2007-2008 Financial Crisis Essay

The 2007-2008 Financial Crisis

2007-2008 Financial Crisis – According to Saylor Academy (2012), a financial crisis happens when many financial markets function inefficiently or stop functioning completely; when one or few of the financial markets stop functioning the crisis that result is nonsystematic Saylor Academy (2012). The 2007 financial crisis started with subprime mortgages and in 2008 it turned severe systematic after major financial institutions failed.

The 2007-2008 Financial Crisis was a combination of many things, including: Monetary policy easing, banks taking excessive risks, consumers borrowing more than they could afford, the eventual US Housing Market Crash, stocks and poor risk pricing, the federal budget deficit, excessive leveraging by banks, predator lending, poor underwriting practices and the Federal Budget Deficit. This paper explores how the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis financial happened, what markets were impacted and how it was dealt with.

Monetary policy easing – Deregulating policies that were placed in placed to repeat historic failures is like playing Jenga, eventually everything will fall. According to (Market Oracle Ltd, 2009), the first block of deregulation happened in 1980 with the Depository Institutions and Monetary Control Act of 1980 – this was the first thing the banking system was being let a bit loose after the regulations that were put into place after the Great Depression.

The act accomplished the following: required less reserved from the banks, it created a committee to get rid of federal interest rate caps, increased insurance of Federal deposits, allowed banks to get credit advances from the Federal Reserve Discount Window and finally, it overstepped over state laws that restricted lenders by putting a ceiling on the interest rates they could charge from mortgage loans.

The second piece of monetary easing happened when the government and their great wisdom or greed decided to pick apart key pieces of the Banking Act of 1933 (Glass-Steagall Act of 1933). The act was in place to prevent banks from gambling with people’s savings, it separated commercial banks from investment banks – this was very important because investment banks could not take huge risks with people’s money.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act was the drop that spilled the cup or the final straw that broke the camel’s back. This law, removed the last protective barrier that Glass-Steagall Act provided and allowed banks to do whatever they wanted; for example, Travelers investment bank was able to buy Citibank…Remember the law wanted to keep investment banks from using people savings? Well, this last act allowed investment banks to play with other people’s money (Market Oracle Ltd, 2009). Monetary policy easing removed all roadblocks that annoyed banks, but kept people’s savings intact and save; additionally, it gave birth to Subprime lending which later would be a major player in the Housing Market crash.

Banks taking excessive risks: According to (The Economist, 2013) Senator Phil Gramm once was quoted as saying “I look at subprime lending and I see the American Dream in action”. Due to the economy doing so well and low inflation, banks and investors were willing to take more risks in order to get a piece of the action. Banks were being irresponsible with mortgage lending and lower standards with subprime lending, borrowers who should not have gotten loans were able to get into houses they could not afford.

In order for banks to lessen or mitigate the risks, they played the numbers games, they gathered a many high-risk loan and put them together in groups (pooling), depending on the probability of defaults – in theory, this would decrease the risk because what were the probabilities that all borrowers in that pool could default on their loans? (The Economist, 2013)

Consumers borrowing more than they could afford – This comes back to subprime mortgages and just the timing of what was happening with the economy and the housing market. According to (John V. Duca, 2013) – traditionally, borrowers have to have good credit, good income and good debt to income ration in order to be the proud owners of a house with a white picket fence – those borrowers who did to meet the requirements above, would historically not qualify for any loans to buy a house. The ability of more people qualifying for mortgages they could not afford, lead to an increase in the housing market because the economy was experiencing more first-time home buyers.

The increase in demand created an increase in housing prices and it required more money to be borrowed by the people who were already stretched thin on the amount of money they were borrowing (John V. Duca, 2013). Up to this point, banks and consumers were lending and borrowing money banking on best case scenario and not planning for the worst. Added to the situation was the fact that the government had mandated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase home ownership, so both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had purchased lots of subprime mortgages (John V. Duca, 2013).

Secured Lending - 2007-2008 Financial Crisis — Secured Lending – 2007-2008 Financial Crisis

US Housing Market Crash – In the famous quote from Isaac Newton “What goes up must come down”. Once housing market reached its plateau, mortgage financing and home selling became less attractive and that is when they began to drop in price, lenders and investors started losing money. The first casualty of subprime mortgages happened in April 2007, New Century Financial Corps filed for bankruptcy – after that, all the pooling that was done by experts to mitigate default risk was downgraded to high risk and many small subprime lenders went out of business. Lenders stopped issuing loans, specially the high interest rate ones (subprime) – this resulted in less people getting loans after that and as a result, less houses being purchased by consumers.

Low demand for houses led to a drop-in price, the famous law of supply and demand had kicked in. Prices dropped so much that borrowers who were trying to sell them could not send them at the price they owed in their loans. Remember that government told Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase home ownership? Well, as a result, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suffer major losses an all subprime mortgages they had purchased and insured (John V. Duca, 2013). The housing market was flooded by banks selling their foreclosed/repossessed homes, people trying to sell their houses because they get foreclosed, people doing short-sales and in addition the market was getting the normal number of houses being sold the usual sellers (new construction, people moving, etc.).

US House Prices - 2007-2008 Financial Crisis — US House Prices – 2007-2008 Financial Crisis

Stocks and poor risk pricing – Prior to the economic crisis, investors were unable to get the exact value of risk they would be bearing when taking up stocks or financial assets from the traders. Risk pricing or the cost of risk is implied in the rate of interest charged and the investors, with poor risk profile of certain assets in the market, would not know the value of the risk assumed when buying stocks or the value of risk exchanged when selling stocks (Amadeo, 2010; Williams, 2010). The market participants were thus inaccurate in their risk analysis due to the complex financial system and innovations among other factors such as ignorance and deceit from the traders themselves.

JP Morgan is quoted as selling and quoting the risk price of CDOs at a price way lower than the market price due to lacking accuracy or information as is contrasted to stable prices in a perfect market, where market information is publicly available, as per the Basel accords. In a similar risk pricing error and crisis, the AIG had to be taken over by the American government, settling about 180 billion US dollars from the tax payers’ money because AIG had taken premium guarantees to pay several CDS obligations to many lenders of small and global parties, whose risk profile was then uncertain to the lender and insurer and plunged the institution into near bankruptcy (Amadeo, 2010).

There was then no clear model of ascertaining the level of risk assumed by a guarantor or a borrower given the dynamic and complex financial innovations of the time and the slowly growing financial academia, practice and experience within a span of two years, that is, between 2007 and 2008 (Jickling, 2009).

The Role of The Federal Reserve in the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis

The Federal Reserve and liquidity – The Federal Reserve is the lender of last result to banks and thus, is the only last savior in a financial crisis. However, the reserve faced inadequate cash to lend to banks with the rapid mortgage and loan processing witnessed alongside booming borrowing and house financing by banks and financial institutions. Commercial banks couldn’t afford adequate liquidity to finance their obligations and the large sizes of mortgages they were buying.

In the same time, the price of commodities and especially minerals such as oil and copper were growing at an unsustainable rate, with most of the minerals being imported from outside. The rise would give the impression to traders that it was an opportunity to invest in the appreciating metals and thus, there was a general cash outflow from the US in exchange for metals and gems, which saw increased trading lead to a decline in the prices thereof and a general loss of cash from the American economy to oil producing and mining countries such as the middle east nations. The cash inflow into the US was less than the cash outflow and commercial banks would earn less than they were paying as cost of leveraging. This Federal Reserve with less inject into the economy to facilitate liquidity among the commercial banks (Jickling, 2009).

Excessive leveraging by banks – Before the 2007-2008 financial crisis struck the market, banks and other institutions in the mortgage and finance sector had used massive leveraging, that is, using credits and other derivatives to acquire assets. Leveraging shifts the risk of lending to the leveraging institution, thus removes the risk adverseness of a financial institution. They trade with appetite for risky investments which they perceive are most productive. The state of affairs with the highly leveraged financial institutions, therefore, led to risky deals which ultimately led to high rates of defaulting. Also, a major contributor to the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

The high level of leveraging, also, exposed the banks to massive risk impact should a financial downturn result and when it did with the bursting housing prices balloon, the financial institutions came crumbling down, leading to a global and all-sector financial crisis with little identity as to which institutions were in bankruptcy (Amadeo, 2010). This was as a result of a complex system of financial derivatives and contracts that were difficult to determine given the limited financial information then available (Jickling, 2009).

Predator lending – Another factor that contributed greatly and grossly to the financial crisis of the time was the deceitful predatory lending by financial institutions. The institutions would entice borrowers or mortgage buyers with appealing interest rates and have them commit to the mortgages even when such a commitment had hidden charges or adjustments (The Economist, 2010). A common practice involved the use of very low interest rates to hook up people after financing. Upon the completion of the mortgage, the client would realize later that the mortgage was an adjustable one with rates rising gradually to almost double the value they borrowed.

Many would end up unable to pay back the commitments and have their mortgages seized or have to deal with a negative amortization mortgage (McLean & Nocera, 2010). In one case, the California attorney sued Countrywide Financial for fraudulently enticing borrowers in to a bait-and-switch conman mortgage with expensive mortgage payments (The Economist, 2010). With the falling housing prices, the home owners with outstanding mortgages were demotivated to pay their dues against the devalued prices of their mortgages, leading to massive defaulting and a financial crisis in the industry (Jickling, 2009).

Poor underwriting practices – Another factor that led to the ultimate onset and peaking of the financial crisis was the poor underwriting practices by intermediaries, banks and even insurers. Regulations require that a loaning process should follow the loaning institutions documentation guidelines and the underwriting process ought to be understood in depth to avoid unforeseen difficulties or illegalities. However, the pre-crisis period was characterized by rapid underwriting processes with little or no attention to the lender’s procedures and rules of engagements.

Loans and mortgages would be processed with little or no official documentation completed as per the issuers rules of engagement, which would lead to borrowers being subjected to terms they didn’t sign for or they were unaware of, high defaulting rate by loan holders and selling of loans without full disclosure as to the terms attached to such loans (Greenberg & Hansen, 2009; Amadeo, 2010). At the end, the victims would be realized as unable to honor their commitment due to the inflated loans, some of which would never be recovered.

In this saga, about 1600 mortgages bought by the mortgage firm Citi from mortgage dealers were found to be defective and unenforceable while the mortgages had been passed on from the dealers to the banker. The poor and fraudulent underwriting process therefore contributed immensely to the financial crisis in which banks couldn’t provide financing as they had too many commitments to honor, alongside the housing crisis (Jickling, 2009).

2007-2008 Financial Crisis, in conclusion, this paper asserts the academic and scholarly authority that the largest and longest financial crisis witnessed post the great depression era was as a result of structural factors such as the easing on monetary policies, excess risk assumed by banks, excessive borrowing of cheap but risky loans by consumers, the fall of the US Housing Market, poor risk profile on stocks, the federal budget deficit, over leveraging by banks, predatory lending, poor underwriting and the Federal Budget Deficit. These factors made many banks and institutions to collapse.

References

Amadeo, K. (2010). “2008 Financial Crisis: The Causes and Costs of the Worst Financial Crisis Ever Since the Great Depression.” The Balance.

Greenberg, R., & Hansen, C. (2009). “If you had a pulse, we gave you a loan.” NBC news.

Jickling, M. (2009). Causes of the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis.

McLean, B., & Nocera, J. (2010). All the devils are here: unmasking the men who bankrupted the world. Penguin UK.

The Economist (2010). “Predatory lending: let’s not pretend we don’t understand how it worked.”

Williams, M.T (2010). Uncontrolled risk: the lessons of Lehman Brothers and how systemic risk can still bring down the world financial system. McGraw-Hill.

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Employees Emotions Management

Employees Emotions Management – An Introduction

Emotions of employees play a great role in the business processes and activities of the organization and therefore they need to be taken care of. Prior these emotions would be assumed to be job satisfaction and employee’s well-being related and managers would look for a way of sorting that out, but currently there is a lot be done about them. These includes managers identifying the emotion, determining the cause of the emotion, examining respective challenges in the quest to manage the emotion, and determine the expected measures required to manage that emotion for the good of the organization activities. In this paper, we are going to discuss different employees’ emotions at their workplaces, the causes, and different ways in which managers can manage those emotions.

As human beings, emotions are part of us and differ according to the nature of conditions we are in. Emotions create social bonds, examine them, and uphold them. Thus social movements, conflicts, and social changes are determined by our emotions. In the workplace, these emotions determine how the organization fraternity communicates within and to the outsiders such customers, the government, and the stakeholders. Usually, emotions are classified to two, namely; behavioral and attitudinal. These two can be generally said to be either positive or negative emotions and they both have a substantial impact on the performance of the organizations.

Actually, positive emotions in the workplace mostly bring favorable outcomes from the employees. Consequently, negative emotions among the employees such as stress, anger, sadness, and fear in most case results to poor performance in the workplace and also influences negative views on the organization from the outsiders. For instance, consider an employee who is frustrated and now he/she is full of negativity, he/she would give a negative judgment to even good news that an organization may have received. Hence employees’ emotions have a great impact on decision making, respective job performance, creativity, improvements, turnover, management, negotiations, and teamwork (Neal & Catherine 2002).

Researchers have really worked on employee’s emotions and how they are to be managed because of their effects on the performance of the business organization (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes 2002). Initially, the study of the employee’s emotion used to be based on the sales and profits that the organization, the case known as emotional labor, in which the values of individual’s emotions were less treated (David 2012). In addition to many research bodies venturing in the issue, scientists in the management department have also worked on it and have come up with many theories explaining the importance of managing employees’ emotions. For instance, Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) theory explains in details the importance of maintaining employee’s emotions. The theory indicates that emotions of worker are influenced by many factors including the working environment conditions. These theories summarize emotions to be rational and reasonable (Abdullah & Rashid 2012).

Managing employee’s emotions is a complex activity but for the purpose of good performance, both private and public organizations are supposed to have relevant human resources which are qualified and skilled in handling them (Morrow & McElroy 2003). To maintain and be able to deal with different emotional situations in the organization, these human resources should be intellectuals in emotions case studies (WALL 2008). Consequently, studies depict that specific issues should be examined in conjunction with the emotions of workers and the management should be in a position to deal with them. Such issues include; stress management, effectiveness in the organization’s communication systems, and satisfaction of employees with their respective roles (Hassan, Hashim & Ishak 2011).

Employees Emotions – Cause of different types of emotions in an organization

Emotions of employees are usually associated with the occurrence of certain events in an organization or at their homes which are strong enough to unsettle their thinking process. As mentioned earlier, in general emotions can be classified into two main categories; positive and negative emotions. Excitement and high achievement at work are examples of positive emotions and are said to have positive impacts such as tenacity and enhanced intellectual functioning and great performance in employees’ respective roles.

Positive emotions in employees’ are determined by one’s personality, an individual who is always calm and relaxed is likely to have a positive emotion irrespective of what the supervisor or co-workers have done to them. Other factors which can influence positive emotions in employees include; rewards, compliments from the management, work offloads, good leadership, and good social relations between the organization’s fraternities.

Negative emotions in the workplace can be caused by lack of rewards, poor leadership, poor social relationship, cynic activities, lack of guidance, work overload, lack of backup, aggression, computer flaming, assertiveness, verbal abuse, lack of confidence between co-workers, and many negative activities in an organization. Negative emotions within the organization negatively affect the performance of workers. Also, the situation where workers are directed by their supervisors to act polite and pleasant to clients irrespective the conditions of work, which described as emotional labor, affects the performance of the organization.

The management of organizations train emotional labor, control them, and suppress their feeling for the purpose of maintaining an outward look to other employees. When employees look at the motivated emotional labor, those with easily aroused emotions gets inducted with positive emotions thus improving his/her job performance. Hence the management succeeds in its goal of influencing employees’ emotions. Despite that, emotional labor has negative effects on the employees, because of the pressure from their supervisors they feel frustrated, stressed, exhausted and in some cases experience burnouts (Hochschild 1983).

How to manage emotion of employees in an organization

Managers have found it crucial to take care of the employees’ emotions because of the intensity of impacts they have to the business organization. Also, the owners have come up and financed such management taking into consideration of how much those emotions would cost the organization if not managed. Alternative, it is said that the management can maximize the benefits of emotional labor by keenly selecting worker during deployment on the basis of style and norm which can be easily be manipulated.

Most employees dedicate more of their focus on their problems that on their jobs and therefore it necessary to know how to deal with their emotion as their manager. In order to manage employees’ emotions well it require the manager to have the following capabilities; have good emotions, be able to deliberately take part in an emotion, be cognizant in monitoring employees’ emotions, be able to change the negative emotions in employees, and be open to both negative and positive emotions (Mayer & Salovey 1997, p. 332). Below are the ways of managing employees’ negative emotions;

Understanding the Triggers of their Emotions

It is obvious that every human’s emotions should be due to certain issues. Therefore for the manager to control their emotions and encourage them to complete their tasks it is necessary to first understand what the cause is. It advisable for the manager to give the employee time to explain himself/herself as this will make him/her feel respected.

Empathize with Employees

After knowing what is affecting the employees’ emotions, take time as manager to empathize with those whose causes are sad moments. Empathizing with your employees strengthens your relationship with them and creates a positive rapport.

Employees Emotions Renovate the Problem

Managers are to renovate the cause of negative emotions of an employee by offering the necessary resource required. Renovating the cause gives the employee an opportunity to acquire positive emotions towards his/her job. If it is dissatisfaction in his/her job, stress, verbal abuse by supervisors or co-workers the management is required be able to solve the problem (Hassan, Hashim & Ishak 2011).

Maintain Employees’ Dignity and Give them Space

An employee might shed tears in the scene of explaining the cause of his/her emotions and this makes others feels bad. Managers are advised to keep their dignity by making them feel there is nothing bad with crying. Also, if necessary the employee can be given time to deal with whatever is affecting their emotions.

Staying Connected with Employees, Offering Training, and Periodic Seminars

Managers are supposed to keep in touch with employees emotionally to know the status of their emotions. Also, offering training services to employees will assist in solving the problem as they would be able to deal with their emotions at personal levels without involving the management. Consequently, this will enable the organization save resources which it would need use in dealing with each employees’ emotions (Boateng & Agyei 2013).

Attributes Associated With Emotional Intelligence of Employees

By looking at the model of Goleman, we realize the five emotional intelligence attributes that are important in a given workplace. They include, Self-awareness, Awareness of others, Self-management, Empathy, and Relationship management. Self-awareness is the knowledge of internal preferences state of one, the resource and instincts. It also includes knowing the emotions of one, strengths, the weaknesses, and capabilities. Through this, one is required to be emotionally self-aware, precise in the self-analysis and the self-confidence.

Self-management is the management of the internal state of one with the resources and the impulses in facilitating the achievable goals through flexibility, dedication and trustworthy within the workplace. The most important features in the workplace are the transparency, the initiative in place, optimism, and adaptability of the individual (Hassan, Hashim & Ishak 2011). The social awareness attribute is the awareness and the feelings of other people, their needs and the required concerns by one being empathetic.

Some other essential features also include organizational knowledge, service and the empathy shown to others (Hassan, Hashim & Ishak 2011). Relationship management, as an attribute of emotional intelligence, is the proficiency at inducing the required responses in others. This is achieved by assisting them to develop themselves and the capability of one solving the arguments and building of good relationship within the workplace. The most important features in this attributes are the inspiration, influence on others, teamwork and conflict management.

Empathy is also as an emotional trait is the ability of one to communicate and understand others through their views, feelings and thoughts. It usually helps in setting a stage through being a better listener and building of the self-awareness of an individual within a given workplace. Moreover, the more one can understand his feelings and thoughts; the more one will do to others.

Embodying the attributes of Emotional Intelligence

The characteristics of emotional intelligence are crucial components when it comes to effective leadership within the workplace. By understanding the operation within the brain and the system of emotional response within it, a leader is capable of identifying an appropriate factor in placing one into a team within the organization. When a leader is capable of relating the behavior and emotional intelligence challenges within an organization through the performance of the workplace, one gains the advantage of building an excellent team.

Communication deficiency, therefore, is one of the factors that lead to retention within the workplace. This leads to disengagement within the team members (Hochschild 1983). When a leader lacks some of these attributes of emotional intelligence, he lacks the expectation of those that follows him. When a leader reacts with the emotions of the members without shift, mistrust is created among the employees; thus, their working relationship is affected.

Reacting with unpredictable emotions towards the staff members can affect negatively the culture, positive feeling, and attitude of the company’s mission and goals. Therefore, good leaders should be self-aware and be able to understand how their teams can be affected both by the verbal and non-verbal communications. Through some training and academic knowledge, one can build alliance within a given team, communicate efficiently, and develop quick decisions in the highly stressing situation within the workplace.

Increasing Employee Motivation and Performance within the Workplace

The first measure to undertake in increasing motivation and performance within the workplace is by improving communication. This can be achieved when line managers communicate with the employees personally and not through emails. Sparing some time to talk with employees often makes the employee feel more involved. Secondly, the management needs to personalize the recognition of the employee. When employee motivational program is run, one can choose the desired reward; hence gaining motivation. These include rewards such as certificates and gifts tickets of concerts.

Thirdly, one needs to start the program of employee-shareholding. For instance, when the company is traded on NYSE, managers can make the employees feel as part of the organization by making them own the company. This is done by allowing them buy shares at discount and allocating shares specifically for employees (Hochschild 1983). Fourthly, one needs to increase the responsibility of these employees to make them develop a greater feeling of business ownership hence motivating them to put more effort in their work in making the company succeed.

One can also offer the employees the opportunity to undertake training in improving their skills within the enterprise. Fifthly, the employees should be granted a flexible working schedule. In most cases, employees do prefer working hours that will not hinder their lifestyle. Therefore, offering flexible working hours such as telecommuting improve their motivation. Lastly, one needs to give a reward to good work. For instance, employees can be paid parts based on the quality of their work. They can also earn the bonuses according to the productivity of their shifts; hence, motivating them towards their work environment.

Employees Emotions Conclusion

In conclusion, it is not possible to ignore emotions among employees since as human beings they would not lack them. Sometimes emotions are carried from different places either from home or somewhere on the way to the organization; therefore, the management should not assume that employees always reports to the work with positive emotions. If not well managed, emotions can severely affect the organization negatively. Thus it is, therefore, necessary for the organization to allocate enough resources specifically for managing emotions among employees. Alternatively, employees are required to be free to share their feelings with the relevant department for easy management of the emotions. Lastly, training and seminars for employees on how to manage their emotions are encouraged as they make the issue simple and convenient to solve.

References

Abdullah, M. & Rashid, N. 2012, ‘The Implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs and its Impact on Employee Organizational Citizenship Behavior’, International Journal of Business and Commerce, vol.2, no.1.

Boateng, I. A. & Agyei, A. 2013,’ Employee’s emotions: A manageable weapon for organizations’, International Journal of Human Resource Studies, vol. 3, no. 4.

David, S. 2012, CSR and its Impact on Employee Engagement, Mark Allen Group, London.

Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L. & Hayes, T. L. 2002, ‘Business-Unit-Level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis’, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 268-279.

Hassan, J. K., Hashim, F.Y. & Ishak, M. S. 2011, ‘Human Resource Management – Emotional Intelligence: Communication Effectiveness mediates the Relationship between Stress Management and Job Satisfaction’, International Journal of Managing Information Technology, Vol.3, No.4.

Hilsop, D. 2003, ‘The complex relations between communities of practice and the implementation of technological innovations’, International Journal of Innovation Management, vol.7, no.2, pp. 163-188.

Hochschild, A. R. 1983, The management heart: Commercialization of human feeling, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Mavondo, F. T., Chimhanzi, J. & Stewart, J. 2005,’Learning orientation and market orientation: Relationship with innovation, human resource practices and performance’, European Journal of Marketing, vol.39, no.11, pp. 1235-1263.

Mayer, J. D. & Salovey, P. 1997, Emotional development and emotional intelligence, Basic Books, New York.

Mirvis, P. 2012, ‘Employee Engagement and CSR: Transactional, Relational, and Developmental Approaches’, California Management Review, vol. 54, no. 4.

Morrow, P. C. & McElroy, J. C. 2003, ‘Work commitment conceptual and methodological developments for the management of human resources’, Human Resource Management Review, vol.11, no.3, pp. 177-180.

Neal, M. A. & Catherine, S. D. 2002, ‘Emotion in the workplace: The new challenge for managers’, Academy of Management Executive, vol. 16, no. 1.

Paauwe, J. & Boselie, P. 2005, ‘HRM and performance: What’s next?’, Human Resource Management Journal, vol.15, no.4, pp. 68-83.

Rousseau, D. M. & Greller, M. M. 1994, ‘Human resource practices: Administrative contract makers’, Human Resource Management, vol.33, no.3, pp. 385-401.

Schuler, R.S. 1989, ‘Strategic human resource management and industrial relations’, Human Relations, Vol.42, no.2, pp. 157-184.

WALL, B. 2008, Working relationships: using emotional intelligence to enhance your effectiveness with others, revised ed, Mountain View, Calif, Davies-Black

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Modern Slavery in Construction Supply Chains

Modern Slavery in Construction Supply Chains Dissertation

There is recognition that the UK construction industry is a danger sector for harbouring Modern Slavery abuses. While contractors are unlikely to be directly employing any slave labour, complex supply chain systems, can be found to be hiding a wide range of abuses. The UK government has already issued the Modern slavery act 2015 which provides a legislative means to deal with modern slavery perpetrators.

***Modern Slavery Construction Supply Chains Dissertation***

This dissertation investigates how contractors can eliminate the problem by successfully detecting (i.e. Identify, trace and eliminate) Modern slavery construction supply chains. In a critical review of the literature, the challenges of slavery to supply chain management are conceptualised, focusing on what makes construction a vulnerable industry. The paper then presents the findings from an extensive programme of interviews with UK Industry and labour welfare groups, which investigate the issues surrounding modern slavery in the UK and help obtain an understanding of the role contractors can play in the elimination of modern slavery within the supply chain. Eventually proposing a multi-stakeholder system contractors’ can implement to detect slavery.

This aim is broken down into the below dissertation objectives which guides the research:

Understand state of the art knowledge on MS and how it relates to the UK construction industry
Determine how well the industry has responded to the 2015 MS Act
Identify the challenges to detecting MS in multi-layered supply chains used by contractors
Assess the current MS detection methods used by contractors and identify which are most successful
Develop proposals on how contractors can improve their detection of MS in construction supply chains

Dissertation Contents

1 – Introduction
Background to the problem
Rationale
Aim
Objectives
Research overview and approach

2 – Literature Review
Definitions
The construction industry
Supply chain management
Traditional Slavery
MS and labour exploitation
Constituents of slavery
Migrant workers
Forced labour
Human Trafficking
Bonded Labour
The problem
Employment and the slavery business model
The Informal Economy
Traceability, Transparency and Multi-layer Supply Chains
Current Solutions
Legislation
Detectors
Prevention and Compliance

3 – Research Methodology
What is research
Narrowing the research topic
Literature review
Rationale
Sources
Research strategies (quantitative and qualitative)
Discounted Strategies
Data collection approach
Interview
Structure
Interview design
Development and Piloting
Sample Selection
Thematic Data analysis Method
Ethics and risks

4 – Data Collection
Background
Understanding the scope of MS
Awareness of MS
Prevalence of MS in Construction
Contractor responsibility
Impact of the 2015 MS Act
Vulnerabilities in the industry
Industry characteristics contributing towards vulnerability
Future MS detection techniques
Difficulties in detecting MS
Mechanisms For Detection and Prevention

5 – Discussion
The Understanding and Awareness of Modern Slavery
Collaboration and Supply Chain Relationships
Effective detection techniques
Impact of legislation

6 – Conclusions and Recommendations
Project overview
Key findings
Recommendations to the industry (contractors)
Limitations to research
Recommendations for further research

References

Appendix

Access This Dissertation Here: Modern Slavery Construction Supply Chains Dissertation

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I do hope you enjoyed reading this post on identifying and eradicating modern slavery in construction supply chains. There are many other titles available in the construction dissertation collection that should be of interest to construction management students and building professionals. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of construction such as project management techniques, environmental management, building and construction methods to name a few. It took a lot of time to write this post and I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

Application of Hierarchy of Requirements by Maslow in Ads

Title: Maslow hierarchy of requirements in advertising. The pyramid of requirements was developed in the 1940s by Abraham Maslow, and its theory is still suitable today for the understanding of management guidance, personal inspiration, and personal development. Maslow ideas in the hierarchy of needs of the employer’s responsibility to offer a work environment that enables and encourages employees to have their unique potential fulfilled are more related today.

There are various versions of Maslow’s pyramid of requirements explained by other scholars which have additional levels to the original model (Ciobanu and Ciobanu, 2015). The levels in Maslow’s order of needs are; safety needs, psychological needs, social needs, self-actualization needs, and esteem needs. The paper will discuss two international advertisements in relation to the Maslow’s needs Hierarchy, analysis of publications by use of market segmentation concepts, the international version of the ad, and the differences of the ads internationally, and finally the marketing and psychology aspects utilization in the advertisement for change.

Cadbury chocolate advertisements cater to the safety need in the hierarchy which is essential for making a buyer decide to purchase the product (Wells, 2015). Chocolates are known as friendship and love signs. There is social needs fulfillment in the Cadbury ads as there are special boxes provided by Cadbury used for the celebration of cultural events festivals that unite people giving a feeling of belongingness and love.

Maslow and Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola ad appeal to different needs at various levels of Maslow’s hierarchy. Coca-Cola makes its products to appear the most effective quencher of severe thirst as most of its ads are done in summer places such as baseball games, hence fulfilling the psychological need of its customers (Marlow, 2015). Coca-Cola ads portray the consumption of sodas at a family gathering of the party which emphasizes unity thus meeting the social belonging and love needs for its customers. In the Coca-Cola ads, sodas seem a famous symbol that brings respect and admiration to those who use them hence fulfilling esteem and self- actualization need.

Market segmentation is the combination of various customers into general needs and similar response to a marketing action. To segment a market there are different conducts to consider including psychographics, which looks into client’s psycho group, demographics, that concentrates on the type of client and behavior which bases on the actions of the client.

Coca-Cola organization uses consumer division of criteria and market into various clusters like profile, social and psychographic. Consumer value creation in Coca-Cola and good performance is a tragedy to convince people to buy their products. In its official website, the company outlays its pride in its partnership with the Olympic Games strengthening its reputation. In Coca-Cola ads, its seen people in summer quenching their thirst using Coca-Cola (Laudan, 2015). Its slogan of “open happiness with Coca-Cola” helps increase its sales as it shows highlights the consumption of Coca-Cola in family gatherings and parties. The Coca-Cola ads align with the company’s mission in that it refreshes an individual’s body mind and spirit, it makes a difference by creating value to customers and inspires happiness and optimism moments through actions and brands.

A Coca-Cola advert takes place in Naples, Italy where Simone Rugiati famous chef creates a dining room that is flashy and invites passersby to join him. They all wait after the chef sets a makeshift table and posts a sign saying “let’s eat together” they all enjoy the Coca-Cola Happiness table.

Coca-Cola international ad “teach the world to see” symbolizes a delightful and multiculturalism that is angelic. It portrays the Coca-Cola image as uniting people. Also, Coca-Cola presents an image of individuals that are bright future-oriented and are part of the process of its success (Aeschelmann, and Carus, 2015). Although the ad was American viewers targeted it has a universal and global message that makes people feel like it was made for everyone. Marketing and psychology are utilized in the Coca-Cola ad to bring emotional change in the viewers to boost its market, for instance when the Coca-Cola company changed its ad from “open happiness” to “taste the feeling” there was maintenance if happiness focus with people connecting and engaging in activities. This portrays the feeling of belonging and love.

Evidently, Maslow’s needs hierarchy is vital in marketing advertisement as the company’s show concern in various needs of its customers as outlined in the levels of hierarchy. The Coca-Cola international ad caters for psychological, social, emotional, esteem, and self- actualization needs. Cadbury chocolate advertisements cater to the safety and social needs of its customers. When the hierarchy of needs is considered in the advertisements, the firms can meet their missions on sales and marketing.

References

Aeschelmann, F., and Carus, M., 2015. Biobased building blocks and polymers in the world: capacities, production, and applications–status quo and trends towards 2020. Industrial Biotechnology, 11(3), 154-159.

Ciobanu, C. I., and Ciobanu, O. M., 2015. The Impact of Eco-marketing in Qol Improvement. Calitatea, 16(S1), 672.

Laudan, R., 2015. Cuisine and empire: Cooking in world history (Vol. 43). Univ of California Press.

Marlow, M. L., 2015. The American Dream? Anti-immigrant discourse bubbling up from the Coca-Cola ‘It’s Beautiful’advertisement. Discourse and Communication, 9(6), 625-641.

Wells, L., 2015. Photography: a critical introduction. Routledge.

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Celebrity Endorsement Marketing Dissertation

Celebrity Endorsement Effect on Consumer Behaviour within the UK Fast Fashion Industry

Celebrity Endorsement Marketing Dissertation. With the growing importance of social media in a shopper’s purchase journey, companies are evolving and stepping up the endorsement game across different channels. This dissertation will explore the relationship between UK celebrity endorsements on a product and their impact on consumer purchase behaviour as a result of their involvement. It will also aim to understand the relation of traditional advertising, social media and fast fashion and what the effects of these three have on UK consumer purchase behaviour. The secondary data was collected as a result of the literature review that was related to the research question.

Primary data was collected from an online questionnaire as well as interviews that involved 10 participants. As a result of this research, a conclusion was made that it is difficult to come up with a comprehensive answer due to the fact that there are so many variables that can occur in today’s society. However, it was found that younger generations are more susceptible to social media influencers and the older generation are more vulnerable to fast fashion celebrity endorsements. There are, like always, limitations to this research – as our society grows and expands, so does our knowledge therefore some of the research that has been previously expanded on is not as valuable to the actual conclusion of the study.

Celebrity Endorsement Dissertation Contents

1 – Literature Review
Consumer Behaviour
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Celebrities and the ELM Model
Celebrity Endorsement
Risks associated with Celebrity Endorsement
The Celebrity Endorsement Marketing Strategy
Ethical Implications of using Celebrity Endorsers
Framework and models
Hypodermic Needle Model
Celebrity Worship
Celebrity Attractiveness versus Celebrity Expertise
Celebrity Attractiveness
Celebrity Expertise
Comparison
Digital Influencers
The Meaning Transfer Model
Culture
Endorsement
Consumption
Criticisms
Brand Conceptualisation
What is a brand?
PCDL model
Fast Fashion and Social Media

2 – Methodology
Research Philosophy
Research Purpose
Research Questions and Aims
Primary Research Aim
Secondary Research Aim
Research Design
Method
Primary Research
Questionnaire Survey
Interview
Interview Design
The Participants

3 – Data Analysis and Discussion
Thematic Analysis
Consumer Understanding & Motivation in regards to Fast Fashion
Consumer Understanding and Motivation in regards to Social Media
Differences in Attitudes and Behaviours
Profile of People That Are Aware of Celebrity Endorsements

4 – Conclusions
Research Conclusions
Analysis of Research Question One
Analysis of Research Question Two
Observations
Limitations and Ethics of Research
Suggestions For Further Research

References

Appendix

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