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Saturday, December 28, 2019

Marketing Skill And Finance Capital Business Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3035 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? Multinational company (MNC) is a multinational corporation that functions with a headquarters in the origin of that country, while having other facilities and assets that are based in location of other countries. Multinational Corporation that operates in different countries provides technology, marketing skill and finance capital for a more profitable market in return. Many host countries have impose regulation which gives them a portion of share in profit, market and also jobs which is generated by multinational corporation in that particular country. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Marketing Skill And Finance Capital Business Essay" essay for you Create order Multinational company can be categories into 3 elements which is horizontally integrated multinational corporations, vertically integrated multinational corporations and diversified multinational corporations Horizontally integrated multinational corporations Corporations that manage production establishments in different countries that produces similar products ( example, McDonalds) Vertically integrated multinational corporations Manage production establishment in certain countries to produce products as input to its production establishment in other countries ( example, Adidas) Diversified multinational corporations Production Establishment is neither horizontally or vertically integrated ( example Microsoft) Globalisation: Globalisation can be seen in much different way, one way of seeing it as increase in the share of economic activity that is taking place across national boundaries. The impact of globalization can be both positive and negative, the positive side can be seen the potential of generating wealth and improving the living standards of a country. Countries that have the skill and resources are able to take advantage of the opportunities provided by global market. However, it seems to be flaws for countries that do not fall into this category. Globalisation can be said to have increase the gap between of poor and rich people, this can be seen through policies that are drives globalization process in the matter of business and not for the people. Below are the points of view of people regarding the debate of globalization. Positive view Globalization is about worldwide economic activity about open markets, competition and the free flow of goods, services, capital and knowledge. Consu mers are its principal beneficiary. Its benefits in terms of faster growth, quicker access to new technology, cheaper imports and greater competition are available for all. Globalization has made the world economy more efficient and has created hundreds of millions of jobs, mainly, but not only, in developing countries. It generates an upward spiral of jobs and prosperity for countries that embrace the process, although the advantages will not reach everybody at the same time. ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) brief on globalization (Globaled, 2009) Negative view What are doing, in the name of globalisation, to the poor is brutal and unforgivable. This is especially evident in India as we witness the unfolding disasters of globalisation, especially in food and agriculture.Dr Vandana Shiva, environmental (Globaled, 2009) Introduction: Unilever as an MNC Unilever was form in year 1930 through merger by Lever Brother in British and Marganie Unie of the Dutch and now Unilever is based in London. They offer a wide range of products in food, beverages, personal care products and many more. The success story of Unilever can be seen in the annual turnover in the year 2009 which is ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬39.8billion worldwide and employs 163,000 employees around the world. Unilever established as a MNC because they have a headquarter in London, United Kingdom while other businesses operating in other countries. Here we will study how globalization and Unilever gives impact to the society as a whole. Macro-environment for Unilever in host country United Kingdom (PEST analysis) : Political Unilever being a MNC company in the world does not support any political parties whose activities is to promote the party interest, this is because they believe that the business they operate in must be behave with honesty , integrity and openness. However, the political trends still affects Unilever for example in UK where the headquarter is situated. In early February 2010, Unilever has been burden by the increase of taxation by the UK government. Initially, the company is already facing economic instability because consumer is unwillingly to spend more money. Paul Polman, the chief executive said that to the daily mail (The Telegraph 2010), If on top of that we would get an additional regulatory or tax environment that would make us non-competitive that would be unfortunate for the UK. Source: (www.unilever.com/images/ir_Charts%201996%202006_tcm13-90292.pdf) The graph above shows us the expenditure cost of Unilever from year 2000 to 2009. From year 2000 until 2004, Unilever has been less on expenditure such as manufacturing facilities, and research and development sector. As of year 2004 onwards the cost has been increasing yearly until 1,700 (million) and with the recent increase of taxation in UK, Unilever will have to spend more on expenditure cost in the year to come. This would be a motivational factor for the firm to encounter the problem by setting effective strategies to sustain such taxation rate at the same time remain competitive from price aspect. Economic environment In the economic environment, Unilever generates wealth by adding value to raw materials, and manufacturing their product for the consumers. The parties that are involved in the economic environment are their employees, government, investors, and many more communities that benefits from the activities of the company. Source: (www.unilever.com//sd_UnileverSDReport170310_amended_tcm13-212972.pdf) This graph shows the parties that benefit from the activities that are ventured by Unilever in UK. Despite the economic instability that happens in decades, Unilever is still able to generate an operating profit of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬5,020 and sales of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬ 39,823 million in 2009. This graph shows us that the employees gain the biggest share of the company which is ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬5.2billion, whereas the least share is earn by the local communities which is ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬89million. The provider of capital obtains the 2nd highest share which is ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬2.5billion and the governments gain ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬959million from the company in the form of corporation tax that is issued by the government. Sociological Environment Making a difference in society is one of Unilevers biggest goals because they want to deliver the best and to give back to the society that has been supporting the success of Unilever. Unilever will be focusing on giving more choice to consumers, focusing more on research and development on healthier products, to provide nutrition information to the understanding of consumers and also improving nutrition quality of their products. In order to improve the nutritional quality of the product and maintaining the taste, it is estimated that reduction of salt intake by 1g can reduce the chances of strokes by 5%. The Nutrition Enhancement Programme has come up with a strategy known as salt reduction strategy that stated in 2009 we set product benchmarks to achieve a dietary intake of 6 g of salt per day by the end of 2010, with the ambition to reduce further to5 g per day by the end of 2015 Unilever has also extended their impact by working together with World Food Programme (WFP) w here they support developing countries and improving the health and nutrition of product. In order to reach out to the people, Unilever in UK has donated ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬500, 00 through global partnership and with (WFP). Technology Environment In the technology sector, Unilever has been spending in the area of e-business to improve brands communication and market through internet, and also making transaction simple along chain. Unilever Technology has work together with Unilever R D group in order to meet consumers needs. In the year 2003, Unilever introduce the new pallet live storage system from Bitto Storage System Ltd. The purpose of this technology is to store frozen products. Plans are being made to improve IT infrastructure in Unilever. For example, increment in the energy-efficiency of data centers and applying power management strategies. Tele presence video conferencing is also applied in order to reduce the impact of business travelling. Macro environment of Unilever in different countries Political Unilever in Nigeria are now facing with difficult time this is because of the governments policy such as nationalisation and also to deplore state infrastructure .The effect of this has made given Unilever with no choice but to consider pulling out of Nigeria and relocate them to Ghana. Unilever chose to leave is because there is no commitment made to the deplorable state of basic infrastructure in the country that causes a big loss to the business. Unilever is also losing business because the inadequate power supply which has cost billion of naira and multiple taxation from regime in Nigeria has reduce the profit made drastically. The government of Nigeria should intervene this issue of basic infrastructure and develop the necessity needed before Unilever pulls out and cause bigger lose to the country such as increase in the rate of unemployment. Economic The market environment is highly competitive in the Western Europe and this has disrupted the market of Unilever, one of Unilevers main competitors in the Western Europe would be Procter Gamble (PG). EU free trade policy has also affected the profit potential of Unilever. Products are also force to reduce in price by retailers, and due to current economic tide many consumer are unwilling to purchase expensive products. Due to inflation and fluctuation of currency Unilever in some country such as Nigeria to be precise has suffered a decrease in profit in 2005 compared to 2004. Graph below will show the turnover of Unilever in Nigeria. Source: (https://investadvocate.com.ng/reports/doc_details/77-unilever-nigeria-plc-driving-growth-by-volume-september-07-2010-fsdh.html) This graph will show us the turnover in 2004 and 2005 is N3.34 billion (naira) and N2.56billion (naira) respectively. The profit after tax is N2.17billion (naira) and N1.61billion (naira) respectively in the year 2004 and 2005. From here we can conclude there is a decrease in profit in Unilever of Nigeria. Low per capital income of the people has also affected the market of Unilever because over 30% of African population lives on less than $1 per day. This would highly affect Unilevers competitiveness in the industry as it is important for an international firm to encounter every fluctuation in business, either currency or increment in taxation. It shows that Unilever has implemented a brilliant strategy to encounter the price factor for products, which is changing the packaging to affordable price by reducing the size, consumers crave for Unilevers product can still be fulfilled. Socio-cultural Unilever has done their part to maintain the socio-cultural environment with its sustainability development. The company has been working very hard to bring improvement hygiene and better nutrition to the people in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Over 30% of Africa population lives on less than $1 per day. The awareness for people regarding hygiene and nutrition is very important and this has given the opportunity to strengthen their goodwill. However, marketing vehicles such as advertisement in print media has been overcome with challenges such as low workforce. Therefore, employment of more resources is very important for instance face-to-face communication to increase the awareness of the people. Unilever has also employed 100 nationalities to ensure diversity between employees and consumers. This would align with sustainable environmental outcome that is increasingly important globally because the firm has implemented several remedies in enhancing its sustainable developm ent from human rights, community services and environmental aspects, such as donations and activities to increase cleanliness awareness among the African nation. Technology Sustainable development from environmental aspect can be seen as an important element for Unilever in improving its technology to reduce pollution towards the environment. The technologies implemented are highly effective in reducing pollution caused by the business and this is affected by the increment in awareness of environmental issues globally in recent decades for positive environmental outcomes. Impact of globalization: The people around the world have always given the opportunity to exchange goods, services, culture, and knowledge with each other. However, recent technology and reduce of barriers has increase the exchange rate in recent years. Globalisation has generated positive and negative impact towards countries. Positive impact In recent decades enhancing competition is factor for firms to set effective strategies to remain competitive and making profit in the future. Competition can promote efficiency and productivity for business with different challenges that an international firm has to encounter to maintain its business activities and profit because business strategy is crucial in order to excel as it would improve business systems and practices. Environmental awareness has contributed to positive environmental outcomes by encouraging the use of more efficient, less-polluting technologies. Negative impact Sustainable development is increasingly important because it is not only about how well a business runs, instead, how well the people is being treated. Human rights are also included in this section where fairness in treatment and other necessities of an employee or customer must be fulfilled. The income earned by individuals will decrease due to the economy fluctuation and also low profit for a firm. This could be seen during economy fluctuation where employees salary is cut and increment in unemployment. Therefore, the economy will not be improved. Potential impact of globalisation: Technology New technology in the business which has branches globally will impact the productivity and encourage effectiveness as it will improve the living standard of the people. Existing technologies has consume large amount of energy and chemical in producing products and as a result produce large amount of wastage of water. Unilever has co-operated with Voltea Limited in order to save the usage of water. Volteas breakthrough Capacitive Deionzation (CapDI) is the first desalination system that is able to recovery high water usage and also operates without producing any chemical that might pollute the water.The technology will soon be implemented by other businesses globally under the influence of Unilever, which was earlier to alter Unilevers host countries technology. Sustainable development Unilever has made approach in making tomorrow a better day. With their tag line creating a better future everyday shows that they have venture into enhancing the development of society. For the hygiene concern, Unilever are able to change the hygiene behaviour of 1 billion people in the future with emphasising on hygiene education programmes on developing countries such as Pakistan, African and also Sri Lanka. Reduction in the rate of carbon dioxide, water usage, and chemical waste will continue in the manufacturing operation because up to 2009, Unilever has manage to save up to 15% of water usage and reduce 25% of carbon dioxide emission to the environment. This would effectively influence lifestyle of undeveloped countries and areas globally as these countries deserve to have better living standards under global effort by Multinational Corporation. Changes in Lifestyle Change in lifestyle is a crucial factor in globalisation because the benefit that consumers extract from tea would affect the health of younger generation and consumption pattern of tea. Health is more important as time goes, tea is better than coffee from benefit because study has shown that tea containing anti-oxidant that can reduce the rate of getting a heart attack and cancer. Lipton tea from Unilever can also change the lifestyle of older adults enjoying the fact that a modest price for a cup of tea and snack, they can meet up with friends and family members instead of going to a bar and paying for an alcoholic drink that does not even bring much health benefits compare to what tea has to offer. Tea consumption Source: (https://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4343e/y4343e05.htm) Tea exports Source: (https://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4343e/y4343e05.htm) Graphs above demonstrated the tea consumption that is increasing tremendously. World tea consumption and exports are bot h playing a relatively profitable business. Strategy for globalisation: Unilever has applied several remedies and improvement in business activity in order to sustain globalisation that will give enormous impact to its business. Personal care for future sales growth and profitability Unilever has identified the key to achieve sustainable profitable growth through its personal care business segment as it generate the fastest-growing business compared to other sector such as food and beverages. Personal care business refers to the products that are self managed, such as hair shampoo and skin care products. This is because the demand for these products in the market has been increasing, as well as the existing sales from this segment is satisfying. However, Unilevers greatest rival Procter Gamble (PG) for many years have been more innovative and creative in introducing new products. In the previous year in the personal care sale increase only by 1.4% to ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬11.30billion while overall turnover rose by 1.4% to ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬40.2 billion. In order for creating future sales growth, Unilever will focus more personal care segment for future sale growth and sustaining profit from increasing raw material cost. Graph below sho ws the revenue increment in Unilevers products line, including personal care segments. Source: (https://www.goldmood.com/cosmos/h/UL.html) External Pressure and Organisational Restructuring High cost of raw material, adverse exchange rates and macroeconomic worries such as politic and regulation of countries might affect the performance of Unilever. In order to secure generation of profit and sustaining raw material cost Unilever has come up with few strategies. Unilever has to reduce 20,000 jobs across its production division and combine its Personal Care and food sector into one category to reduce cost that will be delivered to consumer. Unilever has come up with Path to Growth strategy that promises improvement in its performances. This strategy will help the organisation to restructure its two global divisions, Home Personal Care and Food into one division. This would effectively lower production costs that will be implied into price of the products and influence consumers consumption from price aspect. Price is a crucial matter to consumers due to economy fluctuation that will affect lower spending power. Restructuring Unilever Unilevers CEO Patrick Cescau has announce that Unilever will be changing their management structure in order to focus on developing markets and promoting executives with experience in that environment. This is due to the reason of constant change in global business activity which makes Unilevers management structure less effective to cope with latter business strategy. Centralising management has combined its central and Eastern Europe division will allow emerging economies to share similar consumer traits and potential for growth, as well as combining the cost that the firm has to sustain for distance management. Besides, combination of Home Personal Care and food sector is the companys effort to increase its profitability in profit by reducing production cost from workforce aspect. 2877words

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Whistleblowing Legislation And Its Role Of Corporate...

Whistleblowing Legislation and Its Role In Corporate Governance Whistleblowing occurs when an employee, contractor or supplier goes outside the normal management channels to report suspected wrongdoing at work. A study indicates that no specific actor dominates the revelation of fraud: â€Å"short sellers and equity holders revealed the fraud in 9% of the cases; financial analysts and auditors revealed 14% each; the Securities Exchange Commission (â€Å"SEC†) accounted for 6%; the media accounted for 14%; non-financial market regulators 16%; and employees (whistleblowers) accounted for 19%. The United States enacted sweeping legislation to protect whistleblowers after a series of corporate scandals, but more is needed. Since whistleblowing plays an important role in the corporate regulatory scheme, this paper will explore policies needed for a more effective corporate governance. Events Leading to the Enactment of Legislation The events that led to legislative action from Congress were the Enron and WorldCom scandals. Enron Corporation was an American energy company based in Houston, Texas which originally was solely a natural gas provider which then evolved into one of the world’s major energy-commodity traders. On August 2001, Sherron Watkins, the Vice President of Enron at the time, alerted the then–CEO Ken Lay of accounting irregularities. By the end of November 2001, Enron shareholders filed a $40 billion lawsuit after the company s stock price, which achieved a high ofShow MoreRelatedThe Main Threats That Business Leaders Within The 21st Century1531 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Corporate governance can be defined as a set of laws, policies and processes impacting on the way organisations are controlled (Saheed, 2013). 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That is open to debateRead MoreCPA 118 ETHICS NOTES6292 Words   |  26 Pagessubcommittee and procedures for reporting to the full board Except for certain situations where audit committees are compulsory, it is up to boards to determine whether to have the committees and, if so, which committees are established.    Committee Key role(s) Membership Risk management Ensure certain risk is assessed, understood and appropriately managed OECD dose not make specific recommendations about committees Nomination Recommending the succession procedures within an organization AppropriateRead MoreFactors of Ethical Collapse3526 Words   |  15 Pagestrust, integrity, fairness and responsibility. Research groups have identified overarching ethical principles as the application of honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility. A companys use of ethical principles demonstrates solid corporate governance and management (Verschoor, 2011). However, when these principles are deliberately ignored the result is an ethical collapse whereby the organization’s core values of trust, integrity, fairness and responsibility are weakened or diminishedRead MoreAccountant Responsibility1863 Words   |  8 Pagestheir own self-interest while leaving the stakeholders and public left holding the bag. The Enron disaster motivated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 with new auditor independence rules, creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, corporate governance and certification requirements, whistleblower protections, extended statutes of limitatio ns, and more severe penalties (Grubbs, 2007). Responsibility to Clients Accountants have a legal and ethical responsibility to their clients. An engagementRead MoreAudit Cases14211 Words   |  57 Pagesof steps they could take if they become aware of potential unethical or illegal actions in organizations where they may be employed. [3] [4] [2] To illustrate key characteristics of effective whistleblowing programs. To overview the key requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistleblowing and code of ethics provisions. KEY FACTS ÂÆ'ÂÆ' WorldCom Inc., was a Mississippi-based telecommunications company, that became the 25th largest U.S. company by 2002. ÂÆ'ÂÆ' The company grew primarily throughRead MoreAnglo American Dissatation11587 Words   |  47 Pagesare less significant in comparison to the more major operations of diamond, copper, iron ore and platinum. Anglo Americans main corporate aim is to, â€Å"be the leading global mining company becoming the industry’s largest employer, partner and investment of choice† (Anglo American 2012f). They believe a sound strategy, sustainable development and good corporate governance are essential to achieve this goal. (Anglo American 2012f) Methodology At the first meeting, the group decided that the

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Patagonia Another Way of Doing Business free essay sample

1Introduction Patagonia was founded in 1957 by Yvon Chouinard who defines himself as a reluctant business man. He started his business as a way to climb and surf year long, seeking to build the best product to satisfy his passion. â€Å"Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. † –Patagonias Mission Statement Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. Customers are willing to pay a premium for the Patagonia brand and environmental ethic. The companys goal is as simple as it is challenging: to produce the highest-quality products while doing the least possible harm to the environment. Yvon Chouinard founder and owner of Patagonia has done business differently since the beginning of the company, placing environmental sustainability and social welfare of his employee before profit. We will write a custom essay sample on Patagonia Another Way of Doing Business or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Three examples of the company practice will show how marketing and business can meet ethical behavior. Patagonia: a different workplace environment Patagonia is hiring only passionate people (friends, family†¦) who are also product user so they don’t have to understand the customer because they are the customer. Patagonia has developed the Let My People Go surfing flextime policy to cope with the employee passion (surfing, backcountry skiing†¦). There are no private offices and the architectural layout keep communication opens. The cafeteria where employees can gather throughout the day serves healthy, mostly vegetarian food. The company has also an on-site child care center, the presence of children playing in the yard, or having lunch with their parents in the cafeteria helps keep the company atmosphere more familial than corporate. Patagonia has a program that allows employees to take off up to two months at full pay to work for environmental groups. Patagonia fosters creativity and authenticity through its work environment and hiring process enabling the development of original products. 3Patagonia: The 1% for the Planet Initiative Since 1985, Patagonia has devoted 1% of its sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. The company has awarded over $46 million in cash and in-kind donations to domestic and international grassroots environmental. In 2002, founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, created a non-profit corporation to encourage other businesses to do the same. 1% For The Planet is an alliance of businesses that understand the necessity of protecting the natural environment. As of today 1401 companies are members of the 1% for the Planet Initiative and donate 1% of their sales to a network of 2,735 environmental organizations worldwide. More than a marketing campaign, The 1% for the Planet Initiative is a really strong statement from Patagonia (no matter what are the financial results 1% of its sales will serve the environmental cause every year), it has reinforced the company corporate social responsibility and ethical image, hence the loyalty of its core customers. 4Patagonia: The Common Threads Initiative This marketing program first asks customers to not buy something if they dont need it, then if they do need it, Patagonia ask that they buy what will last a long time and to repair what breaks, reuse or resell whatever they dont wear any more. And, finally, recycle whatevers truly worn out. Patagonia with The Common Threads Initiative is the first private company launching a marketing campaign telling its customers to buy less or to buy used gear. In September 2011 Patagonia launched an online marketplace in collaboration with eBay for customers to sell and buy their used Patagonia products. This feature is displayed on the homepage of patagonia. com. Recycling is what we do when were out of options to avoid, repair, or reuse the product first. Thats why I am so impressed with Patagonia for starting its Common Threads Initiative with the real solution: Reduce. Dont buy what we dont need. Repair: Fix stuff that still has life in it. Reuse: Share. Then, only when youve exhausted those options, recycle (Leonard, 2011). This new marketing campaign was unveiled at the New York fashion week as an experiment. Only a private company without public shareholder and a charismatic leader with strong belief can promote such a different business attitude. 5Conclusion Patagonia has always done business and marketing differently. In the seventies Chouinard Equipment had become the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the U. S. It had also become an environmental threat because its gear was damaging the rock. Yvon Chouinard and his partner decided to phase out of this business even it if was the main source of revenue for the company, it was the first environmental step for Patagonia. Instead of focusing on profit the company took a big risk by discontinuing a successful line of products to promote an alternative solution (aluminum chocks) for climbers. It became a success because Patagonia crafted the right product with the right message and stayed true to its core values. Today with the Common Threads Initiative they are pursuing the exact same philosophy and trying to push the industry to adopt more ethical business behaviors. Patagonia’s highly public search for a new way of doing business implies a new kind of relationship with customers, reinforced by unconditional guarantees, extremely high product quality and an explicit commitment to ethical codes of behavior (Reinhardt, 2000).

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Skills of Social Work-Fact Finding free essay sample

There are also factual questions involving the law, such as: What exactly are the procedures for removing an elected official from office? Who owns a particular piece of land? What are the legal rights that citizens have when accused of a crime? Moreover, whenever we do fact finding as student social workers, we need to look into; 1. Demography How many people live in this area? † is clearly a major factor in determining the demand for the particular problem. Other questions concern the density (how many people per square kilometer? and the age and sex distribution. How many elderly or sick people who may be handicapped in getting this problem? What are the rates for births and deaths (if known) and how do these compare to national figures? What are the rates and patterns of migration (is it seasonal or permanent? are the people moving in from other areas? ). These comparisons are important, as we need to know how typical any particular area is. We will write a custom essay sample on Skills of Social Work-Fact Finding or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 2. Environment â€Å"What is the physical area that we are dealing with? Is this clearly marked or should-it be arbitrarily defined? What resources (especially land, soils, and vegetation) are available? What is known about climate, water, slopes, drainage? 3. Historical â€Å"There are two good reasons for knowing at least the general outline of local history recognizing the significance of important places and major persons. First, the present can only be understood in relation to the past and second, local people regard their history as important, so it is both expedient and courteous to know something about significant events. 4. Community† We are studying a community of people, the most important part of which is the relatively stable set of relationships between the people relationships between men and women, old and young, neighbours, kinsmen, in-laws, landlords and tenants, rich and poor, and so on. 5. Domestic â€Å"It should be possible to make a rough typology of households, a term which although sometimes vague, is better than family or farm. Household may usually be defined as a group of people that shares a common kitchen (or cooking place) and that recognizes one household head. The purpose of this is to establish the range and extent of inequality and variation on a particular problem. 6. Social  and  Economic â€Å"This category seeks further information on differentiation how is access to land defined and who controls/owns the land? How many are landless or near landless, how many rent land? 7. Political-Administrative â€Å"What are the formal and informal channels of authority? What are the links to the regional (and national) centers of power? What is the extent of-local participation in making decisions? What laws, regulations, and local informal, sanctions affect on the exits problems in the community. † On the other hand, it needs to look into some techniques adopted for fact finding. Which are as documentation, formal hearing, action research, demonstration projects, keeping abreast, need assessment, and programme identification on fact finding to find and know the root causes of the problems in the community. Fact finding techniques 1. Documentation Documentation is very important in order to keep the data of any particular problems of the community with exact facts of the problems, time, and year. Documentation can be done by note on paper, video record, and Microsoft words files so that even the next generation can see what were the main problems in the community and they will understand about the past events of the particular community. Doing documentation is for guide to implement action plan towards the particular problems for the development of the community. For example, documentation can be done by doing interview, home visit, looking into the historical background of the community, and by approaching to the head of the community to collect information about the community. And, the other example, if the community faces the problem of water crisis, here we need to look into â€Å"why, how, and when does it happen? † is important to know and how far it effect means its magnitude towards the community people, so, these are needed to list down to do documentation for programme implementation. 2. Formal hearing It is the important thing to know and ask how people in the community feel on particular problems, it means that it needs people concern on the particular problems which exists in the community for action plan and programme implementation. After doing documentation, it needs to ask people opinions, ideas, and solutions for problem solving process so that the people will feel that this or that is problems in the community, and they will accept particular problem as their problem in the community. Here, student social worker needs to apply the principles of people participation, start with what they know and have, and teach them by showing and learn by doing in order to get people concern and participation for problem solving process. For example, school dropout is happening in the community, but may be the community people may feel that this is not their problem, for that the student social worker needs to make them aware that this is problem in the community by showing them the disadvantages of school dropout and how do school dropout affect to the children future, and when the community people accept school dropout as their problem, the student social worker needs to make them to link with the available resources for reducing the rate of the school dropout and to stop school dropout in the community. For that, the student social worker can give awareness programme on the importance of education for children. 3. Action research The term action research means doing research with some types of action programmes for the betterment of the community. Action research is a research initiated to solve an immediate problem or a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a community of practice to improve the way they address issues and solve problems. Action research involves the process of actively participating in an organization change situation whilst conducting research. Action research can also be undertaken by larger organizations or institutions, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices and knowledge of the environments within which they practice. As designers and stakeholders, researchers work with others to propose a new course of action to help their community improve its work practices. For example, for school dropout problem in the community, here action research talks about to seek the way or strategies to approach to solve the immediate problem. Therefore, student social worker needs to seek that way that may be it is good to approach to the head of the community as first step or it will be better to do awareness programme first, and in secondly, may be the student social worker will seek for the available resources to make them link with the resources which can handle their current needs or problem. 4. Demonstration projects The demonstration projects mean that to find out whether the certain programme will work for the particular issue or problem and how and how much effective the particular programme is in solving the problems. It needs to identify and analysis on the programme to know whether it will work or it needs to change for solving the problem in the community. It needs to demonstrate on the projects or programme which will be implemented to solve the occurring problems in the community whether it will be effective towards the problem or not, if it is not effective than it needs to change the progamme and its objectives, action plan, and goal to seek for the better programme to solve the problem. For example, in the case of school dropout, the student social worker decides to conduct awareness programme on the importance of education, but actually when the student social worker demonstrate on the programme, he realizes that it needs to do home visit and survey as the first step to find out the facts and after that he may conduct awareness programme. 5. Keeping abreast The term keeping abreast means that to keep on giving information about new development, new information regard to certain subjects. This word means that to keep on providing and giving new and up-to-date information regard with certain problem in order to have good footstep in solving the problem effectively. For example, in some cases and problems, the process of the problems are changing may be because problems are dynamic from one place to other in nature because of culture transmission, because of news etc so, that it needs to update the information to take good action for solving the problems. 6. Need assessment It is very important to seek and know the real needs of the community to have ffective programme for problem solving in the community as professional social worker. It means to implement programme in time or the in the time of need, correct time, and place, with specific objectives and programme. For example, the student social worker needs to see into the needs of the community people rather than his needs. 7. Programme identification For the last point, it is programme identification process. It me ans that it needs to indentify and analysis on the programme whether it works and full fill the needs of the people. In the process of programme identification, it focuses on to identify how much the programme will effect towards the problem, and what will be needed to solve the problems. For example, in the case of the school dropout, the student social worker needs to identify on the awareness programme that â€Å"does the awareness programme on importance of education work to reduce the rate of school dropout in the community†, if it still needs more action than, the student social worker needs to seek the way by corporation with the community people to get the better solution for that. Conclusion As student social worker, the technique of fact finding is very important in order to find the root cause of the problems in the particular community to take action plan with specific objectives and programme implementation for the betterment or progress of the community. Fact finding is an extremely important component of the communication process which presents its own special set of problems and opportunities to people working to increase the constructiveness of intractable problems conflicts in the community. Therefore, it is very important to collect the real facts of the particular problem in the community to take effective action and programme implementation for solving the problems. For fact finding group interview is very important also because a short-cut method of rapidly gathering data is to interview groups rather than individuals. This method presents problems of representativeness, since any group chosen is unlikely to represent a true cross-section of the local population, though attempts should be made to include individuals of different socio-economic status. The knowledge and experience of several individuals may serve as checks on information given by each others. And, questionnaires are a popular method of data collection. The advantages of using a questionnaire are well-known: data can be collected quickly on specific items; these data can be easily transferred into forms allowing quantified and computerized analyses; and data collection tasks can be delegated to less expensive field staff. Questionnaires also compel the adoption of some organized structure upon data collection, but will be most effective when used by someone who can support and test the questionnaire findings with personal observations and insights and knowledge. Using questionnaires is one means of recording data, but it is not the only means and it is not adequate to not cover all the information required.