Origin of Conflict Amongst the US and Iraq Essay

Origin of Conflict Amongst the US and Iraq - Essay Example 10). ISLAM Islam originates from Saudi Arabia and is perceived as successor religion to Christianity; since it clinches a mass of Christian and Jewish beliefs, while at the same time building on several beliefs. These religions belief in prophets of God like Abraham and Jesus being bearers of new messages that change in beliefs, although only Muslims belief in Muhammad as being the last prophet; a belief that is not embraced by other religions (Keegan 2004, p. 35). Islam developed gradually, especially in the fifteenth century all over the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa and some European countries. This tremendous range of Islam was ruled by leaders, caliphs, who assembled religion and civic governance. This association goes against the American belief of proper governance, which implies that religion and government are obviously differing social activities and that the government is restricted from showing support to any particular religion. The Islamic empire grew dra stically which led to different sections of the Islamic empire started breaking into conflicting splinter groups as a result of increased wealth, as well as a variety of interests and customs. The central part of the Islamic empire that is situated in parts of Turkey, Iran and Iraq, transversed by international travel roads from and to China, India and other parts of the Orient (Cashman 2007, p. 48). As anticipated, conflict occurred given that the Middle East, which is currently referred to as Israel, was the place where Christianity, Islam and Judaism originated. As a result, there were military endeavors referred to as Crusades, in an attempt to recapture the Christian Holy Land from Muslims, which created a block of hostility, antagonism, threat and fear amongst the Islamic East and Christian West. Apart from that, succession to Islam’s leadership was the first cause of conflict amongst Muslims; with the main split amongst Sunnis and Shiites, as to who was the genuine suc cessor of Muhammad (Hess 2009, p.76). TRADE ROUTES During the Industrial Revolution, the West developed gradually especially in wealth, physical resources, competence as skills, as well as military experience and power, unlike the Islamic territories. As a result, the West secured more colonial empires by being hostile to countries that influence its trade routes, which in most cases were Islamic. They did this by taking control of countries, or part of countries, and imposing on them rules that were disadvantageous and humiliating to Islamic people and their countries, while, on the other hand, those rules were advantageous to the West (Hiro 2009, p.100) While bringing change, both the British and French were mainly concerned with the short term gains they would achieve by splitting the empire into independent nations, rather than the long term growth of these regions. The British established and implemented their desired government in a place that is currently Iraq, which was perc eived as unsatisfactory by the indigenous leading to the rebellion that prolonged for years, giving rise to the rise of Baath Party that eventually acquired control of Iraq, as well as the rise of Saddam Hussein. Apart from that, this place, which is currently Israel, was set up in a manner that gave British control over the area, and this meant long term suffering in Palestine.

Steve Jobs Biography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Steve Jobs Biography - Essay Example Steve Jobs was one of those people who made an impact on the entire world and is being remembered even after he has left this world. Early years: Steve Jobs was born in February 1955 in San Francisco, California. His childhood wasn’t the smoothest of all and was adopted and also had difficulties in school times. Even in college days he could not complete the degree and dropped out shortly. Steve was adopted in his early age and he came to know about this fact later in his life many years down the lane (Gillam, pg 15). Steve jobs stayed in touch with physics and literature during his earlier years of education, yet he was struggling to find a path and direction. Jobs rather found interest in the electronics which he practiced with at his garage in childhood. However, things took a turn for the good when he first joined Atari and then Hewlett Packard where he came across a man named Steve Wonzniak who would become his partner in innovation and success journey in years to come. S teve Wonzniak was an engineer by profession. Early success: In contrast to the conventional subjects of education, Steve Jobs found his interest in the subject of creativity and it was more suited towards his natural abilities. By 1974 he had attached himself to the gaming console Atari and worked as a game designer. Steve Jobs got the chance to express his ideas to the right kind of person who could foresee innovations in his idea. Together they both worked on Blue Box device. It was a stepping stone towards many more innovations to come. Together they started thinking of an idea of establishing a desktop computer, and hence this set foundation for Apple Inc (Gillam, pg 36). This feat was achieved in 1976. With no investment at hand and no majors support, they had to carry out their work in the local garage , it is believed that both sacrificed their valuables for this cause and Jobs sold out his V.W mini bus while his comrade had to sacrifice his dear electronic calculator in orde r to make the project a reality . They can easily be termed as the pioneers for introducing a relatively small sized computers since earlier computers were largely mainframes and had no major computational strengths and ability at that time .A few hundred dollars venture that had started from the garage started earning them millions of in no time and by 1980 Apple Inc was a billion dollar company in reserves, all to the duo who through their innovation introduced new dimensions. They introduced two different models Apple 1 and after seeing its success they introduced Apple II, with considerable improvements. By this time Apple Inc and its computers had made to the market and it was the buzzword everywhere. Rough times at Apple Inc: The beginning of 1980s saw some rough times for Apple and it faced challenges from its competitors technically who ultimately surpassed the incumbent company. Apple had a threat in form of IBM’s introduced computer. This was the time when first Gra phic User Interface ( G.U.I) based computers were first introduced in the market .Not everything was smooth and there were bumps in his journey at Apple, after a few great years at the company, things got sour and the downfall of Apple Inc was blamed on Steve Jobs which resulted in his resignation in 1985.The company suffered from the loss of the visionary man and staleness was observed

Challenges to Managing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

Challenges to Managing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) One of the major challenges facing Human Resource Management is the introduction and management of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). In dyads or tryads produce a group briefing paper for either; Directors of a company or a specific trade union, of your choice, regarding the changes taking place in the UK labourmarket and economy regarding the impact of outsourcing and/or offshoring. INTRODUCTION The current economic climate is forcing organizations to explore tactics to remain competitive. According to the traditional ‘make or buy decision framework, the fundamental value proposition behind BPO is cost reduction. The recent economic downturn forced HR departments to do more with less. Many HR organisations were asked to increase the scope of their capabilities without increasing overall headcount. As a result, some organisations viewed outsourcing as a way of combating current economic situation and achieving competitive advantage. In spite of the recent economic slowdown, Gartner Group stated that, the worldwide business process outsourcing (BPO) market, is continuing to grow by approximately 9.5. Organisations are increasingly seeking standardization as part of a re-emphasis on strategic business initiatives. They realise that they need to standardize HR processes and policies as a first step in their HR transformation. Business process outsourcing of certain functions is becoming an increasingly popular way to improve basic services while allowing HR professionals time to focus on issues vital to the businesss strategic initiatives, instead of being burdened with HR administration. Chaffey (2003) defines BPO as â€Å"the contracting out of specified services to a third party with a controlled, flexible relationship†. Lee (2002) refers to BPO as the ‘outsourcing of different managerial and operational functions. Specifically in HR, BPO is designed to ensure that a companys HR system is supported by the latest management information systems, with self-access and HR data warehousing options. The Business Issues (1995) further views BPO as ‘the delegation of one or more business processes to an external provider, who then owns, manages and administers the selected processes based on defined and measurable performance metric. The CIPD defines off-shore as ‘the process of outsourcing business activities or services overseas, as a direct or indirect employer. Off-shore does not always involve the services of an external provider . According to the Oxford Dictionary it means: ‘made, registered or situated abroad. The concept of outsourcing centres on David Ricardos theory of Comparative Advantage (cited in Mullins 2001) which states that even if a country could produce everything more efficiently than another country, it would still reap gains from specialising in what it was best at producing and trading with other nations. AIM OF BRIEFING The aim of this briefing is to brief the Directors of Name of our company the effect of outsourcing the HRM function and will encompass its influence on organisational performance and culture; and concurrently its impact on the UK Labour market and economy. The team will carry out a case-study on BT and will critically evaluate, analyse and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of HR outsourcing with the intention of reviewing the outcomes and where necessary suggest solutions where likely problems can be encountered. An analytical review will be carried out of the major HRM problems which can arise from organizational change and where required recommendations made. The team will use British Telecommunications as a case study to establish the impact of BPO. This briefing aims to provide a reasoned critique of existing literature based on surveys, textbooks, journals and official trade data. BACKGROUND British Telecommunications (BT) is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group Plc, a public limited company registered in England and Wales and listed on the London and New York Stock Exchanges . BT is one of the worlds leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. It principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services.Its main activities are web hosting, IT solutions, Internet services, telecommunications and broadband networks. In the fiscal year ended 31 March 2007 BT had a net turnover of  £9,499 billion. In the UK alone it has pool of 87,000 employees and 180,000 pensioners, whilst on a global scale it has 10,000 employees spread over the countries it operates within. For years, British Telecom ruled the UK market as a monopoly. It was the British Telecommunications Act of 1981 that brought this to an end and put in its place a duopoly, where BT competed with Mercury. The company was formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable Wireless, mainly to challenge the monopoly of British Telecom. The privatisation of British Telecom in 1984 opened the industry to full competition and in 1991, this effectively brought the duopoly share by BT and Mercury to an end. With the liberalisation and opening up of the phone market to global competition came renewed pressure on BT from the telecoms watchdog Oftel to open up more of its network to competitors and cut its prices. The pressures on BT became greater than ever. The stiff competition in the telecoms market, the huge cost of paying for third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences, pressure from the industry regulator Oftel to lower its prices and informed, discerning customers meant BT had to deliver even higher levels of quality and service, at competitive prices in order to stay afloat. All these pressures necessitated mindset change and BT was forced to review its business processes. In order to meet up with the arrival of new competitors and the quickening pace of technological change in the industry, speed of action and reaction became critical success factors. With the competition that flooded the UK market in the 1990s, BT started considering cost reduction that will maximise efficiency without compromising quality. One of the major steps taken was to outsource the transactional side of its human resources operation to Accenture HR Services, which in turn off-shored to its India branch. BT believed that the competitive edge for any global communications provider is human capital and to survive and thrive, it requires world-class human resource (HR) competencies and the processes for managing them. Youndt et al. (1996) highlights that a HR system focused on human capabilities is directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance. Huselid and Becker (1997) describe that a firms effectiveness is associated with HR capabilities and its attributes. ADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING / OFFSHORING Outsourcing enables an organisation to improve its focus on its core values allowing it to remain competitive on the market (Morello, 2003) . Prahalad and Hamel 1990 state that firms must concentrate on core competencies to gain competitive advantage. Through outsourcing specialist skills can be drawn out from a pool of expertise when and where needed whilst opportunities for enriched career development exist for the remaining staff. Organisations are able to turn over certain classes of risks to their suppliers, such as demand variability and capital investments. Unlike the buyer, the outsourcing buyer can spread these risks over multiple clients. Profitability can be achieved as outsourcing increases a businesss cashflow by creating cost reductions through cheap labour and reduced operational expenses i.e. office space, utility. Funds which would have been used for large capital investments can be released for other uses. Contracting out operational functions reduces the competition on capital as the outsourcing company provides the capital investment as part of its overheads. Companies can create an integrated market as it is a cost effective way of globalisation particularly when it selects the best available resources and labour. Figure [rumbi insert appendix] reflects the changes to operational costs which BT experienced when it outsourced. According to Som Mittal, former Managing Director of Compaq India has claimed that payroll processing to countries like India companies can achieve a 20-25% gain in productivity. Outsourcing can increase the service level given to clients. With offshoring an organisation has the ability to have a 24-hour a day workforce resulting in a more timely service which would not be possible if the organisation operated in once country. BT gained flexibility through outsourcing to Accenture as agility or quick response to business demands was made. Competitive advantage can be attained through cheaper prices. When the product prices cannot come down further operating in a highly skilled, low-wage labour area will be advantageous. (Frubel, Heinrichs and Kreye 1980) . As the product price falls consumers are willing to demand a larger amount of goods. The off-shored countries receive economical benefits. Nasscom Chairman Som Mittal remarked ‘Its a win win situation for countries which allow outsourcing and the countries which receive outsourcing (Ahmed 2004) . DISADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING/OFFSHORING: When outsourcing to a third party resentment can occur between permanent and contracted staff. Contract/temporary staff may fail to have a sense of belonging whilst permanent staff can remain aloof in order to protect their works hindering teamwork. Offshoring particularly on the outsourcing of work to India as the UK labour force believes that they are losing out on career opportunities. However the McKinsey Global Institute Report states that there are actually too many jobs and not enough people in the UK to fulfil them. Therefore fears of a widespread unemployment are unlikely and thus this resentment could be seen as unnecessary (Lander 2006) . The lack of direct communication between the organisation and the client can hinder the development of solid relationships and can result in the main organisation lacking control of the outsourced project. One of the key aspects of motivation is social interaction and self actualisation (Maslow cited in Mullins, 2001). Another perceived drawback of off-shoring is the decrease in levels of communication. When English is not the native language of the source area, poor command of the English Language leads to prominent resentment of offshored services (Ahmed,2004). Results of a survey carried out by the Nationwide building in 2005 reflected that 91% of UK adults would prefer their calls to be handled by UK-based call centres (Lander (2006). A major drawback is the expense of regaining a customer once lost, because it could cost up to 6 times more in marketing costs to gain a replacement. Cultural differences can be a disadvantage of offshoring i.e. Ryan Kinzy of K3 Group a large outsourcing company states that there are 3 months which are viewed as the most auspicious time for weddings in India, for example half the staff are out of the office. Ryan highlights that building up teamwork is a difficult challenge as employees may lack intuition due to their culture, Indian workers require a lot of direction. Their relationships are hierarchal, family and caste dependent and they have an educational system that emphasises routine learning over independent research. Outsourcing can prove expensive as payment of redundancy packages for the laid off staff can be a major drawback. As the number of companies offshoring to India rises, employee retention becomes a challenge due to the fact that as market competition increases, salaries are required to be competitive. Organisations will have to decide whether the cost-savings outweigh the revenue generated. Risks can be encountered due to the socio-economic conditions which can hinder the progression of operations i.e. maintaining trade risks. The chance of off-shore fraud also exist as the use of funds can be diverted. There is also the risk or data loss. BT faces the risk of fraud emanating from HR outsourcing as off-shore workers have full access to personnel details ranging from bank account numbers, home addresses and other personal details. Non-automated transactions and processing responsibilities enable off-shore workers to have access to highly confidential information. There is an increase in foreign organised crime groups who have targeted foreign off-shore enterprises to gain access data which they process. Organisiations can face compliance risks and their reputation being damaged due to negative publicity resulting from the third party being inconsistent in meeting ethical standards and internal policies. The organisation needs to carryout thorough audits to ensure control . Expertise levels need to be measured to ensure that required service levels of service are met. {Figure xxRumbi to appendix 2} reflects results of problems faced by several companies which have off-shored. The main problem met appears to be low control of performance and data. Offshoring has the limited disadvantage in that the core function of an organisation cannot be accomplished if passed onto an external source . A business which outsources a department still requires in-house technical experts to monitor activities (Greco 1997) Political infrastructure such as changes in government can affect can impact the outsourcing company. Shortly after the election of Sonia Ghandi stock markets plummeted on fears that her leftist allies would roll back fundamental economic reforms. Erratic power grids inexperienced officials and unmotivated employees can also prove to be a disadvantage. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE BTs management believes organisational culture is innovative with teams that are strategically aligned to BTs operations. Advances in technologies have been applied to benefit BT and its customers to improve processes. Culture can be an object which is manipulated to achieve productivity and organisational improvements, and change over time (Tran, 2008) . In this context, culture is the character of an organisation. However if culture is accepted as being â€Å"†¦.the basic, taken- for- granted assumptions and deep patterns of meaning shared by organisational participation and manifestations of these assumptions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ( Johnson, 2007) then in this respect culture can be difficult to change. In order to explain the content of cultural context in BT after HR outsourcing, the cultural web will be used. The table below shows the content of the organisational culture with HR outsourcing. Rumbi to appendix 1] According to the above table the organisational culture hinders collective learning in the organisation. Individuals see each other as rivals, rather than a partners. This paradigm creates various obstacles for learning within the organisation, that usually arise due to rivalry, power conflicts and absence of network communication channels (Mullins, 2001). The disadvantage of this power structure is explained by Mullins (2001) who claims that such approach decrease the effectiveness and efficiency of operations management, as participants are detached from the decision-making. BTs new organisational structure is bureaucratic, with the emphasis on standard procedures and operational routines. It might slow down the communication process, with the absence of feedback channels and unnecessary layers that might increase obstructions and cause various distortions in the communication process( Graham Bennet, 1998) . BT has placed its employees after revenues. The management has failed to take into account individual needs of each employee hence developing a coercive rather than participative approach. Within this approach people are being treated as liabilities rather than the core elements of the operations management process, where people become the primary determinant of the outcome quality (Armstrong, 2003) . The organisational culture implies for traditional type of performance appraisal system, which utilises various types of monetary techniques. Wright (2007) argued that the utilisation of monetary tools does not provide the development of a higher level of effective commitment or higher degree of intrinsic motivation and provides a blurred understanding of the relationship between their performance and corresponding appraisal. The communication component forms an important of the above mentioned changes. According to McGregor (1960, cited in Mullins, 2001) in order to get people to direct their efforts towards organisational objectives, management must tell them what to do, judge how well they are doing and reward or punish accordingly. There is also an informative and a motivational purpose. He claims that a clear and thorough description of individual duties and rights within the framework of the organisation may prevent the rise of unmet expectations. As it shows on the table, the communication in the company is of a top-down nature, without proper feedback. This type of communication scheme is good for conveyer-type organisations and not ideal for innovative market-led companies. CHANGE MANAGEMENT The new requirements for adaptation made it necessary for the company to undertake the reengineering of the whole business process, including both â€Å"hard â€Å"and â€Å"soft† elements. According to Senior (1997) â€Å"hard system† change implies â€Å" an attempt to use the benefits of a scientific method whilst recognising that in the real world of business where thing are happening fast, there may not be time to be as scientific as one would like†. In BTs case, â€Å"hard system† change referred to the introduction of new operations management systems, equipment and business facilities, designed to speed up existing operations and reduce the cost per a single transaction. It was designed to maximise the efficiency of every single operation within the business process. Senior (1997) indicates that â€Å"Soft System† changes imply for the change of the organisational culture. The main idea of this approach is listening to the organisation, good communication, developing a shared, vision, gaining real commitment to the change and the vision, education and training, and understanding the tools and techniques for the process. William et al.(1993) indicates that to facilitate effective adaptation of the employees to new working conditions, managers shall reduce restraining forces and reinforces driving forces. However, it shall be considered, that not all measures are equally effective. As Hetzbergs maintainance theory ( cited in Mullins, 2001) shows , the presence of certain factors may act as a powerful motivating factors, while the absence of other elements may produce slight dissatisfaction. At the same time strategic priorities shall reflect the current organisational aims. Under such conditions in order to improve the situation and meet objectives (create a better customer focus) the high involvement of senior managers, who acts as a link between operational and business levels of the organisation, is required. Senior managers shall act as major change agents. Taking the role of change agents, it is important for senior managers not to ignore employees natural resistance to new systems, but to create appropriate incentives to fasten the transactional process from resistance to commitment (Graham and Bennet, 1998). The ignorance of or resistance to changes will introduce different open conflicts, which will significantly worsen the organisation environment affecting its performance level and flexibility. This could result to failure to raise performance and attract or retain customers, which may lead to significant costs and even reduce the companys chances to survive and succeed in changing market conditions. According to Mintzberg Quinn and Ghoshall (1995) the overall rationale for any outsourcing activity is that outsourcing provides, greater economies of scale, flexibility, increase in levels of expertise, cost effectiveness, reduced costs and added value to any organisation. The rationale of BT outsourcing its HRM functions were to increase shareholder value, sustain progress and cope with the pace of change. Outsourcing of parts of the HR function has become more common. Lonsdale and Cox (1998) argue that outsourcing decisions can be classified under the following three headings: 1 outsourcing for short-term cost and headcount reductions; 2 core-competence-based outsourcing, where peripheral activities are passed to third parties and core activities are retained in-house; 3 iterative and entrepreneurial outsourcing, where periodic reviews of critical market activities are undertaken, with subsequent decision to retain or outsource. IMPACT ON UK LABOUR FORCE Human capital is emphasized as the most valuable asset of the 21st century business. The primary effects of outsourcing/offshoring on HR and Labour Relations are related to managing transition in HRM such as personnel changes, managing layoff, downsizing issues, and the costs/dynamics of actually managing an off-shore contract. The laying off of UK employees as a result of restructuring to effect the outsourcing contracts can have a negative impact on employees. Layoffs cause major morale problems among in-house ‘survivors and may lead to dissatisfaction and reduced delivery speed. Some UK companies experienced productivity dips and potential legal action from laid off employees resulting in costs of severance, retention bonuses and retraining being encountered. According to a survey by Deloitte and YouGov (2006) revealed that fear of job losses was prevalent in the UK with 82% of public perceiving offshoring as a threat . 1 in 3 people stated that UK companies should be forced to bring back jobs to the UK. Chief economist of the Work Foundation, Ian Brinkley commented ‘Fears have been stoked by claims that the Chinese and Indians are coming to get your lunch to describe the insecurity that offshoring has caused. With regards to knowledge transfer there is concern that some of the job experience is being exported. If low-level skill tasks are sent off-shore then so is the experience gained from performing those tasks. When the time comes to perform higher-level tasks where previous experience is mandatory, there is no alternative than to go off-shore because that is where the experience will available. In some instances company plans imply that higher-level tasks will remain performed on-shore, the lower-level tasks are performed miles away. The knowledge and experience of those ‘low-level jobs will be gone forever, and may impact the proper development of the ‘higher-level jobs. Forrester a US research group released a study that by 2015 Europe will have lost a collective number of 1.2 million jobs to off-shore locations increasing its reliance. Alan Blinder a US economist and former advisor to Bill Clinton has supported this thesis by stating that offshoring will lead to a ‘third Industrial Revolution. He views that off-shore is now a man-made comparative advantage and that workers will be forced to seek employment in personal services which remain non-tradable. There is a long-term impact on the types of jobs that people are training for, as well as the ‘transfer of knowledge relating to many job structures in the workplace such that there is a ‘domino effect. Steve Loy feels that these ‘outgoing tide of jobs could threaten fundamental technology research as well as jobs. The astute students will recognise the rapidly dwindling job opportunities in HRM and will choose other programs of study thus loss will be encountered in HR leading to a labour-force that has inadequate HRM knowledge to compete in a high knowledge based economy. The evaluation of the impact of off-shore is mainly based on estimations of collective data. Jobs most at risk are non-client facing and low knowledge content jobs those which use a lot of Information technology, creating outputs that can be transmitted via IT. An analysis by the CPRP concluded that 20% of non-client facing jobs are likely to be moved abroad. The potential is apportioned as a function of international trade and investment, the industrial structure of the economy, human capital, employment indicator, product market regulations indicator. Not all jobs created off-shore by UK companies automatically translates to job losses in the UK labour market. Employees are increasingly demanding services hence time difference plays a role in off-shore, offering them extended services. The lower price makes it possible for instance to offer services which would not be available otherwise i.e. 24 hr call centres. The information collated by the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) s hows that job loss due to offshoring is in fact very small. During the first quarter of 2007 ERM recorded 420 restructuring cases in Europe. They announced 137,762 job losses and 184,511 job gains. Only 5.5% of all jobs lost were due to offshoring activities. For the year 2005 the percentage of job losses due to offshoring was only 3.4% of the total job losses. To measure the extent of job loss due to restructuring we can use redundancy notification, the effects of offshoring does however vary with the country. In France, national Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies estimates in its 2007 report on the French economy that offshoring has been responsible for the destruction of 15,000 jobs per year between 2000 and 2003. This is to contrast with a job creation in the private sector of 200,000 per year . In the UK there is no significant decline as per the results of the LFS Redundancy Tables ‘Employment growth in the occupations considered susceptible to offshoring has been very strong. The redundancy levels for these occupations, although high relative to the whole economy, have been falling in the last four years. The overall employment rate for these occupations has also shown an increase showing the cost of moving low-skilled jobs abroad is either falling or positive job creation is highly prevalent in the IT enabled occup ations. This does not mean that jobs are not being off-shored, and it is entirely possible that in the absence of offshoring, employment in these areas might have been higher. The adverse impact is entirely triggered by much larger changes in domestic demand for such services, the UK in particular has been extremely successful in developing as a world leader in knowledge based international trade. Jobs created through the expansion of exports of services are likely to outweigh the contraction of jobs caused by import of services. According to a report by Amiti and Jin Wei (2005) job growth at divisional levels has not been negatively related to service outsourcing but has had a negative impact on the demand for unskilled labour. In the UK outsourcing has had no reflected effect on the labourforce. The Deloitte and Recruitment Employment Confederation Report states that both permanent and temporary staff billings continue to rise. National press recruitment advertising in the UK went down by 11.3% in July 2005 in both public and private sectors reflecting a positive direction in the labour market and no relevant changes in the economy. Outsourcing is increasing consultancy work in the United Kingdom hence is beneficial as it offers flexible working hours / days for UK employees. This is particularly favorable for women who are raising children as is allows them to earn a salary whilst at the same time having adequate time with their children. There is also the flexibility of home-working. Structural changes can occur in the economies of both the outsourced/sourcing companies and due to the debate on who is benefiting/losing racism can be allowed to rear its head. A report prepared for the Department of Trade Industry by Ovum (2006) concludes that even though the actual impacts of an increase in trade and the expansion of global sourcing have been quite modest to date, offshoring can change the skills structure of labour demand, increasing the vulnerability of low-skilled workers in particular. ECONOMIC IMPACT Concern over off-shoring has become a surrogate for wider issues about economic insecurity, said Work Foundation chief economist Ian Brinkley. An interesting corollary benefit of outsourcing is the benefit to the economy. Indias National Association of Software and Services Companies commissioned a report by Evaluserve that stated that for every $100 worth of work sent abroad by US companies, $130 to $145 will be reinvested in the US economy. Cost savings are said to create value in the UK economy. Ahead of monetary capital, knowledge economy has become a focal point in the policy of outsourcing and off-shore. Strategies have been devised i.e. the Lisbon Strategy centres to promote, research, innovation in the development of human capital. In the future, human capital is the only way that Europe can remain prosperous. The main beneficiaries in the UK are the educated high skilled workers and the losers will be semi/low skilled workers. The UK government needs to investment more in education to continue pushing towards a leading knowledge based economy to avoid vulnerability. It needs to investment in human capital and focus on domestic policy choices for the losers of rapid structural changes within the UK. As a result of off-shoring the UK government is losing funds which could possibly be raised by corporate and income tax. However, it has stated that it does not have plans in place as yet to prevent outsourcing. The Department of Trade Industry has stated ‘it is a commercial decision for companies to decide where to locate their business operations such as call centres. The absence of official statistics on off-shore outsourcing leads to speculation and there is also misinterpretation of indirect measures/evidence. The experience of an individual company may or may not select a trend in a specific sector but does not allow conclusions to be made on the economy as a whole. It is possible that the rise in rice prices caused by lower production could be a result of a shift by the working population in India from working in the agriculture moving to the services sector. A great deal of knowledge is tacit and therefore difficult to transfer. Its reproduction can be extremely costly and requires an environment in which it can be harnessed effectively. According to a recent World Bank publication India is at the bottom end ranking 98 out of 128 countries of an index that measures the ability to create, absorb and diffuse knowledge therefore its threat is minimal to the UK economy. The economy-wide measures such as a countrys balance of payments can assist us in understanding the patterns of cross border trade and establish the impact of offshoring. If the outsourcing of tasks by UK based companies to off-shore locations i.e. India is soaring then the UK should be importing more of these services from India. The CBI has stated that the UK companies have benefited from off-shore as they are now receiving improved work-force skills at a low rate making their enterprises more profitable. According to results obtained from the Office for National Statistics the redundancy rate for the three months to January 2008 was 4.4 per 1,000 employees, down 0.9 over the quarter and down 1.1 over the year. These figures on the redundancy rate reflect that though a large number of organizational services have been off-shored services this has not had a significant impact on the UK economy. The UK has emerged as a world leader in ‘knowledge services and between 1995 2005 exports of its services grew by over 100% compared to its exports of traditional service exports such as transport. India is ranked 6th for global ‘insourcing behind the US, UK, German France and the Netherlands who appear to be the top rec Challenges to Managing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Challenges to Managing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) One of the major challenges facing Human Resource Management is the introduction and management of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). In dyads or tryads produce a group briefing paper for either; Directors of a company or a specific trade union, of your choice, regarding the changes taking place in the UK labourmarket and economy regarding the impact of outsourcing and/or offshoring. INTRODUCTION The current economic climate is forcing organizations to explore tactics to remain competitive. According to the traditional ‘make or buy decision framework, the fundamental value proposition behind BPO is cost reduction. The recent economic downturn forced HR departments to do more with less. Many HR organisations were asked to increase the scope of their capabilities without increasing overall headcount. As a result, some organisations viewed outsourcing as a way of combating current economic situation and achieving competitive advantage. In spite of the recent economic slowdown, Gartner Group stated that, the worldwide business process outsourcing (BPO) market, is continuing to grow by approximately 9.5. Organisations are increasingly seeking standardization as part of a re-emphasis on strategic business initiatives. They realise that they need to standardize HR processes and policies as a first step in their HR transformation. Business process outsourcing of certain functions is becoming an increasingly popular way to improve basic services while allowing HR professionals time to focus on issues vital to the businesss strategic initiatives, instead of being burdened with HR administration. Chaffey (2003) defines BPO as â€Å"the contracting out of specified services to a third party with a controlled, flexible relationship†. Lee (2002) refers to BPO as the ‘outsourcing of different managerial and operational functions. Specifically in HR, BPO is designed to ensure that a companys HR system is supported by the latest management information systems, with self-access and HR data warehousing options. The Business Issues (1995) further views BPO as ‘the delegation of one or more business processes to an external provider, who then owns, manages and administers the selected processes based on defined and measurable performance metric. The CIPD defines off-shore as ‘the process of outsourcing business activities or services overseas, as a direct or indirect employer. Off-shore does not always involve the services of an external provider . According to the Oxford Dictionary it means: ‘made, registered or situated abroad. The concept of outsourcing centres on David Ricardos theory of Comparative Advantage (cited in Mullins 2001) which states that even if a country could produce everything more efficiently than another country, it would still reap gains from specialising in what it was best at producing and trading with other nations. AIM OF BRIEFING The aim of this briefing is to brief the Directors of Name of our company the effect of outsourcing the HRM function and will encompass its influence on organisational performance and culture; and concurrently its impact on the UK Labour market and economy. The team will carry out a case-study on BT and will critically evaluate, analyse and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of HR outsourcing with the intention of reviewing the outcomes and where necessary suggest solutions where likely problems can be encountered. An analytical review will be carried out of the major HRM problems which can arise from organizational change and where required recommendations made. The team will use British Telecommunications as a case study to establish the impact of BPO. This briefing aims to provide a reasoned critique of existing literature based on surveys, textbooks, journals and official trade data. BACKGROUND British Telecommunications (BT) is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group Plc, a public limited company registered in England and Wales and listed on the London and New York Stock Exchanges . BT is one of the worlds leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. It principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services.Its main activities are web hosting, IT solutions, Internet services, telecommunications and broadband networks. In the fiscal year ended 31 March 2007 BT had a net turnover of  £9,499 billion. In the UK alone it has pool of 87,000 employees and 180,000 pensioners, whilst on a global scale it has 10,000 employees spread over the countries it operates within. For years, British Telecom ruled the UK market as a monopoly. It was the British Telecommunications Act of 1981 that brought this to an end and put in its place a duopoly, where BT competed with Mercury. The company was formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable Wireless, mainly to challenge the monopoly of British Telecom. The privatisation of British Telecom in 1984 opened the industry to full competition and in 1991, this effectively brought the duopoly share by BT and Mercury to an end. With the liberalisation and opening up of the phone market to global competition came renewed pressure on BT from the telecoms watchdog Oftel to open up more of its network to competitors and cut its prices. The pressures on BT became greater than ever. The stiff competition in the telecoms market, the huge cost of paying for third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences, pressure from the industry regulator Oftel to lower its prices and informed, discerning customers meant BT had to deliver even higher levels of quality and service, at competitive prices in order to stay afloat. All these pressures necessitated mindset change and BT was forced to review its business processes. In order to meet up with the arrival of new competitors and the quickening pace of technological change in the industry, speed of action and reaction became critical success factors. With the competition that flooded the UK market in the 1990s, BT started considering cost reduction that will maximise efficiency without compromising quality. One of the major steps taken was to outsource the transactional side of its human resources operation to Accenture HR Services, which in turn off-shored to its India branch. BT believed that the competitive edge for any global communications provider is human capital and to survive and thrive, it requires world-class human resource (HR) competencies and the processes for managing them. Youndt et al. (1996) highlights that a HR system focused on human capabilities is directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance. Huselid and Becker (1997) describe that a firms effectiveness is associated with HR capabilities and its attributes. ADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING / OFFSHORING Outsourcing enables an organisation to improve its focus on its core values allowing it to remain competitive on the market (Morello, 2003) . Prahalad and Hamel 1990 state that firms must concentrate on core competencies to gain competitive advantage. Through outsourcing specialist skills can be drawn out from a pool of expertise when and where needed whilst opportunities for enriched career development exist for the remaining staff. Organisations are able to turn over certain classes of risks to their suppliers, such as demand variability and capital investments. Unlike the buyer, the outsourcing buyer can spread these risks over multiple clients. Profitability can be achieved as outsourcing increases a businesss cashflow by creating cost reductions through cheap labour and reduced operational expenses i.e. office space, utility. Funds which would have been used for large capital investments can be released for other uses. Contracting out operational functions reduces the competition on capital as the outsourcing company provides the capital investment as part of its overheads. Companies can create an integrated market as it is a cost effective way of globalisation particularly when it selects the best available resources and labour. Figure [rumbi insert appendix] reflects the changes to operational costs which BT experienced when it outsourced. According to Som Mittal, former Managing Director of Compaq India has claimed that payroll processing to countries like India companies can achieve a 20-25% gain in productivity. Outsourcing can increase the service level given to clients. With offshoring an organisation has the ability to have a 24-hour a day workforce resulting in a more timely service which would not be possible if the organisation operated in once country. BT gained flexibility through outsourcing to Accenture as agility or quick response to business demands was made. Competitive advantage can be attained through cheaper prices. When the product prices cannot come down further operating in a highly skilled, low-wage labour area will be advantageous. (Frubel, Heinrichs and Kreye 1980) . As the product price falls consumers are willing to demand a larger amount of goods. The off-shored countries receive economical benefits. Nasscom Chairman Som Mittal remarked ‘Its a win win situation for countries which allow outsourcing and the countries which receive outsourcing (Ahmed 2004) . DISADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING/OFFSHORING: When outsourcing to a third party resentment can occur between permanent and contracted staff. Contract/temporary staff may fail to have a sense of belonging whilst permanent staff can remain aloof in order to protect their works hindering teamwork. Offshoring particularly on the outsourcing of work to India as the UK labour force believes that they are losing out on career opportunities. However the McKinsey Global Institute Report states that there are actually too many jobs and not enough people in the UK to fulfil them. Therefore fears of a widespread unemployment are unlikely and thus this resentment could be seen as unnecessary (Lander 2006) . The lack of direct communication between the organisation and the client can hinder the development of solid relationships and can result in the main organisation lacking control of the outsourced project. One of the key aspects of motivation is social interaction and self actualisation (Maslow cited in Mullins, 2001). Another perceived drawback of off-shoring is the decrease in levels of communication. When English is not the native language of the source area, poor command of the English Language leads to prominent resentment of offshored services (Ahmed,2004). Results of a survey carried out by the Nationwide building in 2005 reflected that 91% of UK adults would prefer their calls to be handled by UK-based call centres (Lander (2006). A major drawback is the expense of regaining a customer once lost, because it could cost up to 6 times more in marketing costs to gain a replacement. Cultural differences can be a disadvantage of offshoring i.e. Ryan Kinzy of K3 Group a large outsourcing company states that there are 3 months which are viewed as the most auspicious time for weddings in India, for example half the staff are out of the office. Ryan highlights that building up teamwork is a difficult challenge as employees may lack intuition due to their culture, Indian workers require a lot of direction. Their relationships are hierarchal, family and caste dependent and they have an educational system that emphasises routine learning over independent research. Outsourcing can prove expensive as payment of redundancy packages for the laid off staff can be a major drawback. As the number of companies offshoring to India rises, employee retention becomes a challenge due to the fact that as market competition increases, salaries are required to be competitive. Organisations will have to decide whether the cost-savings outweigh the revenue generated. Risks can be encountered due to the socio-economic conditions which can hinder the progression of operations i.e. maintaining trade risks. The chance of off-shore fraud also exist as the use of funds can be diverted. There is also the risk or data loss. BT faces the risk of fraud emanating from HR outsourcing as off-shore workers have full access to personnel details ranging from bank account numbers, home addresses and other personal details. Non-automated transactions and processing responsibilities enable off-shore workers to have access to highly confidential information. There is an increase in foreign organised crime groups who have targeted foreign off-shore enterprises to gain access data which they process. Organisiations can face compliance risks and their reputation being damaged due to negative publicity resulting from the third party being inconsistent in meeting ethical standards and internal policies. The organisation needs to carryout thorough audits to ensure control . Expertise levels need to be measured to ensure that required service levels of service are met. {Figure xxRumbi to appendix 2} reflects results of problems faced by several companies which have off-shored. The main problem met appears to be low control of performance and data. Offshoring has the limited disadvantage in that the core function of an organisation cannot be accomplished if passed onto an external source . A business which outsources a department still requires in-house technical experts to monitor activities (Greco 1997) Political infrastructure such as changes in government can affect can impact the outsourcing company. Shortly after the election of Sonia Ghandi stock markets plummeted on fears that her leftist allies would roll back fundamental economic reforms. Erratic power grids inexperienced officials and unmotivated employees can also prove to be a disadvantage. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE BTs management believes organisational culture is innovative with teams that are strategically aligned to BTs operations. Advances in technologies have been applied to benefit BT and its customers to improve processes. Culture can be an object which is manipulated to achieve productivity and organisational improvements, and change over time (Tran, 2008) . In this context, culture is the character of an organisation. However if culture is accepted as being â€Å"†¦.the basic, taken- for- granted assumptions and deep patterns of meaning shared by organisational participation and manifestations of these assumptions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ( Johnson, 2007) then in this respect culture can be difficult to change. In order to explain the content of cultural context in BT after HR outsourcing, the cultural web will be used. The table below shows the content of the organisational culture with HR outsourcing. Rumbi to appendix 1] According to the above table the organisational culture hinders collective learning in the organisation. Individuals see each other as rivals, rather than a partners. This paradigm creates various obstacles for learning within the organisation, that usually arise due to rivalry, power conflicts and absence of network communication channels (Mullins, 2001). The disadvantage of this power structure is explained by Mullins (2001) who claims that such approach decrease the effectiveness and efficiency of operations management, as participants are detached from the decision-making. BTs new organisational structure is bureaucratic, with the emphasis on standard procedures and operational routines. It might slow down the communication process, with the absence of feedback channels and unnecessary layers that might increase obstructions and cause various distortions in the communication process( Graham Bennet, 1998) . BT has placed its employees after revenues. The management has failed to take into account individual needs of each employee hence developing a coercive rather than participative approach. Within this approach people are being treated as liabilities rather than the core elements of the operations management process, where people become the primary determinant of the outcome quality (Armstrong, 2003) . The organisational culture implies for traditional type of performance appraisal system, which utilises various types of monetary techniques. Wright (2007) argued that the utilisation of monetary tools does not provide the development of a higher level of effective commitment or higher degree of intrinsic motivation and provides a blurred understanding of the relationship between their performance and corresponding appraisal. The communication component forms an important of the above mentioned changes. According to McGregor (1960, cited in Mullins, 2001) in order to get people to direct their efforts towards organisational objectives, management must tell them what to do, judge how well they are doing and reward or punish accordingly. There is also an informative and a motivational purpose. He claims that a clear and thorough description of individual duties and rights within the framework of the organisation may prevent the rise of unmet expectations. As it shows on the table, the communication in the company is of a top-down nature, without proper feedback. This type of communication scheme is good for conveyer-type organisations and not ideal for innovative market-led companies. CHANGE MANAGEMENT The new requirements for adaptation made it necessary for the company to undertake the reengineering of the whole business process, including both â€Å"hard â€Å"and â€Å"soft† elements. According to Senior (1997) â€Å"hard system† change implies â€Å" an attempt to use the benefits of a scientific method whilst recognising that in the real world of business where thing are happening fast, there may not be time to be as scientific as one would like†. In BTs case, â€Å"hard system† change referred to the introduction of new operations management systems, equipment and business facilities, designed to speed up existing operations and reduce the cost per a single transaction. It was designed to maximise the efficiency of every single operation within the business process. Senior (1997) indicates that â€Å"Soft System† changes imply for the change of the organisational culture. The main idea of this approach is listening to the organisation, good communication, developing a shared, vision, gaining real commitment to the change and the vision, education and training, and understanding the tools and techniques for the process. William et al.(1993) indicates that to facilitate effective adaptation of the employees to new working conditions, managers shall reduce restraining forces and reinforces driving forces. However, it shall be considered, that not all measures are equally effective. As Hetzbergs maintainance theory ( cited in Mullins, 2001) shows , the presence of certain factors may act as a powerful motivating factors, while the absence of other elements may produce slight dissatisfaction. At the same time strategic priorities shall reflect the current organisational aims. Under such conditions in order to improve the situation and meet objectives (create a better customer focus) the high involvement of senior managers, who acts as a link between operational and business levels of the organisation, is required. Senior managers shall act as major change agents. Taking the role of change agents, it is important for senior managers not to ignore employees natural resistance to new systems, but to create appropriate incentives to fasten the transactional process from resistance to commitment (Graham and Bennet, 1998). The ignorance of or resistance to changes will introduce different open conflicts, which will significantly worsen the organisation environment affecting its performance level and flexibility. This could result to failure to raise performance and attract or retain customers, which may lead to significant costs and even reduce the companys chances to survive and succeed in changing market conditions. According to Mintzberg Quinn and Ghoshall (1995) the overall rationale for any outsourcing activity is that outsourcing provides, greater economies of scale, flexibility, increase in levels of expertise, cost effectiveness, reduced costs and added value to any organisation. The rationale of BT outsourcing its HRM functions were to increase shareholder value, sustain progress and cope with the pace of change. Outsourcing of parts of the HR function has become more common. Lonsdale and Cox (1998) argue that outsourcing decisions can be classified under the following three headings: 1 outsourcing for short-term cost and headcount reductions; 2 core-competence-based outsourcing, where peripheral activities are passed to third parties and core activities are retained in-house; 3 iterative and entrepreneurial outsourcing, where periodic reviews of critical market activities are undertaken, with subsequent decision to retain or outsource. IMPACT ON UK LABOUR FORCE Human capital is emphasized as the most valuable asset of the 21st century business. The primary effects of outsourcing/offshoring on HR and Labour Relations are related to managing transition in HRM such as personnel changes, managing layoff, downsizing issues, and the costs/dynamics of actually managing an off-shore contract. The laying off of UK employees as a result of restructuring to effect the outsourcing contracts can have a negative impact on employees. Layoffs cause major morale problems among in-house ‘survivors and may lead to dissatisfaction and reduced delivery speed. Some UK companies experienced productivity dips and potential legal action from laid off employees resulting in costs of severance, retention bonuses and retraining being encountered. According to a survey by Deloitte and YouGov (2006) revealed that fear of job losses was prevalent in the UK with 82% of public perceiving offshoring as a threat . 1 in 3 people stated that UK companies should be forced to bring back jobs to the UK. Chief economist of the Work Foundation, Ian Brinkley commented ‘Fears have been stoked by claims that the Chinese and Indians are coming to get your lunch to describe the insecurity that offshoring has caused. With regards to knowledge transfer there is concern that some of the job experience is being exported. If low-level skill tasks are sent off-shore then so is the experience gained from performing those tasks. When the time comes to perform higher-level tasks where previous experience is mandatory, there is no alternative than to go off-shore because that is where the experience will available. In some instances company plans imply that higher-level tasks will remain performed on-shore, the lower-level tasks are performed miles away. The knowledge and experience of those ‘low-level jobs will be gone forever, and may impact the proper development of the ‘higher-level jobs. Forrester a US research group released a study that by 2015 Europe will have lost a collective number of 1.2 million jobs to off-shore locations increasing its reliance. Alan Blinder a US economist and former advisor to Bill Clinton has supported this thesis by stating that offshoring will lead to a ‘third Industrial Revolution. He views that off-shore is now a man-made comparative advantage and that workers will be forced to seek employment in personal services which remain non-tradable. There is a long-term impact on the types of jobs that people are training for, as well as the ‘transfer of knowledge relating to many job structures in the workplace such that there is a ‘domino effect. Steve Loy feels that these ‘outgoing tide of jobs could threaten fundamental technology research as well as jobs. The astute students will recognise the rapidly dwindling job opportunities in HRM and will choose other programs of study thus loss will be encountered in HR leading to a labour-force that has inadequate HRM knowledge to compete in a high knowledge based economy. The evaluation of the impact of off-shore is mainly based on estimations of collective data. Jobs most at risk are non-client facing and low knowledge content jobs those which use a lot of Information technology, creating outputs that can be transmitted via IT. An analysis by the CPRP concluded that 20% of non-client facing jobs are likely to be moved abroad. The potential is apportioned as a function of international trade and investment, the industrial structure of the economy, human capital, employment indicator, product market regulations indicator. Not all jobs created off-shore by UK companies automatically translates to job losses in the UK labour market. Employees are increasingly demanding services hence time difference plays a role in off-shore, offering them extended services. The lower price makes it possible for instance to offer services which would not be available otherwise i.e. 24 hr call centres. The information collated by the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) s hows that job loss due to offshoring is in fact very small. During the first quarter of 2007 ERM recorded 420 restructuring cases in Europe. They announced 137,762 job losses and 184,511 job gains. Only 5.5% of all jobs lost were due to offshoring activities. For the year 2005 the percentage of job losses due to offshoring was only 3.4% of the total job losses. To measure the extent of job loss due to restructuring we can use redundancy notification, the effects of offshoring does however vary with the country. In France, national Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies estimates in its 2007 report on the French economy that offshoring has been responsible for the destruction of 15,000 jobs per year between 2000 and 2003. This is to contrast with a job creation in the private sector of 200,000 per year . In the UK there is no significant decline as per the results of the LFS Redundancy Tables ‘Employment growth in the occupations considered susceptible to offshoring has been very strong. The redundancy levels for these occupations, although high relative to the whole economy, have been falling in the last four years. The overall employment rate for these occupations has also shown an increase showing the cost of moving low-skilled jobs abroad is either falling or positive job creation is highly prevalent in the IT enabled occup ations. This does not mean that jobs are not being off-shored, and it is entirely possible that in the absence of offshoring, employment in these areas might have been higher. The adverse impact is entirely triggered by much larger changes in domestic demand for such services, the UK in particular has been extremely successful in developing as a world leader in knowledge based international trade. Jobs created through the expansion of exports of services are likely to outweigh the contraction of jobs caused by import of services. According to a report by Amiti and Jin Wei (2005) job growth at divisional levels has not been negatively related to service outsourcing but has had a negative impact on the demand for unskilled labour. In the UK outsourcing has had no reflected effect on the labourforce. The Deloitte and Recruitment Employment Confederation Report states that both permanent and temporary staff billings continue to rise. National press recruitment advertising in the UK went down by 11.3% in July 2005 in both public and private sectors reflecting a positive direction in the labour market and no relevant changes in the economy. Outsourcing is increasing consultancy work in the United Kingdom hence is beneficial as it offers flexible working hours / days for UK employees. This is particularly favorable for women who are raising children as is allows them to earn a salary whilst at the same time having adequate time with their children. There is also the flexibility of home-working. Structural changes can occur in the economies of both the outsourced/sourcing companies and due to the debate on who is benefiting/losing racism can be allowed to rear its head. A report prepared for the Department of Trade Industry by Ovum (2006) concludes that even though the actual impacts of an increase in trade and the expansion of global sourcing have been quite modest to date, offshoring can change the skills structure of labour demand, increasing the vulnerability of low-skilled workers in particular. ECONOMIC IMPACT Concern over off-shoring has become a surrogate for wider issues about economic insecurity, said Work Foundation chief economist Ian Brinkley. An interesting corollary benefit of outsourcing is the benefit to the economy. Indias National Association of Software and Services Companies commissioned a report by Evaluserve that stated that for every $100 worth of work sent abroad by US companies, $130 to $145 will be reinvested in the US economy. Cost savings are said to create value in the UK economy. Ahead of monetary capital, knowledge economy has become a focal point in the policy of outsourcing and off-shore. Strategies have been devised i.e. the Lisbon Strategy centres to promote, research, innovation in the development of human capital. In the future, human capital is the only way that Europe can remain prosperous. The main beneficiaries in the UK are the educated high skilled workers and the losers will be semi/low skilled workers. The UK government needs to investment more in education to continue pushing towards a leading knowledge based economy to avoid vulnerability. It needs to investment in human capital and focus on domestic policy choices for the losers of rapid structural changes within the UK. As a result of off-shoring the UK government is losing funds which could possibly be raised by corporate and income tax. However, it has stated that it does not have plans in place as yet to prevent outsourcing. The Department of Trade Industry has stated ‘it is a commercial decision for companies to decide where to locate their business operations such as call centres. The absence of official statistics on off-shore outsourcing leads to speculation and there is also misinterpretation of indirect measures/evidence. The experience of an individual company may or may not select a trend in a specific sector but does not allow conclusions to be made on the economy as a whole. It is possible that the rise in rice prices caused by lower production could be a result of a shift by the working population in India from working in the agriculture moving to the services sector. A great deal of knowledge is tacit and therefore difficult to transfer. Its reproduction can be extremely costly and requires an environment in which it can be harnessed effectively. According to a recent World Bank publication India is at the bottom end ranking 98 out of 128 countries of an index that measures the ability to create, absorb and diffuse knowledge therefore its threat is minimal to the UK economy. The economy-wide measures such as a countrys balance of payments can assist us in understanding the patterns of cross border trade and establish the impact of offshoring. If the outsourcing of tasks by UK based companies to off-shore locations i.e. India is soaring then the UK should be importing more of these services from India. The CBI has stated that the UK companies have benefited from off-shore as they are now receiving improved work-force skills at a low rate making their enterprises more profitable. According to results obtained from the Office for National Statistics the redundancy rate for the three months to January 2008 was 4.4 per 1,000 employees, down 0.9 over the quarter and down 1.1 over the year. These figures on the redundancy rate reflect that though a large number of organizational services have been off-shored services this has not had a significant impact on the UK economy. The UK has emerged as a world leader in ‘knowledge services and between 1995 2005 exports of its services grew by over 100% compared to its exports of traditional service exports such as transport. India is ranked 6th for global ‘insourcing behind the US, UK, German France and the Netherlands who appear to be the top rec

heroarms Henry’s Personal Code in A Farewell to Arms :: Farewell Arms Essays

Henry’s Personal Code in A Farewell to Arms    A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway is a story of Love, war and one Man’s pursuit of finding his own personal code in order to make a separate peace. Fredrick Henry is an American who serves as a lieutenant in the Italian army to a group of ambulance drivers. Hemingway portrays Frederick as a lost man searching for order and value in his life. Catherine Barkley is an English volunteer nurse who serves in Italy. She is considered very experienced when it comes to love and loss since she has already been   confronted with the death of a loved one when her fiancà © was killed earlier in the war. Their love affair must survive the obstacles of World War. The background of war-torn Italy adds to the tragedy of the love story. The war affects the emotions and values of each character. The love between Catherine and Frederick must outlast long separations, life-threatening wartime situations, and the uncertainty of each other's whereabouts or condition. This novel is a beautif ul love story of two people who need each other in a period of upheaval. At the start of the novel, Frederick is given a vacation to leave the war for a period of time in order to relax. He befriends a priest because he admires the fact that the priest lives his life by a set of values that give him an orderly lifestyle. He is told by the priest to go to Abruzzi, there in the mountains he can relax and forget about the worries of war. But Fredrick is hardheaded and listens to his friends and decides to go to Naples, there he   drinks and travels from one house of prostitution to another and yet he is   discontent because his life is very unsettled. This vacation was his free ticket out of the war but Fredrick does not realize nor understand how bad this war is. He decides to return due to his pride and patriotism. A close friend of Fredrick, Rinaldi is also a Lt. In the army. Together they share stories and interests. Rinaldi is a strong man, one who understands what war is about. Through numerous attempts of lessons given to Fredrick, he still doesn’t understand. Rinaldi constantly calls Fredrick â€Å"baby† which is an accurate description of him. He is still a child and is not aware of the true meaning of war, love and life.

Has the Impact of 9/11 Been Baneful or Beneficial?

2013-02-0108 Bilal Syed Critical Issues in Pakistan’s foreign policy 13th October 2012 Has the impact of 9/11 been baneful or beneficial to Pakistan’s security environment? Analyze. The second year of the new millennium was witness to an event which might have perhaps altered the geo-political structure of the world and gave birth to a whole new phenomenon, one, which has been directing foreign policy affairs of the world for almost a decade now.This event comprised the four terrorist attacks on United States soil, on September the eleventh, 2001, in which hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the world trade centre, the Pentagon and one fell short of its target in Shanksfield Pennsylvania. These events gave birth to the â€Å"war on terror†, which has not only affected the United States but a lot of other countries as well, especially Pakistan, who had a prominent geo strategic location in the vicinity of the battle grounds for this war. This war has h ad both positive and negative effects on the security and general stability of Pakistan.This essay will try to discern these effects and establish whether in the long run, the impact of 9/11 has been baneful or beneficial to Pakistan’s security environment. Firstly, the positive impacts of the war on terror will be considered. Since the perpetrators of the attacks were considered to be hiding in Afghanistan, all the surrounding countries in the region became important strategic partners of the United States and its allies. Pakistan, perhaps the most influential since it had a long history of dealing with the Taliban and had in depth knowledge of the terrain and surrounding area.Chairperson, Department of Political Science, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Professor Razia Musarrat claims that â€Å"Pakistan’s geographical location, its nearness with Afghanistan, its close relations with the Taliban regime, its deep knowledge of the rugged terrain of Afghanistan, a nd its history of Cold War alliance made Pakistan obviously the most important strategic asset for the United States. † Pakistan offered its support to the United States including airbases and military intelligence to help eradicate the terrorist elements present in Afghanistan. As a result over the years Pakistan has received military ssistance and aid from the United States, helping in brining military and technological advancements to the country. It is important to note that at the time of these attacks, Pakistan was in isolation at the world stage due to sanctions imposed on it, after it carried out nuclear tests in 1998. India too was facing the same sanctions, but having a stronger economy meant that it managed to survive this dry spell comparatively more easily than Pakistan. Pakistan on the other hand was suffering from the consequences of these sanctions and the war on terror surprisingly came as a relief.Pakistan has been given economic assistance of almost ten bill ion dollars over a period of ten years as its ties with the waste slowly improved. This aid rescued its stagnant economy and ensured that Pakistan’s economic woes were overcome, a change, very welcome for the Musharraf regime. Thirdly, post 9/11, South Asia became the centre of the World’s attention. A senior political analyst notes, that â€Å"with the presence of two nuclear power friends, and an Al-Qaeda-strewn Afghanistan, South Asia assumed a strategic status in American eyes. The rebirth of South Asia prominence was not limited to America, rather for whole the world.There was a long chain of Heads of States, and highest officials visiting the region every alternative day were evidence of long term strategic interests of the US in the region. † This new found attention allowed internationally isolated Pakistan and India back into the main stream of world politics and bolstered the image of the country in the eyes of the world, as a nation that was against t errorism. A somewhat debateable positive outcome, but one that could be true is that this war against terrorism helped to control the spread of militancy in the country.Former foreign minister of Pakistan, Mr Abdul Sattar argues that, â€Å"another significant benefit of the post-9/11 policy has been containment of the baneful influence of extremists and militants. † Had the war on terror not been targeted against organizations like Al-Qaeda, they might have consolidated their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continued to follow their own agenda’s. The post 9/11 policy helped to contain this spread of ideology but unfortunately could not eliminate it from society completely. Another major impact of the war on terror, it can be argued, is that it led to stability in the region.The main cause of instability in the region over the years has been hostile Pakistan, India relations. Three major wars and countless other incidents aimed at undermining the other countr y, have soured an already messy divorce. The acquisition of nuclear warheads by both states coupled with the Kashmir issue, have caused this region to become highly volatile. This was also the case post 9/11, when after an attack on the Indian parliament in December of 2001, India mobilized its military forces on a large scale against Pakistan.Pakistan too responded and both armies stood face to face with each other opposite the international borders. There was a very serious threat of an outbreak of nuclear war and alarm bells started ringing in the international arena. Eventually it was the presence of the United States in the region which helped diffuse the highly volatile situation. The threat of nuclear war, coupled with the fear that a Pakistan-India war would be harmful to the war on terror, meant that the United Sates put in a full hearted effort to ease tensions.This was eventually the case and stability was brought to the region again. These are some of the positive outcom es to the war on terror for Pakistan. But there have been dreadful negative consequences for the country as well. Firstly, just like it can be argued that just like US presence brought stability to the region; it also brought a lot of instability. This is evident from the impact of the war on Afghanistan, where Prof. Dr. Razia Musarrat argues, that the â€Å"Taliban government had been successful to restore a kind of stability in Afghanistan for the first time after a very long period of unrest.America, by ripping to pieces the Taliban regime, once again pushed Afghanistan into a new phase of insurgency and civil war. This unstable and troubled situation will not remain confined within the Afghan borders; rather will soon spread into the neighbouring states. We can see for ourselves that the unrest and turbulence in Afghanistan has leaked out into Pakistan. † This has been a cause of great concern for Pakistan, because the Afghani brand of militancy and extremism has seeped i n the country and has started rearing its ugly head against the state.Secondly, Pakistan had friendly relations with the Taliban prior to the American offensive. So much so that they were considered supporters of the Taliban, a notion which caused concern to other surrounding countries like India. But after the war, the northern alliance came into power and the resulting Afghan government did not have a favourable view of Pakistan. India on the other hand took advantage of this and firmly established itself in Afghanistan. It became the largest regional donor of aid to Afghanistan in the post war period.Strong relations with Afghanistan could very beneficial for Indian foreign policy since Afghanistan shares such a large border with Pakistan. Having strong relations with a hostile neighbour’s neighbour is a strategically strong move and puts Pakistan in a delicate situation. Also, India could have easy access to Central Asia via Afghanistan, which could give it access to thei r abundant natural resources and open other cheaper trading avenues. India would not have to be dependent on Pakistan for access to Central Asia, which might come across as another blow to Pakistan.Another cause of concern for Pakistan, at the political level, was constant Indian pressure that Pakistan provided a safe haven for terrorists. India took advantage of American presence in the region and looked at this as an opportunity to further one of its foreign policy goals, that is, to ensure that Pakistan was strongly implicated in harbouring terrorists under its roof. The case for this argument was of course Pakistan’s close relations with the Taliban and the fact that Pakistan was a big supporter of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.Secondly India had claimed time and again that Pakistan uses terrorist groups to promote their foreign policy agenda’s. They claimed that the Pakistani intelligence cell, the ISI, with the blessings of the government equipped, trained an d infiltrated militants into Kashmir. This was a very serious claim considering Pakistan was a nuclear state which endorsed state sponsored terrorism. The Indian government hoped that the United States would finally understand India’s point of view and become an ally of India against Pakistan’s state-sponsored terrorism. Indian security agencies hope that the terrorist attack in New York on Tuesday will see the United States put pressure on Pakistan to extradite Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Chhota Shakeel and others, who masterminded the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in March 1993. † Domestically, Pakistan has had to pay a very heavy price for the part it has played in the war. There has been a huge increase in the number of terrorist and militant organizations in the country after the war.Following the events of the 2001-2002 standoff between Pakistan and India, Musharraf, pledged to crack down on the militant organizations working in the country. They were obvio usly not willing to go easily and put up resistance by targeting government and security establishments. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed as result of suicide attacks and the whole country was gripped in a constant state of fear. The law and order situation got so wore that the president himself narrowly survived two bold attempts on his life.The backlash was the worst in the north western region, for the people divided by international borders shared the same strong bonds of ethnicity and culture. Taking cue from the Taliban of Afghanistan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan became an active anti-state terrorist organization comprised of mostly Pashtoons, just like the Afghani Taliban. It is responsible for carrying out hundreds of terrorist attacks on state owned institutions and civilians as well. They were perhaps behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and one of the biggest causes for instability in the Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa province.The situation became too bad to be i gnored and the Pakistan military launched a full scale military operation in which thousands of troops were involved to deal with this menace. Even though millions of rupees and a lot of soldiers were lost in the operation, the operation was unsuccessful and the Taliban continue living in the mountains of the Waziristan region, albeit as outlaws and vigilantes. This religious extremist ideology, unfortunately, is not only confined to Pakistan’s western provinces. This menace has slowly started spreading in the comparatively more peaceful Punjab and Sindh provinces as well.The society is slowly becoming more polarised on the issue of whether Pakistan should keep on fighting America’s war. Others however believe this is a war for Pakistan’s own survival. Whatever the case is, the country has been gripped in a constant state of fear and gloom. Notions of national cohesiveness and unity are fast withering away as the Pashtoon and Baloch communities claim they have f elt the brunt of the war on terror, a notion that is true considering the drone attacks that are carried out in their homelands.A 2012 report on the security situation of 2011 in Pakistan puts the matter in better perspective. â€Å"While  FATA  continued to reel under the impact of terrorism, there was no respite from terror in  KP  as well. Sindh continued to experience a more  centralized pattern  of violence in and around Karachi. However, the extension of the influence of armed extremist political, ethnic, sectarian and criminal groups in the city, and the chances of violence spreading to other areas of the Province, could not be ruled out. † Overall the costs of this war on terror have been staggering for Pakistan.The costs, in terms of monetary terms, political terms, social terms and most importantly loss of life are so huge, that Pakistan is still reeling from the blow. The report mentioned earlier, gives an idea regarding the losses sustained by Pakistan . â€Å"Pakistan’s continuing engagement with the production and export of Islamist extremism and terrorism continued to produce a bloody blowback at home, with a total of at least 6,142 persons, including of 2,797 militants, 2,580 civilians and 765 Security Forces (SFs) personnel killed in 2011.However, even this worrying total constituted an improvement of 17. 75 per cent over the preceding year. 7,435 persons, including 5,170 militants, 1,796 civilians and 469 SF personnel, had been killed in 2010. † Secondly, the war has almost dried up foreign investment in Pakistan, as no one is willing to come here considering the prevailing security situation and the unstable political scenario.The economy is in shambles as a major chunk of the budget goes to the army and less and less is spent on the people. It is true that Pakistan is getting aid from outside, but it cannot just rely on aid to survive in the future. A major energy crisis has added to the woes of the country a nd caused great distress to the public. Anti American sentiments are now at an all time high and the country looks forward to the day it does not have to deal with these issues any more.As former foreign minister Abdul Sattar says, â€Å"So colossal have been the human and material ravages our country has suffered during the last decade that no sensitive citizen can but wish Pakistan had followed a different course, one that might have saved our country and people from the nightmare in which we are still trapped. † If the positive and negative outcomes of the post 9/11 policy are weighed against each other, it can be concluded that it has been overall more baneful than beneficial to the country.Yes, the policy allowed Pakistan to come back into the main stream of international politics and yes, it caused an influx of foreign aid into the country which rescued a stagnant economy, but at what cost? The material costs of thousands of dollars or the cost of human life, to which a value cannot be assigned, have been tremendous. The country is gripped by a war that is ravaging its socio-political fabric. The economy is once again in shambles and the country stands on the brink of bankruptcy.The more alarming thought is that, the war on terror is still not over and its consequences keep haunting the country. Once the coalition troops leave Afghanistan, the whole region will be locked in a geo-political struggle for supremacy and with major players like hostile India involved, the odds do not look good for Pakistan. Works Cited: Balakrishnan, S. â€Å"India Hopes US Will Now Pressurise Pak. †Ã‚  The Times Of India. N. p. , 2001. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. . â€Å"Pakistan Assessment 2012.   South Asia Terrorism Portal. N. p. , n. d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. . Musarrat, Prof. Dr. Razia. â€Å"US WAR ON TERRORISM AND ITS IMPACT ON SOUTH ASIA. † Thesis. University of the Punjab, n. d. Http://pu. edu. pk. University of the Punjab. Web. http://pu. edu. pk/images/ journal/pols/Currentissue-pdf/RAZIA. pdf Sattar, Abdul. â€Å"REVISIT TO POST-9/11 POLICY. †Ã‚  Criterion-Quarterly  7. 1 (2012): n. pag. Criterion-quarterly. com. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .

Compare and contrast Japan and European feudal systems

These upper CLC asses had a large class of commoners to rule over. They also both had similar ethics in the warrior class Like the Code of Conduct for the Knights and the Bushier for the Samurai. These â€Å"codes† were rules and guidelines that the warriors lived by that governed them socio politically, and ethically. Finally both systems had a strong military influence thanks t o a strong warrior class that led to many warring kingdoms within the civilizations.Also this Cree dated a strong defense system as constant attacks by enemy kingdoms threatened the lords r lull. They both built castles with curved walls to make attacks harder. These two feudalistic civilizations had differences in structure and ethics. The majority Y of difference between the two lies in the warrior class. Although they shared similar o verbal oleos In their respective systems they had many differences. One of which being there armor; knights had heavy metal armor that was sturdy but very hard to hau l around d.Samurai had leather armor with strips of iron infused into various spots of their nun form. Also Samurai led a more honorable lifestyle. Knights practiced chivalry but It paled In com parson to the Samurai way of life. Japanese warriors for starters committed suicide instead o admitting defeat or capture. Also they were above peasant people so they would not pillage villages or harm commoners. Japan held their warriors to a moral code that governed them to

The Meta

The Meta Introduction There are a number of research methodologies that can be used for carrying out an investigation. The type of methodology chosen for use depends on the nature of the topic or question to be covered in the research. These methodologies may either be quantitative or qualitative in nature. Meta-analysis is a method which involves the statistical arrangement of all existing and related studies on a given subject matter of interest.Advertising We will write a custom coursework sample on The Meta-Analysis Method specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This is usually with an aim of determining the collective findings of the particular investigations. The approach seeks to provide a comprehensive solution to major issues/concerns. The essay summarizes Chapter 3 of the book titled, School Leadership that Works from Research to Results. Research Methodology The chapter covers the primary research methodology that was used by the authors. Meta-analysis was the type used in this particular study. It is a technique that uses quantitative approaches during the synthesis of a study in a given domain. Well structured questionnaires were used where teachers were expected to give their perceptions of the principals leadership behaviors. The authors sought to investigate a very sensitive domain of leadership. They were interested in studying school leadership as practiced by principles. The study involved an analysis of very crucial data which had been collected and analyzed by other researchers. The authors considered any and available study findings from 1970 to those which have been done lately. The authors Marzano, Waters, and McNulty did a meta-analysis of about 69 leadership studies. All the studies were concerned with the relationship that exists between a given school’s principal leader and that of the achievement of the student. These studies included those done since 1978 to 2001. Selected Samples It is impo rtant to note that a number of studies met these outlined criteria. However, not all of them could be included in the analysis process. This is because, according to the authors, the studies dealt with leadership â€Å"styles†. These styles are general categories of leadership character and behavior that are based on some predetermined theory. The chapter provides an example of a study conducted by Evans and Teddlie (1995) who examined the relationship that exists between the initiator, manager, and responder styles of leadership and overall student achievement in schools.Advertising Looking for coursework on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Another study conducted by High and Achilles (1986) sought to find out the relationship between the following styles and school achievement: referent, expert, enabler, coercer, legal authority, norm setter, and involver. These studies have been acknowledged as pr oviding very useful perspectives as far as leadership and school achievement is concerned. However, the authors did not use them during their meta-analysis due to their broad representation of behavior categories. In fact, they themselves were actually found to be summaries of more specific behaviors. Since the main purpose of the study was to identify specific types of leadership behaviors, the authors focused on researches that considered specific behaviors that had not been crumpled into very broad categories. It is evident from the chapter that there has been a small yet significantly growing collection of literature investigating the usefulness of the principal’s influence as far as gifted and talented programs are concerned. The authors of the book have included the findings as well as conclusions of all these studies/literature. Impact of the Study The authors analyzed each of the study and a correlation between general leadership and student achievement was computed o r drawn directly from the study. A total of 69 correlations were obtained which represented the relationship between general leadership behavior and student academic achievement. Findings in Light of Other Studies the authors observed that their average correlation of.25 between principals leadership and student achievement is much higher compared to that reported in a meta-analysis conducted by Witziers, Bosker, and Kruger (2003). Theirs was a correlation of.02 which indicated that there was no relationship between leadership and student achievement. Several factors contributing to the disparity in the findings are identified. A Deeper Look the authors stress the role of the results obtained from meta-analysis studies. That the results should never be an average; it should be a graph, as pointed out by the founder of modern meta-analysis. This is to facilitate a wider range of correlations from various studies of meta-analysis.Advertising We will write a custom coursework s ample on The Meta-Analysis Method specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Conclusion It is evident from the chapter that meta-analysis presents a great opportunity to collect a mass of related material that address a specific topic or issue under investigation. The authors of this book, through meta-analysis, were able to establish the relationship between the principal leadership in a school and the achievement of students. The meta Introduction The falling standards of education in American public schools have increased demands for accountability and performances in schools. Consequently, school administrators evaluate ways of improving academic performances, such as tutoring programmes. There are a number of tutoring programmes like peer, volunteer, one-on-one and cross-age tutoring.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The meta-analyses of volunteer tutoring programmes specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There have been growing evidences with regard to volunteer tutoring. Consequently, this paper presents a systematic review of The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta-Analysis by Ritter and other authors. The review of meta-analysis seeks to establish the effectiveness of volunteer teaching programmes that aim to enhance the academic skills of student in public schools of the United States. The review also aims at establishing who can benefit from tutoring, and factors that influence the effectiveness of tutoring. These constitute the main of objectives of the studies by Ritter and other authors. The authors used 21 studies consisting of 28 distinct cohorts in their studies in providing guidance for assessments of the effectiveness of volunteer tutoring programmes. Through these assessments, the authors concluded that volunteer tutoring had a positive effect on students’ performance. They discovered that students who had tutors got higher marks in specific sub-skills such as oral fluency, letters and words, and writing. However, students who had no tutors scored relatively low marks compared to their counterparts with tutors. The authors used several search strategies to gather evidences to support their studies. These sources included academic sources, primary sources, middle search sources, collections of professional studies, research in the field of psychology and behavioural science, literature in sociology, education information database such as ERIC, and proquest database. At the same time, these authors used selection criteria based on randomised field trials. The authors used these methods to enable them make comparisons with the control groups that did not participate in the studies from the year 1985 to 2005.Advertising Looking for critical writing on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Meanwhile, the authors were careful to include only studies that had academic effects, and ignored other vital factors such as emotion and behaviour. The study included programmes for students in grades of K-8 with the adult non-professional volunteers.1 Summary The authors based the results of the review on information from the 28 cohorts in the study using 21 articles and reports. The results of the analyses, mainly consisting of small samples, indicate that volu nteer tutoring and coaching have positive effects on reading and language in students. Examinations of the overall consequences of volunteer tutoring programmes on reading outcomes of student showed improvements. The authors used 25 studies to assess the reading outcomes and effects of volunteer tutoring programmes where they found an effect size of 0.23. However, when they eliminated an outlier study that disproportionately influenced the results, the effect rose to an average of 0.30. The study meta-analyses also looked at specific academic areas. The volunteer tutoring also made significant improvement on reading where the effect size was 0.26. Letters and words had an overall effect of 0.41 while oral fluency had a significant effect size of 0.30, and writing effect was 0.45. The study also found positive effects on reading comprehension and mathematics. However, the effects of these two were not significant. The meta-analyses also revealed that there were no significant differe nces with regard to grade level, programme of focus, or tutor type. Detailed volunteer tutoring programmes had vital and greater effects on reading outcomes than lowly structured programmes. However, these did not affect other academic domains. The authors also established that there were no statistical significance and differences in published reports and non-published studies. They also found out that the published texts had no biases. Critique There are some grey areas in this work. Therefore, the authors must update their works and conduct further researches, and possibly contact experts in volunteer tutoring. At the same time, they should also extend their studies to other geographical areas in order to establish consistency in their conclusions and recommendations.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The meta-analyses of volunteer tutoring programmes specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More These authors also u sed studies based on quasi-experimental designs. Quasi-experimental designs may lead to biases in publications. This is because such studies may test effects on an intervention without using appropriate assignment to create groups of the study. Ritter and others used small samples in their studies. There were total of 28 cohorts in meta-analysis. However, 19 out of the 28 cohorts had less than 25 students in the group. Only 3 study cohorts had a full sample of over 100 students for both treatment and control groups. This creates small chances of detecting significant programmes’ effects on students achievements. However, meta-analysis enhances this shortfall by using cumulative mean and standard deviations in enhancing statistical strength. The authors also did not show homogeneity in volunteer trainees and learner characteristics as these may affect the emotions or behaviour of the treatment groups. The meta-analyses of the study established that volunteer tutoring programme s have positive effects on students’ performances especially in literacy. These authors also showed the significant of using meta-analysis in conducting studies. Meta-analysis enabled the authors to perform multiple analyses and establish the statistical significance in 5 areas out of 7 areas studied. These results were not possible in standalone studies. Data collection and analyses reveal details of methodology and procedures such as design, outcomes of analysis, duration of study, and sample background variables such as age, gender, and race, among others. The authors coded all these aspects of studies for analysis of various volunteer tutoring programmes, and for study characteristics. According to Littell et al, â€Å"we should train coders and assess the reliability in coding. At the same time, we must pay special attention to the problem of study quality and assessment. In other words, we must be keen on how we identify variations in quality among the studies included in a systematic review and meta-analysis†.2 For instance, these authors must review all the outcomes that the studies aim to measure. They also selected a suitable effect size for meta-analysis. In order to avoid biases, they used Hedges’ unbiased measurement of g in the standard mean difference on effect size statistic. These represented differences between the control groups and the study groups mean on the outcome variable that they divided by cumulative standard deviations for every outcome of measurement.Advertising Looking for critical writing on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In meta-analysis, we must ask questions relating to variations in effects. Ritter and others do not discuss deeply how publication bias, study design, sample characteristics, intervention characteristics, and assessment of outcomes influenced their studies. The authors did not establish whether the effects had been consistent over time or not. Publication bias arguably is the most potent source of bias in meta-analysis. However, the authors tried to counteract these biases, particularly where the mean and standard deviations were missing in estimating the effect sizes. They adopted the procedure of Wilson and Lipsey and computed a cumulative mean for effect size. The study achieved it systematic objective of gathering, integrating, and summarising the empirical work on the effects of volunteer tutoring on students. The authors put up a strong research base compared to other previous studies on educational interventions. This is due to the fact that the reviews covered 21 articles an d 28 cohorts dated back to the year 1985 and 2005 in randomised field trials. Ritter and other authors use a systematic approach to present their study meta-analysis and results. They gathered several articles that effectively used experimental designs to assess the effects of volunteer tutoring on students. The systematic analysis shows that all reading outcomes had positive and statistically significant effect size of 0.30 as standard deviations. Carole Torgerson notes that systematic review and methodology has the potential to manage potentially unmanageable amounts of information, and rationalise existing evidence efficiently by determining whether research findings are consistent and generalisable, and to explain why if they are not.3 The researchers can group similar studies together statistically in meta-analyses since they know that they can use meta-analyses to increase the power, and precision in the measurement of effect sizes. The application of scientific methods in sys tematic reviews also enabled them to reduce random and systematic errors of bias.4 The authors applied this method in grouping the specific outcomes in six specific domains of study. Meta-analysis enabled them to create broad domains through the use of standardised assessments in mathematics and reading. Conversely, they also created specific four domains focusing on sub-skills of language and reading. Through these groups, the authors established that volunteer tutoring programmes have potential influences on academic performances of students and can be used to improve performances. The authors also establish consistency with references to the effect sizes of 0.26 to 0.45 standard deviations. Further, the authors established whether particular interventions were also effective or not. They demonstrated that every intervention is unique with individual studies using small units. The use of small units was effective in controlling replicas of other works. This enabled the authors to establish the characteristics of most effective interventions. They were able to establish this through computing differential mean effects sizes using different elements of study variables, such as detailed interventions, type of tutors, and age of tutors. The authors concluded that the outcomes of their studies should act as vital statistics for educators to use volunteer tutoring in order to improve students’ achievements. They also advised that school administrators should consider the use of structured and reading-based volunteer programmes as suitable strategies in enhancing reading and language skills. The researchers have effectively demonstrated the power and effectiveness of meta-analysis. Through grouping of various studies, as opposed to standalone studies, they were able to establish statistical significance of relatively large data in their domains. The research also expands the knowledge we have on the use of systematic reviews and meta-analysis about using dat a in enhancing the use of interventions in promoting the learning outcomes. These researchers provide useful information that educators can use to implement effective volunteer tutoring programmes to improve students’ achievements. Conclusion This is a positive review of the works of Ritter and others. The authors use systematic review and meta-analysis to demonstrate that volunteer tutoring can positively transform achievements of learners, particularly in language and reading skills. They emphasise that their results should serve as an essential piece of information for educators who want to use volunteer tutoring to improve performances in learners. They further advise that educators should consider structured and reading-based volunteering systems to improve their yearly students’ performances. We must acknowledge the fact that systematic review and meta-analysis can go some way towards addressing the problem of underdeveloped trials. However, they will not give a true estimate of effectiveness if the trials within the study analyses have methodological flaws. At the same time, meta-analyses may give unduly optimistic results if there is substantial publication bias. In other words, if studies have null or negative effect remain unpublished, they may not form part of any review. Ritter and other authors address the issue of trials flaws through systematic review by using inclusion and exclusion criteria. They avoided publication bias by ensuring that all data were consistent and avoided unpublished studies that they could not identify. The authors treated their trials with a high degree of caution by defining all their trials, sources of data among other elements of both treatment and control groups. They did these to avoid chances of overestimating the effectiveness of the volunteer tutor programmes. However, these authors must update their studies regularly and include large samples in their studies in order to yield positive and moderate r esults. Therefore, researchers seeking statistical significance must use large sample sizes. The probability of an educationally significant difference being statistically significant is partly a function of sample size. Reference List Cooper HM, Synthesizing Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews Applied Social Research Methods Series, vol. 2, Sage Publications, Inc., London, 1998. Littell JH, J Corcoran V Pillai, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, 2008. Ritter GW, JH Barnett, GS Denny and GR. Albin, ‘The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta- Analysis’, Review of Educational Research, vol. 79, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3-38. Torgerson C, Systematic Reviews, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, 2003. Footnotes 1 GW Ritter, JH. Barnett, GS. Denny GR. Albin, ‘The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta-A nalysis’, Review of Educational Research, vol. 79, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3-38. 2 JH Littell, J Corcoran V Pillai, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, 2008. 3 C Torgerson, Systematic Reviews, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, 2003, p. 63 4 HM Cooper, Synthesizing Research : A Guide for Literature Reviews Applied Social Research Methods Series, vol. 2, Sage Publications, Inc., London, 1998 p. 104