Employment and Hockey Sticks free essay sample

You own an organization that utilizes around 200 individuals in Maine to create hockey sticks. For what reason may you choose to redistribute your creation to Indonesia? Would shutting your plant and moving your activities abroad assistance or hurt the U. S. economy? Who might be harmed? Who might be made a difference? Presently, furnished with answers to these inquiries, ask yourself whether you would in reality move your offices or keep making hockey sticks in Maine. Clarify your choice. Bolster your cases with an academic source. For what reason may you choose to redistribute your creation to Indonesia? There are less guidelines to cling to (medicinal services laws, organization security arrangements and so on). Likewise the lowest pay permitted by law inside Indonesia will be not as much as that of the U. S. These disadvantages ordinarily bring about lower creation cost and accordingly more noteworthy benefits. Would shutting your plant and moving your activities abroad assistance or hurt the U. S. economy? For U. We will compose a custom exposition test on Work and Hockey Sticks or then again any comparative point explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page S laborers and customers, redistributing would make a large number of issues. As per James Moreland (2013) Americans ought to understand that re-appropriating has close to nothing or nothing to do with enthusiasm. It’s just an issue of market rivalry. Who might be harmed? Two gatherings would in fact be influenced. Workers will lose their professional stability and the customers will be compelled to follow through on greater expenses for merchandise and administration. As expressed by Yunchuan Frank Liu (2011) if a firm re-appropriates to an underdeveloped nation, there will be a cost sparing impact be that as it may, then again there will likewise be a debilitating among the opposition. Who might be made a difference? Redistributing would give advantages to the outside economy and the organization. Remote economies would be supported by the employments made, and the organization will be sparing creation cost. Today economies depend intensely on worldwide advertising. As indicated by George B. Dark (2002) the U. S economy and world economy are connected from multiple points of view. At long last we should understand that the plan of re-appropriating isn't to intentionally remove occupations however, it’s an instrument to continue organizations that make employments while giving purchasers assets and items.

Boeing is the Manufacturing of Commercial Airplane and Military Research Paper

Boeing is the Manufacturing of Commercial Airplane and Military Airplanes - Research Paper Example In its development, Boeing has figured out how to expand its portfolio and develop its incomes and gainfully, which has converted into improved partner esteem. Boeing is positioned second after Airbus on being the producer of business flies and falls second after Lockheed Martin as a barrier contractual worker. This examination paper investigates how Boeing influences utilized its presentation using vital data design frameworks to meet its key endeavor destinations. Foundation Overtime, Boeing has developed to get one of U.S. greatest business fly makers to order a critical worldwide piece of the overall industry. The center target of Boeing focuses of proceeding to come out on top and making imaginative airplanes and fulfilling the whole customer’s developing needs. Boeing tries to be the most grounded, and the best incorporated aviation based organization all inclusive. Boeing has developed to turn into the biggest worldwide airplane producer by income, conveyances, and requ ests, just as one of the biggest aviation and protection temporary worker universally. Boeing’s Commercial Aviation Services area empowers Boeing to give effective, auspicious specialized help to help aircrafts administrators to keep their planes in ideal working state. The obtaining of McDonnell Douglas in 1997 assumed a major job in raising the height of the organization. In 2010, Boeing income remained at USD 64.306 billion, which a drop of 6% from 2009 entire year results. The drop in income can be connected to numerous components, for example, a decrease in aircraft request, just as creation interferences and resulting negative exposure associated with delays for the conveyance of 787 Boeing Dreamliner (Boeing, 2011). The Boeing 787 Dreamliner can be respected to be the best item that Boeing has propelled in the ongoing past decided by the quantities of requests that Boeing has gotten. In the first Quarter of 2011, Boeing prevailing with regards to raising its income by 2% from the 2010 income of $30.79 billion to $31.45 billion. Additionally, Boeing’s total compensation expanded to $3.31 billion out of 2010 from a 2009 total compensation of $1.31 billion. The 250% bounce in total compensation exude from the smoothing out and proficiency strategies that Boeing executed. During the principal half of 2011, Boeing’s net gain expanded by 17% from $1.31 (2010) to $1.53 billion (2011) (Boeing, 2011). This shows the monetary achievement that Boeing right now appreciates attributable to the power of its activities and the ability to use its assets profitably. Boeing’s Organization and Management of Information Systems Boeing has a solid responsibility towards the drawn out upgrade in its items and procedures. Boeing has a solid responsibility towards consumer loyalty and improving investor esteem, which requires that Boeing constantly cooperate to upgrade the general effectiveness and profitability inside its structure, authoritative, assembling, and bolster associations. The requirement for constantly improve items makes innovation a focal factor in producing the fate of the airplane business. Boeing’s customer base reaches out in over in more than 90 nations, which has required its selection of organizations over the globe in innovation, administration, and assembling divisions. Besides, Boeing appreciates a powerful, in-house, research, plan and innovation improvement offices and has likewise broadened inquire about and create focuses and programs in a number countries.â â

Organizational free essay sample

Chapter by chapter guide Introduction Organizational culture is a significant piece of any association, for this is the standards an organization represent. Without a solid, stable culture, an association makes certain to flop sooner than later. I will currently talk about the subjects quickly referenced in task 1. 1. The authoritative culture of the association where I work: 1. 1. A) Definition of Organizational culture and 4 sorts of societies. Hierarchical culture alludes to the mutual qualities, standards, dreams, images, convictions, propensity, working language between individuals sharing a workplace. There are, as indicated by (Greenberg, 2011) four sorts of hierarchical societies that exist. (Control) Hierarchy culture: These are normally huge, bureaucratic partnerships where smooth creation, without sat around idly is significant. Solidness, control, inner center, normalization and mix are key standards to this framework. Pioneers in such a framework ought to arrange, screen and facilitate the individuals and procedure completely. (Contend) Market culture: These associations are additionally worried about steadiness and control, yet rather than concentrating on inner components, they center around outer. This framework is worried about rivalry. They take a gander at all different associations contending in a similar market and afterward center around their connections or exchanges with providers, clients, temporary workers, associations, administrators, experts, controllers and so forth. They accept that they’ll make progress by concentrating on powerful relations (outside). (Team up) Clan culture: Inward center is significant, same as the chain of command framework, anyway family societies underlines adaptability as opposed to control and unbending nature. At such associations, the prosperity of laborers starts things out. It is said that individuals working in a faction social condition feel identified with their collaborators due to the warm, amicable nature. (Make) Adhocracy: This culture alludes to something contrary to organization, concentrating on adaptability and the outside condition. It’s about circumstances, critical thinking and result. These sort of organizations ought to consistently be exceptional with respect to improvement and innovation. Run of the mill case of such associations is programming creating organizations. The way of life of the association where I work: The authoritative culture at my organization is the Create or Adhocracy culture (characterized above) According to Waterman’s hypothesis (refered to in Greenberg, 2011) an Adhocracy culture goes past the conventional bureaucratic lines to catch openings, take care of issues and get results. In my association, we center around advancement and inventiveness. Collaboration is basic, since programming engineers need to separate the work because of the outstanding burden. 2. How are new workers suited in the association? Settlement can allude to extraordinary requirements of certain representatives or simply considering and regarding all members’ race, ethnic gathering, shading, nationality, social root, religion, age, conjugal status, sexual direction, sex, assessments, family status and wellspring of salary. In my organization, regard is a significant viewpoint, we acknowledge each part the manner in which they are. Supporting each other as opposed to dismissing. (Denison, 1990). In my association, we utilize a procedure called â€Å"Onboarding†. Onboarding is the procedure whereby data, preparing, tutoring and instructing is given to new individuals. This causes new individuals to feel welcome and educated. This additionally builds efficiency from the earliest starting point, diminishes costs because of imperfections and spares collaborators preparing time. As indicated by (Parker, 1993) this procedure incorporates four phases to let new representatives â€Å"onboard†. Securing is the initial step we use in the onboarding procedure: In this initial step, newcomers will be acquainted with collaborators. The gathering wherein the representative will work is as of now chose before his/her appearance. The worker will presently get the chance to converse with other gathering individuals to make a psychological image of what the work will incorporate. Convenience is the subsequent stage, new representatives are furnished with all the important assets to make their working experience charming. In my organization, new workers get a PC, which remains at the workplace consistently. This PC will have all the freshest programming on it, guaranteeing that the representative can carry out the responsibilities successfully with no uneasiness. Absorption is stage 3 of onboarding. The assistant will presently be dispensed to an increasingly experienced part. This part will show the understudy around, giving him where everything is and given him a compressed lesson about what will be anticipated from him. The understudy would now be able to shadow the individual to get the hang of things. Kindly note that the newcomer is required to have all the aptitudes expected to get this activity. Like the fundamental degrees and so on , which was considered before naming the activity to the individual? Speeding up: In this stage, new individuals participate in their working assignments, despite everything learning as they go, yet now they can feel great in their workplace. In this stage the outcomes are brought to the table and decently workers currently get the opportunity to perform and show everyone what their made of. 3. How my authoritative culture can be improved: Before talking about the stages I will take to do as such, there are a couple of center rules that ought to be set up. Qualities are the primary, which implies the fundamental beliefs and accepts of the organization ought to be explained plainly. All workers should realize what the organization depend on. Second are objectives. At the point when everybody realizes what the objectives and achievements of the organization are, they comprehend what is anticipated from them. Consistency is the following principal point-keeping the principles and objectives high. Correspondence, significant in each part of life is likewise essential to improve the way of life in associations. The last point is festivity everyone needs some compensation for good work done. This will persuade representatives to strive to arrive at the forthcoming objectives and having a fabulous time in the work environment is central. (Denison , 1990). The above isn't the techniques I will follow to improve my authoritative culture, its significant components that frames the premise of a decent hierarchical culture. The phases of progress incorporate procedures to spread the way of life all through the organization and past the outskirts of the organization and let everybody know about them. I accept through doing that, the way of life will improve. Here follows 6 procedures Symbols: Symbols are, as per (Ornstein, 1986) those items, not requiring words to be depicted. The images of an association can rest in the sitting area, the size of the structure, the honors sticking around, the environment when you stroll into the entryways and so on these images let you recognize what the organization is about. Along these lines, it illuminates the authoritative culture. Trademarks Phrases that sum up the hierarchical culture: Slogans are those infectious tunes or making statements one of a kind to a specific organization. The trademark can disclose to you a ton about the companies’ culture, on the grounds that the organizations â€Å"heart† is catches in a couple of expressions. In this way, the representatives and open can get a handle on the substance of the associations though the way of life is improved. Stories: These are the re-composing of significant and snappy crossroads in the company’s history. The recounting these accounts can re-acquaint significant qualities with representatives. (Martin, 1982). These accounts may be told in a conventional manner (in a gathering) or casually (workers drinking espresso). These accounts remind representatives how â€Å"we use to do it around here† and by implication making a few desires or rules. Through this the workers get an away from of what the organization values. Language: These are the regular language utilized in the organization. Organizations may likewise make their own expressions or words, which are comprehended by one another. These languages may get novel to this organization, however may likewise spread out to the general population, making the organization â€Å"famous† for their one of a kind words. As per (Carroll. 1993) Jargons are particularly well known in the cutting edge world (like my organization is). Services: These unique occasions praise whatever it is that it generally basic to the organization. By taking a gander at the purpose behind festival, you will become more acquainted with the center convictions and estimations of an organization. Subsequently, by facilitating services, the workers and open can perceive what is esteemed the most. This will fortify the way of life of the association. In conclusion is Statements of Principle: Defining society through composition: This implies presenting an announcement of standard. In this announcement lie the guiding principle of your organization, fortifying and explaining the characteristics of the organization. (Carroll, 1993). Reference index Carroll, P. (1993). Large blues: The unmaking of IBM. New York: Crown. Denison, R (1990). Corporate culture and hierarchical adequacy (third ed. ) Oxford, England: John Wiley Sons. Greenberg, J (2011). Conduct in Organizations. Martin, J. (1982). Stories and contents in authoritative settings. In A. Hastorf A. Isen (Eds. ), Cognitive social brain research (pp 255-306). New York: Elsevier-North Holland. Ornstein, S. L. (1986). Hierarchical images: An investigation of their implications and effects on apparent mental atmosphere. In J. Greenberg, Behavior in Organizations (p 520). London: Pearson Publications. Parker, M (1993). Postmodernism and associations. Sage Publications ltd.

Toxic Risks of Passive Smoking - 550 Words

Toxic Risks of Passive Smoking (Essay Sample) Content: Toxic Risks of Passive SmokingName:Institution: Toxic Risks of Passive Smoking Smoking is associated with various environmental and health risks that are detrimental to the wellbeing of an individual. These risks affect both the individual smoking and those in the immediate surroundings. The latter is known as passive smoking and has the same consequences as active smoking. The worse thing about passive smoking is that victims may not be aware of its dangers until they develop serious symptoms. Passive smoking is undesirable as it causes respiratory diseases, increases the rate of attracting heart diseases, and even worse prompts the chances of getting cancer. Passive smoking, otherwise known as second hand smoking brings the same toxic risks as active smoking. The chances of developing respiratory ailments are very high among people who interact with heavy smokers. Popular among these diseases is asthma, which not only affects the adults, but also the young ones. Se cond hand smoke is believed to cause acute respiratory infections among children as young as one and half years old. The smoke in the air is also responsible for causing respiratory ailments notably bronchitis and pneumonia (Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), 2014). The immediate consequences of passive smoking are that many cases are reported and hospitalized thereby having a negative impact on peoples earnings. The situation gets even worse when the patient develops a heart condition. Passive smoking increases the risks of attracting heart diseases, which may be as serious as cardiac malfunction. The combined elements present in tobacco smoke alter the normal flow of oxygen in the blood and this may lead to coronary heart diseases (Glantz Parmley, 1995). In addition, tobacco smoke tends to damage the heart vessels whereby smoke deposits clog the arteries thus leading to a condition known as atherosclerosis. When the condition reaches a critical point, the patient may suffer fr om a mild form of heart attack. Glantz and Parmley (1995) continue to add that passive smokers have a 30% chance of attracting heart diseases due to their interaction with active smokers. This also increases the risk of getting cancer ailments. Cancer of the lung is one of the most notable and serious condition necessitated by both active and passive smoking. The condition affects everyone within the proximity of active smokers whether it is pregnant women or young children. The Cancer Research Center in UK estimates that 3% of lung cancer cases in the country are because of passive smoking (Cancer Research UK, 2014). The treatment of lung cancer is very expensive and usually brings a lot of psychological and physical trauma to the patient. Apart from lung cancer, passive smoking is also associated with other types of cancer such as cervical cancer, breast cancer, and larynx cancer among others. Tobacco smoke is dangerous to both the active and passive smokers. It contains toxic sub stances like carbon monoxide, which are detrimental to the health of an individual. Passive smokers are prone to attracting serious ailments that negatively affect their healt...

The idea of creating a charity that gives back to wounded...

The idea of creating a charity that gives back to wounded war veterans and their families was created by Mark Foster. Mark also wanted the families of these soldiers to have the money to keep a healthy family while being able to pay for the hospital depts.Thank you, Operation Home front for helping my family get back to normal after my dad was injured in Iraq. (Jonathan) Operation Home front had raised enough money to give Jonathan’s dad replacement legs after losing them in Iraq. Mark also wanted the families of these soldiers to have the money to keep a healthy family while being able to pay for the hospital depts. He thought that if a person volunteered to go to war overseas and gets badly injured should be given a little†¦show more content†¦Operation Home front helped veteran Anthony Owens by giving him a mortgage free home after being badly injured in Afghanistan. Without Operation Home front Anthony wouldn’t have been able to get any money or work until fully recovered so instead of struggling to survive after fighting Operation Home front is helping him get back on his feet. Operation Home front gives aid to military families by holding fundraisers or through volunteer work. The fundraisers that occur are usually large public events so they are able to raise as much money as possible. They hold events to raise money through concerts, golfing, and races that anyone can attend and contribute to. Financial food assistance, repairs, help to the families of our service members and wounded warriors (Operation Home front).† This quote means that the foundation gives money, food, and fixes cars and homes for wounded veterans through donations. With a simple act of giving, you have the ability to make the lives of our military families who sacrifice so much, a little better (Operation Home front)† For the people who put their lives on the line for us to have a good life, giving back helps ease their own life. Operation Home front has many other smaller charities like Homes on the Home front, Hearts of Valor, and Holiday Meals for the Military. Each c harity focuses on one main problem like how Meals for The Military gives foodShow MoreRelatedModern History.Hsc.2012 Essay25799 Words   |  104 PagesMODERN HISTORY -2012 Topic one – USA 1919-1941 Topic two – conflict in the pacific Topic three – Douglas MacArthur Topic Four – World War I TOPIC ONE – USA 1919-1941 USA 1920’S * the radio age * felt like istory had turned a corner and never going back * stock market * black Thursday November 24 1929 * the jazz age * a speakeasyyyyyyy How significant were the Republican policies in causing the great depression? 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Non-Executive Directors free essay sample

In his review published in 2003, Derek Higgs described the role of a non-executive director as ‘custodian of the governance process. ’ A non-executive director (NED) sits on the board of company just as a normal executive director would do so, however a non-executive director does not form part of the executive management team of the company. Essentially they are not an employee of the company or affiliated in any way other than their role as an independent NED. The distinction between a non-executive director and an executive director is illustrated in Equitable Life Assurance v Bowley [2003] in which Langley J commented It is well known that the role of non-executive directors in corporate governance has been subject of debate in recent years†¦It is plainly arguable, I think, that a company may reasonably at least look to non-executive directors for independence of judgement and supervision of the executive management. ’ Essentially, non-executive directors are non-stakeholders in a company or organisation, and do not have day-to-day management responsibility, thereby rendering them independent of the executive board. We will write a custom essay sample on Non-Executive Directors or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the post-Enron era, this independence has become crucial for corporate governance, so much so that the Higgs report of 2003 commissioned to examine the role of non-executive directors recommended that a companys board should comprise at least 50% non-executive directors. In 1992 the Cadbury Committee published a report to review the code of practice on corporate governance. The concept of corporate governance can be defined in a number of different ways because corporate governance potentially covers all activities that have a direct or indirect influence on the financial well being of a corporation. As a result, many different definitions have surfaced. The earliest definition of corporate governance came from the Economist Milton Friedman. According to Friedman, corporate governance is to conduct business in accordance with owner or shareholders desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible, while conforming to the basic rules of the society embodied in law and local customs. This definition is based on the economic concept of market value maximisation that underpins shareholder capitalism. Apparently, in the present day context, Friedmans definition is narrower in scope. Over a period of time the definition of Corporate Governance has been widened. It now encompasses the interests of not only the shareholders but also many stakeholders and workers as well. The year 2003 saw Derek Higgs and Sir Robert Smith produce reports aimed at examining the effectiveness of non-executive directors and the effectiveness of audit committees. It was the recommendations of the Higgs Report which led to the drafting of the Combined Code 2003 which replaced the previous Combined Code that was issued in 1998 by the Hampel Committee on Corporate Governance. Higgs made a number of recommendations regarding the role of non-executive directors most which now form part of the Combined Code 2003 along with a minor revision by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in 2006. A further review of the Code has been prompted by changes in EU law, namely the implementation of Directive 2006/46/EC . The report was first published due embarrassing and very public collapse of the corporate governance process within major companies such Enron and WorldCom and thus highlighted the need for much clearer guidelines. Non-executive Directors: The Combined Code 2006 The Combined Code on Corporate Governance 2006 supersedes the 2003 version however the changes made were not substantial. The purpose of the Code is to clearly define the standards of good practice in relation to companies and the composition of their boards of directors along with their ‘development, remuneration, accountability and audit and relations with shareholders. ’ The Combined Code is a set of principles and provisions. It is in essence a set of broad self-regulatory principles rather than a legally binding document. It is now necessary for companies listed on the LSE to report on how they have applied the Code, and either to confirm where they have complied with the Codes provisions and/or where they have not complied of they must explain the reasons why they have not complied. This contained in Listings Rules (LR 9. 8. 6) and to emphasise again, there is no legal binding, however if British pharmaceuticals plc were to enlist on the London Stock Exchange they need not comply with the Code, but must provide explanation as to why they have not complied. There are numerous provisions now included in the Combined Code which provide guidance to companies with regard to their non-executive directors this essay will only examine those key provisions relevant to the case study scenario. There is a provision within the Code which suggests that at least half of the board should be balanced with both executive and non-executive directors. The Higgs Review recommended at least half of the board be made up of NEDs. The Combined Code 2006 where significantly smaller companies are involved, the board should have at least two non-executive directors. According to provision A. 3. 3 a company board should also appoint one senior non-executive director. Where nominating new directors, such a nomination committee should be made up of and headed by a non-executive director. Provision B. 1. 3 regarding remuneration, recommends companies to assess the levels of remuneration with regard to non-executive directors on their time, commitment and responsibility that they afforded their role, however where required by the articles of association, the shareholders should determine the level of remuneration of NEDs. A. 4. 4 provides that the terms and conditions of the appointment of non-executive directors should be made available for inspection. A. 5. 2 suggests that non-executive directors should be allowed access to independent professional advice at the company’s expense. A. 7. 2 of the Code suggests that NEDs are to be appointed subject to specific terms, subject to re-election and also subject to the provisions related to the removal of directors as stated in the Companies Act 2006. It also suggests that non-executive directors serve no longer than nine years. In terms of British Pharmaceuticals plc’s plans to have a non-executive director on the board of the company, throughout the Combined Code there contains guidance as to the role of such a director and in Schedule B of the Code there contains specific guidance as to the liability of a non-executive director. Schedule B details liability of a non-executive director in terms of their duty of care, skill and diligence along with the level that is expected of such as director. Although British Pharmaceuticals plc have a non-executive director already on board i. e. Mr Brown, it is not wise to appoint such a director simply because that person knows the Joint Chairman/CEO. It is essential that the individual that is chosen to occupy such a role is in fact chosen on the basis of what they can contribute to the board along with their experience and perspective and as of the 1st October 2008 the minimum age for holding a company directorship under the Companies Act 2006 will be 16 years of age. Section 2 (i) of the Combined Code lists a number of provisions relevant to they way in which boards must accommodate non-executive directors and enable them to fulfil their duties such as setting out their period of appointment and time commitment. Section 2 (ii) makes suggestions as to what non-executive directors are themselves responsible for. ‘It is up to each non-executive director to reach a view as to what is necessary in particular circumstances to comply with the duty of care, skill and diligence they owe as a director to the company. In considering whether or not a person is in breach of that duty, a court would take into account all relevant circumstances. These may include having regard to the above where relevant to the issue of liability of a non-executive director. ’ – The Combined Code on Corporate Governance 2006, Schedule B, s. 3. It must stressed that some of the provisions within the Combined Code 2006 only apply to companies listed as a FTSE 350 company, where this does not apply, companies listed on the LSE must still try to comply with the Combined Code. If British Pharmaceuticals plc were to list on the LSE they should very arefully consider their actions. If they decide to stray from the provisions of the Combined Code 2006 as it is necessary to explain such decisions. Of course smaller listed companies can also use the Combined Code 2006 as guidance on corporate governance however, unlike larger companies, given the size of the company they can on occasions conclude that it world be entirely disproportionate to comply with some provisions. The Combined Code 2006 serves as excellent guidance on the setting of standards on corporate governance and it would be beneficial for British Pharmaceuticals plc to comply. Non-executive Directors and The Companies Act 2006 The Companies Act 2006 which received Royal Assent in November 2006 and the UK finally saw the part-codification of director’s duties and seven new general duties were a major feature of the Act, although many of the new general duties are based upon the existing common law duties. Section 250 of the Companies Act Defines a director as any person occupying the position of a director, by whatever name called. There is no legal distinction under this Act between executive and non-executive directors; therefore the liability of a director is the same no matter what role a director may take. The new general duties of directors also apply to non-executive directors. The fact that there is no legal distinction between directors has created somewhat of a paradoxical challenge due to the fact that non-executive directors on a whole are thought to be independent of the company in which they are operating and/or the related industry, would naturally spend less time with the company than an executive director would do so, are not party to executive management decisions and yet are still equally liable as any other director of that company. They are also as stated in Schedule B of the Combined Code 2006 and as discussed above to exercise care, skill and diligence. Institutional Investors/Shareholders The allure of listing on the London Stock Exchange is often the advantages of attracting institutional investment. However, British Pharmaceutical plc should take into account the following information regarding institutional shareholder investment and corporate governance before considering such a direction for their company. Institutional investors are a permanent feature of the financial landscape, and there growth will continue at a similar or faster pace. The factors that underpin their development are far more transitory and in many cases have only just started having an impact. ’ – Bank of International Settlements, Annual Report (1998), p. 95. There has been a substantial increase in institutional investment over that last few years. As opposed to an individual investor, institutional investment occurs where money is professionally or institutionally managed. Institutional investors include ‘private pension funds, state pension funds, closed-ended investment schemes, life assurance companies, non-pension fund moneys managed by banks and endowment trustees, and an ever-increasing range of new, financially innovative, professionally managed money pools such as open ended investment companies and unit trusts. ’ The globalisation of financial markets eventually brought with it institutional investors who throughout the world now own enormously large portions of equity in many different companies and therefore now play a key role in corporate governance. Even the 1992 Cadbury Committee and 1998 Hampel Report identified the importance of the role of shareholders in corporate governance and it is now clear that institutional shareholders have a big influence on they way company is being managed with particular influence on the standards of corporate governance. In 2001 the Department of Trade Industry published the Myners Report, a review of institutional investors in the United Kingdom. Commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, P. Myners report was a result of confusion over institutional investors and investment decision making. The Combined Code 2006 and institutional investors/shareholders Part Two of the Combined Code 2006 concerns institutional shareholders. E1 of the Code suggests that institutional shareholders should hold dialogues with their company ‘based on the mutual understanding of objectives’ and should also abide by the Institutional Shareholders Committee’s statement of principles. This statement of principles known as ‘The Responsibilities of Institutional Shareholders in the UK’ and these principles are an extension of those listed in the Combined Code. E. 2 of the Combined Code 2006, entitled ‘Evaluation of Governance Disclosure’ and suggests that when evaluating the governance arrangements of companies, those relating to the structure of the board of directors, all institutional investors would be wise to ‘give due weight to all relevant factors’ that are afforded them. The Code also suggests that where a company strays from the provisions that the Code sets out, institutional shareholders should evaluate the reasons given by the company for their non-compliance and be prepared to enter into dialogue with the board where they do not agree with decisions. E. 3 of the Code states that institutional investors should make ‘considered use of their votes’. There are to make sure that their voting intentions are being put into practice, disclose to their clients any information regarding resolutions, and major shareholders should attend AGMs. The Companies Act 2006 and Institutional investors/shareholders Sections 1277-1280 of Companies Act 2006 concern the exercise and disclosure of voting rights. The Companies Act 2006 has now given the government power which will require all institutional investors to disclose the way in which they have voted regarding specific shares that they have interest in or indeed own. This power will be used where investors fail to voluntarily disclose such information. S. 278 lists the types of institutions which such disclosure applies to and includes ‘unit trust schemes within the meaning of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (c. 8) in respect of which an order is in force under section 243 of that Act’ , ‘open ended investment companies’ and ‘pension schemes’ . The allure of institutional investment may seem lucrative, however such investors often wield an incredible amount of power especially where corporate governance is concerned and British Pharmaceuticals plc should be aware of this.

Joseph Stalin Research Paper Example

Joseph Stalin Paper His childhood was harsh with a drunken cobbler father, who beat both mother and child, and in school was bullied as a child, Joseph Stalin grew up to be a bully himself (Keller). These events in Stalins childhood dramatically influenced the later events as an adult. Joseph Stalin had caused social injustice in Russia through two wars, during the Great Purge, and in the Russian government. Joseph Stalin used social injustice during World War II and during the Cold War. During World War II, Stalin killed many different groups of people. According to Keller, Stalin was unpredictable in his killings. While wealthy peasants were targeted along with other class enemies, Stalin also destroyed imaginary enemies within his own parties. Later during the Cold War Stalin put up a blockade around the city of Berlin, this blockade is known as the Berlin Wall (Marin, 827). Stalin also caused social in Justice in the government as well. Stalin started his own secret police known as the NAVE (Normandy Commissariat Eventuating Del which in English means Peoples Commissariat for Internal affairs). This secret police had to meet certain quotas in arrests and in how many killings they did (Keller). The NAVE arrested anyone who opposed communism as well as all of Stalins enemies. In a desperation for his country to become more industrialized, Stalin wanted Russia to become an industrial superpower, so he moved families to the coldest regions of Siberia (Ingram, 64). The NAVE and Stalins selfishness caused many families to be killed, including children, as well as Stalins enemies. In addition to Injustice In government and wars, Stalin caused social Injustice during the Great Purge. Joseph Stalin killed anyone who was against the communist arty, which then later led to Stalin killing the older Bolsheviks (Cunningham, 121-22). We will write a custom essay sample on Joseph Stalin specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Joseph Stalin specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Joseph Stalin specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer After Stalin started doing this, he came up with another plan. He later sent people to Gulags (Soviet Prison camps In the northern reaches of Russia or In Siberia), and all of Stalins potential enemies were eliminated (Stalin). All of this happened because Stalin wanted Russia to become an Industrial superpower, which happened later In his dictatorship. Stalin later on became less destructive and caused less social Injustice. During his early reign, he caused a lot of social Injustice through different wars, In government, ND during the Great Purge. Injustice anywhere Is a threat to Justice everywhere. We are caught In an Inescapable network of mutuality, tied In a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all Indirectly (Martin Luther King Jar. ). Even though Stalin did not know It Stalin affected the world with social Injustice. Joseph Stalin By buyout himself (Keller). These events in Stalins childhood dramatically influenced the later In addition to injust ice in government and wars, Stalin caused social injustice Gulags (Soviet Prison camps in the northern reaches of Russia or in Siberia), and all Stalin wanted Russia to become an industrial superpower, which happened later in Stalin later on became less destructive and caused less social injustice. During his early reign, he caused a lot of social injustice through different wars, in government, and during the Great Purge. Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly (Martin Luther King Jar. ). Even though Stalin did not know it Stalin affected the world with social injustice.

Why You Shouldnt Trust US News College Rankings

Why You Shouldn't Trust US News College Rankings SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips US News is probably the most popular source out there for college rankings. While US News rankings of colleges purport to be highly accurate, they can be misleading in certain important respects. If you make decisions based purely on the US News college rankings, you might end up being miserable. In this article, I’ll go over why you shouldn’t make judgments about colleges solely based on their rankings in US News. What Types of Rankings Does US News Provide? US News divides its college rankings into four different categories.The categories are based on the 2010 Basic Classification system developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.This system has 12 categories of schools, but US News condenses them into four.These include: National Universities These are schools that offer master's and doctoral degrees along with a full range of undergraduate majors.This category contains â€Å"research universities†, where there is a strong emphasis on research and government subsidies are often provided for research endeavors.There are 280 universities that fall into this category, including 173 public schools, 100 private schools, and 7 for-profit schools. National Liberal Arts Colleges These are colleges that emphasize undergraduate education and give out at least half of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines including languages and literature, biology and life sciences, philosophy, cultural studies, and psychology.There are 227 of these colleges, 221 private, 27 public, and one for profit. Regional Universities These colleges are similar to National Universities in that they offer both a full range of undergraduate majors and master’s programs.However, they offer limited or nonexistent doctoral programs.There are 620 Regional Universities, including 262 public, 346 private, and 12 for profit. Regional Colleges These are colleges that focus on undergraduate education but have less of a liberal arts emphasis (award less than half of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines).There are 364 regional colleges that include 94 public schools, 253 private schools, and 17 for-profit schools. It’s important to consider these categories because they should affect how you view the rankings.US News specifically states that you shouldn’t compare the rankings of two colleges across two different categories; the schools are so different that making a direct comparison is not logical.You can compare the actual statistics (such as admissions rate, student retention, and average class size), but in terms of rank itself, a school that’s ranked 40th in the National Universities category is not objectively â€Å"worse† than a school that’s ranked 32nd in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category. Very liberal art How Does US News Rank Colleges? There is a strong methodology behind the ranking system that US News uses for colleges, and it changes often to adapt to changing conditions in higher education.Many factors are considered, and percentage weights are given to each component of the assessment. A total weight of 30% is given to factors related to student retention and graduation rates (meaning this is the most highly considered single factor in the ranking process) Graduation and retention measures are given a weight of 22.5% A 7.5% weight is devoted to a measure of whether a school is over or underperforming based on the number of students that graduate (comparing the expected vs. actual graduation rate) US News gives a 22.5% percentage weight to a school’s academic reputation scores For National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges, this is based on a peer survey of academics (weighted 15%) and a survey of high school counselors (weighted 7.5%) For Regional Universities and Regional Colleges, it is based solely on a survey of the academic peer group for the full 22.5% The remaining weight of 47.5% is devoted to hard statistics about the school including measures of academic quality such as selectivity, faculty information, financial resources, and alumni giving. To create school scores, US News gathers statistics in 16 areas related to the academic quality of the school. Each is assigned a percentage based on US News’ â€Å"judgments about which measures of quality matter most†. US News publishes the numerical rank of the top 75% of schools in each of the four categories. Remaining schools are placed in the â€Å"second tier† of rankings where specific numerical ranking is not listed (they’re just put in alphabetical order). The gold star that US News gives to colleges in the second tier. What’s Not to Trust? When I say you shouldn’t trust the rankings, I don’t mean that US News is deliberately misleading students.What I mean is that you shouldn’t put ALL your trust in these rankings and disregard your other preferences about college.You should also be aware of some shortcomings that may cause the rankings to exclude certain schools or rank colleges lower than they would be ranked on a list of â€Å"Best Colleges for You, Student Reading This Article†.Here are some things you should know before consulting the US News rankings in your college search: Some schools won’t be ranked if they don't meet the criteria In fact, there are 148 colleges that are â€Å"unranked† within the four categories listed above.These schools may be unranked for a variety of reasons - these include: Lack of regional accreditation Fewer than 200 students enrolled Do not use the SAT or ACT in admissions decisions Not enough responses on the US News peer assessment survey US News lists unranked schools, but they are put in alphabetical order at the end of each college category without any value judgment.This means that if you’re interested in very small colleges or colleges that don’t use the SAT or ACT in admissions decisions, the rankings may not help you much. The most common reason for a school to be unranked is that it doesn’t use standardized tests.US News argues that there isn’t enough data to compare the school to other institutions in the category without test scores, so it has to remain unranked.This may be a valid point, but it means that schools that may otherwise have solid academics are excluded from rankings, leaving you with a slightly less complete picture of the college landscape. There is an emphasis on ultimate results and academic rigor over quality of student life On the website for US News, it states, â€Å"over time, the ranking model has put less emphasis on input measures of quality – which look at characteristics of the students, faculty and other resources going into the educational process – and more emphasis on output measures, which look at the results of the educational process, such as graduation and freshman retention rates.†There is no doubt that graduation rates are important, and they do say a lot about the quality of a college.However, they will tell you very little about whether a school is a nice place to spend four years, especially if the school is very academically rigorous and prestigious. Most students will graduate because they’re very driven, but that doesn't tell you whether or not they enjoyed their time there. The US News rankings are based on hard statistics and information gleaned from academic peer reviews about the quality of the school.While this is very useful in determining how favorably the school is viewed from the heights of the academic Ivory Tower, it isn’t always the best metric for conducting your search process.Even though focusing on outcome does make sense to a certain degree, it also fails to fully evaluate the quality of the student experience.This can contribute to a somewhat harmful â€Å"ends justify the means† mindset that leads students to spend years in places where they are outwardly successful but inwardly unhappy. The official motto of both US News and your one friend who won't shut up about CrossFit Prestige plays an important role For many students, prestige remains an important factor in deciding whether to attend a college.It’s hard to resist the allure of a school that will impress other people and potentially get you good jobs down the road based on its name recognition. This is the reason why prestige is considered so strongly by US News in its rankings (in the form of ratings from academic peer groups and guidance counselors).Of course, prestige correlates with selectivity in admissions and respect from the higher education community at large, so it does indicate some measure of academic quality. However, measuring schools based on prestige can have the unfortunate consequence of discounting some up and coming colleges or colleges that may have a unique focus and be less well-known.Make sure youuse other resources to research schools that have the criteria you’re looking for - even if they’re not ranked especially high, they may be a much better fit for your goals. Private schools always rank higher In the US News rankings, private schools are always more highly ranked than public schools.This can be misleading, and shouldn’t dissuade you from attending a public school!The reason this happens is because the ranking model US News uses is naturally kinder to private schools: they usually score higher on measures of selectivity, student retention rates, and small class sizes.Since public schools tend to be larger and less selective, they end up with lower rankings, but that means very little for high achieving students who choose to attend public schools. Though the statistics are often less impressive than those of private schools, the public college experience may allow many students to thrive.For students who are willing to seek out resources, public schools are often good choices because of the amount of different programs and high-level research facilities they offer.Rankings also don’t consider the diversity of social life at schools and the opportunities in the form ofextracurricular activities. Hi! I'm Chase, your new roommate. I like sailing and refusing to look at the world from anyone else's perspective. The rankings won’t help you to find an affordable school If you’re trying to avoid debt in college, you’ll need to look at other lists to figure out which schools are the most affordable.Rankings in US News have nothing to do with the cost of schools, so they won’t give you the perspective you’re looking for if cost is a major issue. I Feel So Adrift in the Sea of Colleges without My US News Ranking Water Wings - What Do I Do? You don’t have to ignore the US News rankings just because they’re not totally well-rounded in terms of their assessment metrics and inclusivity.What you should do is make sure that you are aware of what they can and can’t tell you about a college.It’s important that you supplement your views on schools with other resources that will give you a more complete picture of what student life is like and how you might fare at the college. To their credit, US News fully acknowledges this fact:â€Å"the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one school over another.†Academics are very important, but your life at college will be so much more than just the quality of your classes and how impressive your degree looks in a frame.You should make sure that you like the location of the school, the housing options, the food, the campus life, and the price tag before you make a decision. And in case you don't like the food, bring a bottle of sriracha. You could put sriracha on woodchips and I would probably eat them. Use the rankings as a rough guide to the quality of schools. The top five schools are the most reputable, then the next set of ten, then the next set of ten, and so on. A school that's in the top 20 is going to provide a more intellectual community and more opportunities in general than a school that's ranked in the 40s. However, within each group of ten there won't be much variability in terms of academic quality and reputation.This might help you to make a decision about where to apply after doing some outside research. However, even if you're trying to decide between two schools that are ranked very differently, you shouldn't just go by rankings. If the lower ranked school is a great fit for you, and the higher ranked school is a poor fit, you should choose the better fit regardless of ranking! As US News also says on its website: â€Å"A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major roles in determining a college choice.†Once you’ve considered the other factors the are most important to you, you can move on to potentially comparing schools based on the academic rankings presented in US News. What's Next? When you apply to college, it's important to have both reach and safety schools so that you don't sell yourself short or end up without any options. Learn more about how to choose reach schools and safety schools. If you're planning on consulting the US News rankings, you should figure out whether you're more interested in public or private colleges first. Find out the differences between the two. Size and location are also very important factors to consider before looking at rankings. These articles will tell you about the pros and cons of going to college close to home and the main differences between large and small colleges. Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Islamic Politics and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Islamic Politics and Culture - Essay Example Taliban). The vision and mission of Al Qaida is to help all Muslim population across the world, to recover from the oppression they faced from other religions. For example, Al Qaida believes that US intrusion in the Middle East and Afghanistan is causing problems to the Muslims in those regions. Therefore, they are fighting against America in these regions. Same way, Al Qaida believes that Indian Muslims, especially the Muslims in Kashmir are facing a lot of troubles from the Hindu community in India. Therefore, they are helping the terrorist activities in India against the Hindus. They do believe that the destruction of Babri Masjid in India is a clear indication of how Muslims in India are suffering from the hands of the Hindus. In short, Al Qaida network is operating globally. Earlier Jihadi groups were particular in fighting against â€Å"colonial movements, derived from the desire of a particular section of the population, mainly ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities in a country, for self-determination. Often, these conflicts take the tenor of separatist or irredentist movements with or without the use of violence† (TRAC). Earlier Jihadist groups were operating locally rather than globally. For example, Hamas was founded in 1987; but it is operating only in the Middle East, especially in the Palestine. The major aim of Hamas is to save Palestinians and liberate Palestine from the intrusions of Israel. They do have interests only in the Middle East and their main enemy is Israel only. On the other hand, for Al Qaida, America, India and Britain are the major enemies along with Israel. Al Qaida has no problems in recognizing them as a terrorist organization whereas Hamas is not ready to accept the label of a terrorist organization even though countries such as U.S., Israel, Egypt, Australia and Canada are considering this organization as a terrorist organization. It is evident that religion and religious beliefs were the central points in the

How does the No Child Left Behind Act affect Leadership in Early Research Paper

How does the No Child Left Behind Act affect Leadership in Early Childhood programs - Research Paper Example There is a conflict between the student’s learning ability and performance and the reputation of the school. Hence it might be difficult for the schools to achieve the targets set by the act unless suitable changes are applied.   How does the ‘No Child Left Behind’  Act affect Leadership in Early Childhood programs   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB) is a breakthrough educational reform that has been designed to improve achievement of the student and alter the American schooling culture. The then president George Bush signed the NCLB Act on 8th January 2002 as he earmarked its inception as the start of a new era. NCLB’s aim is to guarantee quality as well as equality in educational provision to all students to bridge the gap between the underprivileged students and their prosperous peers. The major functions of NCLB are to support learning activities in the nascent ages of education thereby ensuring prevention of any diffi culties in learning processes that might arise later, provide more information regarding a child’s progress and performance to his/her parents, improve quality of teaching and learning by providing requisite information to principals of schools and the teachers, enrich the schools with more and better resources, provide more funds to research oriented programs and curriculums, provide more flexibility, provide attention to things that work in future (No Child Left Behind- A Parent’s Guide, 2003, pp. 1-3; Glenn, & Marytza, 2011, pp 1-2; Nichols, Dowdy,& Nichols, 2010, pp. 1-2). The paper will assess whether the act has been effectual with respect to the early childhood programs and how it affects leadership in such programs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The NCLB Act has been subject of appraisal as well as criticism from various circles, though it has obtained very little notice in the legal literature and mostly due to its overemphasis on te sting. There has been a bifurcation among the academicians regarding the feasible targets and real achievements of the NCLB Act. Those in support of this Act are of the view that it has completely succeeded in achieving its impressive targets and they often promote the hard accountability procedures of the NCLB Act. Many academicians and politicians have criticized NCLB’s policies that focus on testing as the main mode of assessment of the progress of a school. They also blame the federal government for heavily interfering with the local and state authorities on issues of education while miserably failing to supply requisite funds for the proceeds of this Act. In truth, the NCLB Act does highlight a quandary at the root of all test-based methods of accountability. However, testing alone is not sufficient to assess the school‘s proper assessment. It in turn binds the teachers to teach things that are related to the syllabus and books and not the wider aspects of the curr iculum, which would lead to a time loss, which could have been utilized, on other educational purposes. Moreover, it encourages institutions that play the leading role in such programs to drop out underperforming students rather than expand resources to help these students perform well in their education. The Act is so designed to elevate the segregation by race as well as class, and throw lower performing students out of the school, which makes it even harder for the destitute students to carry on their competition with the more affluent pupils. The Act claims to provide the best of the

The Sales Force Technology Essay Example for Free

The Sales Force Technology Essay Forbes Firms continue to struggle with the implementation of sales force technology tools and the role they play in sales representative performance. This research expands previous literature in the area of sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) by looking at the consequences after technology adoption by a sales force. Data were gathered from three sources to include 662 sales representatives, 60 sales managers, and ï ¬ rm archival data. Using structural equation modeling, our ï ¬ ndings indicate that SFA usage has a direct impact on effort, thereby reducing number of hours worked, and CRM usage has a direct positive impact on adaptive selling behaviors. Moreover, experience moderates the relationship between CRM usage and adaptive selling. Discussion, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed. As competition increases and technology advances, organizations continue to seek ways to adjust to changing business environments. This is especially true in the personal selling context where salespeople are recognized as the boundary spanners and are expected to be relationship managers (Kotler 1984). Today’s salesperson is constrained to do more in less time, and technological advancements have become an integral part of the personal selling and sales management process. Foreseeing this changing environment, Leigh and Tanner (2004) stressed the necessity for sales organizations to focus on technology-related strategies, business processes, and applications, and called on sales researchers to put forth theoretical models and empirical studies investigating these emerging issues. Notably, sales force technology usage has changed the methods of selling. Salespeople are no longer selling just a â€Å"product†; instead, they are providing a valuable â€Å"solution† to customer problems. Anderson and Dubinsky (2004) discussed the concept of consultative selling, where a salesperson acts as an expert and provides customized solutions. This role requires salespeople to develop a technological orientation to access, analyze, and communicate information in order to establish a strong relationship with customers (Hunter and  Adam Rapp (Ph.D., University of Connecticut), Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business Administration (Market ing), Kent State University, [emailprotected] Raj Agnihotri (MBA, Oklahoma City University), Ph.D. candidate, College of Business Administration (Marketing), Kent State University, [emailprotected] Lukas P. Forbes (Ph.D., University of Kentucky), Assistant Professor of Marketing, Ford College of Business, Western Kentucky University, [emailprotected] Perreault 2007). Sales technology enables salespeople answering the queries of customers to effectively provide competent solutions. This can lead to strong relationships between a salesperson and a customer. Thus, technology tools are used not only for smoothing the work process but they also have strategic utilizations. To this point, numerous models investigating technology acceptance have been postulated in the literature (Compeau, Higgins, and Huff 1999; Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw 1989; Venkatesh and Davis 2000; Venkatesh et al. 2003). These studies focus mainly on ï ¬ nding and examining the variables inï ¬â€šuencing salespeople’s motivation, or attitudes to adopt technology (Avlonitis and Panagopoulos 2005; Jones, Sundaram, and Chin 2002; Keillor, Barshaw, and Pettijohn 1997; Morgan and Inks 2001; Pullig, Maxham, and Hair 2002; Schillewaert et al. 2005; Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Notably, most existing research has focused on technology adoption with a few notable exceptions. For example, Ahearne et al. (2008) and Hunter and Perreault (2007) investigated the mediating effects of relationship-forging tasks, and Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp (2005) proposed moderating effects of training and support on links between different types of sales technology use (adoption) and sales performance. However, there is still a need to investigate the links between technology use and performance (Sundaram et al. 2007). Within this study, we make two extensions to the prior research. First, we shift the focus from technology adoption to technology usage and consequence (Hunter and Perreault 2007; Sundaram et al. 2007). The rationale for this diversion is that the success of technology acceptance resides â€Å"not simply in whether or not salespeople adopt technology, but whether or not adoption (i.e. use) actually improves performance† (Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp 2005, p. 380). For this purpose, we ground our arguments in the technology-to-performance  chain (TPC) m odel, which explores the link between technology and an individual’s performance and postulates that â€Å"performance impacts will depend increasingly upon task–technology ï ¬ t rather than utilization† (Goodhue and Thompson 1995, p. 216). Second, this research focuses on the multidimensionality of the technology usage construct. Hunter and Perreault (2006; 2007) made a distinction between sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools and reinvigorated the issue of sales technology and its effectiveness. We extend that distinction. They suggested that SFA and CRM technologies should be considered as two different sales technology tools, and that â€Å"different use of technology have differential effects on various aspects of performance . . . thus, how a sales representative uses technology and on which behavioral tasks (work processes) matters† (Hunter and Perreault 2007, p. 30). Aligning with this logic, we perceive this new research direction as a valuable addition to an already established and rich literature of sales technology. The purpose of this research study, therefore, is to expand research with regard to the different dimensions of technology usage by investigating th eir impact on sales representative’s behavior that inï ¬â€šuences performance. We also investigate the role of salesperson experience within this model. THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT As mentioned previously, examining the relationship between technology acceptance and salesperson performance has only recently gained mainstream attention; however, studies investigating this link report positive ï ¬ ndings. For example, researchers have documented that the growing use of technology tools inï ¬â€šuences salesperson performance positively (Ahearne, Srinivasan, and Weinstein 2004) by enhancing sales efï ¬ ciency and sales effectiveness (Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp 2005). It has been argued that increasing the use of technology encourages salesperson knowledge  attainment, which further improves his or her performance (Ko and Dennis 2004). More recently, Hunter and Perreault (2006) suggest that salespeople’s technology orientation inï ¬â€šuences their internal role performance. In another study, Sundaram et al. (2007) theorize that technology use and technology impact on performance are directly proportional to each other. They provide empirical evidence suggesting that the extent to which salespeople use technology may improve overall sales performance. Bringing new insights into this subject, Hunter and Perreault (2007) propose new behavioral mechanisms that relate to sales representative performance. Speciï ¬ cally, they suggest that through relationship-forging tasks, salespeople are able to exploit different dimensions of technology utilization (i.e., accessing, analyzing, and communicating information), which in turn, affect different facets of sales performance. Our research builds on the logic presented by previous researchers regarding the consideration of different dimensions of technology use and their differential effects on salespeople’s behavior. To provide theoretical grounding, we base our conceptual framework on the TPC model proposed by Goodhue and Thompson (1995). The TPC model emphasizes that in order to see a positive link between technology and performance, â€Å"the technology must be utilized, and the technology must be a good ï ¬ t with the tasks it supports† (Goodhue and Thompson 1995, p. 213, emphasis in original). Notably, tasks are viewed as activities performed by individuals to achieve outputs and technologies are tools that help them to perform these tasks. The use of certain applications of technology depends on the speciï ¬ c characteristics of the assigned task. Within the sales context, salespeople carry out operational (e.g., learning about existing and new products, generating automated report s) as well as strategic (e.g., identifying most important customers, preparing sales presentations based on customers’ speciï ¬ c needs) activities and need different tools to help perform these activities. Moreover, the TPC model highlights the importance of an individual’s characteristics (e.g., training or experience), suggesting their impact on how â€Å"easily and well† one will use the technology tools (Goodhue and Thompson 1995, p. 216). The current research contributes to this idea by suggesting that the effect of technology use on salespeople’s behavior will  depend upon whether they are using the technology for operational purpose (i.e., SFA) or for strategic purpose (i.e., CRM). Also, our framework incorporates salesperson experience to assess the inï ¬â€šuence of individual characteristics. Dimensions of Sales Technology Usage In a broad sense, technology is deï ¬ ned as â€Å"an ability to act, a competence to perform, translating materials, energy and information in one set of states into another, more highly valued set of states† (Metcalfe 1995, p. 34). In a sales research domain, sales technology describes information technologies aiding or enabling the sales task performance (Hunter and Perreault 2007). In the past, scholars from different research streams have raised the issue concerning the different dimensions and aspects of technology use and proposed several frameworks that support this concept (Goodhue and Thompson 1995; Orlikowski 1992). Although previous researchers build their arguments on different concepts, in essence, they all agree there are different aspects and dimensions of technology use. Considering the fact that different dimensions of technology use should be employed for different purposes, sales managers must develop and support an environment where salespeople use technology in accordance with the required behavior. For example, salespeople involved in operational activities such as exchanging information with colleagues  and managers, taking or tracking inventory levels, or learning about existing, new, and competitive products will employ different technology tools as compared to situations where they execute strategic activities such as identifying potential customers, identifying the most important customers from the list of current customers, or working on improvement of sales presentation skills. Thus, it will be beneï ¬ cial for sales managers, as well as for salespeople, to understand how employing different technology tools will inï ¬â€šuence performance-enhancing behaviors (Hunter and Perreault 2007). Accordingly, we view the use of SFA and the use of CRM as two dimensions of sales technology based on their level of speciï ¬ city for inï ¬â€šuencing different salespersons’ behaviors. SFA usage, with an operational orientation, includes the utilization of technological to ols supporting the routine sales  functions (Jacobs 2006). CRM usage, with a strategic orientation, includes methods and employing technology tools that help salespeople develop sales strategies (Rigby and Ledingham 2004). Importantly, both the routine sales functions and strategic sales activities that a salesperson engages in can develop, sustain, and strengthen customer relationships. Use of SFA Technology Hunter and Perreault suggest that SFA technology includes â€Å"tools that are intended to make repetitive (administrative) tasks more efï ¬ cient† (2007, p. 17). Highlighting its potential beneï ¬ ts, previous research views SFA use as a competitive equivalence (Morgan and Inks 2001) and suggests that it enhances the â€Å"precision† of salespeople’s activities (Honeycutt et al. 2005) by providing fast and reliable information ï ¬â€šow among customers, salespeople, and ï ¬ rms (Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Sales managers and salespeople alike identify SFA as a tool to enhance efï ¬ ciency (Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001) and to improve productivity (Engle and Barnes 2000; Pullig, Maxham, and Hair 2002). SFA tools assist with routine tasks, allow salespeople to focus on re lationship-oriented activities, and free up time for more customer-centric tasks (Cotteleer, Inderrieden, and Lee 2006). To attain the advantages of SFA, salespeople need to understand the speciï ¬ c purpose of using SFA. Keeping this in mind, we adapt the Rivers and Dart’s conceptualization of SFA that describes it as transforming â€Å"manual sales activities to electronic processes through the use of various combinations of hardware and software applications† (1999, p. 59). We view SFA as a tool that converts repetitive and routine manual processes to automated processes, and assists salespeople trying to operate in an efï ¬ cient and timely manner. Examples of SFA tools could include programs such as quarterly automated sales reports and calendaring tools. The domain for SFA applications includes the attainment and storage of information. However, the information being utilized,  analyzed, and obtained with the help of SFA tools is unlike that from CRM tools. Use of CRM Technology Unlike the routine purpose of SFA applications, CRM technology usage focuses on relationship and st rategy building (Rigby, Reichheld, and Schefter 2002). Day views CRM as â€Å"a cross-functional process for achieving a continuing dialogue with customers† (2001, p. 1). CRM is also described as a â€Å"business strategy that includes information technology  to provide an enterprise with a comprehensive, reliable, and integrated view of its customer base† (Zikmund, McLeod, and Gilbert 2003, p. 3). In essence, salespeople use CRM technology tools for developing and managing customer relationships (Yin, Anderson, and Swaminathan 2004). This characterization is aligned with the analysis aspect of sales technology use suggested by Hunter and Perreault (2007). They deï ¬ ned it as the degree to which salespeople depend on technology â€Å"to study and synthesize data and understand the implications of data relevant to the demands of their sales jobs† (Hunter and Perreault 2007, p. 21). Outlining the functionality of sales technology, Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe (2002) postulate different sales functions (e.g., presentations, informing, communications, sales reporting) that can be supported by sales technology. Importantly, these functions of sales technology can be separated on the basis of whether their strategic orientation is â€Å"customer† centric or â€Å"back-ofï ¬ ce† centric (Geiger and Turley 2006). We characterize the use of CRM as utilizing customer-centric technology tools that help salespeople formulate strategies to achieve effectiveness in their selling methods. Therefore, the optimal utilization of CRM tools will depend on how well salespeople assimilate the information obtained through data patterns in their job-speciï ¬ c behaviors. We believe that the use of CRM technology tools not only accelerates the regular sales operation, but also aids salespeople in developing and managing long-term customer relationships. CONCEPTUAL MODEL DEVELOPMENT In light of the above-mentioned arguments, we propose a model (Figure 1) examining the effects of SFA and CRM on salespeople’s behaviors after technology adoption and how these behaviors can inï ¬â€šuence s alesperson performance. Effort A salesperson’s effort, in general, can be characterized as â€Å"persistence—in terms of the length of time devoted to work and continuing to try in the face of failure† (Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar 1994, p. 40), and it can be assessed via a litany  of measures. Speciï ¬ cally, â€Å"the duration of time spent working and the intensity of work activities† are viewed as components of effort (Brown and Peterson 1994, p. 71); other research studies measure effort by the number of hours invested by salespeople to accomplish their sales goals or the number of sales calls made (e.g., Rapp et al. 2006). Past scholars have conceptualized that the utilization of technology tools improves salesperson efï ¬ ciency (Keillor, Barshaw, and Pettijohn 1997; Pullig, Maxham, and Hair 2002) and that technology assists salespeople in formulating a professional sales encounter (Marshall, Moncrief, and Lassk 1999). Salespeople can maintain direct contact, even with re mote customers, through e-mails and cell phones, thus saving travel hours. They can receive and manage orders from customers in an easy, timely fashion. Various SFA applications (e.g., calendaring; routing tables) inject activeness in salespeople’s typical sales routines and reduce downtime. Salespeople, in today’s competitive environment, face a great deal of data that include information about distributors, dealers, retailers, and ultimately, the end customer. In addition to this, salespeople need to keep track of competitor’s activities as well as product market situations. Notably, SFA  tools provide answers to salespeople in such complex data utilization and management scenarios. Different application tools, spreadsheets, Web browsers, inventory management software, and other database software enable salespeople to manage the records of products, competitors, and customers in timely manner. Hence, salespeople using SFA tools will be more organized and able to complete their schedules on time (Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp 2005). One key representation of salespeople’s efforts to realize their job objectives is the activity through which they complete their tasks (Brown and Peterson 1994). The use of SFA reduces â€Å"the amount of time spent on such activities as managing contacts, scheduling sales calls, developing sales plans, and planning sales routes† (Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002, p. 190). Also, salespeople using SFA tools can cut down work hours doing paperwork and other reporting-related tasks (Colombo 1994; Parathasarathy and Sohi 1997). Importantly, these administrative tasks (e.g., sales reporting) are non-customer-centric activities (Geiger and Turley 2006);  however, salespeople spend many hours completing them. Thus, reductions in such activities, with the help of SFA, will provide salespeople with an opportunity to reduce their working ho urs. Formally stated,  Hypothesis 1: Relative to salespeople reporting lower use of SFA, salespeople reporting higher use of SFA will report fewer hours of work. Underlining the importance of CRM usage, Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp (2005) argued that such technology tools aid salespeople by managing information about a larger number of customers. Salespeople equipped with such valuable information are able to relate to customers without as much difï ¬ culty and can be more responsive to critical issues, thereby shortening the duration of each sales encounter. They will also complete tasks with less effort (Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp 2005). Mostly, CRM tools make customers’ cross-referencing possible among different departments within an organization that can generate more sales potential and reduce efforts by evading multiple attempts on the same prospective clients (Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002). Moreover, the use of CRM tools will ease the processes of presale planning activities and improve the accuracy of sales forecasts, speeding up the overall sales process (Hunter and Perreault 2006). Parallel to this thought, it is pragmatic to think that salespeople using CRM tools will not ï ¬ nd examining customer data to be an overly complex and time-consuming process. Moreover, they can promptly focus on vital information, which, in turn, enables them to develop winning strategies in shorter time. We believe that salespeople equipped with CRM technology will be able to conserve their efforts by speeding the process of strategy development. CRM use will help salespeople conï ¬ gure product offerings per customer stipulations without showing extra efforts (Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002). Under these circumstances, salespeople will be able to decrease their efforts by investing less time in the formulation of customer relationship strategies, reducing backorders, and lessening the number of calls required to ï ¬ nalize a sale (Columbo 1994; Thetgyi 2000). Based on this, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 2: Relative to salespeople reporting lower use of CRM, salespeople reporting higher use of CRM will report fewer hours of work. Adaptive Selling Adaptive selling is  deï ¬ ned as â€Å"engaging in planning to determine the suitability of sales behaviors and activities that will be undertaken, the capacity to engage in a wide range of selling behaviors and activities, and the alteration of sales behaviors and activities in keeping with situational considerations† (Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar 1994, p. 40). In more ge neral terms, adaptive selling can be deï ¬ ned as an approach to personal selling in which selling behaviors are altered during the sales interaction or across customer interactions, based on information about a customer and nature of the selling situation. Acquisition, analysis, and use of customer information are particularly important for salespeople in demonstrating adaptive selling behaviors (Weitz, Sujan, and Sujan 1986). Moreover, if salespeople have precise customer information, they will be more capable of practicing such behaviors (Hunter and Perreault 2006). CRM tools can also aid salespeople in tracking customer purchase patterns and enabling them to recognize potentially viable customers. Salespeople, with the help of CRM technology, can obtain critical customer information to successfully plan an effective sales encounter (Ahearne et al. 2008). CRM tools will be useful for keeping salespeople informed as well as for developing, implementing, or revising sales planning. Such customer database systems provide opportunities to meticulously research customers and design their sales presentations according to particular customer needs and wants (Marshall, Moncrief, and Lassk 1999). Equipped with sound customer information, salespeople will better anticipate customer responses, prepare appropriate ways to meet customer needs, and overcome customer objections. We propose that CRM tools provide access to customer information that enables salespeople to improve or enhance their adaptive selling skills. Based on this argument, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 3: Salespeople’s use of the CRM technology will be positively related with their adaptive selling behaviors. Experience as a Moderator Salesperson’s experience has been deï ¬ ned as a composite of three different areas: the employee’s general sales experience, the amount of time spent working with their current company, and the time spent in their territory (Rapp et al. 2006). Previous studies document the positive relationship of experience with different individual outcomes. For example,  individual’s performance adaptability has been associated positively with greater amounts of rel evant work experience (Pulakos et al. 2000). It has been argued that individuals seeking knowledge usually carry dissimilar wants and expectations (Markus 2001). This idea is especially applicable in a personal selling context, where no single formula or approach can guarantee success of every salesperson. Salespeople with different breadth and depth of experience will have different abilities and expectations. Within this research study, we suggest that less-experienced salespeople, even if they use sales technology tools (i.e., SFA and CRM), will be less likely to exploit such tools in a better way, relative to more experienced salespeople. Importantly, our research differs from the previous work of Ko and Dennis (2004) in that we examine different dimensions of technology use as well as behavioral outcomes of the technology/experience interaction rather than outcome-based performance. Thus, our hypotheses differ according to our proposed arguments.  Sales researchers agree that the uses of CRM technology tools are essential for making customer alliances; however, individual characteristics can affect this process (Jones, Sundaram, and Ch in 2002). Because CRM is used in crafting customer relationship strategies, salespeople’s experience will play a critical role in the relationship between CRM utilization and adaptive selling behaviors. CRM will provide valuable customer information; however, to be successful in utilizing such information, salespeople need to have a â€Å"deep base of organizational, contextual, and domain knowledge† (Ko and Dennis 2004, p. 313) and be well versed in handling difï ¬ cult objections. Salespeople with relatively less experience will have had less exposure to the capabilities of CRM tools, and a lower level of understanding about adaptive selling. With the lack of knowledge regarding various tasks and selling situations, less-experienced salespeople will be less capable of exploiting the rich data available in a CRM repository. Experienced salespeople are more likely to maintain focus on the task-related  activities, identify and realize the link between CRM tools utilization an d adaptive selling behaviors, and smartly engage in activities relevant to task completion. To sum, we argue that more-experienced salespeople will employ information toward formulating plans in a better way that helps them to practice adaptive selling than those salespeople with less experience. Based on these arguments, we propose that Hypothesis 4: The relationship between use of CRM and adaptive selling will be more positive for employees who report higher levels of experience, as compared to those who report lower levels of experience. In the case of technology use, it has been argued that the inï ¬â€šuence of technology is moderated by contextual variables (Orlikowski 1992). It seems especially true in a situation where technology is being used as a tool to formulate strategies or as a medium to support routine tasks. Experienced salespeople are more likely to have created an optimal schedule (i.e., necessary efforts required to accomplish maximum output), and given the strategic utilization of CRM, they can further cut down their efforts to achieve sales objectives. Consistent with the arguments of Hunter and Perreault (2006), we argue that more-experienced salespeople have learned the necessary skills to execute different activities. We also suggest that moreexperienced salespeople have discovered ways to reduce their levels of effort while maintaining their higher levels of performance, relative to those with less experience. Importantly, for those who have already adopted technology, more-experienced sales representatives will feel the greatest inï ¬â€šuence on their behavioral outcomes. Formally stated, Hypothesis 5: The relationship between use of CRM and effort will be more negative for employees who report higher  levels of experience, as compared to those who report lower levels of experience. Salesperson Performance In a general sense, job performance is an outcome of effort and strategy (Bandura 2002). Sales literature has recognized the signiï ¬ cance of salesperson efforts in different theoretical frameworks of performance (Walk er, Churchill, and Ford 1977) and proposed a signiï ¬ cant positive relationship between effort and adaptive selling behaviors and salesperson’s productivity (Sujan, Weitz, and Sujan 1988). Previous literature enjoys a relatively wide consensus about the critical role of effort and adaptability in achieving high performance objectives. To  this point, numerous researchers have examined the links between performance and adaptive selling and effort (Anglin, Stohlman, and Gentry 1990; Brown and Peterson 1994; Goolsby, Lagace, and Boolrom 1992; Holmes and Srivastava 2002; Predmore and Bonnice 1994; Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar 1994). Within this research study, we revisit these links and offer that, parallel to previous ï ¬ ndings, both salesperson behaviors of adaptive selling and effort will demonstrate unique positive relationships with their performance. Hypothesis 6: Salesperson effort will be positively related with salesperson performance. Hypothesis 7: Salesperson adaptive selling behaviors will be positively related with salesperson performance. RESEARCH METHOD Sample Our sample was drawn from the human health-care segment of a medium-sized pharmaceutical company. Data were collected from three separate sources in the form of salesperson surveys, manager surveys, and archival job performance data from company records. Sales representatives in this ï ¬ rm were responsible for marketing directly to physicians within a speciï ¬ c geographical area. All sales representatives were responsible for a particular portfolio of products and completed training for each product line. In sum, 900 sales representatives of the human health-care division of the company were contacted for this study. Usable survey responses were obtained from 662 (74 percent) of the representatives and from 60 different sales managers. There was an average of 11 sales representatives per manager. Respondents completed and returned a questionnaire mailed directly to them by the researchers. Management’s strong endorsement of questionnaire completion via e-mail and telephone, coupled with two waves of mailings, led to the high  response rate. The sample was 40 percen t male, the average age was 34.9 (standard deviation [SD] = 4.6), and 91 percent reported their ethnicity as Caucasian. Measures Use of SFA SFA usage was assessed by the sales representative using a fouritem scale. The scale asked sales representatives the amount of usage on four speciï ¬ c SFA applications. All four items were representative of tasks that helped salespeople streamline or automate some of the basic processes and functions of the sales tasks. Item responses were  anchored by (1) â€Å"I do not use this technology at all† and (7) â€Å"I use this technology to a great extent.† The scale demonstrated acceptable reliability (ÃŽ ± = 0.72). See the Appendix for a complete list of scale items. Use of CRM Similar to the above, CRM usage was assessed by asking the salesperson four questions regarding his or her use of technologies that helped manage customer relationships. These questions were speciï ¬ c to the software and database applications that the ï ¬ rm had in place. Again, item responses were anchored by (1) â€Å"I do not use this technology at all† and (7) â€Å"I use this technology to a great extent.† The scale demonstrated acceptable rel iability (ÃŽ ± = 0.75). Effort Salesperson effort was measured as a self-report item assessing average number of hours worked per week. Although not an ideal evaluation tool, this approach is similar to other research that has demonstrated that self-report evaluations are often representative of objective measures of evaluations (Sharma, Rich, and Levy 2004). Adaptive Selling Adaptive selling was measured using a shortened four-item scale stemming from the adaptive selling scale originally developed by Spiro and Weitz (1990). Items were adapted slightly to ï ¬ t the speciï ¬ c selling context. This measure was assessed by the sales manager and exhibited strong reliability (ÃŽ ± = 0.90). In this setting, sales managers have frequent contact with their salespeople. By meeting with sales representatives, conducting customer follow-up visits, and participating in ride-alongs, we argue that the sales manager can observe the behavior of the salesperson, in this circumstance, adaptive selling tendencies. Experience Experience was a composite measure consisting of three separate measures of sales experience. Sales representatives were questioned about the length of time they had worked in their territory, for their company, and in a sales ï ¬ eld. These scores were each z-scored and then averaged to form an overall experience index. Salesperson Performance We operationalized salesperson performance as the outcomebased measure of percentage of quota. Percentage of quota achieved is deï ¬ ned as the total sales brought to a close by a salesperson relative to the sales organization’s sales targets for that individual. Percent of quota, or total sales divided by expected sales target, is a strong measure of sales representative performance because it controls for some potential contaminating factors such as territory size  (Churchill et al. 1985). Sales representatives’ quotas are annually set by a consulting company, in conjunction with corporate sales management, and are based on market information and company records. Quotas are discussed with sales representatives to ensure that the representatives understand the methods used to set their annual quotas. Analytical Strategy We analyzed our data using a covariance-based structural equation modeling package, AMOS 5.0 (Arbuckle 1997). In evaluating this model, we followed the procedures recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). First, we conducted a conï ¬ rmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the adequacy of the measurement component of the proposed model and evaluate discriminant validity. After ensuring an appropriate ï ¬ t, we then derived the full structural model from our hypotheses. To gauge model ï ¬ t, we report the comparative ï ¬ t index (CFI) (Bentler 1990) and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) (Hu and Bentler 1999). The CFI has been identiï ¬ ed as a strong approximation of the population value for a single model, with values ≠¥ 0.90 considered indicative of good ï ¬ t. SRMR is a measure of the standardized difference between the observed and unobserved covariance and predicted covariance, with values ≠¤ 0.08 considered a â€Å"relatively good ï ¬ t for the model,† and values ≠¤ 0.10 considered â€Å"fair† (Hu and Bentler 1999). Based on an exploratory and follow-up CFA, we determined that all items loaded signiï ¬ cantly on their respective factors and no cross-loadings were present. Each indicator exhibited a highly signiï ¬ cant estimate (p 0.001), which suggests high convergent validity (Gerbing and Anderson 1988). Also, discriminant validity was assessed according to the Fornell and Larcker (1981) suggested approach. By examining the amount of variance extracted for each of the latent constructs and comparing this to the squared correlations among the constructs, we found that the shared variance among any two constructs was always less than the average variance explained by the construct, which suggests that discriminant validity has been achieved. Finally, because four of the variables were collected from the same source,  we conducted checks for common method variance, which could inï ¬â€šate any observed correlations between the dependent and independent variables. As suggested by Grifï ¬ th and Lusch (2007), we used a CFA approach to assess Harman’s one-factor test. To do this, one would create a single latent factor for all same-source indicators as an alternative explanation to our results. Based on our analysis, our measurement model ï ¬ t yielded a χ2 of 295.61 (88), p 0.01; CFI = 0.93; SRMR = 0.04. By ï ¬ tting the same-source factor model, our ï ¬ t was signiï ¬ cantly worse with a χ2 of 789.53 (101); p 0.01; CFI = 0.77; SRMR = 0.08. Second, we employed the partial correlation procedure of including a marker variable (i.e., a variable not theoretically related to at least one other variable in the study). By using a measure of sales ethics as the marker variable, we found no signiï ¬ cant relationships to other variables in the model. These analyses indicate that our structural equation analysis is not as susceptible to an inherent common method bias in the responses to the survey. Table 1 provides descriptive statistics and pairwise correlations for this study. As mentioned, model ï ¬ t for the measurement model was good (χ2 = 295.61 (88), p 0.01; CFI = 0.93; SRMR = 0.04). Next, we ï ¬ t a linear effects model that amounts to the hypothesized model depicted in Figure 1 minus the two interactions (i.e., H4 and H5). This model was ï ¬ t in order to test the linear relationships. This model also serves as a baseline model for tests of the interactions. Notably, the linear relationships between experience and both adaptive selling and effort, although not hypothesized, were included in this model so as to serve as a baseline for the hypothesized model. To test the interaction effects, CRM usage and experience were both mean-centered (by virtue of using z-scores) so as to reduce effects of multicollinearity. We then calculated a multiplicative interactive term between the two variables and ï ¬ t a second model that included this product as an antecedent of both effort and adaptive selling. Because the linear effects model is nested in the hypothesized model, a signiï ¬ cant Δχ2 between them indicates that one or both of the interactions are signiï ¬ cant (Cortina, Chen, and Dunlap 2001). To note, we speciï ¬ ed the relationship between the observed scores and their respective latent variables by ï ¬ xing the measurement error terms for each co nstruct at (1 – rxx) times the variance of each scale score. Following procedures advanced by Mathieu, Tannenbaum, and Salas (1992) and supported  by Cortina,  Chen, and Dunlap (2001), the reliability of the interaction term was estimated using the formula presented by Bohrnstedt and Marwell (1978). RESULTS We derived the full structural model from our hypotheses. Structural model ï ¬ t was within acceptable limits (χ2 = 240.21 (95), p 0.01; CFI = 0.95; SRMR = 0.04) (see Table 2). Although the χ2-statistic is signiï ¬ cant, it is not always the best indication of model ï ¬ t (e.g., Bagozzi and Yi 1988), because it has the drawback of being sensitive to sample size and the number of parameters in the model. Notably, our initial ï ¬ ndings show that SFA usage is negatively related to effort (H1: ÃŽ ² = –0.123, p 0.05) and that CRM usage does not have a negative relationship with effort as originally hypothesized (H2: ÃŽ ² = 0.091). As expected, the linear effect of CRM usage to adaptive selling was positive and signiï ¬ cant (H3: ÃŽ ² = 0.122, p 0.05). Finally, although not hypothesized, the linear effect of experience to effort (ÃŽ ² = 0.166, p 0.01) and adaptive selling (ÃŽ ² = 0.106, p 0.05) were both signiï ¬ cant. Next, we tested the hypothesized model. By adding the interaction terms, we found that the model demonstrated an excellent ï ¬ t (χ2 = 233.53 (93), p 0.01; CFI = 0.95; SRMR = 0.04) and was a signiï ¬ cant improvement over the linear effects model (Δχ2 (2) = 6.68, p 0.05). The moderating effect of experience on CRM usage to effort was not present (H5: ÃŽ ² = 0.083); however, the moderating inï ¬â€šuence of experience on the relationship between CRM and adaptive selling was evident (H4: ÃŽ ² = 0.112, p 0.05). The ï ¬ nal portion of our model examined both adaptive selling and effort as predictors of salesperson performance. We found that both effort (H6: ÃŽ ² = 0.115, p 0.05) and adaptive selling (H7: ÃŽ ² = 0.086, p 0.05) had signiï ¬ cant relationships with performance. As a post hoc analysis, we included experience as an additional predictor of performance and found that it exhibited a signiï ¬ cant relationship (ÃŽ ² = 0.107, p 0.05), while not changing the levels of signiï ¬ cance of the other two variables. The proportions of variance of the endogenous variables accounted for were as follows: R ²Effort = 0.047; R ²Adaptive selling = 0.034; and R ²Performance = 0.031. To interpret the nature of the interaction, we plotted it using standard practices (Aiken and West 1991). Speciï ¬ cally, using the information from the moderated regression analysis, we plotted the relationship between  CRM usage that correspond to the average, low (one SD below the mean) and high (one SD above the mean) values of the experience moderator (see Figure 2). Corresponding to our expectations, we ï ¬ nd that CRM usage has a positive linear effect on adaptive selling and that increased levels of experience enhance this relationship as demonstrated by the steeper slope (more positive) for high-experience salespeople.