Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

Business Ethics - Essay Example Besides financial losses for the business, other problems such as lawsuits and market share decrease may be witnessed (Baumhart, R. 1968). Ethical Problems Worldwide Corporate ethical issues have not been confined to the United States. 80% of companies worldwide suffered business fraud in the years between 2004 and 2007. Parmalat, a dairy company in Italy filed for bankruptcy in 2003 because of fraudulent accounting issues. Founder Calisto Tanzi was found guilty of fraud in 2010 and sentenced to prison for eighteen years. The company reported earnings every year but never earned any earnings. Conrad Black, a former chairman of Hollinger International, was found guilty in the 2007 of embezzling funds of the media company’s shareholders by back-dating stock options (Baumhart, R. 1968). Millions of dollars was stolen through falsified documents. In Sweden top management of the insurance business Skandia engaged in corruption awarding themselves large bonuses in excess of $350 mil lion, some of which were never disclosed. This action made Shareholders to be extremely unhappy with the losses and executive corruption. The prices of shares in the company dropped drastically (Helin and Sandstrom2007). The fines levied against investment banks and brokerage firms in 2003 did not stop investment banks such as Lehman Brothers from closure five years later over undervalued mortgage-backed securities. Banks got into a new part of finance that escaped banking rules through bundling bad mortgages into securities (Lewis2010). The United States experienced the largest financial disaster since the great depression was felt around the world. Even though Lehman Brothers assets exceeded $600 billion, it collapsed due to their deep connection with derivatives, this enabled investment banks to shift money from one company to another. The Ethics of U.S. Bankers The ethics of banks have been measured frequently by the Gallup Polls. Though in 1988 polls that was conducted during t he savings and loan crisis, there was a drop in number of people rating the banker’s ethics as high or very high by 12%. There was a further drop from 23 % in the poll taken in 2008 to 19 % in the following year. This was the lowest record for the profession in the banking industry. In 2009 polls, 33 % of respondents rated the ethics of bankers as ‘low or very low’. This indicated a level of distrust and also poor ethics in the US banking industry. From the figures, it is a clear indication that the blame was pointed to the bankers for the financial crises. The public felt that the financial problems were due to bad ethics in the banking sector. Bankers have been criticized for issuing risky loans but according to (Lewis 2010), he argues that it is too crude to blame the financial crisis on ethics of bankers. According to Graafland and van deVen (2011) the three areas where of U.S. government has failed include encouraging the credit extension in the real estate market, failure by the government to keep a strong financial policy, and finally failure to regulate and monitor the markets. According to Graafland and van deVen there should be an improved sense of professionalism and duty to the public is needed. When an organization or industry loses its authenticity, the benefit of doubt is also lost. This is according to Kopeck Berenbeim, R. (1987). The Corruption Perception Index The corruption perception index (CPI) can also be used to

Paper 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Paper 3 - Assignment Example Friedman tries to explain that targeted sanctions were used by the Greek Empire to address territorial conflicts. The aim was to pressure the enemy or political foes to change tactics.Friedman analyzes the evolution of politically motivated sanctions in the ancient Greeks. Also, he also explains that there has been a lengthy history of nations blockading their opponents to force a change in behavior. Friedman concludes that sanctions have become a new political tool in the 20th century since they are currently active compared to the 2,400 years ago as a result of several changes in civilization and new appearance in political arena as compared to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. European pacifists enacted a series of conferences in the early 20th century in order to discuss how to enforce the decisions of the proposed International System of the arbitration. This was a regulation body handling any aspect of dispute resolutions. Henri La Fontaine, Belgian International law professor persuaded delegates to approve peaceful sanctions through acquiring the legal terms from the nations who had better governance. As a result, delegates from member countries adopted the resolution as a solution to national conflicts. However, French representatives endorsed a treaty to isolate countries in times of war. The French officials described the resolutions as a diplomatic expression. In 2011, the US and the United Nations enforced political, economic and territorial sanctions against the Libyan president. The mission of the enforcement was to isolate the Libyan president and his allies. During the sanctions in Libya, struggles for bank software to recognize the various s pending of the Librarian president was to be ascertained. However, the sanctions could not achieve their objectives because of technical flaws. Between 2011 and 2012, the US imposed

Constitutional & Administrative Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Constitutional & Administrative Law - Essay Example Political scientists refer to this law as "Organic", due to the fact that it has been "evolving" over time from its medieval origins. It has been observed that, this flexibility makes it responsive to political and social change, especially through political principles expressed in conventions. Until recently there was no modern statute or document that attempted to codify the rights of citizens in the UK, despite the fact that there is the tradition of freedom of speech and other rights in the UK, common law precedents being the main source of "rights". Common law has been remedied in recent years, with the incorporation of some important written sources, such as European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights. These laws has formally granted the citizens of UK with rights that were previously lacking in the legal system. These sources are enacted in the European Communities Act 1972 and Human Rights Act 1998, respectively. Different opinions has come up from people on different walks of life on these changes. Some argue that these developments, and the Labour government's reforms from 1997, have improved the constitution, despite the lack of a central, written, entrenched constitutional document. Labour's reform programme has conducted many reforms, including the Human Rights Act, devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, partial reform of the House of Lords and a Freedom of Information Act. Parliamentary Sovereignty, is often called as a particularly elusive concept, is the paramount Principle in the United Kingdom's unwritten constitution and Dicey's (Dicey, AV, An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution) legal theory holds that, "Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatever"; and that "no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament." Sir William Wade (Wade HWR, "The Basis of Legal Sovereignty") takes the definition further by stating that: "there is one and only one, limit to Parliament's legal power: it cannot detract from its own continuing sovereignty." (Jennings, I, (1959), The Law and the Constitution, 5thedn, chapter 4) In the recent times, the political supremacy of Parliament in UK has been affected by membership of international organisations such as NATO and the IMF, the legal sovereignty, in that Parliament alone makes the law, has notionally, remained absolute. The introduction of the European Communities Act 1972 (ECA 1972) and the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) into our domestic law, has to a large extent raised questions about the consequences on that 'absolute' legal sovereignty. Here let us consider the constitutional implications of both these Acts and analyse their impact on the principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty. With the inclusion of UK in the European Community, by virtue of the Treaty of Accession in 1972, it so happened that, Parliament recognised that as a condition of membership, thereby, it had necessarily limited its own sovereign authority by effectively 'pooling sovereignty' with the other Member states.( Costa v ENEL and Amministrazione delle Finanze dello

Reducing Errors by Improving Pain Medication Knowledge Thesis Proposal

Reducing Errors by Improving Pain Medication Knowledge - Thesis Proposal Example Therefore, it is necessary for the post-anesthesia care unit nurse to be familiar with these medications such that medication errors or overdoses may be avoided. In order to prepare a nurse to be adequate in the PACU, proper procedure should be reviewed with regards to these medications so that he or she is well-prepared to face challenges in pain management, which include: being able to manage the control of pain with dilaudid and fentanyl, being able to alleviate loneliness or other psychological challenges of the patient; and helping the family to be supportive of the patient in the post-anesthesia care unit. Area I: The Problem and its Environmental Context The specific problem is that the subject of this study works in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. The Unit has a staff of 60 RN's who are certified nurses at levels I, II, and III. At times the Unit will receive patients that have received medications for specific reasons or they have received pain medications for post-surgery purposes. Typically, the patients have received both fentanyl (a short-acting pain medication) and dilaudid (long-acting) pain medication. At times the anesthesiologist will not report when they gave the last dose of pain medication. The medication has been administered early in some cases, or late in the case of the patient having been in the operating room. However, this information is documented on the anesthesia work sheet. The Unit receives the patient from the operating room (OR) in the PACU and the patient may screaming or saying they are in pain. Also, at times they are not breathing very well at all and need stimulation, oral...However, this information is documented on the anesthesia work sheet. The Unit receives the patient from the operating room (OR) in the PACU and the patient may screaming or saying they are in pain. Also, at times they are not breathing very well at all and need stimulation, oral airways, nasal airways, and Narcan. Nurses tend to give a lot of dilaudid in five-minute increments per the anesthesia orders, not knowing it peaks in one hour. It is difficult to determine where patients are in the opioid cycle as they may be still sedated from anesthesia and not the pain meds. Thus, the patients may have too much dilaudid or fentanyl on board upon arrival to the PACU. Sometimes the best choice is to use the fentanyl-which is short-acting and has a peak time of 30 minutes and small amounts of the dilaudid. If a nurse gives a patient too much of either fentanyl or dilaudid, the patient may stop breathing or have complications which is considered a medication error and/or overdose. Managing pain medication in the PACU based on assessment is an art. It takes experience, great assessment skills, and knowing one's medications. Administering too much may slow the patient's breathing down and narcan may be needed to be given.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cruel and Unusual Punishment - Essay Example Despite widespread outcry on the cruelty associated with the death penalty, many countries around the globes still practice it and view it as a perfectly legal form of extreme punishment. Whether to uphold or abolish the death penalty has been a controversial subject in many societies, in the world. This is because of the divergent views that different people have based on phenomenon such as culture, political ideology and religion. The United Nations, for example, has in recent times adopted resolutions though non binding, advocating for the abolishment of executions giving emphasis on the sanctity of life. The European Union also outlaws the practice of capital punishment in its area of jurisdiction through the second article of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. This has proved to be ineffective since countries like the Unites States, Indonesia, India and China, which hold a large part of the global population, still practice capital punishment (Mandery 45). Accordi ng to Amnesty International, two nations each year have abolished capital punishment in their criminal justice systems since 1976. Counties such as Germany, Australia and Spain strongly against the practice of capital punishment regardless of the crime committed. Capital punishment dates as far back as 8th Century B.C in Babylon, where twenty five different crimes were punishable by death. The Hittite code of the 14th Century B.C also embraced capital punishment. Most astonishing of them all was the draconian Athens code of the 7th Century B.C, which set out death as punishment for all crimes. In early civilizations, the death penalty got executed thorough drowning, firing squads, impalement, lynching, decapitation and crucifixion. In present day, capital punishment gets executed through the use of lethal injection, firing squads, lethal gas, hanging and electrocution (Radelet 46). The death penalty in the Unites States has been an issue of insurmountable concern for a long time. Th e precedence of capital punishment in Americas came as a result of British influence on the then colony. Though capital punishment had been occurring, the first recorded execution took place in Virginia in 1608. The early 20th Century marked the resurgence in the execution of the death penalty. The 1930s marked the decade with the largest number of executions in the history of America. In the 1950s, the public began to voice their opposition to capital punishment. This led to a drop in the number of executions. In the 1960s, the legality of capital punishment got challenged. Before 1960, the eighth, fifth and fourteen amendments were interpreted as having endorsed the death penalty. It was later suggested that the death penalty was unusual and cruel, and hence unconstitutional in accordance to the Eighth Amendment (Mandery 77). In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled that the 8th Amendment had an evolving standard of decency which marked progress of a society that was coming of age. This n ewly found decency no longer had room for the death penalty. As a result, the Supreme Court began refining the administration of the death penalty by ensuring that it was practiced with little or no pain inflicted. Whereas the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States restrains the government from cruel and unusual punishments, the ambiguity of the term ‘cruel and unusual’ has over the years fuelled the controversy about the constitutionality of capital p

Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies Essay - 3

Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies - Essay Example The company is well known for establishing product leadership in various grounds like skin care, house care etc. It employs almost 125000 employs and sells almost two hundred brands or more across the globe. Procter & Gamble has developed greater than 28 technical centers around the world (PG-Global, 2012). The company has included market research procedure for taking strategic decision while expanding its business in the market (Kotler, 2009; Silverstein, 1997). It has been successful in extending business operations extensively and achieved high revenue in this time period. The study will perform Procter & Gamble’s strategic analysis in the following manner: 1) Analyzing the business level strategy of the company. 2) Analyzing the corporate level strategy of the company. 3) Analyzing its competitive environment. 1) Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion. The SWOT analysis of Procter & Gamble will help in understanding its business level strategy (Graul, et al., 2006). It will help in realizing the alignment related to the organizational issues (Ansoff, 1965; Dickson, 2002; Valentin, 2001; Panagiotou, 2003). This will help to formulate different strategies for overcoming the threats and weaknesses (Porter, 1991). Strengths The company utilizes the economies of scale for reducing the production cost and offering competitive prices, for the products, to its customers. Procter & Gamble has high brand reputation among the customers because of the prolonged business operations in the industry. The company makes high investment in the research and development for developing quality products. Weaknesses The financial statement analysis of Procter & Gamble shows that the cash flow of the company is shrinking. Its domestic market is saturated due to the e xistence of a large number of competitors. The biggest competitor of Procter & Gamble i.e. Unilever is competing highly in the detergent segment because of which the company is being forced to maintain competitive pricing strategy. The company’s cost structure is increasing because of increasing operating structure. The company adopted retrenchment strategy in order to perform cost minimization. Opportunities There is huge scope or opportunity of the company to extend its product line by expansion of its portfolio in the beauty and health segment. The expansion of its product portfolio will help in increasing its market share as well as number of customers. Procter & Gamble has low market share in the developing countries like India, China, and Brazil etc. It has the opportunity to perform market penetration in these regions. Its domestic retail market has an increasing growth trend from past few years which provides opportunity to the company to cater the needs and demands o f the customers here. Threats In the developing market sector of the business operations of Procter & Gamble the local players are giving tough competition to the company and the developed market segment is being saturated gradually because of the existence and entry of large number of multinational companies. The cost associated with the value chain has increased gradually which has made it tough for the company to achieve economies of scale. Recommended Strategy for long term success Procter & Gamble

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY OF 3 INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCERS

BIOGRAPHICAL OF 3 INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCERS - Essay Example He was one of those famous personalities who dropped out the university due to poor grades! This could be well judged by his saying, Mentoring relationship is considered as a main entity for famous personalities who make them get a competitive edge. Same with case of film industry, every producer, director etc. needs a mentor. Allen’s mentor is Ingmar Bergman who is always there to offer him support, guidance and inspiration. Woody Allen was personally inspired by famous characters such as Charlie Chaplin, Fellini and Bergman. His most of the movies were the result of his motivation gained through New York City and European cinema. His earlier profession started when he began writing scripts for â€Å"the Ed Sullivan show, the tonight show and Caesar’s Hour†. His career as a â€Å"stand-up comedian† started in 1960. Through his unique style of writing and acting he soon gain fame as a popular comedian on screen and stage both (Woody Allen). His debut film as director released in 1966 What’s Up Tiger Lily? After that various movies directed by him include Take the money and run, followed by his hit movies Annie Hall, the purple rose of Cairo, Match Point and Hannah and her sisters. These romantic-comedies won academy awards. Later on, 1970s was the era of his personal movies which got extended to dark comedic suspense movies in 1990s. He managed secured funding through various financial support offered through BBC, his filming locations such as New York, United Kingdom and by casting famous rich personalities in his movies like France’s first lady Carla Bruni. Allen’s artistic philosophies had many roots. He always thought about how far we people know, understand what we knew, sure enough of what we know and consider them knowing worthwhile! He always highlighted the facts that people are afraid to share or expose to others. He also focused on the dark secrets of nature