Microbiology and Bacteria Essay Example for Free

Microbiology and Bacteria Essay Microbiology is the study of microorganisms which must be viewed with the aid of a microscope or electron microscope. The importance of microbiology includes: used in biomedical research, creation of medicines, environmental applications and new research tools. Disease causing organisms include: protists, bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. Bacteria are important for fixing N2 in a usable form for plants. Bacteria and some fungi are important in decomposition and recycling of raw materials. Industry applications of microbiology: waste management, food industry, mining, medicine, research and biotechnology. 1660’s Robert Hooke observed microorganisms for the first time with a microscope and coined the term â€Å"cell†. 1632-1723 Anton van Leeuwenhoek credited with having observed the first bacteria. 1828-1898 Ferdinand Cohn developed the first classification scheme based on bacteria shape. Cohn detailed and described the life cycle of Bacillus. Cohn’s Classification System: Sphaerobacteria are spherically shaped. Microbacteria are rod shaped Desmobacteria are filamentous Spirobacteria are spiral shaped 1822-1895 Louis Pasteur Defined pasteurization to prevent spoilage of food by bacteria, develop vaccines and disproved the scientific dogma of â€Å"Spontaneous Generation†. He defined â€Å"Germ Theory† and demonstrated that germs were responsible for disease. 1843-1910 Robert Koch identified anthrax and developed agar growth medium. Koch’s postulates was a systematic method to establish the microbial cause of disease. Ignaz Semmelweis was the first to recognize the need for good hygiene during medical procedures. The first to identify nosocomial infections. 1827-1912 Joseph Lister developed antiseptic methods for use in surgery and medicine. 1854-1915 Paul Ehrlich developed chemotherapy to cure infectious diseases and discovers antibiotics to treat sleeping sickness and syphilis. 1881-1951 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and lysozyme. 1864-1920 Dmitri Ivansvski discovered the first virus which is known as the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). 1952 Hershey Chase Experiments identified that DNA was the genetic material of bacteriophages. Hershey Case Experiment: using phage radioactively labeled with P32 (DNA) or S35 (protein) they infected bacteria cells. They found the P32 inside the bacteria not S35. Recommendations for Success in Microbiology Successful completions of general biology 2 semesters Knowledge of basic chemistry and biochemistry Basic understanding of classification Review layout of text book used in the course. Read and master learning objectives laid out in the text book. Master definitions presented in the course.

The Strategy Of Managing Human Resources

The Strategy Of Managing Human Resources Strategy of managing human resource refers to the how ADIDAS treat and manage the employees. With the strategies ADIDAS able to maintain the loyal of employees to the ADIDAS and the willingness of employees to do the hard job in order to enhance the productivity of the organisation. Furthermore, employees are the internal customer of ADIDAS. So, ADIDAS need to satisfies the employees before satisfies the external customer. External customers refer to the people that purchase the product produce by ADIDAS. When the internal customers of the organisation satisfies the treatment of the organisation the external customers also will satisfies the product of ADIDAS. The next part of this assignment will discuss the strategies that ADIDAS use. 2.1) Talent management Talent management refers to retain the employee in the ADIDAS. So, ADIDAS use this strategy to develop the old employees that have the opportunities to their career. By using this strategy ADIDAS able to hold the quality employees stay in the organisation and built up the loyalty of the employees. Besides that, talent management also include recruitment. Recruitment refers to the process of recruit and selecting the qualified new people that in order fit to the job 2.2) Employee-oriented leadership Employee-oriented leadership refers to the communication between the manager and the subordinates. By using this strategy ADIDAS able to know the employees need and want. This is because this strategy consists of employee feedback system. Employeeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s feedback system refers to the satisfaction level of the employees to the job. The employees are the internal customers of the organisation, when the employees satisfy their job the productivity of the organisation will automatically increase. This is because the organisation given a good environment to the employees in order to satisfy the employees and the employees will do the hard job to the organisation to as the repay to the organisation. 2.3) Remuneration Remuneration means the salary of the employees get month by month. The salary related to market requirement and performance level. That means ADIDAS set the salary according with market requirement and performance level. The ADIDAS on time pay the salaries in order to give the good reputation of the organisation. When the organisation do not delay paid the salaries to the employees the employees will loyal to the organisation this is because the employees will feel the safety in the organisation to work. 2.4) Bonus In ADIDAS the remuneration consists of bonus. In ADIDAS the individual performance will related to the remuneration. Bonus means the company pay extra money to the employees to motivate the employees. The main purpose of given bonus is to motivate the employees. Motivation is psychological process giving behaviour purpose and direction (Kreitner,2009, p.369 ). By given the bonus the employees will put more effort and hardship to the job. 2.5) Long-term incentive programmes (LTIP) This is specialising for senior manager, this is three year plans based on the achievement of financial as well as compliance target. So the senior manager that achieves the long-term target of the company will get the bonus. The bonus was depended on the organisation whether the bonus is money or others benefit. 2.6) Performance management Performance management is a feedback for the management team. The management team will observe to the employees in order to take care the employees and if the employee does not do well in the jobs the management team will send the employee go to training. Furthermore, certain employee did well in their job will get promoted. So, in this strategy the employee able to learn and get the improvement by giving the benefit and training. Furthermore, ADIDAS always looking for the potential employees so, ADIDAS will observe the performance of each employees and give the opportunities to get promote. Besides that, ADIDAS also observe the people that innovative and creative. This is because ADIDAS need the peoples that contain the high imagination people to give the idea to produce the design of the product. So ADIDAS will observe about it and pick the people that have the potential skill switch to the creation and innovation team. ADIDAS found that the people who are having different backgrounds, perspectives and skills can make the best team in order to achieve the maximum creation of the design on the product. Before ADIDAS forming the potential employees into a team, ADIDAS will send the employees to training. This is because the team need contains the different imagination, perception and culture. This is because ADIDAS is a global organisation within the different perception can built up a multi-skill team. With t his the ADIDAS can manage many of the country culture and habit in order to product suitable product to the public. 2.7) Work-life balance Work-life balance is flexible working hour. Flexible time is a scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose starting and ending times within guideline specified by the organisation ( Raymond A. Noe, Barry Gerhart, Patrick M. Wright, John R. Hollenbeck, 2009, p.106). Every employeeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s quality of life should be improved by working to the organisation. So ADIDAS have the responsibility to address flexible working hour. The main purpose of work-life balance is give harmonise of the private and family needs to the employees. So the organisation was think about the benefit of the employees. Furthermore, this strategy able to give the employees a comfortable working hour and with the harmonise family the employees will put more effort in the working hour. As an example the working hour is 8 hours per day. The employees can select their working hour in the day and the lump sum of the working hour 8 hours. If the employee starts working at 11:00AM so the employee leave the organisation in 19:00 PM. Recommendation ADIDAS was looking the professional as the members of the families. ADIDAS treat the employees as their familiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ members, care about the private sector of the employees. So, ADIDAS able to perform well in the market. ADIDAS doing these because ADIDAS was found that when the employees happy the productivity of the organisation will increase rapidly. As the comment to the ADIDAS, ADIDAS should recruit the people that from others competitor. Recruit the quality people from the competitors can decrease the productivity of the competitor and increase the productivity of own. Recruit the quality peoples from competitors is the good ways to find the potential employees if the organisation was lack of such potential employees. Furthermore, the organisation also need to prevent the self employees go the others organisation. For this, ADIDAS was did well this is because ADIDAS consist of flexible of working hour, talent management and performance management. These strategies might build up the loyalty of the employees in order to prevent the employees leave the organisation and work with competitors. Conclusions The strategies use by ADIDAS was aim to giving the benefit to the employees and always think of the employees so, the loyalty of the employees will build up automatically. After that, ADIDAS provides a lots of benefits to the employees by the way the employees will be motivated and the case of absenteeism is very low. When the employees interesting to work, the productivity of the organisation will automatically enhanced. When the productivity was increase the profit of the organisation also will increase so the organisation able to pay more to the employees. When the organisation pays more to the employees the employees will be motivated. Finally, ADIDAS is a very good organisation that works in ADIDAS, the benefits provides by the organisation was attractive to all the employees. So, the benefits not only giving to the employees but also give the public know that ADIDAS such organisation and work with ADIDAS is suck happy and satisfy. There were the ways and style ADIDAS manage the human resource. ADIDAS was known that when good manage in human resource the benefit to the organisation will increase automatically such as productivity. Lastly, ADIDAS is a nice organisation that consists of many benefit to the employees and hopefully ADIDAS can do better in future and the comment would help ADIDAS be a better organisation.

The dark side of fast food Essay -- Health, Diseases, Obesity

Today’s furious pace of life does not provide people with an opportunity of leisurely eating. The replacing of traditional food to convenience food is the result of the general intensification of work. At present people are usually under time pressure. Therefore, fast food seems to suit to the rhythm of modern life. However, it is argued by nutritionists that fast food is not beneficial to health, and causes health problems such as diabetes, heart diseases and obesity issues. The number of American overweight adults, whose mass is defined as 120 percent, has increased from 25 to 35 percent over the period of time from 1960 to 1991, while the percentage among adolescents has grown from 10 percent to 20 percent from 1970 to 1991 (James K. Binkley. 1997). In addition, these indexes are rising simultaneously with the development of fast food, one aspect is food delivering system, widespread service all over the world, which leads to population living passive life style and contri bute to acquiring obesity. During the period of time between 1980 and 1990 the proportion of money spent on food, that is prepared out of home has increased from 26 percent to 37 percent (Robert W. Jeffery and A. Simone. 1998). Moreover, significant minority of children are suffering from obesity. While sales of fast food are growing, the quality of health is declining. Presently, there are about 30,000 McDonald’s restaurants in 120 countries full of regular clients (BBC. Worldservice.com). In addition, there are many other similar corporations which mean that the fast food industry is prospering. Currently, humanity has a significant problem with a health of people due to a wrong nutrition, which consist of a different types of fast food. It is, therefore, ... ...possible solutions for stabilizing situation and providing healthy style of life without the fast food. Those are to put a stop for the usage of harmful ingredients in food, to decrease and limit amount of the fast food restaurants and to reduce the advertisement time on television and to reduce total amount of banners and websites of these fast food corporations. Moreover, it is believed, that these methods will improve today’s difficulties of people with the fast food consumption and addiction, and will provide healthy life – style (O’Rourke. 2005). In conclusion, in today’s situation, humanity and particularly governments of countries have to dispute for the active life without fast food, and to stop the fast food addiction, because of which all of these terrible things such as children and adults obesity, heart diseases and diabetes mellitus are happened.

Tradegy in Greek Literature :: essays research papers

Tragedy in Greek Literature   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When one hears the word tragedy, they might think of someone dying in a car wreck, being killed in a plane crash, or even a massive tsunami that wipes out nations. This type of tragedy is the most common, but when referring to Greek literature, a tragedy is an outstanding piece of drama originating in Ancient Greece. Greek tragedy originated in honor of the god of wine, Dionysus, the patron god of tragedy. The performance took place in an open-air theater. The work tragedy is derived from the word â€Å"tragedia† or â€Å"goat song.† Aristotle said, â€Å"Tragedy is largely based on life’s pity and splendor (Lucas).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Greek tragedy would not be complete with out a tragic hero. Sophocles, the great writer of tragedy, wrote of noble and courageous heroes with specific â€Å"tragic flaws† that lead the hero to his downfall. In Aristotle’s analysis of Greek tragedy he states, â€Å"Greek tragedy has an effect on the audience called â€Å"catharsis,† or purging of the emotions (Mcavoy).† The two specific emotions that Sophocles provokes are pity and fear. Sophocles wrote Antigone with a specific character in mind for this noble hero. Creon fits the image of the hero with the â€Å"tragic flaw.† Creon is significant because he is the king. The hard decisions that Creon is faced with, is what makes him fit Aristotle’s image of a tragic hero. Creon faced decisions that lead to a no-win situation. He believes that Polyneices should not be buried because he was a traitor to his family. This decision affected Antigone greatly, and Creon knew that the decision would be hard on some people. Family and burials are very important in society, and Creon is asking Antigone to not consider them, to only consider that Polyneices was a traitor to his home city. Creon is then faced with the knowledge that Antigone went against his will and law, and buried her brother. Again, Creon is faced with a hard decision. He must choose to kill his own family member and uphold the law, or punish her less severely and show that he is not serious about death as a punishment to his law. Creon doesn’t want to show weakness, even for family, but he doesn’t want to kill Antigone, who is not only his niece and sister, but engaged to his son. The final decision that Creon must make is whether or not to revoke his death sentence on Antigone.

Regulating The Internet: Whos In Charge :: essays research papers

Regulating The Internet: Who's In Charge The internet was started by the military in the late forties, and has since grown to an incredibly large and complex web, which will no doubt effect all of us in the years to come. The press has recently taken it upon themselves to educate the public to the dark side of this web, a network which should be veiwed as a tremendous resource of information and entertainment. Instead, due to this negative image, more and more people are shying away from the internet, afraid of what they may find there. We must find a way to regulate what is there, protect ourselves from what is unregulatable, and educate the general populace on how to use this tremendous tool. "The reality exists that governance of global networks offers major challenges to the user, providers, and policy makers to define their boundaries and their system of govenment" (Harassim, p84) The intemet is a group of networks, linked together, which is capable of transmitting vast amounts of information from one network to another. The internet knows no boundaries and is not located in any single country. The potential the internet has of shaping our world in the future is inconceivable. But with all its potential the internet is surrounded by questions of its usage. The intemet was named the global village by McLuhan and Fiore in 1968, but recently the internet has been more properly renamed the global metropolis. Robert Fortner defines the internet as a place where people from all different cultures and backgrounds come together to share ideas and information. "Communication in a metropolis also reflects the ethnic, racial, and sexual inequalities that exist generally in the society. '' (Fortner, p25) When a person enters into a global metropolis to engage in communication they do not know who they will interact with nor do they know what information that they may come across. Which brings an important question to mind. If this is a community, a global metropolis, should it not be governed to protect the members of the community? But more importantly, can a community that knows no boundaries and belongs to no country, be regulated? And who can or should regulate it? With the vast amounts of information transmitted through network to network, with some information remaining at sites temporarily or disappearing within seconds, how can one regulate it? In a meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Community Standards in Australia, iiNet, an Australian intemet provider, presented facts on how much information passes through their server daily. "Our own network sees over 200,000 items of email between individuals every

How to Study for an Exam Process Essay Essay

A cumulative exam, or final is a test given to students at the end of a course of study. Studying for a final cumulative exam can be both a stressful and scary time. Most high schools, colleges, and universities have final exams at the end of a particular academic term, semester, or more traditionally at the end of a complete course. These tests can be worth high percentages of your grade and can determine how well you do in a class. There are many steps to being able to take these tests well but they begin long before the studying for the test actually begins. To be successful on a final exam but ultimately in a class the first thing you must do is attend class. It is important you attend class so that you don’t miss out on anything important. The class time you spend listening to your instructor is one of the most essential ways of retaining information on the subject you’re going over. I’m not saying you must attend every single class in a semester but try your hardest to. If for some reason you do miss class, the next step you would follow is to be sure to get anything you’ve missed from a classmate. I never have an issue when it comes to getting information off classmates because you’ll find that everyone needs a friend in a class one day. The next thing you must do is take good notes. I use a variety of methods when I’m taking notes. I color-code things and use different ways of pointing out information such as stars, bullets, and arrows. These different things are a useful way to indicate different types of information. It makes it easier to pick out key points when you’re studying for your final. The next thing you do is keep up with your homework. In high school you typically get your homework the day before it is due so it is a lot easier to make sure you keep everything up to date. As a college student you receive a syllabus at the beginning of the semester that lists all assignments, tests, and readings for the class. I list all of these things in a planner and keep that planner with me at all times. You must keep up with everything on time because if you get behind you will fall further and further behind until you can’t catch up anymore. This could lead to doing poorly in your classes. You must continue with these steps for months leading into the end of the semester. Then, once it gets close to the final exam there are many things you must do. There are things you have to specifically do the week before, the night before, and then the morning of. If you follow certain steps then you’re surely to do just fine. First, a week or so before your exam compile all your materials in one place. I use a small binder of folder just so it’s easily carried around for studying. I go back through old notebooks and folders and collect any article that contains information I will need for the exam, all homework, handouts, quizzes, and tests. Get your syllabus and make sure you have notes covering everything you’ve done in the semester. Final exams contain information from the entire class so it is very important you collect everything. The next thing you must do is re-read all the information you have collected. As you read gather important points, make flashcards, study guides, and other study materials that could be of use to you. While making study guides it is often helpful to use different means of labeling things like arrows, stars, and color-coding things. Afterward, you must spend a large amount of time studying your material using many different methods. Personally I use practice tests, highlight, and re-take notes. Using many ways allows you to make sure you know the material and are not just memorizing it in a certain order. Be sure to spend extra time on any material you feel will either be a large part of the test or anything you are still unsure about. There are many steps to follow the night of the exam as well. First, get rid of all your distractions. Turn your phone on silent, log out of everything and put yourself in a non-distracting environment. The next step is to not spend too much time studying material you already know. Review and spend the majority of your time on things you are still unsure of. Your last step the night before your exam is simply, get some sleep. Your brain will be completely useless if you are exhausted so the smartest thing to do is to study early on, avoid the all-nighters, and get some rest. Finally, you must take your exam. Do not rush. Take your time on every question. If you do not know the answer to a  question do not panic, simply breathe and give it your best effort. After you have answered everything go back over your exam and make sure you have at least attempted every question. Make sure to check your answers and if any seem wrong change them. Then, turn your exam in and continue on your way. It is important to know how to study for and act the day of a final because every type of student goes through it. Whether you are in high school, college, or graduate school all scholars must be able to do well on these tests. Finals can determine how well you do in your classes and can ultimately determine parts of your future. You must receive good grades to be able to continue on an education path and obtain a good career. If you follow the steps I have provided for you then you are surely to do just fine.

Arthur Andersen Essay

In order â€Å"to offer high-quality accounting services†, Arthur Andersen (AA), a Northwestern accounting professor started a business to offer services to clients promoting â€Å"integrity and sound audit opinions over higher short-run profits†. The company’s â€Å"four cornerstones† was good service, quality audits, well-managed staff, and profits for the firm. Their strategy was to focus on quality and high standards of audits rather than profits, a very successful strategy that led to consistent growth over the years. Environmental, strategic, and organizational changes In designing the optimal architecture for a given firm, market conditions, technology, and government regulation should be taken into consideration as these are important factors and determinants of strategy. At the top is firm’s external business environment which comprises of technology, markets, and regulations all of which feeds down strategy, organizational architecture, incentives and actions, and firm value. In order to focus on generating new business and cut costs AA adopted a new strategy which involved evaluating its partners on how much new business they brought to the firm. This newly adopted strategy made it more about the numbers and making money. In order to reduce the costs they required partners to retire at the age of 56 years. With this strategy it led to the increased emphasis on revenue growth as well as expense reduction. There were new partners that rose to the top, Steve Samek, a prominent example of a partner that was able to turn a $50,000 audit fee into a $3 million audit engagement. Although some rose to the top, such a policy it led to fewer experienced auditors and fewer partners overseeing audits and signing off on inaccurate financial statements for companies that overstated revenues due to improper write off of assets. Another prominent change within the firm was when an Andersen engineer, Joseph Glickauf, demonstrated that computers were able to automate bookkeeping records. This was noted to be a â€Å"monumental change in the partnership† and allowed the company to enter the consulting business in 1954. They were able to help their clients automate their accounting records and they were able to develop the largest technology practice of any accounting firm. The firm’s external environment was also changing in 1930s as the federal government adopted new laws that required public companies to submit their financial statements to an independent auditor every year. Added regulations led increased revenues during this period and helped with the firm’s reputation and growth. In 1998 when Samek became the managing partner he formulated a new strategy the â€Å"2X† performance evaluation system which included advice on how partners should â€Å"empathize† with clients. Along with making organizational architecture changes he also changed the culture by making the dress code a relaxed and adopted a new logo that incorporated a rising sun. Enron’s Audit due to a few â€Å"bad partners† Arthur Andersen began auditing Enron’s books in 1986. Early 2001 Enron was considered the â€Å"premier energy company† with a market value of equity of approximately $75 billion and such a high market value meant that it was important to pay close attention to the books of Enron since there is heavy reliance on the auditor’s opinion. Enron’s engagement fees accounted for just a small portion of AA’s revenues but most of the revenues came from a Huston office that was set up in Enron’s Huston headquarters with the partner David Duncan. In evaluating Andersen’s claim that their problems on the Enron audit were due to a few â€Å"bad partners† I would disagree because of the close relationship that the two companies shared along with a poorly developed organizational architecture. The Huston headquarters had over 150 Andersen professionals on site that seemingly knew or were aware of the accounting scandal but chose to ignore it. Professional judgment and independence also was not practiced as noted â€Å"there were so many people in the Huston office with their fingers in the Enron pie if there was an auditor who did not want sign off on an audit they would be fired. This was not the only crisis that AA was involved in which made outsiders questioned their practices and overlook their claim. There were lawsuits against Arthur Andersen. Prior to the Enron scandal AA had settled a dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission paying more than $7 million for accounting and auditing work of Waste Management Corporation. Additionally, the SEC sued an Andersen lead partner on the Sunbeam Corporation audit. These crises along with their claim that their problem with the Enron audit was due to a few â€Å"bad partners† was merely the result of an unsound organizational structure along with policies and practices that the firm implemented. The unsound organizational structure of Arthur Andersen changed the motivation of employees within the firm and changes within the firm over the years one of which was the compensation of partners did not allow for integrity when work was being done for these public companies. What could have been done differently? The organizational architecture of Arthur Andersen seemed to have gone a different route from what it was intended for and much of the success that Arthur Andersen was short term and partner based. Policies that were implemented led partners to engage in mischievous acts to gain more business. Slowly their policies and practices became more about money rather than quality audits using the right protocols. Other than management who were involved in mischievous acts I would recreate or polish existing polices to realign it to their initial strategy which was to provide â€Å"quality accounting services to clients and promote integrity and sound audit opinions over higher short-run profits†. It is noted that an ill designed organizational architecture can result in poor performance and company failure and AA made material changes that changes their business environment and strategy which led to their collapse. Their flawed organizational architecture made it hard for new talent (other than partners who were all about numbers) to be discovered. It became more about making your numbers so I would also design a system that allowed for inefficient management to be replaced by new talent who are not only about creating value for the firm but also to fill in gaps that may be in architecture. Andersen and multitask principle agent theory Incentive conflicts existed at Arthur Andersen. At AA there was management and partners that acted in their own self interest through maximizing their own utility at the expense of the other partners that was vested in the company. This also seemed to be a recurring problem that affected the company because on multiple occasions a partner was accused acting in their own self interest. Conflict of interest with alters the principal agent relationship also played a big part at the rise of the Enron scandal because a widespread concern among investors, regulators, and the public rose which may have motivated many AA professional on the Enron engagement to sign off on questionable accounting practices. Risky practices to reap short term benefits paved also paved the way for dishonesty and fraud. Relation between â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† elements of the firm’s corporate culture Hard and soft elements better known as the 7S Model is a model of organizational effectiveness was developed at McKinsey & Co. Consulting firm in the 1980’s. It proposes that there are seven factors within a firm that needs to be aligned and reinforced in order to be successful. Hard elements include structure, strategy and systems and the soft elements include shared values, skills, style and staff. Hard elements are influenced and identified by management. It is the formal architecture and primary determinant of a firm’s value. Soft elements on the other hand are those intangible elements that are influenced by corporate culture. AA for example organizational architecture, Samek tried to change the softer elements of AA’s corporate culture. For example, the dress code was relaxed, the wooden doors at AA’s office entrances were removed, and the firm adopted a new corporate logo, the rising sun. This gives the company a sense of direction and motivation and serves as a means for communicating and reinforcing firm goals. According to this model it is required that there is a balance between the hard and soft elements. As it relates to AA there was no good balance between both elements. At the pinnacle of this model are shared values a soft element which was a broken element that made the model hard to achieve at AA. There was no proper defined corporate culture at AA so there was nothing to link how people will behave in the firm or to hold the architecture of the firm up. The concept of shared values should starts at highest level (i.e. partners of AA) and they should instill these values to their senior management who must then continue the process till it reaches first year hires. However, if unethical behavior starts at the highest level the companies culture will be damaged before it reaches first year hires and the will adopt the unethical behavior In addition to changing Andersen’s organizational architecture, Samek tried to change the softer elements of AA’s corporate culture. For example, the dress code was relaxed, the wooden doors at AA’s office entrances were removed, and the firm adopted a new corporate logo, the rising sun. Were actions at Arthur Andersen unique? There may have been certain environmental factors (i.e. intense competition), opportunities, or lack of regulations and monitoring that may motivate other companies to partake in the same unethical decisions as AA. There may also be no telling whether or not other accounting companies practiced unethical decisions because they may be able to better conceal these unethical practices so it goes unnoticed. This situation was not unique to Arthur Andersen. The severity of the scandal made it hard for AA to bounce back whilst other companies may have been able to resolve issues dealing with unethical behavior to lessen the severity and make it seem miniscule to the public. There is beyond no doubt that after the fall of AA and Enron that top accounting companies started to ensure that their practices and organizational structure was sound to prevent the same crises such as that of AA from happening to their company. As a top partner of another accounting firm during Andersen’s demise I would closely review practices of the firm, and closely follow articles and regulations released by the SEC, GAAP, and other regulatory agencies regarding auditing procedures. Lastly, I would also ensure that the proper protocols are followed regarding existing, new, or prior engagements (i.e. practicing independence, professional judgment or skepticism). SEC proposed regulations in 2000 to limit consulting work by accounting firms Legislators were acting in the public’s interest as they may have noticed that the proposed regulation was flawed and may have stirred up controversy in the securities market. The proposal was under scrutiny as it was noted to be â€Å"fatally flawed† and existing regulations passed were challenged as it was noted that a more active role needed to be taken in making changes in the measurement and reporting system in support of better information to foster better decisions making by corporations, investors and the government. With the added pressure and intense lobbying by the â€Å"Big Five† accounting firms they may have not seen a problem in the company providing both services or felt the regulation needed to be refined. Enforcing ethical standards because of Andersen scandal Whilst it may not have been the main reason for the AICPA to release a set of standards for the conduct of CPAs, the Arthur Andersen scandal certainly gave rise to the development of the Code of Professional Conduct. When scandals pertaining to audit of financial statements occur the first person to blame is the firm of the CPA on the audit engagement. The AA scandal has definitely heightened the public’s awareness of the need for increased attention to all ethical business practices by professionals especially CPA who investors heavily rely on for their opinion. The AICPA is only to be blamed for not setting higher ethical standards for their members and making it a priority. They do not have control over unethical conduct of members but they can enforce and clearly state the ramifications. It is important to note that the firm that hires the CPA to perform services should also instill their own code of conduct. Appointment of a new oversight board Rather than continuing to be self regulated after the scandal, the appointment of an oversight board was necessary as they provide independent oversight of public accounting firms providing audit services. They register auditors, define, inspect, and enforce specific processes and procedures for compliance of audits as well as for quality control. Auditors of public accounting companies are inspected by the PCAOB not less than once every 3 years and except any deficiencies, the inspection report becomes public information after completion of an appeal period. The PCAOB further has authority to investigate and discipline violations of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, board rules, securities laws and professional standards. This oversight board will provides insight on all public accounting firms so investors are confident in relying on their opinions about a particular firm’s financial statement. The Sarbanes Oxley Act allowed more eyes from the outside to look in on the practices of these accounting firms.