Transformation and Upgradation in Chinese Manufacturing Industry

Transformation and Upgradation in Chinese Manufacturing Industry

Chinese Manufacturing transformation and upgradation – Manufacturing is defined as the processing of raw materials obtained from the earth for the production of new, innovative, and useful products. Organizing and modernizing the manufacturing industries in a country promotes economic growth, eradicates unemployment and poverty, introduces advanced technologies and innovative products, and brings a lot of foreign exchange by exporting the local manufactured goods.

World’s most developed economies today have stabilized their industrial networks to encourage goods production at national level. In this way, these countries are generating large revenues every year by selling their products worldwide. According to Engels, industrial revolutions transform the living conditions of the community and lead to innovation. The modern technology and current progress in China is the essence of transformation and upgradation of its industries, which have captured the attention of industrialists across the world to make heavy investments in China’s manufacturing sector.

Since its appearance on the world map in 1949, China has been on the way of continuous progress and development. World Economic Forum report states that China is the world’s largest manufacturing economy today and considered to be the most competitive country with highly skilled and hardworking people (CEO Policy). Besides delivering low-cost labour and materials, China has now acquired a number of advanced drivers, such as infrastructure, favorable prices, and a well-established consumer-based supplier network (CEO Policy).

With the successful implementation of five-year plans, China has achieved most of the targets set by its financial representatives, but at the same time, many executives believe that the Chinese economic growth momentum has been weakened, and there is an ultimate need to spur a new round of progressive evolution (CEO Policy).

A recent report by United Nations Industrial Development Organization has provided some astonishing statistical figures on China’s industrial development (UNIDO). According to this report, China had manufacturing value added (MVA) share of more than 30% in comparison to that of developing countries, whose average share was around 11-14% (UNIDO).

The report also claims that in manufacturing employment, China had a share of 18-19%, while that of developing economies was 11-12%. China’s industrialization can be compared with collective industrialization of all the African countries due to China’s greater population (UNIDO). These figures show that with current progress, China will soon surpass the U.S. economy, which is currently the biggest economy in the world.

Chinese Manufacturing and Industrial Transformation and Upgrade Plan (2011-2015)

In 2011, the Chinese State Council released China’s Industrial Transformation and Upgrade Plan for the year 2011-2015 (Analysis on China’s Industrial Transformation). The plan proposed 8% annual increase in China’s total industrial added value, concentrating on emerging industries of strategic importance with a share of 15% (Analysis on China’s Industrial Transformation).

Moreover, the energy and water consumption per unit of industrial added value was to be reduced this by 21% and 30% respectively, while the carbon dioxide discharge was planned to decrease by over 21% (Analysis on China’s Industrial Transformation). The transformation plan had the following six transformational goals:

  • To transform the development mode to improve quality and profit margins;
  • To transform the development by innovating systems and processes;
  • To emphasize the proper utilization of available resources in order to ensure safety;
  • To decrease the percentage of carbon emissions;
  • To transform the current manufacturing models into digital, computerized, intelligent, and service technologies;
  • Proper adjustment of industrial designs to enhance working efficiency and employees’ coordination;
  • To change the macro-control practices on the basis of market force.

China Development Bank Industry Transformation and Upgrade Plan

In 2015, the China Development Bank (CDB) announced its industry transformation and upgradation plan, which was aimed to promote the “Made in China 2025” strategy and strengthen risk prevention and control as well as to boost the industrial development in China for successful implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan (Industry Transformation). The key steps of the CDB plan are given below:

  • To introduce a diversified mechanism of foreign investment and provide loans to the manufacturing sector for industrial upgradation and technological transformation;
  • To provide financial support to key innovation strategies by particularly concentrating on high-tech industries;
  • To prioritize the large enterprises that are the backbone of economy in terms of support for research & development and systematic upgradation;
  • To endorse the “One Belt and One Road” plan by enhancing production capacity and providing loans for overseas megaprojects;
  • To upgrade the internal structure in industries and increase the regional coordination in China;
  • To ensure all the theoretical and practical assistance for innovative projects for the development of manufacturing industries and economic growth.

Open Up Policies and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

FDI is the investment made by foreign investors after analyzing the economical atmosphere in a particular country. This investment not only introduces the latest technologies but also provides various employment opportunities. China introduced its ‘open-up’ policies in 1979 so that more and more FDIs are brought to China.

The results of adopting these policies were exceptional as the FDI in China increased from US$ 1.23 billion in 1986 to US$92.40 billion in 2008 (Liu and Daly). In terms of aggregate FDI, China became the largest destination of FDI inflow among the developing nations and the second largest in the world following the United States (Liu and Daly).

The investor-friendly policies of China forced the investors from foreign countries to invest comparatively more in the manufacturing sector rather than the Agriculture and Service sectors (Liu and Daly). Consequently, more than 60 percent of total utilized FDI inflow was made in establishing manufacturing industries between 1997 and 2008 (Liu and Daly).

The most common reasons for large foreign investments in manufacturing were cheap labor and the relative low cost of materials in China (Liu and Daly). The increased FDI has enabled China to possess high technology, particularly in chemical, automotive, electronics, and petroleum industries.

Chinese Manufacturing Transformation and Upgradation
Chinese Manufacturing Transformation and Upgradation

China’s Five-Year Plans

Five-year plans are based on strategic planning for achieving specific goals and financial targets. A competitive advantage of FYPs is that they provide a clear direction to the financial experts and governments for their economical position in the future. So far, China has introduced 13 FYPs; the last one was published in October 2016 by Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler China (KPMG). This article has discussed the 12th and the 13th FYPs and has analyzed the implementation of the 12th FYP in terms of accomplishing the set targets.

The 12th Five-Year Plan and Chinese Manufacturing

China’s 12th Five-Year Plan focused on the emergence of seven strategic industries: energy saving and environmental protection, new generations of IT technology, biotechnology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, and new energy vehicles (CEO Policy). The plan moved the Chinese economy in the right direction with the development of numerous new industries creating thousands of employment opportunities.

The World Bank China 2030 report proves that China has maintained and expanded its presence as one of the most competitive countries in the world (China 2030). Since the implementation of 12th FYP, China has posed an imminent threat to the developed economies in terms of economic competition.

Analysis of the 12th FYP

The article by Li, Wang, and He analyzed the implementation of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan in terms of its prospects for the next five years. An analysis of eight essential aspects related to economy, society, and ecological environment of the plan revealed that the achievements found in the plan implementation have consolidated the confidence for organizing an all-round well-off society of China by the year 2020 (Li, Wang, and He).

The authors concluded that most of the issues were controlled through appropriate measures (Li et al.). The research work also presented various useful suggestions for the preparation of the National Economic and Social Development 13th Five-Year Plan (Li et al.).

13th Final-Year Plan

China’s 13th Final-Year Plan for the years 2016-2020 was announced in October 2016 by Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler China (KPMG). This plan had seven development priorities, which are listed below:

  • To develop an economic structure that is focused on innovations, industrial upgradation, and foreign investments in the manufacturing sector;
  • To enhance foreign investment for transformation and upgradation of all the industries in China;
  • To increase the mutual coordination for regional development by investing in service and operational infrastructure;
  • Introducing ecology-first mechanism in industrial development by promoting green finance, green development, and green technology;
  • To improve the quality of lifestyle of Chinese people by increasing public spending and bringing transparency in financial matters;
  • To escalate the global interaction by making investments in natural resources and importing technologies from different countries;
  • To expand the institutional and market-oriented reforms.

Current Status of the Chinese Manufacturing Sector

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 29 industrial divisions managed to increase their profits, while 12 out of 41 divisions have recorded a decline (China’s Industrial Transformation). Oil processing, cooking, and nuclear fuel-processing divisions had a substantial growth of 9.7 times, whereas the power and heat production, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, textile, and automobile manufacturing industries all grew in different degrees (China’s Industrial Transformation).

The Deputy Director of NBS reported that as a result of innovative and entrepreneurial activities and achievements, various new industries grew rapidly in 2015, and the value added of high-tech and equipment manufacturing industries reached up to 10.2% and 6.8% respectively (China’s Industrial Transformation). The growth is still continued, and with the implementation of “Make in China 2025” strategy, China is likely to become the world’s biggest exporter in the next decade.

Conclusion

Since technological advancement was necessary for improving manufacturing processes and the quality of products, the transformation of manufacturing industries in China showed remarkable achievements. During the early stages of the plan, country’s exports in manufacturing sector shared just 50% of the total national exports (Liu and Daly). These low values of exports were the result of traditional manufacturing techniques and less developed industrial productivity, which attracted only a few foreign investors to make investments in China (Liu and Daly).

In order to bring more and more foreign investments into the country, several foreign investment policies and upgradation plans were devised by the government, which increased the total share of manufactured exports from 74.4% in 1990 to 104.2% in 2012 (Zhang et al.).

Today, Chinese products are available in every corner of the world, and due to better quality with reduced price, customers prefer Chinese products to the national ones. To achieve further economic growth, China needs to develop energy-efficient manufacturing sectors, improve its property protection policies and innovation capabilities, invest more in training new talents, and increase spending in the research and development sector.

Though Chinese manufacturing has a competitive advantage of being a talented and hardworking nation, they still need to learn innovation in advanced future technologies and organize their own standards in engineering.

Works Cited

Analysis on China’s Industrial Transformation and Upgrade Plan (2011-2015). Hanking, n.d.,

CEO Policy Recommendations for Emerging Economy Nations. WEFORUM, n.d., 2016,

China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society. Worldbank, n.d., 2012.

China’s Industrial Transformation and Upgrading: New Highlights in 2015. Xfafinance, n.d.,

Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892.

Industry Transformation & Upgrade. CDB, n.d., 2015,

KPMG. October 2016 The 13th Five-Year Plan; China’s Transformation and Integration with the World Economy. KPMG, 2016.

Li, Shantong, Huijiong Wang, and JianWu He. Analysis of Implementation of China’s 12th Five Year Plan and Prospects of Its Next Five Years. Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies, vol. 9, no.1, 2016, pp. 40-59.

Liu, Kelly, and Kevin Daly. Foreign Direct Investment in China Manufacturing Industry – Transformation from a Low Tech to High Tech Manufacturing. International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 6, no. 7, 2011, pp. 15-27.

UNIDO. Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development Working Paper Series. United Nations Industrial Development Organization, 2016.

Zhang, Xianhui, William A. Peek, Bohdan Pikas, and Tenpao Lee. The Transformation and Upgrading of the Chinese Manufacturing Industry: Based on German Industry. Journal of Applied Business and Economics, vol. 18, no.5, 2016, pp. 97-105.97-105.

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Leadership Dissertation Topics

Leadership Dissertation Topics

Leadership Dissertation Topics – Leadership is one of the vital functions of management which aids to accomplish organizational aims and objectives by maximizing the efficiency. A leader plays a significant role in concern’s working and encourages employees with both non-economic and economic compensation.

A leader not just supervises but rather carries a considerable mentoring role for subordinates by instructing them the way they are meant to perform. A project manager plays a role of primary leader who is responsible to manage project goals related to scope, cost, time and other operations effectively.

Scholars have for many years tried to differentiate and give the similarities between leadership and management. Leadership and management are two words that are intertwined together. Leadership defines a possessive quality that has to do with influencing, motivating and working toward set goals. Management on the other hand, is the desire to follow set rules in order to achieve set goals. Our collection of Leadership Dissertation Topics will help you better understanding of leadership theory.

Management involves giving order in contrast to leadership. The relationship between leadership and management is a basic problem in the theory and practice of organization management. Leadership and management are two basic functions of organization management.

The nature of the relationship between the two is the relationship between the leadership function and the management function. In general, leadership has been defined as doing the right thing while management is seen as doing the things right. This paper assesses the relationship between leadership and management, identifying the similarities, difference and the problems associated with identifying the actual relationship between leadership and management.

Keywords: Leadership, Management, Organization Management, Organization Function, Leadership Dissertation Topics.

Introduction

Abraham Zalezmek first described leadership and management as two separate terms in publication in 1977 [1]. In literature, leaders are seen to possess skills that are termed visionary and being right. Management on the other hand, is termed task-orienting and doing things right. While many authors try to find the difference between leadership and management, few are of the opinion that both leadership and management are the same [2]. Leadership is often described as the feature or quality that differentiates a great manager from a good one.

The terms leadership and management make up the skills and abilities necessary to describe an individual’s hunger for team success. This goes further to say that leadership and management can be interchanged especially when explaining their performance in organizations. According to [3], leading describes who you are as a person whereas managing is skill-based, a craft that can be learned and describes what you can do. This suggests that leadership is an identity that can be cultivated within a person and management, a set of characteristics that are demonstrated to show competency.

However, the description of leadership as the development of personal goals and management as the mastery of a craft is misleading and oversimplifies human and organizational development. In businesses, effective leadership is seen as the most essential part through which the business sustains itself in the face of challenges caused by rapid growth of the economy [4]. As a means to validate this, be sure to visit our leadership dissertation topics for material that will help you with your studies.

Leaders take charge and control the operations of an organization. Good leaders set achievable goals and objectives and guide the course towards the realization of the goals through effective strategies [5]. In addition, good leaders have the ability to influence their employees and encourage them through a positive organization culture and generous employee benefits such as leave allowances, healthcare insurances and others.

Leadership focuses on the general influences for inspiring people and gain their trust. On the other hand, management deals with planning, organizing, problem solving, influencing and controlling. In organizations, when performances appear to be bad, managers tend to understand the key reasons and what effective measures to take to mitigate the problems but would always wait for the leaders to come forward [6]. This reflects the division between leadership and management in organizational practice.

This division causes a misunderstanding between leadership and management. Leadership is process-oriented in the same way as management and both are similar in several ways. In one way, managers lead and leaders manage people and both of the work with people to achieve goals. This paper is one of many leadership dissertation topics available on our website that presents the relationship between leadership and management and the impact of this relationship in business.

Firstly, the leadership and management are discussed separately. Secondly, the functions and impacts of leadership and management further elaborated. Furthermore, the different aspects of leadership and management are discussed highlighting their roles in the growth of organizations and lastly, the relationship between leadership is discussed.

Leadership

Leadership refers to the process of influencing other people to do their duties with confidence and out of their own will. Leadership is focused on achieving specific goals through people by motivating them to direct their energies toward attaining the set goals. A leader equips, trains and influences followers with diverse abilities and skills to focus their energies willingly and enthusiastically to achieve organizational mission and objectives [7].

The concept of leadership does not only talk about the willingness of the followers but also their zeal and confidence [8]. The term leadership has been widely discussed in many literatures and many scholars have defined it differently each explaining it in his own way. Currently, there are more than 400 definitions of leadership [9]. Leaders influence people positively and make them strive out of their own will to achieve the organizational goals.

Be sure to visit our leadership dissertation topics. The role of a leader in an organization is vital in terms of creating a vision, mission, objectives, policies and strategies that help to achieve organizational goals effectively and efficiently as well as directing and coordinating the organizational activities [10]. The lack of effective leadership may cause problems related to unethical practices, high labor turnover, and poor financial performance among others in an organization. The main aim of many businesses is to achieve their set goals thus, the need for effective coordinate and motivate employees [11].

Leadership Qualities and Roles

Leaders play very important roles in the growth of organizations. The qualities of leaders help them to identify realizable goals, devise strategies to reach those goals, and motivate and provide direction for the team to follow to achieve the set goals. It is vital for the leader to recognize the value system that operates in a variety of work group and situation.

  • Objective: A good leader always examines all situation before making decisions. Objectivity is ability to rationally assess problems and issues without being biased.
  • Perception: Perception entails the ability discover the realities in one’s surroundings. Organizational leaders are required to have knowledge of the organizational goals and objectives and work towards achieving them.
  • Establish and follow priorities: This is the ability to recognize what is important and what is not and arrange goals in the order of their importance. Leaders should know what is important and worthy of consideration
  • Interpersonal relationship: All leaders work with people. A leader should have good human relation attitude. This is very important for leaders who have their jobs done through subordinates. The human relations theory states that jobs should be designed and scheduled in such a way that workers have a sense of responsibility as well as opportunities to participate in decisions affecting their job [8].
  • Manages crisis: In all organizations, disputes always exists among the workers. Leader should be capable of settling disputes or differences among their subordinates.
  • Decision-making: Decision-making is one of the most important roles of leaders. Effective decision-making involves defensive avoidance, collecting more and more information about the cost and utility of each alternative and comparing them systematically in order to choose the most effective costs.

Management

As defined by Katz in 1955, management is exercising direction of an organization through executive, administrative and supervisory positions [12]. In the above definition, management is seen as a task-oriented responsibility and involving the development of staff, mentoring high potential personnel and resolving conflicts at the same time reserving ethics and discipline [12].

Management was defined by Kotter as the job of taking care of planning, organizing, budgeting, coordinating and monitoring activities for a group or organization [13]. In general, management is the process or means of achieving organizational goals. In Northouse definition, management is the means through which objectives and goals are realized through the efficient use of resources [14].

The most important resource managed by managers is the human resource. The aim of managers is to reach short-term goals, avoid risks and establish standards to improve standards [15]. While carrying out their activities, managers focus on directing and controlling their assistants, resources, structures and the entire system.

Functions of Management

The functions of management include planning, organizing, influencing and controlling. Managers must perform these functions to enable them perform their duties effectively.

Planning

Planning is the first aspect of management. Planning helps to choose the most appropriate method for performing important task to help achieve organizational goals. The sole focus of planning is achieving objectives. The activities of the organizational team, managers or employers toward achieving desired objectives and achieve success are defined through planning. In general, planning increases the efficiency of organizations because it leads to short-term success and in the long-run shapes the organization’s long-term future [16].

Organizing

Organizing involves assigning task to people that was done during planning. Organizing helps creating a process that converts plans into incidents or products [17]. In general, the organizational employees are assigned some tasks, which meet or contribute towards achieving important organizational goals.

Tasks need to be organized, in such a way that every employee’s performance should add to the departmental and organizational success. Divided labor reduces workload and optimizes the utilization of resources; therefore organizations need to manage their people and processes [16].

Influencing

Influencing is also seen as motivating, directing or leading. It means guiding the organization members to accomplish tasks in a way that helps an organization achieve its goals [16]. Influencing has a major purpose, which is enhancing productivity.

Generally, the accomplishment of tasks, which are labor-intensive and require teamwork and result in generating high production levels in the long-run rather than the situations, in which people have to accomplish individual tasks because most of the people find task-based working conditions as uncomfortable or tedious[17].

Controlling

According to [16], controlling is the fourth managerial function, and it plays the following roles:

  • Information collection for performance evaluation.
    • Deciding the performance norms and compare the current performance with the previous performances.
    • Make a new action plan, and modify the existing plans to achieve the desired objectives.

Controlling is a continuous function of managers [16]. Controlling assures that the targets are achieved, and the desired changes have been made. The functions given above are major management functions; however, they need to be performed simultaneously in order to run the organization in a profitable way.

Relationship between Leadership and Management

In Jarad’s view, leadership exists as a subset of management and both leadership and management are important to facilitate organizational performance [20]. Management deals with planning, budgeting, controlling, and structuring while leadership refers to a process of directing, visioning, and motivating including coordinating and the development of individuals.

Additionally, management and leadership roles are distinctive in terms of internal and external roles [21]. According to [22] the goals of managers come from necessities whereas the goals of leaders come from a place of active attitudes. This means that leaders inspire people to be creative and innovative about problem solving under less supervision. On the other hand, managers give instructions to ensure that the organization’s day-to-day business is completed.

The creativity of leaders can sometimes be suppressed by managers’ desire for order, and while managers avoid risks, leaders take calculated risk [22]. In addition, a leader has soul, the passion and the creativity while a manager has the mind, the rational and the persistence [23]. A leader is flexible, innovative, inspiring, courageous and independent whereas, a manager is consulting, analytical, deliberate, and authoritative and stabilizing [24].

Furthermore, management works to establish security and order, as leadership promotes change and fluidity within organizations. In as much as individual can be a great leader, a great manager, or both, he still needs the mastery of slightly different skills and competencies. The mastery these skills helps the individual to successfully navigate the fields of both management and leadership. There is no doubt our collection of leadership dissertation topics will help you in this field.

Leadership and management may overlap, but they are not the same [26]. Leadership is a multi-directional influence relation, while management is a unidirectional authority relationship [25]. Zaleznik argues that organizations need both effective managers and effective leaders in order to reach its goals, even though managers and leaders have different contributions [1].

He further stated that leaders promote change, new approaches, and work to understand people’s beliefs to gain their commitment, but managers promote stability, exercise authority, and work to get things accomplished. Consequentially, leadership and management need different types of people [1]. Watson in 1983 stated that management means taking care of structure and system, but leadership focuses on the communication, motivation, and shared goals [27].

To further state the difference between leaders and managers, Watson mentioned in his book “Leadership, Management and the Seven Keys” that strategy, structure, systems, shared values, skills, and style (the 7S) are more effective for leaders than for managers.

Leaders have vision, goals, strong values and work to ensure that his followers are on the same page [28]. Hull and Ozeroff described leaders as good communicators because they spend more time with their followers [28]. In addition, leaders are aware of their team members’ professional strengths, weaknesses, emotional standings, their place in the organization, which allow them to know how to motivate them [26].

Understanding the nature of leadership requires you to consider the broader notions of leadership and management. Leaders have followers, and must influence their followers in the right ways [25]. Managers on the other hand, follow the laid down process, and seek stability and control and in a way, instinctively try to resolve problems quickly. Organizations need both managers and leaders to achieve the goals and objectives. Table 1 gives the summary and comparison between leadership and management.

Table 1: Summary and comparison of the relationship between leadership and management

Leadership Dissertation Topics - MBA Projects

Leadership Dissertations

Problems associated with Understanding the Relationship between Leadership and Management. Leadership Dissertation Topics

  • Understanding correctly the notion of leadership and management: Many scholars have defined leadership and managements in more than 350 different ways [18]. These definitions bring about inconsistency in understanding the concept of leadership and management.
  • The inequivalent relationship between leadership and management, and leaders and managers: According Warren Bennis, a manager is someone who does things correctly and a leader is a person who does the correct thing [19]. The evaluation of the definition by Bennis, the leadership and management behaviors cannot exist in the same person. It goes further to say that leaders mainly perform the leadership function of a certain level in the organization, but the management function of this level cannot be ignored, otherwise leadership function will be ineffective.Conversely, managers can mainly perform the management function of a certain level in the organization, but the leadership function of this level cannot be ignored, otherwise it will lead to inefficient or ineffective management functions [20].
  • Understanding the nature of the relationship between leadership and management: The function of leadership mainly concerns the right direction and the value of organizational activities, whereas the function of management deals with stability of order and efficiency of organizational activities [20]. Leadership and management functions in different levels in an organization and together constitute management system and management system of the whole organization management. Consequently, the nature of the relationship between leadership and management is the relationship between leadership function and management function. Therefore, the description of leadership and management by Warren Bennis should be the mission of the leadership function is to ensure doing something correct, and the mission of the management function is to ensure doing something correctly [20].
  • Understanding the relationship between leadership and management to be different from the relationship between their disciplines: The relationship between leadership and management disciplines is based on the need of discipline construction, and they both have different emphasis. Nonetheless, this emphasis should not deny the unity of the organization management. The means that the discipline itself is independent, but its independence is relatively independent in the theoretical system of the organization management [20]. The two disciplines have strong complementary both in theory and in practice.
  • Understanding that the need of theoretical research cannot cover the need of the practice of organization management: Several scholars see leadership as one functions of management. This is from the viewpoint that management functions include planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Other scholars are of the viewpoint that management belongs to the leadership, because leaders’ function is more prominent in the organization management. These viewpoints distort the relationship between leadership. However, the relationship between leadership and management should be analyzed according to the natural state of the organization management practice.

Conclusion and Leadership Dissertation Topics Toughts

Logically, the concepts of leadership and management are different but have some similarities. An attempt to break the relationship between leadership and management by considering only the differences that exists between them cancels the meaning of organization management. This project can be found in our leadership dissertation topics section and we have highlighted that both leadership and management are important for every business or organization to achieve success.

Practically, once leadership or management breaks away from the organization management, its mission, the whole organization management becomes meaningless, and the whole organization management system will operate in a low level. If this happens, it will eventually lead to inefficient integration of the organization resources and poor organization performance.

Having discussed the relationship between leadership and management under the concept of organization management. It is believed that the nature of the relationship between leadership and management is the relationship between leadership and management functions. This research can help to address the problem that leadership and management face especially in their combined contribution to organization goals and business growth. In practice, leadership and management are interrelated and therefore go hand in hand in organization management.

References

  1. A. Zaleznik. Manager and leaders: are they different? Harvard Business Review, 1977, vol. 55, pp. 67-78.
  2. A. Neelam, PhD, H. A. Glenn Jr, PharmD, B. Amie, PharmD, G. Oscar, PhD, MBA, C. O’Neil, PharmD, S. M. Misty, PharmD, S. L. Jenelle, PharmD. Leadership and Management Are One and the Same. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 2017, vol. 81, no. 6 Article 102.
  3. E. Andersen. Manage or lead? Do both. 2012.
  4. I. Cabeza-Erikson, K. Edwards, and T. Van Brabant. (2008). Development of leadership capacities as a strategic factor for sustainability. Karlskrona: Blekinge Tekniska Höogskola.
  5. J. H. Moo and, Dr. Y. Rashad. How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in Organizations through Improvement and Innovation. Global Journal of Management and Business Research: An Administration and Management, 2015 vol. 15, no. 9.
  6. L. Yaokui. Analyzing the relationship between leadership and management based on the concept of organization management. Advances in Social Sciences Education and Humanities Research, 2016, vol. 63, pp. 156-160.
  7. E. Bruce, K. P. Winston. An Integrative Definition of Leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 2006, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 6-66.
  8. U. I. Abbas and O. D. Cross. Impact of leadership on organizational performance. Int. J. Bus. Manag. Soc. Res, 2019, vol. 06, no. 02, pp. 367-­374.
  9. L. J. Mullins. Management and organizational behavior (5th Edition) Britain: Pearson Educational Ltd, 2012.
  10. G. Y. Xu and Z. S. Wang. The impact of transformational leadership style on organizational performance:   The intermediary effects of leader-member exchange. Long Beach, CA, USA, IEEE Xplore, 2008, pp. 1090-1097.
  11. E. Vigoda-Gadot. Leadership style, organizational politics, and employees’ performance: An empirical examination of two competing models. American Journal of Business and Management, 2012, vol. 36 no. 5, pp. 661- 683.
  12. R. L. Katz. Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review, 1955, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 33-42.
  13. J. P. Kotter. What leaders really do? Harvard Business Review, 2001, vol. 79, no. 11, pp. 85-96.
  14. P. Northouse. Leadership theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications 2007.
  15. J. Kotterman. Leadership vs Management: What’s the difference? Journal for Quality & Participation, 2006, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 13-17.
  16. Bateman & Snell. Management: The New Competitive Landscape. (6th edition) Mcgraw-Hill (Tx) 2004.
  17. R. H. E. Hassan. The Relationship between Strategic Management and Leadership: A Critical Literature Review. International journal of scientific and technology research, 2019, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 58-62.
  18. Z. Li-Yan. Administrative leadership, 3rd edition. Publishing House of Renmin University of China, Beijing, 2015, 26.
  19. A. Y. Gary. Leadership in Organizations, 5th edition. Translators: Wenzhao Tao. Publishing House of Renmin University of China, Beijing, 2004, 6.
  20. G. H. Jarad. The construction manager leading characteristics for the success of construction projects in the Gaza Strip. Master’s Thesis, the Islamic university of Gaza, 2012.
  21. I. J. Price. The Conception and Operationalization of leadership in construction companies, Masters Degrees Thesis, UNISA, 2009.
  22. A. Zaleznik. Managers and leaders: Are they different? Harv Bus Rev, 2004, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 74-82.
  23. J. P. Kotter. Leading change: A conversation with John P Kotter, 2001, vol. 25 no. 1, MCB UP.
  24. M. Liphadzi, C. O. Aigbavboa, and W. D. Thwala. A theoretical perspective on the difference between leadership and management. Procedia Engineering, 2017, vol. 196, pp. 478 – 482.
  25. Dr. A. Ali. Are Leadership and Management Different? A Review. Journal of Management Policies and Practices, 2014, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 71-82.
  26. C. W. Watson. Leadership, Management and the 7 Keys. Business Horizons, March–April 1983.
  27. S. R. Covey. Principle Centered Leadership. New York: Franklin Covey Company, 2003.
  28. T. Hull and P. Ozeroff. The transitioning from Manager to leader. New York: Harper and Row, 2004.

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Integrated Management

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Integrated Management

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder remains one of the leading stress-related disorders and psychological issues in society today. An understanding on to the treatment of and the management of the disorder for those with and prone to the problem is necessary. A lot of research, and shown in the literature review below, has explored the specific areas of interest and the common strategies used by psychologists, medical doctors and other professionals in the treatment of and management of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It, however, remains a challenge to find and implement an integrated approach towards Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment and management. It is the labor of this research review to bring together articles and ideas from empirical reports and researches on managing and treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with an aim to create an integrated approach towards the management and treatment of the disorder.

The research recognizes the diversity of possible remedies towards Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and seeks to bring together four out of the many possible approaches for a program that offers effective remedies for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It recognizes that effective management and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder will require a practising psychologist to look beyond the symptoms he or she can see and consider the external inputs to the individual.

As a conceptual framework, therefore, effective management of and treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is equal to successful identification of the external factors affecting, influencing and worsening Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder plus the internal factors affecting, influencing and worsening the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the individual. This proposition includes several faces about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. First, the disorder is a non-hereditary one and the person suffers Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the course of their life.

This is triggered by traumatic experiences such as rape, domestic violence, war and other terrible occurrences such as terrorism and molestation. These are all external factors which often are out of control of the person will. They infiltrate the person’s peaceful course of life from outside and are often unpredictable. They can be summed up as external pressures that lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Secondly, the disorder, once it takes its seat in the person’s life, causes several psychological and psychosocial changes in the individual that alter the general behavior of the person and especially, their perception of various stimuli.

The person starts to associate different stimuli with the trauma-related events that they witnessed a long time ago and therefore subjects the individual to a troubled life. lastly, the person being addressed and who is the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patient lives in a society of human beings who, from time to time, interact with the patient at different levels. Such interactions will cause various reactions by the society or the individual.

This research will identify the third class of elements part to a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patient effective intervention program as the secondary factors. The level or ability of such a society in handling depression and especially, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, will determine at a large scale, the trajectory of the individual towards or away from recovery. This is because society will be the support state of the patient.

Addressing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

In developing the program and with a view to a multifaceted approach to managing and treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this review adopts the framework: effective treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder = addressing external factors + internal factors + external secondary factors. To effectively address the factors, the treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder will acknowledge the need to include four domains of parties and knowledge necessary for a holistic person, where holistic means addressing all the issues party to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and necessary for sustained relief and recovery from the disorder.

As such, the research identifies four main domains of psychology that are important for integration in the treatment of and management of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The domains include the psychological practitioners on the clinical, cognitive, social and rehabilitative. The four are chosen based on their contributions towards a holistic personal focus by psychological practitioners on the clinical, cognitive, social and rehabilitative treatment and management programs, which may take place at the hospital and the home.

There is a seamless connection between the four domains highlighted above and which will be used in the literature review. First, the patient needs drugs that are used to alleviate the deconstructive thoughts and flashbacks and often, the false sense of danger of alarm with patients with psychological practitioners on the clinical, cognitive, social and rehabilitative. The program would include a clear and accurate clinical identification of the problem through careful consultation with a doctor, more so, a psychologist or a clinician.

This is usually the first step in attending to a patient of any kind as long as they can respond to the consultant’s investigation unbiased. Upon the identification of the problem, there is a need for pharmaceuticals to identify the right drugs, if there are any, to counter the traumatic ideation and experiences or memories of the patients, toning down the symptoms of the disorder. Above that, medical science should establish science-based, theoretical and clinical knowledge perspective in relieving, preventing and understanding human psychological ill-health. on the other hand, there is the need to manage the social circles of the patents in such a way that the circles promote, rather than worsening, the recovery process of the patients. The social domain calls for the acts of those around the victim to be controlled so as to produce pro-healing efforts for the victim.

Social psychology studies how people’s acts affect those of others, in our case, the wellbeing of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Upon understanding the clinical and social inputs necessary for the whole recovery of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patient, the effective program should consider understanding and attending to primary diseases or states of well-being that promote Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. An example is spinal and brain injury.

Such patients are more likely to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder than any other healthy person. The connection between the chronic diseases and the disorder will be studied carefully with a view to a better management strategy for such patients. A proactive means to curbing the possibility of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder arising from or among such parents will be reviewed with a view to using rehabilitative psychology as a domain and input to managing the disorder. To yield the best results and for an effective therapy for persons with the disorder, cognitive psychology will be applied.

This psychology includes, among other things, managing the cognitive behavior, including perception, of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patient. It has been shown to be one of the most effective means to treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy works very well, most effectively, when combined with injunction interventions such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Ultimately, the four domains will rely on each other for the successful treatment of and management of the disorder.

While these domains have been used before, the integration of the four for a single program aimed at effective treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder has not been recorded. It is the burden of this review to show the critical need to have the disorder approached from different angles, hence the development of this literature review pending deeper research thereafter.

This literature was chosen on basis of their primacy and direct address to the various domains as well as their verifiability, coming from an authentic and official library. In so doing, the literature review hypothesizes that only an integrated approach to managing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder would fully address the growing prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in America.

Discussion

Post-traumatic stress disorder is as a result of the interacting external and internal factors that are related to or associated with the first instance of the traumatic experience and sustain or repress subsequent manifestations of trauma. Specifically, it is a psychological disorder regulated by factors which the person can control and others that he can’t control. Therapy ought to, therefore, recognize the different angles and interventions necessary for Post-traumatic stress disorder treatment for holistic treatment.

Experts consider a holistic approach to health and wellness as the optimal approach, given the side effects and resultant disorders and symptoms of ill-health or anti-social behavior that can result from psycho-social disorders. To them, treating the identified disease without paying attention to the external and internal climate encouraging the disease or disorder would only offer short-term reprieve but leaving nothing for the long-term. Without the holistic approach to ill-health, therefore, treatment would be ineffective in psycho-social disorder (Auxier, Farley & Seifert, 2011).

Clinical Psychology Domain

The first step for an already exposed population ought to be an investigative approach to identify those with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and those who do not. Cognitive approaches can be used and this may include a simulation of the suspected event that is feared to have caused post-traumatic stress disorder as well as clinical trials or measures. Clinical psychology, as the term denotes, interests itself with the science-based theoretical and clinical evidence approaches to relieving human suffering from diseases.

In the case of post-traumatic stress disorder and in psychology, it includes the active interrogative, investigative and documentation process to identifying people with or without post-traumatic stress disorder. It seeks to understand ill-health from an evidence point of view. Integrated health management calls for thorough investigations to identify a problem before working on a solution, the reason why clinical psychology comes next to none of the four interventions and domains of psychology in this integrated literature review.

In a study carried out by Ferry, F., Bunting, B., Murphy, S., O’Neill, S., Stein, D., and Koenen, K. in 2014, the authors reported that many issues of violence precipitated post-traumatic stress disorder in Northern Ireland, a zone potential of violence and civil threats. They noted that the population sample of 4340 subjects revealed possibilities of post-traumatic stress disorder upon children and adult exposure to the death of a close friend or a loved person such as children, parents or a sibling, partner violence or threat to a partner or close friend can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

These are common occurrences in our societies with people getting assaulted with freehand, crude weapons or guns in every corner. The church shootings, school shootings and street racialized shootings, as well as domestic gun violence in America, expose our children and loved ones to health stressors akin to the situation in Northern Ireland. The implication of their study is that such people as having witnessed assault or violence by a close friend or a loved one need to be screened for, on a going basis, post-traumatic stress disorder among other disorders.

Those found with the slightest of symptoms for post-traumatic stress disorder should be attended to with counselling and where necessary, with cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing programs among other interventions.

While programs for therapy and interventions among people with post-traumatic stress disorder would be an effective proactive means to reducing and eliminating post-traumatic stress disorder in the population, there are several internal factors that hinder the quick recovery from the disorder. Seligowski, A. V., Miron, L. R., and Orcutt, H. K. (2015) identify self-compassion as a positive factor in reducing trauma and traumatic manifestations for persons with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Those with high levels of self-compassion and self-pity are more likely to recover and cooperate than those who have reduced self-compassion. This discovery means that cognitive behavioral therapy should include enhancing the individual self-awareness of their condition and their self-compassion, which, predictably, should enhance their means to recovery. The results indicate a need to further research on the other personal emotional factors that could contribute to faster recovery.

However, clinically critical empirical results from two researches show that drug abuse and substance abuse, as well as psychological inflexibility, are two factors that lead to prolonged post-traumatic stress disorder and irresponsiveness in treatment. The first study indicates that psychological flexibility is a positive factor in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder while inflexibility is a negative contributor. Those who are willing to flex their opinions and views concerning themselves and concerning the encounters they went through are more likely to recover than are those who are inflexible.

Again, high inflexibility is a predictor for increased post-traumatic stress disorder manifestation (Meyers et al, 2018). Clinicians and psychologists ought to understand this and similar factors that make recover from post-traumatic stress disorder difficult among patients and develop programs that seek to increase the psychological flexibility of patients and persons likely to be or already exposed to post-traumatic stress disorder. On the other hand, Reisman (2016) associates’ drug and substance use with post-traumatic stress disorder, noting that in a study including US war veterans, the majority of them were drug abusers.

Drug abuse, he notes further, can lead to a worsening state of post-traumatic stress disorder, given that the drugs can lead to further depression and impaired judgment, which can, in turn, lead to suicidal ideation. Among the drugs most commonly abused by war veterans are alcohol and cocaine as well as cigarette, all of which have side effects and withdrawal effects as well as cause ill-health in large contents. Still, drug abuse can hinder cooperation between a therapist and the patient and the intervention program should understand the drug history of the patient as well as their current drug abuse status.

Effective intervention, therefore, would start by preventing drug abuse among persons exposed to traumatic war experiences as these are precipitates for further and worsening post-traumatic stress disorder.

As a breakthrough in post-traumatic stress disorder management and treatment, there are drugs that have been found to work best in addressing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and which ought to be used as the initial strategy for treating the disorder. In pharmacotherapy addressing post-traumatic stress disorder, drugs that act directly on the serotonergic systems are effective when used for a long period.

They actively suppress the trauma thoughts and flashbacks that cause the symptoms for the disorder and thus intervene for a change in the post-traumatic stress disorder experience of the person. The drugs include but are not limited to monoamine oxidase inhibitors and selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (Sauer & Bhugra, 2001).  The former includes the drugs used to inhibit monoamine oxidase A or B or both, abbreviated as MAO-A and MAO-B. the two monoamine inhibitors work against depression by functioning as strong anti-depressants and throwing the depressed out of panic and social phobia. As the person becomes less panicked and more sociable, the post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms are mitigated.

Likewise, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are active and powerful antidepressants, functioning by increasing the extracellular amounts of neurotransmitter serotonin through reduced reabsorption or reuptake into the presynaptic cell. This lowers depression, thus, countering the depressive effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. This calls for, however, a patient and intelligent examination of the progress and a combination with conservative therapy strategies such as cognitive behavioral therapy and the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing as the length of time for the drug administration is not a direct predictor or factor for the speed of or level of recovery.

Therapy, therefore, should concentrate on eliminating the psycho-social instabilities through a combination of pharmacological and psychological therapies such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and cognitive behavioral therapy (Gutermann, Schwartzkopff & Steil, 2017).

Social Psychology Domain

Social psychology engages itself with the manner or processes and reasons why one person’s acts influence or affect the other. In this domain and in line with Post-traumatic stress disorder, there are several social environment factors that would hinder the full recovery of the Post-traumatic stress disorder patient, even when effective drugs have been provided and complete therapy or recovery has been foreseen. first, physicians and counsellors must understand that in order to design a therapy program for a person suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder and whose impact event that led to the disorder was due to an encounter they went through, the intensity of the disorder is as often directly proportional to the period of time or intensity of exposure they had with the traumatic event.

Chou et al (2011) studied a group of 1966 children who had post-traumatic stress disorder arising from physical abuse by their relatives or a close friend at home. The authors noted that the longer the children, all of whom were from grades 4 to 8, expressed symptomatic PTDS relative to their period of exposure. They had severe peri-traumatic subjective reactions as compared to those exposed for a short time.

This is because during the time of exposure, the traumatic events continue to register in the persons conscious and subconscious mind and their somatic cells end up relating every repeating event of trauma to the former, and subsequently to the first encounter, growing a bolder association of the stimuli and the results of their experience. This implies that a patient who experienced traumatic events for a whole decade should be given more attention, subject to their resilience and response to therapy, that one who has just had a day’s experience.

The social approach is important because while the research indicates a direct relationship between the time of exposure of the patient to the traumatic event, research also finds that intimate partner abuse can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder with a sample of 128 African-American women population, the authors noticed that the strategies the women would choose would determine whether or not they will end up in post-traumatic stress disorder and if yes, to what extent.

The authors noted that both psychological non-physical and physical abuse leads to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. However, they noted that non-physical psycho-social abuse was more prevalent as compared to the physical abuse (Mills, Hill & Johnson, 2018). What this means is that for a woman living with an abusive woman or a man living with an abusive woman as a husband and wife, there are chances that either party, the aggrieved one, will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. Given the home setting and husband-wife relationships and the time the two spend together, there will always be prolonged exposure to the trauma-causing abusive events to the abused party.

A wife may spend a prolonged life with an abusive husband and vice versa without opting out of the relationship. Gain, the one party can take advantage of the intimate relationship to advance their ill-aimed mistreatment or violence towards their spouses in an America where husband-wife wrangles and tensions are always a probability. This consists of Runyon, Deblinger & Steer (2014) who noted in their research that parental abuse would lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. In their case, if one parent is caring and comforting while the other one is abusive or neglecting, such a mismatch wouldn’t cancel the probability for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

If the one causes the children to go through hellish experiences while the other, probably the mother, creates an encouraging and positive environment for the growing children, they will experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder still. The pampering of one parent cannot, therefore, reverse the damages caused by the other. In their review, the authors noted that the effects brought about by the abusive parent were independent with the love shown by another, meaning that the parent will inflict the son or daughter with trauma-causing experiences that cannot be compensated through love and care from another parent.

As such, proactive prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder includes the training for parents to actively provide the right environment for their children and for relatives of adults suffering the disorder to eliminate cases of inhumane treatment by other family members in order to provide an environment that discourages the development and persistence of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Also, Oravecz et al note in their study that post-traumatic stress disorder is not a preserve for persons working in war-torn areas or terror zones, accident occasions and other fatal experiences. They argue and research the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among persons working in Slovene medical emergency units.

The authors realize that post-traumatic stress disorder is common among staff working in ICU and other critical incidence areas in the hospitals, results which can be generalized across the medical profession and the hospital environment all over the world. It is needful, in the spirit of a proactive preventive approach towards post-traumatic stress disorder, to cover such staff as are working in areas that expose them to traumatizing conditions of disease and human sufferings which cause flashbacks among clinical and medical officers. These include all people dealing with broken or missing human limbs out of accidents and other emergencies referred to hospitals and being attended by medical and support staff. One such a program for self-care and organized human resource care ought to be continuous counselling and retraining to cope with and withstand the many cases of critical illnesses and cases of accidents witnessed by the medical officers.

In their studies, Zulueta (2007 and Evans et al (2009) conclude that indeed, persons exposed to September 11, 2001, World Trade Center disaster and persons witnessing mass violence had similar outcomes; they both suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. Zulueta notes that mass violence leads to mass detachment and separation between children and their parents as well as relatives and subject the witnesses to inhumane conditions which trigger trauma symptoms.

Such witnesses may need immediate attention, a subject that delves to the preventive program of post-traumatic stress disorder intervention methods. On the other hand, 842 people who had been involved in the world trade Centre attack showed that those who had any forms of disability were more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder compared to those who didn’t. The two studies outline the need for witnesses of mass violence or terror attacks should be attended to proactively with counselling sessions and especially, those who have any forms of disability, as they are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder than those who are whole and healthy.

The September 11, 2001 World Trade Center report reveals that these categories of individuals are more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder because of their limitations in movement as well as their inability to flee from the scene which subjects them to more horrible conditions of susceptibility as compared to their fellow workers, friends or family members without disabilities.

Rehabilitative Psychology Domain

Understanding the social demographics prone to the likelihood of developing post-traumatic stress disorder is as important as is the understanding of cases where the disorder is likely to develop among people undergoing medical care or critical treatment. Rehabilitative psychology deals with the psychological processes among people undergoing medical treatment.

These are being rehabilitated or treatment for serious injuries such as cancer, spinal injury, brain injury among other excruciating diseases. People with such illnesses are likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder due to the memories and/or nightmares they experience. Their therapists ought to understand the challenges they face, the manifestations they have which are symptomatic of post-traumatic stress disorder and how to address them before they advance to a more serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The likelihood that a worker who witnessed fatalities at the place of work will develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is high in the US as well as any other place in the world. In the United Steelworkers research, about 26 percent reported Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms while another 21 percent reported subthreshold Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms (Blake et al, 2014). Blake also notes that such people may benefit if a program for counselling and continuous screening was availed for them and they would be in less danger of developing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

Blake and company used a representative population sample of 89 individuals. It is not in industries and factories where accidents are likely to occur where workers are exposed to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. In a separate study by Abeyasinghe and other researchers in 2012, the authors find that people who had been in the military and had lost either one or more limbs or body parts or had suffered a spinal injury in the course of their work developed a post-traumatic stress disorder. Such statistics show how often employees in the military are likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, given the many chances of amputations and accidents leading to spinal injury among the men in uniforms.

During their rehabilitation programs, they are prone to flashbacks of the events leading to their injuries and loss of their limbs or the amputation, thus, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. This is akin to the experiences of industrial workers witnessing or being affected by industrial accidents, as studied by Blake et al (2014). Similarly, Wisco et al (2014) carried out a study that involved people who had served in the Afghanistan war as US veterans. In the study, the authors sought to establish the relationship between their experiences and traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation.

Suicidal ideation is a subset of post-traumatic stress disorder but a symptom of other psychological and psychiatric disorders. They found that among the veteran’s study which accounted for 824 males and 825 females, there was an increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation. These findings point to the devastating results of traumatic experiences by war veterans and their younger ones, those already in the battlefields through the army and other counter-terrorism programs. They also indicate the need for more proactive programs to attend to survivors of war, not just in the battlefield marshal’s category, but also among volunteers and good Samaritans who risk their lives to save perishing souls in war areas.

Bahraini et al (2013) studied a population of people living with and undergoing treatment for traumatic brain injury with an intention to establish the relationship between those undergoing rehabilitation for brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. The authors realized that all the secondary data used, with 16 different and diverse sources screened, pointed to the increased development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among such patients.

Specifically, suicidal ideation was marked as prevalent ideation among patients undergoing treatment for brain injury caused by traumatic injury. Such populations require active and proactive screening for post-traumatic stress disorder, given the high chances of the development. In the same manner, people suffering from spinal cord injury were all found to have increased chances of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (Otis, Marchand & Courtois, 2012). In a similar but separate study, Caspi and a group of researchers noted that the memory of the traumatic event is associated with increased risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

While people suffering from critical brain and spinal injury are likely to have flashbacks of what happened, their memory of such events would lead to higher chances and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder during and after their rehabilitation. The study of 120 subjects showed that those who remember the events will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder while those who don’t remember them will not (Caspi et al, 2005).

These findings, combined with the study on persons who got amputated on either or all limbs, reveals the importance of proactive intervention by counselors to persons or groups of persons undergoing brain, spinal or amputation surgery and treatment. The treatment part is important but is inadequate if the environmental factors in terms of memories will not be addressed. This calls for programs such as cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing which help to rebuild the narratives or memories of the events to friendlier versions.

Cognitive Psychology

Having identified the factors leading to, precipitating and contributing to persistence of traumatic flashbacks and other post-traumatic stress disorder manifestations or symptoms, an effective program ought to consider the cognitive behavior and possible approaches to reframing or refashioning the cognitive processes of the patients and people likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder due to their exposure to diverse situations.

Such factors include how a person views himself once they have post-traumatic stress disorder and the value, they attach to themselves. Keshet, H., Foa, E. B., & Gilboa-Schechtman, E. (2018) shows through empirical research that indeed, women who are victims of traumatization suffer from a negative self-image. Management of post-traumatic stress disorder, therefore, should focus on reversing the negative self-perception of women and reconstructing positivity through the cognitive behavioral therapy ascertained as an effective intervention for long-term recovery. Also, women who are repeatedly teased suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a situation that is common among most societies where wife battering and demeaning is still active and where women suffer direct and indirect teasing from fellow women or workers.

Such an understanding should help cognitive therapists to manage post-traumatic stress disorder among such clients by counselling for teasing and similar exposures. Kishimoto, Goto and Hashimoto (2014), however, notes that such negative effects can be reversed using drugs such as gabapentin and lamotrigine. The drugs help to mitigate painful experiences as well as unpleasant experiences resulting pressure from teasers and other manipulative experiences from peers and men who tease women, as shown by Kishimoto, Goto and Hashimoto.

Prolonged exposure therapy has been recommended as an effective pro-cognitive strategy to address post-traumatic stress disorder among the worst-hit and mild patients, posing as one of the means through which psychologist can address post-traumatic stress disorder (Kumpula et al, 2017). Again, the method can be combined with other effective programs such as cognitive behavioral therapy for effectiveness and efficiency, noting that drugs help to mitigate for the short-term while cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and prolonged exposure normalizes the experiences, reduces the phobia and intervenes for a post-traumatic stress disorder.

In another research, Ogle, Siegler, Beckham and Rubin (2017) find that neuroticism increases post-traumatic stress disorder symptom severity by amplifying the emotionality, rehearsal, and centrality of trauma memories. Neurotic persons, that is, people with high scores in the personality trait measures using the big five personality traits, are more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder as the status makes one more easily depressed and subject to anxiety and depression.

The cognitive behavioral therapy, as such, ought to focus on taming neuroticism for such individuals, meaning that the psychologists need to understand the person’s character profile. This, according to Reid (2005), should include active mediation and intervention for the memory reprocessing and reconstruction of the actual experiences through flashbacks. Also, active mediation for insomnia and nightmares, which brings back the old experiences as if they were fresh (Reid, 2005), ought to be addressed to improve both sleep quality and the speed of recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (Krakow et al, 2001).

Critique

The literature used in this review is an integration of various approaches to research on managing post-traumatic stress disorder using the four domains, that is, clinical, rehabilitative, social and cognitive psychology. The four areas are pre-selected domains, based on the need to approach therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder as a psychological problem that includes various external and internal factors either repressing or enhancing the disorder.

The data from the four domains and the literature reviewed contains results from empirical and scholarly studies by authors using sample studies, giving the results credibility and reliability as an ideal resource portfolio for post-traumatic stress disorder research. the literature fully represents the four domains in terms of both active and proactive interventions as well as internal and external factors affecting the recovery and extent of post-traumatic stress disorder. The use of empirical data and studies enhances generalizability, given that they derive their conclusions from representative samples of subjects using experimental and explorative studies.

They derive their authority from the experimental, explorative and empirical nature, relating real-life experiences of war veterans and women subjected to teasing, domestic violence, children subjected to traumatic experiences such as war and accidents among other experiences, and clinical research in drugs and other therapies for a post-traumatic stress disorder. The studies, nevertheless, do not reveal an outright or evidence-based integration and this is why the literature review aims to explain the need for integrated management of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Integrated Management
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Integrated Management

The pieces of evidence raised from the literature matches the claims made in the introduction that post-traumatic stress disorder needs an integrated approach towards management and therapy since it is a multi-factor disorder. The APA ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct require express permission from the subject’s party to human-subject studies and these have been followed in the majority of the literature above which required human involvement as subjects. The standards were almost uniform across the literature with individuals participating in all the studies doing so upon personal consents from a person with the capacity to give consent, that is, free from any perceptual bias.

Synthesis – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The research review explains, in much detail, the integration of diverse means of treating and managing post-traumatic stress disorder. Chou, Su, Wu and Chen (2011) notes that among other things, the time exposure affects the recovery process while the drug use period doesn’t affect the effectiveness of the treatment. This is necessary for therapists given that the post-traumatic stress disorder problem calls for both pharmacological and conservative methods of therapy. In this case, an integrative approach would call for both drug and non-drug-based therapy programs personalized for the specific cases, given that different groups of individuals have different internal and external factors affecting their ability to recover and the recovery process.

Also, understanding the internal and external environmental inputs should come first in mediating for a post-traumatic stress disorder. This calls for the need to investigate further how the four domains can be effectively applied to fasten and sustain therapy. In the literature, again, cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movements desensitization and reprocessing have been noted as critical approaches towards the treatment and management of post-traumatic stress disorder with a careful drug administration to suppress depression and ignite sociability.

Notably, the literature reveals that understanding the precipitates to post-traumatic stress disorder, the factors that enhance post-traumatic stress disorder, the conditions that suppress post-traumatic stress disorder, the drugs that inhibit the disorder symptoms and the means to intervention for the disorder are all to be jointly addressed for a sustainable therapy for a post-traumatic stress disorder. I propose that a systematic management program ought to include the clinical, empirical and environmental understanding of the individual cases. This ought to include both the stressors the individual is currently facing, the events that triggered the traumatic manifestation and the symptoms party to the specific case, including the drugs most effective in the inhibitory process, in order for a holistic intervention and optimal results to be realized.

The psychologist, again, should seek to understand the social factors, the cognitive factors and therapy options, the clinical evidence and the rehabilitation experiences and voids for people with post-traumatic stress disorder in order to effectively handle the client from an empirical or informed point of view. Finally, effective post-traumatic stress disorder prevention, treatment and management ought to include different players which include pharmacologists, psychologists, and clinicians.

Conclusion

As the literature above has revealed, post-traumatic stress disorder continues to be one of the most challenging mental issues in the world today. While the problem has attracted much research and inquiry into effective combinations of conservative methods and drug-based therapy programs, there is no clear research as to how cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing can be combined with drugs to ensure faster and more effective therapy.

Still, there is a need for a deeper understanding of the interacting factors leading to prolonged or sustained post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among people who have experienced war, industrial accidents, violence and child abuse among other issues of mental torture or trauma. In so doing, the social psychologist needs to participate in developing a good and supportive external environment for the patient to recover.

This may include counselling the caretakers of the patient to avoid such events and stimuli as will remind the person of their traumatic experiences and cognitive behavioral therapy secondary care activities that include physical exercise and social activities. The cognitive psychologist will need to reframe the individual’s self-perception or help the victim to normalize their traumatic experiences through exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy techniques, all of which aim at healing the patient from the short and long term effects of post-traumatic stress disorder as well as the clinicians to effectively identify post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in patients and evidence-based interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder clients.

Such an approach, that is, an integrated approach to post-traumatic stress disorder management using multifaceted psychological approaches, as explained by the research from the four domains of rehabilitative, clinical, social and cognitive psychology, would make post-traumatic stress disorder treatment and management more effective and efficient. It would also make psychologists more effective and knowledgeable, alleviating the health concerns arising from post-traumatic stress disorder-prone populations such as the survivors of war and military strikes as well as the victims of Karen and Burma among other like-stricken areas.

There are however questions to be answered going forward. First, what combinations of the conservative techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and exposure therapy work best and why? The answer to this question would grant psychologist an informed database to rely on for empirical evidence in conservative non-drug-based therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment.

Secondly, what would be the best approach for equipping psychologists with the knowledge necessary to implement the four domains in developing a single integrated program for post-traumatic stress disorder therapy? This answer ought to lead the research to the development of a knowledge approach, one in which the psychologist is supposed to understand various modules concerned with the post-traumatic stress disorder integrated management and therapy in order to understand the pharmacological, social and cognitive strategies for an optimal interventional program.

Lastly, the question as to the cost implications of an integrated approach to post-traumatic stress disorder management and treatment arises, seeing that the more knowledgeable the psychologist ought to be, the higher an asset he or she becomes and the more expensive he is likely to become. Also, the more attention is given to individual clients, the more expensive it is likely to be. These are some of the questions that need to be answered alongside the proposition for an integrated approach to post-traumatic stress disorder management.

References

Abeyasinghe, N. L., de Zoysa, P., Bandara, K. M. K. C., Bartholameuz, N. A., & Bandara, J. M. U. J. (2012). The prevalence of symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among soldiers with amputation of a limb or spinal injury: A report from a rehabilitation centre in Sri Lanka. Psychology, health & medicine, 17(3), 376-381.

Auxier, A., Farley, T., & Seifert, K. (2011). Establishing an integrated care practice in a community health center. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42(5), 391.

Bahraini, N. H., Simpson, G. K., Brenner, L. A., Hoffberg, A. S., & Schneider, A. L. (2013). Suicidal ideation and behaviours after traumatic brain injury: a systematic review. Brain Impairment, 14(1), 92-112.

Blake, R. A., Lating, J. M., Sherman, M. F., & Kirkhart, M. W. (2014). Probable PTSD and impairment in witnesses of work-related fatalities. Journal of loss and trauma, 19(2), 189-195.

Caspi, Y., Gil, S., Ben-Ari, I. Z., Koren, D., Aaron-Peretz, J., & Klein, E. (2005). Memory of the traumatic event is associated with increased risk for PTSD: A retrospective study of patients with traumatic brain injury. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 10(4), 319-335.

Chou, C. Y., Su, Y. J., Wu, H. M., & Chen, S. H. (2011). Child physical abuse and the related PTSD in Taiwan: The role of Chinese cultural background and victims’ subjective reactions. Child abuse & neglect, 35(1), 58-68.

de Zulueta, C. F. (2007). Mass violence and mental health: Attachment and trauma. International Review of Psychiatry, 19(3), 221-233.

Evans, S., Patt, I., Giosan, C., Spielman, L., & Difede, J. (2009). Disability and posttraumatic stress disorder in disaster relief workers responding to September 11, 2001 World Trade Center disaster. Journal of clinical psychology, 65(7), 684-694.

Ferry, F., Bunting, B., Murphy, S., O’Neill, S., Stein, D., & Koenen, K. (2014). Traumatic events and their relative PTSD burden in Northern Ireland: a consideration of the impact of the ‘Troubles’. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 49(3), 435-446.

Gutermann, J., Schwartzkopff, L., & Steil, R. (2017). Meta-analysis of the long-term treatment effects of psychological interventions in youth with PTSD symptoms. Clinical child and family psychology review, 20(4), 422-434.

Keshet, H., Foa, E. B., & Gilboa-Schechtman, E. (2018). Women’s self-perceptions in the aftermath of trauma: The role of trauma-centrality and trauma-type. Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice and policy.

Kishimoto, A., Goto, Y., & Hashimoto, K. (2014). Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in a female patient following repeated teasing: treatment with gabapentin and lamotrigine and the possible role of sensitization. Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience, 12(3), 240.

Krakow, B., Johnston, L., Melendrez, D., Hollifield, M., Warner, T. D., Chavez-Kennedy, D., & Herlan, M. J. (2001). An open-label trial of evidence-based cognitive behavior therapy for nightmares and insomnia in crime victims with PTSD. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(12), 2043-2047.,

Kumpula, M. J., Pentel, K. Z., Foa, E. B., LeBlanc, N. J., Bui, E., McSweeney, L. B., … & Rauch, S. A. (2017). Temporal sequencing of change in posttraumatic cognitions and PTSD symptom reduction during prolonged exposure therapy. Behavior therapy, 48(2), 156-165.

Meyer, E. C., La, H. B., DeBeer, B. B., Kimbrel, N. A., Gulliver, S. B., & Morissette, S. B. (2018). Psychological inflexibility predicts PTSD symptom severity in war veterans after accounting for established PTSD risk factors and personality. Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice and policy.

Mills, C. P., Hill, H. M., & Johnson, J. A. (2018). Mediated effects of coping on mental health outcomes of African American women exposed to physical and psychological abuse. Violence against women, 24(2), 186-206.

Ogle, C. M., Siegler, I. C., Beckham, J. C., & Rubin, D. C. (2017). Neuroticism increases PTSD symptom severity by amplifying the emotionality, rehearsal, and centrality of trauma memories. Journal of personality, 85(5), 702-715.

Oravecz, R., Penko, J., Suklan, J., & Krivec, J. (2018). Prevalence Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Coping Strategies Among Slovene Medical Emergency Professionals. Sigurnost, 60(2).

Otis, C., Marchand, A., & Courtois, F. (2012). Risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in persons with spinal cord injury. Topics in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, 18(3), 253-263.

Reid, M. D. (2005). Memory as initial experiencing of the past. Philosophical Psychology, 18(6), 671-698.

Reisman, M. (2016). PTSD treatment for veterans: What’s working, what’s new, and what’s next. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 41(10), 623.

Runyon, M. K., Deblinger, E., & Steer, R. A. (2014). PTSD symptom cluster profiles of youth who have experienced sexual or physical abuse. Child abuse & neglect, 38(1), 84-90.

Sauer, J., & Bhugra, D. (2001). Drug treatments in post-traumatic stress disorder. International Review of Psychiatry, 13(3), 189-193.

Seligowski, A. V., Miron, L. R., & Orcutt, H. K. (2015). Relations among self-compassion, PTSD symptoms, and psychological health in a trauma-exposed sample. Mindfulness, 6(5), 1033-1041.

Wisco, B. E., Marx, B. P., Holowka, D. W., Vasterling, J. J., Han, S. C., Chen, M. S., … & Keane, T. M. (2014). Traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and current suicidal ideation among Iraq and Afghanistan US veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27(2), 244-248.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Relevant Links

Psychology Dissertation Topics

Cognitive Psychology Research Project

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Dissertation Proposal Writing

Dissertation Proposal

A dissertation proposal is a document that presents a plan for a dissertation to reviewers for evaluation. It is actually a road map showing clearly the location from where a journey begins; the method of getting there and the destination to be reached at. The purpose of the dissertation proposal is to:

  • Present the problem to be researched and its importance.
  • Give an idea to instructor about how you will proceed in your dissertation.
  • Suggest the data necessary for solving the problem and how the data will be gathered, analysed, and interpreted.

A proposal is also known as a work plan, prospectus, outline, statement of intent, or draft plan. It tells us:

  • What will be done?
  • Why it will be done?
  • How it will be done?
  • Where it will be done?
  • For whom it will be done?
  • What is the benefit of doing it?

Dissertation Proposal Format

Title Page

It should include:

  • The topic
  • Name & ID of the student
  • Name of the university
  • University logo
  • Date of Submission
  • Table of Contents: List the important headings and sub headings in the dissertation proposal with page numbers.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction/Background: Introduce the specific problem you wish to investigate. Describe briefly the background i.e., the impact and implication of the topic/issue on the environment (the specific set up in which you are studying the issue). It should be well elaborated. It is advised to include current facts and figures in background. You should also explain it in context with the work already done on the topic. It should provide all the necessary initial information so that the reader can better understand the situation under study.

Objectives: State the objectives/goals of the research, keeping in mind the following points:

  • These should state the purpose of the dissertation
  • These must be based on logical facts and figures
  • These must be achievable within specified timeframe and parameters
  • These objectives should be presented such that these should facilitate the reader to locate various important points in the research work
  • The specified objectives should be clearly phrased in operational terms specifying exactly what you are going to do, where and for what purpose?
  • At the end of the study, objectives must be assessed to see if they have been met/achieved or not

Significance: It lays down the importance or potential benefits of your dissertation. It specifies how your study will improve, modify or broaden presented facts in the field under exploration. Make a note that such improvements/ modifications may have significant implications also. When you are taking into account the importance of your study, pose yourself the following questions:

  • What will be the outcomes of this research study?
  • Will the results of this research contribute to the solution or development of anything related to it?
  • What will be improved or changed as a result of the proposed research?
  • How will results of the study be implemented and what innovations will come out?

Problem Statement/Research Question: It describes the main issue or area to be investigated. The problem is usually represented by the research questions. Research questions are very crucial because research is about finding out what may not be known. Poorly formulated problem/question will lead to pitiable research that’s why researcher must know the question he/she would like to find answer for. The following aspects are important while formulating a problem statement/research question:

 A problem statement/research question should be researchable, clear, logical, specific, precise and brief yet comprehensive statement, fully describing the issue under study.

The research problem should be grammatically correct and completely convey the main idea to be investigated.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

A literature review is citation/quotation of a comprehensive review of the published work from secondary sources (journals, research papers, etc) of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher according to the problem/issue of research. The purpose of literature review is to ensure that:

  • Important variables that are likely to influence the problem situation are not left out of the study
  • A clear idea emerges as to which variables would be the most important to consider.
  • The problem statement can be made with precision and accuracy.

Note: It is important to cite at least 30 findings of researchers in the literature review.

Chapter 3: Conceptual/Theoretical Framework – Dissertation Proposal

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework can be best narrated with the help of sophisticated diagrams mentioning the independent and dependent variables and their causal affects and final outcomes. The main headings in the theoretical framework are:

  • Inventory of variables
  • Schematic diagram
  • Direction of relationship
  • Explanation of established relationship among variables
  • Inventory of propositions in a sequential order
  • Hypotheses (Formal statement that presents the expected relationship between an independent and dependent variable)

Hypotheses are the tentative statements that should either be acknowledged or rejected by means of research. Hypotheses give structure and direction to the research. Therefore, care should be taken not to oversimplify and generalize the formulation of hypothesis. It is not necessary that the research should consist of only one hypothesis. The type of problem area

investigated and the extent which encircles the research field are the factors which determine the number of hypotheses to be included in the study. It is formulated when the researcher is totally aware of the theoretical and empirical background to the problem. There are two types of hypotheses “Null” and “Alternate”. Generally, the null hypothesis is used if theory/literature does not propose a hypothesized connection between the variables under study; the alternative is generally reserved for situations in which theory/research recommends a connection or directional interplay.

Dissertation Proposal
Dissertation Proposal

Chapter 4: Research Methodology

The methodology section should portray how each specific objective will be achieved, with enough details to permit an autonomous evaluation of the proposal. The technical procedures for carrying out the dissertation must be explained in a manner appropriate for the reader. This section should include:

Research Design: Is the study exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? Why does this particular design suit to the study?

Data Collection Sources: Describe all the sources that will be used for data collection.

  • Primary sources
  • Secondary sources

Data Collection Methods:

How will the primary data be collected i.e. survey(s), experiment(s), observation(s) etc.? Is it possible to use multiple methods? If yes provide justification.

Sample Design:

  • What is the target population?
  • What sampling frame will be used?
  • What type of sampling technique will be used?

Data Collection Tools/Instruments:

Which tools will be used for data collection (i.e., Questionnaire, Structured Interviews, Observations, etc) according to the need of the dissertation?

  • Why a particular tool is selected?
  • Is it possible to use multiple tools? If yes provide justification.
  • Fieldwork/Data Collection:
  • How will the data be collected?
  • How will the quality control be assured during data collection?
  • How will the answers about practical issues be answered? For example, if you are going to carry out survey, then think about where and for how long this survey will be carried out? Will organizations (specify names) provide you access (physical, time, documents, etc) to what you need for your research?
  • Data Processing & Analysis: (Methods you will use to extract and process the information you will gather)
  • How will the analysis be carried out?
  • Scoring scheme/scale and the statistical methods that will be applied for the analysis of data should be described.
  • Which software package (MS Excel, SPSS, etc.) will be used for data entry and analysis?

Bibliography

A bibliography is a list of source materials on a particular subject. In a formal report, it includes books and other library materials which have been consulted in preparation of the project. As part of the reference matter, it follows the appendices.

Relevant Links – Dissertation Proposal

Dissertation Research Proposal For University Students

Dissertation Examples – Sample Dissertations

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Real Estate Meltdown Project

Real Estate Meltdown

Real estate meltdown, otherwise referred to as the ‘housing bubble’ refers to a period where housing prices decline across the United States further leading to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. These lead to fears that the country was headed back to a depression similar to the Great Depression of 1945. There has been a lot of explanations as to what lead to the housing meltdown, but the real question is, could it be possible that the crisis could have been avoided? My aim purpose in this paper is to bring into discussion why the disaster should have been averted and if we are at risk of facing it again.

To arrive at my goals, first, we would have to look at what were the causes of the housing meltdown in the period 2006- 2008. With the crush of the housing market, economist and financial pundits came up with many explanations as to what lead to the bubble some of which the extent of their impact yet to be determined. It is therefore important to realize that a single factor did not cause the decline in the housing market but a number of them together.

Decline In Mortgage Interest Rates

 In economics, we learn that when the rate of savings is low, interests tend to go high. However, that was not the case during the housing bubble. Mortgage rates were little despite saving rates being low mainly because of saving getting into the US economy from outside countries like China and Japan. According to Bernanke (2009), the net savings from outside the country increased from an estimate of 1.5% of GDP IN 1995 to 6% as of 2006.

With the aim of making better returns from investment at lower risk, investors moved from US government securities to mortgage-backed securities that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae issued. They receive sponsorship from the government, and investors expected that in case of unforeseen circumstances the government would bail the two out. Hence they were low risk.

In addition to a real estate meltdown, mortgage-backed securities received better ratings issued by one of the best rating agencies like Standard & Poor. With the housing prices rising, low mortgage interest rates had a hand in the housing bubble by enabling more house buyers to afford to pay their monthly dues. According to Robert Schultz, increase in the speculation house prices is what made the prices to go up steadily. Speculators did purchase housing at a lower cost to sell when prices go up. With regards to the 2001 period of recession, the Federal government lowered interest rates to keep the economy going. Hence the second cause of housing meltdown.

Reduction In Short-Term Rates of Interest

From 2002 to 2004 the government lowered interest rates with the aim of making a recovery from the earlier recession of 2001. It affected the housing bubble because with the constant rise in the housing prices while household income is remaining steady, homeowners were not able to afford a payment of their mortgage loans at current rates and therefore resorted to adjustable mortgage rates which were preferable at the moment. However, when the rates began to rise, this proved to be unmanageable for homeowners.

The other way was because of leveraging, that is where loans borrowers used their borrowed money to invest. It, therefore, encouraged mortgage lending and thus increasing house prices. When the housing bubble hit, the high level of leverage that was present in the economy worsened the decline in the cost of housing.

Lack Of Strict Rules on Issuing of Mortgage Loans

During the period after the recession, the government of President Bill Clinton did not impose strict rules to financial institutions on the issuance of mortgage loans with the aim of increasing the number of homeownerships. With a reduction in the mortgage fees increased competition among mortgage loan issuing firms and therefore they had to relax their standards to obtain their market share. By the fact that there were securities issued on mortgage loans prompted this.

An increase in subprime mortgages which refers to mortgages issued to persons that were likely to default demonstrates this. Although these kinds of mortgages charged higher rates due to the risk, the all practice was not worth it.

Real Estate Meltdown Project
Real Estate Meltdown Project

Absurd Speculation

The fact that everyone believed that prices of housing would go up did contribute to the bubble. According to Robert Shiller (2005) in his book ‘irrational exuberance’ which refers to high levels of speculative fever had indeed added to the housing bubble. From house buyers, mortgage lenders, rating agencies to even the government, none of them ever imagined that the prices of housing would ever go down.

Why The Housing Bubble Could Have Been Avoided – Real Estate Meltdown

From my analysis on the factors that lead to the housing, all the above factors did contribute to the bubble, but the main factor being the pointless speculation that the housing prices would continue going being on the rise and there was no reason to suggest otherwise. That is why, according to Robert Shiller (2005) irrational exuberance in any price bubble is difficult to notice, very hard to prevent and neither is it of value to avoid.

However, this could have been avoided if only the players who took part in the excessive speculation of prices of housing could have thought otherwise. The belief by credit rating agencies and foreign investors that prices of house in the US would go up was the primary factor that encouraged mortgage interest rates to remain so low. This notion also leads to a rise in the level of leverage experienced in the economy. The reason being low-interest rates encouraged borrowing for investment on housing with prospects of making good returns upon prices increasing.

I also think that the government regulatory agency should have regulated the constant rise in prices of housing. It could have lowered the speculation and hence chances of leverages being experienced in the economy being minimal. A control of Investment banks and mortgage issuing agencies was necessary. There is supposed to be a set of rules to be followed. Without rules there are chances of thing running out of control.

I also believe that then the government did not receive a better monetary policy to adopt. With the constant rise in prices of housing, it was not in the best interest of the federal government to lower bank rates to increase the number of house owners. The pricing of housing is similar to any other item, the law of supply and demand applies.

The Possibility of Another Bubble Leading to Real Estate Meltdown

There has been a lot of speculation in the media that we are about to experience another housing bubble just a decade after the last occurrence that leads to a financial crisis in the economy. Currently, the average cost of purchasing a house is quite high compared to ordinary income. It is one of the aspects that we need to watch out. Mortgage lenders on the other side are much strict, and real estate investors have hard time to make sells with housing staying as long as three months without being sold. There is a belief that prices of housing are going to return to normalcy the moment investors having high desires of making good returns leave the market. It is only a speculation, but with the current state of house prices I cannot rule out the possibility of another bubble.

Conclusion

Real estate is indeed a venture that is quite rewarding, but this may change as we have seen from our discussion on the events of house prices bubbles. However, I believe that prevention was needed long before it occurred by required government policies through regulating the prices of housing. Indeed it is necessary not to leave any stone un-turned since we cannot rule out the chances of another bubble. We can learn from its experience and be ready to prevent its re-occurrence.

Works Cited

Holt, Jeff. A summary of the primary causes of the housing bubble and the resulting credit crisis: A non-technical paper. The Journal of Business Inquiry 8.1 (2009): 120-129.

Schwartz, Herman M. Subprime nation: American power, global capital, and the housing bubble. Cornell University Press, 2009.

CQ Press Research, ‘Mortgage Crisis and Real Estate Meltdown ’ (Nov 2007); 926-927

Gramlich, Edward M., and Robert D. Reischauer, Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust, Urban In-stitute Press, 2007.

Cheng, I. A., Sahil Raina, and Wei Xiong. “Wall Street and the Housing Bubble: Bad Incentives, Bad Models, or Bad Luck?” University of Michigan mimeo, April (2012).

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