Comparitive Essay Between “Millions” and “Slumdog Millionaire” by Danny Boyle Essay

In both ‘Slumdog millionaire’ and ‘Millions’, the director Danny Boyle explores the subject of brotherhood. Furthermore, in both films, Boyle makes the same suggestion that the strength of brotherhood bonds is tested when circumstances change to increase pressure in the relationship. In both films, this theme is explored through the development of the characters in the opening scenes, the rising action and the climax. In the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ we are taken to the city of modern Mumbai and into the life of a man named Jamal Malik as he attempts to win the TV game show ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ in order to reunite with his long-lost childhood sweetheart, Latika. The film ‘Millions’, also from Boyle, tells us the tale of how the brothers Damian and Anthony react when a duffle bag filled with millions of soon-to-expire British pounds fall from the sky near their house. In the opening scenes of ‘Millions’, Boyle leads into the theme of brotherhood by introducing us to the characters Damian and Anthony through the use of camera work. The film begins with a montage of many different camera shots cut together to show a bicycle race between the brothers from a train station, to the construction site where the foundations of their new house are being laid. This has the effect of showing the audience that the brothers have a strong and positive relationship, as they are appearing to enjoy themselves in each other’s company. This introductory montage ends with a high angle shot of Damian and Anthony lying on the ground close next to each other after the race, looking happy and smiling. This, combined with the montage, has the effect of leading the audience to believe that the brothers enjoy each other’s company all the time – whether they are playing, competing or in this case relaxing. Through these techniques the audience is shown the strong brotherhood bond between Damian and Anthony before circumstances change or pressure is added to the relationship. Similarly, in the opening scenes of the film â€Å"Slumdog millionaire† Boyle also introduces us to the subject of brotherhood, and the bond between Jamal and Salim Malik, again through the use of camera work. In the early scenes of the film, a Montage of different shots is used to show the brothers running away from guards on an airstrip, after being caught playing cricket with some other kids from their slum. Throughout the chase, the brothers stick together. This has the effect of introducing us to the characters of Salim and Jamal, as well as making us aware of their friendship and brotherhood. Early on in this montage, a Medium Close Up shot is included, showing Jamal and Salim smiling and high-fiving whilst running away from the guards. This montage has the effect of leading the audience to believe that the brotherhood bond between Salim and Jamal is very strong, as they stick together even in the face of danger, in this case being caught by the guards. Both the Montage and the Medium Close Up shot address the subject of brotherhood, and show us the strength of the bond between Jamal and Salim before circumstances change to increase pressure in their relationship. In the rising action of ‘Millions’ the strength of the brotherhood bond between Anthony and Damian is tested when they disagree about how the money should be used. Boyle again conveys this changing dynamic of the boys’ relationship through the use of dialogue, editing and camera work. Shortly after the money is discovered, Damian and Anthony are in town when Damian sees a woman selling copies of the Big Issue. â€Å"Big Issue anyone? † she says, to which Damian replies â€Å"Here, and keep the change. † She responds â€Å"Thanks mate. I’ve had nothing to eat all day! † to which Damian replies, â€Å"We’re going to Pizza hut. Want to come? † At which point Anthony overhears the conversation and interjects â€Å"No! No she doesn’t, she just wants more money! We haven’t got any more! † Ignoring Anthony, the lady replies, â€Å"I’d fancy Pizza actually. Can I bring my friend? † to which Damian nods. Boyle uses this brief interchange to effectively portray the different views of Damian and Anthony. Damian is shown to be more than willing to help the hungry woman by buying her food, and doesn’t hesitate when she asks to bring a friend, even though it will double the cost. Contrastingly Anthony lies that they â€Å"haven’t got any more to try and avoid what he sees as a waste of money. Soon afterwards in the film, a wide shot is used to show the brothers as they leave for school. In the shot, Damian is in the background, on foot, shutting and locking their door whilst Anthony, wearing sunglasses is framed leaving with an entourage of other kids from school, riding on a bike someone else is pedaling for him. This shot has the effect of symbolizing the two different stances the brothers have taken with the money. Damian has decided to continue his life as if the money had never been discovered, whereas Anthony has decided to use the money for his own selfish purposes. Both the wide shot and the dialogue symbolize two instances in which the brothers disagree about what they should do with the money. Anthony wants to save the money unless it is being spent on him, whereas Damian has the exact opposite goal. Their different ideals combined with the change in circumstance – the discovery of the money – have increased the tension in their relationship and is testing their brotherhood bond. Similarly, the brotherhood bond between Jamal and Salim is tested in the rising action of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ when and Salim repeatedly betrays Jamal. Boyle reveals this development of the Malik brothers’ relationship through the use of dialogue. Jamal and Salim have a scam, in which Jamal occupies the long drop for as long as possible, so people pay Salim to get him to come out. Jamal takes to long getting out, and a potential customer leaves. Salim then says to Jamal â€Å"You just lost me a bloody customer†. Jamal is unconcerned, and doesn’t say anything. A nameless character then shouts â€Å"Amitabh’s helicopter! That’s Amitabh’s helicopter! † Jamal then exclaims â€Å"Amitabh? Amitabh Bachan! Salim places a chair beneath the bathroom’s handle so that Jamal can’t get out. Jamal then yells â€Å"Salim, open it! † We can tell by the way Jamal said Amitabh’s name that he admires him. Salim would have known this, and so to lock him in the toilet when he will probably never have the chance to see Amitabh again is very cruel. As it turns out, Jamal wants t o see Amitabh so badly he jumps through the long drop floor and emerges covered in sewerage. He then runs up to Amitabh and manages to get his autograph. Later, Salim sells the autograph. When Jamal finds out, he exclaims, â€Å"That was my autograph! Amitabh gave it to me! I’ll never get another! † To which Salim replies â€Å"He offered a good price, so I sold it! † As Salim walks away, Jamal says, almost to himself â€Å"But it was mine†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This, again, shows that Salim has very little empathy for his brother, and Jamal was also very upset about what Salim had done. Both these examples of dialogue have the effect of allowing the audience to see that Salim has betrayed Jamal, not once, but twice. The Malik boy’s brotherhood bond is being tested due to this is the change in circumstance. In the resolution of ‘Millions’ Damian and Anthony manage to overcome the obstacles and regain their brotherhood bond. Damian decided to burn all the money, and after he has set it on fire, he sees his dead mother. He has a brief talk to her, and then Anthony comes out to join him. Damian says to Anthony â€Å"She said to tell you not to worry, everything’s going to be all right. † By passing on this message to his brother, it shows that Damian himself agrees with it. Shortly later, a wide shot is used, showing the family crawling through the box tunnel to Damian’s fort. The fort was a very special place to Damian, therefore because he is allowing Anthony inside, it can be concluded that Damian has forgiven Anthony. The effect of the both dialogue and the wide angle shot is to again address the subject of Brotherhood, and to show the audience the brotherhood bond between Damian and Anthony was strong enough that when the circumstances changed for the better – the removal of the money – they managed to regain their previous relationship. Contrastingly, in the rising action of Slumdog Millionaire, Salim and Jamal have a fight, causing the dissolution of their brotherhood bond. After escaping from Maman, Salim has had too much to drink and wants to ‘have his way’ with Latika, so he tells Jamal to leave. When Jamal objects, he retorts, â€Å"I am the elder. I am the boss. For once, you do as I say† After throwing Jamal outside the apartment, Jamal starts banging on the door. Salim opens it, and points a revolver at Jamal’s head, and says â€Å"Shut up! The man with the colt 45 says shut up! Go now, or gun master Jinan will shoot you right between the eyes. Don’t think he wont. The effect of both of these examples of dialogue is to emphasize to the audience that Salim is more interested in his own desires than that of his brother, whom he knows loves Latika. From Jamal’s point of view this is the final straw, and it seems impossible for the brotherhood bond to return to what it was. In conclusion, Danny Boyle explores the subject of brotherhood and makes the suggestion that the strength of brotherhood bonds is tested when circumstances change to increase pressure in the relationship with both Salim and Jamal Malik in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and Anthony and Damian in ‘Millions’. In some ways, the films are similar, as the brotherhood bond between the two main protagonists is strong at the start, and is tested in the rising action. The films are different, however, because Anthony and Damian manage to recover their bond in the resolution, whereas Jamal and Salim do not. Boyle’s comments on each of the films are very interesting, and it was impressive to see such varied adaptations of the theme of brotherhood and the different outcomes of each.

A Case Study of the EWAN technology Supply Chain Management

In today's competitive environment, it is important for any business to focus on the customer and to provide unique value in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Without virtual integration, competitive advantage is lost. Successful implementation of virtual integration initiatives allows supplier companies, which are performing only certain processes, to work together as one entity. There fore, operations become more efficient by reducing inventory, assuring quality, and reducing delivery time. More importantly, the organisation maintains the ability to thrive in a competitive market place by achieving increased customer satisfaction through unique and strategic core competencies. Virtual integration will redefine corporations and, eventually, entire industries as supply chains evolve into a new business model of cooperation and sharing. EWAN technology has made recent attempts to transform its dated vertical integration service model into a maneuverable, efficient supply chain. Emphasizing methods Just – In -Time (JIT) inventory. Total quality Management (TQM) and Synchronous Material Flow (SMF), EWAN technology has derived a multi – tiered system of supply. The tier system consists of numerous generic suppliers. 2. BACKGROUND: EWAN Technology Solutions Inc. is the leading information and communication Technology Company in Eritrea. EWAN Technology is a privately held Eritrean company dedicated to providing full-scale in Technology solutions to medium and large sized corporations, and private sector. In its six years history, it has grown to become the largest private sector company of its kind. EWAN Technology provides a full range of service including Internet services, technical and corporate solutions and they specialize in providing local, Metropolitan and Wide Area Networking Services with full-scale end -to -end technology solutions at virtually any level of complexity. The capabilities of EWAN Technology Solutions are: * Network Design and Installation, * Software Development Service, * Internet Service, * Telecommunications, * Satellite Multi-access TV, * Computers and Accessories Retail, * Computer Maintenance Service, * Access Control. EWAN Technology is the largest Internet service provider and support more than 1,500 clients. EWAN also provides high speed Internet Service, Web Hosting Service, Web Page Design and Maintenance, and many other special related services. EWAN Technology Solutions team has expertise and dedication to provide customized end-to-end solutions for even the most complex needs. 3. EWAN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS SUPPLY CHAIN MNAGEMENT 3.1 Introduction Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a network of multiple business and relationship. SCM offers the opportunity to capture the synergy of intra and the inter company integration and management and the integration of key business processes from end users through original suppliers that provides products, services and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders. Supply chain management in many ways formerly was known as logistics management, but the name change has been worthwhile in that there have been so many additional aspects of logistics management incorporated in recent years. Whereas logistics was the poor relation of the organisation – necessary but highly unglamorous – supply chain management today is the one area in which much operational efficiency can be gained. Thereby reducing organisations' costs and enhancing customer service. The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in the evolution of supply chain management. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a major topic of conversation in many organizations today. A rapidly changing global competitive market coupled with the heightened expectations of increasingly sophisticated customers have forced firms to critically evaluate the performance of their supply chain and it ensures delivery of the right product, to the right location, at the right time, in the most profitable manner possible. Supply Chain Management can help to achieve faster time – to – market for products and services, global growth and migration to Web – enabled systems. Some of the benefits are: * Enhancing organizational value by reducing costs and increasing profitability, improved operational efficiency, and global inventory management. * Reducing overall supply chain risk by optimizing information flows and taking full advantage of investment. * Delivering products to market faster by gaining better control of the entire product life cycle. A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of material, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of this finished products to customers. Supply chain exist in both service and manufacturing organizations, also the complexity of the chain may vary greatly from industry to industry and from firm to firm. Traditionally, marketing, distribution, planning, manufacturing, in the purchasing organizations along the supply chain operated independently. These organizations have their own objectives and these are often conflicting. Marketing objective of high customer service and maximum sales dollars conflict with manufacturing and distribution goals. 3.2 EWAN technology solutions Supply Chain Decisions EWAN technology solutions classify the decisions for supply chain management in to two broad categories. These are strategic and operational. Strategic decisions are made typically over a longer time horizon. These are closely linked to the corporate strategy, and guide supply chain policies from a design perspective. While operational decisions are short term, and focus on activities over a day-to-day basis. Its four major decision areas in supply chain management are: A. Location Decisions – The geographic placement of production/service facilities, stocking points, and sourcing points. B. Production Decisions – The strategic decisions include what products to produce and which plants to produce them in, allocation of suppliers to plants, plants to decisions, and decisions to customer markets. Operational decisions focus on detailed production scheduling. C. Inventory Decisions – This refer to means by which inventories are managed. Inventories exist at every stage of the supply chain as either raw materials, semi finished or finished goods. These include deployment strategies (push versus pull), control policies the determination of the optimal levels of order quantities and re-order points, and setting safety stock levels, at each stocking location. D. Transportation (Distribution) – These are closely linked to the inventory decisions. For example air shipments may be fast, reliable and warrant lesser safety stocks, they are expensive. Meanwhile shipping by sea or rail may be much cheaper, but they necessitate holding relatively large amounts of inventory to buffer against the inherent uncertainty associated with them. 3.3 EWAN technology Supply Chain Network Structure One key element of managing the supply chain is to have an explicit knowledge and understanding of how the supply chain is configured. It is found that the three primary structural aspects of a company's network structure are: The members of the supply chain The members of a supply chain include all companies/organizations with whom the focal company interacts directly or indirectly through its suppliers or customers, from point of origin to point of consumption. EWAN technology defines primary members of a supply chain to be: All those autonomous companies or strategic business units who actually perform operational and/or managerial activities in the business processes designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market. The structural dimensions of the supply network Three dimensions of the network are essential when describing, analyzing and managing the supply chain. These dimensions are the horizontal structure, the vertical structure and the horizontal position of the focal company within the end points of the supply chain. The horizontal structure refers to the number of tiers across the supply chain. The vertical structure refers to the number of suppliers/customers represented within each tier. A company can be positioned at or near the initial source of supply, be at or near to the ultimate customer, or somewhere between these end points of the supply chain. The different types of process links across the supply chain Integrating and managing all business processes throughout the entire supply chain is likely not appropriate. Thus some links are more critical than others. EWAN' S Technology Solutions Inc. Supply – Chain Source: The International Center for Competitive Excellence, University of North Florida. Supply Chain Strategy EWAN technology solution's has over six years of experience in IT solutions and information technology with a special focus on using IT as a catalyst for new business models and process optimization. EWAN technology solutions have skilled personnel in information technology and they have been in business for more than six years in various activities such as network operation, software development, Internet connectivity, marketing, sales, and training. Supply chain management strategy is important to the overall success of the development of EWAN Technology Solutions Inc., as there is currently low awareness of the information technology in the region. In its supply chain management, the marketing strategy of EWAN technology is to provide information communication technology solution locally and regionally in the introduction of computer technology solutions and mobile telephones. In addition the firm has short-term plan of introduction training and development for information technology solution (IT). Besides the mission of the organization is to make the firm sustainable and to provide a reliable and standardized quality service, which is verified by ISO (International Standard Organization), which enable them to complete the international market. 4. EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT OPERATIONS OF EWAN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS EWAN technology serves as a regional and national outsourcing partner to leading companies in the technology solutions. They execute critical elements of the supply chain including materials management, customized complex kitting, and distribution and fulfillment services. EWAN technology creates value by helping customers increase their supply chain efficiencies and deliver products more cost effectively on the country. Within their business objectives, EWAN technology helps a variety of companies improve the overall performance of their network design and installation programs. They identify opportunities to reduce total costs, accelerate information to market and increase sales by better managing the steps involved in the production and fulfillment processes for items ranging from information kits and enrollment packages to promotional items for a nation wide sales force or channel partners. Reach out across the country EWAN technology solutions centers are strategically located in the most active and profitable markets throughout the country. Supporting this national and regional presence is an electronic network infrastructure that enables their products to reach customers as quickly as possible. They manage all aspects of services and distribution resulting in consistent processes and procedures. Regional Supply Chain Management EWAN technology serves as a regional supply chain management partner to many of the regions leading technology companies. They manage physical product flow and provide technology-enabled business and information management. Physical services include such activities as product assembly, packaging, order fulfillment, warehousing and distribution, while information systems provide an infrastructure and common process for managing and tracking component sources, product quality, inventories, and distribution status and product life cycles. Service Offerings EWAN technology services can help organization meet ever-increasing customer demand from order to delivery. Their product fulfillment services include: > Product-order management > Remittance processing, data entry and billing > Database and analytics > Customer care support > Reporting Internet and e-commerce support EWAN helps customer to meet their ultimate goal to deliver the right product into customers' hands on-time, every time while providing the high degree of service that consumers have come to expect. Orientation towards marketing EWAN technology is trying to carry out the organizations all effort at satisfying its customers. Instead of just trying to get customers to buy what the firm has produced, a marketing-oriented firm in its supply chain management tries to offer customers what they need. Three basic ideas are included in the process of the supply chain concept: 1. Customer satisfaction, 2. A total company effort, and 3. Profit – not just sales- as an objective EWAN Technology is a market-oriented organization, and we analyze the supply chain management through the following points: 1. Attitude toward customers – the company plan determines by the customers needs like providing network design and installation, Software development services, telecommunication service, and satellite multi access TV service. 2. Product service offering – EWAN Technology gives service based on orders requested by its customers. 3. Interest in innovation – the organization focuses on locating of new opportunities, such as, installation of telephone lines, introduction of modern mobile telephones, and up-to-date software development services. 4. Importance of profit – the critical objective of the organization is to maximize profit. In comparison to other information and communication providers, EWAN technology charges the highest price. Despite of the high price they charge, they have enough customers because of their reliable and quality services. 5. Relationship with customers – EWAN technology aims at customer satisfaction by giving 18 hours of services, after sales service, they give advice and consultancy to customers to procure computers and its accessories according to their needs aiming to avoid unnecessary costs. Competitive Advantage: – Competitive advantage means that a firm has a better supply chain mix that the target market sees as better than its competitors. A competitive advantage may result from efforts in different areas of the firm – cost cutting in production, innovative research and development (R&D), more effective purchasing of need components, or financing for a new distribution facility. Similarly, a strong sales force, a well known brand name, or good dealer may give it a competitive advantage in pursuing an opportunity what ever resource, and advantage succeeds if it allows the firm to provide superior value and satisfy customers better than some competitors. The firm provides complete Information Technology solution, which the other competitors do not have. The overall management of the firm is well equipped in Information Technology (IT) knowledge and most of its employees are skilled. 5. AREA OF QUALITY CONCERN EWAN Technology Solutions has six years of experience in the business. In this case the firms success factors are many, such as: * Adaptation of product design, * Continuous market research undertakings, * Expanding services to satisfy the potential customers, The areas of quality concern of EWAN technology solutions depend on the following major factors. * Providing complete information and communication technology Solution (ICT) to customers * Focused, serious – minded, experienced and devoted personnel to product growth, and * Institutionalized team building management with high caliber engineers, †¦etc, 5.1 Performance Indicators of Quality Concern The concept of operations at high-technology companies is changing. No longer does it apply simply to the manufacturing of products. Rather, it applies to the concept of managing a supply chain spanning from suppliers' suppliers to customers' customers. In fact, effectively configuring supply chain can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage. EWAN technology benchmarking studies show that superior performance is attainable when a company can integrate the Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return processes of its supply chain operations. EWAN technology supply chain performance indicator is a comprehensive service designed to assess performance by benchmarking customers against companies within the same industry. In addition to measuring their performance, they will also receive guidance on how to interpret customers benchmark results, identify improvement opportunities, and take the next steps toward achieving excellence. EWAN technology is in business to bridge the gap between strategic business issues and tactical technology solutions. Their Supply Chain Management services provide everything needed to extract maximum value from their supply chain: These are also the issues that EWAN technology works with everyday. * Supply Chain Consulting and Transformation * Supply Chain Optimization (Product Fulfillment and Distribution) * Procurement Outsourcing * Procurement Services * Data Registry and Synchronization Services Using powerful Web-centric solutions, EWAN technology Supply Chain Management creates, optimizes, and powers trading nets for clients. Along with their ability to leverage, EWAN technology broad range of strengths and capabilities, their solutions are based around key concepts and technologies such as e-business portals, key performance indicators, business intelligence, integration, advanced planning and scheduling, enterprise resource planning (ERP), e-engineering, and electronic business networks. 6. CONCLUSION Information has become the primary commodity of the global market. Some of the causes of poverty can be related to environmental and resource factors. Information development has been a critical element to the perpetuation of poverty in third world countries. The idea that a society's ability to develop is determined by its ability to access information. In modern society, information technologies are no longer a luxury, but a human need, and by inference is a basic human right. Countries with low levels of information will have low levels of development, low level of stability, and high levels of dependency. In the case of Eritrea, there is a growing government recognition of the importance of information and communication to the over all development of the nation. Indeed, the lack of access to relevant information is acknowledging as a major factor affecting the success and quality of research and development activities. In Eritrea, EWAN technology is a market leader in computer technology solutions in their supply-chain management. EWAN technology provides a comprehensive combination of computer technology solutions and digital imaging solutions to leading publishers and direct marketers, including advanced digital content management and e-business services. EWAN technology supply-chain management businesses provide a wide range of outsourcing capabilities to the country's customers. Services range from component procurement, product assembly and packaging to inventory control to regional and national distribution. 7. RECOMMENDATION Although there are key differences between companies EWAN technology solutions Inc. direct business approach can be applied to every facet of the organization's operation. Special care should be taken to address the unique dependency of EWAN's custom â€Å"tier one† suppliers. A variation of virtual integration could be applied to EWAN's dependent supplier base, while the management of lower tier suppliers of generic components would be, more effectively, suited by the standard procedures used. In regard to supply channel communication and procurement EWAN can make substantial gains by standardizing all B2B transactions. By offering an incentive program through out the tier network. EWAN can encourage all partners to make the necessary technological capital improvements in order to utilize an organisation wide extra net that will aid in fault – free procurement, real time inventory and speedy on time delivery. Bottlenecking channels would be averted, as synchronous information will flow up and down the supply chain via one, standard medium. Cost savings derived from this direct working relationship should be apple enough to subsidize the development of the extranet project as well as to reward the suppliers who successfully upgrade and integrate into the system. EWAN's of Total Quality Management (TQM) could be easily met by implementing a variation of the already existing virtual integration business model. Fostering cooperation through incentives is key since complains of supply chain partners is necessary to gain first mover advantage.

Life as a Spy During American Revolution Essay

Hello, my name is John Honeyman, and I am a spy. It is 1777 on the calendar. The real thing I do is spying for George Washington. You might ask me, why have I chosen such a dishonest duty? Why do I help the enemies of the Crown to which I have given an oath? Well, let me explain and perhaps you will not treat me as a cheat. At first, I am discharged from the British army, so i am not tied with my oath anymore. I am a married person living between Americans, so I feel myself American, but not British . I have seen so many injuries and untruths caused to the colonists by the British, that I became sympathetic about those honest and hard-working people. I understand and support the ideas of freedom for which they are fighting and I believe that their struggle is just. This convinsion became even stronger when I had an honor to be introduced to George Washington himself a year ago in Somerset, New Jersey. Already after his first words I realized that this is a great person and a charismatic leader. His speech sounded so convincing and his faith in victory was so great that I realized that my duty now is to serve this corageous man. He wanted me to continue my life and business in Trenton and to make further contacts with the British. I have demonstrated, that I am a conservative Tory to make them believe me. Their confidence allowed me to freely move inside the town and gather information about it’s garrison . Later I was â€Å"taken prisoner† by the colonists and managed to â€Å"escape†. Nobody of the British guessed that being a â€Å"prisoner† I have shared the gathered data with Washington himself. But this was not the whole buisiness. I have fooled the British command by telling them, that the continental army would never dare to attack Trenton, and he believed me. But right after Christmas of the previous year Washington has lead a force of 2400 men to attack Trenton and gain a decisive victory in this battle . When the battle was over I walked around the snowy battlefield covered with bodies of the dead. God, those people might have never died in case I did not betray them. And than I saw Washington riding a horse and moving towards me. Look, – he said – what victory can cost! Maybe Americans died for freedom this day, but what did those redcoats died for? For ambitions of England, and for nothing more. Thus said Washington. i do not know whether I did right or wrong, but I know that there is no way back. Nobody can say now how this war is going to finish. I am too old to fight it a a soldier, so I was ordered to stay in Trenton and pretend that nothing has happened to escape revenge by our enemies. I continue living here with my family and I am still trading goods. Washington and his followers continue to fight this war with tremendous bravery. Maybe they will lose, but they will still remain right, so God bless them!

Team Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Team Work - Essay Example The Belbin theory of team building states that in order to build a good team, a workplace should be assessed in great detail to look at the strength and weaknesses of individuals. The information learned at this stage can be used in selecting the right people for the right task. It will help in building good working relationship because people with the right skills will be doing the right tasks and hence will enjoy success and authority over what they do and this will in turn make them more confident and will help them achieve their targets with ease. It will also help the development of high performing teams because right people will be doing the right work. This will create positive synergies and generated output will greater than the sum of inputs by the team. It will also help build mutual trust and understanding because all the team members will know that right people are doing the right job and hence it will be easier for all team members to communicate, report any blunders and take the corrective action as a team if necessary. All of this will build a winning team which will work extremely efficiently in congregation to achieve their tasks, goals and target within the given span of time. Belbin also gave a clear definition of team members. He believed that personality hardly matters in team setting. An individual should be judged by the way he behave, contributes and interrelates with the other team members and sees them as his peer. Team working can help team members in working in the field in which they are strong in and eliminating their weak aspects by assigning some of the tasks to people who are good at one of the team member’s weakness. In other words, team work is a congregation of strengths and elimination of weaknesses. Everyone in a team can focus on the core competencies while letting other team members do the task in which one is weak in. This is an impressive utilization of the congregational strengths that a team has. It leads the t eam to be more efficient, productive and time efficient. As a result, many of the large organizations divide their work in projects to be completed by competent team of individuals having varied skills sets and way of think. This eliminates the problem of being stuck in tasks and all the work flows smoothly which benefits the entire organization. During research done on the topic, it was found that balance is the key in the success of a team and individual’s that are part of a team. Too much of one kind of skills may lead to a team that may not be able to operate as efficiently as a team that has varied skill sets. Hence, all kinds of skills should be given a weightage when composing a ideal team. This weightage should then be compared with the skills required in a job and team composition should not be complete until and unless the two are not in equilibrium or the sum of skills sets required in a job and sum of skill sets of a team are equal. Only then an ideal team will be formed, when both are in equality. Belbin allowed certain types of weaknesses in a team. These include people who are forgetful, people who delegate too much work leaving too little for them, people who are slow, perfectionists, bad-humored and specialist in their old fields. All of these weaknesses are accepted because there is no incompatibility in the team’s targets and all of these weaknesses are personality based and not work based. Hence, Belbin believes that these types of weaknesses in a team setting are allowable and does not make much difference as compared to work related weaknesses. The personal example that I would like to share through this essay is when I was completing a research work in a group. I encountered people of diverse personality

How has my writing changed in this semester why Essay

How has my writing changed in this semester why - Essay Example Consequently, I could not boast about great achievements in the beginning; however, I identified my weak points and developed clear goals I wanted to set. My motivation was warmed up by clear assignments, support and help of my mates and comprehensive teaching approach. Now I feel more confident when it comes to writing due to the skills I improved during this course. I have understood the line between formal and informal writing; I avoid using personal pronouns in academic essays. What is even more important, I have learned more about essay and paragraph structures. I used to deliver my thoughts in mess but now I know that every essay should have distinctive introduction, main body and conclusion. It is difficult to underestimate the contribution of my peers to my learning process. Peer-review process showed me how other people perceive what I wrote. It helped me to spot and correct my mistakes, reorganize my paragraphs and avoid meaningless sentences in writing. I started writing on the point, giving more examples, relating abstract things to real life

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

Individual report - Essay Example With reference to specificity and relevance to the specific aims of the project, it is identified that the project would be more concise with fewer objectives to focus on as the topic. Too much objectives within a project run the risk of overseeing some of the objectives leading to inaccuracies and lack of substantial conclusions (Berman, McCombs, & Boruch, 1977). Given the chance to retake the project, I would down size the current project objectives to five at most to ensure that each deliverable is achieved by focusing on specific explicit sources. However, the fact that the current project objectives are too many, the project is capable of suffering from support or evidence insufficiency. Trying to meet more than ten objectives in one project creates the risk of overlooking some while concentrating on one more than the other. Additionally, directing all the objectives into focusing into the same project is hard to achieve under normal circumstances. The practicality of a project denies the accommodation of too many tasks as these result to added finances, risks of running into various levels of challenges that have the potential to delay or hike the cost of executing the project. With reference to page 34 of the current project document, it is evident that the compiler of the document at this certain point did not consider grammar or proofreading the document a priority. With regards to this particular page, 34, it is evident that the compiler of the document did not consider TENSE and SPELLING to be a priority when compiling the document. For example, the last sentence of page 34 state that â€Å"Staff are not allow to edit the template to their owe preference† which projects high levels of human errors in the compilation of the document. With this in mind, the project runs the risk of being irrelevant to the very target group that it aims to inform and present findings to. Given the

Do social stories decrease challenging behaviour in children with Dissertation

Do social stories decrease challenging behaviour in children with Autism - Dissertation Example Parents, instructors and psychologists have practiced variety of instructional methods and techniques for improving behavioural disorders among the children with autism. Social Stories are used to enhance social behaviour and social skills among the children having developmental disorders and autism. Social Stories are widely accepted cognitive approach to behaviour change. It is a part of general knowledge and clinical studies also mentioned the fact that children with autism have lower social appointment and less regularly initiative and respond to initiations than their typical mates. Because of autism and other developmental problems, children show some signs of poor social interactions, loneliness, difficulty in making and maintaining social relationships, and other types of mental disorders. The most important goal of Social Stories is to deal with those devastating difficulties among the children with ASD (Kokina & Kern, n.d.). Parents and teachers identify that generally Soci al Stories are written to give details the meaning of problematic situations to the students and give emphasis to the pertinent details, by this means addressing students’ difficulties stemming from weak central coherence (WCC). Shannon Crozier’s case study clearly underlines that the student who engaged in the case study demonstrated a frequent reduction in his disruptive social behaviour. Other factors like participant’s age, degree of diagnosis, format of the Social Stories, length of the intervention and the process of assessment play a significant role in the processes of examining the effectiveness of Social Stories in creating desirable social behaviour among the autistic children. Background of the study In order to appreciate the use of social stories in promoting desirable behaviours, we need to know about various challenging behaviours generally autistic children were explored. So it will explore the historical context of the issues as it will help to give a theoretical perspective for current policy and so on. Parents and instructors have followed mixed opinion about the effectiveness of Social Stories in creating desirable social skills among the children with autism. However, Social Stories help the children with specific behavioural disorders to comprehend some social situations, and other’s perspectives towards various social contexts. The study gets vital importance when one relates the topic in to the ongoing issues about the effectiveness of the social stories in creating desirable social behaviour among the children having behavioural problems.†Children and youths with autism display a variety of unique behaviours, including social interaction excesses and deficits , self-stimulatory behaviours and marked preoccupation with restricted and stereotyped responses† (Zager, 1999, p.194). The proposed study will search to establish the current status of various techniques for children with behavioural disor der. It will discuss how parents and instructors demands social stories for removing behaviour challenges from their children’s nature. Existing instructional methods for autistic children paved the way for numerous debates and discussions about their effectiveness. Studies make available vital information about the growing phase of challenging behav

Music and American Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Music and American Culture - Essay Example As percussion instruments evolved later to accompany music, there was also the emergence of individual percussionist. With time, other new kind of instruments emerged which instruments further enabled the playing of virtuoso. At a given point in time, regular individuals began to create songs meant for their own consumption. These songs were called folk songs and they were not about God or heroes, but rather about sorrows and joys of life. The invention of polyphony greatly reduced the importance of rhythm, and later come to be perceived as plebian and primitive element of music. Conversely, rhythm was heavily relied upon by the folk music, both for purposes for singing and dancing. Consequently, the element of rhythm became the distinguishing factor between folk and classical music. This state of affairs remained as it was when both folk and classical music arrived in America. Europeans in the Americans melting pot were obliged to admit that there were several different types of folk music for the first time. Even though the racial instinct of music in America was intended to separate the Anglo-Saxons from the rest, it was just a matter of time before these boundaries were shattered. Surprisingly, the existence of African music was the most traumatic confrontation for the Europeans. Even though African music was long discarded as an animal kingdom oddity, that is to say a sound that is similar to that of an animal, the African music was able to coexist with the European music for close to two centuries before penetrating into the white society in America. Several elements of African music during the 19th century began to infiltrate into the folk music of white American society. It is worth noting that during this century, the phenomenon of Afro fusion only took place in America an there was no Afro contamination so to speak in the European society that too k place not until much later. Once more, a principle distinguishing factor was rhythm. Even though rhythm was not an inventory of black Africans, the polyrhythm’s of black Africans was certainly wide and different to accommodate rhythm from European folk music linear rhythm. Initially, the impact of black African music was barely felt, however, little was it known that this music was going to become the main element driving innovation. It is worth noting that the European folk music in the early 19th century had barely been changed, however dramatic changes were on the verge of taking place with the heavy presence of black African music (Nelson 1988). Music in the United States is one of the aspects that reflect the cultural diversity of the country through the various arrays of musical styles. In the United State, there are a number of internationally renowned genres of music which includes: rhythm and blues, hip hop, rock and roll, country, jazz, pop, barbershop, and techno . As a matter of fact, America has one of the largest music industries in the world not to mention the vast audience that music capture across the world. The earliest inhabitants of the United States were the Native Americans. Even though these natives had their own kind of music the arrival of large numbers of immigrants brought new instruments and music styles in America. Notably, the emergence of African slaves brought novel traditions of music contributing greatly to the

Given in attatchment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Given in attatchment - Case Study Example Hence the presence of wireless providers will become more evident. In addition, the demand for wireless and mobile services appears to reach all-time highs. In United Kingdom, Vodafone PLC is one of the most prominent mobile firms. The market value of Vodafone is over 84.7 billion (Vodafone PLC, 2007). By far, this is the biggest in the world among mobile telecommunication operators. As proof to its dominance, Vodafone is partnered with firms in 39 countries worldwide. The firm has been a picture of success in the mobile industry. There were several companies which have tried but failed to penetrate a diverse market. Vodafone's success is often attributed to its strategies and the commitment to make a difference in the industry. Further, Vodafone has dedicated all of its resources to ensure that its customers are provided with top-notch service and solutions. Vodafone understands the need to change because of competition. Changes in consumer preference also affect Vodafone's current direction. To ensure success, the firm amassed high quality resources from the technology used to the personnel delivering the services. Vodafone also assess its current strategies and reviews the performance of these techniques. The company follows a meticulous process to arrive at the best possible decisions for given circumstances. Vodafone PLC caters to approximately 200 million clients. ... In addition, the firm has to settle impairment charges and losses from discontinued operations. But Vodafone's operating revenues was positive in 2006. In fact, the firm has amassed sales of 29 billion during the said year. Of these revenues, 9.4 billion was recorded as operating profit before the mentioned costs and losses. In UK, Vodafone competes against O2, T-Mobile, Virgin Media, 3, and Orange. At present the firm controls 21% of the actual market share. It ranks second in terms of controlled market in UK. Vodafone is known as a partner to several other wireless companies operating across the world. It is affiliated with providers that are market leaders. Vodafone continues to transact with other mobile operators to further expand its presence (Sheth, 2006). III. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is defined as the scrutiny of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organisation (QuickMBA, 2007). This serves as an assessment of the firm's current market position. The primary strength of the company centres on innovation. The products developed by Vodafone identify the company. Another important strength of Vodafone PLC is linked to its reputation. The firm's links with other mobile providers in the world is a major strength. Instead of establishing a mobile network, Vodafone uses already established wireless firms in various markets. This save the company costs and allows Vodafone to make minimal investments with high returns. The brands developed by the firm are known to be of high quality. But Vodafone PLC has some obvious weaknesses. These include the weak performance of its partners. At times, Vodafone is dependent in the manner in which its partner

Analysis of Literary Criticism about Oranges of Gary Soto Research Paper

Analysis of Literary Criticism about Oranges of Gary Soto - Research Paper Example In his narrative, the poet actually steps in adolescence when he buys something for her girl by taking a chance. He offers an orange and a nickel to the saleslady for the bar of chocolate that the girl chooses. This is a critical point in the life of the boy and the climax in the poem because it creates uncertainty whether the saleslady will accept it or not. Once his offer is accepted, the boy comes out of the superstore triumphantly and enjoys his time with the girl. Although his courage is impressive, the risk was also a safe and intelligent bet: If the saleslady had refused to honor his orange for payment, he would still have the two oranges to share with the girl on their way home. Either way, he proves himself and impresses the girl which was the goal in the first place, and he is rewarded for his bravery by being allowed to hold her hand on the walk home. (White, 123) The poem is divided into two parts- before and after going in the superstore. The tone of the poem and the att itude of the boy have drastically changed. The tension or coldness between them is replaced by warmth and the scenery transforms dramatically. â€Å"Someone might have thought/ I was making a fire in my hands.† (55-56) the poet’s wish has been granted and suddenly the dullness of December as signified by fog and old coats is brightened up with the oranges. The color of orange stands out sharply in contrast to gray December; in fact it even looks like fire. Fire is the antithesis of frost, which was mentioned in the first part of the poem. Frost and crackling ice represent the absence of emotions or passions; but by the end of the poem, the boy earned warmth which is represented by the color of the oranges. In the first part of the poem, when the boy is entering the superstore, he notices a â€Å"used car lot† (18) which represents emptiness and stillness. The emotional state of the boy is empty and still. This condition is transformed in the second part of the p oem where â€Å"A few cars hissing past† (43) denote the movement or transition in the stage of life of the boy. He moves on in life without looking back at it with awkwardness, as he â€Å"finds a new sense of confidence and independence.†(White, 121) The poetic language used in the poem is simple and based on a trivial, everyday experience of a young boy. The language is also kept simple because it is stored in the memory of a person, when he was young- merely 12 years old. His memories are captured in a rather simple manner that makes it easy for the readers to compare or relate their experiences with his. Imagery and symbolism are used extensively by Soto to describe the entire scenery and situation. The boy recalls his vivid memories of walking for the first time with a girl. This shows how important it is for anyone at this age to feel love for the first time. The poet is aware of the external scenes and captures them in his memory- he is aware of all the sights and sounds of the gray December and slowly he starts noticing the various colors that light up his mood and his surroundings. The yellow light in the porch, the color of rouge on the cheeks of the girl, newly planted trees are some of the things that visually describe the scenery. Apart from this, sound imagery also brings to life the entire scene to the readers, as they read the phrases: Frost cracking; a dog barked; the tiny bell; and a few

English Composition Essay Example for Free

English Composition Essay I am writing my research paper on the topic of mandatory minimum jail sentences. Why do we have mandatory minimum sentences for certain criminal offenses that cause individuals to do extended prison terms when their offenses are totally different from someone who commits a similar offense but do the same amount of time? My work in law enforcement leads me to believe that people should not be sentenced to mandatory sentences. I’ve seen a number young men incarcerated for minor crimes who received mandatory sentences that appeared to be very harsh in comparison to the offense they were convicted of. This argument should be of interest to those who have the power to change the law, opposers of the law, and those in favor of mandatory sentences who feel they are equitable. I will argue that the laws governing mandatory minimum sentences should be amended. I believe the length of a sentence, should depend upon the severity of the offense committed. For example, someone apprehended with a small bag of marijuana for personal usage should not be required to complete the same sentence as someone with pounds of marijuana that was planned to be widely distributed. To be sure justice is served, which is the goal of the court system, criminal sentences should be decided on an individual basis with due consideration to guidelines given by the law. It should also be argued that the first purpose of the court should be to rehabilitate. This can only be done by personal consideration of each case and punishment. I look forward to sharing my thoughts on this provocative issue.

Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Example for Free

Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are very prominent African American individuals throughout history. They fought for what they stood for but in many different ways. As we all know in history there are no two great men that are alike. Their many beliefs may have blossomed from the households they came from and how they grew up. King grew up in a middle class family and was well educated. While, Malcolm X grew up in an underprivileged environment that was very hostile with barely any schooling. Martin Luther King Jr. was always against violence, throughout his entire ministry. He always stood his ground, and he stood out because eventhough he may have been physically attacked, he never reacted with violence. Martin Luther King Jr. followed the Christian faith. Malcolm X was a Muslim, and believed in Muslim principles. His most famous line was â€Å"By any Means Necessary†. He believed in fighting back physically. Whatever had to be done to get freedom he was all for it whether it be violence or nonviolence. Although later in life he visited Jerusalem, and met other Muslims. He changed his views, and became nonviolent. Both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had uncompromising love for their people. They both wanted see Black people in the best possible position. They were both religious figures that used religious to provide structure, morality, courage, determination and unity in Black people. They were both killed before they reached their 40th birthday.They both stood 4 freedom,they were both assassinated and they both liked Afro-American women.Different religions but both were men of god. Malcolm X was a Muslim and Martin Luther King jr was a Christian. Malcolm X was a Black nationalists and Garveyite. Malcolm X did not believe in an integrated society between Blacks and Whites. Malcolm X believed that Black people should build a world for themselves controlled by themselves that specifically addressed the needs and desires unique to Black people. MLK wanted his movement to be peaceful, while X was a radical extremist who wanted A.A. rights to be violent..Martin Luther King wanted to get things accomplished without aggression or violence, and Malcolm X did not. Martin Luther King wanted everyone to coexist peacefully and wanted to be counted as an equal, and Malcolm X wanted there to be a clear segregation of the White people and Black people in America, with different areas for each to live, because he felt that they would never get along. Martin Luther King Jr was an integrationist. He believe in one American society based upon the promises of the founding fathers of America that all men were created equal and had the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He believed that it was Black peoples right to be first class citizens of America and all that it entailed. After Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam he went to Mecca to complete one of the five pillars of Islam which is El Hajj The holy pilgrimage. After that experience he begin to take on a world view against injustice and tyranny everywhere. Martin Luther King jr take on a similar stance sparked by the Vietnam war. He too saw the importance of fighting injustice worldwide.

Issues in human resource management

Issues in human resource management Human Resource Management is defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisations most valued assets, the people working there, who individually or collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Boxall et al (2007) describe HRM as the management work and people towards desired ends. John Storey (1989) believes that HRM can be regarded as a set of interrelated policies with on ideological and philosophical underpinning. He suggests four aspects that constitute the meaningful version of HRM: A particular constellation of beliefs and assumptions. A strategic thrust informing decisions about people management. The central involvement of line managers. Reliance upon a set of levers to shape the employment relationship. The overall purpose of HRM is to ensure that the organisation is able to achieve success through people. As Ulrich and (1990) remark: HRM systems can be the source of organisational capabilities that allow firms to learn and capitalize on new opportunities. Dyer and Holder (1988) analyse managements HR goals under the dimensions of contribution (what kind of employee behaviour is expected?), composition (what headcount, staffing ratio and skills mix?), competence (what general level of ability is desire), and commitment (what level of employee attachment and identification?). Caldwell (2004) has identified twelve policy goals for HRM: Managing people as assets that are fundamental to the competitive advantage of the organisation; Aligning HRM policies with business policies and corporate strategy; Developing a close fit of HR policies, procedures and systems with one another; Creating a flatter and more flexible organization capable of responding more quickly to change; Encouraging team working and cooperation across internal organizational boundaries; Creating a strong customer-first philosophy throughout the organisation; Empowering employees to manage their own self-development; Developing reward strategies designed to support a performance- driven culture; Improving employee involvement through better internal communication; Building greater employee commitment to the organisation; Increasing line management responsibility for HR policies; Developing the facilitating role of managers as enablers. EX1: Supermarket giant Tesco is offering a massive  £300,000 salary plus bonuses as it starts its search for a new group HR director, Personnel Today can reveal. The HR job, the biggest in the private sector is up for a grabs after Clare Chapman accepted the role of director-general of workforce at the Department of Health. The new confirms that Chapman took a serious cut overall earning to join the public sector in probably the most high-profile and challenging HR job in the UK. She will now earn between 3200,000 and  £220,000for overseeing the people management of 1.3 million staff, a number that dwarfs Tesco 270,000 employees. (Personnel Today, 19 September 2006). But as Dyer and Holder (1998) emphasize: HRM goals vary according to competitive choices, technologies or services tangibles, characteristics of their employees, the state of the labour market and the societal regulations and the national culture. And Boxall, Purcelland and Wright (2007) note that the general motives o HRM are multiples. Managing people at work does not take place in a vacuum. Wider econic, technological, political and social forces influence and shape human resource management (HRM) strategy, policies and practices, global and local economic developments sometimes having an indirect or a multiplier effect. EX2: The electric Giant Siemens, for example, overtakes Philips Electronics, so Philips downsizes and lays off workers. Belt -tightening workers then press for cheaper services from local traders and are prepared to work for lower wages, thereby causing an adjustment in the local labour markets and in the HRM decisions and activities of those organisations affected. William (1993) is one of the number of theorists who have argued the importance of understanding the relationship between economic stability or instability and HRM, but it is not just the economic context that matters. New manufacturing and services technologies, new processes (eg. total quality management and International Organization for Standardization-ISO 9000) and the developments in global telecommunications networks have important ramifications or organizational and work design, and for HRM. Just as significant are demographic changes and the restructuring labour markets that affect the supply of and demand for human resource (HR). Past fluctuations in the birth rate in Anglo-Saxon economies are producing changes in the labour force composition. Human Resource strategies and practices are better understood when they are examined in the broader economic, technological, political and social context that help to shape them ( Maurice and Sorge, 2000). The political factors The political context is the most complex and the most difficult to analyse, both because of its power to shape the nature of the employment relationship and because of its effect on the other contexts. As a result of that power, the social elites in whose hands it lies enjoy immense influence in society, in the political system and in the determination of the states policies and actions ( milliband, 1969). In a social demeocracy, the state has six major responsibilities: Protecting national sovereignty Establishing a legal system Developing economic policies Building basic services and infrastructure Protecting vulnerable people Protecting the environment All these state activities affect business and managers in some way. Human Resource Managers in this case will have for responsibility to educate their staff about the political ideology and continually lobby and seek to influence the policies of the State. HR has help shape and regulates employment relations, and reconcile the conflict that inevitably arises in employment. EX3: Chinas government is worried that the growing gap between rich and poor could provoke more instability this year. The government has announced that the narrowing of the income gap will be one of its main priorities this year and will be at the top of the agenda when Chinas national legislature holds its annual meeting. (Geoffrey York, Globe and Mail, 9 February 2006, P. A1). EX4: Protests against Frances new job law escalate Ten of thousands of students marched in protests of a new law that makes it easier to hire and fire young workers. More protests, in which the students will be joined by Frances main unions, are expected. Last month, the countrys government passed a law that it claims will ease the crisis of high unemployment, especially among young disadvantaged young people in the suburbs. CANADIAN HR REPORTER, 17 MARCH 2006 The social factors Change s in the proportion of the population participating in the labour market and chamging demeographics determine the size and composition of the workforce. In addition, people entering the workplace bring with them different attitudes and values relating to work, parentwood, leisure, notions of fairness and organizational loyalty. EX5: IBM labels diversity a strategic imperative. Hiring women, gays, and minorities is about more than doing the right thing. Fishing ius more fun says IBMs dean of diversity, but golf is the game of business which is why, he explains, Big Blue has installed putting greens at some of its on-site day care centers. IBM should be place where people feel comfortable being popenly gay and where women and people from minority group backgrounds have equal opportunity for promotion and advancement, said Mr Childs, who is black. And anyone who has a problem with that need not apply to IBM, he added. IBMs effort to diversify the work force has moved from being a moral imperative to being a strategic imperative. (Virginia Galt, Globe and Mail, 24 June 2002, P.83) Demographic projections are based on the most basic demographic fact: every year each person gets older. Analysing human behaviour to age offers insights into socioeconomic variables. A 30-years old, for instance is more likely to be married than a 20- years old. A-55 year old probably views work differently from25 year old. The ability to forecast behaviour according to age has the advantage of allowing HR managers to know more about the composition of the workforce and their needs. Demographic data are important source of information that can help HR managers in such areas as recruitment and selection, training and rewards management. EX6: Mandatory retirement attacked Government should ban mandatory retirement at age 65 because it discriminates against people who are capable of working and who often need the money, Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Keith Norton said. Mandatory retirement, where age is used to determine the persons employment status, is unacceptable from a human rights perspective, Mr Norton told Queens park news conference. Whether people seek employment and how they respond to HR practices, designed to elicit both control and the consent of employees, will depend on cultural values. Culture is a collective product, consisting of processes and artefacts, produced over long periods of time by large members of individuals, which enables the past to be carried in the present and the future (Parker et al, 2003). Changing culture values have an impact on HRM activities. Changes in traditional gender roles and new lifestyles, for example, change participation rates in the labour market and the way in which workers are motivated and managed in the workplace. The notion of a work-life balance for instance for employees, the need to balance work and leisure/family activities is a hot area in HRM research that is receiving increasing attention from policy- makers and managers (Purcell, 2004; Surges and Guest, 2004). Research on employer work-life balance strategies can have important benefits for organization. E vidence suggests that, in the face of a highly competitive labour market, work-life policies and practices are necessary for attracting, retaining and motivating highly skilled knowledge workers (Scholarios and Marks, 2004). Work- life boundary and work-life balance strategies are closely related to the commitment that knowledge workers give to their employer and are, in addition, necessary for creative and innovative behaviours and organizational culture (De Cieri et al, 2005). Technological factors A number of authors have argued that the use of technology within HR not only makes HR activity more efficient, but may also facilitate a change in emphasis for HRM to become more strategic within the organisation (Lawler and Mohrman 2003; Shrivastava and Shaw 2004). Literature has commented for the idea of HRM as a strategic business partner (Ulrich 1997) rather than in the administrative or transactional role that it has held historically. With the growth of information technology, much administrative can be accomplished using self-service or automated systems, therefore the HR function can, and increasingly does make significant contribution to building a firm that is staffed by the right human capital to carry out the work of the company, and enable the accomplishment of business strategy ( Lawler and Mohrman 2003: 16). Snell et al (2002) have suggested that HR can meet the challenge of simultaneously becoming more strategic, flexilble, cost efficient and customer oriented by lev eraging information technology. IT can lower administrative costs, increase productivity, speed response times, improve decision making and enhance customer service all at the same time. EX7: Norwich Union is the largest insurer in the UK and is part of the Aviva Insurance Group that has more than 60,000 employees. Human Resources within Norwich Union are managed using shared service model. The company uses an Oracle HR information system (HRI) with an extensive system of manager self-service. Managers can use the system to inform fundamental changes with regard to their employees. These includes: to change salary, cost centre and allowances, process leavers, update absences, produce reports, process overtime payments and compare salaries and performance ratings. The company also uses a degree of employee self-service with employees being able to: maintain personal details and emergency contac, provide information on their pay, request holidays, record absence, change bank account details and look at performance rating and salary history. HRM guide, October 2004 The technology and communication infrastructure can facilitate virtual working and learning. EX8: Nestle, with over 2000,000 employees spread across hundreds of locations, has adopted distance learning approach based on e-learning with courses structured around short modules of between five and seven minutes duration.(Marquardt, 2004). The role of HR managers will be to train employees to adapt with technological changes as it arises through training process in order to face change in the competitive environment. Economic factors As part of the economic context, globalization is the defining political economic paradigm of our time. In term of external context, globalization has affected all aspects in Business. In term of HR strategy, HRM policies and practices have to be aligned to the global activities of transnational enterprises and be able to attract and retain employees operating internationally but within different national employment regimes. EX9: China, India and the USA will drive growth A new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit predicts that more than half the growth in the worlds GDP over the next 15 years will come from China(27%), the US(16%), and India(12%). The foresight 2020 research report, sponsored by Cisco System, bases its predictions on new long term economic forecasts, a survey of more than 1,650 executives and in-depth interviews with senior business leaders. HRM guide, April 2006. The growth of the global economy has resulted in significant sections of the labour market being influenced by the investment decisions and production and HR strategies of transnational corporations. These transnational corporations such as Toyota, Unilever, Ford, have established a global network for research and development, production and marketing. These corporations integrate global resources and outsource some of their work to preferred suppliers to achieve cost efficiencies while maintaining the capability to respond to local markes. These global business strategies strongly affect the nature of local markets and therefore HRM initiatives and practices. EX10: Employees urges British gas to reconsider plan to move 2000 jobs to India Angry British Gas employees are campaigning for the company to reverse its decision to transfer 2,000 back-office jobs to India. British Gas plans to close sites in Manchester, Oldham and Solihull as part of a  £430m over-haul of its customer billing system. People management, 15 August 2005. Human Resource Management is a body of knowledge and a set of policies and practices that shape the nature of work and regulate the employment relationship. These practices suggest three questions: What do HRM managers do? What affects what they do? How do they do what they do? To answer these questions, we draw on the work of Harzing (2000), Millward et al. (2000) and Ulrich (1997) to identify key HRM functions. These are HR policies, programmes and practices designed in response to organizational goals and contingencies, and managed to achieve those goals and gain competitive advantage. Planning: preparing forecasts for future HR needs in the light of an organisations environment, mission and objectives, strategies and internal strengths and weaknesses, including its structure, culture, technology and leadership. Integrating: appropriately integrating or linking HRM with the strategic management process of the company and coordinating bundles of HR practices to achieve the companys desired goals. Staffing: obtaining people with the appropriate skills, abilities, knowledge and experience to fill jobs in the organization. Key practices are HR planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection. Developing: analysing learning requirement to ensure that employees possess the knowledge and the skills to perform satisfactorily in their jobs or to advance in the organization. Performance appraisal can identify employee key skills and competencies. Motivating: the design and administration of reward system. HR practices include job evaluation, performance appraisal, pay and benefits. Designing: the design and maintenance of work system that are safe and promote employee health and workplace wellness in order to attract and retain a competent workforce and comply with regulations. Managing relationship: processes and structures that build cooperative relationship among employees, between employer and trade union. Managing change: which involve helping others to envision the future, communication this vision, changing mindsets and setting clear expectations for performance. Evaluating: designing the procedures and processes that measure, evaluate and communicate the value-added of HR practices and the entire HR system to the organization. EX 11: The 21st century chief human resources officer (CHRO) A new report from Deloitte Consulting, Strategist Steward: The evolving role of the Chief Human Resources Officer outlines the challenges, processes and performance measures facing todays CHRO. According to the report, the modern CHRO is required increasingly to act as both strategist and steward. To quote Deloittes media release, they are leaders who not only manage the HR function and operations team, but also collaborate directly with the CEO and board of directors on a range of critical. Deloitte Consultings Strategist and Steward report is available at htt://www.deloitte.com/us/strategistandsteward. Human resource planning Human resource planning is the process by which the management of an organization determines its future human resource requirements and how the existing human resources can be effectively utilized to fulfil these requirements. In the process, the management strives to have the appropriate number and the appropriate kind of people at the appropriate place. Human resource planning is one of the HR practices that is a futuristic form of assessment. It tries to assess the human resource requirements in advance keeping the organizational objectives, production schedules, and the fluctuations in the background. The basic purpose of human resource planning is to have an accurate estimate of the number of employees required with the matching skills to meet the organizational goals. It helps organization to maintain and improve its ability to achieve its goals by developing strategies that will in optimum contribution of human resource. In order to gain sustainable competitive advantage, Stainer recommends the following nine strategies for human resource planners: They should collect, maintain, and interpret relevant information regarding human resources. They should report periodically human resource objectives and requirements, existing employees, and allied features of human resource. They should develop measures of human resource utilization as components of forecasts of human resource requirements along with independent validation. They should employ suitable techniques to effective allocation of work with a view to improving human resource utilization. They should conduct research to determine factors hampering the contribution of the individuals and groups to the organization with the view to modifying or removing these handicaps. They should develop and employ methods of economic assessment of human resources to reflect its features as income generator and cost and accordingly improve the quality of decisions affecting the human resource. They should evaluate the procurement, promotion, and retention of effective human resource. They should analyse the dynamic process of recruitment, promotion, and loss to the organization and control these processes with a view to maximizing the individual and group performance without involving high cost. They should develop procedures and techniques to determine the requirements of different types of human resource over a period of time from the standpoint organizational goals. Recruitment and selection: Recruitment and selection have always been critical processes for organizations. Recruitment and selection are vital stages in the formation with an emphasis on a two way flow communication; employees are attracted to and select an organization and the work on offer as much as employers select employees. Thus, employers need to see the attraction and retention of employees as part of the evolving employment relationship, based on a mutual and reciprocal understanding of expectations, as well as an attempt to predict how a potential employee might behave in the future and make a contribution to the organization requirements. This is very important when the labour market is tight in other words when there is a strong competition. The purpose of selection is to select the most valuable candidate who would meet the requirements of the job. There is a wide variation s in recruitment and selection practices, reflecting an organizations strategy and its philosophy towards the management of people. Employees seen as part of the primary internal market become the focus for the bundle of human resources practices intended to bring about increased motivation, an increased acceptance of responsibilities, deepened skills and greater commitment, providing the organization with a competitive edge. Human resource planning Staff needs, option internal/external Recruitment Pool of applicants Selection Job performance The stages of recruitment and selection EX12: Blind jobseekers brought up speed Speed recruitment days based on the speed dating format, are being used to boost the number of visually impaired people in work. The charity Blind in Business set up 10 years ago by three blind graduates to make it easier for visually impaired university-leavers to get jobs, believes the events are a way of matching employees and candidates who may otherwise never meet. Human resource development Technology, global markets, customer expectations and competition have all contributed to the view that organizations need to achieve high performance working leading generation of high value added products and services for customers, and trust and commitment from enthusiastic employees (International Labour Organization, 2000).Many organization now claim to take a holistic view that embraces the idea of learning individual and organizational levels as a crucial source of competitive advantage. EX13: Ernst Young: Building your professional career At Ernst Young, you can look forward to enriching your knowledge and experience. Whilst we expect you to take a proactive approach to the management of your career, we also provide considerable support. We provide many opportunities for you to specialize in an industry sector or in particular markets, and, in addition, excellent opportunities exist for our best people to develop experience through international assignments. To provide the in depth learning required to support your development, we offer a comprehensive suite of high quality training courses. Financial times, 24 October 2008 p.16 Flexibility plan The flexible firm model by Atkinson and Meager, 1985, p.2 which draws into a simple framework the new elements in employers manpower practices, bringing out the relationship between various practices and their appropriateness for different companies and groups of workers. This model identified four types of flexibility: Functional: a firms ability to adjust and deploy the skills of its employees to match the tasks required by its changing workload, production methods and technology. Numerical: a firms ability to adjust the level of labour inputs to meet fluctuations in output. Distancing strategy: the replacement of internal workers external subcontractors that is, putting some work, such as running the firms canteen. Financial: support for the achievement of flexibility through the pay and reward system. These flexibilities are achieved through a division of employees into the core workforce and the peripheral workforce. The core group is composed of those workers expected to deliver functional flexibility and includes those with firm specific skills and high discretionary elements in their work. The peripheral group is composed of a number of different workers. One category might be directly employed by the firm to perform work with low discretionary elements. Another might be employed as required on a variety of contracts, and the final category comprises trainees, some of whom may be prepared for eventual transfer to the core group. Functional flexibility could be presented as: Job enlargement Job enrichment Job rotation Training and development In the present competitive and dynamic environment, it has become essential for organization to build and sustain competencies that would provide them sustainable competitive advantage. No enterprise can last long in a highly competitive society unless it keeps pace with the emerging market trends and technological changes. The training programme can be defines as a process through which an organization seeks to attain the objectives of performance enhancement by developing the skills of a set of learners or by fulfilling the learning requirements of an identified group of employees. Development on the other hand is holistic, often aiming at overall personality development. The content of a development programme includes conceptual or theoretical inputs, perspective strategic thinking or focusing on behavioural aspects such as leadership skills, managing teams, groups. We may say that training is imparted to operatives, whereas development is a process of grooming mainly used for exe cutives and managers. The benefits for organization are: There will be an increase in the intellectual capital of the company Training helps in achieving higher standards of quality, building up a satisfactory organizational structure, delegating authority, and motivating employees to perform better. Employee turnover and absenteeism are reduced Wastage is minimized Jon enlargement and job enrichment programmes can be implemented easily Making training a continuous affair in the company can strengthen employee loyalty. EX14: Getting the value from NVQs at the Northern Snooker Centre The Northern Snooker Centre Ltd is a long established family business in Leeds. With over 33 staffs, the company has developed from having 9 snooker tables to over 27,plus 16 pools tables and three bar and lounge areas that are open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The family owners have consistently worked towards developing a customer focused culture and ethos based on staff training and development, teamwork and leadership. The company regards the teams as the whole workforce and has therefore sought to provide learning opportunities for everyone, using NVQs as a key mechanism. June williamson, company secretary. Daily Mail, 06 January 2007 p.12 Performance management and appraisal Performance appraisal can be described as the process of reviewing employees performance, documenting the review, and delivering it to the employee in the form of feedback. The information collected from performance measures is used for compensation packages, employee development, identification of training needs, providing feedback, and development of the employee. EX 15: RBS examines its people practices. A project aimed at identifying which people practices drive customer service and business performance has been launched by Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS). The initiative, called Service Excellence through People will bring together key data on 4,000 of RBSs retail bank branches worldwide in a bid to take its leading edge human capital strategy to the next level. RBS has engaged Harvard Business School and its survey consultants to carry out the study. Rima Manocha, People Management, 28 July 200 The human resource of an organization constitutes its entire workforce. Human resource management is responsible for selecting and inducting competent people, training them, facilitating and motivating them to perform at high levels of efficiency, and providing mechanisms to ensure that they maintain affiliation with the company. Change is inevitable in life and in the case of organizations, the general tendency is to complacent with policies and practices that have been successful in the past. Human resource , which has been a staff function, has now assumed a strategic function, as it has to coordinate with other functional areas in forecasting the future and gearing up human resource to meet the future challenges. REFERENCES Rima Manocha, People Management, 28 July 200 June williamson, company secretary. Daily Mail, 06 January 2007 p.12 Financial times, 24 October 2008 p.16 www.deloitte.com/us/strategistandsteward People management, 15 August 2005 HRM guide, April 2006 Marquardt, 2004 De Cieri et al, 2005 HRM guide, October 2004 Virginia Galt, Globe and Mail, 24 June 2002, P.83 CANADIAN HR REPORTER, 17 MARCH 2006 Geoffrey York, Globe and Mail, 9 February 2006, P. A1 (Personnel Today, 19 September 2006).

Should Plea Bargaining be Abolished? Essay -- Pros and Cons of Plea Ba

Being a citizen of the United States comes with advantages that no other country can match. We are granted rights and privileges just for being born within our borders. Others can also gain these rights by adopting our way of life and swearing to uphold its values. Being a citizen or not, we are expected to obey laws that the U.S. Government has put in place to maintain order and balance. When we don’t obey these laws the government has the right to punish us. Luckily for us, our Bill of Rights has even granted us rights until proven guilty. It gives us rights to a fair and speedy trial as well as the right to representation during trial. So many rights and procedures have come about since the birth of our nation. We are constantly making new rules to help uphold the old rules and deciding if the old rules still apply. One practice that has been used during trial has no mention in the Bill of Rights, but has been held as constitutional is plea-bargaining.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The plea bargain was a tool rarely used before the 19th century in prosecution. â€Å"In America, it can be traced almost to the very emergence of public prosecution, although not exclusive to the U.S., developed earlier and more broadly here than most places.† Plea-bargaining was limited because judges controlled most sentencing. Judges did not appreciate the workload relief until personal injury cases skyrocketed during the industrial era.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A plea bargain can be defined as, â€Å"a negotiation between the defendant and his attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead â€Å"guilty† or â€Å"no contest† to some crimes, in return for reduction of the severity of the charges, dismissal of some of the charges, the prosecutor’s willingness to recommend a particular sentence or some other benefit to the defendant. Sometimes one element of the bargain is that the defendant reveal information such as location of stolen goods, names of others participating in the crime or admission of other crimes. The judge must agree to the result of the plea bargain before accepting the plea. If he does not, then the bargain is cancelled.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One could wonder why plea bargains are even made. One reason would be that criminal courts are becoming clogged and overcrowded. Going through the proper procedure and processes that we are granted takes time. Trials can take anywhere from days to... ...caseloads, and more often than most realize they may plea-bargain a case that in fact should be prosecuted. I have no intentions of trying to judge their actions, simply because I truly appreciate the position they are in.† Bibliography ABA Division for Public Education: Steps in a Trial: Plea Bargaining. Sept. 25, 2004 http://www.abanet.org/publiced/courts/pleabargaining.html CNN.com - Ashcroft's new charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing Oct. 3, 2003 http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/03/findlaw.analysis.lazarus.ashcroft/ Defendants' Incentives for Accepting Plea Bargains. Sept. 25, 2004 http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article. Ellis, Michael. â€Å"Message no. 5921.† Sept. 11, 2004 http://www.saintleodl.eduprise.com Plea Bargain. Sept. 25, 2004 http://dictionary.law.com/definition2. Plea Bargaining Sept. 29, 2002. http://www.truthinjustice.org/bargaining.htm Plea Bargaining: An Unconstitutional Delegation of Judicial Power. Sept. 25, 2004 http://www.lawmall.com/pleabarg/ Plea Bargaining Nov 24, 1992 http://www.bronxda.net/fcrime/plea.htm Plea Bargains: Why and When They're Made . Sept. 25, 2004 http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article

The Stock Market Essay examples -- Economy, Malaysia, Capital Market

The economic conditions were not that favourable during the financial crisis in 1997. Instability in the international financial markets in turn spilled over into the domestic financial markets. Continued waves of adjustment in both the currency and stock markets, coupled with the decline in domestic and export demand subsequently prompted a shift to more growth promoting policies. One of the institutions that affected was Malaysian stock market. In general, Malaysia stock market contributes to the best allocation of capital resources among numerous users. The roles of the stock market are mainly to facilitate and encourage the mobilization of funds, direct them towards efficient economic activities, provide adequate liquidity for investors and encourage the creation of large-scale enterprises, The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Index (CI) is the most popular indicator of the Kuala Lumpur stock market performance. The CI represents share prices of 100 Corporations. These companies are chosen because their operations cover a broad spectrum of economic performance in Malaysia and more significantly reflect stock market activities with fair accuracy, Stock prices depend on the supply and demand for the stock, it causes by the factors that stock prices to be more volatile is limited supply of new issues despite of strong demand for the stocks. This restriction of supply leads to more price fluctuations, which are common to all stock markets. However, two things prevent an infinite price increase in the stock market. Firs tly, the amount of money available in any country is finite. As the bull market proceeds, more and more of the country’s savings are invested in the stock market and eventually the people involved might face liquidity... ...economic variables for emerging economies. At all, the studies have shown the existence of a weak form of market efficiency among the EMFs for respective periods of study and countries. Recently the studies done examine the cointegration between macroeconomic variables and stock prices in order to test for the informational efficient market hypothesis. All the studies are covering on the period before the financial crises in July 1997. However, there is no attempt to study the cointegration between the variables and the stock market after the financial crisis. Hence, this study investigate the relationship between stock market returns and underlying macroeconomic variables, for the Malaysia as country known as a member of ASEAN for the period after the Asian financial crises, to determine whether or not the weak form of market efficiency to exist in Malaysia.

The Use of Soma to Shape and Control Society in Huxleys Brave New Worl

The Use of Soma to Shape and Control Society in Huxley's Brave New World The future of the world is a place of thriving commerce and stability. Safety and happiness are at an all-time high, and no one suffers from depression or any other mental disorders. There are no more wars, as peace and harmony spread to almost every corner of the world. There is no sickness, and people are predestined to be happy and content in their social class. But if anything wrong accidentally occurs, there is a simple solution to the problem, which is soma. The use of soma totally shapes and controls the utopian society described in Huxley's novel Brave New World as well as symbolize Huxley's society as a whole. This pleasure drug is the answer to all of life's little mishaps and also serves as an escape as well as entertainment. The people of this futuristic society use it in every aspect of their lives and depend on it for very many reasons. Although this drug appears to be an escape on the surface, soma is truly a control device used by the government to keep everyone ensla ved in set positions. In the utopian society Huxley creates, everything is artificial. The future of the world depends merely on a handful of directors, and everyone else is simply created as a pawn to maintain this futuristic economy. One of the ten world controllers in the "Brave New World" portrayed in the novel is Mustapha Mond. Mustapha is a driving force behind the utopian society that keeps everyone happy, yet empty inside at the same time. In fact, Mustahpa Mond has been interpreted to mean "the chosen one," for he is like a God to the people (McGiveron 29). People are created in laboratories such as the "Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre," where peo... ... through life without ever truly having to face reality or make logical decisions. Soma symbolizes and shapes many parts of society and is arguably the main symbol in Huxley's satirical masterpiece. The truth is that this utopian society is synthetic and massed produced like soma, and society is cowardly while soma is a crutch to humanity. Works Cited Clareson, Thomas. "The Classic: Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World.'" Extrapolation. 3.1 (1961): 33-40. Hoffman, Nicholas. "Huxley Vindicated." The Spectator 249.8036 (1982): 8-9. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: HarperPerennial, 1989. Jog, D.V. Aldous Huxley The Novelist. India: Book Centre, 1979. McGiveron, Rafeeq. "Huxley's 'Brave New World.'" Explicator 57.1 (1998): 27-30. Meerloo, Joost. "How Will Man Behave?" The New York Times Book Review. New York, 1958: 22-23.

Dividend Policy Trends

Dividend Policy of Indian Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Trends and Determinants Dr. Y. Subba Reddy1 The present study examines the dividend behavior of Indian corporate firms over the period 1990 – 2001 and attempts to explain the observed behavior with the help of trade-off theory, and signaling hypothesis. Analysis of dividend trends for a large sample of stocks traded on the NSE and BSE indicate that the percentage of companies paying dividends has declined from 60. 5 percent in 1990 to 32. percent in 2001 and that only a few firms have consistently paid the same levels of dividends. Further, dividend-paying companies are more profitable, large in size and growth doesn’t seem to deter Indian firms from paying higher dividends. Analysis of influence of changes in tax regime on dividend behavior shows that the tradeoff or tax-preference theory does not appear to hold true in the Indian context. Test of signaling hypothesis reinforces the earlier findings that dividen d omissions have information content about future earnings. However, analysis of other non-extreme dividend events such as dividend reductions and non-reductions shows that current losses are an important determinant of dividend reductions for firms with established track record and that the incidence of dividend reduction is much more severe in the case of Indian firms compared to that of firms traded on the NYSE. Further, dividend changes appear to signal contemporaneous and lagged earnings performance rather than the future earnings performance. 1 Asst. Professor, Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai. The views expressed and the approach suggested are of the authors and not necessarily of NSE. 1. Introduction From the practitioners’ viewpoint, dividend policy1 of a firm has implications for investors, managers and lenders and other stakeholders. For investors, dividends – whether declared today or accumulated and provided at a later date – are not only a means of regular income2, but also an important input in valuation of a firm3. Similarly, managers’ flexibility to invest in projects is also dependent on the amount of dividend that they can ffer to shareholders as more dividends may mean fewer funds available for investment. Lenders may also have interest in the amount of dividend a firm declares, as more the dividend paid less would be the amount available for servicing and redemption of their claims. However, in a perfect world as Modigliani and Miller (1961) have shown, investors may be indifferent about the amount of dividend as it has no influenc e on the value of a firm. Any investor can create a ‘home made dividend’ if required or can invest the proceeds of a dividend payment in additional shares as and when a company makes dividend payment. Similarly, managers may be indifferent as funds would be available or could be raised with out any flotation costs for all positive net present value projects. But in reality, dividends may matter, particularly in the context of differential tax treatment of dividends and capital gains. Very often dividends are taxed at a higher rate compared to capital gains. This implies that dividends may have negative consequences for investors4. Similarly, cost of raising funds is not insignificant and may well lead to lower payout, particularly when positive net present value projects are available. Apart from flotation costs, information asymmetry between managers and outside investors may also have implications for dividend policy. According to Myers and Majluf (1984), in the presence of information asymmetry and flotation costs, investment decisions made by managers are subject to the pecking order of financing choices available. Managers prefer retained earnings to debt and debt to equity flotation to finance the available projects. Information asymmetry between agents (managers) and principals (outside shareholders) may also lead to agency cost (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). One of the mechanisms o reducing expropriation of outside f shareholders by agents is high payout. High payout will result in reduction of free cash flow available to managers and this restricts the empire building efforts of managers. The presence of information asymmetry may a mean that managers need to signal their ability to lso generate higher earnings in future with the help of high dividend payouts (Bhattacharya, 1979, John and Williams 1985, and Miller and Rock, 1985). However, the credibility of signals depends on the cost of signaling – the cost being loss of financial flexibility. High payout results in reduction of free cash flow when in fact the firm needs more funds to pursue high growth opportunities. Rozeff (1994) models payout ratios as a function of three factors: flotation costs of external funding, agency cost of outside ownership and financing constraints as a result of higher operating and financial leverage5. To summarize, several theories have been proposed in explaining why companies pay dividends6. While many earlier studies point out the tax-preference theory, more recent studies emphasize signaling and agency cost rationale of dividend payments. However, the dividend puzzle is yet unresolved and the words of Brealey (1992) poses the dividend policy decision as â€Å"What is the effect of a change in cash dividends, given the firm’s capital-budgeting and borrowing decisions? † In other words, he looks at dividend policy in isolation and not as a by-product of other corporate financial decisions. 2 Lintner (1956) finds that firms pay regular and predictable dividends to investors, where as the earnings of corporate firms could be erratic. This implies that shareholders prefer smoothened dividend income. Bernstein (1998) observes that given the ‘concocted’ earnings estimates provided by firms, the low dividend payout induces reinvestment risk and earnings risk for the investors. 4 Black (1976) notes that in the presence of taxes, investors â€Å"prefer smaller dividends or no dividends at all†. 5 According to Kalay (1982), in the absence of restraining covenants, shareholders can transfer wealt h from bondholders by paying off dividend to themselves either by selling existing assets or by reducing investment or by using proceeds of a senior debt. 6 Baker, Powell and Veit (2002) survey different streams of research work on dividends. 2 Fischer Black (Black 1976) may well apply in today’s context: â€Å"The harder we look at the dividend picture, the more it seems like a puzzle, with pieces that just don’t fit together†. One of the striking aspects that have been noticed in recent periods is the lower dividend paid by corporate firms in the US. Fama and French (2001) analyze the issue of lower dividends paid by corporate firms over the period 1973-1999 and the factors responsible for such a decline. They attribute the decline to changing firm characteristics of size, earnings and growth. However, it is to be seen whether the change owards lower dividends is a permanent feature or will there be reversal. A decline in dividends, according to Fama and Frenc h, could be due to lower transaction costs, improved corporate governance mechanisms, and the increasing preference towards capital gains. 1. 1 Indian Scenario In the Indian context, a few studies have analyzed the dividend behavior of corporate firms. Mahapatra and Sahu (1993) find cash flow as a major determinant of dividend followed by net earnings. Bhat and Pandey (1994) undertake a survey of managers’ perceptions of dividend decision and find that managers perceive current earnings as the most significant factor. Narasimhan and Asha (1997) observe that the uniform tax rate of 10 percent on dividend as proposed by the Indian union budget 1997-98, alters the demand of investors in favor of high payouts. Mohanty (1999) finds that firms, which issued bonus shares, have either maintained the pre-bonus level or only decreased it marginally there by increasing the payout to shareholders. Narasimhan and Vijayalakshmi (2002) analyze the influence of ownership structure on dividend payout and find no influence of insider ownership on dividend behavior of firms. However, it is still not clear as to what is the dividend payment pattern of firms in India and why do they initiate and omit dividend payments or reduce or increase dividend payments. Hence it is proposed to analyze the dividend payout of firms in India and analyze the dividend initiations and omissions and other changes in dividends and the signals that these events convey. Following Fama and French (2001), the present study also attempts to analyze the impact of profitability, size and growth on the dividend payout of firms. Similarly, following Healy and Palepu (1988) an attempt is made to analyze the signaling hypothesis, i. e. arnings information conveyed by dividend initiations and omissions. Since, initiations and omissions construe extreme dividend events, changes in dividends i. e. , increases and decreases and the information that they convey is also examined following DeAngelo, DeAngelo and Skinner (1992). There have been several changes in the tax regime in the last few years. The union budget 1997-98 made dividends taxable at t e hands of company paying them and not in the hands of investors receiving them. h Similarly there have been changes in the capital gains tax and exemption of dividend income under Section 80 L of the Income Tax Act 1961. All these changes have implications for the dividend policy of corporate firms. According to tax-preference or trade-off theory, favorable dividends tax should lead to higher payouts. Hence it is proposed to analyze the impact of tax regimes on dividend policies of corporate firms. 1. 2 Objectives 1. To study the trends in the dividend payment pattern of Indian corporate firms; 2. To analyze the impact of changes in dividend tax on the propensity to pay dividends; 3. To analyze the influence of firm characteristics such as profitability, growth and size on the dividend payment pattern; 4. To analyze the signaling hypothesis, specifically earnings information conveyed by dividend initiations and omissions; and 5. To analyze the influence of loss on dividend reductions. 3 In other words, the present study focuses on an analysis of dividend trends and attempts to analyze the determinants of these trends with the help of trade-off or tax-preference theory and signaling hypothesis. There are other important determinants of dividend behavior such as transactions costs, which we will not analyze, in the present study. In the next Section, we review the relevant literature, followed by a description of the database employed and methodology adopted in Section 3. Dividend trends are discussed in Section 4, and the analysis of characteristics of dividend payers is presented in Section 5. Sections 6 and 7 deal with the signaling hypothesis: first the case of dividend initiations and omissions and second dividend reductions. Section 8 summarizes the finding of study, points out limitations and concludes with directions for further research. 2. Review of Relevant Literature DeAngelo, DeAngelo and Skinner (1992) analyses the relationship between dividends and losses and the information conveyed by dividend changes about the earnings performance. They examine the dividend behaviour of 167 NYSE firms with at least one annual loss during 1980-95 and those of 440 firms with no losses during the same period, where all the firms had a consistent track record of ten or more years of positive earnings and dividends. They find that 50. 9% of 167 firms with at least one loss during 1980-95 reduced dividends, compared to 1% of 440 firms without losses. Their findings support signaling hypothesis in that dividend changes improve the ability to predict future earnings performance. Glen et al. (1995) study the dividend policy of firms in emerging markets. They find that firms in these markets have a target dividend payout rate, but less concerned with volatility in dividends over time. They also find that shareholders and governments exert a great deal of influence on dividend policy and observe that dividends have little signaling content in these markets. Benartzi, Michaely, Thaler (1997) analyzes the issue of whether dividend changes signal the future or the past. For a sample of 7186 dividend announcements made by NYSE or AMEX firms during the period 1979-91, they find a lagged and contemporaneous relation between dividend changes and earnings. Their analysis also shows that in the two years following dividend increases, earnings changes are unrelated to the sign and magnitude of dividend changes. Bernsterin (1998) expresses concern over the decline in payout over a period of time in the US market. He observes that given the ‘concocted’ earnings estimates provided by firms, the low dividend payout induces reinvestment risk and earnings risk for the investors. He asserts that â€Å"†¦ try calculating the historical correlation between payout ratios in year t and earnings growth over t + 5. The correlation coefficient is positive and statistically significant† 7. Fama and French (2001) analyze the issue of lower dividends paid by corporate firms over the period 1973-1999 and the factors responsible for the decline. In particular they analyze whether the lower dividends were the effect of changing firm characteristics or lower propensity to pay on the part of firms. They observe that proportion of companies paying dividend has dropped from a peak of 66. 5 percent in 1978 to 20. 8 percent in 1999. They attribute this decline to the changing characteristics of firms: â€Å"The decline in the incidence of dividend payers is in part due to an increasing tilt of publicly traded firms toward the characteristics – small size, low earnings, and high growth – of firms that typically have never paid dividends†8. Baker, Veit and Powell (2001) study the factors that have a bearing on dividend policy decisions of corporate firms traded on the Nasdaq. The tudy, based on a sample survey (1999) response of 188 firms out of a total of 630 firms that paid dividends in each quarter of calendar years 1996 and 1997, finds that the following four factors have a significant impact on the dividend decision: pattern of past dividends, stability 7 8 Bernstein (1998), pp. 1. Fama and French (2001), p. 79 4 of earnings, and the level of current and fut ure expected earnings. The study also finds statistically significant differences in the importance that managers attach to dividend policy in different industries such as financial versus non-financial firms. Ramacharran (2001) analyzes the variation in dividend yield for 21 emerging markets (including India) for the period 1992-99. His macroeconomic approach using country risk data finds evidence for pecking order hypothesis – lower dividends are paid when higher growth is expected. The study also finds that political risk factors have no significant impact on dividend payments of firms in emerging markets. Lee and Ryan (2002) analyze the dividend signaling-hypothesis and the issue of direction of causality between earnings and dividends – whether earnings cause dividends or vice versa. For a sample of 133 dividend initiations and 165 dividend omissions, they find that dividend payment is influenced by recent performance of earnings, and free cash flows. They also find evidence of positive (negative) earnings growth preceding dividend initiations (omissions). 2. 1 Previous Indian Studies Kevin (1992) analyzes the dividend distribution pattern of 650 non-financial companies which closed their accounts between September 1983 and August 1984 and net sales income of one crore rupees or more. He finds evidence for a sticky dividend policy and concludes that a change in profitability is of minor importance. Mahapatra and Sahu (1993) analyze the determinants of dividend policy using the models developed by Lintner (1956), Darling (1957) and Brittain (1966) for a sample of 90 companies for the period 1977-78 – 1988-89. They find that cash flow is a major determinant of dividend followed by net earnings. Further, their analysis shows that past dividend and not past earnings is a significant factor in influencing the dividend decision of firms. Bhat and Pandey (1994) study the managers’ perceptions of dividend decision for a sample of 425 Indian companies for the period 1986-87 to 1990-91. They find that on an average profit-making Indian companies have distributed about one-third of their net earnings and that the average dividend payout ratio is 43. 6 percent. They also find that the average dividend payout ratio is 54 percent for the sample of both profitmaking and loss-making companies and the average dividend rate is in the range of 14. 3 percent to 19. 2 percent. They also observe variation in dividend policy of different industries. Further, a survey of these 425 companies has been attempted. How ever, only 31 questionnaires have been received and of these they find 28 amenable for further analysis. Their analysis of the respondents shows that managers perceive current earnings as the most significant factor influencing their dividend decision followed by patterns of past dividends. They also find two other variables increasing equity base and expected future earnings to have significant influence. However, they find industry to have the least influence on the dividend, which has been contrary to the expectations. Mishra and Narender (1996) analyze the dividend policies of 39 state-owned enterprises (SoE) in India for the period 1984-85 to 1993-94. The find that earnings per share (EPS) is a major factor in determining the dividend payout of SoEs. Narasimhan and Asha (1997) discuss the impact of dividend tax on dividend policy of firms. They observe that the uniform tax rate of 10 percent on dividend as proposed by the Indian union budget 1997-98, alters the demand of investors in favor of high payouts rather than low payouts as the capital gains are taxed at 20 percent in the said period. Mohanty (1999) analyzes the dividend behavior of more than 200 firms for a period of over 15 years. He finds that in most bonus issue cases firms have either maintained the pre-bonus level or only decreased it marginally there by increasing the payout to shareholders. The study also finds that firms that declared bonus during 1982-1991 showed higher returns to their shareholders compared to firms which did not issue bonus shares but maintained a steady dividend growth. He finds evidence for a reversal of this trend in the 1992- 5 1996 period. He attributes such a reversal in trend to the changed strategy of multi-national corporations (MNCs) and their reluctance to issue bonus shares. Narasimhan and Vijayalakshmi (2002) analyze the influence of ownership structure on dividend payout of 186 manufacturing firms. Regression analysis shows that promoters’ holding as of September 2001 has no influence on average dividend payout for the period 1997-2001. 3. Database and Methodology 3. 1 Database Dividend payment pattern of all companies that are listed for trading on one of the two major exchanges namely National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during the period 1989-1990 to 2000-2001 (we refer each year henceforth with the end year i. e. for 2000-2001 to 2001) are employed for analysis. The data has been sourced from Prowess database of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). For the purpose of this study, only final cash dividends are considered and stock repurchases and stock dividends are not considered. Unlike the firms in developed countries that pay quarterly dividends, Indian companies typically pay only one dividend during a year. A few firms do pay interim dividends, however, data regarding these are not readily accessible and it is extremely difficult to get such data for a reasonable number of years. Further, stock repurchases have been permitted only recently and only about a hundred companies have bought back their stocks so far. Hence, in the present study stock repurchases are not considered for analysis. Stock price data for the prior year of dividend announcement are also taken from the Prowess database. 3. 2 Methodology for Analysis of Trends To analyze the trends in dividend payment pattern, number of companies paying dividend as percentage of total firms, average dividend paid, dividend per share, payout ratio, and dividend yield are computed for the period 1990 to 2001. Dividend per share (DPS) is calculated as DPS j ,t = Dividend j ,t EQCap j ,t Where, DPSj,t refers to dividend per share for company j in year t; Dividend j,t refers to amount of dividend paid by company j in year t; and EQCap j,t refers to paid -up equity capital for firm j in year t. Equity capital is employed instead of the usual number of outstanding shares in the denominator as it facilitates comparison of rupee dividend paid per share by removing the impact of different face or par values. Dividend payout ratio (PR) is computed as PR jt = Dividend j , t PAT j ,t Where, PR j,t is dividend payout ratio, Dividend j,t refers to amount of dividend paid by company j in year t; and PATj,t refers to net profit or profit after tax for firm j in year t. Dividend Yield (DY) is computed as 6 DY jt = DPS j ,t Price j ,t ? 1 t Where, DYjt refers to dividend yield for firm j in year t, DPSjt refers to dividend per share for firm j in year , and Pricej,t-1 is closing price of previous year for firm j. Further, the entire sample is categorized into payers and non-payers to examine the trends in dividends across different subgroups. Payers are those firms that have paid dividend in the current year, where as nonpayers have not paid dividend in the current year. Payers are further classified into regular payers, initiators and current payers. Regular payers are those firms that have paid dividend regularly without ever skipping the payments. Initiators on the other hand refers to those firms with a maiden dividend, where as current payers are those firms who are neither regular payers nor initiators. Non-payers are further categorized into never paid, former payers and current non-payers. Never paid firms are those that have never paid even a single dividend, where as former payers are those firms which at some previous point had paid dividends. Current non-payers are those firms which are recently listed and that they are neither former-payers nor are in the never paid category in any of the previous years. 3. 3 Influence of Tax Regime Change: Test of Trade-off Theory Paired samples t-test has been employed to analyze the influence of changes in dividend tax during 199798 on the dividend propensity of Indian corporate firms. According to the tradeoff theory, corporate firms pay more dividends when the dividend tax is low compared to that of capital gains tax. The tax regime ushered in during 1997-98, whereby dividends are taxed at source at a uniform rate of 10%, has tilted the balance in favor of dividends. Changes in dividends are captured with the help of two measures – dividend per share and dividend payout percentage. For this purpose total dividend per share and average dividend payout percentage during the previous tax regime, i. e. the incidence of dividend tax is on the investors are compared with that of changed tax regime where dividend taxes are payable by corporate firms at a flat rate of 10%. The period 1994-95 to 1996-97 constitutes the first sub-period and the period 1998-99 to 2000-01 constitutes the second period. The following hypotheses are tested using paired samples t-test: (i) Null hypothesis of no differences between the total dividend per share between the two periods; and (ii) Null hypothesis of no difference between the average percentage payout between the two periods. Further, changes in the propensity of regular payers and changes in the payment pattern between 1996-97 and 1998-99 as a result of change in tax regime are also tested. 3. 4 Characteristics of Payers and Non-Payers Consistent with Fama and French, logit regression coefficients are estimated to analyze the influence of firm characteristics on the dividend payment pattern, for each year t during 1990-2001. The dependent variable assumes a value of 0 when the firm pays no dividend and assumes a value of 1 when pays a dividend. The explanatory variables are: Et/At is profitability measured as the ratio of aggregate earnings before interest to aggregate assets; dAt/At, is growth rate of assets; Vt/At is market-to-book ratio i. e. , the ratio of the aggregate market value to the aggregate book value of assets; and the NSEPt is the percent of firms with the same or lower market capitalization. Coefficients are computed for each of the year 7 and the aggregate coefficients and associated t values are analyzed to infer the influence o profitability, f growth and size. 3. Test of Signalling Hypothesis: Case of Dividend Initiations and Omissions For this part of the analysis, a firm is classified as initiator if it has paid dividend in the current year but has not paid dividends for the preceding 3 years. Similarly a firm is categorized as omission firm, if the firm has not currently paid dividend but has paid dividend in the preceding three years. To analyze signaling hypothesis, consistent with Healey and Palepu , earnings patterns of firms initiating and omitting dividend for 3 years before the year of event and 3 years after event are examined. To aggregate results across firms, earnings changes in these years are expressed as a percentage of the previous year’s closing stock price, PJ. The standardized change in earnings for firm j in year t, is defines as ? E j ,t = E j ,t ? E j ,t ? 1 Pj Where Ej,t are earnings per share before extraordinary items and discontinued operations9 for firm j in year t. The null hypotheses of average earnings changes are zero is tested with the help of Dunnett’s C (Post Hoc) test. Analysis pertaining to initiations and omissions only cover a particular sample of extreme events and excludes firms not having a dividend track record of less than 3 years. In order to cover other dividend events like dividend reductions and increases in the following we arrive at yet another sample. 3. 6 Test of Signaling Hypothesis: Case of Dividend Reductions To analyze the relationship between dividends and losses a sample is drawn with firms having consistent profitability and dividend track records during 1990 – 1995 and who have earnings and dividend information for the period 1996 – 2001. The importance of annual losses on dividend reductions and annual dividend omissions has been analyzed with the help of logit analysis. The dependent variable equals zero if a firm has maintained or increased its dividend per share and is equal to one if the firm announced a reduction in dividend per share. The loss dummy assumes a value of one if the firm reports a loss for the year under study and zero otherwise. The level of net income and changes in net income are standardized with the previous year’s net worth for each firm. For firms in loss sample, the initial loss year constitutes the event year where as for non-loss firms, the initial year of earnings decline constitutes the event year. Similarly to examine the influence of past and future levels of earnings logit analysis has been employed on the subset for event years 1997 and 1998. The dependent variable equals zero if a firm has maintained or increased its dividend per share and is equal to one if the firm announced a reduction in dividend per share. The explanatory variables are earnings in 1 year before the event (t-1), 2 years preceding the event (t-2), current earnings (t), earnings in the year following the event year (t+1), earnings in 2 years following the event (t+2). Similarly, mean difference in earnings over t 2 through t+2 years is also examined with the help of Dunnett’s C test. This analysis would be useful in determining whether dividend changes are impacted by contemporaneous or lagged or expected earnings performance. 9 In the Indian context an approximate value for this is derived from ‘other income’. 8 4. Trends in Dividends and Influence of Changes in Tax Regime Average profit after tax (PAT) has increased from Rs. 4. 68 crore in 1990 to Rs. 6. 11 crore in 2000 and Rs. 9. 36 crore in 2001 (Table 4. 1). However, there have been several fluctuations in average PAT reflecting the changes in Indian economy. In the early phases of economic reform, many firms had to restructure as the economy was opened up and structural adjustments were undertaken resulting in a reduction in PAT. The subsequent pick up in the mid -90s has seen an increase in average PAT. The late 1990s, which marked a significant decline in economic activity, have had their impact on PAT of firms. 4. 1 Average Dividend Paid Despite fluctuations in PAT, the average aggregate dividend payments have steadily increased from Rs. . 99 crore in 1990 to Rs. 2. 93 crore in 2000 and Rs. 4. 19 crore in 2001. Further, compared to PAT the dividend payments have exhibited a smooth trend implying that dividend smoothening is occurring in the Indian context (Figure 4. 1). Table 4. 1 Trend in Dividends and PAT During 1990-2001 Year Number of Firms 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Common Firms 1707 2184 2505 30 97 4020 5115 5600 5855 5980 6248 6225 4766 871 Average Dividend Rs. Crore 0. 99 0. 98 1. 11 1. 11 1. 27 1. 56 1. 85 2. 05 2. 26 2. 9 2. 93 4. 19 SD of Average SD of Dividend PAT PAT Rs. Crore Rs. Crore Rs. Crore 3. 92 4. 68 48. 45 3. 79 4. 05 37. 88 4. 54 4. 19 40. 45 4. 85 3. 06 46. 76 6. 19 4. 15 51. 41 8. 42 6. 96 57. 55 10. 80 7. 19 62. 92 13. 91 6. 38 65. 65 17. 18 5. 69 103. 52 22. 14 5. 09 88. 19 26. 46 6. 11 103. 54 44. 71 9. 36 134. 39 Number of firms paid dividend during the study period have shown an up trend till 1995 and have fallen subsequently (Appendix Figure 4. 1), where as the percentage of companies paying dividends has declined from 60. percent in 1990 to 32. 1 percent in 2001 (Table 4. 2 and Figure 4. 2). This is consistent with the trend observed in the US market (Fama and French 2001). The fact that percentage of companies paying dividends have declined whereas the average dividend paid has increased implies tha t companies which have been paying dividend have paid higher amounts in recent years. Total non-payers have steadily increased from 1990 to 2000 before declining slightly in 2001 (Appendix Table A4. 1 and Figures A4. 2 and A4. 3). Firms, which have never paid dividend, constituted a significant proportion through out the sample period – constituting more than 50% from 1991 to 2001 continuously. The number of firms, which at some previous time paid dividend, have increased overtime and reached almost 50% of non-payers in 2001. Figure 4. 1 9 Trend in Average Dividends, and PAT During 1990-2001 Average Dividend Average PAT 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 Rs. Crores Year Table 4. 2 Trend in Dividend Payments During 1990-2001 Year Paid Dividend No. 033 1272 1533 1823 2333 2775 2723 2386 2101 2007 1988 1531 % 60. 50 58. 20 61. 20 58. 90 58. 00 54. 30 48. 60 40. 80 35. 10 32. 10 31. 90 32. 10 Not Paid Dividend No. 674 912 972 1274 1687 2340 2877 3469 3879 4241 4237 3235 % 39. 50 41. 80 38. 80 41. 10 42. 00 45. 70 51. 40 59. 20 64. 90 67. 90 68. 10 67. 90 Total Number of Firms 1707 2184 2505 3097 4020 5115 5600 5855 5980 6248 6225 4766 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Total number of firms paying dividend has increased up to 1995 and has registered sustained decline there after (Table 4. , Appendix Figures A4. 4 and A4. 5). Mirroring these trends firms, which have paid dividends regularly, peaked in 1995 and recorded declines thereafter. Initiators have shown a steady decline from 1991 and have fallen to 5% in 2001. Average dividend paid by payers has increased steadily from Rs. 1. 69 crore in 1991 to Rs. 9. 16 crore in 2000 and Rs. 13. 05 crore in 2001 (Figure 4. 3, Appendix Table A4. 2). Regular payers are more in number and have paid higher average dividend compared to that of current payers and initiators (Appendix Figures A4. 6 and A4. 7). Current payers have paid higher dividend compared to initiators except in the year 2001. The number of initiators have increased up to the year 1995 and have shown a decline thereafter, where as current payers have steadily increased in number up to 2000. 10 Figure 4. 2 Dividend Behaviour of Indian Corporate Firms During 1990 – 2001 (in %) 80% 70% 60% % Non-Payers % Payers % of Firms 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 Year Figure 4. 3 Comparision of Average Dividend Paid During 1991 2001 by Payer Group Initiator Current Payers Regular Payers Total Payers 20 15 10 5 0 Rs. Crore 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Year A comparison of index and non-index firms shows that the former group of companies on average has paid more dividend than the latter group (Table A4. 3 and A4. 4). Similarly, it is observed that companies, which constitute popular market indices such as Sensex and Nifty paid more dividends compared to companies in the broad market indices such as BSE 100, CNX Mid-Cap, BSE 200, CNX 500, and BSE 500. These observations are on the expected lines as higher dividend payment is one of the important criteria for inclusion of stocks into indices. A study of number of companies paying dividend also reveals that a significantly larger proportion of index firms have paid dividend compared to non-index firms. 29 out of 30 Sensex firms and 49 out of 50 Nifty firms have paid dividend in 2001, the exception being Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Ltd. (TELCO). Analysis of industry-wise average dividend paid shows that in the early 1990s, firms in the diversified industry have paid more dividends followed by mining firms and electricity firms (Table 4. 3). However, by the end of 2000 and 2001 firms in the electricity industry have paid more dividend followed by mining and diversified companies. It has also been observed that textile companies have continued to pay low amounts on an average throughout the sample period where as firms in the financial services industry have improved their average dividend payments over the sample period. The recent h growth firms in the computer igh 11 hardware and software segments, which are part of the machinery industry, have generally shown lower dividend payments. In sum, the number of firms paying dividend during the study period have shown an up trend till 1995 and have fallen subsequently. Further, compared to PAT the dividend payments have exhibited a smooth trend implying that dividend smoothening is occurring in the Indian context. Regular payers are more in number and have paid higher average dividend compared to that of current payers and initiators. Of the nonpayers, former payers are growing in numbers. Index firms appear to pay higher dividends compared to that of non-index firms. Further, smaller indices appear to have higher average dividend compared t that of o larger indices. Industry trends indicate that firms in the electricity, mining and diversified industries have paid more dividend where as textile companies have paid less dividends. Firms in the machinery industry which includes computer hardware and software segments have shown lower dividends. Table 4. 3 INDUSTRY Average Dividend Paid During 1990-2001 – Industry-wise (in Rs. Crore) 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 1. 09 3. 56 1. 28 . 67 . 88 . 70 . 80 2. 57 . 39 . 50 1. 02 . 48 1. 25 . 96 3. 88 1. 14 1. 39 . 97 . 65 . 90 2. 79 . 51 . 62 . 76 . 47 1. 17 1. 05 4. 24 1. 19 1. 47 . 98 . 72 1. 37 2. 97 . 72 . 70 . 86 . 47 1. 0 . 97 5. 11 2. 26 1. 38 . 89 . 73 1. 36 3. 57 . 62 . 64 . 92 . 53 1. 06 1. 08 6. 14 5. 85 1. 49 . 94 . 83 1. 72 2. 87 . 73 . 63 1. 01 . 72 1. 39 1. 38 1. 57 1. 69 1. 92 7. 72 10. 13 10. 99 12. 86 9. 54 13. 08 18. 31 17. 37 2. 10 2. 46 2. 72 3. 16 1. 02 . 80 . 90 1. 12 . 99 1. 11 1. 13 1. 20 2. 20 2. 39 2. 14 1. 80 2. 94 8. 87 17. 44 22. 23 . 70 . 75 . 57 . 35 . 85 1. 18 1. 00 . 86 1. 07 1. 18 1. 23 1. 34 . 86 . 82 . 58 . 51 2. 02 2. 83 3. 58 3. 18 1. 68 17. 17 26. 33 3. 20 1. 13 1. 34 1. 40 21. 99 . 56 . 90 1. 34 . 48 2. 95 2. 41 22. 76 27. 24 4. 25 1. 34 1. 58 1. 72 26. 31 . 58 1. 12 1. 42 . 56 3. 44 2001 Firms 2. 46 29. 55 48. 7 5. 29 1. 89 2. 11 3. 08 35. 36 1. 05 1. 51 4. 07 . 56 3. 03 1138 184 58 1097 745 1065 555 81 324 296 1264 750 225 Chemicals and Plastics Diversified Electricity Financial Services Food and Beverages Machinery Metals and Metal Product Mining Misc. Manufacturing Non-Metallic Mineral Pro Other Services Textiles Transport Equipment 4. 2 Dividend Per Share Average dividend per share (DPS) has increased from 14 paisa in 1990 to 26 paisa in 2000 and 15 paisa in 2001 (Table 4. 4, Figure 4. 4). An analysis of distribution of firms shows that 39 percent have paid nil DPS in 1990 and the percentage has increased to 67. 7 in 2001 (Table 4. ). Percentage of firms in the average class i. e. , DPS in the range of Rs. 0 to Rs. 0. 25 have declined from a high of 45. 9 in 1990 to 18. 5 in 2001. This implies that the increased average DPS over the latter period has mainly been due to a few firms paying larger DPS. Firms in chemicals and plastics industry have steadily improved their DPS from 14 paisa in 1990 to 27 paisa in 2000 and 25 paisa in 2001 (Table 4. 6). Where as textiles firms have shown a decline in DPS from 13 paisa in 1990 to 6 paisa in 2001. Machinery firms have paid a steady 12 to 14 paisa except for the years 1996 and 1997 when they paid marginally more. An analysis of index and non-index firms DPS shows that index firms on an average paid more DPS than non-index firms (Table A4. 14). Similarly, narrow indices have high average DPS than broad indices. 12 Table 4. 4 Average Dividend Per Share (DPS) During 1990-2001 (in Rs. ) Year Number Minimum Maximum of Firms DPS DPS 1990 1694 0 12. 71 1991 2153 0 10. 58 1992 2468 0 15. 58 1993 3028 0 51. 2 1994 3953 0 57. 5 1995 5032 0 135. 33 1996 5536 0 174. 67 1997 5801 0 222 1998 5911 0 350. 33 1999 6176 0 249. 75 2000 6167 0 266. 38 2001 4734 0 61. 5 Common 866 Firms10 Average DPS 0. 1406 0. 1385 0. 1427 0. 1514 0. 1582 0. 803 0. 2158 0. 198 0. 2337 0. 2544 0. 2571 0. 1538 Std. Deviation 0. 3455 0. 3009 0. 3568 1. 0025 1. 2983 2. 3543 3. 3243 3. 4834 5. 8833 4. 8938 4. 4156 1. 2899 Average DPS (1% trimmed) by all payers have increased from 21 paisa in 1991 to 31 paisa in 2000 and 29 paisa in 2001 (Figure 4. 5). Of the payers, regular payers have consistently paid more dividend per share compar ed to other payers. Similarly initiators have always paid lower dividend per share compared to current payers. Figure 4. 4 Average Dividend Per Share (DPS) During 1990-2001 Average DPS (in Rs. ) Average DPS 0. 30 0. 25 0. 20 0. 15 0. 10 0. 05 0. 0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 Year An analysis of recurrence of dividend per share group shows that two firms have consistently paid dividend in the range of 25 to 50 paisa per share for all the 12 years, where as 18 firms have paid up to 25 paisa (Appendix Table A4. 6 and A4. 7). An analysis of dividend reductions by firms shows that only five companies namely Mahindra Sintered Products Ltd, Otis Elevator Co. (India), Bharat Electronics, Amritlal Chemaux, and Carborundum Universal have consistently paid higher dividend per share out of a 330 firms that paid dividends in all years of the sample period (Appendix Table A4. ). 43 firms registered a single instance of dividend per share reduction, where as 68 firms lowered twice, 82 firms lowe red thrice etc. On the whole average DPS has shown a steady growth except in the year 2001. Regular payers have consistently paid more dividend per share compared to other payers, where as initiators have always paid 5 common firms are lost on account of missing information on number of outstanding stocks and hence there is difference in the number of common firms from that of Table 4. 1. 10 13 lower dividend per share. Analysis also shows that only a few firms have consistently paid same levels of dividend. Index firms on an average paid more DPS than non-index firms. Similarly, narrow indices have high average DPS than broad indices (Appendix table A4. 8). Firms in chemicals and plastics industry have steadily improved their DPS, where as textiles firms have shown a decline in the study period. Machinery firms have paid a steady DPS. Figure 4. 5 1% Trimmed Dividend Per Share by Payer Type Current Payers Initiators Regular Payers Total 0. 35 0. 3 DPS (in Rs. ) 0. 25 0. 2 0. 15 0. 1 0. 05 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Year Table 4. 5 Distribution of Firms in terms of Dividend Per Share During 1990 – 2001 DPS Rs. Rs. 0 – 0. 25 Rs. 0. 25 – 0. 50 Rs. 0. 50 – 0. 75 Rs. 0. 75 – 1 Rs. 1 – 2 Rs. 2 – 5 > Rs. 5 Percentage of Companies in Year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 39 41 37. 9 39. 9 41. 1 44. 9 50. 8 58. 9 64. 5 67. 5 67. 8 67. 7 45. 9 43. 1 46. 2 46. 9 45 42. 3 35. 8 27. 5 22. 2 19. 5 18. 6 18. 5 13. 5 13. 7 13 . 7 11. 2 12. 1 10. 6 10. 4 9. 8 8. 7 7. 6 7. 4 7. 8 0. 9 1. 3 1. 4 0. 9 0. 7 1. 1 1. 5 2. 3 2. 8 2. 5 2. 6 2. 7 0. 4 0. 5 0. 4 0. 7 0. 8 0. 4 0. 6 0. 6 0. 6 1. 1 1. 2 1. 3 0. 2 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 3 0. 4 0. 6 1 1. 1 1. 4 1. 4 0. 1 0. 1 0 0. 1 0. 1 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 0. 3 0. 6 0. 4 0. 1 0 0 0. 2 0. 1 0. 1 0. 2 0. 2 0. 2 0. 3 0. 4 0. 3 Table 4. 6 Industry-wise Dividend Per Share (DPS) During 1990-2001 (in Rs. ) INDUSTRY Chemicals and Plastics Diversified Electricity Financial Services Food and Beverages Machineray Metals and Metal Product Mining Misc. Manufacturing Non-Metallic Mineral Pro Other Services Textiles Transport Equipment 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 FIRMS . 14 . 15 . 14 . 12 . 17 . 15 . 12 . 17 . 17 . 18 . 27 . 25 1138 . 19 . 21 . 26 . 20 . 20 . 19 . 21 . 22 . 21 . 22 . 27 . 21 184 . 13 . 10 . 11 . 11 . 11 . 10 . 12 . 9 . 10 . 10 . 13 . 10 58 . 08 . 11 . 13 . 34 . 24 . 21 . 28 . 12 . 15 . 14 . 19 . 18 1097 . 20 . 20 . 18 . 23 . 31 . 47 . 4 9 . 58 . 85 . 21 . 16 . 13 745 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 14 . 13 . 13 . 17 . 19 . 12 . 14 . 14 . 14 1065 . 13 . 11 . 11 . 09 . 10 . 10 . 12 . 09 . 07 . 06 . 07 . 07 555 . 05 . 07 . 06 . 07 . 09 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 13 . 10 . 11 . 09 81 . 12 . 12 . 14 . 10 . 11 . 10 . 10 . 15 . 06 . 16 . 21 . 30 324 . 10 . 11 . 11 . 09 . 09 . 09 . 10 . 08 . 08 . 07 . 09 . 09 296 . 17 . 15 . 17 . 15 . 13 . 24 . 38 . 28 . 42 . 88 . 73 . 12 1264 . 13 . 14 . 13 . 11 . 12 . 09 . 08 . 06 . 06 . 05 . 07 . 06 750 . 2 . 12 . 12 . 12 . 13 . 13 . 15 . 18 . 16 . 15 . 21 . 17 225 14 4. 3 Dividend Payout Ratio An analysis of average percentage dividend payout (PR) during 1990 – 2001 shows a volatile trend (Table 4. 7 and Figure 4. 6). Percentage PR increased from 27. 39 in 1990 to 32. 95 in 1997 and then showed a declining trend till 2000 before reaching the peak average percentage PR of 40. 53 in 2001. However, 1% trimmed average percentage PR showed a more stable pattern of around 24 percent PR up to 1997 and then has shown a declining trend before finally reaching 16. 81 percent in 2001 (Appendix Table A4. ). Table 4. 7 Average Percentage Payout During 1990 – 2001 Year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 No. of Average Std. Firms % Payout Deviation 1382 1714 2022 2533 3156 3770 4042 4258 4335 4503 4383 3387 27. 39 25. 19 27. 54 27. 98 28. 19 25. 88 27. 44 32. 95 31. 39 22. 82 21. 6 40. 53 37. 77 41. 04 48. 31 37. 83 61. 96 38. 06 88. 12 139. 85 453. 37 120. 19 67. 49 1196. 96 1% Trimmed Average % Payout 24. 98 23. 11 24. 25 25. 72 24. 92 23. 84 23. 99 23. 91 18. 64 16. 98 17. 47 16. 81 1% Trimmed No. of Firms 1369 1697 2002 2508 3125 3733 4002 4216 4292 4458 4340 3354 An analysis of distribution of firms by dividend payout percentage shows that as high as 26 percent of firms in 1990 and 56. 6 percent in 2001 have paid out nothing (Table 4. 8 and Appendix, Figure A4. 6). However, more than 10 percent firms have paid dividend in excess of 75 percent of their net profits. An analysis of dividend payout recurrence shows that very few firms have maintained the same payout for a longer period of time (Appendix Table A4. 10 and A4. 11). For instance, only one firm – Hindustan Lever Limited – has paid out a dividend in the range of 50 to 75% of its net profit for entire sample period. Similarly another firm – Maharashtra Scooters Limited – maintained a dividend payout in the range of 10 to 20% for 11 of the 12-year sample period. Similarly, Kinetic Engineering Ltd. , Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. , and Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd. have paid out in the range of 10 – 20% for 10 of the 12-year sample period. Figure 4. 6 Average % Payout During 1990-2001 Average % Payout 50 40 30 20 10 0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 1% Trimmed Average % Payout Average Payout % Year 15 An analysis of industry-wise DPO shows a declining trend across all industries during the sample period (Table 4. ). Diversified firms, which have a DPO in excess of 25 percent in 1990, have less than 14 percent in 2001. Firms in metals and metal products industry have registered a high degree fall in DPO from 22. 84 percent in 1990 to 8. 74 percent in 2001. Table 4. 8 Distribution of Firms’ Payout Percentage During 1990 – 2001 Dividend Payout % 0 0 – 10 10 – 20 20 – 30 30 – 40 40 – 50 50 – 75 75 – 100 100 – 200 > 200 Firms % of Firms 1990 1991 26 6. 9 14. 5 16. 5 12. 6 8. 2 10. 1 3. 5 1. 2 0. 4 1382 1992 1993 28. 9 7. 2 11. 9 13. 5 12. 3 9. 5 10. 5 4. 6 1. 3 0. 4 2533 1994 26. 6 8 14. 3 15 12. 7. 7 10. 2 4. 5 0. 9 0. 3 3156 1995 26. 7 6. 6 15. 6 16. 7 12. 5 8. 7 8. 6 3. 4 0. 9 0. 3 3770 1996 33. 3 5. 5 13. 6 13. 7 10. 8 7. 3 8. 6 5. 4 1. 4 0. 4 4042 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 45. 4 52. 8 57 55. 8 56. 6 3. 1 3. 4 3. 4 3. 8 3. 8 7. 9 7. 6 6. 7 6. 6 7. 6 10. 9 9. 8 8. 2 8. 9 7. 9 8. 5 7. 5 6. 9 6. 7 6. 9 6. 4 5. 4 5. 2 5. 4 4. 8 9. 1 7. 8 6. 7 6. 5 7. 1 5. 2 3. 2 3. 9 4. 2 3. 2 2. 1 1. 6 1. 3 1. 5 1. 5 1. 3 1 0. 7 0. 7 0. 7 4258 4335 4503 4383 3387 26. 5 25. 3 9. 3 9. 2 14. 1 13. 9 17. 2 16. 1 12. 6 13. 3 7. 1 8. 8 9 8. 9 2. 9 2. 7 0. 9 1. 4 0. 2 0. 4 1714 2022 Table 4. 9 Industry-wise Dividend Payout During 1990 – 2001 (in %) INDUSTRY Chemicals and Plastics Diversified Electricity Financial Services Food and Beverages Machineray Metals and Metal Product Mining Misc. Manufacturing Non-Metallic Mineral Pro Other Services Textiles Transport Equipment 1990 23. 92 25. 28 17. 98 23. 28 24. 47 23. 93 22. 84 10. 28 18. 10 19. 71 20. 01 16. 83 19. 31 1991 20. 38 20. 95 16. 21 27. 01 23. 15 20. 36 21. 47 7. 29 18. 08 17. 75 21. 15 15. 98 19. 96 1992 21. 51 22. 78 14. 15 28. 50 24. 19 22. 87 19. 86 12. 28 15. 69 16. 95 19. 25 17. 26 21. 61 1993 23. 38 25. 48 13. 37 32. 11 22. 4 23. 42 20. 65 9. 56 17. 18 16. 27 19. 84 20. 98 21. 29 1994 20. 14 22. 74 12. 48 29. 87 20. 40 23. 67 20. 92 14. 04 17. 87 14. 78 21. 15 20. 54 23. 26 1995 21. 88 23. 23 16. 98 27. 25 17. 01 22. 07 19. 76 12. 10 18. 91 14. 92 19. 60 19. 20 20. 99 1996 20. 53 21. 61 12. 70 31. 74 17. 23 20. 83 18. 82 16. 58 17. 81 13. 87 19. 34 17. 30 19. 69 1997 18. 37 23. 27 16. 32 29. 19 16. 14 19. 45 16. 78 14. 65 15. 55 13. 62 17. 43 13. 84 22. 46 1998 14. 76 19. 34 10. 42 16. 12 12. 73 16. 28 12. 56 11. 50 9. 84 10. 78 14. 00 11. 29 20. 96 1999 13. 84 17. 41 9. 35 14. 82 12. 67 15. 36 9. 37 9. 87 12. 8 9. 66 12. 27 7. 99 18. 74 2000 14. 18 17. 52 12. 68 16. 21 12. 80 15. 24 9. 16 11. 98 12. 59 8. 93 12. 85 9. 04 20. 18 2001 13. 71 13. 59 13. 08 14. 30 10. 22 15. 15 8. 74 11. 76 15. 09 11. 29 12. 54 8. 02 17. 29 Total payers have registered an increase in payout from 31. 25% in 1991 to a peak of 43. 02% in 1997 and finally paid out 37. 64% in 2001 (Figure 4. 7 and Appendix Table 4. 12). Of the payers, regular payers have consistently paid higher payout compared to that of current payers. Further, initiators have shown higher fluctuations in their payout compared to that of regular payers. In sum, average percentage PR showed a more stable pattern up to 1997 and then has shown a declining trend. Analysis of dividend payout recurrence shows that very few firms have maintained the same payout for a longer period of time. Industry-wise DPO shows a declining trend across all industries during the sample period. Of the payers, regular payers have consistently paid higher payout compared to that of current payers. Further, initiators have shown higher fluctuations in their payout compared to that of regular payers. 16 Figure 4. 7 1% Trimmed Dividend Payout % by Payer Type Current Payers Regular Payers 50 Initiators Total Payers % Payout 45 40 35 30 25 20 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Year 4. 4 Dividend Yield Average dividend yield for all companies during the period 1991 to 2001 has declined from 1. 73% in 1991 to . 55 in 1993 before finally recovering to 1. 61 in 1998 and again falling marginally to 1. 24% in 2001 (Table 4. 10 and Figure 4. 8). On the whole the dividend yield is range bound in the region of 0. 5% to 1. 73%. The reason for the fall in 1993 could be due to high increases in market capitalizations of a number of stocks in the face or irregularities in the stock market in 1992. Analysis of dividend yield by type of payer shows that initiators have always paid higher levels of dividend yield compared to that of current payers and regular payers (Figure 4. 9, and Appendix Table A4. 23). Similarly current payers have paid higher dividend yield compared to that of regular payers. Dividend yields of initiators have declined from 6% in 1991 to 1. 51% in 1993 before recovering and reaching an all time high of 10% in 1998. Compared to this current payers yielded about 5% in 1992 before falling to 1. 81 in 1993 and have subsequently recovered and reached all time high of 8. 2% in 2000. On the other hand regular payers started with a yield of close to 5% but have fallen to a low of 1. 5 in 1993 before reaching an all time high of 7. 76% in 2000. Table 4. 10 1% Upper Trimmed Dividend Yield (%)During 1991 – 2001 Year Mean Median SD Firms 1991 1. 73 . 0 2. 74 1452 1992 1. 66 . 0 2. 57 1603 1993 0. 55 . 0 0. 94 1989 1994 1. 68 . 0 3. 02 2559 1995 1. 44 . 0 2. 85 3 481 1996 1. 01 . 0 1. 88 4214 1997 1. 46 . 0 2. 99 4864 1998 1. 61 . 0 3. 80 5049 1999 1. 44 . 0 3. 86 5235 2000 1. 43 . 0 3. 96 5182 2001 1. 24 . 0 3. 15 4097 Note: Median values are considered only up to 1 decimal. However, there are non-zero values. On the whole dividend yield of aggregate payers shows a significant increase from 1991 to 2001. 17 Average dividend yield has differed from industry to industry (Table 4. 11). Diversified firms, followed by firms in electricity, food and beverages and textiles industries paid higher dividend yields in 1991 while financial services and mining firms paid the lowest. By 2001 diversified firms and electricity continue to pay higher dividend yields where firms in transport industry have improved their dividend yields by 2001. However, food and beverages and textile firms recorded lowered their dividend yield by 2001, where as firms in financial services, and mining have improved their dividend yields. Figure 4. 8 1% Upper Trimmed Dividend Yield During 1991 2001 2. 0 1. 8 1. 6 1. 4 1. 2 1. 0 0. 8 0. 6 0. 4 0. 2 0. 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Average (%) Year Figure 4. 9 1% Upper Trimmed Dividend Yield by Payer Type Current Payer 12 Initiator Regular Payer Total Average (%) 10 8 6 4 2 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Year On the whole the dividend yield is range bound during the study period. Analysis of dividend yield by type of payer shows that initiators have always paid higher levels of dividend yield compared to that of current payers and regular payers. Diversified firms and firms in the electricity industry have paid higher dividend yields during the study period. 4. 5 Summary of Analysis of Dividend Trends The number of firms paying dividend during the study period has shown an up trend till 1995 and has fallen subsequently. Average DPS on the other hand has shown a steady growth e xcept for year 2001. Average percentage PR showed a more stable pattern up to 1997 and then has shown a declining trend. Dividend yield measure is range bound. 18 Analysis also shows that only a few firms have consistently paid same levels of dividend. Analysis of dividend payout recurrence shows that very few firms have maintained the same payout for a longer period of time. Of the payers, regular payers have consistently paid higher payout as well as higher average dividend compared to that of current payers. Iinitiators have always paid higher levels of dividend yield compared to that of current payers and regular payers. Further, narrower indices appear to have higher dividends compared to that of broader indices. Industry trends indicate that firms in the electricity, mining and diversified industries have paid higher dividends where as textile companies have paid less dividends. Firms in the machinery industry which includes computer hardware and software segments have shown lower dividends. Table 4. 11 Average Dividend Yield (%) Industry-Wise During 1991 – 2001 Industry Chemicals and Plastics Diversified Electricity Financial Services Food and Beverages Machinery Metals and Metal Product Mining Misc. Manufacturing Non-Metallic Mineral Products Other Services Textiles Transport Equipment 1991 1. 79 2. 97 2. 27 0. 2 2. 18 1. 66 1. 76 0. 11 1. 41 1. 4 1. 18 2. 06 1. 53 Average 1% Upper Trimmed Dividend Yield in Year 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 1. 92 0. 55 1. 68 1. 39 0. 99 1. 55 1. 91 1. 82 2. 49 0. 8 2. 64 1. 56 1. 3 2. 16 2. 44 2. 12 1. 31 0. 69 1. 49 1. 04 1. 14 1. 07 0. 93 0. 85 0. 9 0. 41 2. 28 1. 98 1. 45 1. 87 1. 29 1. 05 2. 06 0. 58 1. 4 0. 92 0. 7 1. 21 1. 63 1. 38 1. 55 0. 61 1. 8 1. 57 1. 07 1. 54 1. 87 1. 7 1. 81 0. 53 1. 62 1. 71 1. 15 1. 43 1. 33 1. 22 0. 05 0. 01 0. 02 0. 21 0. 52 0. 45 0. 56 1. 12 0. 98 0. 33 1. 51 1. 32 0. 89 1. 18 1. 35 1. 74 1. 55 0. 49 1. 15 1. 02 0. 86 1. 08 1. 36 1. 46 1. 37 0. 5 1. 33 1. 3 0. 81 1. 23 1. 33 0. 97 1. 8 0. 62 2. 08 1. 2 1 1. 41 1. 74 1. 48 1. 48 0. 55 1. 61 1. 36 1. 22 1. 97 2. 42 2. 24 2000 1. 66 2. 99 1. 47 1. 33 1. 12 1. 32 1. 29 0. 58 1. 34 1. 66 1. 05 1. 65 2. 76 2001 1. 35 2. 11 1. 99 1. 03 1. 06 1. 01 1. 2 0. 81 1. 29 1. 43 0. 98 1. 6 2. 04 4. 6 Changes in Tax Regime and Dividend Propensity Analysis of influence of change in tax regime on dividend propensity shows that total dividend per share has come down from an average of Rs. 0. 84 to Rs. 0. 71, where as average payout percentage has increased from 33. 33% to 51. 05% (Table 4. 12). Mimicking the trends for total firms, regular payers have registered lower DPS and higher payout percentage. As opposed to these changes over sub-periods of 3 years before and after the change in tax regime, one year changes show that DPS has more or less remained at the same level, where as payout percentage has come down from 1997 to 1999. However, paired samples t-test shows that these differences are not statistically significant, except in the case of payout percentage from 1997 to 1999 (Table 4. 13). In sum, it can be inferred from the present study that tax regime changes have not really influenced the dividend behavior of Indian corporate firms and that the tradeoff theory does not hold true in the Indian context. 9 Average Dividends Before and After the Tax Regime Change Variable Total DPS (in Total Firms Rs) Regular Payers Total DPS (in Rs. ) Immediate DPS (in Rs. ) Years Average Total Firms Payout % Average Regular Payers Payout % Immediate Payout % Years Sample After Before After Before 1999 1997 After Before After Before 1999 1997 Mean . 71 . 84 1. 55 1. 72 . 22 . 22 51. 05 33. 33 60. 53 38. 07 27. 78 35. 87 N 2597 2597 765 765 4848 4848 1217 1217 1000 1000 2987 2987 SE Correlation . 17 . 519 . 24 . 27 . 241 . 71 . 06 . 426 . 05 19. 19 . 015 1. 43 23. 35 . 008 1. 68 2. 65 . 072 2. 87 Sig. .000 . 000 . 000 . 610 . 795 . 00 Table 4. 12 Influence of Change in Tax Regime on Dividend Propensity: Paired Samples T-test Difference SE After – Before Total Firms -. 13 . 21 Total DPS Regular Payers -. 17 . 70 (in Rs. ) Immediate Years . 01 . 06 Total Firms 17. 72 19. 23 Average 22. 46 23. 39 Payout % Regular Payers Immediate Years -8. 09 3. 76 t -. 62 -. 24 . 11 . 92 . 96 -2. 15 df 2596 764 4847 1216 999 2986 Sig. .536 . 810 . 909 . 357 . 337 . 032 Table 4. 13 5. Characteristics of Dividend Payers and Non-Payers 5. 1 Profitability Payers on an average have more than twice the payoff on assets compared to that of non-payers (Table 5. 1). This finding is consistent with Fama and French (2001). Of the payers Initiators appear to have on an average higher payoff on assets compared to current payers and regular payers, though their payoffs on assets have shown considerable fluctuations. Current payers and regular payers have similar levels of payoff on assets. Of the non-payers, former payers appear to have higher payoff on assets compared to firms, which never paid dividends. Never paid in turn appears to higher payoff on assets compared to current non-payers. An analysis of EPS of payers and non-payers shows that the former have on an average higher EPS compared to the latter. The difference in magnitude is also quite substantial compared to that of payoff on assets. Of the payers, regular payers have consistently higher EPS compared to that of the other two groups of payers. EPS of current payers and initiators has shown considerable fluctuations over the sample period. Initiators have higher average EPS in the early part of 1990s and last few years of 1990s, where as in the intervening years their EPS has shown a decline. Current payers on the other hand shown an opposite trend compared to that of initiators. All the non-payer groups have shown considerable fluctuations in EPS during the sample period and on average registered a decline in EPS from 1990 to 2001. An analysis of common stock earnings to book equity 20 shows that on an average payers have dominated non-payers as the former firms registered 24% in 1991 and 15% in 2001 to 4% and –6% by the latter in the corresponding years. Of the payers, initiators have higher common stock earnings to book equity compared to that of regular payers and current payers. Regular payers and current payers have similar equity earnings to book equity. However there is a gradual decline in earnings to book equity from 1991 to 2001. Of the non-payer firms, never paid firms appear to have higher equity earnings to book equity compared to current non-payers and former payers. The difference between payers and non-payers is larger in terms of stock earnings to book equity compared to payoff on firm’s assets. These findings are consistent with Fama and French. To sum up it can be concluded that profitability has positive influence on the dividend payment of a corporate firm. Dividend payers are more profitable compared to non-payers. Further, corporate firms in general and non-dividend payers in particular have become less profitable. 5. 2 Growth or Investment Opportunities An analysis of growth of assets shows that payers on an average have higher growth compared to that of non-payers. Payers have grown at percentages of 29. 03 in 1991, 23. 69 in 2000 and 10. 82 in 2001 compared to 18. 65, 4. 12 and 1. 86 in the corresponding years for non-payers. Of the payers initiators appear to have higher growth percentage compared to that of regular payers. Initiators have grown at percentages of 29. 87 in 1991, 49. 13 in 2000 and 57. 54 in 2001 compared to 28. 2, 23. 59 and 6. 78 in the corresponding years for regular payers. Regular payers in turn appear to have higher growth compared to that of current payers. Of the non-payers, never paid have on an average lower growth in assets compared to former payers and current payers. These findings are not consistent with Fama and French where they find never paid firms to have higher growth in assets compared to that of other non-payer and payer groups. Similar trends are observed with regard to growth opportunities as measured by R&D investment to total assets. Payers appear to have higher growth opportunities compared to non-payers. Of the payers, regular payers have higher growth opportunities compared to initiators and current payers. Of the non-payers, never paid appears to have lower growth opportunities compared to current non-payers. However the percentage growth opportunities for payers as well as for non-payers are considerably low as the payers on an average have 0. 02% in 1991 and 0. 27% in 2001 compared to 0. 003% and 0. 0447% in the corresponding years for non-payers. An analysis of aggregate market value to book value of assets shows that payers and non-payers do not differ significantly. However, there are differences with in the payer and non-payer groups. For instance, initiators appear to have higher market value to book value compared to regular and current payers, where as in non-payer group, former payers appear to be dominated by both never paid and current non-payers. On the whole in the Indian context higher growth and growth opportunities have not resulted in lower dividend payments by corporate firms. This finding contradicts the findings of Fama and French, whereby they contend that growth opportunities are an important reason for reduced dividend payments by firms. . 3 Size Dividend payers appear to be much larger in size compared to that of non-payers. This observation is consistent with Fama and French (2001). Average size as measured by assets of payers averaged Rs. 104. 4 crore in 1991 and Rs. 1413. 43 in 2001 compared to that of Rs. 56. 92 and Rs. 181. 20 in the corresponding years for non-payers. 21 Of the payers, regular payers have higher assets compared to that of current payers. Current payers in turn have higher assets compared to initiators. Similarly, regular payers have grown an average asset base of Rs. 112 crore in 1991 to Rs. 711 crore in 2001 compared to Rs. 54. 71 crore and Rs. 581. 48 core for initiators and Rs. 47. 11 crore in 1992 and Rs. 654. 9 crore for current payers. Of the non-payers, former payers appear to have higher assets compared to current never paid who in turn have higher asset base compared to current non-payers. Asset base of former payers has grown from Rs. 90. 14 crore in 1991 to Rs. 239. 2 crore in 2001 while in the corresponding period never paid have grown from Rs. 51. 69 crore to Rs. 80. 57 crore. However, current non-payers have registered a decline in their asset base from Rs. 3. 5 crore to Rs. 18. 73 crore during the same period. An analysis of indebtedness of firms s hows that non-payers appear to have higher levels of long-term borrowings to assets compared to that of payers. Of the non-payers, never paid appears to have higher longterm borrowings to assets compared to former payers, who in turn appear to have higher levels compared to current non-payers. Of the payers, regular payers appear to have higher long-term borrowings to assets compared to current payers. Current payers in turn have higher levels compared to initiators. On the whole, the size of assets of firms have gone up during the period 1990 – 2001 and that increased assets seems to have been financed through long-term borrowing implying pecking order of preference for funds. Table 5. 1 Characteristics of Dividend Payers and Non-Payers Year 1991 1992 1993 Average % Payoff on Assets Current Payers 11. 20 12. 23 Initiators 9. 79 15. 15 12. 57 Regular Payers 11. 69 12. 03 12. 00 Total Payers 11. 44 12. 32 12. 07 Current Non-Payers 6. 58 5. 16 3. 69 Former Payers 10. 24 7. 41 6. 23 Never Paid 4. 44 6. 71 5. 29 Total Non-Payers 5. 49 6. 68 5. 29 Average 1% Trimmed EPS Current Payers 3. 0 4. 83 Initiators 7. 05 7. 47 5. 49 Regular Payers 14. 11 12. 79 9. 07 Total Payers 13. 20 11. 97 8. 46 Current Non-Payers -1. 61 -1. 18 -0. 49 Former Payers 0. 71 -2. 72 -3. 45 Never Paid 0. 07 1. 41 -0. 88 Total Non-Payers 0. 04 0. 49 -1. 41 Average Common Stock Earnings to Book Equity % Current Payers 21 18 Initiators 29 39 27 Regular Payers 22 20 19 Total Payers 24 24 21 Current Non-Payers -15 -7 -41 Former Payers 8 -27 58 Never Paid 14 23 47 Total Non-Payers 4 13 23 Average % Growth (Assets) Current Payers 46. 25 27. 29 Initiators 29. 87 92. 24 66. 77 Regular Payers 28. 92 62. 44 32. 20 Total Payers 29. 03 63. 66 33. 0 Current Non-Payers 16. 13 2. 34 26. 55 1994 12. 67 15. 19 12. 24 12. 58 3. 16 5. 37 4. 91 4. 79 7. 30 4. 53 9. 37 8. 67 -0. 35 -1. 64 -0. 62 -0. 81 23 32 21 24 13 72 14 21 27. 95 50. 41 36. 31 36. 17 46. 48 1995 13. 99 13. 66 12. 21 12. 56 1. 99 5. 94 5. 73 5. 41 6. 95 3. 98 8. 90 8. 15 0. 28 0. 51 0. 59 0. 54 20 26 22 23 4 -65 10 -3 1996 12. 27 11. 25 12. 02 11. 99 3. 67 9. 06 3. 89 5. 61