Individual Analysis

Individual Case Analysis Contents 1. 0Analysis Using Motivation Theories1 1. 1Equity Theory1 1. 2Expectancy Theory1 1. 3 Three-need Theory†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2 2. 0Criticisms of the Management Functions3 3. 0Main Problems Defined4 4. 0References5 5. 0Appendices6 5. 1Appendix 1: SWOT Analysis6 5. 2 Appendix 2: Equity Theory Table†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 1. 0Analysis Using Motivation Theories 1. 1Equity Theory According to Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter (2003) equity theory was developed by J. Stacey Adam. Campebell, Dunnette and Miller (1969) states the purpose of this theory is aim at employees’ assimilation from a job situation. Kaplan, Reckers and Reynolds (1986) notes these are outcomes, in relation to the efforts they put in, inputs, and then compare with others. In the case, Lisa compares her input-outcome ratio with Leanne, which seems imbalance and unfair. Lisa feels jealous as Steve decided to go again her suggestion to hand over half of her workload to the youngest team member, Leanne. She also sees that Leanne became more dominant. Lisa was treated unfairly by two other members putting the blames at her who forced Steve to reprimand her. The distraught Lisa’s thinking was to give other members of the team who has more experience to take over some of her work rather than Leanne. In the end Lisa lodged a compensation claim for her nervous breakdown cased by Leanne. Also stated by Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter (2003), employees’ motivation is influenced by rewards. Base on the above-mentioned, Steve should use the equity method in treatments of staff. Therefore, whenever an employee assess their own equity and perceive inequity, he or she will act to correct the situation rather than lack of motivation. Please refer to 5. 2 Appendix 2 for table showing equity theory. 2. Expectancy Theory According to Montana and Charnov (2000), expectancy theory shows that rewards could motivate employees to increase their efforts. Taylor (1964) notes this encourages better performance leading to a positive outcome. Steve applied the expectancy theory under his management. By doing this, he made an announcement that he will increase employees’ salary base on performance rating. Due to massive increase in training loads, Lisa was overworked and with projects behind schedule. Then Green (1992) states on of the believing is that employees believe if they perform well, they will get the reward. Leanne is an ambitious person that is why she offers help as she believes in good performance could get better outcome and reward. On the other hand, according to Montana and Charnov (2000), an employee can decide on which outcome they prefer. Due to immense pressure from overload and conflict with Leanne, Lisa has made a decision to take stress leave. This reduces the efforts Lisa requires to put into her work. 3. Three-need Theory McClelland (as quoted by anonymous, 2008) states an employee’s motivation and effectiveness are influenced by the following: Need for Achievement – McClelland (quoted by Pattanyak, 2006) notes motivation that influences employees to direct his or her behaviour towards attaining goals. According to the achievement explained, Lisa is not motivated to challenge of orking at a problem and do not accept any personal responsibilities for failure, rather leaving the actions and chance for Leanne to achieve the outcome. Need for Affiliation – Courtney (2002) notes McClelland had suggested that people are motivated by different things. Also, base on the statement stated by Tosi, Mero and Rizzo (2000), McClelland’s theory on affiliation has a need for friendly relationships an d have good interactions with others. These people can co-operate well in a team. Referring to the explanation of affiliation, Lisa’s jealousy and conflict with Leanne had caused friction and resignation in the team. It shows there is a lack of communication skills and co-operate for Lisa in the team. Lisa’s personal attitude problem towards Leanne also caused her relationship problems with colleague and manager. Need for Power – McClelland (quoted by Pattanyak, 2006) notes that people at a high position would want the power to control other people for their own goals. According to Ved (2005) there are: Social – controls the company’s movement, and Personal – influence others to further the desire. Leanne entered InsureCo. as a new team member under Lisa’s leadership in a team. Soon after, Leanne quickly made good relationship with the manager and quick to promote her skills, which lead her over stepped the power of Lisa. Therefore, Lisa felt she was unable to control Leanne to achieve her outcome. Lisa has also lost control of her team when couple of the team members resigned. With the lost control of power, Lisa lost the battle to be promoted. Therefore, she is not motivated. 2. 0Criticisms of the Management Functions The management of InsureCo. has several negative practices, they are: – The way Steve manages the company’s environment The way Steve supervise employees, and – How staff co-operate with each other as a team. According to Bell and Smith (2006), the use of communication and verbal skills for managers is vital in their management work. By listening to employees, companies could improve employees’ job satisfaction. According to Deci and Ryab (1985), the greatest motivation act is managers could do for his or her empl oyee is listening. In this case, Steve does not communicate effectively to his staff about his expectations and resolving problem issues within the working environment. He does not think of the concern that if he recognise the new employee, Leanne, Lisa would complain about the recognition. To prevent the complaining obstacle, Steve should listen to Lisa when she complained about Leanne in regards to her I. T. skills. Steve should act on the complaint and assess Leanne’s ability in the I. T. field. If it does prove that she has the skills, there would not be jealousy in Lisa. Schuler and Jackson (1999) mentioned that fair treatment of employee which will make them more committed in an organisation. It means, Steve should treat Lisa and Leanne equally. It is not where he should reprimand Lisa in front of her colleagues and in a way without her giving reasons. This is an embarrassment for Lisa. This also shows there is a lack of fair treatment within the management system of the company. According to Cook (1999), employees will produce more effort in their work when they are appreciated, valued and understood by the employer. Steve should set up a guide of basic principles to coach employees when there is a problem. Base on the value of Lisa to the company, Steve should not reprimand her straight away without any options for explanation and when he did reprimanded her he should explain his decision. Steve could improve the relationship between Lisa and Leanne by informing them how others feel, how much effect can cause, and suggest them how to improve themselves. Steve’s management at InsureCo. he is committed to the company’s goals, according to Salaman (2001), it sometimes refers to as mission statement. In the case, increase salary was any approach that Steve regarded as important. The aim is to fend off growing competition. The increase of salary could not always motivate his staff. The reasons are mentioned in the previous citations. 3. 0Main Problems Defined |Primary Problems |Secondary Problems | |Poor leadership – New leadership of the firm, lack of managerial |Poor motivational skills | |experience. |Staff lacks motivation | |Poor planning – No technical training system been put in. No specific job description written for employees | |No formal policies written for rewards and punishment |Increase in workloads | | |Lack of co-operation | | |Manager has poor communication skills | | |Ineffective communication of expectations | | |Employees’ value not appreciated | | |Overload work causes delays | | |Multitask been given to employees | | |Management has no understanding of employees’ needs | | |Poor relationship between staff and manager | | |Pressure in the training department | | |Lack of fair treatment for staff | 5 . Appendices 5. 1Appendix 1: SWOT Analysis [pic] 2. Appendix 2: Equity Theory Table by Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter (2003) Perceived ratio comparisonEmployee’s assessment Outcomes AOutcomes B Inputs A Inputs B (Inequity-over rewarded) ———————– Threats ? Exposed weaknesses in the company ? Strong global competitors ? Complaints from staff ? Compensation claim from staff Opportunities ? Government proposed new Financial Services Reform Bill – Make sure entire staff had been trained Weaknesses ? Poor leadership ? Poor planning ? No formal policies for rewards & punishments are written ? Poor motivational skill ? Staff lacks motivation ? No specific job description written for employees ? Increase of workload ? Lack of co-operation ? Poor communication skills ? Staff’s value not appreciated ? Overload work causes delays ? Multitask given ? Management has no understanding of employees’ needs ? Poor decision making ? Pressure in the training department ? Lack of fair treatment for employees ? Strengths ? Large finance and insurance company ? Market presence ? Large customer base ? Long profitable history ? Promotions for employees ?

Legalization of Assisted Suicide

For example, if a person is suffering from a horrible disease it would be as if they were living dead. As the article pros and Cons of Assisted Suicide says, † Choosing how we die is a basic human freedom. If an individual's quality of life is terrible, they should h eve the right to stop suffering. † Many people live unhappy knowing that what they have is Inc arable. If assisted suicide is legal they can choose to do it and die in a peaceful way instead of w attaining their final day to come while they still suffer.People may also agree with this topic do to the â€Å"Pain and anguish of the Patti it's family and friends† which can be lessened, and they can say their final goodbyes. † ( Miserly) It is just sad for the family to see one of their loved ones just lying down and suffering. It is not easy for them because they do not know when the â€Å"day' to leave this world will come. This leads to the fact that many of the nurses and doctors taking care of this patient can have a more valuable time with a patient that can and wants to fight their pain. By doing this, these nurse sees and doctors can save more lives.Also, people may argue that getting assisted suicide may save other lives do to the fact that some of the organs in the patients' body can help other patients as said by Miserly. Lastly, a third pro would be that without physician assistance people may co omit suicide in messy, horrifying or traumatic ways. This is worst for the families to get eve r. Imagine walking in, to see something like this and especially if they were suffering so b Daly that they took that decision. Families would feel guilty. People are pushed to do this be cause they are cornered since they are hurting bad and they can't get help.Assisted suicide also has many cons. One of them would be that it would decreed ease the value of human life. This means that people wouldn't really care if someone did sees or lives. People would take this as a normal th ing. Just like what Miserly says, â€Å"For each dead h, we have 12 days of ceremonies, elaborate burials, and months of mourning. † It would me an that anyone could take the life of someone else making life something of no value. This re son is because people would just take it from you just like they would take any object of no v alee.A second con is that doctors are given too much power and can be wrong or unethical says, Joe Miserly. He also says, â€Å"Imagine a doctor who believes there is too m such of a shortage in medical staff & resources to pour extra time & money into elderly people. He may always lean towards the side of â€Å"no hope† when the odds are sketchy. † We always rely on doctors and on their opinions but we got to know that doctors aren't always accurate on what they say . We trust them so much, but who knows that instead of three months of life you have 6? Also, what if that virus is just temporarily or even that they messed up the resul ts.By legalizing t his assisted suicide away it would be like giving doctors the right to choose who they want alive. The last con is that Miracle cures can occur. One can get well from one day to the next. Also, the science is advancing so fast that doctors can make a medicine that c an cure whatever you have. Doctors should always try nothing but their best to keep their Patti ants alive. What if there is actually a cure and the doctors are still not quite aware of it? Miserly says, ‘You have to consider the constant medical and pharmaceutical advances that just might el ad to a miracle recovery.We should never get to a point where we spend more time looking f r a way out of life than for a way to sustain life. † Through this quote we see that it is always beet err to fight for life to keep going and assisted suicide should not be an option In conclusion, people should never give up and take the easy path. Even thou GHz a lot of people suffer at the end maybe everythin g can be worth it. It won't be an easy thing to keep living in pain but giving up and giving the right for someone to kill you not be consider an option. As a result, assisted suicide should not be legalized because no one SSH loud be able to take someone else's life away.

The Design and Construction Phases of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

5.â€Å"The thing I personally look for is an architectural thought that stands a nice opportunity of lasting the planning system, clients demands, value technology and all the other hurdlings that it will face†Francis Golding Research an illustration of an architectural undertaking where you consider the thought has survived the hurdlings faced in its development. Explain some of the challenges faced during the design and building procedure. See the functions of the designer, the client and other members of the design and building squad in accomplishing this end, see whether other factors such as the budget and the type of procurance played a function in the success of the undertaking. The procedure when organizing a edifice is divided into two cardinal phases: The design stage and the building stage, which since the 1990’s have been tightly linked through contractual agreements. Depending on legion factors, such as budget and the type of procurance chosen, either side can be dramatically affected by the other. As a consequence the finished merchandise may non be to the satisfaction of the client, stakeholders or the companies involved. An illustration of a edifice in which both of these stages were completed successfully in every facet is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, by Frank O. Gehry and Associates ( FOG/A ) . The Client and Advisers The Guggenheim was a really big graduated table undertaking which was commissioned in 1993 by Consorcio Museo Guggenheim ( CMG ) . This group comprised of the Basque authorities ( Regional ) and the Vizcaya Government ( Provincial ) . They were responsible for funding the undertaking, and the municipality of Bilbao ( Local Government ) donated the site ( REF ) The ground that the authorities proposed to construct an art gallery of such importance, with an iconic designer, was due to the fact that the metropolis of Bilbao was falling into diminution. There was an pressing demand to set building undertakings into action that would renew the country. ( REF ) Because a great trade of money was invested ( ?77m ) a big measure of people involved in both the design and building stages were working for the authorities. CMG put together a squad which oversaw the full procedure, which included:Legal ConsultantFinancial ControllerCommunicationss DirectorDesign Adviser( REF )Their function, as a foundation, was confer withing and doing certain the undertaking was run intoing their aims. They had â€Å"everyday decision-making power† as they were the client. ( Harvard ) Besides confer withing on with the design and building squads was the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York. They needed someplace to house their unobserved art aggregation – they made a trade with CMG to lend it ( at a cost ) , and partnered with them to make an administration called the Guggenheim Foundation. This gave them entree to the trade name name, Guggenheim. ( Ref hypertext transfer protocol: //www.guggenheim.org/guggenheim-foundation ) Engineers Besides involved in the undertaking were IDOM, employed as executive designers. ( ref ) They had huge cognition of big scale building. The structural applied scientists were Skidmore, Owings and Merrill ( SOM ) , who besides consulted in the undertaking and formed portion of the design squad. Procurement CMG established a clear set of demands for IDOM to run into:â€Å" The Executive Architect ( IDOM ) shall be responsible for run intoing the mark cost, with a fiscal punishment if it is exceeded.The museum shall open to the populace before the terminal of 1997.The museum shall be completed utilizing the highest quality edifice criterions.The Executive Architect shall maximize the usage of local employees and stuffs for building.The Executive Architect shall ease the Design Architect’s creativity.†( ref )To accomplish these marks, chiefly the clip restraint and rigorous budget, it would necessitate careful thought into how the edifice work would be procured. Another factor that had to be considered was that Gehry’s design was ambitious, and utilizing traditional procurance methods would non run into these ends, particularly as FOG/A’s architectural linguistic communication was â€Å"less and less derivative of current practice† ( Tombesi, 2002 ) and the fact that â€Å"80 % of the building systems and stuffs used in the Bilbao Guggenheim undertaking were wholly advanced in the edifice industry.† ( Harvard p5 ) The design had been efficaciously modelled on the package plan, Catia, antecedently used in the aerospace industry. This was another component that influenced the pick of procurance as it would significantly rush up both the design and the building phase. It would better design communicating between all the companies involved, as the theoretical account could be invariably updated to feed information to all contractors. ( REF ) â€Å"One of the cardinal factors in building was the monolithic usage of CAD engineering, something reasonably unusual in architecture. Without this engineering, the Bilbao Guggenheim would still be under building today† ( Harvard p16 ) FOG/A and IDOM decided on seamster doing the contract for the Guggenheim. They required contractors input early on in the design stage so that an effectual theoretical account could be created, that would be every bit near as possible to the architect’s vision, but could besides be constructed precisely like the theoretical account. This would overlap the design and the building processes, and would make more clip to acquire the museum built. However, Tombesi ( 2002 ) cites that due to the fact that it was an institutional and grand-scale public edifice, by jurisprudence they had to use one general contractor. IDOM had experience in big scale undertakings and their method of pull offing them was by dividing the contractual occupations. They managed to carry the public committees deputy in Bilbao that this was the best manner ( Harvard p3 ) FOG/A and IDOM divided the contractual occupations, and called them ‘paquetes’ :DestructionFoundationsStructureOutsidesInsides and InstallationsUrban InfrastructureFurniture, Fixtures and EquipmentAfter this they began ‘the petition for proposals’ phase. FOG/A prepared preliminary certification which outlined the rudimentss of the design and what was required for each of these paquetes, and sent these off to groups of contractors who could perchance execute these specializer occupations. The method of taking who to direct these to was a challenge for IDOM. â€Å"I was looking for contractors [ †¦ ] who were willing to larn how to construct the undertaking instead than being stiff in adhering to their usual methodologies.† ( Harvard ) The groups who were chosen were comparatively little as â€Å"no contractor in the universe had of all time built a undertaking like Bilbao Guggenheim.† ( Harvard ) In response the contractors would subject proposals with elaborate proficient information and how much they could make the undertaking for. ( Tombesi, 2002 ) The contract was named the ‘design-assist process’ ( Figure 1 ) . ( Tombesi, 2002 ) In the diagram, it explains the initial designs and preliminary certification formed by FOG/A and IDOM for a individual paquete. The following phase was to direct out these paperss to contractors ( bomber ) and so take which to use after they have submitted their proposals. In the diagram it shows that FOG/A reimbursed the contractors who were non chosen. After they chose the contractor they had a period of 90 yearss to develop the design with the whole of the design squad. If they fulfilled the contract by the terminal of this so they would be awarded their ‘lump sum’ . A job that IDOM had with these custom-made paquetes was specifically to make with the exterior design. Five companies met the specifications/requirements which IDOM needed to do the building of the complex outside possible ; These companies were sent command paperss and invited to subject proposals. Three of these companies responded, but all were over the set budget. The jurisprudence restricted IDOM from taking any of these proposals despite pricing, so a new petition for commands was issued. IDOM besides teamed up with the staying contractors to clear up design and pricing so that doing this command was possible. Two companies matched the mark cost this clip about and the determination was made, with the aid of CMG, to take Balzola ( a spot about the company? ) ( HARVARD ) The initial pick for the cladding stuff of the Guggenheim was hand-polished chromium steel steel, so the first command paperss were organised with this merchandise in head. However FOG/A were diffident that it was the appropriate stuff for the occupation, and were fighting to happen options that would execute good and look aesthetically delighting. Leaded Cu was an option but IDOM were dying that lead would be washed from the rain into the milieus. Therefore Ti became the perfect merchandise to replace the chromium steel steel. The lone exclusion was the disbursal, as it was non an low-cost stuff. Fortunately, big measures of it had merely been released onto the market at the right clip for it to be used on the Guggenheim, dramatically cut downing the monetary value. This made it low-cost plenty to suit into the mark cost. The Budget The budget or mark cost of the Guggenheim Bilbao was agreed with the client to be 14,028M Pestas, or ?77m in lbs. As a method of run intoing this end and commanding the money spent, IDOM established a system which tracked outgo at regular intervals. This was a elaborate cost estimation, calculated every six hebdomads so that the design squad could compare their advancement to it and entree their design determinations. If their programs exceeded this estimation, so steps would be taken to rapidly propose alternate ways of making the same thing. ( HARVARD ) An illustration of where the cost estimations helped forestall a serious escalation in disbursals was when SOM, the structural applied scientists, sent off to IDOM information on the structural capablenesss of the geometric volumes. A communicating mistake resulted in an underestimate of the weight of the steel frame, and this caused an addition in costs. However, because of the regular cost estimations, this addition was noticed rapidly and early on. This made it possible for the design squad to do a fast response, which involved changing the mark cost and a few facets of the design to maintain within the budget and on agenda. ( HARVARD ) Without this procedure set in topographic point, little inaccuracies would hold been much harder to descry and would hold perchance become much larger mistakes as the undertaking continued. Construction In the building stages, everything went swimmingly as the clear communicating of CAD drawings helped contractors and builders understand the design phase. Equally good as this, the imbrication of the design and building stages had sizably reduced the clip it took to finish the undertaking. However, during the concluding phases of building, timing became a challenge. The exhibitions needed at least six months to be fitted into the edifice, and could non be installed without protection from the exterior. The exterior and interior undertakings needed to be complete for this to be possible. IDOM and FOG/A responded to this job by overlapping the stages of the exterior and interior undertakings even further and the agendas of the contractors involved were reviewed and reorganised to maximize the sum of clip they had staying. ( Harvard ) for illustration, â€Å"Balzola was expected to temporarily cover unfinished countries to screen the interiors.† ( HARVARD ) This response allowed work to be completed with synergism. In decision, the Guggenheim Bilbao was an advanced undertaking at the clip it was built, an illustration of one of the first big graduated table edifices to include CAD in both stages. IDOM and FOG/A custom-made every measure of the design to accommodate its formation, such as the ‘request for packages’ procurance path, and this is what finally granted it the position of an iconic edifice. It â€Å"demonstrates a manner of interacting with trade specializers before the completion of contract paperss, and without interrupting competitory tendering.† ( Tombesi 2002 ) And this contributed to meeting:The clients demandsThe budgetThe deadlineAnd doing a high quality edificeBesides Gehry, as a consequence, had the design freedom to do his vision be constructed precisely as he saw it in his head. On the whole it demonstrates that the system defines the quality, clip and cost of the terminal consequence, every bit good as the input from people working as a squad contribut ing towards the same end. Although it was something no-one had of all time tried before, and some parts seemed like test and mistake, the edifice was successful in every facet. Every hurdle they faced was met by a strong squad of people.

Role of Management Functions in the Activities of Apple Inc Essay

Role of Management Functions in the Activities of Apple Inc - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that management of an organization should do their responsibilities in a systematic manner and for that reason, they are performing some specific functions for the overall benefit of an organization. The systematic functions start from the function of planning. Before implementing any strategy a proper planning is required. Formulation of company’s objectives and goals can be done at this stage. Managers forecast the future situation of business and according to that anticipation and they take decisions for achieving success. For example, management of Apple Inc. is planning to add more security measures for protecting the interest of users. When someone wants to get access to the user’s data then company send a notification to the user by using e-mail. This new i-Cloud security measurement increases the popularity of the electronic products manufactured by Apple Inc. An organization is the 2nd layer of the functional activities of a management team. Organizing the team members and allocating the work as per their capacity and knowledge is very important. From this part, work is actually started by the end of the organization. Apple Inc. organizes its human resources, financial resources and technical resources in a multi-divisional way. Management of this company classifies activities and after that distributing the work into different divisions. Employees of this company never work outside of their expertise and each employee has to work more than 60 hours per week. The function of leading involves communicating, guiding, encouraging and motivating employees in a certain manner. In case of Apple Inc., major decisions and most of the directions are made by the senior management of the company and employees do not have the right for taking major decisions in their work. Leaders of this company involved in talent management activities. They guide the employees through several advanced training and developme ntal programs.

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Physical security and risk assessment of the alfred p.murrah building Term Paper

Physical security and risk assessment of the alfred p.murrah building - Term Paper Example A commission was formed to deal with rectifications of the existing principles that had been used to direct the construction of the Murray building. It was found that use of beam columns provided the highest degree of vulnerability in the event of explosion attacks thus the propping up of three edge bond with all having completely diverse technique. First there was the pre-Northridge moment-resisting bond was looked into. This majorly looked at three distinct areas that might create points of weakness. These are the preliminary error extent, beam susceptibility to succumb to pressure and finally the fracture strength that the fused parts contained was put into perspective. Second model put into question the independent manner of each element then later on putting together these elements to have them form one strong connection. These elements were the T-stub, panel zone and the shear tab. Those already built buildings that were constructed by method of riveting the joints, it was deci ded that an alternative better method be used. This method had to withstand earthquakes and the uneven constricting and none rigid nature in the joint section as well as the caternary action. The pre-Northridge moment-resisting frames degree of success was gauged by mean-centered deterministic technique as well as the likelihood technique according to Goldstein (2010). First a resolving reviewing of frames with complete and incomplete force wielded T-stub joint was put to test having in mind three beam spans from both bearings. Buildings that were initially built and had unsupported concrete mixture as well as unsupported brickwork infill plates were looked into. To achieve the need for comparative simple method for the preliminary vulnerability assessment, an energy-oriented nonlinear fixed pushdown analysis method was developed. This method offers a different procedure of

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Strategic Writing - Research Paper Example It is a vital part of the overall corporate strategy because it conveys what the firm is all about. In other words, a good business letter written very well and formal in tone sets the groundwork for future success, because it gives a strong first impression, similar to a firm handshake. This is why most successful firms give a strong importance to their written business communications, be it in the form of a letter, a memorandum, a fax, or an e-mail message, because everything that is important hinges on the success of how that written message will be received by all the intended recipients, who can either ignore it altogether if written badly, or respond to it in a very positive manner and generate sales for the letter writer and the company he is writing for. The written message must be strong and impressive; and it further cements the purpose of that message by sending it across in a way that is clearly understood. Exceptional writing forms part of the communications skills of a competent person, and it is a vital or critical job skill because it is a good way to influence other people, to help them make up their minds about you, your company, your products or your services. Despite all the advances in communications media today, starting from the pre-historic smoke signals, to the clay tablets, to papyrus, to the handwritten message to the quill pen to the typewriter, a constant which had remained the same is a need to deliver a message concisely and precisely (Lindsell-Roberts 3), and this is where strategic writing comes in, wherein anything written in the form of a letter, a memo, a fax, or an e-mail forms part of the corporate strategy. Strategic writing should integrate well into a firm’s marketing, advertising, sales, public relations, and even crisis management functions of top-level management (Marsh, Guth, and Short 5). Sample of effective and strategic e-mail message to be sent to the present supplier: To: sharpe@young_oswald.com, greene@y oung_oswald.com, barnes@young_oswald.com Copy: craft@young_oswald.com Subject: Letter to inform current supplier of defective tool kits that they will be replaced FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 12, 2013 As you know, Cross Electric, Inc. is one of our major clients. It is the wholesale supplier of the popular â€Å"Virtu-Fix† line of tool kits to most of the retail hardware stores within the area. This tool kit is used for the maintenance and repair of PC and Mac computers. However, as recent events indicated, its main supplier of the said imported tool kits did not properly check these tool kits such that there are defective tools within the kits, resulting in many customer complaints. Cross Electric, Inc. now wants our help in informing its main supplier to terminate the supply contract, and for the said supplier to be replaced with an Indonesian supplier instead. It seems this Indonesian supplier did a better job at quality control. In this regard, please forward to me through e-mail your ideas on how to say it best to the present supplier its contract will soon be terminated by Cross Electric, Inc. due to its quality concerns without possibly raising any legal issues or complications. This means it has

Social class Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social class - Term Paper Example Though religion has been modified and seems to sustain a much less influential presence in modern society, it is still very much relevant for predicting certain social attitudes and behaviors. There is a well-known sociological theory known as symbolic interactionism which views society as being composed of symbols that are used by people to develop their world view and assist in communications with one another (Henslin, 24). This theory believes that people develop their sense of self based on cultural, environmental or lifestyle symbols and then relate these to the process of building self-identity amongst broader society. Religion has been a fundamental symbol for generations, inspiring art, music, architecture, and glorious church construction. These symbols â€Å"are a great heritage of beauty to all humankind† (Diessner, Solom, Frost, Parsons & Davidson, 304). Under the symbolic interactionism theory, people with a strong commitment to recognizing and esteeming religious principles would find meaning in this pursuit by exposure to these long-standing sociological principles and design constructs. Finding a sense of self beauty through recognition of these rel igious symbols would theoretically assist in developing a positive self-concept measured by symbolic figures rather than through, necessarily, social interaction with others. Traditional religious beliefs include Confucianism, a passive religious belief system that imposes learning, duty, responsibility and tolerance as part of its model (Zhang & Veenhoven, 428). Confucianism believes in self-reflection as part of daily lifestyle and acts as the precondition for improving oneself. The religious symbols such as music and church architecture provide a form of stability and an environment in which to seek perfection. It represents finding commonality with religious icons and through this effort finding their place in the world historically and in modern culture. The goal of communing with

The Church's View on Contraception Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Church's View on Contraception - Essay Example Based on the Scriptures, particularly in the Book of Genesis 38:8-10, the act of Onan spilling his seed – which is an equivalent of coitus interruptus – was condemned by God and the Jewish law. Based on the ancient Jewish law of fathering children, it was a duty of the brother to perform to his sister-in-law the role of husband if his brother dies. However, Onan changed his mind about fathering a child which was supposed to be his brother’s and thus â€Å"spilled the semen on the ground†¦And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also† (Brom; Gen. 38:9-10). In Deuteronomy 25:7-10, it is stated that the man who does not give children to his sister-in-law in case his brother dies would naturally get punished with public humiliation. However, since God slew Onan, then the spilling of one’s semen – or more loosely, the concept of contraception – is obviously a more serious moral offense that simply not g iving one’s brother’s widow a child. Other books of the Bible also condemn contraception. In the New Testament, Paul’s Epistle to the Romans states, â€Å"God has given them over to shameful passions. ... These writings were after all based on the principles of the Bible and the natural law. Onanism, or the act of Onan spilling his semen, was echoed by several church fathers during the early years of the Church. One of the most prominent Church Fathers who condemned contraception in this way was Clement of Alexandria, who, in 195 AD, wrote in The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2, â€Å"Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted† (Brom). Although the aforementioned statement of Clement of Alexandria somehow includes even acts like masturbation, it is still clear that the Church condemns contraception in whatever form that it can be carried out. The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther also expressed condemnation against onanism and referred to it as â€Å"the exceedingly foul deed of Onan† and that Onan â€Å"deserved to be killed by God† (Brom). Luther, therefo re, emphasizes, through Onan’s example, that the sinner deserves God’s punishment. John Calvin of the Calvinist Church echoed Luther’s condemnation by saying that the intentional spilling of semen is â€Å"a monstrous thing† (Brom). Moreover, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, stated that onanism was â€Å"very displeasing to God† and was tantamount to the destruction of the soul (Brom). Contraceptives and methods to tighten the reproductive system have also long been condemned by the ancient Christian Church. Another Church Father in the name of Hippolytus of Rome indicated in his Refutation of All Heresies 9:12, in 255 AD, that â€Å"the so-called faithful [should not] use drugs of sterility or bid themselves tightly in order to expel a fetus which

John F Kennedy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

John F Kennedy - Essay Example ved to have shown evolution of his liberal ideas by adopting a collegial decision-making model which sought resolution of conflicts through consensus and thorough cross-fertilization to filter out a more refined and trustworthy output of argument, serving the best interest of the majority in the process. Moreover, his own essence of liberalism was made evident with the innovative approach on expressing his passion for revolutionary progress and reform. As such, he preferred to take bureaucratic issues out of the traditional system and gave them appropriate treatment according to his personal decision-making style which appeared to take effect with greater degree of flexibility and number of feasible options. JFK’s temperament may be claimed to have deeply affected critical perception when a portion of his acceptance speech on ‘A Liberal Definition’ was caught in devotion to include his proposing â€Å"for liberalism is not much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man’s ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves (JFK – A Liberal).† In particular, this area could be felt to involve his genuine disposition on the significances of dignity, liberty, heart, and mind which the president believed to be the chief sources of collective national strength from which to execute current plan of action and build refreshing hopes of the future for the liberal

Movie about arranged Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Movie about arranged - Assignment Example evident in the film when Rochel’s brother asks her if there were â€Å"shvartzas† a derogatory slang name for blacks in Yiddish at the school where she works. It becomes clear that the father also shares the same prejudice as his son when he asks Rochel if all her students are blacks. In a Jewish marriage, the man is the head of the family and the provider. If the daughter of the house is getting married, he is the one who protects her and exercises authority on the suitors sent to her by the matchmaker. During the dating period, he asks the girl out on a date, which takes place at a public venue. In the Muslim setup, the man is the head of the family and his authority is never to be challenged directly. When selected as a potential suitor he meets with the girl in her parents’ home and the meeting takes place under their supervision. Therefore, the man is portrayed in both marriage settings as the figure of

Essay on Mobile Revolution Essay Example for Free

Essay on Mobile Revolution Essay Mobiles are no more a luxury or a life style product. Mobile phones, which were one of the beautiful possessions of anybody not until a decade ago, have now become a necessity to the common man. The entry of private service providers with CTMA, GSM and of course, 3G technologies has changed the Communication sector in India beyond imagination. Many new competitors have entered the mobile market resulting in reduction of the STD rates and Local call rates. Plans are also on anvil to enable mobile users to switch over to other service providers without changing their number, also called Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The mobile users in India have increased tremendously during the last decade. Youth, both in rural and urban India, have welcomed and accepted mobiles with open hands. The decrease in call rates can be imagined from the fact that it cost around? 16 per minute when mobiles were introduced in India and today it costs as little as 1 paisa per 2 seconds offered by companies like MTS. Even the size of mobile phones has changed to an unimaginable level. They have become very handy today compared to their walkie-talkie resemblance when they were introduced. The immense benefit offered by a mobile has triggered this revolution. With a mobile phone in hand, one can be available round the clock, and can get the up-to-date information on anything. The availability of internet on mobile phones has increased its utility tremendously. It has made mobile phones, to an extent, an essential item for carrying out a business transaction. The facility of sending short messages or pictures enables a person to send the message across without actually bothering to disturb the other person. For traders, it helps them get the price details of any products without even bringing the products to the market. The introduction of mobile banking helps people carry their bank in their mobile. Some people even carry their office in their mobile phones. However, mobile phones also have some demerits as they can be used to detonate bombs. Some instruments which have cameras in them can be used for taking unnecessary photographs. Constant use of mobile phones may create health problems and increase risk of accidents on road. In spite of these demerits, mobile phones are becoming popular day-by-day as their advantages fairly outweigh the demerits. In fact, the mobile revolution has occurred very fast in India. This symbolizes the countrys transformation from an inward looking tentative nature to a confident and resurgent global economic power. The mobile phone service providers have also increased manifold during the years. Some of the important market players are: Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, MTNL, Idea Cellular, Tata Indicom, Tata DoCoMo, Reliance Communications, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Videocon Telecommunications, MTS India and Spice Telecom. Even in rural India, mobile phone has brought a tremendous change to rural telephony, marginalizing the middlemen and empowering women, strengthened by the formation of self-help groups. It has vastly improved access to information and helped in the explosive growth in connectivity. Even at sea, fishermen in Kerala use the mobiles to keep track of rates for their catch in the market. The improvement in infrastructure and support from the Government has acted as a catalyst for mobiles to make tremendous inroads into rural India. The role of mobile telephones are varied, in that, they help assess the market information, coordinate travel and transport, manage remote activities and increase the remunerative working days. As a result, the rural marketing scenario has also undergone a change. Today, the rural consumer is better informed and price conscious. The total mobile penetration is increasing at a quick pace with companies like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, etc. aving unveiled big network expansion plans and innovative marketing strategies specially tailored region-wise. Some of these companies are using a door-to-door marketing strategy in villages and B and C category census towns. They are involving members of gram panchayats and trained market-feelers to make residents aware of the usefulness of mobile telephony and how the system of pre-paid refills work. Handset manufacturers too are gearing up with Nokia incorporating nine Indian languages on certain handsets to promote sales. Value-for- money handsets priced between 1,000 and 1,400 with a plethora of tariff plans to choose from is also one of the reasons for driving subscription growth in these regions. Handsets are being imported in bulk by some service providers. It is expected that voice short messaging service will become a focus area in future, especially in rural areas and service providers are already planning implementation of the same. The pace at which mobile revolution has occurred in India can be attributed to the easy to understand operations. For an illiterate, mobiles phones were so easy to operate that they needed to understand only two buttons the green button for answering a call and the red button for disconnecting a call. Everything else can be learnt with usage and passage of time. Even today, most of the mobiles are used on this two button principle, which makes it a popular device. Gone are the days when people use to queue up before a Public Call Office (PCO) and wait their turn for an hour, only to end up without connectivity. Mobile phones have also removed the necessity to remember telephone numbers of other people. In-built phone books in the instruments enable a person to call the other person, without ever having to remember the other persons number. Actually, mobile phones have become an all-in-one tool in the pocket, which has replaced even the old pocket diary. It is also slowly replacing purse, with the introduction of mobile transactions. No wonder, life without mobile phones have become unimaginable and unthinkable to many.

Economic Overview Of The Maldives Economics Essay

Economic Overview Of The Maldives Economics Essay There are many factors in the macro analysis environment that will effect the decision of the managers of any organization. The macro change includes such as tax change, new laws, trade barriers, demographic changes and government policy changes. To identify and analyze distinguish between these factors executives be able to categorize the factors that impact such as: Political factors- which refer to government policy such as degree of intervention in the economy and what goods and service does a government wants to provide. Economic factors- which includes interest rates, taxation changes economic growth, inflation and exchange rate. Economic change can have major impact to the country. For example: A strong currency may make importing goods more difficult as it may raise the price in terms of foreign currency Inflation may incite higher wage demands from employees and raise cost Social factors- change in social trends can impact on the demand for a firms products and ease of use and motivation of individuals to work. Technological factors- new technologies create new products and new process. Example: when organization advances in technological, the staffs skills and knowledge have to improve quality and guide to innovation. These developments can benefit government as well as the organization. Environmental factors- include the weather and climate change. Change in temperatures can impact on many industries including tourism, fishing and import and export of goods to and from country. Legal factors- these are related to the legal environment in which organization function. Introduction of new system and procedures such as staff development policy that affect organization action and change will have some costs to the government and the organization. This chapter is based on government economic policies, fiscal policy and moreover it talks about the Maldives Customs Service (MCS) role and relation to government policies and mission, goals and objectives of the MCS and the SWOT analysis of the organization. Furthermore this chapter mentions the key issues which related to the policy implementation. Government economic policies The Maldives has exclusive economic rights over some 859,000 km ² of surrounding the islands, which contains vast fishery resources. The islands are an attractive tourist destination due to their sandy white beaches and clear lagoons. Land mass is limited to 300 km ² and dispersed over an 850 km ² North-South fairly narrow stretch. This peculiarity of land mass and its distribution is a server constraint to the development of local markets, increasing transport costs with implication for the competitiveness of the economy. Direct Foreign Investment The government has adopted a reasonable foreign climate the result, the result has been not enough in the sense of that most foreign direct investment (FDI) is tied to the tourism sector. In regard of this only very little FDI is seen in other sectors. For example the domestic market opportunities, given the restrictions of a population of 300,000 approximately. Therefore FDI has been drive in the direction of sectors reaching international market. Tourism is one of the best examples in the country. The investment establishment consent to free currency exchange rate and repatriation of profits and capital assets. The financial sector 30% profit tax is collected and there is no corporate tax. At present the government there is improper practice of integration of investment promotion and regulation as both roles are hand over to the Foreign Investment Services Bureau (FISB) of the Ministry of Economic and Development and Trade (MEDT). Therefore the existing legal frame work of Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) is inadequate to provide self motivated investment environment to the investors. Other than tourism investments all other sectors all the responsibility takes FISB and tourism investments Ministry of Tourism and Culture (MTC). Hence it is vital to revise and modernize current DFI guide line policy to more conducive to large scale investment. The financial sector of Maldives is still in its immaturity. There are five international bank operators in the capital city Male but all this banks are branch offices of their parent organization and take on only financing of commerce. At the present time there is no investment bank in Maldives, but a private firm, the Maldives Finance Leasing Company (MFLC) that provides capital financing for only small and medium scale operators. At present the Bank of the Maldives has locate more than 12 branches in different islands in the country. Export promotion In the existing regime Maldivian exporters invite in accessing world markets comparative to competitors in other countries. The rules of origin governing preference, when defined as a value-added obligation for the most part difficult to satisfy country like Maldives facing extremely far above the ground priced imported inputs and with limited relative advantages on labour cost. As mainly Maldives depend on imports for consumption, the lack of import substituting industries and industrial capability for export outcomes in existing account deficit of the country. The deficit for 2008 made known at US$651.3 million and 2005 it was US$273.0 million, which means compare to deficit in 2005 it has increased 139 percent. The present account deficit averaged in the order of 40 percent of GDP between 2004 and 2008. In 2008 more than 98 percent of Maldives commodity export well thought-out of fish and its related products amounting US$125.9 million, when compare to 2005 it has increased 29 percent The total export of Maldives rise in 2008 by MRF 384 million to MRF 617 million a growth of 16.8% over the year 2007. The past years average growth rate is 18.8% and marine products are the main exports with 98 percent. On the other hand due to tsunami disaster there was a minor downturn in the exports in year 2005. But starting from in the year 2006 there is rise and fall trend until 2008, with an approximate of 16.8% increased. In the existing situation of Maldives it is vital to have regional integration initiatives that value to the country through the help of key issues that affect trade, including the cost of transport and customs clearance issues. Regional institutions provide a vital support in the development of a system of standardization in Maldives, with the cooperation along with official recognition bodies on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and agreement on the application of sanitary and phyto sanitary measures (SPS) agreement issues. Social protection At present Maldivian social protection is very much favoritism in the direction of government employees who constitute around a quarter of the working population of the country. The government has priorities to achieve universal primary education and develop a national health care system. The health expenditure has accounted for 10-12 percent of GDP over the last ten years. The government is aware of the social protection issues and is keen to develop an effective social protection system consistent with the level of income and implementation capacity. The government intention for restructuring civil service is not only to grow macroeconomic stability but also is vital to sustaining the countries impressive progress in human development. Poverty rates, as measured by the headcount ratio, have fallen steeply, from 40 percent in 1997 to 16 percent in 2005. To maintain this trend in poverty reduction, improvements in existing social protection programmes and development of new programmes will go together with the fiscal hardship measures Cultural heritage The Maldives is prosperous in heritage sites, although in the earlier period of few decades the significance of safeguard Maldivian cultural heritage has been completely understood by Maldivians. On the other hand research and documentation of Maldivian cultural heritage and history is still developing in the country. At present the country also lacks the legal framework to regulate problems coupled with heritage management in the country. The heritage Act is vital for a better protection of the Maldivian cultural heritage. A book providing a tentative list of heritage sites in the Maldives has been recently published. There is an ever-increasing propensity to promote heritage values surrounded by Maldivians as a value of a heritage site forms the central core of its management. Thinking globally, Maldives is gearing to step into the world heritage arena and almost immediately will have a tentative list submitted to the world heritage committee. Trade Facilitation In the Maldives today, there has been a change from the Profitable protection function of customs to an extended protection of community. That is, trade facilitation effects more than just customs facilitation; it includes all the contributing factors of the international supply chain. As a result, stakeholders usually comprise those government and business entities that are entailing in the administration or guide of international trade. In other words, in the style of early 20th centuries role of customs as the gatekeepers has now been becoming different by the new and more demanding role that is based on three decisive concepts: trade facilitation, border protection, and revenue collection. The MCS is keeping up a conscious of international issues and their ability of strong effects on the nation, and it must be well-informed about national constrain power of a law to trade and transport treating and conventions. In many ways, customs organizations are connected with their counterparts in other countries that they do with agencies in their own government. They often look to customs administrations internationally and in neighboring countries for assistance and for ideas on how to improve operations trade facilitation, border protection, and revenue collection. Revenue Collection The Maldives experience move backward and forward in economic activity that are wider than those of the region overall. When economic times are good, economy outperforms the average of the region and when economic times are bad, economy legs behind. Although countries revenue collection are not only the means of comparing economic activity, that provide snapshot of the health of economy in a particular atoll or island. Generally stronger economies with greater economic activity produce increase in the rate of the growth of revenue collection at the country level. An examination of the subsequent time series of revenue change make known that, in terms of revenue collection of the country go one better than the region overall in times of economic growth and retained strength revenue collection of the country began to experience downturns between 2007 and 2009. Hence the government aims to reduce the reliance on import revenue as an income source for the government expenditure and in recent times projected to a great extent and large tax reform proposal. In this regard, in June 2009 government proposed modifications to the export-import law to eradicate import duties on food items and lower it for other commodities. This plan is an element of much wider amendments government resolve brings to the export-import law in the next two to three years. This proposal is part of a much wider amendments government will bring to the export-import law in the next two-three years, where government intends to bring down all applied rates to a level which have a positive impact on the economic development needs of the country and in accordance with international obligations including World Trade Organization (WTO). Border Protection Tariffs are the major instrument of border protection in the Maldives. With the exception of in the case of cigarette, on which has precise duty of MRF.0.30 per stick and all the other duties are ad valorem tariff levied on CIF (cost, insurance and freight) import value. In the current structure of applied ad valorem tariff have ten bands such as duty free, 5 percent, 10, 15, 20, 25, 35, 50, 100, and 200 percent. The three main staple foods such as flour, rice and sugar and all other imports intended for commercial re-export come in the country free of duty. Maldives has increased its maximum tariff on all goods (excluding alcohol and tobacco) from 112 to 142 percent. In 2006 this maximum tariff was applied to plastic packaging materials. The trade policy space, as measured by wedge between bound and applied tariffs has decreased slightly since 2000, now standing at a relatively low 16.8 percent, compared with 54.8 percent on average for its regional neighbors and 29.5 percent for lower-middle-income countries. Regarding the extent of its trade liberalization in services, the Maldives ranked 142nd out of 148 countries according to the GATS Commitment Index. The discussion on the upcoming direction of tariff restructuring is much in line with expected view. It simply call attention to the need for enlargement the internal tax base to diminish the government weighty dependence on border taxes which would facilitate further tariff reduction, without examining revenue effects of tariff reduction. Enlarging the internal tax base to diminish the governments weighty dependence on border taxes would, obviously facilitate further tariff reduction. Fiscal policy The Maldives has neither a corporate tax not either a broad based sales tax arrangement in the country. The bank profits are subject to profit tax of 25 percent. In the highest degree recent year largely tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was 20.5 percent. Revenues are collected from customs duties. Conversely, the worsening fiscal signs are worrying as huge budgeted deficit stems not only from renovation, however more over from long standing structural issues such as growth of the civil service, large pay rises and subsidized social services. Therefore, if not the government attend to these subjects earlier than its debt get to unsustainable levels, far above the ground economic growth cannot be sustain. Broadening the tax base The government is planning to increase revenue by broadening the tax base. Government revenue is expected to increase 33 percent of GDP in 2010, 37 percent of GDP in 2011 and 36 percent of GDP in 2012. Currently the government revenue generation bases are mainly import duties, tourism tax, dividends from state-owned enterprise and resort lease rentals. The government has argument of implementation of the business profit tax and goods and service tax is look forward to bring in early 2011. The government expects to increase the revenue with reference to the impact of new taxes; it would be 15 percent of GDP. Rationalization of import duties In the Maldives government revenue connotations are a main alarm over and over again voiced as an argument further rationalized of import duties. It is argued that import duties are a vital source of government revenue and the speed with which customs duties are reduced needs to be resolved in harmony with the speed and effective of domestic tax reforms at thoroughly examined the condition of the revenue structure to compensate lost revenue. If not the look forward to economic gains from reform could well be erased by adverse budgetary arising from revenue shortfall. Over view of the Maldives Customs Service (MCS) The MCS plays vital role in protecting and enhancing Maldives economic prosperity, security and unique way of life. The border management has an effect on economic performance and the well-being of community and MCS is committed to ensuring that Maldives entry points actively supports government priorities. In order to achieve MCS vision of achieving excellence in contributing to the social and economic well-being of the nation by providing professional, quality assured customs service. MCS has to be ready for the future and to be able to respond quickly and effectively to unexpected situations and conditions, and have to ensure the effective ongoing stipulation of service. In order to support the social and economic well-being of Maldives, MCS continue to work in coordination with other agencies, and maintain relationship with customs administration, international organization and industry stake holder. It is important to continue deepen understanding of MCS partners priorities and to ensure that how MCS objectives and those of partners in the public and private sector can best aligned. Mission and Vision TO ENSURE that persons, goods and conveyances enter and exit the Republic of Maldives in accordance with national laws, and that such function is carried out while protecting the state revenue and the rights of the members of the society and in a manner that safeguards the integrity, esteem, dignity and honour of our Maldivian Nation. ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE in contributing to the social and economic well-being of the nation by providing professional, quality assured Customs service towards the protection of the society and revenue collection, through optimal Information Technology mobilization Goals and objectives To achieve the national goals MCS has to provide staff with relevant academic competency and skills training so as to create conducive work environment for generating inspiration and motivation amongst them; by inculcating and promoting required ethical standards in order for them to become professional Customs officers. To facilitate and provide trade-related customs services in a customer-friendly environment, in accordance with the laws and regulation of Maldives To protect State revenue through extensive participation in implementation of export/ import policies, strengthening customs control mechanism, and post clearance audit procedures. To be a world-class customs service that complies with all pertinent international conventions, articles thorough cooperation and coordination between Customs of other countries, customs- related international organizations and other international NGOs Objective Protect and collect revenue on dutiable goods. Detect and deter narcotics. Detect and deter smuggling of goods, pornography, and banned articles. Protect and facilitate legitimate trade and industry to uphold Republic of Maldives trading integrity. SWOT Analysis Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threat Maldives customs service (MCS) is longest serving organization in the Maldives. Therefore customs has good reputation of among all other organization and the customs has brought a valid changes Government gives full support to the MCS to maintain its service. Example if customs submit a project for increase revenue the government approves easily Provide professional training for the officers for their daily work environment which has huge advantages to perform best of their knowledge and experience Lack of Act the most weakness of the organization as there are many improvements which need to bring with the help of act Action and words are not align which causes a huge weakness of the organization as the supervisory level action which makes different ways in same situation MCS gets many opportunities from the government to improve trade facilitation and control illegal activities which enter the country MCS is the WCO member and many other international authorities such RILO and WTO and other countries provide international training and equipments Political Influences is one of the difficult things MSC faced today, as the political influence is taking part in some decision making and many political posts in top level Traders do not keep their business records, so it hides the way for their negotiations, transactions and other records that need for their business background Key issues related policy implementation Corruption and low integrity Corrupted environment Unethical behaviour Revenue leakage Compliance not measure Ineffective decentralization Decentralized areas staff not empowered Partially decentralized without uniformity Lack of border control Incompetent staffs and stakeholders Policies for rotation Competency level of staffs Lack of technical skills Poor communication with the stake holders Absence of Carrier path No succession plan Human resource plan De-motivation Knowledgeable staff turnover Performance appraisal not based on objectives Inappropriate recruitment and selection Chapter summery The Maldives still face a range of development limitations distinctive to small island nation. These take in a small export market, narrow resource base, and shortage of skilled work force, difficult transportation, high unit cost of social, health and economic infrastructure condition and high propensity to external and natural disasters. To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the revenue collection and trade facilitation it is vital to implement modern techniques to minimize the illegal offences which are carried out through in the Customs control area and prevent the importation and exportation of restricted and prohibited goods and conveyances into and from the country, while providing an excellent service. In addition there are special require developing the quality of the limited human resources. It is apparent that legislation, systems and procedures need to be enforced and implemented by experienced, professional and dedicated people. The commitment, loyalty and integrity of staff are particularly important to an organization in tackling challenges, making changes and introducing reforms. Human resources require to be developed on a continuous and long-term basis with an analysis to promoting and enhancing staffs qualification, professional ability, management techniques, morale and integrity. In this respect, well planned programmes with an eye on the future for staff training, career development and integrity promotion are essential to the well being of any administration and to serve and protect countries economy

Retirement Issues In Malaysian Workforce Health And Social Care Essay

Retirement Issues In Malaysian Workforce Health And Social Care Essay Increasing life expectancy of Malaysians has raised the concern incredibly on retirement issues. In 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) findings indicate that Malaysians life expectancy has increased from 1960 to 2006. Women life expectancy has increased from 55.9 to 76.5 years, a 20.6% increment, while men increased from 52.8 to 71.8 years, or 19.0% (OECD, 2007). More, latest statistical findings from United Nation Statistical Division (2010) provide that life expectancy at birth of Malaysians for women and men in 2005 to 2010 has increased from 72 to 76.7 years. With the longer life expectancy among Malaysian means without extending the retirement age, a typical Malaysian will have longer time to spend in their retirement life. According to United Nations data reviews, Malaysia are expected to have total number of 3.2 million individuals who aged 60s and above by 2020 (Yip, 2010). Furthermore, the Global Demographics Ltd also estimates that a 10% increment in the number of grey citizens will take place in coming 20 years from now (Hunt, 2009). These figures tell us that more Malaysians will be reaching retirement age and it is important to raise their awareness towards the importance of retirement planning now. Recently, Malaysian Governments announced that inclination of increasing the retirement age among civil servants in Malaysia is high. Retirement age may be set to 60 due to Governments plan of keeping experience civil servants to contribute for more human capital in nationals performance (Sarban Singh, 2010). This projection was made because it is estimated that Malaysia will lose up to one million civil workers in the early of 2011 (Sarban Singh, 2010). Despite changes made on the retirement age of government servants to 58, the mandatory retirement age for private sectors remain at 55 (Sarban Singh, 2010. In view of this, postponement issues on the public and private servants means that longer retirement life may by experience by most Malaysians (Sarban Singh, 2010). As life expectancy has increased much faster compared to retirement age, our country will have more retirees. If this happens, more challenges are coming ahead and different approaches must be taken on retirement plann ing as Malaysians are expected to have longer retirement life. As humans are bound with nature of biological aging process, shrinking in physical and mental strength is reality that no one can change (Yip, 2009). For that, continuous working becomes undesirable as age increases. Knowledge workers might be able to substitutes the physical strength with crystal knowledge and tacit knowledge gained through years of experience. However, for workers that rely much on physical strength might be a problem. Postponement of retirement age is not suits the physical strength workers because the physical body is unable to perform hard work in old age. Sometimes, they are not only having limited income but they only have limited education level. Retirement planning may serve as dreams but their income limit them to do so. Income earn is not enough for savings or investments. Proper preparation is needed financially to ensure that low income earners at least able to have minimum requirements to live and to ensure a bright future for them in retirement age. Existing retirement planning practices among Malaysians are basically relying much on savings, Employee Provident Funds (EPF) and children. Majority of them are not actively involved in retirement planning (HSBC, 2010). Although there are as much as 72 % of Malaysians having high propensity to save for retirement, 41% of them do not have a solid plan on how to build their retirement fund (Hunt, 2009). In addition, 77% of those who save for retirement rely much on fixed deposit and savings accounts which give low interest yield to them. Also, they failed to segregate part of their savings for retirement needs (Hunt, 2009). Monies put on the savings are in essence for all purposes without specific purposes for retirement (Hunt, 2009). What is alarming here is that majority of Malaysian might not insufficient source of income and there might be some risk involve if retirement planning is not done correctly during their retirement life (HSBC, 2010). Constant income scheme provided by EPF may seem adequate in the long run but it will never happen. Recent studies indicate that, 90% of EPF holders hold less than RM 100,000 in their accounts and almost 99.9% of the retirees withdraw their lump sum of EPF funds when they reach retirement years and surprisingly almost 70% of the retirees use up the money within 3 years (Hunt, 2007). EPF savings withdrawal in the early stage of retirement may create some risks during retirement (HSBC, 2010). In order to match with future insecurities, this action will without notice causes a poor retirement life. Solely depends on EPF savings may cause retirees to have a vulnerable financial position in their old age. To avoid this problem from happening, retirees awareness to act on retirement planning is strictly vital for an upcoming comfort and satisfaction in retirement life. Revolutions from ancient Asian culture to modern world today have changed the structure of a family mostly in the way how children treat their parents and expectation of taking care of them. Old forks are view as burden. Additionally, employing maids to take care of old parents will indirectly raise the living expenses. Thus, tendencies for some aging parents end up spending their life in old folks home is high. Family members or children supporting rate is relatively low today (Lee Law, 2004). Generation gap which indirectly affects the sense of belonging, responsibility, relationships and love towards aging parents has also lead to changes in cultural value (The Star, 2010). Late marriage and gap exist between children age is another issue affecting children support to their parents. Unique characteristics of each family have created different views on old parents retirement. Only strong family relationships may have higher chances to get financial aids and support from family mem bers (The Star, 2010). Therefore, it is advisable for pre-retirees to pay more attention on retirement planning to avoid end up living in old forks home. Worry-free retirement life cannot be easily reachable today compare to the past. Various impacts from macroeconomic events such as inflation, unemployment, and global recession may trigger the retirees in their retirement age. In 2008, due to increase in petrol price and global recession, Malaysias inflation rate was surged up to 5.4% high, a 0.6 % in year 2009 and now it is forecasted to be 2.0 % this year (International Monetary Fund [IMF], 2010). The impact from high inflation rate has lead to depreciation in value of ringgit, reduction in the consumers spending, and increases in cost of living over time (HSBC, 2010). No doubt, these will give a huge impact on pre-retiree of having insufficient money to spend or to save for the future reserves (The Star, 2010). Immeasurable increment in the medical fees and medical services are likely to reduce spending power and quality of retirees life over time (The Star, 2010). Addition to that, the MasterCard Asia Pacific predicts that old population will have to spend more next 5 years and will surpass RM 35 billion compared to last 10 years (The Star, 2009). These spending not only cover existing daily usage on products and services but also huge cost on medical fees and medical services (The Star, 2009). If this situation continues to trigger the pockets of each individual, greying population may have tendencies to live in financially poor conditions. Risk from all these unpredicted future events or increase in medical fees can be reduced if retirees do early retirement preparation to hedge for unfavourable events to happen. Without a proper retirement planning, increasing number of retirees might become a burden to government and society. Population restructure process not only increases the cost of government spending but may also serve a potential loss in human resources in labour force and affect the development of economy. Thus, consistent with the facts and issues raised above, preparation of retirement planning is important. Failure to derive proper retirement plan may cause various issues and impacts either to the individual, society, or government. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the on the Malaysian awareness towards retirement planning, their plan for retirement, reasons for their retirement planning, barriers they face in planning for retirement and information and assistances they need for proper retirement planning. Through this study, more knowledge and understanding about planning behaviours in the context of Malaysian will be created. Background of the Research and Research Question Growing life expectancy among Malaysians over the past few decades have signalled that Malaysian will have longer time to spend in their retirement life (OECD, 2007; Yip, 2010; Hunt, 2009; United Nation Statistical Division 2010). Problems rise today for the preparation of retirement plan are generally due to natural biological aging process, types of workers, retirement age incremental policy, family cultural changes, unpredictable macroeconomic events, medical cost increases and many more. Pointing to existing poor retirement planning practices among Malaysians which relying much on savings, Employee Provident Funds (EPF) and children, proper actions must be done (Hunt, 2009; HSBC, 2010). These facts and figures highlight the raising concern and awareness of retirement planning among Malaysians is much needed. Through the view of all the poor or lack of retirement planning behaviour and challenges ahead that are going to affect the life of retirees, this research is important in cr eating new knowledge of better understanding of the underlying problems, barriers and factors face when doing retirement planning. Issues on retirement planning have been well studied in more developed countries such as in United States (e.g. Joo Grable, 2001; Taylor-Carter et al., 1997; Duflo Saez, 2002), United Kingdom (Sargeant, 2003), Hong Kong (Lee Law, 2004), and Singapore (Lim, 2002). These studies are targeted more to the Baby Boomer generation (e.g. DeVaney, 1995; Glass Kilpatrick, 1998; Josloski, Ekerdt DeViney, 2001; Lusardi Mitchell, 2007). On the other hand, wide scope interest mainly on issues related to women in retirement planning such as the longevity life of women compared to men, economic and psychological issues on women, factors affecting retirement planning and financial literate among women have been done and the result shows that majority of women do not plan for retirement (Glass Kilpatrick, 1998; Lusardi, 2006; Lusardi Mitchell, 2008). Findings found that women are less financial literate and are economically and psychologically weak in retirement planning (Glass Kilpatrick, 19 98; Lusardi Mitchell, 2008). Besides, some findings has also been directed on retirement income (Jing Lakshmi Malroutu, 1995), level of retirement planning preparation (DeVaney, 1995; Lee Law, 2004), antecedents or factors associate with retirement planning (Taylor-Carter et al., 1997; Kosloski et al., 2001; Duflo Saez, 2002; Lim, 2003; Lusardi Mitchell, 2008), retirement planning and satisfaction of retirement life (Elder Rudolph, 1999), retirement educational programs (Joo Graman, 1998; Hershey, Mowen Jacobs- Lawson, 2003), retirement planning information search (Joo Grable, 2001), marketing of retirement planning (Ekerdt Clark, 2001), and developing guideline for retirement planning (Greninger, Hampton, Kitt Jacquet, 2000). In light of the piece of evidence from the previous research focuses on retirement planning, there are lack of retirement planning can be observed in Malaysia (Hunt, 2009). There is no research has been done to access how Malaysian plan for their retirement in Malaysia till today. The relativity low per capital income among the Malaysians might limit the applicability of the studies conducted in more developed countries to Malaysia context (Muzaffar, 2010). Therefore, this study is paramount important, in particular, to explore or fill the research gap exist and to gain insight into a proper understanding on how Malaysians plan for their retirement. To address the research gap, this study focuses on the extent to which how Malaysians plan for retirement, reasons for their retirement planning, barriers they face in planning for retirement and information and assistances they need for proper retirement planning. Through this study, more knowledge and understanding about planning behaviours in the context of Malaysian will be created and a proper guideline to assist Malaysians in retirement planning and retirement preparation will be developed. To address this issue, the following research question is constructed: How Malaysians plan for retirement and why? Research Objectives The research objectives for this study include: To examine the Malaysian awareness towards retirement planning. To investigate how Malaysian prepare for their retirement life. To study factors affecting the type of retirement planning. To understand barriers or difficulties faced by Malaysians in planning for retirement. To understand type of assistance or information needed for Malaysian to properly plan for retirement. Significance and Justifications for the Study This study is important to explore more knowledge about retirement planning among Malaysians. As retirement planning is complex and personalizes, it is important to recognize a standard guideline or procedures to assist an individual to plan for retirement can hardly be effective. Therefore, this study opt for qualitative study to better understand the current retirement planning, reasons for retirement planning, barriers face during retirement planning and information needed for proper retirement planning among Malaysians. By exploring these knowledge and information collected from their heart and soul, these knowledge may use to identify different retirement needs and challenges face by Malaysians during their retirement planning, more effective and efficient information and guideline can be developed to accommodate different needs of individuals in planning for retirement. The outcomes of this study can be used by policy makers to identify the readiness and willingness of Malaysians in retirement planning. This information is important in helping Malaysians to facilitate and formulate better planning which ensure retirees to be independent in their financial support during their retirement age. Pre-retirees, retirees or individual may know how and what direction they must take to complete the journey of a successful retirement planning through the outcomes from this study. Addition to that, this will indirectly reduce the government burden to support them. Not only that, results from this study can also provide additional insights for policy makers to consider for the development of new policies to promote welfare of future retirees and better retirement life especially for economically and socially weaker group in Malaysia. Finally, information gathered from this research can be crucial for banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions in designing and marketing their future retirement planning products and services. Proper customer segmentation can ensure the products or services being delivered to the market more effectively. Fulfilments on special needs of different market segment the different can satisfy more demand and thus, facilitate better retirement planning among Malaysians. Research Scope and Limitation This study is conducted with the purpose of examine the retirement planning among Malaysians. As different people have different retirement needs and expectations, qualitative interviews are used to capture in-depth and rich information on Malaysians. Face-to-face interviews method is use in this study to focus on Malaysians awareness towards retirement planning, their plan for retirement, barriers they face in planning for retirement, reasons for retirement planning and information or assistance they need for proper retirement planning. At first, approximately 10 respondents made up from working adults in any part of Malaysia will be selected for convergent interviews. The interview will be audio recorded and transcribed. Next, another 20 to 30 interviews will be conducted for main data collection comprising semi-structured interviews will be conducted in Northern Malaysia, Central Malaysia, Southern Malaysia, and East Coast of Malaysia. Definition of the Key Terms Provide in the following format: Table 1: Definition of the Key Terms Key Terms Definition Source Financial Education Program A program designed purposely to give inform knowledge on ways and skills to perform financial-related decisions. Adapted from American Association of Retired Persons. (1992). Fact Sheet. Washington D.C. Peer Effects Retirement planning Will be further update on this on chapter 2 is complete. Organizational of Research This research is being organised into 3 main chapters which provide details for better flows of the topic under study. Chapter 1 gives the idea of how the current issues emerge real life situation on retirement planning and preparation for retirement planning. Also, it tends to identify the problems and research gap that exist in this study. Research objectives or research aim highlights the achievement needed towards this study. Other sub parts of this chapter are likely to find the importance of this research in fulfilling knowledge gaps exist in previous studies and knowledge creation in the end of this study. Justifications and limitation for this study emphasizes the importance of this study and how this study can fill up the knowledge gap exist. Finally, a table describing some key variables terms covered on this study is given for the sake of reference. Chapter 2 reviews related literatures from previous finding in the field of retirement. Next, the main context of the literature review such as the important issues on retirement planning is also being discussed here. Dependent variable and independent variables discuss the important variable exist in previous study. Summary gives a compact preview of what have been discussed earlier in this chapter. Chapter 3 emphasize on research framework development. First few parts explain what research methods, research instrument, sampling plan use in this study. The next part of this chapter provides comprehensive overview of the data collection method. How actually this data is collected throughout this study. Data analysis method further explains the tool or software used in the analysis part of this study. Chapter 2 Literature Review Introduction Retirement represents a stage of life where involvement in certain social activities and desirable conducts become narrow or fewer roles when the person reached the old ages (Parsons, 1942). Adequate retirement planning and preparation is needed to anticipate the new roles involve with the changes in major life activities (Atchley, 1982). Retirement life without planning requires continuous employment or working, lifestyle remains same with young age although that individual reaches retirement age (Lee Law, 2004). Lack of retirement planning preparation will generally bring some disappointment during retirement and yet preparation for retirement planning is not an easy task (Lee Law, 2004). Thus, planning for retirement is important (Volpe et al., 2006). Much of the literature on retirement planning focuses on studies to identify the relationship of socio-demographic factors to be related to the retirement planning (Lee Law, 2004; Joo Garman, 1998; Yakoboshi Dickemper, 1997; DeVaney, 1995; Joo Garman, 1998). Previous study emphasizes that income (Mitchell Moore, 1998; Kim, et al., 2005), age (Richardson Kilty, 1989; Joo Pauwels, 2002; DeVaney, 1995), gender (Yakoboshi Dickemper, 1997), education level (DeVaney, 1995; Joo Pauwels, 2002; Hogarth, 1985; Bernheim Garrett, 1996) and marital status (Glass Kilpatrick, 1998) are all important factors for ones behaviour towards retirement planning. DeVaney (1995) identified that income and age are important to guild pre-retirees in groundwork process of planning. In addition, gender differences also influence the early preparation for retirement planning (Yakoboshi Dickemper, 1997). Retirement education and certain related programs also affect the retirement planning behaviours (Joo Grable, 2001). There are number of studies have been conducted pertaining to retirement planning as discussed above. The sections below summarize further description on dependent and independent variables which are important to retirement planning. Summary parts provide a compact preview of what have been discussed in the whole literature reviews on retirement planning. Retirement Planning Over the past few decades, life expectancy has risen drastically of about 2 to 3 years for each decade and this number is expected to further increase in the future (Selene, 2005). As for the rising figures, financial planning for retirement becomes more important (Glass Kilpatrick, 1998; Grace, et al. 2010; DaVaney, 1995; Volpe et al., 2006). Retirement planning is vary from one another but can be observed by integrating individuals intention and behaviour that are partially different or unknown to one another (Hanisch, 1995). According to Parsons (1942), retirement is defined as a stage of life where involvement in certain social activities and desirable conducts become narrow or role less. Ming and Xiao (1995, p.17) found that having adequate income is the key to minimizing some of the problems during retirement. Income level is an important determinant for retirement wealth growth (Selene, 2005). Different types of planning will lead to different ways of wealth accumulations and lifestyle during retirement (Lusardi Mitchell, 2007). At the same time as retirement planning involves awareness and understanding of the problem underlies in life, individuals perception is strictly important to achieve the highest retirement satisfaction (Ming Xiao, 1995). Besides, Taylor-Carter, Cook and Weinberg (1997) identified that planning improves ones confidence and self-efficacy towards uncertainty typically in short or long time frame in retirement age. Although there are much researches interest on retirement planning, focus given to obtain a retirement planning guidelines in relations to the retirement planning is even more imperative to achieve a successful retirement plan (Greninger et al., 2001). Study concluded by Greninger, Hampton, Kitt, and Jacquet (2001) on retirement planning guidelines found that families should have completed their first 50 to 60% successful retirement savings goal by age of 50 and about 85 to 90 % by the age of 60. Moreover, asset allocation on more conservative investment is expected to be done within 3 to 5 years before retirement. With this, Taylor-Carter, Cook and Weinberg (1997, p. 286) found that Planning may enhance affective reactions to the financial and activity-oriented aspects of retirement, and informal transition. Earlier saving or planning for retirement may assure one to live with truly ideal and better quality life in retirement (Elder Eudolph, 1999). Demographic Variables Among the factors related retirement plans and decision, age, education level, gender, and household income are characterized as important demographic factors towards individual retirement preparation. Following parts will further discuss the demographic variables from the review of literature in details. Age A number of studies examine the effect of age on retirement shown that age to be related to retirement plan and decisions. Age has emerged as an important and consistent factor in human behaviour towards retirement planning (Richardson and Kilty, 1989; Joo and Pauwels, 2002; DeVaney, 1995). A procedural assumption found throughout the literature found that age help to guide pre-retirees in groundwork process of planning (DeVaney, 1995), lead to attitude and perception changes on retirement and also help to raise retirement confidence (Joo Pauwels, 2002). Lee and Law (2004) concluded that as age and income increases, individuals are more motivated to take action for retirement. This is supported by Montalto, Yuh and Hanna (2000) where as they found that planned retirement age are guided by reinforcement given from constant visit or review on the information needed for planning. Besides, age and income are found to be correlated in influencing ones behaviour towards retirement plannin g (Lee Law, 2004). DeVeney (1995) concluded that age and other demographic variables such as household income, educational level and household size are inter-related to guide pre-retirees in groundwork process of planning. Age has also shown to be important in the area of future educational program (Joo Garman, 1998). On the other hand, Malroute and Xiao (1995) uncover more compelling evidence on the factors affecting perceived adequacy of retirement income among pre-retired household, the finding suggest that different respondents age is likely to give different perception on income adequacy. Normally, on average individual tend to retire 3 years before the expected age (Zappala and Depolo, 2008) and the different between preferred and expected retirement age are: chronological age, perceive of income adequacy, work condition variables, and retirement attitudes. Education Level There are extensive studies on retirement covering education in general. The findings suggest that education is an important factor in affecting retirement planning preparedness (Hogarth, 1985; Joo Pauwels, 2002). Education enables individuals to explore more information relating to their retirement planning and that sources of information will influence their decisions, attitude and intention to do retirement planning (Hogarth, 1985; Joo Pauwels, 2002). Also, DeVaney (1995) addressed that the effect of education level may serve as a motivator or guidance for individuals to start the preparation for retirement planning. With the increase in age and educational level, individual tends to be more motivated to work on retirement planning preparation or take some action for their retirement (DeVaney, 1995). Joo and Pauwels (2002) found that higher educational level allows ones to experience and achieve greater confidence level in their retirement planning life. Men who had received higher education tended to be more confident in their retirement planning compared to those who had lower levels of educations (Joo Pauwels, 2002). The level of education and confidence found to be positively related (DeVaney, et al., 1995). On the other hand, older women are found to be less likely to have higher education in general because of limited education which had been given to them in the past (Lusardi, 2004). The effects of education on womens retirement makes women to be less financial literate or having knowledge on retirement and retirement planning (Lusardi, 2004; Lusardi Mitchell, 2008). Joo and Pauwels (2002) suggested that women participation in retirement planning increases as they receive education. In addition, Joo and Garman (1998) provide a good overview that education levels are significant to focus topic for future financial education programs. Highly educated people generally tend to posses and receive more knowledge relating to investing and knowledge on retirement planning compared to those who are less educated. According to Bernheim and Garrett (1996), education makes the possible of enhancing and exploring more knowledge and information on retirement for individuals and workers. Gender Gender differences are a significant predictor in retirement planning studies. According to Yakoboshi and Dickemper (1997), gender differences are the major influential factor for early preparation in retirement planning as male and female are generally will think and act differently upon their expectations and views. Males are found to be more ready and well prepared for retirement planning compared to women in general (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2008). In addition, Glass and Kilpatrick (1998) addressed that women are less prepared for retirement and this is generally due to women are lack of financial resources than men. Women are commonly found to be more economically and psychologically weak in retirement and are influenced by factors such as limited economic accessibility, low wage, pension scheme, gender prejudice and selection of career options in their intention towards effective planning (Glass Kilpatrick, 1998). Previous findings reveals that individuals either men or women who are more financially literate, richer, more tolerance to risk, and attitude towards retirement are among important factors in affecting an individual decision to engage in assistance in planning for retirement (Duflo Saez, 2002; Lusardi et al., 2007) and seek professional assistance in planning for retirement (Joo Grable, 2001). Gender differences do not bring any effect to the decision making on retirement as Joo and Grable (2001) highlight that the likelihood of both genders behaviour on professional retirement help-seeking are the same, but women involvement rate on professional help-seeking are slightly higher compare to men if they are given a chance. Women are more likely to seek financial advice from experts and those women who equipped with well financial knowledge tends to do well and more successful in their planning (Lusardi, 2004; Lusardi Mitchell 2008). Lusardi and Mitchell (2008) also pointed out that women are less financially literate to retirement planning compared to men. Majority of women do not have any plan to do their retirement planning and they depend much on the support from their family and friends in retirement age. On the other hand, Sunden and Surette (1998) identified that gender differences and marital status have significant relationships with investment decision on retirement planning. These factors will generate different level of assets distribution among women and men in retirement planning (Sunden Surette, 1998). Recent finding by Grace, Weaven and Ross (2010) indicates that males and females do not perceive and act for retirement planning in the similar way. Of an amount of 21 exploratory semi-structured interviews has been conducted to explore and identifying the differences, the result shows that males are likely to go for individual choice perspective while women tend to adopt life course perspective when it comes to retirement planning. Males tend to assume retirement as another stage of life in the future while women make no prediction on future life stages. Household Income A number of factors influence the individuals preparedness towards retirement planning. Kim, Kwon and Anderson (2005) identified that attitude and behaviour towards retirement are generally influence by household income. Household income is a critical measurement in some matter relating to retirement especially in retirement education program (Joo Garman, 1998) and professional financial help-seeking (Joo Grable, 2001). The findings by DeVaney, Gorham, Bechman, and Haldeman (1995) identified that household income is associated with the savings and investing behaviours in retirement preparation. Retirement preparation can only work when ones have enough money or wealth resources t