Article Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Article - Assignment Example a. Selection: Depending on the two classes chosen, the demographics of the school itself can greatly influence the outcome of the experiment due to goals. Both classes belonged to a small public secondary school. Depending on who the subjects are, the outcome could be seen as different. c. Mortality: The dropping out of subjects can lead to an overall attrition but should not have an impact on the internal validity of the experiment. As long as the control group is consistent within the rest of the experiment, people dropping out only lessons the subject amount and not the quality of the subjects. d. Regression: This has to do with aiming towards to average. The people with the lowest score aim to get a higher mark because they can only â€Å"get better†. Instead of looking at it from and â€Å"improvement† standpoint, it is important to view the subjects as making gradual strides to improve instead of an obvious jump. e. Testing: If you repeatedly test a student, this could easily lead to a bias that causes change within the experiment. Subjects may remember the correct answer from previous questions and therefore, they are not coming from an unbiased perspective but instead, using memory to help them get through. Also, sometimes too much testing does not give enough room for actual growth. f. Instrumentation: Depending on what instruments or manipulatives is used during the experiment, the outcome can be different. The Partial experiment is different from the full experiment due to its implementations. g. History: History can affect the outcome because students are affected every day by their environment and therefore, without the control of the variables, nothing is consistent. This can greatly affect the experiment as history changes perspective. The findings of the study are that the pupils involved in the â€Å"full experiment† and the partial experiment scored differently due to exposure of manipulatives and

Employee Voice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Employee Voice - Essay Example This calls for change in organizations’ strategies to enable the organization to respond to the changes in a timely and flexible manner. To achieve this, an organization needs to gain workforce commitment by enabling them to have a voice on matters that affect them. Employees have, therefore, been empowered through involvement and participation in organization decision making process by the use of direct or indirect voice mechanisms. The paper will discuss the employee voice mechanisms in use today and the outcome of such mechanisms for workers. The employee voice literature began with Hirschman in the 1970s and was further popularised by Freeman and Medoff in the 1980s. Dundon et al (2005) views employee voice as an articulation of individual dissatisfaction, expression of collective organization, contribution to decision making, and mutuality. To articulate dissatisfaction, an individual has only two options according to Hirschman’s exit-voice theory; he can decide to exit or stay and fight from within by voicing his concerns. Hirschman (1970:30) therefore refers to voice as ‘any attempt at all to change rather than escape from an objectionable state of affairs whether through individual or collective petition to management’. ... The role of management is to provide voice mechanisms for workers so as to air their opinions. Freeman and Medoff (1984) built on Hirschman’s theory of exit-voice to emphasize the importance of having a collective voice in organizations especially through trade unions. This form of voice mechanism entails negotiations between employees and employer through the union and has many advantages. The union helps to reduce exits hence retention of qualified staff thus minimising on hiring and training costs. The employment contracts negotiated through collective bargaining also protects the employees’ interests thus enhancing cooperation and job security. The union can also assist the management in introduction of new work practices thus minimising resistance to change (Bennett & Kaufman, 2007). However, unions also can manage to force the organization to increase wages above competitive levels hence a loss to the company. Moreover, most of the workers organized in unions are dissatisfied with their jobs since the union leaders raise their job outcome expectations beyond what is realistic. According to Rose (2007), there is increased decline in unionisation as new sectors emerge hence making unions unrepresentative of employee voice. Many organizations are non-unionized and apply alternative voice mechanisms such as communication, training and development, attitude surveys, financial participation, and quality circles. However, employee voice is driven by various factors. The availability of voice mechanisms in the organization is a key driver of voice as employees can utilise various means to air their grievances but management support is required. For example, the management can put up suggestion boxes to get their opinions and adopt a culture of

Overview of the Grace-Fo Satellite Mission

Overview of the Grace-Fo Satellite Mission The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On: An Overview An artist depiction of the GRACE satellite configuration (Sharing, 2017) The field of remote sensing is continuously expanding and adapting to yield new information about the earth and its complex systems. Modern satellite technology has expanded to be able to monitor spatial and temporal variations in Earths global gravity field (Schutze, 2016). The ability to monitor the Earths geoid now allows scientists to understand changes in hydrological characteristics on the surface of the planet including ice mass loss due to climate change and sea level rise (NASA JPL, 2017). The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-on mission represent the application of this new technology that is essential for obtaining new data about global mass redistribution. The GRACE-FO mission will offer benefits due its use of active sensors and new technological inputs, but with any satellite system, there will be sources of error and challenges in design and data usage. The first GRACE mission was launched in 2002 as a result of the combined efforts of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) with assistance from partner institutions of both leading agencies (Schutze, 2016). The primary goal of the mission was to provide a new model of Earths gravity field every 30 days (Schlepp et al., 2015). Two identical satellites comprise the system with one trailing behind the other by 220km in a sun-synchronous orbit (Wahr, 2007). The satellites fly in a low polar orbit of 450 km and, the system circles the Earth every 90 minutes (Schutze, 2015). Spatial variations in Earths gravity field lead to different accelerations in the two satellites and therefore, differing inter-satellite separation (Schutze, 2016). Therefore, the GRACE mission is different than many other earth observation satellite missions because it does not make measurements of electromagnetic ener gy reflected back to it from Earths surface. The distance between the two satellites serves as the source of data. Also, uniquely, the satellites are left mostly without intervention to their orbit unless they separate by less than 170 km and more than 250 km (Sheard et al., 2012). Illustration of the positions of the two GRACE satellites in response to variations in Earths gravity field; a)The two satellites pass over the ocean and neither is affected; b)The lead spacecraft encounters a change in gravity over the more dense land mass and pulls away from the trailing spacecraft; c)The lead spacecraft moves back over water but now the trailing spacecraft changes position in response to the greater pull of gravity over the land mass (Ward, 2003) The first GRACE mission was only planned to run for 5 years, but far exceeded this as it is now in its 15th year of operation. The batteries in each satellite are fatiguing and accurate data is increasingly available in more irregular intervals (Gà ¶rth et al., 2016). As a result, NASA and the GFZ created a follow-on mission to prevent data gaps (Schlepp et al., 2015). The follow-on was approved for launch in August 2017 and is known simply as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission (Schlepp et al., 2015). The primary objective for this mission is the same as the previous; to create monthly global gravity models for five years (Sharing Earth Observation Resources, 2017). The GRACE-FO mission will use some of the key sensor technology and overall design of the first GRACE mission, but will also include unique features. The same two-satellite design will remain but the inter-satellite distance will be reduced from 220 km to 50 km (Zheng and Xu, 2015).   Several very important pieces of equipment will carry over from the first mission to each of the GRACE-FO satellites but will see improvements in design. This includes a microwave instrument (MWI) dependent on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. The MWI system measures the distance between the satellites centers of mass and slight changes in distance represent gravitational changes (Tapley, 2008). A very sensitive accelerometer meant to measure the forces acting on the satellites besides gravity including atmospheric drag will also remain (Tapley, 2008). There were previous accelerometer errors and satellite-to-satellite measurement errors that will be reduced by the lower altitude and up dates in design on the follow-on mission (Loomis, Nerem, and Luthcke, 2012). The microwave ranging system employed can measure the distance between satellites to within one micron or about the diameter of one human blood cell (NASA JPL, 2017). It is known as a KBR system because it utilizes microwaves in the K (26 GHz) and Ka (32 GHz) frequency channels (Jiang et al., 2014). Distance measurements between the two satellites are taken by monitoring the time of flight of microwave signals transmitted and received nearly simultaneously between the two spacecraft (Bao et al., 2005). Previously collected data and models created by scientists based on known gravitational differences linked to mountains and ocean trenches, the location of the sun, and the flow of the tides are compared to new measurements of the satellites to interpret gravitational changes (NASA JPL, 2017).   Also, the GPS unit on board is used in tandem with the MWI to be able to understand the gravity field below and can accurately assign capture time to data (Sheard et al., 2012). The accelerometer can then measure non-gravitational forces affecting the satellite as previously mentioned including atmospheric drag and solar radiation pressure (Schutze, 2016). These additional forces are then subtracted from measurements taken by the MWI. At the low altitude of orbit of GRACE comes changing solar radiation and large thermal disturbances to on-board instruments (Schutze, 2016). As a result, one improvement to the accelerometer on the GRACE-FO satellites will be placing the measurement digitalization unit in a temperature controlled area of the spacecraft to prevent temperature variation that can make data inaccurate (Christophe et al., 2015). The FO mission will include new technology known as a laser interferometer that will make measures that are at least 25 times more precise than the on-board microwave ranging system due to shorter wavelength usage (Sharingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, 2017). The LRI uses an active transponder principle, which means that the weak incoming received (RX) beam to the trailing satellite is replaced by a strong local oscillator (LO) beam. The LO beam is then reflected back to the lead satellite by a Triple Mirror Assembly (TMA) which directs the beam and influences the amount of light returned (Fledderman et al., 2014). It also serves to effectively route the incoming beam around other important hardware pieces (Fledderman et al., 2014). The use of the new laser interferometer represents the first time an active laser ranging system will be operated between two spacecraft (NASA JPL, 2017). However, the microwave system will remain intact to ensure continuity of data from the first mission and the use of interferometer represents only a technology demonstration (Sharingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, 2017). While some studies found the LRI technology could greatly increase the accuracy of gravity data, others found that there would be only moderate improvements in the accuracy models (Flechtner et al., 2015). However, seeing the results of the two systems as they operate simultaneously will create meaningful data for the planning of future of gravity field missions. The GRACE-1 mission allowed for new breakthroughs in the fields of hydrology, oceanography, glaciology, geophysics, and geodesy (Sharingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, 2017). Since gravity is determined by mass, the GRACE systems have the capability to show how mass is distributed around the planet (Sharingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, 2017). However, GRACE has and will continue to have no vertical resolution and can therefore, not distinguish between surface water, soil moisture, and ground water (Bolton and Thomas, 2015). Land surface models therefore allow for the disaggregation of Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) data by separating these data into layers with known points of distinction (Bolton and Thomas, 2015). For example, in a study of the High Plains region of the US, the variability of snow and surface water were found to make insignificant contributions to TWS variability compared to groundwater and soil moisture changes (Ward, 2003). Therefore, removing moisture data known from previous studies of th e region allowed scientists to subtract these figures from the GRACE gravitational measurements to understand changes in groundwater levels over time (Ward, 2003). Over time, improvements in GRACE data processing have allowed for the detection of changes in TWS within 1.5 cm accuracies for a wide range of spatial and seasonal scales (Jiang et al., 2014). (Ward, 2003) Measuring changes in global mass distribution can help scientists across many disciplines. GRACE data has also been used to observe increases and decreases in the ice and snow masses of glaciers and changes to the solid Earth following seismic activity such as the Fukushima earthquake of 2011 in Japan (Flechtner et al., 2016). Ocean water elevation changes caused by the devastating 2004 Sumatra tsunami had an impact of the inter-satellite distance of the GRACE satellites and showed how oceanic mass redistribution can affect Earths gravity field (Bao et al., 2005). Due to the relatively low spatial resolution of GRACE data, it is more useful for monitoring large-scale terrestrial water changes such as in past studies of the entire Amazon Basin or India (Bolton and Thomas, 2015). Other applications include flood and drought monitoring for management projects and interventions (Bolton and Thomas, 2015).   For example, the US National Drought Mitigation Center uses GRACE data mont hly to generate drought indicators and monitor surface water changes (NASA JPL, 2016). GRACE data also allows for the study of changes in deep ocean currents by measuring pressure changes at great depths. Similar pressure changes in the structure of the solid earth can be studied as well (NASA JPL, 2016). Trends in TWS and water mass redistribution made possible from GRACE data from 2002-2013 (Bolton and Thomas, 2015) One of the benefits of an active satellite system such as the GRACE-1 and GRACE-FO compared to passive systems is that it can collect accurate data 24 hours per day because it creates its own source of electromagnetic energy (Schowengerdt, 2006). Also, the use of microwaves in the GRACE missions means that data is not affected by any type of cloud cover which often greatly affects accurate passive sensor data acquisition because the system only considers inter-satellite distance and GPS location for data retrieval. Active sensors dependent on microwave signals like on the GRACE missions are unique in their capabilities. The launch of the first GRACE mission allowed for data on earths geoid that was 100 to 1000 times more accurate than previous models could estimate depending on the region of the global under consideration (Ward, 2003). GRACE data has also allowed scientists to under the impact of global climate change based on mass redistribution of water around the globe in a comprehensive and consistent manner never previously achieved. With more accurate data from the GRACE-FO mission and the security of continued data creation, changes caused by climate change will continue to be monitored and planning for issues such as drought can be improved. However, compared to passive system data, the analysis of data is more complex and costly overall. The data output of the GRACE systems also requires a lot of manipulation and filtering to create meaningful datasets for a variety of disciplines. The microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum is far from the visible region and therefore, the resulting data is also less intuitive for human interpretation (Schowengerdt, 2006). The raw data outputs for GRACE are just inter-satellite distance measurements and GPS data about satellite location (Ward, 2003). Therefore, improvements in satellite technology components alone will not improve the data created by GRACE. Improvements also need to be made to the many geophysical models used in data processing (Loomis, Nerem, and Luthcke, 2012). For example, a complete global depiction of the earths gravity field is only available every 30 days while forces such as tidal shifts can change on a minute-to-minute basis. This difference creates an issue in which short-term differences are lost or their impact is underestimated (Sheard et al., 2012). Therefore, understanding gravitational influences not directly linked to mass balance changes is essential. Models of gravity field anomalies on earths geoid created by comparing GRACE data from two different temporal scales (Ward, 2003) Models based on GRACE data are also limited by the noise present in the system data. This noise is linked to instrument errors, uncertainties in background models, and limitations in processing strategies (Siemes et al., 2013). In order to make meaningful measurements of mass changes on the earth using GRACE data, the noise of resulting models needs to be kept at a minimum, usually accomplished by applying filters (Siemes et al., 2013). However, when one problem is solved, another potentially arises. Filtering suppresses noise and blurs the signal, limiting the spatial resolution so much that part of the leak may affect nearby regions and cause errors in mass redistribution data (Siemes et al, 2013). However, more complex filtering methods have been developed to also minimize the blurring of data. Also, the spatial resolution of GRACE data is ultimately limited (Siemes et al., 2013). The spatial range for very accurate GRACE data application was 400km to 40,000 km for the first mission (Tapley, 2008). The strength of GRACE data therefore lies in an ability to monitor mass changes over time rather than to understand the water storage in one area at a specific time. However, there is potential for the lower altitude of the GRACE-FO mission and the LRI technology utilization of shorter wavelengths to allow for higher spatial resolution. The GRACE mission have shown that the use of active sensor technology on earth system satellite missions that utilizes microwave laser instruments and likely laser interferometers is incredibly efficient at understanding changes in earths geoid. With the launch of the GRACE-FO mission later this year, even more accurate measurements and greater understanding of mass redistribution of water around the planet will be possible. Despite the rapidly changing and unpredictable political climate of the United States government, the launch of the GRACE-FO mission seems undeterred and the collection of important data related to climate change-related issues will continue to be gathered. References Bao, L.F., Piatanesi, A., Lu, Y., Hsu, H.T., and Zhou, X.H. (2005) Sumatra tsunami affects observations by GRACE satellites. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 86(39), 353-356. Bolton, J. and Thomas, B. (2015) Overview of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data and applications. NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET). Powerpoint Presentation. http://www.cazalac.org/mwar_lac/fileadmin/imagenes2/Remote_Sensing/S5P1.pdf [2.3.17]. Christophe, Boulanger, Foulon, Huynh, Lebat, Liorzou, and Perrot. (2015) A new generation of ultra-sensitive electrostatic accelerometers for GRACE Follow-on and towards the next generation gravity missions. Acta Astronautica, 117, 1-7. Flechtner, F., Neumayer, K., Dahle, C., Dobslaw, H., Fagiolini, E., Raimondo, J., and Gà ¼ntner, A. (2016) What can be expected from the GRACE-FO laser ranging interferometer for earth science applications? Surveys in Geophysics, 37(2), 453-470. doi:10.1007/s10712-015-9338-y. Fleddermann, Ward, Elliot, Wuchenich, Gilles, Herding, . . . Shaddock. (2014) Testing the GRACE follow-on triple mirror assembly. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 31(19), 12. Gà ¶rth, A., Sanjuan, J., Gohlke, M., Rasch, S., Abich, K., Braxmaier, C., and Heinzel, G. (2016) Test environments for the GRACE follow-on laser ranging interferometer. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 716(1), 4. Jiang, D., Huang, Y., Fu, J., Wang, J., Ding, X., and Zhou, K. (2014) The review of GRACE data applications in terrestrial hydrology monitoring. Advances in Meteorology, 2014, Vol.2014. Loomis, Bryant D., Nerem, R. S., and Luthcke, S. B. (2012) Simulation study of a follow-on gravity mission to GRACE.(Report). Journal of Geodesy, 86(5), 319. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). (2016). Applications overview. NASA. GRACE Tellus: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/applications/overview/ [2.3.17]. . (2017) GRACE-FO. NASA. GRACE Tellus: Gravity Recovery Climate Experiment. https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grace-fo/ [2.3.17]. Schlepp B., Kirschner M., Sweetser T.H., Klipstein W.M., Dubovitsky S., (2015). Flight Dynamics Challenges for the GRACE Follow-On Mission. 25th International Symposium on Space Flight Dynamics (ISSFD). http://elib.dlr.de/98835/1/ISSFD2015_FD%20Challenges%20for-20GRACE-FO_Schlepp.pdf [2.3.17]. Schowengerdt, R. (2006) Remote Sensing [electronic resource] : Models and Methods for Image Processing (3rd ed.). Burlington: Elsevier Science, 204-243. Schà ¼tze, D. (2016) Measuring Earth: Current status of the GRACE Follow-On Laser Ranging Interferometer. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 716(1), 6. . (2015) LISA technology sheds light on climate change: GRACE-FO mission. LISA Mission. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb29hD3OgFw [2.3.17]. Sharing Earth Observation Resources. (2017) GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On)/ GFO (GRACE Follow-On). EO Portal Directory. https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/g/grace-fo [2.3.17]. Sheard, B., Heinzel, S., Danzmann, G., Shaddock, K., Klipstein, D., and Folkner, A. (2012) Intersatellite laser ranging instrument for the GRACE follow-on mission. Journal of Geodesy, 86(12), 1083-1095. Siemes, C., Ditmar, P., Riva, R., Slobbe, E., Liu, M., and Farahani, D. (2013) Estimation of mass change trends in the Earths system on the basis of GRACE satellite data, with application to Greenland. Journal of Geodesy, 87(1), 69-87. Tapley, B. (2008) Gravity model determination from the GRACE mission. The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, 56(3), 273-285. Wahr, J. (2007) Time Variable Gravity from Satellites-3.08. In Treatise on Geophysics, 218. Ward, A. (2003) Weighing earths water from space: challenges and limitations to using the GRACE technique. NASA Earth observatory. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WeighingWater/printall.php [7.3.17]. Zheng Wei and Xu Houze. (2015) Progress in satellite gravity recovery from implemented CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE and future GRACE follow-on missions. Geodesy and Geodynamics, 6(4), 241-247. doi:10.1016/j.geog.2015.05.005

Essay --

Death Sentence is not an Effective Deterrent Experts have shown that the death penalty has not proved to be a strong deterrent (Michael, 2009). They also believe that life imprisonment is better deterrent than capital punishment as it spoils the whole life of the criminal that way instilling the fear in other possibility criminal (Michael, 2009). Some criminologists states that â€Å"society is brutalized by the use of the death penalty, and this increases the likelihood of more murder† (Michael, 2009). This means that it increases the chance of future murders in societies. Statistics expose that states that do not have the death penalty in the US have lower murder rates compared to other states(Michael, 2009). On the other hand likewise, murder rates are higher in the US states that practice the death penalty than they are in Canada or Europe where the death penalty is not practiced (Parks,2009). The reason for its inefficacy as deterrence may be because there are some holes in the legal system of many countries. There are several examples when murders are committed in anger and without thinking of the consequences. Prominent politicians believe that the death penalty may be ineffective as a deterrent because murders often happen under the influence of drugs or alcohol; "It is my own experience that those executed in Texas were not deterred by the existence of the death penalty law. I think in most cases you'll find that the murder was committed under severe drug and alcohol abuse (Hood &Hoyle, 2008)". A survey done by the criminologists in US shows that the majority argued against the death penalty on deterrence. It was based on the questionnaires and 88 percent of responders stated that ... ...ountries have abolished the death punishment, while other countries still practice this penalty. This essay has argued that there is an urgent need to abolish capital punishment in all countries. Possible reasons for retaining the death penalty, including the idea of revenge , effectiveness of the death penalty and the right to life have been examined. This paper has also explored arguments that support abolishing death penalty. These include the failure of this punishment to deter criminals, the right to life and the social balance. Whether the death penalty is abolished or not depends on the legal system of any country. However, human life and safety should be respected by government. It is clear that further research is needed in this area, there would seem to be considerable evidence that all governments in the world should abolish the death penalty.

Demographics and Audience Analysis

Chapter 12 Activity #5 Page 382 Abstract Here is my response to the activity #12 question. ACTIVITY #5 5. Why is audience analysis important? How can it help the speaker in a business presentation? What are its limitations? Audience analysis is important because it is part of your preparation process in order to ensure that you have completed the appropriate research and homework on who you will be presenting to. The research can include anything from age, gender, audience’s size, social class, educational level, cultural background, and occupational status. When preparing a business presentation it is important to know your audience in order to help send a specific message to sell a specific product, or gain a certain business clientele to expand a merger or can range from just about anything. The most important thing is knowing who you are talking to, because in most cases the audience has already done their research on the speaker and are already prepared with questions and assumptions before the presentation starts. The limitation is only based upon how much you are prepared and have a specific presentation tailored to your specific audience. For example it wouldn’t make sense to prepare a speech for a group of electrical engineers and then present it to a group of third graders and expect them to understand the material. Here is the text from the ebook over audience analysis. O'Hair, Dan (2012). In presentational speaking, the process of finding out about those to whom you will be speaking is termed audience analysis, and it corresponds to the second component of strategic communication: gathering situational knowledge. When preparing for a presentation, you can research individual members of the audience, organizational factors that affect the audience, and even location, time, or other physical influences. Audience analysis helps you to understand the speaking situation as it unfolds as well as how best to prepare for the audience’s needs and likely responses to your message. In other words, effective speakers continue to gather information and monitor the situation throughout the presentation Demographic information—the audience’s size, age, social class, educational level, gender, cultural background, and occupational status—is fundamental to any audience analysis. Demography (the collection and study of such information) is a necessary first step toward establishing more specific and complex analyses of a target audience. The target audience—the key decision makers who are members of the general audience—is an important focus for your analysis. You are more likely to succeed by tailoring your ideas, information, and appeals to these audience members. 5 Audience attitudes toward many social and economic issues can be predicted through careful demographic analysis. For example, if you learn that your audience will be composed of employees in the manufacturing division of your company—mostly blue-collar males ages 40 to 60 who are union members—you can conclude that a presentation on why the company should deunionize to encourage new hiring policies will have to be approached with careful preparation and an understanding of possible negative audience response. This is not to say that audience analysis encourages stereotyping or can be ignored if you think you already know, for example, what a typical clerical worker is like. It is vital to approach audience analysis with an open mind because you are likely to discover unexpected characteristics of audience members that may provide the key to connecting with them. By analyzing and understanding the implications of the audience analysis, you will have a good sense of how to aim your presentation and what language and imagery to employ. Remember also that it is important to know whether you are speaking to accountants, engineers, marketers, janitors, or a combination of various employee groups. They may all work for your company, but each group has a different perspective on the organization, and it is also likely to differ from your own. Be sure to modify your presentation to accommodate each group because the most successful presentations are those that address every member of the audience and make each person feel involved and important. Three categories of audience analysis can be considered when doing a profile. Each of the three categories provides a different starting point for thinking about your audience’s needs. †¢ Audience type—Why have these people decided to attend your presentation? Audience characteristics—What are the religions, education levels, ages, ethnicities, and genders of typical audience members? Environmental characteristics—How will the setting and surroundings affect the speaking situation? † Bibliography O'Hair, Dan (2012). Strategic Communication in the Business and Professions [7] (VitalSource Bookshelf), Retrieved from http://online. vitalsource. com/books/9781256085492/id/pg359

Modern Accounting Systems Essay

All the organizations in the world are aiming at expanding both in terms of the gains they make and the number of customers they have and this has seen a lot of improvements in almost all sectors of the organizations. The accounting sector has encountered a high level improvement due to the introduction of the modern accounting systems. Modern accounting systems have ensured that the organizations carry out their accounting work with the use of modern accounting systems that are more efficient compared to the earlier accounting systems. Organizations that have adopted the modern accounting systems have had an added advantage over those that have not. In the current dynamic economic world organizations are trying very hard to be more competitive than their rivals and adopting the modern accounting systems has helped organizations attain a competitive advantage. Most of the leading accountants in the world both in the private and in the public sector have realized the need for better and effective accounting systems. In addition to the modern accounting systems organizations have realized that there is need to have knowledge of accounting principles because the modern systems cannot achieve their anticipated results without the proper knowledge. For organizations to best manage their resources they have to come up with a way of measuring the resources and this has seen the accounting sector of many organizations to be very crucial in the management of the organization. Basically an accounting system is supposed to help an organization in understanding its operations and also know if it is making profits or losses. Without an accounting system the organization may not be able to predict any shortages in the cash flow or in other crucial resources. An accounting system allows an organization to have a record of all its debtors and therefore it is able to know those customers or clients that have not cleared their debts or those who are paying at a slow rate. This helps the organization to determine the credit worthiness of its clients and therefore it knows the limits to which it may extend its credit services. Organizations in the early days needed an accounting system that would meet the basic needs of an accounting system but currently due to the revolution in the sector most organizations have become very innovative ion the accounting sector (Jae and Joel, 2000). The accounting perspective of both small organizations and large organizations has currently undergone a huge revolution with the introduction of the modern management accounting systems. Most organizations have therefore concentrated on their accounting systems with the hope of improving them by use of modern management accounting models. Modern accounting systems have played a very crucial role in organizations in that they help the managers make decisions regarding the organization. Managers are also able to set realistic strategic goals for the organization and ensure that the goals are achieved within the set timeframe by use of the modern accounting systems. Compared to the earlier days managers would set goals that would not be achieved by the organization and therefore the organization ends up spending a lot of time and resources in efforts to achieve the goals. This means that organizations are now able to use their resources and time in achievable goals and therefore they attain a competitive advantage over their rivals in the market. Issues related to planning and controls within the organization are catered for by the modern accounting systems and so the workers and the management work toward achieving a common goal for the improvement of the organization. Due to the use of modern accounting systems most organizations are getting to their full capacity levels and also enjoying an increase n their sales leading to an increase in the profits. The modern systems have also encouraged an increase in the level of automation and computerization in organizations because most of these systems require organizations to automate or computerize their operations. Automated operations have been seen to be more efficient as compared to manual operations. This is because the number of errors made in an automated system is far below the errors on a manual accounting system. An accounting system that has a lot of errors will result to errors in the whole organization which then leads to losses. Organizations that have automated their systems due to the use of modern accounting systems are more likely to expand at a higher rate as compared those operating manually. For organizations to succeed in the current competitive economic environment they have to ensure that all the necessary requirements by the law are met. One of the major reasons why organizations fail is because of increased problems with the law authorities and other tax collection authorities. The early accounting systems did not have an effective means of ensuring that the organization does not collide with the authorities. This is different with the modern accounting systems because they reduce the problems that used to exist between the organization and the authorities. An organization that has fewer problems with the authorities is able to reduce its expenses because it does not fall a victim of the fines that are put on organizations that evade tax and laws. The traditional accounting system did not give the required attention to the internal and external cost controls and so it ended up matching the expenses and the revenues of organizations in the wrong way. This wrong match led to organizations mismanagement due to wrong estimation of the revenue or the expenses. Modern accounting systems emphasize on internal and external cost controls and therefore organizations get the right match of their revenue and expenses (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2000). The use of modern technologies that enable organizations to collect, monitor and disseminate information has made it possible for organizations to enter into transactions with other organizations and this has ensured that organizations become more profitable. Modern accounting systems have allowed organizations to enter into successful inter organizational markets. Organizations have therefore been able to come up with joint ventures so as to be more competitive in the market and has seen organizations dominate markets hence high and continued profits. The success of joint ventures depends on the availability of information to both organizations and the modern accounting systems are a good source of information because all the information regarding the organization is stored in the systems (William, 2007). The modern accounting systems have helped organizations to plan their resources in the right way. Resource planning in organizations is very crucial since lack of planning leads to losses within the organization or the organization is unable to attain its goal. One of the major resources that the modern accounting systems have been known to plan is the human resource. An organization that adopts the modern accounting system finds it easier to manage the employee because information regarding all the employees is stored in the systems. The old accounting system did not have a way of storing all the information of the employees’ especially in large organizations and so the organizations could not achieve the best out of the employees. Those organizations that have adopted modern accounting systems are able to manage their cost more efficiently as compared to other organizations. Cost management is different from the cost accounting in that it is concerning with the management of costs whether or not those costs impact directly on the financial accounts or the inventory. Modern accounting systems simplify the cost accounting procedures and this helps the managers of organizations to effectively manage and control the costs in the organization. Organizations that achieve effective cost management have increased quality, improved overall management and a better cost. The traditional accounting systems were very complex due to the many transactions that were involved and the numerous data that had to be handled by the systems. This made them quite tedious as compared to the modern accounting systems that are easy to work with and therefore the accountants do not get exhausted when working with these systems and this ensures that they do not make errors in their work. The modern accounting systems support the management needs of the organization and therefore they are useful in making decisions regarding the pricing, marketing, design of the product and they enhance continued improvements in the operations of the organization. Organizations that have adopted the modern accounting systems have been seen to reduce their levels of inventory and this means that they invest less in inventories. The overall inventory level is reduced because the systems require the smallest quantity of inputs and materials at any time (Charles and Walter, 2007). The other major difference that the modern accounting systems have brought to the modern organizations is that there is easy access to the financial statements of the modern organizations. When an organization’s financial statements are easy to access it becomes easier for other individuals outside the organization to detect any mistakes in the statements and demand explanation. Organizations that have an easy way of accessing their financial statements will also develop a positive reputation from the general public and therefore more people will like to be associated with the organization. This means that the organization will increase its sales and consequently the profits will also go up. The organization also builds a strong relationship with the employees because they are able to access the financial statements and this helps them gauge their productivity to the organization. Accountability is a very crucial issue in the current market environment. Modern accounting systems ensure that the management of the organization is accountable for all the resources that are at their disposal. Accountability of the management has seen most of the modern organizations eliminate the issue of corruption which greatly harms the organization if it is nurtured. The stakeholders of the modern organizations have also increased their confidence in the organizations because they find it easy to access the financial statements of the organization. Organizations that have adopted the modern accounting systems are able to acquire more finances compared to others. This is because the financial institutions are able to access the financial statements of these organizations and at the same time monitor their cash flow so as to determine if the organization is able to repay the amount of money borrowed. Organizations that use the modern accounting systems have an easier system of monitoring their accounts and so the government finds it easier to work with such organizations. This means that this kind of organizations have now started receiving government support unlike in the past when it was quite difficult for the government to gain access to the financial accounts of some organizations (Brynjolfsson, and Hitt, 2000). Organizations that use the modern accounting systems are able to cut down their workforce because the systems do not require a huge labor force. This is because most of the modern accounting systems are computerized and therefore the tasks that would be done by a group of employees are carried out by a single employee with the help of a machine like a computer. The accounting information is also stored in a safe manner and this means that the information may not be tampered with. Tampering with the accounting information of an organization may result to huge losses or the organization may damage its reputation and therefore it looses its customers and employees. Service offering organizations like banks and hospitals have felt the effect of the modern accounting systems in that unlike in the past when attending to their clients was a tedious and time consuming exercise, the modern systems have made it possible for employees to attend to clients at a higher rate and effectively. This has increased the number of clients that the organizations attend to and therefore there is an increase in the profit of the organization. Currently there is uniformity in the accounts of many organizations and this has made it easier for government and the public to scrutinize the accounts unlike in the past when each organization had its own way of recording its transactions. The cost of communication and transport that organizations used to incur in the early days has been reduced by the evolution of the modern accounting systems. This is so because the systems are mostly computerized and therefore most of the transactions can be made over the internet instead of having to travel long distances. On the other hand the modern accounting systems have some disadvantages although they do not outweigh the numerous benefits to organizations. One of the major disadvantages of the modern accounting systems is that they have made many individuals lose their jobs. One example is that in the early days when all transactions had to be done on paper there were bookkeepers and other employees who were in charge of maintaining the files, these group of people lost their jobs with the evolution of the modern accounting systems. The other problem is that the modern accounting systems make use of the internet to make transactions which many see as a risky way because of the numerous internet hackers. In conclusion the current modern accounting systems have led to an improvement in the management and the productivity of most modern organizations.  Apart from improved accounting systems most organizations have had improved managerial operations derived from the modern accounting systems. The systems have made the following major differences in the modern organizations: reduced the problems of tax authorities, it is now easier to access the financial statements of most organizations, the systems provide an excellent tool for management of organizations and it is easier to report the transactions of organizations.