Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory and Job Satisfaction in the Malaysian Retail Sector

Asian Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, 73–94, January 2011 HERZBERG'S MOTIVATION-HYGIENE THEORY AND JOB SATISFACTION IN THE MALAYSIAN RETAIL SECTOR: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF LOVE OF MONEY Tan Teck-Hong* and Amna Waheed Sunway University, School of Business 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia * Corresponding author: [email  protected] edu. my ABSTRACT This paper examines what motivates employees in the retail industry , and examines their level of job satisfaction, using Herzberg's hygiene factors and motivators.In this study, convenience sampling was used to select sales personnel from women's clothing stores in Bandar Sunway shopping mall in the state of Selangor. The results show that hygiene factors were the dominant motivators of sales personnel job satisfaction. Working conditions were the most significant in motivating sales personnel. Recognition was second, followed by company policy and salary. There is a need to d elve more deeply into why salespeople place such a high importance on money.Further analysis was performed to assess how much the love of money mediates the relationship between salary and job satisfaction. Based on the general test for mediation, the love of money could explain the relationship between salary and job satisfaction. The main implication of this study is that sales personnel who value money highly are satisfied with their salary and job when they receive a raise. Keywords: Herzberg's motivation-hygiene; job satisfaction; love of money, mediator, pay satisfaction, retailing, MalaysiaINTRODUCTION This paper explores the effect of motivational variables on the job satisfaction of salespeople in the Malaysian retail sector. Retail is crucial to the economies of most countries, mainly because of its large scale at all levels; local, national and even international. The retailing sector in Malaysia has undergone continuous and significant change over the last few decades. N ew facilities ranging from superstores to retail warehouses have widened the retail landscape (Market Research, 2009).Retail has become one of the most dynamic sectors of the Malaysian economy because it is not only employs 20% of Malaysia's entire population, but is also the second largest contributor to the national GDP,  © Asian Academy of Management and Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2011 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed contributing about US$ 35 billion in 2009, with a projection of US$ 58 billion in 2014 (PwC, 2009). Tourism contributes greatly to Malaysia's retail sales growth, as shopping revenue, which totalled US$ 4. 6 billion in 2008 (Market Research, 2009), is the second highest component of the country's tourism revenue.Thus, the retail industry is considered to be a significant contributor to the growth, economy and stability of Malaysia. The retail industry is subject to various problems and challenges. First, intense competition has resulted in price wars between foreign and local retailers. The majority of modern retail operations are foreign-owned and located in urban areas, whereas local stores dominate outside urban areas. Foreign retailers in Malaysia include Daily Farm (Giant), Tesco, Jaya Jusco, and Carrefour. As reported by Bailey (2009), Giant has the greatest market share with 8%, follow by Tesco (4%), Jusco (3%) and Carrefour (2%).Most local retailers are not geared to meet the challenges of globalization and do not have sufficient knowledge to compete with foreign retailers. Second, consumers these days prefer spacious shopping areas, attractive and trendy products, and ample parking space; preferences that are a major concern of many local retail stores as they attempt to combat competition. Third, consumer demands and shopping patterns are changing. Retailers are struggling to change their marketing strategy to suit consumer preferences. Malaysian shoppers have become more knowledgeable and discerning, and are ot easily influe nced by advertisements and promotions. In addition to being price- and quality-conscious, and they also care about the service they receive in stores. According to ACNielsen (2006), 75% of customer purchase decisions are influenced by the service the customer receives. With the expansion of the retail industry, the issue of how retailers strive to capture and retain their best staff becomes relevant. The effort and contribution of employees is a key competitive advantage and is crucial to the success of the firm (Bent ; Freathy, 1997).In any institution, be it in the retail industry or any other industry, it is important for management to increase workers' productivity by allowing workers to achieve their maximum potential. Keeping sales people inspired is one of the most difficult tasks faced by retail organizations. In the retail sector, employees have a direct impact on the customer, and the employee-customer relationship is an important consideration in a company's success. Sale speople deal directly with customers, so salespeople's attitudes, behaviour, and how they treat customers will determine whether customers will be loyal to a particular retailer.Companies spend millions of dollars every year recruiting, training and compensating their sales personnel in an effort to inspire them to perform well and thus increase company profits (Susan, 2003). An unmotivated workforce could lead to high sales force supervision costs, high absenteeism, and high turnover rates. In Malaysia, sales jobs are far from 74 The mediating effect of love of money exciting, and the majority of retailers employ a large number of poorly paid parttime staff, which may contribute to low morale and high turnover.Organizations, regardless of their size, are facing retention challenges (Ramlall, 2004). Sempane (2002) mentioned that voluntary turnover is a major problem f or companies in Malaysia and that job-hopping has become a part of the country's culture. This paper explores what m otivates sales personnel in the retail industry, and explores their level of job satisfaction, using Herzberg's motivation-hygiene factor theory. Senior managers may benefit from the results of this research because they could alter their reward system to better motivate their staff, which could lead to higher job atisfaction and better performance. Based on previous research, salary seems to be very important to salespeople. However, it is reasonable to believe that the results of such findings by various scholars may be overstated. Therefore, further analysis has been conducted to examine whether there is a mediating variable affecting the relationship between salary and job satisfaction. As pointed out by Tang, Luna-Arocas, Sutarso and Tang (2004), one such mediating variable is the love of money. LITERATURE REVIEW Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory of MotivationAs pointed by Vroom (1964), the word â€Å"motivation† is derived from the Latin word movere, which means â₠¬Å"to move†. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. Schulze and Steyn (2003) affirmed that in order to understand people's behaviour at work, managers or supervisors must be aware of the concept of needs or motives, which will help â€Å"move† their employees to act. According to Robbins (2001), motivation is a needs-satisfying process, which means that when a person's needs are satisfied by certain factors, the person will exert superior effort toward attaining organizational goals.Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behaviour and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on the assumption that people have individual needs, which motivate their actions. Theorists such as Maslow (1954), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1969) are renowned for their works in this field. In contrast to content theories, process theories identify relationship s among variables which make up motivation and involve works from Heider (1958), Vroom (1964), Adams (1965), Locke (1976) and Lawler (1973).The main focus of this paper, however, is on Herzberg's theory of motivation. 75 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, also known as the two-factor theory, has received widespread attention as having a practical approach toward motivating employees. In 1959, Herzberg published his analysis of the feelings of 200 engineers and accountants from over nine companies in the United States. These professionals were asked to describe experiences in which they felt either extremely bad or exceptionally good about their jobs and to rate their feelings on these experiences.Responses about good feelings are generally related to job content (motivators), whereas responses about bad feelings are associated with job context (hygiene factor). Motivators involve factors built into the job itself, such as achievement, recognition, re sponsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job, such as interpersonal relationships, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966). In the retail setting, Winer and Schiff (1980) have conducted studies using Herzberg's two-factor theory. They found that â€Å"achievement† was the highest rated motivator.Likewise, â€Å"making more money† received the second-highest rating in the study, followed by â€Å"chances of promotion† and â€Å"recognition†. In contrast, Lucas (1985) discovered that the â€Å"supervisor-employee relationship† was a significant factor influencing worker satisfaction in a study of U. S. retail stores, and two hygiene factors were reported as significant, namely â€Å"company policy† and â€Å"relationship with peers†. Herzberg perceived motivational and hygiene factors to be separated into two dimensions affecting separate aspects of job satisfaction.This belief differed from the traditional approach of viewing job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as opposite ends of the same continuum (Herzberg, 1966). Hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction but they do not lead to satisfaction. They are necessary only to avoid bad feelings at work. On the other hand, motivators are the real factors that motivate employees at work. The two-factor theory was tested by many other researchers, who showed very different results. Some research has shown that some of the factors declared by Herzberg (1966) as hygiene factors are actually motivators.The results of Herzberg's theory can vary if the test is conducted in different industries. The differences are due to the intensity of the labour requirement and the duration of employment (Nave, 1968). Extensive commentary has emerged about how to distinguish between hygiene factors and motivators. While some factors have proved to fall clearly in one of the two categories, other factors, particularly salary, have proven to be ambig uous as to whether they are motivators or a hygiene factors. 76 The mediating effect of love of money Job SatisfactionJob satisfaction is important to an organization's success. Much research has been conducted into ways of improving job satisfaction of workers in various sectors of the Malaysian economy, including the academic sector (Wong ; Teoh, 2009; Noordin ; Jusoff, 2009), the hotel sector (Abd. Patah, Radzi, Abdullah, Adzmy, Adli Zain, ; Derani, 2009), the government sector (Yahaya, A. , Yahaya, N. , Arshad, ; Ismail, 2009), the non-profit sector (Ismail ; Zakaria, 2009), the naval sector (Mohd. Bokti ; Abu Talib, 2009), and the automobile manufacturing sector (Santhapparaj, Srinivasan, ; Koh, 2005).There has been relatively little research into the determinants of job satisfaction in the retail sector using Herzberg's two-factor theory. Therefore, this paper endeavours to address this literature gap. Previous studies generally found that job satisfaction is associated with s alary, occupational stress, empowerment, company and administrative policy, achievement, personal growth, relationship with others, and the overall working condition. It has been argued that an increase in job satisfaction increases worker productivity (Wright ; Cropanzano, 1997; Shikdar ; Das, 2003).As mentioned by Dunnette, Campbell and Hakel (1967) and Robbins (2001), job satisfaction is an emotional state in which a person perceives various features of his/her work or the work environment. Therefore, job satisfaction has a major effect on people's lives. Locke (1976) indicated that job satisfaction most commonly affects a person's physical health, mental health and social life. Moreover, Rain, Lane and Steiner (1991) wrote that job satisfaction is connected to life satisfaction, whereby people who are satisfied with their jobs will tend to be happy with their lives as well, and vice versa.Coster (1992) supported the view that work can have on people's lives. Furthermore, Breed a nd Breda (1997) indicated that job satisfaction may affect absenteeism, complaints, and labour unrest. Therefore, it is understood that satisfied workers will be much more productive and be retained within the organisation for a longer period, in contrast to displeased workers who will be less useful and who will have a greater tendency to quit their jobs (Crossman, 2003). More importantly, satisfied workers not only perform better but also provide better service to customers, which could result in improving customer satisfaction.According to Dawson (2005), employee satisfaction is associated with positive employee behaviour. It is undeniable that satisfied workers generate customers who are satisfied and loyal. It is assumed that motivation and satisfaction are very similar and that, in many cases, they are considered to be synonymous terms. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1988), motivation and satisfaction are quite different from each another in terms of reward and performance . The authors pointed out that motivation is influenced by forward-looking perceptions about the relationship 77 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed etween performance and rewards, whereas satisfaction involves how people feel about the rewards they have received. In other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). Huselid (1995) believes that if workers are not motivated, turnover will increase and employees will become frustrated and unproductive. Various other researchers who have investigated motivation and job satisfaction support this statement (Maidani, 1991; Tietjen ; Myers, 1998; Robbins, 2001; Parsons ; Broadbridge, 2006).Under Herzberg's (1966) theory, workers who are satisfied with both motivation and hygiene factors would be top performers, and those who are dissatisfied with both factors would be poor performers. Christopher (2005) found no support for this, and his research concluded that Herzberg's results prove accurate only under his original methodology. Theories of worker motivation address a model connecting job satisfaction, motivation and performance. Considerable importance is attached to these concepts, and there is a need for clarification on how satisfaction and motivation differ from each other.Job satisfaction is an emotional response accompanying actions or thoughts relating to work, whereas motivation is the process that activates behaviour. As satisfaction is an attitude, it is possible for a worker to be satisfied with his job but not be motivated. Hence, motivation and satisfaction are not synonymous with each other. It is vital to clarify the distinction between the concepts so that it is easier to understand that motivation leads to satisfaction, which ultimately leads to enhanced performance.The Role of Salary, the Love of Money, and Pay Satisfaction It is undeniable that sales managers always use high salary to attract, retain and motivate wor kers. Robbins (2001) pointed out that money can be considered as â€Å"scorecard† through which workers can assess how much an organization values them. However, there have been quite a few nonconformist views on the role of salary. Kochan (2002) argued that money results only in temporary obedience from workers and that money does not transform workers' attitude and behaviour in the long term.He pointed out that money only motivates workers to seek further rewards and that, in the process, can undermine workers' intrinsic interest in their jobs. Money may or may not motivate people. According to the contingency view, workers from different countries, age groups, income levels, career stages, and cultural backgrounds may rank the desire for money differently. As mentioned by Furnham (1994), the desire for money is rated higher by young workers in Far East and Middle East as compared with those in North America and South 78 The mediating effect of love of moneyAmerica. Based o n a study of 1,000 employees, Kovach (1987) showed that younger workers with low incomes are more concerned about money, whereas older workers with high incomes and management positions are motivated more by job security, interesting work and recognition. Under Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, salary is associated with the lowerlevel needs, such as physical and security needs. Maslow (1954) stat ed that once the lower-order needs are met, higher-order needs will become most important. Thus, additional salary increases do not motivate employees any further.To improve job satisfaction and performance level of workers, managers must work on motivators by providing opportunities for career advancement and development, as workers value motivators more than hygiene factors (Ramlall, 2004). As indicated in most of the literature, salary plays an important role in motivating salespeople. However, the strength of the relationship between salary and job satisfaction may be influenced by a mediator. The mediator may serve to clarify and explain how and why such relationships occur. The concept of love of money was introduced by Tang et al. 2004), who argued that the love of money reflects an employee's wants and values, and stated that someone who values money highly will be satisfied with his salary and ultimately his job when he receives a desired raise. Sloan (2002) mentioned that a person never has enough money and wants to have more money as having money is considered to be the most important goal in life. According to Lawler (1973), employees' pay satisfaction usually influences their job satisfaction. Tang et al. (2004) found that pay satisfaction is a part of job satisfaction, which could lead to higher worker productivity.Workers are inspired to achieve more and to give full effort only if they are satisfied with their pay. Lawler (1973) reported that absenteeism can result when pay dissatisfaction is present. According to Mani (2002), workers who were absent from their works frequently were not satisfied with their pay, whereas 69% who were absent once or more in six months were not satisfied with their pay. Based on the discussion above, there are two research questions for this paper. The first research question is to determine job satisfaction of sales personnel by using Herzberg's two-factor theory.The second research question is to assess whether the love of money mediates the relationship between job satisfaction and money. Research Question 1: Which of Herzberg's motivation-hygiene factors is valued more by salespeople in Malaysia? 79 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed Research Question 2: To what extent does love of money mediate the relationship between money and job satisfaction? METHODOLOGY In this study, 180 sales personnel from women's clothing stores in the shopping mall of Bandar Sunway in the state of Selangor were administered a questionnaire after they had been selected through convenience sampling.Of the 180 questionnaire s, 152 were found to be useful for analysis. The other 28 questionnaires contained incomplete information. The questionnaire, written in English, was handed to the salespeople at their place of work. Researchers did not ask permission from the store manager to conduct the survey. The questionnaire included a series of statements and the respondents were asked to indicate their degree of agreement with each statement. Responses were scored on a five-point scale: 1 for â€Å"strongly disagree†, 2 for â€Å"disagree†, 3 for â€Å"neutral†, 4 for â€Å"agree†, and 5 for â€Å"strongly agree†.All questions used in the survey pertaining to determinants of job satisfaction were derived from Ewen, Smith, and Hulin (1966), Graen (1966), Sergiovanni (1966), House and Wigdor (1967), Lindsay, Marks, and Gorlow (1967), Maidani (1991), Pizam and Ellis (1999), Klassen, Usher, and Bong (2010), and Tang et al. (2004). Linear regression analysis was performed to tes t the relationship between Herzberg's motivation-hygiene factors and job satisfaction. Further analysis was performed to assess to what extent the love of money mediates the relationship between money and job satisfaction.According to Baron and Kenny (1986), testing for mediation involves a four-step process. First, the relationship between the predictor variable and the criterion variable is examined to determine whether those two variables are correlated. Second, the relationship between predictor and mediator variables were examined to determine whether those variables correlate. Third, the relationship between the mediator and the predictor on the criterion variable, controlling for the predictor, is assessed to establish the effect of the mediator on the criterion variable.Fourth, the effect of the predictor on the criterion variable, controlling for the mediator, is examined to determine whether the mediator completely or partially mediates the relationship between the predict or and the criterion variable. The effects in both step 3 and 4 are estimated in the same equation to determine whether the beta levels change. If all four of these steps are fulfilled, then the mediator completely mediates the predictorcriterion relationship. If only the first three steps are satisfied, then partial mediation is shown. 80 The mediating effect of love of moneyMotivation levels of participants were measured using the scales developed by Ewen et al. (1966), Graen (1966), Sergiovanni (1966), House and Wigdor (1967), Lindsay et al (1967), Maidani (1991), and Pizam and Ellis (1999). For each factor, several questions were asked in order to compute an average and to enhance the accuracy of the measure. A person's attachment to money was measured using eight items and employees' satisfaction with their pay was measured using three items. Both of those scales were adopted from Tang et al. (2004). Job satisfaction was measured using four items from Klassen et al. 2010) (see Appendix 1). ANALYSIS AND RESULTS A reliability test was performed to check the consistency and accuracy of the measurement scales. Table 1 shows that the results of Cronbach's coefficient alpha were satisfactory (between 0. 70 and 0. 84), indicating questions in each construct are measuring a similar concept. As suggested by Cronbach (1951) and Nunnally (1978), the reliability coefficients between 0. 70–0. 90 are generally found to be internally consistent. Table 1 Testing reliability with Cronbach's coefficient alpha The job satisfaction factors Number of items Cronbach's alpha Achievement (AC) 0. 70 Recognition (R) 3 0. 71 Advancement (AD) 2 0. 70 Work Itself (W) 3 0. 72 Growth (G) 3 0. 71 Company Policy (P) 3 0. 72 Security at Work (S) 3 0. 76 Relations with Peers (RP) 3 0. 80 Money Factor (M) 2 0. 84 Relations with Supervisor (RS) 3 0. 74 Working Conditions (WC) 2 0. 80 Love Of Money Scale (LM) 8 0. 84 Pay Satisfaction (PS) 3 0. 80 Job Satisfaction (JS) 4 0. 75 Table 2 s hows the profile of respondents in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, education level, number of years of work experience, and monthly income. Of the 81 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed 152 respondents, 91 were men (59. %) and 61 were women (40. 1%). In terms of age, 73% of the respondents were between 15 and 24 years of age, 22% in the 25–35 age range, 3. 3% in the 35–44 age range, and 1. 3% aged 45 and above. Most respondents were Chinese (46%), followed by Malays (32. 2%), and Indians (21. 3%). The education level of 76. 3% of the respondents was below an undergraduate degree. In terms of number of years of work experience, most of the respondents had 5 years or less (79. 6%), followed by 6–10 years (16. 5%), and 10 years or above (3. 9%). As for the monthly income, 39. 5% of the respondents earned between RM1,000 and RM2,000, 37. % earned less than RM1,000, and 23% earned RM2,000 and above. In this survey, respondents were generally young and had received only a primary or secondary education, which is quite similar to the profile of the respondents in the study of Parsons and Broadbridge (2006). Because about three-fourths of the respondents were less than 25 years old, the analysis may not be generalizable to the whole population of sales personnel. Older salespeople may differ from their younger colleagues in attitudes, beliefs, behaviour, and attributes related to motivation and job satisfaction. Table 2Characteristics of the respondents Respondents' characteristics Number Percentages Male 91 59. 9% Female 61 40. 1% Gender Age 15–24 111 73% 25–35 34 22% 35–44 5 3. 3% 45 and above 2 1. 3% Malay 49 32. 2% Chinese 70 46% Indian 32 21. 3% 117 76. 3% 35 23. 7% Race Education Below Bachelor's degree Bachelor's degree and above (continued) 82 The mediating effect of love of money Table 2 (continued) Respondents' characteristics Number Percentages Years of Experience 0–5 years 121 79. 6% 6–10 years 25 16. 5% 6 3. 9% Below RM1000 57 37. 5% RM1000–2000 60 39. 5% RM2000 and above 35 23% 10 and above IncomeTable 3 presents the correlation matrix of the motivational factors and job satisfaction. Work itself (r = 0. 271) and recognition (r = 0. 055) correlated in a statistically significant manner with job satisfaction at the 0. 01 level, while only achievement (r = –0. 135) was significantly correlated to job satisfaction at the 0. 05 level. As far as hygiene factors are concerned, company policy (r = 0. 017), relationship with peers (r = 0. 381), money (r = 0. 383), and working conditions (r = 0. 376) were significantly and positively associated with satisfaction. Table 3 Correlation analysis Note: * Correlation is significant at the 0. 5 level (1-tailed); ** Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (1tailed) Regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between Herzberg's two-factor theory and job satisfaction in Malaysia. To assess whether the regressio n analysis suffers from multicollinearity, the variance inflation factor (VIF) was calculated. As indicated in Table 4, all VIF values are less than 5, indicating there is no multicollinearity problem in the model. The results suggested that 54% of the variance in job satisfaction in Malaysia could be explained by Herzberg's motivational and hygiene factors. The F-ratio of 14. 0 83 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed (p = 0. 00) indicated that the regression model of work motivation and satisfaction on the motivational variables assessed was statistically significant. The results also revealed that only four of the ten motivational variables were found to be significant in the Malaysian context. The analysis demonstrated that the most significant motivational variable of job satisfaction was the working condition s, indicating that salespeople value most the working environment provided by sales managers. Recognition was the second significant factor, followed by company policy, and the m oney factor.Of four main motivational variables of salespeople in Malaysia, only recognition was a significant motivator. The evidence is sufficient to conclude that hygiene factors are more effective than motivators in motivating salespeople in Malaysia. Table 4 Regression analysis (Dependent variable: Job Satisfaction) Motivational factors B Std. error t VIF AC .063 R .241* .113 .563 1. 758 .100 2. 416 1. 543 AD .039 .089 .440 1. 637 W .067 .088 .759 1. 601 G .019 .091 .215 1. 736 .215* P S RP RS M WC F .094 2. 283 2. 745 –. 060 .085 –. 702 2. 572 –. 059 .060 –. 984 1. 754 .073 –. 191 1. 574 .199** .073 2. 711 1. 03 .262** .091 2. 888 1. 555 –0. 14 14. 9 R2 .540 Adjusted R2 .504 Note: *significant at the 0. 05 level (1-tailed); ** significant at the 0. 01 level (1-tailed) Similarly, the problem of multi-collinearity was addressed before performing mediation analysis. Again, VIF values are less than 5 for the variables of money (M), love of money (LM), and pay satisfaction (PS). As shown in Table 4, money was one of the significant factors in motivating salespeople in terms of job satisfaction. However, there is a need to delve more deeply into the reasons that salespeople place such high importance on money.To provide a clearer picture of the role of salary, the general test for mediation was performed to examine whether there is a mediating variable affecting the relationship between the money factor and job satisfaction. As indicated in literature, the love of money 84 The mediating effect of love of money may explain why there is a strong relationship between money and job satisfaction. Based on Tang et al. (1992), pay satisfaction was used in this study to indicate job satisfaction. As pointed out by Lawler (1973), pay satisfaction usually influences the job satisfaction of workers.Following Baron and Kenny (1986), mediation analysis was used to assess whether the love of money mediates the relationship between m oney and pay satisfaction. The results in Table 5 show that money was significantly and positively related to pay satisfaction (significant at ;lt; 0. 01). The results of the regression test of money (predictor) on love of money (mediator) showed that money significantly correlated with love of money at the 0. 05 level. The results also showed that the effect of love of money (mediator) on pay satisfac tion (criterion) was significant at the 0. 05 level after controlling for the money variable (predictor).Finally, the effect of money (predictor) on pay satisfaction (criterion), controlling for the love of money (mediator), was also statistically significant. As a result, it is reasonable to believe that the love of money may explain why there is a relationship between the money factor and job satisfaction among salespeople in the retail sector. In this survey, salespeople who value money highly are satisfied with their salary and job when they receive a desired raise. Table 5 Testin g love of money (LM) as a mediator on the relationship between money (M) and pay satisfaction (PS) DV: PS DV: LM DV: PS w/o mediator) (w mediator) B M t B t B t 0. 510** 7. 234 0. 137* 2. 496 0. 168* 2. 042 0. 21** 2. 638 LM Note: *. significant at the 0. 05 level; ** significant at the 0. 01 level) DISCUSSION This paper examines what motivates sales personnel in the retail industry in Malaysia and examines their level of job satisfaction as a result of Herzberg ‘s hygiene factors and motivators. The first research question addresses whether motivators actually do lead to job satisfaction, as proclaimed by Herzberg in his study on sales personnel in Malaysia, and addresses whether hygiene factors contribute to job satisfaction. 5 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed The results obtained reveal that only four of the 11 determinants are found to be significant in the context of Malaysian retail workers. Contrary to the finding of Herzberg (1966), the analysis demonstrates that the stro ngest motivation factor with the highest significance level on job satisfaction in the women's clothing store was the working conditions, which is a hygiene factor. It was observed that retail outlets in the surveyed mall are air-conditioned and have music playing and that salespeople deem the stores to be comfortable.In line with the findings of Winer and Schiff (1980) and Lucas (1985), recognition, company policy, and the money factor seem to be important factors in motivating sales personnel in this survey. Of four significant factors, only recognition is a motivator as defined by Herzberg's two-factor theory. Therefore, it is observed that hygiene factors dominate the motivators in terms of job satisfaction among sales personnel in Malaysia. This observation is supported by Islam and Is mail (2008).They say that compared with American workers, Malaysian workers are generally more concerned about hygiene factors (money and working conditions) than about motivators (full appreciat ion of work done). Similar findings are also reported in Bangkok (Sithiphand, 1983) and Yemen (Al-Mekhlafie, 1991). This study observes the importance of money in the lives of sales personnel. The second research question examines whether the love of money mediates the relationship between money and pay satisfaction among employees in the retail sector. Similar to the findings of Tang et al. 2004), the love of money appears to be identified as a mediator influencing the relationship between money and job satisfaction. Sales personnel generally are not the highest paid people in Malaysia, and they may experience pay compression even if they have been in service for a long time. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Salespeople in Malaysia place greater emphasis on hygiene factors than motivators, namely working conditions, money and company policy. Among the motivators defined by Herzberg, only one – recognition – was found to be significant in this survey.The study also foun d that the love of money has a mediating effect on the relationship between money and job satisfaction. These findings suggest that any retail organization in Malaysia preparing a reward scheme may need to consider the four motivational factors of working conditions, recognition, company policy, and money and emphasize them over other motivational factors. Those four factors can be used to help improve job satisfaction, productivity and performance of salespeople.The main implication of this study is that sales managers and supervisors need to keep salespeople happy and take care of workers' concerns and needs. Satisfied 86 The mediating effect of love of money salespeople will talk about how great their j ob is and they will perform better in their jobs. That will result in retailers making higher profits due to customer satisfaction. Additionally, if retailers improve working conditions, employee turnover will be lower, which, in turn, will reduce the considerable costs that retai lers incur in training new salespeople.The importance of money to salespeople in the Malaysian retail sector is clearly shown in this study. Sales managers and supervisors should consider: 1. Providing salespeople with a flexible working schedule 2. Linking the performance of salespeople with the appropriate monetary rewards and incentives 3. Providing salespeople with opportunities to grow in their job In addition, the morale of salespeople can be improved if company policy toward salespeople is productive. A good policy can exert significant influence on how salespeople perform their jobs.For example, a company needs to build a strong sales culture as the first step to improving performance. Without the right sales culture, sales managers will not build a powerful sales force. In many smaller retail companies, the sales leader does not know how to build a sales force and relies heavily on hiring experienced salespeople in the hope that they will build the company. In mid-size and large-size retailers, the typical culture is â€Å"nothing matters but results†. Most of these sales managers want results but they do not adequately train or motivate the salespeople.If a company develops a strong sales culture, sales leaders and salespeople can work together successfully to achieve the company's goals. The results discussed here indicate that workers can be concurrently intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. With that in mind, managers should use a mixture of methods – including monetary rewards, praise and recognition – to effectively motivate workers and promote job satisfaction. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH Given the scarcity of empirical studies on the Malaysian retailing industry, there is a need to undertake more research addressing the motivations of sales personnel.Although quantitative research was used in this study, it is believed that qualitative research would be beneficial in helping to enhance our understanding of how sal espeople are motivated. Observing employee behaviour and interviewing employees can enable researchers to gain insight that typically is difficult to acquire through quantitative analysis. The findings obtained from the questionnaire administered in this study are limited by the perceptions and opinions of the respondents. It is assumed that the respondents have answered the questions accurately and honestly. The findings 87Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed apply only to sales personnel in Bandar Sunway in Selangor. This means that the results may not be generalizable to other regions in Malaysia. Future research needs to obtain information relating to sales personnel in other regions of Malaysia to permit a comparison of perceptions and expectations from salespeople throughout Malaysia. Additionally, further research could include a study comparing job satisfaction levels of salespeople in Malaysia and other countries. Another concern is that the questionnaires used in this study were available only in English.Although the respondents could understand English, it is recommended that in the future the questionnaire be translated into Malay, Chinese and Tamil to minimize the risks of misunderstanding and misinterpretation that might influence the results. It also must be noted that the research focuses only on Herzberg's theory. 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APPENDICES Appendix A Measurement scales of the study Factor Questions Motivators Achievement I am proud to work in this company because it recognizes my achievements I feel satisfied with my job because it gives me feeling of accomplishment I feel I have contributed towards my company in a positive manner Advancement I will choose career advancement rather than moneta ry incentives My job allows me to learn new skills for career advancement Work itself My work is thrilling and I have a lot of variety in tasks that I do I am empowered enough to do my jobMy job is challenging and exciting Recognition I feel appreciated when I achieve or complete a task My manager always thanks me for a job well done I receive adequate recognition for doing my job well Growth I am proud to work in my company because I feel I have grown as a person My job allows me to grow and develop as a person My job allows me to improve my experience, skills and performance Hygiene Factors Company policy The attitude of the administration is very accommodative in my company I am proud to work for this company because the company policy is favourable for its workersI completely understand the mission of my company (continued) 92 The mediating effect of love of money (continued) Factor Relationship with peers Questions It is easy to get along with my colleagues My colleagues are he lpful and friendly Colleagues are important to me Work security I believe safe working at my workplace I believe my job is secure My workplace is located in an area where I feel comfortable Relationship with supervisor I feel my performance has improved because of the support from my supervisor I feel satisfied at work because of my relationship with my supervis or My supervisors are strong and trustworthy leadersMoney I am encouraged to work harder because of my salary I believe my salary is fair Working conditions I feel satisfied because of the comfort I am provided at work Job Satisfaction I am satisfied with my job I am proud to work for my company because of the pleasant working conditions I am happy with the way my colleagues and superiors treat me I am satisfied with what I achieve at work I feel good at work Love of Money Money reinforces me to work harder I am motivated to work hard for money Money reflects my accomplishments Money is how we compare each otherMoney is a sy mbol of success for me Money reinforces me to work with more enthusiasm and vigor Money is attractive Money is an important factor in our lives Pay Satisfaction I am satisfied with my pay The pay I receive is appropriate for the work I do My pay is high in comparison to my colleagues pay for doing a similar job 93 Tan Teck-Hong and Amna Waheed Appendix B Conceptual Model Advancement Work Itself Achievement Recognition Job/Pay Safisfaction Working Condition Growth Love of Money Policy Peer Relationship Work Security Supervisor Relationship Money 94

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The creation of the ICC has been controversial for both legal and ethical reasons. Explain how the ICC works and why it is controversial - Essay Example hough the ICC, which was established in 2003, seems to have genuine interest to seek justice for crime victims, it has not been devoid of legal and ethical controversy. For instance, since its establishment until now the ICC has only opened cases on African member nations. This has prompted many African organizations like the African Union (AU) to question the legitimacy of the ICC as an international platform for justice. The legality of the ICC has also been brought to question, owing to the lack of comprehensive evidence collection and procedural concerns. In 2004 the then ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President, Omar al Bashir, for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The prosecutor, however, failed to consider facts such as the commencement of the civil conflict in the country long before the president came into power. The prosecutor also ascribed land grabbing and ethnic cleansing solely to Bashir, failing to account for colonial land allocation disparities among peasant and nomadic communities. It was also not Bashir’s fault that climate change has resulted in expansion of arid areas hence reduction of productive land. In addition to these factual discrepancies that question the court’s ethics and legitimacy, the ICC has not focused on other countries. This has prompted many stakeholders to perceive it as a Western Court that seeks to judge African countries, without accounting for prior political and social concerns in respective

Writing Styles in the Puritan Time Period Essay Example for Free

Writing Styles in the Puritan Time Period Essay In American Literature, the period of the Puritans sticks out as a time with many great authors. Two, William Bradford and Reverend Jonathan Edwards are still studied today. Bradford was an author who wrote about the historical section of Puritan life, while Edwards was a great speaker who wrote sermons to give in front of his congregation. Although living in the same time period Reverend Jonathan Edwards and William Bradford used very different styles of writing. In writing, praise and everyday living the Puritans favored the ordinary and simple. William Bradford wrote in what is considered the plain style. This form of writing was used by many Puritan authors and was thought to be direct and to the point. The plain style consisted of simple sentences and everyday used language. It never had figures of speech and especially not any imagery. A good example of this style is found in the passage from Bradfords Of Plymouth Plantation, They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had  all things in good plenty. William took this otherwise exciting story of the Puritans first winter and wrapped it all into one monotonous sentence. Bradfords word choice epitomized the plain style and that was all the Puritan society would read or hear until Jonathan Edwards. The Reverend Jonathan Edwards chose a style expressing his concerns much more creatively than his fellow Puritan authors. Jonathans style was almost the complete opposite than the plain style. He used many figures of speech and  metaphors. An example of one of these fiery metaphors is from his speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God , The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. Reverend Edwards was comparing God and man to someone holding a spider over a fire. Another excellent illustration of this vivid description is from the same speech, O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: It is a great furnace  of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God. This shows that Reverend Edwards also used these figures of speech to strike fear in his audience. He used this fear factor to make the natural men of his audience, truly understand the horror of their sins. This style of writing differed so much from typical Puritan style that it often got Jonathan into trouble with his parish. Although living in near the same time period, William Bradford and  Jonathan Edwards style of writing were very contrary to each other. Bradford a typical Puritan author followed suit and used the plain style of writing while on the other hand Edwards went to the other extreme with incorporating fear and blame in his speeches. Jonathan Edwards was more controversial and disputed and William Bradford was plain, simple and to the point. Even though both forms of writing varied from one another, both styles were successful in getting the authors point across.

British Punk Movement Causes

British Punk Movement Causes Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? Im in love with Margaret Thatcher; that is what the Notsensibles ironically sang, or let us say yelled, in 1979 (Im in love with Margaret Thatcher). Maggie, Maggie you cunt! added violently the Exploited in 1985 (Maggie, Horror Epics). The corpus of songs written on, or rather against, Margaret Thatcher is quite extensive, not only during the Punk years, which is not surprising since she was the only British Prime Minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms-May 1979, June 1983 and June 1987. At the time of her resignation in November 1990, she was Britains longest continuously serving Prime Minister since 1827. During the eleven years she spent at number 10, the change of style she imposed on British politics and economy was tremendous to the extent that to some commentators there was no turning back (Jones et al. 666) and it would be a euphemism to say that nobody remained unconcerned about Mrs Thatchers revolution. No wonder then, that between the Punks wearing their leather jackets, smoking sixty cigarettes a day and staying up all night on speed (Savage 133), and the dressed up to the nine woman from Grantham, who was an Oxford educated Conservative and a Methodist, the clash was inevitable. That is the reason why it is chiefly interesting to ask the following question: Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? In other words, is it possible to relate to a major shift in politics one of the most famous, aggressive, contradictory, and yet ephemeral phenomenon of British popular culture? If such a question might appear quite obvious given the contemporaneousness between the emergence of the Punk culture-or subculture-and Thatchers rise to power, it will nevertheless require a balanced answer. Indeed, one of the key elements of our analysis will be, first, to take a closer look at the sociopolitical context in order to break the stereotypes. We will then be led to wonder whether the message conveyed by the Punks was rather concerned with a certain type of society at large. Finally, we will observe that the artificiality of Punk music and its merchandising definitely challenges the so-called proletarian revolt against a new political and economic order. There is nothing easier but to systematically oppose Thatcherism and the British Punk movement since they approximately emerged at the same time. Margaret Thatcher had become leader of the Conservative Party in 1975 and had begun formulating her own brand of Tory policy while the following single from the Sex Pistols-probably the most famous and influential Punk band in Britain-was released in November 1976: Anarchy in the UK (Savage 563). Nevertheless, that would be forgetting that most of the social strain had been accumulated under the Callaghan-Labour-government: By July 1975, England was in recession. The unemployment figures for that month were the worst since the Second  World  War . . . . Not only had output shrunk, but public spending had risen to 45 per cent of the national income, and was threatening to unbalance the whole economy. (Savage  108) Dave Laing, in One Chord Wonders, analysed the subject-matter of the lyrics on the debut albums of the first five punk groups to achieve prominence in 1976-7 (27) and very interestingly concluded that the overwhelming number . . . of social and political comment lyrics came from the first Clash album [The Clash] (29). That proves that social (economic, political, etc.) preoccupations were already there before Margaret Thatchers first premiership, before a truly Thatcherite government was ever established. Therefore, the idea according to which the Punk movement would be a mere response to Thatcherism is being challenged quite importantly here. We have used the word Thatcherism several times already, but what does it really mean? An attempt to define what that could be might prove very useful to our analysis. According to Overbeck: Thatcherism is a reasonably coherent and comprehensive concept of control for the restoration of bourgeois rule and bourgeois hegemony in the new circumstances of the 1980s . . . The central elements in the Thatcherite concept are the reorientation of Britains foreign policy and the redefinition of its place in the world; its attack on the position of the trade unions and the Labour Party (Thatcher aims to eliminate socialism as a serious political force); the restructuration of the role of the state in the economy; and finally a reordering of the balance of power between different fractions of capital in Britain. (in  Jessop  et  al. 3) That long definition seems to establish Thatcherism as a political theory, an ideology, such as Marxism for instance. Nevertheless, most modern commentators share the . . . view that Thatcherism does not represent a coherent ideology (Evans 2). Indeed, as Peter Riddell reminds us: the [first] Thatcher administration has not followed a pure free-market or monetarist programme, though strands of both have clearly been important (6). He suggests another definition: Thatcherism is essentially an instinct, a series of moral values and an approach to leadership rather than an ideology (7). We have to leave there the definitional considerations for it would be too long to go through all of them-full books have been written on the matter-but it was interesting to point those out because since some specialists argue that there is no such thing as Thatcherism, we could have a hard time trying to prove that the Punk movement in Britain merely was (or was not) a working class response to it. As far as the working class is concerned, when one reads the lyrics of Maggie, a song by the Exploited we have already alluded to in our introduction, it is true that it clearly refers to its financial difficulties: Twenty five quid to live on, seven days a week to survive! Five and twenty pictures of the queen! You wont see the starvation in her eyes! Twenty five quid to dish out and youre already ten in debt, so with fifteen singles left over the landlord gets the rest! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie you fucking cunt! Twenty five reasons for trouble! Three million mouths to feed! Theyre destroying your mind and body while they increase their own needs. Twenty five quid of insult! Two meals soon kills your health! They want to see you suffer! They want to see you dead! (Horror Epics) Indeed, despite the end of the recession in 1982, unemployment continued to rise [and] reached a peak of 3.2 millions in 1985 and the cost of unemployment benefit . . . on those in work continued to increase (Evans 29). One of the government counter-measures was to ma[ke] it less easy to qualify for unemployment benefits (op. cit.). But, nevertheless, if we take a look at the structure of the popular vote in the 1979 and 1983 general elections we observe that the working class-a shrinking category-vote swung from the left to the right. This is a phenomenon called dealignment, which Peter Dorey defines as such: the changing allegiance and electoral behaviour, particularly with regard to identification with, and regular support for, a political party (154). The reasons for dealignment are numerous and we cannot go through all of them here but let us just say that, among other things, the crisis had brought on a great uncertainty about the future and that Labour was not trusted anymore to solve social issues. Furthermore, Mrs Thatchers law and order policy was appealing to people living in poor and unsecure areas. As a result, Labour . . . witnessed its working-class support fall to 50 per cent in 1979 (and to 42 percent in 1983) (Dorey 155). Finally, British punk bands political orientation was ambiguous: La semaine oà ¹  «Ã‚  God Save the Queen  Ã‚ » sortit, les Sex Pistols furent simultanà ©ment accusà ©s dà ªtre communistes, anarchistes et mà ªme dappartenir au National Front (Chastagner 80). Thus, it was hard to see who they were fighting for-but themselves. Moreover, as Laing points out: Right to work by Chelsea was one of the best known of the early punk songs. Its title echoed the slogan of a left-wing campaign against the rising jobless totals of the mid-1970s. But though the song is a protest about standing around just waiting for a career, its diagnosis of the cause of unemployment was impeccably right-wing: the lyric blames the power of the trade unions. (31) Bearing in mind all those considerations, we should now wonder whether the Punk movement in Britain was a reaction against a certain type of society as a whole rather than just a working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas-for that view proved being too restricted and often even wrong. The Punks were born in a society which had left them very little hope for the future-in God Save the Queen (Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols) the terms Theres no future for you and No Future are repeated many times and were even taken as a leitmotif to describe the punk generation later on-and they reacted violently against a social system which had deprived them of their very essence. To exist, their only chance was then to incorporate the conventional symbols of that society and to throw them back at people in the most absurd and incomprehensible manner-thus foreshadowing post-modernism: quelle que soit la rà ©ussite [des] diffà ©rentes sous-cultures à   exprimer le d à ©sarroi de groupes sociaux, gà ©nà ©rationnels ou ethniques et leur identità © collective, cest bien leur fonction de rà ©sistance symbolique qui est soulignà ©e (Le Guern 46). Otherwise, who could understand the significance of a safety-pin used as a jaw piercing for instance, or the blurred political messages conveyed by the successive punk bands-from Stalinism to Nazism? Of course, what we called a kind of society as a whole also includes music and we should not forget that the Punk movement was also a response to the rock establishment: Rocks neo-elite no longer spoke to this new generation . . . and rock superstars were overindulged rich men who lived in foreign countries to avoid paying taxes that helped to service the working class. As a form of protest against the rock establishment, punkers adopted the attitude of rebellion and dressed themselves in the leathers of the original teen rebels of the American fifties, a sharp commentary on the twisted values of establishment rock. (Eliot 188) As Chastagner pointed out: Le mouvement punk redonnait la musique aux sans-grade, aux malhabiles, aux frustes. Pas besoin dapprentissage, dinitiation, nimporte qui pouvait monter sur scà ¨ne et jouer (81). The One Chord generation was born and their music was vilified by many. Analysing how punk rock was described in the daily and weekly newspapers, Dave Laing noticed a great variety of words pertaining to the following semantic fields: mental illness, physical illness, unpleasant effects, and violence (100). One could think of such an opposition as being the main cause of the short-lived punk experience but it actually was reinvigorating; according to Philip H. Ennis: punk concentrates all the passion once carried by mature rock into an explicit repudiation of adult life (366). Therefore, punk rock could both be seen as a political, social, and artistic movement (independent and nurtured on new trends, such as International Situationism), and as the renaissance of rocknroll in its true form, i.e. before the latter became a product of the consumer society. Rock Roll was once loathed-Franck Sinatra declared: Rock n Roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear (in Burnett 29)-and produced by independent labels; it is this existence on the fringe of society that also gave to punk music its apparent authenticity: If BBC radio 1 had been willing to give immediate heavy rotation treatment to, say, the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen the day it was released, then the disc would probably never have been conceived. Popular culture, if it is to be progressive, must embody an element of opposition to the establishment, provocatively questioning the status quo. (Bennet 167) It is definitely not surprising then, that in the case of the Sex Pistols it was their arrival at commercial stardom [that] marked the end of their social relevance (Eliot 188). But we will look into that more extensively later on. For now, we would like to shed light on some of the Punk movements intrinsic contradictions. We have just alluded to independent labels in the previous paragraph. It is relevant to observe here, that many of the anti-Thatcher records were released on independent labels-arguably themselves models of Thatcherite entrepreneurial flair (Heard  BBC News). Moreover, we must remember that Mrs Thatcher asserted the primacy of the individual (Savage 110) and that she valued very much self-reliance, obviously derived from Samuel Smiles notion of self-help described in the late 19th century (Self-Help). We cannot help thinking that those values were not totally incompatible with the kind of selfish attitudes that had emerged during the events of 1968 and which extensively developed in the 1970s along with the Punk movement-one of the Sex Pistols first singles, released in 1976 along with Anarchy in the UK, was titled I Wanna Be Me (Savage 563). To Muggleton: subcultures are manifestations of self-expression, individual autonomy and cultural diversity (167). After those reflections on punk musics relationship with society and culture, we are now obviously led to question the credibility of the Punk movement. We have gathered some obvious clues so far, but what will put another nail in the coffin of Punk music is its artificiality. Indeed, it developed mainly under the influence of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, whose preoccupations were very often far from the working class: La naissance du mouvement punk doit beaucoup à   Malcolm McLaren,  «Ã‚  crà ©ateur  Ã‚ » des Sex Pistols. Il ny a rien de spontanà ©, rien de la rà ©volte brute des opprimà ©s, aucune rà ©bellion des damnà ©s de la terre dans le travail de McLaren. Cest un intellectuel, ancien à ©tudiant des Beaux-Arts et nourri des à ©crits situationnistes. Fascinà © par mai 68, il essaya, avec sa compagne de là ©poque, Vivienne Westwood, de faire violence au corps social britannique en se servant de la mode. Ils ouvrirent une boutique de và ªtements sur Kings Road, à   Londres. . . . Le succà ¨s narrivant pas assez vite, McLaren eut lidà ©e de se servir dun groupe de rock comme vitrine pour ses và ªtements et porte-parole de ses thà ©ories. . . . On se rend bien vite compte que la naissance des Sex Pistols et le mouvement punk qui en a dà ©coulà © nest pas une rà ©action spontanà ©e aux conditions sociales de là ©poque. Il y a au dà ©part . . . une stratà ©gie bien à ©l oignà ©e de la rà ©volution prolà ©tarienne. . . . La rhà ©torique  «Ã‚  classe ouvrià ¨re  Ã‚ » est surtout un argument publicitaire. (Chastagner 77-78) The first Sex Pistols concerts took place in Art Schools, it was not a music born in the streets-unlike what is very often said-and it could then be seen as a form of art which message was primarily dedicated to an enlightened university educated elite, and delivered with a fake working class accent. Dave Laing stresses that Lydons pronunciation was very artificial, notably in the song Anarchy in the UK in which the unnatural rhyming of the last syllable of Anti-Christ with Anarchist shifts the attention away from the message to the rhyme-scheme and could momentarily set up an ambivalent signal about the sincerity of the whole enterprise (58). The artificiality was also found in the names. Johnny Lydon was rechristened Johnny Rotten-the legend says that it was because of his very bad dental hygiene-and John Simon Ritchies stage name was Sid Vicious. Moreover, McLarens will to sign his group with a major company is another proof of punk musics ambiguity: it seemingly struggled to fit in the very system it was claiming to reject, to destroy. We witnessed to a love-hate relationship with the music industry, particularly with the very famous EMI episode: The Pistols received a $100,000 advance upon signing, only to be released two days later after a wave of protests from shareholders.  .  .  . (Eliot 188). The band changed record companies several times before finally becoming one of Virgins best selling artists-even though the relationship with Virgin was very tense too. It is also interesting to point out that God Save the Queen was originally titled No Future but that the name was changed into a more commercially effective one to coincide with Elizabeth IIs jubilee and, according to Eliot, [the song] shot to number two, and the group disbanded. Success killed the message; a familiar rock scenario (189). As early as the summer of 1977, cracks started to appear within the punk movement; it looked like things were being made safe again, opposition was being channelled and recuperated, rebellion commodified (McKay 73). A new vanguard known as the post-punks denounced the business punk music had become, even giving a new lease of life to the formerly declining record companies while the punk message had always been-at least, politically speaking-to clearly dismantle the establishment. But as Laing observes: Whether or not punk rock was dead after 1978 [i.e. after the Pistols fragmentation], the punks themselves were not. . . . By 1981 the performances of bands such as The Exploited had all [the characteristics of punk music] (109). He continues, referring to Crass who attacked punk bands who had sold out' (113). Crass is very interesting to look into since they were seen by anarchist thinkers to be the only band carrying the political-musical line forward.  .  .  . (McKay 77) and b ecause one of their bà ªtes noires was, of course, Margaret Thatcher. Their opposition to the Iron Ladys Falklands war was very strong and gave birth to no less than two songs: Sheep Farming in the Falklands, which was one of the best-selling punk records of 1983. . . . (Laing 113), and How Does It Feel (To Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead)? (McKay 81). Crass found themselves largely alone on the punk scene in . . . criticizing the actions of the British government. . . . [Nevertheless, they still managed] to avoid recuperation [and] to maintain political and artistic autonomy in the music industry of all places. That is such an achievement. If punk was a discourse of authenticity, . . . Crass must be placed at the centre of [it]. (McKay 81-82) However, we do think that their do it yourself, DIY attitude-described by McKay as a strategy of bricolage (78)-seems to echo Thatchers thought in an uncanny fashion: recovery can only come through the work of individuals. . . . And the worst thing a Government can do is to try to smother it completely with a sort collective alternative (Speech to Conservative Rally in Cardiff). Some individualistic values were shared-we already observed that before with the Sex Pistols-both by the Punks and Margaret Thatcher, therefore it remains impossible to clearly oppose them. To conclude, we shall remember that we attempted to demonstrate that, for various reasons, the British Punk movement was not a mere working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas. Firstly, punk social protests started before the emergence of Thatcherism-if such a political doctrine can even be considered to exist at all. Plus, both the lack of clarity in the punk political message and the working class disillusionment for left-wing ideals led us to think that the issue was far more complex. That is the reason why we then tried to briefly analyse the implications of the Punks criticism of society, notably as a strong symbolic force, and as a vehement opposition to the establishment in general. However, we finally realized that the artificiality of the Punk movement, along with its intrinsic ambiguities pervading our analysis, prevented us to define it as being truly anti-Thatcherite, proletarian, or opposed to free-market economy.

Assessing Poverty in South Asia

Assessing Poverty in South Asia Introduction UNDP has taken an initiative to publish SOUTH ASIA POVERTY MONITOR periodically to assess the poverty situation at national grassroots level through the existing national expertise in South Asia. As part of this initiative a country report will be prepared for Bangladesh as well. The Bangladesh country report will be prepared through both quantitative and qualitative approach. Unnayan Shamannay is proposing to conduct the qualitative part of the study. Rationale for Qualitative Approach Statistical data do help very little in understanding what the variation means. Qualitative data, on the other hand, illustrate the value of detailed, descriptive data in deepening our understanding of individual variation.They give rise synergistically to insights and solutions that would not come about without them (Palton 1990:15-17) Qualitative approach can provide a depth of understanding of the issues associated with poverty that the more formal and statistically valid approaches may not. This class of studies includes the increasingly popular techniques of rapid and participatory rural appraisal and beneficiary assessment (WB 1992: 8-4). Objectives The objectives of this study are as follows: Assess poverty through qualitative methodology Complement the quantitative approach with qualitative one. Add qualitative dimension to the Bangladesh Country Report. Scope The scope of this qualitative study will be to: Identify indicators of poverty through a participatory approach Identify and monitor changes in the poverty situation Assess the impact of some of the poverty alleviation measures Analyse the findings Topics/Issues to be Addressed Poverty profile and poverty indicators are some of the important components of poverty assessment. Poverty assessment will be carried out in participatory manner. Broad topics on the extent of poverty, identification of sub-groups, nature of poverty, characteristics of the poor and risk management have been included in the proposed research agenda. Moreover, poverty monitoring will also be conducted periodically and it will act as a barometer to measure the changes in various socio-economic and welfare indicators relating to the lives of the poorest households. Methods to be Used All major qualitative research methods will be used in the study. Interview will be extensively used in the study including its key variants, namely participatory group discussion, focus group discussion, standardised open-ended interview and case study (Figure 1). In addition to interview, other methods of qualitative inquiry, namely observation and document analysis will also be made use of in the study. Selection of Sample Areas Qualitative exercises will be conducted in both urban and rural settings of the country. To cover the greater diversity in socio-economic environments, three different regional configurations of northern, central and southern parts of the country would be accommodated in the study. A total of six villages including two from each part would be covered under the study. In urban area, at least three slum areas would be covered to facilitate the comparison and triangulation of data and information. However, for monitoring of poverty in the selected six villages and three urban slums, certain number of the poorest households will be selected from each of the study sites. Out of six villages, three will be selected in such a manner where at least anti-poverty intervention by government is in operation. These three villages will serve as programme villages and they will be drawn from the three parts of the country including one from each. Besides, other three villages will also be selected nearby where there is no poverty focused government intervention. These three will serve as control villages in the three parts of the country. Sample Size Most of the topics would be addressed at the community level and no specific number of participants are needed to be ascertained beforehand. For poverty monitoring, a total of 120 poorest households will be selected  ¾ 90 from six villages and 30 from three urban slums. The poorest households will be selected through consultation with the respective community members. Tools to be Used In selecting tools desirable characteristics namely easy, simple, visual, non-verbal etc., must be taken into accounts. As PRA tools are recognized to have all these desirable characteristics, most of the tools will be drawn from its repertoire. Important PRA tools that will be extensively used in the poverty assessment include scoring and ranking, matrix ranking, wealth/well-being ranking, time line, social mapping, pie chart and so forth (Figure 1). Validity and Reliability Although the qualitative data are essentially based on the perception, opinion and judgement of the participants, the quality of data would be, nevertheless, refined through of the triangulation principle underlying the research design of this study. A combination of multiple sources, researchers/facilitators and on-the-spot cross-checking of data through discussion, debate and deliberation among the community participants would minimise the degree of error and bias of data to the minimum. Besides, the field observation by the researchers would in addition , act as a guard against any major inconsistency and biasness of data. Activities to be Undertaken For conducting the study a number of activities will be undertaken. The activities include: Identifying and reviewing available literature Now-a-days wide ranging literature on poverty is available. Different facets of poverty have been discussed in those literature. The indicators, measurement process, sampling frame etc. also differ. For a qualitative study for monitoring poverty, the volume of the problem further increases. The approach is not only different but gives a deeper insight. To make it complement the qualitative approach the literature on poverty needs a review. For this purpose all available literature on poverty will be reviewed. Analyse presently used indicators Before finalising the indicators for assessment of poverty there is a need for analysing the presently used indicators. This will provide a rational basis for the use of the indicators in the qualitative study. Pre-testing The indicators and tools to be used in the study will be pre-tested in the field. This will help understand the effectiveness of tools. Primary field visit Before starting field work a primary field visit is needed to get acquainted with the actual field condition. Training of field/research officers The field/research officers who will be engaged in this study are competent and experienced. Even then the field/research officers need training/orientation for doing such work. With this purpose they will be imparted in-house and field training. Processing of data/information The data/information processing in qualitative study is not similar to that of quantitative one. The information generated through qualitative approach is processed in a different manner. Different factors and aspects of reality are considered while classifying these information. Field activities The field activities to be undertaken in this study will require two types of work: a. in rural area and b. in urban area. Rural area: The activities in rural area will require identifying the group/sub-group, building up rapport with them and conducting the sessions. These activities have to be co-ordinated with the day-to-day activities e.g., ploughing or rowing time etc., of the participants. Rrban area: In urban area conducting participatory session is a difficult task. Urban life makes it difficult for the participants to spare time for such research. Besides building up a better rapport, tools need to be designed and adjusted accordingly. Document analysis Significant insights can be found through document analysis. Even discrepancies between reality and pronounced goals can be identified. CHAPTER X PROBLEMS IDENTIFICATION AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT BY THE POOR Problems and Needs Assessment By the Poor Problems facing the poor were identified by the poor themselves, and a list of felt needs were the outcome of the participatory discussion, debates and consensus among themselves. Two sets of problems and needs were assessed in a participatory manner each for the urban and rural areas. Urban Setting To the urban slum poor, homelessness and eviction from slums are the topmost problems. Other serious problems identified by the poor include lack of good health and water facilities, employment opportunities, security, education, latrine, gas, etc. (Exhibit 38). Regarding the needs assessment, the urban poor listed and prioritized their felt needs. Some of the most important are, latrine, shelter, drinking water, electricity, gas, security, rationing, employment and so on (Exhibit 39). Rural Setting Agricultural inputs, irrigation and culverts are considered to be the topmost problems by the rural poor. Apart from these, some other most serious problems mentioned by them are related to health, electricity, unemployment, flood, drinking water, industrialisation, veterinary facilities, silting up of rivers etc. (Exhibit 40). According to the needs assessment and prioritization by the rural poor, some of the most important needs as articulated by themselves are industries for employment, agricultural inputs at a fair price, rural roads, irrigation, electricity, school and madrasa, medical facilities etc. (Exhibit 41). Chapter IX Monitoring THE Impact of Public Expenditure on Poverty Objective The primary objective of monitoring of impact of public expenditure on poverty in this chapter is to understand the living condition of the poor. This is more of an illustrative exercise rather than a whole sector monitoring of poverty. The issue of representativeness has to be, therefore, viewed in this context. One of the stated objectives of the development strategy of both present and previous governments is to reduce poverty. A growing share of public expenditure is claimed to have been allocated to the development activities ostensibly aiming at poverty reduction in the recent past, and this is likely to be continued in the future. Against this background of increasing the public expenditure allocation to poverty alleviating projects, it is needed to know the effects and impacts of these expenditure on poverty alleviation. In this section a number of key questions have been addressed: Does the benefit of the public expenditure reach those lying at the bottom of the income scale ? Is there any sign of improvement in the condition of the poorest of the poor ? How do the selected poverty indicators behave ? Do they improve, deteriorate or oscillate ? In case of improvement, at what pace do they improve ? Based on the findings from these questions, an attempt will be made to assess the quality of public expenditure in terms of a set of selected indicators. To understand the trend of the impact of public expenditure on poverty, we started monitoring the behaviour of some selected indicators of poverty in both the urban and rural areas since 1993 as the base year. The qualitative and quantitative data generated throu gh the participatory tools have been used for this poverty monitoring. This is the first round of the periodic monitoring of poverty in a participatory manner. Poverty Assessment and Monitoring: Peoples Views The poverty assessment carried out under this study has two components. The community members actively participated in the assessment of their well-being by listing and categorizing of all the households by themselves in several groups based on their own criteria. This is, in fact, a subjective assessment. Secondly, after categorization, all households were arranged in descending order on the basis of well-being scores of each of the households resulting in the identification of the poorest of the poor in the respective communities lying at the bottom of the scale with quantitative precision which was again vetted by the community members/participants. The poverty of some of the poorest households in the community has been monitored on the selected indicators. As this monitoring is based on hard data, it, therefore, gives us an objective assessment of the living standard of the poorest. (Figure 9.1) The poverty sitution in the urban and rural areas has been assessed in a participator y manner. Instead of applying any pre-conceived ideas, standards, measures or categories by the researchers to measure poverty as is done conventionally, the criteria used in this study has been developed by the people at the community level. The basic question relating to poverty measurement or assessment is who is poor and how to identify him/her. Based mainly on qualitative data information Based mainly on quantitative data information Criteria Unlike a single standard or formula as applied in the conventional methodology, the community-members consider it appropriate to use a set of socio-economic criteria to assess the economic and social status of a household. For this purpose, the researchers and facilitators involved in the study initiated a series of group-level discussions and community-level validations. The community people developed their own criteria (Box 9.1) to assess the status of their own members and also to categorize them into a set of social classes. The more important criteria developed by the rural people in the selected villages are, among others, the amount of land owned and cultivated, the number of earning members, cash in hand, the housing condition, the amount of fixed assets, the family size, other sources of income, whether a household is female or male headed, etc. Prevalence of poverty Based on the above criteria, the community people identified the poor (moderate poor) and the poorest (extreme or hardcore poor) households in their own community. As poverty was assessed at the household level, the status of all the households in the community was assessed and categorized into four classes, namely well-off, medium, poor and poorest. In the urban slums, 72 percent of the households were found poor (moderate: 51, hardcore: 21) and 28 percent non-poor (middle: 19, well-off:9) (Tables 9.1 and 9.2). The incidence of poverty was, however, found to be widely different in different slums. In one sample slum there were no well-off households in 1996 although there were many in another sample. In the rural area, 75 percent of the households were classified as poor (moderate: 20 and hardcore: 55) whereas 25 percent were classified as non-poor (middle:14 and well-off: 11) (Table 9.3). Regionally, the incidence of poverty was more acute (moderate: 17, hardcore: 60) in the central part compared to that (moderate: 25, hardcore:47) in the northern part. The findings generated by the PRA exercise were further validated by the people in the respective community. So the scope of subjective bias, if any, was greatly reduced. Poverty Monitoring Using Panel Data Set (Quantitative) Being a value loaded term, poverty as such cannot be measured quantitatively/objectively. The debate on the issue abounds in the literature. But the symptoms and aspects of poverty can be measured and monitored by means of a series of socio-economic indicators that proxy the level of well-being of people. That is why, an attempt has been made in this section to measure and monitor poverty through a number of indicators/variables in two different years i.e., 1993 and 1996. Most of the indicators used for monitoring were suggested by the community members (Box 9.1.). The number of indicators used here are meant to have satisfied the desirable criteria, namely, unambiguity, consistency, specificity, sensitivity and ease of collection (Carvalho and White, 1994). Change in Demographic and Socio-economic Profiles of the Poorest Households During 1993-96 Demographic and Social Characterstics Family size and composition The population of the poorest households and their average family size grew by 5 percent over the monitoring period 1993-96 (Table 9.4). However, the populatioin growth rate is found to have been higher at 7.2 percent for the urban poor compared to 4.4 percent in the rural area over the same period. The family size of the poorest households in the rural area is, however, found to be higher at 4.2 in 1993 and increased further to 4.4 in 1996. The family size of the urban poor was lower at 3.5 in 1993, and it grew to 3.7 in 1996. In the rural area, the family size of the FFE-households is found to be much higher at 6.0 on an average in both the central and northern parts compared to those for the non-FFE households in both programme and control villages in 1996 (Table 9.5). Another important demographic characteristic of the poorest households is their family composition. In 1996, the FFE households are found to have a male majority  ¾ 61 percent compared to 49 percent and 41 percent for the non-FFE households in the programme and control villages respectively. The family composition is, however, found reverse for the poorest families in the urban slums. The poorest households had a female majority at 62 percent in 1996 (Table 9.6). The above findings pose some questions challenging the appropriateness of the main thrust of the development strategy being pursued by the government in the country. The much-publicized motto two children are enough seems to have been irrelevant so far as the poorest people are concerned in both the urban and rural areas. The increasing growth rates in populatioin and family size suggest that under the existing socio-economic conditions, their economic and social securities lie not in smaller family but in larger one. Earning members and incidence of child labour The poorest households and their different groups are found to have peculiar characterstics in the composition of their earning members. Overall, close to half of the earning members are men, and one-fourth are women and boys each in 1996 (Table 7.17). Against this general distribution of the earning members, the poorest families in the urban and rural areas are found to have different compositions of earning members by age and gender. In the urban slums, female earning members accounted for 43 percent (women: 36% and girls: 7%) among all the earners compared to 24 percent (women:23% girls:1%) in the rural area (Table 7.17 and 9.7). Female children are not found to have been as active in income earning activities previously as they are found to be in 1996. The preponderance of male income earners is found to be more prominent among the poorest households in the rural area. At the disaggregate level, the difference is more revealing in the rural areas. The participation of girls in income earning activities is found to be very minimal throughout the rural areas (Table 9.8). Among the FFE-households, womens participation in income earning activities is very small (3%), but it is widely observed (33%-36%) among the non-FFE households . Among the FFE households, the preponderance of male child labour is observed, and this remained unchanged throughout the monitoring period despite the programme intervention in the rural areas. The incidence of child labour among the earning members of the FFE households is found to be 40 and 41 percent in the central and northern parts respectively of the country, and this remained unchanged in both the areas during the period 1993-1996. The poor impact of the FFE programme on the incidence of child labour at large in the rural areas is also revealed sharply if we focus on the trend in the incidence of child labour. Overall, 25 percent of the boys of all ages were involved in income earning activities in 1993, and this remained almost at the same level (24%) in 1996. As the boys, the incidence of female child labour among the earning members is found to be at a much lower level (1.2%) in 1993 and this remained at that level 1996 as well. The above findings raise an important question to the fore: why is the FFE programme found to be ineffective in reducing the incidence of child labour ? The answer to this question should be searched not in the programme itself but in the economics. For the poorest households, the opportunity cost of sparing a boy from education is around Tk. 14 a day (wage rate) in 1996 (Table 9.9). The financial benefit gained from the FFE programme by a rural poor household is found not so significant at Tk. 4.85 (Tk. 0.81 per capita per day) a day for a boy (Table 9.10). The participatioin of a poor family in the FFE programme causes a substantial income loss to that family. As the benefit under the programme cannot offset the income loss that an extremely poor family has to incur, the appeal of the programme to a precariously income-poor family is found to be weak. This finding is found consistent with that of other studies (Ahmed and Billah,1995). Female-headed households One of the important demographic features of the poorest households is that close to one-third of them were female-headed during the reference period (Table 9.11). More than half of the sample households (55%) are found to be female-headed in the urban slums compared to 23% in the rural households during the same period. Another important demographic feature of the three groups of the poorest households is that only 5 percent of the FFE households have been female headed compared to 25 percent and 40 percent for the non-FFE households respectively in the programme and control villages in 1993 (Table 9.12A). This composition remained unchanged even in 1996. The above findings suggest that the FFE households are found to be relatively stable not only in respect of assets (details later) but also demographically. The preponderance of female-headed households among the non-FFE household groups imply that these households are not only income-poor but also subject to a higher degree of vulnerability and defencelessness both economically and socially. In the urban slums, a significant portion of the poorest households happened to be female-headed during the monitoring period (Table 9.12B) The gender focus of poverty is found more pronounced among the poorest segment of the slum-dwellers compared to those in the rural area. Table 9.11 shows that more than half (55%) of the sample households have been female-headed compared to that (23%) among the rural counterparts during the same period. Begging households Altogether, 6% of the poorest households are found engaged in begging. In the urban slums, none of the poorest households is found in this category (Table 9.13) and all begging households under our sample belong to the rural area. Besides, all these households are found among the non-FFE groups. (Table 9.14). These households are more vulnerable and extremely poverty-ridden mainly due to some unfavourable demographic factors. The households engaged in begging are relatively small (3.8) in family size compared to the sample average (4.2) in 1996. Moreover, the dependancy ratio for the begging households is lower (2.7) compared to that for the sample households (3.0) in 1996.The predominance of women among the earning members points to the poor income level of these households. As the dependency ratio is very low, it implies that most of the family members are forced to go for earning activities due to their poverty. Income Source of income The poorest households have limited sources of income. The urban poor are usually engaged in unskilled manual labour. Similar is the case with the rural poor (Table: 9.15) as well. Sale of labour has been the main source of the rural poor accounting for 82% of their total income in 1993. This has marginally increased to 84 in 1996. Agriculture is the second most important source of income making up only 12% of the total income of the rural poor in 1993 and 10% in 1996. Only 1% of the income of the rural poor has been derived from livestock, a new source of income, in 1996. Nominal income In the rural area, the income of the poorest households has been found to be miserably low during the monitoring period. The per capita daily income of these households was Tk. 6.9 in 1993. This increased to Tk. 7.4 in 1996 showing an 7% growth (Table 9.16). Their per household daily income grew by 12% from Tk. 29 in 1993 to Tk 33 in 1996. The higher growth rate of nominal income is mainly due to a positive growth of the nominal wage rate (12%) alongwith a growth of the number of earning members (5%) of the poorest households. The low per capita income is partly due to the large family size and its growth over the monitoring period. The low income of the poorest households is the result of a number of socio-economic factors, e.g., low wage rate (Table 9.9), poor asset base, poor human capability due to illiteracy (Tables 7.31 and 7.32), low access to economic opportunities, etc. The impact of the FFE programme does not seem to have been appreciable on the level of income of the programme households. Although the programme has had some positive impact on the growth of income (15% in per capita and 18% in per households terms during 1993-1996), its contribution to the growth is difficult to ascertain. However, other findings indicate that the contribution of the programme to the income of the programme households is insignificant (Tk. 0.81 per capita/daily, Tk. 4.85 per household/daily, 15% of the average household income) (Tables 9.10 and 9.16). The per capita nominal income of the poorest households in the urban slums was Tk. 12 a day in 1993 and increased to Tk. 19 a day in 1996 representing a 31 percent growth (Table 9.17). The per household daily income of the urban poor increased by a higher rate of 40 percent from Tk. 41 a day to Tk. 58 during the same period. The income of the urban poor increased by a much higher rate than that of the rural poor in both per capita and per household terms because of the higher growth rates of wage (29%) (Table 9.9) and of earners per household (17%) (Table 9.7), lower family size (3.7), etc. Moreover, gainful economic opportunities are greater in the urban area relative to the rural area. Real income The income of the poorest households in real terms (in kilogram of coarse rice) is found to have declined across the board during the monitoring period. In the rural area, the per capita real income of the poorest households declined by 22% on an average from 0.9 in 1993 to 0.7 kilograms of coarse rice in 1996 (Table 9.18). Barring the FFE households, the per household real income has registered a sharp decline during the same period irrespective of differences in regional diversity. Due to the income support under the FFE programme, the FFE households could avoid the sharp fall of income. The per capita real income for the FFE households has declined by 13% against a 20 to 25 percent decline for the non-FFE households over the same peiod. Overall, despite an 7% increase in per capita income in nominal terms on an average during 1993-96 (Table 9.16), the corresponding real income took an appreciably higher downward trend (22%) (Table 9.18) caused by a 24 to 43 percent price hike of c oarse rice in the rural areas during the same peirod (Table 9.19). The per capita real income of the urban poor remained unchanged, whereas, the per household real income marked an upward trend (5%) during the monitoring period (Table 9.20). The per capita real income of the urban poor is almost double at 1.4 kg a day of that of the rural poor in 1993 which remained almost unchanged during the same period. The per household real income of the poorest households stood in urban slums at 4.7 kg and 5.0 kg a day in 1993 and 1996 respectively recording a 5% growth. The poorest households in the urban slums are relatively better off than their rural counterparts in respect of per household real income which declined by 16% for the latter during the same period (Table 9.18). Wage rate The unskilled wage rate is considered to be an important indicator for monitoring poverty. The wage rate of all categories of unskilled wage labourers is found to have increased in both the rural and urban areas (Table 9.9). In the rural area, the daily nominal wage rate increased by 11.7% from Tk. 17.2 in 1993 to Tk. 19.2 in 1996 (Tables 9.7, 9.16, 9.24 and 9.25). The wage rate is found to be much higher for the urban slum-dwellers, and it grew by 29% from the level of Tk. 35.8 in 1993 to Tk. 46.1 in 1996 (Tables 9.9, 9.21, 9.22 and 9.23). Although the wage rate for unskilled labourers increased during the monitoring period, the purchasing power of the poor labourers did not rise due to a higher rate of price increase in the case of coarse rice. The average wage rate for unskilled wage labourers, in fact, declined across the board in real terms during the monitoring period. However, the poor in the northern part had to sustain a much higher rate of fall (22%) in real wage rate compared to 14% for those in the central part during this period (Table 9.24). Consumption Consumption of food The consumption of rice and wheat  ¾ the staple food items of the poorest households  ¾ is found to have recorded opposite trends among these households in the urban and rural areas. In the urban slums, the per capita daily consumption of food (rice and wheat) was 442 grams in 1993 and it rose to 514 grams in 1996 representing a 16 per cent growth (Table 9.25). The increase in the consumption level of food in terms of both per adult equivalent unit and per household units has also been substantial, 18 and 25 percent respectively during the monitoring period. These findings, however, conceal the substantially low level of food intake observed in one of the slums where poverty is found to be more acute (Table 9.26). In the rural area, the trend in food consumption is, however, found to have consistantly sunk during the monitoring period in per capita and per adult equivalent and per household terms (Table 9.27). The per capita daily consumption of rice and wheat declined from the level of 585 grams in 1993 to 566 in 1996 showing a 3 percent decrease. The food consumption per adult equivalent unit is found to have been at a much higher level  ¾ 797 grams in 1993 and 786 grams a day in 1996 – recording a relatively small fall during the period. Per household consumption, likewise declined during the same period. The declining trend in food intake is true of both the programme and non-programme households during the same period. The consistent fall in the level of consumption of food is largely due to the fall in real income and expansion of the average family size of the poorest households during the monitoring period. Box 9.2: Food Security: A Quantitative Assessment In order to assess the poverty status of sample households, the heads of the households were asked to make self-assessments in respect of poverty. Their self-assessed status may be categorized as follows: Chronic deficit households reporting food shortage throughout the year; Occasional deficit households reporting food shortage occasionally in a year;