Category: Uncategorized

Law and Ethics in Business

Name

Professor

Institution

Course

Date

Law and Ethics in Business

Introduction

The employment at will doctrine exists in the United State employment laws that states that either party in the employment relationship can severe the relationship with no liability, so long as there was no definite contract for a definite term of employment governing the relationship, and that the employee does not belong to any union or bargaining group.

Skills, Competence, and Abilities

According to Stone, (2007), the employees’ skills, competencies, and abilities are to test in this scenario. She is unable to perform as per the standards of the employer, even after the employer has trained her for three months on the computer applications relevant to her performance at work. The firm is legally allowed to to fire her based on the employment at will doctrine, because their is no apparent reason why she cannot be productive and efficient in completing her tasks. In most cases the descriptive requirements of the competencies required are always written in the job profile, and qualified by the level at which the job should be performed. She does not have any disability that cannot enable her to perform her duties. For the employer to reduce any risks, or liability on its part, is by modifying the contract to include situations or employee actions that would lead to termination for cause.

In this case the reason or cause for termination is poor performance, which provides the legal implications for the employee verses the employer. The employer is free to fire the employee without fearing legal process to be found liable for breach of any contract. This particular case has no exceptions to the employment at will doctrine (Budd, 2004).

Management, Behaviour, and Performance

The employees’ behaviours are against the behaviour policies of the company, such as the company late policy of which the employee is aware of. Her rage and kind of response when criticized is not responsible at all. The company is not particularly free of incurring legal liability in the case of the employee’s outbursts when confronted. There could be many factors that make her behave in this manner, such as psychological factors in her upbringing, her emotional maturity, her values, and her personality. Given that she asserts that she knows her rights and what to do, maybe she has seen some loophole in the employer’s handbooks, policies, and practices. But for the case of coming late to work, the employer is free to terminate her employment, because this is well stated in the company’s late policy. Employees must arrive on time to work, follow orders, accept limited freedom of speech, and conform to a host of regulations (Glynn, Arnow, &, Sullivan, 2007).

The legal implications for the employer verses employee relationship is that the employer is free to give orders to the employee who must be followed, the employee has limited speech, so she should control the kind of words she uses to respond to the criticism. There would be no wrongful termination on the part of the employer in relation to the employee reporting to work late. For her outbursts, the employee may actually know something from her undergraduate on the exceptions to the employment at will doctrine and wrongful discharge in violation of public policy. But public policy does not protect the employee as the company has not violated any public interest. The employer preventive measures to avoid legal liabilities are having concrete evidence on the employee’s late reporting, and only to stick to this cause for termination. The exceptions may only arise in the case of the employee’s outburst when confronted (Don, 2007).

Labour and Laws

The employee took a day off without the management’s consent. From this point of view, the company has the right to fire the employee. Because, the management had clearly notified all the employees, that they were not allowed to take off without prior management’s approval. In this perspective, it is the employee who is liable for dismissal, because, the employee could have informed the management of her religious commitments on this particular day that fell during the tax season, which is very important to the company. The management could not have discriminated her on religious grounds, and may have allowed her to attend her religious holiday.

On the other hand, Tichy, (1997), argues that the management should be a little cautious, as she has been trying to gain the support of the other employees to organize or form a workers union to protect themselves. Unfortunately, there is no labour union for accountants. If she manages to convince her fellow workers to form this union, then if the management fires her, the company would risk incurring liability depending on the apparent ruling of the courts. The legal implications of this scenario on the employer verses employee relationship is that the employer can fire the employee on the basis of on call work schedule that depends on the employers need that all employees be present on the day of the tax season. This leaves the employee as the vulnerable party for dismissal.

The employee can also be dismissed on the basis of not following management’s orders to be present at work on that particular day. The exceptions to the employment at will in this case would be statutory provisions that prohibit the discharge for other than good cause after a designated probationary period. The employee has the right to challenge a dismissal in court or an arbitrator. The employee can also challenge that she was not given any warning before the termination, and that she is a first offender. The employer can protect themselves of incurring a legal liability based on implied contracts by using a clear and unambiguous disclaimer on written materials stating that that its policies and procedures do not create contractual rights (Budd, 2004).

Policies and Procedures

This is little bit tricky case in the sense that it is the supervisor who first approached the employee for the dating escapades. The firm would be on the cross roads to determine how exactly the relationship started between the employee and the supervisor. From the supervisors part, the company faces some risk of incurring legal liability. The management should move cautiously in this scenario before terminating the employee, by conclusively investigating the nature of the relationship.

The company should not be allowed to terminate to fire her based on the employment at will doctrine. It is the supervisor who is the main culprit, because he consistently pressurized the employee to take her out on dates, which she initially refused. This could be a case of intimidation from the part of the supervisor. The employee was later convinced by her girlfriend to accept the supervisor’s advances, which she later began having consensual relationship with the supervisor. This was definitely wrong on the part of the employee who was well aware of the company policy which prevented employees from dating their supervisor, and was provided with the employee handbook with the written policy. On that perspective the company has the right to fire the employee (Glynn, Arnow, &, Sullivan, 2007).

There are many legal implications on the relationship between the employee and the employer. The company fears no liabilities if the employee cannot prove that it is the supervisor who started the whole idea of getting into a consensual relationship, the burden of prove that lies on the employee, is also very tricky if her girlfriend can be a witness, to defend her that it is the supervisor who started pressurizing her. The supervisor also risks losing his job if the employee can prove his intensions. The employer should have some preventive measures in place to avoid incurring a legal liability. The evidence of the clause that prohibits employees to have consensual relationships should be very clear on the nature of the relationships. The employer should also have concrete evidence of the existing relationship between the employee and the supervisor, and that actual nature of their relationship. Therefore, the company should conduct thorough investigations before rushing to tackle action on terminating the services of the employee. The exceptions that exist in this scenario can be interpreted as, Additional Tort Based Claims Limiting at will employment. The particular tort would be Intentional Interference with a contract. This is a claim that the employee may allege that the supervisor induced or intimidated her to a consensual relationship with ulterior motives to influence her dismissal

REFERENCES

Glynn, P, Arnow-R, &, Sullivan, C. (2007). Employment Law: Private Ordering and Its Limitations. New York:  Aspen Publishers,

Stone, W, (2007) “Revisiting the At-Will Employment Doctrine:  Imposed Terms, Implied Terms, and the Normative World of the Workplace,” Industrial Law Journal

Don M, (2007). The [Missing] Ethical Development of the Strategic Leaders of the Army Profession for the 21st Century,” conference paper, XIII Annual Strategy Conference, Carlisle, PA, April 10, p. 2.

Tichy N, (1997). The Leadership Engine, New York: Harper Business, p. 26.

Budd W, (2004). Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice Ithaca: Cornell University Press, , 86-88.

Audience Selection

Dr. Johnson serves as the main audience and gatekeeper for this report. He is the doctor at the nearby hospital. Decisions made in the facility would fall to him. David McCandlish, who works for Dr. Johnson as his assistant, is the secondary audience. His job is to help out with the doing of tests.

Student’s Name

P O Box

Date

Cover Letter

Dear Dr. Johnson,

I am a first-year nursing student who interned at a local health institution last year. I observed a lack of nurses while working there. The health facility was inconvenienced by this. Both the administrative personnel and the patients were impacted in some manner. Based on a thorough study, I have compiled a list of possible solutions to the nursing shortage. This study discusses the nurse shortage issue, then investigates the many causes of this problem, and proposes remedies meant to decrease or eliminate the negative effect this shortage has on the general population. This plan will allow you, the doctor, and your assistant to assist with the shortage of nurses in the facility. Thank you for reviewing my suggestions.

Sincerely,

Student’s Name

Student’s Name:

Institution Affiliated:

Course and Code Number:

Date:

Proposal for Management of Nurse Shortage

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Literature Review 2

Growing Number of Elderly Nurses i

Workforce Ageing ii

Analysis and Synthesis 3

Stressed out Life

Juggling Professional and Personal life

Region

Violent Behavior in the Medical Environment

Proposed Solutions

Ageing Workforce

Violent Behavior in Work Environment

Conclusion

Introduction and Context

For the better part of the last decade, the healthcare sector has struggled with a critical lack of nurses. Health care has suffered greatly due to the absence of qualified nurses to care for patients and the general community. Nurses with terminal degrees are critical to the future of nursing because they may build an innovative framework that can support the increasing complexity of providing affordable and convenient care with outstanding results while conserving organizational resources. Currently, there is a growing preference for nursing, which may be ascribed to fast population growth and an increase in the elderly population. Health care institutions throughout the globe are seeing an increase in demand for nurses due to a rise in the incidence of chronic lifestyle disorders. Several factors contribute to a lack of nurses. Even in the most advanced healthcare systems, there remains a chronic lack of nurses. This problem has been with us for many decades. It seems that no matter how hard the nursing leaders try, this issue will not go away. To prevent the nurse shortage from becoming a significant problem, several experts are now working on anticipating how the shortage will develop to solve it before it gets out of hand. Many reasons contribute to the turnover of nurses, but they are not nearly as many as the causes that contribute to the nursing shortage. Skills and human resources are not the only things that are subject to turnover.

Literature Review

A lack of qualified instructors, frequent staff turnover, and unequal distribution of the workforce are all contributing to the nurse shortage (Marc et. al, 13). There is a slew of factors contributing to the nurse shortage, all of which should be taken into consideration. Following are a few hypotheses as to why this may be.

By 2030, 2.5 million people in member nations of the same organization are anticipated to have a lack of nursing. As previously stated, the scarcity of nurses has a direct impact on both the healthcare industry and the education of future nurses. There is a lack of nurse educators because there are not enough nurses. Enrolment in nursing schools is constrained due to a scarcity of qualified professors. There are not enough professors and/or clinical mentors, according to a study by the American Association of Nursing Universities (AACN), at almost two-thirds of the colleges polled. The shortage of human resources and the credentials of the nurses are also an issue.

Growing Number of Elderly Nurses

Nurses are becoming older as the baby boom generation reaches middle age and becomes more dependent on health care. The number of Americans over 65 is more than it has ever been in the history of the United States. As the population becomes older, so does the need for medical care. Many older adults have many diseases and co-morbidities that necessitate the need for medical attention, rather than just one. As a general, the population is living longer, which has resulted in a rise in the usage of health care (Jarrar, et al., e470). Many diseases that were formerly considered terminal are now able be fought off for the long haul. Long-term diseases put a burden on an organization’s employees.

Some of the likely reasons for Poland’s nursing shortage and the most relevant strategies to alleviate the issue are discussed in a source authored by Marc et al. One of the primary causes of a nurse shortage, according to the authors, is the aging population and the shifting demographics that have occurred over time. A holistic approach is needed to find solutions to the shortage of nurses because of the many factors contributing to the problem. There are several reasons why nurses are in low supply across the globe, and this site gives some basic information about them. Because Poland is a typical nation with a big number of elderly as well as a low birthrate, the source will be crucial in comprehending the issue. Nursing shortages in nations with low birth rates, low mortality rates, and large populations of the elderly will be addressed using this source.

Workforce Aging

Nurses, like the patients they care for, are becoming older. As a result of the lack of nursing staff, nursing schools are forced to place enrollment restrictions on their students. The quality of the program and courses might suffer if there are fewer students and fewer faculty members. As a result, there is a scarcity of nurses since there is no successor for the aging workforce. The scarcity of nurses is also causing nurses to suffer from burnout, according to the authors. Burnout is a crucial factor in the delivery of subpar healthcare, and as a result, the quality of treatment provided to patients suffers (Haryanto, Mickey., 1). Another issue influencing the quality of patient treatment is an aging staff.

Analysis and Synthesis

In 1900, in the United States, there were only approximately 12,000 registered nurses in the country; now, there are over 3 million. It seems to be possible to conclude that the scarcity isn’t due to a lack of human resources. The demand, on the other hand, is increasing. While salary increases were formerly the key tool used to entice more individuals into this industry, today’s solution to the shortfall is a focus on expanding the pool of available job possibilities. However, it takes a couple of years to become a trained nurse. A lot of simple education programs have been put on in the United States because modern healthcare does not have a lot of time to waste. Short courses logically produce professionals of a lesser level, resulting in inferior quality services and results for patients.

In general, money and education are two of the most popular means of recruiting field human resources without sacrificing quality. Some nurses who stay in the field and need to be retained to avoid turnover value additional motivators, such as professional progress and the chance to influence their organizations’ policy-making processes. In McClelland’s view of motivation, the desire for accomplishment and power are closely linked to these demands. Nursing shortages and turnover may be solved with the use of power and influence theories since these difficulties are an indication of the de-empowerment of the staff owing to their forced acceptance of a variety of different jobs. This group’s requirements should be identified and then delegated to managers to address issues with high staff turnover. It is in this context that a transformational style would be used by the leader while the transactional style would be used by the managers to deal with this problem.

The role of a leader is to devise a strategy and a plan for dealing with turnover and shortfalls, whereas the role of managers is primarily to facilitate and sustain change. Lewin’s theory of change might be a good model for unfreezing (creating a new staffing plan), moving (hiring extra people), and refreezing (resolving the issue) (putting into practice retention strategies and theories of motivation). Both the manager and leader would be equally involved in the transformation process, with the leader focusing on motivating and inspiring others while the manager is in charge of ensuring consistency.

Stressed-out Nurse

Some newly minted nurses discover that their new career path is not quite what they expected. Others may work for a time before becoming burned out and quitting their jobs. After years of steadily increasing rates, it seems that nursing staff turnover is now coming to a halt. Turnover in the nursing profession ranges from 8.8% to 37.0% on a national level, depending on geography and specialty.

Juggling a professional and personal life

Nursing’s scarcity is exacerbated by the fact that the field is still dominated by women, and many nurses choose to scale down or abandon their careers to have families. There is a chance that some may return, while others will find a new position.

Regions

Several factors might confuse when it comes to looking at several regions and locations of the United States at the same time. As a result, some places have a nursing shortage while others are struggling to meet the fundamental demands of their local community as a whole.

There is a wide variation in the level of nursing shortages around the nation. Nursing shortages vary from region to region based on the kind of specialty. When it comes to critical care nurses, labor and delivery, and other specializations, certain places have serious deficiencies.

Violent Behavior in the Medical Environment

The constant fear of emotional or physical abuse in the hospital context exacerbates an already stressful atmosphere, which contributes to a nurse shortage. The physical and mental insults to the healthcare professional’s physical and emotional well-being harm their job satisfaction and work effort. Patients in emergency rooms and mental wards put emergency room and psychiatric nurses in greater danger.

According to research done in Poland between 2008 and 2009, nurses are the profession most susceptible to workplace aggressiveness in a healthcare context. In the most prevalent kind of violence that nurses were exposed to, nurses were subjected to verbal abuse (Seyda, et al., 383). More abuse was directed towards inpatient nurses than at those working in an outpatient environment. Between 8 percent and 38 percent of health care employees have experienced some type of violence throughout their careers.

Proposed Solutions

Aging Staff

Proactive steps are necessary to establish a future workforce, but it is also necessary to keep nurses in the profession longer so that their skills and knowledge may be passed on. Some organizations have already begun the process of implementing adjustments that might encourage elder nurses to continue on the job. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) (N.D.) honors the top 50 best employers for workers over the age of 50 each year. It was a pleasure to include organizations like AtlanticHealth System and Mercy Health Systems as well as hospitals like Massachusetts General Hospital and Kaiser Permanente when determining the winners of this award in 2011. Employees over 50 are actively recruited, their work is recognized and their opinions are encouraged, which are all common threads in the selection of these organizations (Chan, Engle Angela, et al., e0199183). They are also provided with relevant feedback and their opinions are encouraged. There are a variety of planning aids available. Assessments of priorities and employee requirements are possible using the Older Worker Lure Scale (OWL). As part of the OWL survey, workers are asked to rate their level of interest in a variety of topics, including ongoing professional development, formal career ladders, succession planning, and tuition reimbursement as well as in-service education assistance. Employees can assess their company’s efforts to implement best practices to accommodate an aging workforce using this system as well (Shamsi et al., 8). When it comes to long-term strategic planning, the scale is helpful, but many of the elements it considers, such as shift and work-hour flexibility, remain troublesome in today’s healthcare system and have an effect on employee retention. Shift schedule rigidity is a common gripe among nurses as they become older. Nurses in the United States are often forced to perform 12-hour shifts. In each debate over their eradication or decrease, both sides are engaged.

Also, fostering healthy working conditions for nursing staff in their later years can help solve the problem of staff in their late years retiring. Healthy work environments have been linked to higher levels of employee satisfaction, better patient outcomes, and higher levels of organizational performance, according to a growing body of research in the nursing literature. Many organizations have initiated initiatives to enhance their work conditions in an attempt to retain personnel, building on work began by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (2005). There are currently more than 390 hospitals in the world that have received Magnet certification, which is an essential endeavor for organizations that want to create healthy and supportive workplaces for nurses. In a review of studies looking at the shortage and purpose to quit nursing (Lama, et al., 4). Working conditions, culture, engagement, workload, and social support were all significant predictors of future performance in the organization.

Violent Behavior in the Medical Environment

Zero-tolerance policies should be developed by organizations to establish a workplace code of behavior and penalties for individuals who breach that code. Asserting that such behavior will not be accepted is one of the goals of drafting a written policy like this. With open communication, workers can identify and report instances of violence before they escalate. A company may develop an atmosphere where workers feel free to share their experiences by keeping lines of communication open between themselves and their superiors.

Employees may also be made more aware of the dangers of violence in the workplace so that they can take preventative measures. Many healthcare personnel accepts violence as part of the job because they believe it is inevitable. Employers that educate their workforce on the dangers of workplace violence will increase the number of incidents reported and keep their workers safe.

Many healthcare facilities either lack a formal protocol for reporting incidents of workplace violence or have one that is highly cumbersome. In both cases, victims are discouraged from coming forward and abusers can go on as they have in the past (Kronsberg, et al., 49). A transparent reporting method is advocated for healthcare managers so that personnel may tell supervisors when violence happens. Having more information about workplace abuse helps leaders monitor, react, and fight it more effectively.

Workplace violence incidents should be documented, evaluated, and acted upon by healthcare managers to detect patterns of abuse, such as which departments it happens more often in, repeat offenders, and so on. Workers who are educated about workplace violence are better able to prevent abuse from occurring. Leaders and front-line personnel benefit greatly from comprehensive training programs that teach them how to recognize and report violent crimes as well as create safety measures for their teams.

Conclusion

Several variables impact nurses’ desire to quit their jobs, including organizational and personal ones. Research is needed to determine how variables such as employment prospects influence nurses’ intentions to quit the profession. The expenses associated with employee turnover may be reduced if the nursing workforce is more stable (Ackerson, et l., 282). When compared to hospitals with greater nurse staffing levels, worse outcomes for hospital patients have been related to lower nurse staffing levels. There is a rise in the death rate as well as in infection rates and duration of hospital stay, as well as in the number of medication errors and accidents. Nurse retention rates will raise staffing levels, minimize bad health outcomes for customers, and lower expenses associated with employee turnover as a result. Many nations are looking to immigration as a possible solution to the scarcity of qualified nurses. Humans experience the world through the lens of who they are, not what it is (Haddad et. al,). As a result, hospitals need to be more accommodating when it comes to dealing with employees.

Works Cited

Ackerson, Kelly, and Kristy A. Stiles. " Value of nurse residency programs in retaining new graduate nurses and their potential effect on the nursing shortage." The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 49.6 (2018): 282-288.

Bakhamis, Lama, et al. " Still an epidemic: the burnout syndrome in hospital registered nurses." The health care manager 38.1 (2019): 3-10.

Chan, Engle Angela, et al. "Patients' perceptions of their experiences with nurse-patient communication in oncology settings: A focused ethnographic study." PloS one 13.6 (2018): e0199183.

Haddad, Lisa M., Pavan Annamaraju, and Tammy J. Toney-Butler. "Nursing shortage." StatPearls [Internet] (2020).

Haryanto, Mickey. "Nursing shortage: Myth or fact?" Orthopaedic Nursing 38.1 (2019): 1-2.

Jarrar, Mu'taman, et al. "The function of patient‐centered care in mitigating the effect of nursing shortage on the outcomes of care." The International journal of health planning and managementn33.2 (2018): e464-e473.

Kronsberg, Suzanne, Josephine Rachel Bouret, and Anne Liners Brett. "Lived experiences of male nurses: Dire consequences for the nursing profession." Journal of Nursing Education and Practice 8.1 (2018): 46-53.

Marć, M., et al. "A nursing shortage–a prospect of global and local policies." International nursing review 66.1 (2019): 9-16.

Shamsi, Aziz, and Hamid Peyravi. "Nursing shortage, a different challenge in Iran: A systematic review." Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran 34 (2020): 8.

Seren Intepeler, Seyda, et al. "Role of job satisfaction and work environment on the organizational commitment of nurses: a cross-sectional study." Contemporary nurse 55.4-5 (2019): 380-390.

Arizona government

Student’s name

Affiliation

Course

Date

A chart summarizing the powers and functions of the three branches of Arizona’s government

Arizona government state is made up of three separate branches, thus, the Judiciary, Executive and Legislature (Hull, 2010).

 Judicial 

The judicial branch consists of the Arizona Supreme court, court of Appeal, Superior Court and the minor courts.

The Superior Courts

The superior court handles felony cases as well as hears laws and cases of equity that involves the possession of real property and misdemeanors.

Supreme Court

The governor appoints five justices that sit on the Arizona Supreme Court which has administrative supervision on all the courts. The chief justice exercises the supervision powers.

Court of Appeal

The court of Appeal reviews appeals from Industrial Commission, rules over unemployment compensation within the Security Economic Department as well as the Arizona Tax court.Minor court hear petty offenses and covers jurisdiction over lawsuits below 5000$

Executive

The Executive branch members are selected by the Arizona people by voting. The members include the Superintendent of public Instruction, the Governor, the state treasurer, Secretary of state and the Attorney General.

The Executive branch has 130 agencies, authorities, departments, institutions commissions, boards, administrations, registrars, councils and offices. It is assigned to several departments thus; Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation and Department of Economic Security.

This branch of organization performs the day to day business of state of government and carrying out law (McClory, 2010).

Legislature

The legislative consists of the Arizona House of Representatives, the Arizona Senate and the Office of the Auditor General, Legislative Council as well as the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

The legislative branch makes and amends laws

Makes budget on how to spend and raise money from taxes

The president and the speaker are found in this branch

The president and the speaker appoint chairs to the standing committees and removes others as well as deciding when to pass a bill

The people of Arizona and the members of the senate propose a law to this branch

The Minority Leader sets party policy and legislative programs as well as whipping to ensuring that the needed votes are on the floor guaranteeing the channel for a flavored legislation (McClory, 2010)

Outline the procedures for Amending the Arizona Constitution.The Arizona Constitution amendment and the guiding principles as well as the main principles are initiated by the people of the state since they have power. This is enhanced through getting a signed petition by many voters approximately fifteen percent of the governor’s vote cast. The proposed amendments are later renounced to the state people to vote in an election. When majority votes approve the amendment, then it becomes a constitutional bill (Hull, 2010).

Analysis on the amendment process for the Arizona Constitution

I believe the Arizona Constitution is a fair process regarding its study. Most states power of government is placed in the hands of the politicians to choose and vote but, the Arizona constitution puts government’s power in the hands of the citizen. The Arizona Constitution amendment process does not give too much power to its citizen since the government is created to guide, help and protect them. It is rational that the Arizona people have the most power to vote but yet does not have too much power (McClory, 2010).

Moreover, Arizona has been the forty-eighth state that has been admitted in to the union and the Arizona citizens have been able to learn from previous mistakes of other states that they have been feeling it worked as well as what they have been feeling it should be different. I believe the progressive framers would endorse of the way the amendment process has been used thus far. This is because it has been created with huge reflection leading the processes that had been in place within other states and these are the reasons for the Arizona constitution to be consequently long. The progressive movement coincides with the Arizona Constitution because both are strict with the fact that the Arizona people posses the highest power. This encourages a direct democracy that ensures the Arizona people are part of the progressive movement of putting ends to any political, economical and social injustice (Hull, 2010).

Additionally, the three major principals of direct Initiative, democracy, recall and referendum are in maintaining the extreme principals of the Progressive framers as well as the way the process has been run thus far.

Reference

McClory. (2010). Understanding the Arizona constitution. (Illustrated ed., p. 269pages). United

States of America: University of Arizona Press.

 Hull, J. D. (2010). Arizona constitution – United States constitution. (2nd ed., p. 52pages).

United States of America: The office.

Auditing and Accountability (ACCT40115)

Q.1

In Tesco’s case, the auditors’ lack of independence very probably aided in the revelation of the aggressive profit manipulations that were taking place. As the firm said in its fiscal year 2014/15 annual report, the “forwarding” of commercial income from suppliers that should have been assigned to future periods was clearly the result of a management failure inside the company’s UK operations. Except if Tesco can demonstrate that a specific member of the board of directors committed major misconduct, payments were legally necessary and due under the applicable service contracts. Following learning of the exaggeration, the company’s board of directors commissioned Deloitte to conduct an independent investigation into the incident. A conclusion was reached after an extensive investigation that certain amounts had been improperly accelerated (for income) or deferred (for costs) in violation of Tesco Group accounting policies; that similar practices had occurred in prior reporting periods; and, finally, that the current and prior practices appeared to be connected because the amount of income accelerated increased from one period to another. Specifically, the leaving external auditors, PwC, said in their report that they paid close attention to areas where the directors made subjective decisions. The possibility of management overcoming internal controls was determined when an incident of fraud occurred, including examining if there was evidence of director bias that may result in major financial statement fabrication.

The purpose of auditing is to provide credibility to the financial statements that are included in the report. While management is responsible for the preparation of financial statements, it is the auditor’s obligation to guarantee that they are reliable (Tepalagul & Lin, 2015). The same was expected of the auditing team at Tesco. As a result of the auditor’s work, the trustworthiness of management’s non-audited information is enhanced significantly. According to Daniels and Booker (2011), an audit must be done by an impartial individual who is not influenced by their position or authority, since if the audit is not handled appropriately, it will have an adverse effect on the result of the audit. When evaluating work, auditors are supposed to provide an impartial and competent review of the job. Because of an auditor’s lack of independence, the auditor report that is provided to those who rely on it is virtually worthless to them (Suseno, N2013). It is possible for self-interest to manifest itself when an auditor has a direct or indirect financial stake in the functioning of a company, or when an auditor owes a large fee to a client, for example. In order to get a loan from the bank to cover the company’s outstanding expenses, the audit team may be tempted to provide a favourable report. The management at Tesco pushed for such audit actions. When an auditor reviews both his or her own work and the work of others in the same business, he or she is said to be doing self-review. The auditor is required to assess his or her own work, thus expecting the auditor to provide a fair review of the financial statements would be subjective (Hossain, 2013). In auditing situations, there is a danger of advocacy when the auditor aggressively promotes the client to the degree that their neutrality is jeopardized, which is widespread. Employees, officials, and directors of the client business may get familiar with the auditor if he or she becomes too close to or acquainted with them. familiarity It is conceivable that the auditor developed an unhealthy relationship with the client and, as a result, lost his or her professional neutrality. Management or its directors may have been intimidated by the auditor to the point of paralysis, creating an intimidation danger to the organization.

As a result of an audit, business shareholders get a professional, independent judgment on whether the company’s annual financial statements provide an accurate and fair picture of the company’s financial condition and can be relied upon. In order for auditors to show their ability to do their jobs objectively, the most often employed way is to establish independence from management (Rahmina & Agoes, 2014). The independence of the auditor from the client company is essential in order to ensure that the audit opinion is not impacted by the auditor’s connection with the client business. The auditors’ role is to provide shareholders with a professional evaluation of the financial statements and accounts that is objective, accurate, and independent. Some people are worried about the independence of external auditors, which is understandable. If a client’s business does not have appropriate corporate governance mechanisms in place, the necessity for an audit firm to maintain strong relationships with the company may have a substantial impact on the audit findings and conclusions of the audit firm. Consequently, the independence of the auditing company has been compromised, and shareholders can no longer place their trust in the firm’s recommendations (Priyanti & Dewi, 2019). The cost of audit services may be lower than the market rate, and accounting firms may be able to make up the difference with non-audit services such as management consulting and tax preparation. A consequence of this is that some auditing companies place their own business interests ahead of the interests of their customers. This creates the possibility that the auditor’s incentive to safeguard the interests of the shareholders and his personal financial interests may be at odds with one another.

Tesco exaggerated their financial accounts rather than confronting the underlying weaknesses that were at the heart of the aggressive accounting irregularities that engulfed the company. Following the realization that these sales quotas would not be met, a small group of employees collaborated with suppliers to ensure that these payments were made by offering incentives during the following fiscal month. Routine inspections also discovered convoluted links between suppliers and customers, raising questions about financial reporting and auditing procedures. This information would be kept secret, with the worst-case scenario being that Tesco would reimburse the supplier the following quarter, according to the agreement. Tesco’s crisis has once again brought to light the risks and responsibilities that come with being a publicly traded company with a short-term outlook. Investors are interested in greater performance regardless of the short-term cost to long-term corporate, innovation, or customer relationships that may result (Mohapatra, 2021). A negative reaction may occur when profits are substantial but less than anticipated. Due to the resulting pressure, many senior executives are now so concerned with avoiding this that they are focusing their efforts toward investors and analysts rather than toward customers or long-term organizational goals and orientations. Tesco may have difficulties as a consequence of this.

Public firms like Tesco must have a strong corporate governance culture as well as competent internal processes in place in order to avoid accounting and other challenges. Commentators have long suggested that the management from the top management is crucial to the integrity of the financial reporting process, and that firms would be well served to conduct regular reviews of the effectiveness of their internal control systems. In the case of Tesco, the tone from the top management was clearly lacking. It is also suggested that the firm interfered with auditing processes. Always choose for proactive risk management and minimization over reactive crisis management wherever possible. However, no institution, regardless of the quality of its management, is immune to the implications of a financial or economic downturn in the short or long term.

Q. 2

My knowledge of the company’s operation and industry as a Tesco auditor influenced my risk assessment for the audit, which was guided in part by these indications that were observable before the incident. Throughout the auditing process, key risk indicators (KRIs) are metrics or markers that are utilized to examine and quantify a possible risk that has been identified (Davies et al., 2006). They are just a set of risk measuring tools that are used to keep tabs on the overall level of risk. Prior to the scandal’s public exposure, I’ll focus on the financial, human resource, and operational indicators that should have been clear. Financial indicators, among other things, are elements that assist in assessing market risk, regulatory changes, and competitive risk, to name a few examples. Those who measure people indicators measure employee happiness as well as turnover and retention of customers and other data relating to people and their behavior. Last but not least, operational indicators allow you to keep track of the myriad risks that might arise during normal business operations, such as technology failures or data breaches.

As a Tesco auditor, I understand that the risk indicators available are numerous, and organizations can select the ones that are the most important to them and use them as key indicators in their operations. Instead of evaluating hundreds of indicators, managers may choose to concentrate on those that provide the information essential to make executive decisions. This aids in the differentiation of signal from noise. The most successful method of ensuring that KRI insights are integrated into executive decision-making is to make KRIs accessible to stakeholders via executive dashboards, which is the most efficient method (Epetimehin & Obafemi, 2015). According to the supermarket business, the three risk indicator categories (people, financial, and operational) depict the supermarket company’s key areas of concern at the time of the assessment. These are the important indications that other companies in Tesco’s sector must be aware of in order to compete successfully against the company’s performance. However, credit-related data were the most important indicators, and as a result, they were the ones that were emphasized by Tesco when it came to assessing critical operational risk indicators.

Among the most crucial financial key performance indicators (KPIs) that I would deploy at Tesco are those that are credit-related key performance indicators (KRIs). Credit-related indicators were my initial pick since, in their normal condition, they are highly predictive of future behavior. This metric, rather than total assets, evaluates the company’s ability to repay current commitments by drawing on readily available assets rather than cash. Metrics with low values, particularly those with values less than one, indicate that the organization has taken on a considerable amount of responsibility that it is unable to support with its current assets, and as a result, the organization has declared bankruptcy. By doing so, the business risks the danger of not being able to meet its obligations, with all of the resulting reputational and financial consequences that follow (Immaneni, Mastro, & Haubenstock, 2004). A country’s long-term survival has constantly been determined by the amount and quality of defective loans and payment defaults that it has experienced. Examples include financial institutions assessing the percentage of loan defaults by businesses and individuals across different sectors to determine which industries are especially hard hit and which industries will recover more rapidly from a financial crisis. Delinquent loan and credit repayments, as well as non-performing loans and debts, are all indicators that Tesco’s firm, as well as the suppliers in its industry or geographic region, are in financial trouble. Credit-related key performance indicators (KRIs) would have aided me and my role as a Tesco auditor in gaining a more detailed understanding of how the firm’s engagement with suppliers impacted the business community in the first place, which included the firm, suppliers, distributors, employees, management, and financial institutions, among other stakeholders, as well as the firm’s engagement with suppliers in the first place. Because Tesco’s top executives will have access to the data and will most likely be the first people to understand the company’s financial situation and future prospects, it is critical to get this information for them.

As the head of Tesco’s auditing team, I would have considered operational key performance indicators (KRIs) to be the second most important group of KRIs to be investigated. Authorities in charge of financial reporting were on the lookout for evidence of fraud and kept a close eye on the situation at Tesco. From my point of view, Tesco may have utilized compliance critical risk indicators to uncover faults in their compliance frameworks, which would then be addressed. A compliance department’s overall effectiveness as well as the efficiency of individual compliance tasks may be assessed. In certain cases, Mouatassim and Ibenrissoul (2015) found that better visibility will allow companies to identify and alter unproductive procedures. Additionally, by allowing firms to compare their own performance to that of their rivals, compliance key performance indicators (KRIs) aid them in contextualizing their own performance. Management reaps significant advantages from the information obtained as a consequence of compliance violations and corrective actions. This information may be used to aid the company in estimating the level of risk it is exposed to. There are many other types of operational risks that may arise in every firm, and noncompliance with legal or regulatory requirements or standards is merely one kind of operational risk. Individuals who purposefully or accidentally break their commitments under relevant laws, rules, regulations, agreements, established processes, and ethical standards are all considered to be infringing the law, regardless of whether they did so knowingly or unknowingly (Peček & Kovačić, 2019). Tesco’s employees made illegal deals with suppliers regarding forwarding of payments and misrepresenting the same in their records. Because of this, you may be subject to a regulatory penalty or punishment. Among other things, a bank’s board of directors and senior management are responsible for overseeing its business practices in terms of operational risk, and the bank’s operations should be safe and sound, conducted with integrity, and in conformity with all applicable laws and regulations.

Finally, as an auditor, I would utilize Tesco’s human resources as a critical indicator of the company’s health in order to forecast the company’s future performance in relation to auditing risks. Employee and customer satisfaction, as well as the retention of top-tier talent inside a company, are all assessed via the use of human capital indicators. In order to better understand the Tesco situation, it would have been beneficial to keep track of employee work habits and triumphs on a continual basis in order to predict what would happen next. One or more employees were less productive than normal, or the attitude and performance of an entire department altered, this should have served as a warning sign that something was wrong with the company’s internal operations. When workers fail to meet the expectations that have been established for them, the whole organization suffers (Derzhevetska et al., 2021). Consider the following scenario: an employee’s productivity may have declined in direct proportion to the number of customers served, and the customers may have voiced unhappiness with the employee’s performance. It’s also possible that Tesco’s salespeople’s attitudes and behaviors changed as a consequence of the company’s high expectations, which would indicate that they were experiencing motivational difficulties. A formerly well-adjusted employee who started demonstrating mood fluctuations, such as being impatient or becoming angry rapidly, may have been identified as potentially hazardous to the company.

References

Daniels, B. W., & Booker, Q. (2011). The effects of audit firm rotation on perceived auditor independence and audit quality. Research in Accounting Regulation, 23(1), 78-82.

Davies, J., Finlay, M., McLenaghen, T., & Wilson, D. (2006). Key risk indicators–their role in operational risk management and measurement. ARM and RiskBusiness International, Prague, 1-32.

Derzhevetska, M., Kukhtyk, T., Getman, I., & Khoroshailo, O. (2021). Approaches and principles of intellectual capital management at industrial enterprises. Economics & Education, 6(1), 15-20.

Epetimehin, F. M., & Obafemi, F. (2015). Operational risk management and the financial sector development: An overview. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management. United Kingdom, 3(3).

Hossain, S. (2013). Effect of regulatory changes on auditor independence and audit quality. International Journal of Auditing, 17(3), 246-264.

Immaneni, A., Mastro, C., & Haubenstock, M. (2004). A structured approach to building predictive key risk indicators. RMA J, 42-47.

Mohapatra, P. (2021). Accounting Scandal at Tesco. IUP Journal of Accounting Research & Audit Practices, 20(4).

Mouatassim, H., & Ibenrissoul, A. (2015). Proposal for an implementation methodology of key risk indicators system: Case of investment management process in Moroccan asset management company. Journal of Financial Risk Management, 4(03), 187.

Peček, B., & Kovačić, A. (2019). Methodology of monitoring key risk indicators. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 32(1), 3485-3501.

Priyanti, D. F., & Dewi, N. H. U. (2019). The effect of audit tenure, audit rotation, accounting firm size, and client’s company size on audit quality. The Indonesian Accounting Review, 9(1), 1-14.

Rahmina, L. Y., & Agoes, S. (2014). Influence of auditor independence, audit tenure, and audit fee on audit quality of members of capital market accountant forum in Indonesia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 164, 324-331.

Suseno, N. S. (2013). An empirical analysis of auditor independence and audit fees on audit quality. International Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(3), 82-87.

Tepalagul, N., & Lin, L. (2015). Auditor independence and audit quality: A literature review. Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, 30(1), 101-121.

A Chinese Exclusion Act

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The Chinese exclusion act was enacted in the year 1882, restricting illegal immigration of the Chinese into the United States of America. The law did not only put strong restriction measures but also denied citizenship to those already present. The majority of Americans complained that the Chinese were taking up most of their jobs even though their numbers were negligible. The act, therefore, was enacted in response to these demands claiming a reduction of wages and poor economic returns because many Chinese workers offered cheap labor. During the 179th century, racism was prevalent in most significant parts of the United States. The major factor contributing was, therefore, response to racism and an escape from earning low wages by the Americans.

Current debates argue that the Chinese arrived in the United States for the same reason as everyone. Their goal was to find better economic opportunities and build successful lives for themselves and their families. Those who arrived early struggled to fit into the US economy and lived in fear of arrest and deportation. Many immigrants considered having achieved the American dream upon entering America. They would settle in city enclaves because of cheap housing, entry for available employment opportunities, and support from members of their ethnic groups. Recently, there has been an increase of Asian immigrants into the USA, resulting from the restructuring of the American immigration policies. The changing global, political, and economic factors have led to a change of immigration patterns, facilitating the shift of the immigration pattern.

The early Chinese immigrants passed through traumatic experiences while arriving in the United States. For example, David Leong traveled for 20days in a boat trying to memorize the names of his fake parents and siblings who lived in particular blocks in the USA. He was only an eight-year-old boy at the time of his immigration. He stated how he escaped war and deplorable conditions in China to look for a better life in the USA. While in Angel Island, together with other immigrants, they experienced fear, and many of them attempted suicide because they could not leave the island. They wrote their melancholic frustrations on the walls inside the building held against their will. To them, this was an island. Recently, many Chinese families live in embarrassment and fear of possibly being victims of deportation. They always question their descent, especially when their forefathers fail to reveal the truth to them. As seen from the discussion, other minority groups such as the black, Hispanics, Latino Americans share a similar experience with the Chinese Americans. Most of their ancestors entered the US territories through illegal means, aiming to live the ‘American dream.’ In many instances, they have been discriminated based on race, especially in work opportunities.

Paper sons and daughters are immigrants who entered the USA claimed blood relations to Chinese American families who had already gained US citizenship by presenting fake documents. Hence, they are illegal immigrants. Everyone who considers moving to the US should understand rules on immigration. The authorities, not to include the larger society, should handle those who break these rules individually. Moreover, ethnicities should not strive for dominance on who is better than the other, instead focus on working to improve the economy.

Recently, there has been an influx of immigrants from various ethnicities. The newer generation of immigrants is no longer staying in the overcrowded and metropolitan areas for ethnic enclaves. Moreover, these new generations are financially stable, which enables them to maneuver their way into the US economy with ease. They can comfortably engage in grassroots leaderships and electoral politics, compared to the past when they faced racial segregation, which barred them from having better job opportunities and political representativeness. Learning from the Chinese Exclusion Act, immigrants have the role of contributing to a robust economy, culture, improved homesteads, and improved working conditions for the working immigrants.

Bibliography

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {“uncited”:[],”omitted”:[],”custom”:[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Dunigan, Grace. “The Chinese Exclusion Act: Why It Matters Today” 8, no. 8 (2017): 82–87.

Lui, Richard. Https://Www.Youtube.Com/Watch?V=Hhc-Om3SXKw, 2009.

“The Nativist Response,” 706, n.d.

Introduction and Background

This study will focus primarily on knowledge management applications in the telecommunication industry and ways in which the industry can benefit from social ontology in its knowledge management system. The study will assist in evaluating the importance of knowledge management in the telecommunication sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Generally, human knowledge capital refers to people’s pool of skills, ability and know-how in any organization; it also encompasses the experience, training, insight, relationship, and intelligence of the organization’s managers and staff. The skills, knowledge and experience of the project manager are important factors in determining the outcomes of the project, where all these factors will be evaluated using a human knowledge capital framework.

The major significance of this study is the fact that its outcome will confirm whether or not an organization’s investments in its staff’s learning, education, experience, expertise, innovation and creativity in relation to knowledge management have any influence on its overall performance. Equally important, this study will produce a report and initiate a discussion on its findings, from an in-depth review of the literature of the research study. This study will look, specifically, at the effects of the human knowledge capital dimensions, notably staffs’ learning, education, experience, expertise, innovation, and creativity, in relation to the overall performance of the organization.

Past research studies have concentrated mainly on the relationship between intellectual capital and the overall performance of an organization. Little attention has been given to the probable relationship between any of the three components of intellectual capital, for instance structural capital, relational capital, and human knowledge capital, and its overall performance, which are more or less sub-sets of intellectual capital. Interestingly, however, from the limited attention that has been given to the link between human knowledge capital and an organization’s performance, a number of researchers have established a positive influence of human knowledge capital on an organization’s overall performance. The research will be important as it will examine the relationships.

Aims, Objectives

The aim of this research will be to develop a social ontological framework explaining the social relationships informing organisational knowledge management in the telecommunication industry in Saudi Arabia.

The research objectives will be:

To identify the current state of knowledge management applications in the telecommunication industry, and ways in which the industry can benefit from social ontology in its knowledge management system. The specific social, economic and technological barriers preventing the effective application of KM system in these areas will thus be determined.

To undertake an empirical study including both qualitative and quantitative approaches to discover the extent to which knowledge management is implemented in the telecommunication sector in Saudi Arabia.

To develop a social ontological framework supporting the application of knowledge management in the telecommunication sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thus, the link between collective identities and KM in organisations will be determined.

Research methodology

Data collection is an integral part of any research and plays a critical role in ensuring that research objectives are accurately driven at. The research has been developed in a manner reliant on a primary source in data collection. This is one of the factors that greatly affect the level of accuracy and breadth of the research. Use of data derived from previous researcher and theories adopted from other researchers is the main methodology used in the research. An important consideration is seeking a data collection approach is to ensure that it is in conformance with the research methodology and relevant with the research aims. The main aim will be to determine how organisational structure impact on KM in Saudi Arabia’s telecommunication organisations.

The approach to data collection ensures information is collected from a variety of sources which is one of the key requirements for holistic approaches that are characteristic of qualitative designs. This will assist in determining whether KM is reflected in the organisational culture of Saudi Arabia’s telecommunication organisations.

Moreover, the appropriateness of the approach to data collection is brought out if it is considered that the research develops findings from wide areas which include gender bias, scene arrests and even same sex couples. Such diversity required in deductive approaches call for use of multiple sources of data not only out of need to acquire relevant data but also validate data and develop a picture of the areas that are lacking.

Literature Review

Knowledge of the customer satisfaction in relation to knowledge management is a strong backbone upon which an organization can base its overall performance. Furthermore, though there is a great significance of using customer opinions and attitudes in various fields, not many studies have specifically focused on assessing the suitability of the organisation’s workforce. This chapter attempts to give an assessment of the studies that have been undertaken in an attempt to investigate the relationship of the two broad dimensions of knowledge management in Saudi Arabia.

The literature will examine the original investigations, other literature reviews, peer reviewed academic literature, research databases, reviews, journals in various academic fields and original manuscripts that relate to customer satisfaction and knowledge management. This is intended to bring a better understanding. One of the most recent studies, which directly involved investigation of customer satisfaction in relation to knowledge management, will be reviewed. Since a search in the research databases produces a big number of results, the reviewed literature sources are picked on a random- sample strategy.

Integrating information technology to knowledge management requires acceptance from all aspects of an organization and this is its disadvantage. Knowledge Management System implementations must become an integral part of the people using it for it to be effective. The literature review will assist in the determination of the level of customer satisfaction and its relationships with the knowledge management.

Knowledge management (KM) is a set of systematic actions taken by an organization to get the greatest value from the knowledge base available. Information technology (IT) supports knowledge management in organizations today will be examined. Systems of IT that support KM can be referred as Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). Though the literature review will not be able to examine the direct relations but connections will be determined.

Primary Data Collection

Various methods of collecting, analysing and compiling data were put into consideration in this project. Sources of data for the study included primary data and secondary data.

In order to collect quantitative data, primary information was collected through the medium of a questionnaire. A qualitative research method was used to study the unstructured information collected through secondary data collection from journals, government Web sites, and bank reports. This helped in understanding the competitiveness of various knowledge management strategies in different organisation and banks in Saudi Arabia and relevance.

Secondary data collection in this research will also be useful since it enables the researcher to have a wide source of getting information as well as it being very affordable. Content analysis will also be done using qualitative methods to ensure its reliability in terms of who collected the data, what time and from which sources. It will also be important to identify and scrutinize secondary sources to check their viability of the collected data to the topic and the adequacy and accuracy in the information being collected.

Using qualitative means the researcher is able to understand the important factors that must be present for the evolution and fruition of the organisations in Saudi Arabia. The analysis will also try to establish past information on knowledge management in Saudi Arabia and hoe customer satisfaction has been enhanced by this.

Since the researcher can get a wide range of information sources such as library books, internet sources, online documents and journals, this will allow the researcher to get enough information to compile a sound report of opportunities available for Saudi Arabia’s organisations. The research will also highlight the benefits to the stakeholders and customers of the organisations with effective knowledge management techniques.

Primary dataIn general, there are various techniques through which primary data can be collected such as face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, questionnaires, observations and many more. This study made use of an online questionnaire in order to collect primary data. The method was selected because of its ease of use and comprehension in terms of results derivation. Primary data is extremely important when it comes to satisfying the various research objectives.

Secondary data

Secondary data is easier to collect since it is already available in a format that is easy to understand and organize. Information will be collected based on the credibility of the authors. Journals, books, and magazines were used to collect facts and literature to support and analyse the findings of the study.

Questionnaire design

Questionnaires are generally used to collect quantitative data. Questionnaires were selected as the tool to collect data since they fit within the financial budget of the research and due to the easy interpretation of the answers, unlike the content of interviews which can have different interpretation and also it would not be possible to interview 150-160 people. At the same time with interviews it can be difficult to analyse the responses from the various participants. Hence the questionnaire method was selected because of standard response option. The types of questions that can be used in questionnaires include open-ended, closed-ended, indicated response, and any response. In this case, questionnaires were given to customers of the bank to get more information about consumer behaviour, challenges, and opportunities and effects of better knowledge management in Saudi Arabia.

The questionnaires will be in electronic form, and around 160 questionnaires will be e-mailed to potential participants in various organisations. After sending the questionnaire, reminders will sent after two days to make sure that the participants fill the questionnaires. The turnaround time for the questionnaire will be around one week. The participants were advised in writing that the information was being collected for the purpose of research only and would not be used for any other purpose.

Primary Data Analysis

At this stage, suitable statistical techniques will be applied in order to analyse the quantitative questionnaire research data using the SPSS program. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis will be used. Responses will be coded and processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer software. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, graphs and mean will also be used.

The qualitative interview data will be analysed using a process of identification of key themes and categories within the interview data. A detailed discussion of the data analysis will be documented drawing conclusions, interpretations, based on collected data and other relevant e-learning research. Finally, the researcher will submit a set of recommendations and suggest further research to be taken in the future.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Finally recommendations for the future will be made with a project plan put together for the implementation of these plans. Conclusions will be finalised and there will also be any limitations to the research identified. The conclusions and recommendations will be made from the analysed data and interpretations.

Limitations and Future Research Suggestions

Most of the respondents will be Arabic individuals; hence, the findings are limited to Arabic speaking demographics. Also, due to constraints of time and resources, limited number of survey responses will be obtained. The research will be limited to the primary and secondary information collected from the data sources. The data findings were limited to the primary data collected from 150-160 questionnaires online. It is believed that the findings would be different if the sample demographics were different. The population did not represent all classes of the population due to sampling or participants who are more likely to be familiar with technology. The data could be different if more working women or employees were included in the population.

Computer technologies are used in organizations to gather, analyse, and distribute information about people; such a system is called Human Resource Information Management System (HRIMS) or HRIS, which stands for Human Resource Information System. A sophisticated human resource information system in an organization keeps track of events related to human resource management. The future research should determine the effectiveness of HRIMS in relations to the organization’s performance.

Australia’s Aboriginal Communities and Covid-19

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Summary

As a consequence of the increasing spreading of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as well as the coronavirus illness linked with it (COVID-19), enormous strain has been exerted on health-care systems, nations, and businesses. COVID-19 is a new severe and acute respiratory syndrome that emerged from China in late 2019 and declared a global disaster in early 2020. This report identifies some of the impacts of COVID-19 on Australia’s Aboriginal communities to include community-based, economic, and business. Specifically, these communities are identified to be lagging behind in terms of adapting to the new changes in the external environment.

Introduction

The ensuing effect of the virus on Indigenous Australians’ psychological health, as well as their exposure to discrimination, should also be carefully studied. The purpose of this report is to present an overview of the impacts and implications of Australia’s Aboriginal Communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the U.S, the UK, China, and Argentina, Aboriginal and racial minority populations are at increased risk of COVID-19 lethality and death, highlighting the existence and pervasiveness of world health disparities. COVID-19 has yet to be fully studied despite the urgency it has created in the research and academic circles. Indigenous Australians, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (hence referred to as Aboriginal), are among the worst health results in the globe. Because of a number of existing medical as well as socioeconomic imbalances that exacerbate susceptibility, Indigenous Australians are at increased risk of death from severe acute respiratory infection as in comparison to non-Indigenous Australians if they get diagnosed with the disease. Community Impact

Poverty and Lack and Food

In Australia, the Health Department recommends that individuals above the age of 70, including those well over age of 65 who have serious health issue, remain indoors and try and prevent all interactions with people. Between food availability and affordability and the closure of missions, reserves, and towns in order to keep Aboriginal population safe from COVID-19, there is a fundamental conflict to be resolved (Power et al. 2020). For example, the Barkindji Indigenous peoples in New South Wales are reported to be a small group of about 750 people in one rural town who have been affected severely by the pandemic. The effect is that the access to foods and government services have been reduced significantly. Prior to the outbreak, one in every three adult Indigenous Australians who resided in rural areas of Australia claimed that they had ran out of food and were not able to obtain additional food. Indigenous communities in China (including the Tibetans, Uyghurs, Zhuang) and the First Nations in Australia have gradually entered into unprecedented levels of poverty, leading to food scarcity due to increased joblessness (Furlong & Finnie, 2020). In China, Tibetans have not been affected severely by the pandemic, yet their access to vital services and food have been reduced too. Comparing this to the non-indigenous groups, there is a notable gap in the way the pandemic has affected these two groups. Indigenous Communities have suffered greatly. Food is expensive in several distant villages since there exist only one shop to purchase it from, and costs are extravagant because of transportation and accessibility concerns.

Commodity Price Hikes and Overcharging

In certain instances, overcharging is clearly visible (Central Land Council 2020). Since foodstuffs in rural villages can be up to sixty percent more expensive than in urban areas, numerous Indigenous Australians prefer to purchase in town centres rather than in urban areas. The same is true for Chinese Indigenous communities that do not have access to shops unless they travel outside of their rural villages into the more urban zones. This is no nearly impossible today due to the implementation of biosecurity lockdowns. COVID-19 exasperates food shortages by causing unanticipated rises in unemployment, a stoppage in tourist industry, and the inability of individuals to abandon their community members in order to hunt and take part in social health determinants. COVID-19 is a virus that spreads through the air and land. This highlights the plight of Native Groups in Australia who have a longstanding experience of being restricted to specified regions known as missions and reserves.

Prevalence of Mental Illnesses

Locking down has traditionally been a self-determined practice in various Indigenous communities around the globe. On the Australian mainland, the issue of inducing occurrences of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in older native people who still reside on missions and reserves has come up for discussion (Bhaskar et al., 2020). Several Aboriginal Australians, among them the Wahine Maori, have reported that they have been locked down afresh as result of government interference and regulation, as they had been starting in the early 1970s in the state of Queensland, and that this is still a part of their lived occurrences. The same has been true for Chinese indigenous groups in Rural China. As a result, several communities have reported rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence as among the traits of crises such as pandemics, which entail a sharp rise in these crimes (Peterman et al. 2020). The occurrence of domestic violence amongst indigenous peoples globally has already improved as a result of colonialization and historical trauma, with “incidence rates of 57 percent and 80 percent amongst the Wahine Maori found for lifelong violence amongst Wahine Maori,” (Wilson et al. 2019, 15). “Aboriginal women are 32 times more likely than non-Aboriginal females to be hospitalized for domestic violence especially in Australia,” (Wilson et al. 2019, 15).

Business Impact

Reduced Resource Allocation During the Pandemic

It is the historical colonization process of the continent of Australia that has given rise to aboriginal discrepancies in the country. Native population are widely acknowledged to be the most marginalized population in Australian community, a fact that has been thoroughly documented. Although the state gave this subject a great deal of attention and allocated significant resources, making genuine, quantifiable improvement in both the real world and the statistical, quantitative perspective has proven to be exceptionally hard (Caroll et al. 2021). Aboriginal communities are widely acknowledged to be the most marginalized population in Australian community, a fact that has been thoroughly documented.

Loss of Business Due to Use of Traditional Business Models

Considering that this is being scientifically demonstrated that the sociocultural health determinants have an enormous beneficial impact on the health of Aboriginal populations, this is a serious problem (Bourke et al. 2018). Several indigenous and Torres Strait Islander populations in Australia move across communities on a regular basis to attend to the business of Sorry Business (funerals and grieving; Department of Health 2020). Native individuals are having difficulty combining coronavirus restrictions with their relationally based traditional commitments in the contemporary setting of lockdowns and social separation, with grief having influence over other responsibilities. The Wahine Maori in Aotearoa have also been required to change the way they conduct cultural rites to say goodbye to a loved one who has died, as well as how they provide help to the elderly and others with special needs in their communities. Similarly, Chinese Indigenous communities have further been marginalized, forced to abandon some of their cultural practices, and to adopt new ones in line with COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Closure of Small-Scale Businesses to Large Competitors

In China, preliminary evidence suggests that the prevalence of severe and deadly COVID19 cases is higher among the elderly and those who have pre-existing diseases such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, chronic pulmonary disease, pressure, and leukaemia (Li et al., 2020; Tan et al. 2021). It has been suggested by research that the outbreak had already triggered widespread displacement among small enterprises owned by the native Australians just a few weeks after it had begun and before the provision of government assistance. The COVID-19 outbreak caused the temporary closure of 43 percent of companies across the whole population, with almost many of these closures attributed to the outbreak (Power et al. 2020). Respondents who had briefly closed their doors primarily cited a drop in sales and employee medical issues as the main causes for their decision, with interruptions in the distribution network playing a less significant role. Businesses stated that they had decreased their current employment by an average of 39 percent since January, according to the data.

Economic discrepancies

Joblessness

Beginning with joblessness, the Aboriginal rate was estimated 23 percent at the time of the 1996 Census, compared to other nonaboriginal rate of 9 percent. This means that the native rate was 2.5 times greater than the general rate. It is true that the degree of this disparity is significantly bigger in practice. In 1996, over 28,000 aboriginal individuals were enrolled in 274 similar programs. According to estimates by Reinders et al. (2020), if such individuals had been considered unemployed, the Aboriginal rate of unemployment would indeed be pretty close to 40%, more than four times higher than the national average. Joblessness continues to be an economic issue for indigenous groups.

Inability to Compete with More Educated Non-Native Groups

Low levels of education and healthcare are both causal factors of having a low socioeconomic standing. According to data on academic achievement, Native communities are significantly more likely than non-aboriginal Australians to have never attended school (3%) or to have dropped out of school well before the age of 16 (44%) when compared to non-aboriginal Australians (less than 1 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively) (Yashadhana et al. 2020). Additionally, Native communities have less postsecondary qualifications (24%) and were less likely to be enrolled in higher education institutions (14%) in 1996 when compared to their non-Indigenous peers (25 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively) (Yashadhana et al. 2020). Male Native average lifespan at birth in Nepal Indigenous communities is 18 years lesser than non-native life expectancy at birth, and women Aboriginal average life expectancy is 17 years lesser than non-native average life expectancy; just 6 percent of the Native populations in the 1996 Census was more than 55 years old, in comparison to 20 percent of the non-native community (Poudel & Subedi, 2020).

Economic Stagnation

Different communities including the Native hunter-gatherer economies, did not result in the use of the country’s renewable resource before to the French and Indian War of 1788 (Rose-Redwood et al., 2020). When viewed through the lens of western economics, this production process was underdeveloped and basic since it did not generate enormous material surpluses—there was no complex agriculture or industrialization, and there was only minimal extraction of non-renewable resources. In addition to the eviction of Aboriginal population and the shift of ‘property rights’ in natural resources from them to colonizers, white settlement had been a major contributor to the economic growth of Australia (O’Sullivan, Rahamathulla, & Pawar, 2020). In the twentieth century, this trend of estrangement was still in progress, and the effects of it are still being experienced by native population today. Shortly put, while colonization offered material well-being to several European migrants, it resulted in Native economic stagnation as a result.

Conclusion

Broadly speaking, Indigenous Populations bear a disproportionately high impact of noncommunicable and viral infections, which is associated with social and health inequalities that have resulted from conquest and subsequent colonization. Unquestionably, aboriginal populations have a greater risk of illness than non-indigenous individuals. This is obvious not just in reduced average life expectancy, but also for the younger age at which humans become far more susceptible. This also illustrates one of several distinct peculiarities amongst Indigenous populations around the world when it comes to securing their communities that they remain constrained in areas defined as protected zones. The inequalities in social, physical, emotional, and environmental health that have been described are symbolic of the cultural inequalities that Aboriginal Australians have experienced, and all of these characteristics combine to form important risk factors for COVID-19 infection. Native Australians’ access to health care services is negatively impacted by their linguistic and cultural marginalization, which has a direct impact on their health care access and availability as well as results. The effect of discrimination, that has been described as a public health crisis by Aboriginal Australian officials and as the “second scourge” around the world, is a significant role in health as well as social outcomes in Native groups.

References

Australian Government Department of Health. 2020. Australian health sector emergency

response plan for novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Available at https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/02/australian-health-sector-emergency-response-plan-for-novel-coronavirus-covid-19_2.pdf

Bhaskar, S., Rastogi, A., Menon, K. V., Kunheri, B., Balakrishnan, S., & Howick, J. (2020).

Call for action to address equity and justice divide during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 1411.

Bourke, S., Wright, A., Guthrie, J., Russell, L., Dunbar, T., & Lovett, R. 2018. “Evidence

Review of Indigenous Culture for Health and Wellbeing.” International Journal of Health, Wellness & Society, 8(4).

Carroll, S. R., Akee, R., Chung, P., Cormack, D., Kukutai, T., Lovett, R., … & Rowe, R. K.

2021. “Indigenous Peoples’ Data During COVID-19: From External to Internal.” Frontiers in Sociology, 6, 62.

Central Land Council. 2020. Aborigines may defy orders, come to Alice for food: CLC.

Retrieved from https://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/2020/04/02/aborigines-may-defy-orders-come-to-alice -for-food-clc/

Furlong, Y., & Finnie, T. (2020). Culture counts: the diverse effects of culture and society on

mental health amidst COVID-19 outbreak in Australia. Irish journal of psychological medicine, 37(3), 237-242.

Li, Z., Chen, Q., Feng, L., Rodewald, L., Xia, Y., Yu, H., … & Li, S. (2020). Active case

finding with case management: the key to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet, 396(10243), 63-70.

O’Sullivan, D., Rahamathulla, M., & Pawar, M. (2020). The impact and implications of

COVID-19: An Australian perspective. The International Journal of Community and Social Development, 2(2), 134-151.

Peterman, A., Potts, A., O’Donnell, M., Thompson, K., Shah, N., OerteltPrigione, S., & van

Gelder, N. 2020. “Pandemics and violence against women and children.” Retrieved from Washington, DC.

Poudel, K., & Subedi, P. (2020). The impact and implications of COVID-19 pandemic on

socioeconomic and mental health aspects in Nepal. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66(8), 748-755.

Power, T., Wilson, D., Best, O., Brockie, T., Bearskin, L. B., Millender, E., & Lowe, J.

2020. “COVID‐19 and Indigenous Peoples: An imperative for action”. Journal of clinical nursing.

Reinders, S., Alva, A., Huicho, L., & Blas, M. M. (2020). Indigenous communities’

responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequences for maternal and neonatal health in remote Peruvian Amazon: a qualitative study based on routine programme supervision. BMJ open, 10(12), e044197.

Rose-Redwood, R., Kitchin, R., Apostolopoulou, E., Rickards, L., Blackman, T., Crampton,

J., … & Buckley, M. (2020). Geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), 97-106.

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Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Public Sentiments in Mainland China: Sentiment Analysis of Social Media Posts. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(8), e29150.

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e tū whānau: Wāhine Māori keeping safe in unsafe relationships.”

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at increased risk of COVID-19 due to existing health and socioeconomic inequities.” The Lancet Regional Health-Western Pacific, 1.

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Kraft Foods Supply Chain problems (Cash flow) and Approaches used to solve the issue

Introduction

Kraft Foods Incorporation is involved in operations that are in the beverage and food industry. Its headquarters are located in Chicago, America, and it is the second largest such industry ( HYPERLINK “http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebecca-Vickers/e/B001K8CMO8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1” Vickers, 2005. 3). The company has subsidiaries in over 70 countries, worldwide. There is a total of 98000 employees also, its products can be found in almost all the continents including Africa. The two Major subsidiaries of Kraft Foods are Kraft Foods North America Inc, and Kraft Foods International Inc. Kraft Foods is involved in marketing and packaging various retail food products. The latter varies from cheese products, confectionery, processed meats, juices and coffee, among others. The products are extremely useful to many consumers as they are found in categories such as Convenient Meals, Cheese, Snacks, and Beverages. Kraft Foods makes use of multiple distribution channels in order to distribute its products.

Kraft Foods also sell key brands that are popular with consumers such as Oreo, Maxwell house, Jacob’s and Post, among others. Kraft Foods seeks to ensure that consumers are provided with products that make their lives more healthy than usual. They seek to make available to consumers premium products, quick meals and snacks, which promote wellness, as well as health. In order to supply its products, Kraft Foods makes use of channels of distribution such as depots, cold storage facilities and satellite warehouses, among others (Ferrari, 2012. 1a).

This paper seeks to give a critical analysis regarding the Kraft Foods supply chain issues. Moreover, it seeks to find out approaches that can be used in solving the problem, in order to increase cash flow.

Critical analysis of the supply chain problems at Kraft Foods and how they can be solved

Everyone who has an opportunity of watching business news cannot have avoided the story concerning Kraft Foods. The supply chain department at Kraft Foods has faced many challenges in the past few years. Kraft Foods has had to free up cash, as well as to cut costs, in order to solve its supply chain problems. Currently, there is an economic downturn, and many companies are trying to find ways of navigating through it. Furthermore, there has been an increase in credit rules, as they have been made to become quite tight and thus, confronting. Kraft Foods have had to find ways through, which their cash flow, can be increased. It is evident that matters that concern supply chain are vital, and thus, urgency needs to be considered in solving the situation (Ferrari, 2012. 1a).

It is a fact that the company seeks to become imperative in an attempt to free up its cash. Before the economic meltdown in the year 2007, a strategic plan had already been devised in order to improve its financial capabilities. A goal had been established by Tim McLevish, Kraft Foods Chief Financial Officer, to increase its cash flow. He wanted to ensure that the company obtained cash flow as high as one billion dollars. Many people believed that he had set an extremely high goal that could not be realized. McLevish claimed that Kraft Foods had to plan well for its future. According to the senior vice president at Kraft Foods, Philipe Lambotte, “The higher the free cash flow, the better a company is able to gain access to capital and investment markets with a lower rate of borrowing for capital expenditures, acquisitions, or share repurchasing,” (Ferrari, 2012. 1a). Furthermore, he believed that bottom line and top line growth are vital and should not be ignored. The latter are needed as they help in making sure that free cash flow and fund growth are available.

There were many factors, which have to be considered, if Kraft Foods is to come up with an initiative on cash flow. The management should realize that they have to focus on key areas, such as capital expenditures, working capital, receivables and payables. This includes even being keen on inventory on hand, and the days, which they took place. Some people thought that this issue concerned the finance department, but they were extremely wrong. It should be known that the supply chain is the main reason why the problem existed (Ferrari, 2012. 1b). For example, there many cases whereby, some of the employees at Kraft Foods would take home stock that did not sell. They assumed that since the consumers did not want to buy certain products, they needed to take them. On a normal working day at Kraft Foods, costs of inventory, which is tied up, reaches up to 30 percent or twenty percent. The latter is related to the products available as well as the costs incurred. According to Lambotte, some products have high inventory and costs, which can reach up to 50 percent. It seems that Kraft Foods needs to ensure that it only suppliers to its stores, the right quantity of products. Also, ensure that the consumers obtain the products as soon as possible. If this takes place, cash will be obtained easily, as products are sold at a fast pace. A strong relationship should exist between cash flow and inventory and its supply chain department should engage in this project (Ferrari, 2012. 1b).

The matter concerning freeing up cash is a focus, which is natural, for the supply chain at Kraft Foods. This means that it will not be easy trying to find extra money, due to the supply chain problems. As a result of the company’s diversity and breadth, the problem cannot be attacked. The latter is due to the initiative that is ‘one size fits’ also, because it is centralized. Annually, Kraft Foods earn as much as 43 billion dollars in revenue as it is a multinational company. It needs to find ways to ensure that the revenues do not decrease, and at the same time, increase its revenues. Since Kraft Foods has diverse markets and brands, it has come up with a total of 23 units (Supply Chain Digest, 2012. 1). In Europe and North America, the business units will focus their attention on specific products. These include products such as food service, beverages and dairy. Out of the entire twenty three units, only twelve units follow the model that has been mentioned. The rest of the units focus their attention on China or Brazil, which are considered being national markets that can carry diverse brands. Lambotte claims that the unique and different supply chains exist for the various business units.

There is a complex supply chain that exists at Kraft Foods, as well as that of inventory ownership. The latter depends on the customer’s sales arrangement. Most times, the products found in shelves are owned by the company, and such items include cookies and pizza. However, a product like coffee is normally owned by the company in terms of inventory. Kraft Foods only loses its ownership after the coffee is at the distribution center that belongs to the customer. There are various inventory-ownership arrangements at Kraft Foods, and they have a significant impact. It is quite unfortunate that the company could not find a way of ensuring that all the business units generated cash (Roberts, 2012.1). In turn, those in charge of the projects should focus on the individual supply chains of the business units. This is referred to as ‘case by case bases in matters that concern supply chain. Lambotte claims that “When you think about inventory, you have to think about the flexibility of your supply chain as well as that of your retail customers,” (Mentzer, 2001.23). It means that making right decisions is extremely vital and should not be ignored. It can lead to few items on the shelves and even, there being fewer inventories. Moreover, it goes against the principles that seek to ensure that cash flow is improved.

Distribution channels at Kraft Foods

The company mainly makes use of the distribution and supply channel known as Direct Store Delivery. This means that distributors and suppliers are the ones who deliver products to the store directly. Therefore, there is no retailer who acts as a distributor center at Kraft Foods. There are a lot of advantages obtained from using the DSD channels, such as in store forecasting, shelf inventory management and even store ordering. Also, it assists in promotion and price execution, and even management of items at the stores. The other type of distribution channel used by Kraft Foods is the Centralized Distribution Logistic Networks. In this system, the products are transported to the retail stores from the wholesaler. Thus, Kraft Foods uses a DSD network that is two tiers, as well as a Centralized Distribution Network. For example, the Nabisco Biscuits is delivered through the DSD two tier networks, while most frozen foods are delivered through the Centralized Distribution Model (Ferrari, 2012.1b).

The Case by Case Analysis

The leader at Kraft Foods, in charge of supply chain matters, should recognize the need to ensure that all managers and employees are involved in the initiative. They all have to ensure that the cash flow at the company improves. They have to put more emphasize on the inventories value by changing their mindset. The leader should recognize that the employees have to be informed about their actions, which are causing inventory problems. For example, if an employee stored products without attempting to sell them, they were causing supply chain problems (Simchi-Levi &Kaminsky & Simchi-levi, 2004). It meant that the employee was reducing the economic value of the product by making it become tied up. It is only when a product is removed from the shelf and sold that it gains economic value. This is the mentality that everyone working at Kraft Foods needs to keep in mind.

In order to solve the supply chain problem, Kraft Foods should adopt the twofold approach. It would make it mandatory to ensure that the business units are provided with incentives. The latter will assist in making the working capital improve. Furthermore, any manager who would free up cash well would be entitled to a cash bonus. The approach would give expert assistance to the various business units, and that would take the form of Cash Flow Excellence. They would act as consultants who were internally based at Kraft Foods. Those chosen to be the team’s experts should be the company’s middle managers. They have for many years dealt with issues concerning cash flow at Kraft Foods. In turn, they will be able to ensure that sound practices are followed by all the business units. The team can be compared to that of a SWAT team, which has various experts on supply chain (Simchi-Levi &Kaminsky & Simchi-levi, 2004). The team would work towards improving the various business units, whether they were in the United States, Russia or even Brazil. It does not matter, which question is asked, as the team members are able to answers the various questions well. It is a fact that the managers have the ability of solving the situation that they encounter as they have skills.

All the business unit employees have to undergo workshops that last at least two days, and are held by the experts. During the sessions, all employees including the unit’s general manager have to attend as it is mandatory. At the sessions, the employees are to analyze the supply chain issues facing the specific business unit. Also, they have to find possible ways by, which the cash can be freed up. It is due to the case by case approach that Kraft Foods can become successful (Simchi-Levi &Kaminsky & Simchi-levi, 2004). By focusing on the pinch points and the situational analysis, of the different business units, it is possible to solve supply chain issues. For example, there are business units that have more finished goods, as compared to the raw materials. There even those that deal with spare parts, and thus, do not have extreme processes of manufacturing. On the other hand, there are business units, which have long payables, and payment terms that are inefficient. In turn, the unit ends up having a lot of inventory that is tied up. Some refer to this situation as being quite easy and short term or, difficult and big.

Suitable ways of solving the problem concerning inventory

There are steps that have to be adopted by the business units, in order to liberate their cash flow. If there is a need to reduce inventory that has not been sold, customers have to take part in the selling process. The Stock Keeping Units numbers have to be rationalized depending on the customers. Also, products that produce low revenue and are high in volatility, have to be phased out. It should be known that revenue is reduced when some items on the shelves are eliminated (Kaushik & Cooper, 2000.70). Furthermore, the cash flow is increased by the remaining products, which are profitable and better selling. Another tactic is to engage in repetitive flexible manufacturing, as it aids in ensuring that inventory is paired down. It is better as compared to constantly having to respond to changes in demand. Manufacturing lines are known to produce fixed quantities and regular frequency products, at extremely high volumes. For example, when making cookies it will be easy to use the manufacturing system to make the cookies on a weekly basis. This will assist in only producing the right quantity that can be sold and bought by the customers. It means that the SKU, which has a low demand, has to have its service levels reduced, in order to create cash flow (Kaushik & Cooper, 2000.79).

At Kraft Foods, there is a need to use multiple distribution channels. This means that products will be distributed to various locations by different suppliers. This ensures that products are delivered to Kraft Foods stores depending on certain factors. This can be quality and quantity of the products, or even the location of the Kraft Foods stores. Moreover, Kraft Foods should find a way of venturing and distributing its products into new markets. If it does the latter, it is sure to increase the revenue that it makes. For example, in Finland, Kraft Foods has made use of sales promoters who will distribute the products. They act as mediators between the Kraft Foods and other merchandisers. Furthermore, they can assist the company acquire products at cheap prices.

Lastly, Kraft Foods should know that by having few inventories, working capital does not improve. Also, the latter does not affect the levels of customer service. Other companies, which have followed this approach, have succeeded up to date. It seems that it is vital to ensure that inventory is slimed down. Also, Kraft Foods should purchase software that assist in supply chain matters. Also, the software will help in knowing locations and right quantities of stock that are needed. In supply chain, it is vital that forecasting is done, as it will help in selling the products, when inventories are kept at a minimum (Ferrari, 2012. 1a).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that Kraft Foods has faced many challenges, in matters that concerned supply chain. Also, the current economic crisis has made the company not to increase its revenues as it needs to. Furthermore, customers are not buying products from Kraft Foods as they used to some time back. The supply chain at the company can be improved through adapting to the latest technology, the twin fold approach, and the case by case approach. These recommendations should be closely followed in order for Kraft Foods to retain its glory among its customers, also, to earn high revenues.

Work Cited

Roberts, Dan. HYPERLINK “http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/2010/jan/19/kraft-cadbury-takeover” “50 reasons to fight Kraft”. The Guardian (London). HYPERLINK “http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/2010/jan/19/kraft-cadbury-takeover” http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/2010/jan/19/kraft-cadbury-takeover. Retrieved February 8, 2012.

Mentzer, J. et al. Defining Supply Chain Management, in: HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Business_Logistics” o “Journal of Business Logistics” Journal of Business Logistics, 22, 2, (2001): 1–25.

Kaushik, K. & Cooper, M. Industrial Marketing Management. 29, 1, (2000): 65–83.

Simchi-Levi D. &Kaminsky, P. & Simchi-levi, E. Designing and Managing the Supply Chain 3thrd Ed. New York: McGraw Hill.

Ferrari, Bob. Kraft Foods’ Pending Corporate Split Has Global Supply Chain Implications. Supply Chain Matters. HYPERLINK “http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2011/08/05/kraft-foodss-pending-corporate-split-has-global-supply-chain-implications/” http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2011/08/05/kraft-foodss-pending-corporate-split-has-global-supply-chain-implications/ Retrieved February 8, 2012.

Ferrari, Bob. Kraft Foods Facing Considerable Global Supply Chain Challenges- Part Two. Supply Chain Matters. HYPERLINK “http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2010/02/18/kraft-foods-facing-considerable-global-supply-chain-challenges-part-two/” http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2010/02/18/kraft-foods-facing-considerable-global-supply-chain-challenges-part-two/. Retrieved February 8, 2012.

Supply Chain Digest. Kraft hopes to save $300 million through Supplier rationalization. http://www.scdigest.com/assets/On_Target/09-09-16-3.php. Retrieved February 8, 2012.

HYPERLINK “http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebecca-Vickers/e/B001K8CMO8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1” Vickers J.L. Kraft: The Founder of Kraft Foods (Lives and Times). New York: Heinemann Library, 2005.Print.

A Case Study Of Businnes Law

Introduction

Betty Dukes the respondent together with other women have come up with a title 7 employment inequity case against Wal-Mart Stores who is the petitioner in this case. The District Court of U.S.A California north qualified a course of action comprising of of all women working at any of the stores belonging to Wal-Mart from the 26th December of 1998 who might have been of would be subjected to the purportedly biased policies and norms of Wal-Mart. The lawsuit purported that the women’s employer indulged in company wide sexual biases by remunerating men more than women, thus promoting less women to prestigious management positions and enhancing male workers a bit fast. The case dubbed Wal-Mart v. Dukes as a course of action managed to reach the supreme court, which did hear verbal arguments on the 29th of March. The main question therefore that was before in the hands of the supreme court was if Betty Dukes together with her female counterparts at Wal-Mart could go ahead as a group to come forward with discriminatory sentiments against their employer Wal-Mart.

Analysis

To me the U.S Supreme Court was divided. Despite the fact that the high court never gave a ruling on the case advantages, the rather misinformed decision shelters women who worked at Wal-Mart from tackling America’s biggest private employer as a unified group across the nation forcing each woman to personally file her sentiments or rather in shrink, action groups CITATION Kar09 l 1033 (Fisk, 2009). The supreme court ignored more that forty years of reputable jurisprudence and relentlessly constrained the chances of the workers to brawl discrimination as a class action unit. More importantly, the court enormously conservative judgement gave a lot of focus to the sheer incidence of a corporate anti-discrimination framework, despite the fact that the framework seemed not to have been adhered to. The court’s decision seems to give a dark future indication to further workers class action cases and a promising future for employers to go ahead using highly prejudiced remuneration and sex discrimination activities.

The company alleges that since the company is wide, the process of making decisions by managers is also spread that it cannot be held liable. But then we know that I corporations where the surroundings are unfavorable to women is purposefully perpetuated in all areas from daunting women from making applications to departmental positions like hardwares, sporting materials to attending meetings, the truth that store managers have the powers just indicates their discrimination.

What should be critical for me is not just the injustice done to the several employers, but the spirit of Wal-Mart and the corporate powers behind their case, this factor in the commerce chamber, limiting the chances of women that affected by these policies to come together as a unit and push forward a unified fight in court. In case Wal-Mart emerges victorious in this case, it will clip the voices of women working in it that they would not be able to alter their remunerations or disparities in promotions, lawsuits that will also come after it regarding discrimination within areas of work, violations of trust, protection of consumers and civil rights will be seriously affected, pushing away case brought up by big groups of persons against huge corporate companies (Fisk, 2009).

Action classes particularly those that bring together huge numbers of workers witnessing back remunerations, are a vital organ for holding corporations answerable for widespread discriminations, particularly when the damage caused to a single person, like Betty is significant compared to the larger image of discrimination. Most companies want it for people to fight individual fights such as that of David and Goliath. From such fights wide patterns of companies injustices would remain under the carpet due to the fact that discoveries by legal teams would be minimal and corporate wide statistical proof might be inadmissible in court. Even in the event that the company lost many cases dealing with individual subjects, solutions would be primarily negligible. Adding to this, the Supreme Court understands from previous cases that the legal profession would be hesitant from pursuing such legal undertakings due to the fact that possible benefits are minimal and also the expenses of litigating against huge companies are high. Owing to these reasons, class actions are vital tools to Americans and the world at large in pursuing justice. The ruling indeed was against the Civil Rights Act of the year 1964 it was unfair to not only the women who were working at Wal-Mart but also for all the men and minority groups across the nation. It would affect many cases that would follow.

Conclusion

The supreme court decision clearly undermined the rights of women and class actions. In order for class actions to function as organs for pursuing justice and preventing company misbehavior, the defendant must have been compelled to honor the financial consequences intrinsic in compensating the real figure of persons who have been affected, with no regard to the number.

Reference

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fisk, K. G. (2009). Wal-Mart Wins Request in Bias Case Washington Post.

Attaining Advocacy: A Case Study of the Australian General ECE Sector

Name

Course and Code

Institution

Instructor

Date of Submission

Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u 1. Introduction PAGEREF _Toc73536663 h 21.1 Background of the Study PAGEREF _Toc73536664 h 21.2 Problem Statement and Description PAGEREF _Toc73536665 h 31.3 Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc73536666 h 42. Methodology PAGEREF _Toc73536667 h 43. Results and Findings PAGEREF _Toc73536668 h 53.1 Legislation and Legal Framework for ECE in Australia PAGEREF _Toc73536669 h 53.2 The Role of Teachers in ECE Leadership PAGEREF _Toc73536670 h 73.3 Stability in the Role of Teachers as Leaders PAGEREF _Toc73536671 h 84. Discussion PAGEREF _Toc73536672 h 85. Conclusions and Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc73536673 h 9References PAGEREF _Toc73536674 h 11

1. Introduction1.1 Background of the StudyProfessional educators are among the most important and critical pillars within the early childhood sector because of their role in leadership. Waniganayake et al. (2012) identify a leader as an individual in a capacity to influence others and their decisions in a certain field. As such, childhood education professionals play the leadership role and expected to advocate on issues of relating to leadership and the welfare of the main stakeholders in early childhood education. Scholars agree that professional ECE teachers have the difficult role of bridging the gap, in terms of knowledge and professionalism, between individuals actively involved in early childhood leaning including parents and community leaders (Alameen, Male, & Palaiologou, 2015). For example, parents and older siblings, neighbors, and community leaders directly influence the development of ECE learners, employing mentorship roles and their own experiences as well as skills to make sure that these young learners successfully begin the learning process without issues. Yet, even with this important role, important people such as parents, community leaders, or older siblings do not automatically become leaders due to their involvement in enabling a sound learning environment and guidance roles. Bøe & Hognestad (2017) found that ECE professionals are leaders in every definition of the word because of how they weather the challenges of their environment and understand the relevance of collaborating and pooling resources with others to yield variant policies that benefit ECE learners as well as a better education system. The knowledge of their role as ECE professionals makes them leaders adding on to their skills and experiences in other major areas including openness to challenges, flexibility organization, and patience (Fairchild, 2019). ECE requires a lot of flexibility in both the methodology applied in keeping up with the demands of the sector as well as in leadership. ECE professionals embrace the diversity linked to ECE and are demanded by their environment as leaders to be able to communicate effectively with other stakeholders such as colleagues, learners, community leaders, and parents to ensure the best outcome for ECE learners. In this paper, a case study research approach is taken to improve the leadership practice in ECE. Specifically, the paper will look at the problem, through the eyes of ECE institutions, provide an evaluation, and later offer a critical reflection based on evidence gathered on changes in the practice that would lead to better leadership outcomes. Overall, the changing role of the teaching and learning processes in ECE requires fresh strategies in leadership that not only facilitate learning but also improves on professional leadership as a critical process.

1.2 Problem Statement and DescriptionGlobally, a majority of industries have a proper definition of leadership and what that function entails. The definition of leadership and of a leader is very clear in almost every level of interaction for such industries. In ECE, this definition has not always been clear (Ho, 2012). The blurry description of leadership is a major issue in ensuring that the industry develops in line with others in different or similar contexts in education or elsewhere. The description of who a professional leader in the field of ECE is and who is expected, by industry standards, to advocate on issues of professionalism requires a lot of research and for more players to participate in shaping the ensuing debate. In looking at the extant body of research and theory on ECE leadership, Denee & Thornton (2017) found gaps that may impact on the welfare of learners in the teaching and learning process sin ECE. Haslip & Gullo (2018) defines professional ECE leadership in terms of educators who move on to become leaders. Educators in ECE are seen as people who show competency based on their knowledge, experiences, skills, and personality attributes, and are also capable of passing these crucial personality traits on to other professionals in a manner consistent to the role of a leader to motivate others towards meeting objectives and goals for ECE learners. According to Muijs et al. (2004), ECE teachers also double up as leaders because they not only possess skills and expertise in critical areas in ECE education, but also understand the learning needs of children, their development and processes required for learning, know the importance of working with families because the latter is a diverse learning environment, and also have management roles in supervising other members of staff. It is also noted by Heikka & Waniganayake (2011) that , ECE leaders, in this case the teachers, understand the learning system and can create policies that positively influence better quality of service available to students, their families, and the general community. As seen in these assertions, the basic definition of a leader in ECE is very weak. It lacks the proper mechanism to support exact roles and functions that leadership entails. It points to experience and skills as the only qualification, showing a lack of a framework for reference that the Australian ECE can be founded on. On a fundamental level, the basic principle in the Australian ECE looks at leadership and a leader as an individual who correctly evaluates how others in the field, such as preschool teachers, define and understand early care and the entire system, reflects frequently to examine changes in diverse knowledge areas, and regulates how this understanding and knowledge is continuously developed to expand and enhance learner outcomes. It can be concluded that this description of leadership is inadequate and a hindrance to attaining professional advocacy in the ECE sector (Hujala, 2013). Existing research fails to provide a correct description of leadership in an environment where the main stakeholder, young children, are unable to shape policies even though they are the main recipients of a bad or good structure. The current should contribute to covering this gap and to provide a proper definition of professional leadership and how it can be used to advocate for professionalism issues.

1.3 Research QuestionsIn order to give direction to this research proposal, the following research questions will be used:

Who is a professional leader in the field of ECE?

Who should advocate on issues of professionalism in the Australian ECE field?

What is the impact of leadership to the field of ECE?

2. MethodologyThis paper will use a case study approach on a qualitative data source platform. Observations and literature will be used to study real cases in Australia involving areas where leadership in ECE are explored. The case study will be based on past literature and examples from secondary sources. A descriptive standpoint will be taken where cases will be described with the purpose of gaining an understanding of leadership ECE phenomenon. Data collection will be qualitative and descriptive. By using secondary data, the problem will be analyzed in depth through observing what other scholars found about the particular subject. The method is appropriate for the research questions and the objectives of this research study. To obtain a detailed overview of the evolution and contemporary status of ECE in Australia, numerous documents will be reviewed. This will include legislation, policy documents, and frameworks. Document review will precede the key respondent interviews and will serve as the basis for the development of interview protocols. Every document will be reviewed for its salience to the research questions and key data from every document will be summarized. So as to collect the most recent information on the status of ECE systems in Australia, key respondent interviews will be conducted with major stakeholders. Because this analysis is a first in terms of a comprehensive examination of the ECE framework in Australia, there is a need to include an assorted set of respondents. In a qualitative approach, guiding of the sample selection will be a commitment that will see the inclusion of diverse voices to ensure that even a relatively small sample will be able to capture contrasting views and disconfirming evidence where applicable. For the case studies, senior ministry personnel will be interviewed, including representatives from the education ministry, children social services, and any other relevant government sector concerned with policy formulation on ECE. In addition, there will be an interview scheduled for the national minister for ECE. Additionally, representatives from the Australian ECE community will also be interviewed, not forgetting individuals from the Indigenous communities who have a lot of information relating to a common man’s perspective of ECE. Finally, there will be an inclusion from scholars and various representative bodies of literature.

With the aim of producing a revealing and accurate narration of leadership and advocacy on ECE in Australia, a systematic process will be used to analyze collected data. Because the data is qualitative in nature, different strategies will be applied to each data set and then a process of integrating the key lessons will follow. The qualitative data will be summarized into notes that will then be reviewed for practice and policy trends as well as the inclusion of real cases from the field. Data will be integrated to distinguish key divergent or convergent themes relevant to leadership in ECE and advocacy. These will be expanded as the analysis continues. Primary source documents will be consulted to find out what researchers analyzed in the past. Once key themes are substantiated and identified, a results and findings section will be prepared for further analysis. The report will then move to the discussion phase for further integration of the findings to the study topic and questions.

3. Results and Findings3.1 Legislation and Legal Framework for ECE in AustraliaPreschool has truly been imagined as a social and learning climate, and has a more drawn out history of activity and access in child care evaluations. In certain states and domains, preschools created as a component of educational systems, while in others they have been worked by local gatherings. Young learners have regularly gone to preschool on a sessional (brief hours and not generally for a five-day week) premise in the early years school. Administration strategy and subsidizing for preschools is situated inside state and domain branches of instruction. Strategy detailing in Australia is intently attached to majority rule measures (Douglass, 2019). For the most part, strategy is proposed by government serves and bantered by the more extensive local area, commonly through organized surveys under the protection of government. It is the job of government divisions to figure and give guidance to the clergyman and government on arrangement. This incorporates the creation of effect proclamations and spending suggestions. Following government support, strategy changes require parliamentary endorsement to become law.

Over the last few years, the Australian Education Council has developed and begun the implementation of a nationally consistent regulatory framework tasked with provision and licensing of ECE services, referred to as the National Quality Framework (NQF) (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). The NQF is a significant reform that is intended at creating jointly governed and a uniform national approach in the regulation and quality assessments of all sanctioned ECE services. Essentially, the NQF assumes the early learning framework that offers uniform conditions for education/preschool and care/child care services across the country (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). Upon application, the system replaced prevailing quality assurance and separate licensing processes across Australia. As such, the NQF is applicable to every approved ECE services for children. The aim of this system is to create efficiency and consistency for service providers and teachers operating across the different states and territories in Australia.

In recent years, key legislations have marked a new era for ECE in Australia. For example, the National Quality Standard (NQS), a national benchmark for the provision of quality services across seven areas, including an approved learning framework that guides the development of quality early childhood programs, providing a national curriculum for children in early education (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). There was also an emergence of the Education and Care Services National Law and the Education and Care Services National Regulations, a national system for the regulation and enforcement of the NQS (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). Additionally, Australia has introduced an evaluation and quality assessment rating structure that aims at determining the performance of individuals in the areas set out by the NQS (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). Additionally, the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), a national body, with federal, state, and territory governance arrangements, was created as a part of the legislative measures to bring leadership to the ECE sector in Australia (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). ACECQA is responsible for managing the implementation and administration of other national systems.

3.2 The Role of Teachers in ECE LeadershipThe ECE teacher is a leader on a number of fronts (Heikka, 2014). In the Australian ECE sector, findings indicate that educators are also communicators. A significant part of the teaching and learning process is the communication aspect. For the educator, there are several expectations relating to the words used in teaching, the tone of voice, the mannerisms, all types of facial expressions and the body language (Kivunja, 2015). These are all aspects of communication that are done with children, thus needing a lot of care and skills. The teacher is also a facilitator as oppose to the traditional perspective of a didactic teacher. The ECE professional, in this case the teacher, does not simply pass information or knowledge to young learners but also supports them to be independent learners. Effective facilitators, according to Klevering & McNae (2018), set up an environment, plan programmes that suit individual learning needs and reflect on practice. The role of a facilitator is creating learning opportunities for ECE learners, through pointing out teachings attained in daily actions, events, and activities. The role of the teacher, across Australia, and in the ECE structure is to bridge the educational theory with best practice.

Based on the current ECE system, the part of the ECE educator as a researcher and implementer of current practices is getting increasingly more underlined across all education levels. Being an analyst is something other than gathering information and composing research papers. From the data analyzed and collected, it is true that Australian teachers in general have a role beyond teaching that incudes researching on best practices and employing the same to ensure positive learner outcomes (Tayler, Peachey, & Healey, 2018). It is tied in with utilizing perception and reflection to educate young learners. As the opinions of the children or guardians and their responses are put into the learning program, then the teacher is using research and utilizing it to inform practice (Strehmel, 2016). Essentially, in the event that they have issues addressing difficulties that emerge corresponding to children with extra requirements, partnering with guardians, or how to make a comprehensive system for a given setting leads one to specialists including books, articles and policies before implementing change. This also is research. Lastly, as an expert in the ECE, teachers are in an ideal situation to assist further the national insight regarding working with young ones; children development, improvement, instructional methods (pedagogy) and their overall learning.

3.3 Stability in the Role of Teachers as LeadersECE teachers have to address many cultural, educational and social challenges. This is because the changing nature of society, families, or childhood leads to a change in the work of ECE teachers. In Australia for example, the data collected indicates that several pedagogical and regulatory reforms have been implemented to develop ECE practice. As a result of the many professional demands and reforms created, teachers’ role as leaders in their initial and continuing capacity plays an essential role in increasing competence and effectiveness of policies. The Australian ECE system requires ECE teachers to fulfil a number of requirements. Due to the growing demands for professionalism, ECE teachers also need adequate leadership skills (Thornton et al., 2009). The data points to a need for the leadership to be constant and embedded in several aspects of the role played by ECE teachers. Therefore, ECE teachers take on roles including that of a leader and coordinators of not just the education system but also the curriculum work and double up as supporters of professional development for their colleagues. The role of ECE teachers in Australia has stabilized over the years t also include advocacy and that of facilitators in the creation of pedagogical improvements in the group of children they teach as well as the ECE centre level.

4. DiscussionTo explain the ECE system in Australia, the foregoing research point to the need to understand and implement the distributed leadership theory. From the findings, Haslip & Gullo (2018) found that every leader in a given learning environment must have the opportunity and the autonomy to not only define policies but also make independent decisions in areas of responsibilities touching on teaching and learning. The autonomy stated in the distributed leadership theory is key to the attainment of objectives in empowering ECE teachers as leaders and providing the opportunity to work with independence in decision making (Miller & Cable, 2010). In the distributed leadership approach, leadership is described in terms of its applicability and context. In the confines of distributed leadership approach, Heikka (2014) defines the leadership concept as a social and situated process intended to meet the key features of learning situations, followers, as well as leaders.

It follows that every ECE team member has equal opportunity to be a leader and to practice leadership, backed by the full support of others and taking responsibility of policies and directions, such as the legislative measures mentioned above relating to the entire ECE scene (Liu & Hallinger, 2018; Waniganayake et al., 2012). In the distributed theory approach, ECE leaders are likely to base decisions out of personal values to respond to different situations regarding the teaching and learning processes. Owing to the autonomy that the distributed leadership style suggests, a high chance of using personal values is present and this would influence the educational leadership approach taken as noted by Radinger (2014). For instance, the values of an ECE teacher and leader on a matter that touches on beliefs and faith are likely to direct leadership actions or decisions on a side biased to their position in the teaching and learning process. According to Heikka & Waniganayake (2011), every leader unconsciously, and sometimes deliberately, applies personal value to determine suitable leadership policies or actions. Consequently, personal values are an integral part of the distributed leadership theory, a major strategy applied in the Australian ECE sector today.

5. Conclusions and RecommendationsTo conclude, this paper has used a case study research approach to improve the leadership practice in ECE. Specifically, the paper will look at the problem, through the eyes of ECE institutions, provide an evaluation, and later offer a critical reflection based on evidence gathered on changes in the practice that would lead to better leadership outcomes. Professional educators are among the most important and critical pillars within the early childhood sector because of their role in leadership. As such, childhood education professionals play the leadership role and expected to advocate on issues of relating to leadership and the welfare of the main stakeholders in early childhood education. The discussion finds that an agreement amongst scholars on the point that professional ECE teachers have the difficult role of bridging the gap, in terms of knowledge and professionalism, between individuals actively involved in early childhood leaning including parents and community leaders. Parents and older siblings, neighbors, and community leaders directly influence the development of ECE learners, employing mentorship roles and their own experiences as well as skills to make sure that these young learners successfully begin the learning process without issues, yet do not automatically become leaders due to their involvement in enabling a sound learning environment and guidance roles. ECE professionals are leaders in every definition of the word because of how they weather the challenges of their environment and understand the relevance of collaborating and pooling resources with others to yield variant policies that benefit ECE learners as well as a better education system. The knowledge of their role as ECE professionals makes them leaders adding on to their skills and experiences in other major areas including openness to challenges, flexibility organization, and patience. Overall, the changing role of the teaching and learning processes in ECE requires fresh strategies in leadership that not only facilitate learning but also improves on professional leadership as a critical process.

The following recommendations are suggested. That, first, the Australian curriculum corrects the clear lack of an independent leadership structure despite the field of ECE being a self-regulating entity in the larger education sector. A major leadership issue in ECE remains to be that leaders are dependent on the structures and frameworks applied in other areas of education. In ECE, classroom teachers for example, are confined to using the curriculums and leadership approach provided for the overall education sector. From the Australian ECE sector case study, it is evident that the integration of ECE to the general education curriculum is important in preparing young learners for the future. However, the integration of these systems in terms of preschool and primary curriculum only serves to limit just how well ECE leaders, in this case professionals in the learning environment, can effectively formulate and implement policies and decisions. Another major problem identified is that ECE leadership in Australia suffers from a lack of and a poor definition of functions and roles. It is recommended that the entire system redefines the leadership role of ECE teachers and professionals in a way that incorporates recent changes to the ECE scene, the changing roles of teachers, the impact of leadership on the teaching and learning processes, and other issues including management that constitute effective leadership.

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