The Basic Energy Sources For Electric Energy Environmental Sciences Essay

The Basic Energy Sources For Electric Energy Environmental Sciences Essay What are the basic energy sources for electric energy? Electricity is a converted energy. So its being the basic energy source for simple motor to the complex computer system. In this aspect it runs our life with efficiency and conveniently. There for it is important to aware where does it come from and how does it create. The electric energy can be generated in various ways but basically there are five different sources for electric energy. We can categorize it like as following. Hydroelectric energy In hydroelectric energy generation that electricity is generate by using water.This is a method to generate electricity from a renewable source, and generates very little pollution. Here a dam is built to trap water, usually in a valley where there is an existing lake. Because the water running through tunnels in the dam to the turbines and thus drive generators. The dam is much thicker at the bottom than the top, the pressure of the water increases with depth. Gravitational potential energy stored in the water above the dam. Due to the large amount of water, it will forward to the work under high pressure, which means we can much energy from it. The water then flows away along the river as usual. The first hydroelectric plant in history began producing electricity in 1882. It is located in the state of Wisconsin, the Fox River and is used for the generation of electricity. Hydropower in many countries throughout the world and in Sri Lanka, including Brazil, Canada, Russia, Tanzania, Iceland, North Korea and New Zealand. It seems to be a popular option in almost every area, whether political or economic differences. It has a number of advantages in relation to other electrical sources. Once the dam is built, the energy is virtually free No waste or pollution produced. Much more reliable than wind, solar or wave power. Electricity can be generated constantly. Hydro-electric power stations can increase to full power very quickly, unlike other power stations. But at the same time it has few disadvantages as the dams are very expensive to build. On the other hand building a large dam will flood very large area upstream, causing problems for animals that used to live there. Also hydroelectricity cannot fulfill todays large require consumption in world. Electricity from Coal Coal power is another major resource of electric energy which has been using many parts of the world. Coal is the solid end-product of millions of years of decomposition of organic materials. In truth, coal is stored solar energy. Plants capture the energy from sunlight through photosynthesis, which directly converts solar energy to plant matter. Animals that then eat the plants to convert that energy again, storing it in their own bodies. Over millions of years, accumulated plant and animal matter is covered by sediment and stored within the earths crust, gradually being transformed into hard black solids by the sheer weight of the earths surface. Coal, like other fossil fuel supplies, takes millions of years to create, but releases its stored energy within only a few moments when burned to generate electricity. Because coal is a finite resource, and cannot be replenished once it is extracted and burned, it cannot be considered a renewable resource. Electricity from Wind Weve used the wind as an energy source for a long time. The Babylonians and Chinese were using wind power to pump water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago, and sailing boats were around long before that. Wind is a renewable resource because it is inexhaustible. The Sun heats our atmosphere unevenly, so some patches become warmer than others. These warm patches of air raise, other air blows in to replace them and we feel a wind blowing. We can use the energy in the wind by building a tall tower, with a large propeller on the top. The wind blows the propeller round, which turns a generator to produce electricity. When it comes to cost the current costs of wind-generated electricity at prime sites approach the costs of a new coal-fired power plant. Wind power is the lowest-cost renewable energy technology available on the market today. According to the researches, the costs of wind power are projected to continue to fall and may rank the cheapest electricity source of all options by 2020. Wind power also has both advantages and disadvantages. It produces no air pollution. They use no water, and there is no need to tear up the land to extract the wind resource that produces wind power. Nonetheless, there may be environmental problems associated with some wind plants. It generates three categories of environmental impacts: visual impacts; noise pollution; wildlife impacts. These impacts can vary immensely from site to site. Solar Electricity Solar electricity is created by using Photovoltaic (PV) technology by converting solar energy into solar electricity from sunlight. Photovoltaic systems use sunlight to power ordinary electrical equipment, for example, household appliances, computers and lighting. The photovoltaic (PV) process converts free solar energy the most abundant energy source on the planet directly into solar power. Note that this is not the familiar passive or solar electricity thermal technology used for space heating and hot water production. A PV cell consists of two or more thin layers of semiconducting material, most commonly silicon. When the silicon is posed to light, electrical charges are generated and this can be conducted away by metal contacts as direct current (DC). The electrical output from a single cell is small, so multiple cells are connected together and encapsulated (usually behind glass) to form a module (sometimes referred to as a panel). The PV module is the principle building block of a PV system and any number of modules can be connected together to give the desired electrical output. PV equipment has no moving parts and as a result requires minimal maintenance. It generates solar electricity without producing emissions of greenhouse or any other gases, and its operation is virtually silent. Sri Lanka lies between 6 and 10 degrees north of the Equator and as such will have limited seasonal variation. However, variations in cloud cover have a significant impact on output from PV. Apart from these basic methods, electricity can be generated via tidal power, wave power, geothermal power and biogas etc. But those energy sources are either in experimental stage or have been used in small scaled projects wise. Electricity from Nuclear power Nuclear energy is energy in the nucleus (core) of an atom. Atoms are tiny particles that make up every object in the universe. There is enormous energy in the bonds that hold atoms together. Nuclear energy can be used to make electricity. But first the energy must be released. It can be released from atoms in two ways: nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. Nuclear fusion, energy is released when atoms are combined or fused together to form a larger atom. This is how the sun produces energy. In nuclear fission, atoms are split apart to form smaller atoms, releasing energy. Nuclear power plants use nuclear fission to produce electricity. Nuclear power plants are very clean and efficient to operate. However, nuclear power plants have some major environmental risks. Nuclear power plants produce radioactive gases. These gases are to be contained in the operation of the plant. If these gases are released into the air, major health risks can occur. Nuclear plants use uranium as a fuel to produce power. The mining and handling of uranium isvery risky and radiation leaks can occur. The third concern of nuclear power is the permanent storage of spent radioactive fuel. This fuel is toxic for centuries, handling and disposal is an ongoing environmental issue. Nuclear plants are very expensive. And also it would be dangerous for small countries like us. Because the heat from the uncontrolled reaction can melt everything it comes into contact with. Catastrophic accid ents could injure or kill thousands of people. For create nuclear plant need huge land are without living creatures (people, animals etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦). We need like deserts. So we hard to going to nuclear power.

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Since it’s discovery in 1981, AIDS has become a worldwide pandemic. Over 30 million people have died since 1981 worldwide because of the silent virus. HIV, which is the abbreviation of human immuno deficency virus, has a worldwide effect because there is not a known way of curing the virus. HIV gradually destroys one’s immune system until their body is too weak to fight off disease, making it easy for a person to die from a simple infection like the flu, or a fever. Today, 33 million people and counting are living with this disease, and one in five are unaware of their infection. most of the 3.5–5.3 million Americans living with viral hepatitis do not know that they are infected, putting them in greater risk for severe or fatal complications from the disease, and increasing the chance that they will spread the virus to others. People living with AIDS or HIV can have trouble getting or maintaining work positions. Many people are afraid to be around people with AIDS because they do not want the disease to be transmitted to them. This assumption occurs because of lack of education on the subject. One cannot, in fact, contract HIV through skin to skin contact, unless infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluid comes in contact with an opening in one’s body. The issue of HIV/AIDS has not yet been resolved because of the lack of knowledge on the disease. Researchers do not know for sure why the illness weakens your immune system, and there is no cure for AIDS or HIV. There are, however, medicines that can keep the AIDS disease at bay, and freeze the progress of a current HIV infection. There are currently five different strains of HIV drugs. Each class of drugs attacks HIV at different points in it’s progression. This medication is stan... ...sitive, and that it is against Russian federal law for them to engage in sexual intercourse with another Russian citizen without telling them about their incurable disease. they are then sent away with no drug prescriptions, no counseling, and no knowledge on how serious the disease is. Between 1999 and 2000 more people died of AIDS in Africa than in all the wars on the continent. AIDS affects different segments of society in different ways. For example, children may have to care for an ill parent. Schooling may suffer as a result. Other times, children become orphans as parents succumb to AIDS. While poverty is obviously a main factor as to why AIDS is much more severe in Africa, political will of national governments is another cause. Constraints such as social norms and taboos, or lack of effective institutions have all contributed to the situation getting worse.

Dream Chocolate Company Essay

Analysis of D.C.’s Competitive Environment and Information Need Dream Chocolate (D.C.) is a small company trying to survive in an industry with many competitors. The competitive environment comes from some factors. Firstly, D.C. bars are sold in specialty markets, fine gift stores and also available online. However, the competitive companies can also provide various chocolate bars for customers with the low price on the Internet. Secondly, comparing to the big chocolate company like Mars, D.C. is a small company that has the lower brand reputation. Therefore, there may be not many people would trust their products. On the other hand, facing this competitive environment, D.C. has developed many competitive advantages that could attract customers to choice its products. D.C. Company pursues the high quality chocolate and changes the basic milk chocolate bar into variety of flavors. The company’s niche is European-style custom chocolate bars and labeling, and it is known f or its flexibility and speed. A small customer order can be printed, labeled, and ready for pick up or shipping within one hour if the company already has the label in its system, which few company can achieve that level. Moreover, D.C. also faced the pressure from the continued national recession hurt sales in 2011. Thus, in order to deal with the internal and external competitive environment, the D.C. Company needs more business to utilize their capacity and make a profit. The main issue will be training people. It takes up long time to train people adequately. Also, customer labeling needs to be more effectively marketed, which is D.C.’s best margin area. For purpose that the company’s strategy and product can be efficiently carried out, D.C. Company should provide actual cost per order or per unit that can compute the operating margin for the individual products and the allocation of overhead costs that can know whether orders are profitable or not. Pros and Cons for Different Costing Systems Job Costing System A job is simply a product or service that can be easily distinguished from other products or services and for which the firm desires that a specific cost be recorded for the product or service. Job order costing records the  actual materials and labor expenses for specific jobs and assigns overhead to jobs at a predetermined overhead rate. Job order costing offers a detailed analysis of the costs of materials, labor cost and overheads by functions and nature. One advantage of job order costing is that it allows managers to calculate the profit earned on individual jobs, helping them to better decide whether specific job are desirable to pursue in the future. This is best for businesses that do highly custom work, such as construction contractors and consultants. Also, Job order costing gives managers the advantage of being able to keep track of individuals’ and teams’ performance in terms of cost-control, efficiency and productivity. It can evaluate efficiency of diff erent types of jobs with cost records by using statistical techniques. Job order costing facilitates the estimation of the cost of a similar job and allocates overheads on the basis of a predetermined rate. Moreover, job order costing makes easy to identify spoilage and defects to take corrective actions. However, there are also several problems with the job order costing system. Firstly, job order costing needs a great deal of clerical work in recording material issue, wage computation, payment and overhead charges. Therefore, the employees are required to track all materials and labor used during the job, which will need more accountants to works and creates additional cost for small company. Secondly, job order costing focuses attention primarily on products rather than on departments or activities. This is not an issue if there is supplemental systems in place that record information about other cost categories, but it leaves management with inadequate information if this is not the case. Additionally, strict control of cost associated with a job is difficult since overheads are allocated on estimation, which should using reasonable parameters like selecting suitable basis. Process Costing System Process costing typically used by companies that produce large quantities of identical products that are made in long, continuous production runs through a series of process centers (departments). Process costing accumulates costs in a department for an accounting period and then spreads them evenly, or on an average basis, over all units produced that month. Process costing is an easier system to use when costing homogenous products compared to other cost allocation methods. Each process applies direct materials, labor and  manufacturing overhead to the production cost total. Management accountants take the total number of goods leaving the process and divide the total process cost by this number. This creates a simple average cost for each item produced. Another advantage is that business owners use process costing because it creates a flexible production process. Companies needing to refine their process can simply add or remove a process as necessary. This also allows companies to lower their production cost for each good. Adding a process allows companies to produce slightly different goods or improve product quality. This flexibility ensures companies can produce at the most competitive cost in the economic marketplace. Also process costing provides an approach to allocate costs to partially completed production. But the process costing also exists several disadvantages. Production cost error is a significant disadvantage for cost accounting systems. Process costing does not use direct allocation to apply business costs to individual goods, which will arbitrarily increase each item’s cost and also increases the consumer product price. Management accountants may also create under-costed products. Under-costed products usually result in lower business profits because goods are actually more expensive than actually reported. Other problem is that accountants must calculate equivalent units in the process costing system. Equivalent units represent the amount of unfinished goods left in a process at the end of an accounting period. This information is reported as the work-in-process on a company’s balance sheet. Inaccurate work-in-process accounts may also result in distorted finished good totals. This creates a difficult process for managing inventory and determining how many products the company has to sell in the open marketplace. Operation Costing System Operation costing is a hybrid of job and process costing, which is used in manufacturing goods that have some individual characteristics plus some common characteristic. An operation is a standardized method of making a product that is repeatedly performed. Operation costing is often used when different products use common processes but differ in their material. The advantage of operation costing system is that some products are mass-produced and can be customized to order, which cost accountants use the operation costing system. Using operation-costing system could be more accurate to record the cost of product because it separates materials for  each type of products and allocate the conversion costs through departments. Also, because much of the production is the same for all products manufacture, accountants use operation costing to distinguish these costs and determine individual product costs However, operation-costing system is more complex to calculate, company should require collecting much more data comparing to process costing or job costing. It needs to compute the units of production and the product cost of each unit according to the information of materials be collected and the unit of equivalent products. Activity-Based Costing System Activity-based costing (ABC) is two-stage product costing method that first assigns costs to activities and then assigns them to products based on the products’ consumption of activities. The use of ABC is especially important to businesses that provide customized products or services. A customized production environment requires ABC’s allocation of actual indirect costs to a product to identify its true cost. Implementing ABC is a challenging task for any business and the process carrying several advantages and disadvantages. One of advantage of ABC system is to improve business processes. It allocates indirect cost based on a product’s cost drive or the factor that creates the cost, which would be more accurate than the other costing methods. ABC can be used to identify non-valued added activities and can help to better allocate resources to efficient and profitable activities. Another advantage of ABC system is to identify wasteful products. ABC can allow the business to better understand where overhead costs are going. The data can identify wasteful products and unnecessary costs, so that resources can be used productively. The method also helps to fix the price of products or services that are excessive or incorrect. Overall product and service quality can improve as ABC’s data details production and cost issues that need to be resolved. Additionally, ABC system tends to reduce per unit cost of high volume products and increase per unit cost of low volume products, but the impact is more dramatic on the low volume products. However, implementing an ABC system can be expensive and time-consuming. Manager should break down business activities into each activity’s individual components. The entire process needs to collect much valuable resource as data to measure and enter into the new system.  Businesses may also require hiring the assistance of a consultant who specializes in the setup of an ABC system and provide training for them. Moreover, using ABC system sometimes is easily to misinterpret the data. It is also possible that some ABC may be irrelevant in certain decision-making scenarios. For instance, ABC does not conform to accounting standard and should not be used for external reporting. Since traditional cost figures tend to be the norm, interpreting ABC data along with regular accounting information can be confusing and lead to bad decision-making. Recommend a Costing Method to D.C. D.C. is a small but growing company trying to survive in an industry with many players. This small company has limited staff and they do not currently track actual cost information during production. However, D.C. has the competitive advantage that it combines high-quality, variety of flavors and custom labeling together. Due to D.C.’s high-end process, high volume and various types of chocolates, I recommend D.C. use operation costing system that combines the process costing and job costing together. Firstly, D.C. has three sizes of chocolate, which are 1.25 oz. bar, 3.0 oz. bar and 3.25 oz. Bar. And the three sizes bar can be divided into two types chocolates that are organic and non-organic. The different materials will be added into production to get various flavors. Thus, the martial of production that is direct cost can use job-costing method. Using job order costing is that it allows D.C. to calculate the profit earned on individual jobs, helping them to better decide w hether specific job are desirable to pursue in the future. Job order costing also makes easy to keep track of the production, identify spoilage and defects to take corrective actions during the period of production. Then, the labor cost should be included in product cost. Direct labor comes from pouring, inspecting, foiling and labeling. Notice that larger bars can be inspected twice as fast as the smaller bars. Because each area might be working on multiple customer jobs at a time, it is difficult to track labor hours for each customer order. Therefore, using the job costing system records the different type of customer order, which would be more accurate to record labor cost. And we should also calculate equivalent unit to compute labor cost per bar for each department. Finally, for the overhead cost which is indirect cost, each product is produced using the  same process, which means there is no difference in the overhead costs for the different products. So it is suitable to use process-costing method. And process costing is more flexible in allocating conversion costs, because it only accumulates the total costs and allocates the costs to each department or process. The operation costing system is a flexible way to handle high-volume or low-volume production month. It is used when different products use common processes but differ in their materials. When the volume is high, D.C. company do not need to hire more employee to work because the combination of job costing and process costing could figure out the mass production. Also, the operation costing can easily find any mistakes and don’t have to wait till the end of the month to fix the problem. Handling the new special order and new cost Recent order from the wellness company shows that bars can have one or more types of special flavors and ingredient additives. Bars with higher-cost flavor additives such as coffee and Kava can be viewed as direct cost. Thus, they would be treated for the same as direct materials and be allocated to the specific products. But less expensive additives, such as flavoring oils are not included in direct costs and these cost usually show up in overhead cost. In addition to the direct materials cost for these ingredients, there is additional labor required for stirring to achieve equal distribution throughout the bar. Moreover, the labeling design cost for new special order is overhead cost, which is related to the product cost. So it would be allocated to the specific product separately as well. Summary and Implementation In conclusion, I will recommend the company using the operation costing system, which combine the job costing and process costing. In case of DC the manufacturing environment is complex. Product in its initial stages has identical processing, and then is finished using specific procedure like adding activities or customized packaging. The method accounts for costs based on difference in the products. Also operation costing as it will give clear cost of products and their profitability. It will help Kay to set up the price of the products will help him to determine most profitable product. In order to calculate the cost of chocolate bar, we should require  the actual production for organic and non-organic bars, cost of ingredients for special orders and additional training and labor hours for special order.

European Countries Ranked by Area

European Countries Ranked by Area The continent of  Europe varies in latitude from places such as Greece, which is in the range of about 35 degrees north to 39 degrees north latitude, to Iceland, which ranges from around 64 degrees north to more than 66 degrees north. Because of the difference in latitudes, Europe has varying climates and topography. Regardless, it has been inhabited for about 2 million years. It consists of only about 1/15th of the worlds land, but the contiguous continent has about 24,000 square miles (38,000 sq km) of coastline. Stats Europe is made up of 46  countries that  range in size from some of the largest in the world (Russia) to some of the smallest (Vatican City, Monaco). The population of Europe is about 742 million (United Nations 2017 Population Division figure), and for a landmass of about 3.9 million square miles (10.1 sq km), it has a density of 187.7 people per square mile. By Area, Largest to Smallest The following is a list of the countries of Europe arranged by area. Various sources may differ in size of a countrys area due to rounding, whether the original figure is in kilometers or miles, and whether the sources include overseas territories. Figures here come from the CIA World Factbook, which presents figures in square kilometers; they have been converted and rounded to the nearest number. Russia: 6,601,668 square miles (17,098,242 sq km)Turkey:  302,535 square miles (783,562 sq km)Ukraine:  233,032 square miles (603,550 sq km)France:  212,935 square miles (551,500 sq km);  248,457 square miles (643,501 square km) including overseas regionsSpain:  195,124 square miles (505,370 sq km)Sweden:  173,860 square miles (450,295 sq km)Germany:  137,847 square miles (357,022 sq km)Finland:  130,559 square miles (338,145 sq km)Norway: 125,021 square miles (323,802 sq km)Poland:  120,728 square miles (312,685 sq km)Italy:  116,305 square miles (301,340 sq km)United Kingdom:  94,058 square miles (243,610 sq km), includes Rockall and Shetland IslandsRomania: 92,043 square miles (238,391 sq km)Belarus: 80,155 square miles (207,600 sq km)Greece: 50,949 square miles (131,957 sq km)Bulgaria: 42,811 square miles (110,879 sq km)Iceland:  39,768 square miles (103,000 sq km)Hungary: 35,918 square miles (93,028 sq km)Portugal: 35,556 square miles (92,090 sq km)Austri a: 32,382 square miles (83,871 sq km)Czech Republic: 30,451 square miles (78,867 sq km) Serbia: 29,913 square miles (77,474 sq km)Ireland: 27,133 square miles (70,273 sq km)Lithuania: 25,212 square miles (65,300 sq km)Latvia: 24,937 square miles (64,589 sq km)Croatia:  21,851 square miles (56,594 sq km)Bosnia and Herzegovina: 19,767 square miles (51,197 sq km)Slovakia: 18,932 square miles (49,035 sq km)Estonia: 17,462 square miles (45,228 sq km)Denmark: 16,638 square miles (43,094 sq km)Netherlands:  16,040 square miles (41,543 sq km)Switzerland:  15,937 square miles (41,277 sq km)Moldova: 13,070 square miles (33,851 sq km)Belgium:  11,786 square miles (30,528 sq km)Albania: 11,099 square miles (28,748 sq km)Macedonia: 9,928 square miles (25,713 sq km)Slovenia: 7,827 square miles (20,273 sq km)Montenegro: 5,333 sq miles (13,812 sq km)Cyprus: 3,571 square miles (9,251 sq km)Luxembourg: 998 square miles (2,586 sq km)Andorra:  181 square miles (468 sq km)Malta:  122 square miles (316 sq km)Liechtenstein: 62 square miles (160 sq km)San Marino:  23 square miles (61 sq km)Monaco:  0.77 square miles (2 sq km) Vatican City: 0.17 square miles (0.44 sq km)

Free Essays on Teen Depression

Adolescent Depression: The Under Acknowledged Disease Psychology Depression is a disease that afflicts the human psyche in such a way that the afflicted tends to act and react abnormally toward others and themselves. Therefore it comes to no surprise to discover that adolescent depression is strongly linked to teen suicide. Adolescent suicide is now responsible for more deaths in youths aged 15 to 19 than cardiovascular disease or cancer (Blackman, 1995). Despite this increased suicide rate, depression in this age group is greatly underdiagnosed and leads to serious difficulties in school, work and personal adjustment which may often continue into adulthood. How prevalent are mood disorders in children and when should an adolescent with changes in mood be considered clinically depressed? Brown (1996) has said the reason why depression is often over looked in children and adolescents is because "children are not always able to express how they feel." Sometimes the symptoms of mood disorders take on different forms in children than in adults. Adolescence is a time of emotional turmoil, mood swings, gloomy thoughts, and heightened sensitivity. It is a time of rebellion and experimentation. Blackman (1996) observed that the "challenge is to identify depressive symptomatology which may be superimposed on the backdrop of a more transient, but expected, developmental storm." Therefore, diagnosis should not lay only in the physician's hands but be associated with parents, teachers and anyone who interacts with the patient on a daily basis. Unlike adult depression, symptoms of youth depression are often masked. Instead of expressing sadness, teenagers may express boredom and irritability, or may choose to engage in risky behaviors (Oster & Montgomery, 1996). Mood diso rders are often accompanied by other psychological problems such as anxiety (Oster & Montgomery, 1996), eating disorders (Lasko et al., 1996), hypera... Free Essays on Teen Depression Free Essays on Teen Depression Adolescent Depression: The Under Acknowledged Disease Psychology Depression is a disease that afflicts the human psyche in such a way that the afflicted tends to act and react abnormally toward others and themselves. Therefore it comes to no surprise to discover that adolescent depression is strongly linked to teen suicide. Adolescent suicide is now responsible for more deaths in youths aged 15 to 19 than cardiovascular disease or cancer (Blackman, 1995). Despite this increased suicide rate, depression in this age group is greatly underdiagnosed and leads to serious difficulties in school, work and personal adjustment which may often continue into adulthood. How prevalent are mood disorders in children and when should an adolescent with changes in mood be considered clinically depressed? Brown (1996) has said the reason why depression is often over looked in children and adolescents is because "children are not always able to express how they feel." Sometimes the symptoms of mood disorders take on different forms in children than in adults. Adolescence is a time of emotional turmoil, mood swings, gloomy thoughts, and heightened sensitivity. It is a time of rebellion and experimentation. Blackman (1996) observed that the "challenge is to identify depressive symptomatology which may be superimposed on the backdrop of a more transient, but expected, developmental storm." Therefore, diagnosis should not lay only in the physician's hands but be associated with parents, teachers and anyone who interacts with the patient on a daily basis. Unlike adult depression, symptoms of youth depression are often masked. Instead of expressing sadness, teenagers may express boredom and irritability, or may choose to engage in risky behaviors (Oster & Montgomery, 1996). Mood diso rders are often accompanied by other psychological problems such as anxiety (Oster & Montgomery, 1996), eating disorders (Lasko et al., 1996), hypera...

Various Ways Government Interacts with the Economy Essay

Various Ways Government Interacts with the Economy - Essay Example To safeguard this, the government has prohibited the following activities: This is an agreement between two or more competitors in form of price fixing and market allocation, and involves an agreement in which one party of a group of bidders will be designated to win the bid. For example government construction contracts being determined by bid. This type of conspiracy is termed to be illegal therefore it is prohibited by the government. This is an agreement between the competitors selling the same product or services to fix, peg, discount or stabilize prices. This pushes the price of the product high hence the businesses make huge profit after exploiting the consumers. In the United States, price fixing is prosecuted under section 1 of the Sherman Act as a criminal felony offence. (APA, 2000) This is lack of compatibility between different systems and is often used in computer industry. This is whereby the different companies create different versions of the same systems that cannot inter-operate therefore forcing the consumer to purchase the spare parts from the same manufacturer only. (Arthur, 1989) This is the practice of making the sale of one good to the de facto or de jure customer conditional on the purchase of a second distinctive good. Selling printers below cost or at a loss and recovering the amount on the sale of cartilages.

Communication and Leadership in the Workplace Research Paper

Communication and Leadership in the Workplace - Research Paper Example The communication process involves interchanging messages between the source and the receiver. The source is the person that sends the information, while the receiver is the person that listens to other person talking. Maintaining good communication between the employees of a company is important because doing so can help a firm improve its productivity. Managers that maintain good communication are able to gain the trust of the employees. For communication to be effective in the workplace it must follow the proper communication channels. The communication channels are the pathways used to transmit information. Some examples of communication channels are emails, telephone, cellular phones, written letters, memos, and face to face meetings. A good mechanism that often enhances the communication process is feedback. Feedback is a reaction or response to something another person has done or said (Dictionary, 2012). A popular method of feedback that is often used in the corporate world i s 360-degree feedback. This method forces different people including peers and supervisors to evaluate the performance of an employee. Communication can be either verbal or non-verbal. Talking to another person is a form of verbal communication. Three examples of non-verbal communication are body gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact. Communication must be effective to ensure that everyone understands the message. Speaking in a concise matter helps improve the communication process. A skill that enhances communication is active listening. Five key elements of active listening are: Pay attention Show that you are listening Provide feedback Defer judgment Respond appropriately (Mindtools, 2012). Improving the communication between co-workers can help reduce misunderstandings. Good communication can also help prevent conflicts in the workplace. There are forces that inhibit communication such as cultural differences, lack of feedback, and noise. Ethnocentrism occurs when one cu lture believe their values are superior to another culture. A lack of feedback is counterproductive because the person that does not receive feedback cannot take any corrective action to improve his behavior. Noise hurts the communication process because it interferes with the ability of people to listen to the message being sent. Companies must learn about new communication technologies. New communication tools such as Skype allow workers to have video chats and conferences. Face to face dialog is one of the most effective communication methods (Stryker & Santoro, 2012). Organizations need leadership in order to guide the efforts of the company. The managers of the company are the employees that are supposed to exert leadership, but leadership can come from any employee in a firm. When leadership comes from an employee that is not in a managerial position that form of leadership is called informal leadership. Some of the top companies that utilize leadership to their advantage are IBM, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Aditya Birla, and Colgate-Palmolive (Cnn, 2012). A company that has a reputation for having good leaders is better able to attract young talent into the firm. Good leadership in an organization helps a firm increase the motivation of its employees. Employees that are motivated perform better and have greater job satisfaction.  Ã‚