Norse Religion and Mythology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Norse Religion and Mythology - Research Paper Example This mythology is the study of the Germanic myths (Iceland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands and Denmark). The Norse societies later adopted Christianity because the Norse religion was not as strong as other religions. Lindow says that this mythology developed slowly over the years and the importance of different heroes and gods kept varying with time and place (45). They worshipped different gods and did not have any proper organization, as religion was not institutionalized. The absence of priests and temples meant that religion was part of their ordinary lives as they could worship from anywhere they wanted. The Gods and Goddesses of the Norse Religion The Gods and Goddesses of the Norse religion were divided into two major categories: the Vanir and Aesir. The former were referred to as the Earth Gods and symbolized fecundity, riches and fertility. They controlled the earth and the sea and had to be consulted on everything that falls in this category. The most important gods in this category are Freyr, Freya, Njord and Aegir. The Aesir on the other hand were the gods of the sky and they symbolized wisdom, power and war. They lived for relatively long periods and were very powerful but mortal. People could therefore pray to different gods when faced with different situations and their prayers were answered and their wishes granted. Odin Odin is the son of Bor and Bestla; he is the father and leader of all the other gods and men. He is the king of Asgard (the great citadel of the gods) and the ruler of Aersir. He had magical skills and could travel to all the nine Nordic worlds to exert his powers. He had two ravens, Huginn and Munin that could traverse the world on daily basis and inform him on everything that is happening in Midgard. He has magic, wit and wisdom that help him in making key decisions. He is also the lord of knowledge, war & death and could travel the world without being noticed. He rides on an eight legged horse during battles and has unrivalled military intelligence (O’Donoghue 24). He only has one eye because he traded the other one for wisdom. He is married to Frigg but occasionally flirts with Rind and was the god of poetic inspiration. Together they have three children namely, Thor, Baldur and Vali. He interfered a lot in the affairs of men and was believed to be the cause of the occurrence of many misunderstandings between people. These misunderstandings often led to war as men differed on different issues that were of strategic importance to all parties. Therefore, they turned to him for prayers during wars so he could help them win and humiliate their enemies (Lindow 78). He won his wars mostly through his cunning ways and not force because his wits, guile and stratagem were unequalled on earth. This made him to be a very important member of the god family and could be consulted by kings and other leaders for help before they could venture into any war. His willingness to accept both pain and loss made him gain advantage over men and other gods as he could venture into anything he was interested in. For example, he had to part with one of his eyes in order to be allowed to drink from the Urd. This shows that he could offer to do anything in order to get what he wanted in order to gain advantage over all the others. Through this, he was able to gain wisdom, and became a lot wiser than the others, making him to outwit them with ease (Skye 14). Everything he did was therefore for a purpose and with specific objectives that were of strategic importance to him as a god. He gained knowledge through pain as he was forced to hung and be

Surrogacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Surrogacy - Essay Example s regard, Eva kittay’s cognitive disability, Carol Levine’ s recipients-care gives relations, Martha Nussbaum, Jeff MacMahan and Peter Singer’s attributes in the description of meaning and significance of surrogacy in relation to cognitive disabilities is worth understanding. Conversely, based on their ideas generated, ethical issues, virtues, and the best surrogate practice is defined though in a different version (Christiano & Christman, 2009). On a broad analysis, Eva Kittay describes cognitive disability in relation to surrogacy descriptive meaning and significance as a growing awareness that incorporates moral status and the theories of justice directly to address the mental disabled individuals and their caregiver related issues. Ketay supports his stance in favor of Carol Levine’s caregiver and recipients’ relationship to demonstrate the meaning and significance of surrogacy in healthcare systems. For instance, Ketay advocates for health practitioners to act with surrogacy in handling the mentally challenged individual such as respecting their rights as human beings (Kittay & Carlson, 2010). However,Levine supports Kettay’s argument but with a different version expressing the best health care practice that legal guardians for the cognitively disabled individuals should be given a mandate to such as signing treatment consent before treatment. Similarly, the same approach was used by Bruce Jenningsà ¢â‚¬â„¢ capacity preservation and restoration of communication and personal identity kind of assistance for dementia patients by the community and family members (Levine, 2013). Comparative Martha Nussbaum bases her argument on a distributive justice of social contractive theory pointing out the importance of caring for the cognitively disabled individuals in making performed choices. For example, Nussbaum supports the importance of surrogacy by building a form of human dignity for the exceptionalities within the education systems in ensuring inclusive

Defining perfomance measures in Saudi Aramco Medical Services Essay

Defining perfomance measures in Saudi Aramco Medical Services Organization - Essay Example Action Plan 18 Saudi Aramco 18 5.2. Gantt Chart of the Action Plan 19 6.Analysis and Recommendations 20 Conclusion 23 Works Cited 24 Introduction The performance measures of an organization quantitatively display the important facets of the products and/or services rendered by the organization to its customer(s). Performance measures of an organization are one of the effective tools to identify its role and importance in the marketplace. Moreover, the process also helps the organization to recognize its present performance, customer satisfaction level to identify the prospects of achievement of the organizational objectives. Furthermore, performance measurement is a statistical control of the organization which initiates future initiatives for developing the products/services for its customers. Hence, it can be affirmed that measuring the performances of an organization fundamentally concentrates on the process of collecting and accounting the information about the productivity of it s workforce along with the quality of services rendered (â€Å"What are Performance Measures†). The performance measures of an organization should classify the risks to be determined by the process along with the information source and required time for the measurement. Subsequently, all measurements should be accomplished in an objective-oriented way being convenient to reduce outside influences over the employee performances. This particular strategy is quite likely to motivate the usage of more efficient cost effective methods towards augmenting the productivity of the overall organization (â€Å"Performance Measures†). Thesis Statement The paper intends to focus on the performance measures of Saudi Aramco Medical Service Organization (SAMSO). The paper also reflects the organizational profile with its various values, mission and vision. Moreover, the study also intends to highlight the key strategies and accomplishments with regard to develop suggestions for the en hancement of the performance of SAMSO. With this concern, the detail organizational profile has been discussed along with its value, mission and vision statements. The performance measurement method and the key strategies of SAMSO have also been critically analyzed with rational recommendations throughout the study of the paper. 1. Organization Profile a. Name of the Organisation SAMSO is a multifaceted medical service provider which is operated as a privately owned health-care division that serves the large number of Saudi Aramco Global Oil Enterprise’s employees (around 54000) and their families (â€Å"Corporate Citizenship Report 2010†). b. Operations of the Organization Saudi Aramco commenced its medical hospitality unit in the year 1933 and constructed its first separate health-care center in Dhahran in 1955 known as ‘Dhahran Health Centre’. In the present day context, Saudi Aramco operates to serve as one of the modernized health service providing or ganizations among the Middle East Countries. The health care unit of the organization provides its services throughout the city of Dhahran as well as other neighboring cities of the Eastern Saudi Arabia region (Al-Ghamdi). c. Number of Employees of the Organization Currently the organization provides its health-care service with the assistance of around 7334 employees (â€Å"Corporate Citizenship Report 2010†). d. Department My department is the Medical Support Services Department in SAMSO of which Medical Patient Processing & Records Division is part of. SAMSO operates with a total of five

Surrogacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Surrogacy - Essay Example s regard, Eva kittay’s cognitive disability, Carol Levine’ s recipients-care gives relations, Martha Nussbaum, Jeff MacMahan and Peter Singer’s attributes in the description of meaning and significance of surrogacy in relation to cognitive disabilities is worth understanding. Conversely, based on their ideas generated, ethical issues, virtues, and the best surrogate practice is defined though in a different version (Christiano & Christman, 2009). On a broad analysis, Eva Kittay describes cognitive disability in relation to surrogacy descriptive meaning and significance as a growing awareness that incorporates moral status and the theories of justice directly to address the mental disabled individuals and their caregiver related issues. Ketay supports his stance in favor of Carol Levine’s caregiver and recipients’ relationship to demonstrate the meaning and significance of surrogacy in healthcare systems. For instance, Ketay advocates for health practitioners to act with surrogacy in handling the mentally challenged individual such as respecting their rights as human beings (Kittay & Carlson, 2010). However,Levine supports Kettay’s argument but with a different version expressing the best health care practice that legal guardians for the cognitively disabled individuals should be given a mandate to such as signing treatment consent before treatment. Similarly, the same approach was used by Bruce Jenningsà ¢â‚¬â„¢ capacity preservation and restoration of communication and personal identity kind of assistance for dementia patients by the community and family members (Levine, 2013). Comparative Martha Nussbaum bases her argument on a distributive justice of social contractive theory pointing out the importance of caring for the cognitively disabled individuals in making performed choices. For example, Nussbaum supports the importance of surrogacy by building a form of human dignity for the exceptionalities within the education systems in ensuring inclusive

Broken Dreams of the Soviet Times Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Broken Dreams of the Soviet Times - Essay Example I was able to complete my secondary education in 1977 with an average grade of 4.95 (maximum 5). This grade fuelled my desire of fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming a fighter pilot. My eagerness made me feel that I am well-prepared and competitive for the education perspective. In the spring of 1977, I applied at The Chernigov Aviation High School. It was a tough experience; I had to undergo a rigorous medical examination and entry exams against 200 applicants. But I failed. I did not pass the last and very simple medical test. The surgeon pointed out that my x-shaped legs are unfit for someone who is privileged to serve as an Officer of the Soviet Military Aviation Force. The disappointment had put me off for a while but my ambition to fly prevailed. I enrolled at the Buguruslan Pilot School. In 1980, I finished the course obtaining a Lieutenant Military Rank, a diploma and a Civil Pilot License. The same year I passed entry exams at the Kiev Institute of Civil Aviation, but l eft it in 1981 upon completion of one school year. I felt that it was impossible to combine my high intensity flying job with such a demanding study. In 1985, I broke through the toughest possible in the USSR competition. I got the chance to study at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs. However, I was expelled in the next year for speaking up my political views. I left Russia by the end of the ‘80s and had to start everything from the very beginning.

Ethics in Accounting: Financial Reporting Scandals

Ethics in Accounting: Financial Reporting Scandals Introduction The first thing is character, before money or anything else. J. P. Morgan Integrity is of utmost importance for a successful career in business and finance in the long run. Some believe that the world of finance lacks ethical considerations. Whereas the truth is that such issues are prevalent in all areas of business. The business environment in much of the world is reeling from the revelation of several financial scandals in the past few years. The optimism of the turn of the century has been replaced by scepticism and distrust. It will be discussed as to how we landed ourselves in this situation, what is being done to correct it, and what the future holds for us. Though Enron has been used as the poster-child for this purpose, breakdowns in accounting and corporate governance in Enron as well as in other companies will be discussed. Some companies that have encountered financial reporting problems will be discussed along with the role of auditors (including Andersens role in Enron), the regulatory environment, some of the causes of the problems, and the current and possible future outcomes. Ethics and Accounting Ethics (maintaining fair and true statements) is a key part of financial reporting. For shareholders to trust a company with money, they must feel confident in the companys financial reporting. Financial reporting presents all data relating to the entityscurrent, historical and projected health meaning investors and shareholders rely upon the financial data available for making informed and educated decisions. To help entities comply with business regulations and maintain financial reporting, shareholders can trust the existing organizations designed to monitor different aspects of the accounting world. Primary organizations are Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC), the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). These three bodies together ensure financial reporting is fair, reliable, and available to all investors. The specific importance of ethics in business and in financial reporting is to ensure public and investor confidence in companies. Without a strong code of ethics and adherence to that code, individuals may not be certain their investments are secure. Accounting professionals must have a strong ethical and moral reasoning because their decisions regarding financial reporting can have major consequences for individuals as well as corporations and entire nations. Ethics in the business environment are more than just issues relating to accounting; because ethical practices can and will cross boundary from business practice to what a company may ask its accounting professionals to do in financial recording. The many recent scandals involving accounting and reporting fraud generally began at the CEO and made their way down into the financial records. Before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, various financial abuses such as WorldCom, Enron, and Adelphia Communications plagued the American public and affected economic health of the entire nation adversely. Most of these frauds stemmed from unethical accounting practices instituted at the highest levels of the corporations, but carried out in the financial reporting practices of public accounting firms. In December 2001, Enron, which used to be one of the worlds leading energy companies once, filed the largest bankruptcy in the history of the U.S., using the retirement accounts of thousands of American workers, to enrich those at the highest levels of the corporation. Using thousands of off-the-records partnerships to hide nearly $1 billion in debt and to inflate profits, company had defrauded shareholders of billions. Due to these scandals, President Bush and Congress were forced to take tough stance in the form of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July of 2002. When ethics seem to be on the downfall in a society, the common man naturally turns to the government for guidance. Various crises in the history of the United States have led to creation of several regulatory bodies and laws. The three entities in the US, mentioned above, work closely together to ensure financial accounting is honest. The SEC, the FASB, and the PCAOB are each an independent entity, but they often work in cooperation in certain areas such as oversight and reporting. While these three bodies work together, they rely on cooperation from member companies and from participation from â€Å"whistle-blowers† in companies and public citizens. As the Enron collapse illustrated, there were systemic failures in the private-sector watchdog-groups. The SEC and the PCAOB must work closely together and include way to fast-track criminal cases. Enron and other financial reporting scandals Enron was a great symbol of widespread problem in corporate America as its rise was as spectacular as its fall. Enron, formed in 1985 when Internorth purchased Houston Natural Gas was soon being run mainly by Houston Natural Gas executives, with Ken Lay as CEO. In 1990, both Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow were hired. In 1996, Skilling became the President and COO. A meteoric rise in both reputation and stock value came by, with Enron being named as one of Fortunes most admired companies in 2001 and its stock price peaking at $90.56 a share as on August 23, 2000. Much of the companys success was credited to the financial wizardry of Fastow. However, companys fall was just around the corner, with Skilling resigning in August of 2001. This was followed by a $1.2 billion write-off, and the beginning of an SEC investigation in October. By December, Enron had declared bankruptcy and the share price was $.26 per share. If Enron had been a lone case, concern would have dissipated quickly and confidence in capital markets would not have plumped. But it was not so. Before Enron, there were companies such as Waste Management and Sunbeam — not significant by themselves, but they should have acted as a warning of what was to come. After Enron the disclosures kept coming. WorldCom was caught capitalizing expenses. While Enron was trying to outsmart the accounting and capital market regulators, WorldCom made accounting errors that even novice accounting students would know were inappropriate. A disturbing aspect of many of these scandals is the collusion among many executives. An important observation is that all of these scandals cant be attributed to one factor alone. Each one was different. Hence it can be concluded that the solution is not easy to find. There is no single accounting practice that made these entities vulnerable to executive excesses. What these scandals had in common was a culture that was pervasive in corporations. A culture had come in that made it permissible to lie to shareholders and the markets. â€Å"The ends justify the means† became the corporate mantra. Also, the watchdogs, the auditors had turned a blind eye with their focus just on their consulting businesses. They were not as vigilant as they should have been in audits. The auditors role in ensuring fair play Auditors are supposed to protect the public from the types of abuses that have been seen in the past. Even though financial statements are responsibility of management, the shareholders hire auditors for the protection of their interests and to add credibility to financial information provided by the firms. To be credible, auditors need both expertise and integrity. Expertise assures if there is a financial reporting irregularity, the auditor has the capacity to discover it. Integrity assures that auditors will disclose any irregularity they may find. These two qualities are essential. They are also multiplicative that is if either is missing, other has no value. It has been found that both were missing in many cases. Expertise was missing as audits had come under cost cutting measures of firms. This happened often at the cost of quality. Integrity was gone when auditors forgot that the first allegiance of a professional is to the public. Seldom did auditors betray management for the benefit of the public. Hence, even if they did discover reporting problems, rather than reporting them to the public they often helped management devise ways around the reporting problems. Auditors fell into this position (probably not because they were incompetent or unethical but) because of the cultures in major accounting firms. Andersen, Enrons auditor, is a classic example. There were good auditors who got caught up in an economic struggle leading to undue focus on revenue generation. An audit firm having the highest reputation for competence and integrity compromised on its values as that was the only way its partners thought to be economically competitive. In the more recent Satyam case in India, the fraud started at the top level management and reached the financial records. The role of Pricewaterhouse, Satyams auditor, is also controversial in the said scandal. Causes of financial reporting problems The regulatory environment had not changed suddenly then why did the financial reporting problems surface at the time, is a question to be pondered upon. There are many reasons, not one that dominates. It was a confluence of circumstances that opened eyes to the problems. The bursting of the bubble economy was a major reason these financial abuses came to light. When everything was seemed bright, nobody questioned companies financial reports. In accounting the lack of relevance of historical cost accounting and even the basic traditional accounting framework were being discussed. The â€Å"new economy† was not to last forever. And when it did not last, investors began to ask tough questions. For many of the questions, there were no answers — only denials and cover-ups. In the auditing profession, audits had become loss leaders. The balance sheets and income statements had lost value, so auditing of the statements was not important. Thus, many audits became hasty and more of a formality. No one was willing to pay for quality audits, so many audit firms believed there remained no sense in competing on the basis of quality. Cost drove audit decisions. Lower cost even with lower quality was the norm. The passivity of corporate boards was also a contributor. This was worsened by the growing number of complex financial transactions, most of which were beyond understanding of board members, who had gained their experience before such instruments came into being. Even a former accounting professor heading Enrons Audit Committee, a person of utmost integrity, had difficulty understanding the implications of the companys financial manoeuvring. Finally, the biggest culprit is the corporate culture. Focus was laid on short-term gains forgetting about all long-run considerations. Also the executive scorecard became focused on salary. Many players had become greedy — executives, investors, and attorney, among others — but more than that was the need to compete on the basis of compensation. Implications for accounting educators The perpetrators of most of financial reporting scandals are former students, graduates of accounting or MBA programs. So educators must ask themselves: What are they doing wrong and what must they do to fix the problems? The first obvious reaction is to emphasize ethics in business and accounting curricula. This is important. Educators in a business ethics class can not dissuade someone who is inclined to commit a fraud from doing so. But it is also true that most perpetrators did not at the onset set out to commit a fraud. They simply got ended up on a slippery zone. Also, the most disappointing aspect about most of the scandals is the number of people who, (though not personally involved) knew what was happening and still did nothing. Exceptions to the rule are some courageous whistle blowers, many of whom were products of university accounting programs. Thus, the focus of ethics classes should be to recognize and analyse the situations that can lead to compromise on ones ideals and values, and to promote the reporting of inappropriate behaviour. This can be best done in context because ethics issues come up in context, with you imagining yourself in the real situation. It is easy to go into an ethics class and give the answer that the instructor wants. It is an altogether different thing to put ones self in a case situation with conflicting pressures, and determine the appropriate action when ethics is only one of the many factors impacting your decision. Conclusion The accounting profession is in the middle of a challenging time. A reputation gained over years and decades can be lost in a day. Accountants were thought of as persons of high integrity working at an uninteresting job. In the current scenario the job has gotten more interesting, but at the cost of their reputation for integrity. It is essential to win back the trust of the public and maintain their belief in the importance of accounting. The road to restoring integrity of accountants today is a long one. The job will neither be quick nor easy, with the new series of financial reporting scandals that have come up. References Wikipedia online encyclopaedia Sarbanes-Oxley Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes- Oxley_Act#Overview_of_the_PCAOB.27s_requirements Financial oversight of Enron: SEC and private-sector watchdogs http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/100702watchdogsreport.pdf http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/54065/accounting_ethics.html

marketing consulting :: essays research papers

Marketing Departments in mid-sized businesses face lots of challenges such as how to target customers more efficiently, how to increase market share, how to compete in the market-place and be ahead of competition, and how to increase one-to-one communications with customers. The unsteady economy has pressured businesses to become as streamlined as possible, leaving marketing departments short on budget and staff. Today, our role as Marketing Consultants is to help companies not only retain current customers but also aggressively grow market-share, open new market potentials and add new customers. Our Marketing offerings can help companies conquer these challenges. We can help developing, supervising and executing your Marketing Strategies, whether through dealing with your Marketing Department or through assigning persons from our company. Why we execute, or supervise for you? Because today’s economic realities have put a tremendous amount of pressure on the Marketing Departments to do more with less staff and budget. Marketing is the core of the company’s activities and strategies in today’s high competitive market. In the coming years, due to globalization, competition will boost, professional companies will achieve additional success and economical pressure will become very high. Please note here that cutbacks put companies at risk for losing customers through a lack of new initiatives and competition monitoring. The only possible response is to increase efficiency through outsourcing your Marketing Planning to experts in the field. Many Business Owners or Managers think that by simply placing an Ad in a newspaper or a commercial on a radio or a television station, customers will automatically come to purchase their product or service. This could bring some customers out of curiosity but hundreds of other potential customers may never learn of your business. Just think of the money you’ll lose simply because you didn’t develop an adequate Marketing Plan. As mentioned previously, Marketing is the core of your Business Operations and it determines how successful your business will be. What you, as a Business Owner or Manager, must do is maintain a thorough understanding of the Marketing Plan, and use it to extract advantages from the marketplace. Remember, your aim is not only to attract and keep a steady group of loyal customers but also to expand your customer base by identifying and attracting new customers and to reduce risks by anticipating Market Shifts that can affect your bottom line. †¦we visualize success to your company and help you reach it