Speech Proposal

Standardized testing has been used to measure a student's intellectual ability for many years now. It has gotten to the point now that students just worry about what will be on the test. It does not matter if one can actually retain the information, or that a student is actually enjoying learning new material. As long as it is not in the test, it is not of importance. Albert Einstein was once quoted for saying "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." I will focus on the fact that there are many other ways to judge if a student is learning the material besides using the exact same test for every student. My rationale for choosing this topic is that I think it is relevant in all of our lives currently. We spend so much time stressing about what will be on a test that we don't spend any time focusing on learning everything else. In a more personal example, my stepbrother is currently in 8th grade. At parent teacher conferences this past week, his teacher told my stepmom that "He is the best historian in the class." My stepmom then pointed out that he was receiving a B- in the class and the teacher went on to explain that he just was not doing well on the tests. There has to be a different way for those students to showcase what they've learned. I have found many scholarly articles on this topic that I intend to use for my speech. It will also help that these articles show both points of view.

IMRaD Mandatory Draft

Are CEOs Overpaid?

Alex Harken

11/5/2015

Rhetoric 1030

Abstract

As students aspiring to be in the working world someday, it is important for us to know how much money our supervisors will be taking home at the end of each year. A survey was conducted to see how college students feel about what current CEOs are making. The survey was analyzed and discussed. It was found that students generally ere on the side of CEOs, feeling that they are not overpaid. As a result of these findings, in the future CEOs might end up taking even more home.

Introduction

It is no doubt that in today’s society, CEO’s are considered some of the most powerful men and women. They are put in charge of running entire companies, where everyone is looking to them for guidance and leadership. However, is their drive comprised of the desire to be successful, or the big paychecks they get to take home at the end of the year?

In an article written by the Washington Post, it was found that in the 1950s the ration between CEO compensation and that have an average worker was 20:1. This put the CEO well in front of that of the average worker and led to the rise of many great companies. Today that ratio has catapulted its way up to 200:1. Have the job duties of CEO’s changed that much? Another article by the Post cited that some CEO’s have saved companies (i.e. Steve Jobs of Apple, Lou Gerstner of IBM, and Lee Iacocca of Chrysler). These men deserve to be rewarded for their extensive efforts for their respective companies. Most CEO’s do not need to fill this purpose though.

We know what part of our society is saying, but what about our future society? As a majority of business students took part in this study, some may eventually be working directly with CEO’s. Still others may be that “average” worker in a company. How do college students fell about what CEO’s are being paid? Is it even a current concern, or are we still in the phase where we do not have to worry about things of this nature? A survey of a small sample can give us a glimpse of the feelings towards the question “Are CEO’s overpaid?”

Methods

Participants: 20 University of Iowa students participated in this survey. Most were business students in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business. Most participants were also college freshman.

Data Sources: A survey was created using www.surveymonkey.com.

Procedures: Participants were given access to the survey through an embedded version on a blog and some were also emailed the survey. Participants were required to answer every question on the survey and they were also only allowed to submit one response. The survey consisted of a series of 6 questions with the pre-determined responses of: yes, no, maybe, and unsure. There was also one open ended question asking participants what they thought good qualities of a CEO were.

Results

Figure 1: Are CEO’s overpaid?

            This figure shows that the majority of participants believe that CEO’s are overpaid. The next highest response was maybe. Followed by five people saying “yes” CEO’s are overpaid. Only one person said they were “unsure” if CEO’s are overpaid.

Figure 2: Are CEO’s high salary required to get them to come work for a specific company?

            In Figure 2, an observer can see that over half of participant’s believe that in order for a CEO to want to work for a specific company, a high salary will be required. Only one person thought this would not be necessary, while seven respondents thought that it might be necessary.

Discussion

            The results from the survey indicate that there might be some general disagreement with what some of the public is thinking. In fact, based on the survey, it seems most participants would agree with author Ira T. Kay. Her article titled “Don’t mess with CEO Pay” attempts to shed light on the fact that we should not be concerned with changing CEO compensation. She highlights that “CEOs are not interchangeable and not chosen by lot; they are an extremely important asset to their companies and generally represent an excellent investment.”

            In Figure 2, participants believed that the allure of a high salary would be what attracted CEOs most. So if a high salary is going to get the CEOs, can we really complain about some of them being over the top? If a CEO knows they are valuable enough, they are going to get top dollar for themselves. They are not going to sell themselves short. There seems to be a contradiction among participants when it comes to this topic.

            The level of knowledge about this topic obviously played a factor in this survey. Surprisingly, not many participants ever responded with unsure. But there were a few maybes, meaning they were not quite sure which way to lean. In the future, I think this survey could be conducted with multiple age groups. A distinction between a freshman survey, a sophomore survey, a junior survey, and a senior survey (with the possibility of a graduate survey) would enhance the data in a way so observers can see where exactly participants start being more opinionated towards these topics. Or maybe age has nothing to do with it and it is another factor. A future survey could address these problems.

References

Kay, I. T. (2006, Don't mess with CEO pay. Across the Board Vol.XLIII, no.1, , 23-28. Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com

Great men, great pay? (2014, Jun 14). Washington Post Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com

Samuelson, R. J. (2014, Jun 23). The CEO aristocracy. Washington Post Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com

Appendix

Short Answer:

Question 1: What are qualities of a good CEO?

Multiple Choice (Yes, No, Maybe, Unsure)

Question 2: Is their high salary required to get them to come work for a specific company?

Question 3: Do you believe CEOs are overpaid?

Question 4: Does the size of the company affect what a CEO is paid?

Question 5: Does non-profit vs. for profit affect how much a CEO is paid?

Question 6: Does the CEOs field affect how much they will be paid?

Question 7: On average, what percent of a company’s revenue do CEOs take home?

IMRaD Report: Intro and Methods

Introduction

It is no doubt that in today’s society, CEO’s are considered some of the most powerful men and women. They are put in charge of running entire companies, where everyone is looking to them for guidance and leadership. However, is their drive comprised of the desire to be successful, or the big paychecks they get to take home at the end of the year?

In an article written by the Washington Post, it was found that in the 1950s the ration between CEO compensation and that have an average worker was 20:1. This put the CEO well in front of that of the average worker and led to the rise of many great companies. Today that ratio has catapulted its way up to 200:1. Have the job duties of CEO’s changed that much? Another article by the Post cited that some CEO’s have saved companies (i.e. Steve Jobs of Apple, Lou Gerstner of IBM, and Lee Iacocca of Chrysler). These men deserve to be rewarded for their extensive efforts for their respective companies. Most CEO’s do not need to fill this purpose though.

We know what part of our society is saying, but what about our future society? As a majority of business students took part in this study, some may eventually be working directly with CEO’s. Still others may be that “average” worker in a company. How do college students fell about what CEO’s are being paid? Is it even a current concern, or are we still in the phase where we do not have to worry about things of this nature? A survey of a small sample can give us a glimpse of the feelings towards the question “Are CEO’s overpaid?”

Methods

Participants: 20 University of Iowa students participated in this survey. Most were business students in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business. Most participants were also college freshman.

Data Sources: A survey was created using www.surveymonkey.com.

Procedures: Participants were given access to the survey through an embedded version on a blog and some were also emailed the survey. Participants were required to answer every question on the survey and they were also only allowed to submit one response. The survey consisted of a series of 6 questions with the pre-determined responses of: yes, no, maybe, and unsure. There was also one open ended question asking participants what they thought good qualities of a CEO were.