Saturday, August 31, 2019
Passion to Profession
Customer Service What is customer service? Customer service is the process of ensuring customer satisfaction with a product or service. â€Å"Customer service is not about you or your company, it is about the customer. – It is about the customer's wants, needs, and expectations. †(Bolden, Colon, 2010) Often, customer service occurs while performing a transaction for a customer such as making a sale or returning an item. It can take the form of personal interaction, a phone call, or by other means. It is an important part of our job and should not be seen as an extension of it.A company’s most vital asset is its customers and without them, we would not and could not exist in business. When you satisfy our customers, they not only help us grow by continuing to do business with you, but recommend you to friends and associates. Every single contact with a customer can either cultivate or corrode the relationship with a customer. This includes every letter or email t hat is sent out, every ad that may run and every phone call made. Working as a Medical Assistant in a doctor’s office is direct contact with patients in many aspects. Similar essay: HR Profession Map ExplainedThe customer service starts from the moment the patients walk into the office. Many patients have questions and concerns about their treatments, illnesses, tests, lab results, financial status, etc. , and it is the job of a medical assistant to effectively serve the patient to their satisfaction. My career goal is to teach in the Allied Health field and customer service is a must. The three-fold Bachelor’s degree I am now working on at Florida Technical College consists of Health Service Administration, Health Information Technology and Medical Assistant.It will equip me to teach clinical and practical skills to Medical Assistants and other health professionals. In order to accomplish my goal to teach, it is imperative that I learn effective customer service skills. When dealing with students, customer service means going the extra mile, helping students with their questions and their thirst for knowledge. It also means making sure tha t when it’s time to start the clinical practice; each student understands technique and the importance of following rules and guidelines. In all sense, teaching requires good communication and customer service skills.Teachers provide a service, provide the community with educated people, provide the students with a safe learning environment, and provide the students with useful and relevant education. Teachers do not only teach class, they send out emails, post updates on blogs, have a website on a server; they motivate the students to learn what I know they need to learn. In order to be a good teacher, you have to develop a program that is suitable for your students. You must prepare activities which can enhance the physical, intellectual and cultural abilities of students.A teacher can do so much better in their career and in accomplishing their educational goals with their students if they would add a little customer service strategy to their teaching. Communication Commun ication is a two-way process of reaching a mutual understanding in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode) information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning. (Graham, Paul, 2006) Communication involves means such as listening, speaking, writing and reading. All these means can be used for an active communication process.In general, communication is a means of connecting people or places. Many times, one of the biggest challenges people face when developing customer relations skills is empathy. If we are empathetic, it helps us better understand a person or situation, enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect, and is imperative in leadership. In my personal experience in the medical field, communication has always been very important, and has also gone hand in hand with empathy–the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties.Good customer service cannot exist without communication. When I worked as manager of an assisted living facility in Lewiston, Idaho, my job was communication between the elderly residents and their families, doctors’ offices, hospitals, and healthcare and social service agencies. Many times I was liaison between the resident and Medicare/Medicaid. Effective communication required phone calls, conversations with residents and family members in order to make important healthcare decisions, formal and informal memorandums to staff and/or management, and formal professional letters.In all essence, customer service and communication cannot work individually. Communication in all its aspects is imperative for effective customer relations. References: 1. Bolden ,Colon. Jun 28, 2010. Customer Service Tips-The Best Way to Treat People. Retrieved from: http://www. articlesbase. com/customer-service-articles/customer-service-tips-on-the-best-way-to-treat-people-2738621. html 2. Graham, Paul. 2013 Web Finance Inc. Retrieved from: http://www. business dictionary. com/tips/customer-service
Friday, August 30, 2019
Education Policy in Two Different Countries Essay
Education Policy in Two Different Countries Introduction            These refers to the principles and policies made by the government in the field of education, collection of rules and laws that govern the operations carried out in the education system. Education is a form of learning where knowledge, habits and skills of a particular group of people are transmitted from generation to generation through training, teaching or carrying out a research. It occurs in different forms such as formal, informal and non-formal with different purposes from institutions of learning like colleges/universities, professional education and graduate, job training and adult education. When implementing education in a given country, education policies are evidently known that they can affect education that people engage in directly at all ages. They have to be critically analyzed for effective learning under different areas in the field of schools such as; the size of school to be constructed, school choice, certification a nd teacher education, school privatization under education policy(Ball, 2009, 89), tracking, teaching methods, graduation requirements, curricular content, investment in the school infrastructure, and the values institutions are required to uphold and model.            Analysis of education policy is a scholarly study that seeks to give answers of different questions such as; the purpose of education, personal and societal objectives that education is designed to attain, methods to be used in attaining such objectives and tools applied in measuring their failure or success. Intended research of informing educational policy is done in a wide variety of learning institutions and several academic disciplines. Beneficial researchers are affiliated with different departments such as; economics, psychology, human development and sociology, departments and schools of education/public policy. Different countries have different educational policies according to the objectives and goals that education is expected to achieve. This essay critically evaluates issues concerning education policy in England and USA. Education policy in England            Research shows that inequalities in education (Bunar, 2010: p.10) had erupted before schools were started for the children. The data provided by OECD displayed a higher percentage of individuals finishing tertiary education in many countries if their parents reached tertiary level of education. In many countries, educational inequalities continue to increase where people who have acquired education at higher levels have high possibilities of doing jobs which are non-formal. The question that prevails is whether the existing educational policies are minimizing these gaps. Are they relevant at their level of implementation? The essay reviews the truth about policies at the school level in England; this is due to the number of years one spends in school which is compulsory and plays an important role towards government intervention and it is conducted in a way that affects potentially all students. Recently, England started a good body of eva luating research of policies at school-level. The evaluation of these policies is based on school resources efficacy, market incentives, pedagogical approaches and school autonomy for raising attainment of education in schools.            Since 1988, education system had one key character under The Education Act, which has led to the implementation and designing a number of policies in education with an aim of improving standards of education and achievement. A good number of policies have been introduced at each stage of education, and a number of these policies have been evaluated. This gives an opportunity for a critical appraisal on such evaluations and the scope of different policies that have influenced achievement of education. These evaluations aim at the different ways of enhancing performance and reducing inequalities in education. Educational inequalities in England            These inequalities in the achievement of education can be differently identified at some points in individuals’ lives. However, these educational inequalities emerge at an early stage in the lifecycle and widen the gap as progress in education sequence is experienced. This description of the inequalities is aimed at motivating the evaluation of policies in education, which are used to alleviate inequalities in education and minimize achievement gaps, which is an important research in the field of education. Under this description, individual follows an ordered educational sequence which comprises of years in pre-school, compulsory schooling years, post-compulsory level of education and lastly to adult. Gaps in pre-school education            Initially we focused on the educational achievement gaps being present even before students started going to school. These gaps are created by the environments they grow in, family backgrounds and different non-cognitive and cognitive levels of skills children have when entering school. Studies conducted under vocabulary skills (Lervag, 2010: p. 615) shows there is high dispersion of a number of sizeable gaps existing in gender and ethnic groups at the time of entering school. Compulsory school            At the stage of compulsory schooling, the gaps that were there at the school entry evolve. Where some widens while others narrow as abilities of children at school makes them move either up or down the outcomes of the educational distribution. This can be affected by policies of education with the scope of affecting achievement in education. Education at post-compulsory level            This level of education is strongly impinged by the disadvantages of education acquired during compulsory schooling and the pre-school years. It determines whether an individual continues with education in post-compulsory level or not. This level is strongly determined by the education level of their parents. Adult learning            Inequalities of education continue to increase even when a student completes full-time education. They extend to adults in their live of working as their training and education occurs and mostly to those who have acquired higher levels of education.            Under those stages of education, it is evident that inequalities in education emerge and exists at all levels in the sequence. Some gaps widen as individuals progresses more through the sequence of education especially those associated with disadvantages of schooling in urban areas are less compared to those in rural areas. This calls for a significant and a careful evaluation of the policies of education designed to affect educational inequalities. The educational policies raft introduced to the England system of education fifteen years ago provides a good setting for evaluation methods and their success and thus provides a better understanding of educational work. Policy evaluation regarding to England school            Although these policies at all levels of lifecycle are important for improving attainment in education and inequality reduction, the policies of school-level ought to be focused on in the England system of education. This is because compulsory years of schooling give an important time for the intervention of the government. It also acts as a good body of evaluation of the research policies in England. This calls for selective areas of policy with a critical appraisal which is rigorous. The following are headings of policy discussion and their methods of evaluation.            School resources refer to perennial debates concerning educational literature of economics of whether if the expenditure of the school is increased will have an effect on improving pupil attainment (Peters, 2009: p.1). Research on whether the implantation of such policies can reduce the types of attainment gaps experienced earlier. The relevance of such implementation is to determine whether additional expenditure can lead to cost effective in developed countries at the typical levels.            International research indicated that there is no good relationship between student outcomes and resources. However, some puts more efforts on studies particularly with methodological design with positive impacts. The challenge faced in the implementation of this policy is that school resources are always allocated disproportionately to disadvantaged students. If this issue is not dealt with fully in methodological design, the way resources and attainment are related with one another will be easily obscured.            Critical evaluation shows that favorable association between educational disadvantages and school resources is counter-balanced to the unfavorable association between educational attainment and educational disadvantage. This clearly indicates that association between educational attainment and school resources is very low, and there is no true reflection of casual relationship. There is the fact that the implementation of controlled randomized experiments has been impossible, researchers have found it difficult to prove that such a problem has been solved. Being the biggest category of expenditure of the UK government, it calls for a more significant sense of getting whether if the expenditure is either increased or reduced there is the likelihood of having an impact on students’ outcomes. This aspect is very important for the future economy in the country and the future prosperity of individuals.            Recent studies have been done concerning this issue in England using national citizen database and all schools expenditure. The national curriculum of the English government is divided into four key levels/stages, then at the end of these stages teachers evaluates the students or they are given national tests that externally and marked at the school when students are the age of 11 and 16. A study done have critically evaluated the relationship between attainment and expenditure in the secondary school level at the age of 14 and 16 respectively, displayed a small positive impact of resources used and on pupil attainment. The challenge behind it is that political control is used as an instrument for expenditure in the school.            Government has initiated better flame work for examining casual effects derived from this context. In early 2000s, a flagship evaluation policy was done on the government labor and the (EiC) program for the secondary schools in England. Under this program, disadvantaged schools mainly located in urban areas were provided extra resources with an effort of improving standards.            Incentives for a period of more than thirty years a concerted effort has been done with an aim of increasing the choice of parents, competition between schools and their accountability for the children performance (Eom, 2011:p.418). If the economy develops well, children go to better schools with incentives of increasing performance. This is because their effort should be strongly linked to pupil information and numbers which is disclosed to parents under the accountability framework.            School autonomy most government schools function within a given framework based on their jurisdiction concerning terms of teacher conditions and pay, admissions, composition of the body that is governing and the curriculum (Clark,2009: p.760). Since 2000, the England government started academies which led to the emergence of new schools given more autonomy compared to typical government schools in terms of their freedom of operations. The rationale behind this greater emphasis on autonomy is to encourage schools to have more innovative policies and facilitate improvement of standards. In England, the so called academies are managed by any appointed governor or their sponsors who are responsible in recruiting all staffs, freedom over curriculum implementation, agreeing on the terms and conditions of payment and organizational aspects of the school.            Pedagogy although since the year 2000, school autonomy in England seems to have gained popularity, it has not been true to various school organizational aspects (Terenzin, 2010: p.772). The government has put into place prescriptive measures in order to improve standards in numeracy and literacy through pedagogical methods. The national numeracy and literacy strategy rolled out in 1998 and 1999 was aimed at improving teaching quality through introducing more focused effective management of the class and instructions. Both literacy and numeracy did not present an overall time increase that was allotted in teaching some subjects. Both dramatically represented a change on the teaching methods of such subjects.            The above evaluation on education policy in England clearly shows that gaps in educational attainment are evident from earlier times and have been measured along the lifecycle. Various policies have been reviewed at the school level and implemented in England which brought high standards economic evaluation, aiming to see how scope of educational inequalities can be impinged. This has been done under the evaluation of the following educational policies implemented in England such as; incentives, school resources, pedagogical approaches and school autonomy. This issue of reducing educational inequalities and gaps that exist in the sphere of education has been shaped for effective implementation. It enhances positive impacts through the use of the following contextual factors applied in secondary school classroom setting.            Structure and organization of the educational system: this helps in shaping the development of curriculum by considering the society served by the education system. It reflects the aspirations and the needs of the students, function and the nature of learning and statement formulation on the importance of learning. This enables students to know how policies of education are implemented and established, influences the operation of schools and helps them to achieve their educational goals and curricular.            Climate of learning in schools this involves many factors and values such as safety practices, cultures, and organizational structures shaping the school to react and function in a given way (Cohen,2009: p.189). Favorable and positive climate created in school by all stakeholders’ results to higher achievement by students.            Teaching staff: their professional development plays a great important role by attempting to reform or change an education system. The general purpose behind teachers’ evaluation is to ensure that the quality of instructions students receive from teachers are safeguarded and improved. Teachers are evaluated through classrooms observation by the principals, peer review of teachers and checking on students’ performance.            Parental involvement: for a school to be successful there must have a high cooperation among teachers, school administration and parents. A research done indicated that if parents participate in the education of their children, it results to an increase in the academic achievement of the students and an overall attitude improvement towards school.            Classroom environment: instructional activities carried out in school are always influenced by environment in the classroom. This includes classroom size, class composition and instructional time. Research indicates that favorable classroom environment benefits academic development thus helping students to achieve educational goals.Education policy in USA            In USA, education is provided by both private and public schools. Education in public schools is universally available, funded and controlled by the state, federal and local government. Private schools are set free to come up with their own curriculum and policies of staffing. Educational evaluation plays a significant role in USA as it assesses and distinguishes particular characteristics of the education process. It is a professional process by which incessant review is commenced by independent educators with an aim of improving the learning process. This attempt is done to ensure smooth progress on the whole learning experience. The evaluation process in USA is conducted under the following three routes;            Personal evaluation: this comprises of a legal and an ethical process, the standards behind it are educational, significant and judicious. Personnel evaluation standards are easily implemented, apt in funds and proficient in utility.            Program evaluation: it involves ground standards that provide a guarantee of the demanded information by users. This process of evaluation is based on factors that are prudent, practical, and thrifty and save. It results to an accurate and complete evaluation to the point.            Student evaluation: it is a program carried out ethically and legally which is kept in the students mind while others are affected by it. Its standards are diligently judicious, educational and significant therefore; it is an extremely useful evaluation to students. The process is very sensible, efficient, affordable, feasible, politically and socially.            Education policy in USA has been effectively evaluated with an aim of ensuring educational effectiveness among students at different levels of education. Policy-amenable of the school characteristics are among the factors controlled under school management or national policy of education. It refers to substantive policy measures of education in areas such as governance, curriculum, accountability and development of a professional teacher and other characteristics at the school-level known to improve teaching. This discussion focuses on three main areas of policy-amenable characteristics of a school which shapes educational policy implementation. They include school climate, school resources and school policies. It is also interested in measuring the school context by mean socio-economic students’ backgrounds within the school. Relative impacts determined by school characteristics of policy-amenable and school context on the quality of education has helped policy makers to have a control.            The question under the educational policy evaluation is why some schools are performing better than others. If the policy evaluation can identify the factors causing such deviation in terms of different school performance, better strategies can be implemented to change such performance deviation; that is identifying general characteristics of schools with high performance and use such information to improve performance of a given school. The following are the three main areas according to PISA which shapes education policy implementation and has an effect towards students’ performance.            School resources comprises of physical resources and materials such as the school size and the quality of physical infrastructure in the school, human resources including number of teaching staff (Peters, 2009: p.1). They have a tertiary qualification and the number of students in the school compared to the available teachers. If the school infrastructure is well constructed and the school has enough teachers the performance of students is likely to increase. This evaluation conducted in schools ensures effective implementation of the curriculum which facilitates achievement of educational goals.            School climate entails different aspects culture of the school including how well teachers and students get along, disciplinary climate (Crul, 2009: p. 1478). In addition, it includes how committed and motivated school’s teachers are and how strongly does the students identify themselves with their school. This factor is implemented well by school principals through ensuring that students are well disciplined and that teachers-students cooperation is improved. It is also well maintained through students’ motivation that results to high performance of students.            School policies it comprises the level of autonomy enjoyed by the school when making decisions, issues concerning accountability of whether self-evaluation is conducted in the school and students’ progress monitored (Creemers, 2010: p.815). Such policies also determine whether the school gives the parents information concerning the students’ performance or not. Lastly these policies establish the degree of selectivity in the school concerning admission policies and the way low achievers are transferred to different schools. These factors shape the issue of educational inequality and the gaps created in the secondary level, and if well implemented high attainment is achieved.            Conclusively, evaluation of education policy is an important factor in different countries for educational effectiveness. The above evaluation clearly shows some of the challenges experienced in school such educational inequalities, poor performance and non-effective governance among others results to poor performance. England and USA among other nations have developed educational policy evaluation at different levels of education. From the above discussion, it is clear that these policies have improved standards of education shaped under different contextual factors. Comparably, both countries have had almost the same factors such as school resources, school policies among other discussed factors above. The recommendation is that such policies should be improved and well implemented and for who are yet to implement should do it for educational effectiveness. References Anderson, P., Chisholm, D., & Fuhr, D. C. (2009). Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies and programmes to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. The Lancet, 373(9682), 2234-2246. Ball, S. J. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the ‘competition state’. Journal of Education Policy, 24(1), 83-99. Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175-189. Bryman, A. (2012). Social research methods. Oxford university press. Bunar, N. (2010). Choosing for quality or inequality: current perspectives on the implementation of school choice policy in Sweden. Journal of education policy, 25(1), 1-18. Cohen, J., McCabe, L., Michelli, N. M., & Pickeral, T. (2009). School climate: Research, policy, practice, and teacher education. The Teachers College Record, 111(1), 180-213. Cooper, A., Levin, B., & Campbell, C. (2009). The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice. Journal of Educational Change, 10(2-3), 159-171. De Bortoli, L., & Thomson, S. (2010). Contextual factors that influence the achievement of Australia’s Indigenous students: Results from PISA 2000-2006. OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 7. Halà ¡sz, G., & Michel, A. (2011). Key Competences in Europe: interpretation, policy formulation and implementation. European Journal of Education, 46(3), 289-306. Halpin, D. (Ed.). (2013). Researching education policy: Ethical and methodological issues. Routledge. Hobson, A. J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and teacher education, 25(1), 207-216. Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491-525. Levinson, B. A., Sutton, M., & Winstead, T. (2009). Education Policy as a Practice of Power Theoretical Tools, Ethnographic Methods, Democratic Options. Educational Policy, 23(6), 767-795. Papastergiou, M. (2009). Digital Game-Based Learning in high school Computer Science education: Impact on educational effectiveness and student motivation. Computers & Education, 52(1), 1-12. Rappleye, J., Imoto, Y., & Horiguchi, S. (2011). Towards ‘thick description’of educational transfer: understanding a Japanese institution’s ‘import’of European language policy. Comparative Education, 47(4), 411-432. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2009). Globalizing education policy. Routledge. Warnock, M., & Terzi, L. (Eds.). (2010). Special educational needs: A new look. Continuum International Publishing Group. Wiseman, A. W. (2010). The uses of evidence for educational policymaking: Global contexts and international trends. Review of research in education, 34(1), 1-24. Yudof, M. G., Levin, B., Moran, R. F., Ryan, J. E., & Bowman, K. L. (2011). Educational policy and the law. MSU Legal Studies Research Paper, (09-15). Source document
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Agenda Setting Theory Introduction
Therefore the main effect of media in agenda setting is telling people not what to think, but what to think of. The policy agenda is the issues that policy makers consider important after the public start to make campaign or petition to show protest against the organizations. Mass Communication plays an important role in our society its purpose is to inform the public about current and past events. Mass communication is defined in â€Å"Mass Media, Mass Culture†as the process whereby professional communicators use technological devices to share messages over great distances to influence large audiences. Within this process the media, which can be a newspaper, a book and television, takes control of the information we see or hear. The media then uses gate keeping and agenda setting to â€Å"control our access to news, information, and entertainment†(Wilson 14). Gate keeping is a series of checkpoints that the news has to go through before it gets to the public. Through this process many people have to decide whether or not the news is to be seen or heard. Some gatekeepers might include reporters, writers, and editors. After gate keeping comes agenda setting. Elaboration of the Theory The Agenda-Setting Theory says the media (mainly the news media) aren’t always successful at telling us what to think, but they are quite successful at telling us what to think about. The power of news media is to set a nation’s agenda, to focus public attention on a few key public issues, is an immense and well-documented influence. For example, newspapers provide a host of cues about the salience of the topics in daily news. They will lead story on first page, large headlines and etc. Besides that, television also consider as a mass communication tool. Television offers numerous cues about salience too. Their opening story is on newscast, length of time devoted to the story and etc. As said by Walter Lippmann, Agenda-Setting Theory is â€Å"the world outside the pictures in our heads†. The news media are a primary source of those pictures in our heads about the larger world of public affairs, a world that for most citizens is â€Å"out of reach, out of sight, out of mind. †Agenda setting is divided into two levels where the first level stress on common subject that media thinks the subject is important. The second level decides which part of the subject is important. Both level leads to the concept of agenda setting where the concept is divided into three parts. The first part of the process is the importance of the issues that are going to be discussed in the media. Second, the issues discussed in the media have an impact over the way the public thinks, this is referred as public agenda. Ultimately the public agenda influences the policy agenda. Furthermore, the media agenda affects the public agenda, and the public agenda affects the policy agenda. People would attend only to news and views that didn’t threaten their established beliefs. Agenda-setting will reconfirms the power of the press while still maintaining that individuals were free to choose. The agenda-setting function is a 3 part-process. Firstly, media agenda is the issues discussed in the media. Secondly, public agenda means issues discussed and personally relevant to public. Lastly, policy agenda is the issues that policy makers consider important. Media agenda and public agenda are close to each other. Media agenda is the set of issue addressed by media sources. It is a composite index of media prominence reveled the importance of foreign policy, law and order, fiscal policy, public welfare and civil rights. While public agenda are issues the public consider important. It is the rank of the five issues was identical to the media agenda. The key concept and terms are agenda setting, salience transfer, gatekeeping, framing, priming and determinants of agenda-setting effects. Agenda setting is giving priorities to alternative policy issues but in the early communications studies, shown a mixture about the ability to influence public opinion on the given issue. Salience transfer refers to the capacity of the media to influence the relative importance individuals attached to the policy. Next is gate keeping is a process that control the media content. Framing is the importance and interpretation of people attach to potential items on the public agenda are strongly influenced by how the media present news stories. Priming happen when framing centers on political loading of the presentation of news, it can be conscious and not conscious. Priming basically mean draw attention to certain issue even in a neutral manner. Last but not least is the determinant of agenda-setting effects. Media credibility or also known as media reliance are found that the determinant is weaker than the media exposure and media exposure are more important than media credibility in relation to presidential state of the union addresses. Application of the Theory In Malaysia, one of the case studies was to examine the Malay language newspaper’s media agenda during the general election. (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, UPM) The study was conducted to examine the use of the Barisan Nasional (BN) manifesto as the media agenda during the general election for the year 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 and 1999. A model for the study was constructed based on the Agenda Setting Theory. A content analysis was conducted on 50 issues of Utusan Malaysia (UM) and Berita Harian (BH). Throughout the studies, it was found that there were 11 major themes frequently used in the BN manifesto namely: politics, foreign policy, development, economy, social education, security, religion, workers welfare, agriculture and the quality of life. Above were the main themes in the news during the general election for the year of study. The content analysis also found that there were 4461 news with the BN manifesto shown in 11 major news themes with â€Å"politics†in the lead and the â€Å"quality of life†ending the list. It also showed that the BN manifesto was mainly covered in various sections such as the Local News, Foreign News, Special Column, Main Column, Editorial, Advertisement, Economy, Asean, Forum, Articles and others. While the coverage on News, Articles, Photographs, Editorial, Letter to the Editor, Cartoon, Columnist and Comments also showed the present of BN manifesto. There was also a small difference between the two newspapers in terms of its news coverage on the BN manifesto during the general election. The study clearly showed that the media agenda of the two mainstream newspapers in the country was framed by the content of the BN manifesto during the duration of the general election for the year 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 and 1999 and thus, strengthening the Agenda Setting Theory. The media institution and politic institution are closely linked to each other and are hardly being separated. Both the institutions are interdependent on each other. In Malaysia, we are practicing the democracy system, thus, media are an important instrument to achieve the democracy level; Media play a role in influencing the public in deciding their votes during a general election, either to vote for the specific individual or the party. Besides, media also take control in the politic process as mentioned earlier in the Agenda Setting Theory. In a democratic country like Malaysia, the process in politics often involve media as a tool to spread the news on certain parties’ issues and frame some of the suggestions or views on certain parties or individuals. In order to achieve a country that is practicing democratic system, the general elections were often used as a measurement tool in testing the level of support among the voters toward a specific party. Personal experience interpersonal communication among elites and other individuals So, the process of general election in Malaysia is a very crucial component in a democratic way. There were 12 general elections being held so far in Malaysia which were in the year 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2004. Also, there were 6 Prime Ministers that have involved themselves in became the main politic communicators in every general election that have been done. Every Prime Minister has their own plans in collaboration with the media to enhance their communication through media, and utilized it in a proper ways. Gatekeepers’ influential media spectacular news events Policy Agenda Public Agenda Media Agenda Real world indications of the importance of an agenda, issue or event Figure 1: Three Main Components in Agenda Setting Process In political communication, media is one of the aspects to be deal with. Others include media agenda, public agenda and policy agenda. All these three main components form a process (Agenda Setting Process) by which a complete political communication is carried out where the media were used to disseminate the messages or information to mass audiences. This process is involved in the Agenda Setting Process and has TWO levels: The media agenda affects the public agenda, and the public agenda affects the policy agenda. The communication using media has done by the politicians to publish their views and news or in this case, the manifesto of Barisan Nasional in Utusan Melaysia and Barita Harian in the media agenda. However, there are existence of gatekeepers that may influence the news and events to be published. In the case studies on BN manifesto, the gatekeepers here would be the editor and the owner of Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian newspapers publishers. The purposes of having gatekeepers here is to avoid harmful, negative, sensitive or religious issues being discussed which may cause misunderstanding within the nation According to the research, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian used media agenda to influence the public, and this has brought the issue to a broader step which is the public agenda, where the public start discussing about the issue. In the case studies, there are some similarities in the manifesto of Barisan Nasional. During the general election, extensive media coverage on the political issues of BN were published continuously especially in the front page of the newspapers being analyzed: Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. Those issues are similar to the manifesto of BN. Therefore, the public can gain most of the information about BN from the newspaper than the other party. After the public has start discussing about the issue, which is the involvement of BN’s manifesto in both the newspapers being mentioned, there were some activists who tried to support or banned the manifesto. The real world indicator will decide the importance of the agenda itself. Then, through the personal experiences and interpersonal communications among the elites and other individuals, there might be changes in the policy agenda. Finally, the policy agenda causes the media agenda to publish about the news and information all over again. The Agenda Setting Process will be repeated. â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Strengths and Weakness of the Theory We found that agenda setting theory has three strengths. First, agenda setting theory has explanatory power. Because this theory explains why most of the people prioritize the same issues as important. Therefore, most of the people will discuss the same issues at the same time. They will also concentrate discuss the issues because they think that the issues are affecting them. Second, this theory also has predictive power as it predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same issues as important. For example, if one issue be the headline of all the newspapers for one week, people will feel that this issue is very important and it will affect their life. Furthermore, this theory has organizing power because it helps organize existing knowledge of media effects. There are also weaknesses, such as media users may not be as ideal as the theory assumes. People may not be well-informed, deeply engaged in public affairs, thoughtful and skeptical. Media just tell them what to think about the issues. People just know the appearance of the issues and not deeply engage in the issues. They will also think that are the issues reported correct or the media have hide something bad that they do not know about the issues. So, some of the people do not trust what the media have said. Instead, people may pay only casual and intermittent attention to public affairs and remain ignorant of the details. For people who have made up their minds, the effect is weakened. News media cannot create or conceal problems; they may only alter the awareness, priorities and salience people attached to a set of problems. Research has largely been inconclusive in establishing a casual relationship between public salience and media coverage. Suggestions to Improve on the Theory For communication theory to be adopted by researchers and remain viable, it must be able to survive and grow through its ability to adapt to changing environments, encourage further research, and serve as a foundation for studies beyond those in which the founders originally applied their theory. According to McCombs and Shaw (1972) the result of their study shows that fewer voters knew about specific issues. While they found out that media were often effective in raising awareness of issues with undecided voters. They also found that issues presented by media that were new to audiences were better received by the public than issues with which the public was already familiar. The key factor to the ability of media to have an agenda-setting effect upon their audiences depends on the desire of the viewers to become informed about the issues. For example, when the voters wants to know more about their ideal government leaders the public have to search for more information about the leaders and the party as the desired for them to become informed on the issues instills a strong motivation factors for the public’s. Although the theory may seem to be acceptable but the theory still have its own weaknesses and failure which are visible and need to be improved. For example, while the article concentrate on the presentation of the issues during the election campaigns, the willingness of voters to listen to issues presented by the media, they fail to examine the degree to which mass media is able to raise issues and attract information-seeking audiences on its own but they fail to examine the degree of how the mass media is able to heightened public interest of political issues during election seasons to perform an agenda-setting function. Besides that, the media agenda in agenda-setting theory have their own limitations, as media may not be as ideal as the theory assumes. The information from the media may not deliver appropriately, deeply engaged in public affairs, thoughtful and skeptical. Therefore to improve the theory effectiveness of the theory, the media should increase the understanding of the issues by reporting a more detail information about the election with wide range of information. In addition, the media can also carry out a survey to understand better the level of absorption information of the readers, listeners and viewers. The media should also aware of the public acceptance and understanding of the issues as the agenda-setting theory has its own limitations in dispersing the news. Conclusion In conclusion, the Agenda Setting Theory is a very important practice in media industry especially in a democratic country like Malaysia. The media collaborate with government to control what to be think and discussed among the public. The purpose is to shape their perception over certain issues. It can be from a political issue to welfare issue. This theory proved that whatever issue has been discussed shape the importance of that specific issue and bring to the discussion in the public as in the public agenda. If the public or majorities think that there are some dissatisfactions or objections going on, there will be changes in the policy agenda. Thus, agenda setting is a very important tool in media even though there are still some weaknesses in this practice. So, the media should take in to account to improve their practice by injecting more information not only to a specific area but make it more widely than today in order for the public to have more knowledge about our nation and this may create a more critical thinking nation. References Agenda-Setting Theory – Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw(n. d. ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www. ninosoriadeveyra. com/uploads/3/0/1/1/3011660/agenda-setting_ justine_kate_gian. ppt. Agenda-Setting Theory: Presentation paper abstracts (n. . ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://realhomepages. com/wecapps/agenda%20setting. htm Agenda-Setting Theory: Strengths and weaknesses of theory (n. d. ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www. servinghistory. com/topics/Agenda-setting_theory::sub::Strengths_And_ Weaknesses_Of_Theory Garson, G. D. (2006). Agenda setting theory. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://faculty. chass. ncsu. edu/garson/PA765/agendasetting. htm Media Tenor Innovatio – Agenda setting theory (n. d. ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http:// www. agendasetting. com/res_theory. php M. Sanchez Spring 2002. (2002). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://zimmer. csufresno. edu/~ johnca/spch100/7-4-agenda. htm Spring 2001 theory workbook. (2001). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www. uky. edu/~ drlane/capstone/mass/agenda. htm The Agenda-Setting Role of the Mass Media in the Shaping of Public Opinion (n. d. ). Retrieved July 30, 2010 from http://www. infoamerica. org/documentos_pdf/mccombs01. pdf
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Factors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Factors - Essay Example This factor is vital, because such change in the structure also changes the main principles of competition in this industry. Porter and Millar state â€Å"today, information technology must be conceived of broadly to encompass the information that businesses create and use as well as a wide spectrum of increasingly convergent and linked technologies that process the information†. The second vital factor to mention is creating competitive advantage. Information technologies provide the organization with new ways to do better than their competitors. The third factor is generating the completely new business by altering organization’s existing activity. According to Porter and Millar, â€Å"information technology is changing the way companies operate. It is affecting the entire process by which companies create their products. Furthermore, it is reshaping the product itself: the entire package of physical goods, services, and information companies provide to c reate value for their buyers†(Porter and Millar). Now the companies invest more and more money into the introduction of information technologies in order to keep competitive
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Birthday Story of Private John G. Burnett Assignment
Birthday Story of Private John G. Burnett - Assignment Example In May 1838, federal army troops under the command of General Winfield Scott began arresting the Cherokee and moving them in the stockade until they could be removed west. In this exodus, he even lost his wife, who succumbed to pneumonia after giving out her only blanket to a child (Byers 8). Party politics in a big way contributed to the removal. The U.S. government formally adopted a removal policy, carried out in the 1830a when President Andrew Jackson, from Tennessee, who was a forceful proponent of Indian removal. President Jackson began aggressively to implement a broad policy of extinguishing Indian land titles and relocating the Indian population. Out of altruism, the troops treated the tribe members so unkindly, and the roundup was very cruel. Families were separated; the elderly and the ill were forced out at gunpoint and herded into forts with minimal facilities and food, something which resulted in many deaths of the Cherokees (Byers
Monday, August 26, 2019
Central Asia Post 1991 The Oil Roads Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words
Central Asia Post 1991 The Oil Roads - Essay Example In the discussion, we shall also enquire into the salient aspects of the 'state and society' and of 'religion and culture' in these countries and the 'new great game' with 'oil and oil roads' that is being played by those countries that hat have slipped into the new shoes of the old "imperial powers". First, then, what was the "silk road" The Silk Road had passed through the 'heart' of Asia, in the central region of the continent.1 It was the ancient route that took the trade across Asia to Europe and back and along with it, also the cultures of the East. The road was unsurpassed in the commercial and cultural contacts between the east and the west linked by 'the camel caravans and donkey trucks which trudged their way through the dust and heat of the central Asian region'. This region is an inhospitable area with very little vegetation, and almost no rainfall; and constantly visited by sandstorms which have claimed many lives. The climate is harsh; the daytime temperature in summer goes up to even 500 Celsius in the sub-sea level basin of Turfan; and in winter it comes down to below minus 20 degrees. Temperatures soar in the sun, but drop very rapidly at sundown. On the eastern and western sides of the region, the civilizations of China and the West developed. The Persian Empire was in control of the vast large area , extending from the Mediterranean Sea in the west as far as the borders of India in the east. Trade between these two neighbors strongly influenced the cultures of these regions. The Chinese exploration of the west began in 138 BC, when Zhang Qian was sent by the Han emperor on a mission to form an alliance with the Yuezhi tribe in the west. He could return only 13 years later, but brought with him important information about a new breed of horses and hitherto unknown tribes in the west. More expeditions were sent west to get horses and objects of beauty for the emperor. By this process, the route to the west was opened up. The Silk Road was not one single route, but many routes, roads, and paths that traverse in an east west direction. Some routes were well developed and relatively free from bandits, while others were less protected and suffered from plunder by bandits. As a measure of protection the Han rulers constructed forts and defensive walls along part of the route which we re later combined to form the 'Great Wall' which still stands today as a testimony to human achievement and suffering at the hands of strong-minded emperors. Silk was only one of many items that were traded through this Road. Gold, precious metals, ivory, precious stones, and glass went towards China, while firs, ceramics, gun powder, jade, bronze objects, lacquer, and iron went west carried by caravans each of which consisted of 100 to 1000 camels, and each loaded with about 500 pounds of goods. The most significant 'commodity' carried along this route was not silk, but religion. Buddhism came to China from India this way as early as the first century AD, and dotted the face of Silk Road towns with monasteries and pagodas. Later, Islam made it into the heart of China and established itself as the dominant religion in Central Asia; however, its ultimate effects contributed to the Silk Road's eventual decline.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Consultancy Project for Novartis Saudi Arabia Dissertation
Consultancy Project for Novartis Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example Related Literature 11 Saudization and the Private Sector 12 Saudization and Novartis Pharma Services 13 Saudi Work Values & Unemployment in the Private Sector 14 Addressing the Challenges of Saudization in Private Companies 16 Pharmacy Education & Practice in Saudi Arabia 17 Pharmacists Working as Medical Representatives 19 Medical Representatives at Novartis Pharma Services 21 Human Resource Management (HRM) in Saudi Arabia 23 HRM and Saudization 24 HRM Strategies on Recruiting Employees 25 Recruitment Strategies of Companies in Saudi Arabia 29 Al-Jomaih Bottling Plants 30 General Electric (GE) Energy Manufacturing Technology Center 30 The Saudi British Bank (SABB) 32 Chapter 3 – Project Proposal 33 Client Background and Issue 33 Project Types 34 Project Outline 34 Methodology and Timeframe 36 Risks 37 Key Contacts 37 Chapter 4 – Analysis & Evaluation of Issues 38 Research Design and Method 38 Pilot Survey 39 Limitations of the study 40 Participants in the study 41 Gro up 1: Saudi Pharmacists in the Government Sector 41 Group 2: Saudi Pharmacists in the Private Sector 43 Group 3: Saudi Pharmacy Students 43 Survey Results and Discussion 43 Research Findings: Saudi Pharmacists in the Government Sector 43 Research Findings: Saudi Pharmacists in the Private Sector 50 Research Findings: Saudi Pharmacy Students 56 Chapter 5 – Findings and Conclusion 61 â€Å"Medical Representatives are Being Paid Less†61 â€Å"Government Work is a Good Training Ground for Pharmacits†62 â€Å"Medical Representative Work is a Tough and Stressful Job 62 â€Å"Medical Representative is a Low Status Work†63 â€Å"The Job is Easier in the Government†64 Positive Response from the Stakeholders in the Survey 64 Saudi Pharmacists in the Government Sector 64 Saudi Pharmacists in the Private Sector...For this consultancy project, the company’s product manager, Dr. Adel Alohali outlined the challenges that were faced by the company in t he midst of Saudization program by the government. In response to its need to attract more Saudi pharmacists, Novartis provides its medical representatives with generous salaries, bonuses, and other incentives that are comparable to the benefits given for government jobs where most of Saudi pharmacists work. For instance, the company provides new cars, which medical representatives can own after four years and also get a new one after that. However, as Dr. Alohali explained, the company’s Human Resource team is still finding out ways to effectively recruit Saudi pharmacists to work in the company. Currently, Novartis Pharma Services employ a total of 89 pharmacists; 86 of them from foreign countries and only 3 are Saudi nationals. If possible, the company plans to eventually replace its workforce with more Saudi pharmacists in the next few years to drive in more sales for the company. Moreover, some benefits of Saudization of medical representative jobs at Novartis were also discussed during the consultation. The company saw the need to employ Saudi nationals because, as part of their experience and culture, purchasing department in government hospitals and Saudi doctors prefer to deal with Saudi pharmacists than foreign workers. Novartis believes that by employing Saudi pharmacists, they will be able to increase their competitive advantage against other pharmaceutical firms.
Strategic analysis of Whole Food market Coursework
Strategic analysis of Whole Food market - Coursework Example The stores are located in 38,000 square foot in size which conform to the locality and community that they serve and which have observed 5% year on year growth. The company’s stock was boosted by nearly 38% which has seen 17% growth in EBITDA to $835 million and 20 year compounded annual growth rate of nearly 26% (ar, 2011). 1.1 Vision and mission Company’s vision is to become a global brand for best quality natural and organic food and best food retailer of organic food in every community that it serves. The mission statements of the company are designed to meet the food requirements of the people by providing them with healthy and nutritious food so that they can lead a healthier life and live longer. The core values of the company focus on sustainable business practice and ensure complete customer satisfaction through quality food that is organically produced. They also empower people with knowledge and information that promote their general well-being. The core valu es are aligned to their strategic vision and mission that fundamentally cater to the interests of all its stakeholders including workforce, customers and supply chain. 1.2 Current strategy The current strategy is designed to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyle through food that is organically produced. It ensures customer satisfaction by facilitating high quality of naturally and organically produced wide variety of food products. The Whole Food stores are strategically designed to meet the needs of its customers. They have cafeteria facility which ensured that customers could also taste and test the quality food that they would be buying. The brochures and information about food products and sustainable business practice empower customers with information which they use in their buying experience. 1.2.1 Goals and objectives The organizational culture greatly helps to achieve its broader goals and objectives of meeting the changing demands of its various stakeholders includi ng customer satisfaction. The company promotes more than 2600 SKU with its 365 Everyday Value, primary in-house brand (ar, 2011). The company’s goals are focused opening around 24 to 27 new stores and improving its sales growth to around 15%. Its major objective is to promote sustainable business practices. To achieve it, WEM emphasizes diversity in workplace and creates barrier free and encouraging environment to meet the needs of diverse community. The team leaders within the stores are empowered to make independent decisions that ensures improved performance outcome. The broader goals and objectives of WFM are achieved through measures like employees’ welfare schemes, environmental concerns, health and well-being and charitable works in the area of education, training and development of entrepreneurial skills etc. Its suppliers of food products from low waged countries were supported financially to ensure quality produce which also helped them to raise their living standard. It has introduced innovative processes to promote sustainable business practices within its in-house staff and business partners (ar, 2011). It has encouraged greater interaction with various focus groups and fostered alliances for proactive participation of the public and workforce in its drive for environmental conservations and community welfare. 1.2.2 Major strength The double digit growth rate, exemplary customer service and broad range of quality product lines are its major strengths. With approximately $11.7 billion revenue in 2011, the strong cash flow and stock position greatly favor the company in achieving its goals and objectives (yahoo, 2013). The growth plans of companies are primarily through opening
Saturday, August 24, 2019
The role of tangible and intangible resources for competing in Essay - 3
The role of tangible and intangible resources for competing in fast-paced technology markets - Essay Example The success of a business in the fast-paced technology markets will be determined by the resources the business or company has. Resources can be either tangible or intangible. The latter is necessary as they play different roles in the fast-paced technology markets. Before looking at the roles of the tangible and intangible resources, there is the need to analyze in order to understand them. Tangible resources are the physical or material goods that can be perceived by senses. They are easy to evaluate as they can be converted to other forms through some financial transactions. Some of these resources are raw materials, stocks, machines, money, land, and furniture. Balance sheets are usually used to strategically provide relevant information, under or overvalue resources. Some roles are played by the resources that a business venturing into the fast-paced technology markets cannot do without. This will be discussed in the course of this paper. Intangible resources are resources that cannot be seen physically but are links to the physical resources. In any business, intangible resources are more valuable than the tangible resources. They are invisible. Intangible resources are made up of the differences which are usually indicated in balance sheets of different companies. They will account for the under and overvaluations. Examples of intangible resources are operative processes, capacities, abilities, innovations, technology, databases, science or technical expertise, and relations with the clients. Intangible resources are usually controlled through four perspectives. These include learning and growth, internal process, customer, and financial. When the latter four perspectives are keenly monitored, then the business will be able to survive in the competitive markets. In the fast-paced technology markets, tangible resources have some roles they play. Their role is, however, less compared to the role that is played by the intangible resources. The idea is that the two different types of resources are dependent on each other thus the success of one may result in the success of the other. The first role that tangible resources play is making of profits. The stock and other materials that are converted to cash form are essential in making profits. These are essential in making the business to stand. In the fast-paced technology markets, profits are not easily made. It is usually hard due to the changes and competition. When a company is left behind with a single step, it becomes hard to make profits. Profits will be made with the help of some internal activities like branding and pricing. There is a need to do marketing research occasionally in order to analyze the objectives and situations of competitors. This will help in pricing so that they can make maximum profits. The aim of any business is usually to make profits. The output is supposed to be high than the input so that profits are made. In these markets, this will be enhanced by some tangible resources like raw materials and stocks.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Microm3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Microm3 - Essay Example 7 4. How Does The ‘Invisible Hand’ Described By Adam Smith Work? Explain What Smith Meant By The Invisible Hand And How It Works. What Signals Producers And Buyers To Adjust Quantity Supplied/Demanded And Reach Equilibrium? 8 5. According To Economic Theory, How Do Consumers Decide What Goods To Buy? What Does The Final Decision To Buy Something Depend On? 10 1. What Happens When The Government Imposes A Minimum Wage? Explain Using A Graph. Minimum wage laws set rules regarding the minimum wage that can be provided by an employer for obtaining labour. The Fair Labour Standards Act of 1938 was established by the US congress to set down the minimum wages that should be offered to employees to ensure a proper standard of living. The labour market faces the forces of demand and supply. The supply of labour is determined by workers and the demand is determined by the employers. In the absence of the government intervention the wages get adjusted with the labour supply and dem and. When the minimum wage is above equilibrium then the supply of labour exceeds the demand. This causes unemployment. Thus, the wages of employees who already have the job increases and the income of employees who do not have the job are lowered. The affect of minimum wage depends on the experience and skills of the employees. The skilled and experienced employees have their equilibrium wages much above the minimum wages. The greatest affect of minimum wages is on the teenage labour based market. Teenagers have low equilibrium wages because they do not have much skills and experience and are willing to work on low pay in exchange for the training they receive on the job. A study reveals that 10% increase in minimum wage reduces teenage employment to 1% - 3%. 10% increase in minimum wage does not increase teenage wages by 10%. The minimum wage also affects the supply quantity of labour. Since the minimum wage of the teenagers increase, the number of teenagers willing to work also i ncreases. Minimum wage increases the income of the poor. Certain opponents of minimum wages consider that it results in unemployment, teenagers dropping out of schools and restricts unskilled workers from obtaining training on their job (Mankiw, 2008). Source: (Encyclopedia of Earth, 2006). The above figure represents the condition in the classical labour market. A legal minimum wage interferes with the free market adjustments and causes true unemployment. The demand and supply model of labour Source: (Encyclopedia of Earth, 2006). The above figure shows conditions in the traditional market. The labour quantity and the equilibrium are determined by market forces. 2. What Economic Concept Explains Why Most People Specialize In A Specific Profession Rather Than Trying To Make All Of The Things Themselves? Specialisation is a concept that relates to most of the modern economies. Modern economies do not produce everything. Rather they produce those things that provide them a ‘comp arative cost advantage’. The excess from the production is exported and the items that are not produced within the country are imported. This kind of specialisation ensures greater economic growth. At an individual level, specialisation ensures greater work efficiency and greater productivity. The high levels of productivity and efficiency ensures high income levels (Jain & Ohri, n.d.). Specialisation is based on the law of comparative advantage. According to the law of comparative advantage, the individual who has a lower opportunity cost of production of a
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Opinion on Curriculum Essay Example for Free
Opinion on Curriculum Essay Curriculum is an important part of the education system. As such it has to be evaluated every now and then so that it remains effective in addressing the learning needs of the students in different levels. A curriculum evaluation team should represent all of the persons that are directly or indirectly affected by the curriculum. To successfully evaluate the curriculum, the team should be composed of educators, knowledgeable students, school administrators, pedagogy practitioners and psychologists. With such a team, the impact of the curriculum can be effectively evaluated. Online communication tools help a team working online in a working environment by helping the team members use the online platform while communicating with each other. Such tools can also hinder them because they cannot interact with each other face to face and they have to rely on the text and images they are manipulating on their screens. Much of the details they have to consider may be lost in the process. The goal of the curriculum and how it will be achieved is the most important factor that should be examined in the curriculum. This can set apart a good curriculum from the merely acceptable ones. Although this may be a comprehensive and tedious process, the team can analyze this if they consider the elements of the curriculum in its totality and not only in its individual components. The team can stay on track by establishing a schedule and arriving at a set of deliverables. This way, the team will know the progress that they are making and what areas they need to work on more. It would also be important for them to celebrate their accomplishments and the way they meet their targets.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Student Handbook University of Luxembourg Essay Example for Free
Student Handbook University of Luxembourg Essay Welcome to the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg. Dear Student, I should like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the University of Luxembourg’s Master degree course in Accounting and Audit. You have made an excellent choice! The academic Master programme in Accounting and Audit has been developed for you in partnership with leading academics and practitioners. The academic programme offers scientifically based in-depth knowledge of all specialist areas that are relevant to accounting and auditing practice, without neglecting the practical relevance of teaching content or the preparation of candidates for the job market. Students completing the degree course acquire the expertise to solve practical problems on a scientifically sound basis. Candidates aiming to obtain the professional qualification of reviseur d’entreprises will have completed the theoretical stage of their training on a high academic level when they graduate. This Master’s programme offers great advantages in terms of subsequently starting a professional or academic career, mainly because many relevant companies and important organisations are based in Luxembourg. This handbook is designed as a reference document for Master of Accounting and Audit students. It gives you general information about the programme and procedures and points you to other places for further information and advice. Use the handbook as the initial source of information and guidance. I do hope you will have an enjoyable and rewarding time and wish you the very best for your future studies. Yours faithfully, Dr Anke Mu? ig Associate Professor of Audit Academic Director Contents A. Study rules .. 1 A. 1 A. 2 Area of applicability . 1 Programme overview . 1 A. 2. 1 Aim of the programme . 1 A. 2. 2 Structure of the programme .. 3 A. 2. 3 Modules of the programme 4 A. 2. 4 Path to the reviseur d’entreprises 7 A. 3 Mobility 8 A. 3. 1 General information.. 8 A. 3. 2 Erasmus .. 9 A. 3. 3 Global exchange programme . 10 A. 3. 4 Luxembourg grading system and international correspondences .. 11 A. 4 Charter of rights and duties of students . 11 A. 4. 1 Attendance/punctuality/class behaviour.. 11 A. 4. 2 Student evaluation of courses 12 A. 4. 3 Students’ rights 13 A. 4. 4 Students’ duties .. 14 A. 4. 5 Treatment of fraud .. .. 15 B. Examination rules. 16 B. 1. Preface . 16 B. 2 B. 3 B. 4 B. 5 B. 6 B. 7 B. 8 B. 9 Nature of examinations 16 Admission and examination committee . 20 Admission to examinations 21 Grading of examination performance . 21 Fraud or attempted fraud 24 Absence from an examination .. 25 Re-examination . 26 Replacement examination . 26 B. 10 Master thesis .. 26 I B. 11 Academic degree .. 27 B. 12 Appeals procedure .. . 27 C. Study guide .. 28 C. 1 Communication . 28 C. 1. 1 Communication with members of the Faculty 28 C. 1. 2 Communication with academic staff . 29 C. 1. 3 Moodle: the e-learning platform . 29 C. 2 General information about studying at the University of Luxembourg . 31 C. 2. 1 Academic calendar 2012/2013 .. 31 C. 2. 2 Class representative and Luxembourg University Student Organisation (LUS) . 32 C. 2. 3 Administrative steps regarding the diploma .. 32 C. 2. 4 Other useful information .. 33 C. 3 Rules and advice on seminar papers and other examinations.. 34 C. 3. 1 General information .. 34 A. 3. 2 The oral presentation of your paper . 35 C. 3. 3 Your written paper.. 35 C. 3. 4 Non-plagiarism statement 37 C. 3. 5 Possibilities for conducting research . 37 C. 4 The Master thesis . 40 C. 4. 1 Research .. 40 C. 4. 2 The proposal 40 C. 4. 3 The role of the supervisor 44 C. 4. 4 Student responsibilities. 45 C. 4. 5 Structure of the thesis .. 46 C. 4. 6 Format 51 C. 4. 7 Submission .. 52 C. 4. 8 FAQ 52 E. APPENDIX . 55 E. 1 E. 2 Admission requirements . 55 Referencing with the Harvard method 56 II Master in Accounting and Audit A. Study rules A. 1 Area of applicability. This document defines the aims, content and structure of the Master in Accounting and Audit programme at the University of Luxembourg as well as the code of conduct for participants. The syllabus design and teaching for this programme are based on these study regulations. They provide the basis on which students plan their course of studies. They also complement the Examination Rules for the programme. A. 2 A. 2. 1 Programme overview Aim of the programme With the Master degree course in Accounting and Audit, the University of Luxembourg will assume the leading role in academic education in the field of accounting and audit. The degree course facilitates access for graduates to demanding roles in the corporate sector, in particular auditing, as well as an academic career. Accordingly, the degree course is committed to providing international training of outstanding academic quality, which is relevant to practice and academic research. The Master degree course in Accounting and Audit sets itself apart from the many degree and other training courses offered in the market by academies, technical universities and professional accounting associations, which are primarily geared to providing practice-based training for accountants and auditors. The current intense debate surrounding the training of accountants and auditors, which is being conducted at European and national level in the wake of the financial crisis and the associated failure also of accountants and auditors, categorically highlights the shortfalls of any training that at the theoretical study stage for accountants and auditors focuses exclusively on conveying practical knowledge. The Accounting and Audit degree course responds to this debate and offers scientifically based in-depth knowledge of all specialist areas that are relevant to accounting and auditing practice, without neglecting the practical relevance of teaching content or the preparation of candidates for the job market. The Accounting and Audit Master degree course in Luxembourg offers advantages in terms of subsequently starting an academic or professional career, mainly because many relevant companies and important organisations are based in Luxembourg. The University of Luxembourg has international links and closely cooperates with other universities in respect of this particular degree course (e. g. with the 1 Master in Accounting and Audit member universities of the Association des Formations Europeenes a la Comptabilite et a l’Audit (AFECA), i. e. the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck (Austria) and Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany)). This offers graduates direct opportunities for an international research career. Leading international accounting, auditing and tax firms such as Deloitte, Ernst Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers maintain key branches in Luxembourg. As part of the course, students also work with the European Court of Auditors. This is a specific benefit relating to the location and provides students with unique opportunities during their studies and in career terms: on the Accounting and Audit degree course at the University of Luxembourg, scientific and applied training do not therefore conflict, but complement each other. The degree course is aimed at the following students: †¢ The course attaches particular importance to research-based education. The course therefore provides optimum preparation for a subsequent doctorate in accounting and auditing. †¢ The course targets students who wish to specialise in the field of accounting and audit and aim for a career in finance or accounting or the financial management of companies after completing the course. †¢ The Accounting and Audit Master degree course is aimed at students who wish to obtain the professional qualification of reviseur d’entreprises. The course offers optimum preparation for this professional qualification, as the teaching content required by the legislator for the theoretical part of the training is comprehensively implemented. In addition, courses of the formation complementaire des reviseurs d’entreprises are integrated in the Master degree course. As a result, the course provides the most efficient access for achieving the professional qualification of reviseur d’entreprises. At the same time, attendance of the courses relating to the formation complementaire des reviseurs d’entreprises promotes networking by students with auditing professionals. †¢ The programme is also aimed at students who wish to become auditors in another EU member state. It provides optimum preparation for the professional aptitude test (often also referred to as â€Å"audit exam†) in the relevant EU member state. All specialist subjects are taught which are tested in the professional aptitude test under EU Directive 2006/43/EC. 2. Master in Accounting and Audit A. 2. 2 Structure of the programme The Accounting and Audit Master degree course is geared to comprehensively implement all legal provisions in terms of the content, scope of training and minimum ECTS units. As part of the studies, courses must be taken in the core specialist subjects of accounting and audit and in the supplementary specialist subjects. The core and supplementary subjects comprise a total of 109 topics. For a detailed module and course description, see the Module and Course Catalogue. In addition to the obligatory modules, students have the choice between three different elective tracks. Each track consists of 11 ECTS units and one must be chosen in the first semester of the programme: †¢ TRACK 1: additional specialist subject of Luxembourg legislation: This elective track is the module â€Å"ASS Additional Specialist Subject of Luxembourg Legislation†, which in turn consists of six courses. These courses are offered as part of the formation complementaire des reviseurs d’entreprises. 3 Master in Accounting and Audit †¢. TRACK 2: contextual studies: The purpose of this specific concept is to impart an innovative competence profile, which is to qualify students for demanding management and subsequent leadership positions in companies or the academic sector. TRACK 2 consists of three modules: Management Skills, Reflection Skills and Intercultural Skills. Each module consists of one or more courses. Different courses will be offered every semester. TRACK 2 is organised in close cooperation with the Chambre de Commerce du Luxembourg to guarantee a strong practical orientation and high standard of the courses. In addition to the official diploma from the University, students who successfully complete one or several courses will receive a certificate from the Chambre de Commerce and the University of Luxembourg with a detailed list of the courses attended. †¢ TRACK 3: Internship: Students will be given the opportunity to gain practical experience during an internship in an audit or accounting firm. The internship must last at least 8 weeks. The students must critically evaluate the knowledge they have gained in a presentation and examination session with the director of studies at the end of the internship. A. 2. 3 Modules of the programme. The standard period of study on the Master’s programme in Accounting and Audit comprises four semesters and 120 European Credit Transfer System points (ECTS). The programme leading to the award of the Master’s degree is organised in modules composed of a certain number of ECTS credits. Each course has at least one ECTS credit. A credit corresponds to the â€Å"provision of studies†requiring between 25 and 30 hours of work. Each module has a maximum of 30 credits and is composed of one or more constituent units, referred to as courses. A semester typically equates to a workload of 30 ECTS units, totalling 60 ECTS units per year. The curriculum is pre-defined, and the courses you will follow result from the schedule. There is one fundamental rule concerning the acquisition of ECTS points: in order to receive the ECTS points students must successfully pass the specific module, i. e. ECTS units are only given per (successful) module. Students can compensate for courses that they have failed within one module (if they have achieved sufficient points in other parts of that module), so it is important to be aware of what constitutes a module. 4 Master in Accounting and Audit Modules and courses of the programme: Module: Introduction to Accounting AFECA Intensive Programme Introduction to Financial Accounting and Bookkeeping Introduction to International Financial Reporting Selected Topics in Accounting Module: Introduction to Audit Risk Management Internal Control Module: Introduction to Law Introduction to Company Law Corporate Governance Civil Law and Commercial Law Module: Statistics Statistics Module: Intermediate Accounting Contemporary Issues in Financial Reporting and Audit Research Group Accounting Accounting for Financial Institutions and the Fund Industry Managerial Accounting Module: Intermediate Audit Auditing and Professional Skills International Standards on Auditing Module: Advanced Company Law Advanced Company Law Module: Corporate Finance Corporate Finance Module: Applied Econometrics Applied Econometrics Module: Advanced Accounting Empirical Research in Accounting and Audit Financial Analysis IFRS Based Managerial Accounting Module: Audit Simulation Audit Simulation 3 3 6 3 3 6 2 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 4 ECTS 6 2 3 3 Mandatory modules 5 Master in Accounting and Audit Module: Conversion and Insolvency Law Conversion and Insolvency Law Module: Research Computing Research Computing Module: IT and Computer Systems Financial Application Software Accounting Information Systems Module: General Business Studies and Business Ethics General Business Studies and Business Ethics Module: General Economics General Economics Module: Additional Specialist Subject of Luxembourg Legislation Droit du travail et de la securite sociale Droit des assurances Comptabilite bancaire Legislation bancaire et des autres professionnels du secteur financier Droit fiscal (OAGW) / organismes de placement collectif Droit fiscal Module: Management Skills Leadership and Negotiation Module: Reflection Skills Presentation and Rhetoric Skills Research Skills and Academic Writing Module: Intercultural Skills International Project Management and Intercultural Management Module: Internship Internship Module: Master Thesis Master Thesis 18 11 4 Selective Option 3 2 2 3 Selective Option 2 1 1 2 2 2 3 Selective Option 1 4 4 2 4 2 3 6 Master in Accounting and Audit A. 2. 4 Path to the reviseur d’entreprises Students completing the Master degree course acquire the expertise to solve practical problems on a scientifically sound basis. Candidates aiming to obtain the professional qualification of reviseur d’entreprises will comprehensively have completed the theoretical stage of their training on a high academic level when they graduate and can immediately start the practical stage of their training. For accessing the profession of reviseur d’entreprises, the candidate must complete four training stages. The professional qualification of reviseur d’entreprises is granted to persons who 1. submit one or more Master certificates, whereby the holder of the certificate must successfully have completed certain specialist subjects and/or modules with a specific volume of ECTS units (â€Å"credits†, â€Å"credit points†). As part of the Master studies, he/she must successfully have completed courses in the core specialist subjects of accounting and audit and the supplementary specialist subjects (e. g. law, IT and computer systems, business studies and economics, corporate finance and mathematics and statistics) and achieved a specific minimum of ECTS units. 2. 3. 4. have successfully completed additional training, which concerns legislation applicable in Luxembourg. have completed practical training on the job and have passed the professional aptitude test. The Accounting and Audit Master degree course implements the first and second training stages of the option for accessing the profession of reviseur d’entreprises. Compared with the other options for accessing the profession and courses offered by other universities, the Accounting and Audit course qualifies specifically for the career of reviseur d’entreprises in Luxembourg. During their studies, students acquire knowledge and skills in the core specialist areas of accounting and auditing as well as the supplementary specialist areas. At the same time, they expand their knowledge with additional information about the legal and administrative provisions which apply specifically in Luxembourg, given that courses of the formation complementaire des reviseurs d’entreprises are integrated in the Master degree course. This means that the legal requirements regarding the content and scope of the theoretical training of reviseurs d’entreprises in the core, supplementary and additional specialist subjects are implemented in full as part of the course. 7 Master in Accounting and Audit Once they have graduated with a Master in Accounting and Audit, students can immediately go on to complete the practical stage of their training and then take the aptitude test for reviseurs d’entreprises. Graduates are exempt from the additional aptitude test on the legal and administrative provisions which apply specifically to Luxembourg during their practical training on the job (â€Å"stage†) if the qualifying certificate is obtained during the Master degree course. Students have the option to complete the first, theoretical training stage and the second, additional training on Luxembourg legislation simultaneously. The Accounting and Audit Master degree course therefore represents an efficient option for entering the profession and is particularly suitable for students wishing to obtain the professional qualification of reviseur d’entreprises in Luxembourg.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Management Practices and Performance of SACCOs
Management Practices and Performance of SACCOs INTRODUCTION The background gives a brief history of the savings and credit cooperative societies, highlights its importance to the society and touches on the problems that have influenced its performance of its roles and finally on the possible solutions or causes of actions. This preambles the statement of the problem, the purpose, significance, scope and limitations of the study together with the research questions. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY One of the basic principles of Cooperative Savings and Credit Movement is the belief in co-operation and mutual self help for the uplifting of members standards of living. Kussco(2006). Members with a common bond join hands to form those quasi-banks institutions. With finances mobilized through such joint efforts the savings and credit society members build up the capital which they can use through local arrangements to finance their own social as well as economic development. The traditional form of cooperation involved working together on farms, hunting and gathering. All people have basic needs of food, shelter, security and belonging. People would invite neighbors to come and give a hand. Also people did not have money and resources, which enables individuals to employ people or machinery to do the work for them. In any community cooperation usually exists in the form of associations of people who come together as a group driven by their social and economic needs in order to cope with their problems and improve their conditions of living MOCD (2006) According to Odepo and Nyawinda ( 2004) , savings and credit cooperatives societies ( commonly referred to as SACCOs), accept monthly payments for shares from which, members may borrow an amount equivalent to two or three times their own savings if they can get other members to guarantee them. They say that growth in SACCOs in the last twenty years has been spectacular. According to statistics from Kenya Union Of Savings and Credit Cooperative societies (KUSCCO), the number of SACCOs rose from 630 in 1978 to 3,870 by the end of October 2002 while savings and share capital rose from Kshs. 375 million in 1978 to Kshs. 80billion by 2003. Credit outreach similarly recorded significantly, having risen from 357 million in 1978 to kshs. 70 billion by 2003. Saccos active members numbered over 1.5 million by 2002 having risen from 378,500 members in 1978. Their rapid growth indicate that they have filled a need which had not been made by the financial institutions. Of the Kshs. 110 billion in the current share capital and deposits held by cooperatives, the statistics show that Kshs. 90 billion has been lent out to customers. However, the recent statistics from the ministry of cooperative development and marketing shows the position as below The internal management principles need to be enforced strongly to improve efficiency of collections, and even perhaps consider insuring the loans in case of demise of member loaned. The Sacco movement has the capacity to propel the economic lives of the citizens if indeed it is well managed. Its principles of democratic management, voluntary membership and common bond give it the base to take its members to new heights. The movement has been a boon for this country and many people would not be where they are now were it not for the harvests of the opportunities sowed in the garden of the movement. It mobilizes savings and finance and penetrates to areas not valued by other financial institutions, while serving special needs of members. The prospects for the industry are so huge. By identifying the fact that the easiest source of funding is the locally mobilized savings, the saccos should come up with innovative ideas to encourage the members of the common bond to save, as a first step. Other sources of funds like the cooperative bank, which all the saccos have a stake in, should be considered exhaustively. Besides they should think outside the box and get organi zations willing to empower members economically by allowing loans at a rate less than what saccos offer to its members. The saccos umbrella body- Kussco- has a fund to assist the member saccos when they are in need of the funds. Saccos face numerous challenges that hinder the exploitation of their full potential. Mudibo(2005) raised concerns on the calibre of leaders who run saccos noting that since these are voluntary organizations, members can elect anybody they like, who may not necessarily have the skills to run a sacco. He suggested that before a member is elected, he should have certain number of shares so that he has something to loose if he mismanages the sacco. Non remittance and delayed remittance of cooperative dues by employers has led to inconveniences and loss of income by the societies. New rules have however provided stiff penalties for errant employers. Members are also at risk due to HIV/AIDS and ways to attract new members are required. Ngumo (2005), in his article the cooperative movement in Kenya; the eagle that wont fly Nairobi, Kenya institute of management raises several unsettled issues affecting the saccos. First the government should decide on whether to control or facilitate the cooperatives. Cooperative roles should be re-emphasized. One member one vote should be questioned. Instead he suggests the policy of one share one vote. Still, ownership and control should be de-linked for good corporate governance. Then business strategies need further scrutiny before implementation. He concludes that it will be sad for Kenyans to compose a eulogy for the movement after all this time. He said; We cannot milk a cow, refuse to feed it, cry that it was wonderful cow and blame God for its demise. According to National Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Baseline Survey (1999/2000), Kenya has a relatively well developed banking and formal financial sector. This consists of the Central Bank, 43 commercial banks, 16 non-bank financial institutions, 2 mortgage finance companies, 4 building societies , 8 developed financial institutions about 3870 cooperative savings and credit societies, 38 insurance companies, the Nairobi stock exchange and venture capital companies. The survey further indicates that nearly 89.6% of MSEs had never received credit and other financial services. The unserved credit needs portrayed by the statistics in the table 1.2 in the background section above signifies a wealth of opportunities untapped by all the financial institutions. The proof of the existence of market implies that a lot needs to be done to raise what it takes to serve a market. The most basic need is the finance to lend in a discipline way. Voluntary savings from members is therefore imperative. Saccos abilities to improve their members wealth is determined by a number of factors, among them is the funding levels due to members marginal propensity to save, contributions; remittance by the employers, legal and regulatory framework, internal management principles and practices (e.g customer service, marketing, dividend / interest payment etc) amongst other factors. These factors level of influence on saccos ability to perform captured the attention of the researcher. It was the intention of the researcher to examine them and possibly recommend on the best way to miti gate the underlying challenges and take advantage of the available opportunities by exploiting existing strengths. Voluntary deposits / savings as a source of commercial finance for micro credit institution have generated a lot of interest and debate in recent years. Locally mobilized voluntary savings is potentially the largest and the most immediately available source of finance for some micro credit institutions, most of all the saccos. Bearing this in mind, one is left to wonder what is hindering the saccos from prosperity, given the access to its resources and the wealth of its opportunities. The purpose of this research is to broaden the discussion of what, when, why and how a sacco should use its resources, get the right framework, apply effective policies for improvement of the wealth of its members. Getting these elements right is a crucial part of meeting the demand for the unmet credit needs. The researcher will also seek to bridge the gap that exist between Saccos that have exemplary performance in their services to members and excellent returns and some others which barely afford to offer loans, leave alone dividends. According to Armstrong, performance is often defined in output terms the achievement of quantified objectives. But performance is a matter not only of what people achieve but how they achieve it. High performance result from appropriate behaviour, especially discretionary behaviour, and the effective use of the required knowledge, skills and competencies. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Quite a number of Saccos e.g TENA sacco, have a long string of pending loan applications from members SACCO star ( 2006) . Some saccos pay out little or no dividends/ interests on members savings. Some others still have a low loan multiplier and / or limited concurrent loans compared to some well performing counterparts e.g Stima Sacco, Sacco star,(2006)- which has even started ATM services for FOSA customers and manages to advance more that three times the members deposits, can give up to four concurrent loans without closing any applications for the year and gives loans almost immediately it is applied for by the member , (mwaura (2004). Among the major problems hindering this is the unavailability of much needed cash to lend, when it is required. This therefore causes a mismatch in the availability of funds and the demand for loans. Other reasons could be poor investment decisions or lack of investment opportunities or delayed cash flow from employers/ members among others. Rutherford (1999) wrote that funding these large sums of money is the main management problem. The only reliable and sustainable way is to build them from savings. Saving- making a choice not to consume- is thus the fundamental and unavoidable first step in money management, without which financial services cannot operate. The poor themselves recognize the need to build savings into lump sums and contrary to the popular belief, the poor want to save and try to save, and all poor people except those who are entirely outside the cash economy can save something, no matter how small, When poor people do not save, it is for luck of opportunity rather for lack of understanding or of will. Most of the saccos have succeeded in mobilization of savings from members. Inspite of this, still they have a huge backlog in terms of loans advanced to members (Sacco star, 2005). Furthermore, most of the saccos pay little dividends/interests on deposits or none at all, in-spite of trading with the deposits/savings. It was therefore the intention of the researcher to seek to establish the determinants of saccos capabilities to improve its members well being. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Main Objective The main purpose of this study was to investigate and refine our understanding of the major factors that determine the performance of SACCOs to enable them maximize their members wealth. Specific objective Specifically, the study sought: To find out the extend to which the nature of business/ check off system affects performance of SACCOs To establish the relationship between management practices and performance of SACCOs To examine the level of education and training of general members, committee members staff and their effects on performance of SACCOs To determine if long term investment affects performance of SACCOs RESEARCH QUESTIONS To what extend does the nature of business/ check off system affect performance of SACCOs? Do management practices affect performance of SACCOs? Is education and training of general members, committee members staff a factor that affects the performance of SACCOs? Does long term investment affect the performance of SACCOs? SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study is aimed at developing an understanding on major factors determining the accessibility to funds to process and dispense all loan requisitions in time by saccos in Kenya. It is seeking to examine and underscore the salient principles that have a bearing in the success in similar or related areas of focus, and hence suggest ways and means of overcoming failure. The study is aimed at benefiting, among others, the management teams. These are the people entrusted by the members to take care of their interests in saccos. They will study to understand and improve on policy setting and implementation for overall sustainability of the sector. The entire sacco membership will also get enlightened. The members of the common bond will appreciate their role in sustaining their welfare through sacco as a vehicle. They will be more willing to take a center role instead of quiting when they feel their interests are not being taken care of by the people they entrusted them with. It will also benefit the sacco staff/secretariate; these are the people who get their daily bread from the sacco. They will understand their role in the growth of the organization, hence acting to secure their source of livelihood. It will also be of good use to the government department in charge of cooperatives. The report will bring to light issues requiring framework and only them can attend to for the overall sustainability of the sacco industry. Finally other researchers in this area will find this useful. They will get recommendations for further research from this study. The beneficiaries will have access to the information on the findings from the compiled report. The final report will be available in selected major libraries, organized groups, especially the respondents will get a copy of the report on the findings. SCOPE OF THE STUDY This studys scope was the saccos based in Eldoret. The researcher selected a suitable sample from the population by purposive convenience sampling. According to the statistics from MOCD/M, there are about 10 such saccos within Eldoret town. About 40 % of the population (4 saccos) were covered by the study. The study targeted the members of the central management committee (CMC) in the selected SACCOs. LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction to literature review This section contains literature that has been reviewed and continues to be reviewed relating to the problem. Literature review involves locating, reading and evaluating reports of previous studies, observations and opinions relating to the planned study. It therefore enables the researcher to know what has been done in the particular field of study, makes one aware of what has been made and what challenges remain, and gives suggestions on the variables and procedures that could be used. Literature review logically leads to objectives on the study. Past studies in the area Background information According to Mwaura (2005) sessional paper No. 4 of 1987 on renewed growth through the cooperative movement highlighted the significance of the movement in national development. By this time there were 3500 registered cooperatives with more than 2million members and an annual turnover greater than 6billion. The paper noted that one in every two Kenyans derived its livelihood from the cooperative either directly or indirectly. The cooperative movement in Kenya is reputed to be the most advanced in the African continent. The Kenya Nordic agreement of 1967led to the establishment of the Cooperative college of Kenya at Langata, which is the main training ground for both ministry staff and the movement employees. According to MOCD (2002) the first Savings and credit Cooperatives in Kenya were started in the sixties. The Government annual economic survey shows that as at December 2002 there were more than 2,400 active SACCOS with membership in excess of 1.5 million people. Share capital stood at Kshs. 65 billion while outstanding loans were Kshs. 59 billion.. The structure of the cooperative movement in Kenya comprises of four tiers. These include the primary societies, secondary cooperatives, tertiary cooperatives and nationwide cooperatives. The Kenya Federal of Cooperatives (KNFC) is the only apex society in the movement. It was formed with an objective of promoting, developing, guiding, assisting and upholding ideas of the cooperative principles. KNFC is the link between cooperatives in Kenya and the international cooperative alliance. Of special mention here is the African Confederation of Cooperative Savings and Credit Associations (ACCOSCA), which is registered under the Societies Act, Chapter 108 of the laws of Kenya. Its area of operation is Africa and the adjacent islands. Its head-quarters is in Nairobi. It has twenty five affiliated organizations. It is affiliated to the International Cooperative Alliance through its members in the world council of Credit Unions (WOCCU). According to the cooperative Societies Act (Cap 490), persons desirous of forming a cooperative society must fill the prescribed form from the commissioner for cooperatives. It requires that at least ten members will sign the form, though for savings and credit the commissioner has been asked for more people. The form requires that the society makes its by-laws. For ease of convenience the commissioner has prepared model by-laws for the cooperative societies. The societies are nevertheless free to change these or come up with their own by-laws. The by-laws must detail the following; the name of the society, objects of the society, purposes to which its funds may be applied, disposal of surplus funds, qualifications for membership and terms and conditions of admission of members. For savings and credit cooperatives, the following are also includes, the rate of interest, the maximum amount loan-able, extension, renewal and recovery of loans and the consequences of default in the repayment of any sums due. On receipt of the application form the office of the commissioner will register the cooperative society on the advice of the cooperative officer in charge of the area of operation. Chapter 490 provides that no companies registered under the companys Act or any un-incorporated body of persons shall become a member of a registered society except with the written permission of the commissioner. It also provides that no person can join more than one cooperative society with unlimited liability. A member may nevertheless be allowed to join two or more cooperatives with limited liability if the two are in different areas of operation. A cooperative society just like a company, may be registered with or without limited liability. The commissioner has power to refuse to register a cooperative society. Nevertheless, the refusal must be given to the applicants in writing. Applicants can appeal to the minister for cooperative developments and finally to the high court. The commissioner may register the cooperative either provisionally or fully. A provision registration is given where some requirements for registration have not been met. The applicants are given a period o f one year to satisfy all conditions. A provisionally registered cooperative society may act as a fully registered in all ways. Upon registration such a cooperative society is deemed to have been registered on the date of the provisional registration. Upon registration a society becomes a body of corporate. According to Ouma(1980), the term cooperative in its widest sense simply means working together. In this context cooperation is as old as mankind and exists wherever the human family is found. Indeed such cooperation exists among animals, insects, bees and ants. Thus cooperation generally means working together for a common purpose. Thus group effort through traditional form of cooperation may be traced in all communities of the world. However its narrow sense as a movement, it means an association of people whose purpose for group work yields good results not only for the members but to the community in general and even to the humanity at large. Cooperative is a business organization by profit, but rather the result of mutual association whose objective is equitable economic betterment of man and the society in which he lives. According to the MOCD, cooperatives are regulated by a set of principals. These principles were formulated by a group of people who lived in a village in England known as Rochdale, and they are therefore referred to as Rochdale pioneers. They formed the first successful cooperative society in 1884. This society which was a consumer cooperative society was formed in 1844 when Britain was undergoing industrial revolution. As a result of the revolution, a lot of people lost their jobs in the factories as machines were introduced to replace them. In addition to this there was general lack of credit and supply of essential commodities like salt, sugar, flour and cooking fat. Businessmen also took advantage of this situation and started offering impure products at high prices. It is against this background that Rochdale Pioneers decided to draw up some sort of principles which would guide their operation as cooperative society. These principles were intended for the regulation of cooperative society as indicated by the great stress on the sale of pure products and the sale of goods for cash only. It was therefore found necessary to formulate the principles for adoption by other types of cooperatives. The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Commission of 1966 adopted the following principles which are genuine for the running of a genuine cooperative society:- Open and voluntary membership, democratic administration (one man, one vote), limited interest on share capital, payments of dividends and bonuses to members, promotion of education and cooperation with other cooperatives at local national and international levels. According to Ouma (1980), the traditional cooperatives have been in existence in Kenya, as it has been elsewhere, from time immemorial. Examples of such cooperative practices are to be found in Kenya. The group association is normally based on lineage according to the natural geographic environment in which the members of the group are born. This is usually based on clan or people who live within the same village. It can be stated with fair amount of certainty that the traditional forms of cooperation do generally speaking, form the basis for the establishment of modern cooperative organizations. There is for instance in Luo, Saga whereby a group of people do ploughing, weeding or harvest for each member of the group in turn. In Kwath, members of the group look after their cattle together for three or more days consecutively, in turn. In Kikuyu there is what is called ngwatio (Mwethya in Kamba) whereby members of the group get together to build houses for themselves, each member of t he group breinging what is required for the construction e.g. grass and poles. When the first house is completed then the members start on the next one. In Kisii, there is what is called obituary wherby men go on a job hunting exercise, and when they kill an animal, they will either divide it or take it home (village) where it mis cooked and eaten communally by all the villagers. Among the Kalenjin there is the practice of Kokwet wherby a group of people would go out to harvest or weed the garden of their members in turn. The Kalenjin also have Loget whereby the men go in a joint effort to kill animals for food. According to Ouma(1980), practically all the ethnic groups in this country, whether small or big, has since time immemorial practiced mutual association in order to satisfy their needs socially, economically or otherwise. It is also necessary to point out that in the traditional forms of cooperatives, in contrast to the modern cooperatives, members had a great sense of commitment and belonging.. They had mutual trust and were voluntarily involved in their activities and affairs.. It is of course not possible and it may not be expected that with the development of cosmopolitan populations consisting of different ethnic groups and tribes that members can still hold together without some form of regulations. Hence the necessity to resort to legal reinforcement and education in order to develop efficient cooperative organizations. Although these associations of group effort could be deemed self help which is infect a for of cooperative , it is nevertheless true to say that the modern cooperative movement, born in Kenya during the beginning of twentieth century owed much of the cooperative idea to these earlier practices. It is also true that the modern cooperative associations in this country took a different approach and mainly because of expediency. Its founders the British settlers- merely wanted to use it as a cheap means of business for easy profit making. They never spontaneously involved the indigenous people who already were familiar with cooperative effort. The early settlers were beset by very many problems as regards their agricultural activities. For instance prices for Agricultural products were very low, transport of the agricultural inputs and outputs to the markets by each individual settler were classical nightmares. Therefore this new system of farming with its large scale production caused the needs for associations by the few European farmers who undoubtedly had conceived the cooperative idea from the British cooperative movement back home. It will of course be recalled that the formal and successful cooperative organisations started in Britain in 1844. In 1908, they resolved to join together at a place called Lumbwa and formed Lumbwa cooperative Society Ltd. Although not registered as such under any cooperative Societies Act, it is deemed to be one of the modern cooperatives in Kenya. The main objective was to purchase merchandise; i.e. fertilizers, chemical seeds, and other agricultural inputs through collective effort, and to market their produce collectively thus taking advantage of the economy of scale. It would appear quite clear at this point that cooperatives in Kenya did not start as a poor mans defensive weapon against the exploitation by the middlemen, as it had started in Europe and elsewhere. It was on the contrary an easier means to enable the white settlers to receive high returns from their agricultural produce. Thus it was rather an economic necessity for the well to do and not the ordinary man with little or no means at all. It will be remembered that during this time, there was no cooperative societies ordinance to regulate and to assist the management of these cooperative efforts in Kenya. It is also not clear whether or not Lumbwa Cooperative society ltd was registered even under the companies Act, otherwise calling it a co-operative society was misleading. However one thing remains certain, and that is that the settlers wanted to maximize their profits by trading under the pretext of a co-operative organisation, thereby enjoying its privileges. According to Ouma (1980) many self help groups, most of which were very small and un-economic, were started all over the country. But these were not economically viable and consequently had to be amalgamated into larger economic units. These were for instance Kenya farmers association (co-operatives), Kenya planters co-operative union, Kenya cooperative creameries and Horticultural cooperative union. It is a fact that these institutions formed the backbone and the base for formal cooperative movement in this country. These initial cooperative ventures in Kenya were unfortunately not quite in the spirit of the Rochdale Pioneer Cooperative Society. They never for example, observed the principle of membership, for no African could participate in it until later. The need to form formal cooperative organisations arose when some African peasant farmers realized that they were being exploited, especially by the Asian traders who were paying very low prices for their agricultural produce. As early as in the 1930s there were attempts to form cooperatives by the indigenous people of Kenya, in spite of lack of proper guidance. Of these early attempts two examples can be mentioned here, The Taita vegetable company and the Kisii coffee Growers cooperative. The farmers had 239 members and bought 3 lorries at the cost of $1170 out of the profits made from the operations. The group was producing, grading, transporting and selling on the mombasa market over 900,000Lbs of vegetables a year and the growers received over $4,500 out of a gross selling price of $ 6300. This was indeed too substantial an enterprise to be left without a legal basis. It was later registered as cooperative society. The Kisii coffee growers Association which was able to raise from the sale of its coffee a sum of $2470 of which $1240 was paid out to the 251 members who had cultivated only 159 acres, but had already accumulated a surplus of $1065. In 1994, the British Colonial Office in London appointed Mr. W.K.H Campbell to come to investigate the possibilities of African participation in the cooperative organisations. He carried out his investigations by touring and visiting many towns and districts in the republic of Kenya and talking to the people. After all his investigations Mr. Campbell submitted his recommendations that subject to availability of capable staff attempts to organise cooperatives were worth while. It was also during this time that the first African Mr. Eliud Mathu was nominated to the legislative assembly, as the Kenya parliament was called then. He demanded in parliament and such people as Ex chief Koinange from outside, that the Government should come out openly to encourage African participation in the cooperative movement. It was as a result of Campbells recommendation that the cooperative societies (Registration) Amendment, Ordinance of 1932 was repealed and the cooperative societies Ordinance of 1945 was enacted under Cap. 287. It was as a result of this new ordinance that the department of cooperatives was created, although it was placed under different ministries at various times. Consequent to the establishment of the department, a registrar ( now called commissioner for cooperative Development) was appointed and together with his staff was responsible for registration and promotion of cooperative societies in the country. The 1945 cooperative societies ordinance further gave the registrar certain powers over cooperative societies, for example refusal to register a cooperative society, cancellation of certificate of registration, to audit societys books of accounts, authority to inspect books of society, authority to settle disputes in cooperatives only to mention but a few examples. The new cooperative societies ordinance thus subsequently enabled the Government to establish the department of cooperative development. The department was charged with the responsibility of promoting, controlling and educating the members as well as the public on the need and usefulness of cooperative efforts, with particular emphasis on the rural areas. The Registrar of cooperative Societies as the head of cooperative department was designed then and was given staff in ranks of Assistant Registrars and cooperative inspectors, though very limited in number. The assistant registrars worked very closely with the department of Agriculture, in organizing cooperatives which served as the nucleus for the introduction and expansion of various types of cooperatives such as Pyrethrum, Maize, vegetables, dairy, cotton, consumer thrifts and others. According to Ouma (1980), traditionally, people of different nations used barter methods of exchange. That is the exchange of goods for goods. It therefore requires a change of attitude and new outlook towards life in order to be able to accommodate and apply this new mode of economy usefully and
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