Global Climate Change as a Socially Relevant Scientific Issue

Global Climate Change as a Socially Relevant Scientific Issue The climate of planet Earth has been subjected to significant changes, particularly in seasonal temperature and weather patterns, since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, around the year 1750. Since that time, the climate has been increasingly impacted by anthropogenic drivers, such as carbon dioxide and methane production. Increasing concentrations of these gases have led to changes in available habitat for many organisms, extreme weather patterns and sea level rise, as well as effects on the health and economy of the human population. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, changes in global climate can have dramatic effects on where species can live, how they interact, and the timing of key life events, all of which can have profound effects on ecosystems. For example, one study shows that Northeastern birds that normally spend the winter in the southern United States have been returning north in the spring 13 days earlier than they did 100 years ago (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2017). Shifts in migration like this can result in limited food availability and changes to breeding cycles. Some species have been shifting their habitable range due to changes in their normal environmental range, causing ecosystem changes along the way. For example, as boreal forests invade the tundra, the habitats of caribou, arctic foxes, and snowy owls become greatly reduced, as they depend on the tundra environment for their habitat (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2017). Another comm on example of this negative effect is the shift in habitat for the polar bear. The polar bear depends on sea ice for its habitat, as well as its hunting grounds, where it uses holes in the ice to hunt for seals. As the global temperature increases, the mount of sea ice coverage decreases, which reduces the ability for the polar bear to access its traditional food supply. The loss of habitat is dramatic for the polar bear, as it cannot simply move farther north as other species can, since it already lives in the northernmost area of the planet. For this reason, the polar bear is an endangered species due to the continued effects of global climate change. The topic of global sea level rise has been a part of global climate change research for some time, but recent findings show that the change is accelerating rather than increasing at a constant rate. The new study is based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data and shows that the acceleration has the potential to double the sea level rise by 2100 that had once been projected based on a steady increase in sea level. If the rate continues to increase at its current pace, sea level could be 65 cm higher than it is today by the year 2100 (Weeman, 2018). The rise of sea surface levels are due to increases in global temperature, which results in two types of changes. First, the increasing temperature melts the ice sheets, releasing more water into the ocean. Second, the addition of this warmer water and the overall increase in ocean temperature causes thermal expansion (due to hydrogen bonding) of the ocean waters, meaning the volume of the water increases as a direct effect of th e temperature increase. Around the world, even small increases in sea level can cause catastrophic changes in habitats, for humans and wildlife alike. Coastal populations, especially those that exist closer to current sea-level will lose use of the land, including homes, businesses and other infrastructure in the area. Populations will need to move further inland, further stressing the already dense human population, particularly in countries like the U.S. and China. Changes in sea level will also affect land dwelling animals and vegetation, which can cause disruptions to coastal ecosystems and eventually inland ecosystems, as species that are able to migrate inland encroach on other established ecosystems. Global climate change also has potential health effects on humans. According to the Executive Summary of the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States, climate change affects food and water sources, the air that people breathe, the weather, and interactions with both the natural and built environments. Increased temperatures can lead to locally extreme heat events, increasing the frequency of heat-related illnesses and deaths, especially for the elderly, young children, and those with chronic illnesses. Weather patterns and sea level rise will disrupt infrastructure and cause coast flooding, which will negatively impact access to essential services like power, clean water, and emergency services  (Crimmins, 2016). The changes in seasonal weather patterns will also affect food and water quality as well as changes in infectious agents, which will increase the likelihood of food, water and vector-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease (Crimmins, 2016).   Although there is an abundance of evidence supporting the issue of global climate change, naysayers still exist, using disinformation strategies to confuse the public and delay action on remediation efforts. Many of these large organizations receive most of their funding from large oil companies, whose businesses will not benefit from legislative action for remediating climate change. However, the currently most noteworthy stakeholder group that opposes climate change is the Trump administration. It is difficult to summarize the major stances against climate change of this administration, since most of the arguments have long since been negated by many scientific reports. For example, Scott Pruitt, the current EPA administrator questions â€Å"whether we can measure ‘with precision’ the role of humans on the climate,† and he proposed, based on this, that humans may not be the major driver of global warming (Mooney, 2017). As a reflection of this stance, the curren t administration has revisited the fuel efficiency standards previously put in place by the Obama administration, a beginning step towards reversing the effort to lower carbon emissions. Based on the unsubstantiated argument that climate change is not definitively caused by humans, the Trump administration has moved toward lowering air pollution regulation standards, defunding major climate research projects, omitting climate change as a national security threat, and even taken down the climate change pages of the Environmental Protection Agency website (Greshko, 2018). The list of stakeholders and organizations that back the issue of climate change is long and substantial. One such organization is the U.S. Global Change Research Program. In the 2017 Executive Summary, it is stated that the global average surface air temperature has increased 1.8 °F over the last 115 years, which is the warmest in the history of modern civilization (Wuebbles, 2017). The report concludes that the dramatic changes are extremely likely to be due to the changes in human activities, based on extensive evidence. The most important point that is made in the executive summary is the positive correlation between the increase in anthropogenic production of greenhouse gas emissions and the many adverse effects on the global climate and the Earth systems, including sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, sea level rise, air pollution, and melting glaciers. The amount of scientific evidence supporting global climate change is substantial and there are many different sources that can be discussed. The most commonly discussed anthropogenic driver of the current changes to the climate is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a major pollutant produced by various processes in human industry, such as the exhaust from combustion engines in vehicles. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning that it traps heat that is radiating back from the Earth’s surface, which initially arrived as solar radiation. Due to its ability to increase the average global temperature of the atmosphere, it becomes part of several strong positive feedback loops, which amplify its effect. For example, the increasing temperature of the atmosphere allows more sea ice and snow to melt, reducing the planet’s albedo, or ability to reflect solar radiation, which allows more radiation to be absorbed at the surface, further increasing surface temperature. Melting of this snow and ice can also accelerate the breakdown of organic matter from below the permafrost, releasing more carbon from the long-term cycle into the short-term cycle, which will further contribute to the positive feedback loop  (Schuur, 2015). The relationship between the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and surface temperature is strongly correlated, as shown below in the figure from Climate Central: The figure shows the strong positive correlation between the temperature anomaly, which is compared to the temperature baseline from the early industrial time period, and the rising carbon dioxide concentration in parts per million (ppm) (Climate Central, 2017). The next figure from NASA shows the historical trend of carbon dioxide over a much longer time period, as far back as 650,000 years. The figure clearly demonstrates how dramatically the carbon dioxide concentrations have increased since the rise of industry. Although those that are against climate change will point out the clear repeating trend of low and high carbon dioxide concentration, there is only one clear cause for the steep increase that began in the time period of the industrial revolution (Graphic: The relentless rise of carbon dioxide). Climate scientists have obtained accurate records of historical carbon dioxide levels from glacial ice. The air is locked in layers over time, which forms bubbles in the ice. Scientists are able to run tests on these samples to determine the amount of carbon dioxide that was present in the atmosphere in the corresponding time period. They can then compare this level to the temperature determined from proxy data from tree rings and water vapor oxygen ratios in other samples from the time period. One of the possible solutions for mitigating the effects of climate change would require the foregoing of the use of fossil fuels. Since the primary driver of global climate change is the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, and the carbon dioxide comes mainly from emissions from fossil fuel usage, the fossil fuel usage is a significant problem. Fossil fuels are also removed from the deep carbon reservoirs, and by removing them for human use, carbon is being rapidly moved from a long-term sequestered cycle to a short to term cycle in the surface and climate system. Eliminating, or even reducing, the use of fossil fuels, particularly in developed countries, comes with significant costs. The leading mode of travel by the average working citizen is their privately owned vehicle, which normally runs on traditional gasoline, a major source of carbon emissions. Many people have a significant daily drive to their workplace. The start-up costs for people in this econo my make it difficult to switch to more eco-friendly options for travel. There are also not yet many incentives to alter their travel habits. The need to switch from fossil fuels is also a risky move for the economy since many of the largest industry leaders are the oil companies. The movement for climate change legislation has been battling against oil companies for a long time since oil companies are believed to provide funding for many political campaigns, thus ensuring that their businesses will continue to flourish. Coal is estimated to provide about half of the electricity in the U.S., and a similar percentage worldwide. If the coal and oil companies were to endure far stricter regulations in order to reduce carbon emissions, there would likely be great risk to the global economy. If fossil fuels were to be used less or not at all, and alternative energy sources were used in their place, it should be possible to cease the increase of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosph ere and allow the global climate to eventually recover to a more normal state. Reducing the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere will positively affect many aspects of the climate. Global average temperatures will eventually return to more normal ranges, the sea level should no longer continue to rise, and air pollution will be reduced, saving people from heat related death and sickness, as well as food and water-borne diseases. Another benefit to decreasing the carbon dioxide concentration will allow for the acidification of the ocean waters to slow and possible decrease. Another key solution for mitigating climate change would be to reduce the deforestation of the planet. Trees and other vegetation are an important piece of the carbon cycle. When vegetation dies, it eventually becomes part of the long-term carbon cycle, which means that it will eventually be turned back into rock and sequestered in the Earth, but this process occurs over a much longer time scale. When humans purposely destroy forests for various reasons, a substantial amount of carbon is released into the system as biological carbon, into the ground, the ocean and the atmosphere. Not only does deforestation increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which increases global surface temperature, it also decreases the Earth’s albedo. Tree cover has a higher albedo value than agricultured land and black pavement, so when they are torn down, the ability of the Earth’s surface to reflect radiation back to space is decreased. This results in more heat becoming abs orbed at the surface, which causes more melting of ice and snow, further amplifying the warming and melting effects. The cost of reducing the amount of deforestation means losses for the agricultural industry, since this is one of the primary reasons lands are cleared. Reducing deforestation means that farmers will have less land to use for growing crops and less pasture space for grazing animals. Agriculture is a major source of sustainable food for many countries and the need for land in the industry is growing. It could also mean losses for the construction industry, as new regulations would prevent unnecessary clearing of land for new building projects. There are some risks to reducing deforestation. Deforestation helps to reduce likelihood of fast-spreading forest fires. Areas that are prone to forest fires often perform preemptive cutting. Forest fires negatively affect the atmosphere, as they rapidly inject carbon dioxide into the air. If certain areas were not permitted to c ut trees as they need to, it could put them at risk for more forest fires, which could be more dangerous in the short-term. However, reducing deforestation would be beneficial because it would no longer decrease the planet’s albedo and would reduce the amount of extra carbon dioxide being injected into the atmosphere. The best recommendation for mitigating, and hopefully reversing, the effects of global climate change would be to cease the use of fossil fuels. Since the anthropogenic removal of carbon from the Earth for fossil fuels has been determined to be the source of the leading cause of global climate change, it would make sense for it to be the most important solution for reversing the adverse effects that it has had on the planet. Humans removing various carbon-based fuels from their long-term sequestration in the Earth has led to an over-dependence on its various forms of energy production. The burning of these fuels produces the carbon dioxide that has been building up in the atmosphere, which is the leading greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Along with the direct effect that carbon dioxide has on atmospheric temperature, its increased concentration in the air allows for more to be dissolved and temporarily sequestered in the oceans, which causes ocean acidification. Ocean acidification has negative effects on coral reefs and ocean life. As the temperature of the ocean increases alongside the atmosphere, the ocean also holds less carbon dioxide, lessening the ocean’s ability to assist in cooling the surface temperature. The addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere via the burning of fossil fuels moves the carbon to the short-term carbon cycle. It takes much longer for carbon to move back into a long-term cycle once it has been removed because it takes several hundreds or thousands of years for the carbon material to decay and compact into the rock sediment once again. Although there are other greenhouse gases and other long-term factors contributing to global climate change, the use of carbon-based fossil fuels is the most significant, as the changes to the atmosphere began at the same point in history when fossil fuels drove the industrial revolution. The most logical recommendation for reversing the negative effects which have been worse ning since this time period is to reverse the most significant shift in the use of fossil fuels for energy that began over 250 years ago. Works Cited Climate Central. (2017, April 19). Rising Global Temperatures and CO2. Retrieved from Climate Central: http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/co2-and-rising-global-temperatures Crimmins, A. J. (2016). Executive Summary. Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Global Change Research Program. Retrieved from U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, Graphic: The relentless rise of carbon dioxide. (n.d.). Retrieved from NASA: Global Climate Change: https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the-relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/ Greshko, M. P. (2018, Apri 6). A Running List of How Trump Is Changing the Environment. National Geographic. Mooney, C. (2017, December 29). What position does the Trump administration take on climate change? All of them. The Washington Post. Schuur, E. A. (2015). Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback. Nature, 171-179. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2017, January 19). Climate Impacts on Ecosystems. Retrieved from Environmental Protection Agency: 19 January 2017 Snapshot: https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-ecosystems_.html Weeman, K. L. (2018, February 13). New study finds sea level rise accelerating. Retrieved from NASA: Global Climate Change: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2680/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/ Wuebbles, D. D. (2017). Executive summary. In: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I. Washington, DC, USA: U.S. Global Change Research Program.

The Usefulness of Traditional and New Performance Measures Used in Nigerian Companies

USEFULNESS OF TRADITIONAL AND NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES: SOME EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIAN COMPANIES BY DR. (MRS. ) S. L. ADEYEMI DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN ABSTRACT This paper reports the findings of a survey on the usefulness of selected traditional and new performance measures used in some Nigeria companies that have adopted a flexible manufacturing strategy. The results indicate that majority of these companies considered the new performance measures useful particularly among the larger companies and among those with 5 years or less of business experience.Traditional measures are still useful, though to a much lesser extent. These results suggest that a combination of both traditional and new measures would be needed especially when Nigeria companies are going through the transition of implementing changes to their strategies from cost leadership to flexible manufacturing. INTRODUCTION The combination of slower economic growth and increased competition ha s forced firms in every industry to concentrate on efficient and effective deployment of resources. One result of these efforts has been the emergence of a new corporate position devoted to controllership.The controller is concerned with continuous measurement of a firm’s performance. In order to carry out the measurement process, controllership focuses on the assessment of resources deployment and goal attainment Numerous research initiatives have identified the high correlation between superior performances and the development and use of sophisticated assessment or measurement capabilities. As early as 1985, A. T. Kuarney Consultants noticed that firm engaging in comprehensive performance realized improvements in overall productivity in the range of 14 to 22 percent.Effort has been expended by establishments to improve the quality of information that their managers have at their disposal to measure, compare and guide performance. In most firms in Nigeria the traditional for mats and travel reports are still in used. TRADITIONAL AND MODERN MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE: AN OVERVIEW OF A REVIEW The traditional performance measurement system has been designed to report labour productivity, machine and capacity utilization, and standard cost variances.These are cost-efficiency-based measures derived from a strategy to minimize production costs, described as a cost leadership strategy, which is characterized by mass production of a new standard products musing stable technology (hall, 1980; Kaplan. 1986). The modern manufacturing environment has undergone dramatic changes since the past decades mainly because of intensive global competition, shifts in customer’s buying behaviour, and rapid innovation in manufacturing and information technology product.A cost-minimization and mass production strategy is no longer compatible with this new manufacturing scenario. Instead, issues such as responsiveness to customer needs, improving quality, reducing lead times, technological innovation and enhancing production flexibility have emerged as strategically more important to maintain competitiveness. Direct attention to these issues is the essence of a flexible manufacturing strategy. (Nemetz and Fry, 1988). Despite this strategic re-orientation among the more progressive companies, performance measurement systems have not kept pace with the change.The theory of organizational lag has been involved to explain this lag in making changes. The theory of organizational lag has been involved to explain this lag in making changes to management accounting systems of which performance system forms a part. According to this theory, administrative innovations in management accounting (and performance) systems tend to lag behind the technical innovations of manufacturing. This is because the potential benefits of administrative innovations are less certain and are likely to take more time to have any recognizable impact (Dunk, 1989).Failure to make comple mentary changes in the performance measurement system to fit with the company’s new flexible manufacturing strategy may lead to dysfunctional consequences. As pointed out by Howell and Soucy, (1987). â€Å"The manufacturing transformation in many companies has been slowed, if not set back, as antiquated sets of operating performance yardsticks promote inaccurate analysis, poor operating decisions, and inappropriate resource allocations†.This paper reviews traditional financial measures of performance and discussed the potential benefits of incorporating new performance measures into the performance measurement system. The usefulness of these measures was empirically tested using a sample of Nigerian Companies that have adopted flexible manufacturing strategy. The bulk of responding companies came from the electronic and other high technology product industries (60%) Business experience was categorized into groups, as follows: 5 years and below (7. 5%( > 5-10 years (22. 5%) and > 10 years (50%).TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES Traditional performance measures have been developed to meet the needs of manufacturing characterized by the production of standard products with high direct labour contest. Set ups are minimized to assure uninterrupted production runs. In this way, labour and machine capacities can be fully utilized and the greatest possible output produced with a consequent reduction in the overhead cost per unit of output. The competitive strategy is cost minimization, so variance reporting, overhead absorption and capacity utilization measures appropriately reflect this strategy.Variance Reporting: The use of variance accounting for managerial performance evaluation has been criticized as counter-effective in the modern global environment (Howell & Soucy, 1987). This is because traditional variance analysis encourages dysfunctional behaviours such as allowing inventory to build up so as to show a favourable volume variance, and delaying machine maintenance, padding the budget or shifting expenses between accounts so as to show a favourable expenses variance.Purchasing managers, for example, may act dysfunctionally by purchasing materials based on lowest price considerations at the expense of quality so as to show a favourable materials price variance. The consequences of inferior quality materials purchased are manifested in increased reworks, scraps, inspections and storage of defective parts leading to higher production costs and loss of competitiveness. The volume variance as a manufacturing indicator has been criticized since traditional absorption costing encourages excessive production in order to absorb the fixed overheads into inventory costs.Maximizing capacity utilization is necessary to achieve cost minimization. However, such a policy is short-sighted because any production in excess of market demand must be consigned to inventory and this runs counter to the just-in-time philosophy of maintaining a zer o inventory with all its attendant benefits (Sadhwani, et al, 1985). Variance reports at the manager’s level are also too aggregated for meaningful interpretation. Moreover, the standard cost itself may be perceived the norm eliminating any incentive for product innovation.In this case an unintended signal has been put out which impede efforts to infuse a culture of continuous improvement. Capacity utilization measures productivity improvement, automation and robotics have shrank direct labour cost to only a small fraction of the total manufacturing cost, whereas overheads have increased significantly. Despite these developments and the consequent impact on cost structures, reports from surveys in various countries indicated that companies have not responded in tandem with the technological changes (Schoch, et al. , 1994; Teoh, 1991).This has serious implications for production costing and performance evaluation as the continued focus on direct labour means labour is still co nsidered a major driver of costs when it is no longer relevant. The result is the development of burden rates that are volume-driven, based on a diminished direct labour element. Such a computed burden rate is artificially inflated due to the small direct labour base. Hen applied to an increasing pool of overheads, the incurrence of which may not be totally volume-driven, the labour generated burden rate can lead to serious distortions of the overheads absorbed into production cost.This is because of the unrealistic burden rate used which does not reflect the actual consumption of overheads by different products or processes (Kaplan, 1986). The overhead absorption measure gives rise to a distorted product cost analysis, so â€Å"good’ performance is associated with products apparently showing profitable margins but are actually incurring loses (Beckett & Dang, 1992). Thus an incorrect signal about profitability is receivedEarned hours, as a measure of labour efficiency, is a lso deficient since it provides an erroneous signal to supervisors to maximize earned hours by keeping employees â€Å"gainfully† occupied regardless of market conditions. It would have been more beneficial in the long term to use the time for training or cross training of operators so as to upgrade their skills. The machine utilization rate, as a measure of supervisory performance, also suffers from a number of deficiencies. It encourages the excessive use of machines for large-scale production, resulting in an unwidely accumulation of inventory.Worse still, maximizing the utilization rate encourages continuous machine usage at the expense of regular maintenance. Moreover, the focus on utilization may lead to inadequate emphasis on quality. Short-term Financial Measures: Although achieving profit and an acceptable return on investment are the raison d’etre for a company to stay in business, the traditional focus on these performance measures however encourages manager s to take a myopic view that emphasizes short-term results to the detriment of long-term profitability (Banks & Wheelwright, 1979).This is the â€Å"gaming† effect where management manipulates accounting figures to show favourable results or alternatively, builds in slack to ensure that budget targets (Merchant, 1985) are met. Reliance on short-term financial measures can lead to dysfunctional decisions since these indications fail to signal the erosion of a firm’s value if discretionary expenditures have to be reduced for short-term gains. Such spending is fact essential for new products development production process improvement, worker skills training and upgrading distribution networks and promoting customer awareness (Kaplan, 1986).Furthermore, profit measures represent outcomes that may not fully reflect management’s effort (Drucker, 1964). Stated differently, total performance cannot be completely captured by Naira profits. NEW PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT OBJ ECTIVES In the new technological environment, a flexible manufacturing strategy must be implemented that focuses on customer responsiveness, quality, time, innovation and human resources practices. A performance measurement system designed to achieve the traditional objective of cost efficiency will be incongruent with this new strategy.It is necessary to redesign the system so as to reflect this change in strategic objectives. Customer Responsiveness: increasingly, customers demand not only a better service but also a wider variety of products with improved quality and shorter delivery times (Northey, 1991). Customer responsiveness examines a firm’s relative ability to satisfy customers. Therefore, high customer responsiveness translates into greater customer retention, leading to longer-term.Profitability as the costs of acquiring and serving customers come down. Customers’ responsiveness measures therefore must be designed into the performance measure system. These include reporting on the number of customer complaints, warranty claims, and on-time deliveries, among others. As Eccles (1991) put it bluntly â€Å"what you measure is what you get and what you measure gets attention†, indicating that performance measures must be relevant to send the right signals for employees to achieve desired company objectives.For example, a system that evaluates how well customer demands have been satisfied can better support efforts in achieving sustainable competitive advantage than one that emphasizes labour or machinery efficiency in internal operations (Beckette & Dang, 19910, Goldhar & Lei 1991). Quality: Quality measures, which are the most process-oriented evaluations are designed to determine the effectiveness of a series of activities rather than the individual activity. Quality refers to the degree to which a product’s specific features in terms of workmanship; durability and so on satisfy the requirements of a particular customer.Poo r quality can contribute to a significant increase in the manufacturing costs in various ways. As Howell and Soucy (1997) stated: â€Å"The absence of good materials, highly-trained labour, and well-maintained equipment will dramatically increase the costs of non quality such as scrap, rework, excess inventories, process and equipment: breakdowns, field serves, and warranty claims. However, quality is usually difficult to measure because of the broad scope. A contemporary measurement concept that is increasing in interest is â€Å"the perfect order†.Delivery of the perfect order is the ultimate measure of quality operations. The perfect order represents ideal performance from an operational perspective, a multi-industry consortium defines the perfect order as one that meets the complete delivery of all items requested, delivery customer’s request date with one-day tolerance, complete and accurate documentation supporting the order and perfect condition, that is, fault lessly installed, correct configuration, customer-ready with no damage. Operational and financial measurers to monitor quality include the manufacturing quality index (i. . defect rates), inventory levels, warranty claims, vendor quality, cost of quality and scrap cost. All these provide valuable feedback for identifying existing problems and assessing whether the quality objective is adequately meet. Time: Reducing level times is also of the new manufacturing strategy through out, (manufacturing cycle) time measures the amount of time required to convert raw materials into completed products. Cycle time is the total value from the issue of materials into production to the delivery of the final products to customers.The theory is that the cost of a product is related to the time required to produce it. Cycle time variance therefore provides useful information about non-value-adding activities such as moving, inspecting, reworking, storing and waiting, that added to production costs as overhead charges but no value to customers (Alexander et al, 1991). Using throughput and cycle times as performance measures help managers to eliminate these non-value adding activities, considered as waste time, and achieve substantial cost savings.Thus, according to Lippa (1990); Shorter cycle times can result in less finished goods inventory, less forecast reliance, strategic capability when a firm reacts to customer demands faster than the competition and the ability to exploit opportunities). Innovation in today’s competitive environment companies must continuously engage in product improvement be designing new and improved products with unique characteristics valued by customers. Only in this way are companies able to enlarge their market share and maintain a competitive edge.Introducing technological innovation and advanced design features into new products is costly initially and requires operational flexibility; unlike cycle have unique characteristics (Ainikal & Teo, 1992) that will require performance measures tailored for this purpose such as turnover by products and product cost improvement. Human Resources: The benefit of adopting a long-term employment policy is a loyal and committed workforce, resulting in productivity increases, reduced training costs, and improved customer services since this is provided by long-serving, presumably more experienced and better-informed employees.A performance measure such as employee turnover is needed to help management assess an enterprise’s human resource availability and capabilities. It is against this background that the present study has been conducted. In Nigeria, the trend toward high technology manufacturing is a recent event, partly motivated by rising costs and partly encouraged by the Government as a strategy to maintain a sustainable competitive edge. As companies automate or adopt advanced manufacturing technology, complementary changes in performance measurement systems must be implemented to reflect the new manufacturing environment.The following sections presented the results of a recent empirical study CASE STUDY METHOD A questionnaire survey design was employed as an exploratory case study. The sample was drawn from a cross-section of companies in Nigeria that have implemented or are implementing changes in their production processes. Respondents were asked to consider the usefulness of selected performance measures. Usefulness has been operationalized as the frequency of use of each measure. Based on a total of 200 questionnaires distributed, 36 useable replies were received, given a response rate of 18 percent.Response rates of this level were consistent with previous other studies of Ghosen el al, 1992 Petzall el. Al, 1991. Responding companies were classified by size musing sales turnover as the proxy measure, as follows: N20million and below (7. 5%), > N20 million – N100 million (17. 5%) > N100 million (75%). It was not surprising to find a higher percentage of response from the larger companies, because previous studies have found size as important determinant for a company to adopt a flexible manufacturing strategy (Schoch, el. l, 1994). EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows that at least 63 percent of respondents indicated their dissatisfaction with the existing performance measure system. As more and more companies turn to automation or other advanced technology for their manufacturing processes, it is not unexpected that performance measures originally designed for a labour intensive environment will no longer be appropriate.What is noteworthy is that 37 percent of respondents reported that they were either satisfied with the existing system (26%) or not sure see any need for significant changes to the system (11%). Many of such companies are currently going through the different stages of implementing changes to their manufacturing processes. So it may not be surprising that 37 percent continue to rel y on the traditional measures. TABLE 1 OVERALL RESPONSE TO TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURE |FREQUENCY (EXPRESSED AS %) | |Satisfied |26 | |Did not see any significant change needed |11 | |Dissatisfied |63 | |Total |100 | Table 2 presents findings on the usefulness of selected traditional performance measures. These results are consistent with the overall findings above. For example, for five of the eight measures, the percentage of respondents indicating â€Å"useful† is also lower, ranging from 61. 3 percent for standard cost overhead to 41. 4 percent for earned hours, and these correspond to the overall 63 percent who expressed dissatisfaction with traditional measures.As earlier indicated, not all companies have fully automated, so some traditional measures have been regarded as still useful, such as purchase price variance reported by 86. 7 percent. TABLE 2 USEFULNESS OF TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES | |Useful |Not or Less Useful | |Materials price variance |86. 7% |13. 3% | |Standard cost overhead |61. 3% |38. 7% | |Scrap factor built into standard overhead |51. 6% |48. % | |Labour Reporting |58. 6% |41. 4% | |Earned Hours |41. 4% |58. 6% | |Machine Utilization |78. 8% |21. 2% | |Net Income |85. 7% |14. 3% | |Return on Investment (total assets) |50. 0% |50. % | |Average |64. 1% |35. 9% | The new performance measures presented in Table 3 relate to customer responsiveness, quality, time, innovation and human resources factors, reflecting the strategic objectives of the new manufacturing environment. There is overwhelming evidence that these measurers were found to be â€Å"useful† by most respondents. The overall average of 83. 7 percent compares favourably against the 64. 1 percent for the traditional measures. TABLE 3 USEFULNESS OF NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURE |Useful |Not or Less Useful | |Customer Complaints |88. 6% |11. 4% | |Warranty Claims |75. 8% |24. 2% | |On-time Delivery |93. 9% |6. 1% | |Manufacturing Quality Index |82. 4 % |17. % | |Inventory Levels |88. 9% |11. 1% | |Vendor Quality |84. 8% |15. 2% | |Cost of Quality |84. 4% |15. 6% | | Scrap Naira |85. 7% |14. 3% | |Throughput Time |91. 2% |8. % | |Cycle Time |78. 1% |21. 9% | |Waste Time |72. 7% |27. 3% | |Product Cost Improvement |70. 0% |30. 0% | |Inventory Turnover |88. 2% |11. 8% | |Turnover of Products |78. 8% |21. % | |Employee Turnover |86. 1% |13. 9% | |Average |83. 7% |16. 3% | Cross-tabulation analyses were performed by company size and years of experience in business. Only significant results have been reported in Table 4 and 5. Larger companies found four specific new performance measures more useful than the smaller companies. On-time deliveries (X2 = 7. 92, df = 2, p < . 05); inventory levels (X2 = 5. 98, df = 2, p < . 05); throughput time (X2 = 9. 80, df = 2, p < . 1) and inventory turnover to be the forerunners in implementing technological innovations, and so find new performance measures more appropriate. Smaller companie s tend to lag behind in implementing changes, so adoption of these new measures is not as widespread. In table 5 significant results were found for vendor quality (X2 = 6. 32, df = 2, p < . 05) and throughput time (X2 = 5. 00, df = 2, p < . 10). Companies with 5 years or less in business reported the new measures as useful compared to companies in the other categories, especially in regard to vendor quality longer established companies have developed special relationship with selected vendors and, consequently, vendor quality is no longer of major concern.In contrast, more recently established companies need to identify vendors who can meet the more stringent demands in high-tech manufacturing, such as just-in-time deliveries and supply of quality materials. TABLE 4 CHI-SQUARE TESTS FOR NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES BY COMPANY SIZE |Company Size |On-time Deliveries |Inventory Levels |Throughput Time |Inventory Turnover | |N20m & below | | | | | |Useful |66. 7% |66. 7% |66. 7% |66. 7% | | Not Useful |33. 3% |33. 3% |33. 3% |33. % | |>N20m-N100m | | | | | |Useful |85. 7% |71. 4% |71. 4% |71. 4% | |Not Useful |14. 3% |28. 6% |28. 6% |28. 6% | |>N100m | | | | | |Useful |100. 0% |96. 7% |75. 0% |96. 7% | |Not Useful |0. % |3. 3% |25. 0% |3. 3% | TABLE 5 CHI-SQUARE TESTS FOR NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES BY YEARS IN BUSINESS |Years in Business |Vendor Quality |Throughput Time | |5 YEARS | | | |Useful |100. 0% |100. 0% | |Not Useful |0. 0% |0. % | |>5 YEARS – 10 YEARS | | | |Useful |88. 89% |77. 8% | |Not Useful |11. 11% |22. 2% | |>10 YEARS | | | |Useful |60. 0% |100. 0% | |Not Useful |40. 0% |0. 0% | CONCLUSION AND SUMMARYEffective performance measurement and controllership are necessary to locate and monitor resources. As competency becomes a more critical factor in creating and maintaining competitive advantage greater attention must be given to strategic issues concerning customer responsiveness, quality, time, innovation and human resources factors than a cost-mi nimization mass-production strategy, in order that companies can remain competitive. To this end, a performance measurement system capable of meeting these strategic objectives also must be in place. This study reported the findings of a survey on the usefulness of selected traditional and new performance measures used by Nigerian companies that have adopted flexible manufacturing strategy.The results indicated that the majority of these companies considered the new performance measures useful particularly among the larger companies and among those with 5 years or less of business experience. Traditional measures are found to be still useful, though to a smaller extent, as companies are going through a transition of implementing changes to their manufacturing strategies. REFERENCES Alexander, G. , G. Gienger, M. Harwood and P. Santomi (1991). â€Å"The New Revolution in Cost Management, â€Å"Financial Effective, November/December, pp 5-9. Ainikal, J. and H. Y. Teoh (1992),  "Overhead Allocations and Product Life Cycle Emphasis – The New Zealand Situation†, Accounting Journal (NZ), April, pp 69-71.Banks, R. L. and S. C. Wheelwright (1979), â€Å"Operations vs Strategy: Trading Tomorrow for Today†, â€Å"Harvard Business Review, May/June, pp. 112-120. Beckett, W. K. and K. Dang (1992), â€Å"Synchrous Manufacturing: New Method, New Mind-Set† The Journal of Business Strategy, January/February, pp 5-6 Drucker, P. (1964), â€Å" Control, Controls and Management† in C. P. Bonini, R. K. Jaedieke and H. M. Wagner, Management Controls: New Directions in Basic Research: McGraw. Dunk, A. (1989), â€Å" Management Accounting Lag†, Abacus, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 149-155. Eccles, R. (1991), â€Å"The Performance Manifesto†, Harvard Business Review, January/February, pp. 11-17. Ghosh, B. C. S. K. Teo and A. M. Low (1992), â€Å"Factors Contributing to the Success of Local SMEs – An Insight from Singapore†, Pr oceedings of ENDEC World Conference on Entrepreneurship; Challenges for the 21st Century, pp. 574-585 Goldhar, J. D. & D. Lei (1991), â€Å"The Shape of Twenty-Frist Century Global Manufacturing†, The Journal of Business Strategy, March/April, pp. 1-41. Hall, W. K. (1980), â€Å"Survival Strategies in Hostile Environment†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 75-85. Howell, R. A. and S. R. Soucy (1987), â€Å"Operating Controls in the New Manufacturing Environment†, Manufacturing Accounting (USA), October, pp. 25-31. Kaplan, R. S. (1986). Accounting Lag: The Obsolescence of Cost Accounting System†, California Management Review, Winter, pp. 174-199. Lippa, V. (1990), â€Å"Measuring Performance with Synchrous Management†, Management Accounting (USA), February, pp. 54-59. Merchant, K. (1985), â€Å"Budgeting and the Propensity to Create Budgetary Slack†, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 10, pp. 201-210. Nemetz, P. L. and L. W . Fry (1988), â€Å"Flexible Manufacturing Organizations; Implications for Strategy Formulation and Organization Design†, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 627-638. Northey, P. (1991), â€Å"Cut Total Costs with Cycle Time Reduction†, CMA Magazine, February, pp. 19-22 Petzall, S. , S. K. Teoh and R. D.Johnson (1992), â€Å"Leadership in the Singapore Small Business†, Proceedings of ENDEC Conference on World Entrepreneurship: Challenges for the 21st Century, pp. 143-151. Sadhwani, A. T. M. H. Sarhan and D. Kiringode (1985), â€Å"Just-in-time: An Inventory System Whose Time Has Come†, Management Accounting (USA), December, pp. 36-44. Schoch, H. P. H. Y. Teoh, M. H. Lee and K. B. Ang (1994), â€Å"Activity-Based Costing in the Electronics Industry†, Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, January- March, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 28-37. Teoh, H. Y. (1991), â€Å"Discretionary or Non-Discretionary Costs: Managing ‘Ballooningâ₠¬â„¢ Indirect Costs in a Profitable Manner†, 7th National Accounting Conference, Kuala Lumpur, September, pp. 18-19.

Lord of the Flies †Hook or Brook? Essay

In my point of view one of the best novels you can study for GCSE English is ‘Lord of The Flies’ by William Golding. But I’m not just talking about the book I’m going to talk about the films, Peter Brook’s 1963 black and white film and Harry Hook’s American style film made in 1994 and how they both differ from each other and the book. Sir William Golding was an English grammar school boy who studied Natural Sciences for two years at Oxford University before transferring to English Literature. He enlisted in the navy to fight in World War II where he was involved in the pursuit of Germany’s mightiest battleship, the Bismarck and involved in D-Day landings. When he came back to the UK to write and to teach he had dramatically different ideas of humanity. Many of his books contained the ideas that there is no such thing as true innocence, most men are only concerned for their own well being and that all men are evil at heart under pressure. His first novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ is very much based on these ideas. Golding wrote many other books including: The Inheritors, Darkness Visible and To the Ends of the Earth. In 1979 Golding won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, in 1980 he won the Booker Prize, in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and was knighted by the Queen in 1988. Eventually he died of heart failure on June 19, 1993. In his lifetime he saw his greatest novel, ‘Lord of The Flies’ turned in to a film in the 1960’s but died before he could see the second adaptation of the film released in 1994. The initial images at the start of both films of ‘Lord of the flies’ are very important as they give first impressions of the film and set the scene for what is to come. Brook’s film starts with a series of photographs showing groups of English grammar school boys in every day life, then being evacuated (for a reason that you don’t know) and then the plane crash on the island. As the images are a hymn snug in latin which, when translates means god give us mercy. In Hook’s version the opening scene starts looking up at the thrashing legs of the boys trying to swim in the ocean but in almost complete silence then the picture raises above the water to reveal the sight of all the boy panicking and the sounds of screaming, the picture then sinks to show the pilot sinking and a hand pulling him to the surface followed by the picture to show a life raft opening. The better of the two openings in my point of view is the later 1994 film because it draws you in to the film because you don’t know what is going to happen. In both Brook’s film and in Hook’s film the boys end up on a tropical island some were in the pacific ocean as it is in the book, but the ways this is portrayed in the two films are very different giving the two openings to the films very different feelings. In Brook’s 1963 film you first see the island during the day with a wide, long curved sandy beach laid out in front if you, backed with low tropical forest stretching into the distance with very shallow light coloured sea. This gives a very light calm atmosphere to the beginning of the film giving a sense of hopefulness. The film was filmed mainly on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. In contrast Hooks 1994 adaptation has island is first seen at night as the boys enter a small sheltered bay, on a life raft, and are confronted with tiny beach with the black silhouette of the huge forests and mountains looming over them shrouding every thing with shadows this give a sense of little hope, danger, panic and fear because they don’t know what’s in the shadows. In my mind this sets the mood better for the moments after a plane crash where you are completely lost, on one knows where you are, all the adults with you have died, compared with the almost happy felling given in Brook’s film. As in the book the first two character introduced in both films are Ralf and Piggy. In Brook’s 63 films, as in the book, Ralf and Piggy have never met before and Piggy is the first person that Ralf finds after the plane crash. Piggy in first film is a rather small, fat boy with glasses, from a lower class back ground who won’t do any physical work because he is over worried about his asthma and is very cautious about everything. Ralf in this film is an average grammar school boy although older than most of the boys, with a strong sense of leadership who later becomes leader of the children on the island because of his initial popularity with the younger members of the group. However in Hooks american 94 film all the children are all from the same military cadet school. As they are from the same school they already know each other so as Ralf was in a higher position than all the rest of the other boys in the school he was almost automatically elected the leader of the group. Piggy is a very fat child with over sized glasses and is very venerable and can be very annoying as he is in both films and the book. Also in hooks film Ralf is automatically is very protective of piggy all though in brooks film and the book Ralf makes fun of piggy before befriending him and becoming protective him from some of the other characters. The other main character that you are introduced to in the film is Jack. Jack in brooks film is the leader of a choir who end up on the island because of the plane crash with his coir. He immediately tries to take control of the group and is very aggressive towards Piggy and bullies him. When he fails to take control of the group he immediately separates him self and the coir to become hunters for the group and become obsessive with kill wild pigs. This is very similar with hooks film when Ralf wins control of the group jack splits of and makes a group of hunters and becomes very violent and aggressive. Symbolism in many of Goldings book plays a big part and they have a big role in films of ‘The lord of the flies’. The conch shell that Ralf and Piggy find on the beach in one of the first sense is of order and that only the person holding the shell can speak. When the conch shell is blown for the first time by Ralf al the boys respond by coming to its source like answering to a school bell. This means that the conch shell in both films is a symbol of order, respect and control. Piggy’s glasses also become a symbol of fire because the are the boys only source of fire on the island and however has the glasses is in control of fire which is vital for life on the island. The hunting knife in hooks 94 film is a large symbol as it provides a source of food by killing the pigs on the island and a way to make weapons for the hunters. One of the main themes in the book and films is of victimisation and domination within the group. Almost as soon as the group is formed Ralf (in the book and in the 63 film) or Jack (in the 94 film) immediately torments piggy by giving him his name, and tries to put himself above everyone else and take control of the group. In hooks 94 film all the young members of the group call Jack and Ralf ‘Sir’ showing respect to the dominant people in the group. The sound and music within the films are very important as they get the feeling of the situation. In brooks 63-film native pipe music is played as their children are moving through the forest and this give of feeling of excitement, as they are moving through the forest. In both films the ambient sounds, like birds and frogs, give sense of alertness and can add to the tension of a seen. In both films what the characters are wearing give a felling of how long the have been there and what they have been doing. In the 63 film ate the start all the boys have full uniform on, especially the coir how have gowns and hats one, to having very little ripped torn fragments of clothes on in Hooks 94 film the boys go from having full military uniform to topless with ripped shorts on and war paint on there faces and chests. The length of boy’s hair in both films doesn’t change in either film implying that they aren’t there for a very long time. One thing that was over look in both films is that after the plane crash all the boys are perfectly clean, tidy and well dressed. The colours in the 94 film added to the mood of the seen. When the boys are working together on the beach the colours are lighter adding to the felling of hopefulness. On the other hand the forest is almost always dark greens, browns and blacks and this helps to emphasise a negative mood. I think that Brooks 63 film is always let down by the fact it is in black and white. I think the use of the camera is one other main thing that separates the two films. In hooks film the camera shots are used to help emphasise what’s is going on in the film, for example: shots where the camera is looking down on someone makes them seam very venerable like when the boys first land on the beach, and when the camera is pointing up at some ones face makes you feel that there very powerful or dominant. Partly because of this I feel that the 94 is better than the 64 films because it lacks the quality of camera shots. In my mind they are both good films but the better of the two film is Harry Hook’s 1994 version because of the better quality of the film and definitely the acting which in Peter Brook’s 1964 film was very wooden but many people just thinks it was let down by the technology of the time and because it is much close to the book it is a much better film.

What significance do journeys have in The Kite Runner as a...

The novel of the Kite Runner as a whole is riddled with different journeys which are undertaken by different characters. These journeys are both physical and spiritual yet the most apparent journey is Amirs journey from Afghanistan to the USA and back again, this takes place from the beginning on the novel to the end of the novel and as accompanied by Amirs journey or quest for redemption. Despite Amirs journeys being one of the more notable ones he is not the only character on a journey as Rahim Kahn is also on his final journey in search of a final resting place. Amirs journeys are also linked with traumatic effects with each of his journeys being linked to major events. For example Amirs journey to Pakistan in the truck leads†¦show more content†¦However during his final return to Afghanistan he also states that the car sickness had gone which could show how he had finally adopted the morals and bravery of Baba and accepted the gravity and repercussions of the situation he was in. Another example which takes place as he returns to Afghanistan is his feeling of nostalgia. However he does not view his return to Afghanistan as a return to the place he was conceived in as he still considers himself a â€Å"tourist in his own country†. Overall his journey back to the country to rescue Sorab is not only a physical one but it could also have spiritual undertones as his return could symbolize his return from his old cowardly ways. This is reinforced by the fact that he left Afghanistan afraid and returned to it acknowledging the fact that the Taliban would likely try to kill him when he made his demands. Amirs return to America with Sorab can be seen as the final journey he takes part in yet it is not one filled with happiness and positive emotion as he is faced with Sorabs suicide attempt. However unlike in previous chapters Amir must now face the problem instead of running away and repressing it like he did with Hassan. 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