Issues in contemporary management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Issues in contemporary management - Essay Example In fact, some economic pundits project that the economy of China may overtake that of the U.S. in the next few decades. However, despite all these good fortunes, research indicates that China has not improved the working conditions for its workers to ensure their satisfaction (FoxNews.com 2012). This is because the government appears not to have enacted adequate laws to protect its labor force from unethical employers if media reports are anything to go by. The country’s media has reported several incidences of labor unrest in many companies in the country, which generally points at poor working conditions and rights violations by employers. For instance, the media has reported several instances of suicidal tendencies by Apple workers according to Green (2012). What is certain is that most workers at Apple resort to suicide when the management is not ready and willing to listen to their grievances and take action. Such behaviors by management can be termed unethical because it shows lack of management’s commitment to the worker’s welfare and well-being (Gayle 2012). This paper will examine the contemporary management issues at Apple in China in light of the high incidences of suicide in the company over the last few years. It is undisputable that Apple products command very high demand in the world. Nevertheless, the working conditions at most of its supply chain appears wanting if the number of suicides and labor unrest being experienced at its supply chains in Chain are anything to go by. For instance, Foxconn Company, one of the main manufacturers of Apple products in China has been making headlines mostly for bad reasons (He 2009). This is because a year hardly passes without labor unrest being reported. Reports indicate that most of the worker’s at Apple supply chains have been protesting through threats of suicide while other go to the extent of not just threatening, but by committing suicide. What is worrying is that the trend has been in place for quite some time now unabated. Ramzy (2012) reports that at least 14 workers committed suicide at Foxconn in the year 2010. However, Qiang (2012) also noted the number has so far risen to 18 following two reported cases of suicide with the last case having been reported on 14 June. However, to make mater worse, the company appears not to have learnt anything from the past suicides that have been committed in the company. This is because Moore (2012) recently reported another mass protest by least 150 Foxconn workers who were threatening to commit mass suicide in the company over poor working conditions in the company. Moore (2012) reported that the workers climbed on the rooftop of the factory in their numbers before threatening suicide. However, the management of the company pleaded with them before being coaxed away. Moore (2012) reveals that the protest began on 2 January 2012 following a move by the managers of Foxconn Company to shift close to 600 employee s to new production lines. However, the managers are reported to have made this move without providing enough training to the workers to be able to handle the new tasks they were being given (Ramzy 2012). In addition, one of the protesters said that as much as this was being done, they were being paid just piecemeal (McGrath 2012). The protesters stated that the salaries they were being offered by the company have made them poorer than they were before since it does not commensurate with the living standards of the

Jonas the New Receiver Essay Example for Free

Jonas the New Receiver Essay Can you imagine a world where everything is under control, there is no war, pain, or fear but nobody has a right to choose yet it is perfect? Well, Lois Lowry did. She created a world where everyone were supposed to be happy in her futuristic novel, the Giver. Jonas, the protagonist of the story, was selected to be the new Receiver of Memory. It turns out Jonas was singled out with all the differences he had since he started to feel unlike his friends. Not many people were like Jonas; Gabriel, the baby who almost got released, was like him but what was waiting for him in the future? Jonas, who actually aims to be an obedient citizen of his community, ends up realizing the control of the system over people throughout his training to be a thoughtful, compassionate, and brave Receiver. Jonas is thoughtful. For example, he wonders and questions. That is he does not just settle for everything around him easily. Likewise, he tries to tell the truths of the community to his family and friends just to make them realize. In other words, Jonas did no longer want to be alone with his inner thoughts, awareness, and memories so that he wanted to share them but couldn’t. Jonas had always been obedient but receiving the memories made him ask why’s, and try to make someone understand the community is not perfect as everyone thought to be. Along with the memories, Jonas gains the bravery as well. For instance, he wanted to feel the pain while receiving the memories. He was being brave and accepted the pain he has to receive. Moreover, he decides to leave the community to go Elsewhere and never come back. Jonas ran away from the truth he couldn’t share, thanks to his bravery. Jonas had hesitated about being different at first but then he fled so that the people would know the things he knows, feel the way he feels. Jonas has been a compassionate guy. For example, he was worried about the Giver’s burden of memories that caused him pain. He considered the Giver’s pain more than his and was willing to have some of the pain to lighten the Giver. Furthermore, he gave some of his new memories of happiness and calmness to Gabriel. He was worried about Gabriel and tried to smoothen him by giving him these memories because otherwise, his father was going to release Gabe just because he slept soundly. Jonas has learned many things from the memories, of course, but his way of thinking for others was probably the most precious thing he had gained through the training. The Giver is just the perfect book to understand how a utopic community can turn out to be dystopian for a young boy who is receiving the past, the truth, and the facts of the community. People never knew, maybe they never will, but a world can never be perfect while it includes the human factor, a system of flows, in it. The fabric of life was to make people feel the way he felt for Jonas so that he went to Elsewhere, someplace where the lies of the community were buried underneath. Jonas wanted the freedom he deserved after all, he wanted to choose so he chose to go away with Gabriel, as being a role model for the ones who has been the slaves of the systems in the real world.

Argument for Increasing American Immigration Essay -- Argumentative Ess

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. This inscription, which is found on the Statue of Liberty, greeted years of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island to America. It describes the idealized view of the United States as a nation of immigrants, where anyone can achieve the American dream. However, does this accurately describe our immigration policy today? Our current policy is better described by this version, written by Chris Willey (Willey et al.): Give me your athletes, your scientists, Your artists, writers, and actors, Your politicians and businessmen. Send these, the best and brightest, to me. To these lies open the golden door: You can keep the rest. Under current U.S. immigration laws, it is not difficult for those immigrants labeled as desirable to receive admittance. The Immigration Act of 1990 created new categories of immigrants. "Within the employment category, first preference was given to aliens ‘with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, multinational executives'..." (Richmond 143). It may be true that these creative and skilled people have just as much of a right to pursue the American dream as anyone else. But do we, as Americans, have the moral right to exclude the needy from our country? Refugees have two basic choices. They can return to their home country, or they can try to settle in another country. Most refugees, however, cannot return home because conditions in their native country have not changed sufficiently to eliminate the problems from whi... ...ess, Boulder, CO, 1996. The Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1989. Hunter, Gordon, ed. Immigrant Voices. Signet Classic, New York, NY, 1999. North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. Environmental Facts. http://ntbox.owr.ehnr.state.nc.us/earthday/facts.htm. Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy. 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill, Boston, 1999. Richmond, Anthony. Global Apartheid. Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1994. Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1993. Social Contract Press. The Social Contract Archives. http://www.thesocialcontract.com Willey, Chris; Saunier, David; and Mendez, Garry. Reinscribing the Statue of Liberty. Horizon Magazine, Jan 1998. http://www.horizonmag.com/pictorial/liberty.htm

Insider Trading and Martha Stewart Essay

Martha Stewart, homemaker turned media mogul, spent time in 2004 and 2005 in jail for illegal insider trading. While insider trading is not necessarily illegal if reported properly, more often insider trading is done in a fraudulent manner. This paper will examine insider trading and discuss the Martha Stewart case in regards to fraudulent insider trading. Insider trading is when corporate insiders such as officers, directors, or holders trade more than 10% of the corporations stocks or securities (wikipedia, 2006). Insider trading is legal as long as the transaction is reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and not based on material non-public information. Insider trading is illegal when a corporate ‘insider’ is misappropriating private information, and trading on it or secretly relaying the information (wikipedia, 2006). Illegal insider trading is considered a violation of trust to the shareholders and destroys the level playing field for all investors to make decisions based on the same information. In the Martha Stewart case, Stewart received information from her friend Sam Waksal that his company, ImClone’s cancer drug had been rejected by the FDA before the information was made public (Rasmussen, 2006). The rejection by the FDA caused ImClone’s stock to drop sharply. Before this news was made public, Martha Stewart had her stockbroker sell her 4000 shares of ImClone. The ‘inside’ information saved Stewart a lot of money when she sold her shares premature of the bad news going public for ImClone. The Martha Stewart verdict was justified because Martha was not forthcoming with the information she knew and her motives to sell the stock. Martha and especially her stockbroker knew they were taking advantage of what seemed like ‘lucky’ information. Although Martha felt like a scapegoat, there are many others that have probably committed the same crime of insider trading and hopefully this case has helped deter further violations of the law in the future.

Nutritional Assessment

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is the ratio of weight to height and is used to classify people as being â€Å"underweight,† â€Å"normal,† or â€Å"obese† (BMI Classification, 2007). Using the international classifications, a BMI of 32.2 would be considered as Obese Gr. 1. The case being answered is why is a person who eats normally at 4-5 fairly healthy meals every day, satisfies the recommended allowances classified as obese? Many factors must be considered when answering this case. Most important among these is whether the measurement of the BMI is done under normal conditions, that is, if the body type, health status, body composition and metabolic function of the patient are considered. Truly, there are some instances when the BMI classification is not applicable. It must be noted that the Body Mass Index is a standard for determining the risk of normal people. It cannot be used for people who have high muscle mass. Muscle is considered as heavier compared to fat and a more muscular person would naturally be higher in body weight compared to his or her â€Å"more normal† counterpart. Two persons, for example may have a 32.2 BMI but may have different body compositions: one may appear â€Å"fat† because of greater body fat composition and the other may appear really lean and healthy because his or her body composition is mainly of muscles. A bodybuilder may always be classified as â€Å"overweight† or â€Å"obese† if BMI standards are used; when Arnold Schwarzenegger won a certain competition, his BMI was 31 (Whitney, Cataldo and Rolfes, 2002). As it is, the definition of the BMI must be kept in mind—it only considers the person’s weight and height and not the person’s body composition. In other words, in assessing the health risks of a person using a BMI, the body composition or body type of a person should be considered first because the results may erroneously represent the real status of the individual. The results of the Body Mass Index can also be influenced by the water composition in the body. If the person is retaining water, for example, he or she should not be classified using the BMI standards because the weight is affected by the unnecessary water that is retained inside the body. If water is retained and the person is measured, the BMI would naturally result to a higher value which would not represent the person’s true health status. Edema or water retention can sometimes happen to people with kidney failure, and to women who are pregnant. The BMI classification should also not be used to pregnant women because in measuring the BMI, the weight of the unborn child is not considered which could also erroneously increase the true value of the index. The result would then, not become representative of the true health status of the individual. If however, the patient is not â€Å"muscular†, the relatively high BMI of the person, despite his or her normal intake can be attributable to the person’s rate of metabolism. There is a possibility of the person having low metabolism as a result of previous abnormalities in dietary practices and intake or possibly a thyroid disorder. Hypothyroidism can decrease the rate of metabolism of a person by as much as 30%. At such rate, the person, no matter how healthy his or her eating habits are, is at risk to gaining more weight, having higher BMI and thus, being at risk to the diseases associated with higher BMI. These factors must be considered first in assessing whether there is something significant in the BMI of the patient under study.   The 32.2 BMI of the person may not be signifying a risk in health but a mere indication of erroneous use of the classification without considering the body composition, water retention, or pregnancy. But if these factors are considered, the person must really be at risk for high fat deposition as a result of low rate of metabolism. The person should then consider doing more physical activity or consulting a doctor on how to normalize the thyroid function. Works Cited BMI Classification. (2007). World Health Organization. Retrieved 26 Feb 2007 from http://www.who.int/bmi/index.jsp?introPage=intro_3.html, Whitney, Cataldo and Rolfes. (2002). Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition. 6th ed. Stamford, CT: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.