Angelo’s Pizza Essay

1) The problem with Angelo’s Pizza is that it has no strategic human resource planning. Strategic HRM is about planning to meet the organizations human resource requirements well in advance of the actual required date. The high level goals for strategic HRM will be derived from the organizations overall strategic planning. For example, Angelo’s Pizza started out from a single shop enterprise and then expanded three stores. However, there was no plan is place about the enhanced human resources which would be required to support the organizational growth plans. Because of this, the organizations human resources became the weak link when the new stores were set up. Similarly, if a franchisee is to be established, Angelo needs to have a detailed strategic HRM plan in place. The first step in Strategic HRM is to determine the number of employees and the types of competencies which will be required by the organization in the next five years. For this purpose, the present and future expansion plans must be considered and the competencies which would be required by the various types of roles in the organization must be developed. It is important to remember that the competencies not only include hard skills like qualification and work experience, but also soft skills like communication, manners etc. Consider the importance of a candidate’s temperament, motivation, attitude and initiative (Johnson, Rose). Once the list is developed with various types of roles and the competencies required for each role, the next phase is to begin implementing steps enable the organization to have the required employees. To implement strategic HRM, the organization must have a recruitment strategy, training strategy, and compensation planning and employee retention strategy in line with the requirements planned for the future. The company must have a stable recruitment policy which should be able to attract candidates with the kind of competencies required. The recruitment calendar should be of a long term nature where candidates are recruited based on the needs developed in the long term plans and not just a knee jerk reaction to resignation or new store opening. Since Angelo’s Pizza does not have any in house recruitment team, it would be a good idea to outsource this to a hiring agency which would select candidates and after a first  level screening as per requirement of Angelo’s Pizza, would only send the shortlisted candidates for interview directly with Angelo. Currently, Angelo’s Pizza has no training facility and all new joiners are expected to learn on the job. This strategy may work for hourly workers such as waiter who come with prior experience; however, for managers and any recruits with no relevant experience, some training would be required. In line with Angelo’s aim of expanding and eventually using franchising model, training manager will be critical for success. To enable this, Angelo should move out of the role of managing any store full time and concentrate of training all his store managers. Angelo should take charge of training and spend time in each of his stores, giving time to train the managers. The store managers in turn will be responsible for training and guiding other staff members in their stores. For any organization, to retain the best talent, it is important to have a fair and attractive C&B plan as well as other aspects in a comprehensive talent retention strategy. Angelo’s Pizza must have a rating based appraisal where high performers will be given better salary. The company’s talent retention strategy must be focused on trying to keep employees happy at work and offer them career growth opportunities within the organization. For example, having rewards and recognition for good performers will motivate employees to work hard and satisfy high performing employees. Similarly, employees showing high potential can be offered higher education support so that they can move to managerial roles within the organization. 2) After considering the problems faced by Angelo’s Pizza, the following learning objectives seem most suitable: i) LM 3 (Discuss how recruiting strategies impact the competitive advantage of a firm): Angelo’s Pizza is suffering from high turnover and lack of good employees due to its unplanned recruitment policies. Angelo has a very rudimentary recruitment strategy which does not reach out to the right candidate pool and is not able to select the best fitting candidates. To improve its competitiveness, Angelo must have a well developed recruitment strategy. Advertising in two local papers is not enabling Angelo to reach out to the intended audience. He can take the help of hiring agencies to find the right candidates as per the job  profile and put them through a multi level selection process. Employee referrals are also an important tool for recruitment. Also, he must outsource the background verification process to a competent organization. ii) LM 4 (Comment on the relationship between personality and work performance): It is seen from the case, that the job requirements have soft skill requirements which come from a person’s personality. In the restaurant business it is important how employees interact and treat the customers. Therefore, Angelo needs to consider these requirements which designing the hiring profile and recruitment strategy. Also, stress has to be placed on other personal qualities such as honesty and loyalty. Since Angelo’s is worried about theft, the selection process must also take into consideration the candidate’s personality traits. This means that the selection process will have to be muti-tiered consisting of background checks, personal interview and mock situations where the candidate is given realistic situations. iii) LM 7 (Develop and evaluate a performance appraisal tool for a given situation): Angelo’s Pizza has a very high turnover and it is noticed that it is the good employees who are leaving the organization. To reverse this trend, a holistic performance appraisal system should be put in place which recognizes high performers and differentiates them from the others. The high performers should not get frustrated at the job and a performance appraisal system is the first step in identifying these high performers so that strategies can be developed to retain them. The performance appraisal system should be fair and evaluate the employee against the targets set by the manager. There should also be a mechanism where the feedback from customers is collected and used as an input for performance appraisal. iv) LM 8 (Discuss various types of benefits a company could provide employees): Once the appraisal system is in place, compensation and benefits should be variable based on employee performance. As a small organization, Angelo’s Pizza has the flexibility to design C&B as per employee requirements. Small scale, personal involvement and independence all lead to an absence of bureaucracy, creating the SMEs’ reputation of being able to  respond readily to changing circumstances (Brand.2002). For example, for hourly employees, assistance for further education can be a lucrative benefit, while at the same time providing the organization with a higher qualified resource for future managerial position. v) LM 9 (Discuss how corporate strategy can be aligned with HR): The lack of strategic HRM is the core issue affecting Angelo’s Pizza. Corporate strategy should be aligned with HR, so that resource requirements are planned well in advance and there is no shortfall of trained employees when the organization needs them. As Angelo’s Pizza is on a growth track, it must ensure that it has a recruitment and training plan to support the organizational growth. 3) Theft can be a major problem in small organizations because there is lack of control mechanisms and often employees are assigned to multiple tasks which reduce checks and balances. To reduce the problem of material and intellectual theft in the recruitment process, several measures can be adopted. Background verification is perhaps the most important factor which can help weed out candidates who are likely to steal. Angelo’s Pizza can outsource this task to professional agencies which conduct through background checks. These checks should include the candidate’s criminal record, past employment history, credit rating and other social security details. According to the law, a person cannot be discriminated against just because he has a criminal record. However, if the employer can show that the person’s criminal record will hamper his job responsibility, it can weed out such candidates. Attorney Mark Briggs of the Arizona-based Briggs Law Group said the new law forces employers to have a clear connection for why someone’s criminal record makes them unfit for the job they are applying for (Brooks,2014). For example, if a candidate has multiple theft convictions, Angelo’s Pizza may have to show how this would lead to higher chances of theft at job, if they have to disqualify the person. Similarly, a person with regular credit defaults may be under higher financial pressure and hence more likely to steal. Having a recruitment process to avoid intellectual theft is more difficult. Employers should take time to understand their current high performing employees and see what personal attributes have led them to stay at the job. Take the time to find individuals in your organization that have the same or a similar position to the one you are recruiting for (Wheeler, 2004). The interview must check the candidates future aspirations and see if they are in line with growth in the company or not. 4) To check the employee manners in an interview, Angelo can use role plays, where the candidate is given a certain hypothetical situation and has to respond to that situation. For example, Angelo can pretend to be a customer and the candidate must pretend to be a waiter. In this way, Angelo can create potential difficult situations which may arise when a customer is unhappy and check how the candidate responds in the interview. For example, Angelo can take the role of a customer who is unhappy about the food and is in a bad mood. The candidate must act the role of the waiter who will have to calm down the customer and end the situation in a satisfactory manner. Another option, which is less time consuming and can be used as a screening method is to give all the candidates a case study reading a difficult situation where an unruly customer must be calmed down. The candidates should be asked to respond to the situation is writing and mention how they would respond to the situation given in the case. 5) To check if the candidate is ineffective, Angelo must decide which would be primary responsibilities for the job and design the interview to check those competencies. For example, for a cashier, numerical ability is important. Therefore, Angelo can give a numerical question which the candidate must be able to respond to quickly. Check of effectiveness cannot be generalized as different jobs require different skills. One good way to check the candidate’s intelligence level is to give him an aptitude test. Aptitude tests are important because they show the persons mental ability. A person with a high aptitude will generally be able to learn and master new skills more effectively. Angelo can also give candidates some specific task to accomplish like for example, building a Lego model to check their effectiveness. References: Brand, Maryse. (2002). Strategic HRM for SME’s: Implications for Firms and Policy, retrieved on 10/23 from http://www.rug.nl/staff/m.j.brand/e_tj_2002_strategic_hrm.pdf Wheeler, Kevin. (2004). Good Hiring Starts With A Good Job Profile, retrieved on 10/23 from http://www.ere.net/2004/11/10/good-hiring-starts-with-a-good-job-profile/ Johnson, Rose. How to Reduce Employee Turnover by Effective Recruitment in the Hotel Industry, retrieved on 10/23 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/reduce-employee-turnover-effective-recruitment-hotel-industry-33538.html Brooks, Chad. (2014). Employee Background Checks: What’s Legal, What’s Not, retrieved on 10/23 from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6166-why-you-need-to-use-background-checks.html

Nigerian government Essay

1: Could the alleged payment of bribes to Nigerian government officials by Jeffrey Tesler be considered â€Å"facilitating payments† or â€Å"speed money† under the terms of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? Answer: After this all came out in June 2004, Halliburton promptly fired Jack Stanley and severed its long-standing relationship with Jeffrey Tesler, asking its three partners in the Nigeria consortium to do the same. The United States Justice Department took things further, establishing a grand jury investigation to determine if Halliburton, through its KBR subsidiary, had been in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In November 2004 the Justice Department widened its investigation to include payments in connection with the Nigeria fertilizer plant that Kellogg had been involved with during the 1980s under the leadership of Jack Stanley. In March 2005, the Justice Department also stated that it was looking at whether Jack Stanley had tried to coordinate bidding with rivals and fix prices on certain foreign construction projects. As of mid 2007, the U.S. investigation was still ongoing. 2: Irrespective of the legality of any payments that may have been made by Tesler, do you think it is was reasonable for KBR to hire him as anintermediary? Answer: Tesler’s involvement in the project might have remained unknown were it not for an unrelated event. Georges Krammer, an employee of the French company Technip, which along with KBR was a member of the consortium, was charged by the French government for embezzlement. When Technip refused to defend Krammer, he turned around and aired what he perceived to be Technip’s dirty linen. This included the payments to Tesler to secure the Nigeria LNG contracts. 3. Given the known corruption of the Abacha government in Nigeria, should Kellogg and its successor, KBR, have had a policy in place to deal with bribery and corruption? What might that policy have looked like?Answer: It is not known whether a bribe was actually paid. What is known is that in December 1995, Nigeria awarded the $2 billion contract to the KBR consortium. The LNG plant soon became a success. Nigeria contracted to build a second plant in 1999, two more in 2002, and a sixth in July 2004. KBR rehired Jeffrey Tesler in 1999 and again in 2001 to help secure the new contracts, all of which it won. In total, Tesler was paid some $132.3 million from 1994 through to early 2004 by the KBR consortium. 4. Should Kellogg have walked away from the Nigerian LNG project once it became clear that the payment of bribes might be required to secure the contract? Answer: The KBR consortium was one of two to submit a bid on the initial contract, and its bid was the lower of the two. By early 1995 the KBR consortium was deep in final negotiations on the contract. It was at this point that Nigeria’s oil minister had a falling out with the country’s military dictator, General Abacha, and was replaced by Dan Etete. Etete proved to be far less accommodating to the KBR consortium, and suddenly the entire deal looked to be in jeopardy. According to some observers, Dan Etete was a tough customer who immediately began to use his influence over the LNG project for personal gain. Whether this is true or not, what is known is that the KBR consortium quickly entered into a contract with the British lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler. The contract, signed by a Kellogg executive, called on Tesler to obta in government permits for the LGN project, maintain good relations with government officials, and provide advice on sales strategy. Tesler’s fee for these services was $60 million. 5. There is evidence that Jack Stanley, the former head of M.W. Kellogg and KBR, may have taken kickback payments from Tesler. At least one other former Kellogg employee, Wojciech Chodan, may have taken kickback payments. What does this tell you about the possible nature of the ethical climate at Kellogg and then KBR? Answer: This turn of events led French and Swiss officials to investigate Tesler’s Swiss bank accounts. They discovered that Tesler was â€Å"kicking back† some of the funds he received to executives in the consortium and subcon-tractors. One of the alleged kickbacks was a transfer of $5 million from Tesler’s account to that of Albert J. â€Å"Jack† Stanley, who was head of M.W. Kellogg and then Halliburton’s KBR unit. Tesler also transferred some $2.5 million into Swiss bank accounts held under a false name by the Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete. Other payments included a $1 million transfer into an account controlled by Wojciech Cho dan, the former Kellogg executive whose extensive hand-written notes suggest the payment of a bribe to General Abacha and payment of $5 million to a German subcontractor on the LNG project in exchange for â€Å"information and advice.† 6. Should Halliburton be called into account if it is shown that its KBR unit used bribery to gain business in Nigeria? To what extent should a corporation and its officers be held accountable for ethically suspect activities by the managers in one of its subsidiaries, particularly given that many of those activities were initiated before the subsidiary was owned by Halliburton? Answer: In early 2005, however, Halliburton put KBR up for sale. The sale was seen as an attempt by Halliburton to distance itself from several scandals that had engulfed KBR. One of these concerned allegations that KBR had systematically overcharged the Pentagon for services it provided to the U.S. military in Iraq. Another scandal centered on the Nigerian LNG plants and involved KBR employees, several former officials of the Nigeria government, and a mysterious British lawyer called Jeffrey Tesler. The roots of the Nigerian scandal date back to 1994 when Kellogg and its consortium partners were trying to win an initial contract from the Nigerian government to build two LNG plants. The contract was valued at around $2 billion. Each of the four firms held a 25 percent stake in the consortium, and each had veto power over its decisions. Kellogg employees held many of the top positions at the consortium, and two of the other members, Technip of France and JGC of Japan, have claimed that Kellogg managed the consortium (the fourth member, ENI of Italy, has not made any statement regarding management).

Habeus Corpus Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Habeus Corpus - Research Paper Example Due to this reason, the Great Writ, often referred to as the writ of Habeas Corpus, constitute an important means for the protection of prisoners from unlawful governmental action and imprisnoment. (Sharpe, 1976). To ensure that the executive departments of the government are accountable to the judiciary is, by far, the overriding purpose of habeas corpus. The Latin phrase habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, is the phrase from which the term habeas corpus has been derived. The phrase literally means to â€Å"have the body to submit to the authority of the court†. The roots of the writ of habeas corpus can be traced to the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 enacted by the British Parliament. The writ of Habeas Corpus later on became a part of the Constitution of the United States of America. According to Article 1, Section 9, the Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended because it is essential for the protection of personal freedom except in the Cases of Rebellion. (Schultz, 2009). Keeping in vi ew the fact that the US Constitution states about the suspension of writ of habeas corpus in Invasion of Public Safety cases, thus, in context to the war on terror, the prisoners cannot enjoy the privileges of writ of teh habeas corpus. History The writ of habeas corpus originated in the Common Law and initially it was only viewed as a legal procedure through which the federal judiciary evaluated the legality of the authority of the federal government. In simple words, the habeas corpus was a legal proceeding through which the court determined the legitimacy of a prisoner’s detention. In such cases, the legality of the prisoner’s detention is justified by the government official in court by presenting legal documents such as a warrant or a judgment of conviction or documents which prove that the official was ordered to imprison the individual. (Schultz, 2009). The availability of the Great Writ and the nature of the claims that can be considered have been significantly expanded over the past few decades. The Great Writ was extended to include the consideration of whether the state prisoner’s detention violated any rights protected by the US Constitution, was enacted by the US Congress under the title of Habeas Corpus Statute in 1867. Later, the types of the claims which could be asserted against the state officials as constitutional violations grew substantially following the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Later, by the 1970s, Habeas Corpus had evolved into a means intended to be utilized for the assertion of provisions of the national constitution in an effort to challenge the legality of the detention of a prisoner. The challenges included are challenges to incarceration following a criminal conviction, detention immediately following an arrest. Moreover, the commitment to a mental institution and challenges to the nature of the detention were also became a part of the habeas corpus in the late 1970s. Most frequently, the habe as corpus is utilized by the state inmates to review their criminal convictions. The inclusion of allegations of constitutional violations occurring during trials paved way for the prisoners to request a comprehensive review of their state court criminal trials. Most importantly, through the writ of habeas corpus, the state inmates received a forum which could be utilized by the court to determine if the prisoners

Film report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Film report - Essay Example The discussion will do this by providing in-depth evidence as appears in Akira Kurosawa’s film, The Seven Samurai. The story mostly circles around a small village that is striving to protect itself from bandit attacks, a condition that forces them to form a coalition with their samurai, who in this case appear rather impoverished. Though the relationship between them is a strained one, they maintain a mutual bond that sees them through a tough wartime in which the community’s needs and individual selfishness dominate and succeed in portraying the theme [importance] of communism and unselfishness over individualism (Wallace n.p.). To start with, Akira introduces the theme of community spirit early in the film through the character Kimbei, who is one of the Samurais. To do this, his film highlights the importance of hair in the culture as we see different hair styles appearing on the heads of many characters. Then contrast cuts in when Kimbei decides to shave his hair so that he can trick some bandits into releasing a small boy who falls into their hands. He shaves his head clean so as to f eign the image of a village priest, and at the end of it all, he succeeds in saving the boy. The act of a Samurai shaving his head is sacrificed because the culture views shaving hair as a breach of the culture’s norms. Kimbei’s life does not go back to normal, but he takes up the role of serving and leading his community because he open up to realities that his community has needs that need addressing, such as protection from the bandits, and dedicates his life to serving them. Further evidence appears when he is seen opening up to his servant telling him that they would rather die serving. The perspective of â€Å"we† shows his call for oneness, thus communism. To further in this, Akira tactfully applies a direct quote through Kimbei at the scene where he forces a group of villagers to return to their posts during

Unemployment in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Unemployment in Canada - Essay Example The Interwar period is being understood in the Western culture to be the period between the end of the World War I and the beginning of the World War II in Europe, specifically it was from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939. Since it was the most serious crisis in the Canada's history, thus this paper will examine the reasons which cause such horrible outcome, criticize the present situation and have a better understanding in unemployment for prevention.After the elaboration of the unemployment issue, one could say that such horrible events shouldn't happen in the future as one learns from previous evidence.During the interwar period, highest unemployment rate in Canada reached roughly around twenty-five percent. Yet, that is not suggesting one to ignore the issues but rather focus on the better understanding of the past thus encourages others to raise more possible solutions to improve our society. Perhaps the Interwar period unemployment could not be treated as current events due to the unexpected crisis; still such unexpected crisis is seldom happening. Hence, prevention and preparation of possible crisis is often necessary.During the first years of World War I unemployment was high during 1914-1915 wherein many Canadians enlisted in the army to avoid the bleak effects of families suffering through hardships of lack of employment; but, by 1916 the "booming wartime industrial and agricultural economies combined to provide Canadians with other options and employers competed with recruiting officers for Canada's available manpower. The returning soldiers not only came back to few jobs in 1918, but, also returned to Canada with them a new disease which killed as many people as it did during the war. As Canada moved from wartime to peacetime and soldiers vying for jobs, another crisis emerged which was termed "One Big Union" that was formed in 1919. This concept was that all workers should be organized inside one large union entity. This focus on union organization was the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 wherein striking workers, many of them returning soldiers that would find very few opportunities but yet many companies would experience surging profits from wartime contracts. This lack of employment found in the aftermath of World War I would find many of the returning soldiers and the public in general in an imbalance of power in favour of the elite and wealthy individuals who would profit immensely from the war effort, but, would find themselves in the middle of a power struggle between truth and fiction. As society fought for their rights of fair employment standards, the period that would be considered by many as the fall of the powerful few of their day, would find the country suffering even more hardships as they entered the Great Depression. Great Depression among North America Perhaps the hardest hit economy in western culture was Canada's. The Canadian economy would find that they were not only the hardest hit, but, also the slowest to recover which did not occur until the beginning of the Second World War. Unlike the United States, the boom period between 1900 and 1929 found Canada as the world's fastest growing economy with only a brief and sharp recession occurring at the end of World War I. The economy would also find an increase occurring in housing starts until May, 1929. Through the collapse of commodity prices in the United States in October, 1929 and the massive stock crash of Black Tuesday and as both the United States and Canada share economic links through gold standards, the collapse of the United States economy affected Canada as well. The prairie provinces were not the only affected areas of Canada, as both Ontario and Quebec would now face immense problems in the manufacturing district as massive lay-offs would occur and over production by industrial companies would collapse into bankruptcy. Although this collapse

Cover letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Cover letter - Essay Example I have always maintained an interest in computer software ever since I was a young child, but it was not until I worked as a summer intern at Perceptive Software in Shawnee, Kansas that I finally knew what career path I wanted to pursue for myself. While there, I was able to work with the software team to design and implement high-quality software, learn how to interface with other team members, and design and test the core components of the software projects. Once I had been hooked on computer software, I applied for and was accepted to a Computer Engineering major at Kansas State University. While studying at university, I have learned how to use various data structures in C++ and JAVA and OOP concepts in computer projects. I have also developed hardware design of digital boards and programming in C and JAVA. Although I have had little exposure to Microsoft .NET/C# and SQL technologies, I will learn as much as I can from the experienced developers who already work at Med Assets. The physical demands and work environment characteristics do not faze me at all as I already perform most of these tasks on a daily basis. Working with others who may have different work traits does not bother me in the slightest. I would also be willing to relocate to Plano, Texas on a permanent basis after I have completed my degree in Computer Engineering. I am looking forward to your response and will be waiting for the outcome. If would like to contact me to discuss this further then please call (785) 643-0378 or send me an email at roesner@ksu.edu. Thank you once again for your time and

Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Film - Essay Example He is simultaneously presented as a suitably murky protagonist who goes abroad to arrange assassination of his old professor, who is now an anti-Fascist leader living an exiled life in Paris. Clerici is a Conformist who is very anxious to live a normal life and trying hard at his level best to fit in the society in every possible way. The film beautifully portrays a man's psychological need to 'conform' and to be 'normal' at social level; particularly in general as well as at the political level. Underlying Theme: The predominant theme of the film is  conformity. Clerici has an excessive urge to lead a life of normality-'to fit' perfectly in the society. Like any other man, he is seeking for acceptance from the society and to make a position that would lead him to his ultimate goal in life. He is deeply driven by his bitter memories of childhood and in this way, he hopes to escape  the demolishing outcomes of his mother and father. One might also contemplate that Clerici is often chased by his repressed homosexual urge which he feared that it might emerge as it is against the norms of society.

Hollywood Representations of Women in 1930s Films Research Paper - 3

Hollywood Representations of Women in 1930s Films - Research Paper Example The 1930s is an important era to explore the role and portrayal of women because the Depression era lends an interesting backdrop to explore how women are portrayed, due to the changing morals and increasing cynicism of the country, and also because the early 1930s is considered to be â€Å"pre-code† (Doherty, 1999, p. 3). This refers to the Hays Code, which was instituted in 1931, but not enforced until 1934, and this meant that, during the early 1930s, studios had more free reign to portray women in a lurid fashion. Additionally, the pre-code era portrayed women differently than in the post code era, as the post code era relied less on showing women as sex objects and more on showing women as equals to men (Doherty, 1999, p. 5). Under this topic, the following themes will be discussed: the representation of women in films in the early 1930s, the role of women in films, the portrayal of women in films in the 1930s, and the criticism of women’s roles in films in the 193 0s. Hollywood cinematography often objectified women for men’s pleasure (Kaplan, 1994, p. 3). According to Mulvey (1989, p. 56), female characters in Hollywood were presented as being worth looking at but not worth listening to. As such, in this era, men viewed women in different dimensions, often known as the Madonna/Whore (Kaplan, 1994, p. 103). This means that women were stereotyped either as sexually active whores, or pristine and powerless Madonnas (housewives). According to Gates (2011, p. 23), most Hollywood films present women images with the purpose of gratifying male viewers.   

Taylors Law and the Right to Strike by Public Employees Research Paper

Taylors Law and the Right to Strike by Public Employees - Research Paper Example The law states that the public employers should negotiate and enter into agreements with the unions regarding the terms and conditions of employing their employees. The law highlights the procedures to resolute collective bargaining disputes as well as defines and prohibits any improper practices conducted by public employers and union. Taylor Law strictly prohibits strikes by public employees and establishes a state agency known as the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) that is responsible for administering the law (PERB 2013). While the statements which are asserted are not conclusive regarding the existence of such a right, there is an immediate need to inquire and determine whether a right to strike exists or not. Discussion Right to Strike by Public Employees Strikes are collective actions which are taken by workers as a means of safeguarding their interest (Swiatkowski 2005, 285). Over the last six decades, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has recognized that th ere is a positive right to strike by public employees that are inextricably interlinked to and an unavoidable consequence of the right to freedom of association (Bellace 2013, 2). According to Samuelsen (2012), the right of public employee unions to bargain collectively is being challenged aggressively by Conservative politicians and media. In the United States of America, both the Republican and Democratic Government have collectively supported the regulations (bills) that put restrictions on what unions can bargain for and have bludgeoned public workers into massive cuts. Under the impression of the freedom of association, it was witnessed quite frequently that workers joined together to demand better terms of employment from their employers. If the employer refrained from agreeing to their demands then workers usually resorted to some form of industrial actions such as strikes, boycotts or picketing in order to put pressure on the employee to meet their demands (Bellace 2013, 6-7 ). Every public employee does deserve the right to strike in order to prevent themselves from being exploited by their superior or employer. It is of utmost importance to demonstrate disagreement in situations where excessive domination is done by the employers (Lacampagne 1983, 510). Milne (2011) explains that there are five reasons why public service workers have the right to strike. The author explains that the government is trying to exploit the employees by trying to make most pay more and work longer for less even after the month’s modest concessions. The author explained that this practice is being done by the government not to fund pensions because people are living longer, but to help bail out banks by paying the deficit when an economic crisis is triggered.

Leadership styles, behaviors and relevant situational factors. Maple Assignment

Leadership styles, behaviors and relevant situational factors. Maple Leaf Food - Assignment Example Maple Leaf Foods (stock market symbol TSX:MFI) is one of Canada’s major food processing companies. As its chief executive officer, McCain holds the strings that control the subordinates. With the strings, Michael McCain can instruct the employees to give their best to produce high quality products to the company’s current and prospective clients. Michael McCain is new in the company. Formerly, Michael McCain was one of the owners of the very popular McCain food products company, which is located in the heart of Canada. Consequently, Michael McCain brings with him many years of experience as one of the managers of his former family-owned company. His former company is also engage in the food processing business. 2. Description of leader’s context (main constituents and the various situation forces at play) Michael McCain heads the company that sells food products to the Canadian public. The company’s original name is Canada Packers. It was Canada’s producer of the biggest volume of food products. The company’s major food product is grounded on hogs. The company ships hog-based products to the United Kingdom. The company also sells cheese products. The company ventures into hog and poultry based food business products. Robert Kelley (1988) 2insists that all corporations sometimes succeed or fail, compete or crumble, on the basis of how they are being management, in the case of McCain, the subordinates can sit back, relax, and enjoy the leadership of McCain as he steers the Maple Leaf Management outside the August 2008 food poisoning crisis smoothly and effortlessly. In 2008, the company ordered the recall of many of its tainted products. The tainted products came from one of its food processing plants. Consequently, Maple Leaf Management ordered the closure of its c ulprit plant. The closure was necessary to bring back the company’s tarnished image. With the announcement of the guilty plant facility, Maple Leaf Management sought to retrieve its former glory of being the producer of one of the most popular and high selling food processing plants in Canada. On that fateful August 24, 2008 date, Maple Leaf Management ordered the closure of its failed Toronto, Canada Plant. The spoiled Maple Leaf Management products cause the deaths of five individuals. In addition more than 24 individuals were treated for eating the spoiled food. Because of the spoiled food consequences, the Government of Canada issued warnings to the public to temporarily avoid buying some of the Maple Leaf Management products. The warning was in place until the cloud of spoilage hovering over the skies of Canada’s communities, is resolved. The Canadian government agency, Public Health Agency of Canada, emphasized that the bacteria, Listeria strain, was the culprit. Many of the customers of Maple Leaf Management either died or were hospitalized for food poisoning in August of 2008. In response to the August 2008 bacteria outbreak where four persons died and many others suffered from food poisoning, Maple Leaf Management ordered the recall of all its products. The move is a good marketing strategy. The marketing strategy was to prioritize the safety of its current and prospective clients, the food customers. The outbreak was called Listeriosis.

Anti Legalization Critical Thinking Essay Example for Free

Anti Legalization Critical Thinking Essay The aim of this paper is to logically apply reason to assess the arguments for the legalization of marijuana, and by doing so point out flaws in these arguments. Furthermore, this paper will assess the credibility and the source of these arguments, and present counter arguments to conclude that marijuana should not be a legal drug in California and the rest of the United States. First I will consider The National Organizations for the Reform of Marijuana Laws â€Å"Principles of Responsible Marijuana Use† which is the basis for their argument for the legalization of marijuana, and how this set of principles is flawed. Second I will consider the claim â€Å"that marijuana should be legal in a taxed and regulated manner† and also consider the source of this claim. Third I will emphasize the negative social effects of legalization of marijuana in order to counter the claims for legalization. Finally I will conclude that given these factors, legalization of marijuana would be harmful and detrimental to society as a whole, possessing little or no economic, social, or medical benefits. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law is the leading lobbyist group for the legalization of marijuana in the United States. This organization has made it their commitment to have marijuana legalized in a taxable way as tobacco and alcohol currently are. This organization rationalizes its arguments with a document called the â€Å"Principles of Responsible Marijuana Use† in which is attempts to justify marijuana reform in a socially accepted manner. The very title of the document is ambiguous, the word â€Å"responsible† is a very circumstantial term and is subject to many different interpretations. Furthermore the document assumes that if legalized, citizens will adhere to this unofficial â€Å"code of ethics†, however we can evidently see with alcohol and tobacco that there is abuse regardless of the regulating laws. Despite this, NORML attempts to lay out their interpretation for what â€Å"responsible marijuana use† is ( 4 ); their first point is that marijuana is to be for adults only, and that it is irresponsible to provide marijuana to children. The terms â€Å"adults† and â€Å"children† again are ambiguous, it is not clear where the line is drawn between what defines an adult or a child. This is a concern because many would assume a child is no longer a child after eighteen years of age, thus it can be determined that eighteen and over is considered a â€Å"responsible† user. It need not be said that current alcohol restrictions limit a user to twenty-one and over. According to a 2005 Monitoring the Future Study, â€Å"three-fourths of 12th graders, more than two-thirds of 10th graders, and about two in every five 8th graders have consumed alcohol†( 5 ), with this evidence it would be wishful thinking to assume marijuana would be any different. To further consider this point 6.8% of children ages 12 to 17 use marijuana on an occasional basis ( 5 ). It would be reasonable to conclude that if marijuana was legalized that number would increase drastically. Second the NORMLs â€Å"Principles of Responsible Marijuana Use† attempts to rationalize legal marijuana use by claiming that if legalized responsible users will refrain from driving ( 4 ). Although an illegal drug, it is not surprising that there are already statistics regarding marijuana impaired driving in many states. California who just recently had a proposition for the legalization of marijuana has some of the most relevant statistics; there are various counties in California that have a 16% or higher marijuana involved traffic fatalities ( 3 ). This number would only increase with the legalization, and that is not to include the the amount of non fatal accidents that would occur annually. A recent study by Alfred Crancer and Alan Crancer projected that traffic fatalities would increase by as much as 300% with legalization ( 3 ). Third NORML claims that â€Å"The responsible cannabis user will carefully consider his/her set and setting, regulating use accordingly†. In this claim there is much room for a line-drawing fallacy, in which it is difficult and conveniently vague and up to the individual to determine what set and setting is actually appropriate for usage. It could be assumed under this principle that its safe to use marijuana while caring for children, elderly, while driving, and also very relevantly while working. Forth NORML claims that a responsible marijuana user will â€Å"resist abuse†. They define abuse by: â€Å"Abuse means harm. Some cannabis use is harmful; most is not. That which is harmful should be discouraged; that which is not need not be.† A clever statement however invalid and illogical. Drug abuse is defined as an uncontrollable urge for constant seeking of intoxicants ( 2 ). Many users would be unaware of their abuse, until the point in which it has destroyed their livelihood, relationships, economic security, and health. Legalization would only increase the numbers of active addicts, and make marijuana readily available for them, and being legal, consequently restraining family, friends, and the courts from restricting an addicts use before to much harm is done. The final claim made by NORML is a â€Å"Respect for Rights of Others† in which they attempt to justify the fact that if marijuana was legal, non users will have to deal with it. Again it is wishful thinking to see that users will have respect for the others who are not users, however while illegal we can see that many still cultivate marijuana, drive under the influence of it, and use it as socially as possible. A strict layout of parameters that must be followed with public and private use of the drug would be acceptable, however advocates for the cause prefer the vagueness, in which there are no absolute lines that can be drawn between legal and illegal use (ie. Driving, social events, age, etc.). The entire document is a rationalization and does not seem to give a valid or true pretense to satisfy desires. The most relevant claim argued against in this paper is the claim that â€Å"marijuana should be legal in a taxed and regulated manner†. This claim by itself has the vagueness and ambiguity of a typical bill or legislation. It is this vagueness and ambiguity that encroach on the freedoms of citizens everyday. The fact is that marijuana is a drug, it was made illegal by the Federal Controlled Substance Act of 1970 to stop the violence and abuse that was common practice. We have seen in other countries failed attempts to regulate and tax drugs, like the Netherlands, and we have seen the damage drugs can have on society as a hole, like the dangerous drug cartels that rule Mexico. In evaluating this claim it is also important to consider the sources, one of the biggest supporters of marijuana legalization is Robert Lee. Lee is president of â€Å"Oaksterdam University† a school that teaches students how to cultivate, grow, process, and cure marijuana ( 3 ). It would seem highly logical to acknowledge that this man is not interested in the social repercussions of legalization. His motive is clearly for the profit that can come from legalization. Legalization would drastically increase the amount of growers and interested parties in his school. Another strong voice in pro-legalization is the company S.K. Seymour LLC which is a Medical Cannabis Provider ( 3 ), who again would see a dramatic increase in profit and sales due to the fact that they can open up their business to the public, and not just medical marijuana patients. It seems that neither of the sources, from the research done, are interested in the negative and adverse affects of legalization and only interested in the lucrative value of legalization. It is also important to analyze the negative social effects of marijuana on society, most notably the economic affects and the medical effects. Recent proposition 19 in California stated that: â€Å"No person shall be punished, fined, discriminated against, or be denied any right or privilege for lawfully engaging in any conduct permitted by this Act or authorized pursuant to Section 11301 of this Act. Provided however, that the existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected.† Basically stating that employers can no longer regulate marijuana use while working unless it can show that performance is being impaired by use ( 3 ). Proposition 19 also is in conflict with the Federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 which prohibits the use of marijuana for recreational use. This would be a mistake by California due to the fact that the state would loose billions of federal dollars in the form of grants and aid called for by the Federal Workplace Act of 1988. Not only would government loose money but also schools and medical centers can potentially be affected ( 3 ). The health risks for marijuana usage are as noteworthy as the social repercussions. Marijuana is known to cause A-motivational syndrome, which is a depressed state of the brain in which reaction times and motivation is affected by long term use ( 3 ). Furthermore â€Å"the gateway theory† blames marijuana as the compromise that leads an individual to try harder more harmful drugs. Lastly marijuana has been placed on the California Proposition 65 list of carcinogenic materials, as proven materials that cause cancer ( 3 ). In this paper I argued that the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws definitions and reasoning for a â€Å"responsible legal† user is flawed. Many of their arguments are invalid and lack sound reasoning to a conclusion. That the claim that marijuana should be legal and taxed is not a fully developed claim and that the sources of the claims motives are not sound in reasoning for legalization. Finally I argued that if marijuana is legalized it would be detrimental to society specifically regarding medical and economic problems. The arguments for legalization are not convincing and present many fallacies, Legalization supporters have the wrong idea of controlled use.

Gravity Concentration By Jigs Engineering Essay

Gravity Concentration By Jigs Engineering Essay Gravity concentration methods separate minerals of different specific gravity. They are used to treat a great variaty of materials [ranging from Au ( sp. gr. 19.3 ) to coal ( sp. gr. 1.3 ) ]. Gravity concentration methods remained, however the main concentrating methods for iron , tungsten, tin ores and coal. This methods are usually preferred to flotation due to its low cost . Minerals liberated at sizes above flotation range may be concentrated even more economically using gravity methods (also cause efficient dewatering due to decreased surface area.). The main principles of appliying this method is different size and shape of minerals having different specific gravity. This method can be applied at the range of 7.5 1.3. And, the advantages of this method are its simplicity, having high capacity and low cost. In order to apply gravity concentration method concentration criteria ( cc ) shoud be at optimum range. CC = dh df dl df CC >2.5 ( 74 micron ) CC

Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy: UK Supermarkets

Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy: UK Supermarkets Tesco Plc Corporate Strategy The definition of corporate strategy has changed over the years. In the past it was deemed to be a set of internal plans and policies designed to enable a business to succeed in the pursuit of its aims and objectives (Pettigrew et al 2002). Robert Grant (2004, p.7) in his study stated that the implementation of successful strategy could not happen until the business managers had appraised the available or required resources, have an in-depth knowledge of the competitive environment they operated within and the whole team had agreed upon the objectives. More recently, the understanding of corporate strategy has been extended to include external forces and thus it can rely upon the definition statement made by Collis and Montgomery (1997, p.5) which observes that: â€Å"Corporate strategy is the way a company creates value through the configuration and coordination of its multimarket activities.† The purpose of this paper is to promote further understanding of the factors that influence corporate strategy within a particularly competitive industry sector. For this purpose the supermarket retail sector has been chosen for analysis. To assess how these factors impact upon the market players, the Tesco organisation has been used a focus for a case study. The reasoning behind this particular choice is that Tesco Plc has maintained a position of industry dominance, despite strong competition from other players, including Asda and Sainsbury Retail Industry Supermarkets During the course of the past four or five decades the Supermarket has taken a progressively increasing share of the grocery retailing market, with their store size and low prices driving local and independent stores in increasing numbers. In 2005 the organisations had reached a position where collectively their revenue accounted for approaching two thirds of total UK grocery sales. in Supermarket sales now account for around nearly two thirds of total grocery sales in the UK and were having an increasing impact in other retail sectors. However, as can be seen from the breakdown of the supermarket sales in grocery products, there is a considerable amount of competition between the supermarket players (see table 1). Table 1: Supermarket grocery sales 2005 (Source: BBC News 2006 and company reports) As can be seen from the above Tesco’s leads the industry sector by a considerable margin in terms of percentage. Furthermore , despite the intensity of competition that is focused upon around a dozen competitors, in revenue terms Tesco’s sales are almost equivalent to the sum of their three closet rivals, which gives them a commanding lead in terms of the number of consumers that are attracted to their stores. Tesco operates a total of 3,262 stores internationally, including 1,988 located throughout the UK. Employing in excess of 450,000 people globally, the business has so far achieved a market leadership position in four other countries as well as the UK and is currently considering expanding its operations in the US. Similarly, in line with other retailing organisations, the business is expanding its home delivery and Internet presence through the development of its online retailing website. (www.tesco.com). As Hill and Jones (2007) identify in their research into the subject of strategic management, the key drivers change and the market players have to respond positively to these changes. The supermarket industry is no exception to this rule. Initially supermarket organisations were driven by the need to create a competitive advantage. In essence this is achieved when the business reaches a position â€Å" â€Å"whenever it outperforms its competitors† (Pettigrew et al 2002, p.55), but as Grant (2004) observes, ultimately it needs to build upon that advantage, thereby reducing the opportunities for others to compete. Grant (2004, p.30), Collis and Montgomery (1998, p.65) state that competitive advantage can be gained through cost or differentiation, either of which return greater value to the consumer. However, competitive advantage is also relevant to the business marketing process, where it is important for the organisation to â€Å"understand its consumers and the decision processes they go through (Kolter et al 2004, p.29). However, advantage in this area is also achieved by a better understanding than that of competitors Consumers also drive the industry as has been seen through recent years. Initially the consumer determinant was for lower prices, wide range of selection, convenience and to a lesser extent the ability to do a one-stop shop, hence the development of the supermarket and out of town hypermarket locations, where all the weekly shop could be performed at one time. They have achieved the objective on price through a strategy of low cost and strategy through a process of low cost and the offering of substitute products (Hill and Jones 2007), which as a side effect, has also enable d the businesses to achieve a level of power over suppliers that has forced such organisations to address their own internal issues in order to remain economically viable. However, more recently consumer demands have changed and the emphasis has now moved to other areas of importance. These include the need for quality, customer service and â€Å"organic† and environmentally friendly products. Similarly, w ith the advent of concerns regarding the natural environment supermarkets are having to respond to these changes as well. To address consumer issues human resource management has also become an important driver in the industry development. The majority of researchers believe that the manner by which a business manages their HR resources has a significant impact on strategy (Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.163) and (Grant 2004, p.144). Thus the supermarket organisations have devoted a considerable amount of effort to increasing motivation and satisfaction within their workforce. The more successful organisations, such as Tesco’s and Asda have created the appropriate style of leadership and team building that has helped them achieve success in this area (Pettigrew et al 2002, p.285). As Hills and Jones (2007) have identified, the better the abilities of management and leaders in dealing with HR management, the easier it is to get a corporate strategy accepted and implemented. Technological developments have also brought about a change in the supermarket retailing industry. By incorporating these within all aspects of the supply chain, such as using new software and Internet systems that enable a closer control of stock, this has â€Å"set the overall context of competition for all firms in the industry (Porter 21004, p.142). It has also enabled organisations such as Tesco’s to continue to maintain their position within the industry. As the supermarkets have increased size and market share, so there have found themselves being increasing subject to the constraints of external forces being exerted upon them for the political and legislative stakeholders(Porter 2004, p.56 and Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.68). For example, the competition commission has often stepped in during the past few years to halt development of new stores on the grounds that it would be detrimental to fair competition. Similarly, as a result of the increasing concerns being expressed regarding health and environmental issues, the supermarket has be driven to introduce new â€Å"health† and â€Å"organic† brands and, as part of the brand management process, to increase the level of product knowledge in respect of these issues that appears upon the packaging. Therefore, all of these external issues are now having to be borne in mind during the planning of the strategy process.(Pettigrew et al 2002, p.190). In essence, at present the critical success factors for the industry can be identified as relating to three specific areas. The first of these is the efficient management of its supply chain, where the effective performance of each part is important to the smooth running of the whole (Porter 2004, p.311). Secondly, the quality of its products and customer services and effective marketing of the brand is important in order for the business to maintain both its market position and competitive advantage. Thirdly, is the effectiveness of its change management strategy. In this later respect it is essential that there is a â€Å"continuous interaction between strategy formulation and strategy implementation in which strategy is constantly being adjusted and revised in light of experience† Grant (2004, p.17). All of these factors are important to the industry players in that there form the vital elements that enable the maintenance of the business main objective, which is to continue to add value for the business stakeholders (Hills and Jones, 2007). The structure of an organisation, how it manages its resources and the relationship that it builds with employees and customers are key elements in a business that is seeking success and profitability. The level to which each organisation can achieve the harmonisation of all these factors will determine both the competitive advantage and the position that the organisation holds with the industry. As will be shown in the following section, Tesco’s has been consistently achieving a position of successfully incorporating all of these elements into their corporate strategy. Tesco Case Study During the past five years, and before this period, Tesco’s have based the main thrust of their corporate strategy on Porter’s â€Å"cost leadership.† By concentrating upon ensuring that all aspects of the supply chain were cost driven, thereby lowering unit price, the business has been able to maintain its policy of reduce prices to the consumer whilst at the same time ensuring that it has the funds and ability to invest in the new technology needed to maintain this advantage (Porter 2004, p36). In terms of the former, this can be evidenced by the fact that, as one of the current advertising campaigns states, there are able to maintain a price advantage over all of their competitors across a wide range of their products. Even given that, partially because of the business cycle, which can be said to have reached a level of some maturity (Hills and Jones 2007), together with the constraints that have been placed upon the industry by political, regulatory and legislative forces, the same low cost strategy is being maintained as the Tesco’s organisation seeks to enter and make an impact upon other market segments, for example fashion, home products and finance. For example, the current range of prices throughout all of these non-core products are still promoted using the organisation’s brand marketing message of â€Å"every little helps,† which indicates that the consumer will receive the same approach to low prices as has been offered within the grocery retail segment of the business revenue. However, as will be noted from their website[1], the business has taken info account the other factors that are important to the cusses of corporate strategy. For example, the human resources management policies are prominent in terms of the employee importance to the business, as is the relationship that the business is maintaining within both its suppliers and consumers, mainly through the increasing use of technology. Another import element of Tesco’s success has been its ability to manage change. As Porter (2004, p.21) suggests, different stages of the business life cycle can bring about change, as can the movement of the consumer demands and aspirations (Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.3). Tesco’s has respond quickly top both of these areas of change rapidly and in an efficient manner (Porter 2004, p.71 and Grant 2004, p.382). In the former instance, as indicated, it has moved into other market segments, and in terms of the latter, it has introduced new brands, including those that concentrate upon the environmental and health issues being raised by consumers and to address the issue of quality, where it now includes a â€Å"Tesco’s finest† range. However all of these moves have been performed whilst still maintaining a dedication to the core business strategy of cost leadership. As can be seen from the following graph, during the course of the past five years, as witness to the success of the Tesco corporate strategy, the business has consistently outperformed the FTSE 100 and the shares of its nearest UK quoted rival Sainsbury. The only time there was any near convergence of the two supermarket chains share value was earlier this year, and this was because of potential bidders showing an interest in Sainsbury, not related to their performance. Conclusion As has been shown during the course of this research, Tesco’s have consistently led the UK supermarket retailing sector of the business during the course of the past few years. This has been achieved by the implementation and maintenance of a successful corporate strategy, which has enabled the business to maintain a competitive advantage despite strong competition from other industry players. In reality this success, which has been evidenced from the financial performance, has been achieved by their turning this strategy into a unique business culture, which as Hofstede et al (2004) has created a situation where the business is seen to have, has resulted in the:- â€Å"†¦the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of the group or category of people from others† Anther major element of the organisation’s success is the effectiveness of the way in which they manage change, being able to respond appropriately and rapidly to anything that poses a threat to the business future. There is little doubt that as long as the management remain focus on these strategies, that the business will maintain its present marketplace position. References Collis, David J and Montgomery, Cynthia A (1998). Corporate Strategy: A resource Based Approach. McGraw Hill. US. BBC News (2006). Tesco’s market share still rising. Retrieved 19 November 2007 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4694974.stm Faulkner, David and Campbell, Andrew (2006). The Oxford Book of Strategy: A Strategy Overview and Competitive Strategy. New ed. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK. Grant, Robert (2004). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 5th Edition. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford, UK. Gregory, David (2005). Supermarkets and Standards. Presentation, UK. Retrieved 27 September 2007 from http://www.odi.org.uk/speeches/apgood/Agric_in_Africa_05/apgood_nov23/index.html Heavens, Andrew (2005). E-commerce soars by 88%. Times Online. Retrieved 25 September 2007 from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article417278.ece Hill, C.W.L. Jones, G.R. (2007). Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. (7th ed) Houghton Mifflin. Boston, US. Hofstede, G. Hofstede, G.J.(2004). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelly, Sean. (2005). Customer intelligence From Data to Dialogue. John Wiley Sons Ltd. Chichester, UK. Lucas, R. Lupton, B. Mathieson, H. (2007). Human Resources Management in an International Context. London: CIPD. Pettigrew, Andrew M. Thomas, Howard and Whittington, Richard (2002). The Handbook of Strategy and Management. Sage Publications Ltd. London, UK. Porter, Michael E (1985). Competitive Advantage. The Free Press. New York. US. Porter, Michael E (2004). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors. The Free Press. New ed. The Free Press. New York, US. Survey (2006). The UK’s Best Online Shopping Experience 2006. www.blastradius.com. Retrieved 26 September 2007 from http://www.blastradius.com/ukshopping2006.pdf Tesco (2007). Tesco at a glance. Retrieved 27 September from http://www.tescocorporate.com [1] http://www.tescocorporate.com/page.aspx?pointerid=3DB554FCAE344BD88EEEEFA63D71B831 Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Sloan (1996), in a determinative paper, added the accrual anomaly in the list of the market imperfections. Since then, academics have focused on the empirical investigation of the anomaly and the connection it has with other misspricing phenomena. The accrual anomaly is still at an embryonic stage and further research is needed to confirm the profitability of an accruals based strategy net of transaction costs. The current study investigates the accrual anomaly while taking into consideration a UK sample from 1991 to 2008. In addition, the predictive power of the Fama and French (1996) factors HML and SMB is being tested along with the industrial production growth, the dividend yield and the term structure of the interest rates. Chapter 1 Introduction Since the introduction of the random walk theory which formed the basis for the evolvement of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH hereafter) proposed by Fama (1965), the financial literature has made many advances but a piece of the puzzle that is still missing is whether the EMH holds. Undoubtedly, the aforementioned debate can be considered as one of the most fruitful and fast progressing financial debates of the last two decades. The Efficient Market Hypothesis has met many challenges regardless of which of its three forms are being investigated. However, the weak form and semi strong hypothesis have been the most controversial. A literally vast collection of academic papers discuss, explore and argue for phenomena that seem to reject that the financial markets are efficient. The famous label of â€Å"anomaly† has taken several forms. Many well-known anomalies such as the contrarian investment, the post announcement drift, the accruals anomaly and many others are just the beginning of an endless trip. There is absolutely no doubt that many more are going to be introduced and evidence for the ability for the investors to earn abnormal returns will be documented. Recently, academics try to expand their investigation on whether these well-documented anomalies are actually profitable due to several limitations (transaction costs etc) and whether the anomalies are connected. Many papers are exploring the connection of the anomalies with each other proposing the existence of a â€Å"principal† misspricing that is documented into several forms. The current study tries to look into the anomaly that was initially documented by Sloan (1996) and has been labelled as the â€Å"accrual anomaly†. The accrual anomaly can be characterised as being at an embryonic stage if the basis for comparison is the amount of publications and the dimensions of the anomaly that light has been shed on. The facts for the accrual anomaly suggest the existence of the opportunity for investors to earn abnormal returns by taking advantage of simple publicly available information. On the other hand, accruals comprising an accounting figure have been approached from different points of view with consequences visible in the results of the academic papers. Furthermore, Stark et al (2009) challenge the actual profitability of the accrual anomaly by simply taking transaction costs into consideration. The present paper employs an accrual strategy for a sample comprising of UK firms during 1991-2008. The aim is to empirically investigate the profitability of such strategies during the whole data sample. The methodology for the calculation of accruals is largely based on the paper of Hardouvelis et al (2009). Stark et al (2009) propose that the positive excess returns of the accruals’ strategy are based on the profitability of small stock. In order to investigate the aforementioned claim, the current study employs an additional strategy by constructing intersecting portfolios based on accruals and size. Finally, five variables are being investigating at the second part of the study for their predictive power on the excess returns of the constructed portfolios. The monumental paper of Fama and French (1996) documented an impressive performance of two constructed variables (the returns of portfolios named HML and SMB). In addition, the dividend yield of the FTSE all share index, the industrial production growth and the term structure of the interest rates will be investigated as they are considered as potential candidates for the prediction of stock returns. Chapter 2 Literature review 2.1. Introduction During the last century the financial world has offered many substantial advances. From the Portfolio Theory of Markowitz (1952) to the development of the Capital Asset Pricing Model of Sharpe (1964) and Lintner (1965), and from the market Efficient Market Hypothesis (hereafter EMH), developed by Fama (1965), to the recent literature that challenges both the CAPM and the EMH, they all seem to be a chain reaction.   The financial academic world aims to give difficult but important answers on whether markets are efficient and on how investors should allocate their funds. During the last two decades, many researchers have documented that there exist strategies that challenge the claim of the supporters of the efficient and complete markets. In this chapter, the effort will be focused on reviewing the financial literature from the birth of the idea of the EMH until the recent publications that confirm, reject or challenge it. In a determinative paper, Fama (1970) defined efficient markets and categorised them according to the type of information used by investors. Since then, the finance literature has offered a plethora of studies that aim to test or prove whether markets are indeed efficient or not. Well known anomalies such as the post announcement drift, the value-growth anomaly or the accruals anomaly have been the theme of many articles ever since. 2.2. Review of the value-growth anomaly We consider as helpful to review the literature for the value growth-anomaly since it was one of the first anomalies to be investigated in such an extent. In addition, the research for the value-growth anomaly has yielded a largely productive debate on whether the documented returns are due to higher risk or other source of mispricing. Basu (1970) concluded that stocks with high Earnings to Price ratio tend to outperform stocks with low E/P. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) documented that stocks that appear to have low price to a fundamental (book value, earnings, dividends etc) can outperform stocks with high price to a fundamental measure of value. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) initiated a productive period that aimed to settle the dispute on the EMH and investigate the causes of such â€Å"anomalies†. Thus, the aforementioned researchers sparked the debate not only on the market efficiency hypothesis but also on what are the sources for these phenomena. Fama and French (1992) supported the idea that certain stocks outperform their counterparts due to the larger risk that the investors bear. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) supported the idea that investors fail to correctly react to information that is available to them. The same idea was supported by many researchers such as Piotroski (2001). The latter also constructed a score in order to categorise stocks with high B/M that can yield positive abnormal returns (namely, the F Score). Additionally, the â€Å"market efficiency debate â€Å"drove behavioural finance to rise in popularity. The value-growth phenomenon has yielded many articles that aim to find evidence that a profitable strategy is feasible or trace the sources of these profits but, at the same time, the main approach adopted in each study varies significantly. Asness (1997) and Daniel and Titman (1999) examine the price momentum, while Lakonishok, Sougiannis and Chan (2001) examine the impact of the value of intangible assets on security returns. In addition, researchers have found evidence that the value-growth strategies tend to be successful worldwide, as their results suggest. To name a few, Chan, Hamao and Lakonishok (1991) focused on the Japanese market, Put and Veld (1995) based their research on France, Germany and the Netherlands and Gregory, Harris and Michou (2001) examined the UK stock market. It is worth mentioning that solely the evidence of such profitable strategies could be sufficient to draw the attention of practitioners, but academics are additionally interested in exploring the main cause of these arising opportunities as well as the relationship between the aforementioned phenomena (namely, the value growth, post announcement drift and the accrual anomaly). In general, two schools of thought have been developed: the one that supports the risk based explanation or, in other words, that stocks yield higher returns simply because they are riskier, and the one that supports that investors fail to recognise the correct signs included in the available information. 2.3. The accruals anomaly 2.3.1. Introduction of the accrual anomaly. Sloan (1996) documented that firms with high (low) accruals tend to earn negative (positive) returns in the following year. Based on this strategy, a profitable portfolio that has a long position on stocks with low accruals and short position on stocks with high accruals yields approximately 10% abnormal returns. According to Sloan (1996) investors tend to overreact to information on current earnings. Sloan’s (1996) seminar paper has been characterised as a productive work that initiated an interesting to follow debate during the last decade. It is worth noting that even the very recent literature on the accrual anomaly has not reached reconciling conclusion about the main causes of this particular phenomenon and about whether a trading strategy (net of transaction costs) based solely on the mispricing of accruals can be systematically profitable. At this point it is worth mentioning that the accruals have been found to be statistically significant and negative to predict future stock returns. On the other hand, there are papers that examine the accruals and its relations with the aggregate market. A simple example is the paper published by Hirshleifer, Hou and Teoh (2007), who aim to identify the relation of the accruals, if any, with the aggregate stock market. Their findings support that while the operating accruals have been found to be a statistical significant and a negative predictor of the stock returns, the relation with the market portfolio is strong and positive. They support that the sign of the accruals coefficient varies from industry to industry reaching a peek when the High Tech industry is taken into account (1.15), and taking a negative value for the Communication and Beer/Liquor industry. 2.3.2 Evidence for the international presence of the phenomenon. Researchers that investigated the accruals anomaly followed different approaches. At this point, it is worth noting that the evidence shows the accrual anomaly (although it was first found to be present in the US market) to exist worldwide. Leippold and Lohre (2008) examine the accrual anomaly within an international framework. The researchers document that the accrual anomaly is a fact for a plethora of markets. The contribution of the paper though, is the large and â€Å"complete† number of tests used, so that the possibility of pure randomness would be eliminated. Although, similar tests showed that momentum strategies can be profitable, recent methodologies used by the researchers and proposed by Romano and Wolf (2005) and Romano, Shaikh and Wolf (2008), suggest that the accruals anomaly can be partially â€Å"random†. It is noteworthy that the additional tests make the â€Å"anomaly† to fade out for almost all the samples apart from the markets of US, Australia and Denmark. Kaserer and Klingler (2008) examine how the over-reaction of the accrual information is connected with the accounting standards applied. The researchers constructed their sample by solely German firms and their findings document that the anomaly is present in Germany too. We should mention at this point that, interestingly, prior to 2000, that is prior to the adoption of the international accounting standards by Germany, the evidence did not support the existence of the accrual anomaly. However, during 2000-2002, Kaserer and Klingler (2008) found that the market overreacted to accrual information. Hence, the authors support the idea that an additional cause of the anomaly is the lack of legal mechanisms to enforce the preparation of the financial statements according to the international accounting standards which might gave the opportunity to the firms to â€Å"manipulate† their earnings. Another paper that focuses on the worldwide presence of the accruals mispricing is that of Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Rajgopal and Venkatachalam examined a total of 19 markets and found that the particular market anomaly exists in Australia, UK, Canada and the US. The authors’ primal goal was to identify the key drivers that can distinguish the markets where the anomaly was documented. Their evidence supports the idea that an accrual strategy is favoured in countries where there is a common law tradition, an extensive accrual accounting and a low concentration of firms’ ownership combined with weak shareholders’ rights. LaFond (2005) also considers the existence of the phenomenon within a global framework. The author’s findings support the notion that the accrual anomaly is present worldwide. In addition, LaFond argues that there is not a unique driving factor responsible for the phenomenon across the markets. It is worth noting that LaFond (2005) documented that this particular market imperfection is present in markets with diverse methodology of accrual accounting. Findings are against the idea that the accrual anomaly has any relation with the level of the shareholders protection or a common law tradition, as suggested by Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Finally, the author suggests that, if any, it is not the different method of accrual accounting (measurement issues) that favours or eliminates the accrual anomaly, but the accrual accounting itself. 2.3.3. Further Evidence for the roots of the accruals anomaly. Additionally, papers such as those of Thomas and Zang (2002) or Hribar (2000) decompose accruals into changes in different items (such as inventory, accounts payable etc). The findings catholically suggest that extreme changes in inventory affect returns the most. On the other hand, many articles connect the accruals with information used by investors, such as the behaviour of insiders or analysts, as the latter can be considered a major signal to the investors for a potential manipulation of the firms’ figures. In particular, Beneish and Vargus (2002) documented that firms with high accruals and significant insider selling have substantial negative returns.  Bradshaw (2001) and Barth and Hutton (2001) examine the analysts’ reports and their relation with the accruals anomaly. Their findings support that the analysts’ forecasting error tends to be larger for firms with high accruals, while analysts do not revise their forecasts when new information for accruals is available. Gu and Jain (2006) decompose accruals into changes in inventory, changes in accounts receivable and payable and depreciation expenses and try to identify the impact of the individual components to the anomaly. Consistent with Sloan (1996), Gu and Jain (2006) document that the accrual anomaly exists at the components level. The findings are important since Desai et al (2004) supported the connection of the accrual anomaly with a single variable (cash flows from operations). The researchers suggest that the results yielded by Desai et al (2004) were highly dependent on the methodology used and thus, suggested that the accruals anomaly is â€Å"alive and well†. Moreover, other articles try to confirm whether the anomaly is mainly caused by the wrong interpretation of the information contained in accruals. Ali et al. (2000), investigate whether the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis holds. Following the methodology introduced by Hand (1990) and Walther (1997), they found that for smaller firms, which are more likely to be followed by sophisticated investors, the relation between accruals and negative future returns is weaker compared to larger firms, which are followed by many analysts. Therefore, the researchers suggest that, if anything, the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis does not hold. In contrast to other market anomalies where findings suggest that the naà ¯ve investors hypothesis holds, the accruals anomaly is suggested as unique. Shi and Zhang (2007) investigate the earnings fixation hypothesis suggesting that the accruals anomaly is based on the investors â€Å"fixation† or â€Å"obsession† on earnings. Their primal hypothesis is that if investors are highly based on the reports about earnings and misprice the value-relevant earnings, then the returns should be dependent not only on the accruals but also on how the stock’s price changes according to reported earnings.  The researchers’ hypothesis is confirmed and finding support that an accrual strategy for firms whose stocks’ price highly fluctuates according to earnings yields a 37% annual return. Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) aim to examine two possible explanations for the accruals anomaly. Sloan (1996) proposed the fixation theory under which investors fixate on earnings and thus overvalue or undervalue information for accruals. Kothari et al. (2006) proposed the â€Å"agency theory of overvalued equity† according to which managers of overvalued firms try to prolong the period of this overvaluation which causes accruals to increase.  The paper uses the insider trading and other firm characteristics and tries to compare and contrast the two major explanations. Evidence produces bd Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) support the Kothari et al. (2006) explanation for the accrual anomaly. In a relatively different in motif paper, Wu and Zhang (2008) examine the role that the discount rates play in the accrual anomaly. They argue that if anything, the anomaly is not caused by irrationality from the investors’side but by the rationality of firms as it is proposed by the q-theory of investment. They argue that since the discount rates fall and more projects become profitable (which makes accruals to increase) future stock returns should decline. In other words, if the capital investment correctly adjusts to the current discount rates, the accruals should be negatively correlated with the future returns and positively correlated with the current returns. The evidence of Wu and Zhang (2008) support that the accruals are negatively correlated with the future stock returns but the contribution of the paper is in that they document that current stock returns are positively correlated with the accruals. 2.3.4. The relation of the accrual anomaly with other market imperfections. Many papers examine the relation between the accruals anomaly and other well-known anomalies such as the post announcement drift or the value-growth phenomenon. Desai et al. (2002), suggest that the â€Å"value-growth† anomaly and the accruals anomaly basically interact and conclude that the  ¨accruals strategy and the C/P reflect the same underlying phenomena†. Collins and Hribar (2000) suggest that there in no link between the accruals anomaly and the â€Å"PAD†, while Fairfield et al. (2001) support that the accruals anomaly is a sub-category of an anomaly caused by the mistaken interpretation of the information about growth by the investors. Cheng and Thomas (2006) examine the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broader anomaly (and more specifically, the value-glamour anomaly). Prior literature suggested that the operating cash flows to price ratio subordinates accruals in explaining future stock returns (Deshai et al (2004)). Their evidence suggests that the Operating CF to price ratio does not subsume neither abnormal nor total accruals in future announcement returns. This particular result does not confirm the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broad value-glamour anomaly. Atwood and Xie (2005) focus on the relation of the accrual anomaly and the mispricing of the special items first documented by Burgstahler, Jiambalvo and Shevlin (2002). Their hypothesis that the two phenomena are highly related is confirmed since the researchers found that special items and accruals are positively correlated. Additionally, further tests yielded results that suggest that the two imperfections are not distinct, while the special items have an impact on how the market misprices the accruals. Louis and Sun (2008) aim to assess the relation between the abnormal accrual anomaly and the post earnings announcement drift anomaly. The authors hypothesize that both anomalies are related to the management of the earnings and thus, they aim to find whether the two are closely connected. The findings are consistent with the primal hypothesis, as they found that â€Å"firms with large positive change of earnings that were least likely to have manipulated earning downwards† did not suffer from PEAD, while the same result was yielded for firms that had large negative change of earnings that were least likely to have managed their earnings upwards. As supported by many researchers the value-growth anomaly and accruals anomaly might be closely related or they might even be caused by the similar or even identical roots.  Fama and French (1996) support that the book to market factor captures the risk of default, while Khan (2008) suggests that in a similar pattern firms with low accruals have a larger possibility to bankrupt. Therefore, many researchers try to connect the two phenomena or to answer whether a strategy based on the accruals can offer more than what the value growth strategy offers. Hardouvelis, Papanastopoulos, Thomakos and Wang (2009) connect the two anomalies by assessing the profitability of interacting portfolios based on the accruals and value-growth measures. Their findings support that positive returns are obtainable and magnified when a long position is held for a portfolio with low accruals while combined with stocks that are characterised as high market to book. The difference of a risked-based explanation or an imperfection of the markets is considered to be a major debate, as it can challenge the market efficiency hypothesis. Many researchers, such as Fama and French (1996) noted that any potential profitable strategy is simply due to the higher risk that the investors have to bear by holding such portfolios. In a similar way, the profitable accruals strategies are considered as a compensation for a higher risk. Stocks that yield larger returns are compared or labelled as stocks of firms that are close to a financial distress. Khan (2000) aims to confirm or reject the risk-based explanation of the accruals anomaly. The researcher uses the ICAPM in order to test if the risk captured by the model can explain the anomaly first documented by Sloan (1996). It is worth noting that the descriptive statistics results for the sample used showed that firms that had low accruals also had high bankruptcy risk.  The contribution of the paper is that, by proposing a four factor model enhanced by recent asset pricing advances, it showed that a great portion of the mispricing that results in the accrual anomaly can be explained within a risk-based framework. Furthermore, Jeffrey Ng (2005) examines the risk based explanation for the accrual anomaly which proposes that accruals include information for financial distress. As proposed by many papers, the accrual anomaly is simply based on the fact that investors bare more risk and thus low accrual firms have positive abnormal returns. The researcher tries to examine how and if the abnormal returns of a portfolio which is short on low accruals stocks and long on high accrual firms changes when controlling for distress risk. Evidence supports that at least a part of the abnormal returns are a compensation for bearing additional risk. Finally, the results support that the big portion of the high abnormal returns of the accrual strategy used in the particular paper is due to stocks that have high distress risk. 2.3.5. The accruals anomaly and its relation with firms’ characteristics. A noteworthy part of the academic literature examines the existence of some key characteristics or drivers that are highly correlated with the accruals anomaly. Many researchers have published papers that aim to identify the impact of firm characteristics such as the size of the firm, characteristics that belong to the broader environment of the firms such as the accounting standards or the power of the minority shareholders. Zhang (2007) investigates whether the accrual anomaly varies cross-sectionally while being related with firms’ specific characteristics. The researcher primarily aims to explain which the main reason for the accrual anomaly is. As Zhang (2007) mentions, Sloan (1996) attributes the accrual anomaly to the overestimation of the persistence of accruals by investors, while Fairfield (2003) argues that the accrual anomaly is a â€Å"special case of a wider anomaly based on growth†. The evidence supports the researcher’s hypothesis that characteristics such as the covariance of the employee growth with the accruals have an impact on the future stock returns. Finally, Zhang (2007) documents that that accruals co-vary with investment in fixed assets and external financing. Louis, Robinson and Sbaraglia (2006) examine whether the non-disclosure of accruals information can have an impact on the accruals anomaly. The researchers, dividing their sample into firms that disclose accruals information on the earnings announcement and firms that do not, investigate whether there exists accruals’ mispricing. The evidence supports that for firms that disclose accruals information, the market manages to correctly understand the discretionary part of the change of the earnings. On the contrary, firms that do not disclose accruals information are found to experience â€Å"a correction† on their stock price. Chambers and Payne’s (2008) primal aim is to examine the relation of the accrual anomaly and the auditing quality. The researchers’ hypothesis is that the accruals mispricing is related with the quality of auditing.  Additionally, their findings support that the stock prices do not reflect the accruals persistence characterising the lower-quality audit firms. Finally, their empirical work finds that the returns are greater for the lower-quality audit portfolio of firms. Palmon, Sudit and Yezegel (2008) examine the relation of the accruals mispricing and the company size. Evidence shows that company size affects the returns and, as the researchers documented, the negative abnormal returns are mostly due to larger firms while the positive abnormal returns come from the relatively small firms. Particularly, as the strategy with the highest profits they found the one that had a short position in the largest-top-accrual decile and a long position in the smallest-low-accrual decile. Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) examine the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the FAS 146 and how these two changes affected the accrual anomaly. FAS 146 (liabilities are recognized only when they are incurred) reduced the company’s ability to â€Å"manipulate† earnings while the SOX aims to enhance the credibility of the financial statements. The evidence recognises a change on how the market conceives information about restructurings charges. The authors propose that a possible explanation is that before the introduction of SOX and the FAS 146, the market was reluctant due to the ability of the firms to manage earnings. Finally, Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) document that post to the FAS 146 and the SOX act, low accrual portfolios do not generate positive abnormal returns. 2.4. The applications of the accruals phenomenon and reasons why it is not arbitraged away. The importance of the analysis of the anomalies is substantial for two reasons. Firstly, the profitability of a costless strategy challenges the EMH, especially if the strategy is based on bearing no additional risk. Secondly, managers’ incentives to manipulate the financial statements and consequently the accruals would be obvious if a profitable strategy based on such widely available information existed. Chen and Cheng (2002) find that the managers’ incentive to record abnormal accruals is highly correlated with the accrual anomaly. The hypothesis of the researchers, which their findings support, was that the investors fail to detect when the managers aim to record abnormal accruals and that may contribute to the accruals anomaly. Richardson’s (2000) main objective is to examine whether the information contained in the accruals is utilized by short sellers. As the researcher mentions, previous articles such as that of Teoh and Wong (1999) found that sell side analysts were unable to correctly â€Å"exploit† the information contained in accruals for future returns. Richardson suggests that short sellers are considered as sophisticated enough to utilize the accruals information. Findings confirm previous work, such as that of Sloan (2000), who suggests that even short sellers do not correctly utilize the information contained into accruals. Ali, Chen, Yao and Yu (2007) examine whether and how equity funds benefit from the accrual anomaly by taking long position into low accruals firms. The researchers aim to identify how exposed are the equity firms to such a well known anomaly and what characteristics these funds share. By constructing a measure called â€Å"accruals investing measure† (AIM), they try to document the portion of the low accruals firms into the actively managed funds. The evidence shows that generally funds are not widely exposed to low accruals firms but when they do so, they have an average of 2.83% annual return. It is worth noting that the annual return is net of transaction costs. Finally, the side-effects of high volatility in returns and in fund flows of the equity funds that are partially based on the accrual anomaly might be the reason behind the reluctance of the managers. Soares and Stark (2009) used UK firms to test whether a profitable accrual strategy is feasible net of transactions costs. Their findings support that indeed the accrual anomaly is present in the UK market. The authors suggest that for such a strategy to be profitable, someone is required to trade on firms with small market capitalization. They also suggest that although the accruals’ mispricing seems to exist also in the UK, the transaction costs limit the profits to such an extent that the accrual anomaly could be difficult characterised as a challenge to the semi strong form of the efficient market hypothesis. Finally, we should not neglect to mention two papers that discourse on why the markets do not simply correct the accruals anomaly. According to the classical theory, markets are so imperfect that can produce the incentive to the market to correct the â€Å"anomalies† at any point of time. Mashruwala, Rajgopal and Shevlin (2006) examined the transactions costs and the idiosyncratic risk as possible reasons of why the accrual anomaly is not arbitraged away. The researchers aimed to investigate why the market does not correct the anomaly, but also to identify whether the low accruals firms are riskier. The paper poses the question of what stops the informed investors from taking long positions into profitable stocks according to the accrual anomaly so that they can arbitrage it away. The paper examines the practical difficulty of finding substitutes so that the risk can be minimized and its relation with the accrual anomaly. Additionally, the paper investigates the transaction co sts and findings support that according to the accrual anomaly, the profitable stocks tend to be the ones with low stock prices and low trading volume. Lev and Nissim (2004) focus on the persistence of the accr

The Influence Of Personal Experiences In Emily Dickinsons Poetry Essay

The Influence of Personal Experiences In Emily Dickinson's Poetry   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  None of Emily Dickinson's readers has met the woman who lived and died in Amherst, Massachusetts more than a century ago, yet most of those same readers feel as if they know her closely. Her reclusive life made understanding her quite difficult. However, taking a close look at her verses, one can learn a great deal about this remarkable woman. The poetry of Emily Dickinson delves deep into her mind, exposing her personal experiences and their influence on her thoughts about religion, love, and death. By examining her life some, and reading her poetry in a certain light, one can see an obvious autobiographical connection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All the beliefs and emotions Emily Dickinson wrote about were based, in one way or another, on the same aspect of her upbringing, which was religion. During her childhood, life in Amherst was based strongly upon religion and Puritan values. The distinctive Puritan virtues of simplicity, austerity, hard work, and denial of flesh, were ever-present disciplines in Emily's life (Sewall 22). Despite her stubborn denials to be labeled, she was very much of a â€Å"New Englander†. Cynthia Griffen Wolff, author of Emily Dickinson, points out that Emily â€Å"knew every line of the Bible intimately, quoted from it extensively, and referred to it many more times than she referred to any other work... yet in this regard she was not unusual by Amherst's standards† (72). The most prominent figure of religious virtues in her life was her father, Edward Dickinson. Reading the Bible to his children and speaking in town of religious ethics were daily events in his life. At home, he tried to raise his children in the rigorous religion of their ancestors, however his methods appeared quite harsh. People who knew the Dickinsons referred to Edward as a â€Å"severe, latter- day Puritan, a power-minded tyrant...†, and his home was often depicted as a â€Å" gloomy prison† (Sewall 8). In fact, Emily's fear and awe of him seemed to dominate her life. Although he read aloud from his Bible, conducted prayer service in his home daily, and he educated his children in a strict Puritan way, he himself was not quite a believer. He delayed conversion until well into middle age, â€Å"...displayed no mark of singular devotion, defined his vocation in terms of business, an... ...ath - distancing it, coming to terms with it, and finding no fear in it† (Sewall 665).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The personal experiences of Emily Dickinson had a great influence on her poetry. Through her verses we can understand and relate to her much more easily. Without them, her withdrawal from society would have kept her unknown. Once she wrote:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is my letter to the World   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  That never wrote to Me -   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The simple News that Nature told -   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With tender Majesty   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Her Message is committed   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To Hands I cannot see -   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For love of Her - Sweet - countrymen -   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Judge tenderly - of Me It seems fairly obvious that Emily Dickinson knew that someday her poems would be found and would be used as a window into her thoughts.