Chinese Population Issues, Conclusion

The one-child policy must be abandoned. It has prolonged the negative views towards women that have contributed to the sex-ratio imbalance. It violates the rights of parents on a profound level and usurps the natural right inherent to parents. The government can pursue methods and attitudes that will capture the collective thought process of the Chinese people and encourage responsible family growth so the country will not have to face a population explosion. Evidence already shows a preference for small families (4), and as the country grows in wealth and education, this preference will likely continue. Chinese culture is changing to reflect the economic gains made during the last twenty-five years, and more freedoms in other areas of life will make continued application of the one-child policy increasingly difficult. The government should recognize this social movement and phase out the policy, and replace it with a large-scale public health education program that places the responsibility back in the hands of the parents. There is evidence of relaxation of some aspects of the policy that have been welcomed by couples, and reduced the tensions between the people and government officials (4). The Chinese government has many larger issues to deal with at this point in history. Unprecedented foreign investment and trade have placed enormous sums of capital into the Chinese economy. Bigger issues such as rural poverty, environmental degradation, failing state-owned enterprises, international political tensions, and internal political pressures should take precedence on the government’s list of priorities. Chinese civilization is on the cusp of a sweeping renaissance that properly nurtured by forward thinking policy decisions can bring about major advancements in society, industry and technology to the Chinese people and to the world. China must continue to sustain the very strength that has brought them to where they are today; the vast numbers of Chinese citizens that “are born not only with mouths that need to be fed, but also with hands that can produce, and minds that can create and innovate."(5).



Works Cited

1. "Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Reality: The Population History of One Quarter of Humanity, 1700-2000 - Shorenstein Reports - Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley." Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley. 30 Nov. 2007 http://ieas.berkeley.edu/shorenstein/1998.05.html.

2. "Chinese Ancestor Worship - ReligionFacts." Religion, World Religions, Comparative Religion - Just the facts on the world's religions.. 30 Nov. 2007.
www.religionfacts.com/chinese_religion/practices/ancestor_worship.htm

3. "Shortage of girls in China today." Encyclopedia.com - FREE online Encyclopedias and Dictionaries. 30 Nov. 2007
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-.

4. "NEJM -- The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years." The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on Diseases. 30 Nov. 2007 http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/11/1171

5. "The Population Question." Catholic Conservation Center. 30 Nov. 2007 .
http://conservation.catholic.org/the_population_question.htm

Managerial Finance Chapter 01

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Fm12 Ch 01 Show

View more presentations or upload your own.

Shenzen

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Shenzen

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: work 深圳高尔夫俱乐部)

Dr. Paul McDevitt

Professor McDevitt is the MBA Director at UIS. He has served in numerous capacities in the College of Business and Management over the years, including Interim Dean, Interim Associate Dean, and interim MBA Director. He came to UIS in 1983 intending to stay for a few brief years. More than two decades later he's still here and wondering where the time went.
Dr. McDevitt taught the MBA core marketing course for many years. When new marketing faculty members were hired, he returned to teaching BUS 312, the introductory undergraduate Principles of Marketing class. This is his favorite teaching assignment at this time. He taught his first section of marketing online in Spring 2007 and enjoyed the experience. He also teaches several sections each year of AST 300, the UIS internship program course on campus. McDevitt hopes to be able to teach a sports marketing course at some time during his teaching career.
Paul McDevitt lists his two major accomplishments as his daughter, Kimberly who is a pharmacist working and residing with her family in Minneapolis, MN and his son, Bryan, an electrical engineer working and residing in Chicago. (Ah! That's where the two decades went.) These were joint accomplishments shared, of course, with his wife, Barb.
For many years McDevitt's primary past time was training and racing triathlons. The pinnacle of his racing career was completing in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon in 1988 in a time of 11 hours, fifty-two minutes and 42 seconds (but who's counting). His time was the 53rd percentile for his age group that year, meeting his objective of a 50th percentile finish. After numerous bike crashes and broken bones and joints, he is currently trying to find another, less risky hobby.

Chinese Population Issues, Part 5

What is the better approach to the issue of China’s massive population? This is a complex question that can only be addressed through consistent policy choices over generations. Chinese culture is durable and has survived incredible hardships throughout the centuries. A large population can be provided for and sustained through responsible policies that both respect the dignity, conscience and rights of each person, and encourage procreation that supports and sustains the prosperity of China. First, it must be the priority of the government leaders to initiate the change. Some concrete directives that could be pursued must address and change the long held attitudes towards women and their position in society, implementing some type of pension system to aid in providing for the elderly, shifting the attitude of looking at people in strictly economic terms, and improving the social, economic and human rights situation to enhance the conditions within the country.

Self Leadership

In the weekend lecture by Professor O' Neal, he stated that leadership begins with the self. An individual must address and acknowledge their own weaknesses and failings and minimize them in order to develop into a great leader.

Great leaders will surround themselves with great people, and they will develop and encourage their followers to "surpass me in every way", and they will continually work to minimize the effects of their personal weaknesses.

One classic method to address personal weakness is to use Benjamin Franklin's thirteen virtues in your own life. Use them everyday and reflect through the use of a daily journal on how well you implemented each in your day.

1. Temperance. Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation.

2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation.

3. Order. Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.

4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality. Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.

6. Industry. Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary
Actions.

7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak
accordingly.

8. Justice. Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.

9. Moderation. Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.

11. Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity. Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation.

13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Chinese Population Issues, Part 4

The question remains; is China’s population a huge problem that must be corrected through inhumane methods that violate the dignity and rights of the citizen that the government should be protecting? Or are the policies an extension of what has been done by the people themselves to manage the population previously, only now by force? Mao’s assertion that a large population is a benefit and resource for a country reflects the phrase “People are born not only with mouths that need to be fed, but also with hands that can produce, and minds that can create and innovate."(5). It was not the large population that caused mass starvation during the Great Leap Forward, but reckless public policy decisions driven by communist philosophy, such as steel production in backyard furnaces, unobtainable production expectations for communes, and bombastic statements fueled by Marxist thinking. These policies and ideas handicapped the government in providing assistance in food prouction and distribution, critically disrupted resource allocation during harvest time, and fundamentally disordered the existing economic system, which in turn caused millions of deaths through starvation.

Contingency theory and MCS

What is contingency theory? List and explain at least six macro (organizational level) variables and their relationships with management control systems which appeared in the assigned readings.

Contingency theory utilizes the framework that there is no one best way to set up an organization or Management Control System (MCS), but that is contingent upon the macro variables such as the size of the firm, technological robustness, internal and external factors relative to the firm, the organizational structure itself, the degree of centralization, the degree of formalization, and the complexity of the firm itself. The manager must determine which of these the driving variables are because these are the one you can control.

Chinese Population Issues, Part 3

According to the study by Professors Lee and Wang, there is a history of infanticide practiced by Chinese parents dating back to the second and third millennia, BC. The study indicated the primary reason for the sex-ratio imbalance is the preference for male offspring, which originated with ancestral worship during the aforementioned time frame. Ancestor worship is “a ritual practice that is based on the belief that deceased family members have a continued existence, take an interest in the affairs of the world, and possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living.” (2). This reason along with the Confucian value system that almost always places the male above the female in most aspects of society (3) has produced an environment where infant girls are viewed as nonessential, if not a burden to some parents. These factors have historically organically manifested themselves in Chinese society and continue today under the government controlled one-child policy. Urban families who subscribe to male preference are under pressure to have a boy; since they are only allowed one child they do not want a girl. Rural parents are usually allowed a second child, especially if the first child is a girl (4). Although actual statistics are unobtainable, infanticide by the family is believed to be rare in China today, however it has been replaced with sex-selective abortion carried out by private practitioners (4).

Another major shift occurring in Chinese demographics is the rapid aging of the population. This dilemma has been caused by a decrease in the birth rate in tandem with stabilizing life expectancy. Those age sixty-five and older composed 7.5% of the population in 2006, and is expected to rise to 15% by the year 2025 (4). This is a large concern because most Chinese workers have no pension plan to support them in old age, and a smaller family unit to provide for them, due to the reduced birthrate.

Chinese Population Issues, Part 2

In examining the historical population trends of China, there are some key events that illustrate the current issues with managing the population. The Chinese people have over the centuries employed various means to manage the exponential growth of population. A paper written by Lee and Wang indicated the following cultural dynamics that have been used to regulate growth beyond what Malthus understood:

“The Chinese demographic system, in other words, was characterized by a great deal of human agency and individual choices that balanced marital passion and parental love with arranged marriage, the need to regulate coitus, the decision to kill or give away children, and the adoption of other children. Chinese families constantly adjusted their demographic behavior according to their familial circumstances to maximize their collective utility. Such demographic adjustment allowed them to prosper even under stress, if at the cost of considerable individual sacrifice. This deliberate decision making thus gave rise to low female survivorship and low marital fertility, which in turn enabled China to maintain low population growth at the aggregate level until modern times.”

These circumstances were how the Chinese people manage the growth before last few centuries, until the population started to rapidly increase during the eighteenth century. Lee and Wang indicate when the first major rise occurred between 1750 and 1950, when it tripled to 580 million. The second increase took place from 1950 to 2000 when it rose to 1.2 billion (1).

Chinese Population Issues, Part I

The population control policy, commonly known as the "one-child policy", has not addressed the root cause of the large population in China, but has exacerbated a subset of different problems, such as the sex-ratio imbalance, accelerated aging of the population, and heightened the tensions between the government, the Chinese citizens and the international community through the application of brutal and inhumane birth control procedures. In order to propose a logical and effective solution, one must initially properly define the problem. Is China's massive population an actual problem, or has it been examined through the largely discredited Malthusian position and influenced by the history of famine largely attributed to the failures of The Great Leap Forward? Is the raw number of people, or the inability or unwillingness of the government to effectively provide an economic system that can manage the population, the underlying source of the applied resolutions? Finally, what are some realistic workable strategies that could be examined to effectively administer solutions for the challenges of the Chinese population?

Participative Budgeting and Employee Satisfaction

The relationship between participation in the budgeting process and employee satisfaction and performance has been researched for over twenty years. List and explain the relationship between at least four “individual differences” that have been researched in behavioral accounting as moderating variables for the participation----satisfaction----performance relationships.

The four MV's are; need for achievement, locus of control, leadership style, and reward structure. Need for achievement can influence the relationship between performance and goal level. Someone with a high need for achievement will set higher goals when allowed to participate in the budget process. Locus of control can impact he relationship between performance and goal level. An internally driven person may set harder goals because they believe they can control their own destiny through increased effort. Leadership style influences the level of perceived participation that a subordinate feels. The amount of consideration shown by a leader towards a subordinate has a impact on participation goal linkage. Finally, the reward structure can have a strong link to performance. Truth Inducing Compensation Schemes should be the appropriate approach to mitigate budgetary slack in conjunction with increased budget difficulty for improved performance.

The Marketing Function

“There will always be a need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed is to make the product or service available.”


Peter Drucker

Attribution theory

What is attribution theory? What is the fundamental attribution error (hint:self vs. other attributions)? Why is it important to distinguish between motivational and cognitive causes?

Attribution theory maintains that humans attribute causes to events into two distinctive types: the first is external attribution the assigns cause to outside phenomenon such as luck or the weather. The second is the reciprocal, internal attribution which places emphasis on the cause to personal traits. The fundamental attribution error is the assignment of events that are positive to internal attribution (“I did well on the test because I’m gifted”), and assigns negative events to external attribution (I did poorly on the test because the teacher was terrible”). The FAE is self-serving by design and for self-preservation. One must be able to differentiate between cognitive causes and motivational factors in order to better judge a situation, person or event based on the factors that truly affect the outcome.