Criminal Behavior: the Negative Attribution of Societal Nurturing

Running head: SOCIAL CONTROL, STRAIN, SOCIAL LEARNING, AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR Criminal Behavior: The Negative Attribution of Societal Nurturing Criminal Behavior: The Negative Attribution of Societal Nurturing Imagine someone telling you that â€Å"you are the product of your environment†, what does that mean? Imagine a girl who has decided to pursue a career as a stripper. All of her friends are strippers and the new people she meets are those she has met while stripping. Would it be easy for her to quit that job?What would happen if she moved away and was surrounded by well-educated individuals? – Individuals who gave her strong social support and a good positive influence. What about the youth living in a deprived neighborhood, surrounded by small hopes and dreams for the future and low supervision? Is it possible that they become just like everyone else in their community? Let us compare an individual who lives in a disorganized community with an individual in a more organized and structured community, which one is more likely to develop criminal and delinquent behaviors?The purpose of this study is to investigate the measurable affirmation of criminal behavior contributing to a selective demographic based on three theories: social control theory, social learning theory, and strain theory. The idea in which the environment is the context within which all social relations occur has been brought to our attention by Lewin (1943) and can be used to make concept of a major factor in developing criminal and delinquent behaviors.Lewin proposed that the fundamental principle of social psychology research is that human behavior is a function of not only the person, but of the environment as well (Opotow & Gieseking, 2011). A large body of research has been done regarding the human behavior as a function of their â€Å"life space† and the person’s environment, such as neighborhoods, schools, work, and their friendships. Lewin states that pa rticular places can serve as â€Å"contact zones† (Opotow & Gieseking, 2011) and support certain kinds of interaction.These â€Å"contact zones† are formed between people and the physical characteristics of the built and natural world they live in (Opotow & Gieseking, 2011). Social control theory, strain theory, and social learning theory were all proposed by a variety of researchers strongly supporting the link between environment and the development of criminal minds. The theories supported are thought of as individual-level processes (Hoffman, 2003).The social control theory, for example, is the thought that community disorganization lessens bonding mechanisms by making parental supervision and interpersonal attachments more vague (Hoffman, 2003; Elliot et al. , 1997; Shaw & McKay, 1931). With community disorganization comes little to no control. The community is usually distinguished by residential instability and a high ratio of broken families as well as single p arents; reducing the likelihood of efficient socialization and supervision of the youth.A research study was conducted by Baskin & Sommers (2011) to determine whether placement instability played a role in developing delinquent/criminal behavior; results indicated that the children with more instability were more likely to be arrested and have a criminal record. Community disorganization reduces social support structure and weakens an important source of conformed bonding and success in socialization: effective parenting.Empirical research has sustained the idea that the influence of social bonds differs in each type of community and disorganized communities have a negative effect on the competence of social bonds to greatly reduce delinquent behavior. A lot of this is seen in our own communities and the communities surrounding us. It is all about where the person lives, where he goes to school, and whom he chooses to hang out with.The initial development of the strain theory was de veloped by Merton (1968) where he proposed that opportunity structures greatly affect the ability to grasp common cultural goals, such as the pursuit for monetary gain (Hoffman, 2003). The individual-level component of the strain theory is basically the strain of striving to reach goals within various forms of opportunity structures that could lead to adjustments such as deviant behaviors, delinquency, and even crime.With the assumption that opportunity structures differ in each community, it is safe to say that the effects of strains caused by the disunity between goals and means on deviant behavior will differ in every community (Hoffman, 2003). In other words, the strained youth in disorganized communities have a more realistic picture of their situation, so criminal adaption’s become more likely. Agnew (1992) elaborated this theory to form a concept by broadening the notion of strain with adding a variety of sources, such as families, schools, and cognitive skills (Hoffma n, 2003).Agnew assumes that the deprived communities are more likely to have strained youths and that these communities will suffer from more blocked or â€Å"strained† opportunity structures (Hoffman, 2003; Agnew, 1999). What is meant by Agnew’s new definition of this strain theory is that these communities develop an atmosphere that is based on anger and frustration; this could mean a greater chance of â€Å"going with the flow† to maybe prove themselves as â€Å"tough guys† to other communities.The social learning theory or differential association proposes that criminal associations and favoring conflict differ within each community type; it is this differentiation that explains the distribution of crime rates (Hoffman, 2003; Cressey, 1960; Reinarman & Fagan, 1988). Individuals embedded within certain communities are either exposed to or opposed to criminal behavior. Akers (1998) sees the sources in these differences: â€Å"The less solidarity, cohes ion, or integration there is within a group†¦ the higher will be the rate of crime and deviance† (Hoffman, 2003).In other words, social structural influences on criminal behaviors are fully reconciled by social learning processes. Many researchers stress that the DSM-IV diagnosis applied to criminals completely misses the mark and the idea of their environment is not enough (Stuart, 2004). Some researchers believe that sociological and environmental theories do not include the important concept of individual choice: â€Å"Crime resides within the person, not the environment† (Stuart, 2004). Other research, however, supports the importance of living in a good environment to prevent the development of a criminal mind.Although some researchers may suggest the treatment should be to focus on changing the patterns of thinking of criminals and to hold them accountable for every violation of moral thoughts, other researchers now believe that these efforts are slightly mis directed (Hoffman, 2003; Stuart, 2004, Baskin & Sommers, 2011). Other research suggests that even with punishment one can only discourage the criminal act to a greater or lesser degree, restrain the secret manifestation of a criminal urge, but the punishment ill not reconstruct the criminal mind, or avert its development in the individual (The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1928). The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (1928) proposes that the criminal mind is not different from that of the sane mind. Of course, many individuals do deviate themselves from the strain of their environment and negative influences simply because of their own personal values and the will to want to better themselves and their way of living. The proposed study will examine the moderating effects of the environment on developing criminal behaviors based on where the individuals grew up/came from.The study is based on the social control, strain, and social learning theories. There have be en very few studies that examine the impact of these theories and their consequences on the general individual-level processes that affect the person’s adaption’s to an environment exposed or opposed to possible criminal behaviors. Furthermore, by investigating these theories, this study might be able to determine which variables, if not all, indicate the development of criminal minds and delinquent behaviors.It is expected that participants will display more criminal and delinquent behaviors in the more strained and disorganized communities. Some participants will be from a more deprived area of town; they are considered to be part of a disorganized as well as strained community. Others will be from an average to more up scaled living environment; they are part of a more organized community who are influenced by everyone around them to want to have a better living. Each group of participants is expected to react to the way of their environment; to adapt to their †Å"way of living†.However, in general, participants in a more disorganized and strained community will suffer from more blocked opportunity structures, poor supervision, negative bonding mechanisms, and poor residential stability because despite having personal choices, an individual is always a product of his environment. Method Participants There will be approximately 850 participants in the proposed study that will serve as a representative sample of ninth grade students from U. S. high schools. Participants will be selected from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES).In exchange for their participation, participants will be given a raffle ticket for a chance to win a variety of small prizes. Design The proposed study will be using the longitudinal method. The independent variables will be the type of community the participants live in (organized/disorganized), their friendships, monetary strain, blocked opportunity structures, and parental supervision. The depen dent variable will be their acquired behaviors, which will be examined (according to the variation of delinquency theories), by the data drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS).The NELS is â€Å"a longitudinal study designed to explore the impact of families and schools on a variety of educational, vocational, and behavioral outcomes† (Howard, 2003). The friendship variable will be used to examine the learning theory, the stress for monetary gain and blocked opportunity structures will be used to examine the strain theory, and parental supervision will be used to examine the social control theory. Procedure The representative sample for this study will be drawn by NELS.This sample will then be interviewed. At the beginning of the interview, the parents of the participants as well as the participants themselves will be specifically informed that all private information will be strictly confidential and will be used for research purposes only. The parents will then be given an informed consent to read through. As the participants from the subsample come in for the interview, they will be asked a variety of questions regarding delinquent behavior. All of this data will then be entered in NCES.The NELS data will then be used to examine the community characteristics that condition the impact of pertinent variables on deviant behaviors in the modern lives of these adolescents. Data from NCES will match their residential addresses to census identifiers. Census tracts are used to examine the impact of neighborhoods on various outcomes. The participants will then be interviewed during their senior year in high school. Again, asking them a large sum of questions regarding deviant behaviors. The same data will then be entered in NCES and NELS to retouch the previous information.The issue being utilized in this study is the individual’s environment on his behavior based on a long period of time. The questions asked by examiners will per tain to their relationship with their parents, their thoughts on fighting and violence, cultural goals for monetary gain, and so on. Measures As mentioned before, the friendship variable will be used to examine the learning theory; the stress for monetary gain will examine the strain theory; and parental supervision will be used to examine the social control theory. Conventional definition (Howard, 2003).A conventional definition will be constructed from a set of ten questions that will ask participants whether it is acceptable to engage in deviant behaviors such as having a gun, being affiliated with a gang, fighting, vandalism, selling drugs, using drugs, and stealing. A sample question includes: â€Å"Do you believe it is acceptable to join a gang? †. Response set ranges from one (often acceptable) to four (never acceptable). The Strain Theory. Questions that examine the strain theory will be based on cultural goals for monetary gain and blocked opportunity structures: â⠂¬Å"How important is money to you? ; â€Å"Do you have a high or low chance of graduating from high school? †; â€Å"What are the chances of you joining a gang if you knew you would get lots of money? †. The responses will be based on coding: 1 if money is very important, 0 not being important; 1 if high chance of graduating, 0 if low, and so on. The Learning Theory. The learning theory will be assessed by asking four questions about their friendships. Sample questions include â€Å"Do you feel pressured to be involved in everything your friends are in? † and â€Å"Have you ver been influenced by a friend to engage in deviant behaviors? †. Response set ranges from one (always) to four (never). The Social Control Theory. This theory will be examined by parental supervision. The respondent’s parents will be asked a total of ten questions, with answer choices ranging from one (disagree completely) to four (agree completely). Sample questions include à ¢â‚¬Å"Do you believe it is important to know your child’s friends? † and â€Å"Do you believe it is important to know how your child spends his money? †.Upon completion of each interview the respondents’ will be debriefed and given their raffle ticket for a chance to win a variety of small prizes. Discussion It is expected that participants will display more criminal and delinquent behaviors in the more strained and disorganized communities. Each group of participants is expected to react to the way of their environment; to adapt to their â€Å"way of living†. If the hypothesis is supported, then each group of participants would adapt to their way of living as a reaction to their environment.Significant findings resulting from the proposed study can be used in better understanding the role of the environment on the development of human behavior. If social control theory, learning theory, and strain theory are found to magnify the chance of developin g criminal and deviant behaviors, this understanding could be applied to many different research studies and therapeutic training. Some research has already demonstrated that identifying an individual’s environmental background is quite important in understanding his criminal acts.In the psychological domain, recognizing the existing influences of each theory might be helpful in raising parental awareness of the importance of bonding mechanisms (supervision and interpersonal attachment) as well as children’s awareness of handling certain opportunity structures (cultural goals) and teaching the importance of maintaining strong values, raising society’s awareness of the importance of community organization, and implementing counseling programs.If people are made aware of the negative as well as positive effects of their environment on the development of their behavior, they might be more persuaded to maintain or develop strong values, develop cultural goals, and h ave a more positive realistic picture of their future, especially if they are living in a strained community. If the hypothesis is not supported, then there will be no difference between the influence of strained/disorganized communities and organized communities on the development of criminal and delinquent behaviors.Matching the social control, learning, and strain theories to each group of participants’ environment would have no effect in determining the possible implicit development of criminal behaviors. In this case, the type of environment (organized or disorganized community) would not justify the consequences on the general individual-level processes that affects the person’s adaption’s to the community exposed or opposed to possible criminal behaviors.Therefore, there would be no reason to raise the awareness of parents, children, and society of the importance of strong values and cultural goals when it comes to preventing the negative influences of th e community on behavior. Whether or not the message raises awareness, people would just continue â€Å"going with the flow†. Unexpected factors that can occur during this longitudinal research study, which may skew the outcome, may include the unexpected death of several participants (i. . illness, accident, gang violence), or if a participant moves to a different country. A potential limitation of this study is that it does not involve clinical assessments, which can include family history and background to determine the presence of abnormal disorders (mood disorders, personality disorders). Being aware of the presence of abnormal disorders is an important factor in determining the prevalence and etiology of criminal behavior.As a result, assessing the environment would not be sufficient to determine the risk of becoming a criminal. Also, longitudinal studies of a large sample of the population require a large number of researchers and access to certain legal databases (depe nding on the study), which takes time and a considerable amount of money. Future research could investigate other factors that might have an influence on the development of criminal behavior (i. e. race, gender, psychological and biological vulnerabilities, and individual choices).It is possible that sufficient justification to support the influences of these theories (control, learning, and strain) could also be accompanied by or perceived as different depending on these factors, such that psychological vulnerabilities (cognitive development), which can be caused by abuse, in any type of environment could influence the development of such behaviors as well. Some researchers believe that crime does not reside in the environment and others say that the idea of their environment alone is not enough.Future research should be done to investigate the measurable affirmation of criminal behavior contributing to a selective demographic based on psychological, biological, and sociological vu lnerabilities. Further investigation of the underlying causes of the development of criminal behavior is important not only to raise awareness, but to benefit our justice system as well as to contribute to the developing realm of research in psychology and criminology. References Hoffmann, John P. (2003). A contextual analysis of differential association, social control, and train theories of delinquency. Social Forces, 81, 753-785. Baskin, Deborah R. ; Sommers, Ira (2011). Child maltreatment, placement strategies, and delinquency. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 36, 106-119. Opotow, Susan; Gieseking, Jen (2011). Foreground and background: Environment as site and social issue. Journal of Social Issues, 67, 179-196. Stuart, Bryan (2004). Inside the criminal mind. Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 32, 547-549. No authorship indicated (1928). The problem of the mind. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 23, 1-3.

Gender Discrimination Essay

Gender discrimination is an important issue in the workplace in today’s world. Female employees are facing gender discrimination in the form of different dimensions. This discrimination is disturbing their performance. The main aim of this study is to see the effect of these gender discrimination dimensions which include glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the productivity of female employees with the mediating effect of job commitment and job satisfaction. The research is focused on the private education sector. The population frame is the female teachers in the private education institutes. A sample of 130 female teachers is collected for this study. The framework is developed for our study for checking the impact of glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the productivity of female employees. The hypotheses are developed and after the data analysis some of the hypothesis are rejected and some of the hypothesis are not rejected. The hypotheses that the glass ceiling, discrimination in facilities and salary gap has negative impact on employee productivity is accepted which made us to conclude that these discrimination has a big impact on employee productivity and ultimately organizational performance. This study will give some guidelines to the managers and policy makers in any organization that how to reduce these discriminations. Key words: Gender discrimination, Glass ceiling, Employee productivity, salary gap, discrimination in facilities, job satisfaction, job commitment, Paper type: Research Paper 1. Introduction 1.1 Significance/Rationales of study The study came up with the solutions to the problem of gender discrimination at work place. This study will help the people to be aware of this dominating problem of gender discrimination and its reasons. This study can also identify the positive and negative effects of discrimination on the world of business and personal lives of people. Gender discrimination is a wide phenomenon which is affecting every political, social and economic life. In this era where everyone think that there should be equal rights for men and women, there are some occurrences of people who are being discriminated because of their gender. It is not an issue, which one can easily tolerate or ignore. Gender discrimination is understood as the unequal treatment against people of either sex, but statistics shows that women are the one who are more discriminated just being a female (Lila Adhikari, 2008). Gender issues were first pointed out in 1950s, but it’s been highlighted in organization and management studies in between 1980s and 1990s. In this duration many studies on effect of gender discrimination on employees were conducted. One study shows that gender discrimination is inversely proportional to job commitment and satisfaction which means it reduces the employee’s productivity which ultimately affects the organizational productivity (Zahid Ali Channar, 2011). Many factors have been identified which are responsible for gender discrimination in work place, which are education, promotion, marriage and child bearing and environment. If we look in context of promotion, a wide practice used is glass ceiling, a process by which women are not promoted to high level of jobs (Bell, 2002). Last year report issued by a commission of glass ceiling that shows that there are only 7 to 9 percent of managers that are in senior positions are women at fortune 1000 (kom and catalyst, 2012). 81 % employers dislike to hire a female. 49 % not carefully planning their careers to benefit women and above of all a survey tells that only 1 percent CEOs or even less than 1 percent take it as first concern, the development of women (Mauricio, 2012). 1.2 Problem Statement HRM in any organization is related to staffing, motivating and maintaining the organization (Decenzo, 1998). 50 years ago, due to homogeneity of work force the HRM was very simple, but now-a-days the workforce is heterogeneous. Managing this heterogeneity required such a staff that can create an equitable environment so that no group has any kind of advantage or disadvantage on other group (Wayne, 1995). Heterogeneity in workplace gave birth to gender discrimination, which has become an intense situation in Pakistan and affecting the employee’s productivity (Qaiser Abbas, 2011). An employee perform difficult tasks for the survival and improvement of organization but gender discrimination reduces the employee’s satisfaction, commitment and enthusiasm and increases the stress level which ultimately affects the productivity of an employee (Zahid Ali Channar, 2011). These studies did not discuss that how dimensions of gender discrimination effect the productivity of employee. The dimensions of gender discrimination include discrimination in promotions, discrimination in salary and discrimination in facilities provided. So there is a need to explore the effect of different dimensions of gender discrimination on the productivity of employee. 1.3 Aim of the study This study investigates that how different dimensions of gender discrimination effect the employee productivity. It would be helpful for any organization in the process of policy making which will ultimately increase the productivity of an organization. 1.4 Research Objectives 1) To identify that whether gender discrimination has an effect on productivity of employees in private educational institutes. 2) To explore how the productivity of employees is affected by gender discrimination in promotion, salary and facilities provided in private educational institutes. 3) To examine the results of the survey. 4) To recommend some reformed measures to the policy makers for the future. 1.5 Research Questions 1) What is relation between the employee productivity and gender discrimination? 2) What is effect of gender discrimination in promotion, salary and facilities on the performance of an employee? 2. Literature Review This literature view is based on the evaluation of gender discrimination on employee’s productivity. The gender discrimination now exist most of the organization around the world. Gender discrimination may exist in different dimensions like discrimination in promotions, facilities and Salaries. In simple words gender discrimination can be defined as the unfair treatment or behavior based on gender. It is said to occur when an individual’s decision is based on gender. Gender discrimination was attempted to define by no law. If we look in the perspective of employment, it is giving more advantage to a particular group (Wayne, 1995). This thing results in the decreased productivity of employees. 2.1 Gender Discrimination in Global Perspective The first form of discrimination was found by the universal declaration of human rights (1948). Gender discrimination is now a social disease which is destroying the lives of women around the world. Sen (1991) shows us that if equal treatment and opportunities were given then there should be more 100 million females than are presently alive. Many steps were taken to eliminate the gender discrimination but none of them was proved to be effective. The Beijing conference that documented 12 most prominent areas of discrimination was a big step in eliminating the gender discrimination (UNFPA, 2005). It is proved from the studies that gender discrimination has an influence on the employee productivity. A study shows that if there is a proper policy of gender discrimination there will be a change in employee’s productivity (Naqi Abbas, 2010). 2.2 Glass Ceiling Women in workplace face a wide practice called glass ceiling. This is a practice in which women are ignored when making a promotion policy or promoting an employee. We can see that in every organization the executive posts are held by males. According to a study only 3 percent of the most paid executives are female and these posts are disproportionately held by men (Healy and Zukka, 2004). Women are mostly entrusted in small projects not the big one. They are being kept deprived from international assignment which is keeping away from their promotions. Nick (1991) had conducted the study on international careers of women. His study clearly shows that there is a glass ceiling effect. Women are not being encouraged to do new projects on new markets and they are being kept at junior manager positions. Gender discrimination is not directly related to productivity. The relation of employee productivity and gender discrimination is mediated by job satisfaction and job commitment. Employees who faces policies and practices of gender discrimination show less satisfaction with their job (Ensher et al, 2001). When individuals’ face gender discrimination in workplace they show a low level of job commitment so gender discrimination has a negative relation with job commitment and job satisfaction (Sharon Foley, 2005). Gender discrimination creates tension and reduces the satisfaction of people and it is the study of 139 Hispanic male and female (Sanchez, 1996). The productivity of a happy worker is higher than an unhappy worker (Rabins, 1999,). Employee satisfaction plays a vital role in its productivity and there is a significant relation of job satisfaction with employee productivity (Pushpakumari, 2008). Job satisfaction lead to organizational responsibility, mental health and finally employee productivity (Coomber, 2007). Another study shows us that the organizations who perceive greater gender discrimination report less satisfaction and commitment (Ellen A. Ensher, 2001). The hypotheses are given below: 1) Glass ceiling has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Glass ceiling is negatively related with employee productivity. 3) Job Satisfaction is positively related with employee productivity. 4) Job satisfaction mediates the relation between gender discrimination in promotions and employee productivity. 2.3 Discrimination in facilities In a workplace an employee is provided with many facilities which helps them to complete their task which include computers, air conditioners, assistant and transport facilities etc. If on a work place if such kind of facilities are provided to a male employee and not provided to a female employee of a same post. The female employee will start to think that the upper management don’t care about them which will increase their stress level and the satisfaction level of that employee cold be decreased which will affect the employee’s productivity. The hypotheses are given below: 1) Gender discrimination in facilities has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Gender discrimination in facilities is negatively related with job satisfaction. 3) Job Satisfaction mediates the relationship between gender discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. 2.4 Salary Gap Another dimension of discrimination is the Salary gap. Women usually get low pay then men in any job they are appointed. Ashraf and Ashraf (1993) study shows that there is a gap of 63.27 percent in salary in 1979, and in 1986 it decreases to 33.09 percent. This was the decline in every province. Discrimination is not the phenomenon of one or two countries, it exist in most of the developed countries like USA. A study showed that women dietitians in USA earn 45,258 dollars per year while men earn 50,250 dollars per year (Pollard, 2007). Managers at top level in organization mostly prefer their own interest rather than others. They think that superiors who have power on their careers will support them. According to Susan et al (1998) mostly top managers in any organization are the people who are more biased against females and these people save interest of their own. The study shows that job commitment is significant related with productivity, there exist high degree of correlation between commitment and productivity. Individuals that are highly committed proved to be more productive and have higher satisfaction and have no intention to leave the job rather than employee with low job commitment (Varsha, 2012). The hypotheses are given below: 1) Salary gap has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Salary gap is negatively related with job commitment 3) Job Commitment is positively related with employee productivity 4) Job Commitment mediates the relation between salary gap and employee productivity. 2.5 Gender discrimination in Pakistan Pakistan is also one of the countries where gender discrimination is seen in most of the organizations. We all know Pakistan is a male dominating society and women are being treated unfairly in every field of profession. Gender discrimination has spread its root from public organizations to private organizations. Women are being kept at low level jobs and they are not promoted to high posts due to biasness of top level managers and policy makers. A study by Ghizala Kazi (2011) shows us that no women in the public organizations are in the scale of 20 or more. There are very few women above scale 15. Most of the women are under 15th scale, which shows the situation of discrimination in Pakistan. Many factors for this situation were identified like education, promotion, environment, child bearing and discrimination. If such kinds of discrimination is eliminated than the productivity of these women employees could be increased. There are evidences that the promotion of gender equality leads to a better performance and improved economy of concerned society. The societies who have greater female employment opportunities are less corrupt and have better governance (Klasen, 2006). This is not the end of discriminations in Pakistan. A women employee is also discriminated in Salary, which is a basic right of an employee that he should get compensated according to his work and post. In Pakistan you will see men and women working on same job level but different pay. In the report of poverty in Pakistan it is clearly proved that majority of women are concentrated in low paid jobs with very few opportunity for moving upward (Shah et al, 2004). If we look in the export industries of Pakistan which is a backbone in measurement of economy of Pakistan we will see the similar situation of discrimination. The study of Siddique (2006) surveyed the industries of export that are in Karachi, Sialkot and Faisalabad. The results from this study confirms the gender discrimination and shows that men were getting 20 percent more than then women working at the same post. It was also concluded that adjustment policies and change in labor market has a negative impact on females. To have maximum output from women employee the organizational culture of discrimination should be changed. Organizational culture affects the performance of employee. Organizational environment and culture can make the workplace attractive and supportive for a female employee. Attitudes of peers and support from family are also very significant for the female employee (Irfan, 2009). Many studies have discussed the gender discrimination as a general term but there is need to explore the discrimination in different dimensions and how these dimensions affect the productivity of employees. Gender discrimination has three dimensions which include discrimination in promotions, salary and facilities provided. So this study will be based on exploring the effect of dimensions of gender discrimination on productivity of employees. 3. Conceptual framework In the literature review of this topic the framework has been defined which show the relationship between the variables. Correlation is basically run to analyze the relationship between two or more variable. It also measure that how two variables move in relation to each other. It measures the strength and direction of linear relationship between two variables with respect to each other. The sign of the value shows the direction that whether it is negative or positive. Positive sign shows that the variables are moving in same direction means if one variable is increasing the other variable is also increasing and negative sign shows that if one variable is increasing then other variable is decreasing. The magnitude shows the intensity between variable. If the value is between 0.1 and 0.5 then the variables are weakly correlated. If the value is between 0.5 and 0.7 then the variables are moderately correlated. If the value is between 0.7 and 0.99 then the variables are strongly correlated. The value 1 shows the perfect correlation between variables. Table 5 shows the intensity and the direction of any two variables. Highest value of correlation is 0.753 which is between gender discrimination in facilities and glass ceiling. So the correlation between discrimination in facilities and glass ceiling is positive and strongly correlated. The relationship between DF and EP, and DF and JS, and JC and SG is negative. So it means that if you have more salary gap than your commitment to job will be less but its value is less than any else two variables, so we can say that job commitment will be less but with very small value, and if you have more discrimination in facilities then your productivity will be less. The remaining variables have positive relation with each other. The relationship is significant at 1% which means there are 99% chances that the relationship between all two variables will remain the same if the sample is changes and sample size and population remains same as shown in the table given below. 5.7 Regression This research is to check the effect of gender discrimination dimensions which are glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the employee productivity. This research also includes two mediating variables job satisfaction and job commitment. Job satisfaction is mediating between glass ceiling and employee productivity and also discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. Job commitment is mediating between salary gap and employee productivity. For this 9 hypothesis were developed. For the purpose of checking the impact regression has been applied. The model has only one dependent variable so there will be one model of regression equation. There will be separate equation for mediating variable to check the mediating effect of variables between independent and dependent variable. In first model we run the regression equation between EP, GC, DF, SG, JC and Job satisfaction. 5.7.1 Regression Equation EP = 4.66 – 0.38GC – 0.86DF – 0.26SG + 0.017JC + 0.167JS The Above equation shows that if all the other variables remain unchanged or have value of zero then the productivity of employee remains at 14.66. It is the fixed value of employee productivity. The coefficient values tell the per unit change in the employee productivity so if we increase the value of GC, SG and DF then the value of employee productivity will decrease by 0.38, 0.86 and 0.26 respectively. If the value of job commitment increases by one then the value of employee productivity will increase by 0.017. The hypotheses of glass ceiling, discrimination in facilities and job satisfaction are accepted. If the value of job satisfaction is increased then the value of employee productivity will increase by 5.10 Kruskal Wallis Test The non-parametric test will be used that is kruskal-Wallis test. Whenever the assumption of levene test is not fulfilled the non-parametric test i.e. kruskal-Wallis test is used. So kruskal-Wallis test is applied to check the level of job commitment in the females who are earning less than 30,000 between 30,000 and 40,000 and more than 40,000. The table given below shows that the asymptotic value is greater than 0.05so test is insignificant. So there is no difference in the average of glass ceiling in all three populations. So we can conclude that there is no significant difference between the mean of all three population p = 0.509, with a mean rank of 73.45 for below 30,000, 65.20 for 30,000 to 40,000 and 73.00 for above 40,000. 6. Discussion This study is conducted to check the impact of gender discrimination on the productivity of employees. The study included three dimensions of gender discrimination that is discrimination in promotions, discrimination in facilities and discrimination in salary. With the help of previous studies it is found that all these discriminations have negative impact on employee productivity which is mention in literature view. The hypotheses were developed for this study. There are 12 hypotheses that are developed. First hypothesis is that glass ceiling has negative impact on employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked after entering the data into SPSS. He results show that glass ceiling does have negative impact on employee productivity. If women are not being promoted to higher job positions and if there is no such policies related to gender discrimination then the productivity of female employee decreases. Second hypothesis was that the glass ceiling is negatively related with job satisfaction. this hypothesis is checked through the correlation. The table 5 of correlation clearly shows that glass ceiling is negatively related with the job satisfaction and result is also significant so this hypothesis is supported. Third hypothesis is that the job satisfaction is positively related with the employee productivity. The table of correlation shows the positive relation between the two variables. So employee productivity increases as the job satisfactions continues to increase and if job satisfaction decreases the employee productivity also decreases. Fourth hypothesis is that the job satisfaction is mediating between glass ceiling and employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked through the mediation test which consists of four steps. This test did not support the hypothesis so this hypothesis is rejected. Fifth hypothesis is that the discrimination in facilities has negative impact on the employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked by regression. Discrimination in facilities has the negative impact on the employee productivity and it is also significant. So this hypothesis is also supported. The sixth hypothesis is that discrimination in facilities is negatively related with the job satisfaction. This hypothesis is supported because the correlation between them is negative in the table 5. So the discrimination in facilities increases then the satisfaction with the job decreases. The next hypothesis is that the job satisfaction plays the mediating role between the discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. This hypothesis is also checked by the mediation test the result is shown in the table 8 which shows that this hypothesis is not supported. It means that job satisfaction is not mediating between discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. The eights hypothesis that was developed is that salary gap has negative impact on the employee productivity. The hypothesis is not supported as it is checked by regression test which is shown in the table 6. It has negative impact but it is not significant means that if gap is more in salary then employee productivity decreases but not significantly. The ninth hypothesis is that salary gap is negatively related with job commitment. The hypothesis is checked with the correlation which is shown in the table 5 of correlation which shows that the relation between these two variables is negative. So salary gap reduces the job commitment of female employees. The next hypothesis that is developed is that the job commitment is positively related with the employee productivity. The relation is checked with the correlation and hypothesis is supported because results show that there is positive relation between salary gap and job commitment and it is significant. It means more job commitment the more employee productivity. The next hypothesis is that job commitment mediated the relation between the salary gap and employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked by the mediation test and it is not supported. The results show that job commitment does not play a mediating role between salary gap and employee productivity. The t test is also applied to check that whether the level of variables is also applicable on the population. The results are shown in the table 9. This table shows that all the values of p are significant so the level is also the same as the population. The level of job commitment is also checked in the three population related to different income groups that is below 30,000, 30,000-40,000 and more than 40,000. For this purpose the ANOVA is applied but for ANOVA the assumption of levene test should be fulfilled that is its value should be insignificant. The table 10 shows that levene test assumption is not fulfilled so the non-parametric test is used. The non-parametric test is the Kruskal-Willis test. This test is applied and the hypothesis is rejected as its asymptotic value is not significant. So it means that the there is no significant difference between the job commitment of females who are earning less than 30000, 30000-40000 and more than 40000. 7. Implication Through this study the impact of gender discrimination is checked on the employee productivity. The productivity of an employee is much important for an organization. So the management should consider the issue of gender discrimination as it is shown that the gender discrimination has negative impact on the employee productivity. As our sector for this research is the private education institutes which are very important sector for a developing countries so the management should consider reforming its policies. The management should make transparent, merit based recruitment and selection, it should also provide the training for better performance of female employee so that they can be promoted, they could be provided similarly facilities and different incentive so that they compete economically with the men as all these discriminations are effecting their productivity. 8. Limitation This study was only focused to the three dimensions of gender discrimination and employee productivity is the only variable that is measured that effect the productivity of organization. This research was only examining the education sector and the data was collected only from private institutions. The data was also 140 and it was collected only from the schools that are in the city area the educations institutes in the village was not collected so therefore the ability of generalizability of our findings were restricted and this can lead us to the biasness of respondents (Paul et al., 2003). 9. Conclusion This study provided an insight that how the dimensions of gender discrimination affect the productivity of employee. The data has been collected from different private education institutes through questionnaire. After the analysis that we have done on SPSS we can conclude that gender discrimination has a negative impact on the employee productivity which ultimately affect the performance of employee. The result of impact of salary gap on the employee productivity is not significant. So if the organizations want to perform well then they should keep the gender discrimination out of their organizations in order to make their female employees perform well which will be beneficial for the organization. 10. References Channar, Z. A. (2011). Gender Discrimination in Workforce and its Impact. Pak. J. Commer. Soc. Sci, Vol. 5, pp. 177-191. Dixit, V. (2012). A Study about Employee Commitment and its impact. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Vol. 1, pp. 34-51. Abbas, S. M. (2010). Gender Based Wage Discrimination and Its Impact on Performance of Blue Collar Workers: Evidence. KASBIT Business Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 45-63. Hiau, Joo. Kee. (2008) Glass ceiling or sticky floor exploring the Australian gender pay gap. The Economic Record, Vol. 82, No.59, pp. 408-427. Foley, S. (2005). Perceptions of Discrimination and Justice: Are there Gender Differences in Outcomes? Group & Organization Management, Vol. 30, pp. 421-452. Ashraf, J, and B. Ashraf (1993) Estimating the Gender Wage Gap in Rawalpindi City. Journal of Development Studies 29:2. Ensher, E. A., Grant-Vallone, E. J., & Donalson, S. I. (2001). Effects of perceived discrimination on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and grievances. Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 12, pp. 53-72. Prudence Pollard, Maxine Taylor and Noba Daher, Health Care Manager; Jan-Mar2007, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p52-63, 12p, 4 charts Ensher, E. A. (2011). Effects of Perceived discrimination on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour and grievances. Human resource development quarterly, Vol. 1. Coomber B, Barriball KL. 2007†Impact of job satisfactions on intent to leave and turnover for hospital based nurses: a review of the research literature†, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Vol. 44, pp. 297-314. Joanne Healy and Zucca J. Linda Mid-American Journal of Business; Spring2004, Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp. 55-62. Sen, Amartya, 1999, â€Å"Assessing Human Development Special Contribution† Human Development Report 1999 (New York: UNDP). Shah, Parveen. Memon, Rajab. A. (2004). Socio-economic and demographic status of rural women in Sindh. Proceedings of the international conference on social sciences: endangered and engendered, Fatima Jinnah women university, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, pp. 98-113. Nick, Foster. (1999) another ‘glass ceiling’? The experiences of women professionals and managers on international assignments, Gender, Work and Organization, Blackwell publisher’s ltd., Vol. 6, no. 2, pp.79-89. United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), 2004, Programme of Action: Adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo 1994 Wayne, F. Casico, (1995) Managing Human Resource, Productivity, Quality of work life, Profits, McGraw hill Internationals, 4th ed. pp. 61-116. Susan, Trentham. Laurie, Larwood, (1998) Gender discrimination and the workplace: an examination of rational bias theory, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Jan, 1998, pp. 1-22. Sanchez, J. I., & Brock, P. (1996). Outcomes of perceived discrimination among Hispanic employees: Is diversity management a luxury or a necessity? Academy of Management Journal, 39 (3), 704–719. 11. Appendices Questionnaire We are students of B.sc (Hons) Accounting & Finance, currently doing a research project on gender discrimination and its Impact on employee’s performance for which the questionnaire is being distributed to collect empirical data. Therefore you are kindly requested to fill this questionnaire. The information will be kept confidential and will be used for only academic Purpose it will take 15-20 min to complete the data. Thank you in anticipation (Strongly Disagree = 1, Strongly Agree = 5) Employee Productivity

Branding and Business Enterprises Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Branding and Business Enterprises - Assignment Example The author of the paper states that the type of brand of an enterprise is usually formulated from who the business enterprise consist of, the expectations of what they expect to become in future and lastly the perception of society and the people have towards the entity. A business cannot at any single point have opposing qualities. For example, the business enterprise can be quite innovative in nature, producing high-cost goods and services as well as high quality of the products in question. In other words the fountain of a business’ brand is its logo, the enterprise’s website, its mode of packaging and lastly its materials of promotion should ingrate the enterprise’s logo and consequently pass the message of its brand. After talking to Dr. Jim Friedman, branding has more meaning than the usual notion we had in the past. He was not afraid to speak out his mind by shading light to very gray areas of business and marketing in general in the society. He does not a llow a person to stay in a comfort zone because one will not achieve much in such a place and hence result in failures in life. When relating with others, he remains true to himself and does not pretend to be someone he is not and encourages individuals to emulate that quality from him. Kailin has an idea and brings along a water bottle of water which contains words from a famous American poet, W. H. Auden, who is renowned for his poetic works and the love he has for poems. The words are that â€Å"Thousands have lived with love, not one without water.†

RTI module Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

RTI module - Essay Example Finally, wrap up involves adopting the RTI approach in schools to change the existing processes (The IRIS Center, 2012). This module should explore in detail the assessment actions integral to RTI (The IRIS Center, 2012). It outlines how to use growth monitoring data to decide if a student is meeting the recognized performance norm or if more rigorous intervention is required. When specific criteria are utilized, cut scores should be established to assess learners against a particular level of proficiency such as achieving a mark of 15 or above (The IRIS Center, 2012). Students scores, in a normative comparison, should be compared against those of a greater group such as getting marks over the 25th percentile compared to a nationwide sample of 3rd grade learners (The IRIS Center, 2012). I would stress to Ms. Doran that the core curriculum in the classroom must be field tested and research-based (The IRIS Center, 2012). This section describes which students should receive Tier 3 intercession or special education services. The educator should also use this module to examine parents’ involvement in assisting English Language Learners gain knowledge. This implies, derived from evidence from assembled research, that the core curriculum incorporates all the elements found essential to successfully teach students and has an identified record of

Fiscal Policy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fiscal Policy - Assignment Example The fiscal policy has been instituted to see the government earn more revenue which is to be used to reduce the government debt which has been rising over the years especially following the release of stimulus packages to revive the economy after the financial crisis began. The fiscal policy currently in place disfavours the rich as it would see them pay more taxes. The middle class are also disfavoured by the fact that they have to pay 2% higher payroll tax than they have previously been paying. If not for the easy monetary policy that the country has adopted, many sectors of the economy would have been grossly affected by the financial policy and the unemployment levels would remain high. Generally, the fiscal policy will benefit those to whom the government is indebted. The Taiwan Government on has adopted an expansionary fiscal policy for the last seven years (Liu, 2013; weebly.com 2014). The policy includes raising spending on defence each year by 7.8%. The policy is aimed at stimulating domestic demand (weebly.com 2014). This measure has been taken in response to volatile exports. The government intends to invest in infrastructure and hopes that the economic growth will be more impressive. The policy favours local businesses and the general population although the government’s level of debt will keep rising. Mutikani, L. (March 22, 2013). Easy Fed softens fiscal policy punch on economy. Chicago Tribute. Retrieved March 14, 2014 from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-22/business/sns-rt-us-usa-economy-growthbre92l03o-20130321_1_easy-policy-monetary-policy-monetary-stimulus Liu, F. (2013).Taiwan Fiscal Policy to Stay Expansionary in 2014, With More for Infrastructure: Outstanding Public Debt Likely to Rise Close to the Statutory Limit. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2014

BMW Consumer Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

BMW Consumer Research - Essay Example Pg 1 - You say that your quotation in para 1 comes from BMW - where We need the publication details here. Has this first sentence come from the BMW web site If so, this should be referenced and critiqued - company web sites are not objective and valid sources of data this comes from BMW.com as stated in the reference page (BMW 2006). You are not 'supposed' to type a .com in a paragraph citation. BMW is listed in the reference page as BMW.com. That is why we have citation and then you look at the reference page. That is where this information is at. The scope of this research is to define factors that influence BMW's brand and image with an inference to create a program that increases customer value, satisfaction and loyalty towards the BMW brand and image. This will be done by examining the external environment in relation to Kotler and Keller's Marketing Management (2006), where: The societal marketing concept holds that the organization's task is to determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's and the society's well-being. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a met... This can be achieved by understanding the factors that influence consumer behavior and by building a trustful and committed reputation for BMW that is in alignment with consumer needs (Little and Marandi 2003). To create a program that will effectively increase consumer satisfaction, the research proposed is secondary literary research and the applications to BMW's environment. This will allow BMW to define potential consumer's perceptions and lifestyles and the manner in which these factors are affected by external engagement. This research will deal with the people who purchase from BMW as well as the external factors that effect their purchase behaviors. 1.3 Research Justification While the application of such things as internet and email based surveys are quite wide-spread and appropriate in most areas of marketing research, we can assume that implementing a research program based solely on the application of primary research and conclusions of statistical inferences will not allow for a subjective review and will only be based on the consumers collective responses to a question (Craig and Douglas 2000) This does two things, first it removes the possibility of consumer interpretations towards marketing research and secondly it is only representation of a single sample, in this case BMW's previous research has been gathered around the current customers, but not inherently dependant on cultural factors that engage or disengage a consumer behaviour in relationship to external forces. Pg 3 - how do you know that BMW currently has primary information on consumers Where did you get this from How can you state that BMW is lacking in subjective and theoretical resear ch If this is true, it needs substantiating:

Gas prices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gas prices - Essay Example (How Gasoline Works) The economy of the United States has witnessed four major shocks in connection with the oil price which occurred during 1973-74, 1979-80, 1990-91, NS 1999-2000 with a time span of 25 years. There was a unanimous view among the analysts that holding of energy independently would be the pivotal factor for designing a relevant National energy policy. If higher energy efficiency is mastered the aftermath of the oil price shock on the economy can be controlled. This effect has been proved for the year 1999-2000 where the oil price shock had a negligible effect on the economy when compared to the recent past. The candidates for the presidential campaign brought to light the necessity for greater American energy independence and expressed the idea of less dependence on oil import. Even though the United States has a hold to effect the gas price, it is to be understood that the market is not national but international. The American energy policy proves to be relatively undeterred force of s upply and demand which allowed constituting the prices for various energy sources. The public consumption of the energy source is also effected through this policy. The prices that are thought to be particularly sticky are wage contracts, publication subscriptions and items from catalogues. (Labonte; Makinen, 2000) The totally market based national energy policy argues that the market prices may blend all the relevant costs to the individual it may exempt the cause that are relevant to the nation. It is important to note that the prices may fall short to bring in a premium that would counteract any unwarranted foreign influence on the foreign and domestic policies of the United States. In the end, since the oil supply shocks are fickle and less anticipated market prices can soar high when they occur. So when this jerk disrupts, as in the past, it will have a considerable effect on Gross Domestic Product -- GDP, employment and inflation. Oil being an inevitable ingredient in the production and transit of most goods, naturally an oil price hike will affect the cost of production for the producers. This effect will also be shunned by products which use supplementary energy sources since those prices would have also experienced a hike. Thus the supply shock decreases an economic output and increase s the price level in a short run. If there is flexibility in the prices then the producers could reduce input prices such as wages excluding the total output and total price level. Only then, there would be no decline in output or hike in the price level. But when sticky prices persist then producers have no other alternative than to lower the rest of the input prices quickly which would result on a price hike that would affect the consumers. The consequence would be the rate of output is lowered as people decide to buy fewer goods, the prices being higher. Price of labor would be compensated with some employers signed off. So with fewer workers, only a lesser output is produced, so a rise in the price of oil and the inefficacy of other prices to accommodate temporarily results in the reduction of the rate of growth of output that is produced by an economy. (Labonte; Makinen

Managing Financial Resources and Decisions Essay - 7

Managing Financial Resources and Decisions - Essay Example From the above table it is observed that the Casey will be achieving negative cash balance at the end of every month which indicates that the barber shop will be running its business at loss if the above expenses and income are experienced by it for the next 6 months. From the profit and loss account and cash flow budget mentioned in Task 1 it is evident that Casey’s barber shop will be running at huge loss if he does not modify the business structure. The owner should bring in appropriate changes in business so as to earn profit. The owner should increase the working hours from 6 hours a day to 8 hours a day so that the barber shop attends 24 customers a day instead of 18 customers a day. It will bring in revenue without increase in any further cost. Adults are to be charged  £ 25 for the first two months and then  £ 30 for the next 4 months. The children should be charged  £ 15. The table below reflects the changes that are made in order to have postive ending cash balance at the end of every month. The charge of the services should be increased in order to bring in profit at the end of every month in the business. Adults are to be charged  £ 25 for the first two months and then  £ 30 for the next 4 months. The children should be charged  £ 15. The main aim of this section is to compare the financial statements of two listed companies published in their annual reports and examine the financial performance of the companies by comparing the performance of the financial ratios. The two companies that are chosen are ASDA Limited and Tesco Plc. Both the companies are dominating the supermarkets in United Kingdom. The data required for the ratio analysis are collected from the annual reports of both the companies. A comparison is drawn between the two with respect of their performance: liquidity, solvency and profitability. The presentation and the formats of the two company’s

Business Functions and Processes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Business Functions and Processes - Essay Example Primary activities are mainly associated with the creation of a particular product, whereas support activities involve assignments that support the primary activities and each other. Three of the support activities that include procurement, human resource management and technology development can be connected to primary activities, while the fourth activity (firm infrastructure) is responsible for supporting the entire value chain. The concept of value chain postulated by Porter (1985) explains that attaining competitive advantage begins with the effort to build organizational proficiency in conducting specific competitive value chain activities. The underlying aim behind performing such activity is to attempt harnessing those capabilities, which strengthen competitiveness and strategy of an organization. Given the fact that one or more of these abilities become the cornerstone of a company’s strategy and more resources are then allocated towards building greater expertise in performing these activities, the targeted abilities may ultimately become sustainable core competencies (Roper, Du and Love, 2008). In order to understand significance that Porter had attached to the value chain, it is imperative to recognize that there are two distinct and basic sources of competitive advantage. One source is a lower relative cost advantage and the other is a sort of differentiation. Although empirical research scholars have argued on the fact that many companies (specially Japanese) have been largely successful in combining the two sources mentioned above into one source, Porter continued to seek ways whereby both the sources could be developed separately (Hansen and Birkinshaw, 2007). Porter’s primary emphasis was on the argument that attaining low cost advantage or differentiation largely relies upon the disconnected activities performed by an organization. By disaggregating these activities in strategically pertinent groups, managers will be

Casey Anthony Essay Example for Free

Casey Anthony Essay Courtroom trials are very interesting to me and I really enjoyed clerking for judges and being able to watch everything from beginning to end. The case I have chosen is a jury trial and that jury ends up being seven women and five men. The criminal laws that were violated were many starting with Child Neglect, making false official statements and obstructing an investigation. Forging checks, fraudulent use of identification and petty theft, first degree murder, aggravated child abuse aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to law enforcement. Heading the prosecution was the District Attorney of Orange County Florida with several of the Assistant District Attorney’s. The defense has Jose Baez and what they were calling a ‘team’ of defense counsel, which actually ended up only being 3. Judge Belvin Perry was on the bench and all of the witnesses that were on both the states list of witnesses to call but the defense as well. The outcome of this trial rocked the nation as the verdict was read live which were Not Guilty of Aggravated Murder, Aggravated Child Abuse and Aggravated Manslaughter. The defendant was found guilty on 4 counts of the forgery of checks and was credited for time served, then released from jail. Casey Anthony made national news for several days and remained the top story. She had been charged and arrested with murdering her two year old daughter, Caylee Anthony. Casey denied ever knowing anything to the police of her whereabouts and told law enforcement that her nanny had taken Caylee by force and she had been looking for her in different avenues, to supposedly protect the child. Also stating she should have contacted police sooner than 31 days prior, but she was in fear for her daughter’s life was the story she stuck to. After being jailed and held without bond pictures of the young mother were posted all over My Space portraying Casey Anthony as nothing but a party girl. It wasnt until the actual trial started and the story took a huge flip and George Anthony who is Caseys father and grandfather of little Caylee, was being accused of sexually molesting his daughter since she was 8 years old and covering up the truth about the whereabouts of the two year old. Since Casey had been a child, she had been taught to cover up and lie about certain situations if it was going to cause embarrassment to the family. It was George who had found the lifeless body of Caylee Anthony, lying face down in their pool and the cover-up began. George Anthony did not want it to get out that the family was irresponsible and left the ladder out to get into the pool. Which the story reads, little Caylee climbed up that ladder and got in the pool herself, due to no supervision and drowned. Skeletal remains of a small child were found 3 months later within a mile of the Anthony home. The body had been discarded like a piece of trash, and her remains had been duct taped in a black garbage bag and tossed into the woods. It became media frenzy and, Orlando, Florida became the busiest it had ever been since the child had gone missing. It was in fact the remains of Caylee Anthony and to this day, the young mother sticks to her story and accuses her own father of covering the death of her child up and forced Casey to go along with it. She had been taught to obey her father and did not want to go against his strictness and allowed George Anthony to dispose of the body. The trial that began on May 24, 2011 went to the jury on July 3rd 2011. Deliberations were suspended over the 4th of July holiday and resumed July 5th. During its deliberations, the jurors did not ask to review any of the 400 exhibits, request any clarifications of the law or ask for any of the trial testimony to be read back. After deliberating for 10 hours and 40 minutes, the foreperson informed the court that the jury had reached a unanimous verdict that afternoon. More often than not when a jury returns a verdict that quickly and without asking for any type of assistance from the court, it bodes ill for the defendant. This jury, however, was about to prove the old maxim that juries are unpredictable despite what all the talking heads predicted it would conclude. The jury found her not guilty of murder, aggravated child abuse and manslaughter. She was however, convicted of four counts of lying to police officers. Judge Perry sentenced Casey to one year in jail and $1,000. 00 in fines for each of the providing false information counts. She was released from jail on July 17, 2011due to time already served. While Casey had been acquitted in her daughter’s death, Casey’s problems were not at an end. The defamation suit of Zenaida Gonzalez who Casey accused of kidnapping her daughter (one of the false statements) is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages. Gonzalez states she lost her job as a result of Casey’s allegations which led to the loss of her apartment by eviction and she and her 6 children continue to be harassed and threatened. (Kumar) It has changed how society works today by taking more child missing stories more serious and not to the facts of the case, but the simple fact that the 12 person jury could not convict her due to lack of evidence. The State of Florida had not proved their case and she was walking free except with a few misdemeanor charges of lying to law enforcement. How could this have happened, with all the circumstantial evidence of her guilt was obvious, the jury stood by the law? The evidence did not prove that Casey had been involved at all without finding any DNA or any other minute evidence. At almost the end of the trial, Casey asked to be evaluated by Psychologist and Psychiatrist to see if she was mentally capable to continue with the trial. She was found competent and the trial continued til the end finding her not guilty. All of America disagreed with the verdict except the defendant and the defense counsel and still held her responsible for her daughters death. Society even went to the extreme as to calling the jury idiots I believe Casey Anthony led a not so great life, but was also a spoiled brat who always got her way. So with the news that she was walking free didnt surprise me, as I couldn’t see any physical evidence either. Sad but true, she is out living her life without her daughter and it does not seem to bother her a bit. Casey is in hiding though as of today and knows there are people out there who hate her. She has started to learn and recognize her lies and what they did to people, and has told friends she has a lot of regards. Other sources say she plans to receive psychological counseling. She is young and optimistic and realizes she can’t change the past but she can move forward.

Challenges Facing Financial Management in Schools

Challenges Facing Financial Management in Schools The challenges and solutions of financial management in colleges and universities in the era of big data and Internet Abstract- With the development of Internet information technology, public financial management reform deepening, accounting focus Universities facing the management accounting change, the financial sector as a core sector universities, data centers will become a big school and participate in school management, decision-making, analysis and forecasting. We analyzed the development of university management accounting brings opportunities and challenges, and puts forward some countermeasures. The arrival of the era of big data, data important asset cause rapid Internet Insurance sector is concerned. This paper describes the development of the insurance status of the Internet, combined with the opportunities and challenges facing the era of big data Internet Insurance is proposed under the era of big data Internet Insurance Development Strategy in order to provide reference for the healthy and rapid development of the Internet insurance. For the Internet +, Big Data applications in other industries to produce value-added effect polymerization, and the lack of coal mine large data mining the potential value of the use of problems in the research of coal mine production safety monitoring enterprise warning, large-scale mining and material handling equipment safety standard remote control of the whole life cycle, coal mining enterprises at all levels of production safety data sharing cloud services platform, cross-dimensional aspects of supply and demand and price forecasting perspective platform for big data application mode analysis, data mining by large technical team unified programming model and set standards in the interface protocol, security co-ordination and so do the pre-proposals. He pointed out that Internet +, the comprehensive application of big data will become an important means and ways to improve mine safety and production, to achieve lower costs, increase efficiency role. Key words big data; the Internet era; data mining; financial stocks management; decision analysis Internet insurance refers to an insurance company or a third-party insurance net new Internet and e-commerce technology as a tool to support the insurance sales management activities. With the advent of the era of big data, data has become an important factor of production in each industry, people use mobile Internet, cloud computing and other information technology, data mining, processing and analysis, making it a more competitive asset. Insurance is a typical data-production industries, these technologies continue to penetrate to the insurance industry, will enable Internet Advanced Insurance from simple sales model to the Internet Insurance directions. How to seize the Internet Insurance in rapid changes in information technology opportunities, meet challenges, it is an important topic of current research. Internet + 2.0 is an innovative evolution of information technology to promote the development of new social forms, new formats, the future of the entire industry, cross-platform management operations. Internet + Action Plan states that Internet + represents a new economic form, that is to give full play to optimize and integrate the role of the Internet in the allocation of production factors, the depth of the innovations of the Internet merged in all areas of economic and social promotion innovation and productivity, Internet +, the action plan focus on promoting the development of big data integration, cloud computing as the representative of information technology. Large data by conventional sensor means, video tools, software, captures the data set. Big Data has penetrated into every industry and field has become an important factor of production, and mining companies for the use of huge amounts of data, cloud computing is the second, after another big things disruptive technology revolution. I believe that the need to re-integrate coal mining enterprises, mining past long-term accumulation of vast amounts of data, the application of integrated analysis tools from multi-dimensional space-time insight and knowledge discovery in large data implied by law, to guide the production of coal mine safety decision, the fine will increase to coal mine production safety the new level of management. Development of the Internet makes big data accounting information processing more efficient, faster, more standardized accounting, real-time and focus. Data is an important basis for decision-making to further tap the Internet data becomes possible. Some college financial workers and researchers are trying to study the theory based on the Internet + a new model of financial management, financial officers will be freed from the complex basic accounting business, so that key positions financial officers transferred to the school management and decision-making thus in decision making, management accounting functions. Internet Insurance more than ten years, with the low cost of the Internet, by many, wide coverage, high-impact characteristics, has made remarkable achievements, but also in the development of some problems. With the rapid development of e-commerce and computer technology, the Internet Insurance from 2011 into the development of speed and 2011 to 2013, the domestic insurance business Internet companies rose from 28 to 60, average annual growth of 46%; premium volume grew from 3.2 billion yuan to 29.1 billion yuan, an increase of three years to reach 810 percent overall, with an average annual growth rate of 202%; the number of insured customers increased from 816 million to 5437 million, an increase of 566%. Thus the fast pace of development of the Internet of insurance and in addition, according to the report, the Internet insurance products in a simple, standardized, low-value products, mainly in the field of property insurance on motor vehicle insurance, family property insurance and other insurance, some insurance companies also introduced credit insurance and liability insurance. In the field of life insurance, accident insurance is the main insurance. This is due to the insurance p roduct itself professionalism, complexity and technical characteristics of the Internet are currently determined. Internet insurance innovation, embodied by precise customer targeting, segmentation subject matter of insurance and risk factors, dynamic customization of insurance products and pricing. Although the insurance major insurance companies committed to the Internet innovation, but its degree of innovation still to be improved and first, the business model, most of the insurance firms will simply move to the line of products from online sales, Internet and insurance achieve genuine integration of very few. In addition, from the sale of the product, although the full moon insurance haze insurance Insurance bold new alternative, but its essence is just common accident insurance and other traditional insurance, some even with gambling elements, departing from the essence of insurance. And similar to the net purchase return shipping insurance, micro-channel payment security insurance and other insurance and real participation poly emerging e-commerce wind. Risk insurance products provide prot ection for Internet and rare. A. Challenges and Opportunities In the Internet, big data and the depth of penetration of insurance background, January 15, 2014, China Insurance Information Technology Management Co., Ltd. as Chinas insurance industrys first big data company formally established, which is to follow the development of insurance in the era of big data will by road. Build big data platform, opportunities and challenges for the development of the Internet insurance. Big data brings cost-efficient development. In the era of big data, the use of information technology to collect data related to the insurance business management, may establish a standardized, systematic Internet insurance data system, on the one hand, the insurance customer orientation statistics and pricing of insurance products and other aspects of the easier, more traditional insurance, greatly reducing the time and cost of data collection, improve the efficiency of insurance. On the other hand, the insurance business automation has improved continuously. Use relevant data to establish a network of intelligent Underwriting platform, promote the application of intelligent terminals and other mobile Internet devices, the Internet can enhance the insurance business process automation and automation of PCT operator, so that each flow risks are controlled at the same time, various aspects of the processing time was significantly shorter improved efficiency. Big Data mining helps timely customer needs, innovative products. The use of advanced technology for historical data collection, collation, analysis and processing, can effectively tap the demand for risk management, product innovation, investment, and improve decision-making ability can play an important role. In the era of big data, by the client in the Internet browsing and transaction platform, leaving traces of statistical data, we found that customer propensity to buy, tap the customer needs, and then use this data to design new products. For example, Zhong An online positioning to service the Internet, the main liability insurance and guarantee insurance, it is on the Internet risk data statistics and effective use of the Internet user needs mining, while the net purchase return shipping insurance, micro-channel payment security risks also in big data era has brought proof of product innovation. Big data helps improve the precision pricing and marketing capabilities. First, the Internet and big data will change the traditional insurance products pricing rules and on the one hand, from an actuarial point of view, the traditional products, based on the law of large numbers actuaries, according to a random principle, in the long term, a large number of business practice to extract part of the data to construct a mathematical model to calculate the premium rate, and further to make products pricing. In the era of big data, we are able to collect comprehensive data, complete data and integrated data, mining the relationship behind the data, greatly improve product precision pricing power. On the other hand, the era of big data, some products can achieve dynamic pricing, according to customer requirements to develop products and provide services. Big Data Acceleration Insurance Internet channels to format Conversion. Internet insurance format refers to the development of insurance products, insurance consulting, insurance plan design, sales to post-service claims and other aspects are all relying on the Internet to complete. Internet as the pure insurance sales channels have developed more than ten years, under the big data era, the Internet will change the insurance of insurance simple Internet-based sales model to the real Internet insurance format development. Through the Internet data mining and analysis, the insurance truly serve the Internet, the development of Internet-based products, so the Internet to format Conversion. B. Risk exposure Potential new industry entrants increase competition. In the era of big data, the data will show a complete and accurate, open and transparent sharing of resources feature, if the data and insurance technology, will probably be more new entrants, competition, market volatility increased. First, Internet companies have huge amounts of data once you have risk identification and control technology, we can set up an Internet insurance company through its proven platform and a wide audience. Second, already has a certain risk control ability of enterprises to large data Once you have a mature technology, mastered valid data, then build their own risk management system is more cost effective than buying a simple insurance products, such as UPS courier company can set up the Internet insurance companies to reduce the cost of risk management. Information security problems with the advent of the era of big data, we are faced with data privacy and public safety contradictions. Data sharing is public and big data trend of the times, but the data is disclosed along with the controversy from the legal, ethical, moral and other aspects, which restricts the development of the Internet insurance. Big data disclosure is a double edged sword, on the one hand the data disclosed not only provides network operators rely on the insurance risks of the Internet more convenient and accurate data sources, and promote the development of the Internet insurance will also create value throughout society; the other and the data disclosure might cause disclosure of user privacy, violation of human rights, this is a problem we develop Internet safety cannot be ignored in the era of big data. Second, insurance information system within the Internet and many of the system outside the company for selling payment transactions and other business data exchange exists, there are attacks from Internet hackers, viruses, system rejects all possible risk services. Computer technical capacity needs to be improved while at present, the data acquisition and processing capability at a low level. First, because of the limited technical capacity data, the accuracy of the information collected, the lack of timeliness of security, it is difficult to be objective data analysis and data utilization value. Present new data, a large number of customer information is untrue, other unstructured data availability is not high, the lack of effective data collection technology; the same time, the accumulated data to be tapped, marketing, customer data can be small, the data processing capability Room for improvement. Second, the lack of data resources and insurance companies a lot of historical data in the system long-term idle, underutilized the insurance companys own strengths and data sharing and exchange of related industries, lack of data sharing. Industry regulatory system is not perfect. Currently, the Internet insurance supervision, lack of complete system and China Insurance Regulatory Commission and other relevant departments of the Internet there are many loopholes in the supervision of insurance policies. C. Development Strategy To the healthy development of the Internet insurance for the current Big Data era has brought about the Internet insurance business model and will continue to arise in the future cross-industry business internet insurance issues, identify and improve Internet access for insurance, so that has a mature risk management experience, superb information technology, adequate solvency, improve the supporting facilities and strong product development capabilities of enterprises to run higher risks than traditional channels of Internet insurance. In addition, the Internet insurance sales staff and customer service staffs should have professional knowledge of insurance, insurance agents obtain qualification certificates, and publicity to consumers in order to supervise the sales site. Great use of advances in technology and the accumulation of data mining and to expand the scope of insurable risks, make insurance products more diverse, more abundant form. Unstructured data analysis of consumer behavior and other aspects of the Internet, understanding of customer stickiness strong platform for the Internet, such as micro-letters and other social platforms, the real Internet insurance services on the Internet, the development of new insurance products; in other areas, according to Internet features and customer purchasing power, the development of products easily accepted, as one yuan universal insurance. In addition, the insurance customers seeking to seize the Internet features of convenience, high-quality services, to provide services to facilitate easy operation, especially after the purchase of part of a single delivery, return visits, claims, loss prevention and other processes to improve the customer experience. On the one hand, handle public relations and data security of personal information. On the basis of does not infringe on the security of personal information is disclosed to the social development of favorable data, and effective use of public data in other industries, the development of the Internet insurance open ideas. On the other hand, China Insurance Regulatory Commission and other relevant departments to the Internet as soon as possible insurance information security management practices, insurance information on Internet security issues to make clear from the system specification. Information technology capabilities for the development of the Internet insurance are essential. First, to increase technological development capability and for the insurance professionals, complex features, the development of professional services, Internet insurance software, such as the development and customer support interactive voice platform, customer service or sales staff can explain to customers insurance policy via voice, and record chats with voice and reduce misleading sales and post disputes. Second, improve data collection, processing capability. In the Internet field of insurance, data acquisition and processing are essential. First, we should improve data collection technology to ensure the validity and accuracy of the data from the source; secondly to improve the processing capability of the data within the integration of external data, especially external data; and finally to be able to explore the value of the data behind the increase of insurance effective analys is systems company a lot of historical data, and convert it into a business model, implemented. D. Training of personnel Big Data era will be the era of competition for talent, data analysts, data engineers and data scientists, will be the future of the insurance companys core resources. Development of Internet insurance, the insurance data should vigorously develop dual talent based big data era, develop their powers of observation, so that they can in time to capture unstructured data in a particular social phenomenon behind and tapped to ensure the timeliness of the data. In addition, to improve the relevant human imagination, it is possible to use processing techniques revitalize these data, the data structure and logic integrated into new business models, to create new business opportunities. E. Assessment methods Single Use translation of the article as a way of course examination, it is difficult to stimulate students interest in learning, negative coping curriculum tasks. I conducted a survey found that students planning translation job 35% of the students use the basic copy translation results obtained translation tools, 45 percent of students slightly modified and adjusted on the basis of translation tools, only 20% of the students can take the initiative full article translation. Through courses only a very small part of the students level of translation of foreign documents has been improved, examination results difficult to truly reflect the students English and theoretical level, the course does not highlight the advanced nature and practical, it is difficult to learn and practice. With the advent of the era of big data, government performance evaluation requires not only financial indicators, but also need more funding and performance-related non-financial indicators. Whether it is from the College for Financial performance evaluation or self-assessment of performance for the school sector, we need to collect and aggregate data more business. By aggregating data for each business unit, collation, college financial participation in school management greatly increased participation in management, decision making, analysis, forecasting and other functions more important. Management accounting is an important part of the accounting work. Executive Management accounting needs to have a sound economic and institutional environment. American people more engaged in financial accounting management positions in decision-making. However, the current promotion of management accounting application is not widespread, management accounting, decision-making functions is weak, especially in universities and other administrative institutions, the management is to consider some of the more administrative factors and social factors. Since a long period, Chinas colleges and universities accounting practitioners and theorists that consider the conventional financial balance legal compliance, internal control, external audit and other more, and the study of the internal service management decisions is not enough, environmental management accounting the foundation is weak, lagging behind the development. Colleges whether to apply management accounting, with the external environment, the school management and the financial officer of understanding and attention of the relevant management accounting since the concept of management accounting managers at all levels are thinner, management accounting application is not mandatory, some universities on the functional orientation of the financial sector lower, in the substantive work of the financial management function is not very high, and college financial sector dislocation in the big logistics framework, resulting in oversight functions in decision-making is weak. So, not only difficult to play to the functions of management accounting, and even affect the effectiveness of internal control implementation. Due to lack of understanding of management accounting, colleges and universities to consider internal cost accounting, budget performance management, strategic issues such as the budget is relatively small, to a certain extent, affect ed the development of university career. New management accounting personnel should be familiar with the characteristics of the industry units, with a strategic mind, broad thinking, keen insight, sound judgment, good at seizing opportunities, from a strategic perspective of the overall development process to understand the problem as Chinese enterprises gradually enter the international market, Chinese accounting industry to accelerate the process of international development, huge domestic management accounting talent gap. China currently accounting personnel, the number is more than enough quality, especially serious lack of sophisticated high-end accounting personnel with the college finance ranks, there are also uneven quality of personnel, the problem of shortage of talent, capable of high-quality accounting management of comprehensive ability of talent rarely. The use of large data, clean-up and confidentiality of data is critical. Internal and external data, financial data and non-financial data, stored in various formats, and includes a number of errors and duplicate records. Current financial data disclosed Universities have a financial budget and final accounts, Excellencies funding, the use of research funding, government procurement, bidding, etc; non-financial data on each school site have all kinds of education, teaching information. With these data, we can analyze the problem a lot of data behind it. So, faced with the arrival of the era of big data and confidential data that made public in the extent and scope, will become an important issue. A. Management Strategies With demand management accounting concept of the in-depth and practical work, the financial sector participation in the management, functions and responsibilities of participation in decision-making will be strengthened. College management to fully understand the Internet + Time and accounting management mode, and the mode of thinking of great change data processing mode, and ready to make adjustments in terms of organizational structure, management functions, post setting accounting and accounting functions of positioning, so that management accounting functions into full play, so that the financial sector enterprises participate more effectively in decision analysis, internal control. Universities accountants will be more extensively involved in school activities, the more into the budget, planning, execution and analysis to go and play an increasing role in management decisions. Financial departments should pay more attention to clean-up and confidentiality of data, and improve th e level of Internet information security. B. Establishing Responsibility center Responsibility center is organized around the overall management objectives, have some management authority within the organization and assume certain economic responsibility. Target Responsibility Center is coordinated with the overall objectives of the organization, if each responsibility center can be completed given responsibility goals, the overall responsibility for the organizations goals can be realized. In the center of the implementation of the responsibility proper authorization is necessary, the higher should be given permission to work subordinates; proper authorization to create a performance of the work, the authorization could not reasonably responsibility center is not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of all staff. Colleges and universities can set according to the type of business teaching a different responsibility centers, for the first three years of revenue and expenditure for statistical analysis, combined with the school development goals and the revenue and expenditure plans, revenue and expenditure targets set for each responsibility center business, and to develop a set of appropriate incentive mechanism, so that the balance of payments accounting and financial management is more refined, promote school development. C. The introduction of strategic thinking, implementation of management accounting As colleges and universities system reform, the introduction of strategic management accounting thinking in college financial management that is necessary. The implementation of strategic management accounting, and more attention to the management and evaluation of performance, can help senior management in university More layers of long-term decision-making and forward-looking. Balanced Scorecard in the financial management of the university, SWOT matrix analysis, strategic analysis Boston matrix analysis, from a strategic perspective to analyze the development of the school, has a positive effect. Run management accounting strategy based on the need to accelerate information technology, human, financial, material and information integration in a unified information platform to manage accounting concepts and technical methods, based on a full range of comprehensive management information. Strategic leave the budget cannot be achieved, the budget is a strategic tool for landing. Western countries proved that performance budgeting is a way to increase efficiency, improve efficiency, optimize resource management budget, is one of the many methods of management accounting applications and the whole process of budget performance management, including reporting, tracking the performance of operational performance objectives, with the performance evaluation, and other aspects of the results of the application. Will promote the concept of the performance management in place, into the performance management methods and techniques in the management of all aspects of the budget, you can promote the reform of university management system and mechanism, sense of responsibility to improve the sector, it is conducive to further enhance the university budget of scientific and meticulous management. Budget performance management only became the number one project to do. Budget perform ance management indicators issued in the case of the layers of the task requires school leaders at all levels perform their responsibilities, mutual coordination among departments. D. Design of Performance Evaluation System In the performance management process, including the design of a multi-dimensional evaluation system of financial and non-financial is particularly important. Financial indicators are usually budget implementation rate, earmarks financial performance, asset-liability ratio, liquidity ratio, the ratio of personnel expenses, public expenditure ratio, total asset growth, etc; non-financial performance evaluation include before school, student management, staff management, research management, books, curriculum, facilities, equipment, and energy consumption. School profiles of school functions, campuses, school property cases; school student management situation, scores, enrollment, attendance, dropout rates, graduation rates; faculty circumstances seniority, position, title; there are research papers published data management capacity , project reporting and pass rates; book data have library books, e-books number of books; there are courses course data gate count, course credits, teach ing time, curriculum resources (including courseware, video, etc.); and other classrooms and laboratories have to use data use records, borrowing records, maintenance records, recording idle; equipment use and maintenance of equipment condition data have data, use and maintenance records, the log management behavior; school energy consumption data, water, electricity, gas and other energy consumption data. Conclusion In summary, the Internet + coming of age of the development of information technology, to promote the management accounting in college application and promotion. College accountant will be more extensively involved in school activities, the more into the budget, planning, execution and analysis to go and play an increasingly important role in management decisions and how to manage the accounting and financial accounting organic combination that is the focus of the government, universities, social, financial managers and workers of common concern. References 1. Borochin, Paul A. When does a merger create value? Using option prices to elicit market beliefs. Financial Management 43.2 (2014): 445-466. 2. Jalbert, Terrance, Mercedes Jalbert, and Kimberly Furumo. The relationship between CEO gender, financial performance and financial management. Journal of Business and Economics Research 11.1 (2013): 25-33. 3. Speaker, Paul J. 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