A criminologist Essay

A criminologist blames economic recession and complex financial system as major reasons for the rising white collar crimes in the U. S. â€Å"In huge numbers of cases, people are not aware that they have been victims of white collar crime, for example, subjected to illegally spewed out pollution, or that they have purchased products that are unsafe, or that they have been subjected to corporate price fixing, or to the consequences of commodity speculation, which is believed to be one significant factor in driving up the cost of gasoline at the pump.â€Å"Witnesses† of white collar crime who often do not realize that a crime has occurred , may be confused about what to do in response to it. And our traditional frontline enforcement agencies ha not been organized to monitor and respond to white collar crime. In this case principal gents who handle such cases play an important role in white collar crime. Informers & Whistle Blowers: Ethics Text #6. How can corporations ensure th at their employees behave ethically? An ethical culture should be a top priority of every business, large or small. The challenge for many organizations is trying to understand what it takes to build one. From an enforceable code of conduct, to ongoing training and communications, to an anonymous reporting hotline, companies can quickly implement ethics and compliance programs and solutions that foster an ethical culture across the enterprise. In many companies today, management is dealing with a hodge-podge of different personalities, belief systems, backgrounds, ethnicities and politic affiliations. These are just a few things that may impede creating a single unified system of ethics. While many may say that right and wrong is what should ultimately determine the culture, others will argue that what is right for the majority may not be right for the minority. Having an ethical culture is an important component to running an effective business today. In fact, with the current state of legal and industry regulations, from Sarbanes-Oxley to HIPAA, not only is having an ethical culture a good idea, it is now practically a requirement. Developing an ethical culture will take more than creating a list of company dos and don’ts; although that list will help. It will take more than issuing a code of conduct via email to a new hire; although that too will help. What it will take is a combination of things. On this page, we focus on the top six steps that have the most effective and direct impact on establishing an ethical culture. The six steps are as follows: 1. Establish an enforceable code of conduct 2. Initial and ongoing training 3. Regular communications 4. Anonymous reporting hotline 5. Enforcement/Action 6. Rewarding employees that live the culture 1. Establish an Enforceable Code of Conduct A code of conduct, often referred to as a code of ethics, is the foundation of any ethics program. The code of conduct should not be designed as a reaction to past missteps. An ethical culture is built upon the proactive efforts of the organization. The development of the code of conduct should be led by those at the top of the company, and should also include employees in the process. 2. Initial and Ongoing Training There is a phrase that has been used many times when it comes to training: â€Å"The day we stop learning is the day we die. † One of the most important aspects of developing an ethical culture is the ongoing training that companies can provide to executives and employees. The purpose of training is to help employees know what is expected of them and to help them understand that a strong ethical culture can protect the company’s reputation and actually enhance profits. Employees need to know that their ethical or unethical choices will have a direct impact on the success or failure of the company. In addition, training should also be tailored to specific positions in the company and employees roles. Management may need additional training to help deal with employee issues, while someone in purchasing may need more training on gifting policies and someone in finance needs to understand the company’s position on fraud. 3. Regular Communications Once the policy has been executed and training has started, communicating aspects about the code of conduct can have a significant impact on the ethical culture. Many of these communications come through the human resources department, but the voice of the executive management team is critical in these communications. The goal of communications is to make ethics a live, ongoing conversation. If ethics is something that is constantly addressed, referenced frequently in company meetings, and in personal conversations among managers and employees, then people are more aware and more willing to defend the company’s policies when they see or hear of problems. Employees will hold other employees responsible and accountable for living the company’s values. 4. Anonymous Reporting Hotline The fact that an ethics hotline exists within many companies may be a surprise to their employees. The hotline number or Web site URL is often hidden in the back of an employee handbook or within the dusty binder labeled Corporate Governance. An anonymous hotline provides employees with a confidential way of reporting unethical or inappropriate behavior. Many people are not comfortable with reporting bad behavior for fear of being considered a â€Å"snitch,† possible repercussions if the guilty party learned of who reported him or her, or perhaps impacts on their job. â€Å"Unfortunately, more than two of five employees (42 percent) who witnessed misconduct did not report it through any company channels.Others may want to report their concerns, but are not comfortable going directly to a manager or fellow employee. This is why the anonymous reporting hotline is so important. In its 2006 Report to the Nation on Fraud and Abuse, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners concluded that â€Å"Occupational frauds are more likely to be detected by a tip (34%) than by other m eans such as internal audits, external audits or internal controls. 5. Enforcement/Action A code of conduct has to be enforceable, and a company needs to take action when problems arise. Employees should be part of the enforcement and know if and when it has been violated. While 42 percent of employees are reluctant to report unethical behavior, the good news is that the ERC study also found that â€Å"the rate of misconduct is cut by three-fourths at companies with strong ethical cultures, and reporting is doubled at companies with comprehensive ethics programs. † Unethical behavior can have a damaging effect on a variety of aspects of a business, from brand reputation to bottom-line revenues. WorldCom’s and Enron’s names will forever be connected to accounting scandals that led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Lockheed Martin was forced to pay $2. 5 million for knowingly looking the other way on alleged racial discrimination. Without enforcement, ethical guidelines listed in a corporate code of conduct are simply nice suggestions. 6. Rewarding Employees That Live the Culture The final step in developing an ethical culture is rewarding employees that behave ethically and live the culture that the organization is trying to instill companywide. With an ethics policy in place, ongoing training and communications, the ability to report unethical behavior and strict enforcement, an organization will have the structure in place that will leave little doubt the importance of ethical behavior. Like a manufacturing company that brags about its safety record with signs indicating how many days without an accident, companies should publicly congratulate their employees for adhering to the code of conduct. That performance could be rewarded in terms of a bonus based on how much money the company saved by not having internal issues or having to fight legal battles over unethical business or accounting practices. If an employee completes ethics training, is responsible for blowing the whistle on questionable activities, or provides unique ways for protecting the company’s confidential information, he or she should be recognized publicly by management. Employees need to know that creating an ethical culture is important to everyone from their direct managers to c-level executives.

How to Tame a Wild Tongue/Mother Tongue Essay

What’s makes someone an American? Am I more American because my skin is white and I speak perfect English? Or am I more American because my family immigrated here 100 years earlier than most? Our country is a melting pot of different races, backgrounds and beliefs. Two women, who are the children of immigrants, share their stories of growing up in America. The first is Gloria Anzaldua, a Chicana who grew up in South Texas. The first chapter of her book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza is titled â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue†. She describes life as a young woman who is too Spanish for Americans and too American for Spanish. The second is Amy Tan, a daughter of immigrants who fled China in the 1940s. In her essay â€Å"Mother Tongue† she recalls growing up with a Mother who could not speak perfect English. While these women are from two different backgrounds, their experiences with languages are the same. Both women have expressed the idea that language used with family, the educational system and society shape us as individuals. When a person is at home, surrounded by those who are nearest and dearest to them, they let their guard down. The languages we speak around our families are often different from the ones we use in the professional world. Tan states this opinion in her essay; she remembers a time when she was conscious of the English she was using around her mother. She was walking down the street with her mother and using the English that she did not use around her mother. She also states that this is the same type of English she uses with her husband. She writes that this type of language â€Å"has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.† (Tan, page 143) Anzaldua has a similar opinion when it comes to the language of our family; she writes â€Å"My â€Å"home† tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, with my friends.†(Anzaldua, page 134) Her type of language is a considered a subcategory of Spanish, called Chicano Spanish. Anzaldua also explains that in her culture she had to learn different dialects of Spanish, according to region that person was from. These two women played chameleon with their languages, blending in perfectly with their surroundings, wearing a mask to the world until they were home. At home, they were safe to use the language they grew up using without fear of judgment. â€Å"To get a good job, you need to speak English well. What’s the use of all your education if you speak English with an accent?† (Anzaldua, page 132) Anzaldua grew up with the idea that her imperfect English would limit her opportunities, even with an education. When she became a high school teacher, she was reprimanded for giving her students literature by Chicanos. Tan’s educational experiences were somewhat different than Anzaldua. Her limitations were set by test scores in English and Math. Tan writes that her English scores â€Å"were not good enough to override the opinion that my true abilities lay in math and science, because in those areas I achieved A’s and scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher.† (Tan, page 145) While both women felt limited in their educational world, they both found a love for writing. They both became a voice for their people. One thing that shapes a person’s perspective of themselves is how their society views them. Tan, at a young age, would often have to speak for her mother. Her mother’s English was view as â€Å"broken† or â€Å"limited† by society. This had a profound effect on how Tan viewed her mother’s English; she writes â€Å"because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.† (Tan, page 144) Anzaldua’s Chicano Spanish was viewed as â€Å"poor Spanish† by society. â€Å"If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me.† (Anzaldua, page 136) Society, the community in which these women lived, has looked down on the English that they speak. Both women feel that their language is â€Å"poor†, â€Å"broken†, or â€Å"limited† by society’s standards. Gloria Anzaldua and Amy Tan were raised in two different cultures, with two different types of English. They grew up in families that spoke with accents and different dialects. Both women navigated their way through the educational system, which was not designed with them in mind. They were also viewed by their communities as being limited because their home language was not the standard. These two women also fought the system that wished to limit their voices. They became writers, they wrote their stories of how their language, for better or worse shaped who they were.

Principles of Effective Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Principles of Effective Leadership - Essay Example From the essay it is clear that for missions to succeed, especially in times of uncertainty, ambiguity, and adversity, leaders must live and conduct all their activities so that others may look them squarely in the eye knowing that they are associating with and placing their trust in an honorable individual. As the paper declares leaders exert themselves to promote the well-being of others. They do something or stand ready to do something for others. They develop self-reliance in others so that they can become effective members of an interdependent team. Self-reliance means that a staff member does not need the presence of the boss to carry out the tactical and operational elements of his or her own job. As a leader, one should state the job to be done but leave it to one’s subordinate to recommend the methods that will accomplish the desired results, at the time required, with due regard for costs. If one wants to lead people, one has to communicate information directly and honestly. One cannot hem and haw or water down the truth. One has to keep one’s people and the people to whom one reports, grounded in the reality of one’s situation. Many women, especially, respect the social value of an indirect approach to problems, and this places them at a disadvantage in le adership situations. If one has trouble with the direct approach, one should put one’s points in writing, structuring them so that when one goes into a meeting, one can use one’s notes as an aid until one feels comfortable in delivering verbal reports without them.

Modeling the Exchange Rate and Balance of Payments Essay

Modeling the Exchange Rate and Balance of Payments - Essay Example Many countries use financial institutions, central banks, to invest in several monetary and financial systems and other resources in their quest to predict exchange rate and determine international trade as well as a balance of payment. Several theories have been forwarded to determine the value of exchange rate and balance of payments, and in this summary, we will discuss the determinants of a balance of trade, the IS-LM-BP approach and the monetary approach in relation to the two (Melvin and Norrbin, 225). The elasticity approach to the balance of trade explains that the economic behavior involves satisfaction of the unlimited wants with limited resources. One effect of this is that consumers and business firms end up substituting the expensive good for the more affordable ones as prices change to stretch their budgets as far as they can. Relative prices normally change relative to demand and supply for individual goods. Such changes may be caused by an alteration in tastes, the method of production, government taxes, or subsidies amongst other possible causes. If the changes concern the prices of goods at home relative to the foreign goods, the international trade patterns may actually be altered. The elasticity approach to the balance of trade involves the way changing of relative prices of the domestic and foreign goods will affect and possibly change the balance of trade. Furthermore, it provides an analysis of how the issue of devaluation affects the balance of trade in relation t o the elasticity of supply and demand for foreign exchange and foreign goods in the concerned market (Melvin and Norrbin 226). The devaluation of a country’s currency domestically normally raises the price of foreign goods in relation to the domestic goods within that country.

Marketting Analysis of Usitrip Travel Company Essay

Marketting Analysis of Usitrip Travel Company - Essay Example a procuratorate official website to verify), has been always get the federal business bureau (BBB) certification for grade A highest reputation ratings. 1) Tourism is a growing industry (4% annually). The United States tourism market is large and the U.S. visa is one year multiple entry visa, as long as the period of validity of the visa, tourists can visit the United States for many times, it also makes the United States tourism demand to be strong. The companys target customers are high-income earners (min. $75,000 for a single person), health-conscious individuals interested in popular overseas tour. These are lawyers, bankers, executives, doctors and business owners. The major purchasers are located in urban areas within major China cities. There is fast development in the business sector and expanding interest. Additionally, more specialty markets are developing. At first, it will be hard to rival experienced suppliers, particularly the business pioneers. However, target market is an exploitable niche, and our service is differentiated. Target market individuals will have comparative activity premiums, more disposable income and less effect on cost. We will provide luxurious service with prestige value. Our prices will be out of reach for the majority of overseas travelers. Administration will be valued based upon luxury contender costs and the quality included of our advertising. Suppliers that offer offering luxury services like our own do as such at costs like not ours. We are intensely evaluated in the luxury market. Since we engage luxury and hence a littler business, volume will be restricted. Notwithstanding, we will have the capacity to accrue a higher profit margin. Abroad visit has been working for a while now. The treks have been generally welcomed, and advertising is presently critical to its proceeded with achievement and future benefit. The fundamental business need is hard adventure trips for the affluent customer. This target market

The Balanced Scorecard & the Financial Perspective Essay

The Balanced Scorecard & the Financial Perspective - Essay Example In today’s time whether it be a for-profit-organization or a not-for-profit organization, has to develop various strategic business models in order to manage and sustain their organization. Similarly, the rehabilitation centre got into strategic planning long ago. There had been various consultants who provided counseling to the centre on implementation of proper strategic business models for the smooth functioning of the organization. The centre tried to adapt these strategic business model based on the inputs provided by various consultants but the implementation of such models were very difficult for the centre since they were into rendering different types of services and these services were done not for profit. The management was unable to push down the strategic plan to the lower levels, from where it has to be started, hence the centre couldn’t never avail the desired outcomes. After years of pushing and pulling into the implementation of strategic business model s, the management finally appointed a Director of strategic planning, who in turn after thorough scanning and exploration of various levels of strategic planning process decided to utilize the concept of Balanced Scorecard. The main objective of implementation was to align each area within the center itself with the overall strategic plan. This concept was similar to breaking down of big activities into smaller parts so that even difficult task can be completed in time (Kazmi, 2002). The mission and vision statement of the organization was to become â€Å"a leader in providing and assessing desired services to people with disabilities†. The implementation of Balance scorecard was difficult at initial stages but as the top level management understood the importance and effectiveness of Balance scorecard, implementation became bit easier at later stages though the outcome measurement for many areas remained a difficult task as the customers at the center are people with develop mental disabilities. Analysis The main purpose of a balance scorecard is that it helps an organization to adhere to it mission and vision statement while aligning all its activities to one direction. A Balance Scorecard has four perspectives namely the learning and growth perspective, internal business process perspective, customer perspective and the financial perspective. Based on these four perspectives it can be viewed the organization from these four broad perspectives. The four perspective of the Cattaraugus County rehabilitation Centre has been discussed below: Customer Perspective: In the customer perspective the main goal is to amend the quality of services provided to the customer by the center. It has again two aspects to it, first, by providing better services through narrowing down the gap of unfulfilled services like allowing various supports to families of the individuals with disabilities, by improving the access facilities to customer for the services etc. Secondly, by giving the families and individual maximum independence and recognition for e.g. by providing various opportunities to the individuals in their community, helping them to develop various skill like sustaining relationships, developing various skills in them, providing them with opportunities to work , by working on plans based on the feedback provided by the customers etc. Financial perspective: The main objective of any organization is maximize profit through increased

Law, Globalisation & Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Law, Globalisation & Ethics - Essay Example With the world becoming a global village and globalisation is a common phenomenon, there is a complete need for the strengthening of the law and order in the society and also the society becoming ethical in its approach. With the increase of globalisation the rate of natural calamities on the world has also increased, and it has become a tremendous problem for the sustenance of mankind. It has even a long term effect on those who have survived from such deadly event. It is almost impossible to prevent such happenings but what can be possible is to soothe the life of the victims who have been affected by such events. This can only be done through the constant effort of the law and ethical orientation of the society. And it has to take place not only from the affected place but also from the entire world, which is actually the true meaning of globalisation (Sayles, 2008). UK’s International Search and Rescue Team is a special team which has been successful in many life saving operations throughout the world. It is been operating since the year 1967. To undertake rescue missions both in United Kingdom a well as abroad, it is registered under the British Government, the United Nations Secretariat (INSARAG) and even with the International Civil Defence Organisation. In all major events ranging from floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, war and missile attacks, the team has been constantly beside the victims. The teams have supported such victims in all possible way they could have done. They have saved thousands of life in such misfortune events. With the growing dangers even there is a growing need of such volunteers to be part of the international rescue missions. But it should also be checked that the law and the ethical conditions permit to such situations (British Civil Defence, n.d.). The fire department is one such department that has been one of the most valiant departments fighting with all odds to save the life of several people