Consulting assignment Essay Example for Free

Consulting assignment Essay What are the potential sources of the problem? The source of these problems seems to be coming from two areas in Interwest Healthcare. The first area is the miscommunication that the hospital administrators are having with upper management. The hospital administrators and upper management are not only having miscommunication issues but they also do not share the same role expectations with each other which is creating tension. â€Å"The hospital people accused Singh of being a bureaucrat who did not care about patient services. Singh accused the hospital staffs of not understanding the importance of accurate reporting† (Brickley, Smith Zimmerman 2009 p. 38). The second area is the system or process that is in place for recording and entering data. The current process is clearly not running at an efficient rate which is raising concerns for upper management. Even though hospital administrators do not see to eye to eye with upper management the concerns that they have are valid and can have a very negative impact on Interwest Healthcare if the issue is not resolved. What information would you want to analyze? The first information that would be analyzed is the process that is done to record and enter data for patients. It is important to gain as much information as possible regarding the data entry because that is the root of the whole issue between hospital administrators and upper management. Another area that would be analyzed is the workplace with emphasis on how time is managed and the importance employees put on data entry. It is important to gather and analyze as much information as possible on the source of the problem. By gaining and analyzing the information it would help Interwest Healthcare make progress on the data entry issue which will put them in a better position to succeed. What actions might you recommend to increase the accuracy of the data entry? The first point of action would be streamlining and simplifying the data entry process. By completing those it would not only increase the accuracy of the data entry but it would also decrease the burden on the hospital administrators. But before any changes to the data entry process are made it is important to communicate directly to the hospital administrators. It is important to have the hospital administrators on board with the changes that will be made with the data entry process. By gaining the hospital administrators consent with the changes this will allow a smoother transition for the data entry change and it could provide a positive change to the workplace. As for the changes to the data entry it would most likely be a simple computer process along with small piece of paperwork. It would be best to have some sort or paper record on file that would need to be alphabetized along with a simple computer program. The computer program would help ensure accuracy and would have the patient’s data record on file which will be easy to locate. There would be very little paper work for the process mainly because it takes up space and takes more time to record. The paper work that is part of the process would simply serve as a backup if the computers were down. The key to ensuring accuracy with the data entry is to make the process as simple as possible so it would minimize the errors. How does your view of behavior affect how you might address the consulting assignment? As a consulting assignment I see Interwest Healthcare as a company in distress due to the way the hospital administrators and upper management. The way the two groups have been behaving and treating each other it is a clear sign of stress and miscommunication. One of the first tasks is to mediate the two groups and try to have everyone on the same page. There is a clear disconnect on the expectations of each other’s roles but by bringing them together the roles and expectations can be made by both parties and progress can be accomplished. In order to make progress both parties will need to be able to compromise and be willing to understand each other’s concerns and priorities. Refreneces : Brickley, J.A., Smith, C.W. Zimmerman J.L. (2009). Managerial economics and organizational architecture (5th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Bulding Suspense In Spielbergs Jaws Film Studies Essay

Bulding Suspense In Spielbergs Jaws Film Studies Essay The music is played when the shark comes in distance and closer to the beach. First the music very slowly and when it gets louder and louder we feel like the shark is coming. This sound is like a theme of the film, which makes everyone to keep attention to the film. This type of music is Non-Diegetic music. This gives the audience that they are below the sea imagining the shark is waiting for them. If the shark be revealed straight away, it would destroy the whole story. Stephen Spielberg wants to build suspense by suspense to create the film attentive to it audience. One technique is that the music is used to build up the tension. Example Write here. Stephen Spielberg uses long shot to show this and cover all the details in the proof to show what happened. Second attack was quite different. It is the attack of the little boy whose name was Alex. He swam in his inflatable lilo away from the rocky sand to the sea. When he was there the shark attacked him. We know this by looking from the music and fins coming out from the shark. The camera angles builds up the tension and suspense to show like we are looking from the angle of shark and when the attack happened from the distance it shows people to show exact how the boy was attack. The Director builds up the fear of the shark by making music devious and dangerous like you get on the horror film. Director uses music like dun, dun sound/music that makes you follow the shark on its trail. You will follow the music as well as you are looking from the shark perspective. On this second attack he uses lots of close-up shots of the boy to show off the detail. The camera shot tracking is shown as though as you are shark and following the boy on his lilo. Jump cut is shown to take close shot of the people by cutting people shot one by one. After that camera moves into a close-up of the boy, who is now lying on a yellow lilo. Brody continues to look at the water, which raises tension. When we look around the beach we see yellow objects; umbrella, bathing suits, towels and a boys lilo. This is because yellow associate with fear because most of the warning signs have yellow sings like a hazardous sign. As the camera films the shore, we see a man wearing a yellow shirt playing with his dog. Moments later when he was playing fetch with his dog pippin, pippin goes missing. Dog is nowhere to be seen but only a stick floating on the surface of the sea. This is known as a camera focused, focusing on the stick only and usually called Miss -en- scene. There is no music being played, audience dont know whether the shark came again or the dog run off somewhere along the beach. This creates suspense as well as a fear. Director use number of techniques to build up fear of shark in numerous. At the first attack, Spielberg doesnt reveal the shark so audience will use their imagination a visual picture in their mind of what the attacker looks like. Tension is increased by the music factor. It is played in fast tempo and played in slow and silent way. At the second attack he builds fear for the characters by making a fin visible in the ocean surface bed. This may be first time the audience and characters in the story seen the shark and able to come to decision about first and second attack. Spielberg uses lot of camera techniques as well as music to create the suspense during the story. We hear shark music dun dun sound to tell us that the shark is coming. The music is like a heartbeat which makes louder and louder as it represent mainly shark. The music is like theme or symbol that represents the shark in the film. This is how Spielberg uses the film to become more tense and interesting. As we get to shark, we expect shark to attack or we know it is lurking quite close. Spielberg structured the film so that first and second attacks are together each other. First he kept audience alert at the first attack then continues to build fear and tension at the second attack which we see a boy in his lilo and dog goes missing. Broodys predicted that first attack was done by shark. Most of the films there is some kind of hero. In the film hero is Brody. In first attack he was the male actor to spot the theory of the shark and we were side of him. At the third attack, tension increased after a smaller shark had been killed and it was been killed by two people. But Brody thinks that the shark is too small to bit the people and this tells us more tension is about to come. This third attack is difference by manipulating others. In this attack Spielberg chose Broodys son as an alone poor child. First two attacks were involved strangers, now in the third attack its the Broodys son being involved because this has an effect on Broody. Its the last section of the film which has more tension than any other part. Whereas two attacks had been occurred in beach but now they will be out in sea to catch that killer shark in a small boat. They are fearful because they suddenly remembered that shark will be gone forever. After the investigation team have found a size of the shark, they become more afraid and couldnt believe the size of it. It putting a dramatic suspense on now because the team now realised that they now need a bigger boat to kill the shark. Now the suspense begins and audience knows that shark is going to hunt and maybe eat them. Spielberg made sure the small boat was involved to create that fear, tension and suspense. At the very last, Tension decreased because Broody kills that shark for last blowing the audience remains on seat though out the rest of the film.

Henry Ford Biography :: essays research papers

Henry Ford Born July 30, 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford was the first child of William and Mary Ford. As a young man he became an excellent self-taught mechanic and machinist. At age 16 he left the farm and went to nearby Detroit, a city that was becoming an industrial giant. There he worked as an apprentice at a machine shop, while months later he would begin work with steam engines at the Detroit Dry Dock Co., where he first saw the internal combustion engine, the kind of engine he would later use to make his automobiles. When he was 28 Ford took a job with Thomas Edison's Detroit Illuminating Company, where he became chief engineer. In his spare time he began to build his first car, the Quadricycle. It resembled two bicycles positioned side by side with bicycle-like wheels, a bicycle seat, and a barely visible engine frame. Some said it bore a resemblance to a baby carriage with a two-cylinder engine. In June 1896, Ford took an historic ride in his first automobile that was observed by many curious Detroit on-lookers. The Quadricycle broke down in a humiliating scene. By 1899 Ford created a more proper looking motorcar with the help of wealthy businessman William Murphy. It had high wheels, a padded double bench, brass lamps, mud guards, and a "racy" look. In the same year Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company. Within 3 years Ford had built an improved, more reliable Quadricycle, using a four-cylinder, 36 horsepower-racing engine. In 1901 his car beat what was then the world's fastest automobile in a race before a crowd of eight thousand people in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The publicity he received for this victory allowed Ford to finance a practical laboratory for refining his auto ideas. In 1903 Ford launched his own car company, The Ford Motor Car Company, and by January 1904 he had sold 658 vehicles. By 1908 he built the famous Model T, a car that was affordable to the middle class. The automobile was no longer the toy of the rich. Ford was able to make a reliable and inexpensive automobile primarily because of his introduction of the innovative moving assembly line into the process of industrial manufacturing. The assembly line is a system for carrying an item that is being manufactured past a series of stationary workers who each assemble a particular portion of the finished product.

What it means to be an American Essay -- Patriotism United States Amer

What does it mean to be an American? The soil of the middle-east stained with the blood of our American soldiers just so we can not take advantage of our right to vote. Though sometimes questionable, America's overall image portrayed to other countries is an honorable one. America is known for its democracy and as well as being a land of opportunities and many freedoms. America's assortment of ethnicities and cultures is proof that our country is a desirable one. Wars are being fought at this very moment to defend these freedoms. There are many battles that have dictated what America is and stands for today. Some of these battles were literal fights and others were ones of a societal nature. For example, The Civil War was a pivotal battle in American history that freed African-Americans from slavery which was led and won politically by Abraham Lincoln. Following this was Dr. Martin Luther King?s work which led to the end of segregation also against African-Americans. Currently, America is fighting a war on terrorism against several countries. America?s origin will truly tell why ...

Tatparya and its role in verbal understanding :: Concept of Intention Sentence Papers

Tatparya and its role in verbal understanding I examine the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. An effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (tatparya) in four types of sentences: a) the ambiguous sentence b) the non-ambiguous sentence c) the vedic sentence and d) the sentence uttered by a parrot. I. The present paper gives an account of the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, which is followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. In this connection, an effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (Tatparya) in four types of sentence: (a) ambiguous sentence; (b) non-ambiguous sentence; (c) vedic sentence and (d) sentences uttered by a parrot. II. The Naiyayikas have pointed out the philosophical significance of intention (Tatparya) first in the context of enquiring the seed of implicative meaning (Laksana). To them the non-realisability of intention or tatparya (tatparyanupapatti) is the seed of laksana i.e. implicative meaning. In fact, the implicative meaning of the term, ganga as found in the sentence gangayam ghosah is the bank of the ganga.. The primary meaning of the terms ghosah and ganga are ghosapalli and a particular flow of water (Jalapravaha-visesa) respectively. The milk-man-colony cannot remain in a particular flow of water and hence there is the non-realisability of the relation (anvayanupapatti) between them. This can be removed, if the bank of the ganga is taken as the meaning of the term ganga through laksana. In the same way, the implicative meaning of the term ghosah is also possible. In the former case laksana in the term ganga is accepted, but not in the term ghosah. In another, the reverse case is accep ted. If laksana is accepted in either of the terms, there will not be the non-realisability in respect of relation (anvayanupapatti). If it is argued that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is the result of laksana, the rule that the implicative meaning of the terms ganga and ghosah are to be accepted becomes meaningless. In reply, it can be said that the rule becomes contradicted if it is accepted that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is both the result and seed of laksana. Tatparya and its role in verbal understanding :: Concept of Intention Sentence Papers Tatparya and its role in verbal understanding I examine the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. An effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (tatparya) in four types of sentences: a) the ambiguous sentence b) the non-ambiguous sentence c) the vedic sentence and d) the sentence uttered by a parrot. I. The present paper gives an account of the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, which is followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. In this connection, an effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (Tatparya) in four types of sentence: (a) ambiguous sentence; (b) non-ambiguous sentence; (c) vedic sentence and (d) sentences uttered by a parrot. II. The Naiyayikas have pointed out the philosophical significance of intention (Tatparya) first in the context of enquiring the seed of implicative meaning (Laksana). To them the non-realisability of intention or tatparya (tatparyanupapatti) is the seed of laksana i.e. implicative meaning. In fact, the implicative meaning of the term, ganga as found in the sentence gangayam ghosah is the bank of the ganga.. The primary meaning of the terms ghosah and ganga are ghosapalli and a particular flow of water (Jalapravaha-visesa) respectively. The milk-man-colony cannot remain in a particular flow of water and hence there is the non-realisability of the relation (anvayanupapatti) between them. This can be removed, if the bank of the ganga is taken as the meaning of the term ganga through laksana. In the same way, the implicative meaning of the term ghosah is also possible. In the former case laksana in the term ganga is accepted, but not in the term ghosah. In another, the reverse case is accep ted. If laksana is accepted in either of the terms, there will not be the non-realisability in respect of relation (anvayanupapatti). If it is argued that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is the result of laksana, the rule that the implicative meaning of the terms ganga and ghosah are to be accepted becomes meaningless. In reply, it can be said that the rule becomes contradicted if it is accepted that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is both the result and seed of laksana.

Behavioral Assignment

For example if the company is performing admirably, your payments are not going to increase, but if you compare this situation With an equity investor, the market will incorporate to the stock price these results and your remover will be higher. On the other hand if the company Starts having some problems and cannot achieve its goals, your payments will remain the same.This situation only changes when the default risk increases, and this doses â€Å"t happen in a very quick span of time In the case of equity, the scope for disagreement is larger and more sensitive, because the payoffs are uncertain and depend on the beliefs of the fundamental value of the company. It can be also seen below that equity payoffs are linear with respect to investor beliefs in relation to underlying asset value; however, debt up-side payoffs are fixed at some constant rate, ND are consequently non-linear (I. E. Concave) in the investor beliefs about the fundamental value.Source: Hong & Serer 2011 b) Safe debt has less default risk than risky debt, which means that its payoffs are more protected and the payoff graph has a more concave shape. The more secure an asset is, the less sensitive the investors are to the beliefs about fundamentals. The upside is here more bounded and is less sensitive to disagreement. When a bond is more risky there is a greater probability for default and the investors are more sensitive to the changes in the fundamental value of the company. Beliefs start having a greater influence on the asset valuation.In the following formula we can see that if the default probability is very low, the safe debt payoff will also be lower and less sensitive to disagreements. C) When optimism increases investors start seeing debt more as a risk-free asset that has less upside with reduced resale option. Rising optimism leads to larger misprinting. In this scenario the optimistic investors will continue to buy the bonds from the pessimistic investors, so there will be more optimistic investors holding the asset and the disagreement among the investors will be owe, and lead to a lower price volatility.The bond will also have less turnover. The pessimistic investors won t become optimistic, they just want to sell their bond. The model suggested by Hong and Serer(2013) considers a two-date trading model with dates t -?O, 1, N risky assets and the risk-free rate as r. The dividend delivered by the risky asset at time t=l is given by the equation: , where represents the cash flow beta of asset I, and is the state of the macro economy.There are two groups of investors: 1) The optimists (group A), who believe that the economy will be better in t=l -b EAI[z = +h 2) The sometimes(group B), who believe that the economy will be worse – 3) So the expected difference between optimists and pessimists is given by: EAI[z] – BE[z] = When is small (I. E. Low macro disagreement) , the equilibrium price will depend both on the optimists and pessimists valu ation, equaling However, when X is large (high disagreement about future macroeconomic conditions), the demand of pessimists (given by ) is so low that it will hit short sale constraints.Thus, the equilibrium price will be determined only by optimists' valuation, since the pessimists will be sidelined from the market: . This equilibrium price is higher than the unconstrained price, which means that the stock N will be over-priced, due to high macroeconomic disagreement about fundamental factors, when compared to the traditional CAMP model prediction. As predicted by the dividend equation: , the higher the beta of the stock, the higher the effect of the disagreement about its future cash flows will be.Thus, short-sale constraints will occur with higher probability for high-beta, high risk stocks. Short-sales constraints might be binding for some investors due to institutional reasons. An example are mutual funds, which are prohibited to worth stocks directly by certain government act s and regulations. According to the arguments above, misprinting is more pronounced for high- beta stocks or for periods of higher disagreement. Thus, stocks from higher beta sectors such as technology, consumer retail, automotive, construction are more likely to experience overpricing and bubbles.Higher disagreement occurs either at times, when market optimism prevails -? continuous bull markets, combined with expansionary monetary policy for prolonged period, or when market pessimism prevails – crisis times, described by high volatility ND panic sell-offs, causing stocks to be undervalued. Bubbles are often hard to detect and ascertain, but tend to form most often when certain industry sectors are experiencing a technological revolution. Bubbles, crashes and financial crisis have been a repeating occurrence for long (e. G. He South Sea Bubble, canals and railroads in the 1 sass, the Internet in the sass) (Predetermine & McKee, 2012). A technological revolution in an industr y causes a boom in asset prices; however, as the momentum of the bubble increases, the rise in prices cannot be justified anymore by fundamentals as people continue to make ever-rising valuations. It is difficult to identify an asset's true fundamental value, and this is especially true for new technologies that have may seem as the next big thing, but have uncertain long-run prospects.Similarly, pastor & Versions (2008) argue that bubbles in stock prices can occur after technological revolutions if the productivity of the technology to be implemented is unknown and subject to learning. This affects both the level and volatility of stock prices. Critically, stock prices of innovative firms initially rise due to optimism and DOD news about the productivity of the firm due to the technological innovation, but eventually fall as the technology risk alters from affecting only the firm to being systematic (Pastor & Versions, 2008).The bubbles can only be observed retrospectively, and are most greatly amplified in revolutions than involve high uncertainty and fast adoption. For example the expansion of both railroads in the sass and internet infrastructure in the 1 sass was characterized by overstatement that ultimately depressed prices on an aggregate level as additional projects had negative returns due to industrialization.Also, in the case of the internet bubble, investors were lured in to invest by promising companies such as Amazon and America Online, but later companies had often no idea how to be commercially viable and essentially were riding the bubble (Dominant, 2014). Bubbles may hence be amplified by speculation and the idea that individuals observe and adopt the behavior of others (Levine & Jack, 2007). Especially in the case of the internet bubble optimists tend to push up the asset price, whereas more pessimistic investors cannot counterbalance this due to short-sale constraints (Predetermine & McKee, 2012).Thus genealogical revolution tends to lead to projects with initial profits, and leads to overoptimistic tendencies for the whole industry. As prices exceed fundamentals and new entrants/projects turn sour, the bubble eventually collapses. In the case where there is only one share of the asset available and there is one optimist and one pessimist in the market, the pessimist will sell the asset to the optimist at a price higher than the mean evaluation of the two investors.Here the single optimistic buyer can absorb the entire supply of one share. The average price is 75, thus the traded price will be in the range 75. The traded price rises when there are two homogeneous groups Of investors, I. E. When there are more optimistic traders in the market. They will bid up the price until it reaches the valuation of the optimists, I. E. 100. This will be the traded price. Thus, as according to Miller (1977) without short selling the price of the asset is increased if there is a divergence of opinion.In such a market the demand for the asset will come from the traders who have the most optimistic expectations of its value. The most optimistic investor tends to win the bidding and their evaluation of the asset ends up being its actual price. This can be also seen in the diagram below. Supply is inelastic at N, so the price is higher than the equilibrium rate. Only optimistic traders will trade at the prices where the demand curve meets the inelastic supply curve.Also, as seen in the diagram, different investors have different demand curves; the most optimistic one will have the highest valuation. (Source: Miller, 1977) Due to the binding short selling constraint, less optimistic traders who would like to short an asset cannot do so. Thus this is necessary for optimists to be able to set prices. Also volume is crucial. The more optimists there are will signify that the asset's price will be bid up to the valuation of optimists. This is especially true when the asset is scarce (e. . Only one or a few exist), as in this case there will be ample demand by the optimists (who may be a minority in the market) bid up and set the prices. The price of a security is higher the greater the divergence of opinion about the return from the security (Miller 1977). So we can say that if there is a big divergence of opinion in the market, the price will be even higher because the price only reflects the optimistic investors, and this also causes more volatility and more risk to the stock. Since the annual discount rate is a variable, and the time to maturity T is a constant, we can apply the rule: Then the expected value that the optimist attaches to the bond is given by: , 51 once The expected value Of the pessimist is given by: b) The difference of the natural logarithms of their attached values is: In According to the result, there is a positive correlation between the bond maturity T and the level of the disagreement between the investors, so the longer the bond maturity T, the higher the disagreement between the optimist and the pessimist will be. ) According to Miller (1977) the greater the disagreement the higher the rice. As we saw in the previous step bonds with longer maturity have greater disagreement, which leads to stronger misprinting because the price of the bond will only be affected by the optimistic investors (since pessimistic investors cannot affect the prices because of short-sale constraints). Thus, misprinting will be more pronounced at the long end of maturities, than at the short end.Also the longer the maturity of the bond the higher the expected return, according to a regular bond yield curve. If misprinting is more pronounced, the price of bonds will go up, causing a shift downwards in the lied curve, so average realized bond returns should be lower than the expected. A) Investor B starts with rational beliefs at t-?O, so his expectation of an upward move is â€Å"10=0. In case of an upward move at node u his expectation of an upward move TTL is given by : , A further move up to position u will give: A move down to position dud gives: An initial downward move to d yields: Going another node down to ad: And moving up in the second period to du gives: b) Investor Bi's beliefs about the value of the stock seem irrational at point ‘dud' and ‘du' since at ‘dud' his expectation of an upward move is , while at ‘du' it equals . Actually these positions represent one and the same point on the binomial tree, where the fundamental value of the asset should be constant. Behavioral assignment Even though according to Prospect theory the individualistically function is concave in the gains region, implying that they are risk averse, its shape changes to convex for very small probabilities. Usually people treat the outcomes based on a reference point, usually their current wealth, from which they evaluate gains and losses. For that reason a certain gain of $1 0 is not perceived as bringing any significant utility to let's say average middle-class individual, while the possibility, even though small, of winning SIS 000 would actually bring a quite significant change to his wealth.The opposite goes for the perceived utilities and the utility function, when in the loss region. Even a small probability of losing a significant amount ($10 000), which will severely affect the wealth of the individuals is misperceived as relatively high and undesirable as opposed to the certain, but small loss of $10, which will not affect the wealth of the person around his reference point.Some r eal life analogues of the conducted experiment might be buying a lottery ticket, where the individual even gets a small, but negative payoff, on average, or establishing a start-up business, where an entrepreneur invests capital with the hope Of receiving higher return in time, instead of investing the money in a bond or a bank deposit at a risk-free rate. Examples for certain small losses might be a person buying insurance policies and paying a small premium, but avoiding the risk of theft, road accident etc. Q.The distribution is not normal, but rather positively skewed, with higher percentage of positive earnings surprise than negative. There is also bunching at the O value, inferring a high probability that the average of analysts' forecasts coincides with the actual earnings reported. This distribution of recast errors actually implies that analysts have a downward bias when producing their estimations. A reason for this might be that analysts have asymmetric loss function, imp lying that they can be more harshly punished for under-prediction than for over-prediction.This is due to reactions of investors who, in most cases, have prospect theory utility functions, rather than conventional expected utility functions I. E. Their losses hurt more than gains of the same magna etude increase utility. In terms of the earnings surprise this means that when the actual earnings miss analysts' projections, he negative returns on stocks in the following days are much more pronounced due to investors unwilling to hold the stock and selling with larger volumes.In the opposite case of a positive surprise, investors' utility function is less steep in the gains region and the magnitude of increased purchases of the stock is less pronounced. Boon and Woman (2002) estimate at least six reasons for the analysts' downward bias when producing forecasts: internal pressures for earning higher brokerage commissions, pressure from management of companies that analysts cover, herdin g behavior to follow other analysts' projections, pressure from large institutional investors that analysts work with, conflicts with analysts' personal investments or unintentional cognitive biases of the analysts.Other plausible reference points in terms of expected earnings might be results from past quarters + some premium/discount, depending on how the company performed in the most recent quarter, or the earnings reported by companies, operating in the same industry I. E. Competitors. Investor A If the stock goes up, he would be keener to sell in order to realize his gains. The Prospect Theory utility function, which is concave in the region of gains, wows us there will be a point where an increase in his profit will bring very low marginal utility, so at this point the investor would be keen to sell.If we assume that the investor bought when , the more the stock rises and moves into more concave regions, , until it reaches the point of sell: If the stock goes down, he will hol d the stock because he won ‘t accept his loss and try to hold it until the price of the stock returns to the price where he bought the stock (his reference point). He would be more concerned with the potential value of losses and gains than the total wealth outcome, so he would be more inclined to sell when the stock was in the gain-making region, and less likely to sell and more likely to hold at the loss-making region.This is an observation of the disposition effect, tested by Dean (1998). Investor B If the stock goes up he will like to buy more shares. As an optimistic investor, he would trade more because of the profits that he is making, and the belief that he has information that others don t and that if the stock its going up, the momentum is likely to continue. If the stock goes down, he will like to sell because for him the market it's telling him that this stock its not worth holding anymore.The most important thing for him in order to make a decision for buy or sell is to receive a signal from the market and as an overconfident investor he would think that he has information that the market doses ;t and could benefit from that In other words he will consider the pure noise from the stock price movement as a signal and overweight it () The two investors could trade when the price of the stock rises, relative to their reference point because in that point investor A is more willing to sell and realize the gain and investor B is more willing to buy, because of the overestimated weight on the signal.Also they could trade when the price goes down and reaches a certain point when investor A no longer can hold the position (has sustained huge losses) and investor B could get a signal from the market, that the stock is already undervalued. A) 1 . Overstatement – empirical data show that there are cases when Coos truly believe that certain investment policies are creating value for the company. However, their beliefs are quite often in discrepan cy with the broad view of market participants, which is reflected in the stock value.These investment incentives are more pronounced in companies, that are cash rich, nice Coos will not be constrained by lack of funds and allocate the available cash according to their overconfident beliefs. 2. Corporate Financing – instead of opting for the more rational choice of choosing sustainable mix of debt and equity financing, combined with the use of the company's outstanding cash, overconfident Coos tend to use larger percentage of financing with cash or debt, since they consider equity financing excessively costly and believe that the market is undervaluing their company. . Overbidding in acquisitions – scholarly research has found evidence that overconfident Coos overestimate their ability to generate returns for their company. This is why such Coos have a tendency to overpay for target companies and undertake mergers that actually bring lower than expected value. A proof f or this might be found in market reactions after announcement, where the negative return after the announcement is more pronounced for companies, whose managers are considered as overconfident by investors.In the last two decades U. S firms spent more than $ 3. 4 trillion on mergers, and if CEO ;s were thinking only about the interests f their shareholders probably they would have acted in a different way, because their actions caused losses amounting to roughly $220 billion (Maintained, Tate 2007). B) CEO overconfidence does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, since this aspect is quite closely con nested with affinity to taking higher risk.Higher risk, in turn, might lead either to more pronounced negative or positive outcome for the company, and thus also allowing for a beneficial outcome to shareholder interests. Also, such individuals, for reasons connected with their genetics or upbringing, are among the most successful and influential people n society. As discussed in the paper â€Å"CEO overconfidence and innovation† by Galas, Simoom (2011 more confident Coos tend to disregard the risk of failure and thus more eagerly indulge in R&D and innovation strategies, which eventually bring higher value to shareholders.Real life examples of such Coos might be Steve Jobs (Apple Inc. ), Leon Musk (Tests Motors). Question 5 In the presented case, an overoptimistic person will tend to have higher anticipatory utility during his youth, but eventually as time progresses the actual realization will with a high probability be less than his anticipations, so e will get lower realization utility. The total utility he gets will depend on the weights he puts on those two utilities.If you educate your child to be overoptimistic, in the future for example when he receives his pension fund he will expect certain amount of money, let's say $1,000 per month, but instead if he actually receives $900 he will feel as if he lost $100, regardless if that amount of money r epresents a good income for him or not. On the other hand if he receives $1 r 1 00 he won ‘t feel the satisfaction of having more money. The feeling when you lose is deeper than when you win.

Human Resources Internship Essay

I applied for the Human Resources internship at Maryville Academy-Scott Nolan Center through the website indeed. com. During my internship with Maryville Academy-Scott Nolan Center, I supported the HR department and organizational initiatives. My responsibilities with recruiting initiatives included initial resume screening and on-boarding. Positions I screened for included but were not limited to mental health counselor, staff nurse, utility manager and receptionist. I also supported administrative aspects such as filing, data entry, and HRIS maintenance. Since the Scott Nolan Center is in a transitional period, I helped develop several job descriptions. From the human resources perspective, I did payroll and disciplinary action forms, as well as legal documents such as FMLA. I completed 432 hours of the Maryville Human Resources Internship Program. Expectations Prior to Internship Before the internship started, I had an interview with my Human Resources manager to discuss my expectations as well as her expectations for this internship. I expected to get involved with daily Human Resources functions. I expected to be working in a fast-paced organization. Also, I expected a certain amount of training since I did not have any relevant experience prior to the internship. One other thing I was concerned with was that there might be a difference when recruiting for non-profit organizations compared to for-profit organizations. I thought recruiters would pay attention to some unique personalities or rules when they screened qualified applicants. For instance, some for-profit organizations might focus on people who have the required skills, such as sales skills, customer service skills and presentation skills. For this particular non-profit organization, I would pay more attention to personality traits, such as openness and agreeableness. Beyond My Expectations Beyond my expectations, I learned that every organization has its unique culture. It does not matter if it is profit or non-profit. Some organizations focus on employees’ training and development, while other organizations focus on select candidates who have certain minimum skills before they can be hired. These employees require little training and development. The organization I worked for is a children’s psychiatric hospital. Its patients are youths who are suicidal or suffered from sexual and physical abuse in their family. These patients are very sensitive. Thus, they are looking for employees to be energetic, positive and have professional nursing or therapy skills. They want their employees to not only care about the patient physically, but also mentally. During the recruiting process, I considered not only whether candidates had the essential KSAs to finish tasks, but also whether their personality would fit the organization. My expectations about this internship mainly focused on recruiting, as well as maintaining the employee database, such as workers’ compensations and payroll. Since the hospital was expanding, several new positions were created. Beyond my expectations, I had to update and develop several job descriptions. On the legal aspect, I was not expecting to get very involved. However, I had a chance to follow a FMLA case and to issue disciplinary action forms to employees who violated organizational policy. These legal documents made me realize the importance of legal documents in uman resources management. Selection Process General Process A significant portion of my internship responsibility was recruiting. These responsibilities ranged from screening candidates’ resumes to interviewing and preparing hiring documents. I would screen resumes from our database and select whom I believed would fit in the position. Then, I would conduct a phone interview with the applicant. After the phone interview, if I still felt the individual fit the organization, I would schedule an in person interview with our Human Resources Manager for the applicant. Our manager would make the final decision after the interview. If our manager decided to hire this individual, I would start preparing hiring paperwork including background check, reference check and medical record. My responsibilities would be all the above-mentioned tasks, which concluded with filing all the documents and sending it to the orientation group in order to prepare new-hire orientation documents. Screening Resume Before the internship, I read an article by Applicants (2009). He gave me several tips I kept in mind during the resume screening process. First of all, I was aware of potential adverse impact during the screening process. I should not focus on screening applicants from particular race or gender group. Companies have significant discretion in defining the basic qualifications for each position that they fill so long as those qualifications are defined by the outset of the hiring process for the position. When I selected qualified applicants for phone interviews, I chose candidates who met the minimum qualifications. Then, we chose whoever had best matched our skill requirements to continue to the next phase, which is an in person interview. These minimum requirements were determined by job descriptions. The job description helped us identify which candidate was able to perform the job, such as develop policy and communicate with patients. Thus, developing a job description was very important. After screening resumes for minimum qualifications, phone interviews were conducted. Importance of determine personality traits and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) during selection process We wanted to select employees who we believed would be successful in the job. According o Barrick and Mount (1991), the â€Å"Big Five† personality dimensions are related to job performance. Their study indicated that Conscientiousness, which is a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutiful, and aim for achievement against measures or outside expectations showed consistent relations with job proficiency. Extraversion, which is characterized by positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others, was a valid predictor for occupations involving social interaction. The other three factors- Openness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism had small correlation score. Since most of the positions involved interacting with children, Extraversion would be the factor I needed to pay attention to. From this article, I understood the importance of using personality traits during the selection process. To help me determine useful personality traits for different positions, Raymark, Schmit and Guion (2006) talked about identifying potentially useful personality constructs for employee selection. They created the Personality-Related Position Requirements Form (PPRF), which was a job analysis form to be used in making hypotheses about personality predictors of job performance. People predicted job performance by identifying whether the candidate’s personality matched the dimensions they determined in the job analysis. For example, the author conducted a job analysis and hypothesized that several dimensions were essential to perform the job efficiently, such as leadership, sensitivity to interests of others, cooperative or collaborative work tendency and general trustworthiness. Then, authors linked candidates’ personality with these dimensions to identify who fit the position best. I did not get a chance to use the actual form due to the limited resources and budget at work; however, I learned from it. Before screening for every position, I read the job description in our database and analyzed potential personalities that would fit the particular position. I also discussed these personalities with my manager for suggestions. When I screened resumes and interviewed, I would look for the specific personalities to match required skill sets as well as the organization’s culture. Employees in the organizations are always helpful. They are very easy to talk to. Everybody worked together and helped each other out. I talked to my manager about our organizational culture and she said that we are helpful, energetic and team-orientated. It was difficult to draw personality traits simply from the resume, so I looked at the format of the resume to determine if the candidate was detail-oriented or not. If the format of the resume was disorganized, there was a greater chance that the candidate was not careful, as opposed to one with an organized resume. If a potential employee was careless when editing their resume, I would conclude that they would not try their best at work. If the candidate passed the resume phase it meant a chance for a phone interview. This was the phase where we could get a general sense of the candidate’s personality. I talked to my manager before conducting phone interviews to discuss traits I should look for. For example, I would look for people who are energetic and outgoing; and people who were patient and easy to talk to. Their tones on the phone and language they used would be a big part of the determination process. We were looking for candidates who had positive tones and good communication skills. Even though there was no list of personality traits to look for, I tried to analyze the job description. I discussed the jobs with my coworkers and drew a list of personality traits in my mind when I phone interviewed candidates. When they responded to our questions, we were looking for people who answer calmly and respectfully. Other than personality traits, OCB was another important factor I paid attention to when I conducted the phone interview. OCB is the â€Å"performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes places† (Organ, 1997). Research results showed OCB has significant relationships with important organizational outcomes such as productivity, efficiency, and turnover (Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009). With minimum qualifications, I wanted to select candidates who showed OCBs in their phone interview. Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Mishra (2010) also talked about the effects of OCBs on selection decision in employment interviews. The article reports on an experiment examning the effects of job candidates’ propensity to exhibit OCBs on selection decisions made in the context of a job interview. The result showed that candidates who exhibited higher levels of OCBs were generally rated as more competent, received higher overall evaluations, and received higher salary recommendations than candidates who exhibited lower levels of OCBs. When I asked job candidates questions, I was looking for people who showed higher levels of helping, voice, and loyalty behaviors in their answers. I believe employees who love to help others, who would express their feelings to improve rather than criticize, and who showed loyalty to their employers would work well in our organization. I talked to my manager about these factors and she agreed with me. For example, for the receptionist position, when I asked the candidate about their past working experience, I would like to hear examples of them voluntarily helping their co-workers, or solving conflicts between co-workers. Also, I would want to hear them talk about what did they achieved at the past job, like what did they do to improve the company or themselves. Another thing I would ask them is why were they looking for a new job? Candidates’ responses and attitudes toward their old employer would give me an idea of their loyalty if they were work for our organization. If these personality traits and OCBs showed during the phone interview, I would invite candidates to come in for an in-person interview. The reason for conducting a walk-in interview after a phone interview was because by meeting with the individual, it helped us to know the individual better. Our organization required employees to have an in-house observation to give them a chance to get in touch with patients and observe their reactions. I was not able to participate in the in-house observations; however, I tried my best to select potential candidates from the first two rounds of interviews. Selection Decisions Dalessio and Imada (1984) talked about relationships between interview selection decisions and perceptions of applicant similarity. The study had shown that interviewers’ final decisions were related to: [a] the degree of similarity between the interviewers’ perception of the ideal employee and the applicant, and [b] the degree of similarity between the interviewers’ self-perception and the applicant. This was a useful tip when I interviewed. I sat in several interviews before personally conducting one. I observed the communication between applicants and my Human Resources Manager. Since all these candidates passed the minimum qualification, my manager looked for someone who best fit the organization. â€Å"Fit† is the word we use in our selection process. Many applicants had the minimum qualifications for the job; however, we wanted someone who fit in the organization. Garcia, Posthuma, & Colella (2008) talked about how interviewers construct fit perceptions about applicants. Their results showed that performance expectation had a direct effect on fit perceptions. Unanimously with the study, our manager wanted to select people who she thought would perform well in the organization. She had an idea of what an ideal applicant would look like in her mind. For example, when we hired nurses, my manager looked to see if the applicant was careful, sensitive, caring and good at teamwork. If the applicant used to work in teams and got along with his or her team members, she would be able to determine if this applicant fit our organization. This person should have high Agreeableness. If we were hiring for a receptionist, we would want to look for candidates who love to help others. From these observations, I learned to study the interview questions and pay attention to personality traits and OCBs that we were looking for in an ideal employee. Each time, I would read these different interview questions for different positions and rehearse the questions in my mind. Also, I identified personality traits and OCBs that were related to the position. Combined with the PPRF I mentioned earlier, I discussed with my manager about our expectations for an ideal candidate before the interview. What were the essential skills and personalities that fit in the organization? After I identified those aspects, I would start the interview process. The more the individual matched our requirements, the more likely this individual would be hired. Each position requires different personality traits; unfortunately, I am not able to list them out specifically due to the confidentiality policy of the organization. Difficulties Encountered Unavoidably, we chose some overqualified candidates to pursue to the next step, which are the background check and drug-screen test. We chose these candidates because they would be quick studies and help others develop. However, our compensation was not the most attractive in the industry. We lost several over-qualified candidates right before orientation. Some left due to compensation limitations; some left due to lack of potential opportunities. We lost both time and money due to the unexpected losses. I discussed these issues with my manager. She told me that they lost more than 70% of over-qualified individuals among all over-qualified individuals during the recruiting process in the past. Even though the turnover is high, they have better potential compared to individuals who have minimum skills only. Her ways to avoid the situation was to not interview over-qualified individuals if they required much higher compensation than what we could offer. I disagreed with her opinion. Compensation definitely matters to jobseekers, however, it is not the only thing that matters. I believed more factors should be considered before we decided if an interview should be conducted, such as potential growth, training and development, as well as a benefit package. According to Wells (2004), there are pros and cons of hiring overqualified candidates. The potential advantages include they might be able to pick up tomorrow’s leaders today at below-market prices. If they were hired, they could help employees meet their goals sooner and potentially contribute a lot more to the company. However, there were disadvantages as well. Overqualified candidates were often too expensive. If we didn’t give them a better compensation package, situations similar in our organizations would be likely to happen again. Also, Wells mentioned that they were likely to intimidate others. Hiring a person who is far more experienced than his or her peers or immediate supervisor could create upside-down reporting relationships and authority tensions. Careful assessment was required when intending to hire overqualified candidates. From the article, I learned that I should decide how to define over-qualification. I brought up the topic at one of our intern meetings. We agreed that being at the wrong level and salary expectation was one of the most important factors. It looked kind of like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943). He used the terms Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendence need to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through. When primary needs were satisfied, people seek for higher level needs. I think over-qualified employees do the same. Compensation is a primary need for job seekers. However, it is not the only factor that matters. If we provide fair amount of compensation, they look for other factors such as personal growth. However, if the compensation level is much lower than the average, they seek for other companies. Our organization does not have to have the most attractive compensation, however, it should be the average in the industry. We provided minimum pay at the phone interview. Also, there was a pay expectation on the job application. Comparing our minimum pay and candidates’ expectations, we would be able to draw a picture of the possibility of follow through the hiring process with the over qualified candidates. For example, we would give applicants a realistic preview of what the job would be. During the phone screen process, I told them the salary for the position and paid attention to their response. If the candidate hesitated, they most likely would not continue the process. We would not follow up with this candidate. The next step was to ask if we could do something to position the job opportunity to better take advantage of the applicant’s experience. For instance, if the applicant’s past experience was specialized in child care, we would transfer the applicant to the childcare facilities within the organization. Or, if the applicant obviously had more skills and experience, we would offer a higher-level position instead of an entry-level position. Also, we arranged in-house observations for applicants to give them a preview of certain responsibilities of the job and observe their reaction in the real work environment. Lastly, we assessed what career stage the person was in. We would like to know if they had ambitious goals and wanted fast growth. As a result, we looked at three predictors of candidate’s success on the job: the ability to do the work, the ability to work well with others and motivation. Motivation factors include, career growth like promotion opportunities and personnel growth, such as education reimbursement. Following these assessment steps, we successfully decreased the drop off rate for overqualified candidates. During my internship period, we made efforts to hire seven over-qualified candidates, half of them went through the whole process, which is much better than before. Job Description Development Beyond my expectations, I had a chance to develop several job descriptions during my internship due to organization transformation and expansion. Brannick and Levine (2002) mentioned that the structure of the job description should include identifiers, a summary section, duties and tasks, and other information. They suggest using a KSA modeling approach and critical incident technique to structure the job description. Due to the limited time I was given, I was not able to analyze these KSAs and critical incidents. However, I followed their format, which made the job description easier to read. Since the organization had their own format for job descriptions, which didn’t include a summary section, I discussed with my manager the benefit of adding a summary section for each position and edited all of our job descriptions. The summary section gave applicants and mployees a clear idea of what their responsibilities were and linked with tasks and skill sets required. I believe the summary gave employees a better idea of what their daily functions looked like. During my internship, I developed job description for utility manager, staff development specialist, and executive assistant. Also, my coworkers and I revised all of our job descriptions in the database by adding a summary section. After the format was decided, I planned to start to draft the job description. Part of the job description was minimum qualifications. Levine, Maye, Ulm, and Gordon (1997) provided a step-by-step account of the methodology and described the means by which validated minimum qualifications (MQ) were obtained. The authors indicated that MQs were created for education, experience, and closely related personalities needed to perform a job satisfactorily. In our organization, a closely related personality for nurse would be Agreeableness. We looked for people who would follow the policy and work with others. MQs are often used as screening devices in personnel selection. Our organization used MQs to screen out applicants as well. Levine, et al (1997) mentioned that in order to determine minimum qualifications, a job analysis needed to be conducted. Its descriptors or components were both behavioral and cognitive in nature. Tasks, the behavioral aspects and KSAs, and the cognitive aspects were determined. Scales were developed to evaluate tasks and KSAs for their impact and relevance in establishing MQs. The authors indicated that this job analysis established a basis for the development of MQs, and defined domains against which to evaluate the MQs for content validity. Preliminary research and observation by human resources specialists, including review of the dictionary of occupational titles, also helped to lead to the preparation of draft lists of tasks and KSAs. Interviews with current employees should be conducted to review relevant tasks and responsibilities required at their job. The authors also suggested a meeting with SMEs to determine the final task and KSA list. Using the list, people should be able to prepare a set of MQ profiles. According to the study, this methodology proved to have high inter- rater reliability.