Discuss the value of qualitative research to create new practice Essay

Discuss the value of qualitative research to create new practice knowledge - Essay Example Literature is suggestive that qualitative research’s contribution is growing and advancing knowledge. Knowledge claims emanating from qualitative research, logically, should be open to formal evaluation and critique. This means that it should be open to criticism, audit, and searching, which is the means of assessing the contribution it makes to the advancement of knowledge in terms of challenging, extending, or testing what is believed or known. Qualitative research, in its own right, is a distinct enquiry field with literature indicating that methodology in qualitative research is referent to ideas and principles used by researchers to base strategies and procedures (Denzin & Yvonna, 2011: p15). It acts as a form of social enquiry, focusing on the interpretation of experiences by various individuals. Traditionally, the debate has revolved around the merits of qualitative and quantitative research in knowledge development. Evidence is indicative of qualitative research being more interpretive and better in the study of phenomena and concepts. It aims at understanding the complex relationship between variables rather than cause and effect demonstrations. In addition, the diversity found in its responses has significant value. Qualitative research has been found to be more descriptive and humanistic with many dimensions that require the researcher to use a self-conscious approach (Denzin & Yvonna, 2011: p16). Therefore, on top of reinforcing new practice knowledge, it also helps uncover information that would have been more difficult using other approaches. Qualitative knowledge depends on social context information, especially the comprehension of human experiences. This is of special use when the researcher knows little about the field or topic of research. Contribution of qualitative knowledge in creating new practice knowledge is usually in terms of new theoretical ideas and knowledge (Denzin & Yvonna, 2011: p17). The underlying methods and philosophy , conversely, has left qualitative research open to criticism of being unsystematic, lacking in objectivity, being subjective, and being too general, as well as being a soft approach in comparison to scientific and empirical knowledge. It has even been claimed that evidence is not as powerful as that given by quantitative research. For those who subscribe to other methodologies, qualitative research’s strengths in creating new practice knowledge are viewed as weakness (Denzin & Yvonna, 2011: p17). Qualitative research, however, gives a unique perspective on a topic, as well as providing insight into subjects. The methodology generates knowledge and is subject centered, inductive, interactive, and holistic. It has its basis on people’s meanings, perceptions, and views while also useful in the exploration knowledge questions that are related to meanings, experiences, behavior, and feelings (Gilroy, 2011: p56). Qualitative research has, in a relatively short time, descend ed from many disciplines of diverse backgrounds. Its roots can be found in sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and history. Qualitative research has brought up new methods of acquiring research knowledge such as discourse and conversational analysis with each method coming from different backgrounds. In some fields like nursing, there is also a tendency in qualitative resea

Financial accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Financial accounting - Assignment Example In addition, through integrity, external auditors are required to avoid conflicts of interest when making their reports. In this way, their judgment will be imperative to the shareholders, directors, banks and other users of the audited reports. Question 2 One of the major factors to consider before investing in the biotechnology company is the profitability of the company. Through the audited financial reports, an investor will note the amount of profits and divided paid to the shareholders. In this way, an investor is at a good position to make an appropriate decision before investing in the company. Secondly, an investor should know the sources of finance adopted by the company. Companies that have wide range of sources of finance have a higher probability to survive in the current competitive business arena. Similarly, through various sources of finance, the concept of business as a going on concern is guaranteed since the company is financially stable. Another vital aspect that as an investor I will need to know is the management of the company. If the company has a strong management and auditing team and policies, it implies that financial position of the company is good thus guaranteeing high returns to the shareholders. Likewise, it is fundamental to have adequate information on the strategic plans of the company. For instance, if the company is focused at being acquired by another major company, it may result to an expansion of its services thus generating more returns. On the other hand, a company with unclear plans may fail in future thus making it unviable to invest in. Question 3 One of the recent major accounting scandals is the one that involved Olympus, a Japanese based firm that specializes in the production and selling of medical equipments and cameras. According to New York based prosecutors, Chan Ming Fon, one of the company executives was engaged in covering more than $1.7 billion losses thus providing false information to the auditors. The funds that were illegally acquired by the executives together with other seven employees were transferred to unknown financial institutions through the wire transfer. According to the FBI, Chan notified the auditors that the company funds were held in the form of Japanese bonds while in the real sense they were used to repay a loan through a firm that was under the control of Olympus. The whistle blower of this scandal was Michael Woodford soon after he was fired as British CEO in 2011. To prevent such a scandal, I suggest that auditors would seek more details and prove of all the information provided by the company. It would be also imperative for the government to intervene by bringing on board external auditors at the initial stages when the fraud was detected. Question 4 Taking into consideration that accrual accounting matches the revenue generated with the expenses incurred within a specific period of time, I would first take the bank statements that depicts the cash collecti on and payments for the first six months the period that my clients want to be audited. In the same way, I would separate the invoices and the bills that are covered in the first six months. This will be followed by comparing whether the sales incurred in the first six months are inline with the expenses incurred within the same period. According to accrual accounting, selling products on credit may result to future revenue streams that may affect the current financial position of the company (Barry and Jamie 11). To avoid this scenario, I would treat all the credit sales within the first six months as account receivables. For example, computers that were repaired

Unilever and Nestle are facing political and economic challenges in Essay

Unilever and Nestle are facing political and economic challenges in middle eastern and north African countries - Essay Example Financial productivity is the main aim of every financial establishment. For the past several decades, Unilever and Nestle companies have operated on good financial bases. On average, Nestle gets 28% of its finances from European markets, 44% of the revenues from the Americas and 28% from Africa, Oceania and Asia. Likewise, Unilever makes a large portion of its profits from Europe and the United States of America (Nestle 2006, 12). There is relatively low revenue collected by both companies in the Middle East and North African countries. These parts of the world are particularly unproductive for Unilever and Nestle given the political instability in the regions. Governance of countries in the Middle East and North Africa do not encourage Foreign Direct Investment given unpredictable economic policies (Unilever 2013, 32). Given the instability of political environment in North Africa and Middle East, economic situation of the populations around the regions curtails the purchasing power of the inhabitants. A complete essay of this paper will answer the question: How do Unilever and Nestle face political and economic challenges in Middle Eastern and North African countries? It places a hypothesis that economic and political challenges in these regions have negative effects on investment of the two companies in the

In what ways has the use of statistics in psychology helped to sustain Essay

In what ways has the use of statistics in psychology helped to sustain notions of objectivity and determinism - Essay Example That is why would-be psychologists, wrote Jock Abra, lacking mathematical skills has a tough row to hoe, holding that the clinicians should be trained as scientists particularly demonstrating abilities in statistics, in order to be able to comprehend, evaluate, and, if occasion warrants, conduct research. (p. 102) While it is acknowledged that psychology is a science it is not considered as an exact one. (Cowles 2000, p. 21) Determinism – an ideal connected with the struggle for certain knowledge - upholds the propositions of the natural sciences as it more demonstrate the order of the universe better than psychology as a social science. B.F. Skinner (1953), underscores the necessity of assuming order in nature: We cannot apply the methods of science to a subject matter which is assumed to move about capriciously. Science not only describes, it predicts. It deals not only with the past but with the future†¦ If we are to use the methods of science in the field of human affairs, we must assume that behavior is lawful and determined. (p. 6) Fortunately, determinism could coexist with probabilistic thinking. Probabilistic thinking was used as a means toward objectivity in the classical sense of separating the experimenter from his knowledge. Such was the role of inferential statistics as a mechanization of the experimenter’s inference from data to hypothesis. (Gigerenzer 1987, p. 12) According to Raymond Nickerson (2004), the appearance of objectivity was promoted by eliminating the need for an experimenter’s judgment through the application of mechanical statistical procedures to the interpretation of data, hence, statistics became a means for the mechanization of inductive inference. (p. 271) The significance of all these is that statistics maintains the objectivity of psychology as an experimental science. In light of all these, one can say that statistics is more than just a tool in psychology. It validates the field

The Value of Yield Curve to Predict Recessions Coursework

The Value of Yield Curve to Predict Recessions - Coursework Example The same can be affirmative for other measures which contribute to the difference between short and long term interest rates. The term spread is a significant part of various indices of prominent indicators, some of which are inclusive of the Conference Board and the leading index and recession index of Stock and Watson (1989, 1993). Since, the yield curve is cited as flat in current period, the issue is quite contemporary, as the yield curve as modestly inverted as well. Term spreads play a significant role as a leading indicator because under the expectations attribution, neglecting the term premiums primarily, they measure the difference between the current short-term interest rates and the average of the expected future short-term interest rates over a long and new field of vision. In other words, a term spread is the measure of the pose of the monetary policy in relation with the long-run expectations. With increment in the term spread, current monetary policy becomes even more restrictive, thereby, giving rise to a recession over the subsequent quarters. With such a rationale detesting the term premiums, it is not legible to necessarily capture all the information in the yield curve about the liability of a recession by the spread of short-term interest rates over the yield on a long-term bond. The rise in the gradation of current short-term interest rates has no reason for them having identical predictive content for the liabilities of a recession as degradation in the average anticipated future nominal interest rates over, such as for the upcoming decade. However, the usage of the term spread as an overall explanatory constraint has such a connotation. Furthermore, since, it is quite clear from the existence of term premiums, which are time-varying and contribute to typically incrementing in the bond maturity, thereby, complicating the interpretation of spreads between the short- and long-term Treasury yields, the detestation of term premiums seems to be inappropriate. World prominent scholars like Hamilton and Kim, and Ang, Piazze si and Wei, have made an argument regarding the term premium and anticipations hypothesis constituents of the term spread, as they possess contrasting statistical correlations with the future growth (2002, 2006). A decline in the term premium, derived extrinsically, is theoretically sensible to some extent, since it makes financial conditions more coordinative, thereby, stimulating growth while flattening the yield curve. A measure of the pose of monetary policy which is less intricate as a result of the effects of term premiums, is referred to as the federal funds rate. The shape of yield curve is inclusive of

Can Character and Communities Survive in the Age of Globalization Essay

Can Character and Communities Survive in the Age of Globalization - Essay Example This has made a world a â€Å"global village† where we interact with peoples of different cultures, use their products and services, and also sell them ours. All these have a significant influence on our lives as is discussed in the later part of the essay. Online Oxford Dictionary defines character as â€Å"the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Whereas community means â€Å"a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common†. While nations on the whole seem to be benefited from the advantages of globalization which includes economic development, cheap availability of goods and their consumption, high mobility of goods, capital and plentiful labor; the communities within the economy are in fact negatively influenced by the increased globalization. The aforesaid advantages are often associated with globalization but its potential weaknesses are never discussed in great detail, and that is a growing concern t hese days. To show the connection or the relationship between globalization and character/communities let us consider the example of Pak Mun Dam in Thailand. It was constructed with the support of World Bank in 1994 on two rivers flowing in Thailand. Initially the dam was built to meet the power requirements of the country and for the welfare of the people, but it resulted in severe damages to the groups and communities living there. As soon as the dam was built, around 117 square kilometers of land was flooded which caused around 3000 families to move from their living place, fisheries of the Mun River were also adversely affected. Around 25,000 villagers claimed to have been affected by the construction of dam and many protests were also staged, but inadequate compensation was paid to them in return of all they lost. The dam also failed to produce the projected power output and therefore the entire project was unsuccessful. So this was just one of the many examples where economic prosperity and development was exchanged for dislocated people and destroyed communities. Communities play a vital role in any society. Through small groups and communities people find ways to interact with each other, to learn about themselves. Besides, every group or community has its boundaries and its very own identity and culture which gives the people living within it a good sense of belonging and fulfills their social needs as well. At the core of these communities lie the families. The people belonging to different families and the relationships existing among them give any community its true meaning and reason for its existence. Through families people participate in different social activities organized through the community. Hence the family-community exchange is very crucial for the survival of both communities and the character. Communities provide the families with culture, facilities, values and protect it from the measures that could otherwise jeopardize the satisfac tion of wants. And families, then again, protect these cultural values and norms through its social activities and passing these values from one generation to the other (Robertson). With the advent of globalization, the world today exhibits the nature of a global village with everything global, new, different, faster and turbulent. Globalization results in economic development and

Questions for Organizational Structure Assignment

Questions for Organizational Structure - Assignment Example It is most suitable for firms that deal in single line of product or services. He above mentioned company equally fits to this structure since it deals with single product line. Functional structures have become the most common type of organization structures and are quickly evolving from high levels of specialization to higher levels of efficiency. Therefore, of the middle sized firm in Sothern Florida, the following functional organization structure would be most suitable for their operations. The functional organization formed by this company needs to consist of a single authority known as the top management. Under the top management, there are many small specialized units that report to it. The top management is where power is emanating from, downwards to the other simple organizational units. The specialized units on the others need to contain people grouped in terms of similarities i.e. possessing various skills. Within this structure, each of these units is meant to handle an aspect of the product or service being dealt with. Since this is a building and construction company, there is need for group specialization i.e. people specialized in a given area placed together to perform a given task. This leads to high levels of accuracy as well as consistency in the quality. The top management however holds the responsibility of coordination the units together and making them works as a team towards achievement of their job objectives. Functional organizational structure is known to bring people possessing similar knowledge together. Constant interaction of such personalities can easily lead to emergence of specialists within the group. Introduction of performance management helps in exposing individuals’ ability and level of expertise hence making it easier to train and coach others in the similar. One advantage of using this structure is that it exposes employees to in-depth training thus making them pursue a single career path. This construction comp any can thus enjoy great performance by employees who are specialized on specific fields hence leading to perfection. One main advantage of choosing the functional organization structure is to consolidate all the human efforts and abilities. Through this, superiors can share their skills and expertise with their subordinates hence making them develop similar skills. In the building and construction industry, new workers especially fresh minds are never experienced enough to handle certain duties, putting them together with more experienced and knowledgeable persons can help in boosting their knowledge. It also helps in prevention of resource misuse by the members of the organization. In such a system the most competitive employees are placed within the areas where they are highly specialized. This enhances high levels of performance. Despite enjoying the above benefits, this system can face some setbacks which greatly paralyse its activities. For instance when levels of specializati on and production rise, the system develop a communication system that is slow as well as a similar decision making process. This comes as a result of independence of the specialized units having ability to make their decisions hence dragging the process. With a communication breakdown within the various departments, there is poor coordination between various departments hence making it hard for the processes to flow smoothly. 2. Realizing that projects are the dominant form of their business, the firm described in part (a) above is