Case consruction studies for civil engineering Essay

Case consruction studies for civil engineering - Essay Example Twenty-four others were injured, including 11 first responders eight remained hospitalized, officials said. (FOXNEWS Monday, March 17, 2008). This was just another heart wrecking and most unwelcome accident that happened in the construction industry. In an era of highly advanced science and technology as of now, we expect that deaths caused due to accidents at work sites, should be the least ever but survey reports and statistics show an increase directly proportional to the advancement in science and technology applied in the construction and civil engineering sector worldwide. Statistics from the UK Health and Safety Executive show that on average one or two people are killed every week as a result of construction work. Occupational ill-health, which can accumulate over time, accounts for further loss of life. What is health and safety In simple terms, health and safety is about identifying risks and eliminating or controlling them to prevent accidents and occupational ill-health. Even though it's inevitable that no job is free from any occupational hazards, measures can adopted to minimize the risks by eliminating or controlling the factors that give rise to unnecessary ones. What are the risks Statistics show that people falling from heights and objects falling from heights and strik... onal health problems arise from chemical hazards, such as liquid, dusts, gasses and fumes, or physical hazards such as cold, heat, noise, vibration, ionizing radiation, compressed air, lasers and manual handling. Why are good health and safety processes important Accidents and ill-health have both a human cost and a financial cost. Lost time and materials, higher insurance premiums, compensation claims and possibly legal costs are the most obvious potential impacts. There are also indirect costs in terms of potential damage to reputation which can make it harder for a company to attract business or new employees or for a project to obtain funding. Good health and safety processes demonstrate respect for people whether they are employees, clients or local communities hosting a construction project. Long-term health effects are usually slower to be realized but the costs and long-term implications can be far more significant than accidents and should not be underestimated. Construction has one of the highest rates of accidents and incidences of ill-health of all employment sectors. High risk activities, poor training and inadequate safeguards all contribute. It need not be this way. There are measures that can be taken to minimize the risks. Constructing a health and safety policy and program: This is a simple but effective strategic framework: 1. POLICY 2. ORGANISING 3. PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION 4. MEASURING PERFORMANCE 5. REVIEWING PERFORMANCE Policy Every organization needs to draw up a statement of policy on how it will manage health and safety, including how responsibilities will be allocated. The policy should take into account the nature of the construction activities involved and the size of the organization. Organizing An adequately resourced and

U.S. and Nevada Constitutions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

U.S. and Nevada Constitutions - Essay Example ed by Bowers that â€Å"the incredibly short span of three years from territory to statehood and the events predating and surrounding that transition make the Nevada Constitution a truly exceptional document† (12). Due to several amendments made to this constitution, it has ended up with more words and more details as compared to the United States constitution; it is more deeply descriptive, while the U.S.’s is more general in terms of its structure. As per the constitution of Nevada, it has 19 articles that describe the basic laws ranging from the organization of the government, power distribution within the government institutions, and the bill of rights meant to protect the people from any form of oppression. In most cases, the Nevada constitution resembles that of the U.S. though in some other instances, there are variations which result in differences in length, for example the omission of individual rights from the U.S. constitution, but present in the Nevada constitution. According to Bowers (15), Nevada’s constitution provides a more direct means of separation of powers into three most basic divisions and has an additional system for checks and balances moreover this constitution has a system for amendments and revision whereby the judiciary has been vested with such powers. These additional clauses makes it longer that the U.S constitution. There are various factors that define the length and details of a state constitution. According to Berman, â€Å"a broad historical factor accounting for this condition was the loss of popular confidence in state legislators† (77). Constitutional amendments made after the civil wars had extensive and detailed policies to prevent corruptions and mismanagement that marred the nation. The ease of amendments provided by the Nevada’s constitution has made it easier to add additional values by the concerned parties. In general, most of the state constitutions are noteworthy constitutions; the differences can be

Business communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business communication - Essay Example Giving details of how effective messages can be created or directed. I have undertaken several different tasks and assignments in this course. Various oral presentations by using different techniques were done. Use of slides and presentation transcripts were also part of my study activities. Portfolios part comes with two different parts. Part A consists of article review and speech review. Different tasks were performed which improved my capacity and learning towards article and speech review furthermore part B involved self reaction and poster submission. I learned through a workshop that how effectively one can design posters and what should one consider in order to effectively conveying message through poster. The course started with the focus on history of business communication deriving it from different eras and also telling about different developments chronologically, such as the era before 1600 and so on. Furthermore a brief summary of history of communication was presented. We were then told about effectiveness of business communication, definition, need, importance and trends. Later different communication models were put up such as transactional, transformational and basic model. Furthermore barriers and flow of information in an organization were studied. Started with the topic behavioral protocols and ethical communication in which do’s and don’ts regarding how to be professional on jobs were told. Later four views of ethical behavior and their factors were discussed with further emphasis on how ethics in communication should work. Started with one of my favorite topic emotional intelligence and gender communication. In which IQ and emotional intelligence role and importance were explained. Further managing and developing of emotions were highlighted. Different strategies and models were also explained, such as nine strategies for promoting emotional intelligence and Mayer’s and

Causes, Negative Effects of Child Abuse and Prevention Research Paper

Causes, Negative Effects of Child Abuse and Prevention - Research Paper Example This cause can be because of social-economic factors, parental profile, the family environment or child related factors. Parental related causes: In parental profile there are such factors as stressful conditions, health and mental problems, alcoholism and drug addiction, parenthood at youthful age and finally lack of proper parenting skills. All this factors in one way or another contribute directly or indirectly to the abuse of children or increases the susceptibility of children being abused. Family environment causes : Some of the factors within the family set up that increases the risk of children being abused include; constant marital conflicts and fights of the parents ,high burden of person responsibility and lack of support associated with single parenthood and failure of the parents to recognize and reward good behaviors but instead looking for negative behaviors in order to punish. Child related causes: Children in most cases do not contribute directly to being victims of mistreatment. ... , lack of social support, dangerous and risk neighborhoods and lastly violent communities that support the use of physical force to punish children (stopchildabusenow.com.au, 2008) 2.0 Effects of child abuse Child abuse and neglect results into physical, psychological, cognitive and behavioral consequences which are at times interrelated (Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (HHS), Washington, DC. e tal, 2003) Physical health problems: Health problems in children that are related to abuse include baby shaken syndrome that may result into brain damage, spinal cord injuries, impaired hearing, speech difficulties or even death. Trauma and psychological problems: Children undergoing mistreatment can suffer from complex trauma disorder which does affect the development of brain, interferes with capability of a child to integrate sensory, cognitive and emotional information and this eventually makes the child to overreact to subsequent stress situations. Learning and developmental problems: M altreatment of a child in early childhood does seriously affects the capacity development in infants particularly in area of speech and language. This in turn results in learning difficulties and poor performance and achievements academically. Mental problems: Mental problems particularly in adolescent is associated with abuse in childhood and the rates are generally higher in adolescent than in young children. In children and adolescents mental problems may include depression and anxiety disorders. Behavioral problems: Children abused in childhood portray complex behavior problems in adolescent. These behaviors may include isolation, sadness, depressions, aggressiveness, hyper reaction and improper sexual behaviors (Larmot, 2011) 3.0. Prevention of child abuse Children abuse and neglect

Descriptive Essay Example for Free

Descriptive Essay Time The living room, or family room, is generally considered the main gathering area in most homes due to the television being located there. However, this is not the case in the more than one hundred year old, light grey, two story home in which I live. The main attraction of this particular living room is the comforting atmosphere and warm fires that take place in the wood-burning fireplace. Upon entering the living room, the golden honey colored hardwood floor creaks underfoot and the fireplace stands out from the roughly textured, earthy green walls that rise up to the textured white ceiling. The long narrow boards that make up the beautifully maintained hardwood floor run lengthwise making this room look even bigger than it actually is. The textured ceiling was done in multi-directional, sweeping, fan patterns that resemble seashells. Hanging in the center of the room is a fifty-two inch brass-trimmed ceiling fan with five dark wood colored blades. Below the fan blades are three frosted glass, bell shaped covers which shade the light bulbs. The massive, seven foot wide, brick fireplace juts outward from the wall as if in attempt to invade the room. Leading to, and as wide as, the fireplace are three rows of eight inch square, red brick colored tiles set into the hardwood floor. The dark brownish red bricks that form the fireplace surround are staggered uniformly, rising five feet high to the white painted wood mantle. The jet black mortar that fills the void between each brick and each tile ties them together. The opening, or firebox, is fitted with a brass frame that holds a pair of glass bi-fold doors. In front of the fireplace doors is a freestanding, flat black painted, tri-fold, wire mesh screen protecting the floor from the popping embers of a hot burning fire on those cold winter nights. To the right of the wire mesh screen are the tools used for tending to the fire and cleaning out the fireplace. They are black wrought iron and hang on a metal rack that matches the screen in front of the fireplace. On the mantle above the fireplace are two matching, and evenly spaced, square ‘infinity’ candle holders, as well as a glass, cone shaped reed diffuser. The candles above the fireplace give off an illuminating glow creating dancing shadows on the wall and ceiling in the evening hours, adding to the natural warmth of the room. The reed diffuser has bright red apple scented oil in it that can be smelled halfway across the room. One of the most interesting things in the room is also on the mantle and that is a nearly rocket shaped, fourteen inch tall by two inch diameter glass Galileo thermometer. Against the wall to the left of the fireplace is the large, grey trimmed, fifty inch screen television which resides atop a five foot long by two foot tall wood stand. The television and stand sits with its back to the front windows of the house that look out to the heavily trafficked Campbell Street that leads into town. On the front of the dark honey colored stand are two oak trimmed glass doors, that neatly frame the open center section, dividing it into thirds. The open middle area holds the black dvr and a dull silver colored surround sound system. On display behind the glass doors, on either side of the electronics, are several video games and movies standing as soldiers in formation. Hanging behind the television are a set of long sheer white curtains that shadow the matching white blinds. The standard horizontal blinds are recess mounted between the wide, off white painted window trim that wraps around the windows. The bright white trimmed, four year old, double pane windows take up about two-thirds of the wall, allowing an abundance of sunlight to come flowing in during the early daytime hours when the blinds are open. On both sides of the windows hanging on the wall, in plain dark wood frames, are family photos that captured happy and joyful times that often bring about stories that surround those times and people. The most favored seating area and best viewpoint for the television and entertainment stand is directly across the room against the opposing wall. This is where the large, three cushioned, cream-colored, smooth and soft feeling micro-fiber couch sits. This thing really looks like it means business when it comes to comfort and relaxation. The overstuffed cushions sink just enough to make accidental napping very easy. The padding in the outward arching arms have the feel of memory foam, soft enough to not reach for a pillow when lying down after a long day at the office or at school. Holding the couch about three inches above the floor are four, black, square, plain looking feet. On each side of the couch, tucked against the wall are a pair of small, somewhat ordinary, dark stained, wooden end tables. Further complimenting the space on the end tables, are a few decorative candles in tall holders. Also on the table to the right side of the couch is a bouquet of brightly colored silk flowers in a short, square, clear glass vase. All of the things in this particular living room are only a part of what makes this house feel like home. It is an area where stories are told, laughter is heard, entertainment is had, and cozy fires are enjoyed by friends and family. The living room is not just another room in the house, it is a place where memories are made.

The Definition Of Downsizing Management Essay

The Definition Of Downsizing Management Essay Given the issues relating to this research field are introduced and research objectives are also be proposed carefully in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the researcher would like to continuous introduces the concepts, definitions and theories relevant to the issues that already mentioned in Chapter 1, through that, Chapter 2 will provide and build research hypothesis for research. Basically, Chapter 2 includes the main parts as follows (1) The definition of downsizing, (2) The definition of Survivors Syndrome, (3) The research hypothesis (4) Chapter summary. Definition of Downsizing In the economic context of continuous competitive, developing, changing and unpredictable, organizations suffering severe downturns in their business or facing difficulties, downsizing strategy is being used by many organizations in every industries and sectors with different goals and visions. There is not a single downsizing definition accepted by all researchers (Davis, Savage, Steward Chapman, 2003). There are many different definitions or understanding about downsizing, for example Cameron, (1994:194) defines downsizing as a positive strategy which do as a purpose of organizations: a set of organizational activities undertaken on the part of management of an organization and designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. In another the way, downsizing is not something just happen to the organization, it is something that the organization knows and act purposively. Downsizing is may be implemented as a defensive reaction to decline or as a pr oactive strategy to enhance organizational performance (Kim S Cameron, 1994). Many organizations for a long time that no longer considered downsizing as a situation solution in the hard time period, but they considered downsizing as an effective strategy to reduce costs, human focus, create job opportunities, increased job challenge and promotion. The expenditure cost can be cut effectively due to better decision making and effective human resource controlling if the organization can maintain the right sized of company. It develops a culture of work where employees can have opportunities for growth, they can easily participate and involvement in making decision. Moreover, employees easily feel be part of organization that they should better participate with more collaboration, fidelity, and accuracy. According to Mishra and Spreitzer (1998) defines downsizing has become the strategy favored by many organizations attempting to cope with fundamental, structural changes in the world ec onomy. Downsizing as a deliberate reduction in size or complexity of a firms activities intended to improve the profitability, productivity, and/or competitiveness of the firms continuing operations(Legatski II, 1998). But in conclusion, most researches have defined downsizing as any reduction in the size of the organization (e.g. Budros, 1999; Cascio, 1993; Freeman Cameron, 1993; Kozlowski, Chao, Smith Hedlund, 1993). Downsizing, in general, refers to the reduction of work for certain organization. For employees, downsizing is considered as a management weapon to enforce greater control over the workforce. To management, it is a strategic measure to bring optimized operation efficiency and productivity in organization. Cameron and colleagues (e.g. Cameron et all., 1991, 1993; Cameron, 1994b) have identified three organizational strategies to achieve downsizing: workforce reduction strategy, work redesign and systematic change. The first strategy is workforce reduction is typi cally a short-term strategy, which simply focuses on reducing organizations headcount. In a confirmatory study, Mishra and Mishra (1994) found that such strategy might lead to loss in valued organizational competency or negative outcome of those who remains. Human resource is essential and is a factor that makes the decision for the development of organizations. Lack of human resource will increase workload, anxiety about losing their jobs at any time, and these feeling leads to insecurity psychological, these are reasons that cause labor productivity reduced. Work reduction is applied by organizations through some programs such as attrition, early retirement or voluntary severance packages, layoffs and terminations. The second and third strategies are work redesign and systematic change strategies. While work reductions resulted is lead to reduction, rather than improvement, the work redesign and systematic change are positively related to organizational performance in term of both cost reduction and quality improvement (Cameron et all.,1993; Mishra and Mishra, 1994) and to survivors (people who remains) of downsizing having a positive learning orientation (Farrell and Mavando, 2004). Many previous researches indicated that the use of workforce reduction is increasing and become popular despite the harmful impacts may arise for organization. Workforce reduction or simply called workforce downsizing is becoming the most popular strategy and a plethora of workforce reduction strategies for downsizing of employees has been proposed (e.g. Greenhalgh et al., 1988; Gutchess, 1985; Leana Feldman, 1992; Price, 1990). Whenever reduce equipments, machinesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ organizations can find out the outcome and its impact through simple calculations, but in workforce downsizing, the emotions, loyalty, and human effort cannot simply calculate. In an organizational context, employees not only contribute their individual skills and knowledge, they also collaborate and integrate their separate skills toward creating firm capabilities. As such, both human and social capital-and therefore the commitment and the loyalty of employees-play an important role in dictating a firms ca pacity to create competitive advantage. Reducing headcount may lead to immediate labor cost savings, but it can also seriously erode employee commitment and loyalty, with negative consequences for firm competitiveness and performance. So the questions are what the impacts of workforce downsizing to organizations are, how it effects, and what the advantage and disadvantage of the impact are? Some researches indicated the opinion that organizational downsizing may create better productivity or better performance for organization; while, others indicate downsizing may create negative impact or threat to human resource, break of existed organization culture. Downsizing has been defined as an attempt to increase organizational effectiveness(Kozlowsky, et. al. 1993). Freeman Cameron (1993) and Tomasco (1990) from their finding indicated that organization downsizing created some benefits to organization such as faster decision making, more flexibilities, and increase in productivity. Cascio (1993:97) suggested that proponents of downsizing generally expect the following benefits: lower overheads, less bureaucracy, faster decision making, smoother communications, greater entrepreneurship and increases in productivity. Dow nsizing can suggest to financial markets or government funding agencies that an organization is cutting costs and reducing waste, which may increase availability of capital for subsequent activities (Cascio, 1993; Dial Murphy, 1995; Palmon, Sun Tang, 1997. Downsizing for some individuals is also a chance to demonstrate the capacity himself, or an opportunity for career development. The people who still remain with organization will be the one who give the most effort for the development of organization, if they can prove themselves at this time, success may comes to their organization and will come to them as well. However, in contrast with the benefits that downsizing may bring, many other previous studies indicate their strongly disagree with those arguments. Downsizing may provide a decrease in operating expenses in the near term, but the long term impacts may not be so positive (Difrances, 2002). Downsizing can lead to a loss of knowledge and experience base because of some laid off will be the people who worked for a long time with organization, old people, who may not have a fast and efficient action in work like young people, but they have extensive knowledge, experiences that young people learn in short time, loss available mentors for existing and new employees, loss of corporate culture, and downsizing can have direct impaction to the customers such as loss of established customer service and contacts. Therefore, whenever workforce downsizing is chosen by organizations in hard time or peaceful time, there is definite and obvious impact good or bad on organizations. But in all the affected elements, the human factor is probably the most affected element. Human capital (i.e., the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees) is one of the primary factors a business can rely on to differentiate their products or services and build a competitive advantage (Hargis Bradley, 2011). Human resource is one of the 5Ms (Man, Money, Machine, Method, and Material) of management process of production; they are five input resources for any businesses. (http://www.setpointusa.com/blog/lean-manufacturing-5-ms/). Even when the world economy is continuous developing, many modern machines are developed and can somehow a part replace human resource, but no organization can flourish without human resource. Human resource is a decisive factor that can determine the working of remaining four factors, peo ple is the one who ensure flexible operation of machine, the reasonable use of material as well as appropriate use of money and method, all these actions will help the organization achieve their goals. During crisis situation as well as in the peaceful time, man or human resource is the only factor that helps businesses overcome or limit the adverse impact of crisis. Man is the most important Ms among five Ms, the right and stable number of human resource in appropriate jobs will enable the success beyond imagination of the organization. They are staffs of organization, they dedicated their soul to the development of organization, they are people who be laid off or people who lucky enough to keep their job. The individuals who lose their jobs (called victims) are obviously the most affected by downsizing. Numerous researchers have focused on the impact of downsizing on workers whose employment is terminated due to reasons independent of job competence (Cappelli, 1992). These individ uals are often known as the victims of downsizing due to research that documents the devastation of job loss, focusing on negative consequences in terms of psychological and physical well-being (e.g., Bennett, Martin, Bies, Brockner, 1995; Cappeili, 1992; Fallick, 1996; Leana Feldman, 1992). The real pains of downsizing cannot be minimized. Careers change, families struggle, and downsized victims suffer loss of prestige, income and security. While a few downsized individuals may be victims of their own past inefficiency, the vast number are those who have performed well and played by the rules but have become the victims of a changing economic environment. However, several researchers have analyzed those who remain in the downsized organization called survivors (e.g., Allen, Freeman, Russell, Reizenstein, Rentz, 2001; Appelbaum Donia, 2001; Brockner, 1988a; 1992; 1995; Brockner, Grover, OMalley, Reed, Glynn, 1993; Cascio, 1993; Mollica Gray, 2001; Noer, 1993; ONeill Lenn, 1995; Shah, 2000). The survivors of downsizing are not the happy campers, grateful to have their jobs, but rather that surviving is so difficult that continuing employees experience higher levels of stress than displaced employees (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003). The existent psychological contract between employees and their managers within the organization may be affected by the downsizing. Many researchers reported that it would create feeling of anxiety, uncertainty, distrust and decrease in productivity. The fear and anxiety of survivors who still remain with the organization is increasing due to the increasing feeling of uncertainty, instabili ty and insecurity that downsizing may brings. This is called as survivors syndrome. Definition of survivor syndrome The literature suggests a condition referred to as survivor syndrome, or a set of attitudes, feelings and perceptions that occur in employees who remain in organizational systems following involuntary employee reductions (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003 p.109-110). Survivor syndrome is defined by some human resource professionals as being the mixed bag of behaviors and emotions often exhibited by remaining employees following an organizational downsizing (Appelbaum, Close Klasa, 1999 p.424-436). Survivor syndrome has become known as the emotional and attitudinal characteristics of those who have survived from a downsizing (Mossholder et al., 2000; Iverson and Pullman, 2000; Allen et al., 2001). The emotional responses of each survivor are different. There are not many previous researches confirmed the positive response for survivor when downsizing occurs, some note that concentrating on core operational competencies can reduce unnecessary management layers and increase the speed of decision-making (DeWitt, 1993; Tomasko, 1989), some researches even suggest that fear of termination may increase individual effort among employees who wish to retain their jobs (Kraft, 1991). A few active survivors feel themselves so lucky because they still have their job, survivors may work more hours without compensation to help the organization through the transition. They believe that they quite understand the difficulties as well as the main reasons why organizations choose to apply downsizing strategy, they are willing to stick with organization for a long time and continue add their efforts to the development of organizations. Contrary to a few positive responses, a lot of previous researches have provided many evidences to prove the harmful impacts of downsizing may bring for survivors such as lower morale (Armstrong-Stassen, 1993), increase stress (Leana and Feldman, 1992), and anger, envy, and guilt (Noer, 1993). According to Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay (2003) consistent with the terminology of a syndrome, this collection of symptoms includes anger, depression, fear, distrust, and guilt, or Baruch and Hind (2000) indicates that survivors exhibit a plethora of problems, such as de motivation, cynicism, insecurity, demoralization and a significant decline in organizational commitment. Termination of co-workers may lead to perceptions of organizational injustice and distrust of top management (e.g. Brockner Greenberg, 1990; Mishra Spreitzer, 1998; Noer, 1998). Kinnie, Hutchinson and Purcell (1998) indicated the survivors syndrome include increased levels of stress, absenteeism, distrust as well as decreased levels of work quality, morale and productivity. Lecky (1998) identified the survivor syndrome will le ad to decrease employee commitment, increase concern about job security. A lot of research shows that in case of downsizing, the organization breaks the existed psychological contract between employees and their managers, which is the relationship that make employees get along to their organization or their manager, feel commitment to work, trying their best to the development of the organization. It is a loyalty, commitment with organization. But its consequences may brought by downsizing can create the dependent psychological within employees, they did not want to try, to give their effort because of their worried, uncertain and the loyal feeling may be replaced by a sense of betrayal. Downsizing survivors often curious about management and spend their times to observe the intention of management after downsizing occurs; they have greater concern on their future with the organization. It creates stress among employees in the organization; it affects their next attempt and the willing to stay with the organizations. With survivors, organization may think s they are lucky, but in the reality of many people, their emotions are anger, loneliness, feel lost in broken team work because of missing their colleagues, they do not feel confident enough for work due to their wondering about their job. Downsizing occurs that means organization is left with fewer employees who are expected to put in their best effort in a manner that enhances organizational productivity (Kets de Vries Balazs 1997). They are the ones who organization put their faith in; expect long term commitment, but with few people, it may lead to workload, role conflict, and role ambiguity tend to be high among the remaining staff after downsizing (Hellgren et al. 2005; Parker et al. 1997; Tombaugh White 1990). Workload reflects the perception of having too much work to do in the time available (Beehr, Walsh Taber 1976). Workgroup membership changes also may be associated with the loss of important organizational knowledge (Fisher White, 2000). Role conflict concerns the experience of having to deal with conflicting terms, instructions, and demands in the work environment (Rizzo, House Lirtzman 1970). Role ambiguity relates to the individuals experience of not knowing what is expected of her at work (Caplan 1971). Besides that, survivors may view downsizing as a threat to their job security, an indication of poor organizational performance, or a symptom of unfair management behavior. Survivors may also develop negative feelings toward the organization, as well as perceiving that organizational goals are difficult to achieve. According to Isabella (1989) has noted that while organizations are usually take care of the needs of those being laid off, they are often forget and unprepared for the changing emotions, lower morale and productivity often experienced and expressed by survivors. Managers may expect survivors not only to be grateful they were spared and to forgive what happened to their friends, but also to put their feelings aside and work har der. But the reality is not that, a bag of survivor behaviors or called survivors syndrome has always existed, it is like a contract between employees and organizations, the contract gives survivors psychological control over their work environment, which lets them freely invest themselves in caring for customers. Trust Granovetter (1985) and Lewis and Weigert (1985) define trust as a willingness to be vulnerable to others, based on the prior belief that those others are trustworthy. Another definition of trust is offered by Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995), who proposed that trust is the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party. Or according to Mishra Spreitzer (1998) trust is related to psychological contracts since trust is the expectation of a future action based on the action in the past by observing the rules of behaviors in relationships. If these expectations are not met, the expectation becomes hopeless, frustrated and will lose confidence, distrust will appear instead of trust (Robinson, Kraatz Rousseau, 1994). The trust is an essential part of managing people and building a high performance, productivity organization. Trust is the foundation of all relationship from top to bottom in the organization. If employees believe in their manager, their organization, this relationship will always help to create good working conditions, employees are willing to stand up for their organization at any situations, they will naturally want to do a good things, contribute their best effort for the success of their organization. Conversely, if there is no trust between employees and managers, employees will have negative actions, will not devote their energy to the development of their organization, the relationship is broken. Downsizing organizations appear to suffer a deterioration of trust (Buch Aldridge, 1991; Cascio, 1993) and an increase in fear (Buch et al., 1991). The occurring of downsizing makes employees feel uncertain about organization, stress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the responses tends to score lower in problem solving, creativity and the ability to learn new skills, uncertainty and anxiety reduces the focus of work. Trust between employees and organization also reduced because downsizing is usually a headache thought of managers, they need a long time for making the decision, but with employees, downsizing is just a sudden result, sometimes they do not have a chance to prepare or may not believe that they will be the one who be laid off. According to ONeill Lenn (1995), survivors who believe that management is competent and reliable, may view downsizing as less threatening because they believe that the managers will keep their promise, be honest and open for what is going on with their employees. Trust is instrumental in overcoming resistance to change, for it shapes how individuals interpret the implementation process (Kotter Schlesinger, 1979). If they have trust, survivors are willing think that all the things that organization do, have a reason, it is a good thing for them, for organization, downsizing just helps organization stand in difficult time as well as creating opportunities for employees in the future. In other words, trust in top management minimizes the categorization of threat by helping survivors to understand and believe in managements intentions and expected behavior. If they do not have trust, survivors will have negative thinking such as the decision of manager is wrong, or managers put their personal interests above the interests of employees. Without trust, employees are likely to feel threatened by downsizing, leading to resistance and retaliation, rather than the constructive cooperation that is necessary to facilitate deep change (Quinn, 1996). Commitment There are a lot of definitions about employee commitment such as A force that stabilizes individual behavior under circumstances where the individual would otherwise be tempted to change that behavior (Brickman, 1987), or The relative strength of an individuals identification with and involvement in a particular organization (Mowday et al, 1979) or simply A psychological state that binds the individual to the organization (Allen Meyer, 1990). Commitment is loyalty to the organization. A loyal employee identifies with an organization and is involved in being an employee of that organization (Price Mueller, 1986). Committed employees feel that there is a tight string between them and the organization, which, in the positive form, makes them more willing to perform their job. Organizational commitment is the driving force behind an organizations performance (Suliman and Iles, 2000, p. 408). The multidimensional approach poses that organization commitment is influenced by three constru cts: emotional attachment (affective commitment), perceived costs (continuance commitment) and moral obligation (normative commitment) (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Affective commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they want to, they believes in organization and feel it like their home. Normative commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they feel obligated to continue to work for many different reasons and purposes. Continuance commitment is mean that employees stay with the organization because cost of giving up the job is too high for them. (European Motivation-Index.com). It has also been proposed that different types of commitment can have different effects on behaviors and attitudes (Iles et al., 1990). For example, continuance commitment can have detrimental effects on job satisfaction compared to the beneficial effects of affective commitment (Suliman and Iles, 2000). Affective commitment has been shown to be the best predictor of i ntention to leave (Stallworth, 2004) and found to be more important than job satisfaction in determining service quality of customer-contact employees (Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004). It can be seen that in human resource management process, organizations should pay attention to the affect commitment group because these people will add value, increase productivity and quality to the organization, but they also be the most affected by downsizing, or in other word maintaining a high level of employees affective commitment to the organization is assumed to be a critical factor for successful downsizing, but downsizing tends to reduce employees affective commitment to the organization (Lee Jaewon, 2002). According to many research about employee commitment, in downsizing context, employees commitment to an organization is challenged. Moreover, commitment has been shown to positively influence other variables related to survivor syndrome, such as job satisfaction (Liou, 1995; Fletcher and Williams, 1996; Mowday et al., 1974; Wong et al., 1995; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992), performance (Hartmann and Bambacas, 2000) and perceived organizational support (Eisenberger et al. , 2001). A negative relationship has been shown for absenteeism (Iverson and Deery, 2001; Metcalfe and Dick, 2000) and turnover intention (Schnake and Dumler, 2000) Stress According to Casico Wynn (2004) stated that the downsizing create a breach of an unwritten rules that constitute the psychological contract between employer and employee leads to a rise in stress and a decrease in satisfaction, commitment, intention to stay and perceptions of an organizations trustworthiness, honesty, and caring about its employees. Stress has been defined as a stimulus, a response, or the result of an interaction between the two, with the interaction described in terms of some imbalance between the person and the environment (Cooper, Dewe ODriscoll, 2001). When downsizing occurs, like the victims, the survivors often lose control over their employment status and work situation. Survivors often feel angry and overwhelmed by the sudden disruption of the workplace, similar to people who be laid off, survivors also have feelings of betrayal and fury when downsizing occurs. Research also indicates that other stressful characteristics tend to emerge when work has to be carried out by fewer employees (Hellgren Sverke 2001; Hopkins Weathington 2006; Pfeffer 1998). The lack of people to work become overwhelmed, constant anxiety because of imbalance as well as job losses can be happened anytime that creates stress to survivors. Employee stress can take many forms and significant impact on both employees and organizations; it can manifest as anxiety, irritability, dependency, depression and it results in reduced productivity, employee burnout, absenteeism (Valueoption.com). It has been suggested that the stress of the survivor may be great or even greater than the stress of those who has been laid off (Kaufman 1982). Job insecurity Job insecurity is the exact opposite of job security, is defined as the perceived powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984). Job insecurity represents one of the most frequently investigated stressors in the context of organizational change and downsizing (e.g., De Witte 1999; Sverke/Hellgren 2002). The string sticks employees with organization is job, in other word, any organization keeps their employees by proper job with many opportunities to learn, to develop, and above all of them, the job has to be durable and security. When downsizing occurs, survivors feel like the promise of organization has broken down, they see their colleagues lose their job and they fear of losing their jobs at anytime, fear of instability of income, loss of status or self esteem. They believe that their work will no longer be safe, if the organization was willing to let the employees go in the past, they would be willing to do it again in the future. Job insecurity leads to dissatisfaction, people intent to leave the organization and come to a safer place; it also leads to greater absenteeism, higher turnovers and disability claims (Boroson and Burgess, 1992; Koco. 1996; Mishra and Spreitzer. 1998; Tombaugh and White. 1990). Previous studies such as Moore, Grunberg Greenberg (2006); Ashford, Lee Bobko (1989); Brockner et al. (1992) or Hellgren Sverke (2003) have concluded that job insecurity are related with organizational downsizing both in short and long term perspective and the worried about future job loss is associated with impaired work attitudes and well-being. Theorists have emphasized that job insecurity is a multidimensional phenomenon (Ashford, Lee Bobko, 1989; Greenhalgh Rosenblatt, 1984; Jacobson, 1991). The first dimension, called severity of threat, consists of the range of work features at risk, the valence of these features, probabilities of losing each feature, and the number of sources of threat. The second dimension is perceived powerlessness, or ones ability to respond to risks. Job insecurity can also be thought of in terms of expectancy (i.e. probability of loss) and valence (i.e. value of job features) from expectancy theory (Jacobson, 1991). Job insecurity is a broad concept , including threats to any desired work features including opportunities for career development or wages. Perceptions of job insecurity also can be considered as stress inducing, so reports of worry and stress are sometimes used as proxies for perception of job insecurity. Results showed that perceived job insecurity increased over time as layoffs unfolded but no new information arrived. Job insecurity was lowest among those employees who had no contact with workforce downsizing, with higher insecurity among those who had friends or co-workers laid off, and the highest insecurity among those who had been warned that they would be laid off or who had been laid off and then rehired. Hypotheses Many organization managers apply workforce downsizing strategy for their organization, often focus their attention and effort for those employees who be laid off and pay little attention to those who remain with organization As the large commercial bank in Vietnam, Techcombank is also applying workforce downsizing like many other organizations to overcome the current difficulties. Get to know the survivors syndrome is very important not only for Techcombank but also for many other organizations. Organizations that understand the causes of survivor syndrome at an early stage can a better chance to find an appropriate way to go. Based on the previous studies, in the scope of this research, researcher would like to find out the impact of workforce downsizing to the behavior such as trust, commitment, and stress and job insecurity of Techcombank staffs to see how they were affected by workforce downsizing and how trust, commitment, stress and job insecurity will be changed between before and after workforce downsizing is applied. Through this research, researcher hopes to put some help for Techcombank managers in order to have a better understanding about their employees so that they can looking for an appropriate direction as well as specific plan to minimize the harmful impacted that may arises from downsizing. Based on the above theory discussion, the Hypothesis is formulated as following: (H1) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied (H2) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied (H3) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied (H4) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied Chapter Summary Throughout the chapter, the researcher gives a deeper review of previous research on workforce downsizing and its impacted on survivors. There are many different opinions about the effects of workforce downsizing on organizations, some studies indicated

Regulatory Framework for UK Banks

Regulatory Framework for UK Banks Introduction Berger, Molyneux and Wilson (2010) are of the view that banks provide a full range of financial services like banking, securities, and insurance under a single corporate structure and must be supported by the single capital base, the term â€Å"universal bank† has multiple meanings, but commonly it refers to the commercial banking that is making loans and collecting deposits along with investment banking in which there are issuing of underwriting and trading in securities. Ryan-Collins and Goodhart (2012) point out the broader view that universal banks offer a wide range of financial services including commercial banking, investment banking with other activities like insurance, it seems like the multipurpose financial market which provided both banking and financial services. Financial Times (2015) terms refers universal banking as financial services of retail, wholesale and investment banking services under one roof. Demirguc-Kunt (2010) refers that universal banking is a com bination of large banks operate extensive networks of branches, providing multiple services, holding claims that firms about participation in corporate management of firms. Forsyth and Verdier (2003) are of the view that universal banking began almost in 1930 to 1940 and Europe is the home of Universal Banking, although other countries also adopted it. Structure of United Kingdom Banking System Schumpeter (1939) refers the connection between banking and financial system in economic growth and it is most old history of this specified reference of this field. Beck and Rahman (2006) speculate that in the recent economic literature, banking system measures a reasonable ratio and access like banking, loan ratios in gross domestic products, and it is a direction to analyse other financial markets. Banking systems have many other multiple dimensions that bank assets may be kept in one house, the bank required few branches or a large number of branches, but it was very true in the early stages of banking when banks were in their development phase. Heffernan (1996) describes the financial system refers some points very clearly that the system can provide payments, can give support between savers and borrows and play major role in insurance against risk. The British banking industry has many changes from the last 20 years, besides forces which have the power to change the supply and demand functions, change has also been made due to domestic deregulations. Hsbcnet.com (2015) reports that The Bank of England has always shown keen interest in the structure of the financial system because financial stability may have an effect on cost and availability. Many new products emerged over the past 50 years and the United Kingdom banks have full range of financial services and become larger. United Kingdom banking system made a dramatic shift in size from past 40 years and the total assists rise from 100% to 450% of the nominal Gross Domestic Product, banking giants claiming that the UK banking system keeps this pace in future also. Salina and Peltonen (2013) describe that financial stability depends the potential impact size of UK banking, so ultimately there must be some factors behind this huge banking size, description about those factors is important and these are financial hub benefits, comparative advantages and historical factors. Bush, Knott and Peacock (2015) d escribe the size of the UK banking system as shown in figure 1.1 and figure 1.2 refers below. Size of GDP of UK Banking System (2013) Regulatory Challenges of Universal Banking Models Alworth and Bhattacharaya (1998) are in the view that in the recent decades, the banking sector has undergone due to the forces of globalization and lack of technology, secondly it is also recognized de-regulation is due to that higher degree of freedom to financial institutions as a so it requires strong supervisory authorities. Changes in the nature of banking risks, off-balance sheet business and complexity in the nature of transactions all these need strong internal risk management and strengthening of existing capital requirements in 1980 and early 1990 numbers of bank failures were due to the way banks were regulated. Quinn (2012) is in the view of that change is needed in the banking sector, there is some need to show the market trends of entry and switching are enough for competition where customer focus is on the front line. Different advance economies adopted structural bank regulation measures to face the regulatory challenges and one element is mandatory upon them that se paration of commercial banking from certain securities market activities. Treanor (2011) reported in the â€Å"Guardian†, that the United Kingdom is going to act upon Vickers Commission suggestions as a major measure the report, in which Sir John Vicker recommends to Britian biggest banks to implement reforms until 2019, this is going to be initiating after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Conway (2011) is in the view that Vicker’s recommendation is going through to ring-fencing in the United Kingdom banking sector. The Economist (2012) reveils the report that universal banks merging investment banking complexities with commercial banking services, in one extent it is good offering services to the customer while on the other hand analyst have no second thoughts also, the famous universal banking giant Sandy Weill, the mergers of Citigroup saying that the megabanks should be broken up. Shrivastava, Pandey and Vidyarthi (2007) describe the view that banks facing information imbalance which will cause the lack of public confidence in the banking system, so there is the need to protect it from this high risk taking by banks. Because banks are critical for mobilizing the public savings, its safety and return to savers also, so banks need for their heavy regulation in this sense also. Mostly challenges have faced by bank regulators in the early 80s, due to deregulation of economic system, financial innovation waves and internationalization of financial flows all these challenges arise the potential of doubts about the bank’s risk management procedures. Orbell and Turton (2001) speculate that banks take deposits from public to investing these deposits in risky assets and businesses, ultimately banks are in a position to take risks excessively, secondly market discipline, where these deposited are invested, is a mechanism which curb the incentive in taking excessive risk more costly for banks. So after recent events of severe market and re gulatory failure in Europe and United States a point arisen that there should be need for reforms. While on the other hand single regulator model of United Kingdom widely accepted across the globe. Regulatory Challenges, and British Economy Kim and McKenzie (2010) argue that financial crises faced globally in 2008 laid many questions for strong measures to prevent any resemblance in future, bankers, regulators, politicians or economists nobody want accept the blames of crises. Particularly in British banking which has a rich history, which spread out on centuries, founding of the Bank of England in 1694. Bank of England has always had a dominant position in the British economy while other banks were underdeveloped. So due to small in size other country banks were inherently fragile, which made to face them financial crises in early nineteenth centuries, one major example is crises of 1825, and then the first time the Bank of England understood the role of lender of last resort. Gregory (1929) quoted ‘The Economist’ that â€Å"the limited liability of the wealthy may not be expected to prove as good if not better security than the unlimited liability of the poor†. Mullineus and Murinde (2003) urges th at the in 1986, main clearing banks ranked them fully integrated banking, invested more than one billion in the securities business. British banks highly enhanced their standing globally, commercial banking was higher profit gaining business in the United Kingdom and have much concern about the level of competition. Conway (2011) describes that the time of financial crises all had become universal banks, amalgamation of commercial and investment banking activities, on the other hand Barclays, HSBC and Standard Charted faced crises without government support. Treanor (2011) describes that British’s fifth largest mortgage lender Northern Rock, is going to run on, and this disaster situation was not seen in United Kingdom from over 100 years, most dramatic symptom of Northern Rock crises indicated the low grip on financial markets in the United Kingdom. Northern Rock has good use of structured products in funding before to the crises, but still impacted by the turmoil in America ’s mortgage market. The bank has a low deposit ration to loan failed to renew its short term financing and was forced to beg to the Bank of England for assistance. As soon as news broke, the customer quickly withdrew their savings, such panic situation which was not experienced in the United Kingdom since 1866. Salina and Peltonen (2013) describe that at the time of crises United Kingdom government need to inject billions into the industry, also the Bank of England funded many banks for keeping them in running and this bail out costs raised real concerns. Some lesson has been learned from Northern Rock incidents that the regulation of banks on liquidity along capital should be centralized, because Northern Rock faced reduction in the liquidity for securities mortgages rather than the inadequacy of capital. Financial crises and reactions of Regulatory Authorities The Economist (2012) explained that after 2007 to 2010 financial crises banking and finance market faced severe consequences specially on supervision and regulation aspects, the question was not only to build the public confidence again, which is also a very difficult in its but also the future evolution of the financial industry and banks at larger scale. Regulator and supervisors worked hard after crises and there was a lot of analysis has been conducted towards the causes and their solutions. Some of the measures have been taken by regulatory authorities which describes here one by one (i) Adjusting budgetary problems; failure of banks in many countries faced the common budgetary problems, there are many ways that can affect the real economy and budgets. (ii) Rebuilding the structure of responsibilities; in 1999, the G20 was established and made lots of contributions to shaping up international finance regulation. Biannual meeting was held in the early years, but greater frequency of meeting done in 2009 and 2010 due to the issuance of declarations and progress report. Multinational agency standards have been formalized and Finance Stability Board in 2009 formed with core responsibilities of coordination between national financial authorities and international standard setter. Bank of England (2014) in its news release reveals that The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) introduces a new (iii) accountability regime about insurance sector, PRA also consulted same regime for banking sector in July 2014. This regime will also take care and account of the need of new measures which relate to governance of individuals as a part of solvency. (iv) new international standards are coming into being both for regulatory activities for financial firms along with quantitative and qualitative approaches. Besides that there are many agreements done for betterment of the regulatory process, but it has also been clear that individual nations not waited for agreements on in ternational standards to regulate financial sectors. Financial Stability Board, (2010) issue a list of scope and scale of activities about reforms which is a) reforming compensations b) refurbish accounting standards c) strengthening supervisory and regulatory standards d) refining the regulatory perimeters. Brunnermeier et al. (2009) argue that (v) reforms in corporate governance were certainly needed to avoid futuristic failure of financial institutions and this was the main lesson to come out of the crises. (vi) Revision in remuneration structure also required as the mentioned structures of remuneration was very poor in financial institutions. The Financial Stability Board also produced some principles for solid compensation practices. (vii) Reforms in risk management practices also observed, as the failure of risk management systems is the most critical, unfortunately, it is shown in a lot of institutions like international banks specially. Johnson and Kwak (2010) speculate that the (viii) accounting reforms, accounting are a basic component of regulatory regime for example calculation of capital is cor dependent on reported, assessed values, one of the core areas of reforms is required in valuation and provisioning of accounting. One of the other lessons drawn from crises that is regarding (ix) risk identification and mitigation, actually authorities, in some views, are not good to identify or projecting the risk so capabilities to resolve these kind of issues need to be improved and financial policies need to follow proportionate principle. The bank should (x) act like a social contract, in the new regulatory paradigm, it is a major challenge that how bank again focuses on retail business, most banks are in the risk business about the turning liquid to liquid loans, while doing this job banks are badly failing in fulfilling their social contarct part and they need to build it up again. There should be (xi) new business models required as in the phase of crises no business model looked fixer of crises, the diversified banking model required in the scenario and that will help to secure the banking business as well as revenues and customers also. Salina and Peltonen (2013) posit the view that (xii) false sense of security is the core reason of financial disaster, describing further that capital provisions are important but only capital is not only sufficient to address the issue. It was also observed that (xiii) there is a need to redefine systemic risk, in current crises which reflects the unpredictable size of the losses and who will bear that losses. Loss distribution will come as battle in financial crises, bailing out also not a good practice and seems to be taking from one to give others. Regulatory Framework – Suggestions Some overhauling required in regulatory framework facing worst financial disaster in Europe and the rest of the world also, reforms are required on regulatory framework internationally in general, and the United Kingdom in particular. Including reinforcing macro-prudential oversight, giving the strength in the overall resilience of banks and shadow banking (or unregulated sectors needs to be in regulation). (i) Optimistic about pricing the assets and risks, much precaution required to observe in risk taking secondly, there is need to be more awareness about regulated and non-regulated structures on information sharing. (ii) Cross border banking resolution required in national and international approaches. (iii) Far-reaching changes required for shaping and functioning of financial institutions with the high pitch of transparency in regard to the financial instruments (iv) In future crises may differ in nature like size, type and its cross border exposure so consolidation and coordina tion among banks should required on local and international level, one other thing should remain in mind that for the survival, some business models may disappear but some may strengthen their risk management. (v) Measures which could be taken in the middle of crises need to be more supportive rather to hide them, it must be planned whether mega project should remain in the market or there is no need of them, there should be some policies without exacerbating the present crises for the long term view of financial systems. (vi) Financial sector scrutiny perimeter need to be expanded to a wider range of better prevention of banking sector and other financial institution. (vii) Management needs to encourage incentives and discourage regulatory arbitrage. (viii) Need to adopt the concept of systematic risk factoring among funding and effects of leverage. (ix) Buffering between good times and bad time, which can help for liquidity norms of capital provisioning (x) Progress required to ta ckle the regulation and resolution of cross border institutions for legal hitches. (xi) Flexibility for central banks in providing liquidity, focus also required in the attention on credit and asset booms. Many central banks, especially in emerging markets facing capital outflows so the provision for extra liquidity may more complex regarding foreign exchange reserves and may work fuel to drain for this. (xii) Better crises responses and fiscal support required from national authorities regarding to increase the concern about credit risk and realization of losses there also needs a clear exit policy for withdrawing market or transit to new markets. (xiii) Market discipline must not ineffective for constraining risk taking other than the banking sector. Consolidation rules required more strict specially for entities and risks, particularly with off balance sheet activities.