Personal code of ethics

Personal code of ethics Free Online Research Papers Ethics are a personal code of behavior. They represent an ideal we strive toward because we presume that to achieve ethical behavior is both desired and honored. There is both personal and business ethics. I will describe my personal take on ethics along with experiences that I had working for Best Buy and the ethical dilemmas that I faced. My personal thought on ethics is that they require accountability. I think that people that are religious and people that are not religious may have two ways to look at this. If religious accountability of personal ethics is to God. For the people who are irreligious, like myself, we can ensure ethical behavior by the law, fear, or personal convictions. I believe that laws are guidelines that explain the expected behavior. Due to some people not having a â€Å"strong† sense of personal convictions the law is needed. The law to me is a set of ethical expectations that you must understand failure to understand them will result with consequences. For me my personal ethics are the key to living, finding friends and determining my own convictions. Personal ethics in a large way define who you are. The code of ethics that not only follow but feel are important for people I surround myself with are: Fairness Wholeness Reliability Consistency Respect Honesty Integrity Truth Telling Dependability Accountable These ten words describe to me what my personal code of ethics represent. We must have a right and wrong, a moral code. Most religions have a moral code of conduct, and most cultures have a minimum code of conduct also. In the case of society’s code of conduct, its laws, it is usually a-reflection of the moral values of a super majority of its population. Moral codes define our rights and wrongs. The combination, of determining right and wrong and being responsible for our actions, creates the standards for ethical behavior. Ethics are of special importance to professionals including retail managers. Retail employees have a great responsibility to the community with their jobs. People have everyday expectations when they go shopping and retail professionals need to have strong ethics. To understand why Best Buy’s ethics did not always match my personal code of ethics I will explain a few examples. Best Buy’s code of ethics is over fifty pages long so only select examples will be used. Knowing what is right and wrong may not always be simple. Most of the time, knowing the right thing to do is easy. Retail professionals, as I was, are often faced with many ethical decisions every day. Most often the ethically right answer is simple this involves being honest and upright. Knowing what the right thing to do is not always simple the responsibility of those around may not have been enough of a guide to guide you in the right direction. Ethics are very important to all business people. Yet, many neglect ethics as an important idea that has a major affect upon retail managers. Working at Best Buy the ethics that we were taught (also bolded on the fifth page of their ethics guide): UNLEASH THE POWER OF OUR PEOPLE LEARN FROM CHALLENGE AND CHANGE SHOW RESPECT HUMILITY AND INTEGRITY HAVE FUN WHILE BEING THE BEST Before explaining the corruptions in ethics at Best Buy I did want to explain a few things. Best Buy was a great company to work for. I believe that at the corporate level the company was solid in the ethics that they preached. The situations that I was put in was down to the store level when I was an operations manager in Phoenix. Ethics at Best Buy is determined by the supervisors that you have. I have worked for some people that were great with personal and business ethics. When I started work in Phoenix, AZ I worked for my store manager, Phil. The first thing that was done that I felt was beyond unethical is lying and manipulation. When I interviewed for this job via phone it was described as one of the best stores in the district that I was going to be going to. Explained the current financials to me along with the specific financials that I would be responsible for once I arrived. I was offered the job and moved to Phoenix 7 days later. When I went into the store I did what any good manager would do I pulled my financials so that I could â€Å"know† my business before I started coming up with plans for my team. Looking at the business I realized that the financials were no where near what had been explained. He stated that my store was ranked third in the territory. There are fifty-seven stores in our territory. My specific financials had placed me fifty-six out of fifty-seven stores. The ethical dilemma I find with this specific situation is that he lied. Part of there code of conduct is integrity to be a person of integrity you do not lie. In a position that he was in it was not his personal ethics that I am looking at. I am looking at the ethics that Best Buy has put into place and expecting you to follow. That is one dilemma that was really based on lying. I will explain another dilemma that I was forced to face with on multiple occasions. That would be the magazine scam. Have you ever walked into a Best Buy and heard the cashier offer you magazines. â€Å"With your purchase today you get eight risk free issues of one of our magazines which would you like?† This offer was one that we dealt with when I worked in the Green Bay store a lot. How much information was ethically enough and how little information made the practice too unethical? In the end we determined not to offer magazines in Wisconsin because of the ethical problems we were faced with. When I moved to Phoenix as their operations manager they explained how I would have to offer magazines again with my team. I knew that magazines were a problem with my own personal ethics lying, not truthful and not being fair to the customer. I started observing what there presentations to customers were and I could not believe what I saw. There offer was nonexistent but customers were still getting signed up. If a customer would pay with a credit card they would scan for the magazines and have the customers sign twice; once for the purchase and once to accept the magazines. I called around to a couple of the other operations managers and they explained how this was a â€Å"best practice† in the area and it was fine. This may have been a best practice to them but not in my book. I ceased that offer immediately part of my thought process is that if we were already ranked so low there is nothing that we could loose. We would never reach the store with the most traffic to, in my eyes, â€Å"Scam the customer.† I stood my ground and got a lot of pressure from a lot of different people for this matter from store manager to my territory operations manager. In the end I used resources I had gained from my previous work in the midwestern territory to explain my situation and explain why I felt that it was wrong. The ethics team from our corporate office started doing inspections in my area. In the end we still had to offer magazines but the right way. The way that felt good to me with my own personal ethics. In the end ethics shape you, your community and your business. I have a personal code of ethics that I follow. My ethics are very simple and to the point but they work for me. Every person on earth has their own personal ethics there is not one person that is the same. So what are ethics, and what constitutes ethical behavior? That depends, to some degree, on the person answering the question. Organizations also demonstrate the standard of ethics (or lack thereof) held by those shaping the culture of the business. Best Buy had an ethics manual but it is difficult to force all employees to follow one specific manual. The same with people there are many ways that I have shared that I believe community helps with keeping ethics in check. Research Papers on Personal code of ethicsMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Riordan Manufacturing Production PlanAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaResearch Process Part OneEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andLifes What IfsPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyGenetic Engineering

Preliminary Data Analysis and Reporting Plan-Qualitative Research Paper

Preliminary Data Analysis and Reporting Plan-Qualitative Method-submit a preliminary qualitative data analysis and repo - Research Paper Example Introduction According to agency theory, managers may have personal goals that compete with the goal of the institution or company they are running. Due to the imperfect labor and capital markets top managers seek to maximize their utility at the expense of the company. The need to expand rapidly and gain recognition among the top managers can lead to the manipulations (Bowie and Freeman, 1992) of accounts and give false reports to the boards of directors and the public. The managers also sometimes manipulate accounts for the sake of cushioning the company earnings. In order to hide corrupt deals in the company the managers are also engaged in the vice. In addition to the above, top managers are likely to manipulate the accounting to create false perceptions among the interested individuals and other firms in order to expand (Mohanram and Bartov, 2004). Research on earnings management estimate that 8-12% of companies with small pre-managed earnings decreases manipulate earnings to ac hieve earnings increases and 30-44 percent of companies with small pre-managed losses manage earnings to create positive perception (Barth and Taylor, 2010). Many managers have however engaged in financial reporting fraud instead of the legitimate earnings management (Beneish, 1999). Study design. ... In the institutional approach not all the managers are willing to give out the financial information of the company hence secondary information is necessary (Neuman, 2006). The advantages of this method of study are that it ensures specific information is obtained on the company the institution being studied. The approach also covers a given time in the lifespan of the selected institution hence it is easy to identify the manager in charge of the company or institution management at the time. In addition the approach permits in depth and detailed study of the selected category being studied (Patton, 2002). In this case I am going to analyze a case study of Tyco Company. Sampling technique The sampling method used in the research was the purposive sampling in which the institution being studied was singled out due to its past record and secondary information. To settle on the company earnings management various articles touching on the management of the company under the leadership of Dennis Kozlowski were reviewed. In addition to the articles, the information collected also contained the court proceedings and perceptions of various people including Kozlowski on the fraud he was charged with (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). Under the leadership of Dennis Kozlowski, who became CEO of Tyco in 1990, the company’s revenues expanded from $3.1 billion to almost $40 billion. Most of this growth was due to a series of acquisitions that took Tyco into a diverse range of unrelated businesses. Kozlowski was initially lauded in the business press as a great manager who bought undervalued assets and then enhanced their value by imposing tight financial controls at the

Operations Management for Creating Competitive Advantage Essay

Operations Management for Creating Competitive Advantage - Essay Example The report also evaluates the various financials behind the activities as well as the budget that may be required. PROBLEM FACED BY TESCO The problem faced by Tesco is that of sustaining its market leader position. Competition from Sainsbury and other leading retail stores is a big threat for Tesco and it does not want to lose out on market share to these competitors. Thus, improving on operations management is one of the basic things that it can do. The various issues that it primarily faces with respect to operations management are that of layout, location selection, supply chain management and inventory. METHODOLOGY The methodology that was used was that of secondary sources. Books were referred and internet resources were checked to get information on the general theories of operations management as well as the way operations management is used in Tesco. RESEARCH ON TESCO AND IDENTIFICATION OF KEY ISSUES OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT THAT TESCO FACES Founded in 1919, Tesco is one of United Kingdom's leading companies. It is an international chain, retail based, which initially used to sell grocery but with time, has diversified into general merchandising. In Britain, it has the prestigious title of being the top most and the largest retailer, if measured through global sales as well as the market shares that they have captured on a domestic level, within Britain. So be it be the domestic competition or the international competitors, Tesco has left them all behind. Tesco also has improved over the years and thus has secured the fourth best and largest retailer in the whole world in the top ten countdown of the year 2008. Thus, the whole alignment and setting of the top five retailers got altered because of the increase in... In this report, Britain-based company Tesco has been aimed and its operations management activities have been analyzed. Recommendations on how OM activities can be improved have also been given. The report also evaluates the various financials behind the activities as well as the budget that may be required. This paper makes a conclusion that the problem faced by Tesco is that of sustaining its market leader position. Competition from Sainsbury and other leading retail stores is a big threat for Tesco and it does not want to lose out on market share to these competitors. Thus, improving on operations management is one of the basic things that it can do. The various issues that it primarily faces with respect to operations management are that of layout, location selection, supply chain management and inventory. The methodology that was used was that of secondary sources. Books were referred and internet resources were checked to get information on the general theories of operations management as well as the way operations management is used in Tesco. Tesco is one of the largest retail stores of UK, thus it needs to constantly improve and out do its own self to maintain the leader position. For this, productivity and efficiency has to be increased with time. This can only be made possible if Tesco invests in better operations management, since it will give a sure shot competitive advantage to the company over its competitors.

Critique of Klemperers Auction Design Essay Example for Free

Critique of Klemperers Auction Design Essay What Really Matters in Auction Design, Paul Klemperer, Journal of Economic Perspective Volume 16, Number 1 Winter 2002, pp. 169-189 I really like this article because I agree with most of what it says. Auctions, in recent times, have become very popular and I dont need to interview anyone about this, I just need to examine myself to find out. Over the past few years, to be brutally honest, I have been absolutely addicted to eBay. com, an online shopping site made famous by the way in operates. Not only are all transactions made online, which is very convenient, but the way things are sold is what makes the shopping experience at eBay so unique, and fun. As the article mentions, auctions (like eBay) can be potentially good for both buyers and sellers. An auction can involve many buyers, for instance the auction of a house, whereas in the olden days, a negotiation over a house was usually between two people (bilateral negotiation) today there can be many sellers all competing for the same prize. This is good for the seller because now there is much more competition for the prize, therefore the seller will think hes getting the highest price for the same item. I think this is true because as human psychology goes, humans (generally speaking), tend to handle things better if they come in small increments, using the purchase of a house as an example, one would be somewhat overwhelmed at seeing a price tag of $1,000,000 for a house. However, instead of selling a house straight off a price-tag, if the auction method was taken, bidding might start at say $200,000, which sounds incredibly cheap. After that, the auction could rise in very small increments, say $3,000, which wouldnt be very over-whelming for the human mind to take in. And with this method, it is much easier to convince the human mind to believe that the house is worth $1,000,000, or more! However, as the article mentions, one should not be over-excited at the prospect of auctioning everything. Like most things, auctions can have their pit-falls. A major pitfall is bidder collusion. This is where buyers, or bidders, group together to cooperate with one another. This is a serious problem because this is regarded as anti-competitive behaviour which is a serious crime against the law. Sometimes, the ending winning price will be lower than what the seller had paid for it in the first place, making it an unprofitable auction. This could happen when for example, there are 10 Nike shoes for sale, and 10 bidders interested in Nike shoes. Collusion takes place when the 10 sly bidders come together and cooperate with each other so that each will go home with a pair of shoes at the lowest possible price, often the starting price of the auction, which often is very low. This is detrimental to the profits the seller was hoping to make because essentially, there is not enough competition, and it is very hard to prove in court that the bidders were colluding. I think this rarely on eBay, it hasnt happened to my knowledge, this could be because eBay has the power to monitor conversations between online members and any anti-competitive behaviour is detected and the members guilty will get into trouble, possibly kicked out and disallowed from using eBay again. A possible solution to this, as the article mentions is the tactic of hiding certain bits of information from the bidders. The use of the sealed-bid auction can be used so that bidders dont know what the current price/bid is and therefore they wont know what price they can and should collude at, because anyone can secretly enter a bid slightly higher than the collusion agreed price and walk away for more goods than everybody else. This is bad for that one person who deviated from the collusion and won everything if the other members find out it was him. However, another way to protect this competitive buyer is to make the winner anonymous. So now this seems like the perfect auction design, sealed bid auction, anonymous winner, but this design still has its pitfalls. Imagine you were the winner of the Nike shoes by sealed bid auction and you are anonymous, you paid $200 for them. However, later you find out that the runner-up bidder (the person with the second highest bid) only bided $50. It turns out that you bid and paid $150 more than you had to, this would be very humiliating and embarrassing for you. This can be a major problem I would imagine, however eBay has sort of managed to sort a similar problem out, you put the maximum your are willing to bid, if you win, you only have to pay $1 more than the runner up, that way you are the one willing to pay the most, yet you pay the least possible given the other competitors, this way, everyone stays happy. I think this is a really smart way to do it because not only can you almost assure yourself of winning, given youve got lots of money, but it means that youll pay as little as possible for the goods. The only other problem possible with this method is that the runner-up may become jealous of you and may bid up the price, these are called phoney bids, just so that youll have to pay more money, however, this is not often a problem because it is very risky for the runner-up to do this because he may over-take you in the bidding and end up having to pay the high-price. Which I would say serves him right for being so jealous and childish. If the runner-up wants the good so bad and is so jealous, let him have it but make him pay a high price. This brings me to the next thing which this article clearly points out, beware the Winners Curse. It is extremely easy to over-bid in any auctions because of the fact that bidders tend to think in terms of small increments and not big numbers (as pointed out above), therefore it is very easy for bidders to bid too much, win the good, and end up paying more than the goods actual value. In some instances, bidders are paying more for Nike shoes at auctions, when they could buy the same pair of shoes at a retail shop like say, Rebel Sports. This is called the winners curse, this can be avoided by getting as much information about the product/good as possible before bidding on the shoes. This I know has happened to me on numerous occasions on eBay. com. au, mainly because I wanted the product and I also felt proud about the fact that I beat everybody else at the auction, little did I know how much my confidence would plummet when I found out that I paid too much for the same pair of shoes! But, as Klemperer points out, hiding information about the product is not always at the sellers best interest. This point should be quite self-explanatory because, why would bidders bid aggressively if they dont know much about the item they are bidding on? This was also a lesson learnt the hard way for me, these days if Im bidding on something, I want to read that the item Im bidding is real/authentic and not a fake and that way if the item they give me is a fake, I can get a refund. If the seller wishes to encourage aggressive bidding, he/she has to provide useful and honest information for the bidders otherwise aggressive bidding is nothing but a dream. Another problem that can be faced by auctioneers is as Klemperer labels it Entry Deterrence and Predation, this is not a problem on eBay because all bidders bid at their own pace. However, in the case of an auction for say a house where bidders stand in a crowd with one another, really aggressive bidders tend to scare everyone away. On eBay where you can make small incremental bids as low as 20i at a time at anytime (provided the auction has not ended), with house auctions really aggressive bidders can bid huge increments which tends to scare off everybody else and so that person dominates the auction and has an advantage. This predatory action can be avoided by allowing the auction price to only rise by little increments at one time, this is sometimes seen where the auctioneers job is to offer the crowd a winning price from which the bidders only need to raise their hand to signal that they accept the price offered, this in turn removes a lot of the predatory actions of a few. There are many other interesting points made by Klemperer, he really is a scientist when it comes to auction analysis and I really admire the work he has done. So for you future bidders, watch out the winners curse and find out plenty of information about the thing you are bidding on, and dont get over-excited, this is very dangerous. Other than that, I look forward to reading more of Klemperers articles.

Harry Potter :: essays research papers

During this day and time there are many cool fads that catch on quite quickly and leave quickly as well. Lately there has been one fad that has caught on and it doesn’t seem as if it is going to leave anytime soon. This fad has caused much chaos and controversy throughout America. This fad is called Harry Potter. It seems as if everyone has his or her own opinion on it. Harry Potter started out being a book by J. K. Rowling, intended to entertain children. But somehow it has gotten dragged through the mud and made into a bigger deal than it was until the name Harry Potter is commonly heard on everyday news. The media and many adults are claiming that these books and movie are evil. Robert McGee, associate pastor of the First Baptist church of Merritt Island of CA Says â€Å"I’ve read the Potter books and they are wonderfully written but were not talking about the Smurfs here. Children are leaning the elements of witchcraft in the context of being told it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.† Many of the spells that are used in the movie and books are real spells from the religion Wicca from Great Britain. Roger Coleman, a Wiccan minister of the Church of Iron Oak in Palm Bay, said he found very similarity between his religion and the witchcraft in the series. This is believed to bring children to want to try witchcraft. A video was by The First Baptist church of Merritt Island has started a Potter movie of their own. The one-hour video has been shown to hundreds of people in 11 churches across Brevard County CA. The truth, according to the video, is that â€Å"children as young as kindergarten are being introduced to human sacrifice, and the sucking of blood from dead animals.† On the other hand though many people believe that the books are harmless and are meant to make children use their imagination. Kristin Kendall, an 11-year-old from Port St. John said, â€Å"most kids can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I’ve read all four books, they are all pretty good. I like the mythical creatures like the unicorn.† Judith Krug ALA spokeswoman said the Potter books are Challenged for two main reasons. â€Å"The complaints are based on the feeling that evil pervades the works and the belief that if young people read these books they’ll forget everything their parents taught them and immediately become witches and warlocks.

Impressing Your Boss

It sounds like a no-brainer, but quiz your boss on what is the most important way you can spend your time and then make those tasks a priority, suggests Steve Langerud, director of professional opportunities at DePauw University. By tackling the objectives that your boss holds in high esteem, you'll naturally be in a better spot to get attention and praise for your work. 2. Demonstrate your value Forget what your job description says, create an action plan for how you can be doing your job better, says Mary Hladio, founder of Ember Carriers Leadership Group. Consult your boss and other leaders within the organisation for their input, and put the ideas in motion. 3. Be a team player Shaunti Feldhahn, author of ‘The Male Factor', says high-level managers of both sexes want to know that their employees are on board with the team, especially at critical moments. â€Å"In a demanding period, you want to make sure you are sharing the same pain,† she says. For example, this might mean staying late for a meeting or pitching in on a company-wide initiative. (For more, see Seven tips for staying off the chopping block. ) Even if it's not part of your job requirements or you haven't been asked to do it, voluntarily offer your boss reports on your progress, says former human resources trainer, Mimi Donaldson. â€Å"Bosses are busy,† she says. â€Å"You cannot expect them to notice when you do something great. † But a routine email summing up your day-to-day accomplishments and where you stand on major projects is an influential way to keep your boss informed without monopolising time. 5. Network like you're unemployed Langerud also advises reaching out to colleagues in other departments and requesting their feedback on how you can help them be more effective. Around the company, it will only improve your reputation, he says, and it will likely get circulated back to your boss that you are a problem-solver and a dedicated worker. (Learn more in Four career networking tips that work. ) 6. Be heard and seen It's not about gossiping around the water cooler every morning, but finding subtle, yet powerful, routes to contribute to your firm. For instance, it may be presenting a strong, thoughtful point in a meeting, or sharing innovative ideas up the ranks about ways to improve your company's operation. Plus, being seen at company events, such as holiday parties and other social gatherings, volunteer activities and corporate retreats, shows you care about your job. The bottom line Not only is the job market more competitive in recessionary times, it's also increasingly difficult to get a raise. That's because the pool of money corporations reserve for rewarding staff – even the most stellar of employees – is shrinking. The current work environment demands that you must stand out in your boss's mind if you want to get a bump in your salary or a promotion.

Find out What a Bulbous Bow Is

The strongest resistance any vessel faces in standard operations comes from displacement as the hull moves through the water. Waves that climb the bow are water being pushed aside faster than it can move away. It takes a lot of power to overcome the viscosity and mass of water and that means burning fuel, which adds to costs. A bulbous bow is an extension of the hull just below the waterline. It has many subtle shape variations but it’s basically a rounded front portion that flares out slightly as it blends into the traditional displacement hull construction. These forward protrusions are about twice as long as the width of the base and they would usually not extend forward past the top of the bow. The basic principle is to create a low-pressure zone to eliminate the bow wave and reduce drag. First appearing on the USS Delaware in 1910, the bulbous bow was a controversial design of U.S. Navy Ship Architect David W. Taylor. Much of the controversy disappeared ten years later when passenger ships began exploiting the design to increase speeds. Hulls built with bulbous bow sections are common today. Under certain conditions, this type of design is very efficient at redirecting forces of hydrodynamic resistance and drag. There is a movement against bulbous bows that allows greater flexibility of ships at a time when slow steaming is a way to save fuel. Good Conditions for Bulbous Bows The design of a ship with a bulbous bow is discussed in many textbooks and technical articles. It is often referred to as a theory or an art, which is a short way of saying nobody is 100 percent sure of what they are writing. There are details to be worked out but modern builders have proprietary ways of analyzing and integrating all hydrodynamic aspects of their hulls and these methods are strict secrets. A bulbous bow works best under certain conditions and good design gives efficiency gains throughout the range of these factors. Speed – At low speeds, a bulbous bow will trap water above the bulb without forming a low-pressure zone to cancel the bow wave. This leads to increased drag and loss of efficiency. Each design has what is known as most efficient hull speed, or often just hull speed. This term refers to the speed where the shape of the hull is acting on the water is such a way to produce the minimum possible drag. This ideal hull speed might not be the top speed of a ship because at some point the lower pressure zone created by the bow features becomes larger than necessary. A zone of lower pressure water that is larger than the hull is inefficient and leads to reduced rudder response. Ideally, the cone of lower pressure water will collapse just before the props. This gives the prop blades something to push against and limits cavitation at the props and rudder. Cavitation will lead to reduced efficiency of props, sluggish steering, and excessive wear of hull and drive components. Size – Vessels under 49 feet (15 m) do not have enough wetted area to take advantage of a bulbous bow. The amount of drag on a hull is related to its wetted area. The structure of the bulb also increases drag and at a certain point, the benefits shrink to zero. Conversely, larger ships with a high proportion of waterline to frontal area use the bulbous bow most effectively. Bad Conditions for Bulbous Bows Rough Seas – While a traditional hull rises with the wave, a hull with a bulbous bow can dig in even if it is designed to lift the bow under normal conditions. The issue of trim is one of the most deeply dividing aspects of bow design among naval architects. There is also a huge psychological aspect among crews who perceive this bow design as dangerous in storms. There is some truth that these bows dig into wave faces but there is little proof that it is more dangerous than traditional designs. Ice – Some ice breaking ships do have a special shape of a bulbous bow that is heavily reinforced. Most bulbous bows are prone to damage since they are the first point of contact with an obstacle. In addition to ice, large debris and fixed objects like dock faces can damage these extended underwater bows.