Barclays Plc and Abn Amro Case Study

[pic] London School of Commerce MBA E BARCLAYS PLC AND ABN AMRO CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT London UK As one of the world’s leading banks, with 135,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Barclays plays a significant role, from working with governments on major infrastructure projects to bringing banking to customers in emerging markets. Barclays is made up of two major businesses: Global Retail and Commercial Banking (GRCB) and Investment Banking and Investment Management (IBIM). There strategy is to achieve growth through time by diversifying their profit base making their growth relevant to their customers at all times. This case study will seek to examine the bid and intended acquisition of ABN AMRO, and the early acquisition of Banco Zaragozano by Barclays, the differences in performance of these two banks based upon the strategic a economic motives, focusing on the merger acquisition, and strategy implemented to effect improvements to reflect the results from 2002- 2006. 1. Evaluate Barclays strategy over the period of the case and prior to the ABN bid, paying particular attention to the global industry drivers and the group? s performance from 2002-2006. In order to understand the context that helps to formulate the strategic performance changes at Barclays PLC over and prior bid for ABN AMOR. Barclay? s’ origins can be found back in 1690 to John Freame and Thomas Gould. The named changed to its present form when James Barclay became a partner in 1736. Presently, Barclays is the third largest bank in the United Kingdom. The institution’s primary focus is in retail banking, investment banking as well as investment management. Barclays operates in 60 countries with major point of interest in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa. Barclays is one of the ten largest banks global when measured by market capitalization (Barclays PLC, 2004). The institution’s core business revolves around retail and investment banking, and it is the later that is being impacted by forces acting upon liberal market economies in varied European Union member states as a result of the aforementioned introduction of the Euro as well as globalization. As a result of the preceding, Barclays services the United Kingdom market as well as providing services to multinational companies located in differing market models. Barclays strategy. The bank’s strategy is to offer a full portfolio of services worldwide, providing a wide range of cross-selling opportunities, in order to achieve good growth through time by diversifying its business base and increasing its presence in markets and segments that are growing rapidly. This is driven by the Group’s ambition to become one of a handful of universal banks leading the global financial services industry, helping customers and clients throughout the world achieve their goals. Moreover, the strategy of the bank is based on the principles of earn, invest and grow. Aligning business drivers with strategic options. The strategic options examined by Barclays were further direct investment or outsourcing to a ‘partner’ bank and these were considered in the context of the bank’s key business drivers. These were:improving their operating model for trade processing; reducing the costs of their trade business in relation to people, infrastructure and services; improving their trade service capabilities and establishing a workable, non-competing, long-term ‘partnership’. After considering all of the options, including a Joint Venture partnership, Barclays decided to outsource the processing aspect of its trade services offering to ABN AMRO and to focus on delivering enhanced client service. Performance Nowadays, the proliferation of banking consolidation within the industry is and has created a new era of international banking conglomerates in the global industry. The preceding is causing European based banks to appear small in terms of relative comparison. Barclays? peration in a liberal market economy means it competes with equity financing for corporations and as such, this does not represent a strength concerning its overall performance base. According to group? s performance from 2002-2006 identifies that Barclays? performance underpinnings are represented by its strategy of acquiring other banking (such as ABN Amro and Banco Zaragozano) concerns to expand its retail as well as other banking services through representation in international marke ts as represented by the bank’s presence in 60 countries. This provides Barclays with the means to sell its highly profitable investment banking services as well as be positioned to service the cadre of multinational companies that utilize its diverse banking financial service packages. On the other hand, ABN AMRO bank has a presence in 76 countries and territories. Using its worldwide network the bank provides universal banking services consisting of commercial and investment banking products to corporate nationally and internationally operating clients as well as personal and private banking customers. In 2007, Barclays announced the proposed acquisition of ABN AMRO bank, in order to expanded their distribution base. The deal was valued at â‚ ¬67 billion. On October, the RFS consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland, bidding for control of ABN AMRO, formally declared victory after shareholders, representing 86 percent of the Dutch bank’s shares, accepted the RFS group’s â‚ ¬70bn offer. Barclays is known a consistent performer delivering steady profitability results, 20% increase in profit before taxes in 2003, and again in 2004, and one of the lowest cost to income ratios with regard to banks in the UK. The preceding indicates that Barclays is well managed. Barclays? focus on internal administrative consolidation as well as the acquisition of banking concerns represents its recognition in order to maintain growth in revenues, return on equity, dividends and profits in response to maintaining a high market capitalization that tends to make it a relatively unattractive takeover target as a result of the high premium required to acquire it Barclays? retail banking arm is clearly supported by the huge success of its Barclaycard division that has set industry standards in terms of innovations in customer utility. Barclays? resence in 60 countries further strengthens the utility of this card providing business and retail customers with access to their financial accounts globally (Barclays PLC, 2004). The aforementioned diversity in operations is a result of the economic strength of global industry market based economies that have fully recovered from the global recession events of 2002. B arclays? banking acquisition strategy is a direct outgrowth of the foregoing in keeping with the consolidation mania initiated by U. S. based banks. According to ABN AMRO bank performance, financial results in 2006 added to concerns about the bank's future. Operating expenses increased at a greater rate than operating revenue, and the efficiency ratio deteriorated further to 69. 9%. Non-performing loans increased considerably year on year by 192%. Net profits were only boosted by sustained asset sales. From 2002 to 2006, the further progress being made as a result of understanding the corrective measures that were and are needed to be taken. Barclays ? performance throughout this period has remained consistent and steady as the bank has not lost sight of the competencies that helped it achieve acceptable historical performance. . Compare and contrast the intended acquisition of ABN with that of the earlier acquisition of Banco Zaragozano, paying particular attention to the merger rationale and the motives in each case and the likely synergy gains resulting from the integration of ABN. According to the drivers of the bidding war that preceded the intended acquisition of ABN AMRO bank and the acquisition of Banco Zaragozano by Barclays in 2003, it is important to understand why merger and acquisition (M) take place and the potential gains of doing so. But first some definitions. Mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions (M) are considered as consolidation strategies where a change of control takes place through a transfer of ownership. A merger is the combining of two or more companies into a single corporation. This is achieved when one company or business purchases the property or some other form of assets from another company. The result of this action is the formation of one corporate structure. This new corporate structure retains it is original identity. An acquisition is a little different from a merger n that it involves many problems being dissolved, and an entirely new company being formed. The main theory of merger and acquisition is synergy, that is, one and one makes three. Through synergy, managers create greater value with the integration of two companies, rather than that of their individual parts. Strategic and economic motives. The strategic of Barclays with the intended acquisition of ABN AMRO bank was to created a big opportunity with the purpose to deliver a new period of faster growth for shareholders in general. Moreover the intended investment would be implemented at a reasonable price slightly below the recent market trading price. The merger for Barclays was focused in a strong financial performance provides clear strategic advantages as well as stature on the world business state. The proposed merger with ABN AMRO, offered a unique opportunity to become a leading force in global retail and commercial banking with an stimate 47 millions customers, in order to increase financial returns to their owners beyond the rate of the stand-alone entities. And the fact that this merger, combining the strengths and values of both businesses, gives them confidence in delivery, both in terms of synergies, and determined in considerable detail by ABN AMRO bank and Barclays, in terms of a clearly defined and transparent management structure that we are putting in place. In terms of growth for shareholders, the combined entity would offers a diversified portfolio, both by geography and by business. Exposure to high-growth developing markets represents about a quarter of the enlarged pro forma profit base. Business segments such as investment banking and investment management, which have as we know strong growth opportunities driven by demographic trendS represent about half of profits For Global Retail and Commercial Banking, the merger would create the fourth largest retail and commercial bank worldwide by market share, and in a world where the needs and buying behaviours of retail and commercial customers are growing more similar, this will create economies of scale. Furthermore, the benefits generate by the merger between both banks would be: complementary networks, a strong presence in attractive European markets; significantly enhanced positions in high-growth developing markets; a much larger distribution network; and the opportunity to deliver considerable economies of scale. The main reason behind Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has trumped Barclays? offer for ABN Amro. The for each ABN AMRO share, 79 per cent of which will be in cash, with the remainder in RBS shares. The cash element was higher than expected and the bid, valuing ABN at E71bn (? 8bn), beats Barclays? agreed all-share offer, worth E64. 5bn. The deal offers better value for ABN AMRO bank shareholders. And price is not the only factor, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) also combined cost savings would reach E4. 23bn by the end of 2010, easily beating Barclays? estimated savings of around E2. 8bn. In essence the driving force behind the success of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) bid over Barclays was in fact the higher share price expectations offering the perfect icing. That partly reflects the radically difierent strategic visions of the two banks. Barclays is looking to build a huge universal bank where cross-border synergies could be limited. But the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) consortium wants to generate a type of â€Å"in-market synergies†, by breaking-up ABN AMRO. On the other hand, in 2003, Barclays announces the completion of its acquisition of Banco Zaragozano, at a cost of ? 788 million which fit nicely into Barclays' strategy to grow its business in Europe. Barclays has been present in the Spanish market for 25 years and it the most profitable foreign-owned bank in the country. The acquisition of Banco Zaragozano to its arsenal makes Barclays the sixth largest private bank in Spain (much of the market is dominated by publicly-owned banks) and triples Barclays customer base and branch network. Barclays aimed to be one of the top five banks in the world and for that it would consider acquisition to achieve the goal. Further, Barclays believes that a physical retail and commercial banking presence is a significant enabler of investment banking growth. The acquisition of Banco Zaragozano, shows that strong retail presence generates ood new business opportunities for global businesses such as investment banking and credit cards. The success or failure of a deal also depends on the time horizon over which evaluation is done. Normally, in the short term, stock reactions to merger announcements tend to raise the target's stock price, while the stock of the acquirer stays about the same. This is normally attributable to the expectation that there will be a bid that is successful and involves a premium above the current market price of the stock. Acquirer prices stay the same, in general, as the market reacts conservatively, depending on the specifics of the deal. 3. Identify what you believe to the key success factors necessary to sustain competitive adavantage in the global financial services industry and briefly discuss the implications for the firm? s competencies, structure, and ehical/corporate governance. Critical success factors (CSFs) have been used significantly to present or identify a few key factors that organisations should focus on to be successful. As a definition, Critical success factors refer to â€Å"the limited number of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful competitive performance for the individual, department, or organisation† (Rockart and Bullen, 1981). Identifying CSFs is important as it allows firms to focus their efforts on building their capabilities to meet the CSFs, or even allow firms to decide if they have the capability to build the requirements necessary to meet Critical success factors (CSFs). The main keys success factors for Barclays in the case study are, with over three hundred years of history and expertise in banking Barclays has seen and has gained a reputation for being a trustworthy and a reliable institution to bank and invest with. This reputation has seen it grow into over 50 countries and become truly universal bank providing loans, investments and protecting the money of over 42 million customers and client worldwide. Another reason for the success of Barclays would be that it follows a simple strategic premise; ‘anticipates the needs of customers and clients and serve them by helping them achieve their goals. Part of Barclays recent success has been their ability to target and identify upcoming emerging markets for example: India, parts of Asia and Africa, namely South Africa, expanding its retail network and cash machine availability. Despite being a truly global corporation from a basic bank account to funding Governmental projects, Barclays focus ha s always been to meet the needs of the individual customer. Furthermore, competitive advantages are difficult to create. It is even more difficult to sustain. Community banks usually can not achieve a cost advantages, especially in head-to-head competition with larger, high-volume institutions. That leaves differentiation as their primary method for creating Competitive advantages. But that approach is also problematic. It is clear that technology is playing a bigger and bigger role in banking. But today most banks are using functionally identical systems to develop and deliver products and services. This uniformity of technology has resulted in commoditized banking – the antithesis of differentiation. So while emerging technology can create a temporary advantage, sustainable differentiation based solely on technology is virtually impossible. To make matters worse, technology has actually eliminated some of the historical advantages enjoyed by community banks. Thanks to CRM, personalized service – once the sole province of community banks – is now possible for even the largest institutions. Sustainable Competitive advantages is created by leveraging organization’s unique blend of attributes – brand equity, reputation, geographic footprint, specialized knowledge – and articulating it clearly and consistently to your market. Barclays is an excellent example of a bank that has achieved Competitive advantages through specialized knowledge. On the other hand, on the global financial services industry corporate governance is essential to the wellbeing of an individual company and its stakeholders, particularly its shareholders and creditors. But sound corporate governance is not just a vital factor at the level of the individual corporation. It is also a critical ingredient in maintaining a sound financial system and a robust economy. And that is why governments have taken such an interest in recent examples of corporate governance failures. It is also why banking supervisors are placing greater emphasis on the role that corporate governance can play in promoting financial stability. In the financial system, corporate governance is one of the key factors that determine the health of the system and its ability to survive economic shocks. The health of the financial system much depends on the underlying soundness of its individual components and the connections between them – such as the banks, the non-bank financial institutions and the payment systems. In turn, their soundness largely depends on their capacity to identify, measure, monitor and control their risks. Barclays have designed good corporate governance policies and practices in order to ensure that they are focused on their responsibilities to shareholders and on creating long term shareholder value, and ensuring that behaviour is ethical, legal and transparent. In firms, structure is basically the best way to organize it, in order to accomplish it is objectives. It acts as the medium that facilitates the accomplishments of the organizational goals. It also helps to identify the key activities of the organizational processes and how they are coordinated. Moreover, successful strategy implementation depends to a large extent on the firm’s primary organizational structure. A primary organizational structure comprises the firm’s major elements, components, or differentiated units. Other means of getting organized are through reward systems, coordination terms, planning procedures, alliances, information, and budgetary systems. Geographical structure It is common in firms that have grown by expanding the sale of their products of services to new geographical areas. In these areas, they frequently encounter differences that necessitate different approaches in producing, providing or selling services or products. The key strategic advantage of this structure is responsiveness to local market conditions, a clear example of that is the intended acquisition of ABN AMRO and the early acquisition of Banco Zaragozano. To conclude, after being satisfied with its progress in the United Kingdom, Barclays decided to make its name international by going abroad which was another great move. In the United Kingdom, Barclays had acquired many other small banks, such a Banco Zaragozano, gained large market and profits with each acquisition. As a result of this growth, this company had reached its maturity stage within UK itself; it has reached its peak of growth. Further, Barclays, performance throughout 2002-2006 has remained consistent and steady as the bank has not lost sight of the competencies that helped it achieve acceptable historical performance. Bibliography †¢ Barclays PLC. 2004. Annual Report. Barclays PLC, London, United Kingdom. †¢ Calmfors, Lars, Driffil, John. 1988. Centralisation of Wage Bargaining. Vol. 6. Economic Policy Dammann, N. 2008. The Bidder Competition for ABN AMRO: A Strategic Analysis and Implications †¦Bachelor tesis. †¢ Esping-Anderrsen, Gosta. 1990. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States. †¢ Foster, S. Reed A. , & Nesvold P. 1999. The art of M & A: a merger, acquisition, buyout guide. Fourth edition. †¢ Friedman, Thomas. 1999. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. P 105. Anchor Books, New York, New York, United States †¢ Hall, Peter, Soskice, David. 2001. Varieties of Capitalism: The Insitutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. Ireland, D. , Hoskisson, R. , & Hitt, M. 2008 Understanding Business Strategy: Concepts and Cases. Second edition †¢ Monks, R. , & Minow N. 2008. Corporate Governance. Fourth edition †¢ Rockart, J. & Bullen, C. , 1981. A primer on critical success factors. Center for Information Systems Research Working Paper No 69. Sloan School of Management, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. †¢ Tibergien, M. & Pomering. 2005. R. Practice made perfect: the discipline of business management for financial. Bloomberg.

Ideal Types of Authorities

SOC 1301-01 Ideal Types of Authorities According to Max Weber, there are three kinds of authority: the legal rational authority, the charismatic authority and the traditional authority. President Nixon, Adolf Hitler and Moroccan Monarch Hassan II were all great leaders. However, the source of their powerful domination and their political leadership differ from one to another. In fact, considering a â€Å"Weberian† classification, we will consider Nixon as a legal rational leader, Hitler as a charismatic leader and Hassan II as a traditional leader.In this paper, we will try to emphasize the characteristics of each one of them based on their domestic or foreign policies. And then we will see their resemblance and similarities. Richard Milhous Nixon was sworn in as president on November 5, 1968 with only five hundred fifty thousand votes more than the Democratic candidate, and Vice-President under Johnson administration, Hubert Humphrey. (Strober & Strober, 2003) According to We ber: â€Å"Rulership is seen to rest on legal authority. As citizens of constitutional governments we assent to authority because its powers are based on procedures and institutions which have been legally enacted. (Whimster, 2004) Nixon is a legal rational leader since his authority is tied to the American government that is a rational and bureaucratic institution. As he was putting his administration together, â€Å"Nixon was always bringing in new people†¦this was one of the keys to his success. † He chose to work with a small group of assistants, advisors â€Å"and his longtime secretary Rose Mary Woods. † Nixon had a simple, but efficient philosophy: to bring in new blood to his administration. â€Å"He understood that people can perform up to a certain level; then they may lose interest, or may get bored. Moreover, one of his biggest strength was his political foresight. â€Å"Some of the best political minds of the past twenty years have been Nixonâ€⠄¢s finds. † (Strober & Strober, 2003) Domestically, Nixon believed in equality in the repartition of civil rights. He insisted that the country should help black people and that â€Å"the answer was to give them a chance to be capitalists – not just jobs† but figure out a way to have them involved in the American economy and the capitalist system. Afterwards, black people began to have more ‘office’ jobs and less hysical or illegal jobs, for instance â€Å"they became employers and tax payers,† which â€Å"shifts the whole burden in the economy. † Nixon also believed that although it was not necessarily a good political move because it will not get the administration any votes, they â€Å"will do it, because it’s the right thing to do. He had a conviction that that was something that needed to be done. † Subsequently, the program was called Minority Business and was expanded to â€Å"four ethnic groupings of people in th e United States that are considered by the Congress to be minorities: blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians. It was a success but what Nixon mostly saw in it was what he called â€Å"an equal Place at the starting line. † Nixon continued to fulfill his domestic policy, and one of his most remarkable works in this area is clearly the integration of the South. His â€Å"administration had to desegregate the school systems† they tend to do it in a diplomatic way in order not to impose radical changes on very conservative people in the South. â€Å"And by 1972, the South had some of the most integrated systems in the country. This whole integration issue made Nixon very popular in the South. (Strober & Strober, 2003) Furthermore, Nixon brought reforms to ex-President Johnson’s Health care system. In Nixon’s proposal on health care systems, he proposed a health insurance coverage that everyone would benefit from and created the Environmental Protect ion Agency. According to Max Weber â€Å"The charismatic leader gains and maintains authority solely by proving his strength in life. If he wants to be a prophet, he must perform miracles; if he wants to be a warlord, he must ‘prove’ itself in that those who faithfully surrender to him must fare well.If they do not fare well, he is obviously not the master sent by the gods. † (Weber, 1946) Thus, Weber’s notion of â€Å"Charismatic leadership† perfectly suits Adolf Hitler. Since he joined the German Worker’s Party in 1919, he generated a cult around his person. In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of the third Reich and in the same year the Reichstag passed the â€Å"Enabling act of 1933† that gave Hitler full power. Moreover, after the death of the president Eidenburg, Hitler became Fuhrer of the 3rd Reich, which is the fusion of Chancellor and president. Nicholls, 2011) therefore, he was the leader of the â€Å"German nation defined in racial terms†¦he was the leader for whom people had been waiting: The Hitler Myth. † People placed him above every sacred thing in their lives; then it made â€Å"it possible for him to retain his status as charismatic leader. † Traditional authority rests on â€Å"an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them. † (Swedberg, 2005) Hence, this kind of rulership â€Å"involves subjects accepting rule because the king or chief has always exercised power. (Whimster, 2004) This definition is applicable on the deceased king of Morocco Hassan II. His reign extended from 1961 until his dead in 1999 after he had inherited the throne from the Alaouite dynasty generally and from his father Mohammed V in particular. Hassan II was a conservative; he established the first Moroccan constitution in 1963 and it granted him with large powers. Hassan II and Adolf Hitler were both characterized by thei r strong rulership. Hitler was a dictator who transformed the Weimar Republic into a totalitarian regime known as the third Reich.Thereafter, he drove the whole nation into World War II. On the other hand, Hassan II whose methods also were too radical, if not to say dictatorial, was at the head of an authoritarian government or a disguised dictatorship. Under it people did not enjoy their civil rights, they lived a dark period called â€Å"years of lead† because of the brutality, the assassination such as the case of Ben Barka who was kidnapped from a pubic area in Paris, and the deportations to Tazmamarte prison.Otherwise, although Hitler was a dictator, he came to power in a legal manner when his party the National Socialist German Workers Party came at the head of the electoral vote with 43. 9% in 1933. Unlike Nixon and Hassan II, Hitler is very segregationist and he was willing to fulfill his pan-Germanist ideology to gather German origin people in one country. He eradica ted black people, Jews and the disabled while Hassan II gave the same rights to Moroccan Jews and Muslims, and Nixon established health care programs for ill and disabled people. Nicholls, 2011) Furthermore, Nixon, Hassan II and Hitler had different foreign policies. The keyword of Nixon’s foreign affairs was ‘overture. ’ As soon as installed in the White House along with Kissinger, his National Security Advisor, Nixon planned to withdraw from the War in Vietnam. Nixon firmly believed that â€Å"the American policy should be one that stressed the withdrawal of external forces. † (Lee & Haynsworth, 2002) Hassan II was an ally of the West especially the USA; he also was a intermediate between the Arab world and Israel. (Dalle, 2011).However, Hitler’s plan was to eliminate all Germany’s enemies especially France and the USSR. He also planed to make Germany economically self-sufficient by series of territorial conquests in Central Europe, France and USSR. (Nicholls, 2011) In conclusion, we may say that according to Weber notions of ideal types of authorities and kinds of leaders, Nixon is a rational legal leader, Hitler is a charismatic figure and Hassan II is a traditional leader. However, we also notice that these classifications are not radical; therefore, one leader can fit in two or all the types of Weber’s ideal type of authority.Consequently, in our case, Hassan II and Nixon are also charismatic figures in addition to their original classification. Even though people believe Hitler came to power with brutality and terror, he actually became chancellor in a legal democratic way. In 1933, the national Socialist German Worker’s party won the popular vote and then Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Then he used manipulative (Reichstag incendiary) and brutal ways (imprisonment of political opponent) to become the Reich Fuhrer. Thus, Hitler was also a legal rational leader once he became chancellor of Germany.O therwise, Weber’s classification of types of authorities does not mean that each category of leaders share the same values and govern with the same manner. Indeed, Both Hitler and Nixon were charismatic, and legal rational leaders, yet Nixon was an ardent defender of Human and civil rights. He launched programs of desegregations and health care systems, and withdrew the American troops from Vietnam. On the other hand, Hitler started World War II and invaded several countries such as France and Poland. Further, he was responsible of the holocaust and created a segregationist program of pan-Germanism to gather German people in Germany.References Dalle, I. (2011). Hassan II: entre tradition et absolutisme. Paris: Fayard. Nicholls, D. (2003). Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion.. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Swedberg, R. , & Agevall, O. (2005). The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford Social Sciences. Weber, M. , Gerth, H. H. , & Mills, C. W. (1946). From Max Weber: Essays in sociology . New York: Oxford University Press. Weber, M. , & Whimster, S. (2004). The essential Weber: a reader. London: Routledge.

The Attention Span of the Preschool Child Research Paper

The Attention Span of the Preschool Child - Research Paper Example He was wearing a navy t-shirt, khaki shorts, plain white socks and white tennis shoes. He paid no attention whatsoever to his clothing during the period of observation. He was accompanied by his mother, a young woman who referred to him exclusively as â€Å"Pumpkin†. I observed Pumpkin run, walk, climb a short ladder, slide down a small twisty slide and write legible letters in dirt with a stick, as well as drawing various human and animal figures and numbers. His physical development and coordination seemed appropriate to his age, perhaps slightly advanced but not significantly so. Pumpkin did not appear to derive the same degree of satisfaction with his playground exploits as did the other children in his age range, and only climbed the ladder to the slide at the insistence of his mother. At no point did Pumpkin interact in a sustained way with any children his own age on the playground. I observed some fantasy play, but no cooperative or parallel play during this period. Pu mpkin engaged exclusively in solitary play for the duration, with occasional attempts to engage his mother's attention. Pumpkin interacted only with his mother during the course of the observation. He was very independent throughout, and showed no discomfort or significant displeasure at any point. He appeared to have fostered a healthy and secure attachment to his mother, and was comfortable venturing a reasonable distance away from her. Pumpkin was fairly polite with his mother, asking, â€Å"Please help me write this† and so on. His mother made several attempts to redirect Pumpkin toward the playground before he gave up and went back to entertaining himself by writing in the dirt. I observed some fairly sophisticated grammar from Pumpkin during this time period. Most notable about his speech was that despite the complexity and length of his statements, the sound /r/ was entirely absent. This made even sophisticated phrasing sound very juvenile at times. Much of Pumpkin's s peech was directed toward himself, in the form of questions and answers (â€Å"What do we call animals who eat plants? Animals who eat plants are called 'herbivores'.†) as well as running commentary about what he was drawing (â€Å"I'm a friendly triceratops, I like to run fast and I have three horns on my face.†) Pumpkin engaged in running commentary at every stage of self-directed play. A smaller portion of his speech was directed toward his mother, usually in the form of a question such as "How do you spell 'diplodocus'," or "How many groups have more than three?" His mother usually responded only by repeating the question back to Pumpkin, smiling and saying, "That's nice, Pumpkin", or with a non-committal hum as she continued working on a crossword puzzle. When I began my observation, Pumpkin's mother had just convinced him to climb the slide. As soon as he got to the bottom, he began drawing with a stick and did not stop before I completed my observations. During his drawing time, Pumpkin drew dinosaurs, dinosaur footprints, letters, numbers, and circles (around â€Å"groups†). His favorite number was 3. This observation leads me to believe that Pumpkin is not a typical preschooler. His attention span was extremely long, and his choice of activities did not align with those of his age mates. At no point did he attempt to engage any children of his own age in play, though he seemed perfectly comfortable speaking with his mother and seemed aware of the other children (if not particularly interested in them).

Social Aspects of Nation Building in Myanmar Essay

Social Aspects of Nation Building in Myanmar - Essay Example The weekly schedule will be carried out as follows:   According to Reid1 nation building and state, nationalism is of greater importance after the end of colonial rule. The Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) took power in 1948 as an alliance of several factions.2 It was formed with an aim of ending colonial rule (Hlaing 2008)   The introduction of socialism created a socialist economy in which capitalist enrichment and exploitation of the underprivileged was impossible.3 Socialism would, in this case, enhance national unity (Steinberg 1982)   Myanmar was founded as a secular state but Buddhism came to play an important role in nation building after 1948 (Smith 1965). Nu the first Prime minister encouraged the appeal of Buddhism as a unifying national ideology.4   In 1962, Ne Win staged a coup d’à ©tat and took over power. The military considered the takeover necessary since the Union Government â€Å"†¦represented the interests of feudal elements; exploiting landlords; national and foreign capitalists; bureaucrats†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 5 The military, therefore, took over governance with an intention to restore unity and equality among the people. Nash, Manning. â€Å"Buddhist Revitalisation in the Nation State: The Burmese Experience.† In Religion and Change in Contemporary Asia, edited by Robert F.Spencer.

Discussion Question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Discussion Question - Essay Example The dividend cut was aimed at reducing the company’s debts of $62 million (USATODAY, 2000). The idea was that with reduced debts the annual interest on the debt load would decrease but many investors rely on the dividend income. This was something unusual that AT&T had done in 2000 because even during the Great Depression when other industrial giants had reduced their dividend, AT&T had been able to maintain it (Forbes, 2000). This drastic step was taken so that the savings through lower dividend would help them clear the debt, enhance profits and invest in growth, which was aimed at maximizing shareholder wealth. In 2000, there was corporate restructuring and the company’s profits were split in four ways and hence such a decision had to be taken. Apart from the year 2000, AT&T has been consistently registered growth in dividend payouts while the earnings per share (EPS) have been decreasing since 1998 (DGI, 2008). The annual dividend payouts have increased over the past ten years at an annual average of 4.80% even though there has been lack of growth in profits over the past decade. A 5% growth in dividend suggests that the dividend payouts double every 14 or 15 years. The quarterly dividends that AT&T paid in 2007 were double of what they paid in 1991. Even though the dividend yield at AT&T is above average, the EPS has declined. Unless there is growth in the EPS the company will not be able to maintain its current dividend policy of annual growth in dividend payouts. T-Mobile International, one of Deutsche Telekom AGs (NYSE:DT) four strategic divisions, is one of the worlds leading international wireless communications providers. T-Mobile has a dividend yield of 7% which is considered to be quite decent (Vinzant, 2008). Except for 2001, T-Mobile has been maintaining growth in dividend payouts because they believe in paying their shareholders

Abstract Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Abstract - Essay Example ng to the authors, combining of new and inexpensive technological methods may increase the availability of more flexible ways for dealing with the common challenges in forensic science. They, therefore, intended to present a method of 3-D laser scanning of chewed gum found at a crime scene into a digital file format. In a bid to justify the aim of their research, they point out that the procedure they used in their research project does not include any form of contact and is nondestructive thus more efficient prior to extracting DNA from the gum. The theme of their research is that their method, which involves generating a digital file, could be used to for dental comparison in the future in case the original chewed gum gets damaged by forensic analysis following 3-D scanning. In their research, they used an automated 3-D laser scanner that ensures a reliable, affordable, and reproducible means for scanning a 3-D object fast and at a possible resolution of 127 microns. They scanned a piece if chewed gum that had air dried for 24 hours by placing it on the tip of a tuberculin syringe needle, and then positioning it on the scanning stage of the laser scanner that is fully robotic. Using precise scan parameters of the laser scanner for a 360 degree scan, they used macro 0.005 inches precision, 125 seconds scan speed, and 0.005 triangle size. This process took less than three minutes given that they set the light in color of the target surface to that of the matte finish, and the smoothing had auto-align of the eight segments on with a setting of 1. After all the procedures involved in the process had produced digital files, they were able to come up with a virtual block that showed the shape and contours of the teeth impressions just like those in the original gum. They then used a Web-based prototyping service called Shapeways to order for clear resin as well as white plastic models of the gum from their digital files. All this took less than 10 minutes, and they

You have to make your own topics up. It is on sinaltrainal v Essay

You have to make your own topics up. It is on sinaltrainal v. coca-cola company - Essay Example Yet, more than ascribing blame to a multinational firm that has perhaps broken the law and behaved in a highly egregious manner, understanding the logic behind why such a set of actions might have taken place, the way in which they occurred, and the different resources available to Coca Cola as a means of understanding the limits to which a given corporate entity will go to in order to protect its profit margins and maintain dominance at the expense of traditional corporate responsibility, civic behavior, and common morality. Furthermore, the way in which the court trial in Miami proceeded is also of special interest due in no small part to the fact that this too exhibited the level to which corruption in power and the cronyism of mega multinationals seemingly held all the cards in such a legal battle (Rostin 2001, p. 35). As a way of briefly encapsulating what lay at the core of the court case mentioned above, it is worth briefly laying out what the claimants brought against Coca Cola. Among other things, the claimants brought evidence that union organizers complaining about unfair treatment, poor wages, brutal conditions, and the alleged murder to several workers over a period of time that were heavily involved in the union agitation that had plagued the Coca Cola plant in Carepa, Colombia. The background to the instance was the fact that Colombian workers at the factory had been seeking to leverage the Coca Cola Corporation for a higher level of remuneration, benefits, and union representation by the Sinaltrainal Union which represented workers in Colombia. Obviously such an action would have not been in the best interests of Coca Cola Corporation as it would have weakened the position of the employer and given a stronger voice to the employees as a function of the collective bargaining that they w ould have been able to achieve. As a function of stopping such an

Personal statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

Personal statement - Essay Example I have gone through the course outline and have come to the conclusion that the courses offered and the way in which they are organised and conducted, would benefit me immensely if I am to make a name in the field of textile designing. The skills that I will be taught through this MA programme, including the innovation taught in your course work and the personal master project I will be required to develop, would be of immense value to me once I enter the professional field of textile designing. This would not only enable me to realise my true capabilities as a textile designer, the team projects would also make it possible for me to better my interpersonal and communicational skills. By working on these required team projects I would be able to better both my management and team working skills. These are all very valued skills in the field of textile designing, and I feel the programme at your institute would help me a great deal in this regard as well. Moreover, the professional links that I will make during this time would be an asset. I know that if enrolled in this programme I will be given the opportunity to be taught by, and work with, people who have already put their mark in the industry. This would be an immensely valuable experience, as I would be learning from the professionals; working towards a better work ethic along with establishing contacts that would be useful to me in the future. Another factor that made me decide on this course was the location of your campus. It would be very easy, not to mention convenient, for me to attend classes at an institute that is so close to my home. But of course, this factor did not play a key role when choosing an MA programme, though it is nonetheless one of the things that adds the charm of this course in my eyes. I would be very much interested in learning more about the multidisciplinary approach that the

The immigration debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The immigration debate - Essay Example In other words, the undocumented workers may take jobs away from Americans, but these are jobs Americans did not want in the first place. Rather, the illegal immigrants are doing us a favor by accomplishing the tasks that Americans find to menial for their tastes. In the overall scheme of things, illegal immigrants actually provide a larger benefit to the American economic system by adding at least $10 billion a year to our GDP. A small contribution to an overall GDP of a $10 trillion economy but an increase none the less and in our current national economic state, every little bit helps to ease the burden of inflation on the public. By boosting our GDP, these workers have actually proven that a larger workforce, regardless of employment status, will actually make a difference when it comes to worker output and/or consumer spending ( Said, Carolyn â€Å"The Immigration Debate†). Instead, the illegal immigrants who are working for us should be considered unsung heroes who actually contribute to the system. the Social Security system to be precise . The only problem is that since this batch of employees do not use valid SS numbers, their contributions remain floating within our system. So rather than debating the effects of illegal immigration on the workforce or economy, what we should really be looking at is a way to help make the contribution of these workers a part of the economic system of the country since those contributions are currently located in an economic limbo where it remains useless to everyone

Taste - Guangdong Essay Example for Free

Taste Guangdong Essay All over the world every culture has a unique and special cuisine. Each cuisine is very different because it can range from the different tastes to the different methods of cooking the food. However Chinese cuisine and American cuisine stand out the most because they are completely different and value different things. Chinese cuisine is a very versatile type of cuisine because there are many styles of Chinese food that make up the Chinese cuisine. These styles of Chinese food originate from the many provinces in China. Like the Chinese cuisine, American cuisine is also very diverse, but most of the cuisine is a combination of many different culture’s food styles because America was the melting pot for many ethnic backgrounds. Therefore American cuisine is made up of many other culture’s cuisine. Because of these varieties, both these cuisines are able to attract a great group of people which makes them favorites of many people all over the world. In China many of the people love eating different styles of food because they offer so many different tastes. There are a total of 8 styles of culinary arts; a few are Cantonese, Szechuan, Hunan, and Zhejiang. Cantonese style comes from the Southeast Coast next to Hong Kong and the cuisine is the most popular of all because the chefs value the sweetness of their dishes. Cantonese cuisine is so popular because when Chinese immigrants came to America they introduced it to the western world. Another popular style of cuisine is Szechuan and it attracts many people with a love for spicy food. This style originated from the middle part of China, and values the use of spicy sauces and spicy pastes to create dishes that give the people’s taste buds a sensation. The next style is Hunan which originated from the East part of China, and is most known for its spicy food too. This style is very similar to the Szechuan style, but the chefs tend to use fresh and dried peppers rather than sauces. Also Hunan dishes appear to be more attractive than Szechuan style because most of the dishes are not covered in sauce and paste like the Szechuan style. Overall both of these spicy styles are equally as delicious. One last style is the Zhejiang style which comes from the East Coast of China, and known for its freshness, tenderness, softness, and crispness dishes. Because this style originated from the coast, most of the food is seafood. There are many traditions to Chinese cuisine. All the dishes are served separately either on a plate or in a bowl. Never is one’s food served all on one plate. Then there is an empty plate for you to put your food. Another tradition is that it is ideal to eat more of the dishes than rice because rice is a complimentary item during each eating course. The main utensil for eating Chinese cuisine are chopsticks, and it has many uses ranging from grabbing food to drinking soup. All in all, Chinese cuisine is very unique and something worth trying. Because America was the melting pot, American cuisine includes Latin, Asian, and European tastes. Latin styles of cooking introduced the use of beans and flour. With flour, the American cuisine produces a lot of breads and wraps. Asian cooking introduced the sweet and sour taste and rice became one of the major sources for Americans to get their daily need of whole grains. Also, Asian cuisine introduced soy and the many uses of fish. Lastly European styles of cooking introduced delicacy of luxurious pastas and desserts. Like Chinese cuisine, there are also many traditions. American cuisine is usually served on a plate with all the dishes. The utensils used are mainly a spoon, knife, and a fork to pick up and cut the food. In conclusion, American cuisine is diverse because of America being a melting pot for many cultures to combine and form this type of cuisine.

Literature Review on Mergers And Acquisitions

Literature Review on Mergers And Acquisitions 1. Introduction: Mergers and Acquisitions refer to buying; selling and combining of different companies that can help a growing company in a given industry grow rapidly without having to create another business entity (Virani, 2007). Traditionally, exploiting economies of scope and scale or taking advantage of market imperfections has been a dominant way of gaining competitive advantage by firms. However, as economies are becoming more and more integrated due to the forces of globalisation, there is an increasing realisation that these ways of competition offer limited profitability for firms. As a result, mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly popular as companies look for higher returns and dominant market position in the global market. Mergers and acquisitions provide means to acquire expertise, technology and products. Over the past two decades, mergers and acquisitions have become a global phenomenon and a popular strategic choice for company growth and expansion (Hansen and Nohria, 2 004). Despite the increasing popularity of mergers and acquisitions, unfortunately, the performance of merger and acquisitions has not been satisfactory. Research studies reported that more than two-thirds of large merger and acquisition deals fail to create value for shareholders. Mergers and acquisitions fail to meet the anticipated goals, as mentioned by Carleton (1997), who noted that the rate of mergers and acquisitions failure range from 55 to 70 percent. These failed mergers constitute a waste of human and financial resources. Given the popularity of this strategic alternative, there is a strong need to learn how to manage mergers better and to make them more successful (Gopinath, 2003). Numbers of studies are quick to point out numerous reasons behind this poor performance of mergers and acquisitions and specifically assert that lack of strategic fit and poor management of the integrative process appear to be the main causes of unsatisfactory performance. Infect, an exhaustive list containing possible causes of poor performance, can be made with reference to the numerous research studies conducted over the last two decades (Epstein, 2004). These research studies have examined the bad performance of the mergers and acquisitions from various aspects. The very observable aspects like finance, stock market and legal issues were given importance and were considered the most sensitive areas for mergers. However, with the growing rates of failure, researchers and business analysts started acknowledging the fact that this poor performance of mergers and acquisitions does not simply has its roots in financial and operational issues or other legal conflicts. The research was then diverted to examine human and cultural aspects of MAs and it was noted that the real problem is not financial but the lack of intercultural synergy between the organizations. The organizational cultural issues create communication breakdowns and therefore act as a barrier for successful integration of the two organizations. On the other hand, Cartwright Cooper (1993) reinforced the previous findings by stating that the financial and other strategic ben efits expected from mergers and acquisitions are undermined by the cultural conflicts. Moreover, the organization who addressed cultural issues properly during merger and acquisitions experienced good results as compare to other organization who neglected this aspect (Epstein, 2004). Hence there exists a strong need to consider the cultural issues as critical during the mergers and acquisitions and address them properly. The focus of this research is to explore and analyse the organizational cultural issues as the major potential threat for the success of mergers and acquisitions. In other words, to highlight the cultural issues as the most import among all other possible causes that affect the performance of mergers and acquisitions. The discussion will cover the effects of cultural issues on the performance of mergers and acquisitions. 2. Literature Review: Growth is an essential aspect of organizational success. It is something for which most of the companies strive for. It is observed commonly that small companies want to grow big and big firms want to grow bigger. Indeed companies have to grow and the reasons behind are almost same for every organization. However, different companies adopt different strategies for this purpose and the most suitable strategy is the one that supports the company to move progressively towards accomplishing its stated goals (Greiner, 1991).The ultimate objective of most companies is profit, therefore whatever strategy is adopted, profit remains at the heart. Although, growth is considered to be one of the key points of reference of success by business analysts and is mandated by investors. However, researchers have also argued that, although, growth is essential for firms, but every growth strategy is not successful in terms of value creation. Not all the growth strategies are values adding, that could result in an improved performance of a firm (Olsen Chathoth, 2007; Slevin Covin 1997). Olsen Chathoth (2007) further argued that it is the firms performance on a long term basis that determines the sustainability of the growth strategy that was implemented in the first place. Companies choose growth strategies that suits best to them in a frame work of market and competitors. The best route to growth varies depending on the market and the nature of business (Churchill Lewis, 1983). 2.1 Organisational Culture: The concept of culture is frequently being used by the experts in organizational behaviour field to describe how members of groups understand their world and their place in it. Organizational culture can be better understood as the pattern of actions, words, beliefs and behaviours that members of a business organization share (Able, 2007). Soroghan et al (1998) discussed culture as a unique set of values, attitudes and beliefs that creates a shared sense of reality and it has a powerful influence on company and employee behaviour. Handy C (1993) has put forwarded a simplified definition of organizational cultural which suits best to the way this work is oriented. The author has provided a number of aspects that shape the culture of an organization. According to Handy (1993), organizations have deepest set of beliefs about the way work should be organized, the authority should be exercised, people rewarded and people controlled. Similarly, other things like the degree of formalization required, how much planning and how far ahead? Degree of obedience expected from subordinates, do work hours matter or dress or personal eccentricities? Although, these definitions have provided a theoretical frame work to understand the organizational culture itself but the varied definitions have made it somehow difficult to understand the effects of culture on the organizational Performance (Weber Schweiger, 1992). 2.2 Impact of Culture on Organizational Performance: A highly productive business always has a high performing organizational culture that aligns well both internally and externally to support the overall objectives of the business. This organizational culture shapes the employee experience, which in turn impacts customer experience, business partner relationships and, ultimately shareholder value (Able, 2007 p11). Schraeder Self (2003), aptly put forward that the corporate culture can have a significant impact on a firms long term economic performance and will probably be an even more important factor in determining the success or failure of firms in the next decade (Schraeder Self (2003) Deal and Kennedy (1982) asserts that culture is the single most important factor responsible for success or failure in organizations. Kilman et al. (1985) took it further by reporting that strong culture can have a key impact on the success of the business due to its pervasive influence throughout any organization. In order to check the relationship between culture and performance, Denison (1984) studied a suitable sample of 34 firms representing 25 different industries. To validate the study the author used more refined sampling procedures not only for organizations but for the subjects within the organizations .According to him, two indices organization of work and decision making were found to be significantly correlated with financial performance. In addition, the author also found that the strength of the culture was predictive of short-term performance, when performance was defined with broad indicators like return on assets, return on investment and return on sales etc. 2.3 Impact of Cultural on the Performance of Mergers Acquisitions: Mergers and acquisitions are a popular strategy for growth and expansion. The mergers and acquisition activity is increasing and companies are joining together as never before. Also that this expansion process is hampered by certain obstacles and companies suffer from not handling those issues effectively. Among those difficulties, the lack of intercultural synergy between the two organizations has been reported as the most important issue which is affecting the MA performance greatly (Cartwright Cooper 1993). It is a new challenge for companies operating across the globe to understand the organizational culture and its effects on the organizational performance (Fralicx Bolster, 1997). Mergers and acquisitions are effected seriously by the cultural issues and several studies have been conducted till date to investigate culture and people issues as a reason of merger and acquisition failure. The results have shown that up to 65% of failed mergers and acquisitions are due to cultural and people issues. Studies explored that the intercultural differences cause communication breakdowns which affect the productivity of the whole organization (Chatterje et al 1992). Other researchers also supported this line of reasoning and suggested that incompatible cultures are the main causes of MAs failure. Considering cultural issue as a reason of poor success rates, Cartwright and cooper (1993) stated that the financial benefits that companies expect from mergers and acquisitions are often unrealized because of incompatible organizational cultures of the merging organizations. Lodorfos Boateng (2006) have presented a comprehensive overview of the role of culture in the merger an d acquisition process. They have provided a summary of previous research on this issue by concluding that the lack of intercultural synergy is at the heart of MA failure. According to them, Cultural fit is just as important as structural fit in the analysis and evaluation of potential partners and that poor cultural fit has contributed to the failure of several mergers and acquisitions that appeared to be suitable strategic partners. Huang Kleiner (2004) have mentioned that companies can not be integrated successfully if there exits a cultural incompatibility between the two partners and that the cultural incompatibility is consistently rated as the greatest barrier to success of mergers. 2.4 Conclusion: It can be concluded from the above made discussion that cultural problems lie at the heart of merger and acquisition failure. The management and leadership spend time and do efforts to make mergers work. Most of the time, they are busy with planning the strategic and financial aspects, that show negligence to the cultural and people issues. Conversely, in the log run, the cultural issues not only create trouble for the management but the financial benefits are also undermined by cultural clashes in the newly born organization (Cartwright Cooper 1993). The previous sections have provided enough evidence to consider cultural issues as one of the basic reasons behind the failure of MAs. Now it becomes rather necessary to point out some of the cultural related problems that MAs face and which are responsible for the value destruction in this business activity. 3. Research Topic: This research will explore the effects of cultural issues on the performance of merger and acquisitions on organizations around the world. 4. Research Objectives: This research work has the following individual objectives: To explore the strategic motives behind the mergers and acquisitions To evaluate the performance of mergers and acquisitions and identify the major factors affecting the performance. To analyse the effects of cultural issues on the performance of mergers and acquisitions. 5. Research Methodology: The main proposed research methodology is secondary research which is based on the critical and comprehensive analysis of the existing published literature related to the specific area of research. Books, published journal articles, published research reports, surveys, organizational records, qualitative research and internet will be used to collect secondary sources data. The secondary research method is very essential for my research work, because a lot of sources are there like books, journals and study articles, websites etc. Some search engines are very popular such as Google, Athens, Yahoo, etc. I think these sources will help me to complete my research work. I will use all the above mentioned secondary research methods for my research work and I am highly interested to use the deductive method because it is more logical and authentic way to prove your research. Moreover I will use both quantitative and qualitative techniques to critically analyze my collected data and to reach the conclusion. But in this research work, I will prefer to use more qualitative method of data collection. Because, according to Lincoln and Guba (1985) a qualitative method captures a more complete picture of individual lived experience instead of a narrow perspective of generalizations. Therefore, the study will be based on experience rich participants, who are able to offer insight a quantitative study would be unable to capture. The qualitative data provide me an opportunity to study the material of the recent or more distant past to gain the more insights information for methodological and theoretical purposes. 5.1 Advantages of secondary research methodology: This kind of research helps in examining large scale trend. It is easy to accessible so researcher can consume most of its time in critically analysing data rather than collecting it. Sometime primary data collection is not necessary for the research, because of the available secondary data is completely suitable to draw a conclusions and answers of the questions and sufficient for solving problem. The collection of secondary data is far cheaper than the collection of primary data. For the same level of research budget secondary research definitely gives relatively more information than the primary research can give. The time consumption is much less in the collection of data and conducting results in comparison with the primary research. The results obtain from secondary source of information may more precise than the result obtain from the primary data collection. It may not happens all the time but if research is about at large scale for example data taken from the surveys obtain by the government census department on large scale, this is likely yield more precise results than custom designed surveys weather these are based on the comparatively small size of sample. 5.2 Problems of Secondary Research: In secondary research the researches have to be careful about authenticity of secondary resources. Because at the same type of data or idea two different types of department or persons have different type of opinion, for example if researcher consult the data about the loss to the economy from the act of terrorism than their must two different type of responses available from the government prospective and non government interpreters. Some time material available for research is too old and out dated, so it may difficult for researcher to interpret results. The source of the data and material may not reliable each time, so it may impact the reliability and authenticity of results of the research. Sometimes secondary research has lack of firmness of perspective. If data and material collected from non authentic sources it is difficult to check its biasness and inaccuracies. The published material and statistics often raise more questions than answers. 5.3 Limitations: There are some limitations the data may have and the problems that could arise if these limitations are ignored. The verification of existing data is difficult. Secondary data can be general and vague and sometimes it may cause difficulties in decision making. It is possible that data could be out dated and the sample used to generate the secondary data maybe small. The data publisher company may not be reputable. While keeping in mind those limitations of secondary data, the data taken for this research is taken from reputable academic websites. 5.4 Conclusion: A use and search of secondary data should be preceding any primary research activity. Secondary data definitely helps to solve and understand the problem and gives valid answers. The process of collecting secondary data for research is far cheaper and quicker in compare with primary data at in some cases it could be more accurate. There is always a need of evaluation about data and its source before using it for research. Where possible it is better to take same data from different sources so the biasness and errors can be double check for the more accurate results. 6. Research Ethics: While carrying out the research, the most important thing to keep in mind and practice is the ethical considerations. And in my research work this is very critical and of prime consideration. I will follow all the ethical considerations and guidelines. As my research work is based on secondary research, so what ever the secondary data I will use to achieve my research objectives, I will follow the all terms and conditions of ethical considerations. Throughout my research I will practice honesty in processing and reporting all the data, this will be my own work and I will not copy the other researcher data or work, I will not be bias in my research while collecting or processing the data. I will try my utmost to avoid the omissions and errors while analysing the data and will keep all the record of the data and their valid sources. I am fully aware that the plagiarism is a serious academic crime, so I will not plagiarise my research. I will quote all the citations and that will be fully referenced. I will not copy other researchers work.

Slapshots And Turns :: essays research papers

Slap shots and Turns   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A downhill skier gracefully completes another turn while an ice hockey player checks an opponent into the glass. The skier sails off a jump like an eagle, just as the hockey player absorbs the blows of opposing players like a tank. The skier lands the jump with precision, as the hockey player stumbles towards the opposing goal. The skier gracefully passes the finish line and stops just as the hockey player shoots the puck. As the skier notices the time of his run, he cries tears of joy because he has just won the gold medal. The hockey player hears the horn sound as his puck sails into the goal. He spits blood out of his mouth as his teammates tackle him because they have just won the Stanley Cup. Both of these athletes have won the highest prize in each of their sports. Both will be hailed by children as gods in the sporting world. However, because these two men are in different sports they will never meet each other. Both will go home and celebrate their accompl ishments in different ways. The public will celebrate along with these two athletes, unaware that they both accomplished the same feat. The public believes these two athletes participated in totally different sports. The public believes that one played the graceful sport of downhill skiing, while the other played the brutal sport of ice hockey. At a superficial level it may appear that these two sports are different, however digging deeper proves that the sports of ice hockey and downhill skiing are quite similar in their technique. Ice hockey and downhill skiing are similar in that both utilize the same method to perpetuate motion. An ice hockey player wears a skate that posses a sharp blade at its base. This blade is believed to merely cut through the ice when movement occurs. This belief is false. In actuality the pressure applied to the blade via the weight of the hockey player causes the blade to melt a small of amount of ice underneath it. Then the blade proceeds to hydroplane over the small film of water melted by the skate. Immediately after the skate has passed over the small film of water it freezes again into ice. This is the reason the ice needs to be smoothed after a match, because it did not freeze into a flat, level surface.

Abortion in the First Trimester Only Essay -- Pregnancy Ethics Essays

The argument that has torn the nation apart for ages is abortion. Each individual needs to take the time out to research every aspect of the ideals behind abortion. The two main sides to abortion are pro-choice and pro-life. Both sides make strong arguments to support their side. The main question behind abortion is whether the act is murder of an unborn child or the right of the mother to choose what happens to her body. A lot of research is needed before an individual can make a rational decision about what side of the abortion issue they take. This paper focuses on the argument that abortion is a woman’s choice in her first trimester of her pregnancy only, and after that time period is over the unborn child has the right to life just like any other human being. "This middle ground is what a lot of people believe these days, the right for a woman to choose in the first trimester only" (Baird 179). People who believe this are stuck between the two sides of abortion. These peo ple are just to be named as the middle ground, where both sides make good points, but they only agree with a few parts of the arguments. The basic idea is that a woman has the right to choose until the first trimester is over and from then on the unborn child has the right to life and should be carried to full term and delivered. The pro-life movement believes that the killing of any child, abortion or not, is murder and the dead, unborn child should be protected by the laws of the states just like any other victim of murder. "Pro-life advocates declare that the fetus is a person with the same rights and interests as a born person, therefore the mother does not have the right to privacy if by doing so they murder another person, their unborn child" (McDonagh 47). The advocate’s state that their argument is in the idea that an unborn child has the rights as the mother and that the unborn child would choose life, just as the mother would choose murder as her choice. Although the pro-life advocates make an argument that seems reasonable, what they are not stating is that under law the woman has the right to privacy, freedom, and the right to choose what actions happens to her body. The woman has control to do what ever she likes to her own personal body. Therefore, if a woman chooses to have an abortion, she may be able to in the first trimester of her pregnancy only. The developi... ... facts state that an abortion is the woman’s choice in the first trimester and the unborn child’s right to live in the second trimester and on. This belief is known as the middle ground in the abortion issue and many people believe in this kind of action. Although the abortion issue will be an on going dispute, the middle ground is a reasonable and logical answer to the abortion problem. This is why the mother has the right to choose in the first trimester only and after that the fetus has the right to life, like anyone else. Works Cited Baird, Robert M. and Stuart E. Rosenbaum. The Ethics of Abortion. New York: Prometheus Books, 2001. Johnson, Robert V. Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1994. Mason, J K, and R A McCall Smith. Law and Medical Ethics. London: Butterworths, 1994. McDonagh, Eileen L. Breaking the Abortion Deadlock. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Reiman, Jeffrey. Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life. Boston: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC., 1999. Solinger, Rickie. Abortion Wars. Los Angles: University of California Press, 1998.

What is Giftedness? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Maria, a friend of my mother's, once complained to our family about the public school system in Florida. She claimed Peter, her six-year-old child, is extremely intelligent and not only could he play the violin and chess, but he could also read upper-level books. Despite all this, he did not make it into the gifted program at school - a program that she believed he rightfully deserved to be a member of. Why was she so upset over the outcome, and what deciding factors do people consider that could lead to the child being selected against an accelerated program? In recent years there have been a strong resurgence in the study of giftedness in children- many people have attempted to explain the phenomena and why there are so few who are endowed with the asset. Research has promised new insights on the identification and subsequent proper handling for gifted individuals. What factors may influence innate talent in certain people - is it based on genetic, neurophysiological, or psychologi cal factors? In my last paper, I had discussed the various research projects that have attempted to link giftedness to the brain - with interesting results that are still yet to be firmly established. This paper will attempt to show how giftedness as a concept has been misrepresented in general, and how it presently cannot be used to directly identify individuals but can be used as an inference tool only. Nevertheless, finding a basis or correlates for the concept is something society finds important, because of the believed implications it will have for the gifted children in the future. The age-old issue of "what makes giftedness" has been debated in the academic world for many years. Before recent studies, it was widely believed that giftedness merely relates to the intellect only. Now many scientists believe that the term correlates not only to intelligence but also to creativity, memory, motivation, physical dexterity, and aesthetic sensitivity (1). It is without doubt that there is some basis to the fact that a few people learn faster than others, or have an accelerated sensitivity to art, music, or mathematics. But is this due to an innate ability of the particular person? Or are there several complex factors involved not involved with the individual's body? Is genius a unified brain phenomena, or is it a term used to describe different phenomena in different persons? Many believe that giftedness is due to some innate process independent, for example, from the environment the individual is raised in.

Research Papaer Essay

The terms ‘youth’, ‘teenager’, ‘adolescent’, and ‘young people’ are all used to describe people in the phase of life that marks the conversion from childhood to adulthood. While there is universal agreement on the transition from childhood to adolescence, when exactly adolescence ends and adulthood begins is less clear as the stage of adolescence is culture-specific and therefore different in every society. In some cultures, the transition from teenager to adult could be very short, while, in other cultures it could be longer (Govindasamy et al. 2002). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009) defines ‘adolescents’ as people aged 10-19; ‘youth’ as those aged between 15-24; and ‘young people’ as those aged between 10 and 24 years old and ‘teenager’ as people aged 13-19 years. Traore (2010) agrees that age has been used to differentiate adolescents from teenagers based on their physi cal development. This study, however, prefer to take females in the age group between 13 to 19 years as ‘teenagers’. In this study, the term ‘teenagers’ was used throughout. The incidence of teenage pregnancy remains high around the world. According to Nanda (2006), teenage females give birth to 15 million infants every year. Thus, teenage pregnancy is a concern from both a human rights and a public health perspective. Teenage pregnancy and its effect on teenage motherhood are among the major societal problems confronting the contemporary global community (Gatara & Muriuki, 2005). In Ghana, for example, one report estimates that nearly one-third of the childbirths recorded in public hospitals occurred to women under 19 years of age (Xinhua, 2006). The prevalence is higher in the rural areas and small- to-medium-sized towns which are often under-represented in the hospital birth statistics. A survey conducted by the UN Regional Institute for Population Studies reported that one out of three girls aged 15 to 19 living in Ghana’s Central Region has had a child (Xinhua, 2006). Similar prevalence of teenage pregnancies have been described for other African countries (Mwansa et aI. , 2004). One study in Swaziland found that females aged 15-19 years accounted for 32. per cent of the total fertility (Gule, 2005). Another study reported that females in the same age group contributed 103 births per 1000 women in the Kenya (Gatara ; Muriuki, 2005). It has been estimated that at least one out of twenty girls is likely to give birth during the school-going age. Data for Botswana also show that by 2004, about 25 percent of girls 15-19 years old were already mothers (Curtis, 2008). Two years later, in 2006, 56 per cent of the girls ha d dropped out of secondary schools in the country due to pregnancy (Mashalaba, 2009). On explaining the factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy, (Anderson, 2001) found that in poor neighbourhoods, teenagers experience less control over many aspects of their lives than the non-poor.. Anderson (2001) has further reported that some impoverished teenage girls consider childbirth as a rare source of self-esteem, or a sign of growing up, while sexual conquest brings a feeling of accomplishment to some teenage boys to whom legitimate opportunities may be blocked (Farley, 2005). The discussion of teenage pregnancy and childbirth therefore, tends to characterise the problem as mainly a feature of the poor segment of society. Besides, a literature review (Lewis, 2006; 2009) shows that aside poverty, factors such as early exposure to sexual activity, lack of sex education, weak parental control and supervision, peer pressure, low self-esteem and the need for self-fulfillment are associated with teenage pregnancy. It is in light of these factors that this study seeks to assess the factors that influence teenage pregnancy and their effects in the Sunyani Municipality in order to help policy makers address the problem. 1. 2 Problem Statement Teenage pregnancy has long been a worldwide social and educational concern for the developed, developing and underdeveloped countries. Many countries continue to experience high incidence of teenage pregnancy despite the intervention strategies that have been put in place. In 2000 approximately 530,000 teenagers in the United States became pregnant, out of which 51% gave birth (Coley ; Chase-Lansdale, 2008). Available literature suggests that in Africa, the total fertility rate has declined to an average of 2. 9 children per woman (Dickson, 2002). A decline in fertility rates has been associated with a high use of contraceptives among women and also the legalisation of abortion in most African countries (Swartz, 2002). Despite the decline in the total fertility rate, teenage pregnancy has been found to be significantly high (Dickson, 2002). The high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in societies characterised by poverty, low education, fewer job opportunities and families headed by mothers who gave birth to their first children in adolescence (Dryfoos, 2006; Macleod, 2009). Teenage pregnancy is also associated with other problematic behaviours such as alcohol and drug use, and early initiation of sexual activity, which have been identified as predictors of pregnancy (Coley ; Chase-Lansdale, 2008). Plant and Plant (2002) argue that risk or problem behaviour is associated with social disadvantage, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, bad housing, fragmented family structure and stressful life events. The youth emulate the behaviour of their parents and of their society, thus social and cultural factors influence patterns of risk taking (Plant ; Plant, 2002). The high incidence of teenage pregnancy has become a major societal and educational concern, as it seems to perpetuate poverty and low levels of education (Furstenberg et al. , 2007; Morgan, 2007). Also due to changing social circumstances and values, teenage pregnancy is a tolerated phenomenon in modern Ghanaian society. Social permissiveness towards sex outside marriage, and absence of serious social repercussions like isolation or exclusion following an out of wedlock birth, contribute to the high rate of teenage pregnancy (Parekh ; De La Rey, 2007). It has also been argued by Preston-Whyte and Zondi (2002) that the high value placed on fertility and education encourages adolescent girls to aspire for both motherhood and academic qualifications. The high cultural value placed on education and fertility is seen as a contributory factor to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy (Preston-Whyte ; Zondi, 2002). Education and the link employment prospects enhances the possibility of improved quality of life and thus may be one of the factors that encourage adolescent to continue with school after child birth (Kaufman et al. , 2001). Even though pregnant teenagers may not officially be prevented from remaining at school, realistically, due to the demands of parenting, they may be forced to drop out of school, for example, in instances where there is no one to look after the child while the teenage mother continues with her schooling. Sometimes the pregnant teenager feels isolated from her peers. She may be embarrassed by her condition and have difficulty fitting in with her non-pregnant peers and as a result may drop out of school. Parenting teenagers often have to deal with strained family relationships. Sometimes parents react with anger to the pregnant teenagers. She may be blamed or ostracised for causing a problem (Cervera, 2004). Consequently, she may not get assistance and support from her family members forcing her to drop out of school in order to raise her child. Based on the aforementioned problems and its effect on the teenager, child, family and the society, this study seeks to assess the factors that influence teenage pregnancy and their effects in the Sunyani Municipality in order to help policy makers address the problem. It has been established that there has not been any similar study concerning teenage pregnancy and their effects on teenagers at the Sunyani Zongo community. Although there have been countless cases of teenage pregnancy in the community depriving affected teenagers from furthering their basic education. The aged in the community based on interaction with the researcher revealed that people come to the community to seek the support of the residents in response to their questionnaires, their projects aimed at other relevant community related problems but none of them is focused on teenage pregnancy. 1. 3 Justification of the Study Little attention has been given to psychological variables and processes that predict the occurrence of teenage pregnancy (Coley ; Chase-Lansdale, 2008). Most literature focuses on social factors, which predispose teenagers to falling pregnant. Pregnancy may cause psychological distress, as it is often associated with dropping out of school, either before or shortly after childbirth (Zondi, 2002). Teenage mothers are more likely to present with symptoms of depression when compared with their non-parenting peers and older mothers (Kalil ; Kunz, 2000). The transition to motherhood puts teenagers at a greater risk for psychological distress because they are socially, cognitively and emotionally immature to cope with the demands of motherhood. This study examines the experiences of pregnant learners, both in a scholastic and personal context. It assesses how these learners are affected by the demands of coexisting motherhood and adolescence. There appears to be little research done on how Ghanaian pregnant adolescent learners perceive their situation and how they cope with the demands of adolescence and of motherhood. The results drawn from the study would form a basis for further research on the psychological effects of pregnancy during teenagers and may also be of value to designing intervention strategies. 1. 4 Research Objectives The study focused on the following objectives. 1. 5 General Objective To assess the factors that influence teenage pregnancy and their effects in the Sunyani Municipality (SM) in order to recommend policy actions for policy makers. 1. 5. 1 Specific objectives This study intended: To assess the influence of socio-economic status on teenage pregnancy; To identify the effect of peer pressure on teenage pregnancy; and To examine mass media exposure and its effect on teenage pregnancy. To assess the effects of teenage pregnancy in the Sunyani Municipality. ` To make recommendations based on the findings of the study. . 5 Research Questions Based on the specific objectives of the study, the research seeks answers to the following questions: What is the influence and effects of socio-economic status on teenage pregnancy in the SM? What are the influences and effects of peer pressure on teenage pregnancy in the SM? How does the mass media exposure impact on teenage pregnancy? What are the co nsequences of teenage pregnancy in the Sunyani Municipality? 1. 6 Significance of the Study The outcome of this study will provide useful information about the psychological well-being of pregnant teenagers. This will assist mental health professionals in developing appropriate psycho-educational programmes to address the psychosocial challenges associated with teenage pregnancy and motherhood. Furthermore, the findings of the study will help to inform public debate that could lead to the development of appropriate policies on how to deal with the challenge of teenage pregnancy and motherhood. Also victims of teenage pregnancy will get the opportunity to disclose information about their experiences in order to help in their addressing problems. Considering the nature of this study, including student affairs professionals, counsellors or psychologists, and those interested in woman’s issues would be assisted to identify the factors associated with teenage pregnancy in the Sunyani Municipality and their effects on the teenager, the child and the society. Future researchers, who would study into determinants of teenage pregnancy in the Municipality, would also have a complement or a basis for their literature review. Finally, the research is likely to raise questions leading to further research. 1. 7 Scope of the Study For feasibility purposes, the study focused on how socio-economic status; peer pressure and early exposure to sexual activity by the mass media influence teenage pregnancy and their effects on the teenager, child and the society. The study considered school going teenagers who dropped out of school due to teenage pregnancy in the Sunyani Municipality. In the study, a pregnant teenager was pregnant girl aged 13 to 19 years. Besides, psychological effects in this study referred to the presence of symptoms related to somatic complaints, anxiety and insomnia, social isolation, and depression. The current study focused on pregnant teenagers who were drawn from the Sunyani Municipality who attended antenatal clinic (ANC) at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital (SMH) during the period of data collection. 1. 7 Delimitation Even though the study was carried out in Sunyani Municipality, concentration was on teenagers at Sunyani Zongo community considering the fact that they have stake in the topic understudy. This research was conducted within the following parameters: the influence and effects of socio-economic status on teenage pregnancy: he influence and effects of peer pressure on teenage pregnancy:: the influence and effects of mass media exposure on teenage pregnancy: the consequences of teenage pregnancy on teenagers. 1. 8 Organisation of the Chapters The research is in five different chapters. In the first chapter, an insight is given as to what the study is all about with the statement of research problem, research questions and objectives, significance of the study, limitat ions of the study, and the organization of the essay. In the second chapter, an overview of relevant materials related to the study is discussed. In the third chapter, the researcher presents the methodology used in the study; chapter 4 will focus on the presentation and analysis of data, and the final chapter will look at the conclusions and recommendations. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2. 1 Introduction This chapter reviewed several selected studies which relate to the topic. The chapter focused on literature related to socio-economic status and teenage pregnancy; peer pressure and teenage pregnancy, mass media exposure and teenage pregnancy as well as the effects of teenage pregnancy 2. 2 Socio-economic status and Teenage Pregnancy It has been revealed that teenage pregnancy is often associated with low socio-economic status ( Dryfoos, 2006). Economically disadvantaged teenagers are characterised by low levels of education and lack of employment opportunities (Preston-Whyte & Zondi, 2002). Certain family characteristics have also been identified as factors that put teenagers at risk of becoming pregnant in early life. Factors such as poverty, single parent families –especially the female headed households, poorly educated parents have been associated with teenage pregnancy (Furstenberg et al. , 2007). Teenagers from one-parent headed families are apt to suffer from deprivations that may lead them to seek affection, security and a sense of significance elsewhere (Chillman, 2006). There are two contrasting views on the subject of single parenting. In some sources it is argued that most parenting adolescents have been found to come from impoverished single parent families, which are often headed by a female (Swartz, 2002). In the other source, children raised in single parent families are more likely to have been victims of an unstable family environment, have experienced a divorce or parental conflict (Russell, 2004). Negative family environment plays a major role in contributing to early teenage sexual experience and teenage pregnancy (Cunningham & Boult, 2002; Macleod, 2009). A family’s low economic status with all the factors associated with it, impacts negatively on teenagers’ attitudes towards early pregnancy. Life experiences associated with poverty minimise the perceived repercussions of adolescent pregnancy (Preston-Whyte & Zondi, 2002). Andorka (2008) stated that people with higher income show lower fertility levels at the earlier stage of socioeconomic development than people with lower income. Other basics of economic conditions such as economic security also seem to have a significant influence on teenage pregnancy (Andorka, 2008). A study by Kamal (2009) showed that a significant negative relation was found between teenage motherhood and the wealth index. About three out of four women with a poor wealth index started childbearing before they reached the age of nineteen. Choe et al. (2001) showed that woman’s education was significantly related to the probability of child bearing before the age of 20. The results of a study by Were (2007) also showed that teenage pregnancies were perpetuated by poor educational access as women with low levels of education tended to be the victims of teenage birth. Because educated woman were more likely to participate in the labour force than their uneducated or lower educated counterparts, women who were working also tended to delay their first marriage and first birth compared with those women who were not working. In Ghana, Bogue (2009) argue that education showed a stronger and more consistent relationship with teenage pregnancy. The level of education of women is a socioeconomic indicator which is frequently found to be negatively related to teenage pregnancy. This is because educated women tend to marry and use contraception later compared to women who have a low level of education (Bongaarts, 2008). Furthermore, Cochrane (2009) also stated that education was positively related to more favourable attitudes toward birth control, greater knowledge of contraception, and husband-wife communication. Thus, concerning the context of the study, it assumes that the level of educational attainment of women may affect the timing of childbearing among women. . 3 Peer Pressure and Teenage Pregnancy Preston-Whyte & Zondi (2002) found that schoolmates exerted a lot of pressure on their peers to engage in sexual relations. Some studies have found that teenagers often cite their peers as being of strong influence on their sexual behaviour (Preston-Whyte & Zondi, 2002; Chillman, 2006). Teenagers’ need for approval and a desire to belong to a group makes them vulnerable to peer influence thereby leading to them to teenage pregnancy (Kamal, 2009). Nowadays teenagers’ preferred position is to stay away from their parents, to avoid to be controlled by parents. They rather listen to their peers than to their parents. Bezuidenhout (2002) said that during that time norms and values taught by parents start to fade out and are replaced by liberal sexual values orientated by peers. Preston-Whyte and Zondi (2002) mentioned that peer pressure plays a role in teenage pregnancy. Buga et al. (2006) found that 20% of girls and 10% of boys respectively indicated that they had initiated sexual activity because of peer pressure. Wood et al. (2006) said peer pressure takes a form of exclusionary practices (e. g. sending sexually inexperienced teenagers away when having discussions concerning sexual matters). Again Mfono (2008) indicated that one of the dynamics operative in sexual relations is that girls and young women are under pressure to demonstrate that they are sexually capable of giving birth. Furthermore, Rozakis (2003) believed that many teens are pushed by their friends into doing something they are not ready for, and really do not understand that peer pressure can be a very strong and persuasive force for sexual relations during adolescence. Peer association has been indicated as one of the strongest predictors of adolescent sexual behaviour and teenage pregnancy (DiBlasio & Benda, 2004). Youth that do not engage in sex tend to have friends who also abstain. Those that are sexually active tend to believe that their friends are sexually active as well. Males, particularly those over 16, report more pressure from peers to be sexually active while females report more pressure from partners (Guggino & Ponzetti, 2007). Moore and Rosenthal (2003) pointed to the following ways peer influence can operate: Through sharing of information, which can serve as a guide in decision-making about sex (this may include inaccurate information). Through prevailing attitudes about sexuality (implicitly reflected in their behaviour and serving as a role model or explicitly stated in discussions etc. ). For example, there is some research evidence that the age of first intercourse is related to the perceived peer approval of premarital intercourse (Daugherty & Burger, 2004). 2. 4 Mass media exposure and Teenage Pregnancy Lucas (2004) stated that the age at first marriage is the one of the determinants of fertility and is classed as the intercourse variable. Early entry into marriage or a union is considered to be strongly connected with early child bearing. The supposition is that it will expose women to regular sexual intercourse through the mass media, and therefore increase the possibility of conception (Mahy & Gupta, 2002). Gupta and Leite (2009) stated that access to the media was found to be the most significant predictor of fertility among young adult women in Brazil based on an analysis of DHS data. In this region, the mass media are believed to play an important role in promoting social attitudes about fertility and reproductive behaviours, especially given the country’s linguistic homogeneity (Gupta & Leite, 2009). It can be assumed that women who are used to being exposed to mass media are likely to understand the risks of teenage motherhood, and, as a result, they tend to delay their pregnancies. It is clear from different sources that the media often plays a major role in influencing teenage pregnancy. Parents can hardly consistently monitor what programmes their teenagers are watching. Rozakis (2003) believed that television is the main source of sexual socialization in many teenagers’ lives in the USA. According to A Rozakis (2003), in a single year there were 20, 000 sexual messages on television used to sell almost anything you can imagine: cars, travel, soft drinks, toothpaste, and clothing. Television also shows six times more extramarital sex than sex between husbands and wives. During the absence of any elderly person children become bored and want to experiment with many things including exploring TV channels as source of entertainment. Devenish et al. (2002) agreed that the media also portray sex as fun and exciting. Bezuidenhout (2004) added that sexually arousing material, whether it is on film, in print or set to music, is freely available to the teenager and such information is often presented out of the context of the prescribed sexual norms of that society. Schultz (2004), in his empirical study, suggested that sex educators, social workers, other helping professionals, and parents should work together to counteract distortions that affect adolescents’ sexual development and sexual growth, and professionals and parents need to recognize the reality and power of the media as an influence on sexual growth. All of the above can influence teenager’s behaviour and encourage them to experiment with sex which will lead to unwanted teenage pregnancies (Schultz, 2004). Similarly, Moore and Rosenthal (2003) pointed out that television, films and other forms of media have removed a lot of the mystery surrounding sex by increasingly explicit portrayal of sexual acts, which can provide a model of sexual behaviour. The stereotypic portrayals often do not provide positive role models with hedonistic values rather than responsibility being promoted (e. g. planning for sex being rarely included) (Moore, 2000). According to McCabe (20055), the media’s message is that teenagers should be sexually experienced. 2. 5 Effects of Teenage Pregnancy Teenage pregnancy has been associated with a number of negative effects, hence it is perceived as a social problem (Furstenberg et al. , 2007; Macleod, 2009). In medical literature it has been associated with obstetrics problems such as high infant and maternal mortality, risks of clandestine abortion, delivery complications and low infant birth weight (Dickson, 2002). Other complications for the teenage mother are limited educational opportunities, self-determination and a poor quality of life (Prater, 2002). At the broader social level the high teenage fertility rate has been found to have a negative effect on the economic development (Varga, 2003). Some young mothers do not get support from their families. They may be rejected by their families and blamed for introducing a permanent crisis (Hudson & Ineichen, 2001; Cervera, 2004). In a situation where there was a pre-existing interpersonal problem, there is a potential that tension might be orchestrated (Dryfoos, 2006). Therefore conflict may arise between the pregnant daughter and other members of the family. Some sources have reported positive results, indicating that sometimes a family reorganises itself in order to adjust to the new member of the family (Cervera, 2004). The family may react with dismay or anger when they discover about the pregnancy, but when the baby is born the family may become the source of support for the mother (Moore, 2000). Positive family support has been associated with emotional adjustment and mental stability for both mother and child (Camerana et al. , 2008). According to Kalil and Kunz (20088) young mothers who lived with a supportive family tended to cope better. In the Ghanaian context, a child of an unmarried mother belongs to its mothers’ family (Burman, 2002). It is very unlikely that her family will reject a teenage mother (Kaufman et al. , 2001). Most communities no longer practice acts of exclusion to the unmarried mother and her child (Parekh & De La Rey, 2007). In her review of South African studies on teenage pregnancy, Macleod (20099) stated that teenage mothers reported a perceived improvement in the relationship with their parents. Parents were reported to relate to teenage mothers as adults. Thus parenthood gave the teenage mothers an entry to adulthood (Preston-Whyte & Zondi, 2002). Prater (2002) stated that teenage pregnancy and subsequent parenting could create major obstacles to any learner’s achievements at school. Thus, pregnant learners are impaired by their situation. Even though they have as much potential for academic success as their non-parenting cohorts, there are multidimensional causes for their academic failure. Many investigations have shown that early pregnancy hinders educational attainment. Erikson (2004) reported that teenage mothers exhibited a ‘syndrome of failure’, which included a failure to remain in school. Pregnant learners are more likely to drop out of school for at least an academic year. The dual role of being a mother and a learner is stressful (Parekh & De La Rey, 2007) and impinges on school achievement. School attendance, is also disturbed by such things as babysitting arrangements and the health of the child. Furstenberg et al. (2007) referred to what is termed ‘role overload’. He defined ‘role overload’ as the strain that exists when the teenage mother simultaneously attempts to meet the demands of parenting and schooling. Parenting learners cannot participate in experiences enjoyed by their peers, for example, extra-curricular activities, which can add much value to the total school experience of most teenagers. Despite these hardships schooling emerged as important (Prater, 2002). Depression has been correlated with teenage pregnancy (Hamburg, 2006). Parenting teenagers are more likely to present with higher levels of depression when compared with non-parenting adolescents and older mothers. In most literature psychological distress among adolescent mothers is perceived as resulting from psychosocial stressors related to the adjustment into the role of being the mother (Kalil & Kunz, 2000). In some literature it is argued that teenage girls are predisposed to depression (Galambos, 2004). It is postulated that teenage girls are more prone to experiencing mothers of the same ethnic and socio-economic status had similar findings (Field et al. , 2006; Hudson & Ineichen, 2001). It was found that infants of teenage mothers are more likely to receive less verbal stimulation and to have developmental delays. These negative effects were associated with the fact that teenage mothers had limited knowledge of developmental milestones and held punitive child rearing attitudes. Literature concludes that teenage mothering is contributory to poor cognitive development of the child. Low education levels of the mother, poor socioeconomic status and negative attitudes towards child rearing are correlated with the child’s poor developmental outcome (Field et al. , 2006). Cunningham and Boult (2006) also postulated that the young mother’s immaturity, social inexperience and lack of child rearing skills have a negative effect on the child. The young mother and her off-spring are at a risk of becoming victims of crime like incest, rape, neglect, abuse, family violence and of participation in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution etc. In the Ghanaian context the teenage mother often resides in her parental home (Preston-Whyte & Zondi, 2002) and the child is often in the care of an adult during the day either the grandmother or at an alternative day care. This implies that the child of a teenager is more than likely to receive parenting from an adult mother figure and to benefit from this interaction (Camerana et al. , 2008). Multiple care giving has also been found to be of benefit for the mother. While an adult is looking after the child, the mother gets the opportunity to attend to other responsibilities thus alleviating the stressors for the mother.