Quality Education As A Factor Of Organizational Growth Education Essay

Quality instruction is one of the major factors that contribute the fiscal impacts on the organisation. It besides has positive societal impacts on the organisational growing every bit good as the social improvement. It is normally supposed that formal schooling s one of some of import subscribers to the accomplishments of an person and to human capital. It is non the lone facet. Parents, single abilities and friends without uncertainty contribute. Schools however have a peculiar topographic point, non merely because instruction and ‘skill creative activity ‘ are among their chief explicit aims, but besides because they are the factor most non-stop affected by public policies. It is good established that the distribution of personal incomes in society is strongly related to the sum of instruction people have had. Normally talking more schooling means higher life-time incomes. These results come out over the long term. It is non people ‘s income while in school that is affected, nor their income in their first occupation, but their income over the class of their on the job life. Therefore, any seeable effects of the present quality of schooling on the distribution of accomplishments and income will go clear some old ages in the hereafter, when those now in school become a of import portion of the labour force. Quality Education has become an issue of importance as the landscape of instruction has been confronting uninterrupted alterations: increased international competition, increasing community and geographical diverseness of the pupil organic structure. Therefore the quality instruction is besides straight linked with the academic and fiscal growing of the organisation, here in this research scope the same standard of correlativity between the standard quality instruction and organisational growing will be tested.Chapter 1Problem & A ; Its BackgroundIntroductionA high-quality instruction provides kids and immature grownup ‘s contact to the chances that we all desire for our kids. Yet supplying a quality instruction for all young person is a alarming challenge. About every state in Asia has identified educating instruction quality as one of its highest national precedence. In malice of development in reacting to the demand for increased school entree, developing more efficient national planning and policy mechanisms, and implementing immense preparation plans for instructors and decision makers, letdown persists with the potency of instruction systems to back up national economic and societal aspirations. To some extent, plans and policies naming for higher-quality schooling now supplement or even change earlier thought to such precedences as instruction development and school entree. It would look that consent is organizing that instant attending of policymakers and involved international bureaus should be focused on planing and implementing policies, plans, and actions to acquire better instruction quality. Translating the turning consensus into executable policies is a chief challenge. In all facets of the school and its environing instruction society, the rights of the whole kid, and all kids, to survival, safety, growing and engagement are at the Centre. This means that the focal point is on larning which strengthens the capacities of kids to move bit by bit on their ain behalf through the gaining of relevant cognition, utile accomplishments and suited attitudes ; and which creates for kids, and helps them make for themselves and others, topographic points of security, safety and healthy interface. Good organisation of capable affair and planning of the class are critical to student larning.Well-structured presentations, lecture-outlines, headers, subheading, and syllabi improve pupils ‘ acquisition experiences. In fact, outlines displacement cognition construction. This produces non merely the prospective in pupils but besides provides a positive growing to the institute. As globalisation continues, the national and international competition for the best pupils is likely to hike among higher instruction establishments, therefore merely reenforcing force per unit area for Quality Teaching and quality confidence. It is likely that planetary rankings based on the quality of instruction will be set Forth, therefore reenforcing the personal appeal of quality enterprises. Furthermore, there are more and more pupils who study at different universities, profiting from chances like international scholarships. These pupils are likely to measure the quality of the instruction received at these diverse establishments. It is of import to mensurate the impact of the Quality Teaching enterprises in order to be able to acquire better these enterprises. However measuring the quality of one ‘s instruction remains tough. This complexness may in portion explain why the two most well-known international rankings rely to a great extent on research as a yardstick of the universities ‘ value and go forth aside learning quality. This may nevertheless transform in the hereafter, as the concern about learning quality and pupil acquisition are turning. The option of indexs to quantify learning quality is critical, because it has been shown that rating thrusts larning: How the instructor is judged will surely impact his or her teaching methods. Indexs to measure the instruction quality ( the value of alumnuss, satisfaction of instructors, keeping rates etc ) of an establishment proved of usage but carry a assortment of significances and can even take to misinterpretations. Research workers have the same sentiment that trusty indexs should be chosen, and non merely the most realistic 1s. Furthermore, infinite should ever be left for treatment of the figures obtained.1.2 Problem Statementâ€Å" Low quality instruction can do spoilage to the approaching coevals every bit good as can earnestly damage the hereafter of the educational establishment which is responsible to supply the educational material to the pupils, to how much extent quality instruction plays its function in this job is portion of this research. †Background InformationOrganizational BackgroundThe Lahore Grammar School was established in January 1979 at this campus. The nationalisation of educational establishments in 1972 had led to an dismaying diminution in the crite rions of direction and services being provided in most schools and colleges.A Intervention in the kingdom of instruction was hence, critical to collar this abysmal province of personal businesss. In 1978 the Government announced that it would welcome enterprises in the educational sector.A Talking benefit of this, a group of adult females from varied professional backgrounds, including instruction, and with the shared aim of lending in this field, decided to put up a misss ‘ school. A Today Lahore Grammar School provides instruction to both male childs and misss till A ‘ Level.A It has extended its web to equip to the demands of the in-between income group in its Landmark Schools.A The LGS College for adult females offers a grade programme in humanistic disciplines and scientific disciplines every bit good as unmarried mans in computers.A LGS has subdivisions in Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Wah Cantt and.A It offers choice instruction to the small income group through the Lahore Education Society School, wholly supported and funded by LGS. A The doctrine of this establishment is a comprehensive and tolerant one and one that appreciates diverseness and stresses the significance of sentiments based on rational and informed premises instead that on superstitious notion, sentiment and deficient apprehension of issues.A Emphasis is laid on the apprehension of constructs and making a civilization of thought in the classroom.A Education is seen as a wide and complex procedure of geting cognition and apprehension. A The school has taken several enterprises in the field of instruction including the publicity of the acting humanistic disciplines that the Board of Lahore Grammar School felt were being neglected at great cost to our cultural traditions and a healthier societal surroundings. A In add-on, the General Studies plan was devised to A do pupils more cognizant of modern-day issues, both national and universe broad, and their function non merely in developing an apprehension of these issues but motivating a desire to interpret that cognition into active committedness and take stairss, where possible, to convey about positive alteration in their ain environment. LGS Lahore was the first English medium school to originate the instruction of Punjabi. This is done at the in-between degree for a lower limit of two old ages so that pupils develop an esteem of their cultural roots and a satisfaction in the rich traditions of literature and music of this state. A For those to whom it may non be a first linguistic communication an debut to a new one is non merely utile, but educative. A A critical component of their plan, other than a wide scope of academic subjects is music, dance, mime argument, play, poesy recitation, there is community service where pupils are confident to portion their accomplishments and learn from the backbones and resiliency of those less fortunate than themselves.A The pupil organic structure of LGS 55-Main Gulberg has been raising money through bake gross revenues in school to give scholarships to pupils at the Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled ( PSRD ) for the past 11 years.A They have besides been traveling to help kids who are being prepared for the Matric at this institute.AProblem BackgroundIn current competitory environment of instruction in Pakistan it has become a really important for each and every educational institute or organisation to step and set up a proper quality system instruction in order to crush its challengers. How it can be done is the inquiry for which this research seeks reply.1.4 Research Q uestions & A ; Research Objective1.4.1 Research Questions:Q1: What is choice instruction? Q2: How does the quality instruction aid for organisational growing? Q3: What are different impacts of criterion and quality instruction on the overall educational system of the state every bit good as society?1.4.2Research ObjectiveTo happen out how different quality factors improve the instruction system with in the establishment every bit good as state. To happen out the relationship between quality instruction and organisational growth.. To happen out relationship between learning methodological analysiss and pupil ‘s productive end product every bit good as the market repute of the several organisation.1.5 HypothesisH0: Providing quality instruction can non be a factor of organisational growing. H1: Organizational growing may depend on the factor of quality and standard educational system.1.6 Scope and Limitations of Study1.5.1 Scope of the research:The range of the research will be limited to individual organisation that is Lahore Grammar School, as being the employee of the organisation it will be easy to measure the quality processs and criterions being adopted within the organisation. Although the organisation consist of many subdivisions in the state but research will be conducted with the 200 figure of employee working in the caput office. 120 respondents will be taken as sample out of this population.1.6.2 Restrictions:Following restriction may besides be observed during the research process and methodological analysis adopted in aggregation of informations from the resources within the organisation: Researcher will be unable to near all the subdivisions of LGS. Bing a female and societal restraint, it will be hard to near physically each and every respondent of the research. As the population under survey is narrowed to 200 employees merely, therefore the graduated table of the survey is restricted. Inadequate clip may be a restraint to finish the research within a specific clip interval and research worker in this province may go through over some utile information. Limited cognition of the people may besides be a barrier for the research worker. Data will be collected by the research worker herself by agencies of questionnaire. Research worker may be biased to some extent on giving the concluding recommendations. The research worker will non be wholly comparing the criterions or quality instruction with international criterions but chief focal point will be choice criterions adopted in Pakistan. Merely a few factors of quality instruction will be taken for hypothesis attestation.1.7 Significance of ResearchThe research on the topic of quality instruction and its impact on the growing of organisation is really critical issue. The quality of instruction and preparation is considered in to be a concern of the highest political precedence. High degrees of consciousness, competences and accomplishments are considered to be the really indispensable conditions for lively citizenship, employment and societal integrity. Lifelong acquisition is an cardinal agencies of determining one ‘s hereafter on a professional and personal rank, and high-quality instruction is of import in the visible radiation of labour market policies, and the free motion of workers within the state. This research will be really fruitful for the betterment of the quality instruction within the organisation every bit good as for the other establishments besides. The absence of any precise survey on quality instruction is manifested by a general deficiency of literature. It would be necessary to transport out such surveies in Pakistan with a position of understanding teacher instruction because it may non be suited to reassign findings from other surveies conducted elsewhere and generalise the findings on the Pakistan instructor instruction section. Surveies that address issues of quality instruction must be conducted in scenes where less or no surveies have been conducted at all. This could assist develop the arguments and the principal of validated research findings in the country of teacher instruction. App. roaches that are at present powerful in analyzing persons ‘ professional acquisition such as action theory, should be used in order to derive from what these theories suggest to choice instruction. Importantly, qualitative enquiry and activity theory focal point on specific scenes of a professional acquisition activity under this research.1.8 Conceptual Framework of ResearchFactors of Quality EducationAcademic end product ratio of Institution Student Coaching system and methodological analysisProductive quality instructionImpact on Organizational / Institutional Growth Academic part at the community degree. Professional attitude of the instructors and direction Management subject The above conceptual frame of research is based upon some:Independent variables of research:Quality EducationDependent variables of research:Growth of organisation Organizational ProductivityTrial of Hypothesis:Both hypothesis i.e. H0 & A ; H1 will be tested after utilizing some statistical analysis of correlativity.Chapter 2Literature ReviewThe types of impacts examined in the research on the effects of educational quality on the organisational growing by and large fall into three wide classs. First, at the single degree there is a batch of research on how educational quality affects an organisational net incomes and a just sum on how educational quality affects an person ‘s physical and mental wellness. While we were asked to look at how educational quality affects the organisation, persons are members of the community, their households are members of the community, and their friends are members of the community. So if educational quality of an organisation improves an person ‘s economic wellbeing or physical and mental wellness, so that improves the community in which that person lives every bit good as the repute of the organisa tion to whom the single pupil has been associated with, taking it to the higher rate of growing ( Stephen J. Carroll, Ethan Scherer,2008 ) . Second, a figure of surveies look at the consequence of educational quality on facets of the Organizational growing. The four sorts of impacts most studied are organisational values, organisational repute, grosss, and competitory border. For illustration, surveies examine the association between educational quality in a school territory and the value of organisation in the country served by that school territory. Other surveies examine the relationship between educational quality in a school territory and grosss generated by that school. As these are the sorts of effects most straight related to the petition posed to us, we put most of our clip and effort into happening and reexamining surveies that examined the impacts of educational quality at this phase. Harmonizing to Feldman, ( 1989 ) and Murray, ( 1991 ) two qualities are highly linked with student achievement: expressiveness and, even more extensively, organisation. Good organisation of capable affair and planning of the class are of import to student acquisition ( Kallisson 1986 ) . Well-structured presentations, lecture-outlines, headers, subheading, and syllabi encouragement pupils ‘ acquisition experiences ( Feldman 1989, Murray 1991 ) . Indeed, lineations transfer cognition construction. They can function as an progress coordinator supplying pupils with lumping schemes ( Perry and Magnusson 1989, therefore lending to more efficient acquisition.Degree of instruction as Quality Standard:In these surveies, quality, as measured, for illustration, by the high school drop-out rate or the fraction of pupils who go on to college after high school, refers to the degree of instruction attained by the pupils served by the schools. Some of the literature suggests that the degree o f educational accomplishment is itself a secondary consequence of academic success. That is, if schools do a better occupation of learning their pupils, so the pupils are more likely to finish high school, more likely to travel on to college, and so forth. So these two steps are non wholly independent ; they are interrelated. ( ( Stephen J. Carroll, Ethan Scherer,2008 ) . Surveies look at these steps at two degrees. Some surveies focus on the person. What difference does it do if a pupil ‘s trial mark is higher or if the pupil completes high school instead than dropping out? In either instance, we are involved in whether the quality of an person ‘s instruction affects the organisational growing. Others look at school or territory norms. Here we are interested in whether the mean quality of the instruction provided by the school or the territory makes a difference to the Organization and community every bit good. ( Stephen J. Carroll, Ethan Scherer,2008 ) There is highly powerful cogent evidence that the quality of a school or a school territory, as measured by mean trial tonss, is positively associated with Institutional growing. Research workers hypothesize that pupils are willing to pay more to analyze in a school that is served higher quality instruction, and the community is willing to pay the more to the pupils holding quality instruction as measured by the mean public presentation of the pupils go toing that school. ( Black, 1999 ; Downes and Zabel, 2002 ) . Many schools, such as Oyster School in Washington, D.C. ( Freeman, 1994, 1998 ) and La Escuela Fratney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ( Ahlgren, 1993 ) were specially established to conflict the societal and educational favoritism of minorities. Oyster, for illustration, which was started in 1971 as a grass-roots community attempt, was said to fight for linear bilingualism and to promote all of its pupils to see each other as peers ( Freeman, 1994, 1998 ) . This school demonstrate d its committedness to this ideal by promoting the growing of minority pupils ‘ native linguistic communication and civilization, utilizing a multicultural set of classs, measuring pupils with multiple, and frequently â€Å" alternate, † methods, and anticipating a value for diverseness within the community. Fratney ( Ahlgren, 1993 ) besides used a multicultural, anti-bias course of study, and incorporated subjects â€Å" emphasizing societal duty and action † ( pp. 28-29 ) where gaining to value others ‘ civilizations and linguistic communications was explicitly taught. At the schoolroom degree, instructors can besides slot in multicultural positions and authenticate the pupils ‘ background cognition and experiences. For illustration, one survey ( Arce, 2000 ) described a first class schoolroom where the instructor implemented a pupil entered course of study and aimed to let the pupils, construct a sense of community, and utilize the pupils ‘ life experiences in the instruction procedure. Through important contemplation, the instructor developed a schoolroom feeling, every bit good as peculiar activities, that focused on doing intending through interactions and important thought. Takahashi-Breines ‘s ( 2002 ) description of a 3rd class schoolroom instructor in a successful plan in New Mexico explained the same subjects. She besides illustrated how this New Mexican instructor farther improved her pupils ‘ acquisition environment through the connexions she made to their past cognition, during an environment that makes unfastened mention to conveying the values and outlooks of their place and community into the schoolroom, and by making a sense of acquaintance and coherence between herself and her pupils. In another illustration of a student-centered schoolroom, Buxton ( 1999a, 1999b ) reported the findings from the â€Å" Science Theater/Teatro de Ciencias † undertaking in a second/third grade bipartisan category in a little Western town, where scientific discipline was taught in both English and Spanish on blinking yearss. This instructional method non merely provided chances for pupils to see, analyze, and speak about scientific discipline constructs, but besides allowed them to convey scientific discipline to their personal lives and to society as a whole. The activities were related to pupils ‘ experiences and anterior cognition, and besides to issues that had societal deductions. Alternate appraisal methods, such as the usage of portfolios, allowed pupils to show both contented and lingual cognition, every bit good as their multi-linguistic consciousness during the usage of both linguistic communications. This authorising theoretical account increased the capacity o f minority pupils to associate to science and to pass on themselves in the â€Å" linguistic communication of scientific discipline, † therefore increasing their academic and organisational success every bit good. Another concern of importance as respects to Quality Education is that there may be different types of acquisition and instruction. Marton and Saljo ( 1976 ) found that pupils larning attacks are of two kinds: the â€Å" deep attack † which focuses on understanding the class affair and the â€Å" surface attack † which focuses on memorising the stuff itself. Furthermore, pupils ‘ attacks to analyze are influenced by the pupils ‘ construct of acquisition ( Van Rossum & A ; Schenk, 1984 ) . Sheepard and Gilbert ‘s ( 1991 ) found that pupils ‘ point of view about the composing of cognition in a subject were influenced by their lectors ‘ theories of instruction and by the pupils ‘ perceptual experience of the acquisition atmosphere. Teachers ‘ instruction methods are associated to their construct of what the nucleus of instruction is. Kember & A ; Kwan ( 2000 ) stress that professors have one type of learning attack, content-centred or learning-centred. Because of this attack, they execute different types of learning schemes. Differences lay in coaching, focal point, appraisal, adjustment for pupil features, beginning of acquaintance and cognition. Teachers who adopt a content-centred attack see learning chiefly as the conductivity of cognition. Those who have the learning-centred attack are more likely to see instruction as â€Å" larning facilitation † . The OECD ( 2006 ) has developed four possible scenarios for the mentality of quality instruction. These scenarios were constructed by taking into history two cardinal variables, the extent of globalisation ( local-global ) and the sum of influence of province authorities ( administration-market ) . The scenarios reference for case the dividing up between learning and research universities or the sweetening of engineering that might hold an indirect but inclusive impact on learning. Globalization and other planetary alterations make reforms necessary for universities worldwide. In 2006 in Athens, the Education Ministers of the OECD zone have identified six countries in which establishments and authoritiess should prosecute in serious reforms – to do higher instruction non merely â€Å" bigger † but besides â€Å" better † ( Giannakou, OECD, 2006 ) . These reforms be rational responses to alter in the countries of Funding, More indifferent instruction, Research and invention, Migration and internationalisation. The two other reforms which were deemed necessary concern learning quality. Indeed, the first reform suggested was to develop a â€Å" cagey focal point on what pupils learn † in universities. The second was to advance reforms that would increase inducements to do establishments more accountable for quality and results ( OECD,2006. )Chapter 3Methods and ProceduresMethodology of StudyIn order to reply the research inquiries mentioned in chapter 1, research workers will lucubrate here the different picks of methodological analysis that have been adopted in this research paper. The purpose of thesis is instead explorative as the research worker tends to explicate the Impact of Quality Education on the growing of the institutions.. The research worker will be to some extent descriptive because it is indispensable to hold a clear image about the subject on which researcher want to roll up informations. The research aim will be evidently controlled. Besides it is explorative because it will be analyzing a relationship between the variables of the research that is choice instruction and growing rate of the organisation. A quantitative ( based on study ) analysis will be conducted by utilizing questionnaire method.Research SamplingSurvey Instrument usedQuestionnaire to be used in the research is attached herewith ( see app. endix ) . Likert graduated table will be adopted to roll up and measure the information on this instrument to measure the relationship between the variables.Sampling TechniqueConvenient trying method will be used in this respects because of limited attack and range of the research.3.2.3 Sample Size & A ; PopulationThe sample size out of the 200 population is 120 employees taken as respondents ( sample ) .Data CollectionAs mentioned above the informations will be collected by utilizing the study instrument ( questionnaire ) , and from the bing researches available in published signifier by the old research workers. This primary informations will be analysed to explicate the research worker point of position on the topic of the research.Research ToolsThe tools that will be used in the research for the information analysis is SPSS package to cipher, Mean, Standard divergence, correlativity.Chapter 4Data Analysis and RepresentationDatas AnalysisIn his chapter information related to informations an alysis with proper account of processed informations in the SPSS, incorporating informations tabular arraies and graphical representation.Chapter 5Decision, Findings & A ; RecommendationsIn this subdivision concluding decisions of the survey, research worker ‘s ain findings out of the research and shutting recommendations will be mentioned. Mentions Aasen, P. & A ; Stensaker, B. ( 2007 ) , â€Å" Balancing trust and technocracy? : leading preparation in higher instruction † ; International Journal of Educational Management ; Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. . 331-83 Altbach, P. ( 2006 ) , † The Dilemmas of Ranking † . , the Boston College Center for International Higher Education, International Higher Education, Vol. 42. Astin, A. & A ; Chang, M.J. ( 1995 ) , â€Å" Colleges that stress research and instruction † , Change, Vol.27, No.5, pp. . 44-49 Barnett, R. ( 2003 ) , Beyond all ground: Life with Ideology in the University, SRHE/OUP, Buckingham Barrie, S.C & A ; Prosser, M. ( 2002 ) , â€Å" Aligning research on pupil larning with institutional policies and patterns on rating and quality confidence † , Paper presented at the 11th ISL Conference, Brussels, 4-6 Barrie, S.C. , Ginns, P. and Prosser M. ( 2005 ) , â€Å" Early impact and results of institutionally aligned, pupil focused larning position on learning quality confidence † , Assessment & A ; Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol.30, No.6, pp. . 641-656 Bass, R. ( 1998 ) , â€Å" The Scholarship of Teaching: What ‘s the Problem? † Inventio, Vol. 1, No.1 1998-1999 Bauer, M. & A ; Henkel, M ( 1997 ) , â€Å" Responses of Academe to Quality Reforms in Higher instruction: A Comparative Study of England and Sweden † , Tertiary Education and Management, Vol.3, No.3, pp. .211-228 Beatty, R.W. & A ; Ulrich, D.O. ( 1991 ) , â€Å" Re-energizing the Mature Organization † , Organizational Dynamics, Vol.20, pp. .16-30 Benowski, K. ( 1991 ) , â€Å" Restoring the pillars of higher instruction † , Quality Progress, October, pp. .37-42 Bergquist, W. ( 1992 ) , The Four civilizations of the Academy, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA Biggs, J. ( 2001 ) , â€Å" The brooding establishment: assuring and heightening the quality of instruction and acquisition † , Higher Education, Vol.41, No.3, pp. .221-238 Bingham, R & A ; Ottewill, R. ( 2001 ) , â€Å" Whatever happ. ened to peer reappraisal? Revitalizing the part of coachs to class rating † , Quality Assurance in Education, Vol.9, No.1, pp. .22-39 Feldman, K.A. ( 1976 ) , â€Å" Grades and college pupils ‘ ratings of their classs and instructors † , Research in Higher Education, Vol.4 Feldman, K.A. ( 1976b ) , â€Å" The superior college instructor from the pupils ‘ position † , Research in Higher Education, Vol.5, pp. .243-288 Feldman, K.A. ( 1989 ) , â€Å" The association between pupil evaluations of specific instructional dimensions and pupil accomplishment: Refining and widening the Synthesis of informations from multisection cogency surveies † , Research in Higher Education, Vol.30, pp. .583- 645 Frackmann, E. ( 1992 ) â€Å" The German experience † In Craft, A. ( erectile dysfunction ) , Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Proceedings of an International Conference, Hong Kong, 1991. London: The Falmer Press Giannakou, M. ( 2006 ) , Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, Greece ; â€Å" Drumhead by the chair † , Meeting of OECD Education curates, 27-28 June 2006, Athens Gibbs, G. ( 1995 ) , â€Å" The Relationship between Quality in Hanushek E. , Kain J. , Rivkin, S. ( 1999 ) , â€Å" Do higher wages buy better instructors? â€Å" , NBER Hirsch, E. ( 2001 ) , â€Å" Teacher Recruitment ; Staffing Classrooms with Quality Teachers † , State Higher Education Executive Officers Kember, D. & A ; Kwan, KP. ( 2000 ) , â€Å" Lecturers ‘ App. roaches to Teaching and their Relationship to Conceptions of Good Teaching † , Instructional Science, Vol.28, pp. .469-490 Marginson, S. & A ; Van der Wende, M. ( 2007 ) , Globalisation and Higher Education, OECD, Education Working Paper No 8. Marton F. and Saljo R. ( 1976 ) , â€Å" On qualitative differences in acquisition, result and procedure † , British Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 46, pp. .4-11 Schonwetter D.J, Clifton R.A. and Perry, R.P. ( 2002 ) , â€Å" Contented acquaintance: Differential Impact of Effective Teaching on Student Achievement Outcomes † , Research in Higher Education, Vol.43, No.6 Scott, P. ( 1998 ) , Massification, Internationalisation and Globalisation, in Scott, P. ( Ed ) , The Globalisation of Higher Education, SHRE / Open University Press, Buckingham Shepp. ard, C. & A ; Gilbert, J. ( 1991 ) , â€Å" Course design, learning method and pupil epistemology † , Higher Education, Vol.22, pp. .229-249 Stephenson, F. ( 2001 ) , Extraordinary instructors: The Essence of Excellent Teaching, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City Van der Wende, M.C. ( 2007 ) , â€Å" Internationalization of Higher Education in the OECD states: Challenges and Opp. ortunities for the Coming Decade † , Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol.11, No.34 Winter Argyris, C. & A ; Schon, D. ( 1974 ) , Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA

Succubus Blues CHAPTER 20

â€Å"My apologies for the abrupt transport,† Carter continued. â€Å"Jerome started freaking out that I'd left you alone for so long.† â€Å"I've never ‘freaked out' in my life – er, existence, er whatever,† mused Jerome, strolling into the room. Studying him, I could believe his words. Dressed immaculately as ever, he held a martini in one hand and looked utterly at ease amid the disarray. â€Å"Nice place,† I told him, still aghast at the damage done to such beauty. â€Å"Fixer-upper?† The demon's eyes flashed with amusement at my joke. â€Å"I do so love having you around, Georgie.† He sipped his drink. â€Å"Yes, it is a little rough around the edges right now, but no worries. It'll clean up. Besides, I have other domiciles.† Jerome had always been very tight-lipped about where he lived, and I suspected it was only Carter's intervention that allowed us to even remain here right now. The demon would have never invited us. Walking over to a large bay window, I beheld a magnificent view of Lake Washington, the Seattle skyline glittering beyond it. Based on the angle of my view, I would have wagered money we were in Medina, one of the more elite Eastside suburbs. Only the best for Jerome. â€Å"So what happened?† I finally asked when it became apparent no one else intended to broach the subject. â€Å"Was this a nephilim attack, or did you just throw a party that got out of hand? Because honestly, if it's the last one, I'm going to be really pissed we weren't invited.† â€Å"No such fears,† Carter told me, smiling. â€Å"Our friend the nephilim did a little redecorating, kindly flashing us when it was over. That's why I abandoned you at Erik's. I would have given you some warning, but when I felt it over here†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He looked meaningfully at Jerome. The demon scoffed in response. â€Å"You what? Thought I was in danger? You know that's not possible.† Carter made a nondescript noise of disagreement. â€Å"Yeah? What do you call that?† He inclined his head toward the spray-painted symbol. â€Å"Graffiti,† responded Jerome disinterestedly. â€Å"It means nothing.† I walked away from the breathtaking window and its pricey view, looking the symbol up and down. I'd never seen anything like it, and I was familiar with a lot of characters and markings from all types of places and times. â€Å"It must mean something,† I countered. â€Å"Seems like a lot of trouble for nothing. Otherwise, he could have just written ‘you suck' or something like that.† â€Å"Maybe that's in one of the other rooms,† suggested Cody. â€Å"A punch line worthy of Georgie. You're learning more than dancing.† Ignoring the demon's attempt to change the subject, I turned to Carter for answers. â€Å"What is it? You must know what it means.† The angel studied me speculatively a moment, and I realized I'd never appealed to him before for serious help. Until our recent roommate stint, most of our interactions had been downright antagonistic. â€Å"It's a warning,† he said slowly, not looking at his demonic counterpart. â€Å"A warning of impending disaster. The real phase of a battle about to begin.† Jerome's finely suppressed control snapped. He slammed the glass down on an off-kilter table, face flushing. â€Å"Christ, Carter! Are you insane?† â€Å"It doesn't matter, and you know it. Everything's going to come out anyway.† â€Å"No,† hissed the demon icily, â€Å"not everything.† â€Å"Then you tell them.† Carter made a grandiose gesture toward the symbol. â€Å"You explain and make sure I don't say too much.† Jerome glared at him, and they locked eyes in their usual way. I'd seen it happen countless times, but upon reflection, I felt pretty sure I'd never actually seen them at such odds with each other before. â€Å"It might have meant those things at one time,† Jerome admitted at last, exhaling in an effort to calm himself. â€Å"But not anymore. As I said, it's meaningless now. An archaic scrawl. A charm which, without anyone to believe in it anymore, holds no power.† â€Å"Then why use it at all?† I wondered aloud. â€Å"More of the nephilim's bizarre sense of humor?† â€Å"Something like that. It's to remind me who we're dealing with – as if there was any possible way I could forget.† Picking up his sloshed martini, Jerome finished it in one gulp. Sighing, suddenly looking tired, he glanced at Carter. â€Å"You can tell them about the other ones if you want.† The angel's face registered mild surprise at the concession. He looked back up at the marred wall. â€Å"This symbol is the second in a set of three. The first is the declaration of battle – a way to sort of psyche out your enemy with what's to come. It looks just like this but with no diagonal. The last symbol marks victory. It has two diagonals and is displayed after the enemy is defeated.† I followed his gaze. â€Å"So, wait†¦ if this is the second, does that mean you've seen the first already?† Jerome walked out of the room and returned a moment later, handing me a piece of paper. â€Å"You're not the only one who gets love notes, Georgie.† I opened it up. The paper was the same kind used for my notes. Displayed on it, in heavy black ink, was a copy of the symbol on Jerome's wall without the diagonal. The first symbol, the declaration, according to Carter. â€Å"When did you get this?† â€Å"Just before Duane died.† I thought back through the weeks. â€Å"That's why you didn't push me too hard when he died. You already had a good idea who was responsible.† The demon shrugged by way of answer. â€Å"Wait a minute then,† exclaimed Cody, coming to look over my shoulder at the note. â€Å"If this is the first warning†¦ are you saying that everything that's happened – Duane, Hugh, Lucinda, Georgina – has been part of the ‘psyching out'?† The vampire grew incredulous when neither of the higher immortals responded. â€Å"What more can there be? What is this ‘real phase'? I mean, he's already attacked or killed, what, four immortals?† â€Å"Four lesser immortals,† I supplied, suddenly catching on. I looked back and forth between Jerome and Carter. â€Å"Right?† The angel gave me a tight-lipped smile. â€Å"Right. You guys have been the practice round before the big hit.† He gave Jerome another pointed look. â€Å"Stop it,† the demon snapped back. â€Å"I'm not a target here.† â€Å"Aren't you? No one spray-painted this on my wall.† â€Å"No one knows where you live.† â€Å"You're not exactly in the yellow pages yourself. You're the mark here.† â€Å"It's a moot point. It can't touch me.† â€Å"You don't know that – â€Å" â€Å"I do know that, and you know it too. There is absolutely no way it can be stronger than me.† â€Å"We need backup after all. Call Nanette – â€Å" â€Å"Oh yes,† laughed Jerome harshly. â€Å"No one would notice if I pulled her from Portland. Do you have any idea what a red flag that would throw up? People would start noticing, start asking questions – â€Å" â€Å"So what if they do? It's no big deal – â€Å" â€Å"Easy for you to say. What would you know about – â€Å" â€Å"Please. I know enough to know that you're being overly paranoid about†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The two went back and forth at each other, Jerome adamantly denying there was any problem, Carter maintaining that they needed to take appropriate precautions. As noted earlier, I had never seen the two of them in such open disagreement. I didn't like it, especially as their voices began to rise in volume. I didn't want to be around if they came to blows or displays of power, having already seen too much of their strength in the last few weeks. Slowly, I backed up out of the living room toward a nearby hallway. Cody, catching my mood, followed. â€Å"I hate it when Mom and Dad fight,† I commented as we retreated away from the divine bickering, seeking a safer locale. Looking in doorways, I saw a bathroom, a bedroom, and a guest room. Somehow I didn't imagine the demon hosted too many overnight guests. â€Å"This looks promising,† observed Cody as we turned in to an entertainment room. More leather seating surrounded a massive, absurdly thin plasma screen hanging on the wall. Sleek, beautiful speakers stood in strategic spots around us, and a substantial glass case displayed hundreds of DVDs. This room, like the others, had been sacked. Sighing, I threw myself on to one of the ripped chairs while Cody checked out the sound system. â€Å"What do you think of all this?† I asked him. â€Å"The new developments, I mean, not the entertainment setup.† â€Å"What's to think? It seems straightforward to me. This nephilim character warms up with lesser immortals and now decides to take on the higher ones. Sick and twisted, but well, that's the way it is. On the bright side, maybe we're out of danger now – no offense to Jerome or Carter.† â€Å"I don't know.† I tipped my head back, thinking. â€Å"Something still isn't right to me. There's something we're missing. Listen to them in there. Why is Jerome being such an idiot about all of this? Why won't he listen to Carter?† The young vampire glanced up from his perusal of the movies and gave me a sly smile. â€Å"I never thought I'd see the day when you advocated for Carter. You must have gotten really chummy this last week.† â€Å"Don't get any romantic delusions,† I warned him. â€Å"God knows I have enough of that on my plate already. It's just that, I don't know. Carter's not as bad as I used to think.† â€Å"He's an angel. He's not bad at all.† â€Å"You know what I mean, and you've got to admit, he has a point. Jerome should be taking appropriate measures. This thing trashed his place and left warnings – even if they're obsolete charms or whatever. Why is Jerome so convinced he's safe?† â€Å"Because he thinks he's stronger than it is.† â€Å"How would he know though? Neither of them have gotten a good feel for it – even Carter didn't the night he saved me.† â€Å"Jerome doesn't seem like the type to dismiss things without a reason. If he says he's stronger, then I'd – holy shit. Check this out.† His serious spiel melted into laughter. Getting up, I walked over and knelt beside him. â€Å"What?† He pointed to the bottom row of DVDs. I read the titles. High Fidelity. Better Off Dead. Say Anything. Grosse Pointe Blank. All John Cusack movies. â€Å"I knew it,† I breathed, thinking of the demon's coincidental resemblance to the actor. â€Å"I knew he was a fan. He's always denied it.† † Wait'll we tell Peter and Hugh,† crowed Cody. He pulled Better Off Dead off the shelf. â€Å"This one's his best.† I pulled out Being John Malkovich, my tense mood momentarily relaxed. â€Å"No way. This one is.† â€Å"That one's too weird.† I glanced up at the plasma screen, a huge gash slashing across its surface. â€Å"Normally I'd suggest we have a showdown to settle the point, but somehow I don't think there'll be any viewings for a while here.† Cody followed my gaze and grimaced at the massacre. â€Å"What a waste. This nephilim's a real bastard.† â€Å"No doubt,† I agreed, standing up. â€Å"It's no wonder – â€Å" I froze. Everything froze. A real bastard. â€Å"Georgina?† asked Cody curiously. â€Å"You all right?† I closed my eyes, reeling. â€Å"Oh my God.† A real bastard. I thought then about the entire trail of nephilim events, how from the very beginning Jerome had been warning us away. Ostensibly, his actions had been to keep us safe, but there had been no reason not to explain nephilim to us, no real danger to us in understanding the nature of our adversary. Yet Jerome had stayed tight-lipped about it, growing irrationally angry when any of us got too close. When Cody had first posited the â€Å"rogue angel† theory, I had written the secrecy off to embarrassment from the other side. Yet, it wasn't their side that had something to hide. It was ours. Click, click. Once started, the dominoes in my head tumbled forward in a rush. I thought about Harrington's book: the corrupted angels taught â€Å"charms and enchantments† to their wives while their offspring ran wild†¦ Charms. Like the obsolete one on Jerome's wall. It's to remind me who we're dealing with – as if there was any possible way I could forget, he had explained offhandedly. Carter had told me demons generally get into hunting down nephilim. Nanette had wanted to come and help with this one, but Jerome wouldn't let her, thus minimizing those involved. Carter he had kept on hand for the kill, however. Wouldn't Jerome want to do it himself? I had wondered, but the angel had evaded answering. Still the dominoes fell. Nephilim inherit a lot more than half their parent's power, though they can never exceed it. Jerome's words to us last week, again spoken casually, just after my attack. Only minutes ago, I had wondered at his confidence at being stronger than the nephilim, questioning how he could be so certain. But of course he could be. Divine genetics had already dictated the parameters. â€Å"Georgina? Where are you going?† Cody exclaimed as I strode out of the room, back toward the still-roaring argument down the hallway. â€Å"Look,† Carter was saying, â€Å"it won't hurt anything to just – â€Å" â€Å"It's yours,† I cried to Jerome, attempting to stare him down – difficult, since he was taller than me. â€Å"The nephilim is yours.† â€Å"My problem?† â€Å"No! You know what I mean. Your child. Your son†¦ or daughter†¦ or whatever.† Silence descended, and Jerome stared at me with those piercing black eyes, boring right into my soul. I expected at any moment to be blasted across the room. Instead, all he asked was, â€Å"So?† Startled at his mild response, I swallowed. â€Å"So†¦ so†¦ why didn't you just tell us? From the beginning? Why such secrecy?† â€Å"As you can perhaps imagine, this is not a topic I enjoy bringing up. And contrary to popular belief, I do feel entitled to some privacy.† â€Å"Yes, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Now that it was out, I didn't know what to say or think or do. â€Å"What will happen? What are you going to do?† â€Å"The same thing I've been planning on doing. We will find this creature and destroy it.† â€Å"But it†¦ he or she†¦ is yours†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I, who had so jealously and longingly watched Paige's growing pregnancy and Seth's bevy of nieces, could not even begin to fathom calmly announcing the murder of one's offspring. â€Å"It doesn't matter,† the demon said simply. â€Å"It's a liability, a danger to the rest of us. My connection to it is irrelevant.† â€Å"You†¦ you keep saying ‘it.' Are you so detached that you can't even†¦ you know, call it by name or gender? What is it anyway? A son or a daughter?† He hesitated a moment, and I detected a faint trace of unease in that cool mask. â€Å"I don't know.† I stared. â€Å"What?† â€Å"I wasn't there when it was born. When I found out she†¦ my wife†¦ was pregnant, I left. I knew what would happen. I was neither the first – nor the last – to take a mortal wife. Plenty of nephilim had been born and destroyed by that point. We all knew what they were capable of. The right thing to do when it was born would have been to destroy it right then.† He paused, once more perfectly expressionless. â€Å"I couldn't do it. I left, so I wouldn't have to deal with it, so I wouldn't have to make that choice. It was a coward's way out.† â€Å"Did you†¦ ever see her again? Your wife?† â€Å"No.† Speechless, I wondered what she must have been like. I barely understood Jerome now as a demon, let alone before he fell. He hardly ever showed any sort of emotion or affection for anyone; I couldn't imagine what kind of a woman would have so overcome him that he would turn his back on all he held sacred. And yet, despite that love, he had still left, never to see her again. She would have been dead for millennia by now. He had left to save their child, only to once again be faced with holding its life in his hands. The whole thing was heartbreaking, and I wanted to do something – hug the demon, maybe – but I knew he wouldn't thank me for my sympathy. He was already too embarrassed at us finding out about all of this. â€Å"So you've never seen it? How do you know for sure this one is yours?† â€Å"The signature. When I feel it, I feel half of my own aura and half of†¦ hers. No other creature could have that combination.† â€Å"And you've felt that every time?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Wow. Yet you know nothing else about it.† â€Å"Correct. As I said, I was gone long before it was born.† â€Å"Then†¦ then it would make sense that you really are a target,† I told him, gesturing to the wall. â€Å"Even independent of all this. The nephilim has especial reason to be pissed off at you.† â€Å"Thanks for the unconditional support.† â€Å"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant†¦ the nephilim already have good cause to be angry. Everybody hates them and tries to kill them. And this one†¦ well, people spend thousands of dollars on therapy to get over bad experiences with their fathers. Imagine what kind of neuroses would develop after several thousand years.† â€Å"Are you suggesting a family counseling session, Georgie ?† â€Å"No†¦ no, of course not. Although†¦ I don't know. Have you tried talking to it? Reasoning with it?† I remembered Erik's comment about nephilim just wanting to be left alone. â€Å"Maybe you could work something out.† â€Å"All right, this conversation is growing more absurd, if that's possible.† Jerome turned to Carter. â€Å"You want to take them home now?† â€Å"I'm staying with you,† the angel stated flatly. â€Å"Oh, for Christ's sake, I thought we settled this – â€Å" â€Å"He's right,† I piped up. â€Å"The warning phase is over. I'm safe now.† â€Å"We don't know – â€Å" â€Å"And besides, this wasn't so much about my safety anyway as having Carter keep me from finding out the truth about your family problems. It's too late now, and I'm tired of having a shadow. You keep him, and we'll all sleep easy, even if it is overkill.† â€Å"Eloquently put,† chuckled Carter. Jerome still protested, and we bickered a bit more about it, but in the end, the decision rested in Carter's hands. Jerome had no power to order him around; indeed, if Carter wanted to follow the demon indefinitely, there was nothing Jerome could do, not really. They weren't going to wage any epic battles with each other, no matter how annoyed they currently seemed. Carter did agree to teleport us back, though I suspected it was more of a kind gesture to make sure Cody and I could never find Jerome's place again. After he'd taken the vampire home, Carter transported me to my living room, hesitating before he disappeared again. â€Å"It is better this way, I think,† he told me. â€Å"Me staying with Jerome. I know the nephilim can't be stronger than him†¦ but there's still something weird going on. I'm not convinced you're out of danger either, but whatever's going on with you is something entirely different.† He shrugged. â€Å"I don't know. There are a lot of hard calls here; I wish Jerome would let us get a little outside help. Not too much, of course. Just something. Anything.† â€Å"Don't worry,† I assured him. â€Å"I'll manage. You can't be everywhere at once.† â€Å"Isn't that the truth. I'll have to ask this nephilim how it does it when this is over.† â€Å"You can't question the dead.† â€Å"No,† he agreed grimly. â€Å"You can't.† He turned as if to depart. â€Å"It's weird†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I began slowly. â€Å"The whole idea of Jerome loving someone. And falling because of it.† He gave me one of those canny, creepy smiles. â€Å"Love doesn't make angels fall, Georgina. If anything, love can have quite the opposite effect.† â€Å"So, what? If Jerome fell in love again, he could turn back into an angel?† â€Å"No, no. It's not quite that simple.† Seeing my baffled look, he chuckled and gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. â€Å"Watch out for yourself, Daughter of Lilith. Call if you need help.† â€Å"I will,† I assured him as he blinked out, not that ever actually getting a hold of higher immortals was easy. Jerome could sense if I was hurt, but he was a lot harder to call for a casual chat. I went to bed shortly thereafter, fatigued by everything that had happened, too tired to worry about nephilim attacking me in my sleep. I worked the closing shift tomorrow, and it was my last day before another two days off. I needed the break. I woke up later the next morning, still alive. While walking into the bookstore, I ran into Seth, armed with his laptop, ready for another day of writing. Recalling the dance lesson with him put my nephilim concerns temporarily at bay. â€Å"Got my book?† I asked as he held the door open for me. â€Å"Nope. Got my shirt?† â€Å"Nope. I like the one you're wearing, though.† His themed T-shirt today displayed the logo for the musical Les Miserables. â€Å"My all-time favorite song comes from that.† â€Å"Really?† he asked. â€Å"Which one?† â€Å"‘I Dreamed a Dream.'† â€Å"That's a really depressing song. No wonder you don't want to date.† â€Å"So what's your favorite then?† I had asked Roman my stock question, but not Seth. † ‘Ultraviolet' by U2. You know it?† We approached the espresso counter. Bruce was there, and he started making my mocha before I even ordered. â€Å"I know some of their other stuff, but not that one. What's it about?† â€Å"Love, of course. Like all good songs. The pain of love juxtaposed with its redemptive power. A bit more optimistic than yours.† I remembered Carter's comment from last night. Love doesn't make angels fall. Seth and I sat down to talk, conversation now flowing smoothly between us. Hard to believe there had ever been any awkwardness, I thought. He was so comfortable. Finally, knowing I had to work sometime, I dragged myself away to check on the rest of the staff and then retreat to my office. I only intended to check my e-mail, however; I felt sociable today and wanted to work the floor. Tossing my purse on the desk, I started to sit in my chair when I saw a too-familiar white envelope with my name on it. My breath caught. So much for being off the nephilim's radar. Trembling, I lifted the envelope up, opening it with clumsy fingers. Miss me? I imagine you've been kept pretty busy with your immortal friends, making sure everyone is safe and accounted for. I imagine you've been just as busy with your oh-so-fascinating personal life, barely sparing a thought for me. Cruel, considering all I've done for you. I wonder, though, do you worry just as much about the mortals in your life as you do the immortals? Admittedly, mortal deaths are so much less meaningful. After all, what's fifty less years compared to the centuries of an immortal? Mortals hardly seem worth the fuss, yet you put on a good face of caring for them. But do you really? Or are they just a diversion for the long stretch of your own centuries? What about your boyfriend? Is he another toy, another hobby to pass the time? Does he really mean anything to you? Let's find out. Convince me he does today. You have until the end of your shift to ascertain his safety. You know the rules – keep him in safe places, keep others around him, etc., etc. I'll be with you, watching. Convince me you really care, and I'll spare him. Make me believe. Fail – or involve any of your immortal contacts – and no amount of â€Å"safekeeping† will do him any good. I dropped the note, hands cold. What kind of fucked-up game was this? It made no sense. The nephilim told me in one breath to keep someone safe, yet implied in the next that it didn't matter, that there was no safety. It was stupid, another stirring of the waters, shaking up the status quo just to watch what I'd do. Looking around uneasily, I wondered: Was the nephilim here now? Was Jerome's disgruntled offspring lurking invisibly beside me, smirking at my distress? What should I do? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, just who the hell was my boyfriend anyway?

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(Counseling) - Essay Example Cultural sensitivity knows no negative differences or similarities, such as ‘better or worse,’ or ‘right and wrong.’ Each culture has what they know, regardless of what other cultures have, believe, or follow. Having cultural sensitivity means not finding one culture better than another, but finding them to all be the same in the sense that they have their similarities and differences. There are enough of these similarities and differences to keep cultures balanced with each other without making one more superior or inferior to others. Empathy, or understanding, can simply be described as â€Å"putting oneself into another’s shoes.† Empathy is not the same thing as pity or sympathy, but involves recognizing and entirely understanding what a person is thinking or feeling. Empathy is something that can take place if a person has experienced something that another person is experiencing – it allows that â€Å"outsider† to know exactly what is going on in the mind of that other person, to know what they are feeling, and are able to relate. Another well-known phrase that can be used to fully understand the meaning of empathy is â€Å"seeing eye to eye† with the other person. I have had, at times, the feeling of being an imposter in the career field that I am currently in. I would begin to doubt myself and my abilities, which would lead me to question myself repeatedly about why I am getting myself involved in counseling. It has even gotten to the point where I have found myself considering a career change, though I know that, after all the schooling I have put myself through, switching careers is hardly an option for me. Just from my own experience, I feel that many people that are new to a position or to a certain profession feel like an imposter. People spend a lot of time in school, preparing for what they should do upon graduating and entering their job,

What are the pros and cons of applying sterotypes to identify Essay

What are the pros and cons of applying sterotypes to identify potential criminals and do the costs outweigh the benefits, or vice versa - Essay Example Many theories have been put forward to explain the occurrence of criminal acts. Some of these theories include conflict theory, structural-functional theory, symbolic interactions and labeling theory.Criminal behavior is an act that violates the norms of a society according to Sociologists-Criminal act can also be an act that violates the laws of the land in a formal setting according to oxford dictionary of law. Criminology is a violation of socially constituted laws, norms or values. In this paper, I will analyze criminal behavior based on stereotypes as have been put forward by sociological theorists. I will discuss the pros and cons of applying stereotypes to identify the potential criminal. Lombroso had put forward a theory of crime and deviant. Lombroso suggested ways in which society can identify a criminal based on genetic, biological and psychological characteristics. Lombroso had suggested some genetically and biological characteristics which identify a criminal for example, a person with six fingers left-handed eyebrows that meet at the bottom, squinted eye to be criminals (Ashmore and Longo, 22;Hamilton,191) .Based on Lombroso theory it is possible for police or community to victimize individuals based on the characteristics given by Lombroso yet they are innocent. This has been so in the U.S where African Americans are often perceived as criminals as seen in the case that appeared in the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2002. In the court, the police argued that the man, black, must be the one who had sold cocaine to state's informant since he sounded black. The stereotype that it's African Americans who engage in crime has led to increase of crime causes. The young Af rican Americans argue that they are perceived as criminals even when they are innocent (Randall, 88; Irving 63). The occurrence has led to many young African Americans who are potential criminals to engage in crime (Schissel, 71; Thornberry, 14; Duffy and Scotts, 29). Empirical studies have been done by sociologists to verify the truth of the theory and it has been found that there are individuals who possess the given characteristics yet they are morally upright. Media has played a role in strengthening certain stereotypes by highlighting crimes committed by certain group of people and emphasize how police die in line of duty (Gray, Fishman and Gruyter, 21 ;Oliver, 88 ;Weitzer, 11). Lombroso theory of description of criminals formed the basis of development of labeling theory. The theory of labeling focuses on the linguistic tendency of individuals to act in accordance to how society has described them based on norms and stereotype. Howard Becker has put forward ways in which individuals adhere to the labeling and become delinquent or criminals. For example, when a teenage is told by everyone that he resemble a thug; the particular teenager can even begin by picking other people's items like books with the notion "after all everyone perceives me as a thief". Psychologically, the teenager is oriented to criminal behaviors due to labeling and this is an adverse effect on society. When a potential criminal is described or labeled a criminal according to Becker, it becomes very hard to reform the individual through imprisonment and rehabilitation facilities since the individual already perceives that the society already perceive him as criminal so whether he/she changes, whenever a criminal act occurs the society will suspect him first. An empirical study on criminal maniacs or prison maniacs has given data on the theory which verify the theory (Presdee, 44). However, there has been stereotype that women are harmless and this has led to increase in crime since crime happen unnoticed (Daly and Maher, 54)

On Defining Governance, Democracy and Decentralization Essay

On Defining Governance, Democracy and Decentralization - Essay Example Increasingly, among international organizations (such as the World Bank and the United Nations), governance is used as a concept to both provide a broad overview of and describe the way societies manage themselves. In the dialogue routinely engaged in by the United Nations and the World Bank "governance" is normally spoken of in terms of three systems - the political/administrative; the economic; and the civil society. When looking at governance from this perspective an important additional dimension is introduced into any discussion of the relationship between governance, democracy and decentralization because one is forced to pay attention to the significance of decentralization for economic development. This represents a very significant dimension in terms of the overall well-being of the society as a whole for it can be central to the defining of its development potential. Governance has also been described and dealt with, particularly in the past two decades, in terms of how to improve the functioning of the actual political/administrative system extant in a particular country. ... rnmental organization (which frequently means the downsizing of government bureaucracies); and the strong encouragement of transparency and accountability in government. There is obviously a long history of discussion about and consideration of what are the attributes of democracy and democratic governance. During the course of the past half century, most attention in this regard has focused upon four basic attributes. These include the conduct within a country of free and fair elections; the existence of a reasonably well-organized and competitive party system; a delineation of, respect for, and protection of basic civil liberties and human rights within the society; and, the encouragement, support of and active participation of a vigorous civil society and, in particular, strong interest groups. While democracy and its attributes have been the topic of much thought, writing and discussion, it is still the case that there are not totally precise measures of or delineations of where democratic governance begins or ends within a society. In fact, democracy is inevitably a "work in progress." The institutions and processes of democracy are constantly in a state of evolution. Such evolution is not always necessarily in a progressive or productive fashion. Clearly there are moments in almost all societies in which democratic processes and values suffer setbacks. Likewise, there are other times when what is normally evolutionary progress toward higher levels of democratic governance sometimes become dramatic movement. The concept of decentralization is perhaps a little less clearly defined in part because it is the newest of these concerns. One of the things that has added some misunderstanding to the debate and discussion over decentralization is the frequent

Long Way Gone Study Guide Essay Example for Free

Long Way Gone Study Guide Essay 1.What does Ishmael say the war is about? Ishmael says nothing about the causes of the war, or what each side was fighting for, or of the overall political and social conditions in Sierra Leone that caused the war. This was a deliberate strategy on the part of Beah, the author. He wanted to present the war through the eyes of a child. As a boy of twelve, when the war first affected him, he had no interest in politics. He had no reason to be interested—his main interest, understandably for a boy of his age, was in singing and dancing to rap music and hanging out with his friends. When the war comes to him, it is for him a battle for personal survival, not a political cause. He is also fueled by feelings of revenge—instilled into him by his army officers—against the rebels because they killed his family. Once again, these are personal feelings not political beliefs. For the reader, then, transported to a land he or she knows nothing about (for the American reader, that is), the war seems not only almost unimaginably brutal but also meaningless. It consists of one side mindlessly killing the other, and vice versa, in skirmishes in small villages. Ishmael does report Lieutenant Jabati’s speeches to his men, in which he says they are defending their country (â€Å"We kill them [the rebels] for the good and betterment of this country† [p. 123]), but such appeals to patriotism are not what inspire Ishmael. Ishmael’s ignorance of politics is again stressed when he is in Freetown during his rehabilitation and sees a convoy of cars and military vans. He is told that the new president, Tejan Kabbah, who had won an election eight months earlier is passing by. â€Å"I had never heard of this man,† Ishmael writes pointedly. This confirms the tenor of the book as a whole: Ishmael is a boy caught up in a war he knows nothing about for a cause he does not care about. 2.Why was the war fought and what course did it take? During the 1980s Sierra Leone was a one-party state governed by the All-People’s Congress (APC) party. However, this period was marked by extensive government corruption and abuse of power. Although Sierra Leone is rich in natural resources it became one of the poorest countries in the world because of mismanagement. The civil war in neighboring Liberia helped to create conditions for war in Sierra Leone because a Liberian war leader reportedly sponsored the rebel group called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) as a way of destabilizing Sierra Leone, which at the time was a base for a United Nations peacekeeping force. The war broke out in 1991 in villages in eastern Sierra Leone that were near the Liberian border. The aim of the RUF was to seize and control the diamond sector, and in 1991 it took control of the diamond mines in the Kono district. (It is the mining area around Ishmael’s home town of Mogbwemo that the rebels seize in 1993.) In 1992 a military coup took place that established the National Provisional Ruling Council, replacing the civilian government. However, the new military government was powerless to prevent the RUF from controlling much of the country. It was the years immediately after this, from 1993 to January 1996, that Ishmael was a soldier. The war continued after Ishmael was rescued from it, as he himself found out when he went to stay with his uncle in Freetown after his rehabilitation. There had been an election in April 1996, and a civilian government had taken power, but in May 1997 there was another military coup, and the new military government known as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) invited the RUF to participate in it. The following year, when Beah was safely in the United States, the military government was ousted and the civilian government restored. But this did not stop the violence as the AFRC and its RUF allies fought to regain power. Fighting returned to Freetown in 1999, before a peace accord was signed in July 1999. But this did not last, and the war dragged on, finally ending in January 2002, with the civilian government in charge. According to the CIA’s World Factbook, the civil war resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than two million people—about one-third of the population of Sierra Leone. 3.What is the situation in Sierra Leone today? According to the CIA’s World Factbook, Sierra Leone is gradually returning to a fully democratic government following the ravages of the civil war. There was a general election in 2007 that led to one civilian government being peacefully replaced by another. The nation has also tried to come to terms with the recent past. In 2002 the government set up a Special Court to try those responsible for war crimes during the civil war. It also set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Special Court indicted many of those held responsible for the atrocities. Some died before they could be tried, but in June 2007, the Special Court found three men guilty of war crimes, including not only murder, terrorism, and enslavement but also the act of conscripting or enlisting children under fifteen into the armed forces. As refugees from the war are slowly returning from neighboring countries, the Sierra Leone government is trying to create jobs and end political corruption. Revenues from diamond mining have increased significantly since the end of the war. Diamonds account for about half of Sierra Leone’s exports. However, Sierra Leone, with a population estimated in 2009 as 5,132,138, remains an extremely poor country with wide disparities in how wealth is distributed. According to the World Factbook, â€Å"The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad.† 4.How widespread is the use of child soldiers? It would be comforting to think that the forced conscription of children into the armed forces during the war in Sierra Leone was an aberration, not something that can happen again in the modern world. However, that is not the case. Even in the twenty-first century, the use of child soldiers is common in armed conflicts around the world. According to Human Rights watch, an international nongovernmental organization, as of 2007, there were an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children fighting in various wars. According to a Global Report published in 2008 by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, at the end of 2007 children were used as soldiers in seventeen armed conflicts around the globe. The coalition noted that this was down from twenty-seven conflicts in 2004, but the downturn was more because the conflicts had ended than because child soldiers were no longer being recruited. The Global Report identified the following countries where children were recruited for paramilitaries, militias, civilian defense forces or armed groups linked to or supported by governments: Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Ivory Coast, Libya, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Uganda. The most flagrant offender, according to the Global Report, is Myanmar, where the government uses thousands of children in its battle against rebel groups. In Uganda, tens of thousands of children have been forced into joining armies over a period of nearly twenty-five years. In some of these countries, including Uganda, girls as well as boys have been forced to become soldiers. There have in recent years been concerted international efforts to end the use of child soldiers. Sierra Leone, which has tried and convicted men responsible for recruiting child soldiers, has become a leader in this issue. The use of child soldiers has now been prohibited by international law. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict has been ratified by 120 states. The UN Security Council has adopted resolutions calling for the establishment of a monitoring mechanism on children and armed conflict. However, these and other prohibitions are no guarantee that when new conflicts break out, child soldiers will not be recruited. 5.Is Beah’s story factually accurate? A Long Way Gone achieved popular and critical success, but questions have been raised by some regarding the factual accuracy of a number of events Beah recounts in the book. Beah writes that his village was attacked in January 1993 and after that he became a refugee from the war. Critics claim that there are school records showing that Beah was in school later than this date, and that the village was attacked in 1995, not 1993. This would mean that Beah would actually have been recruited at the age of fifteen, not thirteen as he writes in the book. This would have meant that he was only a child soldier for a few months, rather than over two years. Some critics point to the structure of the book to confirm this. They point out that most of the book deals with Beah’s wanderings as a refugee and the months he spent in rehabilitation. Only two chapters (13 and 14) cover his actual experiences as a soldier (although he does present more incidents from his military service at various points in flashbacks). Questions have also been raised about the account Beah gives of the fight between the former boy soldiers at the rehabilitation home, in which several boys were killed. There are no independent reports of such a fight ever taking place. Some believe that Beah used others’ experiences as his own and that he embellished his tale. They point to his interest in creative writing at Oberlin College and the fact that his adoptive mother was a storyteller. The suggestion is that Beah was encouraged by those around him to tell a more vivid story. Others have more charitably suggested that Beah simply got his dates mixed up, and his memory may have been unreliable because on his own admission he was high on drugs most of the time he was in military service. Beah has vehemently denied that he invented anything, however. In an article published in Publishers Weekly in 2008, Beah wrote, â€Å"Sad to say, my story is all true.†

An introduction to the Discount House in Nigeria

An introduction to the Discount House in Nigeria In selecting an industry, the Discount House, a sub sector of the Nigerian financial sector was selected because they are peculiar in their own special way in that they offer unique financial services which put them in almost the same pedestal as the regular banks in Nigeria but they are not banks. They could also be referred to as specialised banks. In carrying out an analysis of its competitiveness, the PESTLE model was used to analyse how the Discount House sub sector is affected by environmental factors while the Porters Five Forces was used to analyse the various threats and challenges that beset the Discount House sub sector. Discount houses are specialised financial Institutions created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to assist its management of liquidity in the economy (Consolidated Discount Limited, 2009). They are composite but specialised financial services solution provider (Associated Discount House Limited, 2009) whose primary function is to provide safe and secured short-term investment opportunities within the banking system. (Express Discount Limited, 2009). The Structure Of The Nigerian Financial System The Nigerian financial system is made up of two sub sectors; the formal and the informal sub sectors. The formal sub sector comprises of the regulatory bodies, money market, capital market, foreign exchange markets, insurance companies, brokerage firms, deposit money banks (DMBs), development finance and other financial institutions. As at the end of March 2010, there were 24 deposit money banks(DMBs), 5discount houses(DHs), 941 microfinance banks(MFBs), 107 finance companies(FCs), 101 primary mortgage institutions(PMIs), 13 pension fund administrators(PFAs), 5 pension fund custodians(PFCs), 1 stock exchange, 1 commodity exchange, 1621 bureau-de-change operators(BDCs), 690 securities brokerage firms, 5 development finance institutions(DFIs) and 73 insurance companies. The informal sub sector includes self-help groups, financial cooperatives and credit associations. It is imperative to know that there is a weak relationship between the informal sub sector and the formal sub sector (financial stability report, 2010) Discount House Sub Sector Overview: Discount Houses in Nigeria were first established in 1993. They were licensed to commence operations with just three discount houses as players. Their number later increased to five and their foundation can be linked to Great Britain, which is generally regarded as the origin of discount houses. These institutions evolved to provide a link between the banks and the Bank of England by serving as a channel for the interchange of banks funds as well as providing access to the Bank of England as a lender of last resort (Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, ) and in like manner discount houses in Nigeria are to act as intermediaries or mediators between the Central Bank of Nigeria and other licensed banks in Nigeria in Open Market Operations transactions (Revised Guidelines for Discount Houses, 2004). There are five discount houses in Nigeria wholly owned by consortiums of banks and other financial institutions as allowed in the Discount House guidelines 2004 by the Central Bank of Nigeria. However the maximum allowable equity holding for any investor in a discount house is 40% (Revised Guidelines for Discount Houses, 2004).These Discount Houses are named as follows: Associated Discount House Limited (ADHL), Consolidated Discount Limited (CDL), Express Discount House Limited (EDL), First Securities Discount House Limited (FSDH) and Kakawa Discount House Limited (KDHL).They fall under a common umbrella referred to as Nigerian Discount Market Association. They are presently not listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The Discount House sub sector is highly monitored, guided and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria requiring of them their daily, weekly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports showing the state of their affairs. Their daily operational activities include the injection and the withdrawal of funds by the Central bank of Nigeria from the money market through them (Ezirim and Enefaa, 2010) of which they must invest 60% of their deposit liabilities in government securities at any point in time (Revised Guidelines for Discount Houses, 2004). By this a balance is maintained in the economy thereby guarding liquidity. Apart from this function, the discount houses also facilitate the issuance and sale of short term government securities, provide discount/re-discount facilities for treasury bills, government securities and other eligible financial instruments, accept short-term investments on an intermediary basis from banks and wholesale investors and lastly provide short term financial accommodation to banks (Revised Guidelines for Discount Houses, 2004). The Discount House Sub-Sector Environment: The discount house sector is greatly influenced and controlled by environmental forces; global and domestic. The global economic environment shows that the global economic crisis appeared to have eased off in the latter part of 2009 but general optimism is being replaced with pessimism of a double dip recession, as fears grow that governments and policy makers around the world might be forced (due to pressure or mistakes) to remove monetary and fiscal props, too soon. So even though developed economies are gradually beginning to come out of the general recession, the situation is still delicate (First Securities Discount House, 2009). In emerging market economies, growth has been robust but inflationary pressures are strong and on the rise. The negative impact of the political crises in the oil-producing Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region on oil prices and the disruptions and destructions associated with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have added to uncertainty about the sustainability of global economic recovery and growth%( Central Bank of Nigeria communiquà © No 75, 2011). This has great implications on the discount houses with Nigeria being a developing and emerging economy and the effect of the global crises is strongly felt with a probability of increases in the international interest rate. The domestic economic environment is being characterised by a fluctuating inflation rate which has significant impact on interest and lending rates. It has been a herculean task trying to bring down the inflation rate to a single digit as proposed and rather the rate rose from 11.1% as at March, 2011 to 12.8% in April, 2011(Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, 2011). This inflationary rise still has a tendency to heighten further as a result of the general increase in global and food prices. The operating economic environment is full of challenges as there are array of issues. In March 2011, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank increased MPR from 6.5% to 7.5% maintaining interest rate corridor of +/-2% around the MPR. By this, the Standing Lending Facility Rate (rate at which CBN lends to Banks and Discount Houses as bank of last resort) became 9.5% and has remained so. On the other hand, the Standing Deposit Rate (rate at which Banks and Discount Houses place excess funds with the Central Bank of Nigeria) remained at 4 %. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had a projection of an increase by 7.43% in the first quarter of the year 2011, giving a generally good outlook to the Nigerian economy. This projection arose as a result of the expectation for a perk up in the oil sector and also the increasing emphasis on the development and improvement of the other sectors in the economy (Central Bank of Nigeria communiquà © No 75, 2011). Finally on the political scene, the year 2011 being an election year for Nigeria, there are a lot uncertainties associated with the electoral process and the election results and this could affect the discount house sub sector and the Nigerian economy as a whole and it is projected that the effect of these uncertainties will result in higher exchange rate risks with lower reserves and high spending-currency devaluation possible and that Inflation will remain over 10% with implications for demand, input costs and projects(Resource and Trust Company Limited, 2011). Competitiveness In The Discount House Sub- Sector The discount house sub sector is just a small sector in a large financial sector with just a few players who are almost of equal standing; hence, there is strong competition among the services providers which have led to innovation, efficiency and the upgrade of competitive advantage by the players. The provision of specialised personalised services allowable within the scope of the discount house guidelines. Example is the personal pension plan developed by Consolidated Discount Limited which was created as a way of preparing clients to be less vulnerable to loss of earning capacity after retirement (Consolidated Discount Limited, 2009). Also Associated Discount House Limited in conjunction with the Debt Management Office (DMO) of Nigeria organized an awareness seminar on 12 February, 2009 to enkindle the interest of retail investors both local, international and in the diasporas in Federal Government of Nigeria Bonds (Associated Discount House Limited, 2009). Opportunities In The Discount House Sub- Sector Without gainsaying, there are opportunities in Discount Houses businesses (if not many) which gives them an edge over banks and other specialised banks. As earlier inferred, discount houses are allowed to offer certain unique financial services which puts them almost in the same stand as banks and even much more but they cannot be referred to as banks and one of the reasons is because there is minimum paid up capital imposed on the regular banks which amounts to N25,000,000,000.00(Twenty five billion naira) only at any point in time. For the discount houses sub sector, the minimum paid up capital shall be N1,000,000,000.00(One billion naira) only or as may be prescribed by Central Bank of Nigeria from time to time (Revised Guidelines for Discount Houses, 2008). There is a revised Guideline for year 2008 which also relaxes the ownership of Discount Houses to now include non-financial institutions and individuals. This revision provides the opportunity for Discount Houses to grow their capital base to enable them to explore new areas of business and boost their profitability (Kakawa Discount House, 2009). Discount Houses have sizable support from the Central Bank of Nigeria as they often have the privilege of being able to gain access to cheap funds by using the government securities in their custody to borrow. Discount Houses are tightly regulated therefore there can be little room for carrying out activities outside their stipulated guidelines. Discount Houses are proactive in monitoring and managing money market trends to the benefit of their clients. Unlike other deposit taking institutions, the financial assets acquired by Discount Houses are of the finest quality with little or no credit risk (Express Discount House Limited, 2009). Threats To The Discount House Sub- Sector Naturally the discount house sub sector is faced with its own threats and challenges as from inception, discount houses operated in an environment that could termed as unusual or abnormal. There was a distress situation in the banking sector which was at its peak and most banks patronized discount houses in order to ensure the safety of their funds, but with the return of orderliness and calm, discount houses patronage by banks reduced. Rather, the interbank and foreign exchange markets seem to have provided more attractive trading options for the banks, to the detriment of the discount houses. Licensing of additional discount houses to make the total number of discount houses 5 proved to be a challenge as it had an adverse effect on the total turnover of the discount house sub sector, following the initial boom from the year of operations of 1993 where total asset stood at N9,600,000,000.00(Nine billion, six hundred million naira) only which dropped significantly to N3,400,000,000.00(Three billion, four hundred million naira) only in 1995 following the entrance of a new entrant into the market. With these happenings, licensing of new discount houses might still impact on the sub-sector further negatively. Their narrow scope of operations has also proven to be a major challenge for the Discount House sub sector being a specialised bank is inhibiting a lot of opportunities for expansion (Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, 2010). Finally, from the inception, discount houses had the exclusive right to conduct Open Market Operations transactions (OMO). Open Market Operations (OMO) is an indirect monetary policy technique that is used to control the level of money supply. It involves the sale/purchases of money market instruments in the open market; these instruments being Nigerian treasury bills (Ezirim and Enefaa, 2010). With the Central Bank of Nigeria opening up the window to banks as well, the discount house sub sector lost the sole right of Open market Operations. Conclusion In spite of all the challenges and threats faced by the Discount House sub sector, the Discount Houses are still are very vital part of Nigeria as an emerging economy and just the existing players in the market are not enough to keep a balanced financial sector and the economy as a whole. In the light of the fact that the Central Bank of Nigeria as the major regulator keeps on revisiting and revising the guidelines of the Discount House sub sector, there is hope yet still for growth, expansion, innovation and maximum output which should encourage new players to participate. Part 2 Strategy Overview Strategy is a plan or blueprint of what an organisation intends to achieve and how to go about it. Artto, Kujala, Dietrich and Martinsuo (2008) define strategy as a firms goal to attain a desired position in its competitive external environment. This is in line with Kenneth Andrew (1987) school of thought that views strategy from the corporate angle where he views corporate strategy as the nature of decisions a company takes which reveals its short and long term goals, how it plans to go about achieving these goals and how its outcome will affect all stakeholders and community at large. There is a popular belief that an organization that fails to plan or strategise, plans to fail and Goold (1996) goes on further to share his own view when he says that matured businesses can easily become staid and resistant to change. Usually this behaviour leads them to a decline and the only way it can regain its position is through strategy or change in strategy. This resolve usually involve the p ursuit, accomplishment, and maintenance of competitive advantage in its industry (Varadarajan and Clark cited in Morgana and Strong, 2003). Whittington (2001:10) summarises it all when he says strategy is all about thinking better and thinking differently and claims that a good strategy means doing something different from every other person. But there are pitfalls to strategy as Mintzberg (1994) puts forward the question; is a climate conducive to strategic planning necessarily one conducive to effective strategic thinking and acting? He claims that there are underlying issues which affects the ability of plans to make head way and emphasizes that these issues are neither technical nor analytical but rather human (Abel and Hammond cited in Mintzberg, 1994). But Smith and Reese (1999) argue that as long as there is a fit or alignment between operational elements and business then there should be no pitfalls where he defines fit as the degree to which operational elements match the business strategy. Alternative Approaches to Strategy: Similarities and Differences There are various approaches to strategy but Whittington (2000) classifies strategy into four approaches: the Classical, Evolutionary, Processualist and Systemic. He further analyses each approach as follows: The classical approach sees strategy as a process of rational deliberation, calculation and analysis, intended to achieve long-term benefit and that good planning is what it takes to master internal and external environments. The Evolutionary approach analyses strategy from the point of view that rational long term planning is often irrelevant and that strategies that turn out to be successful only turn out so because it was inevitable. The Processualist approach sees long term planning as basically pointless, but they are not so doubtful or cynical about the fate of businesses that do not take full advantage of environmental opportunities as they do not their see inability or failure to think up and strategise is going to lead to any serious competitive disadvantage. Finally the Systemic approach to strategy sees organizations strategic planning as basically being influenced and controlled by the social system in which they operate. Meaning the demographic setting of the organizations environment needs to be taken into consideration when strategizing. In analyzing the similarities and differences of these approaches, their style or processes and their end result is paramount. In comparing the classical and evolutionary approaches to strategy, Whittington (2001:2) posits profit maximization as the natural outcome of strategy-making. This he made in reference from the point of view of their end result which is profit or return on capital. These approaches associate profitability with strategy and believe the higher the level of strategy employed, the higher and better the profit generated. This view is shared by (Friedman and Baumol cited in Vining and Meredith, 2000) where they argue that the only appropriate goal or strategy in any organisation is to maximize profit and that any other goal is considered inappropriate. As much the classical and evolutionary approaches are similar in terms of profit maximization being their goal; they differ in style and processes. The classical approach adopts a style of rational planning (Whittington, 2000:11) whereas the evolutionary approach lacks confidence in rational planning where they argue that no matter the level or intensity of strategy, the outcome is usually driven by market dictates and how well a manager is able to perform and that investing in long term strategies can be counter productive (Whittington, 2000: 19). In this instance, the evolutionary approach can be compared with the Processualist approach to strategy in that they also do not believe in rational planning. This view is shared by Peppard 1995, who argues that in a claim to gaining competitive advantage, management develop strategies with seemingly superiority above others which is just a way of them being seen to be doing something and not necessarily hope to achieve anything by their strategies. By this claim, peppard tries to show that rational planning is just an act which is not necessarily relevant to the overall performance of the organisation but it is something that is done for the corporate image. His view is supported by Cyert and March ( cited in Whittington 2000:22) who argue that firms can plan in such a way that major strategy sessions could be cut off and yet still deliver just enough to keep everyone satisfied. Although the processualist approach is similar to the evolutionary approach in terms of processes and style, that where all their similarity ends because in terms of outcome. The Processualist approach can be compared with the systemic approach of strategy whose school of thought sees not only profit maximization but other outcomes as a an end result of strategy (Whittington 2000: 21 27). Werther Jr and Chandler (2005) argue that firms are continuously appraised in terms of both the financial and social benefits that result from their corporate actions or strategies. The systemic approach proposes that firms differ according to the social and economic systems in which they are embedded (Whittington, 2000:27) thereby viewing strategy as being guided and controlled by the environmental forces in which they operate. In the same spirit, the processualist advice against striving after unattainable ideal of rational fluid action, but to accept and work with the world as it is (Whittington, 2000:21). Finally, the systemic approach can be compared with the classical approach in that they both believe in rational planning and do retain faith in the capacity of organizations to plan forward and to act effectively within their environment'(Whittington 2000:26). This view is shared by Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart, (2010) when they opined that strategy is a high-order choice that has profound implications on competitive outcomesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. and strategy should contain provisions against a range of environmental contingencies, whether they take place or not and Stallwood (1996) maintains that strategy is necessary but insists that whatever strategy is used must be appropriate and simple enough for it to become adopted by an organization without necessarily having to change after its initial usage. Conclusion Strategy can be seen as a means of avoiding [perhaps] costly and damaging warfare (University of Leicester, 2009:90) and it is quite clear that all the approaches of strategy have their own benefits even though they are similar and also dissimilar in their own unique ways. Therefore which ever method adopted should be seen to add to an organizations performance and must be duly analysed and deliberated on ensuring it is in alignment with the organizations goals and objectives before adoption.