Operating Definition of Organizational Behavior

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Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study of behavior in an organization. There are three determinants of behavior in order to make an organization more effective individual, groups, and structure (Robbins 5). The people within the organization and their behaviors affect the performance of the organization. There are a number of behavioral disciplines that contribute to OB psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and political science. There are lot of challenges and opportunities today for managers to use OB concepts. One of the most important and broad-based challenges facing organizations today is adapting to diverse work environments. Organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity. Understanding the concepts of OB allows management to facilitate the needs of a diverse workforce.


Classical organization theory, evolved during the first half of this century, did not account for the needs of diverse workforce. It represented the merger of scientific management, bureaucratic theory, and administrative theory. This theory had four basic principles find the best way to perform each task, carefully match each worker to each task, closely supervise workers, and use reward and punishment as motivators. Working through these principles, the


task of management was planning and control. While this management theory proved successful in simple industrialized companies at the turn of the century, it had not played well in modern companies. The philosophy of production first, people second, left a legacy of declining


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production and quality, dissatisfaction with work, loss of pride in workmanship, and a near complete loss of organizational pride.


According to the textbook, organizational structure is described as a mechanism through which effort is integrated through the coordination and control of activities, symbolic management, and the management of organizational culture (18). Such mechanism has recently been described as a mechanism that directs behavior through shared values, norms, and goals. However, since each mechanism is unique in its impact on individual behavior, the effects of each should be analyzed separately and then synthesized for a deeper understanding of the functional roles of structural and cultural forces in the workplace. If an organization is to direct behavior towards the accomplishment of a strategic mission, and present itself to stakeholders as a unified form, mechanisms must be created for reducing this variability among individuals and focusing employee efforts on the accomplishment of strategic goals. According to Maslow, “determining that low-level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs can be met.” A relationship between organizational culture and organizational structure is needed because there will be a lack of structure and an inability to systematize the needs of everyone in the workplace. In developing such a model, organizations are information-processing entities that develop different mechanisms to reduce uncertainty in achieving effectiveness. Effectiveness is obtained when employees engage in behaviors in a consistent manner to achieve strategic goals of the firm. Uncertainty exists when there is a gap between the amount of information possessed and what is required to perform a task. Therefore, without structure or accountability, it is difficult to achieve strategic goals.


Organizational culture is often defined in terms of shared experiences -- patterns of beliefs, rituals, symbols, and myths that evolve over time. These patterns serve to reduce human variability and control, and shape employee behavior in organizations. The development of





organizational culture is a natural process, which occurs regardless of the intent of executive leadership, although management may influence it. While organizations may develop a relatively


homogeneous culture, unique and divergent sub-cultures may evolve for separate departments or sub-groups within the organization.


The information gathered through the study of OB helps managers identify problems and determine how to correct them. The gathered information also helps managers develop their interpersonal or people skills to be effective in their jobs. OB can help managers learn ways to stimulate innovation and offers them guidance in creating an ethically healthy work climate. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. Although different organizations may perform the same functions or have the same goals, each organization still remains unique in its culture, social structure and work force. A diverse group of people within the organization is one of the most important factors in shaping and changing the overall behavior within the organization.


Works Cited


Maslow, Abraham. “Basic needs.” Workforce 811 (00) 4 EBSCO. University of Phoenix


Online collection. 1 July 00. Keywords Abraham Maslow


University of Phoenix, ed. Organizational Behavior University of Phoenix custom edition e-text.


Boston Pearson Custom Publishing, 001. ORG/50-Organizational Behavior.


Resource. University of Phoenix. 1 July 00. https//ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp.


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Letter from birmingham Jail and on Morality

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In Search of Morality


Daniel Webster’s dictionary defines morality as the quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct. Yet the definitions of the words right and good remain ambiguous. From childhood and throughout a lifetime, we are told what we can and cannot do. But why can we not do some things? Often times, the answer is, Because its wrong. But what is wrong? How does one determine the difference between right and wrong? What it usually comes down to is what morals are directing the decision morality has been questioned by people, honored by people and revered since the beginning of time. Yet even today not one person can say what is morally right. It is a matter of opinion. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and Joan Didion’s essay, On Morality, both prose at the concept of morality. Through the juxtaposition of both authors’ essays, the reader is asked to come up with his own understanding of the purpose of morality.


Didion and King use their current settings to set the tone of the entire essay. Didion first informs the reader that she is in a motel located in Death Valley where it is 11 º. The sensory language used by Didion transports the reader to the intense conditions of the unyielding desert. The desert usually relates to isolation, leaving one without the rules of society to govern one’s actions. Didion writes that the night in the country is so ominous and terrible that to live in it is to live with antimatter, it is difficult to believe that ‘the good’ is a knowable quantity (180). King’s isolation effects him physically and ideally. King’s confinement in Birmingham Jail leaves him secluded from those who support his cause; and alienated from the clergymen who refused to assist him. King starts off his letter explaining the injustices faced upon his people then goes slightly into detail about the cold conditions of his jail cell. These unbearable living conditions that each author is subject to sets the mood of each essay. Insufferable conditions are intensified by the forlorn struggle for the cognition of each person’s being.


Events that involve one’s struggle for survival leads to desperate measures that creates conflicts that goes against one’s values. For example, Didion cites the travelers of the Donner and Reed Party, who were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, forced themselves to eat the flesh of their dead families. To our modern society, this act is considered to be some sort of appalling, demented act. Even today, any form of cannibalism is a taboo in our civilized society. Members of the Donner- Reed party reluctantly consumed deceased party members, but refused to eat their own kin. The ethics, which were imposed upon us from childhood, act as unwritten laws that can only be broken when the threat of our own extinction confronts us. The injustices and prejudices that the colored people faced resulted from the actions of the non-colored people. The white people tried to repress the colored people because the white people saw the colored people as a threat for their survival; there were more competition for jobs and resources. According to the 160’s standards, it was moral for some overzealous white supremacy people to abuse and mistreat the colored people because these acts were practiced within their own society for their survival. Didion spats at the whole concept of morality that is so primitive that it scarcely deserves the name, a code that has as its point only survival, not the attainment, of the idea good (180). Genocide, the purification for the survival of the superior race, are reference in both Didion’s and King’s works.


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The moral code acts to protect the purity, or flawlessness, of a society. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Joan Didion criticize the foundation that led to the development of the moral code. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society; that is, if the moral code of a society says that a certain action is right, then that action is right, at least within that society. It is mere arrogance for one to try to judge the conduct of other peoples. One should adopt an attitude of tolerance toward the practices of other cultures. Yet, the unsteady foundation of which the moral code was built upon developed some people’s insecurities. Sinister hysteria in the air accompanied by some hint of the monstrous perversion to which any human idea can come introduces the ideas of those who cannot accept the social norms according to the moral code (Didion 181).


One fault of moral absolutes is that of a closed mind. These are people who are unable to accept any action that they do not believe to be moral. These are people who are arrogant with closed minds. King addresses his awareness in the compiling number of criticisms that he has no time to answer, If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk… I would have not time for constructive work(14). King’s letter was written during a time where white people only saw themselves superior to the colored people. With opening our minds, people find that our feelings are not necessarily the truth. Our emotions turn into understanding. With the knowledge of cultural rituals or societies customs, we will be able to accept the peculiar things they do in comparison to one’s own society; yet gory nature of any culture may appear rather unseemly to others.


King merely just brings to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive (145). He then compares the unsightliness his people are perceived as to a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension in exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion, before it can be cured (148). Instead of confronting a conflict, people tend to ignore it, in hopes that the conflict will either resolve itself or will spontaneously disappear. The fact is that ignoring the problem tends to make the effects of it worst. King’s direct-action program includes to crate a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation (145). Its not uncommon for people to perceive morality as something that must indeed be imposed upon an individual from the outside, something that serves to repress and restrict innate selfish tendencies.


Discrimination and prejudice have been proven by many to be the principle foundation of all morality. Moral is that action which is acceptable to others, and mainly the majority. Many have said morality is our prejudices learned by age eighteen. Power often controls our morality. Yet, morality is a requirement of civilization, the modern state is fast forgetting. Proper action and morality can be deduced from state survival reasoning.


Laws and justice express societal morality. Society should not force people to be criminals or beggars but traders, people who are free to think, survive and flourish. This means that society should not govern by unearned guilt and force for the common good, or to make moral actions unlawful. According to King, sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application (147). Every person has the ability to be morally good, all people, that is, with a reasonable faculty of reason. All people also have free will, which is the ability to choose the good. Society, with laws, also has the choice to corrupt or reinforce morality. King came to Birmingham Jail with the intent to clear up any misconception of those who have been influenced by the view which argues against ‘outsiders coming in’ (14). Society has the power to shape people to be either morally good or immoral. A good society shapes its people to be morally good, for that is the role of societal ethics. A bad society denies the freedom to be morally good. Indeed that is necessary to force people away from thinking, which brings about a better understanding of morality. In a good society, thinking and responsibility is encouraged, for the same reason then it must be repressed in an evil environment.


Society uses morality as a tool to assuage one’s guilty conscience. Didion’s On Morality uses the example of the man who refused to leave the corpse of a tragic accident victim alone in the desert while he waited for the coroner could come to claim the body. The man could have easily left the treacherous desert where savage coyotes lurked, but his conscience would not allow him to leave the body to be mutilated by the hungry pact. The man who stayed with the body of the drunk driver would not break his promise that he would not abandon his casualties to prevent having bad dreams. To an outsider, like Didion, the gesture of the man not leaving the corpse to be mangled by the pact may seem like a noble gesture, but the gesture is also selfish because the man didn’t want to be bothered by a guilty conscious. The notion of having a person, who is bestowed upon certain liberties, is generally expected to give back to demonstrate his humility. King argues that some privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. However individuals who may see the moral light and willingly give up their unjust posture, but groups tend to be more immoral than individuals (145).


Societal morality cannot be enforced by those who assert that universal moral standards can exist even if some moral practices and beliefs vary among cultures. We can acknowledge cultural differences in moral practices and beliefs and still hold that some of these practices and beliefs are morally wrong. Those who try to enforce such moral practices do so because they followed [his] own conscience (Didion 181). The treatment of the Jews in Nazi society is morally reprehensible regardless of the moral beliefs of Nazi society. Ethics is an inquiry into right and wrong through a critical examination of the reasons underlying practices and beliefs. It also encourages us to explore the reasons underlying beliefs that differ from our own, while challenging us to examine our reasons for the beliefs and values we hold.


Morality is what identifies the principles in which man exists, to separate good from bad, and right from wrong, and every society should strive to discover and achieve these principals. Morals clearly plan an intricate role in our lives. While many times moral values can, in fact, conflict with that of others, violence often makes things worse. However as time passes we build upon our knowledge of truth in search for other truths that strengthen and further establish our already growing understanding of what is right and wrong and by doing this we can discover certain values and beliefs from cultures that are indeed just and right.


Didion, Joan. On Morality. The Presence of Others Voices and Images that Call for Response. Third Edition. Lunsford, Andrea A. and John J. Ruszkiewicz, eds. Boston and New York Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 000.


King, Martin Luther Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail The Presence of Others Voices and Images that Call for Response. Third Edition. Lunsford, Andrea A. and John J. Ruszkiewicz, eds. Boston and New York Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 000.


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how to overcome a bad habit of smoking

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Tobacco is like a demon that tempts people to be its captive. If you try to smoke, maybe only for a few times, you might get addicted. Once you are addicted, it would be extremely hard to quit. I had been smoking for three years. Two years ago when I saw my uncle who had twenty years smoking experience died of lung cancer, I realized that I had to quit. Lots of people tried to quit smoking many times but without success. I think that to overcome such a bad habit, what you should do is to follow three steps get away from a smoking environment, eat snacks instead of smoking, and keep exercising.


When I decided to quit smoking, I knew that the first thing that I must do was to get away from the environment of smoking. Smokers often cannot control their addiction to cigarettes while they can see or smell somebody is smoking. In order to avoid this kind of situation, I tried not to stay in the place where smoking is allowed and temporarily stayed away from those friends who have the habit of smoking. For example, at the break time, I stayed at the cafeteria, drinking a cup of coffee instead of going outside with my colleagues to have a cigarette. During my spare time, I tried to keep myself busy by doing extra work such as cleaning, repairing and washing instead of going to clubs or bars where smoking is not prohibited. Getting away from the environment of smoking may divert my focus on smoking.


Sometimes no matter how you try your best not to get involved in a smoking environment, there must be something that incites your addiction to smoking. To overcome it, I got a tip which is to eat snacks when you really want a cigarette. There are always some snacks such as candies, chips or chocolate in my bag. Every time when I want to smoke, I take the snacks out and eat them. It always works because when your mouth is busy on chewing, you will forget about smoking.


Except for the ways that I mentioned above, the most important thing for overcoming the bad habit of smoking is to keep exercising. Exercise is very beneficial, especially for the smokers. Smokers have lower immunity than people who do not smoke. Research shows that people who have long smoking histories are more likely to have lung cancer when they get older. Keeping exercising will not only give me a healthy body but and help me to win back my confidence. Since I gave up smoking, I have fallen into a good routine of exercise. Every morning I jog in the park, breath the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. It makes me comfortable and energetic. Little by little, smoking is no longer attractive to me because I now have a better choice.


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As we learned about the disabled artist Frida Kahlo from the book Waving It Together, nothing is so difficult that you cannot do it if you have a strong determination. Although smoking can make people addicted, getting rid of it can be achieved if you follow the three steps that I outlined above. This is the way in which I succeeded. I do believe that if I can do it then you can do it too.








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speth

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James Speth, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program outlined some the massive problems confronting the world a decade ago.


Today, the average person among the 4 billion in the developing countries consumes about ,500 calories of food each day. The average person consumes ,400 calories per day in Western Europe and more than ,600 in the United States… according to recent estimates by the world’s leading soil scientists, an area of about 1. billion hectares-about the size of China and India combined-has experienced moderate to extreme soil deterioration since World War II as a result of human activities. Over three-fourths of that deterioration has occurred in the developing regions, most of it in arid and semi-arid regions. When combined with other environmental threats to the agricultural resources base-loss of water and generic resources, loss if cultural resources, and climate change, both local and global-the situation is disturbing.


(Speth, 14)


Three years late Paul Ehrlich expanded on this description of the environmental problems facing the world.


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Exploitation is a complex subject, but in a world in which huge international disparities in wealth and power persist, the rich-poor gap is increasing. In 160 the ratio of the income of the richest 0 percent of humanity to that of the poorest 0 percent of humanity was 01; according to the United Nations Human Development Report 17, it was nearly 801 in 14. And the rich show pathetically little interest in closing that gap. Since 150 the richest fifth of the humankind has doubled its per capita consumption of energy, meat, timber, steel, and copper, and quadrupled it car ownership, greatly increasing global emissions of CFCs and greenhouse gases, accelerating tropical deforestation, and intensifying other environmental impacts. The poorest fifth of humankind has increased it per capita consumption hardly at all. Indeed, those in the poorest fifth average a cash income of less than a dollar a day, and those in the next fifth average only three dollars a day. This means that 40 percent of humankind accounts for a mere 6.5 percent of the world’s income.


(Ehrlich, 17)





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Autism

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Abortion When Does Human Life Begin?


In This Story


Historical Perspectives


Abortion and U.S. Law


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Does Life Begin at Conception?


Pro-Choice and Viability


Other Criteria


An Unresolvable Debate?


Bibliography


Additional Sources


Contact Information


Keywords and Points


For more than a generation, the controversy over abortion has remained one of the nations most polarized political debates. Since 17, when the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that obtaining an abortion during the early stages of pregnancy is a constitutional right, supporters and opponents of abortion have marched, protested and lobbied for their respective causes. After 6 years, however, many of the central issues in the debate have not changed, and a resolution remains as unlikely as ever.


On one side of the abortion debate are those who call themselves pro-choice. Pro-choice advocates argue that women have a fundamental right to terminate their unwanted pregnancies, and most pro-choice proponents oppose any attempts to curb the right to an abortion outlined in Roe. In their view, the debate over abortion is fundamentally about liberty and privacy; every woman, they say, has a basic right to make decisions that affect her own body without interference from the government. Restrictions on abortion, they say, would undermine a womans basic rights to choose her destiny, make decisions affecting her body and control her reproductive life.


On the other side of the debate are those who call themselves pro-life. Pro-life advocates want to see Roe overturned and abortion outlawed. They maintain that a fetus is a human being with an absolute right to life like anyone else. That right to be born, they say, overrides the mothers right to make decisions about her body since her decision to abort affects the life of another human being, the unborn baby. Abortion, in their view, is murder and so should not be sanctioned by society.





Jeremy Eagle





Perhaps the most fundamental issue in the debate over abortion is deciding whether the fetus is, in fact, a human being. No one denies that the cells making up the fetus, like the cells in the rest of the womans body, are living. Rather, the key question is whether the fetus is a human life, one that is distinct from the woman in which it develops and one that deserves basic human rights. Responses to that question are numerous and complicated, involving a wide range of moral, legal, philosophical, spiritual and medical perspectives on what it means to be human.


The debate is often framed as a matter of timing. When during a womans pregnancy does a fetus become a human being? Many pro-life advocates say the answer is at conception, the moment when a mans sperm and a womans egg, or ovum, are joined. At that moment, they say, the fetus is formed as a unique person that, if allowed to develop freely, would grow to function independently.


Many pro-choice proponents, however, argue that human life begins at viability, the moment when a fetus can survive outside the mothers womb. Viability is usually marked at the rd or 4th week of pregnancy, although some babies can survive if they are born several weeks earlier, largely thanks to advanced medical technology. Only at viability, when the lungs, kidneys and other critical organs of the fetus are developed enough to sustain life independently, does a human life begin, according to many pro-choice advocates.


There are also many nuanced views on when human life begins during a pregnancy. Some people argue that human life begins when a heart beat or brain waves can be detected, for example. Others argue that, at least in principle, a woman should have the right to terminate her pregnancy regardless of whether a fetus is a human being.


Nevertheless, most of the debate has focused on whether human life begins sometime before viability since that moment has been crucial in Supreme Court decisions on abortion. In Roe, for instance, the court ruled that states can prohibit abortion only after fetal viability. Pro-choice advocates largely support that position, saying it upholds the rights of women to make their own decision on whether to terminate their early pregnancies. Pro-life groups, meanwhile, portray the Roe decision as a travesty of justice for what they refer to as the millions of unborn children who are aborted each year.





Jeremy Eagle





Historical Perspectives


Societies have grappled with the issue of abortion for millennia. As today, attitudes toward abortion were often shaped by religious views on whether a fetus was a human being and when its life began. In many cultures, abortion was frowned upon but was not regarded or punished as a form of murder. The early Hittite Code (100 B.C.) used in the ancient Middle East, for example, established fines for abortion, while it imposed stiff penalties, including death in some cases, for murder. Fines for abortion were higher the further into a womans pregnancy they were performed--reflecting the belief that the fetuss life became more valuable as it developed.


Within ancient Greek society, there were many conflicting views on abortion, largely arising out of disagreements over when the fetus gained a soul and thereby became human. Followers of the philosopher Plato taught that ensoulment occurred with the babys first breath. Aristotle, meanwhile, described different stages of ensoulment during fetal development, but he held that abortion should not be illegal until the fetus became animated.


In ancient Rome, the fetus was not considered a human being until the moment of birth; until then, it was regarded as part of the woman. Obtained as a matter of convenience, abortion was common and widespread in Rome, but it was also dangerous--women often died from taking the poisons, or abortifacients, used to induce an abortion.


Some scholars consider it striking that the Judeo-Christian Bible, the most influential religious text in the Western world, says nothing explicitly about abortion. As a result, the stance of religious leaders and scholars on the issue of abortion has often shifted. In the Talmud, the ancient Jewish law that is based on interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures, or Torah, the fetus is regarded as part of the mother and not a distinct being. The Talmud even explicitly requires a woman to seek an abortion if her pregnancy is life-threatening.


The Christian Church was largely silent on the issue of abortion until it issued The Didache of the Apostles in the nd century. The Didache, a book of religious rules drafted by the early church, ordered followers not to kill the fetus by abortion nor destroy the infant already born. Early church leaders, however, did not necessarily regard abortion to be murder. St. Augustine, for example, wrote in the 4th century that abortion was murder only if it occurred after the fetus was fully formed, a moment of ensoulment that Augustine called hominization. For males, hominization took place 40 days after conception, Augustine said; for females, it occurred 80 days afterward.


Variations on Augustines views on abortion held sway in the Catholic Church at least until the 1th century. Its position on abortion changed in 186, when Pope Pius IX issued a decree that abortion was murder at any stage of pregnancy. Although not ensouled, [the fetus] is directed to the forming of man, it stated. Therefore, its ejection is anticipated homicide. The Catholic Church continues to hold the position that human life begins at conception, a position that is also embraced by many Protestant denominations.


Abortion and U.S. Law


Until the early 1th century, abortion during early pregnancy was common and legal in most areas of the U.S. Under common law, abortion was considered lawful until quickening, the moment when the fetus first moves in the womb, usually the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. Even in states that were among the first to restrict abortion--Connecticut (181), Missouri (185) and Illinois (187)--abortion was punished only after quickening.


The first large-scale movement to restrict abortion in the U.S. was led by physicians during the mid-1th century. Until then, the topic of abortion had rarely been discussed and there appeared to be general tolerance for the practice in the states. Within decades of the medical communitys anti-abortion campaign, however, public opinion shifted against the practice, and by the end of the 1th century, more than 40 states had passed legislation to restrict or outlaw abortion.


Most anti-abortion laws at the time allowed women to obtain abortions only if a physician deemed it necessary to safeguard her health or save her life. Although abortion remained illegal in nearly every state during the early 0th century, researchers estimate that the abortion rate remained about the same as it had before the practice was outlawed. Though common, illegal abortions were often unsanitary and unsafe and resulted in the death or mutilation of many women.


A movement to reform abortion laws began to emerge in the 150s and gained increasing strength during the 160s. Spearheading the effort to reform abortion laws were leaders of the burgeoning womens rights movement. In 167, the recently formed National Organization for Women (NOW), a womens rights group, adopted a resolution calling for abortion rights. Soon, the movement to reform abortion laws turned into a movement to repeal the laws altogether.


In 170, Hawaii became the first state to repeal its anti-abortion law, passing a measure that legalized abortions before the 0th week of pregnancy. New York State followed suit that same year, repealing its own statute that had criminalized abortion.


All other state anti-abortion laws were effectively nullified by the Supreme Courts landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. Writing for the majority in Roe, Justice Harry Blackmun said that women have a fundamental right to abortion during the first trimester (1 weeks) of pregnancy. The right to an abortion, he stated, is part of a right to privacy that is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.


In Roe, the courts majority explicitly rejected the claim that a fetus is a person endowed with due process rights provided by the 14th Amendment. However, the court ruled that a womans right to an abortion was not absolute. States may regulate abortions during the second trimester, the court said, to protect the womans health. For example, states may regulate clinics that perform abortions to ensure that abortions are performed safely and that doctors are qualified to perform the procedure. Furthermore, the court held that after fetal viability, the state may outlaw abortions except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. During those weeks, the court stated, the state has an interest in protecting the potential human life since the fetus presumably has the capability of meaningful life outside the mothers womb.


The Roe decision is perhaps the most controversial decision handed down by the Supreme Court during the second half of the 0th century. In cases since then, the Supreme Court has modified its stance on abortion by moving away from the trimester framework outlined in Roe. The court has also ruled that states may restrict abortions before the moment of fetal viability as long as the restrictions do not place an undue burden on the woman. [See 1 Key Court Decisions on Abortion]


Does Life Begin at Conception?


Many pro-life proponents argue that the Supreme Courts Roe decision is fundamentally wrong since it does not recognize the fetus as a human being who has rights before viability. Pro-life groups, including the National Right to Life Committee, instead contend that human life begins at conception. Abortion at any stage of a womans pregnancy is therefore murder in their view.


The position that human life begins at conception is also the official position of a number of religions, including the Roman Catholic Church, headed by Pope John Paul II. Procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing...of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth, the Pope states in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, or The Gospel of Life (15).


The Pope contends that a human being is ensouled at the moment that the ovum is fertilized. Even if science cannot confirm the presence of a spiritual soul at the moment of conception, the Pope argues, research clearly shows that the fertilized egg is endowed with a personal presence that is distinct from both mother and father. That distinct new life, he explains, would not be able to become human if it were not intrinsically human already, and so it must be protected throughout its development.


Although a fertilized ovum, or zygote, may not look like a human being, it is nevertheless a distinct person, according to pro-life advocates. They point out that a newborn child does not look like an adult person, but that does not make the child any less human. Just as children need time to develop before they look like adults, a fetus needs time to develop before it looks like a newborn baby, they say.


It is reprehensible, pro-life advocates argue, to sanction the killing of a human being simply because it is developing inside the womb rather than outside the mother. Is there any fundamental difference between a baby who resides in his mothers uterus and one who has made an eight-inch journey down the birth canal? asks James Dobson, founder and president of Focus on the Family, a Christian organization that opposes abortion. Surely the Lord does not look upon the baby inside the uterus with any less love and concern than one who enters the world a few minutes later.


While spiritual beliefs play a key role in the argument against abortion, many pro-life proponents also cite scientific reasons for their claim that life begins at conception. Indeed, a number of medical authorities agree that there is ample evidence that the fetus, even as a single cell in the womb, is a human being. Their medical argument often hinges on the fact that from the moment of conception, the fetus has 46 distinct human chromosomes. Chromosomes are the protein structures in every cell that carry a persons genetic information.


Since only members of the species Homo sapiens, or human beings, have 46 human chromosomes, the fetus must be considered a person, according to pro-life advocates. Indeed, the fetus has a set of chromosomes that distinguishes it from its mother and father and, except in the case of identical twins, distinguishes it from everyone else in the world. If the fetus is living, and it is not a bird or some other animal, they ask, then what else could it be besides human?


To stress the humanness of the fetus, pro-life advocates often show pictures of the fetus as it develops in the womb. Early in the pregnancy, they point out, the fetus begins to develop a distinct human appearance, with hands, toes, feet and a beating heart. The fetus reacts to stimuli and moves around in the womb long before the mother can feel it. The pictures, they say, are ample evidence that the fetus is a human being in his or her early stages of development. A developing human being, they stress, is still a human being and not something that is somehow pre-human or inhuman.


Pro-Choice and Viability


From the point of view of most pro-choice advocates, the fetus before viability is at most a potential life, a developing mass of cells that cannot yet claim rights. They say that pro-life proponents make a moral and medical mistake by trying to equate the life of an unconscious, single-celled zygote with the life of a full-fledged, breathing, conscious woman.


Like pro-life advocates, pro-choice proponents cite medical and spiritual arguments to defend their position. From fertilization to viability, they argue, the fetus does not have many of the biological traits even minimally associated with being a person. More than 50% of induced abortions occur before the eighth week of gestation, they point out, when the fetus is still only about an inch long and has fewer cells, less animation and less brain functioning than many insects. Many medical abortions (those induced by drugs), they add, occur during the first few weeks after conception, when the fetus is just a few millimeters large.


While pro-choice advocates acknowledge that a fetus has human chromosomes, they say that other traits, such as awareness, viability or consciousness, also need to be present before the fetus can be considered more than a potential human being at best. Abortion-rights advocates frequently use the analogy of a building to underscore the difference between human chromosomes and a human being. Skyscrapers are erected based on written instructions, or blueprints, that detail how the various parts of the building will be coordinated. Yet the blueprints, which consist of ink and paper, are distinct from the building--an assemblage of metal, cement and other materials.


Abortion-rights activists say that the chromosomes in the fertilized egg are like those blueprints. The chromosomes in a living cell provide a map for a human life but they are not themselves human. Just as the blueprints for a building are drafted long before a skyscraper is built, chromosomes exist in living cells long before an actual human being comes into existence, they claim.


A person is more than a collection of cells created by 46 chromosomes, says John Swomley, professor of social ethics at the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. Speaking from a religious perspective, Swomley argues that the notion that life begins at conception actually devalues the meaning of human life. To focus on the biological realities of genes and chromosomes present at conception, he says, neglects the spiritual nature and characteristics of humans. Swomley says that when the Bible describes humans as beings created in the image of God, it was not referring to biological similarities but to the abilities to love and to reason; to the capacity for self-awareness and transcendence; and to the freedom to choose, rather than to live by instinct. Those traits, he says, are lacking in the fetus.


Until viability, many pro-choice advocates argue, the fetus is little more than a collection of uncoordinated body systems that are completely dependent on the woman for sustenance. Typically, viability occurs only after the rd or 4th week of pregnancy, when the fetuss brain has developed to the point where it can integrate its body systems. Until then, the fetus cannot breathe air even with a respirator because it is unable to pass oxygen to the bloodstream from its lungs. Pro-choice proponents argue that a fetus cannot be considered a distinct human being meriting rights until its body systems are working as a whole and it can survive independently.


Pro-choice advocates note that more than 0% of abortions occur before the 4th week of pregnancy. Most pro-choice proponents defend abortions after viability only if the life or health of the mother is endangered. When the womans life or health is not at risk--aborting a viable fetus is morally wrong--pure and simple, says Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).


But Michelman and others argue that restricting or outlawing abortion before viability would have disastrous consequences for women, who unquestionably are human beings with human rights. Before abortion was legal, thousands of women died and many tens of thousands were mutilated by the procedure, according to Planned Parenthood, a pro-choice organization. To return to those days of back alley abortions, Planned Parenthood says, would result in the death of many women and force them to act like criminals. Pro-choice groups argue that it is demeaning to women to disregard their privacy rights and give greater rights to an unviable fetus that in early pregnancy may be nothing more than a handful of cells.


Other Criteria


One reason that the debate over abortion is so complicated is that many people hold nuanced views on the question of when human life begins. Their views do not always fit squarely with the common pro-choice position that life begins at viability or with the typical pro-life position that it begins at conception. Indeed, doctors, theologians, ethicists and others have proposed various criteria, some of which are listed below, for determining when a fetus becomes a human being or for deciding when abortion should be restricted


Human life begins at approximately eight weeks. Eight weeks of gestation is often considered the end of the embryonic period of pregnancy; at about that time, the cells in the fetus have differentiated to a degree that there is a foundation for each of the basic internal and external body features that the fetus will have as an adult human. As a result, some people argue that the fetus is at a stage where it can be considered a distinct human being, rather than an unspecialized mass of cells.


Moreover, although it is still highly undeveloped, the fetuss brain at eight weeks begins to emit brain waves, signaling some form of brain activity. In the fields of medicine and law, the irreversible termination of brain activity is often an accepted definition of death. Accordingly, many people argue that the start of brain activity in the fetus should be considered the beginning of an individual human life.


Abortion should be restricted once the fetus is capable of experiencing pain. Some people maintain that an important developmental threshold for determining when abortion should be restricted is the fetuss ability to feel pain. Exactly when a fetus begins to become aware of pain is quite controversial. As early as the seventh week of pregnancy, a fetus may react to physical stimuli, such as medical instruments that are introduced to the womb, by pulling its head back or dodging the object. Some people regard that response as a sign that the fetus feels pain. However, many doctors argue that those movements are automatic reflexes, rather than pain reactions.


Some doctors contend that the fetus does not feel pain until much later in the pregnancy. While there is reflex activity as early as the third month of pregnancy, there is no data that there is pain perception until the late second trimester, says Mark Evans, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich.


Regardless of when a fetus becomes human, the mothers right to terminate her pregnancy always takes precedence. A number of pro-choice advocates maintain that the decision to terminate a pregnancy is a private decision that belongs exclusively to the woman, even if a fetus is a human being. Some argue that, as long as the mothers body provides sustenance to the fetus, the woman has the right to make decisions for the fetus regarding its physical well-being, including whether it should live. Using a similar line of argument, others contend that a woman cannot be legally forced to sustain another human being in her body against her will. [See 1 Abortion and a Famous Violinist]


Responding to such arguments, many pro-life proponents maintain that if the fetus is a human being, then its life should be regarded as equally sacred as that of the mother. They say that requiring a woman to finish her pregnancy deprives her of her liberty for only nine months. In the case of an abortion, however, the fetus loses its life. If both the mother and fetus are equally human, requiring the woman to finish her pregnancy would therefore result in the least overall harm, they say.


An Unresolvable Debate?


Whether a fetus is a human being is only one question among many in the nations long-running war over abortion. Are certain abortion procedures more harmful or immoral than others? Should minors who are pregnant be forced to obtain their parents permission before getting an abortion? Is abortion in cases of rape or incest more legitimate than abortion for other reasons?


Nevertheless, answers to most of those questions typically depend on a persons views on whether the fetus is a human being deserving of human rights. Pro-choice advocates contend that if doctors, ethicists, theologians and policy makers cannot agree on when human life begins, then the pregnant woman, rather than a group of politicians, ought to be trusted to answer the question for herself since an abortion involves her body. Many women who obtain an abortion, they note, are young, unmarried and unprepared--both financially and emotionally--to raise a child. They maintain that each woman is therefore in the best position to decide for herself whether to have a baby.


Such arguments are unconvincing to most pro-lifers, however. When pro-choice advocates speak about the liberty and privacy rights of pregnant women, pro-life advocates typically respond by asking about the liberty and rights of the unborn child. If the question of when human life begins cannot be definitively resolved, pro-life advocates say, then society should err on the side of life by assuming that the fetus is a human being and making abortion illegal. While they acknowledge that many pregnant women are not ready to have a child, they say that there are alternatives, such as adoption, that make abortion unnecessary.


If there is one point of agreement between pro-life and pro-choice advocates, it is the need to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Even that issue, however, is clouded by debate over sex education and family planning policies. Many conservatives favor programs that stress abstinence and avoid discussions of contraception, such as condoms or birth-control pills. Liberals, on the other hand, typically support education programs that speak frankly about sexuality and contraception, and they often favor making contraception readily available. [For more on the debate over sex education, see 16 Sex Education]


Will the debate over abortion ever be settled? A striking 88% of Americans in a January 18 New York Times/CBS News poll answered no. Remarking on the intractability of the debate, essayist Roger Rosenblatt writes, For all the standards applied in various societies, no one has ever been able to prove when a person comes into being...it is important to note that this question of personhood is not now, nor has it ever been, settled.


To agree on when human life begins may require advocates and opponents of abortion to agree on what it means to be human and whether the answer is primarily a scientific, spiritual or legal one. Such questions have bedeviled philosophers, scientists and theologians for thousands of years, however, and are likely to do so for many more.


Bibliography


Balz, Dan. Abortion Debate Endures as Staple of American Politics. Washington Post (January 18, 18) A4.


Dershowitz, Alan. An Interesting Twist on Legal Status of Fetus. Buffalo News (October 6, 16) C.


Gerson, Michael. For Key Abortion Foes, A Sudden Burst of Pragmatism. U.S. News & World Report (June 1, 18) 5.


Goldberg, Carey; Elder, Janet. Public Still Backs Abortion, but Wants Limits, Poll Says. New York Times (January 16, 18) A1.


Grimes, David. The Continuing Need for Late Abortions. Journal of the American Medical Association (August 6, 18) 747.


Kristol, William. Roe Must Go. The Weekly Standard (January 1, 18) 10.


McConnell, Michael. Roe v. Wade at 5 Still Illegitimate. Wall Street Journal (January , 18) A18.


Shoop, Julie Gannon. Is a Fetus a Person? Trial (June 17) 1.


Talan, Jamie. Abortion Debate Fetuses and Pain. Newsday (September , 16) A1.


Waldman, Steven; Ackerman, Elise; Rubin, Rita. Abortions in America. U.S. News & World Report (January 1, 18) 0.


Wolf, Naomi. Our Bodies, Our Souls. New Republic (October 16, 15) 6.


Additional Sources


Additional information about the debate over abortion can be found in the following sources


Nathanson, Bernard. The Hand of God A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind. Washington, D.C. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 16.


Roleff, Tamara, book ed. Abortion Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, Calif Greenhaven Press, Inc., 17.


Rosenblatt, Roger. Life Itself Abortion in the American Mind. New York City Random House, Inc., 1.


Tribe, Laurence. Abortion The Clash of Absolutes. New York City W.W. Norton & Company, 1.


Contact Information


Information on how to contact organizations that are either mentioned in the discussion of abortion or can provide additional information on the subject is listed below


Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI)


10 Wall Street


New York, N.Y. 10005


Telephone (1) 48-1111


Internet www.agi-usa.org


Focus on the Family


P.O. Box 5500


Colorado Springs, Colo. 805


Telephone (71) 51-5181


Internet www.family.org


National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL)


1156 15th Street N.W., Suite 700


Washington, D.C. 0005


Telephone (0) 7-000


Internet www.naral.org


National Right to Life Committee


41 7th Street N.W., Suite 100


Washington, D.C. 0004


Telephone (0) 66-8800


Internet www.nrlc.org


Planned Parenthood Federation of America


810 7th Avenue


New York, N.Y. 1001


Telephone (1) 541-7800


Internet www.plannedparenthood.org


Keywords and Points


For further information about the ongoing debate over abortion, search for the following words and terms in electronic databases and other publications


Roe v. Wade


Viability


James Dobson


Partial birth abortion


Kate Michelman





� 00 Facts On File News Services














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Christina Rossetti's Uphill Analysis

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In Uphill, Christina Rossetti writes of lifes never ending struggles. She does this by comparing life to a long uphill journey, in a metaphor that spans the entire poem. Ostensibly, the poem is about a traveler asking another person about the journey to come. But to look deeper into the poem is to see a completely different yet parallel subject.


In the first two stanzas, the questioner asks the second man about the length and hardness of the journey. The traveler is being told that the road to his destination is a long, arduous journey that will wind uphill all the way. This gives the impression that there is no rest for the weary pilgrim. But he is told that there is an inn which you cannot miss, that will give him a resting place for when the slow dark hours begin.This inn symbolizes heaven, a place where the speaker may take his rest once the darkness closes in upon him. The second speaker also tells the questioner that he cannot miss that inn. One would imagine that it is quite impossible to miss heaven.


In the second two stanzas, the traveler learns that he will not be alone upon this long journey. He will meet those who have gone before, who will welcome him. This is a disguised way of saying that one is never alone on the journey of life, because there are always those who have had the same experience. The traveler will find rest and comfort in the sum of the labor he expends. Thus, if the traveler is too lazy to make the journey walking, he will never find comfort, because he has not attempted anything. The author is saying, as the cliche goes, no pain, no gain. For all those who could complete the journey and not collapse or give up there is a reward at the end of their voyage with soft beds for all. Symbolically, this means that if one works for ones gains in life, there is time to rest peacefully when one is dead and in heaven.


The poem has many clues that suggest that it has a symbolic meaning. It repeatedly mentions the words associated with life (morning, come) and death (night, end, slow dark hours, darkness, weak), which is the theme of the poem. Each stanza employs its own mini-metaphors within the large one of the poem. The first contains the long and winding journeys description, the second, the inn, the third, the fellow travelers, and the fourth, the final rest at the end of the journey. Using symbolism such as this to express a point is more effective, than saying something like Life is a long journey. It makes the poem much more interesting, and tends to grab the readers attention more.


Order College Papers on Christina Rossetti's Uphill Analysis

This is a dramatic poem, employing a dialogue involving two people. The author shows this fact by indenting every other line, those of the second speaker. Christina Rossetti represents the questioner as inquisitive and worried a bit about his upcoming journey. The answerer, on the other hand, seems to be reassuring the questioner that their journey/life will pass well. The author also uses question marks to indicate when the questioner asks something of the other person. Each speakers lines rhyme throughout the poem, following a rhyme scheme of abab. The rhyme scheme also adds to the attractiveness of the poem. The bright rhymes catch the readers attention immediately. The poem employs no regular meter, yet it has a very definite rhythm, simply letting the lines flow from one to another, at a brisk, yet not hurried pace. This makes the poem seem more real, since people most definitely do not talk in a strict anapestic trimeter - in fact, no meter at all anapestic tri or otherwise.


The poem Uphill employs metaphors, rhyme, rhythm to show its theme of lifes being a long journey. These aspects add to the attention catching-ness of the poem and its smooth movement. The author uses phrases to indicate, yet not quite state, the theme of the poem. If one thinks about the way that the author has phrased the poem, and that it seems as if the journey has yet to take place, it is quite possible that the author, being a devout Catholic, might have tried to imagine what an angel might say to an unborn baby to ease its mind. In fact, it is likely, since the author spent the last years of her life in isolated and in prayer.





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financial planning

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Financial Planning


Module objectives


Delegates are able to


q Define Financial planning and management


Buy custom financial planning term paper

q Highlight tools of Financial Planning


q Calculate their Income statement


q Define what cash flow is.


q Calculate Cash flow of their businesses


q Calculate financial ratios


q Identify financial ratio formulas


q Define break even point


q Calculate the break even point of their businesses


q Practically analyse the position of their businesses





1. FINANCIAL PLANNING


1.1. The concept of Financial Planning as a whole


Ø Definition of Financial Planning


Ø The components of Financial Planning


Ø Tools of Financial Planning


Ø List the benefits of a Financial Plan


1.. The Income Statement


Ø Definition of the Income Statement


Ø List components of Income Statement


Ø List importance of the Income Statement


Ø Draw up own Income Statement for Business


1.. The Cash flow statement


Ø Definition of the Cash Flow Statement


Ø List the features of the Cash flow Statement


Ø List the importance of the Cash flow Statement


Ø Practise how to draw up Cash flow statement


Ø Draw up own Cash flow Statement for Business


1.4. Financial Ratios


Ø Definition of Financial Ratios


Ø Discussions of terms in Financial Ratios


Ø List importance of Financial Ratios


Ø Practice the Calculation of Financial Ratios


Ø Calculate Financial Ratios for own business


1.5. Breakeven Analysis


Ø Definition of Break even point


Ø Calculation of Break even point


Ø Calculation of Break even point for business


1.6. Additional Analysis Material � Take home


Ø Analyse present business situation


Ø Discuss problems and Proffer solutions to financial problems in business





. INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL PLANNING


There is one simple reason to understand and observe financial planning in your business - to avoid failure. Eight of ten new businesses fail primarily because of the lack of good financial planning.


Financial planning affects how and on what terms you will be able to attract the funding required to establish, maintain, and expand your business. It affects the human and physical resources you will be able to acquire to operate your business. It will be a major determinant of whether or not you will be able to make your hard work profitable.


This section provides an overview of the essential components of financial planning and management. Used wisely, it will make the reader - the Business owner/manager - familiar enough with the fundamentals to have a fighting chance of success in todays highly competitive business environment.


A clearly conceived, well documented financial plan, establishing goals and including the use of Pro Forma Statements and Budgets to ensure financial control, will demonstrate not only that you know what you want to do, but that you know how to accomplish it. This demonstration is essential to attract the capital required by your business from creditors and investors.


Financial management in the small firm is characterized, in many different cases, by the need to confront a somewhat different set of problems and opportunities than those confronted by a large corporation. One immediate and obvious difference is that a majority of smaller firms do not normally have the opportunity to publicly sell issues of stocks or bonds in order to raise funds. The owner-manager of a smaller firm must rely primarily on trade credit, bank financing, lease financing, and personal equity to finance the business. One therefore faces a much more severely restricted set of financing alternatives than those faced by the financial vice president or treasurer of a large corporation.


On the other hand, many financial problems facing the small firm are very similar to those of larger corporations. For example, the analysis required for a long-term investment decision such as the purchase of heavy machinery or the evaluation of lease-buy alternatives, is essentially the same regardless of the size of the firm. Once the decision is made, the financing alternatives available to the firm may be radically different, but the decision process will be generally similar.


One area of particular concern for the smaller business owner lies in the effective management of working capital. Net working capital is defined as the difference between current assets and current liabilities and is often thought of as the circulating capital of the business. Lack of control in this crucial area is a primary cause of business failure in both small and large firms.


The business manager must continually be alert to changes in working capital accounts, the cause of these changes and the implications of these changes for the financial health of the company.


. TOOLS OF FINANCIAL PLANNING


This section introduces the tools required to prepare a financial plan for your businesss development, including the following


Ø Basic Financial Statements - the Balance Sheet and Statement of Income


Ø Ratio Analysis - a means by which individual business performance is compared to similar businesses in the same category


Ø The Pro Forma Statement of Income - a method used to forecast future profitability


Ø Break-Even Analysis - a method allowing the small business person to calculate the sales level at which a business recovers all its costs or expenses


The Cash Flow Statement - also known as the Budget identifies the flow of cash into and out of the business


Pricing formulas and policies - used to calculate profitable selling prices for products and services


Types and sources of capital available to finance business operations


Short- and long-term planning considerations necessary to maximize profits


The business owner/manager who understands these concepts and uses them effectively to control the evolution of the business is practicing sound financial management thereby increasing the likelihood of success.


Why do you think a financial Plan is important for your business?

















4. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS


4.1. The Statement of Income


The second primary report included in a businesss Financial Statement is the Statement of Income. The Statement of Income is a measurement of a companys sales and expenses over a specific period of time. It is also prepared at regular intervals (again, each month and fiscal year end) to show the results of operating during those accounting periods. It too follows Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and contains specific revenue and expense categories regardless of the nature of the business.


4.. Statement of Income Categories


The Statement of Income categories are calculated as described below


Net Sales (gross sales less returns and allowances)


Less Cost of Goods Sold (cost of inventories)


Equals Gross Margin (gross profit on sales before operating expenses)


Less Selling and Administrative Expenses (salaries, wages, payroll taxes and benefits, rent, utilities, maintenance expenses, office supplies, postage, automobile/vehicle expenses, insurance, legal and accounting expenses, depreciation)


Equals Operating Profit (profit before other non-operating income or expense)


Plus Other Income (income from discounts, investments, customer charge accounts)


Less Other Expenses (interest expense)


Equals Net Profit (or Loss) before Tax (the figure on which your tax is calculated)


Less Income Taxes (if any are due)


Equals Net Profit (or Loss) After Tax


Calculating the Cost of Goods Sold


Calculation of the Cost of Goods Sold category in the Statement of Income (or Profit-and-Loss Statement as it is sometimes called) varies depending on whether the business is retail, wholesale, or manufacturing. In retailing and wholesaling, computing the cost of goods sold during the accounting period involves beginning and ending inventories. This, of course, includes purchases made during the accounting period. In manufacturing it involves not only finished-goods inventories, but also raw materials inventories, goods-in-process inventories, direct labor, and direct factory overhead costs.


Regardless of the calculation for Cost of Goods Sold, deduct the Cost of Goods Sold from Net Sales to get Gross Margin or Gross Profit. From Gross Profit, deduct general or indirect overhead, such as selling expenses, office expenses, and interest expenses to calculate your Net Profit.





Is your revenue more than your Expense? if not why ?

















5. THE CASHFLOW STATEMENT


5.1. Cashflow method


Cash in business can be compared to water that flows in a river. Cash flows in from sales, loans, and equity. This puts the business highly dependent on its customers, financiers and stakeholders


Cash inflows are from Sales, Equity, Loans, Collection from credit sales


Cash flows out to pay for materials, Salaries ( including the entrepreneur’s), rent, electricity, water, interest, supply, transport ,etc.


If there is more water coming out than coming into the river, then it will soon dry out. Similarly businesses having more cash outflows than inflow will soon get into trouble. They will not be able to pay for expenses as they fall due. This is a difficult situation that every entrepreneur should avoid. Hence the importance of cash flow planning.


When cash outflow is more than cash inflow = Danger alert


When cash inflow is more than cash outflow = Good


5.. What is Cash Flow Management?


If you were able to do business in a perfect world, you would probably like to have a cash inflow (a cash sale ) occur every time you experience a cash outflow ( pay an expense ) but it is a well known fact that business takes place in the real world, and things just don,t happen that way.


Instead, cash outflow and inflow occur at different times and more often cash inflows lag behind your cash outflows, leaving your business short of money.


5.. What is a cash flow gap ?


This represents an excessive outflow of cash that may not be covered by a cash inflow for weeks, months, or even years.


Managing your cash flow allows you to narrowly or completely close your cash flow gap. It does this by examining the different items that affect the cash flow of your business .


Examining your cash inflows and outflows and looking at the components that have a direct effect on your cash flow, allows you to answer the following questions


Ø How much cash does my business have?


Ø How much cash does my business need to operate, and when is it needed?


Ø Where does my business get its cash, and spend its cash?


How do my income and expenses affect the amount of Cash I need to expand my business?


If you can answer these questions, you’re managing your cash flow! effectively


Some businesses can actually have very high profits and be cashless. Why ? consider a situation that all sales are given on credit in a month, even if there is profit there would be no cash to run the business


What do you understand as a cash flow and how do you think you can manage it in your business

















6. INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL RATIO ANALYSIS


Ratio Analysis is applied to Financial Statements to analyze the success, failure, and progress of your business .Ratio Analysis enables the business owner/manager to spot trends in a business and to compare its performance and condition with the average performance of similar businesses in the same industry. To do this compare your ratios with the average of businesses similar to yours and compare your own ratios for several successive years, watching especially for any unfavorable trends that may be starting. Ratio analysis may provide the all-important early warning indications that allow you to solve your business problems before your business is destroyed by them .


6.1. Income Statement Ratio Analysis


The following important State of Income Ratios measure profitability


6.. Gross Margin Ratio


This ratio is the percentage of sales Naira left after subtracting the cost of goods sold from net sales. It measures the percentage of sales dollars remaining (after obtaining or manufacturing the goods sold) available to pay the overhead expenses of the company.


Comparison of your business ratios to those of similar businesses will reveal the relative strengths or weaknesses in your business. The Gross Margin Ratio is calculated as follows


Gross Margin Ratio = Gross Profit divided by Net Sales


(Gross Profit = Net Sales - Cost of Goods Sold)


6.. Net Profit Margin Ratio


This ratio is the percentage of sales dollars left after subtracting the Cost of Goods sold and all expenses, except income taxes. It provides a good opportunity to compare your companys return on sales with the performance of other companies in your industry. It is calculated before income tax because tax rates and tax liabilities vary from company to company for a wide variety of reasons, making comparisons after taxes much more difficult. The Net Profit Margin Ratio is calculated as follows


Net Profit Margin Ratio is Net profit before Tax divided by Net Sales


6.4. Management Ratios


Other important ratios, often referred to as Management Ratios, are also derived from Balance Sheet and Statement of Income information.


6.5. Inventory Turnover Ratio


This ratio reveals how well inventory is being managed. It is important because the more times inventory can be turned in a given operating cycle, the greater the profit. The Inventory Turnover Ratio is calculated as follows


Inventory Turnover Ratio is Net sales divided by average inventory at cost


6.6. Return on Investment (ROI) Ratio.


The ROI is perhaps the most important ratio of all. It is the percentage of return on funds invested in the business by its owners. In short, this ratio tells the owner whether or not all the effort put into the business has been worthwhile. If the ROI is less than the rate of return on an alternative, risk-free investment such as a bank savings account, the owner may be wiser to sell the company, put the money in such a savings instrument, and avoid the daily struggles of small business management. The ROI is calculated as follows


Return on Investment is Net Profit before Tax divided by Net worth


These Liquidity, Leverage, Profitability, and Management Ratios allow the business owner to identify trends in a business and to compare its progress with the performance of others through data published by various sources. The owner may thus determine the businesss relative strengths and weaknesses.


7. BREAK-EVEN ANALYSIS


Break-Even means a level of operations at which a business neither makes a profit nor sustains a loss. At this point, revenue is just enough to cover expenses. Break-Even Analysis enables you to study the relationship of volume, costs, and revenue.


This may be done by employing one of various formula calculations to the business estimated sales volume, estimated fixed costs, and estimated variable costs.


Generally, the volume and cost estimates assume the following conditions


Fixed expenses (rent, salaries, administrative and office expenses, interest, and depreciation) will remain the same at all volume levels; and


Variable expenses (cost of goods sold, variable labor costs, including overtime wages and sales commissions) will increase or decrease in direct proportion to any increase or decrease in sales volume.


Two methods are generally employed in Break-Even Analysis, depending on whether the break-even point is calculated in terms of sales dollar volume or in number of units that must be sold.


7.1. Calculation of Break-Even Point .


The steps for calculating the first method are shown below


Obtain a list of expenses incurred by the company during its past fiscal year.


Separate the expenses listed in Step 1 into either a variable or a fixed expense classification


Express the variable expenses as a percentage of sales. In the condensed income statement of the Small Business Specialities Co. ( below), net sales were $1,00,000. In Step , variable expenses were found to amount to $70,000. Therefore, variable expenses are 60 percent of net sales ($70,000 divided by $1,00,000). This means that 60 cents of every sales dollar is required to cover variable expenses. Only the remainder, 40 cents of every dollar, is available for fixed expenses and profit.


Substitute the information gathered in the preceding steps in the following basic break-even formula to calculate the break-even point.


Increased sales do not necessarily mean increased profits. If you know your companys break-even point, you will know how to price your product to make a profit. If you cannot make an acceptable profit, alter or sell your business before you lose your retained earnings





Define break even point

















8. PROFIT CHECKLIST ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS MATERIAL � TAKE HOME


Making a profit is the most important - some might say the only - objective of a business. Profit measures success.


It can be defined simply Revenues - Expenses = Profit. So, to increase profits you must raise revenues, lower expenses, or both. To make improvements you must know whats really going on financially at all times. You have to watch every financial event without any kind of optimistic filter.


This Guide is a series of questions with comments to help you analyze your profits, their sufficiency and trend, the contribution of each of your product lines or services to them, and to help you determine if you have the kind of record system you need. The questions and comments are not meant to be definitive presentations on the subjects. They are meant to point to areas where further study might be - well - profitable.


8.1. Are You making A Profit?


Analysis of Revenues and Expenses


Since profit is revenues less expenses, to determine what your profit is you must first identify all revenues and expenses for the period under study.


1. Have you chosen an appropriate period for profit determination?


For accounting purposes firms generally use a twelve month period, such as January 1 to December 1 or July 1 to June 0. The accounting year you select doesnt have to be a calendar year (January to December); a seasonal business, for example, might close its year after the end of the season. The selection depends upon the nature of your business, your personal preference, or possible tax considerations.


. Have you determined your total revenues for the accounting period?


In order to answer this question, consider the following questions


What is the amount of gross revenue from sales of your goods or service? (Gross Sales)


. Do you know what your total expenses are?


Expenses are the cost of goods sold and services used in the process of selling goods or services. Some common expenses for all businesses are


Cost of goods sold (Cost of Goods Sold = Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory)


Wages and salaries (Dont forget to include your own- at the actual rate - youd have to pay someone else to do your job.)


Rent


Utilities (electricity, gas telephone, water, etc.)


Delivery expenses


Insurance


Advertising and promotional costs


Maintenance and upkeep


Depreciation (Here you need to make sure your depreciation policies are realistic and that all depreciable items are included)


Taxes and licenses


Interest


Bad debts


Professional assistance (accountant, attorney, etc.)


There are of course, many other types of expenses, but the point is that every expense must be recorded and deducted from your revenues before you know what your profit is. Understanding your expenses is the first step toward controlling them and increasing your profit..


8.. Sufficiency Of Profit


The following questions are designed to help you measure the adequacy of the profit your firm is making. Making a profit is only the first step; making enough profit to survive and grow is really what business is all about.


1. Have you compared your profit with your profit goals?


. Is it possible your goals are too high or too low?


. Have you compared your present profits (absolute and ratios) with the profits made in the last one year?


4. Have you compared your profits (absolute and ratios) with profits made by similar firms in your line?


8.. Trend Of Profit


1. Have you analyzed the direction your profits have been taking?


The preceding analysis, with all their merits, report on a firm only at a single time in the past. It is not possible to use these isolated moments to indicate the trend of your firms performance. To do a trend analysis performance indicators (absolute amounts or ratios) should be computed for several time periods (yearly for several years, for example) and the results laid out in columns side by side for easy comparison. You can then evaluate your performance, see the direction its taking, and make initial forecasts of where it will go.


. Does your firm sell more than one major product line or provide several distinct services?


If it does, a separate profit and ratio analysis of each should be made


To show the relative contribution by each product line or service;


To show the relative burden of expenses by each product or service;


To show which items are most profitable, which are less so, and which are losing money; and


To show which are slow and fast moving.


8.4. Mix Of Profit


The profit analysis of each major item help you find out the strong and weak areas of your operations. They can help you to make profit-increasing decisions to drop a product line or service or to place particular emphasis behind one or another.


8.5. Records


Good records are essential. Without them a firm doesnt know where its been, where it is, or where its heading. Keeping records that are accurate, up-to-date, and easy to use is one of the most important functions of the owner-manager, his or her staff, and his or her outside counselors (lawyer, accountant, banker).


8.6. Basic Records


1. Do you have a general journal and/or special journals, such as one for cash receipts and disbursements?


A general journal is the basic record of the firm. Every monetary event in the life of the firm is entered in the general journal or in one of the special journals.


. Do you prepare a sales report or analysis?


a. Do you have sales goals by product, department, and accounting period (month, quarter, year)?


b. Are your goals reasonable?


c. Are you meeting your goals?


If you arent meeting your goals, try to list the likely reasons on a sheet of paper. Such a study might include areas such as general business climate, competition, pricing, advertising, sales promotion, credit policies, and the like. Once youve identified the apparent causes you can take steps to increase sales (and profits).


8.7. Buying and Inventory System


1. Do you have a buying and inventory system?


The buying and inventory systems are two critical areas of a firms operation that can affect profitability.


. Do you keep records on the quality, service, price, and promptness of delivery of your sources of supply?


. Do you know


d. How long it usually takes to receive each order?


e. How much inventory cushion (usually called safety stock) to have so you can maintain normal sales while you wait for the order to arrive?


4. Have you ever suffered because you were out of stock?


5. Do you know the optimum order quantity for each item you need?


6. Do you (or can you) take advantage of quantity discounts for large size single purchases?


7. Do you know your costs of ordering inventory and carrying inventory?


The more frequently you buy (smaller quantities per order), the higher your average ordering costs (clerical costs, postage, telephone costs etc.) will be, and the lower the average carrying costs (storage, loss through pilferage, obsolescence, etc.) will be. On the other hand, the larger the quantity per order, the lower the average ordering cost and the higher the carrying costs. A balance should be struck so that the minimum cost overall for ordering and carrying inventory can be achieved.


8. Do you keep records of inventory for each item?


These records should be kept current by making entries whenever items are added to or removed from inventory. Simple records on x 5 or 5 x 7 cards can be used with each item being listed on a separate card. Proper records will show for each item quantity in stock, quantity on order, date of order, slow or fast seller, and valuations (which are important for taxes and your own analyses.)


8.8. Other Financial Records


1. Do you have an accounts payable ledger?


This ledger will show what, whom, and why you owe. Such records should help you make your payments on schedule. Any expense not paid on time could adversely affect your credit, but even more importantly such records should help you take advantage of discounts which can help boost your profits.


. Do you have an accounts receivable ledger?


This ledger will show who owes money to your firm. It shows how much is owed, how long it has been outstanding and why the money is owed. Overdue accounts could indicate that your credit granting policy needs to be reviewed and that you may not be getting the cash into the firm quickly enough to pay your own bills at the optimum time.


. Do you have a cash receipts journal?


This journal records the cash received by source, day, and amount.


4. Do you have a cash payments journal?


This journal will be similar to the cash receipts journal but will show cash paid out instead of cash received. The two cash journals can be combined, if convenient.


5. Do you prepare an income (profit and loss or P&L) statement These are statements about the condition of your firm at a specific time and show the income, expenses, assets, and liabilities of the firm. They are absolutely essential.


8.. Do you prepare a budget?


You could think of a budget as a record in advance, projecting future inflows and outflows for your business. A budget is usually prepared for a single year, generally to correspond with the accounting year. It is then, however broken down into quarterly and monthly projections. There are different kinds of budget cash, production, sales, etc. A cash budget, for example, will show the estimate of sales and expenses for a particular period of time. The cash budget forces the firm to think ahead by estimating its income and expenses. Once reasonable projections are made for every important product line or department, the owner-manager has set targets for employees to meet for sales and expenses. You must plan to assure a profit. And you must prepare a budget to plan.





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