The Poor Performance of the Employees and Organization

The Executive summary The CEO of the organization asked me to submit a report with recommendations on how my department could solve a number of problems within the organization.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on The Poor Performance of the Employees and Organization specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The objective of this report, therefore, is to articulate the problems affecting the performance of the organization and devise ways of solving them in order to get the organization back on performance excellence. My team employed a number of methods in the study. We used observation methods, camera surveillance, interviews and discussion. We identified the following problems: increased customer complaints, poor data entry and record keeping, generational groupings among the Baby Boomers, generation Y and X, dissatisfaction among the employees, stress among the employees, poor communication in the organization, high att rition rates in generation Y and X and a general lack of motivation among the employees. After a careful study of the origin of these problems, we decided on a few changes that, if implemented, would remedy the situation in the organization. The high rate of bureaucracy in the organization needs to be scrapped and replaced with a more liberal model which gives the employees and customers a priority over the organization. The rigid system of operation will also be neutralized with a more flexible approach than the existing one. Communication within the organization also needs to be improved, with the employees being involved in the decision making process. Communication among the employees will also be encouraged in order to avoid the existing stereotypes and suspicion. Motivation strategies will be instituted, with more concern given to employee needs and satisfaction. Non-cash incentives will be issued as rewards for good performance to employees and all employees will be treated f airly. Introduction Background: Our organization has been experiencing problems among the employees for some time now. This seems to have adversely affected its overall performance. This is reflected by the feedback we receive form our customers and the government. The employees have demarcated themselves into generational groups, each of which acts with suspicion of the other. This has bred a culture of hatred among the senior, middle and young employees, thus, the lack of effectiveness in the organization’s performance. The organization is highly bureaucratic and employees operate under rigid rules and procedures. This system breeds a system of controls and hierarchy which is detrimental to effective execution of tasks within the organization.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These have led to lack of motivation among the employees, almost grounding the organization ’s performance (Barrows and Powers, 2008). This creates the need to come up with mechanisms that will help contain the situation. Aims and scope: This report undertakes to investigate the reasons for the poor performance of the employees and organization in general. The report also recommends ways by which the problem can be dealt with and possibly eliminated. It will study into details the generational demarcations and the effect they have on employee performance. It will also take a critical look at the concept of bureaucracy and possibly recommend better procedures within the organization that will reduce the amount of bureaucracy (Galbraith, 1977) and (Schermerhorn et al, 2011). Discussion Data entry and record keeping There has been a rising concern by the government about poor service delivery of the organization to the public. This has led to a partial cut in funding of the organization by the government. Government auditors have been complaining of poor, untimely and inaccurate data entry into the books of the organization. My team investigated this matter by observing the accountants found out that they are largely to blame for the menace. The head accountant, who is a Baby Boomer, is quite aged and of poor health. Most of the time, he is away from work due to health complications. However, he cannot delegate his responsibilities to his assistants of generation X and Y. This is because he believes that they are not as qualified to handle the task and that they are not serious at work. The organization’s strict bureaucratic procedures also cannot allow these duties to be relegated to someone else apart from himself. There are some forms that have to await the government auditor’s signature for days and even weeks. All the work has to be piled up awaiting his return to office in order to be done. This explains the untimely entry of data. Another observation we made was that the conduct of the junior accountant staff is wanting. My t eam, in disguise, found out that the junior accountants, all belonging to generation Y, did not take their work seriously and with the caution it deserves. They listened to radio and engaged the social media during work. In one of the incidents, he gave my â€Å"man† a receipt with the wrong figure and did not realize to rectify this error.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on The Poor Performance of the Employees and Organization specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Generation Y This is the generation of persons born between the 1970s and early 2000. This generation is generally characterized by increased use of and familiarity with the communication technology, media, digital technology and neoliberal approach to almost everything (Strauss and Howe, 1991) This explains why, in our observation, most of the younger staff broke most rules within the organization code of conduct. They seemed to be always at loggerh eads with the Baby Boomers arguing about the right thing to do in every circumstance. This explains the sharp division between the Baby Boomers and the generation Y. When interviewed about the sluggish nature of their working, the generation Y confessed that they did not find the organization objectives and mission fulfilling to their individual desire of growth and a feeling of self worth (Martin and Tulgan, 2001). Most of them were in the look out for other jobs and were willing and eager to leave immediately another job opportunity came up. They also said that the staff was biased against them. The much older employees and management were pointed out as the most biased. They treated them unfairly and did not give them a chance to explore their capabilities. They also found out that work in the organization was boring, applying same procedures quite repetitive, no creativity was allowed and there were strict timelines and reprimands by their superiors over petty mistakes. The empl oyees also spent most of their times in ‘exciting’ activities like listening to music and chatting in the social media as a way of eliminating the boredom. Generation X This is the generation born after the Baby Boomers from the early 1960s to 1980. They are defined as a group of people without identity, who face an uncertain, ill defined and hostile future. The older generations view generation x as reactive people who are more focused to money than anything else (Stephey, 2008). These employees, when interviewed, expressed concern that the management did not factor in their needs. Most of them were parents and needed time to be with their families. They left work for home earlier than the rest and were never willing to work overtime. Because of this, many fell out with the management for neglecting their duties and showing no real concern for responsibility at work.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This makes the employees feel that the management does not understand their needs. This has led to a negative attitude among these employees with the management. This has contributed to poor work relations and the entire performance of the organization. Baby Boomers This is the generation of persons born in the post war period of between 1946 and 1964. These come with privileges since most of them are brought up in the period when there is great affluence. They regard themselves as a special generation that values traditions and rules. This generation sharply contrasts generation Y who does not value traditions, and would be better off doing new things and applying new techniques at work. Because of this, the two groups seem to be in perpetual conflict with each other. The Boomers do not approve of most things that the generation Y does. They feel that they are lazy, spending most of their work time on activities that distract them from work. This, to them, is unethical of work and should not be allowed. The generation Y, on the other hand, feels that the Boomers do not like them, and are out to make their life at work difficult. Observations carried out in the study found Boomers and generation Y in consistent conflict and confrontations. At meetings, Boomers opposed almost all of generation Y suggestions, rubbishing them as childish. The Boomers are the only group that upheld the concept of bureaucracy, therefore, perceived by generations X and Y as frustrating their efforts at work and as responsible for the poor performance of the organization. Stress This was found to be a common feature for all employees. They are generally dissatisfied with the organization. While people in generation Y want a place where they can explore their talents further and exhibit their expertise, generation X want a place where the management can understand and provide for their needs, giving them ample time to tend to their families. The Boomers are fine with the organization procedures. However, they have a problem with their fellow employees, who they feel are antagonistic to work procedures, therefore, jeopardizing the performance of the organization. The management is facing a hard time while coordinating these employees who have divergent views and ideas about working. The generation X and Y view management as hostile towards them and not understanding their needs. Communication Communication in the organization is lacking. Most of the instances when employees talk, there is always confrontation and blame game. According to Fletcher and Major (2006), teams report greater team work and success rates at work when they work and communicate face to face. The media richness theory points out that communication in the work place increases the degree of effectiveness in the organization (Daft and Lengel, 1986.) In this organization, effective communication is lacking. Therefore, a lot of misunderstanding occurs among employees and with the management. This explains the high number of conflicts witnessed in the organization, with some employees not talking to each other t all (May and Mumby, 2005). The employees also feel left out in the decision making process. They are alienated in the formulation of work procedures. Their consent and suggestions for working procedures and suggestions for effective changes is never sought by management. Instead, rules of operation are imposed on them and they are expected to adjust and accommodate the rules and changes without opposition (Suh, 1999). Customer complaints This organization has for a long time maintained an effective customer feedback program. For some time now, we have been receiving negative feedback from our customers concerning the organization’s service delivery and customer care. Surveillance cameras were secretly put in places where employees interacted directly with customers. What we observed was a number of cases where the employees were rude to the customers. Some emp loyees take longer to attend to customers, while others engage in gossip with other employees or using their mobile phones. Some even get to the extent of sending the customers to the next available teller while they do nothing. It was noted that the employees discriminated against some customers. This was based on sex and looks. Most of our employees are women. They treated women customers rudely compared to the male customers. At the same time, customers who seemed highly sophisticated in terms of looks and dress were treated better than others. Conclusion This organization has been adversely affected by the bureaucratic mode of operation. Operations are carried out in a strictly rigid framework. When one component of the process is lacking, the whole process becomes paralyzed and nothing can be done to continue the process of operations. Another factor that is detrimental to the operations of the organization is the problem of communication. There is a general lack of communicati on among the workers and with the management. There is no instituted mechanism of solving conflicts among the employees and with management. Employees are also not able to freely express themselves, as they are not included in the decision making process or consulted on work procedures. They are treated as passive actors. Another problem within the organization is the problem of groupings and factions. The employees are divided into three distinct groups: the Baby Boomers, the Generation X and Y. These groups have demarcated themselves, with each group feeling superior to the others and downplaying the role the others play in the organization. This has led to a proliferation of conflicts among the employees and a lack of unity in achieving the organization goals. The final and most important factor lacking in the organization is motivation. The employees lack motivation and the reason to work well and effectively. They come to work late and only perform what they have to, without pu tting extra effort to do well or even better. The management seems to be lacking the right strategies to tackle these problems. It has remained hard on the employees without attempting to change their approach towards their needs, applying the right motivational strategies and understanding their needs. Recommendation After a careful analysis of these problems and reference to scholarly material, we came up with the following recommendations of what needs to be done in order to remedy the situation and get the organization back on performance excellence. Our recommendations were arrived at bearing in mind that there is a moratorium on employing of additional staff. Therefore, they are geared towards finding viable solutions that will work with the existing employees without laying any one of them off. Bureaucracy Customers view bureaucratic organizations as not aimed at satisfying their needs. The employees attribute this inefficiency to the idea that all policy is similar for all c ustomers. This organization is unresponsive to customers’ individual needs and situations. The policies of the organization are solely designed to benefit the organization and not the customers. It does not admit the mistakes it does, rather shifting the blame onto the customer. The organization is slow to innovativeness and reluctant to change, as dictated by time and events. They view the organizations products and services as inferior. Employees in such organizations are not enthusiastic about working in the organizations. They are not friendly and do not care much whether the customer is satisfied or not. In the organization, departments and employees do not cooperate to get the job done. The executives strive more for personal advancement and power. Promotions are made based on politics rather than merit. Information is hoarded and used as a basis for power. Mostly, the responsibility for failure is denied and the blame shifted to others, especially the junior employees. Bureaucracy is generally detrimental to organization’s effectiveness. It weakens employee morale and divides people within the organization setting each against the other. This misdirects their energy into conflict with one another and destructive competition that does not work to achieve the mission statement. Because of these inherent problems associated with bureaucratic model, we recommend that the model be scrapped and replaced with a more flexible and liberal model of operation. Employees should be allowed some freedom at work. They should be left to work without thorough supervision and compulsion by the supervisors. Procedures should be neutralized and simplified to allow for more relegation of duties and responsibilities. The clear cut demarcations between employee ranks should also be neutralized so that all employees feel equal and important to the organization despite their rank. Communication Most executives will agree that communication is an essential part for the success of the organization. Information should be clearly communicated to enhance role clarity for the employees. The problem of role clarity leads to stress, tension, anxiety, dissatisfaction, lack of job interest and lack of job innovation. In most bureaucratic organizations, information tends to flow downwards. It is unusual for information to take another route, like from the subordinate to the superior. Unfortunately, this organization falls under this framework, characterized with a rigidity of information flow. According to Leavitt (1958), one way communication is faster than two way communication channel. However, the latter is more accurate than the former and should be adopted. Differences in the organization should be taken seriously by allowing the other to speak openly and accept the possibility that the other’s perspective may override your own. I would therefore recommend that, the organization’s management introduces a system of openness in the pr ocess of decision making that involves all the employees, either wholly or in representation. Debates about various implementations should be carried out freely, with no intimidation or victimization of criticism. Among the workers, healthy communication should be encouraged and gossip discouraged. Workshops and seminars to enlighten the employees on the strength of diversity should be organized by the management. Through this, the employees will learn to appreciate one another and compliment each other. Motivation One of the roles of the manager is to get employees to do their job well. Rather than use of coercion, he should motivate employees to perform their duties voluntarily. An understanding and appreciation of human nature is vital to the process of motivation. Various theories like the theory Y by Douglas McGregor, two factor motivation hygiene theories by Fredrick Herzberg, Abraham Maslow’s theory Z hierarchy of needs and Elton Mayo’s experiments can be used. These theories generally posit that human beings should be treated with dignity and respect of all forms at workplace. Motivated employees are more productive and innovative. The inverse is true. As a result, I would recommend the following measures by management as a motivational strategy for the employees: The employees should be reinforced positively with high expectations of them by the management and customers. This way, they will feel self worth and motivated to uphold the high expectations. Discipline and punishment should be applied effectively, and by no means should it be applied in excess or unfairly, or used to coerce the employees. All employees must be treated fairly, without favoritism and discrimination on generation group or sex. Employee needs also need to be factored in at work and be met. Individual needs should be addressed with individual concern and given the right attention. Work related goals should be set, which when met, the employees are rewarded. The rew ards may not necessarily be financial but they could be holidays or trips (March and Simon, 1958). Theory Y In general, we recommend an approach of theory Y to the management of the organization. Employees are people who are ambitious and exercise self-control. They enjoy their physical and mental work. The management should support them on this basis. The organization should let them use their creativity in problem solving by applying their talents. They should develop trust among the employees by communicating freely with subordinates. Decision making should be done with the involvement of both the subordinates and their seniors. Reference List Barrows, C. W. and Powers, T., 2008. Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry. Hoboken: John Willey and Sons. Daft, R. L. and Lengel, R. H., 1986. Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design. Management Science, 32(5), 23-57. Fletcher, T. D., and Major, D. A., 2006. The Effects of Communicatio n Modality on Performance and Self-ratings of Team Work Components. Journal of computer mediated communication, 11(2), 15-18, article 9. Galbraith, J., 1977. Organization Design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Leavitt, H., 1958. Managerial Psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press March, J. G. and Simon, H. A., 1958. Organizations. New York: Wiley. May, S. and Mumby, D. K., 2005. Engaging Organizational Communication Theory and Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Simon, A., Woods, P., and Chau, S. L., 2011. Management Foundations and Applications-value pack. New York: Wiley. Stephey, M. J., 2008. Gen-x: The Ignored Generation time? New York: Wiley. Strauss, W. and Howe, N., 1991. Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584-2069. New York: William Morrow and Company. Suh, K. S., 1999. Impact of Communication Medium on Task Performance and Satisfaction: an Examination of Media-Richness Theory. New York: Cengage Learning. Tul gan, B and Martin, C. A. (2001). Managing Generation Y: Global citizens born in the  late seventies and early eighties. Harvard: New York Times. This report on The Poor Performance of the Employees and Organization was written and submitted by user Kimberly Kent 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.

Speech Codes Essay Research Paper SPEECH CODES free essay sample

Speech Codes Essay, Research Paper SPEECH CODES: AN ANSWER TO OUR PROBLEMS? Freedom of address is an issue that has been debated in America since the colonists foremost inhabited our state. The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right of freedom of address to all Americans. Since so, people have spoken freely about authorities, faith, unfairness, and fundamentally anything else that they have wanted to. However, this freedom is non ever given. Evidence of this can be found on college campuses across the state. More and more colleges and universities are now implementing address codifications, ordinances that prohibit address or other behavior that is opprobrious, baleful, or take downing to certain groups because of their gender, race, spiritual beliefs, sexual orientation, or cultural background. This type of address is besides known as hatred address. A great contention has arisen over the enforcement of these codifications. We must now make up ones mind whether or non speech codifications are constitutional, and what is more of import for an academic environment, an ambiance in which 1 can talk freely about his or her beliefs, or one in which no 1 feels persecuted or insulted. We will write a custom essay sample on Speech Codes Essay Research Paper SPEECH CODES or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Advocates of address codifications believe that address codifications are great tools for helping the instruction procedure. They feel that address that is really violative to certain groups of people impedes upon the acquisition procedure by making hostile and uncomfortable schoolroom environments when pupils of opposing groups are brought together. They believe that instruction, the primary ground for go toing college, takes a back place to such issues. Therefore, they believe that this job could be solved by the enforcement of address codifications. Advocates of address codifications besides feel that the First Amendment does non really protect all types of address, viz. hate address. They argue that freedom of address was given in order to talk out against things such as corruptness and unfairness, non to give racialists and bigots the right to diss and ache people due to fortunes these people can non command. After all, the Constitution provinces that all work forces are created equal. Advocates argue that the allowance of such hatred address, utilizing the permission of the First Amendment however, is a perversion of this great announcement. Advocates besides feel that excessively much free address, including hatred address, is one of the top grounds for recent additions in hate offenses. Hate offenses are besides on the rise on college campuses across the state. For illustration, victims have had crosses burned in their paces, swastikas painted on their temples and residence halls, and have been physically attacked. Supporters believe that these offenses could be prevented, or at least reduced if hate address was non allowed. They feel that the allowance of hatred address merely serves to derive support for those who speak it, and that prohibition of hatred address is the key. Advocates of address codifications may hold thought that they were making the right thing, but they have been misled. Speech codes that are enforced by government-financed province colleges and universities are in clear misdemeanor of the Constitution because they are signifiers of authorities censoring. All address, no affair how violative it may be, is protected by the First Amendment. The right of free address is indivisible, which means that if the right is taken off from one, it is taken off from all. Furthermore, freedom of address is critical to the staying rights given in the First Amendment. Restricting address would besides curtail freedom of faith, freedom of the imperativeness, and so on. Furthermore, one must recognize that although hate address may be protected, hate offenses are non. In fact, the most effectual step to battle hate offenses may be speech itself. Another job with address codifications is that they are non clear plenty. Ill-defined boundaries and mistily worded prohibitions have created quite a batch of confusion for those seeking to understand the codifications. Many people are now pressing charges against anything and everything that the may happen violative. Charges have been brought up against people who have written amusing lampoons about cultural nutrients in campus magazines. Charges have besides been brought up against people who have made non-racist, derogative comments to other races. Charges such as these are normally dropped, but in some instances, people have really been fired from occupations or expelled from school. However, it would be about impossible to specify the boundaries of address codifications. In order for this to go on, person would hold to do himself the authorization, the jurisprudence. This clearly exhibits the fact that address codifications are non the reply. Speech codifications are designed to decide issues covering with many signifiers of racism and dogmatism. However, address codifications do non decide these issues ; they merely suppress them. Ignoring such jobs will non do them to travel off, as address is a consequence of what is indoors of a individual. One critic of address codifications stated, Verbal pureness is non societal alteration. Freedom of address besides allows pupils to be after antagonistic onslaughts on hatred address. Address can be fought with address, leting those who discriminate against others to see the issue from an alternate point of position and to perchance alter their ain position. Speech codifications would forestall this alteration from happening, doing them to get the better of their ain intent. Finally, address codifications on college campuses defeat one of the chief intents of college in general. The chief intent of most colleges is to help larning through unfastened argument and free enquiry and to edify pupils. Speech codes straight curtail this signifier of larning. Small can be learned in a schoolroom in which the pupils are afraid to voice their sentiments. All positions and sentiments should be entitled to be heard so that others may research them and make up ones mind for themselves what they believe. Students may non ever agree or change their heads on certain topics, but hopefully they will be able to see the issue from a new angle alternatively of a nonreversible, closed-minded point of position. Sing the universe from another s point of position could so be the key to happening peace with each other. After one has examined both sides of the issue of address codifications, it should be clear that address codifications are incorrect and are really tangential to society. Hatred, racism, and dogmatism provender on environments where jobs are suppressed and ignored. No 1 should of all time be content with ignorance toward these issues. Many people choose to turn their dorsums on contending address codifications because they feel that it is merely a little conflict and that there are more of import things to worry approximately. What people fail to recognize is that we give some of our power to the authorities with each little conflict that we lose. Forty old ages ago, totalitarian authoritiess, much like that in George Orwell s 1984, were thought to be an absolute impossibleness. Today, nevertheless, when we look at issues such speech codifications, we can see that eventual entire authorities control is a distinguishable possibility. Therefore, it should be our responsibility as Ameri cans, populating in a society built on democracy, to contend to maintain the rights that our sires one time fought to derive for us. So, we must make up ones mind where we should get down. Possibly we should get down by speaking about it.

Rocket Propulsion essays

Rocket Propulsion essays When I first thought of rocket propulsion it sounded very complex and hard to understand. I could not image that rockets could move in space where there is no friction. This concept is easy to understand now that I know escape velocity and conservation of momentum. These elements are easy to understand once the basics are learned. In order to send a rocket into outer space we must escape our gravitational pull. Earths gravity gets smaller and smaller as you get further from the center of the earth. Therefore, when an object that has been thrown up into the air stops acceding and starts descending, it is because of the gravitational field of the earth. Lets say you throw an object up into the air and it does not return to the earths surface. You have given the object escape velocity which is defined, as the minimum amount of velocity an object must have in order to escape the gravitational field of the earth. As told by the NASA Explorers articles Escape velocity requires an object to propel itself with enough speed and thrust to break through a barrier. In order to break through this barrier, it requires that an object to be traveling at an enormous speed of an estimated value of 25,000 miles per hour. Since we have not figured out cold fusion, we need a lot of fuel to send an object into outer space. On the space shuttle the orange colored tank called the external tank is full of oxygen and hydrogen which propels the space shuttle in to outer space. The space shuttle has two big rockets on the side called simply the solid rocket boosters. These are for the sole purpose of getting the space shuttle through the earths gravity. On the television show, Speed Without Limits, they compared the solid rocket boosters to, two big firecrackers with 3,300,000 lbs of thrust. Here on earth, what makes a car go is not just the engine itself, but the friction force applied by the ...

Fast food Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Management Report Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Management Report - Dissertation Example Unlike other resources which an organization deploys people or its staff are live resources that think, have feelings, aspirations, motives and emotions which get nurtured, developed ,frustrated or stunted every now and then. No human would be willing to work with frustrated aspirations or stunted and suppressed feelings. Thus it becomes incumbent on an organization to nurture and develop the feelings, aspirations, emotions of its employees. Recruitment and selection is only the starting point in labeling the potential employee as successful; it is the proper organizational induction process that ensures that the employee catches his breath, looks around the organization, understands its basic and core activities, evaluates the various opportunities and facilities for growth, looks at the responsibilities maps and evaluates the sources available in the organization to carry out the tasks given to him/her in the job card. Thus a proper induction process is the start of the strategic H R function for any organization. A short cut or improper induction process may result in cutting short the employee's overall experience in the organization and may critically affect his overall morale and motivation .A proper induction is also an important step in setting up the employee on a potential path of employee empowerment. A proper orientation can also result in developing leaders among employees. This paper examines the overall strategic HR function in reference to the role of the process of induction and orientation. 9 Building on this focus this paper maintains the following research and Project Learning Objectives 10 Research Objectives 10 The main objectives of the proposed research scheme primarily concerning the impact of induction procedures...A change model built by Ghoshal and Bartlett can be considered for application in the case of MILKO and the suggested induction and onboarding program would set in motion such a change model. This envisages a change from the traditional corporate structure to an organization characterized as an "individualized corporation". This model is built in a manner to provide managers and leaders a perspective from which to deliberate the changes required their organizations. In a traditional corporate structure where compliance, control and contractual employer/employee relationships dominate, the organizations turn bureaucratic and become less hospitable for innovations and quality consciousness. Such organizations present work performance and quality standards which rarely improve from such preset standards. The model radically intends to relocate responsibility and the sense of ow nership to the employee encouraging greater discipline in getting to targets- a process ably supported by requisite systems and visibility of information. In conclusion, this paper took up the study of MILKOS and found through a survey that employee induction efforts had left much to be desired. This paper is an attempt to devise and propose a new induction process that is based upon well-researched theoretical models and concepts that threw out the important dimensions that may be essential to cover in the employee induction program. The paper finally suggests such an ideal induction program and bases it on the realities of MILKOS.

Observation and Reflective Feedback Worksheet Case Study

Observation and Reflective Feedback Worksheet - Case Study Example I frequently used paraphrasing by asking and repeating back when Ben told me there was Domestic violence in the relationship. I used open-ended questions when I asked about Jed Ben's son. I also used the appropriate facial expressions when Ben confided in me about various subjects. I asked Ben about the good times with Ellen and he told me how the good times were good and how they were happy and good friends, and how they used to go to the in-laws' but now he doesn't like them. Ben agreed that both he and Ellen needed to change to get their lives back on track. I recognised when Ben was using different emotions, and, during our discussion, he had a soft spot. I said to Bent that "you seem to have a soft spot for your son Jed." Ben agreed he did and that he loved his son. I also noticed Ben was very harsh towards Ellen at times. Ben did agree that he had good demeanour about, or a had a soft spot for, certain issues. I did notice and reflect this to the client that he had a change in his emotion. I did notice the way I would normally structure a session with a client at work. I couldn't apply it in the mock counseling situation. It didn't feel real and I was struggling to make a made-up scenario real. I understand the basic fundamentals but I find it easier in real life situations rather than mock situations. I feel I was relating well with the client and we were communicating well after the emotional wall he put up initially. Slowly I chipped away at it and he did open up eventually. I was able to talk freely with his values about Domestic Violence. However, the fact that he couldn't see how it was a problem for Jed and how it affected him, was difficult to explain to Ben so that he...I frequently used paraphrasing by asking and repeating back when Ben told me there was Domestic violence in the relationship. I used open-ended questions when I asked about Jed Ben's son. I also used the appropriate facial expressions when Ben confided in me about various subjects. I asked Ben about the good times with Ellen and he told me how the good times were good and how they were happy and good friends, and how they used to go to the in-laws' but now he doesn't like them. I recognised when Ben was using different emotions, and, during our discussion, he had a soft spot. I said to Bent that "you seem to have a soft spot for your son Jed." Ben agreed he did and that he loved his son. I also noticed Ben was very harsh towards Ellen at times. I was able to talk freely with his values about Domestic Violence. However, the fact that he couldn't see how it was a problem for Jed and how it affected him, was difficult to explain to Ben so that he understood. It wasn't until I mentioned that Jed could be removed from his care if he didn't stop the Domestic Violence that Ben understood the implications of his actions. I feel being blunt is a useful tool with involuntary clients.

Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Jordan

Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Jordan Chapter 1: Introduction Problem background Foreign direct investment has become the major economic driver of globalisation, accounting for over half of all cross-border investments. for example, approximately $1 trillion in greenfield investment was announced by companies in 2007, creating about 3 million jobs in their overseas subsidiaries. Companies are rapidly globalising through FDI to serve new markets and customers, map out their value chains in the most efficient locations globally, and to access technological and natural resources. A government of another country may also decide to invest in other countries through the direct provision of grants to developing countries. Foreign direct investment is often used by multinational companies as a means of extending their manufacturing to countries abroad. Foreign direct investment by multinational firms is said to have grown tremendously over the last two decades even above trade flows. (Markusen and Venables, 1999). International economic activity increasingly involves foreign production and intra-firm trade by multinational firms and it is now estimated that approximately 30% of world trade is intra-firm. (Markusen and Venables, 1999). Despite the growth in FDI, Markusen and Venables (1999) suggest that we have a poor understanding of the ways in which direct investment is just a simple substitute for trade, as well as the ways in which it is something quite different. Countries often offer incentives to foreign investors in a bid to lure them to invest in domestic firms. These incentives come in the form of trade policy concessions, financial assistance and tax breaks. (Girma, 2001). For example, Girma (2001) notes that the British government provided the equivalent of $30,000 per employee to attract Samsung to North East England and $50,000 per employee to attract Siemens to Newcastle. (UNCTAD, 1996). This incentive packages are justified on the grounds that productivity gains would be accrue to domestic producers from knowledge externalities generated by foreign affiliates. (Smarzynska, 2002). Furthermore, Girma (2001) suggests that these incentive schemes have been justified on the grounds that the facilitate the creation of jobs, as well as regional development. It is often believed that there is a productivity gap between foreign owned firms and domestic firms and the attraction of foreign direct investment can help bridge this gap due to the potential for spillovers. Girma and Wakelin (2000) suggests that spillovers would have regional dimension for a number of reasons. Spillovers can result from the direct contacts with local suppliers and distributors. This may arise from upward and downward linkages which may be local in nature thus minimising transport costs and facilitating communication between the supplier/distributor and the Multinational firm. (Girma and Wakelin, 2000). In addition, multinationals provide training to employees which increases the turnover of labour thus creating another avenue for spillovers. (Haacker, 1999) cited by Girma and Wakelin (2000). (Girma, 2001). However, Smarzynska (2002) suggests that there is little conclusive evidence indicating that domestic firms benefit from foreign presence in their sector. It has also been suggested that multinational firms have an incentive to prevent information leakage that would improve the performance of their local competitors in the same industry but at the same time may want to transfer knowledge to local suppliers in other suppliers. Smarzynska (2002). As a result, spillover effects from foreign direct investment are more likely than not to take place through backward linkages, that is, through contacts between domestic suppliers of intermediate inputs and their multinational clients. Smarzynska (2002). One would reasonably expect foreign direct investment to have an impact on the economic growth of a country. Foreign direct investment is said to provide a number of benefits to the receiving country through technological transfers, knowledge transfers etc. for example, for example, Borensztein et al. (1998) employ a model of technology diffusion to show that the rate of economic growth of a backward country depends on the extent of adoption and implementation of new technologies that are already in use in leading countries. Carves (1974) had earlier suggested that foreign direct investment influenced host country conditions through two main channels. Firstly, foreign direct investment should result in technological transfers to host country firms. This should be so because multinational companies provide subsidiaries with an efficiency advantage which should indirectly generate spillover effects to other domestic firms irrespective of whether they are subsidiaries of the multinational company or not. Secondly, multinational presence could also have negative effects on domestic firms as this would result into an increased level of competition in the host country. As far back as the 1970s, many host country governments and some economists viewed multinational investment as detrimental to host economies’ welfare and development, creating monopoly situations that exported those economies and stifled local competition. (Markusen and Venebles, 1999). The view in the 1990s was however considerably different and more optimistic, suggesting that multinationals have important complementaries with local industry and may stimulate development in host economies. (Markusen and Venables, 1999). In the absence of any microeconomic imperfections, a small foreign direct investment (FDI) project will have no effect on host economy welfare, so if a case is to be made for gains and losses, it must rest on the possibility that FDI creates or interacts with distortions in the host economy. (Markusen and Venables, 1999). 1.2. Motivation of the study Jordan remains a major region of inward foreign direct investment. Studying the impact of foreign direct investment on Jordan’s economic growth can be justified for a number of reasons. FDI theory suggests that multinational firms have firm specific assets which imply that the may also have higher productivity than domestic firms as a result of the superior technological knowledge, access to international networks and management structure. (Girma, 2001). A company with high foreign direct investment is therefore expected to be capable of benefiting from a substantial increase in net exports which is a major determinant of economic growth. According to Girma (2001) the fact that multinational companies have higher levels of productivity growth indicates that the host country should enjoy two main benefits: (1) the host country should benefit from new production facilities or benefit from the rescue of failing firms in the case of acquisition, potentially raising output, employm ent and exports; (2) foreign firms should be unable to internalise their advantages fully which should enable domestic firms to benefit from spillovers. (Girma, 2001). The combined effects of these benefits should therefore result in high levels of economic growth. It is therefore essential to test these propositions using data on Jordan. Foreign direct investment has been carried out in many other countries mostly in the Western countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, China, etc. The literature seems to be lacking in terms of Jordan. With increasing growth in multinational activity and increase concern as to whether FDI contributes to the general welfare of an economy, it is the interest of this paper to understand whether FDI contributes to the economic growth of a country, making reference to Jordan as a case study. Most of the studies on foreign direct investment have focused on the spillover effects of FDI activity to domestic companies. In addition, most of the studies have been carried out using microeconomic analysis. This paper considers the problem from a macroeconomic perspective by studying the direct relationship between FDI activity and economic growth on Jordan. 1.3. Objectives of the Study. The objective of this study is to model the effects of foreign direct investment on Jordan by using aggregate macroeconomic data over the period 1976 to 2006. To isolate the effects of other macroeconomic variables on economic growth and to improve the overall significance of the model, the neoclassical growth model will be employed. 1.4 Significance of the Study. The study will serve as a yard stick for policy makers when designing macroeconomic policy in relation to incentives related to the attraction of foreign direct investment in Jordan, openness of the economy, designing monetary and fiscal policy in Jordan. The research will also serve as a guide for further research to students and researchers interested in studying the impact of foreign direct investment on the economic growth of Jordan. 1.5. Limitations of the Study. Chapter 2. Literature Review 2.1 Definition of Foreign Direct Investment. Foreign direct investment is defined as the process whereby a company in one country makes a physical investment to build a factory in another country. These include investments made to acquire lasting interest in enterprises operating outside the economy of the investing company. Foreign direct investment is often promoted by multinational companies when they decide to expand their manufacturing or businesses abroad. Foreign direct investment is also considered to be a diversification strategy pursued mostly by multinational companies which involves the purchased of assets, usually associated with manufacturing or distribution facilities, in another country. FDI is often regarded as the second stage of overseas involvement after agency or licensing agreements have been used to establish a market. Investors in such companies find it more appropriate to reinvest the earnings generated from foreign activities due to the difficulties entailed in the repatriation of profits, as well as t he differences in tax systems that may make it more efficient to retain earnings and reinvest overseas, than to bring them home. 2.2 Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment According to Lim (2008) citing Dunning (1996, p. 56) there are four types of motives behind the FDI activities of multinational firms. These include resource seeking, market seeking, efficiency seeking, and strategy asset capacity seeking. (Lim, 2008: p. 40). These are referred to by the UNCTAD as economic determinants. (Lim, 2008). A host country’s policy framework and business facilitation also plays an important role in determining MNCs’ FDI activities. These include the size of the domestic market, institutional and political environment of the host country, the number of distribution channels, the level of financial development, the taxation policy of the host country etc. According to James (2008) the level of financial development may affect the level of foreign direct investment. Accordingly, financial development acts as a mechanism in facilitating the adoption of new technologies in the domestic economy. (James, 2008). It has also been suggested that the build ing of distribution channels in the host country may also affect the level of foreign direct investment. (Stoian and Filipaios, 2008). This indicates that the more distribution channels a firm can build and the more easy it is to build these channels in the host country, the higher would be the likelihood that the multinational company will make an investment in the host country. Another important factor is the political environment of the host country. It has been suggested in the literature that there is a relationship between broad indices of socio-political instability and institutional quality, political freedom and democracy and FDI. (Kolstad and Vollanger, 2008). The political environment of the host country is therefore an important determinant of FDI. Conventional wisdom detects that high levels of political and social stability, high political freedom, high institutional quality, and high levels of democracy will facilitate the levels of FDI. On the contrary, a country tha t performs poorly on the latter indices of political and institutional factors runs the risk of attracting little or no FDI. The size of the domestic market also influences foreign direct investment. (James, 2008). The larger the size of the domestic market, the higher will be the level of FDI as multinational firms scramble to reap the benefits of economies of scale (economies of scale represent the advantages a firm enjoys because of the fact that it is operating on a large scale. Taxation policies both in the home and host countries may also affect the level of FDI. For example, Hartman (1981) suggests that since the repatriation of earnings to the home country investor and not earnings themselves form the source of the tax liability, the foreign source income should affect investment differently depending on the required transfers of funds within the firm. Consequently, in order to maximise after tax profits, a firm should finance its foreign investment out of foreign earnings t o the greatest extent possible. This further indicates that the required return on investment abroad increases at the point at which foreign investment just exhausts foreign earnings. (Hartman, 1981). Foreign direct investment is also determined by corporate governance. For example, Lien et al. (2005) provide evidence that the presence of a large number of supervisors is associated with FDI outside China, which is consistent with resource strategy views on corporate boards. They also find that family control and share ownership of domestic firms are associated with FDI strategy. There is also an observation of a negative relationship between foreign share ownership in Taiwanese foreign firms and FDI decisions. (Lien et al., 2005). Wu and Radbone (2005) observe from Shangai data that different local factors determine the location of different patterns of FDI. For example, Wu and Radbone (2005) suggests that the development characteristic of urban districts is an important determinant of the location of service and manufacturing FDI. They provide evidence suggesting that service FDI tends to aggregate in the areas that already have a high density of service activities whereas manufacturing FDI prefers to locate in central government-designated areas where incentives and preferential treatment are present. (Wu and Radbone, 2005). 2.3. Foreign Direct Investment Around the world A number of studies have been carried out on FDI in different countries across the globe. These include, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Developing countries, emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil. 2.3.1 FDI in the UK. It has been suggested that the United Kingdom is the most successful national location for new foreign manufacturing investment entering the European Union. (Hill and Munday, 1994) cited by Driffield and Munday (1998). For example, the United Kingdom attracted net inward foreign direct investment of approximately  £27.2billion between 1987 and 1993 and estimates show that foreign manufacturing firms in the UK employ more that 78,000 people, and account for more that one quarter of UK manufacturing net output sales. (Driffield and Munday, 1998). Major contributors to foreign direct investment in the UK include companies from the United States, Germany, France and Japan and the major vehicle for this inward foreign direct investment is the acquisition of domestic UK companies. (Child et al., 2000). Girma (2001) investigating the presence of productivity or wage gap between foreign and domestic firms in the UK, as well as whether the presence of foreign firms in a sector raises the productivity of domestic firms provide evidence that foreign firms achieve greater productivity that domestic firms and pay higher wages. There is no evidence of intra-industry spillovers. (Girma, 2001). The findings from this study are inconsistent with an earlier study by Girma and Wakelin (2000) which suggests that domestic firms gain from the presence of multinational firms in the same sector and region, but loose out if the firms are located in a different region but the same sector. In addition Girma and Wakelin (2000) suggest that spillover e ffects are also influenced by the characteristics of the region. For example, less developed regions are found to gain less from spillovers than other regions, sectors with high levels of competition gain more, and sectors with low technological gap between foreign and domestic firms benefit from higher spillovers. (Girma and Wakelin, 2000). Table 1 below shows the trend of direct investment into the UK between 1986-95. Table 2.1.: Trend of direct investment into the UK 1986-1995 Source: Child et al. (2000). It can be observed that the USA remains the major contributor of FDI to the UK as observed from its increasing trend of FDI to the UK over the period 1986 to 1995. One can also observe that Japan has also been a major contributor but the FDI from Japan to the UK in the years to March 1993/95 witnessed a significant drop from  £1,085.00million in the years to March 1990/93 to  £109.1million. Germany has also been a major contributor with an increasing trend of FDI to the UK. France has been contributing the least among the four countries but the trend increased from  £59.2million in the years to March 1992/93 to  £1,188.2million in the years to March 1994/95. One can also observe that these four countries accounted for the highest proportion of FDI to the UK over the proportion ranging from approximately 73.0% ro 81%. Their share of FDI however witnessed a declining trend between the period 1986/7 and 1992/3. Their share of FDI to the UK again rose from 70.8% in 1992/3 to 80.9 % in 1994/5. Driffield and Munday (1998) observed whether the extent to which foreign direct investment in selected UK manufacturers has an impact on the report profit of domestic firms. The evidence suggests that in addition to having an impact on domestic market share, entry by foreign firms also has an impact on the domestic cost conditions which leads to a high probability that the profits of the domestic firms may be reduced. 2.3.2 Foreign Direct Investment in the USA. 2.3.3 Foreign Direct Investment in Asia 2.3.4 South America 2.2.5 FDI in the Euro Area. 2.4 Foreign Direct Investment in Jordan. Jordan falls among the countries classified by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as â€Å"front-runners†. These include countries with high FDI potential and performance. (UNCTAD, 2008). Apart from Jordan, other countries classified as front-runners include Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Belgium, etc. (UNCTAD, 2008). For example, Jordan ranked number 7 in the 2004-2006 FDI performance index of the UNCTAD. This marked an improvement based on the 2003-2005 FDI performance index which ranked Jordan 19th. (UNCTAD, 2008). 2.5 Literature Review There has been a lot of studies ob how foreign direct investment affects the economic growth of a country. However, most of the studies have focused their attention of firm level data using a small sample of firms to test their hypothesis and later on generalise results to the country as a whole. In addition, most of these studies have focused on how foreign direct investment increase productivity growth with particular emphasis on the marginal physical products of factor inputs such as labour and capital. A number of studies have been carried out on foreign direct investment ranging from the determinants o foreign direct investment, impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth, foreign exchange rates and foreign direct investment, taxation and foreign direct investment, spill over effects of foreign direct investment, etc. In this section of the paper a number of these studies will be reviewed so as to see where there are still gaps in the literature. As concerns the deter minants of FDI, Kolstad and Villianger (2008) employs firm level FDI data from 57 countries over the period 1989 to 2000, to examine the host country determinants of FDI flows in services as a whole, and in the major service industries. Their results suggest that institutional quality and democracy are more important for FDI in services than general investment risk or political stability. Specifically Kolstad and Villanger (2008) observe that democracy affects FDI to developing countries only, indicating that the absence of democracy is detrimental to investment below a certain treshhold. Consistent with the observation that many services are non-tradable, Kolstad and Villager observe that service FDI is market-seeking, and unaffected by trade openness. Stoain and Filipaios (2008) suggest that Greek firms invest primarily in similar countries with small market size, and open economies. High bureaucratic quality and rule of law are also found to be essential determinants of the FDI d ecisions of Greek firms while the existence of high corruption serves as a deterrent to FDI. (Stoain and Filipaios, 2008). James (2008) using data As concerns taxation, Hartman (1981) suggests that since the repatriation of earnings to the home country investor and not earnings themselves form the source of the tax liability, the foreign source income should affect investment differently depending on the required transfers of funds within the firm. Consequently, in order to maximise after tax profits, a firm should finance its foreign investment out of foreign earnings to the greatest extent possible. This further indicates that the required return on investment abroad increases at the point at which foreign investment just exhausts foreign earnings. Chapter 3. Research Methodology and Data. In this chapter, the methodology, as well as the data used to achieve the research aims and objectives would be discussed. Methodology is very important as it may affect the results of the study. It is therefore appropriate to discuss the methods properly since it will serve as a plan that would be referred to when completing each step in the latter part of the study. Data is very important especially the source from which it is obtained as some data sources tend to be unreliable while others are reliable. Relevant data must also be used in the study so as to ensure that the results are not biased. 3.1 Methodology The research method appropriate for this study is a quantitative research approach. Unlike most of the studies on FDI that have often used firm level data, this firm is going to use aggregate macroeconomic data to achieve its objective. The study aims at analysing how economic growth in Jordan is affected by inward foreign direct investment into the country. The appropriate way to achieve this is to establish a relationship between economic growth and inward foreign direct investment and then determine whether this relationship positive or negative and whether the relationship is significant. The significance will be done by carrying out t-tests on the coefficients that will be obtained by running the regressions. To achieve this, a regression model would be used to model the relationship between FDI and economic growth. To isolate the effects of other variables, and to improve the significance of the model, it is necessary to include other variables in the model. According to the neoclassical growth model, economic growth depends on a number of factors. These include domestic investments, population growth, which can be proxied by the labour force, foreign direct investment, development of the banking system, openness of the economy and education proxied by the expenditure on education and technology proxied by capital formation. Based on the above discussion, we can write the following growth model for Jordan. If we assume that economic growth is determined solely by FDI we can write the following growth model. (1) Where measures the annual growth in GDP per capita in percentage terms, represents a measure of the growth in per capita GDP not accounted for by fluctuations in the net inflow of FDI, is a parameter that measures the sensitivity of per capita GDP to changes in the net inflow of FDI, is the change in the net inflow of foreign direct investment to Jordan in year t, the subscripts t and j represent Jordan and time respectively, is a serially uncorrelated error term, which is assumed to have an expected value of zero. It measures the growth in per capita GDP that is neither accounted for by changes in FDI nor. The overall significance of the above model would be tested by calculating the R-square and testing its significance. The R-square is given by: (2) where RSS and TSS represent the regression sum of squares and total sum of squares respectively. If the R-square is below 50% this would indicate that changes in FDI to Jordan do not properly capture changes in per capita GDP indicating that model 1 is not a good model for the data. In that case we would have to include other macroeconomic variables into the model to improve on its overall significance. These variables include among others: interest rates, openness of the economy, domestic investments, population growth, education, technological development, etc. Taking this into consideration we can now write the following model: (3) where and remain as earlier defined, , , , , measure the sensitivity of movements in the per capita GDP growth to changes in banking sector development, government expenditure on goods and services, trade and net exports. The banking sector development is measured by using the domestic credit provided by the banking sector as a percentage of GDP. , , , and represent the change in FDI as a percentage of GDP for Jordan in year t, change in the banking sector development as a percentage of GDP for Jordan in year t, change in government expenditure as a percentage of GDP for Jordan in year t, change in trade as a percentage of GDP for Jordan in year t and change in net exports as a percentage of GDP for Jordan in year t, respectively. represents a serially uncorrelated random error term with zero expected value. Model 3 will also be estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and the significance of the coefficients will be tested using t-tests. The relationship between per capita GDP and economic FDI will also be explored. 3.1 Description of Data The data used in this study is obtained from the Economic and Social Development Service (ESDS) database, which reports world bank data on various economic growth indicators include GDP growth, per capita GDP growth, growth in exports, interest rates, consumer price index, inflation, expenditure on primary, secondary tertiary education, imports, exports, inward foreign direct investment, outward foreign direct investment, etc. Data on domestic credit provided by the banking sector as a percentage of GDP, exports of goods and services as a percentage of GDP, etc. The data is analysed using trend analysis and regression analysis. Trend analysis enables us to observe how the variables of interest have moved over the period under study. The period chosen for the study is 1976 to 2006. This spans over 30 years and enables us to observe how changes have taken place over the years. Trend analysis is however limited in that it cannot tell us which variables depend on which. We therefore turn to regression analysis, which enables us to study the relationship between variables and test for the significance of this relationship. We will therefore use regression analysis to determine how economic growth in Jordan is dependent on a number of growth determinants or indicators including banking sector development, foreign direct investment, population growth, government expenditure, gross capital formation, inflation, etc. Chapter 4. Data Presentation and Analysis 4.1 Trend Analysis. Figure 1: Jordan FDI net Inflows (% of GDP) and GDP per Capita Growth (Annual %) 1976-2006. The figure above shows the Jordan’s FDI net inflows as a percentage of GDP over the period 1976 to 2006. Figure also shows the annual percentage GDP per Capita growth over the period 1976-2006. One can observe a constant trend in the GDP FDI net inflows as a percentage of GDP over the 20 year period 1976 to 1996. As from 1996, the FDI net inflows as a percentage of GDP took an upward turn and has been on the rise since then with very slight fluctuations. The FDI rose from a low of approximately 2.0% in 2004 to approximately 20% in 2006. This indicates that Jordan has witnessed significant growth in the net inflow of FDI over the last 10 years. The annual GDP per Capi