Philosophic Principles of Creativity :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Philosophic Principles of Creativity ABSTRACT: The principle of universal significance of the creative process is promoted in this thesis. The principles of the ecology of creation and of the subject's humanistic orientation of the cognitive and practical activity, will also be investigated. 1. Nowadays the promotion of a new world outlook paradigm of global creativity has a place. The understanding of the nature of creation in the history of philosophy has always been connected with the explanation of the substance and of the mechanisms of creative activity. If asked - how creation in general is possible, what are its necessary premises and impulses - the answer was given aut of the trinity: God /Plato, G.W.F.Hegel, N.Berdyaev/, Nature /Epicurus, B.Spinoza, H.Bergson/, Human Being /C.A.Helvetius, K.Marx, J.P.Sartre/. Such abilities of the human beeng as intuition, imagination and fantasy have been united in the mechanisms of creation. Some thinkers have been explaining them through perceiving using "the eyes of mind" of evidently clear true ideas /R.Descartes, I.Kant, E.Husserl/, some others - just vice versa - opposed those concepts of mind and logic, finding in them the way to some instant perceiving of the essence of things - a sign of divine revelation and beneficy /St. Augustine, A.Shopenhauer, E.H.Gilson/. The principal difference in the idea of global creativity consists in the admission of the ontological status of creative processes, of their quality of being primary as some maximum totality. The attention is drawn to the subject's purpose - considering activity considered as a certain stage /link/ in the global teleological processes of the universal. Considering the metaphysical point of view, creation is a fundamental process of spontaneous transcendence of potentials and virtualities, of permanent development in the field of universal posibilities. All of the existing material, semiotic and ideal structures expose themselves as certain products /events/ of creative processes. Their former, actual and future existance finally depends on the different direction and on the forms of realisation of the potentials of creativity. 2. The new world outlook paradigm of global creativity correlates harmoniously with the fundamental principles of modern natural science. It is worth mentioning that the understanding of physical reality as a set of different assemblies of events and relations, having as a result, the appearance of separated substantial material objects /N.Bohr, K.Hubner/. An important methodological role in modern cosmology is played by the so called antropic principle. According to that principle the significance of the universal physical constants - and that means all the outlook of the Universe known to us - is the only one possible for the appearance and existence of the human being in it /S.

the million dollar blank-note (mark twain) :: essays research papers

Dear Son   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I know you are probably wondering what this letters concerning but I anted you to know how I came to be the man you look upon as your father. You should know that in many cases money is brought upon a man through inheritance, luck, or hard work. In my case however money was brought onto me because of the hard-worker I once was. It was not to long ago that I was just an ordinary man living in San Francisco as a mining brokers clerk. In the eyes of others I was a respectable young man, clean-cut, and very intelligent, all the qualities to go fortune. However in my eyes I looked past all those qualities and just say a lonesome m morning shift that Saturday, I decided to enjoy the rest of my day with a sail through the bay, like always however this time I had ventured to far and was carried out to sea by the current. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with all hope lost until a ship picked me up from sea. The ship was bound for London and since I had no cash on me I had to work my passage there as a sailor. When I finally reached London I was a mess. My clothes where all torn and ragged, and I had only a dollar in my pocket. I survived the first day with the single dollar but when day two had arrived I was need for food and shelter however that same day my luck was beginning to change. I was walking on the streets in search for any food I could retrieve when a man called out to me through a window. I stepped inside the house where the man had called me from and was escorted into an enormous room, which was occupied, by a group of elderly old men. Now before I continue I need to stop and explain to you some minor details that weren’t given to me before. The Bank of England once issued two million dollar bank-notes. The notes were to be used for some public transaction with a foreign country. At the time on had been used while the other note still remained in the vaults of the bank. Well earlier that day before I came into the picture two of the brothers from the elderly group were having a great arugment on the second note.

Compare and contrast the two characters of Celie and Jeanette. Essay

Compare and contrast the two characters of Celie and Jeanette. Consider the influence of religion on the two main protagonists. Despite the fact that Celie and Jeanette are characters who appear to be lost in completely different worlds they do in fact have quite a lot in common. The influence of religion on the two girls is significant and can be seen throughout the two novels. Jeanette is trapped at home with an extremely strict religious family, and could be considered to be quite naà ¯ve, as she hasn’t seen much of life outside of her village. Her village is full of evangelists, although the way they act makes them seem a lot more like a cult. Hence, it could be said that Jeanette had to endure religion being forced upon her throughout her childhood. Celie on the other hand, embraces religion and it is an important factor in her survival. After Celie has been raped by her abusive father, who also gave her children away, she is forced to live with Mr. ____, her husband, who is equally, if not more abusive than her father ever was. Celie can’t see herself living any other way, and although she isn’t happy, she accepts this way of life. Jeanette Winterson wrote, â€Å"Oranges are not the only fruit†, which was published in 1985. She was born in Manchester in 1959, and was adopted by two evangelist parents. She left her parents in 1975 after starting a relationship with another woman. She attended St. Catherine’s College in Oxford and graduated from there with a degree in English. Over the years she has published many stories mainly involving lesbian fiction, as well as film scripts. Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 into a family of sharecroppers near Eatonton, Georgia. Her father, Willie Lee Wal... ...lf and her new life by ending her letters as if they were a prayer, with the word â€Å"Amen.† Jeanette has escaped her demons and eventually returns home once she has found her own path in life with God, but without all her previous restrictions. The two novels reflect on the ways in which religion can affect how a person lives their life, and how it can help them to cope in times of need and desperation. The novels also show how religion can have the influence to help a person to have the strength to survive and completely change their direction in life, as is seen in â€Å"The Color Purple† and â€Å"Oranges are not the only fruit.† --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] â€Å"Oranges are not the only fruit† Jeanette Winterson Chapter One, Genesis. In this scene we are introduced to Jeanette, her family and the life she lives.

Motivation at Panasonic Essay

Motivation at Panasonic Introduction Panasonic is very huge and world famous corporation. Panasonic is much more than a well-known brand name. It stands for the depth and diversity of our research capabilities, manufacturing expertise and product selection. It stands for the advanced technology of products, from easy-to-use consumer goods to sophisticated medical, broadcast, business and industrial systems. Visit the Panasonic Web site (http://www. panasonic. com) and you’ll quickly see the broad range of consumer, business, industrial and broadcast products offered. Business customers, seeing this wide range of expertise, have asked us to provide entire system wide solutions for all their electronics needs. Our engineers are rising to the challenge. The demand for this â€Å"one-stop shopping† is becoming a major growth area for the company as technology becomes more sophisticated and omnipresent. No matter if it’s a giant hotel, a stadium or a major metropolitan transit system, Panasonic is meeting customers’ needs. The research Question What motivate customers? What motivate employees and supervisor? How could this theory help you motivate the various individuals who work for you? How could you encourage the need for achievement in others? What are some of the difficulties in attempting to motivate high –NACH individuals in organizations? What evidence exits for the use of various types of reinforcement, vicarious learning, and self-control? What makes people kill others? There are questions that are unclear in many minds. Through this research, it is hope that the readers likewise will have a clearer view and understanding of motivations. Methodology The university library has very limited materials available for research purposes, and internet resource is not enough. For this reason and for fact that the scope of this research is limited to motivation, the research only used resources available. Literature search How to define motivation To define what motivation is, let us begin by point out what motivation isn’t. Why? Because many people incorrectly view motivation as a persona trait, that is, they think that some have it and others don’t. In practice, this attitude would characterize the manager who labels a certain employees as unmotivated. Our knowledge of motivation, though, tells us that people can’t be labeled in this way. What we know is that motivation is the result of the interaction between the individual and situation. Certainly, individuals differ in motivational drive, but an individual’s motivation varies from situation to situation. As we analyze varies both between individuals and with individuals at different times We’ll define motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. Although general motivation refers to effort toward any goal, here it will refer to organizational goals because our focus is on work-related behavior. The three key elements in our definition are effort organizational goals, and needs. Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. The motivation process begins with an unsatisfied need, which creates tension and drives an individual to search for goals that, if attained, will satisfy the need and reduce the tension. Motivation is the forces that energizes behavior, give direction to behavior, and underlines the tendency to persist. It is an internal force. NO one can really measure it; even the person involved himself or herself. How we measure motivation is by simply watching the behavior, actions, and performances of the people in their search for fulfillment towards their goals. These actual performances are likely to be a function of their own abilities, motivations, and working conditions of their environments. Motives are dynamic and they are constantly changing as a result of the rise and fall of a motive’s importance as it is satisfied or not. Dr. Abraham Maslow The best known theory of motivation is probably psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. He stated that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs. Physiological needs . This most basic level of Dr. Maslow’s hierarchy includes the needs for food, water, sleep, oxygen, warmth, and freedom from pain. If these needs are unsatisfied, an individual’s actions will be dominated by attempts to fulfill them. If these needs are sufficiently met, the second set of needs will emerge. Safety needs. These needs relate to obtaining a secure environment in which an individual is free from threats. It includes security and protection from physical and emotional harm Social needs. The third set needs include the need for affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship. Esteem needs. Internal esteem factors such as self respect, autonomy, and achievement and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention. Self-actualization needs. Growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfillment; the drive to become what one is capable of becoming. As each need is substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant. From a motivation viewpoint, the theory says that, although no need is ever fully gratified, a substantially satisfied need no longer motivates. If you want to motivate someone, according to MASLOW, you need to understand where that person is in the hierarchy and focus on satisfying needs at or above that level. MASLOW’S need theory has received wide recognition, particularly among practicing managers. Its popularity can be attributed to the theory’s intuitive logic and ease of understanding. David McClelland David McClelland and others have proposed the three-needs theory, which maintains that there are three major relevant motivates or needs in work situations: Need for achievement(NACH) , Need for power(NPOW) , Need for affiliation(NAFF). Some people have a compelling drive to succeed, but they are striving for personal achievement rather than for the rewards of success per se (NACH). They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before. This drive is the need for achievement. From research concerning the achievement need, McClelland found that high achievers differentiate themselves from others by their desire to do things better. They seek solutions in which they can attain personal responsibility for back on their performance in order to tell whether they are improving or not, and in which they can set moderately challenging goals . High achievers are not gamblers; they dislike succeeding by chance. They prefer the challenges of working at a problem and accepting the actions of others. An important point is that they avoid what they perceive to be very easy or very difficult tasks. The need for power is the desire to have impact and to influential. Individuals high in NPOW enjoy being â€Å"in charge†, strive for influence over others, and prefer to be in competitive and status-oriented situations. The third need isolated by McClelland is affiliation (NAFF), which is the desire to be liked and accepted by others. This need has received the least attention by researchers. Individuals with high NAFF strive for friendships, prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships involving a high degree of mutual understanding. Mr. McClelland proposed that a culture’s growth is due to level of need for achievement inherent in its population. His research indicates that increases in the level of need for achievement precede increases in economic activity. He also proposed that achievement motivation can enhanced in adults who others lack high level. Adams’s theory Employees don’t work in a vacuum. They make comparisons. If someone offered you $60,000 a year on your first job upon graduation from college, you would probably grab the offer and report to work enthusiastic and certainly satisfied with your pay. How would you react if you found out a month or so into the job that coworker -another recent graduate, your age, with comparable grades from a comparable college -was getting $70,000a year? You probably would be upset! Even though, in absolute terms, $60,000 is a lot of for a new graduate to make, that suddenly would not be the issue. The issue would now center on relative rewards and what you believe is fair. There is considerable evidence that employees make comparison of their job inputs and outcomes relative to others and that inequities influence the degree of effort that employees exert. Developed by J. Stacey Adams , equity theory says that employees perceive what they get from a job situation (outcomes) in relation to what they put into it (inputs) and then compare their inputs -outcomes ration with the inputs-outcomes rations of relevant others. Worker will balance the input and out put in different way. Such as 1Change their own perception 2Change other’s inputs or outputs Change our own inputs or outputs 4Choose another comparator 5Quit job. Reward System Motivating employees can be through extrinsic rewards which come form sources that are outside and intrinsic rewards which are more accurately characterized as self administered, arising form within the person. More specifically, motivating different employees are done differently. Motivating professionals differ from mo tivating contingent workers, motivating volunteer differ from motivating temporary employees. The professional employees are usually university graduates. They receive intrinsic satisfaction from their work. They are differing from non professionals. They have long term commitment with their field of expertise. They are loyal to their profession and not to their employees. They need regular update of their knowledge. They are well paid and enjoying what they do. The contingent employee would be more interest in having an opportunity to get a permanent job than anything else. They work contingent, if the company now are lack of secretary, then they must do the job as secretary; if the company need operators, then they must do the job as operators, they are not the formal employees in the company. The hours volunteers give to make programs and special events successful, and the fundraising contact they have with your donor base, make them key spokespersons. Volunteers can be your organization’s strongest recruiters, whether for additional volunteers, or for financial contributions. The most credible source of information within your organization to someone without any personal knowledge of it, volunteers must be informed and up-to-date about your organization’s mission, projects and plans. They need support and feedback. The temporary employees enter into a new company, whether it is for a few hours or a few weeks, they are naturally unsure and uncomfortable with the new environment. They are adapting to new and different management styles and are challenged by assuming somebody else’s responsibilities. Temporary employees are not second hand employees. Many choose to be a temporary employee for flexibility, variety of work experience, and mobility or are looking for permanent work in a company of choice. They have their own professional goals and are there to make things easier for your company. They are motivated by respect of others. Motivation at Panasonic The researcher will talk about motivation at Panasonic from two aspects. 1. Motivating employees The employees at Panasonic are only of two kinds: the supervisor and the employees. The supervisors are likewise well chose, and promoted from its own company, they must at least be university graduate and have rich experience. As supervisors, they set good examples to all their subordinates. They are very professional and mainly are old man, so the motivators to them are not money any more; they want esteem, the accepted of others. The employees are almost young and have very little experience, they want training to make them become stronger and also money to give their parents, even support their family. They also need to be treat equity, and need the understanding of managers; they want to feel managers keep an eye on them 2. Motivating customers The Panasonic are also taking some actions to motivate customers. The customers of Panasonic are mainly two kinds: Government purchasing officials and the user community. Why the customers want buy Panasonic products, because the high quality, good service, and the world famous brand, the good grantees. More importantly, Panasonic stands for a commitment to quality, value and innovation. In North America, this commitment is backed up by employees working in research and development centers from California’s Silicon Valley to Video Valley in New Jersey, state-of-the-art manufacturing plants, one of the country’s largest customer call centers in Virginia and sales and service organizations that deal with the public and business-to-business relationships in nearly every state. In all of our dealings, the customer is always first. This was our bedrock philosophy through the 20th century and it will carry us through the 21st century. Panasonic always make customers satisfied. Analysis and Interpretation Motivation helps people attain their goals and objectives easily. All people have motivation in doing anything, whether it is for a good cause, an ambition or a bad thing. Many times people don’t know their motivation in doing what they’re doing because they are simply following some unwritten rule of the society or that of they are simply following the wishes of others. At Panasonic, there are two aspects that motivate employees. How to motivate them? 1. The Panasonic itself as a large world famous corporation. Panasonic has very good organizational culture. At Panasonic, the working condition is pretty good, the salary is tie to the performance, the employees have equal chance to be promoted, and the outstanding persons at Panasonic will have chance to self-actualizations. â€Å"The reason I stay, is not they particularly enjoy the actual work that I do is because of the company. They all know, from experience and through exposure, that there are few companies out there that treat their employees as well as Panasonic. † One employee at Panasonic said. People and the Environment they work in are the reasons why they stay at their organization. Often people will dislike their work or the product, but they will remain at an organization because of the people they work with all week. Great companies create a home for their employees. No one wants to leave a nest where one is cared for and a part of a â€Å"family. † As one employee commented, â€Å"My current job satisfaction is the people! I love everyone I work with. This company has gone out of its way to create the perfect â€Å"culture† of people to work with. † 2. Motivation is about making an employee feel valuable. Provide a valuable salary to your employees for the value they deserve and for the void you would feel if they were to leave. You make efforts to make them feel valued as an employee in your organization and they will most likely feel valuable and appreciated. Run incentive and reward programs. Make the investment to organize and rally the troops around a goal and reward them for their efforts. They want to know they are being invested in as much as they are investing their time and talents in the company. In conclusion, motivation and retention appear really complex, but they are simple. Write the things down that make you feel valued at your company and try to do those same things for your co-workers and employees. You don’t have to be a mind-reader and you don’t have to have a degree in psychology or a heavy pocketbook to make your team members feel valued. It is all about trial-and-error and the fact that you are concentrating on making your work place like a home. At Panasonic, it also takes some actions at motivating customers such as provide the products that customer needs, From humble beginnings with one man producing one product on a table in his apartment, to current status as the world’s largest manufacturer of consumer electronics, Panasonic has strived to develop products and services that meet the needs of all of customers. Panasonic products have had access-friendly features for many years. They strongly believe that everyone should be able to enjoy the benefits of accessible products. To achieve this goal, they endeavor to assure that Panasonic products use all readily achievable means to make them ever more accessible to, and usable by people with disabilities. The popular DVD format is an excellent example of Panasonic’s engineering and marketing prowess. Panasonic developed many of the key technologies that make possible DVD, the format that is now transforming home entertainment and the computer industry. Their engineers took that technology from the laboratory and created high-quality, affordable components for the industry. At the same time, they used their expertise in storage media to make DVD discs a reality. For their DVD efforts, they were awarded a technical Emmy Award by the television industry. While they are proud of that award, it hasn’t stopped the technological advances. Panasonic was first to introduce recordable DVD for the PC and is moving forward with recordable DVD players for video enthusiasts. And this is only the beginning. Good service of guarantees procedures. In-warranty whole unit service is for in-warranty units that require service at the Panasonic repair center. 1. The specialist will make a determination of your warranty status* based on the date of purchase, serial number and problem description. Please refer to the green warranty card provided with your unit. 2. The specialist will provide you with a service authorization number, shipping company account and phone number, and address of the Panasonic repair center. If you need a box to ship the unit, we will send one to you. Make sure you backup your hard drive before sending your unit in for service. 4. Schedule a pick up of your unit with a shipping service company. Arrangements must be made within 30 days after you receive your service authorization number. 5. On the average, Panasonic’s repair center will troubleshoot and repair your unit within 48 hours of receipt. We will then return your computer via next day air service. All the above things make employees and customers highly motivated. Conclusion Motivation works differently for different people at different situations. According to Maslow hierarchy, our first need is survival, so we concentrate on basic physiological needs, such as food, water, and shelter, until we feel fairly sure that these needs are covered. Next, we concern ourselves with safety needs, which person to the desire to feel safe, secure, and free from threats to our existence. Once we feel reasonably safe and secure, we turn to attention to relationships with others in order to fulfill our belongingness needs, which involve the desire to affiliate with and be accepted by other. ow at Panasonic, employees mainly at this level, every few supervisors such as CEO, at the fourth level, even fifth level, the highest level of hierarchy, money is not their motivation any more. Because they already have a lot of money, they need excellent working conditions, others respect etc. But, the employees at lowest level of Panasonic, the main motivation to them is money, because they need support their family, they need satisfy their own needs of survival and safety. But when their needs are satisfied, then they will go to higher level of hierarchy.

Food Essay

Today people seem to be obsessed with their diets. Food is a high priority item on the lifestyle agenda with a marked focus on healthy eating. â€Å"You are what you eat,† says Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of life. Food is a basic human need. We always need to know what we eat because food affects practically all aspects of our life. Nowadays, in the manufacturing age, our society still faces the food problem. This is a problem of quality, not volume. Our producing system is capable of producing more food than we need, but how can we be sure about its quality? Is it healthy and useful or just fuel for our bodies? In this paper we will try to discover what we exactly eat and why. Really, food can easily become a tool to control society, which seems to be happening now. In our open society we have much more â€Å"taboo† questions than ever before. This is especially true when we start talking about food problems. This is a forbidden ground for most of us. Why does it happen? How can it be possible that people usually do not know how their food has been made? There are some enthusiasts who try to find answers. The â€Å"FOOD, INC. movie, directed by Robert Kenner, is one of the most famous sources devoted to this problem. This movie tells us how our food industry takes people under control. The papers, provided by professional scientists can show an impartial assessment of the problem discussed. Only studying different sources can help to find the truth. Our online writing services can deliver similar custom essays on any related subj ect. Professional paper writers working for us are experts in this field, willing to provide qualified help with written assignments and custom essays for our clients. http://studentessayhelp. com/2010/09/23/food

Arbitrage in the Government Market Essay

In 1991, major discrepancies in the prices of multiple long maturity US Treasury bonds seemed to appear in the market. An employee of the firm Mercer and Associates, Samantha Thompson, thought of a way to exploit this opportunity in order to take advantage of a positive pricing difference by substituting superior bonds for existing holdings. Thompson created two synthetic bonds that imitated the cash flows of the 8 ¼ May 00-05 bond; one for if the bond had been called at the year 2000, and one for if it hadn’t been called and was held to its maturity at year 2005. The first synthetic bond combined noncallable treasury bonds that matured in 2005 with zero coupon treasuries (STRIPS) that matured in 2005. The synthetic bond had semiannual interest payments of $4.125 per $100 face value and a final payment of $100 at maturity in order to exactly match the cash flows of the 8 ¼ May 00-05 callable bond if it had been held to maturity. Thompson found the price of this synthetic b ond by using this formula: The ask price of the two bonds were given as $129.906 and $30.3125, respectively. She calculated the number of units needed of the 2005 treasury bond by dividing the semi-annual callable 00-05 coupon rate by the semi-annual 2005 treasury bond (4.125/6). The only part of the equation that she did not have was the number of units needed of the 2005 STRIP. She had to calculate the correct amount in order to imitate the cash flows of the 00-05 callable bond. Thompson did this by using this equation. The final cash flow of the 00-05 bond was $104.125, the final cash flow of the 2005 treasury bond was $106, and the final cash flow of the 2005 STRIP bond was $100 as there are no coupon payments in STRIPs. She found that the number of units needed of the 2005 STRIP bond was 0.3125, and then found that the synthetic price of this bond was $98.78. The second synthetic bond combined the noncallable bonds maturing in 2000 with STRIPS maturing in 2000. This synthetic bond also had semiannual interest payments of $4.125 per $100 face value and a final payment of $100 at maturity in order to exactly match the cash flows of the 8 ¼ May 00-05 callable bond if it had been called in 2000.  Through similar calculations of the first synthetic bond, she found that she needed 0.0704 units of the 2000 STRIP, and the price of this synthetic bond was $100.43. What Thompson found was surprising because both of these synthetic prices were less than the ask price of the 00-05 treasury bond. In normal markets this shouldn’t be the case because the synthetic bond would be worth more to investors since it does not have a redemption right to the government. In other words, the callable bond should have a lower price than the synthetic noncallable bond. 2. There are two ways that Thompson could exploit this pricing anomaly that she found. If she already held the 00-05 treasury bond, then she could immediately capitalize on the price discrepancy by selling the 00-05 treasury bond for the bid price of $101.125 and buying one of these synthetic bonds. Whether to buy the 2000 synthetic bond or 2005 synthetic bond is up for debate and opinion but it might be suggested to go with the 2005 one since the price of $98.78 is even smaller than the price of $100.43 and there would be larger price impact. By selling the 00-05 bond and buying the 2005 treasury bond, she would be getting the same cash flows for an immediate lower price. The second way that Thompson could exploit this pricing anomaly would be if she does not currently hold any bonds at all. A profit could be earned by establishing short positions in the relatively overpriced security and long positions in the relatively underpriced security. Thompson would borrow the 00-05 treasury bond from a dealer and then sell it. With that money, she would buy a synthetic bond and wait for the 00-05 treasury bond to decrease in price as prices converge. Once they do, she would buy the 00-05 bond for a lower price and give it back to the dealer, while pocketing about $2 (given that she bought the 2005 synthetic bond). There’s plenty of risk when trying to take advantage of pricing arbitrage. For example, the prices may never converge and Thompson might end up waiting almost 15 years without anything happening. Another risk is that the dealer might call the bond back while the money is tied up in the synthetic bond. Because of these risks, it might be better if she doesn’t try and take advantage of the pricing arbitrage at all. 3. Through close examination, a multitude of factors could have come into play resulting in the odd pricing of Thompson’s evaluated bonds. In studies conducted by Longstaff (1992) and Eldeson, Fehr, and Mason (1993) they found that negative option values were very common, ultimately implying that callable treasury bonds were significantly overpriced (35). Although it seems odd to have a negative option value, Thompson found herself in a rapidly changing bond market with the earlier introduction of derivative securities and STRIP bonds. With the introduction of STRIP bonds in 1985, problems arise in valuing callable treasury bonds using solely zero-coupon STRIP bonds being that they tend to undervalue the implied options (Jorden et al. 36). In addition, since negative option value bonds do not have implied volatilities, this raises the question whether callable bonds are priced rationally (Bliss and Ronn 2). Furthermore into Longstaff’s (1992) research, they exercised the â€Å"striplets† approach to investigate implied call option values. The â€Å"striplets† approach uses a U.S. Treasury coupon STRIPS and a coupon bond to synthesize a noncallable bond with the desired coupon (Jordan et al. 37). Longstaff finds that â€Å"61.5% of the call values are negative when estimates are based on the midpoint of the bid and ask prices, whereas 50.7% of the negative call estimates are large enough to generate profits even after considering the bid-ask spread† (38). Ultimately, the odd pricing in Thompson’s current situation is most likely due to the mispricing of callable bonds at the time due to the method of callable bond valuation and the early introduction of new types of bond securities in the market. 4. â€Å"Callable debt gives the treasury the right, but not the obligation, to redeem the callable treasuries at par (100) on any semiannual interest payment date within five years of maturity, provided that it gave investors four months’ notice† (Arbitrage in the Government Bond Market). There are multiple upsides for a company to issue callable debt. The main reason for this is to give the company (treasury) a sense of security in that they can redeem the bond in the event of an interest rate drop. For example, if the company issues bonds to investors at a 10% interest rate and then this rate  goes down to 8%, the company may redeem the callable bonds they’ve issued and replace them with the lower interest rate (8%). Callable debt is essential to have when there are long maturity dates. If you issue a non-callable bond for a fixed amount of years, there is a tremendous amount of risk for the treasury. For instance, if you issue a non-callable bond with a maturity of 25 years and the interest rate goes down over the years, this negatively affects the company. â€Å"Callability enables the treasury to respond to changing interest rates, refinance high-interest debts, and avoid paying more than the going rates for its long term debt† (Why Companies Issue Callable Bonds). Bibliography 1. â€Å"Bonds 200.† Why Companies Issue Callable Bonds. N.p., 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. 2. Jordan, Bradford D., Susan D. Jordan, and David R. Kuipers. â€Å"The Mispricing of Callable U.S. Treasury Bonds: A Closer Look.† Journal of Futures Markets 18.1 (1998): 35-51. Web. 3. Bliss, Robert R., and Ehud I. Ronn. â€Å"Callable U.S. Treasury Bonds: Optimal Calls, Anomalies, and Implied Volatilities.† The Journal of Business 71.2 (1998): 211-52. Web. 4. â€Å"Bonds 200.† Why Companies Issue Callable Bonds. N.p., 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. 4. 5. â€Å"Harvard Business School.† Arbitrage in The Government Bond Market. N.p., 20 Sept. 2014. Web. 28 June 1995. .

Principles of Project Management Essay

1. The Commitment Principle An equitable commitment between the project sponsor and the project delivery team must exist before a possible project exists. The Project Sponsor is considered to be the Project Owner who provides resources such as funds, services and general direction. The project delivery team is the one in charge for appropriate techniques, plans and controls for using the skills needed and work to convert those resources into the required deliverables or product. Dealing with a Sponsor is a matter of developing a trust and understanding between the Sponsor and the team. Project sponsors should set clear boundaries for cost and time, with which the manager should work. If he/she cannot provide the agreed deliverables within these constraints, concerns must be escalated to the sponsor for a decision. Defined roles and responsibilities: A project team in which ALL people understand their responsibilities and sincerely believe they can achieve them. Each person must know how they can contribute to project objectives. Project stakeholders must have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, to be able know exactly what he or she is supposed to be doing. Project environment is of critical importance and requires definition and understanding. 2. The Success Principle The measures of project success, in terms of both process and product, must be defined at the beginning of the project as a basis for project management decision making and post-project evaluation. Success for a project and how it will be measured after completion needs to be defined at the beginning of the project. The most important reason is to provide an on-going basis for management decision making during the course of the project. The timing of the measurement of success itself may also need identifying. It is not possible to measure its ultimate success without agreement on the project’s success criteria 3. The Tetrad Trade-off Principle The core variables of the project management process — namely, product scope, quality grade, time-to-produce, and 4 total cost-at-completion — must all be mutually compatible and definitely attainable. The term â€Å"Tetrad trade-off† is quite an unfamiliar word, but possibly this is the value of the term to stressed that there are four separate but interactive variables which are scope, quality, time and cost rather than just three as in the old view of ‘Triple Constraint’ (time, cost and performance.) The advantage of viewing the four as a tetrad rather than choosing only three to form a triangle is that it gives more importance to quality. Of the four, the quality of the product is apparently, and in fact, the most stable. 4. The Strategy Principle A strategy encompassing first planning then doing, in a focused set of sequential and progressive phases, must be in place. Before the project start, it is very important that consumers think thoroughly about the products, or deliverables they need. They must be prà ©cised and detailed about their requirements to produce a feasible plan. This makes managing the project much easier and less risky. 5. The management principle The Management Principle begins with â€Å"how it will be done and who will do it†. Policies and procedures that are effective and efficient must be in place for the proper conduct and control of the project commitment. 6. The Single-Point Responsibility Principle This principle is an extension of the management principle and is needed for effective management of the project commitment. Clear communication is very important for the coordination of a complicated project activity. A single channel of communication must exist between the project sponsor and the project team leader for all decisions affecting the product scope. 7. The Cultural Environment Principle Management must provide an informed and supportive cultural environment to ensure that the project delivery team are able to work to the limits of their capacity. Whatever methodology or framework you prefer, it must be modified to suit the requirements and needs of your project. Rather than sticking to methodology, the project manager must be able to get used to procedures to meet the demands of the work in hand. the management of the organization in which the project takes place must be supportive and the environment free of obstacles in the way of project progress. (Wideman, Robert Max; Bing, John A.; Neal, Gerald;, 2000) B. Appraise the viability of at least five (5) project’s success/ failure criteria (1.2) To be successful, a project must have: 1. Agreement or arrangement among the project stakeholders – the project team, customer, project leader skills and management – on the objective of the project. 2. A project plan that shows what is capable, shows an overall path and clear tasks, contains the facts and details for calculating the people, money, time, equipment, and materials needed to get the job completed, and will be used to determine development as the project is taking its course. 3. Continuous, effective communication among everyone that is concerned in the project in order to manage and organize action, distinguish and get to the bottom of problems and respond to changes. 4. A controlled scope or â€Å"stakeholder expectations management†. Everyone involved in the project must know their share of responsibilities. To make sure that everyone concerned understands exactly what can be done within a specified time frame and budget; a systematic method for establishing practical goals for deliverables, cost, schedule, and quality, as well as techniques for maintaining the goals reliable all through the project. 5. Upper management support, â€Å"managing upward†, guiding the upper managers toward appropriate decisions that maintains the project moving – to bring people and other resources, make guidelines, or remove organizational obstacles. The main causes of project failure that were identified were: 1. Lack of User Involvement One of the reasons why projects fail is that users do not participate in the system development process to the extent that they should. the lack of participation in the project by those who will use the system has proved fatal for many projects. Without user participation, it will cause delay to Projects because the management has not allocated people to do the work that users should be doing. If a project is to be a success management and users need to be concerned from the start to end of the progress. This requires time and effort. 2. Long or Unrealistic Time Scales The key advice is that project timescales should be little, which means that better systems should be split into separate projects. There are always problems with this approach, but the profit of doing so is significant. 3. Poor or No Requirements poor requirements are probably one of the most difficult issue that can be faced by a project. The incapacity to identify good requirements has also led to other project delivery problems — such as the desire to narrow the scope of the project so as to minimize the requirements workload and risk. Users should understand what it is they want, and be able to identify it specifically. if you don’t get the business requirements right, however well you deliver the project, the client/business will be dissatisfied. 4. Scope Creep Scope creep is a risk in most projects. it is the change or growth of project scope. Scope creep more frequently occurs during the later stages of a project, such as programming and testing, than during the earlier stages, such as design. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. This is a management issue similar to change control. Management should be able to figure it all out at the start. A project manager often tries to manage scope creep. The goal in managing scope creep is to try to minimize the impact of any changes on the project, such as on the timeline and cost. 5. No Change Control System Business needs are changing even more rapidly than ever before. There may be unavoidable external requirements over which you have no control, such as new regulations for data privacy, changed regulatory reporting requirements etc.So it is not reasonable to anticipate no change in requirements while a project or system is being built. However uncontrolled changes play chaos with a system under improvement and have caused many project confusion and failures. (Anon., 2001) (Suggest additional standard for the project’s success/ failure criteria, M1) Other IT project failure criteria by the IT and project managers were: * missed deadlines * exceeded budget * cost getting out of hand * many projects fail because they use new or unproven technology. * poor project definition by the project’s owner, perhaps because of insufficient consultation with stakeholders or their failure to be specific about requirements and desired outcomes. * lack of ownership and personal accountability by senior management. * inadequately skilled and experienced project personnel. * inadequate reporting arrangements and decision-making. * inconsistent understanding of required project activities, roles and responsibilities. Other criteria for project success were: * meeting the budget * meeting milestones * a well-defined scope and agreed understanding of intended outcome. * active management of risks, issues and timely decision-making supported by clear and short lines of reporting. * ongoing commitment and support from senior management. * a senior individual with personal accountability and overall responsibility for the successful outcome of the project. * defined and visibly managed processes that are appropriate or the scale and complexity of the project. (Find another company that uses success/failure criteria and tell something about how these criteria help the company’s projects , D1) The Calvert Social Index is a stock market index created by Calvert Investments as a benchmark of large companies that are considered socially responsible or ethical. It currently consists of 468 companies, weighted by market capitalization, selected from approximately 1,000 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States using Calvert’s social criteria. These criteria relate to the environment, workplace issues, product safety, community relations, weapons contracting, international operations, and human rights. This index was created following the success of the Domini 400 Social Index by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. The Calvert index is used by many so-called socially responsible mutual funds as a benchmark for their performance. These criteria helped the company improve with their business management. They were able to market those specific products that seem to be most wanted by their customers. With these criteria, it helped them improve their product development that made them stand out from their competitors. It also helped the company improve business management in the area of finance and because of this, they have built a good business reputation. (Calvert Investment Distributors, n.d.) B. Discuss the principles behind project management systems and procedures (1.3) The Project Management Process suggest three main deliverables be defined before actual work on the project begins. These are the Project Definition, Project work plan, and the Project Management Procedures. The Project Management Procedures explains how the project will be managed, and are an effective and efficient way to communicate the processes to the project team, customers, and stakeholders. Although they may appear time consuming to develop, in most cases these procedures only need to be created once. When you have a set of procedures that allow you to be successful, you can reuse them on later projects. In fact, these procedures can be written at the company or organization level, and then used as the starting point for all projects in the company. These procedures come from the process for large projects. They should be customized as appropriate for your project, your team, and your organization. In most cases, the processes should be simplified for smaller projects. Although this template is called Project Management Procedures, this document really describes processes. Processes are at a higher level than procedures. You can turn them into procedures by specifying the particular roles, people, and dates that make sense. The procedures that will be used to manage the project will include parts on how the team will manage issues, scope change, risk, quality, communication, etc. It is important to be able to manage the project thoroughly and proactively and make sure the project team and all stakeholders have a common understanding of how the project will be managed. If common procedures have already been recognized for your organization, apply them on your project. (Discuss how to integrate human and material resources to achieve successful projects, M2) Every project that involves more than one person requires a project team to get the work done. Building a motivated project team will be your primary and most critical task, because the success of the project will rely heavily on choosing the right team members and gaining their commitment to the project’s objectives. To utilize the abilities of permanently assigned staff and to fulfill these requirements but if there are required skills that are not available, then other sources must be identified and pursued. Books, educational programs, internet and human involvement go hand in hand to make the task accomplished. With these help, unforeseen errors and miscalculation will be lessened. Coordination will also make time required less for the project to be successful. (Wideman, 1991) (Look for an existing IT Project of any company and evaluate the project management system and procedures, D2) IS Auditing Procedure: P6 Firewalls An information security audit is an audit on the level of information security in an organization. Within the broad scope of auditing information security there are multiple types of audits, multiple objectives for different audits, etc. Most commonly the controls being audited can be categorized to technical, physical and administrative. Auditing information security covers topics from auditing the physical security of data centers to the auditing logical security of databases and highlights key components to look for and different methods for auditing these areas. When centered on the IT aspects of information security, it can be seen as a part of an information technology audit. It is often then referred to as an information technology security audit or a computer security audit. However, information security encompasses much more than IT. By and large the two concepts of application security and segregation of duties are both in many ways connected and they both have the same goal, to protect the integrity of the companies’ data and to prevent fraud. For application security it has to do with preventing unauthorized access to hardware and software through having proper security measures both physical and electronic in place. With segregation of duties it is primarily a physical review of individuals’ access to the systems and processing and ensuring that there are no overlaps that could lead to fraud. (Isaca, 2003) C. Identify the key elements involved in terminating projects and conducting post – project appraisals (1.4) 1. Termination activities should be identified in the baseline plan 2. Verify that all agreed-on deliverables were provided. 3. Organize and file project-related documentation. 4. Assure that all payments have been collected from the customer. 5. Assure that all payments for materials and subcontractors have been paid. 6. Prepare a written performance evaluation of each member of the project team. (Evaluate the key elements involved in terminating projects, M3) Terminating a project should always undergo a process – resources used could be audited and workforce could be evaluated properly. 1. Go back to project plan to check the appropriate balance between resource usage and project duration that directly complies with project objectives. 2. Confirm or prove that all deliverables that were agreed on were clearly fleshed out. 3. Document and organize all files related to the project. 4. All invoices should have been sent to the customer. All collectibles should be received before closing the review. 5. Payments for materials and subcontractors should be fulfilled as well. 6. Evaluate the performance of the project team and properly document it as well. 7. Conduct post-mortem or –project evaluation meetings (Szabelski, n.d.) (Give situations where a terminated project can still be considered again, D3) Hiring a new principal investigator (PI) (or an equivalent person) is the next best solution for projects that were terminated or put on hold. In order to ensure the smooth transition of documents and processes, the old PI should train the new hire Loss of human, funding and other valuable resources, whether anticipated or not, is the most common problem that may force an organization to terminate or put a project on hold. In order to address this challenge, the affected organization should be able to tap other available resources such as funding vehicles and connections or networks for new hires or experts. If an internal assessment or evaluation of the project showed negative results, resources, processes and even the project itself can be adjusted or modified in order to achieve or fulfill set expectations and objectives. 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