Furniture: Marketing and Consumers

Question 2: Using a multistage CDP model, describe how consumers in this market segment( Gen Y and young professionals) typically make furniture purchase decisions. In this case, it mentions 4 stages which include need recognition, search process, pre-purchase evaluation, and purchase. Need recognition occurs when consumers really need more furniture commonly. Actually, many situations will cause their needs. For instance, replacing their furniture, having more money, get ting married and so on.After they decide to buy new furniture, if the need of new furniture is not very urgent, they intend to do external research to make sure. However, in many cases, they will be influenced by sales promotion and previous experience. Advice from friends and family will be a reference. Advertising, compared with that, is the most untrustworthy. They will go to real shops to see what they liked online and feel the comfort and workmanship in person. If they like a brand, they will find relevant prod ucts from that brand or another brand with similar styles.After deciding which to buy, it comes to the purchase process. Most of consumers had used financing in the past, but now they prefer to pay in cash. But for Gen Y and young professionals, they have lower income and cannot afford to pay cash. They desire to feel the perception, that they can enjoy a lifestyle that is above what they can afford by spreading the payments over a long period of time. Therefore, they would like to pay it with interests for six months. Question 3: How should Family Furniture respond to competitors?Over the years, Family Furniture has faced many big competitors. Some furniture store attract customers with â€Å"no, no, no† advertising, which means â€Å"no down payment, no interest and no payments until next year†. It was reported that an increasing number of Family Furniture’s customers went to other stores in other cities or nearby regions to buy furniture and some others were making their purchases through the Internet. This has put Family Furniture into a perplexing situation. In my view, Family Furniture should expand its target market to younger people, together with the old.The fact that the city has many young consumers, unemployment rate is low are an advantage for the company. That consumers here are mostly white-collar and well-educated workers with a high level of income tells us that they are totally be able to afford their purchases in Family Furniture. With a strong historical business, the company can promote big advertising campaigns to recall customer awareness, such as offering big sales on special occasions or sending magazines to their mail boxes every month to show new products with new promotional programs.These programs should always emphasize the familiarity of customers with Family Furniture over other competitors through a long period, well-known national brands and the quality of furniture. In addition, marketing techniques invol ving community involvement such as an official website or searching websites should also be improved, because they will catch customers’ attention and help them find information about the company and products much more easily. Question 4: What promotional strategy and media do you recommend for Family Furniture?Family Furniture is a business-to-consumer company but not a business-to-business one. They sell furniture directly to consumers. So I recommend this company to use a â€Å"pull strategy† which means spending on advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing to induce final consumers to buy their furniture. Advertising will help Family Furniture to present their promotion of ideas, goods, or services to compete with others, like Ikea. Direct marketing concentrates on individual consumers to both obtain immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships, such as the using of internet.According to the research on reasons of choosing a particular st ore, â€Å"previous experience† and â€Å"sale or promotion† account for 28 and 36 percentage respectively. It means these two reasons are the most important elements that make consumers choose a particular store. Family Furniture should choose both personal communication channels (two or more people communicate directly with each other) and non-personal communication channels (media that carry messages without personal contact for feedback) as their media to induce consumers to purchase.The last channel of personal communication is word-of-mouth influence. People may influenced by their neighbors, friends, family members and so forth. Print media, for instance, newspapers and magazines should be remained, because it works and has lasted for decades. As Cult Advertising said recently, nontraditional marketing techniques need to be involved. Young generations use computers more often than older people, they will pay attention to fresh and new things rather than printed brochures.Online media like company Web, e-mail should be used as well because most of their customers are older people, they should attract more young people. Then their consumers’ region will be broader. Using mass media often affect buyer behavior indirectly by causing more personal communication. If the products in Family Furniture are very good, consumers will spread this information by â€Å"word-of-mouth influence† channel.

Scientific Glass Case

In the case study of Scientific Glass case, the production, distribution and inventory management systems of the company Scientific Glass case have been discussed. Scientific Glass Inc, is a mid-sized company which was growing at a fast pace. The company is trying to resolve its inventory management issues as it is blocking a lot of working capital hindering the growth and expansion of the organization.This case study critically analysis the various alternatives for improving the inventory management system. The proposed alternatives have been evaluated and a final conclusion has been drawn. The case analysis has been divided into 3 sections. In the first section the issues that the company is facing have been highlighted. In the second section, the issues have been analysed and finally in the last section the various proposed alternatives have been discussed thus arriving at a conclusion.IssuesThe company was facing some serious inventory and financial issues which was hindering the growth and expansion of the company. 1) The executives had identified a disturbing trend. The inventory balances were increasing substantially, which was blocking the capital required for the growth of the company. 2) The company has exceeded its target debt to capital ratio of 40%. 3) The company was focussing on increasing the customer fill rate to 99% and maintain it at the expense of high inventory levels and thus exhausting the financial resources. 4) The rules with respect to maximum inventory levels were violated by the warehouse managers and sales executives, but no strict action was taken in order to prevent it.Analysis of the issuesIn the year 2008, the company initiated an effort to improve the customer fill rates by placing more products closer to large customer concentrations by increasing the number of warehouses operated by the company. The fill rate of the company at the time was 93% and the company aimed to increase it to 99%. However, as a result, the warehouse ma nagers began ordering more than the requirement in order to ensure fulfilment of the target for their region. This action increased the inventory levels to a large extent thus blocking the capital and increasing the overage costs. The company’s warehouse network had been expanded in order to expedite the delivery time.Hence, inventory levels had to be maintained in each of these warehouses to meet the company’s fill rate expectation. Although the company’s policy mandated that no warehouse could maintain more than a 60 day supply, the policy was often violated. Moreover, the trunk stock allocated to individual sales representatives counted against this total. In effect, the employees were not working purely in the interest of the organization. Rather the warehouse managers were more concerned how to maintain the high delivery levels of their own warehouse. And the sales executives did not want to bring down their trunk stock levels.Hence, the bigger picture of e fficient inventory management and effective funds utilization while maintaining a high fill rate was being lost. Hence, it was imperative for the company to modify its policies of inventory management and be stricter in order to ensure that they are being adhered to. The company also needs to work upon strategies to reduce the shipment and delivery costs without bringing down its fill rate.Alternative OptionsAs can be observed, the company never emphasized too much on reducing the inventory costs until it started facing financial crunch inhibiting its expansion plans. Prior to that, it was more concerned with increased sales and customer satisfaction. However, the executives realized they will neither be able to increase sales nor maintain customer fill rate without addressing the inventory issues. Hence, they came up with some new ideas after a lot of brainstorming. The distribution network had to be modified to make the inventory management system more effective. This could be ach ieved in primarily two ways. Change in the warehouse structureChange in the existing policies or implementation of new ones Warehouse StructureIn order to change the warehouse structure the options of centralization, outsourcing were considered as opposed to the existing structure of decentralization. Decentralized Structure with 8 warehouses: No changes would be required and the regional warehouses would supply their respective territories except in case of stock outs. Centralization with one warehouse: Centralize the North American warehousing with one warehouse in Waltham by closing down the regional warehouses.In this way, the inventory requirements could be pooled to meet the demand. Centralization with two warehouses: The demands of the West and the East could be pooled respectively and supplied from warehouses in each of these regions. Outsourcing: Outsourcing the inventory function to Global Logistics who would be responsible for warehousing, inventory management, and order fulfilment (including picking, packing and shipping). This would enable the company employees to focus more on sales and expansion of the company while ensuring that the inventory management is in able hands.Policy ChangesSome policy changes were proposed as an outcome of the brainstorming session: Sufficient inventories only to meet customer fill rate of 99% and avoid surplus inventory Discontinuation of trunk stock maintenance by sales executives Daily reports and weekly summaries of inventory movement for every warehouse Periodic physical audits and control procedures for all warehouse stocksEvaluation of the Alternative OptionsThe alternative options proposed can be evaluated on the following grounds: Inventory Levels: The inventory levels to be maintained should be sufficient to abide by the policy of 99% customer fill rate. There is no mention of ordering cost, hence that need not be taken into account while determining the inventory level. Since each of the warehouse managers would prefer to keep an extra buffer, the inventory level increases with the increase in the number of warehouses. Hence, with respect to this parameter, the lesser the number of warehouses, the lower is the cost. Hence, Centralization and Outsourcing can be considered as good options.Delivery Time: The Company had an efficient delivery system where the products were ready for shipment within 3 days except in the case of stock outs. This was applicable for 1 warehouse, 2 warehouses or 8 warehouses. After that, the Winged Fleet ensured shipment to the client within 3 days at most. However, the new shipment company being considered Global Logistics offered an additional facility of 1 day premium delivery apart from the 3 day regular shipment. This facility could be considered as a differentiating factor and provide and added advantage to the company. This option would also include 2 warehouses one in Waltham and the other in Atlanta, thus ensuring minimum stock outs.Operating Costs: The operations manager suggested that the company would need to spend around $10M to replace the worn out equipment and produce stock sufficient enough to satisfy the future sales growth. This $10M can be assumed to be distributed across the 8 warehouses. Hence, with the decrease in the number of warehouses, the expected cost would come down. Hence, centralization or outsourcing would be a better option in this respect. Moreover, with outsourcing the sales force also need not be maintained by the company and hence the cost of sales force will be nil. FillRate: The Company has a policy to maintain 99% customer fill rate which is much higher than the industry average of 92%.SG is trying to achieve this at the cost of blocked working capital, thus inhibiting the growth and expansion. However, SG can work towards bringing down the FillRate without compromising on the customer satisfaction levels. Given the underage and overage cost as 10% of gross margin and .6 % of unit cost respective ly he FillRate for the two typical products has been calculated for in house warehousing and outsourcing. From the result it can be concluded that the FillRate on outsourcing inventory management to Global Logistics is higher than in-house inventory management.These figures indicate two things. Firstly, if the company is ready to lower the fill rate of 99%, the outsourcing fill rate of 96% is higher than the current structure. This would lead to higher inventory levels and thus higher costs. On the other hand, if the company sticks to its 99%, the inventory cost on outsourcing would be lower. Additionally the company can opt for different fill rates for different products and thereby reduce the inventory cost for some of its products.Shipment cost: The total shipping cost on outsourcing inventory management to Global Logistics turns out to be $26.25. If the company went with the current system of decentralization with 8 warehouses, the cost turns out to be $20.60. If SG centralizes warehousing with one warehouse in Waltham and uses Winged Fleet as its shipment company, the cost turns out to be $23.60. From this perspective, GL seems to be a more expensive option and decentralization seems to be the best option.Miscellaneous: If the company outsourced its inventory management to Global Logistics, the company’s senior managers would be able to focus more on increasing sales, understanding emerging customer needs, and developing the next generation of the firm’s products. Additionally the company need not be concerned about the warehouse managers’ tendency of maintaining more than 60 day supply, as the warehouse management would be under GL. However, the negative side of outsourcing is that the goods have to be shipped from Waltham to Atlanta before delivery. As far as the policy changes are concerned, the sales executives should be allowed to maintain trunk stock as it might decrease the time responsiveness.ConclusionFrom the above parameter s, outsourcing and central warehousing are favourable options in some cases, where as decentralizing is favourable in others. With respect to the inventory levels and operating costs, centralization is a very good alternative. This includes both internal warehousing and outsourcing. However, if we look at the delivery time, outsourcing gives an added advantage with the 1 day premium shipment facility provided by the Global Logistics. The Fill Rate factor favours outsourcing only in case the company sticks to the policy of 99%.The outsourcing to GL, also provides the advantage in quantitative terms such as additional time for the senior executives to concentrate on growth and expansion rather than be involved in the nitty gritties of inventory management. The shipment cost decreases with the increase in the number of warehouses, i.e. with decentralization compared to outsourcing or centralization. From the above points, it can be observed that most of the parameters are in favour of outsourcing the inventory management to Global Logistics.In addition to the above discussed alternative of centralization, decentralization and outsourcing, SG can also consider the option of appointing established distributors with  good infrastructure at a zonal level. This would relieve the company of managing regional level wareshouses, at the same time reducing the operating costs of warehouse management. The company would be able to dedicate additional funds for expansion. The distributors would not stock additional inventory than required to meet the 99% customer fill rate, as it would block its own capital. Being a regional player, the distributors would have better control and knowledge of the market.

How motivation theories can be applied in your work-place?

Discuss how motivation theories can be applied in your work-place in order to get your work done successfully? Quote with examples to support the answer? Organizations and their managers are understandably concerned about motivation. Every manager and leader should know and work to make sure they keep their employees motivated no matter what place those employees are in their careers. Motivated employees are happy, productive and loyal. Motivation is a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality or emotion.A motivated person can be reaching for a long-term goal or a more short-term goal. Personality invariably refers to more or less permanent characteristics of an individual's state of being (e. g. , shy, extrovert, conscientious). As opposed to motivation, emotion refers to temporal states that do not immediately link to behavior (e. g. , anger, grief, happiness). The importance of motivation in the workplace allows managers to create employee motivation action plans.There are many theories of employee motivation in today's business society, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, MacGregor’s Theories X&Y, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, Three-Needs Theory and Goals-Setting Theory etc. The key to choosing the right one depends on how closely it matches up to your office. In my opinion Maslow's hierarchy of needs fits best for most business models. Maslow proposed that needs are satisfied in a certain order and that higher-level needs can only be satisfied once lower-level needs are met.The needs are, from bottom to top of the hierarchy: physiological (the need for food and water), safety and security, social, esteem and status, and the need for self-actualization, or living up to one's full potential. In the workplace, most employees' physiological needs are met. Given that they feel safe, employees will be concerned about satisfying their needs for social interaction and about receiving positive feedback and support (esteem) for their work. With all of these needs met, employees can stay motivated to do their best work.Employee motivation theories have created success for the workplace and everyday life. The effects have been felt by both employees and leaders. Understanding the importance of motivation leads to self-motivating. Theories of motivation allow us to determine what level of desire a person is willing to excel. With that knowledge in place, leaders can employ proper employee motivation strategies. How to apply those motivation theories into our workplace? Let’s find out some examples in my workplace: Surveys My Company have a big survey every year to all employees.The survey here asked employees 10 questions about their management teams. They grade each manager on a scale of one to five. The areas of questioned covered topics like favoritism, respect, work ethic, following of policy, etc. The results of the survey were used on end of year reviews. Surveys are used widely tod ay by almost every company. Companies use the feedback to discover problems and solutions. They may even shed light on possible new opportunities that were previously overlooked. Surveys can be used in the determination of whether any barriers exist.Barriers can take the form of ethical issues and problems with co-workers just to name a few. It's critical to identify these existing roadblocks and eliminate them for an easier motivating process. Understanding Employees In my company, management team will spend a little time to talk with each of employees that will go a long way. They not just talk about work; they also talk about what employees like to do outside of work. It makes employees come to the conclusion that company actually care about them. These facts will help them run their business more effectively.The most important point here is that they will not feel just like a number. Setting Goals Our management team setting goals for our projects, we able to persist with the li st of tasks and are compelled to develop strategies in order to reach our objective. Goal setting enhances performance by increasing motivation and efforts, but most importantly through increasing and improving the quality of feedback. The main benefit of goal setting is the constant feedback while working toward accomplishing the goal.Most quality feedback requires constant supervisor interaction, but clear goal setting can give employees consistent knowledge about their progress and aid them in self-evaluations and decisions such as increasing effort or changing methods. Employee Recognition Program My Company has set up an employee of the month program. The most outstanding employee will have awards like gift cards, days off. These programs are designed to motivate employees through awards. If just use traditional things like plaques and coffee mugs that say employee of the month.They will feel like you went out of your way for them. Enjoyable Work Environment This is the most im portant things to create employees motivation. Having a pleasant workplace environment will help in motivating employees and increase performance. Having fun is also a great way to manage Stress. For example, we will have Christmas party, Annual dinner and Chinese New Year lunch every year provided by company. Assemble Roundtable Committee In my Company, there are some key people like mid-level leaders, Department Heads group together and elect one representative.This individual will meet with management to discuss issues and concerns of the employees. Leaders often will say they have an open door policy. But many employees will not believe this. This committee will allow leaders to maintain a calm workplace. So in short: leaders get a good work environment, committee members feel important, and employees have a way to vent. Cross Training My Company arrange cross training for employees to join. The purpose of cross training is for several people to have knowledge of other coworkerà ¢â‚¬â„¢s jobs. This will solve coverage problems like days off and vacations.This is a great way to create employee motivation throughout the company. It will benefit the employees by increasing skills learned, possible advancement and job security. In Conclusion, motivation is a complicated subject to understand because we as people are so individual. Many different factors motivate people in the workplace. It is important that companies find successful ways to motivate employees. If motivation is an issue that is neglected because of its complexity or any other reason the results can be devastating on the long term health of that group.Managers act as the doctors diagnosing the problem and creating effective treatment. If the treatment is carefully prescribed a weak company can become strong and vibrant once again. No other issue has as far reaching effects in so many areas as motivation does in the workplace and careful attention must be made to ensure that those effects are posi tive and enable further growth. It is also important that employees find ways to relieve stress and make the work day more relaxed. All of these things will make for a pleasant and more productive workplace. How motivation theories can be applied in your work-place ?Discuss how motivation theories can be applied in your work-place in order to get your work done successfully? Quote with examples to support the answer? Organizations and their managers are understandably concerned about motivation. Every manager and leader should know and work to make sure they keep their employees motivated no matter what place those employees are in their careers. Motivated employees are happy, productive and loyal. Motivation is a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality or emotion.A motivated person can be reaching for a long-term goal or a more short-term goal. Personality invariably refers to more or less permanent characteristics of an individual's state of being (e. g. , shy, extrovert, conscientious). As opposed to motivation, emotion refers to temporal states that do not immediately link to behavior (e. g. , anger, grief, happiness). The importance of motivation in the workplace allows managers to create employee motivation action plans.There are many theories of employee motivation in today's business society, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, MacGregor’s Theories X&Y, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, Three-Needs Theory and Goals-Setting Theory etc. The key to choosing the right one depends on how closely it matches up to your office. In my opinion Maslow's hierarchy of needs fits best for most business models. Maslow proposed that needs are satisfied in a certain order and that higher-level needs can only be satisfied once lower-level needs are met.The needs are, from bottom to top of the hierarchy: physiological (the need for food and water), safety and security, social, esteem and status, and the need for self-actualization, or living up to one's full potential. In the workplace, most employees' physiological needs are met. Given that they feel safe, employees will be concerned about satisfying their needs for social interaction and about receiving positive feedback and suppor t (esteem) for their work. With all of these needs met, employees can stay motivated to do their best work.Employee motivation theories have created success for the workplace and everyday life. The effects have been felt by both employees and leaders. Understanding the importance of motivation leads to self-motivating. Theories of motivation allow us to determine what level of desire a person is willing to excel. With that knowledge in place, leaders can employ proper employee motivation strategies. How to apply those motivation theories into our workplace? Let’s find out some examples in my workplace: Surveys My Company have a big survey every year to all employees.The survey here asked employees 10 questions about their management teams. They grade each manager on a scale of one to five. The areas of questioned covered topics like favoritism, respect, work ethic, following of policy, etc. The results of the survey were used on end of year reviews. Surveys are used widely to day by almost every company. Companies use the feedback to discover problems and solutions. They may even shed light on possible new opportunities that were previously overlooked. Surveys can be used in the determination of whether any barriers exist.Barriers can take the form of ethical issues and problems with co-workers just to name a few. It's critical to identify these existing roadblocks and eliminate them for an easier motivating process. Understanding Employees In my company, management team will spend a little time to talk with each of employees that will go a long way. They not just talk about work; they also talk about what employees like to do outside of work. It makes employees come to the conclusion that company actually care about them. These facts will help them run their business more effectively.The most important point here is that they will not feel just like a number. Setting Goals Our management team setting goals for our projects, we able to persist with the l ist of tasks and are compelled to develop strategies in order to reach our objective. Goal setting enhances performance by increasing motivation and efforts, but most importantly through increasing and improving the quality of feedback. The main benefit of goal setting is the constant feedback while working toward accomplishing the goal.Most quality feedback requires constant supervisor interaction, but clear goal setting can give employees consistent knowledge about their progress and aid them in self-evaluations and decisions such as increasing effort or changing methods. Employee Recognition Program My Company has set up an employee of the month program. The most outstanding employee will have awards like gift cards, days off. These programs are designed to motivate employees through awards. If just use traditional things like plaques and coffee mugs that say employee of the month.They will feel like you went out of your way for them. Enjoyable Work Environment This is the most i mportant things to create employees motivation. Having a pleasant workplace environment will help in motivating employees and increase performance. Having fun is also a great way to manage Stress. For example, we will have Christmas party, Annual dinner and Chinese New Year lunch every year provided by company. Assemble Roundtable Committee In my Company, there are some key people like mid-level leaders, Department Heads group together and elect one representative.This individual will meet with management to discuss issues and concerns of the employees. Leaders often will say they have an open door policy. But many employees will not believe this. This committee will allow leaders to maintain a calm workplace. So in short: leaders get a good work environment, committee members feel important, and employees have a way to vent. Cross Training My Company arrange cross training for employees to join. The purpose of cross training is for several people to have knowledge of other coworker ’s jobs. This will solve coverage problems like days off and vacations.This is a great way to create employee motivation throughout the company. It will benefit the employees by increasing skills learned, possible advancement and job security. In Conclusion, motivation is a complicated subject to understand because we as people are so individual. Many different factors motivate people in the workplace. It is important that companies find successful ways to motivate employees. If motivation is an issue that is neglected because of its complexity or any other reason the results can be devastating on the long term health of that group.Managers act as the doctors diagnosing the problem and creating effective treatment. If the treatment is carefully prescribed a weak company can become strong and vibrant once again. No other issue has as far reaching effects in so many areas as motivation does in the workplace and careful attention must be made to ensure that those effects are pos itive and enable further growth. It is also important that employees find ways to relieve stress and make the work day more relaxed. All of these things will make for a pleasant and more productive workplace.

RCC Jazz in Concert Essay

On October 20, I attended a concert by the RCC Jazz in featuring Lanny Morgan at the Digital Library Auditorium. The name of group members which are used were Doug Webb (Tenor Sax), Tom Ranier (piano), Chuck Berhofer (bass), and Steve Schaeffer (drum â€Å"The Magic Flea† is an upbeat tempo song with mostly eighth notes, it features the Lanny Morgan as the guest artist on the alto sax. It has many key changes in the solo that he tore through liked pro, Smack Dab in the Middle. This song was a mid tempo song, closer to the paid back style of playing features accidentals to make a jazzy sound out the piece, â€Å"Better Days Ahead†. This song featured the guitar. The soprano sax played as lead accompanied by the first trumpet and the first trombone. Sam Nestoco, Pat Metheng, Morgan Luwis, Dave Wolpe they are all composers of the Jazz. Sometime, the rhythm section got off beat, but got back on. The base player was out of tune in the first song, which made the dynamics grea t. They were intense with short notes, crescendos, and stopping at the same time. In â€Å"The Magic Flea†, the melody was fast pace with eighth notes, and usually ending in a long note, or Staccato note. In â€Å"Smack Dab in The Middle† the Melody was laid back to correspond with the beat. It has two key changes, which are concert F, and concert A Flat,† Better Days Ahead† had a pushing tempo, with the guitar as the melody. The guitar player was a great soloist, who used many eight and sixteen notes. He played many notes that amazing in the chords the Sax player in the Smack Dab in The Middle used repetition to make his solo interesting. He hit a few high notes that matched perfect with the chords. Attending this concert taught me how talented these students are with their improvisation and great feel of time. They created a story with the music as it flowed while featuring individuals. I learned dynamics make a different when controlling the intensity of the piece. I learned that phrasing plays a huge part in Jazz by making epic stops learned that certain notes are perfect in key changes, and some create a Jazz tone that separates the genre from others. I also learned that the drummer contributes to determining how loud and soft the band gets. At the end of the performance, I was glad I had attended. It was an  interesting and entertaining performance. I was able to speak briefly with the musicians before leaving the concert. They were very helpful in answering my questions about the Jazz music. This was my first experience hearing live jazz in the concert. I enjoyed both the music and the ambiance of the concert, and I plan to return there soon.

History of religion in American Colonies Essay

Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the 17th century by men and women, who, in the face of European religious persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe.[2] The Middle Atlantic colonies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, were conceived and established â€Å"as plantations of religion.† Some settlers who arrived in these areas came for secular motives—†to catch fish† as one New Englander put it—but the great majority left Europe to worship in the way they believed to be correct. They supported the efforts of their leaders to create â€Å"a City upon a Hill† or a â€Å"holy experiment,† whose success would prove that God’s plan for churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness. Even colonies like Virginia, which were planned as commercial ventures, were led by entrepreneurs who considered themselves â€Å"militant Protestants† and who worked diligently to promote the prosperity of the church. Puritans[edit source | editbeta] Puritans were English Protestants who wished to reform and purify the Church of England of what they considered to be unacceptable residues of Roman Catholicism. on the 1620s, leaders of the English state and church grew increasingly unsympathetic to Puritan demands. They insisted that the Puritans conform to religious practices that they abhorred, removing their ministers from office and threatening them with â€Å"extirpation from the earth† if they did not fall in line. Zealous Puritan laymen received savage punishments. For example, in 1630 a man was sentenced to life imprisonment, had his property confiscated, his nose slit, an ear cut off, and his forehead branded â€Å"S.S.† (sower of sedition). Beginning in 1630, as many as 20,000 Puritans emigrated to America from England to gain the liberty to worship as they chose. Most settled in New England, but some went as far as the West Indies. Theologically, the Puritans were â€Å"non-separating Congregationalists.† Unlike the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts in 1620, the Puritans believed that the Church of England was a true church, though in need of major reforms. Every New England Congregational church was considered an independent entity, beholden to no hierarchy. The membership was composed, at least initially, of men and women who had undergone a conversion experience and could prove it to other members. Puritan leaders hoped (futilely, as it turned out) that, once their experiment was successful, England would imitate it by instituting a church order modeled after the New England Way. Persecution in America[edit source | editbeta] Although they were victims of religious persecution in Europe, the Puritans supported the Old World theory that sanctioned it: the need for uniformity of religion in the state. Once in control in New England, they sought to break â€Å"the very neck of Schism and vile opinions.† The â€Å"business† of the first settlers, a Puritan minister recalled in 1681, â€Å"was not Toleration, but [they] were professed enemies of it.† [3] Puritans expelled dissenters from their colonies, a fate that in 1636 befell Roger Williams and in 1638 Anne Hutchinson, America’s first major female religious leader. Those who defied the Puritans by persistently returning to their jurisdictions risked capital punishment, a penalty imposed on the Boston martyrs, four Quakers, between 1659 and 1661. Reflecting on the 17th century’s intolerance, Thomas Jefferson was unwilling to concede to Virginians any moral superiority to the Puritans. Beginning in 1659, Virginia enacted anti-Quaker laws, including the death penalty for refractory Quakers. Jefferson surmised that â€Å"if no capital execution took place here, as did in New England, it was not owing to the moderation of the church, or the spirit of the legislature.†[4] Founding of Rhode Island[edit source | editbeta] Expelled from Massachusetts in the winter in 1636, former Puritan leader Roger Williams issued an impassioned plea for freedom of conscience. He wrote, â€Å"God requireth not an uniformity of Religion to be inacted and enforced in any civill state; which inforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civill Warre, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisie and destruction of millions of souls.†[5] Williams later founded Rhode Island on the principle of religious freedom. He welcomed people of religious belief, even some regarded as dangerously misguided, for nothing could change his view that â€Å"forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils.†[6] Jewish refuge in America[edit source | editbeta] Main article: History of the Jews in the United States A shipload of twenty-three Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Dutch Brazil arrived in New Amsterdam (soon to become New York City) in 1654. By the next year, this small community had established religious services in the city. By 1658, Jews had arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, also seeking religious liberty. Small numbers of Jews continued to come to the British North American colonies, settling mainly in the seaport towns. By the late 18th century, Jewish settlers had established several synagogues. Quakers[edit source | editbeta] The Religious Society of Friends formed in England in 1652 around leader George Fox. Many scholars[who?] today consider Quakers as radical Puritans because the Quakers carried to extremes many Puritan convictions.[citation needed] They stretched the sober deportment of the Puritans into a glorification of â€Å"plainness.† Theologically, they expanded the Puritan concept of a church of individuals regenerated by the Holy Spirit to the idea of the indwelling of the Spirit or the â€Å"Light of Christ† in every person. Such teaching struck many of the Quakers’ contemporaries as dangerous heresy. Quakers were severely persecuted in England for daring to deviate so far from orthodox Christianity. By 1680, 10,000 Quakers had been imprisoned in England and 243 had died of torture and mistreatment in jail. This reign of terror impelled Friends to seek refuge in New Jersey in the 1670s, where they soon became well entrenched. In 1681, when Quaker leader William Penn parlayed a debt owed by Charles II to his father into a charter for the province of Pennsylvania, many more Quakers were prepared to grasp the opportunity to live in a land where they might worship freely. By 1685, as many as 8,000 Quakers had come to Pennsylvania from England, Wales, and Ireland.[citation needed] Although the Quakers may have resembled the Puritans in some religious beliefs and practices, they differed with them over the necessity of compelling religious uniformity in society. Pennsylvania Germans[edit source | editbeta] During the main years of German emigration to Pennsylvania in the mid-18th century, most of the emigrants were Lutherans, Reformed, or members of small sects—Mennonites, Dunkers, Schwenkfelders, Moravians, and some German Baptist groups. The great majority became farmers.[7] The colony was owned by William Penn, a leading Quaker, and his agents encouraged German emigration to Pennsylvania by circulating promotional literature touting the economic advantages of Pennsylvania as well as the religious liberty available there. The appearance in Pennsylvania of so many different religious groups made the province resemble â€Å"an asylum for banished sects.† Roman Catholics in Maryland[edit source | editbeta] For their political opposition, Catholics were harassed and had largely been stripped of their civil rights since the reign of Elizabeth I. Driven by â€Å"the sacred duty of finding a refuge for his Roman Catholic brethren,† George Calvert obtained a charter from Charles I in 1632 for the territory between Pennsylvania and Virginia.[8] This Maryland charter offered no guidelines on religion, although it was assumed that Catholics would not be molested in the new colony. His son Lord Baltimore, was a Catholic who inherited the grant for Maryland from his father and was in charge 1630-45. In 1634, Lord Baltimore’s two ships, the Ark and the Dove, with the first 200 settlers to Maryland. They included two Catholic priests. Lord Baltimore assumed that religion was a private matter. He rejected the need for an established church, guaranteed liberty of conscience to all Christians, and embraced pluralism.[9] Catholic fortunes fluctuated in Maryland during the rest of the 17th century, as they became an increasingly smaller minority of the population. After the Glorious Revolution of 1689 in England, the Church of England was legally established in the colony and English penal laws, which deprived Catholics of the right to vote, hold office, or worship publicly, were enforced. Maryland’s first state constitution in 1776 restored the freedom of religion.[10] Virginia and the Church of England[edit source | editbeta] Main articles: History of Virginia#Religion in early Virginia and Episcopal Diocese of Virginia#History Virginia was the largest, most populous and most important colony. The Church of England was legally established; the bishop of London made it a favorite missionary target and sent in 22 clergyman by 1624. In practice, establishment meant that local taxes were funneled through the local parish to handle the needs of local government, such as roads and poor relief, in addition to the salary of the minister. There never was a bishop in colonial Virginia, and in practice the local vestry consisted of laymen who controlled the parish and handled local taxes, roads and poor relief.[11] The Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. Government and college officials in the capital at Williamsburg were required to attend services at this Anglican church. When the elected assembly, the House of Burgesses, was established in 1619, it enacted religious laws that made Virginia a bastion of Anglicanism. It passed a law in 1632 requiring that there be a â€Å"uniformitie throughout this colony both in substance and circumstance to the cannons and constitution of the Church of England.†[12] The colonists were typically inattentive, uninterested, and bored during church services according to the ministers, who complained that the people were sleeping, whispering, ogling the fashionably dressed women, walking about and coming and going, or at best looking out the windows or staring blankly into space.[13] The lack of towns meant the church had to serve scattered settlements, while the acute shortage of trained ministers meant that piety was hard to practice outside the home. Some ministers solved their problems by encouraging parishioners to become devout at home, using the Book of Common Prayer for private prayer and devotion (rather than the Bible). This allowed devout Anglicans to lead an active and sincere religious life apart from the unsatisfactory formal church services. However the stress on private devotion weakened the need for a bishop or a large institutional church of the sort Blair wanted. The stress on personal piety opened the way for the First Great Awakening, which pulled people away from the established church.[14] Especially in the back country, most families had no religious affiliation whatsoever and their low moral standards were shocking to proper Englishmen[15] The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and other evangelicals directly challenged these lax moral standards and refused to tolerate them in their ranks. The evangelicals identified as sinful the traditional standards of masculinity which revolved around gambling, drinking, and brawling, and arbitrary control over women, children, and slaves. The religious communities enforced new standards, creating a new male leadership role that followed Christian principles and became dominant in the 19th century.[16] Baptists, German Lutherans and Presbyterians, funded their own ministers, and favored disestablishment of the Anglican church. The dissenters grew much faster than the established church, making religious division a factor in Virginia politics into the Revolution. The Patriots, led by Thomas Jefferson, disestablished the Anglican Church in 1786.[17] Eighteenth century[edit source | editbeta] Against a prevailing view that 18th century Americans had not perpetuated the first settlers’ passionate commitment to their faith, scholars now identify a high level of religious energy in colonies after 1700. According to one expert, religion was in the â€Å"ascension rather than the declension†; another sees a â€Å"rising vitality in religious life† from 1700 onward; a third finds religion in many parts of the colonies in a state of â€Å"feverish growth.†[18] Figures on church attendance and church formation support these opinions. Between 1700 and 1740, an estimated 75-80% of the population attended churches, which were being built at a headlong pace.[18] By 1780 the percentage of adult colonists who adhered to a church was between 10-30%, not counting slaves or Native Americans. North Carolina had the lowest percentage at about 4%, while New Hampshire and South Carolina were tied for the highest, at about 16%.[19] Church buildings in 18th-century America varied greatly, from the plain, modest buildings in newly settled rural areas to elegant edifices in the prosperous cities on the eastern seaboard. Churches reflected the customs and traditions as well as the wealth and social status of the denominations that built them. German churches contained features unknown in English ones. Deism[edit source | editbeta] See also: Deism#Deism in the United States Deism is a loosely used term that describes the views of certain English and continental thinkers. These views gained a small, unorganized but influential number of adherents in America in the late 18th century. A form of deism, Christian deism, stressed morality and rejected the orthodox Christian view of the divinity of Christ, often viewing him as a sublime, but entirely human, teacher of morality.[18] Though their views were complex, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison were adherents, in some respects, of Unitarianism. Jefferson in particular was an adherent of â€Å"Deism and Unitarianism†. Unlike Thomas Paine, this was not a radical, anti-Christian Deistism. Instead it was always respectful of Christianity, admired the ethics of Christ, believed religion could and should play a beneficial role in society, and was open to the possibility that there was a benevolent God involved in the affairs of men and nations.[20] Deism also influenced the development of Unitarianism in America. By 1800, all but one Congregationalist church in Boston had Unitarian preachers teaching the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. Harvard University, founded by Congregationalists, became a source of Unitarian training. Great Awakening: emergence of evangelicalism[edit source | editbeta] Main article: First Great Awakening In the American colonies the First Great Awakening was a wave of religious enthusiasm among Protestants that swept the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that deeply affected listeners (already church members) with a deep sense of personal guilt and salvation by Christ. Pulling away from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening made religion intensely personal to the average person by creating a deep sense of spiritual guilt and redemption. Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom sees it as part of a â€Å"great international Protestant upheaval† that also created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival and Methodism in England.[21] It brought Christianity to the slaves and was an apocalyptic event in New England that challenged established authority. It incited rancor and division between the old traditionalists who insisted on ritual and doctrine and the new revivalists. The new style of sermons and the way people practiced their faith breathed new life into religion in America. People became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner. Ministers who used this new style of preaching were generally called â€Å"new lights†, while the preachers of old were called â€Å"old lights†. People began to study the Bible at home, which effectively decentralized the means of informing the public on religious manners and was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation.[22] The fundamental premise of evangelicalism is the conversion of individuals from a state of sin to a â€Å"new birth† through preaching of the Word. The First Great Awakening led to changes in American colonial society. In New England, the Great Awakening was influential among many Congregationalists. In the Middle and Southern colonies, especially in the â€Å"Backcountry† regions, the Awakening was influential among Presbyterians. In the South Baptist and Methodist preachers converted both whites and enslaved blacks.[23] During the first decades of the 18th century, in the Connecticut River Valley, a series of local â€Å"awakenings† began in the Congregational church with ministers including Jonathan Edwards. The first new Congregational Church in the Massachusetts Colony during the great awakening period, was in 1731 at Uxbridge and called the Rev. Nathan Webb as its Pastor. By the 1730s, they had spread into what was interpreted as a general outpouring of the Spirit that bathed the American colonies, England, Wales, and Scotland. In mass open-air revivals powerful preachers like George Whitefield brought thousands of souls to the new birth. The Great Awakening, which had spent its force in New England by the mid-1740s, split the Congregational and Presbyterian churches into supporters—called â€Å"New Lights† and â€Å"New Side†Ã¢â‚¬â€and opponents—the â€Å"Old Lights† and â€Å"Old Side.† Many New England New Lights became Separate Baptists. Largely through the efforts of a charismatic preacher from New England named Shubal Stearns and paralleled by the New Side Presbyterians (who were eventually reunited on their own terms with the Old Side), they carried the Great Awakening into the southern colonies, igniting a series of the revivals that lasted well into the 19th century.[18] The supporters of the Awakening and its evangelical thrust—Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists—became the largest American Protestant denominations by the first decades of the 19th century. Opponents of the Awakening or those split by it—Anglicans, Quakers, and Congregationalists—were left behind. Unlike the Second Great Awakening that began about 1800 and which reached out to the unchurched, the First Great Awakening focused on people who were already church members. It changed their rituals, their piety, and their self-awareness.[22] Evangelicals in the South[edit source | editbeta] The South had originally been settled and controlled by Anglicans, who dominated the ranks of rich planters but whose ritualistic high church established religion had little appeal to ordinary men and women, both white and black.[24][25] Baptists[edit source | editbeta] Energized by numerous itinerant self-proclaimed missionaries, by the 1760s Baptists were drawing Southerners, especially poor white farmers, into a new, much more democratic religion. Slaves were welcome at the services and many became Baptists at this time. Baptist services were highly emotional; the only ritual was baptism, which was applied by immersion (not sprinkling like the Anglicans) only to adults. Opposed to the low moral standards prevalent in the colony, the Baptists strictly enforced their own high standards of personal morality, with special concern for sexual misconduct, heavy drinking, frivolous spending, missing services, cursing, and revelry. Church trials were held frequently and if members who did not submit to disciple were expelled.[26] Historians have debated the implications of the religious rivalries for the American Revolution. The Baptist farmers did introduce a new egalitarian ethic that largely displaced the semi-aristocratic ethic of the Anglican planters. However, both groups supported the Revolution. There was a sharp contrast between the austerity of the plain-living Baptists and the opulence of the Anglican planters, who controlled local government. Baptist church discipline, mistaken by the gentry for radicalism, served to ameliorate disorder. The struggle for religious toleration erupted and was played out during the American Revolution, as the Baptists worked to disestablish the Anglican church.[27] Baptists, German Lutherans and Presbyterians, funded their own ministers, and favored disestablishment of the Anglican church. Methodists[edit source | editbeta] Methodist missionaries were also active in the late colonial period. From 1776 to 1815 Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury made 42 trips into the western parts to visit Methodist congregations. In the 1780s itinerant Methodist preachers carried copies of an anti-slavery petition in their saddlebags throughout the state, calling for an end to slavery. At the same time, counter-petitions were circulated. The petitions were presented to the Assembly; they were debated, but no legislative action was taken, and after 1800 there was less and less religious opposition to slavery.[28] Masculinity and morality[edit source | editbeta] Especially in the Southern back country, most families had no religious affiliation whatsoever and their low moral standards were shocking to proper Englishmen.[15] The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and other evangelicals directly challenged these lax moral standards and refused to tolerate them in their ranks. The evangelicals identified as sinful the traditional standards of masculinity which revolved around gambling, drinking, and brawling, and arbitrary control over women, children, and slaves. The religious communities enforced new standards, creating a new male leadership role that followed Christian principles and became dominant in the 19th century.[16] American Revolution[edit source | editbeta] Religion played a major role in the American Revolution[citation needed] by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British—an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God[citation needed]. As a recent scholar has observed, â€Å"by turning colonial resistance into a righteous cause, and by crying the message to all ranks in all parts of the colonies, ministers did the work of secular radicalism and did it better.†[citation needed] Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as scribes for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions and the Continental Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental Army troops in battle. The Revolution split some denominations, notably the Church of England, whose ministers were bound by oath to support the king, and the Quakers, who were traditionally pacifists. Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas, religion flourished. The Revolution strengthened millennialist strains in American theology. At the beginning of the war some ministers were persuaded that, with God’s help, America might become â€Å"the principal Seat of the glorious Kingdom which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter Days.† Victory over the British was taken as a sign of God’s partiality for America and stimulated an outpouring of millennialist expectations—the conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years. This attitude combined with a groundswell of secular optimism about the future of America helped to create the buoyant mood of the new nation that became so evident after Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801. Church of England[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Episcopal Church (United States) The American Revolution inflicted deeper wounds on the Church of England in America than on any other denomination because the English monarch was the head of the church. Church of England priests, at their ordination, swore allegiance to the British crown. The Book of Common Prayer offered prayers for the monarch, beseeching God â€Å"to be his defender and keeper, giving him victory over all his enemies,† who in 1776 were American soldiers as well as friends and neighbors of American parishioners of the Church of England. Loyalty to the church and to its head could be construed as treason to the American cause. Patriotic American members of the Church of England, loathing to discard so fundamental a component of their faith as The Book of Common Prayer, revised it to conform to the political realities. After the Treaty of Paris (1783) documenting British recognition of American independence, the church split and the Anglican Communion created, allowing a separated Episcopal Church of the United States to replace, in the United States, and be in communion with the Church of England. Great Awakenings and Evangelicalism[edit source | editbeta] During the Second Great Awakening, church membership rose sharply. Main articles: Revivalism and Evangelicalism The â€Å"great Awakenings† were large-scale revivals that came in spurts, and moved large numbers of people from unchurched to churched. It made Evangelicalism one of the dominant forces in American religion. Balmer explains that: â€Å"Evangelicalism itself, I believe, is quintessentially North American phenomenon, deriving as it did from the confluence of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and the vestiges of Puritanism. Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar characteristics from each strain – warmhearted spirituality from the Pietists (for instance), doctrinal precisionism from the Presbyterians, and individualistic introspection from the Puritans – even as the North American context itself has profoundly shaped the various manifestations of evangelicalism.: fundamentalism, neo-evangelicalism, the holiness movement, Pentecostalism, the charismatic movement, and various forms of African-American and Hispanic evangelicalism.†[29] Second Great Awakening[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Second Great Awakening See also: Camp meeting and Revival meeting In 1800, major revivals began that spread across the nation: the decorous Second Great Awakening in New England and the exuberant Great Revival in Cane Ridge, Kentucky. The principal religious innovation produced by the Kentucky revivals was the camp meeting. The revivals at first were organized by Presbyterian ministers who modeled them after the extended outdoor â€Å"communion seasons,† used by the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, which frequently produced emotional, demonstrative displays of religious conviction. In Kentucky, the pioneers loaded their families and provisions into their wagons and drove to the Presbyterian meetings, where they pitched tents and settled in for several days. When assembled in a field or at the edge of a forest for a prolonged religious meeting, the participants transformed the site into a camp meeting. The religious revivals that swept the Kentucky camp meetings were so intense and created such gusts of emotion that their original sponsors, the Presbyterians, as well the Baptists, soon repudiated them. The Methodists, however, adopted and eventually domesticated camp meetings and introduced them into the eastern states,where for decades they were one of the evangelical signatures of the denomination. The Second Great Awakening (1800–1830s), unlike the first, focused on the unchurched and sought to instill in them a deep sense of personal salvation as experienced in revival meetings. The great revival quickly spread throughout Kentucky, Tennessee and southern Ohio. Each denomination had assets that allowed it to thrive on the frontier. The Methodists had an efficient organization that depended on ministers known as circuit riders, who sought out people in remote frontier locations. The circuit riders came from among the common people, which helped them establish rapport with the frontier families they hoped to convert. The Second Great Awakening exercised a profound impact on American religious history. By 1860 evangelicalism emerged as a kind of national church or national religion and was the grand absorbing theme of American religious life. The greatest gains were made by the very well organized Methodists. Francis Asbury (1745–1816) led the American Methodist movement as one of the most prominent religious leaders of the young republic. Traveling throughout the eastern seaboard, Methodism grew quickly under Asbury’s leadership into the nation’s largest and most widespread denomination. The numerical strength of the Baptists and Methodists rose relative to that of the denominations dominant in the colonial period—the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Reformed. Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the Social Gospel of the late 19th century. It also sparked the beginnings of groups such as the Mormons, the Restoration Movement and the Holiness movement. Third Great Awakening[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Third Great Awakening The Third Great Awakening was a period of religious activism in American history from the late 1850s to the 20th century. It affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong sense ofsocial activism. It gathered strength from the postmillennial theology that the Second Coming of Christ would come after mankind had reformed the entire earth. The Social Gospel Movement gained its force from the Awakening, as did the worldwide missionary movement. New groupings emerged, such as the Holiness movement and Nazarene movements, and Christian Science.[30] The Protestant mainline churches were growing rapidly in numbers, wealth and educational levels, throwing off their frontier beginnings and become centered in towns and cities. Intellectuals and writers such as Josiah Strong advocated a muscular Christianity with systematic outreach to the unchurched in America and around the globe. Others built colleges and universities to train the next generation. Each denomination supported active missionary societies, and made the role of missionary one of high prestige. The great majority of pietistic mainline Protestants (in the North) supported the Republican Party, and urged it to endorse prohibition and social reforms.[31][32] See Third Party System The awakening in numerous cities in 1858 was interrupted by the American Civil War. In the South, on the other hand, the Civil War stimulated revivals and strengthened the Baptists, especially.[33] After the war, Dwight L. Moody made revivalism the centerpiece of his activities in Chicago by founding the Moody Bible Institute. The hymns of Ira Sankey were especially influential.[34] Across the nation drys crusaded in the name of religion for the prohibition of alcohol. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union mobilized Protestant women for social crusades against liquor, pornography and prostitution, and sparked the demand for woman suffrage.[35] The Gilded Age plutocracy came under harsh attack from the Social Gospel preachers and with reformers in the Progressive Era who became involved with issues of child labor, compulsory elementary education and the protection of women from exploitation in factories. All the major denominations sponsored growing missionary activities inside the United States and around the world.[36][37] Colleges associated with churches rapidly expanded in number, size and quality of curriculum. The promotion of â€Å"muscular Christianity† became popular among young men on campus and in urban YMCA’s, as well as such denominational youth groups such as the Epworth League for Methodists and the Walther League for Lutherans.[38] Emergence of African American churches[edit source | editbeta] Scholars disagree about the extent of the native African content of black Christianity as it emerged in 18th-century America, but there is no dispute that the Christianity of the black population was grounded in evangelicalism. The Second Great Awakening has been called the â€Å"central and defining event in the development of Afro-Christianity.† During these revivals Baptists and Methodists converted large numbers of blacks. However, many were disappointed at the treatment they received from their fellow believers and at the backsliding in the commitment to abolish slavery that many white Baptists and Methodists had advocated immediately after the American Revolution. When their discontent could not be contained, forceful black leaders followed what was becoming an American habit—they formed new denominations. In 1787, Richard Allen and his colleagues in Philadelphia broke away from the Methodist Church and in 1815 founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, which, along with independent black Baptist congregations, flourished as the century progressed. By 1846, the AME Church, which began with 8 clergy and 5 churches, had grown to 176 clergy, 296 churches, and 17,375 members. After the Civil War, Black Baptists desiring to practice Christianity away from racial discrimination, rapidly set up several separate state Baptist conventions. In 1866, black Baptists of the South and West combined to form the Consolidated American Baptist Convention. This Convention eventually collapsed but three national conventions formed in response. In 1895 the three conventions merged to create the National Baptist Convention. It is now the largest African-American religious organization in the United States. Restorationism[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Restorationism (Christian primitivism) See also: Dispensationalism and Restoration Movement Restorationism refers to the belief that a purer form of Christianity should be restored using the early church as a model.[39]:635[40]:217 In many cases, restorationist groups believed that contemporary Christianity, in all its forms, had deviated from the true, original Christianity, which they then attempted to â€Å"Reconstruct†, often using the Book of Acts as a â€Å"guidebook† of sorts. Restorationists do not usually describe themselves as â€Å"reforming† a Christian church continuously existing from the time of Jesus, but as restoring the Church that they believe was lost at some point. â€Å"Restorationism† is often used to describe the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. The term â€Å"Restorationist† is also used to describe the Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and the Jehovah’s Witness Movement. Denominations and sects founded in the U.S.[edit source | editbeta] Mormonism[edit source | editbeta] Main article: History of the Latter Day Saint movement The origins of another distinctive religious group, the Latter-day Saints (LDS)—also widely known as Mormons—arose in the early 19th century during the â€Å"Golden Day of Democratic Evangelicalism.† Founder Joseph Smith, Jr., and many of his earliest followers came from an area of western New York called the burned-over district, because it had been â€Å"scorched† by so many revivals. Young Joseph Smith had a series of visions, revelations from God and visitations from angelic messengers, providing him with ongoing instruction in the execution of his role as a prophet and a restorationist. After publishing the Book of Mormon—which he claimed to have translated by divine power from a record of ancient American prophets recorded on golden plates—Smith organized â€Å"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints† on April 6, 1830. Mormon theology was far out of the mainstream, and the Mormons were driven out of state after state; Smith was assassinated and Brigham Young led the people out of the U.S. into Utah — at the time virtually ungoverned. Rumors to the effect Mormons were practicing polygamy there were true; the U.S. government went to Utah, clashed with the Mormons, and sought to disenfranchise the Church for practicing polygamy. The Church pulled away from plural marriages between 1890 and 1907, was allowed to resume normal status, and Utah was granted statehood in 1896. Thanks to worldwide missionary work, the church now counts over 14 million members.[41] Jehovah’s Witnesses[edit source | editbeta] Main article: History of Jehovah’s Witnesses Jehovah’s Witnesses comprise a fast-growing denomination that has kept itself separate from other Christian denominations. It began in 1872 with Charles Taze Russell, but experienced a major schism in 1917 as Joseph Franklin Rutherford began his presidency. Rutherford gave new direction to the movement and renamed the movement â€Å"Jehovah’s witnesses† in 1931. The period from 1925 to 1933 saw many significant changes in doctrine. Attendance at their yearly Memorial dropped from a high of 90,434 in 1925 to 63,146 in 1935. Since 1950 growth has been very rapid.[42] During the World War II, Jehovah’s Witnesses experienced mob attacks in America and were temporarily banned in Canada and Australia because of their opposition to the war effort. They won significant Supreme Court victories involving the rights of free speech and religion that have had a great impact on legal interpretation of these rights for others.[43] In 1943, the United States Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette that school children of Jehovah’s Witnesses could not be compelled to salute the flag. Church of Christ, Scientist[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879, in Boston by Mary Baker Eddy, the author of its central book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which offers a unique interpretation of Christian faith.[44] Christian Science teaches that the reality of God denies the reality of sin, sickness, death and the material world. Accounts of miraculous healing are common within the church, and adherents often refuse traditional medical treatments. Legal troubles sometimes result when they forbid medical treatment of their children.[45] The Church is unique among American denominations in several ways. It is highly centralized, with all the local churches merely branches of the mother church in Boston. There are no ministers, but there are practitioners who are integral to the movement. The practitioners operate local businesses that help members heal their illnesses by the power of the mind. They depend for their clientele on the approval of the Church. Starting in the late 19th century the Church has rapidly lost membership, although it does not publish statistics. Its flagship newspaper Christian Science Monitor lost most of its subscribers and dropped its paper version to become an online source.[46] Other denominations founded in U.S.[edit source | editbeta] Adventism – began as an inter-denominational movement. Its most vocal leader was William Miller, who in the 1830s in New York became convinced of an imminent Second Coming of Jesus. Churches of Christ/Disciples of Christ – a restoration movement with no governing body. The Restoration Movement solidified as a historical phenomenon in 1832 when restorationists from two major movements championed by Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell merged (referred to as the â€Å"Stone-Campbell Movement†). Episcopal Church – founded as an offshoot of the Church of England; now the United States branch of the Anglican Communion Jehovah’s Witnesses – originated with the religious movement known as Bible Students, which was founded in Pennsylvania in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell. National Baptist Convention – the largest African American religious organization in the United States and the second largest Baptist denomination in the world. Pentecostalism – movement that emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit, finds its historic roots in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, from 1904 to 1906, sparked by Charles Parham Reconstructionist Judaism

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International Business - Essay Example Globalization enabled investors to enter new potential regions with innovative business ideas. Today companies, governments, and non-governmental organizations have access to equity fund providers. Numerous equity companies are willing to invest in global market providing international business organizations with human capital and equity capital support. For instance, companies like Hamilton Bradshaw assist international companies by supporting expansion, development, and recapitalization. Changing global economy will certainly demand more equity support and outsourcing help in future. It will promote more entrepreneurs entering the global capital market because the aftermath of the recent recession would persist throughout the next decade. Governmental policies across the world on privatization also have contributed to the emergence of capital market. 2. In order to be competitive in a free global market with no trade barriers and restrictions, a company has to expand its business to international level. In the current business environment of cutthroat competition, a company is forced to seek new potential areas and alternatives for business consistency. To illustrate, the absence of constraints has enabled international business entrepreneurs to enter and dominate domestic markets of any area. If critiques are to b believed, many of the indigenous businesses and small scale or cottage industries are at the verge of extinction. It happens as the international giants come up with machine-made quality products at cheaper cost to acquire the local market. They have advanced technological backup and cost effective mode of business operation that enable them to manufacture products in bulk. In contrast, local business groups rely on conventional strategies and out-dated organizational structures which presumably add to their failure. However, business expansion is not a difficult task for modern organizations as they

Five-Step Decision Making Process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Five-Step Decision Making Process - Essay Example In case of recruitment and selection, ethical decision making plays a vital role to find the best candidate for the designation under consideration. However, there are a number of ways in which the decisions are deteriorated by other staff, family members, friends, relatives and existing employees. Human resource managers need to carefully formulate their criteria to the selection process. Every candidate should be assessed according to the qualification, skills, interview results and experience rather than on the basis of his reference or source. This paper evaluates the given scenario applying The 5 steps Process for Making Ethical Decisions. The five step process which guide towards making an ethical decision regarding issues in the business starts from the identification of the problem. In the given scenario, there is a clear indication of possible unethical judgment due to personal interest and influence of others. The co-worker’s statement may affect the decision of the hiring process. The problem of unethical and unjust decisions may harm the reputation of the company and such a decision may also not be in the best interest of the business. It is firstly unethical to reject candidates who best suit the position under consideration. ... The second step is to identify the alternative choice that a person can take. Applying it on the given scenario there are three main alternatives I can take: 1. Hire the best candidate 2. Leap back and give the power of selection to other senior 3. Hire that candidate which is friend of my co-worker The identification of the alternatives alone is not sufficient to help in making an ethical decision. It is now required to evaluate the alternatives in order to select the best possible candidate for the position. If I go for the first choice and do hire the best candidate then my colleague would take it wrongly and it may affect our relationship. But the best candidate can be a valuable asset to our organization. As a responsible employee of my organization it is the best choice for me. If I select the second option and leap back and delegate or request the selection to be done by other individual say my senior then however my colleague would still be dissatisfied with me but still it w ould not harm the relationship much in the long run. Finally, if I do hire that candidate which is a friend of my colleague then both the organization needs and my colleague would be satisfied. I personally believe that I should go for the best candidate for the designation under consideration in terms of qualifications, experience and skills. This will be a bit difficult to satisfy the co-worker; however, it will help the organization run successfully in the long run. Job of hiring is a very bonafide job and it requires higher level of professional skepticism. Hiring is the process which must display greater level of ethical decision making. It will be unethical to avoid any

Legal Regime for International Sales Today Essay

Legal Regime for International Sales Today - Essay Example buyer and seller, employer and employee. First and foremost, trade and commerce had to be expanded between European countries as the local industries developed a pressing demand for materials to fuel and feed such industries. The new lavish lifestyles that exuded from the new-found affluence; the race to colonise new, distant lands; the need to protect affluent kingdoms from belligerent, covetous, hostile states demanded the need to engage in frenzied commerce and trade not only with fellow European countries but also the 'New World' which beckoned with 'exotic' commodities such as coffee, tea, tobacco, chocolate, sugar cane, potatoes, spices, gold, silver and other metals. The demand for cheap labour created the new commerce of buying and selling of African slaves. With Antwerp and Amsterdam such as the East India Company, the Hudson Bay Company and the South Sea Company, international commerce had become an economic activity which needed regulation and protection. The economic doctrine of Mercantilism ruled international trading and commercial law had to be designed to govern these international merchants. These customary, regulating rules were unified into one set of rules called the law merchant which is also referred to as the lex mercatoria or jus fort or jus forense (Schmitthoff 1968, p. 105). The law merchant or lex mercatoria is a "body of principles and regulations applied to commercial transactions and deriving from the established customs of merchants and traders rather than the jurisprudence of a particular nation or state" (Law Encyclopedia). It is also the system of rules and customs and usages adopted by such traders for the resolution of their controversies. It is codified in the UCC or Uniform Commercial Code which is a body of law, adopted by the states to govern their mercantile transactions. Because of the growing incidence of international disputes between transacting countries, such disputes were resolved through international commercial arbitration which were governed by lex mercatoria. The parties signed a contract clause in which they agreed to the provisions of lex mercatoria, which provided that an arbitrator applied the customs and usages of international trade as well as "the rules of law which are common to all or most of the states engaged in international trade or to those states which are connected with the dispute" (Lando 1985, p. 747).

Week 3_H Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week 3_H - Assignment Example The attacker always tries to find a way to prevent the users from communicating, therefore the system administrators need to implement methods that are secure and that prevents the entry of unauthorized persons in to the network. The outside attacker tries to obtain the shared key to make attacks. This attack can be prevented by using robust authentication methods such as strong passwords. It is important also to test whether the server is broken so as to keep maximum protection for the system. Inside attackers are operators within the system who sniff passwords and receive the shared key. An insider attacker should be prevented from attacks by using antispyware software and malware software (Kate, et al., 2004). Attackers ordinarily use Trojans, malware and spyware to sniff-passwords that they use to receive the shared key (Mahalanobis, 2005). It is important that the network is clean of such applications. If x and y have the same value then the DHp will the key will be generated as a multiple of the new key factor x. DHP has key multiple resistance and therefore it will calculate the key value by first finding out the number of first user who selected the key. DHP has key resistance properties, it also is key independent and also process the security for the same key multiple

Stovall home products case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Stovall home products case - Essay Example We are sorry for the inconvenience caused for you in this regard and there is more effective solution available to remove stains from resin based finish. Please note, Mix the ingredients with one gallon of cold water, two tablespoon of sodium sulphate and a half cup of white vinegar thoroughly. Afterwards, immerse the whole jacket for about 20 minutes, then rinse the jacket by hand or run it in washing machine with water only, do not add anything at all and hang the jacket to drip dry. Sodium sulphate can be purchased either from a drug store or a photo supply shop. One more alternative solution is also available. You can send your Sportique jacket to us and we have many alternatives to work on it, it will take a couple of weeks’ time. If you are willing then do send it to us and Stovall will pay the postage. Website for â€Å"Negative Message Writing† (Writing Negative Messages, 2002). is used for learning about how we have to communicate the negative messages in various situations and it also involves various legal implications. In the above situation the problem is caused by the consumer not Stovall’s even though we need to treat the customer based on positive approach. So we have mentioned quite clearly the cause for the issue and also suggesting her some possible solutions to get rid of the problem. If she is not able do to it at home, Stovall is willing do to for her at Stovall’s cost. The above information can be arranged as per learning from the website. I referred a book for â€Å"Writing an effective business letter† (Writing An Effective Business Letter, 2013) for learning letter templates. Based on their template only, I had drafted the above

Voluntary environmental management initiatives Essay

Voluntary environmental management initiatives - Essay Example This defines the basic approach the company takes in implementing the system. If the focus is on compliance, then the benefits that the company will expect are reduction in their liabilities. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) This is an EMS and the company is likely to consider it a cost. On the other hand, if the company's objective is to improve their products, design and processes, with the attendant benefits of pollution reduction, but more importantly customer satisfaction, then it could be a VEMI and the company would consider this an investment. The company, in this case, will not be worried about the certification per se, but about the satisfaction of the stakeholders. This does not, of course, mean that the certification is not necessary or is useless, but the company in question is pursuing real results in terms of pollution reduction and improvement in the processes and products, leading to customer and stakeholder satisfaction. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) To answer the question - 'Why are VEMI's important' - The first thing that we need to understand is that it is more realistic than an ISO 14000-oriented EMS. To elaborate, there can be no uniformity in the framework to be used to implement EMS systems - this will differ from company to company, industry to industry. For instance, a retailer may focus on how environment friendly the suppliers are; while a chemical company may focus on how to develop products that cause less harm to the environment and how to recycle the waste products. Even the expectations in the ISO context - that the company has a commitment to ensure compliance, that it seeks to improve its systems on a continuous basis and that it aims to control pollution - cannot be evaluated in the same way for different facilities. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) To take the example of the first expectation - commitment to compliance - different nations have varying levels, strictness and coverage in their environmental regulations. Since ISO 14000 stipulates compliance with regard to the location of the company seeking certification, it may be that a company located in a country where there are less number of laws, will be able to show compliance sooner and with much greater ease. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) The chance of companies getting the certification by adhering to certain minimum regulation requirements is also high. Hence, for real environment management in letter and spirit, it may be necessary to motivate companies to take up VEMI, where they are genuinely interested in environmental improvement. VEMI will therefore be the instrument through which real environment management systems with responsible environment friendly actions take place. Voluntary initiatives or programmes are of three types, according to Lyon and Maxwell. They can be unilateral commitments in which case business organisations voluntarily set up environmental initiatives or programmes. The organisation and not the government take the initiatives in this kind of programme. They can also be public voluntary programmes, where more than one firms agree to adapt the standards established by a public body, like an environmental agency. They can also be negotiated agreements where the government industry

Summary of Margaret Newman's and Rosemarie Parse's Grand Theories of Essay

Summary of Margaret Newman's and Rosemarie Parse's Grand Theories of Nursing - Essay Example The development of grand nursing theories helped to distinguish the discipline from the medical model, catalysed the extensive growth of nursing knowledge, and provided a framework for organizing nursing knowledge and nurse education curricula. Further, grand theories offer an alternative to practising solely on the basis of tradition or intuition, thus helping to professionalize nursing practice. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to summarise Margaret Newman’s and Rosemarie Parse’s grand nursing theories, examining their aim, their application to patient care and nursing, their key elements, and their strengths and weaknesses. Margaret Newman’s Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness Margaret Newman’s 1990 theory of health as expanding consciousness arose from her insights on long-term illness. She believed that through the invalid’s expansion of consciousness, they gained a deeper appreciation for life and more meaningful relation ships. This abstract model required recognition of the life pattern, acceptance of illness as part of the life pattern, and health as an expansion of consciousness. The pattern of expanding consciousness evolves irrespective of the form or direction it may take. Through this realization, illness and disease lose their demoralizing power (Rich, 2011). The theorist believed that the focus of nursing is on the nurse-patient relationship. Pattern-recognition is the key element of nursing practice and interventions. The more expanded the consciousness of the nurses, the more readily they are able to enter a transformative relationship with clients, to help the latter regain health by minimizing disease and emphasizing health (Newman, 1999). The purpose of this theory of health as expanding consciousness, is to underscore the human experiences of transformation through time and space to a more highly organized pattern of the whole. Newman’s perspective of health and illness as a un itary process moving through variations of order-disorder, was built on Rogers’ 1970 life process model with a holistic and unitary view of humans, and from Young’s idea of the acceleration of evolution of consciousness. According to Newman, consciousness pertained to all information of a system that related to its capacity to interact with its environment. â€Å"Consciousness as the essence of all things that exist, including humans† (Kim, 2006, p.297), is a part of time and space, and is reflected in movement. Newman’s theory considers health as a synthesis of the fusion of disease and non-disease, that is health consists of both wellness and illness. Disease and nondisease form â€Å"a larger wholeness that takes on a new and different form that is not diminished by illness† (Rich, 2011, p.290); this health creates a more inclusive consciousness. Therefore, the key characteristics of Newman’s theoryare: Health includes illness or patholgy ; these pathological conditions are a manifestation of the total pattern of the individual; the pattern of the individual that eventually establishes itself as pathology existed as a primary feature before the occurrence of structural or functional changes; by removing the pathology the individual’s pattern cannot be changed; â€Å"if becoming ill is the only way an individual’s pattern can manifest itself, then that is health for that person†

The Rhetoric and Reality of Trust between Managers and Employees Essay - 1

The Rhetoric and Reality of Trust between Managers and Employees - Essay Example There is ample research evidence which supports the above statement and indicates that the values received by the employees in an organization have a significant impact on the organizational performance which far exceeds those achieved through an organized corporate strategy. Although various means and strategies are regularly adopted and implemented by the management to encourage employee productivity / performance, which includes lucrative rewards, health benefits, as well as frequent training workshops, â€Å"trust† still continues to be the most vital element that governs the employees’ willingness to perform well beyond the management expectations. From this paper   it is clear that the performance of employees which exceeds the managerial expectations is one of the key inputs to organizational success, and cannot be achieved through deliberate corporate strategies and stringent rules. The willingness to excel in their duties is an outcome of individual will, which can be fostered through mutual trust where the employees feel secure about their jobs as well as workplace and the motives of their managers. To encourage such discretionary performance on the part of employees, the management must create a suitable atmosphere and mutual approach whereby employees are persuaded to communicate and contribute their thoughts, ideas and beliefs with their colleagues as well as managers for the overall benefit of the organization.

A Power Play for Howard in Many Acts Assignment

A Power Play for Howard in Many Acts - Assignment Example This paper illustrates that West Unseld, Bullet General Manager, was the very first to offer Juwan Howard a $78.4 million 7-year contract and commended him for his loyalty. The NBA Star felt his market value was higher. He valued loyalty and would feel sad about leaving Washington. But he was considering that a much better offer would be worth the sacrifice. Bill Brubaker and Mark Asher (1996) reported that Miami Heat NBA Team bid $100.8 million + other benefits for a 7-year contract â€Å"with luxury hotel suites and limousine service† to win over Juwan Howard. The entire Washington NBA enthusiasts needed to see the Bullets win. People saw that Juwan Howard could make that happen because of his height, shooting, rebound, and assist averages, and his attitude of being polite, soft-spoken, and charitable. However, his cash compensation from the viewpoint of the team’s General Manager was not satisfactory considering that he had been receiving better offers. Grant Hill of Detroit, Alonzo Mourning of Miami Heat, and Patrick Ewing of New York Knicks were inviting him to join their teams. So he tried asking for a much higher compensation. Such problems can be identified in this case: Taking the point of view of Miami Heat, how can Juwan Howard be convinced to take a stand for his decision to sign the first contract and be supportive for the arbitration contesting the results of bidding? (How can the basketball fans of the Bullets be satisfied with whatever will be the decision of Juwan Howard? How can the NBA League officials and the Union appease all parties of the negotiation, including the fans? How can Juwan Howard achieve his goal to get what he believes to be the market value of his basketball skills?

Individual Operations Management Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Individual Operations Management Report - Essay Example After conducting an analysis using Statistical process control tools, the company found that there processes are out of control and they are not meeting the quality standards. Table of Contents Introduction & Problem Description: 3 Methodology: 3 Results: 4 Types of Data: 4 3 Sigma control for the processes: 4 Discussion and recommendations: 7 Conclusion: 8 Bibliography: 9 Appendix: 10 Introduction & Problem Description: RTP Industries is one of the most renowned manufacturers of steel and aluminum products. The company holds its footstep in the major countries of the world and operates globally. Due to stiff competition in the recent years from Chinese and Indian manufacturers, the company has lost a significant portion of its market share. To reestablish itself, the company is emphasizing on research and development program in order to innovate new products. Quality has remained the top priority since then as the company expects that through quality assurance and control it can aga in boost its sales. Total Quality management has been at the heart of company’s vision and it has been introducing tools and techniques to maintain the quality of its products. One of the tools it has recently deployed is Statistical Process Control for measuring the performance of the manufacturing process and to let identify it there are any weaknesses in the process. Recently, the company has received a lot of complaints regarding the hydraulic products. It was believed that the discrepancies in the size and surface quality of the steel rods are causing leakages in hydraulic products. Methodology: In order to meet the required standards and improve its quality, the quality manager has planned to run a Statistical Process Control Analysis. A Statistical process control involves a random sampling of the output of the process which determines whether the process is meeting the quality standards or not. For the above purpose, the quality manager has randomly collected data on samples of three steel rods daily. The quality manager collected two types of data The diameter of the selected steel rods was measured and recorded in centimeters over a 25 day period. The number of surface errors in the selected steel rods was calculated and recorded over a 25 day period. Results: Types of Data: There are two different types of data given to us in this scenario. The first data is concerned with the diameters of the selected steel rods. As we know that diameter is a continuous variables and it can take any value therefore we will use an x chart as a Statistical process control chart to monitor the process. The second set of data contains information about the number of surface errors in the selected steel rods. The second type of data has used sampling through attributes measure for the collection purpose. Since it contains information about whether there are surface errors in the steel rod therefore it is measuring the attributes of the steel rods. We will use a c chart as a Statistical Process Control tool for monitoring this process since there are more than one surface errors in some steel rods so we will count number of errors per steel rod. 3 Sigma control for the processes: Size of diameters of rods: For the first sample of data regarding the diameter of the

Accounting For Organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Accounting For Organisations - Essay Example Sales or revenues are generated when a company sells a product or service. The revenue recognition principle dictates that revenue be recognized in the accounting period in which is earned (Accoutingtools, 2015). Two of the major expenses categories within the income statement are cost of goods sold and operating expenses. The figure at the bottom of the income statement is the net income or net loss of the company during an accounting period. The balance sheet is a statement that shows the financial position of a company at a specific point in time. The balance sheet follows the logic of the basic accounting equation. The basic accounting equation states that assets equal liabilities plus stockholders equity (Misscpa, 2011). The three major sections of the balance sheet are assets, liabilities, and equity. The preparation of the balance sheet must follow the historic cost principle. Historical cost is a measure of  value used  in accounting  in which  the price of an asset  on  the balance sheet is based on its  nominal or original cost when acquired by the company (Investopedia, 2015). Assets in the balance sheet are subdivided into four subcategories: Some examples of assets included in the balance sheet are cash, inventory, account receivables, short term investments, prepaid expenses, office equipment, and goodwill (Weygandt, Kieso, Kimmel, 2002). The liabilities section of the balance sheet is divided into current liabilities and long term liabilities. Current liabilities are liabilities that expire in less than one year. A few of the current liabilities included in the balance sheet are notes payables, account payable, current maturities of long-term obligations, unearned revenue, salaries and wages payable, taxes payable, and other current liabilities. A list of potential long-term liabilities are bank notes payable, mortgage payable, bonds payable, and other long term