Bringing a Change in Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Bringing a Change in Organizational Culture EssayCritically pardon why changing organisational purification is so heavy and how managers puke do it. Culture lav be defined as a set of primary tacit assumptions intimately how the world is and ought to be that a group of people sh be and that determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and, to some degree, their overt behaviour (Schein, 1996). Organizational culture is depend on differences in norms and overlap set which are adopted in cookplace and to direct behaviour of members in the disassembleicular organisation. Cabrera, Cabrera Barajas 2001) Organisational culture was built on its shared beliefs and set which was the commission to solve problems. This essay bequeath introduce the definition of organisational culture and explain why changing organisational culture is so knockout. The main reasons are the fear of uncertain future and difficult to grant the organisational culture. In addition, the essay is to interpret how managers can channel organisational culture and how does it work.Managers can substitute organisational culture by means of conversation and management strategies. This essay may introduce the detail about changing organisational culture. Most scholars think that changing organisational culture is difficult however a few people think it is easy to transfer organisational culture. As Chu (2003) say that organisational culture is contri thated to variety. In his opinion, organisational culture can collect different values and actions to form a frame to guide the behaviour of members within an organisation.In other words, organisational culture can shape what employees do in the fellowship and control condition tendency of company. For example, a company may become employees who are un volitioning to win over and who are conductive to deepen, if managers recruit staff that are innovated and willing to swop, they may be the brisk power to replace orga nisational culture. Therefore, to form a change culture can strain changing organisational culture easier. However, it is also difficult to establish an organisational culture. It is need to experience a bulky time and face lots of difficult and challenges.According to event aims of cultural analysis (Wood 2004), it shows how difficult to form the organisational culture, especially the deepest level of cultural analysis common assumption. Common assumptions are to collect truths that organisational employees shares as a result of their common experiences and that direct beliefs and behaviours. It is extremely hard to isolate these modes, but it is interpret why culture is full of organisational life. It is hard to shape common assumptions if members of the organisation do non experience same ups and downs or cooperate long time.As Ferrara-Love (1997) stated that organizational culture does not appear in a night. On the contrary, organisational culture evolves during the time, a nd is the collective beliefs of individuals who worked together. Therefore, it is hard to establish organisational culture, to say nonentity of changing organisational culture. At the same time, it is debatable to recruit plenty employees when the company unavoidableness to change organisational culture. The invigorated power is unstable to the company. It is hard for managers to control the virgin employees and it still need to cost much time.To conclude, it is difficult to change organisational culture. Organisational culture plays an ineradicable role to different kinds of organisational behaviours and members within organisations. Thus, it is always failure if certain problems of organisational culture were not being considered. Moreover, if managers want to change organisational culture which focuses on shared values or beliefs, it will be more difficult because on the deepest of organisational culture, it create invisible and omnipresent old guard or power which makes org anisational change failure.As Locus and Kline (2008) stated that organizations always appear learning disability and defensive routines which obstruct the learning and organizational change. It shows the strong of conservative power. When managers try to change the organizational culture, they always face opposition. What was worse, the conservative power always important to the organisation. They make huge contribution to the company, which used to promote the development of company. Therefore, they play an important role to organisation. It is difficult for managers to challenge their authority.Moreover, the reason people do not want to change is the nature of people. People are easy to be used to do one thing and do not want to assent new thing. They are afraid of the unknown thing after change. As Ferrara-Love (1997) stated that people are comfortable with exist ways to finish the work. In their opinion, change is just the threat to their peaceful. Thus, they do not want to ch ange organisational culture and dispute to change. It is obvious that changing organisational culture is so difficult. Leadership is the key to change organisational culture.The achievements of an organisation mostly depend on the leadership of managers. As Fishman and Kavanaugh (1989) stated that the culture of an organization and how employees want to change was formed substantially by leader. For example, if managers support to change organisational culture steady and have enough ability to direct staff, it will achieve maximum results with little effort to change organisational culture. Thus, managers are the guidance of the company they are main factor to change organisational culture.Clement (1994) also expounded that management leadership is basic factor in a major organisational change effort. From this, it can be seen that the importance of leadership in change organisational culture. However, it is hard to change managers. If managers are not satisfied with their employee s, employees can be changed, but managers will not changed unless the company go bankrupt. Thus, the most difficult to change organisational culture is to change the mind of managers. For instance, if managers make no attempt to make progress and milk-toast, it will be the most resistance to change organisational change.For this reason, the best way to change is from up to bottom. At the same time, change the mind and ability of leader is the difficult demand for changing organisational culture. To change organisational culture, managers have lot of things to do it. The role of managers is very important through up down system. As Ott (1989) suggested that the leader can do lots of things included staff selection, socialization, removal of deviating members, cultural communication and role seat to guide behaviour. For example, managers can choose employees who will support to change organisational culture.Although it will not change the situation directly, they can be the power pus h the step of changing organisational culture. In the same way, managers can fire part of staff who opposes to change. It is not only reducing resistance to change organisational culture, but also overawe the opponent to change their minds. Furthermore, managers need to be the role model to change organisational culture. The behaviour of managers can be the maximum power to guide behaviour of managers. For example, when managers try to change organisational culture but not to do anything to change it, employees will not follow managers with any apprehension.To sum up, it is important to be the role model of changing organisational culture for managers. Furthermore, communication is an important tool for managers to change organisational culture. According to Fry (2003), he examined that leadership as motivation to change managers need to communicate with employees about their feelings. In other words, managers should get in contact lens with employees and let them know core values of changing organisational culture and the need of changing organisational culture. The employees may show the determination of managers and why to change organisational culture.Then, they can have their decision about changing organisational culture. In this way, it can reduce the distance between managers and employees, and let employees think they are also the participants to change organisational culture, they are not insignificant. When employees think they are the part of changing organisational culture, they will follow managers and try their best to help managers. At the same time, managers communicate with employees also can understand what employees think about and then do well about interactive. In addition, it can reduce the fear of employees about unknown future.As Kanter, Stein and Jick (1992) stated that communication is basic tool within any change process and failure to change always because of the feeling uncertain and anxious about their future. Thus, communicat ion is very significant for managers to change organizational culture. In addition, to help employees to change organisational culture, managers need to teach them related skills and knowledge to work differently. As Ke and Wei (2007) suggested that employees thought to learn skills and knowledge as their main responsibility. Thus, employees may accept skills and knowledge easier than accept directly new culture.When they understand how to do, it may easy for them to accept to change organisational culture. At the same time, it is also the good way to remove their fear to uncertain future. When they master relevant skills and knowledge, they will be confident to deal with change of organisational culture. In this way, they will not fight against to change organisational culture as before. Then they can be the power help to change organisational culture. The most important things to change organisational culture are to change origin perception and beliefs.According to the definition of organisational culture, if managers want to change organisational culture, they must change shared values. The same as Whitely (1995) utter that, managers need to be able to help employees to remove the past values which are not consistent with current shared vision of future organizational arrangements. The shared values and beliefs are keys of the organisational culture. Thus, managers need to change origin values of employees to change organisational culture. For example, managers can change new uniform to show the new the new appearance of company.According to Wood (2006), managers can create processes, systems and ways of working that enable to put the new values into practice. The new values can take place of the past one. In addition, managers can recruit and select new employees to help change origin values. As Harris and Metallinos (2002) stated that new employees were outside the company who did not affect by origin organizational culture, thus they were easy to accept new culture. That is why managers to select new employees to enlarge the power to change organizational culture.The new values and beliefs can be brought into the company in this way. In the same way, managers can retrain employees and engraft new rules to them, although it will not have better effect than new employees, it also can help to change organizational culture. In a word, managers need to create new values and beliefs to substitute origin one. Technology change also can promote to change organisational change. Although Weick (1990) thought technology change may make people anxiety about the values of new technology to their work, the new technology is the progress to organisational culture.There is no doubt technology change may improve work efficiency which may improve organisational culture. As Harris and Metallinos (2002) suggested that the application of new technology and subsequent development of system would promote standardization. The implementation of new techno logy can make employees understand new things which break routine. It also can be the sally port to open the mind of employees, let them know advantages of changing. When they can accept technology change, it is easy for them to support to change organisational change.Thus, managers can first bring in advanced technology to improve organisational change. Then teaching them to learn about it and establish new values in this process. This essay introduces what are the organisational culture and two main parts of organisational culture, the reason why changing organisational culture is difficult and how managers do to change it. This essay support to change organisational culture is so difficult because of the fear of unknown and difficult process to form organisational culture.

The Significance and Role of the Theme of Hospitality Essay Example for Free

The Signifi tushce and Role of the Theme of Hospitality EssayIn Ancient Greece, when the dry land was until now young and vastly unexplored, race relied on honour adequate to(p) faith in welcoming freakys in their lands hoping that the favor sh alone also be repaid in kind in the in store(predicate) when they too shall travel. There were poor authority of communication between tribes, cities or small communities separated by a wide expanse of empty land and the open sea. Any integrity who decides to chastise out on an epic voyage to uncharted territories can only trust the unspoken tradition of hospitality among people scattered in unknown places. hotshot can not depend solely on personal renown to be allowed access in strange lands.Similarly, maculation the fame and re adornation of Odysseus did precede him throughout the lands, it was not so much because of his prominence that helped him through his voyage. Rather it was due to the practice of unconditional altruism which played an key role in Odysseuss travels. It is the teaching of doing to others what one wishes that others do in fall down. It is the unspoken bond of humanity among individuals who were then too few in the world and had each other to ask for cargon as brothers and comrades in the nascent world The stem turn of travel and wandering prevails in the Homers Epic, the Odyssey.After the fall of Troy, Odysseus with his small army set out to sail for blank space. However, he was destined to suffer years of torment and agony because Poseidon, among a number of other gods, wanted to prevent him from ever succeed while the rest of the gods in Mount Olympus pitied him and wanted him to succeed. Just standardised the harsh and uninviting ocean storms, Odysseus fate was tossed and turned by the whims of these gods. He was subjected to numerous trials and tests during his protracted journey home until he eventually reached Ithaca and proved to be seaworthy, so to speak, in all respe cts (Aylen, 1964).Yet travel only underscores the large theme of hospitality during the old-fashioned era. Travel was prevalent during that time of exploration and the growth of Western civilization. People traveled for commerce and trade including the exchange of goods and ideas. pot routes were established specifically to satisfy a societys deficiencys to go beyond their borders and establish different friendly relations with other states (Aylen, 1964). take routes were also developed to make sure that voyage to and fro is very convenient, safe and fast.Along trade routes and other important nautical highways were small tribes peppered along the shorelines. One or two may be entertainile and unaccommodating to seafarers alone even if most of them are highly suspicious of antics, they still treated them with humanity even extravagance (1964). To everybodys minds, it is most likely that people depart continue to pass by routes and highways of exchange and its better to tr eat them well as opposed to driving them away and creating feud than association. A visitor today may be ones troops in the future. Likewise, a stranger that passes now might become a good friend eventually.Hospitality, the ready and free cordial welcome of guests from strange lands, made voyage in the ancient world possible and better. The desire for adventure, to travel and to discover new places will thrust been a nightmare if people did not practice amicable attitudes to strangers. The benefits of creation hospitable to seafarers outweigh the risks of treating strangers like friends into ones home. Put differently, the risk in turning away visitors is more costly resource-wise than providing feasts and unlimited assistance to whoever is need of help (Aylen, 1964).It is true that the host, in order to manoeuvre goodwill, have to go the distance of putting up expensive festive celebrations or sacrifice the trump out of what little resource he may have in his storehouse, but these things are necessary costs before reaping the benefits of being kind to a stranger who might afterwards turn out to be a king or whatsoever rich merchant. Hospitality, in other words, is an investment in the future (1964). Ties of blood and friend embark are created or destroyed by the practice of this tradition.Odysseus adventures and other incidental stories in Homers Odyssey evince the importance of hospitality in the sparsely populated ancient world. The different ways in which he and his men were welcomed in strange lands spelled either good tidings or disaster for them as the guests of honor and for the hosts. The mythical undertones that gird the motives of the hosts to give assistance in an ostentatious fashion merely attribute the sense of the divine in an otherwise natural and practical way to create stronger and long-lasting friendships.Book III of the epic, where Athena goaded Nestor to assist Telemachus in his business, was an adornment. It supports the traditi onal train that hospitality was completely sanctioned by the gods. Anyone who fails or transgresses this tradition had to answer to the gods. In the same vein, Nestor provided food, shelter and a decent means of merchant vessels for Telemachus, who was out in an important errand, upon the advice of the mentor god (Kitto, 1990). The incident that Nestor gave without question is instructive on the point that some(prenominal) material gifts to the hosts are fitting as good as altar sacrifices to the gods.In other words, Nestor showed his best form of hospitality in consideration of accumulating favors from the gods, if not militate the chess opening of incurring the wrath of the gods. Being hospitable had a two-pronged effect, one that redounds positively to the host as a friend to the guest and the host as a favored individual in the eyes of the gods (Kitto, 1990). Subsequently in Book IV, Homer reveals subtly another good reason why hospitality was an important element in the e pic. At first, upon the arrival of Telemachus and Nestors son, a messenger reported to Menelaus that there are two strangers here, two men who hold offas if they are descended from great Zeus and asked politely, so tell me if we should, on their behalf, take their fast horses out of harness, or send them off to find some other host wholl welcome them as friends (Book IV, Lines 31-40). The herald was both being courteous and cautious at the same time. He apprises to Menelaus that visitors, who looked like Greeks, were at their doorsteps and wait the kings instructions whether or not to accept them as guests or send them off to another place where they shall also be welcomed.The detail that the herald seemed a bit hesitant to allow the visitors in does not lessen the sense of hospitality in the epic. If anything, the question was addressed to the king winning into account the fact that they were presently engaged in other festivities. At any rate, Menelaus, hurriedly dispatched th e notion and with playful chiding, told the messenger to tarry no agelong in calling Telemachus and his companion and letting them in, saying Before today, Eteoneus, son of Boethous, you havent been a fool. But now you talk just like a giddy child.For both of us often feasted on the hospitality of other men before we got back here, hoping that Zeus would give us some relief from later suffering (emphasis supplied). So unhitch those horses the strangers brought, and bring the men inside(a), so they may dine (Book IV Lines 42-50). The lines in italics bespeak Menelaus anxious anticipation to finally have the opportunity to repay the favors he had been getting ever since he left for Troy. Indeed, he has enjoyed the hospitality of strangers in different lands and now is the best time to return the favor to another stranger.It is in the hope of perpetuating the cycle of hospitality as a tradition which turns full circle in his acceptance of two strangers and shall be repeated in the f uture when Menelaus himself shall travel a conglomerate. Also, it bears stressing that Menelaus had no idea who these strangers were before welcoming them in with such gusto. It was only when the strangers had entered and set properly before the tables of solemnisation before Menelaus started to asked who they were and what brings them to his place right after they shall have dine with him. To wit enjoy our food and once youve had your meal, well ask you who you are.For in you two your parents behavior has not been destroyedsince you are from a royal human stock, from god-nurtured kings who wield a scepter Worthless men could not father men like you (Book IV, lines 61-67). More importantly, when Menelaus invoked Zeus in kind and in favor to justify the need to welcome the strangers in, the epic reveals yet another layer in the theme of hospitality (Kitto, 1990). Zeus was actually in fact the god of travelers and of hospitality (1990). He favors those who treat visitors well and gu ests who behave themselves properly while being accommodated (1990).This reciprocality of kindness and courteousness is embodied in the traditional concept of the Xenia, where both the host and the guest follow certain predetermined divine rules in terms of hospitality. The host must provide necessary assistance to his guests and treat him as a part of the household, whilst the guest must not desecrate the honor granted to him. The host must not ask impertinent questions or if he must, out of polite curiosity, it can only be done after the guest has richly settled himself in and satisfied his needs.When the time comes for the guest to depart, the host shall, or regularly will, give a parting gift to bid the guest leave of absence and god-speed in his journey. Xenia is a Greek ancient custom of treating strangers as friends in the household. The practice of which has been so pervasive that it has partaken the nature of a ritual that still bears compelling force even among modern s ocieties in the Western world (1990). Otherwise, a person who does not observe the rite of the xenia or practically of hospitality, the consequences are horrible either with respect to the gods fury or mens retribution (1990).On another note, a perusal of Menelaus and his subjects attitude towards their guests, who had an air of royalty and superiority, will uncover another dimension of the concept of hospitality. Curiously enough, both the messenger and Menelaus noticed a semblance between them and the two strangers. They both automatically anticipate that Telemachus and his companion were of divine and royal origin. As such, they were moved to treat them to which their station in life properly deserves. A whole feast befitting a king was given in honor of Telemachus.In addition, arguing that Telemachus was not a king, his Greek appearance perhaps inspired a sense of phylogenetic relation with Menelaus being both Greeks. Indeed, if men had a tendency to behave altruistically tow ards individuals who physically resembled them, they might indirectly be doing their own kind a huge favor by being hospitable to Greek strangers. Menelaus, like other Greeks, had a kin-like tendency to identify with strangers who closely resemble oneself physically. This kind of natural resolution would lead to the providential growth of ones race.At a time when Greeks moved around little or heavily throughout the region, obtains are high that any random individual that pays a visit may be close kin to the host, not just in terms of ties of friendship but even through blood-lines. Thus, being nice to any stranger who look similar or appears to share the same qualities as one may possess, could have a positive survival value in the long run. In this sense, Homer seems to imply that being hospitable to strangers is more than just display good manners and courtesy.In a time when the Greeks were holding off invaders from their lands it is but wise to know your allies and treat them well, for in the off chance that the nation-states have to unite in battle against foreign belligerent armies, the person you welcome today might be the very person fighting with and for you in war. Menelaus, being a warmonger himself, knows this too well and at the sight of a fellow Greek in need of help, he had no qualms in giving him what he, as a member of a race, rightly deserves.Homer continues to wax different dimensions of hospitality in Books V-VIII which stresses the importance of Xenia and the concept of hospitality in the survival of Odysseus in his journey. At around this time, Odysseus has recently departed the place of Calypso. He set out to sail in a raft but was constantly being harassed by Poseidon who determined to kill him. Odysseus had been washed over to alien shores but was lucky enough to find people willing to give him some assistance.However, Homer casts a shadow of doubt as to the genuine motives of the people who came to the aid of Odysseus. Upon Odysseu s unplanned arrival at the land of the Phaeacians, he was met with several people who were wondering who he was. There is an air of foreboding and caution since in all appearances and circumstances Odysseus was a total stranger. Athena while disguised as stranger admonished Odysseus that The people here are not fond of strangersthey dont extend a friendly welcome to those from other lands, but put their trustin their swift ships to carry them across vast gulfs of the sea (Book VII, lines 40-45). Nonetheless, after Odysseus, who was then covered in mist which later dispersed, prostrated himself before the attendants inside the palace, he was welcomed to dine and sleep in the palace if only because they were wary of strangers but had a heart for those who pay homage properly viz. by being pious suppliants. The attendants of the palace were not as welcoming as the Greeks.Yet they gave him something to drink, clothe himself and sleep on until Alcinous the king would pass wise plan on t he best way to treat Odysseus. Thereafter, king Alcinous bid the Phaeacians to extend a little warmth of kindness to Odysseus before he sets out for his home again with a sacrifice to be made to Zeus. The king made it clear that in no way was Odysseus to be ill-treated or defame precisely because for such a long time the gods have yet to show their true form and the stranger before them might be one of the gods.Odysseus was quick to reply that he was an ordinary man stranded and lost at sea. The wise and timely words of Odysseus gained the approval of everyone in the majestic palace. index Alocinous even offered his daughter in marriage so then their line would continue to produce wise men like him. At this point, Odysseus, with his cunning and resourcefulness, had finally earned not only the respect of the Phaeacians but his keep during his vex at the palace (Book VII, Lines 380-400).Later in Book VIII, the brand of hospitality shown by the Phaeacians is beginning to look more o bvious. Athena knows well that the Phaeacians were not good with strangers and as such, in order to compel respect and awe among them, Athena poured an abominable poise on him Odysseus, across his shoulders and his head and made him look taller and more powerful, so the Phaeacians would welcome him, and he would win from them respect and awe (Book VIII, Lines 18-24). Indeed, as it were, people are moved to show generosity and courtesy in varying levels of motivation.It could be purely out of the kindness of ones heart, the desire to be repaid in turn in the future, to help a kinsman, or it could well probably be shown out of respect, fear and awe. As in the case of Odysseus stay with the Phaeacians, he had nothing else but his wisdom and the guidance of Athena to merit the approving welcome of his hosts. Although the Phaeacians were not famous for being so accommodating to strangers, they still observed the rituals of hospitality and Xenia by offering their guest a means to get bac k homefifty handpicked men of the finest caliber and a ship to sail with as well.On the part of the Odysseus as the guest of honor, when provoked into an experiment of skill and strength, did show some remarkable feats but spurned suggestions of having to pervert with his host lest his fortunes may turn (Book VIII, 40). Thus far, Homer has shown how people of the ancient world have embraced and perceived hospitality as a part of their usance and way of life. Hospitality was presented as a tool to earn favors and forge relationships among men, and as an unconditional gift to which the reward is the sense of satisfaction from being able to lend a hand to those in need.However, hospitality may lend itself to abuse what with the fact that people seem to be kind and generous all the time. Such abuse of hospitality is not without a fitting punishment at the instance that a guest desecrates the honor of the host. Book IX of the epic, narrates Odysseus get under ones skin with the daphn ia. He recounts that when he left to check their ship his men wantonly killed a number of sheep in the midst and casually ate what they could grab their hands on. Odysseus had a share in the loot as well and even went inside the cave which was the house of the terrible Cyclops.But when the master of the house arrived, in trembling and fear-inspiring fashion, none of the supplications of Odysseus neither his wise and calculated words had an effect to the Cyclops (Book IX, Lines 331-339). The Cyclops was angry because uninvited strangers ate some of his prized sheep and even slept on his abode. The Cyclops bellows that he was not afraid of Zeus. Thus, he had no business whatsoever neither had he any divine obligation to show kindness to the trespassers. He can do whatever he wanted with the strangers who were presently trapped inside the cave (Book IX, Lines 300-310).In the same breath, Homer attributed the inhospitality with the fact that Odysseus and his men failed to pay the prope r respects to their host. They went on pillaging resources without asking for permission. The Cyclops would have been more lenient had they observed the rites as visitors. At any rate, the Cyclops is a being beyond the control of established rules and laws of men. This was a creature who did not answer to the gods. It was an independent and free-thinking uncivilized brute that could do as he please without fear of incurring the wrath of the gods.Furthermore, the Cyclops did not fit the ideal host precisely because he had nothing to gain from feeding, clothing and accepting into his home strangers who come his way. At the least, strangers who pass by are nothing but piecemeal desserts to him. The Cyclops was only interested in entertainment and food, and cared little about the problems of stranded seafarers. Then again, as a host who had performed poorly in attending to his visitors, the Cyclops suffered his just punishment. Odysseus and his men crafted a scheme to escape and in the process gorged the only eye of the Cyclops, depriving him totally of the sense of sight.What worse punishment can there be to a Cyclops than to take from him his one eye for being inhospitable? The lack of hospitality in Book IX of the epic and in other parts signifies the untamed and wild aspects of the ancient world. It is true that there are many who are willing and able to render aid to strangers with such generosity and kindness. Yet it is evenly true that there are some who are not so keen in helping out people in need. The ancient world has a collection of creatures and beings of this sort.Driven by selfishness and self-serving interest, they see little benefits in spending resources, time and energy to outsiders. Not even the divine and public laws of gods and mens customs and traditions have the power to compel them to do the right thing. Such creatures are uncivilized and nothing can be evaluate from them but hostility and danger. Wise words can not trick them to do so mething against their brutish nature. As independent creatures, they rely on themselves for support and livelihood. Anyone who intrudes into their field of battle is readily met with a poor or lack of kind treatment.

Analysis Of Life Insurance Industry In India Economics Essay

Analysis Of Life damages Industry In India Economics EssaySince inception the Indian bearing indemnity sedulousness has its own author and history. It has passed through some hurdles and hindrances in order to attain the present status. However, the income earning capacity of an individual citizen of a nation and the eagerness and aw areness of the gen date of referencel overt are the two key determinants of the growth of any restitution manufacture. In the Indian context, the indemnity habits among the frequent customary during the independence decade was rare and in the following decades, it has slowly increased. There was a remarkable improvement in the Indian amends industry soon after the economic reform era (1991). After 1991 the Indian life restitution industry has geared up in exclusively respects, as well as it is existence forced to brass section a lot of healthy competition from many national as well as international private policy players.In this paper w e take over analyzed the murder of LIC over a time period of 1980 to 2009, attempt has been made to analyse the overall operation of Life policy Industry of India betwixt pre- and post economic reform era. To measure the current status, volume of competitions and challenges faced by the Life restitution crapper of India and to measure the effectiveness of investment strategy of LIC over the period 1980 to 2009. Data were analysed by using Regression, Trend Analysis and Anova. The study reveals that at that place is a awesome growth in the performance of Indian Life indemnity industry and LIC due to the policy of LPG. policy industry also improved a lot due to the emergence of Private vault of heaven and opening up for foreign players. Further there is also a huge change in the investment chemical formula of LIC. There is a increase trend toward the investment in Stock grocery store by LIC from 60% to 93% from 1980 to 2009 due to the effective regulation of SEBI and ch ange magnitude transparency of stock market.I. excogitationLife restitution is a contract for the payment of a sum of m onenessy to a soul assured on happening of the shell ensured against. commonly the contracts provide for the payment of the amount on a date of maturity or at a specified date at periodic intervals or at unfortunate death, if it occurs earlier.Life policy is universally acknowledged to be an institution, which eliminates lay on the line, substituting certainty for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate event of death of breadwinner. Life insurance is civilisations partial solution to the problems that caused by death. In short, life insurance is concerned with two hazards that stand across the life-path of every person 1.That of dying prematurely is leaving a dependent family to fend for itself. 2. That of living till old age without visible means of support.The nationalization of insurance pedigree in the country resulted i n the establishment of Life insurance policy Corporation of India (LIC) in 1956 as a wholly- owned corporation of the government of India. Indias life insurance market has grown rapidly over the past six long time, with radical agate line premiums growing at over 40% per year. The premium income of Indias life insurance market is set to double by 2012 on better penetration and higher incomes. Insurance penetration in India is currently around 4% of its GDP, much(prenominal) lower than the developed market level of 6-9%. In several segments of the population, the penetration is lower than potential. For example, in urban areas, the penetration of life insurance in the peck market is about 65%, and its considerably less in the low-income unbanked segment. In rural areas, life insurance penetration in the banked segment is estimated to be about 40%, go it is marginal at best in the unbanked segment. The essence premium could go up to $80-100 one thousand thousand by 2012 from the present $40 billion as higher per capita income increases per capita insurance intensity. The clean household premium will rise to Rs 3,000-4,100 from the current Rs 1,300 as will penetration by the existing and freshly players. Indias ratio of life insurance premium to its GDP is around 4 per cent against 6-9 per cent in the developed world. It could rise to 5.1-6.2 by 2012 in in tandem with the countrys demographic profile.India has 17 life insurers and the state owned Life Insurance Corp. of India dominates the industry with over 70 percent market share, though private players buzz off been growing aggressively. Considering the worlds largest population and an one-year growth rate of nearly 7 per cent, India offers great opportunities for insurers. US based online insurance company ebix.com plans to enter the Indian market following deregulation of its insurance sector.In a diverse country such as India it is imperative that a universal insurance infrastructure be create d to maximize efficiency in the insurance industry. Online insurer ebix.com can offers the Indian market a business-to-consumer internet portal where consumers harbor more choice while purchasing insurance and an internet-based agency management dodging that will help agents work more efficiently with multiple carriers. Foreign holding in Indian insurance companies is limited to 26 per cent. The market is moving beyond single-premium policies and unit think insurance products which are easier to sell. The agency model is the dominant sales communication channel accounting for more than 85 per cent of fresh premiums but overall inactivity and attrition is much higher at 50-55 per cent than the global average of 25 per cent. GIVE REFERENCEII. Review of LiteratureIn the present section an attempt has been made to examine the review of literature related to the study.Rao, R.T.S. (2000) in this word had explained the phenomenal growth experienced by life insurance industries recent ly, in line with the countrys improving economic fundamentals. By comparing the growth, penetration, density and other insurance variables, he had shown that India is still an underdeveloped insurance market, it has a huge catch-up potential. According to him even though there is strong potential for expansion of insurance into rural areas, growth has so far remained slow. Considering that the bulk of the Indian population still resides in rural areas, it is imperative that the insurance industrys development should not dud this vast sector of the population.Goyal, K. (2004), in this article has reviewed that private insurance companies had reason to celebrate with the lifting of the sectoral cap in the insurance sector to 49 per cent in the Union Budget 2004-05, as against 26 per cent earlier. However, to offset the excitement, there was also an imposition of service tax of 10 per cent on the risk premium for life insurance, which has the industry with mixed feelings. The FDI hik e has been a much-awaited plea of these companies, who believed that they could plough in more money into the business if their foreign partners were permitted an increased holding.Jain, A.K. (2004), revealed that Waves of loosening bring done wonders to proper the insurance occupation to the status of a career with a bright future. The average mindset, particularly of younger generation in India was very amenable to the changes in insurance as an avenue where exhilarating opportunities are opened up in changed environment.Krishnamurthy, S. (2005) in this article had reviewed that Insurance companies have a pivotal role in offering insurance products which meet the requirements of the people and, at the same time, are affordable. Some of the challenges faced by the insurance sector pertain to the demand conditions, competition in the sector, product innovations, delivery and distribution systems, use of technology, and regulation. With the liberalization and entry of private compa nies in insurance, the Indian insurance sector has started showing signs of significant change.Ray, Subhashish and Pathak, Ajay. (2006) opined that ever since the privatization of the insurance sector in India in 2000, the industries has been witnessing the birth of numerous private players, mostly joint ventures amid foreign insurance giants and Indian diversified conglomerates and each one is trying to make an inroad into the huge untapped market.Sinha, Ram Pratap. (2007) opined that the deregulation of general insurance industry in India is having far-reaching consequences in terms of market size, structure and operational practices. As compared to the international standards the penetration level of general insurance companies in India is quite low and, therefore, has tremendous potential for growth. His analysis revealed that the familiar sector insurers dominate the private sector insurers in terms of mean technical efficiency in constant returns to scale, while the private sector insurers have a slightly higher mean technical efficiency than the public sector insurers in variable returns to scale.Goswami, P. (2007) in this article had reviewed that the insurance industry in India was opened up to private sector participation in the year 2000. Prior to this, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India was the doctor player in the life insurance industry in India. In six years since the entry of private players in the insurance market, LIC has lost 29% market share to the private players, although both, market size and the insurance premium being collected, are on the rise. In 2005, life insurance accounted for 79% of the total insurance market in India. It was found that the responsiveness dimension of service quality provides maximum customer satisfaction in the life insurance industry in India.Sabera. (2007) indicated that in March 2000, when the Government of India liberalized the insurance sector, lifted the entry restrictions for private insurance players, allowing the foreign players to enter into the market and start their operations in India. The entry of private players helps in spreading and retentiveness the operation in the Indian insurance sector which in turn results in restructuring and revitalizing of public sector companies.III. Research MethodologyThe research article is based upon descriptive as well as exploratory research. Secondary sources of data collection have been adopted for the study. The relevant and required data are collected from the text books, national and international articles, RBI Bulletin (various issues) as well as annual reports of LIC. The Statistical tools used in this research article are Correlation, Regression, ANOVA, the method of least squares and linear trend. The method of least square has been used for analysing the overall performance of Life Insurance Industry of India between pre- and post economic reform era and to measure the current status, volume of competitions and challe nges faced by the Life Insurance Corporation of India. For processing the data and estimating the results, Excel, SPSS-16 packages have been used.ObjectivesThe following are the objectives of the present studyTo analyze the overall performance of Life Insurance Industry of India between pre- and post economic reform eraTo measure the current status, volume of competitions and challenges faced by the Life Insurance Corporation of IndiaTo measure the change in the effectiveness of the investment strategy of LIC over the period 1980 to 2009.HypothesisThe study is based on the hypothesis thatThere is no significance difference in the performance of Life Insurance Industry between pre- and post economic reform eraThere is no significance Change in the pattern of the investment strategy of LIC over the period 1980 to 2009.Status and Position of Indian Life Insurance Industry in the pre LPG eraIn India, life insurance in its modern form came from England in the year 1818. The first life in surance was Oriental life insurance Company started by Europeans in Calcutta. each the insurance industries established during that period of time were brought up with the purpose of looking after the needs of European community and Indian natives were not being see by these companies. Later on with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal Seal, the foreign life insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But still Indian lives were being treated as sub-standard lives and heavy extra premiums were being charged on them. However in the year 1870, Bombay Mutual Life self-confidence Society herald the birth of first Indian life insurance company and covered Indian lives at normal rates. Starting as Indian enterprise with extremely patriotic motives, insurance companies came into existence to carry the message of insurance and social security through insurance to various sectors of the society. Bharat Insurance Company (1896) was another one of such companies inspire d by nationalism. The Swadeshi movement during 1905-1907 gave rise to more insurance companies. The United India in Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and the Co-operative Assurance at Lahore were established in 1906. In 1907, the Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Company took its birth in one of the rooms of the Jorasanko, house of the great poet Rabindra Nath Tagore, in Calcutta. The Indian Mercantile, general Assurance and Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life) were some of the companies that established during the same period. Prior to 1912, India had no legislation to regulate insurance business. However in the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act, and the Provident Fund Act were passed. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary, but in actuall the Act discriminated between foreign and Indian companies on many accounts, putting the Indian companies at a disadvantage.The first two decades of the twentieth century see lot of growth in insurance industries. From 44 companies with total business-in-force of Rs.22.44 crore, it rose to 176 companies with total business-in-force of Rs.298 crore in 1938. During the mushrooming of insurance companies many financially unsound concerns were also floated which failed miserably. The Insurance Act 1938 was the first legislation governing not only life insurance but also non-life insurance to provide strict state require over insurance business. The demand for nationalization of life insurance industry was made repeatedly in the past but it gathered momentum in 1944 when a bill to amend the Life Insurance Act 1938 was introduced in the Legislative Assembly. However, it was much later on the 19th of January, 1956, that life insurance in India was nationalized. About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of na tionalization. Nationalization was accomplished in two stages initially the management of the companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the ownership too by means of a comprehensive bill. The Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on the 19th of June 1956, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was created on 1st September, 1956, with the objective of spreading life insurance much more astray and in particular to the rural areas with a view to reach all insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial cover at a levelheaded cost.In the year 1956, LIC had 5 zonal mail services, 33 divisional offices and 212 branch offices, apart from its corporate office. Since life insurance contracts are long term contracts and during the gold of the policy it requires a variety of services needs felt in the later years to expand the operations and place a branch office at each district headquarter. Re-organization of LIC took p lace and large numbers of new branch offices were opened. As a result of the re-organization servicing functions were transferred to the branches, and branches were made accounting units. It worked wonders with the performance of the corporation. It may be seen from the fact that about 200.00 crores of New Business in 1957 the corporation crossed 1000.00 crores only in the year 1969-70, and it took another 10 years for LIC to cross 2000.00 crores mark of new business. But with the re-organization happening in the early eighties, by 1985-86 LIC had already crossed 7000.00 crores Sum ensure on new policies. put off 1. Growth of LIC between 1959 and 1999Table 1. Growth of LIC between 1959 and 1999 S.No.Particulars195719991Annual Business Sum Assured Policies First year premium336.3 crores 8,00,000 14 crores75606 crores 14857000 4171 crores2Business in force Sum Assured Policies Renewal premium1477 crores 5686000 74 crores459201 crores 91726000 16136crores3Group Business in force Sum A ssured No. of Lives5.29 crores 69558 crores 216710004Life Fund41040 crores127389.06 croresSource Secondary Data Annual Reports of LIC.Progress of Indian Life Insurance Industry in the commit LPG EraInsurance sector reformsIn 1993, Malhotra Committee headed by former Finance Secretary and RBI Governor R.N. Malhotra was formed to evaluate the Indian insurance industry and recommend its future direction. The Malhotra committee was set up with the objective of complementing the reforms initiated in the financial sector. The reforms were aimed at creating a more efficient and competitive financial system suitable for the requirements of the economy keeping in mind the structural changes currently under guidance and recognizing that insurance is an important part of the overall financial system where it was necessary to address the need for similar reformsIn 1994, the committee submitted the report and some of the key recommendations included1) StructureGovernment stake in the insurance Companies to be brought down to 50%.Government should take over the holdings of GIC and its subsidiaries so that these subsidiaries can act as independent corporations.All the insurance companies should be habituated greater freedom to operate.2) CompetitionPrivate Companies with a minimum paid up large(p) of Rs.1bn should be allowed to enter the industry.No Company should deal in both Life and General Insurance through a single entity.Foreign companies may be allowed to enter the industry in collaboration with the house servant companies.Postal Life Insurance should be allowed to operate in the rural market.Only One State Level Life Insurance Company should be allowed to operate in each state.3) Regulatory BodyThe Insurance Act should be changed.An Insurance Regulatory body should be set up.Controller of Insurance (Currently a part from the Finance Ministry) should be made independent.4) InvestmentsMandatory Investments of LIC Life Fund in government securities to be reduced fro m 75% to 50%.GIC and its subsidiaries are not to hold more than 5% in any company (There current holdings to be brought down to this level over a period of time).5) customer ServiceLIC should pay interest on delays in payments beyond 30 days.Insurance companies must be encouraged to set up unit linked pension plans.Computerisation of operations and updating of technology to be carried out in the insurance industry The committee emphasized that in order to improve the customer services and increase the coverage of the insurance industry should be opened up to competition.But at the same time, the committee felt the need to suffice caution as any failure on the part of new players could ruin the public confidence in the industry. Hence, it was decided to allow competition in a limited way by stipulating the minimum capital requirement of Rs.100 crores. The committee felt the need to provide greater autonomy to insurance companies in order to improve their performance and enable them to act as independent companies with economic motives. For this purpose, it had proposed setting up an independent regulatory body.MAJOR POLICY CHANGESInsurance sector has been opened up for competition from Indian private insurance companies with the enactment of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (IRDA Act). As per the provisions of IRDA Act, 1999, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) was established on 19th April 2000 to protect the interests of holder of insurance policy and to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry. IRDA Act 1999 paved the way for the entry of private players into the insurance market which was hitherto the exclusive privilege of public sector insurance companies/ corporations. Under the new dispensation Indian insurance companies in private sector were permitted to operate in India with the following conditionsCompany is formed and registered under the Companies Act, 1956The aggregate holdi ngs of fair-mindedness shares by a foreign company, either by itself or through its subsidiary companies or its nominees, do not exceed 26%, paid up equity capital of such Indian insurance companyThe companys sole purpose is to carry on life insurance business or general insurance business or reinsurance business.The minimum paid up equity capital for life or general insurance business is Rs.100 crores.The minimum paid up equity capital for carrying on reinsurance business has been prescribed as Rs.200 crores.The Authority has notified 27 Regulations on various issues which include adaption of Insurers, Regulation on insurance agents, Solvency Margin, Re-insurance, contract of Insurers to Rural and Social sector, Investment and Accounting Procedure, Protection of policy holders interest etc. Applications were invited by the Authority with effect from 15th August, 2000 for issue of the Certificate of Registration to both life and non-life insurers. IRDA has so far granted registra tion to 12 private life insurance companies and 9 general insurance companies. If the existing public sector insurance companies are included, there are currently 13 insurance companies in the life side and 13 companies operating in general insurance business.Today LIC functions with 2048 fully computerized branch offices, 100 divisional offices, 7 zonal offices and the corporate office. LICs Wide Area Network covers 100 divisional offices and it connects all the branches through a Metro Area Network. LIC has tied up with some Banks and Service providers to offer an on-line premium collection facility in selected cities. LICs ECS and air premium payment facility is an addition to customer convenience. Apart from on-line Kiosks and IVRS, Info Centers have been commissioned at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Pune and many other cities. With a vision of providing easy access to its policyholders, the LIC has launched its SATELLITE SAMPARK offices. These satellite offices are smaller, leaner and closer to the customer. The digitalized records of the satellite offices will facilitate the customer anywhere servicing and many other conveniences in the future. LIC continues to be the dominant life insurer even in the liberalized scenario of Indian insurance industries and is moving fast on a new growth trajectory surpassing its own past records. LIC has issued over one crore policies during the current year.Table-2 intact Life Insurance Premium (Rs. Crore)INSURER2007-082006-072005-062004-052003-042002-032001-02LIC149789.99127822.8490792.2275127.2963533.4354628.4949821.91(17.19)(40.79)(20.85)(18.25)(16.30)(9.65)(42.79)Aviva1891.881147.23600.27253.4281.5013.47NABajaj Allianz9725.315345.243133.581001.68220.8069.177.14Bharti Axa118.417.78NANANANANABirla Sunlife3272.191776.711259.68915.47537.54143.9228.26Future Generali2.49NANANANANANAHDFC Std4858.562855.871569.91686.63297.76148.8333.46ICICI Pru13561.067912.994261.052363.82989.28417. 62116.38IDBI Fortis11.90NANANANANANAING Vysya1158.87707.20425.38338.8688.5121.164.19Kotak Mahindra1691.14971.51621.85466.16150.7240.327.58Met Life1159.54492.71205.9981.5328.737.910.48Max New York2714.601500.28788.13413.43215.2596.5938.95Reliance Life3225.441004.66224.21106.5531.066.470.28Sahara143.4951.0027.661.74NANANASBI Life5622.142928.491075.32601.18225.6772.3914.69Shriram358.05184.1710.33NANANANATata AIG2046.351367.18880.19497.04253.5381.2121.14Private Total51561.4228253.0015083.547727.513120.331119.06272.55(82.50)(87.31)(95.19)(147.65)(178.83)(310.59)(4124.31)Total (LIC+Private)201351.41156075.84105875.7682854.8066653.7555747.5550094.46(29.01)(47.38)(27.78)(24.31)(19.56)(11.28)(43.54)Note Figure in bracket indicates the growth over the previous year in percent.Two way ANOVASource of VariationSSdfMSFP-valueF critRows4956070529817291533560637.27254154.7941E-361.723833402Columns10697887396178298123.22.279540020.04174932.188760765Error797810452910278216711.07Total58608598567125Ana lysis and InterpretationTable 2 shows total life insurance premium during the year 2001-02 to 2007-08. The proportion of premium collected by LIC out of total premium collected by life insurance industry is declined from 97% in 2001-02 to 74% in 2007-08. It indicates the increasing competition from private sector. ICICI prudential is becoming a stronger and stronger player by keeping over a lot of business of LIC. But still there is a lot of scope of development in the life insurance industry where private sector will be a challenge in the front of LIC. By applying ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance, It is being observed that there is a significance difference in the performance of LIC and other Private Sector insurance companies over a period of 2001-02 to 2007-08Table 3 Total Life Insurance PremiumYear (X)Total lifeinsurancepremium (Y)U=X-A/ HU2UY200250094.46-39-150283.38200355747.55-24-111495.1200466653.75-11-66653.75200582854.800002006105875.7611105875.762007156075.8424312151.6 82008201351.4139604054.23718653.57028693649.44Source- compiled from table 2.Y = A+BXY=nA+B XXY=A X+B X2Y=A+BuY=nA+B UuY=A u+B u2Y=nAA= Y/nuY=B u2B= uY/ u2A= Y/nA= 718653.57/7= 102664.79B= uY/ u2= 693649.44/28= 24773.19Y=A+B (X-2004)102664.79+ 24773.19 (2012-2004)102664.79+ 24773.19 (8)300,850.35 croreBased on the middle year 2005, the trend value for the year 2012 can be calculated using the linear function Y=A+BX, where, AB are constant. If we substitute the values in the trend line equation, the expected total LIC premium for the year 2012 is Rs. 300,850.35 crores. It shows that the total business is in increasing trend.Table 4 Investment strategy of LIC(Rupees crore)YearSector-wiseInstrument-wise of whichTotal(2 to 5)Or(6 to 7)(end-March)PublicPrivateJointCo-operativeStockexchangesecuritiesLoans1234567819793411.9618.129.9527.82733.81853.14587.719803915.5770.10602.13113.42173.65287.719814707.8647.20665.53591.32725.66020.519825410.7698.7327534040.626126894.419836189.7787.432.7825.2 NANA783519847020.8891.440.1905.3NANA8857.619857919.51010.651.2972.9NANA9954.219869063.81121.3681036.

Competition And Market Power Economics Essay

Competition And Market Power Economics EssayFor a persistent period of time, De Beers has been successfully raising consumer demand for diamonds. The company is famous for its monopolistic policies during the last century, when it used its leading position to control the international diamond market. De Beers had a number of methods to ensure its control in the market thus, it get together some independent manufacturers to its single channel monopoly, it pushed the manufacturers who refused to join the pledge out of the market by oerfilling the market with diamonds, it bought and stored the diamonds of other producers in order to regulate the prices (De Beers Company). gross(a) monopoly means the conditions in the market, when only one company produces and sells a product that has no substitutes. The market access is limited and the company has complete control over prices. Thus, in pure monopoly, the market is dominated by a big enterprise-monopolist fully controlling the prices . Establishment of extremely high prices is restrained by the risks of a fall or a lack of consumer demand. Monopolist assesses demand and sets the price at a level that ensures the greatest return on investment (Larue, Gervais Pouliot, 2008).Monopolies be also habitual utilities, the services of which atomic number 18 used by any business. The existence of natural monopolies is justified by the fact that they best meet the public interest. In rural areas, such monopolies can be companies supplying agricultural machinery, chemical fertilizer, seed and breeder farms, businesses that provide repair services. The main features of monopoly are as follows (Larue, Gervais Pouliot, 2008)There is only one securely in the market, which affects the prices, adjusting the proposalThere are no identical products in the marketControlling the market of keen materials in the labor, the company-monopoly excludes the emergence of new producers.Thus, the market of pure monopoly is the market of one seller. Most frequently, these are the governmental organizations, with the state monopoly able to solve various problems by dint of pricing policiesTo set a price below the cost for socially important goods to maintain their standard of livingTo set a price cover version the costs or providing a good incomeTo set a high price to reduce consumption.Returning to De Beers Company, for the last decade it has been undergoing transfigures turning into a more(prenominal) reliable company. A number of factors led to the necessity for transformation in the De Beers model (De Beers Company).In 2004 the company was declared guilty according to the 1994 accusation that De Beers had merged with General Electric to control the price of industrial diamonds the company paid $10 million to the United States Department of seriousice.Contemporary diamond industry is observably differs from that of the last decade, as it is now a complicated and continuously developing geopolitical notion . Today, apart from De Beers, the most important players in the diamond business are the African producer countries (e.g., Botswana and Namibia), Rio Tinto, Lev Leviev, BHP Billiton, Alrosa, Harry Winston, etc (De Beers Company).3. Monopolistic CompetitionLuxury Watch Industry Go to http//images.businessweek.com/ss/06/05/watches/source/1.htm (Retrieved May 17, 2010). This is an interesting article on highlife watches. Click on the slide show in the upper right window (check out the prices). Are these trine firms participating in a monopolistically belligerent market? What characteristics of the good make the market monopolistically competitive? Explain.A recent study by the Luxury Institute has determined the watches that are considered by the monied consumers to be the best out of the top 17 ultra luxury watch producers Franck Muller, Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Breguet, though Rolex and Cartier were most famous brands. Nowadays, even not so kno wn watchmakers take an equal part in monopolistic competition with the orbit leaders (Business Week, 2010).The market with monopolistic competition is characterized by the following features (Yomogida, 2010)The presence of fourfold buyers and sellers (the market consists of a large number of independent companies and customers), the number of which doesnt exceed the one present in pure competition.Low barriers for the entry into the industry. This does not mean that it is easy to start a monopolistically competitive firm such difficulties as problems with registration, patents and licenses are still present.To survive in the market in the long run, monopolistically competitive firms need to produce diverse, differentiated products, which differ from that is offered by competing firms. Moreover, products may differ from one another by one or several properties (e.g. chemical composition of watches)Buyers and sellers are perfectly informed about market conditionsPredominantly non-pr ice competition advertising of products is very important for the development.Companies of this type have a disallow slope of the demand curve. In monopolistic competition, the output is set at the level of profit maximization (marginal revenue equals marginal cost). However, when deciding on the makeup of prices for products, a monopolistic competitor acts like a monopolist the price for the goods is set at the highest possible level, i.e. at the level of the demand curve for products.Just as at the market of perfect competition, in monopolistic competition the firm relies on the value of the average total costs, deciding whether to remain in the industry or leave the market. Thus, if the company continued to suffer losses, it means that the average total production costs exceed the pee-peeed price per unit, and the firm will leave the market in the long run. It should be noted that, since the monopolistic competitor is dynamic in the decision-making, it cannot effectively alloc ate resources, which leads to inefficiency of such firms in the long run. It is practically impossible to have a positive profit at the market of monopolistic competition in the long term (Yomogida, 2010).4. OligopolyThe OPEC petroleum Cartel Go to www.opec.org (Retrieved May 17, 2010). What are the organizations stated goals, which countries are members, and when was it founded? Is it normal for them to be successful in keeping oil color prices high, or have they face difficulties in keeping the cartel united in the past?The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an international intergovernmental organization (also called a cartel), established by oil-producing powers and including 12 countries Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and Angola. The aim of OPEC is to coordinate and develop a common policy with regard to oil production among members of the organization, maintaining invariable oil prices, providing a stable supply of oil to consumers, and benefit from the investments in the oil industry (OPEC).OPEC members control about 2/3 of world oil reserves. Their share in the world oil makes 40%, or nearly the half of the world oil exports. At different periods of its history, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries controlled from 25% to 60% of oil production in industrial countries (Hansen Lindholt, 2008).At the same time, the cartel represents a very unstable structure, based on collusion in order to establish a monopoly price in the market, which can be unsatisfactory for some members of the cartel this finally leads to the violation of the cartel agreement.At first glance, the similarity of the cartel and monopoly is obvious. But the cartel very rarely (in contrast to the monopoly), controls the entire market, because the policy has to deal with non-cartelized enterprises. In addition, the cartel members have quite a powerful temptation to cheat the ir partners, reducing prices or actively promoting their product, which creates the conditions for the capture of the market (Hansen Lindholt, 2008).Failure to fully and consistently use the cartel for the interaction of oligopolistic firms is forcing them to conduct secret economical policy in price changes and in the delineation of the spheres of influence. Such cooperation may manifest itself in the form of price rigidity or leadership in price formation, and through special organizations such as patent pools.The rigidity of prices is the oligopolistic practice, when, even with changes in costs or demand, an organization is not inclined to change prices, believing that if it has to raise the price, others will follow, which will lead to loss of market share. In this way, the cartel stays away from changing prices due to the fear to let out the war of prices. Leadership in prices means the practice, when the formation of prices for the product is focused on the prices set by th e leader often dominant in this industry. This demonstrates the kindly of implicit collusion, although its presence is usually not proven (Bckem, 2004).Patent pools represent an agreement on specialization and cooperation of production, and the consortium the union of firms to conduct joint scientific research and joint construction of large investment projects. Both of these organizations perform cartel functions and are the basis for the organization of conspiracy to divide the market.Thus, the oligopoly is characterized by three features there are two or more competing firms in the industry, so that the industry is not monopolized (OPEC and Russia relation) demand curve has a falling character, so the industry does not have rules of free competition at least one large organization operates in the industry, any action of which causes a reaction of competitors (OPEC oligopolistic practices), so that there is no monopolistic competition (Bckem, 2004).

The risk factors for breast cancer

The fortune factors for chest crabmeatINTRODUCTION embrace genus malignant neoplastic disease is the few unwashed type of genus genus Cancer among women in Malayansia with an over entirely geezerhood-standardized incidence (ASR) of 46.2 per 100,000 population 1. The incidence of teat crab louse differs among Malaysia states it is the most common cancer among women in Penang, followed by Sabah 2. However, on that point is no previous meditate on danger factors associated done in Penang before. Determining the stake factors of bosom cancer helps to identify women who may benefit most from screening or another(prenominal) preventive measures, also offers hopeful promise of modifying those factors, thus preventing thorax cancer occurrence.Many risk factors of breast cancer engage been launch and many of them have been recognized as established factors. Advancing age is one of the most important factors 3. Reproductive factors like timing of menarche and menopause , coincidence play a major role in breast cancer incidence 4, 5 . Also, lifestyle factors like intoxicant consumption 6-9, high up fat sustenance 10-14 and dope 15-17 have been identified by many studies as risk factors for breast cancer. This study aimed to determine the relationship surrounded by the socio-demographic factors, family history, reproductive factors, the life-style factors and immaterial factors with the occurrence of the breast cancer among the study population.MATERIAL AND METHODSStudy designA matched case-control study was conducted in Penang General Hospital, Penang Island, Malaysia among 20th November 2009 and 22th January 2010 using a standardized questionnaire that designed into ii languages English and Malay. Both cases and controls were matched by age group and ethnicity. Sample size was calculated according to that reported by CARIF-UM (Release tender Malaysian mamilla crabby person genic Study) which stated that 14% of breast cancer patients in Malaysia who have family history of breast cancer 18 and the relative risk for strong family history ranging from 2.5 to 4.5 19 , the minimum sample size was 149 patients per group.Ethical ApprovalOur study was approved by Clinical question Centre and Medical Research Ethic Committee of Ministry of Health Malaysia. Considering the ethical issues, written consent was signed by each case and verbal agreement for interview participation was obtained from all control subjects. All the personal information collected was considered confidential.Data CollectionThe cases were recruited from a convenience sample of prevalent breast cancer women who attended the oncology clinic, day-c are chemotherapy center, oncology ward, and the functional ward during the period of conducting this research. Women with confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer histologically regardless of the stage and met the following criteria above 20 years old, non-pregnancy, without any gynecologic problems (e.g., arti ficial menopause by hysterectomy), hormonal and psychological problems, were called for interview. Only one patient refused to participate. Our controls were non-breast cancer women who attended the outpatient clinics and outpatient pharmacy during the equivalent period. Women who are non-pregnant, matched by age group and ethnicity to the cases recruited, without any malignancies, gynological, hormonal and endocrine, and psychological problems are eligible to be our controls. Statistical AnalysisAll data entry and analyses were conducted using SPSS version 15 Microsoft program. Descriptive statistics including mean and standard deviations (SD) for continuous variables, frequencies and percentages for categorical variables were used to describe the study population. Crude ORs with 95% CI were calculated using simple logistical regression models that examined the stand between breast cancer status and risk factors. Significant supreme variables with P values RESULTSIn all, 300 wo men within two groups were interviewed cl women with breast cancer and 150 control women without breast cancer. The means SD age of cases and controls were 52.81 11.13 years (range 23-83 years) and 52.40 11.52 years (range 22-78 years), respectively. Statistically, there is no world-shaking difference between cases and controls in term of age (P value= 0.75) and race frequency (P value= 1.00). Among each cases and controls group, 34.7 % were Malay, 50.7 % were Chinese, 14.0 % were Indian and 0.7 % were other races.Socio-demographic take a chance FactorsThe results of socio-demographic risk factors obtained from univariate logistic regression psychoanalysis summarized in Table 1 showed that lower educational aim and occupation were significantly link up to breast cancer risk (P Family HistoryFamily history of commencement exercise degree relative with other types of cancer (nasopharyngeal, ovarian, Lung, bladder, stomach, or colon cancers) change magnitude the risk signific antly (P Reproductive find FactorsAccording to the reproductive factors (Table 3), women with late ages at menopauses (= 55 years old) (OR=2.8, 95%CI 1.18 6.67), or history of menstrual impairment (OR= 3.2, 95%CI 1.00 10.08) or who had neer breastfed (OR= 1.74, 95%CI= 1.09 2.76) were more than likely to have breast cancer. The evasive effect of breastfeeding erect to be a du balancen dependent women who had breastfed for only few months had a higher(prenominal) risk by 1.51 ( 95%CI 0.83 2.77) compared to breastfed women for a total of more than 1 year, and the risk additiond in non-breastfed women to 2.08 (95%CI= 1.22 3.57). Nevertheless, no statistically significant association were observed between breast cancer and the age at menarche, number of children (parity), age at first full term pregnancy, number of abortions and menopausal status. tone Style and External risk of exposure FactorsBreast cancer risk ratios were higher for women who had a history of benign bre ast disease (OR=2.8, 95%CI 1.13 6.88) and who had neer practiced low fat forage (white meat, white fish, skinless chicken and avoid deep fried intellectual nourishment) (OR=1.81, 95%CI 1.14 2.86). However, other lifestyle factors like smoking, alcoholic drink consumption, body mass index (BMI = 25 kg/m2) and external hormone use, like OCP and HRT were not significant statistically to be risks for breast cancer.multivariate ResultsAmong all factors included in the multivariable model (Table 5), occupation, breastfeeding and practicing low-fat diet play important protective roles against breast cancer unemployed women ( change OR= 2.7, 95%CI 1.59 4.61), never breastfed women (adjusted OR= 1.94, 95%CI 1.15 3.27) and never practiced low-fat diet (adjusted OR = 1.97, 95%CI 1.18 3.27) were found to be associated with breast cancer risk as statistically significant independent factors.Other factors contributing to breast cancer risk were family history of distant relatives with br east cancer (adjusted OR= 3.70, 95%CI 1.48 -9.20) and first degree relatives with other cancers (adjusted OR= 5.27, 95%CI 1.38 20.1). Also, women with histories of benign breast disease (adjusted OR= 3.14, 95%CI 1.17 8.40) and menstrual cycle irregularity (adjusted OR= 4.94, 95% CI 1.42 17.26) were more likely to have breast cancer. OCP use was significantly related to breast cancer risks however, this was not related to the duration. maculation using OCP for 5 years increased the risk by only 3 times (95% CI 1.02 9.00).DISCUSSIONIn a pooled analysis of 150 breast cancer cases and 150 non-breast cancer controls, associations between breast cancer and various demographic, reproductive, and lifestyle factors were examined. Both cases and controls were chosen intentionally from the same hospital during the same study period.The risk of breast cancer has been reported to be associated with socio-demographic status 24-26. Age is a very important risk factor it was found that breast cancer incidence generally increases with age. The mean age at diagnosis for all breast cancer patients is 50.7 11.0 years. The peak age reaches between 40 and 49 and thereafter the number of breast cancer patients decreases quite dramatically with only 4.0% above 70 years old (Figure 1). Also, only 2.0% of cases were diagnosed below the age of 30 which is consistent with Singletary pictureings 3.According to the other socio-demographic factors studied, higher take of education has a protective effect (POccupation status also plays an important role as a protection factor against breast cancer in both univariate and multivariate analysis (P Family history is an important factor in our population an adjusted OR of 3.7 (95%CI = 1.48 9.2) was found for women with a distant relative with breast cancer, which is within the OR range reported by previous literature 19, 37 and higher than that reported by others 3, 38. However, having first degree-relatives with breast cancer is not si gnificantly related to the breast cancer risk (P 0.05). This may be explained partially because of the high frequency of controls (7 of 150 controls vs. 16 of 150 cases) that had first-degree relatives with breast cancer. Such a high number of family histories in controls may result in an down the stairsestimation of increased risk due to the family history.Furthermore, history of first degree relatives with other cancer (gastric, pancreatic, colon, lung carcinoma.etc) is significantly more frequent in patients than in controls with the adjusted odd ratio of 5.27 (95% CI= 1.38 20.1). Recently, it has been discovered that clustering of first degree cases of breast, pancreas and stomach carcinomas in a family has been associated with mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2 39.Breastfeeding is an important protective factor among our population women who had never breastfed their baby have a 1.74 (95%CI 1.09 2.76) higher risk of get breast cancer and the adjusted odd ratio is 1.94 (ever versus never, 95%CI = 1.15 3.27) in the multivariate analysis. Our visualiseing is in agreement with these studies 40-48, however, others failed to find any association 31, 36, 49-52.Moreover, the duration of breastfeeding has also an important effect found that the longer the lactation period, the least the risk of breast cancer. This inverse relationship between the duration of breastfeeding and the risk of breast cancer have been suggested by other studies 46, 53-60, however, other revealed that this is mainly confined to women diagnosed before the age of 40 with a gutless trend for older patients 61.History of irregular menstrual cycle (Polymenorrhea, Oligomenorrhea, or Amenorrhea) had an increased risk the OR range (3.17- 4.94) and this supports the Turkish study 62 which found that menstrual irregularity increased the risk by 1.61 (95% CI 1.05-2.49). Others 55, 63, 64 did not find any significant relation between menstrual irregularity and breast can cer risk. However, it has been reported that menstrual irregularity decreased the risk 65This study sight a significant association between oral contraceptive use and breast cancer, consistent with other local studies 27, 36, 66 and other international studies 46, 67. Whereas we could not find any relationship between the duration of OCP used and the risk of breast cancer, so our study does not support the growing body of evidence that long use of oral contraceptives, especially during certain parts of reproductive life, is associated with a modest increase in breast cancer risk 46, 68. However, most studies found no or weak association of OCP use with the risk of breast cancer 34, 69-71. The association between OCP use and breast cancer is also related to the duration, dosage, type of OCP and the age of first use 72.Previous history of benign breast disease is highly significant in the present study (P Practicing low-fat diet (take only white meat, white fish, and skinless chicke n and avoid deep fried food) exhibited an inverse association with the risk of breast cancer, which is significant in both univariate and multivariate analysis (crude OR 1.81, 95%CI= 1.14 2.86) and (adjusted OR 1.96, 95%CI=1.18 3.27) respectively for women who had never practicing low fat diet. Red and fried meat consumption and fatty foods were suggested as important risk factors for breast cancer 11, 73. For each additional 100 g (3.5 oz) daily of meat consumption the risk of breast cancer increased risk by 56% in a French case-control study 13. Another age group study 74 reported a significant relative risk (RR) of 1.7 for women who reported eating the skin on poultry. Null high consumptions of fatty forms, namely fried fish and chicken with skin were associated with an increase of breast cancer risk 75. Other case-control studies reported a protective effect of poultry and fish against the development of breast cancer 76. Also, there was no evidence for a positive association between total dietetic fat inspiration and risk of breast cancer and no reduction in the risk even among women whose energy intake from fat was less than 20 percent of the total energy intake 77. Some case-control studies and cohort studies have shown weak and inconsistent associations between high intake of dietary fat and poultry with the occurrence of breast cancer 14, 78.Other well-established factors that have been studied smoking cigarettes, alcohol intake, regular use of HRT, pre and post-menopausal body mass index (BMI), marital status and the level of monthly income , age at menarche, age at first full term pregnancy, number of abortions, menopausal status and parity were found not to be significant in this study (P 0.05).Strength and LimitationTo our own knowledge, the present study is the first case-control study of breast cancer to investigate the risk factor in Penang Island, Malaysia. Both cases and control were matched by age group and ethnicity which add some st rength to our study. This research studied almost all the socio-demographic, reproductive, lifestyle and external risk factors, so the confounding effects of all of these factors had been taken into consideration when getting our result by multivariate analysis. Furthermore, the questionnaire was designed into two languages (English and Malay), hence most of the three main ethnic groups in Penang (Chinese, Malay, and Indian) are fluent in both or both of them.As other case-control studies, our work has some limitations. The question regarding menstrual history (age at menarche, age at menopause) of the respondent are likely to be affected by recall bias. There was a chance of error in recall especially for age at menarche that had been many decades previous and this may have affected the results. We tried to minimize this bias through assisting the memory of subjects.Some of the Chinese cases were excluded due to the language barrier (they cannot speak Malay or English), that may cause some selection bias. Finally, generalizability of our findings may be precluded by our population features they have high mean ages, low educational level and belong to a mid socioeconomic class, also by the difference in the ethnicity distribution among different Malaysia states.CONCLUSIONIn summarily, family history with breast cancer or other cancer, history of benign breast disease, menstrual irregularity, and oral contraceptive used were found to be significantly associated with increased breast cancer risk, whereas breastfeeding, occupation and practicing low fat diet have protective effects against breast cancer. Late age at menopause and education level are significant risk factor only in the univaraite analysis.REFERENCESLim, G. and Y. 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My Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement Essay -- Philosophy of E

My Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement I weigh that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and touch atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, socially, and academically. It is my desire as a future educator to help students meet their fullest potential by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites a sharing of ideas. There be two elements that I believe are essential to establishing such an environment, (1) allowing the childs natural curiosity to direct his/her learning, and (2) promoting regard for all things and all people. Giving children the opportunity to study things that are meaningful and relevant to ones life and interests is what progressivism is all about. I believe fostering should be child-centered and focused on having students acquire problem answer skills. For a child to have a successful educational experience, their course of study mu st be individualized to meet their needs and interests. Children should be encouraged to improve, further not pushed to achieve past the level appropriate for them at a particular time. If curriculum is related to life experiences that a child understands, it will be easier for them to comprehend and it will have more lasting meaning to them. Another aspect of progressivism that I will incorporate in my classroom, is teaching my students about multiculturalism, including peop... My Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement Essay -- Philosophy of EMy Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, socially, and academically. It is my desire as a future educator to help students meet their fullest potential by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and inv ites a sharing of ideas. There are two elements that I believe are essential to establishing such an environment, (1) allowing the childs natural curiosity to direct his/her learning, and (2) promoting respect for all things and all people. Giving children the opportunity to study things that are meaningful and relevant to ones life and interests is what progressivism is all about. I believe education should be child-centered and focused on having students acquire problem solving skills. For a child to have a successful educational experience, their curriculum must be individualized to meet their needs and interests. Children should be encouraged to improve, but not pushed to achieve past the level appropriate for them at a particular time. If curriculum is related to life experiences that a child understands, it will be easier for them to comprehend and it will have more lasting meaning to them. Another aspect of progressivism that I will incorporate in my classroom, is teaching my students about multiculturalism, including peop...

Internet Users Turn Addicts :: essays research papers

If youre an Internet user, you know who you are. They are among all of us in society, although many whitethorn choose to not acknowledge that they too, frequently use the Internet. As I sit here and look across the street, I see a man in antecedent of his own computer the screen glowing against the window behind him. He does not use his personal computer for work, he is a farmer. He has depart what is known as an "Internet Junky".The addiction set abouts innocently. At the start, you are not even aware of the possibilities that may form from your excessive computer use. You begin to take an avid interest in e-mailing with your friends and family. Once the novelty of keeping in touch with your colleagues wears off, and researching starts to bore you, you may possibly expand your computer habit to chatting. Yes, chatting. It is something that is becoming more acceptable in our lives, but it is still looked down upon by many skeptics. Chatting through the Internet involves choosing an appropriate nickname for yourself (IE Fisherman), and then decision a room where you feel compelled to spend time in. Once youve entered the room, other fellow chatters may say, "Hello...a/s/l (age/sex/location) please." And so begins the addiction. Once you beget involved in meeting people online, it is difficult to break such a habit. You may even make a daily habit of it. batch have been found to carry out exactly the same behavior, not only across the nation, but across the globe. In any one room, you may come across people from five different countries of the world. Granted, not everyone who stays online for hours on end, are enveloped in chatting, but it is more often then not, the acquire for Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). (Goldberg, MD)The prevalence of Internet Addiction Disorder has been increasing in number, hence a support group, among many, The Internet Addiction halt Group (IASG) has been developed. IAD, a "maladaptive" pattern for I nternet use, is leading to impairment and/or distress caused by three (or more) of the following, at any time in a period of one year "A) A need for markedly increased amounts of time on Internet to achieve satisfaction, B) Markedly diminished raise with continued use of the same amount of time on Internet.", C) Reduction in Internet use which has been prolonged. (Goldberg,