...existence of the IMF represents a form of intervention by the state, or collection of states, that the extreme liberals see as unnecessary. The liberal view is founded on the basic concept “laissez fair” which basically means “hands-off” or “allow to happen”. This doctrine was introduced by Adam Smith in his book, The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. The basic idea is that commerce or trade should be allowed to occur without intervention by the state. It promotes the idea of primacy of markets and companies over the state and contends that internal trade is a “positive sum game” wherein results will work out positively and harmoniously for all involved. Their view is that the main player in global economics should be private entities and that market forces should apply in all respects. For extreme liberals, maybe the most egregious aspect of the IMF is the idea of moral hazard, whereby individual countries will take unreasonable risks on the belief that if they fail, they will be bailed out by the IMF. Such a practice distorts the basic market forces and market balancing of the “invisible hand”. For liberals, primacy is market over the state and the pursuit of prosperity alone fuels innovation, investment, efficiency and growth. Competition, inefficiency and poor strategies cull the heard and the cycle continues. By all this, stability and sustainability of trade and peace...
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...DEFINATION OF TERMS: Sociology; Sociology is the scientific study of human social behavior and human association and results of social activities. Sociologists are concerned with; • the study of social behavior • relationship among social groups and societies • the maintenance of stability and order PURPOSE OF SOCIOLOGY Sociologists develop knowledge on people and on their behaviors and activities in order to better understand societal interactions. Sociologists study the social systems (family, school, church, economy, political, etc) in which individuals fill their roles, people in relation to others. IS SOCIOLOGY A SCIENCE? Sociology is a science, but it is considered a "soft" science, along with psychology. A soft science is anything that is based more on the judgment of the professional than actual facts. Hard sciences are things like nuclear physics and maths. Elements of scientific study of society. • The use of theories in explaining Social phenomenon and human behavior • Conducting of social researches which involves systematic/scientific methods • Analyzing of societal issues using scientific approaches Furthermore using the positivist approach adopted by Marx and Engels enables the establishment of laws of human behavior in the same way natural scientists have established laws of the natural world. Their approach to dialectics was a development of the philosophical theory of Hegel, (1877). ...
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...argued that religion is a conservative force and acts to prevent change and keep society stable. This is the view held by earlier theories that stressed the role of institutions in shaping human behaviour and maintaining the stability of society, such as Functionalism and Marxism. Religion is also seen as conservative because it is traditional; defending traditional customs and moral views, for example. Functionalists view religion as a conservative force, preventing social change. Durkheim believed that religion performs an important function for society, binding people together like ‘social cement’ preventing anomie. Religion provides a set of moral values that form the collective conscience, ensuring social stability. This is where religion unifies people which leads to conformity which then makes behaviour predictable. Religion also answers eternal questions such as ‘why the good die young’ and ‘why do people suffer’ in Christian for example, helping to prevent social change. Durkheim studied totemism among Australian Aboriginal tribes. Totems are a symbol of a set of beliefs. This can be anything from an object to an animal and is treated with the highest respect by those that follow the set of beliefs or religion. For example, it is similar to the crucifix for Christians which explains why they uphold traditional beliefs in society, preventing social change. However, Durkheim’s study is seen to be ethnocentric as his subjective opinion on religion would have overrode into...
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...CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS ETHICS?* Stories about “unethical” behavior in business abound. The recent scandals permeating the financial services, savings and loan, and other industries have caused a growing concern about ethics in the workplace. Success often appears to be measured in only dollars. The claim that “greed is good” seems to reflect the behavior of many people in our society. Indeed, the desire to possess more and more seems pervasive—and business, like other institutions, reflects the values, beliefs, and personal goals of our society. Time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and countless other magazines and newspapers have called attention to unethical practices, bemoaning the “sleaze, scandals, and hypocrisy”1 undermining our moral bearings. In short, there is a great deal of concern about ethics in general, and business ethics in particular. This reading will examine what ethics is and how people decide what is “right” and “wrong.” The word ethics has a number of meanings. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary gives several definitions of ethics, including: ● the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation ● a set of moral principles or values ● a theory or system of moral values 2 ● the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. Ethics, in all of these definitions, is concerned with right or wrong behavior. This reading focuses on the discipline or study of ethics. 1. THE DISCIPLINE OF ETHICS This discipline...
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...WHAT IS CSR? eople create organizations to leverage their collective resources in pursuit of common goals. As organizations pursue these goals, they interact with others inside a larger context called society. Based on their purpose, organizations can be classified as for-profits, governments, or nonprofits. At a minimum, for-profits seek gain for their owners; governments exist to define the rules and structures of society within which all organizations must operate; and nonprofits (sometimes called NGOs—nongovernmental organizations) emerge to do social good when the political will or the profit motive is insufficient to address society’s needs. Aggregated across society, each of these different organizations represents a powerful mobilization of resources. In the United States, for example, more than 595,000 social workers are employed largely outside the public sector—many in the nonprofit community and medical organizations—filling needs not met by either government or the private sector.1 Society exists, therefore, as a mix of these different organizational forms. Each performs different roles, but each also depends on the others to provide the complete patchwork of exchange interactions (products and services, financial and social capital, etc.) that constitute a well-functioning society. Whether called corporations, companies, businesses, proprietorships, or firms, for example, for-profit organizations also interact with government, trade unions, suppliers, NGOs, and other...
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...July 25, 1999 Chapter 2: Normative Accounting Theory The purpose of this chapter is to identify those characteristics of accounting information that are thought to make one system of accounting better than another. Since the material is based on eighty years of accounting research, by countless researchers, it is clearly neither possible nor desirable to review all the arguments, or even the main arguments, used by advocates of all the different competing accounting systems. For instance, it would be difficult to improve on Henderson and Peirson's [1983] 268-page thorough, balanced, well-documented portrayal of the evolutionary development of accounting thought from the "pre-theory period" (1494-1800), through the "general scientific theory period" (1800-1955), and the "general normative theory period" (1956-1970), to the "scientific theory period" (post-1970). The approach adopted for this chapter is therefore to aim for a concise summary of the products of normative accounting theory. The objective is to search for common ground wherever possible, without ignoring important differences. What is reported is intended to cover most of what is said to be "good", "useful", or "desirable" about accounting information. The four-step structure of this chapter is depicted in Figure 2.1 (next page). To begin with, a search of the literature identifies three main Objectives of Accounting. This list of objectives, which is presented and discussed in Section 2.1, is intended...
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...Khaldun. They defined it as the creation, developing and delivery of unique customer satisfying competitive products and services at a profit to organization and customer in the lights of Islamic values and principles. In contrast, conventionally it is defined as the process whereby an individual's personal and financial goals are achieved through the development and implementation of a comprehensive financial plan. Islam is a comprehensive, integrative and holistic religion that governs all aspects of life, major and minor, personal and social, spiritual and materialistic and relates this worldly life to the Hereafter. This means that we need to practice Islam while we perform our business and economic activities. Muslims are encourage planning for their life and put efforts to achieve the goal setting then ask help from Allah. The final stage is tawakal for what the result and takes it as the destiny bestows by Allah. The prophet Muhammad used to supplicate Allah: ‘My Lord, help me and do not give help against me, grant me a victory, and do not grant victory over me, plan on my behalf and do not plan against me, guide me and made my right guidance easy for me, grant me victory over those who act wrongfully towards me….’[1] (Narrated by Abu Daud.) In Islam, financial planning is not just merely a process of acquisition and accumulating wealth but it has a broad definition which relates to the concept of vicegerent (kalifa). According to the Holy Qur’an, God created...
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...CHALLENGES FACING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSES IN DEVELOPING AREAS Frederick Bird, Concordia University June17, 2003 (Preliminary draft: Please do not cite without permission) Introduction: We now live in a world where the lives of all peoples are inextricably inter-connected. We have been brought closer to each other through modern systems of transportation and telecommunication. Commercially the links between people grow in number and complexity. Elements in the products we use, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat may come from quite diverse places from all over the earth. The volume of trade between countries has greatly increased. We are inter-connected in other ways as well. A disease like AIDs begins in one part of the world and within a short span of years it has spread throughout the globe. How humans utilize natural resources in one certain parts of the world may well affect those in other parts. Particles from insecticides used in the tropics eventually appear in rain and snow of artic areas. Pollution caused by industry and vehicles in urbanized areas ends up disturbing the earth’s atmospheres in ways that affect all humans. We have become inter-connected in still other ways. Humans have migrated all over the earth. Vast numbers of people have moved from rural to urban areas, from continent to continent, in the process bringing with them parts of their varied cultures and traditions. Religiously humans are now more inter-mixed then ever. Christians and Muslim, especially...
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...and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ you. jon24565_ch05.qxd 11/2/05 1:22 PM Page 139 A Question of Business How Different Ethical Stances Can Help or Harm a Company How can companies ensure their managers and employees follow their ethical codes of conduct? In 1982, managers at Johnson & Johnson problems. Nevertheless, a few months later, (J&J), the well-known medical products com- DC’s...
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...THE NATURE OF MAN Michael C. Jensen Harvard Business School mjensen@hbs.edu and William H. Meckling University of Rochester Abstract Understanding human behavior is fundamental to understanding how organizations function, whether they are profit-making firms, non-profit enterprises, or government agencies. Much disagreement among managers, scientists, policy makers, and citizens arises from substantial differences in the way we think about human nature—about their strengths, frailties, intelligence, ignorance, honesty, selfishness, and generosity. In this paper we discuss five alternative models of human behavior that are commonly used (though usually implicitly). They are the Resourceful, Evaluative, Maximizing Model (REMM), Economic (or Money Maximizing) Model, Psychological (or Hierarchy of Needs) Model, Sociological (or Social Victim) Model, and the Political (or Perfect Agent) Model. We argue that REMM best describes the systematically rational part of human behavior. It serves as the foundation for the agency model of financial, organizational, and governance structure of firms. The growing body of social science research on human behavior has a common message: Whether they are politicians, managers, academics, professionals, philanthropists, or factory workers, individuals are resourceful, evaluative maximizers. They respond creatively to the opportunities the environment presents, and they work to loosen constraints that prevent them from doing what they wish. They...
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...and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ you. jon24565_ch05.qxd 11/2/05 1:22 PM Page 139 A Question of Business How Different Ethical Stances Can Help or Harm a Company How can companies ensure their managers and employees follow their ethical codes of conduct? In 1982, managers at Johnson & Johnson problems. Nevertheless, a few months later, (J&J), the well-known medical products com- DC’s...
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...? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ you. A Question of Business How Different Ethical Stances Can Help or Harm a Company How can companies ensure their managers and employees follow their ethical codes of conduct? In 1982, managers at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the well-known medical products company experienced a crisis. Seven people in the Chicago area had died after taking Tylenol capsules that had been laced with cyanide. J&J’s top managers needed to decide what to do. The FBI advised them to...
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...the law of negligence—where it serves as the master criterion of justified risk imposition—and to the law of intentional torts—where it helps to define the contours of permissible self-defense, the sensibility by which the offensiveness of contact in battery is measured, and the content of the consent given in connection with matters as diverse as The concept of contact sports and medical operations.1 reasonableness figures prominently in strict liability as well. The intentional infliction of unreasonable harm triggers liability for damages in the law of nuisance, and strict liability in general can be fruitfully understood as a form of liability applicable when the conduct which leads to accidental injury is reasonable, but the failure to make reparation for the harm done is unreasonable.2 Principles of fairness figure more prominently in the judicial rhetoric of strict products liability than economic ideas of efficient precaution and efficient insurance do.3 * William T. Dalessi Professor of Law, USC Law School. For instruction and advice, I am grateful to Ken Abraham, Scott Altman, Charles Fried, Richard Fallon, Louis Kaplow, Scott Michelman, Lewis Sargentich, Arthur Ripstein, and Ben Zipursky; to the participants at the conference; and to the participants at a faculty workshop at Harvard Law School. Special thanks are owed to Jim Fleming for organizing the conference and to Ben Zipursky for organizing the torts...
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...determine fair, or market, prices. 3. Appreciate how a company’s business model is the source of its competitive advantage and can mean the difference between merely making a profit and profitability. 4. Recognize the way specialization and the division of labor lead to increasing profits and wealth via the market’s “invisible hand.” 5. List the reasons why business organizations are created and how they facilitate commerce and lower transaction costs. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? What if you went to your supermarket and found only one brand of toothpaste? Suppose there was only one pizza shop in your town and it charged $25 for a small pie. Economic principles such as the laws of supply and demand create the selection and prices we find when we buy, whether it’s gasoline or hamburger. This chapter will help you understand how business principles work and why companies try to add value to products and services that will appeal to customers and create a competitive advantage. The products we select compete with others for our attention and dollars. That means creating a business model that, for example, effectively brings customers to Home Depot instead of Lowe’s. When we spend our dollars, we decide which companies will be profitable enough to survive. Jones: Introduction To Business: How Companies Create Value for People I. The Environment of Business 1. What Is Business? © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007 A...
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...Life Insurance? 13. How insurance protects value of life? 14. How life Insurance schemes meet the saving needs? 15. What are the social and economic values of Insurance? 16. What is the Actuarial principle of Life Insurance? 17. What is reinsurance? 18. What are the different methods of reinsurance? 1. What is Risk? Risk has been defined as the uncertainty as to the occurrence of an economic loss. It is the passivity of adverse result from a desired outcome. Risk and probability are not synonymous. We must understand the difference between risk and probability. The terms hazard and peril are closely related to probability than they are to risk. For example, collision is a peril which causes motor car accident and loss. The condition which makes the occurrence of collision more likely is called the hazard. For example, foggy weather is the hazard which creates the peril of collision. This means probability of collision increases when the hazard of foggy weather creates the peril of...
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