Argumentative essay Essay Example for Free

Argumentative essay Essay The notion of marriage as an institution which necessarily preserves the vital social values of stability, continuity and propriety, only at the cost of brutally suppressing equally powerful individual needs, naturally comes under scrutiny. During the XX century, there have been heated discussions concerning romantic love and its impact on long-lasting relations. Some people suppose that pre-arranged marriage ensures long-lasting relations based on trust and financial gain, but it is also profoundly dangerous precisely because it can release and feed as many urges as it satisfies. They state that romantic love is not a good basis for marriage. Thesis Romantic love is a good basis for marriage because it ensures warm and friendly relations between spouses; it has a positive impact on human relations and their development, and ensures loving and friendly relations with children as â€Å"product† of love. Help with Argumentative Essay. â€Å"Romantic love is not a good basis for marriage† Help with Argumentative essay. â€Å"Romantic love is not a good basis for marriage† Warm and friendly relations between spouses are the core of successful marriage and trust. When people meet an â€Å"ideal person† their mind has perceived that the situation calls for some emotional reaction. From the psychological point of view love is caused by the feeling of personal freedom and self-realization. Sexual attractiveness is closely connected with an ideal image created by a person, while the desire to have children reflects sexual affection. It is possible to say that fools fall in love because they need sexual satisfaction with an ideal person to give birth to their offspring. Marriage â€Å"is about staying in love and staying together for a lifetime despite the fact that both partners are individuals who change over time† (Marriage is Forever, 2006). The common ground between the sexes, therefore, is getting smaller, and the institution of marriage is beginning to fall to pieces if people do not understand and value each other. A woman when she marries ‘is cut off from men’s society in all but the most formal and intermittent ways. For this reason, love and friendly relations are crucial for successful marriage and happiness. Romantic love has a positive impact on human relations and their further development when love disappears. It is not a secret that many couples. Some researchers underline that love therapy is a useful tool to create or restore positive relations and family happiness. Jennifer Chalmers comments that â€Å"The topic of creating and sustaining the feeling of love was  never discussed in any of the marriage-related workshops that I attended, but the issues [discussed] were not intended to help couples create the feeling of love† (Chalmers, 2006). The author gives special detailed attention to the difficulty which can follow elderly couples, but she underlines that love can be recreated in order to save marriage. In this case, love comes from overcoming the barrier by sharing feelings and comforts. Also, when love disappears, people still bond to each other leaving no space for anger and despair (Wilding, 2003). Divorce is the institution, the ‘custom’, which enables private life to adjust to the pressures of the market, and divorce is the ideal solution for pre-arranged couples without love (Knapp, Stearns, 1993). On the hand, there is little research which could help to indicate that love actually produce real, live marriages among the poor. Romantic love is the main power which forces people to have a family and give birth. To give birth and to become a parent is a natural wish of nearly every person. For this reason, a male or female chooses a healthy and strong, beautiful and successful person for reproduc ­tion. It is an instruct feeling to choose a partner, but it causes falling in love. Every person wants to have good children, and for this reason he/she chooses a â€Å"special† person. Bonding comes with the shared activity afterward, in which people learn about each other through co-operation. Trust emerges not just with sex, but also with shared activity through which people bond by learning to trust each other. Romantic love is a good basis for marriage because it supports an instinct or desire to give birth. It is based on the evolutionary success of pair bonding as a reproduc ­tive strategy. This cause is closely connected with sexual attractiveness, but it has different stimuli (Sternberg, Barnes, 1989). Love as care does not refer to an emotion or a state of mind so much as to a human faculty of identification with others, sympathy with all beings. Also, love is a basis for intimate relations and sexuality. Following O’Sullivan love â€Å"enhances our well-being, improves the quality of our lives, and helps us to prevail over difficult times. Those living without intimate relationships are at risk† (O’Sullivan, 2004, p. 71). In addition, for most couples, sympathetic and compassionate relations help to overcome life grievances and troubles they face. The most appealing feature of romantic love is firm personal standards applied to everything around people. Love is  eternal value which can lead to sufferings, but it does not influence the essence of human existence.

Examining issues with audit quality

Examining issues with audit quality The major accounting scandals occurred worldwide has brought the focus of public to the audit profession and the audit quality. Enron and WorldCom cases in United States and Parmalat case in Europe are the example of major scandals as a result of the failure of audit services. In Malaysia, the Transmile case which involved around RM530 million of accounting fraud has also addressed the problem about the quality of audit services. These examples of corporate and accounting scandals that happened worldwide have indicated that the audit quality of the audit profession is not at an appropriate and acceptable level. Over years, the audit quality issue has been discussed and debated globally. Several actions have been taken by international and domestic authorized agencies to address the audit quality issue. For example, the government of United States has introduced and enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 as a response to the audit failure in big major corporations, such as Enron and World Com. In addition, the Center for Audit Quality has been established in United States as one of the steps to enhance the audit quality of audit profession. In Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Accountant (MIA) plays a vital role in addressing the audit issue and promoting and enhancing the quality of audit. Generally, the function of auditing is to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are prepared and presented in a true and fair view and free from material misstatements. The audit reports and audited financial statements will be widely used by the various groups of stakeholders for decision making. Hence, audit quality is an important factor that affects the credibility of the audited financial statements as perceived by the stakeholders. In other words, high audit quality is necessary criteria to build up stakeholders confidence on the audit profession. According to Gaurav Shah, there are five important steps that should be followed to produce a quality audit. Firstly, auditors should plan the audit thoroughly after clearly understanding the objectives and directions of auditing and clearly define the agenda of audit. Next, auditors should perform the audit procedures according to the scope and goal set in the earlier step and continuous measure the performance of the audit works in order to avoid any unnecessary variances happened during audit process. The third step is to record the result of performance, including any errors and problems and report appropriately the result to the management level. Subsequently, improvements should be made on the audit process by solving any detected problems. Lastly, follow up audit should be conducted for the control purpose to avoid any recurring of problems. 2.0 AUDIT QUALITY In order to understand clearer the concept and evolution of audit quality, we will discuss the definition and dimension of audit quality, the audit quality gaps, the factors that affect the audit quality and the relationship between audit fees and audit quality in this section. 2.1 Definition of Audit Quality There is no specific definition for audit quality in the auditing standards. Generally, people focus on the reliability of the audited financial statements when referring to audit quality. When an audit is said to have high quality, the financial statements are usually free from material misstatements and able to provide reliable information for decision making. Traditionally, audit quality has been defined by DeAngelo (1981) as the market-assessed joint probability that a given auditor will both discover (a) a breach in the clients accounting system and (b) report the breach. Under such definition, there are two main features in audit quality, which are the competence of auditors by possessing necessary knowledge to made correct judgment or discover problems on clients accounting system and the independence of auditors to disclose these problems. On the other hand, the Audit Quality publication by ICAEW in 2002 indicated that audit quality is related to the professional opinion given by auditors based on essential evidences and objective judgments. Hence, it is important to understand clearly what is expected on auditors works to provide an appropriate professional opinion on financial statements in order to achieve high audit quality. 2.2 Dimensions of Audit Quality The AUDITQUAL model According to the AUDITQUAL model by Angus Duff (2004), there were nine different dimensions in assessing audit quality, which were reputation, capability, independence, expertise, experience, responsiveness, empathy, client service and non-audit services. These nine dimensions were closely interrelated to represent the whole picture of audit quality. Besides, these nine dimensions can be grouped into two distinct factors that relating to technical quality and service quality. Technical quality is mainly related to the competence and independence of auditors, such as their technical skills, integrity and ability to express objective judgment and opinion. Hence, the dimensions related to technical quality are reputation, capability, independence, expertise and experience. On the other hand, service quality focuses on issues related to audit clients, such as the additional value-added services provided and the responsiveness to the needs of clients. The dimensions of audit quality under this service quality are responsiveness, client service, non-audit services and empathy. 2.3 Audit Quality Gaps Audit quality and failure had become one of the key issues in the audit profession mainly due to the perception gaps of audit quality. According to Angus Duff (2004), there are totally eight gaps being identified in the audit quality model. These gaps are mainly the different perception of audit quality between different parties, such as the auditors, clients and stakeholders, and regulators. With referring to the diagram above, Gap 1 is the discrepancy between the client expectations and the perception of audit firm on client expectations. Gap 2 represents the difference between client expectations and the quality standards of audit firm. Gap 3 refers to the difference between the quality standards of audit firm and the observed quality on audit. The difference between the promises made about audit quality through external communication and the quality of audit forms Gap 4. All Gap 1 to Gap 4 actually represent the quality differences which happen within the audit firm. On the other hand, Gap 5 represents the client expectations and the clients perception of the audit quality delivered. Gap 6 is the discrepancy between the client expectations on what auditor should attain and what auditor can reasonably be expected to attain. The difference between what auditor can reasonably be expected to attain and the auditors responsibilities as stated in laws and regulations creates Gap 7. Gap 8 is the difference between auditors responsibilities as stated in laws and regulations and the actual performance of auditor. The usually said of audit expectations gap in audit profession is collectively represented by Gap 6 to Gap 8. 2.4 Factors Influencing Audit Quality According to the Audit Quality framework developed by Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of UK in 2008, there are five key drivers that affect the audit quality. These five key drivers are the culture within an audit firm, the personal qualities and skills of audit partners and staff, the effectiveness of audit process, the audit reportings reliability and usefulness, and the factors outside the control of auditors. An audit firms culture is significantly affects the ways of how audit works and processes being performed. A strong and positive culture will directly increase the audit quality of an audit firm. The top management of audit firm should create a positive environment that encourages the audit staff to achieve high quality in audit works. In addition, proper time and resources should be available for every audit works to enhance and maintain the audit quality. Financial considerations should not be the main focus or factor that affects the allocation of time and resources. An appropriate control and monitoring system should be designed and put in place to safeguard the quality of audit too. Audit is a service rather than a product. The quality of audit service may vary when the audit is performed by different people. Hence, human factor is important in determining audit quality. Audit partners and staff should equip with necessary skills, knowledge and professional skepticism in order to provide high quality audit works. It is important for auditors to understand well the environment of the clients business and adhere to the relevant auditing principles and ethical standards. Proper training should be given to auditors to develop their competency and capabilities. The works of junior auditors should always be monitored and reviewed by senior auditors or partners to ensure the quality of audit. The audit process is one of the key drivers to audit quality too. Appropriate audit methodology and tools should be applied in audit according to situation. Audit partners and senior auditors should be always involve in the audit process to provide adequate support and monitor on audit process. In addition, auditors should gather sufficient and relevant audit evidence to support the judgment and conclusion reach throughout the audit process. Proper audit documentation should be put in place too. Furthermore, it is important to consider and maintain the level of independence, objectivity and integrity of auditors in the audit process to ensure the audit quality. The way how an audit being reported will affect the quality of an audit too. Audit reports should be prepared in an appropriate form that follow the guidance of relevant standards. Audit reports shouls be written by using clear language without ambigous words. Proper opinion and conclusion should be provided in audit reports regarding the true and fair views of the financial statements. In addition, proper and clear communication with audit committee is necessary and such action will provide apositive impact on the audit quality. Factors that outside the control of auditors also play an important role in the quality of audit. For example, the corporate governance of an organization is important to enhance the audit quality. An adequate and good corporate governance within an organization directly assists the auditors in performing audit and hence increase the audit quality. The another example of factors outside the auditors control is the role and behaviour of audit committee. An audit committee should always actively address the issues identified throughout the audit process. Other examples of factors outside the control of auditors include the role of shareholders and the audit regulatory environment. 2.5 Audit Quality and Audit Fees Audit quality is something that is intangible and unobservable. Hence, the audit fees are usually used as a proxy for audit quality in many research studies. Generally, there is strong positive relationship between audit fees and audit quality. In order to achieve higher audit quality, it is necessary to conduct more investigation and audit procedures on the financial statements. This resulted in more audit hours and higher audit fees. In addition, the use of more senior auditors and specialized auditors also is required to achieve higher audit quality. This resulted in higher audit fees too. Hence, it can be concluded that higher audit fees should be an indirect evidence to reflect higher audit quality because more resources and efforts has been put in to provide reasonable assurance that financial statements are free from material misstatement. In 2002, the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) had issued the MIA-By Laws (On Professional Conduct and Ethics) and the laws have provided guidance and recommendation for setting appropriate audit fees. The audit fees should be charged based on the total time spent for particular audit works and the charge-out rate of the related auditors. Therefore, the longer the time spent and the more the number of auditors involved, the higher the audit fees. This should later reflect in higher audit quality. 3.0 AUDIT QUALITY ISSUES Due to the limitation of pages, we will only discuss five audit quality issues in this section, which are inconsistency of audit quality across countries, reduced audit quality practices (RAQP), single audit quality issue, International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC) and the corporate governance issue. 3.1 Inconsistency of Audit Quality across Countries The key element of audit quality is its consistency. The nature and process of an audit should be the same regardless the size of the organizations and the countries where the audit is performed. However, it is a global challenge to maintain the international consistency on audit quality when across countries. The inconsistency of audit quality across countries is mainly due to the national differences in the following aspects (ICAEW, 2010). Political, economic and business environment The characteristics of political, economic and business environment play a significant role on the audit quality of financial statements. The national differences included the corruption and bribery level, the business ethics level, the number and rights of foreign investors and the quality of governance in economic activities. Legal framework Without a formal and complete legal framework, it is difficult to achieve high audit quality. According to the Fundamentals Third Parties published by Audit Quality Forum of ICAEW, it is important to have supportive legal framework for auditors to obtain relevant and reliable information from third parties. The excessive threat of litigation and legal liability can adversely affected the audit quality. Excessive litigation may cause auditors to view standards as rigid rules without proper judgment in their application. In addition, excessive litigation may also prevent the further evolution and innovation in standards and practice. Education Inconsistency of audit quality in different countries may due to the countries education system and their global connectivity level, such as the degree of international communications and relationships. The financial operations and preparation of financial statements should be overview by financially literate person with relevant knowledge, skills and experience so that relevant accounting standards can be applied accurately. On the other hand, auditors should possess adequate and necessary knowledge, skills and experience to carry out works with proper professional judgment and skepticism. Culture According to Hofstede (1980), there were four main dimensions of national culture, which were individualism versus collectivism, strong versus weak uncertainty avoidance, large versus small power distance, and masculinity versus femininity. Different culture between different countries may affect the way a business is operated and certain behaviour to be acceptable or not. For example, Malaysia is a multicultural society where directors of organizations may come from different ethnic backgrounds. The different in ethnic background caused different hold in cultural values. Hence, the directors of organizations may perceive audit quality differently. Perceptions of audit The auditors in different country may perceive audit quality differently due to the length of time over which regulations and systems about accounting and auditing had been developed, and the origins and development of audit service. The motivations of auditors also influence the perceived audit quality too. Several initiatives had been taken to promote the international consistency of audit quality. One of these initiatives is strengthening the adoption of International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and International Standards on Quality Control (ISQCs) issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). In addition, national independent audit oversight bodies are established, such as Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Besides, national regulators had arranged agreements between countries to rely on each others works. To further encourage the consistency of audit quality across countries, the following four areas of potential action can be considered (ICAEW, 2010). Share experience In order to improving communication and building up necessary skills to achieve consistency and audit quality, it is crucial to share information and experience between auditors on how to build on current practices and potential new use of information technology (IT). This can be done through international exchange and education programmes that expose auditors to new and different environments. Sharing experience and practice is not only limited to audit firms and audit firms networks, it also can happen between national professional accountancy bodies and national regulators and between national and global organizations. Acknowledge national differences International standards should focus more on how national differences may affect audit risk. In addition, standards should have adequate flexibility for auditors to exercise professional judgment to deal with misstatement risks in order to suit with the related national environment. Promote the role of audit The role of audit can be promoted to identify the issues of economic development. When a country facing problems to issue clean audit reports and such problems could not be solved by acknowledging national differences or sharing experience, it gives a sign that there are certain issues need to be resolved, normally related to the political, economic, and business environment or the legal framework. The IAASB standards should be implemented internationally in order to help highlight the national differences and support economic development. Support research Academic research and studies are important in contributing to the consistency in audit quality across countries. Various issues and information are explained clearly in the research papers for better and thorough understanding by others. These issues include the effective ways of sharing experience globally, the acknowledgment of national differences within international standards and the connection between the audit practice and issues of economic development. 3.2 Reduced Audit Quality Practices (RAQP) In the post-Enron era, auditors are said to be working under high pressure condition in the competitive audit market because they are required to perform more audit works but no increase in their audit fees. The behaviours of auditors under such condition directly affect the audit quality and thus rise up an important issue in the auditing profession. Due to the cost-quality conflict and high working pressure, many auditors had engaged in the Reduced Audit Quality Practices (RAQP). According to Herrbach (2001), RAQP can be defined as the poor execution of an audit procedure that reduces the level of evidence gathered for the audit, so that the collected evidence is unreliable, false or inadequate quantitatively or qualitatively. The occurrence of RAQP is considered as normal phenomena in the current audit profession and it does occur in various countries across the world, such as Australia, United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Malaysia. Generally, it is important for auditors to identify the factors that lead to RAQP, such as the time budget pressure, in order to understand well the adverse effects of the factors on auditors and audit quality, and hence manage such factors better. In fact, the RAQP has affected the audit quality directly as well as indirectly. Underreporting of time is an example of auditors behaviour that indirectly affects the audit quality. Due to underreporting of time, several problems, such as lack of budget revision and unrecognized time pressure on future audit, arose that will give impact on the audit quality. The RAQP that normally has direct impact on the audit quality are the incomplete implementation of necessary audit programs and procedures in order to complete audit tasks. Such practices include accept weak client explanations or doubtful evidence, premature signing-off, fail to research an accounting principle, reduce the amount of work performed on audit step and so on. (Mohd Nazli et al., 2010) The RAQP is an issue in the audit profession of Malaysia too. It seen that there is an increasing number of auditors engaged in such unprofessional and unethical behaviours and thus giving a negative effect on the audit opinion and audit quality. The weak enforcement by relevant bodies in addressing the RAQP issue is said to be the significant factor that caused the high occurrence of such practices in Malaysia. For example, the Malaysian Institute of Accountant (MIA) is said to be failed in taking appropriate disciplinary actions against delinquent auditors. Furthermore, there were only a little litigation cases against auditors in Malaysia. (Mohd Nazli et al., 2010) 3.3 Single Audit Quality Issue The grants received by state and local governments from the federal government have been increased significantly over years. For example, the grants given by the federal government of United States to its state and local governments had increased from $7 billion in 1960 to around $450 billion in 2007. Hence, it is very important to adopt a single and uniformly structured audit to oversight the activities. This single audit concept is mainly used to provide reasonable assurance to the federal government about the use and management of the grants. (GAO, 2007) Hence, the single audit is clearly a significant mechanism to examine the accountability of the governments on the use and management of its funds. However, many countries, such as United States, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, are facing problems about the sufficiency and quality of the single audit. For example, the Presidents Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) of United States had identified serious single audit quality in its report with title Report on National Single Audit Sampling Project in 2007. More than half of the single audits performed had been identified with deficiencies and therefore such single audits were being classified as unreliable or unacceptable audits. In order to address the single audit issue, the PCIE with support from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has made some recommendations to address this issue in the same report. These recommendations include: The single audit standards, criteria and guidance should be revised and improved. In order to conduct and perform single audits continuously, auditors are required to establish and maintain the minimum continuing professional education (CPE). The disciplinary processes should be reviewed and enhanced to deal with unacceptable audits and auditors that not meet the basic training and CPE requirements. 3.4 International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC 1) The International Auditing and Assurance Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has approved and implemented the International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC 1) in 2004. Later in June 2006, the MIA has adopted the ISQC 1 as the approved auditing standard in Malaysia. All registered practitioners in Malaysia are required to comply with this new quality control standard and additional responsibilities have been imposed on them. Generally, the ISQC 1 is able to enhance the audit quality by focusing on the quality control within the firms. There are six quality control elements stated in the ISQC 1 that must be addressed in a comprehensive way. These six quality control elements are the leadership responsibilities for quality, ethical requirements, acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements, human resource, engagement performance and monitoring. As stated in ISQC 1, audit firms are required to document all evidences of the operation of all the six elements in their quality control systems and retain the documentation for an adequate period. The adoption and implementation of ISQC 1 could generally improve the quality of the audit practices by auditors besides increasing the quality control within audit firms. However, many small and medium audit firms in Malaysia had pessimistic perceptions on the adoption and implementation of ISQC 1. Similar result has been shown on the survey conducted in South Africa (Research Project, 2005). Most of them opined that such standards just burden their works and responsibilities because there are insufficient partners or staff to guide the quality control team due to the size of the audit firms. Furthermore, the ISQC 1 is said to be not user friendly because many partners and staff felt difficult to understand the standards and implement the standards in normal practice. This may due to the lack of exposures and training on the ISQC 1. (Aida Hazlin Ismail et al., 2008) 3.5 Corporate Governance Issue One of the initiatives that had been taken by many countries to promote high audit quality is enhancing the corporate governance of an organization. For example, in Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG) had introduced the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) after the economic turmoil in 1997. When referring to corporate governance, people normally focus on the board of directors of organizations. The two main and observable characteristics of board of directors are the board composition and the separation of roles of Chairperson of the board and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The MCCG has provided guidance and recommendation on these matters. According to MCCG, an effective and well-balanced board of directors should have a certain proportion of independent directors. The MCCG has recommended the organizations in Malaysia should have a minimum of one-third independent directors on the board. This action can improve the oversight and control of board on entities operation and avoid too much power being placed on the CEO and top management. According to the governance theory, the independent directors should always protect the interests of shareholders by using higher audit quality services because auditing is a good monitoring activity to control the behaviour of management. (Zalailah Salleh et al., 2006) In addition, the MCCG also recommends the organizations of Malaysia to separate the role and function of the CEO and the Chairperson of the board. This recommendation is to avoid the unnecessary conflict of interest and the domination of power and authority by a single person in decision making. By separating the power and authority, the independent Chairperson of board is expected to have a higher demand on higher audit quality. (Zalailah Salleh et al., 2006) Furthermore, the MCCG also provides guidance and recommendation on audit and accountability. According to the MCCG, the board of directors has the responsibility to maintain an appropriate relationship with the external auditors of the organization by establishing transparent and formal arrangements. (Zalailah Salleh et al., 2006) As a conclusion, it is important to maintain the independent of the board of directors and separate the role of the CEO and the Chairperson in order to maintain the high audit quality of organizations. 4.0 RECOMMENDATION The audit quality issues have been debated around the world for a long time periods. Different research papers and studies have investigated and discussed the importance and shortfall of audit quality in recent years. In order to improve the audit quality, several recommendations has been proposed. Hence, in this section, we will discuss and elaborate some recommendations for improvement of audit quality. Understanding the nature of audit quality Audit quality should be recognized as a multi-dimensional construct. Researchers, educators, auditors and other relevant parties should always view audit quality in broader aspects, which should include both the service quality, such as responsiveness and empathy, and the technical quality, such as the reputation, capability and independence. Undeniably, there are empirical relationships occurred between the factors which explain the service quality and technical quality even though these two facets of audit quality have been viewed as distinct constructs. Hence, it is difficult to improve the audit quality by focusing on only single aspect and missing out the other relevant variables and aspects. Emphasizing on the perception of audit quality by clients and stakeholders In order to improve the audit quality of the services provided by audit firms and auditors, it is essential to understand clearly what audit quality is perceived by the clients and stakeholders, who are mainly the key users of the audit reports and audited financial statements. According to the survey conducted in the Auditqual: Dimension of Audit Quality by Angus Duff in 2004, both auditors, clients and stakeholders rated the reputation and capability dimensions of technical quality as the highest in their perception of audit quality. Hence, the reputation of firms and the capabilities of audit staff and partners seen to be the key factors when promoting the audit services to clients. This clearly show that clients and stakeholders are valuing much more on the firms reputation and auditors capabilities rather than other factors, such as the non-audit services provided. Proper systems to monitor and improve audit quality The audit firms provide services rather than products to their clients. Therefore, it is important for audit firms and auditors to provide the highest level of audit quality for their clients in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage and a leading position in the audit market. An adequate understanding of the clients perception on audit quality should be used as a basis to monitor and improve the audit quality. In addition, the audit firms should understand and minimize the audit quality expectation gaps which occur both within the audit firms and between the perception of clients, stakeholders and auditors. Hence, proper systems should be developed and put in place to continuously monitor the perception of audit quality by clients, identify the reasons for the shortfalls of audit quality and design appropriate actions to improve the audit quality. Employ, retain and develop competence staff As noted before, audit is a service provided by individual rather than a product. Hence, the audit quality is significantly dependent on the quality of the individual. Every audit firms should then employ, retain and develop high-caliber staff in order to provide high quality audit services that add values to the clients. The good quality staff should be equipped with adequate and necessary technical and interpersonal skills to deliver high level of technical quality and service quality to the clients and stakeholders in their audit works. Therefore, it is important for audit firms to properly screen individuals before employment being made through appropriate tests and assessments. After employment, continuous effective communication with staff should be established to retain and develop high quality staff. Examples of effective communication include open meetings, feedback via intranet and independen

Abortion Essay -- essays research papers fc

Abortion (Pro-Life) Movement Introduction Abortion is one of the most controversial and talked about topics of our time. It is discussed in classrooms, work places and even on the Internet. Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in or closely followed by the death of an embryo or fetus. This definition includes accidental abortion such as, miscarriage and stillbirths. But this is not what is being debated. People want to know if abortion is ethical, if the fetus can feel pain, and when it is more human than non-human. These questions are very difficult to answer and may never be answered in our lifetime. But one thing we as humans do know is that we have opinions, ranging from completely anti abortion (pro-life) to completely for abortion (pro-choice), and anywhere in the wide spectrum in between. Abortion is a movement that was erected almost 40 years ago. This movement has been very controversial over the years; the main reason being that it is something that there is virtually no in between. You either are, or you are not. Both movements, (pro-life and pro-choice) have been one of the most controversial movements in a political presents. The opposition feels that pro-choice does not mean Pro-abortion, it is the right in choosing whether to reproduce, adopt, or abort. It is every human being's right to make there own decisions, and so it is a woman's right to make the choices that affect her life as she see's morally right. It is a woman's right to choose what she does with her body and it should not be altered or influenced by anyone else. As you can see, there are two sides of this movement that are constantly looking for contradictions in what other believes. There are many different viewpoints on abortion in the United States of America. Where most Americans do not feel that abortion is necessarily 'good,' they do believe it is a 'right.' Others have similar opinions. They embrace contradictory opinions and consider abortion a form of murder and yet still feel it should be legal for the truly desperate. However, most Americans think abortions are morally troubling. A recent study by George Hunt shows that neither age nor gender appears to have any effect on people’s current views on abortions. - (Wolf p54) Movement Now that we know so much ... ... that way is not suitable for them, they need to make that decision to create a movement to ultimately achieve their discourse. Through researching movements, furthermore, the pro-life movement, I have to revert to an original statement I already made and that is, movements in today's society are essential. Bibliography Books Used Clark, Thomas. "Thou Shalt Not Play God" The Humanist July-August 1995: p3 Hunt, George W.. "Of Many Things" America 31 January 1998: p2 Lavelle, Marianne. "When Abortion Comes Late In Pregnancy, Though Rare, Most Lefevere, Patricia. "Ex-abortion Providers; Conversation Tales" National Catholic Reporter 16 March 22 2000: p6 Merril, Ted. "Abortion; Extreme Views Ignore Reality" Medical Economics 15 July 1996: p33 McMillan, Jeff. "Focusing On a Woman's Right To Self Defense" The Chronicle of Higher Education. 6 December 1998: pA12 "No Easy Quick Fix Solutions To Abortion Issues" National Catholic Reporter 8 November 1996: p20 Thomas, Judy. "Pro-life Turns Deadly" Newsweek May 13 2000: p64 Wallace, Bruce. "When One Fetus Lives and One Dies" Maclean's

Spotted Horses vs. Mule in the Yard :: essays research papers

'Spotted Horses'; Vs. 'Mule in the Yard';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  William Faulkner wrote two short stories, which are alike in many aspects. 'Spotted Horses'; and 'Mule in the Yard'; are short stories that both involve comic animal chases and financial transactions. Even though the stories are written by the same author, have similar characteristics, and share similar plot features, they are entirely different stories. The stories are both examples of interpretive literature, however 'Spotted Horses'; is a more interpretive short story than 'Mule in the Yard because 'Spotted Horses'; fits Perrine's profile of interpretive literature, and 'Mule in the Yard'; seems to replicate Perrine's profile of escape literature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to Laurence Perrine in his seventh edition of Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense he states the definition of interpretive literature is 'Literature written to deepen and broaden and sharpen our awareness of life.'; Interpretive literature is not candy coated. It allows its readers to experience the trials and tribulations of life. By using graphically realistic plots and endings, which are consistent to those in real life, interpretive literature achieves a higher literary value than escape literature. Interpretive literature allows its reader too step out of the fantasy world they might be living in and focus on what the world is really about. One might say an interpretive story provides insight to understanding. Not only understanding of ourselves, but our neighbors, friends, family or anyone else we might encounter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Escape literature is the complete opposite of interpretive literature. Escape literature is written purely for entertainment. Escape literature takes it's reader out of the real world and into a fantasy world where everything works and happens just like we want it to. This is a world where the ending always has closure. Escapist authors hardly ever end on a bad note. They want the reader to leave the pages of their story satisfied, and having a sense of contentment. Perrine's example of escape literature is Cinderella. Cinderella's life goes from rags to riches in one night. She marries a prince and lives happily ever after. According to Perrine the most common expectations of escape literature readers are the sympathetic heroes or heroines, the suspenseful plot which one exciting event proceeds another, the resolved happy outcome, and the theme. Escape literature themes confirm the reader's previous opinions of the world. Readers of escape literature read for ple asure not to gather knowledge on how to survive in the real world.

Rules and Exceptions Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Rules and Exceptions One of the factors which have led many philosophers to adopt a more or less sceptical attitude in moral philosophy has been the recognition that most rules have exceptions. This has commonly been regarded as a threat to the entire moral enterprise. How can a philosopher even attempt to find an account of the moral relations that obtain among things which will weave them into the unity of a stable system if every principle, every rule, every judgment has to be qualified by who knows how many exceptions? Plato was acutely aware of how devastating the admission of an exception might be. In the Republic Socrates completely invalidates Cephalus' thesis that justice is simply a matter of returning to others what is due to them by pointing out that if a friend deposited a weapon with us for safekeeping and then asked for it when he was not in his right mind, there would be justice in not returning it to him. Ordinarily we should return what does not belong to us, but this case would seem to be a legitimate exception. Socrates mentions another. It would be right in such circumstances he says to lie to a person who was out of his mind. On the other hand Plato also realised that by no means all alleged exceptions are justified. In the Euthyphro Socrates upon being informed that Euthyphro intends to prosecute his own father for murder suggests that perhaps it would be right to prosecute his father if he killed a relative but not if he murdered a stranger. Euthyphro rebukes Socrates for sugges ting such an exception. Socrates offers no defence except to express amazement at the certainty with which Euthyphro claims to know what is right. There are several ways to resolve the problem of uncertainty which the ex... ...speak both universally and correctly. That is to say rules inevitably fail to take account of all the relevant peculiarities of some cases and situations but in saying that rules are deficient by virtue of their universality. On the contrary many are perfectly good rules. It's just that rules are rules. Aristotle does not mean to suggest that all rules are bad or useless. Therefore unless we are to become rule worshippers and so fail to do the right thing in individual cases just to preserve the integrity and universal application of rules we must appeal in certain cases to another method in order to decide those cases. Fortunately there is such a method: the appeal to intuition. References Immanuel Kant Fundamental Principles and The Metaphysical Principles Of Virtue Kurt Baier Ethics and Society (1966) Kurt Baier The Moral Point Of View (1965)

Relationship of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity

With the rapid development of dynamic global economy, increasingly countries are seeking breakthroughs of their economy development. Stimulated by these ever-increasing competition pressures, exploitation of new ideas and businesses which are of great potential to thrive economies, accordingly, is gainning widespread attention (Mansfield, 1972; Wong et al. , 2005).In consequence, on a global scale, not only some developed countries with strong capability to absorb and implement new ideas, but also some emerging developing countries, are taking measures to inspire entrepreneurship and innovation with purposes of benefiting economic development from these competitive advantages (Stoneman, 1995; Zhao, 2001). It is universally held that entrepreneurship and innovation are complementary and their combination can efficiently contribute to economy performance (Grupp, 2001; Stoneman, 1995).During the transfer from idea creation to eventually economy development, innovation is supposed to be a necessary condition, but it also demonstrates great insufficiency which can be completed by entrepreneurship’s mediating effects (Audretsch, 1995; Camp, 2005). This essay will primarily conduct a brief definition of entrepreneurship and innovation while introduce the role of problem solving and creativity, and thereby observe the synergy between entrepreneurship and innovation. Then theoretical and practical analysis will be made in their repective relationship with economy development.Ultimately, the holistic realtionship between entrepreneurship, in conjunction with innovation, and economy development will be discussed. Entrepreneurship and innovation are inclined to be misinterpreted identical since they both indicate creation and new development, but meanings they rootly represent are distinctive. Innovation is an instrument that intergrates, disperses and upgrades extant techniques and knowledge, then acts as a â€Å"conduit† for achieveing knowledge spillovers and technique invention, and consequently endows existing materials with a new capacity (Drucker, 1985; Drucker, 1994).Creativity, which represents generating new ideas, is the foundation of innovation, since innovation originates from creaticity (Amabile, 1996; Lumsdaine and Binks, 2007). In the initial stage of development, creativity is implemented to generate a wide range of ideas, and in a later period, innovation will rest on these creative ideas and further develop their potential. Entrepreneurship, however, is a type of organizational behavior focusing on opportunities rather than materials (Miller, 1983; Stevenson and Gumpert, 1991).It primarily consists of exploiting opportunities from various innovations, converting them into service or products, thereby commercializing it into market (Johnson, 2001). Problem solving spreads through their relationship and is connected with entrepreneurship in even every situation. It is the basis of generating ideas and then choosing the best for initiating and operating a prosperous business (Lumsdaine and Binks, 2007). In its definition stage, time is spent on searching for root causes and how the problem is inside correlated.Then in the discovery stage, energy will be concentrated on seeking plenty of ideas. In the following determination phrase, possible consequences will be considered by using criteria for success, and convert possibilities into practical application (Kirkham, Mosey and Binks, 2009). Arising from studies dealing with relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation, the synerty between them is generally accepted (Zhao, 2005). Firstly, entrepreneurship and innovation complement with each other (Zhao, 2001; Michael, 2005).On one hand, as Legge and Hindle (1997) have observed, innovation is the special-purpose tool of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs exploit opportunities and seek commercial success resting on creative ideas selected and provided by innovation (Zhao, 2001). Herbig and his colle agues (1994) take similar view and hold that entrepreneurship is one of three primary components of innovation, and presence of entrepreneurship can to some extent guarantee successful manipulation of another two.Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, enables innovation to flourish (Zhao, 2001; Michael, 2005). Schumpeter (1934) originally endeavors to associate innovation with entrepreneurship by identifying innovators as entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship enables innovation to realise further value by marketing them as products or services. Second, the development of entrepreneurship and innovation, and mutual effect between them for the successful practicality of innovation, demand support of innovative culture and management (Drucker, 1985; Zhao, 2001).The success of McDonald’s can be taken to confirm this point. Products sold in McDonald’s are not originally invented, virtually, they are just what had been produced in respectable restaurants many years ago. Nevertheless , by adopting a set of innovative management techniques and concepts, McDonald’s has standalized its products and designed specific working process based on which production can be analysed (Drucker, 1985). In consequence, McDonalds opened up a new area and substantially raised revenues.Before considering the relationship between entrepreneurship together with innovation and economy development, it is essential to respectively observe their relationship with economy development. Firstly, innovation is a vital contributor to economic development albeit with its insufficient nature (Grupp, 2001; Stoneman, 1995; Camp, 2005). In the perspective of necessity, Lichtenberg (1993) and Engelbrecht (1997) recognise this by pointing out that inovation can be regarded as a vital source of economy development.Another scholar, Porter (1979), confirms the view in terms of promoting the concept of value-based competitiveness, where innovation initially results in improved productivity, then the enhanced productivity creats higher competitiveness which eventually leads to better economy. For instance, 3M Company is famous for its characteristic of gaining growth through innovation. The company stimulates innovation by setting up the 15% rule-employers are encouraged to utilize 15% of working time to research their own ideas which may convert into new products in the future.As a consequence, a quarter of incomes of the Company are generated by products no more than six years old (Burns, 2005). In addition to the study supporting the necessity of innovation to foster economy development, there are some investigations demonstrating that innovation is not sufficient for continuously economy development (Grupp, 2001; Stoneman, 1995; Camp, 2005). Some scholars criticise that the role of innovation is overlooked and state that staying only in the sphere of innovation can not bring qualitative leap to economy (Allen, 1988; Audretsch, 1995).Camp (2005) approves of the view and h e maintains that many organisations are learning this lesson by experience. Their copious investment paid for innovation does not convert into property and can not continuously sustain economic development. Secondly, entrepreneurship is broadly accepted as a prominent driver of economy development (Schumpeter, 1912; Camp, 2005). As United Kindom Her Majesty's Treasury (2005) declared, entrepreneurship and its profound impact on entreprises have been one of five driving forces of the Nation’s remarkable strategy to promote economy development for the last ten years.Drucker (1985) also accepts the major role of entrepreneurship and he even indicated that present businesses could hardly survive if they do not secure entrepreneurial capacity. In addition, a positive relationship between economic development and entrepreneurship is captured by Braunerhjelm et al. (2009). They examed 20 countries in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for 21 years and eventually came to the conclusion that entrepreneurship could positively affect economic development, with remarkable improvement in the perspective of competitiveness and new firms establishment.Wennekers and Thurik (1999) are in the same line with Braunerhjelm and state that entrepreneurship makes contribution to economy development by some process such as enhancing competitiveness, creating new firms and new jobs, and improving productivity. Besides, with increasingly practice, Schumpeter’s notion (1912), where economic growth and employment are provided and motivated by new businesses and existing firms which result from entrepreneurship, is widely accepted (Reynolds, 1999; Fritsch and Muller, 2004).In addition, statistical research of manufacturing sector by United Kindom Her Majesty's Treasury (2005) demonstrated the essential role of innovation for British economy. As their research result shows, 1. 2 million employments were provided by newly established businesses from 1997 to 2005. However, according to Hoffmann and Junge’s research (2006), UK has still approximately 18 percent less businesses than America, and he maintains that much higher entrepreneurial activity rates in America may interpret this to some extent.Having considered entrepreneurship and innovation’s separate relationship with economy development, it comes to conceive entrepreneurship and innovation as a whole and discuss their holistic relationship with economy development. As have been discussed, innovation and entrepreneurship are complementary. This can also apply to economy development. With the insuffiency of innovation, entrepreneurship plays a mediate role between innovation and ecocnomic development, which will more fully realize the commercial value of innovation and enhance the overall impact (Camp, 2005).Some scholars such as Allen (1988) approve that entrepreneurship should be reagrded as the pricinpal mechanism to convert preliminary-phase innovation into econo mic development. For example, in the 1980s, in the printing industry, a potential market gap existed between conventional printing and office photocopiers. A famous German company, Bayer, responsed to the problem with the development of an innovative technology which can provide quality, price-efficient and small-quantities colour printing for office uses.Nevertheless, the traditional chemical company did not plan to expand into printing area, so no material measures were taken to fill in the gap. But a few years later, the market gap expanded to a large scale which finally attracted Bayer’s attention. In 1988, based on the innovation mentioned above, Bayer established a new enterprise, Xeikon, to produce printers especially for office. Consenquently, by the end of 1998, 160 jobs had been created and the company had captured profits of 45 million pounds (Burns, 2005). Entrepreneurship’s mediating role is apparent in this case.If Xeikon were not founded, the innovative technology might stay in the innovation stage for much longer time and the printing industry might not be able to experience the revolution in that age (Burns, 2005). With the necessary yet insufficient nature of innovation and postitive impact of entrepreneurship on economic development, many regions which have invested a large amount of money in innovation begin to learn the indispensable role of entrepreneurship and find that they need entrepreneurship to further thrive economies and these investments’ ecomoic return (Camp, 2005).Innovation alone can only yield limited economic influence (Camp, 2005). Through the generative process of entrepreneurship, however, more significant economic gains can be captured. For instance, in an investigation by Camp (2005), a rise of approximately 60 percent in average wages was acturalized in the most innovative regions among 382 regions they researched, by enhancing innovation capability through entrepreneurship. The Table 1 below, extr acted from Camp’s (2005) another research, also indicates entrepreneurship’s mediating effects on innovation.Table 1: Tesing the Mediating Effiects of Entrepreneurship on Innovation and Regional Employment (Camp, 2005). Regression Models| Correlation| Coefficient| t-stat| R2| Model1:Total Employment| 0. 723| 512. 8| 4. 67| 81. 1%| Innovation| | | | | Entrepreneurship| 0. 716| 121. 1| 26. 03| | Model2: Entrepreneurship| 0. 611| 16. 4| 18. 95| 48. 0%| Innovation| | | | | Model3:Total Employment| 0. 723| 2,494. 6| 19. 02| 48. 2%| Innovation| | | | |The difference between Model 1 and Model 2, especially the value of R2 which represents impact on employment, indicates that the direct effect of innovation alone (48%) is much lower than the combined effect with the mediating process of entrepreneurship (81. 1%). In other words, the mediating effect of entrepreneurship can provide extra profits for businesses as well as covering the investment on innovation capability (Camp, 2 005). In conclusion, this essay has disscussed the relationship between entrepreneurship, in conjunction with innovation, and economy development, utilizing theories and examples in business.Attention is devoted to the positive relationship between the three issues. Innovation originates from creativity and endows materials with new capacity. Entrepreneurship utilizes innovation as a special tool, and it explores innovation’s potential economic value by selecting and commercialising innovation into market. Entrepreneurship and innovation are thus complementary and the synergy between them significantly benefits each other. Problem solving exists throughout the process from ideas generation to business estabilishment converting possibilities into practical application.In addition, innovation and entrepreneurship are respectively vital contributors to economy development, whereas the insufficient nature of innovation calls for mediating effect of entrepreneurship. Many theories and examples have illustrated this mediating effect which will more comprehensively realize the commercial value of innovation. With good combination of entrepreneurship and innovation, in consequence, economy can be effectively thrived and overall economy development will be achieved. Word Count: 1904

Characteristics of Interviewing Essay

When Susan conversed with Leslie and Scott, she was talking with an eye contact and moving her hands and other body parts. She moved her head whenever she wanted to express that she was able to understand. Susan succeeded while maintaining her eye contact and stopping at interval whenever she felt was the right time to allow the thinking procedure. She demonstrated the pair that she was paying attention to what they were saying by using small phrases like â€Å"I see†, and â€Å"oh hmm†. Her hand movements also helped. Open ended question Susan asked Leslie many open ended questions such as, â€Å"Assist me, how was it helpful? How do you feel about that?† She intended to know about Leslie’s sentiments and thoughts. She wished to view things from Leslie’s prospective. Susan succeeded while asking such questions. Leslie gave answers openly and gives details about her feeling under given circumstances. It helped in creating fruitful discussion. Closed ended question There are few queries which have restricted replies like Susan asking sealed ended queries to Scot, â€Å"Can you show me the evidence?† This resulted in a yes or no conversation with Scott. There are not proper details or sentiments required to reply such queries. It finishes that particular section of discussion. Reflection of content or paraphrase Susan applied the instance of extraction of text and interpretation in the film by stating, â€Å"In my opinion, I am listening to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and she moves on with  Leslie’s statement by briefing the details. Leslie then let Susan know if she is right. Reflection of feeling A sample of reflection of feeling is when Susan asks Scott, â€Å"and that’s difficult for you Scott?† She also states, â€Å"I couldn’t hear when your wife said that, are you stressed about what she thinks of you?† Susan succeeded with the consideration of Scott’s sentiments and what he feels about Leslie. Reference: Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, in Couples Therapy with the Experts 7, Governors State University. Communications Services. (Psychotherapy.net, 2009), 115:26 min.