Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Mauryan Empire Free Essays

SYLLABUS OF FIRST PAPER OF TET Paper II (for classes VI to VIII) Elementary Stage: 30 Questions I. Child Development and Pedagogy 15 Questions a) Child Development (Elementary School Child) †¢ Concept of development and its relationship with learning †¢ Principles of the development of children †¢ Influence of Heredity Environment †¢ Socialization processes: Social world children (Teacher, Parents, Peers) †¢ Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky: constructs and critical perspectives †¢ Concepts of child-centered and progressive education †¢ Critical perspective of the construct of Intelligence Multi Dimensional Intelligence †¢ Language Thought †¢ Gender as a social construct; gender roles, gender-bias and educational practice †¢ Individual differences among learners, understanding differences based on diversity of language, caste, gender, community, religion etc. †¢ Distinction between Assessment for learning and assessment of learnin g; SchoolBased Assessment, Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation: perspective and practice †¢ Formulating appropriate questions for assessing readiness levels of learners; for enhancing learning and critical thinking in the classroom and or assessing learner achievement. We will write a custom essay sample on Mauryan Empire or any similar topic only for you Order Now b) Concept of Inclusive education and understanding children with special needs 5 Questions †¢ Addressing learners from diverse backgrounds including disadvantaged and deprived †¢ Addressing the needs of children with learning difficulties, ‘impairment’ etc †¢ Addressing the Talented, Creative, Specially abled Learners c) Learning and Pedagogy 10 Questions †¢ How children think and learn; how and why children ‘fail’ to achieve success in school performance †¢ Basic processes of teaching and learning; children’s strategies of learning; learning as social activity; social context of learning. †¢ Child as a problem solver and a ‘scientific investigator’ Alternative conceptions of learning in children; understanding children’s ‘errors’ as significant steps in the learning process. †¢ Cognition Emotions †¢ Motivation and learning †¢ Factors contributing to learning personal en vironmental II. Language I. 30 Questions a) Language Comprehension 15 Questions Reading unseen passages- two passages one prose or drama and one poem with questions on comprehension, inference, grammar and verbal ability (Prose passage may e literary, scientific, narrative or discursive) b) Pedagogy of Language Development 15 Questions †¢ Learning and acquisition †¢ Principles of language Teaching †¢ Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool †¢ Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language for communicating ideas verbally and in written form; †¢ Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders †¢ Language Skills †¢ Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing Teaching-learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom †¢ Remedial Teaching III . Language- II 30 Questions a)Comprehension 15 Questions Two unseen prose passages (discursive or literary or narrative or scientific) with questions on comprehension, grammar and verbal ability b) Pedagogy of Language Development 15 Questions †¢ Learning and acquisition †¢ Principles of language Teaching †¢ Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool †¢ Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language for communicating deas verbally and in written form; †¢ Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders †¢ Language Skills †¢ Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing †¢ Teaching-learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom †¢ Remedial Teaching ____________________________________________________________ _____ SECTION 2 Section-I CHI LD DEVELPOMENT AND PEDAGOGY 1. Raja, a student of your class, is very tense due to the acne on his face. What will u do? (1) Ignore him. 2) Tell him that it is normal and is due to hormonal changes. (3) Tell him to go to a doctor as it is a medical problem. (4) Scold and tell him not to waste time on these issues. 2. A student wants to share his personal problems and asks for permission to call on u at your residence. What should be your response? (1) Avoid giving time. (2) Give an appointment readily. (3) Tell him that u do not encourage students to visit at the residence. (4) Ignore the child. 3. If you come to know that a child of your class is facing problems related to parents’ separation at home, what would you do? 1) Do not talk to the child on this issue. (2) Treat her/him sympathetically. (3) Talk to the parents. (4) Be indifferent to the child. 4. If you come to know that the father of a student has been tested HIV positive, what will you do? (1) Disclose the inform ation to the class. (2) Make the child sit separately. (3) Ask the parents to withdraw the child. (4) Let him continue with the studies like others. 5. Kavya a student of your class, is visually challenged and you have a function coming up. What will you do? (1) Give her the part of a narrator. 2) Ask her to stay at home during the function. (3) Discourage her from participating. (4) Give her a less important duty. 6. Manjusha is very interested in sports and wants to pursue her career in sports. What will you suggest to her? (1) Girls have no future in sports. (2) She should put in hard work to achieve her ambition. (3) Ask her to be focused only in academics. (4) Girls cannot excel in sports as they are not physically strong. 7. Twelve year old Radhika has begun to imitate the style of talking of her teacher. This form of behavior is known as- (1) compensation (2) transference (3) sublimation (4) egocentrism 8. For conducting a social science class in an interesting way, teachers should- (1) give notes (2) give written homework (3) use role-plays effectively (4) encourage extra reading 9. A 11-12 year old child generally faces more problems related to- (1) eye hand coordination (2) anxiety about studies. (3) need for peer approval (4) understanding mathematics. 10. Which of the following is most essential for learning? (1) Good parent child relationship (2) High intelligence (3) Good school (4) Desire to learn 11. Which of the following is not good for quality learning? (1) Making notes (3) Extra reading (3) Using guide books (4) Self Study 12. Which of the following may damage a low achieving student psychologically? (1) Making children maintain record of the class test marks. (2) Discussing the marks of individual students in the class. (3) Discussing the correct answers in the class. 4) Making children correct their own notebooks. 13. When most of the students in a class do not understand a concept clearly, the teacher should- (1) repeat the lesson once again. (2) conduct hands on activities on that concept. (3) Ask students to take help from parents. (4) ignore and move to the next concept. 14. To correct the stammering problem of a class VIII student, a teacher should (1) ignore the child. (2) provide more opportunities for speaking. (3) c heck the child whenever she/he stammers. (4) seek professional help. 15. Which of the following statements about the role of a teacher is correct? 1) Teacher should be a critic only. (2) Teacher should favour good students. (3) Teacher should have a friendly attitude towards students. (4) Teacher should maintain a distance from students. 16. For ensuring and improving class discipline, the teacher should- (1) arrange regular parent- teacher meetings. (2) Call authorities to the class. (3) be strict with students and punish them. (4) evaluate the methods and approaches used in the class. 17. To address the diversity in academic achievement, an effective teaching method can be – (1) dictating notes (2) cooperative teaching. 3) lecturing (4)giving tests. 18. In which stage of cognitive development is a child, when she/he is able to work out problems logically and can do multiple classification? (1) Pre operational stage (2) Formal operational stage (3) Concrete operation stage ( 4) Sensori-motor stage 19. Gaurav of class VII gave a letter to his classmate Seema saying that he loves her. What should the teacher do? (1) Ignore the issue (2) Punish Gaurav (3) Counsel Gaurav appropriately (4) Let the Principal handle the issue 20. Children from the under privileged sections of the society can benefit more if they are (1) provided with training for self employment (2) exempted from homework and class tests. (3) provided with richer learning environment in school. (4) given simpler learning tasks. 21. Students in classes VII-VIII face problems mostly related to (1) identity crisis. (2) emotional sensitivity. (3) low interest in academic. (4) hyperactivity. 22. The term comprehensive evaluation implies- (1) evaluation conducted at several points of time. (2) evaluation by a group of teachers. (3) Several tests for long hours. 4) evaluation of scholastic and Co-scholastic aspects of pupil growth. 23. Talking to children of classes VI to VIII about â€Å"Growing up† is – (1) not required (2) essential. (3) counterproductive (4) detrimental 24. Which of the following statements about teaching is true? (1) Teaching is a prerequisite of learning. (2) Teaching facilitates learning. (3) Teaching restricts initiative of learners. (4) Teaching is necessary for good learning. 25. Sandhya and Mamta of class VII are bright students but are extremely jealous of each other. How will you, as a teacher, handle them? 1) Not bother as they will outgrow it. (2) Talk to them discreetly about healthy competition. (3) Discuss this with the whole class. (4) Convey your disapproval to them. 26. In a class, a student asks the teacher a question and the answer is not known to the teacher. As a teacher you should- (1) scold the child for asking such questions. (2) ignore the child and continue teaching. (3) tell the child that you will look for the answer. (4) feel ashamed that you did not known the answer. 27. A student who had misbehaved with the teacher in class VI, comes to the same teacher in class VIII. S/He avoids interacting with the teacher due to his/ her behavior. The teacher should (1) ignore the child. (2) remind the child of her/his past behaviour. (3) reassure her/him in a personal discussion. (4) call the parents and report the incidence. 28. Raju, a student of your class, is being teased by his classmates for his dark complexion. What do you need to do as a teacher? (1) Ignore this issue (2) Reprimand the class. (3) Tell Raju not to pay attention. (4) Talk to the class about individual differences. 29. Salim is very good in music but is not able to do well in Mathematics. As a teacher of Mathematics, how will you handle Salim? (1) Tell him that Music does not have a future. (2) Tell him to leave Music and study Maths. (3) Call his parents and talk to them. (4) Tell him that he can do well and explain the concepts to him. 30. While teaching if you realize that what you have taught is not correct, you should- (1) leave the topic unfinished and shift to another. (2) Tell the students that it was a mistake and correct it. (3) divert the attention of the students. (4) Scold students to finish the remaining tasks. How to cite Mauryan Empire, Papers

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Expatriates In Effective Global Management -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Expatriates In Effective Global Management? Answer: Introducation The essay discusses the various theories and concepts associated with human behaviour in organization. The concepts of organizational behaviour revolve round the employees of any organization and the managers are directly provided with the benefits by utilizing these theories in their organization. Proper study of organizational behaviour guides the management or leaders to judge, feel, plan and make decisions according to their organizational settings. For the Managers as well as the employees this knowledge will help to predict, control and lead all the organizational events. This paper compares and contrasts various components which include core topics like importance of motivation, interpersonal communication among the employees and their superiors, group structure, their processes, attitude and perception development, change processes, work design, learning and work stress (Shapiro et al., 2016). This paper analyses theories of organizational behaviour from different perspective s. The theories of Intelligence analyse the persons ability to develop knowledge that need to be applied to certain tasks. In most of the cases, the knowledge is confused with intelligence but intelligence is ability to acquire knowledge and skills as well as remembering suitable information to do similar kind of job. According to the theorists, emotion is more important than rational intelligence or technical skills. In contrast to this, the Emotional Intelligence Theory aims to discuss the individuals ability to identify, understand, integrate and reflectively manage own and others feelings. There are two traits of emotional intelligence are positivists and Constructivist (Terera Ngirande, 2014). The managers in organizations need to understand their employees and know the best method to motivate them. As opposed by Vaiman, Haslberger and Vance (2015), One General Intelligence Theory is known a structural model in which the theorists believe that all intelligence originates from one general factor. In this theory the individuals measure every aspect of life from a particular perspective. It is a high affirmative correlation between the cognitive abilities and intelligence that reflect in learning any process and apply them in the organizational skills. On the other hand Cyrenne (2018) opines that Theories of Multiple Intelligences completely contrast one general intelligence theory . Another set of theorists like Gardner and Sternberg opposes this previous one. According to them, there are almost seven factors that affect the intelligence which help the employees in an organization to increase analytical, creative and practical intelligence. More the employees possess intelligence more that contribute in growth of their organizations. The employees of the organizations have mixture of different personalities, characteristics, beliefs as well as qualities based on which they contribute in the organizations which give rises to the Theories of Personality (Tillman, 2013). In the Personality Types A and B the theorists pursue that there are two extreme personality trait or behaviour syndromes that allow to judge different stress levels that control the peoples personalities. Type A personalities are found to be competitive, enduring of more work pressure, and attached to their tasks. These people work long hours and accomplish larger amount of tasks within tight deadline (Cyrenne, 2018). Type B are just opposite to type A. these people are more relaxed with their tasks and confident with completing any difficult tasks within deadline. They do not rush and cope with stress well therefore turn decisions around. Unlike type A they are less strive for perfection. The theorists like Vaiman, Haslberger and Vance (2015) argues that the personality has great importance in Predicting Job Performance. The leaders or manager of any organization can predict the actions of their employees based on their personality traits. They find abilities like conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion and agreeableness in their inferiors so that it become easily to run the operations. Beside these, 16 Personality Factors of Catell reveal that there are some contradictory personal factors which drive the personality of people greatly. Eysenks Dimensions of Personality discusses two dimensions such as extroverts and introverts. The extroverts are active, sociable, expressive and outward. The introverts on the other hand are reserved, quiet and passive. The leaders of the organizations realise and control or motivate the employees according to their personalities. The theories of Motivation capture the importance of motivation in an organization where the managers influence the employees based on their intensity, persistence of efforts to attain a goal (Westphal Zajac, 2013). Motivation combines various methods to produce needs, job design and satisfaction. There are numerous theories of motivation which have been developed in organizational behaviour literature. The Common-sense Theory differentiates the employees according to their common sense based on which the leaders motivate them. Theory X identifies people who are not so trust worthy, irrational, lazy whom the leaders motivate through money and threaten by punishments (Henry et al., 2015). Without proper control, these people follow their own goals which are contrary to that of the organization. Theory Y identifies people seeking independence, reliable therefore self-developed. These employees are more creative and capable of looking beyond the immediate circumstances. They adapt new components easily and strive for good of their organization. According to Expectancy Theory of Porter and Lawler, the individual motivation depends on the prediction of the outcome (Peltokorpi, Allen Froese, 2015). This theory focuses on chief three points valence, expectancy and instrumentality. These factors are closely related to one another. The researchers have identified different almost nine factors that affect the work motivation. These are Perceived value of rewards, Effort, Expectation of getting rewarded through performance, Individual abilities or traits, Role observations, Intrinsic rewards, Extrinsic rewards, Apparent equity of rewards, Work satisfaction. Fundamental Attribution Error on the other hand focuses on the reasons of some incidents occurred by people and identifies their next steps based on their personality often overlooking the external factors like social and contextual impacts. This is why various problems occur in the organization such as learning, communication, perception and motivation problems. There are cont extual factors like social, political and technological problems (Gerhards Mutz, 2017). In addition to this, there are competition, group formation, stricture and processing problems within the organization which affect the organizational behaviour greatly and directly control the operations. In contrast to this the Goal-setting theory established four chief proposition based on which the employees as well as the leaders set goals according to the needs of the organizations. It helps to explain the work behaviour, strive to try to meet all the objectives. The four factors are creating challenging goals, creating particular goals, participation objectives, predict the consequences of objectives. Goal setting theory help to enhance the equality of tasks, performance therefore results According to Gilley et al. (2015) in Herzbergs Two Factor Theory came up with the idea that would looks into the factors causing job satisfaction as well as job dissatisfaction. These factors that usually influence the employees to make a job satisfying are called the Motivator Factors and the factors that make the job dissatisfying are called Hygiene Factors. People feel motivated when they gain power, achieve authority and affiliation. These help them to gain more necessary skills that are needed in an organization. Theories of Attitudes and Behaviour is one of the most important aspect in the organizational behaviour (Shapiro et al., 2016). Attitude is a style of thinking and feeling something in a particular state of mind and accounting is a way that regulate the actions of an individual. Both these factors vary from person to person and changes with time and situation. Behaviour Modification theory discusses the methods through which people change their attitude and behaviour by newly found knowledge or learnings as well as technical support. These used by the employees to act in different ways. Scientists like Luthans and Kreitner found out that peoples behaviour alters and gets modified through five steps like identification, measurement, establishment, development and evaluation. The chief aspect of the Reinforcement theory is that peoples behaviour changes and repeats when gets reinforcements but continues to be same when reinforcement factor is absent (Bezrukova et al., 2016). This theory revolves round the positive and negative reinforcements where the behaviour changes with consequences. The Single and Double Loop Learning theory focuses on the learning process of the employees in the organization. In singe loop learning, people use feedback for making continuous adjustments or adaptations for maintain performance (Asrar-ul-Haq Kuchinke, 2016). On the contrary the double loop learning focuses on the challenging and redefining the assumptions so that the performance can be improved. Despite the fact that the time consumed by the single one is much shorter that the double one, but the idea is to improve quality where double loop process is more valued by the organizations. Social Cognitive theory opposes loop learning theory and points out that people lear n from others and then replicate them in their own behaviour. The employees learn from their superiors and colleagues and gain experience. This method is usually focussed on the listening and viewing behaviour rather than learning from own experience. Therefore, it can be concluded that the people of an organization are the chief components that must be cared for. These are the employees who are responsible for the growth of the organizations as well as their deterioration. This is the reason why the organizational behaviour is so very important to study for the authorities. By utilising these theories, they motivate their employees to contribute best for the organizations. References: Asrar-ul-Haq, M., Kuchinke, K. P. (2016). Impact of leadership styles on employees attitude towards their leader and performance: Empirical evidence from Pakistani banks.Future Business Journal,2(1), 54-64. Bezrukova, K., Spell, C. S., Caldwell, D., Burger, J. M. (2016). A multilevel perspective on faultlines: Differentiating the effects between group-and organizational-level faultlines.Journal of Applied Psychology,101(1), 86. Cyrenne, P. (2018). Salary Inequality, Team Success, League Policies, And The Superstar Effect.Contemporary Economic Policy,36(1), 200-214. Gerhards, J., Mutz, M. (2017). Who wins the championship? Market value and team composition as predictors of success in the top European football leagues.European Societies,19(3), 223-242. Gilley, A., Waddell, K., Hall, A., Jackson, S. A., Gilley, J. W. (2015). Manager behavior, generation, and influence on work-life balance: An empirical investigation.Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship,20(1), 3. Henry, C., Foss, L., Fayolle, A., Walker, E., Duffy, S. (2015). Entrepreneurial leadership and gender: Exploring theory and practice in global contexts.Journal of Small Business Management,53(3), 581-586. Peltokorpi, V., Allen, D. G., Froese, F. (2015). Organizational embeddedness, turnover intentions, and voluntary turnover: The moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics and value operations.Journal of Organizational Behavior,36(2), 292-312. Shapiro, D. L., Hom, P., Shen, W., Agarwal, R. (2016). How do leader departures affect subordinates organizational attachment? A 360-degree relational perspective.Academy of Management Review,41(3), 479-502. Terera, S. R., Ngirande, H. (2014). The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention.Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences,5(1), 481. Tillman, A. (2013). Improving Worker Satisfaction Yields Improved Worker?Retention Rates.Employment Relations Today,39(4), 27-31. Vaiman, V., Haslberger, A., Vance, C. M. (2015). Recognizing the important role of self-initiated expatriates in effective global talent management.Human Resource Management Review,25(3), 280-286. Westphal, J. D., Zajac, E. J. (2013). A behavioral theory of corporate governance: Explicating the mechanisms of socially situated and socially constituted agency.Academy of Management Annals,7(1), 607-661.

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Give A Brief Definition Of Nursing Research And Evidenced-based

Give A Brief Definition Of Nursing Research And Evidenced-based Give A Brief Definition Of Nursing Research And Evidenced Nursing Research and Evidence Based Research Nursing Research and Evidence Based Research Evidence based research in nursing involves the use of already available evidence to establish the knowledge on a certain issue. It is mainly applied to link the past with the present which is crucial in addressing the issues arising in any health set up. This can include getting the data in a certain hospital and check for the prevalence of a certain disease and how it has been possible or impossible to handle it with the available resources. Nursing research involves going to the field and collecting data which is then processed before coming to a certain conclusion. For instance in addressing the prevalence of a disease like pneumonia in a locality one can go to various hospitals and homesteads getting the information from the parents and doctors and then using the information one can be come up with a conclusion that can be used to better the way a certain problem is being addressed. It also involves visiting the literature in that field to see has been done already and show the relevance of your research (Health Leaders Media, n.d). The two approaches have a similarity in that they are both aimed at improving the way the problems in the nursing set up are addressed. This could be a certain disease or the challenges the nurses are facing while executing their duties. Another similarity is that both rely on the already present information to set a strong argument or a foundation of the research (Health Leaders Media, n.d). This involves a look on the literature available and the information present in hospitals to come up with a factual argument. They also borrow a lot from each other and they are usually used as one. The major difference lies in the way each of them addresses the problem as lies in their definition. ReferenceHealth Leaders Media. (n.d). Evidence Based Practice and Nursing Research: Avoid Confusion. Available at.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 4

Human Resource Management - Essay Example This gave rise to a dispute during which Mr Nikolich alleged that he was intimidated and threatened by his supervisor, which caused him stress. Furthermore, the Company’s HR Manager took a long period of four months to investigate the complaint and determined that the reallocation was quite appropriate and that the supervisor’s conduct had not been intimidating or threatening and had also stepped down from his managerial role. There was no further action taken on Mr. Nikolich’s complaint, as a result of which he developed a depressive disorder and was terminated from his work. The basis of Mr. Nikolich’s complaint of mistreatment by his supervisor and the mishandling of his complaint was the terms of his letter of offer of employment and policy guidelines of the Company, entitled Working With Us. This guideline contained several provisions on workplace health, safety, harassment and grievance redressal procedures which Mr. Nikolich alleged had been breached in his case as a result of which the employers were guilty of a breach of contract. At the lower Court, the findings were in favor of the Plaintiff, Mr. Nikolich and the Court held that sections of the Working With Us policy guidelines were equivalent to explicit promises which were part and parcel of Mr. Nikolich’s employment contract.. On this basis, the Court held that the failure of the HR management to take immediate action to resolve the conflict between Mr. Nikolich and his supervisor was a breach of contract. When the case was appealed however, the appellate judges make a distinction between contractual and aspirational terms. They held that the policies outlined in the Working With us document on the issues of harassment and grievance redressal were not in the nature of contractual terms. On the contrary, they were aspirational in nature, i.e, the language contained in tees provisions was descriptive and informative, intended to be encouraging rather than iron clad promises.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Child Care in Colleges are Essential Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Child Care in Colleges are Essential - Essay Example That these women are in school should not be a hindrance to their desires. Universities and other colleges could support their student-parents through a number of ways. One is funding. These could be through opening college-based day care centers on site in campuses. These should be operating during convenient hours to ensure all student-parents manage to go to class without worrying about their children. Some universities and colleges receive grants to help run day care centers for student parents within their colleges. This is a move in a positive direction in a bid to increase the number of students who continue with their studies after giving birth while still pursuing their degree courses. Life is difficult enough for student parents, hence the importance of affordable and flexible day care programs to help alleviate their problems. Furthermore, to put the minds of these parents at ease, these day- care programs should be accredited by relevant bodies to ensure that the children are not only safe, but also well taken care of. The curriculum for such programs should also be at par with state and national standards, to ensure that the children are being taken care of the same way other children in non-campus day care centers are. Funding is an important aspect in ensuring success of day care programs in colleges and universities. Funding can come in form of grants from government agencies for children or education through lobbying by the universities and colleges administrations (U.S. Department of Education 1-2). Funding can also come directly from the university or college administration itself. Funding is imperative in the running of day care centers for student parents in colleges since most of these do not have steady or well paying jobs that could afford them more expensive day care programs. The funding cold go towards building or renovating unused campus buildings to convert them into day care centers, materials and labor required to do this, furnish ing the day care centers and paying the people who will be involved in the day to day running of the day care centers. The student parents could be asked to chip in a little money, though not too much, in order to ensure they partake in the running and maintenance of the day care centers, and that it is not free. Given the fact that most student parents face more challenges and responsibilities than students who are not parents, the former are most likely to perform dismally in their studies (Price 3-6). Furthermore, the stress that comes with raising a child, studying and probably working part time may take a toll on these parents, especially if they are single parents. With this kind of background, student parents are likely to drop out of school to take care of their children. This has an adverse effect of the economic and social well being of the parent and child. Second to funding is flexibility of the day care programs. It is pointless to start day care centers in colleges and universities that operate between times that interfere with the student parents’ academics (Anderson and Dektar 6-8). Day care centers that are closed too early or open too late means that parents have to skip classes while they wait for the day care cent

Monday, January 27, 2020

Traditional Budgeting in Modern Business

Traditional Budgeting in Modern Business The essay below is an attempt to analyse the issue of Traditional budgeting and discusses the fact that how now-a-days formal, traditional budgeting does not prove quite apt for modern businesses. To begin with, the essay will give a brief explanation of what is a budget and what is budgeting. This will be followed by a short note on modern budgeting and there will be a concise induction on traditional budgeting. Furthermore, the essay will throw light on the strengths and weaknesses of traditional budgeting; following which it will explain and evaluate the alternatives to traditional budgeting in modern businesses. A budget is a business plan for the short term-typically one year(Atrill McLaney,2007) . It is mainly expressed in financial terms and it is designed to meet strategic purposes. Budgeting plays a vital role in business success as it helps in the organizations operational planning, performance evaluation, communication of goals, strategy formation, and controlling cost which helps the organization to achieve its overall objective. But it seems it is unsuitable for the modern business.The term modern business stands for a business which operates in a global economy and practises all modern techniques to survive in a highly competitive environment. In todays era of information technology, it is impossible for a business to compete globally without continuous innovation, updated information and controlled activity. In management accounting, budgeting is quite a vast and important concept. There are different kinds of budgeting. The essay will now focus on Traditional budgeting and its working in modern businesses. What is traditional budgeting? Budget is a part of strategic planning process. It lays down business objectives, targets and decides activities required to achieve these objectives. Traditional budgeting is based on previous year data, decisions, uncertain estimates and forecast (Drury,2009).Traditional budgeting is basically one year planning which lays down targets for the business and at the end of the year these targets are compared with actual results and deviations, if any, are reported to the budgeting team which uses them as an important source of information for current year budgeting. Traditional budgeting creates boundaries for the business operations and sets targets for its employees, which motivates employees to work hard and earn rewards for their achievement. Importance of Traditional Budgeting: Kennedy and Dugdale (1999) in his study on budgeting found out that 99% of all companies in Europe still using formal budgeting system. Budgeting provides a direction which can be used as a framework for planning and controlling the overall activity of the business. Budgeting is often used as an important tool for controlling cost and expenditure of the business, which is very essential for an organization to survive in a competitive world. It is also used as a tool to maintain liquidity position of the firm by matching business revenue against expenditure, which gives an actual position and requirement of cash at a definite time period. Kennedy and Dugdale (2009) in his study also points out that it is the multiple function of budgeting which makes it an important tool for management. Budgeting provides a system of authorization, a means of forecasting and planning, it also provides a channel of communication and coordination through which the actions of different parts of an organi zation can be brought together and reconciled into a common plan. Kennedys study also states that budgeting serves as a tool of motivation, a system of evaluation and control, which acts as a useful source of information for decision- making. Limitations of Traditional budgeting: Budgeting is always being criticized for its high cost and the longer time it takes for its preparation. These two limitations are always a point of consideration for modern business organizations, which require a long working of financial managers and which incurs heavy charges on the company. In addition to this, budgeting is criticized in many other aspects as well. Dugdale and Lyne (2006) in his study on budgeting points out that budgeting being an important tool for an organization has many limitations like, it meets only the lowest targets, it uses more resources than required, it competes against other divisions, business units and departments, also it spends only what is in the budget, provides inaccurate forecasts, has motives only to meet the budget but not to beat it and finally it also avoids risk element. Bourne et al. (2002) conducted a survey on limitations of traditional budgeting in which he criticizes traditional budgeting on a number of issues. From the survey resu lt, he pointed out the following criticisms against budgeting ; its time consuming, costly, restricts flexibility in operation, its very often focused on target and often misaligned with strategy, it focuses more on cost rather than value creation, it often encourages gaming between superiors and subordinates, it is hardly updated and is based on unrealistic assumptions and guesswork which make it unsuitable for modern business. Traditional budgeting and modern business: Budgets have long had a bad press, but they have attracted even more flak recently for being at best inappropriate to modern business practice and at worst potentially harmful (Marginson and Ogden,2005). Hope (2000), in his study on traditional budgeting, points out four important reasons of incapability of traditional budgeting in modern business. he pointed out that in modern business, innovation is more essential rather than incremental, focuses more on faster learning rather than faster working, customer focus is on product satisfaction rather than increasing sale and knowledge- sharing and use of talent given more importance, rather than physical or financial capital. Modern business requires innovation along with cost saving in order to be competitive enough to fight with its rival company. Marginson and Ogden (2005) in his study on budgeting and innovation argues how firms are balancing the need to control costs on the one hand with the pursuit of innovation on the other. That is, modern business is an era of global business and competition which requires continuous innovation and huge spending on R D for its survival. And if modern business follows the budgeting tool it will restrict the business from spending a huge amount on innovation and this becomes a major criticism of budgeting. Hopes Fraser, 1999a, cited in Ekholm and Wallin (2000) added that traditional budgeting is incapable of meeting the demand of the competitive environment in the information age. This means, traditional budgeting is a useful accounting model with its focus on command and control but it lacks in providing useful updated information like market changes, change in taste and preference, change in technology, etc. which makes traditional budgeting unsuitable for modern business. Traditional budgeting is a time consuming process and therefore fails in reflecting changes fails in the companys organization process. As a result it produces inadequate variance reports leaving the how and when question unanswered. That is, it ignores shareholders value and focuses more on short term financial numbers. It follows a risk avoiding culture and therefore faces a false sense of security as a yearly, rigid process and as being a toy of the accounting department.( Hopes Fraser, 1999a, cited in Ekholm and Wallin, 2000). Ekholm and wallin (2000) in his study about budget found out that traditional budget seems to be a burden, and therefore must be removed from financial reports, before improving financial performance. Dugdale and Lyne (2006) say that if companies want to meet the modern business challenges then they must dismantle their rigid command and control structure, which means scrapping their budget and should adopt a policy of radical decentralization and implement appropriate key performance indicators, scorecards and rolling forecast. Alternatives to budgeting: Traditional budgeting is described as a Bane of Corporate America and a tool of repression, by modern businesses which look for alternatives. Rolling forecasts produced on a monthly or quarterly basis, are suggested to be the main alternative to the annual budget (Arterion 1998, Hope and Fraser 1990-20 cited in Ekholm and Wallin, 2000). Limitations of traditional budgeting give rise to many beyond budgeting techniques. Fanning (2000), in his article titled evolution or Revolution, explained beyond budgeting as a technique that restrict gaming, focuses on other business performance in addition to financial performance and uses insightful forecasts that accurately predict companys performance for a shorter period of time like, rolling forecast. In addition there are some better budgeting techniques like, zero based budgeting, activity based budgeting, process based budgeting and performance based budgeting. Rolling forecast serves as a best alternative to traditional budgeting, as stated earlier. In this the budget is prepared for a short period of time which ranges from a month to a year. The main advantage of this method i s that it encourages the manager of a company to look ahead and review their plans on a regular basis. Zero based budgeting is also emerged as a good alternative to incremental budgets. Unlike traditional budgeting zero based budgeting justifies and prioritizes all the activities before allocating amount of resources to them. In addition it focuses on activities instead of functional department which is a feature of traditional budgeting (Drury, 2008). Activity based budgeting authorize the supply of only those resources that are needed to perform activities required to meet the budget production and sales volume. This overcome traditional budgeting limitation which works on incremental basis to predict year expenses on the basis of last year expenses. Traditional budget systems focus on expenditures. Performance Based Budgeting focuses on final result by fixing desired performances goal to each department. The purpose of Performance-Based Budgeting is to provide a sound basis, upon which resource allocation decisions can be done; to communicate the measurable results expected to be achieved from a budget allocation; and to build a connection between budget and program performance results for the same operational unit over same period of measurement. Importance of budgeting in modern business: Dugdale and Hanseen ( two writers ) from their study on find out that in budgeting; operational planning, performance evaluation, communication of goals and strategy formation are the important functions which help it in being alive in modern business. Ekholm and Wallin (2000) from a questionnaire survey on budgeting stated that traditional budgeting is needed in modern business as it is an important tool for maintaining internal effectiveness which is needed to maintain long term equilibrium position of the company. He also finds out that modern business still requires traditional budgeting because its targets cant be set for the people. This means that, no control and no performance evaluation can be done. Hanseen and Van der Stede (2004) from his study on Multiple facets of budgeting finds out that there are different reasons to budgeting like market related performance (sales growth, market share) and internal operation related performance (cost effectiveness, quality), which see ms to be important reason for its wide use in modern business as it will help company to achieve competitive advantage over its rival. Dugdale and Lyne (2006) as a conclusion of case study point out that budget is an important tool to set resources limit for function such as service and RD, which will help business to make efficient use of their limited resources that will lead to success for a company in this competitive world. Conclusion: After a detailed study about budgeting it can be concluded here that, budgeting is an important tool for any business organization which helps the organization in operational planning, performance evaluation, communication of goal, strategy formulation and fixing targets which serve as a basis for organizational working and control. Inspite of its importance in organization, its become a matter of great concern to change or abandon traditional budgeting from modern business. It is because of some budgeting limitations which make it somehow rigid to be used in flexible and compatible modern business. It can be seen that traditional budgeting lacks in providing updated information, flexible operations, restricts huge expenditure on innovation and in addition to this, it is time consuming and a costly method, which binds a company to a 12 month agreement with budgeting expenditure and income list which restrict flexibility of modern business. On the other hand, budgeting helps modern bu sinesses in setting their targets for the year and cost controlling measures which play a vital role in the competitive market. So, seeing budgeting limitations and benefits to modern business, many economists and business managers suggest that traditional budgeting is an important tool which cannot be fully removed from an organization but some changes or beyond budgeting techniques like rolling forecast budgeting, zero based budgeting, activity based budgeting, process based budgeting and performance based budgeting, help in solving business organization problem. Refrences Atrill, P and McLaney, E.(2008). Accounting And Finance For Non- Specialists. England: FT Prentice Hall. Bourne M, Neely A and Heyns H (2002) Lore Reform, Financial Management,January,p.23. Drury, C. (2009). Management Accounting For Business.UK: South- Western. Dugdale, D. and Lyne, s.(2006)Are budgets still needed?, Financial Management, November,pp 32-35. Ekholm B and Wallin J(2000), Is the annual budget really dead? The European Accounting Review,volume 9,number 4,pages 519-539. Fanning J (2000) Evolution or Revolution?,Accountancy, October. Hansen, S.C. and Van der Stede, W.A. (2004), Multiple facets of budgeting: an exploratory analysis, Management Accounting Research vol. 15, pp 415-439. Hope T (2000), Conflict Resolution, Accountancy, November. Kennedy A and Dugdale D (1999), Getting the most from budgeting, Management Accounting, February. Maginson, D. and Orden, S. (2005)Budgeting and Innovation, Financial Management, April, pp 29-31.