Monday, September 30, 2019
The Rise of Technology, the Fall of the Human Mind
Pretty much all of the excitement over the last century has been about the new advanced technology, most people are fooled by thinking they need the newest and the best. But to what extent is this new technology ruining the environment and the actual people? It is believed that with all the new technology people are becoming less healthy as they can use the technology to do all the work for them. Have the people of the world become too dependent on computers, cars, the internet, different machines, cellphones and high tech calculators? Technology has become the most common used thing in the world. Technology is every aspect of the human life, it effects from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. We can say that,†living without technology is like living without air†in this technical world of today, therefore, we are much too dependent on technology. Since the industrial revolution, society has become more and more dependent on technology. So much so that we sometimes lack the willingness to think before we act. Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. Every small work we do is technology dependent. Today every other person is recognized with the device he carries, which is technically advanced. People in today’s society are always looking for ways to improve their lifestyles and in some way help deal with their physical environment. Even in the shelf life in our grocery stores, the food products increase with help of everyday technology and the preparation time of food is reduced with the help of new machines and equipment, making the person buying it have easy consumption and also saving a lot of productive time. Whereas back in the day it was very time consuming to hunt and kill your prey to be able to eat. The whole food industry has completely changed with the new technology we have today. The invention of the television has brought all forms of entertainment into our houses with video and audio combined. Before 1950, newspapers and radio were the only ways to bring media or entertainment into the home.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Poverty In United States Essay
United States of America being among   the richest and most developed nations one would expect poverty to be a vocabulary that only exist in the national policies of third world countries.            By comparison Americans can be described as wealthy but there are some pockets of poverty in this vast and rich nation This paper attempts to explore poverty situation in United States highlighting its causes and characteristics, digging deeper to understand which group of people consist the poor.            A report released in 2002 shows that there were 35 million poor Americans, this represented roughly 10% of the population, and this figure has been rising Presently 12% of Americans are living below the poverty line.            By definition poverty is described as that condition where one is unable to meet the basic need in life, that’s one, can not afford a well balanced meal, decent housing and clothing. Poverty in United States is somehow different from the one experienced in least developed nations where living on less than a dollar qualifies one as poor. The poor in America constitute people who depend on state welfare since they are unable to provide for themselves, every year people fall in and out of poverty.  In a period of 10 years 40% of American fall in and out of poverty, this is attributed to fall of their income, when one of the family member moves out, among other situations (Fisher, G.M., 2003)            Some groups of people are more prone to poverty than others. This depends on their economic social or cultural position they occupy in the society. There are those who are unemployed meaning they do not engage in any income generating activity. Crime on one hand is a result of poverty or it can breed poverty. Poor tend to engage into criminal activity or they are driven into it by poverty. Apprehended criminals in correction centers rarely engage in economic activity while victims of crime e.g. thefts have to replace the stolen property eating on their savings. (Zweig, Michael, 2004)            Households headed by women on average tend to be poor in comparison to those with both spouses. In this type of a family woman is the sole bread winner. Most of her income goes towards provision of basic needs with less or no savings therefore making it difficult for this family to rise beyond poverty line (Martin N.,2008).            The size of the family affects family income, large families have more mouths to feed, more household bills to clear, huge spending in insurance, education and healthcare. If this type of family income is not enough they will for ever be trapped in poverty cycle.            Other groups that are likely to be poor are the unskilled, the less educated substance abusers immigrants and children.            Causes of poverty in America are several they range from economical, cultural, and geographical to social. . Distribution of resources largely affects people ability to produce. This also determines employment opportunities available which by and large dictates people incomes. States endowed with resources will have low poverty rates than those with little or unexploited resources. (Adams, J.Q, Pearlie S.A, 2001)            Economic condition which is not favorable will result to increased poverty rate, recessions leads to rise in inflation which means people pay more for the same goods they were buying but their income remains constant, and this means savings are curtailed. For example recession in 1982 led to rise in poverty rates from 12% to 15%             Education equips Americans with skills that enable them to gain employment or venture into business. On average Americans with a college diploma have access to high paying jobs compared to the less educated. To a greater extent educational level determine ones income, less educated are likely to earn less making it impossible for them to afford a decent living. On the same line education level dictates opportunities available to an individual. Unskilled labor attracts low pay making unskilled laborers more prone to poverty than their skilled counterparts.            Rural and urban settings provide greater disparities as far as living standards are concerned. Americans living in urban areas have higher incomes when compared to their rural countrymen. There are more opportunities in urban areas due to high population with disposable income and better infrastructure. In rural areas opportunities are few and are limited to primary production e.g. agriculture, mining e.t.c.This means income generation activities and employment opportunities are fewer and only attract the less skilled            Regionally, most of the southern states have higher poverty rates especially the rural areas .This is due to few employment opportunities and historical background.            Children are more prone to be poor than any other age group. According to the information released from population survey by census bureau in 2004, 21% 0f children were considered as poor. A greater disparity is seen when it comes to racial lines, almost half of African Americans and 40% of Latino kids are trapped in poverty circles. (Harrington, M.,1962).            Immigrants are great victims of poverty .Those with low education earn their living in low paying jobs. Illegal immigrants are even more disadvantaged as they can not gain any meaningful employment, therefore remaining in poverty circles for a long time            In conclusion, poverty in United States is dynamic, one may be in and out of poverty throughout their lives. Though there are conflicts as to who is poor, there is a common understanding that those who live on an income that is below what an average American earn is living below poverty . What constitutes poverty in United States may be middle class in some parts of the world especially in least developed nations. Poverty is a limiting factor in the society as it denies some Americans decent lives curtailing their freedom to enjoy lives. Policies need to be implemented to lower the poverty rates so as to rid United States of poverty. Reference Adams, J.Q.; Pearlie Strother-Adams, 2001. Dealing with Diversity. Chicago, IL: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. . Harrington, Michael ,1962 The Other America. Macmillan. Fisher, G.M. ,2003 The Development of the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds. Macmillan Zweig, Michael ,2004 What’s Class Got to do With It, American Society in the Twenty-first Century. ILR Press. Martin N. ,2008. Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes, 4th ed.. Boston: McGraw-Hill
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Assessment Of Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Assessment Of Students - Essay Example When assessing learning then the instructors must try to identify specific goals that are set to be achieved in a particular course so that they can gauge the outcome and determine the level at which learning has taken place. Assessment can also make the learning process to be more effective and that are consistent with the course structures and the grading processes to meet the set learning goals (Gà ¼rcan, Dikenelli & Bernon, 2013). It also makes the lecturer be better teachers as they offer specific results on what is working or not in their classrooms and provide a straightforward feedback to the learners about their classroom progress. To assess the students effectively and consistently, the instructor must first provide answers to the following questions: what do they want their students to know and learn? Secondly, what do they do to help their students to learn what they expect they need to understand and know? To get the answer then they should use the following steps: one they should try to identify and articulate what their learners should learn in their classes. Secondly, the instructors should try to develop tools that they can use to measure the levels of the students understanding. Thirdly, they should establish the systems that they will use to compile and analyze the data they have collected using those tools. Finally use the obtained information to improve the curriculum, objectives and even the goals. The nursing course is designed to provide the learners with a wide range of teaching and learning experiences. The class will be sub-divided into smaller group and each group will be allocated a tutor to teach the course. There will be seminars that are specialty based for each of the discipline of the nursing to help focus on the particular health implications and the social policies that are touching on their areas of specialization. Open workshops will also be organized to follow and be attended by each and every student that is registered for the discussion and debates.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Research paper Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Research paper - Annotated Bibliography Example The fear and prejudice against Muslim has led to an attack on all Muslims, including burning the mosques. The Muslims perceive this as hatred towards a different color or a different religion. Towards the close of the Ramadan, a mosque was brought down to rumbles in Missouri (Amer & Basu, 2012). Thus, there is an Islamophobia, which does not necessarily differentiate between terrorists and Muslims, or the Muslim religion.In New York, a student attacked and stabbed a cab driver who was a Muslim, raising the question of whether this act was triggered by the perpetrators hate for Muslims or it was just a criminal act targeting at any cab driver (Crudele & Esposito, 2012). The New York mayor termed the incidence disgraceful, amidst the uncertainty of what exactly had triggered this action. If such an action was triggered by such hatred, then it is apparent that the prejudice against the Muslims is turning to fatal level. The anniversary on the September 2011 attacks in America has always created dark memories, igniting a feeling of resentfulness between the Americans and the Muslims. This could be the possible trigger of the recent attacks on the Muslim faith, marked by arsonists and anti-Sharia movements (Lean, 2012). There has been a sustained attitude of hate towards the Muslims, which is a wrong response to the losses suffered during the 2001 attack. The ban of the Muslim headscarf for schools in southern Russia has angered the Muslim, raising the concern that such a move has forced the Muslim girls to choose between state education and their religion, which is totally inappropriate (Mooneye, 2012).. Thus, the tension between the Muslims and the rest has continued to rise, owing to the perception that Muslims are associated to terrorism in one way or the other. Recently, a man in Connecticut threatened to assault a Muslim woman because of her religion heritage. This promoted The Council on Ameri can-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to call on the FBI to
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Critique of the Public Health Agency of Canada Website Term Paper
Critique of the Public Health Agency of Canada Website - Term Paper Example Furthermore the framework of the critique is focused on the user needs, authenticity and the content of the web site, which in essence make up the critical elements of an evaluation of any web site (Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools). Graphics in a website are critical to not only attracting and retaining the audience, but it is also important to the proper use of the web site for an enhanced learning experience. There is evidence to suggest that it is the conventional web page graphics with proper guidance instructions that enhance the attraction and utility value of a web site (Hinseley, Blackmon & Carnot, 2008). The Public Health Agency of Canada website use of graphics matches this requirement of appropriate use of graphics. Graphics and layout of the website make it easy for a user to identify areas of interest and peel into the specific locations easily for the information being sought. Furthermore the lay out and graphics are such that there is no overlapping or difficulty in navigating the site (PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY of CANADA). The central focus is on a changing graphic that highlights the most current information that the website provides on matters of health concern in Canada. On the left hand side of the web site are a list of specific information boxes, which when peeled into provides Canada specific information separately into diseases and conditions, health and safety, research and statistics, information about the agency. On this side is also provided a search facility that enables a user to search for specific information, meaning that the user does not have to go through all the portals for any specific information, but can find directly about the availability of the information and go straight to it (PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY of CANADA). Below the central focus of the moving graphic are portals that are specific to the current news on the health and disease prevention
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Organizational Behavior - General Hospital Case Term Paper
Organizational Behavior - General Hospital Case - Term Paper Example There is a strong link between the individual –organization interface in any institution and since each individual brings about unique personalities and experiences (Griffin & Moorhead, 2010), there is a need to have a harmonized way of operations in organization behavior. This is the typical problem that is being experienced at the General Hospital. Hellringer & Slocum (2011) elaborate that conflict occurs when one group or a party feels that their interests and opinions are being ignored or opposed to by another party. The differences in personalities, experiences, and lack of harmonization of the two in an organization set up as Griffin & Moorhead (2010)argues plays a large part in these conflicts to occur. In the General hospitals, doctors are interested in achieving personal ends through colluding unethically with the employees of pharmaceutical companies that serve the hospital. This makes the doctors leave their duties of attending to the patient as they concentrate on their personalized benefits, and this also becomes a complicated issue in pharmaceutical companies as employees find ways of serving the doctors with the pharmaceutical products for personal ends. Hammer on the other hand as the chief executive officer in the hospital feels that the doctors are not delivering on their services and that the doctors were the major cause of the escalating costs in the hospital. They are the stabling block towards managing the costs. Hammer also believes that the doctors have much allegiance to their professions compared to their duties, and this was affecting the services to patients (Hellringer & Slocum, 2011). Harding supports Hammer and together decides to fire Doctor Boyer, in a move that was believed to aid in saving the hospital from the escalating costs.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Death of a Salesman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3
Death of a Salesman - Essay Example Linda, the wife, who had a firm grip over the situation, even though she did not want to hurt the family in any way, is shown in the end as unsuitable to face reality while emulating dead Willy in talking to him, in the same way, how Willy spoke to dead brother Ben. This makes the play end as an unfinished tragedy. Willy has passed on his living in illusion to his favorite son Bliff, who thinks of big results, without making any effort towards it ("To suffer fifty weeks a year for the sake of a two-week vacation"). He knew of father's infidelity, but would not inform the mother, would not work for his graduation and would not work anywhere and ends up as a petty criminal. Even in the end, instead of making an honest start, he goes and steals a pen from Bill Cliver, ruining a possible career, and the saving grace comes only then, because he sees the truth at last ("I looked up and I saw they sky ... and I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been") and realises that he had been fooling himself. Hap, on the other hand, craves for father's attention, while the father showers attention on Bliff, who could not care less. Hap is unhappy to hurt family members by telling the truth and tries to gloss it over ("My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women, and still, goddamit, I'm lonely"). Linda, who was realistic enough to realise that Willy was marching towards suicide, hesitates to confront the reality and has a total breakdown after his death. Finally, Bliff comes out as a real person who was ready to discard illusions ("We never told the truth in the house for ten minutes"). The play, divided into three sections is a saga of illusion starting from Willy Loman, a failing salesman, working on commission, could not complete sales trip, tired of life, returned home after 15 years of drifting. He sees a glorifying future for sons, Biff and Hap, though boys think he is becoming senile. Willy embarrasses the boys frequently by falling into another era, on a flashback, conversing with his hero, dead brother, Ben. He lives in world of illusion and false sense of reality, to cover his failures and creates fantasies of success. Even though Ben had stumbled into riches, Willy would like to glorify it as result of Ben's hard work and invents much swagger for Ben ("When I was seventeen, I walked into the jungle. And by twenty-one, I walked out. And by God, i was rich!"). A young woman with whom Willy had an affair intrudes into his illusions. He misguides his sons about life and success saying that looks and being liked are enough in life. "Willy did himself and his family a disservice by putting too much emphasis on appearance and popularity, and not enough on the value of hard work. He wound up living in a daydream whenever things went wrong, and his sons were unethical" http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/death.html Even though he was not particularly liked by anyone, he invents another lie that he was universally liked and when he decides to kill himself, again he had the illusion that the entire community will attend his funeral and once again, he was proved wrong. He was unrealistic enough to refuse Charlie's job and even Bliff tries to wake him up out of the reverie ("Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you"). Hap makes up things exactly like Willy about his sales store and marriage to make parents happy. He wants Bliff to hide the fact that he could not even meet Bill Cliver from Willy. Psychologically
Monday, September 23, 2019
Factors that cause shift in demand curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Factors that cause shift in demand curve - Essay Example When the price of the bread increases to $70, the quantity demanded as a result decreases to 6 million or where the price decreases to $50 from $40 then the quantity demanded increases to 10 million. This phenomenon can be said to be the movement along the demand curve. The reason for the shift of the demand curve is due to the change in factors other than that of price, such as the change in price of the related goods, income of the consumer or preference of the consumer etc. An increase of decrease in these factors can shift the demand curve on either side as the price will remain the same. Two goods are said to be the substitute of each other when the price of one of the item causes the price of the other item to rise simultaneously or the goods are such identical to each other that a normal consumer may switch to the other good when the price of the prior rises. The customer expectation that the price of a good may increase of decrease can have affect on the demand curve as due t o the expected increase in price. The customer will tend to purchase and stock the particular good before the price rises and vice versa may happen when there is a possibility of decrease in price. The change in income of a consumer is one of the basic causes of the shift in the demand curve. When the income of the consumer increases he will switch to more luxury goods as compared to the normal goods, because of the increase in his purchasing power which provides a better margin to purchase more of a good.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Professional Communication at the Workplace Essay Example for Free
Professional Communication at the Workplace Essay Interpersonal communication is essentially the exchange of communication between one person(s) and another. Like any other form of communication, interpersonal communication involves the sender of the message and the recipient of the message. The message can only be passed correctly if both the sender and the recipient pass it correctly and understand each other. I work for a voluntary group at the University. This group aims at reaching out to the less fortunate both in the institution and the society generally. We do not offer financial help as such but instead focus on the abilities of the people we interact with and give them the necessary counsel and advice they need. In this way, we give them ideas on how they can actually help themselves out financially. This organization involves a lot of interaction, both within ourselves as the members of the organization and also between us and the people we interact with. As such there is a lot of interpersonal communication that goes on. The group consists of a total of ten members, and as they say, we are like our fingers; we come in different sizes and lengths, not literally but in terms of age, personalities, gender, culture, spiritual orientation and physical abilities and disabilities. This whole structure of diversity makes communication, particularly interpersonal communication, an issue worth debate. This is because the way we choose to communicate within ourselves and others is bound to affect our service delivery either positively or n egatively. The following part of the paper will critically analyze each of these factors mentioned above that makes us diverse in our communication, interpersonal communication.CITATION Joh12 p 56 l 1033 (Johnson, 2012, p. 56)Age The voluntary group I work for is extremely diversified when it comes to age, with members from the extreme sides of the age spectrum. The oldest member in the group is aged forty seven, while the youngest is seventeen. Most of the members, about seventy percent, are aged between seventeen and twenty five. The main reason behind this is the fact that the organization requires the participation of both the old and young. For instance, the young and vibrant group, which forms the majority of the group, is required to move up and down and interact with the people we look forward to offering our help to. The older group is mostly involved ion critically analyzing our case studies and give direction on the best way forward. It is therefore not easy to hold a conversation between these two groups that are different in terms of age. For instance, young people will always base their ideas on what social media says. They will go with current trends since that are what they are familiar with a nd immediately make a decision. The older group will look at trends on a more historical point of view and analyze historical events in relation to the topic of discussion before coming up with a remedy. The young members, moreover, communicate with a lot of slang because as much as this organization is based on official business, it is also a social and interactive group as well. This way, the message at times is not passed effectively from one person(s) to another. The consequence of this communication gap is that the goals of the organizations are not at all times met and therefore efficiency is not achieved as well.CITATION Ric01 p 76 l 1033 (Pircadi, 2001, p. 76)Perceived Emotions, Relationships and Personality Our personalities define us. We have different personalities just as we are different in other aspects of our lives. The personality of a person is one thing that psychologists have proved beyond reasonable doubt that is very difficult to change. The personalities of a person will most of the time dictate the way in which they communicate. Some people are introverts and as such they tend to keep to themselves. They listen more than they speak. They think more and learn more from their surrounding and the people around them. Others are outspoken and will speak more. They express themselves through speech. The relationship between or among people also influences communication. CITATION Joh12 l 1033 (Johnson, 2012)This I have witnessed in my voluntary work group. People tend to open up to those they are close with and give less details to the people they are not that close to. One’s family tends to know them better because of the blood relationship that exists as compared to outs iders. Finally, people perceive and express their emotions very differently. Jerry, a member of my voluntary group tends to hide his low moments in smiles. It is therefore not easy to tell what he is going through. I, on the other hand will always show it. I have no way to hide and it is communicated through my emotions. The way we react to how we feel will determine the way we communicate. There are those of us like Jerry who will drown our sorrows in smiles and those like me who will communicate it just as it is. It is therefore very clear that we communicate our emotions very differently and this goes way back to our personalities.CITATION Joh02 p 94 l 1033 (Gray, 2002, p. 94)Spiritual Orientation The world is composed of people with very diverse spiritual backgrounds. Spiritual background forms the foundation of the life of a person. More often than not, the behavior of a person is well explained by their religious beliefs. This is also the case with communication most of the time. Spiritual diversity will create diversity in speech and in communication generally. For instance, Moslems do not shake hands as a sign of greeting. Their greetings are always in form of speech. This is unlike other religions where people are allowed to shake hands casually and even hug. People from strong religious backgrounds and those with high faith are also very cautious with their speech. They tend to taste their words before they spit them out, that is, they are sensitive in their speech so as not to hurt others. The voluntary group that I work with, or rather that I work for has all Christians but one Moslem, Rahima Nassir. She, in one way or another, communicates in a different way from the rest. Most of the time, she refers to the Allah, who is the Supreme Being according to her religion. This happens especially in cases where she tries to sound optimistic and give a hopeless situation hope. The voluntary group involves a lot of interaction and therefore we have to be warm as we interact with others. This is at times not very easy to achieve owing to the fact that some religious beliefs have certain strains. Rahima is not the only one that faces such challenges. Even along the Christian front, there are various denominations which uphold different values. These values make the approach to various situations very differently. CITATION Gai10 p 104 l 1033 (Forey, 2010, p. 104)Gender The gender of a person also affects communication, particularly interpersonal communication. The female species has a different way of passing a message from the male species. One thing I love the most about my voluntary group is that we are balanced when it comes to gender. Out of a group of ten, we have five ladies and five gentlemen. This gives a ratio of one to one. However, this gender difference can at timers be a major setback in terms of communication. The Ladies, for instance would like to be addressed in a more soft way even when it comes to simple aspects such as greetings. Important to note is that communication does not involve only speech, there is verbal and non-verbal communication, all of which should be considered. Throughout the time that I spend with members of my organization, I have observed that men and women have very different modes and methods of communication. Most of the time, male members are very radical in their speech as well as their illustrations. La dies have a different approach. They, more often than not, are very soft both in their speech and illustrations. It is for this reason that they (ladies) are extremely cautious in their speech. I also noted that the men speak fewer words as compared to the ladies. Ladies speak more, except in a few instances.CITATION Mar09 p 85 l 1033 (Gufey, 2009, p. 85)Person with Disability They say disability is not inability. However, this part of the paper will view disability as a hindrance to communication to an extent. People with disabilities, physical disabilities for that matter, face a lot of challenges when it comes to passing a message effectively. This bottleneck is faced by not only the sender of the message but the recipient as well. The voluntary group that I work for or rather the members of the group that I work with experiences such challenges. In the group, there are two people with physical disabilities. Jerry is a deaf while Geoffrey is visually impaired. Of the two, I think Geoffrey has the most difficult time when it comes to communication. For one reason or the other, Geoffrey happened to be the secretary of the organization at some point in time. He therefore took minutes during meetings and did all the secretarial work. This position, I can say he deserved. Geoffrey is very brilliant besides being very diligent in his work. The main challenge that group faced was the translation of the brail recorded minutes. No one in the group understood brail language apart from Geoffrey himself. He was the only one that could read and understand the minutes. Consequently, he had to step down as secretary after a fortnight of good leadership. Jerry on the other hand, cannot communicate easily and effectively. As a matter of facts, he is most of the time misunderstood and the group experiences a lot of instances with miscommunication. Sign language is not that easy to understand. This impacts negatively on the communication in the organization. Both Jerry and the rest of the members have a hard time in communicating. The importance of both Geoffrey and Jerry in the group can never be underestimated but then at times the challenges effective communication a tall order.CITATION Per08 p 119 l 1033 (Mcintosh, 2008, p. 119)Culture Culture is a very important aspect that should be put into consideration when it comes to effective communication. The culture of a member or members of a group determines how the message is conveyed and it also determines how the message is perceived. Culture affects communication to a very great extent simply because the culture of a person will dictate their style of communication. This means that the more diverse the cultures are, the more diverse their styles of communication. Though to a small extent, there is cultural diversity in our voluntary group. In essence we have people from diverse cultural group. For matters of convenience, I will describe the cultural diversity as high culture and low culture, not that any culture is more superior to another, but for explanatory purposes. For instance, Evelyn, the group’s organizing secretary, is from the high culture. This category mainly focuses their communication on arts and by arts I mean it is more of music, drama et cet era. This category will therefore involve people with a very high esteem since for one to be able to express themselves through arts; they have to be extremely bold, just typical of Evelyn. On the contrary, the low culture category involves large audiences. A good illustration of how culture can affect communication is that in some cultures for instance, it is very vital to maintain eye contact during communication while in others; eye contact can be seen as offensive and unacceptable. Barry, the chairman of our voluntary group and Miley, our secretary are most of the time caught up in such a situation due to their religious differences.CITATION Jos14 p 92 l 1033 (Chesobro, 2014, p. 92)Conclusion and Recommendations With over seven billion people in the world, it is expected that people will differ in relation to various aspects of life. Even people from the same family, people with the same cultures, same religious beliefs and people from the same age group will at one point or the other differ. Communication, on the other is also very important. Each and everything we do revolves around communication. No man is an island. This simply means we have to live harmoniously with each other. For this reason, communication is very important. This paper has not focused on intrapersonal communication but interpersonal communication since this is the way we interact with each other in our work places. Without effective interpersonal communication at our work places, it almost difficult to make any social and economic progress. However, I have learnt from my work experiences at my voluntary group that diversities will always be there, they are there to stay. These are some aspects of life that we should a ccept them just in the way they come. We can never be the same. It is therefore very important to understand and embrace each of our diversities, placing our differences aside. From my own case study it is clear that communication is very important. It is equally clear that challenges must arise due to the diversities in various life aspects. Therefore, from my own experience, I would recommend that we respect the fact that we are not and can never be the same but try as well to burn any bridges that might exist as a result of the differences amongst us. We are one and shall always be one, despite our differences. Let us let communication to make us and not break us. References 1033 Avery, C. (2001). The Flexible Workplace. New York: New York University Press. Chesobro, J. (2014). Professional Communication at the Workplace. New York: New York University Press. Eunson, B. (2009). Communication in the Workplace. New York: Edgeworth Publishers. Forey, G. (2010). Globalization, Communication in the Workplace. Oxford University Press. Gray, J. (2002). Mars and Venus in the Workplace. Oxford University Press. Gufey, M. E. (2009). Essentials of Business Communication. New York: New York University Press. Johnson, J. (2012). Solving Problems in Technical Communication. Oxford University Press. Mcintosh, P. (2008). Interpersonal Communication In The Workplace. New York : New York University Press. Muema, T. (2007). Effects of Poor Communication in the Workplace. Miley and Sons Publishers. Pircadi, R. (2001). Skills of Workplace Communication. New York: New York University Press. Source document
Saturday, September 21, 2019
U.S. Debit Essay Example for Free
U.S. Debit Essay Advancement in technology has challenged the traditional way of transacting as new financial services which offer reduced costs of transactions and incorporates innovations to delivery channels thereby increasing more value to businesses, customers and business activities have been introduced into the market place. For instance the electronic financial transaction services such as debit cards which are used as an alternative to cash when making payment of purchases. The funds are withdrawn from the buyer’s bank account or the balance in the card. Technological advancement has introduced a debit card to be used over the internet. This mode of payment has gained popularity in many countries because it is flexible and usually reduces the expenses that arise when a person operates cash funds outside the general account. This system was introduced to meet the demands of consumers who needed a safe and secure way of accessing their account anytime and at any place (Kobliner, 2009). In US the department of Treasury Financial Management Services (FMS) for federal agencies runs the debit card program allowing individuals to make nonrecurring and miscellaneous payment. This department also offers federal agents access to money when on official duty because it provides centralized payment services to the federal agency as it operates the collection and deposit systems of the federal government. Moreover, the use of the debit card is deemed to reduce the workload of accountants, auditors, staff members, drivers of indirect cost and enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration. Apart from this the debit card program offers management of various other programs such as benefits/ pension, disaster relief and travel expenses among others (Evans Schmalensee, 2005). Furthermore, the US debit card program emanates strict management control guided by powerful reporting mechanisms thereby ensuring ease in fund distribution. The reporting mechanisms are categorized into two; from the primary research sources for example conduction of interviews on financial analysts, consultants of the field, marketers and public relations officers. The other reporting mechanism is from secondary research sources which includes gathering data from the company reports of relevant trade businesses, consumer demographics from research bureaus and from government sources (Evans Schmalensee, 2005). The use of debit card in US has gained popularity that it overshadows the use of the credit card which was launched earlier. Statistics show that today more than 8 billion US citizens owns and uses a debit card in comparison to about 274 debit card holders in the year 1990 (Walden Peg, 2007). In the year 2008 about USD 206 billion dollars were received from debit card transaction in comparison to USD203 billion dollars received from credit card transactions in the same year (Walden Peg, 2007). This can be based on the fact that there are two types of debit cards which include the single deposit debit cards and multiple deposit debit cards. Single deposit cards are usually used to pay card holders incentives, bonuses, one-time stipend among other services while the multiple deposit debit card is usually designed to make payment to debt card holders for emergencies, payroll and recurring payments among others (Walden Peg, 2007). The use of debit cards has been credited as a secure means of transaction as it eliminates chances of fraudulent acts because of the imposed personal identification number (PIN) which is issued to the card holder once they become legal debit card holders. A card reader which is a small hand device that works independently from the computer is used to read the chip on the credit card which contains the eight digits pass code of the pin (the digits were increased from four to eight to increase security measures). This fact makes it difficult for fraudsters to get access to the PIN and thus reduces the overall number of debit card theft cases (Kobliner, 2009). The debit card programs offers an accurate and simplified reconciliation system because transactions are satisfied at the till as they are directly connected to the bank accounts of card holders. This is because the point of sale (POS) system offers reports that can be directly counter checked with reports created by the bank concerning the activities of the card holder’s bank account. The use of debit card programs also ensures that opening up of individual accounts is rapid and results to a low risk start up for bulk. This program also ensures immediate distribution of the debit cards because the issuance process is instant. Debit card holders have the freedom of accessing their accounts at anytime and from any place because the services offered by the debit card program run for twenty four hours, are available online and offers a real time funding system. The debit cards can also be used at any ATM points and by merchants such as online casinos among other vendors worldwide. While using debit cards transactions are done rapidly thus reducing the long queues that are witnessed in shopping parlors and other transacting sites. Debit card holders are therefore, comfortable and satisfied by the services extended by the debit card programs because of their convenience and the ability of fulfilling their demands (Kobliner, 2009). However, debit card issuers that is, the financial institutions are faced with a major marketing problem on their earnings and spending because they earn less profit when their customers use debit cards than when they use credit cards. This is because the finance charges, late fees and annual fees charged on credit card holders are not charged on debit card holders. Thus in contrast to the benefit and convenience consumers and merchants enjoy, debit card issuers struggle to increase the profit margins of their businesses. To overcome this drawback debit card issuers have implemented financial fee charges used to help the institution cater for expenses incurred when formulating and implementing reward programs tied to debt cards to attract more customers especially because the use of debit cards for financial transactions is growing rapidly. This initiative has created tension between the banks and merchants because of the fee that the financial institutions charge when accepting the use of the plastic cards in place of money. Merchants are complaining that the financial institutions have increased the amount of the fees that they charge on the use of debit cards while on the other hand they offer little reward benefits when they lower the amount of the fee they charge (Mann, 2006). Despite this hitches debit card issuers are still encouraged to continue supporting this technology as they have been able to survive and even earn profit during the 2009 economic recession that has had a standstill effects on many transaction and business activities (Kobliner, 2009). Therefore, from the above facts it is quite clear that US as a country will greatly benefit from the implementation of debit card programs because of increased levels of income generation. This will also improve the livelihood and lifestyle of US citizens. Reference List Evans, S. D. Schmalensee, R. (2005). Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing. 2nd Ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kobliner, B. (2009). Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties. 3rd ED. NY: Simon Schuster. Mann, J. R. (2006). Charging Ahead: The Growth and Regulation of Payment Card Markets. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Walden, M. L. Peg, T. (2007). Battleground: Business. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Effects of Consumer Switching Costs
Effects of Consumer Switching Costs The assumption about switching cost is rather natural to the extent that borrowers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction about a bank can be different according to individual preference to banks’ services and borrowers can measure them exactly only after having the relationship. Switching costs may capture direct cost of closing an account with one bank and opening it elsewhere, the cost associated with other application procedures with other banks but also loss of relationship benefit between borrower and his former bank. A borrower faces switching costs in a relationship with an individual bank; it would be costly to borrow from a single lender if its primary bank is in financial distress. This implies that default risk would be more sensitive to our bank health measures if the bank-firm relationship is close. Overall, the following are the main conclusions for this study, each of these shall be discussed throughout the chapter: The respondents elaborated that the manner in which they were affected by the crisis when the international banking system collapsed leading to drying up of credit. Living in the credit-driven environment, both individuals as well as the corporate sector found it difficult to face the no credit situation. Government-driven rescue packages were being announced across the world to save their respective economies. The amounts were running into hundreds of billions of their home currencies. The magnitude was so huge and the event so wide spread, that it spread across various sectors and various economies. Image is indirectly related to the bank loyalty as perceived by quality. This is based on the results of large scale empirical results in a global level. Service quality is indirectly and directly related to bank loyalty in terms of satisfaction. Satisfaction has a direct effect on loyalty for the bank. It is now clear on level of the mentioned constructs that reliability or the quality dimension and the position in the market or the image dimension are both important drivers of bank retail loyalty. Therefore the quality of a bank should be more important for credit line customers than for other loan customers. We therefore apply and test the hypothesis that credit line borrowers are willing to pay extra for borrowing from a bank of high quality. A wide range of factors maintain the market power in banking. Entry into the banking sector is restricted by regulatory agencies, creating one of the preconditions for a degree of monopoly power and administrated pricing. Market power and an inelastic demand for retail bank products may also result from the existence of switching costs and asymmetric information costs. Switching costs may arise when bank customers consider switching from one bank to another, for example when a household intend to transfer its savings deposits from bank A to bank B. Costs of acquiring information and search and administrative costs are potentially important in markets where significant information or transaction costs exist. The costs are also expected to be high in markets with long-term relationships and repeated transactions (Sharpe, 1997). Generally the existence of switching costs results in market segmentation and reduces the demand elasticity (Klemperer, 1987). Moreover, even in the presence of small switching costs, the theory predicts that the smaller the proportion of customers that are new to the market, the less competitive prices will be. Thus, even with non-co-operative behaviour, switching costs result in a retail bank interest rate adjustment of less than one to a change in the market interest rate (Lowe and Rohling, 1992). Two main limitations are associated with this case study. First, we have not collected the financial performance data and therefore are not able to discuss cost effectiveness and profitability of the schemes. The second limitation is related to the drivers of customer loyalty in retail banking industry. Future investigations should focus on loyalty program component analysis, customer loyalty measures, customer attraction and profitability, and design and costs of loyalty programs. The findings suggest that the majority of the analyzed loyalty programs reward a repeat purchasing. The retail banks automatically record individual customers details and transactions that provide an opportunity for marketing people to organize segmentation and targeting, and create relationship marketing strategy as well as individual marketing offers to the clients. However, the research shows that the banks are basically concentrated on two customer segments the potentially profitable customers and the customers, who are willing to keep money in their bank accounts. Most of the retail bank loyalty programs offer their customers only a discount on the transaction costs. It could be viewed as an indirect price cut policy, which leads to the constant battle for the price. The critical issue for the most programs launched by the banks is to reinforce the value proposition of the bank brand, to enhance loyalty toward the brand, not just toward the rewards. Relationship marketing strategy and relationship based loyalty programs are important to retail banking service providers, because it is a right way to build relationship and loyalty. Furthermore, a conclusion is reached that retail banks are offering non-customized loyalty programs and that marketing specialists are not familiar enough with the factors that determine the choice of loyalty programs. Based on the results, loan securitization can be utilized as a strategic tool to soften the competition in the loan market. Like all financially troubled firms, a banks debt pricing strategy is likely to be driven by the need to generate cash to boost liquidity to fund investments or to raise short term profitability. The deposit pricing strategy chosen however may not be uniform and instead will depend on institutional factors and also segmentation between different classes of deposit investors. The most important institutional factor affecting pricing strategy of distressed banks is deposit insurance; the existence of fixed premium deposit insurance alters the nature of the more general creditor-owner conflict. For any distressed firm the incentive to generate funds to boost short-term profits or to gamble for survival exists; these funds in theory can be obtained directly through the financial markets. For most firms debt covenants make gambling difficult but for banks financing through depositors may be readily available to the extent deposit insurance exists. Because deposit insurance eliminates the incentive for depositors to monitor bank risk, it makes generating large amounts of funding, to use in risky investments, much easier. This seems to be, to a large extent what happened to financially distressed banks in U.K. during the time period studied. But the fact that all dimensions of bank deposit rates do not increase with distress and the fact that some increase more than others suggests that deposit insurance does not seem to be the only factor affecting bank deposit pricing strategy. Differences between classes of depositors allow banks to tailor deposit pricing strategies to best obtain funding in the most cost-effective way. Distressed banks tend to increase deposit rates only for the most investment oriented depositors (non-transaction account depositors) and do not significantly raise rates for the least investment oriented depositors (transaction account depositors). Additionally, not fully insured investment oriented (large time) depositors tend to be offered rates higher than mostly insured investment oriented (non-transaction non-large time) depositors. Thus distressed banks offer a premium both based on the increased risk (if deposits are uninsured) and for depositors being more investment oriented. Past works have generally suggested that troubled banks bid up deposit rates in a gamble for survival or that they may have to offer higher rates for uninsured depositors to compensate for the increased risk. The results suggest, that both explanations are partially correct in that they are both factors to varying degrees based on depositor class and that neither are significant factors for the least investment oriented depositors. The results provide fresh evidence that moral hazard is a issue in banking and moreover that it is increased by deposit insurance since distressed banks apparently raise rates less for investment oriented investors who have a larger portion of their deposits insured (non-large time non-transaction depositors) relative to more uninsured investment oriented investors (large time account depositors). The fact that deposit rates do not increase for transaction account holders as distress increases while other types of deposit rates increases is also important to consider; it suggest that moral hazard in conjunction with the convenience orientation of these depositors allows distressed banks to maintain this funding source at minimal cost regardless of risk. Thus the evidence suggests that both deposit insurance and the convenience orientation of a certain class of deposit investors imposes costs on the final creditor (the FDIC in this case) when a bank is in financial distress. Thus the results have important implications for regulators. The researcher documents the presence of positive duration dependence in relationships. In other words, firms become more likely to end a bank relationship as a relationship matures. Taken alone, this result suggests that the value of relationships decline through time, and those firms are able to end relationships early, possibly to avoid lock-in. This inference is strengthened by the fact that small, young, and highly-leveraged firms maintain the shortest relationships. Although theory suggests that such bank-dependent firms are the most susceptible to lock-in, our findings imply that switching costs are low enough to permit these firms to change banks often. Holding other firm characteristics constant, we show that competing bank relationships reduce the market power of any one bank, making long-term relationships more valuable. Although firms with multiple bank relationships terminate relationships frequently, they do so by terminating newer relationships and keeping long-term ones. Intuitively, the existence of alternative sources of bank credit reduces the ability for any one bank to threaten holdup. With lower holdup costs, a long-term relationship becomes more valuable to the multiple-bank firms. The researcher also finds some indication that firms terminate relationships as they outgrow their banks. Firms tend to switch from small banks to larger banks, and maintain the longest relationships with Norways two largest banks. However, we find no evidence that this preference for larger banks arises as a result of limited capacity at other banks. Instead, growing firms could prefer the higher quality services offered by the large banks. The evidence presented here should be useful to future theorists interested in modeling the value of bank relationships. However, one should take caution in drawing far-reaching conclusions from this study. Our data reveals very little about the actual nature of the relationships. We are unable to observe how the price and quantity of lending change over the course of the relationship and do not know the other types of banking services offered to customers in a bank relationship. Indeed, an ideal extension of this study would be to obtain a time-series of relationship-specific information about banks and their customers and examine the duration of the relationship as a function of relationship-specific variables. The constant effort of managers to stimulate customer loyalty involves customer integration in the firm value chain as a result of personalised marketing (Vesanen, 2007) aiming at intensifying the relationship between the supplier and its customers and increasing customer loyalty. Customer loyalty can be seen as a result of switching costs, opportunity costs and sunk costs based on technological, contractual and psychological obligations faced by a customer (Jackson, 1985; Riemer and Totz, 2003). All sources of these costs are based on the interaction with a customer during the course of integration. Switching costs increase due to the established trust towards the supplier and its capability to meet promised quality levels. If customers can be persuaded to invest significantly in a specific relationship, then sunk costs increase. Additionally, if customer satisfaction is positively influenced by customisation, then a customers opportunity costs increase as a defecting customer risks losing the net benefits of the current relationship (Riemer and Totz, 2003). However, not all companies will be able to draw profits from these saving potentials to a similar extent, regardless of whether they have already realised the existence of these effects. The degree of customer interaction is influenced by the characteristics of the good being individualised, such as its complexity, the expenditures and the risks of its utilisation and customisation. The paper contributes to the literature in identify new strength and weakness areas concerning the actual range of services offered by retail banks, the re-purchase intentions, the state of relationships with customers, and the competitors image positioning. The findings of this research suggest several implications also for marketing practitioners, as they validate the concept that relationship marketing orientation is critical for business performance. Firstly, since only when the satisfaction with the core service and relationship is high, the commitment will be higher, banks have to ensure that utmost importance is given to attributes like quality, product features, product availability etc. Moreover, the staff role is critical in understanding the customer needs and in satisfying them: the higher satisfaction will then increase customer retention. Secondly, relational switching costs can be increased only by investing in the soft or the relational assets (Nielson, 1996), in terms of various adaptations to favour the customer and also the investments in other soft assets like training for the working staff of the customers etc. Since the interaction is mostly interpersonal in nature, these outcomes hold major lessons for them. Finally, the moderating effect establishes that the investment in the relationship with the customer will raise the relational switching costs. This will help in customer retention, as the customer will not terminate the relationships even if the satisfaction is lower. It makes the entry of any other competitor difficult as he has had no investments in relationship so far. The findings of this study highlighted the strong role of social network in influencing consumer behaviour. Therefore, customers are more willing to participate and interact in the creation of the offer, since they feel a sense of belonging. Practitioners should encourage social network in order to minimise the switching behaviour (see for example the credit cards industry), upgrading their relationship perspective from customer relationship management to vendor relationship management (Berkman Center for Internet and Society). Minimisation of switching behaviour will lead to better customer retention, which will eventually lead to better bottom lines. Certainly, the analysis has some limitations, such as the sample size, the variables and the area considered; future research will be focused especially on the multiplicative variable, which was eliminated from the model probably due to the variables considered, in order to assess the joint effect of the three macro variables on customer loyalty. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that bank lending is characterized by borrower capture perhaps due to informational monopolies and other sources of switching costs -, as the firms that suffer most from increased market concentration are those that have no alternative lending sources. The efficiency gains of increased concentration are shared only with firms that hold loans from multiple banks. These informational switching costs become particularly relevant during episodes of rising market share. For instance, a firm that has established relationships with two banks that ex-post merge, losses its ability to limit lenders power through switching its funding source. Rising concentration and mergers thus produce borrower capture. Moreover, relationships are built through repeated contact between the client and particular bank officers. If these matches are broken over a merger, then valuable information on clients risk may be lost. The results point out to the fact that having alternative lending sources isolates firms from the adverse effects that rising concentration and mergers may convey. Thus our findings are consistent with the existence of informational monopolies and switching costs. Moreover, the efficiency gains that result from larger market shares are passed on only to clients that face lower switching costs. Switching costs are much lower if the firm holds loans from more banks, and can threat to move its business elsewhere if a lender charges higher interest rates. Alternatively, a firm that holds loans from multiple banks is more likely to face rate reductions when its lending source becomes larger and gains efficiency. Little is known about what governs recovery from banking crises. The first pass at these data uncover several robust patterns. Banks that are already in trouble tend to lend money to riskier clients. Another important factor for recovery is the size of the initial drop in profit during the onset of the distress. Third, it also matters the general climate of the bank after the financial shock. But no evidence was found that there was anything different about the banks that recovered from the downturn when many banks were distressed than during other periods. Fourth, recovery also depends the factors that the bank can control. Loan level data suggests that an important reason why the recovering banks manage defaults better is that they are tougher on extending credit to their riskiest customers. Regulators tend to disclose relatively little about what steps are taken with respect to banks that require intervention. Our findings suggest paying close attention to whether the distressed banks are being particularly vigilant in containing credit to high risk borrowers. To the extent they are not doing so, the regulators could push in this direction. For countries that have credit registers and credit ratings that are readily available this would be easy to implement. Likewise, where regulatory assessments concentrate on a CAMELS which means capitals, assets, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to risk of the markets rating system, the supervisors might want to pay particular attention to the riskiest assets and customers. SME markets have a dimension that is local. This comes with entry barriers and switching costs and there is a room in exercising market power. In banking business both satisfaction and switching costs can be regarded as loyalty antecedents; however, satisfaction influence on loyalty is greater than the influence of switching costs. Researchers established a relationship between overall satisfaction and customer intentions to recommend a bank and to remain a customer. Despite the fact that financial products still are not differentiated, the customers in banking sector cannot make objective assessments of service quality, that is why the concept of trust is very important here. Switching costs inhibit a return to the local currency even after a successful stabilization effort. These well know incentive effects give rise to the conjecture that once de facto dollarization has reached a threshold, it may well persist, leading to the observation of dollarization hysteresis. Each of the foregoing indices depends upon a number of economic variables that reflect the relative incentives to hold the different assets described in both the denominator and numerator of each index. These incentives include relative rates of return as reflected by interest rate differentials, inflation differentials and exchange rate depreciation as well as the relative costs and benefits associated with network externalities, switching costs and risks of banking institutions. An empirical model was proposed for the strategic behavior of firms in the presence of switching costs. The models used the transition probabilities that are in strategic interaction of firms in order to derive equations that can be estimated. The proposed models novelty is its ability in extracting information for both the significance and magnitude of the switching cost. It can also extract information on the transition probabilities of the customers. In order to illustrate the model was utilized to a panel of banks in order to estimate the switching costs of bank loans in the market. We have found that the grand average point estimate of switching costs is about 4.1%, and may be as low as 0.2% when only banks with the largest loan portfolio are included in the definition of the market. When the market is defined according to the branch-network size the switching cost among the largest banks is about 2.1%. 23% of the customers added value is due to the phenomenon of lock in that is generated by the switching costs. As much as 35.0% of the banks market share is because of the bank-borrower relationship that is already established. The model estimates imply an average duration of bank-customer relationship of 13.5 years. All the above characteristics exhibit lower values for the group of larger banks whose loan portfolio is dominated by more mobile wholesale customers. To summarize, market bank loans switching costs are quite substantial and constitute a significant portion of the value of a marginal customer to the average firm. The presented technique may be applied to other markets in order to gain insight into the empirical regularity of switching costs. The major contribution from this study is that switching barriers affect significantly the level of customer retention, and also affect the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. It does seem that switching costs could be used to predict consumers behaviour in the banking sector. Customer satisfaction has positive effects on the customer retention. Thus, manager may need to emphasize total satisfaction programme in an attempt to retain customers in the competitive banking market. However, the moderating role of switching barriers in the relationship between customer satisfaction and retention is indicative that for low involvement services as credit services switching barriers may play a big role in customers retention programme. Managers therefore, must significantly consider switching barriers and dimensions of customer satisfaction when making plans or focusing efforts in customer retention. The study attempts to differentiate the consequences of consumers behaviour in terms of exit and loyalty. However, the effect of switching barriers on consequence is significant only when customers consider to exit. One major area of future research is the role of government policy in creation and removal of switching barriers especially in a developing economy where government participation is crucial. Besides the switching cost, customer lock-in is essentially driven by relationship lenders informational advantage compared to outsider lenders. The researcher shows that higher switching cost, which can be thought to reflect greater concentration in local credit markets, does not necessarily lead to higher equilibrium profits in relationship lending. Adverse selection problem curtails price competition when the switching cost is low by discouraging outsider banks to make too aggressive bids. Threat of adverse selection gradually fades away as the insiders bank profits are reduced and the cost of switching banks increase. On the other hand, lack of competition starts to dominate for sufficiently high levels of switching cost, so that insider banks profits become increasing in this cost. The researchers finding runs counter to the Petersen-Rajan (1995) argument that competition is generally detrimental to relationship lending. The V-shaped pattern, however, is supported by recent empirical evidence in Elsas (2005) and, to some extent, in Kim et al. (2004). A clear tendency for a V-shaped relationship between availability of institutional debt and relationship lenders market power also arises in the empirical part of Petersen and Rajans (1995) own study. This is the case especially in the category of firms older than five years. The reason why the similar tendency does not emerge in start-up financing is probably because insider lenders informational advantage is not very pronounced in that category. If the model is solved assuming sufficiently inaccurate private information by the insider lender infinitesimal switching cost (=intense competition) is shown to lead to low profits and no clear-cut V-shaped relationship arises. The researcher also finds that allocation of financial resources is most efficient under intermediate market structures: low switching cost tends to augment adverse selection problem, while some of the good loan applicants are left without finance when the cost of switching banks is sufficiently high. However, if insider banks can invest in the accuracy of private information, the incentive to acquire information is stronger when the expected benefits from relationship lending are higher. Therefore more efficient information acquisition can potentially counterbalance the inefficiencies in resource allocation when the switching cost is either very low or high. According to our results, learning costs best explain perceived average costs, followed by continuity costs. Lost costs do not significantly explain perceived average costs. This regression tells us that to obtain a strong perceived average cost, one variable with a significant impact is learning costs. However, this variable is more difficult to manipulate. In addition, increasing learning costs may create induced loyalty, which would be perceived poorly. Clearly, making a financial institutions processes more complicated just to create barriers to leaving would not be a very good strategy. Continuity costs are a variable that financial institutions could control in order to achieve desired loyalty. For example, loyalty programs would grant customers special privileges. Customers would be less likely to leave, for fear of losing these benefits. Non-monetary privileges such as the increased availability of a financial advisor or simply the fact that an advisor knows a customers name can increase the switching costs perceived by customers. Banks can make substantial profits in some peoples eyes; they must also demonstrate transparency in their communications and position themselves as being in touch with their customers. They should not come across as cold businesses that are only care for people with money. They should welcome customers warmly and treat each one fairly, especially if they want to appeal to a younger population (18-30 years old). Younger customers should be treated in the same way and just as seriously as older customers. Switching costs have a minimal impact on loyalty even though, as we have observed, there is clearly a connection between perceived switching costs and loyalty. Nonetheless this variable is not a requirement in a loyalty strategy for young people. In summary, a loyalty program with special benefits for young people could be an effective part of a loyalty strategy, but financial institutions must first ensure that customers trust them and are satisfied with their products and services. This study also highlights the essential role of main bank power, measured by equity holdings, in enabling firms to change inside†banks. Apparently, switching to a new bank which holds equity of the firm reduces the switching costs. In addition, the researcher finds no evidence that main bank power has a material effect on firm performance, but it does affect the loan ratio by increasing the amount of credit with a term of one year or more. Banks with a high level of nonperforming loans are compelled to curtail lending due to their impaired financial health. In contrast, less capitalized banks are associated with higher loan ratio of their clients. Thus, the findings provide more fodder for the debate over the potential for banks to structure clients’ balance sheets. It is worth noting that whether and in what amount loans will be made is crucially dependent on the bank’s characteristics (i.e., how much money does it have to lend), whereas interest rates (measured by interest payments) are determined by the borrower’s creditworthiness. A core finding of this research is that firms perform worse after switching, which is in accordance with Degryse and Ongena (2001). Apparently, the firms that switch banks are seen as risky and, therefore, the new bank charges higher interest on the credit it grants. This is reasonable behavior on the part of banks as von Thadden (2004) argues that particularly low-quality firms are more likely to switch banks. It would be very interesting to discover how permanent this poorer performance is and to what extent bank health affects loan conditions. The issue of strong bank power implying high switching costs for firms is of great relevance to policymakers in that financial institutions tend to choose insufficient structures in the absence of sufficient competition and this situation can result in wealth redistribution in developing countries (Rajan, 2002). To guard against banks having excessive power, many developed countries set limits on the amount of equity a bank can hold in a single firm (Morck et al., 2000). This type of regulation is rare in emerging markets so far, making non-financial corporations quite susceptible to shocks generated in financial sector. Perhaps the most interesting empirical regularity uncovered in this study is that banking crises are not accompanied by substantial declines in bank deposits relative to GDP. Thus, while depositor runs have played a central role in the theoretical literature on banking crises, in practice they seem to be a sideshow at best. A possible explanation is that generous bank safety nets are present, and depositors have little to lose despite widespread insolvency in the banking system. However, our bank-level analysis indicates that deposits do decline in weaker, less profitable banks, suggesting that depositors are actively and accurately monitoring financial institutions. If funds withdrawn are re-deposited in healthier banks, than the stability of aggregate deposits can be reconciled with the evidence of runs on weaker banks. This is an issue that deserves further study. For instance, if indeed large scale reallocations of deposits occur following banking crises, how is the functioning o f the financial system affected? Can the payment system, the interbank market, and the supply of credit continue to work smoothly? Bank financial distress, be it the result of illiquidity or insolvency, may help propagating adverse shocks to the real economy if it forces banks to curtail lending to creditworthy borrowers. Banking crises do not seem to be followed by prolonged recessions: the slowdown in output growth is usually sharp but short-lived, with growth rates back to their pre-crisis levels in the second year after the crisis even though credit growth remains depressed. An open question for future research is how do firms finance the recovery in the immediate aftermath of a banking crisis, and at what stage if any  does the lack of bank credit become a hindrance to growth. The analysis of bank level data indicates that even healthier b
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Heart Of Darkness :: essays research papers fc
Throughout the story, Heart of Darkness, there is a thin line between what is seen as reality and what is illusion. The main character soon realizes that he has different interpretations of events and physical things than that of the Europeans. Charlie Marlow first realizes how many things, events and even people, in Africa, seemed misnamed by the Europeans, distorting them from what they truly are. Consequently he is wary of labeling something in case he might misname it and as a result devalue it. In the end, Kurtz, who has already reached enlightenment, will be the one to teach Marlow, though not directly, the significance of a name. Charlie Marlow is the only one to be referred to by his name because through his journey to the inner station and consequent enlightenment, he alone, with Kurtz, have realized the importance of a name and therefore deserve to have one attached to them, as they are really the only people of actual importance and meaning. As soon as Marlow reaches the c oast of Africa, he realizes a difference in the perception of certain events by him and his comrades on the boat. As Marlow’s boat pulls up to the Outer Station, he sees a man-of-war shelling the continent, which is quickly clarified, by a pilgrim, to be a front against "a camp of natives - he called them enemies! - hidden out of sight somewhere" (Conrad 78) Marlow felt a "touch of insanity" in the whole concept of shelling the natives, who had done nothing to be considered enemies or criminals and had very likely fled the area a long time ago. Yet the Europeans feel that the natives are truly a threat and must be controlled. Further along, Marlow meets a pilgrim who is called the brick-maker, yet promptly notices that there is "not a scrap of brick anywhere in the station". This is another example of how something, in this case the brick-maker, is misnamed, as he is not actually a brick-maker since he does not make any bricks at all, and therefo re really has no purpose there. A final example of how things are misnamed and distorted is pertaining to Kurtz. Firstly, "kurtz" means short, yet to Marlow, the man appears to be "seven feet long" (Conrad 135). Likewise, when the uncle and the nephew talk about Kurtz, who Marlow has heard to be a great and remarkable man, they only refer to him as "that man" and "scoundrel".
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The Olympic Games :: Olympics History Greek Olympia Essays
The Olympic Games The Olympic Games are an international sports festival that began in ancient Greece. The original Greek games were staged every fourth year for several hundred years, until they were abolished in the early Christian era. The revival of the Olympic Games took place in 1896, and since then they have been staged every fourth year, except during World War I and World War II. Perhaps the basic difference between the ancient and modern Olympics is that the former was the ancient Greeks' way of saluting their gods, whereas the modern Games are a manner of saluting the athletic talents of citizens of all nations. The original Olympics featured competition in music, oratory, and theater performances as well. The modern Games have a more expansive athletic agenda, and for two and one-half weeks they are supposed to replace the rancor of international conflict with friendly competition. In recent times, however, that lofty ideal has not always been attained. The earliest reliable date that recorded history gives for the first Olympics is 776 BC, although virtually all historians presume that the Games began well before then. It is certain that during the midsummer of 776 BC a festival was held at Olympia on the highly civilized eastern coast of the Peloponnesian peninsula. That festival remained a regularly scheduled event, taking place during the pre- Christian golden age of Greece. As a testimony to the religious nature of the Games, which were held in honor of Zeus, the most important god in the ancient Greek pantheon, all wars would cease during the contests. According to the earliest records, only one athletic event was held in the ancient Olympics--a foot race of about 183 m (200 yd), or the length of the stadium. A cook, Coroibus of Elis, was the first recorded winner. The first few Olympics had only local appeal and were limited to one race on one day; only men were allowed to compete or attend. A second race--twice the length of the stadium-- was added in the 14th Olympics, and a still longer race was added to the next competition, four years later. When the powerful, warlike Spartans began to compete, they influenced the agenda. The 18th Olympics included wrestling and a pentathlon consisting of running, jumping, spear throwing, discus throwing, and wrestling. Boxing was added at the 23rd Olympiad, and the games continued to expand, with the addition of chariot racing and other sports. In the 37th Olympiad the format was extended to five days of competition. The growth of the Games fostered "professionalism" among the competitors, and the Olympic ideals waned as royalty began to compete for personal gain,
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Living Together Before Marriage
Living together before making our vows would have reassured us about a lifelong commitment. From my own experience, I believe that couples should live together before getting married, so they can start to know each other on a closer, more personal level; moreover, they can start thinking about the compatibility of their future spouse. Couples start knowing each other on a closer, more personal level when they live together, which prepares them for a married lifestyle. For starters, you learn what your partner likes and dislikes, although this isn't always easy.There is a lot to discover about your partner and from your partner; the only way to do this successfully is to move in together. For example, does he like broccoli, female mud wrestling, sleeping with the windows open? Maybe he likes to spend the whole weekend on the couch watching basketball! Believe it or not, it's little details like these that can often make or break a relationship. Second, you learn what kind of bad habit s you and your partner have and whether or not you can get rid of them.I really don't like it when my husband forgets to fill the ice trays, forgets to replace the empty toilet paper holder, or leaves the toilet seat up; I, on the other hand, tend to forget to put perishables in the refrigerator after I take them out for cooking, and I leave the clothes in a pile, all wrinkled, when they come out of the dryer. Moreover, you can see how much fun you have with each other and realize how much you would miss by not getting married.Try to plan a vacation in advance, have a dinner date in town after work, or go to the movies on a Wednesday night when you know you have to get up for work the next morning. In other words, find out how romantic and imaginative your partner can be. Life can be tough and boring; it takes two creative and motivated people to keep a relationship alive. I think that couples can make a wiser decision about the lifelong compatibility of their future spouse if they live together. To begin, you can learn if you or your partner is ready for marriage by seeing his or her reaction to the â€Å"m†word-marriage.You need to ask yourself if you are ready to have children with your partner, and if you are ready to stay with this person for the rest of your life through thick and thin. It is also beneficial to learn if you and your partner are both suited for monogamy; some people find it hard to be sexually faithful to one person. In addition, you can see how your partner reacts to real-life situations. If something dramatic happens to one of you, like a car accident or a major illness, what is his reaction going to be and how will he behave differently in private or in public?Perhaps he is the type of guy who talks big, but can't handle life's difficult moments or be a good caretaker. Finally, living together you won't have the pressure of a marriage certificate hanging over your head, especially when some people have a real phobia about that little piece of paper. Living together means that the taxes are easier, you do not have expenses in case of a messy divorce, and you can make a lot of decisions before you enter into a relationship that is bad for your health, physically and emotionally.Being free of the pressures of marriage, you stand a better chance of knowing your partner as a real person. By living together before marriage, each partner has the opportunity to practice being married. A marriage has the best chance for surviving if each partner is absolutely sure they have chosen the right mate. This act of being â€Å"extra nice†? cannot go on forever. During this â€Å"practice†? period, let†tms say one partner discovers some trait or characteristic that is extremely bothersome.Marriage is a serious endeavor, and the more knowledge one has regarding his/her partner is an important aspect. Living together will naturally increase the time together, which leads to the knowledge needed to know i f you have chosen the correct mate. Living together in my opinion will expose the true person. I respect their opinions, but on the other hand I don†tmt preach to others how to live their lives and expect the same in return. Living together before marriage has financial benefits to the couple. Myself, and most guys I know are (were) â€Å"extra nice†? in the beginning of the relationship.Although it may be the lesser of two evils, I feel it is far better to call off a marriage opposed to a divorce that could have potentially been avoided if the marriage never took place. Regardless of what some â€Å"experts†? or religions may preach, sex is an important part of the bond between couples. Having knowledge about any endeavor is the key to it being successful. Again, I state it is better to know as much as possible about your partner before actually going through with a marriage. It is a serious commitment and should not be entered into with the thought that â€Å" if things don†tmt work out I can always divorce and get out of it†?
Monday, September 16, 2019
Motorcycle Helmet Usage
The use of helmets in the United States is a highly controversial topic. The government has enacted and then repealed laws intended to uphold state helmet laws twice. Currently, regulation laws vary state to state. Twenty states have comprehensive helmet laws. Seven states require riders under the age of twenty to wear a helmet, while 19 states require riders under the age of eighteen to wear one. Only three states, Colorado, Illinois, and Iowa, have no helmet regulation whatsoever. Motorcyclists protest their personal freedom, while others complain about the tax burden and higher insurance rates.Motorcycles account for less than 2% of all registered vehicles in the United States and 0.4% of all vehicle miles traveled. Unfortunately, riders account for more than 9% of all traffic deaths. Over the past ten years motorcycle related deaths have increased by about 89%.The motorcycle is both the most fuel efficient and the most hazardous highway vehicle there is. More than 2,500 motorcycl e riders die in the United States each year, and over 60,000 are injured as a result of an accident. In general, riders and non riders seem to agree that it is obvious that a helmet can reduce the chance of brain injury and death.However, some believe helmets are more likely to cause an accident in the first place. Helmets limit hearing and peripheral vision capabilities which make it difficult for riders to be fully aware of what’s going on around them. The weight of the helmet, combined with hot weather can cause a sense of claustrophobia resulting in anxiety and dizziness. It is likely in these types of situations there is an increase in the chance of an accident. It is also possible to become paralyzed because of a helmet during a crash, under the right circumstances. This leaves some riders to believe there are similar risks whether they wear a helmet or not and they should be able to choose between to two.Some riders simply feel that helmets are uncomfortable and bulky, and it should be their own decision whether or not they want to wear one. And to others, they perceive the use of a helmet as â€Å"uncool†, which is enough justification for them.Contrary to some beliefs, a study by the National Public Services Research Institute concluded that the use of a motorcycle helmet does not interfere with the driver’s capability to hear or see what is going on around them. Data collected by the National Highway Traffic Administration regarding motorcycle accidents in states where there is only a helmet law for minors indicates this type of helmet law is more difficult to enforce. The data showed that less that 40% of minors killed in crashes were wearing helmets, even though it was required by law.When a catastrophic accident has occurred, the financial burden is usually placed upon private insurers or the state. So in a state where there are multiple head injuries due to motorcycle accidents which require extensive medical treatment and rehabilitation, tax payers and others who carry insurance are financially affected. As a result, a number of people do support enforcing the helmet regulation laws since they feel directly impacted.The Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) conducted an analysis of three states with the universal helmet laws and three states without. The inpatient charges for brain injury were double the cost in the states without the universal helmet laws. Numerous studies have concluded that motorcycle crash victims who were not wearing helmets are less likely to have insurance than crash victims who were wearing helmets.Others are less concerned with the financial burden, and more concerned with the psychological impact of witnessing a gruesome disaster, or having a friend or family member die in such a manner. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (NHTSA) head injury is the number one cause of death in motorcycle accidents. A survey conducted in 1998 concluded t hat 46% of fatally injured motorcyclists were not wearing helmets. The NHTSA estimates that helmets diminish the possibility of death by 29% in a crash. In 1989, six states enacted a law requiring the use of helmets. All six have seen a reduction in deaths from motorcycle accidents since then.In 1980, motorcycle rider fatalities reached a record high of 5,144. By 1990 the numbers had decreased to 3,244. For the year of 1997 there were only 2,116, an all time low. Other research indicates that helmet laws significantly decreases fatality rates, saves taxpayer’s money, decreases money lost due to missed work, and reduces the severity of head injuries. A study carried out in California showed that during the first four years after the elimination of the federal sanctions, motorcycle deaths increased by 61% while motorcycle registration increased only by 15%.In Hawaii, research conducted by the Department of Transportation showed that motorcyclists are three times more probabl e to suffer a traumatic brain injury as a result of a motorcycle crash. The accuracy of statistical information is questionable. It has shown to be difficult to retrieve financial and medical information due to privacy rights and a lack of data. More information has been successfully collected from surviving crash victims than ones who did not survive. There may also be other contributing factors to these accidents besides the fact they weren’t wearing helmets. Different weather and the length of the riding season can have a significant impact on the varying statistics.Other alternatives to reducing the number of fatalities have been suggested. Riders tend to be more supportive of raising safety awareness and mandating education before obtaining a license, since it is common for motorcyclists to learn to ride without any type of education. In Japan, the new motorcycle riders may start off with the smallest sized motorcycle, and after a set amount of time they are allowe d to graduate to a larger motorcycle. If similar regulations were mandated in the United Sates, the number of fatalities could decrease without helmet laws.Some place the blame on inattentive automobile drivers. It is common to see automobile drivers talking on their cell phone, eating, drinking, etc. Distracted drivers are less likely to use blinkers and potentially more likely to hit a motorcyclist they did not notice previously. An emphasis on defensive driving because of these types of disasters in driver education could help promote safety and reduce motorcycle-related injuries.Small incentives could help promote the use of motorcycle helmets, rather than a mandatory law. For example, a reduction in the cost of motorcycle insurance for wearing a helmet might be beneficial. Some motorcycle stores have been known to give away free helmets, or offer to install free two-way communicators in them in hopes to encourage the use of helmets.While the majority of the public seems to supp ort a mandatory helmet law, the majority of actual motorcycle riders support freedom of choice. There are good arguments supporting both sides. This is a highly debatable topic similar to one’s right to risk dying of lung cancer because they choose to smoke. It is highly unlikely a compromise will be made that is deemed reasonable by both sides.Works CitedDepartment of Motor Vehicles. Helmets: A Matter of Choice? 5 December 2006        http://www.dmv.org/how-to-guides/motorcycle-chouces.phpSMS Research & Marketing Services, Inc. March 2004. Motorcycle Helmets   Integration Report. 5 December 2006.  http://www.hawaii.gov/dot/publicaffairs/safecommunities/reports/motorcyclehelm         ets/motorcycle-intergration.pdfSMS Research & Marketing Services, Inc. January 2004. Executive Highlights. 6        December 2006.            http://www.hawaii.gov/dot/publicaffair s/safecommunities/reports/motorcyclehelm         ets/motorcycle-focusgroups.pdf Â
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Evaluate Social Identity Theory Essay
Social identity theory is designed by Tajfel and Turner (1979) to explain how it is that people develop a sense of membership and belonging in particular groups, and how the mechanics of intergroup discrimination. Several interconnected mechanisms are at work with social identity theory. The core idea is that people tend to seek out-group membership as an affirmation of self-esteem, but that membership in a group alone is not enough to build self-esteem. To feel more self esteem, people have to believe that they are in the right group, which creates the need for a positive distinction from other groups. There are three cognitive processes that are Social Categorisation, Social Identification and Social Comparison. Tajfel and his colleagues divided some schoolboys in to 2 different groups, they allocated them randomly into the groups but the participants thought that the groups were defined by their preferences to paintings. They had to give out points to the in-group and the out-group but were not allowed to give points to themselves. The participants would favour people in their group rather than the participants of the other group. In many cases the participants would sacrifice points for their group just to increase the difference between the groups. The participants would give 7 points to their own group and give the other group 1, although they could have given 13 to each group. This shows that you can be easily be put in a group for a minor thing and you would stick together and go against the other group and see them as the enemy without having any real reason. Caroline Howarth carried out the second research. The participants all lived in the Brixton area, which was seen as a poor and violent place and also where a lot of black people were thought to have lived there and were thought of being the main cause of violence. Within the first set of focus groups (total of 7), she asked teenagers to talk about Brixton, she asked them to ‘tell me about Brixton – what it is like for you to live here and how people outside Brixton think about Brixton’. Howarth used a topic guideline to ensure that central research questions were always covered (on community, inclusion, exclusion, identity, ethnicity, the media, prejudice, racism, the school). The organisation of focus groups into friendship groups made it possible for participants to discuss these experiences with admirable confidence, maturity and understanding. It can, nonetheless, be difficult for the social researcher to access such sensitive material. When the moderator is an outsider and when research participants assume (often correctly) that the researcher has little experience of the kind of discrimination and challenges to self-esteem that pervade their lives, mistrust and suspicion may harm the research relationship. The girls answered positively and were happy to be from Brixton and did not want to move away and did not see any problems. This would shock people, as they would have thought people would move away if they had the chance. They are creating a social identity, as they are happy to be a part of the Brixton identity. There are some problems with this study as there are some ethical issues, they were deceived as they were lied to in the Tajfel study as they were just randomly picked and had nothing to do with their views on the paintings. Whereas the Howarth study they were not deceived which is a good way to carry out a study but they might have lied with their answers to please the examiner and have changed their behavior to be positive and not how that even the people who live there think the same as everyone else. Both of these studies are valid as the research supports the theory and the results can be applied to everyday life. The Tajfel study shows how people at school in the playground group and pick the group they have the most in common with and communicate with them and if they do not seem to have anything in common they would not stay there. The second study by Howarth can also be applied in everyday life as people create social identity all the time, if a place is thought of negatively by people who do not live their then the people who do can make a social identity and be happy and have positive thoughts about this area and not agree with the others. The theory seems to be a good and plausible theory as the research supports the theory that people automatically divide the social world into the in-group (people like me) and the out-group (people who are not like me). The people see the people in their group as similar to them but 2 different groups seem to be so different from each other when not in all cases they are that different from each other.
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