Research Articles Base: Sample Journals

Management of Organisations Learning Journal

Learning Journal               The concept of Management of Organizations (MO) is about the analysis and management of people in organizations with particular emphasis on behavior. This learning journal aims to present a collection of the things that I learned from the course. The focus of this learning journal is about organizational behavior and concepts such as group formation and structure, organizational structure and design, organization development and organization change.   Organizational Behavior             The first thing that I learned in this course is the definition of organization. An organization is a system  of two or more people, engaged in cooperative action, trying to reach an agreed-upon purpose. Organizational behavior is the actions and attitudes of people in organizations. The field of organizational behavior is the body of knowledge derived from the study of these actions and attitudes.   Group Formation             One of the interesting topics in the course is the formation of groups. From the discussion in class, I learned that groups are essential to the success of organizations. Organizations today are forming different groups to fulfill various tasks. A group is a distinguishable set of two or more people who interact, dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively toward a common and valued goal who have been assigned specific roles or functions, and who have a limited life span or membership. The members of the group have different and unique roles, each role is critical to the success of the group. Every group undergoes group development. The stages of group development are forming, storming, norming, performing, and mourning. It is important that to understand the stages of group development in order to effectively deal with the issues and challenges.   <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Forming – during this stage of group development, the members get acquainted with each other. During this stage, the group establishes ground rules. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Storming – this stage is characterized by a high degree of conflict within the group. I consider the storming stage as the most crucial stage. In this stage, the group members and the leader have to resolve the issues that may affect the group in the future. If the group is unable to resolve the issues, it may be disbanded. If the issues are resolved the group will become cohesive. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Norming – during this stage, the group becomes more cohesive and identification as a member becomes greater. During this stage, the group members start to develop relationships. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Performing – during this stage, questions about group relationships and leadership have been resolved and the group is ready to work. Each member devotes his/herself to getting the job done. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Adjourning – during this stage, the group will cease to exist. This is because it has met its goals and is no longer needed. </li> </ul>                           I found the topic group formation interesting and educating. I learned that in order for an organization to succeed, it must resolve all the issues and challenges that arise at every stage. Each member plays an important role in the success of the group.     Group Structure             Another interesting topic is group structure. Group structure  refers to the characteristics  of the stable social organization of the group, the way the group is ‘put together’. I learned that the way the group is structured affects its performance and ability to function. Through class discussions, I learned about the factors that affect group performance. <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Size – the size of the group affects its ability to function. I learned that is best to maintain a small group with 10 members. In a small group, everyone feels needed and everyone is given responsibility. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Nature of the task – the nature of the task affects the group’s ability to function. The task should contain the right amount of challenge that will excite and push members to perform better.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Resources and support – adequate resources also affect group performance.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">External recognition – rewards and recognitions are linked motivation. The members must feel that their work and efforts are valued.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Group composition – it is important to maintain a small group with diverse talents and skills. </li> </ul>               I learned that the structure of the group is also important in its success. Every member of the group has a set of activities to perform. Norms are also important. Norms are standards shared by the membership of a group. They have certain characteristics that are important to group members. Group cohesiveness is another important factor. Cohesiveness is regarded as a force acting on the members to remain in a group.    Organization Structure and Design             Organization structure refers to how the organization is put together. Organization structure and design reflect some of the underlying ways that people interact with one another in and across jobs or departments. I learned that the structure of the organization must coincide with its goals and objectives. The allocation of duties, tasks and responsibilities between departments and individuals, an element of organization design, must also take the organizational goals and objectives into consideration. Organizations have traditionally structured themselves into three forms: <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Functional – the functional structure is the most widely used. The organizational chart resembles a pyramid with the senior management at he top, middle and lower managers spread out directly below, and workers at the bottom. The organization is usually subdivided into different functional units, such as engineering, research, operations, human resources, finance, and marketing. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Self-contained Unit (Divisional) – the self-contained unit groups organizational activities on the basis of products, services, customers, programs, technical processes, or geography. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Matrix – matrix structure is basically a combination of functional and self contained structures. The aim of organizations that adapt this structure is to maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of both structures.  </li> </ul>               I think the most important thing that I learned from organizational structure and design is that the structure and design of the organization must match its goals and objectives. Any structure can be effective if it is used in accordance with organizational goals and objectives.   Organizational Development             Organizational development is important in the management of organizations. The goal of organizational development is personal, professional, and organizational growth. Organizational development is a planned process as well, one that occurs within the organization over a long period of time. Organizational development is viewed as a planned, data-based approach to change, involving goal setting, action planning, implementation, monitoring, and taking corrective action when necessary.             I learned that organizational development is a system-wide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention and evaluation aimed at: <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Enhancing congruence between organizational structure, process, strategy, people and culture</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Developing new and creative organizational solutions</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Developing the organization’s self renewing capacity</li> </ul>   Organization Change             Organization change is any substantive modification to some part of the organization. It involves movement from the present state of the organization to some future state. The future state may be a new strategy for the organization, changes in the organization’s culture, introduction of new technology, and so on. Change can involve virtually any aspect of an organization including work schedules, departmentalization, span of management, machinery, organizational design, and employee selection.               Today organizations are operating in an environment where changes occur so fast. In order to cope with the external changes, the organization needs to change internally. I learned that organization change is inevitable. Organizations undergo changes. It is important that these changes are well planned and that the people in the organization are informed and participate in these changes. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Management of Organisations Learning Journal

Learning Journal The concept of Management of Organizations (MO) is about the analysis and management of people in organiza...

Assignment 1 – Reflective Journal_CAN STAR TEACHERS CREATE LEARNING COMMUNITIES?

CAN STAR TEACHERS CREATE LEARNING COMMUNITIES?   How learning communities be built? Sure, star teachers can create learning communities. But, it takes a greater collective and participative effort to advocate and maintain sustainable learning communities. Meaning, star teachers, no matter how they are deeply engaged in the teacher-student relationship and to everything that comes between them, cannot accomplish the objective of creating a learning environment, especially inside the classroom, minus the help of equally important roles. Of course, the establishment of a learning culture requires the participation of school officials, administrators, principals, faculty members – stars and otherwise non-stars, parents, social workers/NGOs and the students, certainly. Cultivating continuously learning communities calls a proactive, holistic approach wherein these people could work hand-in-hand with less pressure on demarcation issues (i.e. stars vs. non-stars).   One of the most essential elements of developing learning communities is its processual nature. The development process in itself is a learning experience that follows the philosophy of Henry Adams when he said that “a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Indeed, learning communities could be only successfully established through fusing together what the teachers learned before becoming full-pledged teachers and the experiences that the profession endowed them and will endow them in the future. Towards the creation of learning communities, there is the necessity to pool together the know-how, expertise and competencies that are acquired from the teachers’ teachers down to the teachers’ students, to conceptualize agreed-upon practices of stars and non-stars and then to apply learnings in universally-accepted manner.   That is to say, teachers were once students, and they are well aware of the needs, requirements and expectations in the classroom as students. And, now as teachers, they are more than obliged to respond to the needs, requirements and expectations in the classroom of their incumbent students – be it for stars and non-stars. What these teachers could do is to draw from own experiences as students and applying it now as teachers. In a way, this is not a question of who are better teachers. The idea is central on how the academia could learn from the experiences of star teachers within and outside the classroom and how these could be utilized in guiding non-stars to becoming one.   To wit, honing star teachers is not a panacea. But just, or could be, a starting point in further creation of sustainable learning communities. So, what is the value of having star teachers? Are plain teachers not enough? How non-star teachers would react to this? Important is that there will be no star teachers if there are no non-stars. This is not a challenge after all, transforming non-stars to becoming stars. Having star teachers is so important in achieving servanthood-in-the-classroom and teaching-from-the-heart in every sense of the phrases. Notable too is that although being a non-star is not at all bad, by becoming a star teacher s/he could be conditioned that teaching is not a mere 15-30 environment where pay is the most important factor but could be motivated of teaching students for the love of teaching itself. Not love of the profession, instead of the art and science of ‘humanization’ – of making an individual human in character, characteristics and nature by means of bestowing individuals with values, qualities, ethics and ideals commonly accepted by the society in an enjoyable, real-life approach while also further developing ones own attributes and qualities.   Accomplishing the ultimate goal of creating learning communities is also by itself a virtue that guides the academic workforce in continually developing personally and professionally. Self-actualization implies that the sense of fulfillment is very important for teachers even if it means to challenge the status quo. Though such conceptualization is true, there remains the fact that people can never learn all things, and people also can never learn all things inside the classroom. This old adage still holds true; however, not all teachers embraces the idea that students could learn even more outside their classrooms, with or without their presence. Establishing the learning community then not only calls for competent and well-equipped teachers but also requires the capability to instill onto the students the importance of interacting with their immediate surrounding that includes peers, neighbors, siblings, relatives, acquaintances and even nature. For teachers, personal and professional development would be futile if they could not make their students understand that learning is an imperative in their life. Imperative because learning will bequeath students to combat ignorance and illiteracy and opportunism by other people.   Such undertaking points to two things: love of teaching and love of learning. This means that building the learning community is a mutual-helping and self-helping endeavor both on the sides of teachers and students. Though the emphasis is given on the star teachers, as what we already noted that learning communities also directs on whetting non-stars to stars. Anyhow, there shall be the strike of balance on constructing and recognizing processes in encourage equal distribution of knowledge and experience between teachers and students. Apart from conforming to the spirit of communal efforts, it is but fundamental to empower both sides of the coin and locate the importance of not just teaching but also learning for teachers and locate the importance of not just learning but also educating teachers. Hence, making life long learning evident in learning communities.   As important as sharing and openness in educational institutions is the integration of the concept of community in order for students and teachers especially for non-stars to sharpen understanding of a learning community. With learning viewed to be the central activity, learning community should be a part of people’s daily existence with students hungry for learning but with less prominence of teachers hungry for power thereby star teachers. If the academic institutions and all the actors for this venture will take the effort seriously, the creation of learning communities highlights a single team: transformation. Transformation not intended for teachers and students and not for non-stars to be star teachers alone but also for the community as a whole. When we say learning community, the weight is not only inclined for star teachers and perhaps star students. There should be the greater weight to be given on the sum of all its part, the stakeholders, the community members – from the school system to homes, churches, parks, etc.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Assignment 1 – Reflective Journal_CAN STAR TEACHERS CREATE LEARNING COMMUNITIES?

CAN STAR TEACHERS CREATE LEARNING COMMUNITIES? How learning communities be built? Sure, star teachers can create learning communities...

Choices in Life: An Invitation to Self Development – Reflection journal

Reflection Journal                 Looking back at my experiences from childhood up to now, I can say that I lived a colorful life. It’s been a really amazing journey. I have met so many people, I have been to different places, I have seen the world in different perspectives. The experiences, the joy, the laughter, the love, the pain and the sorrow that I experienced in life have shaped what I am today.               As I read the book ‘I Never Knew I Had A Choice: Explorations in Personal Growth’ by Gerald Corey and Marianne Corey, I began to understand myself more. I started to open my mind and to see how I have lived my life so far. I started to see how many different factors have shaped my personality and how my experiences and choices determine what I will become in the future.               So now, I see myself at the crossroads, with so many choices and so many opportunities in front of me. Now more than ever, I need to be responsible and to take charge of my life. I need to strive, to grow, and to develop. I need to embrace my whole being as it is. However, I must not stop at accepting myself; I must aim for the best that I can be. I must aspire for self-development.               This paper serves as my reflection journal. In this paper, I will reflect on my life and experiences. My journey to a better me starts here. I will look at my life in a new perspective. I will apply the knowledge that I gained from the class and from the book in this reflection journal.               One of the topics that really got me interested choices and change (pp. 4-7). For me that chapter is so empowering. I learned that everyone has a choice and that everyone can change his or her life. That topic encouraged me to examine my life and to reflect on my life experiences. Personal change starts with self reflection. From the book I learned that for change to occur, I must  first become aware of what I am and what I want to be. Positive change can be achieved if I learn to accept my self, and love and respect the person that I am. I must be able to objectively see my strengths and weaknesses. I must explore every areas of life and be able to set my goals, to make positive choices and be responsible for the outcome. The most powerful word that I learned in this chapter is ‘self-awareness’.  For me this is a powerful word because successful change starts with self-awareness. One must have a clear and accurate picture of himself before he sets goals and objectives in life.               I also have doubts and fears. Sometimes I am afraid to take risks. Sometimes I do not want to change my life. Sometimes, I also find it hard to accept my self, my situation and some of my personal characteristics. But I always tell myself that it is my responsibility to myself, to God and to the people that I love to be a better person. I am aware, that there are things and circumstances that I cannot control. Now I am beginning to accept my self and realize that even though there are things that I cannot change about myself, I have a choice on how to live my life. Therefore, I have taken the serenity prayer to heart:   God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference (p.5).                 One of the enlightening topics in the book is Personal Growth (pp. 7-21). I learned that growth is a lifelong process, it never ceases. People sometimes tell me that I have achieved many things in my life. My friends say that I am intelligent and talented. I am really so thankful to God because He has endowed me with many talents and gifts. And as a good servant it is my duty to enrich the talents and gifts that He has given me. No matter how far I have gone in my life, my journey to personal growth is not yet finish. I still have so many things to learn. I still need to develop my skills and talents. I still need to change in so many areas of my life. I need to strive for self-actualization. Striving for self actualization according to the book is working toward fulfilling my potential, toward becoming what I am capable of becoming. I learned that self-actualizing people demonstrate the following: <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Self-awareness (p. 13)</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Freedom (p. 14)</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Basic honesty and caring (p. 15)</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Trust and Autonomy (p. 15)</li> </ul>               Now that I am opening a new chapter of life – adulthood, I need to become more matured. I need to leave my fears and my doubts behind and start to decide for myself and be responsible for the outcomes. While discovering and developing my real self I must also become interdependent with other people. Being matured and being interdependent are two different but related things. A person that is complete and actively functioning in the society is both matured and interdependent. Being matured is being responsible for the consequences of our choices. Being interdependent is being able to form meaningful connections with people different from us in gender, class, race and culture. Maturity requires the ability to empathize, communicate, collaborate, connect, trust, and respect others.               The topic that for me was critical was about Early Learning and Decisions (pp. 75-78). Chapter three revealed so much about how as children, we are affected by the most important social group in our life- our family. The topic focused on the roles of parents in shaping their children and how long lasting their influence on their children is. During my childhood, our family lived comfortably. I enjoy so many things and my parents were both supportive of my studies and my hobbies. They were the ones who really encouraged me to do well in school and to enrich my talents. I can say that both my parents are achievers. They both work and they are successful. I was brought up well; my parents taught me so many things about life. I learned from their example and followed their teachings. However, like typical families we had our ups and downs. He had our fair share of problems and struggles. Nevertheless, I consider myself lucky because of our social and economic status. Because of my parents, I had access to so many things that other people cannot have. My parents taught me to value education above all. They were the ones who pushed me to do my best. And so they played an important role in my early learning and decisions.   As a young individual who is entering adulthood, I find the Stages of Adulthood (pp. 87-97) very interesting. I am now in the emerging adulthood period of my life. This period is both exciting and at the same time overwhelming. Exciting because there are different opportunities and life directions. It is also overwhelming because, from now on, I need to be more careful and more responsible. I need to development my personality and become my own person – unique. According to the book, during emerging adulthood, young people examine life’s choices regarding love, work, and worldview.   As an emerging adult, I need to set new goals and objectives in life. And I need to prepare myself, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to achieve those goals and objectives. Now I need to be more focused and more determined. Now I need to start to give back to my parents and to the society. In a few years, I will become an adult. I want to be an active member of the society – to be able to contribute to the community and be able to touch other people’s lives.               My reflection journal focuses on my current life and my transition from teen to a young adult. I know that there are many things ahead of me. For now, I focus my attention to the near future. I am looking back at my life and picking up all the things that I learned from the people who touched my life, from all the experiences, from every success and every downfall, from all the places I have been. Now, I am in a phase of my life, when I need to make my own choice. I am now ready change and to lead my own life.   Reference Corey, G. and Corey, M. (2006). I Never Knew I Had a Choice: Explorations in Personal Growth. (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Choices in Life: An Invitation to Self Development – Reflection journal

Reflection Journal Looking back at my experiences from childhood up to now, I can say that I lived a colorful life. It’s ...

From Visual to Value Perception: The Impact of a New Class of RGBW Display on Mobile Applications Research Proposal

From Visual to Value Perception: The Impact of a New Class of RGBW Display on Mobile Applications   Introduction The rapid growth of technological advancement in the society has brought people ease in all the things that they do. Part of this technological advancement is the emergence of the innovative activities for each and every organization. Evidence of innovation is spread thinly in the business population, as most profess that innovation brought out excellent performance for the company in terms of profit and resource maximization. Management of innovation is often regarded as the unquestioned cornerstone towards competitiveness in the 21st century. These technological advancements have brought people, especially those in the business world, to utilize a strategy that would be helpful in enhancing the business value of any organization. Furthermore, this development has made changes and development with regards new technologies, notably for this paper the impact of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications is the main context. Within the business arena, one of the most important things to consider is to establish a strategy that will be useful for different activities of the organization and enhance the value of the business as a whole. In line with this, more and more organizations are trying to impose and implement different innovative activities that will further make their business more competent and to have a competitive position in the industry. Basically, the creation of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications creates significant effect to its users. Primarily, the purpose of this paper is to have insightful details about the innovative activities such as the creation of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications. The 21st century has become the era of adopting innovation as a premise for doing business. The higher echelon of management in organizations is now driven towards innovative strategies designed to provide a competitive edge in the marketplace. As business gravitates towards a global scale, entrepreneurs find themselves faced with the challenge of producing new and better products at reduced cost and market price. Daft (2003) pointed out that in managing a global environment, managers must be characterized by the ability to bring about change through innovation and creativity. Further according to Daft, a revolutionized manager sees change, rather than stability, as the nature of things (2003). Innovation as a ground for doing business in the 21st century will be the consistent tugging force that the organization must either strive to adopt or suffer the consequences of being left behind by competitors.   Objectives Ø  To introduce the creation of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications. Ø  To present and analyze the criteria used to access the successfulness of the selected innovations. Ø  To evaluate the effect of the creation of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications as perceived by mobile phone users.   Research Questions In order to complete the goals of this particular academic activity as well as to set the objectives of the study, the following research questions will be presented and discussed in the entirety of the research paper focusing on the implications of the creation of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications. <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt"> 	What is the use of RGBW 	technology on mobile phones? How did it grow and develop into the mobile 	phone innovations that we know today?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt"> 	What are the impacts of 	new class of RGBW display on 	mobile applications in 	the entire global communication system?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt"> 	What are the features of 	new class of RGBW 	display on mobile applications? 	</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt"> 	What are the vulnerabilities 	of new class of RGBW 	display on mobile applications?</li>   Method of Research There are three kinds of research methods, correlational, experimental and descriptive. (Walliman & Baiche, 2001). Walliman & Baiche, (2001) emphasized that the correlation kind of research method is used due to ethical problems with experiments. Moreover, it is used due to practical problems with experiments. Furthermore, inferring causality from correlation is not actually impossible, but very difficult. This mode of study is widely applicable, cheap, and usually ethical. Nonetheless, there exist some “third variable” issues and measurement problems. The correlation research refers to studies in which the purpose is to discover relationships between variables through the use of correlational statistics (r). The square of a correlation coefficient yields the explained variance (r-squared). A correlation relationship between two variables is occasionally the result of an outside source, so we have to be careful and remember that correlation does not necessarily tell us about cause and effect. If a strong relationship is found between two variables, using an experimental approach can test causality. On the other hand, the descriptive research method uses observation and surveys. In this method, it is possible that the study would be cheap and quick. It could also suggest unanticipated hypotheses. Nonetheless, it would be very hard to rule out alternative explanations and especially infer causations. Thus, this study used the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research utilized observations in the study.  To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Creswell (1994) guided the researcher when he stated: Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition.  The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study. The research described in this document is based fundamentally on qualitative and quantities research methods. This permits a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allows investigation of important new issues and questions as they arise, and allows the investigators to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan. Qualitative models are more able than traditional models to express states of incomplete knowledge about continuous mechanisms (Benjamin, 1994). Qualitative simulation guarantees to find all possible behaviors consistent with the knowledge in the model. This expressive power and coverage are important in problem solving for diagnosis, design, monitoring, and explanation. Qualitative evaluation data usually refers to raw, descriptive information about: programs/products and the people who participate in/use them or are affected by them and; programs/products and the people who develop or use them (Paton, 1987). Three data gathering strategies typically characterize qualitative methodology: in-depth, open-ended interviews; direct observation; and written documents (including program records, personal diaries, logs, etc.). Paton (1987) illustrated the three data gathering strategies of qualitative data as: data from interviews, observations and document reviews are organized into major themes, categories, and case examples. The most common strategy for analyzing qualitative data is constant-comparison, but there are many other techniques from which to choose. There are a variety of ways to report the results of qualitative research/evaluation; common among them is the sense of story – which includes: attention to detail, descriptive vocabulary, direct quotes from those observed or interviewed, and thematic organization. As indicated in the website: http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/, William Thochim emphasized that qualitative methods permit the evaluator to study selected issues, cases, or events in depth and detail. Data collection is not constrained by predetermined categories of analysis, allowing for a level of depth and detail that quantitative strategies can’t provide. William Thochim added that qualitative methods are particularly well-suited to exploration, discovery and inductive logic. An evaluation approach is inductive to the extent that the evaluator attempts to make sense of the situation without imposing pre-existing expectations on the setting. Inductive designs begin with specific observations and build toward general patterns. Fieldwork is the central activity of qualitative data gathering. To be in the field means to have direct, personal contact with people in their own environments. It is the researcher’s desire to contextualize program or product implementation that allows him/her to capture important “results” (effects, outcomes) that standardized measures cannot. Quantitative approaches allow for large-scale measurement of ideas, beliefs, and attitudes. But generally, the set of questions is limited — facilitating comparison and statistical aggregation of the data. This allows for development of a generalizable set of findings. By contrast, qualitative methods typically produce a wealth of detailed data about a defined number of people and cases – data that need not fit into predetermined response choices that characterize most surveys, questionnaires, or tests. The main advantages of quantitative research include its objectivity. Unlike many qualitative researchers, quantitative researchers try to keep a ‘distance’ from their subjects. They use subjects unknown to them and they make no attempt to get to know their subjects other than to collect the required data from them. Quantitative research methods, if explained in detail are generally very easy to replicate and hence have a high reliability. The results of quantitative research tend to be very simple in that they are generally reduced to a few numerical statistics and interpreted in a few short statements. A mix of qualitative and quantitative data gathering enriches evaluation; the open-ended comments provide a way to elaborate and contextualize statistical “facts.” This research seeks to investigate the impact of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications. This study illustrated the growth of new class of RGBW display on mobile applications basically it is more about the visual to value perceptions. The primary source of data came from a survey questionnaire and interviews that is conducted by the researcher. A survey questionnaire will be given to number of respondents that are using mobile phones with new RGBW displays. Apparently, the secondary sources of data will come from published articles in business and information technology journals, articles, and books relating to the use of RGBW displays in mobile phones. This served as the basis of the researchers’ assumptions and comparative data on the result of the survey and the interviews. As stated, the researcher will gather data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from social science journals; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material.  Afterwards, the researcher summarized all the information, make a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provide insightful recommendations.   Sample Journals             For this research, published journals concerning the use of quantitative and qualitative tools are evaluated.  In this part, two studies are considered, a well designed study and a poorly designed study from the journal articles. For well-designed study, the paper of Wang & Higgins entitled “Limitations of Mobile Phone Learning” was considered.[1]  Basically, the paper of Wang & Higgins uses the combination of survey research and content analysis.  As seen in their paper, the survey approach created several advantages on their study.  Survey reveals what is typical, average or normal against which the behaviour or performance of an individual can judged or evaluated.  For instance, their paper surveyed 32 university students. Respondents were mainly 3rd and 4th year students, plus graduate students (n=32: 18 females 14 males, with an average age of 21.3 years) in their university. With regards to their content analysis effort in which they deals documentary materials that are already existing and available, it shows some expressiveness.  As compared to other research paper, the study of Wang & Higgins shows objectiveness.  There are no bias involved in the selection and classification of content they analyzed particularly in their sampling design and in the interpretation of results.  All items and aspects in the content are included and placed under appropriate categories.  The strength of their paper is its systematic presentation and its quantitative approach.  Quantitative approaches are easy to interpret.  On the other hand, the paper of Malaya Kumar Nayak and Poonphon Suesaowaluk entitled “Advantages and Disadvantages of eLearning Management System” shows a poorly designed study.[2]  Similar to the paper of Wang & Higgins in which they are using both survey research and content analysis, however the paper of Nayak and Suesaowaluk shows irregularities in their objectives.  The paper didn’t show the context of the advantages and disadvantages of eLearning Management System.  They just discuss information about e-learning and survey some respondents but they didn’t focus their discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of eLearning Management System.  Aside from this, the respondents’ reliability is not considered.  There is no validation of subjects conducted. Logically, the researcher should initially submit a sample of the set of survey questionnaires and after approval; the survey should be conducted to some number of respondents.  After the questions are answered, the researcher should ask the respondents for any suggestions or any necessary corrections to ensure further improvement and validity of the instrument.  After that, the researcher should again examine the content of the interview questions to find out the reliability of the instrument.  And finally, the researchers should exclude irrelevant questions and changed words that would be deemed difficult by the respondents, to much simpler terms.   This is not shown in their paper. Validity and Evaluation For this consideration, this research, the researcher will exclude the five respondents who initially used for the validation of the instrument.  The researcher will tally, score and tabulate all the responses in the provided interview questions. Moreover, the interview to be used is a structured interview. It is consisted of a list of specific questions and the interviewer does not deviate from the list or inject any extra remarks into the interview process. The interviewer may encourage the interviewee to clarify vague statements or to further elaborate on brief comments. Otherwise, the interviewer attempts to be objective and tries not to influence the interviewer’s statements. The interviewer does not share his/her own beliefs and opinions. The structured interview is mostly a “question and answer” session. To evaluate the information to be gathered, the following analysis instruments will be used: percentage analysis, mean and median analysis, chi-square, and SPSS for statistical analysis of information gathered from the questionnaire survey; and analysis of variance to determine and investigate the impact of a new class of RGBW display on mobile applications.     Sources:   Benjamin K. (1994) Qualitative Reasoning: Modeling and Simulation with Incomplete Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.   Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.   Daft, R. (2003). Management. 6th Ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: Thomson South-Western. Patton, M. Q. (1987). How to use qualitative methods in evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.   Walliman, N. & B. Baiche. (2001) Your research project. SAGE      Publications.     	   		 		 		 		[1] Available online at 		http://www.jaltcall.org/journal/articles/2_1_Wang.pdf 		 		 		 		[2] Available online at 		http://www.ijcim.th.org/v15nSP3/P22eLearningAP_AdvantagesAndDisadvantages.pdf Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

From Visual to Value Perception: The Impact of a New Class of RGBW Display on Mobile Applications Research Proposal

From Visual to Value Perception: The Impact of a New Class of RGBW Display on Mobile Applications Introduction The rapid growth of tech...

Treasury and Risk Management Learning Journal

Treasury and Risk Management Learning Journal   I have chosen this project because I assumed that I have inadequate knowledge on the subject. In doing so, I could confirm the extent of my learning of the subject and apply in practice. It is of my best belief that that the module functions toward making students functional in terms of putting different learnt strategies into action. With this, I have learned the limitations of an industry particularly the credit industry and the extent to which the interdependence among various industries is so apparent. I came to know that the ‘dark sides’ of risk management which posits that not only adequate risk assessments should be inexistence but they should also be credible and reliable. All risk factors could get worse at the same time, resulting to the perfect storm scenario, and that operational issues [or risks] could affect credit assessments of the consumer portfolio. Anyhow, the tendency of consumers to default or not is a resultant of an ever-changing, complex social and legal systems. I now understand consumer credit encompasses a ‘semi-automated’ decision-making process hence impose more complicated risks which must be given careful attention.      For me, this activity requires the knowledge, patience, persistence and the drive to accomplish something. Through this, I can now consider myself as an effective adult learner who is able to share skills, experiences, independent views, opinions and beliefs to make this activity more meaningful and productive. The process of coming up with the ideas to be integrated in the paper, I realized that it is a needs-based wherein it is not enough that you will apply your own learning but also to learn more through the process. This activity provides me an opportunity to test whether I am capable to function in a real-world setting. With this I say that there are various risks that could threaten an institutions existence, functioning and survival such as interest rate risk and asset valuation risk, and what seems to be critically important are operational and business risks. Nevertheless, there is also a risk that even the long-established institutions should embrace and this is reputation risk. Preserving reputation is very important as it serves the yardstick for delivering promises to customers hence something that is very vulnerable to risk.      As such, the project is also a proactive learning as I need to integrate not just a single concept but a multitude of concepts so that I can provide depth into this activity. Realistic results are my goal and which is reasonably attainable so that it could be acted upon to emphasize its importance. While doing the project, I stumble upon new understanding that challenges my own knowledge like the concept of nature, dynamic and typologies of risk exposure. I learned that I have to process my own learning which can lead me building up the confidence of embracing new ideas. Limitations inherent in this kind of project would include susceptibility from my own subjectivities. I would tend to think that when a firm or institutions fails to respond and address risk inherent to the business, the blame should be placed for ineffective corporate governance which could be always true but realistically, there are also different risk-related failures that could not be solely blamed for such like in the case of interconnected industries.   Competence and expertise to discuss such a complicated issue like this enabled me to match my personal knowledge, skills and attitudes with the peculiar set-ups of various organizations relating with the issue of financial tsunami which include Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Because the recent financial tsunami is now shaping how concepts of risk management must be understood and taught in Universities, I came to understand that learning [from the financial tsunami experience] is participatory process and is effective when learning could be transferred. What I am trying to say is that institutions affected are now learning from their own mistakes, which is too costly not just for them but also to the government. Nevertheless, because of what had happened the posterity could benefit from it and hopefully will not commit the same wrongful acts again or in the future.     Although this activity could be very simple for some, the process of understanding what and how did it happened, so profound that it affects the economy of the whole world, is not that simple at all. Such an activity requires the knowledge, patience, persistence and active participation as well as the drive to accomplish the goal. In sum, the learning that could be attained from this activity is two-fold. First, one could learn that risk must be taken seriously, respond and address such promptly and in an effective manner and second, one could learn that in doing the activity, risk must be addressed both individually and collectively. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Treasury and Risk Management Learning Journal

Treasury and Risk Management Learning Journal I have chosen this project because I assumed that I have inadequate knowledge on the su...

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