Just in Time Concept

Financial AccountingS. Das Income Measurement and Accrual Accounting Recognition and Measurement in Financial Statements DEFINITIONS Revenues:inflows of assets or reductions in liabilities from selling goods and services Expenses:outflows of assets or increases in liabilities used up in generating revenues. Recognitionformal recording of an item in financial statements, in words and numbers Measurementquantify the effects of economic events numbers unit is money – dollars historical cost – recorded for simplicity, verifiability, reliability Current cost-relevant but less reliableOnly an estimate until item is sold Net income= Revenues-Expenses. Incomeamount of resources available for consumption at the end of a period and yet be as well off as it was at the beginning of the period. CASH BASIS Versus ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING So if we DEFINE PERIOD to be lifetime of a firm (which can only be defined for a firm with a finite life) then we are only interested in the earnings of a firm over its lifetime. In that case: a. just wait until the firm dissolves. b. Add up all the cash inflows over its lifetime other than those for sale of own stock. c.Add up the cash outflows over its lifetime other those for stock repurchase or dividends. d. Find the difference between cash inflows and outflows and YOU HAVE NET INCOME. e. THE ABOVE IS ALWAYS TRUE. However, if you DEFINE PERIOD TO BE ANY INTERVAL SMALLER THAN THE LIFE TIME when you wish to get information on earnings as intermediate feedback, then there is the following problem: -transactions may not be complete on a cash to cash basis – because the earnings process is continuous – Period1buy inventory for $5 Period2pay for inventory Period3sell and deliver inventory for $15Period4receive payment from customer. KEY QuestionWhen should revenues and expenses be recognized? One possibility is the cash basis recognize revenues at time of receiving cash and recognize expenses at the time of paying cash. E xample: A toy retailer starts business on January 1, 2000. The retailer Mr. XYZ pays two months rent in advance on his store for $2000. He also purchases and pays for toys worth $35,000. However, during the month of January, he sold no toys. During February, he sells all the toys he has for $45,000 but collects only $5000 of that in cash.He expects the neighborhood children to pay the remaining $40000 in March. JanFebruary Revenues—————– Less: Expenses Cost of toys—————– Rent—————- Total Expense—————- Income—————– Limitations of Cash basis 1. expenses are not aligned in time with the revenue that they produce. 2. recognition of revenue is unduly postponed. A Second possibility is the use of Accrual basis – depends upon when some critical event occurs. What happens to income (accrual basis) using same example? JanFebruary Revenues—————– Less: Expenses Cost of toys—————–Rent—————- Total Expense—————- Income—————– Comparing the Cash And Accrual Bases of Accounting -Basic difference one of timing Recognize Revenue whenRecognize Expense when Cash Basis cash is received cash is paid Accrual Basisrevenue is earned it is incurred Exhibit 4-2 transparency Accrualmatching of expenses with the corresponding revenues OR match resources used (expired assets- expenses)to generate revenue. The accrual concept forces accountants and managers to focus on changes in owner’s equity rather than merely reporting changes to the cash or other assets.The realization concept underlies the decision rules that accountants use in determining when revenues should be recognized and expenses matched to them. The Revenue Recognition Principle Revenue:Increase in Asset Or Decrease in Liability from Delivery of Goods Or Services Realized:Goods Or Services Exchanged for Cash Or Promise of Cash . Earned:Revenue earned when realization is complete or no significant obligations left How are Revenues recorded? †¢At the same time as cash is collected. †¢Before the time cash is collected. †¢After the time cash is collected. Possible Interpretations of Recognition Principle:Percentage of Completion:For long term projects, revenue recognized as stages are completed, based upon proportion of total cost incurred, Franchises: Initial fee recognized as revenue only FAS 45 â€Å"substantial performance† of its obligations B&J 32 Production MethodCommodities – Traded at established price; so revenue recognized when they are produced. Installment Method:opposite of production method: no reasonable basis to estimate collectability, so revenue on sale recognized as cash is collected Continuously:such as rent and interestThe criteria used in accounting to decide the recognition of revenues is : †¢A firms has performed all, or a substantial portion, of the services it expects to provide. †¢The firm has received cash, a receivable, or some other asset whose cash equivalent it can objectively measure. Expense Recognition and the Matching Principle The matching concept relates revenues and expenses so that owner’s equity is neither overstated nor understated at any points in the steam of events that constitutes operations. Expensewhen an Asset Has No Future Benefit i. e. It Is Used Up [Or] a Liability Is Incurred.Matching:Associate Revenues with Costs (expenses) Necessary to Generate them UnexpiredSometimes not done with specific items of product sold, but with period in Assets which they were sold eg. sales clerks' salaries are expensed in the period in which employees worked. Expired Some things never go through asset stage, since benefit is seen to expire as soon Assets as costs expended (purchased) = Period Costs; eg. utilities costs, telephone, fuel for vehicles (not asset) Two examples: 1. Expired asset versus 2. Expensing of benefits/ resources that never went through asset stage.A. Depreciation Expense estimated useful life and eventual salvage or resale value Manipulation to increase or decrease income Salvage deducted before calculating periodic expense because it is expected to be recovered and will remain an asset. B. Research ; DevelopmentDell Computer in its 1995 Annual Report list â€Å"Research, development and engineering† of $65,361,00 as operating expense on Income Statement. – an expense is an asset whose usefulness to the company is complete – it is deemed that R;D has no future benefit left hence out right expense without going through asset stage.For an accrual based company, Statement of Cash Flows provides information on Sources and Uses of Cash. Accrual basis necessary because we divide the earning of income, a process that takes place over a period of time, into artificial segments (reporting periods). Example: In the 1995, Income Statement Maytag Corporation had a net loss of $20,476,000. Their Statement of Cash Flows showed an increase in cash equivalents of $30,811,000. Cash provided by operating activities was $319,979,000. How can a company with a net loss have a gain in cash?This is possible if expenses exceeded revenues since Income statement is on accrual basis. It contains revenue amounts that may not have been realized in cash (still in accounts receivable) and expenses that may not have been paid for such as depreciation, and unpaid purchases. Also look for income from continuing operations versus loss due to extraordinary items and disposal of existing business. (As was the case in Maytag 1995) Accrual Accounting and Adjusting Entries: at end of period – Four Types: 1. Deferred Expense: Cash Paid before Expense Is In curredAsset created; as asset expires it becomes an expense, via adjusting entry Entry DuringAsset End of Expense period Cash period Asset eg. * prepaid rent becomes rent expense, a month at a time * Depreciation allocates cost of asset over its useful life – does not measure decline in value ? Based on estimates of salvage value and life of asset ?Periodic expense= [actual cost – est. salvage value]/estimated life ? debit is depreciation expense ?credit is not to asset account, which will always reflect cost, ? but to accumulated depreciation- contra account that is, an asset account with a credit balance 2. Deferred RevenueCash Received before Revenue Is Earned Liability Created Because Goods Or Services Still Owed EntryDuringCashEnd of Liability period Liability period Revenue ?Eg. unearned â€Å"the other company† from deferred expense entries ? for example, The landlord who received the prepaid rent has a deferred revenue ? liability is reduced, revenue inc reased, as time passes ?magazine subscriptions received in advance, earned as magazines mailed 3. Accrued LiabilityExpense incurred before Cash Is PaidOpposite of deferred expense EntryDuring-End of Expense period- period Liability Eg. taxes, payroll, utilities; interest for short term loan paid at maturity with principal 4. Accrued AssetRevenue Earned before Cash Is Received Opposite of deferred revenue EntryDuring-End of Asset period-periodRevenue ?both rent and interest are earned as time goes by, regardless of when cash received ? need adjusting entry if payment is not received. Exhibit 4-5 (text pp. 165) Example: P4-2 REVISITING THE ACCOUNTING CYCLE Steps taken to collect the necessary information to prepare financial statements (Exhibit 4-8) . Collect and Analyze 2. Journalize Events 3. Post to Ledger Accounts(Results in Unadjusted Trial Balance) 4. Journalize and Post adjustments(Results in Adjusted Trial Balance) 5. Prepare Financial Statements 6. Journalize and Post Closing Entries(Results in Post-Closing Trial Balance) 7. Post Closing Trial Balance 8. Optional: Reversing Entries The Closing Process: Two types of accounts:Balance Sheet= real accounts = permanent Income Statement= nominal accounts = temporary (Includes Dividend account) Purpose of closing entries:-Close temporary accounts -transfer net income (loss) to retained earningsProcess of closing: Debit Each Revenue Account: Sum Up a Single Credit to Income Summary. Credit Each Expense Account, Sum Up a Single Debit to Income Summary. Debit Income Summary If It Has a Credit Balance (Company Had Net Income) ORCredit Income Summary If It Has a Debit Balance (Company Had Net Loss) Credit Dividend Account, Debit Retained Earnings Exhibit 4-9 (text pp. 171) Example 1:E4-23. Ben ; Jerry’s Example 2:Let us look at McDonald’s Corporation’s 1998 Statement of Income shown on Page 139 of your text. Notea. Retained Earnings at the beginning and end of 1998 were $12,569 and $13,879. mil lion respectively. b. Total dividends paid to common and preferred shareholders were $239. 5 Use the numbers from the Income Statement to Reconstruct the relevant account balances. Then Close them to Income Summary and from there to Retained Earnings. EXAMPLE P4-10 Post-closing Trial Balance will only contain Balance Sheet accounts.When is a sale a sale? In an article concerning troubled MiniScribe Corporation (The Wall Street Journal September 12, 1989 – MiniScribe’s Investigators Determine That â€Å"Massive Fraud Was Perpetrated†. ) it was stated that â€Å" †¦ he company dramatically increased shipments to three warehouses, booking $56. 4 in sales and gross profit of $5. 4 million. † (Note that the warehouses being shipped to belonged to MiniScribe) The volume of shipments only called attention to the problem – it was not the problem. Problem is it is not Customer’s warehouse but MiniScribe’s – shipping goods to ones? own warehouse is not a sale – but a relocation of inventory – must be an arm’s length transaction.This was one among many violations – MiniScribe was also shipping bricks to an fictitious company, and recording them as sales revenue. 1. Claiming Tomorrow’s Profits Today, Forbes, October 17, 1988, p 78. Case 4-1:Ben ; Jerry’s Revenue Recognition – Initial Franchise Fee Footnote on 147 of text. FASB SFAS 45 allows franchisor to recognize initial franchise fee as revenue only when â€Å"substantial performance† of its obligations and when collection of the fee is reasonably assured. Revenue Recognition: The Company recognizes franchise fee as †¦.. when services required by the franchise agreement have been substantially performed†¦. 1. Consistent with SFAS 45.The footnote refers to certain mandatory services that the company promises to perform for the new stores. Performance of these services is the basis for recognizin g the fee as revenue. Note that the footnote specifically uses the wording substantially performed. 2. The company recognizes the franchise fees as revenue in proportion to the stores for which the required services have been substantially performed. 3. Franchise fees are not large relative to net sales in any of the years. Franchise fees are less than 0. 4% of net sales in each of the three years. Unearned Revenue: Realizability Vs.Earned criteria – realized BUT has it been earned?. 1. Case 4-2:Gateway- Revenue Recognition Refer to page 30 of Gateway’s Annual Report, under â€Å"Summary of Significant Accounting Policies† 1. Gateway recognizes revenue from product sales when products are shipped. Revenue from separately priced extended warranty programs is deferred and recognized over the extended warranty period. 2. â€Å"Extended warranty programs† are contracts to service products for a period beyond the original warranty. These contracts are purchase d for an additional amount above the product purchase price. . The revenue from the extended warranties is recognized over the warranty period because it is earned over the entire period, as coverage is provided. 2. Case 4-3: Sears, Roebuck, ; Company – Revenue from Service Contracts. 1. Under the accrual basis, revenue should be recognized when it is earned, rather than when cash is received. Since the retailer incurs costs to repair damages over the life of the service contract, the revenue from the contract is also earned over the life of the contract. 2. Revenue to be recognized each year: Year 1 Year 2Year 3Sales Revenue Service Contract Total revenue Typically, for service contract you receive cash or payment, for future services, that creates a liability. Thus one has an unearned revenue account. In this particular example, the liability account would contain XXX at the end of year 1 and XX at the end of year 2 reported under current liability as unearned revenue on th e balance sheet. Sears, Roebuck, ; Company 1998 Annual Report Footnotes to Revenue Recognition The Company sells extended service contracts with terms of coverage between 12 and 36 months.Revenue and incremental direct acquisition costs from the sale of these contracts are deferred and amortized over the lives of the contracts. Costs related to servicing the contracts are expensed as incurred. 3. American Airlines: 1996 total revenues of $17,753 million. Balance sheet reported ? Air traffic Liability? of $1,889 million. – unearned revenue (~~11%) from ticket sales. -when retired – Retired when ticket holders are provided transportation. -Refundability a factor -What if carrier cannot provide service due to strike or storm. -When is revenue earned ? – when ticket is bought when passenger boards – when plane takes off – when the round trip is complete. AMERICAN AIRLINES 1998 Annual Report (Summary of Significant Accounting Policies) (Note 1) PASSENGE R REVENUES Passenger ticket sales are initially recorded as a component of air traffic liability. Revenue derived from ticket sales is recognized at the time transportation is provided. However, due to various factors, including the complex pricing structure and interline agreements throughout the industry, certain amounts are recognized in revenue using estimates regarding both the timing and the amount of revenue to be ecognized. Actual results could differ from those estimates.In 1998, American showed revenues of $17,449 million and recorded â€Å"Air traffic liability† of $2,163 million on its Balance Sheet. Time Warner Inc. According to Annual Report they publish 26 different magazines. At end of 19985 unearned subscription revenue was $741 million. -included in their is your paid subscription to Time for issues that you have yet to receive. -magazines are sold at different rates depending on how you subscribed and for how long. – how to keep track of when earned. when does the earnings process complete When subscription received – if main source of revenue is advertising. When production is complete and delivery is made. A combination of these two. Note that Time does not have difficulty to keep track since subscription price variations and customer records are all kept by computers – closely monitor the process from payment to through unearned revenue to delivery and revenue earned. Time Warner Inc. 1998 Annual Report (Note 1) The unearned portion of paid subscriptions is deferred until magazines are delivered to subscribers.Upon each delivery, a proportionate share of the gross subscription is included in revenues. E 4-81. AugustCash Subscriptions Received in advance (Unearned Revenue) To record collection of 900 subscriptions Assets =Liabilities+ Owner’s Equity 2. August 31. Unearned revenue Subscription revenue To record subscriptions earned during August. Assets=Liabilities+Owner’s Equity 3. Net income for t he month of August would be under stated / overstated by XXX if the accountant forgot to make the entry to recognize revenue earned. (Self Note: Also see Magazine Subscription case) E 4 -9

The Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX

As is suggestive of its name, an operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that operate the personal computer (PC). Its primary purpose is to support programs that actually do the work one is interested in, and to allow competing programs to share the resources of the computer. However, the OS also controls the inner workings of the computer, acting as a traffic manager which controls the flow of data through the system and initiates the starting and stopping processes, and as a means through which software can access the hardware and system software. In addition, it provides routines for device control, provides for the management, scheduling and interaction of tasks, and maintains system integrity. It also provides a facility called the user interface which issues commands to the system software. Utilities are provided for managing files and documents created by users, development of programs and software, communicating between users with other computer systems and managing user requirements for programs, storage space and priority. There are a number of different types of operating systems with varying degrees of complexity. A system such as DOS can be relatively simple and minimalistic, while others, like UNIX, can be somewhat more complicated. Some systems run only a single process at a time (DOS), while other systems run multiple processes at once (UNIX). In reality, it is not possible for a single processor to run multiple processes simultaneously. The processor of the computer runs one process for a short period of time, then is switched to the next process and so on. As the processor executes millions of instructions per second, this gives the appearance of many processes running at once. User programs are usually stored on a hard disk and need to be loaded into memory before being executed. This presents the need for memory management, as the memory of the computer would need to be searched for a free area in which to load a users program. When the user was finished running the program, the memory consumed by it would need to be freed up and made available for another user when required (CIT). Process scheduling and management is also necessary, so that all programs can be executed and run without conflict. Some programs might need to be executed more frequently than others, for example, printing. Conversely, some programs may need to be temporarily halted, then restarted again, so this introduces the need for inter-program communication. In modern operating systems, we speak more of a process (a portion of a program in some stage of execution (CIT, 3)) than a program. This is because only a portion of the program is loaded at any one time. The rest of the program sits waiting on the disk until it is needed, thereby saving memory space. UNIX users speak of the operating system as having three main parts: the kernel, the shell and the file system. While DOS users tend not to use the term kernel and only sometimes use the term shell, the terms remain relevant. The kernel, also known as the â€Å"Real Time Executive†, is the low-level core of the OS and is loaded into memory right after the loading of the BIOS whenever the system is started. The kernel handles the transfer of data among the various parts of the system, such as from hard disk to RAM to CPU. It also assigns memory to the various system-level processes that occur whenever the computer does anything. The kernel is also responsible for scheduling the CPU†s operations and for letting the shell access the CPU (PC Mag, 1). The shell is the visible user interface to the OS and is a program that loads on top of the operating system and offers users commands that lets them access the OS. Strictly speaking, the shell is an input utility that offers access to the operating system. Technically speaking, the shell, being a separate program, is not a part of the OS at all. In the UNIX world a number of shells are available, among them the Korn shell, the C-shell, the Bourne shell and the Bourne Again shell (yes, really). In DOS, the standard shell is COMMAND. COM, again nothing more than a program. As different versions of command. com came with different versions of DOS, each added new commands and new things that could be done by the user. For example, DOS 4†³s COMMAND. COM added theP switch to DEL to verify each deletion, and DOS 5†³s COMMAND. COM provided the ability to sort the output of the DIR command. An acronym for disk operating system, the term DOS can refer to any operating system, but is most often used as shorthand for MS-DOS. Originally developed by Microsoft for IBM, MS-DOS was the standard operating system for IBM-compatible computers. The initial version of DOS was somewhat uncomplicated and resembled another operating system called CP/M. Subsequent versions have become increasingly sophisticated, however DOS remains a 16-bit operating system without support for multiple users or multitasking. The earliest forms of DOS were crude and utilized only a few commands, but as computers became more advanced, so did DOS. By keeping up with technology, DOS was implemented into more â€Å"user friendly† operating systems. However, as more sophisticated operating systems were released, DOS became less important. Today, cyberpunks involved with the latest OS trends joke that DOS stands for ‘Dad†s Operating System†Ã¢â‚¬  (Comerford, 23). In 1980, IBM asked the Microsoft Corporation to produce the operating system for its first personal computer, the IBM PC. Prior to this, a company called Seattle Computer Products had sold an operating system called 86-DOS to Microsoft. Microsoft hired the author of 86-DOS, Tim Paterson, in April of 1981 to modify the system, and renaming it MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), it was released with the IBM PC. Thereafter, most manufacturers of personal computers licensed MS-DOS as their operating system (Brittanica, 1). Limitations of the early PC†s hardware were a big influence on MS-DOS. Although the 8088 model computer had a 1Mb address space, IBM decided to allocate the first 640K of this to RAM, and the rest to ROMs, video boards and other things. Consequently, MS-DOS was set up to support programs whose maximum size was 640K. Version 1. 0 of DOS was released along with the IBM PC in August 1981. It occupied 12K of the systems 640K of memory, was somewhat compatible with CP/M and, much like CP/M, supported only a single directory. By contrast, even the first version of UNIX had a full hierarchical file system. In addition, Version 1. 0 supported only a 160K single sided 51/4-inch floppy diskette. Version 1. 1 was released by Microsoft in October 1982 and supported double sided 320K diskettes. Aside from fixing some bugs, this release was similar to Version 1. 0. Releases such as 1. 1, in which the number to the left of the decimal point is the same as the previous version depict relatively minor changes from the previous release. By contrast, Version 2. 0 was largely a new system. In March 1983, IBM introduced the PC/XT, its first personal computer with a hard disk. It came with a new variant of MS-DOS, Version 2. 0. In this version, Microsoft incorporated many ideas from the UNIX system for which it was also a vendor. For example, incorporating minor changes, the MS-DOS file system was taken largely from UNIX. In addition, the shell was improved, and Version 2. 0 supported a new floppy diskette format, the 360K as well as user installable device drivers, print spooling, system configuration and memory management. At this point, MS-DOS was established as the dominant operating system in PC market. In August 1984, IBM released its first 286 chip based PC, the PC/AT. The PC/AT supported memory up to 16 Mb and had the ability to run multiple programs at once. However, the version of MS-DOS that shipped with the PC/AT was 3. 0, which supported neither of these. Rather, it ran the PC/AT in a mode that simulated the 8088, only faster. Since the PC/AT came with a 1. 2Mb disk drive, battery backup clock, and configuration information in the CMOS, support for these devices was added. What's more, hard disks larger that 10Mb were now supported. In addition, the command processor (shell) was removed from the operating system and made into a separate program. In November 1984, 3. 0 was replace by 3. 1 which provided the first support for networking. In 1987, IBM came out with the PS/2 line of PC which shipped with MS-DOS 3. 3, providing support for both 720K and 1. 44Mb 31/3 floppy disk drives. With Version 4. 0, Microsoft added the DOS shell, a menu driven shell rather than the previous keyboard driven ones. In addition, it now provided support for hard drives larger than 32 Mb. A major new release, MS-DOS Version 5. 0 was shipped in April 1991. Although this was the first version that made any serious use of the extended memory, it still had the restrictions that programs could not exceed 640K. However, it had the ability to locate most of MS-DOS itself in extended memory, so about 600K of the lower 640K was now available for user programs. Version 5. 0 also came with a useful HELP utility, to aid new users. For the first time, MS-DOS was sold in stores to the public (previous versions were only sold to computer vendors who delivered them with their machines) (CIT, 1-3). The MS-DOS 6 family provided more memory management for applications such as Microsoft Windows. In addition, newer utilities were provided for disk-defragmentation, file compression, file backups and anti-virus checking. Other variations of MS-DOS exist, such as PC-DOS by IBM, DOS-V, Dr. DOS and others. There is even a FREE DOS available on the Internet as an MS-DOS clone. Although it can still be found on many computers, MS-DOS is technically an obsolete operating system, being replaced by Microsoft Windows. For personal computers, MS-DOS is a single user, single tasking operating system. Single user means only one person uses the computer at a time. Single tasking means that it essentially runs one application program at a time, and has no inherent support for running more than one application program simultaneously (CIT, 2). If we want to look at the basic DOS operating system itself, there is no need to look further than three system files, command. com, Io. sys and (in DOS6. x and earlier) Msdos. sys. These files are crucial in DOS versions up to 6. 22. Io. sys represents the lowest level of the interface and contains the routines necessary for interfacing the OS with the system†s BIOS. It implements MS-DOS as seen by the hardware and has default drivers for console display and keyboard, printer, serial communications, clock, and a boot disk drive. Msdos. sys handles the higher-level routines such as converting commands from applications into instructions for Io. sys. It implements MS-DOS as seen by application programs. It supports file and record management, memory management, character device input and output, execution of other programs, and access to a real-time clock (CIT, 3). Both of these files are in the root directory, and both are hidden from view by default. The idea is that you are not suppose to see them, so that you don†t do anything destructive to them (such as deleting them). They are also read-only so that they can†t be deleted accidentally. Command. com is the shell program which interprets user commands, presents the shell prompt, and contains a set of internal commands. The rest of MS-DOS consists of a number of utility programs. Although DOS had cornered the PC market, UNIX was still dominant on the larger workstations. The birth of UNIX in 1969 provided the world with its first modern operating system. An interactive multi-user operating system, UNIX was initially developed by programmers for their own use. Working for Bell Laboratories, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie created UNIX as an operating system for the PDP-7 computer. Designed as a simplification of an operating system named Multics, UNIX was developed in Assembly language, a primitive computer language specific to one type of machine (Osiris, 1). However, Thompson developed a new programming language â€Å"B† which Ritchie enhanced to â€Å"C†, and in 1973 this was used to rewrite UNIX which lended the OS portability (Linux Intl. , 1). The original design philosophy for UNIX was to distribute functionality into small parts, the programs (Theochem, 1). In this way, functionality could be achieved by combining the small parts (programs) in new ways. Moreover, if a new program were to appear, it could be integrated into the system. UNIX was slow to catch on outside of academic institutions but soon was popular with businesses as well. The first five versions were part of an internal research effort of Bell Labs, and it was not until the sixth version, called UNIX Timesharing Sixth Edition V, that UNIX was widely distributed (Osiris, 1). Relatively recent developments are graphical interfaces (GUI) such as MOTIF, X Windows and Open View. UNIX has two major versions. One, jointly developed by UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL) and by AT&T researchers together with Bell Labs, generically known as System V, is the commercial version and is the most widely distributed by major manufacturers. The second, developed by the University of Berkley and Berkley Software Distribution (BSD), is the educational version and is completely focused on research. The USL version is now on its fourth release, or SVR4, while BSD†s latest version is 4. However, there are many different versions of UNIX besides these two. The operating system has been licensed to several manufacturers who in turn developed their own versions of UNIX, based on System V or BSD, but adding new characteristics. Most versions of UNIX developed by software companies are derived from one of the two groupings and, recent versions of UNIX actually incorporate features from both of them. However, UNIX has had an unregulated history with over 200 versions (Berson, 16) existing today. The UNIX system is made up of three primary components, the kernel, the shell, and the utilities (which includes the file system). The central part of the OS, the kernel is the first program to start when the system is turned on and the last program to do anything when the system is halted. In addition to scheduling tasks, it manages data/file access and storage, enforces security mechanisms and performs all hardware access. The name â€Å"KERNEL† represents the fact that it is a program designed as a central nucleus, around which other functions of the system were added. The heart of the operating system, it not only interacts directly with the system†s hardware, but presents each user with a prompt, interprets commands typed by a user, executes user commands and supports a custom environment for each user. The two most common shells are the Bourne shell, default for the System V, and the C-shell used mainly with the BSD version (Osiris, 1). The utilities consist of file management (rm, cat, ls, rmdir, mkdir), user management (passwd, chmod, chgrp), process management (kill, ps) and printing (lp, troff, pr).

Change Management Plans for Secure IT Systems (CSOs role in approving Essay

Change Management Plans for Secure IT Systems (CSOs role in approving changes) - Essay Example This includes the issue of online business transaction where IT and network are key components in ensuring efficient and effective transactions. Teams on network operations are trying to make improvements to the quality of the IT quality for the reason of meeting customer needs. These organizations and industries, therefore, to achieve the improvements have examined the processes in the areas of change management that the network changes are a source of downtime (Peters, 2000). These management changes need to be done due to various reasons. These reasons include; The change management in this sector ensures that there are efficient and prompt standardized ways and procedures in handling of all changes. It also leads to recording of configuration items and the changes to service assets in the management system. There is also support for business goals and wants due to the authorized changes, and business risk is reduced. Then the changes are managed to reduce the exposure of risk, reduce the impact of interruption and enhance successfulness of the management changes (Jacques, 2005). Management change provides required information and provides guidance on different size and kinds of organizations and changes that are either simple or complex changes for each lifecycle stage. It also shows the major and minor changes and the different levels of funding and budget to enhance effective change. The change management ensures that the business changing customers’ requirements are met by maximizing the value, minimizing the incidents, interruption, maximizing, and improving the network. It ensures the IT and businesses want requests are met, and there is a large room for information technology. There is management change in modifying, adding or removal of authorized service to meet the effective demands. This need for change erupts due to various reasons aimed at effectiveness. These

Leadership for personalization in mental health Assignment

Leadership for personalization in mental health - Assignment Example They also have to focus on professional duties to meet the ever-increasing complexity of the nature of patient the team. Participation is a multifaceted concept that appears complex from the surface that derives vague and different definitions. Highly variable definitions often generate inappropriate applications. Synonymous terminologies with participation are compromise, co-operation, alliancing, teamwork, multi-agency, multidisciplinary, inter-professional, as well as joint planning among many more.  Applying participation inappropriately leads to confusion that interferes with the consistency and usefulness in the team. It is varied and diverse while putting it in practice. It brings together among other issues intra-disciplinary sets on people through to multi-agency working operations. The practices include among others service planning and group planning among the team and local authorities. Taking part in Every Child Matters is essential because the inherent connections bet ween services, educational frameworks, community, and agencies are crucial in enhancing academic achievements, social and the team options available to children, families, as well as young members (Allen, Gilbert & Onyett 15). An essential component of multi-agency participation is power. Other scholars hold that the arrangement between organizations and community organizations especially minority sets comes with many problems. The likely cause is the imbalance of power between participating parties. Big the team organizations.

Key Learning Outcomes of the Module Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Key Learning Outcomes of the Module - Essay Example It shall reflect on how the process of working on my assignment in the group improved my understanding of the issues that have been raised. Reflection on Key Outcomes It can be stated that reflection lies around the notion of learning. Reflection is referred as the process of working upon what has been already been known. It is essentially done in order to consider the acquired learning in greater details. It can be considered as a mental processing that can be utilised in order to fulfil the objectives or attain certain probable outcomes (Moon, 2001). The overall study was a learning experience for me. It helped me to identify the ways to work in a group. I recognised the fact that it is quite significant for the senior members of the audit team to review all the pertinent matters taking place from the audit and also to reconsider the financial statements. Furthermore, it came to my understanding that internal control system tends to comprise the control environment as well as contr ol procedures. Moreover, it further comprises all the procedures as well as policies in order to ensure that the business is conducted in an efficient and effective way. However, I also came to the conclusion that internal controls offer reasonable assertion due to the innate limitations such as human error taking place because of the mistakes in judgement and distractions (ICANIG, 2012). It came to my understanding that there are a few steps of the audit that need to be maintained by the auditors. The first step is the pre-engagement phase which is required for serving the client’s best interest with competence as well as professionalism. The auditor is also required to prepare letter of engagement whose chief purpose is to confirm terms of the engagement. The other step in the audit process is the planning phase where the auditor is required to obtain an understanding of the client. While undergoing the course, I was aware of the fact that the auditors undergo both legal as well as professional duties. The auditors are needed to carry out investigations that will permit them to create an opinion. They are further required to audit the accounts with adequate skills and care. I recognised the fact that the auditors are required to minimise the expectation-performance gaps in order to offer the firms with consistent financial statements and to minimise the frauds and errors in such statements (Hayes & Schilder, 2012). I came across the terms such as auditor’s independence and its significance for the auditors. It came to my understanding that the auditor independence is one of the most significant aspects of the auditing profession. It tends to add value to the audited financial statement. However, I was astonished by the fact that there are several threats to the auditor’s independence. One of the threats that I came across in the study was the intimidation threats that tend to take place while the auditor is prevented from acting objectiv ely in relation to actual threats from the customer. The other threat that I learnt from the study was the advocacy threats that are likely to occur when the auditor makes an attempt in order to promote the clients’ opinion. Familiarity threats take place when the auditor is found to become too concerned with the interests

Biodiversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Biodiversity - Essay Example As opposed to Cardinale et.al (2012), Dawson et.al (2011) argues that climate change is the major threat to biodiversity in the 21st century and not human activities as stated by the former. In light of this, the article addresses the viable solutions into dealing with the loss of biodiversity as a resultant of climate change. If not, the loss of biodiversity will be complemented by termination of evolutionary potential and consequent disruption of ecological services. Both of which are equally detrimental. In response to this, the article proposes the development of an Integrated Science of Climate-Change Biodiversity Assessment as the most effective solution in curtailing the loss of biodiversity. However, regardless of the difference in the opinions in both articles, all the authors acknowledge the importance of the biodiversity. It is due to this that Cardinale et.al (2012) focuses their research on the specific effects of the loss of biodiversity on humans while Dawson et.al (2011) explores viable methods of mitigating their current loss. Biodiversity plays a very significant role in every ecosystem and numerous factors including human activities and climatic change are resulting in their loss. As a result, there should be measures that address every factor resulting in the loss as opposed to individual issues as seen

Music & the Liturgy Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Music & the Liturgy Paper - Essay Example The Psalms feature strongly, prefiguring the life of Christ, and particular festivals bring into focus scenes such as the Nativity and the Passion of Christ which were then the subject matter of hymns and sequences. The major festivals of Christmas and Easter create the setting for the composing of new sacred music, and many of the great composers produced multiple settings of the same texts, giving the world a rich collection of variations which, when compared, give an insight into the subtle changes in Christian musical and religious sensibility through the ages. This paper considers in particular three settings of one of the world’s favourite Latin hymns known as Stabat Mater Dolorosa. The origins of the text itself are obscure, but scholars date it to the thirteenth century. The essence of its meaning is a reflection on the sorrowing figure of Mother of Christ, standing beneath the cross and weeping for the death of her son. The subject matter is emotive, and yet in its li nkage of suffering with the path to salvation, it has a positive message for believers, encouraging them to bear their troubles bravely and look to a blessed future with Christ in Paradise. This text has been reworked many times, using elements of secular music through the ages to enhance its relevance in successive generations. The reasons for the diverging approaches to Church music in different parts of Europe are linked to the cataclysmic events surrounding the Reformation. At the heart of this debate lay fundamental differences in the way that the Biblical text was perceived. In the protestant parts of Europe there was a growing desire to centre the literal text of scripture as the source of fundamental truth, and to place human additions such as preaching, music and the use of other devotional aids including the liturgy as secondary aids to the interpretation of this main truth. Polyphony in this context was an opportunity to explore hidden meanings in a text, having different voices express different aspects of its message for example. Emphasis and amplification could be achieved in this way. In the Roman Catholic tradition, on the other hand, the holy scripture was combined with apostolic traditions as the source of truth, leading to a higher status for the liturgy and a tendency for musical contributions to become bearers of the doctrine as much as the readings from the Bible itself. It is this emphasis on the importance of the liturgy that caused the Roman Catholic Church to clamp down on secular influences creeping into worship. The lively motet tradition, with its celebration of secular and even bawdy themes was seen as a negative influence, and this is why a return to the purity of Gregorian chant was advocated by the Church authorities. The role of the Stabat Mater was a cause of much debate in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries because it was at the same time much loved by the population but also clearly non-Biblical in content. It became pa rt of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at in 1413 at the Council of Cologne and this hymn became part of the liturgy in Northern Europe from that time onwards. In the south, however, the piece was sporadically performed, but did not become such a firm part of the liturgical programme. It has been noted also that some such pieces were performed on the edge of the formal

Drama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Drama - Essay Example Ishmael Reed underlines a unique way of depicting feminine social issues whereby the feminine gender is the one who empowers the man while being undermined by the men in their lives. This study is looking to prove that the men did create majority of the marital problems experienced by their feminine counterparts as a result of taking them and their values for granted. The norm of a woman in the society was that her job was to be a wife, mother, proper housekeeper, and supportive to her husband. She was to abide by his decisions and always follow his lead. However in the 1950s, the society was greatly awakened to women seeking careers equivalent to those that men could do and thus changed the social perspective of a womans role in society. In the play written by Reed; the C above C above high C, the two main women who are undermined are Maime Eisenhower and Lil Armstrong. Both of them have undergone the rejection severed by their husbands’ choices of divorce and illicit affairs that devalue their marital status, as well as their value in their husbands’ lives. Lil Armstrong is a highly educated woman with a career in the jazz music industry, and she apparently came from a home that was comfortable and wealthy enough to afford her a good life. Even though her career was pursued against her mother’s wishes, she did meet Louis Armstrong, who had barely scrapped the dust of his jazz music talent. Lil used her gifted and well-developed skills to help channel his innate gift and use it to become the famous jazz musician he became later on in his career. Louis came from a very dysfunctional background as expressed by Lil in her conversation with Maime Eisenhower at the Shoreham hotel. The part where Lil is undermined in her marriage is when Louis takes off to pursue his career without a second glimpse of how the divorce between him and Lil did affect her. Even though they were never on the same path career-wise it would have been more sufficient

Final Exam Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Final Exam Paper - Essay Example There are several pharmaceutical companies in Kuwait that may offer Support to Genentech in terms of buying their drugs and selling them to people. For example, the Kuwait Saudi Pharmaceutical s industries that are a leading company in the manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical drugs. For success, Genentech has to have to be linked to such companies. However, there are no supporting pharmaceuticals clusters in Kuwait that would facilitate the buying and marketing of the drugs. The Kuwait Government has to offer support for Genentech for the company to establish itself successfully. This is possible since the government has been supporting research in different areas notably agriculture and economic improvement. This support is mainly given to home industries therefore, it will problematic for Genentech to get support since it is a foreign company Laws that protect intellectual property in Kuwait are found in law No. 4 of (1962). Companies are allowed to register patents and intellectual property in Kuwait provided they are inhabitants of countries that give Kuwait reciprocity. After the company registers its patent with the patents Office, it gains the rights to use that patent. The right is valid for 15 years and may be renewed for an extra five years If Genentech opens up businesses in Kuwait, it will not have a problem of markets. This market would be provided by its powerful neighbors. Proximity to markets can therefore be a factor for Genentech to consider for successful establishment of a company in Kuwait. However since, Kuwait is quite Isolated, challenges of market are inevitable Kuwait being a country with the majority of its population Muslim, genetic testing is not well addressed in the regulations and has to take into consideration bioethical issues. Kuwait has no regulations on genetic testing but it respects the recommendations of the Islamic Organization for Medical

Wall Street Journal Executive Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Wall Street Journal Executive Summary - Essay Example This lending has brought a new life to Ms. Mathews’ family business and also to her bank. â€Å"For a lot of the big regional banks, the future is a return to the past, â€Å"says Eric Wasserstrom, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities LLC. ’’It’s more like their traditional lending, more balanced† (Sterngold Web). After the recession, some businessmen and lawmakers, said banks were not playing their part in economic growth, although they received a lot of funds from the government. Banks increased their lending across the country in the second quarter of 2012.since then they have increased their lending. However, not all banks accelerated their lending. Some local banks increased their lending to businesses earlier than the national banks in past recession period. The volume of commercial and industrial loans at the major street banks is larger in dollar terms than at regional lenders, although the loans only make a small amount of their total share. For example, Bank of American Corp. made $233.6 billion in loans in 2014 which was 26.5 percent of its total and Citigroup Inc. 6.4 percent of its total. Large banks are mostly concentrating on giving the other types of loans; smaller banks put much emphasis on loaning business persons. KeyBank, for instance, increased its commercial and industrial loan by 12.3 percent in 2014, taking a lion share among its peers in 2014. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its bank loan by 4 percent last year and PNC Financial Services grew hers by 10 percent. KeyBank is established in 12 states, from Maine to Alaska. In July it announced that it had agreed to own Pacific Crest Securities, a technology focussed investment bank. The stock price for KeyCorp, the holding company which consists almost entirely of the banking operation has out competed most of its competitors. During the recession of 2008 and 2009, KeyBank just like the other banks was affected by the economic crisis. It

Abercrombie & FItch vs American Eagle Essay Example for Free

Abercrombie FItch vs American Eagle Essay INTRODUCTION Fashion may be defined as a way of living, decorating, etc., which is popular today, but will soon lose their popularity. It is something passing and temporary, a simple craze of the moment to be looked down upon with dislike. For example, tight pants are the fashion today, but only a short while ago broad loose pants were the order of the day. If today a man appears in society wearing broad pants, he would be held up to ridicule, but only a few years ago they were the height of fashion, symbols of good taste and culture. American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and Abercrombie Fitch (AF) are two companies that play a major role in the clothing industry. The following discussion with compare and contrast the competitive advantages of the supply chain of the two companies. COMPANY HISTORY AEO American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., a billion dollar corporation, is ranked as one of the largest retail chains in America. With their central corporate headquarters in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and two other corporate facilities located in New York City and Tokyo, Japan, American Eagle, Inc. operates numerous mainline stores, factory stores, franchised stores, and distribution centers across the country and the globe. In 1977, brothers, Jerry and Mark Silverman, who owned and operated Silverman’s Menswear, a Retail Ventures, Inc. company, founded American Eagle Outfitters. Opening their first store in Novi, Michigan at Twelve Oaks Mall, the Silverman brothers were hoping to diversify their menswear line (AEO Management Co., 2013). Several stores were opened up and a catalog was created. American Eagle Outfitters continued to grow into 1990, when Jacob Price took over which led to the introduction of casual, private-label merchandise for men and women. In 1994, American Eagle Outfitters became  part of the NASDAQ stock exchange, which enabled the opening of 90 stores the following year (AEO Management Co., 2013). In 1996, new executives joined AEO and decided to modify the target demographics of the target market and reach more women, as well as focus on those who were between the ages of 18 and 32. Shortly after, American Eagle expanded to e-commerce with ae.com. By 2000, American Eagle operated 500 stores and revenues for the company quintupled to $1 billion. The Canadian market was penetrated in 2001 and in 2003 American Eagle expanded to Hawaii. Aerie, a brand extension of American Eagle, focusing on intimates for women, was launched in 2006. Another line extension, 77kids, which offered clothing for babies to pre-teen girls and boys, was established online in 2008 and the first 77kids store was opened in 2010. Today, American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. operates over 1,000 stores, including 911 American Eagle Outfitters stores, 158 Aerie stores, and 21 77Kids stores, 21 of which are franchised around the globe. Additionally, ae.com, which includes links to Aerie and 77kids, reaches 77 countries. American Eagle Outfitters offers apparel, shoes, and accessories for both men and women. Clothing merchandise is comprised of denims, sweaters, graphic T’s, fleece and sweatshirts, outerwear, tops and shirts, dresses, and skirts. Shoe merchandise includes sneakers, boots, flats, sandals, slippers, clogs, heals, loafers and socks. Accessories merchandise consists of jewelry, hats, sunglasses, scarves, bags, perfume and cologne, purses, and wallets. Aerie offers merchandise for college girls that include dorm wear, such as sweats and pajamas, exercise apparel, bras, underwear, accessories, and some personal care items. 77kids offers apparel for infants, children, and preteen girls and boys (AEO Management Co., 2013). AF Abercrombie Fitch originated in 1891 as a retail sporting goods store based in New York City. It was known for its wide variety of expensive and often exotic sporting equipment and attire, ranging from tennis shoes to elephant guns. For more than half a century, the store’s apparel, guns, tackle, and other merchandise were the image of wealth and prestige. When it expanded, the firm confined its new branch stores to downtown areas of large cities and to resort areas. In the early 1970s, Abercrombie Fitch attempted to widen its customer base by adding less-expensive items to its usual stock and by moving into the suburbs, where other stores had been building for some time. Although these steps did attract new customers, they came too late; Abercrombie Fitch was in financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy in 1976 after 85 years in business (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2013). Oshman’s Sporting Goods, Inc. bought the firm in1978. In 1988 Abercrombie Fitch was bought by The Limited, Inc (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2013). Repositioned as the trademarked â€Å"casual luxury† brand, it became parent to the subsidiary brands Abercrombie kids, a children’s line launched in 1998 and marketed as Abercrombie; Hollister Co., a line for younger teens launched in 2000; RUEHL No. 925, a line targeting post-graduates l aunched in 2004; and Gilly Hicks, a women’s line launched in 2008. Following Abercrombie Fitch’s overhaul, the company received significant criticism for its advertising and its clothing, which were perceived by many as encouraging its target audience to adopt a sexually promiscuous lifestyle (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2013). MISSION STATEMENT AEO American Eagle has a clearly defined set of corporate values which guides the actions of employees at all levels of the AE organization: PEOPLE The vitality of our company resides in our people. We collaborate, we engage, we achieve (About.com, 2013). INTEGRITY We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards. In the face of difficulties and challenges, we dont compromise (About.com, 2013). PASSION Our passion infuses our actions and purpose. It transforms stores into places of energy and customer delight (About.com, 2013). INNOVATION We operate in a dynamic and competitive industry. We continually refine the unique processes that drive our business, and we use insightful research and analysis to balance our instinct and to guide our decisions. Our associates embody entrepreneurial spirit, develop creative solutions, and initiate change (About.com, 2013). TEAMWORK We work together listening to one another, reaching consensus and supporting group decisions. We celebrate achievements. Because we respect and trust one another and commit ourselves to our company goals, our teamwork succeeds (About.com, 2013). Additionally American Eagle has a service goal that guides employees in their everyday retailing tasks: â€Å"We respond to the needs of our customer and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done (About.com, 2013). AF â€Å"Abercrombie and Fitch focuses upon high-quality merchandise that compliments the casual classic American lifestyle (About.com, 2013).†   But beyond that simple mission statement, Abercrombie Fitch emphasizes its brand vision, brand attributes, and the value of the Abercrombie Fitch brand, which has been of ultimate importance since CEO Mike Jeffries took on the leadership role. Abercrombie Fitch has said this about its brand to its stakeholders: â€Å"The AF brand is more authentic and relevant than ever. The brand is our lifestyle, our focus—it ensures growth and promises stability. A great brand is a center of growth and revenue—it represents a relationship with customers. It’s not a faddish chip to be cashed in on shortsighted gains. The value of having a great brand is far-reaching and cannot be overstated—it’s a snowball effect. The AF label gives us the ability to evolve, creating endless growth opportunities. It helps us attract the brightest, most talented young people from around the country. It attracts millions to our website. It allows for greater profit margins. It lessens the risk of moving on new business concepts. It promotes innovation. It ensures long-term profitability. It adds built-in value to everything we produce. It accelerates growth. It stabilizes. It gives focus and direction. It produces an emotional response in consumers (About.com, 2013).† Comparing these two mission statements, it is clear that American Eagle Outfitters is focused more on just their merchandise, unlike Abercrombie Fitch. AEO has a passion not only for their brand and employees but their consumers as well. While AF, is only focused on their brand not on the  operational execution of its employees, or the experience of its customers. This holds true of AF because recently their CEO, Mike Jeffries, came under fire for reportedly saying they only target to â€Å"thin and beautiful people† which is why they do not sell or make any size over 10 or large for women. Mike Jeffries has said, â€Å"That’s why we hire good-looking people because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that (Walker, 2013).† On AF’s website, they claim to embrace diversity throughout the entire organization but what Mike Jeffries has been quoted saying, is contradictory of what the company claims they are about. â€Å"We are committed to embracing the diversity of our associates and management throughout our organization. On the surface, our dedication to maintaining a diverse working and shopping environment can be easily seen by walking through one of our stores, domestically and internationally. More notably, Abercrombie Fitch’s commitment can be seen through our exceptional diversity programs, whether they are internal or external, and the results they yield. Diversity reflects the multidimensional insights we share collectively. Simply put, it is imperative to our growth that we staff our business with diverse talent and run our business with an inclusive mindset (Abercrombie Fitch, 2013).† SUPPLY CHAIN AEO American Eagle Outfitters strategy to improve apparel factory working conditions starts with factory inspections based on their Vendor Code of Conduct. They then focus on remediating the issues they find during those inspections, which often includes additional factory training and capacity building programs (AEO Management Co., 2013). They partner with other brands and retailers, multi-stakeholder organizations, civil society groups, trade unions, governments, and others to better understand and address what is happening in the factories and countries where their clothes are made. By working together, they strive to  collectively develop more sustainable solutions to the problems they find (AEO Management Co., 2013). Finally, they are committed to being obvious about how they are doing. By reporting publicly on their efforts, this is one of the many ways they ensure that they remain focused on their goals, disciplined in their efforts, and accountability for their performance (AEO Management Co., 2013). AF Abercrombie Fitch has very tight control over the design and manufacturing of their clothing. To help the company keep control, have higher margins and protect the brand, they design their own ranges which are manufactured exclusively for AF. The head office for AF is located in Ohio and is called â€Å"The Campus†. At this location, there is a center known as the â€Å"Innovative Design Center†. Here, a dedicated team uses over 100 wash, quality assurance, lab and graphic machines (Webb, 2009). They are responsible for merchandise design and development. â€Å"Design packages† were created by the company to reduce the time and cost of product development (Webb, 2009). These design packages are then given to the vendors. By keeping strict control over design, manufacturing and product development, the company is able to protect the brand from being copied and having the image damaged. By having greater control, it allows AF to deliver on their promise to the customer and consumer. This in turn creates a relationship based on trust and gives them a competitive advantage. Again, with Abercrombie Fitch, they are more focused on keeping control of their brand and image, while American Eagle Outfitters are trying to improve factory conditions for their workers. This once again proves that AF does not care about their people. CONCLUSION In summary, Abercrombie Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters play a significant role in the clothing industry. While AF’s practices are some  what contradictory and outlandish, AEO remains the opposite. AF needs to take a cue from AEO and focus more on their consumers than just their brand. There is no question why it is that AEO is ranked at 649 on the Fortune 1000 List and AF is trailing behind them at 651 (Salesforce, 2013). Works Cited Abercrombie Fitch. (2013). Diversity Commitment. Retrieved from AF Cares: http://www.anfcares.org/diversity/commitment.jsp About.com. (2013). Abercrombie Fitch Mission Statement. Retrieved from About.com: http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/AbercrombieFitch-Mission-Statement.htm About.com. (2013). American Eagle Company Mission Statement. Retrieved from About.com: http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/American-Eagle-Mission-Values.htm AEO Management Co. (2013). AEO History. Retrieved from American Eagle Outfitters: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=81256p=irol-history AEO Management Co. (2013). AEO Supply Chain. Retrieved from American Eagle Outfitters: http://www.ae.com/web/corpResp/supply_chain/our_strategy.jsp Encyclopedia Britannica Online. (2013). Abercrombie Fitch. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1121/Abercrombie-F itch Salesforce. (2013). Fortune 1000 Company List. Retrieved from Data.com Connect: https://connect.data.com/directory/company/fortune/1000 Walker, T. (2013, May 08). Not available in XL. Retrieved from The Indepedent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/not-available-in-xl-abercrombiefitch-ceo-mike-jeffries-accused-of-only-wanting-thin-and-beautiful-people-8608022.html Webb, B. (2009). Managing the Fashion Brand Case Study Assignment.

Change Management Strategies at IKEA

Change Management Strategies at IKEA IKEA is the worlds most successful mass-market retailer, selling Scandinavian-style home furnishings and other house goods in 230 stores in 33 countries and hosting 410 million shoppers per year. An acronym for founder Ingvar Kamprad and his boyhood home of Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd, IKEA began operating in Sweden in 1943 and continues its original ethos based upon cost obsession fused with design culture. No design, no matter how inspired, finds its way into the catalogue if it cannot be made affordable.As a means of expanding the business, the company considered change in its business in the form of selling 2nd hand furniture by reconditioning damaged or old furniture stocked in its warehouse and offering furniture reconditioning services to customers. In developing this kind of business, it expects to make this constitute fifty percent of its business. 2. Term of reference In this part of the section, we will list several aspect of theoretical approaches that we could apply in the company to plan and implement the change. 3. Planning and implementing the change 3.1. The need factor during the change Waste reduction and improvement in recycling wastes are the issues that are driving the need for change. IKEA incurs waste because of damaged furniture during transportation, handling or wear-and-tear when stocked for longer periods in the warehouse. Although the compa . Problem/Issues that Prompted the Need for Change Waste reduction and improvement in recycling practices are the issues that prompted the need for change. Eastern Furniture Company incurs waste because of damaged furniture during transportation, handling or wear-and-tear when stocked for long periods in the warehouse. Although the company takes its cue from the inflow and outflow of furniture from its warehouse for delivery to customers in determining which furniture to make in greater volume and which furniture to stop making or make in lesser volume, the company has to manage a bulk of damaged furniture that it cannot sell. These take up valuable warehouse space and comprise loss for the company. Overall, the issue is one of efficiency, which has two elements. One is the ability to maintain a good ratio between the input allocated or employed and the output generated. Ideally, there should be balance in the ratio to ensure break-even but to ensure positive returns the ratio should be greater in favor of output. (Thompson, Strickland Gamble, 2007, p. 93) Waste represents input not transformed into output. The company wanted to place greater weight on output by optimizing resources use. Another is the enhancement of the skills in avoiding or preventing wastage of resources and time. The company has to minimize waste of both resources and time to improve performance. 3. Identifying and Assessing the Causes of Change Understanding the change and clarifying the justifications for the change is an important management process. There are various diagnostic tools useful in assessing change. These clarify the change and points to compelling reasons that supports the decision to implement the change. One tool is the force field analysis, which refers to the process of listing down the pros and cons of the planned change and evaluating the merit or soundness of the decision as well as the viability of the change (Hurt, 1998, p. 55). The table below shows the forces supporting and discouraging the implementation of the planned change. Forces for Change -boost resource management efficiency -increase sales -control cost -enhance profitability address customer demand -add value for products and services to customers increase market share -ensure sustainable growth Planned Change (establish a 2nd hand furniture trading) Forces against Change -increase operating cost -pull or stretching of available resources -resistance from managers and employees -risks of incurring further losses A number of forces support change. These forces encompass different areas from the improvement of resource management practices by optimizing output from the input used, financial performance in terms of sales and profitability by controlling cost, and marketing outcomes by meeting new demand and adding value to customers. The occurrence of these forces of change could mean sustainable growth for the company. However, there are also important forces discouraging the change. These include increasing operating cost because of the expansion of the business, the pull of resources from the existing business to the new business that means the stretching of available resources. There could also be resistance from managers and employees because of the change in organizational structure. The risk of incurring further losses in case the company is unable to manage effectively the rigors of the change process is also an adverse factor. By balancing these forces, it appears that the forces supporting change weigh greater than the forces discouraging change. Achieving the benefits is viable given the stable financial situation of the company and the opportunities for expansion in the market. The company has sufficient resources to invest in the change and the expected returns are high because of the growing market for refurbished and environmentally friendly furniture products and services. The establishment of a 2nd hand furniture business also adds value to its product and service offering to customers by providing customers with the opportunity to help in conserving the environment by minimizing waste through recycling. However, the company needs to address the forces discouraging change by developing a sound resource management and investment plan, developing preventive and contingency plans for risks, and easing the resistance of managers and employees. By addressing these discouraging factors, the company can e nsure expected results from the change. Another tool is critical pathways, which refers to the use of directions and schedules in planning tasks and monitoring completion to ensure the achievement of the expected results. Using this tool determines the viability of the change and the areas requiring focus. (Thompson, Strickland Gamble, 2007, p. 93) The table below shows the tasks required in the implementation of the change, the commencement period, the period for completion, type of activity, and the relative depends on the tasks necessary for completion. Task Commencement Completion Type Task Interdependence 1. marketing study Month 1 1 month Sequential 2. consultation of managers and employees Month 1 2 month Parallel 3. brainstorming and preliminary planning Month 2 2 months Parallel 2 4. expansion strategy implementation (i.e. mergers and acquisitions, joint venture, takeover, etc.) Month 4 2 months Sequential 1-3 5. restructuring and hiring of new employees Month 4 3 months Parallel 4 6. preliminary marketing activities Month 7 6 months Sequential 1-5 7. preliminary evaluation Month 10 1 month Sequential 1-6 8. final evaluation Month 12 1 month Sequential 1-7 The entire change process happens in a twelve-month period. The identified tasks support the viability of the change. The tasks distinguish the preparatory activities, implementation proper activities, and post-implementation activities that the company needs to complete the change process. The tasks also coincide with the issues requiring consideration such as resistance during the restructuring process relative to the results of the consultation with managers and employees and the development of the appropriate marketing activities coinciding with the results of the marketing study. The determination of the sequencing of tasks and interdependence of the tasks also supports the viability of the change by determining priorities during a particular period to ensure due preparation and evaluation of implementation. Overall, the critical pathways analysis supports the commencement of the change and identifies the tasks for completion to achieve the change. 3. Stakeholder Analysis The change process is organization-wide, which means various parties likely affected by the change involving the development of a 2nd hand furniture service. Stakeholders pertain to the parties linked to the business firm who stand to experience benefits or adverse effects from the change (Friedmand, 2007, p. 172). Identifying the stakeholders and the respective interests is important to develop ways of wining over these various stakeholders who are likely to contribute to the success of the planned change. Determining stakeholders or the parties affected by the change together with the impact of the change to these parties is also important in prioritizing stakeholder interests as well as the resolution of issues faced by the stakeholders. (French Delahaye, 1996, p. 22) There are a number of stakeholders in the planned change falling under either internal or external stakeholders. First is top management of the organization who decide on the change, direct strategy implementation, and carry accountability for the outcomes of the change. Second are middle managers affected by the change and comprise implementers of the tasks constituting change. Third are employees also affected by the change and serve as movers in the change process. These three stakeholders also constitute internal stakeholders as they form part of the organization and directly experience and participate in the change process. Fourth are suppliers of furniture retailed by the company who could be affected by the expansion. Fifth are investors and investment parts providing capital needed in the change process. Sixth are customers for whom the change is directed and from whom the impact of change is assessed. These last three stakeholders comprise external stakeholders by not being part of the organization. These stakeholders influence the change indirectly but could influence the success of the change management activity. There are a number of tools in analyzing these stakeholders. The application of these tools identifies stakeholder interests and clarifies the prioritization of stakeholder interests, in case of conflict. This is necessary to ensure that the intended impact for stakeholders and the expected response from these stakeholders ensure the achievement of objectives for the planned change. One analytical tool is the power model, which classifies stakeholders according to their relative power or influence in swaying the change process. There are four classifications of stakeholders relative to power, which are promoters, defenders, latents or apathetics. These classifications vary according to the interest in achieving the change and the influence on the change process. The model also determines the stakeholders included in the decision-making over the change process depending on the relationship with the company and the influence on the operations of the company. (Cooper, 2004, p. 13) Stakeholder Classification Prioritization of Change Influence on the Change Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders Promoters High High Top Management Investors or Investment Partners Defenders High Low Middle Manager Latents Low High Employees Customers Apathethics Low Low Suppliers In implementing this analytical tool, the identified stakeholders fall under different classifications. This determines differences in interest and the means of managing these interests. In achieving the planned change via policy support, there should be strong support from the top management and middle managers. It is important achieve strong support from top company officers as well as middle managers to ensure the development and implementation of policies towards the planner change. To ensure successful implementation, it is important to consider and integrate the interests of investors to gain capital that supports the change process, employees who would implement tasks comprising the change process, and customers whose acceptance determine the marketability of the new business. Another analytical tool is the resource dependence theory (Frooman, 1999, p. 191) that classified the relationship between the firm and stakeholders into four types, which are 1) firm power, 2) high interdependence, 3) low interdependence, and 4) stakeholder power. The nature of the relationship determines the issues requiring resolution to manage effectively stakeholders. The core idea of this analytical tool is the recognition of the limited self-sufficiency of business firms so that they have to rely on their environment to address difficulties. Firm-Stakeholder Relationship Stakeholders Firm Power Middle Managers, Employees, Stakeholder Power Customers, Top Management High Interdependence Investors and Investment Parties Low Interdependence Suppliers The implementation of this analytical tool shows the stakeholder priority of the organization in achieving the planned change in the context of resource accumulation. Since the company has strong dependence on investors and investment parties as source of capital and investors also rely on the company to experience returns. This means that the company should develop mutual positive relationship with investors and investment parties. Since the power of stakeholder is high in the case of customers and top management, which means that the company should consider the important roles of top management in directing change policy and customers in justifying the area of change. 4. Change Implementation Strategy Determining the appropriate and effective change implementation strategy is an important part of the management of the planned change. The change implementation strategy determines points to the viability of the change by identifying the nature and direction of the intended change together with the corresponding roles of the parties involved and the activities requiring completion. There are two considerations in developing the change implementation strategy. One is the direction of the change, which is either top-down or starting from the front line. Another is the source of the factors for change, which is either internal or external. A top-down change implementation refers to planned change because change emanates from the implementation of change policy from the top management. This means that change occurs through directives from the top expressed through change in the attitudes and behavior of employees as well as work processes and output. Top-down change implementation strategy is also similar to the hierarchical model of change, which places stress on the manner of utilizing the firm structure, compensation and incentive system, and other control systems to facilitate the achievement of the intended change. As such, senior management serves as architects of the change and manages the organization to achieve the desired change. The hierarchical model usually applies in changes involving the change in structure, staff, compensation systems, incentives, performance measures, and other similar change. Control serves as the means of ensuring the change. Rational connection between the planners and doers also ens ures change implementation, which means that the intended change should be rational in terms of firms and stakeholder benefits to be accepted by the doers, which is made up of the front line employees. However, this also has limitations such as the use of inaccurate information to support decisions over the change process and problems in motivating change at the lower levels of the organizational structure. In addition, this aligns with the economic perspective of organizational change. (DeWit Meyer, 2004, p. 297) Change commencing from the front line refers to the encouragement of creativity and innovation at the bottom level of the organization. The creation of an innovative working environment and implementation of incentives for innovative outputs encourage employees to determine solutions to problems they experience in the delivery of products and services and dealings with customers. The implementation of these solutions comprises the change. This has relation to the cultural model of change implementation, which emphasize on the participation of employees at the lower level in the formulation and implementation of strategy in terms of information feedback to their immediate managers or supervisors. As such, there is a fusion between the roles of thinkers and doers because managers participating in doing while employees also take the role of thinkers. Because of this, the change focuses on the infusion of organizational culture across the firm. Top management provides broad guidance in i nnovation. (Goold Quinn, 1990, p. 176) This works well for decentralized business firms. However, this also limitations including the assumption that the managers and employees are well-informed and able to make informed decisions on areas of change and sound solutions to front line problems. Focus is difficult to maintain in using this model. The change process would also likely involve costs and involves a certain period. Not all organizations can afford the high price for change from the grassroots or culture-based change or have the luxury of time to wait for protracted change. (Parsa, 1999, p. 73) There is also an alternative change implementation perspective, the collaborative model, which requires the participation of senior managers in the process of strategy formulation. This means that top management facilitates brainstorming, consensus building and other collaborative methods in planning the change so that top management also comprises the bridge for change implementation on the part of middle managers and employees. (Goold Quinn, 1990, p.176) As an integrative model, this addresses the problem of information inaccuracy likely to occur in the implementation of top-down change as well as the assumption of complete information at the grassroots in applying the cultural model (Parsa, 1999, p. 73). The distinction between thinkers and doers blurs but this does not completely disappear because of the assumption of the parties of dual roles. Based on the understanding of the planned change, which is expansion by establishing a 2nd hand furniture business and requiring prioritization of the interests of investors and customers, the appropriate change implementation strategy is the collaborative model. The change involves the acquisition of business units, restructuring of the organizational structure, and hiring of new employees. The acquisition of new business units is a strategic issue for resolution at the level of top management with feedback from senior managers to support sound decision-making. The hiring of new employees and restructuring of the organizational structures are management issues for resolution at the senior management level obtaining policy guidance and confirmation from top management while at the same time obtaining feedback from middle managers and employees on emerging problems and effective solutions. Senior managers serve as the fulcrum balancing or bridging change implementation and the change process. Successful change ensures the interests of investors and customers. Change implementation strategy could also be internal and external. Internal change implementation means that the parties involved in the change are members of the organization and the achievement of change depends on internal competencies. External change means that the parties facilitating change do not form part of the organization and infuse external competencies into the change process. However, these are not conflicting, which means change implementation could involve both internal and external factors, with the extent of combination depending on the requirements of change implementation. (Grant, 2002, pp. 132-133) The change implementation strategy for the planned establishment of a 2nd hand furniture business involves the combination of internal and external factors. The internal factors refer to top management directives or guidance, consensus building and feedback from senior managers, and feedback from middle managers and employees over issues and solutions emerging from the front line. The external factors include capital infusion from investors, feedback from external consultants, and acquisition of business units. 5. Addressing Resistance Key to the success of the change implementation strategy is the identification and understanding of the factors blocking the implementation of change. Kotter (1996, p. 3) described blocks as the entirety of the hindrances and issues experienced by business firms in the course of implementing change. This requires resolution to ensure the successful implementation of change. An impending block to change implementation is resistance or disagreement, disapproval or opposition to some aspects or all of the planned change. If unaddressed, resistance could lead to delays, accumulation of additional costs or even the failure of change implementation. Resistance finds explanation through the transition curve (Fisher, 2001, n.p.) [See Figure 1 below] that explains the response of parties to the change as a process. Upon learning of the planned change, the affected parties experience anxiety because of concerns over whether they can cope with the change. This could lead to happiness because of the realization that change, which could be anticipated, could happen or denial because of the inability to accept the change. However, this could immediately turn into fear because of concerns over the expectations of their role and the impact on them that could develop into depression when in the stage of uncertainty. This could then lead to two directions. One is towards gradual acceptance and moving forward as the affected parties develop confidence in the change and their roles in the implementation of change. Another is towards hostility and absolute resistance because of the inability to find their place and role in the expected change. Recognizing the adjustment to change as a process implies that business firms should address the fears and threats faced by the parties affected by the change to ensure that the attitudes and behaviors of stakeholders lead to acceptance and moving on. Based on the transition curve, resistance to the planned establishment of a 2nd hand furniture business would likely come managers and employees. The change involved the acquisition of new business units to comprise 50 percent of the business. The different nature of the business means change in existing practices and norms. The change also involves the restructuring of the organization, which means the removal of some positions and creation of new one and the removal or reassignment of people. These situations build fear among managers and employees. The change also involves the hiring of new personnel, which could be perceived as threats by existing employees. Specifically, there could be several sources of resistance to the planned change. One is the concern of employees over the changes in their employment status after the implementation of the change. The initial response to threats on employment status is resistance by fighting against the change to prevent the cancellation of positions and removal of personnel. Another is the concern over possible changes in their tasks if they remain employed with the company after the establishment of the new business. Employees experience security by developing knowledge and skills necessary to accomplish their work effectively. The change requires the accumulation of new knowledge and skills that challenge the security of employees. Still another is the different perspectives of managers and employees towards the purpose and impact of the planned change. The different in opinion could divide support for the change. Last is the adverse perception towards the change because of lack of consultation. The implementation of change without sufficient consultation, based on the perspective of managers and employees, could develop negative regard towards the change. Addressing the problems of resistance that develop in a process could also be through a process that requires strong leadership. Addressing resistance is a three-stage process [See Figure 2 below] that commences with the unfreezing of the present status of the organization, followed by the guided movement towards the new position, and concluding with the freezing of organizational life at the new position. This means top management, with feedback from senior managers, should determine the existing position of the company, articulate the new position, and implement policies or activities that move the organization from the current to the new position. This finds further explanation by the parallel three-step process. The first step is defrosting of the status quo, followed by the taking of actions that usher change, and concluding with the anchoring of the achieved changes using corporate culture. This also highlights the importance of leadership and adds the incorporation of the chan ge in the corporate culture as the means of ensuring that the organization remains at the new position. (Lewin, 1997, pp. 330-334) These three-step processes address resistance in a number of ways. Completing the first step means that the company has identified a rational justification for the change by understanding problems in the present status of the company and developing a vision of the outcome of the required change to address these problems and gain benefits. Implementing the second step requires the identification of activities and processes that encourage the intended behavior or action from all stakeholders. These behaviors and actions comprise movement towards the new position. The application of the third process through activities that secure the comfort and satisfaction of the organization towards change should ensure the stability of the organization in its new position. (Lewin, 1997, pp. 330-334) Specific actions or activities that could help the organization address resistance. First is the establishment of a sense of urgency over the need for change. It is common for people to require a reason for agreeing and participating in change. Leaders or top management has to provide an acceptable justification to expect change from managers and employees. Second is the development of the vision for change and communicating this to the parties affected. People also expect to make changes when they know where they are going. This means that leaders need to clarify where the change would lead the organization to expect managers and employees to understand the importance of their role in the change process and the impact of the change on them. Third is the establishment of a guiding coalition made-up of a team nurturing and supporting the change. The team has to exert influence because of their qualifications and other forms of influence towards managers and employees. Fourth is the em powerment of employees to participate in the change process with confidence. This means that leaders should provide room for the development of ideas on the part of managers and employees. This environment develops flexibility, which supports change. Fifth is the establishment of short-term goals that is realizable in a short period because people are not likely to cooperate in change without seeing positive results, no matter how minute, in the short-term. Sixth is the encouragement of additional changes to secure long-term or sustainable change to take advantage of the momentum of change by encouraging open communication and innovation. Seventh is the reinforcement of change through positive developments in the organization that justifies the better position of the company after the change. (Kotter, 1996, pp. 33-145) 6. Project Evaluation The evaluation of the project constitutes another important aspect of change management. Evaluating the project ensures the resolution of problems as well as the prevention of issues. One project evaluation model is the lifecycle of change management. The implementation of this mode commences with modifications at the model level and then the translation of these changes at the implementation level. This minimizes rework at the implementation level while at the same time developing a model for use in the assessment of the outcomes of change implementation. (Singh Shoura, 2006, p. 25) Simulation is a means of considering possible modification at the model level. In application to the establishment of a 2nd hand furniture business, simulation could apply to the assessment of different modes of mergers and acquisitions to determine the best means of achieving the desired change. The selected option is subject to implementation and expected outcomes, based on the model as the point of r eference. Another situation implementing the lifecycle model is the consideration of the role of leadership in the change implementation process. Ideally, leadership should develop the vision for change and guide movement towards the change through activities that comprise the change such as the assumption of new tasks by managers and employees. This ideal serves as the means of evaluating the role of leadership in actual practice. Managers should also facilitate consultations and feedback sharing within and across the different levels of the organization. This ideal comprises the point of reference in assessing the role of managers in the change process. Overall, the intention of the lifecycle model of change is that the organization should remain operational after the implementation of change but placed at a better position compared to the previous state before the change. The comparison of the difference between the old and present status in terms of strategic objectives tells so mething about the merit of the change and the effectiveness of the change implementation strategy. (Singh Shoura, 2006, p. 25) 7. Conclusion Change management is important in achieving strategic objectives. There are a number of elements for consideration in implementing change management. One is the clarification of the change by determining the problem or issue underlying the planned change. This is important to rationalize and justify the change. Another is the assessment of the change by weighing the forces that persuade and dissuade the change. The persuading factors should outweigh the dissuading factors to support the change. Still another is the identification of the stakeholders or the parties affected by the change together with the interests for purposes of the prioritization of interests in case of conflict. The development of the change implementation plan is also important because this determines the activities comprising change and the role of the parties in achieving the change. Understanding the blocks to change, particularly resistance is also important to ensure a smooth change process. Lastly, designin g a project evaluation is also an important element because this determines the extent of achievement of the change and areas for improvement in the course of implementation.

Cannibalism: Causes and Effects

Cannibalism: Causes and Effects CANNIBILISM IS RARE IN NATURAL SYSTEMS, IT IS GENERALLY NOT IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING POPULATION AND COMMUNITY DYNAMICS. DISCUSS. In ecology, cannibalism is defined as killing and consuming a conspecific individual. It can also be referred to as intraspecific predation. The key difference between cannibalism and other feeding acts such as necrophagy is that cannibalism relates only to conspecifics and includes the act of killing the prey or feeding on it whilst it is still alive. Cannibalism appears common in nature and has been recorded in over 1500 species. This essay will aim to highlight the fact that cannibalism is an important part of population and community dynamics in many natural systems. There are different types of cannibalistic behaviours that can occur. Size structured cannibalism is the consumption of a smaller or less advanced individual by a larger or more advanced individual. This is the most common type of intraspecific predation and takes place in a large variety of taxa including; 36 families of teleost fish (Smith and Reay 1991), crows (Yom-Tov), ground squirrels (Vestal 1991), dragonfly larva (Crowley et al 1987), isopods (Leonardsson 1991), reptiles (Keren-Rotem et al 2006) and salamanders (Rudolf 2006). Another form of size structured cannibalism is Infanticide cannibalism which is the consumption of the individuals own, or another conspecifics, offspring. Sexual cannibalism is when one member of a mating pair kills and eats the other member. This is restricted mainly to arthropods, insects and amphipods (Polis 1981). Cannibalism can even take place before birth as intrauterine cannibalism, where the largest embryos feed on smaller ones. It has been well studied in carnivorous sharks and teleost fish (Crespi and Semeniuk 2004). Sibling cannibalism can also occur amongst the newborns; this has been recorded in over 100 species (Polis 1981) and primarily occurs when the siblings differ in size or strength. Numerous studies have been carried out to discover if cannibalisms prevalence in nature relates to an important role in the dynamics of populations and communities. The majority of these studies have suggested that cannibalism may indeed have a large role in the regulation of many natural systems. When considering population dynamics, the components of the density dependent regulation of the population size is a major aspect. Cannibalism is of such importance in some species that it has been recorded as the main population regulating density dependent factor for them in their natural habitat. In young wolf spiders, this was tested using field and laboratory experiments (Wagner and Wise 1996). Field experiments showed that removing all natural enemies of the spiders did not reduce spider mortality as would have been expected if the population was regulated by predation. Also, increasing spiderling densities did not reduce the spiders prey density and only affected growth slightly, suggesting prey amount is not a key regulating factor. However, the effects of emigration could not be accounted for entirely which prompted more controlled experiments. These laboratory experiments showed that cannibalism and mortality rates amongst young spiders increased when prey availability decr eased, and higher densities exaggerated this effect (FIG 1.) Although this shows that cannibalism is sufficient to regulate the density of a population of wolf spiders, it does not confirm that in natural systems the enemies of wolf spiders are not the true cause of the mortality. It may only be when the natural enemies are removed that cannibalism takes over regulating the population density. In larval dragonflies it was shown that cannibalism was the main cause of mortality and that the amount of cannibalism was determined by density (Buskirk 1989). The mortality due to cannibalism was determined by comparing normal populations with populations that had their labial palps removed so they could not kill one another. It was found that non-cannibalism groups survived significantly better and this effect was greater at higher densities. The cannibalism groups showed reduced size distributions as only smaller instars were eaten. This meant that it was possible to fit the results to a predator prey model, that incorporated size structure, which indicated that cannibalism can affect size structure and result in a relatively lower number of young larvae. It is not uncommon for population structure to be affected by cannibalism; recruitment rate variations and biased age distributions have been accounted for by intraspecific predation in multiple species, such as teleost fish(Smith and Reay 1991), some polychaetes and molluscs(Polis 1981). Nevertheless, it has also being found that cannibalism can reduce fluctuations in recruitment rate by stabilizing population dynamics (Brownell 1985). Cannibalism in tribolium beetle populations was found to cause cycling in some life stages while stabilizing others (Benoit et al 1998). Separating the different stages of the lifecycle showed that the cycles in the larval and egg stages were due to larval cannibalism whilst cannibalism of eggs and pupa by adults stabilized the population structure and density. When adult cannibalism of pupa was stopped, the rate of population increase approached exponential. Although clearly an important factor in laboratory experiments, the effects of cannibalism in natural tribolium systems may be weakened due to many other factors influenced by density. Cannibalism can clearly have largely influential effects on the dynamics of individual populations, therefore any communities that these populations are involved in will also be affected. In IGP (Intraguild predation) systems, the predator, often omnivorous, and the prey share a common resource. Models not considering cannibalism designed to predict the structure of these food webs (Holt and Polis 1997) matched well with empiricial data found in studies with microbial systems (Morin 1999) but not others. The four main predictions of the non-cannibalism models were: For coexistence, prey must be more efficient at exploiting the common resource and predator must significantly gain from eating prey. The prey can survive at a lower amount of shared resource but in high enrichment conditions the predator will cause the extinction of the prey by apparent competition. A decrease in predator density will increase prey, therefore decreasing the resource. Only in a small area of the shared space is coexistence possible. However, the models which included cannibalism made predictions which differ from these but match better with empirical data and the observed fact that IGP systems are stable (Holyoak and Sachdev 1998) and widespread (Arim and Marquet 2004) in nature. These models, which considered cannibalism (Rudolf 2007), found that if the predator is cannibalistic it can exploit resources more effectively which may enable it to exist at lower shared resource levels. A change in the effect of enrichment will also occur so prey extinction does not happen at high resource densities. Furthermore, if the prey is cannibalistic, a decrease in predators will increase the shared resource density. This is due to less resource consumption by the predator stage and little or no change in resource consumption by the prey due to increased mortality and feeding from cannibalism from the lack of predators. This study showed that cannibalism was found to support the coexistence of the intraguild predator and prey. However, this only represents the findings of the predictions of a model which has not yet undergone a great deal of scrutiny. Nevertheless, it illustrates the necessity to account for cannibalism to enable accurate predictions of community dynamics as cannibalism effectively establishes an additional trophic level and population feedback loops. Consequently, it is incorrect for food web theory to view cannibalism merely as a contributor to density dependent mortality that has no effect on interacting species (Hart 2002). Incorporating interspecific and intraspecific interactions into food web theory which account for the size structure of the populations will undoubtedly improve understanding of community dynamics. Due to these inter-population feedback loops, nonlinear interactions within predator and prey systems can take place (Rudolf 2008). When the prey has cannibalistic individuals and the predator consumes these individuals, mortality in the prey due to cannibalism is reduced (FIG 2. A). This is a density mediated indirect interaction, just as if the predator consumed non-cannibalistic prey, increasing competition between the cannibals and the predators (FIG 2 B). Cannibalism can affect the behaviour of the smaller individuals of the population in multiple species (Crowley et al 1987, Persson and Eklov 1995, Keren-Rottem et al 2006, Leonardsson 1991) causing them to change their habitat or their activity. These general predation evading responses by the smaller individuals will reduce cannibalism and have a behaviour mediated indirect interaction by decreasing the interspecific predation rate (FIG 2. C). Higher interspecific predation rates causing a behaviour change, therefore reducing intraspecific predation(FIG 2 D) is also an behaviour mediated indirect interaction. These indirect interactions reduce the predators overall impact on the prey and can cause nonlinear relationships (Rudolf 2008). These nonlinear relationships have the potential to alter community dynamics significantly in predator prey systems with size structures. It is clear that to assert cannibalism as rare and unimportant in population and community dynamics is false. Cannibalisms regular occurrence in nature makes it undoubtedly a factor which must be considered as important. When cannibalism is considered within populations, both theories and empirical evidence have illustrated its varying impact on population dynamics. With this sort of influence at the population level, it seems surprising that an inclusion of cannibalism into general community dynamic theory is not common practice. Continued work by Volker Rudolf however, is showing cannibalisms role in predator prey interactions and trophic chains, yet empirical evidence of this is still lacking. Regrettably, until this has been collected, cannibalism may persist as possibly one of the most underappreciated factors that functions in community dynamics. The lack of studies investigating cannibalism in systems in which it appears scarce and unimportant is profound. Presumably, this is because it may seem meaningless to carry out or publish a study which proves cannibalism as non-existent or unimportant in a system that it was already previously assumed to be unaffected by it. For this reason, it is important to be vigilant when estimating the importance of cannibalism on a whole in understanding population and community dynamics. Nevertheless, to allow theories concerning population demography, predator prey interactions, trophic chains and other interactions to be implemented into natural systems, it would certainly be beneficial to consider cannibalisms role.