Corporation and Florida International University Essay

I am writing this letter regarding my request for funding to attend a business writing course at Florida International University. This course is only held once a year in our area and it will be on the 11 day of July ending on the 13 day of July 2013. The business writing course is the only course held of its kind and it is the most cost-effective professional development opportunity available to me this year. The writing course offers all the tools, techniques and concepts related to business writing, such as critical problem solving with employee communication skills, this course will be a major benefit and provide me with additional knowledge on skills I already possess; by teaching me how to write more clear, crisp and effective. The course will also guide me on how to dissect business documents so that our organizational initiatives will accelerate and performance should increase within Smith International, I will also gain more knowledge on the clarity, impact, and overall professionalism of on-the-job e-mails, letters, and reports which I deal with on a day-to-day basis. The course will be taught by Dr. James Johnson; a world renowned professor for Harvard University Business School, Dr.  Johnson has written several books and has lectured at more than 100 universities worldwide, his expertise and recognition in business writing has not gone unnoticed. Dr. James Johnson has been recognized for his work with U. S government organizations for his ability to critique an array of documents, his ability to analyze policies of privately sealed government documents. He has made his mark and comprehension on business corporations and governments all over the world. The business writing course that will be held at Florida International University will be a cost of ($250 value) this will include a business writing certification, recognizing the completion of the course, all the information printed on paper and presented, is free for all writing course participants, and can be shared with my colleagues who are not able to attend the course at this time. Thank you for considering this request for me to attend the business writing course.

Dante Alighieri’s Inferno Paper Essay

Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. Inferno is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is described as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin. Because Dante is an educated Christian, he uses mythological references to make Hell visually appealing. Dante is guided By Virgil because he believes Virgil represents human reason, something very important to Dante. The two poets begin their journey to Purgatory by descending into the first circle of Hell. The first circle of the nine is Limbo. Limbo is â€Å"a region on the edge of hell for those who are not saved even though they did not sin† (University of Texas). In Limbo, there is a castle with seven gates which symbolize the seven virtues (historylis ts.org). This castle houses the great poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan; it also houses great philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, Orpheus, and Euclid. Dante uses the allusion of Aristotle as â€Å"[a] man with honor and respect† (http://apliterature-sasd.wikispaces.com). The second circle is known as Lust. Lust consists of the â€Å"people who were overcome by lust† (University of Texas). The souls in Lust â€Å"are punished by being blown violently back and forth by strong winds, preventing them to find peace and rest† (historylists.org). The strong winds symbolize the restlessness of a person who is led by desire for another person. Dante comes across a couple, Francesca and Paolo, who were murdered because they were practicing adultery. Lust is guarded by the mythological creature Minos. Minos’ tail determines which level each and every soul belongs. Once a soul has told Minos why they are in Hell, his tail coils around his body and e ach coil represents a circle in Hell. Dante uses Minos as the â€Å"king of sinners† because Minos himself was surrounded by sinner during his lifetime. The Third circle is known as Gluttony. Gluttony is where the Gluttonous sinners suffer under a cold and filthy rain. Gluttony is guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed dog. Dante â€Å"adapts him to be more monstrous by his large size and ravenous bite, an apt symbol for gluttony† (foxtwin.com). Dante uses particular names for particular people in each circle. A prime example of this would be when Dante and Virgil come across Ciacco the most gluttonous  man. He warns Dante that their hometown, Florence, will be destroyed. The fourth circle, avarice and prodigality, is known for housing those who lust for material needs and those who keep their wealth all for themselves. The punishment for this circle is to carry around large boulders and bump against each other. â€Å"The boulder represents money and the weight of the boulder represents its weight in their lives† (University of Texas). Here, Virgil and Dante come across Plutus, the God of Wealth. Dante uses Plutus to symbolize â€Å"those that squander and gather money† (foxtwin.com). The two Poets also come across Dame Fortune, the spinner of the world. As a result of her spinning wheel, things turn from good to bad. Dante uses Dame Fortune to represent chance in a human’s life. The fifth circle represents Wrath and Sullenness. â€Å"Wrath is anger that is expressed and Sullenness is and that is repressed† (University of Texas). Dante and Virgil are transported across the Styx by Phlegyas,† the infernal employee†. Phlegyas is in Hell because he set fire to the temple of Apollo. The sixth circle represents Heresy. In Heresy, the heretics lie in tombs made of iron and engulfed in flames. While in Heresy, the Poets are temporarily halted and must wait for the help from Heaven. While waiting for help, Infernal Furies taunt and curse them. The seventh circle, Violence, is divided into three kinds of violence. The first is violence against neighbor s on the bloody River Phlegethon. The river is not made of water, but of blood. Here, Virgil and Dante come across the Centaurs, the half-man and half-horse creature. The poets also come across the Minotaur. The Minotaur occasionally eats seven young men and women, in which Dante uses to symbolize violence. The second violence is against self in the Woods of Self. â€Å"The souls of those who destroyed their bodies or their substance are here to be made into thorny trees† (foxtwin.com). Since the souls destroyed their own bodies, they were denied any resemblance to a body in Hell. The leaves of these trees were painfully eaten by the Harpies. The third violence is against God, Art, and Nature on the burning sand. The eighth circle consists of the fraudulent sinners. This circle is shaped similar to an arena with â€Å"ten concentric ditches where the sinners are tortured† (foxtwin.com). Each ditch is composed with different types of fraudulent sinners: the Panderers, the Flatterers, the Simoniacs, the Fortune Tellers, the Grafters, the Hypocrites, Thieves, and Deceivers. In circle eight, the Poets meet the complex monster Geryon. Geryon would lure  in his victims and then devour them, allowing Dante to use him as fraud. Dante also uses Pope Nicholas II as a symbol as fraud. The final circle is known as The Treacherous or Cocytus. Cocytus â€Å"is the coldest place in Hell† (University of Texas). This circle consists of four smaller circles: Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, and Judecca. Dante uses three unnamed giants to symbolize â€Å"pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery† (University of Texas). Dante, in his work Inferno, uses several historical and mythological figures to show his Christian devotion and Greek mythological knowledge. He also used these figures to make the poem a better read and to make modern connections of the t ime.

WIA, Education, technical personel regulations Research Paper

WIA, Education, technical personel regulations - Research Paper Example Employees should, therefore, be retrained and encouraged to take up training geared toward their career advancements and the country’s economic stability. Employee retraining shifts the focus from the business to the development of the employee and addresses issues of low skilled workers and the demand for more labour in a particular industry. Employee retraining addresses the need for matching employee skills with technological advancements and industry needs. Employee retraining in America has been the sole responsibility of the federal government for over a century. However the rapid growth of the economy at the turn of the 21st century made it necessary for employers to come up with programmes that would not only help them retain their workforce but also equip them to cope in the changing business world. The Workforce Investment Act was introduced in 1998 and led to the creation of Workforce Investments Boards that focused on the development of workers across America (Perkins, 1998). The Workforce Investments Act of 1998 was put in place of the Job Training Partnership Act and was instituted to encourage the participation of businesses in the delivery of Workforce Development Services. The requirements of the act were to be driven by Workforce Investment Boards, which were chaired by the local community or members from the private sector. Work force Development was then divided into sector based and place based. It was further categorized into statewide and local workforce investments systems, job corps and national programs. Other acts also demand that employers train their employees on various areas to cover those protected by regulations like the Tittle VII of the Civil Rights Act on race, color, nationality, and religion. Employers are further forced to invest in employee retraining through federal laws that stipulate that the employee get a given number of hours of training in some industries. In the aviation industry for

Competition is Better than Cooperation In the Relations Between Essay

Competition is Better than Cooperation In the Relations Between Criminal Justice Agencies - Essay Example Intervention in regard to criminal justice system refers to the process of preventing or reducing the incidence of crime, as well as acts that minimize the potential adverse consequences of convicted offenders in the society (Gough, 2010, p. 22). Similarly, supervision in the criminal justice system is defined as the process of overseeing the tasks and behaviours of the convicted offenders within the correction component of the criminal justice with the view of ensuring that the imposed sanctions yield the desired outcomes. Supervision in the criminal justice system has also been defined as the process of regulating and controlling behaviours of the convicted through restrictions or rules with the aim of ensuring that at the end they can become responsible persons who can easily re-integrate into the society without posing any serious public safety threats (Church, 1985, 456). Over the years, there has been raging debate on whether competition is better than cooperation in relations between criminal justice agencies. The persistent question has been which between competition and cooperation facilitates effective achievement of objectives of the criminal justice agencies, and ultimately those of the criminal justice system. This paper will seek to address this question by focusing on the intervention and supervision stages of the criminal justice process. It will show that indeed competition is better than cooperation in the relations between criminal justice agencies. Customarily, the criminal justice system has not been operating as a coordinated whole. Instead, criminal justice agencies have heavily been emphasizing on their core legislative independence and functions, as well as on their operational imperatives. This arrangement has been informed by a wide range of factors. The first factor is that the criminal justice agencies have differing goals, functions, purpose, and roles and as such no single agency handles the case throughout the entire system. Seco ndly, the system is defendant focused, case and incident-based, an arrangement that makes the agencies to operate separately in order not to deviate from this arrangement (Gough, 2010, p. 25). Thirdly, a range of procedural and legal constraints keep information that had been obtained before out of the court consideration. As such, information held by a particular criminal justice agency about an incident, victim, or defendant is progressively filtered as it moves through various agencies of the system. The other factor that has contributed to the criminal justice system not to work as a coordinated whole is the power dynamic within the criminal justice agencies hierarchy and their widely diverse professional culture (Gebo, et al, 2006, p. 425). The criminal justice system has been witnessing myriad of challenges especially in regard to law enforcement and corrections. In particular, the rise of the rate of crimes such as burglary cases and rape and overcrowding in the correctional facilities has been some of the main challenges facing the criminal just

Research Portfolio Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Portfolio - Research Paper Example Specific examples of stereotypes are that obese people are lazy and thus are less productive workers; that they have no self-control when they are eating; and that they over-present a good-natured personality in their social relationships because they are afraid of being socially excluded. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which the everyday lives of obese persons are mediated by a set of socially constructed meanings and how those meanings are present in their social relationships. Moreover, particular interest is paid to the process of establishing and maintaining different types of social relationships and how those bonds are considered to be both meaningful and satisfying. The relationship between being obese and losing weight to be socially accepted will also explored as another area where meaning is socially constructed. Review of the Literature: Obesity and Stigma The subject of obesity has been studied sociologically since the early 1960's, most commonly within the concentration of deviance and social control. Specifically, much of this work has focused its attention on how obesity is a kind of physical deviance and is stigmatized because of the external cues it possesses. Stigmatization stems from the possession of an "attribute or characteristic that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a particular social context" (Crocker cited in Abrams et al. 2004). More widely accepted stigmas associate obesity with laziness, social and sexual undesirability, and the externality theory of eating, which states that an obese individual, if given the opportunity, will eat large quantities of food regardless of how hungry he or she is (Puhl & Brownell, 2003a; Maykovich, 1978). An example of a more remote stigma can be found historically and, to a lesser extent, currently amongst some traditional religious circles who stigmatize the obese on the belief that they are gluttons who lack a moral self  ­restraint in th eir eating practices that will lead to their religious damnation (Puhl & Brownell, 2003a). In his work on stigma Goffman (1963) briefly noted that the stigmatization of obesity is based on the principle of visibility, which he defines to be "how well or how badly the stigma is adapted to provide means of communicating that the individual possesses it" (p. 48). In terms of that communication there are three conditions which must be addressed in order to determine how visible and prevalent a stigma actually is. The first condition has to do with how much is already known about what causes the stigma for a given individual who possesses it (Goffman, 1963, p.49). To apply this notion, if previous interactions with an obese person were to have revealed that his or her obesity was caused by factors beyond his or her control and that argument was convincing, based on what knowledge was available to justify the presence of obesity, perhaps that obese person would less likely be stigmatized by whoever were included within those interactions. Moreover, because obesity is based on external cues, it may negatively affect an obese person's ability or willingness to include him or herself in situations that require social interaction. This addresses the second condition of the

Should Women be allowed in combat Research Paper

Should Women be allowed in combat - Research Paper Example with, the skeletal system of the women is less dense and is more prone to fracture (Journal of the American College of Nutrition Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2011). According to Center for Military Readiness, most of the female soldiers are shorter and smaller than men. Their upper body strength is less than 45-50% compared to males, and their aerobic capacity is lesser of 25-30%. (Center for Military Readiness, 2004) Physiological Concern. It is nature to women about their menstruation that happens monthly. At this state, they are believe to be incapacitated during that period as they are prone to accidents due to their limited action. This was observed during World War II. However, there are some sectors who refute the claim with certain evidences and studies that women do perform equally even during their menstrual period. (Poulos, 1996) Psychological Concern. Relationship could develop between a man and a woman soldiers. This projection could put the unit at risk in an actual combat. Thus, women are banned in the front-line combat situations. The fear to be in the front-line of combat might drive women to get impregnated so as to avoid being in it, which is far very critical for the combat attack plan. (Center for Military Readiness, 2004) Female soldiers could also be objects of capturing, torture, and sexual assailment that will make the combat unit vulnerable. Males on the other hand have no record of sexual assailment but high percentage on physical abuse. Females have the highest percentage of sexual assailment in units. (Louise Slaughter, 2011) Conclusion. With physical, physiological, and psychological concerns that are based on facts reveals that women should not be allowed in a combat. Their presence in the combat will put at risk the combat units and make them

Polities please see attachment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Polities please see attachment - Essay Example In the matters of shaping the hospital policies and advocating for health reforms, nurses hence ought to rise from their slumber to ensure that policies are well advocated for and engage in arenas that are less familiar where laws and regulations that are result oriented are made and scarce resources made available (Abood, 2007). I admire Michelle Obama. She is equipped with the leadership skills, which surely will always give me the reason to have her as my role model. Basically, she can be viewed as a primary controller and a promoter. As a promoter, she is goal oriented, makes deliberate solutions and fears no threat. I might not possess these leadership qualities, but, she remains my best as compared to Hillary Clinton. Michelle knows to say what she thinks unlike Hillary. Women can lead, mentor and change the world. In the same way, nurses should do so in the health care

Global englishes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Global englishes - Essay Example Starting with the British Isles’ invasion by the German tribes of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles, the English language has come a long way. English has undergone numerous transformations since its creation to date. Various historical events have played a role in its transformation that include but are not limited to Britain’s Christianization in the year 597, the Invasions of the Viking, the Conquest of the Norman, Bible’s translation, William Caxton’s introduction of the printing press, the Renaissance, and the British Empire’s expansion (Wilton, 2001). All of these events have helped English language be what it is today. English language also derives its popularity and power from the advancement of science and technology in general, and the emergence of the US as the world power. Given the popularity of the English language and its significance in the contemporary age, this paper makes forecasts about the future of the global Englishes disc ussing different aspects like the growing influence of the English language and its tendency to take over regional languages. ... of us can guess what the English language will be like in a hundred years time [and that] the history of the language in the coming century will depend on the history of the community itself† (Barber, 1993, p. 276). While Barber is right, English’s status today and the surfacing of the variety of Englishes all over the world have caused people to predict the future of this language. Changes in the English language’s status are influential upon a large population of the world in general and its linguistic choices in particular. Considering the profile of spread of English in the past, it can be estimated that English language would spread even more in the future than it has so far. Mori Arinori, in the 19th century, proposed to replace the Japanese language with another language that is stronger and better like French and English. He emphasized on the need to adopt one of these languages in these words: â€Å"The march of civilization in Japan has already reached the heart of the nation – the English language following it suppresses the use of both Chinese and Japanese. The commercial power of the English-speaking race which now rules the world drives our people into some knowledge of their commercial ways and habits. The absolute necessity of mastering the English language is thus forced upon us. It is a requisite of our independence in the community of nations. Under the circumstances, our meager language, which can never be of any use outside of our islands, is doomed to yield to the domination of the English tongue, especially when the power of steam and electricity shall have pervaded the land† (Mori cited in Kachru, 1992, p. 5). English cannot Extinguish Other National Languages Although English has attained the status of an international language, and is

What are some cause of the Renaissance How did the Renaissance differ Essay

What are some cause of the Renaissance How did the Renaissance differ from the prior Middle Ages - Essay Example Various factors caused the beginning of Renaissance. One of the principal causes, which contributed to the beginning of the Renaissance, is the crusades. These crusades included a series of wars organized by Western European Christians. The Christians fought with Muslims in order to recapture Holy Land, which the Muslims occupied (Gundersheimer 67). In addition, after the end of crusades, emerging crusaders brought ancient Greek and Latin texts back, which brought a revived concentration in classical works. Another factor contributing to the start of the Renaissance was the opening of the Mediterranean trade routes in the Italian city states. The opening of the Mediterranean route led to the development of a new merchant class that was remarkably influential. The most popular dynasty of the merchant class was the Medici family. The Medici family remained powerful throughout since they maintained the financial strength of Florence city (Hay 43). This influenced the transformation of i ndividual thinking and allowed Renaissance. New secular hunger for discovering texts caused Renaissance. Monasteries and courts in Europe had repositories of old texts and manuscripts. However, scholars desired a change in classical works; this stimulated massive appraisal of classical works. The desire by artists to discover new texts led to transformation in art work. One of the writers known as Petrarch triggered the Renaissance through writing about how his intention to discover texts had been ignored (Martin 87). Secular readers introduced and developed a taste and a hunger of reading and spreading classical writings. This happened with a renewed strength than the previous years, which led to a total transformation in classical works. Hence, the hunger for discovery of texts led to Renaissance. Reintroduction of classical works also caused Renaissance. Although there were classical

Assigned readings on which you will write one page reading responed Essay - 2

Assigned readings on which you will write one page reading responed - Essay Example Friendship between opposite sexes was only seen in few literary circles. Apart from that amicable relation between men and women was impossible in the West and still is in various cultures. Historical changes appeared when women were portrayed differently. The writer further investigates the relation between men and women and turns his attention towards feminism. The writer turns to feminism to prove his argument because prior to the advent of feminism women were considered inferior. In 1890’s when the term feminism was made public. The New Woman was a term coined for a reinvented woman who was intelligent, strong-willed, well-read and outspoken. The writer suggests that the new kind of woman is responsible for the companionship and friendship among men and women. The writer mentions platonic friendship which constitutes of everything except sexual relations. The origin of this word dates back to Plato, who used it to explain the emotion of love with or without the involvement of sex. Feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft were not in favor of platonic friendships because they could end up in damage such as sexual relations. Even though there are various factors that have promoted friendship between men and women. According to the writer the increasing admissions by both sexes into education institutes has caused both sexes to come close. The non-partial and non-political nature nowadays especially in education facilities has led to friendships among men and

Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt Essay Example for Free

Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt Essay Discuss the achievements of Hatshepsut on events and issues that she is remembered for in History and assess her legacy to the world. Hatshepsut was one of the most powerful women in the ancient world. She was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and the first female pharaoh. She ruled longer than any other woman in Egyptian history. Hatshepsut was pharaoh for approximately twenty-one years, from 1479 BC–1458 BC. Hatshepsut’s successful reign brought wealth to her country she helped shape Egypt into a stronger nation in many ways. Hatshepsut has been widely regarded as one of the most successful pharaohs throughout time and has left behind more monuments and works of art than any Egyptian queen. Hatshepsut’s parents were both from a royal background, and her father (Thutmose I) was Pharaoh when she was born. When Thutmose I died, Hatshepsut was about 15 years old, and Thutmose II took over as pharaoh. Thutmose II died after only three or four years of rule but historians have thought that during the reign of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut may actually have been in power. Hatshepsut had had a daughter, named Neferure, but Thutmose II also had a son, named Asset. When Thutmose II died, Thutmose III was still too young to rule, and Hatshepsut began to reign, using the title â€Å"God’s Wife†. This was an issue Hatshepsut had to face as people doubted a woman as a leader but the popularity of her father and her own charismatic presence enabled her to become a full pharaoh seven years into the reign of Thutmose III. Hatshepsut achieved a lot, including expanding territory, broadening trade, building and restoring temples, and maintaining stable order in Egypt. Egyptologists believed that there were no wars in the time she ruled, although evidence is now growing to suggest that Hatshepsut did protect her country against others that were invading Egypt. She mostly focused her efforts on constructing buildings and making Egypt a stronger, wealthier nation through trade. Hatshepsut reestablished the trade networks after the invasion of the Hyksos (a group of mixed Semitic-Asiatics) and in the ninth year of her reign, Hatshepsut sent a number of ships on a trading expedition to the distant land of Punt, located in the South of Egypt. The Punt trade provided goods (such as frankincense, gold and myrrh) that were essential to Egypt’s economic development and Hatshepsut continued to promote these trips. Archeologists and historians have noted that these expeditions have been featured on the walls of Hatshepsut’s temples. These expeditions brought great wealth to Egypt and enabled Hatshepsut to initiate building projects. Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt, commissioning several projects throughout both Upper and Lower Egypt. Hatshepsut restored and renovated several old buildings that had been damaged or destroyed by invading armies before her reign. Hatshepsut had monuments constructed at the Temple of Karnak she also restored the original Precinct of Mut (a temple used to worship the goddess of Mut). Not only did she restore and renovate, but she also started several building programs, for example, she built the Temple of Pahket, which is an underground, cavernous shrine. She also built her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, which took 15 years to build is the most significant monument Hatshepsut has built. Egyptologists have assumed that Hatshepsut ruled a long, peaceful era but evidence is now growing to suggest that Hatshepsut was involved in warfare. The Deir el-Bahri mortuary temple provides us with fragments and inscriptions showing defensive military activity against the Ethiopians during Hatshepsuts reign. Hatshepsut was certainly prepared to fight to maintain the borders of her country and keep her country strong. In 1458 BC, when Thutmose III was due to rule, Hatshepsut disappeared with no evidence of how she died. Whether Thutmose III murdered her or not is not known. Hatshepsut’s tomb was destroyed and only her liver was found, preserved in a jar. It is likely that Thutmose III arranged for the removal of Hatshepsut’s name from all her constructions, but historians have found no accurate reasons of why Thutmose III did this. Hatshepsut showed to the world and her country that a woman was able to rule with great self-confidence and help bring wealth to their nation, her rise to the throne might have inspired others, such as Cleopatra. She would do anything for her country and was brave and charismatic. Hatshepsut left behind beautiful, sacred monuments promoting Egypt’s tourist industry and further more, bringing wonder to her country in the 21st century. Hatshepsut showed legacy to the world by taking charge and getting things done for the benefit of her country. She wasn’t one to stand around and rose to the throne with great confidence, showing her country that she was worthy to be a ruler. Hatshepsut left many monuments as her legacy, however, no construction work ordered by Hatshepsut is more remarkable or impressive than her mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri, which took 15 years to build was found several centuries after its completion, buried beneath hundreds of tons of sand. Although some monuments have been destroyed, she showed to the world that she was a great leader and was appreciated by the people of her country. She has been remembered long after her death not only because of her physical legacy (through her monuments and projects), but also her legacy of success, peace and strategic ideas. This has been led to several makings of documentaries about her, including The Secrets of Egypt’s Lost Queen, which was aired on the discovery channel a few books have been written about her, such as Her Majesty the King by Patricia L ONeill. Hatshepsut was a great leader in Ancient Egypt and she showed confidence bravery to her country, as well as showing to the world that a woman was able to rule with charisma and courage.

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector

Theories on Conflict

Theories on Conflict Introduction Conflicts today abound which demand explanation. Understanding the roots of conflict is especially true now given the rise of populism which catapulted controversial leaders like President Donald Trump of the United States and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, each of their own right riding onto the wave of either anti-immigration or anti-crime sentiment. Trump has sparked numerous protests due to his contentious Muslim travel ban (Thrush, 2017) while Duterte has earned international condemnation for the spate of extrajudicial killings arising from his all-out war on drugs and criminality (Al Jazeera, 2017). Each of these leaders claim to be resolving root causes of conflict in their respective countries Trump, restricting immigration in order to address the imminent security threat that the liberal immigration policies of erstwhile US administrations have posed, while Duterte, clamping down on the drug trade which he considers to be a top cause of underdevelopment and n ational degeneration. The theories on conflict discussed and learned over the course of three weeks helped me frame a deeper understanding as to why both Trump and Dutertes analysis may be critically attacked and in what instances, they are either correct or fall short. A school of theories under the systems theory consider how the roots of violence are all interconnected and are products of social, political and economic interactions. New emerging theories such as the human needs theory consider the deprivation of basic human needs to be a direct cause of conflict and suggest that addressing the same would eradicate conflict. Lastly, various social theories from Karl Marx to Franz Fanon provide me with lenses to be used in studying social disruption for these theories really enunciate what causes societal fractures and what can be done about it. This paper is a critical reflection of the following body of conflicts theories. Discussion of Conflict and Social Theories Systems Theory Simply stated, the systems theory considers conflict to be the whole of many problematic parts of society which are inextricably linked. Conflict therefore arises not due to individual or micro-level differences and contradictions but of a general system. Systems theories seek to understand conflict by looking at how several elements located in a social system interact with one another. Violence, according to systems theorists, should be viewed from the level of (1) individuals (2) dyads; (3) subsystems (family, community, religious groups and general society). Subsystems are organized in a manner which could either encourage or deter or regulate violence. Direct efforts at changing elements of the system will not prosper since the system will immediately provide a replacement for the missing element. Hence, ending violence, which is a systematic problem requires a coordinated and comprehensive approach. The general systems theory is useful in uncovering relationships and interaction s which contribute to violence from different levels. However, its weakness lies in the fact that it is a value-free theory which requires theoretical directions. Structural violence Structural violence, according to John Galtung, pertains to a form of violence arising from a social structure or institution which harms people by deliberately depriving them of capacity to satisfy their immediate human needs. This kind of violence does not take a physical form or image but consists of avoidable impairment of fundamental human needs (Galtung,ÂÂ   1969, p. 32). The notion of structural violence impels one to look for inequalities within social structures may it be inequalities in wealth, power, privilege, access and opportunity which breed injustice. In the same light, structural violence also compels one to look at the connections between what might be falsely considered as mutually exclusive worlds. In essence, the theory of structural violence as a way of addressing conflict encourages people to proceed with moral outrage and critical participation where previously our reflexive response would be passive acceptance of these inequalities. Institutionalized ra cism, classism and sexism are forms of structural violence which are usually considered as inherent characteristics of society. Galtung however encourages to look beyond these inequalities and to find connections in order to dismantle structures which permit these injustices. In my view, structural violence is a timely method of deconstructing conflict in todays world. For instance, the notion of viewing refugees as a potential source of conflict is a worldview tacitly accepted in global policy. Acceptance of refugees is viewed to potentially open the floodgates for terrorism, crime, and other degenerate activities that threaten national security. However, when viewed from perspective of structural violence, we can proceed to view the refugee crisis more critically and conclude that instead of treating refugees as potential threats, they should instead be viewed as people who deserve to be treated with dignity. Relative Deprivation Theory This theory assumes that social conflict arises due to peoples perceptions of inequality. When people perceive that there exists a disparity from what they deserve to enjoy from what they currently enjoy, they became discontented with their situation (Walker Pettigrew, 1984). The relative deprivation theory hypothesizes that conflict arises when the gap between two groups within a particular population is too wide, the possibility of rebellion becomes more likely. The assumption is that people are bound to perceive that they enjoy certain entitlements from society and when they are deprived of this while a number of other people belonging to the same population enjoy the same, dissent comes into being. Relative deprivation theory focuses on value expectations which need to be met within a certain society. Thus, when a society has a relatively high rate of economic inequality, the more likely it is that people will rebel. While the origin of the deprivation is economic, a state of po verty does not necessarily translate to violence. However, when individual expectations of poor people become transformed as a group identity, they become a political force that will not hesitate to use violence in order to combat their perceived discrimination. In other words, relative deprivation theory considers that violence stems from a persons judgment of his or her economic circumstances in the community. To a certain extent, an individuals subjective evaluation of his or her community status is essential to their conduct. Theory of cooperation The theory of cooperation proceeds from the notion that conflicts are generally characterized by cooperation and cooperation as twin motives. Deutsch (1949, 1985) formulated this theory in order to comprehend the conflict process better and how to come up with more effective conflict resolution methods. Deutschs primary thesis is that in order to resolve conflict, it is a key step to understand the nature of interdependence of both parties in conflict. Interdependence could be negative or positive. When the goals of both parties are negatively interdependent, a partys success automatically means the others failure. Upon the other hand, when the goals of both parties are positively interdependent, one partys success is correlated with the other partys success while one partys failure is also correlated with the other party failure. In the latter form of interdependence, cooperative relationships can be had in order to secure a win-win outcome for both parties to a conflict. Cooperative relationships are considered to demonstrate several positive features such as effective communication, openness, a friendly atmosphere and commitment to mutuality. In contrast, competitive relationships bring about the opposite results such as closed communication, lack of coordinated activities, an atmosphere of suspicion and a sense of domination. Based on Deutschs research, constructive conflict resolution is more linked to cooperative processes rather than competitive processes which he considered destructive. In order to foster cooperative relationships towards constructive conflict resolution, Deutsch likened it to friendly social relations. This is marked by empowering gestures and a reframing of attitudes. Thus, he recommends that both parties agree to commit to adherence to norms in the conduct of talks and negotiations. Among these norms include respect, honesty, responsiveness, forgiveness, and acknowledgment of responsibility. These values, due to their universal value and acceptance, can pose as common grounds for both parties to stand on. Emerging Conflict Theories: Human Needs Theory An emerging trend in conflict theory shifts the focus from the political economy to basic human needs. This perspective is anchored on the fact that human beings need to acquire essentials in order to live with dignity. Human needs theorists place the cause of conflict to unmet human needs. In this light, they argue that violence happens when certain groups or individuals are deprived of basic human needs (Burton, 1979). Theorists however have disagreed on what human needs means. In Burtons (1979) view, human needs that need to be addressed in the context of conflict go beyond the basic biological or subsistence needs. Instead, unmet needs related to social conflict include identifiy, recognition, security and development. As Burtons human needs theory progressed, he highlighted how existing state systems have miserably failed to provide a sense of identity thereby fueling ethno-linguistic separatist movements. If certain ethnic groups are deprived of their freedom to express their own national identities within the status quo, they will tend to establish parallel revolutionary systems in order to achieve the same. Burton provides as concrete examples the ethnic nationalist struggle in Kosovo in 1989 as well as various gang subcultures. Burton opined that human need theory can help explain conflict and pave the way for better conflict resolution because Rubenstein (2010) considers the human needs theory as providing a better explanation to social conflict compared to theories which focus only on the errors of a few manipulative leaders or institutions, as embodied in Samuel Huntingtons clash of civilizations theory. Echoing Burtons view, Rubenstein views the human needs theory to provide the study of conflict with a more objective basis which goes beyond local or cultural differences. The needs-based approach to understanding social conflict defies traditional notions of conflict and instead uses unsatisfied human needs as the independent variable to explain why elite dominance or cultural differences lead to conflict. However, Park (2010) critiqued Burtons positivist framework of needs theory and encouraged a more critical definition of needs to mean that there are needs that do not directly bear upon material sustenance like recognition and freedom from coercion that must also not be obstructed lest there be undesirable consequences (p. 1). Park took issue with Burtons reliance on the biological explanation for Needs Theory to support protection of rights and universal freedoms. Instead, she advocates for a psychoanalytic view to suggest that not needs are not universal. According to her, needs are essentially socially constructed. The needs which people pursue are socially engineered and they may even pursue false pleasures. In sum, Park considers with caution the use of the black box that is human needs. The definition of human needs is not simple but very complex and difficult to understand. Conflict from the Lens of Social Theory Equally relevant to the study of conflict is the development of social theory arising from social disruption. In Charles Lemerts (2016) book, multiple social theorists and their viewpoints on conflict are critically discussed. From the classical Great White Men theories arose alternative views on social relationships and social conflict which can be applied to the contemporary context. Among the most notable of these social theorists include of course, Karl Marx, publicly voted as the worlds greatest philosopher (BBC News, 2015). Marx wrote Das Kapital as well as the Manifesto together with Friedrich Engels at a time of extreme economic discontent. Marx focused on his critique of political economy which obscures the internal relationships of labor and capital and discussed a pivotal feature which is the workers alienation and estrangement. What is the most striking and palpable among these types of alienation is what fuels labor unrest: that of labor commodification and the reduction of the worker to a mere object. Simply stated, the more a worker produces out of his labour power, the cheaper he or she becomes as a commodity. Because the worker is paid at a fixed rate, more and more profit is being gained by the capitalist due to his work but unfortunately the worker does not earn additional wages for it. Marxist thought has gained traction especially with the cris is of global capitalism, environmental destruction, and global poverty. Until, his theory of class as the root cause of contradiction in society remains very relevant. However, many theorists developed a more expansive construction of his view on social classes. Max Weber, another classical theorist, came up with an alternative approach to the study of classes. For Marx, ones class is defined and determined by ones ownership of the means of production. Thus, Marx considered historical class antagonisms and identified these two groups in contemporary capitalist society as the proletariat and bourgeoisie. The contradictory relationship that the classes have pushes social development forward. Weber considers social groups and classes as determined through the distribution of power. Social stratification then, occurs through overlapping means and not only through economic differentiation. Other social theorists also focus on micro-level analysis to understand conflict. Sigmund Freud uses psychoanalytic theory to understand inner conflict among human beings. Freuds treatise laid down the anatomy of the self as made up of the interaction between three components dynamically interacting: the id, ego, and superego. All of these components of the self develop with socialization hence constructing the social self. Biology interacting with socialization shapes a human beings personality. When one of the three elements is allowed to dominate the other two, social problems may arise. Also developing Marxs theory of alienation, Horkheimer and Adorno criticized the use of cultural goods in order to project false consciousness. Cultural goods are appropriated into transforming humans as passive and docile objects of a system which was actually oppressing them. Aside from creating a false consciousness, they also suggested that popular culture is geared at creating false needs in order to engineer human beings into consuming in a massive scale. This cultural appropriation in turn heightens humans alienation and creates possible sources of conflict. The readings also tell us that social theories do not stay static. Even among key capitalist thinkers, there have been different approaches to address economic problems. For instance, John Maynard Keynes challenged the neoclassical economic paradigm advanced by Adam Smith and disciples which advocated for minimal to no government interference in favor of full-out control of the invisible hand of the market to attain equilibrium.ÂÂ   Instead, Keynes suggested implementing government regulation and intervention in order to arrest the economic recession. Social theories also help us understand racial conflict. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for an end to racial discrimination which he considered a ghastly reality America must face as a nation. In describing the horrendous social conditions which African Americans and other colored peoples are subjected to, King claimed that America had manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination which breed chronic poverty and injustice for certain segments of the population. Franz Fanon provides a stirring account of decolonization as a form of liberation. His work remains relevant especially in light of the fact that many of todays underdeveloped countries are former colonies of imperialist nations which have not completely been unshackled from their former masters economically, politically and culturally. It is only through liberation, which is necessarily violent that the colonized thing becomes fully a man. C. Wright Mills teaches the student to develop the sociological imagination which is a way of looking at themselves as the result of both biology and history and in always looking at the world through fresh eyes. One is challenged to go beyond looking at ones self as well and instead consider ones development as product of several processes occurring within a system. Conclusion Given the reality of global conflict today, conflict theories and social theories enable one to look at the phenomenon with renewed understanding and critical outlook. There are classical and alternative approaches of looking at conflict and conflict resolution processes. There are also classical and alternative ways of interpreting social conflict throughout history. Having a steady grasp of these theories assist the student thoroughly by providing him with several lenses to look at the problem and identify solutions. References Al Jazeera (2017). Thousands march against Dutertes war on drugs. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/thousands-march-duterte-war-drugs-170218034827033.html Deutsch, M. (1985). Distributive justice: A social psychological perspective. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6 (3), 167-191. Lemert, C. (2016). Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global and Classic Readings (6th ed.) Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Park, L. (2010). Opening the black box: reconsidering needs theory through psychoanalysis and critical theory. International Journal of Peace Studies. Retrieved from https://www.gmu.edu/programs/icar/ijps/vol15_1/PARK15n1-IJPS.pdf Rubenstein, R. E. (2010). Basic Human Needs: The Next Steps in Theory Development. The International Journal of Peace Studies, 6 (1), 51-58. Thrush, G. (2017). Trumps travel ban blocks migrant from six nations, sparing Iraq. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/travel-ban-muslim-trump.html?_r=0Deutsch, M. (1949). A theory of cooperation and competition. Human Relations, 2, 129-151.