Human Resource Management And Operational And Strategic...

(1). critically evaluate the role and importance of human resource management in operational and strategic contexts. Ans: Human resource management (HRM) is a process of hiring and developing employees in an organization, such that they become and act like a strength to that particular organization. Human resource management is responsible for making the organization run smoothly and perfectly. The various operations and services that will be included in human resource management are recruitment, job analysis, administrative services, and employee relationship management. These services/operations provided by the human resource management are only to support the management and staff of the organization in their daily activities. The most common functions performed by HRM in an organization are: Resolving the disputes in the organization Orienting and training Managing wages and salaries Recruiting the right people for the specific positions in the organization Providing benefits and incentives Planning personnel needs for the welfare and comfortability of the employees Conducting the job analysis Communicating with all the employees irrespective of their position in the organization Human resource management services in operational context includes all the below functions: †¢ Management †¢ Hiring †¢ Job Analyzing †¢ Employee relations MANAGEMENT: Generally Human resource department is responsible for payroll management, employee data maintenance, and risk andShow MoreRelatedHuman Resource Management : An Organization Essay1429 Words   |  6 PagesHuman resource Management is very important in every organization. It satisfies the needs of man power and creates an atmosphere where all employees can work together to achieve the goals of an organization. HRM role is to plan how to recruit right people and give experienced and well trained workforce to organization. It makes plans for training and development of human resource in an organization. The main functions of Human Resource Management in an organization are given below: 1. RecruitmentRead MoreRoles And Importance Of Human Resource Management Essay1693 Words   |  7 PagesAnswer1. Roles and Importance of Human Resource Management Human Resource Management is the procedure of requirement, selection, giving orientation , making giving trainings to employees and the creating skills, appraisal of worker , giving remuneration and advantages, benefits, providing motivation, keeping up workers security, welfare and wellbeing by following work laws of concern state or nation. Human Resource Management is the procedure of usage of accessible restricted talented workforceRead MoreQuestions On Human Resource Management Essay1742 Words   |  7 PagesBy: KOMAL Answer 1. Human resource Management is very important in every organization. It satisfies the needs of man power and creates an atmosphere where all employees can work together to achieve the goals of an organization. HRM role is to plan how to recruit right people and give experienced and well trained workforce to organization.It makes plans for training and development of hunman resource in an organization.The main functions of Human Resource Management in an organization are givenRead MoreHuman Resource Management and Strategic Human Resource Management1136 Words   |  5 PagesManaging Human Resources, 3rd edn, John Wiley Sons, Milton, Qld. In chapter 1 of the text, the author shows an overview of human resource management and strategic human resource management. The author also shows the relationship between HRM and management, manager’s role meaning of strategy, strategic approach to HRM and strategic challenges. Lots of diagrams and explanations are used by the author. This chapter has contributed to my understanding of strategic human resource management by analysingRead MoreSwot Approaches Of Strategic Human Resource Management Essay1603 Words   |  7 PagesEssay: SHRM Approaches Analyzing Case Study Introduction Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a design and an approach for managing the companies human resources and the needs of their employees along with goals of the company, it requires thinking ahead and making the new ways for the organization to meet requirements of their employees and the employees should fulfil the requirements of the organization as well as achieving the sustainable competitive advantages(BrattonGold,2012)Read MoreGeneral Guidelines And Rules On Risk Management1550 Words   |  7 PagesISO 31000:2009 explains the general guidelines and rules on risk management. These guidelines are used by associations, companies, organisations, private, communities, public and groups or individuals. Hence, ISO 31000:2009 does not limit to any particular industry. ISO 31000:2009 can be brought in application for the whole life span of an organization, and to a broad area of activities, which covers plans and strategies, decision making processes, specific functions, product and services etc. ThisRead MoreThe Key Financial Commitments That The Company Must Make A Strategy For Managing Human Resources818 Words   |  4 PagesThe key financial commitments that the company must make are the following ones. In fact, for sound financial management of the company, decision makers of Wal-Mart should develop consistent tools. They have to find both forecasting tools and control tools. Indeed, forecasting tools are tools that are based on objectives to achieve. In general, it is made by the internal workers to the company to guide those responsible for achieving the financial objectives of the company. Moreover, the controlRead MoreExamples of Ihrm and Domestic Hrm Essay841 Words   |  4 Pagesmultinational ventures stem from a lack of understanding of the essential differences in managing human resources in foreign environments (Desatnick Bennett 1978). The world has become more globalized, competitive, dynamic and uncertain than ever before. As more and more firms operate internationally, the search for the elements of global competitive advantage is a prominent theme in the management literature (Dickman Mà ¼ller-Camen, 2006: 580). There is a clear need to develop an understandingRead MoreGeneral Guidelines And Rules On Risk Management1620 Words   |  7 PagesSO 31000:2009 explains the general guidelines and rules on risk management. These guidelines are used by associations, companies, organisations, private, communities, public and groups or individuals. Hence, ISO 31000:2009 does not limit to any particular industry. ISO 31000:2009 can be brought in application for the whole life span of an organization, and to a broad area of activities, which covers plans and strategies, decision making processes, specific functions, product and services etc. ThisRead MoreThe Long Term Performance Of A Company1558 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Greek terms Stratos (army) and agein (lead). In the managerial context, and in today s meaning, that word has replaced the more traditional term long-term planning, to denote a specific pattern of decisions and actions taken by the highest level of the organization to achieve the performance targets. In this context, the strategic management is defined, therefore, as that set of decisions and actions taken by management to assess the long term performance of a company. The world of organizations

Essay On Girl Interrupted - 1847 Words

In the 1960s, people were focused on the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, and the hippie movement in general. Unfortunately, there was a subject that was not focused on and looked over by society, mental illness. In the 1960s, mental illness was in the era of deinstitutionalization, this lead to the release of thousands of people in mental health facilities being let lose, to defend themselves against the world and their own self. Even though this movement was trying to push people out of these facilities, they still had inpatient who lived within the institution, for example a Susanna Kaysen. Susanna Kaysen, an author who published her memoir in 1993, called Girl Interrupted, which gave readers a view into the mental health system†¦show more content†¦While at Mclean, she has her boyfriend visit and they try to mess around, which is strictly prohibited. It can be concluded that she uses men like a safety blanket for attention and affection, but she goes past the poin t of a healthy sexual relationship. Another example of Susanna’s poor friend choices was Lisa who is viewed as the antagonist in the book, is diagnosed as a sociopath, which leads her to getting into many fights, dangerous situations, and causes her to treat others poorly. Throughout the book she is extremely manipulative towards the other women at McLean, and created an unhealthy hierarchy. She is very kind at first, until she does not get her way, then her selfish and explosive side comes out. Lisa uses her cool and cocky attitude to persuade Susanna into many dangerous situations. While being pressured by Lisa, Susanna stopped taking her medication prescribed to her by her psychiatrist and eventually escaped McLean together for a few days. Susanna was engaging in so many dangerous activities and her behavior only worsened her situation. But Susanna was also scared of Lisa because of her sinister side, which is why it took Susanna to part ways and focus on her recovery. Their friendship is very self-destructiv e to both, and causes many complications for theirShow MoreRelatedEssay On Girl Interrupted1394 Words   |  6 Pagesto spread awareness on said condition. â€Å"Girl, Interrupted† by Susanna Kaysen is a memoir telling the story of a young girl taken to a psychiatric hospital in the late 60s. The memoir was published in 1993 and continues to have an impact due to its descriptions of mental illness. By analyzing the memoirist’s descriptions of her time spent hospitalized and her perspective on these experiences, it is evident that Susanna Kaysen’s purpose with â€Å"Girl, Interrupted† is to seek awareness of mental illnessRead More Girl Interrupted Essay986 Words   |  4 Pages GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993) 1. Author: Susanna Kayson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1948 where she still lives. She is the author of books which are in some parts related to her personal experiences. She worked as a free-lance editor and proof reader until an introduction to an agent set her career in motion. Her novels: The novel that caught the agents attention, Asa, As I Knew Him, was published in 1987 and people were very interested inRead More Girl interrupted Essay1143 Words   |  5 Pageslike this can thrive; the only treatment they have is appreciation for the life they take away from a patient. WORKS CITED PAGE Quote #1- Page 21-FREEDOM- Girl, Interrupted Quote #2- Page 80-SECURITY SCREEN-Girl, Interrupted Quote #3 Page 54-CHECKS-Girl, Interrupted nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Girl, Interrupted- By Susanna Kaysen Copyright 1993 Originally published by Turtle Bay Books, A Division of Random House, INC, NY 1993 Web Pages . www.antipsychiatry.org Article on-------Read More Girl, Interrupted Essay1244 Words   |  5 Pages Girl, Interrupted Part I: Critical Analysis Author: Susanna Kaysen. Girl, Interrupted: New York Division of Random House. Inc 1993. 1.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;What is the author’s topic? The author’s topic is about a teenager name Susanna Kaysen. At 18 she voluntarily turned herself into McLean Hospital. 2. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Identify the author’s main idea(s). In other words, what is the main point the author is attempting to make aboutRead MoreEssay On Girl Interrupted1567 Words   |  7 PagesFor this assignment, I chose the movie Girl, Interrupted starring Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, and Whoppie Goldberg. It is set in the 1960’s and is about a young woman, Susanna Kaysen, who is diagnosis with borderline personality disorder. In the beginning the movie, she’d attempted suicide using aspirin and vodka, though she insists she just had a headache for most of movie. She is persuaded to go to a nearby mental hospital, Claymore, where she begins her stay and treatment. In the facility, sheRead MoreEssay on Girl Interrupted Review785 Words   |  4 PagesOne popular cultural myth about the mentally ill is the archetype of the Sexy Crazy Girl, which weve seen in movies, comic books, and music. Losing your grip with reality is not a glamorous subject, but th ats not what you get from Girl, Interrupted. It is apparent that all the girls in the movie had some type of dysfunctional personality, and bad things happen to some of them, but it just did not seem realistic. First off, most of the patients prtrayed were young, which made the care facilityRead MoreGirl Interrupted Analysis Essay1848 Words   |  8 PagesGirl, Interrupted (1999) directed by James Mangold is largely based on a semi- autobiographical book by the same title. The movie chronicles eighteen year old Susanna Kaysen’s experiences surrounding her stay at a mental institution. It is 1967, a time of social change and unrest. Susanna makes a half-heart attempt at suicide, ingesting a bottle of aspirin and chasing the pills with a bottle of vodka. She is taken to the emergency room, her stomach is pumped and she survives. Afterwards she meetsRead MoreGirl Interrupted Essay example600 Words   |  3 PagesGirl, Interrupted Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric illness. People that are diagnosed with this disorder suffer from an intense pattern of affective instability, extreme difficulties in interpersonal relationships, problems with behavioral or impulse control, and disrupted cognitive processes. The estimated prevalence of BPD in the general adult population is about 2%, mostly affecting young women. Susanna Kaysen was born on November 11, 1948 in Cambridge, MassachusettsRead MoreEssay about girl interrupted review753 Words   |  4 Pages One popular cultural myth about the mentally ill is the archetype of the quot;Sexy Crazy Girlquot;, which weve seen in movies, comic books, and music. Losing your grip with reality is not a glamorous subject, but thats not what you get from Girl, Interrupted. It is apparent that all the girls in the movie had some type of dysfunctional personality, and bad things happen to some of them, but it just did not seem realistic. First off, most of the patients prtrayed were young, which made the careRead MoreThe Portrayal of Mental Illness in â€Å"Girl, Interrupted† Essay1693 Words   |  7 PagesIllness in â€Å"Girl, Interrupted† The film â€Å"Girl, Interrupted† is a true story adapted from the original memoir by Susanna Kaysen. Set in the 1960s, it relates her experiences during her stay in a mental institution after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder following a suicide attempt. Many films include characters with a mental illness; the actors who play these characters have the immense challenge of staying true to the illness they portray. The main character in â€Å"Girl, Interrupted

Activity Based Costing in Management Accounting free essay sample

Activity Based Costing or ABC, a subset of Activity Based Management, is â€Å"a management reporting system that focused on the costs of the work activities associated with operating the business in lieu of the standard cost centers† (cms.hhs.gov). On the other hand, Activity Base Management â€Å"refers to any actions that might be taken based on the ABC information† (Anthony, Hawkins Merchant 600). Some of these actions might include pricing strategies, supplier selection, customer selection, product mixes, and product designs (Anthony, Hawkins Merchant 600). This costing tool was developed by Robin Cooper and Robert Kaplan (Kennett, D. , Durler, M. Downs, A. 20).The ABC costing method â€Å"attempts to provide a better model of the costs of producing products or providing services and delivering them to customers† (Anthony, Hawkins Merchant 596). This is accomplished through a more in-depth study of the activities involved in â€Å"producing products or providing services and delivering them to customers† (Anthony, Hawkins Merchant 596) and the resources, such as capital and human, utilised by these activities. Because of this inherent characteristic of the ABC model, it is not used for accounting for products and inventories in the books or business organisations rather it is used as an estimating tool. ABC is more than just a simple costing system (Baines 12). Baines claimed that ABC â€Å"forms the heart of a business improvement programmes, but one driven by information on the costs of activities undertaken† (12).A survey in the early 1990s of United Kingdom companies reported that only 6 per cent of the respondents had integrated ABC in their processes (Anthony, Hawkins Merchant 601). This figure has improved since that survey; however, a similar study in the United Kingdom found out that firms which had implemented ABC have better stock returns than firms which have not (Anthony, Hawkins Merchant 602). A research done by Kennedy and Affleck-Graves involving a sample of United Kingdom firms showed that â€Å"firms adopting activity-based costing techniques outperform matched non-ABC firms by approximately 27 percent over the three years beginning on January 1 of the year in which the ABC techniques are first implemented† (19).Activity Based Costing: Relevance and LimitationsAdapting ABC in an organisation is costly and creates change on how organisation behaves toward financial information. The changes resulting from implementing ABC might also result to disruptions in the production and operation processes of the business organisation. Fortunately, â€Å"ABC is not required for external financial reporting, [as such organisations] should implement ABC only if the expected benefits are greater than the expected costs (Kennett, D. , Durler, M. Downs, A. 20).RelevanceGeiger suggested three necessary conditions for a successful ABC application and implementation: usefulness, credibility, and affordability (Kennett, D., Durler, M. Downs, A. 20). The information provided by ABC should be useful to intended users, credible, and affordable. One of the usefulness of the information provided by ABC is it â€Å"directs management’s attention to underlying causes (drivers) of cost and product† (Drury 60). This is important because product costs play a major role in the pricing strategies of businesses.Kennedy and Affleck Graves opined that â€Å"[by} more accurately attributing cost to products, services, and customers, ABC can play an important role in providing relevant information for management operating decisions, which, in turn, should impact on profitability and, ultimately, shareholder value† (21).ABC and ABM have a use in the customer relationship management. Information provided by ABC can be used to analyse the profitability of a customer or customer group. â€Å"Sweeney and Mays (1997) reference the First Tennessee National Corporation, a regional US bank, where 30 percent of customers were found to be providing 88 percent of the companys profit, while another 30 percent generated a loss of 7 percent† (Patridge ; Perren 560). This situation can be corrected through ABC.In improving an organisation’s value chain, ABC can be used to cost and analysed the value of the company’s value added and non-value added activities. â€Å"The identification and cost analysis of NVA activities act as a trigger to stimulate their reduction or elimination† (Patridge ; Perren 560). As such, ABC aids management in understanding how all levels of the organisation integrate to create a single chain of value-creation.In business process reengineering or BPR, ABC aids management in measuring before and after costs of processes as a direct result of the BPR initiative of the company (Patridge ; Perren 560). Costing information provided by ABC also supports the strategic and operational decisions regarding product lines, market segments, customer relationships and process improvements (â€Å"Activity-based costing management: a growing practice† 17).Another relevance of activity based costing as sugges ted by Ward and Pattel is that it â€Å"provides a sound foundation of future cash flow projections† (Kennedy ; Affleck-Graves 21). ABC can do this through an improved customer relationship management as a result of the elimination of non-value adding activities identified and accounted by ABC. Ward and Pattel argued that the information provided by activity based costing â€Å"leads to investment in value-added activities that support products, services, customers, and market segments, thereby increasing shareholder value† (Kennedy ; Affleck-Graves 21).Activity based costing is also very useful in a company’s budgeting process. With this importance, the use of activity based costing in performance management of a company’s different departments including production and sales goes hand in hand. The use of activity based costing information in budgeting for the company’s future operations give a more realistic view of how much resources the company needs in that future.ABC information lends flexibility to the organization’s budgeting processes. The flexibility stems from the fac t that ABC budgets allow for the adjustments of budget data in accordance with actual productions and/ore sales. Morrow and Connelly said that â€Å"in using an activity basis for resource allocation and on going monitoring, the approach can [even] be extended for important activities to help focus on continuous improvement and to ensure that decision making is taken with a better understanding of the cost implications.† (40).The use of activity based costing is not for every organisation. ABC has a lot of underlying assumptions and the violation of any one result to â€Å"costing distortions† (Latshaw ; Cortese-Danile 321) which will result to inaccurate product costing method, and then incorrect pricing strategies. Unless an organisation has homogeneous product or service cost drivers, and a well-proportioned cost pool in relation to the activity, ABC will not work for the firm (Latshaw ; Cortese-Danile 31).Activity Based Costing also requires that costs be identified as either variable or fixed. In reality, costs don’t behave in a straight line all the time. There are costs called mixed costs which display the characteristics of both fixed and variable costs. In practice separating the variable and fixed component of a mixed cost might not be straightforward, but rather subjective which defeats the purpose of ABC.Because of the difficulty in implementing ABC, a company can opt instead not to allocate its overhead costs into its products or services. This method utilises variable costing which only considers the costs directly attributable in the making of the product or in delivering the service (Drury 63). Many companies who had implemented ABC had failed to realise the benefits promised. This is so because many of these companies failed to â€Å"understand the impact (even shock)† (Buys ; Green 37) implementing activity based costing brings.Activity Based Costing: TrendsActivity Based Costing which is very popular product or service costing method in the private sector has started to gain grown in government offices. The City of Indianapolis in the United States has implemented ABC to provide several needs of the city government. These needs are accurate information about the cost to provide city services, measuring productivity, measuring the quality of service delivery, and measuring the efficiency of service delivery. In implementing ABC, the city expects to benefit from the costing method through an improved management, significant improvement in service and cost savings, and delivered a dollars worth of service for each dollar of investment (Simpson Williams 26). This trend is observed in other areas in the United States and the rest of the world.In a survey done in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, which was participated in by several chief administrative officers of various municipalities, aimed to â€Å"understand the use of contemporary management techniques by municipal governments, their effectiveness, and future expectations† (Kidwell, Ho, Blake, Wraith, et al 63 ). The contemporary management techniques included in the research study are activity based costing, activity based management, benchmarking, process reengineering, total quality management, and balanced scorecard. The result of the survey revealed that only 3. 3 per cent of the 105 respondents from the United Kingdom considers activity based costing as ‘very effective’ in municipal government, and 80 per cent of them said that it is ‘moderately effective’ (Kidwell, Ho, Blake, Wraith, et al 64-65).Activity Based Costing is increasingly being used in the health care system. Health care providers need calculate the costs of providing health care to each patient in all departments. Costs are collected for â€Å"each in-patient day, out-patient visit, each test and procedure performed and each drug prescribed (Beck, Beecham, Mandalia, Griffith, Walters, Boulton Miller 311). Costing health care will help the hospital better manage its resources and the government to better manage the country’s health care system.Another ensuing trend in the use of activity base costing is its use in the service industry. Take the banking sector for example. Contrary to what, Peter Drucker, the management guru said on the non existence of cost information of service industries (Max 23) there is a growing need and demand for the service industry to properly manage the costs that go into service delivery. Truly business enterprises were created to extend the wealth of its owners, as such there is a need to manage the costs associated in providing the business enterprises’ products and services to their customers.Logically, the more control a business organization exercises on its costs, then the more it can contain those costs to their desirable levels. As costs are contain, profit of the organization is maximized, which will result to a better wealth creation for the business owners. The banking sector had â€Å"traditionally used average costs as part of [its] profitability analysis† (Max 24). But as the banking sector become more complex in terms of the financial products and services they provide to their clients, the co st structures of these products and services become increasingly more complex. â€Å"As a result [of this complexity], average costs have never been more inappropriate† (Max 25). Today banks have identified several ways to leverage cost and profitability information. These new and unique methods are activity based pricing, linkage between activity based costing information and performance management scorecards and processes, information on the profitability of discrete customer relationships, and information on a process view of costs (Max 26).ConclusionsNumerous research studies done on the bottom line impact of activity based costing have shown that companies who use ABC performs better than those who don’t. It is therefore important for a business organisation planning to implement ABC to assess and plan on how to proceed with the project. CMA suggested nine generic steps that a company can follow: 1) identify and assess ABC needs, 2) training requirement, 3) define the project scope, 4) identify activities and drivers, 5) create a cost and operational flow diagram or schematic, 6) collect data, 7) build a software model, validate and reconcile, 8) interpret results and prepare management reports, and 9) integrate data collection and reporting (â€Å"Activity-based costing management: a growing practice† 17).In an increasingly competitive and global marketplace, an organisation needs to gain, develop and sustain its competitive advantage in order to survive. One way for it to gain, develop and sustain competitive advantages is through activity based costing. ABC aids companies in improving business processes particularly those processes identified in the production of products and delivery of services to customers. It also helps companies to streamline their value and supply chains by identifying and costing non-value adding activities and links.Lastly, management and their organisations must keep in mind that â€Å"[activity] based costing is not (another) cure all† (Baines 13). It has its own limitations. It doesn’t stand alone. It must work and integrated with the other processes of a business organisation for that firm to realise the optimal value of activity based costing and activity based management.Referencesâ€Å"Activity-based costing management: a growing practice. † CMA 67.2 (Mar. 1993): 17.Anthony, R., Hawkins, D. and Merchant, K. Accounting Text Cases. 11th ed. Boston, Massachussets: McGraw-Hill, 2003.Baines, A.†Activity-based costing.† Work Study 41.2 (Mar/Apr 1992): 12-13.Beck, E. , Beecham, J., Mandalia, S., Griffith, R., Walters, M., Boulton, M. Miller, D. â€Å"What is the cost of getting the price wrong?† Journal of Public Health Medicine 21. 3 (Sept. 1999): 311-317.Buys, P. Green, K. â€Å"Costing Techniques – Activity based Costing.† Accountancy SA (Nov. 2006): 36-37. cms.hhs.gov. â€Å"Activity Based Costing.† www.cms.hhs. gov. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ActivityBasedCosting/02_ActivityBasedCosting.asp (18 Mar. 2007). Drury, C. â€Å"Product Costs: Activity-Based Costing.† Management Accounting 67.8 (Sept. 1989): 60-64.Kennedy, T. Affleck-Graves, J. â€Å"The Impact of Activity-Based Costing Techniques on Firm Performance.† Journal of Management Accounting Research 13 (2001): 19- 45.

Colours free essay sample

Colours BY kittY123456123 Have you ever thought that perhaps, the only colour in real life is white? White light is indeed the bearer of all colours. The colours we see are reflections bouncing off an object or are the light source itself. The light sources change and the colours with them. Colour is not a stable affair. Colour is light alone, but our experience is so direct that we trust our eye and believe that a colour is inherent to an object. Imagine living in a world where everything is white in colour! However, the world we live in is, thankfully, full of colours, and they trigger emotional esponses as they influence our feelings and us. Interestingly, colours can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite. Colours are the basic things in life, yet it plays an important role in our life. We will write a custom essay sample on Colours or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However, most of us take it for granted. For example, each time we wake up to a brand new day, we would take it for granted that we can see the colours of our bedrooms. At night when we go to sleep, we do not count our blessings for the beautiful colours that we have been looking at all day. We are fortunate that we are able to see the many wondrous colours around us. Some cannot see them. They are colourblind. All that they can see is black and white. Some cannot even see anything. All they see is pitch black as they are blind. We take our eyesight for granted, that each new morning, when we open our eyes, we will be able to see the colours around us. What if one day, when we open our eyes and find that our room is in black and white, how dull life would be. Imagine a life without colours. A black and white rainbow, your favourite television rogram in black and white, every single item of clothing looks black and white, life would be so boring. Everywhere you look, each time you turn around, everything in sight is in black and white. Colours are linked to our moods. For example, green represents Jealousy, red represents anger, blue represents sadness, and yellow represents cheerfulness and so on. As a powerful form of communication, colours are irreplaceable. Red means stop and green means go. Traffic lights send this universal message. Likewise, the colours used for a product, web site, business card, or logo cause powerful reactions. We would usually go for the brighter and more colourful design as it looks more appealing and interesting to us. If colours never exist, the world would be such a dark and gloomy place. In a picture, colours capture the mood of the moment. It shows the atmosphere of the picture without you actually being t here to witness it. The evolution of cameras is usually dark and gloomy give a sad and angry feeling, mostly it being a sad occasion. Pictures that are bright and cheerful usually give a happy feeling, mostly it being a joyous occasion. Colours also show the ambience of an occasion. For example, during Chinese New Year, the colours used to decorate their house are very important as to the Chinese, colours means a lot. Red, would be the primary decorative colour as it is an auspicious colour. It helps to keep evil away. Orange and yellow are also used in the decorations. Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with Joy and sunshine. Orange represents enthusiasm, happiness and success. Yellow connotes royalty, prosperity and luck. Likewise, during a funeral, black and white are used as it stands for mourning and cheerless occasions. Black is for the loss, and white for their passing onto the heavens. There are also different meanings when you wear a certain coloured cloth. For example, during the Elizabeth era, the colours of clothing worn provided instant information about the person wearing them. A man or women who wore purple clothes would be immediately recognized as a member of royalty. Gold, silver, crimson or scarlet, deep indigo blue, violet colours and even deep black and pure white colours were only worn by the highest nobility in the land. The colours of Elizabethan clothes provided information about the status of the man or woman wearing them. This was not Just dictated by the wealth of the person, it also reflected their social standing. An interesting fact about colours is that certain colours can reduce energy consumption! The scientific fact is that white reflects the radiant energy rays of the sun and black absorbs them. The same principle has a significant impact on a house. The hotter the roof is, the hotter the air in the rooms below and the hotter the air is, the cooler we will on our air-conditioners, thus, making use of more energy. However, light coloured roofing are like a white shirt for your house because they reflect radiant energy. Even a light grey hue is better than a blue or green. There are also the symbolic meanings for colours in dreams. The purpose of colour in a dream is to act as a healing agent or guide. The character in the dream who wears the colour and the position of the colour relative to the dreamer are important in interpreting the meaning of the colour. For example, a colour above the dreamer, like in the sky, indicates something the dreamer needs to strive for. The following is a list f colours and their general meanings in dreams: violet represents spiritual understanding; indigo represents perception; blue represents philosophy or expression; green represents sharing, harmony ore balance; yellow represents elimination; orange represents assimilation; and red represents creative energy. We have always taken the beautiful colours we see for granted, never really thinking and reflecting in the many ways in which colours affects our lives. Perhaps we should start to count our blessings before it is too late, when things become as black as