The Concept and Actuality of Sociological Imagination

Sociological imagination is the capacity to distinguish how large scale social forces and individual actions relate. In this realm one can be able to see the relationship between historical changes and the lives of individuals. One can be able to tell the operation of social causation in the society. It is a description of the insight that is offered by the sociological discipline. It also explains the relevance that is offered by sociology in our daily lives (Mills, 5).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Concept and Actuality of Sociological Imagination specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Sociological imagination aids a person in realizing that one is not usually in control of the issues that affect their lives in a vast extent. It assists the individual not to focus on the meager causes of a certain problem but to look at the bigger picture when analyzing a certain problem in life. According to this concept, cult ure has a lot to do with the social shapes and happening in our lives. Culture has a direct influence on the way that we talk, the way we learn and the orientation of our thoughts. With sociological imagination, the conscience of a person is simplified to avoid stressful thinking which might have resulted from major losses in life. When a person happens to suffer a job loss or some other significant loss in life, sociological imagination can be beneficial in assisting the person in being able to comprehend that the loss is not absolutely due to their will. There are so many responsibilities in our daily lives that might have a direct or an indirect influence on our jobs leading to the job loss. At times, one can lose a job because the company that he is working in has a lower demand and thus low market capabilities. Such a problem is beyond the control of an individual (Rose, 13). Some of the excuses that can come in from the concept of sociological imagination vary. A person can be fired due to incompetency. This incompetency could have resulted from poor education because of lack of funds or due to irresponsible parents. A drop out can assume that the cause of dropping out from school was due to the norm in the family where everyone was taking part in the same behavior. This might have resulted from poor conditions in their respective schools like being harassed by their peers to an extent that they could not condone the conditions (Mills, 6). According to Mills, any occurrence in the life of an individual has an interrelation with the society. In getting to know how the life of a certain individual is, one should look at the immediate surrounding. This will help the person in being able to perceive the image as a whole basing the happenings with the surroundings (Kendall, 7).Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is not possible to cover all the variables that are involved with this field. The concept of sociological imagination is due to the human nature to make a discovery and a subsequent interpretation of the meaning of our day to day experiences. It basically involves learning nature between social groups in a society. Sociological imagination thus will help play a crucial role in helping a certain individual be able to come to terms with various things that occur in life and thus be able to forge ahead smoothly (Kendall, 6). Works Cited Kendall, Diana. Sociology in our times, (6 Ed.) Michigan: Cengage Learning. pp.  6–7. 2007 Mills, C. Wright. The Sociological Imagination, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1959 Rose, K. Golden. â€Å"Mills and the Profession of Sociology†, In the New Sociology, (Ed). Irving Lewis Horowitz, New York: Oxford University Press. 1964. This essay on The Concept and Actuality of Sociological Imagination was written and submitted by user Jamal Guerra to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Atlantic Slave Trade essays

Atlantic Slave Trade essays When most people talk about or think about slavery, they look at how it effected the US. The Atlantic Slave Trade had a huge effect on the US but there are no words or expressions that can describe the effects it had on Africa and its familys. It is estimated that between 1450 and 1900, there were 11,698,000 slaves exported from Africa. (Atlantic Slave trade, pg.170) To understand the effects this had on Africa you must consider the families that lost relatives, the stores that lost business, and even the friends that lost friendships. None of the misfortunes can be brought back or replaced. The many lives that were taken can never be brought back to life. This not only effected the African culture when it happened but also it effects todays societies in Africa. The overall net effect of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa could never be estimated unless you are inside one of the relatives of a slave. These slaves died for no other apparent reason than the color of their skin. The effects that the slave trade had on Africa were not all negative. Depending on what point of view your looking from, there were also some positives of the Atlantic Slave Trade. In William Bossmans account, he states that as soon as the king arrives he will be satisfied with an amount of one-hundred pounds in Guinea value. (Atlantic Slave Trade, pg.181) So the kings and most of all the slave traders benefited from the slave trade. One benefit from the Slave Trade would definitely be spiritually. The great misfortunes had to strengthen the inner souls of the people and relatives that were left behind. A lot of these people had nothing left but themselves so they had no choice but to deal with it and get stronger mentally and spiritually. One other benefit from the Slave trade would be that the African Culture was spread to totally different continents. All of these slaves were taken to different places an ...

Australia Ripples the Waters as It Relaxes Cross-Media and Foreign Essay

Australia Ripples the Waters as It Relaxes Cross-Media and Foreign Ownership Laws - Essay Example That pithy exchange from the past captures the essence of the present-day debate in Australia triggered by the government announcement of plans to deregulate media after 20 years of controls on foreign ownership and cross-media transactions. The Morley-Jones clash of views between the public service and business orientation of media deferred to old UK conditions, but the same hairsplitting still rings true today and continues to reverberate throughout the world as economic opportunities diminish and competition for scarce resources tighten up. Since almost all sectors of national economies have been served up for foreign interests in the universal drive to generate much-needed foreign investment, governments in many parts of the world, both developed and underdeveloped, are fixing their attention on the media industry as the last remaining enticement for foreign investors. As Australian Sen. Ron Walker puts it: "Media has become the last major industry begging for reform to bring it to the 21st century."2 By inference, the senator is batting for a new scheme that would keep Australian media in step with the times by allowing foreign investment into the arena. Australia is veering towards that exact direction, with the reforms on foreign media ownership and cross-media transactions programmed to take effect in 20073. ... This merger is called cross-media ownership in industry parlance. In the interim, the government conducts a nationwide multi-sector consultation in a desire to accommodate every viewpoint in the reform framework and thus hammer out a final policy that is acceptable to all. The more strident objections, as expected, come from the vanguards of press freedom and the citizens' rights to the widest sources of news and information brought to them without the biases of big business. Big businesses the media firms will indeed become if the set of current restrictions are pulled out. Thus, the debate now raging in Australia's media landscape centers on the basic question: Are the economic benefits promised by the entry of foreign media and liberalization of cross-media rules enough to justify placing at risk the spirit of competition and independence of media This essay weighs the pros and cons of the issue, ranging the Australian media reform plan against that of other countries exhibiting the same inclinations, if only to see which models it can use to improve a framework that would appeal to the cross-section of Australian society. II. Foreign Ownership of Media Under the Australian media reform plan, regulations on media ownership will be relaxed as they involve both Australian citizens and foreigners. All existing restrictions on foreign ownership and control of media will be abolished as well as relevant barriers contained in both the 1992 Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) and the Foreign Investment Policy under the 1975 Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act (FATA)4. Limits on simultaneous ownership of

Patterns of Employee Motivation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Patterns of Employee Motivation - Research Paper Example The motivated taskforce not only helps in achieving the organizational tasks accurately but also assure the long-term success of the firm. Pinder (1998) asserts that motivation is an energizing force. It gives energy to the workforce in moving ahead with the same pace. Different organizations have different patterns of employee motivation. The process of employee motivation is difficult for distinct patterns of human behaviour. This paper aims to analyze the motivating factors of employees in organizations, including a discussion on practical and realistic ways of motivating a diverse workforce in an organization. In order to successfully implement a motivational plan for employees, it is important to understand and know the behavioural patterns of the employees. It is not an easy task to individually assess and analyze the behavioural pattern of each employee. However, researchers have helped in making decisions about the behavioural patterns by providing three broad categories. The first category involves the ‘self-actualized’ employees who are never de-motivated and have high spirits and passion to achieve the goals. It involves an estimated 10 per cent of the total workforce. The second category involves ‘fence sitters’, who can be motivated using the motivational techniques and skills. The largest group of the workforce belongs to this category (i.e. around 80%). The third category involves the remaining 10 per cent of employees who are difficult to be managed and motivated. These employees do not intend to achieve anything over and above their current performanc e. In other words, they do not have any intention to get motivated and improve their performance. The importance of categorizing the employees is the fact that the middle category (i.e. 80-90%) of the employees get motivated to improve their performance by the way self-actualized employees are treated and rewarded (Subburaj. 2005). The most important factor to consider before implementing any technique of employee motivation is to understand the nature of the workforce, categorize employees into groups and apply appropriate motivational techniques for each group.     

Oscar Wilde was the fashion critic and editor of the magazine the Essay - 1

Oscar Wilde was the fashion critic and editor of the magazine the woman's world(1887-1889). Analize this contribution to fashion criticism - Essay Example Grundy’s play is one among many artistic works that depicted the woman’s position in the society. Another evidence of womens inferiority in the 18th century portrayed through the manner in which the â€Å"lady’s world† magazine was edited before Oscar Wilde came took over the editorship (Tusan 2005, P.68). Oscar Wilde claims that the magazine had no motivational content that concerned women because content mostly contained gossips, music, art, fashion, and other common issues. Nevertheless, things changed when Oscar Wilde joined the publishing company as the editor of the magazine. The content and the appearance of the magazine never made much sense to him and that is why he transformed every bit of the magazine including its name (Schaffer 2000, p. 9). The name changed from â€Å"the lady’s world† to the â€Å"woman’s world†. Additionally, the magazine acquired a better appealing look that contained fancy pictures of modernized fashionable women. The magazine also changed its contents by including empowerment issues that aimed at uplifting women, which included women’s need for progressive education, women’s indulgence in politics, women’s involvement in the businesses of society and above all women’s equal share in dominating the world (Fortunato 2012, p. 30). This meant that the magazine transformed from its usual boring article into an empowering and informative article shunning the usual fashion content (Böker 2002, p. 44). Though critics base their critics on the fact that Wilde transformed the magazine by erasing the fashion issue, which is not the case because Oscar Wilde did not completely erase the fashion issue but rather refined it by adding more content, because evidently, he only reduced the fashion section from four to two. Prior to Wilde reducing past issues in the magazine and adding up empowering content, Wilde also incorporated women authors who greatly contributed in writing the magazine (Tusan 2005, P.68). Generally,

James Joyces Araby Plot Analyses English Literature Essay

James Joyces Araby Plot Analyses English Literature Essay Araby is viewing the Dubliners who are philistine people (The Norton Anthology of English Literature 1066). Therefore throughout the story one will encounter with the features relating to these kinds of people. Since these people are against art and culture, the overall tone of the story and the choice of the words and the imageries are gloomy and dark. Furthermore the name of the story causes tension to the reader. It reminds one the exotic atmosphere of Eastern world, which leads us toward some strange event. The flow of the story is toward finding the truth and finding one self. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses, where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦ . (Araby) In this short story the reader faces with many tensions. The beginning or the introductory part of the story gives the reader the idea or the sense of becoming disappointed at the end of the story. In the first two paragraphs of it we expose to the sentences like the streets which is blind and quiet, the uninhabited houses detached from its neighbors. These descriptions make the reader feel hopeless. There is no spirit of life in this city even the houses are detached from each other. These images are going to foreshadow the coming parts of the story. The story is narrated by a boy who is nameless and because the whole part of the story is citing by first person pint of view and therefore a reliable narrator we realize his growing and transferring from childhood to maturity by the changes that is clear in his diction and his worldview. As well as passing childhood to physical maturity by experiencing the love for the opposite sex, he is gaining social and mental maturity. At first, his childish behavior is recognizable through his imaginations and his desire for the girl which is his friends sister. Romantic behavior can be seen in his manner. He is in love with a girl that we dont know her name up to the end of the story. He has the illusion of mutual love between themselves in his mind but the reader is aware of this lack. As a crude boy who just has the illusion of love, he is looking for a moment to prove or show his love to the girl, so when he has this opportunity to do such a thing, willingly he is ready to do whatever his imaginary love wants. After speaking with the girl we can find the matter that he decided to go to Araby and buy her a gift. It could be assumed as a step toward physical maturity because he is accepting responsibility to fulfill a womans desire. After this part his mental struggle and conflict with him self is showing itself. Days and nights on his way to school and back home he is thinking about going to bazaar. From now on, till the end of the story the narrator is using words with negative connotation which make the reader ready for the intensity and harshness of the situation thats going to come up. At the beginning of the story we could see his imagination casts on everything. The sense of a pure, innocent and crude child who hasnt face with the reality and ugly side of life is tangible. But after the first big tension which he decided to go to Araby, the mental struggle concerning this matter doesnt let him to behave like before. As an example playing with his classmates is no more interesting for him. This is another reason which can be concerned as passing childhood toward manhood. He mentally has conflict about going to Araby. The part that he is looking at the clock which its ticking bothers him, shows that the time to go to the bazaar is reaching, but instead of a good feeling for going there he is really anxious. The night before going to the bazaar he is looking at the dark house which the girl lives there. Dark is the most repeated imagery by the narrator in the story, and it causes tension and dramatic situation. The train which he takes to Araby is a deserted train and move slowly as if it doesnt like and is unwilling to go there. On the way to the bazaar he saw ruinous houses, which seems he is going toward destruction. But this is the destruction of his imaginations. All these signs stand as images of mental and to some extent physical harm. His illusion of love is going to shattered. At last when he entered the bazaar he saw that the shops were closed and the greater part of it was in darkness. But even now at this gloomy and dark place he is looking for something romantic and brilliant like a flower tea-sets to buy for the girl. But exactly on this moment his world view toward love changes. His eyes are opened toward reality, and the reader sees his awakening here. He stands by one of the shops that were opened and there a young lady was flirting with two English men just for the reason to sell them something. She is flirting with them only for materials. When that woman saw him and asked him if he wants help, her tone was just out of a sense of duty. And the arrogance that she has toward the boy, as she glanced at him over her shoulder is because of the reason that this boy was an intruder, and has nothing to do there. The sales woman acts as an agent here. She is the agent for awakening the boy. The boy rejects the womans help by saying No, thank you. By rejecting the sales womans help he is rejecting the love of that girl and negating all the reasons which have driven him to come to the Araby. He understand how cruel is the real life, and all his idealized vision of love shattered. In the last paragraphs of the story when he dropped the coins to his pocket the action revels that he let the material love goes. If we have a flash back to the beginning of the story the time which the girl asked the boy on their first meet to get something for her from Araby we will come to the fact that how materialistic is her view concerning love, and how childish he accept it. In the last line of the story the boy is creeping and its showing that how his idealized imagination is mocked by the real people of the real world. His eyes are burned by anguish and anger which thoroughly means he becomes conscious and gains the knowledge of oneself. In the last section of the paper I like to mention the name of a play by Ibsen. In Ibsens A Dolls House the female character of the story was gaining self knowledge by the end of the play. Nora, the character of the play is a woman with a childlike and as if she is a grown up woman to some extent its good to say, sometimes with a childish behaviour. She is getting awakened at last. In this play the agent for Noras self conscious is a woman, Noras friend linde. We have also seen this self knowledge by the end of this short story by Joyce which we have analyzed through this paper.

The Power of Discourse in a Political Sex Scandal :: Politics Political Sex Gender Essays

The Power of Discourse in a Political Sex Scandal On August 12th, 2004 New Jersey Governor James McGreevey became this nation's first openly gay state governor. Several moments after he stated, "I am a gay American", he succumbed to intense political and public pressure by announcing his resignation from New Jersey's most powerful position. This announcement and resignation came after a week of intense allegations that McGreevey sexually harassed a male colleague whom he had appointed. While American politics are not foreign to sexual scandal, the political destruction and individual defeat which McGreevey currently faces is poignantly unique. Throughout his career, McGreevey has been formally investigated for unethical political practices on at least 4 occasions. One of the current investigations includes allegations of fraudulent campaign finance practices and nepotism within upper end political appointments. Despite the severity of these allegations, it was the charge of sexual assault from a male employee that forced his resigna tion and retirement from politics. In order to understand the severity of the sexual harassment allegations against McGreevey, it is necessary to look at the situation through the eyes of Rubin and Foucault. Not only did McGreevey's actions reflect the social sexual hierarchy described by Rubin, but through his secrecy and discretion McGreevey disrupted the powerful discourse of his position with political and public realms. In her essay "Thinking Sex", Gayle Rubin strictly outlines the rules of sexual conduct which currently exist in Western society. These rules have created a sexual hierarchy which places heterosexual, monogamous, married, reproductive sex at the top. Anything deterring from this position, is placed below in varying degrees. The allegations of sexual assault made against McGreevey not only announce publicly his sexual preference, but according to Rubin, place him at the very bottom of the sexual hierarchy. First and foremost, McGreevey is a married man. Any act of sexual advance towards anyone besides his wife can be seen as adulterous. Second, these sexual advances were made toward a male colleague while McGreevey remained in a heterosexual marriage. Thus, in the eyes of a bystander, he is eliciting homosexual behavior without claiming full affiliation with the gay community. Most importantly, the allegations of sexual harassment bring into question the consensual nature of his advances. As Rubin explains "A democratic morality should judge sexual acts by the way partners treat one another, the level of mutual consideration, the presence or absence of coercion, and the quantity and quality of the pleasures which they provide.

Night Market

WHAT IS NIGHT MARKET Night markets or night bazaars are street market which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. They are typically open-air markets. Night markets are commonly known as Pasar Malam by the locals, which literally means night market, â€Å"pasar† being related to â€Å"bazaar† in Persian or also the meaning â€Å"market† in Malay, and â€Å"malam† meaning â€Å"night†. A pasar malam is a street market in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia that opens in the evening, usually in residential neighbourhoods.WHAT IS IN THE NIGHT MARKET Night market brings together a collection of stalls that usually sell goods such as fruit, vegetables, snacks, toys, clothes, movie discs and ornaments at cheap or at least reasonable prices. A night market often takes place only one to a few days of the week, as the traders rotate around different neighbourhoods on d ifferent days of the week. Haggling over prices is a common practice at such markets. WHY PEOPLE LIKE TO GO NIGHT MARKET Night markets or night bazaars are street markets which operate at night.Most of the people like to go night markets because of convenience, cheaper price of items, shop for leisure, temptation of local food where you might not get it from restaurants, and strolling. It is very common to find the night market or the street market in Malaysia that usually opens from evening till night. Night market is usually located in residential areas. You are able to find the night markets only one to a few days of the week at one residential area. The traders will also be selling their things around different neighborhoods on different days.Night market is a one stop place whereby many stalls sell goods such as local food, fruits, vegetables, toys, clothes, shoes, and many more at cheaper prices, where at least the items are cheaper. NIGHT MARKET IN MALAYSIA The good thing of night market at Malaysia is, you can see the night market’s stalls are selling different things by our main three ethnics, which are Malay, Chinese and Indian. This is one of the reasons why more and more tourists start to hit the night market at Malaysia, as they are able to see the culture of Malaysia, goes with the traditional food from different races.As we are pacing up the trend of advanced technology of lifestyle, same goes as the demand of food. A combination of traditional Malay food in the modern life, we have even more tasty delicious food yet maintaining the traditional taste of recipes when we pay a visit to the Malay night markets. During the olden days at the Malay food stalls, most of them are just selling the traditional food such as satay, nasi lemak, kuih, spicy rendang chicken, lemang goes with the delicious rendang beef. Normally the traders will cook at home or restaurants first, and then only they do food packing and sell to the customers.Some Malay tra ders do also sell some Chinese or Indian concept of food. For example, you can see some Malays are selling ‘yong tau fu’ or ‘muruku’. SITUATION AT NIGHT MARKET Night market is not a strange place for today's city life. It is almost as same as the wet market. The difference is the market starts in the evening whereas the wet market starts in the morning. Besides that, only every Monday and Wednesday, the place is swarmed with people. On other days, the field is just gathered by a few cows grazing on the coarse grass. Night market is a spectacular and colourful market.From one end to the other, one can see a dense mass of human heads moving about restlessly under the bright neon lights of the hand-carts and stalls. These temporary stalls sell all manners of useful household goods, food and drinks. Night market is a colourful place. There are many types of fruit and vegetables, such as red tomatoes, orange carrots, green capsicums, etc, which are sold. There a re all kinds of clothes and materials too. There are different kinds of coloured plastic goods and so on. All of them add up to a marvellous view under the bright moonlight.The field at the night market is crowded by people from all walks of life. Cars spill over everywhere from the parking area to the roadsides. In such condition, only the early birds will get parking spaces. Motorcycles and bicycles going in and out. The crowds of people are walking about and the loaded carts on the middle of the path make it even more difficult to move. It is closed to traffic jam during peak hours in town. It seems like the whole community is there. Furthermore, it is also a noisy place. All around, customers and hawkers are bargaining.The din is earshattering. Nevertheless, everyone is in good mood. The shouting and bargaining are enjoyed by both customers and hawkers. â€Å"Apples! Four for $1! Cheap sale! † come the cries of one hawker. Then another hawker suddenly cries, â€Å"Apples ! Five for $1! Come on! Cheap sale! Cheap sale! † Obviously, there are already a number of people examining the fruits. There are people laughing and children crying. Just two stalls away, the loud music of cd vendors comes along cheering up the situation. The stall is also brightly illuminated. No doubt, it is doing a roaring business.Then a few stalls away, traditional medicine sellers promote their medicine. They use a microphone to speak and a loudspeaker to spread their voice. Becauseof that, a big crowd of customers will take a look and buy their products. All of that bring a festive atmosphere in the night market. There are loud and happy music like clashing ofcymbals and beating of drums, children's laughter, hawkers' call and teenagers' giggling. Everyone is in a holiday mood – enjoying the tasty food and drinks and unwinding after a hard day's work. By about 9 p. m. awkers begin to pack their things into vans. Some of them remain to get some last minute sellin g done. â€Å"$1 only, Madam! This is the last one. I sold for $2 just now but I want to go home now. † In this way, many sales transactions are closed. Furthermore, most vendors have a hard life, trying to make both ends meet. They really need to make some profits each night. Although the night market is very crowded and noisy, but the hawkers and customers will come back again and again because the night market is where things are cheaper as there are no middlemen to make a profit for themselves.

The Long Telegram of George Kennan

The Long Telegram of George Kennan The Long Telegram was sent by George Kennan from the United States Embassy in Moscow to Washington, where it was received on February 22nd, 1946. The telegram was prompted by US inquiries about Soviet behavior, especially with regards to their refusal to join the newly created World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In his text, Kennan outlined Soviet belief and practice and proposed the policy of containment, making the telegram a key document in the history of the Cold War. The name long derives from the telegrams 8000-word length. US and Soviet Division The US and USSR had recently fought as allies, across Europe in the battle to defeat Nazi Germany, and in Asia to defeat Japan. US supplies, including trucks, had helped the Soviets weather the storm of Nazi attacks and then push them right back to Berlin. But this was a marriage from purely one situation, and when the war was over, the two new superpowers regarded each other warily. The US was a democratic nation helping put Western Europe back into economic shape. The USSR was a murderous dictatorship under Stalin, and they occupied a swathe of Eastern Europe and wished to turn it into a series of buffer, vassal states. The US and the USSR seemed very much opposed. The US thus wanted to know what Stalin and his regime were doing, which was why they asked Kennan what he knew. The USSR would join the UN, and would make cynical overtures about joining NATO, but as the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, the US realized they now shared the world with a huge, powerful and anti-democratic rival. Containment Kennans Long Telegram didnt just reply with insight into the Soviets. It coined the theory of containment, a way of dealing with the Soviets. For Kennan, if one nation became communist, it would apply pressure on its neighbors and they too might become communist. Hadnt Russia now spread to the east of Europe? Werent communists working in China? Werent France and Italy still raw after their wartime experiences and looking towards communism? It was feared that, if Soviet expansionism was left unchecked, it would spread over great areas of the globe. The answer was containment. The US should move to help countries at risk from communism by propping them up with the economic, political, military, and cultural aid they needed to stay out of the Soviet sphere. After the telegram was shared around government, Kennan made it public. President Truman adopted the containment policy in his Truman Doctrine and sent the US to counter Soviet actions. In 1947, the CIA spent considerable sums of money to ensure the Christian Democrats defeated the Communist Party in elections, and, therefore, kept the country away from the Soviets.​ Of course, containment was soon twisted. In order to keep nations away from the communist bloc, the US supported some terrible governments, and engineered the fall of democratically elected socialist ones. Containment remained US policy throughout the Cold War, ending in 1991, but discussed as something to be reborn when it came to US rivals ever since.

Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on the Economy Essays

Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on the Economy Essays Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on the Economy Essay Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on the Economy Essay Department of industrial relations and public administration Lagos state university, Ojo, Nigeria.. Abstract The regime of banking sector reforms leading to recapitalization and consolidation in Nigeria and the consequent merger and or acquisition of existing banks into twenty five (25) by 2005, and later eighteen (18) by 2012 brought along their trails attendant labor problems in terms of educational diversity, job security and productivity, decent employment questions.The study review post consolidation performance of the banking sector to assess the extent to which the sector meets consolidation objective using post development approach. It was found that while the alliance and marriage of seemingly compatible partners are settling down, the society is at the receiving end of the severance of labor and the enlargement of the pool of reserved army of the unemployed. The fall-out therefore is double-edge for the economy and the society. Keywords: Labor reforms, recapitalization, con solidation and post development 1. 0Introduction Private and public businesses are continually being challenged by performance. Performance success is very minimal measured on the indices of what Alos (2006) catalogued as: what the customer needs and values, response to environmental changes and impact on the quality of the people. The issue of performance effectiveness or reengineering organisation has preoccupied the minds of organization practitioners, researchers and watchers since 1990s. Therefore, all over the world, many economies had carried out various reforms to ensure effectiveness of the 166 European Scientific JournalMay edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 real sectors. The performance revolution started in the private sector. Its effects spread to the public sector influenced by ideas from public management school. Nigeria as a nation is not left out in this reform revolution to ensure quality of life for its citizenry. Legal and i nstitutional frameworks were put in place to re-engineer the economy and the performance values of the real sectors. The blue print of the current reforms agenda is set out in the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) document.Some of the reforms include (1)power sector reform; (2) ports reforms meant to ensure timely clearing of goods within forty eight hours (3) deregulation of oil and gas sub-sector to forestall perennial fuel scarcity; (4) deregulation in the telecommunication industry to reduce government participation, create employment and commerce (5) the banking sub-sector /recapitalization/consolidation to make it play its rightful role as the dominant sector of the economy in driving growth and development in other sector. The current banking sector reforms captioned as recapitalization policy was issued out on Tuesday July 6, 2004.Capitalization is setting the capital base upon which a player can set up and be licensed to operate banking function s. It is setting a capital base which was given as twenty five billion naira (N25b) as at 2005. The former capital base was two billion Naira (N2b), which many banks could not even afford. In Nigeria, empirical studies had been carried out on the relationship between banking reforms and economic growth (Balogun, 2007, Fadare, 2010); consolidation and macro economic performance (see Somoye, 2008); consolidation and adoption of e-banking (Ayo, Adewoye and Oni 2010; Chimeke, Evwiekpaefe, and Chete, 2006).The implication of banking reforms on labor has scarcely been researched. The main objective of this study is to review the banking sector reforms 2004 – 2011 and the extent to which the objectives set are met and also, the implication of the reforms on labor as regards employment: security, decent employment, employees’ satisfaction and the outcomes of these variables for the society. 2. 0 Literature Review and Theoretical Framework Consolidation simply means to build on or improve to the extent of stability Adeyemi (2007) considers it to represent the idea of investment and the coming together of firms or enterprises as a single entity.In the banking sector of Nigeria the essence of banking consolidation 167 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 is to reposition the nations banking industry for global competitiveness and also to ensure a strong and reliable banking sector that will guarantee the safety of the depositors’ money. Consolidation as a means of reducing over capacity is doubtful (Somoye 2008).The effectiveness of banking sector consolidation as a remedy for financial stability and in correcting the defects in the financial sector for sustainable development had not been corroborated by similar exercise in Europe, America and Asia in the last decade (Somoye, 2008). Rather, crises and failures as depicted by credit crises and transatlantic mortgage financial turmoi l erupted which, in Nigeria, seriously affected invested money values specifically, stock values.Rather than restructuring leading to reduction in over capacity as indicated by consolidation apologists, an improvement strategy that would accommodate the resources available and expand them is advocated by internally induced consolidation apologists. The banking sub-sector in Nigeria witnessed sharp drop in credit rate to the real sector which affected return on shareholders’ fund (Adeyemi, 2007). Credit went more to foreign exchange rather than the real sectors. The capacity of real sector to generate employment weakened.The access of small and medium enterprises (SMES) and the informal sectors to credit also dwindled (Somoye, 2008; NDIC, 2008; CBN, 2008). Structuring to the economists is adapting to the demands of increasingly global markets for greater efficiencies. Sociologist always view the social impact, specifically the social problems engendered by externalities which results in social disruption especially the negative effects on level of job security, commitment, psychological well being and turnover intentions.The effect of these on organization efficiency, contrary to reformist postulation may be negative. Matanmi (2005) saw a yawning gap between the immediate or short term effects of economic reforms and the necessary ideals of job security. He concluded that the ability of reforms to create employment in the last one decade had been very few and far between. Adeyemi (2007) also agreed that banking reforms in Nigeria resulted in job loss, variance level of compensation and remuneration package for different merging groups and board room squabbles among cliques of the merging banks. . 1 Theoretical Framework Post development approach is a reaction to the dilema of development. Instead of abundance, discourse and strategies of development produce its opposite: underdevelopment and 168 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 impoverishment, untold exploitation and repression. (Sidaway 2008). The post development apologist claim that change brought about by modernity or driven by the west would always meet with disillusionment on the part of the people of developing countries. 2. 2Banking Sector Reforms in Nigeria Banking operations began in 1892 owned mainly by expatriates (Somoye, 2008). They remained however unregulated until 1952 (Fadare, 2010). There were expansions with indigenous ownership by 1950s. However, many of the banks failed between 1947 and 1952. The first regulation of banks was put in place by Banking Ordinance of 1952. This was ineffective as there was no Central Bank until 1958 to carry out supervising or control measures. Bank ownership structure shifted by 1970s with indigenization decree. This allows more Nigerian investment in the banking industry.The Nigerian enterprises promotion Decree (NEPD) limits foreign ownership of Nigerian bu sinesses to 60% in 1972 and 40% in 1976. The 1990’s reform allowed for 100% individual ownership which was a shift from existing 10% for individual ownership and 30% for corporate ownership. This led to the proliferation of banks. Banking sub sector recapitalization policy was issued out on Tuesday, July 6, 2004. Capitalization is setting the capital base upon which a player can set up and be licensed to operate banking functions. Recapitalization is setting a new capital base.The essence is to consolidate the sector to enhance competitiveness and capacity to play important role of financing investment (Somoye, 2008). Consolidation which may result in increase in bank size through merger and acquisition has the potential of increasing bank returns through increase revenue and cost efficiency gains. It may also reduce industry risks through the eliminations of weak banks and create better diversification opportunities (Furlong, 1998). Recapitalization policies set twenty five billion Naira (N25b) as the new minimum capital base for banks operating in Nigeria.The former capital base was two billion naira (N2b) and many banks could not even meet this. The objective of recapitalization is captured in the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Charles Soludos words thus the banking reform is to: (1) reposition the nations banking industry for global competitiveness; (2) ensure a strong and reliable banking sector that will guarantee the safety of the depositors money; (3) play active development role in the nations’ economy; 169 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) ISSN 1857- 7431 (4) (5) make the banks less dependent on public sector fund, and be capable of financing the real sector (New Age Apri17, 2005). A time frame of eighteen months terminating in December 25, 2005 was set for prospective player to meet the capitalization line. To facilitate compliance the following carrots were offered by CB N. Banks that met the deadline shall: (1) (2) (3) (4) deal in foreign exchange; take public sector deposit; be recommended to fiscal authorities to collect public sector revenue, and; manage part of Nigeria external revenue. New Age April 12, 2005); Furtherance to this, nine billion Naira (N9b) loan write off was offered for weak banks to make them attractive for acquisition so as to protect the system, the depositors, and employees as a results of liquidation. 2. 2. 1The Need for reform: The Banking sector is one of the dominant sectors of the economy. It serves as the engine of growth for the real sector financing, Its stability and strength and consolidation will to a large extent influence other sectors.Any policies in the banking sector including its activities affect the micro-economic situation and acting as consultant with qualitative advice to the customers will drive the economy as it were. An inventory of Nigerian banks between 1994 and 2001 as revealed by Nigerian Deposi t Insurance Corporation shows that (NDIC, 2004; National Mirror 2005). (1) A total of thirty five (35) licensed banks went into distress and were eventually liquidated. Out of these, thirteen (13) were commercial banks eighteen (18) merchants and one (1) cooperative (2) The loss to depositors was two billion naira (#2. b) (3) Four thousand (4000) workers lost their job. Omeife (2005) calculated that an average of 3 banks per year was liquidated. That is spanning the period of eight years. The liquidation was as a result of in-effectiveness and inefficiency arising from (1) financial fraud, (2) insiders’ credit abuse resulting in huge non-performing credit, (3) low quality manpower, (4) inefficiency of management, (5) inaccurate reporting and non compliance with regulatory requirements(6) low aggregate credit as percentage of the GDP to the domestic 170 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 economy (20%) Idowu, 2006; Adeyemi, 2007; Cowry research, 2009). By 2005 the following were the status of the banks in terms of their standing Table 1 Category Sound Satisfactory Marginal Unsound 2001 10 6. 3 8 9 2002 13 54 13 10 2003 11 53 14 9 2004 10 51 16 10 Source: CBN reports and statement of accounts 2004 The impacts of these on the economy include the following: (1) There is sociological implication for the social nets of the sacked workers and the multiplier effects on other real sectors Social nets is the web of relationship established by an individual.In African setting, they include lots of extended family members that are dependent on such workers and which he/she in turn provides financial supports. (2) The confidence depositors have in banking system waned. (3) The economy became depressed as a result of loss of money. (4) Increased unemployment was witnessed. The loss of deposit definitely stalled other businesses and the spiral effect can only be imagined. At the announcement of the ba nking consolidation, not more than few banks could go it alone. Therefore, merger and or acquisition were necessitated..The existing eighty nine banks went through the process of merger and or acquisition, and twenty five banks eventually emerged by December 25, 2005 deadline. Table 1 shows the merged banks and their capital base. 171 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 Table 2 S/N GROUP MERGING BANKS Access bank, Marina Int’l Capital Bank Afribank, Afribank Merchant Diamond, Lion Bank Eco bank COMBINED ASSETS DEC. 2005, ‘N’ BILLION 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Access Afribank Diamond Eco Bank 28. 5 29 33. 25 Over 25 25 30 29 44. 62 28 34 35 51. 7 25 31. 26 Equatorial Trust Equitorial Trust, Devcom FCMB Fidelity First Bank First Inland Guaranty Trust IBTC Chartered Intercontinental FCMB, COOP Dev. NAMB Ltd Fidelity, FSB Int’l, Manny First Bank, FBN Merchant, MBC Int’l Fi rst Atlantic, Inland, IMB Int’l NUB Int’l Guaranty Trust Bank IBTC, Regent Banks Intercontinental, Equity, Global, Gateway Nigeria Int’l Bank Nigeria Int’l Bank (City Group) Oceanic Bank Platinum Skye Oceanic Bank and International Trust Platinum Bank ; Habib Bank (Bank PHB) Prudent Bank, EIB International, Cooperative 37 Bank, Bond Bank ; Reliance Bank 17 Spring Bank CITI, ENS Inter.Bank, Guardian Express Bank, Over 25 ACB Inter Bank, Omega Bank, Fountain Trust Bank ; TRANS, International Bank. 18 19 Stanbic Bank Standard Chartered Bank Stanbic Bank Standard Chartered Bank 25 26 20 United Bank of UBA, and Standard Trust Bank Africa 50 172 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 21 Sterling Bank Magnum Trust Bank, NAL Bank, Indo-Nigeria 25 Bank ; Trust Bank of Africa. 22 Union Bank Union Bank, Union Merchant, Board Bank and 58 Universal Trust Bank 23 24 25 Unity Bank WEMA Bank Zenith Bank W EMA ; National Bank Zenith 0 26. 2 38 Sources: Compiled from CBN Press Release (3/1/06), Financial Standards (16/1/06), and the Comet (3/1/06). 2. 3 Post Consolidation The Nigeria society woke up by August 14, 2009 to find out that the banks were not stable after all. The Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened again purportedly to save the banking industry from imminent collapse. Five Banks were identified for rescue as a result of poor capital adequacy, high risk assets poor corporate governance tending towards CEOs corruption; erosion of share holders fund, high liquidity ratio and credit crises.Whereas the twenty five (25) banks that passed the recapitalization test were declared sound in 2005, by 2006, ten (10) were declared sound, five (5) satisfactory five (5) as marginal and five (5) unsound (CBN, 2006). Corporate governance crises, sharp practices, and corruption were also alleged. Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) was set up to manage the toxic debt or non p erforming loan (NPL) of ten (10) unsound banks. About N680b was injected into these banks and then top executive changed. As at 2011, three of the banks were nigerianized and their names changed.This suggests the inability of consolidation to ensure risk control, transparency and accountability among many of the banks. Two other banks intercontinental and oceanic were acquired by Access bank and Ecobank respectively by 2010. 3. 0 The Effects of Banking Sector Consolidation on labor and the Economy Banking sector consolidation through recapitalization, has these attendant economic benefits (1) The process of recapitalization and the consequent merger and or acquisition engendered many of the banks to get registered with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and therefore get listed (publicly quoted).Ownership of the banks became widened and public. Many Nigerians can now own some stakes in the banking sector rather than private ownership that 173 European Scientific Journal May edition v ol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 were the pictures of many banks pre consolidation era. This demands that the various boards become more responsive and alive to their responsibilities. (2) Banks were able to shore up their shares, boosting both individual and corporate investments. Locally and internationally; about $652million of foreign direct investment (FDI) was attracted (Fadare, 2010). 3) Banking restructuring and strategy that are information and communication technology (ICT) driven; a shift from the manual to automated systems involving the use of various e-banking and e-payment systems. There has been users’ acceptance of this because of their convenience, time savings and they also meet transaction needs (Adesina and Ayo, 2010). It has also led to the flexibility of business on the part of the banks. (4) Enhanced customer relationships through creation of facilities and instruments that enable easy banking.Intending customers can ope rate their accounts through telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and even on public Holidays (GT Bank 2006/2007 Interim Reports) (5) Best practice which have earned some of the banks conferment of the International Standard Organization (ISO) 9001: 2000 certification award by the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) (6) The waned confidence of the public in the banking sector is changing for the positive as shown in the average deposit rise post consolidation from 10,482. 36b Naira in 2004 to 188,478. b Naira in 2006. (See table 3). Table 3 Pre and post consolidation performance of the Nigerian Banks Macroeconomic indications N’m2004a N’m2005b N’m2006b % charge measure/decrease (-) or differences (D) (+) Average deposit (N’m) Average networth (N’m) 10,482. 36 7,708. 73 85,007. 13 19708. 88 445,008. 9 18,478. 55 38,831. 31 525,482. 0 27. 82 +1690. 0500 +403. 73% +68. 87% Credit to the private sector 311,646. 8 to private sector growth rate 26. 6 174 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431Return on equity % Assets utilization % 35. 28 33. 62 30. 8 12. 72 11. 2 11. 04 +0. 18 (D) 24. 16 (D) Source: CBN 2006 Publication Somoye, 2008 (7) Real sector -financing especially the financing of small and medium scales enterprise (SMEs) GTBank for instance sets aside #2. b for this purpose, though this is not adequate. (8) Competitiveness: Narrowing down the numbers of the existing bank evokes creativity, innovativeness service delivery, creating strategy to make the banks stay afloat in the competitive environment. The net-worth of banks grew by +403. 3% between 2004 to 2006 (see table 3 above). (9) Banking performance are also gaining the confidence of the regulatory agency as some of the banks are concluding arrangement to manage Nigeria external reserves (Idowu, 2006). (10) Banking culture is gradually expanding all over the country as the banks are expanding their point of presence. The cashless culture that will become a culture in 2013 will further reinforce this. 4. 0 Banking Consolidation: Challenges The process of recapitalization and post consolidation in Nigeria brought along its trail erger and acquisition. The following become unresolved issues. The issues can be categorized as pre and post consolidation. 4. 1 Pre-Consolidation (1) Unemployment: Rationalization during merger created unemployment. While it was not possible to confirm the number of workers disengaged as a result of the exercise (as at the time of writing this paper), the unconfirmed number has been said to be high. It is not possible though to have two Chairmen or two Managing Directors, etc,, It has not been however proved that banking sector had been adequately staffed.Efforts could be made to retrain workers for other challenges. The disengaged workers are burdens to the society, lowers national productivity, increased poverty, stress, and other psychological problems (Idowu, 2006). (2) Reneging on Collective Agreements: Many banks managements reneged on their collective agreement with the Unions. First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) for instance, sacked 1200 175 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 workers (New Age April 7, 2005).The Association of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution (ASSBIFI) reacted by accusing the management of being insensitive and confrontational to organized labor in the country through its inconsistencies. It also accused the management of not consulting with it in line with earlier agreement on declaring redundancy. Also, the merger arising from UBA and Standard Trust promised that no members of the two banks would be retrenched. This has not been so. Many Higher National Diploma HND holders and contract staff had not been given full employment. 3) Diversity issues: The gulf between Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelors Degree holders rear ed its head. The HND holders were the first to be rationalized at the conclusion of the merger exercise. This has no regard for performance level of the individuals, and all other factors besides educational background that account for individual performance; factors like reward system, organization structure, organization supports (adequate tools, motivation and leadership styles).The society suffers as the pool of unemployment widened. Admission seeking into Polytechnics nosedived. Sectoral allocation to this sub sector also becomes a waste (Idowu, 2006). 4. 2 Post Consolidation (1) Perceptions of uncertainty and insecurity of tenure pervade banking landscape among the workers. This is because rationalization exercise is still on. The consequence of this is less commitment and higher propensity to quit. Many workers have already changed jobs to other sectors due to this factor.The fraud in Nigeria banks had been correlated with high level of job insecurity Omoife (2012) found that disengaged workers vent their anger on the banks using their knowledge of the workings of the banking hall to defraud banks The fraud ran into N189b. This would go a long way in capacity building and loan to real sector which can lead to employment generation and expansion. (2) Unethical/Moral questions at both the pre and post merger era, some banks engaged unqualified and inexperienced young ladies as marketers to woo big clients so as to meet the 25 billion Naira target and to shore up their capital base.Targets were given and management looked the other way not minding how these targets were met The marketers were given near impossible targets to meet Not meeting target led to job loss. The female workers were therefore exposed to sexual harassment, and all other marketers, to other unethical behaviors. This negates International Labor Organisation (ILO) advocacy for decent employment 176 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 3) Disillusionment: arising as a result of differentials in reward package and treatment for similar status and different merging groups, uncertainty of tenure, different career path for seemingly similar educational qualification, prejudices and biases expressed by the management of some of the banks against some groups (merging banks, educational: HND/Bachelors, Federal/ State universities. (4) Decent Employment: A report that has not been officially confirmed is the fact that some banks management asked HND holders to resign and reapply with their National Diploma (ND) qualification.As well, those that attained Bachelors degree or professional certificate are to re apply, serve probationary period in spite of the number of years that had been spent with the banks or the status of such individual. This is also in spite of the glass ceiling on the career path of HND or those possessing lower qualifications. Furthermore, the process of disengaging the workers were at best, immodest. Option of resigning or get retrenched: whichever becomes the lot of the workers, there were complaints of inadequate severance benefits if there was any paid.This is demeaning having no regard for best practice The consequences of all these include: I. II. III. IV. Labor has become cheapened Unions become weakened Career opportunity slowed down and Perhaps the banks gained and labor and society lost. (5). Corporate Governance Crisis Goje (2010) suggested that the weakness experienced by banking sector as regard corporate governance (CA) arrangement may have led to the current state whereby banks cannot safeguard against excessive risk taking. Recapitalization regime exposed the banks to non performing loans (NPL) and margin loan (ML) to the tune of N2. trullion Naira. The non performing loan (NPL) of some of the banks exceeded their Shareholders Funds (SHF). Eight of the banks Capital Adequacy (CA) was less than 10% and their Deposit Ratio (DR) were less than 25% (E topidiok, 2009). The diversion of deposits to foreign exchange trading including the transatlantic mortgage and financial crises led to loss of share holders fund values as many banks had to readjust shareholders stock as depicted in table 4. Table 4 177 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) ISSN 1857- 7431 INSURED BANKS’ ADJUSTED SHAREHOLDERS’ FUNDS AS AT DECEMBER, 2009 AND 2008 S/N BANKS SHAREHOLDERS’ SHAREHOLDERS’ FUND* (N’BILLION) FUND* (N’BILLION) 2008 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Access Bank Nig. Plc Afribank Nigeria Plc Bank PHB Plc Citibank Nigeria Ltd Diamond Bank Plc Ecobank Nigeria Plc Equitorial Trust Bank Ltd Fidelity Bank Plc Finbank Plc First Bank of Nig. Plc First City Monument Bank Plc Guaranty Trust Bank Plc Intercontinental Bank Plc Oceanic Bank International Plc Skye Bank PlcSpring Bank Plc Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc Standard Chartered Bank Ltd Sterling Bank Plc Union Bank Plc United Bank for Africa Plc Unity Bank Plc Wema Bank Plc Zenith Bank Plc Total 167. 22 127. 38 243. 24 29. 40 95. 64 43. 45 32. 38 129. 55 112. 86 315. 75 137. 66 130. 03 195. 58 211. 52 96. 55 (48. 68) 67. 22 28. 47 20. 58 115. 93 191. 44 16. 94 26. 68 313. 39 2,802. 18 2009 154. 30 (221. 69) (126. 84) 31. 68 98. 31 26. 02 (46. 95) 129. 99 (123. 70) 293. 89 132. 17 141. 82 (336. 35) (192. 20) 79. 56 (94. 08) 74. 61 29. 66 20. 14 (38. 56) 114. 8 (4. 06) (3. 22) 310. 99 448. 99 178 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 Source: NDIC Adjusted Shareholders’ Fund (Bank returns) The Apex Bank Code of Corporate Governance (CCG) set in 2006 and which was mandatory for all banks in the post consolidation era to comply with could not address insider trading, ineffective risk management and control. This accounted for the NPL crisis and therefore necessitated the establishment of Asset M anagement Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).The CBN also injected N608b and provided technical assistance by replacing the so called incapable Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Executive Director ED of 8 banks with new ones. The corporate governance crises also accounted for percentage decrees in return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) over the post consolidation years compare to pre consolidation as table 5 illustrates. Table 5 Pre and Post 2006 Recapitalization, Performance Evaluation Ratio for Nigeria Banks. Pre-recapitalization 2002 Net Interest Margin 11. 16 2003 14. 88 2004 9. 12 Post-recapitalization 2006 10. 7 2007 7. 71 2008 10. 21 (NM)% Yields (YEA)% Funding Return (ROE)% Return (ROE)% Source: NDIC Annual Report, Various Issues The return on equity (ROE) measuring the rate of return to shareholders that was 99. 45% in 2004 (pre-consolidation) fell to 27. 23% by 2008. Also, return on assets (ROA) that stood at 3. 9% pre consolidation (2004) reduced to 2. 58% by 200 8. This confirms post modernist/post development postulation that modernity like restructuring/reforms does not bring about organisational efficiency or capacity management loss of investment cannot lead to creation of employment.Also the purported over capacity of resources like labor that were eliminated does 179 on Assets 17. 55 4. 64 4. 62 27. 55 20. 32 18. 88 Cost on (FC)% 8. 09 Equity 86. 08 9. 42 00. 59 9. 47 99. 45 13. 05 41. 63 9. 63 29. 11 9. 66 27. 23 on Assets 4. 52 4. 13 3. 96 2. 63 2. 00 2. 58 European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 not corroborate the result pre-consolidation. Rather disillusionment, inefficiency still pervade banking sub-sector. 5. 0 Conclusion and Recommendation The banking sector is very crucial to economic growth.The consolidation period however reveal sharp practices against labor and society which would not benefit; the society and the labor but the banks themselves in terms of po sting huge profits: Organizations like banks always pay lip service to placing premium or value on their workers as usually reported in their annual reports. Human resource practices pre and post recapitalization regime does not confirm that their workers are their assets. Banking sector recapitalization carne with double edge: benefits and constraints on the economy, the people and the society.While the banks have achieved some efficiency in terms of its operations, treatment of men at work will further deepen unemployment, lead to disillusionment, uncertainty, job dissatisfaction and quitting. The Nigerian economy is still depressed. The Gross domestic products took a downward turn growing by 2. 5% in 2000 compared to 6. 9% in 2005 and further went down in 2009 and 2010 (GT bank 2006). Alo (2006) quoted wall street journal and Heritage foundation as rating Nigeria economy as worse of in August 2006 than it was the previous year and described it as repressed measured on index of Ec onomic Freedom.The rating for 2011 is no better. Nigeria ranked 106 and scored 56. 8% on index of economic freedom for 2010 and therefore grouped as unfree, unlike in the pre consolidation era. To be free means improvement in the overall quality of life and promotion of social and economic life (index of Economic Freedom, 2011). There is the need to manage people well if the objectives of recapitalization are to be met in concrete terms. Recommendations: A lot needs to be done and the following are recommended 1. Institutional machinery should be put in place to address the issue of undervaluing, under utilization of workers.Training and retraining of existing employees to improve their capacity for new demand rather than retrenchment is advocated. The banks’ net-worth and profit after tax had increased geometrically (see table 3). The capacity to employ, train and retain more workers and therefore expand employment should not be a constraint as 180 European Scientific Journa l May edition vol. 8, No. 9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 1857- 7431 expansion of branches to new areas is ongoing and new facilities and instruments are also continually being introduced. 2.The federal government and its banking regulatory agencies should do more to ensure creation of employment. In a situation where institutional framework will lead to rationalization, efforts should be made to follow due process, retrain people to retain them in other capacities rather than worsen the unemployment problem. 3. Diversity management should be a best practice and this should be included by standard organization of Nigeria (ISON) in conferment of ISO award. Diversity management is a process by which the diverse elements in organization are enabled to release their potential in organizational attainment of goals.This involves valuing and rewarding people for what they are: race, sex, educational background personality disposition and ethnicity. While the presidency made proc lamation on HND/Bachelors dichotomy in 2006, legal framework and moral persuasions should be pursued to make organization embrace diversity management as best practices. 4. The best practice principle demands that banking organization in Nigeria should place value on their workers, manage them strategically to release their energy for accomplishment of organizational goals. 5.Regulatory bodies should put in place periodic monitoring to ensure compliance with code of corporate governance by banks. Stress test on banks by the CBN should be more frequent and periodic. 6. Credit to real sectors – Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), manufacturing and agriculture to take the largest share of loan. This can lead to expansion of capacity utilization and ultimately employment generation and expansion

Workplace Safety Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Workplace Safety - Research Paper Example However, the cases of hazardous workplace injuries are still caching the attention of public. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is the American employee safety act which also deals with workplace safety issues. In this paper we will discuss whether OSHA is proving successful in dealing with workplace safety issues or not. Problem Statement The problem statement for the research paper is, ‘Is OSHA Proving Successful in Ensuring Workplace Safety for Construction Related Occupations and Other Dangerous Occupations’. Literature Review There are various kinds of occupations that an individual chooses to earn his/her living. Some of those occupations are considered dangerous from the perspective of personal heath, whereas some occupations are somewhat less dangerous and are considered harmless. Workplace safety is the biggest concern for any individual while adopting any occupation. People prefer to adopt such occupations that are considered less dangerous. The reason is that health is the most precious asset for a person. Employees’ level of productivity is linked directly with the level of protection that they feel while at work (Hayes, Perander, Smecko, & Trask, 1998). If employees feel safe at work, their level of productivity increases as they can focus on their work properly. On the other hand, concerns over safety adversely affect their levels of concentration and productivity. However, sometimes people have to adopt such occupations that are most vulnerable to personal safety. Construction related occupations fall into the category of those occupations that are considered dangerous. The reason is that construction related occupations have many concerns regarding workers’ safety. As Cullen (2002) states, â€Å"most jobs have expected, known hazards† (p. 7). For example, many laborers and even engineers while working lose their lives falling accidentally from high roofs of multistory buildings. In the same way, sometime s electricians suffer deadly electric shocks when they forget to apply appropriate security measures regarding electric current while doing electric work in new buildings. These are just some of those risks that make construction related occupations unsafe and dangerous for health. However, the fact is that construction related occupations are not the only type of occupations that are hazardous; there also exist some other occupations that are even more dangerous as compared to construction related occupations. Some of those occupations include firefighting, fishing, criminal justice system related occupations, farming, and aircraft pilot. OSHA guidelines are there to protect most of these occupations. The guidelines are proving very effective as they have reduced the number of per year causalities associated with these occupations up to some extent (Lanoie, 1992). However, workers are still suffering workplace injuries because management officials of most of these occupations are n ot skilled enough to implement OSHA safety mechanisms properly. Therefore, a lot more still needs to be done by the management officials in order to overcome the issue of workplace safety properly. Workplace safety is the main factor that plays its part in making people consider some occupations dangerous and risky for personal health and safety. People are usually not aware of OSHA guidelines regarding workplace safety nor they have in their minds that whether the companies for which they are going to work follow OSHA safety guidelines or not. Therefore, they consider

The Syrian Civil War and the Regional Stability Essay

The Syrian Civil War and the Regional Stability - Essay Example Bashar al-Assad revealed to the citizens that he will abolish the party after he entered into power, in 1970 (Hirsch 35). However, he never abolished the party, but rather transformed it. Assad structured the Ba’ath party in order to make it fit in the dictatorial format of his presidential regime. The Syria government deployed the Army in order to control the Syrian uprising and they ordered soldiers to control and take action on any public protest. However, the demonstrations evolved later into a serious armed rebellion and some of the groups became armed terrorist. These created the commotion and crushes across the nation; thus impacting the regional stability of the Syrian nation. Thesis: Despite the political issues of the Assad dynasty and unapparent end of Syria crisis, politicians have emerged with political agendas regarding the way they can solve the political impact of Syria civil war on the regional stability of Middle East. Impact of Syria Civil War on the Regiona l Stability of the Middle East The Syria Civil War has contributed to varied impacts on the regional stability of the Middle East. First, the Syrian uprising is a threat to socio-economic development of the Middle East. ... The Middle East has become the home for multiple ethnicity and religious conflicts including the Kurds, Muslims, Arabs people, Christian community, Assyrians and many others. The conflicts has been sparkled by the Syrian Civil War; thus creating national disasters in the Middle East. Activist claims that more than 30 000 Syrians have lost their lives while others have lost their properties in the Syria uprising, which started on March of 2011 up to the present (Handler 42). This, many people from these regions have economically and politically felt the impact of the instability in the Middle East economies. Secondly, the harshly domestic war in Syria has contributed to local displacement and international isolation of many people. The international isolation revealed some signs of lessening after France and Russia made significant efforts of bringing the issue of Middle East conflicts back to the international fold. However, the Syrian violated the UN verdict that led to the banning of Lebanese militia, which also contributed to the annex of US sections on the war issues. The debate is now on the way US can respond to the escalating Middle East crisis that have led to increased internal displacement of many people. The IDPs have increased because Syrian uprising has impacted the stability of the Middle East economies; hence causing heavy constraints on the economic resources of Middle East economies. The Syria war has tremendously contributed to refugee problems and the internal displacement of people is further expanding. Pollack, Brookings Institution., Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute for Public