Foreign Exchange Market

Although currency trading has a long history dating back to the middle ages, it is the changes that we have seen during the twentieth century which have created the Forex market we see today.
During the first half of the twentieth century the British pound was the world's principal trading currency and was the currency held by many as their main 'reserve' currency. As a result, London was also seen as the leading center for foreign exchange. However, the Second World War severely damaged the British economy and so the United States dollar took over as the world's principle trading and reserve currency and retains that position today. This said, there are now a number of other currencies, principally the Yen and the Euro, which are also seen as reserve currencies.
Since the Second World War there have been a number of events which have proved instrumental in shaping today's Forex market.
Until the start of the Second World War, as we said the British Pound Sterling was the World’s most prominent currency.
At the end of the Second World War the World’s economy, with the exception of the United States of America, was in disarray. Representatives from the United States of America, Britain and France met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire with the objective of creating an infrastructure that would allow the rebuilding of the World’s economy. The result was the Bretton Woods Accord.
The Accord decided that the US Dollar would become the World’s benchmark and all other countries would measure the value of their currencies against it. Part of this agreement was the Gold Standard which fixed the price of Gold at $35 an ounce. All other currencies were pegged to the dollar at a certain rate. This rate was not allowed to fluctuate more than 1% in either direction (higher or lower). If a fluctuation greater than 1% did occur then the relevant central bank had to enter the market and restore the exchange rate to within the accepted band.
The Bretton Woods Accord also set in motion the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was designed to provide a stable system for buying and selling currencies and to ensure that currency transactions could take place smoothly and in a timely fashion.
In addition, the aim of the IMF was to create a consultative forum to promote international co-operation and to facilitate the growth of world trade, while at the same time breaking down exchange restrictions which hindered international trade
It was also part of the established role of the IMF to make financial resources available to member states on a temporary basis where this was considered necessary to further the aims of the IMF. Such loans were normally only made on the understanding that the country concerned would make substantial changes to rectify the situation which gave rise to the need for the loan in the first place.
There are mixed opinions as to whether the Bretton Woods Accord was successful in restoring economic stability to Europe and Japan. Despite this, the agreement eventually failed in 1971. It was superseded by the Smithsonian Agreement.
The Smithsonian Agreement tried to succeed where Bretton Woods had failed. Rather than give a 1% margin, greater room for manoeuvre was introduced. Not long into this agreement, Europe made its first attempt at breaking free from the Dollar dominated system. In 1972 Europe formed the European Joint Float. Member nations included West Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. This agreement was very similar to Bretton Woods but with a larger band for rate fluctuation.
Just as their predecessors had failed, these agreements were flawed and subsequently fell apart. However, this time there was no new agreement to take its place. For the first time since WWII there was a ‘free float’ system in place. The value of each currency is now governed completely by the laws of supply and demand. Large banks, private companies and individual speculators are all active participants in the Forex market.
The next major milestone was the establishment of European Monetary System which effectively came into force in 1979. The European Monetary System got off to something of a shaky start when Britain (one of the principle members of the European Community) decided not to join the system and Italy joined only under special arrangements. Britain did however later agree to participate to a limited degree by joining the exchange mechanism of the European Monetary System in 1990.
The final major development to affect the Forex market was the establishment of the Euro as a single currency for European Union member states in 1998 with eleven of the participating states replacing their national currency with the Euro.
Of all these developments it was the free-floating of currencies in 1978 which did more than anything else to boost the growth of the foreign exchange market. In 1978 Forex trading showed a daily turnover of about 5 billion US dollars and this figure rose in the following ten years to reach 600 billion US dollars by 1988. By 1992 this figure had reached 1 trillion US dollars, Today The Forex market has is the largest Trading market with daily turnover of around 2 trillion US dollars.

Study Of Organization

"Organization Science" redirects here. For the journal, see Organization Science: A Journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
Organizational studies, organizational behaviour, and organizational theory is the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about how people - as individuals and as groups - act within organization.
Contents

1 Overview of the field
2 History
3 Specific Contributions
4 Current state of the field
5 Methods used in organizational studies
6 Systems framework
7.1 Theories and models of organizational studies
7.1.1 Decision making
7.1.2 Organization structures and dynamics
7.1.3 Personality traits theories
7.1.4 Control and stress modelling
7.1.5 Motivation in Organizations
8 External links

Overview of the field
Organizational studies encompasses the study of organizations from multiple viewpoints, methods, and levels of analysis. For instance, one textbook (Hatch, M. & Cunliffe, A., 2006) divides these multiple viewpoints into three perspectives: modern, symbolic, and postmodern. Another traditional distinction, present especially in American academia, is between the study of "micro" organizational behavior -- which refers to individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting -- and "macro" organizational theory which studies whole organizations, how they adapt, and the strategies and structures that guide them. To this distinction, some scholars have added an interest in "meso" -- primarily interested in power, culture, and the networks of individuals and units in organizations -- and "field" level analysis which study how whole populations of organizations interact. In Europe these distinctions do exist as well, but are more rarely reflected in departmental divisions.
Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. Modern organizational studies attempt to understand and model these factors. Like all modernist social sciences, organizational studies seeks to control, predict, and explain. There is some controversy over the ethics of controlling workers' behaviour. As such, organizational behaviour or OB (and its cousin, Industrial psychology) have at times been accused of being the scientific tool of the powerful.[citation needed] Those accusations notwithstanding, OB can play a major role in organizational development and success.

History
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the essence of leadership. Aristotle addressed the topic of persuasive communication. The writings of 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli laid the foundation for contemporary work on organizational power and politics. In 1776, Adam Smith advocated a new form of organizational structure based on the division of labour. One hundred years later, German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations and initiated discussion of charismatic leadership. Soon after, Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced the systematic use of goal setting and rewards to motivate employees. In the 1920s, Australian-born Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his colleagues conducted productivity studies at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in the United States.
Though it traces its roots back to Max Weber and earlier, organizational studies is generally considered to have begun as an academic discipline with the advent of scientific management in the 1890s, with Taylorism representing the peak of this movement. Proponents of scientific management held that rationalizing the organization with precise sets of instructions and time-motion studies would lead to increased productivity. Studies of different compensation systems were carried out.
After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis of how human factors and psychology affected organizations, a transformation propelled by the identification of the Hawthorne Effect. This Human Relations Movement focused on teams, motivation, and the actualization of the goals of individuals within organizations.
Prominent early scholars included Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Arjen Blankesteijn, Frederick Herzberg, Abraham Maslow, David McClelland, and Victor Vroom.
The Second World War further shifted the field, as the invention of large-scale logistics and operations research led to a renewed interest in rationalist approaches to the study of organizations. Interest grew in theory and methods native to the sciences, including systems theory, the study of organizations with a complexity theory perspective and complexity strategy. Influential work was done by Herbert Alexander Simon and James G. March and the so-called "Carnegie School" of organizational behavior.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the field was strongly influenced by social psychology and the emphasis in academic study was on quantitative research. An explosion of theorizing, much of it at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon, produced Bounded Rationality, Informal Organization, Contingency Theory, Resource Dependence, Institutional Theory, and Organizational Ecology theories, among many others.
Starting in the 1980s, cultural explanations of organizations and change became an important part of study. Qualitative methods of study became more acceptable, informed by anthropology, psychology and sociology. A leading scholar was Karl Weick.

Specific Contributions
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915):
Taylor was the first person who attempted to study human behavior at work using a systematic approach. Taylor studied human characteristics, social environment, task, physical environment, capacity, speed, durability, cost and their interaction with each other. His overall objective was to reduce and/or remove human variability. Taylor worked to achieve his goal of making work behaviors stable and predictable so that maximum output could be achieved. He relied strongly upon monetary incentive systems, believing that humans are primarily motivated by money. He faced some strong criticism, including being accused of telling managers to treat workers as machines without minds, but his work was very productive and laid many foundation principles for modern management study.
Elton Mayo:
Elton Mayo, an Australian national, headed the Hawthorne Studies at Harvard. In his classic writing in 1931, Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, he advised managers to deal with emotional needs of employees at work.
Mary Parker Follett:
Mary Parker Follett was a pioneer management consultant in the industrial world. As a writer, she provided analyses on workers as having complex combinations of attitude, beliefs, and needs. She told managers to motivate employees on their job performance, a "pull" rather than a "push" strategy.
Douglas McGregor:
Douglas McGregor proposed two theories/assumptions, which are very nearly the opposite of each other, about human nature based on his experience as a management consultant. His first theory was “Theory X”, which is pessimistic and negative; and according to McGregor it is how managers traditionally perceive their workers. Then, in order to help managers replace that theory/assumption, he gave “Theory Y” which takes a more modern and positive approach. He believed that managers could achieve more if managers start perceiving their employees as self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings. By means of his Theory Y, he in fact challenged the traditional theorists to adopt a developmental approach to their employees. He also wrote a book The Human Side of Enterprise in 1960; this book has become a foundation for the modern view of employees at work.

Current state of the field
Organizational behaviour is currently a growing field. Organizational studies departments generally form part of business schools, although many universities also have industrial psychology and industrial economics programs.
The field is highly influential in the business world with practitioners like Peter Drucker and Peter Senge, who turned the academic research into business practices. Organizational behaviour is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. It is also under increasing criticism as a field for its ethnocentric and pro-capitalist assumptions (see Critical Management Studies).
During last 20 years organizational behavior study and practice has developed and expanded through creating integrations with other domains:
Anthropology became an interesting prism to understanding firms as communities, by introducing concepts like Organizational culture, 'organizational rituals' and 'symbolic acts' enabling new ways to understand organizations as communities.
Leadership Understanding the crucial role of leadership at various level of an organization in the process of change management.
Ethics and their importance as pillars of any vision and one of the most important driving forces in an organization.

Methods used in organizational studies
A variety of methods are used in organizational studies. They include quantitative methods found in other social sciences such as multiple regression, Non-parametric statistics, time dependent analysis, and ANOVA. In addition, computer simulation in organizational studies has a long history in organizational studies. Qualitative methods are also used, such as ethnography, which involves direct participant observation, single and multiple case analysis, and other historical methods. In the last fifteen years or so, there has been greater focus on language, metaphors, and organizational storytelling.

Systems framework

Kurt Lewin attended the Macy conferences and is commonly identified as the founder of the movement to study groups scientifically.
The systems framework is also fundamental to organizational theory as organizations are complex dynamic goal-oriented processes. One of the early thinkers in the field was Alexander Bogdanov, who developed his Tectology, a theory widely considered a precursor of Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, aiming to model and design human organizations. Kurt Lewin was particularly influential in developing the systems perspective within organizational theory and coined the term "systems of ideology", from his frustration with behavioural psychologies that became an obstacle to sustainable work in psychology (see Ash 1992: 198-207). The complexity theory perspective on organizations is another systems view of organizations.
The systems approach to organizations relies heavily upon achieving negative entropy through openness and feedback. A systemic view on organizations is transdisciplinary and integrative. In other words, it transcends the perspectives of individual disciplines, integrating them on the basis of a common "code", or more exactly, on the basis of the formal apparatus provided by systems theory. The systems approach gives primacy to the interrelationships, not to the elements of the system. It is from these dynamic interrelationships that new properties of the system emerge. In recent years, systems thinking has been developed to provide techniques for studying systems in holistic ways to supplement traditional reductionistic methods. In this more recent tradition, systems theory in organizational studies is considered by some as a humanistic extension of the natural sciences.

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Organization design
Organization development
Organizational Dissent
Organizational empowerment
Organizational engineering

Theories and models of organizational studies

Decision making
Mintzberg's managerial roles
Rational Decision-Making Model
Scientific management
Garbage Can Model

Organization structures and dynamics
Bureaucracy
Complexity theory and organizations
Contingency theory
Evolutionary Theory and organizations
Hybrid organisation
Incentive theory (organization)
Informal Organization
Institutional theory
Merger integration
Organizational ecology
Model of Organizational Citizenship behaviour
Model of organizational justice
Model of Organizational Misbehaviour
Resource dependence theory
Transaction cost
Hofstede's Framework for Assessing Cultures

[edit] Personality traits theories
Big Five personality traits
Holland's Typology of Personality and Congruent Occupations
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

[edit] Control and stress modelling
Herzberg's Two factor theory
Theory X and Theory Y

Motivation in Organizations

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Refers to the forces either internal or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and resistance to pursue a certain course of action.
"Although motivation is a broad and complex concept, organizational scientists have agreed on its basic characteristics. Drawing from various social sciences, we define motivation as the set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behavior toward attaining some goal" (Baron et al. 248)
There are many different Motivation Theories such as:
Attribution theory
Equity theory
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Incentive theory (psychology)
Model of Emotional labor in organizations
Frederick Herzberg Two factor theory
Sources Cited Baron, Robert A., & Greenberg, Jerald. Behavior in organizations - 9th edition. Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey: 2008.

International Trade

International trade is the exchange of goods and services across national borders. In most countries, it represents a significant part of GDP. While international trade has been present throughout much of history (see Silk Road, Amber Road), its economic, social, and political importance have increased in recent centuries, mainly because of Industrialisation, advanced transportation, globalisation, multinational corporations, and outsourcing. In fact, it is probably the increasing prevalence of international trade that is usually meant by the term "globalisation".
Empirical evidence for the success of trade can be seen in the contrast between countries such as South Korea, which adopted a policy of export-oriented industrialisation, and India, which historically had a more closed policy (although it has begun to open its economy, as of 2005). South Korea has done much better by economic criteria than India over the past fifty years, though its success also has to do with effective state institutions.
Trade sanctions against a specific country are sometimes imposed, in order to punish that country for some action. An embargo, a severe form of externally imposed isolation, is a blockade of all trade by one country on another. For example, the United States has had an embargo against Cuba for over 40 years.
Although there are usually few trade restrictions within countries, international trade is usually regulated by governmental quotas and restrictions, and often taxed by tariffs. Tariffs are usually on imports, but sometimes countries may impose export tariffs or subsidies. All of these are called trade barriers. If a government removes all trade barriers, a condition of free trade exists. A government that implements a protectionist policy establishes trade barriers.
The fair trade movement, also known as the trade justice movement, promotes the use of labour, environmental and social standards for the production of commodities, particularly those exported from the Third and Second Worlds to the First World. Such ideas have also sparked a debate on whether trade itself should be codified as a human right.
Standards may be voluntarily adhered to by importing firms, or enforced by governments through a combination of employment and commercial law. Proposed and practiced fair trade policies vary widely, ranging from the commonly adhered to prohibition of goods made using slave labour to minimum price support schemes such as those for coffee in the 1980s. Non-governmental organizations also play a role in promoting fair trade standards by serving as independent monitors of compliance with fairtrade labelling requirements.

Organization of trade
Patterns of organizing and administering trade include:
State control - trade centrally controlled by government planning.
Laws regulating Trade and establishing a framework such as trade law, tariffs, support for intellectual property, opposition to dumping.
Guild control - trade controlled by private business associations holding either de facto or government-granted power to exclude new entrants.
In contemporary times, the language has evolved to business and professional organizations, often controlled by academia. For example in many states, a person may not practice the professions of engineering, law, law enforcement, medicine, and teaching unless they have a college degree and, in some cases, a license.
Free enterprise - trade without significant central controls; market participants engage in trade based on their own individual assessments of risk and reward, and may enter or exit a given market relatively unimpeded.
Infrastructure in support of trade, such as banking, stock market,
Technology in support of trade such as electronic commerce, vending machines.

International organizations
European Common Market
G8
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), World Trade Organization (WTO)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
OPEC = Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

Free trade areas
Free trade organizations or free trade areas
European Free Trade Association
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Union of South American Nations

Finance

Helping you find great small business credit cards, merchant accounts and small business loans.
Finding money to start and grow a business, or just managing the money you have, are essential tasks in the life of a business owner. Startup finance can include venture capital and angel investing, while other forms of business credit and small business loans can provide working capital and expansion funding.

"You'll find finance solutions for banking, commercial leasing, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), foreign exchange and business valuation, among many others."

Need insurance for your business? The Finance Channel can help you locate agents and underwriters for all lines you might need:

Discover health insurance agents and brokers who can help you compare rates and policies, along with dental insurance plans and vision insurance.
Protect yourself properly with commercial vehicle insurance. Services you'll find here can provide quick quotes in all 50 states.

See where to find businesses for sale, or enlist experts in business valuation techniques if you are thinking about selling your own business. Help for investing your company's cash Finance isn't just about raising or spending money, it's also about putting what you have to best use. You'll find helpful resources on Business.com for investing in mutual funds and individual stocks, too.
Bottom line:Targeted financial resources, contacts and solutions can help your business grow and prosper.

Traffic Generating Tips For Your New Site/Blog

How exactly does valuable website content help you get more traffic?
FACT: Search engines love website that offer high value web content. No matter what type of site you have, you can leverage this to increase the traffic to your website. Whether you have an online store, a forum, or a blog, you can add content to generate traffic.
Some example would be:

Adding valuable articles to your website
Archive your posts or content on the site.
Add audio.

Not many users do this, but if you include maybe an interview, readers will love it.
Frequently Asked Questions. Everyone has questions. Why not answer some of the most common questions and post them to your site. An “About Us” page would also be helpful to a user.
There are millions of sites out there and massive amounts of information that could quite possibly be related to your blog or site and one cool way of getting some traffic is simple marketing; Article marketing. Article marketing is writing content for other websites. You write a useful article on a topic related to your website, and offer it for other website owners to publish on their websites, blogs, or in their newsletters. This can also work the other way as well. Not only do you receive links to your website each time your article is published, but also other website owners begin to seriously consider you as an expert in your field and may contact you for more opportunities.

Swapping can be one of the easiest ways to generate traffic, if done correctly. I am not very knowledgeable in ad swapping, but that can be tricky (from what I hear). Blog recommendation swapping is nice. Recommend a site and send them the link and if they are nice, they will do the same in return. It is a great way to share, or network rather.

Contests are great and everyone loves free items. One of the easiest ways to get a quick burst of traffic to your website is by offering a hot contest. The chance to do something small and win something big is appealing to the human psyche. So, use that to your advantage.

Podcasting/Vidcasting is a growing trend. If you can do it, do it. It is a lesser-known way of generating traffic . Podcasting is simply broadcasting audio via RSS feeds. This means that someone regularly records audios and has them fed via RSS to subscribers who are waiting for updated audios. It is not as hard as it sounds. There are so many podcasts these days they are hard to keep track of. One I listen to (or watch) regularly is Geekbrief.tv. To begin podcasting, you will need to ask yourself a few questions: What exactly is your message that you wish to share? With whom would you like to share this podcast?

You can generate traffic by posting on forums, if you do it right. There are spammers everywhere and there is software now to cut through those spammers and if you look like a spammer, you will probably be blocked, and your efforts to generate traffic have not increased. Read a message board or forum and post accordingly. You won’t want to post (with your link) on a message board or forum about the iPod in a Health forums page. Not cool.

Lastly, I want to mention Logos. If you have not noticed, we were fortunate enough to finally get ourselves a nice logo. The people over at TheGraphicStaff astounded us with our great new logo. You would not think a logo is that important for generating traffic, but it really helps. It establishes who you are. Go to any website and you will more than likely see a logo that identifies who they are. A calling card, if you will.

Now that I have helped you out a little by giving you some ways to increase traffic, I hope you will see a difference in your own results. Here at The Tech Brief, we certainly have, using most of these methods I share with you above. Of course, there are a million other ways to generate traffic, and I would like to point out that although it may be fast to try every single method you find out there at once, you should try each of them individually and find the one method that you are most proficient at on your site.