Critical Thinking Assignment 1.1: Conflicting Viewpoints Essay – Part I Writing Assignment Help

A) Review the image, American Progress, 1872 by John Gast. The center figure is ‘Lady Liberty’ stringing telegraph wire. The assignment is to analyze the connection between American ideals, expansion and progress as suggested here. Give specific examples from the painting to explain these concepts. This will require two well-developed paragraphs. You aren’t finished, however, You will want to provide a third, concluding paragraph in which you will summarize your thoughts on Manifest Destiny and American Foreign Policy, p. 360.

B) John L. O’Sullivan, The Great Nation of Futurity, 1845.. Also review the textbook, Manifest Destiny, pp 359-361.
1. What connections does O’Sullivan see between the history of Europe and the history of the United States?
2. According to O’Sullivan, what is the most important principle that guides America?
3. Use your textbook’s analysis to discuss how these words will be used to justify territorial expansion and the suppression of native peoples. Direct quotations always help clarify. . The special feature on p. 360, From Then To Now, Manifest Destiny and American Foreign Policy offers good insights as well.

C) Web Destination: www.pbs.org/weta/thewest
This site represents the PBS Series The West. Click on “events’ on the tool bar above text. For the date, click on 1840-1850. After perusing the chronology of events for that decade, you choose the most important five events listed. Prepare your list, defending your choices in 2-3 sentences.

Respond by critiquing at least two of your colleagues’ postings on two different days using elements of the communication process and recommend additional strategies to overcome the barriers. If you think other factors may have contributed to the situation, provide an analysis with the support of literature.

Sullivan & Decker (2009), defined “Communication as the complex, ongoing, dynamic process in which the participants simultaneously create shared meaning in an interaction. The goal of communication is to approach, as closely as possible, a common understanding of the message sent and the other one received.”

A barrier that I have experienced in my nursing role as the hospice nurse was giving an educational session on what is hospice care to nonspeaking English patient and family. This patient only spoke other languages such as Spanish, Irish, Arabic, and French, and did not have an interpreter nor a family member that spoke English.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

Marquis & Huston (2015) states that the communication process provides a definition of communication as the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. Communication can also occur on at least two levels: verbal and nonverbal. Communication begins the moment that two or more people become aware of each other’s presence (p.438). The elements of the communication process include the internal and external climate of the sender, the written, nonverbal and verbal of the message and the internal and external climate of the receiver. In all communication, there is a sender a receiver and a message. There is also a mode or medium in which the message was sent, such as spoken written or verbal. The internal climate includes the values and stress levels between the sender and the receiver. The external climate includes the status and authority as barriers to the manager (Marquis & Huston, 2015).

The communication challenges that I encountered were that the patient did not speak English and only speaks foreign language, there ware no interpreters in the house that would be available to communicate between us, and was not sure if the interpreter line has someone available to speak that particular language.(I.e to get an interpreter that speaks french is always very difficult) Being that I am by myself at patient’s home I must establish my role of communication as a leader.

Strategies for Effective Communication

According to Sullivan & Decker (2009), “Successful leaders are able to persuade others and enlist their support. The most effective means of persuasion is the leader’s personal characteristics. Competence, assertiveness, consideration, and respect promote trustworthiness and credibility. A participative leader is seen as a careful listener who is open, frank, trustworthy, and informative” (p.126). The strategies that I normally used in that situations was establishing a friendly smile and eye contact while the patient was listening. I also asked for the assistance of the interpreter over the phone and was able to get an interpreter that speaks the language that I need help with and also speaks English on the phone. I was able to have effective communication with them due to the interpreter relating information to them and they were able to answer and ask questions as well. I also had many educational handouts and brochures about hospice care that was written in other languages. Through the service of the interpreter, I was able to know the content of the instruction, get positive attention, give clear and concise instructions and education, verify through feedback that they understand the purpose of hospice care and signed the consent to start the hospice care. Those patients ware satisfied with the hospice care education that I provided and returned with exceptional results.

The country of Australia is a major wine producer and exporter. One of their key success stories has been the US. Their success was not unplanned, there was a lot of work by the wine industry in Australia to enter the US market.

Research what went on in this process and provide a short overview of what actions they took, and decisions made about marketing that helped in their success.

What resources were brought to bear that assisted Australian wine producers in their efforts.

What opinions do you have on how the whole process went and how it might help you in the future,

Evaluating Mutually Exclusive Projects with Capital Budgeting Techniques (Case Study)

Halil D. Kaya

Abstract

This case deals with the capital budgeting techniques of Net Present Value (i.e. NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (i.e. IRR). In this case, students will compare two mutually exclusive projects using NPV and IRR, and choose the best project. They will learn about NPV and IRR methods and their advantages and disadvantages. Students will also learn the weakness of the IRR method when comparing two or more projects. Finally, they will evaluate the two projects assuming that the projects are independent projects rather than mutually exclusive ones. This is a hands-on experience for students who want to delve into project valuation.

Introduction

After graduating from an MBA Program on the East Coast, Michael Strahan had started working

for a mining company. His company is evaluating two projects: One of them requires a smaller

investment, and then will create a big, positive cash flow in the first year; and then smaller cash

flows after that. The second project is a relatively bigger project. It will require a larger cash

flow at the beginning, and then will bring in a relatively small cash flow in the first year. But,

this second project will create much larger cash flows in the years after that.

Michael has been given the task of evaluating these two projects and choosing the best one for

his company. Initially he thought that this would be an easy task for him. He would just try to

accurately predict the cash flows from the two projects and then evaluate them using some of the

“capital budgeting techniques” that he had learned when he was at school.

He visits Elizabeth, one of his colleagues, in order to clarify some issues that come to his mind.

“Liz” he said, “I am tasked with evaluating two projects and then choosing the best one for our

company. I am really excited because it seems like this decision will have a big impact on our

company’s bottom line. Could you help me a little bit?”

Elizabeth has been working for the company for more than five years. She sure wants to help his

colleague. She says “Sure, I can help you. Exactly what do you want to learn?”

Michael sighs “Elizabeth, when evaluating these two projects, I think I need to use some of the

capital budgeting techniques that we had learned at school. For example, we had Net Present

Value, Internal Rate of Return, Payback Period, and others. I am not sure which of these methods

to use”.

Elizabeth responds “I read somewhere that NPV and IRR are the most commonly used methods

to evaluate a project. The Payback Period has lots of disadvantages, so you shouldn’t use that

one for sure”.

Michael responds “I don’t know what the advantages and the disadvantages of each of these

methods. I guess, first, I need to get more information about them. But, if I remember correctly,

the Payback Period ignores the time value of money, so it is not good”.

Elizabeth says “And it also ignores the cash flows that come after the payback period. In other

words, if there is a very big positive cash flow that is expected to come sometime in the future,

the Payback method ignores that. So, it is kind of weak. There are also other weaknesses with

that method.”

She adds “IRR also has some weaknesses. I don’t remember them, but you need to research. You

don’t want to do something wrong here.”

Michael responds “I have read on the web that IRR has two main weaknesses. So, I guess I need

to learn about those weaknesses”.

“Thanks Liz for offering help. I am now starting to work on it. I think I will see you a few times

in the coming days!”

Elizabeth responds “No problem. I am here for help, 24/7”.

NPV and IRR

Michael’s boss told him that these are “mutually exclusive projects” (meaning that the company

will accept only one of them). Michael thought that going over some of his class notes may

refresh his memory. After scrambling through his notes, he noticed that he skipped the lecture

where the professor explained capital budgeting techniques. “No problem” he thought. “I can

search the web to find some information on these so called “mutually exclusive projects”.

Michael has found some explanations for NPV and IRR on the internet. Michael finds a straightforward explanation of Net Present Value: “The difference between the present value of the future cash flows from an investment and the amount of investment. Present value of the expected cash flows is computed by discounting them at the required rate of return”.

The same source explains IRR as follows: commonly used as an NPV alternative. Calculations of IRR rely on the same formula as NPV does, except with slight adjustments. IRR calculations assume a neutral NPV (a value of zero) and one instead solves for the discount rate. The discount rate of an investment when NPV is zero is the investment’s IRR, essentially representing the projected rate of growth for that investment. Because IRR is necessarily annual it allows for the simplified comparison of a wide variety of types and lengths of investments.

The Decision

Michael has requested some help in estimating the

The expected cash flows for the two are:

Yr.Project 1Project 2

0 – $20 million-$30 million (Initial cash outlay for each project)

1 + $12 million+$5 million

2 + $8 million+15 million

3 + $5 million+20 million

He knows that for similar projects, his company has a required return of 12%, and a cost of capital of 10% so he decides to use the 12% required rate of return in his calculations.

To impress his boss, he wants to do a detailed analysis. He wants to answer all of the following

questions:

1. He decides to use the IRR method first. He wants to see which project is better according

to the IRRs. Which project is the best using IRR?

2. Is IRR an acceptable method to compare two mutually exclusive projects?

3. Is NPV an acceptable method when comparing two mutually exclusive projects?

4. Later, he visits one of his colleagues and talks about his findings. His colleague

recommends him to check the NPVs also. He says “O.K. Why not? Confirming my findings with the other method would be nice”. What does he find? Do NPVs confirm his earlier findings?

5. Are both methods (i.e. NPV and IRR) good in these situations? What would you do?

According to your opinion, which project is better for this company?

6. Does IRR always choose the same project whether a firm has a high cost of capital or a

low cost of capital?

7. How about NPV? Does NPV always choose the same project whether a firm has a high

cost of capital or a low cost of capital?

8. Over what range of discount rates should we choose Project A? Project B?

9. If they were independent projects rather than mutually exclusive projects, what would we

do?