Chiquita Banana Overview Essay

Chiquita Brands International, Inc. is one of the most important international marketers and distributors of food products derived from bananas, as well as other fruits and healthy snack products. Chiquita Banana revenues for about $3 billion dollars a year and employs more than 21,000 people and operates in about 70 countries worldwide. Chiquita Banana  together with Dole, Del Monte and Fyffes control about 80% of the global banana market. In 1993 the EU created the Common Organization of the Market in Bananas (COMB) to deal with the harsh competition between these companies. They would allow duty free access to the EU but subject to quotas to bananas from the Africa’s, Caribbean and Pacific, while bananas from Latin America were subject to an import tax of 176 Euros per ton and a quota of 2533 t. As an American company we have decided to take advantage of the new treaty restricting Latin American and ACP countries from exporting bananas to the EU. It will not be an easy ta sk because we still have to compete against European banana producers, but we are an established company and we are determined to benefit from this event and gain market share in the European Union. PESTEL analysis for the European Union POLITICAL: †¢The European Union is composed of 28 member states. †¢The EU has created a single market by standardizing laws within the member states. †¢Some of the objectives of creating this union is to create a better flow on the circulation of goods, capital, people and services within the union. Once a good or service is accepted within the union it is protected from customs, taxes and import quotas as long as they remain within the union. †¢Free movement of capital is intended to allow investment of properties between countries, something that could help banana growers since they can look for more fertile land in neighboring countries. †¢The monetary policy is the Eurozone and is governed by the European Central Bank. ECONOMIC: †¢The European Union’s GDP is ranked as number one in the world accounting for $16.58 trillion dollars. †¢Export goods account for $1.687 trillion, some of the main export partners of the European union are: oUS 17.3% China 8.5% Switzerland 7.9% Russia 7.3% Turkey 4.5 % †¢Food, drinks and tobacco account for 5.9% †¢Import of goods account for $2.302 trillion dollars and the main import partners are: China 16.2% Russia 11.9% US 11.5% Switzerland 5.8% Norway 5.6% †¢Food, drinks and tobacco account for 5.2% of import goods. †¢The service sector is the most important one in the EU making up 69% of the GDP followed by the manufacturing industry with 28.4% GDP and agriculture for only 2.3% of GDP †¢The agricultural sector is supported by subsidies from the EU and currently represents 40-50% of the EU’s total spending. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS: †¢There is limited data on European children’s fruit intake, but the data shows that the average fruit intake is about 141 g per day. Fruit intake is highest in Austria and Portugal and is the lowest in Iceland and Spain. †¢Girls and women consume more fruits and vegetables and boys and men do, there is no simple explanation to this but it’s believed to be because women in general are more concerned about their weight and keeping a slim fit figure. †¢Children tend to eat less fruit as they age, but it’s the exact opposite with adults. Intake levels increase with age, possibly because income and knowledge increases and one becomes more aware of the benefits of good eating habits. †¢Men once they are married have an increase in fruit intake. Women seem to have an impact on their husband’s fruit intake as well as the variety of fruits eaten. Women tend to handle ‘health-related’ issues more commonly than men so they tend to buy and cook more food than men. †¢Children’s fruit intake levels directly correlate with how much their parents consume. But pressure to eat fruit does not positively affect children’s intake, but it is enhanced when parents are good role-models and encourage them to eat fruits and vegetables. †¢People with self-efficacy tendencies have a higher fruit intake in adults, also people with a high self-esteem tend to eat more fruits and vegetables because they take their health into account. TECHNOLOGICAL: †¢The EU is funding a project for pesticide free fruits and vegetables by removing the threat of fruit flies. Helping farmers meet customers’ demands for safe fruits while being environmentally conscious. oThe project pretend to use an insect attractant to draw insects and pathogens such as: infectious micro-organisms, virus, fungus that cause diseases in fungus. oThis attractant will be applied in the form of an insect trap near plantations to take bugs away from plantations, this will be a long-lasting and biodegradable baiting station. †¢Europe is becoming more conscious about maintaining a cleaner environment, the EU is committed to providing a better future for the next generations. So they specialize on clean energy, from turbines in Germany to solar panels in Spain, and countries across the EU are using natural resources of sustainable energy bringing investment to businesses and citizens. LEGAL: †¢With the birth of the Single European Market in 1993 the Common Market Organization for Bananas was put into effect (COMB). COMB is concerned on the importation, sale and distribution of bananas. †¢A policy was set in motion allowing EU suppliers to export duty free bananas to all EU states. Also quotas were set for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) imposing import licenses for a fixed rate of volume of bananas, and limited imports through excessively high tariffs. oA quota of 857,000 tons for duty free access from ACP countries †¢Three types of licenses were issued in order to regulate this quota to ACP countries †¢Third countries that were not considered in the quota are subject to a tariff of Ecu 850 per ton. †¢In order to prevent any loss of income by EU banana producers a compensation of payments for 850,000 tons were granted in case the prices fell below the production costs. ENVIRONMENTAL: †¢Flat-free water chargers are common in some countries in Europe. This does not encourage efficient behavior to households and agriculture according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). †¢The EEA is considering water pricing in the following countries: Croatia, England and wales, France, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain. †¢In most countries, farmers are allowed to use as much water as they want  for a flat rate. By charging the amount of water used in Europe it prognosticated to cut down on water used by agriculture for about 10 – 20 %. This will push farmers to not only cut down on their water consumption but to invest on better irrigation system as well as fixing water leaks. †¢The general population in the European Union seem to support this motion to cut down water overuse, about 84% of the population agree with this principle. Marketing Mix In order to better penetrate the European market we have to better understand our own products, so a marketing mix was created to see what we can offer to the market and this will help us to better oversee our operations in the European market. PRODUCT: Chiquita banana takes pride in their first class bananas. But banana consumption vary from country to country so they have other products to fulfill the change in each countries demand. They always keep in mind the environment and consumer’s health, so they have products that meet these two qualifications, products such as: readymade salads, fruit snacks. An independent survey was conducted about people’s preferences and attitudes about bananas, and the poll indicated that the taste of Chiquita bananas was better than competing brands and people preferred it 2 to 1 to the leading brand. The bananas by Chiquita banana are 100% organic approved and certified by the USDA which means that they adhere to the requirements and meet the organic standards of growing bananas. PRICE: These are the prices for bananas per metric ton for the last few months. Bananas prices vary depending on the location where they are being sold. In France the average price for a kg is about $2.00 dollars. In Spain is about $1.00 per kg. But these prices tend to fluctuate with the seasons as well, and some variables take place to why this happens. One of the reasons is that bananas grow in tropical areas so they need hot weather to grow, but it’s harder to maintain them fresh during summer. PLACE: Chiquita banana sells its products internationally to about 70 countries worldwide. The majority of the products grown come from South America and the Caribbean which are then sent to distribution centers. Europe is the largest consumer and importer of bananas in the world, so this would be the best place for the largest banana producer in the world to invest and tap into this gold mine. In the year 2011 people living in the European Union consumed an estimate of 5 million tons of bananas and about 4.6 million tons were imported. Europe would be the best market to try to penetrate and take market share from. Sweden, UK, Denmark, Finland and Portugal are the main consumers of bananas in Europe (see Appendix A). These are the countries within the EU for Chiquita banana to penetrate first. PROMOTION: The way that Chiquita banana promotes their product is very innovative. They have sticker contests and they encourage people to send drawings for possible logos for their stickers. But their latest promotion is endorsing the charismatic minion characters from the movie Despicable Me, they have even worked on an app game available for apple and droid. The point of this game is to run and get as many bananas as possible without running into any obstacles. There is no record for the increase in sales of Chiquita bananas yet because the game is recent, but it’s safe to say that this gamification strategy will work well for the company. Also, as a part of their promotion they attend school lunches, celebrate major anniversaries and sponsor Olympics. They use the slogan â€Å"quite possibly, The World’s Perfect Food† SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS: †¢Chiquita Banana is number one in the fruit market in the world and sells its products to more than 70 countries worldwide. †¢The company had a $3 billion dollar revenue last year. †¢Its net income is about $405 million dollars. †¢The company is committed to being socially responsible A decade ago they implemented social accountability 8000 which has helped improve their practices to better serve the community. â€Å"SA 8000 provides standards based on national laws, international human rights norms and the conventions of the International Labor Organization. Management system  requirements ensure that these standards are consistently implemented over time, and independent audits and certification help measure progress and identify areas for improvement.† WEAKNESSES: †¢The company has not been able to reach out to consumers in Europe, they had a $2 million profit during the last quarter, better compared to the previews year where there was an $11 million loss. †¢Sales fell 2% from $793 million to $774 million in one year. †¢There was an 18 an article was published of ‘Chiquita secrets revealed’ by the enquirer, where the company had been accused of mistreating workers in Central America, polluting the environment and allowing cocaine to be brought to the US in its ships. OPPORTUNITIES: †¢With the new regulations from 1993 the European market has opened for banana companies that do not belong to the ACP countries and Latin America. †¢Our opportunities go hand in hand with the highest consumers of bananas in the EU. According to appendix A, they are: oSweden UK Denmark Finland Portugal †¢These are the first countries that we must try to focus our internationalization efforts into, since they are the highest consumers of our product. †¢Even with the new regulations by COMB Chiquita banana has no real competition from European banana growers, European countries are not optimal for banana growth. Chiquita banana can bring larger quantities at competing prices. THREATS: †¢Some of the threats come from competing companies like: Dole, Del Monte and Fyffes. †¢The analysis of this figure shows Chiquita’s market share shrinking from 1966 to 1995 and then remaining constant at 25% market share. †¢We can also observe that for the year 2007 Dole Company had a bigger market share than Chiquita. †¢Chiquita has to be attentive of the existing competing brands but also the new incoming brands that are stealing market share from the company. Internationalization Strategy and Viability As already stated before, the European Market is the biggest consumer and importer of bananas. Which is why we are interested in creating an internationalization strategy in order to visualize which cities in the European market target more specifically. There is a map in appendix A portraying the European Countries and an estimate of banana consumption, we can see that the northern countries together with Portugal enjoy eating bananas the most. Then we can see a ranking list with the countries that consume the most bananas in Europe, with Sweden being on top of the list. Chiquita banana Co. gets their product from the countries with a yellow dot. Since these are countries that have hot and humid temperature, adequate for banana growth. This map shows us that that in order for the bananas to be shipped from this countries to the EU they have to be shipped in a boat that has to travel the Atlantic for about 6,000 miles. These bananas are stored and refrigerated. This crossing of the A tlantic takes an average of 5 days and the bananas are refrigerated to a temperature between 13.5 and 15 C stalling ripening. Even though flavor and consistency remain virtually intact, this voyage shortens the shelf life to be 7-10 days. Portugal would be a strategic point for the company’s internationalization strategy. A logistics platform could be set up in Porto, a northern city in Portugal, this way we can kill two birds with one rock. We re-fuel the ships and get them ready for their journey to Sweden (our top priority in terms of distribution) and unload some containers to distribute Portugal’s banana demand. Aside from Portugal the countries with the highest consumption of bananas per capita is in Northern Europe, so another logistic platform would be convenient as a final stop before the final destination in each country. Le Havre, France would be a convenient location since it is south of the UK and it is cheaper to have a distribution center there because the euro is not as strong as the sterling pound. Once we have our logistics platform set up in Le Havre we can make accommodatio ns and agreements with companies and retailers that handle fruits and vegetables belonging to the countries that have the highest banana consumption. We would deliver to the following  terminal or ports: †¢Gothenburg, Sweden †¢Brighton, UK †¢Skagen, Denmark †¢Finland is a little more inaccessible through the Baltic Sea, so we would ship Finland’s required bananas to Gothenburg, Sweden as well. From Sweden we could work another logistic route to get to Finland by truck. †¢Porto, Portugal †¢Le Havre, France CHANCE: Iceland is Europe’s top producer of bananas with their world of the art greenhouse installations, even though they rely on their technology they have to constantly monitor their products and create the proper environment for the bananas. This is where Chiquita banana has an opportunity since they don’t have to worry about creating the right conditions for banana growth, the company looks for a convenient location for banana growth and plants the fruit. This enables the company to worry solely on cropping and shipping. Another advantage that the company has over the biggest European banana producer is that, Chiquita banana can acquire bananas in massive quantities while Iceland’s producers have to create the environment to grow more bananas. This is unless the COMB sets a tighter quota. Incoterm An incoterm is a made up word composed of three words. ‘in’ means international, ‘co’ commerce and ‘term’ means term. Incoterms are used to describe the type of relationship between buyer and supplier and they type of contract they use to deliver and receive a product. POSSIBLE INCOTERMS FOR THE COMPANY As a seller the most optimal incoterm for the company would be to agree with the buyer of working with ‘Ex Works’ since the buyer would have to assume the transportation costs and the risks of brining the goods to their stores. I believe this to be very one sided and not efficient, since in order to maximize profits a business deal has to be long-term. Sooner or later one of  the competing brands could offer our buyers a better agreement and we would be out of business, so I would call this a ‘lose-lose situation’. Another option would be the exact opposite from ‘Ex works’ where the seller mantains most of the obligations and expenses while there is minimum for the buyere. This would be a DDP, here the â€Å"seller is responsible for delivering the goods to the named place in the country of the buyer, and pas all costs in bringing the goods to the destination including import duties and taxes. Seller is not responsible for unloading.† t his is also very one sided. My belief is that if we are going to have a long lasting relationship with our business partner we have to compromise, and here we would be taking all most of the bourden of the business deal. Solution As already stated before, in order to create a long lasting relationship with our business partners and maximize profits we have to compromize. Chiquita Banana is trying to gain marketshare in Europe, so the best thing we can do with our business partners is to share the transportation burden and costs. Deliverd at Terminal (DAT) incoterm would be the best viable solution for Chiquita and our buyers. We can promise to deliver the product fresh, safe and sound to the following city ports: Gothenburg, Brighton, Skagen, Porto and Le Havre. We can accept all costs and risks (except for import clearance costs) and from each terminal they can send the bananas to their respective distribution centers or directly to the retailers. That is up to our business partners to decide. It is safe to say that we are taking most of the costs, since it is expensive to cross the atlantic with ships and maintain the fruit at a certain temperature to keep it fresh. But in order to have our buyers support, we have to go the extra mile. This strategy at the same time will speed up the process of internationalization and market share gain for Chiquita Banana. Works Cited â€Å"European Union.† Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013 â€Å"Economy of the European Union.† Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013 â€Å"Economy of the European Union.† Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Intelligent Approaches to Achieving Pesticide-free Produce.† N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"CHAPTER 3 BANANA IMPORTING COUNTRIES AND TRADE POLICIES.† The World Banana Economy, 1985-2002. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Water: Charging Full Cost Can Encourage More Efficient Use.† —. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Chiquita.com – Chiquita Organic Bananas: Organic Food.† Chiquita.com – Chiquita Organic Bananas: Organic Food. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Europe Largest Banana Importer Worldwide.† Europe Largest Banana Importer Worldwide. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Chiquita.com – Social Responsibility Is How We Conduct Business.† Chiquita.com – Social Responsibility Is How We Conduct Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Chiquita Banana Sales Remain Weak in Europe.† Chiquita Banana Sales Remain Weak in Europe. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013 â€Å"Chiquita Brands International.† Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Banana.† Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Martin Stott.† Iceland: Europe’s Biggest Producer of Bananas. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. â€Å"Economy of the European Union.† Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

Of Mice and Men Qu Essay

Do you agree that Lennie is always incapable of taking responsibility for his actions? You should refer closely to Lennie’s words, to events and to the actions and opinions of other characters in your answer. Throughout the majority of the novel, Steinbeck demonstrates how Lennie relies on George to help him out of the dire, tense situations he brings upon himself. Steinbeck conveys this image of Lennie by producing this by frequent reoccurring events, Lennie’s actions or even implicit use of speech from or even directed at Lennie. At the opening section of the book, Steinbeck chooses to show us the large contrast between George and Lennie; he describes how Lennie â€Å"flung himself down† â€Å"snorting into the water like a horse.† The use of crude descriptive words such as â€Å"flung† or â€Å"snorting† suggests just how careless Lennie can be. This compares Lenny to an animal which instinctively lashes at the sight of something they want without thinking logically at all. And with this, the readers taste the first time at which how reliant Lennie is of George. Steinbeck chooses to have George say that Lennie will â€Å"be sick like you was last night.† By mentioning â€Å"last night†, the reader learns that Lennie must regularly make stupid mistakes like this. It is made very apparent how Lennie is unable to take responsibility for his actions when he crushes Curley’s hand. Lennie was unable to understand the situation when Curley made a misunderstanding about Slim and his wife and Lennie continued â€Å"smiling with delight† on a completely different topic. This produces a juxtaposition image in the reader’s mind where at one side: Curley is steaming hot with anger as he â€Å"whirled† upon Carlson (the word â€Å"whirled† also suggests how he only gave Slim respect opposed to Carlson who he flipped into his old aggressive self again) and on the other, Lennie is grinning to himself like an idiot. The fact that Steinbeck chooses to have Lennie fantasize whilst a loud commotion is going on nearby shows just how little awareness and sense Lennie has altogether. And this is what leads into the fight. When Lennie is being attacked, he has no intuition to make a decision on what to do so once again he â€Å"looked helplessly at George.† The word helplessly really emphasises just how incapable Lennie is like a baby animal or lamb for instance when he gets himself into trouble like this. He â€Å"bleated with terror† implying that even with the strength Lennie possesses, he is unable to analyse the situation to take responsibility of the problem he has gotten himself into. The words â€Å"bleated† and â€Å"terror† really create an atmosphere as if Lennie like a baby lamb has been corned by a wolf. This is done by using the onomatopoeia â€Å"bleat† so you can almost here how distressed and vulnerable Lennie is at this stage. All he can do is use his animal like instincts and â€Å"retreat† and defend with his â€Å"huge paws†. The reference to â€Å"paws† may also hint to us what is about to come however it may have several connotations; a bear is a shy beast and doesn’t want attention, however if a situation of danger arises, it can be extremely vicious and protective just like Lennie becomes when George tells him to â€Å"get him.† On the other hand, â€Å"paws† may refer to another weaker animal such as the â€Å"paws† of a puppy that Lennie was so infatuated about. This can symbolize how weak and inexperienced Lennie is since he is also new to this aggression he is receiving likewise to a new born pup is to the world. At this stage, Slim sees how vulnerable and useless he is and â€Å"jumped up† to help. The impact the moment is causing on the other workers watching is shown to be so big that the respected Slim is even shaken conveyed by â€Å"jumped up.† It shows how emotions inside Slim were building up until they finally â€Å"jumped† out of him in an explosion. Steinbeck does this to show how useless Lennie can be in these situations so that even people around him who have known him for a few hours understand how dependent he is. However, Lennie with George’s guidance was able to do something however his actions shows the reader once again just how unintentionally irresponsible he can be. At first the description of Lennie’s attack is just that Curley’s â€Å"fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand†. It isn’t very dramatic at this point and just seems like Lennie stops Curley from attacking him. For example, it could of been described using dramatic words such as: Curley’s hand was absolutely crushed causing him to scream with agony however it uses the word â€Å"disappear† to relieve all the tension that may of built up; this may be done to cause a greater impact later on. The speech that follows explains how the situation was worsening. George tells Lennie to â€Å"leggo of him† but all Lennie could do was watch â€Å"in terror† which shows how shaken up he is so that he can’t even respond. Even with George who â€Å"slapped him in the face again and again†, Lennie was still unresponsive. By slapping him George hoped to achieve a respond which would normally happen to anyone however it shows that Lennie was undergoing a mental difficulty insde. The way Steinbeck describes George having to give multiple signals â€Å"again and again† like slapping or verbal commands show how incapable Lennie was. When Lennie finally finishes he doesn’t seem to even understand what he’s done. He doesn’t even look at the â€Å"shrunken† Curley and immediately talks to George â€Å"miserably†. At this point Slim had â€Å"regarded Lennie with horror† showing how his opinion of him being a â€Å"nice fella† had turned so very quickly. By having Slim- a very high respected figure looking at Lennie with this â€Å"horror†, Steinbeck causes the readers to truly understand how dangerous and uncontrollable he is. Lennie’s only concern here was probably mainly whether or not he could tend to the rabbits so he was apologizing to George. He even asks George at the end of the section whether he can â€Å"still tend the rabbits† which once again shows us how unaware of the situation he really is and this requires George to look into their greater concern- whether they will â€Å"get canned now†. This shows that even though Lennie is not prioritized correctly, George once again desperately tries to fix the damage that’s been done which suggests how many times this may of happened in the past. Steinbeck just repeatedly reinforces the strong idea of what Lennie is like and how George has to bail him out time and time again. It states how â€Å"Slim smiled wryly† and instantly the world â€Å"wryly† shows how Slim is going to take responsibility and deal with Curley in a slightly devious, corrupt method so that George and Lennie won’t get sacked. After Lennie killed the puppy in section 5, his initial fears was once again the rabbits. And after he causes the death of Curley’s wife, his fears remained the same. At that point, â€Å"he pawed up the hay until it partly covered her† and left for the place where George told him to go if anything wrong happened. The fact that Lennie crudely leaves the body openly â€Å"partly† hidden in the barn shows how little concern he has for the bigger picture. The way Lennie only â€Å"partly† hides the corpse shows what little concern he has almost to the extent where it becomes ridiculous as all he can think of is go to the rendezvous part and have George help him yet again. Up until the beginning of section 6, Lennie has acted irresponsibly and ironically, he begins to think accordingly to the situation only when it is too late. Opposed to how he â€Å"flung† himself around in section 1, Lennie went through the bushes to the meeting place â€Å"as silently as a creeping bear moves†. He also â€Å"drank, barely touching his lips to the water† opposed to how he was â€Å"snorting† it like a horse. Steinbeck uses the same location to create a strong contrast between the juxtaposition used here. As he crept â€Å"silently† and drank â€Å"barely† touching the water, these two words emphasise how carefully he is acting. Steinbeck deliberately does this to emphasise how late it is for him to be responsible and coordinated. And even so, it is George once again who has to take the real responsibility to shoot him.

Comparison of Dutch Economy and German Econmy in Last 30 Years

Comparison of Economic Growth between The Netherlands and Germany (1978-2009) Introduction About 16 years ago, when European Community became European Union(hereinafter to be referred as EU) , the Netherlands and Germany, as two founding members of the EU, have been played an important role in European and world's economy. When talked about Dutch economy, East indies company must be a start. As the first company in the world, it helped the Netherlands to be the leader of world's economy seventeenth century and to build Dutch entrepreneurship. The capital city of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, use to be the financial and business centre of the world. Later, Dutch economy has seen by many declined for a while. But, since 1980s, dutch government has reduced intervention, dutch economy become more prosperous and open again. To the east of the Netherlands, Germany stands in the central europe, as the largest national economy in Europe, ranked fourth by nominal GDP and fifth by GDP (PPP) in the world in 2008. After the industrialization, this country has become a driver and innovator in global economy. Especially when west and east Germany unified in 1990, the country's economy went out from the recession after second war's big hit. Compared these two countries' economic development, there are a lot similarities and differences due to its close position in Europe continent, culture background, and even history. This paper is organized as follow. Section 2 introduces briefly the concepts of economic growth and the key concepts in measuring economic development, section 3 explains how rule of law effect economic development in the Netherlands and Germany, section 4 presents the relationship between income distribution and economic development, section 5 describes cultural influence on economic development, section 6 consists of examples of successful entrepreneurship in the Netherlands and Germany, section 6 deals with the technology factor in economy in the two countries. Section 8 comprises comparison and conclusion. Section 1 1. 1 To start with the comparison,we need to define what economic growth is and the key concepts of economic development. At first, the economic growth we are going to study is long-run economic growth. Long-run economic growth is the growth of what an economy is able to produce given its labour force, knowledge, technology, tools, machines, land. It is not about the growth of what an economy actually produces, that type of economic growth is short-run economic growth. Economic growth implies increases in per-capita real gross domestic product (GDP), namely widening of the production scale in a country as a whole, or more efficient use of its economic resources to produce goods and services(Kibritcioglu, 2001). Real GDP is the value of final goods and services produced in a given year when valued at constant prices. It is the best measure of total production and the increase in real GDP is used to measure economic growth, as by comparing the value of the goods and services produced at constant prices we can measure the change in the quantity of production (Parkin, 2008, pp. 91). 1. 2 figures in the Netherlands and Germany Figure 1: GDP growth in percentage in the Netherlands and Germany(1978-2007) [pic] Source: WDI(world development indicators) online 2007, the World Bank Group Figure 2: GDP growth per capita in percentage in the Netherlands and Germany(1978- 2007) [pic] Source: WDI(world development indicators) online 2007, the World Bank Group Fi gure 1 and figure 2 show the annual GDP growth and GDP per capita growth in percentage in the Netherlands and Germany from 1978 to 2007. As in figure 1 and figure 2, from 1978 to 1982, the Netherlands and Germany both suffered an economics recession, with the annual GDP growth in percentage declining from 2. 33% in 1978 to -1. 21% in 1982 in the Netherlands and 3. 01% in 1978 to -0. 39% in 1982 in Germany. Then the Netherlands and Germany both experienced fluctuations in GDP growth. Especially in 1990, the Netherlands had a sharp rise from -1. 21% in 1990 to 4. 42% in 1989 and Germany experienced a sharp increase in 1990 from -0. 39% to 5. 26%, which is the highest growth rate for Germany in last 30 year. Afterwards, it shows a different trend between the Netherlands and Germany. The GDP growth declined to 1. 26% in 1993 and raised again till 4. 68% in 1999, while German GDP growth declined to 2. 01% in 1999 steadily. In the next 10 years, Dutch growth rate decreased till 0. 08% again as the lowest rate and then the rate slowly went up and became steady in recent years. Germany also showed the same pattern but the rate is lower than the Netherlands in general. Though the figures, we can see the Netherlands and Germany have a lot common in GDP growth rate and GDP per capita growth rate. Economy in these two countries are likely to be steady. Only in some year like 1982, 1990, 1993, 1999, 2002, it showed a sharp rise or decline. So, what happened in these remarkable years? What caused the difference in growth rate between the Netherlands and Germany? In the following sections we will discuss four key concepts related to economic growth in order to see through these problems. Section 2 2. 1 Economic freedom Economic theory indicates that economic freedom affects incentives, productive effort, and the effectiveness of resource use(de Haan,2000). We start with definition of the economic freedom:â€Å"Individuals have economic freedom when (a) property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others, and (b) they are free to use, exchange, or give their property to another as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others†(Gwartney et al. , 1996). Moreover, the key indicators of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange coordinated by markets, freedom to enter and compete in markets, and protection of persons and their property from aggression by others (Robert, 2006). In this paper, we use the indicators of the Fraser Institute. Gwartney et al. (1996) choose 17 measures and rate a high number of countries on each of these measures on a scale of 0–10, in which zero means that a country is completely unfree and 10 means it is completely free. The measures are in four broad areas: Money and inflation; Government operations and regulations; ‘Takings’’ and discriminatory taxation; and International exchange(de Haan,2000). 2. 2 Figures analysis Figure 3: level and ranking of economic freedom of the Netherlands(1970-2006) [pic]Source: freetheworld. om 2008, The Fraser Institute Figure 4: level and ranking of economic freedom of Germany(1970-2006) [pic] Source: freetheworld. com 2008, The Fraser Institute Though these two figures, we can see the Netherlands and Germany had the same pattern during last 30 years and they both got a high rate, which means they were both free to a large extent in economy. After 1980, the rate in the Netherlands was a little higher than the rate in Germany, but both are very stable. Compared with the rest of the world, the economy in the Netherlands and Germany are comparatively free. . 3 Results After we look though the GDP growth rate and economic freedom rate, we found there is a relationship between those two figures. More economic freedom fosters economic growth, but that the level of freedom is not related to growth. In other words, our findings suggest that more economic freedom will bring countries more quickly to their steady state level of economic growthif they are below that level. , but that the level of steady state growth is not affected by the level of economic freedom(de Haan and Sturm, 1994). And always the countries with more economic freedom can achieve higher levels of GDP per capital and grow faster (Lawson & Moor Chair, 2006). So we can say high economic freedom rate do contribute to high GDP growth rate, and steady economic freedom also has a positive effect on economic growth. Section 3(income distribution) 3. 1 income distribution Section 4 (Culture) 4. 1 Culture As Hofstede said the world is full of confrontations between people, groups, and nations who think, feel, and act differently. At the same time, these people, groups, and nations, are exposed to common problems that demand cooperation for their solution(2004, p2). Those confrontations and cooperation are called culture. Using the Hofstede's â€Å"Onion† model to depicts four cultural concepts: symbols represent the most superficial and values the deepest manifestations of culture, with heroes and rituals in between(2004, p6). Economic development will not stop at national borders. Globalization also require us to deal with culture differences and all the countries should work more closely than ever. 4. 2 Dimensions of Culture Five dimensions were frequently used to measure culture difference: power distance(PDI), the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally(Hofstede, 2004, p46); Individualism(IDV), pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family(Hofstede, 2004, p76); Masculinity(MAS): A society is called masculine when emotional gender roles are clearly distinct(Hofstede, 2004, p120); Uncertainty Avoidance(UAI), the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations(Hofstede, 2004, p167); Long-term Orientation(LTO), the fostering of virtues oriented toward future rewards, in particular, perseverance and thrift(Hofstede, 2004, p210). Following is the index scores of Germany and the Netherlands, compared with the World's average. Figure 5: Culture dimensio ns' index scores of Germany(1967-2001) [pic] Note: The Germany's Index Scores:PDI=35, IDV=67,MAS=66,UAI=65,LTO=31 Sources: from IBM data base(1967-2001),except LTO from original Chinese Value Survey database(2005) Figure 6: Culture dimensions' index scores of the Netherlands(1967-2001) [pic] Note: The Netherlands' Index Scores:PDI=38, IDV=80,MAS=14,UAI=53,LTO=44 Sources: from IBM data base(1967-2001),except LTO from original Chinese Value Survey database(2005) Figure 7: Culture dimensions' average index scores of the World(1967-2001) [pic] Note: The world' Average Index Scores:PDI=55, IDV=43,MAS=50,UAI=64,LTO=45 Sources: from IBM data base(1967-2001), except LTO from original Chinese Value Survey database(2005). According to the figures above, we can see PDI in these two countries are lower than average,which means people in these two countries are more equally treated than the rest of the world. For IDV index, the Netherlands and Germany are both societies with more individualistic attitudes, people there are more self-reliant and look after themselves or their close family members, also, individual pride and respect are more highly held values than world's average. When talked about uncertainty avoidance, Germany scored a little higher than the Netherlands, which shows it's a country will reduce the level of uncertainty by enhancing laws, policies and regulations to avoid unknown circumstances. In LTO, the Netherlands scores higher than Germany, which indicates its long-term oriented culture. But compared with the world's average,the Netherlands and Germany scored more or less in above four dimensions, except in Masculinity, the Netherlands got a lowest score at 14 among its dimensions which indicates a lower level of differentiation and discrimination between men and women. In Netherlands, women are treated more equally than Germany. Though every country has its own culture background,economic development will not stop at national borders. Globalization requires us to deal with culture differences and work more closely with other countries than ever. Nuclear warfare, global warming, poverty, AIDS, even recent economic recession are all good examples for global cooperation. Section5 (Entrepreneurship) Reference Kibritcioglu, A. and S. Dibooglu, ‘Long-run Economic Growth: An Interdisciplinary Approach,’ Office of Research Working Paper No. 01-0121, University of Illinois 2001 (http://www. business. uiuc. edu/Working_Papers/papers/01-0121. pdf ): Parkin, M. (2008). Economics(8th ed). Boston: Pearson Education. J. De Haan and J. -E. Sturm, On the relationship between economic freedom and economic growth, European Journal of Political Economy 16(2000), pp. 215–241. Gwartney, J. , Lawson, R. , Block, W. , 1996. Economic Freedom in the World, 1975–1995. Fraser Institute,Vancouver. Cowell, F. A. , 1999, â€Å"Measurement of Inequality† in Atkinson, A. B. and F. Bourguignon (eds) Handbook of Income Distribution, North Holland, Amsterdam. Hofstede, G. (2004) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill International. Wealth, Culture, and Corruption Bryan W. Husted and Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2nd Qtr. , 1999), pp. 339-359 http://www. jstor. org/stable/155316

DIABETES LITERATURE REVIEW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Discuss and evaluate effective management and leadership behaviors and Term Paper

Discuss and evaluate effective management and leadership behaviors and their - Term Paper Example It will also look into ethical and social implications of effective management and leadership in professional practice. Management behavior consists of managers’ actions or conducts in the course of management duties. It therefore includes judgments and actions that a manager directs to both subordinates and seniors. For a management behavior to be effective, it must be able to achieve management objectives. One of the effective management behaviors is motivation. Behaviors towards motivating employees have the potential of increasing the will and desire by employees to focus on achieving desired objectives of an organization. Such behaviors include empowering the subordinates, creating a friendly atmosphere, and building the confidence among the subordinates. Empowerment would for instance involve developing the inner potential of individual employees. With this respect, an effective manager would interact with the subordinates with the aim of learning their internal strengths and weaknesses. This would then be followed by initiatives to develop the identified strengths while helping the subo rdinate to work on and resolve the identified weaknesses. Motivation, as a management behavior, would therefore be aimed at catalyzing attainment of employees’ potentials. As a result, the management and the organization will benefit from improved productivity while the employee will develop a successful career that will be reflected in his or her social status at home. There will also be implied ethical aspects in the management (Buckingham and Coffman, 2005). Another effective management behavior involves exercising influence over employees. Though good policies may be formulated towards achieving objectives of a firm, success in implementation of such objectives can only be achieved if the employees are geared towards working for the goals. Aligning employees’ psychological potentials towards developing positive attitudes over the formulated policies are

Case 2B Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Find three logical fallacies from the article Essay

Find three logical fallacies from the article - Essay Example The post hoc fallacy claims that ‘after this therefore because of this’. Two events simply following a sequential pattern is not sufficient to prove that the second event took place because of the first one. They are mere coincidences. It is necessary to conduct a controlled study that rules out all other factors that might influence the outcome to establish a casual connection between the events that took place in sequence. However, in the present case, this study does not take place. Straw man fallacy One fallacy that is evident in the article is straw man fallacy. In fact, Straw Man fallacy is the outcome when a person plainly ignores another person’s actual position, and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. In the given article, Lott claims that there were many armed attacks in the US when there was ban on carrying guns, and he claims that they might be preventable if the law allowing the public to carry concealed gu ns was enacted. The point that the attacks were not prevented is replaced by Lott with the point that they could be prevented if people had guns. Thus, he justifies his claim that people should be allowed to carry guns.

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Global and Domestic Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Recession in American economy Essay Example for Free

Recession in American economy Essay The economic meaning of the term recession is, â€Å"A period of economic decline in a Country, characterized by reduced trade and industrial activity, production decline and increased levels of unemployment. It normally lasts between one and two quarters consecutively†, (Tremblay; 2007). In the US, incidences of recession have occurred since 1854. This paper, seeks address the reasons for recession in the US, with reference to the principles of consumer behavior and the firm as a whole. Observers were not expecting an incidence of recession this time round. Most observers have been persuaded to expect moderate economic growth rates in the US, of about 2 to 3 percent and a moderate inflation of around 2 percent (George. S, 2008). This is due to the fact that the US economy has proved to be the most resilient in the world. They however (the observers), have good reasons to back their predictions; 1. They have placed their hopes on relatively stimulative monetary policy to keep consumption and investment spending up and expect the worst of the housing decline to be over. 2. With stock prices making new highs, some point out that presidential and stock market cycles are favorable to higher stock prices since investing during 27 months before a US presidential election has proved in the past to be more Profitable than investing during 21 months after elections. In the October 16th issue of Headwinds, 2007 for the US economy, it is explained that macro-economic conditions make it a matter of months before the US economy and the dollar begun to experience some downward pressure (recession). This is probably the time for this recession. The US is the country with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world, with a GDP of $13 trillion . This has however reduced in the recent past. Employment levels have also declined. Production levels have gone down owing to cut-throat competition from emerging world producers like China and other Asian Countries. An attempt by the households to save more from a given income led to the decrease in actual amount they succeeded to save-paradox of thrift, (Lachman, 2008). Different reasons can however be put forward to explain the causes of this recession; 1) The outgoing administration’s short term reaction that they gave the economy before the 2004 and 2006 elections through a combination of large tax cuts and large increase in military spending. This ended up being a waste as billions of dollars were spent on a futile war (Trembley, 2007) 2) Record budgetary and current account deficits have severely neutralized the federal monetary policy attitude, because interest rates cannot be reduced substantially for fear of a collapse of the US dollar from the federal budgetary deficits as they are being reigned on. (Lachman, 2008) 3) With all this taking place at the same time that the construction industry is in disarray and housing prices have tapered off or are declining. Be that as it may, it is important to note that home ownership is more widespread than stock ownership; slightly more than two thirds of Americans own their homes, while less than half own equities. The objective of the households is to maximize utility. By spending more on home ownership than on stocks, utility is attained quickly and it is within the consumers budget space (Ingdahl, 2008). 4) This rules the question of how long the American consumer will keep up the high pace of spending in such a context. During the years of the housing boom, consumer spending was driven by the accumulation of wealth and record consumer indebtedness, most of it in the form of mortgages as the price of houses increased. Now that the reverse is occurring and banks and other loaners are reclaiming property for unpaid debts, a retrenchment in consumer spending cannot be ruled out (Trembley, 2007). 5) Protectionist push from the Democrat controlled congress, risks putting in jeopardy the flow of capital of about $2 billion a day that the US economy is borrowing from abroad (mainly from China and Japan). Trade frictions between the US and China could force banks to raise interest rates and not lower them. In any case, the banks would not lower the interest rates as expected to make up for the housing crisis (Trembley, 2007). 6) Collapse of one and possibly several major financial institutions under the pressure of bad loans and record foreclosures (take possession of somebody’s property usually because they have not paid back an agreed part of the loan). Particularly at risk is the sum $2. 5 trillion mountain debt concentrated in sub primes and loans. One major sub prime lender, (New Century Financial) filed for bankruptcy protection. Others are likely to follow suite because 2007 was the year when a large number of sub prime real estate locus had to be renegotiated at higher interest rates. Foreclosures rate is bound to shoot upwards. This will culminate in the next few years into a financial hurricane (Trembley, 2007). 7) The seventh and final reason is a geopolitical factor. The outgoing US administration has created some tension between the US and some countries in the Middle East. The Middle East, is the world’s largest oil producing region. In the coming years, the world economy will have to adjust to a peak in oil production and higher prices after the current lull. Geoplitical mistakes made by the outgoing administration have turned the richest oil producing region into a hot war zone making the US economic situation disastrous (Lachman,2008). The above listed reasons shed some light on why the US economy could be undergoing some kind of recession. They however do not provide a conclusive explanation or reasons as to why the American economy could be in recession. Unlike other forecasts, one can only tell when recession started and ended after it has ended. The determination of recession is left to the National Bureau of Research (Campbell. R. M Stanley. L. B, 2005). However, it is possible to tell whether or not the economy is in recession by looking at past cases of recession. The great depression was the worst economic slump ever in the U. S history. It began in 1929 and lasted for close to a decade. Just like a recession, many factors led to the great depression; however, the main cause for the great depression was a combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920’s and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part of the same decade. Money was distributed disparately between the rich and the middle-class, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the U. S and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. The excessive speculation in the late 1920’s kept the stock market artificially high, but eventually lead to large market crashes, (Gusmorino, 1996). Almost eighty years later, the U. S might be facing the same situation though not as severe as it was then. Wealth disparities are all over the world today. Although the worst cases are not experienced in America, cases of unequal distribution of wealth are still in America. As mentioned earlier, the American household does not invest much on stocks but in acquisition of homes. Speculations in the stock market are relatively high though not as high as it was then. It is not easy to conclude that the American economy is in recession. Whether or not there is a recession, depends on both on actual economic activity and economic analysis in the future. The facts as they are right now, show that the American economy is in recession. REFERENCES. Campbell, R. M. Stanley, L. B. (2005). Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Gusmorino, P. A. (1996). Main causes of the Great Depression. Washington: Planet Press George, S. (2008). The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means. Chicago: Public Affairs. Furchgott, D. (2007). The Great Recession of 2008. New York: An over view of the US economy, (22) 9:31-35 Ingdahl, W. (2008). Global Financial Markets Want an Immediate, Bold, and Coordinated Policy Response. New York: London Press Lachman, D. (2008). What can global policymakers learn from the Swedish financial crisis of the early 1990s? Washington: US economic crisis, (31) 11:67-90. Trembley, R. (2007). A Slowdown or a Recession in the U. S. in 2008? Carlifonia: Global financial crisis, (14)6:101-143.

Poverty in children with single parents

Poverty in children with single parents The most difficult thing is not spending enough time with my dad really. He might like expect me to phone him, but hes a parent so he should be taking care of me and phone me. If he really cared hed phone me every weekend and see how I was getting on at school, spend time with me and help me to do my course work (What Children from Single Parent Families Have to Say 13). This is what a typical child living in a single parent family might say when he feels ignored by one of his parents. This could be shocking to some people who believe that single parenthood doesnt greatly affect a childs life or attitude (McLanaham 1). But the fact is that not all children who grow up in single parent families are able to maintain a successful life, most of these children might suffer from great difficulties in making a transition to adulthood (Mather 1). These children are more vulnerable to poverty which increases the dangers of growing up in a single parent household to more than just economical o nes. Poverty might even cause an increase in the risks of dropping out of school, disconnecting from labor forces, and ending up as a thieves stuck in a room with not even a single parent aside (Mather 1). Early studies suggest that growing up with one parent had no long term effects on the child, but more recent reports show that the effects of parental breakup might sometimes extend to having the children intentionally damage their bodies and some might even commit suicide due to major psychiatric diseases (Single-parent Children at Increased Risk of Suicide). Adolescents who had grown up with only one of their parents during their childhood are twice as likely to suffer from poverty, have low academic achievements, and suffer from low levels of social and emotional well-being (McLanaham 1). Poverty is one of the main problems that most single-parent children suffer from. Unlike children living with a regular family, single-parent children usually have only one parent to provide income (Family and Community 10). Without the support of their husbands, single mothers face a difficult challenge in maintaining a stable economy for their family. These mothers have limited financial sources and cant easily afford to cover their childrens education, child care, and health care costs (Mather 2). For this reason, most of them tend to live with their parents or with other relatives to gain their financial support (Mather 2). Some of these mothers tend to find another option which is returning to school and resuming their education in order to find adequate jobs with reasonable salaries (Family and Community 10). If the father was too busy to take care of his recent family, he should at least ensure that his childs mother has a good educational rank and good job trainings to ensure that his children successfully pass to the stage of adulthood (Mather). He cant just leave everything on the mother; he has major responsibilities which he should never ignore towards a child which is in total need of both of his parents. Most parents miss the fact that their children could understand all what is going on around them; these children realize that their parent cant afford all what they need and crave for. As a result, they try to minimize their requests and stick to demanding for nothing but the necessities. In a way or another, the children become the ones nurturing their parent instead of them being the ones nurtured. These childrens parent often has no enough money to afford the cost of school trips or any extra activities which blocks any attempt of being able to build any social relationship, whats amazing and shocking at the same time about most of these children is that they rarely complain and dont ask for more than whats available (What Children from Single Parent Families Have to Say 25). Poverty could thus damage both financial and social aspects of a childs life. Many factors play important roles in the childrens development and affect the way they think and act. These factors include neighborhood characteristics, schools, and peer networks. But the most important factor which affects the childs growth is the parents themselves who provide the major source of social support in the childrens lives (Mather 1). With the mothers busy finding a way to provide income for their children, the child grows not only with a single parent but also with no parents at all, and the bad effects are thus doubled. These children always demand contact with the non-resident parent and complain about the way he/she is ignoring their presence. Their biggest concerns are the problems among their resident parent, their non-resident parent, and themselves (What Children from Single Parent Families Have to Say 13). They always think about every fight that happens and they even sometimes blame themselves. In addition to spending no time with their parents, these childre n also spend no time with their friends. The lack of money they face causes them difficulties in getting along with their peers; they feel excluded when their friends do activities that require money which they themselves dont have (What Children from Single Parent Families Have to Say 25). After having suffered from poverty at an early age, children in single parent households become more vulnerable to mental and psychiatric diseases (Single-parent children at increased risk of suicide). The simplest problems could appear as major ones in their view; they need much more care and attention than other children. But the painful fact is that not only do these children face financial poverty, but also time poverty; they repeatedly complain about how much they need attention from their parent who always comes tired from work and needs a long relaxing sleep (What children from single parent families have to say 14). These parents cant realize the fact that their supervision of their children at this stage is extremely important to enhance their well-being. This single parent has less time to monitor his/her children closely, and eventually he/she knows nothing about where his/her children are, who they are with, and what theyre doing (Why Single Parenthood Affects Children 24 ). Some of these children take advantage of this situation and commit actions like suicide in order to escape from what they think is an unbearable situation (Single-parent Children at Increased Risk of Suicide). This lack of parental monitoring terribly affects the childs behavior and causes him lots of psychological and emotional problems. Whether or not their mother was remarried, these children are susceptible to the risk of depression which increases with the increase of conflicts among their biological parents (Kawachi et al). With all the problems they are facing, single parents obviously have no time to get involved in their childrens school activities and usually have no enough money to set high academic goals for their children. These are the major factors which are well known to endanger the academic achievement of children. The more the parents are involved in their childrens school, the less are the problems that their children face in their education. With the lack of a stable educational background, these children face many difficulties in being enrolled in quality universities and eventually in finding quality jobs (Why Single Parenthood Affects Children 24). The poverty of their parents affects their educational achievements in different manners; the ones who grow up poor mostly have lower literacy rates, higher rates of dropping out of school, and even higher delinquency rates (The Causes and Consequences of Childrens Poverty). The minds of these children are often busy with their parents problems and they have no time to think about their school or about anything related to their education. They are full of nothing but psychological problems and free of academic aspirations. Most of them face difficulties in attending school and thinking about anything other than their parents divorce. With all the stress upon them, their academic achievements become less and eventually end up having them drop out of school. While going through a divorce, parents should pay close attention to their children to make sure that they face a low amount of stress. They have to make sure that their children understand very well that they will do anything to reduce the impact of divorce upon their lives (Hawkins). Anger might overcome these children and lead to severe problems at school, some of them might not be able to control their anger and engage in fights with their schoolmates because they only want someone to argue with to relief themselves; they even sometimes engage in fights with their teachers. The more the time he gets involved in fights, the less the time he spends in classroom (Hawkins). But the fact is that many children raised by single parent mothers grow up to be quite successful. These children are probably the ones who had responsible parents who knew how to treat their children in order to sustain a peaceful life. If this parent took his child out for dinner of even sat with him peacefully on the dinner table in an attempt to listen, his child might happily seize this chance and complain about all what hes suffering from instead of committing suicide or tearing his skin apart. One hour per day is quite enough to solve the childs social issues. As for the parent living in poverty, keep it to yourself and never complain about this problem near your children even if you have to live without many things that you are used to. When the children see their parents suffering, they might blame themselves and think that they are the reason for their parents depression. Try to find ways to afford even the simplest school trips to help your children fit into the outside wo rld and forget about living with a single parent. It would be a responsible act of the parent if he/she gives his/her childs school a visit once per week to ask about his/her academic performance and to check whether he/she is facing problems. Single-parenting is not a disaster if the parents were responsible and knew how to act.

Look At Causal Comparative Research Psychology Essay

Look At Causal Comparative Research Psychology Essay Causal-comparative research design can be defined as a research that permits researchers to study naturally occurring, cause and effect relationship through comparison of data from participant groups who exhibit the variables of interest. Causal-comparative research can also be referred to as ex post facto, Latin for after the fact (Sowell, 2001). In other words, causal-comparative research can be studied in retrospect since it attempts to determine reasons or causes for the existing condition between or among groups of individuals. This research design is often found in the fields of education, medicine and social sciences. According to Sullivan (2001), The belief that there is order in the universe, that there are reasons why everything happens, and that scientists, using the procedures of science, can discover what those reasons are explains that researchers usually go on to examine the reasons why the observed pattern exist and what they suggest. For this reason, the basic element of causal-comparative approach involves starting with an effect and seeking for possible causes or vice versa. The basic approach, which involves starting with effects and investigating causes, is sometimes referred to as retrospective causal-comparative research. Retrospective causal-comparative studies are much more common in educational research. Meanwhile, the variation which starts with causes and investigates effects is called prospective causal-comparative research. The cause and effect relationships may influence how a problem is formulated and a research design developed. It can be said that the major purpose of causal-comparative research is to investigate potential cause-and-effect relationships that occur naturally without manipulation of variables. In this particular research design, researchers try to find the reasons why certain forms of behaviour occur. To formulate this research design it requires at least two variables namely independent and dependent variable to support the objective of the research. In this approach, it can be said that some independent variable (IV) is the factor, or one of several factors, that produces variation in a dependent variable (DV) (Sullivan, 2001). Consider, for instance a researcher formed 3 groups of preschoolers consist of those who never watched Sesame Street, those who watched it sometimes, and those who watched it frequently. The 3 groups were then tested by making comparison on a reading readines s test. Based on the mentioned case study, it shows that the independent variable affect the dependent variable. In this case, Sesame Street is the independent variable (IV) while the preschoolers reading performance is the dependent variable (DV). The Characteristics of Causal-comparative Research According to Babbie (2013), there are three main characteristics for causal-comparative. Firstly, to infer the existence of a cause and effect relationship, the causal-comparative research must demonstrate an association between the independent and dependent variable. Therefore, it involves two or more groups and one independent variable. In addition, it determines the cause or consequences of differences that already exists between or among groups of individuals. The groups are assigned to the treatments and the study is carried out. The individuals are not randomly assigned to treatment groups because they were already selected into groups before the research began. In this research, it can be said that cause and effect depends on each other, whereby the cause may precedes the effect or vice versa. It is important to note that the independent variables in causal-comparative cannot be manipulated, should not be manipulated, or simply not manipulated but could be manipulated because the independent variable has already occurred. Thus, it is not possible to manipulate the independent variable. Causal-comparative research requires the study to be non-spurious. In this context, non-spurious refers to a causal relationship between two variables. According to Babbie (2013), spurious relationship is a coincidental statistical correlation between two variables, shown to be caused by some third variable. However, in causal-comparative research, only two variables are required and not caused by the action of some third variable, therefore it is shown that causal-comparative research is non-spurious. There are two types of causes that contribute to this research design, namely necessary and sufficient causes. Generally, the term cause is assumed to mean something that produce an effect, result, or consequence. A necessary cause represents a condition that must be present for the effect to follow. For example, it is necessary for you to attend driving classes in order to get a driving license. However, by only attending driving classes is not a sufficient cause of getting a license. This is because it is required to pass the driving test to get the driving license. On the other hand, a sufficient cause represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the effect in question (Babbie, 2013). This is not to say that a sufficient cause is the only possible cause of a particular effect. Take the case of the driving test mentioned earlier; not attending the test would be a sufficient cause for failing it, though students could fail it in other ways as well. Thus, a cause can be sufficient, but not necessary. Design and Procedure The selection of the comparison groups is very important in causal-comparative procedure. Although the independent variable is not manipulated, there are control procedures that can be exercised to improve the interpretation of results. The researcher selects two groups of participants, the experimental and control groups, but more accurately referred to as comparison groups. These two groups may differ in two ways; whether one group possesses a characteristic that the other does not or each group has the characteristic, but they differ in terms of degrees and amounts. The independent variable differentiating the groups must be clearly and operationally defined, since each group represents a different population. In designing this research, the random sample is selected from two already existing populations, and not from a single population. A causal-comparative design is chosen, for example, when researchers want to study the possible influences of Montessori school enrolment on childrens mathematical ability. Researchers locate a population in which several levels of mathematical ability are known to exist and then select a sample of participants. The researchers collect data from all participants on measures of mathematical ability and school enrolment. Once they have collected their data, researchers decide how many levels of mathematical ability they wish to study. In this case, suppose the researchers want two groups. They could classify the participants scores accordingly from highest to lowest, and then locate the middle score of the list. All those participants whose measures are above the middle score are designated as high mathematical ability and those below it, low mathematical ability. Next, the researchers compare task performance scores in each group to see whether Montessori school enrolment appears to influence task performance. There are three possibilities that could emerge from the study. Montessori school children have higher scores than non-Montessori school children. Montessori school children have lower scores than non-Montessori school children. No discernible pattern shows in the scores of Montessori and non-Montessori school children. This shows that each statement suggests a possible relationship between the two variables which are Montessori school enrolment and the childrens mathematical ability. Measurement of second variable Group B Group A Measurement of first variable determines group placements of participants Participant selection Generalized example Montessori school children Participant selection Measurement of mathematical ability Measurement of Montessori school enrolment Non-Montessori school children Example of school enrolment and mathematical ability FIGURE 1: Procedures in causal-comparative designs. 3.1 Control Procedures In other study design, random assignment of participants to groups is probably the best way to try to ensure equality of groups, but random assignment is not possible in causal comparative studies because the groups are naturally formed before the start of the study. There is a possibility to have extraneous variable in a causal comparative research that may affect the overall purpose of the study. Thus, control techniques are used to compare the sample groups equally. There are three common control techniques that can be used, namely matching, comparing homogenous groups or subgroups and analysis of covariance. Matching can be defined as a technique for equating groups on one or more variables. If researchers identify a variable likely to influence performance on the dependent variable, they may control for that variable by pair-wise matching of participants. In other words, for each participant in one group, the researcher finds a participant in the other group with the same or very similar score on the control variable. If a participant in other group does not have a suitable match, the participant is eliminated from the study. Thus, the resulting match groups are identical or very similar with respect to the identified extraneous variable. Another way to control extraneous variable is to compare groups that are homogenous with respect to the extraneous variable. The more similar the two groups are on such variables, the more homogenous they are on everything but the variable of interest. This homogeneity makes a stronger study and reduces the number of possible alternative, explanations of the research findings. Not surprisingly, then, a number of control procedures correct for identified in equalities on such variables. This approach also permits the researcher to determine whether the target grouping variable affects the dependent variable differently at different levels of control variable. That is, the researcher can examine whether the effect on the dependent variable is different for each subgroup. Analysis of covariance is a statistical technique used to adjust initial group differences on variables used in causal comparative and experimental studies. In essence, analysis of covariance adjusts scores on a dependent variable for initial differences on some other variable related to performance on the dependent variable. Analysis of covariance statistically adjusts the scores of the group to remove the initial advantage so that at the end of the study, the results can be fairly compared, as if the two groups started equally. 4. Data Analysis and Interpretation Analysis of data in causal-comparative research involves a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics. The most commonly used descriptive statistics are mean and standard deviation. Mean indicates the average performance of a group on some measure of a variable. Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. The more spread apart the data, the higher the deviation. Standard deviation is calculated as the square root of variance. The most commonly used inferential statistics are t tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi square. T tests are used to determine whether the means of two groups are statistically different from one another. ANOVA is used to determine if there is significant difference among the means of three or more groups. Babbie (2013) defined chi square as a frequently used test of significance in social science. In other words chi square tests are used to determine whether there is an association between two or more categories. Chi square test explains that observed frequencies of the items or events in categories are compared with expected frequencies. Similarities and Differences between Related Research Designs Causal-comparative versus Correlational Research It is better to know that the major purpose of correlational research is to determine the magnitude and direction of associations or relationships among variables. Even with different purpose, correlational research is sometimes confused with causal-comparative since both lack manipulation of variables and requires caution in interpreting results. In addition, both researches seek to explore relationships among variables, and when relationships are identified, both research designs are often studied at a later time by means of experimental research. However, causal-comparative and correlational research still can be differentiated. Compared to correlational research, causal-comparative compare two or more groups of subjects, whereas correlational research only focus on one group. In addition, correlational research has no attempts to understand cause and effect whereas; causal-comparative studies purpose is to identify the cause and effect relationships between the variables. Apart from that, correlational research involves two or more variables and one group while causal-comparative involves two or more groups and one independent variable. Causal-comparative versus Experimental Design Causal-comparative can also be confused with experimental research both attempt to establish cause-effect relationships between variables and both involve group comparisons. In addition, both causal-comparative and experimental research can test hypotheses concerning the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. The difference between the two researches is that in causal-comparative, the individuals are already in groups before study begins, whereas in experimental design, individuals are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Moreover, the random sample studies for causal-comparative is selected from two already-existing populations, while in experimental research, the random sample is selected from only one population. The researcher in experimental research manipulates the independent variable; that is, the researcher determines who is going to get what treatment. In contrast, in causal-comparative research, individuals are not randomly assigned to treatment groups because they are in established groups before the research begins. The example for the established group can be male or female, college graduates or non-graduates. In causal-comparative research the groups are already formed and already differ in terms of the key variable in question. In other words, the independent variable in experimental research can be manipulated by the researcher to determine the researchs effect, whereas the independent variable in causal-comparative cannot be manipulated since the independent variable has already occurred. Advantages of Causal-Comparative Research Like other research designs, causal-comparative research has its strength and weaknesses. One of the strengths is that the causes are being studied after they presumably have applied their effect on another variable. The researchers might administer a questionnaire to study the causes or they can also do interviews and observation to find the cause or effect related to their research. For example, a researcher may hypothesize that participant in preschool education is the major factor contributing to differences in the social adjustment of first graders. To examine this hypothesis, the researcher would select a sample of first graders who had participated in pre-school education and a sample of first graders who had not and would then compare the social adjustment of the two groups. If the children who participated in pre-school education exhibited the higher level of social adjustment, the researchers hypothesis would be supported. Thus, the basic causal-comparative approach involve starting with an effect (i.e., social adjustment) and seeking possible causes (i.e., did pre-school affect it). Another advantage of causal-comparative research method is that it allows us to study cause-and-effect relationships under conditions where experimental manipulation is difficult or impossible. Unlike experimental research, the variable in causal comparative research is not manipulated because it has already occurred. For example, a researcher might be interested in determining the effect of poor parenting on the issue of juvenile delinquency. Clearly it would not be ethical to approach the parents and ask about how they raise their children because it is too personal to discuss family issues to an outsider. Thus, causal comparative research permits investigation on a number of variables that cannot be studied experimentally. In addition, causal-comparative studies help to identify variables worthy of experimental investigation. In fact, causal comparative studies are conducted solely to identify the probable outcome of an experimental study. In other words, many relationships can be studied in a single research study. Suppose for example, a researcher were considering implementing computer assisted language learning in the school system. Before implementing the mentioned program, the researcher might consider trying it out on an experimental basis for a year in a number of schools or classrooms. However, even such limited adoption would require costly new equipment and teacher training. Thus, as a preliminary measure, to inform the decision, the researcher could conduct a causal comparative study to compare the English language achievement of students in school who are currently using the instruction with the English language achievement who are not using it. If the results indicated that the students le arning through computer assisted language learning instruction were achieving higher scores, the researcher would probably decide to go ahead with an experimental tryout of computer assisted language learning instruction. If no differences were found, the researcher would probably not go ahead with the experimental tryout to save time, cost and effort. Disadvantages of Causal-Comparative Research Despite its many advantages, causal comparative research has some serious limitations to be caution of. In causal comparative research, the researcher has limited control over the study and extreme caution must be applied in interpreting results. This is because the groups are already formed at the beginning of the study. An apparent cause-effect relation may not be as it appears. The alleged cause of an observed effect may in fact be the effect itself, or, a third variable may have caused both the apparent cause and the effect. In other words, an observed relationship between variable A and B can mean that A causes B, B causes B, or a third variable C causes both A and B. A causes C causes B A B causes B B causes Figure 2: Relationships of variables For example, suppose a researcher hypothesized that enrolment to preschool is a determinant of reading achievement. The researcher would compare the achievement of two groups, one comprising individuals with children who went to preschool and children who did not go to preschool. If those who went to preschool performed better on reading measures, the researcher could be tempted to conclude that going to preschool influences reading achievement. However, this conclusion would be groundless. Because the participants arrived at the beginning of the study with an established group of children who went to preschool and children who did not, and an established level of reading achievement, it is not possible to determine which came first and which influence the other. Moreover, it is very plausible that some third variable, such as parental attitude, is the main influence on both reading achievement and pre-schooling. For example, parents who sent their children to preschool and encourage their children may have children who have higher reading achievement. Analysis of Studies Using Causal-comparative Research Design One of the major findings within the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research is the different rates of success with which children and adults achieve nativelike proficiency in a second language (L2).() It is also common in SLA studies that mostly L2 learners do not attain nativelike proficiency because of their first language maintenance. In a research report entitled Does first language maintenance hamper nativelikeness in a second language? by Bylund, Abrahamsson and Hyltensam of Stockholm University, they aim to address the role of L1 proficiency in L2 attainment. In this study, the researchers hypothesized that the second language learners do not attain nativelike proficiency because of their first language maintenance. It is recognized that the independent variable in this research is the first language maintenance, whereas, the dependent variable is the nativelikeness in a second language. It shows that there is clearly an association between the two variables since the independent variable (IV), which is the first language maintenance might probably affect the dependent variable, which is the second language. To examine the hypothesis, the researchers select a sample population consists of Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Sweden, where residents of Chilean origin are in the community. 30 L1 Spanish-and L2 Swedish residents participated in the study where they acquire their second language before the age of twelve. The bilinguals came from countries throughout Latin America with a specific concentration in Chile. The participants were either university students or degree-holder. A common denominator of the participants was that they exhibited a generally high level of L2 proficiency. For the second group, fifteen native speakers of Spanish and fifteen native speakers of Swedish were recruited as monolingual controls. The researchers choose small sample populations to represent the study populations. The control groups were matched to the bilingual participants by educational level. In the process of matching the variables and groups, it can be said that pure monolingualism was not a criterion for participation, and the majority of the participants had foreign language skills such as English language. In addition, none of the control participants had lived abroad for any significant length of time in a setting in which their foreign language skills could be practiced. These two groups will be referred to as Spanish-speaking control and Swedish-speaking controls participants. Bilingual participants were tested individually in each language on two different occasions. The bilinguals and the Swedish-speaking controls were tested in the same setting and instructors and the Spanish-speaking controls were tested in another setting with another instructor. The language proficiency of the participants were investigated by piloting a grammaticality judgment test (GJT) to find out about the samples grammatical intuition. Furthermore, in order to measure the participants semantic and grammatical inferencing skills, a cloze test was piloted to all participants.

The journey of Captain Thomas Sutherland to Australia in 1881 Essay

Greetings to you all. My name is Thomas Sutherland and, along with my wife Adelaide, was the first officer sent to Australia to commence the work of the Salvation Army by the General, William Booth. For me to give you all a true picture of my journey to Australia I need to go back to my youth. You see, I wasn?t always a true follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes I went to Sunday school when I was a lad, but during my teen years I lost my way causing great concern to my parents. I began to behave in a wicked way and would become one of the best blasphemers going around. I became the leader of a gang of roughs having shown good leadership skills amongst the group. It wasn?t long before I moved from these wild ways to that of drinking at the public houses, became idle and loathsome. This is where I picked up the name of ?Drunken Tom?. I picked up work as a farrier and had several close shaves with horses that didn?t like me. I then decided to move from my home town of Brancaster, in the Norfolk County, to London. I had learned music during my younger days and I was able to put these skills to use as a strolling vagabond (or a busker as you would now call them). While in London I would often think about what my parents would think of me in my dishevelled state. This would lead me to become lonesome and I would delve deeper into my wicked ways as well as my drunkenness. I very rarely communicated with my parents as I was ashamed of what I had become and didn?t know how to stop it. One day while in the streets of Hackney, feeling lost and sorry for myself, I heard the pleasant sounds of singing. I had not heard such a cheerful and loving sounds since I stoped going to Sunday school. I followed the sound of the voices... ... at night, and God came very near as Mrs. Sutherland and myself spoke of His love. The devil raged and tried to upset us, but it proved an entire failure, so we got the victory through the blood. We are teaching a present salvation, and the captain, mate and sailors listen to us. Several of the passengers are very much interested in The Salvation Army. But above all, God is with us. We have some roughs on board, and they commence to play their games when we hold our meetings. But God says ?Go on!? and on we go. The journey would become a lot smoother as we headed into the southern summer and after 43 days of sea travel, on the 17th of February, we would finally reach our destination of Adelaide in South Australia. The temperature was well over 100 degrees when we arrived, but that wasn?t going to stop us from commencing the Lords work in this vast land.