Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing Essay

1- Yes, government should perform a cost analysis before privatization, especially if the government will remain as a participant in the bidding process. The cost analysis will provide the government with cost information for accurately pricing the bid. In case the government is not going to be a participant in the bidding process, the cost estimate will provide the government with an estimate on how much to pay for a service. For example, if the government wants to engage in a firm fixed price contract, a cost analysis will provide an accurate estimate of the cost and government can adjust the estimate for labor contractor rates and profit to price the contract. 2- For pothole filling activity direct labor and materials are relatively easy to trace directly, but it is more difficult to allocate indirect costs to the service. In order to apply ABC in Department of Transportation, reconciling with controller’s records, the team correctly identified in phases 1 and 2 all the basic activities. There were 35 activities, one of them being â€Å"pothole patching†. The labor hours and direct materials assigned for this activity were easy to be traced so the direct labor and materials were precisely determined in the â€Å"Pothole Filling Cost† table. A few comments about the overhead costs: The model allocated costs for fixed assets and unused equipment, which is one of the strengths. The model also adjusted the current year capital purchases and added back the depreciation (the consumed portion of the purchase price). We think that was an appropriate decision in order to have a true cost for this activity. The city already had an accounting system to trace the depreciation, and that was an advantage. It is debatable the decision not to include the headquarters expenses. In fact those costs may vary up or down depending on who does the pothole filling – municipal workers or private contractors. Decision was that these expense to â€Å"remain in the city† but they don’t necessarily have to. A true  cost for the service would be to allocate them in the overhead costs. It is a bit unclear if the overhead costs captured in the â€Å"Pothole Filling Cost† table are strictly associated with pothole filling activity. We know that the team identified the indirect and support costs associated with the 35 primary activities. It is difficult however to allocate those costs to pothole filling activity only. For example how much would be Facility Expense slice for this service? We should assume that a reliable allocation method was utilized, since the other 34 activities should also have overhead costs traced for other potential bids. Regarding overhead costs allocation by region, a brief calculation reveals that some sort of allocation was utilized for costs, however it is not clear on what basis. Four fixed costs out of seven do follow the same allocation pattern, however that allocation does not follow the â€Å"tons filled† ratio. We should also notice that the model analyzed the cost occurred during winter months, in order to prepare a bid for spring. If pothole filling is a season specific activity, the actual costs could be slightly different and the bid should be adjusted accordingly. Maybe a better idea was to apply the ABC model considering actual costs incurred during the previous spring. 3- Yes, letting the municipal employees see the ABC estimates and giving them the opportunity to reduce their costs was a good practice as it provided several benefits. Due to several past factors, the city’s departments had been operating on a less than optimal level and had high overhead costs. For example the supervisor to worker ratio was too high, and the department of transportation carried excessive capital assets (vehicles). Sharing the ABC estimates and giving the opportunity to reduce costs allowed them to improve efficiency. The municipality was able to pinpoint the problem issues and fix them, such as half the supervisors were dismissed. This would allow the city to be competitive with the private sector in the bidding process. ABC estimate sharing provided an additional benefit as a buy-in from the  employees and the union. As the employees and the ABC estimators worked together to generate the estimates, they realized the data was showing the problems that they did not anticipate such has the high supervisor ratio. They recognized that ABC will be very essential for them to lower their costs and become competitive. The employees needed to be competitive with the private sector to keep their jobs. 4- We will assume that the â€Å"Indirect Cost Pool† includes supervisor’s expenses (which should be reduced by 50%) and overhead costs. In this case the bids for Northwest and Northeast quadrants are calculated in Exhibit B. Comparing with the actual pothole filing costs per ton in January-March, we could clearly see a dramatic decrease of indirect costs and rolling stock costs. Overall the bid for both quadrants is by far more competitive than it would have been without the ABC analysis and cost reduction. 5- If the administration continues to outsource city services through competitive bidding and assuming the private sector is able to aggressively under bid the city, the administration will have to dismiss the idle workforce, selloff unused fixed assets and update the ABC estimates accordingly. As the number of outsourced contracts grows in count and size, the administration will also need to enhance its contracting and performance management capabilities.

Negative Effect of Internet Essay

You are at home in the U.S.A. and want to contact a friend in Ecuador, so you use the internet to communicate and life is better now. While, internet shortens the distances there are also three other negative effects impersonal communication, community misinformation and identity theft. First of all, most of us know how to use a computer but, do you remember the last time you wrote a letter to your mother in Chicago instead of sending an e-mail? Each day people prefer more the use or impersonal communication media such as chat rooms, e-mail than calling or writing to their families. At this moment the contact between families is at risk. The second negative effect or internet appears to be related with the impersonate characteristic we talked previously. Because, internet is impersonal most of the time, is the perfect media for spreading rumors and misinforming the entire community. A very common form of misinformation is the use of chain letters. For example, someone sends you an e-mail saying that McDonald’s burgers are genetically engineered (and you believe it even without evidence) so you send the same e-mail to all your contacts. Within a few hours your contacts do same as you and hundreds of people believe in the e-mail without any attempt to confirm the content. The third and last negative effect of internet is the identity theft. If the chain letters we were talking about don’t scares you yet, pay attention to your personal information. Each day two out of five citizens suffer some king of identity theft. Because a lot of transactions are made through the internet it is easy to steal your social security number and your credit card number. Furthermore, sometimes you give the information to the thieves without knowing it when you apply for that risk free credit card online, or pay for products on-line. In summary, the internet can make communication fast but impersonal, can also misinform and somebody else can steal your identity, without your knowing. As a result, I encourage people to visit the family, don’t believe everything you see on the internet and be aware of where you use your personal data including credit cards.

Parts of Speech Essay

When the idea of the traditional eight parts of speech comes to mind, flashbacks to sitting in the back row of my middle school English language class flourish through my brain. I don’t remember too much about them today, however I do know that it was drilled into my brain until we could fully understand and use them all. The eight parts of speech: such a key component of language, yet such a complicated piece of my learning career. Out of all eight of the parts of speech, the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection, the ones that I remember the most are the verb and the noun. I am not quite sure how such basic ideas of language can be so complicated to actually explain. My previous days of schooling were definitely not the most challenging or puzzling. So how is it that I use these in depth concepts in daily conversations? I honestly think that in my earlier school days, we simply discussed all of these eight parts of our language and never actually were shown how they are all connected. As I look back now, the approach to teaching the basic patterns of the English language, such as these key parts of speech, have never been too effective. These parts of speech constantly keep being brought up in my daily life yet somewhere along the lines, we get caught up in simply knowing the parts of speech rather than being able to use them effectively on our pieces of written work. All of these great facts have no purpose if we are unable to use them in our daily lives. Reminiscing back to this seemingly simple concept really does stress how important proper grammar and knowing how to make the eight parts of speech useful truly is. As a student entering the world of learning again, the importance of being a good writer and being well-spoken increasingly influences my life. To be a good writer is one thing, to honestly know what you’re trying to portray through your work is a completely different idea on it’s own. Being knowledgeable about the parts of speech and how they can be used in many facets of language is fantastic. Naming the parts of speech in isolation does not bring focus to how important these words can be, but knowing how to effectively use them in writing is what truly is important. These eight  concepts of writing came up all throughout the early years of my educational career and they’re importance is brewing back up once again in my life. Concepts in language never go away, making them one of the most important and best things you can ever learn, just hopefully this time they can stick!

Essay: Obesity Essay

How many times a day do you see an obese person walking down the street? And how often do you see them exercising to overcome their problem? Obesity is one of the biggest problems in the United States due to people not knowing how to eat right, depression and lack of exercise. To begin with, Americans are not very open minded on the idea of healthy eating, they are not well educated on the topic. They think that eating healthy is just eating salad or not eating anything at all, when in reality, that just makes the problem worse because it would be like trying to keep a boat from sinking by throwing rocks at it, you’re just making it worse. Eating right consists of different types f foods: proteins, which are meat and/or chicken and others, fruits and veggies which are the salads, and grains which would be the rice and the beans. Secondly there is another common reason, depression. Depression tends to lead to obesity because people start eating with their minds and eyes instead of their stomachs. In the United States there are many stressed people, from working too much, to having to many kids, and even from having too many pets. Stress leads to depression; therefore from having to much stress in the U.S, we have a large number of obese Americans. Calming yourself and meditating is a very good way to disconnect for some time, and just relax. The third and most common reason for obesity is lack of exercise. I remember when I was 10, I was slowly becoming obese, and little by little I would start eating more and more, until it got to the point that I was considered obese. I was like that for a few months until I got tired of it and started exercising, by the time that I was 13 I was healthy and no longer obese. By saying exercise, it does not mean that you have to work out 24/7, it just means to take 60mins, or if not more, of your day off to do any type of exercise. To sum it all up, Obesity rates in the U.S keep growing for various reasons such as not knowing how to eat right, depression, and lack of exercise.  Eating right and exercising is not too much to do, anyone can do it, you do not need a manual or instructions. Overcoming obesity might be hard, but it is definitely not impossible.

Summarize William Paley's argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summarize William Paley's argument - Essay Example He illustrates this through an examination of a watch. While taking a leisurely walk and one finds a stone and a watch on the ground, an examiner may be curious about those objects. He may think that the stone had been there forever because it was nature’s design, but the watch may have been there due to human intervention. This may get him to focus on the watch, which is a far more valuable thing than the insignificant stone. The watch, so carefully designed, had been created with a specific purpose, and being found on the ground may seem to be an unlikely circumstance since it does not belong there. Paley so meticulously describes each part of the watch to show that its interconnection with the other parts was intended, so that the whole system could work. Had one part stop working, then the whole thing would be worthless. In examining the watch, so many questions may come to mind, such as why it was created, who was behind the creation and for whom and for what purpose it w as created other than the obvious reason of telling time. Paley first argues that so much more can come out of one’s examination of the watch that it brings about more appreciation to the examiner. He may marvel at the genius behind its creation, taking notice that the creator is one of a kind to have crafted such a machine. He may even be humbled to know that he himself is unable to come up with a fraction of the idea of a watch! The existence whoever or whatever created that watch whether he is still living or have died in the distant past now becomes more concrete to Paley. On his second argument, he admits to the fallibility of the watch, that even with the best intentions of the creator to make it work efficiently at all times, it may still be vulnerable to defects. However, it does not lessen the examiner’s appreciation of such a gadget. He also argued that because of the intricate design of the watch there may be parts that could be missed in the examination, or parts that may still be in need of clarification as to its role in making the watch work. Not knowing about these details does not invalidate the examiner’s belief that all parts, including the unknown ones, work together harmoniously in contributing to the efficiency of the watch. Another argument Paley made was that the existence of the watch in the place found must have followed an order that caused it to land where it is which the watchmaker may not even be aware of. All the thinking that the examination of the watch entails can make the examiner wonder if it was placed there on purpose for him to think deeply, but Paley argues that it would be realized that there was no contrivance on that matter, but the curious nature of the watch’s existence in the particular situation was inherently bound to make one think deeply about it. Paley goes on to explain the â€Å"metallic nature† of the watch. No matter how overwhelming the watch and its inner workings is, i ts existence should just be accepted as a usual occurrence. Confident as the examiner may be with his knowledge of the world, examination of the watch may make him conclude that he does not and cannot know everything. Paley concludes that there are things in this world that the examiner will never know nor understand no matter how hard he tries, and he

Critically evaluate the concept of empowerment. What is the link Essay

Critically evaluate the concept of empowerment. What is the link between empowerment and motivation in the context of large U - Essay Example This is essential in the retail sector which thrives on customer satisfaction. Empowerment however requires training and guidance which appears to be lacking in the retail sector. The employees tend to prefer direction to action which implies they lack intrinsic motivation. The management too may be unwilling to share critical information and relinquish power. Hence, the efficacy of empowerment is dependent on various factors and cannot lead to competitive advantage by merely empowering the employees. Empowerment Empowerment has varied definitions and approaches and may involve elements like individual employee perceptions, job structure and work environment, organizational structure and culture, managerial commitment and leadership, and training and reward systems (Anderson & Huang, 2006). Empowerment involves the behavior of the supervisor (cause of empowerment) and the psychological state of the subordinate (the effect). Empowerment is not merely a fad but a unique concept represe nting a new managerial approach and cannot be substituted for word like authority, delegation, motivation or self-efficacy (Lee & Koh, 2001). Empowerment is a continuing process occurring in a dynamic environment. It requires removing the conditions that give rise to feelings of powerlessness. It should create a work environment that strengthens the feelings of self efficacy (Anderson & Huang, 2006). They should be given autonomy and allowed to participate in decision-making. The employees should be freed from rigorous control imposed by company rules and regulations. Empowerment can lead to job satisfaction and loyalty, which positively impacts performance. However, empowerment requires the right leadership style and the managerial practices which can provide the right motivation. Motivation Motivation has been defined as an internal process that controls and regulates behavior, according to Hardre (2003). Barnett (1999) defines motivation as a psychological force that directs, ini tiates, and sustains human behavior over time. To ensure highest productivity and better performance, the importance of motivation has been recognized. However, motivation should spring from the inner self – it should be intrinsic and not induced by external factors such as pay and monetary incentives. Intrinsic motivation is positive, internalized and self-owned whereas extrinsic motivation is low quality and does not produce the valued outcomes. Empowerment and motivation Thus it can be said that empowerment is the authority to use discretion and take decisions while motivation is an inner urge to grow or perform. This is the initiative that Kokemuller (2001) refers to as the skills essential for jobs in the retail but something that is commonly missing. In favorable conditions the workers produce better and according to Ryan and Deci (2000) these include autonomy and competence. This implies that empowerment provides intrinsic joy and this induces the worker to perform bet ter. Empowerment should be an individual motivation which should create an environment for augmenting motivation through the development of strong feeling of personal effectiveness (Anderson & Huang, 2006). Empowerment should foster a belief in the worker on his own effectiveness thereby enhancing intrinsic motivation. Empowerment enhances self-efficacy and even according to Maslow it is the highest in the hierarchy of needs. However, even if the workers are empowered, they

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

Ethics in Business Today - Essay Example Along with this, ethics also helps in reducing employee turnover thereby enhancing the range of efficiency, if maintained properly. Therefore, from the above points, it might be revealed that ethics acts as the catalyst that helps the business to enhance its dominance and supremacy in the market among other existing rival players. So, ethics is extremely essential for any business organization, operating in current scenario. Other than this, ethical policies and behaviors help an organization or business to attract more investors that might enhance the share prices to a significant extent among other rival players. Side by side ethics also helps in recruiting experienced and skilled employees within the organization that may prove effective in enhancing the total productivity of the organization. Thus, recruitment of talented staffs helps in development of varied types of inventive products and services for its customers thereby satisfying their changing needs and demands. This might help an organization in enhancing its brand value and loyalty within the minds of the target customers. As a result, its level of sustainability might get enhanced significantly. Consequently, ethics also helps in enhancing the inner morale of the employees so as to cope up with the inconveniences in turbulent situations. As a result of such type of inner confidence and willpower of the employees, the organization might become able to tackle the effects of the tough situations thereby retaining its previous image and values. However, this might be possible only if cooperation and team work might be maintained among all the members of the organization. Thus, it might be revealed that ethics is that type of inner psychology that might help an organization to develop a strong image and may also destroy its portfolio in the market among others (Plastin, 2013). Other than this, ethical decision making within an organization also helps in enhancing employee growth and their performance t owards the assigned duties and responsibilities. Due to which, the organization might become able to fulfill its target objectives and goals, which is extremely essential for any organization in this era. As a result, the organization might enhance its level of dominance within the market that may reduce the intensity of the new entrants to enter the segment. Along with this, the level of distinctiveness of the organization might also get enhanced thereby amplifying its output and profitability by a significant extent. As a result, the position and reputation of the organization might get improved in this aggressive market among other operating rivals. Hence, according to me ethics is important for any organization or a business for the following reasons presented below: Employee commitment Employee Growth Investor and stakeholders loyalty and commitment Improvement of the confidence power of the shareholders Improvement of the level of customer satisfaction Improvement in the relat ionship with the stakeholders Enhancement of the productivity of the organization Improvement of the level of performance Improvement of revenues and profit margin Improvement of reputation and image of the organizati