Independent topic Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Independent topic - Speech or Presentation Example In professional polling the importance of sampling validity is immeasurable. The first step is to fully identify the sampling frame from the population that the poll seeks to represent. This is followed by a random selection of a small percentage from within the sampling frame to represent the entire population targeted by that poll. Random here implies that everyone has an equal chance to be selected and this can only be achieved if the method chosen to identify individuals to be interviewed is free of bias. Even though Statistics postulates that the actual number of people interviewed for a given sample is less important than the soundness of ‘randomness’ employed in the process, you still need to balance the economic cost of sample sizes with the desired level of accuracy required. Accuracy of plus or minus three percentage points margin of error is the acceptable level for professional polls. Once the individual to be interviewed has been identified it is important not to change the selected person so as to eliminate possibility of bias. In the case of telephone sampling this would involve performing call-backs until such a time that selected individual is available. However, more importantly for the interview is the wording of the questions and the order in which they are set to be answered. Crafting fair and objective questions requires extensive knowledge of public opinion, care and discipline. To achieve this it is good practice to have exact wording of a question held constant from year to year to analyze trends and also to have multiple questions to help put the research within a certain context. These two practices come in handy when interpreting the poll results. Finally, for accountability purposes the polling company needs to make its data available to the public domain for any interested parties to draw their own conclusions about what the survey data means an d to assess whether the poll was conducted in a professional manner. The New York

Psychology textbook Essay Example for Free

Psychology textbook Essay I didn’t know that psychology actually had a goal until I read the introduction to Psychology textbook. I am learning a lot of new things on this subject. For instance science of psychology has four main goals and they are as listed, described, predict, understand, and mental process and influence behavior. In my own words here they are. Describing: collecting information from the population by certain targeted people. The prediction goal is self explanatory it’s mostly meant for making assumption or predictions of what will become of your study before you actually know what will happen. The third goal of psychology is Understand, in this area you never really know when the information that you learn will change the next day or even within the next year. Psychology is a continuously growing field and the information that is gathered is only considered as theories and always changes, sometimes without knowledge or notice. Lets move on to influences which in my opinion one of the most used in everyday life . for instance a toddler is encourage to learn how to walk and talk. And a teenager can be pressured into doing things and making choices that they wouldn’t originally have made without the influence from their peers. Influencing people can be good too. For instance you can be influenced by coworkers and supervisors to take an open position that they feel you would get with no problem. Another example is to get the influence to do better than you are currently doing whether it be work, school, or making a better relationship with you family. The Biology and behavior was hard for me to decide what section to write about because there were so many to choose from. I didn’t want to be wrong about this section so I decided to pick the part that stood out the most to me. I am going talk about the Nervous System. It’s a really important part of the body because it helps you maintain consciousness and your behavior. The nervous system has billions of neurons. They are too, a very important part in the body because they do things such as sending messages from one end to the other end of the neuron. They are also called wires. To show why the nervous system is a really important part of the body, I will use the wires in a radio for an example. The wires in the radio are the main connection for it to provide power to send to the wires that go throughout the radio in order to hear the sound and in for it to recognize what needs to be done when certain buttons are pressed. Without the power cord the radio would really have no use. When the power cord is plugged into a power outlet the power cord provides the ability for the radio to produce sound from the speakers. It enables the buttons to work properly so that you can press the play button on the radio and hear the tracks on a CD. The wires also give you the ability to actually hear the music that comes out of the speakers. The next topics I will mention are sensation and perception. First I will mention what sensation is, it allows your brain to connect with the outer part of your body and transfer it to the inside of your body to your brain. For example, touching things with different temperature let’s say you touch or hold ice. If you hold it the ice long enough you may begin to feel a numbing sensation and you may start getting cold or experiencing the chills or goose bumps. Another example would be touching something hot. Due to the high degrees in the object you may experience pain or even have burn marks on your skin. Now lets move on to Perception which n my words mean, getting information and making images of them. There are a few different types of perception for instance â€Å"constancy† this also has different types. But for now we will use size constancy. When you look at the very same object from different angles and distances, it may appear smaller or bigger than it really is. Picture looking at a large building out of a window on an airplane before it takes off of the ground and try watching it until you get in the sky. It will appear to be much smaller than it did when you were viewing it at a closer distance but you know the actual building didn’t get smaller, it was the distance that you were viewing it at that made it look a different size. We all must know that perception is just about the same in everyone and that’s the reason we are able to communicate with each other.

Decolonisation Of Africa

Decolonisation Of Africa In this essay, I will be focusing on Africa as case study to explore debate about decolonisation. Decolonisation; the term generally refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectors in Asia and Africa following World War II. This conforms with an intellectual movement known as post-coloniaslism. In other words, decolonisation can be achieved by attaring independence, integrating with administering power and in addition, it is a political process sometimes involving violence in extreme circumstances and may be involves peaceful negotiation and/or violent revolt and arm struggle by the native population. Colonised peoples organized anti-colonial movements that asserted their rights to self-government. In this sense, nationalism gained great momentum during the 20th century world wars, thus changing the face of contemporary international politics. During the 20th century, decolonisation of Africa was one of the turning points in the history of post-war world. Decolonisation brought many negative images of Africa; hunger, arbitrary government, foreign exploitation and ecological pressures and neglects. But it also brought positive images; particularly it started to erase the view that blackness meant inferiority. All the consequences show us decolonisation debates made an impression as a theorically. There were two different theories; metropolitan and peripheral theory. In metropolitan theory, decolonisation was the impetus of western colonial powers because of factors in postwar Europe. In the second theory which was the peripheral theory, decolonisation was the result of which unfolded in colonies because of independence movements in colonies. According to David Birmingham, there were three important factors; decolonisation was the result of nationalist campaigning for independence,or the result of an imperial retreat,or the consequence of superpower pressure to gain access to continent guarded by Europeans (Birmingham,1995,p.91). In contrast, the author Raymond F. Betts argued that,decolonisation was the firsy the subject of political historians and political scientists who viewed the activity as either a national or an international problem, one of party formation, mass protest, nation building, big state rivalry. Perhaps, this extended occurance and the debate over it, both subsumed under the word decolonisation can best be summarized in a spontaneous but symbolic gesture. It occured,most appropriately, as a European political rule in Africa was quikly terminating (Betts,1998,pp.3-4). The decolonisation of Africa was one of the historic moment in the history of the post-war world. It captured the imagination of a new generation of idealists who declared ther belief in racial equality and individual liberty. The decolonisation of Africa caused by lots of movement as a political struggle such as the people of Africa helped to open the way for the civil rights movement in America. Before the 20th century, in the 1960s no less than 17 former African colonies become independent members of the United Nations; Somalia, Nigeria, Zaire and so forth. However, the course of decolonization was not always smooth. Primarily the burst of decolonisation was the central and most dramatic episode in a long process of political change that affected the whole of Africa. Decolonisation was the mirror image of the colonisation that had slowly brought European domination to Africa in 20th century(Birmingham,1995,p.2). In fact, this progress covered ground violent rebellion such as Alger ia and Kenya or sometimes reasonably peaceful such as Gold Coast-Ghana. Ghana which was called the Gold Coast was the first African state to become independent from British rule. The West African colony of the Gold Coast became the independent and sovereign state of Ghana in March 1957 with the previously imprisoned nationalist leader Kwame Nkrumah as its first Prime Minister(Judd,1996,354). In the case of Ghana, British governments could claim with some conviction that power had passed from colonial administrations to apparently stable and mature local government. In addition, Ghana was one of the Commonwealth states in West Africa which was in problematic political developments . The other decolonizaiton in Africa was Algeria;french colony, that it become independent in 1962. In the north settlers of Algeria aspired to unite their territory with France. Colonial Africa in 1946 had much the same shape as independent Africa in 1995. Algeria protested and supported a movement seeking recognition for on independent republic of Western Sahara. But in 1945 Algerians who celebrated the end of the European War in May 1945, imagined that independence would now be theirs, but their demands turned into o riotous threat to colonial order; settlers were killed and many demonstrators were shot by white vigilantes. So decolonization in northwestern Africa was delayed by ten years.(Birmingham,1995,p.16). This episode probably was an evidence for violent rebellion in Algeria. Even the decolonisation of Algeria caused a prolonged and destructive confrontation between European and Africa and the Macmillans biographer Alastair Horne called that savage war of peace (Birmingham,19 95,p.16). Moreover, the conflict increased in intensity such as townsmen boycotted French goods, countrymen took up arms in irregular forces and politicians demanded immediate independence. The other big debate was happened in Kenya which was one of the British colony. Kenya became an independent in 1963 under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta. The Mau Mau rebellion that culminated in the decolonization of the Kenya began in 1952. When, in the mid-1960s, the government of independent Kenya put pressure on its South Asian community to leave the country, the administration quickly imposed an annual quota of 1500 on Kenyan Asians wishing to enter Britain. This measure was promptly denounced as a betrayal of the agreement by which Kenya had achieved independence in 1963. To conclude, the debates; Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, problematic political developments in Ghana and issues of Algeria show us why the decolonization occured by colonial power and anti-colonial struggles in 20th century. In contradistinction for the other places, these three settlements in Africa covered more important movements considering the others in the way of settlers, resources. For example, Ghana had most fundamental debates on account of it was the starting point of decolonization in Africa. The French colony Algeria had some economic components solemnly. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Betts, F. Raymond (1998) Decolonisation. London: Routledge Birmingham, David (1995) The Decolonisation of Africa. London: UCL Press Ferguson, Niall (2004) Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. England: Penguin Books Hopkins, A.G. and Cain, P.J. (1993) British Imperialism: Crisis and Deconstruction. USA: Longman Howe, Stephen (2002) Empire: A Very Short Introduction. UK: Oxford University Press Judd, Denis (1997) Empire: The Trial of Jomo Kenyatta. London: Fontana Press

The Challange of Non-theme Writing :: Teaching Writing Education Essays

The Challange of Non-theme Writing "Practice makes perfect". Those are words to remember when attempting to do something new, something beyond your normal routine whether it be playing a sport, singing a song, or even writing in a different form. This thought occurred to me by accident as I grew frustrated with myself for not figuring out what would or would not be acceptable for this writing assignment. I put some music on to clear my head and perhaps stimulate a small portion of my brain that wasn't pulling its fair share in considering how to put this assignment together, and the third song I heard happened to be a song that a friend and I attempted to perform one year at a high school talent show. The song took me back to that performance. I was almost sorry it did until the words "practice makes perfect" suddenly appeared in my mind. Of course, at the time, I was thinking how things could have been different with that performance, but the thought remained in my head long enough to toy with the idea a little. I w as able to put this paper together after I remembered Laib's quote: "an essay is a performance or process, not a display." I'm still not positive how to apply it, but it has me thinking, and that's the first step. Just to set the record straight, the "practice makes perfect" was not directed at my guitar playing during the song, honestly, but rather at my friend's singing, which did enough damage for the both of us. When my friend Leo and I decided to perform, I started having visions of the wild cheering and applause we'd receive when we finished. Yes, I had great expectations, and I wasn't stupid enough to think that I wouldn't have to work for that applause either. I practiced night and day, or at least as much as I could between school, work, and homework. When the night of the show arrived, I knew I hadn't perfected the song, but I was more than competent playing it and was confident I wouldn't have any trouble performing it. Unfortunately, conflicting schedules had prevented Leo and me from practicing together more than a couple times right after we signed up for the show. I wasn't worried though because he'd assured me that he'd been practicing on his own too.

Mercury Athletic Case Essay

West Coast Fashions, Inc. (WCF), a large designer and marketer of men’s and women’s branded apparel recently announced plans for a strategic reorganization. Active Gear, Inc. (AG), a privately held footwear company, was contemplating an acquisition opportunity. John Liedtke, the head of business development for AG, was interested in a WCF subsidiary. The subsidiary that Liedtke and AG intended to acquire was Mercury Athletic (MA), a footwear company. Liedtke thought acquiring Mercury would roughly double AG’s revenue, increase its leverage with contract manufacturers and expand its presence with key retailers and distributors. In order to provide a solid recommendation to Liedtke, further analysis must be performed. Market Overview The apparel or footwear industry is highly competitive with low growth. The market is influenced by fashion trends, price, quality and style. Companies can reduce risk factors by not following fashion trends which equates to efficient and effective inventory management and missed profit opportunities. Active Gear AG is a relatively small athletic and casual footwear company. It has annual revenues of $470.3M (42% of revenues came from athletic shoes), and $60.4M of operating income. Casting a shadow over these numbers are AG’s typical competitors. AG’s typical competitor has annual sales over $1.0B. Because of Chinese manufacturing contract consolidations, AG’s size was becoming a disadvantage due to low buying power vs. competitors. AG’s initial focus was to produce and market high-quality specialty shoes for golf and tennis players. AG was among the first companies to offer fashionable, walking, hiking and boating footwear. Over the years, the firm’s athletic shoes had evolved from high-performance footwear to athletic fashion wear with a  classic image. The firm’s traditional casual shoes also offered classic styling, but were aimed at a broader, more mainstream market. AG’s target demographic was urban and suburbanites, ranging from 25-45 in age. AG’s distribution channels consisted of independent retailers, departmental stores, and wholesalers. AG excluded big box retailers and discount stores. AG focused on products that didn’t follow fashion trends, resulting in a lengthened product lifecycle. This business model led to more efficient and effective supply chain and operating management. However, because they opted for the safe route it halted the company’s sales and growth opportunity. Mercury Athletic Mercury Athletic was purchased by WCF from its founder Daniel Fiore. Fiore was forced to sell the company after running it for over 35 years, due to health problems. Due to a strategic reorganization, the plan called for the divestiture of MA and other â€Å"non-core† WCF assets. MA had revenues of $431.1M and an EBITDA of $51.8M Products were distributed to departmental and discount stores It had two product lines- athletic and casual footwear Target market of both men and women Shoes popularity grew in the extreme sports market MA developed an operating infrastructure, allowing management to quickly adapt to changes in customer tastes with product specifications. 1. Is Mercury an appropriate target for AG? Why or why not? Let me walk you through some qualitative considerations before making my recommendation. Strategic considerations: AG and MA are both competing in the athletic and casual footwear industry. Acquiring MA could lead to economies of scale and scope through manufacturing and distribution networks, respectively. Acquiring MA- AG would be less affected by the Chinese manufacturing contract consolidation, due to increased buying powers. AG could potentially revive and profit from acquiring Mercury’s women’s product line. Acquiring MA will double AG’s  annual revenue. Counter arguments- AG and MA target demographics could not produce company synergies MA is fashion trendy, therefore prone to risks outside of AG’s steady business model Company cultures could not match 2. Review the projections by Liedtke. Are they appropriate? How would you recommend modifying them? In order to find if the projections are reasonable, you need a starting point. Using projected growth rates and EBIT should indicate if Liedtke’s data is solid. Referencing the Free Cash Flow and Terminal Value tables (found below), I will be able to generate an opinion of Liedtke’s projections. Year to year growth rates are extremely volatile, normalizing in 2010. The negative rate could signify that in 2007 they are projecting to discontinue a product line. The swing back to a positive growth rate could be indication of AG leveraging its economies of scale and scope, while distributing their product lines through big box retailers. EBIT has been projected to gradually increase, which looks to be on par with industry norms. It is reasonable to say that Liedtke’s projections properly reflect AG’s business model, post-acquisition. 3. See tables and calculations below 4. Do you regard the value you obtained as conservative or aggressive? Why? From my analysis, the value I obtained seemed to be aggressive against the information provided. Referencing the tables below: Terminal or Enterprise Value is High Synergies are excluded from financial analysis Declining revenue growth 5. How would you analyze possible synergies or other sources of value not reflected in Liedtke’s base assumption? In order to analyze possible synergies, I would look at both companies’ operations. Starting from where they source their materials to distributing their final product are all possibilities of operational synergies (buying power, distribution channels, inventory management, etc†¦). Financial synergies would include combining revenues and cost benefits, which translate to increasing bottom line. Company culture matching could also become problematic. Quantitative Analysis Net Working Capital Free Cash Flow WACC Terminal Value Valuation NPV, IRR and Payback Period Conclusion Net present value of future cash flows equates to a positive $0.2M. Internal rate of return or IRR is the interest rate at which the net present value of all the cash flows from a project or investment equal zero. The IRR of this acquisition is 28%. Having a positive NPV and an IRR that considerably outweighs the discount and risk free rate- suggests that this acquisition should be pursued. In conclusion, AG should acquire MA.

Hrm/300 Managment Overview

Human Resource Management Overview University of Phoenix HRM/300 November 14, 2012 Human Resource Management Overview Organizations require people to run everyday operations, which mean every organization needs human resource management. Today’s paper will discuss what human resource management is, and its primary function within an organization. Every organization has a strategic plan, and human resource management play a critical role in the implementation and production of that plan. Last, will discuss the role of human resource management in an organization’s strategic planning.What is Human Resource Management? According to Reed (2012), from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Human resource management or HRM, assist in the development and education of people within the organization. The world is constantly changing and evolving each day. Human resource management must understand many aspects of society and the world to properly prepare an organization for those changes. For example, those changes could be: Globalization, technology, workforce diversity, labor shortages, continuous improvement initiatives, etc†¦ Primary Function of HRMThere are many functions of HRM within an organization. However, the primary function of HRM is to increase the effectiveness and contribution ability of its employees, while attaining the goals and objectives of the organization. This could include continuing education, department cross-training, certification processes, diversity training, etc†¦ (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007). As stated in the aforementioned paragraph, HRM has many roles within an organization. Some of these roles include compensation, benefits, training and development, employee relations, recruiting, and hiring process.Based on the broad spectrum of responsibilities for HRM, it is crucial for one to behold solid communication skills and decision-making capabilities. One may argue it is also critical to behold strong analytical skills and critical thought processes. These are skills one needs to stay competitive in today’s business world (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007). HRM’s Role in an Organization’s Strategic Plan After generations of arguing, there is still an ongoing debate about the role HRM play in an organization’s strategic planning process. Some senior management believes HRM’s role is solely as a compliance function.Other senior management looks to HRM as a consultative service. No matter one’s stance on this debate, there is no denying the impact HRM has on the strategic plan of an organization (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007). HRM professionals continue to fight for the proverbial â€Å"seat at the table† in this debate. HRM has nothing to worry about in most organizations. Successful organizations rarely develop a strategy involving human capital without the consideration of HRM. Even more important, no strategic plan is successful without effective recruiti ng, deployment, and development of human capital.This is exactly why HRM should have a â€Å"seat at the table† at all times (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007). HRM provides value at every level of the strategic planning cycle by demonstrating knowledge, alignment, success, and vision of the organization. HRM must recruit each candidate that best fits the needs of the business. If the business is suffering or needs improvements in a specific area, HRM will recruit to fill that position based on specific criteria the business is looking for to further advance its position within the competitive market.If HRM does not function at a high level within this one function, the entire business is at risk (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007). Conclusion Exploiting opportunities and identifying goals are the two most important aspects of strategic planning. HRM plays a critical role during this process, while limiting and considering all associated risks. HRM helps align goals and initiatives while aligni ng all necessary resources to deliver the desired results of its key stakeholders. HRM should be involved in every step of every process. If one can execute successfully these uiding principles throughout each phase of strategic planning, one’s future is bright. Involving HRM will strengthen the position of the strategy by providing fact-based insight to stakeholders. In time, HRM will align the necessary resources to achieve the initiatives and goals of management and the strategic plan. References DeCenzo, D. , & Robbins, S. (2007). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (9th ed. ). John Wiley and Sons. Reed, D. (2012). University of North Carolina Wilmington. What is human resource management. Retrieved from http://uncw. edu/career/humanresources. html