In the current phase of ever increasing population census worldwide, greater expectations, budgetary constraints and demand from the society, governments are currently facing an escalating amount of pressure from the society to provide new and improved infrastructure services and projects without having to use public funds. In most countries especially developing countries, the financial requirements of developing new and improved infrastructures outstrip the available resources. Having all infrastructure needs met is a critical and continued process in economic development. Because most governments are unable to meet the financial demands of these development projects, they are forced to seek financial investors who will make the projects successful.  In seeking investment funding, governments are forced to enter into public-private partnership for the success of infrastructure projects. A public private partnership is a contractual arrangement where the private sector is tasked with the responsibility of carrying out governmental functions that concern infrastructure development as well as service delivery.

In these kinds of contractual arrangements, the administration also employs the use of state property and assumed the risks of the same on behalf of the government (Hodge & Greve 2007). With this arrangement, the government manages to provide infrastructure services and retains a vital position as the main purchaser and enabler of the project. A primary motivation for states to consider private-private partnerships is the potential for bringing new financing sources into meeting public infrastructure. However, private-public financing is not only beneficial to the state and its citizens, investors on the other hand have a lot to benefit from such kinds of arrangements and that is why finding investors in PPP have become an easy task presently.

One of the main attractions of being part of the PPP lies in the potential to improve the overall value for money (Hodge & Greve 2016). When a country has well-built facilities and infrastructures, there is an increased flow of money, increase in monetary value and thus investors are able to get good returns from what they put in. PPPs have the ability to improve returns on what is invested and thus an increase in the value for money would be a key benefit for all investors.

In public-private partnerships, the risk is always transferred to the public sector and not private individuals who choose to invest in particular administrations. In simple terms, PPPs provide insurance against the risk of loss to private investors such that in the event of loss, it is the administration that suffers the loss yet private investors and exempted. Investors can still count on acquiring returns in a PPP thus increasing overall efficiency for their money.

Optimizing the cost for private partners is another benefit that accrues to every private investor and acts as one of the attractions considered before joining a PPP (Leiringer 2006). Well-structured PPPs build robust incentives that optimize costs for every partner but with high returns for private partners. For instance, conventional project bidders could be advised to design a structure using technical solutions or build a quality structure that may aid in cost reduction in the short term but in the long term lead to high cost of maintenance which is eventually beneficial to private partners. In such kind of scenario, private partners might end up renewing project terms with long term benefits accruing to them only.

These are the reasons why public-private partnerships are seeing a large increase in investors in the past few years both in local and state governments. These reasons rely heavily on private partner benefits making more and more investors wanting to be part of it.

Q1

A major problem faced by managers lies in the confrontation of employee performance. Dealing with performance has been and I think will always be a major problem that causes managers to have sleepless nights (Deslandes 2014). Losing a high potential employee to organizations that offer higher compensations is also a major challenge. When managers fail to keep in mind that star employees should be promoted and given better opportunities, they lose them.

Q2

Profit organizations must pay tax from their incomes but for nonprofit organizations it is not necessary. Most profit organizations must design their balance sheets at least every quarter of the year. Nonprofit organizations do not have to use balance sheets because they have no owners. Instead they come up with a ‘statement of financial position’ that looks at liabilities and assets. Adding to balance sheet, profit organizations also have to design their income statements every quarter of the year. On the other hand, non-profit organizations do not need to compile any income statements but rather prepare a statement for activities.

Q3

Profit organizations have a larger purpose in life compared to nonprofit organizations (Deslandes 2014). Non profit organizations fund their operations majorly from gifts and donations while profit organizations go an extra mile in acquiring equity capital and loan financing options for their businesses. Profit organizations may run for contracts while nonprofit organizations may be out to find granting options. The role of financing is basically for meeting the goals and objectives of the business.

Q4

Strong leadership creates a stronger sense of connection and trust between the leader and his followers and thus every financial accounting performed by the leaders is trusted eventually. Followers on the other hand are expected to have skills in performing their jobs adequately and being a steward. This ensures that self-management becomes part of the success process at the workplace even in the budget process.

Throughout history, many businesses have tried to unlock value through matching internal structures with modern strategies: centralizing through function. However, most approaches have failed to work very well because of the expensive nature of restructuring with creates new organizational problems which are troublesome to solve like it is evident in case 19. As a manager, I think a fair management system is one that finds its basis on a balanced scorecard framework that works well to align structure and strategy (Levin 2012). In case number 19, it is evident that the structure of the business is a dead end nature and therefore the management should apply high level strategy in finding the right personnel for producing higher labor relations.

Change management demands managers to use any approaches and methods that would make transition easy. Change management takes into consideration the whole nature of the business and what the institution needs for change (Jason 2014). Change management should wholly focus on how teams and individuals within the organization are affected by the business transition. Focusing on how teams and people within the business are affected is what was lacking at Drucker Management. Before implementing the PDS system, I would first align the goals and objectives of the business to its structure and later consider how change will affect employees. Before introducing the PDS system, I would first share the overall plan with employees and find out what they think about performance planning process.

As a manager, I would consult with every employee to design a plan for the next phase but will consult the overall supervisor for ultimate approval. As a manager, I will consider Kotter’s 8 step process change model that involves establishing a sense of urgency, creating a guiding coalition, developing a strategy and vision, communicating a change vision, empowering employees for broader future action, designing short term wins, consolidating gains and produce and ultimately anchoring new approaches that will run with organizational culture (Anderson 2013). These procedures would yield better results compared to old models.

Introduction

Social networking begun in 2002 with the advent of Friendster. MySpace, a social media platform which has received significant mass was bought by News Corp for a total of $580 million and Facebook later followed.

Thesis: In a world characterized by technology, social media has evidently taken over how people live their lives presently (Shaw 2014). The way the society presents itself, the way individuals take to each other have been evidently trapped behind technology screens. Technology and social media has made people and the society as a whole acts differently in order to attract attention. Individuals have become narcissistic in being better than others and this has turned the society into a competing ground.

Body 1: Identity transformation

People have changed from the past life of living a quiet and peaceful life into living a life of being noticed, being wanted, being loved, wanting to walk into a room and noticed by others, have your friends know what you had for lunch and so on. That is what technology in social media has done to the society.

1^st sub point- Most people care about fame nowadays. It has become easier to gain fame in social media sources than to gain money, respect and class.

2^nd sub point: When in a group, a person could be shy but once on a social media platform, you are not able to notice the exact shy person in the group.

2^nd paragraph: Social media draws attention away

Users of technology particularly social media have the ability to link up with friends, share photos, updates and messages about their day to day lives.

1^st sub point: Looking around campuses, it is common to find every student busy on their phones constantly checking on new updates.

2^nd sub point: simple or rather face to face conversations have been replaced by messaging and people are unable to have a normal conversation without having to check their phones for updates.

Conclusion

Restating Thesis: In the present technology world, social media is evidently dictating how we live our lives. The way we talk, present ourselves to the world is all behind the screen. We change personalities while on social media and return to normal when in public.

References;

Shaw, J. M. (2014). Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technology and the Human Condition. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

My decision to pursue Finance and Accounting stems from my investigation at the college library and my professional long term goal of becoming a chartered accountant. Particularly, I enjoy engaging in administrative work, statistical exercises and other opportunities I am presented with to work in a team. I have confidence that these transferable skills and strengths will be fully developed as a pursue a degree course in finance and accounting. In order to begin my career journey, I have managed to complete my GCSE with an A in mathematics and statistics and acquired knowledge in accountancy in Syria though I was unable to complete because of the war in the country.

Studying GCSE provided me with the understanding and real life foundations I needed to understand the direction I should be taking when pursuing finance and accounting. Mathematics and statistics brought me to an advanced understanding of the state of technology in mathematical computation among other technological aspects that are less time consuming and make computation easier. I believe that the university will provide me with an excellent opportunity to take my learning to a higher level. A challenging environment is also one of the reasons why I am applying for the degree in accounting and finance because a challenging environment I believe will enable acquire the abilities needed to understanding the business world as a whole and bring me to my ultimate dream of becoming a chartered accountant.

I am looking forward to the challenges of a demanding course with so much confidence that I have the necessary academic qualification and personal qualities to make success out of these challenges.

Introduction

Human creatures are social beings and because of this, they seek to build social bonds in the most efficient and quickest means possible. Without the asset of numbers, human beings would have never survived through the wilderness and together the human race has come this far. But is gathering in social places was the result of human beings getting to this far, what could be the cause? What could be the drive that makes people attract and most significantly stick with each other? The question on what actually brings people together to form a social group is evidently not a new one ever since the development of sociology as a discipline aimed at understanding human behavior particularly group behavior. How do people fall in love? How do complete strangers become friends? Why would two enemies or two groups of enemies decide to become friends again? In reading the development by Randall Collins, we are brought to an analytical strategy that provides answers to these questions from the dynamics of a particular situation.

Interaction rituals

‘What social institution people believe they are taking part in, the setting, the roles that are being presented-none of these exists in itself but only as it is made real by being acted out (Collins 2004; 16). For instance, a new group of freshman students in campus, where one partner has no idea about the other but end up forming study groups, online studying platforms and other localized groups around campus. Through educational ritual patterns, these people will be bound together through certain rituals like attending the same lectures at one particular time, sharing hostels where the situation will force them to interact closely with each other and might end up forming bodily contacts. ‘The situation itself has its requirements: it will not come off unless the actors do the work of properly enacting it’ (Collins 2004; 17). It is through these rituals as discussed by Randall that human actions become synchronized into rhythms, humans become conscious of their socialization behavior and their actions become tuned towards similar sight, gestures and goals.

Finding base on the concept of the sacred by Durkheim and the sociology of face to face by Goffman, Collins in his discussion of ritual interaction argues that it is interaction rituals and its mechanisms that produce a compacted society. According to him, there are four basic ingredients that should be accomplished; two or more people present body wise, a boundary that sets apart outsiders from insiders, a direct and non-interrupted focus on the main object or activity and a common emotional experience or mood.

Combination of ‘functional equivalents’ and ‘presentation of self’

Social integration I believe is the grade to which individuals happen to feel the same kind of connection with the rest of the people within the association. Group dynamics is necessary in understanding how to fit in perfectly into a particular social group. For instance, as a student at the University, there are other discussion groups, online discussion platforms among other associations that are to be formed while pursing my career. To integrate fairly into these social groups, I believe my behavior in the group will be influenced by the behavior of other individuals. Speech patterns, socio-economic status, clothing styles and general mannerisms will determine the kind of group I will fit in without struggle. When I spot a group that uses particular mannerisms that I like, I will begin to draw near to the activities within that group. According to Durkheim, social origins were a reason why individuals would come together to form a formidable association.

It is very common to find groups sharing similar values, common interests and experiences and this is what allows them to form a complete social circle. Durkheim agreed to some extent that for groups to be formed, there must be prior existence of ideas particularly I shared categories that are similar to each individual – “similarly the empiricists are right to the extent that they believe in the material world prior to ideas’ (Collins 1994; 212). For Durkheim, the crucial aspect in the material world would be the society itself followed by the existence of ideas. With this understanding, the society which under the material world is the glue that holds together individuals and ideas. Societal rituals, norms and morals must be the need in having fulfilling educational groups. These cults helps in constituting moral boundaries, excluding strangers and providing ease access to services, privileges and goods within the group- ‘what is most important about the lineage of ritual analysis is the way it ties in with the central phenomenon of stratification and modern societies (Collins 1994; 214).

In understanding Goffman’s opinion of social interaction, day to day lives of people could be likened to that of a group of actors on stage which each character playing his roles to make the performance complete. The audience within the group consists of individuals observing role play and reacting to specific character performance. The idea behind social interaction in Goffman’s discussion is central to the fact that people mingle and interact in social settings and constantly engaged in a process of impression management- ‘since we all participate in teams, we must all carry within ourselves something of sweet guilt of conspirators’ (Collins & Makowsky 2010; 222). During the process of group formation, each party tries to behave in a way to avoid embarrassing themselves in the presence of others and embarrassing others as well. In this manner, to fit perfectly in a group discussion at campus, I will be part of a group that has similar understanding of the definition of a specific situation, meaning that everyone in the group must understand what is meant to happen in specific situations and what to expect from the rest of the team that is involved.

According to Goffman, there are elements that must be made active for group cohesion to be effective. Performance is the activity if individuals before an audience which gives meaning to the situation of the group. The setting is equally important because it involves the location, the scene and the props for interaction to take place. In presentation of self, Goffman believed that humans place meanings to things in order to understand them. Therefore, when trying to fit in a group, I would ensure that the group has similar interests to my own or living up to the rule of maintaining everyone comfort ability-”thus we are always presenting a self to other people and we control our acts for their effects in expressing what we would like others to think we are like when we are not with them’ (Collins & Makowsky 2010; 224).

Conclusion

Because groups can bind together people and the larger society, learning to know how to form these groups and how to interact with individuals in these groups is necessary. Groups thrive like never before when we choose to understand individual member participation from interaction from rituals, the presentation of self and the Durkheim religion of social groupings. When executed properly, the experience of a successful group with reference to the sociological group foundations of Goffman, Durkheim and Randall cannot be traded with any other experience.

Americans most time proclaim their nation as a sign of freedom compared to the rest of the world and with this notion they dismiss nations such as China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia which have been categorized as non-free countries. Objectively, the part of the debate that America is a free country could be half right because countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Cuba lack fundamental individual rights such as the due process that places these countries far away from the definition of free. However, the United States have a lot of aspects common to these regimes to admit. Unlike the United States, these countries that are far away from being free have purported to have constitutions that guarantee its citizens rights and freedom but there governments instead have a wide discretion hidden in denying citizens these rights and another revenues of acquiring rights that are challenging to its citizens. This is evident in the problem of new laws in non-free countries. However, the United States has so much more in common to these countries from the list of powers acquired by the United States government after the 9/11 attacks that has placed it citizens in a rather troubling concern.

Even with the new laws that cause America not be very free, I believe American citizens still enjoy the freedom. Many people have criticized the United States due to the fact that they are in possession of the most free, leniencies and liberties unlike China and Saudi Arabia. America is really a free country because of its constitution wrote by their forefathers that grants them the freedom. American citizens enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of due process unlike China and Saudi Arabia which are founded on traditional aspects. For instance, in Saudi Arabia everything is performed in Islamic religion and most foreigners have to join their religion in order to be free as much as Saudi Arabia citizens.

Despite America’s short comings, I believe generally, America is a free country. Apart from using word of mouth in declaring the freedom and rights of individuals, America has set aside a portion of its constitution to reinforce what they mean by freedom of religion, speech among others which is envied by the rest of the world. China and Saudi Arabia on the other hand are still rooted in traditional beliefs like disrespect in maintaining eye contact in a one on one conversation.

Women in American are presented with the chance to further their education, go out and be the best they can be, wear what they please, pay their bills, speak out their mind in the presence of their husband and this is the free culture in America. Saudi Arabia for example, women are not free to acquire education as they please, women are not able to own their own cars let alone drive them, and women do not have the freedom to dress as most times they are wrapped in hijabs and cloths that cover the whole body to leave out the eyes only.

In terms of trade and business, America is free regulated and have the ability to do business with anyone without restrictions. The aspect of free trade is what has placed America at the position of the world’s super power compared to countries such as Saudi Arabia and China who have to first approve businesses that are within the limitations of culture. There is a lot of competition in America; healthy competition that drives citizens to cooperate and perform economically. Freedom for America has thus brought the nation together. However, because of the increase in crimes and criminal activities, I believe that freedom should be constrained for security purposes. A considerate restrain should be the close monitoring of business activities and citizens with the use of GPS technology systems.

The discussion on the distinction between personal health and public is confusing and deserves the best attention. A major difference between public health and personal health can be derived from the meaning of both definitions. Public health is defined as the health consequences of a team of individuals with an inclusion of the distribution of such results within the group. Personal health on the other hand can be understood as the health outcomes of an individual person with full attention on the distribution of these outcomes on the same person. Public health appears in a sense of’ do not’ that apply to the whole world. Personal health on the other hand promotes health from an individual encouragement of healthy behavior. Promoting health on public levels must first start with encouraging healthy behavior from an individual level and this is the intersection point for public health and personal health (Arah 2009). At the same time, the health of one person cannot be from an isolated perspective, it has to be developed in a rich context of the socioeconomic situations apart from other health factors with particular reference to where they have been born and raised, what shapes their behaviors and how their communities and local environments are shaped.

With the introduction of Affordable Care Act, the new developments in health and insurance aim at maintaining public health rather than personal health. Because Affordable Care Act aims at providing those who cannot afford insurance to buy new plans or replace old insurances and this means that public health policies will be highly preferred. The tax credits will be limited for those purchasing public policies compared to individual policies which similarly send signals of supporting public health though from individual health concerns (Cox, Claxton and Levitt 2013).

Graphs are pictures that break down documented data into simple images that can be easy to understand. With the use of graphic representation, students are able to have a better and simplified understanding of random data that is simply put in pie charts and bar graphs. Looking at the two pictures, it is easy to understand the bar graph unlike understanding the pie chart. While making a bar graph, it is essential that the author calibrates both sides of the bar graph to make the reader or his audience understand the existing relationship between two variables. Looking at the bar graph, the author has exceptionally revealed the existing relationship between the number of children and the count and it is easier to also see how the count deteriorates with an increase in number of children. On the other, the pie chart lacks clarity of what is being explained. Although with perfect visual representation of portions and colors that should be representing particular variables, there is absence of variables that are being represented by the different portions and colors.

At first glance, personally, the bar graph is easier to understand and interpret the relationship between exhibited data. However, to make the graph look more presentable, I would have used different colors to represent a different group of children making it easier for my audience to view. The pie chart on the other hand has used too much bright colors that might confuse the view of the viewer. Adding to the demand of naming portions on the pie chart, I would also use less bright colors to represent the portions or rather combine shouting colors and dull colors for less eye reflection.

Question 1

The new generation of human resource has introduced a new form of hiring from talent with the overhanging economic swings that have changed the job market for good. The new development in human resource has come with a new phrase of hire for fit and train for skills. In this context, fit can be used to refer to a kind of strategy that expressed a specific degree to which a business matches its resources to the capabilities of an individual though with the external environment in mind Bakker & Demerouti (2014). Fit is important because it takes shape through a strategy that happens to increase the resources of the company. In hiring through fit, it is therefore vital for the company to have actual capabilities and resources to support and execute a fair strategy. The fit strategy is significant for organizations because the strategy is actively used in evaluating the current strategic situation of a business and at the same time evaluates its opportunities such as organizational divisions.  Hiring for fit and training for skills means preferring to hire candidates basing on attitude over aptitude (Albrecht 2013).

This new method of hiring is different from traditional methods of human resource hiring that emphasized on hiring from academic achievement because it focuses on the attitude of employees rather than on academic achievement. When an individual is hired with the right attitude, an organization that practice ‘hiring for fit and training for skills’ then completes the aspect of skills through taking these employees on training to acquire the skills they need to perform. When human resource recruits top talent for the purpose of skills that employers need both at the moment and in the future, they are concentration on fit unlike traditional form of hiring that focused on skills that would not be similar to the needs of the business in the future. A fundamental difference between hiring for fit and hiring for skills is that the latter emphasizes on employees having perfect credentials while the former looks at the aspect of talent (Bersin 2015). Talent has an ability to grow the business in the future while the skills that are essential this year might not be necessary for the same field five years to come.

Question 2

Hiring for skills can be a direct experience that comes in form of a liability rather than an asset. Because employees are already used to previous work environments, obstacles and challenges they fail to become innovate and most times are not willing to take risks in their already built career paths (Bersin 2015). Employees who lack skills understand that their lack of experience needs them to prove themselves fit in all ways across the business thus they have to struggle to maintain or adopt new innovation techniques. The other group of employees with skills and experience might fail to prove them worthy, unable to implement approaches, strategies, methodologies, innovations and ideas thus lowering the power of problem solving and decision making for the organization. In a nutshell, businesses that hire for skill fail because they do not have the right attitude. For example South West Airlines have failed in the operations because they most time send invitations to individuals who dress in suits thinking they are serious individuals only to find they have hired the most ridiculous pilots who would not fit in a fun loving culture that should be maintained at South West Airlines (Smith 2012).