The Leadership Experience Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Leadership Experience - Assignment Example Vicente says that his secretary always replies his mail, and he does not seem to find anything wrong with that (Daft, 2015). Task 2 The main purpose of Chuck's communication to Vicente was to urge him to ensure that the deadline for supplying the toys that Hunter Worth had placed an order for was met. The main purpose of Chuck's communication to Michael Sato seems to have been to lodge a complaint about what seemed to him like lack of commitment and seriousness by Vicente towards meeting the deadline. While choosing his channel of communication with Vicente, Chuck should have considered the following factors. Urgency: As the matter at hand was urgent and required an immediate response, a telephone call would have been more effective.Confidentiality: By making a telephone call, he would get to speak to Vicente in person as opposed to emails that may be answered by anyone. On his communication with Sato, Chuck should have considered: Confidentiality: A call would have been more discree t. Sato is seen to have forwarded the email to Vicente's bosses, leading to conflict.Nature of relationship: Considering that Sato and Chuck were personal friends, he would have been comfortable speaking to him in person or calling him on his personal cellphone as the issue being reported to him does not seem to have been intended to be official. Task 3 If I were Chuck, I would have made a call to Vicente instead of sending him an email. This would have conveyed the message with the urgency required.

Outcomes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Outcomes - Essay Example The evaluation criteria for this outcome will constitute determination of the number of nurses who are familiar with the re-education program and its goals. Another outcome will be reduced cases of victims of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) especially patients in acute care setting. The evaluation criteria will employ data recording of the percentage of patients reported as having contracted Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs).Increased overall performance of the nurses in regard to organized patient data and reference literature at the point of healthcare service (Peter, 2010). The evaluation criteria for this outcome will be the record of the reported number of nurses that fail to complete the hand washing procedure checklist. It is important to underscore the relationship existing between the highlighted outcomes to the multiple set of standards as well as differing groups’ needs and priorities. It is important to note that the outcome must emphasize patients’ vulnerability to Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) and health care providers’ compliance level. This means that the priority is to boost re-education effectiveness and translate this into reduced cases of poor hand washing practice among the healthcare providers. The parties of interest in the overall design of the outcome are the patients and the health care providers. The basic standards would constitute threshold of 80% of the nurses that must be familiar with the re-education program and its goals by the end of first year. This percentage will help in establishing the effectiveness of programme and serve healthcare management towards monitoring the progress of quality services (Peter, 2010). A recommended 20% decrease in number of victims of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) especially patients in acute care setting. This is in line with the overall patient centered priority in evading Hospital Acquired Infections and its risk that in extreme

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

International Marketing - Essay Example The initial hypotheses all have a flaw in that they attempt to generalize without recognizing the various implications of the specifics of differing businesses. An example of how the differing products will have different results can be seen in the example of attempts by the Czech and CEE automotive production companies when they experienced a collapse. The strategy required that the quality of components be increased while the costs of production be decreased in order to effectively compete in the West. While the strategy worked sufficiently for some of the companies, specifically, it did not work for a truck manufacturer named Tatra (Pavlinek 2008, 232). There are a variety of elements that are pertinent to the success of an export expansion strategy and to suggest that the strategy can be generalized creates a somewhat flawed premise. However, the results of the study disprove the first hypothesis in that the firms using export expansion strategy do not differ in their level of exports. Therefore, the generalization that is made is revealed through analysis of the data to show that the idea of a broad statement about the strategies used by firms does not take into consideration the specific elements of a business that makes their strategizing needs unique. In looking at the second hypothesis, a distinction is made between perceived growth and actual growth, stating that the managers had a perception that they had better than average growth, while their statistical relevancy did not necessarily reveal this to be true. The second hypothesis was also partially rejected because the data did not support its premise. The researchers do not reject the third hypothesis. They find an odd anomaly that top managers of the diversification strategy group perceived that their profitability exports was higher than their domestic sales, while other strategy

Science Fiction, Technology, and Our Modern World Essay - 2

Science Fiction, Technology, and Our Modern World - Essay Example The brain in a vat scenario depicts a situation where all beliefs we hold about the world would presumably be false despite the fact that they are justified. Brain in a vat argument presents a situation where a removed human brain placed in a life-sustaining fluid and connected to computers that provide exactly the same impulses as the body. The computers effectively create a virtual reality. The person with the disembodied brain continues to have a perfect life without a relationship with the object of the real world. The person will not be able to discover the reality of their simulated world thus transferring my consciousness to a computer would make no difference, I will not mind. Q2. Metaphysics is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality whose hypothesis may claim the truth underlying physics. It may also say a thing about our mind’s nature or creation of the world. Matrix hypothesis is regarded as a metaphysical proposition with all the three elements. These are the reality underlying physics, nature of our minds and the creation of the world. Each of these elements is coherent, and cannot be ruled out conclusively and none of them is a skeptical hypothesis. Matrix and metaphysical hypotheses are similar in three-part version. The fundamental computation of the physical processes, the separation of our cognitive systems from physical processes while interacting with these processes and lastly the physical reality created outside the physical space. One may make various objections. For instance, one might argue that the matrix hypothesis implies a computer simulation where physical process exists but not simply that the physical processes themselves exist. Matrix hypothesis seeks to create consciousness in minds, which may or may not be fully aware that they are living in a simulation. Q3. Computer games and simulations are interactive multimedia whose

Qualatative and Quantitative Analysis Assignment

Qualatative and Quantitative Analysis - Assignment Example It was a form of an informal interview based on a standard set of questions. Most of the questions were open ended which required that I give my own in-depth opinion on particular aspects of the soft drink. This predominantly involved giving my perception and feelings about the product. For example, they wanted my opinion on whether I loved, hated, or was indifferent with regards to the soft drink. I do not believe the findings of this qualitative evaluation process were either valid or effective. This is for the following reasons; first the manner in which the respondents were selected was subjective in nature. I was picked to be an interviewee based on the fact that I had with me a soft drink from another company. That is, I was purposely picked, this would lock out other prospective respondents who would be also invaluable in reflecting the true perception of the populace towards the soft drink. Secondly, the questions asked were open ended. This makes data interpretation difficult and leaves the interpretation of the results at the discretion of the researcher, which might result to biased conclusions. Thirdly, the number of respondents interviewed was few in number. This would make it difficult to make any inference of the results to the general population. The findings of the evaluation were never shared with me, as the researcher considered them a part of the soft drinks’ company competitive strategy. However, as a form of compensation for my willingness to be part of the survey, I was given additional bottles of the soft drink to share with my friends. In the 1st set of variables, the trend and pattern which can be observed is that as the days go by, consecutively, the respective temperature rises. That is, the earlier months have lower temperatures but as the year progresses so does the temperature. In the 2nd set of variables, the pattern being notice is, as the price of gasoline per gallon increases so does the price of oil

Euthanasia (Mercy Killing) Essay Example for Free

Euthanasia (Mercy Killing) Essay The topic I chose is Euthanasia (mercy killing) should be permitted in cases of terminally ill patients. Euthanasia is from the Greek word to die well. In other words, a good death. Some people call it the act of killing a person who suffers from a mental or physician condition. Mercy Killing, is another name for it. Euthanasia (mercy killing) or physician-assisted suicide/PAS, is a confusing and heart-wrenching issue for many. We are all likely to face difficult end-of-life choices at some point, whether for ourselves or for a loved one. I know for me that this is a very hard decision, as much as I would like to be support Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide/PAS, I could not allow this to be done because of the moral issues and it’s against what GOD stands for. One shot is all it takes to kill a loved adored family member. But is an injection of death a good way to die? With lack of judgment and a bad day someone could be killed. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide/PAS is putting people to sleep just like you would put to sleep your dog when he gets too old. Where do we draw the line between murder and helping patients? Is a doctor putting patience to sleep considered murder? Who makes that decision? I watched my sister suffer with pancreatic cancer from the time that she was diagnosed until she passed away. Every time she went for her chemotherapy treatments and returned home, she was sick to the point that she just stopped going places and doing things with the family. I can remember the call that I received from my niece, when they had left the doctor’s office and he had inform them, that there was nothing else that they could do. The cancer has spread through the stomach lining. At that point my sister made the decision to stop the chemotherapy and the doctor put her and family in touch with Hospice. I can still remember the comment that was made by the nurse, â€Å"we are here to make her comfortable living with cancer not to help her die†. By legalizing assisted suicide could send us down a road from which there is no return. We can do far more to aid suffering patients by improving pain management and mental health care through legislative reform than we can by legalizing their self-destruction. I did not expect to get the results that I did receive on Euthanasia (mercy killings) or physician-assisted suicide/PAS. I would like to say that the split was 30/70, which was very surprising to me because I was thinking that the split would have been 50/50. After taking the survey, I found out that most people are against Euthanasia (mercy killings). Based on the comments that I received from my survey, regarding mercy killings and how it was against GOD’s commandments, while others stated that people should not have to suffer and be in pain all their life if there is n o cure for their disease. But just think is an injection of death a good way to die? With lack of judgment and a bad day someone could be killed and how do you bring them back or even live with it. As much as we do not want to see our love ones suffer and be in pain, I just don’t believe I could go through Euthanasia with any of my family members. As much as I may love them I can’t have their death on my hands. Euthanasia (mercy killings) or physician-assisted suicide/PAS, is a decision that you will have to live for the rest of your life. Even though that love one may be suffering and in pain, can you really honestly say that you could be responsible for helping them to die and is this something that you will be able to live with yourself for the rest of your life. Its important to understand the distinction between the terms assisted suicide and euthanasia. The former describes a situation where the doctor (or some other agent) provides the means for a patient to commit suicide, but the patient follows through on the final act himself. Euthanasia, on the other hand, is carried out from beginning to end by a doctor on the patients behalf. In the wake of the Schiavo case, there was much debate over the question of care for the severely handicapped or terminally ill, and what exactly those appropriate levels of care were. At the base level is ordinary care—generally speaking, that which any prudent person would administer in similar circumstances. It could include keeping the room at a comfortable temperature, providing attentive human contact, and ensuring that the patient has enough to eat and drink. Ordinary care is considered mandatory by the Catholic Church. Proportionate treatment (or proportionate means), which is also mandatory, is any medical action that meets all of the following three criteria: (1) It has a reasonable chance of curing the patient or assisting with the cure; (2) it does not carry a significant risk of death; and (3) it does not, in and of itself, present an excessive burden. For example, a sterile blood transfusion during surgery would be considered proportionate treatment, as the risk and burden involved are relatively low compared with its curative potential. Disproportionate means, on the other hand, are not mandatory. If any treatment would present an excessive burden—in terms of finances, emotions, religious beliefs, or the pain of the procedure—or fail to offer a reasonable chance of curing the patient, it is optional. Withdrawing disproportionate treatment is an act that, according to Dr. Kathleen Foley, former chief of pain service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, respects [the] patie nts autonomous decision not to be battered by medical technology (Competent Care for the Dying Instead of Physician-Assisted Suicide, New England Journal of Medicine). There comes a time when continued attempts to cure are neither compassionate, wise, nor medically sound. Palliative care refers to the alleviation of pain or other symptoms, though some expand the definition to include the provision of mental, emotional, and spiritual support. A caregiver is required to offer palliative care—or at least pain management—as far as he is able, but it is not mandatory for a patient to accept. In fact, as Pope John Paul II said in The Gospel of Life, it is even licit to relieve pain by narcotics, even when the result isa shortening of life, if no other means exist. The issue of artificial nutrition and hydration is not fully defined; the question is currently being examined by the Magisterium, but the most recent pronouncement came from John Paul II himself in March 2004, when he stated that it is immoral to remove a feeding tube from anyone in a persistent vegetative state, calling it euthanasia by omission. Outside of a vegetative state, however, there are situations where a feeding tube would become burdensome and thus constitute disproportionate care—as in the case of a person dying from advanced stomach cancer—so these decisions must be made prudently on a case-by-case basis. For more information on this issue, visit www.euthanasia.com. For frequent updates on current court cases and legislation, checkwww.internationaltaskforce.org, and www.lifenews.com/bioethics.html. Once youve been armed with the latest facts and information, youre ready to begin the discussion. Strategy No. 1: Oppose the Status Quo of End-of-Life Pain Management First, we must recognize a basic truth: Patients in our medical system often have insufficient access to pain relief. Therefore, its vital to support increased patients rights, including access to health insurance, a choice in doctors, the latitude to see an independent specialist, open access to all of ones personal medical records, and the right to use palliative treatments. Its equally important to support the right of doctors to manage their patients pain properly without fear of government interference and prosecution. The issue of pain is an emotionally striking one, so its comforting to know that pain can be controlled. According to a report by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law titled When Death Is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context, Modern pain relief techniques can alleviate pain in all but extremely rare cases. In fact, according to Dr. Eric M. Chevlen, the director of palliative care at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio, 90 [percent] of cancer patients in pain can have dramatic relief with relatively simple oral therapies. Dr. Chevlen is also the author of the book Power Over Pain: How to Get the Pain Control You Need (International Task Force, 2002), a useful resource for those suffering due to a lack of proper palliative care. The American Pain Foundation estimates that with todays technology, close to 98 [percent] of all pain problems can be relieved or reduced. But most doctors have never actually studied pain in any detail. According toPain Net Inc., Of all pain practitioners, fewer than 10 [percent] are proficient in more than eight out of 130+ diagnostic or therapeutic procedures relative to pain. For this reason, its important to advocate a greater focus on pain in medical schools and continuing-education courses in pain management for all medical doctors, especially those frequently involved in end-of-life situations. We can also urge recognition for patients rights to see pain-therapy specialists (which some health-care plans are trying to restrict). What cannot be accepted is the notion that assisted suicide is a form of comfort care. Dr. Gregory Hamilton, the chair of Physicians for Compassionate Care, put it bluntly in an article in the Oregonian: Comfort care results in a comfortable patient; assisted suicide results in a corpse. Emphasize the Need to Diagnose and Treat Depression One of the chief arguments for PAS appeals to the American ideal of autonomy. The desire for self-determination resonates strongly with many Democrats, and they believe that the denial of these rights is un-American. Of course, a love of personal freedom is not unique to Democrats, and its easy for anyone to agree that we should have the freedom to live our lives as we see fit. But that freedom must come with restrictions. For example, child pornography is illegal in America—even in the privacy of ones home—and no judicious person would consider it a permissible use of our freedom. Clearly, Americans acknowledge the need to limit certain behaviors. The question is, what actions should be permitted or restricted? The issue of autonomy assumes that the person attempting to exercise his personal freedom can make decisions in a rational manner. But in fact, when it comes to requests for PAS, rational decision-making is rarely in play. Suicidal feelings in a person who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness are no different from those experienced by someone who isnt terminally ill. Depression, family conflict, hopelessness, feelings of abandonment—these are the conditions that lead to suicidal thoughts, regardless of ones physical state. According to the British Journal of Psychiatry and the New York State Task Force, between 93 and 95 percent of those contemplating suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder, most commonly severe depression. Is mental disorder also in play for the terminally ill who request suicide? One study in the American Journal of Psychiatry reported, All of the patients who had either desired premature death or contemplated suicide were judged to be suffering from clinical depressive illness; that is, none of those patients who did not have clinical depression had thoughts of suicide or wished that death would come early. The New York State Task Force report states that depression accompanied by feelings of hopelessness is the strongest predictor of suicide for both individuals who are terminally ill and for those who are not. It is depression or other mental illness, not ones physical condition, that makes a person suicidal. Pain plays an obvious part in this—diagnosable anxiety and depression, for example, are higher in cancer patients with pain. Not only is uncontrolled pain an important risk factor for suicide, in that it contributes to hopelessness and depression, but depression and anxiety can often augment the patients experience of pain. This brings us back to the need for pain therapy. The New York State Task Force report notes that the notion of competence to make treatment decisions, or the capacity to make a particular decisionpresumes that the patient is not clinically depressed. In the presence of clinical depression, there can be no true autonomy, no ability to make a rational decision or a clear, objective request for death. The good news is that mental illness, once diagnosed, is treatable. In a 1992 article for American Medical News suicidologist Dr. David C. Clark observed that depressive episodes in the seriously ill are not less responsive to medication than episodes in those who are not. The same opinion is held by Dr. Joseph Richman, former president of the American Association of Suicidology, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Journal of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviour, Effective psychotherapeutic treatment is possible with the terminally ill. And in testimony to the New York State Task Force in 1992, Dr. William Breitbart of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center agreed, reporting that more than 80 percent of their patients diagnosed with major depression can be treated effectively. The New York State Task Force report puts the number even higher, saying treatment for depression resulted in the cessation of suicidal ideation for 90 percent of patients. Finally, its important to remember that the desire for suicide is often transient. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the cases of 886 people who were rescued from attempted suicides were followed over a five-year period. At the end of those five years, only 34 had since taken their own lives. Where there is depression, there is no true autonomy. Treating patients for pain and depression, as well as other mental illnesses, can eliminate suicidal desires by giving the patient more control. In that way, we can help them achieve self-determination instead of self-destruction. Strategy No. 3: Oppose Discrimination Against the Disabled and the Poor If any one element has stopped PAS bills and ballot measures from becoming the law of the land, it has been the public efforts of activist groups for the disabled such as Not Dead Yet. While groups like the former Hemlock Society (now named Compassion and Choices) were founded on the belief that some lives were not worth living and that they were doing a service to the disabled by expanding their autonomy to include a right to die, this kind of attitude actually betrays a prejudice against the disabled—one that would inevitably make the right to die a duty to die. This sort of prejudice is already seen on the opposite end of the spectrum in the abortion debate. Dr. Anthony Vintzileos, a board member of the American Institute of Ultrasound Medicine, estimated in a May 2005 article for the New Jersey Record that 90 percent of women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome for their children choose to abort. People with disabilities are considered to have no real quality of life, nothing to contribute, and nothing to live for. The poor are also potential targets. Already receiving substandard medical care, the impoverished will be the last to ask for a second opinion, the first to see themselves as worthless, and the most likely to be dismissed as having nothing to contribute to society. If an authority figure were to counsel a poor person to ease the financial burden of medical care on his family through PAS, it would be difficult to say no. Democrats largely identify themselves as friends of the underdog and protectors of the weak. What better way to open their eyes to the injustice of PAS than by pointing out the potential for victimization of the disabled and poor at the hands of an often profit-driven health-care industry? Strategy No. 4: Examine Data from Europe At this point, your interlocutor will likely argue that Doctors would never do that, or that there should be guidelines to make sure that this victimization could never take place. The best response is simply to have a look at euthanasia in Europe (including its legal form in the Netherlands). Many familiar with the history of euthanasia recognize that the idea was a natural outgrowth of social Darwinism, where the strong survive and the weak are left behind. According to the New York State Task Force report, The practice of mass murder in Nazi Germanybegan with the active killing of the severely ill, and built upon earlier proposals advanced by leading German physicians and academics of the 1920s. Like policies currently advocated in the United States, these proposals were limited to the incurably ill, and mandated safeguards such as review panels. R. J. Lifton, author of The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, is quoted in the report as saying that the phrases life unworthy of life and killing as a therapeutic imperative were vital in soothing the publics conscience when it came to the Nazi program of genocide: The medicalization of killing—the imagery of killing in the name of healing—was crucial to that terrible step. Its ironic that the Netherlands—whose doctors once refused the Nazis genocidal agenda—is now the site of the most extensive assisted suicide and euthanasia program in the world. Though euthanasia was not legalized in the Netherlands until 2002, it was commonly practiced well before then, with almost no danger of prosecution for the doctors performing it. The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide reports that, according to the Dutch government–sponsored Remmelink Report examining death rates in Holland from 1990: †¢ 2,300 people died through voluntary euthanasia †¢ 400 died through assisted suicide †¢ 1,040 died through involuntary euthanasia—euthanasia was performed without the patients knowledge or consent, even though 72 percent of those patients had never indicated any desire for it †¢ 8,100 died from a deliberate overdose of pain medication to hasten the patients death, though in 61 percent of these cases the patient gave no consent. Of the estimated 130,000 deaths in Holland in 1990, 9.1 percent were the direct result of assisted suicide or euthanasia. And given that these numbers were voluntarily provided by doctors at a time when euthanasia was still technically illegal, its likely that the actual number of deaths through euthanasia was even higher. According to a February 1999 article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, almost 59 percent of euthanasia cases in Holland in 1995 went unreported, in clear violation of the guidelines in place. However, not a single Dutch doctor was prosecuted under the criminal charges of euthanasia, assisted suicide, or anything related. Euthanasia was technically illegal but not prosecuted in the Netherlands for more than a decade. Today, those over 16 can be euthanized for any reason; in certain circumstances, those as young as twelve can opt for euthanasia. Currently, the Netherlands is considering allowing euthanasia for infants, though some Dutch doctors have openly admitted to euthanizing infants already. Those who believe there is no slippery slope need to take another look. And while some may argue that the situation in the Netherlands at least offers patients more options when faced with end-of-life decisions, the reality is just the opposite. Hospice care—palliative centers that make up an important component of end-of-life treatment—is practically nonexistent in Holland. England, for example, had 183 hospices in 1999. The Netherlands, with a quarter of Englands population, had only three. Clearly, with such easy access to euthanasia, little effort is expended to offer alternatives to end-of-life pain management when its not as cost-effective as a quick death. What does this have to do with the United States? Dr. Herbert Hendin, executive director of the American Suicide Foundation, made the connection clear in his 1996 testimony before Congress, wherein he declared that Dutch patients and doctorssee assisted suicide and euthanasia, intended as an unfortunate necessity in exceptional cases, as almost a routine way of dealing with serious or terminal illness. The [American] public has the illusion that legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia will give them greater autonomy. If the Dutch experience teaches us anything, it is that euthanasia enhances the power and control of doctors who can suggest it, not give patients obvious alternatives, ignore patients ambivalence, and even put to death patients who have not requested it. This is the safety that guidelines provide, as both history and current events have borne out. If we were to open the doors to PAS in the United States, a brave new world of involuntary euthanasia would be inevitable. Strategy No. 5: Oppose Profiteering by Managed-Care Providers If assisted suicide were legalized, managed-care providers would inevitably embrace it as a money-saving technique. The New York State Task Force report states that under anysystem of health care deliveryit will be far less costly to give a lethal injection than to care for a patient throughout the dying process. A 1998 study conducted by Dr. Daniel P. Sulmasy in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that doctors who are cost-conscious and practice resource-conserving medicine were six times more likely to write illegal, lethal prescriptions for their terminally ill patients. Dr. Diane Meier, a former advocate of assisted suicide, said in a 1998 New York Times article, Legalizing assisted suicide would become a cheap and easy way to avoid the costly and time-intensive care needed by the terminally ill. Substantiating this claim is the fact that Oregons Medical Assistance Program (OMAP) for the poor moved to provide physician-assisted suicide to its recipients as soon as the Death with Dignity Act was passed in 1997. Only 18 months later, the OMAP announced plans to cut back on pain medication coverage for the same population. Hospice care has also suffered—the International Task Force reports that one Oregon insurance company has a paltry $1,000 cap on in-home hospice care. With the cost of a lethal overdose running about $35, there would be little motivation to pay any more for palliative treatment. If this is how a liberal, Democratically controlled state government behaves, is there any doubt how profit-minded managed-care providers would react if assisted suicide were legalized throughout the United States? We would begin to see a new stratification of society, where the under-insured would be advised to settle for assisted suicide, while those with better insurance could get the medical assistance they needed. According to the International Task Force, If policies or laws permitting assisted suicide are approved, assisted suicide could become the only type of medical treatment to which certain people—those who are members of minority groups, those who are poor, or those who have disabilities—would have access. The last to receive health care would be the first to receive assisted suicide. The Dead End of Assisted Suicide Legalizing assisted suicide could send us down a road from which there is no return. We can do far more to aid suffering patients by improving pain management and mental health care through legislative reform than we can by legalizing their self-destruction. Euthanasia, in practice, almost inevitably becomes eugenic in nature, which is an affront to the disabled and a serious threat to the lives of the poor and unwanted. Further, the decriminalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Europe has produced horrific results that no sane nation would want to imitate. Its a noble impulse that drives Americans to help those struggling through illness and decline, but we cant let the desire to ease anothers suffering lead us to believe that there are quick fixes or easy answers in euthanasia. Instead, we must respond with love, prayer, and compassion—not with murder. As John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae, True compassion leads to sharing another persons pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Indian Banking Consolidation

Mergers and Acquisitions: Indian Banking Consolidation Globally it has been found that the mergers and acquisition have become one of the major ways to corporate restructuring which has also struck the financial services industry which has experienced merger waves leading to the emergence of huge banks and financial institutions. The main reason for mergers is intense competition among the companies in the same industry which put focus on economies of scale, efficiency in cost and profitability. Some other factors leading to the mergers is the too big to fail principle followed by the authorities. In few countries like Germany, weak banks were forcefully merged to avoid the problem financial distress arising out of bad loans and erosion of capital funds. Several academic studies have analyzed merger related gains in banking and these studies have adopted two approaches. The first approach deals with evaluating the long term performance of the merger by analyzing the accounting information such as return on assets, operating costs and eff iciency ratios. A mergers is considered to have led to improved performance if the the change in the accounting based performance is superior to the changes in the performance of the comparable banks that were not involved in the merger activity during that period. Another approach is to analyze the gains in stock price of the bidder and the target company around the announcement of the merger. In this approach the merger is assumed to create value if the combined value of the bidder and target banks increase on the announcement of the merger and the consequent and the stock prices reflect the potential value of the acquiring banks. The objective of this paper is to present a panoramic view of merger trends in India and to ascertain two important perceptions of stake-holders, shareholders and managers and to discuss dilemmas and other issues of this topic of Indian banking. Review of Literature for impact of mergers The two important issues which are examined by various academic studies relating to bank mergers are: impact of mergers on the operating performance and efficiency of the banks Impact of mergers on the market value of the equity of both bidder and the target banks. Cornett and Tehranian (1992) and Spindit and Tarhan (1992) provided evidence for increase in post-merger operating performance. However the studies of Berger and Humphrey (1992), Piloff (1996) and Berger (1997) did not find any evidence in increase in post-merger operating performance. Berger and Humphrey (1994) also reported that most of the studies that examined pre-merger and post-merger financial ratios found no impact on operating cost and profit ratios. The reasons for mixed evidence are: lag between completion of merger process and the realization of benefits of mergers, sample selection and the methods adopted in the financing of mergers. Further, the financial ratios may be misleading indicators of performance because they do not take into account for product mix or input prices. On the other hand researches may also could have confused scale and scope efficiency gains with what is known as X-efficiency gains. Recent studies have explicitly employed frontier X-efficiency met hods to identify the X-efficiency benefits of bank mergers. Few studies have also analyzed the potential benefits and scale economies of mergers. Landerman (2000) explored diversification benefits to be had from banks merging with non banking financial service firms. Simulated mergers of US banks and non-bank financial service firms demonstrated that diversification of banks into insurance business and securities brokerage is optimal for reducing the probability of bankruptcy for bank holding companies. Wheelock and Wilson (2004) found that expected merger activity in US banking industry is positively related to management rating, size of the bank, competitive position and geographical location of banks and is negatively related to market concentration. The second issue determined was the analysis of merger gains in terms of the gains in stock price performance of the bidder and the target banks on announcement of merger. In this case a merger is expected to create value only if the combined value of the bidder and target companies increases after the declaration of the merger. However a lot of studies have failed to find any direct relationship between the merger and the gains in performance or in shareholder wealth. But there are reasons for mixed evidence as a merger announcement also takes in to account the way the deal is financed .If equity offerings are used it may be interpreted as overvaluation by the issuer. Therefore the negative announcements returns to the firms that are bidding can be attributed to the negative signalling which is completely unrelated to the value which is created by the merger. Returns to the bidders companies shareholders is greater when the merger is totally financed with cash than in mergers in whi ch financing is done through equity offering. There is one more problem with this event study analysis as if there is a consolidation wave going on; mergers are anticipated by stockholders and analyst. Potential candidates for the mergers are highlighted and made popular by the financial press and the stock market analysts. In these cases the event study analysis may fail. Therefore an analysis of mergers across the world and a literature review does not provide strong evidence on the benefits gained by banks in the mergers in the banking industry. Also the findings of the literature also contrast with the findings of the consultants who find a considerable cost savings and operational efficiency achieved through mergers. The reasons why academic study do not find cost benefits and the consultants highlight this fact are Consulates may study a potential cost savings which may not materialize They tend to highlight potential cost saving activities and the economist study all the activities. They tend to be biased towards successful cases and ignore the unsuccessful ones. They tend blow up the benefits achieved while the benefits may be miniscule if accounted on a relative terms. The academic studies provide motivation for the examination and evaluation of two important issues pertaining to the mergers and acquisition to the Indian banking. Do mergers help in improving the operational performance and result in cost savings However in India most of the mergers are forced by the central bank in order to protect the interest of the depositors and avoid financial distress therefore the above mentioned reason is rarely found in the mergers activities. Do merger provide abnormal gains and returns to the acquirer and the target banks upon the declaration Consolidation Trends Observed in India Improving the operational performance and cost efficiency has always been a priority in Indian banking sector and has been a major issue of discussions in the policy formulation by the government of India in the consultation and with the central bank (Reserve Bank of India). Several committees have also been formed in order to suggest structural changes to achieve this objective. Some of the major committees formed are Banking Commission, 1972 Chairman R.G Saraiya, 1976 chairman : Manubhai Shah Committee for the functioning of public sector banks, 1978 chairman : James S Raj These committees have suggested the restructuring of the Indian banking system with an objective to improve the process of credit delivery and also suggested the idea of having around 3 to 4 large banks which have a pan India presence and the rest of the bank should be present at the regional level. The major thrust on consolidation started with the Narasimham committee in 1991. It emphasised and embarked upon consolidation and merger in order to make the Indian banks huge in size and also comparable to the global banks. A second Narasimham committe was also formed in 1998 which suggested mergers and consolidation among the strong banks in public as well as private sector and also with other financial institutions, NBFC (Non Banking Financial Companies). Now we will have a look at some of the recent trends in consolidation in Indian banking. Restructuring of weak Indian Banks Amongst other routes government of India has adopted mergers as a means to achieve restructuring of the Indian banking system. Many banks which are small in size and are weak are merged with other banks which are stronger and are larger to protect the interest of the depositors and also to avoid financial distress. These types of mergers can be termed as forced mergers. Hence when a banks shows symptoms of sickness like increasing size of NPAs, reduction in the net worth and substantial decline in capital adequacy ratio, RBI forces moratorium under the section 45(1) of the Banking Regulation act 1949 for a specified period on the activities and the operations of the working of the sick bank. In this period a strong bank is identified and asked to prepare and present a scheme of merger with the weak bank. In this case the acquirer banks takes hold of all the assets of the weak bank and ensures the depositors of their money in case they want to withdraw. The mergers which took place in the pre-reform period fall into this category. In the post reform period 21 mergers have taken place out of which 13 are forced mergers where RBI has intervened. The main reason for these mergers was the protection of the depositors interest and avoids the financial distress. Mergers which took place voluntarily Apart from forced mergers there have been few mergers in which expansion, diversification and growth were the major motives and in which RBI did not intervene or force. The first merger of this kind took place in 1993 when the Times Bank was acquired by HDFC bank which was followed by acquisition of Bank of Madura by the ICICI Bank. The latest of these is merger of Lord Krishnan Bank with Centurion Bank of Punjab. Although in all these deals the target bank suffered with low profitability, Increase in NPA and lack of alternate revenues in order to provide cushion for capital adequacy but these mergers were not forced. There was no regulatory intervention in these mergers however the motives behind these mergers may not necessarily be scale of economies and achieving market power. For instance ICICI bank acquired bank of Russia with a motive of entry in to Russia although it just had one branch. SBI acquired 51% stake in Mauritian Bank through Indian Ocean International Bank which wil l be integrated with the State Bank of Indias International business as a subsidiary. Integration of Financial Services and Achieving Universal Banking Model Several developmental financial institutions have been formed over a period of time in India in order to improve the efficiency of allocation of resources to different segments of the economy. However because of the flexibility given by the RBI to the banks in the credit delivery process the banks have increased and diversified their loan portfolio to various areas such as project finance, long-term loans, and other specialised sector lending. This is the reason why DFIs have become redundant. A working capital group (1998) was appointed by RBI which has recommended the universal model of banking by exploring the possibility of mergers between various sets of financial entities based on economical considerations. Similarly in the private sector ICICI merger with its subsidiary bank and IDBI (industrial Development Bank of India) was incorporates as a public sector bank which acquired private sector bank IDBI bank in 2004. In order to provide integrated financial services and achieve operation efficiencies many public sector banks have acquired their subsidiaries, for instance Andhra Bank acquired its housing finance subsidiary Andhra Bank Housing Finance LTD, Bank of India acquired BOI finance Ltd and BOI Asset Management Company Ltd. Acquisition of similar types took place in the private sector as well. Alignment of Operations of Foreign Banks with Global Trends As the Parent banks went under reconstruction process their parts operating in India also started restructuring. For example, Standard Charted Grindlay bank was formed due to acquisition of ANZ Grindlay by the Standard Charted Bank. Similarly due to acquisition of two Japanese banks like Sakura Bank and Sumitomo Bank Ltd the Indian operations of Sakura Bank were merged with Sumitomo Bank in 2001.Forign banks were permitted to enter into merger and acquisition transaction with any of the private sector bank in India with a condition that the overall investment limit limit will be 74 per cent after the second phase of WTO commitments which commenced in April 2009. This may lead to further consolidation in the Indian banking sector. Merger and Consolidation of Cooperatives, RRBs and UCBs Small banks present in India apart from other banks are co-operative banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs). These are formed for fulfilling the credit requirements of agriculture, small traders and SSI and other rural economic activities. All of these institutions are suffering from bad loans, operational inefficiencies, and Poor recovery of loans. This proved to be a barrier for further lending and financial intermediation. A committee formed under Jugdish Capoor suggested voluntary amalgamations or merger of these co-operatives based on various criterias like economies of scale, especially in areas where the operations of these banks have become unviable and there are no more in a position to supply credit to agriculture sector. 28 RRBs were consolidated into 9 new RRBs in September 2005.A high powered committee on Urban Co-operative Banks (1999) recommended that UCBs which are sick should be liquidated in a time bound manner as the operation of lar ge number of financially sick banks is devastating for UCBs and also for the interest of depositors. Due to this more mergers are expected in the future and RBI also has taken a lot of new initiatives for restructuring of banks including the issuance of guidelines in May 2005. Shareholders Perception of Merger As stated above the Indian banking sector has experienced two types of mergers – focussed and voluntary mergers. Forced mergers were initiated by RBI and their main objective was to protect the interest of the depositors and prevent financial distress of the banks. Whenever a bank showed symptoms of sickness like huge NPA levels, erosion of net worth etc, RBI intervened and merged the weak bank with a stronger one by force. Thus we can form a hypothesis that in case of forced mergers the target banks shareholders will gain abnormally with the declaration. The second type of merger is voluntary type where the motivation behind the merger is to achieve cost reduction, increase in size, diversification, strategic entry into a market. In these cases the acquired banks reaped the benefit of branch network and customer clientele of the banks acquired. In these cases both the acquirer bank and the target bank must have had benefit out of the merger. In this paper the mergers between 1993 to 2006 are considered. There were 21 mergers out of which only five were voluntary. These are mainly mergers of private sector banks with other private sector banks. Two cases are conversion of financial institution to commercial bank where the objective was to form a universal bank model which offers a wide range of financial services. Ina study conducted which is presented in this paper six cases of forced mergers were selected for the purpose of analysis as in other cases the target banks were not listed and the size of the banks were much lower than the acquirer banks therefore these cases are of less merit for further analysis. In this study the wealth effects of almost all the banking mergers during the period 1999-2006 is analyzed. The event study analysis used in this analysis is very straight forward and conventional. The merger period consist of four days prior and four days after the event. The reason for taking such window is to analyze the change in wealth of the shareholder around the day of the declaration on the merger. Daily adjusted closing prices of stocks and the market index is taken for the analysis. The abnormal returns are calculated as follows. ARit= Rit – [a + BRm] Here Rit: daily return on firm ‘i on day ‘t Rmt is the return on the bench mark index a and B are the regression parameters. The abnormal return is calculated for both the acquirer and the target firm and the significance of these values are tested by finding standard error and the t-value : Analysis of Research Results In forced mergers case the stockholders of target banks have not achieved any significant returns on the declaration of the merger. However in the case of Nedungadi Bank, the stockholder did gain significant on the 2nd day of the announcement but after that no abnormal returns were found. In the case of GTB the stockholders had deeply discounted the merger. As it was a case of serious case of bank failure the merger did give a confidence to the depositors but the merger declaration did not provide any abnormal returns. United bank did gain marginally on the announcement but it was not significant statistically. Thus the hypothesis that target banks shareholders welcome merger announcement as a safety net can be rejected. The shareholders of the acquirer bank lost their market value of equity. In case of ICICI bank, it was signalled as an emergence of a large private sector bank and hence due to which the banks shareholders expectations go up with significant increase in the returns. In other cases of acquisition the acquirer bank lost on merging with the weak banks. Hence in all the forced mergers neither the acquirer bank nor the target bank gained on declaration of the merger and the stockholders of the acquirer bank lost wealth as the announcement of the merger was taken as a negative signal. It is argued that merger of weak banks with strong ones is essential for restructuring of banking system and also a step in the consolidation of the banking sector. But in almost all the mergers it was found that the target banks for the merger were determined at the time when they were at the verge of getting collapse. The acquirer bank which was forced by RBI was left with no option but to accept the proposed merger. It is recommended that RBI should pursue Prompt corrective action system and should determine the weak banks on the basis of some defined criterias so that the acquirer bank can choose the target banks on the strategic issues which benefit all the parties . Abnormal Returns of Target Banks Abnormal returns of Bidder banks In case of voluntary mergers it can be seen that the target banks have obtained higher returns that the acquirer banks. Both the acquirer and the target banks stockholders benefitted on declaration of the merger. Therefore the stock market welcomed the merger which will lead to growth and efficiency aspects of the merged entity and benefitted the shareholders of both the banks. For instance in the case of acquisition of times banks by HDFC bank it was viewed as a positive signal by the shareholders of both the bank. At the time of the merger the Times Bank was crippled with increasing NPAs and low profitability, the acquisition by the HDFC bank gave relief to the depositors of the Times Bank. On the other hand HDFC bank emerged as the largest private sector bank by gaining from the retail portfolio of the Times Bank. In case of BOM acquisition by the ICIC bank the BOM gained the advantage of being able to provide services like Treasury management, cash management services to its cust omers and ICICI bank increased its size by acquiring BOM and reached the position of large private sector banks in 1999. At the announcement of the merger there was a steep rise in the gains which was reaped by the BOM shareholders however the stockholders of ICIC bank did not get any significant returns. In all the even study analysis revealed that neither the acquirer bank nor the target bank stock holders have perceived any potential gain on the declaration of the mergers. Hence the share holders who are important stakeholders of the banking companies did not consider the mergers as a signal of improving health, economies of scale and the market power of banks. Managers take on the Mergers Managers provide highest priority to the merger of the two public sector banks which provides a signals the banking sectors view on the need for consolidation of public sector banks. Managers do not prefer the merger of bank and NBFCs or financial services entities There are some issues which are needed to be taken care of while proposing a merger of banks according to the managers Valuation of the Loan portfolio of the target bank This is one of the main factor which is needed to be considered at the time of the merger. As in the management of the credit portfolio the accounting and the exposure norms suggested by the RBI are the same which helps in figuring out the book value of loans easily. However Indian banks have adopted divergent practices in rating the borrowers, loan pricing and maintenance of collateral securities therefore a detailed audit of the loan portfolio, cash flow generation and collaterals is very essential in order to get an opinion on the value of the loan portfolio of the target bank. Valuation of Intangible assets The valuation of the assets of the banks is a very critical factor for the success of any merger or consolidation. The tangible assets of the bank are loans, investment part apart from other fixed assets like buildings, ATMs and the IT infrastructure the bank owns. A commercial bank also holds a lot of intangible assets like clientele based on core deposits, safety value contracts, computer softwares, human resources, brands and goodwill. Determining the inherent strength of the bank based on the valuation of the intangible assets is also very important. Determination of the value of equity Determining the value of the target banks assets, liabilities and valuation of its equity value is the major aspect of a merger process. Various approaches can be used like dividend discount model, cash flow to equity model and excess return model. However banks have totally different operations than a normal manufacturing firm as they are highly leveraged because they have more than 90% of the resources as borrowed or as debt and banks are highly regulated institutions and regulatory instruction have vast implication in asset and income recognition. Interest rates volatility, regulatory capital adequacy ratios and restriction on dividend pay put ratios also have influence on the earnings of the banks. Human Resource Issues It is the most complicated issue in the merger process.HR issues like the service condition, strategy for rewarding people, employee relation, benefit plans and compensation, provision of pension, law suits and the trade union actions are very critical for the viability of the merger and the deal to go through. Cultural Issues This is also a critical issue in the pre-merger and post merger period. It is central to an organizational environment and recognizing cultural friction is very difficult as it results in various problems such as poor productivity, riff in the top management, increase in the turnover rates, delays in the integration process and failures in realizing the projected synergies. Information Technology platform integration In todays banking banks are highly dependent on the information technology. It has become a key strategic issue due to the impact it has on the operation of the bank. A significant portion of the synergy depends on the information technology integration. Divergent IT platforms and software systems have proven to be major constraints in the consolidation. Customer Retention Customers also major stakeholders of banks and are needed to be communicated properly about the merger and the customers of the target bank should be attended with utmost care. Various studies have shown that firms borrowing from target banks are very likely to lose their relationship with the bank on its merger.