Co-Occurring Disorders Essay

The co-occurring I chose is Schizophrenia and Alcohol Dependence, with the prevalence of Nicotine Dependence. Schizophrenia occurs in people from all cultures and all walks of life, and its characteristic symptoms are well recognized. Those symptoms include extreme oddities in perception, thinking, action, sense of self, and manner of relating to others. However, the hallmark of schizophrenia is a significant loss of contact with reality, referred to as psychosis. Taken from the DSM IV (Association, 2000), (pgs. 153-154) the criteria for schizophrenia are two or more of the following symptoms, present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period, and lasting for six months are: Delusions. Hallucinations. Disorganized speech. Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior. Negative symptoms. According to (Butcher & Mineka, 2010) (pg.458), â€Å"the vast majority of cases of schizophrenia begin in late adolescence and early childhood, although schizophrenia is sometimes found in children, such cases are rare. Schizophrenia tends to begin earlier in men than in women, usually between ages 20 and 24. The incidence of schizophrenia in women peaks during the same age period, but the peak is less marked than it is for men. Overall, the average age of onset of schizophrenia is around 25 years for men and around 29 years for women†. Alcohol Dependence is a state, psychic and usually also physical, resulting from alcohol use, and is characterized by behavioral and other responses that always include a compulsion to take alcohol on a continuous or periodic basis in order to experience its psychic effects, and sometimes to avoid the discomfort of its absence, tolerance may or may not be present. According to the DSM IV (Association, 2000), the  criteria for alcohol dependence are a tolerance as defined by: a need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect, and the markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance. The symptoms of alcohol dependence are; Withdrawal syndrome. It is taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended. Unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use. A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance. Alcohol and nicotine dependence are extremely common among patients with schizophrenia (Drake, 2001), almost half of schizophrenic patients have a substance use disorder during their lifetime. The rate is probably even greater among high-risk groups, such as young men with a history of violence or homelessness, and among patients in acute care settings. Alcohol abuse is correlated with poor concurrent adjustment and predictive of adverse outcomes such as higher rates of homelessness, hospitalization, and incarceration. There is a huge prevalence of nicotine dependence with this co-occurring disorder. Nicotine is the most common form of substance abuse in people with schizophrenia. According to the (National Institute of Health, 2013), people with schizophrenia are driven to smoke. They smoke at three times the rate of the general population. In the general adult population age 18 years or older, the reported rate of nicotine use is 25.9%, with a 12.8% increase within the past year. In people with schizophrenia there is a reported rate of use of nicotine of 60% – 90%, a 28.5% increase within the past year. In the general population the rate of use for alcohol in people age 18 years or older is 2.9% – 17.9%, a 5.1% increase within the past year. In schizophrenic patients alcohol use has gone up from 14 to 22 percent in the 1960’s and 1970’s, to 25 to 50 percent in the 1990’s. Within the past year the reported dependence for alcohol in schizophrenic patients has gone up from 43.1% to 65%. According to (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2013) assessment issues for this co-occurring disorder are: People wh o are experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia may put up resistance to help because they do not know that something is wrong, when in reality this can be a manifestation of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The symptoms of schizophrenia can be  mistaken for an individual being intoxicated. Many individuals with symptoms of schizophrenia isolate themselves from family and friends, and many are homeless, so they are not surrounded by a support system to get them to needed help. If the professional doing the assessment doesn’t have the individual’s previous mental health background, or their family’s mental health background, they won’t be able to properly assess the disorder. The traditional treatment modality for schizophrenia has been strictly focused on psychiatry and psychotropic drugs. However today professionals should be aware that there is evidence of increasing use of alcohol and drugs by persons with schizophrenia, and a dual diagnosis should be expected. Therefore, an accurate understanding of the role of substance use disorders in the client’s psychosis requires a multiple contact, longitudinal assessment. Both psychotic and substance use disorders tend to be chronic disorders with multiple relapses and remissions, supporting the need for long-term treatment. For clients with co-occurring disorders involving psychosis, a long-term integrative approach is imperative. Treatment practices that could be harmful or contradictive for individuals with co-occurring disorders are; Untrained or unqualified staff – (staff members, whether primarily from the substance abuse treatment or mental health fields, should be knowledgeable about both disorders and their treatments. Treating one disorder without treating the other – (mental health and addiction treatment systems often are separated. This situation may result in patients’ being treated at one location for addiction and at another for mental health disorders. Some mental health care facilities do not accept patients in medication-assisted treatment, forcing these patients to choose which disorder to treat. Also co-occurring disorders require individualized treatment approaches. It is usually best to address all of a patient’s disorders simultaneously because each can influence the other. The treatment approach for this co-occurring disorder should be a multi-disciplinary team approach. Special considerations should include an integrated approach, (a team working closely together, social worker, counselor or therapist, psychiatrist or mental health professional, and a medical doctor). There should also be: Available resources for crisis intervention. Treatment for schizophrenia and drug treatment. Rehabilitation (social and vocational training to help people with schizophrenia function better in their communities). Family education (people with schizophrenia are often discharged from the hospital into the care of their families. So it is important that family members know as much as possible about the disorder. With the help of a counselor, family members can learn coping strategies and problem solving skills). CBT (it helps patients with symptoms that don’t go away even when they take medications). Self-help groups (group members comfort and support each other; they know that others are facing the same problems, which can help everyone feel less isolated). Two treatment or community supports that are available in central Ohio are: Dublin Springs Treatment Center 7625 Hospital Drive Dublin, Ohio (614) 717-1800 www.dublinsprings.com Center for Innovative Practices Kent State University Kent, Ohio (330) 672-7917 www-dev.rags.kent.edu/cip Two local service providers that provide treatment for people with this co-occurring disorder are: Southeast Inc. 16 W. Long Street Columbus, Ohio (614) 225-0990 www.southeastinc.com Columbus Area Integrated Health Services 1515 E. Broad Street Columbus, Ohio (614) 252-0711 interventionamerica.org The factors that will increase the likelihood that clients will participate in treatment are: Developing and using a therapeutic alliance to engage the client in treatment. Maintaining a recovery perspective. Managing countertransference. Monitoring psychiatric symptoms. Using supportive and empathic counseling. Employing culturally appropriate methods. Increasing structure and support. Encouraging family support and providing counseling and education. Three potential barriers that could prevent a person from taking advantage of  treatment and/or supports are: Inaccessibility or funding for treatment (some mental health centers do not offer integrated treatment. Because of the lack of insurance and Medicaid cutbacks some people do not have access to funding for treatment. Also Legislators need to re-appropriate funding for treatment. However, agencies that are funded by ADAMH provide 100% funding for treatment. Ex. Southeast Inc.). Homelessness (many individuals who suffer from this disorder isolate themselves from family and friends, so they don’t have a support system to get them to help when their symptoms are presenting. Many are incarcerated and there is no mental health background for them, or they are jailed because the symptoms of schizophrenia are similar to intoxication). Staff who are undertrained in the symptoms of this co-occurring disorder. Involvement of family or significant others are very important in treatment and should be offered counseling to help them with coping strategies and problem-solving skills, they should also be offered education about the disorder. Additional information about this co-occurring disorder pertains to the use of nicotine; (smoking may make anti-psychotic drugs less effective, and quitting smoking is very difficult because nicotine withdrawal may cause these individuals psychotic symptoms to get worse for a while. References Association, A. P. (2000). DSM, IV. In Diagnostic Criteria (pp. 153-154). Arlington: American Psychiatric Association. Butcher, J. N., & Mineka, S. H. (2010). Abnormal Behavior. Boston: Pearson Publishing Co. Drake, R. E. (2001, August 17). Treating Substance Abuse Among Patients With Schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, pp. 71-83. National Institute of Health. (2013, October 12). Retrieved from National Institute of Mental Health: www.nimh.nih.gov Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2013, September 15). Retrieved from SAMHSA: www.samhsa.gov

Grading vs Marking Essay

Which is better, grades or marks? A chicken and egg question did you say? Not so much related, but definitely as difficult to answer. They say doing away with marks does away with stress, does away with the academic pressure students face. So now, the infamous rat-race has bleak chances of survival. The common complaint ,†He got just one mark more than me and got through to that prestigious college†¦Ã¢â‚¬  will no longer be heard. No more innocent lives lost because of some ridiculous cut-off marks. How wonderful. Awarding grades throughout the year to the student,they further say, takes care of the last-minute-before -exams-stress and eases pressure from the students’ minds. It does sound logical. An illness or an accident or some such unprecedented, unavoidable circumstance will not take away your chances of scoring good grades if you have been studying consistently throughout the year. But, wait a minute†¦. hat if you are one of those not so rare intelligent souls who would like to enjoy throughout the year educating themselves as it were, with lessons not so academic, and just at the last moment hit the well-trodden road with steely determination to finish the race at par with all the Chaturs of the world? My sympathies for you my friend. I am sadly aware of the powers invested to that demi-god called Teacher who wields her Grade Register ominously before your eyes everytime you are about to slip out of the clutches of Academic Righteousness to experience the normal pleasures of life. You must follow the dictum or be accursed with the lowliest grade imaginable. Surely our well-meaning educationists did not bargain for such a year-long stress-factor! The â€Å"Off with Exams† war-cry was hailed as a much-needed decision by many, including some intellectually-challenged individuals like yours truly. Now that the grading system has changed the lives of our children, we suddenly realise that just a landmark decision or a change in a system will not work wonders. It will take a long time to bring about actual change as what finally matters is the teacher-student relationship and how much education has been imparted and absorbed by the pair. Stress will only cease when our children will learn how to handle their emotions in a mature manner and be responsible for their own actions. The teacher, their guide, can only help them to learn how to best handle situations in life, which, irrespective of grades or marks, can wreak havoc or become a lesson in life, whatever they allow it to be.

Booker T. Washington Versus W. E. B. du Boise

Booker T. Washington Versus W. E. B. du Boise Essay Booker T. Washington believed that blacks should not push to attain equal civil and political rights with whites. That it was best to concentrate on improving their economic skills and the quality of their character. The burden of improvement resting squarely on the shoulders of the black man. Eventually they would earn the respect and love of the white man, and civil and political rights would be accrued as a matter of course. This was a very non-threatening and popular idea with a lot of whites. For two decades Washington established a dominant tone of gradualism and accommodationism among blacks, only to find in the latter half of this period that the leadership was passing to more militant leaders such as W. E. B. DuBois During the four decades following reconstruction, the position of the Negro in America steadily deteriorated. The hopes and aspirations of the freedmen for full citizenship rights were shattered after the federal government betrayed the Negro and restored white supremacist control to the South. Blacks were left at the mercy of ex-slaveholders and former Confederates, as the United States government adopted a laissez-faire policy regarding the Negro problem in the South. The era of Jim Crow brought to the American Negro disfranchisement, social, educational, and occupational discrimination, mass mob violence, murder, and lynching. Under a sort of peonage, black people were deprived of their civil and human rights and reduced to a status of quasi-slavery or second-class citizenship. Strict legal segregation of public facilities in the southern states was strengthened in 1896 by the Supreme Courts decision in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. Racists, northern and southern, proclaimed that the Negro was subhuman, barbaric, immoral, and innately inferior, physically and intellectually, to whitestotally incapable of functioning as an equal in white civilization. Between the Compromise of 1877 and the Compromise of 1895, the problem facing Negro leadership was clear: how to obtain first-class citizenship for the Negro American. How to reach this goal caused considerable debate among Negro leaders. Some advocated physical violence to force concessions from the whites. A few urged Negroes to return to Africa. The majority, however, suggested that Negroes use peaceful, democratic means to change undesirable conditions. Some black leaders encouraged Negroes to become skilled workers, hoping that if they became indispensable to the prosperity of the South, political and social rights would be granted to them. Others advocated struggle for civil rights, specifically the right to vote, on the theory that economic and social rights would follow. Most agreed that solutions would come gradually. Negro leadership near the turn of the century was divided between these two tactics for racial equality, which may be termed the economic strategy and the political strategy. The most heated controversy in Negro leadership at this time raged between two remarkable black menBooker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. The major spokesman for the gradualist economic strategy was Washington. DuBois was the primary advocate of the gradualist political strategy. Washington learned the doctrine of economic advancement combined with acceptance of disfranchisement and conciliation with the white South from Armstrong. His rise to national prominence came in 1895 with a brief speech, which outlined his social philosophy and racial strategy. Washington was invited to speak before an integrated audience at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition held in Atlanta in September 1895. He was the first Negro ever to address such a large group of southern whites Washington is remembered chiefly for this Atlanta Compromise address. In this speech, he called on white America to provide jobs and industrial-agricultural education for Negroes. READ: Resistance To Technology EssayIn exchange, blacks would give up demands for social equality and civil rights. His message to the Negro was that political and social equality was less important as immediate goals than economic respectability and independence. Washington believed that if blacks gained an economic foothold, and proved themselves useful to whites, then civil rights and social equality would eventually be given to them. Blacks were urged to work as farmers, skilled artisans, domestic servants, and manual laborers to prove to whites that all blacks were not liars and chicken thieves. The philosophy of Washington was one of accommodation to white oppression. He advised blacks to trust the paternalism of the southern whites and accept the fact of white supremacy. He stressed the mutual interdependence of blacks and whites in the South, but said they were to remain socially separate: In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. Washington counseled blacks to remain in the South, obtain a useful education, save their money, work hard, and purchase property. By doing such things, Washington believed, the Negro could ultimately earn full citizenship rights. Several Negro leaders voiced their opposition to Washingtons Atlanta Compromise with its admonition to work and wait. They could not topple Washington from power, but one of them did win recognition as a leader of the oppositionW. E. B. DuBois. DuBois was not an early opponent of Washingtons program. He enthusiastically accepted the Tuskegeeans Atlanta Compromise philosophy as sound advice. He said in 1895 that Washingtons speech was a word fitly spoken. In fact, during the late 1890s, there were several remarkable similarities in the ideas of the two men, who for a brief period found issues on which they could cooperate. Both Washington and DuBois tended to blame Negroes themselves for their condition. They both placed emphasis on self-help and moral improvement rather than on rights. Both men placed economic advancement before universal manhood suffrage. The professor and the principal were willing to accept franchise restrictions based on education and property qualifications, but not race. Both strongly believed in racial solidarity and economic cooperation, or Black Nationalism. They encouraged the development of Negro business. They agreed that the black masses should receive industrial training. The years from 1901 to 1903 were years of transition in DuBois philosophy. DuBois grew to find Washingtons program intolerable, as he became more outspoken about racial injustice and began to differ with Washington over the importance of liberal arts education when the latters emphasis on industrial education drew resources away from black liberal arts colleges. DuBois noted that Washingtons accommodating program produced little real gain for the race. Another factor that alienated DuBois from Washington was the fact that Washington and his Tuskegee Machinean intricate, nation-wide web of institutions in the black community that were conducted, dominated, and strongly influenced by Washingtonkept a dictatorial control over Negro affairs that stifled honest criticism of his policies and other efforts at Negro advancement. DuBois came to view Washington as a political boss who had too much power and used it ruthlessly to his own advantage. Although DuBois admitted that he was worthy of honor, he believed Washington was a limited and misguided leader. DuBois launched a well-reasoned, thoughtful, and unequivocal attack on Washingtons program in his classic collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903. In The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois took the position that the Black men of America have a duty to perform; a duty stern and delicatea forward movement to oppose a part of the work of their greatest leader. READ: on the Epic Poem, Beowulf - Anglo-Saxon Valu EssayIn an essay entitled, Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others, DuBois said that Washingtons accommodationist program asked blacks to give up political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education for Negro youth. He believed that Washingtons policies had directly or indirectly resulted in three trends: the disfranchisement of the Negro, the legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro, and steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro. DuBois charged that Washingtons program tacitly accepted the alleged inferiority of the Negro. Expressing the sentiment of the radical civil rights advocates, DuBois demanded for all black citizens 1) the right to vote, 2) civic equality, and 3) the education of Negro youth according to ability. Generally, DuBois opposed Washingtons program because it was narrow in its scope and objectives, devalued the study of the liberal arts, and ignored civil, political, and social injustices and the economic exploitation of the black masses. DuBois firmly believed that persistent agitation, political action, and academic education would be the means to achieve full citizenship rights for black Americans. He stressed the necessity for liberal arts training because he believed that black leadership should come from college-trained backgrounds. DuBois philosophy of the Talented Tenth was that a college-educated elite would chart, through their knowledge, the way for economic and cultural elevation for the black masses. The NAACP was a coalition of black and white radicals which sought to remove legal barriers to full citizenship for Negroes. DuBois was one of the founding members of the organization. Both Washington and DuBois wanted the same thing for blacksfirst-class citizenshipbut their methods for obtaining it differed. Because of the interest in immediate goals contained in Washingtons economic approach, whites did not realize that he anticipated the complete acceptance and integration of Negroes into American life. He believed blacks, starting with so little, would have to begin at the bottom and work up gradually to achieve positions of power and responsibility before they could demand equal citizenshipeven if it meant temporarily assuming a position of inferiority. DuBois understood Washingtons program, but believed that it was not the solution to the race problem. Blacks should study the liberal arts, and have the same rights as white citizens. Blacks, DuBois believed, should not have to sacrifice their constitutional rights in order to achieve a status that was already guaranteed.

Development of smll nd medium sized enterprise Essay

Development of smll nd medium sized enterprise - Essay Example In the following pper I will discuss the importnce of the strtegy in frmes of SME nd emphsize tht the prctice nd concept of strtegy plys n importnt role for the enterprise of smll nd medium size.In orgniztion's strtegy within smll nd medium sized enterprise (SME) refers to its tctics nd mode of opertion in the mrketplce nd represents the pproch it intends to use to chieve its stted gols. The process of developing these gols typiclly strts with mrketing udit tht essentilly represents compiltion of industry, mrket, nd internl nlyses nd indictors. In some orgniztions these nlyses re rigorous nd time-consuming, requiring the time, energy, nd effort of n entire stff specificlly devoted to these efforts. On the other hnd, strtegy is lso sometimes formulted s result of n intuitive understnding of the orgniztion's bilities nd the environment in which it functions. In either cse, strtegy determines the ctivities necessry to chieve the orgniztion's desired level of success (Storey 2006).Strteg y within SME tkes t lest two forms: stted strtegy nd effective strtegy. Most lrge corportions undertke forml strtegic plnning efforts in which significnt mount of effort nd time is devoted to identifying specific nd relevnt strtegies. These efforts result in documents being distributed, ction items being issued, responsibility being ssigned nd, more often thn not, presenttion being mde by the strtegic plnning group to executive mngement. However, the growing consensus mong strtegic plnning professionls is tht there is often disprity between the stted strtegy nd the effective strtegy. The stted strtegy is wht is written in the orgniztion's plnning documents; the effective strtegy, on the other hnd, is the strtegy tht's demonstrted by the orgniztion's ctions. It is importnt to note tht the only truly importnt strtegy is the effective strtegy. The primry purpose of the stted strtegy is to influence the orgniztion's effective strtegy (Greene, Mole, 2006). The true test of how well the orgniztion's effective strtegy is ttuned to its trgeted customers is how well it performs in the mrketplce. This cn be mesured by performnce indictors such s customer loylty, sles, ernings, mrket shre, nd stock price. lthough Sers nd The Limited hve strtegic efforts focused on both cost reduction nd product inception-to-mrket, the emphsis of the qulity efforts for the fshion deprtment of Sers would be different thn it would be for The Limited. The Limited might plce specil emphsis on technology nd processes tht would id in its bility to get products to mrket very quickly. The fshion division of Sers might plce more emphsis on cost reduction becuse price plys more importnt role t Sers thn t The Limited. This simple exmple helps illustrte the importnce of deriving qulity efforts from orgniztionl strtegy. SME's criticl success fctors (CSFs) re determined by its strtegy. Criticl success fctors describe the things n orgniztion must do well to chieve its strtegic gols (Dft, Sormunen, Prks, 2005). CSFs re the mens by which the orgniztion fulfills its strtegy. Two similr orgniztions in the sme industry cn pproch the mrket using very different strtegies, resulting in the development of divergent criticl success fctors. For exmple, n entrepreneur who desires long-term success with one clothing store would hve different set of criticl success fctors thn n entrepreneur who desires long-term success through ntionwide frnchising. The criticl success fctor concept is ge-old. Gret leders throughout history chieved success becuse of their bility to focus on few key, criticl fctors

Marketing of Service Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing of Service - Essay Example In the food industry, customer satisfaction and loyalty are largely influenced by the frontline service providers. Therefore, the employees who come into first contact with customers in the Tony Roma hotel have been empowered with skills to handle multiple clients. The company has invested in professional recruiting and selection programs1. These investments are essential to the provision of world-class services at to the customers at the frontline. The company is intentional about providing quality services to both internal and external customers2. Tony Roma hotel is keen on conducting research with an aim to reinforce the brand image and facilitate marketing. The selection procedure of the frontline employees entails checking the emotional intelligence of the workers. Data mining has been an effective method of ensuring high class services are offered by the frontline employees3. Frontline services have to be scripted if professionalism is to be enforced. Studies show that the most effective organizations have structures of picking employees and a culture of excellence4. This includes the frontline services. Tony Roma has been careful to manage customer expectations. The company has used developed marketing communication to shape customer expectations. Training has significantly reduced the roles ambiguity and conflict that can affect the quality of services at the front office5. Transparency in communications has raised the morale of the frontline workers at the Tony Roma hotel. In the food industry, understanding cultural differences play a crucial role in attracting and retaining customers. The company offers training that significantly reduces ethnocentric attitudes among the workforce. The ethnic diversity among frontline employees is harnessed to become an advantage to the company. Tony Roma is heavily investing in service innovations that are unique and customer oriented. The services are aimed at giving the organization a competitive edge at the front office. In most companies, frontline employees have the least voice since they are viewed as mere front office attendants6. However, the strategic policy of Tony Roma appreciates the enormous influence of the FLEs to the mindset of the potential clients. This is the reasoning behind the empowered, competent and energized frontline employees in Tony Roma. SERVQUAL dimensions of Reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness The company wants the frontline office to create brand experiences and not mere services. Frontline employees are trained to engage customers in lively and professional dialogues. The frontline officers are dependable when it comes to strategic planning, liaising the necessary departments and the external environment. The employees are expected to be eloquent and courteous while dealing with clients. They are required to conduct follow up of the customer requests and services. The company emphasizes on soft skills and likable personality traits as opposed to experienced and hardened personalities7. According to the company’s management, frontline employees are the face of the hotel8. Therefore, frontline employees are supposed to have natural social skills and authenticity while dealing with customers9. The company insists that the facial expression of joy must be perceived to be authentic and

What are the most important parts of a financial statement for an Essay

What are the most important parts of a financial statement for an investor to look at when deciding on a long-term financial investment - Essay Example If an investor buys shares of a company whose profits have been deteriorating over the years then it is likely that the impact of the falling profits will also be reflected in the price of its shares. This will erode the value of the company’s shares and the investment will result in losses. For this reason a careful analysis of the financial statements is a must before taking a long position in the shares of the company. The investors must make investments from long term point of view as this gives them the power to exercise control over their investments. An intelligent investor must not focus on the short term movements in the market rather one should concentrate on intelligent selection (Bogle & Swensen, 2009, pp.40). Ideally the return on a long term investment should be 7% (Campbell et al., 2001). Stocks generally offer best possible returns over the long term (Bodnar, 2006, pp.121). For the period 1926 to 1998 the common stocks of large companies offered an annual return of 11.2 percent. When compared with other instruments it shows that the stocks offered a risk premium of 7.2 percent annually. Even though the returns earned on large cap and small cap stocks is higher as compared to other assets classes their returns are more volatile. The return on long term bonds issued by US government is 5.3 percent per year i.e. a real return of 2.2 percent. Though the returns on such bonds are less as compared to the stocks but their returns are comparatively less volatile when compared to volatility in stock returns (Reilly & Brown, 2002, pp.92). The financial statements comprise of- Income Statement, Cash flow Statement and Balance Sheet. Income Statement is an estimation of the profits incurred or losses suffered by the business over a specified period of time. Cash Flow Statement is a summary of the net cash position of the business. Balance Sheet is a summarized statement of the assets owned by the business and the liabilities owed by it. Using these

Freedom of Goods of the European Union Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Freedom of Goods of the European Union - Article Example Included in the main goals of the said organization are foreign trade interaction, democratization, human rights, pluralism and the rule of law.1 The focal point of the objectives is the establishment of a Common Market which can enable a coherent activities related to the economy towards development and expansion. This will enable the free movement of goods in the member countries by preventing different forms of national restrictions in terms of processes such as importation, exportation and other forms of product movement. The main issue that is the focus of the study is the governing law on the basis of the movement of the goods and products across borders. The implementation of the EC Treaty and Law can be considered important due to the question of its maximum applicability until the present era. Due to the fact that the European Union can be perceived as a single unit in the economic society, the process of trade of products and goods can be predicted to be relatively more complicated. The governing law then can be considered as the key concept that can be studied. Although the European Community (EC) has different specified objectives, the participation and control of the international trade can be considered as the main goal. ... It the view of the system can be considered confusing, this is due to the fact that although the member nations of the EC has independent governing laws, the incorporation of the EC Law can be considered as a necessity and requirement. But due to the fact that the organization requires full-pledged cooperation and dedication, the EC Law is applied by the national courts. This is important to be able to determine the applicability of the rules in the member nations. The EC Justice is the law governing unit that cooperates and transcends the member nations.2 In the trade and freedom of goods there are dynamics that are needed to be given attention. These are the provisions of the EC Law in terms of the importation process, exportation process, and other issues. The EC Law that governs the importation of goods from member countries is under the Article 30. One of the important captions is in relation to the quantitative restrictions in the importation process between Member nations. This also includes related processes within the member nations and the governing body.3 The governing law is under the duties, charges and taxes. Article 23 is a related part of the EC Law that pertains to the "prohibition of the tariffs and other related measures." One of the related cases is that of the Social Foonds and SA CH. BRACHFELD that involved the importation of Belgium of diamonds. The product was charged with 0.33% duties which are prohibited by the EC Treaty. The charges that are involved upon crossing a frontier can be considered as one of the hindrance for the proliferation of the movement of goods. Under the EC Law the member states are not allowed to charge such fees and taxes.4 Upon consideration of the effect of

Family and Consumer Personal Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Family and Consumer Personal Finance - Essay Example It looks for social factors, governmental, and economical factors that have contributed to such changes within the previous generation. Social economic mobility in United States does refer to movement of the Americans from a social class or level of economy to another may be through job changing or even marriage. Vertical mobility could be socio economic status changes between children and parents (â€Å"intergenerational†) or even over a life time course (â€Å"intra-generational†). Typically it refers to relative mobility, which is a chance that income status of Americans will fall or raise in comparison to the others or rather another income/status group. It also can be absolute, which means whether as well as by how much American living standards have increase. In the recent past years studies have discovered that vertical intergenerational mobility has been lower. Less higher in the United States than in other countries. Studies do differ in whether social as well as economic mobility in the recent years has gotten lower. In 2013, income inequality was getting to be more permanent reducing social mobility sharply. In 2014 income mobility had changed appreciably at least in the previous 20 years. Economic issue or financial crisis had wide ranging as well as long term economic implications in United States and the world, and it was much media attention focus over years. The crisis also did have a significant effect on many United States citizens personal finance. Some effects felt by U.S citizens in the previous generation were the direct consequences for financial crises which did produce the crisis for instance sub-prime mortgages provision to individuals who did struggle to pay back their debts. As a result, most people lost their homes they had bought within the years leading to the crisis. Other part in the U.S experienced incredibly for closure high rates. Governmental factors have contributed critically to changes in family and personal finances

Philosophy 1 - Term Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Philosophy 1 - Term Paper - Assignment Example That is deductive argument. However, if the process were done backward, then that would be inductive argumentation. There are three perennial issues philosophy has always been concerned and trying to resolve until now. The first issue is the meaning of life, which philosophy tries to find value and reason, or purpose, for one to exist. The next issue is the origin of life, which philosophy searches for understandable answers as to where do all life and existence begin or come from. The last issue is the question of reality. Philosophy seeks to understand whether what we know and experience with our perception actually exists, not merely appears. The cosmological argument for the existence of God states that the world or the cosmos most probably had a creator, a first cause, an unmoved mover who created everything that exist, which is attributed to God. On the other hand, the ontological argument would infer God’s existence through the a priori way of reasoning, wherein the human person can grasp the concept of a God, thus, there must be a God. The four ethical systems are the Aristotelian Golden Mean, Confucian Golden Rule, Natural Law Ethics and Kantian Categorical Imperative. The Aristotelian Golden Mean is all about doing things in balanced measure, never doing any act that is too much or too less but doing what is just enough. The Confucian Golden Rule speaks of doing what is right to others if one were to expect good from others as well. The Natural Law Ethics rules that since nature and the universe moves in an orderly manner, we must act in accordance as such. The Kantian Categorical Imperative asserts that an individual’s morality is absolute and unconditional in any circumstances The Western view of evil is that the existence of Evil is the absence of what is good. That means, an action that is void of any good

Based on Hypothesis that education does not occur in a vacuum use Essay

Based on Hypothesis that education does not occur in a vacuum use Plato's system of education in the'ideal polis'and the four influences on education presented - Essay Example The ideal education system would prepare each class of people for their various roles in the society. This universe has not come into existence by chance but has a purpose and has been intelligently crafted. The souls on this universe are at different levels of evolution. Through understanding and emulation, the souls can be restored to their original state of excellence. This requires education and work according to each one’s level of evolution. This led to the division of the society into different classes. In The Republic, he said "...compulsory learning never sticks in the mind." Plato believed that children would never learn unless they wanted to learn. Hence, it was essential that education should commensurate with their level of evolution. This called for segregation of classes, so that each group could be educated in their special field. Plato’s educational thought is his portrayal of the ideal society or the ‘ideal polis’ in The Republic. His ‘ideal polis’ consists of three classes of citizens - the Guardians (ruler of the polis), the Auxiliaries (Guardians who remain warriors), and Craftsmen (the rest of the citizens). This model society according to Plato should be ruled by highly intelligent philosopher-kings. Plato believed that Guardians are the best members of the society because they are best able to preserve the city. Therefore, he argued, that the Guardians should be the ones who ought to rule the city (412a-c). In The Republic, Plato demonstrates that the vision of an ‘ideal polis’ is the main thesis of a dialogue that justice is the foundation of a good political order and hence in everyone’s interest. It is the interest of the entire political community. It inculcates a sense of unity and keeps the polis healthy. Plato’s ideas was that those who love their polis the most would love the polis the best. The reason he cited was that if we love something, we identify ourselves with that to the extent that we are even

The concepts of empowerment Essay Example for Free

The concepts of empowerment Essay Question 1 Explain the concepts of empowerment, self-managed teams, and cross-functional teams, and develop an essay that argues for their inclusion in either a tall or flat organizational structure. Empowerment is the process of giving employees the authority to make important decisions and to be responsible for their outcomes. Empowerment should exist in tall organizational structure because if the size of the tall organizational structure is bigger is operating process or more tasks appear or tasks become more and more complex, managers at the top of hierarchy will gradually lose the control regarding their work. Self-managed teams reflect self-lead work groups consisting of people who are jointly responsible for ensuring that the team accomplishes its goals. Self-managed teams should exist in flat organizational structure because self-managed teams need to be control well with a few levels to avoid hindering communications. Cross-functional teams are groups of employee from across an organization’s different functions who are empowered to direct and coordinate the value-creation activities. Question 2 Bureaucracy is a phenomenon that presents itself in varying degrees in organizations. When does bureaucracy become a problem in an organization? How can the principles of bureaucracy help managers to design the organizational hierarchy? What can managers do to prevent bureaucratic problems from arising? Bureaucracy becomes a problem when it hampers the work of the organization. When there are too many steps involved and too many people involved to solve issues and make quick decisions, then bureaucracy is a problem. When the hierarchy is inflexible and difficult to wade through, it is a problem. Decisions should not be made without adequate information and time, but when the decisions are bogged down in bureaucratic red tape, the rules and layers of approval, then companies can lose business and opportunities to  act in tune with the market. The principles can help identify the form and the job functions. It helps design the jobs and the technical skills needed to do the jobs so that the best people can be hired to do the job. The principles establish the rules and the focus of the company so there are firm expectations and goals. When all of these are put in place the managers then have the path to follow to create a successful company. Managers must remember that each person is hired because of their skills if the principles are followed. The need for decisions must not be hampered by a top heavy group of decision makers and the rules are in place to guide the decision making process. The hierarchical structure is a form, not a law and when rules and the hierarchical are the only considerations in decision making the systems becomes bogged down and inflexible, or worse, time consuming. In addition, the job and the functions of the company should be impersonal and so should the treatment of employees. Equality is important in an organization. Listening to everyone, accepting diversity in culture, experience, and knowledge can help a company avoid many problems in a bureaucracy. Reference: http://www.bustingbureaucracy.com/excerpts/weber.htm

Robert Frost And Nature Themes

Robert Frost And Nature Themes Robert Frost was one of the few leading poets of the 20th-century and won the Pulitzer Prize four times. Frost was a poet from rural New England, but his poems could be related to any part of the world. After college Robert Frost moved to England and published a few poems while there. He closely observed rural life and in his poetry endowed it with universal, even metaphysical, meaning, using colloquial language, familiar rhythms, and common symbols to express both its pastoral ideals and its dark complexities (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia 1). Nature is an everyday detail that people infrequently take time to appreciate and sometimes take it for granted; its what makes the world beautiful. In several of Robert Frosts poems like The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening they reflect nature, he recognizes the beauty and disaster of it. In the poem The Road Not Taken nature comes into play when Robert Frost introduces to the reader to a traveler that comes to a sudden halt at the site of a crossroad in yellow woods. The traveler of Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken is left to think about which path to travel on. Robert P. Ellis states On more than one occasion the poet claimed that this poem was about his friend Edward Thomas, a man inclined to indecisiveness out of a strong-and, as Frost thought, amusing-habit of dwelling on the irrevocability of decisions. After cautiously looking at of both routes, the traveler comes to the conclusion that both paths present a more interesting venture ahead. The traveler tells the reader that the woods are yellow which mean it could possibly be autumn. And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth (lines 4-5), this could mean the wood are thick and the road disappears in the undergrowth. The undergrowth would represent the travelers future that is uncle ar by which road he takes. Of the two means of travel, the traveler states that the passing there/Had worn them really about the same (lines 9-10) and both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black (11-12). There is a contradiction that one path is less worn than the other. These lines show us that the leaves have just fallen, and they cover which path was more or less traveled the day before. This line points out that there are times when you cant decide which decision is better. Without a clear solution to the problem, the character is left to think of any future consequences that could occur based on a decision of taken. As a result, the character comes to terms that the final destination is based only by chance and choice, but there are some regrets out the certain rode taken. Frosts work shows the general uncertainty of supposing a different result if another road was taken. The title suggests this feeling of doubt, where the road not taken is mentioned with greater standard than the actual course of travel. Missing the chance to travel both/ And be one traveler (2-3), one path must function as the chosen way and the other the other way, both with no indication of which is the better to travel. As a result, once the picked road is traveled, the other way holds a lingering reminder of what may have been lost just by chance. After a predictable self-evaluation of the travelers life, trying to figure out if he took full advantage of the available opportunities perceived as a frightening challenge for there will always be an ambiguity lingering around the other path. The traveler uneasily comes to terms with reality, and eventually determines the pointlessness on matters of the imagination. So, with a sigh (16), the traveler states that he took advantage of t he opportunities as they were given to him. Taking the chosen path has made all the difference (20). The decision determined the travelers overall course in life to the result that the other road couldve pointed the speaker to go in the complete opposite direction of his destination. This was the first Robert Frost poem I have ever read. The first time I read it I could easily relate to it. I do believe that this is one poem where anyone that reads it will be able to relate to it. I have been met with numerous decisions in like that are life changing. From which college I wanted to go to, to what major I want to study, and to fall or not to fall to peer pressure. All together, I enjoyed reading this poem. I like how Robert Frost compares a fork in the road to everyday life decisions we make. In the poem Fire and Ice Robert Frost compares two elements of nature fire and ice. Fire and Ice is straightforward in its message that emotions become destructive when they are too extreme, destructive enough even to end the world (Explanation of: Fire and Ice by Robert Frost). In the first two lines Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice (Lines1-2) the poem he presents the option to end of the world by fire or ice. He then talks about fire in the next two lines and compares fire to desire From what Ive tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favor fire (3-4). The comparison states that Frost sees desire as something that takes over and brings devastation. In the next stanza Frost then compares ice to hate. This comparison relates to the reader a view of hate as something that causes people to be unyielding, lifeless and cold. Ice also has the tendency to take in things and cause them to crack and break. The final line of the poem asserts that these two vicious forces a re evenly great. Fire consumes and destroys quickly, leaving ashes. In The overview Explanation of: Fire and Ice by Robert Frost it talk about how two opposites like fire and ice or passion and hatred can easily be linked together. While ice or hatred, destroys much slower. It causes objects to become so lifeless that they crack from the pressure created. Frost imagines that the end of the world could be caused by people becoming too strict, lifeless, and set in their way of life and beliefs that the world breaks apart into pieces. Stopping by Woods is a much stranger poem than may appear at first. From the opening lines, we know that the story is being told from the speakers point of view (Whose woods these are I think I know), but we may never bother to consider whom the man is addressing.(Monte). Robert Frosts love of nature is expressed through out the poem with the setting. His perfect description of the woods brings clear images to the readers head. The woods are lovely, dark and deep (line 13) the way Frost describes the wood would make the reader seem like they were there. The feel of Robert Frosts Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is set by the only other sounds the sweep / of easy wind and downy flake (11-12). The first line in the poem talks about the woods. In the poem Frost says that the narrator enjoyed sitting and watching the snow and that he is also a nature lover. In the second stanza Frost refers back to the woods. The depth and darkness of the woods make the woods gloomier. The snow elimi nates the limits and boundaries of things and of his own being is, the function here of some secret desire toward destruction. The setting of the poem is in the woods. John T. Ogilvie explains the peace of the woods by stating The artfulness of Stopping by Woods consists in the way the two worlds are established and balanced. The poet is aware that the woods by which he is stopping belong to someone in the village; they are owned by the world of men. The traveler sees something in the woods that attracts him making the woods a special place. It appears that speaker has connected the woods with his paradise. The tranquility, dimness, and silence are what make it paradise. The traveler knows that he is not able stay put in this paradise, But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep (14-15).The traveler doesnt want to leave the peaceful woods, but he has made other promises that he must keep. Frost repeats the last two lines and miles to go before I sleep (15-16), this co uld stress the importance of this promise that was made, and to give the traveler a reason to leave. Further, Frost repeated the last two lines of the poem partially as a matter of form: What it [the repetend or repeated lines] does is save me from a third line promising another stanza . . . . I considered for a moment four of a kind in the last stanza but that would have made five including the third in the stanza before it. I considered for a moment winding up with a three line stanza. The repetend was the only logical way to end such a poem. (Hochman) Nature has its own way of relaxing the mind and body. Frost may have believed the same. Frosts use of colorful imagery helps other readers appreciate the serenity of nature. Stopping by Woods is an excellent poem uses symbolism and setting perfectly. I enjoyed this poem and I also like the meaning. This poem is telling you to stop and smell the roses and enjoys life. During winter is a time when most people are lone in solitude. Being isolated can be miserable, but it could all so be a time to collect thoughts without any annoyance of the outside world coming down on you. Nature is something that can bring about personal reflection in anyone. In many of Robert Frosts poems he tends to reflect on nature, and he recognizes the beauty and disaster of it.Robert Frost is an amazing poet. His ideas and the way he uses nature are perfect and are valued by many. Frost uses nature to put across his views as well as to make his poetry more interesting than it already is. His poems make it easy to imagine the setting in your mind through the detail he provides.

Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business

Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business 1.0 INTRODUCTION Advances in information systems and technology (IS/IT) are re1garded as major sources of improvement in the competitive position of firms and industries (Mitropoulos and Tatum, 2000). However, the benefits from technological advances depend on the extent to which these technologies are utilized. Indeed, information is becoming critically important in achieving strategic competitive advantage, particularly in todays competitive environment (Claudia, 2005). This proclamation has led organizations to adopt the most advanced enterprise technology to innovate for a change because organizations that maximize and leverage their information assets have a strategic advantage over their competitors (Claudia, 2005). The ability to speed up making decisions, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability as well as increasing the level of control to management are the core benefits to be considered by decision makers when implementing IT/IS. The rapid emergence of enterprise systems has made applications such as enterprise resource technology (ERP) to be among the most popular technologies used in the industries. Despite its importance to decision makers and also researchers in discovering how the emergence of enterprise systems contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty about IT payoff and accountants involvement in determining business and information strategy of an organization. The typical judgmental by organizations on investments of IS/IT is always to battle competition by improving productivity, profitability and quality of operations. Hence, to understand the organizations decisions to innovate always remain as the critical topic of discussion among IS/IT scholars particularly when it relates to the perceptions of accountants as the internal provider of information. Historically, organizational innovations were distinguished process from product innovations (Zmud, 1982; Robey, 1986; Swanson, 1994) and further differentiated between administrative and technological process innovations (Robey, 1986; Swanson 1994). Accountants play a significant role as the internal provider of information for business operations and for competitive positions in the market. Accountants are also described as the gatekeeper of the financial markets (Wallman, 1995). Without information expertise of accountants, businesses would not be able to evaluate their cost and profit position, gauge product or business unit performance or to plan for future financial success (Brecht and Martin, 1996). Traditionally, accountants were trapped on standard financial reporting or financial-related information and having historical orientation (Mia, 1993) to support management in making decisions. However, as information technologies grow more advanced and competitive pressure for innovation increased, the responsibility of accountants to furnish decision makers with valuable information in making intelligent decision becomes very crucial. Therefore, accountants must quickly response to this evolving information environment to mak e sure on the efficient business, information strategy and competitive positions in the industry Most of prior researches have extensively addressed and explained the phenomenon about IS/IT innovation (Rogers, 1983), the perspective of users acceptance of new technology (Davis, 1986) and its impact on organizational competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Indeed, there are various literatures on IS/IT acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson and Ramiller, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj and Konsynski, 2000; Devaraj and Kohli, 2000). However, interdisciplinary research between two different schools of thought that discussed issues on information technology and accounting has been given less attention to date. Hence, this research is intended to discover, understand and explain the basis for enterprise systems innovation and accountants involvement in determining the information and business strategy of an organization. In this case, a grounded theory approach is adopted with the aim to explore the o pportunities for accountants to contribute on enterprise systems innovation that leads to the following research questions: What drives organizations innovate for the latest technology? How does it give impact on competitive position of an organization? 2.0 THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS The evolution of enterprise systems began in the 1950s as inventory control systems (Yen, Chou and Chang, 2001), where the manufacturing systems main focus was to handle inventory control in order to replace the traditional inventory concept. Later, bookkeeping, invoicing and reordering have been introduced to support business operations and management (Yen et al., 2001). Material requirement planning (MRP) was then developed in the 1960s with an objective to translate the master production schedule into requirements of raw material planning and procurement. Subsequently, manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) has evolved into a more advanced system with the objective to optimize the production process and distribution management (Yen et al. 2001). It has been extended to include areas such as corporate finance, personnel management, engineering process and business process management. The robust development of MRP II has encouraged IT experts to develop more advanced technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply-chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) over some period of time to leverage information about strategic enterprise management, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability, human resource and supply chain information and improving direct/indirect business process (William and William, 2003). These technologies are more sophisticated and efficient in handling multiple business units such as sales and operations planning, inventory/materials management, manufacturing, purchasing, order processing, accounting and finance, human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain management and more. However, due to some limitations particularly in analytical decision-making, these systems could not facilitate the decision support function (Chou et al., 2005). In the 1990s, much adoption of IS/IT was focused on the enterprise systems. The benefits over decisions to adopt IS/IT are basically on cost reduction, transactional efficiency, internal process management, back and front end process automation and transactional status visibility. As businesses continue to use enterprise systems for a growing number of functions, they face the challenge of processing and analyzing huge amount of data into intelligent decision-making. Although current enterprise systems could integrate business transactions data for organizational planning, essentially, it would not support management particularly on analytical and decision support process. The changing of business requirements, new technologies and the software vendors development capabilities has enforced the enterprise applications continue to emerge. The emergence of Business Intelligence (BI) tools in the early 2000s, where its main function is to extract valuable information from existing enterp rise systems, is anticipated to improve organizational performance and competitive advantage (Davis, 2002) and with its capability in conveying intelligent decisions for decision makers (Buytendijk, 2001; Golfareelli and Cella, 2004). Hence, the relevant and suitability of enterprise systems innovation towards competitive position of a firm remain favourable topics of discussion between scholars as it reflects IT-payoff or return on investment of an organization. 3.0 PRIOR RESEARCH The literature provides different definitions of innovations: Rogers (1976) defines innovation as an idea, practice or object perceived as new by an individual or other relevant unit of adoption which is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Tornatzky and Klein (1982) define it as an idea, practice or material artifact perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption. Swanson (1994) defines information system innovation as innovation in the organizational application of digital computer and communications technologies. Swanson (1994) added that organizational innovation refers to the adoption of an idea or behavior that is new to the organization that is adopting it (Daft, 1978). It is further defined as the first or early use of an idea by one set of organizations with similar goals (Becker and Whisler, 1967, quoted by Daft, 1978). Meanwhile, in the year 2000s scholars have defined information system innovation as: Gordon and Tarafdar (2007) describe that innovation process comprised of three broad stages: initiation, development and implementation (Damanpour, 1991; Utterback, 1971; Zmud, 1982). Initiation involves activities leading to an organizations decision to adopt or attempt to adopt an innovation. Motivation could be poor financial or operational performance (Kanter, 1982; Tushman and OReilly, 1997), internal self-criticism combined with a strategic focus on proactive business innovation (Nonaka, 1988; Tushman and Nadler, 1986). Development involves design and development of product and process innovations planned in the initiation stage. This stage has activities such as idea generation and problem solving (Tushman and OReilly, 1997), rapid information process and fast decision making (Eisenhardt and Tabrizi, 1995), new information is acquired from competitors (Tushman and OReilly, 1997) and customers (Drucker, 1998) and connected with existing knowledge (Galbraith, 1982) to create new product/processes. Implementation involves activities surrounding the adoption and assimilation of innovations designed and developed during the ‘development stage. Process and product redesign leads to changes in different processes and control systems (Davenport, 1993), effective and reasonably strict control systems are required for efficiently accomplishing the administration and co-ordination activities necessary for implementation of the innovation (Galbraith, 1982). Innovating with IT, according to Swanson and Ramiller (2004), is a journey that involves four core processes: comprehension, adoption, implementation, and assimilation. First, organizations collect and interpret information from their environments about the existence and basic idea of an IT innovation. Second, this comprehension effort informs organizations decisions on whether to adopt the innovation, plus the articulation of supporting rationales. Third, where adoption is actually pursued, the innovation is deployed—hardware and software are installed, business processes are changed, users are trained, and so on. Fourth, in due course the innovation becomes assimilated into the routines of organizational work systems. Wang and Ramiller (2009) further define IT innovation as an information technology perceived as new by the adopting organization (Rogers 2003; Swanson 1994). Their perspective on innovation is oriented towards adopters and organizations innovate with IT by appl ying new IT to their business processes. Therefore, in this research, enterprise systems innovation could be defined as enterprise systems that comprised an integrated planning and resource management system that coordinates information across all enterprise functions (Bendoly et al, 2008) and the capability of the systems to provide valuable information for managements in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. In recent years, there are a number of researches that examine the organizational adoption of IS/IT, IT payoff and its impact on organizational performance. IT adoption contributes to various competing models that have been tested in several industries (either services or non-services) and are different in terms of methodological approach, conceptual models and constructs, such as a research model on user acceptance of citation database interface (Lin et.al, 2009), mobile wireless (Kim et.al, 2009; Qi et.al, 2009), internet banking (Lee, 2009a), online trading (Lee, 2009b) and more. Indeed, there are various literatures on IT adoption and acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson et.al, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006, Qi et al, 2009; Kim and Garrison, 2009) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj et. al, 2000; Devaraj et. al, 2000). Within this broad area of investigation, there are several streams of research. One stream of research focuses on individ ual acceptance of technology by using behavioural intention as a dependent variable (e.g Davis et.al, 1989; Bhattacherjee, 2001; Bhacttacherjee and Premkumar, 2004; Zhu et.al, 2006). The other streams have focused on implementation success at the organizational levels (Grover, 1998; Karahanna et.al, 1999) and task technology fit (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). However, due to the nature of the research designs employed, these streams of research have not attributed the effect of usefulness of information from enterprise systems innovation and its impact on organizational performance. Furthermore, scholars have documented many studies that examine the relationship between investments in technology and its payoff in terms of enhanced organizational performance (Brynjolfsson and Yang, 1996; Kohli and Devaraj, 2003). There is evidence that there are significant differences among studies in terms of the level of analyses, methodologies employed, variables and contexts examined. Many economic studies (Roach, 1987; Morrision and Berndt, 1991) observed a negative relationship between technology-related variables and performance. At the industry level, the results were mixed with some studies documenting a positive impact of technological investment (Kelley, 1994; Siegel and Griliches, 1992) while other studies by Berdnt and Morrison (1995) and Koski (1999) detect no significant advantage to IT investment. At a more detailed organizational level, Diewert and Smith (1994), Hitt and Brynjolfsson (1995) and Dewan and Min (1997) present results indicating a positive relations hip between technology and performance. In this research, information use is tightly related to the technology that provides access to such information. The limitations of the enterprise systems as well as resource constraints on managerial time devoted to information search such as accessing, understanding, transforming and consolidating the information would give the impact on how effectively information use can be converted into strategic results (Bendoly and Cotteleer, 2008). Indeed, IS/IT research concerned with how to design more useful IS for organization (Legris, Ingham and Collerette, 2003; Elbeltagi, 2005; Jeyaraj, Rottman and Lacity, 2006). However, a useful IS/IT is not one that is simply used by individuals or organizations or the one that possesses specific desirable characteristics (such as output information quality, functionality or interface structure). Rather a useful IS/IT is one which can and does support collective action through the nature of the relationship between technological attributes, individ ual users and organizationally situated tasks (Diez and McIntosh, 2008). Consequently, many prior researchers have struggled to show the direct impact of IT with other disciplines such as accounting on organizational performance. However, several recent studies have shown that the fit between accounting and IT has significant impact on performance (Chan et al, 1991; Cragg et al, 2002) where firms that consider their IT strategy with business strategy perform better than those who do not. Raymond et al (1995) found that firms that align their organizational structure and IT structure also perform better than firms that do not. In another study, Bergeron et al. (2001) found that fit between strategic orientation, organizational structure, and strategic IT management had an impact on firm performance. The issues of matching information requirements and enterprise systems capabilities and also the impact of this matching on performance are important questions which are part of a general debate in accounting information system field (e.g. Galbraith, 1973; Tush man and Nadler, 1978; Van de Ven and Drazin, 1985). Accountants are the internal providers of information to decision makers and accountants must adapt to the competitive pressure and increase their ability to leverage information assets in order to contribute for more effectively to managerial decision making. Therefore, as IS/IT grows more advanced, accountants must react quickly to the changes and need to create and apply non-financial information to achieve organizational performance. Hence, this research will discover the impact of usefulness of information through enterprise system innovation and to investigate the accountants involvement in determining the information strategy of an organization. 4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The classification of this research is mainly a grounded theory approach as it seeks to understand and explain social phenomenon related to the involvements of accountants on enterprise system innovations in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. This research is not to predict as used by positivists or just to have a subjective explanation or interpretation, but this research is expected to come out with unique explanations that constitute to the theory building and/or to come out with a variation of existing theories for modification to be able to fit into the context of the phenomenon of interest. In order to discover the ontological and epistemological aspects of the social inquiry, the method used in this research is important to be realized. In this study, the epistemology adopted is interpretivism and the qualitative research methodology is used to generate explanations on the phenomenon under study. Grounded theory was first developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and could be best defined as a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop and inductively derive grounded theory about a phenomenon (Strauss Corbin, 1990). In such a way, grounded theory is suggested to be inductive rather than deductive. Basically, the purpose of grounded theory is to organize many ideas from analysis of the data (Strauss, 1967) and to build a theory that is faithful to and justified the area under study (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The theory developed is not necessarily intended to stand-alone but could be related to existing theories within a field and therefore it will strengthen the current understandings of the phenomena in question. Strauss (1967) summarized grounded theory procedures as the systematic analysis of documents, interview notes or field notes by continually coding and comparing data that produced a well-constructed theory. Hence, Strauss and Corb in (1994) noted that the major difference between this methodology and other approaches to qualitative research was its emphasis upon theory development. Although the collaboration works between Glaser and Strauss have contributed to the development of grounded theory, they show some differences on the epistemological aspects between them (Glaser, 1978, 1992; Strauss, 1987; Strauss Corbin, 1990), which have resulted in the ‘Straussian and ‘Glaserian models (Stern, 1994). The Glaserian approach on qualitative data analysis was said to have the preconceptions or positive perspective on doing grounded theory while Straussian approach has a realistic epistemology into empirical inquiry through grounded theory. Furthermore, Glaserian beliefs were to be more positivism about the objective and external reality, while Straussian beliefs were based on the assumption of having an unbiased position in collecting data and use certain technical procedures to ensure the participants express their own perception (Glaser, 1992; Strauss Corbin, 1990). Based on these two beliefs of grounded theory, the author has chosen Straussian approac h as the qualitative data analysis method in her research due to the following reasons: i) this research did not use comparative methods in the development and understanding of grounded theory as introduced by Glaser (2001); ii) to construct a theory by looking at the perceptions of the participants, analysis of the data and to understand what they tell or the participants realities; iii) Strauss views on human beings as the active agents in their lives and brought notions for human agency, emergent processes, social and subjective meanings, problem-solving and the open-ended study of action to grounded theory (Charmaz, 2007). Moreover, qualitative approach adopted in this research also seeks answers to a question, uncovers social behavior, and understands the interaction between organizations and technology that produces findings which are not determined in advance. Qualitative enquiry examines data which are narrative and non-numeric that emphasize on the qualities of entities, on process and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Cassel and Symon (2004) cited that qualitative research is used when researchers would like to understand a circumstance in terms of how and why it occurs. The aim of qualitative methodology is to described and analyze the culture and behavior of humans and their groups from the point of view of those being studied and to collect and analyze data which is uncountable (Cassell and Symon, 2004). In this research, enterprise systems innovation is an emerging issue in the business en vironment. The unique characteristics of the system, for example, a system for data analysis and reporting that provides managers with better analytical and reporting functions which enable them to make intelligent decisions for strategic positioning should be discovered. In view of the above, interpretive research has gained increasing acceptance in the information technology research (Sahay, 1997; Klein and Myers, 1999) as it focuses on producing an understanding of the context of the information systems and the process whereby the information systems influence and is influenced by the context (Walsham, 1993). Therefore, the rationale for choosing the qualitative methodology and grounded theory approach in this research is again reflected to the purpose of the study. 5.0 DATA AND METHOD In this research, grounded theory was developed through data obtained from case studies, involving two private sector companies in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The selection of companies were based on recent technologies adopted in the organizations such as SAP systems and these companies were classified as among the active users of the enterprise application systems. The purpose of using case study as a method of data collection is because the researcher would like to achieve deeper understanding on the process within and outside of the context. According to Yin (1994), data collection for case study may come in a variety of sources for examples documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant-observation and physical artefacts and in-depth interviews are the most important source of case study information (Yin, 1994). The strength of an interview is that it focuses directly on the topic to be discovered (i.e the enterprise systems innovation and accountants invol vement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization, as opposed to survey method). Glaser (2001) stated that grounded theory is mainly used for qualitative research. However, when combining methods like grounded theory and case study as data collection method, the utmost care must be exercised to ensure that the norms of case study research do not distort true emergence for theory generation (Glaser, 1998). For example, Yin (1994) stated that theory development prior to the collection of any case study data is an essential step in doing case studies. Based on the statement addressed by Yin (1994), it contravenes from the principle of grounded theory whereby data collection and analysis as a procedure on theory development. Therefore, when combining grounded theory and case study as a way of collecting data, the methodology driving the investigation should be clearly specified. In view of the above, grounded theory was used as an overall methodology to study data obtained from case studies and to drive data acquisition activities within the case study. Indeed, the reasons for using the grounded theory approach were consistent with the three main reasons suggested by Benbasat (1987) for using a case study strategy in information systems research as follows: i) The research can study information systems in a natural setting, learn the state of the art, and generate theories from practice; ii) The researcher can answer the questions that lead to an understanding of the nature and complexity of the processes taking place; and iii) It is an appropriate way to research a previously little studied area. For these reasons, seeking to generate theory grounded in case study data was a particularly appropriate strategy in this research. Table 1 provides some detailed information about the cases. The interviews were held with Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Finance Manager, Accountants and Information Technology Officer. Interviewees were selected to ensure both varieties across disciplines and consistency across cases. They were also selected on the basis that each had an important role with respect to enterprise systems innovations and accountants involvement in making the implementation a success. Meanwhile, the sampling technique used in this research was purposeful sampling. Patton (1990) stated that a qualitative inquiry typically focuses in depth on relatively small samples and uses purposeful sampling, as opposed to quantitative methods that typically depend on larger samples selected randomly. Patton (1990) added that the logic and power of purposeful sampling, is that one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the purpose of the research. The unit of analysis in this research is the organizations and holistic (according to Yin 1994, holistic is a single unit of analysis). The selection of organizations as unit of analysis instead of individuals, dyads or groups is to ensure that the answers to research question will be achieved. In this research, literal replication and multiple cases with holistic design were used to allow for more generalizability and transferability rather than the single case design. The reason of selecting literal replication was due to the researchers wishes to obtain as much information as possible in investigating the phenomenon of enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization until no new information emerges. The appropriate sample size for qualitative research was answered by ‘theoretical saturation (Glaser Strauss, 1967; Strauss Corbin, 1998). Theoretical saturation, according to Glaser Strauss (1967) and Strauss Corbin (1998), occurs when no new or relevant data seems to emerge regarding a category where the category is well developed in terms of its properties and dimensions demonstrating variation and the relationships among categories are well established and validated (Strauss Corbin, 1998). A schedule of interviewees is provided in Table II. In total, six interviews were undertaken. The interviews lasted about fourty five minutes to an hour on an average. Each interview was preceded by a brief explanation on the purpose of the research and the broad area of interest. The key instruments that were used for collecting evidence were open-ended questions and were asked in a naturalistic manner. These were designed to draw participants interpretations of their day to day actions as they affected and were affected by their perceptions on enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in ensuring the business and information strategy of an organization. With the consent from the interviewees, all interviews were tape-recorded. Tape recording helps to prevent the researcher from being too occupied writing notes during the interview so that the researcher could concentrate on the issues discussed (Yin, 1994). Short notes during the interviews were taken and six i nterviews were transcribed. Table I: Company Profiles Table II: Interviewee Details 6.0 DATA ANALYSIS Using Strauss and Corbins (1990) approach, data was analyzed through various stages of coding to produce an ordered data set which was integrated into a theory. The process of deriving the categories from the interviews was driven by the criteria of open, axial and selective coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Open coding is the early conceptual names assigned to data fragments (Lockee, 2001) and is the process of selecting and naming categories from the analysis of the data. This initial stage of data acquisition would describe the overall features of the phenomenon under study. In this research, the categories emerged from the open coding of interview were identified mostly through line by line analysis. Variables involved in the phenomenon were then identified, labeled and categorized in an outline form so that the researcher could see and understand the processes. To ensure the internal consistency, the emerging categories were compared between interviewees and notes being taken. The next step of coding process is axial coding. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990), axial coding is the process that relates the categories to subcategories. In axial coding, data were put together in new ways and this was achieved by utilizing a coding paradigm (i.e. a system of coding that seeks to identify causal relationships between categories). The aim of the coding paradigm is to make explicit connections between categories and sub-categories. This process is often referred to as the ‘paradigm model and involves explaining and understanding relationships between categories in order to understand the phenomenon to which they relate (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The final procedure was the process of selective coding. Selective coding involves the process of selecting and identify Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business 1.0 INTRODUCTION Advances in information systems and technology (IS/IT) are re1garded as major sources of improvement in the competitive position of firms and industries (Mitropoulos and Tatum, 2000). However, the benefits from technological advances depend on the extent to which these technologies are utilized. Indeed, information is becoming critically important in achieving strategic competitive advantage, particularly in todays competitive environment (Claudia, 2005). This proclamation has led organizations to adopt the most advanced enterprise technology to innovate for a change because organizations that maximize and leverage their information assets have a strategic advantage over their competitors (Claudia, 2005). The ability to speed up making decisions, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability as well as increasing the level of control to management are the core benefits to be considered by decision makers when implementing IT/IS. The rapid emergence of enterprise systems has made applications such as enterprise resource technology (ERP) to be among the most popular technologies used in the industries. Despite its importance to decision makers and also researchers in discovering how the emergence of enterprise systems contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty about IT payoff and accountants involvement in determining business and information strategy of an organization. The typical judgmental by organizations on investments of IS/IT is always to battle competition by improving productivity, profitability and quality of operations. Hence, to understand the organizations decisions to innovate always remain as the critical topic of discussion among IS/IT scholars particularly when it relates to the perceptions of accountants as the internal provider of information. Historically, organizational innovations were distinguished process from product innovations (Zmud, 1982; Robey, 1986; Swanson, 1994) and further differentiated between administrative and technological process innovations (Robey, 1986; Swanson 1994). Accountants play a significant role as the internal provider of information for business operations and for competitive positions in the market. Accountants are also described as the gatekeeper of the financial markets (Wallman, 1995). Without information expertise of accountants, businesses would not be able to evaluate their cost and profit position, gauge product or business unit performance or to plan for future financial success (Brecht and Martin, 1996). Traditionally, accountants were trapped on standard financial reporting or financial-related information and having historical orientation (Mia, 1993) to support management in making decisions. However, as information technologies grow more advanced and competitive pressure for innovation increased, the responsibility of accountants to furnish decision makers with valuable information in making intelligent decision becomes very crucial. Therefore, accountants must quickly response to this evolving information environment to mak e sure on the efficient business, information strategy and competitive positions in the industry Most of prior researches have extensively addressed and explained the phenomenon about IS/IT innovation (Rogers, 1983), the perspective of users acceptance of new technology (Davis, 1986) and its impact on organizational competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Indeed, there are various literatures on IS/IT acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson and Ramiller, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj and Konsynski, 2000; Devaraj and Kohli, 2000). However, interdisciplinary research between two different schools of thought that discussed issues on information technology and accounting has been given less attention to date. Hence, this research is intended to discover, understand and explain the basis for enterprise systems innovation and accountants involvement in determining the information and business strategy of an organization. In this case, a grounded theory approach is adopted with the aim to explore the o pportunities for accountants to contribute on enterprise systems innovation that leads to the following research questions: What drives organizations innovate for the latest technology? How does it give impact on competitive position of an organization? 2.0 THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS The evolution of enterprise systems began in the 1950s as inventory control systems (Yen, Chou and Chang, 2001), where the manufacturing systems main focus was to handle inventory control in order to replace the traditional inventory concept. Later, bookkeeping, invoicing and reordering have been introduced to support business operations and management (Yen et al., 2001). Material requirement planning (MRP) was then developed in the 1960s with an objective to translate the master production schedule into requirements of raw material planning and procurement. Subsequently, manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) has evolved into a more advanced system with the objective to optimize the production process and distribution management (Yen et al. 2001). It has been extended to include areas such as corporate finance, personnel management, engineering process and business process management. The robust development of MRP II has encouraged IT experts to develop more advanced technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply-chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) over some period of time to leverage information about strategic enterprise management, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability, human resource and supply chain information and improving direct/indirect business process (William and William, 2003). These technologies are more sophisticated and efficient in handling multiple business units such as sales and operations planning, inventory/materials management, manufacturing, purchasing, order processing, accounting and finance, human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain management and more. However, due to some limitations particularly in analytical decision-making, these systems could not facilitate the decision support function (Chou et al., 2005). In the 1990s, much adoption of IS/IT was focused on the enterprise systems. The benefits over decisions to adopt IS/IT are basically on cost reduction, transactional efficiency, internal process management, back and front end process automation and transactional status visibility. As businesses continue to use enterprise systems for a growing number of functions, they face the challenge of processing and analyzing huge amount of data into intelligent decision-making. Although current enterprise systems could integrate business transactions data for organizational planning, essentially, it would not support management particularly on analytical and decision support process. The changing of business requirements, new technologies and the software vendors development capabilities has enforced the enterprise applications continue to emerge. The emergence of Business Intelligence (BI) tools in the early 2000s, where its main function is to extract valuable information from existing enterp rise systems, is anticipated to improve organizational performance and competitive advantage (Davis, 2002) and with its capability in conveying intelligent decisions for decision makers (Buytendijk, 2001; Golfareelli and Cella, 2004). Hence, the relevant and suitability of enterprise systems innovation towards competitive position of a firm remain favourable topics of discussion between scholars as it reflects IT-payoff or return on investment of an organization. 3.0 PRIOR RESEARCH The literature provides different definitions of innovations: Rogers (1976) defines innovation as an idea, practice or object perceived as new by an individual or other relevant unit of adoption which is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Tornatzky and Klein (1982) define it as an idea, practice or material artifact perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption. Swanson (1994) defines information system innovation as innovation in the organizational application of digital computer and communications technologies. Swanson (1994) added that organizational innovation refers to the adoption of an idea or behavior that is new to the organization that is adopting it (Daft, 1978). It is further defined as the first or early use of an idea by one set of organizations with similar goals (Becker and Whisler, 1967, quoted by Daft, 1978). Meanwhile, in the year 2000s scholars have defined information system innovation as: Gordon and Tarafdar (2007) describe that innovation process comprised of three broad stages: initiation, development and implementation (Damanpour, 1991; Utterback, 1971; Zmud, 1982). Initiation involves activities leading to an organizations decision to adopt or attempt to adopt an innovation. Motivation could be poor financial or operational performance (Kanter, 1982; Tushman and OReilly, 1997), internal self-criticism combined with a strategic focus on proactive business innovation (Nonaka, 1988; Tushman and Nadler, 1986). Development involves design and development of product and process innovations planned in the initiation stage. This stage has activities such as idea generation and problem solving (Tushman and OReilly, 1997), rapid information process and fast decision making (Eisenhardt and Tabrizi, 1995), new information is acquired from competitors (Tushman and OReilly, 1997) and customers (Drucker, 1998) and connected with existing knowledge (Galbraith, 1982) to create new product/processes. Implementation involves activities surrounding the adoption and assimilation of innovations designed and developed during the ‘development stage. Process and product redesign leads to changes in different processes and control systems (Davenport, 1993), effective and reasonably strict control systems are required for efficiently accomplishing the administration and co-ordination activities necessary for implementation of the innovation (Galbraith, 1982). Innovating with IT, according to Swanson and Ramiller (2004), is a journey that involves four core processes: comprehension, adoption, implementation, and assimilation. First, organizations collect and interpret information from their environments about the existence and basic idea of an IT innovation. Second, this comprehension effort informs organizations decisions on whether to adopt the innovation, plus the articulation of supporting rationales. Third, where adoption is actually pursued, the innovation is deployed—hardware and software are installed, business processes are changed, users are trained, and so on. Fourth, in due course the innovation becomes assimilated into the routines of organizational work systems. Wang and Ramiller (2009) further define IT innovation as an information technology perceived as new by the adopting organization (Rogers 2003; Swanson 1994). Their perspective on innovation is oriented towards adopters and organizations innovate with IT by appl ying new IT to their business processes. Therefore, in this research, enterprise systems innovation could be defined as enterprise systems that comprised an integrated planning and resource management system that coordinates information across all enterprise functions (Bendoly et al, 2008) and the capability of the systems to provide valuable information for managements in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. In recent years, there are a number of researches that examine the organizational adoption of IS/IT, IT payoff and its impact on organizational performance. IT adoption contributes to various competing models that have been tested in several industries (either services or non-services) and are different in terms of methodological approach, conceptual models and constructs, such as a research model on user acceptance of citation database interface (Lin et.al, 2009), mobile wireless (Kim et.al, 2009; Qi et.al, 2009), internet banking (Lee, 2009a), online trading (Lee, 2009b) and more. Indeed, there are various literatures on IT adoption and acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson et.al, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006, Qi et al, 2009; Kim and Garrison, 2009) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj et. al, 2000; Devaraj et. al, 2000). Within this broad area of investigation, there are several streams of research. One stream of research focuses on individ ual acceptance of technology by using behavioural intention as a dependent variable (e.g Davis et.al, 1989; Bhattacherjee, 2001; Bhacttacherjee and Premkumar, 2004; Zhu et.al, 2006). The other streams have focused on implementation success at the organizational levels (Grover, 1998; Karahanna et.al, 1999) and task technology fit (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). However, due to the nature of the research designs employed, these streams of research have not attributed the effect of usefulness of information from enterprise systems innovation and its impact on organizational performance. Furthermore, scholars have documented many studies that examine the relationship between investments in technology and its payoff in terms of enhanced organizational performance (Brynjolfsson and Yang, 1996; Kohli and Devaraj, 2003). There is evidence that there are significant differences among studies in terms of the level of analyses, methodologies employed, variables and contexts examined. Many economic studies (Roach, 1987; Morrision and Berndt, 1991) observed a negative relationship between technology-related variables and performance. At the industry level, the results were mixed with some studies documenting a positive impact of technological investment (Kelley, 1994; Siegel and Griliches, 1992) while other studies by Berdnt and Morrison (1995) and Koski (1999) detect no significant advantage to IT investment. At a more detailed organizational level, Diewert and Smith (1994), Hitt and Brynjolfsson (1995) and Dewan and Min (1997) present results indicating a positive relations hip between technology and performance. In this research, information use is tightly related to the technology that provides access to such information. The limitations of the enterprise systems as well as resource constraints on managerial time devoted to information search such as accessing, understanding, transforming and consolidating the information would give the impact on how effectively information use can be converted into strategic results (Bendoly and Cotteleer, 2008). Indeed, IS/IT research concerned with how to design more useful IS for organization (Legris, Ingham and Collerette, 2003; Elbeltagi, 2005; Jeyaraj, Rottman and Lacity, 2006). However, a useful IS/IT is not one that is simply used by individuals or organizations or the one that possesses specific desirable characteristics (such as output information quality, functionality or interface structure). Rather a useful IS/IT is one which can and does support collective action through the nature of the relationship between technological attributes, individ ual users and organizationally situated tasks (Diez and McIntosh, 2008). Consequently, many prior researchers have struggled to show the direct impact of IT with other disciplines such as accounting on organizational performance. However, several recent studies have shown that the fit between accounting and IT has significant impact on performance (Chan et al, 1991; Cragg et al, 2002) where firms that consider their IT strategy with business strategy perform better than those who do not. Raymond et al (1995) found that firms that align their organizational structure and IT structure also perform better than firms that do not. In another study, Bergeron et al. (2001) found that fit between strategic orientation, organizational structure, and strategic IT management had an impact on firm performance. The issues of matching information requirements and enterprise systems capabilities and also the impact of this matching on performance are important questions which are part of a general debate in accounting information system field (e.g. Galbraith, 1973; Tush man and Nadler, 1978; Van de Ven and Drazin, 1985). Accountants are the internal providers of information to decision makers and accountants must adapt to the competitive pressure and increase their ability to leverage information assets in order to contribute for more effectively to managerial decision making. Therefore, as IS/IT grows more advanced, accountants must react quickly to the changes and need to create and apply non-financial information to achieve organizational performance. Hence, this research will discover the impact of usefulness of information through enterprise system innovation and to investigate the accountants involvement in determining the information strategy of an organization. 4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The classification of this research is mainly a grounded theory approach as it seeks to understand and explain social phenomenon related to the involvements of accountants on enterprise system innovations in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. This research is not to predict as used by positivists or just to have a subjective explanation or interpretation, but this research is expected to come out with unique explanations that constitute to the theory building and/or to come out with a variation of existing theories for modification to be able to fit into the context of the phenomenon of interest. In order to discover the ontological and epistemological aspects of the social inquiry, the method used in this research is important to be realized. In this study, the epistemology adopted is interpretivism and the qualitative research methodology is used to generate explanations on the phenomenon under study. Grounded theory was first developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and could be best defined as a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop and inductively derive grounded theory about a phenomenon (Strauss Corbin, 1990). In such a way, grounded theory is suggested to be inductive rather than deductive. Basically, the purpose of grounded theory is to organize many ideas from analysis of the data (Strauss, 1967) and to build a theory that is faithful to and justified the area under study (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The theory developed is not necessarily intended to stand-alone but could be related to existing theories within a field and therefore it will strengthen the current understandings of the phenomena in question. Strauss (1967) summarized grounded theory procedures as the systematic analysis of documents, interview notes or field notes by continually coding and comparing data that produced a well-constructed theory. Hence, Strauss and Corb in (1994) noted that the major difference between this methodology and other approaches to qualitative research was its emphasis upon theory development. Although the collaboration works between Glaser and Strauss have contributed to the development of grounded theory, they show some differences on the epistemological aspects between them (Glaser, 1978, 1992; Strauss, 1987; Strauss Corbin, 1990), which have resulted in the ‘Straussian and ‘Glaserian models (Stern, 1994). The Glaserian approach on qualitative data analysis was said to have the preconceptions or positive perspective on doing grounded theory while Straussian approach has a realistic epistemology into empirical inquiry through grounded theory. Furthermore, Glaserian beliefs were to be more positivism about the objective and external reality, while Straussian beliefs were based on the assumption of having an unbiased position in collecting data and use certain technical procedures to ensure the participants express their own perception (Glaser, 1992; Strauss Corbin, 1990). Based on these two beliefs of grounded theory, the author has chosen Straussian approac h as the qualitative data analysis method in her research due to the following reasons: i) this research did not use comparative methods in the development and understanding of grounded theory as introduced by Glaser (2001); ii) to construct a theory by looking at the perceptions of the participants, analysis of the data and to understand what they tell or the participants realities; iii) Strauss views on human beings as the active agents in their lives and brought notions for human agency, emergent processes, social and subjective meanings, problem-solving and the open-ended study of action to grounded theory (Charmaz, 2007). Moreover, qualitative approach adopted in this research also seeks answers to a question, uncovers social behavior, and understands the interaction between organizations and technology that produces findings which are not determined in advance. Qualitative enquiry examines data which are narrative and non-numeric that emphasize on the qualities of entities, on process and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Cassel and Symon (2004) cited that qualitative research is used when researchers would like to understand a circumstance in terms of how and why it occurs. The aim of qualitative methodology is to described and analyze the culture and behavior of humans and their groups from the point of view of those being studied and to collect and analyze data which is uncountable (Cassell and Symon, 2004). In this research, enterprise systems innovation is an emerging issue in the business en vironment. The unique characteristics of the system, for example, a system for data analysis and reporting that provides managers with better analytical and reporting functions which enable them to make intelligent decisions for strategic positioning should be discovered. In view of the above, interpretive research has gained increasing acceptance in the information technology research (Sahay, 1997; Klein and Myers, 1999) as it focuses on producing an understanding of the context of the information systems and the process whereby the information systems influence and is influenced by the context (Walsham, 1993). Therefore, the rationale for choosing the qualitative methodology and grounded theory approach in this research is again reflected to the purpose of the study. 5.0 DATA AND METHOD In this research, grounded theory was developed through data obtained from case studies, involving two private sector companies in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The selection of companies were based on recent technologies adopted in the organizations such as SAP systems and these companies were classified as among the active users of the enterprise application systems. The purpose of using case study as a method of data collection is because the researcher would like to achieve deeper understanding on the process within and outside of the context. According to Yin (1994), data collection for case study may come in a variety of sources for examples documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant-observation and physical artefacts and in-depth interviews are the most important source of case study information (Yin, 1994). The strength of an interview is that it focuses directly on the topic to be discovered (i.e the enterprise systems innovation and accountants invol vement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization, as opposed to survey method). Glaser (2001) stated that grounded theory is mainly used for qualitative research. However, when combining methods like grounded theory and case study as data collection method, the utmost care must be exercised to ensure that the norms of case study research do not distort true emergence for theory generation (Glaser, 1998). For example, Yin (1994) stated that theory development prior to the collection of any case study data is an essential step in doing case studies. Based on the statement addressed by Yin (1994), it contravenes from the principle of grounded theory whereby data collection and analysis as a procedure on theory development. Therefore, when combining grounded theory and case study as a way of collecting data, the methodology driving the investigation should be clearly specified. In view of the above, grounded theory was used as an overall methodology to study data obtained from case studies and to drive data acquisition activities within the case study. Indeed, the reasons for using the grounded theory approach were consistent with the three main reasons suggested by Benbasat (1987) for using a case study strategy in information systems research as follows: i) The research can study information systems in a natural setting, learn the state of the art, and generate theories from practice; ii) The researcher can answer the questions that lead to an understanding of the nature and complexity of the processes taking place; and iii) It is an appropriate way to research a previously little studied area. For these reasons, seeking to generate theory grounded in case study data was a particularly appropriate strategy in this research. Table 1 provides some detailed information about the cases. The interviews were held with Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Finance Manager, Accountants and Information Technology Officer. Interviewees were selected to ensure both varieties across disciplines and consistency across cases. They were also selected on the basis that each had an important role with respect to enterprise systems innovations and accountants involvement in making the implementation a success. Meanwhile, the sampling technique used in this research was purposeful sampling. Patton (1990) stated that a qualitative inquiry typically focuses in depth on relatively small samples and uses purposeful sampling, as opposed to quantitative methods that typically depend on larger samples selected randomly. Patton (1990) added that the logic and power of purposeful sampling, is that one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the purpose of the research. The unit of analysis in this research is the organizations and holistic (according to Yin 1994, holistic is a single unit of analysis). The selection of organizations as unit of analysis instead of individuals, dyads or groups is to ensure that the answers to research question will be achieved. In this research, literal replication and multiple cases with holistic design were used to allow for more generalizability and transferability rather than the single case design. The reason of selecting literal replication was due to the researchers wishes to obtain as much information as possible in investigating the phenomenon of enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization until no new information emerges. The appropriate sample size for qualitative research was answered by ‘theoretical saturation (Glaser Strauss, 1967; Strauss Corbin, 1998). Theoretical saturation, according to Glaser Strauss (1967) and Strauss Corbin (1998), occurs when no new or relevant data seems to emerge regarding a category where the category is well developed in terms of its properties and dimensions demonstrating variation and the relationships among categories are well established and validated (Strauss Corbin, 1998). A schedule of interviewees is provided in Table II. In total, six interviews were undertaken. The interviews lasted about fourty five minutes to an hour on an average. Each interview was preceded by a brief explanation on the purpose of the research and the broad area of interest. The key instruments that were used for collecting evidence were open-ended questions and were asked in a naturalistic manner. These were designed to draw participants interpretations of their day to day actions as they affected and were affected by their perceptions on enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in ensuring the business and information strategy of an organization. With the consent from the interviewees, all interviews were tape-recorded. Tape recording helps to prevent the researcher from being too occupied writing notes during the interview so that the researcher could concentrate on the issues discussed (Yin, 1994). Short notes during the interviews were taken and six i nterviews were transcribed. Table I: Company Profiles Table II: Interviewee Details 6.0 DATA ANALYSIS Using Strauss and Corbins (1990) approach, data was analyzed through various stages of coding to produce an ordered data set which was integrated into a theory. The process of deriving the categories from the interviews was driven by the criteria of open, axial and selective coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Open coding is the early conceptual names assigned to data fragments (Lockee, 2001) and is the process of selecting and naming categories from the analysis of the data. This initial stage of data acquisition would describe the overall features of the phenomenon under study. In this research, the categories emerged from the open coding of interview were identified mostly through line by line analysis. Variables involved in the phenomenon were then identified, labeled and categorized in an outline form so that the researcher could see and understand the processes. To ensure the internal consistency, the emerging categories were compared between interviewees and notes being taken. The next step of coding process is axial coding. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990), axial coding is the process that relates the categories to subcategories. In axial coding, data were put together in new ways and this was achieved by utilizing a coding paradigm (i.e. a system of coding that seeks to identify causal relationships between categories). The aim of the coding paradigm is to make explicit connections between categories and sub-categories. This process is often referred to as the ‘paradigm model and involves explaining and understanding relationships between categories in order to understand the phenomenon to which they relate (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The final procedure was the process of selective coding. Selective coding involves the process of selecting and identify