Reading Comprehension Strategies And Reading Skills English Language Essay

Reading Comprehension Strategies And Reading Skills English Language Essay Hammadon (1991) says: Reading comprehension is not just understanding words, sentences, or even texts, but involves a complex interartion of the readers prior knowledge, language profiency and their learning strategies (p.30). So reading strategies are very important to achieve the comprehension. Many types of reading strategies are introduced to guide students of all different levels. However, there were few researchers who investigate the relationship of reading comprehension strategies and reading comprehension of students. At HETC, reading has a key place in any English courses when students study English not only as the interest but also the demand for improving their study and promoting in their careers to achieve the long-term goals, especially some of them were assigned to live and work abroad. In their learning process, almost the students meet great challenges when dealing with the reading texts. They usually do not understand texts and cannot complete the tasks so they fee l tired in reading lessons. Therefore, what are the main causes of this current situation? In order to find out the answer, the researcher started a survey on the reading comprehension strategy use. For teachers at HETC, it is hoped that this study may offer them the ways on how to identify strategies used by the students and then they can decide what they should do to promote their students reading comprehension and in their learning as well. Literature review 2.1. Reading comprehension strategies and reading skills Oxford (1990) gives a detailed definition of language learning strategies: Learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations (p.8) and described concretely how learning strategies are applied to the four language skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading. According to her, four strategies: listening strategies, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, or reading strategies are those learning strategies themselves that applied to each of the four skills. Of course, skills and strategies are two big words and common terms of the reading activities, as well. Nutall (1982) pointed out that reading was certainly a process of the readers, who used strategies to work with the meaning of the texts actively and then made sense from them. By the interesting interactions from the readers and texts, more and more researchers keep working to research the relationship between the use of reading strategies and reading comprehension. However, strategy and skill, are they different? Yes, it was actually apparent that they were different. Strategy meant people used the planned methods and implements to achieve their goals, but skill was known as a routine. Moreover, strategy was the result of conciously work towards goals. It helped readers to understand the meaning of contents in order to find out the answer or obtain a certain performance level in reading that they want for themselves (Gagnà ©, 1985). However, it is not always easy to make such a clear differnces between these two terms. Grabe and Stoller (2002) said that many abilities that are commonly identified as strategies are relatively automatic in their use by fluent readers (e.g. skipping an unknown word while reading, rereading to reestabilsh text meaning (p.15) Paris et al (1991) supposed an emerging skill can become more efficient and developmentally advanced when they become generated and applied automatically as skills (p.61). Sometimes this diff erence is not clear at all because that is part of the nature of reading. In this study, reading strategies are used to show specific actions, steps and plans that students conciously apply in their reading process to improve their comprehension. 2.2. The relationship between reading strategies and reading comprehension Reading comprehension must occur rapid in almost any purposeful context, and the more rapidly a text is read, the better reading processes are to effect. Those specific processes must be implemented effectively in combination to ensure the reading comprhension. Reading comprehension requires the reader be strategic. The reader needs to identify processing difficulties, address balances between text information and background knowledge, decide for monitoring comprhension, and shifing goals for reading. When a good reader use strategies, they can read fluently, flexible in line with changing purpose and then continue monitoring the comprehension. Similarly, reading is an process that evaluating the reader, who must decide if the reading information is coherent and finds out the purpose for reading.Alderson (2003) said reading as the interaction of four things. He claimed that the reader and the text together must be fluent reading or the ability to reach at an appropriate rate with ad equate comprehension, or the ability of the reader to use a wide variety of reading strategies to accomplish a purpose for reading (p.149). So discovering the best methods and strategies are the way that a good learner apply during a reading process. 2.3. Previous research on reading comprhension strategies Grellet, F. (1981) wrote a book Developing Reading Skills. This book showed the important role of reading and provided some techniques which help learners improve their reading skill. Nutal, C. (1989) proved reading is to enable students to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts at appropriate speed, silently with adequate understanding. Ozek, O. (2006) researched A study on the Use of Cognitive Reading Strategies by ELT Students. This study carried out to find out which reading strategies are commonly employed by ELT students while reading a text, and which reading strategies are needed to be developed to understand the text better, and to continue academic studies successfully. San San Kung (2007) did an investigation into the relationship between reading comprehension and the use of reading strategies among EFL students in colleges in Taiwan. Through the study, the researcher knew what the reading strategies the EFL students use more or less and what the differences between different grade students. Methodology This chapter will describe research methods used to collect data to answer the research questions and then explain how and why the methods are used. 3.1. Research questions This study aims to find out reading strategy use of HETCs students. This also has objectives to discover if there are any differences in strategy use between lower and higher proficiency readers, as well. Then to suggest some recommendations to raise students awareness of using reading comprehension strategies in the classroom. It aims at answering the following questions: What reading strategies are used by students at HETC? What are the differences in the use of reading strategies between lower and higher proficiency readers? 3.2. Descriptions of variables 3.2.1. Independent variables In this study, the independence variables were the students at HETC. 51 students were chosen as representatives of this particular group sudents to collect needed data. These 51 students were divided into four groups in which students are the members of higher and lower proficiency groups. These 2 groups were chosen to get information to answer the second research question ( More details about these groups and about higher and lower proficiency readers will be found in 3.3.1 and 3.4.2) 3.2.2. Dependent variable: The dependent variable in this research were the strategies applied in reading comprehension, i.e. reading comprehension strategies. 3.3. The data collection instruments: This study employs a combibation of 3 data collection instruments: General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) Questionaire Think-aloud interviews As one of the objectives of this study is to find out if there are any dfferences in the strategy use between higher proficiency (HP) and lower proficiency (LP) readers. The test was used to divide the subjects into difference groups in which groups of higher and lower proficiency were chosen to collect the data. Think-aloud interviews aimed at getting qualitative data and quesionaire was used to get quantiative data. The author can collect a large information of all mentioned strategies and the information from students who share their thought of strategy use in the think-aloud interviews. Of course, the think a loud interviews in this study can be one of the best ways to reaffirm the result got from the questionaire. For example, in the questionaire, the subjects report that they use life experiences to understand the meaning of texts or read the first and last paragraphs and then go back to read the paragraphs; the author will know they use these strategies or not in the interview. 3.3.1. Test A General English proficiency test is a procedure taken to collect data on students ability or the knowledge of disciplines as Information about peoples language ability is often very useful and necessary (Nunan, 1992). The GEPT was taken form the book IELTS for Academic Purpose: A short insentive course (see the appendix 3). Based on the result of the test, the subjects were classified into 4 groups. Group 1 consists students who just got from mark 1 to 2.5; group 2 has those who got mark from 3 to 5. The students in these 2 groups are LP learners. Meanwhile, the students who are in group 3 got mark from 5.5 to 6.5 they are at medium levels. And the last group group 4 consists of HP ones who got mark from 7 and over. After having the result of the test, the author decided to chose group 2 and 4 to collect the data to answer the second research question. So there are 51 subjects in these 2 groups. The author did not choose group 1 because their proficiency were too low and they we re only 1% of the subjects. Details of the test can be found in Appendix 1. 3.3.2. Questionaire: Questionaire is the second data collection instrument in this study. This is also a pretty popular means of data collection. Many researchers suppose that using questionaire in language research has many advantages. First, questionaire can be given to a great amount of students at the same time and it is self-administered. Second, to protect the privacy and keep the fairness, the subjects names might not be appeared on the questionaire. So subjects tend to share the information more naturally, even some sensitive information. Third, the data collected are more accurate because questionaire is usually given to all the subjects at the same time. This study used one survey questionaire to gather the information about reading strategies as well as the differences in strategy use between these two kinds of readers. According to the result of the questionaire (and interviews), the athor can make some recommendation to help students improve their reading abilities. The quesionaire was designed based on the questionaire of Shan Shan Kung (2007). This part consists 3 parts. Of couse, in this study, the author modified the first part personal information part. The next part concept of reading had 3 questions to explore the perceptions of English reading. The last part had thirty eight questions of strategy use. In the beginning of third section, thirty four questions utilized a Liker Scale point systems. The subjects were asked to respond to each statement by choosing among four answers: 1) usually; 2) sometimes; 3) rarely; 4) never. Each section has four to six questions (except section 1 has 10 questions because of discoverin g the reading process). Through the survey, the author found out which strategies actually actracted HP readers more than LP readers. 3.3.3. Think aloud interviews In addition to the quetionaire, interviews are used to obtain information by actually talking to the subject. The interviewer asks questions and the subject responds. Interviews are the good way for collecting data as Seliger, H.W. (1989) claimed Interviews are personalized and therefore permit a level of in-depth information gathering, free response and flexibility that cannot be obtained by other procedures (p.166). However, it can be costly and time consuming. In this study, think aloud interviews were used to collect the data about the students reading strategy. The Interviewer Guide for Reading Strategies developed by Honsenfeld et al. (1981). In oder to make the Guide appropriate for objectives of thi study, the researcher has made some changes in the strategies they posed ( see Appendix 3). 3.4. Participants in the study: At the time the study was carried out, the subjects had just finished an English course. Their textbook was à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Therefore, their commonly assumed proficiency was intermidiate. They were members of three classes. One class included 25 students , 24 in the other class and 21 in the last one and they stuied the same textbook. Their ages ranged from 19 to 24. Almost all of students had at least 3 years of learning English before this class. They were delivered a reading proficiency test to be divided into higher and lower proficiency readers. In this study, gender has minimal effect on the results because the number of male students is quite small in the total of the subjects. 3.5. Procedure The data were collected by the researcher during a week in autum 2009. After contacting the English teachers of the subjects in person to get approval for asking their students to participate in the study, the researcher pre-arranged the time. The researcher went to English classes to administer the tests. The students were asked to complete the test in 60 minutes. The English teachers and the researcher supervised and marked the test papers later. The 2 days after, subjects were distributed the questionanires. The researcher gave some directions to the subjects and of then encouraged students to ask for any clarifications they might need and any other extra time when they filled out the questionaire. And of couse, the researcher wanted to protect the privacy and the students fairness, so the students names would not fill in the questionaires. In order to advoid misunderstanding the questions, the questionaire were translated into Vietnamese which were enclosed with the English version. The questionaire administration took about 30 minutes in each class. For days later, six chosen students were interviewed individually at the researcher s office in HETC. The reseacher pre-arranged the time and contacted to the students by the phone. Before the interview, the reseacher gave the instructions and explained the purpose of the study to students so they could understand what they had to do clearly. Each interview took from 10 to 15 minutes. Data analysis and findings 4.1. The result of the questionaire 4.1.1. Demographic Data Table 4.1 Demographic Information of Students (N=51) Subject Frequency Percentage Total N % Gender Male 9 17.6 51 100 Female 42 82.4 Level Lower proficiency 32 63.7 Higher proficiency 19 36.3 Years of English learning experience 2 3 5.9 51 100 4 9 17.6 5 15 29.4 6 11 21.6 7 6 11.8 8 2 3.9 9 4 7.8 10 1 2.0 Look at the table 4.1, of the 51 students participating in the study, 9 (17.6%) were males and 43 (82.4%) were females. Of the 19 HP students (36.3%) and 32 (63.7%) were LP students. When asking about years of English learning experience, just 1 students (2.0%) has been studying English for ten years. 9 students (17.6%) have been studying English for four years, 15 students (29.4%) have been studying English for five years, 11 students (21.6%) have been studying English for six years, 6 students (11.8%) have been studying English for seven years, 2 students (3.9%) have been studying English for eight years, 4 students (7.8%) have been studying English for nine years. Because foreign language in general and English in particular were given into school from sixth grade in secondary school, and from tenth grade in high school ( in some remote areas), the most students years of English learning experience were between four and seven years. To answer the second section of the questionnaire about concepts of reading, the results were presented in Table 4.2. Table 4.2 The Relationship between the Important of Reading for Language Learning and Reading Hours per Week by higher and lower proficiency students Reading hours per week 2 3 4 Over 4 N % N % N % N % Higher proficiency students (N =19) Very important 2 10.5 5 26.3 6 31.6 3 15.8 important 1 5.3 2 10.5 Not important Lower proficiency students (N =32) Very important 6 18.8 7 21.9 5 15.6 important 4 12.5 5 15.6 4 12.5 Not important 1 3.1 According to the illustration of Table 4.2, HP students who thought reading was very important for language learning were 2 (10.5%) spent two hours per week on reading, 5(26.3%) for three hours per week, 6 (31.6%), for four hours per week and 3 (15.8%) for over four hours per week. HP students who thought reading was important for language learning were 1 (5.3%) spent two hours per week on reading, 2 (10.5%) for four hours per week. There were not any students who thought reading was not important for language learning. In the LP group, 6 (18.8%) students thought reading was very important for language learning and spent two hours per week for it, 7 (21.9%) spent three hours for reading, 5 (15.6%) spent four hours for reading. These LP students supposed reading was important for language learning were 4 (12.5%) spent two hours per week on reading, 5 (15.6%) for three hours per week. There was 1 (3.1%) students said reading was not important for language learning but still spent two hours per week on it. 4.1.2. Findings for Research Question One The research question one was What reading comprehension strategies are used by students at HETC ? After collecting data, it showed what the same or different strategies were used more or less by HP or LP students for helping them understand the contents of the reading materials in different reading situations and were ranked from low to high to represent which strategy would be used more or less by the students during their reading process in different situations. The results were listed in the following by all of students reading ability levels when they used reading strategies in different reading situations. The total results came from the 51 students in Table 4.3, 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6. Table 4.3 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students at HETC When I read English materials, Mean Mean SD Rank 1. I read a table of contents, and then read the contents 1.82 1 .90 2. I focus on the first sentence of each paragraph for helping me understand the main points of the whole paragraph 2.51 7 .12 3. I underline the main points when I am reading 2.03 4 .97 4. I write Vietnamese on the margin for vocabulary words I dont understand during reading 1.86 2 .90 5 I skim over the full text, and then read details 1.88 3 .92 6 I use life experiences helping me understand the meaning of texts 1.86 2 .90 7 I use the background knowledge of the English culture to understand the contents 2.57 8 1.03 8 I use key words or sentences to guess the main idea of the articles 1.88 3 1.08 9 After reading each paragraph, I ask myself if I understand what I read before, and paraphrase the main idea, then keep reading the next paragraph 2.25 5 1.09 10 I discuss what I read with classmates 2.45 6 1.05 In Table 4.3, the result indicated which strategies the 51 students used more or less when they read English materials. The table showed the data with mean, mean rank, and standard deviation. As illustration of Table 4.3, the mean was from 1.82 to 2.51 and the rank was S1 (1.82) Table 4.4 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students at HETC When I do not understand a vocabulary, Mean Mean SD Rank 11 I check the dictionary immediately 2.37 3 1.1 12 I mark and pass it, keep reading and then go back 2.33 2 1.08 13 I use other words in the sentence to infer the meaning of vocabulary 2.09 1 .87 14 I analyze its suffix and prefix to get its meaning 3.00 4 1.21 Through Table 4.4, strategy 13 I use other words in the sentence to infer the meaning of vocabulary was most used by the students when they did not understand a vocabulary during the reading process. On contrary, strategy 14 I analyze its suffix and prefix to get its meaning was the strategy which most students used least in this reading situation. Table 4.5 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students at HETC When I do not understand a sentence, Mean Mean SD Rank 15 I use the context (topic, subject) to derive the meaning of each sentence 1.86 1 .91 16 I translate word for word into Vietnamese to better understand the meaning of the sentences 2.35 4 1.12 17 I take grammar analysis (ex: finding subject and verb etc.) to understand the meaning of the sentences 2.33 3 1.02 18 I analyze the structure of sentences (ex: sample sentence, adjective clause, or adverb clause, etc.)to derive the meaning of sentence 2.37 5 .97 19 I will analyze the verb tense (ex: past tense or future tense) or verb mood (ex: subjunctive mood or imperative mood) for better understanding 2.27 2 .95 In Table 4.5, those strategies had close mean scores between each other, but it also pointed out the differences from 2.27 to 2.37, except the strategy 15 had the mean score less 1.86. It described that strategy 15 I use the context (topic, subject) to derive the meaning of each sentence were the most used by the students when they did not understand a sentence during reading process. Vice versa, the means of the strategy 16 and strategy 18 to derive the meaning of sentence meant that they were used least than other strategies in this section. Table 4.6 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students When I dont understand (including vocabulary and sentences,) except above reading strategies, Mean Mean SD Rank 20 I check books (ex: grammar books or encyclopedia) for references 2.16 2 1.14 21 I go on the Internet to find related information 1.98 1 .92 22 I ask teachers or classmates for clarification 2.27 3 1.03 23 I read the difficult parts several times 2.63 5 1.12 24 I read the contents orally several times 2.47 4 .94 25 I will memorize the vocabulary pertaining to the contents before reading 2.16 2 .99 According to the data, it presented that strategy 21 I go on Internet to find related information was used by almost students. The information technology nowaday becomes quite popular to students so they would like to search information on the Internet. The S20 = S25 (2.16) both stood the second position. The strategy that students used least was strategy 23 I read difficult parts several times. 4.1.3. Findings for Research Question Two Research question two was What are the differences in the use of reading strategies of the higher and lower proficiency students at HETC? Through mean, standard deviation, t-tests and p value, the data analysis depicted detailed information about the differences of reading strategy performance between these two groups of students. The comparative groups focused on higher and lower proficiency student. Table 4.7 Means, Standard Deviations, t-Tests and p Value between higher and lower proficiency students at HETC when I read English materials, Lower proficiency students Higher proficiency students T p (N=19) (N=32) Mean SD Mean SD 1. I read a table of contents, and then read the contents 2.00 1.054 1.72 .813 .999 .322 2. I focus on the first sentence of each paragraph for helping me understand the main points of the whole paragraph 2.16 1.118 1.78 .792 1.288 .20 3. I underline the main points when I am reading 2.00 1.105 2.06 .914 -.208 .84 4. I write Vietnamese on the margin for vocabulary words I dont understand during reading 2.79 1.084 2.78 1.069 .026 .98 5. I skim over the full text, and then read details 2.05 1.026 1.78 .870 .965 .34 6. I use life experiences helping me understand the meaning of texts 1.89 .937 1.84 .917 .189 .85 7. I use the background knowledge of the English culture to understand the contents 2.05 1.129 2.86 .871 -2.729 .00** 8. I use key words or sentences to guess the main idea of the articles 2.37 1.261 1.59 .911 2.412 .02* 9. After reading each paragraph, I ask myself if I understand what I read before, and paraphase the main idea, then keep reading the next paragraph 2.00 1.202 2.53 .983 -1.630 .11 10. I discuss what I read with classmates 2.53 1.264 2.41 .946 .359 .72 p As indicated in Table 4.7, strategy 7 and strategy 8 attended to the significant difference level (p Table 4.8 Means, Standard Deviations, t-Tests and p Value between higher and lower proficiency students at HETC When I do not understand a vocabulary, Higher proficiency students Lower proficiency students t p (N=19) (N=32) Mean SD Mean SD 11. I check the dictionary immediately 3.32 .749 1.81 .896 6.432 .00** 12. I mark and pass it, keep reading and then go back 2.89 1.1 2.06 .878 2.809 .00** 13. I use other words in the sentence to infer the meaning of vocabulary 2.05 .911 2.13 .871 -.279 .78 14. I analyze its suffix and prefix to get its meaning 2.84 1.344 3.13 1.07 -.782 .44 p In table 4.8, strategy 11 and strategy 12 attended to the significant different level (p

Mercury Athletic Case Essay

West Coast Fashions. Inc. ( WCF ) . a big interior decorator and seller of men’s and women’s branded dress late announced programs for a strategic reorganisation. Active Gear. Inc. ( AG ) . a in private held footwear company. was contemplating an acquisition chance. John Liedtke. the caput of concern development for AG. was interested in a WCF subordinate. The subordinate that Liedtke and AG intended to get was Mercury Athletic ( MA ) . a footwear company. Liedtke thought geting Mercury would approximately duplicate AG’s gross. increase its purchase with contract makers and spread out its presence with cardinal retail merchants and distributers. In order to supply a solid recommendation to Liedtke. farther analysis must be performed. Market Overview The dress or footwear industry is extremely competitory with low growing. The market is influenced by manner tendencies. monetary value. quality and manner. Companies can cut down hazard factors by non following manner tendencies which equates to efficient and effectual stock list direction and lost net income chances. Active Gear AG is a comparatively little athletic and insouciant footwear company. It has one-year grosss of $ 470. 3M ( 42 % of grosss came from athletic places ) . and $ 60. 4M of runing income. Projecting a shadow over these Numberss are AG’s typical rivals. AG’s typical rival has one-year gross revenues over $ 1. 0B. Because of Chinese fabrication contract consolidations. AG’s size was going a disadvantage due to low purchasing power vs. rivals. AG’s initial focal point was to bring forth and market high-quality forte places for golf and tennis participants. AG was among the first companies to offer stylish. walking. hike and boating footwear. Over the old ages. the firm’s athletic places had evolved from high-performance footwear to athletic manner wear with a authoritative image. The firm’s traditional casual places besides offered authoritative styling. but were aimed at a broader. more mainstream market. AG’s mark demographic was urban and suburbanites. runing from 25-45 in age. AG’s distribution channels consisted of independent retail merchants. departmental shops. and jobbers. AG excluded large box retail merchants and price reduction shops. AG focused on merchandises that didn’t follow manner tendencies. ensuing in a elongated merchandise lifecycle. This concern theoretical account led to more efficient and effectual supply concatenation and operating direction. However. because they opted for the safe path it halted the company’s gross revenues and growing chance. Mercury Athletic Mercury Athletic was purchased by WCF from its laminitis Daniel Fiore. Fiore was forced to sell the company after running it for over 35 old ages. due to wellness jobs. Due to a strategic reorganisation. the program called for the divestiture of MA and other â€Å"non-core† WCF assets. MA had grosss of $ 431. 1M and an EBITDA of $ 51. 8M Merchandises were distributed to departmental and price reduction shopsIt had two merchandise lines- athletic and insouciant footwearTarget market of both work forces and adult femalesShoes popularity grew in the utmost athleticss marketMA developed an operating substructure. leting direction to rapidly accommodate to alterations in client gustatory sensations with merchandise specifications. 1. Is Mercury an appropriate mark for AG? Why or why non? Let me walk you through some qualitative considerations before doing my recommendation. Strategic considerations: AG and MA are both viing in the athletic and insouciant footwear industry. Acquiring MA could take to economic systems of graduated table and range through fabrication and distribution webs. severally. Geting MA- AG would be less affected by the Chinese fabrication contract consolidation. due to increased purchasing powers. AG could potentially revive and net income from geting Mercury’s women’s merchandise line. Geting MA will duplicate AG’s one-year gross. Counter arguments- AG and MA mark demographics could non bring forth company synergisms MA is manner trendy. hence prone to put on the line outside of AG’s steady concern theoretical account Company civilizations could non fit 2. Review the projections by Liedtke. Are they allow? How would you urge modifying them? In order to happen if the projections are sensible. you need a starting point. Using jutting growing rates and EBIT should bespeak if Liedtke’s information is solid. Referencing the Free Cash Flow and Terminal Value tabular arraies ( found below ) . I will be able to bring forth an sentiment of Liedtke’s projections. Year to twelvemonth growing rates are highly volatile. normalising in 2010. The negative rate could mean that in 2007 they are projecting to stop a merchandise line. The swing back to a positive growing rate could be indicant of AG leveraging its economic systems of graduated table and range. while administering their merchandise lines through large box retail merchants. EBIT has been projected to bit by bit increase. which looks to be on par with industry norms. It is sensible to state that Liedtke’s projections decently reflect AG’s concern theoretical account. post-acquisition. 3. See tabular arraies and computations below 4. Make you see the value you obtained as conservative or aggressive? Why? From my analysis. the value I obtained seemed to be aggressive against the information provided. Referencing the tabular arraies below: Terminal or Enterprise Value is High Synergies are excluded from fiscal analysisWorsening gross growing 5. How would you analyse possible synergisms or other beginnings of value non reflected in Liedtke’s base premise? In order to analyse possible synergisms. I would look at both companies’ operations. Get downing from where they beginning their stuffs to administering their concluding merchandise are all possibilities of operational synergisms ( purchasing power. distribution channels. stock list direction. etc†¦ ) . Fiscal synergisms would include uniting grosss and cost benefits. which translate to increasing bottom line. Company civilization matching could besides go debatable. Quantitative AnalysisNet Working Capital Free Cash Flow WACC Terminal Value Evaluation NPV. IRR and Payback Period Decision Net present value of future hard currency flows equates to a positive $ 0. 2M. Internal rate of return or IRR is the involvement rate at which the net present value of all the hard currency flows from a undertaking or investing equal nothing. The IRR of this acquisition is 28 % . Having a positive NPV and an IRR that well outweighs the price reduction and hazard free rate- suggests that this acquisition should be pursued. In decision. AG should get MA.

Case Study for Emotional & Retional Manager Essay

In philosophy, rationality is the characteristic of any action, belief, or desire, that makes their choice a necessity. It is a normative concept of reasoning in the sense that rational people should derive conclusions in a consistent way given the information at disposal. It refers to the conformity of one’s beliefs with one’s reasons to believe, or with one’s actions with one’s reasons for action. However, the term â€Å"rationality† tends to be used differently in different disciplines, including specialized discussions of economics, sociology, psychology, and political science. A rational decision is one that is not just reasoned, but is also optimal for achieving a goal or solving a problem. Rational Manager Character analysis: Irrational and illogical management causes untold losses every year all over the world. Managers are paid to make logical, financially viable decisions and solve problems using good judgment to facilitate the smooth flow of the operation. Reasoning is an important process, which anyone can acquire by a short formal education. It is one of the most important factors in making rational decisions. The absence of conscientious, systematic problem analysis and decision making causes inefficiency and waste of resources. It also results in failure to set clear objectives and performance standards. Successful managers plan their meeting for optimal productivity. Meetings must be well organized and controlled; deviations from the agenda must not be tolerated. Operational meetings must be planned to inform rank and file. Suggestions must be solicited and duly studied. The definition of problem is â€Å"an unwanted effect, something to be corrected or removed†, that which cannot be solved before establishing its cause. Every problem, almost always, has only one cause. Problem solving must follow a logical process and careful analysis. It requires skill to apply theory to practice. A correct decision in one operation may prove to be less effective, even incorrect in another. The decision maker must be fully familiar with the operation, problem area and employees involved. Only correct and relevant information must be used in decision-making. Good managers always evaluate daily, the effectiveness of their decision to make corrections. Often, managers make the most convenient, but poor and costly decisions. Poor decisions may appear to solve a problem, but eventually the problem will reappear with more devastating repercussions. Young, inexperienced managers rely on technology, and conveniently forget (ignore) the importance of human factors like service standard, product quality, plate presentation and guest satisfaction, all of which cannot be quantified and must be fine-tuned constantly. A manager must know precisely the level of performance of all employees. In very large operations, general managers rely on division managers to make decisions on their behalf, and then provide guidance when incorrect reasoning was employed. Correct decisions can be made based only on facts. Problem solving and analysis are two entirely different processes. A problem indicates deviation from the standard, and usually a change of some kind causes it. In order to analyses a problem, seven steps are required: †¢ Established standards †¢ A problem is caused by a deviation from the standard †¢ The deviation must be identified, accurately located and described †¢ There is always something distinguishing about the deviation from the standard †¢ The cause of the problem is an unwanted change †¢ Possible causes are deduced from changes established †¢ The deviation(s) explains the cause(s) A problem may have several solutions. The decision maker must select the best which is linked to the scope of his/her experience. Here are the steps required to make a good decisions; Establish objectives, Classify objectives and prioritize Develop alternatives, Evaluate alternatives against objectives Select the best alternative Test alternatives (if possible) for possible adverse consequences Control adverse effects by taking affirmative action. Managers require standards to follow. If unavailable, they must develop them and seek the approval of their superior. Each problem must be solved individually. Several problems (related or not) cannot be solved simultaneously, and jumping from one to another may be an exercise in futility. If several problems exist, all must be prioritized and solved in sequence. Vaguely described and/or perceived problems cannot be solved satisfactorily. A common mistake is jumping to conclusions. Incorrect identification of a problem leads to wrong decisions, and eventually to a major crisis. Managers must be able to anticipate potential problems; promoting a line worker to a supervisory position requires due diligence. The background of the individual must be checked thoroughly, and his/her decision making skills verified before the promotion. RATIONAL VERSUS EMOTIONAL DECISION MAKING (3) Human brain researchers have determined that the more that is on one’s mind, then the more likely one will make an emotional decision rather than a rational one. Could this provide an explanation why so many decisions by managers and employees continue to seem irrational? As background, the brain researchers conducted an experiment asking people to memorize a series of numbers in sequence ranging from two to seven numbers. After given their numbers all the individuals had to do was walk down the hall to a room and write the numbers down. But there was a catch. As the subjects walked down the hall another researcher interrupted them and offered a gift for participating of either a piece of chocolate cake or an attractive bowl of fruit. The results were surprising (and very statistically significant). Those with the least numbers to memorize chose the fruit whereas those with more numbers chose the cake. Why is this? The brain researchers have observed that the human brain has two parts: a rational deliberate section and an emotional one. The competition between the two is fierce. When the mind load is light, as with those people tasked to memorize only two numbers, their judicious mind ruled the healthy fruit was more appropriate than the high calorie cake. In contrast, when the brain is more filled with items, emotion wins over reason. Let’s put this finding into the context of today’s work world. How many managers are constantly juggling many priorities? All of them. You are too. For example, should I first reply to that e-mail, edit and finalize that paper due, phone that colleague, read that blog or twitter, or analyze that report? When one has these types of â€Å"to-do† items, as a decision is thrust upon them, it is not surprising the choice is an emotional one? As examples, our largest customer just requested a special service. Should we charge them for it? Our most unreliable supplier just missed another due date. Should we replace them with another supplier? You could debate each of those decisions either way. But if your mind is distracted with a dozen other priorities and no time to debate, it is conceivable the emotional brain section might overrule the rational one. Decisions deserve analysis. The margin for error is thinner these days, and what we deal with daily is more complex than a decade ago. The tools for business analytics have now become available for even the casual user. Read my article Why Will Business Analytics Be the Next Competitive Edge? If organizations delay becoming a culture for analytics and metrics then the quality of their decisions will jeopardized. Case Study:This case was happened in 2002 in one of Egyptian military factory, the production sector took a decision to buy a certain production machine for producing a very complicated work piece, and this work piece will be used in a military device. This machine is very expensive and also very accurate, so the chairman had to be sure that this machine will be suitable for the required work piece and also will achieve the accuracy required, in order to do so, the chairman stipulated a strange condition in the contract of the machine to accept it from the seller, this condition simply is the factory will never transfer the money of the machine to the seller unless the machine not only delivered and installed but also after producing the first required work piece, and this produced work piece must be applied to measuring tests and pass through quality control procedures which is according to the German Standards (DIN). The chairman asked the quality control manager to construct a full plan to apply the measuring tests, that plan must illustrate the team, equipments used, strategy and measuring operations, once the quality control manager got the order he called for   meeting to make a discussions with the sector’s member about the required plan and to take their opinion about who will be in this team. Also the quality control manager had to determine a team leader for this mission, he had two choices, first one is an old engineer working in the quality control sector for many years and has very good and strong connections to all people in the quality control sector, second one is young engineer worked for just two years in the quality control sector but on the other hand he considered expert due to his advanced studies in the university in these type of tests and measurements. The quality control manager chose the old engineer to be the team leader. After submission the plan to the chairman to confirm, he accepted the plan but he changed the team leader and chose the young engineer due to his background knowledge. The quality control manager was very surprised and tries to change the chairman’s mind but he could not. The quality control manager called for another meeting for the sector in order to explain the reasons of changing the team leader and also to convince the team members accepting the new leader. Analysis In this case study we are obviously about two different manager styles. The chairman consider rational manager by the mean of word, he is always task oriented and focusing on how to achieve target whatever happened, this can be seen in how he made the deal with the machine seller, actually the above condition in the contract considered strange condition and not common at all in this type of business, but he did not care about what commonly used and also did not care about rules, he just want to make sure that the expensive machine he bought will do his work piece accurately. From another point of view he asked the quality control manager to construct the working plan for tests, this is to insure that the all process will be under control, where the decision of machine acceptance or rejection depends only on these tests. Also as he task oriented and always studding his option carefully he changed the team leader of the plan, as he believe that this is the way to achieve goal, and he did not care about team members, old team leader and also the quality control manager. On the other hand we have the quality control manager which considered emotional manager as seen, once he has been asked to construct the tests plan; immediately he called for a meeting to do so, also his way to determine the team leader; he used his intuition to avoid trouble in work may had been caused by the old engineer, he did not care about task accuracy, he did not care about how important was the mission and chose the old engineer just to be safe and away from troubles. Also when the chairman changed the team leader; he called for another meeting just to give excuses to the old team leader, and also to make a discussion with the team member to convince them with the new leader. CONCLUSION (2): The ancient philosophical debate about whether ethics is primarily a matter of reason or emotion has spilled over into psychology, where there is much current discussion about the nature of ethical thinking. But sufficiently rich theories of inference and emotion can clarify how moral judgments at their best should be both rational and emotional. How can we do the right thing? People are sometimes told: Be rational, not emotional. Such advice adopts the widespread assumption that reason and emotion are opposites. This opposition is particularly acute in ethics, where philosophers and psychologists have long debated the relative roles in ethical thinking of abstract inference and emotional intuitions. This debate concerns both the descriptive q Adjudicating this debate requires an evidence-based theory of emotions that mediates between two traditional theories: the cognitive appraisal view that takes emotions to be judgments about the accomplishment of one’s goals, and the phys iological perception view that takes emotions to be reactions to changes in one’s body. The cognitive appraisal view is compatible with the potential rationality of emotion, because the truth or falsity of judgments can be evaluated. On the other hand, the physiological perception view puts emotions on the non-rational side, since bodily reactions are not susceptible to reason. I have argued for a synthesis of the two views of emotion. The brain is capable of simultaneously performing both cognitive appraisal and bodily perception, and emotional consciousness results from this combination. If the integrated view is correct, we can see how emotions can be both rational, in being based at least sometimes on good judgments about how well a situation accomplishes appropriate goals, and visceral, providing motivations to act. Some emotions are beautifully rational, such as love for people who add great value to our lives, whereas other emotions can be irrational, such as attachment to abusive partners. Ethical judgments are often highly emotional, when people express their strong approval or disapproval of various acts. Whether they are also rational depends on whether the cognitive appraisal that is part of emotion is done well or badly. Emotional judgments can be flawed by many factors, such as ignorance about the actual consequences of actions and neglect of relevant goals, such as taking into account the needs and interests of all people affected. Adam Smith is sometimes taken as preaching a gospel of self-interest, but his work on moral sentiments emphasized the need for ethics to be based on sympathy for other people. Hence the emotions involved in ethical thinking can be rational when they are based on careful consideration of a full range of appropriate goals, including altruistic ones. Ideally, this consideration should mesh with a visceral reaction that provides a motivation to act well and correct injustices. Being good requires both thinking and feeling. Question about how people actually do think when they are making ethical judgments and the normative question of how they should think. References: {1} http://www.foodreference.com/html/artrationalmanager.html {2} http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201006/ethical-thinking-should-berational-and-emotional {3} http://smartdatacollective.com/garycokins/23935/rational-versus-emotional-decision-making

Persuasive Essay On Refugees - 1331 Words

How would you feel if you were a refugee? Alone? Scared? And very worried. That would be hard wouldnt it. Would you want a home? Mr. Trump has been a target for many people involving refugees and the people coming into our country. So many people in our country talk about this issue everyday about letting people into our country and the decisions are very split. The United States should accept refugees under the following conditions, if they have a clean criminal record, if they are children and if they have a plan for a job. Because if they have criminal records they can cause chaos in our country, we won’t ever get all of them and we will overpopulate, and If more terrorists come in they can encourage more to come in. My first reason†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, refugee communities tend toward poverty, disaffection, and all the attendant problems with crime and social issues. (Wordpress.com) They still want us to be safe and have us know that lots of crim inals are. My second reason is that we won’t ever get all of them and we will overpopulate because so much of them will come in. It can never be enough. – At last count, there were four million Syrian refugees displaced by this crisis. They aren’t the only ones, mind; there’s large numbers of Iraqis, Lebanese, Jordanians, Kurds, et cetera that have been forced out of their homes over this. And, while we’re at it, why not do something for that great mass of mankind that’s living in abject poverty, in deep and utter need? There are billions of people in this world that have difficulty getting enough to eat on a daily basis, but America is the land of the agricultural surplus and has been for decades. (Wordpress.com) We know that we can’t let all of them in and we won’t because we can’t let all of them in. When we talk about genocides going on in the world, theres a sort of numbing effect because the numbers are so big, said Cameron Hudson, leader of the museums Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. The video project allows them to also tell the personal stories, he said. (Washington Post) We know that so many people want to get in but most of them can’t because the numbers are soShow MoreRelatedRefugees Persuasive Essay1220 Words   |  5 PagesRefugees should be allowed into the United States under certain conditions only, including a positive background, Eligible for a job and will respect our nation as well as the people in it. Just imagine that your little town is being attacked or even a natural disaster may be occurring and having nowhere to go, what would you do? How would you survive? 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