Electrotherapy and Osteoarthritis Essay

Osteoarthritis has been described and defined as a condition involving the human bones that is caused by the breakdown of the joints, leading to the loss of cartilage, or what is known as the ‘cushion’ between the bone and the joint, in the affected joint or joints. Osteoarthritis is known to affect more than twenty million people every year in the United States of America alone. This degenerative disease affects persons aged above forty five, and it is found in both sexes, and it does not distinguish between races and colors and ethnicities. The hands, the feet, the spine and the large joints of the body fall prey to this debilitating disease, and until today, research has not been able to reveal the specific cause of osteoarthritis, although it is true that it can be directly attributed to the impact of ageing. Injuries in a joint, ageing and being overweight can also lead to the onset of osteoarthritis. The pain in osteoarthritis is caused due to the rubbing of the bones together after the cartilage that cushions them has been worn out. Some of the prescribed therapies to deal with the disease are exercise, stringent weight control, resting of the painful joints, pain relief medication, electrotherapy, and alternative therapies, and if the pain is excruciating, surgery. Electrotherapy is today one of the most accepted and used skills of physiotherapists, although it is by no means new. The use of heat, cold and electrical stimulation have been in use for a long time now, but the inherent problem is that the benefits and the advantages or disadvantages if any have not been analyzed or accounted for, and this means that the method is not as widely used as it can be. However, it remains a fact that electricity has been used by medical practitioners for hundreds of years now, and it is now one of the most common treatment approaches, giving new hope to millions of sufferers across the globe. (Kitchen, Sheila 2002) Take for example this table demonstrating the improvement in the management of pain in osteoarthritis using electrotherapy. Recent research has been able to prove that electricity would be able to bring immediate relief for both acute as well as chronic pain, and it must be remembered that in the case of osteoarthritis, the pain can be both acute and chronic. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism of electrotherapy is not known yet, although it is true that the method can block the transmission of pain signals across the nerves, and can also cause the release of endorphins, or the natural painkillers that are created by the body to combat pain. There can be several different types of electrotherapy methods, and some of them are: TENS, or ‘transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation’, inferential current, and galvanic stimulation. One must note that all the three methods use electrotherapy to stimulate nerves and muscles, through the adhesive pads that are applied on the skin. Electrotherapy must never be used over malignancies, open infections, over pacemaker leads, and over the throat, because it may cause lowered blood pressure, and over a pregnant uterus, as it may affect the fetus. In the year 2004, a randomized double blind pilot study on the impact of electrotherapy on about sixty four osteoarthritis patients suffering from moderate to severe pain in their various joints was conducted. The aim was to study whether the therapy would be useful in alleviating the pain for these patients, and it was found that it would definitely be able to provide temporary relief from severe and intolerable pain. At the present time, stated the researchers who were involved in the experiment, pain relief for osteoarthritis is predominantly medication, and this approach could bring better relief. In the study, the approach was to apply micro to milliamp current to certain specific areas of the patient’s head. This would result in the release of endogenous opioids from the various pain management areas located within the human brain. For a period of two weeks prior to and tow weeks after the study, the subject pain was self assessed using the ‘value scale’, and none of the physicians, patients and the device operators were let in on which device was real and which, false, and the data thus collected revealed the interesting fact that electrotherapy was indeed beneficial in bringing down the pain of the patients of osteoarthritis. According to the Australian Physiotherapy Association, there is sufficient evidence available to prove that physiotherapy management of the knee joints is a very good idea, and that there is a lack of evidence to prove that electrotherapy, specifically shortwave diathermy, including ultrasound, microwave and shortwave may be useful in managing the pain. It may however be true that a recent Cochrane review was able to prove conclusively that TENS or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation may be quite effective in controlling pain in these patients. However, better designed studies have to be made before it can be stated that TENS can be used to treat pain for osteoarthritis sufferers. (Bennell K, Hinman R, Crossley K 2001) It is important that the treatment plan must be made with the complete cooperation and consultation with the patient. The treatment goals would depend on the timescale of the treatment that he or she is undergoing for his osteoarthritis, the patient profile, and the affected joints. This would ensure that the patient achieves the maximum benefits of the treatment, so that he may be able to continue living a healthy and active life. Although research has shown that electrotherapy methods like laser therapy and ultrasound do not bring in any significant levels of improvement in the long term for the pain, they do bring in immediate relief from the pain. (EMHM Vogels, HJM Hendrick et al 2003) This cannot be taken to mean that electrotherapy does not bring relief for patients of osteoarthritis; it has been found that low power laser therapy has brought great relief for the pain of sufferers of osteoarthritis in Russia and in Eastern Europe. A study showed that electrotherapy brought relief for pain, mobility, tenderness and functioning in these patients, with relatively little adverse effects. In all probability, the mechanisms treated successfully using laser electrotherapy included peripheral nerve stimulation, resolution of inflammation, enhanced chondrocyte proliferation and increased matrix synthesis. (Ghassemi, M, Marks R 1999) There can be no doubt that the studies conducted so far are by no means conclusive, and the issue of handling the joint pains of those suffering from osteoarthritis with electrotherapy must be analyzed and studies further to bring in real statistics and real results. Perhaps, very soon, there may be available some sort of revolutionary treatment for the management of pain, which these patients would be able to use without fear of side effects or other complications, so that they may be able to continue to live an active and healthy lifestyle.

What is the history of UK tobacco taxation policy, what are the outcomes from the past to date?

Introduction The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced (WHO). Research has shown that there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world today and if this current number continues to rise at the current rate, then that number is expected to rise to 1.6 billion by the year 2025 (WHO). Tobacco smoke is harmful to smokers and harms nearly every organ of the body, diminishing a person`s overall health. Millions of people have health problems caused by smoking tobacco and it is a leading cause of cancer causing cancers of the lung, larynx, mouth, pancreas, stomach, as well as acute myeloid leukemia and cardiovascular diseases. Around the world smoking causes not only diseases and disability, it kills enormous numbers of people. As research has shown tobacco is responsible for approximately 443,000 deaths – one in every five deaths – each year in the United States (U.S DoH, 2010)In the United Kingdom, it is responsible for more than 120,000 deaths a year, more than all other drugs combined (Peto et al., 1994). Treating smoking related diseases costs the National Health Service in excess of ?1.5 thousand million a year. Furthermore, a report by the Policy Exchange in 2010 estimated the total cost to society of the smoking to be ?13.74 billion (bn); ?2.7bn includes cost to the NHS but also the loss in productivity from smoking breaks (?2.9 bn) and increased absenteeism (?2.5bn). As the Policy Exchange estimated, costs also include: the cost of fires (?507m), the loss of economic output from the death of smokers (?4.1bn) and passive smokers (?713m) In the 2011-12 financial year, the Government spent ?88.2 million on the stop smoking services in the United Kingdom alone plus additional ?66.4 million on medicinal aids.The rise of tobacco taxation The United Kingdom Government already intervenes in many ways to prevent, minimize the consequences of the harms caused by smoking. In an effort to reduce the number of smoking-related deaths, the Department of Health has introduced a number of measures including media and education campaigns about the dangers and harms of tobacco smoke, stop-smoking and nicotine replacement therapies – available through the NHS service, a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion and regulation of the contents and labeling of tobacco products. However, since evidence shows that price increases have a major effect on decreasing both smoking prevalence and consumption above all other tried and tested measure, increasing the price has therefore become the main tool in the policy of the United Kingdom to reduce smoking (BMA, 2010). Cigarettes, which are the most popular of all tobacco products in England, are now sold at historically exorbitant prices. In order to understand how the prices of tobacco products have become so high, it is therefore necessary to first gain an overview of the history of the tobacco tax and its development. Somewhat surprisingly, the United Kingdom has a very long history of tobacco taxation policy. Excise tax on tobacco was first introduced only one century after tobacco first was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1660 – although the present framework of the specific and ad valorem excise duty on cigarettes was introduced in 1976 in order to ease tax harmonization within the EEC. However, it was then not until the past two decades that tobacco taxation really became the main tool and policy in fighting the ills of smoking on society.From November 1993 to November 1999 there was a clear commitment made by the government to increase tobacco duties annually in real terms, in itially by at least 3% on average per annum. This was carried out diligently for a while until in July 1997 the Labour Government announced it would raise cigarette taxes by at least 5% above the rate of inflation each year. This new commitment was carried through in both the 1998 and 1999 budgets, but in November 1999 the Chancellor abandoned this policy. Instead, it was announced that extra revenue raised from future tobacco tax rises would be spent on health care of Great Britain. Thus, from 2001 until 2008 tobacco taxes rose only in line with inflation. However, in 2009, tobacco duties were increased again by 2% on the basis of a deflationary forecast in the Retail Price Index of – 3%, therefore representing increase an on 5% in real terms (HM Treasury, 2009) The Chancellor then announced in 2010, that tobacco duty would rise by 1% above inflation for the current year. Furthermore, a commitment was made to rising tobacco duty by 2% above inflation from 2011 to 2014. Th is was implemented by the current new Conservative-led coalition Government in the 2011 Budget. Moreover, legislation was introduced in the Finance Act 2012 to increase the duty rates for all tobacco products by 5% above the rate of inflation (based on RPI) from the 21st March 2012. This added 37 pence to the price of 20 cigarettes, 12 pence to the price of pack of five small cigars, 37 pence to the price of a 25g pouch of hand-rolling tobacco, and 20 pence to the price of a 25g pouch of a pipe tobacco (HM Treasury, 2012). Thus one can perceive that although it is not a consistent implementation of policy, there is a growing severity in the percentage of tax. Against the effects of increased taxation the tobacco industry, however, has been fighting back by keeping the price of its cheapest cigarettes almost static despite various increases in tobacco taxes. This therefore has had an effect in limiting the effectiveness of the United Kingdom’s public health policy to reduce s moking through higher prices (Bath University Tobacco Control Research Group).As a result, the price of cheaper cigarettes has remained almost unchanged since 2006 and their market share has doubled compared to expensive premium cigarettes. This therefore suggests that as cigarette taxes are raised, many smokers will down trade to cheaper cigarettes and just carry on smoking.Criticisms of the tobacco taxSince the Government started launching a full-scale attack on the tobacco industry, a lot has been written about the Tobacco taxation policy. A number of studies have shown that taxes can indeed be significant in reducing smoking. By way of example, John A. Bishop and Jang H. Yoo (1985) determined that the consumption of cigarettes is significantly affected by taxes that are levied on the tobacco products. The tax, they found, had more of an effect on consumption than did any other interventions previously implemented. Additionally, W. Kip Viscusi (1990) found that excise taxes disco urage smoking by serving as a monetary cost for the risks associated with smoking. From this it can be perceived that raising tobacco prices are therefore one of the most effective means of reducing tobacco use, especially among price-sensitive smokers such as younger member of society and people with low incomes. The specific question of whether the youth are more or less responsive to prices than adults, has been examined in a number of studies using individual-level data (Lewit, et al., 1981; Lewit and Coate, 1982; Grossman et al., 1983; Wasserman et al., 1991; Chaloupka and Grossman, 1996; Farrelly, et al., 1998, and Tauras and Chaloupka, 1998). However, findings from those studies are mixed. The earlier studies on this issue (Lewit, et al., 1981; Lewit and Coate, 1982; and Grossman et al., 1983) found that the youth are more sensitive to prices than are adults; however, they are far more likely to smoke. Interestingly, a recent study in the United Kingdom found that smoking cessation before middle age avoids more that 90% of the lung cancer mortality risk attr ibutable to tobacco which may affect the younger members of society’s views on the risks associated with it and may lessen the health warnings (Peto et al, 2000). It can also be seen that studies from high-income countries are consistent with those from low and middle-income countries, in that they both find strong and consistent evidence that increases in the prices of tobacco products lead to the significant reductions in cigarette smoking regardless of location or the country’s wealth. However, a number of other arguments have been raised for tobacco taxation policy and need to be considered. To elucidate, there are a number of political, economic, and social arguments that have long been used as arguments against significant tax increases in tobacco taxes. It has been argued by critics that higher tobacco taxes will lead to increased smuggling and other related criminal activity such as black market cigarettes sold without tax, or even encourage fake cigarettes than can be even worse for health. A second common objection to tobacco tax increases is that they will usually fall disproportionately on the poor who have less expendable income to indulge such habits compared to wealthy individuals who will not notice the increase so much. Growing amounts of literature suggest that tobacco tax increases might be progressive (Gabe, 2009). As discussed above, several studies have concluded that people who live on a lower income are more responsive to changes in cigarettes prices than higher income persons, implying that high taxes reduce smoking by more in lower income groups. A final major argument that is often employed in the debate over increased cigarettes taxes is that these tax increases would lead to reductions in employment. As HM Reve nue and Customs has estimated, in the United Kingdom the tobacco industry employs around 17,000 people in direct manufacture in the tobacco trade alone (HM Revenue & Customs, 2010). As shown, the significant consideration on the current literature on tobacco has been the critical analysis of Tobacco taxation policy, but there has been shown to be little to answer the question about the actual stakeholders involved in the policy itself and what determines their actual positions and interest. Therefore, to shed some valuable light on this, the stakeholder analysis will be used in this essay. Moreover, the value creation framework will also be used in order to understand the hypothesized causal chain of how political policy can exert influence on tobacco use behavior. Finally, available empirical data provided by HM Revenue and Customs will be used to base the judgments on both quantitative and qualities data. Identifying the stakeholders of Tobacco taxation policyTobacco control strategist’s need finely honed analytical skills in order to identify all the stakeholders involved in tobacco taxation policy and to determine their positions through research and interviews of each stakeholder. In addition, they will also need to assess each stakeholder`s relative power and influence over other stakeholders. On the basis of this analysis, strategists from tobacco control must therefore facilitate an alliance between the supportive and the neutral groups by accentuating common interests and goals, emphasizing the shared benefits of a tobacco tax increase. Chevalier identifies three key attributes to be examined in a stakeholder analysis. 1. Power (authoritative, command and control and legislative power) 2. Legitimacy (righteousness, impartiality or technical credibility)3. Sense of urgency or interests with regard to the subject matter. This will therefore be utilized in the examination of the different types of stakeholders this essay will identify. Figure 1. Stakeholder typology. Source: Mitchell et.al. (1997) The possible combination of the attributes in Figure 1 above explains the different types of stakeholders in their main groups. In sum, definitive stakeholders possess all three of the attributes mentioned by Chevalier. Dependent stakeholders, however, they have keen interests and legitimacy but no power. Contrastingly, dominant stakeholders have power and legitimacy but have no urgency or interest. Dangerous stakeholders on the other hand have power and a keen interest but not legitimacy. Moreover, dangerous stakeholders do not possess the technical expertise and wisdom and as such could do more harm than good in the attempt to increase tobacco taxes. Figure 1. helps us to understand which of the stakeholders are likely to support, and which are likely to oppose an increase in excise tax for tobacco products. I shall now explain and elucidate the major four groups that appear from these six types:Group 1: Bureaucrats 1. Excise Department within the Treasury. 2.National Tobacco Control office and Ministry of Health. 3.Local governments. The first of this group, the Excise Department, is within the Ministry of Finance and is usually interested in revenue generation and thus supports the tobacco tax increases. The Customs Department Officers and their policy, however, can also overvalue the effect of tobacco tax rise on smuggling. Unless they are brought on board through incentive schemes and advocacy, they may be against tax increases. However, if confiscation incentives are attractive then they may also support tax rises on tobacco and tobacco related products. The Fiscal Policy Office and the Bureau of Budget might have a more conservative view about tax increases in general, but they would be likely to support an increase of taxes on tobacco products. The Ministry of Health and National Tobacco control office are usually strongly supportive of decreasing tobacco product consumption through economic and non-price measures. They are the most legitimate with keen interests but no power in law. They therefore have to form an alliance with the Excise Department and other stakeholders to ensure the adoption of a tax increase on tobacco products. Local Governments also generally supports an excise tax because it usually means more revenue for local government units.Group 2: Tobacco Industry. 1.Local manufacturers. 2.Tobacco industry 3.Importers (the proxies of the transitional tobacco industry) 4.Tobacco growers group and association, local tobacco growing industry. As evidence shows, as it is perhaps be expected, the Tobacco Industry resists any and all tobacco tax increases, because this results in a lower profit margin for its stakeholders. The Tobacco Industry`s own documents they disseminate prove that the industry can resort to dishonorable tactics to persuade governments to maintain the lowest possible retail price for tobacco products. For example, when ad valorem taxes are used, manufacturers have been known to sell cigarettes to a related marketing company at an artificial low price, therefore reducing their tax liability. In the case of absence of good governance the tobacco industry may provide direct and indirect incentives to government official to block or even delay actions to raise tobacco excise taxes. In this situation the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is critical as an NGO can bring unethical practices to the attention of the public; they are also able to apply pressure on government officials to remain accoun table to the population.Group 3: NGO and media 1.Community-based organizations 2.Civic organizations 3.Media 4.Other special interests groups. The NGO community can be characterized as a very demanding stakeholder, because they have a strong interest in protecting health against tobacco; therefore, NGOs will support tax increase measures. When, they are equipped with knowledge on the subject matter, they become legitimate dependent stakeholders. Thus, the crucial role of NGOs acting a society`s â€Å"watch dogs†. The media`s role is from a different angle and is to inform the public about the issues surrounding the debate on tobacco taxes, its increases and decreases. Accordingly, the media can have a huge influence on tobacco awareness and taxation as the media can shape and influence public opinion. Media that is accurately briefed on the benefits of tax increases to reduce tobacco consumption can, however, be transformed into legitimate stakeholders who support increasing the tobacco taxes. Although it should not be forgotten that the tobacco industry also had the ability to apply pressure on the media, through d irect bribes or the threat of withholding advertising revenue, in order to discredit the value of tobacco tax increases. So they therefore are a group that could go both ways.Group 4: Academia and professional associations.1.Economists. 2.Physician`s groups. 3.Health associations (Cancer society, heart associations etc.) 4.Other health professionals group. The academic community and the professional community are to be considered as dependent stakeholders. They have both legitimacy and an interest in the subject matter but no decision making power. However, this category of stakeholders can play significant role as credible experts in validating the evidence provided to the media and the general public. Applying the value creation framework. The value creation framework was developed by International Tobacco Control (2006) in order to measure the impacts of tobacco control policy. Figure 2. This is a conceptual model illustrating a hypothesized casual chain of how policy exerts influence on tobacco use behavior. The conceptual model (figure 2) assumes that policy ultimately has an influence on behavior through a specific casual chain of psychological events as can be seen in the diagram. It is a general framework for thinking about policy and its effects on a broad array of important psychosocial and behavioral variables, and for testing how policy distinctions relate to their effectiveness.From the framework it can be seen that policy potentially affects individuals due to a variety of psychosocial and behavioral variables, of which there are two classes. 1. The most immediate effects are those on the policy-specific variables – that is, price which affects perceived costs of cigarettes. This is the price of tobacco products, which has increased since policy-makers started interventions to date. 2. Psychosocial mediators, which are conceptually distant from the policy and which theorized to be affected by multiple means, not just policies. These are variables such as self-efficacy and intentions, beliefs and attitudes, which come from well-known psychosocial models of health behavior. Accordingly, tobacco taxation is effective in a two-fold way: Policy-specific variables such as the price of cigarettes affect smoking habits as psychological mediators that affect psychological smoking habits themselves. The evaluation of the control policies used for combating tobacco at the population level is still in its fundamental stages of development, accordingly, studies conducted on the effectiveness of policies to control tobacco intake are hindered by the same limitations. Cross-sectional studies are lacking in validity as they are poor in their ability to contribute attributions – although longitudinal studies are naturally greater in internal validity. Sadly the limited number of such research into tobacco policy means there is a general lack of comparison available for analysis. Evaluation of tobacco smoking control policy data should come to fruition further once time has followed its natural course and there is more material to draw on from the new data that is currently emerging. Accordingly, it should indeed be not too long until a true evaluation analysis can be done so the theory can be analyzed properly. It is put forward that the positive accelerating trajectory of the use of tobacco and its effects in the 21st century signifies a foremost threat to global health, that requires a mobilisation and alignment of ‘researchers, advocates, and governments toward meeting the threat’ (Fong, 2006). By way of demonstration the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project) describes the challenges of evaluating the national-level policies of the tobacco taxation illustrating the application of the conceptual model in measuring policy effects on tobacco use behaviours and the psychosocial precursors of such behaviours. In so doing it was found that the tobacco taxation signifies an extraordinary landmark in global tobacco control over use and its terrors, however the path from the promise of effective tobacco control policies to the actual reality of strong implementation of tobacco taxation policies was not found to be easy.The ITC project found many countries have not yet ratified tobacco taxation policies, and in many countries that have, there is still residual pressure either to delay the implementation or to implement policies in ways that will render them less effective than their potential. The mission of the ITC Project was to conduct evaluation of such policies to establish the evidence base that will give policymakers throughout the world the evidence that will allow adoption of tobacco taxation policies in countries that have not yet ratified such methods, and also to provide for and encourage a strong implementation in those countries that have ratified. Conclusion It has been shown that tobacco has a long history of taxation in this country that has snowballed in severity over the last half decade. It has also been shown there are a number of different vital stakeholders that contribute to the molding of taxation policy. If the conceptual model is indeed correct, higher taxation will continue to reduce smoking substantially. However, as has been highlighted in the criticisms against the taxation policy, there are possible groups who will still continue to smoke regardless and it is indeed more likely that it is lower income groups who will be hit the hardest. Moreover, as smoking is an addiction, it is possible the dedicated and truly addicted lower income smokers will continue and merely resort to other means of paying for their tobacco fix. Regardless of the semantics of how this policy will finally play out, it is clear that the UK is committed to increasing tobacco taxes and as it continues to increase taxation numbers of smokers will cont inue to drop. This essay does, however, concede that the policy may plateau at some point wherein smoking is enjoyed by a dedicated minority and the increase in taxes can no longer be justified any further. References Baggott, R. (2004). Health and Health Care in Britain. 3rd Edition, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Baggott, R. (2007). Understanding Health Policy. Policy Press. Boyle, S. (2011). United Kingdom (England): Health system review (Health Systems in Transition). At http://www.euro.who.int/en/home/projects/observatory/publications. Crinson, I. (2009). Health Policy: A Critical Perspective. London: Sage. Chaloupka FJ, Hu TW, Warner KE, et al. The taxation of tobacco products. In: Jha P, Chaloupka F, eds. Tobacco control in developing countries. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc, 2001:237–72. Borland, R. Tobacco health warnings and smoking-related cognitions and behaviours. Addiction 1997;92:1427–35. Borland R, Hill D. Initial impact of the new Australian tobacco health warnings on knowledge and beliefs. Tob Control 1997;6:317–25. The COMMIT Research Group. Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT): I. Cohort results from a four-year community intervention. Am J Public Health 1995; 85:183–92. Hyland A, Li Q, Bauer JE, et al. Effect of state and community tobacco control programs on smoking cessation rates in adult smokers. Am J Health Prom 2005;29:85–90. Wakefield M, Chaloupka F. Effectiveness of comprehensive tobacco control programmes in reducing teenage smoking in the USA. Tob Control 2000; 9:177–86. Farrelly MC, Pechacek TF, Chaloupka FJ. The impact of tobacco control program expenditures on aggregate cigarette sales: 1981–2000. J Health Econ 2003;22:843–9. Darzi, L. (2008). High Quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report. CM 7432. London: Department of Health Gabe, J. & Calnan, M. (eds.) (2009). The New Sociology of the Health Service. London: Routledge. Ham, C. (2009). Health Policy in Britain. 6th Edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Hunter, D.J. (2008). The Health Debate, Bristol: Policy Press. King’s Fund (2005). An Independent Audit of the NHS under Labour (1997–2005). London: King’s Fund. Klein, R. (2010). The New Politics of the NHS: From Creation to Reinvention. 6th Edition. Abingdon: Radcliffe Publishing. Mahon, A., Walshe, K. & Chambers, N. (2009). (eds.) A Reader in Health Policy and Management. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Marmot, M. et al. (2010). Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review). At http://www.instituteofhealthequity.org. Pollock, A. M. (2009). NHS Plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care. 3rd Edition. Verso Books. Pollock, A. M. & Talbot-Smith, A (2006). The New NHS: A Guide: A Guide to Its Funding, Organisation and Accountability. London: Routledge.

Benefits of Foreign Direct Investment

Benefits of Foreign Direct Investment Do Host Countries Benefit From Foreign Direct Investment? Evidence From Developing Economies Executive Summary The multinational companies (MNCs) and associated foreign direct investment (FDI) play an important role in international economy. It is well-known that FDI activity can bring many significant effects to host countries. In this essay I estimate such effects from three different aspects: The first part I focus on the relation between FDI and host country wages. Previous studies show that it is a universal phenomenon that the wages in foreign companies are higher than domestic companies. The FDI activity has a positive effect to the overall wage levels of the host countries, although wages spillovers to domestic companies are not always exist. The second part I focus on the relation between FDI and host country productivity. Foreign companies have higher productivity than domestic companies; it can be supported by most of the available studies no matter what measures have bee n used. Although some findings reflected that local firms in developing countries can benefit from FDI by productivity spillovers, in more cases, the productivity spillovers are not significant, even negative. The third part I focus on the relation between FDI and host country’s economic Growth. The result shows that developing countries can benefit from FDI and achieve economic growth. Overall, the host countries, especially the developing countries, can benefit from foreign direct investment. 1. Introduction The worldwide spread of multinational companies (MNCs) and associated foreign direct investment (FDI) play an important role in reconstructing economy pattern of the world. It is well-known that FDI activity can bring many significant effects to host countries’ development. In this essay I will estimate such effects from three different aspects- the effect in wages, the effect in productivity and the effect in economic growth- by reviewing numerous relative studi es and try to find out whether host countries, especially the developing countries, can get benefits from foreign direct investment. 2. FDI And Host Country Wages In this section, I will explain to what extend does FDI influence host countries’ wages level. Whether local firms could benefit from the entrance or existence of foreign companies will be analyzed based on the previous studies. Firstly, let us take a look at the difference between foreign companies and domestic companies in regard to wages level. Almost all the available studies proved that foreign companies did pay higher wages in developing countries. Haddad and Harrison (1993) made a research on different companies’ performance in Morocco. They found that in unweighted means, foreign firms paid about 70% higher wages than domestic firms. According to weighted means, the foreign companies still paid higher real wages than domestic companies (PP.58-59). Higher wages paying by MNCs was also supported by some studies of other developing countries, such as Indonesia (Hill, 1990, Manning 1998, Lipsey and Sjà ¶holm, 2001). Lipsey and Sjà ¶holm (2001) reported that when taken the educational level into account, blue-collar workers can get 25% higher wages and white-collar workers can get 50% higher wages in foreign companies. In the conclusion part of this paper, the author stated â€Å"those higher wages for workers of a given educational level do not reflect only the greater size and larger inputs per worker in foreign plants, or their industry or location† (p.13). If considered all these factors, the foreign companies paid 12% and 20% more wages than domestic companies for blue-collar workers and white-collar workers respectively. Another evidence is taken by Ramstetter (1999), he did an research in five East Asian economies (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan) and made a report that wages in foreign plants were higher than domestic firms over 14-23 years, but the differences were not so significant in Singapore and Taiwan.

Family Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Family Law - Essay Example The only ground for divorce is the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage which must be proven by at least one of five facts.2 Adultery is one of the five facts capable of proving that the marriage has irretrievably broken down.3 However, using adultery to substantiate that the marriage has irretrievably broken down may be problematic for two specific reasons. First, the allegation that Mr. Murdock has been engaged in several adulterous relationships in the past with the last one ending at least 8 months previously is statute barred. Pursuant to Section 2(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, a party is not entitled to plead adultery, if having found out about the adultery, the party seeking to rely on adultery continued to live with the other party for at least 6 months.4 Thus, if Mr. Murdock wanted to rely on your adultery with his son Stuart from several years earlier, he would be time barred since he continued to live with you for more than six months after learning of the affa ir. However, the court may disregard this fact if the adultery is such that the petitioner finds living with the respondent intolerable. Or the adultery may be pleaded as evidence of the breakdown of the marriage or as evidence that the marriage has irretrievably broken down.5 The fact that the adultery has been ongoing for a number of years and the respondent is believed to be currently conducting a sexual affair with his office manager may be sufficient for proving that the pervious adulterous relations are statute barred, are nonetheless intolerable. Even so, the alleged current adulterous relationship can constitute a second fact capable of supporting the ground of the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. The problem with pleading adultery is that the courts require proof of the adultery. The standard is based on the civil standard which requires evidence showing that on a balance of probabilities, the respondent has committed adultery. Thus, an admission of adultery by the respondent would be sufficient proof.6 At this point, Mr. Murdock has neither admitted or denied the adultery with his office manager, but simply stated that it was none of your business. He may however decide to admit to adultery since he states that he no longer wants to remain married to you. Aside from adultery, there appears to be sufficient evidence of behaviour pursuant to Section 1(2)(b) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. Section 1(2)(b) provides that the breakdown of a marriage can be proved if the court is satisfied that: The respondent behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent.7 This section has been interpreted to mean that it is not so much the respondent’s behaviour that concerns the court, but the petitioner’s feelings relative to living with the behaviour.8 Thus the fact that you have suffered depression since giving birth to Jack, the first child of the marriage, suggest that you might find liv ing with the physical and verbal abuse intolerable and thus provide

Anton Vidokles Text Art Without Artists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Anton Vidokles Text Art Without Artists - Essay Example According to the essay "Anton Vidokles text "Art Without Artists?" findings, the work of artists is fundamental in supporting the work of curators. In other words, the curatorial practice would not be as relevant and useful as it is today were it not for the effort of artists. Any artistic work that does not include the artist themselves is doomed to fail. According to V, the talents of the curator are not enough to make art a success. He says that there is need to distinguish between what he terms as â€Å"the artistic decision to include an activity within an artwork and the curatorial power to designate something as art through its inclusion in an exhibition†. In other words, V points out that an artist’s decision to have his production included in an exhibition is very different from the curator’s decision to exhibit a certain piece of art. According to Vidokle, curatorial power and artistic authorship can be differentiated through proper legislation. He give s the example of a clash between Brazilian curators and graffiti artists whereby the curators attempted to hold an art exhibition without the participation of artists. In this regard, the question is whether curators should use artistic space and resources to showcase their personal collections of artwork and other items. Vidokle says that the problem does not lie in the power of curators to open archives to the public or to the extent to which their exhibitions are interesting. Rather he says that the problem lies with the practice of most curators to dismiss or discredit the work of original artists. According to the author, it is wrong for the curators to use artistry and artists for self-gain. The article also looks at the job of the curator. He insists that curators are not free agents, but professionals who perform their duties on behalf of other parties. The jobs of curators normally come with power, security and a responsibility for several artistic activities. These powers, security and responsibilities may give the curator some sense of institutional authorship of artistic works, but Vidokle indicates that this does not necessarily translate to claim on individual works of art. Curators’ job is to advance the works of artists, not trying to own the artworks. Vidokle goes further to analyze the relationship between curators and artists. The author likens this relationship with the kind of relationship that exists between an organization’s management and its workforce. In this case, the workforce is represented by the artists while the management consists

Consumer culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Consumer culture - Essay Example One of such events is the World War II. At the end of the war, there were various changes that occurred in the country. The changes that took place in the country were fascinating to the soldiers returning from war (PBS 1). As soldiers arrived in the country, they found many changes that were not there in the past. The changes were associated with the manufacture of various goods that were meant for the war. The increased production had helped America get out of the challenges it has experienced during the era of the Great Depression (PBS 1). The obvious phenomenon is that billions of people in the world belong to consumer class. According to a study done, it is estimated that approximately 1.7 billion people in the world belong to the â€Å"consumer class† (Mayell 1). The war helped America get out of various challenges that occurred in the past. One of such challenges was The Great Depression that had serious ramification on the economy (PBS 1). For this reason, as the challenge was overcome through wartime production, young people found an opportunity to spend. In addition, improved accessibility of jobs, increased wages, and lack of consumer goods in the event of war increased eagerness for American to spend as the war ended (PBS 1). Other changes were seen as young couples married and begun to get children at a higher rates. There were also changes in federal programs that provided an opportunity for young families to purchase their homes mostly in posh areas. However, there are various questions that arise. The first question is how the society transformed after this period in terms of spending. Secondly, what was the impact of such changes to society? Were the impacts positive or negative? The consumer culture had a negative influence on American society because it firmly brings shortcomings on personal life and social environment. There were significant changes in

Shawow the leader-Leadership Course Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Shawow the leader-Leadership Course - Essay Example In order to learn more about leadership qualities, I decided to shadow an administration manager of a company with her permission and the details of my observations and analysis is explained in this paper. The administration manager whom I shadowed was a lady in her forties. She has taken his MBA degree in administration from a major university and apart from that she has completed some diploma courses also in administration before joining a company as HR executive. She joined her present company around two years before as an administration manager and made lot of changes in the administration areas of the company. In fact, her innovative strategies helped the company to increase the productivity of the workers. Earlier, the company was suffering a lot because of the shortage of talented employees. After the appointment of this lady administration manager, the recruitment and retention strategies improved a lot and the relationship between the company and the employees was also strengthened. One of my friends working in the above company along with this lady administration manager and with the help of him I succeeded in getting the permission of this administration manager for an interview and the subsequent shadow process. My first question was about her leadership philosophy. In reply, she explained that she values the relationships between the managers and the subordinates a lot. In her opinion, no manager can function effectively if he/she fails to establish warm relationship with the subordinates. She has explained that when the relationships between the manager and the subordinates are of highest quality, the goals of the leader, the subordinates or the followers and that of the organization advance a lot. She has made it clear that relationship building is the core of success for everything in the current organizational climate. My second question was about the qualities of a good leader. In her opinion, good

See des Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

See des - Essay Example re concerned, much of the motivation that get people to patronize matches has to do with personal thoughts of people about the sporting discipline in question, players involved in the game, competing teams, and other social factors. Though the need for marketing strategies is generally necessary, a lot of the respondents pointed to the fact that they attended the game because of the performance of the two teams of the day. Greater part of the respondents also indicated that they are selective of the kind of games to watch based on the performance of the teams involved and whether or not they have personal favorites among the players taking part in the game. Some others also pointed out that their presence had no linkage with marketing done by the teams but that they were there as part of their social curricula activities. The researcher can therefore conclude that for people to get more students to games, they ought to create very good personality marketing for their teams and player s. This is because if the teams and their players have very good image in the eyes of the students, they students will go and watch their games as part of their social relaxation activities. Interview someone who works for a retail store about how they choose which products the store sells. You will have to interview an owner or manager who is involved in the product decisions. A clerk at a store will not know how the products are picked. You can interview them about a particular product line (like snow boards or stuffed animals or soft drinks) or new products. This question should include some detail-not just â€Å"what people buy is what we keep†. The popularity of a product is determined by the public promotion and popularity of the product. This is because the interviewee indicated that there are shoppers who come to the shop and ask for specific products because they have heard advertisements on the products. This confirms the saying that buyers take decisions based on what

Film black gold written response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Film black gold written response - Essay Example The export revenue from coffee seems like a decent enough percentage but its actual significance is something else altogether. Export revenue of 70% in Ethiopia is very small, failing to reach any amount greater than the $500 million mark. However, the $500 million used to import the coffee from Ethiopia has been churned into billions when they arrive at the markets. From a casual look, one would expect the producers of coffee to be very rich and live in lavish conditions, filled with unfathomed and consistent prosperity. The contrary holds true, however. In Ethiopia, a kilogram of coffee goes for a paltry $1, where as in the importing markets, this same kilogram is used to make approximately 80 coffee cups which sell at an average total of $230. This shocking evaluation alone screams of an unpalatable equality, even if other things fail to reveal this fact of an undesirable difference in fortunes. The world coffee market is largely dominated by four principal multi-global enterprises. These are the Proctor and Gamble, Sara Lee, Nestle and Kraft. These enterprises buy their coffee at very low prices, yet in turn sell the same at very exorbitant prices. In the end, therefore, the margins for profits that they accrue if astoundingly high and incompatible with what they producers earn from this coffee trade (Black gold, 2006). In the world market, the second most actively traded commodity is coffee. The prices of coffee are determined by the NYCSCE (that is, the New York Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange). Buyers and sellers are merely market price takers and have no power to decide on the trading prices of coffee. In as much as coffee is regarded in nature as a soft good, principally because it is meant for consumption, it is yet important and irreplaceable, with its essence noticeable through and through in the markets. Coffee has possession of its own market that controls prices, whereby these prices are normally adhered to by

The Mid West region in Western Australia Case Study

The Mid West region in Western Australia - Case Study Example include: Murchison (Sandstone, Yalgoo, Murchison, Shires of Cue, Meekatharra Mount Magnet and Wiluna) Batavia Coast (Irwin, Chapman Valley, Northampton shires, and Greenough-City of Geraldton) North Midlands (Coorow, Morawa, Mullewa, Three Springs, Prenjori, Shires of Carnamah and Mingenew) (Government of Western Australia, 2011). Regional development has been a major concern in Mid Western Australia. Being the region where there exists social, economic and environmental diversity a state planning strategy has been launched by the â€Å"Western Australian Planning Commission† to figure out the effective usage of state-wide land till the year 2029. The strategies prove to be a guide for both the government and the local sector. Main areas of concern include: Population Transport Economy The community The regions â€Å"Public Utilities and services† Midwest and Western Australia Population: The population in the Mid West Region of Australia has rapidly progressed from the past two decades. Till June 2006, it was estimated to be almost 51,748. 9.3 % population are local residents that makes up 2.5 % of the total country population. The census results of 2001 declared that the population growth in the region is recorded to be 0.7% every year. This amount has further surpassed in the year 2006, when annual growth rate was reported to be 3.5% per annum. Present population of the region makes it the state’s six largest in a total of nine. It has been estimated that the number will reach 55,400 till the year 2016 while year 2031 might experience a population of 68,100 (Midwest development commission, 2008). The population distribution is uneven. City of Greenough has estimated population of 35022 i.e. 67% of the total region. In the year 2000-2006 the growth rate improved to 1.8% per annum in the coastal municipalities e.g. Irwin, Chapman Valley etc. Due to farm amalgamation, the population in farmlands is observed to decrease with the coming years including Morawa, Coorow and Carnamah. Among the inland shires the population is variable mostly because of the economic status of regions (Midwest development commission, 2008). Population Distribution 2001 - 2006 Local   Government   Authority 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Annual Growth 2005-06 % AAGR   2000- 2005 % Carnamah 804 765 743 709 692 787 13.7 -0.4 Chapman Valley 876 884 892 957 984 957 -2.6 1.8 Coorow 1,375 1,366 1,362 1355 1320 1,256 -1.7 -1.8 Cue 394 391 370 366 352 359 2.0 -1.8 Geraldton/ Greenough 32,764 32,654 32,452 32,156 32,604 35,022 7.4 1.3 Irwin 3,059 2,996 2,989 3034 3247 3,240 -0.2 1.2 Meekatharra 1,453 1,466 1,486 1529 1529 1,296 -16.4 -2.3 Mingenew 584 585 582 557 525 501 -4.6 -3.0 Morawa 985 963 957 904 880 888 3.4 -2.1 Mount Magnet 851 841 829 757 719 496 -31.7 -10.2 Mullewa 1,118 1,120 1,104 1057 1057 1,011 -4.4 -2.0 Murchison 160 160 162 162 162 127 -21.6 -4.5 Northampton 3,333 3,329 3,320 3313 3237 3,360 3.8 0.2 Perenjori 612 589 585 584 573 5 64 -1.4 -1.6 Sandstone 133 143 150 150 150 130 -13.3 -0.5 Three Springs 751 746 745 743 722 713 -1.2 -1.0 Wiluna 898 924 955 951 960 770 -20.5 -3.0 Yalgoo 325 325 328 327 327 271 -17.1 -3.6 MID WEST (total) 50,475 50,247 50,011 49,611 50,015 51,748 3.5 0.5 Population increase in Mid-Western Region In comparison, the population of Western Australia improved to a great extent. Till June, 2010, the population of Western Australia was found to be 2.3 percent or nearly 511, 300 persons with the annual increase observed to be 1.8 percent (387, 100

Cultural Tourism Essay Example for Free

Cultural Tourism Essay Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world today that consists of eco-tourism, beach tourism, cruises, cultural tourism and business tourism. This essay will mainly discuss the authenticity of cultural tourism. Meethan suggested in 2001 that modern cultures and societies are just as authentic as those that are present since decades and even centuries. Meethan here is correct, because the tourists really seek a dispersed experience in cultures both modern and old. However, many people think that only the traditional cultures and original artefacts come under the definition of authentic cultural tourism. Even the tourists have a different insight of what constitutes the authenticity in cultural tourism. This essay will talk about these issues and their implications for cultural tourism. Cultural tourism, according to World Tourism Organization (WTO), is the visit of the interested tourists to culturally rich destinations and their visit consists of a range of activities such as visits to heritage buildings and sites, attending performances of the local artists, taking part in traditional festivities and pilgrimage of holy places. Many do not agree with this narrow definition by WTO as the cultural tourism is synonymised with the civilizations and the way of living of the historic societies in that tourist destination. The local residents are mostly ignored from the definition and also from the concept of cultural tourism. However, the truth is that the locals make up for the major part of the experience of tourists. Their way of living and the current culture of the residents if often revitalized for enhancing the experience of the tourists. This forced influence on the local cultures for attracting more tourists is hurting the authenticity of the cultures in tourist destinations (Clarke 2003). Although it is true that tourists seek a combination of modern and traditional cultures on their destinations, but they prefer to consume traditional and modern tourism separately. Some of the tourists just fly from East to West for sinking into the beauty of traditional culture. These tourists want to enjoy the tradition by visiting cultural heritage buildings, attending traditional theatres and listening to the cultural songs of the destination. However, some cultural entrepreneurs try to blend the modern aspects with the traditional culture for the promotion of the destinations. There is a triangle of the cultural entrepreneurs, the tourists and the residents of the destination. The culture of the destination is defined by the way of living of the residents and the activities of the entrepreneurs. For the purpose of expanding the business, attracting more tourists and enhancing their sales, the local hosts and cultural entrepreneurs force the residents to change their way of living and link it to the culture. This is done in order to present the tourists with a cultural experience. Hungary has been known for the production wine and the tradition of small wine shops with their own vineyards. These shops and the people involved in the production of wine were of a particular attraction to the tourists as they saw this tradition of wine production as a rich culture. As tourism thrived, there were attempts to increase the production of wines through both, the government authorities and through the cultural entrepreneurs. However, this mass production of wine was not as successful as the wine from small wineries. This is the threat to the authenticity of the culture and the tourists proved that they did not like this blend of modern and traditional culture in Hungary. They proved that they preferred the traditional culture over the modern culture as the mass production of Hungarian wine was not successful. The tourists came to this Hungarian destination for the experience of the traditional small wineries and not for the wine. The tourists also did not get any special treatment by the independent wine producers in Hungary because they considered the tourists as a source of sales. The tourists were not treated any differently from other customers and they were given the sale offer; taste it and purchase it if you like it. This was because the only interest for the wine producers was the revenue from the sale of the wines and nothing more. In this case, the original culture was not touched by the cultural entrepreneurs, and minimal accommodation was made for the tourists such as the use of local wood for furniture. This resulted in the reduction of wine tourism in this area as there was no cultural entrepreneurship. There was nothing more in the offer except the wine, but afterwards some food dishes were also added to the menu but the tourism still was low because of the more complex wine tourism efforts by the other countries. The other countries excelling in wine production attracted more tourists than Hungary because they were able to blend the modern and traditional culture. Another case that supports the view of Meethan is the case of â€Å"Valley of the Arts† which attracted millions of customers each year at the arts festival that was organized by Istvan Marta. The organizers gave a deep thought on the cultural perspectives of the valley and they came to the conclusion that different tourists have different needs. The high spenders would require different type of product than attending just a simple art festival. The venues were made better and redesigned and the marketing efforts were doubled. The organizers attracted sponsorships and media coverage and hence added to the appeal. The locals were also involved and were allowed to attend the shows and these events were transformed into a very fashionable one. Soon the streets became crowded with high end cars owned by the German tourists. Hence, from these two case studies, the lessons learnt are that an entrepreneurial spirit is necessary for the promotion of the cultural tourism focusing on the core of the activity. Hence, modern and traditional cultures need to go hand in hand for the attraction of the international tourists. The commercial intent is necessary but the tradition should be kept alive which is the driving force for the tourists. The tourists should be given added facilities to augment the sales and attract the high spenders and luxury seekers. While Alan Clarke was working in the rural areas of Hungary, the local tradition was kept alive but still the communication technologies had a lot of penetration. The list of available international channels was far more than the number available in United Kingdom. The rural areas had access to Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, French, German, American and Russian channels (Clarke 2003). Jaipur, a culturally rich city of India, is particularly selected as a destination by tourists because of its historical attractions including the handicrafts and the heritage. Jaipur inhibits some of the forts built by the Moguls, centuries old paintings, the preserved sculptures and the traditional excellence in architecture that is preserved in buildings such as mosques. The tourists are also keen to visit Jaipur because of the folklore dances and Sufi music that was inspired by pundits and saints centuries ago. However, the city is continuously gearing up and adding more hotels and hi-tech facilities for the tourists. The core product of tourism in this city is the same for all tourists, but different income level groups can enjoy different class of tourism in this city (Kala 2008). High spenders can opt to spend their evenings in luxury spas while the people belonging to lower income group can live in small hotels and save money to spend on the purchase of handicraft and sculptures. According to a survey on the local residents, around 85% of the residents of Jaipur think that there was an evidence of development of city because of tourism and more entertainment facilities such as pubs, bars, hotels, swimming pools and parks were being developed. In the city, the local small scale industries were also being promoted by the government as the handicraft items were in demand by the foreign tourists. New hotels were also being built for accommodating the increasing number of tourists over time. This has induced employment and created new job opportunities for the local residents. Around 81% of the respondents in Jaipur thought that employment was being generated in the city because of the increasing tourism. Hotels and restaurants are labour intensive and hence they require the locals to work in their facilities. This generates more jobs for the local residents. Increasing tourism had positive impacts on the economy, but the locals have to face the problems such as increased traffic jams in the city and change in the culture. The way of living of the locals change as the standard of living gets better. Once the international tourists start coming in, and development start, then the primary culture is forgotten. 71% of the respondents of a survey in Jaipur commented that the increase in tourism has affected their traditional culture (Kala 2008). This change in traditional culture and way of living could harm the cultural tourism industry in the long term because the tourists will not be attracted to the city once the way of living of the locals is changed. The tourist-host interaction is very important in cultural tourism because it is an integral part of cultural tourism. The cultural tourists expect a spontaneous interaction with the locals and their traditional hospitality. However, if these important elements are vanished from the Jaipur culture, then the cultural tourists will no longer be attracted to the city. From the case studies presented, it is proved that only those tourist destinations have been successful which integrated modern and traditional culture. Authenticity of the culture is affected by designing attractions for the tourists but this depends upon the definition of cultural tourism. The modern tourist, however, can no longer enjoy cultural tourism that is untouched by modernity. There are also some issues when there is a blend of the two types of cultures. If these issues are managed properly, cultural tourism can be of great help to the economy of the destination and it can be responsible for raising the standard of living of the locals too. WORKS CITED Clarke, A. The Cultural Tourism Dynamic. Conference on Developing Cultural Tourism. UK: University of Nottingham, 2003. Kala, N. Host Perception of Heritage Tourism Impact with Special Refernce to the City of Jaipur. entrepreneurs 1, no. 1 (2008): 65-76.

Improve Own Practice in Learning and Development Essay Example for Free

Improve Own Practice in Learning and Development Essay Why LD practitioners must engage in reflective practice and continue CPD. Analyse own values, beliefs and attitudes and the impact on their practice. Engaging in Reflective practice is associated with the improvement of the quality of care, stimulating personal, professional growth and the closing gap between theory between theory and practice. J Dewey was among the first to consider the questions of psychology and the theory of knowledge, I liked Brookfield (1998) as his concept explained discussing and talking and contemplating through the learner’s eyes. The appeal of the use of reflective practice is that as teaching and learning are complex, and there is not one right approach, reflecting on different versions of teaching, and reshaping past and current experiences will lead to improvement. Schà ¶n’s (1983) reflection–in-action assists practitioners in making the professional knowledge that they will gain from their experience in the classroom an explicit part of their decision-making. Research base practices strongly supports the importance of the teacher/ facilitator being a highly trained, reflective professional. The importance of reflecting on what you are doing, as part of the learning process, has also been empathised by many investigators, for example the second stage of Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle, reflective observation. Reflective observation can be an important tool in practice based professional learning settings where individuals learning from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer, maybe the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. Another way to look at it is through Lewin/Kolb’s single-loop learning, and the Argyris and Schà ¶n concept double-loop learning which were mapped from the works of Ashby (1960) while working on cybernetics. Single-loop learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot or too cold and turns the heat on or off. The thermostat can perform this task because it can receive information (the temperature of the room) and take  corrective action. Double-loop learning occurs when an error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives. Double loop learning uses feedback from past actions to question assumptions underlying current views. Davies (2012) explained the benefits to reflective practice Increased learning from an experience for situation Promotion of deep learning Identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement Identification of educational needs Acquisition of new knowledge and skills Further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values Encouragement of self-motivation and self-directed learning Could act as a source of feedback Possible improvements of personal and clinical confidence . There are a number of ways to monitor your performance regularly, capturing incidental/experienced learning by keeping a self-reflective journal, by reading it over and over again I can begin to analyse achievements however small they seem and develop a greater level of self-awareness. This is where I try to recognise the needs to enhance my own learning so that a bigger benefit for the learner to progress and achieve something in their future. Firstly I identified my own preferred learning style as everyone learns in different ways. There are many ways to establish your preferred way of learning and as supported by Reece and Walker (2009), â€Å"All students are individuals and no two students learn the same way†. To move forward in life, we all need to improve our ideas, broaden relevant knowledge and skills. Getting constructive feedback (for example, learners, peers, mentors and colleagues) are important aspects of reflection. Performance indicators of the organisation are identified, it shows whether I am current with the ways of facilitating and is it having an impact on learners. It will also show how I am performing, what is going well and where I need training or guidance i.e.  learning Microsoft office at college, enabling me to have computing vocational skills. Utilising the S.W.O.T analysis where I am able to identify my strengths: Supportive Judicious Communication skills Imaginative and observant I am able to identify my weaknesses: Inability to refrain from helping Being too talkative Too altruistic This ensures me I am performing to the best that I can and that I am meeting all the standards and expectations within the organisations policies and procedures. The guidance of a mentor is an advantage for they have had similar experiences and understanding of their issues with self-development. There will be times when I will need support and advice to move my career forward and achieve life goals, so it is best to have an effective relationship. Some factors that help to build an effective relationship; Mutual respect Honesty and direct communication Acceptance and flexibility Commitment Trust Some shared values Willingness, to work through obstacles â€Å"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills,  improve their performance and become the person they want to be† (E Parsole, The oxford school of coaching mentoring) I believe that all individuals are created equally, thus all have the ability to learn equally. Resisting from a classroom culture of control, with the correct amount of care and tutoring, learners would be able to participate in classes with simplified understanding. Providing adequate feedback is an important aspect, I always try to rephrase a question with learners so not only do they understand and try to answer correctly, they feel great when they receive feedback which motivates them to learn. When I provide learners with time and space to be aware of their own knowledge and their own thinking, student ownership increases. Research shows that metacognition can be taught (Visible Learning, 2009). Using reflective practice I am able to instil values that the learner can use in their life and work.

Factors Responsible for Employee Retention

Factors Responsible for Employee Retention Strategic Human Capital Management The paper is generated by referring to Christeen George’s article paper, with title of Retaining professional workers: what makes them stay?. The main issue normally practice by Human Resource is to let the turnover occur then only to find out the reason of the intention to quit through exit-interview. Knowing the reason only after people quit is seem defenseless because the collected information on why people quit fail to restore back the job gap. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that capable to retain the professional staffs in one organization, then the factors are tested for the retention of the professional employees. The variables used in this paper are divided into two dimensions, first dimension is organizational which consist of four factors, management, conducive environment, social support and development, second dimension is job which consist of four factors, autonomy, compensation, crafted/sculpted workload, work-life balance. Hence, the paper is driven by research questions, which are to explore whether the eight factors identified in this paper is usable to measure the individual intention to stay in the organization, are the factors identified distributed into organizational group and job group is blended positively, and whether the organizational level and job level could predict the individual’s intention to stay in the organization. The study area is conducted in UK site, the sample of the study is focusing the employees of multinational marketing company which come from variety job function such as Accountant, IT professionals, Consultants, Marketing and Sales professionals, and HR professional. The total respondents are 138, which covered 76 male, 62 female. The age range from 20 to 61 years. The measurement instrument, the questionnaires were electronically sent to the respondents. The independent variables (IV) content of sex, age, organizational level scores and job level scores showed significant result, and that showed the IVs used are able to predict the intention of the employee to stay and to quit. The most durable IV to predict the intention of the employee to stay and to quit is organizational level scores which consist the characteristics of leadership and support from management, work environment is fun, flexibility, adequate resources, feel belong to the team, friendly and caring workmates, opportunity to enhance/acquire skills, promotion prospects. Meanwhile, the eight factors that distributed into organizational level and job level showed significant positive correlations respectively, and that showcase the eight factors were distributed in the correct group. Many researchers and academias give substantial focus on the impact of employee turnover, the turnover impact towards organization cause high cost. This is supported by Ghosh, Satyawadi, Joshi and Shadman (2013) literature finding stated an internal analysis has shared to replace turnover employee is more expensive than compensate employee, which is more than 35 per cent. Knowing the big loss could occur to any organization due to turnover, it is wise to prevent better than cure, the idiom may sound clichà ©, but it is a crucial issue to tackle in order to assist the organization to save the resources. Apart of loss in revenue, the organization is facing the risk of loss of experience employees, bad reputation to other organization, productivity is affected, loss of intellectual capital which knowledge is one of the valuable intangible asset to the organization (Sandhu, Jain, Ahmad, 2011) and this lead to other organization gain more advantage by obtaining the asset (Ghosh et al., 2013). Turnover issue is inevitable, however the issue could be alleviated with the help of research. Hence, the paper is creating awareness about it is more advantage to identify factors that make the professional employees stay rather to identify factors on why they are quit. The paper could help the organization to understand the proven factors (management, conducive environment, social support and development under organization level is the most durable predictor) resulted from this study to strategize on how to retain the professional employees in the organization. However, there are arose enquiries on the part of independent variables and dependent variable stated in the paper. The term of independent variable is viewed as an item that influence the outcome, meanwhile dependent variable is viewed as an outcome which may result different outcome for different independent variable are used to test (Leroy, 2011). Based to the term defined, the organizational subscale which consist of four factors, management, conducive environment, social support and development, and job subscale which consist of four factors, autonomy, compensation, crafted/sculpted workload, work-life balance are responsible to influence the result of retention. Thus, the reader expected the identified variables in the paper, organization subscale and job subscale are independent variable, and intention to quit is dependent variable, however, it is stated in opposite statement. The enquiries arose are not meant to downgrade the content of the paper, in fact, the reader made cor respondent via e-mail on 11 March 2015 as in appendix to the author, respond is yet pending. The purpose of the e-mail is sent with respect and courtesy, and to clarify the doubtful and ambiguity as well. In Malaysia context, one study presented at the 2nd International Conference On Management, Economics And Finance in Sabah by Fadzilah, Queiri, Sabarudin and Iskandar (2013) claimed that Generation Y is more likely to quit their job due to several reasons such as lack of fun work. This issue is critical and need to be taken seriously by the organization because the contribution of Generation Y towards in any economy is significant, and they are growing fast and bigger employees to replace the Baby Boomers who are in line of retirement. Generation Y showcase different characteristics when come to work which influence by leadership, developments and technologies (Cheong, Hasliza, Yusuf Desa, 2011). Despite the respondents’ age range between 21-61 years old in the paper, which mean Generation Y and Baby Boomers are part of the respondents, the paper is capable to provide a foundation framework on how the Malaysia organizations design a strategy to retain the Generation Y. This i s rational because the study conducted by the author tested the similar factors that influence Generation Y when come to work, leadership and development. Malaysia is gearing up to beef up the human capital development by producing first class mentality, knowledge-based economy and talent-based. For instance, Talent Corporation Malaysia (TalentCorp) is responsible to facilitate the talent management in Malaysia. The biggest hurdle encountered by TalentCorp is brain drain. The professional employees choose to leave Malaysia and work abroad. TalentCorp has come with a strategy to attract and retain the professional employees which they offer various packages, such as tax exception and work life balance. Work life balance is one factor tested in the author’s study and that it is proven that the significant of the study does promote to other agency that associate to human resource such as TalentCorp to infuse the factor into part of their retention strategy. Knowing the present of TalentCorp is vital to constantly conduct research in order to ensure the objectives are achieved, thus, this paper could help TalentCorp to come out with a robust blueprint regards strategy on retaining professional employees, of which TalentCorp may considers the tested factors in the paper such as social support. Finally, the research is emphasizing the needs to increase the number of respondents, and needed to expand larger coverage of organizations and professional employees. The wider scope as it may goes, the possibility differ outcome it may be. The factors identified and tested in this study which distributed into organizational level and job level are proven related to the individual intention to stay and to quit. Thus, the finding show significant positive for human resource and organization to design a robust strategy to retain employees. The negative impacts due to turnover or quit the job that discussed in this review could be alleviated by the help of to understand the factors influence the intention to stay and to quit. However, one of the factor in the framework model, which is compensation, may cause the small, medium, enterprises organizations to consider to use it as one of the retention strategy as they are unable to offer competitive compensation packages compare to larger organizations who use compensation as one of their retention strategies, this is supported by Ghosh et al. (2013) stated large organizations could afford to provide better compensation package such as appreciation and recognition award. In the other hand, the future research suggested in the paper is to examine the relation between employee engagement, employee retention and organizational performance. The significant of the future research would create a wider scope for the organization to understand and harvest the benefit of retention strategies. REFERENCES Cheong, T. W., Hasliza, D., Yusuf, M., Desa, H. (2011). A Study on â€Å" Generation Y † Behaviours at Workplace in Penang Associate Professor , School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship , Universiti Malaysia. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(11), 1802–1812. Fadzilah, Z., Quieri, A., Sabarudin, Z., and Iskandar, H. (2013). Generation-y turnover intention in business process outsourcing sector. 2nd International Conference on Management, Economics and Finance (pp.429-439). Sabah, Malaysia: Conference Master Resources. Ghosh, P., Satyawadi, R., Joshi, J. P., Shadman, M. (2013). Who stays with you? Factors predicting employees; intention to stay. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 21, 288–312. Leroy, G. (2011). Designing User Studies in Informatics, Health Informatics. London: Springer-Verlag London Limited. Sandhu, M. S., Jain, K. K., Ahmad, I. U. K. B. (2011). Knowledge sharing among public sector employees: evidence from Malaysia. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 24, 206–226. Talent Corporation Malaysia. (2011). Malaysian at home. Retrieved March 12, 2015 from http://www.talentcorp.com.my/about-us/

Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) Essay -- essays research papers

Youth crime is a growing epidemic that affects most teenagers at one point in their life. There is no question in society to whether or not youths are committing crimes. It has been shown that since 1986 to 1998 violent crime committed by youth jumped approximately 120% (CITE). The most controversial debate in Canadian history would have to be about the Young Offenders Act (YOA). In 1982, Parliament passed the Young Offenders Act (YOA). Effective since 1984, the Young Offenders Act replaced the most recent version of the Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA). The Young Offenders Act’s purpose was to shift from a social welfare approach to making youth take responsibility for their actions. It also addressed concerns that the paternalistic treatment of children under the JDA did not conform to Canadian human rights legislation (Mapleleaf). It remained a heated debate until the new legislation passed the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Some thought a complete overhaul was needed, others t hought minor changes would suffice, and still others felt that the Young Offenders Act was best left alone. In February 2002, the House of Commons passed the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA). The Act came into effect in April 2003, replacing the Young Offenders Act (Mapleleaf). The new legislation attempts to balance the legalistic framework of the Young Offenders Act and the social needs approach underlying the Juvenile Delinquents Act. This goal is apparent in the Declaration of Principle stating th...

The Church of Scientology: Copyright vs. Free Speech -- Legal Law Essa

The Church of Scientology: Copyright vs. Free Speech Abstract: In 1995, the Church of Scientology sued a number of parties, including the Washington Post, in an attempt to prevent the circulation of secret documents about the â€Å"religion.† This paper examines both sides of this issue, explores the implications to copyright law and the First Amendment, and describes the actual results of the case. The Church of Scientology is a global organization with over 270 churches or missions worldwide. For decades, it has possessed followers with an almost fanatical devotion to their leader, L. Ron Hubbard. Since the advent of the Internet, the Church has begun to resort to various legal actions to maintain the secrecy of their â€Å"scriptures.† On August 4, 1995, Arnaldo Lerma received a fax from a lawyer representing the Church of Scientology. This letter demanded that he remove from his webpage certain â€Å"Advanced Technology materials† from the Church. In the letter, the Church claimed both copyright and trade secret protection for the materials [1]. The next day, Lerma received an unannounced visit from two members of the Church who wanted to express their â€Å"concern† over the materials he posted. In response to this, Lerma sent a reply to the Scientologists’ lawyer and claimed that the materials he posted were affidavits taken from the public record, and so were not subject to copyright or trade secret protection. He also informed the law firm that he had sent a copy of the disputed materials along with a tape recording of the Scientologists’ visit to a reporter from the Washington Post [2]. On the morning of August 12, 1995, Arnie Lerma’s house was raided by lawyers of the Church of Scientology two armed Federal Marshals. A... ...mputer Seized in Internet Lawsuit.† Washington Post, 13 Aug 1995. 5. http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/lerma/cos-sues-washpost-8.22.95: A press released issued by the Church of Scientology on August 22, 1995. 6. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.text.html: Title 17, Section 107 of the U.S. Code 7. http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/media/bj-8.25.95: A posting to the Usenet group alt.religion.scientology regarding the 25 Aug 1995 hearing before Judge Leonie Brinkema. 8. http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/lerma/brinkema-post-11.28.95: An opinion issued by Judge Leonie Brinkema on 28 Nov 1995. 9. Hall, Charles W. â€Å"Church of Scientology Wins Cyberspace Copyright Fight.† Washington Post, 20 Jan 1996. 10. http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rnewman/media/bj-10.8.96: An opinion issued by Judge Leonie Brinkema on 8 Oct 1996.

OLAP, Data Marts and Warehouses, Three-Tier Architecture and ASP :: essays research papers

WEEK 4 INDIVIDUAL PAPER OLAP, DATA MARTS AND WAREHOUSES, THREE-TIER ARCHITECTURE AND ASP DBM405 OLAP, Data Marts and Warehouses, Three-Tier Architecture and ASP OLAP The term OLAP stands for ‘On-Line Analytical Processing’. OLAP is a technology used to process data a high performance level for analysis and shared in a multidimensional cube of information. The key thing that all OLAP products have in common is multidimensionality, but that is not the only requirement for an OLAP product. An OLAP application is targeted to deliver most responses to users within about five seconds, with the simplest analyses taking no more than one second and very few taking more than 20 seconds. Impatient users often assume that a process has failed if results are not received with 30 seconds, and they are apt to implement the ‘3 finger salute’ or ‘Alt+Ctrl+Delete’ unless the system warns them that the report will take longer. Even if they have been warned that it will take significantly longer, users are likely to get distracted and lose their chain of thought, so the quality of analysis suffers. This speed is not easy to achieve with large amounts of data, particularly if on-the-fly and ad hoc calculations are required. A wide variety of techniques are used to achieve this goal, including specialized forms of data storage, extensive pre-calculations and specific hardware requirements, but a lot of products are yet fully optimized, so we expect this to be an area of developing technology. In particular, the SAP Business Warehouse is a full pre-calculation approach that fails as the databases simply get too. Likewise, doing everything on-the-fly is much too slow with large databases, even if the most expensive server is used. Slow query response is consistently the most often-cited technical problem with OLAP products. OLAP is used for mainly for analysis. This means that the system copes with any business logic and statistical analysis that is relevant for the application and the user, and keep it easy enough for the target user. This analysis is done in the application’s own engine or in a linked external product such as a spreadsheet. All the required analysis functionality can be provided in an intuitive manner for the target users. This could include specific features like time series analysis, cost allocations, currency translation, goal seeking, ad hoc multidimensional structural changes, non-procedural modeling, exception alerting, data mining and other application dependent features. The OLAP system implements all the security requirements for confidentiality.

Effect Of Violent Television Programs On Children In The U.S Essay

In 1996, the federal government of the United States passed a law demanding that every television set from the size of 13 inches and above to be installed with a V chip to control content being watched by children. This move was inspired by the recognition of the impact that violent television programs were causing on the children (Centerwall 69). More recently, some senators in US lead the drive to the enactment of laws that would control broadcast of sex ad violence on TV. TV violence has been a matter of greater concern since it occupies much of the TV content programmed in the US today. Research shows that concern for behavioral effects began as early as the 1950s and 60s following the introduction and popularity of televisions in US. Currently, TV broadcasting has evolved a lot in US such that content is being broadcast without much concern for age rating, especially following increased access to TV the children. Violence can be from news programs or fictional entertainment programs. A 1995 article in the Journal of American Medical Association points out that television has detrimental impacts on the normal development of children due to the increase in physical aggressiveness and health concerns (Centerwall 644). Later, the American Psychological Association published a policy statement urging pediatricians to advise their clients to control TV viewing among their children to not more than 1 or 2 hours. Effects of physical aggressiveness have also been confirmed by the US National Institute of Mental Health. This has especially impacted negatively on the religious foundations of children since aggressiveness contrasts the fundamental principles of most religions. Children usually learn by imitating what they observe, hence if exposed to violent programs they tend to emulate the violent behaviors shown on the program. Two separate studies conducted among young inmates convicted of violent crime cases including rape, assault and homicide indicates that between 22 % and 34 % confessed to have been consciously inspired by the crime techniques leant from TV programs they used to watch (Nathanson 141). A number of these were from a strong religious background. Some 1990 data shows that children in US between the age of 2 and 5 years of age were spent about 27 hours of their time every week watching television most of which were had violent content. Although religious principles may guide behaviour to some extent, psychologists argue that children of such age are usually unable to differentiate fantasy ad facts when it comes to television and hence end up accepting and believing what they watch, this erodes their moral and religious believes with time. A study conducted for close to 22 years among US children of age 8 and addressing the correlation of this group to the severity of crime committed by the same at age 30, found out that viewing of violent content correlated highly positively to the nature and seriousness of crime most were convicted of at age 30: at a probability of 0. 05% (Brandon 1). This number is inclusive of religious children implying that violent programs introduce them gradually to crime. A study on 100 male crime convicts, whereby 65 of them had no past association with crime; were of same age, residence background and race and aged between age 10 and 14, shows that there was significant statistical relation between exposure to TV violence and violent behaviour in adults. This proves the finding that violence has great potential to shape the behavior of a child irrespective of religion. A poll conducted among adult Americans show that about 43 percent of Americans believe that contribution of TV violence to increasing violence in the society is high than any other factors. Given that most Americans are religious people and so are their children, it is apparent homicide is against their principles. However, there is the data that states that the per annum rate of white homicides in US increased by 92 recent from 1945’s 1. 3 homicides/ 100000 US white citizens to 2. 5 / 100000 in 1974 (Centerwall 646). TV violence has been the leading cause of religious negligence among most young US people as they are inspired by the reality of TV the set of religious principles. This is regarded as the effect of high market competitiveness driving TV companies to broadcast violence in a â€Å"fantasy† manner to generate mass audiences for advertising purposes. There is less concern for responsibility. Religious children have been victims of juvenile crime as pointed out by senators Kefauwer and Dodd regarding relation of TV programs to the increases in juvenile crime. A study by The Centre of Research on the Effect of Television indicates that young people usually become insensitive to pain or other activity that inflicts suffering on others especially in real life. This has been noted more specifically by church leaders as the most basic factor driving religious children used to violent TV shows to try out violent activity. This is because they tend to believe what they see is the real world. Children, including the religious as well perceive violence in such program as fantasy since they lack the ability to differentiate fantasy and reality at below age 8 (Wood, et al. 375). In this regard, most children also tend to believe that violence is the most appropriate means of getting what one wants as is depicted by their heroes. Children also grow fear of the world that they live in. This affects their self drive and may make them to apply the violent activity in self defense on being made to perceive the real world as bad. This is in contrast to what religion advocates for. This rate of influence is even more alarming given the fact that about 54% of children in America have access to a TV set in their bedroom with 44% (religious children included) confirming that they watch totally different subjects when not with their parents. Research from Michigan University notes that TV contributes to abut 10% of the violent witnessed among religious children. The American Psychological Association notes that children who watch a lot of violent TV shows have more tendency to show violent behaviors such as disobedience, arguing and striking out at playmates irrespective of religious background (Harrison and Joanne 93). The Kaiser Family Foundation argues that most religious children as well as the non-religious ones have come to accept violence as an alternative to solving life problems due to prolonged exposure to programs depicting the same on TV. According to the Center for Disease Control, US, violence among children who watch a lot of television is the topmost public health challenge with the influence of the same on murder rates increasing at rates more than population growth (American Academy of Pediatrics 1119). Violent television has also been associated with increased levels of blood pressure which is a contributing factor to aggressiveness. It is undeniable that TV affects negatively the behaviour f children and it is even worth noting that religious children are not spared unless with the intervention of seniors. Works Cited Centerwall, B. S. â€Å"Television and violent crime. † The Public Interest 111(1993): 56-77. Harrison, Karin, and Joanne Cantor. â€Å"Tales from the Screen: Enduring Fright Reactions to Scary Media. † Media Psychology 1. 2 (1999): 97–116. Nathanson, Amy J. , and Joanne, Cantor. â€Å"Children’s Fright Reactions to Television News. † Journal of Communication 46. 4 (1996): 139–152. Centerwall, B. S. â€Å"Exposure to television as a risk factor for violence. † American Journal of Epidemiology 129 (1989): 643-652. Wood, W, Wong, F. Y. , and Chachere, J. G. â€Å"Effects of media violence on viewers’ aggression in unconstrained social interaction. † Psychological Bulletin 109 (1991): 371-383. American Academy of Pediatrics. â€Å"Committee on Communications: Children, adolescents, and television. † Pediatrics 85(1990):1119-1120. Brandon, Centerwall S. â€Å"Television and Violence: The Scale of the Problem and Where to Go From Here† JAMA 267. 22 (1992). Retrieved August 3, 2010 from http://cursor. org/stories/television_and_violence. htm.

Examinership, Receivership and Liquidation in Ireland

The collapse of the Irish economy has triggered a substantial increase in the number of companies in Ireland which are being deemed insolvent and which are no longer in a position to continue operating as viable entities. This has caused the companies directors, creditors and shareholders to seek remedies available under Irish law. The law in Ireland regarding companies in financial difficulties was originally set out by the Companies Act 1963, which was amended in 1990, and then again in 1999.All cooperate entities must adhere to the legislation set out under the Act and their individual memorandum of association and articles of association, which together constitute the constitution of a company. The principal remedies for dealing with insolvent companies are: 1. Examinership; 2. Receivership; 3. Liquidation. 1. The concept of examinership was introduced into Irish law by the Companies (Amendment) Act 1990. This legislation was enacted in order to provide companies which were in fi nancial difficulties with the chance of recovering and thereby avoiding liquidation.An examinership is where the court places a company under its protection to enable a court appointed examiner to assess the affairs of a company and consider whether it is capable of survival, and if so, puts forward proposals that will facilitate that continuation of business. The motivation behind the creation of this legislation was the prevention of the collapse of the Goodman Group. The aim of this legislation was to avoid liquidation of companies with a chance of recovering from financial difficulties.Forde and Kennedy opine that the immediate objective and consequence of the protection created by this legislation is to provide the company or companies in question with extensive immunity against its creditors and against claims being made against it. McCormack in his article â€Å"Control and Corporate Rescue† believes that this role was created as a response to changing political and bu siness dynamics in the l990s. The receivership model was seen as being too creditor centred and as not being sufficiently responsive to the concerns of other stakeholders.The feeling at the time, McCormack opined, was that â€Å"banks had pushed companies unnecessarily into insolvency by being unduly precipitate in the appointment of receivers. † The original legislation has been criticised in numerous respects, and so has been amended significantly by the CA 1999. Finlay CJ in the Supreme Court in Re Holidair Ltd, acknowledged the shortcomings of the legislation and held that it is appropriate to approach the construction of any sections in CA 1990 on the basis that the two objectives of the legislature were to provide a period of protection for a company and that a company should be continued as a going concern.The legislation was being used as a last attempt to save companies which were incapable of salvation. As John O’Donnell put it in his article ‘Nursing t he Corporate Patient – Examinership and Certification under the Companies Act, 1990’, â€Å"for many, it has been a painful experience to learn that the Act is designed to help cure the sick but cannot raise the dead. † Keane notes that the granting of the examiner is discretionary. A court may appoint an examiner where it appears that: a) A company is or is likely to be unable to pay its debts; (b) No resolution subsists for the winding-up of the company; (c) No order has been made for the winding-up of the company. Because of the effects of an examiner on a company, one should not be appointed without a real prospect of survival. Lardner J in Re Atlantic Magnetics Ltd advocated a strict test for â€Å"reasonable prospect of survival†. He was overruled by the Supreme Court, in favour of a requirement of â€Å"some prospect of survival†.Prior to the revision of CA 1990, the leading authority on the test for the appointment of an examiner was that S C decision in Re Atlantic Magnetics Ltd. The statutory revision of Section 2. 2 has effectively reversed that decision. The foregoing views are supported by the decision of the High Court in Re Tuskar Resources plc, which was the first written decision on the appointment of an examiner since the changes effected by CA 1999 were commenced. McCracken J began by analysing the changes effected to the test for the appointment.He said the new test was more in keeping with the decision of Lardner J in the High Court than with the decision in the Supreme Court – â€Å"In re Atlantic Magnetic†¦Finlay CJ also stated that there cannot be an onus of proof on a petitioner to establish as matter of probability that the company is capable of surviving as a going concern. It seems to me that this is no longer the position under the Act of 1999 by reason of the wording of the new sub-s 2(2). † He refused to appoint an examiner as the petitioner had failed to discharge the onus of proof that there was a reasonable prospect of the survival of the company.Although all petitions to have an Examiner appointed must be presented to the High Court, the HC may remit the matter to the Circuit Court under CA1990 Section 3. 9 where it appears that the total liabilities of the company, do not exceed â‚ ¬317,434. For the petition to be approved, the CA 1990 required a petition to have evidence of possibility of salvation but no detailed analysis of the company’s situation was required. This is another criticism of that Act. The petition to have an examiner appointed and the grounding affidavit must be made uberrimae fides, that is, in the utmost of good faith.What was first decided by Costello J in Re Wogans (Drogheda) Ltd has now been given statutory force by Section 4a CA 1990. Where it is discovered that the court has been misled, the entire application will be tainted. If this is discovered early in the proceedings, the examiner will be discharged where the lack of good faith is sufficiently serious. However, a lack of candour and good faith will not always result in a refusal to confirm an examiner’s proposals, as seem in Re Selukwe Ltd. There are no particular qualification requirements for an examiner. They can’t have been an officer of the company within the last 12 months.McCracken J held in Re Tuskar Resources plc that there was no bar on the person who provides the independent person’s report from acting as examiner. The person appointed is entitled to court-fixed remuneration and to costs. He can employ staff to assist or may use company staff. Section 10 CA 1990 provides that any liabilities incurred during the protection period are deemed to be legit examiner expenses. These liabilities would include new borrowing. Forde and Kennedy explain that the reason why the examiner may certify liabilities is that there may otherwise be a danger that the company’s survival as a going oncern may be prejudiced . Section 29 CA 1990 gave these liabilities and expenses priority over creditors where a scheme of arrangement was drawn up or a winding up ensued. This provision was one of the most criticised. It was deemed to subvert the whole lending process, as secured creditors lost priority. This had the potential to severely prejudice these creditors should examinership fail. Prior to the enactment of the 1999 Act, the duty of the examiner was to conduct an examination of the affairs of the company and report the results to the court within a specified period and to later present proposals and schemes of arrangement.Since the 1999 Act, that report is effectively replaced by the report of the independent accountant which must now accompany the petition. Accordingly, the duty of the examiner now is: (a) To formulate proposals for a compromise or scheme of arrangement; (b) To carry out such other duties as the court may direct him to carry out. The examiner must report to the court within 35 da ys informing then of any schemes formulated. If the court is then not satisfied, it can order the company be wound up as per Section 22 CA 1999. The examiner must meet with creditors and members to devise schemes of arrangement.The members and creditors are classed for the purpose of voting on schemes and these schemes are deemed to be accepted if the majority vote in favour from each class. Various classes can vote on the proposals, including the Revenue, etc. When these proposals go to the court, any creditor or member whose interests are impaired may be heard. If a party who was completely unaware of the proposed scheme can show that the examiner knew of his existence but failed to take reasonable steps to appraise him of the situation, he may possibly have a right of action against the examiner for damages.The court will not approve the proposals unless at least one class of creditors impaired by the proposals vote in their favour. As to the actual content of the proposals, the only requirement regarding the proposals’ intrinsic merits are that of equality within classes. Proposals must be fair and equitable and not unfairly prejudicial. The court may propose modifications to schemes and these must be voted on if significant. 2. Receivership arises in the context of secured debenture holders and provides a framework in which they may act so as to enforce their security interest.Forde and Kennedy observe that at times receivership is used not simply as a means of reimbursing creditors but more as a device for reorganising insolvent companies, so as to salvage their viable parts for the benefit of those involved. Courtney notes that the term derives from the Latin recipiere â€Å"to take†. The receiver will go to the company and take control of those assets subject to the charge. They can then dispose of those assets and pay off the principal and interest due to the debenture holder.Receiverships involve two distinct relationships as per Barr J in Bula Ltd v Crowley – â€Å"First, that between the appointing mortgagee and the receiver which relates to the fundamental objective of the receivership†¦The second relationship is that between the receiver and third parties arising out of the receivership†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The receiver is usually appointed by virtue of the debenture. The validity of the appointment of a receiver is dependent upon compliance with the terms contained in the debenture and the capacity of the company and authority of its officers to create the deb ab initio, that is, from the beginning.Courtney states that a creditor owes no special duty to a company in deciding whether or not to appoint a receiver. The fundamental issue for the debenture holder is whether or not the appointment will further their interests. However, where the appointment will not advance these interests, the appointment may be said to have been made in bad faith. The only qualifications that the law requires of receivers a re negative, i. e. certain persons are barred from becoming receivers, such as undischarged bankrupts and persons connected to or related to persons within the company, as per Section 170 CA 1990.In Wise Finance Co Ltd the court held that a company’s secretary was ineligible to act as that company’s receiver. A receiver appointed by debenture can resign with notice. The court also possesses an inherent power to appoint a receiver on application by a debenture holder. This occurs in instances where the debenture doesn’t provide for an appointment in a particular situation which has arisen. A receiver appointed by the court has the status of an officer of the court and can only resign with the authority of the court.Ellis noted that receivers, irrespective of the method of their appointment, are regarded as being in a ‘fiduciary' relationship with those who appointed them. A receiver is normally deemed to be the agent of the company by virtue of his appointm ent; however, the receiver’s primary duty is to the debenture holder. The receiver owes a fiduciary duty to the debenture holder and must conduct his receivership in good faith. The receiver is liable to the debenture holder in damages if he is negligent.The receiver is liable to the company where he is negligent in the sale of any of the company’s assets. Section 172 CA 1990 states that â€Å"a receiver, in selling property of a company, shall exercise all reasonable care to obtain the best price reasonably obtainable for the property at the time of the sale†. This gave statutory effect to the law in Ireland that a receiver should be required to ensure that he got the best price for an asset, even if a much smaller sum would realise his security, as accepted in Ireland in Lambert v Donnelly and McGowan v Gannon.It was observed by McCracken J in Ruby Property Company Ltd that this is simply a statutory acknowledgement of the position at common law. A receiver ca n’t be appointed after appointment of an examiner. If appointed in the 3 days prior to examiner appointment, he may be ordered to cease acting. 3. Liquidation terminates a company’s existence and distributes its assets in a preordained way. Carrie Jane Canniffe â€Å"Restraining a Creditor's Winding up Petition – The position since Truck and Machinery Sales Ltd v Marubeni Komatsu Ltd. , proffers the winding up process can be said to mark the formalised beginning of a company's end. There are two main forms of winding up; (a) By court order; (b) Voluntary. A voluntary winding up can be either a members’ winding up or a creditors winding up. Ussher observes that the only grounds upon which a company may be wound up by the court are stated in Section 213 of the Companies Act 1963. Two different types of grounds exist for the winding up of a company by the courts, procedural and substantive.Three different procedural grounds exist: (a) The company has resolv ed by special resolution to wind up the company. It was held in the case of Re Galway and Salthill Tramway Co. , that the board of directors may not cause it to do so without the benefit of an authorising or ratifying resolution in general meeting, or specific authority in the articles. (b) The company does not commence its business within a year from its incorporation or suspends its business for a whole year. Courtney notes this ground is rarely relied upon since only contributories, the Co itself and creditors may rely on it. c) The number of members is reduced, in the case of a private company, below two, or, in the case of any other company below seven. The most important grounds however, are those of the substantive grounds. Where; (a) The Company is unable to pay its debts. The CA 1990 provides that a company shall be deemed to be unable to pay its debts in certain circumstances: (a. 1) A creditor has not been paid a debt of â‚ ¬1000 or more within three weeks after demand ing it in writing; (a. 2) A judgment is unsatisfied; or (a. 3) It is proved to the satisfaction of the court that the company is unable to pay its debts.Keane comments that in deciding whether it has been proved that the company is unable to pay its debts, the court will generally act on evidence that a creditor has repeatedly applied for a payment without success. If, however, the company can show that there is a bona fide dispute as to the particular debt claimed, the order will not be made. Alison Keirse ‘Winding up petitions – Practical application of the Stonegate test’ observed that the decision in Re Pageboy Couriers Ltd adopted the decision of Stonegate Securities Limited v Gregory establishing this method of defeating a creditor's petition to wind up a company.However, as Courtney notes it is one thing to successfully dispute the bona fides of a debt at the hearing of a petition; even where successful, the company is exposed to a glare of adverse publici ty wherein its solvency is questioned. The first Irish case to consider an application for injunction relief against the advertisement of a petition was Clandown Ltd v Davis. Morris J held that the precise amount of the debt had to be declared before the court could order a winding up. Thus Morris J granted the injunction to restrain the publication of the petition.One result of this decision is to reinforce the principle that the courts will not permit themselves to be used as a method of debt collection. Howard Linnane ‘Oppression of Members: Section 205 Companies Act, 1963’ proffers that under the CA 1963 the court has jurisdiction to order the winding up of a company where it is ‘just and equitable’ to do so. Ussher proffers that in many cases such grounds are invoked where there is a complete deadlock between the shareholders and the company’s activities to the detriment both of the member and the creditors.The leading case is Re Yenidje Tobacco Co, the principle of which was applied in Re Irish Tourist Promotions. Kenny J wound up a company in which the two directors could not meet without the risk of unruly scenes, and the business of the company could not be conducted. In conclusion, while a company’s inability to pay its debts is the most common reason for the winding up of a company, it is not determinative. A court will only wind up a company where it is just an equitable to do so.Ultimately the appropriate remedy to be employed will be dependent upon the extent of difficulty the company finds itself. â€Å"There is of course some comfort for both companies and creditors alike that the Irish statutory framework at least contemplates solutions which draw back from the finality of ultimate dissolution of a company and facilitates interested parties a way forward through these recessionary times perhaps even to the benefit of all parties concerned. â€Å"