Estimating Risk and Return

1. â€Å"Why is expected return considered forward-looking? What are the challenges for practitioners to utilize expected return? † (Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger, 2012, p. 246). Expected return is â€Å"forward-looking† in the sense that it represents the return investors expect to receive in the future as compensation for the market risk taken. The challenge is that practitioners cannot precisely know what the future holds and thus what the expected return should be. Thus, we create methods to estimate the expected return. 2. Describe how different allocations between the risk-free security and the market portfolio can achieve any level of market risk desired. † (Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger, 2012, p. 246). An investor can allocate money between a risk-free security that has zero risk (? =0), and the market portfolio that has market risk (? =1). If 75% of the portfolio is invested in the market, then the portfolio will have a ? =0. 75. If only 25% is invested i n the market, then the portfolio will have a market risk of ? =0. 25. The first example (? =0. 75) might be taken by a less risk averse investor while the second example (? 0. 25) illustrates the portfolio of a more risk averse investor. By allocating the investment money between 0 and 100% into the market portfolio, an investor can achieve any level of market risk desired. 3. â€Å"Compute the expected return given these three economic states, their likelihoods, and the potential returns:† Economic StateProbabilityReturn Fast Growth0. 3040% Slow Growth0. 5010% Recession0. 20? 25% Expected return = 0. 3? 40% + 0. 5? 10% + 0. 2? -25% = 12% 4. â€Å"If the risk-free rate is 6 percent and the risk premium is 5 percent, what is the required return? † (Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger, 2012, p. 47). Required return = 6% + 5% = 11% 5. â€Å"The average annual return on the Standard and Poor's 500 Index from 1986 to 1995 was 15. 8 percent. The average annual T-bill yield during the same period was 5. 6 percent. What was the market risk premium during these 10 years? † (Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger, 2012, p. 247). Average market risk premium = 15. 8% ? 5. 6% = 10. 2% 6. â€Å"Hastings Entertainment has a beta of 0. 24. If the market return is expected to be 11 percent and the risk-free rate is 4 percent, what is Hastings' required return? † (Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger, 2012, p. 247).Use the capital asset pricing model to calculate Hastings' required return. Hastings’ required return = 4% + 0. 24 ? (11% ? 4%) = 5. 68% 7. Calculate the beta of your portfolio, which comprises the following items: (a) Olympic Steel stock, which has a beta of 2. 9 and comprises 25 percent of your portfolio, (b) Rent-a-Center stock, which has a beta of 1. 5 and comprises 35 percent of your portfolio, and (c) Lincoln Electric stock, which has a beta of 0. 2 and comprises 40 percent of your portfolio. (Adapted from Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger, p. 248. ) 0 . 25? 2. 9 + 0. 35? 1. 5 + 0. 40? 0. 2 = 1. 33

Just the Unjust for Martin Luther King Jr.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was detained for having organized peaceful protests for the Negro community in Birmingham, he felt compelled to write the white clergymen who criticized the protesters instead of defending them from the immorality of segregation.   His letter accused the white clergy of not only ignoring the moral laws of God but also enacting against it because of their own prejudicial principles.   He explained the difference of just and unjust laws to show that he was merely giving his highest accordance to what is morally right. First, he said that any law that degrades human personality is just but one that degrades human personality is unjust. Western civilization created laws to put order and respect to humanity.   However, segregation, according to King, distorts the soul and damages the human character because it gives the white people a false sense of superiority to degrade the dignity of Negroes. He argues that segregation makes whites treat blacks as objects instead of considering them as people with feelings and rights like their own. Considering other people as inferior and not worthy of having the voice to speak out their needs is immoral because Christians are supposed to treat each other as brothers and not objects. In today’s American society, the woman’s right to abort her baby, I believe, is also a law that degrades the human personality.   Although women are given property over their bodies and have the right to protect their lives from problems, this does not mean that they can degrade another person – the fetus inside of them. Like the blacks that King was defending, babies have yet to find their voice in society.   It is even more inhumane to kill these babies because doing so murders the right they could have had to give their own opinion someday. Another clarification made by King on the subject of just and unjust laws refers to the implementation of a majority group’s rules over a minority.   King believes that is unfair if a majority group forces a minority to obey but does not make the rules binding on itself. Western, specifically American laws, provided that each man must have the right to vote. However, during his time, blacks were not considered as part of the American society with legal rights and therefore had no privilege to elect nor implement and revise the legal system. King believes that this is totally wrong because the laws that were being executed stepped on the human dignity and rights of the Negroes.   What the whites wanted, they got – even if it was hurtful to the lives of colored people. The law protected the white people but did not take the plight of the blacks in consideration. This still happens in America today, although it does not necessarily just encompass the Negro community.   After the fatal attack on the World Trade Center, the Bush administration has decided to go full force against terrorism without enough consideration for the human rights of the Iraqi people. The American military operations in Iraq have caused grievous insults to the dignity of the Iraqi civilians and even death.   Being the democratic majority globally, the American government has led other nations to invade another country and decided to impose its presence to â€Å"prevent† terrorism.   However, the cultural identity and traditional beliefs of the Iraqi people have been ignored greatly which I feel is very unjust. King also pointed out that sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. He cited that the clergy and government were one-sided in enacting the First Amendment especially when it came to the parades and peaceful assemblies King’s organization was organizing.   He reminds the readers that all citizens must have the right to freedom of expression even if it means going against the government’s policies. He believed that legally binding laws do not always protect what is morally right.   He also mentioned that Hitler did everything legally but the results were terribly wrong and unjust to the Jews. Laws, like most things, have advantages and disadvantages. Great care and analysis must be taken to understand what can be appropriately done for the gray areas.   American immigration laws, for example, can also be hurtful in its application if simply implemented without enough thought. U.S. deportation policies have become hurtful to many illegal immigrants who have lost their rights because they were not given enough consideration. There are many illegal immigrants who desired that better democratic life that Americans have.   Many of these do not know how to speak English well and are victims of wrong criminal accusations causing their deportment. Many of these were not able to defend themselves properly and have had to carry the burden of being separated from their children who were already born in the U.S. King’s Birmingham letter addresses the clouded and prejudiced vision of the white clergy but his clarifications on the justice of laws are classical principles that should guide every good citizen who wishes to follow any legal system.   In truth, laws are structures that help keep peace and order but one must consider everything from the view point of what is morally right and wrong.   Laws are merely man-made but the rule of God and nature should always be everyone’s primary guide.   

Harding Plastic Molding Company

On January 11, 1975, the finance committee of Harding Plastic Molding Company (HPMC) met to consider eight capital budgeting projects. Present at the meeting were Robert L. Harding, President and founder, Susan Jorgensen, comptroller, and Chris Woelk, head of research & development. Over the past five years this committee has met every month to consider and make final judgment on all proposed capital outlays brought up for review during the period. Harding Plastic Molding Company was founded in 1954 by Robert L. Harding to produce plastic parts and molding for the Detroit automakers.For the first 10 years of operations, HPMC worked solely as a subcontractor for the automakers, but since then has made strong efforts to diversify in an attempt to avoid the cyclical problems faced by the auto industry. By 1970 this diversification attempt had led HPMC into the production of over 1000 different items, including kitchen utensils, camera housings, phonographic and recording equipment. It a lso led to an increase in sales of 500 percent during 1964 to 1974 prod. As this dramatic increase in sales was paralleled by a corresponding increase in production volume, HPMC was forced, in late 1973, to expand production facilities.This plant and equipment expansion involved capital expenditure of approximately Rs. 10. 5 million and resulted in an increase of production capacity of about 40 percent. Because of this increased production capacity, HPMC has made a concerted effort to attract new business, and consequently, has recently entered into contracts with a large toy firm and a major discount department store chain. While non-automotive related business has grown significantly, it still only represents 32 percent of HPMC’s overall business.Thus, HPMC has continued to solicit non-automotive business, and as a result of this effort and its internal research and development, the firm has four sets of mutually exclusive projects to consider at this month’s finance committee meeting. Over the past 10 years, HPMC’s capital budgeting approach has evolved into a somewhat elaborate procedure in which new proposals are categorized into three areas – profit, research and development and safety. Projects falling into the profit or research and development area are evaluated by using present value techniques.Assuming a 10% opportunity cost, those falling into the safety classification are evaluated in a more subjective framework. Although research and development projects have to receive favorable results from the present value criteria, there is also a total dollar limit assigned to projects of this category, typically running about Rs. 750,000 per year. This limitation was imposed by Harding primarily because of the limited availability of quality researchers in the plastics industry. Harding felt that if more funds than this were allocated, â€Å"We simply couldn’t find the manpower to administer them properly†.The bene fits derived from safety projects, on the other hand, are not in terms of cash flows; hence, present value methods are not used at all in the evaluation. The subjective approach used to evaluate safety projects is a result of the pragmatically difficult task of quantifying the benefits from these projects into dollar terms. Thus, these projects are subjectively evaluated by a management worker committee with a limited budget. All eight projects to be evaluated in January are classified as profit projects. The first set of projects listed on the meeting’s agenda for examination involves the utilization of HPMC’s precision equipment.Project A calls for the production of vacuum containers for thermos bottles produced for large discount hardware chain. The containers would be manufactured in five different size and colour combination. This project would be carried out over a three-year period, for the sales. Project B involves the manufacture of inexpensive photographic eq uipment for a national photography outlet. Although HPMC currently has excess plant capacity, both of these projects would utilize precision equipment of which the excess capacity is limited.Thus adopting either project would tie up all precision facilities. In addition, the purchase of new equipment would be both prohibitively expensive and involve a time delay of approximately two years. Thus making these projects mutually exclusive. (The cash flows associated with these two projects are given in exhibit-1) Exhibit 1: CASH FLOWS |Year |Project-A |Project-B | |0 |-75,000 |-75,000 | |1 |10,000 |43,000 | |2 |30,000 |43,000 | |3 |100,000 |43,000 | |Year |Project-C |Project-D | |0 | -8,000 |-20,000 | |1 |11,000 | 25,000 | Exhibit 2: Cash FlowsThe second set of projects involves renting, computer facilities, over a one-year period to aid in customer billing and perhaps inventory control. Project C entails the evaluation of a customer billing system proposed by Advanced Computer Corporat ion. Under this system, all of the bookkeeping and billing presently being done by HPMC’s accounting dept. would now be done by Advanced. In addition to saving cost involved in book keeping, Advanced would provide a more efficient billing system and do a credit analysis of delinquent customers, which would be used in the future for in-depth credit analysis.Project D is proposed by International Computer Corporation and includes a billing system similar to that offered by Advanced, and, in addition, an inventory control system that will keep track of all raw materials and parts in stock and reorder when necessary, thereby reducing the likelihood of material stock outs, which has become more and more frequent over the past three years. (The cash flows for these projects are given in exhibit-2).Exhibit 3: Cash Flows |Year |Projects-E |Project-F | |0 |-30,000 |-271,500 | |1 |210,000 |100,000 | |2 | |100,000 | |3 | |100,000 | |4 | |100,000 | |5 | |100,000 | |6 | |100,000 | |7 | |1 00,000 | 8 | |100,000 | |9 | |100,000 | |10 | |100,000 | The third decision that faces the financial directors of HPMC involves a newly developed and patented process for molding hard plastics. HPMC can either manufacture or market the equipment necessary to mold such plastics or they can sell the patent rights to Polyplastics Incorporated, the world’s largest producers of plastic products. (The cash flows for project E and F are shown in exhibit-3). At present, the process has not been fully tested, and if HPMC is going to market it itself, it will be necessary to compute this testing and begin production of plant facilities immediately.On the other hand, selling these patent rights to Polyplastics would involve only minor testing and refinements, which could be completed within the year. Thus, a decision on the proper course of action is needed immediately. The final set of projects up for consideration revolved around replacement of some of the machinery. HPMC can go in on e of the two directions. Project G suggests the purchase and installation of moderately priced, extremely efficient equipment with an expected life of 5 years; project H advocates the purchase of a similarly priced, although less efficient machine with life expectancy of 10 years.The cash flows for these alternatives are shown in exhibit-4) As the meeting opened, debate immediately centered on the most appropriate method for evaluating all of the projects. Harding suggested that since the projects to be considered were mutually exclusive, perhaps their usual capital budgeting criteria of net present value was inappropriate. He felt that, in examining these projects, perhaps they should be more concerned with relative profitability of some measure of yield.Both Jorgensen and Woelk agreed with Harding’s point of view, with Jorgensen advocating a profitability index approach and Woelk preferring the use of the profitability index would provide a benefit-cost ratio, directly impl ying relative profitability. Thus, they merely need to rank these projects and select those with the highest profitability index. Woelk agreed with Jorgensen’s point of view but suggested that the calculation of an internal rate of return would also give a measure of profitability and perhaps be somewhat easier to interpret.To settle the issue Harding stated that the NPV, PI and IRR approaches would necessarily yield the same ranking order. EXHIBIT-4: Cash Flows |Year |Project-G |Project-H | |0 |-500,000 |-500,000 | |1 |225,000 |150,000 | |2 |225,000 |150,000 | |3 |225,000 |150,000 | |4 |225,000 |150,000 | |5 |225,000 |150,000 | |6 | |150,000 | |7 | |150,000 | |8 | |150,000 | |9 | |150,000 | |10 | |150,000 | From here the discussion turned to an appropriate approach to the problem of differing lives among mutually exclusive projects E and F and projects G and H.Woelk argued that there really was not a problem here at all, that as all of the cash flows from these projects can be determined, any of the discounted cash flows methods of capital budgeting will work well, Jorgensen, on the other hand, argued that although this was true, she felt that some compensation should be made for the fact that the projects being considered did not have equal lives. HARDING PLASTIC MOLDING COMPANY QUESTIONS 1) Was Harding correct in stating that the NPV, PI and IRR necessarily will yield the same ranking order? Under what situations might the NPV, PI, and IRR methods provide different rankings? Why is it possible? ) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects A and B? What has caused the ranking conflicts?Should project A or B be chosen? Might your answer change if project B is a typical project in the plastic molding industry? For example, if projects for HPMC generally yield approximately 12 percent is it logical to assume that he IRR for project is of approximately 33 percent is a correct calculation for ranking purposes? (Hint: Examine the reinvestment assumption rate ) 3) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects C and D? Should projects C or D be chosen? Does your answer change if these projects are considered under a capital constraint?What return on the marginal Rs. 12,000 not used in project C is necessary to make one indifferent between these projects under a capital rationing situation? 4) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects E and F? Are these projects comparable even though they have unequal lives? Why? Which project should be chosen? Assume these projects are not considered under a capital constraint. 5) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects G and H? Are these projects comparable even though they have unequal lives? Which project should b e chosen? Assume that these projects are not considered under a capital constraint.

Research Methods Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Methods - Research Proposal Example The purpose of the study will be to assess the effects and causes of employee tenure about businesses within the United States. The independent variables within this study are longevity and motivation. The blocking variable will include the subject’s age gender. The extraneous variable within this study will be the type of employment. Finally, the dependent variable will be businesses in the United States of America. The causes and effects of employee longevity affect business within the United States positively. Evaluation of the selected hypothesis will begin with identifying a null hypothesis thereafter; will be formulating an alternative hypothesis. Later on, it will be specifying the significance level. Afterwards, I will perform a comparison analysis with the aim of establishing test scores. The final stage will be the conclusion whereby, I will either reject or accept the null hypothesis. The independent factor in this case will be employee longevity while the dependent variable will be business within the United States of America. The design in use will be a true experiment design. Reason being, it is the only research method, which can evaluate the effect and cause relationship. In order, to enable efficient use the real experiment design, I will begin by determining the treatment to undergo the study; secondly, I will select the subjects that are to be part of the study. This I will do randomly to get different race, gender and age. Thirdly, I will separate the randomly selected items and embark on the study. Finally, I will interpret the findings of my study using statistical analysis techniques. (Experiments and Quasi-Experiments 2014) The subjects in the study are employees of various companies within United States. They will be randomly selected based on age, gender, ethnicity among many more aspects. I will use questionnaires as my experimental materials. When I first arrive in different businesses premises, which will be my fields of

Why its Important to Wear a Helmet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Why its Important to Wear a Helmet - Essay Example This trend is ought to continue should we not learn from our mistakes, it should be a top priority of any two wheeler rider or skateboarder to wear a helmet while riding in order to protect severe damage to the head leading to death in majority of the cases. "About 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year. Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries, and 27,000 have injuries serious enough to be hospitalized." (Helmet Related Statistics). Looking at these statistics it becomes extremely important to practice caution and people who ignore heedless warnings pay the price leaving their family members behind to mourn and regret. All the above points show that wearing a helmet is integral and people who don't do it are very vulnerable. Parents play a vital role in inculcating the habit of wearing a helmet in children and this habit must always be inculcated in children right from the time when they learn to ride a tricycle. This is the only way out to stop the menace of countless deaths that take place because of sheer ignorance of people. Several countries have made it a hard and fast rule not to allow riders without helmets and many more countries are in the process to implement this rule. The sooner this rule is introduced the better it is for all the people. Works Cited Helmet Related Statistics (2009). In Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute http:/

Group assignment team members Emotional Intelligence results narration Essay

Group assignment team members Emotional Intelligence results narration - Essay Example 65). Because we have almost close scores on self-awareness, we were all transparent and comfortable in expressing our feelings, our moods, and temper. We did not have a unrealistic expectation from the leader that he is a superman and infallible. Because of this, we can challenge anyone’s idea which is helpfulduring brainstorming. The article, What Makes a Leader? (2004), elegantly states â€Å"Someone who is highly self-aware knows where he is headed and why† (Goleman, p. 85). Since all of the team members have results that are close to one another, the team was ver clear in its direction. Everyone cooperated well even in trying times. Since we were attuned to one another’s limitations, we provided support to members who were upset or frustrated. We believe that this trait – Self-Awareness would be a good cornerstone in the future when we become mentors in organizations. Being Self-Aware also gave a sense of direction to group members because we continually focused on the goal. Another helpful result that had positive impact was Social Awareness. Except for the case of Maria who was only a few points higher than the rest, similarities in Social Awareness quotient indicates that anyone in the group is sensitive to other group members. Leaders must have a high Social Awareness so they can adjust to their working environment. Members look up to their leaders, and when members sense that their leaders are not interested in their issues, they get demotivated. Indeed, Offermann was downright valid in his article When Followers Become Toxic (2004), when he said â€Å"The leader who automatically rejects his followers’ opinions can be as unwise as one who unthinkingly goes along with them† (p. 57). The impact of this to the team is that we realized that all of us are potential leaders. One category that made a difference was that of Relationship Management. We all had differents scores as reported in

THEORY, PRACTICE AND EVIDENCE IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY A DYNAMIC Essay

THEORY, PRACTICE AND EVIDENCE IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY A DYNAMIC TRILOGY - Essay Example Dissociative disorders may be thought of in terms of adaptation. The dissociative response to stress has served an adaptive role in the patient's life in the past in that it has protected the person against the full-blown impact of intense emotional pain and trauma. By the time someone with dissociative problems is in treatment or is seen by an occupational therapist, the dissociate is no longer adaptive. It interferes with the person's ability to face and cope with reality, and thus with the ability to function. The purpose of occupational therapy treatment for patients with dissociative disorders is twofold. Patients need first to recognize their fear of experiencing emotions and begin to allow and accept their feelings. They need to recognize formerly traumatic events that hold many conflicting, painful feelings for them. Occupational therapy and expressive and cognitive media can aid in individual's exploration toward self-awareness. Second, occupational therapy can help people learn new functional ways of coping when their fears interfere with functioning and daily life. The acknowledgement and acceptance of painful emotions can be very frightening for patients with dissociative disorders who understandably may have a difficult time choosing to face their difficult realities over choosing a more familiar and comfortable escape. It takes time and the development of a trustworthy therapeutic relationship for patients to be willing to risk this change. Part of "accepting" feelings involves learning more effective ways to cope with the accompanying pain rather than escaping into the altered reality or different personality. This involves, first, learning to recognize personal patterns of dissociation - in other words, when, where, how and under what circumstances dissociation tends to occur - in order to avoid using these old patterns when stress increases. Second, it involves relearning and learning specific new strategies for coping with stresses that may have induced the person to dissociate in the first place. The integrating of personalities means that some personalities will no longer exist as separate and distinct. Alters typically perform specific, compartmentalized functions. Talents and skills that may have resided with one alter may thus be lost, resulting in a loss of familiar ways of coping. Therefore, the newly integrated individual may have much to relearn. An individual will typically have learned to dissociate to the exclusion of learning other, adaptive ways of coping. In this case, unfamiliar new ways of coping must be learned and new roles may have to be taken over and learned by the remaining personality or personalities. Occupational therapists, in conjunction with other members of the treatment team, can assist patients with dissociative disorders in all the ways described in the succeeding sections of the paper. The Therapeutic Approach Occupational Therapists can aid the therapy team by gathering historical information. This may often be expressed through a nonverbal medium (art, drawing, sculpting, and crafts) and thus is more likely to be facilitated in the occupational therapy process than in other therapies. Through the same process, occupational therapists can learn general information about specific alter personalities such as their names, ages, reasons why they were created and functions they serve for the

Rhetorical Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Rhetorical Analysis Paper - Essay Example He does not only speak to Blacks but he widens his audience to include everyone. He starts this speech with "five scores years ago" which is a direct reference to Abraham Lincolns most famous speech. This grabs the listener and makes them ready to hear the rest of what he will say. He states that although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed over 100 years ago to free the slaves, that Blacks are still not free. As a leader, he knows that he must captivate his audience in order to help them understand what needs to happen to allow everyone to have the basic rights that are guaranteed to everyone under the U.S. Constitution. King also used a variety of metaphors to help people form their own images to relate to the images he was portraying. As an example, he suggested that "the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity "(King, 1964). All people can relate to this image and they understand the concept of the founding fathers creating a "promissory note" that said that all men were created equal, but that "America has given the Negro people a bad check." These images create an understanding and a deep appeal to each individual listening to the speech. King was a very self-motivated, optimistic and persuasive person. He was able to persuade people to take action and he brought about change. These are important leadership traits. He was an attractive and effective leader form the beginning to his death. According to Patterson, Grenny, MacMillan and Al Switzler (2002) there are seven steps that can be adopted in critical conversations which are: start at heart, learn to look, make it safe, master my stories, state my path, explore others paths and move to action. Crucial conversations are those conversations that are highly risky, take emotions, and feelings into consideration, and in which, the communicators have varying

HRM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

HRM - Essay Example As a decision strategy, Thurlby was reported to indicate that â€Å"those who refused had less chance of being shortlisted for a future top job at the company† (Peacock, 2010, par. 1). In this regard, the essay aims to address the following objectives, to wit: (1) to identify three important HR issues that are raised by this scenario (from the article); (2) to review and summarize the most pertinent research evidence and contemporary thinking relating to these issues; and (3) to set out clear and concise research-based advice to HR professionals who face similar situations. Specifically, the above mentioned objectives would be tackled using the topics on international employees resourcing, resistance and managing cultural diversity in multinational organizations. Three Important HR Issues The article written by Peacock (2010) proffered three contemporary and critical issues that face global organizations: international employees resourcing, resistance and managing cultural div ersity in multinational organizations. These issues would be discussed in greater detail, as follows: 1. International Employees Resourcing The distinct characteristics of an international manager, known as an expatriate manager has been noted by Schneder and Barsoux (2003) as â€Å"a new type of cosmopolitan, multilingual, multifaceted executive who is operational across national borders (somewhat like James Bond)† (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003, p. 185). The plight and challenges experienced by expatriates are closely evaluated by Pires, Stanton & Ostenfeld (2006) in their discourse that aimed to provide guidelines to improve the adjustments and effectiveness of expatriates’ movement to ethnically diverse environments. Jordan & Cartwright (1998) depicted the most apt key traits and competencies that organizations should be aware of in selecting expatriate managers. Further, expatriation was seen as a promoter of change and an interrupter of status quo (Glanz & van der Sluis, 2001) that options need to be determined by organizations in terms of establishing a career plan to encourage the expatriate’s decision to move and determining options for the expatriates’ spouses. The Business Dictionary (2011) defines an expatriate as â€Å"a person who has citizenship in at least one country, but who is living in another country. Most expatriates only stay in the foreign country for a certain period of time, and plan to return to their home country eventually, although there are some who never return to their country of citizenship† (par. 1). In the case of Jaguar, the HR director specifically stated that the potential expatriate manager would be relocated to China on a three-year assignment. Concurrently, â€Å"those with partners, or children in schools, were often put off the upheaval of moving abroad† (Peacock, 2010, par. 2). The apprehension from the points of views of potential expatriate managers could be analyzed in term s of the potential problems identified as follows: (1) unprepared and ill-equipped to conform to the demands of a new environment; (2) failure

In what ways can consumption be defined as a creative practice Essay

In what ways can consumption be defined as a creative practice - Essay Example room, 10 appeared as if they might reach â€Å"right† status at some point in the future, with a little more money, a little more luck and a lot more social skills, but the final five were hopeless cases wearing decades-old fashions and carrying tattered old schoolbags in yesterday’s cuts. Chris determined this information through the use of a highly-honed ability to observe and mentally evaluate the sum total of the articles and clothing possessed by the people around her. Through this assessment (which includes not only the material price of each item, but it’s acceptability within the â€Å"now† trends) Chris was able to determine whether each classmate was of the â€Å"right† crowd or, if not, to what degree they were lacking. Like many people within a consumer society, Chris was creating her identity, and her impressions of the identities of those around her, on a purely material basis. Consumers today live what may only be termed â€Å"constr ucted lives† as they buy into the concept that consumption itself is a creative process. Students such as Chris use materialistic cues such as style of dress, individual possessions and the ability to keep up with the ever-changing market trends to help them identify others sharing a similar desire to obtain something called the â€Å"right† life. â€Å"We want our lives to match our vision of the good life, itself largely a product of the media. We want to have the right clothes, the right car, the right house, the right job, the right spouse, the right children, even the right toothpaste† (Gabler, 1998). Because certain items have come to symbolize individual levels attained in the search for the â€Å"perfect† life, consumers strive to attain the material goods to create an appearance of living the ‘right’ life rather than focusing on creativity independent of worldly possessions. This means of establishing an identity by comparing your possessions with the possessions of others whom you perceive to be living