Foreclosure Department

Answer

1. • Management: Foreclosure Department

     Introduction

     "If you pick the right people and allow them to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don't have to manage them." This is one of Jack welch's famous quotes on the importance of having the right employees in your organization. Dayer (2016) suggests that an organization's strategy and objectives should inform staffing. However, a report by John P. Hausknecht, titled 'Organizational Strategy and Staffing' argues that this is not entirely true (Hausknecht, 2015). The report postulates that more theories should be considered during staffing. This report seeks to show the need for staffing in the organization and also recommends theories and formulas to be used during staffing.

     According to Heneman and judge (2017), staffing can be defined as the process through which an organization acquires, deploys, and retains enough and capable workers, to improve the organization's productivity. Strategy, on the other hand, has been defined as how an organization intends to achieve its goals through externally, integrated, and central concepts.  Strategy can thus be said to be interested in how the business competes, where it competes, and what tools to use to compete (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2015). When the two terms are combined, strategic staffing has been defined as staffing an organization with the perspective of goal-directed, and future-oriented to arrive at its projected productivity.

      

      

      

     The following steps have been put forward as the ideal steps to follow when making a staffing plan;

     Evaluation of goals

     Once one is clear on the goals they intend to achieve, then they can be able to estimate the required staff to achieve said goals. The management can then make a decision based on available staff. These decisions would include whether to hire, fire, or retain employees as they were. According to the strategic staffing guide book (2015), departmental goals should be in sync with organizational goals.

     In the case of the organization, the main objective of hiring more staff is to tackle the issue of backlog experienced due to an increase in loans portfolio in the last four months. Data provided indicate a cumulative growth of 50% in those months. This means that most of the employees are overworked, which might create unproductivity in the long run.

     Furthermore, to understand the current productivity of the workers currently employed, sampling techniques can be used. Sampling can be defined as the selection of a small group from within the whole population. Sampling methods include; simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, convenience sampling, etc. definition of one's sample size is crucial before the onset of sampling. One might decide to use small sample sizes, large sample sizes, or convenient sample sizes.

     Large sample sizes

     Sample size has been defined as the number of individuals in a subgroup tested in the research. Large sample sizes enable the researcher to understand the population far much better since various variations are visible. Furthermore, the large sample guarantees the reliability of the population's mean as its estimator of parameter. Having a large sample size also decreases the margin of error. The margin of error shows the range of error in the results. Having large sample sizes also enables one to segment the subgroups into smaller subgroups that share almost the same characteristics (Neerchal, Lacayo, & Nusshaum, 2016).

     Large samples also have some disadvantages, to start with, they require a lot of time to collect. This makes it even complex to calculate some parameters and wastes a lot of time. Expenses incurred in its collection are also high compared to small sample sizes (Neerchal, Lacayo, & Nusshaum, 2016).

     Small sample

     Small sample size is mostly preferred when the population is heterogeneous. This is because there are not very many variables to be considered. Its advantages include; since the sample size is small, studies may be easy and fast to conduct, it is also cheaper to conduct a study with a small sample size as opposed to large sample size (Hackshaw, 2018).

     Limitations of small sample sizes include; the p-value and confidence intervals become hard to interpret, small sample sizes may also produce false-positive results while sometimes they may overestimate the extent of a relationship. It is thus advisable to use small sample sizes only when the actual population is also small.

     Convenience sample

     Convenience sampling is mostly used where there is no need for the addition of other inputs. This method of sampling only requires the researcher to use the most readily available samples. Advantages of the technique include; it is quick to use such samples hence it is mostly used when time is a constraint, it is very cheap to collect data using this method, hence it is used for pilot studies. And finally, the samples are collected at the convenience of the researcher, making this method easy.

     Limitations of the method include; the first limitation of this technique is bias since the sample population is predetermined by the researcher, the sample selected might not be representative of the whole population, there are also high chances of under or over-representation of the population.

     The analyst recommends large sampling to overcome the disadvantages of small and convenient sampling. Since the population is not large, i.e. less than 100, the sample size will also not be large hence. It will, however, represent the population fully while still taking advantage of the small sampling technique e.g. easy calculations and cheap data collection.

     Sampling bias

     Sampling bias occurs where during the collection of data, some individuals in the population did not stand a chance of being selected in the sample size. It occurs where the selection was not randomized. Sampling bias occurs when samples are collected in the following ways; selection from a specific area, self-selection bias, prescreening of participants, exclusion, and overmatching.

     Limitations of a biased sample

     Results calculated from statistics with sampling bias are likely to be continuously wrong and erroneous. The sample will lead to an overrepresentation or underrepresentation of the population. However one can salvage an under-representation that is close enough to the normal population as an approximation to a random sample. To avoid sampling bias, the researcher must ensure proper randomization is done and that every individual in the population stands a chance of being selected.

     To avoid any ethical issues in the experimental design, participants will be informed of their right to consent. Participation in the study should be voluntary and any personal information of the participant must remain confidential. To avoid any bias, participants should be kept anonymous to the analyst such that they are not aware of the employees whose data is being analyzed. That way they will avoid any emotional judgment and strictly give advice based on the outcome of the data analyzed.

     Productivity data

      

     Mean: 15.1111

     Mode: 14

     Median: 14

      

     Determination of the probability that the current trend will continue

     Using the linear trend estimation method, the analyst was able to determine that the current trend would continue linearly as shown below.

      

     Other factors that could affect the uptake of the loans include; the unemployment rate, consumer spending, house prices, and seasonal factors. An increase in the unemployment rate would mean that fewer people can afford the loans so they will keep away. When consumer spending increases, more loans will be taken to provide the money to spend. An increase in house prices would decrease the disposable income for many people which would, in turn, lead to low uptake of the loans since there would be no money to pay up. All of which are independent factors.

     According to an article titled 'Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Analyst's Forecasts: A Review of the Literature' in the Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, other dependent factors e.g. the experience of the analyst, the reliability of financial data and accounting standards may also affect the accuracy of the forecast.

      

     Conclusion

     From the factors above proper care should be taken to ensure that accounting standards are always upheld and that the analyst is well trained and experienced. Furthermore, an allowance of error should always be considered during forecasting keeping in mind the external factors that the business has no control over. They include unemployment, house prices, consumer spending, and currency exchange rates.

      

      

      

Answer

Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” Movie Analysis

            While delivering a speech, persuasion is essential in convincing the audience to listen to their ideas in their address. In An Inconvenient Truth, former US Vice President Al – Gore speaks on global warming as an encroaching crisis affecting its atmosphere and the environment as his central message. Al- Gore effectively persuades the audience into joining his cause against global warming by using persuasive communication strategies, a solid introduction, rhetoric strategies, oral citations, proper speech delivery, and presentation aids to evoke the audience in supporting his cause.

            Al- Gore’s successfully incorporates a solid speech introduction to attract the audience’s attention. He begins the introduction with a joke alluding to him being the “former future president of the United States.” The use of such a satirical comment evokes the audience wondering who would be bold enough to stand on stage after losing a race, such as the presidential election. This captures the audience to be more involving in his speech and sit for a better listening into the matters at hand. Later on, he introduces his speech topic by focusing on his central message, outlining his whole address's main points. Finally, it eases the audience by showing a mangrove parchment indicated to involve the audience in relating to a preserved environment before expounding on his speech. The audience is engaged after this as he gets into his central message and further engaging in his speech.

Al-Gore's excellently persuades the audience by using ethos as a rhetorical strategy throughout the speech.  Ethos employs a sense of trustworthiness and competence that enables the audience to believe in the speaker's credibility. He shows ethos by acknowledging his commitment to the earth as an environmental activist. Al- Gore's speech is based on expansive research that helps the audience trust his competence in speaking on the issue. Al- Gore's possesses charisma and positive energy that attracts the audience to remain rooted in listening to his appeal towards addressing global warming. As characteristics of applying ethos in a speech, the combination of dynamism and competence draws the crowd to become trustworthy with his presentation and remains attentive throughout the address.

Al- Gore’s effectively employs persuasive communication strategies that include positive motivation, negative motivation, cognitive dissonance, non-verbal communication, and appeals to self-esteem in his speech. Positive and negative motivations are essential in persuading the audience to venture into addressing global warming to achieve positive outcomes in the environment. Consequently, Al-Gore uses negative motivation to convince the audience that failure to look into measures of curbing global warming and climate change, the earth might end up like the few places he depicts in his comparison photographs and videos. Cognitive dissonance helps change one's perspective to something by discomforting norms and beliefs to persuade an audience towards change. At the start of the documentary, Al-Gore introduces a short video of a beautiful mangrove parchment that would stay in the back of the audience's mind on what should be safeguarded.  To destabilize the audience, he shows pictorials of areas devastated by global warming, evoking fear and panic for the world that has become dormant in addressing this issue. Intertwined, with his central idea, Al- Gore persuades the audience in a bleak and disheartened tone to fight for preserving the environment.

            In addition, Al-Gore’s effectually uses non-verbal communication in his body language is established through a dejected worrying tone for identifying with the audience on the prevailing situation. Al- Gore’s body movement showed confidence in his walk and constant interactiveness with the audience. Al – Gore also has a confiden, genuine smile appearing as a well- groomed and dressed man in delivering his speech. In the documentary, Al-Gore's clear expression of displeasure with people who negated around global warming instead of addressing is clear.  Al-Gore aimed to show concern for the issue. Al –Gore's self-esteem pushes his central message across the audience by focusing on positivity and the audience's contributions to curb global warming. His articulation of each point across helps in building confidence with the audience. His confidence in his speech persuades the audience to be on board the matter.

            Oral citations are well used in An Inconvenient Truth to capture the audience's attention. Al- Gore uses oral citations effectively to show reliability, credibility, and validity of information conveyed in his speech address. Denoting empirical evidence from videos, charts, and maps allude the audience into believing that Al- Gore critically researched the issue and came up with a profound speech to convince the audience to join his cause to remove fallacies on wrong information presented in his speech. Virtually, his research pays off as he captures the audience in his factual interactions on the matter.

Al – Gore excellently uses presentation aids like projected images, comparison photographs, short videos, satirical cartoons, and info graphs like maps and charts to help persuade his audience to come to his plea in preserving the environment by combating global warming. Projected images show areas adversely affected by global warming, including flooded areas. The short videos as well show people injured due to flooding. The graphs and maps show empirical evidence of the effects of global warming in areas. A comparison of videos and pictures shows how some places were before global warming and its impact after years. All these visual aids serve as areas involving the audience's concern and worry over the deteriorating ecosystem around us. Al-Gore was not shy off, including videos of politicians passing over the global warming issue through satirical cartoons while also poking at renowned scientists worldwide who showed the existence of climate change. As much as Al-Gore is a politician, he intended for the audience to understand that his concern was for the environment and endeavors towards combating global warming rather than politically-driven shows with aspirations of a political seat.

Lastly, Al- Gore successfully uses ethos, pathos, and logos strategies to capture the audience's attention in his speech. Ethos employs a sense of trustworthiness and competence that enables the audience to believe in the speaker's credibility. He shows ethos by acknowledging his commitment to the earth as an environmental activist. The documentary shows the incorporation of logos through his presentation of scientific facts that support his claims to global warming as an issue of concern. Lastly, his attributes to incorporate his son's demise into comparing it to his commitment to the environment show pathos as a rhetoric strategy.  Successful integration of photographs and videos of areas affected by global warming helped provoke the audience to support his cause towards alleviating global warming.

In conclusion, Al – Gore effectively incorporates persuasive communication strategies, a solid introduction, rhetoric strategies, oral citations, proper speech delivery, and presentation aids to evoke the audience in supporting his fight against global warming.  Using all these techniques successfully convinces the audience to have a concern about the deteriorating ecosystem. Having watched the documentary, I am persuaded to carry on the legacy of conserving our environment as an environmental ambassador.         

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