Thursday, October 31, 2019

Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Financial Management - Essay Example With this rule, both projects qualify as good projects, although the pulley project has a higher value. The rule for the internal rate of return states that a given project should only be accepted if the project’s IRR is greater than or equal to the firm’s cost of capital. The firm’s cost of capital is 14%, in which case the truck project yields an IRR of 15%, it is to be accepted; the pulley project’s IRR is also higher than the firm’s cost of capital at 20%. The flaw with using IRR is that the rate of growth of cash flows is assumed to be the IRR’s. By using the modified IRR or MIRR, the rate of growth of cash flows or the so-called reinvestment rate is the cost of capital, or cost of funding the investment instead of the IRR. The rule for accepting a project based on MIRR is same as the IRR, that is, if MIRR is greater than or equal to the firm’s cost of capital, it should be accepted. Otherwise, it should be rejected as it will not contribute additional value to the firm. By using 14% as the finance rate and reinvestment rate, we get MIRR for the truck project as 14.5%--higher than the cost of capital, therefore it is to be accepted. With the pulley project, the MIRR is 17%, also higher than the cost of capital so the project should also be accepted. Davis Industries must choose between a gas-powered and an electric-powered forklift truck for moving materials in its factory. Since both forklifts perform the same function, the firm will choose only one. (They are mutually exclusive investments.) The electric-powered truck will cost more, but it will be less expensive to operate; it will cost $22,000, whereas the gas powered truck will cost $17,500. The cost of capital that applies to both investments is 12%. The life for both types of truck is estimated to be 6 years, during which time the net cash flows for the electric-powered truck will be $6,290 per

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Scholar or High School student Essay Example for Free

Scholar or High School student Essay What will you do when you have already finished your high school education? Will you going to attend college or look for a jobs that fit your position. To me, there was no doubt on whether I want to attend college or start working after I finished my high school because I believe attending college only will benefit to our ownselve. Pretend you are the employer, will you hire someone that with a college graduates or someone that only have their high school diploma? I do not deny the fact that college life would lead me a better future. There are many reasons for why I decided to go to college. One reason I decided to go to college is that I want to have a better career. I know some of you might said theres no need to have a college diploma in order to get a job. Yes, this is true. But will you believe you can actually get the jobs that you really wanted, or the jobs that you will enjoy from it. My answer is not so sure. I say that not many places would take many serious if you just had a High school Diploma. I argue that if I go to college, I can gain more informations and expand my knowledge in lots of different area, as well as the area that I have most interested in. In todays world, lots of job require education to have beyond high school level, so if I have attend college, I will have more jobs opportunities in my future life. Some people might say that they also can get lots of jobs when they dont have college diploma, but I say do you think that you really can get the same paid and same treatments when you c ompare to those that had already attend college? In my future life, I want to have a job that I wont complain about the paid or any others unfair treatment. I want to get a career that I wanted instead of the career that I can get. In order to do this, I need to attend college. Another reason I decided to go to college is that I want to increase my experience. Some people might say going to work also increase your experiences. You can open your view anywhere around you. But I say,  college lifes experience would be much different from any others. I will live in a new enviroment, people around me will be totally different, and also, I will have a new lifestyle when I was in college. I endorse that colleges life is the opening experiences for any teenagers in their life because they wont have any conselors stand beside them and told them what to do and what not to do. It is the chances for me to learn how to depend on my own and take responsibility for any action that I had done to myself. So, college is the place for me get to experience new things and try to be prepare for my own future life. My last but not the least reasons for why I decided to go to college is that I want to make my family proud of me. In my life, the most familiar words that my family told me was that Im the only child in my family that having a chance to go to college. They hope that I can attend college and being graduated. In my childhood, I always heard my family relative talk with my mother with a unrespectful attitude. I want to go to college and finish my academic, when I receive my diploma, I will show them that my mom have a college graduates daughter and show my family that I can become somebody one day. In conclusion, if I have a chance attending college, why not take advantage of it? It obviously wont hurt me if I choose to go to college. Maybe going through my college life would be difficult, but I celebrate the fact that I wont regret because everything I learn will stay in my mind forever and ever.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Effect of Organisational Culture on Customer Satisfaction

Effect of Organisational Culture on Customer Satisfaction Researches by some academics have made it known that a companys culture is closely linked to its effectiveness and efficiency (Kotter Heskett, 1992). In addition, according to (Morgeson, Krishnan, 2006) customer satisfaction is an increasingly significant factor of an effective organization in todays competitive business setting. Prospects arising from increase in globalization by companies, advancement in technology, and outsourcing have meant that companies are increasingly turning their attention to laying greater emphasis on customer service across national borders in order to reduce costs, while at the same time trying to increase customer user-friendliness through day-to-day activities of the firm. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE (Shein 1996), defined culture as: a pattern of basic assumptions that a group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems. Other shared definitions by learned scholars refer to organisational culture as pattern of shared values and beliefs that help individuals understand organizational functioning and thus provide them with the norms for behavior in the organization(Deshpande and Webster 1989), a set of cognitions shared by members of a social unit (OReilly et al., 1991). According to (Laurie 2008), organisational culture is a combination of traditions, values, policies, beliefs, and attitude that establishes a general framework for everything done in an organisation. It can also refer to the form of beliefs, values, and ways of managing experience that have developed during the course of the organisations history, and becomes noticeable in its material arrangements and the behaviour of its members. (Brown 1998). (Gupta 2009), in his write up, opined that organisational culture is a set of unwritten rules meant to guide the employees towards an standardardised and rewarding behaviour. TYPES AND MODELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE In order to appreciate the incorporation of organisational culture, it is very important to examine and search for different models to improve the understanding of the concept of organizational culture. I. Scheins Three Layer Organizational Model These three layers as explained by (Shein 1996) below are stages of organisational culture that should be categorized carefully with the purpose of avoiding any theoretical misperception. Artefacts and Creations the Artefact and Creation layer is the observable stage of corporate culture, it includes the social environment. Usually researchers study the artistic productions, technological output, physical space in the artefacts and Creations stage. Values usually values symbolize the significant things for individuals, they are affective wants or needs and conscious. The existence of values is very important for the organization in order to function competently and share ideals among staff. Basic Assumptions a specific group of individuals study how to manage and handle the difficulties of internal integration and external adaptation through developing and discovering the assumptions. II. Denisons Effectiveness and Culture Model The effectiveness and culture model for (Denison 1990) represents the relationship between management, corporate culture, effectiveness and finally the performance of the organization. This model is equipped to stress the important association in management practices with the beliefs and principles when examining the effectiveness and culture of the organization and its performance. Involvement this feature includes constructing the individual ability, responsibility, duty and ownership. Corporate culture is described as highly involved strongly support participation and generate a sense of responsibility. Adaptability the adaptability feature means translating the environmental business demands into action. Consistency is the vital source of power, course, formation and integration. Mission -is the long-term trend for the corporation. According to (Laurie 2008) organisational culture can be grouped into four main classes namely power culture, role culture, task culture, and person culture. Power Culture- entirely dependent on central power source and control is excercised by key individuals. Role Culture this type of culture is characretised by bureacracy and is based on rationalisation of all aspects of the organisation with role and job description more important than the individual. Emphasis is laid on position as the main source of power. Task Culture job or project oriented. Person Culture here, the individual is the central focus and every resource available is there to serve the individuals within it. (Laurie 2008). The type of culture inherent in an organisation may be decisive for organisations ability to serve its customers effectively. For example, organisations with a culture with respect for the interest of people value their members by displaying concern for their well-being, growth, and development and lay emphasis on the need for cooperation. Such a culture is more effective than one that emphasizes power, control. (Gupta 2009) went further by suggest the existence of two levels in organisational culture; The visible aspect of the organization which he said is reflected in artifacts, symbols and visible behavior of employees, and the hidden aspect which is related to fundamental values and assumptions that employees make regarding the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in the organisation. Organisational culture in its entirety consists of traditions, values, norms and physical signs (artefacts) of organisation members and their activities. Practically speaking, the members of an organisation will eventually come to understand the particular culture of their organisation. Then, although the culture is one of those factors that are difficult to express definitely, nevertheless everyone knows it when they sense it. Hidden rules and assumptions become an organisational culture as these rules are implemented over time. A strong culture shapes the behaviour pattern members of the organisation in the absence of policies, procedures or advice from supervisors and managers. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Satisfaction is a general customer attitude by a consumer towards a service provider and an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they receive in terms of service and or product. When customers are satisfied, they are more likely to return, while dissatisfied customers are more likely to go elsewhere (Levesque and McDougall, 1996, Zineldin, 2000). Customer satisfaction is an important constituent of a successful and thriving organization and can be directly associated to increased profit margins and greater employee satisfaction, customer retention, and repeat purchases to organisations that consider customer satisfaction a key factor in its marketing strategy. An organizations social setting-whether it is called culture or climate-is an important driver of customer satisfaction. As stated by, (Ferris et al., 1998) organizational climate can facilitate a positive relationship between human resource practices and customer satisfaction, support ing a social context model for predicting customer satisfaction. Against this background, this paper aims to explore the way organisational culture affects customer satisfaction in the automobile industry setting, based on the general perceptions of front-line employees. However, according to Darby et al.s (1997) the customer service positioning show a positive relationship with different procedures of measuring customer satisfaction, and consequently it is assumed in this paper that the degree to which front-line employees are oriented towards customer satisfaction is an revealing measure of customer satisfaction. (Schneider et al., 1998) reiterated that there are different dimensions to employees understanding of the appropriate form of organisational culture, based on whether they are managers or not. Such differences in perception are linked to their different positions within the organisation. In addition, since the front-line employees (managers) deal with more pressure, managerial demands, and are responsible for their subordinates, they will be more likely able to understand the possible effects of organisational culture on customers. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES After a critical analysis of the research, the following aims and objectives established for this research are: To analyse the effect of organisational culture on the effectiveness of the organisation. To study the organisational culture of Ford Motors. To understand the relationship between Ford Motors organisational culture and customer satisfaction. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Does organisational culture have any effect on customer satisfaction? What sort of corporate culture does Ford Motors possess? What is the effect of Ford Motors organisational culture on customer satisfaction? LITERATURE REVIEW: A number of academic researchers have studied various elements of organizational culture and customers satisfaction. However, only a few experimental studies have studied the link between the characteristics of an organizations work environment (organisational culture) and this important aspect of organizational effectiveness (customer satisfaction) e.g., Conrad, Brown, Harmon, 1997. Most of the studies that have observed this impact have focused on the relationship between service-oriented climates and customer satisfaction. These studies, while making a very important contribution, have lean towards emphasising on the impact of a climate for service or service climate on customer satisfaction. In doing so, they may run the risk of neglecting some general organizational characteristics that can affect a wider range of organizational outcomes. Starkey and Woodcock (2002) opined that organizations that are less customer oriented are more likely to perform poorly in terms of sales output as against those that are customer oriented. To survive in the highly competitive automobile markets, organisations need to provide products and services that will produce highly satisfied and loyal customers (Westbrook and Oliver, 1991). According to (Asif and Sargeant, 2000), several benefits accrue to the organisation via customer loyalty such as generation of profit, costs related to promotions, advertising, start-up costs are limited. More so, chances of increase in customers will be high, as satisfied customers will recommend the organisations products and services to others. As a result, customer satisfaction can be the key factor to the growth of the business, in term of market share and profit. A popular supposition about the role of organizational culture as it relates to customer satisfaction is that if an organization possesses a strong culture by demonstrating that it has a well-integrated and effective set of defined values, beliefs, and behaviors, then it will achieve a higher level of efficiency. Curry and Kkolou (2004) identify customer focus, participation, and teamwork as important cultural issues influencing customer relations outcomes. They suggested that empowering employees to excel at customer service and ensuring their job security also contribute to customer relation success. According to (Deshpandà © 1999), investigation into market orientation suggests that the existence of an innovative and entrepreneurial culture is strongly associated with exceptional business performance. Collectively, these reports suggest that an organizational culture that puts more importance on customer-oriented behaviours, cross-functional teams, performance-based rewards, adjustment and reactive attitudes to change, and a higher degree of risk taking and improvement, is likely to contribute to have successful customer relations management system implementations. Every organisation has to face the task of ascertaining the critical factors in their organisational culture that will ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty (McDougall and Levesque, 1992). For all these reasons, customers perception of the service experience is frequently the only way accurately to estimate quality level of services and product provided. Within many organizations, identifying these issues may be easy or complex depending on the type of culture involved. In either case, the development of a fitting solution is difficult and the application and maintenance on a long run complex, time-consuming and costly. However, an effective organizational culture is one of the key components influencing an organizations capacity to elicit customer satisfaction and to thrive in the long term. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Research methodology is basically the procedures and processes of collecting and analysing data. There are two types of research methodology positivist and interpretive. In this study, we would use positivist approach in order to collect and analyse data. According to Comte (1971), researchers that demonstrate the use of real life, data is known as positivist approach. Conversely, when researchers have a set of assumption about the outcome of the research, it is known to use interpretive approach (Malhotra 2003). As mentioned in the objectives, we aim to find the effect of organisational culture on the effectiveness of the organization and to do so, we would have to use factual data from Ford motors, and therefore, positivist approach will be used in this study. Research Strategy According to Brymen and Bell (2007:135), a researcher can follow five research strategies in conducting his research. They are: 1) longitudinal 2) experimental 3) cross sectional 4) case study and 5) comparative. For this study, case study approach will be used in order to accomplish the research objective. This is because the effect of organisational culture would be analysed in this research in order to figure out its effect on the customer relations of the company. Research Approach A set of methods researchers use in order to achieve the concluding remark on the research objective of the subject matter is known as research approach. According to Saunders (2003), there are two types of research approaches available to conduct a research and they are Inductive and deductive approach Deductive approach is mostly used when researchers needs to find a causal relationship between the variables while inductive approach is a widely used method for qualitative researches. Since the primary aim of this research is to find out the effect of organisational culture on customer satisfaction, the researcher will employ inductive approach for the research. RESEARCH METHOD: Different types of primary and secondary sources would be used in order to collect data regarding organizational culture and customer satisfaction. Primary Data is the vital data gathered by researchers via interviews, surveys or questionnaires (Anderson 2005). In this report, interviews and questionnaire will be used to provide the study a better understanding of corporate culture and the financial performance from all level of employees. The source that will be used in primary data is a survey and separate interview sessions with managers, executives and even temporary employees in Ford Motors. Secondary Data: Secondary data will be collected through researchers who are conducting the research. This data will be sourced from many departments and the web site in Zain Company, along with published and academic journals, articles, books, online resources and many other data from previous authors. Interviews: Interview is one of the most effective ways of conducting qualitative research. In this study, interviewing method will acquire a clear knowledge about the organisational culture of Ford Motors. There are many types of interviews such as structured, semi structured, focused group, in depth and so on. In this study, semi structured interview will be used since it is well known method to clear the doubts and misunderstandings that might arise from the interviews. It should be mentioned here that the primary feature of semi structured interview is flexibility from both interviewees and interviewers side. ANTICIPATED METHOD OF ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS: Data Analyses This study will involve both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques in order to establish its objectives. A qualitative approach will be used while in order to demonstrate the relationship between organisational culture and overall performance of the company. Conversely, quantitative approach will be adopted to create a relationship between organisational culture and customer satisfaction. CONCLUSION: This research will focus on the organisational culture factors inherent in Ford Motors and the individual effects these factors have on customer satisfaction.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Free Narrative Essays - Josies Triumph :: Example Personal Narratives

Josie's Triumph Even though I am the older brother and she's the younger sister, Josie was always a head taller, and a good 40 pounds heavier than me when we were growing up. I hated that. I was the big brother. I was supposed to be dominant and protective. But while she was the biggest kid in school, I was nearly the smallest. Josie's size and strength only made my lack of those two qualities more apparent. I was two years ahead of her in school, which meant that by the time she got to middle school I was already an 8th grader. Kids in middle school are not kind or accepting, and over the years they had continually made fun of my puny size and lack of athletic ability. But the teasing reached a whole new level when Josie entered middle school. Now they had a new angle for tormenting me. They would taunt, "Hey Shrimp! Your sister still beat you up?" Or, they would chant again and again on the bus, "Paul, Paul, he's so small, but his sister's ten feet tall!" I guess that rhyme was hurtful to both of us, but I only felt my own humiliation. It still baffles me that I took no notice of my sister's feelings. The times when the jokes centered around her, like when they called her "Josie the Giant," it was such a relief not to be their target that I did nothing to stop them. Nothing seemed to bother Josie anyway. I never heard her complain or so much as saw her wince. I just assumed that her interior was a steely as her exterior. That was until the day she snapped. There was a new girl, Ginny, in Josie's class who wore really thick glasses, and without them, was nearly blind. She, to my relief, had temporarily become the butt of jokes and pranks. The latest chant that the kids had come up with was, "Ginny, Ginny, short and fat, squinty-eyed and blind as a bat!" In all fairness, Ginny wasn't fat at all, but the kids chanted that because it rhymed with bat. It started as a normal lunch break, with Josie and Ginny standing together in line.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Comparative Study of Training and Development of Sbi and Icici Bank

â€Å"TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT – A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF â€Å"INDUSTRIAL CREDIT AND INVESTMENT CORPORATION OF INDIA†(ICICI) with â€Å"STATE BANK OF INDIA†(SBI). BY Mr. R. CHRISTURATNAM Research Scholar for part time Reg No: Y12COMR006 UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF Prof. S. VIJAYA RAJU Department of Commerce and Business Management ACHARAY NAGARJUNA UNIVERSITY NAGARJUNA NAGAR GUNTUR – 522002 INDEX I. INTRODUCTION II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE III. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY IV. PROFILE OF THE BANKING SECTOR AND SELECTED BANKS V. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TRAINING DEVELOPED BY SBI AND ICICI BANK(Trainees’ opinions ) VI.COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SBI AND ICICI, CHALANGES OF BANKING SECTOR(Trainers opinions) VII. FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY CHAPTER – I 1. 0 INTRODUCTION 2. 1 TRAINING 2. 2 DEVELOPMENT 2. 3 TRAINING IN ICICI 2. 4 TRAINING IN SBI 2. 5 DEVELOPMENT IN ICICI 2. 6 DEVELOPMENT IN SBI 2. 7 NEED OF THE STUDY 2. 8 SIGNIFICANC E OF THE STUDY 2. 9 PRESENT POSITION OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 2. 10 CONCLUSION CHAPTER – I 1. 0 INTRODUCTION `Managers unequivocally agree that this century demands more efficiency and productivity than any other times in history. Businesses are striving to increase their performance.Managers have been grappling with many challenges to succeed putting their company ahead of competitors. To help managers manage, different scholars, researchers and consultants have been contributing their part showing the best ways they think are useful to managers. Among those suggested techniques, concepts like Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) earned recognition from many authors in the second half of twentieth century and were found helpful in increasing organizational performance by focusing on operational and process improvements.They were/still being used as tools for management in their effort to plan, execute and control of the desired changes i n the operational quality. Thanks to technology, nowadays business companies are making use of advanced techniques of operation. As sophistication of technologies continues to evolve, they pose more challenges for managers because organizations will have to need more number of employees with increased technical and professional skills. These knowledge workers cannot be managed with old styles of totalitarian management.They expect operational autonomy, job satisfaction and status. It is because of these facts that attention of managers is shifting towards employees’ side of organizations. From last quarter of twentieth century onwards, concepts like employee commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) started to appear on the ground that efficiency and productivity lie within the employees’ ability and commitment. Managers’ eye is on how to keep employees engaged in their job. Employers now realize that by focusing on employee engagement, they can create more efficient and productive workforce.Any initiatives of improvement which are taken by management cannot be fruitful without willful involvement and engagement of employees. Employee engagement as a concept is vast. This article limits itself to discuss only the basic concepts on employee engagement based on recent literatures. It has four major parts. Firstly, the article explores the evolution of the concept, its definition and how it is different from the earlier concepts such as Commitment, Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and job satisfaction.Secondly, the article discusses the factors or drivers leading to engagement. Thirdly, it details the impact of employee engagement on organizational performance indicators or business outcomes such as profitability, customer satisfaction, company growth, productivity and others pointing out its benefits and importance to organizations. Finally, the article suggests strategies the companies should take up to keep employ ees engaged in their jobs. CHAPTER – II OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Temporary and Permanent Phrasal Adjectives

Temporary and Permanent Phrasal Adjectives Temporary and Permanent Phrasal Adjectives Temporary and Permanent Phrasal Adjectives By Mark Nichol Use of phrasal adjectives, combinations of two or more words that as a grammatical unit provide additional details to nouns, is complicated by standards of usage pertaining to hyphens. This post discusses various types of phrasal adjectives (some of which have, since they were coined, been fused to form single words). Just as there are three structural types of compound nouns (closed, as with hindsight, hyphenated, as with life-form, and open, as with â€Å"cell phone†), adjectives are also built in one of (the same) three ways. Occasionally, when a phrasal adjective is formed, its original hyphenated form is superseded by a closed treatment, as with the simple adjective heartwarming, which started out as the phrasal adjective â€Å"heart warming.† How does one learn which phrasal adjectives have been fused? Consult a dictionary. Hyphenated phrasal adjectives are further subdivided into two categories: temporary and permanent. Temporary phrasal adjectives are phrases consisting of an adjective and another form of speech, such as the adverb-adjective team of â€Å"well trained.† Note, however, that this instance of this phrasal adjective, though located in a discussion about hyphenation of such parts of speech, is not hyphenated. Why? Because most phrasal adjectives, those designated as temporary, are hyphenated only before a noun: â€Å"That is a well-trained dog,† but â€Å"That dog is well trained.† Some phrasal adjectives are considered permanent; one example is â€Å"short-lived,† and though it should technically be hyphenated after a noun (as in â€Å"Their triumph was short-lived†), The Chicago Manual of Style recommends forgoing hyphenation in most such cases when no misreading is likely. How is a writer to know which category a phrasal adjective belongs to? Consult a dictionary. Note, however, that some terms are not obvious. On Merriam-Webster’s website, â€Å"cutting edge† is designated as a noun, and the adjectival form appears as a footnote to the noun’s definition. But there it is: â€Å"cutting-edge.† That phrasal adjective, with a hyphen, is permanent- it’s in the dictionary- so hyphenate it before a noun, but again, per Chicago, it can be left open after the noun. One form of phrasal adjective that usually needs no hyphenation is one beginning with an adverb ending in -ly, such as in â€Å"happily married couple.† But if the phrasal adjective is extended, as in â€Å"not-so-happily-married couple,† hyphenate it. Finally, there’s the permanent open phrasal adjective, such as â€Å"information technology,† which never needs hyphenation (unless, again, it is extended, as in â€Å"information-technology-related discussion†). Why? Repeat after me: â€Å"It’s in the dictionary.† Note, too, that hyphenation is omitted in proper names used as phrasal adjectives, as in â€Å"Los Angeles freeways† and â€Å"the Sylvester Stallone school of acting,† though, again, if another word is included in the phrasal adjective, an exception is made. However, in this case, because two or more words constitute a single concept, an en dash used as a super-hyphen should link the proper name to the additional word: â€Å"Los Angeles–style traffic† and â€Å"Sylvester Stallone–lite acting.† Another exception is for terms of art, or jargon that a particular publication or industry deems so well established that, in a specific context, no confusion is likely; therefore, â€Å"open source,† which is treated as a hyphenated permanent phrasal adjective in the dictionary, is often left open before or after a noun in technology-related content. (In general-circulation publications, however, it is generally hyphenated before a noun.) A final caution: Various phrasal adjectives beginning with a common element are not necessary styled the same: A student in the first grade is a first-grade student, but firsthand is a closed compound, and â€Å"first person,† though treated as an open compound in the dictionary (like â€Å"cutting edge,† mentioned above), is listed as a noun, and when employed as a phrasal adjective, it should still be hyphenated before a noun. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply with36 Poetry TermsHow to Style Legislative Terms