Internal Control System. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) Essay

Internal Control System. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) - Essay Example I believe that one of the most important aspects of a control system is the risk assessment. If a company does not assess a particular risk adequately the firm will not establish adequate internal controls because the problem was never identified. Risk assessment serves as a preventive measure that can be used to create an adequate plan of attack to deal with a problem. In the famous Enron scandal the lack an internal control system allowed Fay, Skilling, and Fastow to collude and steal millions of dollars. 2. When an internal control mechanism is evaluated in phases the accountants can better segment the problematic areas of the system. If for instance deficiencies are found in the monitoring phase; the company can inject money and resources to attempt to fix the problem. It is easier to perform micro evaluations than to evaluate a system as a whole. Clearly identifiable phases create added reliability in the system. Looking at the end results of the accounting cycle or at the finan cial statements is not the best way to detect fraud. About 10 years ago the Enron Corporation got away with accounting murder when they inflated their earnings by one billion in 2000 when in reality the firm did not have any profits. A good internal control system could have prevented this scandal from ever occurring. I agree with you that some companies do not have well defined activities. One of the reasons that this occurs is due to budgetary constraints. Implementing control mechanisms is quite expensive. It is estimated that Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act costs between $1 to 3 million to implement yearly. I think that despite the fact that internal control mechanism can be expensive sometimes it is better to assume the expenses than to pay the consequences. Employee theft can be prevented by placing cameras in the warehouse where inventory is kept. Another technological innovation that can be used to protect inventory is the use of RFID tags. RFID tags allow a company to track the movement of merchandise. These systems are the long term solution to substitute the current scanner system used at the majority of retail stores. 4. I agree with you that the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) requires that companies implement all the components of an internal control mechanism. The Sarbanes Oxley Act goes a step further in its requirement of internal controls. All public companies must include within the annual report a section dedicated to reporting the internal controls of the firm. I think that SOX was a tremendous idea, despite the high implementation costs. Nobody wants to go back to a business environment in which record bankruptcies were occurring largely due to accounting misbehavior. 5. I tend to agree with you that the five components of internal control are universal. As you mentioned the environment is key to the effectiveness of an internal control. As you mentioned in your response the environment of a company is largely controlled by the managerial staff. Companies that are corrupt often have leaders that allow that type of unethical behavior. I have heard of companies that have been turn into unethical companies because they let external factors such as foreign cultures cloud their judgment. If for a company it is unethical to accept a bribe in the United States, the rules should not change just because you are doing business in China. 6. I think that the lack of any of the five components automatically makes a system weaker from the perspective of how good the system could be. Just because one component of the internal control is missing does not mean that that system is weaker than another company’s system that includes all five components. For instance a company may not have a necessity to monitor due to the fact that the firm has few

HSBC BANK (Motivation, Recruitment and Selection, Culture, Learning Assignment

HSBC BANK (Motivation, Recruitment and Selection, Culture, Learning and Development, Change Management) - Assignment Example This write up is an analytical paper that takes into concern the HSBC Holding Plc as one of the most reputed multinational banking and monetary service presenter, operating successfully from 1991. Being headquartered in London, it offers varied types of banking and financial services in the entire globe as compared to others. In a very time period, it expanded its wings in almost 90 countries in, North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and South America and many others that amplified its total assets by $2.693 trillion by the end of 2012. Moreover, due to the presence of wide range of customer bases, the operating income of HSBC Holding Plc increased by US$ 22.6 billion and total equity improved by US$ 175.2 billion by 2012. Such type of popularity and competitive position is attained by HSBC Holding Plc due to its remarkable services like consumer banking, investment banking, mortgage, private banking, credit cards, and many others. Due to these underlining reason the organization of HS BC Holding Plc is recognised as the sixth renowned financial institution by another magazine, Forbes. However, the entire prosperity and popularity of the organization of HSBC Holding Plc is due to its highly talented, skilled and motivated human resources. It is mainly due to its remarkable human resource policies and strategies that enhanced the inner morale of the employees and helped in improvement of the profit margin of the organization.

Marketing case study (analysis) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing case study (analysis) - Essay Example If I were Mrs. Mead, what should I do? Can my thoughts and opinion prevail over my salespeople’s views of market strategy which is only to deal with customers when they ask questions? The first question that I need to ask is: do I need to change employees and the sales force of my business? The answer to this is yes and no. Yes, because we really have to look on the quality of people that we can have in our business, aside from the quantity. In the case of Mrs. Mead’s business establishment, it seems there needs some realignment. Some managerial position has to be filled in. She doesn’t need to be an all-around manager-owner of the store. She can hire another qualified manager or supervisor, or can choose from among her trusted employees. Firth (2002) discusses in his book the subjects of â€Å"life and work† and organizational change. He cites Daryl R. Coner, considered one of the leading authorities on the subject of organization change and who has taken his learning to the boardrooms of such giants as Mobil Oil, JC Penney, Pepsico-Cola, Levi-Strauss and AT, and consulted organizations and governments. He recommends Coner’s â€Å"stance is to demystify the uncertainties of the human change with clear processes and vivid concepts† (Firth 74). Let us consider Mrs. Mead’s store as a business that needs organizational change. She could be missing some of the basics of organizational change. Her people need motivations and a change of attitude towards work and the organization they belong. To analyze more of Mrs. Mead’s situation, her store is located on the outskirts of the city. Why should this be in the outskirts? This means that the establishment is not strategically located. She must find a good location for her store where she can display the best of her products. And then the question: Why is Mrs. Mead targeting only the blue collar workers market? Can she not upgrade or change to some higher stratum like the white collar

How does the woman consumer get affected by the fashion inner store Essay

How does the woman consumer get affected by the fashion inner store environment - Essay Example Women take pride in their ability to shop prudently and well. They are still the primary buyer in the American market place.(41) Unlike their male counterparts, women make purchasing decisions in a more complex, roundabout way. The fashion store’s stand is to help women consumers when they need help, and lay low when they don’t; to let their buying minds complete the sale by giving them space and information to match the beautiful design of the products in the store.(25) Given the above background, let us examine the various factors that affect women consumers in the fashion store’s inner environment. Atmospherics The fashion store’s layout is normally innovative. Victor Gruen is accredited with conceiving an ideal environment for shopping. (Rifkin, 1996, pg 263).(1) Rather than employing straight lines, as would seem the obvious choice, subtle gradients of angling veer women consumers down the pathways, especially in the fast selling items areas. Along with climate control, a lack of clocks, and centrally controlled lighting, the consumer loses all sense of direction, time of day and duration of her stay.

The European Debt Crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The European Debt Crisis - Research Paper Example The crisis accentuated the economic interdependence of the EU, as it highlighted the deficiency in the Eurozone’s political integration which was vital for the provision of a well-harmonized and effectual financial response. To ease the debt crisis and improve economic status, EU’s richest members encouraged the most highly indebted EU members to cut down on government expenditures and programs and to increase their taxes. Despite efforts, market instability continued until the end of 2011, thus questioning the future of the euro (Alessi). This paper will discuss the European debt crisis and the mitigation measures implemented to resolve the issues. The European Debt Crisis The  Maastricht Treaty outlined the conditions for European nations aiming to be a eurozone member by organizing its finances through guaranteeing an annual inflation not exceeding 1.5%; maintaining finance debits up to 3% of GDP; and keeping a debt-to-GDP ratio below 60%. The European nations agre ed to tighten budgets by decreasing public expenditures and increasing tariffs. However, the enforcement of the EU conditions was not strictly implemented (Wignall and Slovik). Since the 1930s, the European Union was in serious economic downturn with actual GDP expected to plummet by 4% in 2009, the biggest decline ever recorded in the EU history. While indications of improvement have been observed, economic revival stays improbable. The response of the EU to the recession had been fast. Besides the intervention to steady and restructure the banking sector, the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) was commenced in 2008 for re-establishing reliance and reinforcing demand by increasing the economy’s purchasing power through balanced tactical financial schemes and measures that would support the business and employment sectors. The entire economic incentive and the outcomes of regulated fiscal stabilizers total 5 percent of European GDP (â€Å"Economic Crisis in Europe: Cause s, Consequences and Responses†). The execution of crisis emergency measures by European members momentarily sustained the labor markets and heightened investments in the public infrastructure companies. To guarantee the economic resurgence and to continue the European nations’ future development possibilities, the focus must change from temporary demand administration to a long-term supply management, otherwise, it could hamper EU’s reformation or build damaging deformations to the Internal Market (â€Å"Economic Crisis in Europe: Causes, Consequences and Responses†). European Crisis Mitigation Measures In 2010, the leading European nations implemented an emergency protocol to cease the mounting fiscal market strains arising from distress about the financial recovery of indebted European nations (Ahearn et al). Financial Aid to Greece, Portugal, and Ireland In 2009, existing alarms concerning the sustainability of household finances in some Eurozone nation s started when the sentiments of financiers turned against Greece. Over the past ten years, Greece had loaned deeply in the global capital markets to sustain soaring government expenses, banking system inflexibilities, and deteriorating competitiveness (Nelson). Access to funds at minimal interest rates and poor imposition of EU regulations regarding debit limits facilitated the onset of today’s European sovereign debt dilemma (Nelson et al). Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have been given considerable financial supports by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Eurozone and EU monetary

Are behaviourist principles still relevant in contemporary classrooms Essay

Are behaviourist principles still relevant in contemporary classrooms - Essay Example However, criticism of the behaviorist principles has surfaced with some psychologist expressing the weakness of this procedure of learning in the modern school environment. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate whether or not the behaviorist principles are still relevant in the contemporary classroom. The origin of the behaviorist principles is dated back to the 20th century when psychologist such as Pavlov conducted experimental research to investigate the stimulation of specific human behavior. Pavlov conditioned his test dog by providing food at a specific time during the day, after ringing a bell, and observing its reaction at that particular time of the day. After sometime, Pavlov observed that the dog would produce suggestive sound and salivate immediately after the bell at exactly the time that he served it with food and in turn concluded that the dog had associated the bell with food. Theorists such as Watson and Skinner have also supported the idea of Pavlov by expressing their opinion regarding development of personal human behavior (Shield, p. 13). The idea of these scholars is that it is possible to stimulate observable human behavior by introducing a conditional environment. ... The principles of behaviorism are based on classical and operant conditionings which may philosopher have come to regard as the roots of these principles. In classical conditioning, for instance in Pavlov experiment, a stimulus, in this case a bell, is used to trigger a natural response from a human being (Camp &Doolittle, p. 12). The impact of this kind of conditioning is that a trigger, not usually associated with a particular natural response is learnt by a human being through experience and becomes associated with some natural phenomenon. On the other hand, operant conditioning relies on the reinforcement of a particular response to a particular stimulus in, which can be termed as an enhancement of the classical conditioning. For instance, if a mother gets used to feeding a baby whenever it cries, the baby will learn that after crying it will be fed. From this perspective, these proponents of behaviorism came to believe learning process can be enhanced by eliciting responses from students and reinforcing these responses. According to Laurete (p. 5), the learning process can be stimulated by adopting the concept of stimulation that was developed by behaviorists. The foundation of the integrated learning system is to enhance the learning by using different approaches in transferring knowledge to the students in the classroom. Two approaches have been upheld as the superior means of transferring knowledge to the learner in any learning environment; first, learning through experience that aims at enhancing the learning process through exposing students to various experiences and secondly inducing students to learn through provision of stimulus. In integrated learning system, the learners are subjected to practical tasks that will help them

Christianity and Islam Essay Example for Free

Christianity and Islam Essay A few months ago, when a Vatican official announced that Catholicism was surpassed by Islam as the world’s largest faith, many news agencies around the world carried what seemed to have been a largely unnoticed issue for this present generation – religion. At least for some time, renewed debates about whether or not one should indeed consider Islam as a religion that commands world’s largest followers surfaced one after another. The issue many people think should not be dismissed is the fact that Christianity – a religion which combines an array of all its offshoots namely Roman Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestantism, Anglicanism, Evangelicals, among others – still has the largest adherents compared to any other religion, including Islam. Even if Christianity may be broken down into some larger or other smaller denominations, many people subscribe to idea that since all Christians root their belief in Christ, one must take them as belonging to a singular religion, the largest in the world to be exact. To consider Christianity as a single religion involves rounds of new separate debates. Surely, when the differences between the mainstream Christian blocks and the thousand of other minor denominations are brought into the fore, their respective beliefs will manifest diversity, resemblance, opposition, and even contradiction. Tedious as this process may appear, one may not yet consider the fact that even in the Islam religion itself there are further classifications of membership that must be taken into careful account. Again, it is legitimate to inquire whether it is proper to take Islam as a unitary religion, or they too must be broken down into their finer types. As one may correctly observe, inner divisions within the world’s largest religions – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. – appear to be a fundamentally given fact. One can perhaps inquire whether it is possible to identify a major religion with millions, if not a billion of adherents, which does not have any, or have not suffered from any inner rift at any given point of its history. It may be interesting to ask therefore, what accounts for the eventual internal fall out of world religions in history? Better yet, how must we attempt to understand what happens in a religion that has been divided into smaller aggregate types in the course of history? II. Rationale and Scope This brief study presents a case for divisions transpiring within world religions. But since the scope of studying the issue is broad (considering that there are many major world religions to cite), this research shall be restricted at tackling Christianity and Islam as chosen types. Specifically, the study shall describe the events that transpired during the Catholic-Protestant divide of the mid 1500’s for Christianity, and the Shiite-Sunni divide for Islam. To be sure, there are other identifiable divisions which can be noted in the history of Christianity. While there are small schisms involving â€Å"heretics† who refuse to accept fundamental Christian teachings, Christianity is said to have been divided into two major blocks during the 11th century. It produced the dichotomization between the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, which until the present still exists. For the purposes of limiting this study, the Christian division which shall be discussed in this study shall dwell on the Luther-led Reformation of the 1500’s. Meanwhile, it is also insightful to note even in the Islam religion, there have been various types of smaller divisions and schisms. For the purposes of this study too, the rift between the Shiites and the Sunnis that was created in the early years of Islam religion shall be the one in focus. A short analysis and interpretation of the sample religions used shall comprise the conclusion of this study. III. Discussion Proper a. Nature of Religion Before relating the events defining the divisions that were experienced both by Christianity and Islam, it will be helpful to cite some theories to help explain the dynamics of religion. This is important since it shall provide a working perspective which is to be used later on in the analysis. Religion is a phenomenon which may be understood in many ways. Basically speaking, it refers to the common innate feeling or â€Å"belief in a Supreme Being† (McCutcheon, 2007, p. 22). Religion obviously stems from a belief that there is a higher being that must be worshiped or adored. But religion does not pertain to kind of personal belief alone. It also describes how a believer finds the need to belong to a community which shares the same belief, and thus obey a given set of rules within it. Thus, another definition for religion may also be expressed as a â€Å"unified system of belief and practices relative to sacred things† which â€Å"unites (believers) into one single moral community† (McCutcheon, 2007, p. 22). Combing both definitions enable one to fully appreciate the fact that religion pertains to both a personal ascent to God, and a commitment to a community, a set of rules and a specific set rituals. When seen under the lenses of scientific inquiry (e. g. anthropology, sociology, philosophy, etc. ) religion reveals patterns and dynamism consistent with human belief system, knowledge, interest and relationships. This means that religion is molded into the belief system of the believers. For instance, if Christians hold that Christ in his lifetime was compassionate to the poor, it follows that they too, since they follow Christ, must do something good for their less fortunate brethren. Or if Moslems take Mohammad as their example, and Mohammad was a deeply spiritual man, they too must not take spirituality lightly in their lives. Religious mindset is committed to certain courses of action (Slater, 1978, p. 6); and these actions are meaningful only because believers draw their identities from a person or a belief system they embrace – be it the Lordship of Christ, or the greatness of the Prophet Muhammad (Slater, 1978, p. 82). This is one of the primary reasons why religions possess their â€Å"continuing identities† (Slater, 1978, p. 82). So long as a group of Christians identify themselves to the teachings of their religion, say Catholic Church, they will remain to be Catholics. As indeed, so long as a group of Moslems identify themselves to the teachings of their religion, say Shiite group, they will remain to be identified with it. What explains the shift in a belief system is when one cannot anymore identify either with a teaching, or specific religious structures. It is a general rule that key to a religion’s perpetuity is establishing an identity. When people start to feel alienated with what they used to hold or believe it, it can explain why a group of believers create their own groups to accommodate their otherwise alienated belief system. To help establish the point, it may be good to lay down two glaring examples. b. The Shiite-Sunnis Divide Islam was born at least five hundred years after Christianity was already an institutionalized religion. But what started out only as a small community following Muhammad, Islam grew in exponential proportion in just a short span of time. Within the rapid growth came bitter disputes and eventual breakaways. Although Islam is a religion which does not readily recognize that there are divisions within them, scholars are almost unanimous in agreeing that some factions already broke from within the Moslem community dating back to the days when the religion itself was merely beginning to be established. In a sense, Islam is a religion broken down into at least two major divisions even before it got to be formally established as a religious phenomenon. It all started when a certain man named Muhammad, who by the way was born in 570 to a very poor family, begun to attract followers after experiencing visions and revelations (Renard, 1998, p. 7). His reputation spread in neighboring places, and soon found himself at odds with ruling empires for the large number of followers he had gathered. After this increasingly expanding community finally settled in Mecca in 630, Muhammad would die two years after (Renard, 1998, p. 7). His death would then see his community figure in a prolonged tug-of-war for rightful succession, and would officially begin the drift within the newly established religious community. One group claimed that Muhammad chose his rightful successor in the person of his son named Ali before he died. The other group contested the claim and said, no instructions were made by the Prophet whatsoever. Instead, they held that it was appropriate for to appoint leaders themselves, and eventually chose Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, as the first of the four caliphs (meaning head), to rule the Islam community. Those who embraced the leadership of Ali were eventually known as the Shiites, while the followers who believed Abu Bakr’s caliphate eventually came to be known as Sunnis. As such, the neat separation within the just-emerging Islamic religion has been established. Since it exists up until today, it can be described as the â€Å"largest institutional division within the Muslim community† so far (Renard, 1998, p. 13; Ayoub, 2004, 72). c. The Catholic-Protestant Divide The era that colored the Catholic-Protestant divide was a Church marred with controversies, silent disenchantment and an ever growing discontent among Christian faithful. As history would show, it was through and because of Martin Luther – and his whole ebb generating protests against the Church – that the radical break from Catholicism was to be established. But hundreds of years before the supposed break, there had already been numerous events that point to the restlessness within the membership of the Church which it tried to quell. What were the controversies about? As early as the 1300’s, roughly two hundred years before Luther was born, an ordained priest by the name of John Wycliffe started to publish series of attacks against some of the major teachings and traditions of the Church. In 1372, he was summoned and reprimanded by Church authorities for his teachings that dwelled on the following: his denial of the doctrine of transubstantiation (a belief that the bread and wine used in celebrating the Eucharist is transformed into the real body and blood of Christ), attacks on the authority of the Pope as the head of the Church, corrupt practices within the Church, and emphasis on preaching and the use of Scriptures for teaching the doctrines of the Church (Cook, 2008, p. 95). Wycliffe probably represented the first courageous voices which tried to confront what’s wrong with the Church. In fact, he did try to raise legitimate concerns about both the divisive doctrines and lamentable discipline which the Church at that time practiced. Years after, Luther would pick up from where his predecessors had left out. In 1517, he released his Ninety-Five Theses to the public – a collection of ninety-five protests against many Church teachings – both doctrinal and moral – and Church practices, such as indulgences (spiritual merits obtained in return for monetary donations), celibacy (the promise for priests not to marry), Eucharist, among others (Cook, 2008, p. 100). Since the general religious atmosphere at that time was already ripe for reforms, his ninety-five theses were easily duplicated and spread throughout the German empire – a testament, as it were, to a huge popular support he enjoyed for the risks he took. Luther’s break from the Church was formally established when he burned the Papal bull Exsurge Domine (a decree which threatened him of excommunication if he did not recant his protests) in front of many people in a public square (Cook, 2008, 101). After which, he did subsequently ask the authorities of the German kingdom to support his cause for Church reform. Luther is remembered as a man who broke the Catholic Church apart. True enough, even before he died, he already saw the far reaching effects of his call for reforms he perhaps initially did not intended to jumpstart. Thanks to Luther, Christianity would never be the same again. The â€Å"Germany after (the) Reformation† movement in the mid 1500’s became a home to a new breed of Christians who came to be branded as Lutherans, Calvinist, Reformers, or even Protestants (Pennock, 2007, p. 168). In principle, Luther earned the reputation of being an agent of division within the Christian religion. IV. Conclusion To be sure, Christianity and Islam are not the only major religions in the world which had suffered a kind of break-up from within. Religious divisions are commonplace, and that variations sprouting from within large communities may be brought about by various factors. When divisions occur, one normally observes that differences pertaining to a host of issues including (but not limited to) doctrines, practices, or even recognized leadership become patent. As earlier mentioned, the dynamics of religion may help explain why a feeling of alienation (or a loss of identity) can push a believer or a group to break-away from mainstream religion to form their own set of practices and norms independently. Christianity and Islam were taken as exemplifications. In the points that were developed, it was seen that they share a history with lots of bitter disputes, which in turn led to an eventual division. But both religions suffered from internal rifts quite differently as well. Islams division was more political in nature, as two major factions with their respective claims to rightful succession to their now-dead Prophet-leader tore the emerging community apart thus, the Sunnis and the Shiites. Christianity on the other hand, after experiencing many breakaway groups in the course of history, had to suffer yet another major blow from internal disputes led by Martin Luther in the 1500s on account of doctrine and practices. What followed was a Christian religion torn once again, which ushered the creation of a big faction named Protestants. Religious divisions can be put under rigorous inquiry. There are viewpoints that consider these divisions as something that separate one group after another, while there are those who propose to see the same divisions as something that merely distinguish (but not separate). While the two viewpoints may be valid in their respective senses, this study places much interest not on their â€Å"distinguishability† or â€Å"separability†, but on the fact that, truly, religious divisions from within happen. References Ayoub, M. (2004). Islam. Faith and History. Oxford: Oneworld. Cook, C.. (2008) The Routledge Companion to Christian History. New York: Routledge. McCutcheon, R. (2007). Studying Religion. An Introduction. London: Equinox. Pennock, M. (2007) This is Our Church. A History of Catholicism. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press. Renard, J. (1998)101 Questions and Answers on Islam. New York: Paulist Press. Slater, P. (1978). The Dynamics of Religion. Meaning and Change in Religious Traditions. San Francisco: Harper and Row. (Also consulted) http://ca. news. yahoo. com/s/capress/080330/world/vatican_muslims