Everyday Healthcare Ethics Stress and Ethical Issues in Nursing Essay

The nursing is a fundamental sector in the provision of proper healthcare services to the individuals and the society as a whole. The importance of the sector is emphasized as it has a bearing on the health status of the economy. The state of health of the people forming part of the society today is of the essence. Improper health of individual workers affects the output of the workers negatively as they cannot effectively attend to their obligations at work. It results into a nation-wide loss of revenue. A healthy economy thrives in all the sectors as the workers are in a position to effectively deliver in their workplaces. A healthy economy earns good revenues. The inclusion of the issue of economic issues of the nation in the topic of health is of great magnitude. It shows the weight that the issue of healthcare has on the economic progress of the contemporary economy. The topic of nursing is one that cannot be avoided if the fate of the economy is to be established. The health se ctor in the contemporary society faces several ethical issues in the nursing sector (Baillie, 2013). A major aspect of the ethical issues that are subject to heated debates is the stress factor at the workplace. Critics postulate that the sector contains a large group of nurses who are burdened by stress. It is dreaded that the continuous contact of the nurses with stressful conditions can negatively impact on their delivery in the job set-up (Baillie, 2013). The extent to which stress affects service delivery in the health sector has not been established, and it attracts substantial attention in research. The stress that the paper capitalizes on is the stress that a nurse worker is exposed to in and off the workplace. It is noted that stress can lead to the sprouting of other ethical challenges (Baillie, 2013). The paper capitalizes on the various ethical challenges exhibited in the nursing profession. It discusses the possible effects of the ethical challenges, causation factors and their relation to stress as a major ethical issue in the provision of  healthcare services. The recommends the latest remedies that can be employed to minimize stress. Forms of ethical challenges and causes of stress in the nursing industry Nurses encounter challenges and dilemmas in circumstances that they cannot get the opportunity to undertake what they think is right (Luhanga et al., 2010). Such circumstances require steady thinking and making of substantial resolutions that can work. The urge of the nurses to be good professionals intensifies the need to meditate on a given situation clouded by dilemma. The circumstances that present the nurse with a tough question to answer often trigger the development of stress within the worker. The stress is experienced at the very stage of making a decision on a given critical issue and also after the decision is made in response to the tough situation. The nurses, therefore, experience a great extent of moral distress. The event of the experience triggers varied reactions in different nurses. Some of the nurses have the courage to speak out their minds while some lack such courage and they go around hiding their problems. Burden of Witnessing an Ailing Patient The forms of ethical challenges such as stress could be drawn based on the causation factor. There is a burden of witnessing the ailing of the patients in their hospital beds. There are many patients who suffer for a longtime in the hospitals and their conditions keep worsening to the point of death. Such scenarios affect the nurses who provide healthcare services if they are constantly exposed to the similar circumstances. The work of a nurse is to relieve the suffering of the patient. The complex intervention that are resorted to, often lead to more suffering of the patients. The nurses are, therefore, torn between effecting the remedy and letting the patient remain in the state of mild suffering. The thought of being unable to contain the situation when there is an available option that can be exploited poses a great challenge to the nurses. The mental burden of bearing the suffering in their minds for such long durations may affect their service delivery if a remedy is not effect ed swiftly (Luhanga et al., 2010) Ignorance of the Family Members of the Patient The ethical challenges obviously had to do with watching the patients suffer: a suffering that the nurses deem to be unnecessary. It is understandable that the available nursing interventions that may be effected may serve to increase the suffering of the patient without causing an outcome for improvement. The other form of challenge that nurses experience could be the stress caused by the ignorance of the family of the patient and the patients about the available treatment options that can be exploited in a given scenario. They do not know the clinical prognosis of the treatment option that is available and the family of the patient do not stop at establishing whether the voice of the patient is taken care of in most situations (Tully, 2014). The family members of the patient often press on the administration of treatments without the knowledge of the resulting repercussions of the said treatment to the patient. They also criticize and influence the decision that is made by the patient on the appropriate treatment to be administered. The indulgence of the external parties in matters of the patient’s medication or treatment stresses-up nurses and other medics too (Tully, 2014). The stress often comes up when they are forced to administer treatments based on past successful occasion on a patient with a different diagnosis. The problem also comes in after the controversial treatment is effected, and the effects appear to be detrimental to the patient. The latter scenarios are often characterized by fierce criticism of the nurse who participated in administering the treatment. The professionalism of the participating nurse is usually questioned and in some cases the nurse can even end up in a court of law. Such cases are major instances that causes mental stress and shapes the origins or forms in which the said ethical challenges arise in the course of provision of healthcare services. Co nflict of Interest Offering care to the patients presents another form through which stress emerges in the nursing profession. It is the kind of ethical challenge that emanates from a conflict between the interest of the organisation and interest of the individual nurses (Tully, 2014). The health providers including private clinics, public hospitals and other health institutions have their rules that they often regard as ethical. The health providers often strive to push for actions that serve their best interests in the  industry of health service. The most prominent organisation that have strict rules are the private entities. The issue of conflict here is usually the payment modalities. It is known that the economic capabilities of patients differ and the methods of making medical payments cannot be the same for all the patients. The rules of the medical institutions provide that payments should be made promptly to the institution for any service that is provided to the patient. Some patients ofte n have no ready cash owing to their economic circumstances and the high cost of medical healthcare. Organisation often insists that payments are to be made immediately before the commencement of treatment even in conditions where the patient is in critical conditions (Ulrich, 2010). The nurses are the intermediaries between the management and the patients. Therefore, they are the people entitled to further or to carry out the interest of the organisation. They often face the challenge of serving the organisation or providing services to the patient to save a life. The challenge exists in trying to strike a balance between being loyal to the employer and saving the life of an innocent patient in a critical condition. Seeing an innocent and helpless patient die in the event of serving the interest of the employer could be so stressful in real life. As much as money is needed to take care of the medical expenses of the medical provider, the interest of the patient of lower economic status must also be regarded to ensure that the nurses do not suffer from the challenge of divided interest (Ulrich, 2010). The work environment The contemporary society presents various complications in the field Medicare. The complications are witnessed in the structure of the organisation and in the communication channels that are used in the medical institution (Seedhouse, 2013). The structure of the leadership in a medical institution and the mode of communication can serve to frustrate the nurses in the workplace. Several nurses report difficulties in communication and instances of workplace bullying. The elements mentioned are part of serious work environment ethical concerns in the contemporary society. The present hierarchy of work structure in the management is designed in a manner that does not encourage communication among workers. Most organisation exhibit tall leadership structures. Tall leadership structures contribute to the  discouraging of vertical communication among the workers in a medical institution. The junior employees are placed in a circumstance where they can hardly initiate or communicate to the senior employees about any ethical issue that may arise. Nurses are the employees who are ranked at the lower topology of the leadership organogram just after the subordinate staff. Their placement does not allow them effectively to pass ethical issue to their bosses (Seedhouse, 2013). Stress comes in when the ethical issues such as gender violence at work, bullying at the workplace or any other related mistreatment issues cannot be passed to higher authorities for deliberation. The condition presents a scenario where several issue build-up beyond the control of the employee. The build-up of issues in the minds of the nurses causes them to be stressed up in their workplaces, and this has a negative influence on the quality of the services delivered. Understaffing The other issue causing stress is the issue of staffing. The society today is characterized by increased levels of ailments and various diseases that come up every day. The presence of chronic diseases, as well as, the occurrence of several accidents presents a scenario where the number of the patients in the health facilities increase tremendously. The increase in the number of patients causes the necessity for an increase in the numbers of nurses who can promptly attend to the patients. Despite the large increase, the nurse to patient ratio has not been any better (Maynard, 2011). The nurses are therefore overloaded with work in their work environments. Their bosses exert much pressure on them to deliver as per the job description that they signed. The process of striking a balance in attending to many patients is quite stressful and can cause them to deliver poor services to the patients. The nurses are, therefore, forced to dodge certain duties that are assigned to them in genuine terms. Some of the nurses suffer emotional disturbance in instances where they genuinely neglect a duty due to the fact that they were held up in delivering services to the other patients. Understaffing, therefore, causes stress to the nurses through the creating of a hectic working environment that is over-demanding to the nurses (Maynard, 2011). Prioritization of the Patients’ Needs The patients in the health care institutions do not only have health  problems, but they also have emotional disorders. The emotional needs of the patients also deserve to be addressed promptly as they also affect the healing process of the patients. The nurses are individuals specialized in the provision of Medicare services to the patients. They are not adequately trained to address the emotional needs of the patients. At times, situations that demand the addressing of an emotional condition of the patient arises and this calls for the attention of the nurses. Being that the nurses are not well trained in the field and that they have other health duties to attend to, they are often faced with the challenge of taking up the duty to provide emotional support to the respective patient (Mark, 2012). If they decide to avoid attending to the emotional duty, they may feel that they are not doing any good to the patients who do not receive optimal healthcare. They also feel that the family of the patient may give a negative feedback on their performances in the occasion that they did not get full support. Their attention is divided in prioritizing the nature of the duty to indulge in when such cases arise. The event can cause emotional distress and mental stress to the nurses, hence leading to the causation of other opportunistic ethical nursing problems. Advanced Technology in Healthcare Provision Technology used in the delivery of healthcare services are becoming more complicated with time. Almost all the tasks in the health institution are performed with the aid of a machine (Maynard, 2011). The nurses are, therefore, placed in a condition where they have no other easy alternative, but to learn how to use the technology. The patients under treatment at times could be more knowledgeable on the respective technologies that the nurse. The resulting situation can possible cause a challenge to the nurse as he will not be comfortable in the process of using the technology on such a patient. The nurses are, therefore, entitled to keep updating themselves on the new technology that is used in the field of healthcare provision. The process of maintaining a regular update on the use of the current technology could cause much stress to the nurses (Ulrich et al., 2010). Nurses are stressed when they cannot balance between learning new tricks at work and providing healthcare services eff ectively. Recommendation for Reduction of Stress The elements that cause stress to the nurses in the health organisations deserve to be addressed promptly. It is because stress as an ethical issue causes impacts that stretch to very many fields and varied stakeholders at play. Stress affects the delivery of the nurses in the health sector. The section provides remedies that should be considered in ensuring that the aspects that cause stress in the workplace are negated. The recommendation will also guide in the proper management of the stress whenever it is contracted by the nurses. The recommendations below are specifically tailored for containing the stress condition for the nurses. Research shows that a scheduled course of guided coaching in mindfulness deliberation or mediation practices, facilitated group discussion, yoga and stretching, home assignments and work, and individually tailored support and instruction can serve to minimize the effects of stress in a nurse (Ulrich et al., 2010). The remedy is justified from a demonstration in a research work that was carried out. The overall health and well-being of the nurses who participated in the demonstration was surveyed at three points namely 2 weeks prior to research, immediately after the program, and four months following the program. Results displayed statistical improvement in the wellness and overall health of the nurses at each point of intervention (Clark, 2010). The program can be recommended for use by the nurses. Stress prevention can be initiated through the initiation of measures that prevent the occurrence of other ethical issues as stress is indirectly connected to them (Opie et al., 2013). Mo st of the ethical issues cause stress and, therefore, their prevention results into minimization of the occurrence of stress among medical nurses. The administration of the health institutions should look for ways that encourage the realization of community obligation to the patient, with partnership in answering questions and conversing about ethical issues. It helps the families and the community at large to understand the circumstances under which the nurses undertake their obligation (Hussain, 2009). It will save the nurses from receiving intensive criticism when a given treatment responds negatively, hence the nurse concerned will be less stressed. The administration should ensure that the nurses are trained to provide emotional support to the patients who need such services to avoid the development of the feeling that shoddy work  has been done. Nurses should reflect on how they can manage to complete obligations. Nurses should call on their team members, for instance to help them balance between talking and tasks with a patient who is dismayed (Clark, 2010). As nurses develop and advance in experience, they become bett er. Relevant training must be done to the nurses on the usage of technology in the delivery of health services to clients so as to avoid embarrassing situations. The nurses can advocates for the availability of adequate staffing that is suitable for the patient population (Clark, 2010). They should also know how to resolve issues when there is inadequate staffing Conclusion The development in the contemporary society presents complications in various sectors. Health sector is not an exception. Many ethical issues that cause stress are seen to arise in the healthcare sector. The ethical issue arises from the unfavorable work environments of the workers, poor leadership structures, and lack of effective communication among workers, understaffing, and ignorance of the community among others. The effective implementation of the recommendation will serve to restore sanity in nursing as they will aid in preventing ethical conditions that cause stress to the nurses. As a result, the provision of healthcare services by the nurses will be improved to adequate levels. References Baillie, H. W. (2013). Health care ethics (6th Ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. Clark, A. C. (2010). Anxiety and Stress Management Toolkit Anxiety and Stress Management Toolkit. Nursing Standard, 15(52), 29-29. Hussain, F. (2009). Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees (review). Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 20(3), 929-930. Luhanga, F., Myrick, F., & Yonge, O. (2010). The Preceptorship Experience: An Examination of Ethical and Accountability Issues. Journal of Professional Nursing, 26(5), 264-271. Mark, F. (2012). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Nursing. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 37(4), 179. Maynard, A. (2011). Ethics and health care ‘underfunding’. Journal of Medical Ethics, 27(4), 223-227. Opie, T., Dollard, M., Lenthall, S., & Knight, S. (2013). Occupational Stress in Remote Area Nursing: Development of the Remote Area Nursing Stress Scale (RANSS). Journal of Nursing Measurement, 21(2), 246-263. Seedhouse, D. (2013). What is the difference between health care ethics, medical ethics and nursing ethics? Health Care Analysis, 5(4), 267-274. Tully, A. (2014). Stress, sources of stress and ways of coping among psychiatric nursing students. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11(1), 43-47. Ulrich, C. M., Taylor, C., Soeken, K., O. Donnell, P., Farrar, A., Danis, M., et al. (2010). Everyday Ethics: Ethical Issues and Stress in Nursing Practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(11), 2510-2519.

Ethical Perspective on Assisted Suicide Essay

Moral and ethical debates attempted to resolves controversial issues but never seem to end with everyone agreeing. Often these ethical and moral debates are complex and involve opinions persuaded by religion or customs and have legal implications to consider. Physician assisted death is one of these very complex and controversial issues that all people will never agree on. Many questions arise in the debate of physician assisted death such as patients’ rights, physicians controlling the right if someone lives or dies, a patience’s mental state, a family member’s rights, religious beliefs of the parties involved and the law. Philosophers attempt to explain the different theories that people will use to argue their belief systems in terms of logic and reasoning. For example, some people may take the position of a deontologist who would argue that it is our moral duty to support and sustain life therefore assisted suicide should not be allowed. Unfortunately, this very emotional thought provoking debate is not a â€Å"black and white issue,† as most ethical arguments are not. In the situation of physician assisted death I disagree with the deontologist point of view that it is immoral for a physician to assist a patient in suicide. I believe as some relativist due, that as long as the patient is fully capable of making this decision and the patient is in a constant state of agony, then the patient has the right to make the choice to live or die. A relativist believes that morals are only relative to that particular society and if physician assisted death was considered moral in that group then it would be considered a moral act. Neither theory is without flaws as some deontologist even share my point of view and some relativist can be very extreme in what they feel is relative to being morally right or wrong. The bottom line is that people will probably never completely agree on this subject. Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death Physician assisted death is also referred to as PAD. Physician assisted death is the more politically and ethical term versus physician assisted suicide. There is also a difference that should be made known between euthanasia and PAD. In a situation of euthanasia the physician administers the lethal does by injection to the patient ending the patient’s life. In physician assisted death the doctor write a prescription for a pill that the patient oluntarily administers themselves that will end their own life. Physician assisted death is now legal in two states, where Organ passed the law in 1994 and Washington state passed the law in 2008. That means in forty eight states it is against the law to assist the patient either directly or indirectly in ending the patient’s life. If a physician even provides information to the patient that would f acilitate their death the doctor can face criminal charges and lose their medical license. Many people are familiar with the radical doctor Dr. Jack Kevorkian who used the method of euthanasia. Dr. Kevorkian is responsible for euthanatizing over 130 people some of which were either clinically depressed or terminally ill. Dr. Kevorkian created a huge debate across the United States that gave rise to many questions such as to the legality of the constitutional laws and ethical perspectives. Laws that are passed don’t not always represent a societies ethical views and vice versus a, some ethical standards are against the law. If everyone had the perspective of relativists, then the laws would vary from city to city. For example, every other city could be for physician assisted death or against it creating a checkered board effect of laws that very from city to city. This because the relativist believes that morals are only relative to what the society believes. Dr. Kevorkian was tried in a Michigan court on four of assisting suicide and was convicted of one count which has videotaped and released to the popular television show â€Å"60 Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death Minutes. † Another doctor by the name of Derek Humphry’s whose wife died a slow agonizing death by cancer started a foundation in his wife’s memory, called the Hemlock Society to provide information to dying patients on how to take the â€Å"final exit. † (Howard Ball 2012) Medical technology has advanced over the years and has allowed us to live healthier and more active life styles. However, with medical advancement came the ability to prolong life and at times keeping patients alive beyond what I feel God has called them to live. At the point in life when a person is being kept alive by a machine breathing for them and intravenous nutrition being given, one has to ask themselves is this â€Å"has medical treatment gone too far by interfering with a natural part of dying. † It seems medical technology has crossed the line at times because it is no longer a matter of improving the quality of life but prolong a natural death. There is a moral dilemma that is taken place where doctors are making billions of dollars by providing long term health care to patients beyond what nature has called for. During the twenty century medical technology advance to point of creating an epidemic where people could live longer lives but it didn’t always guarantee a quality life. Without being able to take care of oneself or enjoy the life they worked hard to create many people feel they don’t want to live a life of suffering. Many people feel they have lost their dignity and don’t want their friends and family to remember them in a feeble state of being. This brings up the question of what is happiness and considered quality of life. I believe the deontologist perspective takes away a human beings right to choose how a person wants to live. A deontologist will argue that life must be sustained because it is our moral duty but isn’t it our moral duty to end a human beings suffering or to let people die a natural Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death death? In fact some deontologists do believe that morals are obligations based on religious beliefs and they don’t support sustaining life in every situation. For example, if a woman was pregnant and the baby was going to cause the death of the mother then they may believe it is acceptable to terminate the pregnancy to sustain the life of the mother. Yet others could argue â€Å"who is to say what is natural,† and when someone should die. Many people who support legalizing patient assisted suicide believe it is the patient’s right to die with dignity but other would insist that society has a moral obligation to preserve life. The relativist would state if the society believes it is moral to condone patient assisted suicide then for the society it is morally correct. â€Å"The view of ethical relativism regards values as determined by one’s own ethical standards, often those provided by one’s own culture and background. Rather than insisting that there are moral absolutes, moral claims must be interpreted in terms of how they reflect a person’s viewpoint; moral claims are then said to be â€Å"right in a given culture† or â€Å"wrong for a given society. (Mosser, K 2010) Those that argue against physician assisted death will argue it is our duty to protect and preserve all life. People will argue their points of views using logic, reasoning and provide supporting evidence. However, in the case of ethical debates there often is not any evidence to support a claim on either side of the issue. Consequently, as much as people will try to argue their point of view with reasoning an d logic their emotions can get in the way and make it difficult to persuade the other person. Many times the family is involved in the case of physician assisted death and each family member may have different ethical beliefs then the patient. This can make the decision even more painful as we taken into consideration the effects our decisions Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death have on other people. Philosophers attempt to explain how people will argue their point of view by providing different ethical theories as with relativism and deontology. The deontologist believes that it is our moral duty to protect and preserve life and that physician assisted suicide is an immoral act. Rather than looking at the consequences of an act, deontology looks at the reason for which an act is done, and the rule according to which one choose to act. Deontology doesn’t deny that acts have consequences; rather, insists that those consequences should not play a role in our moral evaluation of such acts. †(Mosser K 2010) Under the deontology theory a person would claim that it is wrong for a physician to assist a patient in committing suicide because the result is death and we are to preserve life not assisting in taking their life. Deontology and Ethics 2013) This theory would provide that there is no reason good enough to go against ones moral and civic duty even if it means allowing someone to suffer in pain, which ignores the patients’ rights. The terminally ill patient not only wants to live with having their quality of life and having dignity but they also want to die with dignity. The terminally ill patient has few options such as suicide or living in extreme pain. Some patients are too ill to even get out of bed to be able to commit suicide. Terminally ill patients that are suffering should not be made to feel demoralized for wanting to end their suffering. If the patient has paid into a life insurance fund all their life the company mostly likely will not pay their loved ones death benefits if they commit such an act. The problem is patient assisted death is not recognized as a medically necessary procedure. There is also a great stigma that comes along with committing suicide that the families have to live with after their loved one has died. I belief in the individual autonomy Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death Many family members feel disgraced that their loved one acted against their religious beliefs. (Lois Snyder, JD, and Daniel P. Sulmasy 2001) Family members can find themselves in court fighting again other members of their family to keep their loved ones alive. Going to court can be an emotionally painful process and doing so puts the patient through more emotional agony. Many families will break apartment because their ethical views differ so greatly. Roman Catholic Church has been the one biggest contesters of physician assisted death. Ethical arguments are based on beliefs systems that are learned through culture and religion therefore are only relative to that person or society. The One of the issues with relativism is that is a person’s beliefs can be too extreme and farfetched. Under the law of relativism any belief system relevant to that person would be considered ethical even murdering someone. Many doctors and nurses struggle with their feeling on patient assisted death because their morals and ethical views tell them it is wrong to assist a patient in death but they have great sympathy seeing their patients in pain and they want to help. Also, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath which states that doctors will never harm their patients but I argue the facts that prolonging death is harming the patient and takes away their constitutional right to choose death. Many religions believe as deontologist do in that is against their religion to assist someone in procuring their own death but that is exactly it the issue that it their belief system and not everyone’s. The constitutional represents the Liberty Due process clause that says it is a fundamental right for terminally ill patients to die with dignity by the assistance of a medical professional. Lawyers have argued the fourteenth amendment which allows a doctor to remove life support as the last dying will and testament of the patient yet a physician cannot medically assist a patient in ending the life of a terminally ill person who is verbally requesting it. (Howard Ball 2012) Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death Moral and ethical debates spark heated debates and cause controversial issues and never seem to end with everyone agreeing. These ethical and moral debates are complex and involve opinions persuaded by religion or customs nd have legal implications that must be consider. Physician assisted death a very complex and controversial issues that all people will never agree on. There are a lot questions that arise in the debate over physician assisted death such as patients’ rights, physicians controlling the right if someone lives or dies, a patience’s mental state, a family member’s rights, religious beliefs of the parties involved and th e law. It seems that both theories have their flaws. The relativist can be too extreme in their view points because anything can be considered moral if the society feels it is relative. While the deontologist view point is too constrictive and only takes into consideration that a person’s morals are their obligation and a duty to others. The deontologist would ignore the right of the patients even if they were suffering to conform to their obligations and moral duties. I am partial to believing that the patient has a right to choose if they want to live or die under certain circumstances. I believe that morals and ethics are not built on one theory alone but on many parts of theories that consist of logic and reasoning. People will continue to understand the different ethical theories that explain why certain societies believe the way they do. Some people may take the position of a deontologist who would argue that it is our moral duty to support and sustain life therefore assisted suicide should not be allowed. Unfortunately, this very emotional debate has many dynamics, as most ethical arguments do. In the situation of physician assisted death I disagree with the deontologist point of view and feel it is immoral to take away a patients right to end their own suffering. I believe to a certain extent as some relativist believe, that as long as the patient is fully capable of making Ethical Perspective on Physician Assisted Death this decision and the patient is in a constant state of agony, then the patient has the right to make the choice to live or die. The relativist believes that morals are only relative to that particular society and if physician assisted death was considered moral in that group then it would be considered a moral act. Each theory has flaws. Some deontologist share my point of view and some relativist can be very extreme in what they feel is relative to being morally right or wrong. The bottom line is people will probably never completely agree on this subject. As our society evolves and continues to become more liberal in their ethical views on controversial topics such as gay marriage, abortion and personal liberties more states will continue to pass laws support physician assisted death.

Challenges of Harmonization of Accounting System

Accounting Standards in other words can be stated as rules which govern the preparation of financial statements. They are the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Where by accounting practices are the actual used practices by accountants. They are influenced by Accounting Standards, which govern the preparation of financial reports. Harmonization of accounting standards† can be defined as the continuous process of ensuring that the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are formulated, aligned and updated to international best practices (GAAPs in other countries) with suitable modifications and fine tuning considering the domestic conditions. Harmonization is the process of increasing compatibility of accounting practices by setting bounds on their degree of variation. Harmonization can be defined as â€Å"the process of bringing international Accounting Standards into some sort of agreement so that the financial statements from different countries are prepared according to a common set of principles of measurement and disclosure† (Haskins et al. 1996:29). According to Wolk et al. described harmonization of Accounting Standards as â€Å"the co-ordination or similarity among the various sets of national Accounting Standards and methods and formats of financial reporting†. (Kleekamper et al. , 2002) Kleekamperet al. xplain, that the aim of the international harmonization process of Accounting Standards is to reduce or overcome differences world-wide, in order to reach a better international Comparability of financial statements. International accounting harmonization can be defined as â€Å"the process of bringing international Accounting Standards into some sort of agreement so that the financial statements from different countries ar e prepared according to a common set of principles of measurement and disclosure† (Haskins et al. 1996:29). This harmonization is needed due to the globalization of businesses and services and increase in cross-border investments and borrowings and academicians, regulators and governments have been constantly striving to harmonize the local/domestic Accounting Standards(AS), also referred to as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), with the International Accounting Standards (IAS) issued by the UK based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) (formerly the International Accounting Standards Committee-IASC). The IASB has been trying to harmonize international accounting principles since 1973. Further, the IASB and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have been jointly working on harmonization since July 1995, and in May 2000 the IOSCO finished its review of the IAS and recommended usage of certain IAS, supplemented with reconciliation, disclosure and interpretations. Some benefits of harmonization of accounting practices is as follows * It ensures reliable and high quality financial reporting and disclosures. In certain cases, it can prove to be crucial to the economic and financial development of a country * It enables a systematic review and evaluation of the performance of a multinational company having subsidiaries and associates in various countries wherein each country has its own set of GAAP * It makes the comparison of the performance of a company against its domestic and international peers easier and more meaningful * It is a precursor for accessing international capital markets which can, in turn, reduce the capital cost and consequently, improve the performance of a company * Multinational companies, the multinational companies benefit from closer harmonization for the following reasons a) Access to international finance is easier, the international financial markets understand the financial information presented to them more easily. If the information is provided on a consistent basis between companies irrespective of their country of origin. b) Improved management control, in a business operating in several countries management control is improved. Internal financial information is more easily prepared on consistent basis if externally required financial information is required on a uniform basis. c) Consolidation of financial statement is easier ) A reduction of auditing cost due to harmonized accounting practices and standards. e) A transfer of accounting staff across national borders would be easier f) It would be easier to comply with reporting requirements of overseas stock exchanges. g) Appraisals of foreign entities for take over and mergers would be more straightforward. * International economic groupings, international groupings like EU (European Union) could work more effectively if there were international harmonization of accounting policies. Part of the function of international groupings is go make cross-border trade easier. Similar to accounting regulation would help this process. Government of developing countries would save time and money if they would adopt international standards and, if these were used internally, governments of developing countries could attempt to control the activities of foreign multinational companies in their own country. These companies could not hide behind foreign accounting practices which are difficult to understand. * Tax authorities, it will be easier to calculate the tax liability of investors, including multinationals who receive income from overseas sources. * Large accounting and auditing firms would benefit as accounting and auditing would be much easier if similar accounting practices existed throughout the world. Despite the importance of harmonizing accounting standards, there still challenges facing harmonization of accounting standards between the member countries using IFRS (international financial reporting standard) and also between United States using US GAAP. These challenges are brought about different tax laws, different culture, different legal requirement, nationalism and different needs of financial statements. Speaking of harmonization we should put in consideration of International accounting standard board (IASB) based in UK and Financial accounting standard board (FASB) based in US. The  International Accounting Standards Board  (IASB) is the independent,  accounting standard-setting body of the  IFRS Foundation. The IASB was founded on April 1, 2001 as the successor to the  International Accounting Standards Committee  (IASC). It is responsible for developing  International Financial Reporting Standards  (the new name for  International Accounting Standards  issued after 2001), and promoting the use and application of these standards. The  Financial Accounting Standards Board  (FASB) is a private,  not-for-profit organization  whose primary purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles  (GAAP) within the  United States  in the public’s interest. The  Securities and Exchange Commission  (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U. S. It was created in 1973, replacing the  Committee on Accounting Procedure  (CAP) and the  Accounting Principles Board  (APB) of the  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants  (AICPA). The FASB’s mission is â€Å"to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information. † To achieve this, FASB has five goals. * Improve the usefulness of financial reporting by focusing on the primary characteristics of relevance and reliability, and on the qualities of comparability and consistency. * Keep standards current to reflect changes in methods of doing business and in the economy. Consider promptly any significant areas of deficiency in financial reporting that might be improved through standard setting. * Promote  international convergence of accounting standards  concurrent with improving the quality of financial reporting. * Im prove common understanding of the nature and purposes of information in financial reports. The two boards have been making efforts to harmonize the accounting principles, as of September 2011, there was a push to harmonize, or integrate, the accounting standards of the United States, which operates under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), with International Accounting Standards (IAS). The rationale is that it would level the playing field for global businesses by providing regulators, auditors and decision-makers (investors) uniform information based on the same accounting methodologies. Supporters believe that this would improve accountability, reduce international transactional and exchange rate risks and improve information transfer to enhance economic policy decision-making. The difference between IAS and US GAAP is that the former is more principle based and the later is rule based. The following are Challenges to harmonization of accounting systems. Licensing and Enforcement, Individual accountants, CPAs and tax lawyers worldwide would need to comply with and obtain licensing through an internationally accepted rules-making body. If he international body lacks enforcement authority, there is no prosecutorial authority for breaking international laws. However, if the international body does have prosecutorial authority over a U. S. citizen, there would arise jurisdictional and constitutional issues regarding the rights of an international body’s rights to prosecute an American under international law. Finally, issues arise from the perspective of U. S. -only based businesses regarding forced compliance IASB standards are principles-based. Thus the countries that have rules-based standards are expected to experience considerable difficulty in harmonization of their standards with IFRS. There are challenges that IASB and nations adopting IFRS need to address in the coming days. One big challenge for countries adopting IFRS is the shortage of manpower and more particularly, IFRS-trained manpower. For case in point, with just six months to go before China’s listed companies adopt IFRS, demand for accountants is rising and could run into millions in the coming years, if the new standards are rolled out for all of the country’s companies and not just the listed ones. Accountants say that the challenge for China, as it scrambles to meet the accounting shift deadline, will lie in getting its over-1,100 listed companies to establish the appropriate financial reporting systems and in training enough qualified accountants by January. The risk is that some of these companies may fail to make the transition on time. Estimates reveal that China has a shortfall of 300,000 qualified accountants and is likely to require a further three million over the coming years to keep pace with its current rate of economic growth Difference purpose of financial reporting, in some countries the purpose is solely for tax assessment, while others it is for investor decision making, Different legal systems, these prevent the development of certain accounting practices and restrict options available. The Accounting world can be divided into â€Å"those countries which have a ‘legalistic’ orientation toward accounting and those with a ‘non legalistic’ orientation† (Nobes et al. , 1997:8). The non-legalistic approach can be found in countries, which use common law. In Common law countries, Accounting does not depend upon law. Accountants (professional organizations) arrange accounting rules. Hence, it is the private sector, which determines Accounting and not the law (Choi et al. , 200 2). The task of the legal system is to give an answer to a specific case rather than to formulate general rules for the future (Choi et al. 2002). The legalistic approach can be found in countries, which use the so called code (or codified) law. In contrary to the common law, the codified law system needs to develop rules in detail for the Accounting and financial reporting (Nobes, 1994). This means that â€Å"Accounting rules are incorporated into national law and tend to be highly prescriptive and procedural† (Choi et al. , 2002:43). In these countries the role of law is to describe behavior, which isconsidered to be acceptable in the society (Choi et al. , 2002). Different user groups, countries have different ideas about who the relevant user groups and their respective importance. In USA investor and credit groups are given prominence, while in Europe employees enjoy a higher profile. Provider of finance, there three main sources for external capital are shareholders, banks and government (Hill, 1999). It varies from country to country, which of these three provides most of the financial capital to companies. In countries like Germany and Italy banks provide companies with capital. In countries like England and the United States shareholders provide companies with capital. The government is the provider of capital in countries like France and Sweden. (Hill,1999) This diversity of capital providers means that Accounting Practices differ in order to satisfy needs of capital providers. In the case of shareholder ownership, (e. g. in the U. K. and the U. S. ), information disclosure will be more important than in countries, where capital is raised from banks or governments. This is explained by the fact that in the latter countries information will be transmitted more directly. (Radebaugh and Gray, 1997) It is impossible for a company to inform each shareholder with its specific information needs, because they are a big and unorganized group. Therefore financial statements in the US and UK are â€Å"oriented toward providing individual investors with the information they need to make decisions about purchasing or selling corporate stocks and bonds† (Hill, 1999:593). Tax laws, the key question here is to ask, how much taxation regulations determine Accounting measurements. In countries like the U. S. , U. K. and Netherlands there is no interplay between tax and Accounting law. When Accounting Standards are developed, the only focus is how to conduce the information function. Questions about taxation are not considered in those countries (Achleitner, 2000). In contrary, in nations as France and Germany, tax and Accounting Systems are ruled equal (Nobes and Parker, 2000). There is the principle of decisiveness in continental European countries. This means that the profit of the balance sheet is at the same time the foundation to snap income taxes (Achleitner, 2000). In Tanzania income tax act is in dis agreement with some accounting procedures like computation of depreciation, Bad debts and therefore disagree on how accountant compute organization profit and therefore in Tanzania should prepare to set of financial statement one for tax purposes and the other for other users of accounting information. Cultural differences result in objectives for accounting systems differing from country to country for example Islamic laws does not recognize the use of interest rate. The lack of strong accountancy bodies, many countries do not have strong independent accountancy or business bodies which would press for better standards and greater harmonization. Unique circumstances, some countries may be experiencing unusual circumstances which affect all aspects of everyday life an d impinge on the ability of companies to produce proper reports, for example hyperinflation, civil war, currency restriction. Nationalism is demonstrated in an unwillingness to accept another country’s standard. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the U. S. is responsible for setting accounting standards based primarily on â€Å"Federal securities laws and state CPA licensing laws. † All countries have specific securities laws, tax laws and banking and financial regulations that dictate accounting principles. Furthermore, in the United States, there are individual state laws that govern business, banking and insurance activities. Adopting international accounting standards would not only conflict with U. S. tatute law, but also constitutional law associated with â€Å"states’ rights. † Stable Platform, Beginning in 2005 , all 7,000 EU publicly traded companies are required to apply IFRS in the preparation of their consolidated financial statements. This represents yet another challenge as preparers of financial statements from Latvia to Portugal and from Poland to Sweden grapple with unfamiliar requirements. In preparation for this sweeping change, the IASB completed its â€Å"stable platform† of standards in March 2004. New and revised standards included five new IFRSs and 17 amended IASs, resulting from the IASB’s Improvements Project and Phase I of its Business Combinations Project. Some of the more significant revisions to IFRS that resulted from these projects include: * The LIFO method for costing inventories is no longer allowed; *   The concepts of â€Å"fundamental error† and â€Å"extraordinary items† are eliminated; *   Trading securities are now included in a larger defined category of financial instruments â€Å"at fair value through profit or loss† and entities may designate any financial asset or liability into this category (commonly referred to as â€Å"the fair value option†); *   Fair value hedge accounting may now be used more readily for a portfolio hedge of interest rate risk; *   Guidelines for share-based payments have been added;   The pooling-of-interests method for business combinations is no longer allowed; *   Goodwill is no longer amortized, and negative goodwill is not recorded in a business combination World wide acceptance, National accounting standards are highly politicized and there is ofte n a natural tendency to place the interests of the national economy ahead of those of the global economy. Private sector businesses and professional accounting bodies also have a vested interest in accounting practices and financial reporting. Pressure from these groups to change or reject certain standards can carry a lot of weight with political decision makers. Adopting international financial standards is met with additional challenges in developing countries. They often lack the resources and infrastructure to adapt national legal and legislative frameworks in which to house the standards, making proper implementation difficult. Training and Retraining, When a country decides to harmonize with the international standards, its companies, accountants and auditors need to be retrained in the new standards and reporting procedures for financial statements. College and university programs in this field also have to undergo significant changes in order to educate new people entering the profession. Before any of this can happen, trainers and professors will require training so they can instruct professionals and students. This will require the development of new learning materials and curricula, new examinations for professional licensing and new accounting software and reporting systems. To further complicate matters, the adoption of harmonized standards has to be phased in, so for a number of years, two different systems are in operation. Such a omplex transition requires a lot of safety mechanisms to ensure it achieves uniform results. To sum up with, Harmonization of financial statement is very crucial for acc ounting profession and also for the global business growth especially for multinational companies which will now find easily in preparation of parent and subsidiary financial statement since have to be prepared according to IFRS. IFRS IS very important to developing countries like Tanzania such as increasing confidence of investors, reduce cost of doing business, facilitate smooth operation of international groupings like EAC and the countries accountant become competitive worldwide. REFERENCES WORD LENGTH: 3517 words Arbnor, I. Bjerke, B. (1997): Methodology for Creating Business Knowledge, Sage Publications, Thousands Oaks, 2nd edition. Ghauri, P. ; Gronhaug, K. (2002): Research Methods in Business Studies, Prentice Hall, London. Choi, F. ; Frost C. ; Gary, K. (2002): International Accounting, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 4th edition. Choi, F. ; Mueller, G. (1992): International Accounting, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2nd edition. Epstein, B. ; Mirza, A. (2001): IAS, Interpretation a nd Application, John Wiley ; Sons, New York. Ghauri P. ; Gronhaug, K. ; Kristianslund, I. (1995): Research Methods in Business Studies: A practical guide, Prentice Hall, Bodmin. Gummesson, E. 2000): Qualitative Methods in Management Research, Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, 2nd edition. Helgesson, T. (1996): Culture in International Business: an Introduction, Academia Adacta, Lund. Hill, C. (1999): Competing in the Global Marketplace; Irwin McGraw Hill, Boston, 3rd edition. Hofstede, G. (1991): Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. Howard, K. ; Sharp, J. (1983): The Management of a Student Research Project, Gower Publishing Company Ltd. , Aldershot. Johansson, L. (2000): Introduktion till Vetenskapsteorin, AIT Falun AB, Stockholm. Kam, V. (1990): Accounting Theory, John Willey and Sons, New York, 2nd edition. 70 Kleekamper, H. ; Kuhlewind, M. ; Alvarez, M. 2002): Grundlagen, Ziele, Organisation, Entwicklung und Bedeutung des IAS B, in: Rechnungslegung nach International Accounting Standards (IAS), editedy by Baetge, D. ; Kleekamper, H. ; Wollmert, P. ; Kirsch H. (2002), Schafer-Poeschel, Stuttgart, 2nd edition. Naciri, A. ; Hoarau C. (2001): A comparative analysis of american and french financial Reporting philosophies: the case for international Accounting Standards, in: Advances in International Accounting, edited by Sale, J; Salter, S; Sharp, D. (2001), Elsevier Sience Ltd, Oxford. Nobes, C. ; Parker, R. (2000): Comparative International Accounting, Financial Times – Prentice Hall, Hartlow. Nobes, C. 1999): Towards a General Model of the Reasons for International Differences in Financial Reporting, in: International Accounting and Comparative Financial Reporting, edited by Nobes, C. (1998), Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham. Nobes, C; Mueller, G; Gernon, H; Meek, G. (1997): Accounting an International Perspective, Richard D. Irwin, Inc; Chicago, 4th edition. Nobes, C. (1994): Accounting Harmonisation in Europe: Process, progress and prospects, FT Business Information Ltd, London. North, D. (1990): Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Miles, M. ; Huberman, A. (1994): Qualitative Data Analysis – An expanded source book, Sage Publications, Inc, Thousands Oaks, 2nd edition. Mueller, G. 1997): Harmonization Efforts in the European Union, in: International Accounting and Finance Handbook, edited by Choi, F. (1997), Wiley and Sons, New York, 7th edition. Mueller, G. ; Gernon, H. ; Meek, G. (1991): Accounting – an International Perspective; Richard D. Irwin, Inc; Homewood, 2nd edition. Radebaugh, L. ; Daniels, J. (2001): International Business, Environment and Operations, Prentice Hall, London, 9th edition. Radebaugh L. ; Gray S. (1997): International Accounting and multinational enterprises, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 4th edition. Remenyi, D. ; Williams, B. ;Money A. ; Swartz E. (1998): Doing Research in Business and Management: An Introduction to Process and Method, SAGE Publications, London. 71 Riahi-Belkaoui, A. 2000): Accounting Theory, Thomson Learning – Business Press, Padstow, Cornwall, 4th edition. Roberts, C. ; Weetman, P. ; Gordon P. (1998): International Financial Accounting – a comparative approach, Financial Times Pitman Publishing, London. Samuels, J. ; Piper, A. (1985): International Accounting: A survery, Croom Helm, London. Wolk, H. ; Tearney, M. ; Dodd, J. (2001): A Conceptual and intestinal Approach: Accounting Theory, South-Western College Publishing, 5th edition. Wollmert, P. ; Achleitner A. (2002): Konzeption der IAS: Rechnungslegung, in: Rechnungslegung nach International Accounting Standards (IAS), edited by Baetge, D. ; Kleekamper, H. ; Wollmert, P. ; Kirsch, H. (2002):, Schafer-Poeschel, , Stuttgart, 2nd edition. Challenges of Harmonization of Accounting System Accounting Standards in other words can be stated as rules which govern the preparation of financial statements. They are the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Where by accounting practices are the actual used practices by accountants. They are influenced by Accounting Standards, which govern the preparation of financial reports. Harmonization of accounting standards† can be defined as the continuous process of ensuring that the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are formulated, aligned and updated to international best practices (GAAPs in other countries) with suitable modifications and fine tuning considering the domestic conditions. Harmonization is the process of increasing compatibility of accounting practices by setting bounds on their degree of variation. Harmonization can be defined as â€Å"the process of bringing international Accounting Standards into some sort of agreement so that the financial statements from different countries are prepared according to a common set of principles of measurement and disclosure† (Haskins et al. 1996:29). According to Wolk et al. described harmonization of Accounting Standards as â€Å"the co-ordination or similarity among the various sets of national Accounting Standards and methods and formats of financial reporting†. (Kleekamper et al. , 2002) Kleekamperet al. xplain, that the aim of the international harmonization process of Accounting Standards is to reduce or overcome differences world-wide, in order to reach a better international Comparability of financial statements. International accounting harmonization can be defined as â€Å"the process of bringing international Accounting Standards into some sort of agreement so that the financial statements from different countries ar e prepared according to a common set of principles of measurement and disclosure† (Haskins et al. 1996:29). This harmonization is needed due to the globalization of businesses and services and increase in cross-border investments and borrowings and academicians, regulators and governments have been constantly striving to harmonize the local/domestic Accounting Standards(AS), also referred to as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), with the International Accounting Standards (IAS) issued by the UK based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) (formerly the International Accounting Standards Committee-IASC). The IASB has been trying to harmonize international accounting principles since 1973. Further, the IASB and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have been jointly working on harmonization since July 1995, and in May 2000 the IOSCO finished its review of the IAS and recommended usage of certain IAS, supplemented with reconciliation, disclosure and interpretations. Some benefits of harmonization of accounting practices is as follows * It ensures reliable and high quality financial reporting and disclosures. In certain cases, it can prove to be crucial to the economic and financial development of a country * It enables a systematic review and evaluation of the performance of a multinational company having subsidiaries and associates in various countries wherein each country has its own set of GAAP * It makes the comparison of the performance of a company against its domestic and international peers easier and more meaningful * It is a precursor for accessing international capital markets which can, in turn, reduce the capital cost and consequently, improve the performance of a company * Multinational companies, the multinational companies benefit from closer harmonization for the following reasons a) Access to international finance is easier, the international financial markets understand the financial information presented to them more easily. If the information is provided on a consistent basis between companies irrespective of their country of origin. b) Improved management control, in a business operating in several countries management control is improved. Internal financial information is more easily prepared on consistent basis if externally required financial information is required on a uniform basis. c) Consolidation of financial statement is easier ) A reduction of auditing cost due to harmonized accounting practices and standards. e) A transfer of accounting staff across national borders would be easier f) It would be easier to comply with reporting requirements of overseas stock exchanges. g) Appraisals of foreign entities for take over and mergers would be more straightforward. * International economic groupings, international groupings like EU (European Union) could work more effectively if there were international harmonization of accounting policies. Part of the function of international groupings is go make cross-border trade easier. Similar to accounting regulation would help this process. Government of developing countries would save time and money if they would adopt international standards and, if these were used internally, governments of developing countries could attempt to control the activities of foreign multinational companies in their own country. These companies could not hide behind foreign accounting practices which are difficult to understand. * Tax authorities, it will be easier to calculate the tax liability of investors, including multinationals who receive income from overseas sources. * Large accounting and auditing firms would benefit as accounting and auditing would be much easier if similar accounting practices existed throughout the world. Despite the importance of harmonizing accounting standards, there still challenges facing harmonization of accounting standards between the member countries using IFRS (international financial reporting standard) and also between United States using US GAAP. These challenges are brought about different tax laws, different culture, different legal requirement, nationalism and different needs of financial statements. Speaking of harmonization we should put in consideration of International accounting standard board (IASB) based in UK and Financial accounting standard board (FASB) based in US. The  International Accounting Standards Board  (IASB) is the independent,  accounting standard-setting body of the  IFRS Foundation. The IASB was founded on April 1, 2001 as the successor to the  International Accounting Standards Committee  (IASC). It is responsible for developing  International Financial Reporting Standards  (the new name for  International Accounting Standards  issued after 2001), and promoting the use and application of these standards. The  Financial Accounting Standards Board  (FASB) is a private,  not-for-profit organization  whose primary purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles  (GAAP) within the  United States  in the public’s interest. The  Securities and Exchange Commission  (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U. S. It was created in 1973, replacing the  Committee on Accounting Procedure  (CAP) and the  Accounting Principles Board  (APB) of the  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants  (AICPA). The FASB’s mission is â€Å"to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information. † To achieve this, FASB has five goals. * Improve the usefulness of financial reporting by focusing on the primary characteristics of relevance and reliability, and on the qualities of comparability and consistency. * Keep standards current to reflect changes in methods of doing business and in the economy. Consider promptly any significant areas of deficiency in financial reporting that might be improved through standard setting. * Promote  international convergence of accounting standards  concurrent with improving the quality of financial reporting. * Im prove common understanding of the nature and purposes of information in financial reports. The two boards have been making efforts to harmonize the accounting principles, as of September 2011, there was a push to harmonize, or integrate, the accounting standards of the United States, which operates under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), with International Accounting Standards (IAS). The rationale is that it would level the playing field for global businesses by providing regulators, auditors and decision-makers (investors) uniform information based on the same accounting methodologies. Supporters believe that this would improve accountability, reduce international transactional and exchange rate risks and improve information transfer to enhance economic policy decision-making. The difference between IAS and US GAAP is that the former is more principle based and the later is rule based. The following are Challenges to harmonization of accounting systems. Licensing and Enforcement, Individual accountants, CPAs and tax lawyers worldwide would need to comply with and obtain licensing through an internationally accepted rules-making body. If he international body lacks enforcement authority, there is no prosecutorial authority for breaking international laws. However, if the international body does have prosecutorial authority over a U. S. citizen, there would arise jurisdictional and constitutional issues regarding the rights of an international body’s rights to prosecute an American under international law. Finally, issues arise from the perspective of U. S. -only based businesses regarding forced compliance IASB standards are principles-based. Thus the countries that have rules-based standards are expected to experience considerable difficulty in harmonization of their standards with IFRS. There are challenges that IASB and nations adopting IFRS need to address in the coming days. One big challenge for countries adopting IFRS is the shortage of manpower and more particularly, IFRS-trained manpower. For case in point, with just six months to go before China’s listed companies adopt IFRS, demand for accountants is rising and could run into millions in the coming years, if the new standards are rolled out for all of the country’s companies and not just the listed ones. Accountants say that the challenge for China, as it scrambles to meet the accounting shift deadline, will lie in getting its over-1,100 listed companies to establish the appropriate financial reporting systems and in training enough qualified accountants by January. The risk is that some of these companies may fail to make the transition on time. Estimates reveal that China has a shortfall of 300,000 qualified accountants and is likely to require a further three million over the coming years to keep pace with its current rate of economic growth Difference purpose of financial reporting, in some countries the purpose is solely for tax assessment, while others it is for investor decision making, Different legal systems, these prevent the development of certain accounting practices and restrict options available. The Accounting world can be divided into â€Å"those countries which have a ‘legalistic’ orientation toward accounting and those with a ‘non legalistic’ orientation† (Nobes et al. , 1997:8). The non-legalistic approach can be found in countries, which use common law. In Common law countries, Accounting does not depend upon law. Accountants (professional organizations) arrange accounting rules. Hence, it is the private sector, which determines Accounting and not the law (Choi et al. , 200 2). The task of the legal system is to give an answer to a specific case rather than to formulate general rules for the future (Choi et al. 2002). The legalistic approach can be found in countries, which use the so called code (or codified) law. In contrary to the common law, the codified law system needs to develop rules in detail for the Accounting and financial reporting (Nobes, 1994). This means that â€Å"Accounting rules are incorporated into national law and tend to be highly prescriptive and procedural† (Choi et al. , 2002:43). In these countries the role of law is to describe behavior, which isconsidered to be acceptable in the society (Choi et al. , 2002). Different user groups, countries have different ideas about who the relevant user groups and their respective importance. In USA investor and credit groups are given prominence, while in Europe employees enjoy a higher profile. Provider of finance, there three main sources for external capital are shareholders, banks and government (Hill, 1999). It varies from country to country, which of these three provides most of the financial capital to companies. In countries like Germany and Italy banks provide companies with capital. In countries like England and the United States shareholders provide companies with capital. The government is the provider of capital in countries like France and Sweden. (Hill,1999) This diversity of capital providers means that Accounting Practices differ in order to satisfy needs of capital providers. In the case of shareholder ownership, (e. g. in the U. K. and the U. S. ), information disclosure will be more important than in countries, where capital is raised from banks or governments. This is explained by the fact that in the latter countries information will be transmitted more directly. (Radebaugh and Gray, 1997) It is impossible for a company to inform each shareholder with its specific information needs, because they are a big and unorganized group. Therefore financial statements in the US and UK are â€Å"oriented toward providing individual investors with the information they need to make decisions about purchasing or selling corporate stocks and bonds† (Hill, 1999:593). Tax laws, the key question here is to ask, how much taxation regulations determine Accounting measurements. In countries like the U. S. , U. K. and Netherlands there is no interplay between tax and Accounting law. When Accounting Standards are developed, the only focus is how to conduce the information function. Questions about taxation are not considered in those countries (Achleitner, 2000). In contrary, in nations as France and Germany, tax and Accounting Systems are ruled equal (Nobes and Parker, 2000). There is the principle of decisiveness in continental European countries. This means that the profit of the balance sheet is at the same time the foundation to snap income taxes (Achleitner, 2000). In Tanzania income tax act is in dis agreement with some accounting procedures like computation of depreciation, Bad debts and therefore disagree on how accountant compute organization profit and therefore in Tanzania should prepare to set of financial statement one for tax purposes and the other for other users of accounting information. Cultural differences result in objectives for accounting systems differing from country to country for example Islamic laws does not recognize the use of interest rate. The lack of strong accountancy bodies, many countries do not have strong independent accountancy or business bodies which would press for better standards and greater harmonization. Unique circumstances, some countries may be experiencing unusual circumstances which affect all aspects of everyday life an d impinge on the ability of companies to produce proper reports, for example hyperinflation, civil war, currency restriction. Nationalism is demonstrated in an unwillingness to accept another country’s standard. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the U. S. is responsible for setting accounting standards based primarily on â€Å"Federal securities laws and state CPA licensing laws. † All countries have specific securities laws, tax laws and banking and financial regulations that dictate accounting principles. Furthermore, in the United States, there are individual state laws that govern business, banking and insurance activities. Adopting international accounting standards would not only conflict with U. S. tatute law, but also constitutional law associated with â€Å"states’ rights. † Stable Platform, Beginning in 2005 , all 7,000 EU publicly traded companies are required to apply IFRS in the preparation of their consolidated financial statements. This represents yet another challenge as preparers of financial statements from Latvia to Portugal and from Poland to Sweden grapple with unfamiliar requirements. In preparation for this sweeping change, the IASB completed its â€Å"stable platform† of standards in March 2004. New and revised standards included five new IFRSs and 17 amended IASs, resulting from the IASB’s Improvements Project and Phase I of its Business Combinations Project. Some of the more significant revisions to IFRS that resulted from these projects include: * The LIFO method for costing inventories is no longer allowed; *   The concepts of â€Å"fundamental error† and â€Å"extraordinary items† are eliminated; *   Trading securities are now included in a larger defined category of financial instruments â€Å"at fair value through profit or loss† and entities may designate any financial asset or liability into this category (commonly referred to as â€Å"the fair value option†); *   Fair value hedge accounting may now be used more readily for a portfolio hedge of interest rate risk; *   Guidelines for share-based payments have been added;   The pooling-of-interests method for business combinations is no longer allowed; *   Goodwill is no longer amortized, and negative goodwill is not recorded in a business combination World wide acceptance, National accounting standards are highly politicized and there is ofte n a natural tendency to place the interests of the national economy ahead of those of the global economy. Private sector businesses and professional accounting bodies also have a vested interest in accounting practices and financial reporting. Pressure from these groups to change or reject certain standards can carry a lot of weight with political decision makers. Adopting international financial standards is met with additional challenges in developing countries. They often lack the resources and infrastructure to adapt national legal and legislative frameworks in which to house the standards, making proper implementation difficult. Training and Retraining, When a country decides to harmonize with the international standards, its companies, accountants and auditors need to be retrained in the new standards and reporting procedures for financial statements. College and university programs in this field also have to undergo significant changes in order to educate new people entering the profession. Before any of this can happen, trainers and professors will require training so they can instruct professionals and students. This will require the development of new learning materials and curricula, new examinations for professional licensing and new accounting software and reporting systems. To further complicate matters, the adoption of harmonized standards has to be phased in, so for a number of years, two different systems are in operation. Such a omplex transition requires a lot of safety mechanisms to ensure it achieves uniform results. To sum up with, Harmonization of financial statement is very crucial for acc ounting profession and also for the global business growth especially for multinational companies which will now find easily in preparation of parent and subsidiary financial statement since have to be prepared according to IFRS. IFRS IS very important to developing countries like Tanzania such as increasing confidence of investors, reduce cost of doing business, facilitate smooth operation of international groupings like EAC and the countries accountant become competitive worldwide. REFERENCES WORD LENGTH: 3517 words Arbnor, I. Bjerke, B. (1997): Methodology for Creating Business Knowledge, Sage Publications, Thousands Oaks, 2nd edition. Ghauri, P. ; Gronhaug, K. (2002): Research Methods in Business Studies, Prentice Hall, London. Choi, F. ; Frost C. ; Gary, K. (2002): International Accounting, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 4th edition. Choi, F. ; Mueller, G. (1992): International Accounting, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2nd edition. Epstein, B. ; Mirza, A. (2001): IAS, Interpretation a nd Application, John Wiley ; Sons, New York. Ghauri P. ; Gronhaug, K. ; Kristianslund, I. (1995): Research Methods in Business Studies: A practical guide, Prentice Hall, Bodmin. Gummesson, E. 2000): Qualitative Methods in Management Research, Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, 2nd edition. Helgesson, T. (1996): Culture in International Business: an Introduction, Academia Adacta, Lund. Hill, C. (1999): Competing in the Global Marketplace; Irwin McGraw Hill, Boston, 3rd edition. Hofstede, G. (1991): Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. Howard, K. ; Sharp, J. (1983): The Management of a Student Research Project, Gower Publishing Company Ltd. , Aldershot. Johansson, L. (2000): Introduktion till Vetenskapsteorin, AIT Falun AB, Stockholm. Kam, V. (1990): Accounting Theory, John Willey and Sons, New York, 2nd edition. 70 Kleekamper, H. ; Kuhlewind, M. ; Alvarez, M. 2002): Grundlagen, Ziele, Organisation, Entwicklung und Bedeutung des IAS B, in: Rechnungslegung nach International Accounting Standards (IAS), editedy by Baetge, D. ; Kleekamper, H. ; Wollmert, P. ; Kirsch H. (2002), Schafer-Poeschel, Stuttgart, 2nd edition. Naciri, A. ; Hoarau C. (2001): A comparative analysis of american and french financial Reporting philosophies: the case for international Accounting Standards, in: Advances in International Accounting, edited by Sale, J; Salter, S; Sharp, D. (2001), Elsevier Sience Ltd, Oxford. Nobes, C. ; Parker, R. (2000): Comparative International Accounting, Financial Times – Prentice Hall, Hartlow. Nobes, C. 1999): Towards a General Model of the Reasons for International Differences in Financial Reporting, in: International Accounting and Comparative Financial Reporting, edited by Nobes, C. (1998), Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham. Nobes, C; Mueller, G; Gernon, H; Meek, G. (1997): Accounting an International Perspective, Richard D. Irwin, Inc; Chicago, 4th edition. Nobes, C. (1994): Accounting Harmonisation in Europe: Process, progress and prospects, FT Business Information Ltd, London. North, D. (1990): Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Miles, M. ; Huberman, A. (1994): Qualitative Data Analysis – An expanded source book, Sage Publications, Inc, Thousands Oaks, 2nd edition. Mueller, G. 1997): Harmonization Efforts in the European Union, in: International Accounting and Finance Handbook, edited by Choi, F. (1997), Wiley and Sons, New York, 7th edition. Mueller, G. ; Gernon, H. ; Meek, G. (1991): Accounting – an International Perspective; Richard D. Irwin, Inc; Homewood, 2nd edition. Radebaugh, L. ; Daniels, J. (2001): International Business, Environment and Operations, Prentice Hall, London, 9th edition. Radebaugh L. ; Gray S. (1997): International Accounting and multinational enterprises, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 4th edition. Remenyi, D. ; Williams, B. ;Money A. ; Swartz E. (1998): Doing Research in Business and Management: An Introduction to Process and Method, SAGE Publications, London. 71 Riahi-Belkaoui, A. 2000): Accounting Theory, Thomson Learning – Business Press, Padstow, Cornwall, 4th edition. Roberts, C. ; Weetman, P. ; Gordon P. (1998): International Financial Accounting – a comparative approach, Financial Times Pitman Publishing, London. Samuels, J. ; Piper, A. (1985): International Accounting: A survery, Croom Helm, London. Wolk, H. ; Tearney, M. ; Dodd, J. (2001): A Conceptual and intestinal Approach: Accounting Theory, South-Western College Publishing, 5th edition. Wollmert, P. ; Achleitner A. (2002): Konzeption der IAS: Rechnungslegung, in: Rechnungslegung nach International Accounting Standards (IAS), edited by Baetge, D. ; Kleekamper, H. ; Wollmert, P. ; Kirsch, H. (2002):, Schafer-Poeschel, , Stuttgart, 2nd edition.

Athletic Director at State University Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Athletic Director at State University - Essay Example tate University have devised their funding strategy from a different point of view, where they openly disclose their needs and costs to their supporters. Few weeks ago, the men’s track and the field coach released their budget through their athlete website detailing the items needs and the program attached (Humphrey, & Humphrey, 112). Furthermore, the team ensured that the individual needs were accompanied by their related costs; this gave supporters an overview of the expectations of the team. The Michigan State University track and field schedule prove goal oriented and transparent. This strategy proves an asset to many schools when creating awareness for their needs. Another crucial consideration is that the funds raised must attend to the needs specified if the team wants to gain the trusted the donors (Humphrey, & Humphrey, 146). A successful athletic department ensures that the donor will always yearn to help the team achieve higher levels of success. The period 1800/ 1900 marked a momentous date in the calendars’ of college heads, law makers, alumnae, faculty, athletic directors, as the intercollegiate athletics along the institutions of higher learning was signed; they were well aware of the relationship between the success of their athletic schedules through the cooperation of donors. The reasons as to why vast individuals assume the positive influence attached to college sports and donors comes from the fact that; a well performing team serves as a source of revenue to colleges and universities in question. College sports are normally termed as a million dollar industry; prompted by their exposure to the public (Humphrey, & Humphrey, 156). The Michigan State University involves its activities in the media through; print media, the Internet, and through the television. There appears a belief that; successful college sports are a ticket to accessing more revenue for colleges and universities involved. As the director of the Central Michigan

Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 28

Economics - Essay Example An isocost line is a line showing combinations of inputs that would yield the same cost. Therefore, the word isocost implies that the cost of the given factors of production are constant along the certain activity level and thus can be used for the planning and decision making purposes. In the above figure, L denotes the amount of labor utilized by the producer and K denotes the amount of capital utilized by the producer. It is evident from the figure that along the line the cost of both of the factors of production is same and the total cost of production is also shown on the graph for different cost lines. With the help of isocost lines, most economic and cost beneficial decision can be made for getting the desired output. This graph also shows that isocost lines are the straight lines and the only different in them is that they shift up or down the graph showing the same pattern for different activity levels. These isocost lines are parallel because each reflects the same relative resource price. Given a  production function, an isoquant is "the locus of input combinations that yield the same output level." (Chiang, p. 360) There is an isoquant set for each possible output level. Mathematically the isoquant is a  level curve of the production function. Isoquants is a concept relating to the quantity of input required to produce a certain level of output. For a given level of output, there are certain levels of input of production factors that yield the same level of output. If the ratio of two or more of the factors of production is changed then the resulting yield of those input factors can be same for all of the combinations of factors. This implies that the concept of isoquant deals primarily with the cost minimization problems of producers. The above figure shows different levels of labor and capital required to produce a certain output of a particular product and the curve shows that different combinations of input resources can be made to

ENGLISH 4 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ENGLISH 4 - Research Paper Example This keeps off diseases that cause death in humans. Even so, the presence of accidents both in the present and future stands out as the only deterrent to the achievement of this objective. Thus, this research report analyses examples from the article to determine the effectiveness and reliability of the emotional, ethical and logical appeals that the author uses to pass across the intended arguments and persuade the reader. Emotional Appeal In this essay, figurative language has been used to appeal to the reader’s emotions. For example, the word, â€Å"party,† has been used by the author in place of the word, â€Å"life,† as in the phrase â€Å"leave the party† (McCarthy 550). This portrays life as being fun that one cannot afford to lose. It thus becomes easier to have a discussion on immortality appeal to the readers. Therefore, the author uses this figurative language to emotionally gain the support of the reader on the need to increase human life so as to allow for a longer time of fun with life. Furthermore, the author appropriately uses metaphors and comparisons to appeal to the reader’s emotions. For example, talking of the â€Å"path of long life† and the â€Å"highway of immortality† aims at portraying the intended lifespan as being long, just as a path or highway is (McCarthy 544). Moreover, placing the phrases in the same paragraph helps the author make immortality more appealing by comparing it to a highway rather than long life which she compares to a path. The author makes immortality more appealing, even though both long life and immortality entail longer life. The author also uses irony to appeal emotionally to the reader. For example, â€Å"I have accepted my own mortality†¦ [but] I don’t accept the mortality of my loved ones†¦ I don’t want them ever to die† (McCarthy 548). This shows that the author is least concerned about whether she dies, but willing to do all i t takes to ensure that her loved ones do not die. It is ironical for one to wish others well more than self. The author uses this irony to emotionally gain the reader’s trust who will consider her as selfless. It, thus, becomes easier for such an audience to agree with the author’s arguments. Ethical Appeal In this essay, the author establishes ethos through appropriate choice of words. Use of technical terminologies related to the studies of human anatomy gives the article an ethical appeal. Terminologies used in human science such as DNA, chromosome and telomerase have been used by McCarthy (545) in the essay. This enables the author to convince the reader that she has the technical knowledge on human anatomy. The perception of a qualified author in the field of human science makes the reader qualify her as a reliable authority to discuss human immortality. Logical Appeal Examples used in the essay have been appropriately chosen so as to establish logos. The author h as borrowed examples from credible sources so as to logically appeal to the readers. The use of titles and describing the cited sources aims at establishing a logical appeal in the essay. For instance, McCarthy (545) cites the argument by Dr. Francis Collins, a director at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH, that within the next 30 years, the genes responsible for aging in humans would have been known. She further cites Dr. Huber Warner, a director at the aging program biology based at the National Institute of Aging, NIA, as being optimistic about humans living longer through

My History about a Guard in the Mall Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

My History about a Guard in the Mall - Essay Example The guard looked like part of the furniture by virtue of his immobility. He was an inch or two shies of six feet and had a ruddy face. However, I could only see an outline of his nose and chin as he was not facing my direction. He had which I thought contrasted to his military style hair cut. On his head, he had blond crossly cropped like soldiers would be. He had on a well-starched blue short sleeved shirt and a pair of pants made of the same material. He had regulation boots, but it was the way he positioned his feet that made my neck snap up from my examination. From where I sat, I could tell his right shoe was clearly more buffed than the right one. I tried to play Sherlock Holmes and looked to see if he held his baton with his left hand. He did his holster was on the same side, so I concluded he was right-handed. He lifted up his face to examine something in the distance somewhere across the door his eyes were blue, and he had exceptionally busy eyebrows, which were not quite as brown as his hair. His eyes had a faraway look like a sailor trying to spy a distance inland from the deep sea. I wondered if he had been in the navy, and he seemed to be staring at a point far in the horizon even in an enclosed mall where there was not much of a horizon. His hands, which had shifted the baton to a peg on his belt, they were big pinkish callused hands which could have seen hard labor in the past. The fingernails on his left hand looked like they had been chewed on rather on rather than clipped. He stood with his feet apart, and this seemed to give him an element of stability as well as size. When he stood there, with his feet aside his hands constantly felt at his pockets area.  

Compare and contrast a christian and jewish woman's expression of Essay

Compare and contrast a christian and jewish woman's expression of spiritual feminism - Essay Example Spirituality presents a rational way to move toward the topic of "feminism and Christianity. In the 1970s, a new event appeared inside the women's association in the United States under the name of "feminist spirituality." This movement came to Europe around 1980. It arose from the imminent that the beginning of women’s estrangement goes deeper than the divergence of sex-roles between man and woman. Its ancestry lies in the dualism between spirit and body which characterizes patriarchate itself. In the following ten to fifteen years many other new phenomena appeared which can be treated under the heading of feminist spirituality. In the first place, such spirituality has to to be one of freedom. The theological basis lies in the courage to be, which means the courage to choose life. "Life and death I give you, blessing and curse. Choose life," says the bible. Liberation spirituality starts off perturbed with and in upheaval against all structures in society and church based on man-woman relations and the resultant limitations these place on women's autonomy. as a society, women can fulfill an intercessory purpose, moving in the field of the Spirit who sets us free from all peripheral restraints. Living in the Spirit of Christ encourages us not to allow ourselves to be incarcerated any more. Liberation spirituality is therefore also a revolutionary spirituality which can be productive only if it fuses together elements of the journey to Tabor, the Transfiguration, and the return journey to the Jerusalem of death and resurrection. For liberation is finally a way to freedom: freedom to love, to celebrate ordinary life, to become open to the Mystery of our existence which we call God. There we find liberty to live carefully and to listen, which is the basis for the liberation effort. Establishing a connection between Latin-American liberation theology and feminist liberation spirituality, it strikes as important that Gustavo Gutierrez places special importance on the knowledge of God's grace. For him, "Communion with God and with all people is first and foremost a gift." Jewish: IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS there has been a sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, but mostly unremarked rebellion in North American Jewish spirituality, based on feminism. New prayers, rituals, and speech to address theology are some of the more clear changes. Equally important are new forms of spiritual leadership, changes in mutual authority, and even telling details such as services held in circles rather than hierarchically planned arrangements. The expansion of modern Jewish feminist spirituality has rested on three approaches to ritual. The first is reinterpretation: a reconsideration of recognized sources from feminist positions. On a philosophical level, Jewish feminists have found areas of important convergence between Judaism and feminism. The most significant of these is a fundamental discrimination and valuing of interrelationship. Just as the essential feminist imminent that "the personal is political" emphasizes the associations among all those aspects of acquaintance to Jewish theology. Both perspectives imitate a wish to observe the amazing present in the mundane and to be aware of the daily choices involved in our lives, which constantly create and re-create the larger world. Finally, the link between individual liberation and social change couched in the thoughtful that "the personal is political" has been a characteristic of Jewish thought since biblical times. As compared to models of spirituality that highli ght indifference or otherworldliness, Jewish spirituality is entrenched in the interrelationship among study (in the better sense of learning and teaching), prayer (including manifestation common visions and public festivity), and social work for justice. In contrast to other spiritual ethnicity, such as Christianity or Buddhism, Judaism has no historical models of a women's spiritual society. Separatist Jewish feminism has busted momentous new

Stress in company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Stress in company - Essay Example Too often, as noted by Verespej (par. 8-12), executives prefer to ignore stress because acknowledging it might create a negative view of the company. In other cases, CEOs and senior managers simply do not see that a problem exists. If stress is evident, they consider it related to the employee’s personal problems and do not feel responsible for addressing it. A major issue is the stress caused by project deadlines that do not take into consideration unexpected delays and therefore are almost impossible to meet. Employees who are allowed to evaluate a project themselves and set up a plan that takes into consideration possible delays will be able to set their own deadlines, and the project will be accomplished with a minimum of stress. Unfortunately, some managers do not want to give up their autonomy and do not allow the staff to be part of planning a project. Therefore, the staff is presented with a plan in which they have no input and are not able to suggest any changes. The company therefore misses out on any innovative ideas employees might have, and for employees who are imaginative and enthusiastic, their specific talents are suppressed, resulting in stress. Their actions are mechanical rather than creative, and if they are presented with a rigid deadline, they and the project will suffer. At the same time, managers who are expected to fulfill expectations of those above them are put in a precarious and stressful situation. The middleman becomes the scapegoat, and too often takes it out on staff members, leading to increasing frustration and stress at all levels. The ladder of managerial levels in a company tends to start at the bottom and move up, with each level of leadership answerable to the one above it. This discourages open discussion and managers find themselves without the ability to vent their concerns with other managers

The Woman Ruler in Queen Elizabeth Essay Example for Free

The Woman Ruler in Queen Elizabeth Essay Elizabeth I is considered as one of successful monarchs in the history of England. The period where she ruled is deemed as England’s Golden Age where extravagance and luxury flourished as expressed in literature through writers like William Shakespeare, and territorial expeditions through explorers like Francis Drake. In other words, there was a breathtaking cultural and political achievement that the England people experience after a century of chaos from a former ruler. This age is always attributed to the reign of Elizabeth I because prior to this, in the sixteenth century, people lived through the ruthlessness of Mary I, Elizabeth’s sister where she prosecuted all Protestants in the country. Elizabeth I became a queen when she inherited her sister’s throne after she died. At the onset, she was confronted by the challenge and opposition of those who thinks that a woman cannot qualify as a monarch. She has proved England and the world that she can and a woman can become a ruler, and successful at that. She is known to be a different kind of queen. She is â€Å"quick-witted, clever and able to use feminine wiles to get her own way. Elizabeth could be as ruthless and calculating as any king before her but at the same time she was vain, sentimental and easily swayed by flattery (Briscoe). † Her brilliance and ability as woman ruler are specifically suggested by her writings and her speeches for the whole of England. As mentioned earlier, there was a contemporary assumption in England that women are naturally incapable of a monarchical rule; Queen Elizabeth established her magisterial authority. She constructed a â€Å"positive representation of feminine power from a melange of popular beliefs about exceptional women, such as her identification with the Virgin Mary (Levin , et al 192). † Elizabeth I as A Powerful Monarch As a queen she had to fulfil responsibilities that were most difficult to fulfil as a woman. But the whole England saw her as having all the dignity and ability as a ruler that resulted a very prosperous and successful reign. When England was being confronted by the forces of King Phillip II of Spain when he decided to attack England and suppressed their engagement in the trade between the New World. He set off the Spanish Armada to meet the British troops. Before the war, Queen Elizabeth I meet the British troops and addressed them a speech that displays optimism and trust of a ruler upon her citizenry. â€Å"My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects (Speech to the Troops at Tilbury). † Moreover, as a ruler she also displayed her concurrence and selflessness among the British troops when she said â€Å"And therefore I am amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of battle, to live or die amongst you; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor, my blood, even the dust (Speech to the Troops at Tilbury). † Despite being a woman, she always asserted her capability to rule as that of equal to men when she said that â€Å"I know I have but a body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too (Speech to the Troops at Tilbury). † This reiterated the fact that even though she is regarded as weak and incapable of ruling the kingdom, that doesn’t decreased her confidence in her ability to successfully rule England. She has proven that beyond doubts in her capability, she remains unafraid in facing everything from great responsibilities as a monarch to battles against the invaders. As a queen, she has nothing in mind but service that would bring England into a status that unimaginable before her reign. Her dedication to her people and her responsible leadership is expressed in her farewell speech to the parliament â€Å"There will never Queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country, care to my subjects and that will sooner with willingness venture her life for your good and safety than myself. For it is my desire to live nor reign no longer than my life and reign shall be good for you. And though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had nor shall have, any that will be more careful than loving (The Farewell Speech). † Queen Elizabeth as a Religious Leader While there were many chaos regarding the two opposing forces of Catholicism and Protestantism, Queen Elizabeth made little modification than what she was expected. What she did was just to imposed that prayers and services be rendered in English rather than in Latin. Moreover, she wanted that the Church be under the English Monarch, therefore establishing herself as a religious reader. While she acknowledges the Almighty God’s power as always reiterated in her farewell speech â€Å"Neither do I desire to live longer days than I may see your prosperity and that is what my only desire. And as I am that person still yet, under God, hath delivered you and so I trust by the almighty power of God that I shall be his instrument to preserve you from every peril, dishounour, shame, tyranny, and oppression, partly by means of your intended helps which we take very acceptably because it manisfesteth the largeness of your good loves and loyalties unto your sovereign (Farewell Speech),† she nevertheless want that the government will prevail over religion. Queen Elizabeth as Chaste and Virgin While most of her people and members of the Court persuaded her to marry and begot a child to become the heir of the throne when she dies, she remained unmarried throughout her lifetime. Moreover, she also had several suitors from different parts of England and the world such as France, Spain, Scotland, Sweden, and the Roman Empire. She has remained unmarried because she believes that marriage is not the best for her and for England. In her response to the proposal of Erik of Sweden she said that â€Å"And while we perceive there from that the zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene Highness with the same kind of affection. And that indeed does not happen because we doubt in any way of your love and honour, but, as often we have testified both in words and writing, that we have never yet conceived a feeling of that kind of affection towards anyone (Response to Erik of Sweden’s Proposal). † One by one, she rejected all her potential husbands not on the man’s weaknesses but based on her adverse thoughts and principles on the consept of marriage. In her refusal to marry and secure the line of the Tudor, she was regarded as a capricious woman insensitive of England’s welfare and future. When she was being pressured by the Parliament to marry before her reign ends, she replied â€Å" now that the Publick Care of governing the Kingdom is laid upon me, to draw upon me also the Cares of marriage may seem a point of inconsiderate Folly. Yea, to satisfie you, I have already joyned myself in marriage to an Husband, namely, the Kingdom of England And to me it shall be a Full satisfaction, both for the memorial of my Name, and for my Glory also, if when I shall let my last breath, it be ingraven upon my Marble Tomb, Here lieth Elizabeth, which Reigned a Virgin, and died a Virgin (Response to Parliamentary Delegation on Her Marriage, 1559). † Throughout her lifetime, she has proven to be a Queen that receives full credit for such a successful and prosperous reign that made England in the pinnacle of greatness in the world. Works Cited Briscoe, Alexandre. â€Å"Elizabeth I: An Overview†. BBC History. 01 October 2008. http://www. bbc. co. uk/history/british/tudors/elizabeth_i_01. shtml â€Å"The Farewell Speech†. Modern History Sourcebook:Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533, r. 1558-1603) Selected Writing and Speeches. 01 October 2008. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1. html#Response%20to%20Erik%20of%20Sweden%27s%20Proposal Levin, Carole, Carney, Jo Eldridge, et al. Elizabeth I: Always Her Own Free Woman London: Ashgate Publishing, 2003. â€Å"Response to Erik of Sweden’s Proposal†. Modern History Sourcebook:Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533, r. 1558-1603) Selected Writing and Speeches. 01 October 2008. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1. html#Response%20to%20Erik%20of%20Sweden%27s%20Proposal â€Å"Response to a Parliamentary Delegation on Her Marriage, 1559†. Modern History Sourcebook:Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533, r. 1558-1603) Selected Writing and Speeches. 01 October 2008. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1. html#Response%20to%20Erik%20of%20Sweden%27s%20Proposal â€Å"Speech to the Troops at Tilbury†. Modern History Sourcebook: Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533, r. 1558-1603) Selected Writing and Speeches. 01 October 2008. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1. html#Response%20to%20Erik%20of%20Sweden%27s%20Proposal