Liquidation Assessment through Strategic Financial Statement Analysis Essay

Liquidation Assessment through Strategic Financial Statement Analysis - Essay Example The present research has identified that the year 2009 witnessed liquidation of 19,077 companies as per the figures of the insolvency service representing an increase of 23% from the year 2008. and out of 19,077, 6,335 companies have been declared insolvent. According to Adam, the figures are 13,434 as voluntary liquidations and 5,643 are compulsory liquidations totaling 19,077 as per the above report. Again in the UK, Red Flag Alert says that more than 140,000 were showing signs of financial distress in q4 2009. The figure is 6 % higher than Q3 2009 but 14 % lesser than the identical period in 2008. The corporate failures seem to unstoppable despite fiscal support by the Government, VAT reductions by 2.5% and the HRMC’s payment support for  £ 4.2 bn covering 242,000 ‘time-to-pay arrangements’. The U.S.based Circuit City, second largest retailer of electronics next to Best Buy went into liquidation of its last retained store after series of one liquidation after another in early 2009 rendering their final tally of 30,000 of employees jobless. One commentator has said that it was a well deserved as a poorly managed company. Needless to say, a recession has been responsible for this state of affairs. Recessions are considered a process of the plumbing of economics that removes the inefficient entities and paves way for reallocation of capital and labor to the most deserving entities. The faster the reallocation, the safer the investments. The three ways in which insolvency is dealt with are the liquidation, rescue, and workout. Liquidation is the process administered by the court for sale of the assets of the insolvent firm in piecemeal. A rescue is again a court intervention for rehabilitation, reorganization or restructuring of the insolvent firm with the objective of preventing its liquidation. A workout is an informal process where a court has no role and the creditors either reschedule their debts or allow settlement of debts at a disco unt.

Explain and discuss real property concepts Essay

Explain and discuss real property concepts - Essay Example This paper examines the real property concepts with regard to ownership, rights acquisition, disposal and transfer. The main difference between land and chattels is that land is immobile while chattels are built or placed on land. The ownership of property, real or personal, is determined by a court of law and arises where a person wants right to them. One can obtain rights that are enforceable by a court of law called the title on property based on the rules within a particular jurisdiction. The right to use varies from possession to usage and disposal of property. A person is granted rights upon the possession of a product and this is not different in the case of real estate. The law dictates that a person in possession of land can take legal action against another found trespassing on such property (Miller, 2012). This is brought out as a caution and to avoid cases of disorder. The person interfering with such property therefore needs to demonstrate superior right for the court to accede to such interference. The legal position for the transfer of property is by sale or as a gift. This is from the previous owned consensually to the potential owner and that also means a transfer of title. A will may be used in this case as it allows the distribution of the wealth of the deceased. In the case of a conflict of interest as witnessed in many real estate cases, the courts are called upon to rank the cases and subsequently resolve the conflict (Miller, 2012). These differences mainly arise due to inconsistencies and conflicts nor interest where the owner of the property transfers the valid title to another who is not vetted. These conflicts may also arise from fraudulent operations or mistakes. The identification of real property follows a verifiable and legal description of such property. The law provides that such description should make use of natural and manmade

Leadership and performance Literature review

Leadership and performance Literature review An overview of the topic of leadership styles summarizes that the existing studies on how performance is affected by leadership style is separated into important phases. Early studies on leadership (frequently categorized as trait studies on leadership) concentrated on identifying the personality traits which characterized successful leaders (Argyris, 1955; Mahoney et al., 1960). According to them successful leaders are naturally born and those they have certain native characteristics which distinguish them from non-leaders (see Stodgill, 1948). However, there was significant difficulty in validating these characteristics led to widespread criticism of this trait approach, signaling the emergence of style and behavioral approaches to leadership (Stodgill, 1948). Style and behavioral theorists shifted the emphasis away from the characteristics of the leader to the behavior and style the leader adopted (Hemphill and Coons, 1957; Likert, 1961). The primry conclusion of these studies is that adoption of democratic or participative styles by leaders are more successful (see, for example, Bowsers and Seashore, 1966). In this sense, these early studies are focused on identifying the one best way of leading. Similarly to trait theories, the major weakness of style and behavioral theories is the ignorance of how important role situational factors play in determining the effectiveness of individual leaders (Mullins, 1999). It is this limitation that gives rise to the situational and contingency theories of leadership (for example, Fiedler, 1967; House, 1971; Vroom and Yetton, 1974) which shift the emphasis away from the one best way to lead to context-sensitive leadership. Although each study emphasizes the importance of different factors, the general tenet of the situational and contingency perspectives is that leadership effectiveness is dependent on the leaders diagnosis and understanding of situational factors, followed by the adoption of the appropriate style to deal with each circumstance. However, recent studies on leadership have contrasted transactional leadership with transformational. Transactional leaders are said to be instrumental and frequently focus on exchange relationship with their subordinates (Bass and Avolio, 1993). In contrast, transformational leaders are argued to be visionary and enthusiastic, with an inherent ability to motivate subordinates (Bycio et al., 1995; Howell and Avolio, 1993). Although the brief summary above indicates that research into leadership has gone through periods of skepticism, recent interest has focused on the importance of the leadership role to the success of organizations. Fiedler (1996), one of the most respected researchers on leadership, has provided a recent treatise on the importance of leadership by arguing that the effectiveness of a leader is a major determinant of the success or failure of a group, organization or even an entire country. Indeed, it has been argued that one way in which organizations have sought to cope with the increasing volatility and turbulence of the external environment is by training and developing leaders and equipping them with the skills to cope (Darcy and Kleiner, 1991; Hennessey, 1998; Saari et al., 1988). These claims are based on the assumption of a direct link between leadership and organizational performance. This assumption requires critical review. Widely celebrated cases of a direct leadership-performance link may be found in numerous anecdotal accounts of improvements of company performance attributed to changes in leadership (see, for example, Nicholls, 1988; Quick, 1992; Simms, 1997). However, empirical studies into the links between leadership and performance have been lacking. One notable exception is the detailed study of the impact of leadership on performance in the somewhat surprising context of Icelandic fishing ships. Thorlindsson (1987) suggests that variations in the performance of different fishing ships, under identical conditions, can be accounted for by the leadership skills of captains. Over a three-year period, Thorlindsson (1987) revealed that the leadership qualities of the ship captains accounted for 35 to 49 per cent of variation in the catch of different crews. Other studies which examine the links between leadership and performance coincide with the re-emergence of the one best way to lead debate. Of particular relevance is the resurgence of interest into charismatic leadership, which is frequently referred to as transformational leadership (Bass and Avolio, 1993). A number of researchers theorize that transformational leadership is linked to organizational performance (see, for example, Bycio et al., 1995; Howell and Avolio, 1993). Conceptually, it is argued that the visionary and inspirational skills of transformational leaders motivate followers to deliver superior performance (Nicholls, 1988; Quick, 1992). In summary, much of the above evidence presented as supporting the claim of a leadership-performance link is anecdotal and frequently over-concentrates on the transformational role of leaders in corporate successes (for example, Quick, 1992; Simms, 1997; Taffinder, 1995). It would appear that few studies have responded to the observation of Porter and Mckibbin (1988) that much of the research reported as supporting this claim is either inconclusive or empirically suspect. The limited or inconclusive character of research findings in this area suggests the need to investigate further the nature of the relationship between leadership and performance. LEADERSHIP TYPOLOGIES Several different categories of leadership paradigms have been suggested by various researchers. For example, Bass (1985) stated that there are four dimensions of transformational leadership, three dimensions of transactional leadership, and a non-leadership dimension of laissez-faire leadership (Bass, 1985). Avery (2004) suggested categorizing leadership into four leadership paradigms, while Goleman (1995) prefers six leadership paradigms  [1]  . Despite Basss (1985) model being acclaimed as making a major contribution to leadership, his theory has been criticized for various reasons (Yukl, 1999). One criticism is that his model overemphasizes the importance of one or two leadership paradigms (e.g. transactional and visionary), omitting the classical and organic paradigms Bass asserts that visionary (transformational) leaders are nearly always more effective than transactional leaders, but others (e.g. Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Wallace, 1997) dispute this. While this in itself does not invalidate the concept of visionary leadership, Bass attributes more to visionary (transformational) leadership than perhaps he should. As Avery (2004) suggested, both transactional and visionary leadership are valid forms of leadership, but visionary leadership may be applicable more broadly, including in situations where there are insufficient resources for the manager to rely on supplying external rewards (Judge and Piccolo, 2004), or where t he situation is complex and ambiguous, and relies strongly on follower knowledge and commitment. Avery suggests that there are other situations in which transactional leadership is the appropriate form of leadership, such as when followers are unwilling or unable to commit to the leaders vision. In contrast with Basss (1985) model, Averys (2004) paradigms provide a broad basis allowing for different forms of leadership that have evolved at different times and in different places. The paradigms are useful for showing that there is no single best way of thinking about leadership, rather that different kinds of leadership reflect social and historical roots. Averys paradigms allow leadership to depend on the context, respond to organizational needs and preferences, and involve many interdependent factors that can be manipulated (Bryman, 1992; Shamir and Howell, 1999; Yukl, 1999). LEADERSHIP PARADIGMS AND MEASURES Avery (2004) proposes 13 indices to differentiate between her four paradigms: classical, transactional, visionary, and organic. The nine indices included in this review are decision making, range of staffs power, power distance between leader and the staff, key player of the organization, source of staffs commitment, staffs responsibility, situation of management and leadership in the organization, situation of diversity in the organization and situation of control in the organization  [2]  . These nine criteria are considered more relevant for differentiating the four leadership paradigms than the other four criteria. Each paradigm is discussed in turn, including the distinguishing characteristics using the above nine criteria. Classical leadership is probably the oldest paradigm with its origins in antiquity, and is still used in contemporary organizations (Avery, 2004). This paradigm reflected the prevailing view in the business literature until the 1970s when the human relations movement led to more of a focus on followers and their environment. According to Avery (2004), classical leadership refers to dominance by a pre-eminent person or an elite group of people. This leadership can either be coercive or benevolent or a mixture of both. This happens because the elite individual or group commands or maneuvers other members to act towards a goal, which may or may not be explicitly stated. The other members of the society or organization typically adhere to the directives of the elite leader, do not openly question their directives, and execute orders largely out of fear of the consequences of not doing so, or out of respect for the leader, or both (Avery, 2004). Classical leadership has some limitations. The first occurs where the leader cannot command and control every action, particularly as situations become more complex and beyond the capacity of one person; or when additional commitment from followers is needed to get a job done, such as in reacting to changing circumstances; or when ideas about leadership change and followers no longer accept domination, or follower commitment starts to wane for other reasons. Another limitation is that this paradigm often relies on the idea of a great person, implying that only a select few are good enough to exercise initiative, and this belief can encourage followers to deskill themselves and idealize the leaders. Followers then seek and hold little power, leave the leader accountable for organizational outcomes, and make relatively little contribution to the organization (Avery, 2004). According to the nine distinguishing indicators, under the classical leadership paradigm leaders normally use an autocratic style for making decisions, invo lving followers in the decision making process never or very little; they do not empower followers. Followers have almost no power in the organization and as classical leaders tend to be highly directive, followers can be unskilled. The source of followers commitment comes from their fear of or respect for the leaders; the technical system becomes more regulating; the operations in the organization become more routine and predictable; and the organization is highly controlled by the leaders (Avery, 2004). A transaction or exchange process is the basis of the commonly employed transactional leadership paradigm (Evans and Dermer, 1974; House and Mitchell, 1974). The transactional leader recognizes subordinates needs and desires, and then clarifies how those needs and desires will be met in exchange for subordinates work. By clarifying what is required of subordinates and the consequences of their behaviors, transactional leaders are able to build confidence in subordinates to exert the necessary effort to achieve expected levels of performance. According to Judge and Piccolo (2004), three dimensions of transactional leadership are contingent reward, management by exception-active, and management by exception-passive. Contingent reward is the degree to which the leader sets up constructive transactions or exchanges with followers. The leader clarifies expectations and establishes the rewards for meeting these expectations. In general, management by exception is the degree to which the le ader takes corrective action on the basis of results of leader-follower transactions (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). As noted by Howell and Avolio (1993), the difference between management by exception-active and management by exception-passive lies in the timing of the leaders intervention. Active leaders monitor follower behavior, anticipate problems, and take corrective actions before the behavior creates serious difficulties. Passive leaders wait until the behavior has created problems before taking action (Howell and Avolio, 1993; Judge and Piccolo, 2004). According to Avery (2004, p.34), under the transactional leadership paradigm, leaders adopt a consultative style for making decisions. They engage in different degrees of consultation with individual followers, but the leaders remain the final decision-makers. Leaders do not very often empower followers, and followers have very low power in the organization apart from being able to withdraw from or contribute more of their labor. Compared with classical leadership, under transactional leadership the source of followers commitment comes from the rewards, agreements, and expectations negotiated with the leader rather than from their fear of, or respect for, the classical leader. The technical system becomes more regulating, the operations in the organization become more routine and predictable, and the organization is mostly highly controlled by the leaders. Avery (2004) argues that under transactional leadership, the followers knowledge base can be somewhat higher than under classical leadership. Compared with classical leaders, transactional leaders require staff somewhat more skilled on specific tasks. In the last three decades, visionary (transformational, charismatic) leadership has received increasing attention (Bass, 1985, 1998; Burns, 1978; Conger and Kanungo, 1987; House, 1977). It added a new dimension to organizational studies, namely the visionary aspect of leadership and the emotional involvement of employees within an organization. The basic notion is that a visionary leader can create an impression that he or she has high competence and a vision to achieve success. Subordinates are expected to respond with enthusiasm and commitment to the leadership objectives, and may be recruited because they share the vision. Bass (1985, 1998) developed a theory of visionary or transformational leadership whereby the leader inspires and activates subordinates to perform beyond normal expectations. According to Avery (2004), visionary leadership has limitations, even with the current literatures overwhelmingly positive view of it. Nadler and Tuschman (1990) pointed out that the unreal istic expectations followers often place on visionary leaders can create disappointment if things do not work out. Followers can become dependent on visionary leaders, believing that the leader has everything under control. Also, innovation can be inhibited if people become reluctant to disagree with a visionary leader. Avery (2004, p.39) distinguishes the visionary leadership paradigm from the other three paradigms as follows. First, leaders employ a collaborative style for making decisions. They share problems with their followers and seek consensus before the leaders make the final decision. Visionary leaders empower their followers, giving followers a much higher level of power in the organization than classical and transactional leadership. This is essential because the leader needs the followers input and commitment to realize his or her goals. Followers of visionary leadership need sufficient power to work autonomously towards a shared vision. The source of followers commitme nt comes from the influence of the leaders charisma and/or the shared vision, the technical system becomes still more complex, operations become more uncertain and unpredictable, and the organization is jointly controlled by the leaders and their followers. Regarding the followers knowledge base, visionary leadership requires skilled and knowledgeable workers who are attracted to, and share the leaders vision, and can contribute to realizing the vision. The fourth paradigm, organic leadership, is relatively new to organizational studies. Recently introduced by Drath (2001) and expanded by Avery (2004), organic leadership is likely to blur the formal distinction between leaders and followers. This paradigm relies on reciprocal actions, where team members work together in whatever roles of authority and power they may have, not based on position power (Hirschhorn, 1997; Raelin, 2003; Rothschild and Whitt, 1986). Employees become interacting partners in determining what makes sense, how to adapt to change, and what is a useful direction. Rather than relying on one leader, organic organizations are likely to have many leaders. Multiple leaders are valuable because as people cope with heterogeneous and dynamic environments, the knowledge and issues become too complicated for only a few leaders to understand (Avery, 2004). Organic leadership allows for people with different degrees of expertise on current issues to emerge and be accepted by the group as leaders. In addition, under organic leadership, there may be no formal leaders and the interaction of all organizational members can act as a form of leadership, held together by a shared vision, values, and a supporting culture. Under this paradigm where an organization has no formal leadership structure, an integrator role may emerge to actively link together the many parts of the organization (Avery, 2004). The emphasis is on emerging leadership rather than on people being appointed to leadership positions. However, Kanter (1989) argued that the downside of organic leadership that advocates autonomy, freedom, discretion and authorization may result in loss of control and greatly increased uncertainty. It is important to recognize that organic leadership is about generating a form of self-control and self-organization, where people have a clear sense of purpose and autonomy within a particular context (Meindl, 1998). This idealized organic leadership paradigm requi res differentiating from classical, transactional, and visionary leadership concepts by not relying on formal leaders. Furthermore, the enterprise has to trust in the capacity of its members to solve problems and make decisions in the interests of the organization. This idea clearly relies upon self-leading organizational members (Avery, 2004). According to Averys (2004, p. 39) distinguishing characteristics, under organic leadership an organization adopts a mutual agreement style for making decisions. Decisions need not be unanimous but can be based on consensus. The members have a high degree of power as a result of this shared leadership. Accountability and responsibility are shared as well. The source of followers commitment is based on the values and visions shared by all the members in the organization; a strong, shared culture; a technical system that is highly complex; operations in the organic organization become more self-organizing and unpredictable; formal control is pro vided by peer pressure and group dynamics, and a shared culture, vision, and values. Members are self-managing. Organic leadership seems particularly appropriate for professional and knowledge workers in dynamic, chaotic situations. This leadership paradigm relies on attracting and retaining highly trained and knowledgeable staff with self-controlling capabilities

Friendship Essay: My Best Friends Funeral -- friendship essay, my best

I never thought that I would ever had to attend to a funeral of a close friend. Aaron Smith was only 18 years old and passed away from a tragic automobile accident. He was always a really happy guy and had the biggest smile there could ever be, his smile would make anyone get cheered up. He was about 5 foot 9 inches, light brown skin, and he had a thick body, and black hair. Aaron would always help out a friend in need, even though he had trouble with his divorced parents he wouldn’t let that get him down. His mother and sisters live in Stockton, California and his father lives in Royal City, Washington so Aaron would always be traveling from California to Washington state. That made it hard on him trying to be with both families, but his favorite place to reside was Royal City because he had all of us as friends we gave him all the love that he needed to be comfortable living without his mom and sisters. So this is were the story begins. I remember November 13, 2006 like it were yesterday I was very excited because we had just moved in to a new house it wasn‘t in Royal city but it was only 30 minutes away. Our new house had three bed rooms, three bathrooms, two living rooms, and the best part of all a big swimming pool with a slide and a diving board! It was one of the most exciting days of my life, even tough we had tons of boxes to un pack it was all good. My bedroom was outside of the actual house it was the guest room but I claimed it as my room it was perfect. That day I was with my boyfriend who was also very close to Aaron, we were watching a scary movie and it was about 8Pm and Ray (my boyfriend) had a really weird feeling like he had to leave back to Royal as soon as possible ... ...ood-bye. We were all just hanging out in the room until it was all over. From Moses Lake Aaron had a last trip he was going to be buried in California we all knew that Aaron would have rather be in Royal City but his mom thought otherwise. To some up this awful story we finally left the funeral house, and everyone left back to Royal City. To all of us it was a nightmare come true to lose a close friend but now that I think about it he is in a better place not having to decide between mom or dad, California or Washington. This funeral was the worst thing that could happen to me, I lost a good friend and I would never get to see him again. When I think about him now days I look at it like if he were in California and that I will see him eventually. I dream about him once in a while and I know he’s dead but in my dream it makes me happy to see him and talk to him.

Movie Tsotsi Role in Society Essay

In the beginning of the movie Tsotsi role in society is the gangster. Him and his gang lurk around the urban area of South Africa looking for people to mug. In this movie you can see how his sub-culture has a effect on him also the conflict theory by Karl Marx and Web DuBois comes to play. The conflict theory states that Conflict is a part of our progression. It actually causes the change. The with the main character in this movie is a young man who plays the role of a gangster hiding the fact of his traumatic experience at a young age, when his abusive father killed his mother and kicked the family’s dog. This experience changes him and makes him more of a harsh person. Later on him the movie Tsotsi commits a robbery for a woman’s Mercedes-Benz he takes the lady out of her car and shoots her then takes off with the car. What he didn’t expect was the lady had her baby in the back seat of the car. When he realizes the baby in the back seat of the car he follows a woman with child home and forces her at gunpoint to feed the child. This might sound like a very hostile act to some but why would a â€Å"gangster† put a gun to a woman to feed a child that is not his. This shows a change in his way of thinking because now he is thinking of another life other than his. Then he goes back to the house where the baby lives with his gang as an attempt of robbery but in actuality he is going to get the babies bag from his room. Now he goes back to the lady for the lady that he put at gunpoint to feed the child for another feeding and she realizes that the baby is stolen and tells him to give the baby back he already took the woman’s legs at least give her back her child and he listens. Now you can see how the conflict theory comes to play he changes from a gangster to a father of a stolen baby now he’s listen to a woman he hardly even knows to do what’s right for that child’s life. He leaves is counterculture (gang) and does the right thing knowing that he will be going to jail for kidnapping, car theft and attempted murder.

Xsu Spring Concert

Case 2 – XSU Spring Concert. Risk Identification Firstly, we can state that, as with most projects, there are several risks that occur when it comes to the execution of this spring concert. To make the risks more easily viewable, it is preferable to divide the risks into different sections and via that use the Risk Breakdown Structure, (RBS). (p. 214) There are four general categories that the risks are divided into: Technical, External, Organizational and Project Management. These risks are divided into more specific subcategories, which all of them can make or break the project.First of all the XSU entertainment committee has to get permissions and approvals from the city and XSU to be able to go through with the concert. There will be requirements that needs following during the concert as well. Regarding the technical category, some main risks are that the electricity and the sound system will be functioning, the constructing of the stage will go as planned and that there will be enough space for restroom facilities for 10 000 visitors and parking lots for 1000 cars. The stage-building depends on capable work force with required skills.There might be security issues by the stage or in the secluded beer-garden, which might arise if it gets too crowded and that would be disastrous as Hasta Weekend has a history of fatalities. When it comes to the external risk category there are some factors that the committee really can’t affect, for example the weather can make this outdoor concert a hit or a disaster. There are a lot of sub-contractors involved, as well as vendors and artist. This demands many contracts, which can turn out wrong, and communication issues can emerge.If the committee can’t sign a big artist to this eight-hour concert, there might be a huge loss of money, as there won’t be enough visitors, and result in a bad reputation. That might also be a reaction to the event of not finding sufficient sponsors or suppliers. The risk of shortage of funds will impede the startup of the whole project, therefore the gathering of funds and signing of sponsors has high priority. The project team needs to organize and dispense necessary workforce to find vendors, artist, sponsors etcetera and by that minimize the risk.The project has an upper-limit regarding the expenses, which is $ 50,000. Exceeding this limit is a risk per se and would definitely hurt the project. Furthermore, the risks of not being finished with certain milestones by the appointed deadlines can cause rescheduling and excess costs. To keep the deadlines good communication and coordination is essential in this project management. Mistakes in the planning can easily be solved by good communication and coordination throughout the whole organization. Consequently, the risk of bad communication, bad control and bad coordination can affect the project negatively.To conclude, the main risks that we have identified and have highlighted in our analysis are city permissions, technical necessities, funding, coordination, communication and the weather. 3. Risk Response Development – to develop actions to reduce the risks’ damages by developing a strategy and emergency plan. Risk Response Development The risk response developments purpose is to reduce risks’ damage through the development of action strategies and an emergency plan. Different responses to the risks are identified and assessed.This can take the form of a risk response matrix and a project communication plan. With the risks identified the committee can transfer the technical risk for example via outsourcing of the stage construction. Furthermore, the technical risks can be reduced by testing the materials before the concert. By adding more artists to a back up list, the risk of lack of artists will be eased and the impact of the risk decreased. The risk of shortage of funds can be mitigated by having better forward planning and more detailed contrac ts with the sponsors.The sponsors might be keener on the project if they are given more freedom with the choice of spots at the concert and so forth. By being in time with the applying of approvals from the city the risk can be mitigated. Regarding the weather, it can’t be affected, but precautions can be taken by covering the stage, beer garden and some certain areas. To keep deadlines, the committee can use time buffers and to keep the budget, a management reserve can be set up.