Devaluation and Economic Recovery During the 1930s.

Devaluation and Economic Recovery During the 1930s. a) Evaluate the evidence of the relationship between devaluation and economic recovery during the 1930s. b) Evaluate the mechanisms by which devaluation had an impact on economic recovery during the 1930s. Although a wide range of uncoordinated policies were implemented in the 1930s, including devaluation, it is possible to classify the major trading nations into different trade policy regimes (Kitson and Solomou, 1990): the sterling bloc that devalued with or soon after Britain and linked their currencies to sterling; other countries which also devalued either early (before 1932) or later (1932 and after); the exchange control group, that was reluctant to devalue for fear of inflation; and the gold bloc countries which remained, at least in the short term, committed to the system. During the 1929-32 depression, world output declined by more than 6% per annum. The sterling bloc exhibited the mildest contraction, with GDP falling by an annual rate of less than 2% per annum, and just 0.5% if Canada is excluded from the sample (Canada was particularly adversely affected by its large agricultural sector and its links with the United States). This suggests that devaluation policies may have helped to mitigate the adverse effects of the depression. Leaving gold provided less help for the other devaluers group although there is evidence that those who devalued early experienced a milder depression than those who delayed and devalued late. Thus, the timing of the policy response was important. The positive relationship between devaluation and the economic recovery in the 1930s is depicted in specific countries and some groups of countries. Eichengreen and Sachs (1985), claim that devaluation benefitted initiating countries, and Bernanke and James (1991) demonstrate a strong link between deflation, depression and adherence to gold in their analysis of 24 countries. Shibamoto and Shizume (2014) find that exchange rate shocks independently had strong influences on the real economy in Japan. Their historical decomposition demonstrates that the exchange rate contributed to production growth after Japan left Gold in December 1931. However, a limitation is that their results may contain measurement error because their effective exchange rate is constructed using 1917 weights. On the other hand, Reinhart and Reinhart (2009) argue against the hypothesis of a positive relationship between devaluation and the economic recovery in the 1930s. They find that their timing variable is insignificant and the date of exit from gold does not help to explain the depth or duration of the downturn when examining 37 countries. However, a limitation is that their results posits having a large number of countries does not necessarily improve the reliability of results. Other literature argues that national heterogeneity played an imperative role in determining the relationship between devaluation and recovery. Later when Reinhart and Reinhart repeated Eichengreens 14 country 1929-37 analysis but using real GDP per capita rather than Industrial production as a proxy for growth, they found significant results supporting a positive relationship between devaluation and the economic recovery during the 1930s. It can be affirmed that devaluation was a beggar-thy-neighbour policy, in which one country attempts to remedy its economic problems by means that tend to worsen the economic problems of other countries, and thus explains why we see the relationship between devaluation and recovery vary for different groups of countries. For the period of recovery, from 1932-37, most countries exhibited reasonable cyclical growth. The exception was the gold bloc countries. Constrained by their commitment to their exchange rate parities they had to adopt tight monetary and fiscal policies to maintain internal and external balance. Thus although output was depressed, the French government in the early 1930s adopted contractionary fiscal policies to prevent destabilising exchange rate speculation. Reinhart and Reinhart (2009) states that the benefits of competitive devaluation went to the first movers and for those that devalued later it merely allowed for catch-up for lost competitiveness. It can be seen that US monetary policy was hampered by beggar-thy-neighbour problems as almost all devaluations relative to gold produced an appreciation relative to the dollar. A simple comparison of growth performance during recovery can be misleading, as it will include both a cyclical component (the automatic recovery from a deep depression) and policy induced effects. An alternative is to examine inter-period, peak to peak growth performance. Looking at the change in the annual rate of growth of GDP during 1929-37 relative to 1924-29, the results for the world economy indicate a retardation of the growth path. This is consistent with other findings that the shock of the Great Depression had persistent effects on the level of output. The performance of the different policy regimes, however, provides important contrasts. The countries that devalued, particularly those that devalued early, experienced only a small (or zero) fall in trend growth. Those countries that had the limited benefits of exchange controls experienced a deterioration in annual growth of 3.3%. The poorest performing group was the gold bloc, which had little flexibility to initiate poli cies for domestic recovery. Further evidence of the striking contrasts in performance of different policy regimes is shown in figures for annual growth of industrial production. These indicate that those countries which devalued, and to a lesser extent those that introduced exchange controls, had a milder industrial depression, faster recovery and a better inter-period growth performance. Evidence on the unemployment performance of the different policy regimes shows that the high unemployment that developed during the depression persisted throughout the period of recovery. Only for the sterling bloc was there any fall in the unemployment rate; for the other regimes unemployment increased during 1933-37. In part this reflects employment lagging output, plus changing activity rates and demographic shifts. But it is also evidence of the persistent effects of the Great Depression, the long-term unemployed having difficulty re-entering the labour market. As always, there are some authors (Beenstock et al, 1984) who argue that it was wage movements that accounted for the cyclical fluctuations in output, both for the Great Depression and subsequent recovery. It is true that real wages (adjusted for price changes) did move counter-cyclically over the 1929-37 cycle in Britain rising relative to trend during the recovery but the causes of the output fluctuations lay elsewhere, and the timing of the wage fluctuations do not actually fit the claim that recession was caused by wage rises and recovery caused by wage cuts. We have shown elsewhere (Michie, 1987) that this wage-output correlation itself does not, in any case, hold outside those particular years a finding which reinforces the argument that the output and wage series are independently generated, with output influenced crucially by the level of demand for output and wages by factors such as productivity levels and bargaining strength. Growth and improved economic performance during the 1930s was dependent on countries untying themselves from strictures of the gold standard and adopting independent policies, with different exchange rate regimes created and with some countries also reaping the advantages of increased protectionism and fiscal expansion. What is apparent, however, is that the cooperative regime failed and uncoordinated policies were a vast improvement. Almunia et al (2010) finds large defence spending multipliers of 2.5 on impact and 1.2 after the initial year. These demonstrate the large potential impact fiscal spending could have on the economy. Moreover, in Japan real gross national expenditure rose by 45% 1931-36 alongside which the economy approached full employment. However, Almunias findings have limitations as multipliers reduce to 0.43 on impact and 0.13 when total government spending is used instead of defence spending. The absolute size of fiscal expenditure in countries was actually relati vely small and thus despite potentially large multipliers, was unable to drive the economic recovery in the 1930s. The use of uncoordinated policies may have led to some resource misallocation effects. The overriding impact, however, was positive as independent policies overcame the deflationary bias of the gold standard and led to increased resource mobilisation. Despite these economic gains some commentators persist in identifying the 1930s as a period of economic nationalism which helped to usher in totalitarian and fiscal political regimes. This is a complete misreading of history. The rise of racism and fascism in the 1920s and 1930s was fuelled by mass unemployment and the destructive economic policies imposed on Germany at Versailles and on the rest of the world by the gold standard. Keynes had warned as much in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) and The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill (1925), but to no avail. Currency stability was of greatest importance. Devaluation can have beneficial impacts through a number of mechanisms. First, it can directly alleviate the balance of payments constraint on growth. Shifts in relative prices and improved competitiveness can raise exports and depress imports. The conventional account of this process is that it is a beggar-my-neighbour policy (Healey and Levine, 1992), as the improvement in trade performance is reflected in an improving trade balance for the initiating country and a deteriorating trade balance for trading partners. This account, however, ignores the effects of an independently pursued trade policy on the level of economic activity. Increasing exports and reducing the propensity to import will raise the level of demand in the domestic economy. With unemployment and excess capacity, such a policy initiative will raise output and employment as well as leading to an income-induced increase in imports, so that there need be no change in the actual trade balance. Indeed, this is precisely the reason why, although Britain devalued and adopted widespread protectionism in 1931, the current account deficits persisted throughout the 1930s. If countries get locked into a pattern of trade which constrains domestic expansion, an active and independent trade policy provides one means of overcoming the problem without necessarily affecting adversely other trading partners. Empirical support for this mechanism is found in Eichengreen and Sachs (1985) where they found that countries who devalued were successful in raising their Tobins Q. However, there is a limitation, Tobins Q represents the incentive to invest as opposed to actual investment, hence this does not actually tell us if investment had a real effect on the economic recovery. Nevertheless, increased investment demand which resulted from devaluation is likely to have had significant effects on economic recovery. The second benefit of devaluation is that it removes the exchange rate constraint on domestic policy, encouraging expansionist policies. In particular, monetary policy can be relaxed and therefore interest rates can be determined by domestic economic conditions rather than by the need to maintain the exchange rate or by the need to prevent excessive loss of reserves. For instance, Britains suspension of the gold standard allowed the government to pursue a more expansionist policy after 1932. This cheap money policy has been identified as a permissive policy for economic revival, especially important in stimulating a housing boom. Conversely, the reason that the British Governments claims on September 16, 1992 (that it would remain in the ERM by raising interest rates as far as was necessary) lacked credibility was that raising interest rates by 5% in one day in the midst of the longest economic recession for 60 years was not believed to be a feasible policy option. Eichengreen and Sa chs (1985) explore a more general model and depict that devaluation might give rise to interest rate differentials among countries, creating not only the expenditure-increasing effect but also an expenditure-switching effect. Due to data limitations in the 1930s it is hard to draw strong inferences regarding the impact of devaluation on interest rates. Eichengreen and Sachs (1985) do however find a positive relationship between exchange rates of countries and changes in the CB discount rate. Support for this is provided by Almunia (2010) who finds that countries abandoning Gold were quicker to cut interest rates in response to the slump. However, Eichengreen and Sachs (1985) find that the CB discount rate does not reflect market conditions. Therefore, devaluation is likely to have reduced interest rates in devaluing countries boosting investment and spending. The positive effect of devaluation on export growth is likely to have given a positive short term gain effect to economic recovery. Bernanke and James (1991) find large and statistically significant results on output growth for real export growth. Shibamoto et al (2014) argue that anticipated devaluation generated expansionary expectational effects in Japan. However, their use of railway traffic is a very poor proxy for GDP and thus their results are unreliable given that they are generated from poor quality data. Instead, we support the thesis that expectational effects were seen with a lag of 1 to 2 year as it took time for people to learn the effects of devaluation. Hence, in the US we can explain the lack of a lag in expectational effects as US agents had learnt from the European experience of devaluation. Thus, there is support for an expectational mechanism through which devaluation impacted on economic recovery but with a 1 to 2 year lag. Devaluation and the accompanying intro duction of other expansionist policies also led to a third, less mechanistic, benefit. Under the prevailing world conditions of uncertainty and monetary and financial turbulence, the reorientation of policy towards the domestic economy improved business confidence. The prospect of a stable and growing economy encourages home producers to increase, or at least bring forward, investment and expand production.

Different types of farming Essay

Farming has contributed to communities by being a source of income and food. As stated in the Oxford Dictionary â€Å"farming is the activity or business of growing crops and raising livestock.† Different communities use different types of farming to suit their way of living. They either use commercial or subsistence farming. Commercial farming is farming that is done by companies and raising of crops and livestock for sale in outside markets. Subsistence farming is self-sufficiency farming which means farmers focus on growing enough food to feed their families. Farming has been depended on to sustain a good economy in many societies. The term economy is defined as â€Å"the wealth and resources of a country or region, especially in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services,† in the Oxford Dictionary. There are three types of economies planned economy, mixed economy and free economy, and in The Bahamas the mixed economy is practiced. A mixed economy is an economic system that includes a mixture of capitalism and socialism. This type of economic system that includes a combination of private economic freedom and centralized economic planning and government regulation. The Bahamas is heavily dependent on the tourism, banking and construction industries. The Bahamas is mainly dependent on tourism but the tourism rates have and are declining. Tourism is the practice of traveling for recreation for business and leisure purposes. There are many different jobs that are in the tourism industry. Some are construction workers, hotel managers and other positions that are available and taxi drivers. Since the recession is global less people have travelled and visitor arrivals have fallen. This has forced businesses to close and as a result people have lost their jobs. The tourism industry has provided work for half of the Bahamian workforce. With contributions from other industries such as farming the effects of this recession can be minimized. Contribution means the act of giving in common with others for a common purpose. If the farming industry is used then less jobs will be lost and more jobs will be provided, and decrease our dependence on imported foods. One contribution that farming can make is creating jabs. Jobs in the country are important because it provides the necessary items for families. A Job is â€Å"to carry on public business for private gain,† according to the Webster dictionary. Jobs provide money to circulate around the country to improve the country and to help with the welfare of families in the country.

The Policy Analysis, The Design And Implementation Of...

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Essay on Religion in a Multicultural World - 1291 Words

Religion In a multicultural world where language, traditions and culture differ from country to country there is one thing that may be deemed to be true and this is that religion is the centre point for most of them. So then what exactly is religion? And how can you define it? In this paper I will be analysing and considering the different definitions that have been proposed by Victoria S. Harrison in her article â€Å"The pragmatics of defining religion in a multi-cultural world† and what I consider to be the most applicable definition of religion to date, though there may not be one. Firstly before we can analyse a text we must first understand what the author or publisher of that particular text is trying to bring forward. 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Abortion A Controversial Issue - 911 Words

Abortion is a controversial issue in many countries all the time and there are always two sides of abortion. Pro-life supporters believe that abortion is immoral, so they argue that it should be illegal because an unborn baby is life. However, they do not figure out that woman who is on the inevitable situation such as infection, rape, or extreme poverty would still have the abortion even though the abortion is illegal. Many women die due to unsafe abortion, which is illegal and performed by uneducated people. Therefore, the abortion should be legal to protect the life of ‘alive women’ because women’s life is equal to human’s right. I would like to provide more affirmative bases to support abortion in this paper. Women have right to control their own bodies and decisions. As human free will, women can determine their decision for their future. It is sometimes inevitable to maintain their lifestyle that they have before they become pregnant. 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Financing of University Education in Kenya Free Essays

QN) With close reference to university education in Kenya, discuss the various means of financing education and evaluate the equity implications. To answer this claim, we start by defining critical terms so as to clearly get the full meaning of this assertion. Education is the process act or process of impacting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgement, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. We will write a custom essay sample on Financing of University Education in Kenya or any similar topic only for you Order Now It can also be defined as the process of acquiring desirable skills, attitudes and knowledge, as for a profession University education means the totality of general and specialized knowledge and skills that enable a university graduate to solve problems that he encounters in industry or to perform scientific research or pedagogical work within the area of specialized knowledge that he has acquired. Financing refer to how people allocate their assets over time and conditions of certainity and uncertainity while education financing refers to any aspect of raising and spending revenue for educational purposes. Kenya as one of the developing countries in Afrca is faced with the problem of financing its education. Despite the role of the universities in teaching, undertaking research and training of skilled manpower for economic development, public and private universities in developing countries especially those in Africa are facing financial crisis. Universities in Kenya gets financial aids from different sources which include; finances from parents, self finance, Banks-some banks give education loans to students or parents, cooperative societies, Constituency Development Funds[C. D. F], scholarships from educational institutions e. g universities, charitable organizations, HELB loans, Harambees, Donations, bursaries among others. Sources of educational funds are both internal and external. Internal funds refers to finances from within the institution for example; Fees from the students, Income generating activities among others. While external funds come from outside the university for example; Religious organizations, Funds from central and local government, companies and organizations, scholarships, loans, International bodies, Non- Governmental Organization(NGO’s) etc. Central and local government are generally the most important sources of educational finances. The government is generally the most important and crucial source of funding for university education. The government through the parliament passed a bill that seeks to introduce radical changes to higher education, establishing a Commission for University Education(C. U. E) to be vested with wide-ranging powers as one of four new bodies running the sector in the country. The universities Act 2012 published on 24th September in Kenya gazette supplement 121 and signed by higher education, science and technology minister Margaret Kamar abolishes the decades old Commission for Higher Education(C. H. E) which has hitherto regulated the sector and replaces it with the Commission for University Education. The universities Act 2012 stipulates that funds of a public university shall comprise: such sums as may be granted to the university by the parliament, such monies or assets as may accrue to or vest in the public university in the course of the exercise of its powers or the performance of its functions under this Act or under any other written law; and all monies from any other source provided for or donated or lent to the public university with the approval of the cabinet secretary responsible for finance and the cabinet secretary responsible for university education. this act mandates the central government to advance money to the public universities for running of the programmes and activities. The government gives grants to the public universities and this money is budgeted for, in the ministry for higher education budget and this is captured in the annual budget. The grants are given to all universities oblivious of the programmes that they offer. The government through the parliament passed a bill that saw the creation of the Constituency Development Act that was aimed to rationalize development across the country by ensuring that all areas across Kenya had a fair share of the money set aside for development. Through the various committees established in each constituency, students in the universities are able to access bursaries to aid them in paying school fees. This bursary is given to people who are needy and who cannot afford tuition fees. For the equal distribution of the funds, the Kenyan government is giving a lot of charters to the new mushrooming universities, this is to make sure all the regions in the country get access to higher education hence equity implications. Higher Education Loans Board(H. E. L. B) is another source of funding. H. E. L. B is a state corporation whose mandate is to source funds and provide loans, scholarships and bursaries to Kenyans studying in recognized institutions of Higher learning. It was established by an act of parliament a statute known as Higher Education Loans Board Act 1995,,and it was legally as Act number 3 of 1995. It came into existence on 21st July, 1995 through Kenya gazette supplement (CAP 213A). higher education loans board administers the student loans scheme. The board is also empowered to recover all outstanding loans given to former university students by the government of Kenya since 1952 through Higher Education Loans Fund(HELF) and to establish a revolving fund from which funds can be drawn to lend out to needy Kenyan students pursuing higher education. The establishment of a revolving fund was expected to ease pressure on the exchequer in financing education which currently stands at 40% of the annual national budget. Its vision is to be the best preferred financier of Kenyans pursuing higher education and the mission is to provide affordable loans bursaries and scholarships to Kenyans studying in recognized institutions of higher education. The board disburses loans to any Kenyan undergraduate students enrolled in government or self-sponsored programmes in Kenyan universities and other universities in other member states of east Africa community recognized by the Commision for higher education(CHE) The government through Higher Educations Loans Board ensures equity is maintained in acquisition of higher educaton since throough the electronic and online application of the sponsorship by the government, all needy students can apply for the loan irrespective of where they come from since the loan is granted depending on the level of need. Besides the loan being given to only students who qualify to go to the university by getting the required cluster set by Joint Admission Board(JAB), also students who have attained the minimum entry requirements of being admitted by a university in Kenya which is a C+(plus) are able to access this grant hence allowing them to get university education through the Self-sponsored program and thus ensuring equity across the two programs. Financing of higher education in Kenya is also be done by institutions and organizations. For instance, Kenya Youth Education scholarship Fund has a mission to help needy and deserving youth with limited financial resources who display academic excellence and the desire to acquire practical skills and knowledge to enhance self reliance by pursuing higher education. The scholarship that they advance to the qualified candidates only caters for tuition and upkeep only but the cost of other accessories like personal effects is on the beneficiary. This scholarship is mostly biased to women and the aim is to enhance equity so that the girl child can as well access higher education as their male counter parts who form a large chuck of the students in the universities. USAID is another institution that sponsors university in Kenya. Each year, it sponsors around 18 higher education scholarships to Kenyan students. These scholarship are offered to students from marginalized communities in Eastern and north Eastern regions and urban slums of Nairobi. The scholarship targets the minority muslim group. For one to qualify he or she must have attained the minimum of getting entry in university in Kenya. The aim for the cholarship is to bridge the gap that is so prevalent in these regions since most people don’t get the chance to pursue higher education because of the cultural dictates where girls are married off at an early age and where girl-child education is not treated with a lot of importance that it deserves. The effort by USAID ensures that most girls from these environments get university education and empowers. Some universities get direct offers of international and local scholarships. For instance Kenyatta university through the office of Orphans and Vulnerable students gives scholarships to total and/or partial orphans to enable them to pursue their university education with a lot of ease. The scholarship usually covers full tuition fees for students wwho are total orphans and have been admitted to Kenyatta university. The selection is done after a careful scrutiny of documents to ascertain the level of need for the applicants. For the case of partial scholarships, the university pays 25% of the total tuition fees every year until the end of the degree program. The scholarship is given to students with proven high level of performance and genuine need for financial assistance. The university also caters for other students who have been admitted to the university and are already enrolled in one of the its programs. It gives internal butsaries to students with financial need based on the level of vulnerable students. Also, the university awards post graduate scholarships which cover the tuition fees for masters programs. The scholarship is awarded based on higher academic performance. Many universities have followed suit and are awarding scholarships to their students. This effort helps in ensuring that as many people are able to access university education even those who come from poor and destitute backgrounds because when their tuition fees is paid for, then they find it very easy to get some money for upkeep but if they have problems of fees payment, then their education may be disrupted and may be halted. Other organizations like UNESCO have fellowships that are offered to both students and teachers who want to pursue higher education in fields that enhance sustainable human development and foster international understanding and a culture of peace. It offers fellowships in the following thematic areas; education, natural sciences, social, human sciences, culture, communication and information. The aim is to enhance equity and access of university education since these are mostly given to students who exhibit some level of financial need and are high performers in academics. How to cite Financing of University Education in Kenya, Essay examples

Organisational Behavior Job Satisfaction Organizational Politics free essay sample

In simple terms, job satisfaction pertains to an employee’s general attitude towards his or her job. Attitude can be said to be the final psychological stance an individual takes after he/she has evaluated his/her perceptions or paradigms regarding the job, organisation, work-conditions, co-workers etc. An individual’s values also play a key role in the background to shape up the final outcome of the job satisfaction dynamics. An employee’s job satisfaction is said to have influence on the outcome variables such as productivity, turnover, absenteeism and other factors of organisational importance. A meta-analytical study has shown that job satisfaction and individual productivity has a significant positive correlation of 0. 30 , while in another study it has been seen that individual’s attitude and productivity has a positive correlation of 0. 17 . The studies point to the fact that most likely a satisfied employee will be productive but there are other factors which determine the outcome. The flipside of the ‘high satisfaction-high productivity equation’ is that the higher productivity could lead to burn-out. Motivation in form of rewards play a significant role in pushing the employee towards a high productivity trajectory, however an unchecked boost could lead to exhaustion resulting in additional cost for the organisation. Some studies have even shown that high job satisfaction and high productivity could lead to greater complacency among some group of workers . Another outcome variable that is of important to job satisfaction is employee absenteeism. A numerous empirical studies have been conducted on this topic and results have been inconsistent. Some studies show that there is a negative correlation between job satisfaction and absenteeism , while others indicate that there is zero correlation between the two variables. In a study by Nicholson et al. it has been shown that job satisfaction and absenteeism have zero correlation but their conclusion supported that there may be some causal relationships under special circumstances . Hence it can be stated that a high job satisfaction may not lead lower absenteeism in all cases, however definitely a low job satisfaction can lead to higher rates of absenteeism. Various studies have shown that dissatisfied employees are more likely to leave their jobs than the ones who have a higher job satisfaction . Employee turnover is another factor which seems to have a moderate negative correlation with job satisfaction in the range of -0. 25 . Therefore the fact that higher job satisfaction will definitely lead to a lower turnover rate cannot be carved in stone. A study shows that there can be around 26 variables that are related to employee turnover, among which gender and nationality influences are a few. It would more precise to say that job satisfaction has a strong negative correlation with turnover intention rather than just turnover rate . Hence, an employee who finds that his job is more in line with his or her self-identify and involving oneself in such a job is overall satisfying the intention to leave would be reduced drastically. To sum it up it is well within scope to state that there are significant amount of grey areas pertaining to the topic of job satisfaction and its impact on the organisation on the whole. However, one can surely state that if not entirely but to quite a large extent, that satisfied employees will definitely exude positive vibes toward his or her work versus a dissatisfied employee. Various contradictory empirical study data are only the proof to the fact that human behaviour is not entirely predictable as most of it is emanated from the depth of the subconscious mind which in itself remains a mystery. Factors influencing job satisfaction: There are various models that measure the job satisfaction of an employee and among them the most widely used is the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) . The six measures are as follows: 1. Pay: Pay refers to wages, salaries, bonuses or benefits of any kind that is offered to the employee in exchange of the service rendered. This forms one of the basic tenants of job satisfaction as it is directly related to satisfy the basic safety and psychological needs of an individual to survive in the economy. It has been observed that an employee will be more impacted by the direct pay that he or she receives and in many cases they are not even aware of the other benefits that they receive. Also, it has been studied that the pay packages have a strong correlation with job satisfaction . 2. Work: The nature or content of the job itself forms a significant factor that leads to job satisfaction and employees prefer to undertake jobs that are interesting and don’t lead to boredom. Also, when there is mismatch between the skill of the employee and the job that is being assigned it leads to dissatisfaction. 3. Promotions: Promotions form an important aspect of employee motivation which can lead to job satisfaction however; it differs in the fact that promotion related satisfaction depending on the type of promotions. An employee being promoted on the basis of seniority derives more satisfaction than that promoted on basis of performance. Also, the range of hike the employee gets plays an important role. Two employees working in the same team and one who gets 9 percent hike will be less satisfied than the one receiving a 20 percent hike. Promotions in the higher management is said to be more satisfactory than the ones at the basic level. 4. Supervision: Supervision pertains forms another important aspect job satisfaction and especially when the boss-employee relation is concerned. Supervision style in which the employee is involved in the decision making process related to the job leads to higher satisfaction. Studies have shown that poor supervision can very well lead to dissatisfied employees , while another study states in addition that it leads higher to employee turnover as well . 5. Work group: The work group or team quality affects the job satisfaction. An employee who is a part of team with co-operative and friendly co-workers will tend to have a positive job satisfaction score rather than an employee who is in a non-conducive environment. . Working conditions: There is a moderate effect of working conditions on the job satisfaction of an employee. A workplace that offers little comfort and is dirty and does not have the basic hygiene factors, may lead a lower level of job satisfaction. ? Question 2: Elaborately discuss the factor which leads to politics in the organisation. Also highlight the role of organisational culture and individual factors in or ganisational politics. Answer 2: The global economy of 2011 is ridden with economic, political and humanitarian ambiguities and sailing in such an environment are organisations who manage their everyday resources by making complex decisions. Decision making involves human interaction and communication between individual employees and such a scenario invariably tends to create a ripple of politics in every corner of the organisation. The presence of limited resources creates competition among employees to gain control of the limited resources and being a zero-sum game, one man’s gain is out of another man’s loss. When an individual tries to exercise his or her influence over another for personal gain of any form in an organisational perspective, it is said to be indulging in politicking behaviour. The word politics finds it source in the Greek word: politika or politikos , which means of, for, or relating to individuals or citizens. Individual relations would mean that a diverse plethora of perceptions will come into the scene as every individual would tend to interpret a common fact differently. Among other various factors the most important factor which leads to politics in the organisation is the knowledge of the above fact. In an interaction between atleast two individuals, one would tend to influence the other for individual gain and according to German sociologist Max Weber, the probability with which one would be able to do so determine power. For example an employee trying to obtain favourable job promotion through flattery (Impression Management Technique) would be an instance of exercising power and hence manipulating the situation for gain of limited resources leading to organisational politics. A typical day in the organisation would tend to have many such instances where individuals who are aware of the fact that perceptions exist and they can be manipulated, tend to exercise influence over a co-worker. The difference in individual values, interests and goals give rise individuals with diverse personality traits. Among them there are individuals who tend to be more politically active in the organisation. Politics tend to hamper organisational progress and may bring about lowering of job satisfaction, especially when higher ranking employees exercise power over juniors. The reverse case tends to give rise to tension and finally conflict between the co-workers. According to Watson and Crossley (2001) organisational power relationships are an integrated part of managerial roles . Though it is said that politics lead to organisational regression, on a different note it can be said that it is once again needed to ensure a tight running of the company. For example it is in the best interests of the manager to ensure economic profitability of the company for which he or she needs to manipulate the limited manpower and other resources. When this is done tactfully and with no motive of individual gain as such, a positive politics is being played . However a study on 120 British managers suggests that nearly 70% of them have been affected with negative impacts of organisational politics . Hence the fact that an individual who is a high self monitor with an internal locus of control and a high need for power tends to be more political, but only an individual who knows the implications and acts responsibly, brings in good ethics in the game. Organisational culture and the individual human factor are the two halves of the dynamics of organisational politics. Looking into the influence of the organisation culture in politics would be to analyse the macro-factors that gives rise to instances which form the breeding ground of political tendencies. The organisation spurts out instances such as appraisal cycles, opportunity for future career benefit, a chance of leading an important project and many such cases which breeds politics. It may give rise to good politics if the employees keep in mind the gain of both the individual and the organisation, where as malicious actions may creep in if only individual gains are kept in mind. Here comes in the individual factors which form the other half of the picture. Individual factors are like the micro aspects which tend to carry forward the wave of politicking that has been sparked-off by the organisation-wide phenomenon. A personality trait with a high self monitor and an internal locus of control and high power need tend to be more political. Typically a Machiavellian type of personality with a high power need play politics in the organisation. Such a character would manipulate and satisfy individual need for power at the expense of the organisation’s cost or reputation. The various kinds of organisation politics involve influencing, covert agendas, positioning of power and manipulation. In an organisation which is witnessing low business cycle or undergoing any form of a crisis situation, will have individuals who employ the above techniques and tend to be of Machiavellian in nature. In an organisation, powerful and experienced individual as well as naive and inexperienced employees tend to involve in illegitimate form or harmful politics. Also a person who thinks that he or she will be able to succeed using illegitimate means or there are chances of a low success rate will get involved in bad politics. An ideal organisation is where politics is not expected to thrive and such an organisation is expected to have unlimited resources and individuals with common goals. Such is a utopic vision as far as the organisational environment is concerned. Being a zero-sum scenario the tug of war and the underlying tension between individuals and groups will always remain. The only fact to be kept in mind by managers is that even if politics is involved, it should be mixed with good ethics and by keeping in mind the greater as well as the individual good. ********************* Bibliography: Amah, 2009 (Conceptual framework on the relationship between human resource management practices, job satisfaction, and turnover by Hamdia Mudor Phadett Tooksoon, February 2011) Smith, Kendall, Hulin, 1969 A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham H. Maslow, 1943 Ting, 1997 (Conceptual framework on the relationship between human resource management practices, job satisfaction, and turnover by Hamdia Mudor Phadett Tooksoon, February 2011) Keashly and Jagatic, 2000 Karasek and Theorell, 1990 Merriam-Webster Dictionary Politics in Organisations by Linda Holbeche, 2002 Positive Organisation Politics by Geof Cox, June 2006 Politics in Organisations by Linda Holbeche, 2002