Saturday, October 25, 2014

Conflict


Conflict
       It is common for disagreement, discord or some other form of friction to arise among individuals in a group. This is very true, when the actions or beliefs of a given person or more people are resisted by one or more individuals in the group. Conflicts may arise within a group or among several groups. Variation in opinion often leads to disruption in routine group interaction. Such disruption may also be as a result of scarcity of resources and may result to violence as division arises between members of the same group or different groups. I have had an experience of conflict in the workplace during my internship at one of the leading financial institutions. The experience was bad at first with both sides to the conflict, failing to reach a common ground as we sought to find a solution that was, however, achieved at the end of the ordeal.  
       The source of the conflict was a colleague’s mobile phone on which some water had accidentally poured into making it go off. The owner of the phone who happened to be a lady and the firm’s procurement officer was someone we had been very close as we worked from the same office, though serving under different departments. She went by the name Naomi. Naomi was out of the office, but within the premises at the time of the incident. There were some workers who had been hired on a temporary basis to help in sorting out information contained in some old files in the firm and had been stationed in our office from where they did their work. The temporary staff had gone through numerous files which they arranged in stacks that went so high that they did not balance well. At some point, as I was moving out, I closed the door behind me. This caused some light breeze resulting from the action of propelling the door, making one of the stacks of files to come down falling hitting a glass of water on Naomi’s table. I had been drinking water from the glass while at her table as she was away running some errands. The glass fell over splashing the water on the items on the table, Naomi’s phone inclusive.
        When she came back and learnt of what had transpired, she was very furious. It was a Samsung smart phone that meant a lot to her as it contained valuable contacts and information. Her fear was that the phone might not resume normal functioning. This made her angry and she demanded to know the persons responsible for the incident. She was informed by the temporary workers that I was responsible. I came but to be faced with endless questions and accusations. This attracted the attention of other staff members. I tried giving my version of the story, but she was too blinded by fury to listen to whatever I had to say.
       I had to seek the indulgence of two other staff members, Andrew and Dominic whom I respected so much and found to be wise and mature to help us in solving the matter amicably. I knew they would not depict any racial bias considering the fact that I am Chinese while the rest of the people in the room were Americans. They first advised Naomi to take her phone to the IT department where it could be dried and sorted out. She obliged and came back a few minutes later. We all gave our versions and perspectives on the whole issue as the two gentlemen listened carefully. Later, after we were done, they requested for a few clarifications which we offered promptly. They ruled out malice in the incident, calling for new approaches to the way we conducted ourselves within the office. We all agreed that each one sticks to his or her workstation and only moves to another person’s desk after obtaining permission from the relevant person. There was an exception in terms of the senior staff as they had to express authority over their subordinates. 
       Fortunately, the functionality of Naomi’s phone was restored. We also went back to good terms, respecting each other. Looking back, I think that the incident made things better as the staff seem to be more responsible in their actions, taking utmost care of company property and the property of their colleagues. One no longer has to worry about someone disorganizing items on their desk. 
       As highlighted, the experience was bad at first as both sides to the conflict failed to reach a common ground as we sought to find a solution, which we achieved finally. Naomi’s mobile phone incident had been purely accidental with no malice intended. Both Dominic and Andrew handled the conflict maturely. They helped each one of us appreciate the value of respecting other people’s workplace as well as increase our degree of responsibility and accountability when it comes to both the firm’s property and that of other employees. As long as people continue interacting, conflicts are always bound to occur. However, with proper handling of conflicts warring parties are able to resolve their issues peacefully for the better.   




Friday, October 3, 2014

Illinois bucks

Illinois bucks
            Transfer pricing is a way of setting a price for something like services within the particular enterprise. Transfer pricing should be accessible for students on campus. This is a great idea to reduce the affect of a first come first served basis and also a priority basis as well, which is used for registering for class.
            Creating a system of "illinibucks" is a way to solve several problems. Use of the "Illinibucks" would occur at a pre-specified price set by the campus. In my opinion, hours of your community work can be used as an "illinibucks". For example, one hour of community service is one "illinibucks". That will encourage students to be more active as a community and at the same time will give them some benefit.
            As for me, I would come up with a perfect usage of "illinibucks". First of all I would spend them for registering for classes. Because very often you are facing the problem of lack of spaces in the class for students. Also, I would use "illinibucks" for moving to the head of the line in many things on campus, because most of them are allocated to students on a first come first serve basis.






Last name: 2
            Introduction of such a system may cause some issues. For example, if the administered price was too low, it would be very easy for students to get what they want. And if the price was to high, that would make it impossible to achieve something and would ruin the main purpose of this system. That is why there should be a person, who would be monitoring the usage of "illinibucks".
            I think, the probation of this system will be a great plus for our collage's campus. It will help to organize students and make them more stirring, also they will spend more time on community service. All in all it will he improving from year to year and finally will become a perfect transfer pricing.




Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Transaction Cost


   Transaction cost is a concept in economics, refers to the completion of a transaction, the transaction generated both before and after the sale of the various costs associate with this transaction, which was proposed by Ronald Harry Coase. Coase believes that transaction costs should include metrics, define and protect property rights costs; find trading partners and transaction price paid; bargain, the cost to contract; fee urge strict compliance with the contract terms.
   Academia generally accepted transaction costs could be broadly divided into two narrow transaction costs. Transaction costs include all costs of generalized non-Robinson economy appears that, in order to break through all obstacles and reach tangible and intangible costs of exchanges needed. Transaction costs refer to the narrow market transaction costs, which exogenous transaction costs. Include: search costs, negotiation costs and compliance costs.
   For instance, many students in universities need to buy a car to make their daily life easier. The students have different taste and they need to choose different brands, makes and models. For example, there are limited resources of cars in Champaign, but the situation is different in Chicago. So many students need to buy cars in Chicago, they need to borrow cars to drive there or take the train to get to Chicago. The money and time students spend is transaction cost. Usually people will spend many time looking for a car, also some of people need to ask some people who know the cars very well. All these things can be called transaction cost.
   According to most scholars agree with the view, the transaction costs are "institutional costs" occurs when the use of market mechanisms. For example, the North believes that there are transaction costs to make the process of economic friction, which is the key factor affecting economic performance. Cheung also holds a similar view, he believes that a good economic system can effectively reduce coordination costs, namely saving transaction costs; bad economic system will improve the coordination of social costs, that increase transaction costs.


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Introduction of Abba Lerner

  Abba Ptachya Lerner, a Russian-born British man, who was one of the most excellent economic expositor in the 20th century. Abba was born in Romania and immigrated to Britain with his parents when he was a child. He was so brilliant to make those extremely complicated concepts crystal clear. From his perspective, he thought the market needs high-level freedom which people called ‘Free Markets’. He also pointed out that the government should not control the price of the goods and the salaries those enterprises gave because the price system and the employment of those enterprise are individual and free, they should not be influenced by the government.
  Furthermore, the Lerner’s best know article is “ The Concept of Monopoly and the Measurement of Monopoly Power.” It clearly showed why setting the price of good equal to the marginal cost is so important for efficiency. This article changed the view of government to those monopoly power and enterprises.
   However, Abba Lerner also has very sharp mind for analysis, which made him can follow an argument to its logical conclusion. This made him can do well in helping the governments’ decision and economic development analysis. For example, when john maynard keynes gave a talk at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, Lerner, who was in the audience, found Keynes’s view of how the economy worked completely convincing and challenged Keynes for not carrying his own argument to its logical conclusion. Keynes denounced Lerner on the spot, but Keynes’s colleague Evsey Domar, seated beside Lerner, whispered,  “He ought to read The General Theory.” A month later, wrote Lerner, Keynes withdrew his denunciation.
   In conclusion, Abba Lerner was a brilliant guy who made a lot of contribution to the development of economic.


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