Life of Petrarch by Ernest Hatch Wilkins - 1328 Words

For the period of the Middle Ages, Europe went through a great ruin in the duration of the 5th and 15th century. Europe faced great blows from both sides of spectrum. For instance, one of the greatest fatal blows was the Hundred Years War. The war not only caused famine, and starvation all around Europe, but also included around 20 million recorded deaths. About one third of the population was wiped out. Countless towns in Europe had a loss of more than 40% of their population. In fact Paris lost half of its residents and Venice, Hamburg and Bremen are projected to have lost at least 60% of their populations. A popular belief in that time period was that the devastation was a punishment from God. With little hope, people desperately†¦show more content†¦This movement was called Humanism, the philosophy of rationalism relied upon the belief in the dignity of human beings. This philosophy quickly grew and expanded all across Europe as an outburst of human creativity and paved the way to contemporary learning. The birth of humanism was the beginning of the Renaissance period. The creating of new inventive literature, expanding the once bounded writing curriculum. New values were stressed in writing in the importance of poetry and books. Especially expressed by the Father of Humanism Francesco Petrarch. He was one of the most significant and influential poets and writers in the Middle Ages. Francesco Petrarch was born July 20, 1304. He was born into a family exiled in the town of Arezzo. He was the first son of the notary Pietro di Parenzo di Garzo. He studied in law and religion heavily in his earlier, although his major would quickly change, asserting, I couldnt face making a merchandise of my mind, in his opinion politics were too much of a dishonest profession. Petrarch always had an interest in writing and Latin literature, he quickly emerged himself in books and began to write extensively. In his extensive pursuit for old Latin writing and manuscripts, he traveled through France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. From his large scale work, an epic in Latin, Africa, and his works began to be credited and worldly renowned marking his influence in literature forever. TheShow MoreRelated Francis Petrarch: Leader of the Humanistic Movement and Father of the Renaissance2215 Words   |  9 PagesFrancis Petrarch: Leader of the Humanistic Movement and Father of the Renaissance Before the civic spirit and individuality evident and necessary to the Renaissance came to fruition, there had to have been something to trigger a change in the mentality of the medieval civilization. The medieval manorialism fostered illiteracy and ignorance and a very narrow view of the outside world, people did not question their place, the church, or the need to prepare for the after life. The awakening

The World Was A Wonderful Place - 1763 Words

When I was a boy, I used to believe the world was a wonderful place. Growing up in a small town with a close knit community I was isolated from the real world and never saw it for what it was until I entered my teens. Slowly I began watching the news and becoming aware of many of the world s problems. I used to think that everyone had a little good in them and that as a species we would work together to solve issues which plagued millions of us. I still believe that people are capable of amazing feats and that to this day we can solve the problems, which I see, corrupting the world. People tend to misjudge just how important every single organism is on this planet. Without one, another will suffer and throw the whole ecosystem off balance. People tend to take the little things for granted and react out of greed. This is why our climate is changing and thousands of species are at risk of extinction. Humans have the choice to preserve these species but few stand answer the call. Humans have been selfish as species and although we have improved to protect others and our environment, we still allow many injustices. Our forests are being chopped or burned to the ground for farmland and lumber. Harmful oil and chemicals are constantly being leaked into ecosystems. Our climate is changing from an increase of CO2 and man made chemicals in our atmosphere. These conditions which we have brought upon ourselves are why several plants and animals are slowly going extinct. If oneShow MoreRelatedWriting, Or Lyricism, By 21 Pilots And Louis Armstrong s What A Wonderful World?11 38 Words   |  5 PagesPilots and Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. There are literary similarities, but there are also many differences that set these songs apart from each other and elicit differing emotional responses from the audience. 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While in jail Armstrong received his first formal music lesson from oneRead MoreAlice Of Wonderland By Alice Walker1159 Words   |  5 PagesAlice very quietly wandered away and sat down under a tree†pg2 †¢ Alice in wonderland takes place during summer in a magical place called wonderland. I know this because the play is called Alice in wonderland. â€Å"One warm and quiet summer afternoon, a little girl named Alice was in her garden†. Pg2 †¢ Alice doesn’t like the world and wants a world of her own where you can do whatever you want â€Å"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.† Pg2 †¢ Alice eventually noticed a rabbit and afterRead MoreThe Wonderful Wizard Of Oz1615 Words   |  7 Pages L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became a favorite read for America. The novel became a huge part of the American culture. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz impacted twentieth and twenty-first century ethos. The book influenced people around the globe. 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Marketing Is Everything Free Essays

string(71) " the product generally achieved a market share of between 15% and 20%\." HER JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1991 Marketing Is Everything by Regis McKenna he 1990s will belong to the customer. And that is great news for the marketer. Technology is transforming choice, and choice is transforming the marketplace. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing Is Everything or any similar topic only for you Order Now As a result, we are witnessing the emergence of a new marketing paradigm – not a â€Å"do more† marketing that simply turns up the volume on the sales spiels of the past but a knowledge- and experience-based marketing that represents tbe once-and-for-all death of the salesman. Marketing’s transformation is driven by tbe enormous power and ubiquitous spread of tecbnology. So pervasive is technology today tbat it is virtually meaningless to make distinctions between technology and nontecbnology businesses and industries: tbere arc only tecbnology companies. Tecbnology has moved into products, the workplace, and the marketplace with astonishing speed and thorougbness. Seventy years after tbey were invented, fractional borsepower motors are in some IS to 20 bousebold products in tbe average American home today. In less than 20 years, the microprocessor has achieved a similar penetration. TWenty years ago, there Regis McKenna is chairman of Regis McKenna Inc. a Palo Alto-headquartered marketing consulting firm that advises some of America’s leading high-tech companies. He is also a general partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield ) Byers, a technology venture-capital company. He is the author of Who’s Afraid of Big Blue? (Addison-Wesley, 1989) and The Regis Touch (Addison-Wesley, 1985]. DRAWING BY TIMOTHY BLECK T 65 MARKETING IS EVERYTHING were f ewer than 50,000 computers in use,- today more than . 50,000 computers are purchased every day. The defining characteristic of this new technological push is programmahility. In a computer chip, programmability means the capability to alter a command, so that one chip can perform a variety of prescribed functions and produce a variety of prescribed outcomes. On the factory floor, programmability transforms the production operation, enabling one machine to produce a wide variety of models and products. More broadly, programmability is the new corporate capability to produce more and more varieties and choices for customers – even to offer each individual customer the chance to design and implement the â€Å"program† that will yield the precise product, service, or variety that is right for him or her. The technological promise of programmahility has exploded into the reality of almost unlimited choice. Take the world of drugstores and supermarkets. According to Gorman’s New Product News, which tracks new product introductions in these two eonsumer-products arenas, between 1985 and 1989 the number of new products grew by an astonishing 60% to an all-time annual high of 12,055. As venerable a brand as Tide illustrates this multiplication of brand variety. In 1946, Procter Gamble introduced the laundry detergent, the first ever. For 38 years, one version of Tide served the entire market. Then, in the mid-1980s, Procter Gamble began to bring out a succession of new Tides: Unscented Tide and Liquid Tide in 1984, Tide with Bleach in 1988, and the concentrated Ultra Tide in 1990. To some marketers, the creation of almost unlimited customer choice represents a threat – particularly when choice is accompanied by new competitors. TVenty years ago, IBM had only 20 competitors,- today it faces more than 5,000, when you count any company that is in the â€Å"computer† business. Twenty years ago, there were fewer than 90 semiconductor companies; today there are almost 300 in the United States alone. And not only are the competitors new, bringing with them new products and new strategies, but the customers also are new: 90% of the people who used a computer in 1990 were not using one in 1980. These new customers don’t know ahout the old rules, the old understandings, or the old ways of doing business – and they don’t care. What they do care about is a company that is willing to adapt its products or services to fit their strategies. This represents the evolution of marketing to the market-driven company. Several decades ago, there were sales-driven companies. These organizations focused their energies on changing customers’ minds to fit the product – praeticing the â€Å"any color as long as it’s black† school of marketing. As teehnology developed and competition increased, some companies shifted their approach and became eustomer driven. These companies expressed a new willingness to change their product to fit customers’ requests – practicing the â€Å"tell us what color you want† school of marketing. In the 1990s, successful companies are becoming market driven, adapting their products to fit their customers’ strategies. These companies will practice â€Å"let’s figure out together whether and how color matters to your larger goal† marketing. It is marketing that is oriented toward creating rather than controlling a market; it is 66 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February 1991 based on developmental education, incicmcntul improvement, and ongoing process rather than on simple market-share tactics, raw sales, and one-time events. Most important, it draws on the base of knowledge and experience that exists in the organization. T ese two fundamentals, knowledge-based and experiencebased marketing, will increasingly define the capabilities of a successful marketing organization. They will supplant the old approach to marketing and new product development. The old approach – getting an idea, conducting traditional market research, developing a product, testing the market, and finally going to market – is slow, unresponsive, and turf-ridden. Moreover, given the fast-changing ma rketplace, there is less and less reason to believe that this traditional approach can keep up with real customer wishes and demands or with the rigors of competition. Consider the mueh-publieized 1988 lawsuit that Beecham, the international consumer products group, filed against advertising giant Saatchi ; Saatchi. The suit, which sought more than $24 million in damages, argued that Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, at that time Saatchi’s U. S. market-research subsidiary, had â€Å"vastly overstated† the projected market share of a new detergent that Beecham launched. Yankelovich forecast that Beecham’s product, Delicare, a cold-water detergent, would win between 45. 4% and 52. 3% of the U. S. arket if Beecham backed it with $18 million of advertising. According to Beeeham, however, Delicare’s highest market share was 25%; the product generally achieved a market share of between 15% and 20%. You read "Marketing Is Everything" in category "Papers" The lawsuit was settled out of court, with no clear winner or loser. Regardless of the outcome, however, the issue it illustrates is widespread and fundamental: forecasts, by their v ery nature, must be unreliable, particularly with technology, competitors, customers, and markets all shifting ground so often, so rapidly, and so radically. The alternative to this old approach is know ledge-based and experience-based marketing. Knowledge-based marketing requires a company to master a scale of knowledge: of the technology in which it competes; of its competition; of its customers; of new sources of technology that can alter its competitive environment; and of its own organization, capabilities, plans, and way of doing business. Armed with this mastery, companies can put knowledge-based marketing to work in three essential ways: integrating tbe customer into tbe design process to guarantee a product tbat is tailored not only to the customers’ needs and desires but also to the customers’ strategies; generating nicbe thinking to use tbe company’s knowledge of cbannels and markets to identify segments of tbe market tbe company can own; and developing the infrastructure of suppliers, vendors, partners, and users wbose relationships will help sustain and support tbe company’s reputation and technological edge. The otber balf of this new marketing paradigm is experiencebased marketing, wbicb empbasizes interactivity, connectivity, and creativity. With tbis approacb, companies spend time with tbeir customers, constantly monitor tbeir competitors, and develop a feedback-analysis system tbat turns this information about the market and the competition into important new product intelligence. At the same time, tbese companies botb evaluate their own )anuary February 1991 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW 67 MARKETING IS EVERYTHING echnology to assess its currency and cooperate with other companies to create mutually advantageous systems and solutions. These close encounters – with customers, competitors, and internal and external technologies – give companies the firsthand experience they need to invest in market development and to take intelligent, calculated risks. In a time of exploding choice and unpredictable change, marketing – the new marketing – is the answer. With so m uch choice for customers, companies face the end of loyalty. To combat that threat, they can add sales and marketing people, throwing costly resources at the market as a way to retain customers. But the real solution, of course, is not more marketing but better marketing. And that means marketing that finds a way to integrate the customer into the company, to create and sustain a relationship between the company and the customer. The marketer must he the integrator, both internally – synthesizing technological capability with market needs – and externally bringing the customer into the company as a participant in the development and adaptation of goods and services. It is a fundamental shift in the role and purpose of marketing: from manipulation of the customer to genuine customer involvement; from telling and selling to communicating and sharing knowledge; from last-in-line function to corporate-credibility champion. Playing the integrator requires the marketer to command credibility. In a marketplace characterized by rapid change and potentially paralyzing choice, credibility becomes the company’s sustaining value. The character of its management, the strength of its financials, the quality of its innovations, the congeniality of its customer references, the capabilities of its alliances – these are the measures of a company’s credibility. They are measures that, in turn, directly affect its capacity to attract quality people, generate new ideas, and form quality relationships. The relationships are the key, the hasis of customer choice and company adaptation. After all, what is a successful brand hut a special relationship? And who hetter than a company’s marketing people to create, sustain, and interpret the relationship between the company, its suppliers, and its customers? That is why, as the demands on the company have shifted from controlling costs to competing on products to serving customers, the center of gravity in the company has shifted from finance to engineering-and now to marketing. In the 1990s, marketing will do more than sell. It will define the way a company does business. The old notion of marketing -was epitomized hy Marketing Is Everythins, and Everything T A/T / +’ IS IViarKCting he ritual phone call from the CEO to the corporate headhunter saying, â€Å"Find me a good marketing per- ^†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^ ^† ‘^†^ ^^ marketing operation! † What the Q^Q wanted, of course, was someone who could take on a discrete set of textbook functions that were generally associated with run-of-the-mill marketing. That person would immediately go to Madison Avenue to hire an advertising agency, change the ad campaign, redesign the company logo, redo the brochures, train the sales force, retain a high-powered public relations firm, and alter or otherwise reposition the company’s image. HARVARD BUSINESS REVTEW lanuary-February 1991 68 Behind the CEO’s call for â€Å"a good marketing person† were a number of assumptions and attitudes about marketing: that it is a distinct function in the company, separate from and usually subordinate to the core functions; that its job is to identify groups of potential customers and find ways to convince them to buy the company’s product or service; and that at the heart of it is image making – creating and projecting a false sense of the company and its offerings to lure the customer into the company’s grasp. If those assumptions ever were warranted in the past, however, all three are totally unsupportable and obsolete today. Marketing today is not a function; it is a way of doing business. Marketing is not a new ad campaign or this month’s promotion. Marketing has to be all-pervasive, part of everyone’s job description, from the receptionists to the board of directors. Its job is neither to fool the customer nor to falsify the company’s image. It is to integrate the customer into the design of the product and to design a ystematic process for interaction that will create substance in the relationship. To understand the difference between the old and tbe new marketing, compare how two bigb-tech medical instrument companies recently bandied similar customer telepbone calls requesting tbe repair and replacement of their equipment. Tbe first eompany – call it Gluco – delivered tbe replacement instrument to tbe customer witbin 24 hours of tbe request, no que stions asked. Tbe box in wbich it arrived contained instructions for sending back tbe broken instrument, a mailing label, and even tape to reseal tbe box. Tbe pbone call and tbe excbange of instruments were handled conveniently, professionally, and witb maximum consideration for and minimum disruption to tbe customer. The second company – call it Pumpco – bandied tbings quite differently. Tbe person wbo took the customer’s telepbone call bad never been asked about repairing a piece of equipment; sbe tbougbtlessly sent tbe customer into tbe limbo of bold. Finally, sbe came back on the line to say tbat tbe customer would have to pay for tbe equipment repair and tbat a temporary replacement would cost an additional $ 15. Several days later, tbe customer received tbe replacement witb no instructions, no information, no directions. Several weeks after the customer returned tbe broken equipment, it reappeared, repaired but witb no instructions concerning tbe temporary replacement. Finally, tbe customer got a demand letter from Pumpco, indicating tbat someone at Pumpco bad made the mistake of not sending tbe equipment C. O. D. To Pumpco, marketing means selling tbings and collecting money; to Gluco, marketing means building relationsbips witb its custotners. The way tbe two eompanies bandied two simple eustomer requests refleets tbe questions tbat customers increasingly ask in interactions witb all kinds of businesses, from airlines to software makers: Wbicb company is competent, responsive, and well organized? Wbicb company do I trust to get it rigbt- Wbicb company would I ratber do business witb? Successful companies realize tbat marketing is like quality integral to tbe organization. Like quality, marketing is an intangible tbat tbe customer must experience to appreciate. And like quality – wbicb in tbe United States bas developed from early ideas like HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW )anuary-February 1991 69 MARKETING IS EVERYTHING planned obsolescence and inspecting quality in to more ambitious concepts like the systemization of quality in every aspect of tbe organization – marketing bas been evolutionary. Marketing bas shifted from tricking tbe customer to blaming the customer to satisfying the customer – and now to integrating tbe customer systematically. As its next move, marketing must permanently shed its reputation for hucksterism and image making and create an award for marketing much like tbe Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. In fact, companies tbat continue to see marketing as a bag of tricks will lose out in sbort order to companies tbat stress substance and real performance. Marketing’s ultimate assignment is to serve customers’ real needs and to communicate tbe substance of tbe company – not to introduce tbe kinds of cosmetics tbat used to typify tbe auto industry’s annual model cbanges. And because marketing in tbe 1990s is an expression of tbe company’s cbaracter, it necessarily is a responsibility tbat belongs to the whole company. The Goal ofMarketing Is to Own the Market, Not fust U. S. companies typically make two kinds of mistakes. Some get caught up in the excitement and drive of making things, particularly new creto Sell the ations. Others become absorbed in the competiPwduct ^^^^  °^ selling things, particularly to increase their market share in a given product line. Both approaches could prove fatal to a business. Tbe problem witb tbe first is tbat it leads to an internal focus. Companies can become so fixated on pursuing tbeir RD agendas that they forget about tbe customer, tbe market, tbe competition. They end up winning recognition as RD pioneers but lack the more important capability – sustaining their performance and, sometimes, maintaining their independence. Genentech, for example, clearly emerged as the RD pioneer in biotechnology, only to be acquired by Rocbe. Tbe problem with the second approach is that it leads to a market-sbare mentality, which inevitably translates into undershooting the market. A market-share mentality leads a company to think of its customers as â€Å"share points† and to use gimmicks, spiffs, and promotions to eke out a percentage-point gain. It pusbes a company to look for incremental, sometimes even minuscule, growtb out of existing products or to spend lavishly to launch a new product in a market where competitors enjoy a fat, dominant position. It turns marketing into an expensive fight over crumbs rather than a smart effort to own the whole pie. Tbe real goal of marketing is to own the market – not just to make or sell products. Smart marketing means defining what wbole pie is yours. It means thinking of your company, your technology, your product in a fresh way, a way that begins by defining what you can lead. Because in marketing, what you lead, you own. Leadership is ownership. When you own the market, you do different things and you do tbings differently, as do your suppliers and your customers. When you own tbe market, you develop your products to serve tbat market specifically; you define tbe standards in that market; you bring into your camp third parties who want to develop their own compatible products or offer you new features or add-ons to aug- 70 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February 19yi ent your product; you get the first look at new ideas that others are testing in that market; you attract the most talented people because of your acknowledged leadership position. Owning a market can become a self-reinforcing spiral. Beeause you own the market, you become the dominant force in the field; beeause you dominate the field, you deepen your ownership o f the market. Ultimately, you deepen your relationship with your customers as well, as they attribute more and more leadership qualities to a company that exhibits such an integrated performance. To own the market, a eompany starts by thinking of a new way to define a market. Take, for instance, the case of Convex Computer. In 1984, Convex was looking to put a new computer on the market. Because of tbe existing market segmentation. Convex could have seen its only choice as competing for market sbare in the predefined markets: in supercomputers where Cray dominated or in minicomputers where Digital led. Determined to define a market it could own. Convex created the â€Å"mini-supercomputer† market by offering a product with a priee/performance ratio between Cray’s $5 million to $15 million supercomputers and Digital’s $300,000 to $750,000 minieomputers. Convex’s product, priced between $500,000 and $800,000, offered teehnological performance less than that of a full supercomputer and more than that of a minicomputer. Within this new market. Convex established itself as the leader. Intel did the same thing with its microprocessor. The company defined its early products and market more as computers than semiconductors. Intel offered, in essence, a computer on a chip, creating a new category of products that it could own and lead. Sometimes owning a market means broadening it; other times, narrowing it. Apple has managed to do both in efforts to create and own a market. Apple first broadened the category of small computers to achieve a leadership position. The market definition started out as hobby computers and had many small players. The next step was the home computer – a market that was also crowded and limiting. Tb own a market, Apple identified the personal computer, which expanded the market concept and made Apple the undeniable market leader. In a later move, Apple did the opposite, redefining a market by narrowing its definition. Unquestionably, IBM owned the business market; for Apple, a market-share mentality in that arena would have been pointless. Instead, with technology alliances and marketing eorreetly defined, Apple created – and owned – a whole new market: desktop publishing. Once inside the corporate world with desktop publishing, Apple could deepen and broaden its relationships with the business customer. Paradoxically, two important outcomes of owning a market are substantial earnings, which can replenish the company’s RD coffers, and a powerful market position, a beachhead from wbich a company can grow additional market share by expanding both its teehnological capabilities and its definition of the market. The greatest praetitioners of this marketing approach are Japanese companies in industries like autos, commercial electronics, semiconductors, and computers and communications. Their primary goal is ownership of certain target markets. The keiretsv industrial! structure allows them to use all of the market’s infrastructure to achieve HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February 1991 * r ^ MARKETING IS EVERYTHING this; relationships in technology, information, politics, and distribution help tbe company assert its leadership. Tbe Japanese strategy is consistent. Tbese companies begin by using basic research from tbe United States to jump-start new product development. From 1950 to 1978, for example, Japanese companies entered into 32,000 licensing arrangements to acquire foreign technology at an estimated cost of $9 billion. But the United States spent at least 50 times tbat much to do the original RD. Next, these Japanese companies pusb out a variety of products to engage the market and to learn and then focus on dominating tbe market to force foreign competitors to retreat – leaving them to barvest substantial returns. Tbese buge profits are recycled into a new spiral of RJ3, innovation, market creation, and market dominance. Tbat model of competing, which links RD, technology, innovation, production, and finance – integrated through marketing’s drive to own a market – is the approacb tbat all competitors will take to succeed in the 1990s. In a world of mass manufacturing, the counterpart was mass marketing. In a world of flexible Technolo2V n^^nufacturing, the counterpart is flexible market7-. 7 ine. The technology comes first, the ability to marJZ VUI Vt^Ci j^gj follows. The tecbnology embodies adaptability, programmability, and customizability; now comes marketing that delivers on those qualities. Today tecbnology has created tbe promise of â€Å"any thing, any way, any time. † Customers can have their own version of virtually any product, including one that appeals to mass identification rather than individuality, if tbey so desire. Think of a product or an industry where customization is not predominant. The telephone? Originally, Bell Telephone’s goal was to place a simple, all-black pbone in every home. Today there are more than 1,000 permutations and combinations available, ith options running the gamut from different colors and portahility to answering machines and programmability – as well as services. Tbere is the further promise of optical fiber and the convergence of computers and communications into a unified industry with even greater technological choice. How about a venerable product like the bicycle, which appeare d originally as a sketch in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks? According to a recent article in the Washington Post, tbe National Bicycle Industrial Company in Kokubu, Japan builds made-to-order bicycles on an assembly line. The bicycles, fitted to each customer’s measurements, are delivered within two weeks of the order – and the company offers 11,231,862 variations on its models, at prices only 10% higher than ready-made models. Even newspapers tbat report on this technology-led move to customization are themselves increasingly customized. Faced witb stagnant circulation, the urban daily newspapers have begun to customize their news, advertising, and even editorial and sports pages to appeal to local suburban readers. The Los Angeles Times, for example, has seven zoned editions targeting each of tbe city’s surrounding communities. What is at work here is the predominant matbematical formula of today’s marketing: variety plus service equals customization. For 72 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February all of its handying about as a marketing buzzword, customization is a remarkably direct concept – it is the capacity to deal with a customer in a unique way. Technology makes it increasingly possible to do that, but interestingly, marketing’s version of the laws of physics makes it increasingly difficult. According to quantum physics, things act differently at the micro level Light is the classic example. When subjected to certain kinds of tests, light behaves like a wave, moving in much the way an ocean wave moves. But in other tests, light behaves more like a particle, moving as a single ball. So, scientists ask, is it a wave or a particle? And when is it which? Markets and customers operate like light and energy. In fact, like light, the customer is more than one thing at the same time. Sometimes consumers behave as part of a group, fitting neatly into social and psychographic classifications. Other times, the consumer breaks loose and is iconoclastic. Customers make and break patterns: the senior citizen market is filled with older people who intensely wish to act youthful, and the upscale market must contend with wealthy people who hide their money behind the most utilitarian purchases. Markets are subject to laws similar to those of quantum physics. Different markets have different levels of consumer energy, stages in the market’s development where a product surges, is absorbed, dissipates, and dies. A fad, after all, is nothing more than a wave that dissipates and then becomes a particle. Take the much-discussed Yuppie market and its association with certain branded consumer products, like BMWs. After a stage of bigh customer energy and close identification, the wave has broken. Having been saturated and absorbed by the marketplace, the Yuppie association has faded, just as energy does in the physical world. Sensing the change, BMW no longer sells to the Yuppie lifestyle but now focuses on the technological capabilities of its machines. And Yuppies are no longer the wave they once were; as a market, they are more like particles as they look for more individualistic and personal expressions of their consumer energy. Of course, since particles can also behave like waves again, it is likely that smart marketers will tap some new energy source, such as values, to recoalesce the young, affluent market into a wave. And technology gives marketers the tools they need, such as database marketing, to discern waves and particles and even to design programs that combine enough particles to form a powerful wave. The lesson for marketers is much the same as that voiced by Buckminster Fuller for scientists: â€Å"Don’t fight forces,- use them. Marketers who follow and use technology, rather than oppose it, will discover that it creates and leads directly to new market forms and opportunities. Take audiocassettes, tapes, and compact discs. For years, record and tape companies jealously guarded their property. Knowing that home hackers pirated tapes and created their own composite cassettes, the music companies steadfastly resisted the forces of technology – until the Personics System realized th at technology was making a legitimate market for authorized, high-quality customized composite cassettes and CDs. Rather than treating the customer as a criminal, Personics saw a market. Today consumers can design personalized music tapes from the Personics System, a rewed-up jukebox with a library of HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW (anuary R-bmary 1991 73 MARKETING IS EVERYTHING over 5,000 songs. For $1. 10 per song, consumers tell tbe macbine wbat to record. In about ten minutes, tbe system makes a customized tape and prints out a laser-quality label of tbe selections, complete witb tbe customer’s name and a personalized title for tbe tape. Launcbed in 1988, tbe system bas already spread to more tban 250 stores. Smart marketers bave, once again, allowed tecbnology to create the customizing relationship witb tbe customer. We are witnessing tbe obsoleseence of advertisg-1^ tbe old model of marketing, it made sense as oveS fTOm ^^^ wbole formula: you sell mass-produced tn lU Q 3 j^ygg market tbrougb mass media. Marketing’s job was to use advertising to deliver a message to tbe consumer in a one-way communication: â€Å"Buy tbis! † Tbat message no longer works, and advertising is sbowing tbe effects. In 1989, newspaper advertising grew only 4%, compared witb 6% in 1988and9% in 1987. According to a study by Syracuse University’s Jobn Pbilip Jones, ad spending in tbe major media bas been stalled at 1. 5% of GNP since 1984. Ad agency staffing, researcb, and profitability bave been affected. Three related factors explain tbe decline of advertising. First, advertising overkill bas started to ricocbet back on advertising itself. Tbe proliferation of products has yielded a proliferation of messages: U. S. customers are hit witb up to 3,000 marketing messages a day. In an effort to bombard the customer with yet one more advertisement, marketers are squeezing as many voices as they can into tbe space allotted to tbem. In 1988, for example, 38% of primetime and 47% of weekday daytime television commercials were only 15 seconds in duration; in 1984, those figures were 6% and 11 % respeetively. As a result of the shift to 15-second commercials, the number of television commercials bas skyrocketed; between 1984 and 1988, prime-time commercials increased by 25%, weekday daytime by 24%. Predictably, bowever, a greater number of voices translates into a smaller impact. Customers simply are unable to remember wbich advertisement pitcbes wbich product, much less wbat qualities or attributes might differentiate one product from anotber. Very simply, it’s a jumble out tbere. Take tbe enormously clever and critically acclaimed series of advertisements for Eveready batteries, featuring a tireless marching rabbit. Tbe ad was so successful tbat a survey conducted by Video Storyboard Tests Inc. named it one of tbe top commercials in 1990 for Duracell, Eveready’s top competitor. In fact, a full 40% of tbose wbo selected tbe ad as an outstanding commercial attributed it to Duracell. Partly as a consequence of tbis confusion, reports indicate that Duracell’s market share has grown, while Eveready’s may have sbrunk sligbtly. Batteries are not the only market in whicb more advertising succeeds in spreading more confusion. The same thing bas happened in markets like athletic footwear and soda pop, where competing companies have signed up so many celebrity sponsors that consumers can no longer keep straight who is pitcbing wbat for whom. In 1989, for example. Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, and Diet Pepsi used nearly three dozen movie stars, athletes, musicians, and television personalities to tell consumers to buy more cola. But wben tbe 74 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February 1991 moke and mirrors bad cleared, most consumers couldn’t remember wbetber foe Montana and Don Jobnson drank Coke or Pepsi – or botb. Or wby it really mattered. Tbe second development in advertising’s decline is an outgrowth of the first: as advertising has proliferated and become more obnoxiously insistent, consumers bave gotten fed up. Tbe more advertising seeks to intrude, tbe more people try to shut it out. Last year, Disney won the applause of commercial-weary customers when the company announced tbat it would not screen its films in tbeaters that showed commercials before the feature. A Disney executive was quoted as saying, â€Å"Movie theaters should he preserved as environments where consumers can escape from the pervasive onslaught of advertising. † Buttressing its position, tbe company cited survey data obtained from moviegoers, 90% of wbom said tbey did not want commercials sbown in movie tbeaters and 95% of wbom said tbey did want to see previews of coming attractions. More recently, after a number of failed attempts, the U. S. Congress responded to the growing concerns of parents and educators over the eommercial content of children’s television. A new law limits tbe number of minutes of commercials and directs tbe Federal Communications Commission botb to examine â€Å"programlength commercials† – cartoon shows linked to commercial product lines – and to make each television station’s contribution to cbildren’s educational needs a condition for license renewal. Tbis concern over advertising is mirrored in a variety of arenas from public outcry over cigarette marketing plans targeted at blacks and women to calls for more environmentally sensitive packaging and products. The underlying reason bebind botb of these factors is advertising’s dirty little secret: it serves no useful purpose. In today’s market, advertising simply misses the fundamental point of marketing – adaptability, flexibility, and responsiveness. Tbe new marketing requires a feedback loop; it is tbis element tbat is missing from tbe monologue of advertising but that is built into the dialogue of marketing. Tbe feedback loop, connecting company and customer, is central to tbe operating definition of a truly market-driven company: a company that adapts in a timely way to the changing needs of tbe customer. Apple is one such company. Its Macintosh computer is regarded as a machine that launched a revolution. At its birth in 1984, industry analysts received it with praise and acclaim. But in retrospect, the first Macintosh had many weaknesses: it had limited, nonexpandable memory, virtually no applications software, and a blackand-wbite screen. For all tbose deficiencies, bowever, tbe Mac bad two strengtbs tbat more than compensated: it was incredibly easy to use, and it bad a user group tbat was prepared to praise Mac publicly at its launeb and to advise Apple privately on bow to improve it. In other words, it had a feedback loop. It was tbis feedback loop tbat brougbt about change in tbe Mac, wbicb ultimately became an open, adaptable, and colorful computer. And it was changing the Mac that saved it. Months before launebing tbe Mac, Apple gave a sample of tbe product to 100 influential Americans to use and comment on. It signed up 100 tbird-party software suppliers wbo began to envision applications that could take advantage of the Mac’s simplicity. It HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW (anuary-February 1991 75 MARKETING IS EVERYTHING trained over 4,000 dealer salespeople and gave full-day, hands-on demonstrations of the Mac to industry insiders and analysts. Apple got two benefits from this network: educated Mac supporters who could legitimately praise the product to the press and invested consumers who could tell the company what the Mac needed. The dialogue witb customers cmd media praise were worth more than any notice advertising could buy. Apple’s approach represents the new marketing model, a shift from monologue to dialogue. It is accomplished through experience-based marketing, where companies create opportunities for customers and potential customers to sample their products and then provide feedback. It is accomplished through beta sites, where a company can install a prelaunch product and study its use and needed refinements. Experienced-based marketing allows a company to work closely with a client to change a product, to adapt the technology – recognizing that no product is perfect wben it comes from engineering. This interaction was precisely the approach taken by Xerox in developing its recently announced Docutech System. Seven months before launeh, Xerox established 25 beta sites. From its prelaunch eustomers, Xerox learned what adjustments it should make, what service and support it should supply, and what enhancements and related new products it might next introduce. The goal is adaptive marketing, marketing that stresses sensitivity, flexibility, and resiliency. Sensitivity comes from having a variety of modes and channels through which companies can read the environment, from user groups that offer live feedback to sophisticated consumer scanners that provide data on customer choice in real time. Flexibility comes from creating an organizational structure and operating style that permits the company to take advantage of new opportunities presented by customer feedback. Resiliency comes from learning from mistakes – marketing that listens and responds. The line between products and services is fast Marketing a Product d Service Is Is iVl(irK6tll2g Q. 1 rOuUCt gj-jjj ]viotors makes more money from lending its eroding, what once appeared to be a rigid polarity ^^^ ^^^ become a hybrid: the servicization of prod^^^^ ^^^ ^^ productization of services. When Gen- ustomers money to buy its cars than it makes from manufacturing the cars, is it marketing its products or its services? When IBM announces to all the world that it is now in the systems-integration business – the customer can buy any box from any vendor and IBM will supply the systems know-how to make the whole thing work together – is it marketing its products or its services? In fact, the computer busi ness today is 75% services; it consists overwhelmingly of applications knowledge, systems analysis, systems engineering, systems integration, networking solutions, security, and maintenance. The point applies just as well to less grandiose eompanies and to less expensive consumer products. Take the large corner drugstore that stocks thousands of products, from cosmetics to wristwatches. The products are for sale, but the store is actually marketing a service – the convenience of having so much variety collected and arrayed in one location. Or take any of the ordinary products found in the home, from boxes of cereal to table lamps to VCRs. All of 76 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February 1991 hem come with some form of information designed to perform a service: nutritional information to indicate tbe actual food value of the cereal to tbe health-conscious consumer; a United Laboratories label on tbe lamp as an assurance of testing; an operating manual to belp tbe nontecbnical VCR customer rig up tbe new unit. Tbere is ample room to improve tbe quality of this information – to make it more useful, more convenient, or even more entertaining – hut in a lmost every case, the service information is a critical component of the product. On the other side of tbe hybrid, service providers are acknowledging tbe productization of services. Service providers, such as banks, insurance companies, consulting firms, even airlines and radio stations, are creating tangible events, repetitive and predictable exercises, standard and customizable packages tbat are product services. A frequent-flier or a frequent-listener club is a product service, as are regular audits performed by consulting firms or new loan packages assembled by banks to respond to cbanging economic conditions. As products and services merge, it is critical for marketers to understand clearly what marketing the new hybrid is not. Tbe serviee component is not satisfied by repairing a product if it breaks. Nor is it satisfied by an 800 number, a warranty, or a customer survey form. Wbat customers want most from a product is often qualitative and intangible; it is tbe service tbat is integral to the product. Service is not an event; it is the process of creating a customer environment of information, assurance, and comfort. Consider an experienee that by now must have become commonplace for all of us as consumers. You go to an electronics store and buy an expensive piece of audio or video equipment, say, a CD player, a VCR, or a video camera. You take it bome, and a few days later, you accidentally drop it. It breaks. It won’t work. Now, as a customer, you have a decision to make. When you take it back to the store, do you say it was broken wben you took it out of the box? Or do you tell the truth? The answer, honestly, depends on how you think the store will respond. But just as honestly, most customers appreciate a store that encourages them to tell the truth by making good on all customer problems. Service is, ultimately, an environment that encourages honesty. The company that adopts a â€Å"we’ll make good on it, no questions asked† policy in the face of adversity may win a customer for life. Marketers who ignore the service component of their products focus on competitive differentiation and tools to penetrate markets. Marketers who appreciate the importance of the product-service hybrid focus on building loyal customer relationships. Technology and marketing once may bave Technology looked like opposites. The cold, impersonal sameness of technology and the high-touch, human Technology uniqueness of marketing seemed eternally at odds, Computers would only make marketing less personal; marketing could never leam to appreciate the look and feel of computers, datahases, and the rest of the high-tech paraphernalia. On the grounds of cost, a truce was eventually arranged. Very simply, marketers discovered that real savings could be gained hy KARVAKD BUSINESS REVIEW lanuary-February 1991 Markets 77 MARKETING IS EVERYTHING using technology to do what previously had required expensive, intensive, and often risky, people-directed field operations. For example, marketers learned that by matching a database with a marketing plan to simulate a new product launch on a computer, they could accomplish in 90 days and for $50,000 what otherwise would take as long as a year and cost at least several hundred thousand dollars. But having moved beyond the simple automation-for-cost-saving stage, technology and marketing have now not only fused but also begun to feed hack to each other. The result is the transformation of both technology and the product and the reshaping of both the customer and tbe company. Technology permits information to flow in both directions between the customer and the company. It creates the feedback loop that integrates the customer into the company, allows tbe company to own a market, permits customization, creates a dialogue, and turns a product into a service and a service into a product. T he direction in which Genentech has moved in its use of laptop and hand-held computers illustrates the transforming power of technology as it merges with marketing. Originally, the biotechnology company planned to have salespeople use laptops on their sales calls as a way to automate the sales function. Sales reps, working solely out of their homes, would use laptops to get and send electronic mail, file reports on computerized â€Å"templates,† place orders, and receive company press releases and information updates. In addition, the laptops would enable sales reps to keep databases that would track customers’ buying histories and company performance. That was the initial level of expectations – very low. In fact, the technology-marketing marriage has dramatically altered the customer-company relationship and the joh of the sales rep. Sales reps have emerged as marketing consultants. Armed with technical information generated and gathered by Genentech, sales reps can provide a valuable educational service to their customers, who are primarily pharmacists and physicians. For example, analysis of the largest study of children with a disease called short stature is available only through Genentech and its representatives. With this analysis, which is hased on clinical studies of 6,000 patients between the ages of one month and 30 years, and with the help of an on-line â€Å"growth calculator,† doctors can better judge when to use the growth hormone Protropin. Genentecb’s system also includes a general educational component. Sales reps can use their laptops to access the latest articles or technical reports from medical conferences to help doctors keep up to date. The laptops also make it possible for doctors to use sales reps as research associates: Genentech has a staff of medical specialists who can answer highly technical questions posed through an on-line question-and-answer template. When sales reps enter a question on the template, the e-mail function immediately routes it to the appropriate specialist. For relatively simple questions, online answers come back to the sales rep within a day. In the 1990s, Genentech’s laptop system – and the hundreds of similar applications that sprang up in tbe 1980s to automate sales, marketing, service, and distribution – will seem like a rather obviHARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW January-February 1991 78 ous and primitive way to meld tecbnology and marketing. The marketer will bave available not only existing tecbnologies but also tbeir converging capabilities: personal computers, databases, CD-ROMs, grapbic displays, multimedia, color terminals, computer-video tecbnology, networking, a custom processor tbat can be built into anytbing anywhere to create intelligence on a countertop or a dasbboard, seanners that read text, and networks tbat instantaneously create and distribute vast reacbes of information. As design and manufacturing tecbnologies advance into â€Å"real time† processes, marketing will move to eliminate tbe gap between production and consumption. Tbe result will be marketing workstations – the marketers’ counterpart to CAD/CAM systems for engineers and product designers. Tbe marketing workstation will draw on grapbic, video, audio, and numeric information from a network of databases. The marketer will be able to look tbrougb windows on tbe workstation and manipulate data, simulate markets and products, bounce concepts off otbers in distant cities, write production orders for product designs and packaging concepts, and obtain costs, timetables, and distribution scbedules. Just as computer-comfortable cbildren today tbink notbing of manipulating figures and playing fantastic games on tbe same color screens, marketers will use the workstation to play botb designer and eonsumer. Tbe workstation will allow marketers to integrate data on historic sales and cost figures, competitive trends, and consumer patterns. At tbe same time, marketers will be able to create and test advertisements and promotions, evaluate media options, and analyze viewer and readersbip data. And finally, marketers will be able to obtain instant feedbaek on concepts and plans and to move marketing plans rapidly into production. Tbe marriage of technology and marketing should bring witb it a renaissance of marketing RikD – a new capability to explore new ideas, to test tbem against tbe reactions of real eustomers in real time, and to advance to experience-based leaps of faith. It should be the vehicle for bringing tbe customer inside the company and for putting marketing in tbe eenter of tbe company. In tbe 1990s, tbe critical dimensions of tbe company – including all of tbe attributes tbat togetber define how the company does business – are ultimately tbe functions of marketing. That is wby marketing is everyone’s job, wby marketing is everytbing and everytbing is marketing. ^ Reprint 91108 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW liinuary-February 1991 79 Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses. Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, persistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the content into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact permissions@harvardbusiness. org. How to cite Marketing Is Everything, Papers

Developing Human Resource and its Impact on Organisational Performance

Question: Discuss a systematic literature review to identify how does developing HR has an impact on the performance of the organisation? Answer: Literature Review This report will discuss a systematic literature review to identify how does developing HR has an impact on the performance of the organisation. In the modern age, human resource department forms an integral part in any organisation. The organisations have started realising the unique influence of HR department on the functioning of the organisation as the business environment has become highly competitive and complex. These days organisations compete with each other to acquire the best talented resource available(Alagaraja and Shuck, 2015). This situation has resulted due to dearth of talented employees in the market. This scenario of the business has made it necessary for companies to retain the talented pool of candidates by keeping them motivated and provide them job satisfaction. Organisations have realised that satisfied and dedicated workforce can help the organisation to achieve its goals effectively and take the success of the organisation to a very high level. Effective human resources can help the firm to gain competitive advantage over its competitor. Thus, the importance of adopting appropriate HR policies have b een realised as an effective and efficient HR can positively impact the organisational performance. The human resource department has many strategic roles to play within the organisation. They are required to be a participant in formulating the mission and vision of the organisation. They are also responsible for addressing the grievances of the employees; manage the industrial relation with the workers and trade unions, carry out unbiased and timely performance appraisals, undertake various activities to keep the employee motivated and add to the intrinsic value of the job(Baptista and LeitaÃÅ'Æ’o, 2014). They are the ones who need to take initiative to break monotony at work and handle any conflict. They are responsible of recruiting right kind of people in right numbers at right time. They need to assess the training needs and then arrange for training to ensure the personal growth of each employee. He needs to ensure proper flow of communication within and outside the organisation. Therefore, it can be said that the role of HR manager has become extremely challenging in rec ent days. An HR manager requires having several skills, all at once. Few of the important skills are, leadership qualities, innovative, good inter personal skills, negotiation skills, conflict management, planning and analytical abilities, problem solving and decision making skills etc. In an era of rapid globalisation and fluctuating economies coupled with intense competition and diverse needs of the consumers, the companies need to push its performance levels by reducing costs, improving their quality, enhancing its productivity and brining in innovative products quickly (Bridger, 2013). It has been an area of research to identify its impact on organisation performance. There are a number of literatures available which concludes that there is a significant impact of developed human resource on organisational performance and on employee turnover and it results in improved financial performance of the organisation. It has been proved time and again that if an organisation takes care of its employees then the employees also takes care of the organisation in return. If the firm treats them well and provide ample opportunity for personal growth for them, then they are willing to walk that extra mile to achieve phenomenal success while reaching their goals. Organisation s can achieve its goals only through the efforts of the employees(Cheung-Judge and Holbeche, 2013). And to do so, they need to ensure that they create a sense of belongingness and pride among its employees. Therefore, it necessitates the firms to undertake employee development programs. Employee Development does not only mean providing training to employees. Training the employees is just a part of employee development. Training helps the employees to enhance their skills and gain new knowledge which will help them to perform their current job in an effective manner. Employee development includes a range of activities. It is not only focused on the job, instead it aims towards the overall development of the employees. It focuses on the improving those skill and behaviours that will enable them to attain effectiveness in the long run (Georgiades, 2014). This will ensure that the firm will be able to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. Development activities range across various categories. The various dimensions are as follows: Voluntary Vs Involuntary: some organisation incorporate development activities in its HR policies and encourages it employees to take part in various training programs, job rotation programs. The organisation provides them coaching and mentoring opportunities as a part of employee development program(GrublienÄ— and UrbonaitÄ—, 2014). This is called voluntary efforts taken by the organisation for employee development. Potential employees, who are expecting promotion, voluntarily participate in such activities. Few employees participate in such programs to enhance their knowledge and experience. They engage into self directed learnings and other look for opportunities to hone their skills. Formal Vs Informal: Formal development programs are organised by the company which is targeted towards the development of precise skills and behaviours and to add the specific knowledge base. Such programs may include job enrichment programs or planning a lateral move for the potential employees (Jaremczuk and Mazurkiewicz, 2014). Informal activities are not particularly designed by the organisations, but they provide opportunities for those employees who are willing to learn. Employees might participate in extracurricular activities, organised by the company, to enhance their skills and knowledge which can be used at the workplace. Current Vs Future oriented: this dimension identify the degree to which the knowledge and skill of the employees will be enhanced, which will help them to improve performance in the current job, if the development activities are undertaken. Also it determines how well they will be prepared for future challenges or changes that might occur in their current job (Javed, Balouch and Hassan, 2014). Incremental Vs Frame breaking: These are the learning experiences. Incremental learning is situations where the employee is given time to clarify his role expectations and certain amount of flexibility is there for self paced learning (Lancaster and Di Milia, 2014). Here the organisation widens the job responsibility to learn from experience. Whereas, in frame breaking is a learning situation where the employee need to have high thrust for learning and risk taking ability and be prepared for failure. Introspective Vs Interactive: Development activities undertaken by the organisations is also influenced by the amount of employee interaction required with the work environment (Li, 2014). If assessment centres are used then, an employee explores about his skills, values and interest. But when, job rotation is done to make the employee learn through experience, it requires him to interact with others. Thus, this becomes interactive. Thus, an organisation makes use of a balanced mix of all the dimensions mentioned above. They choose the mix to effectively develop their employees. While discussing the dimensions, there were short descriptions of various methods that are adopted by employers to develop its employees. There are various other methods which can be used by the organisation to develop the employees. They are as follows: Employee assessment is a common method where they are provided feedback about their behaviour, skills and communication styles. These feedbacks are provided by the colleagues, the customer and manager of the employee (Saks and Gruman, 2014). This allows an individual to identify his strengths and weakness and create self awareness about where they need to improve to be more effective. Various tools used to assess employees such as performance appraisals, assessment centres and Myers-Briggs Type Inventory is most popularly used. Proving a wide range of job experience by exposing them to various challenges in the job. To do this, job rotation, job enrichment, employee exchange programs, lateral moves and promotions are used. Lateral moves means that an employee moves to another designation with similar status, responsibility with similar pay. Only, this new position may have some challenging tasks which will encourage the employee to learn new skills and gain experiences (Shuck et al., 2014). The Development Challenge Profile has been created to identify the components that are required to be developed for managerial positions. Employee exchanges are a recent concept, wherein the employees are exchanged between two organisations who are customers to each other in terms of products and service. This allows the employee to gain phenomenal experience if reality and how things work outside their organisation. The employee can apply this new learned knowledge when he returns back to his own organisation. Formal Educational Programs are another way of developing employees. There are programs which are specially designed for working people and it is conducted for short period by the universities and other consulting firms (Shuck et al., 2014). There are MBA programs and lectures by experts etc. Now a day there is a surge in the number of such companies who offer professional courses for the working people. Some organisations grant a leave to its employees to pursue higher studies so that when they return, they can give back excellent results to the organisation. The organisation can introduce personal development plans for employees so that they are rest assured that they will also grow with the organisation. The organisations have started taking this initiative where the employer and employee generates a list of goals that both seeks to achieve within a specified period of time (Skorupinska, 2015). This encourages the employees to strive for organisational excellence while developing one self. Leadership training, cross cultural training, on the job and off the job training and many other kinds of training is another method used to develop employee. These kinds of training aims at enhancing a particular set of skills of the employee. When a company plans to engage in employee development programs, they need to communicate this to its employees. This will enable the company to get the support of the employees and they understand that the organization is concerned about their personal growth and well being (Walton and Valentin, 2014). Thus this makes it even important for companies to communicate this to the employee which will help them to develop strategy. The organisation should communicate effectively about why they want to conduct the development program. They should ask the employees that how they would like to receive the development program. The organisation shall then make sure that the sessions are based on adult learning principles. This will ensure that the participants are actively involved in the process and they are able to apply the new knowledge acquired to their jobs effectively. Applying the adult learning principle will also ensure that the program makes use of a range of learning style and that the process in goal oriented. Thus it can be concluded that the employee development programs are essential in order motivate employees and improve their morale. This will boost their performance and increase the productivity of the organisation. In the present era, which is characterised by rapid technological advancement, it is important for companies to become a learning organisation in order to survive and thrive in the long run. This will also help the organisation to communicate its expectations that they want its employee to enhance their skills in order to keep themselves updated (Williams, 2014). This will provide the organisation to gain competitive advantage over its competitor. Employees are the ones who will produce, manage and deliver the products and services of the organisation. They serve as the face of the company as they are the first contact point of the consumers. The employee development programs can have a very positive impact on the organisational productivity and performance. It creates p ositive changes at the workplace which leads to environment of mutual trust and openness. These programs also make the employees responsible and accountable for their behaviour and conduct. This will help in keeping the employees focused towards the goals and ensure that they adhere to the rules of the organisation. Thus, by studying the literature review, it can be concluded that the organisations need to provide opportunities for personal development of employees. This will yield better results in the long run, as mentioned above. The organisations have started taking initiatives to invest in employee development program.

David Poursalimi Essays - Charles Lindbergh, Aviation,

David Poursalimi 10-30-98 Per: 4 Charles A. Lindbergh Charles A. Lindbergh was born on February 4, 1902, in Detroit, and past away in 1974. Lindbergh was an aviator who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him. But Lindbergh was the first person to do it alone nonstop. Lindbergh?s flight suddenly brought him international fame. The press named him ?Lucky Lindy? and the ?Lone Eagle?. Americans and Europeans idolized the young man and honored him. The way this all started was that in 1919, a New York City hotel owner named Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first aviator to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. A great deal of other men tried this challenge but many pilots were killed or injured while competing for the prize. By 1927, the challenge had not been done. Lindbergh believed he could win if he had the right airplane. He persuaded nine St. Louis Businessmen to help him pay for the cost of the plane. Lindbergh choose Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego to build his special plane, which he helped design. He named the plane Spirit of St. Louis. On May 10-11, 1927, Lindbergh tested the plane from San Diego to New York City. The flight took 20 hours 20 minutes. On May 20, 1927 Lindbergh, the twenty five year old, took off with his specially built plane from Roosevelt Field, near New York City. He landed the next day on may 21, 1927. Thousands of people came to meet Lindbergh and cheer him on. He had flown 33.5 hours and more than 3,600 miles across the Atlantic ocean from New York to Paris. Lindbergh?s courageous flight thrilled thousands of people across the world. He was honored with awards, celebrations and parades. President Calvin Coolidge gave Lindbergh the Congressional Medal of Honor and the first Distinguished Flying Cross in American history. In 1927, Lindbergh published a book about his transatlantic flight. And he also worked for several airlines as a technical adviser. Back in those days people admired Charles Lindbergh the way that we admire our athletes today. To them Lindbergh was a role model, a hero. Bibliography: ?Lindbergh, Charles A.? The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. C-D Rom. Danbury, Ct.: Grolier Electronic publishing, 1996 ?Lindbergh, Charles A.? The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1992. Vol.12, pp.290-291 Gary B. Nash. American Odyssey. Illinois: McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1992,1991

Free Essays on Windows XP

SUMMARY The new Windows XP has hitting the media hard since it’s release. According to PCWorld.com about half of the XP users that completed a survey were unhappy with the results from the operating system. As expected from any new OS there were a few bugs. Microsoft is now scurrying to provide the makeshift drivers needed for printers, scanners, and other peripherals. The problem occurs when consumers of XP upgrade only to learn about these bugs after it’s too late. Brent Lawrence of Stokie, Illinois, discovered that after updating to XP his NEC1260 laser printer supported only 300-dpi output. This was boggling because with Windows 98 he was printing at 600-dpi. After arguing with NEC and blaming Microsoft for this partial support of his printer, he converted back to Windows 98. This just one of many complaints about this new XP operating system. A clean install is mentioned by a user to be the solution for most of the problems that can occur. After being unsatisfied with the regular installation a man experimented with this clean install and said â€Å"it worked like a dream.† This IS manager also stated that it’s the best version of windows yet. Although even after a clean install spontaneous reboots were reported. What I really liked is that after one of these reboots the OS asks you for permission to upload information to Microsoft about why the system crashed. These reports will help Microsoft track and iron out the Windows XP’s bugs. CRITIQUE Computers need development of operating systems. Improvements in stability, graphics, speech, handwriting recognition, and others not thought of require new OS. Browser integration will be more important, it is now integrated with Windows. The need for compatibility of hardware and operating systems is an important lesson. Whether Windows can retain its lead may be the most question for the future. Normally provided with the computer, the operating system is the software in... Free Essays on Windows XP Free Essays on Windows XP SUMMARY The new Windows XP has hitting the media hard since it’s release. According to PCWorld.com about half of the XP users that completed a survey were unhappy with the results from the operating system. As expected from any new OS there were a few bugs. Microsoft is now scurrying to provide the makeshift drivers needed for printers, scanners, and other peripherals. The problem occurs when consumers of XP upgrade only to learn about these bugs after it’s too late. Brent Lawrence of Stokie, Illinois, discovered that after updating to XP his NEC1260 laser printer supported only 300-dpi output. This was boggling because with Windows 98 he was printing at 600-dpi. After arguing with NEC and blaming Microsoft for this partial support of his printer, he converted back to Windows 98. This just one of many complaints about this new XP operating system. A clean install is mentioned by a user to be the solution for most of the problems that can occur. After being unsatisfied with the regular installation a man experimented with this clean install and said â€Å"it worked like a dream.† This IS manager also stated that it’s the best version of windows yet. Although even after a clean install spontaneous reboots were reported. What I really liked is that after one of these reboots the OS asks you for permission to upload information to Microsoft about why the system crashed. These reports will help Microsoft track and iron out the Windows XP’s bugs. CRITIQUE Computers need development of operating systems. Improvements in stability, graphics, speech, handwriting recognition, and others not thought of require new OS. Browser integration will be more important, it is now integrated with Windows. The need for compatibility of hardware and operating systems is an important lesson. Whether Windows can retain its lead may be the most question for the future. Normally provided with the computer, the operating system is the software in...

Aspects of Connected Speech in British English Thesis

Aspects of Connected Speech in British English - Thesis Example 170). According to this school of thought, a new English speaker must master the weak forms in order to understand and communicate properly. If new speakers do not master the weak forms, according to this theory, the words will sound unintelligible and unfocused (Leanez & Waasaf, p. 170). The competing theory is that the mastery of weak forms is not necessary for adequate communication, but is, rather, only useful for perception (Leanez & Waasaf, p. 171). In other words, one can understand a foreign speaker who does not use weak forms, but the perception of that speaker is affected by this. Roach states that there are forty such words in the English language and, while it is possible for an individual to not use the weak form of any of the words, it is unadvisable to do so, because doing so makes the speaker sound unnatural (Roach, 1998, p. 102). Roach states that the second reason why an individual must learn the weak forms is because it aids in comprehension – since most speakers use these forms, it is necessary for the non-native speaker to learn them so that he or she can understand what she is hearing (Roach, 1998, p. 102). Roach also states that most of these forty words are function words – prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs and the like, and their weak forms are more prominent than their strong forms (Roach, 1998, p. 102). Examples of weak form words are the, a, and, but, that, than, his, her, your, him, her, he, she, we, you, them, us, at, for, from, of, to, as, some, there, can, shall, should, as, have, must, do, does (Roach, 1998, pp. 103-108). The weak form words may also be used in a strong form. According to Leanez and Waasaf, the accent, position and phonetic environment of the syllable determines if the syllable is going to be used in its weak or strong form (Leanez & Waasaf, p. 170). Some of Roach’s rules for discerning whether a

The Case of Sarver Elementary School Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The of Sarver Elementary School - Case Study Example At the final decision, Caine went against his commitment and voted for closing Sarver while Davis and Ebel adhered to their commitments and supported the Committee. The votes were in the 3-2 ratio, supporting the decision of closing Sarver. Amelia Stone, Committee’s member alleged the board for several issues such as rejection of Committee’s report without any consideration, violation of Sunshine Law and bypassing contractual commitment of Caine in support of Sarver Elementary School. After noticing all the situation and issues, it is quite clear that both sides conducted studies for coming up on a conclusion regarding the closing of Sarver Elementary School. However, it is quite clear that the whole board is not ready to close the school. The Committee is interested in closing Miller School because this school can be converted into a business setup while Sarver Elementary School has chances of future growth. There were professionals on both sides for considering the issue of closing Sarver School. Caine has promised in black and white to support the Committee’s decision by voting against closing Sarver Elementary School but he has not fulfilled his promise and has voted against his consent. Therefore, the vote placed by Caine should be ignored. After this, the voting will be in a ratio of 2-2. Looking at this situation, it is quite clear that Citizen’s Task Force and â€Å"Save Sarver† Committee have to reconsider their decisions. They should sit with another in order to come to a solution. The voting process should be there again in order to know about the new situation. Dr. Connie Kniving has just seen one side of the situation and has rejected all the efforts of â€Å"Save Sarver† Committee preferring the decision of Citizen’s Task Force. He has to keep proper attention to both the reports submitted by the Task Force and the Committee in order to come to a conclusion regarding the closing of Sarver Elementary School.

Foresight of Hong Kong logistics development Essay

Foresight of Hong Kong logistics development - Essay Example With the seventh largest stock exchange, Hong Kong enjoys large market capitalization. The growth in the economy of Hong Kong has been as a result of foresight in logistic development. The high population density plus its position in mainland China has forced the government of Hong Kong to plan and develop effective logistic to drive economic growth. Logistics in Hong Kong responsible for growth include, a good transportation network, development of a free economy, low taxation, good government policies and a good communication network. Hong Kong is situated at the heart of mainland Asia. Located at the Southern doorstep of China, it is within a 5 hour flight period from most of the other Asian countries, thus having access to about half of the population of the world (Li, 2007). The location of Hong Kong has also led it to act as the gateway for trade to and from southern China. The location has granted Hong Kong access to the Pearl River Delta, where over 31% of the Mainland’s export products are manufactured (LOGSCOUNCIL, 2013). Its location also allows Hong Kong to access a large supply of labor from neighboring areas. The region has an abundant supply of both skilled and unskilled laborers that facilitate business growth, both local and international. Hong Kong instituted CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) which lets local and foreign-owned corporations within Hong Kong to access the various opportunities that the fast growing Chinese market offers. This partnership also allows service providers to take advantage of the fastest growing service market in terms of logistics, transport sales agency, freight forwarding and road and maritime transport, and set up businesses in the Mainland (GovHK, 2013). The trend setting agreement also allows businesses in Hong Kong to expand on the mainland and strengthen the role of Hong Kong as the leading gateway for

School Development Planning Process | Research Study

School Development Planning Process | Research Study School Development Planning is an ongoing process that helps schools as complex communities to meet the dual challenge of enhancing quality and managing change. (DES, 1999:9, Online). In recent years schools started giving more thought to how the planning and management of change need to be taken more into account and carefully planned. Decentralisation, a common characteristic of quite a few of the national educational systems worldwide such as the USA, Canada, England and Wales (Anderson, 2005) and in Malaysia, Honk Kong, Singapore, China and Korea has opened doors to development and effectiveness in schools (Bolam, 2006:77). Over the years, the education scene in Malta has likewise witnessed a paradigm shift from an essentially centralised system to one that encourages self-government. One of the most effective implications of this shift is that of a systematic and whole school approach to development planning enhancing freedom [and] allowing institutions to shape the possibilities provided by greater autonomy (Lumby, 2007a:86). Moreover, Bush and Coleman, (2006) argue that, placed in a competitive environment, self-managing schools have to meet the students needs efficiently if they are to achieve survival and success. While increasing autonomy (Karstanje, 1999), self-managing schools are encouraged to shoulder more responsibilities and promote their own identity and character. One of the most beneficial implications of this shift is that a School Development Plan (SDP) can be tailored by the same school. Considering that, the Maltese Education Authorities are at present discussing at length the process and the implementation of a national reform in the education system, the topic seriously appears to be of great interest. This study may be expected to serve as an eye-opener to the strengths and weaknesses of the SDP being currently implemented at St.Helen Girls Secondary School. Consequently, the study might be envisaged to be an asset to the school, before it actually starts to negotiate the tailoring of a new SDP as will be suggested in the education reform to take place. The purpose of this study is to investigate the SDP as an effective tool to enhance appraisal and collegiality among the teaching staff and to promote improvement among the learners. The Literature review shall briefly justify the need for and the process of development planning in relation to what literature has to say about the subject. Furthermore, the following research questions will be discussed and analysed, mainly: What is the importance of a SDP to the school? How is the planning process carried out? Who is involved in the planning process? Is the SDP opening doors to school improvement? After conducting a case study through qualitative and quantitative research, an analysis will emerge, based on a questionnaire distributed to teachers and an open-ended interview with the Head of School. The research findings will be analysed and compared to the literature findings. Finally, suggestions will emerge in respect to what can be done in order to evaluate, maintain and/or change what has been done during the past seven years since development planning has started to be organised in an official way at St.Helen Girls Secondary School. Literature Review Introduction All schools should have a vision of where they hope to go and what they hope to achieve. This implies that a school plan should aim at leading the whole school community in the direction for improvement and growth. With its insistence on schools to have their own SDP, the Maltese National Minimum Curriculum (NMC) came into effect on the 1st of October 2000. Following is a brief description of the SDP both as a process as well as a product. It examines the concepts of development, improvement, collegiality and appraisal through effective planning. What is the importance of a SDP to the school? A school without planning is like a boat without a rudder. We cannot achieve goals unless we plan ways and means of getting there. (Bezzina, 1999:58) In order to keep on course, schools require a clear sense of direction, expressed in vision and mission statements and aims and objectives, as well as an effective strategic plan and good efficient action plans (DES, 1999, Online). The SDP can be a great asset to the school in various ways. Bezzina claims that it: helps in giving the school a sense of direction establishes aims and priorities identifies the needs to be done in order to bring about improvement identifies staff needs monitors the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process evaluates the success of the changes made, and implements any changes to the planning cycle (1999:35). The SDP is a means whereby the vision, believed by Jenkins to be the strategic intent which guides planning (1991:38), is transformed into reality through clear priorities, targets and actions. It is an instrument, through which schools are able to articulate their needs and also their priorities (Ministry of Education, 2001:14). Moreover, it is meant to indicate the institutions capacities and limitations and thus open doors to school improvement. An English publication defines the SDP in that: It will be based on the schools analysis of current levels of performance, its assessment of how current trends and future factors may impact on the school and set out priorities and targets for improvement for the period ahead. (DOE, 2005:1, Online). This implies that the concept underpinning a SDP is that each school would undertake, on an on-going basis, a limited number of small-scale development projects, which the staff identifies as significant priorities. The SDP has at its heart the learning of all students while raising standards of attainment. It is a process of learning and growth for all those involved in it. Moreover, it allows schools to organise their programmes of innovation and change with much greater efficiency and success (Hargreaves and Hopkins, 1991). Furthermore, the SDP is highly beneficial for schools since it is worked out by those who put their heads together in a common effort to develop a realistic strategy as to how the educational goals are to be reached (NMC:85). How is the process of School Development Planning carried out? The School Development Plan Initiative (SDPI) in Ireland considers the Mission, Vision and Aims of the plan to be the core of the SDP process (DES, 1999:16, Online). As depicted by Hargreaves and Hopkins (1991), Bezzina (1999) and Nathan, a SDP is made up of four stages, mainly: Audit when the school analyses its strengths and weaknesses and assesses its own needs Planning and decision making generation and evaluation of options Implementation putting the plan into action, and Evaluation checking the success of implementation and reviewing targets (1996:61) This entails that the SDP works in a cycle. Furthermore, the SDPI suggests three features through which the SDP is accomplished, mainly through: Initiation: where the school decides to embark on school development planning,  ensuring that there is commitment to it among members of staff and preparing for participation. Familiarisation: when the school community is learning how to carry out the whole process. Embedding: when school development Planning becomes part of the school life and of the normal way of doing things at school. (DOE, 1999, Online). The Irish Document (1999) further argues that the SDP process needs to be systematic, collaborative, ongoing, progressive, enhancing and flexible to work properly. It therefore involves a systematic approach to the planning work, which draws the whole school community together in shaping the schools future. This needs to be an on-going process, rooted in a school culture where policies and plans are continuously being developed, implemented, evaluated and revised according to the schools aims and the changes which continuously take place in the community. It is also flexible since it offers a framework for collaborative creativity and each school is free to adopt the framework to suit its own particular needs. Who is involved in the planning process? Nathan (1996) maintains that, to a large extent, the work entailed in the school plan is performed by the Head of school and the SMT. However, Bradley (1988) argues that a partnership in which people work together will lead to the successful achievement of their goals. This is also depicted in an English publication. The document highlights parental, pupil and staff involvement in the planning process as one of the factors that will help schools achieve high standards and improve the quality of learning and teaching (DOE, 2005:6, Online). Through partnership, the educational needs will be identified and action will be taken accordingly (DES, 1999:15, Online). Bradley (1988) further claims that partnerships are encouraged when they are willing to yield to some of their autonomy. Their sense of joint ownership strengthens and encourages partnership and is extended beyond the planning process into the actual implementation of the activity. Parent participation is seen as very important in schools. According to Braithwaite (1994) 22 Actions are involved in the Australians SDP process, among which is parental involvement. The NMC (2000) claims that parents should be seen as partners in the education of their children, so much that it believes in site-based curriculum development, where teachers and administrators can work alongside with parents and the local community to be able to respond to the needs of that particular school. In explaining how a shared vision is achieved, Lumby (2007a:89) holds that notwithstanding the principal leading the planning process, all staff [should] share in the re-creation and adjustment of vision. Furthermore, Jenkins considers staff involvement as the most useful part of the planning process (1991:38) in not only arriving at plans but also in raising the chances of their successful implementation (Lumby, 2007a:98). While being a threshold to school improvement, Newton and Tarrant declare that Evaluation needs the co-operation of the whole organisation to be effective and accurate. (1992:33). Is the School Development Plan opening doors to school improvement? Bush and Coleman say it quite simply: The origins of school development planning lie in the move towards school improvement and effectiveness (2006:75). The SDP enables the school community to develop a clear vision of what the school is about and where it is going, a shared sense of purpose, a common set of goals and consensus on the means of achieving them. It characterises the school as a learning organisation that focuses on meeting the professional needs of teachers in order to meet the educational needs of pupils. The Irish National Progress Report 2002, states that This focus is essential if SDP is to achieve its core purpose: school improvement. (DES, 2003:55, Online). As seen by Law and Glover (2000), school improvement is the result of a three-stage process: establishing targets, planning to attain them and finally monitoring and evaluating them. Moreover, studies conducted by Gray et al. lead an improving school to be measured and defined as one that increased in its effectiveness over time (1999:137). It is also worth mentioning that, an English publication states that Appraisal should support development planning and vice versa. (DES:1991) According to Jones (1993:12), improvement in the teaching and learning is guaranteed when appraisal is considered an integral part of the SDP. Likewise, through their research, Horne and Pearce maintain that integrating appraisal into the SDP resulted in a way of improving the quality of education for the pupils and of raising standards (1996:62). One reason to which Davies attributes an ineffective school is to the teachers lack of punctuality resulting from a low motivation that keeps the teachers lingering in the staffroom till the last minute (1994:35). This implies that lack of appraisal may lead to low motivation in teachers, which in turn will result in ineffectiveness. Furthermore, in discussing the issue about strategic planning, Sergiovanni compares the Traditional with the Alternative rule of planning. He suggests that the latter brings about school improvement in that it emphasizes first the means appraising people involved, then the ways allowing them to discern what needs to be done, and finally the ends in that they themselves will decide on and attain aims (2009:95). Conclusion Dalin and Rust believe that: A good school is one which itself learns; it is a learning school, a living institution that changes in order to remain an institution that stimulates learning. (1996:7) This implies that, the changes that take place in a school, must support the preservation of what has worked well in that school, to be able to give it stability and reputation. The schools SDP is a means of implementing change. It must, in the process, provide a way of dealing effectively with new developments so as to ensure school improvement whereby, all stakeholders are empowered to make decisions and engage in planning their own educational future. Investigation Introduction The first part of this section presents the aim and objectives of this study. Some methodological considerations are then examined. Subsequently, the research instruments are considered. Finally, this section gives an account of the ethical framework considered, the school context, the procedure and the data analysis used. The Aim and Objectives of this Research This research was undertaken in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of the process of school development planning of the school under consideration. Also, the research project has more specific objectives, mainly to investigate: the importance of a SDP to the school how the process is carried out who is involved in the planning process whether the SDP is opening doors to school improvement. Methodological Considerations There are two approaches to academic research that can be adopted by a researcher quantitative and qualitative (Bell, 2008; Briggs and Coleman, 2007). In this study, an educational case study (Bassey, 2007:142) was used, conducted through both qualitative and quantitative research. According to Bassey, one of the strengths of case study research is that it is carried in its natural context [it] entails being where the action is (2007:143). The case study is aimed at improving educational action (Bassey, 2007:142) and which has theory seeking and theory testing as an end point (Basset, 2007:147). This leads to a theoretical structure that not only provides sound data and limits assumptions but also attempts to tease out why a situation is good, bad or mediocre (Bassey, 2007:154). In this research project, an interview with the Head of School was carried out in order to seek insights rather than statistical perceptions of the world (Bell, 2008:7). One should say that the major advantage of qualitative approach is adaptability (Bell, 2005:157) as it emphasises direct human experience. On the other hand, the major disadvantage is that it is time-consuming and generalisation is much more limited (Bell, 2005:157). In an attempt to take advantage from the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative approaches, Triangulation is used to cross-check findings (Bell, 2005:116). In this manner, the findings are compared in order to determine the accuracy of information (Bush, 2007:100) rendering them more reliable. The Research Instruments used for Data collection The Interview with the Head Teacher (HT) An approximately one hour-long unstructured interview was carried out with the HT. Although it takes a great deal of time to analyse, the unstructured interview was deemed best for this research as the interviewee is free to talk about what is of central significance (Bell, 2005; Ribbins, 2007). The interview consisted of ten questions aimed to elicit detailed information about the HTs personal view of the SDP, how the process is managed and who is involved to participate and whether the SDP is opening doors to school improvement (see Appendix 1). The face-to-face interview (Ribbins, 2007:212) served as a means of getting the real feelings of the HT, regarding the content, the process and the implementation of the SDP. The Teachers Questionnaire Quantitative research was also used in a questionnaire consisting of ten closed statements and one open-ended question (see Appendix 2). In order to select a group which is as representative as possible (Bell, 2005), stratified sampling was used (Fogelman and Comber, 2007). In fact, the questionnaire was distributed to eighteen teachers one teacher from every subject being taught. The respondents were asked to tick one of three options: Yes, No, or Do not know. Statements 1-8 were intended to investigate positive perceptions on the SDP while statements 9 and 10 were intended to bring to light any negative perceptions, if any. Moreover, an open-ended question was set in order to give the respondents the opportunity to give their personal views on SDP matters at school. This question placed each teacher in a position to reflect and answer freely, thus reducing the interviewer effects regarding emotionality and free response (Cohen et al., 2000). Procedure and Ethical Considerations An appointment was made with the HT of St.Helen School (a pseudonym used to maintain confidentiality) and the date for the interview was agreed. Permission to carry out the research was informal, due to the fact that the investigation was carried out in ones own institution. The interview with the HT was carried out onsite (Busher and James, 2007:110) and in the Heads office. At the beginning of the interview, the Head of school was shown the set of questions prepared for the interview as well as other relevant material that proved the interview was required for the research. Though very time-consuming to transcribe, the interview was recorded to ensure data collection and maintain eye contact with the interviewee (Bell, 2005). The HT was given assurance of confidentiality. It is also worth mentioning that the questionnaires were anonymised so as to assure protection to the participants. Moreover, the respondents were made aware of what the research was about and also of its purpose (Bell, 2005:156) (see Appendix 2). Consent for answering the questionnaires was granted freely and without force. The School Context The investigation was carried out at St. Helen Girls Secondary School one of the 22 church schools on the island operating at secondary level. A profile of the school is given in the Table below. ST.HELEN GIRLS SECONDARY SCHOOL PROFILE Year founded 1999 Secretary Clerk Affiliation Church Librarian Student Admission Feeder Area Counsellor Student Population 364 Guidance Teacher Number of Classes 15 Spiritual Director Average Class size 24 Pastoral Care Team No. of Assistant Heads 2 Discipline Team Teaching Staff 37 P.T.A. Classroom Support Staff 4 Student Council Ancillary Staff 3 Eco School Council Table 1: School Profile Conclusion This section has served the purpose of describing and giving an explanation for the methodology used in carrying out this research supported with all the necessary ethical issues arising from the same research. Following is an analysis of the findings that emerged from the investigation. Analysis Introduction This section includes the significant features that emerge from the Teachers Questionnaire as well as the Head Teachers Interview. Both research tools were based on the following research questions: What is the importance of a SDP to the school? How is the process of development planning carried out? Who is involved in the planning process? Is the SDP opening doors to school improvement? The presentation and discussion of the findings that follow, aim at providing answers to these questions. Presentation of Findings Teachers Questionnaire The questionnaire, consisting of ten statements and one open-ended question was distributed to 18 teachers. All questionnaires were collected. Following are the results for statements 1-10 of the questionnaire. Open-ended question The teachers questionnaire ended with an open-ended question asking the respondents to comment in general about the SDP at their school. Only 6 (33.3%) out of 18 respondents answered this question. Four respondents agreed that the SDP is of utmost importance both for the teaching staff as well as for the students improvement. They claim that at their school, the SDP is discussed thoroughly most especially during the Staff Development Days. However, they argue that it is hardly mentioned during the rest of the scholastic year. Another respondent states that more time should be allocated to see if everything planned has been carried out, and if not, why. Similarly, another respondent argued that the SDP should be more carefully monitored and evaluated, and that while it is frequently very cautiously planned, however, it is not adequately implemented. The Head Teachers Interview Following is a summary of the Head Teachers responses to the Interview (see Appendix 1). The Head Teacher (HT) of the school under investigation holds that the SDP conducted since 2002 plays a very important role in the life of every school. Asked about who is involved in the process, the HT mentioned various stakeholders. Regarding the process, the HT states that it takes place in different stages. The difficulties encountered during the process are time and the staffs interest and cooperation. However, since the latter has become an annual process, nearly all teachers help in formulating objectives and action plans. The HT declares that the SDP definitely provides a framework for evaluation and improvement; otherwise it will be of no value. Finally the HT expressed her hopes that the SDP will lead to open wide the doors to school improvement. Analysing the Findings The following section is an attempt to go into the main concerns and interests raised during research. After being collected and classified, the research findings will be discussed and analysed in relation to the research questions and compared to the literature review. What is the importance of a SDP to the school? As shown in Table 2, all 18 teachers interviewed consider the SDP as important to their institution. Moreover, in an attempt to answer the open-ended question at the end of the questionnaire, one teacher claims that the SDP is of utmost importance both for the teaching staff as well as for the students improvement. As suggested by Bezzina (1999), another teacher claims that the SDP is important to enhance the students potential and that it must be used to tackle all their needs. While Bezzina acknowledges that a SDP encourages team effort (1999:37), the Irish document holds that it is a great benefit to the whole school community (DES, 1999, Online). Similarly, the HT holds that: It is a great opportunity to enhance teamwork, collaboration and collegiality among the whole school community, that is, the Senior Management Team, the staff, the students and their parents, and all those who rightly give their share. (Interview with HT). Also, this implies that the style of leadership of the HT at St.Helen is participative (Coleman, 2005a:18), as the issue of decision-making is shared with other stakeholders. Moreover, the HT confirms what is suggested in the DES document (1999, Online), mainly that the SDP gives the teachers a sense of direction as They all know what the school is after (Interview with HT). Who is involved in the process? Bezzina claims that A SDP calls for a co-ordinated effort, a belief in each others worth, and a sincere willingness to work together to achieve set goals (1999:36) Similarly, Lumby maintains that even though the principal may lead in the process, all staff is responsible for the recreation and adjustment of vision on a daily basis (2007a:89). This is evident at St.Helen, so much that the HT mentions the following as stakeholders: Staff Members, P.T.A Members, Ladies Circle, the School Handyman, Parents, Students Council and Students. Moreover the participation of groups such as the Pastoral Team, The Green/Eco-School Team and Discipline Team is encouraged. The HT claims that, All these groups give their contribution. Different meetings are held with different groups on different topics; they all do their utmost to achieve goals. (Interview with HT) Teachers Participation Although The Principal plays a prominent role in the leadership and management of the planning process (DES, 1999:26, Online) 83.3% of the questionnaire responses claim that teachers participation is encouraged in the planning process. Researchers like Bush and Coleman (2006) and Lumby (2007b) hold that the involvement of staff might cause difficulties. However, Early (2007) maintains that staff involvement in becoming increasingly important for school success. Moreover, the above mentioned Irish document states that The whole-hearted participation of the teaching staff is crucial to the success of the planning process and that the whole staff should be actively involved to enable all members of staff to participate in discussion and decision-making (DES, 1999:27, Online). In fact, 55.6% of the responses show that the teaching staff is committed to the SDP. Also, this implies that the staff should be made aware of what the SDP is, why it is inevitable and how it is to be organised. If not, there will be the risk of having staff members who are uninterested, sceptical of the whole process and determined to resist change (Lumby, 2007b:97). In fact, this might be the case with a couple of teachers who joined the school only recently and who in the questionnaire (11.1%) expressed their doubt whether the SDP is threatening to the school or not, while another (5.6%) does not know whether or not the SDP is an added burden to the school (see Table 11). This implies that while the rest of the respondents (94.4%) are rooted in the three features constituting the SDP process (DOE, 1999, Online), these newly recruited teachers are not. According to the HT, the teachers are called in for SDP consultation through questionnaires and also on Staff Development Days. In addition to this, some teachers volunteer to work together in teams and in collaboration with the SMT in order to analyse audit results as well as to prioritise and draw strategic plans (Interview with HT). The response of 83.3% of the respondents shows that at St.Helen teacher participation is quite evident. Nevertheless, the HT feels that some teachers still need to be reminded to give their contribution. Also worth mentioning is the fact that, once a month or twice in a term, the HT holds subject meetings with teachers in order to sustain continuity and on-going monitoring (Interview with HT). Parent Participation Epstein (1992) states that parental involvement is an asset to their childs education in that the school equips them with the necessary tools to help them. While learning more about educational programmes they also get familiar with how the school functions. The NMC also holds that parents or guardians should be involved as partners in their childrens education (NMC 1999:31). Although this idea is confirmed by the HT, however it is not so in style with 44.4% of the teachers who have doubts as to whether or not the SDP has brought about greater parental involvement (see Table 8). This also implies that the teachers at St.Helen are not yet embedded with parental involvement in the SDP process (DOE, 1999, Online). Student Participation The HT believes that feedback from students is an essential input to the school (Interview with HT) so much that Hargreaves holds that they play an active role in implementing the plan and have an interest in the outcomes (1989:17). This implies that the students are to be involved throughout the whole process. This is likely so at St.Helen where the SMT takes into great consideration any suggestions proposed by the student council especially when they have to do with any aspect of the SDP. Also, a questionnaire is distributed annually to the students so as to ascertain their views (DES, 1999, Online). How is the process of development planning carried out? The HT gave very vivid and clear explanations of how the school goes about the process of development planning. As expressed in the Irish document (DES, 1999, Online), the HT maintains that it takes place at different stages, mainly at three Staff Development Days together with monthly afternoon staff meetings. On such days, the teachers are grouped according to their subject, interest or specialisation, and so they are more motivated to contribute to the discussions which usually focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the targets implemented. From these elements, decisions are taken as to what the school will be tackling as aims. Moreover, these meetings offer the SMT and the Staff an ideal opportunity to audit and evaluate progress. Furthermore, the HT asserts that, speakers who are authority on different subjects as well as Personnel from the Education Department also give their contribution during these meetings. Most of the teachers feel a sense of ownership and commitment when carrying out the SDP tasks assigned to them. This emerges quite plainly in the questionnaire with 83.3% of the respondents considering the SDP to be an on-going process while 55.6% believing that the school community is motivated to implement plans. According to the HT, the SDP establishes a clear programme to follow; it defines targets, implements strategies, time limits, necessary resources and evaluation procedures. Similar to what Hargreaves and Hopkins (1991), Nathan (1996), Bezzina (1999), the Irish document (DES, 1999, Online), and Bush and Coleman (2006) suggest, the HT identifies four main processes to SDP in St.Helen, mainly, the Audit, Construction, Implementation and Evaluation. This implies that St.Helen Girls Secondary is meeting the standards that are required by the SDP. Is the SDP opening doors to school improvement? Sammons, Khamis and Coleman state that The normal measurement of effectiveness is usually to do with better than expected academic outcomes (2005:137). Consequently, 77.8% of the questionnaire responses show that the SDP promotes improvement among students. Following are three positive outcomes in addition to the acquisition of examination results (Ouston, 1999:176) and as elicited from the HTs interview, in which the process to SDP implemented at St.Helen proves to be fruitful in being effective and in bringing about improvement. Improving the attitude towards Literature Literature is Fun is one of the target-titles listed for implementation in this years SDP. The HT argues that after finding that Literature and Culture of Languages was weakening, the management provided a Literature Room, which h