source: http://www.visionapexcollege.blogspot.com/
pg. no. 38
EX: from 2 to 10.
(Previous asmt.: pg. no. 9, EX: 1-20)
Jun 23, 2010
Jun 20, 2010
Research asgmt. 1 (20 june, 2010)
Help/hints:
-go to google.com and type 'journal of management' .
-If you have 'ADOBE READER' (if not, download adobe reader ) , then click here and search.
SAMPLE:
Employee Commitment
In his book Authentic Leadership, former Medtronic CEO Bill George makes an obvious point that business leaders rarely say out loud: “Missions motivate, dollars don’t.”
What he means is that purpose is what drives employee commitment, not the financial rewards that come to others. Workers don’t get up in the morning and say, “Gee, I can hardly wait to get to work today to maximize shareholder profits.” Even when employees are shareholders who can benefit from improved financials, what draws people to their chosen careers is the work itself and its purpose in the world, more than the profit possibilities.
Mr. George goes on to say, “I find there is universal agreement (among middle managers) that you cannot inspire employees by urging them to help management get the company’s stock price up.”
There is, in fact, quite a bit of literature on this subject. In Awakening Corporate Soul, authors Eric Klein and John Izzo say that employee commitment requires knowing “the purpose of our work; it means recognizing the purpose our organization fulfills that goes beyond the bottom line; and it means articulating to others how their (workers’) efforts contribute to a larger purpose.”
In Built to Last, Jim Collins and James Porras spend an entire book explaining their five year research study of major companies that led to this conclusion about employee commitment: Purpose within a company is what sustains it; profit is important, but when it’s the prime directive, companies falter.
Despite the evidence, and how well this idea resonates with just plain common sense, the idea that employees want meaning in the work they do isn’t a topic that businesses seem to be keying on. Employee satisfaction is generally viewed as the employee’s feelings about their salary, working climate, and the training opportunities offered to employees for their own professional growth. But fulfillment? That’s not up for discussion.
Why We Don’t
There’s a reason for that: Corporate management likes measurable objectives. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!” We’ve all heard that.
So far, we don’t have the math to calculate “fulfillment” or “sense of purpose.” Unlike the many ways the General Accounting Office has given us to calculate financial success, there is no Federal Accounting Job Satisfaction Board to define how we would even approach the problem.
Since there are no generally accepted metrics for “employee commitment,” it’s unlikely employee commitment objectives will end up as goals on the company’s operating plan.
The “Soft” Side
This is one of many aspects of management now called “soft” because they’re not quantifiable in hard dollars in any traditional way, nor are they supportable by hard facts. Employee commitment to a job’s purpose is certainly one of those “soft” management characteristics. You can’t take “sense of purpose” to the bank and deposit it like you can revenue.
Whether one’s commitment level to the job translates in some way into a hard dollar return is something that hasn’t been explicitly addressed yet. But it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t. Disenfranchised, suspicious, discontented employees who resent the time they spend at the “salt mines” can’t be as productive and conscientious as those who love what they do and respect why they do it.
Employees Align with Purpose
Studs Terkel’s 1972 masterpiece, Working, a collection of narratives as told to Terkel from workers all across America, recounts this same timeless point over and over: That work, when it’s satisfying, is about purpose, that success is based in what we do, not how much money comes from it.
In one section, Terkel quotes a young editor who says, “You throw yourself into things because you feel that the important questions – self-discipline, goals, a meaning of your life – are carried out in your work.”
Others he talked to echo the same sentiment. The pharmacist says, “I never cared about being rich … I like to feel needed.” The piano tuner says “Why are we tuners? Because we like to hear good sounds.” The factory owner says, “I like making things. I love my work. It isn’t the money.”
Work, then, is about work. Employees want to engage in the meaning and the contribution of the products and services that are the fruits of their company’s labor. If we make it mostly about the money, we’re missing the point.
Jun 17, 2010
Pshycology asgmt. 1 (june 17,'010)
source: http://www.visionapexcollege.blogspot.com
Q: What are the methods on pshycology ?
Explain.
hints: - Focus on experimental, observational,
correlation, case study methods.
- write/type minimum 2 pages. (upto 4 pages)
- concern books on library (on sunday's pshycology period),
internet, handsout etc.
SAMPLE: (below's asgnmt. is done and submitted by Amish, do not copy it !)
Introduction
Scientific discipline that studies mental processes and behaviour in humans and other animals.
Psychology is the science of individual or group behaviour. The word psychology literally means “study of the mind”; the issue of the relationship of mind and body is pervasive in psychology, owing to its derivation from the fields of philosophy and physiology. Psychology is intimately related to the biological and social sciences.
The broad reach of psychology sometimes gives it the appearance of disunity and promotes the lack of a universally accepted theoretical structure. Some of the divisions within psychology are applied fields, while others are more experimental in nature. The various applied fields include clinical; counseling; industrial, engineering, or personnel; consumer; and environmental. The most important of these specialties, clinical psychology, is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Industrial psychology is used in employee selection and related contexts in business and industry. The broad field known as experimental psychology includes specializations in child, educational, social, developmental, physiological, and comparative psychology. Of these, child psychology applies psychological theory and research methods to children; educational psychology is concerned with learning processes and problems associated with the teaching of students; social psychology is concerned with group dynamics and other aspects of human behaviour in its social and cultural setting; and comparative psychology deals with behaviour as it differs from one species of animal to another. The issues studied by psychologists cover a wide spectrum, comprising learning, cognition, intelligence, motivation, emotion, perception, personality, mental disorders, and the study of the extent to which individual differences are inherited or are shaped environmentally, known as behaviour genetics.
Methods of studying psychological phenomena and processes
Experimental work using humans as subjects involves legal and ethical limitations. Therefore, a significant amount of research is done with animals, with the hope of transferring the knowledge gained concerning psychophysiological or behavioral functioning to humans.
The methods used in human research include observation (sometimes in nonlaboratory settings), interviews, psychological testing (also called psychometrics), laboratory experimentation, and statistical analysis. Psychometrics has in fact become a field in its own right, with psychometrists devising new tools for data collection, analysis, and new designs for experimental research.
Experimental psychology
The experimental method in psychology attempts to account for the activities of animals (including humans) and the functional organization of mental processes by manipulating variables that may give rise to behaviour; it is primarily concerned with discovering laws that describe manipulable relationships. The term generally connotes all areas of psychology that use the experimental method.
These areas include the study of sensation and perception, learning and memory, motivation, and biological psychology. There are experimental branches in many other areas, however, including child psychology, clinical psychology, educational psychology, and social psychology.
Experimental psychological research is conducted in a laboratory under controlled conditions. This method of research relies on the application of the scientific method to understand behavior. Experimenters use several types of measurements, including rate of response, reaction time, and various psychometric measurements. Experiments are designed to test specific hypotheses (deductive approach) or evaluate functional relationships (inductive approach). A true experiment with random allocation of subjects to conditions allows researchers to infer causal relationships between different aspects of behavior and the environment. In an experiment, one or more variables of interest are controlled by the experimenter (independent variable) and another variable is measured in response to different conditions (dependent variable). Experiments are one of the primary research methods in many areas of psychology, particularly cognitive/psychonomics, mathematical psychology, psychophysiology and biological psychology/cognitive neuroscience.
Experiments on humans have been put under some controls, namely informed and voluntary consent. After World War II, the Nuremberg Code was established, because of Nazi abuses of experimental subjects. Later, most countries (and scientific journals) adopted the Declaration of Helsinki. In the US, the National Institutes of Health established the Institutional Review Board in 1966, and in 1974 adopted the National Research Act (HR 7724). All of these measures encouraged researchers to obtain informed consent from human participants in experimental studies. A number of influential studies led to the establishment of this rule; such studies included the MIT and Fernald School radioisotope studies, the Thalidomide tragedy, the Willowbrook hepatitis study, and Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.
Research methods
Laboratory experiments, often using volunteer students as subjects, omit many features of daily social life. Such experiments also have been criticized as being subject to bias, since the experimenters themselves may influence the results. Research workers who are concerned more with realistic settings than with rigour tend to leave the laboratory to perform field studies, as do those who come from sociological traditions. Field research, however, also can be experimental, and the effectiveness of each approach may be enhanced by the use of the methods of the other.
Many colleges and universities have a social-psychology laboratory equipped with observation rooms permitting one-way vision of subjects. Sound and video recorders and other devices record ongoing social interaction; computing equipment and other paraphernalia may be employed for specific studies.
Social behaviour is understood to be the product of innate biological factors resulting from evolution and of cultural factors that have emerged in the course of history. Early writers (e.g., William McDougall, a psychologist) emphasized instinctive roots of social behaviour. Later research and writing that tended to stress learning theory emphasized the influence of environmental factors in social behaviour. In the 1960s and '70s field studies of nonhuman primates (such as baboons) drew attention to a number of similarities to human social behaviour, while research in cultural anthropology has shown that many features of human social behaviour are the same regardless of the culture studied. It is coming to be a widely accepted view that human social behaviour seems to have a biological basis and to reflect the operation of evolution as in the case of patterns of emotional expression and other nonverbal communication, the structure of language, and aspects of group behaviour.
Much research has been done on socialization (the process of learning from a culture), and learning has been found to interact with innate factors. An innate capacity for language, for example, makes it possible to learn a local language. Culture consists of patterns of behaviour and ways of organizing experience; it develops over the course of history as leaders and innovators introduce new elements, only some of which are retained. Many aspects of social behaviour can be partly accounted for in terms of their history.
Qualitative and descriptive research
Research designed to answer questions about the current state of affairs such as the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals is known as descriptive research. Qualitative research is descriptive research that is focused on observing and describing events as they occur, with the goal of capturing all of the richness of everyday behavior and with the hope of discovering and understanding phenomena that might have been missed if only more cursory examinations have been made.
Qualitative psychological research methods include interviews, first-hand observation, and participant observation. Qualitative researchers sometimes aim to enrich interpretations or critiques of symbols, subjective experiences, or social structures. Similar hermeneutic and critical aims have also been served by "quantitative methods", as in Erich Fromm's study of Nazi voting or Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.
Quantitative psychological research
This lends itself to the statistical testing of hypotheses. Quantitatively oriented research designs include the experiment, quasi-experiment, cross-sectional study, case-control study, and longitudinal study. The measurement and operationalization of important constructs is an essential part of these research designs. Statistical methods include the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, the analysis of variance, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, structural equation modeling, and hierarchical linear modeling.
Statistical surveys are used in psychology for measuring attitudes and traits, monitoring changes in mood, checking the validity of experimental manipulations, and for a wide variety of other psychological topics. Most commonly, psychologists use paper-and-pencil surveys. However, surveys are also conducted over the phone or through e-mail. Increasingly, web-based surveys are being used in research. Similar methodology is also used in applied setting, such as clinical assessment and personnel assessment.
Computational modeling
Computational modeling is a tool often used in mathematical psychology and cognitive psychology to simulate a particular behavior using a computer. This method has several advantages. Since modern computers process extremely quickly, many simulations can be run in a short time, allowing for a great deal of statistical power. Modeling also allows psychologists to visualize hypotheses about the functional organization of mental events that couldn't be directly observed in a human.
Several different types of modeling are used to study behavior. Connectionism uses neural networks to simulate the brain. Another method is symbolic modeling, which represents many different mental objects using variables and rules. Other types of modeling include dynamic systems and stochastic modeling.
Q: What are the methods on pshycology ? Explain.
(Submition date: Tuesday, 22 june, '010)
hints: - Focus on experimental, observational,
correlation, case study methods.
- write/type minimum 2 pages. (upto 4 pages)
- concern books on library (on sunday's pshycology period),
internet, handsout etc.
SAMPLE: (below's asgnmt. is done and submitted by Amish, do not copy it !)
Introduction
Scientific discipline that studies mental processes and behaviour in humans and other animals.
Psychology is the science of individual or group behaviour. The word psychology literally means “study of the mind”; the issue of the relationship of mind and body is pervasive in psychology, owing to its derivation from the fields of philosophy and physiology. Psychology is intimately related to the biological and social sciences.
The broad reach of psychology sometimes gives it the appearance of disunity and promotes the lack of a universally accepted theoretical structure. Some of the divisions within psychology are applied fields, while others are more experimental in nature. The various applied fields include clinical; counseling; industrial, engineering, or personnel; consumer; and environmental. The most important of these specialties, clinical psychology, is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Industrial psychology is used in employee selection and related contexts in business and industry. The broad field known as experimental psychology includes specializations in child, educational, social, developmental, physiological, and comparative psychology. Of these, child psychology applies psychological theory and research methods to children; educational psychology is concerned with learning processes and problems associated with the teaching of students; social psychology is concerned with group dynamics and other aspects of human behaviour in its social and cultural setting; and comparative psychology deals with behaviour as it differs from one species of animal to another. The issues studied by psychologists cover a wide spectrum, comprising learning, cognition, intelligence, motivation, emotion, perception, personality, mental disorders, and the study of the extent to which individual differences are inherited or are shaped environmentally, known as behaviour genetics.
Methods of studying psychological phenomena and processes
Experimental work using humans as subjects involves legal and ethical limitations. Therefore, a significant amount of research is done with animals, with the hope of transferring the knowledge gained concerning psychophysiological or behavioral functioning to humans.
The methods used in human research include observation (sometimes in nonlaboratory settings), interviews, psychological testing (also called psychometrics), laboratory experimentation, and statistical analysis. Psychometrics has in fact become a field in its own right, with psychometrists devising new tools for data collection, analysis, and new designs for experimental research.
Experimental psychology
The experimental method in psychology attempts to account for the activities of animals (including humans) and the functional organization of mental processes by manipulating variables that may give rise to behaviour; it is primarily concerned with discovering laws that describe manipulable relationships. The term generally connotes all areas of psychology that use the experimental method.
These areas include the study of sensation and perception, learning and memory, motivation, and biological psychology. There are experimental branches in many other areas, however, including child psychology, clinical psychology, educational psychology, and social psychology.
Experimental psychological research is conducted in a laboratory under controlled conditions. This method of research relies on the application of the scientific method to understand behavior. Experimenters use several types of measurements, including rate of response, reaction time, and various psychometric measurements. Experiments are designed to test specific hypotheses (deductive approach) or evaluate functional relationships (inductive approach). A true experiment with random allocation of subjects to conditions allows researchers to infer causal relationships between different aspects of behavior and the environment. In an experiment, one or more variables of interest are controlled by the experimenter (independent variable) and another variable is measured in response to different conditions (dependent variable). Experiments are one of the primary research methods in many areas of psychology, particularly cognitive/psychonomics, mathematical psychology, psychophysiology and biological psychology/cognitive neuroscience.
Experiments on humans have been put under some controls, namely informed and voluntary consent. After World War II, the Nuremberg Code was established, because of Nazi abuses of experimental subjects. Later, most countries (and scientific journals) adopted the Declaration of Helsinki. In the US, the National Institutes of Health established the Institutional Review Board in 1966, and in 1974 adopted the National Research Act (HR 7724). All of these measures encouraged researchers to obtain informed consent from human participants in experimental studies. A number of influential studies led to the establishment of this rule; such studies included the MIT and Fernald School radioisotope studies, the Thalidomide tragedy, the Willowbrook hepatitis study, and Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.
Research methods
Laboratory experiments, often using volunteer students as subjects, omit many features of daily social life. Such experiments also have been criticized as being subject to bias, since the experimenters themselves may influence the results. Research workers who are concerned more with realistic settings than with rigour tend to leave the laboratory to perform field studies, as do those who come from sociological traditions. Field research, however, also can be experimental, and the effectiveness of each approach may be enhanced by the use of the methods of the other.
Many colleges and universities have a social-psychology laboratory equipped with observation rooms permitting one-way vision of subjects. Sound and video recorders and other devices record ongoing social interaction; computing equipment and other paraphernalia may be employed for specific studies.
Social behaviour is understood to be the product of innate biological factors resulting from evolution and of cultural factors that have emerged in the course of history. Early writers (e.g., William McDougall, a psychologist) emphasized instinctive roots of social behaviour. Later research and writing that tended to stress learning theory emphasized the influence of environmental factors in social behaviour. In the 1960s and '70s field studies of nonhuman primates (such as baboons) drew attention to a number of similarities to human social behaviour, while research in cultural anthropology has shown that many features of human social behaviour are the same regardless of the culture studied. It is coming to be a widely accepted view that human social behaviour seems to have a biological basis and to reflect the operation of evolution as in the case of patterns of emotional expression and other nonverbal communication, the structure of language, and aspects of group behaviour.
Much research has been done on socialization (the process of learning from a culture), and learning has been found to interact with innate factors. An innate capacity for language, for example, makes it possible to learn a local language. Culture consists of patterns of behaviour and ways of organizing experience; it develops over the course of history as leaders and innovators introduce new elements, only some of which are retained. Many aspects of social behaviour can be partly accounted for in terms of their history.
Qualitative and descriptive research
Research designed to answer questions about the current state of affairs such as the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals is known as descriptive research. Qualitative research is descriptive research that is focused on observing and describing events as they occur, with the goal of capturing all of the richness of everyday behavior and with the hope of discovering and understanding phenomena that might have been missed if only more cursory examinations have been made.
Qualitative psychological research methods include interviews, first-hand observation, and participant observation. Qualitative researchers sometimes aim to enrich interpretations or critiques of symbols, subjective experiences, or social structures. Similar hermeneutic and critical aims have also been served by "quantitative methods", as in Erich Fromm's study of Nazi voting or Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.
Quantitative psychological research
This lends itself to the statistical testing of hypotheses. Quantitatively oriented research designs include the experiment, quasi-experiment, cross-sectional study, case-control study, and longitudinal study. The measurement and operationalization of important constructs is an essential part of these research designs. Statistical methods include the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, the analysis of variance, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, structural equation modeling, and hierarchical linear modeling.
Statistical surveys are used in psychology for measuring attitudes and traits, monitoring changes in mood, checking the validity of experimental manipulations, and for a wide variety of other psychological topics. Most commonly, psychologists use paper-and-pencil surveys. However, surveys are also conducted over the phone or through e-mail. Increasingly, web-based surveys are being used in research. Similar methodology is also used in applied setting, such as clinical assessment and personnel assessment.
Computational modeling
Computational modeling is a tool often used in mathematical psychology and cognitive psychology to simulate a particular behavior using a computer. This method has several advantages. Since modern computers process extremely quickly, many simulations can be run in a short time, allowing for a great deal of statistical power. Modeling also allows psychologists to visualize hypotheses about the functional organization of mental events that couldn't be directly observed in a human.
Several different types of modeling are used to study behavior. Connectionism uses neural networks to simulate the brain. Another method is symbolic modeling, which represents many different mental objects using variables and rules. Other types of modeling include dynamic systems and stochastic modeling.
Jun 15, 2010
FIFA World Cup 2010 Nepali time schedule
Group Stage
1 Fri, 11-Jun-10, 19:45, South Africa Vs Mexico, Johannesburg - JSC
2 Fri, 11-Jun-10, 0:15, Uruguay Vs France, Cape Town
3 Sat, 12-Jun-10, 19:45, Argentina Vs Nigeria, Johannesburg - JEP
4 Sat, 12-Jun-10, 17:15, KoreaRepublic Vs Greece, Nelson Mandela Bay
5 Sat, 12-Jun-10, 0:15, England Vs USA Rustenburg,
6 Sun, 13-Jun-10, 17:15, Algeria Vs Slovenia, Polokwane
7 Sun, 13-Jun-10, 0:15, Germany Vs Australia, Durban
8 Sun, 13-Jun-10, 19:45, Serbia Vs Ghana, Tshwane/Pretoria
9 Mon, 14-Jun-10, 17:15, Netherlands Vs Denmark, Johannesburg - JSC
10 Mon, 14-Jun-10, 19:45, Japan Vs Cameroon , Mangaung
11 Mon, 14-Jun-10, 0:15, Italy Vs Paraguay , Cape Town
12 Tue ,15-Jun-10, 17:15, New Zealand Vs Slovakia, Rustenburg
13 Tue, 15-Jun-10, 19:15, Côte d'Ivoire Vs Portugal, Nelson Mandela Bay
14 Tue, 15-Jun-10, 0:15, Brazil Vs Korea DPR, Johannesburg - JEP
15 Wed ,16-Jun-10, 17:15, Honduras, Vs Chile, Nelspruit
16 Wed, 16-Jun-10, 19:45, Spain Vs Switzerland, Durban
17 Wed ,16-Jun-10 ,0:15, South Africa Vs Uruguay , Tshwane/Pretoria
18 Thu, 17-Jun-10, 0:15, France Vs Mexico, Polokwane
19 Thu, 17-Jun-10, 19:45, Greece Vs Nigeria, Mangaung 0 Thu,
20 Thu, 17-Jun-10, 17:15, Argentina Vs KoreaRep., Johannesburg - JSC
20 Thu, 17-Jun-10, 17:15, Argentina Vs KoreaRep., Johannesburg - JSC
21 Fri, 18-Jun-10, 17:15, Germany Vs Serbia, Nelson Mandela Bay
22 Fri, 18-Jun-10, 19:45, Slovenia Vs USA, Johannesburg - JEP
23 Fri, 18-Jun-10, 0:15, England Vs Algeria , Cape Town
24 Sat, 19-Jun-10, 19:45, Ghana Vs Australia, Rustenburg
25 Sat, 19-Jun-10, 17:15, Netherlands Vs Japan, Durban
26 Sat, 19-Jun-10, 0:15, Cameroon Vs Denmark, Tshwane/Pretoria
27 Sun, 20-Jun-10, 17:15, Slovakia Vs Paraguay, Mangaung
28 Sun ,20-Jun-10, 19:45 ,Italy Vs New Zealand , Nelspruit
29 Sun ,20-Jun-10, 0:15, Brazil Vs Côte d'Ivoire , Johannesburg - JSC
30 Mon ,21-Jun-10, 17:15, Portugal Vs Korea DPR, Cape Town
31 Mon, 21-Jun-10, 19:45, Chile Vs Switzerland, Nelson Mandela Bay
32 Mon ,21-Jun-10, 0:15, Spain Vs Honduras, Johannesburg - JEP
33 Tue ,22-Jun-10, 19:45, Mexico Vs Uruguay, Rustenburg
34 Tue ,22-Jun-10, 19:45, France Vs South Africa , Mangaung
35 Tue ,22-Jun-10, 0:15, Nigeria Vs Korea Rep. , Durban
36 Tue ,22-Jun-10, 0:15 ,Greece Vs Argentina , Polokwane
37 Wed ,23-Jun-10, 19:45 ,Slovenia Vs England , Nelson Mandela Bay
38 Wed, 23-Jun-10, 19:45 USA Vs Algeria, Tshwane/Pretoria
39 Wed ,23-Jun-10, 0:15, Ghana Vs Germany , Johannesburg - JSC
40 Wed 23-Jun-10 0:15 Australia Vs Serbia Nelspruit
41 Thu 24-Jun-10 19:45 Slovakia Vs Italy Johannesburg - JEP
42 Thu 24-Jun-10 19:45 Paraguay Vs New Zealand Polokwane
43 Thu 24-Jun-10 0:15 Denmark Vs Japan Rustenburg
44 Thu 24-Jun-10 0:15 Cameroon Vs Netherlands Cape Town
45 Fri 25-Jun-10 19:45 Portugal Vs Brazil Durban
46 Fri 25-Jun-10 19:45 Korea DPR Vs Côte d'Ivoire Nelspruit
47 Fri 25-Jun-10 0:15 Chile Vs Spain Tshwane/Pretoria
48 Fri 25-Jun-10 0:15 Switzerland Vs Honduras Mangaung
Round of 16
49 Sat 26-Jun-10 19:45 1A Vs 2B Nelson Mandela Bay
50 Sat 26-Jun-10 0:15 1C Vs 2D Rustenburg
51 Sun 27-Jun-10 19:45 1D Vs 2C Mangaung / Bloemfontein
52 Sun 27-Jun-10 0:15 1B Vs 2A Johannesburg
53 Mon 28-Jun-10 19:45 1E Vs 2F Durban
54 Mon 28-Jun-10 0:15 1G Vs 2H Johannesburg
55 Tue 29-Jun-10 19:45 1F Vs 2E Tshwane/Pretoria
56 Tue 29-Jun-10 0:15 1H Vs 2G Cape Town
Quarterfinals
57. Fri 2-Jul-10 19:45 W53 Vs W54 Nelson Mandela Bay
58. Fri 2-Jul-10 0:15 W49 Vs W50 Johannesburg
59. Sat 3-Jul-10 19:45 W52 Vs W51 Cape Town
60. Sat 3-Jul-10 0:15 W55 Vs W56 Johannesburg
Semi-Finals
61. Tue 6-Jul-10 0:15 W58 Vs W57 Cape Town
62. Wed 7-Jul-10 0:15 W59 Vs W60 Durban
Third-Place Play-Off
63. Sat 10-Jul-10 0:15 L61 Vs L62 Nelson Mandela Bay
Final
64. Sun 11-Jul-10 0:15 W61 Vs W62 Johannesburg
Jun 10, 2010
finance assignment (10 june, 2010)
source: http://www.visionapexcollege.blogspot.com
Q. Collect and write about 'risk and return in finance' and submit by 11 june.
help: google, book: brigham et. all etc
EXAMPLE:
(The assignment done by Amish is given below as a sample, do not copy it.)
Risk and Return:
What does that mean, exactly? It starts with the idea that all securities have an inherent level of risk. Next, all securities have an expected return, based on several scenarios. Finally, using statistical measures, one must weigh the risk against the return and find the asset that has the best return per unit of risk assumed.
Risk
There are many different forms of risk in the market place. These factors come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes surprise many people. They don't pop out of nowhere, but are sometimes difficult to see.
For example, business risk is the risk inherent in a firm's business operations. A firm may operate in a niche market that relies on the economy to be running along smoothly. This could be a luxury niche or something of that nature. One example could be a high priced restaurant.
During good times, they have great revenues because people feel they are wealthy enough to celebrate. However, during economic hardship, trips to fancy restaurants are usually the first to go. It would be said that this firm's business risk is positively correlated with the overall cycle of the economy. Sometimes a firm can be negatively correlated, such as cheap substitute products. When times are hard, people usually avoid buying expensive name brand items. That is when store brand or no name brands become more attractive.
Business risk can be eliminated by investing in many different firms in different fields. It is diversifiable. This is why the phrase "diversify your portfolio" is such a hot button. It is rooted in real, financial logic.
Return
Return is the percent amount of money that you get back for every unit you invest. If you invest $100 and get back $105, you would have a 5% return. This is a pretty simple concept, but predicting return can get pretty tricky.
Let's say you expect an asset to appreciate 15% in the next year. You have 60% confidence that this will happen. However, if there is a recession it will only appreciate 1%, and if there is an economic boom it will appreciate 20%. There is a 20% chance of either an economic boom or a recession over the next year.
These numbers and probabilities may not seem entirely believable, but try for the sake of argument. To compute an expected return for this security, all you have to do is multiply each expected return by the probability of that state of nature.
The equation would look like this: (15%)(.6) + (1%)(.2) + (20%)(.2) = 13.2%
This is the expected return for this security. Although it will never be exactly 13.2%, given this model, this is what is used when calculating a risk adjusted return. It is most probable that the return will be 15% or greater, but there is a 20% chance that it could be 1%. Therefore, 13.2% is the best number to use when calculating an expectation.
Deciding which asset to buy
The next step is deciding which asset to buy. This usually involves some statistical measures, which I won't get into here. Terms like standard deviation, correlation and covariance are usually used when describing portfolio management. All of these terms have to do with the basic idea that you need more expected return per additional unit of risk. If you can grasp that basic concept, then you are well on your way to getting a better understanding of finance.
When he's not playing racquetball or studying for a class, Clayton Reeves enjoys writing articles about entrepreneurship. He is currently an MBA student at the University of Missouri with a concentration in Economics and Finance.
Systematic and unsystematic risks
Investments have two components that create risk. Risks specific to aparticular type of investment, company, or business are known asunsystematic risks. Unsystematic risks can be managed throughportfolio diversification, which consists of making investments in a variety of companies and industries. Diversification reduces unsystematic risks because the prices of individual securities do not move exactly together. Increases in value and decreases in value of different securities tend to cancel one another out, reducing volatility. Because unsystematic risk can be eliminated by use of a diversified portfolio, investors are not compensated for this risk.
Systematic risks, also known as market risk, exist because there are systemic risks within the economy that affect all businesses. These risks cause stocks to tend to move together, which is why investors are exposed to them no matter how many different companies they own.
Investors who are unwilling to accept systematic risks have two options. First, they can opt for a risk-free investment, but they will receive a lower level of return. Higher returns are available to investors who are willing to assume systematic risk. However, they must ensure that they are being adequately compensated for this risk. The Capital Asset Pricing Model theory formalizes this by stating that companies desire their projects to have rates of return that exceed the risk-free rate to compensate them for systematic risks and that companies desire larger returns when systematic risks are greater.
The other alternative is to hedge against systematic risk by paying another entity to assume that risk. A perfect hedge can reduce risk to nothing except for the costs of the hedge.
Modern portfolio theory (MPT)
Modern portfolio theory (MPT) is a theory of investment which tries to maximize return and minimize risk by carefully choosing different assets. Although MPT is widely used in practice in the financial industry and several of its creators won a Nobel prize for the theory, in recent years the basic assumptions of MPT have been widely challenged by fields such as behavioral economics.
MPT is a mathematical formulation of the concept of diversification in investing, with the aim of selecting a collection of investment assets that has collectively lower risk than any individual asset. This is possible, in theory, because different types of assets often change in value in opposite ways. For example, when the prices in the stock market fall, the prices in the bond market often increase, and vice versa. A collection of both types of assets can therefore have lower overall risk than either individually.
More technically, MPT models an asset's return as a normally distributed random variable, defines risk as the standard deviation of return, and models a portfolio as a weighted combination of assets so that the return of a portfolio is the weighted combination of the assets' returns. By combining different assets whose returns are not correlated, MPT seeks to reduce the total variance of the portfolio. MPT also assumes that investors are rational and markets are efficient.
MPT was developed in the 1950s through the early 1970s and was considered an important advance in the mathematical modeling of finance. Since then, much theoretical and practical criticism has been leveled against it. These include the fact that financial returns do not follow a Gaussian distribution and that correlations between asset classes are not fixed but can vary depending on external events (especially in crises). Further, there is growing evidence that investors are not rational and markets are not efficient.
Balancing Risk and Return
1.Appreciate the crucial relationship between risk and return and the way this affects all business finance decisions.
2.Understand the issues involved in short-term capital management and methods that managers can use to increase the rate of return on capital.
3.Understand the issues involved in long-term capital management and financial tool like net present value and breakeven analysis that help managers decide where to invest.
4.Describe four different methods companies can use to finance capital investments.
5.Differentiate the roles of debt and equity securities in financial decision making.
Four Ways to Use Capital
•Borrowing
•Lending
•Spending
•Investing
Q. Collect and write about 'risk and return in finance' and submit by 11 june.
help: google, book: brigham et. all etc
EXAMPLE:
(The assignment done by Amish is given below as a sample, do not copy it.)
Risk and Return:
What does that mean, exactly? It starts with the idea that all securities have an inherent level of risk. Next, all securities have an expected return, based on several scenarios. Finally, using statistical measures, one must weigh the risk against the return and find the asset that has the best return per unit of risk assumed.
Risk
There are many different forms of risk in the market place. These factors come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes surprise many people. They don't pop out of nowhere, but are sometimes difficult to see.
For example, business risk is the risk inherent in a firm's business operations. A firm may operate in a niche market that relies on the economy to be running along smoothly. This could be a luxury niche or something of that nature. One example could be a high priced restaurant.
During good times, they have great revenues because people feel they are wealthy enough to celebrate. However, during economic hardship, trips to fancy restaurants are usually the first to go. It would be said that this firm's business risk is positively correlated with the overall cycle of the economy. Sometimes a firm can be negatively correlated, such as cheap substitute products. When times are hard, people usually avoid buying expensive name brand items. That is when store brand or no name brands become more attractive.
Business risk can be eliminated by investing in many different firms in different fields. It is diversifiable. This is why the phrase "diversify your portfolio" is such a hot button. It is rooted in real, financial logic.
Return
Return is the percent amount of money that you get back for every unit you invest. If you invest $100 and get back $105, you would have a 5% return. This is a pretty simple concept, but predicting return can get pretty tricky.
Let's say you expect an asset to appreciate 15% in the next year. You have 60% confidence that this will happen. However, if there is a recession it will only appreciate 1%, and if there is an economic boom it will appreciate 20%. There is a 20% chance of either an economic boom or a recession over the next year.
These numbers and probabilities may not seem entirely believable, but try for the sake of argument. To compute an expected return for this security, all you have to do is multiply each expected return by the probability of that state of nature.
The equation would look like this: (15%)(.6) + (1%)(.2) + (20%)(.2) = 13.2%
This is the expected return for this security. Although it will never be exactly 13.2%, given this model, this is what is used when calculating a risk adjusted return. It is most probable that the return will be 15% or greater, but there is a 20% chance that it could be 1%. Therefore, 13.2% is the best number to use when calculating an expectation.
Deciding which asset to buy
The next step is deciding which asset to buy. This usually involves some statistical measures, which I won't get into here. Terms like standard deviation, correlation and covariance are usually used when describing portfolio management. All of these terms have to do with the basic idea that you need more expected return per additional unit of risk. If you can grasp that basic concept, then you are well on your way to getting a better understanding of finance.
When he's not playing racquetball or studying for a class, Clayton Reeves enjoys writing articles about entrepreneurship. He is currently an MBA student at the University of Missouri with a concentration in Economics and Finance.
Systematic and unsystematic risks
Investments have two components that create risk. Risks specific to aparticular type of investment, company, or business are known asunsystematic risks. Unsystematic risks can be managed throughportfolio diversification, which consists of making investments in a variety of companies and industries. Diversification reduces unsystematic risks because the prices of individual securities do not move exactly together. Increases in value and decreases in value of different securities tend to cancel one another out, reducing volatility. Because unsystematic risk can be eliminated by use of a diversified portfolio, investors are not compensated for this risk.
Systematic risks, also known as market risk, exist because there are systemic risks within the economy that affect all businesses. These risks cause stocks to tend to move together, which is why investors are exposed to them no matter how many different companies they own.
Investors who are unwilling to accept systematic risks have two options. First, they can opt for a risk-free investment, but they will receive a lower level of return. Higher returns are available to investors who are willing to assume systematic risk. However, they must ensure that they are being adequately compensated for this risk. The Capital Asset Pricing Model theory formalizes this by stating that companies desire their projects to have rates of return that exceed the risk-free rate to compensate them for systematic risks and that companies desire larger returns when systematic risks are greater.
The other alternative is to hedge against systematic risk by paying another entity to assume that risk. A perfect hedge can reduce risk to nothing except for the costs of the hedge.
Modern portfolio theory (MPT)
Modern portfolio theory (MPT) is a theory of investment which tries to maximize return and minimize risk by carefully choosing different assets. Although MPT is widely used in practice in the financial industry and several of its creators won a Nobel prize for the theory, in recent years the basic assumptions of MPT have been widely challenged by fields such as behavioral economics.
MPT is a mathematical formulation of the concept of diversification in investing, with the aim of selecting a collection of investment assets that has collectively lower risk than any individual asset. This is possible, in theory, because different types of assets often change in value in opposite ways. For example, when the prices in the stock market fall, the prices in the bond market often increase, and vice versa. A collection of both types of assets can therefore have lower overall risk than either individually.
More technically, MPT models an asset's return as a normally distributed random variable, defines risk as the standard deviation of return, and models a portfolio as a weighted combination of assets so that the return of a portfolio is the weighted combination of the assets' returns. By combining different assets whose returns are not correlated, MPT seeks to reduce the total variance of the portfolio. MPT also assumes that investors are rational and markets are efficient.
MPT was developed in the 1950s through the early 1970s and was considered an important advance in the mathematical modeling of finance. Since then, much theoretical and practical criticism has been leveled against it. These include the fact that financial returns do not follow a Gaussian distribution and that correlations between asset classes are not fixed but can vary depending on external events (especially in crises). Further, there is growing evidence that investors are not rational and markets are not efficient.
Balancing Risk and Return
1.Appreciate the crucial relationship between risk and return and the way this affects all business finance decisions.
2.Understand the issues involved in short-term capital management and methods that managers can use to increase the rate of return on capital.
3.Understand the issues involved in long-term capital management and financial tool like net present value and breakeven analysis that help managers decide where to invest.
4.Describe four different methods companies can use to finance capital investments.
5.Differentiate the roles of debt and equity securities in financial decision making.
Four Ways to Use Capital
•Borrowing
•Lending
•Spending
•Investing
Jun 9, 2010
Temporal Class Routine !
source: http://www.visionapexcollege.blogspot.com
Click on the pic to enlarge it !
Click on the pic to enlarge it !
