The strategy of teamwork

The strategy of teamwork INTRODUCTION For many years now, the strategy of teamwork has been widely used in many organizations. One of its motives is to translate organizational values into specific rules of conduct created by team members, thereby, allowing the creation of self-managed identification with organizational goals (Webb, 2006). Many contemporary theorists believe that working in teams tends to solve most if not all challenges faced by organizations. It tends to end the bureaucratic form of control, improving efficiency and productivity while providing employees an avenue for socialization, self-actualization and participative management (Johnson and Johnson 1987). It is important to organize work around teams in some cases. For instance, in other to ensure the successful outcome of the National Health Service (NHS) project in the UK, general practitioners, IT experts, project managers and other professionals would need to collaborate and work together. However, behind this seemly pleasant style of work lie certain undesirable traits and characteristics. The essay begins by presenting popular understanding of teams and some positive ideologies that support the use of teamwork. It then goes further by critically analyzing these ideologies and identifying some unproductive characteristics exhibited by teams. The premise of this essay is not trying to be cynical about the benefits that teamwork offers but rather expose some traits which reveals that it does not ‘always benefit organizations, and particularly, its members. This would profit us by having a broader understanding about its strengths, shortcomings and implication about its use. WHAT ARE TEAMS? Teamwork as an approach to how work is organized is not new but rather historic; probably older than the phenomenon ‘formal organization (Benders and Van Hootegem, 1999). Management literature began sensing its benefits in the 1920s (Wilson, 2004). Studies reveal many companies using teamwork as a way of organizing work (Cully et al. 1998; Cohen et al., 1996). Today, ‘team player skills usually needs to shown be potential employers to stand a chance of employment. A team is a small number of people with complementary skills, committed to a common purpose, having set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993, p113). Teams are thought to be ‘special form of groups because members have a more shared focus in all regards as opposed to seeking individual goals. Teams develop direction, commitment, and momentum by working to shape a meaningful purpose (Wilson, 2004, p206). There are some teams regarded as self-managing teams because they have more authority to self-regulate throughout the task (Cohen et al., 1996). Teamwork has been popularized to be a remedy for solving inflexible structures to work and alleged inefficient bureaucratic control, and enhancing employee higher-order ‘growth and ‘relatedness needs by job enrichment and empowerment (Bratton el at., 2007, p313). Socialtechnical theorists claim that teamwork improves employee discretion, thereby leading to commitment, motivation and satisfaction (Wilson, 2004). Teams enhance organizational dimensions by providing flexibility, motivation and learning (Knights and Willmott, 2007). Effective teams has also been framed as always task-oriented with confluence, having participative and shared form of leadership and tending to overcome the subversive forces of power, conflict and emotion (Sinclair, 1992). CRITICAL ANALYSIS ABOUT TEAMWORK In reality, teams are not always composed of the clearly perfect picture that ideologists and management gurus claim it to be. Team members are still humans and could exhibit their sense of individuality and purpose, which at certain times could be conflicting. Some views about teamwork are unitary (Burrell and Morgan, 1979; Storey, 1995) which only assumes cohesion not conflicts between members thereby writing off teams that actually exhibits tension and strife as not ‘real teams. In addition, the focus is centrally on achieving greater productivity with little emphasis to feelings, personal reflections or experience of team members (Metcalf and Linstead, 2003; Wilsons, 2004). To claim that teamwork is always beneficiary to the organization and its members, certain measures are required to ascertain its effectiveness. Does teamwork always produce remarkable results? Are team members always satisfied with the environment set for them to operate in and create themselves? Are they always willing to continue contributing? Do organizations always have control in channeling team outcomes? It appears that from the enjoyable and seemly pleasant surface of teamwork lie a murky side. Rhetoric of exploitation by working harder Teamwork is a sleeker form of oppressing labour to suck out optimal performance. It allows employees work ‘harder and smarter (Parker and Slaughter, 1988), intensifying labour from workers (Knights and Willmott, 2007; Wilson, 2004). Teamworks goal is to cultivate organizational values into members by making them more participative and giving them a bit of autonomy, thereby instilling in them passion to thrive and work further even outside their contracted job schedule without being paid. Moreover, team members in addition to their tasks have to supervise other colleagues ensuring they do their work. Teams have huge responsibility in ensuring delivery of tasks despite varying situations such as absenteeism, slackness or even change of members. These places profound burden on the rest of the team (not the organization) as additional efforts is required to nullify them as seen in the NUMMI case (Parker and Slaughter, 1988; Knights and Willmott 2007). Team members embrace self-dign ity by striving harder to ensure the teams success work not minding additional labour. While this benefits organizations who are obviously looking for maximum labour at minimum cost, it does not for team members because stress levels, tension and pressure are heightened as work is intensified and could lead to negative effects on employees well-being (Wilson, 2004). Concertive control and surveillance The strategy of teamwork is an effort to improve the traditional bureaucratic control. However, a tighter form of control, ‘concertive control tends to exists within team-based work (Barker, 1993). Similar ethnographic study by Kunda (1992) showed similar control used to gain unstinting commitment from employees. Traditionally, management was responsible for setting rules and regulations for employees. With teamwork, members set their own rules possibly forming stricter punishment for defaulters (as seen in Barkers case at ISE). Team members monitor actions ensuring total conformity with norms, meting out punishment to defaulters (Sewell, 1998). Employees feel additional pressure knowing that they are under surveillance from other team members, which may pose unhygienic to working environments. It appears that the freedom that teamwork promises seems contradictory to its reality. As Barker (1993, p435) rightfully argues that powerful combination of peer pressure and rational rules forms tighter form of cages as opposed to contemporary claims. It is worthy to note that teams are not truly effective if they get the job done but self-destructs or burns everyone out (Roberts and Corbett, 2009, p150). Conflicts of power and leadership traits Many contemporary theorists believe that groups that do not have conflicts over power or authority and have good interpersonal relations pass as real or working teams. However, studies show that groups do experience various forms power (French and Raven, 1959) which is not equally distributed (Fiorelli, 1988). The most influential or powerful individuals could maneuver the team efforts to possibly suit their own interests rather than the teams. Janis (1985) notes that political factors due to autocratic leaders cause high decision-making errors. Less powerful members have no choice but to concede to the opinions of these elite members despite the fact of their convictions about its failure. Decisions readily accepted unanimously without contests, weakens the efficiency of teams (Sinclair, 1992). ‘Groupthink (Janis, 1972) existence is likely in teams that try to reduce conflicts by cohesiveness and consensus without critical analysis and evaluation. The output of work in this case is not thorough and lacks excellence since further evaluation and alternatives may not be considered. An illustration is the famous NASA Shuttle Challenger case in 1986 where the engineers had to concede to launch the shuttle despite their concerns about its safety resulting into tragedy. It is difficult to eradicate the concept of leadership in teams, as they are important to their efficiency (Sinclair, 1992; Roberts and Corbett, 2009). Wilson (2004) argues that there difficulties in recruiting team leaders because the perception about their qualities varies. Bad leaders not being able to steer the team in its right course often lead to counterproductive results. Emotional conflicts and Resistance Teams are prone in displaying certain emotions during tasks that deters its efficiency (Ashkanasy el at., 2000). In the findings by Alan (2005), emotions are positive at the start of the project but tend to be negative as the project grows affecting the overall team process. McKinlay and Taylor (1996), Ezzamel and Wilmott (1998) shows emotional conflicts arise from unfairness and inequalities of peer evaluation system such as attaching benefits to individuals and variations in pay. Others causes include the need for belonging or frustrations having to conform, ‘social loafing or too much dominance by some members. All these negative emotions can produce actions that restrain team members towards putting in their best thereby impeding teamwork results. In the pyramid case, the system of peer review was a disciplinary mechanism by management to encourage individual performance and prevent free riding in the team but employees opinion that all team members should get equal benefits since the overall output was a team effort disrupted managements strategy. Contrary to ‘hegemony theory that management always exercises dominant influence over teams, it does not always appear so. In some teamwork cases, elements of conflicts and contention causes member to demand more control over their work process than what is available to them leading to renegotiation of managerial authority boundaries (Vallas, 2003). His study shows evidences of organizational tensions, contradictions and solidarity among workers restricted managements hegemonic control over their culture. This might frustrate managements strategy of imbibing their agenda into teams. Present managers might also frustrate organizations plight for teams because it might render them no longer necessary. Teamwork draws employees to micro-management of tasks (Milkman, 1998) and Peters (1987, p296) argues that because teams become self-managing, they tend to eliminate first-line supervisory jobs. This means that their services might become redundant or hinder their chances of promotion as seen in the traditional era of management (Sims, 1995). Time efficiency issues Meetings are places where teams spend lot of work time discussing issues and arriving at decisions (Briggs, 1997). In a research conducted by Olson and Olson (1999) on educators in the U.S., team members indicated weaknesses in effectiveness of meetings and timelines. From experience, being in team meetings could take a huge amount of time giving little time for the actual task. Covey et al. (1994) highlights the importance for strategies to help groups maximize time indicating the possibility of getting too engrossed in fruitless meetings. CONCLUSION There are some instances whereby individual performance is preferred to teamwork. Teamwork at times lead to frustration and ultimate failure when there are senses of hidden agendas, lack of understanding, poor leadership, wrong mix of team members and unhealthy team environment such as stress and unrealistic expectations (Yeung and Bailey, 1999). There is no single experience of teamwork as Knights and McCabe (2000) finding shows three classes of peoples experience as bewildered, bothered or bewitched. It is therefore inappropriate to claim teamwork is always beneficial to its members. In addition, team systems may open up possibilities beyond those which management intends (Derber and Schwartz, 1983). It is clear as some research suggests (e.g. Wall et al., 1986) that teamwork increases productivity. However, we need to understand when the concept of teamwork holds true. By just applying the framework of teams without properly exploiting those grey areas, it might tend to hamper rather than nourish organizational performance as some cases also show that ‘teamwork do not necessarily lead to organizational performance (Bratton, 2007). As Katzenbach and Smith (1993), rightly points that it is important for organizations, in other to make better decisions, know when teams can be encouraged and used. To add further, they must also be aware of those negative traits found in teamwork so as not feel disappointed in unanticipated outcomes. REFERENCES Ashkanasy, N. M., HÃÆ' ¤rtel, C.E. J. and Zerbe, W. J. (2000). Emotions in the workplace: research, theory, and practice. Westport: Greenwood Publishing group, Inc. Alan, P.R. (2005). Emotions and team projects and processes. Team Performance Management, 11(7-8), pp. 251-262. Barker, J. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(3): 408-437. Belbin, R.M. (2000). Beyond the Team. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Benders, J., and Van Hootegem, G. (1999). Teams and the Context: Moving the Team Discussion beyond Existing Dichotomies. Journal of Management Studies, 36(5), pp. 609-628. Bratton, J., Callinan, M., Forshaw, C., Sawchuk, P. (2007). Work and Organizationl Behaviour: Understand the Workplace. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Briggs, M.H. (1997). Building early intervention teams: Working together for children and families. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen. Burrell, G., and G. Morgan (1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis. London: Heinemann. Cohen, S., Ledford, G., and Spreitzer, G. (1996). A Predictive Model of Self-Managing Work Team Effectiveness. Human Relations, 49(5), pp. 643-676. Covey, S. R., Merrill, A. R. and Merrill, R.R. (1994). First things first. New York: Simon and Schuster. Cully, M., Woodland, S., OReilly, A., Dix, G., Millward, N., Bryson, A., Forth, J. (1998). The 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey: First Findings, London: DTI. Derber, C. and Schwartz, W. (1983). Toward a Theory of Worker Participation. Sociological Inquiry 53, pp. 61-78. Ezzamel, M. and Wilmott, H. (1998). Accounting for teamwork: A critical study of group based system of organizational control. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43(2), pp. 358-396. Fiorelli, J. (1988). Power in work groups: team members perspectives. Human Relations, 41(1), pp. 1-12. French, J.R.P., Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power, in D. Cartwright (ed.) Studies in Social Power. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Sam* French and Raven (1958) Janis, I. (1972). Victims of groupthink. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Janis, I. (1985). Sources of error in strategic decision-making in Organizational strategy and change. J. M. Pennings, ed., pp. 157-197. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Johnson, D.W., and Johnson F.P. (1987). Joining together: group theory and group skills. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Katzenbach, J.R., and Smith, D.K. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High Performance Organization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Knights, D. and McCabe, D. (2000). Bewitched, bothered and bewildered: The meaning and experience of teamworking for employees in an automobile company. Human Relations 53(11), pp. 1481-1517. Knights D. and Willmott H. (2007). Introducing organizational behaviour and management. London: Thomson Learning. Kunda, G. (1992). Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. McKinlay, A. and Taylor, P. (1996). Power, surveillance and resistance: Inside the â€Å"Factory of the Future†, in Ackers, P., Smith, C., and Smith P, eds. The New Workplace and Trade Unionism. London: Routledge, pp. 279-300. Metcalf, B., and Linstead, A. (2003). Gendering Teamwork: Rewriting the Feminine. Gender, Work and Employment, 10(1), pp. 94-119. Milkman, R. (1998). ‘The new American workplace: high road or low road?, in P. Thompson and C.Warhurst, eds. Workplaces of the Future. Basingstoke: Macmillian- now Palgrave Macmillan. Olson, J. and Olson, P.D. (1999). Teamwork strengths and weaknesses: Perceptions of practicing educators. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 3(1), pp. 9-15. Parker, M. and Slaughter, J. (1998). Choosing Sides: Unions and the Team Concept. Boston: South End Press. Peters, T. (1987). Thriving on Chaos. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Inc. Peters, T. (1998). Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution. London: Pan Books. Pfeffer, J. (1998). The human equation: Building profits by putting people first. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Roberts, A. and Corbett M. (2009). Understanding Organisational Behaviour. New York: McGraw-Hill Custom Publishing. Sewell, G. (1998). The Discipline of Teams: The Control of Team-Based Industrial Work through Electronic and Peer Surveillance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, pp. 397-428. Sims, H. P. (1995). Challenged to implementing self-managing teams. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 18(2), pp. 24-31. Sinclair, A. (1992). The tyranny of team ideology. Organization Studies, 13(4), pp. 611-625. Storey, J., ed. (1995). Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. London: Routledge. Vallas, S.P. (2003). The Adventures of Managerial Hegemony: Teamwork, Ideology, and Worker Resistance. Social Problems 50(2): 204-225. Wall, T.D., Kemp, N.J., Jackson, P.R. and Clegg, C.W. (1986). Outcomes of autonomous workgroups: A long term field experiment. Academy of Management Journal 29, pp. 280-304. Webb J. (2006). Organisations, identities and the self. New York: Palgrave macmillan. Wilson F.M (2004). Organizational Behaviour and Work: A critical introduction. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Yeung, R. and Bailey, S. (1999). Get It Together. Accountancy, June 1999.

Essay --

1. Principios Bà ¡sicos 2. Espectro Polà ­tico al que Pertenece Considerando el espectro polà ­tico Derecha-Izquierda, Movimiento Ciudadano es un partido polà ­tico que, de acuerdo a su ordenamiento, pertenece a la izquierda ya que sus valores y creencias està ¡n enfocados en proteger a los dà ©biles, promoviendo la igualdad y la equidad, la libertad asà ­ como la autonomà ­a, el pluralismo y la defensa de los derechos fundamentales del ser humano. Con relacià ³n a la participacià ³n del gobierno en la economà ­a, Movimiento Ciudadano acepta el sistema de libre mercado como la mejor manera de organizar la produccià ³n de bienes y servicios requeridos para la satisfaccià ³n de necesidades materiales, pero al mismo tiempo tiene como objetivo fundamental la intervencià ³n del Estado para asegurar que los beneficios y dividendos sean producidos y distribuidos de una manera que se asegure una vida cabal y plena para toda la sociedad. En lo que concierne a su participacià ³n, Movimiento Ciudadano es partidario del cambio y cree que la sociedad es dà ³cil. Responde a un mundo globalizado y progresista, ya que busca la ...

Chechnya and its People Essay examples -- War Europe Essays

Chechnya and its People The ongoing civil war between the semi-autonomous republic of Chechnya and Russia has dramatically caught the attention of the world – a world that perceives the conflict primarily through the distorted lens of Russian propaganda, and the contradicting images of Chechen suffering on the independent media. If the West seems impartial or even indifferent to the Chechen conflict, it is because there is little understanding of this people, of their struggle, or of the vast complexities of the greater North Caucasian region in which the Chechens are a part. This lack of understanding extends to the hazy Western perception of the role of Islam in Chechen society. The broad generalizations that have been made by those in the media, by aid organizations, by the Russians, by Islamic groups, and by those in the American government are all politicized oversimplifications which seek to bring the core of the conflict to its lowest common denominator. Many of the claims revolve around Islam ; yet, few bother to take into account the greater character of Chechen society, or of the broader historical scope of change that Islam has followed in Chechnya. Often, Islam has changed in response to a Russian stimulus, but many of the Russian actions and reasons in this conflict are well documented. This study aims to analyze the Chechen role in the civil war – and the role of Islam in Chechnya – as opposed to the Russian role, which has been analyzed many times over. The North Caucasus It is difficult for Englishmen to take an intelligent interest in the internal affairs of Russia, owing to the vast number of problems involved, all of which depend upon varying local circumstances, and because comparatively few of us, ev... ...i International Magazine. 16 Oct. 2003 18. Menon, Rajan. â€Å"After Empire: Russia and the Southern ‘Near Abroad.’† The New Russian Foreign Policy. Ed. Micheal Mandelbaum. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1998. 100-167 19. Chechnya : Tombstone of Russian Power 20. Islam in Chechnya. 13 March 1998 Univ. of California, Berkeley. 15 Oct. 2003 21. Kagarlitsky, Boris. Russia Under Yeltsin and Putin. London: Pluto Press, 2002. 22. Russia Under Yeltsin and Putin 23. Russia : Islamic Countries Unlikely to Help Chechnya. 19 Nov. 1999 Radio Free Europe, 19 Oct. 2003 24. Kagarlitsky, Boris. Russia Under Yeltsin and Putin. London: Pluto Press, 2002.

A Spirit in the Mix: an Analysis of “I Used to Live Here Once”

13 September 2009 A Spirit in the Mix: An Analysis of â€Å"I Used to Live Here Once† For the story, â€Å"I Used to Live Here Once† by Jean Rhys, we could argue that the story is about a woman who moved away from her homeland to go to a new place and now returns home for a reason not stated. The two children who are playing outside the woman’s old house in the sunshine ignore her. It may be possible that the two children ignore the woman because she left the West Indies to live somewhere else and therefore they believe that she does not exist. Is this what is going on? I believe there is a bigger picture here. The speaker tells us in paragraph three that â€Å"that the sky had a glassy look†¦. † This may be because the woman visitor does not see with her own eyes any more, or it could be that she does see with her own eyes and can see the true nature of the sky. The speaker tells us in paragraph five that the woman sees two children outside her home playing. The woman calls to them but â€Å"they didn’t answer†¦Ã¢â‚¬  her. In the next two paragraphs, the speaker tells us that the woman calls out to the children two more times but still they did not reply. We can assume that the children ignore the woman because the children do not know her, or because the woman left her home and has not returned until now. In paragraph eight, the storyteller tells us that the woman is near the two children and they get a sudden chill. This changes the argument that the woman was ignored because she left her home. The woman is ignored not because she left the West Indies, but rather because she does not exist. The woman existed at one point or another, but now she is not at the home that she used to live in physically, meaning she is a spirit, a ghost. She is supernatural. The woman traveler is visiting the West Indies and her home for the last time. She has unfinished duties to perform before she moves on to her next destination. She visits the home because she will depart from there never to return. It may be that visiting her home was her unfinished task. I believe that the woman is a spirit because of the following evidence. The first evidence is, â€Å"The only thing was that the sky had a glassy look that she didn’t remember,† implying that she no longer sees it with physical eyes. The second evidence is, â€Å"There were two children under the mango tree, a boy and a little girl, and she waved to them and called ’Hello’ but they didn’t answer her or turn their heads,† as if they are not able to hear her. The last evidence is the detail that the children have a sudden chill. The boy says, â€Å"Hasn’t it gone cold all of a sudden. † In all the books that I have read dealing with the supernatural, it is common for people get a sudden chill when a spirit is in the mix. All of this evidence points to the fact that the woman is a supernatural being.

Computer Engineering personal statement Essay

My interest in computers came at a fairly age when I got my first computer. At that time, only few people knew how to use it and no one had time to teach me, so I had to learn by my own. When I was sixteen, I got into building my own p.c’s because of how overpriced everything was. Up to now I still build and repair several computers of friends, relatives and myself. Computers have been always been my hobby for me but now I want to turn this into a professional and rewarding career. I believe that I have the personal skills and motivation to be successful in computer engineering. Also I know that engineering is a discipline that will make a tangible difference in the world and I’m certain I will enjoy the opportunity to fully reach this potential. I hope to be able to develop new technologies and solutions which would benefit both the people and the planet. At college where I studied my O’Level ZGCE I achieved very good grades in all my subjects, which provided a real boost to my confidence levels. I also excelled at sport related activities in the field. I was a member of a football and cricket teams. I found sport to be perfect way to stay fit and keep healthy. My goal is to attain a career where I can express my talent and passion for computers as well as open my mind in ways that I could never do in any field. I am excited about starting the training for career which I have chosen at your institution. I hope my enthusiasm and dedication will be an asset to this profession. I have found that your institution has just the programs I’m looking for and just what I need to be successful at my goals.

Responsibility Cost Control System

Assignment: Cost Modules Essay Cost management in China has been evolving over the past ten years due to influence by the foreign concepts of management accounting. This can be traced back to year 2001 where increased market openness, reduced government interference, and increased management autonomy were mandatory for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. This change in market condition has incentivized Chinese firms to improve their management accounting practices.Subsequently, the traditional costing method is also facing a sudden threat by the influx of ABC/M, Target Costing, Responsibility Accounting, etc. Presented with new ideas, this essay will discuss the popular cost management accounting trend in China, specifically the responsibility cost control system. I will also compare the changes in the Chinese management accounting practices and give opinions on the possible future outlook of the cost and management accounting landscape.According to the research on contemporary management accounting in China by Jason Zezhong Xiao and Rong-Ruey Duh, the most widely used techniques are, cost behavior analysis, cost allocation, responsibility accounting, and cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis. On the other hand, the lowest levels of adoption are techniques like the activity-based costing/management, kaizen costing, standard costing, and environmental accounting. This result is gathered by providing the firms with 25 management accounting practices and asking them to feedback the extent to which they applied each of the 25 practices in the running of their businesses.Results showed that the responsibility cost control system, together with CVP analysis, are among the most popular ‘new’ practices adopted by Chinese firms since market reformed. Specifically, I will discuss responsibility cost control system using the example of Han Dan Iron and Steel Company. Han Dan Iron and Steel Company was established in 1958 and was originally a state-owned iron and steel mill under the administration of government authority at provincial level. It introduced ‘responsibility cost control ystem’ in the beginnings of 1990s, and went public in the next half of that decade. There are four underlying principles for the responsibility cost control system. 1. Setting cost and profit targets that take into account market pressures 2. Assigning target costs to various levels of responsibility center 3. Evaluating performance based on fulfillment of the responsibility cost targets, and 4. Implementing a reward scheme with built-in inventive mechanisms.To explain the first principle of responsibility cost control system using Han Dan Company, all 60 units and subsidiaries were regrouped and decentralized in accordance to the Company’s operational goals into two main categories – producing divisions and servicing units. Han Dan Company has 13 primary producing divisions and within each is a design of multi-t ier responsibility centers. This is crucial in the cost setting and profit targeting of responsibility cost control system and they are designed to be dependent on sales and demand, incorporating market pressure.The assignment of target costs to the various levels of subdivisions is by a top-down approach. It is different from the traditional standard costing method and is in line with the above principle of taking into account market pressure. The market prices are first determined and subsequently, target costs and profits will be just moving averages of the fluctuating market price. The third principle cannot hold without a good design and implementation governed by the DFA, the department that is also responsible to the evaluation of individual responsibility centers.This principle focused mainly on the target costs and is the most important indicator of responsibility performance in the responsibility cost control system. All bonuses will be forfeited when a responsibility cent er fail to meet its cost targets, even if other targets are fulfilled. The reward system however, does acknowledge and encourage the achievement of other related responsibility standards such as production output, product quality, etc. beyond the cost targets even though it is a secondary subject to the ‘cost-veto’ mechanism illustrated above.Although the responsibility cost control system is often compared to target costing, I feel that it is actually better than target costing due to the fact that it focuses more on actual results than forecast. Target costing on the other hand focuses more on forecast and new product planning, and extends cost management beyond the firm to include supply chain partners. Moreover, responsibility cost control system has proven great success in the case of Han Dan Company. It is an exemplary model for the government and business community in China to consider in other state-owned enterprises.Looking forward, with China’s market c ontinuing to evolve and opening up to foreign ideas and companies, we can foresee it moving towards a market-oriented economic system where companies are more motivated to adopt management techniques to improve performance. However, the adoption does not guarantee efficiency and profitability if government forces it onto them without considering the unique business situation. Like Han Dan Company, Chinese firms should diffuse and develop innovative management techniques to suit their own needs and we will definitely see even better developments by Chinese firms in the future.References Duh, R. , & Xiao, J. Z. (2008). An overview and assessment of contemporary management accounting research in china. (Special Issue ed. , Vol. 20, pp. 129-164). Journal of Management Accounting Research. WU, J. , & BOATENG, A. (2010). Factors influencing changes in chinese management accounting practices. Journal of Change Management, 10(3), 315–329. Lin, Z. J. , & Yu, Z. (2002). Res ponsibility cost control system in china: A case of management accounting application. Management Accounting Research, 13(4), 447-467.

Paper on the Glass Castle, for communications class Essay

Paper on the Glass Castle, for communications class - Essay Example The author has made use of an autobiographical approach to reach out to the readers. As per my reading transition of the story, I noticed that the tone of the author is quiet straight, clear and less emotional. This means that it is entirely up to the reader to decide regarding the occurrence of the incidents that Walls family had undergone. The main purpose of the author to select such a tone in the book is to send out the message to readers regarding communication imperativeness in a family setting. It would not be incorrect to state that the author has been successful in this regard (Dunn). It should be noted that the author seemed to be a communication specialist as she has provided real-life instances and the experiences of the author with her family. As noted by Daniel Dunn in his book Communication that interpersonal communication often fails between the individuals because of the semantic errors (Dunn). Similar instances have been found in the book where author has experienced a closure to the communication with her parents because they did not understand her meanings behind subjects (Walls 129). Also to note is the fact that Danielle Dunn mentioned in his research that sometimes people have their perception settled in a firm manner which causes the communication gap. A person might talk convincingly but he will continue to fail to make a difference through his or her communication because of the perception being firm. The perception can be neutral, negative or positive with an effective, disconnected or balanced impact respectively. Similar instance can be noted in the book The Glass Castle where the author notes that sometimes she even felt helpless in elaborating her plans to the parents despite their increased level of education. This was merely because the perception that failed their interpersonal communication. In addition, non-verbal communication has a stronger impact on the receiver. In the case of Wall family it can be said that this was