Friday, July 26, 2019

Uninsured 2 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Uninsured 2 - Research Paper Example Mayo Clinic is a non-profit medical practice as well as a medical research group that is based in Rochester, Minnesota. The medical facility was founded in 1889 and its current Chief Executive Officer is John Noseworthy. It original founders include Charles Horace Mayo and William James Mayo. It mainly serves North America and has its headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota in the United States (Fye, 2010). Mayo hospital was found to have an asset value of 6.947 billion USD, with an annual generation of revenue at 3.137 billion USD. Moreover, the medical facility employs more that 3,800 scientists and physicians and has 50,900 allied health staff (Mayo Clinic, 2013). This has enabled the hospital to propel itself be near the top of the U.S News and World Report list of â€Å"Best Hospitals† for a period of more than 20 years. The Mayo Clinic is significantly present in three U.S metropolitan areas: Jacksonville (Florida), Rochester (Minnesota), and Phoenix (Arizona). As a consequence, in 2013 the U.S News & World Report ranked Mayo Clinic third overall hospital in America. (U.S. News & World Report, 2013). As pointed out by Baier (2012) the American data has shown that the number of Minnesotans aged 65 years and above will rise by 40% in the next 10 years, shifting demographics which are already evident. These patients in the previous year accounted for approximately half of the 1.1 million patients visiting the Mayo Clinic Health System and Mayo Clinic. With regard to research, researchers from Mayo Clinic contribute significantly to the comprehension of best clinical practices, disease processes, and translation of findings from the laboratory to the clinical practice. It has also been shown that it spends over $500 million annually on research. The health facility employs an estimated 400 doctoral level physicians and research scientists. It has an additional 2,800 allied health

Thursday, July 25, 2019

International Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Students - Essay Example These students' first language is Arabic and they were selected in their respective states for tuition at this college. As getting into Salisbury college was not a decision made by these individuals themselves hence they did not follow the normal procedure of submitting an application, which would have involved contact with Student Services, which would have helped them arrange their visas, police registration and other details. Due to all this they have several issues that includes isolation as their level of English is poor, no arrangements made to have them interacting with the other students of the college. This also reflects from their behavior at the college. This research proposal will notify the appropriate way to handle these students and will help in finding out the main causes of their problems and how to solve them. It will also help in finding out what ethical issues are arising while implying the rules and regulations that are implied on any international student at Salisbury College. The research philosophy of this project would be making it more quantitative rather than being qualitative. There are several reasons for this philosophy. The major reason being that it would be difficult to communicate with the students as their English is weak i.e. communicating with them would be not very easy and a conflict might arise in what they are telling and what we interpret. Therefore, analysing numeric data and leaving non-quantitative data would be more meaningful and applicable for further and future research. However, the utilization of all numeric data would also have certain issues, hence qualitative data will also be analysed. Another reason for emphasizing on numeric data is because all qualitative data leads to difficulty in comprehension and analyses, and thus, the conclusions and outcome becomes highly judgmental in nature. The judgmental approach may reveal biased outcome based on the observer knowledge and expertise. Methodology The data collection methodology would comprise of both the secondary published data along with the primary data thus the research would be a comprehensive mixture of primary and secondary research resources. The secondary research would not just include the journal data but also the published books available on the topic as well as the articles and other research data that has been written across the world on the topic. Different methods used by different international colleges will also be studied in order to get the clearest picture of the scenario. The primary data would be collected by conducting interviews, making the students fill out simple close-ended questionnaires

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Nontraditional Health Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nontraditional Health Care - Essay Example Micozzi (2010) reported that many Americans are increasingly embracing the use of nontraditional medicines commonly referred to us ‘alternative’ medicines. According to Micozzi (2010), more than 50% of Americans use either complimentary or alternative form of medicine as their preferred approach to medication. The new government survey report indicated that 36% of American adults aged 18 years and above use nontraditional forms of medications. Philadelphia is one among the states that have registered high number of people using nontraditional forms of medication according to Metz and Jones (2008). Some of the nontraditional medicines commonly used by the residents of Philadelphia include homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, folk remedies, massage, meditation, spiritual healing, aromatherapy, herbal and ayurvedic Medicine just to name but a few. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of availability of nontraditional healthcare in Philadelphia state . The use of nontraditional medicine has been on the rise in America in the recent past. According to a survey conducted recently by the U.S. government, it was discovered that more than a half of American population are using nontraditional medicines for treatments (Metz and Jones, 2008). ... In this regard, alternative medicine involves total replacement of conventional Western medicines with the non-mainstream forms of medications. â€Å"Complementary’ medicine, on the other hand, is a health care approach that is incompatible with the conventional medicines of the West, but, unlike ‘alternative’ medicines, is used together with the conventional medicines. As earlier mentioned, the use of alternative medicine in the United States is widespread and the numbers continue to rise. In Philadelphia, for example, the numbers of patients resorting to the use of nontraditional medicine is on the rise, according to Michelfelder (2007). This is based on the belief that the nontraditional healthcare medicines are very effective in treating diseases or relieving patients from pain. Acupuncture is one of the most commonly used non-mainstream forms of medication used by many residents of Philadelphia, notes Michelfelder (2007). This form of medication is widely us ed in homes and hospitals across the state as a pain reliever. Acupuncture as a healthcare medicine involves the stimulation of certain joints of the body using different techniques such as the insertion of thin needles in the skin Michelfelder (2007). The main objecting of doing this is to remove in the qi flow, restore, as well as to maintain health. To discover the extent of its use in Philadelphia, I interviewed one of the doctors in Philadelphia’s pain management center. According to the doctor, acupuncture is widely in use in hospitals as back pain and headache reliever. The doctor also stated that in most cases, acupuncture is used as a complementary with other conventional Western

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Japanese Americans Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Japanese Americans - Research Paper Example The migration of Japanese Americans to the United States is associated with the Hawaiian sugar industry between 1870 and 1880 in addition to, Japan painful transition to the modern economy that resulted in civil disorder, unemployment, and bankruptcies. This was a major reason why there was a large migration of Japanese to Hawaii. As a result, from 1900, a majority of Japanese in U.S live in Hawaii. Over 30,000 Japanese moved to Hawaii, single men being the majority. They practiced farming and farm laborers, who immigrated as sojourners instead of settlers. They are also said to have gone to Pacific Northwest in 1880 when federal legislation excluded the Chinese immigration and as a result demanded new labor immigrants. The Japanese immigrants comprised of 40 % of railroad laborers in Oregon (Spickard, 2009).As years passed, the Japanese returned to Japan. They anticipated for the legislation of the American Law against the Hawaii contract labor after the Americans took over their pl antations. They imported more than 27,000 Japanese laborers. However, the contracts were void under American laws leaving a number of Japanese free to migrate to U.S. Hawaii still remained the center of concentration for Japanese in many years. The Japanese immigrants preferred to live in Hawaii rather that U.S mainland because of race relations which were worse in U.S mainland than Hawaii.The U.S government was, however; at ease issuing passports for both Hawaii and U.S mainland but still controlled the Japanese emigrants.

Monday, July 22, 2019

The Courtroom Scene Essay Example for Free

The Courtroom Scene Essay The Crucible was written at the peak of the McCarthism era in the mid 20th century. The play was written by Arthur Miller to show the similarities between The McCarthy Trials and the Salem Witch Trials. This links well to the Crucible.  The play is about a group of girls who are caught in the woods performing witch-like actions. The girls turn against everyone and start accusing people of being witches. This immediately creates tension. In this essay, I am going to answer the question How does Miller create tension in Act III, The Courtroom Scene? He creates tension in a number of ways. These ways are stage directions, events, language and friction between characters.  Firstly, Arthur Miller uses stage directions to create tension in Act III. A particular example of this is when Goody Proctor is intensely questioned for the truth of her husbands affair. The stage direction In a crisis of indecision, she cannot speak. This shows how she is lacerated between covering up for her husband or telling the truth. The situation that is so thrilling is that if she lies, she will of helped Abigail, as Abigail would be able to carry on with her mischievous doings. And if she tells the truth then Abigail would be found guilty of lying and false accusations. The direction builds tension, as the audience already know that John Proctor has confessed to the affair with Abigail, and Goody Proctor doesnt know this.  Secondly. Miller creates tension by using events in Act III. The best example of this is on page 101, when Abigail and her girl friends are pretending that Mary Warren has convoked her spirit onto them. This is shown when Abigail says why ? why do you come, yellow bird? We as the audience automatically feel tension as we know Abigail and the girls are making all these alleged allegations up. We feel sorry for Mary Warren, as now she is being portrayed as an evil person. John Proctor is the only person who believes Mary Warren and does think Abigail and the girls are lying. He shows his feelings by saying Theyre pretending, Mr Danforth! This creates tension as we feel that Proctor and Mary Warren are helpless. Proctor needs to help Mary Warren, as Goody Proctor will be persecuted if Abigail and the girls are not brought to justice. Another event that takes place and creates tension is on page 104/105. This piece of tension links well to the last piece. The even is that after all of the commotion and lying from Abigail and the girls of Mary Warren summoning a spirit. Mary apologises for sending the spirit, even though it was a lie. This automatically creates tension as the audience are dumfounded by what Mary is doing. She is now covering up for the girls. So they dont get the blame. When she says sorry. Abigail hugs her and they seem to be friends again. This leaves the judges baffled. This creates tension in a different way as well because Proctor is all alone now. The only way to save his wife is Mary Warren telling the truth, now she has turned against him. The audience feel sorry for Proctor, who should know by now that he and his wife are going to be persecuted. Thirdly, Arthur Miller creates tension by using friction between characters in Act III. There are two excellent examples of this. Firstly, Mary Warren explains to the court of how Proctor wakes her up at night and says how they should over throw the court to save this wife. This friction is huge because just before Mary Warren states this the court, Mary and Proctor where helping each other. Mary and Proctor were helping each other. This creates tension because Proctor was left by Mary when she said sorry to Abigail for summoning her spirit, and now Mary has made allegation against Proctor. Nothing more could go wrong for him. Mary goes on to say that Proctor has threatened her as well. Ill murder you, he says, if my wife hangs! Thus creates tension as Mary and Proctor were friends but now he is threatening her. The audience feel an agonising heart-break for Proctor, yet feel he shouldnt of threatened Mary. The friction has built up again. Secondly, on page 105, Proctor says that his and Danforths faces are like the devils. Proctor says, I see his filthy face! And it is mine and your Danforth It creates friction because Danforth is appalled that Proctor could relate him to the devil. Between these too character there has always been friction because Proctor believes the girls are lying, whereas Danforth doesnt. When Proctor says this he means that Danforth has the face of the devil for allowing all of these false accusation to happen. Proctor has the face of the devil because he had the affair with Abigail, which sparked the whole event. Lastly, language in The Crucible creates tension. An example o this is on page 98, when John Proctor admits he lusted for Abigail and tells the truth about the affair and how Abigail is trying to get revenge. The line is She thinks to dance with me on my wifes grave!! This language is difficult for the audience to understand, as it is old English. This creates tension because it could mean different things and as the audience doesnt know what it means, it lets imaginations come out and start to think what he means.  To conclude Arthur Miller uses and creates tension to a full effect and pulls it off with great strength. The tension was good and easy to create as he used four main elements, stage directions, events, frictions between characters and language.

Financial Analysis of BLD Plantation Bhd

Financial Analysis of BLD Plantation Bhd 1.1 Sime Darby Plantation Bhd According to Sime Darby (2013), the Sime Darby Plantation is the plantation and agribusiness arm of Sime Darby Berhad, at which has incorporated over 15 countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and so on. It was founded in 1910 and growth to become the largest conglomerate in Malaysia. However, it is the one of largest palm oil producer in the world which produce 2.47 million tones of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) output annually. Bloomberg (n.d) states that Sime Darby Plantation Bhd was mainly engages in upstream activities such as oil palm and rubber plantation development, cultivation, and downstream activities. The company was involved in the manufacturing of oils and fats products, and other fast moving consumer goods. The company was incorporated in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia during 2004 with other offices in Indonesia and India (Bloomberg, n.d). Besides, its downstream operations are divided into 2 sectors, that is food and nonfood. For food sector, CPO was manufactured into different types of oils and fat products such as cooking oil, margarine and cooking fats. The company also produces the customized products to meet their customers need and satisfaction. In nonfood sector, it was involved in the manufacturing of oleochemicals and biodiesel. In 2016, the company has commenced the first large scale planting of Genome Select high yielding oil palms, which allow themselves to produce mire oil in existing land. 1.2 BLD Plantation Bhd The BLD Plantation Bhd (BLDP) was incorporated in Malaysia as a public limited company under the Companies Act 1965 in October 2001. It was listed on main market of Bursa Malaysia under plantation sector on 2003 and served as parent company to Bintulu Lumber Development Sdn Bhd, Grand Mutual Sdn Bhd, and so on. According to Worldwide Company Profile (2011), the company was principally engaged in investing holding and provision of management services whereas the principal activities of group are cultivation of oil palm, processing of fresh fruit bunches and sales of related products. The Sarawak based BLD Plantation Group was mainly involved in cultivation of oil palm, processing of fresh fruit bunches into CPO and related products. The company was also involved in cattle farming and timber business but it has gradually declined and phased out in 2004. However, the company has produces the CPO and palm kernel (PK) and only sold to Bintulu Edible Oils Sdn Bhd (BEO), which is the major palm oil refinery in Sarawak. 1.3 Riverview Rubber Estates Bhd Riverview Rubber Estates Bhd is a publicly traded company which operates in the agricultural sector in Malaysia (Worldwide Company Profile, 2012). It was mainly involved in the cultivation of oil palm. However, it was incorporated in 1936 and has registered Headquarter in Ipoh, Malaysia. In 2006, the company had produced approximately 43,651 tons of fresh fruit bunches. Moreover, it was interested in two associated companies, that is Narborough Plantations company which is interests in the operation of oil palm plantations and Rivaknar Holdings Sdn Bhd which principally involved in investment holding. Riverview Rubber Estates is listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad and London Stock Exchange (Worldwide Company Profile, 2012). 1.4 IJM Plantation Bhd IJM is one of Malaysias leading conglomerates which was listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad. The company has embraced the theme Nurturing Sustainability for its long-term success in agribusiness that are related to oil palm supply chain. However, they have their own vision and mission statements. Their vision statement is To be a leading regional plantation group while the mission statements is To uphold the highest standards of performance in our plantation and agribusiness. The companys theme Nurturing sustainability remain their long term success in oil palm business venture. As the group progresses, it has adopted and implemented strategies to embrace the pillar of performance, the productivity and innovations, and the care for environment. IJM Plantation Berhad was also listed on Bursa Malaysia in 2003. However, it represents one of the 5 main division of IJM group. 1.5 Innoprise Plantation Berhad The Innoprise Plantation Berhad is a Sabah based company listed on main board of Bursa Malaysia (RSPO, n.d). The company was undertaking planting and development at which have approximately 22,763 hectares of forest reserves land in Tawau, Sabah. However, the company has disposed the downstream wood product assets and start to refocus on oil palm. The company was planning to complete planting at which estimated 13,929 hectares of planted oil palm in 2013. In 2006, the company was entered into contract with its major shareholder, Rakyat Berjaya Sdn Bhd to log over 30,000 hectares of Kuamut Forest Reserve over 10 years. This operation is to provide medium term revenue and partial funding for companys oil palm development project. Besides, Innoprise Group was highly emphasized on Corporate Social Responsibility as it recognizes the community, employees and the environment as stakeholders. With the limited resources, the company will continue to make contribution towards development of t he community especially education, sports and poverty alleviation. No. Company Name Data 1 Sime Darby Plantation 0.00221000 2 BLD Plantation 0.00893000 3 Riverview Rubber Estate 0.00599135 4 IJM Plantation 0.00552490 5 Innoprise Plantation BHD 0.01047740 6 KLCI 0.00289210 3.1 Expected Return Based on the expected return table above, we can know that the highest expected return among few companies from 2007 to 2016 is Innoprise Plantation Bhd. On the other hand, the lowest expected return among few companies from 2007 to 2016 is Sime Darby Plantation. Expected return is the amount of profit or loss that an investor expected on the investment that has various known or called as expected rates of return. Expected return is important to be calculate. This is because it can predict the future value of a portfolio and provide guidance from which to measure actual returns. Expected return is always calculate based on the historical data and is not guaranteed. (Investopedia, 2017) Expected return is also known as a process of determining the average expected probability of different types of rates of return that are possible on a given assets. There are some factors to determine the expected return which are different market conditions and an assets beta. (BusinessDictionary.com, 2017). The most important factor that affect the expected return is the stock price. The formula that calculate expected return is as below: Expected return, E(r)= 1/ TÆÂ ©t=1 r(i,j) Innoprise Plantation Bhd has a highest expected return from 2007 to 2016 compared to these companies. High expected return indicates that the higher risk, the higher the volatility and return potential. (Chirantan Basu, 1995). Based on the historical data, we can know that the highest price among these few year was RM1.85546 on July 2012 while the lowest was RM0.28545 on Dec 2008. Moreover, we can know that the stock price for each month has changed drastically especially the stock price has increased from RM0.46624 per share to RM0.942 per share on April 2010 according to the historical data. It increased by RM0.47576 per share on that time. On 12 April 2010, according to the Capital Reconstruction Exercise, the existing issued and paid-up share capital of the company of RM112,500,000 comprising 112,500,000 ordinary shares which are RM1 per share was reduced to RM 56,250,000 comprising 112,500,000 ordinary share of the company. Therefore, the entire paid-up share capital of 112,500,000 ordinary shares of RM0.50 per share were consolidated into 56,250,000 ordinary shares which are RM1 per share. (Annual Report of Innoprise Plantation Bhd, 2010) Subsequent to the Capital Reconstruction Exercise, the issued and paid up ordinary share capital of the company was increased from RM56,250,000 to RM188,611,300 by the way of the issuance of 132,361,300 ordinary shares which are RM1 per share for cash based on the Rights Issue Exercies for working capital purposes. The new ordinary shares have the same right in all respects with the existing shares of the company. (Annual Report of Innoprise Plantation Bhd, 2010) On the other hand, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has lowest expected return from 2007 to 2016 compared to these few companies. Based on the historical data, we can know that the highest price among these few year was RM11.90 on January 2016 while the lowest price was RM5.20 on January 2015. Based on the graph of stock price from 2007 to 2016 in Sime Darby Plantation Bhd in appendix, we can know that the stock price among these few year were moved stability from 2007 to 2014. Start from 2015 to 2016, it was dramatically changed. The highest expected return in Sime Darby was 0.24064 on November 2015. The stock price was increased from RM9.35 per share to RM11.60 per share suddenly at that period. During the financial year 2015, the company increased its issued and paid-up ordinary share capital from RM3,032,053,404 to RM3,105,579,143 by the way of issuance of 147,051,477 new ordinary shares of RM0.50 per share at an issue price of RM8.94 per share amounting to RM1,314.6 million, according to the Dividend Reinvestment Plan of the company. The new ordinary shares have the same right in all respects with the existing shares of the company. (Annual Report of Sime Darby Plantation Bhd, 2015) No. Company Name Data 1 Sime Darby Plantation 0.05695000 2 BLD Plantation 0.06363000 3 Riverview Rubber Estate 0.00709225 4 IJM Plantation 0.00681400 5 Innoprise Plantation BHD 0.00938350 6 KLCI 0.03652390 3.2 Standard Deviation In finance, standard deviation is commonly explained as the annual rate of return of an investment to measure the investments volatility. We calculate the standard deviation of different company by using the formula below.    Standard Deviation = [1/n * (ri rave)2] ½   Ã‚   Where:ri = actual rate of returnrave = average rate of returnn = number of time periods Standard deviation is important for an investor to make investment decision. Why do we say so? Because standard deviation measure the dispersion about an average, illustrating how widely a return may varied over time. Therefore, investor tend to predict the range of rate of return by using the standard deviation of historical performance. For an example, a fund or stock with high standard deviation of rate of return, the predicted range of performance is vast, resulting in higher volatility. Without standard deviation, you cannot define or evaluate whether a data given is to the average or the data is spread out over a wide range. On the other hand, by using standard deviation, investor can have a much clear expectation of an investment before doing any investment decision. If a funds return follow the normal distribution, approximately 68% of the time will fall within one standard deviation of the mean return and approximately 98% of the time within two standard deviation. (Morningstar Investing Glossary) Lets say if fund A have an expected annual return of 20% and its standard deviation is 4%, then investor would expect a return between 16% and 24% about 68% of the time and between 12% and 28% about 98% of the time. From the table above, we can see that BLD Plantation has the highest standard deviation compare to the other four company. As we know that, higher standard deviation means that the investment will differ a lot from the average return. In other word, you can make high return from the investment but also make big loss in the investment as the return is high the risk is also high. BLD Plantation have the highest standard deviation, therefore the company may provide higher return but the level of variation is high which mean the investment return is not consistent. Investment in this company may have higher risk compare to the other 4 company. With a standard deviation of 6.36%, which mean the investment return may differ from the mean about 6.36% lower or higher. In the other hand, we can see that IJM Plantation has the lowest standard deviation compare to the other four company. It means that IJM Plantation may be generating lower investment return but the volatility is low which large variation are unlikely to occur. An investor who do not want to take higher risk will invest in this company as the lower standard deviation can prevent the investor to lose too much as it doesnt deviate from the mean value too much. Although BLD Plantation has the highest standard deviation, but looking at the standard deviation as a whole, these five companies still consider as company with low standard deviation in generating investment return. No. Company Name Data 1 SD vs BLD -0.000166 2 SD vs RV -0.000272 3 SD vs IJM -0.000168 4 SD vs Inno -0.000533 5 SD vs KLCI -0.000201 6 BLD vs RV 0.001854 7 BLD vs IJM 0.002451 8 BLD vs Inno 0.003689 9 BLD vs KLCI 0.001275 10 RV vs IJM 0.001862 11 RV vs Inno 0.001465 12 RV vs KLCI 0.000785 13 IJM vs Inno 0.001725 14 IJM vs KLCI 0.001340 15 Inno vs KLCI 0.002270 3.3 Covariance SD Sime Darby BLD BLD RV Riverview IJM IJM Inno Innoprise KLCI KLCI Based on the covariance table above, we can know that the highest covariance from 2007 to 2016 among these few companies is BLD Plantation Bhd versus Innoprise Plantation Bhd. On the other hand, the lowest covariance from 2007 to 2016 among these few companies is Sime Darby Plantation Bhd versus Innoprise Plantation Bhd. Covariance is a measurement of how much two random variables vary together. It is almost like variance but variance only give the information about the single variable varies while covariance give the information about the two variables vary together. A large covariance indicates that a strong relationship between variables while a weak covariance indicates that a strong relationship between variables in a different data set with different scales. (Statistics How To, 2017) We calculate the covariance to measure the linear relationship between two variables and understand the direction of the relationship between variables. Covariance figures are not standardized. Hence, the covariance figure can range from negative figure until infinity to positive figure until infinity. (Minitab Express, 2016). In a simply words, the positive covariance indicate that the two variables are moving together or varying directly while the negative covariance indicate that the two variables are moving in the opposite direction or varying inversely. (BusinessDictionary.com, 2017) Based on the table above, we can know that BLD plantation Bhd and Innoprise Plantation Bhd have positive covariance which is 0.003689. It indicates that both companies tend to increase together. By looking the graph of stock price from 2007 to 2016 in BLD Plantation Bhd and Innoprise Plantation Bhd in appendix, we can see that both companies has increased and decreased at the same direction. When BLD Plantation Bhd has increased the stock price which from RM8.38 per share to RM8.64 per share on July 2012, Innoprise Plantation Bhd has also increased the stock price which from RM1.42728 per share to RM1.85546 per share on July 2012. This shows that both companies had moving together and grow at the same direction. By the calculation of covariance among these two companies, we can know that these companies have strong relationship between each other. In contrast, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd and Innoprise Plantation Bhd have negative covariance which is -0.000533. It indicates that one of these companies tend to increase as the other companies decrease. By looking the graph of stock price from 2007 to 2016 among Sime Darby Plantation and Innoprise Plantation Bhd, we can know that Sime Darbys stock price remained slightly from 2007 to 2014 and had fluctuated from 2015 to 2016. On the other hand, stock price in Innoprise Plantation Bhd has fluctuated from 2007 to 2016. This indicates that both of the companies did not have increase or decrease at the same direction. Hence, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd and Innoprise Plantation Bhd have negative covariance. When Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has increased from RM9.35 per share to RM11.60 per share on November 2015, Innoprise Plantation Bhd has decreased from RM1.40824 per share to RM1.3226 per share on November 2015. This shows that both companies had moving in the opposite direction. No. Company Name Data 1 Sime Darby Plantation -0.15067000 2 BLD Plantation 0.95540000 3 Riverview Rubber Estate 0.58830585 4 IJM Plantation 1.00599700 5 Innoprise Plantation BHD 1.70142429 3.4 Beta Beta is commonly defined as a measure of the volatility or the systematic risk of a portfolio or securities comparing with the market as a whole. In other word, beta values are also considering as a tool used to compare each individual stock to the market performance by evaluating the relationship of a stock movement with the market itself. Beta values are one of the several values that investor use to analyse the companys risk profile. Different companies have different beta value due to different industry, different customer or different function. All these may affect the beta values of a company. Company with beta value close to 1 or equal to one are commonly found in the large companies with numerous operating segment. The demand of the product of these companies usually increase and decrease proportional to the aggregate to the economic expansion or contraction. However, companies that are related to pharmaceutical or healthcare usually have beta value less than 1. The demand of suck companys products is inelastic. This causes people hard to stop buying them or find a substitute for such product. This makes the company always have a steadily earnings and lead to low volatility in stock price. Companies with beta value have the highest volatility in stock price. These companies tend to react better than the market or worse than the market. We can take companies in cyclical industries such as airline company as an example with high beta values. When the economy contract or slow down, people will have no money to demand for travel and stock price will decrease dramatically, an d vice versa. This result in higher volatile earnings and the movement of share price. According to the data above, we can say that the beta is categorized in three groups which are higher than 1, between 0 and 1, and below 0. Beta is known as a measurement of a stocks volatility in relation to the market. There are two company that come with beta higher than 1 which are the IJM Plantation and Innoprise Plantation BHD. Innoprise Plantation has the highest beta value which is 1.70 follow by IJM Plantation with beta value of 1.006. Based on this value, we can say that Innoprise Plantation BHD stock is theoretically 70.14% more volatile than the market and IJM Plantation stocks is 0.6% more volatile than the market. This indicate that when there is a 10% increase in the stock market, stocks price for Innoprise Plantation BHD will increase by approximately 17% and also approximately 10.06% for IJM Plantation. This concept applies to the condition when market goes down too. These two company with beta value higher than 1 tends to perform better than the market when the mark et goes up and when the market slow down, the company will perform even worse compare to the market. With the beta value between 0 and 1 is BLD Plantation and Riverview Rubber Estate. Beta value for BLD plantation is 0.96 and 0.59 for Riverview Rubber Estate. These two companies are the companies with volatilities lower than the market, which means that BLD Plantation and Riverview Rubber Estate are theoretically less volatile than the market. If the market increase by 10%, BLD Plantation stocks price will increase only 9.6% and for Riverview Rubber Estate, the stock price will only increase by 5.9%. This also means that the company have a steadily earnings stream and lower volatility of the stock. The last company is the Sime Darby Plantation with a beta value lower than 0 which is a negative beta value. The beta value for Sime Darby Plantation is -0.15. A negative beta correlation indicates that the stock price will go in the opposite direction with the market situation. When the market rise about 10%, the stock price for Sime Darby will decrease about 1.5%, and vice versa. Conservative or safe playing investor will consider about BLD Plantation and Riverview Rubber Estate as the lower betas limit the volatility. Beta value of companies are one of the important element in the formula of capital asset pricing model which is known as CAPM. As how much diversify our investment is, there will be still some risk within it. So, as an investor, they claim that by taking the risk there must deserve a rate of return. By using CAPM, we can calculate the investment risk and what rate of return are we expecting from the investment. 3.5 Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is a model that describes the relationship between systematic risk and expected return for assets, particularly stocks. (Investopedia, 2017) CAPM is used to calculate the required rate of return for any risky assets. Required rate of return is a rate of total return needed to be compensated for the risk taken which is made up of a risk-free rate and risk premium. (Finance, 2009) The required rate of return is also an increase in value that should be expect to see based on the risk level of the assets. (InvestingAnswer, 2017) CAPM is an idealized portrayal of how financial markets fix the price of the securities and determine expected returns on capital investments. By using CAPM, it provides a methodology for quantifying risk and translating the risk into the estimated of expected return on equity. (David W.Muslim,Jr, 1982). The model says that the only reason that an investor should earn more on average by investing in one stock rather than another stock is that the stock is riskier. By the CAPM calculation, we can know that the required rate of return among these five companies is 0.0235305. We have use the beta information to calculate the required rate of return. The weight of these five companies are the same which are 0.1. According the CAPM, the beta is the only relevant measurement of a stocks risk. By knowing the beta, then we can get the required rate of return. In this case, required rate of return which is 2.35% is greater than risk-free which is 2.33% that stated. Hence, we should not invest in this portfolio. This is because we need to have higher rate to get back the return. To conclude all the information and analysis, the highest expected return among the few companies from 2007 to 2016 is Innoprise Plantation Bhd and the lowest expected return among few companies from 2007 to 2016 is Sime Darby Plantation. With the higher expected return, higher risk, the higher the volatility and return potential. Means Innoprise Plantation Bhd has the highest risk and highest volatility and return potential and Sime Darby Plantation has the lowest risk and lowest volatility and return potential. The highest Standard deviation among the few companies from 2007 to 2016 is BLD Plantation and the lowest standard deviation is IJM Plantation. The higher standard deviation means that the investment will differ a lot from the average return. Which means the BLD Plantation can provide higher return but the level of variation and risk is higher compare to other 4 companies. The IJM Plantation has lowest standard deviation means the company generating lower return but the level of variation and risk is lower to prevent too much loss. The highest covariance from 2007 to 2016 among these few companies is BLD Plantation Bhd versus Innoprise Plantation Bhd. On the other hand, the lowest covariance from 2007 to 2016 among these few companies is Sime Darby Plantation Bhd versus Innoprise Plantation Bhd. . A large covariance indicates that a strong relationship between variables while a weak covariance indicates that a strong relationship between variables in a different data set with different scales. Beta values are considering as a tool used to compare each individual stock to the market performance by evaluating the relationship of a stock movement with the market itself. Beta values are one of the several values that investor use to analyse the companys risk profile. The beta value can be categorized into three group, higher than 1, between 0 and 1, and less than 1. There are two company that come with beta higher than 1 which are the IJM Plantation and Innoprise Plantation BHD. Innoprise Plantation has the highest beta value which is 1.70 follow by IJM Plantation with beta value of 1.0. With the beta value between 0 and 1 is BLD Plantation and Riverview Rubber Estate. Beta value for BLD plantation is 0.96 and 0.59 for Riverview Rubber Estate The last company is the Sime Darby Plantation with a beta value lower than 0 which is a negative beta value and the beta value is -0.15. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is a model that describes the relationship between systematic risk and expected return for assets, particularly stocks. By using the CAPM calculation, we can know that the required rate of return among these five companies is 0.0235305. Based on the evaluation of each company from (c), the lowest expected rate of return was Sime Darby Plantation, given by 0.00221000. The highest expected rate of return was Innoprise Plantation BHD, 0.01047740. The average expected rate of return of these five companies was 0.00662673 whereas the required rate of return was 0.0235305. For a good investment, the expected rate of return has to be higher than the required rate of return. To improve the situation, there are a few strategies taken by each of the companies to drive their operational efficiency, seek out investment while maintaining their capital discipline. Sime Darby Plantation planned to extend sustainable supply chain to include small producers since year 2016. Under the partnership, the supply of small producers will be secured. Sime Darby Plantation collaborate with Wild Asia to assist the rest of the small producers to achieve RSPO certification. As one of the worlds largest plantation company, Sime Darby manufactures, sales and marketing activities of oils and fats products, oleochemicals, palm oil-based biodiesel and other palm oil derivatives (Sime Darby News, 2016). The variety involvement of Sime Darby Plantation helps to improve the companys performance whether in short-term or long-term. Besides that, BLD Plantation had entered into a share sale agreement in year 2016 to acquire the entire 1.1 million shares of RM 1.00 each in the share capital of Pekan for RM 155.22 million. Since the agreement, BLD Plantation has conducted due diligence and it is still

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Resistance As A Positive Tool

Resistance As A Positive Tool 1.1 Introduction Organizational change is an inevitable challenge for organizations which exist in this competitive world and ever changing environment. Therefore, it is important for all organizations (public or private) to effectively manage change. In the issue of change management, the resistance to change is acknowledged as being a basic block to change, and a major reason that change does not succeed or get implemented (Mabin, Forgeson and Green, 2001). Any change, no matter how obvious beneficial to workers and the organization, will be met with and often be sabotaged by resistance. In reality, many people concur that resistance is the last thing management wants during change process. In many instances, resistance has caused dramatic chaos and uncertainties which may bring the change into a disaster or worse collapsing the whole organization. That resistance to change is negatively related to change outcome seems to be definitely confirmed. However, the almost generally accepted axiom that people resist change has recently come under challenge (Jansen, 2000). Though, many theorists are now trying to respond to those resistances more objectively, many still believe resistant are everything but helpful. In developing countries, resistance to change is inevitable phenomena, as long as it is acknowledged there is need for change i.e. reforms and restructuring the sectors and institutions, Local government reform of 2000, Public sector reform 2001 due to that this research is interested in seeing how the governments and institutions in Tanzania can be assisted to change their view concern with resistance from negative perspective to positive one. And how Malaysia as the one among developing countries passed through different stages of development since their independence can be used as a model and learning centre of the researcher in her research. 1.2 Statement of the problem Although it is a very frequently repeated discourse that change is unavoidable and organizations must change, the failures or low rate of success in change programs discloses the necessity of additional work on the subject of change management. According to statistics reported by leading corporate reengineering practitioners, success rate of change management, in Fortune 1000 companies are quite below 50% (Strebel, 1996). One may list various causes for failures in change initiative but in many studies, resistance has been one of the most salient elements of those unsuccessful attempts. Resistance to change is the most complex and intractable problems that face an organization today, in many developing countries ( Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria) this phenomenon became widely practice in different forms such as reduction of outputs, absenteeism, transfers requests, chronics quarrels, hostility and even strikes which made managers and administrators in organizations to view resistance as an obstacle to successful implementation of organizational change and even governmental projects and program . It has been observed that immediately after independence many developing countries particular Tanzania started reforms and restructuring their government by adopting different concept such as development administration with the objectives of strengthen their economic, increase administrative capability and eradicate social and economical problems. It is almost 45 years now since independence but changes have slowly taken place and most of the reforms are well good in papers but implementation of the reforms Local government reform of Zanzibar which is the part of Tanzania is still in papers are very slow due to the resistance to change from employees. 1.3 Research Objectives To find out positive role of resistance as being part of change process. To assess to what extent employees accepting resistance to change as a productive aspect and rewarding point to the change itself. To examine how managers will gain utility from resistance to change of their employees. To help managers to find techniques that will encourages them to utilize resistance to change rather than overcome it. 1.4 Research questions Parallel to the diversity of arguments existed in the literature, researcher preferred to approach resistance by taking its both negative and positive aspects into consideration. In doing so, researcher want to emphasize the constructive aspect of resistance which managers, employees and organizations in general can benefit during change processes. Under the light of this general purpose, guiding questions of the research are constructed as follows; What is the positive role of resistance to the change process? How far employees can recognize resistance as productive aspects to the change itself? How managers will gain utility from resistance to change? What role does resistance play to the organizational performance? What will be the techniques that will encourage the managers to utilize resistance rather than overcome it? 1.5 Significance The purpose of this study is to understand the role of resistance in the process of change management. The study will provide deeper understanding of key factors in implementing change programs. By referring to resistance, the researcher does not see resistance as a barrier that needs to be eliminated; instead, she aim to understand the concept of resistance in a wider scope and to identify crucial issues that can influence process of change in a positive way. In that way the study can be influential in terms of minimizing failures or dissatisfactions in change programs. By studying the research objectives and research questions, the researcher hopes to bring a new perspective about resistant behaviors of employees during the change process. Understanding, describing and analyzing roots and symptoms of resistance can enable us to construct a framework to implement change programs more successfully. Emphasis on resistance also brings the opportunity to use it as a constructive tool from this perspective research believe that by highlighting the importance of these activities, this research will be able to portray a comprehensive picture explaining the impact of leaders/managers in resistance management. Apart from above purposes the study will be capable of contributing to community by presenting logical arguments and providing new spaces for further research. Additionally, considering the implications of the research, it would also be a valuable source for government and institutions to locate different problems related to resistance and to take appr opriate actions to handle them. 1.6 Methodology and Data Collection The ability to prefer a convenient method to research on a social reality possesses great importance in terms of determining the adequacy and reliability of result. For this reason, the methodology which research will employ in this proposal has been chosen carefully to meet the requirements of an advanced study which is capable of achieving the study goal in conducting this research. In this section, the study will explain general features of the methodology that researcher will use in answering the necessary question of the study. Selecting the methodology to study a social reality is wrought by the nature of problem that has been under question. Considering the various elements inherited in the concept of resistance and its complexity, research found it much more convenient to employ qualitative design rather than quantitative. Therefore, researcher will initially intend to reach first hand empirical data through investigating the issue on the field by conducting interview, distributing questionnaires and observation for the collections of data. The researcher will review the secondary sources such as books, journals, websites, and documents to collect data that will substantially provide the necessary information. Qualitative methodology is a very broad discipline and basically refers to the research processes in which findings are obtained through non numerical or statistical techniques (Strauss Corbin, 1990). Its purpose is to reach an in-depth understanding about social realities and patterns create them. Three basic elements were identified in the qualitative methodology (Strauss Corbin, 1990, p.161) First data will be obtained through interviews, observations, analysis of documents and materials, second is procedures which are employed by the researcher to evaluate collected data and third is the final reports, in written form or verbal, which states the findings and implications of a study. Parallel to the essential aim of qualitative approach, in terms of understanding why and how of social realities, conducting a qualitative research usually necessitates small but focused samples to search deeply a given social phenomenon. Having considered the nature of our research question and the available of information in the literature, the research has decided to use grounded approach in developing final theory for the management of resistance. 1.7 Literature Review Even though the concept of resistance to change is not a new one, no consensus about its content and the ways it is experienced has existed among the scholars who have studied it. The concept of resistance to change from the perspectives of some influential scholars in this field by starting to define the concept of resistance, describe factors contributing to resistance, managing resistance and different perspectives of resistance to change. According to Zander (1950), resistance is a behavior which is intended to protect an individual from the effects of real or imagined change (cited in Dent Goldberg, 1999, p. 34). On the other hand, Ansoff (1988, p. 207) defines it as a multifaceted phenomenon, which introduces unanticipated delays, costs and instabilities into the process of a strategic change. However, Piderit (2000) has classified the existing definitions in the literature by considering three main dimensions. Firstly she looks at descriptions which see resistance as a behavior, similar to definitions made by Zander (1950). It is imperative to say that different authors have different definitions of resistances. But no matter how they organized their words, they commonly linked resistances with negative employee attitudes or with counter-productive behaviors (Waddell Sohal, 1998). Resistance is caused by a number of factors. For example, individual factors, such as narrow-minded self-interest, fear of uncertainty, lack of confidence, habit and personality and organizational factors such as, lack of shared value and vision, lack of coordination and cooperation, and different assessments and goals (Daft Noe, 2001; Mabin, Forgeson, Green, 2001). For different reasons, employee would use either overt ways or covert ways to resist change (Recardo, 1995). Overt ways of resisting include sabotage, vocal opposition and agitating others. And covert ways includes reducing output, withholding information, asking for more data or studies and appointing task forces and committees. Employees can also resist the change either aware or unaware, which refer to the motivation of sensitive (OConnor, 1993). When the resistances are unaware, employees usually do not realize that their behavior undermines the change. As a result, such unawareness resistances are more difficult to deal with. In Koopmans (1991) words, employees will resist any change at all cost. At the level of organization, resistance to change will not only block the implementation of organizational change plan, but also cause financial loss. Finally, organization cannot survive in this changing environment. At the level of individual, resistance can cause great stress and bad feeling (OConnor, 1993). As a result, resistance is understood as the enemy of change, the opponent which causes a change effort to be drawn out by factional dissent and in-fighting (Waddell Sobal, 1998). Resistance has also been regarded as one of the causes of the conflicts that are undesirable and detrimental to organizational health (Waddell Sobal, 1998). Even though some scholars did not oppose the positive aspect of resistance, they consist to argue and claimed that resistance in general is a roadblock that must be removed (e.g. Umiker, 1997). Under this perspective of change, a successful change is defined as a change that is met with little resistance (Mabin, Forgeson, Green, 2001). Resistance is viewed to be problematic, which should be managed and overcome to ensure the success of change. And the inability of employers and managers to cope with employee resistance can destroy organizations and careers (Umiker, 1997). Maurer (1996) pointed out that people with negative perspective of resistance usually employee win-lose thinking and assume that their way is the right way. Their mind is blocked by such assumptions and they believe resistors must be persuaded or forced to go along. So the way managers often used is to resist the resistance by using power, applying force of reason, ignoring the resistance or making deals with resistors. The results of resisting the resistances are disappointing. Such approach is unable to eliminate the resistance but causes more problems. Finally, the chance of the failure of organizational change effort can be increased. When the word resistance is mentioned, one tends to ascribe negative connotations to it. This is a misconcepti on. (Hultman, 1979, p. 54). Resistance is a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that is caused by a variety of factors, and people do not resist change per se, rather they resist the uncertainties and potential outcomes that change can cause (Waddell Sohal, 1998). However, some scholars started to considerd that resistances also have a number of advantages and suggested treating resistance as a useful tool in an organizational change effort. When resistances are managed carefully, these advantages can be utilized to support the change. (Mabin, Forgeson, Green, 2001; Maurer, 1996; Waddell Sohal, 1998). In order to justify this claimed, Waddell and Sohal (1998) listed several advantages of resistance that can be utilized. (1) They believe that resistance could be seen as feedbacks to the change and points out the fallacy. (2) Resistance can also be a force to balance the pressure from external and internal environments against the need for constancy and stability and influences the organization to greater stability. (3) An influx of energy is another contribution of resistance because individual could gain sufficient motivation when they feel dissatisfaction with status quo or future states. (4) Resistance encourages or forces the search for a lternative methods and outcomes, which keeps the organization changing. Therefore, in general, it important to argue that resistance can be useful in learning how to develop a more successful change process if it is considered as a source of information (Pardo del Val Fuentes, 2003). These advantages overturn the traditional definition of successful change and urge a re-evaluating the classical understanding of resistance. Notwithstanding what kind of attitudes these authors hold toward the resistance, most of them took a modernist perspective (Ford, Ford, McNamara, 2001; Gergen Thatchenkery, 1996). Scholars with modernist perspective believe that individual rationality is the major source of human conducts. If we want to gain dominion over the future well-being of the organization, we need to unlock the secrets of individual rationality (Gergen Thatchenkery, 1996, pp.142). Within this perspective, there is only a concrete organizational reality, an objective world, capable of empirical study (Eastman Bailey, 1994, cited in Gergen Thatchenkery, 1996). And the responsibility of the organization scientist is to isolate variables, standardize measures, and assess causal relations with the organizational sphere (Gergen Thatchenkery, 1996, pp.187). Assumption of empirical knowledge cause most scholars believe that every person attached with the organization share the same objective and homogeneous reality, and assumption of rational agency drives the scholars to the research direction of seeking the sources of resistance accurately and finding the appropriate strategies to deal with that source (Ford, Ford, McNamara, 2001). Traditionally, one can argue that researchers study the resistance based on the assumption that individuals treat the change as a threat. But studies done by Hoag, Ritschard, and Cooper (2002) have shown that staffs often see the need for change and are concerned to just do it. They conducted interviews with some employees in a public institutions and found similar phenomena. However, the intended change of that public organization still proved ineffective. This study suggests that due to different realities in the eyes of different employees the probability of resistance can be higher. 1.8 Chapters and sections of the research The research expected to have five chapters and different subsections as follows: Chapter One: Introduction of research Introduction of the problem Statement of the problem Research objectives Research questions Significance of the study Chapter two: Literature Review Definition of resistance to change Factors contributing to resistance to change Managing resistance to change Previous research on resistance to change Positive approach of resistance Discussion of literature review Chapter Three: Methodology and Data Collection Research design Area of the study Population and sample Sample techniques Data collections instruments ( interview, questionnaires and observation) Data analysis techniques Chapter Four Conceptual frame work Chapter Five: data analysis, findings and interpretation Data analysis Data finding and presentation Discussion of data Chapter Six: Conclusion and Recommendation Conclusion Recommendation Bibliography Appendix 1.9 Proposed schedule of activities Activity Date Duration Initial data collection and preparation of research proposal 21st November 2010 27 March 2011 16 weeks Presentation proposal and defense 10TH APRIL 2011-15TH MAY 2011 5 weeks Submission of chapter one and amendments 5th June 2011- 26th June 2011 4 weeks Data collection and initial fieldwork in Zanzibar 10th July 2011-9th October 2011 13 weeks Submission of chapter two and amendments 30TH November2011- 15 January 2012 7 weeks Submission of chapter three and amendments 5th February 2012- 25th March 2012 7weeks Interview an field work in Malaysia 8TH April 2012- 6TH May 2012 4 weeks Interview and field work in Zanzibar 27TH May 12TH August 2012 12 weeks Data computation and analysis 2nd September 30th September 5 weeks Submission of chapter four and amendments 21october 2012- 9th December 2012 8 weeks Submission of chapter five and amendment Submission of chapter six and amendments 30th December 2012-17 February 2013 10 March 2013- 5TH May 2013 8weeks 8weeks Formatting and proof reading and final editing 26th May 2013- 21 July 2013 8weeks Submission of thesis 4th August 1 day