To what extent is management in the voluntary sector diferent from Essay

To what extent is management in the voluntary sector diferent from management in conventional commercial concerns - Essay Example Any discussion of the management of organisations must begin with an understanding of the nature of human organisations and why they exist. Like the humans that establish them, each organisation exists for a purpose, a set of goals or objectives that have to be achieved or may only be achieved, if people group together and organise themselves (the word "organisation" comes from the Greek meaning 'tool') (Niemark & Tinker, 1986). An organisation therefore has many purposes such as to give a decent return on investment as in the case of most private sector organisations by selling a product or service. Public organisations such as the National Health Service exist to deliver a public service or promote a social cause in behalf of the government. Organisations may be classified according to their purpose, and following this convention, Duncan (1983) distinguished six types: (1) private-sector; (2) public-sector; (3) not-for-profit; (4) institutional; (5) voluntary sector, and (6) mixed organisations. Table 1 gives a summary of each of these organisational types, their specific purposes, and examples of each. Thus, a voluntary sector organisation according to this definition is a temporary or special purpose group that provides services to its members. However, Drucker (1985, p. 105-106) and Kotler et al. (1987, p. 5) classified under what they termed the Third Sector, Not-for-Profits (NFP), or Non-Governmental (NGO) all those organisations that are neither private-for-profit nor not-for-profit public and that exist to serve a social need. There has been a growing trend in recent years amongst private for-profit businesses to be more conscious about finding ways to address and provide more lasting solutions to social problems like universal health care, global poverty, disease eradication, and hunger. In fact, former Prime Minister Blair recently commented on the growing value of the 'third sector' and hinted that businesses do not limit themselves as "romantic paeans to charitable activism" by getting more involved in dispensing social justice (Bagehot, 2006). The last four organisational types based on Duncan's typology - not-for-profit, institutional, voluntary, and mixed - could therefore be included in what could be defined as a voluntary sector

Cash flow analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Cash flow analysis - Essay Example The company sells its products online and also through merchants. Other products and services the company provides are; server and storage software, Microsoft Dynamics and video game consoles. It’s also involved in mobile software production; recently they purchased Nokia Handset Business. Without doubt the Microsoft company is one among the leading companies in its industry. A common size financial statement shows all items as percentages; this enables easy analysis over a given time. A common analysis from 2011 to 2014 was made. This analysis illustrated a decrease in the profits made over those three years. On the other hand an increase in the cost of sales over this period was observed. The operating cost remained the same over this period of time. The provision of 7% total sales was constant. The net income as in june 2014 was 25.42% which was a decrease, in 2013 net income was 28%, 2012 was 23%, while 2011 was 33%. A statement for the those three years tells us that cash and cash equivalents ant the current assets have increased slowly over time. On a different observation for the same period, there was a decline in terms of the long term assets of the company related to the decline in goodwill. In 2011 to 2014 the current and long term liabilities have held constant. There has been a decline from 47 to 44% in the total liabilities of the company w hile the stockholders’s equity has increased over that period from 52 to 55%. The financial statement provides information regarding the prospect earnings capacity of a corpoartion’s assets over and above an indication of cash flows which might come from inventories and receivables . the figures in the table is in USD $ in millions and was adopted from Microsoft Corporation, the annual reports Ratio analysis for this period was done to get an indication of the company’s financial performance in