...Deciding how to vote is now essentially a rational exercise In the early 20th century, most of the electorate would vote for a party that they have been brought up with or are a party that they identify strongly with. However, since the turn of the 20th century, this is much less likely to be the case as evidence shows that there is a great decrease in the percentage of people who vote by party identification. It has fallen from 45% in 1964 to 10% in 2010, it is apparent that voting may be becoming an issue of deliberated choice, a rational exercise rather than something decided by your upbringing or you socio-economic group. To name one reason, it is clear that voting is a rational exercise when we take into account party leadership, and how that has affected past general elections. Past general elections have shown us that the image of the party leader is in-fact of most importance, with elections having significant swings based on the image of the party leader. An example of such an occasion was the 1979 general election. Labour leader Michael Foot was a kind-hearted man, an ex-pilot and had credible policies, yet he cared not for his appearance and was often quite scruffy and poorly dressed. Mrs Thatcher on the other hand was well-spoken, well-dressed and an looked the part of a prime-minister - and it was her that won the election. It is also often the case that opinion polls also show this is the case, and that an appealing party leader will often result in a win at...
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...as there is still involvement on a local level. This suggests that political participation should not just be judged on turnout for general elections but also other acts of political participation. Using your own knowledge as well as the extract, consider why some commentators have spoken of a ‘participation crisis’ in recent years. In recent general elections, declining levels of turnout have led some to believe Britain is having a participation crisis. Meaning, political participation is so low it threatens to undermine Britain’s democracy. In the 2005 general election just 60% of registered voters cast a ballot and this increased slightly in 2010 to 65%. Low levels of turnout cause numerous problems. If not enough of those able to vote do, it calls into question the legitimacy of the result and any decisions made by the winning party. For example, the Conservative party...
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...Module 7 – Leadership and decision-making (13%) Leadership and ethics What is leadership? Identifying leadership attributes Transformational leadership Strategic Leadership The nature of strategic leadership The role of leaders in strategic thinking and decision-making The role of leaders in strategic analysis The role of leaders in setting direction The role of leaders in strategic formulation and selection The role of leaders in implementing strategy The Naked CEO Preview Leaders are required to develop the strategy, drive the change and align the organisation’s structure, resources and culture with the strategy. There are various viewpoints about what actually constitutes the leadership, the qualities required and its level of importance. The purpose of this module is not to present and analyse these arguments, but to provide a practical approach based on the transformational leadership that focuses specially on the role of strategy and strategic leadership. Irrespective of the approach taken to strategic leadership, there exists an important distinction between leadership and management. A leader is primarily involved in: setting direction, aligning and communicating, and inspiring and motivating. A manager is primarily in charge of: planning and budgeting, organising and staffing, and controlling and problem solving. Objectives You should be able to: (1) describe the role of ethics and corporate social responsibility in leadership; (2) identify and discuss...
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...Business Ethics Concepts & Cases Manuel G. Velasquez ABSTRACT Summary of the main points of the first two chapters in the book. The remaining chapters are application of the concepts summarized as relating to political forms of government and market systems. These further chapters are less relevant to the DBA class that this summary was prepared for. Chapter 1 – Ethics & Business Ethics is the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. It is the study of morality. Morality are the standards that an individual or group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil. Moral norms can usually be expressed as general rules or statements, such as “Always tell the truth”. Moral values can usually be expressed as statements describing objects or features of objects that have worth, such as “Honesty is good” and “Injustice is bad”. Five characteristics can help pin down the nature of moral standards. 1. Moral standards deal with matters that we think can seriously injure or seriously benefit human beings. 2. Moral standards are not established or changed by the decisions of particular legislative bodies. 3. We feel that moral standards should be preferred to other values including (especially?) self-interest. 4. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations. – that is, a point of view that does not evaluate standards according to whether they advance the interests of a particular individual or group, but one that goes...
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...Business Ethics Concepts & Cases Manuel G. Velasquez ABSTRACT Summary of the main points of the first two chapters in the book. The remaining chapters are application of the concepts summarized as relating to political forms of government and market systems. These further chapters are less relevant to the DBA class that this summary was prepared for. Chapter 1 – Ethics & Business Ethics is the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. It is the study of morality. Morality are the standards that an individual or group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil. Moral norms can usually be expressed as general rules or statements, such as “Always tell the truth”. Moral values can usually be expressed as statements describing objects or features of objects that have worth, such as “Honesty is good” and “Injustice is bad”. Five characteristics can help pin down the nature of moral standards. 1. Moral standards deal with matters that we think can seriously injure or seriously benefit human beings. 2. Moral standards are not established or changed by the decisions of particular legislative bodies. 3. We feel that moral standards should be preferred to other values including (especially?) self-interest. 4. Moral standards are based on impartial considerations. – that is, a point of view that does not evaluate standards according to whether they advance the interests of a particular individual or group,...
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...2012 The College Board. College Board, ACCUPLACER, WritePlacer and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org. Sentence Skills In an ACCUPLACER® placement test, there are 20 Sentence Skills questions of two types. • The first type is sentence correction questions that require an understanding of sentence structure. These questions ask you to choose the most appropriate word or phrase for the underlined portion of the sentence. • The second type is construction shift questions. These questions ask that a sentence be rewritten according to the criteria shown while maintaining essentially the same meaning as the original sentence. Within these two primary categories, the questions are also classified according to the skills being tested. Some questions deal with the logic of the sentence, others with whether or not the answer is a complete sentence, and still others with the relationship between coordination and subordination. 3. To walk, biking, and driving are Pat’s favorite ways of getting around. A. To walk, biking, and driving B. Walking, biking, and driving C. To walk, biking, and to drive D. To walk, to bike, and also driving 4. When you cross the street in the middle of the block, this is an example of jaywalking. A. When you cross the street in the middle of the block, this B. You cross the street in the middle...
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...Kruglyakov Rafael A. Rosillo Pasquale Siciliani Paul Lanois Gloria M. Gasso Kamel Ait El Hadj Yuanyuan Zheng Ana L. Marquez Pumthan Chaichantipyuth Wenzhen Dai Penn Law Summer 2006 I. Introduction and Historical Background A. What the course will cover? This is not an introductory course. You are all lawyers; I shall assume a good deal of professional expertise, and that many of you already have a body of knowledge about American law. The task: prepare you for the coming year, give you the basic grounding that you will need for the courses you are going to start taking in September. For this, you need two things: ♥ A great deal of basic factual information about how the courts and the legal system function, and about basic legal concepts (and legal vocabulary); ♥ But more importantly: background information about some of the critical ways in which the American legal system is unique, and differs from legal systems elsewhere in the world. This is hard: often you will find that your professors or fellow‐students will make assumptions or presuppose certain ways of doing things that aren’t explained in class. A large goal of this course is to explain those assumptions, and make them explicit. >> UNIQUENESS OF AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEMS Briefly, there are four aspects of the American legal system that set it apart: 1) Inherited common law, existing ...
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...Table of Contents I.) INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES 2 A.) Efficiency and Other Concepts 2 B.) Agency and Partnership Law 2 II.) INTRODUCTION TO THE CORPORATE FORM 16 A.) Formation and Structure 16 B.) Debt, Equity, and Valuation 22 III.) CONTROL OF CORPORATE DECISIONS 32 A.) The Role of the Shareholder 32 B.) Management Obligations 50 1.) Duty of Care 51 2.) Duty of Loyalty 56 3.) Duty of Fairness: Parent-Subsidiary Relationships 63 4.) Duty of Good Faith 64 5.) Management Obligations Under Federal Securities Laws 67 C.) Shareholder Litigation 76 IV.) Structural Changes 85 A.) Transactions in Control 85 B.) Mergers and Acquisitions 86 1.) Mergers 87 2.) Sale of Assets 93 3.) Asset Purchase or Tender Offer 94 C.) Public Control Contests 96 1.) The Poison Pill 100 2.) Enhanced Review When Business is Up for Sale 103 3.) Proxy Contests for Corporate Control 106 4.) Protecting the Deal: Shareholder Lockup Agreements 109 I.) INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES • Definitions o Corporate Law: The allocation of rights and power within a corporation; the internal body of law ▪ Addresses the creation of economic wealth through the facilitation of voluntary, ongoing collective action ▪ Flexible- expectation that market discipline will weed out what is not working ▪ Principle aim- reduce agency costs of all sorts o Securities Law: Regulates capital markets that corporations use to obtain funding ...
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......................................................................... Working through the Course.............................................. Course Materials................................................................ Study Units........................................................................ Textbooks and References.................................................. Assessment.......................................................................... Tutor Marked Assignments (TMA)................................... Final Examination and Grading.......................................... Course Marking Scheme..................................................... Course Overview/Presentation Schedule............................ How to get the most from this Course................................ Tutors and...
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...language, and it contains not a single graph or equation...Landsburg presents fascinating concepts in a form easily accessible to noneconomists." —ERIK M. JENSEN, The Cleveland Plain Dealer "...enormous fun from its opening page...Landsburg has done something extraordinary: He has expounded basic economic principles with wit and verve." -DAN SELIGMAN, Fortune "An ingenious and highly original presentation of some central principles of economics for the proverbial Everyman. Its breezy tone conceals the subtlety of the analysis. Guaranteed to puncture some illusions and to make you think." —MILTON FRIEDMAN CONTENTS Introduction I. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT The Power of Incentives: How Seat Belts Kill - 3 Rational Riddles: Why the Rolling Stones Sell Out - 10 Truth or Consequences: How to Split a Check or Choose a Movie - 20 The Indifference Principle: Who Cares If the Air Is Clean? - 31 The Computer Game of Life: Learning What It's All About - 42 II. GOOD AND EVIL 6. Telling Right from Wrong: The Pitfalls of Democracy - 49 7. Why Taxes Are Bad: The Logic of Efficiency - 60 8. Why Prices Are Good: Smith Versus Darwin - 73 9. Of...
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...Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The thief of time: philosophical essays on procrastination / edited by Chrisoula Andreou and Mark D. White. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-537668-5 (hardback: alk. paper) 1. Procrastination. I. Andreou, Chrisoula. II. White, Mark D., 1971– BF637.P76T45 2010 128'.4—dc22 2009021750 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Mike and Kaemon and Paul and Ree Acknowledgments We owe special thanks to the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature for funding a workshop in New York City in the summer of 2008 for the contributors to gather and share ideas; Jennifer Hornsby and Olav Gjelsvik, the research directors of the Rational Agency section of CSMN, played an integral role in...
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...purposes. a. Protect individuals b. Protect society c. Protect property, and d. Protect objectives 3. How does the law achieve the aforementioned purposes? a. By establishing confidence in the enforcement of laws b. Providing a certain degree of predictability as to what will happen if the laws are violated 4. If any society is to survive, its citizens must be able to determine What is legally right and wrong and be able to determine what sanctions may be imposed on them if they commit wrongful acts 5. Why should you care about the law? a. The law affects virtually ALL business transactions and activities, including: i. Hiring and firing ii. Workplace safety iii. Manufacturing, distributing & marketing of products iv. Financing v. Accounting & ethics and vi. Many other areas as well 6. You are the owner of a company called Compudata – a computer software & systems company. You receive an inquiry from BMI, Inc. regarding your company’s various services. a. What are some of the legal issues you need to consider? i. How do we enter into a contract Contracts ii. What happens if BMI breaches Remedies iii. How do we protect our product IP iv. Are we dealing with the right person Agency v. What happens if we have a dispute...
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...of human beings it self. One basic nature of human beings related with this statement is the fact that “man is a social animal” whose life is closely related to each other. Almost all instincts, demands and progresses of human beings are fulfilled in society. The superiority that human beings try to achieve over nature and other living things is the result of the social bond among human beings. If such bond is a requirement for the survival of human beings, then what should be the pattern of social interaction that exist among human beings is closely related with the subject matter of civics. In this regard civics is considered as a subject field which is mainly concerned with teaching citizens as to how they can live harmonious and peaceful life with other citizens and as to how they can resolve conflicts peacefully among them selves. The other basic nature of human being is the political view of philosophy by Plato that, “Man is a political animal”, which means no human being can escape from the deeds of politics and its dayto-day life is either directly or indirectly affected by it. For this reason human beings have to know the workings of politics, institutions that affect their day to day life, norms, principles and laws which are set in motion by politicians to govern their societies and above all the duties and rights that they have in the political community in which they are leading their life. So, civics tries to make them familiar with such and other concepts that make...
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...TeAM YYeP BUSINESS G Digitally signed by TeAM YYePG DN: cn=TeAM YYePG, c=US, o=TeAM YYePG, ou=TeAM YYePG, email=yyepg@msn.com Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Date: 2005.04.20 19:31:36 +08'00' ECONOMICS AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING Trefor Jones Manchester School of Management UMIST 4 PART I g CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION Firms are major economic institutions in market economies. They come in all shapes and sizes, but have the following common characteristics: g g g g g g Owners. Managers. Objectives. A pool of resources (labour, physical capital, ¢nancial capital and learned skills and competences) to be allocated roles by managers. Administrative or organizational structures through which production is organized. Performance assessment by owners, managers and other stakeholders. Whatever its size, a ¢rm is owned by someone or some group of individuals or organizations. These are termed shareholders and they are able to determine the objectives and activities of the ¢rm. They also appoint the senior managers who will make day-to-day decisions. The owners bear the risks associated with operating the ¢rm and have the right to receive the residual income or pro¢ts. Where ownership rights are dispersed, control of the ¢rm may not lie with the shareholders but with senior managers. This divorce between ownership and control and its implication for the operation and performance of the ¢rm is...
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...Week 2 The business context 1. Porter’s Five Forces Where does the power lie? How do I maximise my power and leverage? How do I identify and minimise my weaknesses? The threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services and rivalry among existing competitors 2. Porter’s Generic Strategies How do I gain a competitive advantage in business? What strategies will help me achieve my goals? 3.1 The Cost Leadership Strategy 3.2.1 Increase profits by reducing costs 3.2.2 Industry-average prices 3.2.3 Increasing market share 3.2.4 Low costs mean greater profit You will need: 3.2.5 Strong control over Cost of Labour 3.2.6 Preferential access to raw materials, components etc. 3.2.7 Take advantage of economies of scale 3.2.8 Easy access to supply chains and affordable logistics 3.2 The Differentiation Strategy 3.3.9 Create a product that is perceived as unique 3.3.10 Brand Loyalty 3.3.11 Can provide better insulation from competition You will need: 2.2.4 Strong R&D 2.2.5 Creativity 2.2.6 Unique Marketing Strategy 2.2.7 Innovate to stay ahead of the competition 2.3 Focus Strategy 2.3.1 Focus on niche markets 2.3.2 Unique understanding of the market 2.3.3 Either cost leadership or differentiation You will need: 2.3.4 Unique/specific insight into the market 2.3.5 Knowledge of suppliers and specialists...
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