On Henrik Ibsen’s Nora in a “Doll’s House” Essay

Henrik Ibsen displays the effect of society’s standard on an ideal family through the interesting characters in his play. Its story lingers on the loveless marriage of Nora and Torvald, and the lives of the supporting characters of the play as they portray society’s take on sexual prejudice and the role it plays on the family unit. Moreover, the story brings out a message that people are not always what they seem on the outside and on first encounters. In the Laws of Morality as presented by Ibsen, individuals had different dilemmas such that a character was developed and recognized in accordance to how he/she deals with it. An individual’s character is not inherited and thus, developed by personal endeavors or one’s own exertion. In today’s community, morality is typically focused on institutions rather than individuals; however the two are inextricably linked. Respect for an individual’s freedom and identity is necessary to sustain mental saneness which is more likely to protect individual freedoms. One such significant character in the play is the protagonist, Nora. Initially, she is introduced in the play as a somewhat childish and submissive wife of the Helmer household. Nora’s husband who constantly refers to her as his â€Å"little squirrel† (Ibsen) or â€Å"skylark† (Ibsen) is constantly implying and enforcing his views of a proper wife on her. This in turn makes the audience think that Nora is a highly dependent wife who relies on her husband’s approval. As the play progresses, Nora displays a rather courageous feat that she has hidden from her family. She had in the past associated with Krogstad on committing fraud to find finances needed in the rehabilitation of her husband’s poor health. To pay for the debts, she works secretly to ensure this. Nora is thrown into a traumatic chaos when Krogstad threatens to reveal their crime in exchange for a favor. She is further set off balance when her husband’s reaction turns out to be the complete opposite of what she hoped for. This circumstance makes her realize the disillusions she had of her marriage and that she has yet to find her true self as an independent being. Having lived an overly protected life under the care of her father and then her husband, she comes to understand that she is living not the life that she wants but of what they have imposed on her. The play ends with Nora leaving her family to embark on a mission to rediscover what she has truly wanted for herself all along. Psychological Effect Due to Unacceptance Nora is first seen as a person who is happy and contented to be the loyal wife and doting mother. While trying to meet the demands of what the society and her husband refers to a proper wife, she deliberately tries to rebel in small ways by lying to her husband about small matters such as eating sweets. Lying on such small things is seen to be psychologically disturbing for Nora, since all things she does seemed to be disapproved by her husband. She later realizes that she was never fully happy and contented living the life that others have arranged for her. Her personal foundation is being individually attached to the community having different cultures, beliefs and fashion preferences compared to hers such that, most of her decisions, likes and dislikes were greatly affected and influenced by the opinions and preferences of the community evolving around her. During the span of her marriage life, she wasn’t allowed and therefore feared to practice her true individual character. Though freedom is something an individual enjoys and is the absence of oppression, it should be practiced that where there is freedom, there is responsibility. This put her in a state of initially accepting her state of living, thus, accomplishing what the community around her believes as a rightful wife to Torvald. However, she discovers that she has been living a lie, hiding the other side of her true personality to the people who were supposed to be her family. Her husband, who she trusted to respond in her honor broke her trust and was more worried on how other people would see the family if they were to know of the crime that she has committed. Freedom is described as rights to personal security, personal expression, and political participation and it is in this respect, that Nora’s freedom of expression of was limited. The Doll in Distress Finding out that she has lost an important part of herself in an empty marriage is a distressing trauma that a lot of people like her deal with. She feels like she has lived an almost empty life as Torvald’s doll and that all her efforts for her husband to appreciate and understand her have proved to be useless. She had lived a life of a doll, where she does what she was told inside the doll house. The shelter that she once considered her home is such a doll house where there are to emotions living and even lingering inside her doll family. Given the traumatic experiences that she has experienced, there is a possibility that she will encounter depression. Moreover, these bouts of depression can lead to possible mental disorders like Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We have take note that when she decided to leave her husband, she surmised that their children were better off with their father and not with her. This already tells us that she has also lost her confidence as a good mother to her children. Due to her depressing state, she had taken of towards her freedom, leaving of the great responsibility of being a mother behind her. Such confidence of being a good mother was destroyed due to her situation, carrying her battered morale and vanishing self esteem with her. Leaving the Doll House As Nora breaks out and breaks free from the emotionless house, there is sense of strong will to be, putting a great effort of almost forgetting the family and life she had been attached to for years. In Ibsen’s plot, she placed Nora of having acquired a sense of free willingness by letting go a huge part of her life. In the last part of the play, Nora developed the free willingness to make a big step towards recognizing an emotion that is happening to her and being aware of its effect around her. Tuning in and being aware to her every emotion or feelings makes her manage them enabling her to be confident in her worth and capabilities. Being aware of her self makes her confidently use her abilities. Being aware of ones self and emotions makes her a free willed person. Henrick Ibsen finally ended the play with a display of triumph on Nora’s side, being able to show her true individuality despite of Torvald’s disapproval and concern of the reaction of the community around them, which is in great contrast of the true story where the husband had demanded for a divorce and Nora, who was mentally and emotionally agitated, had a nervous breakdown and confined in a mental institution. Conclusion For sheltered people like Nora, breaking out of their safe zone and embarking on a new environment is a terrifying endeavor. They are more vulnerable to fallbacks because being independent is something that they will have to learn for themselves for the first time on their own. Coping up with stress is harder when a person is unaided. Although she has displayed a great deal of courage by clearly defying the wishes of her husband and leaving altogether the household it is therefore inevitable an emotional pit. It is therefore important that although she has decided to leave the household to be independent, she should be in a place where close acquaintances are available for her emotional support system. In these day and age, support systems in the mental health department are already accessible. Compared to the olden days, it is no longer a taboo issue when one seeks a psychiatrist’s help to clear one’s mindset and consult professionals on how to healthily cope up with stress. People who had experiences like Nora then should not hesitate to consult these services if ever they feel that they need it. More importantly, it is essential that they surround themselves with people who know their plight and not isolate themselves. Individuals are important members of a community for a single community is a composition of different individuals. Being individuals of one community, we are now evolving in a community with different likes, dislikes, culture and tradition. The Helmer’s personal foundation is being individually attached to the community of the same cultures, beliefs and fashion preferences, thus, most of their decisions, likes and dislikes, their way of living were affected by the opinions and preferences of the community evolving around them. So even if an individual is a part of a community, there is a big difference between an individual and a member of a community. In a lonely Doll World, it is therefore important by having an awareness of using our abilities to bring optimum results by understanding others as an individual and try out for better ways rather than stereotyping. Works Cited Ibsen, Henrik. The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius. 29 March 2005. The Project Gutenberg. 14 April 2007

Target Costing

Robin Cooper and Regine Slagmulder Editors’ Note: This article is an updated synthesis of in-depth explorations contained in Target Costing and Value Engineering, by Robin Cooper and Regine Slagmulder (Portland, Oregon: Productivity Press, 1997). Part two of the series discusses product-level target costing; part three, to be featured in an upcoming issue, will address component-level target costing. omers. Consequently, the objective of product-level target costing is to increase the allowable cost of the product to a level that can reasonably be expected to be achievable, given the capabilities of the firm and its suppliers (see Exhibit 1). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY†¢ Product-level target costing works to increase the allowable cost of the product to a level that is both reasonable and achievable given the capabilities of the firm and its suppliers. Step one establishes the target cost by incorporating the capability of the firm and its suppliers into the allowable cost so that an achievable product-level target cost is established. †¢ Step two uses value engineering to identify ways to design the product so that it can be manufactured at its target cost. †¢ Step three applies the disciplining mechanisms to help ensure that the product-level target cost is achieved. The target costing process contains three major sections: market-driven costing, product-level target costing, and component-level target costing.In part two of a three part series, this article discusses how product-level target costing works to increase the allowable cost of the product to a level that is both reasonable and achievable given the capabilities of the firm and its suppliers, in a three step process. Step one establishes the target cost by incorporating the capability of the firm and its suppliers into the allowable cost so that an achievable product-level target cost is established.Step two uses value engineering to identify ways to design the product so that it can b e manufactured at its target cost. Step three applies the disciplining mechanisms to help ensure that the product-level target cost is achieved. PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COSTING The objective of product-level target costing is to establish aggressive but achievable product-level target costs. These target costs should place considerable pressure on the firm’s product engineers to find creative ways to reduce the manufacturing costs of the products that they are designing.Target costs differ from allowable costs, because they incorporate the capabilities of the firm and its suppliers into the target costing process. In practice, it is not always possible for the designers to find ways to achieve the allowable cost and still satisfy the firm’s cus1 Product-level target costing can be broken into three steps (see Exhibit 2). In the first step, the product-level target cost is established. This step consists of incorporating the capability of the firm and its suppliers into th e allowable cost so that an achievable product-level target cost is established.The second step consists of using value engineering (and other similar techniques) to identify ways to design the product so that it can be manufactured at its target cost. In the third step, the disciplining mechanisms of target costing are applied to help ensure that the product-level target cost is achieved. The disciplining mecha- Article 32. TARGET COSTING FOR NEW-PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COSTING thereof require that the firm must reduce costs if it is to maintain its desired level of profitability.The degree of cost reduction required to achieve the allowable cost is called the cost-reduction objective and is derived by subtracting the allowable cost from the current product cost: Cost-Reduction Objective = Current Cost–Allowable Cost The current cost is the cost of a new product if it were manufactured today using existing components or variants thereof. No cost-reduction a ctivities are assumed in computing the current cost of the product. For the current cost to be meaningful, the components used in its estimation must be very similar to those that eventually will be used in the new product.If the existing model uses a 1. 8-liter engine and the new model uses a 2. 0-liter one, for example, current cost would be estimated using the cost of the most similar 2. 0-liter engine currently produced by the firm. Because the allowable cost is derived from external conditions without consideration of the firm’s internal design and production capabilities, there is a risk that the allowable cost will not be achievable. In this case, to maintain the discipline of target costing, the firm must identify the achievable and unachievable parts of the cost-reduction objective.Analyzing the ability of the product designers and suppliers to remove costs from the product (see Exhibit 3) derives the achievable or target cost-reduction objective. The process by whic h costs are removed from the product is called value engineering, and it depends heavily on an interactive relationship with the suppliers. The purpose of this relationship is to allow the suppliers to provide early estimates of the selling prices of their products and, when possible, insights into alternative design possibilities that would enable the firm to deliver the desired level of functionality and quality at reduced cost.The unachievable part of the cost-reduction objective (referred to in Exhibit 2) is called the strategic cost-reduction challenge. It identifies the profit shortfall that will occur when the designers are unable to achieve the allowable cost—a signal that the firm falls short of the capabilities demanded by competitive conditions. Typically, in a firm with a well-established target costing system, the strategic cost-reduction challenge will be small or nonexistent, and intense pressure will be brought on the design team to reduce it to zero.For the m ost capable firms, the achievable cost reduction for a product might exceed the cost-reduction objective. Such firms do not face a strategic cost-reduction challenge. They can take advantage of their superior capabilities by reducing the selling price of the product to increase market share, by increasing product functionality while maintaining the targeted selling price, or by keeping both price and functionality at their targeted levels to earn higher profits. To maintain the discipline of target costing, the size of the strategic cost-reduction challenge must be managed carefully.A strategic cost-reduction challenge should reflect the true inability of the firm to match competitor capabilities. To ensure that the strategic cost-reduction challenge meets this requirement, the target cost-reduction objective must be set so that it is 2 nisms include progress monitoring and validation and the application of the cardinal rule of target costing: products whose manufacturing costs are above their target costs should not be launched. The monitoring and validation process helps ensure that the savings identified through value engineering are actually achieved.The application of the cardinal rule ensures that the discipline of target costing is maintained. When designers know that target cost violations lead to serious consequences, they are subjected to a real pressure to achieve the target costs. SETTING THE PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COST In highly competitive markets, customers expect each generation of products to have higher value than that of their predecessors. Value can be increased by improving the quality or functionality of the firm’s products or by reducing their selling prices. Any of these improvements or some combinationANNUAL EDITIONS cost-reduction challenge, which creates a powerful pressure on the design team of the next generation of the product to be even more aggressive about cost reduction. In this way, the failure to achieve the allowable c ost this time around is turned into a challenge for the future, not a permanent defeat. Second, allowable cost avoids weakening the cardinal rule, which applies only to target costs, not allowable costs. The process by which the strategic cost-reduction challenge is established must be highly disciplined.Otherwise it becomes a mechanism to reduce the effectiveness of target costing by setting target costs that are too easy to achieve. In most firms, top management approves the strategic cost-reduction challenge before the product-level target cost can be set. Technically, the target cost of a product is the target selling price less the target profit margin plus the strategic cost-reduction challenge. Many firms blur the distinction between the allowable cost and the target cost, however, by stating that the target cost is determined by subtracting the target profit margin from the target selling price.This simplification makes it easier for people to understand the spirit of target costing as being price driven. Obviously, if the strategic cost-reduction challenge is zero, the allowable and target costs are identical. At some firms, even when the allowable cost is considered achievable, it is not referred to as a target cost until the process has reached the stage at which the major component target costs are established. The retention of the term â€Å"allowable costs† shows that top management is not willing to invoke the cardinal rule until it is convinced that the target cost is indeed achievable. chievable only if the entire organization makes a significant effort to reach it. Consistently setting the target cost-reduction objective too high can lead to workforce burnout and, ultimately, the discipline of target costing will be lost. Conversely, if the target cost-reduction objective is consistently set too low, the firm will lose competitiveness, because new products will have excessively high target costs. Again referring to Exhibit 2, the produ ct-level target cost is determined by subtracting the proposed product target costreduction objective from its current cost.That is: Product-Level Target Cost = Current Cost–Target Cost-Reduction Objective The strategic cost-reduction challenge is determined by subtracting the allowable cost from the target cost: Strategic Cost-Reduction Challenge = Target Cost –Allowable Cost The value of differentiating between the allowable cost and the target cost in this manner lies in the discipline that it creates. In most firms, the allowable cost will sometimes be too low to achieve, given the relative capabilities of the firm and its suppliers compared to competitors and their suppliers.Target costing systems derive their strength from the application of the cardinal rule, â€Å"The target cost must never be exceeded. † If a firm continuously sets over-aggressive target costs, violations of the cardinal rule would be common and the discipline of the target costing proc ess would be lost. Even worse, if the allowable cost is known to be unachievable, the design team might give up even trying to achieve it, and effective cost reduction during product design would cease. To avoid this motivation problem, firms frequently set target costs higher than the allowable costs.These target costs are designed to be achievable but only with considerable effort. They allow the cardinal rule to be maintained for almost every product. Consequently, the distinction between allowable and productlevel target costs plays two roles. First, it identifies the strategic 3 ACHIEVING THE PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COST Once planners have identified the target cost-reduction objective, the second stage of product-level target costing begins— achieving it (see Exhibit 4). Several engineering techniques can help product designers find ways to reduce the costs of products.They include value engineering, design for manufacture and assembly, and quality function deployment. Val ue engineering, the most important of the three techniques, has the primary objective of maximizing customer value—it tries to increase functionality and quality while at the same time reducing cost. In contrast, DFMA focuses on reducing costs by making products easier to assemble or manufacture, while holding functionality at specified levels. Finally, QFD provides a structured approach to ensure that customer requirements are not compromised during the design process.Target costing and value engineering can be viewed as concurrent activities, as can kaizen costing and VA. The application of value engineering begins with the conceptualization of the product and continues through the design process until the product is released to manufacturing. Even then the process continues, but under the name value analysis (VA). Article 32. TARGET COSTING FOR NEW-PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COSTING The difference between VA and VE is not in the approach taken or the tools u sed but the point at which they occur in the life cycle of the product.VE is used during the product design and development stages, and VA is used for the manufacturing stage and for purchasing parts. For this reason, target costing and value engineering can be viewed as concurrent activities, as can kaizen costing and VA. It would be wrong to view VE as just another cost-reduction program. VE is primarily about product functions and only secondarily about cost. The motivating force behind VE is to ensure that the product achieves its basic function in a way that satisfies the customer at an acceptable cost.Consequently, VE programs are the domain of the product engineer, not the accountant. bility of the existing functions. Second-look VE is applied during the last half of the planning stage and the first half of the development and product preparation stage. The objective of second-look VE, unlike that of zero- and first-look VE, is to improve the value and functionality of existi ng components, not create new ones. Consequently, the scale of changes is much smaller than for zero- and first-look VE. Comparative applications of VE consist of tearing down other products to identify new ways to reduce costs.We define tear down as â€Å"a comparative VE method through visual observation of disassembled equipment, parts, and data arranged in a manner convenient for such observation. † Numerous approaches to tear down exist. The six dominant techniques are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Dynamic. Cost. Material. Static. Process. Matrix tear down. VE Techniques The VE techniques can be broken into three major categories: 1. Direct application of VE principles to the product. 2. Tear down approaches using comparative VE. 3. Miscellaneous VE. VE can be applied directly to proposed products at different stages of the product design process.These different approaches are known as â€Å"looks. † Zero-look VE is the application of VE principles at the concept proposal st age, the earliest stage in the design process. Its objective is to introduce new forms of functionality that did not previously exist. First-look VE focuses on the major elements of the product design and is defined as developing new products from concepts. The objective is to enhance functionality of the product by improving the capa4 The first three methods are designed to reduce a product’s direct manufacturing costs.The next three are intended to reduce the investment required to manufacture the product through increased productivity. There are at least four miscellaneous cost-reduction techniques: 1. 2. 3. 4. The checklist method. The one-day cost-reduction meeting. Mini VE. The VE reliability program. ANNUAL EDITIONS Checklists The checklist method is used to identify a product’s cost factors and to suggest ways to reduce costs. The checklist consists of a number of questions designed to guide the firm’s cost-reduction activities by discovering cost-reduct ion opportunities.Checklists help ensure exploration of all possible avenues for cost reduction. One-day cost-reduction meetings are designed to improve the efficiency of the entire cost-reduction process, including VE and tear down methods. Participants from engineering, production, cost, and sales are expected to come up with ideas for new costreduction possibilities. The meetings are a way to overcome limitations in the approval process used for most cost-reduction proposals. The approval process entails circulating written proposals to all involved parties, who indicate acceptance by signing off on them.Unfortunately, this approach severely reduces the exchange of information and modification of ideas. At the oneday meetings, presentation of the results of various tear-down programs helps initiate discussions. production/sales-preparation stage, and the production/salespreparation stage. DISCIPLINING THE PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COSTING PROCESS Disciplining the product-level target costing process begins with monitoring and validating the progress of the design engineers toward reaching the cost-reduction objective.It is at this stage in the process that the cardinal rule of target costing is applied. Only when getting the product to market is so imperative that cost is of secondary consideration should the cardinal rule be violated. Finally, when the product is released for mass production and its actual cost of manufacturing can be measured, steps sometimes have to be taken to reduce those costs to the target level. Once the target cost-reduction objective has been established, the process of designing the product so that it can be manufactured at its target cost can commence.The discipline of target costing requires that the chief engineer and his or her superiors continuously monitor and validate that the progress the design engineers are making toward this objective. This monitoring ensures that corrective actions can be taken as easily as possible and th at the cardinal rule will not be broken. Some firms define an as-if cost at this point in the development process. The as-if cost reflects cost-reduction opportunities identified when the previous generation of the product was being designed or manufactured. In most cases, the as-if cost is above the target cost of the new product but below its current cost.The additional cost that must be achieved is defined as the difference between the target cost and as-if cost. As the design process proceeds and costs are removed from the major functions, the estimated manufacturing cost gradually 5 Mini VE and VE Reliability Mini VE is a simplified approach to second-look VE. It is applied to specific areas of a part or to very small, inexpensive parts. Mini VE is applied during the development and product preparation stages, the development and production-sales preparation stage, and the production-sales preparation stage.A VE reliability program is designed to ensure that the most appropriat e form of VE is applied to each problem. Essentially, it is a â€Å"quality of VE† program. If a completely new product design is required, for example, applying second-look VE is not appropriate. Like mini VE, the program is applied during the development and product-preparation stages, the development and Article 32. TARGET COSTING FOR NEW-PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: PRODUCT-LEVEL TARGET COSTING falls toward the target cost. Many firms call the updated estimate the drifting cost (see Exhibit 5).Thus, the product design process starts with an as-if cost higher than the target cost and across the design process reduces the expected or drifting cost until it reaches the target cost. At most firms, once the drifting cost equals the target cost, cost-reduction activities cease. There is no reward for achieving greater savings than those required to achieve the target cost. The engineers’ time is better spent on getting the drifting cost of other products to equal their target co sts. estrictive, because the product under review causes additional revenues to be generated beyond those generated by the product itself. Such products include flagship products that create high visibility for the firm, products that introduce the next generation of technology, or products that fill a critical gap in the product line. For such products, the target cost is often relaxed to allow for the â€Å"hidden† revenues. However typically, cost reduction pressures are still applied during the early stages of manufacturing until the target cost is achieved.For the products that feature a variety of options, the final fine-tuning of the target cost is often achieved by specifying the features that the standard product will contain. If the manufacturing cost is too high, for example, one or more â€Å"standard† features might be converted to â€Å"options† that the customer now has to pay an additional amount to obtain. Converting features to options both red uces the cost of manufacturing the standard product, allowing the target cost to be achieved, and increases the selling price of the originally specified product, allowing the target profit to be achieved.Obviously, the reduction in the functionality of the standard variant must be subjected to market analysis to ensure that it is acceptable in the eyes of the customer at the target selling price. An example might include the conversion of side air bags from a standard feature to an optional one. This reduction in functionality will be acceptable only if competitive offerings treat side air bags in the same way. This fine-tuning process gives firms more leeway to achieve target costs set several years earlier. Similarly, the actual selling price is not fixed until just before the product is launched.Delaying these two critical decisions significantly reduces the uncertainty that a firm, in a multiyear product development process, faces with respect to achieving target costs. At most firms, once the drifting cost equals the target cost, cost-reduction activities cease. The process of comparing the drifting cost to the target cost continues throughout the design process. Often when the product is ready to be released to production, for example, planners undertake a final review of the feasibility of the target cost.If the estimated production cost is too high, the design is subjected to additional analysis. Frequently, relatively minor changes in the product’s design are all that is needed to reduce the cost estimate to the target cost level. As long as these changes do not alter the product’s price point, the product’s functionality is reduced and the product is submitted for approval. If the design changes will reduce the price point, the product is typically returned to the research and development group for design.The cardinal rule of target costing plays an important role in maintaining the discipline of target costing. Great care is ta ken to ensure that the sum of the component target costs does not exceed the target cost of the product. Often, an increase in the cost of one component causes the engineers to explore ways to reduce the costs of other components by an equivalent amount. In addition, to help ensure enforcement of the cardinal rule, most firms have a policy against launching unprofitable or sub-profitable products.When the product design phase is over, the product moves to manufacturing. As part of this transition phase, the target cost is compared to the standard cost of production. If the standard cost is higher, usually the firm takes steps to reduce manufacturing costs to the target level. Often, if the standard cost is at or below the target cost, the design of the product is frozen for the rest of its life, and no further actions, other than general kaizen, are taken to reduce the cost of the new product.As with any rule, the cardinal rule occasionally is broken. It is violated when a broader a nalysis indicates that breaking it will be beneficial for the firm. Target costing, by its nature, takes a single-product orientation. Sometimes, this view is too NEXT STEPS One of the key constituents of the product-level target cost is the target costs of all of the outsourced components. These costs are the focus of the next step in the target costing process, component-level target costing.It is in this portion of the target costing process that the discipline of target costing is extended to the supplier base of the firm. Journal of Cost Management board member ROBIN COOPER is a professor in the practice of cost management at Roberto C. Goizueta Business School at Emory University and can be reached at (404) 7276679. REGINE SLAGMULDER is associate professor of accounting and control at INSEAD France. She can be reached at regine. slagmulder @insead. edu. From Journal of Cost Management, July/August 2002, pp. 5-12.  © 2002 by the Journal of Cost Management. 6

Organizational Behavior Critical Thinking Essay

I have chosen three theories to address the problem. The first theory is Schwartz’s Value Theory. According to the theory, everyone has each own set of personal values and the attainment of these personal values is crucial. Conflict of values or failure in attaining them might lead to employees’ turnover. From the article, the senior staffs claimed that the bonuses they received were below average. I infer that some of the staffs’ personal values were not attained, which in this case possibly power and achievement. Their personal values might also have conflicted with the company’s values, which lead to their departure. Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory is also applicable in addressing this issue. According to the theory, there are some factors those lead to both work â€Å"satisfaction† (motivators) and â€Å"dissatisfaction† (hygiene). The absence of recognition which is one of the motivators leads to no satisfaction and the presen ce of hygiene factors such as poor salary and violation of company’s policies such as not paying bonuses that the executives deserved might lead to â€Å"dissatisfaction†. This  presence of â€Å"dissatisfaction† might be the major reason for the staffs to quit. Lastly, according to The Three-Component Model of Organizational Commitment there are three types of commitment that create a binding force, those may reduce the high turnover. They are namely Normative, Continuance and Affective commitment. Affective commitment is mainly influenced by personal characteristics and values and is closely related to the Schwartz’s Value Theory. This commitment also takes into consideration work experience, which might support the executives’ decision to quit. Violation of psychological contract is a factor that may cause Normative commitment to be ruptured. UBS has failed to meet the expectation of some of their executive and this can be seen as hygiene factors according to Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory which leads to â€Å"dissatisfaction†. The model, so far, has covered the other two theories. Adding on to that, this model also includes the possibility of external factors that might lead someone to leave a company. In this case, availability of job alternatives in other companies, which compromise their Continuance commitments, might be another force that encouraged executives to leave their positions in the company. Therefore, I conclude that this model, in comparison with the others, is the most appropriate model to address the problem of high turnover in UBS as it covers more possibilities and gives us a more complete view of why the senior staffs may have left the company. UBS is very sensitive to the performance of the world’s economy as it runs in the area of financial service. Poor global economic performance or recession is a major factor that influences the problem of high turnover faced by UBS. Most of the decisions must be made carefully by the company as it involves very high risk level. Through these decisions, UBS has to maintain or even improve the job satisfaction level of its employee and at the same time, continue to give excellent performance. Wrong decisions might cause UBS to lose its employees even its key executives. In the time of financial crisis, it is more difficult for UBS to maintain both its employees’ job satisfaction and also its performance. This depends largely on the company’s policy and also the decisions made by the company. For instance, in Wall Street Meltdown in 2008 UBS made a US$32 billion loss and its stock value plunged by almost 70% (Gross, 2008). One of the decisions that the company made was to fire 8900 employees worldwide (â€Å"Ubs lay off,† 2008). The increased in the regulation  of financial industry such as tax on financial may also affect the performance of UBS negatively. Financial Analysts predicted that this increase in regulation will reduce the size of the industry (Adams, 2011) and this leaves UBS with no other option than cutting off the number of its employees. This decision made might negatively impact the rest of the employees as they would feel insecure in their positions. This factor can also be seen as one of the hygiene factors which lead to â€Å"dissatisfaction† and this result in the high turnover. Apart from that, the competitive nature of the industry itself intensifies the challenge faced by UBS. Due to lower bonuses that it paid to its executive in comparison to the rival companies might encourage the executives to switch company. For example, Edward Cook who has worked for UBS for 28 years decided to join Morgan Stanley very recently (Philbin, 2011) and Suneel Kamlani, who has worked for 21 years in UBS, decided to join RBS just last year (Muà ±oz, 2010). This shows that it is definitely a challenge for UBS to elicit higher levels of commitment of its employees and executives. Availability of position and better payment offered by rival companies will test the loyalty of the UBS’s employees. Hence, the high competition among banks also induces the high turnover in UBS. To reduce turnover, managers should cultivate the company’s value in the employees. This will reduce Individual-Organizational value conflict and it can be done through training sharing of the company’s vision. Managers also have to respect the psychological contract and should propose more-defined policies to company as it may reduce job dissatisfaction. In time of crisis, company may also maintain the Continuance Commitment of the employees by paying the bonuses by using the company’s share. However, all of the solutions I proposed may not be successful as they do not take into account the other external factors and the success also depends on the personal characteristics of the employees. References Shehan, Tom, S. ,. T. (n.d.). How to retain employees: a high turnover rate is costly in both direct and indirect costs. . Retrieved from http://www.allbusiness.com/management/447495-1.html Gross, D. (2008, July 07). Phil gramm’s ubs problem. http://www.slate.com/id/2194933/ Ubs lay off job cut: may fire 1900 employees. (2008, October 01). Retrieved from http://www.finance-trading-times.com/2008/10/ubs-lay-off-job-cut-may-fire-1900.html Adams, B. (2011, August 30). The big layoff: struggling financial giant fires thousands of employees. Retrieved from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/the-big-layoff-struggling-financial-giant-fires-thousands-of-employees/ Philbin, B. (2011, September 14). Street moves: morgan stanley hires rbc, ubs financial advisers. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110914-711796.html Muà ±oz, S. S. (2010, April 12). Rbs hires key executive from ubs. Retrieved from http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2010-04-12/rbs-hires-kamlani-executive-ubs

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