Toyota outsourcing and offshoring analysis Essay

Toyota outsourcing and offshoring analysis - Essay Example India and many other countries and has recreated its management philosophy, work methods and adherence to productivity. This paper examines the methodology behind the off shoring and outsourcing that the company has introduced and also discusses how these practices follow the theories of Dunning and Hymer. Fang (2003) has suggested that the famed Toyota Production System (TPS) that was established by the famous Taiichi Ohno has been applied to all aspects of the outsourcing model. The authors have defined Off shoring as the relocation or creating afresh, the infrastructure and processes from one country to another. Off shoring may be utilized for the transplanting of production, services, backend services, call centre operations, help desk support and other business functions. Outsourcing is the process of procuring core and non core business function and services from suitable vendors. The term outsourcing includes parts ad spares manufacturing, procurement of raw materials, finished goods, apparel, automobile components, outsourcing of intellectual work such as market research and others. According to the Paul (et all, 2005), when Toyota decides to offshore manufacturing base in another country, it either opens a fully owned company if the rules of the foreign country permit or it may decide to take a partnership with a like minded partner who values the principles of Toyota manufacturing company. Other than recreating the manufacturing process by buying machines and testing equipment, the company extends the TPS model to cover other areas such as maintaining a flat corporate structure that empowers individuals to strive for excellence, hiring practices that favour the young and inexperience but who can be moulded to easily adapt to new trends, teamwork where each member helps the other in achieving goals, establishing two way open communications where people are urged to speak about their problems; non-monetary awards

Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa

Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the impact of the global economic crisis in Africa and provide suitable suggestions as a consultant of the African Union The African economy was proceeding towards a splendid reasonable growth towards the beginning of the year 2008 even though many countries in the world were caught between the subprime crises. The African continent was one of the worlds best continent with abundant of resources and gradually developing and recording a reasonable growth in their GDP, before the global economic crisis affected the development of this region. Africa was a frontier in the production of resources with recording a above average growth, experts predicted the present growth rate would lead to the development of African economy as a superior power in the future. However the present decline in the prices of export commodities has resulted in the decline in the government revenues which has affected the GDP of Africa. The major contributors to the development of African economy were the need for resource materials, the reasonable development of china and the increase in the inflow of capital and factors of macro economic rectifications. There was an also major contribution from the migrant remittances which contributed to the reasonable earnings in the household and increase the government revenues in terms of tax. There were many speculations expecting the best out of the potential of Africa in order to produce resources for the growth of the continent and reduce poverty. But there was a close indication of the downfall in the economy in the early 2007 which ultimately was encountered by the African economy in the late 2008. In the world economy when many developed countries were facing recession and crisis, there was severe alteration towards the growth scenario in Africa because of the stagnancy. The majority of the growth contributors of Africa were affected by this crisis. The development in chinas economy declined gradually and there was a downfall in the need for resources and their prices were declining to an extent. Because of the reasonable GDP there was no pressure on the concern of inflation. Certain assurance of added aids was not implemented yet and there was a reduction in the capital inflow. Since the effects were taken care of there were no immediate reactions in Africa due to the economic crisis. However the reduction in the external aid which was not implemented as assured by many developed countries in the G20 started affecting the health sector to a greater extent. To have a detail description of African economic crisis we would discuss the major sectors which have been adversely affected due to recession. To start with there would be an impact in the mining sector, impact in banking sector does not have any major adverse effects, consequences faced by the effects of crisis in finance sector including the commodity markets and international exchange rates, adverse effects on remittances and capital inflows in the trade sectors with the addition of FDI. There were other sectors too such as tourism, manufacturing which had experienced an impact due to the global economic crisis. The under development of the banking sector in Africa is another major concern because the banking sector has failed to derive structures that benefits the economy. The increase in the banking policies with external integration could generate the flow of capital which was not implemented in Africa There were certain positive impacts for the countries importing commodities in Africa, they were benefited a lot from reducing the expenditures. On the entire economy of Africa the sub Saharan region was the most to be affected by the crisis. The ultimate effects of the global economic crisis were the increase in the infant mortality rate, increase in poverty, pressure on government to restructure the fiscal budget, and unemployment. However since there was growth in African economy it could face the immense pressure of Economic crisis. The major countries to experience severe effects by the economic crisis are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Egypt which are mostly the sub Saharan Africa regions. The impact of the economic crisis in Africa made many underdeveloped countries to receive international implications on its economy to develop their infrastructure. The international business strategies suitable recovery facts have proved more beneficiaries in the world economies. The suggestion of suitable changes in the physical structure could help in the faster recovery of the economic crisis IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON BANKING The global economic crisis effect in the major developed countries was on the banking sector where many banking corporate collapsed during the crisis. But the African economy did not have any adverse effects on the banking sector because of their less extent of bonding with the world economies. The African economy has a comparatively low external financing compared to other continents of the world, the external financing of Africa only accounts to 4% of the overall volume in the emerging economies. To have a statistical overview the African external financing it only issued bonds worth of six million American dollars and received only three million dollars from private reserves. This comparatively low market capitalization of the world economy has protected the African banking system from severe damages. The African economy did not report any bankruptcy during the global economic crisis because the African banks could manage reasonable returns from the mortgages. There were certain e ffects in the African economy due to the presence of foreign banks with assets in some African countries like Swaziland, Madagascar who suffered major losses due to world financial crisis. But the effects of world economic crisis did not affect the banks progress in Africa, the banking systems dominates the finance sector and the role played by the financial markets are not of greater concern. There is a transmission check of funds borrowed from foreign banks by the government and there is less awareness of off balance sheet procedure to African economy which was the major reasons for the stability of African banking sector. The conversion of many capital resources into foreign assets saved the African economy to avoid exchange rate appreciation. To sum up the impact of global economic crisis did not deliver any adverse effect on the banking sector. IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE FINANCIAL STRUCTURE OF AFRICA INTRODUCTION The African continent was not isolated from the financial crisis, to have a deep overview of the financial crisis there were certain adverse effects on the economy because of the badly constructed financial systems. There was a reduction in the earnings in many sectors such as there was a reduction in the need of commodities and also reduction in the commodity prices, There were reduction in capital inflows, the major affected sector will be the export where it will face a reduction of $578 billion in the recent years out of which the oil sector itself will account to $420 billion reduction in the earnings. This loss in the earnings will account to one fifth of the GDP which is five times the avail given to the region. There was an effect of this financial crisis in the growth of the economy and it also increased poverty. To have a deeper analysis of the impact of the financial crisis in Africa let us look at the causes of transmission of the financial crisis and its effect on the in dividual factors of the financial sector. Causes of financial crisis is Africa The major cause of the financial crisis in Africa was the reduction in the prices and amount of the export commodities because of the global financial crisis. There was a prominent reduction in the prices of commodities in the late 2008 such as oil sector faced a downfall of 69% in their prices, because of the decline in the exports up to 45% there was a huge loss faced by the continent, even the other commodities excluding oil accounted to 38% of downfall in their prices. The other major cause of the African financial crisis is the decline in the capital inflow and remittances. These accounted to decline in the foreign exchange which ultimately guided to poverty in the continent due to the shortage in income. The developing countries have always depended on foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing the countys economy and infrastructure. Because of the delays in the assured FDI many projects have been delayed or halted leading to gradual loses. Finally there was downfall in the stocks of the foreign reserves and the reduction in the span of import cover contributed to a larger pressure in the African economy unable to afford the commodities hence causing more crisis. Let us have a broader view of the effects in the African economy due to the causes of the global economic crisis. EFFECTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN AFRICA EFFECT ON THE FINANCIAL MARKETS There was a gradual impact in the financial markets because of the subprime crisis. The banking sector did not face any direct impact of the crisis but there were effects due to transmission and dependence on the external economy. There were slight rise in the prices of the assets and the risk premium was increased indicating there was some damage in the finance structure in the early 2008. Because of the transmission and dependency, the liquid finance markets where affected more in this region more than the developed countries and inclined to the over valuing of stocks. If you have a look at the reports from countries like Nigeria and Egypt, they faced a loss of more than half of their investment towards late 2008. Increase in the value of debts in the international finance markets has caused the rise in debt spreads in the African countries. In order to attract the investors the African countries like Tunisia increased their bias points. The bias points of the developing countries mainly in Africa in the international market reached to 800 points in the late 2008, these indeed inclined the risk premium which forced many countries like Kenya to stop imploring from international financial markets and circulate the long term resources to local markets.There was a decline in the foreign exchange reserves because of the depreciation of currencies, this happened due to the decline in the commodity prices. Variations in the currency exchange rate against American dollars and Euros delivered an effect in the African economy. There was a three fifth of drop in the copper prices due to the global economic crisis. Hence African countries were one of the international reserves of copper and they had faced a chief downfall in their foreign reserves. There was about 50% depreciation of the currency of countries like Zambia against American dollars. Africa is one of the main continents with abundant of resources whose exports were one of the major earnings and helped in increasing the growth of economy. There have been decline in the commodity prices and volume all over the world because of the global economy crisis in the late 2008. This crisis inclined certain effects in the African economy, there was a three fifth decline in the prices of the crude oil which was one of the major reserves of Africa. Some of the other major natural resources of Africa such as diamond, copper, timber etc produced by mining declined by 30%, the development in the African export sector declined by 3% and there was a reduction in the GDP was about 3.5% compared to the fiscal year 2008. There were certain adverse effects because of the reduction in commodity prices which resulted in, reduction in the gain, low profit for high production cost resources, decline in government aids and finally the termination of many projects which were supported by FD I incline a huge loss to the African economy. The decline in the price of food commodities resulted in restructuring the government budget and balance of payments. There are certain regions in Africa such as Burundi where the oil is imported would have an positive impact of the reduced prices there are also certain negative impacts in attracting FDI for these countries which would decrease their development. EFFECT OF LONG TERM AND MEDIUM TERM TRANSACTIONS There are certain effects on the trade of goods and services in the world due to the global economic crisis from which Africa is not isolated. According to the reports there is an decrease in the growth of trade in terms of exports and imports, there is a decrease of 5% in the growth of imports and 7% in the growth of exports. Africa will experience a loss of about 45% of its value of exports. The other important effect is due to the capital flow within Africa and the world, there was a decline in the FDI about 21% in the African region towards the end of 2008. This effect has only been described by certain countries is Africa such as Egypt while other countries have increased the FDI such as South Africa. But there was certain adverse effects of FDI in the production of natural resources which was not availed as assured by international markets due to the economic crisis. The effect of short term capital flows is there was a decline about 50% in the capital flow for emerging counties because of the reduction in the availability of financial resources, but the African economy only suffered upto a lesser extent because of the limited bonding between the external financial markets and the African financial markets. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON SUB SAHARAN AFRICA The major effects of the global economic crisis in the sub Saharan region were the decline in their trade, decline in the remittances, and reduction in external financing. The major problem in the sub Saharan region was their trade was mostly depended on the countries suffered by economic crisis this reduced the demand in the resources exported. The decline in the prices of the primary commodities in sub Saharan Africa accounted to adverse effects in their economies. The government revenues depend on tourist sector for development infrastructure which suffered a major hit during the crisis. The decline in world trade accounted by one percent accounted to half the percent decline in the growth of the sub Saharan region. The prominent causes for the economic crisis in the sub Saharan region was the trade with United States, there was a fifty seven percent decline in the trade between the two regions. The development of the sub Saharan Africa was majorly because of the trade with china, thirteen percent of this regions exports and a comparative ten percent of imports depended on the trade with China. The investors from china were behind the initiative of many projects in the Africa region funded by them. The integration between both the regions decreased after the effect of global economic crisis leading to further impacton the economy of the sub Saharan Africa countries. There was a dramatic decline in the capital inflows in the sub Saharan region compared to other parts of Africa. There was a 26.7% drop in the external investments which accounted to the financial crisis of the economy of many countries. The sub Saharan Africa earned reasonable government revenue from migrant remittances who suffered adverse effects because of redundancy as an effect of the economic crisis, this reduced the government revenues in terms of tax. There were certain assurance given by the developed countries in the G8 committee meeting regarding the increase in the funding to the Afr ican countries which was not implemented due to the economic crisis. Out of the impact of the financial crisis on the entire African continent, Southern Africa will be affected the most. Countries like Angola will experience a dramatic downfall in their growth about 20.9%, the economy growth of east Africa will be affected by 2%, the Sub Saharan region will have difficulties in fiscal balancing. There will be huge responsibilities for the government to structure their budget to meet the social needs of the people in Africa. These are the financial issues experienced by Africa during the Global Economic Crisis. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON REMITTANCES IN AFRICA The prominent impact of the global economic crisis in Africa was on remittances which indeed resulted in severe harm to the African Economy. Before the economic crisis remittances was one of the modes of earnings in the African economy. Remittances helped in the developing the infrastructure of African Economy and was one of the major sources of external financing.. The remittances of natural resources exporting countries were affected the most, since Africa is one of the prominent exporters of natural resources they faced badly affected by the economic crisis. Remittances in Africa where expected to decline about six percent which could damage the economy of remittance dependent countries. Certain countries in Africa were expecting external financing aid to overcome the decline in remittances. The major regions having effect on remittances are the North African regions whose economy depends on it. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DECLINE IN REMMITANCES The remittances in the African economy is prominently transferred in informal terms such as friends and relatives, the formal mode of transmission of remittances in Africa is through the banking system. The major remittance in Africa is the workers remittance, the remittance –GDP ratio for many countries in the African region was at an average of nine percent . these above calculations explains the contribution of remittances in the growth of African economy. The African economy dependence on remittances was comparatively low to other parts of the world. Another spread of remittances was in terms of migrants, Africa countries face 20% of their migration within their continent. Because of the migrants to other continents such as Europe and America which were the worst affected continents of the global economic crisis there was a decline in the remittances. North Africa region was affected the most because they had many migrants in Europe and Middle East which has faced adverse negative impacts in their economy. The countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria had a decline of about seven to nine percent in their remittances because of the larger proportion of migrants from their country in Europe regions affected by the Global economic crisis. This decline in the remittances has produced an impact on the government revenues in Africa, and also affected fiscal structure of the economy. Because of the global economic crisis which leads to the decline of process in the manufacturing industries accounted to job cuts, this situation lead to the decline in remittances. The decline in remittances damaged the better earnings in the households which caused poverty and increased the infant mortality rate. There were some positive impacts due to the increase in remittances in certain regions of Africa such as Kenya because of the decline in the import commodity prices. The major effects of decline in remittances are it decreases the governments revenue in terms of tax. The decline in the revenue can affect the GDP of the economy, and effects on negative growth of GDP increases the IMR. Many countries in Africa such as Ethiopia are about to lose 0.2 to 0.3 percent of their GDP growth. The African country to be majorly affected by the decline in remittances is Morocco, where it faced two to three percent of decline in their GDP growth. The countries in Africa which had immense migration transfer to Europe faced immense damage in their GDP. The ultimate effect on decline in remittances is, redundancy of migrants which will affect their household incomes resulting in poverty. To sum up the ultimate cause of decline in remittances was redundancy of migrants and nationals, decline in the external financing because of economic crisis. Finally the effects of redundancy are decline in house hold incomes, unemployment, and decline in government revenues. THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE AFRICAN ECONOMY EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS IN ECONOMY FACTORS Africa encountered a drastic change in their economy during the economic crisis in the world. Before the economic crisis the African oil exporting countries gained plenty of foreign exchange which they used for projects to develop the infrastructure and repay their debt. During the global economic crisis there was a 60% downfall in the oil prices which had a bad effect on their GDP. The GDP of African countries exporting oil were facing a decline of 5% which had adverse effects on their economy, even oil importers in Africa will face a decline of 2% of their GDP and all these accounted to the decline in the oil revenue. There were several regions in Africa which recorded a positive growth in their GDP despite the decline in the prices of the commodities such as North Africa, Morocco and certain other countries. There will be a total unbalance in the economy of some countries in Africa because of the decline in the exports sector more than the imports, they will face a couple of downf all in a countrys economic structure. Hence the countries will face difficulties to restructure the economy and there would be a reduction in the consumption because of the downfall in revenue. The other effects on the economy of Africa is inflation, this would be a serious problem encountered by the economy of many African countries. The inflation would raise about three percent in the African region because of the decline in the revenue, but the positive impact of the crisis is that there would be a reduction in the commodity prices which might take the pressure on inflation for some reasonable time. The countries which import oil will have a positive impact of reduction in the inflation rate in their economy, but it is the opposite for the countries exporting oil and will face an increase in the rate of inflation. There is certain decline in growth prospects of Africa as an impact of the global economic crisis, despite of not being directly affected by the World financial crisis because of the low bonding with external economies, there was some decline in the growth prospects in the African region. The oil exporters in Africa faced a decline of three percent in growth while the oil importing countries faced a decline of one percent in growth. Developing countries in Africa will face difficulties due to the reduction in the demand of their goods, these effects could halt the Africas development into a superior power. EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON INDUSTRIES The other key sectors which had a major impact due to the crisis was the tourism sector, they suffered major damages during the global economic crisis. The revenue in the tourism sector was affected badly in the African region making the functions of the sector miserable. There was a decline in the number of arrivals to the countries like Kenya in Africa. The decline in the arrivals accounted to a decline in the profit for airways. The decline in tourism which is one of the governments revenue from the service sector faced many negative impacts, there was considerable amount of loss due to cancellations. Countries like Egypt and Kenya experienced ten to thirty percent fall in their revenue. There was major losses on the mining sector due to the economic crisis, many projects in the African region were terminated or postponed because of the shortage of investments. For instance the decline in the copper prices had halted many projects in the African region in countries like Zambia, th e leading copper mining industries faced one fourth decline in their supplier contracts. Many mining projects were terminated because of the falling copper prices. Other natural resources such as cobalt also faced reduction in their prices which halted operations in certain projects in countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo. There were many employees been laid off because of the termination of the projects, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone recorded two hundred thousand employees dropped. The decline in the price of other natural resources have caused adverse effects on budget, countries like Gabon in Africa experienced negative impacts. The reduction in the price of iron, uranium and bauxite which are one of the major exports in many countries experienced decline in the revenue. Since Africa has been one of the major continent with an abundant wealth of natural resources and the fall in the price of natural resources has made Africa suffer severely which indeed result ed in economic crisis. The textile industry was also not isolated from this economic crisis. Because of the decrease in the demand of textile goods from the African region several industries had to face immediate closure. The countries in Africa were facing immense pressure because of the unemployment of people. The termination of an industry at an average caused reduction of four thousand jobs. There was huge pressure from the labor unions to the government regarding unemployment. The impact on the African manufacturing industry by the global economic crisis has resulted in restructuring of the economy and experience serious financial crisis. Finally the global economic crisis has affected the African economy in several sectors. According to reports two third countries of the African continent are affected by the downfall in the price of natural resources. The major decline of the African economy has caused by one ultimate factor which is the reduction in the commodities. The other minor factor like the decline in the foreign investment is also the cause of African economy crisis. RECOMMENDATIONS There are certain recommendations suggested as a consultant of the African union in order to increase the growth of the economy. To start with the recommendation process, it would highlight facts on four features which are observation on the financial structure, reduction of crisis impact on health, revival of the policies in the economic structure and derivative such as bail out policies. We shall discuss the impact of these recommendations on the African System. The major recommendation in the health sector is the prevention of the effects of the economic crisis that has not fully affected the house hold regions. Hence necessary conservative methods should be taken to take care of the adverse effects of the crisis. There must be constant check on the negative effects in the health sector and take necessary actions. Mainly the IMR should be taken care of to a greater extent. Monitoring the growth of infants could help the development in the health sector. There should be constant negotiation within the health organizations and the population. There should be a drastic increase in the investments in the health sector. The African governments should restructure their fiscal budgets for more allowances to the health sector. Most of the developed countries spent 0.7% of their GDP in the health sector for a better healthy environment. The African economy should make better use of the funds provided by the World Bank for effective health climate. T here should be a constant check in the available resources in the health sector and efficient usage of the available resources is recommended. There are several measuring concepts in the current world to measure the expenditure, performance and future projects of a health sector. A better organization can result in better performance in the health sector. The current economic crisis has helped Africa have a view on the current health structure and decide suitable remedies to overcome this deficiency. The crisis has helped Africa have a check on the IMR, poverty, healthy environments, and causes of the diseases. These checks have recommended Africa to invest on certain suitable regions such as food, medicines etc in the health sector and decide what are the gradual steps to be taken to fight against deaths. The use of health care vouchers is proved effective in many parts of the world which should be concerned by the African economy. There must be necessary action taken in the organi zing and implementing of health programs to perform against the negative impacts. Taking severe actions in the prevention of environmental harms that creates health hazards could prove profitable. The communities in each society should take care of these remedies. The crisis has urged the recommendation of implementation of external aids as soon as possible, governments should derive suitable policies for attracting external financing in the health sector. There should be a bonding between the donors in the health sector and the health organizations. There are several African developing countries maintaining this bond. However the suitable remedies cannot assure the protection of the health sector in the future because it is difficult to estimate such reactions. To summarize the integration between the government and the beneficiary partners can always develop the growth of health sector in Africa. There are certain suitable recommendations on the financial structure of Africa for suitable developments. The initial recommendation would be that there should be a strong network of communication between the African finance ministry and senior banking officials to have a check at the financial breakdown of banks, these actions can prevent the bankruptcy of banks. This action could promote the operations of the bank and increase the African regional process to emphasize the growth of small countries taking advantage over larger countries. There must be a day to day surveillance of the finance markets and the changes on exchange rates and stock prices. This could increase the growth of African economy by taking suitable necessary actions to prevent the adverse effects. There could be a design such as when the numbers of exchange rates and stock prices are adverse, defensive actions are taken by the necessary authorities. This could increase the awareness of the government to perform recovery operations. Because of the economy crisis the banks might face a structural damage because of the shortage in the liquidity of cash flow. Hence necessary actions by the government on the banks can regain market confidence of the customers. This action could indeed trigger the operations of industries by lending money and operations in household by lending credit, hence a economic balance is created. The African governments can generate these funds with the help of foreign reserves such as bonds in capital markets. The African economy can reconstruct their finance structure with the help of international finance organizations. So in order to balance the African economy, frequent check on banks and surveillance of the market is necessary. There are certain long term operations which helps the Africa governments in maintaining economic balance. To maintain balance in the economy regulatory policies should be issued by the government on the transparency of operations performed by the banks and their finance system should be supervised regularly. In order to increase further liquidity there should be regulatory operations performed by the African regional organizations. The African banking structure must be able to meet the capital demands, hence regulatory policies should be improved. The African economy must increase their growth such as their banks start to perform FDI operations in other regions. The network can be further strengthened with the help of legal operations, the legal binding operations can lead to development and growth of the financial structure of the banking sector. The bonding between the legal system and the banking system can result in the growth of African economies. There can be necessary actions performed to increase the competition between banks for better performance. Hence with the help of these recommendations the African economies can experience development in the banking sectors. An effective incentive scheme should be announced for corporate to decrease the invo Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the impact of the global economic crisis in Africa and provide suitable suggestions as a consultant of the African Union The African economy was proceeding towards a splendid reasonable growth towards the beginning of the year 2008 even though many countries in the world were caught between the subprime crises. The African continent was one of the worlds best continent with abundant of resources and gradually developing and recording a reasonable growth in their GDP, before the global economic crisis affected the development of this region. Africa was a frontier in the production of resources with recording a above average growth, experts predicted the present growth rate would lead to the development of African economy as a superior power in the future. However the present decline in the prices of export commodities has resulted in the decline in the government revenues which has affected the GDP of Africa. The major contributors to the development of African economy were the need for resource materials, the reasonable development of china and the increase in the inflow of capital and factors of macro economic rectifications. There was an also major contribution from the migrant remittances which contributed to the reasonable earnings in the household and increase the government revenues in terms of tax. There were many speculations expecting the best out of the potential of Africa in order to produce resources for the growth of the continent and reduce poverty. But there was a close indication of the downfall in the economy in the early 2007 which ultimately was encountered by the African economy in the late 2008. In the world economy when many developed countries were facing recession and crisis, there was severe alteration towards the growth scenario in Africa because of the stagnancy. The majority of the growth contributors of Africa were affected by this crisis. The development in chinas economy declined gradually and there was a downfall in the need for resources and their prices were declining to an extent. Because of the reasonable GDP there was no pressure on the concern of inflation. Certain assurance of added aids was not implemented yet and there was a reduction in the capital inflow. Since the effects were taken care of there were no immediate reactions in Africa due to the economic crisis. However the reduction in the external aid which was not implemented as assured by many developed countries in the G20 started affecting the health sector to a greater extent. To have a detail description of African economic crisis we would discuss the major sectors which have been adversely affected due to recession. To start with there would be an impact in the mining sector, impact in banking sector does not have any major adverse effects, consequences faced by the effects of crisis in finance sector including the commodity markets and international exchange rates, adverse effects on remittances and capital inflows in the trade sectors with the addition of FDI. There were other sectors too such as tourism, manufacturing which had experienced an impact due to the global economic crisis. The under development of the banking sector in Africa is another major concern because the banking sector has failed to derive structures that benefits the economy. The increase in the banking policies with external integration could generate the flow of capital which was not implemented in Africa There were certain positive impacts for the countries importing commodities in Africa, they were benefited a lot from reducing the expenditures. On the entire economy of Africa the sub Saharan region was the most to be affected by the crisis. The ultimate effects of the global economic crisis were the increase in the infant mortality rate, increase in poverty, pressure on government to restructure the fiscal budget, and unemployment. However since there was growth in African economy it could face the immense pressure of Economic crisis. The major countries to experience severe effects by the economic crisis are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Egypt which are mostly the sub Saharan Africa regions. The impact of the economic crisis in Africa made many underdeveloped countries to receive international implications on its economy to develop their infrastructure. The international business strategies suitable recovery facts have proved more beneficiaries in the world economies. The suggestion of suitable changes in the physical structure could help in the faster recovery of the economic crisis IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON BANKING The global economic crisis effect in the major developed countries was on the banking sector where many banking corporate collapsed during the crisis. But the African economy did not have any adverse effects on the banking sector because of their less extent of bonding with the world economies. The African economy has a comparatively low external financing compared to other continents of the world, the external financing of Africa only accounts to 4% of the overall volume in the emerging economies. To have a statistical overview the African external financing it only issued bonds worth of six million American dollars and received only three million dollars from private reserves. This comparatively low market capitalization of the world economy has protected the African banking system from severe damages. The African economy did not report any bankruptcy during the global economic crisis because the African banks could manage reasonable returns from the mortgages. There were certain e ffects in the African economy due to the presence of foreign banks with assets in some African countries like Swaziland, Madagascar who suffered major losses due to world financial crisis. But the effects of world economic crisis did not affect the banks progress in Africa, the banking systems dominates the finance sector and the role played by the financial markets are not of greater concern. There is a transmission check of funds borrowed from foreign banks by the government and there is less awareness of off balance sheet procedure to African economy which was the major reasons for the stability of African banking sector. The conversion of many capital resources into foreign assets saved the African economy to avoid exchange rate appreciation. To sum up the impact of global economic crisis did not deliver any adverse effect on the banking sector. IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE FINANCIAL STRUCTURE OF AFRICA INTRODUCTION The African continent was not isolated from the financial crisis, to have a deep overview of the financial crisis there were certain adverse effects on the economy because of the badly constructed financial systems. There was a reduction in the earnings in many sectors such as there was a reduction in the need of commodities and also reduction in the commodity prices, There were reduction in capital inflows, the major affected sector will be the export where it will face a reduction of $578 billion in the recent years out of which the oil sector itself will account to $420 billion reduction in the earnings. This loss in the earnings will account to one fifth of the GDP which is five times the avail given to the region. There was an effect of this financial crisis in the growth of the economy and it also increased poverty. To have a deeper analysis of the impact of the financial crisis in Africa let us look at the causes of transmission of the financial crisis and its effect on the in dividual factors of the financial sector. Causes of financial crisis is Africa The major cause of the financial crisis in Africa was the reduction in the prices and amount of the export commodities because of the global financial crisis. There was a prominent reduction in the prices of commodities in the late 2008 such as oil sector faced a downfall of 69% in their prices, because of the decline in the exports up to 45% there was a huge loss faced by the continent, even the other commodities excluding oil accounted to 38% of downfall in their prices. The other major cause of the African financial crisis is the decline in the capital inflow and remittances. These accounted to decline in the foreign exchange which ultimately guided to poverty in the continent due to the shortage in income. The developing countries have always depended on foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing the countys economy and infrastructure. Because of the delays in the assured FDI many projects have been delayed or halted leading to gradual loses. Finally there was downfall in the stocks of the foreign reserves and the reduction in the span of import cover contributed to a larger pressure in the African economy unable to afford the commodities hence causing more crisis. Let us have a broader view of the effects in the African economy due to the causes of the global economic crisis. EFFECTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN AFRICA EFFECT ON THE FINANCIAL MARKETS There was a gradual impact in the financial markets because of the subprime crisis. The banking sector did not face any direct impact of the crisis but there were effects due to transmission and dependence on the external economy. There were slight rise in the prices of the assets and the risk premium was increased indicating there was some damage in the finance structure in the early 2008. Because of the transmission and dependency, the liquid finance markets where affected more in this region more than the developed countries and inclined to the over valuing of stocks. If you have a look at the reports from countries like Nigeria and Egypt, they faced a loss of more than half of their investment towards late 2008. Increase in the value of debts in the international finance markets has caused the rise in debt spreads in the African countries. In order to attract the investors the African countries like Tunisia increased their bias points. The bias points of the developing countries mainly in Africa in the international market reached to 800 points in the late 2008, these indeed inclined the risk premium which forced many countries like Kenya to stop imploring from international financial markets and circulate the long term resources to local markets.There was a decline in the foreign exchange reserves because of the depreciation of currencies, this happened due to the decline in the commodity prices. Variations in the currency exchange rate against American dollars and Euros delivered an effect in the African economy. There was a three fifth of drop in the copper prices due to the global economic crisis. Hence African countries were one of the international reserves of copper and they had faced a chief downfall in their foreign reserves. There was about 50% depreciation of the currency of countries like Zambia against American dollars. Africa is one of the main continents with abundant of resources whose exports were one of the major earnings and helped in increasing the growth of economy. There have been decline in the commodity prices and volume all over the world because of the global economy crisis in the late 2008. This crisis inclined certain effects in the African economy, there was a three fifth decline in the prices of the crude oil which was one of the major reserves of Africa. Some of the other major natural resources of Africa such as diamond, copper, timber etc produced by mining declined by 30%, the development in the African export sector declined by 3% and there was a reduction in the GDP was about 3.5% compared to the fiscal year 2008. There were certain adverse effects because of the reduction in commodity prices which resulted in, reduction in the gain, low profit for high production cost resources, decline in government aids and finally the termination of many projects which were supported by FD I incline a huge loss to the African economy. The decline in the price of food commodities resulted in restructuring the government budget and balance of payments. There are certain regions in Africa such as Burundi where the oil is imported would have an positive impact of the reduced prices there are also certain negative impacts in attracting FDI for these countries which would decrease their development. EFFECT OF LONG TERM AND MEDIUM TERM TRANSACTIONS There are certain effects on the trade of goods and services in the world due to the global economic crisis from which Africa is not isolated. According to the reports there is an decrease in the growth of trade in terms of exports and imports, there is a decrease of 5% in the growth of imports and 7% in the growth of exports. Africa will experience a loss of about 45% of its value of exports. The other important effect is due to the capital flow within Africa and the world, there was a decline in the FDI about 21% in the African region towards the end of 2008. This effect has only been described by certain countries is Africa such as Egypt while other countries have increased the FDI such as South Africa. But there was certain adverse effects of FDI in the production of natural resources which was not availed as assured by international markets due to the economic crisis. The effect of short term capital flows is there was a decline about 50% in the capital flow for emerging counties because of the reduction in the availability of financial resources, but the African economy only suffered upto a lesser extent because of the limited bonding between the external financial markets and the African financial markets. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON SUB SAHARAN AFRICA The major effects of the global economic crisis in the sub Saharan region were the decline in their trade, decline in the remittances, and reduction in external financing. The major problem in the sub Saharan region was their trade was mostly depended on the countries suffered by economic crisis this reduced the demand in the resources exported. The decline in the prices of the primary commodities in sub Saharan Africa accounted to adverse effects in their economies. The government revenues depend on tourist sector for development infrastructure which suffered a major hit during the crisis. The decline in world trade accounted by one percent accounted to half the percent decline in the growth of the sub Saharan region. The prominent causes for the economic crisis in the sub Saharan region was the trade with United States, there was a fifty seven percent decline in the trade between the two regions. The development of the sub Saharan Africa was majorly because of the trade with china, thirteen percent of this regions exports and a comparative ten percent of imports depended on the trade with China. The investors from china were behind the initiative of many projects in the Africa region funded by them. The integration between both the regions decreased after the effect of global economic crisis leading to further impacton the economy of the sub Saharan Africa countries. There was a dramatic decline in the capital inflows in the sub Saharan region compared to other parts of Africa. There was a 26.7% drop in the external investments which accounted to the financial crisis of the economy of many countries. The sub Saharan Africa earned reasonable government revenue from migrant remittances who suffered adverse effects because of redundancy as an effect of the economic crisis, this reduced the government revenues in terms of tax. There were certain assurance given by the developed countries in the G8 committee meeting regarding the increase in the funding to the Afr ican countries which was not implemented due to the economic crisis. Out of the impact of the financial crisis on the entire African continent, Southern Africa will be affected the most. Countries like Angola will experience a dramatic downfall in their growth about 20.9%, the economy growth of east Africa will be affected by 2%, the Sub Saharan region will have difficulties in fiscal balancing. There will be huge responsibilities for the government to structure their budget to meet the social needs of the people in Africa. These are the financial issues experienced by Africa during the Global Economic Crisis. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON REMITTANCES IN AFRICA The prominent impact of the global economic crisis in Africa was on remittances which indeed resulted in severe harm to the African Economy. Before the economic crisis remittances was one of the modes of earnings in the African economy. Remittances helped in the developing the infrastructure of African Economy and was one of the major sources of external financing.. The remittances of natural resources exporting countries were affected the most, since Africa is one of the prominent exporters of natural resources they faced badly affected by the economic crisis. Remittances in Africa where expected to decline about six percent which could damage the economy of remittance dependent countries. Certain countries in Africa were expecting external financing aid to overcome the decline in remittances. The major regions having effect on remittances are the North African regions whose economy depends on it. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DECLINE IN REMMITANCES The remittances in the African economy is prominently transferred in informal terms such as friends and relatives, the formal mode of transmission of remittances in Africa is through the banking system. The major remittance in Africa is the workers remittance, the remittance –GDP ratio for many countries in the African region was at an average of nine percent . these above calculations explains the contribution of remittances in the growth of African economy. The African economy dependence on remittances was comparatively low to other parts of the world. Another spread of remittances was in terms of migrants, Africa countries face 20% of their migration within their continent. Because of the migrants to other continents such as Europe and America which were the worst affected continents of the global economic crisis there was a decline in the remittances. North Africa region was affected the most because they had many migrants in Europe and Middle East which has faced adverse negative impacts in their economy. The countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria had a decline of about seven to nine percent in their remittances because of the larger proportion of migrants from their country in Europe regions affected by the Global economic crisis. This decline in the remittances has produced an impact on the government revenues in Africa, and also affected fiscal structure of the economy. Because of the global economic crisis which leads to the decline of process in the manufacturing industries accounted to job cuts, this situation lead to the decline in remittances. The decline in remittances damaged the better earnings in the households which caused poverty and increased the infant mortality rate. There were some positive impacts due to the increase in remittances in certain regions of Africa such as Kenya because of the decline in the import commodity prices. The major effects of decline in remittances are it decreases the governments revenue in terms of tax. The decline in the revenue can affect the GDP of the economy, and effects on negative growth of GDP increases the IMR. Many countries in Africa such as Ethiopia are about to lose 0.2 to 0.3 percent of their GDP growth. The African country to be majorly affected by the decline in remittances is Morocco, where it faced two to three percent of decline in their GDP growth. The countries in Africa which had immense migration transfer to Europe faced immense damage in their GDP. The ultimate effect on decline in remittances is, redundancy of migrants which will affect their household incomes resulting in poverty. To sum up the ultimate cause of decline in remittances was redundancy of migrants and nationals, decline in the external financing because of economic crisis. Finally the effects of redundancy are decline in house hold incomes, unemployment, and decline in government revenues. THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE AFRICAN ECONOMY EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS IN ECONOMY FACTORS Africa encountered a drastic change in their economy during the economic crisis in the world. Before the economic crisis the African oil exporting countries gained plenty of foreign exchange which they used for projects to develop the infrastructure and repay their debt. During the global economic crisis there was a 60% downfall in the oil prices which had a bad effect on their GDP. The GDP of African countries exporting oil were facing a decline of 5% which had adverse effects on their economy, even oil importers in Africa will face a decline of 2% of their GDP and all these accounted to the decline in the oil revenue. There were several regions in Africa which recorded a positive growth in their GDP despite the decline in the prices of the commodities such as North Africa, Morocco and certain other countries. There will be a total unbalance in the economy of some countries in Africa because of the decline in the exports sector more than the imports, they will face a couple of downf all in a countrys economic structure. Hence the countries will face difficulties to restructure the economy and there would be a reduction in the consumption because of the downfall in revenue. The other effects on the economy of Africa is inflation, this would be a serious problem encountered by the economy of many African countries. The inflation would raise about three percent in the African region because of the decline in the revenue, but the positive impact of the crisis is that there would be a reduction in the commodity prices which might take the pressure on inflation for some reasonable time. The countries which import oil will have a positive impact of reduction in the inflation rate in their economy, but it is the opposite for the countries exporting oil and will face an increase in the rate of inflation. There is certain decline in growth prospects of Africa as an impact of the global economic crisis, despite of not being directly affected by the World financial crisis because of the low bonding with external economies, there was some decline in the growth prospects in the African region. The oil exporters in Africa faced a decline of three percent in growth while the oil importing countries faced a decline of one percent in growth. Developing countries in Africa will face difficulties due to the reduction in the demand of their goods, these effects could halt the Africas development into a superior power. EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON INDUSTRIES The other key sectors which had a major impact due to the crisis was the tourism sector, they suffered major damages during the global economic crisis. The revenue in the tourism sector was affected badly in the African region making the functions of the sector miserable. There was a decline in the number of arrivals to the countries like Kenya in Africa. The decline in the arrivals accounted to a decline in the profit for airways. The decline in tourism which is one of the governments revenue from the service sector faced many negative impacts, there was considerable amount of loss due to cancellations. Countries like Egypt and Kenya experienced ten to thirty percent fall in their revenue. There was major losses on the mining sector due to the economic crisis, many projects in the African region were terminated or postponed because of the shortage of investments. For instance the decline in the copper prices had halted many projects in the African region in countries like Zambia, th e leading copper mining industries faced one fourth decline in their supplier contracts. Many mining projects were terminated because of the falling copper prices. Other natural resources such as cobalt also faced reduction in their prices which halted operations in certain projects in countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo. There were many employees been laid off because of the termination of the projects, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone recorded two hundred thousand employees dropped. The decline in the price of other natural resources have caused adverse effects on budget, countries like Gabon in Africa experienced negative impacts. The reduction in the price of iron, uranium and bauxite which are one of the major exports in many countries experienced decline in the revenue. Since Africa has been one of the major continent with an abundant wealth of natural resources and the fall in the price of natural resources has made Africa suffer severely which indeed result ed in economic crisis. The textile industry was also not isolated from this economic crisis. Because of the decrease in the demand of textile goods from the African region several industries had to face immediate closure. The countries in Africa were facing immense pressure because of the unemployment of people. The termination of an industry at an average caused reduction of four thousand jobs. There was huge pressure from the labor unions to the government regarding unemployment. The impact on the African manufacturing industry by the global economic crisis has resulted in restructuring of the economy and experience serious financial crisis. Finally the global economic crisis has affected the African economy in several sectors. According to reports two third countries of the African continent are affected by the downfall in the price of natural resources. The major decline of the African economy has caused by one ultimate factor which is the reduction in the commodities. The other minor factor like the decline in the foreign investment is also the cause of African economy crisis. RECOMMENDATIONS There are certain recommendations suggested as a consultant of the African union in order to increase the growth of the economy. To start with the recommendation process, it would highlight facts on four features which are observation on the financial structure, reduction of crisis impact on health, revival of the policies in the economic structure and derivative such as bail out policies. We shall discuss the impact of these recommendations on the African System. The major recommendation in the health sector is the prevention of the effects of the economic crisis that has not fully affected the house hold regions. Hence necessary conservative methods should be taken to take care of the adverse effects of the crisis. There must be constant check on the negative effects in the health sector and take necessary actions. Mainly the IMR should be taken care of to a greater extent. Monitoring the growth of infants could help the development in the health sector. There should be constant negotiation within the health organizations and the population. There should be a drastic increase in the investments in the health sector. The African governments should restructure their fiscal budgets for more allowances to the health sector. Most of the developed countries spent 0.7% of their GDP in the health sector for a better healthy environment. The African economy should make better use of the funds provided by the World Bank for effective health climate. T here should be a constant check in the available resources in the health sector and efficient usage of the available resources is recommended. There are several measuring concepts in the current world to measure the expenditure, performance and future projects of a health sector. A better organization can result in better performance in the health sector. The current economic crisis has helped Africa have a view on the current health structure and decide suitable remedies to overcome this deficiency. The crisis has helped Africa have a check on the IMR, poverty, healthy environments, and causes of the diseases. These checks have recommended Africa to invest on certain suitable regions such as food, medicines etc in the health sector and decide what are the gradual steps to be taken to fight against deaths. The use of health care vouchers is proved effective in many parts of the world which should be concerned by the African economy. There must be necessary action taken in the organi zing and implementing of health programs to perform against the negative impacts. Taking severe actions in the prevention of environmental harms that creates health hazards could prove profitable. The communities in each society should take care of these remedies. The crisis has urged the recommendation of implementation of external aids as soon as possible, governments should derive suitable policies for attracting external financing in the health sector. There should be a bonding between the donors in the health sector and the health organizations. There are several African developing countries maintaining this bond. However the suitable remedies cannot assure the protection of the health sector in the future because it is difficult to estimate such reactions. To summarize the integration between the government and the beneficiary partners can always develop the growth of health sector in Africa. There are certain suitable recommendations on the financial structure of Africa for suitable developments. The initial recommendation would be that there should be a strong network of communication between the African finance ministry and senior banking officials to have a check at the financial breakdown of banks, these actions can prevent the bankruptcy of banks. This action could promote the operations of the bank and increase the African regional process to emphasize the growth of small countries taking advantage over larger countries. There must be a day to day surveillance of the finance markets and the changes on exchange rates and stock prices. This could increase the growth of African economy by taking suitable necessary actions to prevent the adverse effects. There could be a design such as when the numbers of exchange rates and stock prices are adverse, defensive actions are taken by the necessary authorities. This could increase the awareness of the government to perform recovery operations. Because of the economy crisis the banks might face a structural damage because of the shortage in the liquidity of cash flow. Hence necessary actions by the government on the banks can regain market confidence of the customers. This action could indeed trigger the operations of industries by lending money and operations in household by lending credit, hence a economic balance is created. The African governments can generate these funds with the help of foreign reserves such as bonds in capital markets. The African economy can reconstruct their finance structure with the help of international finance organizations. So in order to balance the African economy, frequent check on banks and surveillance of the market is necessary. There are certain long term operations which helps the Africa governments in maintaining economic balance. To maintain balance in the economy regulatory policies should be issued by the government on the transparency of operations performed by the banks and their finance system should be supervised regularly. In order to increase further liquidity there should be regulatory operations performed by the African regional organizations. The African banking structure must be able to meet the capital demands, hence regulatory policies should be improved. The African economy must increase their growth such as their banks start to perform FDI operations in other regions. The network can be further strengthened with the help of legal operations, the legal binding operations can lead to development and growth of the financial structure of the banking sector. The bonding between the legal system and the banking system can result in the growth of African economies. There can be necessary actions performed to increase the competition between banks for better performance. Hence with the help of these recommendations the African economies can experience development in the banking sectors. An effective incentive scheme should be announced for corporate to decrease the invo

Bartleby, the Scrivener :: Bartleby Scrivener Essays

Bartleby, the Scrivener Bartleby, the Scrivener was a most interesting story. The characters were very interesting to the intuitive reader. The narrator is an interesting man who is difficult to completely understand. The narrator's thoughts seem unclear even to himself. The narrator seems to have a sincere wish to help Bartleby in whatever way he can. His sincerity, though, is questionable. Every time the narrator tries to assist Bartleby, he seems to do it only to gratify himself. After the narrator informs Bartleby that the office must be vacated, he says to himself, "As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity." The narrator is glad to have gotten rid of Bartleby, but only it seems, because he gave Bartleby money. This quasi- sincerity does seem to take a turn, however, towards the end of the story. After all the trivial attempts to help Bartleby, the narrator seems to have an instant of true feeling for Bartleby. After moving, and being rid of Bartleby, someone comes to him on Bartleby's behalf. The narrator goes to the prison to check on Bartleby only because he cares and knows that nobody else does. He knows that if he does not check on Bartleby's well- being, no one will. This shows that he is truly beginning to care. This man, the narrator, is also a very weak willed man. He seems to put up with nearly everything. He tolerates the tempers of both Turkey and Nippers day after day. Both these men appear to be alcoholics, as for instance, when Turkey returns from lunch he is not able to write without blotting the paper. When the narrator suggests that the two scriveners work only half a day, they refuse. And so, the narrator allows the behavior to continue. Also, when Bartleby first starts work, the narrator says that he placed him behind a screen so that he, ' Might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though not to remove him from my voice." This wall served no real purpose other than to set himself apart from the scriveners, that is, to make hi mself feel more important. Also, when the narrator asked Bartleby to do something, Bartleby said simply that he, "would prefer not to." The narrator allowed this behavior and offered no discipline. Bartleby did whatever he felt like doing. Again later, Bartleby quit working altogether. Bartleby, the Scrivener :: Bartleby Scrivener Essays Bartleby, the Scrivener Bartleby, the Scrivener was a most interesting story. The characters were very interesting to the intuitive reader. The narrator is an interesting man who is difficult to completely understand. The narrator's thoughts seem unclear even to himself. The narrator seems to have a sincere wish to help Bartleby in whatever way he can. His sincerity, though, is questionable. Every time the narrator tries to assist Bartleby, he seems to do it only to gratify himself. After the narrator informs Bartleby that the office must be vacated, he says to himself, "As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity." The narrator is glad to have gotten rid of Bartleby, but only it seems, because he gave Bartleby money. This quasi- sincerity does seem to take a turn, however, towards the end of the story. After all the trivial attempts to help Bartleby, the narrator seems to have an instant of true feeling for Bartleby. After moving, and being rid of Bartleby, someone comes to him on Bartleby's behalf. The narrator goes to the prison to check on Bartleby only because he cares and knows that nobody else does. He knows that if he does not check on Bartleby's well- being, no one will. This shows that he is truly beginning to care. This man, the narrator, is also a very weak willed man. He seems to put up with nearly everything. He tolerates the tempers of both Turkey and Nippers day after day. Both these men appear to be alcoholics, as for instance, when Turkey returns from lunch he is not able to write without blotting the paper. When the narrator suggests that the two scriveners work only half a day, they refuse. And so, the narrator allows the behavior to continue. Also, when Bartleby first starts work, the narrator says that he placed him behind a screen so that he, ' Might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though not to remove him from my voice." This wall served no real purpose other than to set himself apart from the scriveners, that is, to make hi mself feel more important. Also, when the narrator asked Bartleby to do something, Bartleby said simply that he, "would prefer not to." The narrator allowed this behavior and offered no discipline. Bartleby did whatever he felt like doing. Again later, Bartleby quit working altogether.

Policy Suggestions for Reopening Dual Language Essay

This empirical research will be presented to the Ministry of Education in Taiwan for the purpose of studying the possibility of reopening Chinese and English dual language kindergarten schools.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In 2004, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan had forbidden the operation and establishment of bilingual and English kindergarten schools. English could only be integrated in songs, plays, and activities but it could not be taught in the Chinese and English bilingual format and use as a medium of instruction. Kindergarten schools are not also allowed to hire any foreign teachers. All kindergarten teachers must be a natural born Taiwanese citizen.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the same year, the spokesman of the Ministry of Education cited three reasons for implementing this educational policy. First, they feel that at the preschool stage children should master their primary language. Second, they are so concern with the quality of teaching as they found out that most foreign teachers who worked as English teachers in kindergarten schools do not have sufficient knowledge on early childhood education. These teachers are only hired because they are native English speakers. Third, although Taiwanese students officially begin learning English on the third grade, they do not lag behind their counterpart in other Asian countries. However, there is not enough research to prove the positive effect of banning the dual language kindergarten. The research cited by the Ministry of Education to support their policy is discussed in the review of literature. Review of Related Literature Research Supporting the Policy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The research used by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan as a basis in supporting its policy was conducted in 2001 by Dr. Chuang Shiang Chuan and  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dr. Chaing Jen Ru. These professionals were invited to conduct a study on the possibility of integrating English in the kindergarten curriculum and hiring foreign teachers to teach in the kindergarten level. In this research, Dr. Chuang Shiang Chuan pointed out that language learning for children requires the use of both the expressive and thinking abilities. If the medium of instruction is strictly in English alone, the content of communication between the teacher and the students would be very limited. She also indicated that preschool children fail to accurately pronounce and comprehend a foreign language in comparison to the adult learners. Furthermore, she also stated that learning a foreign language could interfere in the learning of the mother tongue. In terms of hiring foreign teachers, Cheung (2001) felt that foreigners who are working as kindergarten English teachers do not have the required skills and knowledge on early childhood education. Their knowledge is only limited to the teaching of the English language. In addition, hiring of foreign teachers would result in the decrease of job opportunities for students who have completed their education degrees from the teacher preparation institutions. However, the findings of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dr. Cheung may not be objective and conflict of interest is evident as a result of her employment in one of the early childhood teacher preparation institutions. Besides, in the policy statement published by the Ministry of Education to the public on October 10, 2004, it was stated that the research was based on the neuroscience, linguistics and English education findings which indicated that learning English at an early age does not guarantee that children will learn better. The Ministry of Education also argued that teenagers learn a foreign language more efficiently than preschool children due to their more mature cognitive development. It is also stated that imposing the â€Å"No Chinese† kindergarten education would result in communication difficulty, emotional disturbance, conflict of values and problems in culture identity which could affect the development of Chinese language learning. Furthermore, the language barrier would limit the breath and dept of children’s learning.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lu & Chen (2003) who are researchers in Taiwan also supported the previous findings and argued that it is inappropriate for preschool children to learn a foreign language and culture at an early age. They believed that China would be the strongest country in terms of economic stability and the Chinese language would be the next universal language. Hence, parents should not be anxious to have their children learn English at a young age. They further stated that there is no critical period in learning a second language so it is not necessary to start learning at preschool age. The researchers also believed that having a good command of the native language is the foundation for learning a second language. The absence of an American or British accent is not an important matter to consider in learning the English language. Therefore, it is unnecessary to study English at an early age to avoid speaking with a foreign accent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Besides the two researchers and one government statement above, the book â€Å"My Child Can’t Speak Chinese† (Cheung, 2004) is also frequently cited by people who are against using English as the only medium of instruction in the kindergarten education. In this book, Cheung depicted her daughter who tends to combine the English and Chinese syntaxes when speaking Chinese after attending an English only kindergarten school. In the book, the arguments to ban the English only teaching in kindergarten school is understandable considering that children in Taiwan speak Chinese at home and kindergarten is the first education that they have experienced outside their homes. The use of English as the only medium of instruction in their first school may give the children the wrong impression that English is the formal school language. They may also think that their Chinese language is less important. These thoughts could possibly lead to the confusion of culture identity and negatively affect the learning of the Chinese language.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As an international student who had studied in various classes with native English instructors and have worked as the sole foreign teacher in an American school, I understand the anxiety that a child may feel in an English only environment based on my personal experience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Armed with a first hand experience in obtaining an education in an English only school under instructors who are native speakers of the English language and with an experience of being a foreign teacher in an international school, I can strongly understand and clearly see the point in the policy made in not allowing the operation of the English only kindergarten schools. However, in as much as I could empathized with the policy makers, I also felt the inadequacy of the study that was conducted before arriving at a recommendation to close and prohibit the existence of dual language kindergarten schools. There are many dual language kindergartens in the United States and I have taught in an English-Chinese dual lingual public school in New York, P.S. 184M, Shuang Wen School. This is the first dual lingual and bicultural public elementary school in the east coast. Children at Shuang Wen have regular English classes as other public school students and start learning Chinese from the kindergarten level and continue studying until the sixth grade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Shuang Wen’s website, there is a report cited that almost 100% of their students exceeded the required grade level standards of the New York State examination for Math and English. With Shuang Wen’s success, one could only ponder as to why American students are allowed to enroll in an English and Chinese bilingual program since kindergarten while the Taiwanese students in Taiwan have to be deprived of this opportunity. I went through literature reviews by searching and reviewing dual language related literatures on databases of ERIC, ProQuest, Education Full Text, Digital Dissertations taken from the Teachers College as well as the TC Catalog (EDUCAT). The summary of my findings are written below. Research on Dual Lingual Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The dual lingual education literature reviewed is presented here in the following sections: bilingual education has no harm, the benefits of bilingual education, the best bilingual education-dual language program, and the current situation of dual language programs. Bilingual Education Has No Harm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Contrary to the findings of the researchers in Taiwan, Norbert (2005), Schambach (2006), Garcia (2006), and Pearson (2007) claimed that bilingual education has no harm to children at all. All the misconceptions were bias. For instance, Cheung’s (2003) worry concerning her daughter’s combined usage of English and Chinese is actually unnecessary. The combined usage of language was part of a learning process that children want to experiment in order to determine which of these two languages the listener’s â€Å"strongest language† is. This method would also enable the children to communicate effectively with their listener (Garcia, 2007). Moreover, the capability of switching between two languages could increase children’s cognitive flexibility (Steward, 2004). In terms of the concerns about the lost of identity and delay in the development of the children’s first language, it was discovered that bilingual children do not have any identity issues because in the bilingual education, children’s culture are respected and recognized (Farmer, 1998 & Schambach, 2006). Some children may develop two identities since they are educated in using two languages and two cultures but this helps children to be more adaptable to the global world and prepare them better to be global citizens. Moreover, Schambach pointed out an example of an identity issue whereby an immigrant child, who emigrated from one country to another, felt totally lost when not being accepted in the new country and treated as a foreigner upon return to the country of origin for a short visit. This situation can happen to Taiwanese children if the government is not open to the education that the parents expect for their children in Taiwan. About 77% of parents in Taiwan hope that the government would allow the integration of English in the kindergarten curriculum (Wu & Cheng, 2002). The main reason for the immigration to the United States of Taiwanese families is to provide better education for their children. If Taiwanese government fails to meet parents’ expectations, there is a strong possibility that Taiwanese family immigration would lead to a problem on the identity issue for the next generation. The Benefits of Bilingual Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After clarifying that bilingual education creates no harm to children, many researchers pointed out that bilingual education can enhance the development of children’s cognitive and social skills (Chan, 2003; Garcia, 2007; Norbert, 2005; Steward, 2004; Thomas, 2003). Chan (2003) compared 31 bilingual preschoolers and 29 monolingual preschoolers’ performance on 3 cognitive tasks and 4 theory-of-mind tasks. The results showed that the advantage of the bilingual learners in the theory-of-mind development hinges mostly in their cognitive development e.g., inhibitory control, reasoning and metalinguistic awareness. Garcia (2007) quoted the research of Peal and Lambert’s work with French and English bilinguals and English monolinguals and suggested that the intellectual experience of acquiring two languages contributed advantageously to mental flexibility, superior concept formation and a generally diversified set of mental abilities. She also cited Padilla’s reasoning that bilinguals are cognitively advanced because they are able to process information provided in one language and produce allied information in another language. Padilla used Keats and Keats’ report of a study as an example which German-English bilinguals, who did not demonstrate the ability to conserve weight in a Piagetian task, were trained to conserve in one of the two languages. Results from English and German post tests indicated that the concept was acquired in both languages. This suggests the possible increased in the flexibility of bilinguals during conceptual acquisition. Steward (2004) cited the finding of Willig who pointed out that students in the bilingual programs scored either the same or higher on the achievement tests in both languages in comparison with children in monolingual education. Steward also agreed with Cummings, Hakuta and Gold’s opinion that the bilingual program has increased children’s cognitive flexibility. Thomas (2003) further stated that the cognitive stimulus from the bilingual program led to enhanced creativity and analytical thinking. He also presented the result taken from Houston in 2002 that native English speakers, who had been in the two way dual-language programs for four years, scored between 63rd and 70th percentiles in total reading scores in the Stanford 9 whereas the scores of students in the monolingual English program hovered around the 50th percentile. This is a remarkable finding that could be used to infer that if Taiwanese children, who are native Chinese speakers, are educated in a bilingual program since preschool their intellectual capability might surpass students in a Chinese only program after four years. After reading all the benefits that bilingual education can bring to students, I continued to research for the definition of bilingual education and its best practice. The Best Bilingual Education Dual Language Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Barrera (2004) defines bilingual education as using two languages to learn. Schambach (2006) said a bilingual person means he can use two languages freely in any given situation. In terms of the best practice for bilingual education, Garcia (2007) pointed out that in teaching two languages, it would be best to separate them instead of combining them together. For example, at home each parent should speak a different language to the child and at school, different teachers should speak different languages. Children tend to learn the language in order to communicate. Norbert (2005) further strengthened the importance of separating two languages when teaching. Scofield (2007) specifically talked about the importance of a relaxed environment that is enriched with comprehensible language as well as the usage of gestures, mime, and real objects to illustrate speech and to provide input. He also suggested singing songs and rhymes and having group activities to create a conducive environment for the learners. In terms of time allocation for teaching each language, Steward (2004) cited Willig’s research result which showed that students in the alternate immersion program, wherein the day is divided into two halves each entirely in one language, have the best performance in the tests of both languages. This kind of program is also called dual language program. Current Situation of Dual Language Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Barrera (2004), there are more than 270 dual language programs in the U.S. and the interest in these programs keeps growing as fast as the waiting lists. In Barrera’s research, she concluded that the most successful dual language program resulted when students learn one language in the morning and another one in the afternoon. There must also be a continuing non-repetitive lesson in the morning. In the succeeding morning, students must proceed to the next lesson in the other language. The important characteristics of a good dual language program as suggested by Barrera includes: a minimum of six years instruction; a focus on the core academic curriculum; high quality language arts instruction in both languages; integration of the languages into the instructional thematic units; separations of the two languages for instruction with no translation and no repeated lessons in the other language; use of each language in 50 percent of the instructional time; an addictive e.g. adding a new language at no cost to students’ first language; bilingual environment that has the full support of school administrators, teachers and parents; and an active parent-school partnerships.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, regardless of all the benefits of dual lingual education as shown in the research, some politicians in California still think that English should be the one and only dominated language in United States. Hence, they brought up Proposition 227 to replace the bilingual and dual lingual education to total immersion method to help immigrant children learn English as fast as possible. Nevertheless, many researchers discovered that bilingual education has helped children learn English faster than the total immersion method (Krashen, 2005; Manyak, 2006; Monzo, 2005; Olson, 2007). Bilingual education has likewise helped students build more positive self identity by providing a sheltered learning environment (Monzo). Recommendation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After learning from the studies conducted by some researchers, the Taiwanese government must reexamine their educational policy that resulted in the total ban of bilingual kindergarten education in Taiwan. I recommend that the Taiwanese government conduct an empirical study on the possible effects of dual language kindergarten education in Taiwan and recruit volunteer participants to determine if the Chinese and English bilingual kindergarten education should be reopened as an educational option for Taiwanese children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I would also like to suggest a research design which includes the preparation of the curriculum, teachers’ preparation, students’ selections and students’ evaluation. Curriculum   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prior to conducting a research, the Education Ministry of Taiwan must initially design a Chinese and English dual lingual curriculum for kindergarten pupils. The easiest and most efficient way is to translate the current kindergarten curriculum into English. In this method, the traditional Taiwanese values are neither changed nor altered and the English language was only used as a medium of instruction. This consistent and continuing curriculum, which is part of the current dual language program, has been proven to be the most beneficial way for students’ learning. Teacher Preparation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Secondly, the government must prepare all the teachers who will be involved in teaching the dual language program. The selection of teachers who would teach the Chinese curriculum is not as difficult as selecting teachers who could teach the English curriculum. For the Chinese curriculum, experienced teachers can be selected among a roster of kindergarten teachers. Since the current law forbids the hiring of non-Taiwanese citizens, it would not be easy to immediately hire English instructors. There may be few Taiwanese people who could teach using the English fluently, have a solid background in early childhood education and fully understand the Taiwanese culture. Since learning the language while keeping the Taiwanese cultural background are two major purposes of the dual language program, I would suggest to the Ministry of Education in Taiwan to hire Taiwanese Americans or Taiwanese people who have studied abroad for a long enough period of time and have attained a good level of English fluency. The qualification to become a kindergarten teacher in Taiwan should not be based on the nationality but on the teacher’s English capability and understanding of Taiwanese culture. With regards to having a solid knowledge on the background of kindergarten education, I believe that teachers can be prepared within few months of extensive workshops as I became a primary teacher at an award winning independent primary school in Connecticut after a week of intensive training and continuing professional development throughout the school year. In my job, I performed well as a foreign teacher. Through experience, I personally felt that it is possible to prepare any teacher for the background knowledge. Further research on this issue could be conducted to be assured that only the most qualified teachers are selected for the program. Students’ Selection and Follow-Up Plan   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Participating pupils should be voluntary and the opportunity to be a participant should be well broadcasted to all the parents who have children who are about to be enrolled in kindergarten schools. Students should be chosen from families of a mixed social economic status to represent the common student population in public kindergarten schools. Plans must be undertaken for students who are currently attending kindergarten so a continuing dual lingual elementary education can be achieved until the fifth grade as suggested by Garcia. Garcia discovered that the positive effects of dual language education will be manifested after 6 years of continuous education. The greatest challenge here is that all dual lingual elementary schools in Taiwan are private schools and therefore the tuition fees are not affordable by every family. For this problem, the government could either give vouchers or subsidize the tuition fees of the children who have attended the dual lingual kindergarten so they could study in private dual lingual elementary schools. In addition, the government can also put an effort to open a public dual language elementary school in each grade level to accommodate the education needs of these students. Data Analysis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Students’ cognitive development and academic performance will be assessed through standardized testing and observation from teachers and parents. Data analysis will focus on the findings to determine if advance cognitive development and better academic performance were achieved by students who were given the dual language program in comparison with the dual language students’ performance in the United States and Canada as studied by Barrera (2004) and Chan (2004). To avoid overstressing students, the test will be carefully designed and will be taken semi-annually. Likewise, students’ progress will be recorded for six years. Conclusions   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Education is the best investment for the future of a country. With the influx of globalization and stiff economic and business competition, it is time for people of Taiwan to be armed with an education that could be comparable not only to their neighboring Asian countries but also to the western countries as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The progress of the country highly depends on its young citizens and the best way for the young citizens to be competitive is by providing them with an educational tool that will enable them to communicate with other people across the globe. English has been considered as the universal language in many parts of the world. There are no negative effects in learning a foreign language as shown in many research studies. Hence, it is time for the government of Taiwan, specifically the Ministry of Education, to study their policies and reconsider the option of reopening bilingual kindergarten schools in Taiwan. If the government intends to be the educational leader in Asia, it is time to open their doors to accept the teaching of English in preschool level. References Barrera, R., et. al. (2004). Profiles in culture. Scholastic Early Childhood Today, 19(3), 46-48. Chan, K. T. (2004). Chinese English bilingual’s theory-of-mind development. University of Toronto, Toronto. Cheung, S. C. C., Jen Ru (2002). The possibility of having english education and hiring foreign teachers in kindergartens in Taiwan. Ministry of Education, Taiwan. (T. Ministry of Education o. Document Number) Chuan, C. S. (2003). My child can’t speak Chinese. Taipei: New Parents. Farmer, M. (1998). Creating Montessori bilingual programs. Montessori Life, 10(2), 22-25. Garcia, E. E. (2007). Bilingual development and the education of bilingual children during early childhood. American Journal of Education, 95(1), 96-121. Krashen, S. (2005). Skyrocketing scores: An urban legend. Educational Leadership, 62(4), 37-39. Lu, H.-J. C., Tai-an. (2003). An evaluation on early childhood english education in taiwan-from the perspective of language policy. Transworld Institute of Technology, Taiwan. Manyak, P. C. (2006). Fostering biliteracy in a monolingual milieu: Reflections on two counter-hegemonic English immersion classes. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 6(3), 241-266. Ministry of Education, Taiwan (2004). Educational policy of preschool English education. Monzo, L. D. (2005). Latino parents `choice` for bilingual education in an urban California school: language politics in the aftermath of proposition 227. Bilingual Research Journal, 29(2), 365-386. Norbert, F. (2005). Research findings on early first language attrition: implication for the discussion on critical periods in language acquisition. Language Learning, 55(3), 491-531. Pajares, F. (2007). Elements of a proposal. Available from the author. Pearson, B. Z. (2007). Social factors in childhood bilingualism in the United States. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28(3). Schambach, J. (2006). Childhood bilingualism: problems and possibilities. Kansas. Schofield, A. (2007). An investigation into the practices of a class of field-based student educators working in linguistically diverse early childhood centres. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 32(2), 23-27. Stewart, M. R. (2004). Phonological awareness and bilingual preschoolers: should we teach it and, if so, how? Early Childhood Education Journal 32(1), 31-37. Thomas, W. P. C., V. P. (2003). The multiple benefits of dual language: dual-language programs educate both English learners and native English speakers without incurring extra costs. Educational Leadership, 61(2), 61-64. Torrez, N. M. (2001). Incoherent English immersion and California proposition 227. The Urban Review, 33(3), 207-20. Wu, S. F. C., Jen Ru. (2002). Examine preschool English education from the perspective of critical study period. Human Education Journal, 158.

Impacts of Social Media Marketing Essay

With the emergence of internet-based social media it has made it possible for people to communicate with thousands of other people around the world about products and the companies that provide these goods and services to them. Accordingly, the impact of consumer to consumer communications has been tremendously heightened within the marketplace. Many people would argue that social media is a hybrid element for promoting a company and its products, considering that in the traditional sense it allows companies to speak directly to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The information, timing, and volume of social media-based conversations that occur between consumers are outside of a managers’ direct control. This goes against any traditional integrated marketing communications where there is a high sense of control from the manager. Thus, it is the managers’ responsibility to learn how to shape a consumers discussion in a manner that is consistent with their organizations mission statement and performance goals (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2009). Traditional Marketing Traditional marketing techniques involve direct mail, trade shows, television, radio broadcasting and social events which are still very prevalent and are still heavily used by many companies around the world to market products and the services offered by their companies. Marketing through television provides companies mass exposure to a wide array of individuals with a mass message. Many businesses don’t realize that television can often be one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising. The advantages of television are that it has everything needed to catch the attention of your projected audience: audio and visual. Community based television stations which are often looking for advertisers and are more willing to accommodate advertisers because of a less rigid schedule. Newspapers and classifieds are becoming increasingly popular and is a great way to target clients at a reasonable cost. The yellow pages have become a commonplace for companies who want to locate their specific business needs. Another way for businesses to market is with brochures, these are a great way of advertising a business. Depending on the type of business, brochures can be extremely useful. For a business that is in the industry of travel or tourism, brochures are a must, and there are multitudes of places where they can be displayed for customers to view. If a business is in a different type of industry it may be a little more difficult to find locations to display brochures, except to use them in mail drops, as handouts at trade shows and conventions, or for a direct mail out to potential customers. If a company is a manufacturer or supplier, it will need to provide their brochures to a distribution network. Brochures are a great way to market, but a company should make sure they are a cost-effective use of your time and investment, and if a company is going to produce brochures, they should know ahead of time how and where they will distribute them. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing represents low cost tools that are used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words. These are typically internet based. Social media gives marketers a voice and allows them to communicate with their current customers and potential customers. Companies are able to personalize their brand and it gives them a way to spread their message in a relaxed and conversational way. Many people used to think Facebook was just for teens and young adults. Companies did not see much value for the social media site. That is all slowly changing though. Several companies are using Facebook to market their products and are seeing great success. Consider the following statistics provided between September 2008 and February 2009 the number of Facebook users between the ages of thirty five and forty four increased by 51%, user among the ages 45-54 jumped up 47 % and user ages 26-34 increased by 26 % more then half of Facebooks 140 million users are out of college. Clearly, social media is no longer just for the college student. Facebook is used as a marketing tool because it is easy to gain new clients, promote new products and services while offing deals and sales and staying in touch with your customers (Zarrella , 2009). Social media can be used to provide an identity for the products and services that a company has to offer. It can also create relationships using social media with people who might not otherwise know about a company’s products or services or what our companies represents. If a company wants new customers and retain their current ones they must establish a good relationship. Social media can be used to associate one’s self with their peers, which could be serving the same target market. It could also be used to communicate and provide an interaction with the consumers a company is looking for. Conclusion There are many advantages to using social media as a marketing tool for a company. However a company cannot just depend on social media alone to market their company, they must integrate it with other vehicles of marketing. While social media can create awareness for a company, it may not be the right form of advertising for a company. Companies must be consistent with any form of marketing that it chooses to use. The role that social media plays in the marketing of a company is to use it as a communication tool that allows a company access to those interested in their product and makes the company visible to those who do not know what services and products a particular company has to offer. It can be used as a tool to create a personality behind a company’s brand and create relationships that otherwise may never have happened. Social media cannot only create repeat-buyers for companies, but also customer loyalty. The fact that social media is so diversified and it can be used in several different ways, ways that best suit the interest and the needs of a company shows that it is a good source of marketing for any business (McAdams, Neslund & Zucker, 2008). The form of marketing that a company uses really comes down to what type of audience the company is trying to attract and what they can ultimately afford to spend on adverting and marketing for the company. Any of the marketing techniques work a company just has to be consistent with the form they choose to use. Social media marketing is the way of the future and is not going to go away anytime soon. References Zarrella , D. (2009). The social media marketing book. Kerin, R. A., Hartley, S. W., & Rudelius, W. (2009). Marketing. (9 ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin McAdams, T., Neslund, N., & Zucker, K. D. (2008). Law, business, and society. (Ninth ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.