Employee Assistance Programs in Organizations – Employee Counseling

Counseling has been practiced in one form or other since the evolution of mankind. In every field which requires dealing with people, counseling is essential. Counseling is a dyadic relationship between two persons; a manager who is offering help (counselor) and an employee whom such help is given (counselee). It may be formal or informal. Formal counseling is a planned and systematic way of offering help to subordinates by expert counselors. Informal counseling is concerned with day to day relationship between the manager and his subordinates where help is readily offered without any formal plan. Every manager has a responsibility to counsel his subordinates. When individual managers are unable to deal with specific problems, the counseling services of a professional body is required. An organization can either offer the services of a full-time in-house counselor or refer the employee to a community counseling service. Counseling occasionally is necessary for employees Continue reading

What Is Capital? Definition and Concept

Capital is the money needed to produce goods and services. In plain terms, it is money. All businesses must have capital in order to purchase assets such as land, buildings, machinery, raw materials and maintain their operations. Business capital comes in two main forms: debt and equity. Debt refers to loans and other types of credit that must be repaid in the future, usually with interest. Equity, on the other hand, generally does not involve a direct obligation to repay the funds. Instead, equity investors receive an ownership position in the company which usually takes the form of stock, and thus the term “stock equity.” One of the factors of capital is the factor of production, debt capital; the cost is the interest rate that the company must pay in order to borrow funds. For equity capital, the cost is the returns that must be paid to investors in the Continue reading

Difference Between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Creating Shared Value (CSV)

Corporate social responsibility is a deliberate action taken by investors to ensure they participate in activities that promote positive development in the community around them. It involves the establishment of programmes that ensure a business pays back to the society through participation in community activities. This may include constructing schools, establishing sponsorship programmes, easing the implementation of environmental conservation policies and empowering local communities to safeguard their future. Creating a shared value involves the implementation of policies that ensure businesses get quality raw materials and offer awareness and education programmes to their suppliers to help them get better rewards for their participation in promoting businesses. CSR and CSV help organisations to create a good public image and avoid conflicts with local communities and authorities. Differences between Creating Shared Values and Corporate Social Responsibility CSV differs with CSR in the following ways. First, CSV focuses on improving the value of products Continue reading

Income Tax Assessment Procedure

Ascertaining total income is one major task of the procedure involved in levying tax on an assessee.   The task of assessing the income returned and determination of tax liability is called ‘assessment’.   The term ’assessment’ has been used in the Income-tax Act meaning differently contexts.   In certain situations, it refers to computation of income, sometimes to the determination of tax payable and in some cases to the whole procedure laid down in the Act of imposing tax liability on assessee. Assessment of income relating to one Financial Year (FY) starts in the succeeding financial year, which is called Assesment Year (AY). Income tax assessment procedure begins when an assessee files his return of income to the income tax department. Filing of return [Sec 139 (1)] A person has to file return of income in the prescribed form within the specified time limit if his total income exceeds Continue reading

Conflicts in Workplaces – Definition, Causes, Impacts, and Handling

Organizations comprise people from different cultural, professional, racial, age, and other demographic backgrounds. Where people are segregated along these diversity differences, cultural conflicts arise. This suggests that managers and leaders within organizations encounter immense challenges in seeking effective strategies for recruitment, training, developing, and retaining the most talented personnel in an organization characterized by immense workforce diversities. Conflicts often produce a negative implication on the performance of an organization. Since the principal goal of organizational leadership is to look for mechanisms of resolving challenges, which may hinder the performance of an organization so that it delivers value to its owners (shareholders), conflict avoidance constitutes a risky approach to conflict management. These challenges become even more pronounced as many organizations endeavor to engage in global businesses as a measure of increasing their competitive advantage. The more diverse the workforce is, the higher the risks of workplace conflicts associated with diversity differences. Continue reading

Functions of Merchant Bankers

Recommended reading: Introduction to merchant banking The important functions of merchant bankers are: Management of Debt and Equity Offerings: This forms the main function of the merchant banker. He assists the companies in raising funds from the market. The undergoing tasks include instrument designing, pricing the issue, registration of the offer document, underwriting support, marketing of the issue, allotment and refund and listing on stock exchanges. Placement and Distribution: The merchant banker helps in distributing various securities like equity shares, debt instruments, mutual funds, insurance products, and commercial paper, to name a few. The distribution network of the merchant banker can be classified as institutional and retail in nature. The institutional network consists of mutual funds, foreign institutional investors; private equity funds pension funds, financial institutions, etc. Corporate Advisory Services: Merchant bankers offer customized solutions to their clients’ financial problems. Financial structuring includes determining the right debt-equity ratio and the framing of appropriate Continue reading