Thursday, November 28, 2019

Visiting the National Gallery of Art

Introduction Since the very humble beginnings of human civilization man has had ways of expressing his feelings and emotions about others, his society, environments, and significant historical events like battles with other communities or immigration episodes as well as his normal and bizarre imaginations. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Visiting the National Gallery of Art specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More These ways range from music, literary works to creative works of art like paintings. For instance, during Stone Age period man did Rock Art whereby he painted on the walls of his cave dwellings the animals he hunted and tools that he was making among other thrilling experiences in his life and lives of his ancestors as he understood it from those who narrated it to him. Art has been a major component of all human civilizations world over and has evolved alongside other aspects of our cultures to an extent tha t today the most talented creative artists like painters and musicians are celebrated individuals who hold esteemed social status envied by many. The purpose of this task is to discuss three works of art identified during my visit to the National Gallery of Art. Themes in Works of Art Every human action is underpinned by a certain motive. In other words, whatever man engages in is fundamentally a means of expressing his thoughts, interests and aspirations. Arguably then, man’s historical and present tangible achievements is a manifestation of his thoughts and aspirations. Works of art is a perfect means through which man expresses his feelings, ideas and perceptions about every aspect of his life. This fact explains why documented and well preserved works of art are reliable sources of information for historians and other scholars like anthropologists and artists seeking to understand certain aspects of peoples’ culture in the past. In a nut shell, all works of art ar e thematic in the sense that they have meaning which a keen observer can decipher as illustrated in the following works of art discussed in this task. The Battle of La Hogue (1778) Benjamin West painting titled The Battle of La Hogue is a classic piece of creativity. It was painted in 1778. The Battle of La Hogue is a historical painting. This painting is a depiction of the feud that ensued when Louis XIV of France attempted d to restore his fellow Catholic James II to the throne of England. After nine years Benjamin West used his artistic prowess to give a picture of the patriotic scene that has been dismissed by critics as a mere propaganda. Thematically, this painting represents turbulent political and power happenings in Western European countries as well as the role that religion was playing in politics.Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Mortlake Terrace (1827) Mortlake Terra ce painting is an 1827 art work by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Mortlake Terrace painting is an environmental portrait. This painting portrays Mortlake Terrace which was situated next to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. It is a perfect representation of British topography of the early 1880s.Thematically, this piece is a show of the artist feeling and perception of the changing British landscapes. The Death of the Earl of Chatham (1779) The Death of the Earl of Chatham was done by the Boston-based portraitist John Singleton Copley in 1779.This painting is a representation of the tragic death of William Pitt, the 1st Earl of Chatham on April 1778.In the middle of his speech during a discussion about colonial radicals, Pitt suffered from stroke and met his death one month later. His death meant a lot because he was one of the leading British ambassadorial moderates during the important American War of independence. Thematically, it is a representation of politics of those time an d those who were driving the political agendas of the day. Conclusion Art is an important component of our culture which offers talented individuals a perfect means through which to manifest our feelings and emotions about all aspects of our life. It offers people an opportunity for people to portray their thoughts and aspirations as well as those of the early members of the society. It captures perfectly our experiences and perceptions regarding everything that we encounter in our day to day activities Lazzari and Schlesier (2006). Works Cited Lazzari, Margaret and Schlesier, Dona. Exploring art: Â  a global, thematic approach. Belmont, CA: Â  Thomson, 2006. Print.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Visiting the National Gallery of Art specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This essay on Visiting the National Gallery of Art was written and submitted by user Lexi T. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

T4A(P) Tax Slip for Canadian Income Taxes

T4A(P) Tax Slip for Canadian Income Taxes A Canadian T4A(P) tax slip, or Statement of Canada Pension Plan Benefits, is issued by Service Canada to tell you and the Canada Revenue Agency how much you received in Canada Pension Plan  benefits during a tax year and the amount of income tax that was deducted. Canada Pension Plan benefits include retirement, survivor, child, and death benefits. Read on to learn important information about T4A(P) tax slips, including the deadline for submitting them, how to file these forms and what to do if your  T4A(P) is missing. Deadline and Filing the T4A(P) T4A(P) tax slips must be issued by the last day of February the year after the calendar year to which the T4A(P) tax slips apply.  When you file a paper income tax return, include copies of the T4A(P) tax slip you received. You can also file your income tax return using: NETFILE, an electronic tax-filing service that allows you to send your individual income tax and benefit return directly to the CRA​EFILE, where you  prepare your own income tax return then take it to a service provider to file it electronically for a fee In either case,  keep copies of your T4A(P) tax slips with your records for six years in case the CRA asks to see them. Missing Tax Slips If you do not receive your T4A(P) tax slip, contact Service Canada at  1-800-277-9914  during regular business hours. You will be asked for your Social Insurance Number. Even if you havent received your T4A(P) tax slip, file your income tax return by the deadline anyway to avoid penalties for filing your income taxes late. Calculate your Canada Pension Plan benefits as well as deductions and credits you can claim using any information you have. Include a note saying what you have done to get a copy of the missing tax slip. Include copies of any statements and information you used in calculating the benefits income and deductions for the missing tax slip. Tax Slip Information You can see what a  T4A(P) tax slip  looks like via the CRA website. You will also find more information about what is included in each box on the T4A(P) and how to deal with it when filing your income tax return through the site. Access more information on what is listed on specific boxes of the T4A(P), including: Taxable CPP benefitsIncome tax deductedYour retirement benefitSurvivor benefit The web page also provides information on the child, death, post-retirement benefits, and more. Other T4 Tax Slips Other T4 tax information slips include: T4:  Statement of remuneration paidT4A: Statement of pension, retirement, annuity, and other incomeT4A(OAS):  Statement of old age securityT4E: statement of Employment Insurance and other benefits Familiarize yourself with these tax slips to ensure that you file your taxes correctly but also receive all of the benefits you are owed.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Marketing influences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing influences - Essay Example The four elements of marketing mix which are product, place, promotion and price affects consumers in various different ways. This project aims to project a report on marketing influence on consumer making decision making and also aims to show how the marketing influence which are product influence, price influence, promotional influence and place influence. The influence which would be discussed in the rest of the project is about promotional influence that a marketer has over its customers to influence the consumers to purchase the products. Marketing strategy varies as per the involvement of a consumer while purchasing a product. Promotional influence is the tool which is mainly used by the marketers to promote and sell its product and is the most effective tool in attracting consumers. For a high involvement product marketers have huge responsibilities. Promotion is an important tool and it should be informative and extensive. A good and effective advertisement helps the consumers with information that they need to make the purchase decision and also stating the advantage of owing the desired product. For example the two page advertisement made by the Toyota Company for its Toyota’s Camry Hybrid provided extensive information of the benefits of driving the vehicle. The photo of the young eyed girl along with the globe appeals to consumers to care for the future and the caption on the interior photos of the vehicle notes its unique technology which benefits the consumers in its decision process. In case of low i nvolvement product the consumer makes the decision of making it only after entering the store and when the consumers see the product. Thus to influence the customers, in store promotion is an important tool which is mostly used by marketer. Marketing manager puts on special attention to packaging so that the product can

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Event reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Event reflection paper - Essay Example The speaker spoke about the way the history of gender disparity has been documented and the way this forms the attitudes that exist within the community today. Although they noted that there has been a great change in the public attitudes on matters of gender, they appreciate there is still a lot that has to be done to change these attitudes. The history that exists today should avoid depicting woman as an inferior person in the society as this suppresses the efforts that have been put to develop the society and liberate it from gender discrimination. In their opinion, gender disparities have to a great extent affected community development in the contemporary society (LSE, 2014). In their conclusion, they stated that the history that promotes gender disparities should be abolished if the world has to realise its potential for development. The most interesting idea in this event is the opinion that gender equality if one of the indicators of community development. From a critical analysis, the speakers in this event feel that gender issues development is one of the strategies the government should develop to win its war against poverty in the society. While this may be a controversial point, it is clear that there is a lot of support for this idea from many scholars and world organizations (Elson, 2009). The issue of sexuality in the society today has become an important factor for the government today. The government puts a lot of efforts in empowering women to help them acquire education and employment within the society. Multinational organizations such as the United Nations have established gender equality laws that seek to protect the weaker gender to ensure that they have legal rights and are treated the same way the counter gender. The wellbeing of a country is attributed to the gender development within the so ciety. Those countries that higher gender gap are regarded as undeveloped. The idea that economic development can be related to

Monday, November 18, 2019

Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Analysis - Essay Example On the other hand, the Semite is described as a type of leach upon all that is good which the Aryan establishes. If an Aryan explores new lands, develops industry and establishes an organized peace, the Semite will soon follow seeking to get gain through some nefarious scheme or plan. A theme that is visited several times in the article is the subtle nature of the Semite. The author describes them as incapable of establishing anything in an honest manner, so they live by subtle infiltration of established societies and governments. The author describes an invasion of the Semites as not one of military might, but of one cloaked in the secrecy of financial transactions and governmental intrigue. The Semite is described as one who employs â€Å"wily tricks† to accomplish his ultimate goal, namely the overthrow of the noble Aryan so that the Semite can rule over the lovers of virtue. The final point of this reading is to show that the Semite is especially adept at mercantile trade and finance, so these areas are to be regarded with caution and mistrust by the Aryan. Drumont reiterates that the Semite is incapable of invention, so his source of power will come by controlling the worlds of trade and finance. These crafty people must not be trusted because their goal is to overthrow the race that rightly deserves to rule, namely, the Aryans.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Strategy of Marketing and its impact

Strategy of Marketing and its impact Strategy is a long term actions/plans which are made by some organization to achieve their peculiar targets/goals. (link 1) According to Michael Porter the strategy is all about the mixture of different activities which are differentiated from competitors to pronounce unique mix of value. To him its all about differentiating yourself from customers as well as competitors. (link 2) Without a strategy the organization is like a ship without a rudder, going around in circles Joel Ross Michael Kami (lec-1) Marketing strategy: A marketing strategy is a process or model to allow a company or organization to focus limited resources on the best opportunities to increase sales and thereby achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. (link-3) The set of objectives which an organization allocates to its marketing function in order to support the overall corporate strategy, together with the broad methods to achieve these objectives Chartered institutes of marketing (lec-2) The above two examples show that , marketing strategy is actually the strategy that support overall corporate and which a company has to use efficiently to market its products on best opportunities while converging the limited resources to achieve its goal. Marketing planning: Marketing planning is a logical sequence and a series of activities leading to the setting of marketing objectives and the formulation of plans for achieving them (link-4) Now we can interrelate all the above terms with the help of diagram below. Business Goals Market Strategy Marketing Mix Marketing Plan The above diagram shows that an organization has to set business goals which are actually the target of company or mission statement. The next level comes of marketing strategy which is esteemed rule that company has acquired to market their products. After establishing the market strategy company moves forward towards marketing mix in which it define the whole marketing mix i-e Product, Pricing, Place and Distribution. Afterwards the process of writing of marketing plans comes in which company has to describe the whole market activities which are used to acquire business goals. (link-3) 1.2 Impacts of strategy on marketing planning: Under this heading the strategies of organization will be discussed and the impacts of that strategies on the marketing of organization will be noticed. What effect that strategies will throw on organizations long run and short run will also be discussed. Here we are talking about Fresher marketing plans. As described earlier it is a Pakistani local company that is making 100% pure juices and this is one of the marketing strategy of Fresher that make it distinguishes from others. The company has many competitors in the same line of 100% fresh juices i-e Nestle, Shezan, Minute Maid etc. But the Fresher is successful yet to maintain the no. 1 position in the brands of 100% pure juices. And also Fresher is successful to maintain its positioning against Nestle and other strong brands like Minute Maid. The benefit what Fresher will get due to this strategy is that competitors are not attaching it from all the sides. Only fresh juice companies are interested to attach its strategies. It has no concern with any other product line of competitors. Another strategy of Fresher is that they are using PET BOTTLES instead of juice boxes which made their product easy to use for the customers and the look of their brand product is totally different from others. They are also using SHRINK WRAPS for the packaging of their products. The one more thing that makes their product discriminate is tags hanged with the bottle of juice on which a little description of brand and ingredients are written. These tags make the look of the product more elegant and it again helps to make a strong positioning of the brand. The promotion strategy that Fresher following is WORD OF MOUTH. They are using any other strong promotion strategy which again differentiate the brand from others in market. But as they are not focusing the advertisement strategy now when they that much stabled in market, they can spoil their positioning as well. Fresher has strong distribution strategy which has been helping the brand to be strong so far i-e they used ROLL OUT strategy of distribution. They started the distribution of their product from their own city and then they spread it in other cities with the passage of time when they had grown enough in the market. The strategy has a benefit that other strong competitors like Nestle, Minute Maid etc didnt notice such small brand and didnt take action for that. In the meanwhile Fresher entered in the market and had got a strong market positioning. Fresher had got another benefit of this strategy that is they maintained their resources with it. They started distributing their product in their city only and when they have earned enough money they spread it over other cities of Pakistan as well. 1.3 Component parts of a marketing plan: Parts/Categories with which a marketing plan is made up of are called components of marketing plan. Here the heading will elaborate all of its parts one by one. Executive Summary: It is the first component of the marketing plan which explains the summary of the whole marketing plan for the quick review by the management of the company. Mostly three issues are mentioned in this part. The Challenge Challenge consists of a little elaboration of product for which marketing plan is made and the summary of goals such as sales figures and strategic goals.. Company Analysis Company analysis mostly consists of the answers to following questions What are goals of the company? To what thing it focuses more? What are the strengths of that company? From what culture it belongs? What are weaknesses of the company? And in what market shares it exists? etc. Competitor Analysis In competitors analysis a short report about competitors weaknesses, strengths, market position and market shares is presented. (link-5) Current marketing situation: Its a marketing audit which shows the current market situation of the company by comparing it with the past situation of its own and with the market situation of competitors. It presents data about the market, product, competition and distribution. SWOT analysis: SWOT analysis is basically the analysis in which strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the product (to be marketed) are given to have a complete look on companys analysis. The firms internal environment presents strength and weaknesses while external provides opportunities and threats. Objective and issues: This heading defines the objectives of company in different areas such as market share, sales, profit etc. Also this category will deal with all the issues and problems that effect these objectives. Marketing strategy: In this category a marketing strategy or approach is recommended to achieve the particular objective. It is the main and important part of marketing strategy structure. The strategies will elaborate the marketing mix (product, price, distribution, promotion) as well. Action programs: In this step a report is given about details of marketing strategy. The report answers such questions like how will all plan start? Who will do it? What will be the cost of all plan? Etc. Budgets: The expected budget for the specific strategy is provided in the report along with the profit and loss statement that forecasts the expected financial outcomes from the plan. Controls: Indicates how the progress of the plan will be monitored. (lec-5) 1.4 Risks and advantages in the devised marketing plan: Risks: Fresher is having a big threat in the market due to its lack of advertisement strategy now when it has gain that much credibility. Other competitors in the market has built strong image through their advertisement promotion strategy. Now it is the time when Fresher might think of making a strong and highly attractive advertisement to throw behind all the competitors. Fresher is not having a properly educated team of employees and it dont have proper departments such as HR department, RD department, Marketing department etc. So the employees working in the competitors firm are more competent and they can make proper decision at proper time. Fresher has to work on it as well. It may form a proper team so that they can compete in the leading market. As Fresher employees are not that educated in their particular field, they have disagreement in the selection of strategies. This is the major risk for the Fresher in the market as it can lead to fall of the company. Advantages: Fresher has specialized workers only in the field of making juices. Their worker knows the formula and they are best trained workers in juice making as they have to make only one product line at one time and they concentrate fully on it while competitors of Fresher have more than one product line so their workers have less command on juice making. The earlier promotion strategy of Fresher (word of mouth strategy) is quite impressive as no competitor can concentrate on upcoming new brand in this way. It gave Fresher to expand rapidly in market. The different packaging of Fresher bottle made them different and they expand undoubtedly in the fresh juice market. The biggest advantage to Fresher was the introduction of 100% fresh juice first in the market which make them differentiate from the competitors and thus they expand rapidly.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay --

Sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. These are just a few of the things that summon countless people to The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday and Saturday nights. An abundance of teens and people are either pulled in by someone in their family or group of friends and there are those who are merely pulled in and attracted by the peculiarity of the name of the show that brings up and causes a sense of interest and curiosity. What pulled me into it was my group of close of friends and their parents who grew up and relive the show and movie every Halloween. Many people go to discover themselves in a setting or group where they feel that they fit in and are accepted. Those people that normally get called freaks or loser go to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show because it has become a meeting ground where they are not labeled as a freak or loser. Each and everyone that attends the Rocky Horror Show have a unique individuality concerning them that is distinguished by all at each and every showing . Every time you see the Rocky Horror Show, you meet others who are like you and those who share the same interests as you. This sense of community and belonging helps to build friendships and bonds between the audience and the cast. It also creates a feeling of a second family in the theater and a unique feeling that goes with you no matter where you are in the theatre. Every week before the show, the cast calls up a random number of â€Å"virgins†, or first timers to the show, who are chosen to be called up in front of the audience. This in the real world outside of the theatre is called faking an orgasm. This humiliation is all in jolly good fun and is seen as the rite of way into the Rocky Horror community. The first time I went to the sh... ...black eyeliner and â€Å"Misfit makeup†, as my friends called it, and left to go join my friends, groupies and new family at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Water guns, playing cards, toast, rice, newspapers and the never ending â€Å"Time Warp† are always going to be part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show that has been accepting freaks, weirdoes and misfits since 1973. The people, the virgins, and the experiences may change through the years and the places in which you attend will too, but one thing will always remain the same. Every Friday and Saturday night in theaters across the nation and Great Britain, these people gather with their friends and family to watch one of the best movies and plays of the modern, psychedelic generation. When you go experience the show, you will never forget that being yourself is the absolute best thing you can ever do for you. Essay -- Sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. These are just a few of the things that summon countless people to The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday and Saturday nights. An abundance of teens and people are either pulled in by someone in their family or group of friends and there are those who are merely pulled in and attracted by the peculiarity of the name of the show that brings up and causes a sense of interest and curiosity. What pulled me into it was my group of close of friends and their parents who grew up and relive the show and movie every Halloween. Many people go to discover themselves in a setting or group where they feel that they fit in and are accepted. Those people that normally get called freaks or loser go to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show because it has become a meeting ground where they are not labeled as a freak or loser. Each and everyone that attends the Rocky Horror Show have a unique individuality concerning them that is distinguished by all at each and every showing . Every time you see the Rocky Horror Show, you meet others who are like you and those who share the same interests as you. This sense of community and belonging helps to build friendships and bonds between the audience and the cast. It also creates a feeling of a second family in the theater and a unique feeling that goes with you no matter where you are in the theatre. Every week before the show, the cast calls up a random number of â€Å"virgins†, or first timers to the show, who are chosen to be called up in front of the audience. This in the real world outside of the theatre is called faking an orgasm. This humiliation is all in jolly good fun and is seen as the rite of way into the Rocky Horror community. The first time I went to the sh... ...black eyeliner and â€Å"Misfit makeup†, as my friends called it, and left to go join my friends, groupies and new family at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Water guns, playing cards, toast, rice, newspapers and the never ending â€Å"Time Warp† are always going to be part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show that has been accepting freaks, weirdoes and misfits since 1973. The people, the virgins, and the experiences may change through the years and the places in which you attend will too, but one thing will always remain the same. Every Friday and Saturday night in theaters across the nation and Great Britain, these people gather with their friends and family to watch one of the best movies and plays of the modern, psychedelic generation. When you go experience the show, you will never forget that being yourself is the absolute best thing you can ever do for you.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

The Survey of Factors Influencing Kolej Asa Students

The survey of factors influencing Kolej Asa students in choosing Diploma in AccountancyCourse as their major 1 CHAPTER 1 1. 0 INTRODUCTION The introduction of this study, will discuss the background of the survey of factors influencingKolej Asa students in choosing Diploma in Accountancy Course as their major. The significant and objectives of the project, the limitation encountered during the investigation of this project. 1. 1 OVERVIEW OF STUDYAccountancy  is the process of communicating financial information about a  business entity  to users such as  shareholders  and  managers . The communication  is generally in the form of  financial statements  that show in money terms the  economic resources  under the control of management; the art lies in selecting the information that is relevant to the user and is reliable. The  principles  of accountancy are applied to business entities in three divisions of practical art, named accounting,  bookkeeping, andà ‚  auditing.The  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants  (AICPA) defines accountancy as â€Å"the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof. † 2 Accounting is thousands of years old; the earliest accounting records, which date back more than 7,000 years, were found in  Mesopotamia  (Assyrians). The people of that time relied on primitive accounting methods to record the growth of crops and herds. Accounting evolved, improving over the years and advancing as business advanced.Early accounts served mainly to assist the memory of the  businessperson  and the audience for the account was the  proprietor  or record keeper alone. Cruder forms of accounting were inadequate for the problems created by a business entity involving multiple  investors, so  double-entry bookkeeping  first em erged in northern Italy in the 14th century, where trading ventures began to require more  capital  than a single individual was able to invest. The development of  joint stock companies  created wider audiences for accounts, as investors without firsthand knowledge of their  operations  relied on accounts to provide the requisite information.This development resulted in a split of accounting systems for internal (i. e. management accounting) and external (i. e. financial) purposes, and subsequently also in accounting and disclosure regulations and a growing need for independent attestation of external accounts by  auditors. 3 Today, accounting is called â€Å"the language of business† because it is the vehicle for reporting financial information about a business entity to many different groups of people. Accounting more concentrates on reporting to people inside the business entity is called  management accounting.It used to provide information to employees, managers,  owner-managers  and  auditors. Management accounting is concerned primarily with providing a basis for making management or operating decisions. Accounting that provides information to people outside the business entity is called  financial accounting  and provides information to present and potential shareholders,  creditors  such as  banks  or vendors,  financial analysts,  economists, and  government agencies. Because these users have different needs, the presentation of financial accounts is very structured and subject to many more rules than management accounting.The body of rules that governs financial accounting in a given jurisdiction is called  Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. 4 1. 2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY Accounting is a significant subject in the middle of students. Essentially accounting process involves record keeping—recording, classifying, reporting and interpreting economic events. However accountingat the mo ment is somuch more. Currently, the accountant is an even more precious member of the corporate strategic team with involvement in the corporation’s planning, evaluating and forecasting of the future.According to Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib b TunRazak (Speech on The Occasion of the ICAEW Malaysia Achievers’ Ball, 2004) by the year 2020 in line to achieved residential country status it has been predictable that Malaysia needs 60,000 accountants. The figure now stands at 21,000. All the way through Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW’s) hard work, and together with the Malaysian accountancy bodies, can show to students the charisma of an accounting profession and lend a hand to correct any misconceptions on the career. For the Diploma Accountancy course in Kolej Asa, students are being exposed to the importance of current situation of our country. Students require to completing 7semester in order to gain their D iploma in Accountancy. Understanding students’ perceptions of accounting is a very significant first step in the effort to attract the best to the accounting profession. This paper aims to study the factors such as personal factors, reference group and job related factors that may possiblymanipulate Kolej Asa students in choosing accounting course as their foremost. 1. PROBLEM STATEMENT Even though there are many opportunities created in the accounting profession, there are also many challenges the accounting profession has to contend with (Mladenovic, 2000; Parker, 2001). In today’s world accounting profession is facing one challenge that is rehabilitating the public perception of the accounting profession itself, especially in the aftermath of the many high-profile scandals in the United States involving corporate giants such as Enron, WorldCom and others. 6 Choosing a course to study after â€Å"Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia† (SPM) is not easy.On the one hand, it can be quite confusing due to the plethora of courses and institutions available to the student to choose from. On the other hand there are many pitfalls that a student should avoid in order to make the right choice (Loke, 2008). Several programs and marketing material are design by The American Institute of Certified PublicAccountants (AICPA) and some state societies to attract students to accounting. According to AICPA research conducted in 2002, the number of graduates of accounting programs, undergraduate and graduate, declined by 21. 3%, from 59,140 in 1990/1991 to 46,555 in 2000/2001.In Canada, the UK and the US the decline in quantity and or quality of students majoring in accounting and entering the profession has been an issue of concern for several decades, (Adams et al. , 1994; Stice and Swain, 1997). Recent evidence from The USA, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada indicates that professional accountancy practice is becoming less attractive to accounting graduates and trainees from universities and colleges, and that professional accountancy firms are concerned about losing bright accounting candidates to other professions (Ahmed et al. 1997; Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Felton et al. , 1994; Marriot and Marriot, 2003). 7 This research intends to find the relationship regarding the factors that influence student’s choice in accounting course. According to Carolyn, Susan and Brian (2005) understanding students’ perceptions of accounting is an important first step in the effort to attract the best to the accounting profession. Many studies have been done at universities on the universities level for example research by Cohen and Hanon (1993), Ahmed et al. (1994) and Saeman et al. (1999). 1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Based on the previous discussion, research question is to help out the researcher to respond and clarify the problem statement. The research questions are: i. Is there any significant relationship between â€Å"personal factorsà ¢â‚¬  and student’s choice of accounting course? ii. Is there any significant relationship between â€Å"reference group† and students choice of accounting course? iii. Is there any significant relationship between â€Å"job related factors† and students choice of accounting course? 8 1. 5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The objectives of this research are: i.To investigate the relationship between personal factors and the choice of the Kolej Asa students’ in accounting course. ii. To investigate the relationship between reference group and the choice of the Kolej Asa students’ in accounting course. iii. To investigate the relationship between jobs related factors and the choice of the Kolej Asa students’ in accounting course. 9 1. 6 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY Accounting profession is becoming less attractive to accounting graduates and trainees from universities and colleges, and that professional accountancy firms are concerned about losing bright acco unting candidates to other professions.The misinformation about accounting effects students’ decisions in choosing accounting as a potential career or major. However, when students are exposed to more information about accounting, there is a significant increase in their interest in accounting (Saudagaran, 1996). The AICPA and some state societies have introduced several programs and marketing materials designed to attract students to accounting. Employers and universities also have a stake in attracting students to accounting careers (Hardin al. , 2000).Recruiting efforts should begin early and should emphasize the challenging nature of accounting work and provide specific information about starting salaries. Rather than avoiding discussion of the recent accounting scandals e. g. Enron, recruiters should considering using them as an illustration of the critical role accounting plays in our capital markets. 10 1. 6. 1 STUDENTS A good starting place is to listen to high school students’ perceptions of theaccounting profession. In Malaysia, students have to make a decision in choosing a course to study afterSPM.Business studies has become one of the main courses offered in many tertiaryinstitutions be it public or private universities or colleges. Students choosing a businesscourse will have to major in one the fields such as accountancy, finance, marketing,human resources or business administration. While there has been increasing effortsamong the universities and colleges in offering the courses that matches the students’qualifications and needs, very little research has been conducted on the factors thatactually influences the students’ choice. 1. 6. KOLEJ ASA This research will subsequently help those producers to know more about the opinion of accounting students on influences on accounting course provided in Kolej Asa. 11 1. 6. 3 FUTURE RESEARCHER This research will also benefit future researcher sources of in information if the y are in fasted to do the topic related with this study. They also can extend to the other factors that studied in this research. 1. 7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1. 7. 1 SUBJECT This research is focus on the student’s influences factors on accountancy course in Kolej Asa. 1. 7. LOCATION Kolej Asa in Rawang town has been chosen. The reason of choosing is, Rawang town area has more students compare to rural area. 12 1. 7. 3 RESPONDENTS The student consists of accountancy course provided in Kolej Asa. The specific chosen sample for this survey is in Kolej Asa. In this survey there are 50 students from accountancy course were being chosen. This research is essentiallyfocused on students who study accountancy course. 1. 8 LIMITATION I do aware that my research is not possible to accomplish due availability of current resource.Besides that, shortage of time is the main constraint to me. In addition to that, the information that I obtain from secondary data might not be accurate. The subjec t area of my research is student’s satisfaction. Therefore, customer perception will not be included. As this research is conducted at Kolej Asa in Rawang, the result will not reflect the view of student in other state within Malaysia. Alongside, the college authorities are not co-operate enough, disallowed survey on their student. 13 1. 8. 1 TIMEIn my research, I realize that shortage of time is the main constraints to me due to the reason that we just provide 4 months to conduct the survey. With the given 4 month of time, it is actually very limited amount of time for me to collect data and report analysis. Therefore, due tom the reason above with lacking of time, I had to settle this research for non-random sample of population. 1. 8. 2 COST By conducting this survey, we realize that the semester holiday of Kolej Asa will be factor that will be the factor that will affect this research.From this, we know that semester holiday of Kolej Asa is different from other College. T herefore, it is very hard to estimate the holiday of Kolej Asa and due to this research, I have to waste some cost in order to prepare my research as well as some expenses in order to do the questionnaire papers to conduct my survey. 14 1. 8. 3 RESPONDENT The respondents are the student study in Kolej Asa at Rawang. Therefore, this research is conducted student at Kolej Asa; Rawang town such as other colleges will not be the respondent of the research. 1. CONCLUSION The chapter 1 is the introduction to the reader on the topic of my research. It started out with a general introduction about the intended study before deductively moving towards narrowing down the research scope. I have given a brief introduction about accounting and the factors influencing them. Besides that, I had identified the subject area of my study: student’s preferences towards in accounting course. Further, problem faced by the accounting course have been clearly stated and identified in the problem stat ement section.I had list out 3 research question related to this research and subsequently the research objective to the research question. Significant of the study have been clearly mention in this chapter in which this research will benefit the students, Kolej Asa and future researchers. This study will be specifying on the students influencing in accountingcourse. 15 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEWAPTER 2 2. 1 Introduction This chapter reviews factors that are significant to student’s choice in accounting majoring.Using quite a few present literatures, we will talk about factors such as individual personal factors, reference group, job related factors and institutional factors that manipulate students in choosing accounting course as their foremost. There were researches done in United States of America and Australia in identifying factors influencing student’s choice of business major. Some of this research examined the subjective factors including social, cultural, so ciological, psychological and personal factors, some looked at the objective factors and many others took into consideration both categories.The dramatic decrease in both accounting graduates and enrollments prompted the AICPA to undertake a comprehensive survey of the factors causing the downturn in accounting majors. The AICPA engaged the Taylor Consulting and Research Group toconduct the survey and the report of the study can be found on the AICPA web site (AICPA, 2001, http://accounting. rutgers. edu/raw/aaa/aapg/spr01/spr01-6. htm). 16 The findings reveal that the accounting profession is facing several critical challenges, including the awareness and understanding by students about accounting careers as well as negative perceptions of the profession.High school educators have a relatively low opinion of accounting as a career option for high school students (Hardin et al, 2000). Hardin et al. identified three major hurdles in changing high school teachers’ and studentsà ¢â‚¬â„¢ perceptions of the accounting profession. First, it is difficult to get the message that accounting is a challenging and rewarding career to the teachers who interact with the best and brightest students. Second, when accounting is offered in high schools, it is offered as part of a vocational track.Third, many students say that their counselors had discouraged them from taking high school accounting because it was not for college-bound students. Students who attend high schools that offer accounting courses and even students who take accounting in high school are no more likely to take a college accounting class than those who attend high schools that do not teach accounting. It appears that having a high school accounting class does not encourage students to study accounting in college. 17 Accounting education has been the subject of considerable debate since 1980s.Prior research documents that introductory accounting students study accounting with negative perception on a ccounting. Accounting is attractive to the students in terms of professional, but â€Å"negative views regarding the nature and role of accounting persist† (Fisher and Murphy, 1995, p56). Similar findings have been documented by other researchers. The accounting majors also because of less attractive in accounting education. According to Albrecht and Sach (2001), most introductory accounting classes often focus on the preparation of financial data rather than on its use.In that case Students are not exposing to the business operation financially and they feel that accounting course are too hard and need more time to study. Nowadays preparation and dissemination will be faster, easy and not an expensive process due to advance in technology. In Malaysia, business studies has become one of the main courses offered in many tertiary institutions be it public or private universities or colleges. Students choosing a business course will have choose to major in one the fields such as accountancy, finance, marketing, human resources or business administration.While there has been increasing efforts among the universities and colleges in offering the courses that matches the students’ qualifications and needs, very little research has been conducted on the factors that actually influences the students’ choice of major. 18 Research in other countries such as United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia have established that students’ choice of major appear to be influenced by several factors ranging from personal to job related factors.Gender, race, their quantitative skills, students’ interest in the subject, expected marketability, performance in major classes, the approachability and teaching reputation of the faculty are among the factors that have some influence on the students’ choice. 2. 2 Factors influencing students’ choice 2. 2. 1 Reference Group Students’ norms, attitudes, and values through dir ect interaction are providing by reference group including family and non-family groups. Previous studies confirmed that reference groups either family or non-family groups who have significant amount of interaction could influence student’s choice of major.Other studies have found that students’ decision to major is influence by referents. Study confirmed that parents do influence students’ choice of business major except for those who chose accountancy as their major. Parents, followed by instructors had a strong influence on students’ choice of majors. 19 Parent’s occupations are also influence students’ choice of business major. Research has showed that the instructors including high school teachers and college lecturers play a significant role in influencing a student’s final choice of business major.This study aims to explore if Malaysian students with a different cultural background are influence by either parents or educators in choosing their business major. 2. 2. 2 Personal factors An important selection factor is the genuine interest in the subject. Many research revealed that one of the significant factors identified that influences their choice of major are student’s interest in the subject found that factors such as interest in the subject, ability to do the major is important for the students in making such choice. Other factor such as quantitative skills and intellectually challenging also influences student’s choice.When students considered that accounting is interesting and enjoyable they are more likely to choose accounting as a major. This finding was further supported by results of where intrinsic rewards such as enjoyment of the study of the topics studied in accounting, were a predictor of intention to undertake a career in accounting. 20 Other research findings indicated that students with better quantitative skills tended to choose either accountancy or finance as business major whereas those who chose to major in marketing, management and management information system were those with weaker quantitative skills.This is consistent with the finding of who suggest that accounting requires good number skills. 2. 2. 3 Job related factors A number of studies have indicated that in accounting students’ discipline choice, a job satisfaction is important. Many research indicated that student’s choice of business major are influenced by higher earnings, prestige and career advancement discover students who chose other business major were more influenced by personal and normative factors and students who choose accounting as their major feel that compensation, career opportunities and prestige were significant factors that influence them.The findings from many other studies also support the result that student’s choice of business major are influenced by higher earnings, prestige and career advancement. This means that accounting studentsâ⠂¬â„¢ discipline choice has traditionally been heavily influenced by earnings potential and job market conditions or opportunities. 21 There should be a general awareness among students on the career opportunities available in Malaysia and overseas and level of compensation for accountants as it has been widely published in the local newspapers.With the amount of news publicity given to a particular profession, it is interesting to find out if these job-related factors are the key factors influencing student in choosing accountancy as a major in Kolej Asa. 2. 3 Summary Based on the literature discuss above, this paper investigates if the personal factors, reference group and job related factors have significant influence to the KOLEJ ASA students in choosing accounting course as their major. 22 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3. 1 IntroductionThe purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influencing Kolej Asa students in choosing Diploma Accounting course as their major. Survey based methodology was used in this research to obtain data from the respondents namely first semester Diploma Accountancy students from KOLEJ ASA. It was a basic question regarding their choice of choosing Diploma Accountancy course in KOLEJ ASA. The questionnaire was developed to study the factors that influence students in choosing Diploma Accountancy course as their major. The data for this study was collected through a self-administered questionnaire.In the survey, respondents were asked to indicate the influence of four different factors on their selection of Diploma Accountancy. The set of four possible influences on decision to choose Diploma Accountancy course were determined from internal and external factors. 23 3. 2 Research Theoretical Framework ? The research theoretical framework is presented in the figure 1 below: Figure 1 – Research Theoretical Framework |Personal Factors | |Reference Group | | | STUDENT’S CHOICE | |Job Related Factors | †¢ In th is framework the dependent variable is a students’ choice while the independent variables are personal factors, reference group and job related factors. 24 3. 3 Hypotheses Development Paolillo and Estes (1982), Zhang (2006), Malgawi et al. (2005) and Pimpa, (2007) studied on the factors which influence the choice of course. From these previous researcheshypotheses were developed in finding the relationship of the three factors influencing students in choosing accounting course as a major. 3. . 1 Personal factors Personal factors such as interest in the subject, ability to do the major quantitative skills and intellectually challenging and not boring were examined. Many research revealed that student’s interest in the subject is one of the significant factors identified that influences their choice of major. Research findings indicated that students with better quantitative skills tended to choose either accountancy or finance as business major whereas those who chose t o major in marketing, management and management information system were those with weaker quantitative skills.Many research revealed that student’s interest in the subject is one of the significant factors identified that influences their choice of major. It was conclude that personal factors have a relationship with student’s choice. 25 Based on these previous researches, it can be suggested that personal factors has a relationship with student’s choice in choosing accounting course. Therefore, for the purpose of the current research, the hypotheses built will be: | |H1 – There is a significant relationship between personal factors and students’ choice on their major. | 3. 3. 2 REFERENCE group There was a positive relationship between reference group and the choice of student which indicates that parents, high school teachers and college lecturers play significant role in influencing student’s choice. Other than that, parent’s occup ation could also influence student choice on accounting course as a major.Therefore, the hypothesis built for this paper is: | | |H2- There is a significant relationship between reference group and students’ choice in accounting course. | 26 3. 3. 3 Job related factors The Albrecht and Sach (2001) study asked participants to identify the â€Å"most important reason† students choose to major in accounting. A study conducted by Doran also found that the â€Å"most important action† that would attract more high-quality students to the accounting profession would be to â€Å"pay higher starting salaries† (Doran, 2001). | |H3 – There is a significant relationship between job related factors and students’ choice in accounting course. | Zhang (2006), found that job-related factors including potential job opportunities and compensation are two keyfactorsthat influence the student’s choice. The research by Giladi, Amoo and Friedman (2002) foun d that higher earnings, prestige and career advancement influence the choice of student. From the previous researches, it was found that job related factors do have significant effect on student’s choice. Therefore, the hypothesis build for this paper is: 7 3. 4 Variables Definition 3. 4. 1 Personal factors ? Including interest in the subject, ability to do the work, workload and challenge. 3. 4. 2 Reference group ? Including parents, relatives, friends, school teacher and counselor. 3. 4. 3 Job related factors ? Including job opportunities, higher earnings, career advancement and prestige. 28228 3. 5 Operational Definition 3. 5. 1 Personal factors ? The degree to which the students believes that the interest in the subject, ability to do the workload and challenge can influence them in choosing accountancy course. . 5. 2 Reference group ? The degree to which the students believes that parents, relatives, friends, school teacher and counselor can help them in making decisions . 3. 5. 3 Job related factors ? The degree to which the students believe that job opportunities, higher earnings, career advancement and prestige can influence them in choosing accountancy course. 29 3. 6 Sampling and Data Collection The population or the unit of analysis for this research will be the first and second semester of Diploma Accountancy Students in KOLEJ ASA.At Kolej Asa there are 5accounting classes and total of the students are 100. From the total population, the researcher tried to achieved 100% response rate, however, due to certain limitation, response rate that were obtained was only 50 students. A set of questionnaire were given to the class representative and he was responsible to distribute the questionnaires to the respondents and to collect the questionnaire after being filled by the respondents. The respondents were given 15 minutes to answer the questionnaire and returned it to the class representative.The next day, researchers collect the questionnaire fro m the class representative from each class. 30 3. 7 Instrumentation and measurement of variables The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part 1 of the questionnaire solicited demographic information such as gender, race and basic qualification. In Part 2 of the questionnaire was further divided into section A, B and C. Section A contains 10 questions on respondents’ personal factors that would influence them in choosing accounting course using a five point Likert scale (1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree).Section B contains 9 questions on respondents’ referent group view of their choice and the degree of importance they placed on the referents’ view. Using a five point Likert scale (1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree), respondents were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement with the statement that their parents/relatives/friends/counselor think that they should choose accounting course. Section C is set out to ascertain the job r elated factors that would influence them in choosing accounting course.Respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree). In this section there were 9 questions to be answered. The questionnaire used was adapted from Tracy (2003) and Marriot (2003), however, certain alteration has been made to suit the condition of this research. Refer Appendix B. 31 3. 8 Validity and reliability of measurement In determining the validity of the measurement used, pretest had been conducted.According to ASA (1997), pretesting a questionnaire is central to planning a good survey and is critical for identifying questionnaire problems. The problems can occur for both respondents and interviewers regarding question content, patterns, or formatting. Before the questionnaire was distributed to the respondents, the researcher firstly sent the questionnaires to 6 pretest respondents consisting of colleagues and friends to comment on the questionnaires. The purpose of pretesting is to get the experts’ view on the questions. After the comment was obtained, modification was made to the questionnaire.For the purpose of testing the reliability, Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability of each the data collected for each factor. The analysis was done using SPSS package. Cronbach alpha are widely used to describe reliability of tests and measurements (Kistner and Muller, 2004). A high alpha indicates that the factors has a high reliability and vice versa. According to guidelines by Sekaran (2003), a coefficient of below 0. 6 is considered to be poor, 0. 7 is acceptable, and over 0. 8 is good. Therefore, from the alpha score, the conclusion on whether the data is reliable can be concluded.If the alpha is low, this indicates that some of the items for a factor might not consistent with other items for the same factor. To overcome this problem, the items which are not consistent with other items will be eliminated. 32 3. 9 Data Analysis The analysis was done by using SPSS package and was divided into several phase. The first phase of analysis involved the analysis of central tendency. In this research, mean was used, which enable the interpretation of data where the point of greatest concentration can be obtained.Therefore, it can be observed on which factor the respondents will be in choosing Diploma Accounting course. The next phase involved the analysis of standard deviation. This was done to study the spread of dispersion of data. Therefore, interpretation of data involved in seeing whether the choices of respondents were dispersed or their choices were converged to certain point. The final phase involves the analysis on the relationship between the independent variables (Personal factors, Reference group and Job related factors) with the dependant variable, which is students’ choice. These were one through the analysis of multiple regressions and enable th e data interpretation to see the strength and direction of each independent variable with dependent variable. Therefore, it can be identified on whether the independent variables have a significant relationship to dependent variables as being hypothesized previously. The analysis had also identified the independent variable that have the most influence on choosing Diploma Accounting course. 33 In determining the regressions among the independent variables and the dependent variables, the impact of multi co linearity should not be neglected.Multi co linearity results from the situation where exists the correlation amongst predictor variables or the independent variables (Polhemus, 2005). When this situation happens, the regression results between the independent and dependent variables might be imprecise. 34 CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS 4. 1 Respondents background The main objective of this research is to find out if there is a significant relationship between reference groups, personal f actor, job related factor and institutional factor of KOLEJ ASA accounting students in choosing accounting course as being hypothesized before.As explained in the earlier chapters, the scope of this research is limited to KOLEJ ASA accounting students. The population for this research is 50, and from this total population, the data gathered was from 50 respondents, which represents 25% of the total population. Table 1 shows the respondents’ backgrounds which represent 78 % are female and male 22%. They are from various races where, 44% is Chinese, 38% is Indian, 16% Malay and 2% others. All the respondents are students currently studying in KOLEJ ASA. 35 Table 1: Respondents Background Respondents |Frequency |Percent | |Gender | | | |Male |11 |22% | |Female |39 |78% | |Race | | | |Chinese |22 |44% | |Indian |19 |38% | |Malay |8 |16% | |Others |1 |2% | Figure 1: Distribution of gender[pic] 36 Figure 2: Distribution of type of race [pic] 37 QUESTIONAIRE |STRONGLY AGREE |AGR EE |UNSURE |DISAGREE |STRONGLY DISAGREE | | |(5) | | | |(1) | | | |(4) |(3) |(2) | | |2. Accounting is interesting |32 |14 |3 |1 | | |3. I would enjoy being an accountant |42 |7 | |1 | | |4. I am willing to learn accounting subject |32 |18 | | | | |5. I am willing to spend a lot of time studying accounting |40 |7 |2 |1 | | |6.I can do better in calculation |42 |7 |1 | | | |7. I like to answer question in figures |43 |4 |3 | | | |8. Accounting is a course with lots of classwork |18 |29 |3 | | | |9. Learning accounting is very challenging |31 |17 |2 | | | |10. I can maintain high greed point average (GPA) |28 |19 |3 | | | |11.My family wants me to choose accounting course |13 |29 |3 | |5 | |12. My friends think I should choose accounting course |29 |15 |5 |1 | | |13. Other students recommend accounting course to me |32 |15 |3 | | | |14. My teacher thinks that I should take accounting course |45 |5 | | | | |15. My own motivations for choosing accounting course |35 |15 | | | | |16.My co unselor at school recommend accounting course to me |35 |12 |3 | | | | | | | | | | |17. Performance in secondary school subjectmatter makes me | | | | | | |choose accounting course |39 |11 | | | | |18. My parent’s occupation encourage me to choose accounting |12 |21 |15 |1 |1 | |19. My parent wants me to choose accounting course |40 |10 | | | | |20.If I choose accounting course,there will be job |26 |24 | | | | |available for me when I graduate | | | | | | |21. If I choose accounting course,there will be a great job |39 |8 |3 | | | |market demand for people like me | | | | | | |22. I can get a high paying job if I graduate with accounting|36 |14 | | | | |23.My starting salary will be satisfying if I graduate with |27 |23 | | | | |accounting | | | | | | |24. Accountants are boring people |6 |19 |2 |8 |15 | |25. Being an accountant has a lot of prestige |42 |8 | | | | |26. The accounting profession is well respected |31 17 |2 | | | |27. Accounting is a profession on par with me dicine and law |45 |5 | | | | |28. Accounting is a field with broad exposure to business |39 |11 | | | | 39 4. 2 Validity and Reliability of the Instrument Earlier chapter explain that to increase the validity of the instrument, the researcher has conducted pretest, where the questionnaires are distribute to the experts who gave their comments. The questionnaires are then being amended to increase the validity.Apart from that, the questions are also being design to include both positive and negative questions. In managing the data, the negative questions are being transformed and record into different variables before being analyzed. In other words, the negative questions were being transformed to positive questions. 40 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 5. 1 Discussions The purpose of this paper is to find out factors influencing Kolej Asa students in choosing Diploma Accounting course as a major. From the data analysis gathered from 50 respondents, as explained in Chapter 4 the three factors h ave been supported by the findings which is significantly influence the student’s choice.Reference group, personal factors and job related factors indicate a significant correlation with students’ choice, which means that all the factors had a relationship which will influence the respondents’ to choose accounting course. However, the strength of influence by reference group is considered moderate compared to personal factors and job related factors. This showed that the respondents perceived personal factors, although significant and to be a huge influence to the students choice. 41 Among all the three factors, personal factors is seen to have the strongest influence over students’ choice which is consistent with the result found in Adams, Pryor and Adams (1994)Doran ( 2001), and Pritchard et al. , (2004).Therefore, it can be concluded that the respondents perceived that their choice in choosing accounting course will be determined more by independents, higher earnings, career advancement and prestige, followed by the job related factors which influence them to choose accounting course which consistent with the finding in Adams, Pryor and Adams (1994), Doran ( 2001), and Pritchard et al. , (2004). 5. 2 Conclusions The above discussion is based on the objective of the research, which is to find out if there is any significant relationship between the personal factors, reference group and job related factors and the students’ choice in choosing accounting course at KOLEJ ASA. All the factors indicated a significant relationship to the students’ choice. 42 5. 3 Implications The implications of this findings suggest the importance of career counseling road shows and career fairs to create awareness and understanding among young high school leavers who intent to pursue an accounting course in higher education institution.This will rectify the problem of students enrolling into other courses of which they have no knowledge of the subjects taught and future career options thus minimizing the number of students dropping out when they found out they are not interested in the subjects taught at all. The awareness and understanding of subjects taught and career options available are important to high school leavers who intent to pursue an accounting course as this research found that the utmost important factors influencing their choice of courses include interest in the subject, career advancement and career opportunities available. Another implication derived from this research is the emphasis of factor influencing undergraduate’s choice of courses.It is vital to highlight to undergraduate who intent to pursue a particular course on the possibility of the existence of factor influencing them to choose a particular course. This research hopes to highlight the importance of the role of the higher education institutions in offering sufficient and relevant information to potential students who want to pursue an accounting course so that these young high school leavers are able to make informed decision about their future career. 43 5. 4 Limitations This study has the following limitations. Firstly the study has a limited reference from local researchers so it is more depend on research that had been done abroad.It is also lack of accounting research which could help to explain on local situation. Secondly the study selected only four variables because of time constrains. Thirdly the questionnaire was only administered at one institution. The limitations of this study provide a pathway for further research in this area. 44 References ? How to Conduct Pretesting. 1997. American Statistical Association. ? Speech on The Occasion of the ICAEW Malaysia Achievers’ Ball, 2004 ? Brown, J. W. 2004. Techniques of Multivariate Data Analysis ? Adams, S. J. , L J. Pryor, and S. L. Adams. 1994. Attraction and retention of high –altitude students in accounting: An exploratory long itudinal study. Issues in Accounting Education. Ahmed, K. , K. F. Alam, and M, Alam. 1997. An empirical study of factors affectingaccounting students’ choice in New Zealand. Accounting Education: an international journal. ? Albrecht, W. S. , and R. J. Sach, 2001 . The Perilous Future of Accounting Education. The CPA Journal. ? Auyeung, P. and J, Sands. 1997. Factors influencing accounting students’ career choice; a cross cultural validation study. Accounting Education: an international journal. ? Bryman, A. and D, Cramer. 2001. Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS Release 10 for Windows : A guide for social scientists, East Essex: Rout ledge ? Cohen, J. , and D. M. Hanno. 1993.An Analysis of Underlying Constructs Affecting theChoice of Accounting Major, Issues in Accounting Education. ? Doran, D. T. 2001. Concern for the Future of the Accounting Profession, The CPAJournal ? Dowall, M. T . 2008. What influences accounting students’ attitudes towards accounting as a profession? Available from :http:///www. afaanz. org/opencofafaanz2008/modules/request. php 45 ? Felton, S. , N. Burh and M. Northey. 1994. Factors influencing the business student’s choice of a career in chartered accountancy, Issues in Accounting Education. ? Fisher, R. , and Murphy. 1995. â€Å"A pariah profession? Some student perceptions ofaccounting and accountancy. † Studies in Higher Education. ? Geiger, M. A. and S. M. Ogilbly. 2000.The first course in accounting: students’ perceptions and their effect on the decision to major in accounting. Journal ofAccounting Education. ? Hair, J. F. , R. E. , Anderson, R. L. Tatham, and W. C. Black. 1998. Multivariate Data Analysis,5thEd. , London: Prentice Hall. ? Hardin, J. R. , D. O’Bryan, and J. J. Quirin. 2000. Accounting versus engineering, law, and medicine: Perceptions of influential high school teachers. Advancesin Accounting. ? Howieson, B. 2003. Accounting practice in the new millennium: is acco untingeducation ready to meet the challenge? , The British Accounting Review, 35(2). ? Inman B. C. , A. Wenzler and P. D. Wickeert. 1989.Square pegs in round holes: are accounting students well-suited to todays’s accounting profession? Issues in Accounting Education. 46 ? Jack ling, B. and C. Calero. 2006. Influences on undergraduate students’ intentions to become qualified accountants: evidence from Australia. Accounting Education:an international journal. ? Kim, D. , F. S. Markham and J. D. Cangelosi. 2002. Why students pursue the business degree: a comparison of business majors across universities. Journal of educationfor Business. ? Kistner, E. O. , & K. E. Muller. 2004. Exact Distributions of Interclass Correlation and Cronbach’s Alpha with Gaussian Data and General Covariance Psychometric. Leppel, K. , M. L. , Williams and C. Waldauer. 2001. â€Å"The Impact of Parental Occupation and Socioeconomic Status on Choice of College Major. † Journal ofFami ly and Economic Issues. ? Lowe, D. R. and K. Simons. 1997. Factors influencing choice of business majors – some additional evidence: a research note, accounting education. ? Lowe, D. R. and K. Simons. 1997. Factors influencing choice of business majors – some additional evidence: a research note, accounting education. 47 ? Malgwi, C. A. , M. A. Howe and P. A. Burnaby. 2005. Influences on students’ choice of college major, Journal of education for business. ? Marriott, P. and N. Marriott. 2003.Are we turning them off: a longitudinal study of undergraduate accounting students’ attitudes toward accounting as a profession, accounting Education: an international journal. ? Mauldin, S. , J. L Crain and P. H. Mounce. 2000. The accounting principles instructors’ influence on students’ decision to major in accounting, Journal of Education for Business. ? Sekaran. (2003) Measurement: Scaling, reliability, validity. In Research methods for business: A skill building Approach. John Wiley. ? Zickmund, W. G. 2003. Business Research Methods. Thomson South Western, Ohio 48 QUESTIONNAIRE GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Gender ? Male ? Female 2. Race ? Malay ? Chinese ? Indian ? Others 3. Basic qualification ? SPM ? STPM Other institution Stated below are a number of questions to test on the factors that influence the respondent in choosing Diploma Accountancy course in KOLEJ ASA. Circle the best answer for each question according to the scale provided below: Strongly Agree (5) Agree (4) Unsure (3) Disagree (2) strongly disagree (1) Part 1 PERSONAL FACTORS 1. I like accounting 5 4 3 2 1 2. Accounting is interesting 5 4 3 2 1 3. I would enjoy being an accountant 5 4 3 2 1 4. I am willing to learn accounting subject 5 4 3 2 1 5. I am willing to spend a lot of time studying accounting 5 4 3 2 1 6. I can do better in calculation 5 4 3 2 1 7.I like to answer question in figures 5 4 3 2 1 8. Accounting is a course with lots of class work 5 4 3 2 1 9. Learning accounting is very challenging 5 4 3 2 1 10. I can maintain high gred point average (GPA) 5 4 3 2 1 Part 2 REFERENCES GROUP 1. My family wants me to choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 2. My friends think I should choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 3. Other students recommend accounting course to me 5 4 3 2 1 4. My teacher thinks that I should take accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 5. My own motivations for choosing accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 6. My counselor(s) at school recommend accounting course to me 4 3 2 1 7. Performance in secondary school subject matter makes me choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 8. My parent’s occupation encourage me to choose accounting 5 4 3 2 1 9. My parent wants me to choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 Part 3 JOB RELATED FACTORS 1. If I choose accounting course, there will be job available for me when I graduate. 5 4 3 2 1 2. If I choose accounting course, there will always be a great job market demand for people like me. 5 4 3 2 1 3. I can ge t a high paying job if I graduate with accounting 5 4 3 2 1 4. My starting salary will be satisfying if I graduate with accounting 5 4 3 2 1 5.Accountants are boring people 5 4 3 2 1 6. Being an accountant has a lot of prestige 5 4 3 2 1 7. The accounting profession is well respected 5 4 3 2 1 8. Accounting is a profession on par with medicine and law 5 4 3 2 1 9. Accounting is a field with broad exposure to business 5 4 3 2 1 Suggestions / Comments: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you for your time in completing the questionnaire. I am sure that the responses will be a great help and useful for the purpose of this research. [pic][pic]

Friday, November 8, 2019

The poem half-caste Essay Example

The poem half The poem half-caste Paper The poem half-caste Paper In the poem half-caste John Agard uses a variety of metaphors. He refers to things that are multicoloured to get his point across yu mean when Picasso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas John Agard is trying to tell his audience that Picasso doesnt just use one colour in his paintings, he uses a variety of colours, which makes the painting more interesting. This relates to John Agard because he is a mixture of two colours, which makes him something beautiful. Another metaphor John Agard uses is yu mean Tchaikovsky sit down at da piano and mix black key wid white Again John Agard is saying that mixing two colours is a wonderful thing. John Agard repeats half 17 times. He is telling the audience that being half-caste doesnt mean that he is half a person. However he refers him self as half when he says I dream half a dream. No one can dream half a dream. He is being ironic. John Agard is making the audience feel sorry for him. This is because dreaming half a dream is kind of sad, as if his multicoloured background prevents him from fulfilling his dream. The language he uses is Caribbean dialect which is patois. But at the beginning and the end of the poem he uses Standard English. In the poem search for my tongue Sujata Bhatt uses a plant as imagery, and as a metaphor. The plant is dying out. She uses the plant to show her mother tongue is dying out of her mouth just like a plant would. Your mother tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth. If you dont do anything to the plant, the plant would die. This is the same thing for Sujata Bhatt. If she doesnt do anything to do with Gujarati, her mother tongue would be forgotten. However the plant grows back to life, which means her mother tongue, is doing the same. Sujata Bhatt repeats, tongue and you several times. She is trying to get the audience thinking about what they would do if had they had to learn two languages, and how hard it is. Sujata Bhatt starts off with a rhetorical question you ask me what I mean she is trying to get the audience involved at the beginning of the poem. In half-caste John Agards structure is different to Sujata Bhatts structure. John Agards poem is set out in four stanzas. The first stanza and last stanza are the shortest stanzas with only three lines in. These two stanzas are the only lines that are written in Standard English, as the rest is written in Caribbean dialect. The Caribbean dialect is more like slang and they miss some letters out. For example explain yuself wha yu mean when yu say half-caste John Agard has purposely missed out letters to add to the effect that he is not from England. In Standard English we would say these words yuself and wha and yu with added in letters. We would say yourself and what and you this adds to John Agards style of the poem. John Agard also used a lack of punctuation. But John Agard reads the poem slow. However Sujata Bhatt has just spaced her poem on the page in a line. In verse 17 30 she speaks Gujarati which makes the poem eye catching because there is a different language in the poem. It says in the poem munay thoonky kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha she is telling us that her mother tongue is coming back to life in her dream. Towards the end after she speaks Gujarati and she uses a lot of commas. The use of commas she uses is to build the effect of the plant growing back step by step and the commas help create that image. He says it grows back, a stump of a shoot, grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins the use of commas helps slow down the atmosphere and creates an image that stage by stage its all coming back to her. The plant which was her mother tongue is growing back. John Agard and Sujata Bhatt feel very strongly about there multicultural backgrounds. If someone tries to insult John Agard about being half-caste he would be very questioning. Like in the poem, its like someone had called him half-caste and John Agard takes it the wrong way and thinks he is half a person. I think that John Agard makes his point very clearly in his poem about how he feels about being multicultural. Sujata Bhatt feels sad that she is loosing her mother tongue and wouldnt want anything or anyone to take that away from her. When she feels like she is loosing that language she makes her point how hard it is speaking two different languages. But when the Gujarati comes back I think she still finds it difficult to learn both languages. Sujata Bhatt helps you to feel that confusion when she puts some Gujarati in her poem. Out of those two poems half-caste and search for my tongue I found search for my tongue a better poem. Sujata Bhatt helps you understand how she feels and because I know how hard it is to speak different languages, that poem interested me more.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Are You Distracted by Technology essayEssay Writing Service

Are You Distracted by Technology essayEssay Writing Service Are You Distracted by Technology? essay Are You Distracted by Technology? essayNowadays technology entered all spheres of human life and contributed to significant changes in these spheres. Communications were dramatically reshaped by technology: the availability of social networks, video games and various smartphone and computer applications allows to stay connected 24/7 and to construct own virtual world in the most convenient way. Despite numerous advantages, active use of technology also has some notable disadvantages such as excess flow of information and frequent distractions damaging the ability to concentrate. Multitasking which is so common for all technology-related activities also alters the ability to focus on particular tasks and reinforces patterns of brain activity which are different from less technology-involved generations. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the distracting impact of technology and long-term consequences of this impact.The role of technology in educational sphere and in information p rocessing is invaluable; for example, technology changed the way of conducting research for students, made research findings more accessible and comprehensive for students and eased access to information in general. At the same time, mental habits of multitasking and staying online in social networks and messengers have a negative impact on the ability of students to process information, to concentrate on particular sources and to establish analytical connections between different sources of information. According to Prakash (2012), 87% of teachers note that students of the wired generation have shorter attention spans and 64% of teachers admit that technology is rather distracting students than helping their academic success.The way how information is presented and shared nowadays encourages people to focus on key concepts and sentences and skim the meaning of the messages. These skills are needed in order to navigate through multiple sources of information and multiple messages re ceived from these sources. Communications in social networks and messengers are also brief and are restrained either to sharing some information (links, photos, videos, etc.) or to exchanging short messages. Twitter actually embodies the essence of current communications 140 symbols might be enough for average information exchange activities. Furthermore, the availability of internet connection almost anywhere allows to stay online and receive updates at any time.The specifics of technology described above leads to shortening of attention spans; frequent checks of updates in various networks create distractions, and the need to stay updated and to know all the latest news hinders long-term concentration and affects the quality of activities which require thoughtful approach. Furthermore, kids who grow up in the conditions of information overload have difficulties in mastering time management and attention management. While for older adults who already have mastered time management it is easier to avoid distractions when needed, kids might not be able to develop the right skills and traits due to challenging environment.According to Rosen (2012), observation of the ability to concentrate of students of various age (middle school, high school and university) revealed alarming trends. The students had to study something important for 15 minutes, and their behaviors and distractions were observed during that time. The average time span that students spent on the task without distracting was 3 minutes (Rosen n.d.). This result was similar for all age categories of students. The major sources of distraction were technology sources such as laptops and smartphones (Rosen n.d.). These results show that the impact of technology is similar on all age categories. Furthermore, the researchers explored the relationship between academic performance and distractions, and it turned out that students who consumed more information and media every day and were prone to multitask ing had worse results. Students who were able to work longer on a specific task and developed focused study strategies showed better results (Rosen n.d.).Another study focused on the types of distractions which have the most impact on young people. It appeared that the choice of favorite distraction depended on psychosocial characteristics of an individual (Richtel n.d.). The students with a need for socializing tended to engage in texting, communicating in social networks and sending instant messages; the students who wanted to escape from the society chose video games and those students who had a tendency to procrastinate surfed various websites, watched videos and sometimes shared links with others (Richtel n.d.). Therefore, technology allows to choose the types of distractions that are most appropriate for an individual. In any case, the results of the research show that technology is a universal distraction and that active use of technology for entertainment can affect academic or working performance.Evidence shows that technology is a powerful distraction for most people. Active use of telecommunications leads to multitasking, reduces performance and attentiveness, affects attention spans and the ability to concentrate. While working with multiple sources of information might develop flexibility and short-term involvement, it is necessary to avoid excess multitasking and being distracted by technology since it can reduce the efficiency of in-depth thinking activities. In this context, it is important to remain focused in the modern world and to train the ability to concentrate on important things instead of switching between various distractions.

Monday, November 4, 2019

The impact of Communicational climate on job satisfaction and job Literature review

The impact of Communicational climate on job satisfaction and job performance - Literature review Example Many organizations are run through managerial leadership or rather transactional leadership. Burns (1978) says that transactional leadership is based on the assumption that improving communication will increase morale and motivation, which in turn will increase individual and organizational performance (p. 55). It makes a lot of senses that satisfied workers will work harder and perform better than dissatisfied workers; if people are happy at work, they should work harder and perform better than dissatisfied workers; if people are happy at work, they should be more committed to their organization and thus should want to work harder to make sure their organization succeeds. Northhouse (2010) argues that relational strategies do have positive effects on performance in the production-oriented firms, but not for the reasons typically ascribed to it (p. 45). Rafaeli & Sudweeks (1994) says that 50 years of research on the bond between job satisfaction and performance have not found strong relationships between the two (p. 99). The average correlation is 0.14 which means that about 2 percent of differences in employee’s performance can be attributed to differences in their job satisfaction or that other factors simultaneously increase both satisfaction and performance. Organizational communication usually takes the form of top-bottom communication meaning that communication comes from top managers to lower rank employees. This is the most common although bottom-top communication also occurs at times. Pliskin & Romm (1990) says that a string of later studies exposed empirical evidence suggesting that employee’s perceptions of top management communication influence employee’s job satisfaction and performance (p. 56-60). Poole (1983) found in a study of hospital nurses, for example, that the factors most influencing nurses’ job satisfaction, and performance

Friday, November 1, 2019

Reflecting upon our exploration of monetary and financial history in Essay

Reflecting upon our exploration of monetary and financial history in Topic Two, what are some of the issues surrounding the crea - Essay Example These currencies resemble real money and do come with their discrete, but open retail payment system; leading to the term virtual currency scheme. There are different types of virtual currency schemes; Type 1 (closed virtual currency scheme), it is used in online games; Type 2 (unidirectional flow), this is usually an inflow, this means that they have a conversion rate for buying the virtual currency that aid not only in purchasing the virtual goods and services, but also the real goods and services; Type 3 (bidirectional flow), this gives the currency the ability to behave like any other convertible currency, that is, possess the buying and selling exchange rate, and therefore, it can be used to buy both the virtual and real goods and services. Issues Surrounding Virtual Currency Schemes (Bitcoin and Linden Dollar) The Bitcoin is a virtual currency scheme that is based on the technology of BitTorrent of sharing files over the Internet (European Central Bank, 2012). This technology i s based on peer-to-peer network. Its operation is global and has the ability to conduct both real and virtual transaction of goods and services. The exchange rate of Bitcoins which is not nailed to any real-world currency is determined by demand and supply in the market (King, 2012). Due to all these, the currency is decentralized, meaning that it has no central clearing house; it is anonymous and controlled by the partners involved, this means that there is no institution or financial house involved in the transaction (European Central Bank, 2012). By anonymous, it means that accounts are not registered, so the Bitcoins are transferred directly from one machine to another. The transactions are enabled by free and open-source software that is downloaded and installed in a machine; thereby, purchased Bitcoins are stored in the machine in a digital wallet. This turns to be the basic threat to this system, users can easily lose their money if they do not implement and secure their mach ines with back-ups and antivirus measures. Although the insecurity factor is a big concern, users still prefer to use this technology because of its fast and cheap transactions with no bank account fees involved (European Central Bank, 2012). Because this system has no rules, its economic foundation has been interfered with governments and other agencies through criticism of the current fiat money system. Users of Bitcoin generally share common ideas which help to maintain Bitcoin within operation range, these include; the scheme is inspired and promoted by former gold standards, users also think that it is a starting point to end the central bank monopoly in the issuance of money, lastly the user criticize the fractional-reserve banking system. All these ideas have led to a number of issues; first, the economists criticize the Bitcoin and argue that Bitcoins are bits stored in a computer; therefore, they have no intrinsic value like gold. The other reason is that this technology fa ils to satisfy the Misean Regression Theorem (European Central Bank, 2012). Another issue about the Bitcoins is that the system is complex and not easily understandable, creating questionable doubts on the system, considering that the transactions are sent through a network minus an intermediary to maintain and validate the connection. This can lead to double spending or coin forge even with tough measures like time stamp and mining are deployed to