Reading Aloud Essay Example

Perusing Aloud Paper I. Presentation Reading so anyone might hear action is regularly utilized by instructors all around the globe. However,most ELT philosophy creators, for example, Broghton,Brumfit,Flavell,Hill,and Pincas, then again some speacialists recommend its utilization. The conversation about perusing resoundingly is a lasting one. It has been examined more than thirty years or more,reading so anyone might hear is valuable or only a period filler. In late years,it is demonstrated to be a valuable apparatus while gaining vocabulary,developing understanding aptitudes and perception of setting. Perusing so anyone might hear impacts language learning in a positive way. There will be a far reaching modification of perusing out loud and will be responded to the accompanying inquiries: 1-What are the impacts of perused so anyone might hear exercises? 2-What are the preferences or detriments of perusing out loud exercises? 3-How would teachers be able to utilize perused so anyone might hear exercises to upgrade student’s capacity to peruse? II. THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT READING ALOUD Reading so anyone might hear is viewed as terrible practice by EFL/ESL educators and by EFL/ESL approach experts(Amer, 1997, 43). For instance, Hill and Dobbyn(1979: 69) consider that perusing so anyone might hear is just a method of filling 45 minutes in study hall and perusing resoundingly isn't advantageous for students(cited in Amer, 1997, 43). Different resistances to perusing resoundingly guarantee that: It is exhausting, causing tension and it has no vital advantage for the understudies, especially for the audience members. Perusing so anyone might hear is a confused action to do well both for local speakers and language students, so this may cause demotivation of understudies (Gibson, 2008, 29 30). The understudies may be incapacitated by English spelling and commit errors in the way to express words they know orally (Birch refered to in Gibson, 2008, 30). ‘A regularly refered to explanation behind utilizing perusing so anyone might hear is for the improvement of elocution. We will compose a custom article test on Reading Aloud explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom exposition test on Reading Aloud explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom exposition test on Reading Aloud explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer Notwithstanding, question is thrown on the adequacy of this by Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (1996) due to the controlled and hence somewhat unnatural writings that are frequently utilized; these don't neccessarily help articulation in unconstrained speech(cited in Gibson,2008, 30). These writings typically alter excess, fracture, and inadequacy which highlight in regular speech(Gibson, 2008, 30). ’ Reading so anyone might hear is really significant for the EFL/ESL perusers, particularly toward the start of learnig the language. These students will in general read word by word due to their constrained etymological ability while perusing to themselves. They have nervousness to coprehend each word, they tend to seperate sentences into unmeaningful parts when they read. Accordingly, the sentences lose their totality so they become good for nothing (Dhaif refered to in Amer, 1997, 43). III. THE EFFECTS OF THE TEACHER’S READING ALOUD ON STUDENTS The job of perusing so anyone might hear in EFL/ESL learning has not explored without a doubt, yet a few examinations has been made. For instance; May (1986: 74) investigated the impact of theacher’s perusing resoundingly in English on the perusing comprehension of local Spanish-talking youngsters. He discovered that the exploration favors utilization of perusing resoundingly with EFL understudies paying little mind to etymological level (refered to in Amer, 1997, 44). Another investigation with Spanish-Speaking kids has indicated that perusing so anyone might hear has a significant beneficial outcome on ESL learners’ understanding cognizance, particularly their capacity to between relate, decipher and reach determinations from the substance (Santos refered to in Amer, 1997: 44). A test made by Amer (1997) so as to discover the impact of the teacher’s read so anyone might hear on the perusing understanding of 6th grade EFL students perusing an account text. He partitioned into two classes the understudies from a middle of the road school in Cairo. The exploratory class includes 39 understudies and the control class includes 36 understudies. The entirety of the understudies had been reading EFL for a long time. The Perfect Pearl by Osborne(1989) was utilized in the investigation. At that point, the story was isolated into four section and all parts were shown individually in various days. Various instructors taugt each class. The instructor who encouraged the trial class was prepared by Amer to peruse the entire story so anyone might hear seriously. The key jargon in the part was given and it is perused in the homeroom, it is examined and clarified. To keep students inspired and intrigued, they were advised to peruse quietly when the instructor read so anyone might hear. For keeping students consideration, educator halted aimlessly spots in the content and request them to peruse the following word. At that point educator posed a few inquiries about the content. A similar procedure was applied with the control class however that understudies read the content quietly with no oral perusing. At last, two tests were utilized to assess the impact of perusing so anyone might hear. The primary test was a numerous decision, the subsequent test was an adjusted type of a story outline. The outcome was that the test bunch beat the benchmark group on various decision and story outline tests. He inferred that students would be wise to comprehend of what they were perusing in the educator perusing out loud procedure than in the quiet understanding procedure. Perusing out loud by the instructor can help EFL students to improve a positive way towards perusing. Moreover, perusing so anyone might hear can invigorate them to peruse for joy. (Amer, 1997, 46). IV. THE POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF READING ALOUD L2 students face some perusing and composing issues on account of the murkiness of English orthography and the particular abilities requires to decipher it. Local English speakers produce various methodologies to adapt to this (Gibson, 2008: 30). L1 perusers might not have delivered these procedures in light of the fact that their orthographies are not the same as English, they need to get them with the goal that they can peruse easily in English. They will in general trust their L1 perusing strateies when perusing in English(Gibson, 2008: 30) So as to quicken word acknowledgment and to help articulate and learn new words it is significant making exact associations among graphemes and phonemes (Stanovich refered to in Gibson, 2008: 30). Perusing so anyone might hear supplies perusers to make and practice these associations. Birch proposes perusing so anyone might hear as training with the goal that the students have however much criticism as could reasonably be expected on their unraveling capacities. Perusing out loud can likewise help to improve understanding familiarity; Grabe and Stoller reccomend combined re-understanding exercises, where understudies attempt to quicken their perusing so anyone might hear by means of re-perusing a similar section to one another for one moment and attempt to accelerate each time (refered to in Gibson, 2008, 31 ). Perusing so anyone might hear may be an exceptionally helpful indicative gadget. The pitch the understudy uses can show that where understanding isn't exact (Underhill, refered to in Gibson, 2008: 31 ). For example, an instructor tuning in to a student’s perusing out loud can determine the issues, for example, articulation, perception of graphemic-phonemic associations, etc. Some master books on elocution are probably going to concentrate on segmental and the exact creation of specific sounds or probably, single sentences are perused so anyone might hear or spoken. Perusing out loud is utilized for practiced talking exercises and to make new learnt discourse designs lasting by Chun (2002). This can gracefully understudies perusing so anyone might hear one another. She advocates that tuning in and emulating ought to be utilized once in a while in light of the fact that understudies rapidly feel burnt out on it (refered to in Gibson, 2008). Correspondence by an understudy to a schoolmate or gathering is proposed for articulation practice also ( Davis and Rinvolucri refered to in Gibson 2008: 32). Foss and Reitzel (1988) recommend that perusing so anyone might hear is a method of chopping down correspondence tension, anyway it is viewed as nervousness inciting by certain understudies (refered to in Gibson, 2008: 32). Willis(2008: 59) utilizes choral perusing so as to diminish students’ worry of perusing alone. The way toward perusing out loud together strenghten designs. (Willis on the same page. ) Reading so anyone might hear exercises can be the main talking opportunity that meek understudies have, so perusing out loud guide shy and unconfident understudies with talking exercise temporarily until they feel themselves fit for talking suddenly (Gibson, 2008: 32). Perusing so anyone might hear has a roundabout crucial composition, anyway it is associated with composing with pitch. Abrade (1986, refered to by Tench 1996) advocates that while wirting has no inflection, stress or stops, the two perusers and journalists will in general dole out these components to whatever they are perusing and composing, along these lines pitch may influence what is composed, regardless of whether it is casual or formal standard letter (Gibson, 2008, 32). Duke Stevick (1989) talked with seven especially fruitful language students and found that the greater part of them, including himself, utilized perusing so anyone might hear as a learning method outside the study hall. One student decided to peruse aloud,rather than quietly, to rehearse inflection and get the sound and stream of the language, especially in the beginning times of learning. He said it helped his perception all things considered, perusing so anyone might hear supported him to lump the content into sense groups,even however he said he didn't see all the words-and to learn by heart new words. Another understudy discovered perusing out loud was especially helpful for the improvement of his elocution. Others discussed dependence, basically at the outset phases of language learning, on visual data to help get to importance, and afterward rehashing it resoundingly to themselves. Stevick himself likewise preferred to interface what he was seeing with his articulatory procedures and audotoriy input, and understood that he recollected things better on the off chance that he said them so anyone might hear. ’Macaro (2001) proposes subvocalization as a method for retention. It appears that Stevick’s understudies were repe

Effects of Social Media on testing ability

As a general public we are continually associated with our general surroundings. The exact definition Is clarified best by Boyd and Allyson. 2007 â€Å"SONS or Social Networking System Is an online assistance that permits people to develop an open or semi-open profile inside a limited framework, articulate a rundown of different clients with whom they share an association, and view and cross their rundown of associations and those made by others inside the framework. This framework or programming is comprised of all long range interpersonal communication destinations some of which are Faceable, Mainstream, Twitter, Tumbler, Snatch, and the rundown goes on. Obviously we face a daily reality such that we approach any snippet of data at some random time during the day. With this blast of innovation It Is getting increasingly hard for us to separate from our general surroundings. There is next to no opportunity to decompress approach by our PCs, yet additionally our telephones currently have APS that permits us to interface with web based life at some random time or night.The question is does this consistent access of data and steady remaining via web-based networking media influence our exhibition as understudies? Plan The Higher Education Research Institute in 2007 revealed that ninety four percent of first year undergrads utilize person to person communication sites. In 2005 examination by Macrobiotics and kepi uncovered, â€Å"Eighty five percent of understudies at a huge exploration college had accounts on Faceable, the most mainstream long range informal communication site. † This leads us to the inquiry does thusly of spinning around online networking sway our every day lives and the way we function?The National Sleep Foundation directed a review to uncover if there was a connection between's extended periods of time of internet based life use and on the off chance that it influenced rest propensities alongside execution levels. To have the option to work appropriately one's rest is Just as suitable as the essential needs, for example, food and water. Before the large blast of innovation people lived a lot easier lives. For instance, before the innovation of PCs, cellophanes, and even engine vehicles individuals had a progressively natural and common lifestyle. Indeed, even the food they put into their bodies was clean by chemicals.Technology is proposed to improve one's life; anyway like numerous things that are utilized in overabundance it gets undesirable. At the point when these types of web based life influence our rest cycle we possibly managing a habit that must be overseen. Lead analyst Diana Tamari of an ongoing Harvard study told the Los Angles Times, â€Å"l think the examination assists with clarifying why individuals use internet based life sites so regularly. I think it clarifies why Twitter exists and why Faceable is so well known, in light of the fact that individuals appreciate sharing data about one another ( Nature,2012). Diana Tamari was engaged with an examination led by Harvard University, which looked for the responses to why online networking was so addictive. The solution to their inquiry ended up being a straightforward one. Individuals are dependent on discussing their issues. They found in investigating â€Å"That the demonstration of revealing data about oneself actuates a similar piece of the mind that is related with the vibe of joy, a similar joy that we get from eating food or getting cash (Nature, 2012). I express the entirety of this to prompt the primary concern of our own examination; web based life is addictive. At the point when internet based life turns into an issue and influences our fundamental needs, for example, resting designs; the issue streams over into our every day lives. To just state it our exhibition levels will diminish. In an examination done by Christina J. Calamari, PhD, Thornton B. A. Artisan, MD, PhD, MACE, Sarah J. Radcliff, PhD. , â€Å"Teenag ers getting 8 to 10 hours of rest on weeknights would in general have 1. †to 2-overlap lower performing various tasks records contrasted and those getting less sleep.Thirty-three percent of the young people detailed nodding off during school. † Research is demonstrating that web based life is unfortunate. This issue didn't raise rapidly expedite, yet has been gradually developing beast that has developed into a difficult that must be managed. Kirsches and Sharkskin (2010, p. 1238) guarantee that â€Å"Students will in general partake in such site exercises while getting their work done so it might have negative impact on their scholarly accomplishments by intruding on them from the learning process.Therefore, between SONS use and understudy scholastic execution appeared at schools and colleges. Numerous specialists, sites, self improvement guides, and so on. Disclose to us that web based life is a tremendous innovator in rest misfortune, anyway in Sleep Care's article vi a web-based networking media and rest they compose that they accept online networking can make people get increasingly, powerful rest. â€Å"Faceable has more than 1 billion clients worldwide while Twitter had more than 500 million a year ago and is rapidly becoming each day'(Sleepwear, 2014).This abandons saying that a major piece of the world is associated with some online networking website. So as to be occupied with a web based life webpage, one must â€Å"follow' or â€Å"like† another. They proceed with, â€Å"Social media empowers a person to feel upheld from people intently attached to their lives and from loved ones afar† (Sleepwear,2014). By associating with individuals who share comparative interests and assessments an individual who effectively uses internet based life winds up in a general better territory of mind.This relates straightforwardly to all the more likely rest in light of the fact that having a serene psyche when resting to hit the sack is fu ndamental in a decent night's rest. In 2010 media features read: minor Friends Can Make You Fat. Perusing these features, scientists at US San Diego and Harvard considered the connection between's informal communities, rest examples and medication use, after much exploration and long periods of assessment they found, â€Å"The utilization of interpersonal organizations by youths impacts rest designs, lack of sleep, and medication use† (Beers 2010). For what reason is the rest cycle important?What happens during the rest cycle that is so significant to the human body? â€Å"Stage 1 is the start of the rest cycle, and is a moderately light phase of rest wherein the cerebrum delivers high abundancy theta waves, which are extremely moderate mind waves. Stage 2 is the second phase of rest and goes on for around 20 minutes. The mind starts to create explosions of fast, cadenced cerebrum wave action known as rest axles. This stage was recently isolated into stages three and four. P rofound, slow cerebrum waves known as delta waves.Most dreaming happens during the fourth phase of rest, known as quick eye development (ERM) sleep† (Cherry, 2011) These phases of rest are truly significant for the prosperity of people. These procedures permit us to recover from the day and recuperate. The body can genuinely recuperate itself by resting. A similar idea applies to the brain. When the innovation is at last put aside most youthful grown-ups just get roughly five hours of rest for each night. Lack of sleep is the motivation behind why these days there are more incidents and â€Å"slip-ups† than any other time in recent memory before.With the absence of rest one's appreciation aptitudes are seriously inadequate. At the point when the time has come to rest people far and wide get their telephones. Peg Fitzpatrick overviewed 1,000 online people in this manner discovering, â€Å"Our Faceable and Twitter exercises proceed much after we've gone to bed, with fort y-eight percent of respondents monitoring action when they wake p in the night or when they get up toward the beginning of the day (Fitzpatrick 2011). In her online mass, Peg Fitzpatrick got some information about how internet based life influences their dozes habits.Sadly, a significant number of her companions reacted with low influences since they have - in few words?grown insusceptible to web based life. They check their online life destinations consistently in a similar measure of time so their body is accustomed to getting that equivalent measure of rest. Online networking has influenced these companion's rest propensities. They have been a piece of the universe of online life so long that their body has acknowledged it as a piece of the every day schedule. With simple access to locales duty to room may bring about rest misfortune, delays in starting rest, daytime sluggishness and more,† says specialist Teresa Roar.Those who said they generally associated with companions online before getting into bed revealed dozing a normal of â€Å"8 hours and 10 minutes a night contrasted and 9 hours and 2 minutes among the individuals who never connected† (Thomson and Reuters 2014). Studies likewise show that rest misfortune can prompt an assortment of different issues, for example, corpulence, sadness, hypertension, trouble directing feelings and lower grades. Children who every now and again saw TV before bed were multiple times bound to report awakening a few times during the night than non-watchers, and successive informal communities were multiple times bound to awaken a lot.Researchers detailed in Sleep Medicine, † kids who normally played computer games or tuned in to music at sleep time had fundamentally more trouble falling asleep† (Thomson and Reuters 2014). Another factor that additionally may play into the issue is the point at which a gadget with access to web based life is close to the sleep time pad, individuals will in genera l wake up for the duration of the night. Some will in general quickly come back to jump yet others may remain away for an hour or more in the center of the night via web-based networking media before they come back to rest. This developing issue may appear to be unimportant, however after some time this ceaseless routine is unfortunate for the body.The life of an understudy, regardless of what age, negatively affects the body. Cutoff times to meet, Jobs to do, exercises to design, exercises to join in, schoolwork to finish, evaluations to keep up, and so on. The life of an understudy is regularly either about opportunity or about evaluations. This is on the grounds that as understudies we are realizing what moves to make so as to have a healthy lifestyle. Rest is one region that is frequently dismissed by youthful grown-ups in light of the fact that there is more on the plate than any other time in recent memory.

The Day Ethan Frome Lost Control of His Life :: Ethan Frome Essays

The Day Ethan Frome Lost Control of His Life   â â â I trust Ethan Frome lost control of his life when his mom kicked the bucket. After his mom's burial service, Ethan would not like to be disregarded on the homestead, so he asked Zeena to remain with him. From the start, Ethan appreciates her conversation. In any case, Zeena before long turns into an annoyance to Ethan, and keeps him from turning into an engineer in a huge city. In the wake of being hitched a year, Zeena gets wiped out herself, and the main time she converses with Ethan is to whine or show her discontent.   â â â After Mattie goes to the ranch, Ethan doesn't adore Zeena by any means. He thinks the main joy she has left is to exact agony on him. Since Zeena is a weight on Ethan, he normally needs to improve his life. The explanation he does not have control of his life is on the grounds that he is hitched to Zeena, and he isn't sufficiently valiant to leave with Mattie. The explanation he is hitched to Zeena is since his mom kicked the bucket. Since Zeena is the reason Ethan doesn't have control of his life, and Ethan wedded her since his mom kicked the bucket, the point in time when Ethan lost control of his life is the point at which his mom kicked the bucket.   â â â I trust Ethan could have altered a mind-blowing course in the event that he had left from the ranch to wed Mattie. The explanation he didn't have control of his life was on the grounds that he was hitched to Zeena. In the event that he would have hitched Mattie what's more, left Zeena, he would not have been in the sled mishap, and subsequently, he would have carried on with an a lot more joyful existence with Mattie.   â â â The second way Ethan could have altered an incredible course is in the event that he

Sociology concepts Essay Example for Free

Human science ideas Essay The family’s impact on socialization has been diminishing on the ongoing past. The family has an indispensable impact in socialization. It is inside the family that the essential character, mentalities, qualities and good thoughts are set down. It is upon this establishment that grown-up socialization is assembled. The socialization of a youngster isn't just the capacity of the guardians yet in addition those of the more distant family everywhere living with the child’s guardians likewise take an interest as the mingling specialist. The parent related to other mingling operators has the undertaking of coordinating the conduct improvement of the youngster towards the ideal regulating socially esteemed objectives. While the parent is doing this he goes about as an input instrument of ecological data to his kid, consequently imparting messages to the kid about what the parent sees as disparities in the child’s current conduct as he endeavors to kill these inconsistencies through preparing. Be that as it may, all the more promptly be that as it may, the parents’ preparing program is controlled by his extraordinary field, a field where natural data is just one of a few powers and might be quieted in its impact on parental conduct. From general perception most guardians use prize, discipline and guidelines to shape the child’s conduct toward social standards inside the home and nature. The child’s social advancement goes on whether or not anybody is endeavoring to control it to deliver attractive propensities. Maturational procedures make new types of conduct conceivable and the kid is ceaselessly communicating with his relatives, encountering satisfaction and disappointment, enduring injury and partition getting connections and evasions, watching the conduct of close relatives, unexpectedly mimicking what he sees and creating charming and alarming dreams and expanding separated examples of thought and activity. Guardians for the most part start to prepare their youngsters the general local obligations at about the age of six or seven years. When the kid is mature enough and reasonable enough to grasp guidelines, he begins to perform undertakings by duplicating the exercises of the relatives. Different jobs that used to be done by the family have been taken over by certain specialists, for example, advisors, media, peer gatherings, schools and numerous others. This jobs incorporates yet not restricted to ; Training of kids which is right now done in school while guardians are occupied with attempting to raise some salary. Different operators of socialization for a youngster incorporate nursery or kindergarten schools, day care focuses just as essential and optional schools and colleges. Companion bunches perform explicit capacities that incorporate; Courtship †Role practices, for example, pursuing conduct, sex-job appropriation, and articulation of hostility which among the job families used to play. Jobs, for example, seeking were for the most part secured inside the family circles yet nowadays peers have had more impact. Companion bunch controls the fondness, the endorsement and renown agreed to the kids. In view of this critical job, it performs significant capacities in the character advancement of the youngster. They likewise assume the job of instilling new aptitudes to youngsters. Educators likewise accept the job of guardians and attempt to instill their qualities into the kid. A kid takes in a wide range of aptitudes from the instructors like specialized abilities and different abilities that will shape and impact their future life. Job of molding youngsters conduct has been left to schools. Youngsters are prepared on the most proficient method to get lenient to one another and how to adapt to troublesome circumstances in life by turning out to be open minded schools. Such changes will influence social connections in our general public since a portion of these specialists may impact terrible practices to the little youngsters. Because of friend bunch impact a kid can create inadmissible conduct. The social relations in the general public will be influenced on the grounds that as kids stir up with others in schools they build up some inadmissible practices. The jobs that have been taken by other socialization operators from the family have come about to the happening to a culture that isn't commonly adequate. The youthful age which invests the greater part of their energy in schools from their folks will create practices that the older folks don't favor inside the network. For instance through companion bunch impact the youthful age get uncovered and affected by the hip bounce music, learning new characters that the old age is against. Because of extraordinary presentation, impact of innovation, peer bunch impact and the training picked up by the youthful age won't respect the perspectives on their relatives. Henceforth it will be hard for the family to guide and shape the conduct of their young age. REFERENCES Sullivan T. J. (2003) ; Sociology: ideas and applications in an assorted world; Addison-Wesley

Black Americans Essay

Right off the bat dark Americans confronted issues in the south in view of lynching and the Jim Crow Laws. Lynching implied that supremacist white Americans would place the law into their own hands and rebuff dark individuals at whatever point they please. They would balance the casualty from a tree. In 1897 123 dark individuals were lynched in the south, 84 out of 1903 and 61 of every 1921. The police would choose not to see and put forth no attempt to prevent lynching from occurring. Despite the fact that subjugation finished in 1865 dark individuals confronted the risk of savagery, terrorizing and racial separation on very nearly a day by day bases. The Jim Crow Laws were made to get whites and minorities individuals far from one another. The Jim Crow Laws secured all the parts of life. Dark Americans were halted from utilizing similar cafés, lodgings, libries, taxis, and even burial grounds. On the off chance that dark individuals needed to cast a ballot the Jim Crow Law caused them to need to breeze through a troublesome proficiency assessment and they would need to make good on high duties. About 2million dark Americans moved from the southern states toward the north in anticipation of a superior life. This was known as the Great Migration They figured they would have the option to get away from the Jim Crow Laws and bigotry all in all, they needed to go toward the north for a superior possibility at employments and instruction however much to their dismay. Besides dark Americans confronted issues in the south in view of the KKK. The KKK represents the Ku Klux Klan; they were a supremacist gathering and were a piece of a mystery society. The pioneer of the KKK in the 1920’s was a dental specialist called Hiram Wesley Evans whose name in the KKK was Imperial Wizard. No one but WASP’s could have a place with the KKK-White Anglo Saxon Protestants. The KKK focused on blacks primarily, however they additionally despised Jews, Catholics and Liberals yet there fundamental center was poor dark families that were entirely powerless. 5 million white Americans joined the KKK between 1920 to 1925. Most individuals where poor white individuals since they were anxious about the possibility that that dark individuals would assume control over their occupations. A portion of the KKK individuals were judges, cops and legal counselors. They would dress in white sheets and white hoods to cover their characters. The KKK utilized a wide range of techniques, for example, terrorizing, murders, assaulting, whipping, lynching, mutilation and tar consuming. The Black Americans attempted to retaliate utilizing peaceful strategies. The NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-approached the president for new laws to help battle the KKK viciousness yet got next to no outcomes. In the 1920’s Black Americans began to go to the ‘Back to Africa’ development which advised blacks that they should come back to their local America. This was begun by Marcus Garvey however the entire development wavered when he was captured for extortion and sent to jail. In 1926 participation of the KKK dropped from 2million to 300,000 individuals. In conclusion dark Americans confronted issues in the north in light of the fact that there was still prejudice around. Dark individuals would be sent to live in the most exceedingly terrible pieces of the least fortunate urban communities. They were last to be employed and first to be terminated from any occupations that they could get their hands on. Processing plant proprietors in northern urban areas realized that colossal quantities of dark individuals realized how to function admirably in view of the subjection period. So they sent individuals down South to urge them to take employments in their manufacturing plants up North with guarantees of good compensations. They needed to add to the pool of white specialists to hold down wages. So the dark specialists were urged to move North to contend with white laborers. The white specialists didn't greet the dark laborers wholeheartedly in light of the fact that they normally considered them to be a danger. The dark laborers were eager to work for less cash at any rate from the outset. So this prompted racial strain. The white Americans wouldn't acknowledge dark individuals to ensure the occupations. Something else was that white neighborhoods didn't need poor dark individuals and the issues that accompanied them moving into their neighborhoods. It was a terrible circumstance all around and prompted a lot of racial issues and even race revolts These are the issues dark individuals looked in the USA during the 1920s.

Newark

Newark Newark. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,861), Alameda co., W Calif., on the east side of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1955. There is food processing and the manufacture of plastics, furniture, feeds, semiconductors, chemicals, machine parts, paper and gypsum products, and computers. Salt is harvested from the bay. 2 City (1990 pop. 25,098), New Castle co., NW Del.; settled before 1700, inc. 1852. The third largest city in the state, it is the seat of the Univ. of Delaware. Metal products, electrical and transportation equipment, machinery, consumer goods, plastics, construction materials, and apparel are produced. The only Revolutionary battle on Delaware soil was fought (Sept., 1777) at nearby Cooch's bridge. 3 City (1990 pop. 275,221), seat of Essex co., NE N.J., on the Passaic River and Newark Bay; settled 1666, inc. as a city 1836. It is a port of entry and the largest city in the state. Located only 8 mi (13 km) W of New York City, Newark is a transportation, industrial, commercial, a nd manufacturing center. Its leather industry dates from the 17th cent., and its still-significant jewelry manufactures and insurance businesses began in the early 19th cent. Among the city's many other products are beer, cutlery, electronic equipment, textiles, pharmaceuticals, fabricated metal items, and paints. Newark International Airport is one of the nation's busiest, and the important seaport is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The city has a large minority population; over 50% of its residents are African Americans and about 30% are Hispanic. Newark's educational institutions include a campus of Rutgers Univ., the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a campus of the Univ. of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and a preparatory academy founded in 1774. The New Jersey Devils professional hockey team plays in the city. Landmarks include Trinity Cathedral (1810, with the spire of a church built in 1743); the Sacred Heart Cathedral (begun 1899, compl eted 1954); the First Presbyterian Church (1791); the Newark Public Library (founded 1888); the Newark Museum (1909); and the county courthouse (1906), with Gutzon Borglum 's statue of Lincoln in front. Other points of interest include Borglum's large group Wars of America (1926) in Military Park (a Revolutionary War drilling ground and a Civil War tenting area) and many historic homes. Aaron Burr and Stephen Crane were born in Newark. The city was settled (1666) by Puritans from Connecticut under Robert Treat . It was the scene of Revolutionary skirmishes. Industrial growth began after the American Revolution , aided by the development of transportation facilities. The Morris Canal was opened in 1832, and the railroads arrived in 1834 and 1835. A flourishing shipping business resulted, and Newark became the area's industrial center. In the late 19th cent. its industry was further developed, especially through the efforts of such men as Seth Boyden and J. W. Hyatt . Newa rk Port opened in 1915, and the city's shipbuilding played an important role in World War I. During the latter half of the 20th cent., Newark's economy and living standards greatly declined. Many residents fled to the suburbs, which were marked by a boom in corporate development, shopping center growth, and housing construction. Poverty and unemployment plagued Newark, which in July, 1967, was the scene of a major race riot. Two bright spots have been the port, which since 1985 has had a steady increase in volume of exports of containerized cargo, and Newark International Airport, which has expanded greatly. As part of an effort to revitalize the downtown, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center opened in 1997; an indoor arena and outdoor stadium have been constructed since then. See A. S. Rice, Newark: A Chronological Documentary History (1977). 4 City (1990 pop. 44,389), seat of Licking co., central Ohio, on the Licking River, in a livestock area; inc. 1826. It is a far m trade and processing center, a transportation hub, and an industrial city. Manufactures include glass, aluminum products, automobile parts, and plastics. The city's Native American mounds attract many visitors. The Newark Earthworks State Memorials include three locations within the city's limits: the Great Circle; the Octagon Mound, with smaller mounds inside the octagon; and the Wright Earthworks. A museum of Native American art is there, as is a campus of the Ohio State Univ. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. Political Geography

What Is Conflict in Literature 6 Different Types of Literary Conflict and How to Create Conflict In Writing

Stories cannot progress without conflict.What Is Conflict in Literature?In literature, a conflict is a literary device characterized by a struggle between two opposing forces. Conflict provides crucial tension in any story and is used to drive the narrative forward. It is often used to reveal a deeper meaning in a narrative while highlighting characters’ motivations, values, and weaknesses. There are six main types of literary conflict, each of which is detailed below.

Scorecard Strategy Vision - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 30 Words: 9095 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE BALANCED SCORECARD IN ACHIEVING THE STRATEGY AND VISION OF ORGANISATIONS (A CASE STUDY OF BARCLAYS BANK OF GHANA LTD) EXECUTIVE MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (eMBA) Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Scorecard Strategy Vision" essay for you Create order CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Background Traditionally, managers have used a series of indicators to measure how well their organisations are performing. These measures relate essentially to financial issues such as business ratios, productivity, unit costs, growth and profitability. While useful in themselves, they provide only a narrowly focused snapshot of how an organisation performed in the past and give little or no indication of likely future performance. During the early 1980s, the rapidly changing business environment prompted managers to take a broader view of performance and a range of other factors started to be taken into account, exemplified by the McKinsey 7-S model and popularized by the In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman. These provide a broader assessment of corporate health in both immediate and longer term. It is in this same regard that Robert Kaplan and David Norton of Harvard Business School in 1992 introduced the Balanced Scorecard with the aim of providing a balanced view of an organisations performance. Setting up the balanced scorecard, Kaplan and Norton argued that strategies often fail because they are not converted successfully into actions that employees can understand and apply in their everyday work. The Balanced Scorecard is defined as a strategic management and measurement system that links strategic objectives to comprehensive indicators (Kaplan and Norton 1992). The key to the success of the system is that it must be unified, integrated set of indicators that measure key activities and processes at the core of the organisations operating environment. It takes into account not only the traditional hard financial measures but three additional categories of soft quantifiable operational measures. These include: Customer perspective that is how an organisation is perceived by its customers Internal perspective in which issues an organisation must excel Innovation and learning perspective in which areas an organisation must improve and add value to its products or services or operations. Kaplan and Norton argue that measurements taken across these four categories are seen to provide a rounded Balanced Scorecard that reflects organisations performance more accurately and which helps managers to focus on their mission, rather than merely on short term financial gain. Accordingly it also helps to motivate staff to achieve the strategic objectives. This thesis undertakes a case study of Barclays Bank of Ghana ltd. to ascertain its effectiveness in achieving the vision and strategy of the company. Statement of the Problem Most key performance measurement indicators talk about how well organisations have performed in the past. Although this is important, it is more important to consider measures which give an early indication of what is likely to happen in the future and as to whether or not the vision and strategy is likely to be achieved. For example, a report may show an increase in the number of units sold in the previous month. This indicator reports on past performance. By itself, it is not a good indication of what is likely to happen in the current month or in future months. In managing strategic objectives, there is the need to look for measures that give an early warning of what is likely to happen well into the future. As such, measures need to be grouped according to how much warning they give us and how reliable they are. Measures need to be balanced in terms of the objectives of the various stakeholders. This will guard against sub-optimization; that is achieving gains in one area at the expense of another. The measures need to clarify and gain consensus about vision and strategy of the organisation. Such measures also need to link strategic objectives to targets and annual budgets, identify and launch strategic initiatives enhance periodic systematic strategic reviews and obtain feedback to learn about and improve the strategy of the organisation. According to Kaplan and Norton (1992), the measures an organisation uses will strongly affect the behaviour of managers and employees and will lead to performance needed to succeed. It is in this light that this research work is being undertaken. 1.3The Research Objectives From the arguments raised above, this study is being embarked upon to describe and analyse the role the balanced scorecard plays in the achievement of a companys vision and strategy. The study will be specifically focused on Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd. Therefore, the specific objectives of the study are the following: To find out if the balanced scorecard is being used by Ghanaian companies to measure performance and to direct such companies towards the achievement of organisational goals considering the fact that it has been around for the past sixteen (16) years. To examine the extent to which the balanced scorecard drives performance of organisations and the extent to which it leads to the achievement of the companys vision and strategy. Based on the findings, make recommendations for implementation towards the use of the balanced scorecard approach to drive performance and to achieve the vision and strategy of Ghanaian companies. 1.4The Research Questions The above objectives raise the following research questions: Are mission statements of organizations translated into action plans? Is the Balanced Scorecard useful in translating those mission statements into action plans? What is the impact of the Balanced Scorecard on a companys vision and strategy? What is the impact of the balanced scorecard on performance of the organization before and after the introduction of the balanced scorecard? 1.5Chapter Organisation The study is divided into five Chapters which include, after this introductory chapter, Chapter 2, which is a review of the literature relating to Balanced Scorecard, Chapter 3, in which Barclays mission, vision, businesses and services, organisational structure and policies and practices on the use of the balanced scorecard are discussed, Chapter 4 which discusses the research methodology upon which this thesis is built as well as an analysis of the data collected and Chapter 5, which contains conclusions and recommendations for further study. 1.6 Overview of the Balanced Scorecard Definition: The Balanced Scorecard is defined as a strategic management and measurement system that links strategic objectives to comprehensive indicators (Kaplan and Norton 1992). As mentioned earlier, the BSC has four perspective as Customer, Learning and growth, Internal business Process, and Financial. This is illustrated in figure 1 below: When these perspectives or variables are coordinated effectively, they result in the achievement of the organisations vision and strategy as demonstrated in figure 2 below which also shows the linkage between strategy and operational terms: Source: Kaplan and Norton 1992 Kaplan and Norton (1992) have identified a number of stages of the implementation of the Scorecard. These are a mix of planning, interviews, workshops and reviews. The type, size and structure of an organisation will determine the detail of the implementation process and the number of stages adopted. Before looking at the main steps involved in implementing the balanced scorecard, it is important to take a look at the figure below which pictorial description of the link between the BSC and performance measures. Figure 3: The Balanced Scorecard links performance Measures Source: Kaplan and Norton 1996 Objectives, Measures, Targets, and Initiatives For each of the perspective of the BSC, four things are monitored (or scored) namely: Objectives these are major objectives to be achieved. For example profitable growth. Measures there are the observable parameters that will be used to measure progress toward reaching the objective. For example, the objective of profitable growth might be measured by growth in net margin. Target these are the specific target values for the measures, for example, 10% annual decline in manufacturing disruptions. Initiatives these are projects or programs to be initiated in order to meet the objective. Implementing the Balanced Scorecard The main steps involved in the BSC implementation include: Preparation As the scorecard is inextricably linked to strategy, the first requirement is to clearly define that strategy and ensure that senior staff in particular, are familiar with the key issues. Before any other action can be planned, it is essential to have understanding of: The strategy The key objectives or goals to achieve the strategy The values of the organisation (example of values are on appendix A) The three or four critical success factors (CSFs) that are fundamental to the achievement of each major objective or goal. Decide what to measure Managers should identify the organisations major strategic goals. As a guide, there should be a total limit of 15 to 20 key measures linked to those specific goals significantly fewer measures (KPIs) may not achieve a balanced view and significantly more may become unwieldy and deal with non-critical issues. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) KPIs can be defined as quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization. They will differ depending on the organization (Reh, year unknown). KPIs chosen by the organization should be specifically designed to help focus the organization (through its employees) on what it needs to do in order to succeed. Bauer (2004) notes that KPIs must emanate from the vision level and cascade through the organization as shown in Figure 4 below: Source: Bauer, 2004 KPIs need to be measurable, so it is necessary for a KPI to be clearly defined, and then to be defined the same way over a number of years in order to perform comparisons between years measured. Once KPIs have been established, measurement is focused on targets for each KPI. Because there are many things that are measurable in an organization it is easy to get sidetracked by those that are not critical success factors. However for a KPI to make an impact on the long term sustainability of the organization, only critical success factors should be considered for this purpose. Bauer (2004) says that selection of the wrong KPIs can result in counterproductive behaviour and sub optimized results. Reh (year unknown) also notes that once measurable KPIs have been defined, the organization is in a position to use them in an individuals performance agreement as part of a performance management system. They can be utilized as a reward indicator and a motivator. As a clearly defined target, with predetermined measurement criteria, it becomes a small task to link the attainment of targets into a performance appraisal. This is the method that the organization utilizes to evaluate and reward the performance of the individual employees within its organization. Based on the four main perspectives suggested by Kaplan and Norton, a list of goals and measures may include some of the following: Financial (Shareholder) perspective Goals could include increased profitability, growth and increased return on assets Measures could include cash flows, cost reduction, economic value added, gross margins, profitability, return on capital/equity/investments/sales, revenue growth, working capital, turnover, etc. Customer perspective Goals could include new customer acquisition, retention and satisfaction. Measures could include market share, customer service, customer satisfaction, number of new/retained/lost customers, customer profitability, number of complaints, delivery times, quality performance, and response time. Internal perspective Goals could include improved core competencies, improved critical technologies, streamlined processes, and better employee morale. Measures could include efficiency improvements, development/lead/cycle times, reduced unit costs, reduced waste, amount of recycled waste, improved sourcing/supplier delivery, employee morale and satisfaction, internal audit standards, number of employee suggestions, sales per employee, etc. Innovation and learning perspective Goals could include new product development, continuous improvement, training of employees etc. Measures could include number of new products and percentage of sales from these, number of employees receiving training, hours per employee, number of strategic skills learned, alignment of personal goals with the scorecard. Each organisation must determine its own strategic goals and activities to be measured. Several organisations have seen Kaplan and Nortons template as not meeting their particular needs and have either modified it or have devised their own Scorecard. Public sector organisation, for example, may have different aims and objectives and may have to tailor the Scorecard to reflect this. Finalise the implementation plan Further discussions, interviews and workshops may be required to fine-tune the detail, and agree strategy, goals and activities to be measured, ensuring that the measures selected focus on the critical success factors. Other important issues that must be resolved before implementation include setting targets or rates or other criteria for each of the measures, and defining how when and where they should be recorded. Implement the system An implementation plan should be produced and the whole project communicated to staff. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, as staff should be informed at the beginning of the project and kept up to date on progress. The way in which the purpose of the Scorecard is communicated is vital. Staff should be made to feel that they have an important part to play in achieving corporate goals. Conversely, they should not feel threatened by the measures. The system for recording and monitoring the metrics should be in place and tested well before the start date, and training in its use should be given to all users as far as possible. The system should automatically record all the data required, though some of the measurements may not be logged manually. Publicise the results The results of all measurements should be collated on a regular basis such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or as appropriate and may eventually comprise a substantial amount of possibly complicated data. It will be necessary to decide whether to make the full data available to senior management only, to divisional or departmental heads, or to all staff, or whether to provide partial information on a need-to-know basis. Determine the method of publicising the results such as through meetings, newsletters, the organisations intranet or other means. Utilise the results Any form of business appraisal is not the end in itself, but is a guide to organisation performance and may point to areas (management, operational, procedural, etc.) that require strengthening. Action on the information obtained is an important as the data itself. Indeed, management follow-up action should be seen as an essential part of the process of appraisal. Review and revise the system After the first cycle has been completed, a review should be undertaken to assess the success or otherwise of the information gathered and action taken, and whether modification is required to any part of the process. The benefits of the Balanced Scorecard Kaplan and Norton (1992) cited the following as the benefits of the usage of the Balanced Scorecard: The BSC focuses the organisation on the few key things needed to create breakthrough performance. The BSC helps to integrate various corporate programs such as quality, re-engineering, and customer service initiatives. The BSC breaks down strategic measures towards lower levels, so that unit managers, operations, and employees can see what is required at their level to achieve excellent overall performance. 2GC Active Management Ltd (2004) has also identified the following benefits from the use of the Balanced Scorecard. The companys interests become primary Staff tend to have a clearer corporate direction Workers tend to develop better communication and listening skills and teamwork is improved. Understanding of other departments issues is improved. There is now more focus on intangibles rather than just financials. Interaction between managers in a cross functional capacity is improved. Improvement in clearer individual responsibilities (with collective ownership). Weaknesses and areas of opportunity are highlighted. The shortfalls of the Balanced Scorecard Stephen Smith (2006), Senior Vice President and Managing Executive, Rummler-Brache Group in an article on Problems Implementing a Balanced Scorecard stated that there is really nothing wrong with the concept of the BSC. However, the main problem is that, the BSC does not provide practical guidelines for deployment, and some executives view it as a quick fix that can easily be installed in their organizations. According to him, implementing a balanced metrics system is an evolutionary process, not a one time task that can be quickly checked off as completed. Accordingly, if executives do not recognize this from the beginning and fail to commit to the long term, then the organization will realize disappointing results. Smith (2006) identified the following issues that can cause the BSC initiative to fail: Poorly defined Metrics Metrics need to be relevant and clear. They should be depicted with visual indicators and are easily understood. In addition, Smith says that, metrics need to be collected at the ideal frequency for making decisions, and defined in such a way that the measurement can be consistently applied across the firm, even if their targets of performance differ. This is because, a system that has inconsistently defined metrics will be vulnerable to criticism by people who want to avoid accountability. Lack of efficient data collection and reporting Most organisations do not have the system to collect metrics data unlike financial data. As such, for most organisations, if collecting metrics data consumes too much time and energy, they will not be captured. For this reason, it is important to prioritize key performance indicators to ensure that investment spent in metrics will be most relevant to improving organisational performance. Lack of formal review structure Scorecards work best when they are reviewed frequently enough to make a difference. If a metric value changes on a daily basis and the variables within the control of management can be affected on a daily basis, then they metric should be reviewed on a daily basis. Also, metrics review meetings should follow a standard agenda, with clearly defined roles for all attendees and expectation that follow through on any agreed upon actions will be monitored at each meeting. No process improvement methodology The value of the BSC system relies on the premise that once performance problems are identified, there is an efficient and effective method for diagnosing and addressing root causes. Solutions can then be developed and performance gaps can be closed. If the organisation does not have the standard methodologies and toolkits for addressing process problems, the amount of effort required to derive a problem solving approach for each new performance gap could eventually damage the performance improvement program as it will be seen as taking too many resources away for daily operations. When that happens, there can be no adaptation and performance will continue to deteriorate. Smith (2006) suggests that, using time-tested process improvement methodologies, perhaps in combination with problem solving methodologies (for example, Six Sigma) can greatly alleviate this problem. Too Much Internal Focus One major criticism of the BSC is that it encourages an internal focus. This is not as much an indictment of the principle as it is the way companies put the principle into practice. To help overcome this problem, it is important to always start with an external focus the view of an organisations SuperSystem. The goal is to achieve a balance of enterprise level metrics as one assesses the organisations market, shareholders, competitors, employees and stakeholders. Smith (2006) believes that organisations can drive measurable results in adopting this more holistic approach to developing a balanced metrics system. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Performance measurement or management is not a recent development. It has been in existence since the ancient Egyptian days and has been a necessary part of organizational life and is as old as organisations. The ancient Egyptians had to encourage their workers to build the great pyramids and, unwittingly, they utilized performance management systems to do so. Their system revolved around whipping or maltreating those workers who did not perform to expectation for the achievement of organizational goals. The result of the performance management systems in place is evidenced by the splendid pyramids that they built. There is evidence that other ancient civilizations such as Rome and AD China also had performance management systems (Furnham, 2004). However, over time, as our understanding of human nature and the environment in which we exist has changed, the importance of managing performance to align individual goals to a common vision has been recognized as being vital to an organizations success. The necessity of an effective holistic performance measurement and appraisal system, therefore, became apparent. Performance measurement can be traced back to the mid 1800s with the cost and management accounting profession (Radnor McGuire, 2004). This came about due to recognition that tasks that occurred within these, mainly industrialized, organizations could be measured in terms of the time taken to perform a task as well as the budget required to perform the task. Performance measurement was not necessarily linked to individual performance appraisal but rather to assessing the profitability of the organization as a whole. Performance measurement was seen to be concentrated on measuring specific activities (Radnor McGuire, 2004). Performance measurement seems to have been quite a clear cut choice for businesses to implement for two reasons firstly, it was driven by the cost and management accounting profession with their focus on measuring financial indicators, particularly in terms of direct labour costs and direct material costs (Neely, Gregory Platts, 1995) and secondly, because it i s easier to measure performance than to manage it. After much work from the cost and management side in refining the available measures (resulting in the introduction of activity based costing (abc) in the mid 1980s (Cooper, cited in Neely and co, 1995)) and from the financial accounting side in terms of measures such as Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Equity (ROE), it became clear that accounting indicators on their own were not necessarily clear predictors of the success or failure of an organization. By the early 1980s the growing trend to move away from viewing capital assets as the most important to understanding that intellectual or human capital would be the way of the future, had been identified (Peters Waterman, 1995). Those companies that had a strong belief in their people, not necessarily only their financial indicators, were turning out to be the top companies. Examples of such companies would be Hewlett-Packard with their the HP way, which included mutual trust and confidence expressed in terms of, for instanc e, their flexible working hours and open door policy (Peters Waterman, 1995), and Disneys description of staff as cast members with all staff being recognized on a first name basis from the President down, and all staff being part of the show (Peters Waterman, 1995). These examples show how working with people was infiltrating to the very core of a companies internal operations and how this commitment was reaping rewards in terms of the companies bottom line as well as the achievements of its goals and strategies. By the mid to late 1980s traditional organizational performance measurement systems had many critics (Neely, 1999). For example, it seems that a focus on purely accounting performance measure might have promoted a culture of short-termism (Neely and co. 1995) resulting in managers trying to achieve financial targets to meet their performance measurement objectives, at the expense of long-term sustainability. It was at around this time that Kaplan Norton (1992) developed and proposed a balanced scorecard to include the measurement of indicators other than financial ones. They proposed four areas of importance including financial but in addition, customer, internal business processes and learning and growth. They felt that these provided a more holistic picture of an organizations performance. Kaplan Norton (1996) then postulated that these scorecards could then be linked to and be drivers of strategy. Taking factors other than financial ones made organizations performance management systems more complex and hence the increased need to carry out further research into this field. Since the mid-1990s there has been a marked increase in research of both an academic and a practical nature (Thorpe Beasley, 2004; Neely, 1999) into the areas of organizational performance measurement and performance management of both the organization as well as the individual. There are many reasons for the current trend to focus on performance management as a whole. It is clear that in todays dynamic business environment, to be successful, organizations require some form of measurement system. Maritz (1995) says that the underlying cultural support of an organisation provides a basis for excellent performance by an individual within that organization. A high performance culture facilitates and rewards potential through factors such as a strong system of values and a credible leadership. As suggested by some theories, the new paradigm recognizes that, todays world is complex and characterized by randomness and uncertainty and that, small events often have massive and far-reaching consequences (Daft, 1999). Kaplan and Norton (1992) say that, just as one cannot fly an airplane with just one instrument gauge, one cannot manage a company with just one kind of performance measure. Accordingly the BSC serves as an instrument panel in the cockpit of an airplane. It is a set of interrelated gauges that links seemingly disparate information about a companys finances and operations. Together, they give a complete view of a companys performance and strategic direction. Views of Balanced Scorecard Leading Indicators Some companies track their progress exclusively with financial indicators revenue, profit and so on. Balanced Scorecard advocates say that such trailing or lagging indicators are critical, but need the addition of leading indicators metrics that reflect how well an organisation is executing its strategy. For example, if changing customer mix in some way will increase revenue, then customer mix targets should be clearly set to track how well the business in doing. It is not sufficient to measure the lagging indicator revenue. The leading indicators concept is a mainstay of the BSC approach, and much credit should be given to the BSC boosters for promoting the idea. It is an idea well worth embracing, whether one is in support or not in support of the BSC. Balanced Metrics Some companies do track both leading and lagging indicators, but they may not have enough typesof leading indicators. For instance, they may get stuck in the rut of customer service metrics. That is important but not to the exclusion of other leading indicators such as innovation or employee development. The BSC mandates leading and lagging measurement from multiple perspectives. Strategy Implementation Foundation It is one thing to declare a strategy, but quite another to track how well the strategy is being executed. The BSC is one way to help track it. Most strategies can be fleshed out with metrics across at least some of the four prescribed categories of metrics. If goals and accountability are attached to the metrics, then a creditable strategy implementation engine can be said to be in place. Casey (2004) maintains that, the balanced scorecard can help track how well an organisation implements its strategy but it is not a strategy development template on its own. His criticism is that, companies must have their strategy, and that such strategy ought to be expressed as measurable goals. However, simply populating a BSC template with goals does not mean that the organisation knows where it is going or how to get there. Casey (2004) says that doing so is a recipe for misalignment and that the BSC provides no strategy development template, nor does it claim to. Kaplan and Nortons position is that, what cannot be measured cannot be achieved. As such, the measures used affect the behaviour of managers and employees within an organisation. Executives also understand that the traditional financial accounting measures like return on investment and earnings per share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation which are activities todays competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well for the industrial era, but they are out of step with the skills and competencies companies are trying to master today. Managers and academic researchers have tried to remedy the inadequacies of current performance measurement systems. Whereas some have focused making financial measures more relevant, others have decided to forget about the financial measures but rather focus on r like cycle time and defect rates with the believe that the financial measures will follow. The reality however is that, managers do not have to choose between financial and operational measures or rely on one set of measures to the exclusion of the other as no single measure can provide a clear performance target or focus attention on the critical areas of the business. Kaplan and Norton (1992) observed in their research that managers want a balanced presentation of both financial and operational measures. Based on the above, Kaplan and Norton (2002) devised the BSC a set measures that gives top mangers a fast but comprehensive view of the business. The BSC includes financial measures that tell the results of actions already taken and complements the financial measures with operational measures that are the drivers of future financial performance. The BSC therefore tailors the measures to fit a companys particular challenges. That way, one can be sure of getting the performance expected to succeed. The BSC requires managers to think of their companys mission and strategy from four key perspectives. This is discussed below based on the theories of Kaplan and Norton (1992). Customer perspective Todays typical corporate mission says something general about customers. The BSC requires specific measures of what customers get in terms of time, quality, performance and service, and cost. Internal business perspective This perspective focus on the core competencies processes, decisions and action that have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction. For example, ECI developed operational measures for submicron technology capability, manufacturing excellence, design productivity, and new product introduction. The companys managers then made sure to decompose the measures to department and workstation levels, where much of the action took place. Innovation and Learning This perspective focuses on measures which indicate future success. They measure continual improvements to existing products and processes and introduction of new products with expanded capabilities. For example, Milliken Co. implemented a ten-four improvement program, requiring reduction in key adverse measures (defects, missed deliveries, and scrap) by a factor of ten over four years. Financial perspective Financial perspective provides measures which indicate whether executives have correctly identified and constructed their measures in the foregoing areas, but they can also help determine future direction. For example, a chemical company created a daily financial statement. Putting income and expense values on every production process helped plant supervisors see where process improvements and capital investments could generate the highest returns. Gnanapoo sees the balanced scorecard as a management system and not only a measurement system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. She adds that it provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. In her opinion, when the BSC is fully deployed, it transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve center of an enterprise. First of all the balanced scorecard is a way of Measuring organizational, business unit or department success; Balancing long and short term actions; Balancing different measures of success and Financial Customer Internal Operations Human Resource Systems Development (Learning growth) A way of tying strategy to measures of action Gnanapoo maintains that the objective of any measurement system should be to motivate all managers and employees to implement successfully the business units strategy. Those companies that can translate their strategy into measurement system will be able to execute their strategy because they communicate their objectives and their targets. The communication makes managers and employees focus on the critical drivers enabling them to align investments, initiatives and actions accomplishing strategic goals. Casey (2004) in an article on A Balanced View of Balanced Scorecard looks at the various views of the balanced scorecard. Hendricks and Cos (2004) initial review before undertaking their research into whether to or not to adopt the BSC indicated that (1) there had been little examination of the factors associated with the adoption of the BSC, and (2) there still is the need to demonstrate that the adoption and implementation of the BSC is associated with improved financial performance. As such they carried out a research specifically examining these two BSC issues. Their research was motivated by an observation made in a review of the accounting performance measurement literature: the use and performance consequences of these (BSC) measures appear to be affected by organizational strategies and the structural and environmental factors confronting the organization. Future research can make a significant contribution by providing evidence on the contingency variables affecting the predictive ability, adoption and performance consequences of various non-financial measures and balanced scorecards (Christopher D. Ittner and David F. Larcker 1998.) Specifically, they examined contingency factors including business-level strategy, firm size, environmental uncertainty, and investment in intangible assets. They examined these contingency factors because their discussions with Canadian business executives who were intimately involved with the adoption and implementation of a BSC at their respective organizations highlighted the criticality of many of these factors to the adoption decision. Their research sample size consisted of 579 Canadian firms, chosen from PC Compustat, with annual sales greater than $10 million. They obtained key informant responses from 179 firms, of which 42 (or 23.5 per cent) reported that they had adopted the BSC approach. Business strategy While it has long been argued in the accounting literature that accounting control systems should be designed according to the business strategy of the firm, this premise has yet to be examined with the BSC. Hendricks and Co utilized Miles and Snows comprehensive business-level strategic typology that inter-relates organizational strategy, structure and process (Raymond E. Miles and Charles C. Snow 1978). This typology identifies four organizational strategies: Prospectors who continually search for innovative market opportunities and experiment regularly with new responses to emerging trends; Analyzers who operate routinely and efficiently through formal structures and processes, while simultaneously watching competitors for promising new ideas which they then rapidly adopt; Defenders who, given their narrow product market domains, are highly expert in their organizations area of operation but do little to seek out new opportunities outside their primary domain and Reactors who are unable to respond effectively to known change and uncertainty in their organizations environment. Given the broader scope and inclusion of nonfinancial, forward-looking measures in the BSC, they stated posited that the use of the BSC would more likely benefit firms that followed a Prospector or Analyzer strategy, and likely not benefit firms that followed a Defender or Reactor strategy. Therefore, they hypothesized that the propensity to adopt the BSC is positively related to the organizations choice of a Prospector or Analyzer strategy. They found that BSC adoption was significantly associated with strategy and that firms that followed a Prospector or Analyzer strategy were more likely to adopt the BSC than other firms. One interpretation of this finding is that the BSC may be more useful for some strategy types. Firm size Like business strategy, previous accounting research has suggested that a firms size can affect the design and use of management control system. As firms grow, problems in communication and control increase, so these organizations are more likely to adopt complex administration systems. As a result, larger organizations will likely depend on more sophisticated information and control systems that use diverse measures. The BSC represents an integrative management tool that is useful for coordinating cross-function and cross-level decisions and activities. They found that BSC adopters were significantly larger than non-adopters. Environmental uncertainty Environmental uncertainty has long been viewed in practice and research as a central problem for organizations. Previous accounting research has found that the uncertainty was related to greater usefulness of broad-scope information, and that the demand for broad-based information systems incorporating nonfinancial measures was positively associated with perceptions of environmental uncertainty. The BSC, which incorporates both non-financial and future oriented information, would be particularly critical for firms where environmental uncertainty is high. They found that BSC adopters had significantly higher demand volatility (measured as the coefficient of variation in annual sales changes) than non-adopters. Investments in intangible assets While a definitive classification of intangibles remains to be offered, there is agreement on the importance of effectively managing these assets from a control perspective. Indeed, the effective management of intangible assets-which includes, among others, product innovation, company brand, structural assets, and monopolies can be an important driver of business value. The BSC is a notable management tool, since it specifically requires the use of nonfinancial measures directly reflecting the organizations learning and growth decisions, activities and outcomes. Therefore they hypothesized that the propensity to adopt the BSC was positively related to the firms investment in intangible assets but did not find support for this hypothesis when they measured intangibles as the ratio of intangible assets to total assets. Given that the financial accounting model is criticized as being overly conservative with regard to the measurement of intangibles. CHAPTER 3: Background of Barclays Bank Barclays Bank is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, with an extensive international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs 147,000 people. Barclays Bank moves, lends, invests and protects money for over 42 million customers and clients worldwide. Barclays is made up of two major businesses: Global Retail and Commercial Banking (GRCB) and Investment Banking and Investment Management (IBIM). Frits Seegers is Chief Executive of GRCB, which comprises UK Retail Banking, Barclays Commercial Bank, Barclaycard, GRCB Western Europe, GRCB Emerging Markets and Absa. Robert E Diamond Jr is President of Barclays PLC and CEO of Investment Banking and Investment Management, which spans Barclays Capital, Barclays Global Investors and Barclays Wealth. Barclays vision is to become one of the handful of universal banks leading he global financial services industry. This means offering a full range of retail and wholesale services to customers and clients throughout the world. These services include retail, business and private banking, credit cards, investment banking, investment management and wealth management. Barclays strategy follows a simple premise: anticipate the needs of their customers and clients, then serve them by helping them achieve their goals. Barclays is organized into the following business groupings: Investment Banking and Investment Management comprising: Barclays Capital Barclays Global Investors Barclays Wealth. The organization of Investment Banking and Investment Management gives a single point of strategic direction and control to a group of global businesses which enjoy substantial synergies Global Retail and Commercial Banking comprising: UK Banking; UK Retail Banking and UK Business Banking Barclaycard International Retail and Commercial Banking Absa The grouping of all our retail, commercial and cards businesses under Global Retail and Commercial Banking (GRCB) gives these businesses a single point of direction and control, thereby increasing the banks capability to drive growth and synergies globally and to enter new markets. The Chief Executive (CE) of Barclays Plc is Mr. John Varley. He was appointed as Group Chief Executive on 1st September 2004, prior to which he had been Group Deputy Chief executive from 1st January 2004. The first Barclays branch in Ghana was commissioned on 14th February 1917 under the name Barclays Bank of Ghana Limited (BBG) and has since been closely associated with all phases of the countrys development. Share Structure Initially BBG was wholly owned by Barclays Plc but in 1972, the government of Ghana acquired 40% in Barclays Ghana. This later reduced to 10% and eventually in June 2003, Barclays PLC acquired the remaining10% shares of the government of Ghana, making Barclays Ghana a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Plc. Organisational Structure The Barclays Brand One of the greatest strengths of BBG is its brand. Built over many years of hard work and dedication, the Barclays brand today has come to represent trusted and reliable financial services. The depth of appreciation that Barclays has for the financial market is what distinguishes Barclays from others. Branches/Customer base Currently, Barclays Bank of Ghana Limited has a branch network of over 140 branches and still counting. The bank has over 150 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and over 350,000 customers in Ghana. Vision The vision of Barclays Ghana is to be the leading contributor to Ghanas future Mission The mission of Barclays is to be one of the most admired financial services organisations in the world, recognised as an innovative, customer-focused company that delivers superb products and services, ensures excellent careers for our people and contributes positively to the communities in which we live and work. (Barclays Employee Manual) Staff Strength BBG currently has over 2500 employees with about 5000 Direct Sales personnel. Products / Innovation Barclays has been the market leader in the area of major innovations in Ghana. Some of the innovative products are SME Business Account, the Microbanking Product, Scheme Loans, Housing Mortgage, Abapa a mass market product, Vehicle and Asset Finance, Premiere Banking among many others. The products are tailored to meet the motor vehicle and other capital equipment financing needs of the Corporate Banking segment of the market. The bank is already widely testing its Retail Vehicle and Asset Finance product with existing individual and small enterprise customers and expects to hit the market with a full blown offering for this segment in the second quarter of the year. IT Platform In 2002, Barclays launched Ghanas first fully automated telephone banking operation. It was the first to introduce online banking for its corporate clients with Business Master International. Pay Direct, an electronic payroll system was another first in the country. Prestige Banking BBGs strength in product innovation is not restricted to technology only. Prestige Banking is a product specifically targeted at the upper (wealthier) end of the market. It was the first time any bank in Ghana had deliberately segmented its target markets and created products specifically targeted at each segment. Services Barclays Ghanas list of Corporate Banking products and services include credit facilities, cash management and money transmission services, trade finance, deposit and investment Business Master International (online banking). The others are payroll management (Pay Direct), integrated debt finance and risk management, business insurance, wealth management and security services. Barclays Ghana Treasury provides Global Treasury Services and advisory services to their customers. It also acts as a primary dealer for customers who purchase Treasury Bills. Other Services provided by Barclays Ghana include Salary Processing, Statement Requests, Inter-bank Clearing, ATM/Visa Card Processes and ATM Availability. The Managing Director The Managing Director of BBG is Mrs. MARGARET MWANAKATWE and she happens to be the first female to occupy the topmost position in BBG. Her international experience includes lecturing on the MBA programme at Maxims European Institute and working as a Financial Analyst and Management Accountant in Whitbread PLC, McDonnel Douglas Information Systems respectively. Barclays Africa and Middle East Barclays Bank of Ghana comes under Barclays Africa and Middle East which also falls under GRCB. The vision of Barclays Africa and Middle East is simply to be the leading bank in South Africa and ultimately, the pre-eminent bank on the African continent. Barclays Africa and Middle East believes that having the vision is not enough and as such, it is very important to know how and what to do to achieve it. For this reason, the leaders of Barclays Africa and Middle East have identified the Five Cs which is synonymous to the Balanced Scorecard. In other words, it is the re-designing of the BSC to suit the needs of BIE. These are specific and provide the guidelines needed to achieve the vision. For BIE to become the leading bank the focus must be on the following: Figure 5: The Five Cs COMPANY Hit the numbers CUSTOMER Put customer first COLLEAGUE Be a high performing Colleague/leader CONTROL Be in control COMMUNITY Engage in the community CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSIONS THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES In Chapter 1, the purpose of this research was detailed as to describe and analyse the role the balanced scorecard plays in the achievement of a companys vision and strategy. The study will be specifically focused on Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd. Therefore, the specific objectives of the study are the following: To find out if the balanced scorecard is being used by Ghanaian companies to measure performance and to direct such companies towards the achievement of organisational goals considering the fact that it has been around for the past sixteen (16) years. To examine the extent to which the balanced scorecard drives performance of organisations and the extent to which it leads to the achievement of the companys vision and strategy. Based on the findings, make recommendations for implementation towards the use of the balanced scorecard approach to drive performance and to achieve the vision and strategy of Ghanaian companies. THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS The above objectives raise the following research questions: Are mission statements of organizations translated into action plans? Is the Balanced Scorecard useful in translating those mission statements into action plans? What is the impact of the Balanced Scorecard on a companys vision and strategy? What is the impact of the balanced scorecard on performance of the organization before and after the introduction of the balanced scorecard? The study will be conducted in Ghana with a case study Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd. During the study, interviews will be conducted with officers and managers of the bank. Apart from personal interviews, this study will also make use of questionnaires to gather more information. This study will also involve substantial level of desk research from books, journals and other publications on the internet and libraries. The key text for this research will however be articles published by Kaplan and Norton in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). More specifically, study intends to undertake the following: Conduct interviews with head of Performance Management department of Barclays Bank. The study will also send out questionnaires which will assist in gathering more information on the effectiveness of the balanced scorecard in achieving the vision and strategy of the bank. Write a thesis that combines an understanding of the relevant theory and previous researches with the results of the researchers study. Case Study Methodology and Research paradigm A case study can be defined as an empirical enquiry that: investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin 1984). This definition is supported Stake (1995). Mitchell (2000) states that the case study refers to an observers data: that is, the documentation of some particular phenomenon or set of events which has been assembled with the explicit end in view of drawing theoretical conclusions from it. An advantage for utilizing the case study methodology is that it allows for an in-depth understanding of a specific phenomenon within a bounded system. Of particular relevance is the uniqueness of the Balanced Scorecard and this is applicable to Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd. Case studies can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature, but due to the interpretive nature of this research, a qualitative methodology (Guba Lincoln, 1994) has been adopted. There are a variety of case study purposes such as descriptive, explanation, evaluation and exploratory (Winegardner, K.E. year unknown). Descriptive research seeks to identify themes within a case through a rich or thick description encompassing as much of the case study detail as possible. It defines the purpose of descriptive research as the portrayal of an accurate profile of persons, events, or situations; this in turn requires extensive knowledge of the research subject in order to identify appropriate aspects on which to gather information. Exploratory research answers questions of how and why. This study is a combination of these two main purposes, with a strong focus on describing the BSC situation and why it would benefit or has benefited Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd and its individuals. Sampling Procedures: The study proposes to use systematic sampling for the purpose of this research. Systematic sampling has been chosen for the following advantages it has over other forms of sampling techniques: The sample selection is easier in that, a random number is picked referred to as the random start and the rest of the sample automatically follows. It is more convenient when dealing with a very large population and a large sample is needed. The sample is distributed evenly over the listed population. Data Collection The data for this case study was collected using multiple sources and techniques (Soy, 1997). For this case study, the research was carried out through a process of document analysis, unstructured and structured interviews and questionnaires, and participant observation. Staff Opinion Data was collected from some staff of BBG using questionnaires. Interviews were also conducted with the performance analyst face to face and record made of responses. Interview questions were developed based on research of the available literature. Questions covered aspects of BSC including its ability to motivate employees to work towards the achievement of the vision and strategy of the bank. It also sought to examine the knowledge of staff of the mission statement of the bank. This is very important as knowledge of the mission statement by employees will go a long to ensure that they work to achieve corporate goals and objectives. An added advantage for using the questionnaires is that it enables the researcher to bring out rich details. Questionnaires were distributed printed copy to staff through hand delivery and collected on due date by the researcher. The researcher further collected information by noting ad hoc comments made during unstructured interviews with staff. Observation Smith (2003) defines Observation as describing or representing a setting. The observation method used in this case was unstructured and informal. It consisted of the researcher taking notes at any time when he felt it was necessary or of importance for instance, during a staff meeting. The main reason for collecting data using the observation method was to enhance the validity and reliability of the study. Because much of the staff information was collected in the format of questionnaire with written answers, the researcher wanted to ensure that the written answers corresponded to the behaviour and verbal communications of the staff in their every day environment. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Barclays Bank of Ghana has modified the Balanced Scorecard to suit its needs. Instead of the traditional four (4) perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, learning and growth, BBG measures performance from five (5) perspectives normally referred to as the five (5) Cs as follows: Colleague Staff are expected to be a role model colleague Company Staff are expected to grow the company Community Staff are expected to engage in their communities Customer Staff are expected to radically improve customer service Control Staff are expected to be in control as control is always a key consideration in all that they do It is expected that when these 5Cs are properly coordinated, the vision and strategy would be achieved. Barclays Africa and Middle East has the vision of being the leading bank in South Africa and ultimately, the pre-eminent bank on the African continent. 1.8REFERENCES 2GC Active Management, https://www.2gc.co.uk/pdf/2GC-FAQ2.pdf. Retrieved on 19th June 2008. 12Manage, the executive fast track, https://www.12manage.com/methods_7S.html, retrieved on 19th June 2008. Barclays website, https://www.aboutbarclays.com/content/detail.asp?NewsAreaID=111, retrieved on 19th June 2008. Bauer, K. 2004. KPIs The Metrics that Drive Performance Management. DM Review. Canada National Statistics Companys website https://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/power/ch13/probability/probability.htm, retrieved on 20th June, 2008 Casey W. (2004), A Balanced View of Balanced Scorecard, The Leadership Lighthouse Series, https://www.executiveleadershipgroup.com/A%20Balanced%20View%20of%20Balanced%20Scorecard%20-%20Pt%201%20Ver%201.5.pdf Daft, R.L. 1999. Leadership: theory and practice . New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. Furnham, A. 2004. Performance Management Systems. European Business Journal. Gnanapoo J.E (year unknown), Balanced scorecard A strategy management tool https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/8/720/balanced-scorecard-a-strategy-management-tool5.asp Goleman D and Others (2002), Business The Ultimate Resource, Bloomsbury Reference Book, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Guba, E.G. and Lincoln, Y.S. 1994. Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research. In Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, S (eds). Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Hendricks K., Menor L. and Wiedman C. 2004, The Balanced Scorecard: To adopt or not to adopt? Ivey Publishing. Ittner C.D. and Larcker D. F. 1998, Innovations in Performance Measurement: Trends and Research Implications, Journal of Management Accounting Research. Kaplan R.S. and Norton D.P. (1992), The Balanced Scorecard Measures that drive performance, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Kaplan R.S. and Norton D.P. (1993), Putting the Balanced Scorecard to work, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Kaplan R.S. and Norton D.P. (1996), Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Maritz, F. 1995. Leadership and Mobilizing Potential. The art of the possible and the science of the probable Human Resource Management. Miles R.E. and Snow C. C. 1978, Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process, New York: McGraw-Hill Mitchell, J.C. Case and Situation Analysis. In Gomm, R. Hammersley, M. and Foster, P. (eds). Case Study Method. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Neely, A. 1999. The Performance Measurement revolution: why now and what next? Internal Journal of Operations and Production Management. Neely, A, Gregory, M. and Platts, K. 1995. Performance measurement system design. A literature review and research agenda. International Journal of Operations and Production Management. Peters, T. and waterman. R.H. 1995. In Search of Excellence. Lessons from Americas Best -Run Companies. London: HarperCollins Publishers. Porter M.E. (1980), Competitive Strategy Techniques for analysing industries and competitors, The Free Press, First Free Press Edition. Radnor, A. and McGuire, M. 2004. Performance Management in the Public Sector: fact or fiction? International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management Reh, F. J. Year unknown. Key Performance Indicators How an organisation defines and measures progress toward its goals. (Online) Available at: https://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/keyperfindic.htm (Retrieved on 30th July, 2008). Smith, S. 2006. Problems implementing a Balanced scorecard, (Online) Available at: https://bpminstitute.org/articles/article/article/problems-implementing-a-balanced-scorecard.html Soy K, 1997. The Case Study as a Research Method. (On-Line). Available https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ssoy/usesusers/l391d1b.htm (Retrieved 30th July 2008). Stake, R.E. 1995. The Art of Case Study Research. California: SAGE Publications Inc. Thorpe, R. and Beasley, T. 2004. The Characteristics of Performance Management Research. Implications and challenges. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. Winegardner, K. E. (Year unknown). The Case Study Method of Scholarly Research (online). Available: https://cpub.brown.edu:8543/cpubsh/Raymond%20Hyatt-SO0105SO2/materialadd2 Retrieved on 30th June 2008. Yin, R. 1984. Case Study Research. Design and Methods. California: SAGE Publications Inc.