Personal Statement Essay Example for Free

Personal Statement Essay I write this statement to support my application to Management and Leadership in Health and Social Care vourse at your university. Due to previous experiences of working with a range of people in the care sector I believe that throughout my time on various work placements with individuals with different disabilities and requirements in care along with the experiences gained throughout my studies, my wish to pursue a career in the care profession has grown. To further my interest in working with and around people I completed my first degree as a health visitor in Hungary. Prior of that I took a gap year in Germany with a church’s volunteer service called Freiwilliges Sociales Jahr (Voluntary Sociales Year). I worked as a health care assistant in a nursing home with 144 beds. While this year was very challenging I also found it an extremely rewarding and enjoyable experience. To further my knowledge and passion for working with those individuals who are in need of care I studied at Semmelweis University, Medical College Faculty and graduated as a health visitor. To put my academic knowledge into practice I worked as a school nurse in 3 different schools. It was an enjoyable experince but only to realize that I was more interested to do something with elderly people and move away from children. I decided to move to England and started to work as a home care worker first, but rapidly I was promoted to a field care supervisor and after that to a care coordinator. Working for different care companies in different cities was a valuable and great experience where I learnt how to improve my leadership and management’s skills and also to put my academic knowledge in practice. I always was looking to improve the company and bring innovative ideas to my role and complete my work to a high standard. I currently work as a care coordinator, which incolves human resource management, arranging and coordinating training, dealing with social workers and other health care professionals on a daily basis. I manage around 60 home care workers in terms of their compliancy and adequate training. I completed National Vocational Qualification in Health and Social Care Level 3 only to realize that I would like to study more and broaden my leadership skills in this area. Working in a senior team gives me a great satisfaction , where I can show my effective communication and organisation skills ad good working relationships. During my spare time I mainly like to read books, travel to other countries to explore different cultures. I also go to the gym to keep myself fit. I also attended a various events related to self development and self-management. This helps to increase my confidence and also gives me great oppurtunities to meet like-minded people. I feel that university is definitely the right path for me. I always work extremely hard to achieve my best, a feat which I intend to carry on throughout my university years. I believe I have the necessary skills needed to enjoy university to the full and also be successful in future years. In addition I would also like to go to university to develop my management and leadership skills even further so I can gain a valuable and rewarding, higher position in health and social care sector and lead that senior team to an absolute success.

Theories for Decision Making

Theories for Decision Making Introduction Nowadays, there are different kinds of management techniques among people, especially communicating within a group of people in particular discussion. During the discussion, process in making effective and credible decision is very important in order to draw a result without any conflicts generally. Many people are facing a problem about the usage of group progress, that good and bad decision making may be quite complicated towards some people. Good decision making means that every member will agree with each other in order to work together effectively among their jobs, while bad decision making will be made if people cannot firmly make their decision well and cause vicious effect on their work. Although there are many group members, especially leaders of group try their best to discover more ways to cooperate with colleagues, while conflicts still can be found everywhere due to different viewpoints and ideas are firmly held in someone’s mind (Collin et al., 2012).. However, no matter you are alone, or even being a part of group, your decision making may still be affected as own decision making can be easily affected by group’s opinion. Therefore being a group leader, they should know how to form good decision making, and how to prevent bad decision making during the discussion process. From past to now, many social psychologists have point out that good decision making can be drawn if well-organised and critical thinking should be found in group leaders, even members. In the essay below, some relevant theories and critical explanations will be combined in order to provide an informational discussion on how to making good and bad decision (Busenitz Barney, 1997). Moreover research evidences may also be used in supporting the process for good decision making, and the reason why people may draw such bad decision during discussions. This kind of organisations can provide a critical and informative essay in discussing the procedures within g ood and bad decision making in the group. Path to make good decisions (Relevant Theories) In the past few decades, there are many social psychologists point out that some personal mental behaviours may affect the discussion, especially making decision among team members. Zajonc claim that if there are any appropriate response or arousal, group performance and members can be enhanced (Zajonc, 1965). Therefor the Drive Theory of Social Facilitation (Zajonc, 1965) can welly explain the reason why people would like to generate better decision while group members can provide good environment and decision. Because this kind of way can evaluate apprehension during discussion, in order to reduce conflicts and worries, which can let group members be more relax to make good decision (Seo Barrett, 2007). Being a member in a group, many cases show that they cannot have effective communication among those team members as they will keep holding their own ideas or viewpoints, then it may cause lots of conflicts in arguing for decision making in particular issue. In this situation, facilitators and bystanders are required among disussion in order to provide another viewpoints, which is different from the insiders. According to Bibb Latane and John Darley (1970), People, especially bystanders among the situation may have higher chance to perform better behaviours and make good decision, when they are facing any emergency situation in the society (Latane Darley, 1968). Regarding to the Emergency Norm Theory, bystanders may have higher chance to help other people, which be pointed out that people will be persuaded to aid those needs. In similar, facilitators in a group take the role to identify those problems with a third-person view that may not suffer in any bias. Facilitators should not be directive in any ideas as they should stay outside and provide independent opinion. In the office environment, each team members, or colleagues should work together that without any bias. Then third-person view and special ideas may be made during particular discussion between each other (Bickman, 1971). Therefore people should ensure their own psychological status in order to maintain stable discussion behind conflicts. Before making good decision during a series of discussion, deep understanding of particular discussion topic is very important as pointed out by Kurt Lewin. Lewin said â€Å"You cannot understand a system until you try to change it†, it means that changing of mental and physical behaviour is useful for a team to draw effective and powerful decision among different kinds of conflicts. Moreover leaders who really want to form good decision within their own group, working environment should be well designed because behaviour is a combination of individuals and proper environment, which is proposed by Lewin (Brug et al., 2006). At the beginning of changes or even discussion, separate discussions within subgroups are required as it can provide sufficient spaces for members to discuss their own ideas in order to form a small conclusion. After that proper support and mind setting should be given towards group member or colleagues, therefore they can have more effective ways to mainta in and try their best to have new job or make any decision under harmonious decision making process. In order to provide more effectiveness of their own points of view, those social psychologists have already pay more efforts in generate several research and conduct different experiment to point out their power of theories. Path to make good decision (Relevant Researches) According to Zajonc’s cockroaches experiment which explain the behaviour of a group of cockroaches in tacking different level of tasks, in order to point out the changes of human behaviours during group processing. During the experiment, cockroaches are assigned a simple task and a more difficult task for them to complete while a group cockroaches will need to be do it together. Zajonc (1969) would like to find out whether a group can provide better results in these kinds of task or not. However, Zajonc found out that group of cockroaches can complete a simple tasks under the social facilitation while they cannot complete such difficult tasks in front of their peers under social inhibition (Zajonc et al., 1970). Generally, the basic concepts and usage of theory can be wisely applied into human being as these kinds of behaviours can also be found on a group of people during discussion, especially decision making. Because people would like to perform well in front of other people in order to gain confidence and recognition, however people cannot be compare with cockroaches due to higher intelligence ability can be on human being than that on cockroaches (Zajonc, Wolosin, Wolosin Sherman, 1968). Apart from Zajonc’s studies, Bibb Latene and John Darley (1970) have done an experiment in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of bystander intervention, which means people would like to help others who need helps. In real life situation, people definitely give a helping hand towards people who are suffering in distress, such as destruction caused by natural disasters and problems carried by human disasters. In addition, the experiment have also stated out that fewer people will help others in emergency if the group size become larger. Therefore leaders should prevent oversize of each group, and they may put two to four people in a group, while several subgroups should be used in order to maintain better communication and decision making (Petty et al., 1977). Although Latene and Darley pointed out that increasing in size of group while decreasing in percentage of helps generally, the results generated in experiment may not be suitable to be applied on people nowadays. The r eason is the experiment had been done in 1970s, which may be quite far from past to now, and the situation would not be well to compare with 21st century. People would like to help each other even the group size is greater than 6, such as most of the Hong Kong citizens would like to participate in helping re-construction of destroyed building after disasters, even donation of money, therefore it may not be possible to explain human behaviours nowadays (Latane, B., Darley, J. M., 1968). During the discussion, good decision making will not be the only products among group members, conflicts may be found within insufficient communication and impartial viewpoints of leaders. So bad decision making may be discovered and it has already been explained by several social psychologists with several theories in the past decades. Path to make bad decision (Relevant Theories) First of all, Solomon Asch had also pointed out that people would like to follow the other’s opinion, especially the majority ideas. During the discussion progress, group members are generally compelled by the authority in order to fit their expected results (Laughlin, 1988). In most of cases, team members would try their best to persuade themselves and pretend themselves to agree with the majority opinion, while throw their own personal ideas. This kinds of action stated that the reason why they would like to follow majority decision is they do not want to be such minority, which may be easily shamed by those eye contact from other team members. Therefore leaders should prevent team members agree with each other easily and shortly, as it means that they just follow others ideas and wish to form the results which fit the need of authority (Asch, 1951) In most of the discussion cases, it may be very strange that group members can only spend a few time to conduct their discussion, and decision can be made in such an easy way as they said to leaders. Because of this, good decision cannot be made wisely due to such inappropriate discussion method and it will not able to solve their own problems. As said by Irving Janis (1982), group members may not wish to point out their own ideas as they think that their opinion should fit the need of their leader, even boss. They will only filter such undesirable input in order to give out some results which may be similar to leader’s viewpoint. Within this situation, decision that made by those group members should not be the true opinion from themselves, these kinds of decision are just the expected result of leaders, therefore good and fair decision which are agreed with all members may not able to be made by the whole group (Janis, 1972). During the development of human being, they are born to obey norms, which is given out by any authorities. Stanley Milgram stated out that people will follow the instructions which are told by other people, especially those authorities such as government. Conformism can be the reason why those people would like to obey the rules or even instruction that proposed by other authorities agencies (Milgram, 1978). In the discussion, if the leaders or boss point out that they expect people to perform the particular results and decision, most of the group members would like to follow its information and form that expected decision. It may not be beneficial towards the whole group because decision making do not include any bystanders’ ideas, while the whole progress of decision making is based on the expected opinion from leaders. Therefore pre-decision should not be include in the discussion, even during decision making. Role and Rules are very important among the normal life, especially the situation of discussion and decision making as different people will take responsibility to act as particular role during the discussion. Stanley Zimbardo pointed out that great changes can be found if good people are put into bad environment. And it means that extreme changes in social environment can definitely affect the movement of everyone (Zimbardo et al., 2000). Within the working environment, if there are only a small amount of members who are willing to propose positive and effective ideas towards the group, even company, the proper decision also may not be made as they are being surrounded by those negative ideas. Because of the majority in the group is fulfilling negative mind of the discussion, it will affect the other who have positive ideas. Therefore those subordinate position would be summit to the authority, which is the leader or boss. Regarding to this kind of problems, good decision making should not be found because there will not have proper and non-directive discussion due to the power of such social situation is really affect the disposition of people and all of the members who hold positive idea will be compelled to agree with the majority. Then in order to have better process in making good decision, no matter leaders or boss should put more efforts on enhance colleagues’ attitude. Regarding to explain deeply about the related theories, several social psychologist have already done quite a lot experiment or researches in order to explain their viewpoints wisely. Path to make bad decision (Relevant Researches) In Asch’s research which was conducted in 1955, it can definitely point out that most of the people included in the experiment would like to follow the majority among the decision making within groups. Because they try their best to fit the expected answer that can truly explain with some real life example nowadays, there are still quite a lot of people would like to follow the majority among groups within the society generally. However, this experiment was conducted during the cultural environment of 1950s America, it still had a fluctuated changes in the results when it was applied in different time ranges. Therefore statistics in this experiment cannot be used exactly in 21st century, while its concept and basic information can be wisely apply into the daily life generally. Within both Zimbardo and Milgram’s experiments and researches, they have generally explained the concept of conformity of people. First of all, a large group of people are divided into two subgroups in order to act as guards and prisoners respectively for a period of time. The experiment can definitely point out the role and rules ideas, while heightening anonymity and dehumanization behaviours. However those people who act as prisoners have already been suffered in several kinds of psychological problems after six days, therefore the experiment was forced to be stopped (Zimbardo, Maslach Haney, 2000). Apart from this, Milgram’s shock experiment has stated that people would like to obey other authority, even they know that these kinds of decision may not be appropriate within their own personal mind. Although Milgram’s research pointed out many effective explanation in conformism, criticism can be found in his experiment. In this experiment, Milgram only use a group of American to conduct this shock experiment while it cannot represent the whole population in the world, because there will be a difference among other countries. America and European countries will be much obedience and similar described as Milgram’s result, while Asian and Muslim countries are less obedience as Milgram’s experiment. Both of the researches from Zimbardo and Milgram are very remarkable and supportive in the field of social psychology nowadays. Although some ethical concerns and cross-cultural validity may need to be aware, some ideas and concepts still have their value in conducting continuous studies in related studies. Conclusion To conclude, making a good decision is quite difficult during the particular discussion, because bad decision making may be easily found if leaders do not communicate and cooperate well with each other. In order to make good decision, leaders should not take all the responsibilities to make decision, while they are required to give out some power to colleagues, that can let them have their own ideas and opinion about own mission. Otherwise all of the group members will just follow the decision of leaders before such kind of discussion, and those expected results will be generate without any agreement between each other (Higgins, 2000). In order to enhance effectiveness in making good decision, different subgroups are required if the whole size of group is too large. Because every group member cannot communicate well within the oversize groups, and leaders may discuss with subgroups respectively before the whole meeting, even decision making (Øvretveit, 1995). These kinds of situation can prevent blindly obedience to that authority, which can provide more chance for leaders and members to communicate during discussion before making any decision. Therefore good decision making is the responsibility of group leaders, while each group members are needed to put more efforts in communicating between each other within every complicated progress (Gerrig, 2013). References Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments. Groups, leadership, and men, 222-236. Bickman, L. (1971). The effect of another bystanders ability to help on bystander intervention in an emergency. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7(3), 367-379. Busenitz, L. W., Barney, J. B. (1997). Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making. Journal of business venturing, 12(1), 9-30. Brug, J., van Lenthe, F. J., Kremers, S. P. (2006). Revisiting Kurt Lewin: how to gain insight into environmental correlates of obesogenic behaviors. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31(6), 525-529. Collin, C., Grand, V., Benson, N., Lazyan, M., Ginsburg, J., Weeks, M. (2012).The psychology book. (pp. 216-257). London, England: Dorling Kindersley Limited. Gerrig, R. J. (2013).Psychology and life. (20th ed., pp. 447-472). the United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc. Higgins, E. T. (2000). Making a good decision: value from fit. American Psychologist, 55(11), 1217. Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Latane, B., Darley, J. M. (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. Journal of personality and social psychology, 10(3), 215. Laughlin, P. R. (1988). Collective induction: Group performance, social combination processes, and mutual majority and minority influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 254. Milgram, S. (1978). Obedience to authority. Petty, R. E., Harkins, S. G., Williams, K. D., Latanà ©, B. (1977). The effects of group size on cognitive effort and evaluation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 3(4), 579-582. Seo, M. G., Barrett, L. F. (2007). Being emotional during decision making—good or bad? An empirical investigation. Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 923-940. Zajonc, R. B., Wolosin, R. J., Wolosin, M. A., Sherman, S. J. (1968). Individual and group risk-taking in a two-choice situation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4(1), 89-106. Zajonc, R. B., Wolosin, R. J., Wolosin, M. A., Loh, W. D. (1970). Social facilitation and imitation in group risk-taking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 6(1), 26-46. Zimbardo, P. G., Maslach, C., Haney, C. (2000). Reflections on the Stanford prison experiment: Genesis, transformations, consequences. Obedience to authority: Current perspectives on the Milgram paradigm, 193-237. Øvretveit, J. (1995). Team decision-making. Journal of Interprofessional care, 9(1), 41-51.

Fear of Failure in The Catcher In The Rye Essay -- Catcher Rye Essays

Fear of Failure in The Catcher In The Rye      Ã‚  Ã‚   Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher In The Rye, feels that he needs to protect people around him, because he failed to protect his brother Allie from death. Holden feels that he has to care for those close to him. He watches over Jane, Phoebe, and even Mrs. Murrow when he meets her on the train. Holden tries to shield these people from distress. He does not want to fail anyone else.    Returning back home from getting kicked out of Pencey, Holden meets the mother of Ernest Murrow, a classmate of his, on the train. They introduce themselves and start talking about Ernest and how he is like in school. Holden did not tell Mrs. Murrow about Ernest's misbehavior at school because he did not want her to think negatively of her son. Holden feels that he is a failure and that his own parents are ashamed of him. He does not want Mrs.Murrow to feel ashamed of her own son and so he lies to her. He wanted to protect her from the truth about her son: "Her son was doubtless the bigges...

My Philosophy of Education :: Teaching Education Essays

My Philosophy of Education As a future educator with a concentration in reading and social studies, I believe that students learn better in an environment where they are actively learning and teaching one another. I also believe children learn best through actively learning and applying the concepts they should be learning. I will hold myself to the following ethical foundations. I believe that every child, no matter who he/she is or what his/her circumstances are, deserves to receive a good education. I believe that equality for all children is absolutely necessary in the classroom., along with fairness, truth and honestly which play important roles in education. Therefore, I see myself as an existentialist in that children need freedom in education to find out who they are and to discover things for themselves. I also see myself as a progressivist. I believe that the classroom should a place where children feel comfortable and secure. I believe each child is different, and I must adapt my teaching to the way the child best learns. I believe axiology is important in education. The goal of education should not be that the child passes a test, but whether or not he or she actually learns what is needed to be known, and can use that knowledge in their life. My purpose is to guide and help them learn the things they will need for their lives and to do that with a positive attitude. My classroom will be a place where children can feel secure and equal. There will always be diversity in the classroom since no one is ever the same, but everyone deserves to have the best education possible and should not be looked down upon because of their ethnic background or race. I want the classroom to have a positive family-type atmosphere where everyone is supported and no one is put down. It will be a room that encourages the imaginations of the children and their curiosities.

Discursive Essay Essay

Discursive Essay It is argued nowadays on whether teenagers, who go to school, should be wearing a uniform. There are many advantages but also some disadvantages, such as : All the students wearing the same uniform , which can take the stress off looking better than other students as they are wearing similar attire, and also having a uniform can make a person look smart and respectable, but on the other hand, students can feel that their uniforms are too boring and doesn’t show their personailty or their style well enough, and that for certain schools, uniforms can be expensive, especially if it is a larger family they are being bought for. An advantage of uniforms would be that, all the students are wearing similar clothing, so no-one will feel as if they don’t look good enough or that they have to impress anyone. Students would probably feel this way if it were a non-uniform school, and would be under stress trying to buy new clothes every week or month to impress their classmates. So having a uniform is beneficial to certain people as they may not be as well off as other and won’t be able to afford new clothes all the time. I think this is a very strong point as i agree that students wouldn’t feel pressured to impress their friends with new clothes, and that their parents would save a fortune with a uniform as uniforms only have to be renewed every month or so. Another advantage of uniforms would be that they look smart and respectable, which can give the impression that the student goes to a great school, and that he/she is quite intelligent. Furthermore, some schools that don’t have a dress code, their pupils look casual and it doesn’t look like they even go to school. In addition to that, when schools have a non-uniform day, it can be more exciting because its a day where they can show off their non-school clothes. I strongly agree with this point because students do look more sensible in a uniform rather than casual attire, and i also agree that, when schools do have a non-uniform day, they want to look nice and show off their designer clothes, where as, at a school which has no dress code, they have probably already worn their designer clothes to school, so they would resort to buying even more clothes to impress, which will cost a fortune. Which brings me to my next and final point on the advantages of having a uniform, The cost. Some private schools uniforms may cost considerably more but would you rather pay for a full uniform at a dear price, or buy new clothes every week or two for around the same price range, or more? Most public school uniforms don’t cost an incredible amount, and only have to be renewed after a month or two. I do agree with this point as it is true about having to buy new clothes all the time would cost an awful lot, and that you could buy a full uniform for around the same price. Uniforms may be good in some ways, but some students strongly dislike them for multiple reasons. One disadvantage of uniforms would be the image. The first though that comes into a students head when they see a uniform is that, they look boring, and the reason for this is understandable as uniforms usually consist of one, two, or maybe even three colours, but these colours are usually neutral, boring colours that aren’t very eye catching. But you never really see a uniform that has colours like bright yellow or even multiple colours that would definately make you stand out from the crowd. I do agree with this point very much as uniforms can be extremely dull and boring looking, and wearing a uniform that has colours such as brown or black would probably make you feel quite depressed and unhappy, and i also think that there should be much more colourful uniforms that stand out more. Another disadvantage of uniforms would be the type of clothings schools make you wear, such as skirts. Skirts at any length can make any girl feel uncomfortable, no matter how big or small the girls are. The reason for this is because they may have to show their legs, by wearing knee-high socks, or even wearing tights can be uncomfortable for them as their not used to wearing skirts. In addition to that, when it gets into the winter period, some girls are still forced to wear skirts, even when the temperatures are below 0’C I strongly agree with this, as girls should be aloud to choose whether they wish to wear trousers or a skirt, and i also believe that it is wrong to force girls to wear skirts in the winter period, as they will be freezing going to school. My final disadvantage of uniforms would be that they can hide a students personality, their style, and who they really are, and this really irritates students if the teachers are too strict and will not allow simple jewellery, accessories or extra clothing. I strongly agree with this statement as its true that students should be able to show how unique they are and show their personalities through the way that they dress. Even if its a few extra peircings or a bright hair dye, students should be able to do so as trying different things and styles is part of growing up. Having a uniform prevents this. In conclusion, i believe students should be able to wear whatever they wish to school, and not have to wear a uniform. I say this because uniforms are extremeley boring and depressing if they consist of one, dark, dull colour. And i agree that if the school is very strict about what the students are wearing to school, it can hide the students personality or how unique they are.

Han’s Crime

Hand's wife gave birth to a baby eight months after their marriage. Han was under the Impression that the baby belonged to his wife's cousin. Han told everyone that It was a premature birth. This explained why the baby died so soon; nevertheless, It was actually the wife who killed the baby by smothering It with her breasts. For the rest of Mr.. And Mrs.. Hand's marriage, Han did not approach his wife and ask her if the baby was his. It seems to me that Han does not face his problems, but runs away from them or take the easy way out. For example, Han did not want to ivories his wife because he did not want there to be any wrong on him.If Han had confronted her about the possible affair as well as the death of their baby, their marriage would have gone in a completely different direction that did not end in one of them killing the other. I do not mean to say that they would have lived happily ever after or anything, but it definitely would have helped their relationship with each othe r. The birth and death of the baby symbolizes a new beginning for Han. â€Å"The child's death seemed Like retribution for everything and I decided that I should be as ignoramus as possible†.Han replaced the love for his wife with a tremendous hatred towards her. He thought of divorcing her, but having recently converted to Christianity he did not want there to be any wrong by his doing. Hand's actions cause me to think of him as the kind of person who works hard to please everybody. I mean, his Job is to entertain people. Becoming a Christian definitely made him an even greater person in his audience's eyes. When he was in the courtroom he told the judge that he did not know if he was guilty or not, he decided to tell the truth.I decided that the best way of being acquitted would be to make a clean breast of everything†, â€Å"Why not be completely honest†. That that is the kind of thing someone who wants to please people would say in his situation. In my opinio n Han did not mean to kill his wife; on the contrary, subconsciously he did kill her on purpose. Han would never hit his wife. Yes he was harsh, but never did he physically harm her. Of course that was Just because his conscious told him that that was wrong. Deep down Han wanted to hurt her and rid of her. Even though the

Financial Analysis on Coles Myer & Woolworths Essay

Introduction Coles Myer Limited (CML) and Woolworths Limited (WOW) are two major Australian companies with extensive retail interest and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. They are Australian public companies which operate a number of retail chains. CML is Australia’s second largest retailer, behind WOW. It operates a number of chains of retail outlets which are including Coles Supermarkets, Bi-Lo, Liquorland, Pick ‘n Pay Hypermarket, Kmart, Officeworks, Target, Harris Technology and Coles Express (Wikipedia, 2006) . WOW is currently the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by market capitalisation and sales. WOW operates in Australia through several retail banners such as Woolworths and Safeway Supermarkets, BWS, Dan Murphy’s, BIG W, Dick Smith Power House and Dick Smith Electronics (Wikipedia, 2006) . The purpose of this report is to analyse financial performances of the two publicly listed companies in last 5 years by using series of calculation tools include horizontal analysis and financial ratios. Also as a recommendation, we will advise investors to buy or not buy the two companies’ shares according to the results of the performance analysis. Financial Condition (See Appendix 1 & 2 for ratio details) 1. Overview The WOW’s revenue has increased every year, one year as great as 149.90 % in 2005 (see appendix 11 for details). In 2001, revenues were 20915.1 million while in 2005 revenue has increased to 31352.5 million. Since revenue increased, the net profit obviously has increased as well. Net profit rose 84.70% from 2001 to 2005. The Horizontal Analysis (Appendix 11 &; 14) indicates WOW is a very successful company and earning money. CML’s revenue has increased 52% and the net profit rose 314% from 2001 to 2005, the growth was tremendous because it occurred in typical connection with the restructuring of the method of financing a foreign operation (Financial Report, 2005). 2. Liquidity Current ratio This ratio represents the financial liquidity of the company. ‘The current  ratio compares the assets a company can quickly convert to cash to the liabilities it must pay in the near term’ (Vance, D. E. 2003). The higher the ratio, the more liquid the company is. For CML, there was a slight increase of 0.04 from 2001 to 2002. Then it followed by an obvious fall from 1.37 to 1.09 during period from 2002 to 2005. This represents that one-unit current liabilities is secured by 1.37 units of current assets in 2002 and 1.09 units, nearly one current asset for one current liability, in 2005. From the perspective of WOW, the ratio starts from 0.81 up to 0.84 then declined to 0.81 and finally dropped to 0.82 during this period of time. The current ratios are all less than one, indicating that one current asset will prepare for the payment of more than one unit current liability. That leads to high liquidity risk in the business operation. If there is an emergency to WOW, it wi ll encounter the problem of repayment. Quick ratio Quick ratio is similar with current ratio, but more conservative than current ratio, because in numerator, inventory is excluded from current assets, and in dominator, bank overdraft is excluded from current liabilities. ‘The quick ratio addresses the issue of whether current assets could cover current liabilities if inventory were found to be worthless’ (Vance, D. E. 2003). WOW experienced a slight increase from 0.2 to 0.26 in this period of time. In contrast, CML experienced a modest fluctuation and end up with 0.28 in 2005, the lowest one in 5-year time and the highest one is 0.41 in 2003. Generally, the quick ratios of CML exceed the ones of WOW. Cash flow ratio Cash flow ratio will analyse the ability of repayment on current liabilities from the perspective of the operating cash flows. Vance, D. E. (2003) states that it is another way to think about the risk of leading to, or investing in a company. These two companies both experienced a drop on this ratio from 2004 to 2005, 0.35 for WOW and 0.3 for CML in 2005. 3. Financial leverage Equity ratio & debt ratio Equity ratio and debt ratio are both designing for capital structure and they are negatively related with each other. The cost of equity is higher than the cost of debt, but shareholders will not require companies to repay them dividends and principals any time. However, companies must pay the debt holders interests and principals each year. And increasing leverage ratio will result in increasing the return to shareholders, yet at the same time, it will increase the repayment commitments and then raise the risk to company and shareholders. CML’s equity ratio increased to 0.4 and correspondingly debt ratio decreased to 0.15 from 2001 to 2005. Generally it is a good trend, even though there has been a decrease in equity ratio in 2005 from 0.45 to 0.40 and an increase in debt ratio from 2004 to 2005, it may be due to the acquisition from US group KKR. However, in 2005, equity is almost three times debt, which means the capital structure is still in good condition. On the other hand, WOW experienced a different trend that its equity ratio has decreased from 0.30 to 0.25, and debt ratio has significantly increased from 0.13 to 0.32 between 2001 and 2005. WOW raised funds heavily on interest-bearing liabilities and consequently takes higher risk than CML due to higher leverage ratio. Times interest earned & fixed charges coverage ‘Times interest earned ratio examines the ability of the business to meet its regular financial commitments’ (Harvey, McLaney and Atrill 2001). Fixed charges coverage ratio is very similar to Times interest earned ratio. These two ratios assess the profitability of company and the ability of interests and principal repayment. CML experienced a significant increase on these two ratios from 3.48 to 12.04 and from 6.81 to 16.64, even though there was a slight drop between 2004 and 2005. However, WOW experienced an obvious fall to 11.82 and 12.25 on times interest earned and fixed charges coverage  respectively. In 2005, compared with WOW, CML showed a better financial performance on the ability to repay the interests and principal. Average payment period CML experienced a decreasing trend on average payment period from 45.29 to 38.69. In contrast, WOW experienced an increase from 19.41 in 2001 to 37.78 in 2003, and a decrease to 34.77 in 2005. Compared with WOW, CML has a longer payment period. It means CML can hold its money more time and do some investments. 4. Assets management Sales turnover This ratio indicates assets management efficiency that one unit asset can generate how much sales. From the perspective of CML, the sales turnover gradually increased from 2.9 in 2001 to 3.94 in 2005. On the other hand, WOW maintained stable on about 4.5 sales turnovers. We can see that WOW managed its assets more efficiently than CML did. Average inventory turnover period This ratio assesses the efficiency of inventory management whether company reduce the inventories as fewer as possible. The fewer inventories, the more free cash flow company has to invest on other assets. Both WOW and CML experienced a decrease on inventory turnover period from 39.64 to 29.64 and from 59.45 to 41.38 respectively. It indicates that CML managed its inventories less efficiently than WOW did. 5. Profitability Return on sales WOW return on sales remained constant, 4% of sales. For CML, it maintained  stable, nearly 2% of sales. Obviously, WOW has a higher operating profit margin, and then a better profitability performance maybe due to the more efficient costs control. Return on assets ‘It is used to measure whether assets are being productively employed’ (Vance, D. E. 2003). This ratio indicates how much profit one unit asset can generate and how profitable company is as a whole. WOW and CML are both in the increasing trend, 0.17 and 0.1 respectively in 2005. In term of this ratio, it showed that WOW is more profitable than CML Return on equity & earning per share These two ratios reflect the return to the shareholders and the value increase for the shareholders. WOW and CML both experienced an increase on the return to the shareholders, yet the WOW’s increase of the return is more stable than CML’s. In 2005, in term of return on equity, WOW stayed with 37% of the equity, yet CML just 16%. Conclusion The two companies have been doing quite well in recent years as can be seen from the increasing profitability. The table in Appendix 15 indicates a comparison of the two companies according to the above discussion. CML has a better performance on liquidity and financial leverage but WOW managed Assets and Profitability better than CML. Recommendations On 8th September 2006, WOW’s closing share price is $20.80 and CML is $13.70. Based on the financial analysis above, we can conclude that WOW has maintained a constant financial performance in last 5 years, but their growth is not rapid. However, Simpson (2006) states that ‘At present Coles Myer is earning a 13 per cent return on capital invested in stores, compared  with 24 percent by Woolworths.’ Therefore, I recommend potential investors buy shares from WOW for a short-term. According to CML news released in March and June, CML had acquired Sydney drug stores Pty Ltd (CML News Release, 2006) and Hedley Hotel Group (CML News Release, 2006). CML will expand the pharmacy business further more and have a different strategy than WOW if the regulations change in the future becomes true. CML also will expand their liquor business to compete WOW as well. Thus, I believe that the potential financial growth of CML will be a lot higher than what it is right now and I su ggest investors put their money on CML for a long-term investment. References 1.Wikipedia 2006, Coles Myer Ltd, Wikipedia Free Source Organization, viewed 10 September 2006 2.Wikipedia 2006, Woolworths Ltd, Wikipedia Free Source Organization, viewed 10 September 2006 3.Financial Report, 2005, Coles Myer Ltd., pp 19 4.Vance, D.E. 2003, Financial Analysis and Decision Making, McGraw-Hill, United States of America 5.Harvey, D, McLaney, E and Atrill P 2001, Accounting for business, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford 6.Simpson, K. 2006, Market waits for higher Coles bit, The Age, 8 September 2006, front page of Business Section 7.News Release 2006, ‘Coles Myer Acquires Pharmacy Direct’, Coles Myer Ltd., 31 March 2006 8.News Release 2006, ‘Hedley Hotel Acquisition Complete’, Coles Myer Ltd., 14 June 2006