Week 5 â€Finances Essay Example for Free

Week 5 –Finances Essay Debate on profit maximization ethics and corporate social responsibility: Traditionally, the duty of company’s management is to improve the financial welfare of the shareholders of the company by maximum of profits provided it is under the law. This is the canonical law and economics account (Elhauge: 2004) Companies are therefore liable for any act(s) that causes more that usual harm under an independent law. However if the operations do not cause any undesired effect, then, it is socially acceptable that the company maximizes profits. The management of companies is therefore required to consider the interests of other stakeholders in their daily operations. This is as a result of the law that was enacted at the height of corporate takeovers during the 1980s. This law could however be construed to mean that the management of corporations only consider the interests of others only if doing so enhances the company’s profits. Shareholders and management have no legal duty to maximize profit although they have a legal discretion to forego on profits in the public interest. (Elhauge: 2004) According to Manuel Costello Branco and Lucia Lima Rodriquez companies only engage in corporate social responsibility if they are set to gain from such an undertaking. (Brancho Rodriguez: 2007) Corporate social responsibility may include environmental protection, human resource management, health and safety at work, relation with community and with suppliers and customers. (Branco Rodriguez: 2007) CSR boarders on ethics and management should therefore consider the impacts of their activities on the various stakeholders. It is also considered to be a competition strategy which can give a company competitive advantage. (Branco Rodriguez: 2007) This debate on CSR is on shareholders-stakeholders point of view where shareholders view is that management should maximize their wealth while the stakeholders view is towards all stakeholders (Friedman 1998, Jensen 2001) The classical view of business encompasses purely economic basis and constrained profit making views. This is the shareholders view. The stakeholders view on the other hand is of socially aware business where corporations are sensitive to needs if other stakeholders (Lantos: 2001) Companies should therefore, not ignore the interests of other stakeholders if doing so could impact negatively on the company’s intention of maximizing shareholders wealth. (Stern berg 1997, Jensen 2001) Ethics basically is what constitutes right or wrong behavior in business in terms of operations and situations happening in companies. In the daily operations of companies many unethical actions and decisions are made. Corporate citizenship concept is propagated by the society where businesses promote goals that they view as important while at the same time solving social problems thus rejecting the idea of profit maximization and law compliance. The results of an activity rather than the activity itself are what determine whether an action is ethical or not. Clarkson further elaborates that an actions is morally right if it generates the greatest amount of good to many people. (Utilitarian theory) (Clarkson: 1995) It is evident therefore that the concept of ethics is controversial in the sense that there are conflicting positions as to what constitutes what is morally right or wrong as shown by Kantian ethics and Utilitarian ethics. (Hymson 2007) In business ethics, because of competition, actions of one company e.g. adoption of lower prices leads to the other companies adopting the same pricing strategy and hence business ethics tend to be uniform (Hymson 2007) Monopolistic businesses where there is no competition can elect to apply personal ethics. But the cost of following personal ethics is borne by the employees. Hence argument gives credence to the idea that businesses only social responsibility is t maximize profits (Friedman: 1998). Outside business ethics, CSR is usually all about making profits. Government regulations The government should take charge and ensure that companies do not undertake business practice that cause undesirable effects on the community and therefore it should pass laws and regulations that guide corporations in the business practice (Reich 2007). The stiff competition that many corporations in the world today face makes them focus more on ways of making more profits and therefore the need of government regulations to protect the environment, consumers and even the employees. Robert Reich further alludes to the fact that corporations cannot be moral or immoral and can only be responsible if publicly held by their shareholders. The shareholders interest is to maximize their profits and therefore companies should do public good in their quest to maximize their profits (Reich 2007) Reasons for government regulations An example of company that could justify the government regulations is Wal-Mart. This corporation on one hand spends money on CSR projects but on the other it is against employees union, pays low wages with minimum benefits. The company also is against living wage initiatives. Wal-Mart has also been accused of forcing employees to perform overtime duties, sex and race discrimination and a whole lot of other things. The World com and Enron scandals are other examples that call for government regulations on CSR and business ethics. The list is endless, Adelphi, Tyco, Computer associates. All these cases touch on the subject of business ethics. Business ethics violations can also lead to illegalities as exemplified by the Enron and World com cases (Hymson 2007) References Hymson, E.B (2007) Law: The force that harmonizes business ethics with profit maximization. Retrieved on 4/3/2008 from http://www.salsb.org/slj/vol-xv/14hymson.pdf Elhauge, E. (2004) Sacrificing corporate profits in the public interest. Retrieved on 4/3/08 from http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/corporate_governance/papers/04.Elhauge.sacrificing-corporate-profits.pdf. Branco, M.C and Rodriguez L. L (2007). Positioning stakeholders’ theory within the debate on corporate social responsibility (Vol 12. No. 1). Retrieved on 4/3/2008 from http://www.salsb.org/slj/vol-xv/14hymson.pdf Friedman. (1998), â€Å"The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits†, in Pincus, L.B. (Ed.), Perspectives in business ethics, McGraw-Hill, Singapore Jensen, M.C. (2001) â€Å"Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function†, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Vol.14 No.3 Sternberg. (1997) â€Å"The Defects of Stakeholder Theory†, Corporate Governance, Vol 5 No.1. Lantos, G.P. (2001) â€Å"The boundaries of strategic corporate social responsibility†, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol.18 No.7 Clarkson, M.B.E. (1995) â€Å"A Stakeholder Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Corporate Social Performance†, Academy of Management Review, Vol.20 No.1 Robert Reich, R (2007). Super capitalism. The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life.

Computers in Homeland Security :: Department of Homeland Security Technology

Computers in Homeland Security The DHS, Department of Homeland Security, uses a color coded system for informing the general public of what state of readiness the country should be in, in case of a terrorists threat. The system they use is a five color system, with each color representing a different step in readiness. Green means low risk of terrorist attacks, blue is Guarded, or general risk of a terrorist attack, yellow means elevated, or significant risk of a terrorist attack. Orange means high risk of an attack, while red means severe risk of an attack. Today the country is always on either orange or red. Since President Bush has been in office the country itself, has been on high alert of an attack (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020312-5.html). As part of this paper I took a poll of how many people know about the use of homeland securities and to also see if they knew the meaning of the colors of our alert system. -Question 1 was if a person knew if computers were used in homeland security. -Question 2 was if they knew what the colors used in homeland security meant. Names Question #1 Question # 2 Jack yes yes Jill no no Tom no no Andrew yes yes Edrick yes yes Mike yes yes Dustin no no Jorge yes yes Shayla no no Malika no no Cheriene no no Martha yes yes Chris no no Tim no no Tomas no no Jude no no Jimmy yes yes Kristina yes yes Jackie no no Tosin yes yes Warren yes yes Sam yes yes Cory no no Marshall no no As technology has increased the importance of computers being involved with homeland security has increased significantly. They have started to use computers for ways to check passenger baggage. Notice how when someone goes through an airport they have to walk through several metal detectors. These detectors are run by computers in order to check what people have on them. Another way computers are used is a complex system of watch lists and security triggers. These lists are what the airport security uses to decide who to take under heavy watch. Since more that 600 million people fly a year. They hope that a computer system called CAPPS 2 can help to check about 5% of the people who fly each year. Another thing that Homeland security uses computers for is surveillance. This is probably the most used place for computers in Homeland Security. With surveillance, there has been a big discovery in cyber optics.

Communication Crisis Essay

Communication and Crisis Many of us know about the devastating hurricane Katrina that took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005, but how many of us actually thought about the communication issues. From the writing of James L Garnett and Alexander Kouzmin,† Hurricane Katrina was as much a communication disaster as it was a natural and bureaucratic disaster. Communication gaps, missed signals, information technology failures, administrative buï ¬â‚¬ering, turf battles, and deliberate and unintentional misinterpretations delayed and handicapped both the recognition of the crisis that Katrina posed and the response to its devastation.† If Americans actually stop and think about it, not only was the media trying to communicate with America on what was happening but also trying to get word out to the people which were affected. Advantages of the communication from the media to some extent helped to obtain as much information and photos to public to help everyone understand what was taken place. To the local community communication challenges took place because Mother Nature does not care about keeping today’s technology in working conditions. Once the power goes down what is the point of technology for citizens in the middle of the disaster area, they cannot receive information on where to go, if help is on the way. Because of Mother Nature’s way of approaching upon so many areas in the United States and around the world each community should start disaster programs to teach each person on survival, there are so many ways to communicate with community in learning techniques. Town meeting is one way to start, give demonstrations on how to take cover from Tornados, Fires and, of course Hurricanes. Most of us were taught in school the basic safety procedures during storms. Common knowledge during a tornado is to take cover in the lowest point of the home such as a basement or if no basement is accessible, then to remove yourself from any windows and doors because of the suction that comes with the storm. During fires go to the nearest exit and go as far away from the fire so no one gets burned or if fire does contact a person to stop drop and roll until the fire is out, in a hurricane tape up all windows in a x shape to keep the winds from scattering glass all over, if he or she lives near water, place sands bags along the shore line to help rising water. All these things can save lives but does everyone know what to do if there is no available hospital’s near because they too were caught in the damage. This is where local doctors, firefighters and police need to communicate their training with the public, as previously said by demonstrations, brochures, feeling the emotions of concerned population in their area. Offering radios that not only work by batteries but can wind up receiving power so the information can get to the area that has been affected. Education on how to make a reserve area in the home or even in a safe and secure place outside of the home of survival materi als such as water, food, clothing the essentials that humans need to live daily. Training on how to contact and find loved ones, and to cope with devastation. As individuals with training on survival we still depend on the doctors and nurses that are available to take charge and because of their years of training they will, but in an area were a natural disaster has taken place technology will not be able to help. All hospitals have back up power but even then that does not last. During hurricane Sandy the New York, NYU Langone Medical Center’s learned this lesson, after the emergency generators turned on within two hours 90 percent of the power was drained. ( Roney, Kathleen) This particular tragedy had the health care industry trying to come up with ways to save and recover data on each patient, and improve back up power to allow the hospitals and equipment to keep functioning. According to the article 4 Tips to Strengthen Hospital Data and Recovery Plans for Natural Disasters the four ideas they have come up with to help the Health Care are 1. Validate third-party data recovery services, 2. Backup data in a safe-place offsite, 3. If possible, prepare and practice with paper-based options, 4. Validate your backup power. ( Roney, Kathleen) In closing no matter how widely the information that comes from the media is right or wrong during a natural disaster, any information giving to the public is better than silence. Many may complain after all is said and done on how not all the information was correct but enough was, it helps the loved ones watching because that may be the only communication available. The more our community offers in knowledge through all stages of communication the better each and every one will be prepared. It is said to say but with all the modern day technology that we depend on it takes Americans to get shook up a little to see that even the new evolving world still needs solutions. References Garnett, J. L., & Kouzmin, A. (December,2007). Communicating throughout Katrina: Competing and Complementary Conceptual Lenses on Crisis Communication. Retrieved from http://www.glerl.noaa.gov Roney, K. (November 02,2012). 4 Tios to Strengthen Hospital Data Recovery Plans for Natural Disasters. Retrieved from http://www.beckerhospitalreview.com

Explain the Causes and Consequences of the Iraq War

Explain the causes and consequences of the Iraq War (2003) On the 20th of March 2003, US cruise missiles and bombs were dropped on Baghdad, Iraq’s capital city. The target was the then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein’s and his closest aides, who were believed to be in a meeting. It would be the start of a conflict that would still be going strong seven years later. Even after so many years of US-led invasion, the reasons for invading Iraq are still debated worldwide. As Allawi (2007) argues ‘in the history of conflicts and wars, there are few instances that match the invasion and occupation for complexity of motive and ambiguity of purpose’[1]. As a result, the Iraq War or otherwise known as ‘Operation Iraqi freedom’ was to become one of†¦show more content†¦Crisis talks were held with the leaders of the US, UK and Spain resulting in the withdrawal of the resolution. The very same evening, President Bush televised a live conference warning that if Saddam Hussein did not leave Iraq in 48 hours the result would be ‘military conflict commenced at the time of our choosing’[9]. Therefore the main cause of the Iraq War was the threat of Saddam Hussein’s claimed WMDs. Prior to the invasion, American policy makers also emphasised ‘the broad benefits likely to result from the removal of Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian regime into a ‘cultivation of a democratic regime’[10]. They argued that democratization of Iraq would improve the well being of Iraqi citizens, politically and economically. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the democratization of Iraq would help stimulate greater economic prosperity and promote further democracy in the rest of the middle east - a region historically characterised by authoritarian governments where there is a wide spread of conflict, instability and widespread poverty[11]. Moreover it was claimed that the democratization of Iraq would set the stage for the settlement of conflicts that had plagued the Middle Eastern region for decades which would mean the chance to create lasting peace.[12] This next section will examine theShow MoreRelatedThe Main Idea Of The Article The Aquinas Inquiry, Is To1235 Words   |  5 PagesThe Aquinas Inquiry, is to explain or kind of conclude what a medieval philosophers panel would look like and how they would feel about the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair’s decisions, and Saddam Hussein and determine the reasons. â€Å"The members of the ‘Aquinas Inquiry’ have already developed a set of six criteria which should be met in order for any war to be considered just.† The set of criteria will be used in this article to determine whether or not Tony Blair had just cause.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The author of thisRead MoreThe Iran Iraq War1566 Words   |  7 PagesThe Iran-Iraq lasted from September 1980 to August 1998, which made it the longest conventional war of the 20th century. 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