...Cost Behaviors and Allocation Health Financial Management Cost allocation is essentially a pricing process within the organization whereby managers allocate the costs of one department to other departments (Gapenski, pg 188). Because this pricing process does not occur in a market setting, no objective standard exists that establishes the price for the transferred services (Gapenski, pg 188). Cost allocation within a business must, to the extent possible, establish prices that proxy those that would be set under market conditions (Gapenski, pg 188). The goal of cost allocation is to assign all of the costs of an organization to the activities that cause them to be incurred (Gapenski, pg 188). Ideally, health services managers track and assign costs by individual patient, physician, diagnosis, reimbursement contract, and so on (Gapenski, pg 188). Managers at all levels within health services organizations are under pressure to optimize economic performance, which translates into reducing costs (Gapenski, pg 188). Many department heads are evaluated, and hence compensated and promoted, other dimensions is satisfactory (Gapenski, pg 188). Department heads are held accountable for the full costs associated with services performed by their departments (Gapenski, pg 188). Health care costs are increasing at an annual rate of 7% a year, which if sustained will bankrupt Medicare in nine years and increase the nation’s overall...
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...HSA 525 | Cost Behaviors and Allocation | Assignment 2 | Tomeka Lewis4/29/2012 | In today’s world of businesses and corporations, there is a common goal shared throughout every industry: increase profits. With increases in skills and developing methods, businesses have come far lengths in increasing their profits, or operating income. Controlling costs is the key to a positive operation. Executives and managerial branches are using what they know about costs to create business strategies. By gathering information on market demand and combining it with a marketing strategy that focuses on higher margin products, companies are able to continue and increase profits and survive. The Cost Volume Profit Analysis is the dominant and most cost efficient way of doing so. By understanding the economic concerns of cost structure, contribution margin, and break-even sensitivity, a business can create a decision model to enhance the company’s productivity. A brief outline is required in understanding the Cost Volume Profit analysis (or CVP) and creating a decision model. In a very general outlook, the CVP looks at how fixed, variable, and mixed costs change with changes in sales volume. The main goal is to determine what factors control costs and see how management can use this information to improve planning and control activity. The first step in any CVP analysis is picking an activity base relation to the nature of the company’s operation. For example, a retail...
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...317 Introduction Costs are linked with all types of organizations- business, nonbusiness, manufacturing, retail and service. Cost behavior, Cost accounting & allocation, and Budget- these are the three key requirements to run any business nowadays. Measuring cost behavior (cost measurement) is associated with understanding and calculating how activities of an organization affect different levels of cost. On the other hand, cost accounting is a kind of accounting method that targets to capture an organization’s costs of production by evaluating the input costs of each step of production as well as fixed costs. Then, cost allocation is the allocating of a common cost to several cost substances. Additionally, budget is an estimate of earnings and expenses for a set period of time. These are commonly used terms in financial accounting information as well as in any business. My company is called The EBag Co. Ltd, which is in business for more than 5 years in the production sector of the market. This profitable business is earning its profits by manufacturing affordable bags for consumers of all ages. My company will use these three requirements of this assignment to make business more profitable in coming days. I will use the five methods (will talk about only 3) of measuring cost function for my company to identify which costs will change and which will remain the same with changes in sales volume. Then, I will use cost allocation chart to help me to identify...
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...Unethical Behavior and its Costs 4 August 2013 Unethical Behavior and its Cost 1 The Fall of Dennis Kozlowski Many leaders work hard and strive diligently to lead companies to success and wealth in an ethical manner. In doing so, the reputation of the company is enhanced as are the benefits to the shareholders and the public. That notwithstanding, some leaders have been identified with exhibiting poor judgement and gross unethical behavior (Stephens, Vance, Pettegrew, 2012). The underlying reasons for these failures on the part of individual leaders can be traced back to a lack of moral and ethical standards. The downfall of former Tyco International CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, is just one of many examples. Background Kozlowski reputedly came from a middle-class background. His parents were public service employees and sent their son to Seton Hall University, a Catholic school. Kozlowski graduated from Seton Hall University in 1968 and gained employment in auditing. Later, in 1975, Kozlowski gained a position with Tyco and had a phenomenal rise in the company. In 1989, his was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer and three years later, he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer, only 17 years after joining Tyco. Somewhere along the way, the good Catholic education and standards provided by his second-generation Polish-American parents went astray (biography). Undoubtedly Kozlowski excelled in his executive position raising Tyco's mergers...
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...Journal of Financial Economics 3 (1976) 305-360. Q North-Holland Publishing Company THEORY OF THE FIRM: MANAGERIAL BEHAVIOR, AGENCY COSTS AND OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE Michael C. JENSEN and William H. MECKLING* University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, U.S.A. Received January 1976, revised version received July 1976 This paper integrates elements from the theory of agency. the theory of property rights and the theory of finance to develop a theory of the ownership structure of the firm. We define the concept of agency costs, show its relationship to the ‘separation and control’ issue, investigate the nature of the agency costs generated by the existence of debt and outside equity, demonstrate who bears these costs and why, and investigate the Pareto optirnality of their existence. We also provide a new definition of the firm, and show how our analysis of the factors influencing tht- creation and issuance of debt and equity claims is a special case of the supply side of the completeness of markets problem. The directors of such [joint-stock] companies, however, being the managers rather of other people’s money than of their own, it cannot well be expected, that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frcqucntly watch over their own. Like the stewards of a rich man, they are apt to consider attention to small matters as not for their master’s honour, and very easily give thcmsclvcs a dispensation from...
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...alarm as several factors could attribute to this. The bottom line is that a profit was made in the last reported year and the organization is still operating in the green, in other words they are not losing money. Overall I would say that the organization made good use of its money over the last year by working hard to pay some of its debt off and increase its return to keep its shareholders happy. While each of the above organizations are making a profit, according to the chart above Cracker Barrel has a higher profit margin than Darden Restaurants, INC. This could be attributed to several different factors but one comes to mind is the fact that Darden Restaurants, INC. has many different sub organizations to divide its operating cost with which in-turn will show a high return on assets and profit for the home organization. However, it is clear to see that Cracker Barrel has a high return on its Asset Utilization and thus are doing very well compared...
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...identify the factors that work together to control individual behavior. Their theory is called "integrative" because it draws on several theoretical frameworks, including the sociobiological, psychological, and rational-opportunity perspectives. For example, from the rational-opportunity perspective, Wilson and Herrnstein's theory takes the notion that individuals are always considering the reward-cost ratio of various behaviors and choosing the behavior that appears most favorable, even if it is criminal. From sociobiology, their theory incorporates the concept of innate temperaments that account for way some people are exceptionally aggressive or impulsive. Finally, from psychology, their theory incorporates the behaviorist notion of conditioning, noting that individuals' perception of probable rewards and costs are based largely on past experiences. One major shortcoming of the integrative theory is that Wilson and Herrnstein only intended it to account for serious street crime like murder, robbery, and rape. A truly general theory should account for crimes of all types, and by this standard, Wilson and Herrnstein's theory fails. Critics of the theory also claim that it is too closely aligned with conservative criminology: it puts too much emphasis on an individual's "free will" to commit crime and too little emphasis on environmental factors (such as social disorganization) that influence the behavior of entire populations of people. The validity of these criticisms...
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...ever-changing business environment. However, the human capital behavior is extremely complex to understand and manage. Hence, it is important for the management to value Organization Behavior (OB) highly and continue to practice scientifically established methods. Organization behavior principles help the management to effectively manage the human behavior to be successful in the paradigm-shifting business environment of 21st century. There is growing research evidence that employees’ psychological capital is positively related to their performance and desired attitudes. Investing in this human capital results in desired performance outcomes such as increased productivity and customer satisfaction (Luthans, pp. 6). The current work-force is increasingly mobile, spread over globally, culturally diverse and a heterogenous mix of computer literacy. It is evident that such a work-force has created great challenges to the management in performance management, sustaining the intellectual capital and minimizing associated expenses. Monetary incentives alone are not effective in the current environment. Businesses can no longer offer or sustain job security to employees. Hence, in order to keep the employee morale high, it order to sustain reasonably good performance from its human social capital, the management needs to invest in organization behavior and its principles. Understanding, predicting, and management of human behavior helps...
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...Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors An organization will have employees with one of two behavior types. They can either be productive or counterproductive. The root cause of counterproductive behavior can be rooted in employee turnover, attendance issues, or lack of training. It is up to the organization to make an attempt to identify what the causes of their employees’ counterproductive behavior and attempt to find a workable solution. Productive Behavior and its Impact on an Organization Employers want productive behavior out of their employees because productive employees create revenue for the organization. However, employees tend to think just because they are doing “something” and not idle they are being productive. Their way of thinking would be incorrect. Productive behavior is “employee behavior that contributes positively to the goals and objectives of the organization” (Jex & Britt, 2008). As we can see merely doing something to occupy ones time is not being productive. Whether or not an employee is being productive can be measured by the cost associated with the employee’s performance and how effective they are. For example, there are two employees in a shoe store with similar sales figures and they sell the same number of shoes each month. The only difference in these two employees is that employee A works ten hours per day and employee B works a six-hour day. Employee B is the more productive employee because employee B accomplishes the same goal in...
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...Behavioral Economics Matters for HIV Research: The Impact of Behavioral Biases on Adherence to Antiretrovirals (ARVs) Abstract Behavioral economics (BE) has been used to study a number of health behaviors such as smoking and drug use, but there is little knowledge of how these insights relate to HIV prevention and care. We present novel evidence on the prevalence of the common behavioral decision-making errors of present-bias, overoptimism, and information salience among 155 Ugandan HIV patients, and analyze their association with subsequent medication adherence. 36 % of study participants are classified as present-biased, 21 % as overoptimistic, and 34 % as having salient HIV information. Patients displaying present-bias were 13 % points (p = 0.006) less likely to have adherence rates above 90 %, overoptimistic clients were 9 % points (p = 0.04) less likely, and those not having salient HIV information were 17 % points (p\0.001) less likely. These findings indicate that BE may be used to screen for future adherence problems and to better design and target interventions addressing these behavioral biases and the associated suboptimal adherence The Importance of BE Biases for Chronic Health Behaviors We focus on three key behavioral biases that have been found to influence health behaviors for other chronic conditions [9] and that we hypothesize may also be important to components of ARV adherence: Present-Bias A key behavioral bias is present-bias, which is the tendency of...
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...individual differences among people in behavior patterns, cognition and emotion. Different personality theorists present their own definitions of the word based on their theoretical positions. Individual differences in personality have many real life consequences. Personality Measures Personality determines a number of important characteristics and behaviors, including how people interact with others, what motivates them, and what they value. Our personality measures are among the most widely cited, highly regarded, and innovative assessments of normal-range personality. For use with normal and clinical populations, these measures are also used in a variety of settings, from career planning and marital counseling to leadership development and employment selection. THE MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY It should be pointed out that the various methods of assessing personality correspond closely to the basic personality theories we have just discussed. Personality Research Form The PRF is one of the most highly regarded measures of normal-range personality available. It is also one of the most highly cited psychological assessments, having been referenced 2000 times in research literature. Measuring Personality: Various Approaches Including Self-Report, Behavioral, and Projective Tests Self-report measures rely on the individual's personal responses. Some of the more widely used personality self-report measures Behavioral measures focus on behavior itself, rather than traits or other...
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...Alexis Carter Mr Bryan Composition I 11 October 2015 Child Behavior: Then vs. Now Child behavior is worse today than it was ten years ago. The definition of behavior, according to oxford dictionary is “The manner in which one acts or conducts oneself especially in the presence of other people”. In addition to that, behavior is the way one responds to a situation. Therefore, the definition of child behavior would be the way a child conducts him or herself while relating with other people or the way they react to situations. As a general observation, ten years ago children were better behaved, especially towards their elders and parents than they are in this generation (Generation Z). Now, it is common to find a child who has deliberately refused to obey a parental command when they have been sent to do a certain task. There are numerous television shows today showing unruly children whom the parents can no longer control or discipline. These children do not do what is right for them but instead do what they wish to do. A good reality show that can illustrate the behavior of these children is ‘World’s Strictest Parents’, a reality show that depicts how some teenagers have become so rebellious, hardened and with lack of remorse for anything wrong done. Children exhibit bad behavior through lack of respect toward their own parents as well as other people. Children also show a lack of respect to their parents by shouting at them when denied something they want, or by...
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...APOLLO .W. MBOGO ( MOI UNIVERSITY)------- Organizational behavior Organizational behavior refers to the study of people and their behavior in the organization and their work place. Organizational behavior is an aspect that deals with great range of disciplines which includes management sociology, psychology, and communication. Organizational behavior brings about achievement of highest performance and good results due to the application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations and workplaces. Through the study of organizational behavior, managers are able to know the problems affecting the employees in the organization and come up with solutions to solve these problems. As a result it brings they work harmoniously together as a family thereby bringing high achievement If a manager is assigned to manage an organization, it is necessary for him or her to understand how the organization operates. Organization may refer to the combination of science and people. While science and technology can be predicted, human behavior in an organization cannot be predicted. This is because human behaviors arise from needs and value systems of people. Organizations refer to people this means that without people organizations would not exist. This means that if managers want to understand the organizations in which they work, they must first understand the people who are the constituents of the organizations. People are the most valuable assets of the...
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...to the clients they have it makes a huge difference in the outcome. It allows them to understand show how reaching goals and the achievement process can be helpful. Some studies have even been known to show that the health of general practitioners can aid the prevention of many chronic diseases (Oberg, & Frank, 2009). Health care providers will use the four theories if learning so that they can provide a specific technique or techniques to each patient so it will overlap the mental, and physical health along with physiological health. Theory of Behaviorism Behaviorism is the ability to measure and observe the human behavior. The observing is the primary concern when it comes to measure the humane behavior. When the behaviorist looked to define behavior they defined behavior as the response to stimulus that would prompt a change in all behavior. Sports psychology is a prime example and very popular in the use of stimulus and response with the intrinsic motivation....
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...According to Schermerhorn (2005), organizational behavior is "the study of human behavior in organizations". Organizational behavior is also a multi-disciplinary study, taking knowledge from social and behavioral sciences and applying it to real-world situations. Understanding how humans behave in organizations will improve productivity and allows better work relations, more realistic expectations and improves job satisfaction. In today’s fast paced business environment many times there is not enough time to understand and study thoroughly each behavior. Each organization should allow sufficient time to study behaviors and apply the results for the improvement of the business. Organizational culture is a general term that summarizes the combined attitudes, beliefs, common experiences, procedures, and values that are established in an organization and others similar to it. Each organization has a different culture; it can be described as their personality. Diverse people in the same organization can have different perceptions of the culture of the organization. This is particularly true concerning the different insights between the upper and lower levels of the organization. For example, the Chief Executive Officer may view the organization as being highly focused, well organized and even rather formal. On the other hand, a secretary might view the organization as being mystified, incompetent and, sometimes, even impolite. Establishing and maintaining a healthy organization...
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