Practicing Theory :: essays research papers

Putting Theories into Practice In politics, humans seem to be very contradictory towards one another. Many situations allot for disagreement as well as interesting discussions and conversations. I was watching the presidential debate when my girlfriend started shedding her opinion, which I didn’t quite agree with. It was as if she ignored what one candidate said and believed the other because there was a bias in her thinking. That, along with what each candidate was saying was causing sway in my opinion and I felt discomfort. I chose Cognitive Dissonance Theory for this incident due to the conflicting ideas going on in my head during this situation. When she started making biased comments about whatever a particular candidate said, I had conflicting thoughts that go right along with the dissonant relationship aspect of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. I thought that in order to make a decision you need to know everything that happens not just bits and pieces of it, but what conflicted with this thought was her biased comment that was based solely on one statement. What I was after to make my own thoughts and judgments agreeable was to arrive at some level of consistent thoughts within myself as to how I can alleviate the tension. The reason for this dissonance was because of outside sources that led me to take action that caused an effect. But after the discussion with the other person I found myself trying to achieve consonance and reduce dissonance because of my discomfort. In essence I was trying to co nvince myself that I should try and find some compromise with what she was saying so the conflict would cease to exist. In order for the conflict to stop and cope with the dissonance my attitude had to change, which led me after the conversation to seek out selective exposure. This meant I had to seek information not present at that time to help reduce the dissonance within myself and stop the arguing between her and myself. From what she was saying I also sought out a different type of perception, selective interpretation. From the ambiguous information she offered I tried to compromise and make some of it consistent to my own thoughts that could help further to end the dissonance. The ultimate tactic I used that I wasn’t even aware of until I saw this term was minimal justification. The minimal incentive given in this case was just me saying, â€Å"I’m not saying you are wrong, I just want you to see the whole picture before you pass judgment.

John F. Kennedy Essay -- essays research papers

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, the second oldest in a family of nine children. His great grandparents had come to the United States from Ireland in the mid-1800s after a food shortage caused severe poverty in that country. Although their families had not come to the United States with much money, both of John Kennedy's grandfathers became political leaders in Boston. One of them, John Fitzgerald, was elected mayor in 1905. John Kennedy's father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy became a very wealthy businessman, an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the United States Ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 to 1940. John Kennedy moved to New York when he was ten years old. Since the family spent the summer months at their home in Hyannis, Cape Cod, Jack still lived a good part of his life in Massachusetts. After graduating from the Choate School in Connecticut in 1935, he went on to Harvard College and graduated in 1940. That same year he wrote a best-selling book, Why England Slept, about some of the decisions which led to World War II. In 1941, John Kennedy joined the Navy. He became the commander of a small "PT" boat assigned to the battle in the Pacific against the Japanese. One night, while on patrol, Kennedy's boat was rammed by a large enemy ship. Two men in a crew of thirteen were killed, and the rest swam to a nearby deserted island. They managed to survive, mostly by eating coconuts, until they were rescued a week later. After World War II, John Kennedy had to choose the kind of work he wanted to do. He considered becoming a teacher or a writer but soon decided to run for political office. In 1946, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, representing a district in greater Boston. Kennedy, a Democrat, served three terms in the House of Representatives, and in 1952 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1953, he married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The following year he had a serious operation on his back. While recovering from surgery, he wrote a book about several U.S. senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which they believed. The book, called Profiles in Courage, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedy's first child, Caroline, was born. Kennedy had narrowly missed being picked as the Democratic Party's candidate for Vice President... ...edy, and that he and Ruby were part of a conspiracy. None of these theories has ever been proven. President Kennedy's death caused enormous sadness and grief among all Americans. Most people still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news of the murder. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington for the President's funeral, and millions throughout the world watched it on television. As the years have gone by and other Presidents have written their chapters in history, John Kennedy's brief time in office stands out in people's memories--for his leadership, personality, and accomplishments. Many respect his coolness when faced with difficult decisions--like what to do about the missiles in Cuba. Others admire his ability to inspire people with his articulate speeches. Still others think his compassion and his willingness to fight for new government programs to help the poor, the elderly and the ill were most important. Like all leaders, John Kennedy made mistakes, but he was always hopeful about the future. He believed that people could solve their common problems if they put their country's interests first and worked together.

Modernism Essay

How does the author of this extract understand modernism? Support your response with a direct quote from the text. Modernism can be described as a movement that has been took place in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This essay will discuss how the author understand modernism by, explaining how modernism eventuated to the integration of mankind and the way that it can jeopardize past traditions and create new ideas. Firstly, it can be mentioned that one of the outcomes of modernism is the destruction of limits and borders. It results to accretion of society and devastation of classes and believes and unite all members of that society. Berman believes that modernism is a paradoxical integration, as he states: â€Å"modernism pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. †(Berman, 1982). This quote suggests that modernity is the termination of some diversities which may result to severity. Secondly, it can be noted that the experiences of modernity have been considered as a fulmination to believes and history of the society. However, there is a group of ethics and ideas that have been created during this movement. Berman states that: â€Å"although most of these people have probably experienced modernity as a radical threat to all their history and traditions, it has, in the course of five centuries, developed a rich history and a plenitude of traditions of its own. †(Berman, 1982). These new ideas can assist society to control the new way of their life and make it their own. In conclusion, this essay explained modernism with referring to some ideas and quotes of the author. Firstly, it explained the way that modernism unit all members of a society and secondly how modernism can develop new traditions as well as threating the old ones. Furthermore, todays society is experiencing post- modernism, which is a great result of what happened in twentieth century and how people harmonized themselves with modern life.

Hospital Organization

Hospitals continue to be the largest segment of the health care industry, measured by economic volume and delivery of a wide range of professional services. HEALTH CARE SERVICES The different segments of the health care delivery system provide various combinations of services. The specific combination offered depends on a variety factors that prevail in a location, including state and local licensing laws, reimbursement structures, availability of medical personnel and facilities, and the demographic details (such as age and industrial distribution) of the potential patient population.The unique aspect of the health care industry from an audit perspective is the health care delivery system – the revenue cycle. The other cycles are essentially similar to those in manufacturing or selling enterprises. Services are generally described by a six-level classification. Those levels indicate, but do not strictly define, the type of organization, the level of medical treatment involved , or the severity of, or prognosis for, the medical situation. The levels are: †¢Preventive – Health education and prevention programs provided by business and other organizations, such as schools and family planning clinics. Primary – Early detection and routine treatment of health problems, such as are often provided by physicians’ offices, industrial and school health units, and hospital outpatient and emergency departments.†¢Secondary – Acute care services, typically provided by medical personnel, through hospitals, using elaborate diagnostic and treatment procedures. †¢Tertiary – Highly technical services, such as for psychiatric and chronic diseases, provided through specialty facilities and teaching hospitals. †¢Restorative – Rehabilitative and follow-up acre, typically provided by home health agencies, nursing homes, and halfway houses. Continuing – Long-term, chronic care, typically provided by geriatric d ay care centers and nursing homes. The growing economic magnitude of the health care system has led to increased regulatory activities focusing on health care. This increase in regulation interacts with a growing demand for more health care and for increasingly technical and complex methods of providing it. The largest and most evident regulatory activity involves reimbursement by state governments. Other regulatory activities are concerned in varying degrees with the availability and quality of health care.There are continued initiatives by state government to link such regulations to reimbursement in order to enforce compliance. The presence of multiple regulatory systems influences the demand for and the nature of professional accounting services required by health care institutions. Those systems often emphasize reporting requirements, and health care institutions tend to view compliance reporting as a major use of accounting data. Auditing services in particular are affected be cause the regulatory agencies rely heavily on the attest activities of the health care institution’s independent accountant.STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION Patient care is the essential function of a hospital. Other vital roles include medical education and research. Recently, many larger general hospitals have become total community health centers, providing a wide range of outpatient services in addition to traditional impatient care. One characteristic of the growth of the health center concept is the emergence of such diverse related organizations as real estate holding companies and medical management companies.These organizations are a response to changes in the reimbursement, regulatory, tax and financial environment facing hospital management. Such nontraditional organizational structures and patterns of activity are needed to provide adequate financial resources to support the delivery of health care by hospitals. Some observers see these changes as leading to major multi hospital systems, so that in the future a few major health entities may control the majority of the hospital beds in the country. Hospitals may be classified by type of ownership and mode of operation, as follows: Government – Hospitals operated by governmental agencies and providing specialized services to specific groups and their dependents, such as the military, veterans, government employees, the indigent and the mentally ill. †¢Investor-owned (proprietary) – Hospitals owned by individual proprietors or groups of proprietors or by the public through stock ownership. The objective of such hospitals is to operate for profit. †¢Voluntary nonprofit – Hospitals operated under the sponsorship of a community, religious denomination, or other nonprofit entity.This is the largest category (in number of hospitals), comprising two major types: teaching hospitals and community hospitals. a. Teaching hospitals – Generally university-related hospitals, t heir health care service activities combine education, research and a broad range of sophisticated patient services. Large community hospitals affiliated with medical schools and offering intern and resident programs are also considered teaching hospitals. b. Community hospitals – Hospitals that traditionally are established to serve a specific area, such as a city, town, or county, and usually offer more limited services than teaching hospitals do.Hospitals may also be categorized by the type of care provided, as short-term (acute), general, long-term general, psychiatric, and other special care. The mode of a hospital’s operation and type of care occur in various combinations, such as government psychiatric or short-term pediatric. THIRD-PARTY REIMBURSEMENT OR PAYMENT A major difference between health care entities and commercial enterprises is that the recipient of health care services – the patient – in most cases does not pay directly for the service s. Instead, payment is made by some other organization.The payment is often referred to as a â€Å"third party†. Typically, a hospital’s most significant patient revenue sources are its reimbursement contracts with third parties. In each case, there is an identifiable group of patients whose health care services are paid for, in whole or in part, by the third party. The amount of the reimbursement, as well as the eligible class of patients and other administrative matters, is covered by regulations or contracts. The major third parties are governmental agencies. Of these, the state government is the largest.Medicard is state-administered third-party reimbursement program designed to underwrite hospital costs of the medically indigent and those eligible for certain types of public welfare. Medicare is a third-party reimbursement program administered by the Health Care Financing Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services. State governments have long be en involved in reimbursement for health care services, and their involvement has increased through participation in the Medicard Program. Recently, the continued growth of third-party expenditures for reimbursement has fostered a number of state-based cost control programs.Of increasing importance are a wide variety of controls at the state level, usually referred to by terms such as state rate control. The state government has been quite active in encouraging or supporting such programs. The impact of governmental and commercial third parties on hospital is affected by when the reimbursement or payment is determined and the basis of the reimbursement or payment. Third-party reimbursement systems are either retrospective or prospective. Retrospective refers to third-party reimbursement systems that determine the amount to be paid after the services have been performed.In prospective payment systems, the amount is determined before the services have been performed. Reimbursements or payments are usually based on either the costs (to the hospital) of services performed for eligible patients or the amounts charged by the hospital for such services. The regulations or contracts of the third party contain specific provisions designed to ensure that only certain costs or charges enter into the determination of the reimbursement or payment. There are also provisions to ensure that reimbursement or payment is made only for services to eligible patients.Third-party payers can be expected to continue to refine their approach as the volume of payments increases. The difference between the hospitals established rates for services rendered and the amounts received or receivable from third-party payers known as a contractual allowance and is shown as a deduction from gross patient revenues on the statement of revenues and expenses. PAYMENTS AND SETTLEMENTS Under many retrospective reimbursement and prospective payment contracts, the hospital is paid throughout the year on a n interim basis.The payment is based on estimates of costs expected to be incurred during the year in serving patients. At the end of the fiscal year, a reimbursement report is filed with each third party, and any difference between the final cost settlements, by providing an independent basis for third-party reliance on the hospital’s accounting records. Reimbursement reports typically include cost-finding calculations that segregate direct costs by cost centers and allocate overhead costs from indirect or nonrevenue-producing centers to revenue-producing centers, using one of several allocation methods.Departments that provide direct patient services such as nursing, laboratory, and radiology are examples of revenue-producing centers, while support or overhead units such as laundry, dietary, and administrative services are typical nonrevenue-producing cost centers. This allocation produces an operating cost for each revenue-producing center, consisting of its direct costs p lus its share of indirect costs. After all costs have been assigned to revenue-producing centers, they are apportioned to the various third-party payers. STATISTICSDepartmental activity or usage statistics are employed in most cost-finding methods used to allocate overhead costs to revenue-producing centers. Some statistics, such as square feet of space, may remain unchanged from prior years. The auditor should, however, inquire whether changes have occurred. Simple observation is helpful; a new wing, department, or floor plan means that statistics must be updated. Certain statistical information is generated by the various transaction cycles. Examples of statistics that are generated in the buying cycle are: Payroll pesos – Used to allocate employee benefits, health and welfare costs, and other compensation costs. †¢Hours worked – Used to allocate nursing administration costs and sometimes employee cafeteria costs. †¢Full-time equivalent employees (FTE) â₠¬â€œ Sometimes used to allocate employee cafeteria costs. Other statistics utilized in cost-finding and third-party reimbursement are generated by departmental activity studies and surveys. Examples of such statistics are pounds of laundry, housekeeping hours of service, social service hours, and cost of drugs and medical and surgical supplies issued to nursing stations.Medicare regulations require a study of at least four 2-week periods annually. FUND ACCOUNTING The audit guide prescribes the use of fund accounting for the external financial statements of nongovernment, not-for-profit hospitals. Fund accounting entails the maintenance of separate or group accounts for hospital resources according to the spending objectives set by donors, other outside sources, or the board of trustees. (Investor-owned hospitals are regarded as business enterprises and report as such. ) Two broad classes of funds are used: †¢Unrestricted funds, which encompass assets other than those that are r estricted, as defined below.Many authorities believe that this class of funds should be referred to as general and that the term unrestricted is misleading, since restrictions other than those imposed by donors or grantors may be placed on assets of these funds. A reserve account maintained under a bond indenture provision is an example of an asset that is included in unrestricted funds but is restricted as to use. †¢Restricted funds, which encompass assets that are subject to restrictions imposed by specified external parties, that is, donors or grantors. Examples are plant replacement and endowment funds. AUDIT STRATEGY AND RISK ASSESSMENTIn many ways, the accounting systems and controls that operate in health care institutions are the same as those in any other industry. Because of regulation by governmental agencies and consumer group pressures, however audit concerns for hospital client is expanded considerably. Those concerns, fee pressures because of the nonprofit nature of many institutions, and competition among firms all create a need for this audit analysis to streamline audit procedures and improve audit efficiency as much as possible. In developing an audit strategy for a hospital engagement, the auditor had a thorough understanding of the patient mix.The geographic location of the hospital, the range of service it provides, and state regulations influence the age, financial status, and insurance coverage of the patient population. In particular, the audit strategy will vary depending on whether the services are rendered on a charge-paying or cost-reimbursement basis. If most of the hospital’s services will be paid on a cost-reimbursement basis; the propriety of costs incurred is a primary concern of the auditor. The accuracy of departmental revenue classification is also important in the cost apportionment process.The payment is made either directly by the patient or by third parties based on actual charges billed; auditing statistica l data and departmental cost classification is deemphasized since those data do not affect revenue. In planning hospital audit, it is important to have an understanding of the hospital’s current financial position and financial trends. Analyzing financial ratios may lead to a fuller understanding of the hospital’s operations and problems than could be obtained from reviewing raw data. It is also helpful to compare the hospital’s operations and financial position with those of the other institutions.Inherent risk in considerations in the health care industry revolves around the third-party reimbursement structure. A key concern is billing procedures, which are complicated by the very significant involvement of third parties. TYPICAL TRANSACTIONS, INTERNAL CONTROLS, AND AUDIT TESTS PATIENT REVENUE CYCLE The major source of revenues in a hospital is services provided to patients. Revenue was recorded, at hospital’s established rate, on the accrual basis at t he time services are performed. Patient service revenues are recorded separately by source (laboratory revenues) and by patient type (inpatient or outpatient).Additionally, the source of payment of each patient is essential information that was captured by the accounting system. Hospitals generally billed inpatients after completion of a patient’s stay in the hospital. The actual amount received by the hospital may vary depending on contractual arrangements between the hospital and the patient or a third-party payer. Services rendered to private-paying patients are billed at the established rates, except that courtesy allowances may be granted to doctors, employees, or members of religious orders and charity allowances may be granted as determined by patient needs and hospital policy.To understand the hospital’s patient revenue cycle, the auditor should become familiar with the various functions and departments that may serve patients and should also understand how tho se functions and departments relate to accounting for patient revenue. SUBSTANTIVE TESTS OF ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Hospital receivables have several characteristics not normally found in receivables of commercial organizations. First, full-rate charges to patients for services received may be settled for an amount less than the full rate because of contractual arrangements with third-party payers courtesy, charity, or other policy discounts.In addition, large amounts of receivables are paid by third-parties, and payment may be made by a single payer or combination of payers (e. g. , commercial insurance, Medicare, Medicard, workers’ compensation and the patient. ) Since a patient may have more than one insurer, it is possible for duplicate payments to be made on the patient’s account. This results in credit balances in accounts receivable, which are characteristic of hospitals with aggressive billing procedures.The auditor should review the components of these credit bala nces, and if they are significant, consider reclassifying them. Since the hospital must refund duplicate payments, the auditor should review controls over issuance and use of refund checks to determine that they are for valid credit balances and that they are payable to the proper payee. In most hospitals, accounts receivable are classified according to the patient’s billing status, generally using the following categories: †¢Inpatient:Admitted but not discharged (commonly referred to as â€Å"in-house patients†) Discharged but not billed (accounts awaiting final or â€Å"late† charges, or unbilled as a result of a backlog in billing procedures – which might indicate a control weakness) Discharged and billed †¢Outpatient: Unbilled Billed These categories of inpatients and outpatients may be expanded further to indicate private-paying status or third-party responsibility for payment. The existence and accuracy of accounts receivable are normally tested by reviewing subsequent cash receipts.The validity of admitted-but-not discharged patient receivables can be tested by comparing accounts with the daily census report or by relying on compliance tests of admitting function. Confirming balances with patients may be difficult, and the auditor should consider confirming other items, such as number of days spent in the hospital, types of insurance coverage, or, at least, the policy number and insurance company. This information confirms that the patient was in the hospital. Negative confirmations generally produce adequate results for the â€Å"self-pay† or patient portion of the bill.Typical responses for the third-party portion state that the patient believes the bill will be paid by the insurance company or that the patient is unable to confirm because of insufficient information. NONPATIENT REVENUES Revenues from sources other than patient charges consist of interest on invested funds, unrestricted gifts and grants, tr ansfers from restricted funds, and expenditures of restricted fund assets for the benefit of unrestricted (general) funds. Audit steps for material nonpatient revenues should include, but not limited to: †¢Confirming investment activity with banks or an external trustee. Reviewing date and documents underlying gifts, grants, and bequests, such as board minutes, correspondence, and acknowledgement receipts. †¢Reviewing research or grant documentation. †¢Confirming pledges (or otherwise obtaining satisfaction as to their existence) and evaluating their collectability. BUYING CYCLE Payroll. Hospital employees may be classified as professional and nonprofessional. Examples of professional staff are registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses. Nonprofessional employees include orderlies, housekeeping and maintenance personnel, and kitchen staff.Control over both professional and nonprofessional time is critical since salary costs constitute a significant portion of ho spital costs. Generally, the same payroll audit procedures used in other organizations of comparable size also apply to hospitals. Compliance testing of total payroll costs should include tests of controls over classification of costs by department, which is important for purposes of reimbursement and also for cost reporting. Misclassification of a reimbursable cost to a no reimbursable cost center could result in failure to receive reimbursement for that cost.The auditor typically reviews the appropriateness of the account distribution and traces amounts to the payroll register or distribution summaries. Those registers or summaries are tested for mathematical accuracy and then agreed to the appropriate general ledger accounts. Other Expenses. Hospital expenses are typically classified by departmental function (such as nursing services and laboratory services). Proper classification of costs by department is important for financial statement purposes as well as cost reporting and r eimbursement.The auditor should test the propriety of the general ledger account distribution by reference to purchasing documentation. Fixed Assets. Controls over the acquisition of property, plant, and equipment by a hospital should be the same for a commercial enterprise. Some hospital departments own and use expensive, highly specialized equipment, such as nuclear magnetic resonance devices. Department heads should, of course, but that involved in capital budgeting and purchasing decisions, but that involvement should not extend to overriding controls that have been instituted for purchases generally.

Biography of Jon Corzine

Jonathan Corzine was born on New Year’s Day in 1947 and grew up on his family’s farm in rural Illinois. Having learned the value of hard work from his parents, a farmer and a school teacher, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Phi Beta Kappa and immediately enlisted in the Marine Reserves. He served for six years as a reservist while beginning his career in finance at the Continental Illinois National Bank. He earned his MBA in 1973 while attending night classes and went to work for Bank Ohio.He moved to New Jersey in 1975 with his wife when he went to work for the New York investment firm of Goldman Sachs where he was named partner in 1980 and CEO in 1984(About the Governor, 2006). The couple had three children, but later divorced (Governor’s Information, 2006). His affair became a public spectacle during his political career with his wife announcing that he may let down the state of New Jersey in the same way he let down the fa mily (Cilliza, 2005).However, this did not deter his political aspirations. Soon, Corzine entered the political spectrum. He made a push for the United States Senate and won the seat in 2000. Five years later, Corzine announced his intention of running for the New Jersey Governor. He focused on using his knowledge and skills in finance to help the economy of the state of New Jersey. As a Democrat, he urged the state to adopt a more progressive economic and social policy (Governor’s Information, 2006).He helped write the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which attempted to crack down on corporate wrongdoing. He also sponsored the Start Healthy, Stay Healthy Act, which worked to create more health care coverage for children and pregnant women (Jon Corzine, 2008). His career was punctuated by his attempt to apply his business expertise to politics. In 2005, Corzine announced his candidacy for the governorship of New Jersey and vowed to utilize his business acumen which had helped him become a multimillionaire on Wall Street in helping out the state.â€Å"He built his campaign around his comprehensive ethics proposal, revamping the state’s property tax system, building a stronger economy, and improving education and healthcare†(Governor’s Information, 2006) Using 43 million dollars of his own money on the campaign, he narrowly beat his Republican adversary and became the 54th governor of New Jersey in January of 2007 (Cilliza, 2005). Corzine was sworn in as New Jersey’s 54th Governor on January 17, 2006.While in office, he worked hard to raise the sales tax from 6% to 7% even though he had to shut down the nonessential elements of government in order to do it. In addition, he abolished the death penalty in the state of New Jersey, replacing it with life imprisonment. He suffered a critical injury in a car accident in 2007, but has made a recovery and continues to serve his term. About the Governor. (2006). State of New Jersey Office of the Gov ernor. Retrieved 31 March 2008 from http://www. state. nj. us/governor/about/ Cilliza, C. (2005). Corzine Defeats Forrester to Become N.J. Governor. The Washington Post. 8 November 2005: A1u8. Governor’s Information: New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. National Governor’s Association. Retrieved 31 March 2008 from http://www. nga. org/portal/site/nga/ menuitem. 29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/? vgnextoid=9db05 b07f60c8010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD Jon Corzine. Wikipedia. Received 31 March 2008 fromhttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/ Jon_Corzine#Senate_career Corzine, who made a fortune on Wall Street and spent at least $43 million of it on this race, evidently did not win the vote of his ex-wife, Joanne Corzine.Her quote to a newspaper about how Corzine might â€Å"let New Jersey down† the same way he â€Å"let his family down† with an adulterous affair was featured in Forrester's TV ads. With 95 percent of precincts counted, Corzine had 54 percent of the votes (1 ,120,272) to Forrester's 43 percent (908,796). Corzine Defeats Forrester To Become N. J. Governor Bloomberg Wins Easily; Texas Passes Gay-Marriage Ban By Chris Cillizza Special to The Washington Post Wednesday, November 9, 2005; Page A18

Audit Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Audit Report - Essay Example It therefore means all sectors as well as households have to play a role in order to achieve that goal. This environmental audit report is based on an environmental review of my household which is a flat. The review took place between the periods July 4 and July 17, 2011. Everything that is done in the household has an impact on the environment. Electricity is used for energy in the household. It provides lighting and heating and provides energy to operate appliances. Electricity contributes to the emission of greenhouse gas which has a negative impact on the environment. Waste from household activities also contributes to the emission of greenhouse gas in the environment. All of these activities result in climate change which affects all of us. Water is a scare resource and the way it is used in households has an impact on environmental pollution which is just one of the consequences of climate change which is due also to the irresponsible consumption of water (Household Water Audit ). Overview of household activities My household consists of three (3) persons, two of whom go out to work from Monday and Friday. I attend university and so I am hardly at home during the days. We are scarcely at home for a full day on Saturdays. However, we spend some time cleaning and washing before leaving home for various activities including shopping and entertainment. Saturdays and Sundays are the only days we prepare breakfast and dinner. The microwave is used to prepare meals each morning and each evening for a approximate 20 minutes each day from Monday to Friday. Our waste from Monday to Friday each week is very light since we are away from home for the better part of those days. However, on Saturdays and Sundays it is a bit heavier, especially on Sunday when we prepare for the rest of the week. Environmental impact of electricity use During any week we operate a number of appliances. They number approximately ten (10) and are used at least once per week. The table below shows the appliances in use, kilowatt hour (KWh) used along with the number of hours in used for each day during the period July 4 to July 17, 2011. Table 1 - Electricity used during the period July 4 to July 17, 2011 Electricity Usage Day Air Cond (KWh) Time (hr) Stove (KWh) Time (hr) M/Wave (KWh) Time (hr) Washing machine (KWh) Time (hr) Fridge Time (hr) TV (KWh) Time (hr) Laptop (KWh) Time (hr) Lights (KWh) Time (hr) Hair dryer (KWh) Time (hr) Iron (KWh) Time (hr) Total KWh Wattage 400 Â   800 Â   1400 Â   400 Â   725 8 120 Â   50 Â   18 Â   1500 Â   1500 Â   Â   Mon 2 5 0.4 0.5 0.462 0.33 0 Â   5.8 8 0.24 2 0.1 2 0.09 5 0 Â   0 Â   Â   Tues 2 5 0.8 1 0.462 0.33 0 Â   5.8 8 0.24 2 0.05 1 0.108 6 0 Â   0 Â   Â   Wed 1.6 4 0.8 1 0.462 0.33 0 Â   5.8 8 0.24 2 0.05 1 0.108 6 0.25 Â   0 Â   Â   Thur 2 5 0.8 1 0.462 0.33 0 Â   5.8 8 0.24 2 0.075 1.5 0.108 6 0 Â   0 Â   Â   Fri 2 5 0.8 1 0.462 0.33 0 Â   5.8 8 0.24 2 0.05 1 0.108 6 0 Â   0 Â   Â   Sat 2.8 7 1.2 1.5 0 Â   0.8 2 5.8 8 0.48 4 0.1 2 0.126 7 0 Â   2.25 1.5 Â   Sun 2.8 7 2.4 3 0 Â   0 Â   5.8 8 0.84 7 0.15 3 0.144 8 0.75 0.5 0 Â   Â   Mon 1.6 4 0.4 0.5 0.462 0.33 0 Â   5.8 8 0.24 2 0.05 1 0.09 5 0 Â   0 Â   Â   Tues 1.6 4 0.8 1 0.462

Empowerment and Goal Setting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Empowerment and Goal Setting - Essay Example It is management's responsibility to create an environment in which that knowledge is brought out and used for the benefit of the people and the organisation. An employee's ability to solve problems, make decisions and take actions based on those decisions, management has often encouraged the first two but has failed to allow the third. (Holbeche 2004, p.60). Three organisations utilising the empowerment process are Delphi Packard (Delphi), Virgin Mobile and Ritz Carlton Hotels, all three organisations are applying the process differently and with differing results. Delphi is applying empowerment as stated in the Holbeche quote from a management perspective, the lead engineer responsible for the day to day engineering management of the Ford Transit Project, has been empowered to request overtime for contractors and permanent staff. The necessity for it and the amount of time required needs to be agreed by senior management. The lead engineer also has the responsibility for giving appraisals and assigning staff responsibilities. All of which merely removes some of the repetitive tasks from the HR department. In opposition the junior staff at Delphi have been given more empowerment as an engineer can act on his decision to make changes to the system without the need to consult the lead engineer.