Job Production – Meaning, Characteristics and Importance

Job production is characterized by the manufacture of one or few numbers of a single product designed and manufactured strictly to customer’s specifications, within, the given period and wit/tin the price fixed prior to tile contract. Some typical examples of industries engaged in jobbing production are: general repair shops; special purpose machine tool manufacturers; workshops to manufacture jigs and fixtures for other units; building contractors; tailoring shops manufacturing made-to-measure suite of clothes; manufacturers of ships, cranes, furnaces, turbo-generators, pressure vessels; and others manufacturing articles made to customers orders. Characteristics of Job Production Job production plays a crucial role in meeting the demands of customers who seek personalized, high quality products that cannot be mass produced. By focusing on customization and attention to detail, businesses engaged in job production can differentiate themselves in the market and cater to niche markets that value exclusivity and uniqueness. Job production also allows for greater Continue reading

Stress and Personality

Stress is very personal as it depends on how you perceive events.   One of the factors that influences your perceptions is your personality.   Depending on your personality you may be more vulnerable to stress than some of your friends or colleagues.   It is important to understand this as many people wrongly think they are weak or at fault in some way because they feel stressed by something others appear to take in their stride. There are in fact individuals who psychologists have termed ‘hardy’, because of their higher level of tolerance to stress.   A ‘hardy’ person has a particularly strong belief in their ability to control events, even when in reality they have limited control.   They also tend to believe that stability is unusual in life and that constant change is normal.   Having these kind of beliefs makes the ‘hardy’ individual more able to Continue reading

Audit Quality – Meaning and Factors Affecting It

The major accounting scandals occurred worldwide has brought the focus of public to the audit profession and the audit quality. Enron and WorldCom cases in United States and Parmalat case in Europe are the example of major scandals as a result of the failure of audit services. These examples of corporate and accounting scandals that happened worldwide have indicated that the audit quality of the audit profession is not at an appropriate and acceptable level. Over years, the audit quality issue has been discussed and debated globally. Several actions have been taken by international and domestic authorized agencies to address the audit quality issue. For example, the government of United States has introduced and enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 as a response to the audit failure in big major corporations, such as Enron and World Com. In addition, the Center for Audit Quality has been established in United States Continue reading

Global Compensation Practices

For many companies, maintaining a domestic compensation program  that supports the strategic goals of the organization and meets the needs of  employees is a difficult challenge. This challenge is intensified when a similar  program must be designed to operate in multiple countries with different  cultures. For organizations competing in a global marketplace, managing compensation requires a through understanding of the taxation of compensation  and benefits, differing state social systems, differences in living standards and  employee values and expectations. Some of the most challenging questions in  compensation practices are following: How does a company pay expatriates from difference home countries  brought together to work on a project? What about compensation packages for same country nationals sent to different  regions of the world? Traditional compensation systems for expatriates, such as the balance  sheet approach and going  rate approach, may not be adequate for the company  or expatriate in facilitating an case of Continue reading

What is an Enterprise Database?

Data are the raw material from which information is produced. Therefore, it is not surprising that in today’s information-driven environment, data are a valuable asset that requires careful management. To access data’s monetary value, data that stored in company database are data about customers, suppliers, inventory, and operations and so on. Imagine that all the data in the database loss. What will happen if the situation like that happen? Data loss puts any company in a difficult position. The company might be unable to handle daily operation effectively; it might be faced with the loss of customers who require quick and efficient service, and it might lose the opportunity to gain new customers. Data are a valuable resource that can translate into information. If the information is accurate and timely, it is likely to trigger action that enhance the company’s competitive position and generate wealth. In effect, an organization is Continue reading

Moral Hazards in Workplaces

In the economic literature nowadays, moral hazard is studied in various fields. There are two major categories of researches on moral hazard. One is originated from the early literature about insurance market; the other is about economic decision-making, such as finance, banking, accounting and management. In the recent financial crisis, moral hazard is more frequently discussed and blamed as one of the causes of the banking problem. What is Moral Hazard? Moral hazard is defined in various ways in different aspects. The earliest explanation is from the perspective of insurance sector. Marshall provided the definition as ‘any misallocation of resources which results when risks are insured with normal insurance contracts and only with such contracts’. Briefly, moral hazard as the risky behavior an insured individual may act because of the insurance cover. There are two kinds of moral hazard in insurance field. One of them is ex ante moral hazard, Continue reading