fourth-largest long-distance telecommunications company, and after a shareholder vote in 1995, become WorldCom. â€Å"While he lacked technology experience, Ebbers later joked that his most useful qualifications was being ‘the meanest SOB they could find,’ [he] took less than a year to make the company profitable† (Kaplan Kiron, 2007, p. 2). As a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 permitting long-distance carriersRead MoreAccounting Fraud at Worldcom 21405 Words   |  6 PagesAccounting Fraud at WorldCom Vanessa Gail Woods Strayer University Connor-Green/ACC 576 March 21, 2010 Accounting Fraud at WorldCom The break up of ATT opened the long distance service market to small companies during the mid- to late-1980s and 1990s. Long Distance Discount Service (LDDS) opened in 1983 with moderate growth until its stock went public in 1989. CEO Bernie Ebbers decided to grow the organization through acquisitions (70 companies over the course of its lifetime)Read MoreAccounting Fraud And The Financial Fraud1761 Words   |  8 PagesIntroduction WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, former partner said â€Å"He didn’t know anything about the long distance or telephone business, but he knew how to read numbers, he was a number cruncher.†(â€Å"Inside†) This should have been a warning sign to those investing in the company that Ebbers wasn’t the best choice to run the 2nd biggest telecom company in America. WorldCom was just one of many accounting frauds that took place in the early 2000’s. But unfortunately that trend of dishonest accounting didn’t

Monday, December 9, 2019

Business Negotiation Vroom Cars Representatives

Question: Discuss about theBusiness Negotiationfor Vroom Cars Representatives. Answer: Introduction In order to adopt a distributive bargaining approach by the Vroom Cars representatives, it is quite important for the firm to analyse the tactical tasks in relation to the targets, resistance points and costs of terminating the negotiations with the distributors. The tactical task that must be undertaken by the vroom cars representatives should be accessed based on four aspects, explained below: Assess the other partys target, resistance point, and costs of terminating negotiations- it is quite vital for the firm concerned to obtain complete information regarding the other partys target and resistance point. They must be able to identify what the other party wants to achieve (Banai, et al., 2014). Vroom cars must gather the information directly from Great Motors regarding the units of cars they mean to sell under the distributorship of the company and negotiation value that they are willing to undertake. Manage the other partys impression of negotiators target- in order to prepare for an extensive negotiation round; the representatives of the concerned firm must be able to control the information that would be sent to the other party. They must screen the information about their own position and must represent the scenario as they would want the other party to see (Ribbink Grimm, 2014). Vroom Cars must not provide the weaknesses and the hurdles that are being faced by the company to Great Motors. They must portray their view of expanding the business in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, yet, they must not portray their inability to raise the sales of the company as per the expectation of the analyst. Modify the other partys perception- a negotiator has the ability to alter the other partys impressions of their own objectives by making them appear less attractive or by making the cost of obtaining them to be higher (Gadke, Tobin Schneider, 2016). This modification provides the organization concerned with the incentive of winning the negotiation. In the case of Vroom Cars, the firm must modify the perception of Great Motors by making their objectives look less attractive. The objective of Great Motors is to expand the sales of the company within a time-frame of 5 to 10 years. The representatives of vroom cars can manipulate the idea by viewing the time-frame as quite extended. The objectives of Great Motors to expand the distributorship in Indonesia and Malaysia can be termed as weak, as in both the countries the demand for electronic vehicles is comparatively low than Singapore. Manipulate the actual costs of delaying or terminating negotiations- the firm may manipulate a deadline of the negotiation or fail to agree a particular deadline that would not affect the concerned firm. This would provide the firm with the power of gaining the negotiation on their own terms (Bala, Vij Mukhopadhyay, 2014). Vroom cars might lay a pressure on Great Motors by delaying their meeting schedule with the opposite party. As Great Motors are quite eager to extract the distributorship from Vroom Cars, they would be left with quite less options of achieving the negotiation on their terms. Hence, they would agree to the terms stated by Vroom Cars to a certain extent. These four above-mentioned aspects would be quite beneficial for the representative of Vroom Cars to apprehend the negotiation with Great Motors, tactically. Reference Bala, M. I., Vij, S., Mukhopadhyay, D. (2014). Negotiation life cycle: an approach in e-negotiation with prediction. InICT and Critical Infrastructure: Proceedings of the 48th Annual Convention of Computer Society of India-Vol I(pp. 505-512). Springer International Publishing. Banai, M., Stefanidis, A., Shetach, A., zbek, M. F. (2014). Attitudes toward ethically questionable negotiation tactics: A two-country study.Journal of business ethics,123(4), 669-685. Gadke, D. L., Tobin, R. M., Schneider, W. J. (2016). Agreeableness, Conflict Resolution Tactics, and School Behavior in Second Graders.Journal of Individual Differences. Ribbink, D., Grimm, C. M. (2014). The impact of cultural differences on buyersupplier negotiations: An experimental study.Journal of Operations Management,32(3), 114-126.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

The Leadership Approach Based on Competency

Leadership is the ability that makes capable of persuading others to work towards achieving the set objectives passionately. Leadership involves a community of interest between the leader and his subordinates, that is, these two groups should be pursuing a common goal. Different leaders and organizations may use several approaches to leadership. The different approaches have both disadvantages and advantages as discussed below.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Leadership Approach Based on Competency specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In competency-based leadership approach distinct skills identified, separate qualified staff from unqualified staff. People’s capability determines their level of performance and therefore a desired performance requires a specific level of skills. This approach majorly works on improving individuals’ skills and their performance as an individual moves from one level to another (Greenleaf Spears, 2002). The competency-based approach of leadership has several advantages. This approach to leadership communicates reasoned outlook for roles and for levels of performance. Individuals get tasks that they are capable of doing. This ensures meeting of development needs set by an organization. Competency-based approach protects the morale of the staff. This approach provides room for improvement, and it also rewards those who have improved by giving them promotions. It also provides more valid data and thus makes working easier. To ensure that an organization is developing, performance management gets quantified and therefore the organization knows the areas that need an improvement. Competency-based approach is effective as it links development activities to goals, and provides guidelines for development. However, some people may argue that linking management to performance is the wrong way to develop leaders. An additional limitation of this approach is that the set competencies that a person should have are subject to reading and at times people do not act in the desired way. To add onto this at times the competencies are vague and people may understand them differently. Another approach to leadership is the servant leadership approach. This approach to leadership makes leaders servants. It entails giving importance to the needs of subordinates and other colleagues. The decision making procedure involves the workers. This leadership approach is at times negligent and is subject to pulls and pressures from different groups. Regardless of this it has several advantages. This approach increases the acceptance of management ideas and also reduces employees’ grievances. This helps in increasing cohesion in the workplace and thus increasing productivity. In this approach the needs of the staff is of primary significance and thus the staff develop loyalty to their organization. Because all opinions count, the decisions made get i mplemented wholeheartedly. A good relationship develops between the leaders and the subordinates, employees get motivated. This helps in maintaining a high level of output (Greenleaf Spears, 2002).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Servant leadership approach has some limitations. Very few leaders are willing to exercise this kind of approach. Most leaders think that employees may not be effective when this approach is used. There are so many attributes expected from such leaders and very few leaders possess such personalities. Leaders are used to having the power to control and acting as the decision makers in given areas, this makes some of them unwilling to welcome suggestions from subordinates. Lower levels of employees may not understand the intricate nature of organizations and therefore their opinions rarely count and thus some aspect of the servant leadership approach is lost. Competency-based leadership thus looks at an individual’s skills in order to identify a leader whereas the service leadership approach seeks to make everyone in an organization successful with the aim of making an organization to succeed. Servant leadership may have some moral attributes that those involved in competency-based leadership approach lack. In organizations that managers use competence to assess employees, people may do anything regardless of whether it is ethical or unethical just to get promoted (Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum Hellriegel, 2008). Most organizations prefer using the competency-based leadership approach because they believe it will make it possible for them to identify the type of leader they require after examining the leaders’ skills in different areas. It is the belief of many organizations that appointing personnel to certain positions while taking into consideration their abilities is very important as that makes organizations m ore industrious. Because most organizations work with the aim of maximizing profit, they will try to increase productivity and hence the implementation of the competency-based leadership approaches (Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum Hellriegel, 2008). Though these two approaches may seem different, a leader chosen because of their competencies can also portray the qualities of a servant leader. An individual can be competent and still work as a servant to his or her subordinates. Leaders who enjoy doing their jobs are willing to see their organizations succeed. This type of leaders always welcomes suggestions from everyone regardless of his or her status in the organization. A leader should be capable of motivating employees.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Leadership Approach Based on Competency specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This means that they should give importance to the interests of their employees. This will help them build confidence in their employees and thus ensure high productivity and stability in the organization. Being competent does not make one indifferent of other people’s feelings. Leadership is a key in achieving goals; therefore, the leadership style adopted should be suitable to the circumstance involved. References Greenleaf, R. K., Spears, L. C. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press. Hellriegel, D., Jackson, S. E., Slocum, J. W., Hellriegel, D. (2008). Managing: A competency- based approach. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western. This essay on The Leadership Approach Based on Competency was written and submitted by user Gabriel Dalton to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.