Mixed Method Research Design Essay

Introduction. This essay is devoted to a mixed method research design. In the paper special attention is paid to quantitative and qualitative approach for the design of a research as essential components of a mixed research paradigm. A mixed method design. There are main research paradigms in education and science. They are: quantitative research, qualitative research and mixed research. A mixed research design is a general type of research that includes quantitative and qualitative research data, techniques and methods. All these paradigm characteristics are mixed in one case study. This method design involves research that uses mixed data (numbers and text) and additional means (statistics and text analysis). A mixed method uses both deductive and inductive scientific method, has multiple forms of data collecting and produces eclectic and pragmatic reports (Creswell 2002, p.69).   Two main types of a mixed method are: mixed method and mixed model research. A mixed research method is a research in which you use quantitative data for one stage of a research study and qualitative data for a second stage of a research. A mixed model design is a research in which you use both quantitative and qualitative data in one or two stages of the research process. The mixing of quantitative and qualitative approaches happens in every stage of a research. In a research it is important to use a mixed research method for the conducting of a detailed research. The advantages of a mixed research are: The strength of the research; Use of multiple methods in a research helps to research a process or a problem from all sides; Usage of different approaches helps to focus on a single process and confirms the data accuracy. A mixed research complements a result from one type of research with another one. This research does not miss any available data. Difference of quantitative and qualitative components of a mixed method design. A quantitative component of a mixed research assumes the usage of deductive scientific method while qualitative component assumes inductive scientific method. Moreover, a quantitative approach collects quantitative data based on exact measurement applying structured as well as validated information collection (Creswell 2002, p.74). For instance, rating scales, closed-ended items and responses. This approach produces statistical report with correlations. A qualitative component uses qualitative information. For instance, interview, field notes, open-ended questions etc. This approach considers a researcher to be the major means of information collection. At the end of a research this approach supposes a narrative report with context description, quotations taken from research material. It is important to stress that there are many ways of research performing. Quantitative and qualitative methods have their advantages and disadvantages in a research. However, you may summarize the advantages of both methods and have accurate information on implementation, findings and conclusions of your research project. Qualitative and quantitative research methods have different strengths, weaknesses and requirements that affect researcher’s project accuracy. The aim of a mixed method design is to summarize positive aspects of two approaches and produce a highly accurate data (Creswell 2002, p.98). When you use several methods in your research process, then you can use the strength of every type of information collection and minimize the weak points of every of both approaches. A mixed method approach of gathering and evaluation can increase the validity and accuracy of the information. Conclusion. The essay briefly analyzes a mixed method research design including the major components: quantitative and qualitative approach for the design of a research. The paper proves the effectiveness of a mixed method design. References. Creswell J. W. (2002). â€Å"Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Appro†. Sage Publications; 2 edition, 246 pp.

Harry S. Truman and Korea -to Unite Essay

The Chinese joined the Koreans side and helped fight back against US troops. General MacArthur -To completely defeat the Korean and Chinese armies. -President Truman ordered for him to stop his assault on the Asian countries. -He persisted and was eventually fired because his arrogance cost them the battle. President Truman -To keep Korea from becoming a communist country. -China helped North Korea fight the war to spread communism. They joined with the allies in the UN to help stop the spread of communism. China -To spread and maintain communism -They were afraid of the US and UN invading them -They planned a surprise attack which was successful. United Nations -To stop the spread of communism. -MacArthur persisted on fighting. -They relieved general MacArthur of his duties. How did General Douglas MacArthur react to the events in Korea? What was his stance on the Korean War? – He decided to keep pushing against the enemy’s border. He believed China did not have enough resources to fight back. He wanted to take out the Chinese army once and for all. How did President Truman respond to the events in Korea? What was his stance on the Korean War? – President Truman wanted to stop the spread of communism in the East. He fought a war against North Korea and China to keep communism away from South Korea. He wanted to end the fighting once they had cleared Chinese troops from Korea. Which leader’s actions were the most justifiableGeneral McArthur’s or President Truman’s? Support your claim with evidence from the lesson. – President Truman’s actions were more justifiable because He knew when the battle was over. He did not want to keep pushing against the enemy. The push that MacArthur made on China caused them to lose the battle and be attacked in a surprise. Would the outcome of the Korean War have been different had General MacArthur not been fired? Why or why not? Support your claim with evidence from the lesson. – I think the outcome might have been different if MacArthur had not been fired. They might have kept fighting against China until they had completely wiped out their army. They could also have disbanded all communism in Korea and maybe in China as well.

WorldCom Accounting Failure

This research paper will seeks to discuss accounting failure at WorldCom by trying to understand the nature of fraud committed, the perpetrators who caused the failure, the lacking controls that may have caused all these problems and the intentions of the perpetrators as would be revealed by the extent and frequency of manipulation done in the financial reports of the company. This paper hopes to find the lesson of the story for the guidance of people who may be involved the same way or the other. . Analysis and Discussion 2. 1 Brief background of the company. WorldCom was part the Telecommunication Company before its name it was eventually named to MCI in 2003, Inc after several events including its merger with LDDS and later with MCI Communications as part of its strategy to get out from bankruptcy caused by the scandals that the company went through. MCI, Inc was purchased by Verizon Communication and now part of Verizon Division. What happened at WorldCom, what caused them to commit fraud? WorldCom’s stocks were used as means to enrich its chief executive officer (CEO) Ebbers and other officers basically from finance and accounting departments at the expensed of many investors by making the company’s to look more profitable than what is real. The fake profitability has caused the price of the company’s stock to rise significantly but only to be used by certain people to take advantage with malice against the investors. As to what caused them to commit fraud may be clearly blamed on the apparent greed of these people for more wealth with of the involvement of many of officers or from another point of view, by the laxity of the system of control that allowed things to happen so easily. As to which is more believable would be subject to analysis in the following sections and subsections. 2. 1. b. What kind of fraudulent accounting practices were used to manage earnings, describe the specifics of how it was accomplished? The two fraudulent practices could be classified into two. The first one the underreporting of â€Å"line costs† by capitalizing them rather than recording as expenses for the period and the second one is inflating or overstating the revenues. In accounting profitability is measured by the excess of revenues over expenses every period. The company in effect deferred the recognition of the expenses so that company appeared more profitable that what is real when expenses are recognized properly. The other fraudulent practice is therefore logical and would have the same effect as the first since inflating or increasing the revenues would cause to the company’s profitability to look better. Each of the fraudulent practice is described in detail below. The overall objective of efforts was to keep reported line costs to approximately 42% of revenues which is far from having actually reached levels in excess of 50%, and to maintain in its report to investors double-digit revenue growth when the truth is that actual growth rates were so much lower substantially. People became rich because of the frauds including the company’s CEO Bernard as derived from the increasing price of his shareholdings with the company. The start of the fraudulent accounting was found to be 1999 when the company wanted to paint a good financial condition contrary to what the company was actually in after the downturn in the telecommunication industry shortly after WorldCom has acquired MCI in 1998. By painting a different picture investors were plainly deceived into investing. 2. 1. b. 1) Underreporting ‘line costs’ (interconnection expenses with other telecommunication companies) by capitalizing these costs on the balance sheet rather than properly expensing them The first fraud committed is the reduction of reported line costs, which represents the company largest category of expenses. It is a good thing its internal audit personnel were the ones which alerted about improperly transfer of $3. 852 billion from line cost expenses to capitalized a ccounts during 2001 and the first quarter of 2002. It was latter announced by company about the additional line cost accounting fraud which when combined with the first $ 3. 8 billion would total at $6. 412 billion in improper reductions to line costs. These and other manipulations of line cost caused fraudulent jumping up of pre-tax income by over $7 billion. The fraud actually started as line cost adjustments in the form of accruals in 1999 and 2000 but when it was not possible to make more large accruals, the next scheme as to capitalized or defer 2001 and 2003 operating line cost as assets . Capitalizing will cause the assets to be bigger than actual and would also make the financial structure of the company which would make it attractive to investors while improving its profitability position because of understatement of expenses that would bloat the income. Line costs could be defined charges for carrying a voice call or data transmission from one point to anther point which represents the company’s largest single expense from 1999 to 2001. Being the largest, it was in reality approximately more than 50% of total expenses. This was taken particular focus by company management and other parties particularly outside analysts to find out the trends by the use of ratio of line cost expense to revenue (E/R ratio) as a way to measure the trend of behaviour of the cost to revenues . The company’s manipulation in accrual could be found in releasing the same with the required analysis even it was in excess of the amount required. Even in case of excess accruals, the company did not cause them to be effected at the time of identification. What happened rather was for certain line cost accruals to have been kept as rainy day funds and managers caused only their release when needed. It appears that everything was really in the control of the perpetrators which included key accounting and finance officers since the accounting information was almost being manipulated to serve their selfish purpose as when there is a felt need to improve results. There could only be malice for this kind of behavior since accounting information as supposed to be reported because standards require them to be such. Another manipulation in the accrual as found by investigators was the release of accruals that are applicable for other purposes thus further again understating the expenses to attain the targeted level of profitability as promised to the investors by the manipulators. The inappropriate releases of had commonality in features since they appear directed Chief Finance Officer Sullivan, Controller Myers, and Accounting Yates who are incidentally part of the finance organization in the company. Another is the fact that released occurred not during ordinary or normal day to day operations but during adjustment periods after the end of each quarter and documentation are lacking and employees involved have raised concerns at time because they knew what was indeed happening to the company. The company has fundamentally worn out available accruals at the most possible means to address the needed manipulation of line costs as reported in its financial report by the end of 2000, The following quarter of 2001 and one year after in 2002, the reduction was reached $3. 8 billion from the capitalized $3. billion as directed by its Chief finance officer. It was a clear violation of company’s capitalization policy and the generally accepted accounting standards. Sullivan when asked about the violation commented that there is the plan to ultimately reduce these apparently bloated assets accounts with a hefty restructuring charge to be effected in 2002. The practice of capitalizing operating expense would produce the effect of shifting these costs to balance sheet from income statement and the effect was to bloat income and assets at the same time. Without the capitalization, there would have been losses instead of pre-tax gain as reported. Capitalization by reduction of line cost allowed the company to have E/R ratio of about 42% in every quarter while in reality the company has exceeded 50% E/R ratio. The message that it was bringing to the stock market was that the company’s have been able to sustain profitability despite the problem in the telecommunication industry. A capitalization strategy is in fact part of the internal control but was twisted by manipulators to serve their ends, and for this reason Chief Finance Officer Sullivan needed consent from a number of people from financial and accounting departments of WorldCom. The company had its General Accounting group that is based in Clinton, Mississippi, which made actual journal entries, but the system of the company allows the creation of a swell effect from the books by adjusting databases and reports from several finance-related groups. These groups include Property Accounting group which had its base from Texas which and which as tasked to tracked company’s capital assets. Due to non-passing through the ordinary capital expenditure process, the group was called to effect the capitalizations physically in its database and on its reports. Another group from Texas, called capital reporting group had also participated responsible since it was tasked to approve capital expenditures and to track the same capital spending. It was normal to have the employees within the General Accounting group since the problems on manipulation are basically done by journal entries and their adjustments that these people became concerned about the propriety of the practice causing them to express concern to each others and some even talked of looking for outside that given the risks that they were exposed to. Fortunately, something happened and the tilt of what is good eventually came to the rescue when the Internal Audit discovered the capitalization sometime in June 2002. 2. 1. b. (2) Inflating revenues with bogus accounting entries from ‘corporate unallocated revenue accounts’). WorldCom painted itself in the market as high-growth Company, and how its revenues is going to grow is a thing that should speak for a successful company. Company’s main business is to provide goods and service which are measurable by revenues. Since revenues increase was clearly critical factor of its success, WorldCom was able to convince investors what the company was above water even if market conditions throughout the telecommunications industry were not that good in 2000 and 2001. Since investors would like to make money, it would it was very easy to dupe them into believing that the company could sustain growth. Claiming to have successfully managed industry trends which on contrary were already hurting all of its competitors, the company was wonderfully deceiving people with the promises of double-digit growth rates. It would be asserted in addition to what was stated earlier, the higher the revenues, the higher also would be the profitability if all other things like the expenses are assumed equal. But the company has already bloated revenues and deliberated understated the expenses, so that the growth in profitability was indeed tremendous to attract people to invest in the company’s stocks. The manipulators behind the schemes were therefore focus on revenue enhancement. Ebbers was found by investigators intensely to have put much efforts on revenue performance, by his receiving and closely examining revenue reports which are given to him on a monthly basis by the company’s Reporting and Accounting Group. It was starting in 1999 that the company people made efforts to bloat revenues after the end of every reporting quarter to show to users of information that it was achieving high revenue growth targets that CEO Ebbers and Chief Finance Officer Sullivan had made or wanted to happen. The bloating of revenues was basically done by making adjustments between the differences of actual and â€Å"targeted revenues† and level the same as corporate unallocated revenue accounts. In simple means the company’ management announced a target in revenues to be attained and such must be attained and presented when reporting period comes that the same will require adjusting entries and level the same as unallocated. According to investigators, the questionable revenue entries found under the Corporate Unallocated accounts reached millions or tens of millions of dollars which appeared generally only in the quarter-ending month which were recorded weeks after the quarter has ended. Between Ebbers and Sullivan, it was the second one who became concerned since revenues recorded were already masking the result of the company’s operation. 2. 1. c. Who in the company perpetrated the fraud? Discuss also the fact that the corporations CEO, Bernard Ebbers, took millions of dollars in personal loans from the corporation’s funds. Very briefly discuss the outcome of the fraud and the whole WorldCom scandal, how it was discovered, what happened to the perpetrators. Ebbers persuaded the company’s board of directors to provide him loans amounting to over than $400 millions to cover his margin calls that he failed and was ousted as CEO in April 2002 by John Sidgmore. He and other perpetrators were eventually prosecuted and convicted of crimes in relation to corporate scandals. It was discovered by the internal audit group an announcement was made for the hefty understatement of line cost in the amount of more than $3 billion. This kind of fraud in additions other understatement of lines cost by capitalization and inflation of revenues caused their perpetrators caused their freedom and they are now serving the prison sentences. The fraud was the on the damaged caused to investors who lost their money because of the fake profitability and financial condition of the business. 2. 2) Discuss in detail what controls/ internal controls were missing and/or subverted in order for this fraud/accounting failure to occur. The needed controls/internal controls that were missing and/or subverted in order for this fraud/accounting failure to occur is the independence of the auditors and integrity of the officers of the corporation. The need for independent auditors to ensure reliability of the financial statements is paramount since management not independent in many instances of their engagements and the most probable thing to happen is for management to make self-serving representation in the preparation of financial statements. The practice of accounting profession where the independent auditors will have to attest to the reliability of the financial statements requires the auditor must indeed be independent, competent and with integrity. Lacking one of these requirements would really make a big difference. It appears that the auditor of WorldCom was Arthur Andersen which had involvement with Enron which also collapsed and Waste Management Company. In fact the Security and Exchange Commission had Mr Arthur Anderson convicted at lower court but said conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court sometime in May of 2005. Although he was acquitted of the charge eventually, the fact that he was already charge and convicted is a question of character which do not have a place in the accounting profession. The role of auditors between their client and the public is one vested with public interest so that auditors must have good moral character. Since the auditor should be independent the engagement must be purely auditing or attestation service. It was possible that Andersen was maintaining secretly a special relationship with the management of WorldCom thus Ebbers and company was courageous enough to do the fraudulent act as the very nose of the regulators and the investing public. Dependable information is essential to the very existence of our society. The investor making a decision to buy or sell securities, the banker deciding whether to approve a loan, the government is obtaining revenue based on income tax returns, all are relying upon information provided by others. In many of these situations, the goals of the providers of information run directly counter to those of the users of the information. The purpose of having an auditor is for attestation function or to provide assurance as to reliability of the financial statements. Arguing to have the external auditors to protect the company assets from fraud would be sounding too simple since more than the auditors the stockholders or owners of the corporation must have also the protective or preventive attitude. In addition therefore for the need to have independent, honest and competent external auditors, the company must have also the same independent and honest officers, particularly those who are members of the audit committee and those performing money related functions. The function of company officers are part of a good internal control that any normal or good company must have so that functions would be defined and duties would be segregated or separated in such way that would provide checks and balances. This system of checks and balances are part therefore of good internal control that a company must put into effect. A good internal control must also ensuring compliance with the GAAP is by having since the two are complementary. The GAAP is an external requirement to provide the needed characteristic of information to be reliable for decision making. It is faulty to argue that a company has an efficient and effective internal control over financial reporting if it not consistent with the requirements of GAAP. The underreporting of expenses and inflating of revenues are clear violations of the GAAP since GAAP works for fair presentation of financial statement which are governed by revenue recognition principles and expense recognition principles. Under the revenue recognition principles, revenues must be properly recognized when earned. The practice of inflating revenues by adjusting entries in creating corporate unallocated revenue accounts could easily be detected if there is an effort to do so since the name of unallocated accounts is very revealing but since the perpetrators are from the very people who are to ensure the reliability of the financial statements, the standard appeared to have no power over their criminal minds. But as found in the investigation, it was the internal audit which first calls for the alarm when there was a transfer of line costs amounting to more than $ 3 billion. This means that the system of internal control of the company still allows the working of revenue recognition principle to be noticed since they found that the ratio of expenses to revenue was already too low despite the transfer of big amount of expenses to assets. The revenue recognition principle could have guided them the simple minds of auditor that it was utterly impossible to have produced those ratios. To go back to internal control, it is management’s responsibility to have it in place but the people who were governed by the procedures did not all work together to protect the company assets since some are just evil while others are perhaps touched by their conscience especially the internal audit personnel who called the alarm on the transfer of more $3 billion line costs to assets. It appears that internal control must also have the characteristic of integrity as a system since if others are honest but others are dishonest, it will still malfunction because the company appeared to have two sets of values. Every practicing accountant and auditors will agree that the purpose of the internal control is to provide assurance that its financial statements are reliable and its preparation are in accordance with the accounting standards as issued by Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Since internal control policies and procedures for the maintenance of record in reasonable detail and reflecting the same in accurate and fair manner, first and foremost, the objective must be desired by management as a goal. In the case of WorldCom it is believable to assert that the company did have internal control but its implementation was clouded by the intention of the few who wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of investors. If the company has indeed proper values that are adopted and desired by its members, the company could have surmounted the internal control’s inherent limitations for its not to have prevented or detected the misstatement of revenues and expenses. 2. 3 Discuss in detail what a forensic accounting consultant (you) would have recommended or instilled to have prevented this fraud/accounting failure. pages As a forensic accounting consultant, what was needed was independence of the auditor from management. Auditors are to maintain their independence from the client as called for by their ethical standards but the moment that there is connivance, it goes pretty sure that fraud could easily happen. The work of an external auditor is separate from that of the company ac countant or even an internal auditor. Companies must reliable financial reporting system so that information should accurate and in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). One way of ensuring compliance with the GAAP is by having an efficient and effective internal control over financial reporting. Since it is management’s responsibility to do the same, the company must do the same with a sense of integrity as part of its defining values. . Since the purpose of the internal control is to provide assurance that its financial statements are reliable and its preparation are in accordance with the US GAAP must be become a necessity for the company to make it good. Internal control is policies and procedures for the maintenance of record in reasonable detail of information and should the reflection of the same in accurate and fair manner. This set of policies and procedure would provide assurance at reasonable level so that unauthorized acquisition or disposition of company’s asset that could materially affect financial statements are detected timely and prevented accordingly. Every company’s internal control has its own inherent limitations that may not prevent or detect the misstatement that must be watched. It is thus accepted by experts in accounting that projections of any effective evaluation to future periods could still have risk thus making the controls inadequate to respond to the needs for more reliable financial statements because of changing conditions as a necessary part of business and degree of compliance with establish procedures may decline as well. It is for this reason that the managements desiring to have the internal in effect must conduct its own evaluation of its existing internal control on its financial reporting. It cans use as framework the Internal Control – Integrated Framework as issued by the Committee of Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). 3. Conclusion The story of WorldCom is a story of how greed would cause damage to people and how the accounting profession could be used as an instrument to perpetrate fraud. Theoretically, accounting is considered as the language of business and that it should provide information to help users for decision making. The basic requirement of valid accounting information is that it must be accurate or truthful. This characteristic was absent in the case of WorldCom as the accounting information was twisted to serve the interest of few people. No wonder Ebbers and company have to go to jail to suffer for the accounting fraud they have committed against the investors and for other crimes which are connected to the act of fraud. The analysis revealed to have to good internal control as requirement for providing reasonable assurance of providing information that is reliable for decision making. Said purpose must be consistent in the company’s being subjecting itself to compliance with US GAAP for the preparation of its financial statements that are reliable. The company must put and serious stand on this since the standards are meant to reconcile conflicting interest of users to prevent one user from taking advantage at the expense of the other. The set of policies and procedures from the efficient and effective internal control would provide reasonable that unauthorized acquisition or disposition of company’s assets that could materially affect financial statements are detected one time and preventive efforts could be applied accordingly. In the final analysis however, between the good internal control and the people who would implement, more weight should be given in the need for integrity and honesty of people who will implement the internal control. The maker should control what it has made. By the same principle the good internal control will mean nothing if people do not have integrity and are only seeking their selfish interest at the expense of all other stakeholders. There is no cure for greed there is a way to discourage or minimize the same by threat of strict implementation of the law. The case of Anderson who became an auditor of WorldCom appears to have not resulted to his prosecution of any crime but the auditor’ case with Enron was different. However he got himself acquitted in the higher court. Government therefore has also a role to play. It has imprisoned the perpetrators of WorldCom hence it should be a warning for many who plans to cheat investors.

How do local (host) attitudes vary towards different types of tourism Essay

How do local (host) attitudes vary towards different types of tourism and tourists - Essay Example The kinds of interactions and the quality of these interactions influence the perceptions as well as attitudes by visitors towards the destination and locals while it influences on hosts tolerance. This would be therefore viewed in a long term where these interactions influence sustainability of tourism as a leisure activity. Cultural incidences as well as hosts social demographic characteristics have a significant influence on the nature of interactions between the visiting people and the locals (Armenski, nd, p. 1). Locals or hosts have used the social exchange theorem in prediction and explaining attitudes towards the tourists. It is used primarily on evaluation of the mutual benefits that individuals would gain through interactions in being a tourist and a host. It is therefore instrumental in explaining the exchanges that occur between the host(s) and the tourists and explains the variation in attitudes and perceptions by hosts towards particular tourists. Through the theory, th is paper identifies that individuals engage the analysis of costs and or benefits resultant in interactions between the hosts and tourists. Bad attitudes and perceptions by hosts towards interaction with tourists may be explained by lack of benefits to be derived from the tourists while right attitudes according to the theory arise from the availability of gains from the interactions. Working tourists and often referred to as holidaymakers are persons who engage into tourism through travelling but engages in work with such motives of generating more finances to cater for prolonged holiday and such other reasons. There are various categories of the working tourists as includes ‘travelling professional workers’, ‘migrant tourism workers’, ‘working holiday tourists as well as ‘non-institutionalized working’ tourists (Duncan, nd, p. 34-35). There are main variations that are

Research-based paper on the Problem Solving Process (PSP) for a Term

Research-based on the Problem Solving Process (PSP) for a selected organization - Term Paper Example workers’ strikes and go slows, a high rate of workers’ turnover, lateness and absenteeism among workers, as well as, general theft and misbehavior of workers while at the premises of the organization (Avery, Auvine, Streibel, & Weiss, 1981). This research wants to focus on the best steps that the management can take in resolving a problem within the organization as fast as possible. The longer a problem runs within a company, the more risky and the less profitable the organization becomes due to increases inefficiencies, low productivity, as well as, low morale of workers, which might be the main cause of their underperformance. The research will evaluate the five main steps involved in the problem solving process, as well as, analyze its significance in the management and resolution of conflicts within an organization. This paper will enable an organization to define a certain criteria or standard of conflict resolution within the organization, and as such, empower the leadership of the company to take the forefront in effectively directing others in the research and resolution of issues. An organization in the modern world economy cannot go without a problem or a conflict that may threaten its performance or image in the market. As such, it is imperative for the organization to have an appropriate plan that will enable it maneuver through such a crisis without suffering any significant overhead complications. For example, the Airtel Corporation, a global telecommunications company with its base in India, once had workers strife. This became a global phenomenon whereby nearly 80% of the company’s dedicated workers at the home country went on an industrial action. The workers’ industrial action was to demand for a pay rise, as well as, demand for other benefits and allowances. Furthermore, these employees were not patient enough to let the organization resolve the issues and as such meet their grievances as some of them quit the organization for other

Leadership and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Leadership and Change - Essay Example With the mail-order being a success, Branson used the money earned from this company to buy a record store and to leverage it into a chain (Branson, 2009). Over time, he has managed to add 360 acquisitions to Virgin Music Group including airlines, trains, books, healthcare, wines, comics, fitness clubs, financial services and space travel among others (Bowerman & Wart, 2011). One major reason behind the success of Virgin group of companies is Branson’s unique leadership, charisma and effective timing (Fox, 2004). These qualities have enabled him to anticipate, and manage change effectively in his business empire. Though he is remarkably reserved and shy in person (Fox, 2004), Branson has the ability to change failures to his advantage, which enables him to gain publicity (Fabrikant, 1997). This daring nature has being the motivation behind his successful empire. Implementation of change Branson’s effective implementation of change can be illustrated by Kotter’s e ight steps change model. As the virgin empire started to expand in 1990s, Virgin megastores, and Virgin Records were doing well (Grant, 2005). However, Virgin Atlantic was not doing well, and it needed huge investments in order to break from being a small time operator to medium sized carrier (Branson, 2002); which is in accordance with Kotter’s model that requires establishment of a sense of contingence to affect change (Sabri, Gupta & Beitler, 2007). According to Grant (2005), Branson’s ingenious ideas to wade through these circumstances were to float the company, and raise the required expansion capital via the city and shareholders. However, immediately after this decision, it became apparent to Branson that this decision was at odds with the kinds of risks shareholders were prepared to stand (Grant, 2005). Surprisingly, in creating a guiding coalition in accordance with Kotter’s change model, Branson decided to sell Virgin records, and bought back Virgin At lantic. It was through such strategic decisions that Virgin Atlantic has become a successful business empire today. Branson approach in his career is that of influence, and has the ability to create a common purpose among his followers; his approach is to make people achieve things that they did not know they had the ability to achieve (Daft, 2002). Therefore, Branson develops a vision and strategy to implement the specific changes, and communicates the same to his employees; these are among the steps in Kotter’s change model (Sabri, Gupta & Beitler, 2007). He establishes the change, creates the guiding principles, develops the vision and the strategies to lead to the required change, or to attain his goals. Usually, every organizational change has a range of consequences, and one of the consequences of floatation of Virgin Atlantic was change in internal environment, and an organizational culture in which employees have to thrive in (Cox, 2009). One of the remarkable cultura l changes under Branson was making employees to have decentralized chains of commands, in ensuring that they are not answerable to one leader. Empowering employees for action is one of the steps in Kotter’s change model (Sabri, Gupta & Beitler, 2007). Branson in his organizational culture ensured employees were answerable to shareholders (Grant, 2005). Grant further noted that Richard Branson’s principles and approach to handling change enables transitions to

Biographical and Cultural Background Paper on John Updike and his Essay

Biographical and Cultural Background Paper on John Updike and his story A&P - Essay Example By simply reading through the texts, one might not see how much of the American society in the 1950’s Updike has exposed. As such, his attitude towards the issues of the society in which the author lived in was also apparent. The irony in the manner he illustrate the settings and the events in A & P shows how much involved the author was in the different issues surrounding him. His sarcasm and negative point of view about Russia and the Cold War was evident in Stokesie’s character where Sammy narrates that he thinks hes going to be manager some sunny day, maybe in 1990 when its called the Great Alexandrov and Petrooshki Tea Company or something (Kirszner and Mandell, p. 95) In D. Quentin Miller’s (p. 3) John Updike and the Cold War: Drawing the Iron Curtain, he describes Updike’s writings as those that reveal the underlying truth about the American society during the Cold War era that requires aggressiveness in order to attain its goals. Sammy’s character in A & P shows the same aggressiveness that each single individual in the American society should posses in order to achieve what they aspire for. However, Updike simply did not make his readers live by the disillusion that they could achieve everything they wish for through any aggressive acts, whereas the reality in which risks and disappointments occur as well. A & P’s end clearly shows how Updike sticks to the existent condition in the society rather than a

Business law and ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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The role of trust in strategic alliances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The role of trust in strategic alliances - Essay Example Added to this is the input from those who actually involved in this business, giving us a "real world" perspective. This essential input often gives us insider accounts of a contemporary world which we are not normally privileged to see. Before examining the role of trust in Strategic Alliances the notion of Strategic Alliance itself should be descried. In the literature there are different definitions proposed to describe the nature of Strategic Alliances. The first layer of literature (Austin 2000; Lewis 1999) used this term to describe joint ventures which do not involve equity investment by the partners and co-operative activities in areas other than manufacturing. In this case, Strategic Alliances are described as co-operative business activities between two or more firms, entered into for strategic reasons, involving the creation of a separate business entity under joint control and ownership. They can involve equal shareholdings. Strategic Alliances can "involve 'passive' partners who invest money in the operation without taking an active role in its management. alliances are "formed between firms with similar capabilities and capacities usually from industrialised countries; companies involved in strategic alliances are often direct competitors operating in the same product and geographic markets; they are usually entered into for reasons other than market access or the pooling of synergistic resources". While examining the role of trust in Strategic Alliances the research will be based on the second interpretation of the notion strategic alliance. The importance of trust In ordinary day-to-day practice most strategic alliances when making decisions tend to combine these different approaches, although frequently without being aware of the mental processes they are using. It is helpful to be aware of whether one is thinking in terms of 'acts' or 'ends', especially when analysing a dilemma. Theories proposed by Lewicki et al (1998) base a conception of right action on a conception of trust for duty's sake and mainly differ in so far as they specify two different sources of these duties. In order to make the correct moral choices, a strategic alliance simply has to understand what its trust concepts are and what correct rules exist which regulate the duties between the partners. When the parties of a strategic alliance follow their duty, it is behaving morally. When they fail to follow trust policy, it is immoral. It has also been acknowledged that strategic alliances have important obligations to a variety of stakeholders and not just the shareholders, and this should be reflected in their statements of trust (Bleeke, Ernst, 1995). To some extant trust within strategic alliances is based on the codes of ethics or a formal statement of what strategic alliances expects in the way of ethical behavior. It can serve as a guide for employee conduct to help employees determine what behaviors are acceptable. Since the purpose of trust is to let everyone know what is expected and what is

The duty to accommodate the injured and the disabled employees Essay

The duty to accommodate the injured and the disabled employees - Essay Example Three steps processes used to determine if the employer has made conscientious efforts on accommodation of the less fortunate employee: first is to know if the employee can perform his or her existing job. If the employee cannot, then establish if he or she can perform his or her current job if modified, if still he or she cannot, then determine if he or she can perform any other job existing re-bundled or modified job (David Morton Rayside, 2007). Disability is something that hinders an individual in undertaking life important functions. It may mean mental, psychological, physical, or even habitual. Of all the most complicated, as many employers claim, is mental incapacitation especially when the employee has to get into contact with clients, and habitual disabilities like drug dependency and alcoholism. They tend to be tricky even more than other health complications (David Morton Rayside, 2007). The importance of Human Rights Legislation, as it relates to disability is to protect those who are perceive or actually materially impaired through illness. The said disabilities include physical conditions, congenital deformities, asthma, epilepsy, hypertension, speech impediments, alcoholism and drug dependency, obesity and AIDS or AIDS related complex and any other medical, psychological or physical condition. However the duty to accommodate does not imply a guaranteed job for unemployed disabled person. If a person cannot reaso nably perform the essential duties and requirements after employment, there will be no findings for discrimination (David Morton Rayside, 2007). Accommodation is now a deeply entrenched feature in Canadian labor law. It has been enthusiastically practiced since the start of this decade, but it is already spawning or accelerating three outstanding trends in the arbitration system that are changing the very face of labor adjudication in

Hat factors affect your choice of career Essay Example for Free

Hat factors affect your choice of career Essay Career choice is a complex phenomenon that can be better appreciated through a study of its key components, i. e. career and choice (Websters Dictionary, 1998). Dating back to the seminal works of Hughes (1937) and Goffman (1968), career has been the focus of many studies. However, the contemporary formulations of the concept by critical realists embody a layered conception that embraces subjective experiences and objective structures of work in interplay (Layder, 1993). The definition (choice) incorporates two components: First is the availability of alternatives, which presents an objective reality, and the second one, the act of preference, which involves a subjective process. If a reference to career choice is made, availability of career choices and the dynamics of choosing a career should be examined. Hence, in order for career choice to take place, there should be alternative career routes available and there should be an individual preference between these career options (Marshall, 1989). Career choice is a subject which has attracted academic, professional as well as public attention, due to its multifaceted nature. Since career is a result of the interplay between individuals within organizational and social structures, it yields well to analysis from diverse perspectives ranging from occupational psychology to organizational sociology. Research on career choice is not uncommon on occupational groups such as accountants and health care professionals (see Morrison 2004, Hallissey et al. 2000, Kyriacou and Colthart 2000). The aim of such research is often to predict career choice behaviors based on personality as well as demographic distributive factors. The present study aims to investigate students perception towards a career as Chartered Accountants. The topic is of interest since it is estimated that by 2020. Malaysia needs 65. 000 Chartered Accountants to fulfill industry needs (Abdullah, 2001). However, to date (as at 2010) only a number of 65. 000 accountants are mainly available. Given such statistics, it is almost impossible for the professor to meet the demands in the years time. As such, this study will shed some light or what is the perception of students toward these professors. The results could enable us to understand more the issue of career choice by accounting students. In Malaysia, accounting graduates from the public universities who are interested to register as public accountants are required to become members of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA). At present, MIA only recognized accounting graduates who graduated from the public universities or from professional accounting studies such as Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). That is, MIA only accepts candidates for membership who hold the relevant academic qualification listed under the Accountants Act 1967. It is therefore, arguable that the public university students would register to become public accountants as their qualifications are recognized by MIA. Several studies in the education literature have identified that students share a common belief that the accounting environment offer a higher supply of jobs compared to other areas of business (Paolillo and Estes, 1982; Wheeler, 1983; Cangelosi et al. , 1985; Kochanek and Norgaard, 1985). Of consequence, such belief plays an important role in choosing their career decisions. Further, these studies found their respondents preferring to become public accountants compared to other accounting profession (Carpenter and Strawser, 1970). In Malaysia, several studies have shown that accounting profession is still popular amongst the students (Goon, 1975, Samidi and Tew 1995; Hashim et al, 2003 and Said et al. , 2004). For example: Goon (1975) found that the majority of her respondents had chosen accounting as a profession. Samidi and Tew (1995) reported that the profession is still the most popular choice 20 years later. Said et al. (2004) found that the accounting profession ranked amongst the two most preferred careers given by the public and private university students. The previous research internationally has examined high school and perception of tertiary students of an accounting profession and their intentions to pursue accounting career as the choice to the main thing in accounting can be made at any educational level. However, in results are many inconsistencies. The most of these prior studies are quantitative surveys whose results are statistically analyzed using a variety of methods including univariate, multivariate and factor analysis. A small number of these papers also utilize a theoretical framework based on the Theory of Planned Behaviours (Cohen Hanno, 1993; Felton, Dimnick Northey, 1995; Allen, 2004; Tan Laswad, 2006). As such, there has been no attempt to determine the reasons behind the perceptions and intentions or to provide any insight into why there are differences. Some accounting education researchers suggest a need for further research that considers these areas, conceivably by using qualitative research approaches (Hardin, OBryan ; Quinn, 2000; Byrne ; Flood, 2005; Sugahara, Kurihara ; Boland, 2006). So this current study sheds insights into the factors that affect a students vocational pathway. It focuses on both undergraduate and graduate students in UUM. The rest of this paper is as follows. It first discusses the prior literature in the area and then outlines the research method. It is accompanied by results, the analysis and related discussion. Work at last represents the conclusions of the study, its limitations and opportunities of the future research. LITERATURE REVIEW INTRODUCTION. There have been many previous studies that have examined the choice of accounting as a career by students, including the factors and people (referents) that influence their choice, their level of interest in accounting, and their perceptions on careers as chartered accountants. PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION. Some studies have found that people perceptions depend on many factors that influence their career decisions (Holland, 1966; 1973). Students perception effect them toward the accounting profession Marriot and Marriott (2003) term, the experience of students at the university and profession impact for pre decision. Therefore the monitor of public perception and students perception is very important for accounting professions, the relation between students perspective and perception of accounting (Nelson et al. , 2002, p. 282). Albrecht and Sack (2000) found that the important reason for declining the number of accounting graduate because they dont have more information about the meaning of accounting and accountants job. (Albrecht Sack, 2000, p. 28). Previous studies in USA identified that are many factors for those accounting students had no plan to accounting major and no idea to choose accounting as a career considered the accounting work environment (Cohen Hanno, 1993; Hermanson Hermanson, 1995; Saemann Crooker, 1999; Fransisco, Noland, Kelly, 2003; Allen, 2004). However, other research suggests the negative perception of accounting in Australian accounting university (first-year accounting students) (Jackling Calero, 2006), but the research in Canada suggests that the students have a high accounting perception (Felton et al. , 1994). Another research in New Zealand, found that the profession as boring for the final year of accounting students at five universities (Ahmed et al. 1997, p. 333). In addition, the study by (Laswad Tan, 2005, p. 61) suggests that business students have the impression that accountants are dull, boring, number crunchers. LEVEL OF INTEREST IN ACCOUNTING. Many studies suggests that those the accounting students (high school) have a more positive attitude towards accounting or becoming a CA, and those students more likely to study at university (Felton et al. , 1995; Hermanson Hermanson, 1995; Bryne Willis, 1995; Sugahara Boland, 2005; Hartwell et al, 2005; Tan Laswad, 2006). the students at high level they effect on those that choose a CA career Felton et al. (1994). Other research found that the students at the high school have experience and interest or matahematics those who choose accounting major (Paolillo Estes, 1982; Cohen Hanno, 1993; Allen, 2004; Bryne Flood, 2005; Hartwell et al. , 2005). In contrast, based in the study by Tan and Laswad (2006) suggests that skills and a background in mathematics are not an important of performance in accounting courses. Another study suggested that the accounting students (first or introductory ) has been argued the first year or introductory is good stage can effect for interest levels or accounting perception and they can impact on tertiary students career (Cohen Hanno, 1993; Felton et al. , 1995; Chen, Jones, McIntyre, 2005; Jackling Calero, 2006). Nonetheless, Saemann Crooker (1999). INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC CAREER RELATED FACTORS. A number of studies have indicated that the important factor for accounting students to discipline choice is job satisfaction (Paolillo and Estes, 1982; Gul et al 1989; Ahmed et al. , 1997; Auyeung and Sands 1997). However Paolillo and Estes, 1982 and Ahmed et al. , 1997 also suggests that the lower importance of intrinsic for accountancy. This is in contrast to the findings of Linden (1987), Adams et al. , (1994), Felton et al. , (1994) and Jackling and Calero (2006), who demonstrate that intrinsic factors are very important in career decisions made by accounting students. Some studies found that the interest and enjoyable in the subject is very important to choose accounting major Adams et al. , (1994) and Mauldin et al. , (2000), Saemann and Crooker (1999) this finding was further supported by results of Jackling and Calero (2006) suggests the enjoyment of the accounting topics can affect for students career in accounting. Other studies have found that many students believe the accounting curriculum impacts on students perceptions of the work of the accountant and their desire to pursue a career in accounting (Zeff 1989). Prior research has found misconceptions of what the level of interesting in accounting subject and accountants job are not the only factors that students dont choose accounting as a major Albrecht and Sack (2000) suggest that the high degree and career options are the reasons for declining of the number of accounting graduate. Therefore, intrinsic and extrinsic career related factors might also affect the choice of accounting as a career. There are many factors related to Extrinsic factors such as the job market, financial and career considerations, the costs of becoming a CA have also been examined in prior research. Job variety, availability, security and opportunities have all been proposed as possible factors that effect for accounting choice (Hartwell et al, 2005). Financial factors such as initial salaries and career consideration (potential long-term earning, prestige, career prospects) are the reasons for declining the number of accounting graduate Albrecht and Sack (2000), for example in the US school students 40 % focused opportunities for career promotion and 10 % valued financial rewards (Hartwell et al, 2005). The results for Japan study, suggests that the tertiary students were also attracted by career prospects and social status and prestige (Sugahara Boland, 2005). However, social status or prestige is not so important to Australian tertiary students (Jackling Calero, 2006). But some researchers suggest that the financial rewards dont impact for accounting choice and not as important as intrinsic factor (Paolillo ; Estes, 1982). However Sugahara ; Boland, 2005, they suggests initial earning were very important for tertiary students to choose their career. The result of New Zealand study argued that both initial and long term earning are important (Ahmed et al, 1997) MAJOR HUMAN INFLUENCERS OR REFERENTS. Prior studies suggests that the human or referents very important factor that impact for students for their career or to became CA ,some examination of the literature surrounding potential influencers or referents indicates there are five possible groups: parents/caregivers, friends, accounting/business professional members, university instructors and high school teachers/career advisors. Ahmend et al (1997) . (Cohen ; Hanno, 1993; Allen 2004). They use the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as its theoretical framework have identified that tertiary students make a choice of major, in part, based on what their relevant referents think they should do This was also the case in the Tan and Laswad (2006) study. Regarding the importance of parents. Sugahara ; Boland, 2005 found that the most importance or significant is parents to influence of students choice . However, other US studies have found them to be less important (Paolillo ; Estes, 1982; Hermanson ; Hermanson 1995; Maudlin et al. , 2000). When combined with friends, family was found to be significant (48%) by Hartwell et al (2005). However, friends on their own were seen to be less important in the studies by Paolillo and Estes (1982) and Hermanson and Hermansson (1995). Japanese study found that the members of accounting or business professions were the most influential referent for accounting students career(Sugahara ; Boland, 2005) and the second most influential one for US accounting majors (Cohen ; Hanno, 1993; Hermanson ; Hermanson, 1995; Allen, 2004). US research has further demonstrated that accounting professionals can have an impact on the perception of accountants and the accounting profession when they make planned presentations to introductory accounting courses (Fedoryshyn ; Tyson, 2003). The high school teacher and high school career advisor found by previous studies. Hermanson (1995) and Hartwell et al. (2005) . Some research such as Hermanson and argue that in the US, high school teachers / career advisors only influence 5 to 12% of their students career choice. They were also found to have a weak influence on Japanese students (Sugahara Boland, 2005). However, the studies in US and Ireland has identified that the influence of teachers for students to their accounting perception (Paolillo Estes, 1982; Mauldin et al 2000; Byrne Flood, 2005; Byrne and Willis, 2005). Even though the results are inconsistent, any misconception of accountants and the accounting profession by these high school teachers and career advisors has the potential to change a students major or career choice. Wells and Fieger (2005) in a New Zealand based survey of high school teachers found that there was a mismatch between high school teachers perceptions of accounting and accountings actual role and that the teachers had a low opinion of accounting as a career option for students. These results are similar to two other studies that utilize the same survey instrument, those of Hardin et al. (2000) and Sugahara et al. (2006). These two research studies suggest that high school teachers consider accounting monotonous and boring (Sugahara et al. , 2006, p. 416) and that the accounting profession has a serious perception problem among high school educators (Hardin et al. , 2000, p. 216) when compared to other professions such as medicine, law and engineering. Furthermore, the Wells and Fieger (2005) results support those of Fransisco et al. (2003) who conclude that, in addition to the boring image of accounting, some high school teachers in the US are not encouraging their brightest students to consider accounting as a career. High school career advisors perceptions of the accounting profession have also been investigated. Pollock, Papiernik and Slaubaugh (2002), in a US-based study suggest that career advisors thought that the accounting profession was uninteresting, stressful, time consuming and not that financially rewarding with accounting overall being viewed as boring. They were also not familiar with the CPA requirements. However, high school career advisors have not been examined in a New Zealand context. Many researchers suggests that the students not only influenced by own perception but there are many reasons such as teachers, parents, and friends that effect their choice in high school or university Harrison (1998), however prior studies found that the impact of teachers on a students very important in university to choose accounting as major (e. g. Paolillo and Estes 1982; Hermanson and Hermanson 1995; Geiger and Ogilby 2000; Mauldin et al. , 2000) Some studies also found that parents had strong influence on accounting decisions Inman et al. , (1989); Mauldin et al. , (2000) and Tan and Laswad (2006). The result about Asian students suggests that the important of human to effect of their opinions towards accounting major Auyeung and Sands (1997). Tan and Laswad (2006) also found that international students in particular regarded the views of parents and career counselors as important in their selection of intended major. METHODS AND DESIGN TARGET POPULATION. The target population of this study is the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), students studying of postgraduate and undergraduate Accounting course in 2010. SAMPLE. The sampling procedures relied on convenience and self-selection. All members of the sample were enrolled at university Utara Malaysia in one of the Malaysia universities. they were either in an Accounting-major class. For this study, there were two Groups, postgraduate and undergraduate students in UUM. INSTRUMENT. The instrument came in the form of a modified from Satoshi Sugahara and Gregory Boland (2005) study, the Accounting Profession as a Career Choice for tertiary Business students in Japan . 112 the questionnaire included 17 questions. Seven questions were related to Demographic information, five Questions related to Career choice, and five questions were related to perception toward the accounting profession. The Perception questions dealt with topics that affected specific perception toward the accounting profession such as background for accounting, occupational attributes regarding an accountant, difficulties to become a CPA. The career choice questions dealt with future career plans and goals as well as major selection and development, influenced by people, and factors for career options and development. DATA COLLECTION. The data set used in this study was collected via questionnaires completed by 150 students undertaking the accounting major as part of their undergraduate and postgraduate studies at a Universiti Utara Malaysia. This unit of study represents the first unit of accounting studied in the undergraduate and postgraduate degree that is only completed by students pursuing an accounting major. The questionnaire collected background information relating to entry pathway, country of permanent residence and factors important in decision to major in accounting The present study replicated several aspects of prior study of Satoshi Sugahara and Gregory Boland (2005) ,the Accounting Profession as a Career Choice for tertiary Business students in Japan , a factor analysis using the Accounting Attitude Scale (AAS) developed by Nelson (1991). The 150 questionnaires were distributed and collected directly from the classrooms at each Class. After eliminating unusable questionnaires, an effective 112 responses (74. 66% response rate) were used. Most of the unusable responses were due to the incompletion of the Questionnaires STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Factor analysis was selected as the prime method for our study. This method is usually conducted by using a combination of factor extraction and factor rotation. It is possible that by using the factor extraction method we can identify any underlying latent patterns of relationships among students vocational attributes. This has the effect of condensing the gathered information into smaller and more meaningful components or factors. The factors were identified by determining the optimal combination of attributes, which enabled more of the variance in the data to be explained compared to any other variable combinations. Among several factor extraction methods available, the principal component analysis was selected for this study simply because it is one of the more commonly used today. The optimal numbers of factors were determined by applying the most commonly used eigenvalues- greater-than- one rule (Kim Mueller, 1978). From the samples used in our study, two factor analyses were conducted for both the postgraduate and undergraduate accounting students groups. As for the factor rotation procedure, the Promax rotation technique was applied to assist us in the interpretation of potential influential factors. This method has also been widely used in previous studies, for example Ahmadi et al. (1995). Following the analysis of these vocational attributes a descriptor was assigned to properly reflect the meaning of the factor and grouped attribute. In addressing students perceptions of the work of accountants the study uses descriptive statistics to examine the attitude of undergraduate and postgraduate students towards the accounting profession. The study explored students attitudes towards the work of accountants following the methodology by Satoshi Sugahara and Gregory Boland (2005). RESULTS INTRODUCTION. In this study, questionnaires were distributed to students studying the accounting course in the UUM. Of the 112 useable responses 74 were female and 38 were male. The distributions of students by race were 88 Malaysian students (46 Malay, 38 Chinese, and 2 Indian), 12 Arab, and 12 other international students. GENERAL PERCEPTIONS. The results of the present study show that the majority (32. 14%) of the respondents chose their careers during Pre-High school. This may imply that the recruitment campaigns at schools are fairly effective, but that career guidance teachers should provide more information to enlighten students regarding the pros and cons of the profession. This is in line with the findings of Hermanson et al. (1995) and Paolillo and Estes (1982). However, Sale (2001) and Graves, Nelson and Deines (1993) found that the majority of students made their career choice only once they had registered at a tertiary institution. CAREER CHOICE MOTIVATION DATA. PERCEIVED CONSTRAINTS OF THE PROFESSION. FUTURE CAREER PLANS. There are four factors were identified for accounting students. These results explained 73. 953% of total variance. The Promax method was selected for rotation, and all attributes with factor loadings of more than 0. 5 were retained for the purpose of this analysis. The first largest factor for accounting students was interpreted as Intrinsic and extrinsic career related factors (23. 154%) confirmed by the two attributes such as chance to make a contribution and nature of job. The intrinsic value was specifically defined in prior studies (Felton et al. ,1994; Ahmed et al. , 1997) as the factor relating to ones satisfaction derived from jobs, which Provide the chance to be creative, autonomous, intellectual challenging and working in a Dynamic environment. Prior New Zealand research (Malthus ; Fowler, 2003) has indicated that although extrinsic factors such as financial rewards, prestige and other market related factors are perceived as important when choosing an accounting career, they are inconclusive as to whether intrinsic factors such as job satisfaction are also important. The financial rewards factor. Financial reward has been regarded as an important factor that affects a students career choice decision in many prior studies (Paolillo Estes, 1982; Kochanek Norgaard, 1985; Inman et al. , 1989; Adams et al. , 1994; Felton et al. , 1994; Ahmed et al. , 1997) In the present study, this factor, comprising good initial salary and good long-term earning. Nevertheless, we believe that the attributes of financial rewards were integrated with other attributes to form different factors. As seen above, the attribute good long-term earning was combined with the largest Career Prospects factor. Similarly, the attributes for financial rewards, for example good initial salary, come with job availability. Another factor for accounting students was interpreted as Job Market Conditions. This factor also has been observed in previous studies (Felton et al. , 1994; Ahmed et al. , 1997). The two attributes of element of job variety adventure and flexibility in career options were basically incorporated into this factor. The factor of working environment. Although accounting students consider this as one of the influential factors. In accordance with this factor, Buckley McKenna (1973) similarly regarded some attributes, for examples the length of work hours and other physical working conditions, as crucial aspects of employers job motivation, which would affect ones career choice. However for this current study factors contained the three following attributes: sufficient time for social life, length of work hours and good physical working conditions. Research has suggested that at high school, the study of accounting, an aptitude for mathematics and/or an interest in the subject impacts on the choice of accounting as a career with this choice potentially being influenced by the students teachers and career advisors. The high school and tertiary students who were studying accounting generally had a more positive attitude towards accounting and accountants. The perception as to what skills and characteristics are required for an accounting career potentially affects the type of student the career advisors may encourage to study accounting at high school. Nonetheless, the results also indicate that other factors played a role in the career decisions the students made. The final factor for accounting students was interpreted as The Major human influencers or referents factor ranked relatively lower for both student groups in deciding their vocational choice. The empirical study by Inman et al. (1989), Silverstone ; Williams (1979) and Mauldin et al. (2000) reported that parental influence was relatively stronger. Similarly, Cohen ; Hanno (1993), Allen (2004) and Tan ; Laswad (2006) discovered that close friends and business friends have exercised significant influence on students major choice when studying accounting. Previous New Zealand Laswad Tan, 2005, Charting a course into accountancy, Chartered Accountancy Journal of New Zealand, 59-61 research suggests that the most important referent for New Zealand students is their parents (caregivers). However, international research suggests other groups may also be important. It was apparent from all the student focus groups that the main referents were the students parents and family members, teachers, and people. Other referents mentioned were friends, and university. CORRELATIONS. Correlation is a vicariate measure of association (strength) of the relationship between two variables. It varies from 0 (random relationship) to 1 (perfect linear relationship) or -1 (perfect negative linear relationship). It is usually reported in terms of its square, interpreted as percent of variance explained. The use of partial correlation is usually restricted to simple models of 3 or 4 variables, 5 at the most (Cohon, 1983). Correlation will also be attenuated to the extent there is measurement error, including use of sub-interval data or artificial truncation of the range of the data. Correlation can also be a misleading average if the relationship varies depending on the value of the independent variables. This section reports the correlation analysis results of maximum figures of inter-factor correlation were 0. 294 between factor 4 and factor 2 for accounting students, and shown the relationship between factor 3 and factor 1 were 0. 261, also the correlation between factor 3 and factor 2 were (0. 236). STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE ACCOUNTING STUDENTS. As noted above the results of our factor analysis for accounting students revealed that the major influential factor was Intrinsic Value. It would appear credible that such occurrences may quickly drive a students career choice away from accounting. To address this worrying issue, it is necessary to disseminate appropriate promotional activities that can negate such negative images and convince students of the attractiveness attached to a CPA profession. Our study also reports that the factor Career Prospects is ranked relatively higher for accounting students. From the authors experience. The empirical evidence supports this. However, our study suggests that this kind of information can be very harmful to our brightest accounting students. The findings also suggested that accounting students seem to be quite sensitive to employability when it comes to Job Market Considerations. While this factor was ranked for accounting students, the sub section for accounting students contained two specific attributes: namely job availability and security of employment. Working environment and financial rewards are in common in terms of physical benefits. Several prior studies examined and found that these factors have significant influences on a students career choice in relation to accounting (Paolillo ; Estes, 1982; Kochanek ; Norgaard, 1985; Inman et al. , 1989; Adams et al. , 1994; Felton et al. , 1994; Ahmed et al. , 1997). In contrast, the finding of our study in Malaysia indicated that these were ranked as only minor factors. The results again confirm that both the professional body and the accounting firms should give more attention to the intrinsic values rather than the physical factors when marketing the attractiveness of a CPA career especially for the accounting students. As for the remaining influential vocational factor for accounting students, Persons Influences, was rated the lowest. Prior studies discussed the effectiveness of this factor but have failed to agree on this issue. Some studies insisted that Persons Influence is very important to a students career choice (Paolillo ; Estes, 1982; Cohen ; Hanno, 1993) while other studies have not supported this impact (Gul et al. , 1989; Ahmed et al. , 1997). The analysis of this current study in Malaysia supports the latter cases, which indicate that promotional activities involving other persons could be relatively ineffective in encouraging accounting students. Job market considerations were also ranked relatively higher accounting students. This also suggests we need to emphasize the importance of the economical and physical conditions of an accounting career, rather than the mental factors such as occupational intrinsic values that were more important to accounting students. Therefore, in establishing a career pathway accounting students may be slightly driven by these attributes in the short-term. This aspect should also be considered by the professional body and accounting firms when developing remuneration schemes. CONCLUSION. The purpose of this study was to observe factors profiles in career choice for accounting students. The results of our empirical study indicated that there were four factors, our study also suggests strategies for the accounting professional body and the accounting firms to develop and maintain the attractiveness of the CPA in accordance with the results of the statistical analyses. As discussed, the strategies to promote the accounting profession. There are several limitations in this study. The strategies used to promote the accounting profession to accounting students and vice versa. Any contradiction between the resulting strategic will diminish if we can identify students future career perspective at an early stage of their career. Secondly, the study only asked students opinion regarding the attributes influencing their career decision. We ignored the effects on career choice of personal values, which is regarded as one of the cognitive styles, may influence a students career choice (Kolb, 1981). Thirdly, this study focused on the domestic population. Since some of the findings in this study were unique to specific traits identified in Malaysia, it is difficult to conclude discussion without comparative counterparts. International comparative studies within several countries regarding this topic will be required in order to finalize the issues. These limita

Industrial Relations In Britain Management Essay

Industrial Relations In Britain Management Essay Introduction The management of industrial relations in Great Britain has changed notably in the last three decades. Industrial relations management has been significantly affected by several factors: economic climate, political change, and social environment. After world war two, British economic condition has gradually fallen down. It has been proved that it is much more complicated to manage industrial relations than before. The causes can be analyzed from many aspects: the increasing competition in product market, globalized trend, restructuring labor force, and reduced unions power. From 1979, the power of trade unions has been greatly restricted by government. Deregulation on the labor market also has been enhanced. At the same time, British economy had to face a severe international competition with high inflation and unemployment in domestic. Then, what are the changes of British industrial relations in the last three decades. What are major factors influencing British industrial relations management. We plan to find out more in the following parts. First, the nature of industrial relations management was the first issue. Then, industrial relations management in the period from 1979-1997 and period from post-1997 has been discussed respectively from two aspects: economic and political factors. Finally, the role and influence of employer, trade union and government have been embedded respectively. Human resource management in industrial relations In the 1980s and 1990s, the attitudes and strategies of industrial relations have been changed. Debates about human resource management practice in industrial relations were hot issues in management field. And individualism and collectivism in industrial relations were focused as well. First, look at the political and economic environment. From 1979 to 1997, The Conservative Government, which was elected during the time, insisted on weakening trade union power, reducing public expenditure. Except the government policies, employers faced a more competitive market. The globalization and recession made the situation worse than they had before. During this time, employers aimed to make great profits and reduce cost, instead of good industrial relations management. The types of corporation, labour market, competition in product market, organisation culture, and tradition were taken into account when employers intended to make industrial relations policies. A very important conception whic h was largely recognized in HRM was that labour is regarded as an asset or resource. Thus, employers need to explore employees potential through motivation, training, and development. Storey (1992) proposed two famous HRM versions: soft HRM and hard HRM. Soft HRM emphasis on employees needs, such as motivation, training and work-life balance while hard HRM more emphasis on economic factors. Many researchers agreed that HRM to some extent was a threat to trade union and was a new development in employee relations (Guest, 1989, Millward, 1994) Turing to industrial relations management style, there are four types of management styles which were classified by Purcell and Sisson (Purcell and Sisson 1983 cited by Kessler, 1998): traditionalists, sophisticated paternalists, sophisticated moderns, and standard moderns. Traditionalists have one belief and are anti-union with forceful management. Sophisticated paternalists spend much time in ensuring that their employees have the right approach. Sophisticated moderns management recognized the union role in certain areas. Finally, in standard modern management Trade unions are recognized and industrial relations are seen as primarily fire-fighting and assumed to be non-problematic unless event prove otherwise. (Sid Kessler, 1998, p.114) The industrial relations management may vary in different organisations or even in different groups in a company. Although the management style may vary according to the situations, one fact was that collective involvement had been shifted to indivi dual involvement. After 1997, the employee relations management further developed. The findings of WERS 2004 show that positive contracts and communication with employees will contribute to high commitment performance and economic outcomes. Moreover, Employee involvement participation is greatly focused by employers, employee voice, teamworking, and work-life balance as well. (WERS, 2004) Industrial relations management in 1979-1997 The economic environment for industrial relations from 1979 to 1997 changed greatly. Firstly, the decline of manufacturing industry was very obvious. Secondly, unemployment problem is dramatically severe. It was reported that the number of unemployment increased from 1.6 million to 3 million from 1987-1992. Although there was a small recovery after 1992, the number of unemployment still kept on 1.5millionn in mid-1997. The high unemployment reflected a severely competitive labour market. Furthermore, the structure of economy and labour force also changed. Manufacturing industry decreased; private service sectors increased; and increasing number of women was engaged in workplace; self-employment became popular; and part-time workers, and temporary workers grew fast in that period. Finally, there was a globalized competition in product market. Interaction of these economic changes influenced industrial relations in Britain. Except the economic changes, the Conservative Governments poli cies and laws had great effects on industrial relations. The government restricted trade union power and weakened joint regulation. A series of legislative program was carried out during the time. The first legislative action was to restrict the closed shop in 1980. The Conservative thus, Governments policies and trade union membership density was directly reduced by governments policies and legislations. Shifting to industrial relations management, a more important change was that employee relations specialists and line managers replaced traditional managers role: they are more likely to be responsible for employee relations issues in 1990s. If people intend to be employee relations specialists, they need to obtain professional qualifications. And such qualification requires long relevant working experience. This change may reflect a higher demand for professional knowledge such as employment law. The management of employee relations became more complicated. The conception of human resource management was widely accepted in the late 1980s. Millward et al (2000) noted that those using the title human resource manger accounted for a third of specialists in 1998.(Millward 2000, p. 225) The employee relations specialists continued to rise in the following years. Millwards findings showed that human resource managers and employee relations specialists responsibilities are similarly. They are both responsible for pay, training, grievance handling, and payroll management. Another change was the shift of employee relations managers major work. In the early 1980s, many employee relations managers spent much time on dealing with collective industrial conflict. WERSs (1998) findings revealed that employee relations mangers pay much attention to individual grievances, particularly related to legal proceedings. Moreover, workplace managers switched more attention to collect and deliver information to employees. They use information to review organisation performance and policies. Another change was happened in industrial relations system. Multi-employer agreements affected one third of the number of workplaces in 1998 that they had in the early 1980s. (Millward , 2000, p. 227) In terms of pay, multi-employer agreements to most extent have been determined by employers themselves than workplace itself. The management became more centralized in an organisation during the 1990s. Higher authorities were more likely to make decisions than workplace managers. This could indicate that industrial relations were regarded as operational issue rather than strategic ones. Trade unions had more chance to be involved in the relationship between employers and employees. Trade unions in Britain represent employees interest. But from 1979 to 1990s, trade unions power gradually declined and lost much union membership. Employees support for trade union declined and support from management reduced as well. Many factors led to the phenomenon. The decline of manufacturing industry where were traditionally organized by trade union reduced the number of union membership. And the increasing number of women workforce and temporary workforce who have less possibility of being union membership also resulted from the decline. Another change was that there was less union recognition at workplaces, particularly in private service sectors, which increased during the time. Thus, fewer employees asked for collective bargaining to improve their pay and working conditions. Moreover, the impact of trade union on pay weakened during 1980s and 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, when the collective representation declined, the management in industrial relations transferred to focus on communication with employees. Millwards survey showed that communication channels between senior mangers and employees have changed from joint arrangements to direct forms of communications (Millward, 2000 p.230) Managers held regular meeting with workforce and team briefings to hear their suggestion and questions. And according to Millwards point of view, this management-dominated arrangements can improve employee treatment. Industrial relations management in post-1997 After 1997, industrial relations in Britain continued to change due to the changing external environment. However, there were many employment relations retained: the degree of numerical flexibility, the incidence of varies dispute, grievance and disciplinary procedures, the incidence of industrial actions and etc. (WERS, 2004) A variety of changes could be obtained from workplace employment relations. From WERSs findings (2004), the practice of employment relations varies largely between small and large workplace and it also varies between different sectors of industry, especially between private sectors and public sectors. Private sectors shared more proportion in workplaces from1998 to 2004. The figures from WERS2004 showed that 70 percent of workplaces were operating in private sectors compared with two-thirds in 1998. Look at all workplaces, 49 percent of employees were female and 34 percent of them were in managerial positions. Women have more chance to be managers in public sectors (46 percent) than in private service sectors (30 percent). Trade union also changed considerable and it had great impacts on industrial relations management. There was a considerable decrease in the proportion of union members. In 2004, 64 percent of workplaces didnt have union members compared with 57 percent in 1998). Union density slightly declined from 22 percent to 18 percent. Public sector accounted for more proportion of union membership than that of private sectors. Union membership density had strong relationship with management attitudes. Public sectors were more likely to provide management support for union membership than private sectors. However, the relationship between public sectors and private sectors are similarly strong. Besides that, another change of trade union in British workplaces can be found from WERS 2004 report. The proportion of union recognition in workplaces continued to decline after 1997. Only 18 percent of workplaces recognized trade union in 2004. (28 percent union recognition in1998) Furthermore, compared with 1998, union representative in workplaces spent more time on representative works. And they did more representative works than their non-union colleagues. It was reported that 43 percent of union representatives spent five hours on representative work while 33 percent spent two and four hours. Union representatives pay more attention to working condition and dispute, such as pay level, working hours, holidays. About 76 percent of union representatives attempt to recruit new members in their workplaces. But a clearly change during the period was that employees had a low preference of being a union members. In the period from 1979-1997, workplace managers were more concerned about collecting and delivering information. They continued to adopted direct communication with employees after 1997. Direct communication was further widespread between managers and employees. Figures could be found from WERS2004 report. Table 1 Direct communication and information sharing, by sector of ownership. 1998 and 2004 1998 2004 Private sectors Public sectors All Private sectors Public sectors All Direct communication Meeting with entire workforce or team briefings 82 96 85 90 97 91 Systematic use of management chain 46 75 52 41 63 45 Regular newsletter 35 59 40 72 86 74 Noticeboards 36 48 38 E-mail 36 48 38 Intranet 31 48 34 Suggestion schemes 30 30 30 Employee surveys 37 66 42 Information disclosure over Investment plans 47 59 50 40 50 41 Financial position of workplace 56 82 62 51 76 55 Financial position of organisation 66 67 66 51 53 51 Staffing Plans 55 81 61 61 81 64 (Source from Workplace Employment Relations Report2004) From the table, we can see that there were different forms of direct communication in practice. Regular meetings with entire workforce or team briefings was still popular, accounting for a dominate proportion and slightly increased from 85 percent to 91 percent during the time 1998 to 2004. A new creation of these meeting was that a part of meeting time was left to employees. Employees were allowed to propose suggestions and questions during the meeting. Suggestion scheme, staff attitude surveys and problem-solving groups were adopted by many organisations in managing employment relations during the time. Moreover, In the information disclosure over part, mangers preferred to disclose information though staffing plans (64 percent) than others. Shifting to pay determination, which is a major issue in managing employee relations, the most common pay determination was still by management unilaterally. 70 percent of workplaces used this way to pay. Only 27 percent of workplace asked for collective bargaining with unions to determine pay level. Similar to the situation of 1979 to 1997, the proportion of workplaces through collective bargaining in pay determination has continued to decrease since 1997. But public sectors were more likely to use collective bargaining than private sectors. Among 83 percent of public sectors workplaces, 82 percent of workers have their pay through collective bargaining. On the other hand, in private sectors, 26 percent of worker among 14 percent of workplaces use collective bargaining. From these figures, we can know that pay system was not unmilitary anymore. Different measurements were developed. Managers were more likely to determine pay through systematic performance and appraisal management to motivate employees. Performance-related pay, profit-related bonuses, and employee share schemes were prevalent at this stage. The way manager dealing with workplace conflict was also a change during this period. It is obvious that collective conflicts gradually reduced while individual conflicts grew. Industrial actions were less used to solve workplace conflict. most of conflicts were solved through legal procedures. But there was no big conflict happened during the time. Equal opportunities were concentrated by employers since 1997. A large number of industrial relations law was approved by government to enhance the equality in workplaces. Response to the legislation, managers implemented a range of equality policies. WERSs report (2004) revealed that 73 percent of workplaces had a written policies regarding equal treatment in 2004. 9 percent increased from 1998. These policies are largely concerned about equal opportunities for different gender, race, and disability. When implementing some HRM practice such as recruiting, selection, pay rate system, managers are required to consider these policies in employee relations management. Moreover, there was other legislation introduced to improve employer-employee relations, covering work-life balance, hours of work, flexible working arrangements, employee well-being and job satisfaction etc. All these legislation pushed employers to make some differences in industrial relations management. In the late 1990s, the relationship between employers and employees was firstly defined as partnership. Therefore, partnership practice was expected to be implemented by employers. But does partnership practice really promote the managers-employees relations. Evidence was shown in table 2 below. Table 2 managers and employees perceptions of management-employee relations, 1998 and 2004 manager employee 1998 2004 1998 2004 Very good 41 47 16 19 good 47 46 40 41 Neither 8 6 27 24 Poor 3 1 12 12 Very poor 1 0 6 4 (Source from Workplace Employment Relations Survey) Compared with managers view, employees thought relationship was slightly less improved. Except that, managers hold a relatively positive attitude towards management-employee relations. 47 percent of mangers thought they had very good relations with employees while only 19 percent of employees agreed. Partnership relationship requires mutual trust, but the reality was less satisfactory. To sum up, industrial relations management showed considerable changes. Under the adopt of partnership relations between managers and employees, Less workforce want to be union members; direct commutation was widespread in workplaces; an decreasing number of workplaces recognized unions for bargaining on pay and conditions, and collective bargaining declined as well; an range of policies were implemented in workplaces to promote equal opportunities; and managers had wider responsibilities of caring their employees on flexible working conditions, work-life balance, security, job satisfaction etc. The role and influence of employers The most famous employer association in Britain is the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Like TUC, CBI does not directly participate in collective bargaining. Its major work is to lobby to British government for employers interests. In the last three decades, employers association gradually lost their regulative power. Since 1970s, the decentralized trend was shown in private sectors. A range of operational jobs were distributed to lower departments while head office only had strong control on certain key issues. The employer power and freedom was greatly strengthened in the last few decades. There were many causes contributed to the situation. More competitive globalization in product market and governments policies in weakening union power let employers have more power in labour field. Employers focused on performance improvement, cost reduction in labour filed. Employers play an important role in employment relations management. They formulate the management policies and style which are different in every organisation. Employers also have the rights to decide whether or not recognize unions. During the period, employers have sought to manage industrial relations with HRM techniques. They became to purse employee commitment, teamworking, and work hard in improving communication with employees. In terms of pay determination, their measures have been extended. Performance-related pay, profit related pay and employee share schemes were adopted in most workplaces. As the maker and performer of these policies, employers decision and behaviors considerably influence industrial relations management. In workplaces, employers choose certain styles of employment relations management. Non-unionism prefers Soft HRM or bleak house management style while unionism prefers partnership at work. The role and influence of government Government plays a key role in industrial relations. Its attitude towards industrial relations can largely change the current situation. It is mostly related to governments role in law. Governments polices and legislation determined employers and trade unions attitudes and conduct of employment relationship. Since 1979, The Conservative Government canceled support for collective bargaining and attempted to decrease collectivism and regulation. The government published laws to regulate equal pay and opportunities at workplaces. When Labour Party took the government, they regulated National Minimum Wage, and were more concerned about employees rights. These actions made contributions to written equality policies in organisations and to some extent influenced pay system. On the other hand, government legislation reduced the power and ability of unions to control on industrial action, closed shop policies directly reduced trade unions membership. The role and influence of trade union In Britain, there was one trade union: Trade Union Congress (TUC) and many affiliated unions. TUC dont have the rights to make industrial relations laws, their major work is to lobby government and employers on behalf of employees interest and benefits. For many HR specialists, dealing with trade unions issues was once an important work in their jobs. However, since 1979, the Conservative Government took part the government, a series of anti-union legislation dramatically weakened union power. It was calculated that union membership declined to about 7 million b from1979 to 1997. The cause was not only the political change and economy recession. Metcalf (1991, p.22) noted that the result was interacted by five factors: the economic climate, workforce market, government policies, the attitudes of employers, and union themselves. Studies show that larger organisations have more chance of Trade union presence. 64% union density was shown in public sectors. White-collars are more likely to be union membership. Labour partys return in 1997 has brought some changes, but the union power still towards a fall trend. The Employment Relations Act 1999 aims to promote union recognition. And Labour Government spent more efforts on employees interests. In the last three decades, trade union changed a lot to attract new employees. Except proving legal advice, training for representatives has been developed. And TU try to build a partnership with employers. According to E.D.Ewings study (2005), trade unions have five major functions: a service function; a representation function; a regulatory function; a government function; a public administration function.(Ewing, 2005) A service function means trade unions plays a role of providing service and benefits to members. It takes twos forms. One is more traditional, comprising health and unemployment benefits, and even insurance. The other is more professional. Trade unions provide legal advice and representation to help workers. Trade union needs to recruit new membership for survive, the service functions are usually used as a recruitment toll as they provide a variety of service such as representation to those who has grievances at workplaces, which is much more important than collective bargaining now. Representation function has gained much concern in recent years. A representation function means that trade union is responsible for employees interest and benefits. Different from service function, representation function offer much more professional support to employees. And also trade union can take the form of collective representation to assist employees. Collective representation has two major forms: consultation and bargaining. Regulatory function is the most important role of trade unions. A regulatory function means that trade unions is responsible for making rules for union membership. The role can be achieved by two ways. One is directly performed through multi-employer collective bargaining, such as Joint Industrial Councils. Another way is indirectly performed through legislation. Because decentralized organisations increased in the past few decades, the role of trade union in collective bargaining in pay and conditions has declined. By contrast, regulatory legislation is more prevalent. Government function means that trade union are involved in cooperating with government to ensure they can perform their functions under governments legislation and policies. And public administration function is similar to government function they are all engaged in implementation and delivery of government policies. Trade unions attitude towards management has changed in recent years. Many trade unions now focus much on business. They attempt to develop flexible, motivated workforce and partnership not only equal treatment. Conclusion There have been great changes in UKs industrial relations. During the 1979-1997 periods, Britain suffered a great recession. The proportion of manufacturing industry declined. Unemployment problem is dramatically severe. The competitive labour market worsens the unemployment problem. The structure of economy and labour force also changed as well. Public service sectors grew quickly during this time. and increasing number of women, self-employment, part-time worker and temporary workers grow were engaged in workplace. Besides the economic changes, government restricted trade union power. And a series of legislation was carried out in order to control the activities of organized labour. The interaction of economic and political factors reduced the trade union membership density. In workplaces, employee relations specialists and line managers replaced traditional managers role. They become responsible for handing employee relations issues. Compared with traditional responsibilities, it was reported that employee relations mangers pay much attention to individual grievances, particularly related to legal proceedings. Employees support for trade union and support from management both declined. Finally, when the collective representation decreased, the management in industrial relations transferred to focus on communication with employees. Direct forms of communications were more prevalent at workplaces. In post-1997, Labour Party took the government; they attempted to enhance union recognition despite the gradual decline of union density. But they were increasingly concerned about employees rights, such as National Minimum Wage. Managers were more likely to determine pay level by diverse pay system: performance related pay, profit-related bonuses, and employee share schemes. Managers worked hard on improving employer-employee relations. Direct communications was widespread at the time. Managers actively listen to employees suggestion and questions. Management scheme covered more issues than before, such as work-life balance, flexible working arrangement, and equal opportunities. Due to governments support and the weaken power of trade unions, employers have more freedom and power. Employers can decide whether or not to be union members at workplaces and also can choose management style in industrial relations. Government as a law-maker plays a crucial role in industrial relations management. Trade unions represent the interests of employees, have five major functions: service function; representation function; regulatory function; government function; and public administration function.