Statistics in Business Essay Example for Free

Statistics in Business Essay The purpose of this essay is to examine the purpose of statistics in business. Our text, Lind (2011) defines statistics as â€Å"The science of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing, and interpreting data to assist in making more effective decisions† (p.5). Types and levels of statistics There are two major types of statistics, descriptive and inferential. Descriptive statistics is defined by Lind (2011) as â€Å"methods of organizing, summarizing, and presenting data in an informative way† (p.6). An example of descriptive statistics would be a high school report showing that it had 300 graduates in 1990 and 450 graduates on 1991. The information that they provided described the amount of graduates that they had for each year. Inferential statistics is defined by Lind (2011) as â€Å"the methods used to estimate a property of a population on the basis of a sample† (p.7). If the same high school sent out a report showing the graduate numbers for 1999- the present to estimate the number of graduates that they would have for this school year, those statistics would be inferential because they are used to estimate future outcomes. There are four levels of statistical data: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. The nominal level deals with qualitative variables such as colors and blood types that can only be counted and classified. Ordinal data measurement is a variable rating system that ranks data according to predetermined categories that have only relative values such as poor, average, and good. Data can be ranked and ordered using this method. Interval data measurement adds to the ordered level by adding the characteristic of a consistently measured differential. A thermometer is an interval measurement tool. Differences in degrees of temperature are consistent between the level intervals. The last level of statistics is ratio-level data; this is used for quantitative data recording. It builds upon the interval measurement by adding that â€Å"point 0 is meaningful and the ratio between two numbers is meaningful† (p.13). An  example of ratio level data would be weight. A scale is calibrated at â€Å"0† and is measured in increments of one pound or kilogram to determine a person’s weigh or the difference of weigh between two individuals or products. The role of statistics in business Statistics are the lifeline of a business. A business relies on good statistical data to determine its financial standing, projecting future sales and projects, and to provide the management team with information to make sound business decisions. When we look at statistics in the business world we are primarily concerned with their bearing on profits, investments, hours worked, and wages. The decision making process is made easier by analyzing data to determine the best course of action instead of taking uneducated risks. An example of the importance of statistics in business would be forecasting. We recently hired additional personnel based on historical data on first quarter sales and average call handle time of our phone staff. We took the archived data that showed how many calls were taken in our call center, the number of personnel on the phones, and the average time of each call. We used this historical information from the last three years to determine how many people we will need on the phones at any given time during first quarter. This data allowed us to be proactive in staffing and fund allocation to meet the needs of our customers and phone staff. Conclusion Statistics play a vital role in the business world. We are a smarter and more intuitive society of decision makers because of statistics. A business is more stable when the guess work is taken out of the equation and replaced with data analysis that produces sound business decisions and planning. References Lind, D., Marchal, W., Wathen, S. (2011). Basic statistics for business and economics (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Sambia And Hutterite Societal Threats :: essays research papers

Threats are everywhere. Every community in the world faces some sort of threats from time to time. These threats can be large or small, can come from inside or outside of the colony, and can have devastating effects on the group as a whole or as individuals. Quite often, parallels can be drawn between societies that have nothing to everything in common. This is found when comparing two dramatically different groups in the Sambia and the Hutterites. When first comparing the Hutterites and Sambia, one notices the glaring differences. The Sambia are a tribe living in the jungles of New Guinea. The Hutterites are a group that lives communally on large farm areas. The Sambia live what looks to most an uncivilized and savage way of life. The Hutterites live in established communities with many modern conveniences. The Sambia is a black tribe, while Hutterites are white. After these obvious differences, it is hard to imagine that there would be anything in common between the two groups. Looking deeper into the groups, it is easy to find several instances where they have very similar societal threats. Both the Sambia and Hutterite groups face threats from inside their communities. These internal threats can be very minor to something that might tear the group apart. One example of an internal threat comes from the sex differences that exist in each group. Both the Sambia and Hutterites have specific male and female gender roles. The Sambia men are the warriors, leaders and hunters. The women cook, raise children and gather certain crops. In the Hutterite community, the men are farmers, both group and spiritual leaders, and top of the hierarchical ladder. The women have the household duties of cleaning, cooking, child rearing and clothes making. There is no deviation from these distinct gender roles. In both societies, women are seen as being beneath the men and having to follow the orders of men. In both of these groups, the women marry in from an outside group. The women come into the home of the husband, with all of his family and friends surrounding them. She does not know anyone there, and must start anew. This and the distinct gender roles lead to male and female subcultures. The Sambia women do not understand the men's rituals, make fun of them and do not share in the joy they receive from the process.

The Computer Technology

Computers are capable of doing more things every year. There are many advantages to knowing how to use a computer, and it is important that everyone know how to use them properly. Using the information I have gathered, and my own knowledge from my 12 years of computer experience, I will explain the many advantages of owning a computer and knowing how to use a PC and I will attempt to explain why you should purchase a computer and learn how to use one properly. Webster's New World Compact Dictionary defines a computer as â€Å"an electronic machine that performs rapid, complex calculations or compiles and correlates data† (â€Å"Computer. ). While this definition gives one a very narrow view of what a computer is capable of doing, it does describe the basic ideas of what I will expand upon. We have been living through an age of computers for a short while now and there are already many people world wide that are computer literate. According to Using Computers: A Gateway to Information World Wide Web Edition, over 250 million Personal Computers (PC's) were in use by 1995, and one out of every three homes had a PC (Shelly, Cashman,& Waggoner, 138). Computers are easy to use when you know how they work and what the parts are. All computers perform the four basic operations of the information processing cycle: input, process, output, and storage. Data, any kind of raw facts, is required for the processing cycle to occur. Data is processed into useful information by the computer hardware. Most computer systems consist of a monitor, a system unit which contains the Central Processing Unit (CPU), a floppy-disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, speakers, a keyboard, a mouse, and a printer. Each component takes a part in one of the four operations. The keyboard and mouse are input devices that a person uses to enter data into the computer. From there the data goes to the system unit where it is processed into useful information the computer can understand and work with. Next the processed data can be sent to storage devices or to output devices. Normally output is sent to the monitor and stored on the hard-disk or to a floppy-disk located internal of the system unit. Output can also be printed out through the printer, or can be played through the speakers as sound depending on the form it takes after it is processed. Once you have grasped a basic understanding of the basic parts and operations of a computer, you can soon discover what you can do with computers to make life easier and more enjoyable. Being computer literate allows you to use many powerful software applications and utilities to do work for school, business, or pleasure. Microsoft is the current leading producer of many of these applications and utilities. Microsoft produces software called operating systems that manage and regulate the information processing cycle. The oldest of these is MS-DOS, a single user system that uses typed commands to initiate tasks. Currently Microsoft has available operating systems that use visual cues such as icons to help enter data and run programs. These operating systems are ran under an environment called a Graphical User Interface (GUI's). Such operating systems include Windows 3. xx, Windows 95, and Windows NT Workstation. Windows 95 is geared more for use in the home for productivity and game playing whereas Windows NT is more business orientated. The article entitled â€Å"Mine, All Mine† in the June 5, 1995 issue of Time stated that 8 out of 10 PC's worldwide would not be able to start or run if it were not for Microsoft's operating systems like MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT (Elmer-Dewitt, 1995, p. 50). By no means has Microsoft limited itself to operating systems alone. Microsoft has also produced a software package called Microsoft Office that is very useful in creating reports, databases, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents for school and work. Microsoft Office: Introductory Concepts and Techniques provides a detailed, step-by-step approach to the four programs included in Microsoft Office. Included in this package are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Word is a word processing program that makes creating professional looking documents such as announcements, resumes, letters, address books, and reports easy to do. Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program, has features for data organization, calculations, decision making, and graphing. It is very useful in making professional looking reports. Microsoft Access, a powerful database management system, is useful in creating and processing data in a database. Microsoft PowerPoint is â€Å". . a complete presentation graphics program that allows you to produce professional looking presentations† (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2). PowerPoint is flexible enough so that you can create electronic presentations, overhead transparencies, or even 35mm slides. Microsoft also produces entertainment and reference programs. â€Å"Microsoft's Flight Simulator is one of the best selling PC games of all time† (Elmer-Dewitt, 50). Microsoft's Encarta is an electronic CD-ROM encyclopedia that makes for a fantastic alternative to 20 plus volume book encyclopedias. In fact, it is so popular, it outsells the Encyclopedia Britannica. These powerful business, productivity, and entertainment applications are just the beginning of what you can do with a PC. Knowing how to use the Internet will allow you access to a vast resource of facts, knowledge, information, and entertainment that can help you do work and have fun. According to Netscape Navigator 2 running under Windows 3. , â€Å"the Internet is a collection of networks, each of which is composed of a collection of smaller networks† (Shelly, Cashman, & Jordan, N2). Information can be sent over the Internet through communication lines in the form of graphics, sound, video, animation, and text. These forms of computer media are known as hypermedia. Hypermedia is accessed through hypertext links, which are pointers to the computer where the hypermedia is stored. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the collection of these hypertext links throughout the Internet. Each computer that contains hypermedia on the WWW is known as a Web site and has Web pages set up for users to access the hypermedia. Browsers such as Netscape allow people to â€Å"surf the net† and search for the hypermedia of their choice. There are millions of examples of hypermedia on the Internet. You can find art, photos, information on business, the government, and colleges, television schedules, movie reviews, music lyrics, online news and magazines, sport sights of all kinds, games, books, and thousands of other hypermedia on the WWW. You can send electronic mail (E-Mail), chat with other users around the world, buy airline, sports, and music tickets, and shop for a house or a car. All of this, and more, provides one with a limitless supply of information for research, business, entertainment, or other personal use. Online services such as America Online, Prodigy, or CompuServe make it even easier to access the power of the Internet. The Internet alone is almost reason enough to become computer literate, but there is still much more that computers can do. Knowing how to use a computer allows you to do a variety of things in several different ways. One of the most popular use for computers today is for playing video games. With a PC you can play card games, simulation games, sport games, strategy games, fighting games, and adventure games. Today's technology provides the ultimate experiences in color, graphics, sound, music, full motion video, animation, and 3D effects. Computers have also become increasingly useful in the music, film, and television industry. Computers can be used to compose music, create sound effects, create special effects, create 3D life-like animation, and add previous existing movie and TV footage into new programs, as seen in the movie Forrest Gump. All this and more can be done with computers. There is truly no time like the present to become computer literate. Computers will be doing even more things in the future and will become unavoidable. Purchasing and learning about a new PC now will help put PC's into the other two-thirds of the homes worldwide and make the transition into a computer age easier.

Differences Between Socioeconomic Classes And The...

Benjamin Leung Research and Composition - R3 Magistra Glaser January 17, 2017 Research Question: In what ways and to what extent do the differences in income between socioeconomic classes influence the achievement gap between students in America? Describe the achievement gap between students in America Background information of the achievement gap. The Glossary of Education Reform defines the achievement gap as â€Å"any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or educational attainment between different groups of students† (â€Å"Achievement Gap Definition†). Although there are many indicators of the achievement gap, The Glossary of Education Reform says that the large differences in standardized test scores is often†¦show more content†¦A longitudinal study conducted by Ronald Ferguson, an economist who focuses on the achievement gap, is included in a video lecture. In this study, he discovered that people who do not have fundamental math and reading skills or do not have a college education have received â€Å"25 percent† less income since the 1970’s (â€Å"The Achievement Gap: Dr. Ronald F. Ferguson†). Ferguson continues describing the results of his study by saying that there are not many jobs available to people who do not have basic skills. Instead, the jobs that are available to them are either taken by machines, low paying, or overseas (â€Å"The Achievement Gap: Dr. Ronald F. Ferguson†). Demonstrate how differences in income between socioeconomic classes influence the achievement gap between students in America Statistical information concerning the achievement of students in families above and below the poverty line. In 1997, Smith, Brooks-Gunn, and Klebanov conducted a study using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Infant Health and Development Program. They found that the poorest children scored â€Å"6-13† points lower on various tests (Blazer and Romanik). In 2002, Lee and Burkam conducted a study using 1600 5 and 6 year olds. The results showed that math scores were â€Å"60 percent† lower than richer classes and that english scores were lower by â€Å"56 percent† (Blazer and Romanik). Literature review describing the lack of enrichment program opportunities dueShow MoreRelatedGraduation Speech : Achievement Gap1339 Words   |  6 Pages Achievement Gap Students across the globe vary, but especially when it comes to academic achievement. To some, this may be an obvious fact, but, what many tend to forget is that this variation in achievement is relatively stable and can even predict a students later outcome such as dropping out of school. Many of us probably do not remember who the highest and lowest achievers were in our third grade class, yet can recall the valedictorian at our high school gradation. Well, chances are if youRead MoreNo Child Left Behind Act1737 Words   |  7 PagesFirst, what is the achievement gap? According to the achievement gap in education refers to systematic variances in the ability to learn between students from majority populations and students from minority populations. The most significant effort made by the federal government to improve the nation s schools and student learning is the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA was largely designed to addre ss the achievement gap in multicultural educationRead MoreEssay On K-12 Education1239 Words   |  5 PagesMethod This study would look at schools specifically in Wisconsin focussing on schools that teach k-12 education. In order to have sufficient data, 5,000 students will take part in the study with 2,500 of them coming from majority white schools and 2,500 coming from majority nonwhite schools. 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There are several studies and research that discusses the different factors that contribute to dropout rates in the Latino communitiesRead MoreEffects Of Dropout Rates On The Latino Communities Essay1024 Words   |  5 PagesThe Latino population is increasing and data shows that there is a vast majority of students who are dropping out of school. Dropout rates is a great concern to school districts and to the U.S. in general. If the population is increasing this means that our future generation need to be well equipped to help us progress. There are several studies and research that discuss the different factors that contribute to dropout rates in the Latino comm unities. As we look over previous literature and studiesRead MoreThe Inequality Of Class Mobility1515 Words   |  7 Pages(Tocqueville 38). This means that once men understand they are not confined to their current financial situation, they realize they can increase it, and that the legislature no longer plays a role in who has privilege. While this may be true, the great difference between the realization that one can improve their economic status to the reality of that happening disregards many important factors that come into play in this pursuit of wealth. Tocqueville specifically mentions that there is no legislature that