My Parents Were Right

Narrative Writing : My Parents were right â€Å"Honey ,don’t do this ! Honey , don’t do that ! † Everyday,In my life I have to suffered with all that word . Its so annoying . I am a naughty son . I love hang out with my friends than spending time at home . Sometimes my parents not allowed me just because I must study and score a great result. But, I never listen of what they said . I do feel like they are disturbing my life . Everything I do was wrong from their eyes . Nothing is good . When they scold me ,they say that they are advicing me . However, I can’t accept their ways although they say the rights . Mom, next week is my birthday . Can you make some delicious cake for me with a grand birthday party for me? â€Å", ask me . She just nodded and smile . â€Å"But dear, you must promise me to get a great result in your study ,okay ? † She asked me back with a simple question but hard for me to answer . I just nodd half-heartedness . Then, I got my father at the living room . He was relaxing while read a few of newspapers . â€Å"Dad , can I borrow your motorcycle? I want to go to my friend’s house for invinting them to my party . † â€Å" It’s alright but remember don’t be so late . Your final exam is around the corner . â€Å"Alright,Dad . Don’t worry â€Å",said me while rushing to get the key . My mind is only thinking about the enjoyness of the party will be.. On my birthday party ,I was so enjoyed with my friends . I have got many presents and birthday wishes from them . I think I am the happiest person at that time. I can see everyone are enjoying themselves so as my parents . My mouth incessantly say ‘thank you’. Well it is a blessing nurture from my parents, I admit it . â€Å"Andy , look at this . This is present from us .. ,†said Dad . A huge box of present ,I really don’t know what is inside . I look at my mom and dad ,smiling . â€Å"Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Dad . † After we gathering prayer Maghrib, Dad starting the conversation . I have smell something fishy . â€Å"Andy, If you are thinking that we are shackling you ,it is not like so. We love you so much . Tomorrow, I will send you to another person that I believe more . Talaqqi and take a lot of experiences from him . Knowledge if not sought, you are nothing . Remember what I said . † â€Å"But ,Dad .. I’ve got many friends here ,I really like to stay here better than there . Are you want to separate me from my own life ? † I sobbed . Separate from my own life same like turn off my life . â€Å"Andy ,soon life will be getting more harder than now. Sometimes we must sacrifice now and we will get easier life soon .Believe me . †He calms me although I still not agreeing with him . Mom gently nodded with her gently smile . After five years, I am working as an engineer of chemical at well-known companies and in addition work as professional motivator. Today, I am good in all sort of thing . I have learned beside happiness and difficulty accompanied by blessing . Now , I understand what my parents wants me to being . I knew my parents were right .

Character Study Essay

Manus is the son of Hugh, brother of Owen and a teacher at the hedge school. * At first there is a great contrast between the brothers, however, as the play progresses it is apparent that they have adopted each others characteristics. Manus has strong views on the re naming of Irish towns but they are very different to those belonging to Owen. Manus is angry with the English belief that the Irish town names are â€Å"incorrect† whereas Owen considers it to be â€Å"only a name† Manus is described as having a â€Å"zeal† for teaching and this supported by his relationship with Sarah. It is clear that Sarah has deeper feelings for Manus than a regular teacher and student relationship. â€Å"She smiles in shy, embarrassed pleasure. † (P. 3). Manus also appears to truly care for Sarah and it is debatable whether one of Manus’ reasons for leaving the hedge school was because he did not want his feelings for Sarah to progress. At the beginning of the play a relationship between Manus and Maire is indicated. As the play progresses this relationship deteriorates as Maire and Yolland (an English man) fall in love. When Manus finds out about this relationship he is severely hurt and this leads to him leaving the town of Baile Beag and running away from his problems. * There are many examples throughout the play when Manus makes sacrifices for the people from the people within the hedge school. One such example is when his father Hugh applies for a new job at the national school. Manus feels he can not apply (even though he would probably be better suited for the job) as he will be going against his father’s wishes. This angers Maire as Manus promised her he would go for the job. This is one of the first apparent signs of a strain being put on their relationship, which would eventually lead to its downfall. Words that describe Manus: optimist, kind, considerate, encouraging.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Essay

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) - Essay Example The usages of these social media sites have proved to be both fruitful and dangerous. Adolescents and children have been engaging on social media platforms in a frequent manner, which have shown enhanced communication, technical skills as well as social connection. Popular social media sites such as, MySpace and Facebook, provide multiple opportunities for their users to connect with classmates, friends and other groups with similar interest, on a daily basis. A recent poll has revealed that almost 22 percent of teenagers use their favourite media sites almost 10 times daily. Nearly 50 percent of the teenagers use their mobiles for social media purposes and the number is continuously increasing (Schurgin & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Therefore, it can be said that a significant part of the current generation’s emotional and social development is influenced by these social media websites (Roper & Shah, 2007). Various downsides have been observed because of large influence of these media sites. Limited self-regulation and peer pressure among adolescents and children have been posing some risk while these users are experimenting and navigating with multiple social media sites (Thomson, MacInnis & Park, 2005). Research has indicated that online expressions result in negative offline behaviours, including clique-forming, bullying as well as sexual experimentation, subsequently leading to privacy issues and cyber bullying. Other issues influencing children related to high usage of social media are sleep deprivation and internet addiction (Karahanna, Agarwal & Angst, 2006). A new phenomenon has been proposed by researchers, which is known as ‘Facebook Depression.’ It is a condition seen to develop in teens and preteens who are spending immense amount of time on numerous social media sites such as, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and then developing classic depression symptoms. In an adolescent’s life, contact and acceptance by peers and friends is

Both Kant and Smith write about universities, yet they have different Essay

Both Kant and Smith write about universities, yet they have different views of what a University must do. Explain their views. Give an account of how their th - Essay Example Despite this, they take different views on how universities should operate and the use of a university in a society. To better understand their works, it is important for us to understand how they viewed this important institution. Kant wrote a lot more about universities and was deeper ingrained into the idea of a university than Smith primarily due to his extensive work on philosophical thought and the idea of morality. A part of that morality was peace between people as well as nations and the ideal university was seen as one which helps in the creation of that peace. The academic peace in a university is established by debate and mutual respect amongst the faculty members despite their differences in learning or philosophical background. The same peace should be established in the world amongst countries despite their individual differences in ideology (Kant, 1963). When the idea for perpetual peace using the model of a university setting was first presented, it was certainly very applicable since universities of the time had very different structures as compared to the universities we see today. Normally a university would be formed with three high faculties and one low faculty. The high faculties of law, medicine and theology were used to train lawyers, doctors and priests. The fourth faculty of philosophy conducted the coordination of these faculties and trained students in other subjects concerned with liberal arts and the sciences (Palmquist, 2006). Since the faculty of philosophy administers other faculties in the university but done not interfere in their internal matters it creates a system that is in a sort of stable conflict. While professors may argue about ideas and debate the value of certain thoughts, it is rather unlikely that a faculty would separate itself from the university or revolt against the university. By keeping members within itself, the university functions as a

Analyses and evaluate the micro-external environment of (two) Essay

Analyses and evaluate the micro-external environment of (two) international markets - Essay Example According to Mintel Oxygen (2012), fitted bedroom furniture contributes in large proportion to the total sales revenue earned by the bedroom furniture industry. Fitted bedroom furniture includes built-in wardrobes, built-in drawers, fitted beds etc, and Mintel Oxygen (2012) has also pointed out that fitted bedroom furniture is designed for large bedrooms. USP of fitted bedroom furniture lies on the ability to provide variety in design, systematic fittings and synchronise with large space in the room. Mintel Oxygen (2012) has reported that non-fitted furniture is generally preferred by bachelors and individuals who do not have large space in the room for using fitted bedroom furniture. Non-fitted furniture includes bedside tables, customized chests of drawers, dressing tables, beds etc. A unique selling proposition of non-fitted bedroom furniture depends on its ability to provide a high degree of customization in terms of assembling bedroom furniture to customers. The next section of the study will discuss the market composition of Germany for the bedroom furniture segment. The German bedroom furniture industry is going through a critical phase in terms of shrinkage in demand due to the slow economic growth rate and dwindling purchasing parity of customers. Lynn (2010) has pointed out that sovereign debt crisis has decreased the retail merchandising growth rate in most of the European countries. Market Line (2012a) has reported that almost half of the German furniture industry is dominated by the bedroom furniture segment. According to Market Line (2012a), the value of the bedroom furniture industry in Germany is more than $25 billion, which is proportionate to more than 50% of the overall industry composition. Industry analysts have forecasted a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3%–4% for the bedroom furniture industry. The bedroom furniture market in the country is fragmented due to presence of both domestic and international players in large propor tion. Market Line (2012a) has been able to conclude that only 7% to 13% of buyers in the country prefer to purchase high priced premium luxury bedroom furniture for their home. The majority of buyers prefer to purchase mid-range bedroom furniture for their home. Customer segmentation for the German bedroom furniture industry can be done by using lifestyle criteria of Brassington and Pettitt (2007). According to lifestyle, bedroom furniture customers in Germany can be segmented as ‘singletons’ and ‘best agers’. Young professionals with a high spending capacity can be classified as ‘singletons’; these customers prefer to purchase customized non-fitted furniture, which can fit in their small bedroom. Couples with children and older people complemented with a high spending capacity can be classified as ‘best agers’; these customers prefer to purchase fitted furniture for their large bedrooms. De Mooij (2011) has pointed out that the pu rchasing behaviour of customer can be directed by personality and cultural orientation, which means that companies planning to expand their business in the bedroom furniture segment of Germany need to design their product in accordance with German culture for generating attraction among customers. The stable political condition of Germany will encourage retailers to invest in the bedroom furniture segment, which will help them to expand their business in the country. Gillespie et al. (2010) have pointed out that antitrust law in European countries such as Germany has

Pyschotropic medications used in schizoprenia patients Term Paper

Pyschotropic medications used in schizoprenia patients - Term Paper Example Many with schizophrenia are believed not to be able to live a normal productive life. Many with schizophrenia are unemployed because of the negative stereotypes that come along with the illness, and lack of support inside the work place. Many who are employed are often employed in low paying jobs. Many people who have symptoms of it suffering a will develop severe depression. The depression comes from the isolation someone with schizophrenia has to face. When someone is first diagnosed with schizophrenia, and is put on medication the person will begin to feel normal once again. When the person feels normal, the person might stop taking the medication. This is a problem that many people who have schizophrenia, and many of the caregivers of people with schizophrenia have to face every day. Opening Schizophrenia is a mental illness affecting more people every year. The use of anti psychotics also called psycho tropic medications are used to treat someone with the illness. The illness us ually develops in the late teens, and early twenties for young men, and as late as the thirties for women. Because there are so many forms of the disease there is no one treatment that works best in the treatment of schizophrenia. When someone is first diagnosed with schizophrenia, the person will exhibit symptoms like delusions. The delusions are very real to somebody with schizophrenia. ... The patient would stop taking the medication, because the patient does not think the patient is sick. Body There are many types of psycho tropic drugs used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia. Some of these drugs are no longer in use. There have been many drugs introduced since the 1980s. When someone is exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia, the doctors will first attempts to control the schizophrenia by using only one type of anti psychotic medication. In the 1950s there were only four â€Å"typical† medications used to treat the effect’s schizophrenia. A medication that is considered â€Å"typical† would be Thorozine, Haldol, Perphenazine, Fluphenazine. These medications were very useful for somebody who had schizophrenia. Oftentimes many patients who took this medication were able to live normal, and productive life as members of society. Many people in society will shut out someone who has schizophrenia. The reason many people shut out people who have schi zophrenia is from an overwhelming fear that people with schizophrenia are very dangerous people. With the help of the medication there are many people living with schizophrenia, who work regular jobs, and live a normal life as a member of society. When someone begins treatment for schizophrenia, the doctor will determine what type of symptom the person with schizophrenia is having. There are two types of classifications for medication to treat someone living with schizophrenia. There are the above listed â€Å"typical† medications that someone can be treated with. This was the only type of medication available to treat schizophrenia, up until the mid-1980s. There was no treatment for schizophrenia in a till the mid-1950s. In the mid-1950s the â€Å"typical†

Home Schooling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Home Schooling - Essay Example This essay approves that children who have gone through homeschooling have a high chance of suffering from social and religious extremism. This behavioral change makes it easy for extremist groups like terrorist organizations or gangs to recruit them. Home schooled children can potentially develop parallel societies whose standards do not fit in with the society. For example, atheists’ ideologies are always crossing paths with the rest of society. Most parents think that homeschooling is an effective way to save money, but it is not since they sacrifice the child`s education in the name of vacations and lavish lifestyles. Home schooled children also run the risk of sexual molestation. As parents sometimes leave their children with complete strangers, they may turn out to be pedophiles who prey on innocent children. These acts leave a permanent scar on the children, which may lead to depression and suicidal thoughts. An instance of the negatives of homeschooling is best illustrated as follows; there was a family in Atlanta, who decided to home school their six year old daughter since they did not believe in the state`s education system and curriculum. this report makes a conclusion that homeschooling should be abolished since its negative effects outweigh the positive ones. There is no basis of having a learning system that produces incompetent students who have no social skills. Children need to play and mingle together, and not be included in their parents` insecurities.

Describe the scientific method of research. Identify the key Essay

Describe the scientific method of research. Identify the key components, providing examples of each. Provide support for your answer - Essay Example The research method is also objective and is conducted within strict scopes that can facilitate such objectives. This feature further identifies rules that are associated with applicable research methods and restricts a researcher’s activities and behavior. The method of research is also characterized by an empirical approach in which knowledge is developed from evidence that is analyzed towards conclusions. The communicated findings from a scientific research therefore assume a high level of validity and reliability. Further, scientific method research is â€Å"systematic and cumulative,† demonstrating a level of orderliness and interconnectivity with each other (Wimmer and Dominick 13). A scientific research for instance, relies of previous studies in its field, for review of existing knowledge towards identification of information gap and statements of the involved problem. It is also important to note that the scientific method of research offers a basis for forecas ting into future trend, based on its reliance on past data sets (Wimmer and Dominick 13). The systematic approach of scientific method of research identifies key components of the research. The first component of a scientific method of research is the research title that communicates the involved subject matter and is in most cases a summary of the entire research process. ‘Investigating significance of the social media in marketing’ is an example of title and it describes the scope of the involved research. The second component is an abstract that offers an overview of the research’s components by summarizing other components of the research. Introduction is another component of the research and includes literature review, problem statement, purpose of the research and research hypothesis or questions or both. Literature review forms the major component of the introduction and defines an analytical report on

Ethics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethics - Assignment Example Answers to Questions 1. What would you do if you were the acting CO of the submarine? What level of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning is this decision based on? As indicated in Lesson 8, Kohlberg’s theory â€Å"assumes the primacy of cognition and defines a moral act as one that follows a process of moral reasoning and judgement based of principles† (1). Kohlberg’s six stages are enumerated as: Level 1: Preconventional Morality where Stage 1 is indicated as Obedience and Punishment Orientation, Stage 2 is Individualism and Exchange; Level 2: Conventional Morality made up of Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships and Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order; finally, Level 3: Postconventional Morality composed of Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights and Stage 6: Universal Principles (Crain). Upon evaluation of each levels and corresponding stages, one can deduce that the decision to close the hatch in this particular scenario falls under Level 3: Postcon ventional Morality where both rules of law are considered and the possibilities of considering the universality of ethical principles. To answer the question, what would you do if you were the acting CO of the submarine?, it is not simply a matter of stating that one would order the hatch to be closed immediately without taking into consideration a number of factors. For one, the only other information noted from the case facts is that there would be three people who would die within a minute of closing the hatch. However, the number of people that would be saved was not indicated. A quick research on the average number of on a submarine revealed that the crew of a Canadian naval ship â€Å"must be not more than 165 personnel† (National Defense and Canadian Forces 16). Assuming that this is the average number of personnel on a navy warship, by closing the hatch, the CO would apparently be saving 162 people. Using Kohlberg’s moral reasoning, under Level 3, a review of t he laws governing naval warfare ships indicate that as part of damage control â€Å"the moral is HOLD WHAT YOU HAVE; DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO PREVENT PROGRESSIVE FLOODING AND BURNING† (Sea Cadets. org 14). Further, the mission of the Canadian Maritine Ships (CMS) is â€Å"is to maintain maritime and assigned air forces on each coast able to respond to maritime incidents, contribute to the surveillance of Canadian approaches, and assist in the tracking of ships of interest, such as ships involved in illegal activity or posing a possible threat to national interests or security† (National Defense and Canadian Forces 6). . Therefore, all personnel are aware that there are risks involved in manning naval warships and the priority is always to ensure that the ships is ultimately saved and preserved at the top of the agenda. The CO’s responsibility is abide by the mission that â€Å"Canada’s navy – versatile, multipurpose and combat-capable – di ligently protects our interests by safeguarding our maritime approaches, exercising sovereignty over our waters, protecting our offshore natural resources and contributing to global security† (Canadian Navy par. 1). In this regard, as CO, I will order to close the hatch at the earliest possible time to prevent progressive flooding. Presuming the consequential risks of the three men within the

Women and Marriage Essay Example for Free

Women and Marriage Essay Women are confusing, complicated, and they can stress you out sometimes. On the other hand, they can make your entire day better whether it is a smile, hug, or just to give you extra support in life. That brings up the topic of marriage and for what reasons women ever think of getting married. The word marriage can be misinterpreted, and thought about very differently depending on your culture. Marriage in the eyes of most Americans is to represent a legal way of which to express how much you love and care for your partner. Most Americans never realize that marriage in other cultures can be put in to play for much different reasons. One other form of marriage is called marriage of convenience which is a marriage or joint undertaking arranged for political, economic, or social benefit in which rather than to love each other you get married to gain more power. All things a side marriage in general takes much time, effort, and most importantly understanding. Marriage, if looked at without bias, most people conclude that women are the main targets in society for the fact that they lose much freedom, rights, and not to mention their dignity. Men, on the other hand, gain things from the experience and do not have to worry about losing anything. I know that seems like a very unfair statement for all the men out there, but not only have I done surveys to prove it but all men know the facts. In the past, women would hand over everything to their husbands once they got married in which they didn’t have much of a choice. If the women would not have gotten married they would have had to live with their parents until they did get married, rarely did women live on their own and if they did they had little to no rights. The husband would work in the fields and bring home the money; while the women (wife) with no say in the matter, would have to stay home watching the children, cooking, and cleaning. Women not only were mentally treated like slaves, but were physically enslaved; if the husband got angry and hit his wife, she would have no choice but to just take the beating. Also, in that matter if the husband wanted sex he could force his wife to have sex with no consequences for his inhumane actions. For this matter, in the past the men had full control and power over his wife in ways that if those actions were performed in the present times the husband would not only be ridiculed but punished several times for his ridiculous mindset. Women in time became more powerful and started to declare their independence from the current mindset of American men that tried to degrade women. Men always thought they were superior to women, but they never could have imagined that women would stand up demanding the same fairness as men throughout the entire United States. Women were not even able to vote or even make any decisions in life in the recent past. Men had all the power to make not only his own decisions but also make his wife’s’ decisions. During World War 1 when the men were fighting over seas the women took it upon themselves to go work in the factories to prove how much independence they really had. At that time women started to realize how great life could be making decisions and having dignity. After that period of time women started forcing America to change for the better and women started gaining extensive amounts of respect. Over time women started wanting equal rights throughout the United States so in time women started gaining rights including voting, working, and even having the right to live on their own. Many men thought that women were not capable of fulfilling the same duties as men but are slowly finding out that there philosophy is completely wrong. Over time men have been working in the same careers as women and even to this day gender problems still occur on a daily basis. In fact a huge change in gender stereotypes came when fathers would become a stay at home father as the women would work to support the household. The women of America have created a total revolution in the framework of our society. When women get married in present times they still lose some freedom, but much dignity is kept for the sake of womens’ fight in society through the years.

Comparison of Gender Wage Gap in Japan and Germany

Comparison of Gender Wage Gap in Japan and Germany In all of the advanced capitalist nations women were experiencing the contradictions of an education which seemed to promise self-fulfilment, and a labour market based on inequalities of class and gender (Brinton, 1993, as cited in Threlfall, 1996, p. 270). This statement has been made more than fifteen years ago and indicated that women were not treated equally regarding work and pay. However, have circumstances changed since then? If yes, did they improve or worsen and to which extend? The aim of this paper is to analyse the existence of a gender wage gap in Japan and Germany and to evaluate possible reasons for it. Furthermore, an outlook for the future will be given at the end. 2. Gender Wage Gap in Japan The Japanese law system is regulated by the Japanese Standards Labour Law which was enacted after World War II in 1947. This Japanese Standards Labour Law contained a clause which should protect working women. In reality, this clause prevented women from working excessive overtime and during nights (Sama and Papamarcos, 2000). This is why women could not climb up the greasy pole. Furthermore, this law prohibited that women were treated differently on the basis of sex (Threlfall, 1996). On top of this, as stated by Threlfall (1996), the Standards Labour Law covered only equal wages but not promotion or retirement. During this time, employers could be sued for discrimination, but this was an expensive and time-consuming act as each case had to be dealt with separately. Additionally, many companies circumvented the danger of lawsuits by new grading of job titles (Threlfall, 1996). This changed in 1986 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) was passed (Sama and Papamarcos, 2000 ). This law encouraged companies in Japan to treat employees equally in all aspects like wages, promotion, recruitment and hiring (Threlfall, 1996). Unfortunately, the EEOL contained no penalties for continuing discrimination and also its amendment, which was enacted in 1999, did not really improve the inequalities regarding wage and promotion between men and women (Sama and Papamarcos, 2000). Figure 1 clarifies these important labour laws in Japan. Japanese Labour Standards Law of 1947 Contained protective clause for working women. Came under scrutiny in 1970s as a possible deterrent to womens career advancement. Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) of 1986 Enacted in 1987, the EEOL called for equal pay for equal work. No penalties for violators. Employers asked only to make a good effort. June 1997 Amendment to the EEOL Enacted in 1999, the amendment lifted restrictions on midnight, holiday, and overtime work by women in effect since the 1947 Labor Standards Law. Further stiffened warnings against companies found in violation of the EEOL. No penalties attached. According to Selmer (2001), the Japanese wage system is based on seniority (pp. 236-237). This indicates that promotion and pay rise are automatic and no subject to job duties or merit (Selmer, 2001). That means that employees get promotion and pay rise when they reach certain age levels. The gender wage gap is measured as the median wage of men minus the median wage of women, expressed as a proportion of the median wage of men (Evans, 2002, p. 191). As stated by the World Economic Forum (2005), no country has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap (p. 1). According to OECD (2007), the womens medium wage in Japan is two thirds of that received by men. This represents twice the OECD average. Figure 2 displays the gender wage gap of several countries. Blau and Kahn (2003) stated that the gender wage gap in Japan is up to 85% (as cited in Johnes and Tanaka, 2006). This means that women earn up to 85% less than men. Recent sources indicated a gender wage gap of 65.9% for 2007 (Japanese Institute for Labour Policy and Training, 2008). The differences in the gender wage gap are subject to different data used for analysis. Some calculations include part-time workers, which are mainly female and others base their calculations on full-time employees only. As already stated above, Japanese firms discriminate on the grounds of gender when paying employees. This chapter evaluates several reasons for the gender wage gap in Japan. First of all, many workers in Japan get a lifetime employment contract (Ishii, 2000). Japanese firms make huge investments in employee training and that is why they want their employees to stay as long with the company as possible. Therefore, the duration of attachment to a firm plays an important role when negotiating wages. As it is most often foreseeable that women will not stay with one company for their whole life, because they want to start a family one day, they pretty much never get a lifetime contract (Ishii, 2000). Therefore, as stated by Ihsii (2000), companies make no investment in human capital when they employ women as they think they will not benefit in the future from this investment as women sooner or later leave the company. The second reason for the gender wage gap is based on different experiences. Miyoshi (2007) argued that there is no gender pay gap when people are employed directly after school, college or university. But when employees accumulate work experience, the wage gap enlarges. Miyoshi (2007) explains this fact by referring to the full-time work experience and seniority. The more full-time work experience an employee has, the more valuable he is. As women often have less work experience because of child-raising obligations and only part-time jobs, the get less money and less promotion than their male counterpart. Different characteristics of workers represent the third reason for the gender wage gap in Japan. Johnes and Tanaka (2006) explained that different characteristics like age, work experience, education and duration of work are one reason for the gender pay gap in Japan. They agree with Miyoshi when stating that differences in work experience are the reason for pay inequalities, but they extend the argument by adding other characteristics like age and education. The greater part of the gender wage gap in Japan can be explained by referring to the reasons stated above. However, there is also a smaller part of the earnings gap that can not be explained. According to Kawaguchi (2006), this part can be attributed to sex discrimination. 4. Gender Wage Gap in Germany Regarding German law, article 3 paragraph 2 of the German Constitution of 1949 states that men and women have equal rights (Maier, 2007). Furthermore, paragraph 3 states that no one should be discriminated on the grounds of gender. This right for equal treatment and payment was not practiced in reality as special wage groups for women were allowed in collective agreements until 1955 (Maier, 2007). Furthermore, Maier (2007) stated that most employees in Germany are paid according to these collective agreements, although the coverage is declining (p. 11). In 1980, a new paragraph was added to the German Constitution which demanded equal pay for work of equal value (Winter, 1998). But this amendment brought no chance. Later, in 2006, the General Equal Treatment Act was passed and paragraph 7 prohibited unequal treatment within any employment relationship (Maier, 2007, p. 18). This law stated that lower wages for women are not justified if they are based on gender. Unfortunately, German law still lacks legal measures to control the implementation of equal wage principles. Furthermore, Maier (2007) stated that it is not easy for women to claim their right for equal pay. Class actions are not allowed and thus, all women must bring their individual claim to court. As this is often an expensive and time-consuming process, many plaintiffs refrain from filing a suit (Maier, 2007). That is why Germany has a significant high gender wage gap, although the German government has a female chancellor (Plass, 2008). In reality, as stated by Plass (2008), Germany has one of the highest gender pay gaps on the European continent. Furthermore, more than 90 percent of all working women are discriminated and earn between 80 and 210 cents less per hour (Gradà ­n, del Rà ­o and Cantà ³, 2006). Legal norms for equal pay in Germany are displayed in figure 3. According to the German government statistics bureau, Destatis, working women in Germany earned 24 percent less than men in 2006 (as cited in Plass, 2008). As stated by Maier (2007), this number has been reduced to 22 percent in 2007. Whereas the average difference in pay is 15 percent in the European Union (Spiegel Online International, 2008). 5. Reasons for the Gender Wage Gap in Germany Several reasons contribute to the large gender wage gap in Germany. First of all, as mentioned by Lauer (n.d.), women often do not possess the same education and skills as men do. Employers who place value on these exact skills are likely to pay women less in order to compensate the lack of skills and knowledge. Furthermore, Lauer (n.d.) also mentioned that skills and knowledge may be rewarded differently between men and women. Meaning that women with the same educational background and knowledge will earn less because these identical skills are not rewarded the same way by the employer. In addition, Maier (2007) identified the lack of legal barriers against low wages as a reason for the gender pay differences in Germany. As there exists no general minimum wage in Germany, and as the country has almost three million unemployed persons (Bundesagentur fà ¼r Arbeit, 2008), it is easy for employers to fill a low-paid vacancy. Furthermore, Lauer (n.d.) identified occupational crowding of women in low paid occupations as another source for earning inequalities between men and women in Germany. There is also the fact that there is a low proportion of working women in highly paid positions (Maier, 2007). Concluding, Maier (2007) stated that factors like age, education and work experience present only a very unimportant reason for wage discrimination. Again, the unexplained part of the gender wage gap can be attributed to discrimination based on gender (Lauer, n.d.). 6. Similarities and Differences between Japan and Germany After analyzing the gender wage gap in Japan and Germany and its reasons, several similarities as well as differences can be pointed out. First of all, there is a significant high gender wage gap in both countries, although the difference in earnings is higher in Japan with around 35 percent compared to Germany with about 22 percent (Maier, 2007). Nevertheless, the German earnings gap is 7 percent higher than the European Union average (Spiegel Online International, 2008). Both countries put emphasis on the characteristics of employees. Age, work experience and education are important when negotiating wages. As women often have less education or work experience than men (Lauer, n.d.), they get paid less than their male counterpart. Furthermore, part of the gender wage gap in both countries is an unexplained part which can be attributed to gender discrimination (Kawaguchi, 2006; Lauer, n.d.). Differences between the two countries can be found in the fact that Japanese employers discriminate when investing in human capital. Due to the Japanese lifetime employment, many employers consider rather carefully whether to employ women or not. As it is obvious to them that women will leave the company some day for child-raising duties, they will thereby take away the human capital in which the company invested. 7. Conclusion Even if both countries enacted laws in the 80ies which should ensure equal pay for work of equal value, there is still a significant gender wage gap observable. Japan as well as Germany managed during the last to decades to narrow this gap, but this happened probably just because of the new laws which were enforced. When looking ahead, both countries will probably have a different future. Japan will stick to its lifetime employment system (Kato, 2001) and thereby will keep the earnings gap between men and women stable. The fact that more and more Japanese women decide to pursue their careers can possibly help in narrowing the gender pay gap (Fackler, 2007). Germany is likely to increase the gender pay gap as the coverage of collective agreements, which set equal wages for men and women, is declining (Maier, 2007). Furthermore, as long as there is no support from the government to implement the right for equal money for work of equal value, the gender wage gap will not be narrowed. 8. Bibliography , Blau, F. and Kahn, L. (2003). Understanding international differences in the gender pay gap. Journal of Labor Economics. Vol. 21, pp. 106-144. Brinton, M. (1993). Women and the economic miracle: gender and work in post-war Japan. Berkeley: Calif. Bundesagentur fà ¼r Arbeit (2008). Der Arbeits- und Ausbildungsmarkt in Deutschland (The work and education market in Germany) [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.pub. arbeitsamt.de/hst/services/statistik/000000/html/start/monat/ aktuell.pdf [Accessed 6 January 2009]. Evans, J. (2002). work/family reconciliation, gender wage equity and occupational segregation: the role of rims and public policy [online]. Available at: URL: http://economics.ca/cgi/jab?journal= cppview=v28s1/CPPv28s1p187.pdf [Accessed 16 December 2008]. Fackler, M. (2007). Career women in Japan find a blocked path. The New York Times, [online]. Available at: URL: http://www. nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/asia/06equal.html [Accessed 6 January 2009]. Gradà ­n, C., del Rà ­o, C. and Cantà ³, O. (2006). Poverty and womens labor market activity: the role of gender wage discrimination in the EU [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/ WP/ECINEQ2006-40.pdf [Accessed 6 January 2009]. Ishii, H. (2000). Occupational segregation and the gender wage gap in Japan [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.kli.re.kr/ iira2004/pro/papers/HisakoISHII.pdf [Accessed 05 January 2009]. Japanese Institute for Labour Policy and Training (2008). Wages and labour costs [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.jil.go. jp/english/estatis/databook/2008/05.htm [Accessed 05 January 2009]. Johnes, G. and Tanaka, Y. (2006). Changes in gender wage discrimination in the 1990s: a tale of three different economies. Japan and the World Economy. Vol. 20, pp. 97-113. Kato, T. (2001). The end of lifetime employment in Japan?: evidence from national surveys and field research. Journal of the Japanese and International Economies. Vol. 15, pp. 489-514. Kawaguchi, D. (2006). A market test for sex discrimination: evidence from Japanese firm-level panel data. International Journal of Industrial Organization. Vol. 25, pp. 441-460. Lauer, C. (n.d.). Gender wage gap in West Germany: how far do gender differences in human capital matter? [online]. Available at: URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=217651 [Accessed 6 January 2009]. Maier, F. (2007). The persistence of the gender wage gap in Germany [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.harriet-taylor-mill.de/pdfs/discuss/Discussion%20Paper%2001%202007.pdf [Accessed 29 December 2008]. Miyoshi, K. (2007). Male-female wage differentials in Japan. Japan and the World Economy. Vol. 20, pp. 479-496. OECD (2007). Highlights Japan [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/20/20/39696303.pdf [Accessed 29 December 2008]. Plass, S. (2008). German women struggle with gender wage gap. International Herald Tribune, [online]. Available at: URL: http:// www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/28/business/women.php?page=1 [Accessed 31 December 2008]. Sama, L. and Papamarcos, S. (2000). Cultures consequences for working women in corporate America and Japan, Ind.. Cross Cultural Management An International Journal. Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 18-29. Selmer, J. (2001). Human resource management in Japan. International Journal of Manpower. Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 235-243. Spiegel Online International (2008). German women earn a fifth less than men. Spiegel Online International, [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518, 558526,00.html [Accessed 31 December 2008]. Threlfall, M. (1996). Mapping the womens movement. London: Verso. Winter, R. (1998). Gleiches Entgelt fà ¼r gleichwertige Arbeit: Ein Prinzip ohne Praxis (Equal pay for work of equal value: a principle without practice.). Baden-Baden. World Economic Forum (2005). Womens empowerment: measuring the global gender gap [online]. Available at: URL: http://www.weforum.org/pdf/Global_Competitiveness_Reports/Reports/gender_gap.pdf [Accessed 30 December 2008].

The Role of Adult Basic and Literacy Education Essays -- Adult Educati

The Role of Adult Basic and Literacy Education With the passage of the 1988 Family Support Act (FSA), adult basic and literacy education was linked to welfare reform. Based on experimentation with welfare reform during the previous decade, the FSA created the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS). JOBS, which requires states to make educational services available to welfare recipients, was created in response to the general consensus that welfare recipients are not well prepared to enter the work force (Cohen et al. 1994). One of its major underlying assumptions is "that a strong foundation of literacy and basic skills is critical to the successful transition to employment and self-sufficiency for AFDC parents-especially young parents" (National Institute for Literacy 1994, p. 2). The educational and skill levels of welfare recipients as a group are lower than that of the general adult population. For example, compared to 27 percent of the general adult population, nearly 50 percent of welfare recipients do not have a high school diploma (NIFL 1994). Also, 30 percent of welfare recipients have basic skills below those of the minimum skill level of all women in the lowest occupational skill areas (Cohen et al. 1994). Thus, to the architects of the FSA, a logical avenue for assisting welfare recipients in achieving economic self-sufficiency was to provide those who needed it adult basic and literacy education services through JOBS. The need for this assistance has subsequently been supported: an estimated two-thirds of JOBS enrollees require basic skills enhancement before they are able to enter the work force (ibid.). The other third are placed in employment more immediately, either in the private secto... ...elfare as We Know It?" Summary Briefing Paper. Washington, DC: NIFL, June 1994. (ED 372 279) Pauly, E.; Long, D. A.; and Martinson, K. Linking Welfare and Education: A Study of New Programs in Five States. New York, NY: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, May 1992. (ED 346 266) Pauly, E., and Martinson, K. "Adult Education-A New Stimulus from Welfare Reform." Adult Learning 5, no. 2 (November-December 1993): 15-16. Reder, S., and Wikelund, K. R. Steps to Success: Literacy Development in a Welfare-to-Work Program. Portland, OR: Literacy, Language & Communication Program, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, November 1994. Wikelund, K. R. Motivations for Learning: Voices of Women Welfare Reform Participants. NCAL Technical Report TR93-10. Philadelphia: National Center on Adult Literacy, University of Pennsylvania, October 1993. (ED 364 748).

Professional Wrestling :: essays research papers

Current Issues  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Professional Wrestling   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When some people hear the word wrestling they think of â€Å"2 points takedown† or headgear and singlets. But most people think of the WWF, WCW, NWO, and the WolfPac. They think of names such as Hollywood Hogan, Sting, Stone Cold, Diamond Dallas Page, and Golberg. If you have been alive in today’s TV culture, you have undoubtedly heard these names.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although professional wrestling has been enjoying newfound success lately, it is not a new sport by any means. Professional Wrestling has been around since the 1800’s but it was mainly confined to barns and other small areas with people betting on the winner. These were often bloody and dangerous fights. Dangerous for the wrestlers as well as the audience as sometimes the fight would spill out into the crowd.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Professional Wrestling became more of a spectator sport in the early to mid 1900’s, but it resembled very little of what we think of Professional Wrestling today. Today, as opposed to old-time wrestling, it is just a spectator event with people cheering for a â€Å"hero† against a â€Å"vilian†. Most all matches are set up in a way that there is always one crowd favorite, and one that the crowd hates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Today Professional Wrestling is no longer a sport but a entertainment industry. The fights are rigged, the wrestling is fake, and the only thing real about wrestling is the money. Millions of dollars are generated by professional wrestling. TV contracts, t-shirts, posters, Video games, movies. These all generate enough money and interest to make professional wrestling the most watched entertainment event today. One of the reasons that wrestling has become such a powerful force in entertainment is that it has all the action of a Jackie Chan movie, all the drama of ER and all of the â€Å"eye-candy† of Baywatch.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I am going to tell you some of todays biggest stars and give you a little background on them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most entertaining people in professional wrestling is current world champion Goldberg. Goldberg grew up as a doctors son in Oklahoma with his two brothers. Goldberg was even an imposing future at a young age as he was a bouncer in a bar at age 17. He went on to play college football at SEC power Georgia. As a Georgia Bulldog, Goldberg earned all-confernce honors as a nose-guard and was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons and eventually ended his career as a LA Ram. Goldberg was not done bashing skulls after he hurt his knee though. He shaved his head and got a tattoo and followed many former football players into Pro wrestling.

United States Attack And Ballistic Nuclear Submarines :: essays papers

United States Attack And Ballistic Nuclear Submarines The United States Navy has developed over the years to form one of the world's most powerful forces. The nuclear submarine is one of the major components responsible for achieving this status. The nuclear submarines have evolved over time in: design, construction, and weapons to become the most feared deterrence force ever. Tom Clancy, a well-known author and naval expert describes nuclear attack submarines (SSN&rsquos) in an excellent fashion by commenting: The modern SSN is a stealth platform with 70 percent of the worlds surface under which to hide, its endurance determined not by fuel but by the amount of food that may be crammed into the hull, and its operational limitations determined more by the skill of the commander and crew than by external factors. (XIX) Clancy also gives the complete story of nuclear submarines from the beginning. The idea of nuclear energy to power navy submarines came from an improbable origin; a United States naval officer named Hyman G. Rickover. After World War II, Rickover was transferred to the engineering department of the United States Navy. While there, he was responsible for envisioning the idea of placing small nuclear reactors in submarines and surface ships. With these reactors, vessels could travel great distances without having to replenish the their fuel supply. Most importantly for submarines, it would now allow them to stay submerged for longer periods of times instead of having to come to the surface to give air to then diesel engines (Clancy 10). According to Clancy, Rickover&rsquos main focus was submarines. In the early 1950&rsquos, a contract was signed for the production of the first nuclear submarine in the world. The boat was to be named the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) and built by Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics. The nuclear reactor in the Nautilus generated steam for the turbines as a result of pressurized water. This development was far more promising than the now Admiral Rickover and the Navy had ever dreamed (Clancy 10-11). Dalgleish and Schweikart include that when the boat was launched in 1954, it passed both performance and technological barriers. Being similar to submarines developed after 1944, the boat&rsquos speed was greater underwater than above, it did not have surface often to replenish batteries, and could remain underwater for a length of sixty days. The Nautilus became the first ever vessel to travel the Arctic from the Pacific to the Atlantic. While initiating an entirely new dimension for submarine operations, it was the first submarine to arrive at the North Pole (Dalgleish and Schweikart 6). A web site dedicated to United States submarines gives statistics about

Computer Operating System Essay

The Windows series of operating systems produced by the Microsoft Corporation primarily make use of two file systems: the File Allocation Table (FAT) and the New Technology File System (NTFS). Additionally, some versions of Windows NT also support the use of the High Performance File System (HPFS), a result of Microsoft’s joint developer involvement with IBM to produce the OS/2 operating system. (Duncan, 1989; Custer, 1994) Initially released with DOS, FAT makes use of a table which indexes information on which sections of the storage medium are free, unusable or taken up by files. Disk space is partitioned into distinct units known as sectors or clusters. There is no real organization to the directory structure of FAT, and as such free disk space can become distributed across many different sectors, resulting in file space being allocated in discontiguous sectors. As such, data is highly fragmented and increases seek times. (Microsoft, 2007; Duncan 1989) HPFS was first introduced with OS/2. It improved over the core functionality of the FAT system by introducing additional room for metadata attributes. Allocation units were changed from clusters to physical sectors of 512 bytes each, optimizing the disk space used for each file. HPFS directory entries also hold more attribute data: they possess single sector FNODEs that serve as the control structure for each directory. Fragmentation is drastically reduced by allocating as much of a file in contiguous sectors. However, the HPFS is dependent on a Super Block which contains the control structures of the root directory – essentially the root FNODE. The Super Block is thus vulnerable to corruption or loss from a bad sector which can compromise an entire partition’s useability. (Microsoft, 2007; Duncan, 1989) NTFS was designed to meet the growing demand for network servers and file sharing capabilities and it borrowed many of its concepts from the HPFS. (Kozierok, 2001) It is a journaling file system which permits greater recoverability by reverting files back to a useable state in the event of power failures and system crashes that occur during file transactions. Additionally, it also makes use of an expanded meta-data system which allows administrators to set a wider variety of access and use controls to files. The NTFS also optimizes data by storing small files into the Master File Table of the NTFS itself. The larger system format limit provides means that allocation units are much more refined as well. (Microsoft, 2004; 2007) Memory management on Windows has an access limit of up to 4GB of physical memory, and as such, the allocation of memory to processes is limited by this cap. By using paging to transfer pages of data between main memory and an auxiliary storage device such as a hard drive, it can overcome some of the limitations of physical RAM and enable system processes to have their own 4GB logical address space. Additionally, Windows accords memory protection to process in such a manner as to prevent access to one another, which is crucial to ensure that processes can operate simultaneously without compromising their functionality. (Garg, 2008) Microsoft Windows is essentially an operating system that is built with multi-tasking in mind, which in effect, allows multiple programs to be executed simultaneously. Each application is composed of one or more processes, each of which provides the resources needed to execute a program. Processes are composed of threads, a discrete unit by which processor time is allocated and a single thread, called the primary thread initiates the process. Each thread may execute any portion of code in the process, including those already being executed by another thread. Virtual address space and system resources are shared by threads of a single process, though exception handlers, scheduling priority and other components that determine a thread’s importance and role within the context of a process. (Microsoft Developer Network, 2008) Windows possesses many of the essential features crucial to basic security such as authentication and access control, encryption schemes and protection profiles. However, the API for cryptography is easily compromised by the fact that it easily trusts multiple keys in certifying authority of access. As such, only one code key is necessary to render a system vulnerable. Such a compromise is possible either through accidental disclosure of the private key or when the certifying authority mistakenly issues a certificate. On the level of network security protocol, Windows makes use of IPSec, a cryptographic IP-level protection system which is an open standard in the industry, which functions not only through data encryption and verification of hosts but by detecting modifications made to data during network transit. (Quardt, 2004) Windows security is at its most problematic with regards to applications and non-operating system products. Part of the problem is that for the purposes of consumer convenience, Microsoft Windows continues to be reliant on legacy applications that contain security threats that were of trivial matter during their initial release. Furthermore, the signature architecture of Microsoft programs is to mix application code and data, such as ActiveX for example, can allow untrusted data from outside the system to activate code. (Quardt, 2004) Also, Windows approves digitally signed code even if it is supplied from outside of the system, which means that a system administrator must implicitly trust whoever has signed the code to have subjected it to appropriate code review. In essence, the problem with Windows security is that trust and certification is so decentralized as to deny systems administrators total control and authority over the trustworthiness of code.   REFERENCES Microsoft Corporation. (2007, May 7) Overview of FAT, HPFS and NTFS File Systems. Retrieved August 9, 2008 from: http://support. microsoft. com/kb/100108 Microsoft Corporation (2004, May 5) Local File Systems for Windows. Retrieved August 9, 2008: http://download. microsoft. com/download/5/b/5/5b5bec17-ea71-4653-9539-204a672f11cf/LocFileSys. doc Duncan, R. (1989, September) Design goals and implementation of the new High Performance File System. Microsoft Systems Journal, 4, 5, 1-13. Custer, H. (1994) Inside the Windows NT File System. Washington: Microsoft Press. Kozierok, C. M. (2001, April 17). Overview and History of NTFS. PCGuide. Garg, P. â€Å"Windows Memory Management. † Intellectual Heaven. Retrieved August 10, 2008 from: http://www. intellectualheaven. com/Articles/WinMM. pdf Microsoft Developer Network (2008, August 7). â€Å"About Processes and Threads. † Retrieved August 10, 2008 from: http://msdn. microsoft. com/en-us/library/ms681917(VS. 85,printer). aspx Hart, J. M. (2004) Windows System Programming, 3rd Edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley Professional. Quandt, S. (2004, May 25) â€Å"Linux and Windows security compared. † Linux. com Retrieved August 11, 2008 from: http://www. linux. com/articles/36273? page=2

Macbeth’s character Essay

It is a fair assessment of Macbeth’s character to call him nothing but a brutal and ruthless villain? In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is a very complex character showing many different traits in his many appearances throughout the play. The story starts after a battle; Macbeth then meets three witches who foresee that he will become King of Scotland. These witches knew all about Macbeth’s fatal flaw, his greed for power. This fatal flaw, as a typical tragic hero was the cause of his downfall. There is no doubt that throughout the play Macbeth is a brutal and ruthless villain, but it is certainly questionable to say that they are his only qualities Before Macbeth is even introduced to the audience, we are already told of his capacity for brutality. The captain describes Macbeth’s actions to the king when he says, â€Å"Like Valour’s minion, carved out his passage / Till he faced the slave.† The captain goes on to say, â€Å"Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, / Till he unseamed him from nave to chaps.† This statement also shows the brutality and barbarity of Macbeth’s character very well as he did not just end this mans life in an honourable and quick way, but instead sliced him all the way from his stomach to his jaw. Macbeth is also obviously very highly regarded among his colleagues and indeed enemies as being both brutal and brave, as the captain again says to Malcolm, â€Å"For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)†, showing that others thought of him as a very brave man. There is a lot of irony in this point as at this point in the play, Macbeth is being very highly regarded as being brave and ruthless, whereas later on these same qualities will lose him all his respect. As the play unfolds Macbeth finds it increasingly easy to kill innocent people, which shows clearly the ruthlessness and the brutality of his character. The first person that Macbeth kills in the play is King Duncan. Shakespeare’s audience would have taken this particular crime of regicide very seriously as they believed in divine right, that the king was chosen from God and anyone who took that power away was defying God and it was the ultimate wrong. King James would have been very pleased at this element of the play, as it showed that any person who committed regicide suffered greatly as a consequence of it. Also the fact that Macbeth murdered a King while he was sleeping and was utterly defenceless would have been seen as being very dishonourable. The most innocent of all of Macbeth’s victims of his barbarity is Lady Macduff and her son. Macbeth’s other victims are all directly blocking his path to supreme power and so one could argue that they were necessary, but Lady Macduff and her family are just a precaution that Macbeth took to try and get to Macduff. . In the scene where Lady Macduff and her son are killed, the innocence of the child is emphasised in his language and the questions that he asks his mother. When his mother questions how he will live after his father’s death he replies, â€Å"As birds do, mother†, clearly showing his naivety and vulnerability. This further enhances the barbarity, as Macbeth’s victims were so unaware of Macduff’s business and also Macbeth was not even honourable enough to do the deed himself. Although Macbeth is unaware of his fatal flaw, he still acknowledges that he is becoming more and more ruthless as the story progresses. He uses a metaphor of a river of blood to clearly show how he feels inside. Macbeth says: â€Å"I am in blood Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.† By using this metaphor, Macbeth is saying that he has killed so many people now that it would be easier to carry on being ruthless and barbaric then to go back and repent. Macbeth is here admitting that he has done wrong and thinks of himself as a lost cause that has no hope of doing good ever again. Macbeth also says, â€Å"We are yet but young in deed†, suggesting that Macbeth sees the deeds he has committed so far as small in comparison to the deeds that he will commit in the future. Finally in Act Five Macbeth says that he has ‘forgotten the taste of fear, showing that because of the witches telling him that no man born of a woman can harm him, he does not fear anything anymore. The character that was the driving force behind all his wrong doings starting from the murder of King Duncan was Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth. Therefore one would imagine that when she died, Macbeth would be devastated, but in reality when she does die Macbeth shows no remorse at all. When Seyton informs Macbeth that his wife is dead, all Macbeth can say is: â€Å"She should have died hereafter: There would have been a time for such a word – Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow†. In this Shakespeare is trying to emphasis just how much Macbeth has changed throughout the book, from going from a loving husband to not even caring about the death of his wife. It is almost as if Macbeth at this point is incapable of human emotions anymore, like he has turned into the beasts that first gave him these apparitions. Macbeth is an extreme tyrannical ruler of Scotland and chooses to rule with fear rather than ruling out of respect. When Malcolm and Macduff are describing Macbeth’s rule, they use personification to emphasise the amount of damage that Macbeth is doing to Scotland. Macduff says, â€Å"Bleed, bleed, poor country, / Great tyranny. Lay thou thy basis sure.† This makes Scotland’s suffering seem human and the use of personification enhances the bad feelings that the reader has for Macbeth and also the feelings that Scotland is a victim is enhanced. Macbeth’s brutality and ruthlessness leads to him being very short of loyal followers as they all disapprove of his tyrannical ruling methods. The few that do remain do so only out of fear of what Macbeth would do if they did not obey him. When Rosse and the messenger warn Lady Macduff that Macbeth’s murderers are on the way to kill them, Rosse says, â€Å"I am so much a fool, should I stay longer† and the messenger says, â€Å"I dare abide no longer†. These two statements clearly show the fear that these men have for their lives in disobeying Macbeth. The fact that even Macbeth’s own men fear him enhances the evil feeling that the reader has for Macbeth. Shakespeare strengthens the image that Macbeth is a ruthless villain by the opinions that others have for him. In Acts 4 and 5, the English leaders refer to Macbeth as a ‘butcher’, a ‘hell-hound’ and an ‘abhorred tyrant.’ This shows the disrespect that the neighbouring countries felt for Macbeth’s reign. Shakespeare also uses pathetic fallacy to emphasise the evilness of Macbeth’s crimes, when the porter says, â€Å"This place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it / no further,† this is quite an extreme statement showing that Macbeth’s castle is even worse than hell, indicating evil and wrong doing is present in some way. All this imagery is used by Shakespeare to further add to the evil feelings that the reader has for Macbeth’s crimes against the King. It can however be argued that Macbeth has certainly not been a brutal and ruthless villain all throughout the play. Before we even meet Macbeth we are presented with a view of him being a noble man as we are told this by the king when he describes Macbeth as a ‘valiant cousin!’ and a ‘worthy gentleman!’ The captain also says ‘brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name’. These two accounts of Macbeth clearly show both the Captain and the King’s respect for Macbeth. Shakespeare builds up Macbeth like this so that when he does fall, it will be so much greater. Macbeth’s first major crime is the murder of King Duncan. Although this in itself could definitely be seen as brutal and ruthless, Macbeth did show a lot of anxiety about performing the crime before and he did show a great deal of regret after the deed. Macbeth hears knocking after he has murdered Duncan and Macbeth says, â€Å"Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst,† it is apparent from this that Macbeth has certainly got a conscience, as he wished that he could reverse his actions. Shakespeare also uses a metaphor of blood on Macbeth’s hands to emphasise his guilt when Macbeth says: â€Å"Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand† Macbeth is experiencing the feeling that no matter what he does, he can never wash off the stain of his guilt. Macbeth is not the only one to blame for his crimes and had it not been for Lady Macbeth it could certainly be argued that Macbeth would not have acted on any of his ideas of murder. Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth is ‘too full o’ the milk of human kindness’, using the word ‘too’ to make it sound like it was a weakness on Macbeth’s part, showing that she feels Macbeth is too pleasant to be committing these types of crimes. Also Lady Macbeth uses all her powers of persuasion to get Macbeth to do what he wants. She questions his manhood, she uses flattery when she says, â€Å"And, to be more than you what you were, you would / Be so much more the man,† and she also uses emotional blackmail to twist Macbeth’s mind. With this constant source of irritation always near him, it is no wonder that he gave in in the end. It is not surprising that Macbeth eventually gave in to his wife as she is such a powerful and dominating character in the book Shakespeare re-enforces the idea of Lady Macbeth being powerful and evil when Lady Macbeth says: â€Å"Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here† This statement makes Lady Macbeth sound like the witches and therefore enhances her evilness and domination of Macbeth. Macbeth would not be considered ruthless and brutal had it not been for the forces of evil in the three witches. Macbeth was merely a puppet in their plan. They knew his weakness for power and used it against him. They told him exactly what he wanted to hear and that consequently led to the death of the king. Macbeth would have remained faithful to king and country, if the witches had not filled his head with thoughts that he could not escape. Therefore Macbeth was not the evil and villainous one, he was merely a victim of the witch’s evil. The evil in the witches is emphasised by Shakespeare’s use of pathetic fallacy. At the beginning of the play Shakespeare says in the stage directions ‘[Thunder and lightning]’, using pathetic fallacy to make the witches seem even wicked and their power emphasised as it almost seems that they have control over the weather. As there is so many factors that show that Macbeth is not just merely a brutal and ruthless villain, it would be wrong to call Macbeth ‘nothing but’ a villain. The very fact that Macbeth is a tragic hero is evidence in itself that Macbeth has the potential for good but is merely destroyed by his fatal flaw, because tragic hero’s have to start with power and respect and gradually lose that throughout the play. This is summed up perfectly in Act 4 Scene 3 when Malcolm says: â€Å"This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest: you have loved him well.† Despite all the crimes that Macbeth has committed, Malcolm is still saying that this was not always the case, showing further evidence that Macbeth is more than just a brutal and ruthless villain.

An Assessment of the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility

Universal Journal of Marketing and Business Research Vol. 1(1) pp. 017-043, May, 2012 Available online http://www. universalresearchjournals. org/ujmbr Copyright  © 2012 Transnational Research Journals Full Length Research Paper An assessment of the impact of corporate social responsibility on Nigerian society: The examples of banking and communication industries Adeyanju, Olanrewaju David Department of Financial Studies Redeemer’s University, km 46, Lagos Ibadan Expressway Mowe, Ogun State E-mail: [email  protected] om, Tel No. : 07037794073 Accepted 30 January, 2012 In the Nigerian society, Corporate Social Responsibilities [CSR] has been a highly cotemporary and contextual issue to all stakeholders including the government, the corporate organization itself, and the general public. The public contended that the payment of taxes and the fulfillment of other civic rights are enough grounds to have the liberty to take back from the society in terms of CSR undertaken by oth er stakeholders.Some ten year ago, what characterized the Nigerian society was fragrant pollution of the air, of the water and of the environment. Most corporate organizations are concerned about what they can take out of the society, and de-emphasized the need to give back to the society [their host communities]. This attitude often renders the entire community uninhabitable. A case in mind is the Niger Delta area of Nigeria.This translated to negative integrity and reputation on the part of corporate identity as people perceived this as exploitation and greed for profitability and wealth maximization within a decaying economy of Nigeria. However, the general belief is that both business and society gain when firms actively strive to be socially responsible; that is, the business organizations gain in enhanced reputation, while society gains from the social projects executed by the business organization.In modern day however, having seen the benefits and average favorable pay-back period of their investment in CSR, corporations are now seriously involved in this project, which had impacted in the society wonderfully and profitably. This study is therefore, intended to consider the imperative and benefits of CSR on the Nigeria society. The perceived gap supposedly created is harnessed and investigated for possible resolution, using the banking and communication industries as a case study. The research approach is both descriptive and analytical.Data collected for this study are from both primary and secondary sources, relying heavily on the relevant information available from both banking and communication sectors, and other sources. Tests were conducted using both regression and correlation analysis. The regression result reveals a strong and significant relationship between CSR and Societal Progress such that the relationship between CSR and Societal Progress is statistically significant. It is thus conclusion that CSR plays a significant role in Societal Pr ogressiveness in terms of environmental and economic growth.The study recommends that, while improvement in the depth of participation by banking and telecommunication industries in economic and environmental development is desirable, they are encouraged to close ranks and forge common interest in addressing certain social responsibilities, especially those bothering on security and technological advancement of the polity. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, societal Progressiveness, Banking, Communication, Environment.INTRODUCTION At an earlier point in history, societal expectations from business organizations did not go beyond efficient resource allocation and its maximization. But today, it has changed and modern business must think beyond profit maximization toward being at least socially responsible to its society. Today’s heightened interest in the role of business in society has been promoted by increased sensitivity to the 018 Univers. J. Mark. Bus. Res. aware ness of environmental and ethical issues.It means our society has become increasingly concerned that greater influence and progress by firms has not been accompanied by equal effort and desire in addressing important social issues including problems of poverty, drug abuse, crime, improper treatment of workers, faulty production output and environmental damage or pollution by the industries as it has overtime been reported in the media. It is therefore very essential for all to realize that public outcry for increased social responsibility will not disappear if business organizations fail to respond to the challenges these had posed for the society.In view of the perceived information gap, it is therefore worthwhile collating and aggregating in a more organized manner, the contributions of Nigerian corporations [using banking and communications industries as a focus] to the well-being of the society. This is necessary if only to show, in a graphic and mathematical ways that the indus tries seriously identify with the aspirations of the communities and the general public. In the early years of this century, two Americans independently and without knowing of each other were among the first businessmen in the world’s history to initiate major community reforms.Andrews Carnegie preached and financed the free public library. Julius Rosenwald fathered the country farm agent system and adopted the infant 4-H CLUBS. Carnegie was already retired from business and one of the world’s richest men. Rosenwald who had recently bought a near bankrupt mail order firm called Sear Roebuck and Company, was only beginning to build both his business and fortune. The two held basically different philosophies. Carnegie believed that the sole purpose of being rich is to be a philanthropist, that is, the â€Å"social responsibility of wealth†.Rosenwald believed that you have to be able to do good to do well, that is, the â€Å"social responsibility of business†. J. Irwin miller of the Cummins Engine Co. Ltd in Columbus, Indiana, has systematically used corporate funds to create a healthy community which, at the same time is a direct, though intangible investment in a healthy environment for his company. Miller specifically aimed at endowing his small industrial town with the ‘quality of life’ that would attract to it the managerial and technical people on whom a big high-technology business depends.Only if business and particularly Nigerian business learns that to do well it has to do good, can we hope to tackle the major challenges facing developing societies today. The economic realities ahead are such that ‘social needs’ can be financed increasingly only if their solution generates commensurate earning which precisely is what business is known for. We can actually say firms involved in Corporate Social Responsibility are actually not regretting because of the increase it has made on their sales leading to pro fit and how they have impacted the environment.The significance of corporate social responsibility as a vital tool for the societal progressiveness cannot be over emphasized. This can be seen from the points of view of showing concern for the welfare of the community in order to reap peace, competent and cheaper manpower, a platform for a better community; by making the host community worthy of livelihood in terms of infrastructural development; and by boosting their image, reducing advert cost, gaining an edge over competitors, and making your name as a firm an household name in the society.Theoretical and Conceptual Framework Overview of The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility The Bali Roundtable on developing countries in 2002 recognized the business sector as a primary driver of economic development and the World Summit For Sustainability identified business involvement as critical in alleviating poverty and achieving sustainable development. Corporate social responsibili ty has to do with an organization going out of his way to initiate actions that will impact positively on its host community, its environment and the people generally.It can be seen as a way of acknowledging the fact that some business fall outs have adverse effects on the citizens and society and making efforts to ensure that such negative impact are corrected. Posk, et al (1999) as a matter of fact, believe that corporate social responsibility means that a corporation should be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, communities, and its environment. It implies that negative business impacts on people and society should be acknowledged and corrected, if possible.It may require a company forgoing some profits if its social impacts are seriously harmful to some of its stakeholders or if its fund can be used to promote a positive social good. Definition of Corporate Social Responsibilities There are a myriad of definitions of Corporate Social Responsibilities [CSR ], each considered valuable in their own right and designed to fit the specific organization. The majority of definitions integrate the three dimensions to the concept, that is, economic, environmental and social dimensions.CSR had also been commonly described as â€Å"a demonstration of certain responsible behavior on the part of public and the private [government and business] sectors toward society and the environment†. Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a leading Global Business partner, in a Forum held in 2006 defined Olanrewaju 019 CSR as achieving commercial success in ways that honors ethical values and respect people, communities, and the natural environment. For BSR, CSR also means addressing the legal, ethical, commercial and other expectations society has for business, and making decisions that fairly balance the claim of all key stakeholders.In its simplest terms, it is: â€Å"what you do†, â€Å"how you do it† â€Å"and when and what you sa y†. In this sense, CSR is viewed as a comprehensive set of policies, practices and programmes that are integrated into business operations, supply chain, and decision making processes throughout the company and wherever the company does businesses that are supported and rewarded by top management. It also includes responsibility for current and past actions as well as future impacts. The issues that represent a company’s CSR focus vary by business, size, sector and even geographical region.It is seen by leadership of companies as more than a collection of discrete practices or occasional gestures or initiatives motivated by marketing, public relations or other business benefits. Also, the World Business Council on Sustainability Development, 1998 described CSR as â€Å"the continuing commitment by Business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large†. CSR is the concept that an enterprise is responsible or accountable for its impact on all relevant shareholders† [European Union, 2006]. According to Macmillan [2005], â€Å"CSR is a term describing a company’s obligation to be accountable to all its stakeholders in all its operations and activities. Socially responsible companies will consider the full scope of their impact on communities and the environment when making decisions, balancing the need of stakeholders with their need to make a profit†. â€Å"CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or in a socially responsible manner.Since stakeholders exist both within a firm’s and outside a firm, hence, behaving socially and responsibly will increase the human development of stakeholders both within and outside the corporation† [Clarkson, 1995]. A reputable author, Kenneth Andrews Steiner (1977) defined Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) â€Å"as the intelligent and objective concern for the welfare of the society that retains the individual and corporate behavior from ultimately destructive activities, no matter how immediately profitable nd leads to the directions of positive construction of human betterment†. As an improvement on the above definitions, Koontz and O’Donnell (1968) defined social responsibility as the personal obligation of everyone, as he acts in his own interests, but he must always have due regard that his freedom does not restrict others from doing the same thing. He further noted that a socially responsible individual or organization will obey the laws of the land because the rights of others are at stake.In emphasizing the ecological conceptualization of social responsibility, Buchholz (1991) noted that any good definition of social responsibility must contain if not all, most of the following; Responsibility that: †¢ goes beyond the production goods and services at a prof it. †¢ helps in solving important social problems those that the organization are responsible for creating. †¢ makes corporations have greater constituency than stockholders alone †¢ makes corporations have great impacts that goes beyond marketplace transactions, and †¢ makes corporations serve a wider range of human values that can be captured by a sole focus on value.CSR can therefore be referred to as decisions and actions taken by organizations for reasons at least, particularly beyond the organization’s direct economic or technical interest. For many corporate bodies giving to charities is a struggle really, their objective do not usually build-in the strategic need to support the communities that they serve. The focus totally is to maximize profit or financial returns. The thrust of their arguments centre around balancing their obligations to stakeholders, especially the shareholders.Corporate social responsibilities should be strategic no doubt. Eng aging in strategic philanthropy is done by even the best corporate bodies in the world. It should however have an underlying compassionate foundation. There should be a symbiotic relationship between corporate organization and the host communities, a sort of on-going reconciliation between the organization’s economic orientations. There should be an unwritten â€Å"social contract†, so that it should not be forced responsibility like Education Trust Fund tax but a voluntary social service based on the needs of the community.Socially responsible business practice implies that CSR is the social practice where the corporation adapts and conducts discretionary business practices and investments that support social causes to improve community well-being in order to protect the environment. Key distinctions include focus on activities that are discretionary, not those that are mandated by laws or regulatory agencies or are simply expected, as with meeting moral standards.Com munity is interpreted broadly to include employees of the corporation, suppliers, distributors, non-profit and public sector partners as well as members of the general public. And well-being can be referred to health and safety as well as psychological and emotional needs. It is also about capacity building for sustainable livelihoods, respect for cultural difference and finds a business in building the skills of employees, the community and the government. Indeed it is about business giving back to society. 020 Univers. J. Mark. Bus. Res.Generally speaking, Corporate Social Responsibility, whether in the banking sector or otherwise refers to: A collection of policies and practices linked to relationship with key stakeholders, values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities and the environment. The commitment of business to contribute to sustainable development According to the European Commission, CSR involves companies integrating â€Å"social and environmental concerns into business operations and in their interaction with stakeholders on a voluntary basis†.The key to this definition lies in the word â€Å"voluntary†. According to Nigeria Social Enterprise Reports Vol. 2, CSR is generally understood to be the way a company achieves a balance or integration of economic, environmental and social imperatives while at the same time addressing shareholders and stakeholders expectations. It went further to say that CSR is generally seen as the contribution of business to sustainable development which has been defined as â€Å"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs†.In Nigeria, the federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday May 2008 approved the development of a CSR policy for the country, to instill ethical behavior in Nigerian Businesses. The minister of National Planning Commission, Dr Sanusi Daggash, who gave detail s of the memorandum, said it referred to the adoption of responsible business practices by organizations, to improve the society at large’’. He said the policy would include â€Å"beyond law commitment† and activities that would necessitate an expectatation to ‘give back’ to the society.He reiterated that the policy would ensure corporate governance and ethics, health and safety, human rights, human resource management, anti-bribery and anticorruption measures. One reckons that the policy formulators will take note of similar global policies that might point Nigeria in the direction of developing a viable CSR policy. Carrol’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility Although no single commonly accepted definition had been ascribed to the subject, which had evolved since 1970s, Archie B.Carroll had said that â€Å"there had been economic, ethical, legal and philanthropic aspect to the subject†. Therefore, one of the most used and quot ed model is the Carroll’s pyramid of CSR, 1991. Carroll considers CSR to be framed in such a way that the entire range of business responsibilities is embraced. These four responsibilities can be illustrated as a pyramid. The economic component is about the responsibility to profit which serves as the base for the other components of the pyramid. With regard to the legal aspect, society expects organizations to comply with the laws and regulations.Ethical responsibilities are about how society expects organization to embrace values and norms even if the values and norms might constitute a higher standard of performance than required by law. Philanthropic responsibilities are those actions that are expected from a company as a good corporate citizen. Implicit Versus Responsibility Explicit Corporate Social Matten and Moon (2004) presents a conceptual framework for understanding corporate social responsibilities the, ‘implicit’ versus the ‘explicit’ co rporate social responsibilities.Explicit CSR is about corporate policies with the objective of being responsible for what the society is interested in. Explicit CSR can for example be voluntary, self-interest driven corporate social responsibilities policies and strategies. Implicit CSR is a country’s formal and informal institutions that give organizations an agreed share of responsibility for society’s interests and concerns. Implicit CSR are values, norms and rules which result in requirements for corporations to address areas that stakeholders consider important. Business associations or ndividual organizations are often directly involved in the definition and legitimization of this social responsibility requirement. The Three Components of Sustainability – The Triple Bottom Line Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Enviro nmental and Development, 1987) The triple bottom line is considering that companies do only have one objective, profitability, but that they also have objectives of adding environmental and social value to society (Crane and Matten, 2004).The concept of sustainability is generally regarded as having emerged from the environmental perspective is about how to manage physical resources so that they are conserved for the future. Therefore, economic sustainability is about the economic performance of the organization itself. A broader concept of economic sustainability includes the company’s impact on the economic framework in which it is embedded. The development of the social perspective has not developed as fast as the environmental and economic Olanrewaju 021 perspectives. The key issue in the social perspective on sustainability is that of social justice.It can be seen from above that economic and environmental sustainability involved in the concept of externalities is mostly engendered in the importance placed by comparatives in the concept of social responsibilities. The European Foundation for Quality Management [EFQM] defines CSR as â€Å"a whole range of fundamentals that organizations are expected to acknowledge and to reflect in their actions. It includes among other things respecting human rights, fair treatment of the workforce, customers and suppliers, being good corporate citizens of the communities in which they operate and conservation of natural environment†.These fundamentals are seen as not only morally and ethically desirable ends in themselves and as part of the organization’s philosophy; but also as key drivers in ensuring that society will allow the organization to survive in the long term, as society benefits from the organization’s activities and behavior† (The EFQM Framework For Social Responsibility, 2004). CSR is the concept that an organization needs to consider the impact of their operations and busi ness practices on not just the shareholders, but also its customers, suppliers, employees, members of the community it operates in, and even the environment.It is a way of saying thank you and expressing appreciation to all stakeholders in the business. It is a conscious effort to give back to the society in which the corporation has benefitted immensely. Characteristics of Corporate Social Responsibilities The European Foundation for Quality Management [EFQM] presents some common characteristics for CSR which are: †¢ Meeting the need of current stakeholders without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own demand. †¢ Adopting CSR voluntarily, rather than as legal requirement, because it is seen to be in the long-term interests of the organization. Integrating social, environmental and economic policies in day to day business †¢ Accepting CSR as a core activity that is embedded into an organization’s management strategy. The three dimensi on of CSR with specific examples of areas particular to each dimension are: Economic Responsibility Integrity, corporate governance, economic development of the community, transparency, prevention of bribery and corruption, payments to national and local authorities, use of local suppliers, hiring local labour and similar areas.Social Responsibility Human rights, training and developing local labour, contributing expertise to community programs and similar areas. Environmental Responsibility Precautionary approaches to prevent or minimize adverse impacts support for initiatives, promoting greater environmental responsibility, developing and diffusing environmentally friendly technologies and similar areas. Lohman and Steinholtz (2004) view the CSR concept as a combination of three separate agendas, namely Corporate Sustainability, Accountability and Governance.Corporate Sustainability derives from the United Nation meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the Agenda 21. This refers to how we address and balance the social, economic and environmental areas in the world so that our long term survival is not threatened. Corporate Accountability focuses on the credibility of the organization and is used in situations where discussions are held about the ability of the organization to manage. Corporate governance is used in the discussion about how an organization is being run. It deals with transparency and in the long run trustworthiness.Bowen (1953) defined it as the obligation of business men to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of objectives and values of the society. A number of studies have been carried out on CSR since the idea was floated in the twentieth century. For, example, a Business week/Harris poll (1993) revealed that U. S. top-level corporate executives (69% of those polled) and MBA students (89%) believed that corporations should be more involved in solving crucial problem s.Also in a study of 107 Europeans corporations, majorly of the chief executives cadre surveyed agreed that addressing social issues, such as substance abuse, health care and education, was needed (Mathison, 2003). Business in any society needs to take responsibility, for every decision that is made, every action that is taken, must be viewed in the light of that kind of responsibility. Social responsibility requires business organizations to balance the benefits to be gained against the costs of achieving those benefits.There is the general belief that both business and society gain when firms actively strive to be socially responsible. While business organizations gain in enhanced reputation, society gains from the social projects executed by the business organization. In the early 1970s, companies began to appreciate community service as a way to improve their images, internally and externally, as well as to serve the 022 Univers. J. Mark. Bus. Res. communities in which the busin ess operates. A study carried out by the National Volunteer Centre in U. S. n 1977 shows that more than 1,100 major U. S. corporations had established structured activities to involve their workers in community volunteerism by 1990. A survey of 180 leading U. S. companies found that 79% of them had volunteer programmes. Also, a study conducted by IBM and the graduate of School of Business at the University of Columbia in 1994 showed a clear link between volunteerism and return on assets, return on investments and employee productivity. A company with a strong community involvement programme is likely to score high in profitability and employee morale.Social responsibility should, in fact, reflect cultural values and may differ in forms from one society to the other. What is socially acceptable in Japan may differ in forms from that of Germany, Brazil or Indonesia. Japanese firms have proved themselves models citizens on many dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility. Their suppo rt of local community activities and other philanthropic endeavours have led to increased goodwill in the communities where they operate.The firms help society in areas directly related to the operations of the business. A survey conducted by the Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in 1997 shows that approximately 80% of Japanese affiliated operations in the United State which were covered by the survey engaged in corporate philanthropy. Making cash contributions was the most common form of philanthropy (about 91%). Community development and education were the primary beneficiaries of cash donations and encouragement of employee volunteerism was up to 36% from 1992.Over 95% of responding organizations maintained or increased both cash donations and other philanthropic activities since the last survey in 1992. Being socially responsible by meeting the public’s continually changing expectations requires wise leadership at the top of the organization. Miles (1987) obser ved that â€Å"corporate leaders who possesses this kind of social vision believe that business should help create social change rather than block it. With such attitude, they know that their own company will have a better chance of surviving in the turbulent social currents of today’s world†.Frooman (1997) further observed that companies which are socially responsible are guided by enlightened selfinterest, which means that they are socially aware without giving up their own economic self interest. Profit are the reward for the firm as it continues to provide true value to its customers, to help its employees to grow, and to behave responsibly as a corporate citizen. An emphasis on social responsibility can attract customers. A poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation shows that 89% of purchases by adult are influenced by a company’s reputation. Social responsibility also benefits ompanies by enabling them to recruit a high quality labor force. The reputa tion of the firm and the goodwill associated with socially responsible actions attract talented prospective employee, that is, people seeking an employer for whom they would be proud to work. At Cadbury Nigeria plc, the concept of CSR is seen as a continuing commitment by business to behave ethically in ways that will contribute to economic development of the nation. It is also expected to improve the quality of life of not only the company’s workforce and families but also that of the local community as well as the society at large. Business Day, Newspaper, 13th October, 2003) Over the last decades there has been an apparent shift from adopting more responsible business practices as a result of regulatory citations, consumer complaints and special interest group pressures, to proactive research exploring corporate solutions to social problems and incorporating new business practices that will support these issues. This shift has been due to: †¢ increasing evidence being documented and shared, demonstrating that socially responsible business practices can actually increase profits. the fact that in our global market place, consumers have more options and can make choices based on the criteria beyond product, price and distribution channels. Research emphasized that consumers are also basing their purchase decisions on reputation for fair and sustainable business practices and perceptions of commitment to the community’s welfare. †¢ the fact that Investors and other stakeholders may also be the driving force with increased public scrutiny and use of more sophisticated pressure tactics, including use of technology and power of internet. Interest in increased worker productivity and retention which has turned corporate heads towards ways to improve satisfaction and well being. (Cocacola bottler in South Africa launching an HIV/AIDS prevention program in the work place). †¢ Technology and increased third party reporting having been giv en increased visibility and coverage of corporate activities, especially when things go wrong, as with current corporate scandals that have made the public more suspicious of business creating the need for business to put a positive shine on their activities.This is even more critical today with instant access to twenty four (24) hours news channel such as CNN outline news articles and e-mail alerts. †¢ The bar for full disclosure appears have been raised, moving potential customers from a â€Å"consumer beware† attitude to an expectation that they will be fully informed as regards practices including product content, sources of raw materials and manufacturing processes. Advocate of CSR argues that companies with good social and environmental records will perform better in the long run than those that do not behave responsibly. This is because customers will like to patronize anyOlanrewaju 023 company with good social and environmental records more than companies without such records as they will be seen to have identified with the community. It has been argued that since Corporate Social Responsibility can enhance a company’s image, it raises the question of whether or not CSR was embarked upon solely for corporate self interest, company or their chief executives may be politically motivated when making corporate donations. But Black (1989) objecting to this self interest motive maintains that in CSR, the company giving funds does not attempt to gain any advertising benefit or undue identification.The company is contented with the belief that CSR is good business. Responsibilities of a firm To achieve set objectives, every firm owes various duties to all the stakeholders, and these must be fulfilled. These responsibilities are discussed below: †¢ Duty to protect the well-being of people in its environment. A firm’s primary duty is to protect the well being of those living in its environment; its operations or practice. For examp le, a firm wishing to carry out banking business must first be incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matter Act (CAMA), 1990 and then valid licence from the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).Its operations should be in line with the provisions of the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Acts (BOFIA), 1991, the CBN Act, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporations (NDIC) Acts, the Money Laundry Act 2004 and other banking laws. †¢ The firm should produce goods and services that are not harmful to the people. A manufacturing company should not produce goods that may cause death to people. Similarly, in the course of maximizing profit, a bank should not finance illegal projects, say, provide finance for the illegal purchase of ammunition, or abeit illegal transfer by unpatriotic citizens or politicians. A firm should not deceive others. Deception, in this way, can take various forms, namely; failing to include all the required quantities and quality materials for producing a particular product, but may still indicate on the package that the normal quality were involved; colluding with the external auditor to render false financial statements to shareholders, regulating authorities and members of the public, with a view to declaring false profit; preparing two sets of accounts or returns, i. e. ccurate and false accounts, and sending the false one to the regulatory authorities and the accurate one to the shareholders, to conceal some facts in the course of bank supervision and examination. †¢ An organization should enter into fair binding contract with its customers, creditors, employees, suppliers etc. all terms and conditions of the contract should be well stated by the firm and well understood by the parties concerned. It is important for a firm to discharge its duties under the contract at all times.For example, a customer granted credit facility should be allowed to repay under the agreed terms and conditions for which the loan was granted. †¢ Duty to make reasonable return to shareholders in accordance with the level of investment. The ordinary shareholder takes the highest risk in business, hence it is the duty of management of a company to utilize the resources of the company effectively to generate profit, the bulk of which should go to the ordinary shareholder.The firm should ensure that the market price of the company’s share is attractive to the public. When this is done, the owner’s economic welfare is maximized through high return on capital usually reflected on the market price of shares of the company. †¢ Duty to minimize harmful effect of substance. In the course of doing business, firms are bound to engage in activities whose effects may be harmful or distasteful to the members of the organization and the public.For example, hospital, police, radio, and television stations, telecommunication business provide twenty-four hours service to their customers and client, an indica tion that the employees of these organizations must be on duty every hour of the day. To be effective and efficient, there is need for shift duty. Although coming to work at night or very early in the morning might not be palatable with all employees, this is in evitable; thus, a fair compensation, in terms of shift hazards and inconvenience allowances, should be paid to the employees concerned. This will strengthen their commitment.Similarly oil and gas industries should pay high compensation to the people living in the area where oil and gases are produced, as this could compensate for the environment degradation of the area and other problems encountered by the people living in the community. Also bank staff that work outside the normal banking hours should be paid compensation allowance. †¢ Duty to pay reasonable salaries and wages to the employees. It is the duty of the firm to use the revenue generated from its business activities to pay fair and reasonable compensation i n the forms of salaries and allowances to workers.This should be commensurate with the services rendered. However, it will be unethical, unfair and an act of irresponsibility for a firm to ask the workers to perform task that will expose them to serious danger, risk, or unprofessional practices, all in the interest of robust salaries and allowances. For example, a situation where banks set unachievable deposit targets for staff by employing ‘beautiful’ ladies and ‘handsome’ men to run after money-bags to attract deposits. This encourages fraud and prostitution.A staff that fails to meet the target knowing full well that he would be sacked might resort to stealing to raise more funds or resort to prostitution. In like manner, a firm that pays reasonable returns on capital will enjoy continuous investment of shareholders. †¢ Duty to use part of the firm’s profit to provide 024 Univers. J. Mark. Bus. Res. amenities that promote the common good of t he community in which it operates. †¢ Duty to embark on projects that brings about the expansion and improvement in the company’s operations.Firms that expand create additional employment opportunities to the community, and this will lessen crime rates. Similarly goods are made available at affordable prices, thereby meeting the needs and satisfaction of the consumers. This encourages good standard of living of people in the community. †¢ Duty to honor obligations to the government in terms of payments of taxes an levies, thereby making fund available to the government to provide infrastructure facilities and meet the recurrent expenditures with a view to promoting national development.Social responsibility to stakeholders An organization should fulfill its social responsibilities to the following stakeholders for it to achieve its set objectives. For instance, using a Bank as a case study, the stakeholders will include: a. Customers market prices of the shares of t he bank in the stock market; †¢ Ensuring safe investments through good and sound management to prevent distress; †¢ Issuing bonus share from time to tome; †¢ Keeping the shareholders informed of the bank’s performances through annual general meetings, newsletters and information bulletins. . Employees †¢ Offer efficient services †¢ Make savings and withdrawals of money less time consuming by reducing the waiting time; †¢ Ensure adequate liquidity so that cash withdrawals is met promptly; †¢ Pay competitive rate of interest on saving and deposit, in line with the CBN‘s credit and monetary guidelines; †¢ Charges reasonable interest rates and commissions; †¢ Ensure safety of deposit so much so that the customers can deposit his money in the bank and go to sleep; †¢ Provide a conducive environment for banking activities, e. g. pacious and well ventilated banking hall, security for valuables and vehicles within the bank premi ses’ and †¢ Make secret of the affairs between the bank and customers to protect the interest of the customers. b. Shareholders †¢ Provide a conducive working environment i. e. make available modern working tools and equipment, ventilated offices, good infrastructure, decent and official cars, health and safety equipment at the workplace etc; †¢ Pay competitive salary remuneration commensurate with the level of commitment †¢ Offer opportunities for career development, e. . inducement for taking professional examination; †¢ Train and develop employees through continuous learning at seminars, conferences, workshop, with the view to update their knowledge base, to meet rapid changes in the banking environment. ; †¢ Keep employees adequately informed on the policies, procedures and rules relating to day-to-day banking operations. This can be done through newsletters, bulletins, meetings, etc; †¢ Involve employees in decisions affecting them, to ensure their total commitment and loyalty; †¢ Maintaining equal opportunities among employees, i. . there should be no preferential treatment or favourism; †¢ Establish clear cut bargaining and grievance procedures that will be known and followed by all employees. d. Government †¢ Being a responsible corporate entity or citizen, provide credit facilities to various sectors of the economy, with a view to ensuring the economic development of the country; †¢ Comply with the laws and regulations rescribed by regulatory authorities like the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporate, etc; †¢ Assist government in funding and promoting social activities, such as sponsoring sports programmes, contributions towards combating diseases e. g. AIDS, etc. e. The Public If banks are to guarantee continuous investment of their shareholders, they have the duty of: †¢ Ensuring effective performance by utilizing the capital invested in the bank to ma ximize profit. †¢ Paying good dividends, i. e. reasonable returns commensurate with the capital investment.Maximizing the owner’s wealth by ensuring good . Banks are socially responsible to the banking public, in general, and members of the community in which they are situated, in particular, in the following ways: Olanrewaju 025 †¢ Development of the environment through provision of basic facilities like good drinking water, donations to development associations, bringing banking services to the rural areas, indigenous lending, etc. †¢ Creation and maintenance of employment opportunities to qualified members of the community. This encourages loyalty, commitment and cooperation from the community. Participation in community activities, such as donations to community to celebrations, awarding scholarship to deserving members of the community, etc, and †¢ Using the skills of employees to develop charitable goods and services. MODERN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSI BILITY Modern CSR was born during 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro when United Nations sponsored recommendations on regulation were rejected in favour of a manifesto for voluntary self-regulation put forward by a coalition of companies called the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).Its version of events was endorsed by the US, the UK and other Western governments. The British government for example, is still a vocal supporter of voluntarism. Such resistance to regulation seem to have left the worst corporate abusers effectively unrestrained and the victims of their actions adequate means of redress. Whatever responsible initiatives companies choose to carry out on their own behalf binding international standards of corporate behavior must be established to guarantee that the rights of people and the environment in developing countries like Nigeria are properly protected.It is hence recommended that there should be international regulation backed up by natio nal legislation, to ensure the enforcement of real social responsibility on the corporate world. Introducing the threat of prosecution and legal action with resulting detailed disclosure of company documents would create powerful incentives for companies to behave responsibly.At a national level, Government should †¢ Adopt new laws to make corporate social and environmental reporting and disclosure mandatory for British companies including the disclosure of payments to overseas government, information on the social and environmental impact of overseas operations and details of legal actions against companies. †¢ Frame new responsibilities for companies directors to give them a ‘duty of care’ for communities and their environment, making them legally accountable for the actions of their companies overseas. Change the law to enable people harmed by British companies’ overseas operations to seek redress in UK court and to provide the resources to enable th em do so. What Drives Corporate Social Responsibilities Defending public image If companies behave improperly, they can be got at through the court of international public opinion. The first CSR initiatives were a response to public pressure and media exposure of poor company behavior. CSR was supposed to show that companies were capable of cleaning up their act. Prof.Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School argues that CSR is all defensive effort, a PR games in which companies primarily react to deal with the critics and the pressure from activists. Attracting investors companies that proactively engage with sustainable development agenda and its advocate in the investment world should generate support, interest and understanding among investors. This will ultimately ascribe a premium to share price. CSR makes companies attractive to both mainstream investors and to the fast growing ethical-investment sector.Many investors now believe that social and environmental riskmanageme nt improves a company’s market value in the long term. Permission to operate CSR has, of late become a vital component in companies’ effort to gain approval for projects carrying significant political and social risks. Lobbying against regulations â€Å"one of the key functions of CSR is to enable further deregulations by pointing to the involvement of business in ethical and sustainable activities and to indicate that multi-stakeholder dialogue with civil society obviates the need for binding regulation† (David Miller, Sterling Media Research Institute).I believe that companies’ voluntary measures can help improve private-sector behavior. But voluntary activity is no substitute for regulation and there is evidence that companies that espouse voluntary approaches to meeting social and environmental standards are also involved in resisting external regulation, especially by government. Concept of corporate social responsibilities in Nigeria To be able to u nderstand CSR from a Nigerian perspective it is of value to explore the drivers for, and 026 Univers. J. Mark. Bus. Res. the history and development of CSR in Nigeria.The World Business Council for sustainable Development has discussed CSR with business and non-business stakeholders in a number of countries in the world with the objective of understanding local perspectives better and to get different perceptions of what CSR should mean from a number of different societies. (http:www. cecodes. org. co). One important finding in this study was that people were talking about the role of the private sector in relation to a social agenda and they saw that role as increasingly linked to the overall well-being of society.Therefore the chosen priorities differed according to the perception of local needs. The key CSR issues identified in the study included Human rights, Employee rights, Environmental protection, Community involvement and Supplier relations. The book â€Å"Corporate Citize nship in Developing Countries† (Pedersen and Huniche, 2006) contains a chapter about revisiting Carroll’s CSR pyramid from a Nigerian perspective. Most of the research on Carroll’s CSR pyramid has been in an American context and in this report an attempt is made to look on how CSR manifests itself in a Nigerian context.In Nigeria, economic responsibility still get the most emphasis while philanthropy is given second highest priority, followed by legal and then ethical responsibilities. According to the report there are many reasons for this. Firstly, the socio-economic needs of the Nigeria societies in which companies operate are so huge that philanthropy has become an expected norm. Companies also understand that they cannot succeed in societies that fail. Secondly, many Nigerian societies have become dependent on foreign aid and there is an ingrained culture of philanthropy in Nigeria.A third reason, according to the report, is that CSR is still at an early sta ge in Nigeria, sometimes even equating philanthropy. It is important to stress that in Nigeria philanthropy is more than charitable giving. HIV/AIDS is an example where the response by business is essentially philanthropic but clearly in companies own economic interests. The low priority for legal responsibilities is, according to the study, not due to the fact that Nigeria companies ignore the law but the pressure for governance and CSR is not so immense.Ethical perspective seems to have the least influence on the CSR agenda. This is not to say that African businesses are unethical. For example, the King Report in 2003 (http://www. corporate compliance. org) was the first global corporate governance code to talk about ‘stakeholders’ and to stress the importance of business accountability beyond the interests of shareholders. Ajadi (2006), in a conference paper on Corporate Social Responsibility in Nigeria delivered at British Council conference on CSR in Nigeria, 2006, specifies some additional specific drivers for CSR in Nigeria: The failure of centralized, government controlled economy to develop the country †¢ The extraordinary transaction cost to business of corruption and other failures of social capital †¢ The history of conflict and waste in the extractive industry exemplified by the Niger Delta saga †¢ The Nigerian population whose majority is under the age of 25 and is largely ignored despite the fact that they are critical to the survival and future prosperity of business and the country at large. †¢ The potential benefit of a commercially active and productive country of over 140 million potential consumers.The drivers for CSR in the west are to be found within areas such as increased brand value, greater access to finance, a healthier and safer workforce, stronger risk management and corporate governance, motivated people, customer loyalty, enhanced confidence and trust of stakeholders as well as enhanced public im age. These drivers may not necessarily be applicable to Nigerian companies. Most indigenous companies in Nigeria are privately held, family owned and operated. Local consumer and civil society pressures are almost nonexistent and law enforcement mechanisms are weak. (Amaeshi, Adi, Ogbechie and Amao. 006). There are numerous ways of implementing CSR in an organization. CSR practices can address environmental issues, social issues or both. The implementation can be done by integrating CSR in the business or it can be run as a project. Sometimes there are CSR strategies and policies framing the CSR agenda, sometimes there are not. According to world Business Council for sustainable Development (Lohman and Steinholtz, 2003) an active CSR work might include areas such as: †¢ The management of the organization clearly declares its views and obligations towards the society and its stakeholders. The organization develops and implements clear policies. †¢ The organization has rules for purchasing including social and environmental concerns. †¢ The organization reduces its â€Å"ecological footprints†, both in production and in the process of production. †¢ The organization has objectives with regard to environmental and social concerns. †¢ The organization shows an active engagement with regard to the development of its local society. †¢ Consumers are educated on how products ought to be used. †¢ The organization informs about all its different business areas in a transparent manner.For most businesses operating in Nigeria whether small or large, local or national, the transaction cost of operating is often unpredictable. At the heart of this difficulty is the obvious problem of operating in a low trust Olanrewaju 027 economy. For many businesses the cost of paying upfront on cash flow or delayed payment; the difficulty of investing in people development; the challenge of high volume cash transactions are all part of a severely eroded social capital. At the core of this issue is the role of business partnership with government and others to exemplify and model behaviors that restore optimism and improves trust.The challenges that face a business in Nigeria are unique because CSR can probably not be optional in such a climate. In a country where the social, health, education and environmental needs are so prevalent, where government resources are so stretched, where everyday people live on the breadline, business any other way is not only unethical, it is most probably not sustainable. Implementation of corporate social responsibilities in Nigeria Annually, limited liability companies in Nigeria give reports of their social responsibility efforts. These are in four major identifiable areas; viz: a.The immediate environment of the company where the interest of the neighbours of the given companies are taken care of as much as is practicable (Bello, 1988) b. Locating worthy national or state activities to su pport. In this respect, educational, sporting and cultural activities are sponsored by companies as forms of social responsibility. Also, scholarships, training facilities, and other forms of support are often provided for students. c. Responding to major disasters. Such disasters may originate from nature or it may be accidental like the bomb explosion at the Ikeja cantonment on Sunday, January 27, 2002.In the oil industry, there had been several reported cases of oil spills damage farmlands, crops, forests and water. Others like fire, flood, drought and erosion are also responded to. Various types of materials are made available to victims of such disasters. d. Diversification of activities to areas of importance in the nation’s economic development. For example, Guinness plc invested funds in two major eyeclinics in Nigeria, and Texaco Oil Producing and Marketing Company diversified into agricultural activities of cultivating cassava and processing Garri [Cassava flour].Be fore the United Kingdom developed its CSR policy, Gordon Brown, prior to becoming the prime Minister said; today CSR goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past, donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year and is instead an all year round responsibility that companies accept for the environment around them†¦ now we need to move towards a challenging measure of corporate responsibility, where we judge results not just by the input but by its outcomes: the difference we make to the world in which we live, and the contribution we make to poverty reduction† (Corporate Social Responsibility – A Government Update: www.Csr. gov. uk). There is no doubt the committee saddled with the responsibility of developing a CSR policy for Nigeria will learn from the countries (especially developing ones) that have adopted and are implementing such policies successfully. Prior to the above declaration of the Federal Government, Nigeria did not have a CSR policy . Several companies operating here took the initiative to develop a CSR guideline or code for themselves.It is not out of place for a study to have found that indigenous firms perceive and practice CSR as corporate philanthropy aimed at addressing socio-economic development challenges in Nigeria. This finding confirms that CSR is a localized and socially embedded construct, as the ‘waves’, ‘issues’ and ‘modes’ of CSR practices identified amongst indigenous firms in Nigeria reflect the firms’ responses to their socio-economic context† (Amaeshi et al: 2006) One of the leading telecommunication companies in Nigeria, MTN Nigeria, developed a CSR policy direction document in 2004 in conjunction with a consulting outfit.The company has since gone ahead to establish MTN Foundation to lead its CSR policy implementation locally. A search for Best Practices in Corporate Social Responsibility by indigenous firms in Nigeria by Dotun Atilade, m entioned that elements of social responsibility include investment in community outreach, employee relations, creation and maintenance of employment , environmental responsibility, human rights and financial performance.It is about producing and / or delivering socially and environmentally responsible products and /or services in an environmentally and socially responsible manner while openness, accountability and transparency are some of the new key words covering a vast range of issues. A sustained bench mark for studying CSR practice, as suggested by Moon (2002), emphasizes waves, issues and modes; ‘waves (1) community involvement (2) socially responsible production process and (3) socially responsible employee relations, issues CSR practices emphasizes e. g. nvironmental , education, employee welfare , health and safety and modes through which they are implemented e. g. philanthropy foundation and codes. The result of these activities has been discovered to be shaped by Ni gerian corporate Governance framework and socio-economic conditions as reported in some research on the CSR activities of indigenous companies. The European Union’s Green Paper on CSR defines it as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environment concerns in their business operations and in 028 Univers. J. Mark. Bus. Res. heir interactions with their stake holders on a voluntary base. Mark Maxwell and Siegel (2001) as actions that appears to further some social groups beyond the interest of the firm and that which is required by law while the CSR constructs is a new coinage, it is not a new practice. It could be traced back to such example as the th th Quakers in 17 and 18 Century whose business philosophy was not primarily driven by profits maximization but to add value to the society at large. Business was framed as part of the society and not separate from it.The resurgent interest in the practice provides a fertile ground for different discourses and actors wh ich lends it to multiple and contested. (Moon, 2002). A common strand that runs through most of these studies suggests that meaning and practice of CSR is social culturally embedded. CSR in Nigeria would be aimed towards addressing the peculiarity of the social economic development challenges of the country (poverty alleviation, health care provision, infrastructure development, structure, education, etc and would be informed by social cultural influences (e. g. communalism and charity).This might not necessarily reflect the popular western standard/expectations of CSR (e. g. consumer protection, fair trade, green marketing, climate change concerns, and social responsible investments) etc. At Zenith Bank, Corporate Social Responsibility is not just a buzz word; it’s a way of life. To emphasize this belief Zenith Bank set up Zenith philanthropy, a fully functional department responsible for identifying areas, sectors and causes of the serving of philanthropic aid. Zenith phila nthropy is the channel through which Zenith bank gives back to the society.Zenith bank sees giving back to society as a serious and passionate cause. Today CSR goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year, but rather, an all year round responsibility that companies accept the environment around them for the best working practices for their engagement in their local communities and for their local communities and for their recognition that brand names depends not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how cumulatively they interact with companies work force community and environment.There are a lot of damages these companies are doing to the environment like local air pollution such as particulates, and the damage caused by the over-use and pollution of fresh water, the â€Å"social impacts† such as the migration of people driven out of affected areas , the toxic waste heavy waters users like food, drink and clothing companies are releasing into the environment. The aim of this study is to encourage and help investors lobby companies to reduce their environmental impact before concerned governments act to restrict them through taxes or regulations.The companies can give up the excess profit now, if they want a world in which it's possible to make any money at all, later. If we go on failing to put a price on the environment, we'll make the planet uninhabitable. The entire basis for freedom and for a sound economy is that if you want something, you have to pay for it. And right now, we're not paying for the environment, we're taking from it. What happens when the resources we have effectively doled out for free run out?We're already getting an idea with the oceans, where CO2 pollution is making them so acid that it is literally dissolving the shells of shellfish and killing them off. Literally, Nigerian banking industry and telecommunication industry today operate in what can be desc ribed as the â€Å"enemy’s territory†, with hardly any identifiable friend in the polity. Everyone has an axe to grind with them, the fact that they are needed to foster individual and collective business growth notwithstanding.While government sees them as being selfish and responsible for most of the problems of the economy, the regulatory authorities look at them and their operators with suspicion. To the public, employees of banking industry and telecommunication are privileged, over-pampered and over-paid â€Å"cheats† and â€Å"liars† who thrive at the expense of the rest of the society. Banking industry and the telecommunication industry are seen as making â€Å"hugeâ€Å" profits in a depressed economy. In effect, they are milking the economy dry instead of growing it.This perception is in fact miles away from the impression of renowned economist of yester-years. They are believed to foster economic growth in any economy. Adams Smith (1910) left no doubt as to what the role of banks in economic growth should be. However, the allegations leveled against banking and telecommunication industries can never be wished away and these are impacting negatively on