Critical Financial Accounting Problems: Issues and Solutions

Book Description

From the complexity of today's business world and its daily transactions has come a proliferation of new accounting standards. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has weighed in with its own pronouncements on the issues, but are they truly comprehensible and applicable? Riahi-Belkaoui explores these questions clearly, with numerous illustrations of the accounting techniques embedded in them, and offers interpretations designed to help accounting professionals deal with these problems in their work. Scholars, researchers, and students in the academic community will also find his analyses helpful and compelling.

Alternative perspectives to deal with auditors' agency problem [An article from: Critical Perspectives on Accounting]

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Alternative perspectives to deal with auditors' agency problem [An article from: Critical Perspectives on Accounting]
I. Gavious
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000PDYM1A

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Critical Perspectives on Accounting, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Auditors' agency problem stems from the mechanism according to which auditors (the agents) are being appointed to companies and paid for their services by the managements they audit (the principals). This mechanism creates an inherent conflict of interests for auditors. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted as part of the efforts to strengthen auditors' independence and mitigate the effect managements have on their auditors. However, the Act has been, and still is criticized for deficiencies embedded in its provisions. This paper presents an alternative regulatory framework for auditors based on analysis of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provisions related to auditors and of other perspectives to deal with auditors' agency problem from previous studies. The proposed framework aims to decrease the ability and incentives of both managements and auditors to collaborate in financial statement fraud. Under the premise that auditors need to function in a framework that discourages immoral behavior, the main provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act related to auditors' independence are addressed, requiring audit-firm rotation instead of audit-partner rotation, and expending the time-window between provision of audit and non-audit services. In addition, it is proposed that retiring audit firms accompany ''entering'' audit firms until completion of the first annual financial statement audit and that audit fees will be scrutinized by the SEC.

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Here Today,Here Tomorrow

Terrific Management Training Tool

Great Information For Managers/Management Students

A Must Read

Great Book!

Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention
Gregory P. Smith
Manufacturer: Dearborn Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It's Too Late

The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention

Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: 24 Ways to Hang on to Your Most Valuable Talent

Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay (3rd Edition)

Managing Employee Retention: A Strategic Accountability Approach (Improving Human Performance)

ASIN: 0793145538

Book Description

Challenging traditional attitudes about retaining workers, author and consultant Gregory P. Smith outlines the new rules for dealing with worker shortages, the high cost of turnover, a diminished work ethic, managing a diverse workforce, and the increased importance of job satisfaction.

At a time when the workplace environment is critical to keeping workers, here are proven ideas for having fun, communicating, rewarding employees, and building loyalty. The author provides practical solutions that will help companies: *Create great attitudes for making workers more reliable. *Increase motivation and creativity to keep top people from jumping ship. *Develop a flexible environment to boost productivity and satisfaction. *Respond to changes while making continual improvements. *Generate profits through increased customer satisfaction. *Save money by not having to replace workers.

The author also provides specific action steps to address such problems as absenteeism, getting teams to work together, and turning performance appraisals into positive opportunities. Using examples from innovative companies such as Earthlink, USAA Insurance, and Disney World, and comments from workers in all kinds of workplaces, this guide will help managers and human resource experts be more effective in changing times.

Customer Reviews:

Here Today,Here Tomorrow.......2001-11-30

This is a must-read for anyone in management. It is timely and informative, with many solid examples of what works.

Terrific Management Training Tool.......2001-11-27

As an Org Behavior professor, I found this book to provide great examples relating to the high costs of employee chun (in terms of "dead time" spent in rehiring events while the manager's competitors with low-employee turnover can focus on revenue generating productivity). Other costs involved with high employee turnover include the manager's reputation as a leader, lost customers and damaged morale of "survivors". In the super competitive, downsized work environment today, retention accountability can no longer be ignored.
The author provides research examples that supports the need for managers to make employees feel apart of the organization, go home at night feeling appreciated, excited and he provides "best practice" strategies being used by managers and organizations with low employee turnover.
A great management training tool that provides interesting examples and stats to capture the attention of managers!

Great Information For Managers/Management Students.......2001-11-23

[...] If managers want to see an increase in productivity and a positive impact on the bottom line, then focus on retention, says Gregory Smith, consultant and owner of the Chart Your Course International Consulting. Depending on the industry, turnover rates vary from 300% (fast food industry) to an organization like SAS with a turnover that has never exceeded 5 percent in its 20 years of existence. Low-employee turnover allows organization to focus on revenues and productivity.
Smith’s research reflects that at a minimum, it costs $4-$7K to replace an hourly worker and up to $40K to replace a midlevel, salaried employee. The costs associated with turnover may include lost customers, business, damaged morale, and then the hard costs of time spent in screening, verifying credentials, references, interviewing, hiring and training the new employee just to get back to where you started. This expenditure of time and money does nothing to give a manager or an organization a competitive edge. However, despite these known costs and loss of productivity, Development Dimensions International reports that 54 percent of businesses do nothing to create a high-retention culture or reduce high employee turnover. The revolving door keeps moving – employees leave, managers interview and hire more workers allowing competitors with low turnover to focus more on productivity..
Smith’s book provides eight elements that high-retention organizations have in common.

1.Purpose. People want to be part of an organization that stands for something that provides them with personal fulfillment and meaning. Singapore International Airlines (SIA) prides itself on customer service. They improved retention ratios by placing more time and effort in the selection and training of employees and aligned the training to support the organization’s mission goal of providing excellent customer service. Today when customers are happy, they express their appreciation to SIA employees who are proud of being on the SIA team. Smith provides dozens of suggestions from high-retention organizations to create a meaningful work environment where employees are proud, happy, and more productive.

2. Caring management. Smith uses a General Ulysses S. Grant’s quote, “There’s no bad soldiers, only bad leaders” to remind readers that poor leaders and managers can be a problem and on-going leadership development is critical. He shares a number of leadership development strategies used by low-turnover organizations. How can a manager or leader create the type of environment where employees would come to work even if they were not paid?

3. Work schedules and benefits that allow work/life balance. The downsized, super competitive work environment of today often forces employees into putting their family in a secondary position. The Randstad North American Employee Review recently found in a t survey that only 34 percent of the American employees now want a traditional full-time job. Smith provides methods used by high-retention organizations in meeting employees’ expectations, reducing employee turnover rates, and increased productivity/loyalty.

4. Honest, updated information and communication. In 1995, the Boeing Company suffered its second-longest walkout ever when the Machinists Union led a 69-day strike. Boeing lost hundreds of millions of dollars and experienced big customer service headaches when they missed the delivery dates on 36 planes. Boeing’s President, Frank Shrontz, later acknowledged the strike was a result of management’s failure to communicate with the workforce about their concerns. UPS provides another example where they lost over $700 million in revenues and lost customer trust when UPS failed to communicate with their workforce. No one wins in these situations and Smith shares strategies used by high-retention organizations to prevent miscommunications.

5. People want to enjoy their work environment. Some work is simply routine but Smith’s findings suggesting providing employees something to talk about – future goals they can conquer or results that have been achieved. Sports teams keep players motivated this way. Often organizational bureaucracy kills the spirit and ideas of employees who want to contribute. Smith offers best practices that can charge the spirit with organizations.

6. Performance Management. Numerous suggestions are provided on ways to improve employee performance and productivity. He illustrates methods that have been successful in motivating migrant workers as well as senior executives.

7.Rewards and recognition. All humans need to feel appreciated and in a survey conducted by Robert Half, International, the results showed that recognition and praise was the number one reason employees stay in their work environment with fair compensation being secondary. Smith’s book provides low-cost, easy to implement “fair” recognition programs that keep people focused and heading in the right direction.

8. Employees migrate to training and career development opportunities. If employees are blocked into a specific or dead end job with no opportunity for promotion or variety, they will leave – especially Gen X and Gen Y workers. An ASTD study showed that leading-edge companies trained 86 percent of the employees whereas average companies trained only 74 percent. Companies that invest in workplace learning yielded higher net sales per employee and higher gross profits per employees. Smith suggests holding HR and training departments responsible for results and provides numerous suggestions an organization can ramp up their learning culture.

This book provides numerous suggestions - many low cost - on ways to turn an average organization into a highly productive, low-turnover environment where managers can focus on productivity --- not recruiting and replacing an endless stream of workers. This book is a must read for all managers, coaches and HR personnel interested in strategic growth and higher productivity. [...]

A Must Read.......2001-10-29

Whenever I read something that Greg has written, I take something away. His advice does not only make sense - it's applicable! Some examples of how to best reward desired behavior - and therefore make your company or department a desirable place to work - are easily adapted to your own situation, other aspects, such as changing your own attitude to become a better manager of people, is more difficult, but the results can be astounding. Greg's books are in a very elite place in my office: at arm's length. They are dog-eared, have margin notes and a lot of underlined passages and exclamation marks. My edition of "Here Today, Here Tomorrow" still looks presentable because it's too new to have undergone "the treatment", but it'll end up like his other publications (for instance "The New Leader").

Great Book!.......2001-10-28

This book is helpful to both front-line and middle managers who are looking for real-world solutions to the turnover and morale crisis many companies are facing today. Learn to keep you top performers.

Book Description

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

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Law: Its Origin Growth and Function
James Coolidge Carter
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LA2BTW

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Law: Its Origin, Growth, and Function
James Coolidge Carter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SKTXAU

Law Its Origin Growth and Function Being a Course of Lectures Prepare for Delivery Before the Law School Harvard (Da Capo Press Reprints in American Constitutional and Legal History)

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Law Its Origin Growth and Function Being a Course of Lectures Prepare for Delivery Before the Law School Harvard (Da Capo Press Reprints in American Constitutional and Legal History)
James C. Carter
Manufacturer: Da Capo Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0306706318

Law, its origin, growth and function: Being a course of lectures prepared for delivery before the Law School of Harvard University,

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Law, its origin, growth and function: Being a course of lectures prepared for delivery before the Law School of Harvard University,
James C Carter
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006AF3PG

Law: Its Origin Growth & Function: Being a Course of Lectures Prepared for Delivery Before the Law School of Harvard Univer

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Law: Its Origin Growth & Function: Being a Course of Lectures Prepared for Delivery Before the Law School of Harvard Univer
James Coolidge Carter
Manufacturer: Gaunt Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1561690945

Law: Its Origin, Growth and Function (Law Classic)

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Law: Its Origin, Growth and Function (Law Classic)
James Coolidge Carter
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MUEEJQ

Book Description

An enchanting tour of the stars, the planets, and the sky at night

Do you sometimes wonder why the sky at dusk is filled with color, or how the moon controls the tides? Why do stars twinkle and planets don't? Filled with science and lore, with references to myths, legends, and "high" and popular culture, this "naked-eye" guide (no telescope required) demystifies the celestial in accessible, instructive, and entertaining prose.

Upgren tells us why werewolves only come out at night and how to find Betelgeuse. He discusses twilight, the seasons and their causes, our solar system, light and darkness, weather, stars and latitude, the moon, light pollution, and the planets. Night Has a Thousand Eyes is the perfect resource for amateur astronomers and meteorologists of all ages who pause to enjoy sunsets and identify constellations on a starry night.

Customer Reviews:

Fairly informative and useful.......2002-01-09

This is a pretty good book for astronomy buffs, etc. There was one paragraph, though, where the author falls into bad science.

Buying into the religion hates science paradigm, the author makes sure the reader knows that no one "held Copernicus and his theory [heliocentrisim] in lower esteem" than Martin Luther. The author claims this theory was a competing worldview on "somewhat equal ground" to Christianity. He goes on to say one [science] is based on "testing and questioning" while the other [Christianity] is based on "blind faith."

It is obvious, the author, Arthur Upgreen, has never studied the science versus religion debate closely. If he had, he would have never made such claims right after quoting the
works of Christians like Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus. Nor does he detail the errors that led to the geocentrisim interpretation/theory to begin with. Nor the fact that
Christianity has never been based upon "blind faith."

If geocentrisim and the Galileo Affair of centuries past continue to be such authors' best evidences for their belief, then they don't have much ground to stand on. Compare these and what few other "antiscience" events one finds in orthodox, rational Christianity to its pro-science history and scholars,
one finds the former doesn't even show up on the charts.

Why write all this all on one paragraph? Because there is so much bad science out there as there is, and so many don't like science, simply because people like this don't test what they believe.

Star gazing the warm way!.......2000-04-05

An end to the lonely ameteur astronomer on the top of a hill with only a thermos and a telescope for company, The night has a thousand eyes... is a brilliant source of not only cold faced fact but eye popping stories and history. It is hard not to be impressed by the light from a star seventy billion years old, and this book keeps you enthralled. I have just finished reading it and I want to read it again. You don't need a degree in astronomy to appreciate this book, nor is it 'dumbed down'for popularity. The only problem, and its a small one, is the book's tendency to wander into territory not enirely connected with the subject. On the whole, though, it beats the thermos any day.

Night Has a Thousand Eyes : A Naked-Eye Guide to the Sky, Its Science, and Lore

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Night Has a Thousand Eyes : A Naked-Eye Guide to the Sky, Its Science, and Lore
Arthur Upgren
Manufacturer: Plenum Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSBISG

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Night Has a Thousand Eyes: A Naked-Eye Guide to the Sky, Its Science, and Lore
Arthur Upgren
Manufacturer: Perseus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K9RTEG

Book Description

The role of genetic inheritance dominates current evolutionary theory. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, several evolutionary theorists independently speculated that learned behaviors could also affect the direction and rate of evolutionary change. This notion was called the Baldwin effect, after the psychologist James Mark Baldwin. In recent years, philosophers and theorists of a variety of ontological and epistemological backgrounds have begun to employ the Baldwin effect in their accounts of the evolutionary emergence of mind and of how mind, through behavior, might affect evolution.

The essays in this book discuss the originally proposed Baldwin effect, how it was modified over time, and its possible contribution to contemporary empirical and theoretical evolutionary studies. The topics include the effect of the modern evolutionary synthesis on the notion of the Baldwin effect, the nature and role of niche construction in contemporary evolutionary theory, the Baldwin effect in the context of developmental systems theory, the possible role of the Baldwin effect in computational cognitive science biosemiotics, and the emergence of consciousness and language.

Customer Reviews:

Like Attending a First-Class Conference.......2007-05-29

In the history of biology, Lamarkians were the humanists who believed that experience could enrich the genetic structure of organisms. When Weissmann proved the continuity of the germ line, which implies that phenotypic learning could not be incorporated in the genes of an organism's offspring, it led to panic for the Lamarkians. James Mark Baldwin, the developmental biologist, Lloyd Morgan and Conrad Waddington all jumped to fill the breach with a variety of mechanisms that would allow some causal arrow from learning to genes to survive the "continuity of the germ line."

Of course, phenotypes, not genotypes, are selected, so there is ample room for plastic phenotypes to be selected, and the genetic basis of their plasticity or ease of learning to adapt to particular environments to become fixed in the gene pool. However, until Dawkins' "extended phenotype" and more recently Odling-Smee, Laland, and Feldman's "niche construction" theories were developed, the whole matter was quite vague.

This conference volume outlines the history of the Baldwin Effect, and the effect of the interchange of expert opinion on the reader should be pretty clear: niche construction and in the case of humans, gene-culture coevolution are the intellectual heirs of the Baldwin Effect and are extremely important biological phenomena. Paul Griffiths' and Terrence Deacon's contributions to the volume make this crystal clear. Numerous evo-devo types also want to claim a piece of the Baldwin effect, but despite reams of material on how development affects the gene pool, I remain unconvinced. But, perhaps that's my limited perspective. At any rate, if you know a fair amount of evolutionary and developmental biology, this is really quite a fine book to read. Perhaps even better than attending the original conference.

Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered

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Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered
Bruce H. Weber
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQ77XI

Book Description

The papers for these proceedings were peer reviewed. Bayesian inference and maximum entropy methods provide a framework for analyzing very complicated data sets. The areas of application range from signal processing to thermodynamics. Maximum entropy is a theoretical method used to develop data when little information is available. Image enhancement of unclear astronomical data and medical images can be clarified using these methods. The papers in this volume provide applications of these methods to problems such as acoustics, fluids, thermodynamics, information theory, signal processing, astrophysics, medical imaging, proteins, pattern classification, and character recognition.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on June 22, 1997. The length of the article is 640 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Scholars' Bedlam: Menippean Satire in the Renaissance.
Author: M.L. Stapleton
Publication: Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1997
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: v50 Issue: n2 Page: p599(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Scholars' Bedlam: Menippean Satire in the Renaissance

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A much-needed overview of a highwater mark of the menippea

Scholars' Bedlam: Menippean Satire in the Renaissance
W. Scott Blanchard
Manufacturer: Bucknell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Satire, General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0838752810

Customer Reviews:

A much-needed overview of a highwater mark of the menippea.......1996-02-16

Blanchard does better than most of the American scholars of the menippea... he is neither a cringeing bootlicker of Bakhtin's nor a servile flunkey of Frye's. He is particularly illuminating with regard to the menippean tradition of the italian humanists, a point which I found even more interesting after viewing an illustration of Pontano's nose in John Kerrigan's History of Comic Noses. Recommended for anyone wishing to know more of Burton and Menippean satire... also a good introduction to a genre which does not readily admit programmatic approaches

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