Social Work Non- Government Organizations

Question: Discuss about the Social Work for Non- Government Organizations. Answer: Introduction Social work refers to a discipline of profession that aims the welfare of human beings individually or in groups or communities. The main objective of social work is to help people deal with various challenges in life and enhancement of well-being. It helps people in empowering people themselves, improves their socio economic status, and makes them aware about their basic human rights (Nelson, Price and Zubrzycki 2014) .Social work in NGOs that is Non- Government Organizations for asylum seekers and refugees is very challenging and it helps them to provide various services for the betterment of their life and. They play an important role in improving their social life by developing intra-personal and inter personal relationships. They assist people in every possible manner and respond to their needs and demands in an appropriate manner. The profession of social workers involves various responsibilities to support various communities on a local, national and international level. Socia l justice helps in promoting basic needs and rights of the individuals, provides a proper access to social services and helps them in recognizing their rights. This essay deals with the role of social work that help asylum seekers and refugees in addressing various issues related to discrimination from other communities, justice and health problems. An asylum seeker refers to an individual who has left the country he is originating from and has applied for asylum in the other country but is still waiting for the application process to get over. He has to make an application in the other country to stay there to get protection from the authorities..In Australia, there are two groups of asylum seekers, one group includes individuals who have arrived in an authorized manner and they are given a permission to live in the society when their application is under processing (Alam and Imran 2015). The authorities of the immigration department finds out whether his application will be accepted and the protection will be granted or not. The other group includes the individuals who have arrived in an unauthorized manner by boat or airplane. The asylum seeker is known as a refugee and given the status of a refugee. Sometimes the asylum is refused to a few individuals and they are called as refused asylum seeker. Hence, they return to their country of origin and are sometimes forced to go back by the immigration authorities. Asylum seekers and refugees have limited access to healthcare facilities and social care. They are not allowed to work in the other country and suffer from financial crisis since the process of application takes months or years to be completed (Correa?Velez, Barnett and Gifford 2015). Their personal rights in the other country are most of the times ignored and abused. Social workers are playing an important role in addressing various problems and helping refugees and asylum seekers by making important contributions. They also deal with their problems related to grief and trauma by effective communication skills. They provide the kind of service as required by the asylum seekers and the refugees. They play an important role while working with asylum workers and refugees. Social workers respect and are empathetic towards the asylum seekers and refugees(Fell and Fell 2013). They work with various organizations and groups to achieve their objective and help their clients by coordinating and cooperating in an effective manner. It is their responsibility to protect the basic rights of the refugees and the asylum seekers and promote their safety aspects. They facilitate by collaborating with various agencies that help refugees and asylum seekers. They provide special counseling services to them and their family members to get rid of mental and other heal th issues. They also help in dealing with negative impact of trauma by developing a community. In the year 2015, Australia accepted 13,750 individuals as refugees and Australia plays an important role in protecting asylum refugees and seekers from abuses due to human rights (Hartley and Pedersen 2015). There are various challenges and issues involved in social work for the asylum seekers and the refugees. A large number of asylum seekers from Indonesia reach Australia on boats by giving money to smugglers. This leads to large no of deaths of asylum seekers. The government has introduced various programs and policies to lower the no of boats from execution to stop illegal immigration of asylum seekers. It is very difficult to deal with them and counsel as they had suffered from trauma and depression due to some family issues in their home country like being tortured, separated from any family member and brain washed. Therefore, it becomes difficult for the asylum seekers to wait for months and years for the processing of documents since they are already suffering from mental issues. It was also reported that they experienced a low socioeconomic status. Around 33% of asylum seekers had issues in procuring health care services and around 80% asylum seekers suffered from torture (Laval ette and Penketh 2014). They suffer from poor health like diabetes, infection from intestinal parasites, tuberculosis, disabilities , deafness and muscle pain due to torture and harsh behavior. Asylum seekers and refugees are also held in detention in a few remote areas of Australia, which leads to a negative impact on the psychological status. Their children also suffer a lot and feel sad and hopeless in these situations. They need special care support and attention from their parents and other family members. Their basic rights are also exploited. It is the duty of social workers to help them in their problems related to money, finding job opportunities for their survival and avoid under- employment, finding a proper accommodation to stay and development of social network by helping family members and friends staying overseas. Asylum seekers who are women experience domestic violence, lack of proper education and financial crisis. They also face a lot of psychological distress bec ause of female genital mutilation and lack of support, care and advice from extended family members. Refugees and asylum seekers of old age suffer from trauma, stress, impaired memory, and concentration issues. These old refuges are not given proper respect and their view points and skills are not given any value in Australia. This can lead to anxiety, stress, and depression in them and among the family members. They also suffer from isolation on asocial level and it is a common practice among the older asylum refugees and seekers( Lenette and Brough 2015).sTo prevent the crisis of asylum seekers at an international level it is crucial that countries like Australia do not implement such policies that harm asylum seekers and refugees. There are various cultural issues involved in social work for asylum seekers and refugees as if they are discriminated based on different culture and ethnicity that is unfair. Social workers should understand in a proper manner and work effectively while providing their services to these individuals. They should work by following ethical principles and ideas and understand sensitivity of cultural differences. International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) has promoted these ethical principles that the social workers should respect all the individuals by empowering them without discriminating them based on caste, religion, socioeconomic status, race, color of skin, gender and sexual orientation. They should provide equal opportunity in providing their services by respecting their independence and helping them to know their basic rights. Asylum Seekers and refugees came to Australia after the Second World War Germany and Eastern Europe, from Croatia, Africa, Kosovo, Ethiopia and Somalia during 1990s. The first detention system was introduced in Australia in the year 1991 Port Hedland in the Western part of Australia and Villa wood in Sydney. In 1992, the Keating Government in Australia made detention mandatory for asylum seekers (Sampson 2015). During the year 2000, asylum seekers and refugees entered Australia from Somalia, Liberia, Sudan and Sierra Leone Australia has always been in the limelight for its tough policies for asylum seekers entering the country through boats and not allowing them to settle over there. The Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbot, stopped these boats and these policies were opposed by the human rights organization and called as in human. People arriving to Australia from boat has been increased from 2000 to 16,000 from 1992 to 2014.Arrival of boats in the country is one of the major iss ues for the government and it was told to the asylum seekers if they enter by boat they would not get permanent residence. In 2013, Abbott Government has shut down a large number of centers of immigration (Robinson 2013). During the detention, a large of no deaths of asylum seekers was reported and many of them were assaulted sexually. There was also the occurrence of riots in the detention centers. Immigration policies of detention in Australia have been opposed since many years. There are various ethical issues involved in social work for asylum seekers in Australia present in the Code of Ethics by Australian Association of Social Workers. Social workers should promote their basic human rights and maintain their dignity. They should respect the beliefs, culture, desires and background of asylum seekers. They should value their knowledge of culture and experience and include them while taking any important decisions. They should recognize and respect the diversity of cultures and take an account of asylum seekers or refugees and their family members (Puvimanasinghe 2015). They should provide high quality of service to asylum seekers and refugees, and should bring a positive change, which will help, in the growth and development of asylum seekers. It is ethically not right to treat asylum seekers and refugees in a harsh manner. It is not justifiable for the government to discriminate people based on caste and race and treat them wrongly. It can be concluded that asylum seekers and refugees should be treated humanely by the social workers and they should understand their needs and demands. Australia has a very strict detention system for asylum seekers and refugees and it should be brought to an end because it destroys the basic human rights of these individuals. Various asylum seekers enter the country in an illegal manner by boats and ships and are detained. They have not given proper facilities of healthcare, communication with their family members and friends. The journey taken by asylum seekers on boats is very dangerous and operated by criminals. Travelling by sea leads to death of many asylum seekers especially those who travel between Indonesia and Australia. Government of Australia has developed various measures and strategies to protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees and has made strict policies to stop the boats in order to prevent illegal immigration. Social workers should help these asylum seek ers and refugees in recognizing these rights and provides a proper access to social services. It is their ethical duty to work with commitment in providing social justice to asylum seekers and refugees. References Nelson, D., Price, E. and Zubrzycki, J., 2014. Integrating human rights and trauma frameworks in social work with people from refugee backgrounds.Australian Social Work,67(4), pp.567-581. Alam, K. and Imran, S., 2015. The digital divide and social inclusion among refugee migrants: A case in regional Australia.Information Technology People,28(2), pp.344-365. Correa?Velez, I., Barnett, A.G. and Gifford, S., 2015. Working for a better life: Longitudinal evidence on the predictors of employment among recently arrived refugee migrant men living in Australia.International Migration,53(2), pp.321-337 Fell, B. and Fell, P., 2013. Welfare across borders: A social work process with adult asylum seekers.British Journal of Social Work, p.bct003. Hartley, L.K. and Pedersen, A., 2015. Asylum seekers and resettled refugees in Australia: Predicting social policy attitude from prejudice versus emotion.Journal of Social and Political Psychology,3(1), pp.179-197. Lavalette, M. and Penketh, L. eds., 2014.Race, racism and social work: Contemporary issues and debates. Policy Press. Lenette, C., Cox, L. and Brough, M., 2015. Digital storytelling as a social work tool: learning from ethnographic research with women from refugee backgrounds.British Journal of Social Work,45(3), pp.988-1005. Puvimanasinghe, T., Denson, L.A., Augoustinos, M. and Somasundaram, D., 2015. Vicarious resilience and vicarious traumatisation: Experiences of working with refugees and asylum seekers in South Australia.Transcultural psychiatry,52(6), pp.743-765. Robinson, K., 2013. Voices from the front line: Social work with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia and the UK.British Journal of Social Work, p.bct040. Sampson, R.C., 2015. Caring, contributing, capacity building: Navigating contradictory narratives of refugee settlement in Australia.Journal of Refugee Studies, p.fev010.

The Wal-Mart Scenario-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignmenthelp

Question: Critically analyse a famous Speech and Structurally Compare it with a statement by the head of a Company. Answer: Introduction The assignment deals with the analysis of the speech given by the first Prime Minister of India prior to the independence of the country. The assignment also deals with the brief analysis of statements that are given by the Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart which is one of the leading retail stores in the world. Further, the illustration of the comparison of the speech of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister and the statements of Mr Doug McMillion who is the current Chief Executive Officer is elaborated (Alnasser, Shaban Al-Zubi, 2016). Analysis of the famous speech Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru starts his speech with the presentation to the tryst with destiny which was planned way back in the prior years, which gives the reference to the continuous freedom struggle against the rule of the British which had captured the entire country as its colony. He refers to the time then when the country had achieved independence and the official declaration was about to be conducted. In his first statement only, he refers to the complete independence of the country which was still not regarded as full independence as a part of India was getting separated from its map as a separate country to be called as Pakistan. Hence, the speech of the former prime minister addresses the independence of the nation to be not wholly or in complete measure but in a substantial way (Ateljevic, Morgan Pritchard, 2013). He refers to the significance of moment of dawn that would represent the awakening of India into its freedom and independence. Pandit Nehru very significantly represents the vital moment with beautiful use of works such as for stepping into the old times into the new age would occur with the new dawn. The new dawn, in his speech is also compared to the awakening of the souls of the country which was shut down and suppressed to a very long time and finally the nation would start to utter its words of independence. He also refers to that specific moment to be a memorable one every generation in future. He asks the entire country to take pledge of dedication for the service of the country along with the citizens of the country. He also thinks about every individual to be dedicated to serving the human community as a whole with the freedom as a part of the responsibility which is accompanied with independence (Chabrak Craig, 2013). He remarks the several dawns that passed by the timeline of the county which witnessed never ending struggles to achieve the independence that the country got and compared the dawn which was about to witness the declaration of independence of the entire country (FruhenFlin, 2016). He stated that the future centuries will appreciate and feel proud to have such grandeur of success which came after many years of strive and failures. He did not miss any point to state that the country did not lose hope and kept on insisting on the continuous hope and strength of and for achieving freedom and independence inspite of having high failure rates and struggles. He f ocuses on the responsibility that power and freedom brings with it. He states that the accountability of the country is in the assembly which is a sovereign body of the country. He admires the creation of freedom through the pains of labor and struggles and memorizes the sorrow of every struggle (Haupt, Kapucu Hu, 2017). He focuses on the struggle for having a bright future which would also not be an easy one. He states that for obtaining the bright future for the country, he addresses the citizens to take and fulfilling the pledges. He focuses on the end of ignorance, poverty, disease and the inequality for obtaining opportunities in all walks of life. He focuses on the need for having awakened ambitions, hard work and dreams for having a bright future for the entire country. He refers to the obtainment of peace among all so that the world does not get spilt and isolated into fragments. He instills confidence and faith in the future endeavors of the country and getting rid of all the negative aspects that would prove to be hindrances in the way of achieving bright future. He also encourages and celebrates the freedom which has its base in the sorrow and difficult times. Analysis of statement by the company President/Chairperson/ CEO/Managing Director In the case of Wal-Mart, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Doug McMillion has focused on the customer proposition of the company through which it can enhance its service to the customers. He states that the company has increased in its stores, e-commerce capabilities and associates. He further passes the facts to the mass regarding the 260 million customers to be visiting its stores and the expansion of the Retail Company to be in 27 countries. He focuses on the enterprise strategy guides for meeting the expectations and delivery on the proposition of the customer (Hodge, 2017). He states that the growth of the company has been installed in its effective execution both in stores and e-commerce. He takes pride in the fiscal report of Wal-Mart of 2015 which states that the financial status of the company grew by more than $ 9 billion. His statements are basically focused on the having great stores, e-commerce and clubs due to which it is able to provide satisfactory service to its customers. He appears to be very pleased with the increase in net sales which refers to the improved sales and operating trends of income of the company with each consecutive quarter. He shows his pleased feelings with the positive performance of the company in the foreign markets. Through his statements, he also presents the unsatisfaction and unsettlement of the company in the way of achieving greater success rates. He also states that the Sams Club has been strengthening the digital integration with various clubs which is also assisting the increased business performance (Hunter, 2014). He focuses on the investment in the relevance of the customers by establishing higher customer expectation. He also happens to focus on the high engagement and motivation of the employees. He also stresses on the significance of talent and commitment to the success of Wal-Mart. Structural Comparison of speech and statement It is necessary to understand the underlying objective of the speech and the statement released by the company are different in nature and focus on different objectives altogether. But this specific structural comparison has been carried out in order to compare the two different pieces to understand how well each of them was able to succeed in their stated objectives of communicating the respective messages through to the intended target audiences (KASHANINIA, HosseiniYusliani, 2015). Speech by Jawaharlal Nehru: The speech made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on August 14th 1947 very correctly focuses on the fact that with freedom and power of the nation there comes an added responsibility which rests on the assembly that represents the people of the nation. His speech highlighted the need to work together in order to put an end on the poverty, ignorance, inequality in a number of aspects (McKenzie Lee, 2016). The passion to convert India into a prosperous and progressive nation could be very well identified in the tone of the speech which focused on the need to provide equal opportunities, obligations and privileges to all its citizens. The speech by the first Indian Prime Minister was very inspiring since it focused on a number of aspects of the nation that needed to be changed so that the conditions of the people could be changed for the better and the overall state of the nation could be improved. But the structural comparison of the speech shows that even after 70 years of independence, the content of the speech is far from reality since even today a majority section of the population are below the poverty line and they do not even have the access to basic needs of life such as food, education, sanitation, shelter, etc. The nation is progressing but the rate at which the progression is taking place is very slow because of a number of factors like corruption, bribery, terrorism from outside nations and internal terrorism, etc (Newman, Patterson Clark, 2015). The freedom that India has achieved has come along with a series of challenges and responsibilities that need to be tackled in an effective manner so that the common good is achieved. But most of the people that have been elected and have power try to take advantage of the situation and think of their personal benefits before thinking of the nation. Due to this there is significant contrast between the India that Nehru was talking about in the speech and the actual India of today (OBrien, 2015). Wal-Mart statement: The communication that has been made by CEO of Wal-Mart stores Mr Doug McMillion, highlights the changes that have taken place in the retail industry in the past years. The stress has been on the fact that even thought there are a number of differenced in the global market such as language and culture, but the ultimate expectations of a customer from a retailer is still same saving of financial resources and saving of time. The objective of the business concern is to work on its international presence so that it can strengthen its e-commerce capabilities and establish greater number of stores by focusing on the needs and expectations of its customers in the market. As per the CEO, the entire business model of Wal-Mart revolves around the objective to serve the customers in a better manner so that its sales expansion and profitability can match (Zori, 2016). The statement that was released by the CEO laid stress on its customers and their overall experience while interacting in the retail environment. The statement revealed the fact that the business intends to design its work model on its customers preferences so that their ultimate needs and requirements can be fulfilled by the retailer. It has also modeled its financial performance in such a manner so that its stores, e-commerce presence can bring about a positive change in the retail scenario for the customers and enrich their overall experience (PhersonPherson, 2016). It can be said that the business has brought about important changes in its business strategy and it is still taking important steps to make the world a better place. Mr Doug has himself been in the concern for a long time and he has stated that talent gets due recognition in the business undertaking and the business takes necessary steps in form of increasing the training opportunities and strengthening the compensation structure for the business associates so that they can adapt to the changing working conditions and react in a faster manner to the different needs of the customers (Wesselink, et al., 2015). It can be said that the business has achieved some part of its objective but still it has a long way to go and further improve its delivery performance. A number of external elements like intense competition in retail sector, uncertain demand pattern of the customers, etc pose new kinds of challenges in front of the retail business but its determined focus has allowed it to deliver a good performance in the industry (Rawwas, ArjoonSidani, 2013). The model that has been used for the critical thinking process is Kiplings Six Questions since the it focuses on various aspects including the existing problem, the cause for it, solution to fix the same, fixing strategy, effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the solution, and the next step. This model has been used to highlight the performance scenario of Wal-mart so that its business model can be understood and the reasons for its growth can be analyzed. The same critical thinking model has been used to understand the speech given by Mr Nehru to understand the current standing of India. The objective is to understand whether India is progressing at the pace it was expected in progress during independence or not. The tool shows that Wal-mart is doing a steady business due to its focused business strategy but India is facing numerous challenges to succeed in its national objectives due to obstacles in form of corruption, terrorism, abuse of power, etc. Thus it is necessary for the nati on to remove social evil from the core to progress. Conclusion The different topics that have been covered involving the Prime Minister speech and Wal-Mart CEO Statement reflect the fact that in order to achieve a particular objective it is vital for a business concern or a nation to design proper strategies and implement the same from all directions so that the necessary changes can be observed within a specific timeframe. It is also important that all the parties must join hands together to bring about the required change otherwise it becomes pretty challenging. The Wal-Mart scenario reveals that the businesses focused attitude and strategic approach at an organizational level has allowed it to focus on the needs of the customers and perform the operational activities in a sustainable manner. The speech given by Jawaharlal Nehru in the past shows that he wished for India to be corruption free, economically strong and flourishing after gaining its independence from the British but due to various challenging elements that operate in the environment, the momentum of growth has declined but still a few leaders are making an attempt to help the citizens to rise above existing challenges. References Alnasser, N., Shaban, O.S. and Al-Zubi, Z., 2016.The Impact of Accounting Ethics in Improving Managers' Behavior and Decision Making in the Jordanian Companies.Oxford Economic Papers, p.942. Ateljevic, I., Morgan, N. and Pritchard, A. eds., 2013.The critical turn in tourism studies: Creating an academy of hope(Vol. 22). Routledge. Chabrak, N. and Craig, R., 2013. Student imaginings, cognitive dissonance and critical thinking.Critical Perspectives on Accounting,24(2), pp.91-104. Fruhen, L.S. and Flin, R., 2016. Chronic uneasefor safety in senior managers: an interview study of its components, behaviours and consequences.Journal of Risk Research,19(5), pp.645-663. Haupt, B., Kapucu, N. and Hu, Q., 2017. Core Competencies in Master of Public Administration Programs: Perspectives from local Government Managers.JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION, p.611. Hodge, S., 2017.Case studies in adapted physical education: Empowering critical thinking. Taylor Francis. Hunter, D.A., 2014.A practical guide to critical thinking: Deciding what to do and believe. John Wiley Sons. KASHANINIA, Z., Hosseini, M.A. and Yusliani, F., 2015. The effect of teaching critical thinking skills on the decision making style of nursing managers. McKenzie, R.B. and Lee, D.R., 2016.Microeconomics for MBAs: The economic way of thinking for managers. Cambridge University Press. Newman, C., Patterson, K. and Clark, G., 2015. Evaluation of a support and challenge framework for nursing managers in correctional and forensic health.Journal of nursing management,23(1), pp.118-127. OBrien, J., 2015. Do You Fit The Bill?-8 crucial skills maintenance managers must have.Asset Management Maintenance Journal,28(2), p.19. Pherson, K.H. and Pherson, R.H., 2016.Critical thinking for strategic intelligence.Cq Press. Ramazani, J. and Jergeas, G., 2015. Project managers and the journey from good to great: The benefits of investment in project management training and education.International Journal of Project Management,33(1), pp.41-52. Rawwas, M.Y., Arjoon, S. and Sidani, Y., 2013. An introduction of epistemology to business ethics: A study of marketing middle-managers.Journal of Business Ethics,117(3), pp.525-539. Wesselink, R., Blok, V., van Leur, S., Lans, T. and Dentoni, D., 2015. Individual competencies for managers engaged in corporate sustainable management practices.Journal of Cleaner Production,106, pp.497-506. Zori, S., 2016. Could Critical Thinking Help Create Nurse Managers Who are Transformational Leaders?.

The Impact of Ownership Structure on the Dividend Policy free essay sample

We find evidence in support of the hypothesis that a positive relation exists between dividends and free cash flow and it’s greater for low-growth firms than for the high-growth firms. The results also show that the impact of managerial ownership and bank ownership on dividend yield is positive particularly for the low growth firms. This is inconsistent with the view that the managerial ownership and institutional ownership reduce the need for the dividend mechanism. Finally, there is evidence that the Keiretsu classification affects relations between ownership structure and dividend payouts. Overall, the dividend policy appears to be used by Japanese low-growth firms to control the overinvestment problem. Free cash flow hypothesis is to some degree supported. JEL classification codes: G32 G34 G35 Keywords: Ownership Structure, Dividend Policy, Free Cash Flow -2- 1. Introduction Why does a firm pay dividends? This question has been the subject of debate for many years, In the pre-Miller and Modigliani era, it was believed that increasing dividends would always increase market value. We will write a custom essay sample on The Impact of Ownership Structure on the Dividend Policy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Miller and Modigliani (1961) establish that in a perfect capital market, given an investment policy, dividend is irrelevant in determining share value. Empirically, however, we have observed that a change in dividend policy does have a significant impact on the share price. Different researchers have concentrated on different types of imperfections in the market in order to rationalize why dividends matter. Of these, a plausible idea is that corporate dividend policy addresses agency problems between shareholders and managers (Rozeff, 1982; Easterbrook, 1984; Jensen, 1986). According to these agency theories, unless profits are paid out to shareholders as dividends, they may be committed to unprofitable projects that provide private benefits for the managers. Rozeff (1982) and Easterbrook (1984) argues that the payment of dividends expose companies to the possible need to raise external funds, and hence subjects them to greater monitoring by capital markets. Jensen (1986) argues that paying dividends reduces the discretionary resources under managerial control and so helps to mitigate the overinvestment problem. In this study, we examine the implication of the free cash flow hypothesis in corporate dividend policy, and focus specifically on cross-sectional relations between dividend payout policy and ownership structure and free cash flow. Given the severity of the overinvestment problem, relations between dividend payouts and ownership structure, free cash flow may be conditioned on the existence of growth opportunities. This research examines how the sensitivity of relations between dividend payouts and ownership structure, free cash flow varies cross-sectionally with growth opportunities. Previous studies have shown that in countries like the US, firm ownership is relatively dispersed, leading to a limited ability of owners to monitor or control management’s use of free cash flow. Thus the dividend payout is one of the primary control mechanisms whereby shareholders can reduce management access to or abuse of discretionary funds. In countries with 1) a higher concentration of ownership 2) extensive cross-shareholding and 3) strong banking relationship, like Japan, dominant shareholders are believed to have both the incentives and the ability to keep management in check. Tests using a sample of 986 observations for 350 firms from 1992 to 2000 period indicate that the sensitivity of managerial ownership and bank ownership to dividend payouts varies directly with the relative abundance of growth opportunities. we find that dividend payouts for low-growth firms are significantly related to managerial ownership and bank ownership. In -3- contrast, there are no significant relations between dividend payouts and managerial ownership, bank ownership for high-growth firms. We also investigate associations between free cash flow and dividend payouts. Consistent with the prediction by Jensen (1986), there is a strong positive relation between the level of free cash flow and dividend payouts. Furthermore, association between free cash flow and dividend payouts is stronger for low-growth firms. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the previous theoretical and empirical research. Section 3 explains the Japanese institutional background. Section 4 describes the empirical framework. The empirical results are presented in Section 5-6 and Section 7 concludes. . Dividend payouts, Ownership Structure and Agency Cost Theory 2. 1 Dividends and Agency Costs Corporate dividend policy has been viewed as a control mechanism that mitigates agency conflicts between shareholders and managers. Jensen and Meckling (1976) suggest that one way to reduce agency costs of equity is to pay a larger proportion of its earnings as dividends to its stockholders. A high dividend payout ratio will result in lower â€Å"discretionary† cash flows available to be squandered away by managers. Rozeff (1982) argues that dividend payments are part of the firm’s optimal monitoring/bonding package and serve to reduce agency costs. Easterbrook (1984) lists some of the mechanisms by which dividends and the consequent raising of capital can control agency costs. Agency costs â€Å"are less serious if the firm is constantly in the market for new capital. When it issues new securities, the firm’s affairs will be reviewed by an investment banker or some similar intermediary acting as a monitor for the collective interest of shareholders, and by the purchasers of the new instruments†. Free cash flow hypothesis The free cash flow hypothesis is a variant of the agency argument based on the Principal-Agent framework. According to this framework, dividends are used by shareholders as a device to reduce overinvestment by managers. Jensen(1986) argues that managers with substantial free cash flow tend to invest it in wasteful projects rather than pay it out to shareholders, because managerial compensation and perquisites increase even with poor investments. These unnecessary investments lead to poor performance, creating conflicts between shareholders and managers. Jensen emphasizes the disciplinary role of dividends that restrain managerial unprofitable expansionary tendencies by limiting financial resources available to managers. Dividend payments represent an ongoing commitment to maintain higher payments in future periods, because firms are reluctant to cut dividends and have been greeted by a significant -4- negative stock market reaction when they do. Jensen suggests that dividends should be paid out in ways that instigate managers to gorge the cash beyond the optimal amount. This implies that free cash flow positively determines dividend payments. . 3 Ownership structure and dividend policy One criticism of the agency cost theory is that if managers want to overinvest or spend more on jets, what is the mechanism that will force them self-commit to an action that will prevent them from doing so? Several authors address this issue in the context of ownership structure 2. 3. 1 Institutional Ownership There are several important ways in which institutions differ from individual investors. In general, institutions manage large pools of funds and therefore invest larger amounts in each stock. Because they have larger amounts at stake, they should have incentives to devote resources to monitoring (Grossman and Hart, 1980; Shleifer and Vishny,1986). Institutions are also likely to be better informed than are individual investors. Not only do institutions devote resources to gathering information, but they are also sometimes privy to corporate information that individual investors do not have ( Michaely and Shaw,1994). However, the prediction on the relationship between dividend policy and institutional ownership are mixed. The first line of research suggests a positive relation. Zeckhauser and pound (1990) suggest the arm’s length view of investment held by many institutional investors, coupled with the incentives to free ride with respect to monitoring activities, implies that institutional shareholders are unlikely to provide direct monitoring themselves. The institutions, rather than providing monitoring themselves, forces firms to increase their dividends in order that they are subsequently forced to go to the external capital market for future funds. Eckbo and Verma (1994) argue that institutional shareholders will prefer free cash flow to be distributed in the form of dividends in order to reduce the agency costs of free cash flow. From this perspective, it may be argued that institutional shareholders may counter a tendency for managers to prefer the excessive retention of cash flow and, by virtue of their voting power, force managers to pay out dividends. Moh’d, Perry and Rimbey (1994) and Short, Zhang, and Keasey (2002) also provide additional support. The second line of research suggests a negative relation. Jensen and Meckling (1976) argue that external monitoring activity is an important controlling element when agency conflict exists. If large institutional investors act as monitoring agents, and if dividends are paid to reduce agency cost, then according to this theory, there should be a substitute relation between dividend policy and institutional ownership. This implies a negative relationship between the percentage of -5- hares held by institutions and the dividend payout. D’Souz, and Saxena (1999) provide the empirical evidence. 2. 3. 2 Managerial Ownership There are several lines of argument on the role of managerial ownership. The first line of argument suggest that managerial ownership may better aligning the interest of management and shareholders and helps mitigate free cash flow problems. Therefore it results in a higher level of total payouts when managers hold more shares. ( White,1996; Fenn and Liang,2001). The second line of argument suggest that insider stock ownership provides direct incentive alignment between managers and shareholders while dividends serve as a bonding mechanism reducing management’s scope for making unprofitable investment out of internal funds. Thus, insider stock ownership and dividend policy are viewed as substitute means of addressing potential agency problem. Empirical articles have shown that managerial ownership is not a linear function of agency costs. Morck, Shleifer and Vishny (1988) and McConnell and Servaes (1990) found insider ownership is related to performance in a nonlinear fashion. Schooley and Barney (1994) report a nonmonotonic relation between CEO stock ownership and dividend yield. Farinha (2003) documented the U-shaped relationship between insider ownership and dividend payout in the UK. He argues that it stems from the effects of managerial entrenchment. Japanese Institutional Background Japan offers us a valuable opportunity to examine issues related to dividend policy under an institutional setup quite different from that in U. S. , such as the main bank, the cross-shareholding among corporations. This distinctive Japanese institutional background may result in important difference between Japanese and U. S. firms in terms of corporate monitoring and information sharing. Since, most theoretical explanations of dividends rely on agency and information issues, they would suggest different choices of dividend policy in Japan. 3. 1 Main bank -6- Aoki, Patrick and Sheard (1994) highlight a significant governance role played by the main bank for Japanese firms. The main bank effectively monitors the client firms by becoming well-informed about the firm (Diamond, 1984)). The main bank’s equity stake in the client firm mitigates agency costs between creditors and shareholders (Prowse (1990)). The main bank sometimes intervenes the management of the client firm that performs poorly by appointing bank employees to the board of directors in the client firm (Kaplan and Minton,1994; Kang and Shivdasani, 1995; Morck and Nakamura, 1999). In case of financial distress, the main bank acts as a guarantor for other creditors, reducing the cost related to the restructuring of the client firm (Hoshi, Kashyap and Sharfstein,1990).. In contrast, several authors suggest that there is a cost in having a main bank. Firms relying on the main bank for financing are likely to be constrained in raising the additional capital when the banking sector as a whole has a financial difficulty (Kang and Stulz, 2000). The main bank can extract surplus from the client firms due to its monopolistic power of information production (Rajan, 1992). In a similar context, the main bank has an incentive to force the client firms to undertake low-risk, negative NPV projects (Weinstein and Yafeh, 1998). Firms that do not depend on bank borrowing exhibit higher profitability than the matched sample of firms that have a main bank ( Kang and Shivdasani, 1999). 3. 2 Keiretsu Group There exist differences between keiretsu or industrial groups centered around affiliated banks and financial institutions and unaffiliated independent firms with weaker banking ties. Japanese industrial organization is characterized by groups of enterprises (keiretsu) composed of firms based in different industries but bound by ties of fractional ownership and reliant on a large commercial bank as the major but not sole lender. The large shareholders of keiretsu firms often are also large creditors of the firm as well as important long-term commercial business partners. The keiretsu and non-keiretsu firms are facing different liquidity constraints in their investment spending. Investment spending is very sensitive to liquidity constrains for non-keiretsu firms, but not so for keiretsu firms. Since keiretsu firms are likely to have better access to financing sources, keiretsu firms seemingly face less liquidity constraints in making investment decision. The differences in institutional arrangements between keiretsu and non-keiretsu firms may influence the behavior of shareholders as monitors. Kester (1990) describes the corporate governance system of keiretsu firms in terms of a complex interaction between shareholdings, credit holding and long-term business relationship that exist between the firm and its stake holders. Aoki, Patric, and Sheard (1994), and Berglof and Perotti (1994) suggest a two-tier monitor system. In the first stage, corporate cross-shareholders serve as the monitors under -7- normal circumstances because they have specific industry knowledge and observe each others’ performance through their business relations. In the second stage, the financial institutions take an active intervention role when member firms get into financial distress, replacing incumbent managers and requiring restructuring and liquidation of assets. Managerial equity ownership Because the well-known keiretsu structure and influential bank shareholders, the agency problems between Japanese managers and shareholders are considered to be minimal (e. g. Nakatani, 1984; Hoshi, Kashyap and Scharfstein, 1990, 1991; and Prowse, 1990). The manager ownership, as a way of aligning interests between managers and shareholders, has been viewed as an unnecessary corporate governance mechanism. However Kang and Stulz (1998), Mock and Nakamura (1999), and Weinstein and Yafeh (1998) questioned the effectiveness of bank oversight in Japan. Morck and Nakamura (1999) argue that for independent firms, bank equity holders pursue their interests as creditors at the expense of their equity claims. Gibson(1995) and Kang and Stulz (2000) argue that poor bank health may adversely affect their dependent firms’ investment prospects, which, in turn, would affect their ability to monitor effectively. This particular contention is especially relevant to the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as it is well known that Japanese banks have been experiencing significant financial difficulties during this time period. In light of these findings, Morck and Nakamura (1999) contend that some independent firms may require corporate control mechanisms other than bank oversight. Due to the decline in power of Japanese banks, the rarity of incentive-based compensation contracts for Japanese managers, and the fact that many Japanese firms are not affiliated with a keiretsu group, the managerial-ownership may represents an alternative mechanism to ensure that firms operate efficiently. Thus, the unique Japanese institutional arrangements provide an interesting backdrop to investigate whether cash flow theory explanation for dividend policy still apply given the differences. 4. Empirical framework 4. 1 Hypotheses If one assumes, as suggested by Jensen (1986), that managers receive utility from increasing the size of the firm, the control function of dividend payouts on the overinvestment problem varies with the firm’s growth opportunities. Management may have an incentive to pay out as few dividends as possible at shareholders’ expense. The overinvestment problem is less important and may be trivial for firms with many growth opportunities, because the objectives of managers and shareholders are more likely to coincide. On the other hand, when good projects are not -8- available, managers with substantial free cash flow must find ways to spend it and hence choose poor projects. Thus, the overinvestment problem is higher for low-growth firms than for high-growth firms, and divergence of interests between shareholders and managers over the firm’s payout policy are more severe in firms with few growth opportunities. These firms can limit management’s temptation to overinvest by paying out a larger percentage of their earnings. Their high-growth counterparts with lots of investment opportunities are likely to pay low dividends because they have profitable uses for the capital. For this reason, we expect stronger relations between free cash flow and dividend payouts for low-growth firms. Hypothesis I: relations between the level of free cash flow and dividend payouts are positive and are stronger for firms with low growth opportunities. Most of the existing agency explanations of payout rely on the implicit assumption that firms can get refinanced on the capital markets when they need funds to undertake new investment projects. Consequently, the strategy that minimizes agency costs is to maintain a high payout (to reduce the amount of free cash flow and to avoid overinvestment problems) and to raise new outside capital whenever and attractive investment opportunity emerges. Outside shareholders are harmed by a potential overinvestment and therefore they have preferences for high payout, which curbs the amount of corporate resources that can be spent by management on value reducing projects. Managerial ownership helps to align interests of management and shareholders that may yield the reduction of agency costs stemming from payout smaller. Consequently, payout ratios in a firm with managerial block holdings may be low because the severity of manager-shareholder agency conflict is low. This traditional agency view generates a set of hypothesis that the payout is negatively related with the managerial ownership. Institutional investors are more effective at monitoring management than retail investors. Due to the size of their investments and the resources at their disposal, institutional investors have greater incentive and ability to gather and analyze information pertaining to their investments, as well as a greater ability to discipline management and push for changes when management performs poorly.

Salem witch trails Essay

Salem witch trails Essay Salem witch trails Essay David Saldivar Dr. Michael Faubion History 2313.01 05 November 2014 Salem Witch Trials Essay Throughout history various events have struck the foundation of humanity in many ways. One such event know as The Salem Witch Trials, had many people in various communities in turmoil. It started in 1692, in a small village named Salem, were residents were experiencing bizarre symptoms that no physician could medically explain at the time. Since most of the early settlers were religious folk and believed that any misfortunes in the village could be attributed to the work of the devil, they had come to a conclusion that witchcraft had stricken Salem. Many of the cases in Salem were merely false accusations, but almost all had resulted in various examinations and in many cases individuals were put to death. Although Salem was not the first settlement to showcase witchcraft one record states that the children of John Goodwin in Boston were plagued by unknown causes. The children all had the same pains in the exact spot at the same time, and had several fits that could not be explained. Cotton Mather stated â€Å"Skilful physicians were consulted for their help, and particularly our worthy and prudent friend Dr. Thomas Oakes, who found himself so affronted [non-plussed] by the distempers of the children, that he concluded nothing but an hellish witchcraft could be the original [origin] of these maladies.†1 Mr. Goodwin had accused a woman by the name of Glover, he had no real evidence she was the cause of his children’s fits, but was taken into custody on the account of how wretched she looked. They took her into custody and questioned her, she did not deny the interest of enchanting the children and had a suspicious behavior while apprehended. They concluded she was the cau se of the children’s mishaps and was sentenced to death. One early case in Salem, was the daughter and niece of Mr. Samuel Parris who were the first to experience unnatural behavior. These children were bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, neck, and backs turned his way and that way, and returned back again, so as it was impossible for them to do of themselves, and beyond the power of any epileptic fits, or natural disease to effect.2During the fits of the children they would cry out the name of their servant Tituba, and therefore accused her of bewitching them. Tituba had confessed to taking urine of the afflicted person and using it to make a cake.

Search engine industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Measure and assessment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Measure and assessment - Research Paper Example If they are available from secondary sources, the task becomes easier for the researcher. If not, they have to necessarily resort to collection of primary data. So long as the requirements are confined to quantitative information, they can be collected easily. At the same time, if qualitative information is required, the problem gets compounded. In particular, when a researcher is interested in capturing the behavioral pattern of the chosen samples, task would not be as easy as collective quantitative information. Given the fact that the researcher cannot enter into the minds of respondents, at the best what goes on in the minds of respondents can be captured by designing appropriate questions / statements and eliciting their responses. While the subject matter has been debated over the years, there is a consensus amongst researchers on the usefulness of measurement scales. These scales are tools which sorts or rates or ranks the respondents view points on the pre-determined criteria. They have been used widely in the areas that call for using psychometric exercises. The behavior of respondents thus gets captured by noting the respondents responses on a scale, and these responses when codified become the data for further analysis. Once the researchers decide what kind of measurement scales are to be used, it is equally important to determine if the tools used reliability and validity. Of course, a researcher could use a number of measurement scales, but choosing the right scale is a challenge. Only those scales which are reliable and valid alone will have to be chosen for measurement purposes. When a tool used for measurement produces similar results on repeat, that tool could be considered as reliable. In fact, reliability of a tool is nothing but the degree to which what has been measured yields consistent result each time it get used. Moreover, if what get measured remains free of error, the tool used to measure them is considered as reliable. On the

Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis Techniques

Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis Techniques The oxford dictionary defines a risk as a situation involving exposure to danger. In business, an occurrence is said to be risky if it has the probability of an adverse outcome. Others words typically used in association with risks are words such as hazards and threats. In most cases, were mitigation controls are not implemented, a risk could result in the loss of financial or material assets, or more critically, it could lead to loss of life. Organisations therefore need a technique to assist in the identification and classification of risks; hence the relevance of Risk analysis. Risk analysis assists in defining preventive measures to reduce the probability of identified threats occurring. Information Technology (IT) managers are able to add value to organisations by using the principles of risk analysis to ensure that businesses remain existent in the face of a risk. The risk analysis process involves three processes: Hazard identification, Risk assessment and Risk evaluation. Hazard identification is the process of identifying undesired or adverse events that lead to the materialisation of a hazard []. Risk assessment is the process of determining the size and magnitude of a risk. Finally, Risk evaluation is the process of assessing the risk in terms of its significance, gravity, or seriousness. [] Mathematically, the risk equation can be expressed as: Risk = (Impact * Likelihood) or Risk = (Probability * Likelihood) [] Impact measures the level of loss to the organisation. Loss can either be financial or operational and Likelihood measures the probability of feeling the impact. Risk Assessment Methodology Risk assessment is the systematic evaluation of the likelihood of an adverse effect arising from exposure in a defined population. The focus for IT security managers is risk assessment that is geared towards meeting the confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of information resources []. Risk Analysis Techniques Risk analysis techniques can be broken down into two broad methods: Qualitative Risk Analysis and Quantitative Risk Analysis. Regardless of the technique selected by an IT security manager, an understanding of the organisations process assets i.e. how risks were handled in the past, the scope of the project in question and plans that have been put in place to manage risks have to be clearly defined. Qualitative Risk Analysis Qualitative risk analysis involves the use of relative concepts to determine risk exposure [] thereafter, a relative classification system is employed where risks are classified as high, medium or low []. Qualitative risk analysis allows IT managers perform systematic examinations of threats and risks to the organisation. It also provides the opportunity for a review of proposed countermeasures and safeguards to determine the best cost-benefit implementation []. Using this technique requires IT managers to develop a scope plan, assemble a quality team, identify threats and prioritise threats. Advantages of Qualitative Risk Assessment Technique: Ease of calculation: when compared with quantitative technique, performing calculations using a qualitative technique is relatively simple. Monetary value of assets does not need to be determined: to perform a qualitative risk assessment, IT managers dont need to come up with a monetary value assets identified during the initial asset identification phase. It is not necessary to quantify threat frequency: because this technique does not require complex calculations, IT managers do not have to quantify the number of times a certain threat is likely to It is easier to involve non-security and non-technical staff: though it is important to select as risk assessment team members, this technique does not require that selected team members consist solely of technical members. Flexibility in process and reporting Drawback of Qualitative Risk Assessment Techniques Below is a discussion on the drawbacks of qualitative risk assessment techniques Qualitative techniques are subjective in nature- i.e. rather than relying on statistical data or evidence for its results, it is dependent on the quality of the risk management team that created it. The Cost-benefit analysis technique which assists in justifying the need for investing in controls is not used in qualitative risk assessment. It does not differentiate sufficiently between important risks. Attributes of Qualitative Risk Assessments: Qualitative risk assessment techniques offer a relatively faster process when compared with quantitative techniques; its emphasises are on descriptions as against statistical data, as such, teams members need not be overly technical to take part in a qualitative analysis process. In addition, values from a qualitative risk assessment are not actual values. In other words, they are perceived valued. Finally, its findings are simple and expressed in relative terms understandable by non-technical people therefore requiring little or no training before its results can be understood. Qualitative Risk Assessment Tools / Techniques: A number of tools are available for carrying out qualitative risk assessment a few of them are discussed below: Probability and impact matrix: the probability and impact matrix illustrates a risk rating assignment for identified risks. Each risk is rated on its probability of occurrence and impact upon objective. Risk probability and impact assessment: using this tool involves the risk analysis team rating the projects risks and opportunities []. Ishikawa (Fishbone cause and effects diagrams): the cause and effect diagram can be used to explore all the possible or actual causes (or inputs) that result in a single effect (or output). This tool can be used for identifying areas where there maybe problems and to examine causes of risks. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA): the FMEA method starts by considering the risk events and then proceeds to predict all their possible effects in a chart form. [] Quantitative Risk Assessment IT security managers as decision makers are susceptible to biased perception. as such, they require a means of accurately determining risks such that potential risk factors are not overlooked this hence the need for quantitative risk assessments. Quantitative risk analysis generally follows on from the qualitative risk analysis process. It aims to numerically analyse the probability of each risk and its consequence on the project objectives as well as the extent of overall project risk. Quantitative Risk Assessment Techniques In quantitative risk analysis processing, techniques such as Monte Carlo'[] and Bayesian simulations can be employed because they provide indispensible tools to the risk assessment team. These tools assist the team in determining the probability of achieving a specific project objective. They are equally used to quantify the risk exposure for the project and determine the size of cost and schedule contingency reserves that may be needed. Additionally, they identify the risks which require the most attention by quantifying their relative contributions to project risk. Advantages of Quantitative Risk Assessment Using quantitative assessments IT managers are able to present the results of risk assessment in a straight forward manner to support the accounting based presentation of senior managers. [] As results are statistical in nature, it aids in determining whether an expensive safeguard is worth purchasing or not. The process requires the risk assessment team to put great effort into assets value definition and mitigation as a result; its results are based substantially on independently objective processes and metrics. Finally, carrying out a quantitative risk analysis is fairly simple and can easily follow a template type approach. Drawbacks of Quantitative Risk Assessment Calculations involved in quantitative risk assessments are complex and time consuming. Its results are presented in monetary terms only and as such, may be difficult for non-technical people to interpret. The process requires expertise so participants cannot be easily coached through it. Impact values assigned to risks are based on opinions of participants.[] Attributes of Quantitative risk assessment Accuracy of results from quantitative risk assessment tends to increase over time as the organisation builds historic record of data while gaining experience. Results generated from a quantitative assessment are financial in nature, making quantitative techniques useful for cost benefit analysis. Quantitative Risk Assessment Tools Decision Trees Analysis: the decision tree is a useful tool for choosing an option from alternatives. It is used to explore different options and the outcome of selecting a specific option. Sensitivity Analysis: This technique is used to determine the risks which are likely to have the highest impact on the project. In sensitivity analysis, the effect of each risk is examined while keeping all other uncertain elements at baseline values.[] Striking a Balance As already highlighted above, both approaches to risk management have their advantages and disadvantages. Certain situations may call for organisations to adopt the quantitative approach. Conversely, smaller organisations with limited resources will probably find the qualitative approach better fitting. Furthermore, in selecting a risk analysis technique, IT security managers should select a technique that best reflects the needs of the organisation. The decision on which risk analysis technique to use should depend on what the manager is attempting to achieve. It is this suggestion of this paper that an integration of qualitative and quantitative risk analysis techniques be adopted by IT security managers to create a more comprehensive analytical approach. This can be understood as a Hybrid Risk Analysis Approach. Capturing risks and selecting controls are important, however more important is an effective risk assessment process establishing the risk levels. Before an organisation can decide on what to do, it must first identify where and what the risks are. Quantitative risk analysis requires risk identification after which both qualitative and quantitative risk analysis processes can be used separately or together. Consideration of time and budget availability and the need for both types of analysis statements about risk and impact will determine which method(s) to use.[ ]