Author: Andre Coleman

Assignment Question :

Outline a research question that can be investigated using qualitative methods. Describe a plan for how you will research that question. Your plan should include strategies for both data collection and data analysis. The rationale for the adoption of a particular form of data collection and analysis must be presented.

1. Introduction

The purpose of this research is to investigate the gap between ideals and practices on corporate identity through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and build up practical findings to help corporations narrow the gap thus enabling them to enhance their CSR identity for both companies and employees.

This study will focus on the case of large Korean corporations – the so called ‘chaebol corporations’ (henceforth, chaebols). Chaebols are interesting cases to conduct CSR related research because chaebols use CSR for substituting their distorted corporate image and identity as ‘unethical’, coming from illegal acts and unsound governance structure. In this sense, chaebols can be considered appropriate cases are currently grappling with a big gap between ideals and practices as the same pertain to their CSR identity. Exploring CSR identity and its effects on practice in chaebols will provide practical indications about the relationship between corporate identity strategy and its employees’ implementation and theoretical implications on chaebol related research.

With multiple-case study strategy, this study will start by looking at corporate CSR identity on the organisational perspectives in case companies. Following this, the study will explore employees’ perception on corporate identity and CSR activities to identify and examine the factors that influence employee corporate identity and encourage employee participation in CSR activities. This is achieved using a triangulation method. This includes semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and documentary analysis. In this paper, I will design the research plan with methodological strategy, data collection strategy and data analysis strategy including rationales respectively.

2. Research Questions & Assumptions
Research Questions

The research questions will focus on exploring how CSR identity is conceptualised by companies and employees and how that resulting identity influences CSR practices in reality. Thus, the primary research questions are as follows:

Q1. How do corporations conceptualise their CSR identity ?

Q2. How does corporate identity formed at the organisational level influence the ethical identity of employees?

Q3. What are the connections between the organisational level identity of CSR and employees’ participation in CSR activities?

Assumptions

Assumptions grounded in the logic of multi-faceted model of corporate identity (Soenen and Moingeon 2002) and employee performances are as bellow. This multi-faceted model of identity is not a measurement and it provides 5 categories of identity.

A1. Corporate identity of CSR will affect employees’ participation for social activities.

A2. Employees’ participation in CSR activities will increase when corporate identity and their strategies are aligned.

A3. Professed identity will not affect employees’ participation in CSR activities.

A4. Employees’ participation in CSR activities will be influenced by four types of identities when they are matched with each other.

3. Research Design
(1) Research Method and Justifications

This research will be conducted with a qualitative method. According to Creswell (2003), the main reason of using the qualitative method for research is because of exploratory character of study. As this study focuses on the perspectives of both the corporation itself and that of employees’ about CSR identity and CSR activities, qualitative methods of research and analysis are adopted. A qualitative method enables in-depth exploration of the CSR identity and, simultaneously, aid in understanding the conceptual relationships between ideals and practice about CSR identity and CSR activities. Moreover, as corporate identity which is formed by socially agreed concepts, and CSR, which has discursively

constructed concepts, are both rather subjective, and changeable depending on the particular organisation, qualitative approach is more appropriate to understand how these identities can be conceptualised and formed in an organisational context. Comparing to qualitative methods, a quantitative approach rather focuses consideration on measurements and quantities of the traits established by the people or events of studies (Murray 2003).

(2) Epistemological Approach

While much research used quantitative method mainly takes a position of a functionalist or positivist stance, qualitative research can take almost all possible epistemological positions (Gephart 1999 ; Symon and Cassell 2004). This research overall takes an interpretive epistemological view with technically along with realistic point of view. While this research focuses on the specific cases of chaebols, the aim is not a generalization of findings. Instead, the findings might represent chaebol related issues. Taking an interpretivist view, sampling of target cases will be purposeful (Daymon and Holloway 2002) rather than being statistically and randomly representative sample.

(3) Methodological Strategy and Technical & Epistemological Justification
Case Study Strategy & Justifications

This research will take the multiple-case study strategy as its methodological research strategy. There are two reasons for choosing a case study. First, as mentioned above, CSR itself is a very arguable concepts and the impact of CSR can vary depending on corporations’ conditions (Cho and Hong 2009) and corporate identity matters as well. As case study methodology draws insight from data gathered in research ( Stern 1998; Borgerson, Schroeder et al. 2009), to explore CSR and identity on both organisational and employees’ perspectives, it is a useful method to understand matters within the organisation context and obtain in-depth and empirical knowledge on them. Secondly, the case study approach is for this research as it enables the use of interview methods and company documents to collect data (Yin 2003) and also, verify the validity of the collected data. As for more replicable evidence, this research is based on multiple-case study of chaebol corporations. Ten cases are sufficient replications to obtain external validity. Compared to single-case designs, the evidence which is derived from multiple-case studies tends to be more compelling and being more powerful (Hersen and Barlow 1976 ; Yin 2003). The case sampling strategy will be explained in the data collection section. Even though the level of analysis is organisational, the unit of analysis is individual for example, managers and non-managerial employees who are directly and indirectly related to CSR identity and CSR activities in their organisations.

(4) Data Collection Strategy and Technical & Epistemological Justification
1) Triangulation Method

The methods to gather the data will be triangulation methods: semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group interviews and documentary analyses. The triangulation method is helpful to get an external validity in this research. Data sets obtained from each of 10 multiple-cases will be triangulated as figure 1.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews

A semi-structured interview will be conducted with managers and employees in the CSR department and strategy department. These informants can provide more specific and in-depth knowledge about their own experiences in face-to-face interviews. Even though other methods such as telephone or internet interviews, can also be carried out under the qualitative interview paradigm (King 2004), this research which deals with Korean managers and workers requires face-to-face interviews due to the greater importance of Korean culture in which direct contact can aid in obtaining greater details of the thoughts and experiences of interviewees.

Focus Group interviews

A focus group interview will be held with managers in other strategy related departments and with employees who have experience in CSR activities. The motivation for adopting this approach is that it allows participants to discuss their thinking and ideas about the CSR strategy and CSR identity with their colleagues – at which point the similarities and differences on the perceptions of the participants about CSR can be investigated with greater ease. The advantage of using the focus group interview method at this stage is that it enables participants to get an idea from their colleagues so that they can reflect back on their thinking and their own experiences (King 2004).

The questions which will be asked in the interviews will vary depending on the targets. In managerial level interviews, interviewees will be asked about how they conceptualise and identify CSR in terms of the 4 categories of responsibilities as classified by Carroll (Carroll 1999). In the non-managerial level interviews, interviewees will be asked about how they define their corporate identity in terms of CSR and how these identities affect their CSR participation. All of the interviews will be tape-recorded with the interviewees’ permission for later transcription.

Documentary Analysis

With regards to the validity of data collection, I will use the triangulation method with documentary analysis in addition to the focus group interview and the semi-structured interview. With respect to the documentary analysis, I will use CSR annual reports which are organised according to reporting guidelines (e.g. GRI Guideline). These reports will be accessed via companies’ webpage.

2) Sampling Strategy

The case companies will be selected according to the ‘Most admirable companies in Korea 2009? ranking complied by the Korea Management Association (KMA). This index ranks companies, according to a consumer survey and employee survey, in terms of the companies’ ethical image and identity. If ranked in the top level, the company is considered to be, to some extent, ethical and philanthropic and is considered to have CSR strategies and programmes that are more systematically designed than those of other companies. After selecting the 10 top ranked companies as sample cases, interview targets will be selected by a purposive sampling strategy. This is because CSR requires professional knowledge through strategy planning and implementation at the organisational level. In this sense, managerial levels and non-managerial levels in CSR related departments will be considered the target samples for semi-structured in-depth interviews. Those located in other departments will be the target sample on focus group interviews. I will contact these targets by email and telephone and in some of the aforementioned cases, have already established initial connections.

3) Epistemological justifications

In terms of epistemological position, this research will have realist assumptions – interviewees’ accounts are assumed to indicate awareness about their actual experiences of CSR involvement. This realist approach will make it possible to gather more accurate accounts by comparing the findings from the interview with the documentary analysis. In qualitative research, interview methods aim “to see the research topic from the perspectives of the interviewee and understanding how and why they come to have this particular perspective” (King 2004). As this research takes the realist approach, the interview will be more structured and systematically prepared compared to, for example, interviews conducted by constructivists or phenomenologists (Pawson and Tilley 1997).

5) Data Analysis Strategy
1) Template Analysis & Epistemological Justification

Analysis of this research will be conducted via the templates technique. According to King (2004), template analysis as a set of techniques that can be used in realist work. It admits a positivistic position and is particularly useful for research that aims to compare different or similar perspectives of target groups within an organisational context (King 2004). In this sense, this research which relies on realistic epistemological viewpoints and is aims to examine CSR concepts and identity strategy as perceived by corporations and employees, templates analysis provides the most suitable way to produce a list of theme codes which, in turn, derive the concepts and definitions of CSR identity from the informants’ own words within a theoretical framework thus enabling the analysis to develop new theoretical and empirical implications.

As mentioned previously, this research will focus on how corporations and employees perceive CSR concepts and identity from their experience on corporations’ CSR strategy and implementation, which means the words and expressions coming from their own perceptions, can be extremely varied. Therefore, creating the initial template with a few defined codes (King 2004) and starting with this initial template will be a very helpful to guide analysis as well as to collect data. Compared to other techniques such as grounded theory and repertory grids, this research starts with a theoretical framework and needs organisational level analysis.

Using the template analysis, the process of conducting research will proceed as follows. First, to construct the initial template, interview guides will be prepared from a literature review and informal anecdotal evidence from the author’s own experience. This interview guide will include minimum information so as to gain more ideas from the interviewees. Thus, the initial template will begin in a simplified format and consist of the 3 highest-order codes and two or three subdivided lower-order codes. It will then be subject to a processes of insertion and deletion with changes in the higher-order classifications (King 2004) after the first focused group interviews. For this, at the beginning of the first focus group interview, interviewees will be asked to express their opinions and perceptions on CSR under the three highest-order codes and several lower-order codes following the brief topic guideline. They focus group interviewees can then proceed with their discussions. After each interview, the initial template will be edited and added with some new codes if the issues are not found to be covered by the presented codes.

4. Limitations & Conclusions

This study has limitations in terms of generalization due to the small sample size. This is because a small number of respondents cannot be representative of the entire company’s view, even though the propositions are proved by the respondents. The findings from this qualitative study may, thus, be considered preliminary. Further research, conducted using larger samples and adopting longitudinal analysis can aid to make the findings of the present research more robust. Moreover, given their unique governance system and political background in social context (Kim and Lee 2003), at present, chaebol related research tends to be conducted with an institutionalist approach. However, in this research, these factors are excluded as the focus is being kept on the organisational and individual level of the perception making process.

This study will show the gap of corporate identity between ideals and practices and how employees are influenced by corporate identity in CSR practices. By using qualitative approaches with a case study strategy, this research will have practical implications for managers who work in CSR departments, viz., it will identify how to connect their strategy to employees’ ethical identification and participation.

Reference

Borgerson, J. L., J. E. Schroeder, et al. (2009). “Corporate communication, ethics, and operational identity: A case study of Benetton.” Business Ethics: A European Review 18(3): 209-223.

Carroll, A. B. (1999). “Corporate Social Responsiblity.” Business & Society 38(3): 268-295.

Cho, S. and Y. Hong (2009). “Netizens’ evaluations of corporate social responsibility: Contents analysis of CSR news stories and online readers’ comments.” Public Relations Review 35: 147-149.

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research Design Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Thousand Oaks, California, Sage Publications, Inc.

Daymon, C. and I. Holloway (2002). Qualitative Research Method in Public Relations and Marketing Communications. London, Routledge.

Gephart, R. (1999). “Paradigms and Research Methods.” Research Methods Forum 4.

Hersen, M. and D. H. Barlow (1976). Single-case Experimental Designs: Strategies for Studying Behavior New York, Pergamon.

Kim, B. and I. Lee (2003). “Agency problems and performance of Korean companies during the Asian financial crisis: Chaebol vs. non-chaebol firms.” Pacific-Basin Finance Journal 11(327-348).

King, N., Ed. (2004). Using Interviews in Qualitative Research. Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. London, SAGE Publications Ltd.

King, N., Ed. (2004). Using Templates in the Thematic Analysis of Text. Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. London, SAGE Publications Inc.

Murray, T. R. (2003). Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods in Theses and Dissertations. Thousand Oaks, California, Corwin Press, Inc.

Pawson, R. and N. Tilley (1997). Realistic Evaluation. London, SAGE Publications Inc.

Soenen, G. and B. Moingeon, Eds. (2002). The five facets of collective identities. Integrating corporate and organizational identity. Corporate and Organizational Identities: Integrating Strategy, Marketing, Communication and Organizational Perspectives. London, Routledge.

Stern, B. B., Ed. (1998). Representing Consumers: Voices, Views and Visions. New York, Routledge.

Symon, G. and C. Cassell, Eds. (2004). Promoting New Research Practices in Organizational Research. Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. London, SAGE Publications Ltd.

Yin, R. K. (2003). Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE Publications.

This essay discusses two main questions: i) What are the main factors causing many people not to save towards their retirement, comparing men and women age 18 and over; and ii) Look at the differences between the pension system here in the UK and Germany, and what Germany is doing to make people save more than people save than in the UK.

It is clear, across many European countries, that many individuals do not save as much as they could, and, in particular, are not saving adequate amounts towards their retirement. This applies equally for men and women and across many European countries. This problem is, however, particularly marked in the UK, with many individuals either simply not having any pension provisions or not contributing enough in to their pension scheme. In addition, many individuals in the UK simply do not save any proportion of their earnings, and spend as much, if not more, than they earn.

This is not the case in Germany: practically every household saves substantial amounts, right up until old age, with only households in the very lowest proportions of the income distribution curve not saving (Borsch-Supan and Essig, 2003). 40% of households in Germany regularly save a fixed amount, with a further 45% saving, but not fixed amounts and not regularly; 25% of Germans save with a fixed savings target in mind, planning their savings towards these aims, with the majority of Germans preferring to cut household consumption, rather than touch their savings, if ends do not meet; indeed, 80% of Germans seldom go negative in their current accounts (Borsch-Supan and Essig, 2003).

This is quite different to the pattern in the UK, where personal debt is currently the highest it has been for many decades, and many individuals do not plan for saving with distinct aims in mind, nor save towards any sort of pension scheme, leaving themselves open to problems when they come to retirement age. As shown by the OECD (2002), since 1985, the UK has consistently had a far lower household savings rate than Germany, with Germany averaging around 13.5% of disposable household income being saved, year on year since 1985, and the UK averaging around 5.5%, year on year since 1985 (OECD, 2002).

In Germany, as in the UK, there are three main types of pension: state, company and private, with the adoption of private pensions being increasingly encouraged, due to the ageing population in both regions. There are many reasons cited for why people do not save enough towards their retirement, for example, the feeling that ‘I am too young to start saving for my pension’, ‘I don’t earn enough to be able to save for a pension’ or ‘I will get a state pension, so don’t need to worry’. All of these reasons are invalid, if they are studied further, as it is increasingly becoming the responsibility of the individual to provide for their retirement, and so saving for a pension should be a necessary expense; the sooner the individual starts to save, obviously, the more they will have in their pension fund when it comes to retirement age, and the more they will be able to take as a pension when they come to retire. It is thus beneficial for individuals to invest in their future, by saving regularly towards their retirement, but this notion does not seem to be as ingrained in the minds of individuals in the UK as it is in Germany.

Until recently, 19.5% of incomes from German individuals was generally put towards private pensions, with private pension companies in the UK taking nowhere near this amount; 10-15% is a more normal average amount taken by UK company pension schemes (OECD, 2007). In addition, Germany has one of the highest levels of public spending on pensions in the OECD countries (11.5% of GDP, compared to 4.5% of GDP in the UK (Disney and Johnson, 2001)), although recently Germany has increased the retirement age above the traditional 65 years for men, to 67; a similar rise in the age of retirement from public pension plans has recently occurred in the UK (OECD, 2007). Contribution to private pension plans has the widest coverage in Germany of any OECD country, although the amounts contributed to private pension plans in Germany are low, when compared to the amounts German individuals put in to company pension schemes (OECD, 2007). In addition, fewer German individuals are switching from company pension schemes to private pension schemes in Germany than in other OECD countries. Indeed, only 39.9% of individuals have switched from company to private pension schemes in Germany, with 53.4% of individuals switching to “personal account” pensions in the UK (OECD, 2007). Despite the seemingly high switch over from company pension schemes to private or “personal account” pensions in the UK, the UK government estimates that around 7 million individuals are not saving enough for their retirement, under any scheme, and that an additional 10 million individuals do not save for their retirement via their company pension scheme, which includes an employer contribution of a minimum of 3%.

What are the reasons for these differences, and what are the main factors causing many people not to save towards their retirement? What is Germany doing, for example, that encourages more people to save than in the UK? The UK, traditionally, has higher levels of personal debt than Germany, with individuals from both regions having very different attitudes towards spending and saving, and where they choose to invest their savings. In addition, individuals who do save in the UK tend to ‘dip into’ their savings to buy luxury items, whereas German savers tend to leave their savings alone, and to buy luxury items, only when they can afford to do so, when they have saved, specifically, for that item. Given the ageing population, and the fact that not enough people are saving for their retirement, the UK is currently trying to increase saving towards pensions, particularly, with various tax incentives, through private pension taxation schemes and ISAs, for example, and the newly introduced pension credit schemes.

In conclusion, therefore, there seems to be a very negligent attitude towards saving, in general, in the UK, with saving for retirement being particularly neglected; Germany, on the other hand, with its tradition of low personal debt, and high household savings, has a high coverage of individuals saving towards their retirement, mostly through company, or, increasingly, private pension schemes.

References

Borsch-Supan, A. and Essig, L. (2003). Household saving in Germany: results of the first SAVE study. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 9902. Available from http://www.nber.org/papers/w9902 [Accessed 28th October 2008].

Disney, D. and Johnson, M. (2001). Pension systems and retirement incomes across OECD countries. Edward Elgar.

OECD (2002). Household savings rates by country from 1985 through 2004 forecast. OECD Economic Outlook.

OECD (2007). Pensions at a glance – public policies across OECD countries 2007 Edition. Available from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/42/38728511.pdf [Accessed on 28th October 2008].

Over population is one of the serious issue that today’s world is facing. China is known as the country with the highest population (CIA). In order to prevent their massive population growth, China introduced the “One-Child Policy”. It is a policy implemented by the Chinese government with the purpose of controlling the enormous population in People’s Republic Of China. With the establishment of One-Child Policy, there are a lot of benefits and impacts to Chinese society and family. Regarding this topic, this essay will illustrate the positive and negative effects of this policy.

After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, China’s population was approaching one billion-mark, which concerned the new Chinese government. Because of the overwhelmed population growth, Chinese citizens were encouraged to have only two children per family in late 1978. The policy helped to decline almost half of population growth in China during that time but it did not reach their expectation. Later in 1979, China’s leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the One-Child Policy, requiring a family to have only one child. The Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party formally instituted One-Child Policy on September 25th, 1980 (Pletcher, 2014). Along with this burdensome policy, it comes with two main positive effects, social and family. As for the boon social effect, the most obvious effect is that it limits the population growth efficiently. It is seen that the population was decreased by over a half. Since 1979, experts at the national Population and Family Planning Commission of China said, the policy has prevented more than four hundred million births in the country (Jaime FlorCruz, 2011). After the introduction of the One-Child Policy, the fertility rate in China fell down from over three births per woman in 1980 to approximately 1.54 in 2011 (Data from World Bank, 2014). Moreover, the reduction in the rapid growth has reduced some serious issues that cause by overpopulation like health, education, law enforcement, and other destructions. Another social consequence is the economic growth. When there is higher in the birth rate, the slower of the economic growth occurs, thus One-Child Policy could have contributed to the increase of economic growth. With the lower population, the bureau could provide their people with a high living standard. They might get a high level of schooling, perfect healthcare as well as other accessibility. Then people will lead to be the high quality, which are very crucial for innovations and creations, to develop their country for sustained economic growth. Obviously, China is one of the World’s largest economic in term of the population, but in fact, the GDP per capital still low in some area. According to Prof. Zhang’s research during 1978-1998, 28 Chinese provinces, found that the lower the birth rate, the faster the economic growth. The annual growth rate of the real per capital income in that period was as high as 8.1 percent. At the same time, the birth rate was very low—at only 2 percent (Louisa Wah Hansen, 2013). Simultaneously, the policy has positively effect the family as well. The first thing is the high responsibility in the family. This mean that the parents are able to focus on their only one child and allow them to live in a more safety and wealthy environment under their heedfulness, thus the child would receive much love and warmth from them. To add on, this policy leads to less expense in the family budget. With fewer members, family could settle better in the prosperous life, and won’t get into hardship because of carrying so many children.

Along with those benefits the essay has mentioned, One-Child policy also scatters a lot of negative effects to the Chinese society and family. Since One-child policy has been established, the population growth rate in China has been declined from 0.9 percent in 2000 to 0.48 percent in 2012, which is leaded to the lack of human resources (World Bank). Recently, the government is very concern about the lack of human resources, that’s why they ease one-child policy and allows couples to have two children if they were both born without siblings (BBC, 2013). Moreover China is the country, which has a high preference for son, rather than daughter that is the cause of sex imbalances. One-Child policy has made China become the country, which has male population, more than female. According to Business Insider, there were 51 million men more than women in China 2010. In every 100 newborns girls, there are 120 boys, which is the highest sex ratio in the world (Sam, 2013). In addition because of the One-Child policy, the birth population is decreasing while the aging is continuing on increasing from day to day that lead to age dependency. The age of group of people from 0-14 decreased 6.29 percent, from 15-59 increased 3.36 percent, group of 60 and over increased 2.93 percent and group of 65 and over increased to 1.91 percent (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2011). Age dependency will put more pressure to the son of the family to earn more money to support the family and also make the economics of country goes down since the decreasing of the workers. Moreover, female infanticide has happened in China for a long time; Chinese girls are twice as likely to die in their first year of life as boys (“Infanticide in china,”). Despite the democratic nature of Chinese community, many parents consider that having a son is a crucial element of providing for their old age. Therefore in severe cases, a baby is killed if it is not of the preferred sex, because of the pressure not to have more than one child (BBC). In addition, the absence of a sibling does not define the outcome of a child’s social growth. For the single-child, the nature and structure of his or her family organization can be the adaptation factor for his or her lack of sibling contact. Children with siblings often exchange amongst each other their respective academic and social backgrounds – an advantage that single-children don’t have. Single-children tend to be influenced more by self-absorbed instincts, commanding more attention in their personal homes. Because parents tend to treat their single-child the way standard parents treat their first-born (with more attention and care due to lack of experience), single-children will generally be more relying on their parents and less independent (Xuefeng). As a result of the one-child policy, a single person can be supporting both their parents and their four grandparents. This forces the parents and grandparents to depend more on retirement savings or pensions, which many people don’t have. If those fail, everything depends on the one child. If that child can’t support their family, or if the only one child dies, the parents and grandparents will have no one to help them, and no money to support them. So when they lose their only hope, they will full of depression and no one will be look after them when they get older (rhee71, 2009).

As the essay has analyzed, we can see that this policy had contributed a lot of benefits to the society as well as the family in this past few decades. From my perspective, I think China should maintains this One-Child policy because it will helps China to become more advanced, not only in the economic nor social field, but also to promote the human rights. At the same time, there need to have some changes to this policy such as reformation or ease this policy and allow some family to have their second child regarding their family condition like what Two-Child Policy has adopted in late 2013, by letting the family having their second child if one of their parents is an only child.

References:

CIA. (n.d.). East & Southeast Asia:: China Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html
Pletcher, K. (n.d.). One-child policy, 2014 Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1710568/one-child-policy
Louisa Wah Hansen. (n.d.). One Child Policy: Bane or Boon for Economic Development? Retrieved from http://www.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk/program/article.aspx?id=B07B55F3517C
Jaime FlorCruz. (2011, October 29).China copes with promise and perils of one-child policy. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/28/world/asia/china-one-child/
Fertility rate. (2014, January 10). Retrieved from http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_dyn_tfrt_in&idim=country:CHN&dl=en&hl=en&q=total fertility rate china
World Bank. (n.d.). Population growth rate: China Retrieved from http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?v=24&c=ch&l=en
BBC. (2013, November 18). China media: One-child policy. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24983007
Sam, R. (2013, November 15). Here’s the china demographics chart that actually scares us. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/country-rankings-of-sex-ratio-at-birth-2013-11
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2011, April 28). Communique of the national bureau of statistics of people’s republic of china on major figures of the 2010 population census[1] (no. 1). Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20131108022004/http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/newsandcomingevents/t20110428_402722244.htm
Infanticide in china. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/infanticide-china-statistics
BBC. (n.d.). Female infanticide. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/infanticide_1.shtml
Xuefeng, C. (n.d.). The social impact of china’s one-child policy. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/lipoff/www/hapr/summer03_security/CHEN.pdf
rhee71. (2009, March 25). Disadvantages of china’s one-child policy. Retrieved from http://rhee71.edublogs.org/2009/03/25/disadvantages-of-china’s-one-child-policy/

What are the major milestones related to physical developments in early and middle childhood? Briefly describe these milestones?

There are several milestones connected to physical developments in early as well as middle childhood. Physical developmental change might take place as an outcome of genetically-controlled courses known as maturation, or even as a product of varied environmental factors and learning. However, developmental change most frequently involves an interface between the two. Age-linked development periods and cases in point of defined intervals include: ages 0-1 month (newborn); ages 1 month – 1 year (infant); toddler (ages 1-3 years); ages 4-6years (preschooler); ages 6-13 years (school-aged child) and (ages 13-20) adolescent (Kail, 2006).

Aging which is also a physical development appears to concurrently occur in two major separate domains throughout all of the adulthood stages which include: primary aging and secondary aging. According to Stoker (2008), primary aging entails the ordinary, innate body progression from early maturity till death; but, secondary aging comprise progression linked with health habits, disease and/or environmental influences. During middle age aging begins to be considered in decline and loss in lieu of maturation and growth (Stoker, 2008). Nonetheless, Stoker states that some neurological and physiological advancement associated with it which never passes till early maturity. For example, reaction blockage in the frontal lobes as synchronized by the limbic system is never entirely developed till young adulthood, as well as (VO2 max) heart and lung power which does never get to optimal heights until the young adult years. Stoker (2008) hints that immune functioning related to B cell and T cell also counts young adults’ aging.

In the middle mature age secondary aging starts to have an important effect on the functioning of body neurology and physiology. A case in point is where both behavior and lifestyle choices, like alcoholism and depression, can impact significantly on neurological structure as well as cognitive ability (Stoker, 2008).

During later adulthood, it is realized that the deprivation of dendrite redundancy, do correspond to a fall in synaptic plasticity, which in turn starts to effect concrete real-world reaction times. In addition, presbyopia and presbycusis is far-off more superior during the later adult years. According to Stoker (2008) this is partly due to blood flow loss to the areas affected and collective environmental factors, like time of working in very noisy factories, etc…

The physical developments which come about during adolescence period are brought about through the introduction of gonadotrophic hormones. This hormone is released by the pituitary gland of the endocrine glands, particularly during the onset and the entire duration of puberty (Boyd & Bee, 2006). According to Boyd and Bee (2006), the release of hormones such as testosterone in boys and estrogen in girls do cause the manifestation of both principal and secondary sex uniqueness by about the age of adolescent. Indeed during the first few years of puberty, the male and female reproductive organs matures up and are capable of respectively producing sperm in boys and ovum in girls. In the early adolescence stage, young women do begin their menarche (menstrual cycle). Moreover, the cerebral cortex does thicken for the duration of adolescence and by extension some parts of the brain is myelinated; and brings with it supplementary effectiveness in the neural pathways (Boyd & Bee, 2006).

Physically, there is also a notable heave in both lung and heart size and a decline in the rate of heart beat. In addition, at adolescence the bones situated in the forelimbs mature to nearly adult levels, with maturity startlingly occurring more rapidly in girls than boys. This hand bone maturity gives a timely boost in coordination. On the other hand, boys do outpace girls in development as well as thickening of the muscle during the adolescent ages, resulting into a surge in the strength of boys.

What are the major milestones related to cognitive developments in early and middle childhood? How does cognitive changes from early to middle childhood?

Physical development in a child attracts corresponding augment in cognitive abilities of the cerebral cortex and by extension neural pathways. It is highly believed that correlation exists between physical development and cognitive development. For instance, a French speaking Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget did trust that the cerebral expansion spurts which occur during adolescence stage of human growth brings with a novel stage of cognitive development which he referred to as the formal operational stage. According to Piaget, during this formal operational stage an adolescent duly begins to grasp both abstract logic and reasoning (Patterson, 2008). Besides, it is during adolescence stage that the aptitude to control memory as well as cognitive activities begins to bear fruits in the areas such as memorization, text learning and even face recognition. Further still, amplifications in working memory competence give the adolescent the capacity to comprehend figurative language, proverbs and metaphors. What’s more, advances in supposed logic permits an adolescent to guess the perceived effect of some actions and even behaviors. According to Patterson (2008), these advances allow for the accomplishment of invented audiences (mainly built from an apparent peer group). In This manner the adolescent has the rare ability to theorize and memorize about other individual’s perceptions and by extension impressions of themselves; while, a little child only manages to view situations, circumstances and behaviors from their personal perspective. Patterson (2008) further hints that cognitive developmental advances are also directly connected to both experience and learning. That this applies mainly to higher-level cognitive abilities like abstraction that relies to a considerable degree on formal education.

What role does Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory and Vygotsky’s Social Constructivist Approach play in understanding cognitive development in early and middle childhood?

Vygotsky was a theorist who posited that children gain knowledge via hands-on experience, just as Jean Piaget promptly suggested. However, as opposed to Jean Piaget, he did argue that prompt as well as responsive involvement by the mature adults once a child is on the periphery of learning a new task might duly assist the child learn new tasks. He called this Social Constructivist Approach which deals with the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). His Social Constructivist Approach helps understand and builds upon the knowledge already children have with the new knowledge that the adults can aid the child to learn (Vygotsky, 1998). A very good example where a parent can assist a child is when the parent “helps” a child to clap or merely roll its hands till it can clap and roll its hands alone (Cultural, Communication, and Cognition: Vygotskian Perspectives, 1985). Vygotsky’s principal focus was on the cultural role in influencing the pattern of the development of the child. Vygotsky claimed that any single function in the cultural development child does appear twice: initially, at the social phase (between people), and later, at the personality stage (inside the child). Vygotsky also posited that cognitive development was a gradual process which saw era of predicament in child growth during which time there is a valuable transformation in the mental functioning of a child (Vygotsky, 1998).

On the other hand, Swiss theorist Jean Piaget did pose reliably that a child learns aggressively via the play process. That it has to interact with the environment. He suggested on that regard that the role of mature adult in helping out the child get knowledge was merely to facilitate and if need be provide suitable learning materials to enable the child to interact with the surrounding and at the same time construct. Piaget actually applied Socratic questioning to engage the child to reflect and reproduce on what initially they were doing. He would attempt to get the child to see inconsistencies in their explanations. He further developed developmental stages. Piaget’s approach is applied in school curriculum sequencing and by extension in the preschool centers of pedagogy.

What are the major milestones related to socioemotional development in early and middle childhood? What types of changes occur in peer relationships from early to middle childhood?

According to Stoker Coy (Sunday, October 4, 2009), there exists 3 levels which bare 2 sub-stages each to give details regarding moral development all through an individual’s lifetimes: 1) Conventional level-Stage i: interpersonal conformity, mutual interpersonal expectations and relationships; Stage ii: conscience and Social system (known as the Law and Order). 2) Preconventional level-Stage i: punishment and obedience orientation; Stage ii: Instrumental purpose, exchange and individualism and finally the Postconventional level-Stage i: Social contract or utility and individual rights; Stage ii: Universal ethical principles. Stoker writes that these progresses in moral reasoning do overlap, concurrently exist, and further begin and end over a lifetime. Nevertheless, he hints that certain general rules applicable are that children never reason usually over stages (i) or (ii) of level 2, and that nearly all adults reason at stages (i) and (ii) of level 1, the Conventional level. It is the third stage, the postconventional moral reasoning stage which is in the immeasurable minority including the adult population. However, it constitutes those who believe that there exist a set of moral pronouncements that surpass all other concerns. Peer friendships turn out to be greatly important and quite central to social world of a child in the adolescent years. Stoker Coy (Sunday, October 4, 2009) writes that adolescents do highly price virtues like loyalty and faithfulness while in peer relationships and even tend to obtain friends with whom they share same beliefs on things like drug use, academic, sex, smoking, achievement, relational status, as well as echelon of social skills. Additionally, peer group conformity climaxes at about the age13 years and apparently fades when an adolescent develops enough self-esteem and consequently begins to build a concrete and substantial idea of self (Stoker Coy (Sunday, October 4, 2009).

To recognize Kohlberg’s justice and also Eisenberg’s empathy Stoker states that the development of emotion as well as moral rationale like role-taking skills, do assist with the control of anger and the evasion of unsociable behavior. In that regard Stoker hints that if an adolescent for instance is able to be taught to see clearly a certain situations from another individual’s perspective, then such a person is a lot more likely to evade delinquent behavior.

How can families impact the development of young children?

Monumentally, families nurture, shape and model children into who they later become. For that matter, good influence can be encouraging whereas bad influence can be motivating. Both types of influences can bare positive and/or negative impact. For instance, a child brought up in an abusive and alcoholic home might grow into a doctor focusing on victims of abuse, or they may perhaps become an abuser or alcoholic themselves. In this case, it can go either way. However, either way it is duly influenced by their family and general background. Besides, if a family have good manner then chances are high the child will emulate and practice it in the future since the child have stages of growth and they grasp ideas swiftly. Without a family, a child never actually knows what is expected of him and/or what to expect from others. Devoid of order and kind, solid discipline, the child might fail to develop self-discipline. As a result, he could become unmotivated, out of control, and crave excitement. His life may well be another roller-coaster journey. Cadigan (April 25, 2008) writes that the attributes that children obtain directly from parents or other mature family members are fourfold. They include personality, physical and cognitive abilities, behavioral health as well as race and/or ethnicity. She suggests that family is obliged to provide both formal and informal support to the child. The child also grasps and eventually acquires physical and cognitive abilities of family members including the members’ behavioral health. Since child forms the basis of learning and apparently children generally learn very first, they acquire learn and get the economic status of the member of their family (Cadigan April 25, 2008). The members of a family should therefore practice desired attributes they would like to be depicted in their infants.

References:

Boyd, D. and Bee, H. (2006). Lifespan development. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Allyn Bacon.

Cadigan Karen. (April 25, 2008). Early Childhood Policies from Ecological and Family Impact Perspectives. Retrieved May 23, 2010.

Cultural, Communication, and Cognition: Vygotskian Perspectives. (1985). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved May 23, 2010.

Kail, R.E (2006). Children and Their Development. 4 Ed. Prentice Hall. Retrieved May 23, 2010.

Patterson C (2008). Child Development. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Stoker Coy. (Sunday, October 4, 2009). Adolescence and Adulthood Developmental Stages

Vygotsky, L.S. (1998). Child psychology. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 5. Problems of the theory and history of psychology. New York: Plenum.

To what extent will recent and proposed changes to the immigration system assist in successful integration of new immigrants?

UK Immigration law has recently seen a metamorphic transition. The new Immigration Rules are now in full swing. It is inevitable that any system that is introduced for the first time will either be very beneficial in the successful integration of new immigrants or will have devastating consequences.

The introduction of the Points Based System (PBS) for new immigrants seeking to work, train or study in the UK replaces the approximate 80 routes of doing either of the above under the present regime. These Immigration categories have now been streamlined into one single immigration system.

Adopting the single system provides clarity in the law and secures a carefully controlled integration of new immigrants. The system is much more straightforward in application. New immigrants can easily ascertain whether they meet the necessary criteria for a particular visa, which will save them time and prevent wastage of costs.

The PBS is divided into 5 Tiers. Tier 1 (General) took effect from June 2008.^[1]. Tiers 2 & 5 have been in force since November 2008. Tier 3 has been temporarily suspended and Tier 4 aims to be incorporated by March 2009. Under each Tier, any prospective immigrant would need to score points in order to attain entry clearance. The points have been set by the Migration Advisory Committee. Instrumental to the PBS is the involvement of sponsorship^[2]. Another change is the requirement of the entry clearance and the knowledge of the English Language.

The objective of Tier 1 is aimed at Highly Skilled Workers (HSW) and the Post Study Work (PSW) schemes, which replaces the former Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, (HSMP) the International Graduates Scheme, (IGS) The Fresh Talent Working in Scotland Scheme and the rules for business-people and innovators, investors, writers, composers and artists^[3].

This Tier has been formed in line with bringing in the, “brightest and the best”^[4]. This is good news for some workers, particularly those that do wish to enter on the PSW. The PSW allows a new worker to remain in the country for a period of 2 years and will benefit from good quality training. Employers were previously reluctant to invest in resource training of new recruits who were required to leave the country after 12 months.

The process under the old HSMP scheme and the new HSW scheme is very different. Points are given on a sliding scale against requirements such as a degree qualification. The new immigrant needs a score of 75 points or more in order to qualify on the scheme and additional 10 points for the knowledge of English. There is also requirement for those that apply outside the UK; that they must have a bank balance of ?2,800 and those within the UK must have ?800.

The purpose is to ensure that the new immigrant is able to support him/herself up until the first salary is received and not be dependant upon Government resources. This minimum financial requirement may appear to be a hindrance for those residing outside the UK.

Tier 1 was questioned where foreign Doctors are concerned in the BAPIO^[5] case. The House of Lords held that the Department of Health guidance defeated a legitimate expectation held by Doctors in training on the previous HSMP that they would not be prevented from undertaking work. Tier 1 states that a doctor will not be able to undertake employment as a doctor in training up until entry clearance is granted. This is therefore, another procedural obstacle for a UK Immigrant.

Tier 2 applies to skilled workers with a job offer and replaces the concept of work permits completely. A skilled foreign worker will obtain 50^[6] points and this will depend upon factors such as the person already being in skilled work as well as having an earning capacity of ?24,000 or having a recognised qualification.

One way for an immigrant to earn 50 points immediately will be if the UK employer in can show that they cannot fill the required skilled post with a British worker and that the job vacancy has been advertised in the UK. This leads onto the employer passing the Resident Labour Market Test, which refers to the job being in shortage occupation.

Tier 2 does not include overseas qualified nurses and midwifes, ground staff of overseas owned airlines, exchange teachers, and language assistants. The list includes a wide range of professionals in the cross section of society, which does not help with the integration of new immigrants with these qualifications.

In R v SSHD^[7] the Judge raised a concern with the new law regarding highly skilled migrants and those immigrants who have already obtained entry clearance and have not secured a job will constitute as racial discrimination. The Home Office has incorporated the judgement. The previous rules will apply to those UK immigrants who have been adversely affected by the change in law. This is good news for those immigrants that fall under this category.

Alongside Tier 2 is the requirement of the certificate of sponsorship which has to be issued to the prospective employer. Prior to this, the Company will have to firstly be registered with the UK Border Agency so that it can obtain a sponsorship license.

Skilled workers will be discouraged from coming to the UK and if an organisation is called into question, if faces losing its license and any immigrant working would be required to leave the country within a period of 28 or 60 days. The procedure of carrying out this process is set to cause serious delay to the recruitment of key immigrants and employers will risk losing access to a pool of talent on an international level.

Tier 4 only applies to students as overseas ‘adults’. The immigrant must pass a maintenance test and produce supporting documents such as educational qualifications. The long term plan for Autumn 2009 is the emergence of the an IT system to support the student visa route. Whether the overseas ‘adult’ option excludes a section of student is yet to be decided.

Tier 5 is currently in existence where temporarily workers wish to come to the UK for primarily non-economic reasons. UK Immigrant must be awarded 30 points and savings of at least ?800. This again may be difficult for some workers who only essentially work on a ’temporary’ basis.

The actual criteria to meet has not considerably changed but what has reformed is the legal process. This will have a negative affect on those immigrants that will want to appeal against the decisions and the Asylum Immigration Tribunal(AIT). The Government has produced a consultation paper^[8], which proposes to revise the scope for Judicial Review, which will have the prevent the applicant’s right to appeal to the High Court, following a decision of the AIT.

The law could deter new immigrants from applying and discriminates against highly skilled individuals who hold the qualifications but not the job to go with it or the financial standing . The law has already been ’tweaked’ in its initial stages that could open up the floodgates for UK immigrants to question other areas of the new law.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

1. Clayton, G (2008) Immigration and Asylum Law (3^rd Edition) Oxford University Press, Oxford

2.Jackson, D Warr, G, Cole, J.0., Middleton, J (2008) Immigration Law and Practice, (4th Edition) Tottel Publishing

Journals/Articles

Home Office Border & Immigration Agency, (2008) The Path to Citizenship: next steps in reforming the Immigration System

Home Office Border & Immigration Agency (2008) Students under the Points Tier System -(Tier 4)- Implementation Plan

Home Office UK Border Agency, Consultation: Immigration Appeals, Fair Decisions; Faster Justice, August 2008

Berry, M (2007) Are your employees eligible to work in the UK?-EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation – Broadway House – Tothill Street – London

Websites

http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/

http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199238668/ -updates on Clayton, G (2008) Immigration on Asylum Law (3^rd Edition) Oxford University Press, Oxford

Legislation

Immigration Rules

Border & Immigration Agency 2007

Case Law

R (on the application of BAPIO Action Ltd & another) v SSHD and another [2008] UKHL 27

R(on the application of HSMP Forum Ltd v SSHD [2008] EWHC 004 (Admin)

Childless or Childfree?

Actress Katherine Hepburn said, “If motherhood doesn’t interest you then don’t do it!” She didn’t, along with opera singer Maria Callas, Queen Elizabeth I, and Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren , recently portraying Queen Elizabeth II.

Melissa Dear, of the Family Planning Association, was recently quoted as saying that the falling birth rate was partly a reflection of the failure to provide women with adequate support. That may be so, but perhaps it is simpler than that. Perhaps more women want to have fun rather than have a baby. Not that babies can’t be fun some of the time, but really, what would you choose: worrying about ear infections, and wondering how to replace the front tyres on the car when you need to buy a miniature pair of winter boots which cost more than the ones you saw in your own size at Clarkes; or wondering about what to wear to your dinner party and where to go on holiday this year?

In the past women reaching their thirties with no sign of a child would automatically be at the receiving end of thick streams of sympathy for their plight. After all, don’t all women have a deep maternal drive, this instinct, this burning desire to procreate? To experience for the best part of a year, haemorrhoids, backache and the raging hormones of pregnancy followed by the undeniably painful effort required to pass an infant the size of a melon through an opening better suited to something four inches in diameter. Then there’s the post pregnancy weight gain, possible occasional urine incontinence that means avoiding sneezing or coughing in public, and in private, your love life goes down the pan.

Population forecasts suggest that of those women who are of childbearing age now, one in five may never have children. Some proportion of that will be due to infertility, but there will also be those women who make the choice not to have children. Some people might think this is an abnormal decision based on an immature worldview. There will still be the knowing nods and, “You’ll change your mind later!” “You are not truly a woman until you have given birth to a child.”

Dr C Hakim, senior research fellow at the LSE said that researchers had been unable to account for the growing number of childfree women, finding no parallel with infertility statistics. Her research showed that there are rising numbers of women choosing not to have children. The childless woman is not necessarily bewailing her fate.

Dr Hakim points out that around 10% of women reach the age of 45 with no children. She says: ‘The whole idea of the childfree lifestyle is beginning to be recognised by the media. Private feelings are being legitimised and people are beginning to feel that they are not being deviant in some way.’

That “deviant” behaviour was addressed in a Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Phone-In, with women discussing problems in the workplace as childfree employees. You might think that it’s the mothers that have all the problems, considering they are the ones who have to work flexi hours, coming in late after the school run and having to rush off at the end of the school day. They are tied to school holidays, and are at the mercy of childminders in term time. However, the childfree women phoning in were generally quite resentful of the fact that they could not take advantage of later mornings as they had to cover the time the mums were not there.

Victoria, a nurse, said, “I have covered for maternity leave, Christmas and all the other times that working mothers assumed was their right to be at home. I don’t get any tax relief or benefits for not having children, and I would like a little recognition now and then.”

20% of the adult female population in Britain are childfree, and Sarah from Leatherhead felt that she was treated as “a less useful citizen, despite holding down a demanding job” because she had no children. She said she was made to feel inferior and less important than the women with children, despite the fact that she often worked longer hours and seldom took time off.

Why would childfree women would want to go on holiday in the summer with all those child-filled families? Surely the whole point is not to be around children? Apparently not. Childfree women do not necessarily dislike children; it is simply parenthood they are rejecting, and being a parent certainly is linked with disrupted lives and financial insecurity.

Those women who do decide to have children are having them later. In 2005 the average age at which women had their first child was 27.3 years, with the highest rate of fertility being in their early 30s. Despite the rise in teenage pregnancies which alters the average, bringing it down, this is still a rise of almost 4 years since the 1970s. Clearly women are choosing to stay childfree for longer, concentrating on careers or travel, or just organising their lives before giving up their independence.

Even then, it’s not all plain sailing! Julia Roberts, 39, actress and mother of 2-year-old twins reportedly said “I didn’t realise that I would get no sleep at all. I am so sleep deprived I can’t even stand, I have to sit down all the time.”

Could it be that some women who have children are ever so slightly jealous of their carefree childfree sisters?

Bibliography

Dear, Melissa. (2002) Birth rate at all time low

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2570503.stm accessed 19 April 2007

Hakim, Dr C (2004) Family-friendly policies are unlikely to influence the voluntary childless

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/newsAndEvents/archives/2004/Family_FriendlyPR.htm accessed 19 April 2007

Hepburn, Katherine.

http://cheerfullychildless.com/CheeryQuotations.htm accessed 19 April 2007

Murphy, J (Unknown) re Julia Roberts Childcare tips from celebrity mums

http://www.gomamatoday.com/modernmama/parenting/celebchildcaretips/?MemID=11

accessed 19 April 2007

National Statistics, (2006)

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/PopTrends126.pdf

accessed 19 April 2007

Swann, C (2001) Famous people without children

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/childfree_by_choice/58081

accessed 19 April 2007

Woman’s Hour (2005) Childfree Women

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_13_wed_01.shtml

accessed 19 April 2007

Background

The City of Greater Dandenong is a local government area in Victoria, it is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The city has an area of just about 129.42 square kilometres and a population of approximately 146,000 residents from over 150 nations by 2014.

Map of Melbourne showing the City of Greater Dandenong

Population

146,000(2014)

Density

1,128/km²(2,922/sq.mi)

Established

1994

Area

129.42km²(50.0sq.mi)

Council seat

Dandenong

Suburbs and towns of the city Bangholme, Dandenong, Dandenong North, Dandenong South, Keysborough, Parts of Lyndhurst, Noble Park, Noble Park North, Springvale, Springvale South.

The city of Greater Dandenong is one of the most diverse communities in Victoria. The city has a long history of welcoming new and emerging communities, including migrants arriving through humanitarian programs. More than half of these residents were born overseas with 55% from non-English speaking countries. Many of those who have migrated to the area have origins in parts of the world with recent histories of conflict, violence and displacement (City of Greater Dandenong 2014b).

The City of Greater Dandenong acknowledges the difficulty of the journey of refugees and asylum seekers who are often fleeing from conflict, human rights violations and persecutions. Refugees come to seek safety and protection in order to rebuild their lives. For these reasons the City has beena Refugee Welcome Zone since 2002 and the Council actively promotes and advocates for the rights of the forcibly displaced people. The city council believes that refugees bring resilience, hope, motivation and skills to contribute substantially to the community social, civic and economic life.

In 2012/13, 2,240 recently-arrived migrants settled in Greater Dandenong, this is the highest number of settlers in any Victorian municipality. A third of these people were humanitarian immigrants from different countries such as: Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Pakistan and Thailand (Refugee Council of Australia, 2012).

Main goal

Our project is focused on 750 refugees recently arrived in 2012-2013 and living on the City of Greater Dandenong. Our project’s main goal is to create a social Connection between Refugees and Local Community in the City of Greater Dandenong. To achieve this goal our project is proposing the use of sports as tool to create this social connection.

Objectives

As we mentioned before, the main goal of the project is to create a social Connection between Refugees and Local Community through sports, and to achieve this outcome our project objectives are focused to:

Alleviate the community isolation faced by refugees by raising awareness and knowledge about refugees within the local community.
Promote an interaction between local community and refugees.
Promote opportunities for refugees to participate in community life.
Recognise the contribution of refugees, including their many cultures and faiths.
Collaborate with partners, community groups and local agencies to strengthen this links.
Refugee Situation

Arefugeeis defined as “ a person who is outside their home country because they have feared or suffered persecution on account of nationality, religion, race, political opinion, or because they are a member of a persecuted social category of persons or because they are escaping a war” (The Oxford English Dictionary 1989). Refugees of different nationalities arrive to Australia every year, bringing with them different expectations and goals that are often difficult to meet because of the social, cultural and language barriers that the new environment represents. These barriers of language, culture and communication are a great challenge not only for refugees but for local residents as well, these obstacles cause isolation, resentment, and a perception of social exclusion for the refugees to settle in the new communities.

With approximately 60% of residents born overseas from over150 different counties and 55% from non-English speaking backgrounds, the city Council of greater Dandenong recognises that this broad mix of nationalities enriches the diversity of the community and for these reasons they have created some Diversity planning committees to support this diversity and foster community relationships (City of Greater Dandenong 2014a).

These committees include:
Ethnic Communities Council of the South East (ECCOSE) is an independently incorporated Council of leaders of the ethnic communities in the South Eastern Region of Melbourne. It provides a strong, independent voice for migrants and refugees to encourage and facilitate participation in every aspect of community life.
Migrant Settlement Committee, is a consultative committee within the City of Greater Dandenong. Membership consists of agencies dealing with migrant and refugee settlement issues in the municipality as well as Council officers.

However, refugees face numerous problems not only with language, but also in adaptation to the new culture and environment, accessibility to public services, discrimination, unemployment, affordable housing, family structures, acculturation, and many others inherent to the new settlement experience. Some researchers have found that immigrants with problems in adjustment and embracement of the new socio-cultural environment more often will develop a low self-esteem personality (Rogler, 1991). These difficulties have been reflected in numerous studies carried out by Australian institutions, and for this reason Local Governments have historically played an important role in assisting refugee settlement and promoting community harmony in Australia.

Organizations involved

Different organizations in Australia are working to improve the life of refugees, within these organizations there is AMES and The Refugee Council of Australia.

AMES, is Australia’s largest provider of humanitarian settlement,education, training, and employment services for refugees and newly arriving migrants. The vision of AMES is: “Full Participation for all in a solid and diverse society.” To achieve this vision of full participation AMES is working with communities, Business, Government, and Social Enterprises providing jobs, training opportunities and spaces for groups to gather and share (AMES, 2014).

AMES provides a broad range of settlement services for refugees and migrants. These include on-arrival settlement support, English language training, vocational training and employment services. These services are primarily delivered through federal and state contracts such as: Humanitarian Settlement Services, Adult Migrant English Program, Skills for Education and Employment Program, Victorian Training Guarantee and Job Services Australia (AMES, 2014).

The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA), is the national umbrella body for refugees and for the organisations and individuals who support them. RCOA has more than 180 organisational and 700 individual members and promotes the adoption of flexible, humane and practical policies towards refugees and asylum seekers both within Australia and internationally through conducting research, advocacy, policy analysis and community education.

The Refugee Welcome Zone is an initiative of the RCOA and currently involves 87 Councils around the country. A Refugee Welcome Zone is a Local Government Area which has made a commitment to welcoming refugees into the community, upholding their human rights, demonstrating compassion and enhancing cultural and religious diversity in the community. By these means, local Government Areas are encouraged in their continuing efforts to support the men, women and children who make the difficult journey to Australia to seek for protection; the city of greater Dandenong is one of the current refugee welcome zones. (Refugee Welcome Zones, 2013).

References

City of Greater Dandenong 2014a. Diversity planning committees [Online]. Available: http://www.greaterdandenong.com/document/2512/diversity.

City of Greater Dandenong 2014b. Refugees and Asylum Seekers [Online]. Available: http://www.greaterdandenong.com/document/25321/refugees-and-asylum-seekers.

The Oxford English Dictionary 1989. The Oxford English Dictionary. In: WEINER, J. S. A. E. (ed.) The Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition ed.: Oxford University Press.

AMES. 2014. About AMES [Online]. Available: http://www.ames.net.au/about-ames.html.

REFUGEE COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, S. C. I. G. D. 2012. Available: http://www.greaterdandenong.com/document/18464/statistical-data-for-victorian-communities.

REFUGEE WELCOME ZONES, L. C. B. A. C. O. W. F. R. 2013. Available: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/g/131219_RWZ.pdf.

ROGLER, L. H., CORTES, D.E. AND MALAGADY, R.G. 1991. Acculturation and mental health status among Hispnics: Convergence and new directions for research. American Psychologist, 46(6): 585-597.

Introduction

The study will start with looking at the evolution of beer as a social drink and its subsequent acceptance across the globe. The study will also investigate how different brands came in to channelize communication of beer and incorporated community activities like football, rugby and food as moments for beer consumption to increase product acceptance.

We will also look at various international festivals like the Oktoberfest and the Great British Beer festival in UK which have developed as a part of beer culture and helped in the spread of the product through replicated festivals in various parts of the world. Primary research will be done through online surveys and interviews with respondents across Europe, North and South America, and Asia to understand consumer attitudes towards beer in these regions and a comparative analysis will be done on their responses.

Based on the insights, the study will investigate whether a similar model can be replicated in India for the nascent beer industry under the following heads:

Which of the marketing and communication strategies used in other countries would / wouldn’t work in India, and why?
Opportunities for replication of festival models from other countries.
Implications for the Indian beer manufacturers and marketers, based on a comparative analysis of beer positioning and communication in different cultures.
Literature Review

A preliminary study of literature on beer industry globally and consumer behaviour revealed the following salient points:

* Research shows that beer is a non-food specific drink compared to wine. It is more of a masculine and non-formal occasion drink and associated with fun and social events.

When it comes to different brands of beer, it is important for them to focus on positioning and consumer engagement. Beer has slowly become more fashionable to drink with its association with activities like football, rugby and rock music.

* Peer pressure plays a huge role on the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol is associated with a list of values which are belonging, excitement, warm relationships, self-fulfilment, well-respected, fun and enjoyment, security, self-respect, and sense of accomplishment. These are important cues for any company while designing their marketing and communication strategy for their brand.

* In America, beer joints stress on forming communities through engaging events and activities. The ambience of the place is also very critical since beer consumption is all about having a good time.

* Forming a connect with the brand is also an important parameter when it comes to selling beer. As quoted by Mike Bristol, owner-founder of Bristol Brewing Co. in Colorado Springs a lot more people want to spend on a company that they have some common association with. They’re local, they’re in the community, and they’re visible. Import beers don’t seem to be doing well in theirr market or nationally, and he think that’s a shift. Beer is also seen as a product, consumption of which does not go down even in economic crisis times.

* As per Culinary Currents, Beer, Wine and Spirits. (2008, September 15). Nation’s Restaurant News, some myths about beer are:

– Dark beer is heavy

– Ale is stronger than lager

– Stout is a “meal in a glass”

– Imported beer is better than domestic beer

– Wine is more complex than beer

– Fruit beers are “girly beers”

– All beer is best served ice-cold

– Beer and fine dining don’t mix

· Some craft beer makers have also tried to mix beer with specially crafted menu like cheese and seasonal food. The restaurants have even started experimenting with beer to create cocktails to increase penetration and frequency of beer consumption. This, though, could dilute the product personality of beer which does not reflect classy, fine dining experience but a more rugged and aggressive environment. This food and beer mix is primarily targeted towards non-regular beer drinkers and first timers.

· Some stats from the US market for March-April 2008 reveal interesting facts (Category Insight, Beverage: Beer Demographics. (2008, April). RETAIL MERCHANDISER, 10.)

– Beer was the fourth largest in terms of US dollar sales in edible grocery supermarket category.

– 37% of US adults are regular beer consumers

– 52% of total beer drinkers are age 28 to 49, but versus their size in the beer-consuming population, 41% of beer volume is consumed by 21 to 27 year olds

– 32% of beer drinkers shop for beer one to three times each week

– 47% of beer shoppers buy wine in addition to beer; 41% add spirits

– 70% are male

– 84% are White, 10% Latino, 6% African American

– 59% have an income above $59,000

– Grocery is the most common beer channel choice at 46%

– When available, shoppers overwhelmingly prefer to buy cold beer

* A brand study in one of the highest beer consuming nations of the world, Czech Republic and Britain suggests that branding played an important role in the development of the organised beer market in these countries at a national level. The entire system was well structured with organisational hierarchies in place as well as streamlined distribution channels. The regional brands on the other hand, do not follow a very structured nation-wide campaign. Although the brand development in case of national brands in both these countries are at similar levels, as we go down the bracket, the branding of regional markets in Czech becomes lesser developed compared to Britain. For the Czech consumers unlike British, brands were not a consideration in making the choice for public houses as much as the taste and freshness of the beer was. To sustain these smaller breweries, a rule was enacted in which the local public houses were obliged to sell the product from the local breweries restricting the entry of national brands into these places. This rule though, is not present in Czech Republic making branding more important for them. To keep the beer industry safe in Czech, the breweries have kept the price of their beer lower than the other West European countries.

* In 2007, 7 million litres of beer was consumed at the Oktoberfest in Munich in Germany. The biggest cultural context of this festival is the symbolism of equality that is shown as people from all classes and categories sit on the same table to enjoy their beer. The fair is the world’s largest fair which attracts visitors in excess of 7 million from all over the world. Such is the pull of this festival, that similar concepts have been replicated in other countries like Canada, Brazil, USA, and India.

* The “whassup” campaign by Anheuser-Busch for Bud Light revolutionised beer advertising as it targeted the core group of 21-27 year old males who loved to hang out with friends over sporting events.

* The Indian consumer mindset can be divided into the following sub heads:

– Mind over Matter

– The Functional over the Ornamental

– Fear of Tomorrow

– Enjoying the Ordinary

– The Desire to Fit In

* In UK, beer advertising has been moving towards more engaging media like the internet from televisions to deepen their customer’s experience. Companies like Stella Artois have invested in multi-layer brand experience which tries to connect more with the customers and at a personal level.

* Taking the case of Heineken, a lot of its global success can be attributed to its consistency in quality and uniformity in brand message everywhere. The marketing of Heineken is a combination of global feeling and local execution.

* In its 2004 report, Global Status on Alcohol, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated there were 2 billion drinkers of alcohol on the planet. Trends suggest that for brands to become bigger, globalisation is the way forward. This becomes slightly easier as the consumers in most developed countries and emerging economies are now well informed and despite the cultural differences, are more open to international brands.

* The study of global drinking trends suggests emerging markets have much better growth rates than developed markets where the growth is static. Urbanisation, affluence and influence of mass media is playing a major role in this growth. The availability of alcohol in supermarkets is also driving consumption. Beer stands fourth after carbonated drinks, tea and water in terms of share of throat in the world. The off-premise locations are drivers of volume whereas value drivers are the on-premise outlets. In mature markets, growth will be driven by experiential marketing. Barman and barista in urban areas are acquiring celebrity chef status.

* In traditional drinking alcohol essentially signified a male’s entry into adulthood and was associated with food. In the modern day, drinks have become more of an individual’s style statement and identity. It is important now to be seen with the right drink for the right occasion. Communities and association with them has become more important than before. Another newly developing phenomenon is that of post modern drinking where connoisseurship, novelty and exclusivity are taking predominance. Themed drinking associated with specific cultures is also seeing a good interest amongst the travelling class who get exposed to different cultures frequently. Some of the names like Guinness and Scotch whiskey have become iconic as they are seeped deep in the local culture.

* According to the Euromonitor report of 2005, the following are the key drivers in the beverage industries in the major countries

– Australia – convenience and health, mature market needing to add value. Alcohol part of the culture

– Brazil – status, sociability and convenience, developing market with opportunities for growth and adding value. Market vulnerable to economic volatility, beer and football key to national culture

– China – affordability, convenience and status in cities, developing market with huge urban potential, rural areas remain largely unchanged

– France – convenience, sociability and status, traditional drinking culture being eroded by changing demands and globalisation

– Germany – price, convenience and health, mature market – opportunities to add value. Interest in discounters – among affluent and poor

– Italy – sociability, status and health, mature market – adapting to changes but traditional infrastructure

– Japan – convenience, status and health, mature market, highly fragmented and source of innovation

– Russia – affordability, convenience, status, high consumption of locally produced spirits as well as increasing presence of global brands in the cities, high beer and vodka consumption. Alcohol dependence an issue among rural male Russians

– Spain – status, sociability and health, directional market in terms of youth drinking trends – older drinkers stick to traditional drinking, young driving the post-modern

– UK – convenience, sociability and health, mature market – adding value through novelty concentrated retail infrastructure

– US – convenience, sociability and health, mature market – adding value through segmentation and premiumisation

* A few of the future trends which can be seen in the global drinks industry are health awareness, fusion drinking, artisan brands and connoisseurship experiential marketing and sociability.

* Specific to Germany which has the 3rd highest beer per capita consumption in the world, the consumption of beer has been slowly going down. This is attributed to rising prices and the health consciousness of the drinking population. In turn, flavoured beer, non-alcoholic beer and malt-based Ready to Drinks are showing growth in consumption.

* A major development in recent years has been the role and involvement of women in purchasing the drinks. Some of the international brands have started targeting women by creating flavoured beers for them. The communication strategy still targets the male predominantly though.

* Econometrics study in the US by Franke and Wilcox suggests that there is no significant correlation between the beer advertising and alcohol consumption. All advertising does is make people aware of the brands available but does not really affect the amount of beer consumed overall. A study by Waterson in UK, shows that although advertising spends increased 80% between 1978 to 1987, the actual sale of beer in this period fell by 14%. The study also included Sweden which has banned alcohol advertising since 1979 with similar results.

* The April 2009 Euromonitor report on beer shows a global demand of 184.6 billion litres. In the mature markets volumes are declining but in terms of value consumption is increasing. Laws on drinking and driving are encouraging growth of low/non-alcoholic beer and currently it accounts for 2% of global beer market but is showing high growth rate especially in Muslim countries. In Spain, this category already accounts for 20% of beer volumes. There is also a trend of moving away from the conventional beer type to niche segments like wheat beer and craft beer. Dark beer is also seeing a healthy revival in growth.

* Specific to India, beer consumption has registered an increase of 700% between the period of 1995-2007. The per capita expenditures on alcohol have grown at twice the rate of the average growth in the rate of expenditure in this period. The average of 24 in the country with affluence, access to mass media and information, lowering of entry barriers and high awareness levels means a goldmine of an opportunity for alcohol companies. Retailing for wine and beer is now allowed in supermarkets on a lot of states thereby reaching out to more potential consumers, especially the women. This has also resulted in more and more urban households stocking alcohol at their homes unlike earlier times.

Finally, the major beer manufacturers will have to compete for an expanding but challenging global market, which will ask hard questions of the positions that global players occupy by category, price point and geography. India will form a major part of this strategy shift and it is already visible with the number of beer brands that have entered the Indian market in the past 2 years. All the research done above talks about beer as a part of the popular culture in developed markets. The challenge is to try and suggest a workable strategy for India based on consumer insight to tap the enormous potential that it offers. India today stands at the forefront of this opportunity and hence it is important for these international players to understand the cultural nuances of the Indian consumer before formulating their strategies for the market.

Conceptual Framework/Problem Definition

India has one of the lowest annual per capita consumption levels of beer in the world, at 1 litre. The biggest international names like InBev/Anheuser-Busch, Heineken and Carlsberg have already started making investments in the market. Carlsberg has already invested close to $ 200 milion in production facilities in the country. The other companies are also entering the market through tie-ups with local players or setting up their own breweries. The growing affluence and increased disposable incomes along with the low average age of Indians presents a huge potential waiting to be tapped by these players. The increased global travel and exposure to western media has led to changing attitudes towards alcohol. This is expected to boost beer sales, while shifting government policy regarding alcohol and reductions in taxes and duties present interesting opportunities for large domestic and multinational players alike. Some of the states have already allowed beer to be sold in supermarket formats thus increasing penetration of beer substantially.

For international players, the race is on to establish local manufacturing facilities and distribution networks, in order to gain first-mover advantage over other entrants. Currently the Indian market is dominated by local players but lack of other options has a major role to play in this. Curiosity and aspirational value attached to imported beer presents a unique market for these international players. Clear opportunities exist for those companies which are partnering with local companies or setting up their own breweries to get a head start in this dynamic market. At this juncture it is of paramount importance for these companies to get their marketing and communication strategy right. This is all the more important because the Indian market and consumer presents a challenge which is different from any other country in the world. Even within India, the cultural diversity is such that different strategies might be needed for different parts of the country.

The current literature reviewed primarily consists of work which has been done in the developed beer markets or talks about projected figures based on empirical data. The biggest gap in such projections is the lack of understanding of the Indian consumer. Launches of a number of successful international products in India backed by such research have failed because of this.

This research will try and understand the cultural differences between the Indian beer drinker and the western beer drinker and do a comparative analysis to gain insights which can be used to design the marketing and communications strategy for these international companies. Beer as a product has been successful in developed countries because of the community culture they have created amongst the consumers. The research will help determine key drivers and key characteristics of the Indian beer market.

Proposed Research Design

The research will be carried out through administering questionnaires to the beer drinking community in urban India as well as respondents in USA, Canada, Germany, UK, Columbia, Brazil, China, France, Poland, Finland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Korea. Detailed interviews will be carried out with some respondents in all these locations through telephonic interview/online interaction to understand the culture of beer consumption there. An analysis will also be done to compare the communication of the top 3 brands of the world in all these countries to see the differences and similarities and how these consumers absorb it.

The Indian respondents will then be shown the communication used in all these countries and insights will be taken on their response to each communication. This will give us insights on the cultural differences and similarities between the Indian consumer and their international counterparts.

The sample size will consist of at least 10 detailed interviews of international respondents and 10 in depth interviews on Indian consumers. The questionnaires will be administered to 150 beer drinkers in India and 50 based abroad. The sample size of the questionnaire might increase based on the response of the target group.

Expected Contribution

The study as earlier mentioned will give a deep insight into the mindset of the urban Indian consumer with respect to beer. It will also look at what are the associations that the Indian consumer has with the alcohol industry in terms of perceptions and specifically with beer. Their responses to international communication will be recorded and analysed to define the key drivers and the key characteristics of the Indian market. The final output as mentioned in the introduction would address at the following heads:

Which of the marketing and communication strategies used in other countries would / wouldn’t work in India, and why?
Opportunities for replication of festival models and other community building activities from other countries.
Implications for the Indian beer manufacturers and marketers, based on a comparative analysis of beer positioning and communication in different cultures.

Postwar American society during the 1950’s was known for baby boomers and the return to achieving the all-American dream. Returning military men wanted the security of marriage and began building families. World War II (WWII) was over and so was the depression. SparkNotes Editors (2005) write, “The economy soared, creating a level of affluence not seen before in American History” (p.218). The economy grew stronger, inflation remained low, incomes rose, and American spent money. Not everyone in America, however, enjoyed the economic boom.

A farmer in the 1950’s and people living in rural America still suffered economically from falling prices. Minorities residing in the city still lived in poverty. Factories laid off unskilled laborers and discrimination kept many minorities out of work. Even though suburbs like Levittown sprung up quickly, African Americans were excluded from home ownership. In fact, African Americans rarely benefited from the economic boom. African American’s in the 1950’s reshaped U.S. History with huge civil rights protests that changed the face of the county forever. From desegregation, bus and restaurant boycotts, to the rise of Martin Luther King Jr., the black middle class materialized and their voice was beginning to be heard.

Americans who lived in the 1960’s and 1970’s still remember the events of those decades even today. The War in Vietnam, President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, and civil rights movement, changed American lives forever. The now famous “I Have a Dream” speech was given by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. Sadly, he was assassinated in 1968. After his murder, riots broke out across the country. Americans were still feeling threatened by the Cold War with the Soviet Union. From the arms race, to the space race, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, peace with the evil empire the Soviet Union, was constantly threatened. The space program was prioritized in an attempt to establish the United States as the leader in the space race over the Soviet Union. The younger generation protested the war in Vietnam that they considered a waste of money and innocent lives. The Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration in 1972, the Arab oil embargo of 1973 combined with inflation at home, which created the United States first energy crisis, added to Americans stress and anxiety about their future. The United States was losing ground in the world’s economy. SparkNotes Editors (2005) write, “The United States gradually lost its predominant place in the world economy as foreign countries such as Japan and Germany finally rebounded from post-World War II depressions” (p. 255). By 1974, the United States suffered a severe economic crisis.

Vice president Gerald Ford was sworn in as president of the United States after Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal. Although he was able to pull the last American troops from Vietnam, he could not fix the economy. SparkNotes Editors (2005) write, “He lacked the resources, knowledge, and political clout to tackle the stagnant economy” (p.257). As a result, Americans suffered the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

By the end of the 1970’s American society was changing. The growth rate was slowing signaling the end of the baby boom. Divorce occurred more frequently and living together as unmarried couples became the common living arrangement. The population was growing older, as such senior citizens moved to warmer climates like Florida and Southern California. Illegal immigration also changed the face of America. The United States was prime for significant changes, both socially and economically, religiously and politically, leading in to the 1980’s.

Adam Smith is a fascinated moral philosopher and an expert of economic. He left two famous books. I can still get much enlightenment when I read his words in this modern society. His mainly research are on morality and economy. This essay will focus on how self-interest motivates individuals in these two aspects and what role does self-interest plays in the developing society.

Having found this complex question, we should have a general understanding of what is self-interest? Many people may confound self-interest and selfish. Adam Smith thought people will do whatever good to themselves when they burned and selfish is a human’s natural action. (Smith Moral ex.) But actually those two words have huge differences. Selfish describe a kind of person who just care about himself of herself. They ignore others feeling or benefit as long as they can get something good from what they did. This is really a negative influence which we should abandon it. ‘Self-interest or self-love is derived from the selfish passions, but self-love is not identified with selfishness, because self-love, like other interests, can be virtuous (the virtue of prudence) or evil (greed or avarice).’ (Werhane, PH 1989, p. 671) Self-interest looks like selfish on the surface but indeed it can make an interaction between people. ‘To the selfish and original passions of human nature, the loss or gain of a very small interest of our own appears to be of vastly more importance, excites a much more passionate joy or sorrow, a much greater desire or aversion, than the greatest concern of another with whom we have no particular connection.’ (Smith Moral ex. 8). Everyone who chase them own profits and don’t do harm to others’ benefits in the meantime is called self-interest. Thus help other is helping themselves in fact and the more you get better the more you are willing to help others, which is a kind of huge power to make our society improve, so our society will become much more harmonious and plentiful eventually. That why Adam Smith said: ‘His interests, as long as they are surveyed from this standpoint, can never be put into balance with our own; can never restrain us from doing whatever may tend to promote our own self-interest.’ (Smith Moral ex. 8)

On the other hand, although Adam Smith believes self-interest may make people seems selfish, but it will bring sympathy to them as well. Smith said: ‘The man of the most perfect virtue, the man whom we naturally love and admire the most, is he who joins, to the perfect command of his own original and selfish6 feelings, a real appreciation of the original and sympathetic feelings of others.’ (Smith Moral ex. 7) It is a natural when people burn, which let people take others feeling and their happiness or sadness into them own business, even though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. (Smith Moral ex. 1) Smith thinks sympathy is kinds of sense which will make their emotion fluctuate with others feeling which can resolve the conflict between individual interests and social interests. ‘The man who feels the most or the joys and sorrows of others, is best fitted for acquiring the most complete control of his own joys and sorrows.’ (Smith Moral ex. 5) Furthermore sympathy not only means share feelings but understands and contain as well. We can acquire the same feeling when we in the similar circumstance that others had thus we will have a deeply communication with them. They will see the phase called help other is helping me. ‘Smith argues, sympathy, coupled with reason, imagination, and our natural desire for “what ought to be approved of” provide the conditions that enable us disinterestedly or impartially to examine and to approve or disapprove a motive, character, or action.’ (Werhane, PH 1989, p. 677). So what prompted the ordinary people on many occasions to sacrifice their interests for others bigger benefits? It is not a noble and grant human natural, it is a strong motivation; a self-satisfied; a self-interest! (Smith Moral ex. 11)

Smith thought everybody burn with self-interests they only want to do the things good to themselves, which is the prime motive for human’s active. People help others want to achieve their own goal indeed so they will become better when they help others. ‘He will be more likely to get their help if he can interest their self-love in favoring him, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do what he requires of them.’ (Smith Wealth ex. 3) In this case the more individuals chase their benefits the more they motivate the whole society’s progress and the society include all walks of life will achieve a universal prosperity finally. Just as Smith argue that: ‘He is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an outcome which was not part of his intention.’ (Smith Wealth ex. 6) Each individual is thought to be able to perceive his or her own best interests; they act so as to gain pleasure or happiness in whatever way they choose.’ (Heywood, A 2003, p48)This is something that can be a win-win. ‘By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectively than when he really tries to promote it.’ (Smith Wealth ex. 6) So self-interest is a kind of catalytic of improving society to a great extent in this case. ‘In principle, individuals always seek their own economic advantage; and, in principle, they act strictly rationally to achieve this goal.’ (Skirbekk, G & Gilje, N 2001, p 250) Smith call this the law of natural which is free competition actually, this invisible hand is a kind of power which make the market fairer.

It is important to make a division of labor in the market; I think the competition is the direct reason which causes this phenomenon. ‘It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual, consequence of a certain tendency in human nature which has in view no such ultimate outcome; [this is] the tendency to deal, barter, and exchange one thing for another.’ (Smith Wealth ex. 1) Smith thought it is the division of labor that increases the productivity. Everyone can just accomplish his part of job; he can focus on his own business. There is an idiom called practice makes perfect, so the efficiency of the whole market must be improved. It is a kind of exchange, just as Smith said: ‘give me that which I want, and you shall have what you want. That is the meaning of every such offer…. we expect our dinner, but from their concern for their own interest.’ (Inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations extracts 6). People always have much more interest in their own business than the society profits. ‘It was the conduct of individual human beings that led us into this mess, and it is the behavior of individuals as well as the structuring of systems that has to change.’(Garton Ash 2014) So as we can find from here it is self-interest that motivate people to work; to do those economic activities.

Moreover, what is the simplest method to reach this boundary? Smith thought is the freedom and non-interventionism. It doesn’t mean no-government, their function is limited to the administration of justice, and they are night watchman. ‘He attacked economic protectionism: the government should meddle as little as possible in trade and industry.’ (Skirbekk, G & Gilje, N 2001, p 249) So Smith strongly recommended creating a free-market. ‘In an ideal free market resting on private property, no individual can coerce any other, all cooperation is voluntary, all parties to such cooperation benefit or they need not participate.’ (Friedman 2014, pp. 122-126). He opposed the state intervention in the economy, because he thought the market will automatically adjust. This is what he called ‘the invisible hand’, it will help people maximum their own profits and the society will make progress with individuals in the meantime. So it can make a combine between self-interest and public-interest. When the businessmen work hard to do their own business this ‘invisible hand’ will let them to choose the best-fit for the society. This is also help other is help ourselves. ‘Altruism is relegated to no more than delayed self-interest, so, for example, the more we create a good reputation, the more we can exploit it for economic advantage.’ (Hutton & Schneider 2014, pp. 13-17.)

So as the analyses I have presented above, we can clearly find that self-interest is the necessary and sufficient condition of our society’s thriving and prosperous. The better market can’t leave self-interest, which means they can’t exist without each other. Smith described that the conflict between self-interest and public-interest can be solved by combining them. They made each other! Thus if everyone can motivated by their self-interest, they will try them best to acquire the profits, which can motivate our society’s economy and make the market much more efficient and fairer ultimately.