This case describes an ethical dilemma faced by Amma Adobea. Amma works for APM, a micro-finance and small-business-finance organization. (Micro-finance organizations provide very small loans to people who want to start or expand small businesses. The amounts of these loans are often too small to interest banks, so an alternative source of credit is needed.

Amma attends an annual meeting of APM, where top managers got large “”gifts” (a new car at her level of management), and even lower-level employees received incentives. Amma is concerned about these “incentives” because the organization’s profits have been declining in recent years, while the amount of money spent on executive rewards has gone up and up. The current CEO seems to be spending significant sums of money on activities that are not directly connected to the financial health of the organization.

Discussion Questions:

1. What action do you think Amma is about to take? What options might she be considering?
Amma’s discomfort with the behavior of top management leads me to believe she is going to the press, or to some regulatory agency, to “blow the whistle” on the unethical behavior by top management at APM. She may be planning to resign first, however; resigning before she is fired by top management will give her greater credibility. It is unlikely that she will do nothing at all, given her level of distress and concern for the organization and its stakeholders.
If she chooses to go to the press, she will be burning her bridges at APM and will likely lose her job. Depending on how influential top management at APM is across the alternative finance industry, she might be blackballed by the entire industry and not be able to find another job. She will need to have copies of documentation showing the excess spending, and taking that information out of the firm might lead to violations of laws that govern operations of such organizations. This is the highest-risk option that she can take.
If there is a regulatory agency that oversees her firm, she could go to this organization, but she is in a position where she is not describing stealing from the organization, just excessive spending by top management. Government and organizational corruption is common in Ghana, so the risk here is that the regulators may already be controlled by the CEO, Amponsah. She will need a great deal of information in order to decide whether to take this action. She will not want to take this action until she knows what the ethical climate is like at the regulatory agency.
Amma could also go to top management and express her concerns. She is unlikely to make much headway but this strategy is the least risky, in terms of threats to her job and livelihood. If there is a way to reach out to the investors at APM, that might be the best action to take, because they are the only group that may have the power to take action.

2. What are the implications of each option for :
a. Amma?
b. APM?
c. The investors?
d. The community members who borrow from APM?

Any strategy that “blows the whistle” on the situation at APM will be risky for Amma. Her negative interpretation of the events within APM, if given to the media or investors before approaching the CEO, will likely lead to her being fired. If no one shares her interpretation of events, then she will have burned her bridges without making anything better for the borrowers who use APM to better their lives. Amma needs to find someone who will take her seriously, because if the present trend continues, APM will go bankrupt, the investors will lose their money, and small business owners will lose a vital source of financing.

3. What practical action steps would you advise her to take considering the risks and returns involved in each scenario?
First, I would advise her to wait for a while – a couple of weeks, at least – to give herself time to build some bridges OUT of APM. She should put resumes out, contact any colleagues who might be able to advise her about job openings and how to handle this situation. She needs to provide herself with an avenue of exit before there is a backlash against her inside APM.
Second, I would advise her to amass as much specific information as possible before taking any action. If she can create a body of information regarding the financial trends in the company over the past 3- 5 years, that data will be persuasive and supportive of her message of concerns.
Third, I would suggest that she ask other staff members (behind the scenes, of course) to join her in expressing these concerns about financial stability at APM. She will gain more credibility if she is part of a team that is concerned about the condition of the organization.
Fourth, I would advise her to recognize that coming forward may lead to significant criticism in the press and in the industry. She needs to be willing to endure this criticism if she plans to take action and report on the poor financial management at APM.

Write a ~1000 word critical analysis of one of the stories we read last week. Do not merely summarize the story (re-read Trimble’s essay “How to Write a Critical Analysis” for more on this); rather, attempt to show how and explore why an author creates a “desired effect” in his/her short story. There are many ways to go about this, but one approach is to select two or three of the “Terms Used in Literary Analysis” and analyze how they function in a specific story. You may also focus on one or two terms and compare/contrast how they work in two of the stories.

This essay is worth 50 points. What I’m looking for, primarily, is that you understand the fundamental approach we’re taking here in 1B: that stories can be dissected and analyzed by scrutinizing their component parts and showing your reader how those parts contribute to the story’s meaning or overall effect. To do this you will have to come up with a strong interpretive assertion about the text, which you should express in a clear thesis statement at the end of your opening paragraph. See the “Outline” file posted in this week’s assignment block for specific instructions on a good way to construct a thesis statement and to structure this first essay.

Some additional notes:

-Be sure to read over the other essay-related files presented in this week’s assignment block before you start writing.

– Give your essay an original title (not just “Essay 1” or “Critical Analysis”). The way most English teachers like titles is to try to use a colon, so something like: “Plots Are For Dead People: Analyzing Lorrie Moore’s Syntax and Sarcasm.”

– Please double space your text, use a 12 point font, and include your name and the date you last worked on the essay in the upper left hand corner of each draft you submit.

– You are not required to use outside research for this essay, but if you do want to include sources, you must cite them according to MLA standards and include a Works Cited page at the end of your essay. See the link in this week’s assignment block for a reference guide to all formatting and citation questions.

– As Trimble stresses in his essay, as an analyst you must assume that your reader already knows the story, so you don’t need to recount the plot unless it’s necessary to make an analytical point.

– Periods and commas go inside quotation marks, like this: ,” .” unless you have a citation at the end of a quote, like this: “quote quote” (Moore). Also, avoid floating quotes by integrating each quote into the syntax of your own sentence. A quote from a source should never stand alone as its own sentence in your essay.

– Be sure to use the “literary present” when discussing works of fiction (see Trimble’s essay for more on this).

– A formal critical essay should not be an account of how you experienced the text in question–it should be an analysis of the text and an explication of how the author “achieves a desired effect” in a given story. To that end, replace “I felt” statements with “the author makes us feel” and see how that small adjustment alters the tone and critical perspective of your essay. It should move it away from being an informal response paper—the kind of in-class writing teachers might make you do to see if you’ve read the text—and closer to genuine critical analysis.

Attached document will provide you with information on the case you will need to conduct research,

You will now put yourself in the shoes of a paralegal working at a defense law firm. A defendant in the Justin King complaint has retained your law firm to represent it against Mr. King.

Your supervising attorney has asked you to do some preliminary research to determine what legal, affirmative defenses your client may have in this case.

You should conduct legal research on Westlaw to research cases. To access Westlaw, click on the Library under Academic Tools. No separate sign-on is required. You will then click on Westlaw Campus Research.

View a video tutorial on how to use Westlaw.

After viewing the tutorial, conduct research of cases of affirmative defenses on Westlaw. Select one case which you think is most relevant for the case. You should select a published or reported case for this Assignment. Do not select an unpublished case. Some courts prohibit using unpublished cases. Unpublished cases also carry less weight and authority than published cases. Go to the “Course Documents” section under Course Resources to access files to assist you in your Assignment.

Part 1. Research Strategy: In Part 1, explain your research strategy. Write this in first person. Make sure to write in complete sentences and paragraphs. You should state the database or sources of documents that you searched (e.g., Illinois state cases), the search method you used (e.g., “advanced search” or “easy search”), and the search terms you used. You should state how you used KeyCite to verify that the case has not been reversed or overruled. You should also explain the strategies you used to refine the search such as revising the initial search terms, limiting the search by date, and other search strategies.

Part 2. Case Citation and Summary: In Part 2, provide the citation for the case you selected in Bluebook citation format and provide a summary of the case and affirmative defense described in the case. The summary should provide a summary of the facts and holding in the case you select focusing on the affirmative defense.

Your initial post should be 250-350 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.

!) Compare the confrontational and cooperative police labor-management models. What organizational circumstances are necessary for each model to be successful? What organizational or community situations make one model more appropriate than the other? Which model do you prefer?

2) Identify the options that communities have regarding the influence, support, or removal of a politically appointed Police Chief. How influential can the community, labor union, or political leadership be in supporting a chief who is under fire by opposition supporters? Conduct research and cite an example that is not included in the assigned readings.

3) As collective bargaining regarding public employees pay, benefits, and pension obligations agreements have become a significant issue across the United States, complete a comparison of the three models of collective bargaining. In your analysis, identify which model(s) are more advantageous to either labor or management and why. How does the reduction of employee rights in several states affect law enforcement? What impact does the inability to strike have on the collective bargaining process?

EACH QUESTION SHOULD BE 250-300 WORDS WITH REFERENCES