Financial Analysis and Forecast of Sweet Dreams Inc Essay

Sweet Dream Incorporated (SDI) is a manufacturing company focused on mattress and box spring production for large retailers and hotel chains. With two facilities at their disposal, SDI manufactures over 20 different styles of bedding for their consumers. SDI’s founder and president, Douglas May, has contacted our consulting firm with regards to current financial problems between himself and SDI’s bank, First International Bank. Due to the spike in bank failures in the early 1990’s First National has become extremely sensitive to problem loans (loans which show ratio performances below the industry standard). Unfortunately, SDI has had poor liquidity and debt ratios for the past three years which has caught the banks attention. After a phone call from the bank Doug has realized that SDI is in even worse trouble than the bank thinks. He has just signed a 9.5 million dollar contract to expand the business which was allegedly being loaned from the bank. Seeing as how the bank is debating closing Doug down it doesn’t look likely that they would want to front him another 9.5 million. Following a brief meeting with his senior managers, Doug and his team decided that this 9.5 million dollar loan from the bank is the only way to keep their business alive. They have decided to reverse their current policy of aggressive price drops and easy credit, reduce their administrative, selling and miscellaneous expenses, not acquire any new fixed assets or sell common stock, decrease accounts payable, stop paying dividends, and freeze executive salaries. All this is an attempt to prove to the bank that Sweet Dreams Inc. is taking their financial situation very seriously and that the bank should strongly consider giving SDI the 9.5 million dollar loan. Doug has asked us to verify the bank’s evaluation of his company, predict the expected performance of Sweet Dreams Inc. for 1996 and 1997, and prepare a list of SDI’s strengths an d weaknesses. All of these requests will be used to influence the bank to grant a 9.5 million dollar short-term loan to SDI as well as not forcing the bank to demand immediate re-payment of their loans. Sweet Dreams Incorporated (SDI) is struggling currently. With a current ratio of 1.9, SDI looks good up front. However the company’s inventory occupies close to 60 percent of its current assets. The quick ratio better shows SDI’s performance. With a ratio of .77, SDI cannot pay their short-term liabilities as they come due. This shows the first problem of Sweet Dreams Inc; Inventory Management. Also in Doug’s efforts to spin his recent losses he has decided to change his traditional dividend payout from 25% to 0. This symptom cuts to the core problem that SDI’s bottom line has suffered in the past years, partly because of economic downturns and partly because of management’s response to the economic downturn. Finally SDI’s Z score poses a problem with the banks’ standards. An Altman’s Z score is calculated by combining five different ratios of a company. First National claims that a Z score below the industry standard shows weakness in a firm and increases the likelihood of default. SDI’s Altman score is 3.07 which is not enough to worry the bank, but enough to put increased pressure on Sweet Dreams Inc. Therefore the problem here lies at minimizing costs and increasing revenues. To solve these problems SDI would need to focus their efforts on inventory management, company decisions, and effectiveness and efficiency. Regarding inventory SDI can lower the current level of mattress production to let inventory deplete to an acceptable percentage of current assets. As for company decisions when the economy is hurting companies should focus on cutting wages or hours to minimize costs, not reducing prices to increase sales. Finally the company needs to work on improving their ratios. Strong ratios come from more selling and less spending which in turn will lead to a better Altman’s Z score. 2) After finding the results of Question one, it is evident that SDI has more weaknesses than strengths as of 1995. If you look at the common size statements, Table 3, it shows that inventory increased as a percentage of sales, which indicates that a smaller percentage is being sold. All current liabilities increased as a percentage of total liabilities, which indicates that SDI is facing more debt. Figure one also clearly shows many of the weaknesses of SDI. Both liquidity ratios are below the industry average. Although the debt ratio appears to be above the industry average, it is actually a weakness because it indicates that SDI has more debt than equity. The only asset management ratio that is above industry average is the fixed asset turnover ratio, the rest are either equal to, or beneath their industry average. However, it’s not all bad; Figure one also shows that SDI has managed to hold a payout ratio on dividends that is 5 percent above the industry average. 3) Based on our analysis of historical data, I do not believe that the bank should lend the requested money to SDI. We believe SDI is unfit for the loan because they are below the industry average in a majority of financial ratios used to measure overall success in the company. These include liquidity ratios, leverage ratios, asset management ratios and profitability ratios, all shown in Table six. The fact that SDI Is facing decreased demand resulting from the recent depression also adds to their adversity they are facing to be a successful retailer. The current financial situation they are in makes them very sensitive to any unexpected economic event, making the risk of lending to them even greater. We firmly believe that it would not be beneficial to the bank to grant SDI this loan. 5) SDI has determined that its optimal cash balance will be 5 percent of total sales. In addition, all excess funds of this amount will be invested in marketable securities, which in turn will earn a 5 percent interest rate. Based on the forecasted financial statements, we have determined that SDI will be able to invest in marketable securities in 1996 and 1997. As shown in Table two, net sales for 1996 and 1997 are $330,386,000 and $371,684,000 respectively. Table one shows that in 1996, SKI had $55,276,000 in cash and marketable securities. With the optimal cash balance at 5 percent, only $16,519,300 of this amount will be in cash. The remaining $38,756,700 will go towards marketable securities. Likewise the figures in 1997, which exceeds $18,584,200, the 5 percent optimal cash balance. Therefore, SDI was able to invest $56,183,800 in marketable securities. A potential problem that our financial forecasts reveal is that we are investing a considerably larger amount of money into the marketable securities than we are holding in cash. While this money is earning interest, it may cause a future problem seeing as how there are so many loans that require cash to be paid off. With cash being the most liquid of all assets, it may be essential to keep more on hand in order to successfully pay off short and long term loans that will accumulate as a result of the $9,500,000 increase in capital from the plant expansion. 6) On the basis of previously developed forecasts, it does not appear that SDI will be able to retire all of its outstanding short-term loans by December 31, 1996. At this date, SDI’s short term SDI has on hand at this time is only $16,519,300, as the rest of their cash will be invested in marketable securities as a result of the 5 percent optimal cash balance. 7) Should the bank decide to withdraw the entire line of credit and demand payment immediately, a few alternative options would be available to Sweet Dreams Inc. The first option is that Sweet Dreams Inc. would immediately file for bankruptcy. Along with this they will file for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act. This will allow Sweet Dreams Inc. to run as a firm and raise new money under restricted circumstances. Sweet Dreams Inc. will also be able to sell off any liquid assets in order to cover operation expenses and legal fees involved in this process. However, filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is not a n easy way out because more often than not the bank is unable to recover its initial investment. Along with this, employee productivity and morale descends, and the company will begin to have difficulty obtaining credit in the future because of their soiled credit history today. Another option is that Sweet Dreams Inc. would sell current assets at market value to pay off the requested amount from the bank. Their short-term bank loan is equal to $26,610,000 and their long-term bank loan is equal to $16,248,000 in 1995. Combined, this will equal a total of $42,858,000. This amount will need to be paid off as soon as possible. Due to the fact that they cannot sell total assets, Sweet Dreams Inc. needs to sell their current assets first at market value. For this example, we will use 28% as a fair market value. At 28% of face value, the $127,028,000 worth of current assets would be worth $91,460,160 to the creditors. First, Sweet Dreams Inc. would pay back the bank because they are requesting those funds immediately. After the loans are fully paid off, Sweet Dreams Inc. would be left with $48,602,160. The next action would be to pay off the stockholders who are still entitled to money. This amount would total to $2,660,000, with 7million shares valued at $.38. This would leave Since Sweet Dreams Inc. with $45,942,160. Although they still have money, Sweet Dreams Inc. took a major financial hit and will most likely need to default regardless. 8. There are several circumstances that would affect the validity of the comparative ratio analysis. For example the text quotes, â€Å"SDI’s problems began with the recession of the early 1990’s, which caused a drastic decrease in demand from its retail and hotel customers,† When outside sources such as a recession or an inflation occurs one can expect that the forecast would be altered. Unforeseeable events such as natural disasters can also affect the normality of the forecast, as these can affect potential sales. Also, if one makes a mistake in a forecast, and adds incorrectly or uses the wrong formula then the comparative ratio will be thrown off. When forecasting, one can only trust the facts of the past. For example, in this case study, SDI managers saw a decrease in demand from this recession. This caused many retail and hotel customers to steer away from purchasing new bedding. Although the sales from new homeowners were still there, hotels were not being built in the Southeast. Even though SDI responded by lowering prices and increasing production, people were still not buying and sales never increased. Hence, the management forecast was not accurate, and sales hardly improved. In most cases, forecasting is a very effective tool in predicting what will occur in the future, but there must be some room for managers to be flexible in order to account for discrepancies in the data or unknown events. 10) Based on the Altman’s Z-Score table we are confident that if a company is within 25% of expected sales they will still be close to the minimum Altman score of 3.2. Therefore the company would have strong enough ratios to not be flagged by the bank for, â€Å"Problem Loans.† Also Cost of Goods Sold as a percent of sales and the Altman Z score are inversely related. This shows that the end results are sensitive to Cost of Goods Sold. 11) While looking at the pro-forma financial statements, we believe Ingrid should give Sweet Dreams Inc. the 9.5 million dollar loan. All of the ratios are above the industry averages which hold strong signs for the future of the company. That being said SDI’s pro forma statements are of course, speculative. Ingrid should implement certain prevention systems to monitor SDI’s statements. For instance the bank should state in part of their indenture that SDI must keep 20% of their revenue in a savings account that the bank has access too. This serves the bank by holding 20% of their assets, but more importantly it lets the bank see how much money the company is making proportionately. The bank also has the right to use said assets as collateral until SDI is able to pay the bank back. With this contingency plan installed we believe that Ingrid would be justified in giving the loan to Sweet Dreams Incorporated.

Personal Values

Personal values are beliefs, missions, or philosophy that is meaningful on a personal level. They are reinforced by emotions and feelings, which turn mental perceptions into vital passions that we hope to realize in our lives. Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, every individual has a core set of personal values. Whatever our values are, when we take them to heart and implement them in our lives, great accomplishments and success happens. When we implement, commit to, and apply personal values in our lives, energy is released that attracts success, achievement, and well-being. Some of the more common personal values include; accomplishments, freedom, prosperity, success, friendship, punctuality, self-reliance, concern for others, harmony of purpose, accountability, quality of work, goodwill, reliability, goodness, cleanliness, commitment, creativity, customer satisfaction, equality, loyalty, justice, resourcefulness, family, independence, spirit, hard work, and faithfulness. People relate to personal values in a number of ways; thoughtful people continually think about those things they cherish and believe in, while the powerful are motivated and driven to implement personal values in their lives. Interestingly, not only do values energize us, but when we implement them, it energizes everything we come in contact with. Personal values drives and motivate us to move forward in life, which in turn enables progress. Whether they drive our own individual lives in a positive direction, improve the economic, social, and cultural conditions of a nation, or move society forward in a path of progress, personal values are important in our lives. We all have values that determine our decisions and guide our lives. Accomplishments in life depend not only on physical energy, but also on the psychological energy we are able to bring to our actions. Personal values also direct our psychological energies for accomplishment. The quality of the values we embrace and the intensity of our commitment to them determine the level of our accomplishment in life. Values, personal values, and core values all refer to the same thing. They are desirable qualities, standards, or principles that are the driving forces in our lives, and also influence our actions and reactions. They are inherited, and/or learned from our environment. Knowing your values helps you to follow a clear set of rules and guidelines for your actions, make good decisions, nd choices, find compatible people, places, and things that support your way of living, live with integrity, learn to identify and live from your values, and to manage stress (Ibtissem, 2010). Cultural Values Cultural values are sets of common understandings around which actions are organized, and the finding of expressions in language, whose finer distinctions are peculiar to the group. They are sets o f meanings shared by a group of people that are largely inferred among members, and are clearly relevant, and distinctive to the particular group. Cultural values are also passed on to new members. These values are systems of knowledge, standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and acting that serve to relate human communities to their environmental settings (Khalil, & Seleim, 2010). They are also deeper levels of basic assumptions and beliefs that are learned responses. Any social system arising from a network of shared ideologies consisting of substances – the networks of meaning associated with ideologies, norms, and values, and forms – the practices where the meanings are expressed, affirmed, and communicated to members, defines the cultural values of an organization. Culture is what naturally emerges as individuals transform themselves into social groups. A culture encompasses distinct observable forms – language, use of symbols, ceremonies, customs, methods of problem solving, use of tools, or technology, and design of work settings – that groups of people create through social interaction, and use to confront the broader social environment. Culture can be characterized as consisting of three levels; the first and most visible level is behaviors and artifacts, which consists of behavior patterns and outward manifestations of the culture. This is the privileges provided to executives, dress codes, level of technology utilized, and where it is utilized, and the physical layout of the work spaces. Artifacts and behavior also tell what a group is doing, but not the reasons why. The second level of culture is its values. The cultural values determine behaviors, but values are not directly observable, as behaviors are. There is a difference between stated values and operating values. To really understand culture, we have to get to the deepest third level, the level of assumptions and beliefs. Underlying assumptions grow out of values, until they are taken for granted and discarded. Many are unaware of, or unable to articulate their beliefs and assumptions. To understand culture, all three levels have to be understood (Vauclair, 2009). There is an additional aspect that may complicate the study of culture: the group or cultural unit which owns the culture. An organization may have many different cultures or subcultures, or even no apparent dominant culture at the organizational level. Recognizing the cultural unit is essential to identifying and understanding the culture. Organizational cultures are created, maintained, or transformed by people, and by organizational leadership (Khalil, & Seleim, 2010). Leaders at the executive level are the principle source for the re-infusion of an organization's ideology, articulation of core values, and the specification of norms. Organizational values express preferences for certain behaviors or certain outcomes, and organizational norms express behaviors accepted by others. They are the culturally acceptable ways of pursuing goals. Leaders also establish the boundaries for the formal lines of communication, and the formal interaction rules for the organization. Values and norms, once transmitted through the organization, establish the permanence of the organization's culture. Groups, societies, or cultures have values that are largely shared by their members. These values identify those objects, conditions or characteristics that members of the society consider important. Values are related to the norms of a culture, with the norms being the rules for behavior in specific situations, and the values identify what should be judged as good or evil. Members take part in a culture even if each member's personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values of the culture. This reflects an individual's ability to integrate and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple of sub-cultures they belong to. If a group member expresses a value that is in serious conflict with the group's norms, the group's authority may carry out various ways of encouraging conformity or stigmatizing the non-conforming behavior of its members. Commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable, in a community or society, is determined by cultural values. These values determine the ideas about what is good, right, fair, and just. Creating a culture based on moral excellence requires a commitment among managers to embody and develop two qualities in their leadership: virtue and wisdom. Creating an organization characterized by moral excellence is a lengthy process, because it involves changing the organizational culture (Vauclair, 2009). One of the primary responsibilities of strategic leadership is to create and maintain the organizational characteristics that reward and encourage collective efforts, with the most fundamental of these being the organizational culture. An organization's culture develops to help cope with the environment. Organizational leaders are confronted with many complex issues during their attempts to generate organizational achievement. Their success depends to a great extent on understanding organizational culture. Many of the problems that organizational leaders face are caused by their inability to analyze and evaluate organizational culture. Many leaders, when trying to implement new strategies or a strategic plan leading to a new vision, will discover that their strategies will fail if they are inconsistent with the organization's culture. Difficulties with organizational transformations arise from failures to analyze an organization's existing culture. Strategic leaders have an additional set of challenges; they have to create the means, and the opportunities to infuse their employees with new ways of looking at themselves, and their capabilities. Leaders' new ideologies and values need to be communicated effectively, internalized by employees, and then translated into productive methods of thinking, and working. Organizations consist of subgroups that have specific characteristics and a sense of identification. Within organizations, people can easily classify themselves and others into various social categories or groups based on identification with their primary work group, occupational, or professional skills, or union membership. Subgroups in organizations can and do create subcultures that comprise specific networks of meaning, and they remain associated with the ideologies and values of the organization's leadership. Organizations do not always have standardized or consistent subcultures. The social products produced by subcultures within organizations can be widely diverse, and even result in countercultures. These countercultures can have both productive and unproductive outcomes. The key to a counterculture's success is the group's ability to demonstrate how its unconventional behaviors are consonant with the core ideologies, values and norms of the dominant culture. Cultures provide members with a reliable means to interpret a highly vague environment. It is the organization’s leaderships’ responsibility to specify the features of the environment that are relevant to the organization, and then provide the supporting assumptions, and rationale for its operating strategies. Leadership should recognize that their cultural messages should specifically address cultural uncertainties associated with subculture practices within the organization, and limit their attempts to eliminate distinctions that are important to the subculture's identities. They would have a better chance of creating, or transforming an organization’s culture if they accept, and foster productive organizational subcultures, and consistently communicate how employees must perform in order for the organization to achieve its objectives. Cultural change then relies on leaders' communication techniques that cross sub cultural boundaries and carry messages about ideologies, values and norms that can be internalized by all employees. Cultural forms function as the linking mechanism by which networks of understandings develop among employees. These cultural forms act as a medium for communicating ideologies, values, and norms. They also enable leaders to transmit messages about desirable behaviors to influence thinking and ways of behaving. Cultural forms also address the emotional aspects of organizations that are commonly referred to as cohesion or camaraderie. Productive cultural change will occur if leaders correctly analyze the organization's existing culture, and evaluate it against the cultural attributes needed to achieve strategic objectives. They must first possess a clear understanding of the strategic objectives for their organization, and then identify the actions needed to reach those objectives. The next step is to conduct an analysis of the organization’s existing ideologies, values and norms. Strategic leadership needs to be transformational if it is to serve the organization, and it must operate from a foundation of high morality and ethical practices. Even though culture is deep seated, and difficult to change, leaders can influence or manage an organization's culture. It isn't easy, and it cannot be done rapidly, but leaders can have an effect on culture. An understanding of culture, and how to transform it, is a crucial skill for leaders trying to achieve strategic outcomes. Strategic leaders have the best perspective, because of their position in the organization, to see the dynamics of the culture, what should remain, and what needs transformation. This is the essence of strategic success. Values and ethics are one of the most important characteristic of an individual. They basically define who we are and what we believe. There are many factors that determine our values and ethics. Culture, religion, and many other factors affect our beliefs. Many times our values and ethics can clash with different people who hold different views and beliefs. This doesn't mean our values or ethics are wrong it just means we think differently than others. Most people have a good sense of ethics and values. Knowing between right and wrong is a good foundation to practicing good ethics and morals. Family members, Grandparents, friends, and school teachers all influence our thoughts and beliefs. Educational Values Education is not all about book learning and passing exams, it is also about developing personal values and living these values. Ethical Values To behave ethically is to behave in a manner that is consistent with what is generally considered to be right or moral. Ethical behavior is the bedrock of mutual trust. Values are what we believe to be right, individually or organizationally. Values distinguish between right and wrong, and doing what is right or wrong is what we mean by ethics. The first place to look in determining what is right or wrong is society, because almost every society makes some determination of morally correct behavior. Societies not only regulate the behavior of its members, but also define their societal core values. Experience lead societies to develop beliefs about what is of value for the common good. Societies may differ from one another in the specifics, but not in the general principles; reciprocity – one good deed deserves another, the notion of good intent – a person’s word is their bond, or the appreciation of merit in others regardless of personal feelings – give the devil his due. To determine what is generally considered to be right, look at the positive values of society and the organizations one belongs to. Societal or organizational norms are other aspects that should also be considered. Norms are the unstated rules, usually informally reached by the members of a group, which govern the behavior of the group's members. Norms often have a greater effect on what is and isn't done by the members of a group than formal rules and regulations. Norms are a important part of ethics, in that they allow and/or even encourage certain OK behaviors that are not in keeping with societal or organizational stated values. Ethics and morality are important for individuals, groups, organizations, and society. they should also be important for public officials, and for very much the same reasons. Some very important individual, group, organizational, and/or societal ethical values are; basic honesty and conformity to law; conflicts of interest; service orientation and procedural fairness; the ethics of democratic responsibility; the ethics of public policy determination; and the ethics of compromise and social integration. People behave unethically because of the complexity of the strategic issues that may cross that ethical line, difficulty in determining what the most ethical alternatives are, competition for scarce resources, power, or positions, conflicting loyalties, groupthink, is. There are several systemic factors also contribute to people behaving unethically; the competition for scarce resources, trying to gain a competitive advantage in the race for position or power, conflicting loyalties, groupthink among homogeneous groups with strong leaders, the presence of ideologues, or individuals who view their own extreme positions as right and any opposing positions as wrong, and an organization's negative response to dissent. Organizational members have only three choices when confronted with unethical behavior: Exit, the most direct response, means if you can't live with behavior that does not meet your own ethical standards, leave. Voice, means expressing discomfort with and opposition to the observed unethical behavior. Go public, to engage in ‘whistle blowing’. The final response to unethical behavior in an organization is loyalty, the alternative to exit. Instead of leaving, the individual remains and tries to change the organization from within. An organization cannot maintain high ethical standards without ways for eliminating unethical behavior. The steps to building an ethical climate, and to foster corporate ethics; (1) Determine the actions of strategic leadership and the ways they deal with ethical issues. The pattern of top leaders' behavior determines organizational values. (2) Make explicit ethics policies. (3) Increase awareness of how to apply ethical codes. (4) Training on how to deal with situations with an ethical dimension. 5) How to anticipate situations that involve ethical choices. (6) Expand the information system to focus on areas where ethics may come into play. Knowing what actually is going on in the organization is essential to understanding the ethical principles which govern behavior. The information system should also support ethical behavior, and allow the strategic leader to know when or where there are potential ethical breaches so that corrective action can be taken. There is real danger when unethical behavior goes unnoticed, or unpunished, members will assume it is excused by the organization's leadership. Encouraging leaders to pursue their own moral development is critical at higher levels because strategic leaders set the moral climate for the organization. Business ethics is the application of the disciplines, principles, and theories of ethics on the organizational level. These are the principles, and standards that guide behavior in the business environment. Ethical behavior in business is critical. When businesses are charged with infractions, and when employees of those firms come under legal investigation, there is concern raised about the moral behavior of that business. The level of mutual trust, which is the foundation of our free-market economy, is threatened. Business ethics is also concerned with the day-to-day ethical dilemmas faced by millions of workers at all levels of an organization. All people have their own sets of personal values that come from society, families, religions, and experiences. Ethical dilemmas can arise when those personal values conflict directly with the company’s practices. Organizations can manage their culture and ethical climate by trying to hire employees whose values match their own. Some firms even measure potential employees’ values during the hiring process and strive to choose individuals who fit within the ethical climate rather than those whose beliefs and values differ significantly. Family Values Some of the more common family values are; belonging, it is important that each member of a family feel that they are loved, that they belong and that they matter; flexibility, the order, schedules and structure of the family that helps to maintain a level of sanity; respect, to take feelings, thoughts, needs, and preferences in to account when making decisions; acknowledging and valuing everyone’s thoughts, feelings and contributions to the family as a whole; honesty, the foundation of any relationships that are meant to last; forgiveness, forgiving is an important choice to make (yes, choice); generosity, giving without thinking about what you will receive is an important value for anyone wanting to be a responsible, contributing ember to society; curiosity, which helps to build critical thinking skills, includes the spoken word, tone, volume, expression, eye contact, body language and effective listening; responsibility is something that is learned; and traditions, which ma kes a family unique (Arnier, & Stein, 1998). Religious Values Religion plays a vital role in our lives and in reinforcing personal values. It does not matter what our religious preferences are, personal values are formed and reinforced through religious teachings. Tolerance, honesty, truthfulness, respect for others and elders, purity are some of the values formed and reinforced through religious teachings. Organizational Values Organizations and institutions have values and ethics are that are central to its existence. Often time, there are one or more business values that are the key to a business’s success. Examples are Sear’s commitment to ‘trusting the customer’, Apple Computer's belief in ‘the value of solving the problems of society’, or the Marriott's value of ‘systemization and standardization’. Values are those things important to or valued by someone, whether they are an individual or an organization. Organizational values are important to its vision, which is based on and consistent with the organization's core values. Organizational values are more than words; they are the moral, ethical, and professional attributes of character, and what professionals judge to be right. These core values must be instilled in all organizational members. They determine our character, guide our lives, and are central to our profession. Some of the more common organizational values; loyalty, duty, honesty, selfless service, professionalism, caring, teamwork, stewardship. and integrity. When these values are shared by all organizational members, they can be very important and useful tools for making judgments, assessing probable outcomes of contemplated actions, and choosing among alternatives. Organizational values put all members on the same page with regard to what all members as a body consider important. These values are the embodiment of what an organization stands for, and should be the basis for the behavior of its members. When we implement, commit to, and apply personal values in our lives, energy is released that attracts success, achievement, and well-being. With organizations and nstitution’s employees, customers, products, services, and all the stakeholders, their energy attracts success, new opportunities, new sources of revenue and income, and other material and psychological benefits. In some organizations, any discord by its members may be rewarded by termination, or they may be expelled, or ostracized from the group. Group members quickly learn the operating values, or they don't survive for long. To the extent they differ from stated values, the organization will not only suffer from doing things less effectively, but also from the cynicism of its members, who have yet another reason for mistrusting the leadership, or doubting its wisdom. Organizational values provide the basis for judgments about what is important for the organization to succeed in its core business. There are three aspects to ethical behavior in organizations: the development of the individual as an ethical person, the effect of the organization as an ethical or unethical environment, and the actions or procedures developed by the organization to encourage ethical behavior and discourage unethical behavior. Most of an individual's ethical development occurs before entering an organization. The influence of family, church, community, and school will determine individual values. The organization is dealing with individuals whose value base has already been established. The organization also has a major impact on the behavior of its members, and can have a positive or negative influence on their values. There are three qualities individuals must possess to make ethical decisions; the ability to recognize ethical issues and to reason through the ethical consequences of decisions, the ability to look at alternative points of view, deciding what is right in a particular set of circumstances, and the ability to deal with ambiguity, uncertainty, and to make decisions on the best information available. Individual characteristics and organizational influence are very important attributes that determines ethical behaviors. The ethical standards that one observes in the organization will have a significant effect on individual behavior. The organization has the greatest impact in the standards it establishes for ethical and unethical conduct in its formal reward systems. Informal norms also have a strong influence on individuals' behavior as do the actions of the leaders of the organization. Strategic leaders must understand that their actions, more than words alone, will determine the operating values in the organization. Many people behave ethically, in spite of the apparent lack of gain. Ethical behavior is intrinsically rewarding; most people behave ethically because it's the right thing to do. People are guided by their personal value systems.

An Example of Success In A Competitive Market Research Paper

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Why video games are violent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why video games are violent - Essay Example In order to answer this question, there are different angles from which the issue can be observed indicating the difference levels of the presence and absence of violence in video games. Video games are violent because they offer an alternative form through which one can â€Å"†¦absolve themselves of guilt or justify certain morally questionable acts†¦Ã¢â‚¬  whereby video game players can release their inner feelings of violence that cannot be directed towards other people in the real world (Schaffer). With this in mind, video games are violent because they are virtual worlds in which there are no consequences for engaging in whatever violent acts that one pleases (Videogame Addiction). Therefore, video games are violent to provide a safe proving ground in which violent behavior can be virtualized and enacted in a safe manner that cannot harm anyone, the player included. Arguments are that this is the main reason to rid real life situations of potential acts of violence t hat may lead to severe consequences such as death (Schaffer).

Overview of Second Century Christianity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Overview of Second Century Christianity - Essay Example One of great import was the communicatio idiomatum. What were the scriptures and how were they to be interpreted and understood was such a vital question. Many solutions were being out forward and the church fathers of this period had had to propose and refute. The senses of scripture emerged and became part of interpretive strategy but not without their own specific problems. The influence of the Greek and platonic times were still evident in society and was making their impact felt even in the Christian faith. Gnosticism would emerge and be dealt with but never with complete success. The church continued to grow and with the passing of time the various councils began to play a critical role in the defense of authentic faith, and the role of liturgies would become invaluable. Christianity, which started as a first century Jewish cult spread rapidly over the Greco-Roman world. Its early period can be divided into two definite phases. First is the apostolic period. The Post Apostolic period stretched from the late first century until the Council of Nicaea in 325. The area of our focus namely the 2nd century fits into the Post Apostolic period. This was also known as the Ante Nicene period. ... Pauline Christianity and Gnostic Christianity flourished. This century presented challenges to the church fathers in terms of persecution, doctrinal conflicts other than the very challenge of authoritatively and resolutely continuing the great commission in the absence of the apostles. What was the need for communicatio idiomatum? One of the functions of Bishops during this period was to refute heresies. These heresies were largely Christological. They had a problem understanding the mystery of Christ being divine as well as human. For instance Docetism believed that Jesus’s humanity was an illusion, which was refuted by Ignatius of Antioch in AD 110. â€Å"Many groups were dualistic, maintaining that reality was composed into two radically opposing parts: matter, usually seen as evil, and spirit, seen as good. Orthodox Christianity, on the other hand, held that both the material and spiritual worlds were created by God and were therefore both good, and that this was represen ted in the unified divine and human natures of Christ.†1 These arose due to the mystery of Christ. Theologians assign the name mystery to revealed truths that are beyond the power of natural understanding. The earliest of Christians grappled with the mystery of the nature of Christ and the Gnostics of the 2nd century had a real issue with this. The fact that one person can have two natures is problematic. Terminology is a culprit. There is terminology for being divine and there is terminology for being human but no terminology for being both at the same time. Theological language of that day was insufficient for this purpose. The easiest of explanations is to say that he sometimes acted as a human and

Native Americans' music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Native Americans' music - Essay Example The song text in Native American music is inclusive of both public and secret pieces. The secret song pieces have been used for sacred purposes and ceremonies alone and have been claimed to be both ancient and unchanging. There are public sacred songs and ritual speeches which are looked upon as being musical because of the way in which they use rhythm and melody, and the ritual speeches are often in direct description of the events of a ceremony and the reasons for and the ramifications of a certain ritual or a celebration. The native music of Washington state also includes the legacy of Native American Flute Music that held high significance in the long and rich tradition of their music. It has achieves some measure of fame for its distinctive sound and the music as such was used in assistance of courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. The Native American flute is the only flute in the world constructed with two air chambers - there is a wall inside the flute between the top (slow) air chamber and the bottom chamber which has the whistle and finger holes. The top chamber also serves as a secondary resonator, which gives the flute its distinctive sound. There is a hole at the bottom of the "slow" air chamber and a (generally) square hole at the top of the playing chamber. A block (or "bird") with a spacer is tied on top of the flute to form a thin, flat airstream for the whistle hole (or "window"). Some more modern flutes use an undercut either in the block or the flute to eliminate the need for a spacer.

Mot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mot - Essay Example In order to help unmotivated students, a process called attribution retraining is employed that involves modeling, socialization and practice exercises among others. Moreover, other potentially helpful practices can be incorporated such as portraying effort as investment rather than risk, portraying skill development as incremental and domain specific and always focus of mastery. During early childhood development, children express their concern through curiosity and explore new things. However, as children grow, their psychosocial environment influences their learning behavior and learning frequency. Many children though physically present in the classroom remain absent mentally. They do not want to invest their mind and energy towards learning things. It is therefore, important for educators to first understand students’ attitudes and beliefs towards learning and then help minimize students’ lack of concern. Understanding student motivation is very important. In simple terms, it can be defined as the students’ desire to participate in a specific task. However, it is also directly associated with students’ academic achievement. Students can get motivated in two ways: intrinsically and extrinsically. In the former case, motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task. However, extrinsically motivated students perform task to avoid punishment such as grades, teacher approval, etc. However, the phrase, motivation to learn is mainly associated with academic achievement. It does not matter whether the task is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated or not. Well, there are various factors that influence student motivation including modeling, communication, instruction, socialization, etc. In addition, home environment also shapes the students’ attitudes and beliefs towards learning. Parental care, encouragement and explaining answers to numerous

Sensationalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sensationalism - Essay Example Sensationalism in its practice is not a new concept as such. The practice has been around going back to early humans. The act of storytelling and narrations were often related and focused on sex and conflict. According to Gaudreault et al. (2012) sensationalism per se is not a new phenomenon but has been there for long only that the term is new. Denotation and connotation are terms that are used to convey and also differentiate between two separate kinds of meanings of a particular word. In media reporting, denotation is regarded as first level of analysis; this is primarily what the target audience can visually view on the page. Often, it refers to literal meaning, and avoids any elements of metaphor. Denotations are occasionally coupled with connotation, which forms part of the second level of analysis. Connotation is symbolic nature of a word, things or attributes that are triggered by a word, ideas and notions suggested or even associated a particular word. Connotations are associated with emotions and feelings. According to Durham & Kellner (2005), connotations vary depending on the context and the individual understanding of the word. A single word can bring different emotions, ideas and feelings to different people depending on their personal experiences. Sensationalism in itself is largely controlled by denotations and connotations but often in the wrong way. The application of connotations particularly is largely depended on the context and the target audience. If one decides to intentionally ignore this consideration, then they are likely to send out the wrong information. While sensationalism is not completely a negative tool to be used in the media and journalism, it matters when it is applied in crucial situations. In an online article on The New York Post by Fears (2014) the writer gives a headline concerning construction of a "mosque† at the centre of the ground zero. In real sense,

Jadelink Market Essay Example for Free

Jadelink Market Essay Comentario en Internet de Harvard Business Review : â€Å"The experienced entrepreneurial chief executive officer (CEO) of Jadelink International Limited strives to create a modern jewelry brand representing a new perception in jade. The CEO has achieved early success of growing sales rapidly and bringing Jadelink products to Shanghai, the trendiest city in China. But the company wants to expand business to the Asian and international luxury goods markets. This requires intensive capital to continue to build up the company scale. This case examines the consideration of venturing a new business in the China market, managing business growth and acquiring venture capital. It also allows discussion of factors leading to a successful entrepreneurship and dealing with business highly associated with industry tradition, people connection and product design and innovation†. Q1: How would you characterize Chung as an entrepreneur? What lessons did he learn in the past few years as an entrepreneur? See the comments on above Kent Chung us the CEO and founder of Jadelink International Limited, company based in HK. He is an accountant that worked for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) and then he started his own accounting Firm. He likes business and he likes to be an entrepreneur, he: * Sold cosmetics in HK. He learned that he invested a lot in expensive furniture there. * Sold Silk stocks (medias de seda) in Lo Wu * Published Puntonghua (mandarin) Books. * Opened a Cigar shop that currently still operates in a four stars hotel (with profits). * He lost HK $12 millions in an investment of an online education project. In this case, he learned that people want pleasure and looking good, not inspiration or education. The key point is to know the desires and trends of consumers. He summarized the lessons as follows: * Business startup: Team spirit, company infrastructure, work coordination, trust. * Entrepreneur: Hard work, multitasking, flexibility, pressure-resistance, independence * Drivers of a company: Clear business direction and product familiarization. Mastering financial foundation is important. Luxury Market Tea. First Chung bought a tea garden in 2004. Rich Chinese started to buy expensive/premium tea. Problems faced: Farmers knew what leaves are better and they keep them for themselves. Picking tea in an intensive labor, the farmer did well but the motivation dropped quickly once they make enough money to live leisurely. Manage farmers was hard. Jade Business Jade was more suited for Mr. Chang. His wife studied gemology and his younger brother’s father in law (el suegro de su hermano menor) was a veteran of the industry that known everything of sourcing and stones cutting. Jewerly market in China was booming. He founded the company Jadelink International Limited in 2005, with the investment of a Silent Investor, and his wife. Q2: What was the value proposition of Jadelink? Jadelink controlled all the operation flow Material Purchasing and processing. * Product design, manufacturing and retailing took place in different subsidiaries. * Team in HK: Design * Plant in Foshan (Guandong province): Cutting, slicing and polishing. * Several Contractors and Artisans in HK were outsourced (for final phases of the process) in order to avoid dependence of one of them. a) Jadelink conducted market research, ask for customers’ feedback, and design according customers taste. In addition, they have an exclusive technique in stone-cutting enabled Jadelink to use almost 2/3 of a jadeite rough to make the maximum number of jewelry items. b) Chung use to ask to candidates to probe their abilities spontaneously (designers mainly). Chung selected excellent professionals to build up the company. How did Chung succeed in starting up Jadelink? Once the company â€Å"Jadelink† was founded, Chung only took 25 months to set up: * A heading office and retail store in HK * A manufacturing plant in Foshan * 8 retail shops at vantage points in Shanghai * A company website and e-business in Japan * In 2008 there are more than 80 employees. Asi o mas exitoso 3. What did Chung do to establish the company? He has a very clear idea: Jade is precious for Chinese, but if one wants to buy jade jewelry, would the person think of any particular company The initial investment was approximately HK $ 30 million. * Chung $ HK 10million (cash) * Silent Investor $HK10 (cash) * Wong (wife) invested her stock of jade merchandise 4. Outline the current problems facing Jadelink. How did these problems arise? In 2006, Jadelink had sales of a couple of million HK dollars, which increased several times in 2007. In the first two months of 2008, when the sales volume was three times the sales for the same period in 2007, the business broke even. Chung was confident that no potential competitors could emerge fast enough to threaten Jadelinks business in a few years. Therefore, he wished not only to open 30 to 50 shops in all major cities of China but also to promote the brand internationally, expanding to Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, making Jadelink a leading player in the industry. Chung believed that Jadelink was good enough to survive well in the market with this existing scale. However, if he wanted to push the growth of Jadelink forward, he would have to expand the company within five years, which would require an estimated RMB100 million (about 16 million dollars) investment. As Jade industry is capital-intensive, there is too much capital being backlogged in the raw jadeite. The production period usually lasts long, which puts a lot of pressure on capital turnover. Besides, the payback period for a Jadelink shop is two years and it requires about six months for a counter in a department store. As a result, though the company has started to make profit, the existing amount of cash flow is not satisfying enough. More stores and years are required to obtain enough funding to implement Chung’s plan for expansion. If Chung chose to develop at a conservative pace, using the company’s retained earnings, he might miss the opportunity to grow with the expanding China market. Also, potential competitors could also emerge. Therefore, Chung decided to obtain external funding from venture capitalists and other forms of private equity. Internal management problems as the management system was not clear enough. Practices were not recorded, and there is a lack of clear guidelines and training manuals. Q5: What were the issues that caused Chung to obtain external funding? In the eyes of venture capitalists, his company was small and few investors understood the jade industry or recognized the market potential. Chung was concerned they were treaty Jadelink as on their pretty production divisions and simply put it under the existing structure without recognizing his vision and Jadelink’s strengths. Q2: Give recommendations for promoting the expansion of Jadelink. 1. Optimize the internal management system. Jadelink should record practices and set up clear guidelines and training manuals. As Jadelink expands, the company will come across more problems in daily activities. Some of the problems may be similar so there is no need to discuss how to handle it every time. With clear guidelines and training manuals, employees will know how to deal with the affairs under certain circumstances. 2. Attract professional staff. Since the policies〠customers’ preference〠culture and resources are different in varies countries, Jadelink should hire experts who have a good knowledge of each country in order to adjust to and broaden the market. Designers are supposed to know one country’s custom and culture well so that they can manufacture products which cater for the need of customers in different countries. 3. When searching for external funding, Chung had better choose the investors who would respect his effort and vision in addition to focusing on the monetary value of Jadelink. Thus the investors would feel an attachment to the company and be able to relate to their own affections for the company, and they will have the same target as Chung, which is to transform Jadelink into a world-famous brand. Otherwise investors may hold different opinions against the CEO, which would make the operation and management difficult.

How femininities and masculinities were constructed in Latin America Essay Example for Free

How femininities and masculinities were constructed in Latin America Essay The upsurge of the American culture has vehemently exploded across the world in general, but in particular in the Latin America, where the conventional living styles have been upset. From the Caracas to Havana, feminism and masculinity have been snared. Socially, a new social fabric is in the memory where gender polarity is being erased to pave way for a neoman who neither recognizes nor respects individual external orientations. Though in numerous cases education system in different courses have recognized the fauna and flora into two distinct groups based on anatomical feature; a good proportion of the modern people have failed to respect this early natural innovation. As far as human studies reveals, the aftermath of long researches with devotion and dedications from global scientists has to be alluded for verification and confirmatory of the kind evolutions that might have taken place. Perhaps, it can be claimed that biologists, psychologists and other individuals in the anthropological research and studies have over the time been disillusioned on their work. (Viveros, 2001) The two terminologies of masculinity and femininity have been widely used in the research involving human being. They have been used primarily in researches in the field of science of biology, sociology and medicine. Despite their wide application in the scientific world, these terms have been used to bring a sense of gender category/ identity. Both masculinity and femininity are two opposite terms which etymologically were derived from the word male and female respectively. In spite of their derivation, masculinity and maleness are widely distinct entities, hence they have meaning which are quite unrelated. Similarly, femininity and femaleness has different application to bring different meanings. Advances in education and technology in defense of new world, masculinity and femininity meanings have been diffused, and this has led to flooding of different characteristics to define them, thus impressive characteristics such as communion and separations by Balkan are widely adopted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  (Stern, 2001) Overall, distinguishing of such terminologies has over the decades been confusing, throwing most readers out of the track. Sex and gender are the most perplexing words especially in relation to masculinity and femininity.   However, the recent simplicity of these indicates the body as being the sex while gender is the complexities which are portrayed by the body. This sophistication thus comprises of the body behavior, the mental thinking and the general features which describes the personality of an individual (Gutmann, 1970). Therefore, masculinity and femininity are highly rooted on the gender term rather than sex. Masculinities and femininities are gendered terms which refers to behavioral characteristics that are distinctive and general pronounced in give sex.   The study of females and males in gender revealed context is something that has not taken place in an overnight elapse; however, this is estimated to have been in existence for more than a century. Approximately, femininity and masculinity studies have lasted from late 19th century and early 20th century up to date. First and foremost, men’s interest on the study of gender work was more inclined in the field of social activities. The arousal of gender related interest was emanating from the many numerous mistreatments that were inflicted on the females by the male counterparts. Since the first inscriptive work concerning gender issues, inequalities in the society were eminent with much exploitation of the females. Thus the imbalances and disparities which are still distinctive in the currently world’s community are the traces of scalds which were inflicted by our forefathers. Variations on behavior and other inherent characters of the males and females in the communities of the Latin America are conspicuous features not only to the Latin America but to the other communities within the United States (Viveros, 2001). Masculinity and femininity has been displayed in numerous ways in the Latin America. The intimacy of power and sexuality is like nut and bolt. Since the creation of human nature, they have always fitted into each other forming a bound which is hard to break. Over the year, sexual powers have played major role in the maintenance of procreation process in the board. Sexual power on either side of femininity and masculinity has been of great value over the formation of couple families. Man and female partners have served as great firms; each housing within it very important commodities of pressure and live. Although the firm machines is fueled by spiritual means, the running the firms to produce an extraordinary products has always been threatened. While market places are set up for commodities exhibitions, jargonization  Ã‚   has taken place in the market place of the firm established and their commodities are neither valued nor can they enter the targeted marketed audiences. This was earlier perceived by Marx, hence, according to his elucidation of commodity, he pointed out that the process of change has got far reaching consequences. (Sallie, 2000) Family life in the Latin America has been dominated with capitalism, with men trying to harvesting unfairly on what they did not deserve. Repressive and coercive environments raged among many house in the Latin America couple compelling the females to submissive condition. For a number of decades, violence combined with oppression on the Latin America women was usual tolerance of the family life. Through well strategic and tactical ways, manipulations were legally and illegally set to capture the commodity. This conformed to the works of Bauman, whom in his work, he found that consumption was so much important to capitalist and therefore, during the early times, there were deficiency in erecting effective barrier to the consumer. Women were handicapped economically and socially making them vulnerable to challenges of men. Women situations have always been challenged to that of men by the variations of the availability of the commodities and consumers. Like a tourists in foreign land, the proportion of women to men has always been at an alarming level, paving the way for capitalistic men to maneuver their way from entangles of monogamy to polygamy and other kind of behavior misconducts. Bauman said â€Å" our desired are constantly recycled, reinvented and even invented in relation to new products, the endless pursuits for new, which fuses the thrill of invention with the status afforded innovations and newness in most of the world†. Through commodities rareness and scarcity in the Latin America, thrilling and tempting emotions painful punctures the lives of the women making them to surrender the demands of nature. This means natural hierarchy of human power was hence established from the sexuality and its connection to power was thus imbued from creation and continued in human life by inequality (Sueann, 1998). The liberation of the females from the bondages of sexual powers has taken a long struggle. Men have always dominated the females either under the influence of laws of under the ignorance and pride of man. Masculinity and femininity in the Latin America has raised a lot of heated debates over the recent decades due to its continued oppressive nature on both men and women. Though the laws of the Latin America have endeavored to perpetuate the moral thinking of most religious groups such as Christianity, Islamic and many others, the imposing of state power to prohibiting homosexually was impinging making Latin American females to tolerate the unwelcoming condition dominancy of the males. While lesbianism and gay remained prohibited marriage practices in the Latin American region, the citizens were enslaved to the adherence to heterosexual partnership, which was termed as bleach of freedom and liberty from colonial sovereignties. Under the disguise of moral conservations on reproduction, men were privileged to exercise political power which degenerated and deprived off the women freedom of leadership on politics generating a lot of criticism from human right activists. The expression of masculinity and femininity in the society has therefore been a battling matter between the societies, the religions other organization such human right bodies. However, the diversification of masculinity and femininity has solely been propelled through the authorities of the states governments. With the hurricanes and hailstorms of change in culture and traditions, scores of Europeans nations as well as numerous United States have been thrown to the seas of homosexuality with great acceptance. The desire for freed men and women has been the main argument for the easy penetration of the modernized homogeneity of masculinity and femininity. (Stern, 2001) Although there is now generalized acceptance in homosexuality in the globe, some states mostly in developed continents have remained adamant to the forces and pressures of the multitude move, hence, heterosexuality which has been dominating marriage and sex practices for many years is still conserved. According to the works of Sallie, it is observed that not only did most Latin American government prohibit the practices of homosexuality, but they have also abolished use of natural commodities as means of exploitation of fellow men. Thus, both homosexuals and commercial heterosexuals never escape the legal authorities, but mercilessly and without impunity faces the full charges of legal courts where they duly pay their debts. Masculinity and femininity has therefore been maintained in place despites the enormous forces to dissolve it by the authority and the communities themselves. The severity and weight of homosexuality has been varied from one Latin American state to another.   Like in the antiquity of the Israelites, prostitution and homosexuality are illegal in the face of Ecuador dwellers. Besides illegalization of these behaviors, homosexuals and prostitutes in the Ecuador risks their lives to physical abuse which consequently can lead to instant deprivation of live through public stoning or gun shooting. In Brazil, the Brazilians are much more lenient on the maintenance of the healthy community with diversified masculinities and femininities. There is feeling that these are unethical practices, hence Brazilians have outlawed them by just concealing them from the public innocent persons, while on the black points such as brothels far from schools, residential places and other hidden places are business as usual. Undoubtedly, this can be perceived as strategy which is employed to eliminate the paupers either economically of in color discriminatory means. (Peake, 1990) For many decades which have passed over, it was unthinkable for the Brazilian females to get involved into risky relationships as it is rampant in the today world. The moral compulsion together with the cultural laws sternly denied chances of loose living of both brazened girls and mothers in honor of virginity. Virginity among the young girls was so precious that, if it was lost in any undeserving ways, valuable returns were paid by the offenders for not less than five years. The search and confirmatory work of the virginity in the Brazilians advanced technology and knowledge in the field of medicine. At first, lack of enough knowledge about the anatomical sex examination led to numerous errors from inexperienced practitioners. This perhaps led to imposing of unfair punishments to the perpetrators of the legal laws concerning defilements and other related matters. According to Sales, this was an overwhelming opportunity in medical fields especially in Brazil where the government shouldered the task of deflowering examinations. In the eve of the praise of virginity as an honor to the female, Manoel and Maria Pereira appeared in the system of justices in search for honor of virginity. While to the Europeans, deflowering was like a norm, the Brazilians felt that it was an act of guiltiness which could only be compensated fully by marriage union. Hence, Peixoto said â€Å"†¦the scarcity of women makes them so precious, that upon loss of virginity, they promptly demand due repair by marriage†. (Buckley, 1999) The value that was attached to virginity and more to the hymen was unparalleled. Thus, from the ancients time when live was worthy living, most Latin Americas females honored their virginity to the extent that they would commit serious offences like murder rather than losing it. Like a jewel, virginity was preserved by most of females in the Brazilian community of Latinos. Due to the efforts to preserve the culturally valued jewel, men who trespassed in snatching it were heavily reprimanded in the justice systems.   This saw justice systems being filled with abnormal number of deflowering disputes. Surprisingly, the majority of the seeker for justices hailed from lower class women of the society, which lead to the inappropriate conclusion that they were only sexually preoccupied as result of race, ignorance, climates and the upbringing environment which lead them to have undeveloped moral and mental cultures. (Sallie, 2000) Like many other kinds of cultural practices, the culture on virginity was skewed giving men much opportunity on the freedom of sexual matters more than females. While the acts of deflowering were sternly against the laws of lands, the resolutions were quite simplified through the acceptance of the offender to make marriage with the deflowered female. The continuation of the culture and tradition with increased value attached to virginity, men obtained the status of polygamous marriage which was not only a symbol of wealthy, but this increased their honor in the community. The fact that females were getting married as second wives, thus, they accepted to live as concubine, which meant that men’s virginity was neither an issues nor was it considered as of any value during marriage time. Therefore, men had full freedom and liberty to engage to any number marriage relationships of the opposite sex, while females found themselves adhering to only single man’s relationship that made them to lose virginity. Sueann found it not satisfying on the Brazilian females due to the inequality on sexual issues which had merited men more than females. Though the culture on virginity in the Brazilian community was a way of enhancing diversity of masculinity and femininity among the people, however, the adverse effects were eminent. This was overt from the works of Sueann where he said â€Å"†¦.the persistent valorization of the female virginity and male aggressiveness,   coupled with a long standing tradition of premarital sexual relations, gave men an enormous advantage over their female partners†¦Ã¢â‚¬  There are numerous other noble men and women in different organization with similar opinions and who have got even greater powers to initiate change on them. When the issue dawn on jurists and legislators, the got receive it as a debatable material which ended without unanimous steps of resolutions. It only served as a stepping stone to those in the political sector which was use to broaden their politics drive leaving men the trod on the females as much   as the rules and laws permitted. The defense on the female rights and the definition of the roles and responsibilities are therefore been a rich ground of political expansion while this has left female survival at the fate of tormenting men. (Buckley, 1999) Although female rights and responsibilities have fallen into disarray in most of time, collection of efforts over time has made a break through of female liberation. The enlightenment of women through education and formation movement groups fought for the liberation of women. However, the overthrow of men is long process which is happening at a gradual pace. Beginning with the discrimination of men over punishments on offences which were committed in environment each of the two parties to receive equally penalties, men was more inflicted than the female partners (Green, 1999). Thus, the controversies which arose in the formation of protective rights emerged to overturn the justice to injustice in the men side, making him to be overburdened with penalties. Oppression and undermining of the man through unfair punishments on sexual matters diminished the meaning of family. Women began praising themselves as the heads of their families and defied to be submissive to their husbands. With the support to intimidate men from activists, government and other groups, men became symbolic in the family status; but women encountering men with disrespect and defending their daughter misconducts were issue that made them to be more conspicuous. As a consequence of men intimidation and the usually consensus of the practices to empower women, pride of cultures and tradition lost and men’s authority and manipulations over the women fainted away. However, there was diverged on the interactivity of men and women creating a new ways of social interaction both in power and social activities. (Sueann, 1998) The later years of the twentieth century are marked with great changes of social and power in all Latin American countries. The struggle to equalize men and women in power altered the social interaction and the equality was thus literally applied on the social and power. Men and women in the Latin America became exercising homosexually where men power was dissolved and equality granted to relationship. The scene although has now become a norm over the four corners of the globe, masculinity and femininity in the marriages ground are thus a passive biological terms (Green, 1999). The adoption of the modern lifestyles in the Latin America has changes the stability of most families. With the adoption of the homosexuality and the despise of the early notions of heterosexually, marriage in the new generation of the Latin America has turned to be contractual, which give both men and women the chance of terminating the marriage, a fact which is contrary to the old relationships where death and men like Manoel had the fate of marriage. However, this worsened the healthy families which were once established under the polygamous culture as more flexibility of men and women doubled, tripled and sometime went several unaccounted folds. Despite the presences of the pernicious ailments such as HIV/AIDS, lesbianism and gay has continued at rapid rates in the Brazilians community. The stigmatization of the HIV/AIDS with homosexuals and bisexuals made them to be vulnerable than their counterparts heterosexuals. Hence, sex preference was now becoming a factor of consideration in the job market. The homosexuals and bisexuals became to be discriminated in the employment sectors which gave another race for such patients. The effect of AIDS/HIV gave a new setting of the society by dissolving the boundaries of culture; however, the distinction which existed on role and work responsibilities was generalized. (Haggerty, 1985),

Assessing Poverty in South Asia

Assessing Poverty in South Asia Introduction UNDP has taken an initiative to publish SOUTH ASIA POVERTY MONITOR periodically to assess the poverty situation at national grassroots level through the existing national expertise in South Asia. As part of this initiative a country report will be prepared for Bangladesh as well. The Bangladesh country report will be prepared through both quantitative and qualitative approach. Unnayan Shamannay is proposing to conduct the qualitative part of the study. Rationale for Qualitative Approach Statistical data do help very little in understanding what the variation means. Qualitative data, on the other hand, illustrate the value of detailed, descriptive data in deepening our understanding of individual variation.They give rise synergistically to insights and solutions that would not come about without them (Palton 1990:15-17) Qualitative approach can provide a depth of understanding of the issues associated with poverty that the more formal and statistically valid approaches may not. This class of studies includes the increasingly popular techniques of rapid and participatory rural appraisal and beneficiary assessment (WB 1992: 8-4). Objectives The objectives of this study are as follows: Assess poverty through qualitative methodology Complement the quantitative approach with qualitative one. Add qualitative dimension to the Bangladesh Country Report. Scope The scope of this qualitative study will be to: Identify indicators of poverty through a participatory approach Identify and monitor changes in the poverty situation Assess the impact of some of the poverty alleviation measures Analyse the findings Topics/Issues to be Addressed Poverty profile and poverty indicators are some of the important components of poverty assessment. Poverty assessment will be carried out in participatory manner. Broad topics on the extent of poverty, identification of sub-groups, nature of poverty, characteristics of the poor and risk management have been included in the proposed research agenda. Moreover, poverty monitoring will also be conducted periodically and it will act as a barometer to measure the changes in various socio-economic and welfare indicators relating to the lives of the poorest households. Methods to be Used All major qualitative research methods will be used in the study. Interview will be extensively used in the study including its key variants, namely participatory group discussion, focus group discussion, standardised open-ended interview and case study (Figure 1). In addition to interview, other methods of qualitative inquiry, namely observation and document analysis will also be made use of in the study. Selection of Sample Areas Qualitative exercises will be conducted in both urban and rural settings of the country. To cover the greater diversity in socio-economic environments, three different regional configurations of northern, central and southern parts of the country would be accommodated in the study. A total of six villages including two from each part would be covered under the study. In urban area, at least three slum areas would be covered to facilitate the comparison and triangulation of data and information. However, for monitoring of poverty in the selected six villages and three urban slums, certain number of the poorest households will be selected from each of the study sites. Out of six villages, three will be selected in such a manner where at least anti-poverty intervention by government is in operation. These three villages will serve as programme villages and they will be drawn from the three parts of the country including one from each. Besides, other three villages will also be selected nearby where there is no poverty focused government intervention. These three will serve as control villages in the three parts of the country. Sample Size Most of the topics would be addressed at the community level and no specific number of participants are needed to be ascertained beforehand. For poverty monitoring, a total of 120 poorest households will be selected  ¾ 90 from six villages and 30 from three urban slums. The poorest households will be selected through consultation with the respective community members. Tools to be Used In selecting tools desirable characteristics namely easy, simple, visual, non-verbal etc., must be taken into accounts. As PRA tools are recognized to have all these desirable characteristics, most of the tools will be drawn from its repertoire. Important PRA tools that will be extensively used in the poverty assessment include scoring and ranking, matrix ranking, wealth/well-being ranking, time line, social mapping, pie chart and so forth (Figure 1). Validity and Reliability Although the qualitative data are essentially based on the perception, opinion and judgement of the participants, the quality of data would be, nevertheless, refined through of the triangulation principle underlying the research design of this study. A combination of multiple sources, researchers/facilitators and on-the-spot cross-checking of data through discussion, debate and deliberation among the community participants would minimise the degree of error and bias of data to the minimum. Besides, the field observation by the researchers would in addition , act as a guard against any major inconsistency and biasness of data. Activities to be Undertaken For conducting the study a number of activities will be undertaken. The activities include: Identifying and reviewing available literature Now-a-days wide ranging literature on poverty is available. Different facets of poverty have been discussed in those literature. The indicators, measurement process, sampling frame etc. also differ. For a qualitative study for monitoring poverty, the volume of the problem further increases. The approach is not only different but gives a deeper insight. To make it complement the qualitative approach the literature on poverty needs a review. For this purpose all available literature on poverty will be reviewed. Analyse presently used indicators Before finalising the indicators for assessment of poverty there is a need for analysing the presently used indicators. This will provide a rational basis for the use of the indicators in the qualitative study. Pre-testing The indicators and tools to be used in the study will be pre-tested in the field. This will help understand the effectiveness of tools. Primary field visit Before starting field work a primary field visit is needed to get acquainted with the actual field condition. Training of field/research officers The field/research officers who will be engaged in this study are competent and experienced. Even then the field/research officers need training/orientation for doing such work. With this purpose they will be imparted in-house and field training. Processing of data/information The data/information processing in qualitative study is not similar to that of quantitative one. The information generated through qualitative approach is processed in a different manner. Different factors and aspects of reality are considered while classifying these information. Field activities The field activities to be undertaken in this study will require two types of work: a. in rural area and b. in urban area. Rural area: The activities in rural area will require identifying the group/sub-group, building up rapport with them and conducting the sessions. These activities have to be co-ordinated with the day-to-day activities e.g., ploughing or rowing time etc., of the participants. Rrban area: In urban area conducting participatory session is a difficult task. Urban life makes it difficult for the participants to spare time for such research. Besides building up a better rapport, tools need to be designed and adjusted accordingly. Document analysis Significant insights can be found through document analysis. Even discrepancies between reality and pronounced goals can be identified. CHAPTER X PROBLEMS IDENTIFICATION AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT BY THE POOR Problems and Needs Assessment By the Poor Problems facing the poor were identified by the poor themselves, and a list of felt needs were the outcome of the participatory discussion, debates and consensus among themselves. Two sets of problems and needs were assessed in a participatory manner each for the urban and rural areas. Urban Setting To the urban slum poor, homelessness and eviction from slums are the topmost problems. Other serious problems identified by the poor include lack of good health and water facilities, employment opportunities, security, education, latrine, gas, etc. (Exhibit 38). Regarding the needs assessment, the urban poor listed and prioritized their felt needs. Some of the most important are, latrine, shelter, drinking water, electricity, gas, security, rationing, employment and so on (Exhibit 39). Rural Setting Agricultural inputs, irrigation and culverts are considered to be the topmost problems by the rural poor. Apart from these, some other most serious problems mentioned by them are related to health, electricity, unemployment, flood, drinking water, industrialisation, veterinary facilities, silting up of rivers etc. (Exhibit 40). According to the needs assessment and prioritization by the rural poor, some of the most important needs as articulated by themselves are industries for employment, agricultural inputs at a fair price, rural roads, irrigation, electricity, school and madrasa, medical facilities etc. (Exhibit 41). Chapter IX Monitoring THE Impact of Public Expenditure on Poverty Objective The primary objective of monitoring of impact of public expenditure on poverty in this chapter is to understand the living condition of the poor. This is more of an illustrative exercise rather than a whole sector monitoring of poverty. The issue of representativeness has to be, therefore, viewed in this context. One of the stated objectives of the development strategy of both present and previous governments is to reduce poverty. A growing share of public expenditure is claimed to have been allocated to the development activities ostensibly aiming at poverty reduction in the recent past, and this is likely to be continued in the future. Against this background of increasing the public expenditure allocation to poverty alleviating projects, it is needed to know the effects and impacts of these expenditure on poverty alleviation. In this section a number of key questions have been addressed: Does the benefit of the public expenditure reach those lying at the bottom of the income scale ? Is there any sign of improvement in the condition of the poorest of the poor ? How do the selected poverty indicators behave ? Do they improve, deteriorate or oscillate ? In case of improvement, at what pace do they improve ? Based on the findings from these questions, an attempt will be made to assess the quality of public expenditure in terms of a set of selected indicators. To understand the trend of the impact of public expenditure on poverty, we started monitoring the behaviour of some selected indicators of poverty in both the urban and rural areas since 1993 as the base year. The qualitative and quantitative data generated throu gh the participatory tools have been used for this poverty monitoring. This is the first round of the periodic monitoring of poverty in a participatory manner. Poverty Assessment and Monitoring: Peoples Views The poverty assessment carried out under this study has two components. The community members actively participated in the assessment of their well-being by listing and categorizing of all the households by themselves in several groups based on their own criteria. This is, in fact, a subjective assessment. Secondly, after categorization, all households were arranged in descending order on the basis of well-being scores of each of the households resulting in the identification of the poorest of the poor in the respective communities lying at the bottom of the scale with quantitative precision which was again vetted by the community members/participants. The poverty of some of the poorest households in the community has been monitored on the selected indicators. As this monitoring is based on hard data, it, therefore, gives us an objective assessment of the living standard of the poorest. (Figure 9.1) The poverty sitution in the urban and rural areas has been assessed in a participator y manner. Instead of applying any pre-conceived ideas, standards, measures or categories by the researchers to measure poverty as is done conventionally, the criteria used in this study has been developed by the people at the community level. The basic question relating to poverty measurement or assessment is who is poor and how to identify him/her. Based mainly on qualitative data information Based mainly on quantitative data information Criteria Unlike a single standard or formula as applied in the conventional methodology, the community-members consider it appropriate to use a set of socio-economic criteria to assess the economic and social status of a household. For this purpose, the researchers and facilitators involved in the study initiated a series of group-level discussions and community-level validations. The community people developed their own criteria (Box 9.1) to assess the status of their own members and also to categorize them into a set of social classes. The more important criteria developed by the rural people in the selected villages are, among others, the amount of land owned and cultivated, the number of earning members, cash in hand, the housing condition, the amount of fixed assets, the family size, other sources of income, whether a household is female or male headed, etc. Prevalence of poverty Based on the above criteria, the community people identified the poor (moderate poor) and the poorest (extreme or hardcore poor) households in their own community. As poverty was assessed at the household level, the status of all the households in the community was assessed and categorized into four classes, namely well-off, medium, poor and poorest. In the urban slums, 72 percent of the households were found poor (moderate: 51, hardcore: 21) and 28 percent non-poor (middle: 19, well-off:9) (Tables 9.1 and 9.2). The incidence of poverty was, however, found to be widely different in different slums. In one sample slum there were no well-off households in 1996 although there were many in another sample. In the rural area, 75 percent of the households were classified as poor (moderate: 20 and hardcore: 55) whereas 25 percent were classified as non-poor (middle:14 and well-off: 11) (Table 9.3). Regionally, the incidence of poverty was more acute (moderate: 17, hardcore: 60) in the central part compared to that (moderate: 25, hardcore:47) in the northern part. The findings generated by the PRA exercise were further validated by the people in the respective community. So the scope of subjective bias, if any, was greatly reduced. Poverty Monitoring Using Panel Data Set (Quantitative) Being a value loaded term, poverty as such cannot be measured quantitatively/objectively. The debate on the issue abounds in the literature. But the symptoms and aspects of poverty can be measured and monitored by means of a series of socio-economic indicators that proxy the level of well-being of people. That is why, an attempt has been made in this section to measure and monitor poverty through a number of indicators/variables in two different years i.e., 1993 and 1996. Most of the indicators used for monitoring were suggested by the community members (Box 9.1.). The number of indicators used here are meant to have satisfied the desirable criteria, namely, unambiguity, consistency, specificity, sensitivity and ease of collection (Carvalho and White, 1994). Change in Demographic and Socio-economic Profiles of the Poorest Households During 1993-96 Demographic and Social Characterstics Family size and composition The population of the poorest households and their average family size grew by 5 percent over the monitoring period 1993-96 (Table 9.4). However, the populatioin growth rate is found to have been higher at 7.2 percent for the urban poor compared to 4.4 percent in the rural area over the same period. The family size of the poorest households in the rural area is, however, found to be higher at 4.2 in 1993 and increased further to 4.4 in 1996. The family size of the urban poor was lower at 3.5 in 1993, and it grew to 3.7 in 1996. In the rural area, the family size of the FFE-households is found to be much higher at 6.0 on an average in both the central and northern parts compared to those for the non-FFE households in both programme and control villages in 1996 (Table 9.5). Another important demographic characteristic of the poorest households is their family composition. In 1996, the FFE households are found to have a male majority  ¾ 61 percent compared to 49 percent and 41 percent for the non-FFE households in the programme and control villages respectively. The family composition is, however, found reverse for the poorest families in the urban slums. The poorest households had a female majority at 62 percent in 1996 (Table 9.6). The above findings pose some questions challenging the appropriateness of the main thrust of the development strategy being pursued by the government in the country. The much-publicized motto two children are enough seems to have been irrelevant so far as the poorest people are concerned in both the urban and rural areas. The increasing growth rates in populatioin and family size suggest that under the existing socio-economic conditions, their economic and social securities lie not in smaller family but in larger one. Earning members and incidence of child labour The poorest households and their different groups are found to have peculiar characterstics in the composition of their earning members. Overall, close to half of the earning members are men, and one-fourth are women and boys each in 1996 (Table 7.17). Against this general distribution of the earning members, the poorest families in the urban and rural areas are found to have different compositions of earning members by age and gender. In the urban slums, female earning members accounted for 43 percent (women: 36% and girls: 7%) among all the earners compared to 24 percent (women:23% girls:1%) in the rural area (Table 7.17 and 9.7). Female children are not found to have been as active in income earning activities previously as they are found to be in 1996. The preponderance of male income earners is found to be more prominent among the poorest households in the rural area. At the disaggregate level, the difference is more revealing in the rural areas. The participation of girls in income earning activities is found to be very minimal throughout the rural areas (Table 9.8). Among the FFE-households, womens participation in income earning activities is very small (3%), but it is widely observed (33%-36%) among the non-FFE households . Among the FFE households, the preponderance of male child labour is observed, and this remained unchanged throughout the monitoring period despite the programme intervention in the rural areas. The incidence of child labour among the earning members of the FFE households is found to be 40 and 41 percent in the central and northern parts respectively of the country, and this remained unchanged in both the areas during the period 1993-1996. The poor impact of the FFE programme on the incidence of child labour at large in the rural areas is also revealed sharply if we focus on the trend in the incidence of child labour. Overall, 25 percent of the boys of all ages were involved in income earning activities in 1993, and this remained almost at the same level (24%) in 1996. As the boys, the incidence of female child labour among the earning members is found to be at a much lower level (1.2%) in 1993 and this remained at that level 1996 as well. The above findings raise an important question to the fore: why is the FFE programme found to be ineffective in reducing the incidence of child labour ? The answer to this question should be searched not in the programme itself but in the economics. For the poorest households, the opportunity cost of sparing a boy from education is around Tk. 14 a day (wage rate) in 1996 (Table 9.9). The financial benefit gained from the FFE programme by a rural poor household is found not so significant at Tk. 4.85 (Tk. 0.81 per capita per day) a day for a boy (Table 9.10). The participatioin of a poor family in the FFE programme causes a substantial income loss to that family. As the benefit under the programme cannot offset the income loss that an extremely poor family has to incur, the appeal of the programme to a precariously income-poor family is found to be weak. This finding is found consistent with that of other studies (Ahmed and Billah,1995). Female-headed households One of the important demographic features of the poorest households is that close to one-third of them were female-headed during the reference period (Table 9.11). More than half of the sample households (55%) are found to be female-headed in the urban slums compared to 23% in the rural households during the same period. Another important demographic feature of the three groups of the poorest households is that only 5 percent of the FFE households have been female headed compared to 25 percent and 40 percent for the non-FFE households respectively in the programme and control villages in 1993 (Table 9.12A). This composition remained unchanged even in 1996. The above findings suggest that the FFE households are found to be relatively stable not only in respect of assets (details later) but also demographically. The preponderance of female-headed households among the non-FFE household groups imply that these households are not only income-poor but also subject to a higher degree of vulnerability and defencelessness both economically and socially. In the urban slums, a significant portion of the poorest households happened to be female-headed during the monitoring period (Table 9.12B) The gender focus of poverty is found more pronounced among the poorest segment of the slum-dwellers compared to those in the rural area. Table 9.11 shows that more than half (55%) of the sample households have been female-headed compared to that (23%) among the rural counterparts during the same period. Begging households Altogether, 6% of the poorest households are found engaged in begging. In the urban slums, none of the poorest households is found in this category (Table 9.13) and all begging households under our sample belong to the rural area. Besides, all these households are found among the non-FFE groups. (Table 9.14). These households are more vulnerable and extremely poverty-ridden mainly due to some unfavourable demographic factors. The households engaged in begging are relatively small (3.8) in family size compared to the sample average (4.2) in 1996. Moreover, the dependancy ratio for the begging households is lower (2.7) compared to that for the sample households (3.0) in 1996.The predominance of women among the earning members points to the poor income level of these households. As the dependency ratio is very low, it implies that most of the family members are forced to go for earning activities due to their poverty. Income Source of income The poorest households have limited sources of income. The urban poor are usually engaged in unskilled manual labour. Similar is the case with the rural poor (Table: 9.15) as well. Sale of labour has been the main source of the rural poor accounting for 82% of their total income in 1993. This has marginally increased to 84 in 1996. Agriculture is the second most important source of income making up only 12% of the total income of the rural poor in 1993 and 10% in 1996. Only 1% of the income of the rural poor has been derived from livestock, a new source of income, in 1996. Nominal income In the rural area, the income of the poorest households has been found to be miserably low during the monitoring period. The per capita daily income of these households was Tk. 6.9 in 1993. This increased to Tk. 7.4 in 1996 showing an 7% growth (Table 9.16). Their per household daily income grew by 12% from Tk. 29 in 1993 to Tk 33 in 1996. The higher growth rate of nominal income is mainly due to a positive growth of the nominal wage rate (12%) alongwith a growth of the number of earning members (5%) of the poorest households. The low per capita income is partly due to the large family size and its growth over the monitoring period. The low income of the poorest households is the result of a number of socio-economic factors, e.g., low wage rate (Table 9.9), poor asset base, poor human capability due to illiteracy (Tables 7.31 and 7.32), low access to economic opportunities, etc. The impact of the FFE programme does not seem to have been appreciable on the level of income of the programme households. Although the programme has had some positive impact on the growth of income (15% in per capita and 18% in per households terms during 1993-1996), its contribution to the growth is difficult to ascertain. However, other findings indicate that the contribution of the programme to the income of the programme households is insignificant (Tk. 0.81 per capita/daily, Tk. 4.85 per household/daily, 15% of the average household income) (Tables 9.10 and 9.16). The per capita nominal income of the poorest households in the urban slums was Tk. 12 a day in 1993 and increased to Tk. 19 a day in 1996 representing a 31 percent growth (Table 9.17). The per household daily income of the urban poor increased by a higher rate of 40 percent from Tk. 41 a day to Tk. 58 during the same period. The income of the urban poor increased by a much higher rate than that of the rural poor in both per capita and per household terms because of the higher growth rates of wage (29%) (Table 9.9) and of earners per household (17%) (Table 9.7), lower family size (3.7), etc. Moreover, gainful economic opportunities are greater in the urban area relative to the rural area. Real income The income of the poorest households in real terms (in kilogram of coarse rice) is found to have declined across the board during the monitoring period. In the rural area, the per capita real income of the poorest households declined by 22% on an average from 0.9 in 1993 to 0.7 kilograms of coarse rice in 1996 (Table 9.18). Barring the FFE households, the per household real income has registered a sharp decline during the same period irrespective of differences in regional diversity. Due to the income support under the FFE programme, the FFE households could avoid the sharp fall of income. The per capita real income for the FFE households has declined by 13% against a 20 to 25 percent decline for the non-FFE households over the same peiod. Overall, despite an 7% increase in per capita income in nominal terms on an average during 1993-96 (Table 9.16), the corresponding real income took an appreciably higher downward trend (22%) (Table 9.18) caused by a 24 to 43 percent price hike of c oarse rice in the rural areas during the same peirod (Table 9.19). The per capita real income of the urban poor remained unchanged, whereas, the per household real income marked an upward trend (5%) during the monitoring period (Table 9.20). The per capita real income of the urban poor is almost double at 1.4 kg a day of that of the rural poor in 1993 which remained almost unchanged during the same period. The per household real income of the poorest households stood in urban slums at 4.7 kg and 5.0 kg a day in 1993 and 1996 respectively recording a 5% growth. The poorest households in the urban slums are relatively better off than their rural counterparts in respect of per household real income which declined by 16% for the latter during the same period (Table 9.18). Wage rate The unskilled wage rate is considered to be an important indicator for monitoring poverty. The wage rate of all categories of unskilled wage labourers is found to have increased in both the rural and urban areas (Table 9.9). In the rural area, the daily nominal wage rate increased by 11.7% from Tk. 17.2 in 1993 to Tk. 19.2 in 1996 (Tables 9.7, 9.16, 9.24 and 9.25). The wage rate is found to be much higher for the urban slum-dwellers, and it grew by 29% from the level of Tk. 35.8 in 1993 to Tk. 46.1 in 1996 (Tables 9.9, 9.21, 9.22 and 9.23). Although the wage rate for unskilled labourers increased during the monitoring period, the purchasing power of the poor labourers did not rise due to a higher rate of price increase in the case of coarse rice. The average wage rate for unskilled wage labourers, in fact, declined across the board in real terms during the monitoring period. However, the poor in the northern part had to sustain a much higher rate of fall (22%) in real wage rate compared to 14% for those in the central part during this period (Table 9.24). Consumption Consumption of food The consumption of rice and wheat  ¾ the staple food items of the poorest households  ¾ is found to have recorded opposite trends among these households in the urban and rural areas. In the urban slums, the per capita daily consumption of food (rice and wheat) was 442 grams in 1993 and it rose to 514 grams in 1996 representing a 16 per cent growth (Table 9.25). The increase in the consumption level of food in terms of both per adult equivalent unit and per household units has also been substantial, 18 and 25 percent respectively during the monitoring period. These findings, however, conceal the substantially low level of food intake observed in one of the slums where poverty is found to be more acute (Table 9.26). In the rural area, the trend in food consumption is, however, found to have consistantly sunk during the monitoring period in per capita and per adult equivalent and per household terms (Table 9.27). The per capita daily consumption of rice and wheat declined from the level of 585 grams in 1993 to 566 in 1996 showing a 3 percent decrease. The food consumption per adult equivalent unit is found to have been at a much higher level  ¾ 797 grams in 1993 and 786 grams a day in 1996 – recording a relatively small fall during the period. Per household consumption, likewise declined during the same period. The declining trend in food intake is true of both the programme and non-programme households during the same period. The consistent fall in the level of consumption of food is largely due to the fall in real income and expansion of the average family size of the poorest households during the monitoring period. Box 9.2: Food Security: A Quantitative Assessment In order to assess the poverty status of sample households, the heads of the households were asked to make self-assessments in respect of poverty. Their self-assessed status may be categorized as follows: Chronic deficit households reporting food shortage throughout the year; Occasional deficit households reporting food shortage occasionally in a year;