Chapter 11 Questions
Define a stockholder and stakeholder. What is the difference between the two?

A stockholder is an individual with the claim over owning part of the company in such a way that he/she has ownership of the stock and has an influence on the finance of the corporation. A stockholder can at the time be referred to as the shareholder. A stakeholder, on the other hand, is an individual with the interests of the organization or corporation. And for this case, the stakeholders has some other interests other than the stock appreciation of the Corporation (Lindsay, 2016).

A stockholder is an individually that will take part in the electing the directors of the company and another small number of additional issues that he/she can handle. At the same time, a stockholder is entitled to dividends. A stockholder can be part of the stakeholders group, but a stakeholder is not regarded as stockholders. The positions outlined that stockholding is within stakeholding.

A stakeholder is any individually that represents a wide group of the persons with the interest in the operations (success or failure) of the company. The group has a big impact on the general operations of the company as it is wide and it includes the stockholders (shareholders), the creditors, customers, the local community, employees and the government. A stakeholder takes greatly part in the management of the corporations as their influence brings about the loss or the decline in the organization performance. They have a high impact on the decisions undertaken within the business.

What process does a company go through to respond to stakeholder concerns? What are the steps of this process?

In the operations and general management of an organization, the stakeholders play a crucial role as they take part in the decision-making process. To get the stakeholders concerns responded to by the managers, different methods can be applied. However, based on the role they play engagement is the most reliable principle to go about the task. Once they are engaged, the creation and the maintenance of the business value are upheld. The stakeholders’ engagements strategy is defined by the social business relationship (BSR) background. The strategy can be implemented through five distinctive steps of engagement strategy (set), stakeholder mapping (Define), Preparation (Focus), Engagement (Conduct), and Action Plan (Identify).

The engagement strategy comes before understanding that engaging stakeholders mean taking and treating the issues and opinions of the stakeholders as the outside concerns.

Stakeholders mapping stage defines the collaborative undertaking of research and conducting a discussion to have the identification of the key list of the company stakeholders. The mapping is done through the steps of identifying, analyzing, mapping and prioritizing. The success of the stakeholders’ identification will depend on the knowledge of the participants in the research and discussion.

The preparation stage once more defines the examination of the identified organization stakeholders to have a good understanding of their concerns, positions, and interests. The follow-up step of identifying is the determination of the best method of incorporating the concerns within eh company with the best understanding of the risks associated with the engagement. This defines the action plan which upholds to the system of the participant (managers) that goes by the engagement, communicating and informing. Engaging defines the stakeholders, communication, on the other hand, defines the stakeholders with the highest level of willingness to engage and inform defines the seeking of the information than conversations (Morris & Baddache, 2012).

What is the agency problem? What are the governance mechanisms that can be put in place to defend from this problem?

An agency problem can be defined as the conflict of interest that may exist between the management of the organization and the stockholders of the company. In this case, the managers within the management bracket define the agents who have the official task of making sound decisions that will get to maximize the profits (dividends) to the stockholders.

The corporate governance comes in to provide the balance through the sharing of powers amongst the directors, management and the stockholders with the aim to maximize the shareholder value and protect the stakeholder’s interest. The way to go about the agency problem is to ensure that the company complies with local, state and federal statutes. Establish some standards that should comply. Thirdly, implement best practices as suggested by the professional organizations.

Describe internal controls and strategies that can be implemented to ensure ethical behavior within a company.

The development of an ethics program within the organization will get the ethical behavior implemented. The program should get done through the establishing, communicating and the monitoring of the ethical values. The values are expected to characterize the company history, culture, and the operating system. The program should accommodate the codes of conduct to the employees.

Develop ethical standards and take the employees through the training about the standards. Also, ensure that the employees comply with the ethics, and this can be measured through the comparison of the ethical employee performance.

Chapter 12 Questions
How can organizational design contribute to competitive advantage?
There are so many ways in which an organization can be structured based on the objectives of the organization. An organization is usually referred to as a group of entities which operate to achieve the same common goal or goals. The structure of any organization influences the performance of the organization. Organizational structures offer the capability to specify responsibilities for assorted functions and processes to entities including workgroup, individuals, branch, and department. People who operate as individuals are often hired for specified time periods in organizational structures to carry out contracts of work, orders for work, permanent contract employment or even under program orders. Constantly increasing competitive pressure correlates with changing organizational structures and the involved processes to improve the competitive advantage of the organizations. The existence of skills and resources that are better outside the organization increased application of the use of alliances, down scoping or outsourcing by firms tend to cause the firms to draw in the narrow scope of activities.

Describe how a strong organizational culture leads to transparency, ethics, and to competitive advantage within a company.

Effective organizational structures make better the relations of work among the several entities that exist within the organizations. This will improve the efficiency of carrying out activities within the organizational units and hence enables an organization to develop an order and control, which is important for the monitoring of various processes that exist in the firm. The organization, therefore, supports command for carrying on with a variety of orders and changes in the conditions for performance of work. The organization incorporates the use of skills from individuals to introduce ease of change and application of creativities. With the expansion of business, the chain of command becomes longer and hence expands the span of control. With age, the flexibility of the organization will reduce with the creativity fatiguing. This makes it necessary for the organizational structures to be often changed to accommodate recovery.

How does the implementation of functional structures lead to more organizational control and more effective strategic planning?

Organizational culture influences the way in which specialists in the organization think and carry out their responsibilities. It is influenced positively by important reconfiguration of the part played by human resources in the development of the organization. As a result of organizational culture, there is improved performance within organizations and increased flexibility in the demand of the market. A strong corporate culture is known as an imperative driver of innovation to forces from the outside.

The culture of a company is derived from the values, structures, assumptions which are essential for the survival of an organization in a given industry. Organizational culture is transparent to workers in the firm, investors, and customers. It sets the picture of the organization at present and in the future. The organizational culture creates a strong relationship with the group that is difficult to break. The culture can either be the strongest asset or the biggest liability to the organization. Its impact is more than talents present in an organization and apparently possesses significant influence on the goals of the organization.

Organizational culture assists in the development of ethics that are expected in an organization. This is because it outlines what each and every individual in the organization is expected. If well incorporated into the culture of the organization, the ethics are easily followed by the stakeholders in the firm as well as its employees and management. It also encourages transparency since all the individuals surrounding the organization can observe what the organization stands. This increases trust by customers and even investors since the organization becomes very easy to understand regarding operations and policies.

Organizational structure outlines how activities in an organization are directed to the achievement of the organizational goals through the allocation of tasks, supervision, and coordination. The organizational structure, therefore, serves as a way through which people see their organization and the environment of the organization. It influences the activities of the organization in ways such as the provision of the foundation on which the accepted standards of operation and procedure routines. This makes it a very important tool in the strategic planning. It also determines which members of the organization are given the role of making decisions which determine the extent to which their opinions affects the line of action to be taken by the organization.

Introduction
Brazil is classified as a developing nation due to its Human Development Index score. Brazil is a large nation located in South America. It is well endowed with various natural resources. The Human Development Index score is determined by specific criteria including education, Life expectancy, availability of technology, availability of healthcare and income. Since 2015, Brazil has experienced a high increase in its Human Development Index score. Today, it is classified as a “high” HDI nation. This means that it is in the upper quadrant that contains the upper tier of developing nations.

Question 1
Brazil has previously experienced financial problems. The financial problems emerged due to dictatorial government and corruption. Both the IMF and World Bank interfered with the aim of reducing inflation and improving exchange rates. For a long time, the government of Brazil worked closely with the two institutions in its efforts to settle the foreign debt, but the country’s debt situation only deteriorated (Remmer, 2004). Prior to obtaining any help from the IMF and World Bank, the country had to accent to its state of affairs, which involved executing the Structural Adjustment Programs. The program involved taking measures including minimization the growth in the money supply, liberalizing its foreign exchange, eliminating subsidies, minimizing government spending and removing price controls among other measures (Chossudovsky, 2003).

The IMF and World Bank have offered various economic developments. The efforts have been criticized for neglecting the needs of the poor majority and prioritizing multinational corporations and wealthy lenders in the industrialization. In Brazil, the IMF and World Bank has intervened in domestic politics by supporting one side in the heated social debate. As a result, the institutions have interfered in the most political of decisions involving the allocation of national resources (Santiso, 2001). Hence, they have undermined Brazil’s national democracy.

Brazil has had to adhere to the conditions set by the institutions so as to sustain its economy. When Brazil liberalized its foreign market, the country recorded a considerable growth in imports. This is not healthy for the country’s advancing economy (Danaher, 1994). The significance of IMF conditions could help Brazil through access to outside markets for its agricultural products. However, Brazil still faces market barriers for its products (Mosley et al., 1995). The broad market opening affected Brazil’s trade deficit and devalued its currency. Under the guise of advancing “free trade,” financial stability and market liberalization, the two institutions have forced a reduction in education, health care, and other social services thereby increasing inequality and deepening poverty.

On the other hand, IMF and World Bank have assisted Brazil stabilizing its economy and eradicating its debt crisis. Through Washington Consensus sponsored by the two institutions, Brazil implemented a fiscal policy, aimed at development programs, reducing government salaries and cutting down public sector investment.

Question 2
For Brazil, healthcare is a priority. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that health facilities are available and funded. Healthcare is a constitutional right in Brazil. The Health Ministry carries out national health policy while both the government and private sector are responsible for the provision of healthcare. The effects of a healthy population on the economy are clear. First, a nation with a healthy population finds it attain sustained growth. The provision of primary healthcare enables prevention of diseases for the benefit of the economy (Santiso, 2001).

Secondly, the healthcare performance is linked to economic prosperity. A healthy population can achieve better productivity. Thirdly, a healthy population has a higher life expectancy. This is necessary for economic development. Investment in healthcare is important for economic growth given that healthy workforce is more delivers consistent production. The fourth is that a healthy population reduces the burden of illnesses and costs associated with health issues. This benefits the rapid economic growth. In order to achieve these, the Brazilian government provides a universal healthcare system that allows citizens to afford private healthcare. The system is non-exclusive and accommodates everyone, including visitors (Falleti, 2010). The problem with its health care system is that a substantial amount of spending on healthcare is private.

Question 3
Brazil has faced a number of difficulties in its healthcare financing. This has been linked with low investment from the government. Despite the situation, the country does depend much on foreign aid to support the provision of healthcare to its citizens. Foreign aid is largely used for servicing its debts. The British government is a key supporter of Brazil. The country has made a substantial step towards the reduction of HIV/AIDS and has surpassed the expectations of the World Bank Brazil has emerged as a leader in the exchange of expertise and resources among developing countries. Brazil’s portfolio of domestically developed interventions, including the public production of ARVs and CCTs has positioned the country’s aid’s regime to capitalize on improving the national balance sheet. In 2015, Brazil enacted new legislation requiring international private investors to purchase and operate healthcare facilities in the nation. Investment in healthcare by foreigners has become desirable due to a reduction in value of domestic currency.

Variance shows the change from a particular period to another which can be in months, quarters, or years. According to Garrison, Noreen, and Brewer (2003), variance analysis is necessary when evaluating the financial statements and departmental level budgets for the overall financial health of an organization or department. The calculation of variance helps to establish whether an organization is growing or not and at what rate. Variance analysis provides the management team with concrete information on how to make business decisions that would strengthen the financial position of an organization (Garrison, Noreen & Brewer, 2003). The Northeast Health System appears stable in various financial aspects but with normal changes between 2010 and 2011. The health system income statement shows that there was a decrease in the total unrestricted revenue and support in 2011 as compared to 2010 though the total expenses reduced from 2010 to 2011. However, the changes in unrestricted net assets show that year 2011 ended with negative (-) changes as compared to 2010 probably due to huge pension and post-retirement remittances in 2011.

From the variances data obtained, the major positive variances between 2010 and 2011 are observed in cash and cash equivalents (41.3), excess of revenue and gains over expenses (223), net assets from restrictions of purchase of property (68.3), and pension and post-retirement related adjustments (390.3). The significant negative variances are observed in prepaid expenses and other current assets (-87.9), non-operating gains (-197.4), change in net unrealized gains and losses on investments (-170.9), total other changes in unrestricted net assets (-578.1), and a decrease in unrestricted net assets (-283.6). The variances show that there were significant differences in particular aspects of the financials of Northeast Health System both positive and negative.

According to the proportional allocation analysis data, the most significant positive proportions are net patient service revenue for both 2010 and 2011[98.0 (2011); 97.7 (2010], income from operations in 2011 (211.9), change in net unrealized gains and losses on investments in 2011 (167.1), and decrease in unrestricted net assets in 2011 (158.1). The most significant negative proportions from the analysis data are non-operating gains in 2011 (-111.8), and pension and post-retirement related adjustments in 2011 (-76.4).

Most of the financial aspects of Northeast Health System are not heading in the right direction since most of the variances are negative. It shows that the financial health of the firm in 2010 was better than that of 2011. However, the variances in pension and post-retirement related adjustments and excess of revenue and gains over expenses shows that there were more expenses on the two items in 2011 than 2010. Regarding the firm liabilities, the changes were not significant that showed a level of stability. The firm’s assets appear to be on a downfall trend which reveals of some losses or depreciation. For the proportion allocation analysis, it is evident that unrestricted revenues and support decreased in 2011 as compared to 2010, total expenses also reduced in 2011 thereby making the gains over expenses to increase in 2011 as compared to 2010. The major problem experienced in 2011 was the increase in pension and postretirement adjustments as well as fluctuations in unrealized gains and losses on investments.

I would recommend certain actions to the Northeast Health System regarding decreasing or increasing the significant variances and proportional allocations. First is to reduce the accrued wages and vacation payable, the accrued pension liability, and professional liability reserves. The Health facility ought to diversify on the mechanisms of revenue generation to ensure there is an increase in cash flow. The allocations for pension and post-retirement adjustments ought to be controlled to avoid the rapid changes in unrestricted net assets.