Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Current Issues For Advanced Practice Nurses

Today people are living longer than ever. The discovery of new technology, innovative medicines, science, and research all play apart of that. An increase in aging population is one of the most dramatic demographic trends in the world today. Many elders present many complex diseases and require complex care and disease management. The challenge also presents many opportunities in the healthcare field and a shortage of providers in rural areas. The roles for advanced practice nursing (APN) have been introduced since the late nineteenth century till the present (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 3). These roles include certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), certified nurse-midwives (CNMs), clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), and nurse practitioners (NPs) (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 3). Building credibility and defining practice of APN roles did not firmly establish until in late 1970s (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 17).

In 1992, the American Nurse Association (ANA) established Healthcare Reform which focused on restructuring the United States healthcare system to reduce costs and improve access to care (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 23). Today APNs face many challenges as they strive to be recognized by members of the society. The current issues faced by APNs are discussed below and this information is based on Advanced Practice Nursing: An Integrative Approach (4th ed.).

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The Key Issues
The identified key issues are education, scope of practice, specialty practice, reimbursement, titling, prescriptive authority, legal status, regulation, and credentialing issues. The similarities among these issues are all embedded in regulatory languages which make it difficult for APNs to benefit from development of nursing role. The differences occur when one failed to collaborate and to address these above issues as a whole and to promote collaborative relationships with other regulated health disciplines both at the national and state level. And, indeed these issues are still importance to the practice of advanced practice nurses.

Current Issues For Advanced Practice Nurses

Three Chosen Issues
The three chosen issues are scope of practice/specialty practice, reimbursement, and prescriptive authority. Like never before, the profession for APNs has emerged into different era which presents many different opportunities and challenges for newcomers. Today APNs can be found working anywhere from the family practice, cardiology office, urgent care always to emergency medicine. As a new graduate APN, the role can present many challenges and obstacles especially when she or he tries to adjust to the new role while attempting to comply with several clinical practice guidelines.

Even though the title of APN is recognized as a valuable asset to the community and other healthcare team member, many of them are still struggled to get reimbursed properly. The holistic caring approach provided by APNs is not inferior to the medical model provided by physicians. The education requirement for both professions will be soon about the same especially with the new requirement of a doctoral degree for APNs. This is the reason APNs still debate for equal pay for equal service when care is compared between both health providers.

After reading Advanced Practice Nursing: An Integrative Approach (4th ed.) page 606 and 607, the reality becomes clear that APNs have to prove so much in order to gain sole authority in scope of practice. The Board of Medicine continues to find ways to limit the scope of practice for APNs. According to Lugo, O'Grady, Hodnicki, & Hanson (2007), 23 states possess sole authority from the board of nursing; whereas other states possess joint authority with the board of medicine, the board of pharmacy, or both (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 606). The outcome of this disagreement affects the role and practice of APNs greatly especially when they attempt to provide the best care possible in a timely manner.

Top Two Issues
The chosen top two issues are reimbursement and prescriptive authority. As a new graduate APN, she or he must get educated well about different payment options such Medicare and Medicaid, third party payers, and more to ensure proper reimbursement. The second strategy is to encourage schools throughout the country to incorporate this valuable lesson as part of the standard curriculum. The nursing profession as a whole should continue to flight aggressively for equal service for equal pay because nursing profession should not be assumed as inferior to other independent health providers despite different styles of caring approach. As an individual APN, one must continue the education to doctorial level in order to try to resolve the unfair disadvantage of prescriptive authority across the nation. The second strategy is APNs should continue to promote the recognition of APN as safe and cost-effective alternative provider throughout the healthcare systems.

Regulatory Barriers
The current regulatory barriers for APNs are prescriptive authority, reimbursement schemes, nursing education, and scope of practice and titling. The variance in board regulations from state to state is a problem facing APNs who highly mobile (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 610). Even though prescriptive authority exists over the years and becomes fairly standard for APN prescribers, but the requirements still vary from state to state (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 607). For those APNs who love to travel and work at another state to make sure to check the scope of practice for that state as it varies significantly (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 607). The professional nursing organizations and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) have been working on a new regulatory model for APNs in order to promote some uniformity on credentialing and licensure (Hamric, Spross, and Hanson, 2009, p. 610). A system of mutual regulatory recognition between states is needed and remains to be done.

Conclusion
Even though most of the hard work was done to promote the path to independency and uniformity for advanced practice nursing, but several issues remain to be solved especially in the areas of credentialing and regulation. Many nursing organization is working aggressively to put a new regulatory model in place to promote a system of mutual regulatory recognition. The field in advanced practice nursing is evolving and changing rapidly, especially in the areas of advanced practice nursing specialties. As a result of this complex change, policymakers and regulators face many challenges and obstacles to ensure development of broad-based practice standards. At the same time this challenge also presents many new opportunities for advancing practice nursing; thus APNs continue to prove themselves as safe and cost-effective providers to the members of society and to move forward to a better professional future.

Reference

Hamric, A. B., Spross, J. A., & Hanson, C. M. (2009). Advanced practice nursing: An integrative approach (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

Current Issues For Advanced Practice Nurses

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Chemistry - Alkenes to Alkanes

Simple Organic Compounds Containing Carbon, Hydrocarbons With Functional Groups

Carbon (C) is present in most compounds, both inorganic and organic. Carbon is fairly unreactive, but at high temperatures is forms compounds with hydrogen, oxygen and various metals. Carbon is the only element with the ability to form chains and cyclical compounds of carbon atoms that line up next to each other in various lengths. This makes carbon the basis of organic chemistry. Thanks to carbon, more than 10 million known organisms survive, even thrive, on this Earth. In addition, there are around 200,000 known inorganic compounds which contain carbon.

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Carbon is an important rock-forming mineral, forming carbonates. As carbon dioxide (CO2), it can dissolve in water and is also found in the atmosphere. It is an important component of all plants and animals, of all living organisms. Those organisms which died in the early years of our planet's history have helped to create a huge supply of carbon and carbon-based fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Chemistry - Alkenes to Alkanes

In organic material which contains carbon, its atoms are bonded together in simple, single bonds (in saturated compounds) or in double and triple bonds (in unsaturated compounds). Carbon chains are the result. The sites which are not used for direct carbon-to-carbon bonding can be used for bonds with hydrogen (hydrocarbons) or with other elements.

According to the type of carbon chain present, we can differentiate between compounds with open chains (linear or branched - aliphatic or acyclic) and cyclic compounds. Aliphatic compounds are categorised in the ranks of branched carbon-containing compounds. Cyclical carbon-containing compounds are distinguished by their carbon atoms being arranged in a circle, in a closed cycle. Of these, the most important are aromatic carbon compounds, beginning with the founding member of the aromatic compounds, benzene (C6H6). In it, carbon atoms form a circle together, with the individual bonds between them showing both single and double bond character, a sort of hybrid between the two. Some of the more important organic compounds are fats, proteins and hydrocarbons.

Hydrocarbons

Hydrocarbons are composed exclusively of atoms of carbon and hydrogen. They are the simplest of all organic compounds. There are three types of homologous families of hydrocarbons: alkanes, alkenes and alkynes. Alkanes contain only single bonds between carbon atoms. Alkenes contain at least one double bond. Alkynes contain at least one triple bond. Most of these types of hydrocarbons can exist with the same chemical formula in different form or chemical structure. When a compound has the same chemical formula but two possible structures, these two structures are called isomers.

Hydrocarbon molecules can also contain what are called functional groups. These are groups which contain at least one atom which is neither carbon nor hydrogen. These functional groups can affect the chemical behaviour of the molecule that contains them by giving that molecule special chemical properties. One example is ethanol - CH3CH2OH. Here, the functional group is -OH, with oxygen the determining atom.

Stereochemistry

Stereochemistry is simply the three-dimensional arrangement of a molecule. Organic molecules of the same chemical formula can have their atoms arranged differently in space. When they do, they often have significantly different chemical properties.

Isomers are those types of compounds which have the same chemical formula but different atomic arrangements in space. Isomers can be divided into stereoisomers and structural isomers.

Stereoisometric molecules change their atomic arrangement as a result of changes in pressure or temperature. All bonds and types of bonds (single, double, triple) are conserved in the same original fashion, however.

Structural isomers have atoms which change their position in a molecule. One example is a linear compound (where all of the carbon atoms are lined up in linear fashion), compared to the same chemical formula compound with a shorter linear structure and branching (chain isomerism). Functional groups can change their position (functional isomerism), or can differ from another isomer in the position of a double or triple bond (bond isomerism).

The number of carbon atoms in a hydrocarbon determines how many forms that compound can take. The number of possible isomers in a compound rises as the number of carbon atoms it contains rises.

Alkanes, Alkenes, Alkynes

Hydrocarbons are composed exclusively of oxygen and hydrogen. There are three types of homogeneous hydrocarbons (whose members differ by one CH2 unit): alkanes, alkenes and alkynes. The difference between these three groups is in the bond types between carbon. Alkanes form only single bonds, alkenes form double bonds, and in alkynes there is at least one triple bond.

The simplest alkane is methane. It is formed from one atom of carbon which is bonded with four atoms of hydrogen. If a CH2 group is added, the second alkane compound is formed. The naming of alkanes, as with all other hydrocarbons, is based on the rules of IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry). Alkane names all end with -ane (from alkan). In front of this ending is a prefix which describes the amount of carbon atoms, corresponding with either a Greek or Latin number. The first four alkanes are named according to historical convention.

Methane: CH4, ethane: C2H6, propane: C3H8, butane: C4H10, pentane: C5H12. The formula of all alkanes can be calculated according to the simple formula CnH2n+2. The number of carbon atoms is the defining factor as to which alkane is which. The alkanes, despite how many carbon atoms they contain, all share some common characteristics. For example, it is typical for all alkanes that they are not highly reactive, they burn well, and they react analogously with halogens in photochemical substitution reactions (exchange reactions). With increasing size of the molecule in the alkane family, alkanes begin to differ from one another in a fundamental way. The first four alkanes are found in the gaseous state of matter. Alkanes containing 5-16 carbon atoms are liquids, and alkanes with 17 or more carbon atoms are solids. Boiling and melting points rise with increasing atomic number.

Branched alkanes are first named according to the amount of carbon atoms they contain in a row. If a radical is contained in an alkaline compound, the -ane ending is replaced by -yl. The branch must be denoted in some way, so as to pinpoint its location on the main carbon chain. For this reason, carbon atoms are numbered from left to right from least to greatest number, so that the branch is arbitrarily assigned the lowest number possible. The main chain has to be the longest one in the molecule. If there are multiple chains in the molecule, they are assigned letters of the alphabet.

Properties and Reactivity

The bond between carbon and hydrogen in an alkane molecule is a weak, polar atomic bond. For this reason, the individual atoms of alkanes carry only a very weak partial charge. These partial charges cancel each other out over the molecule, since it is perfectly symmetrical. The result is a molecule which is non-polar overall. This is not to say one molecule of an alkane does not interact electrostatically with other atoms of its own kind. Weak van der Waals intermolecular forces are found between non-poplar molecules, causing them to mutually attract and repel each other in a weak way. The size of these forces increases as molecule size increases. According to this idea, the characteristics of unbranched alkanes change with increasing size of the carbon chain.

At room temperature, the first four alkanes are found in the gaseous state of matter. Pentane is the first of the liquid alkanes. Until hexane (16), alkane compounds become more and more viscous (parafin oil), because their viscosity rises as the strength of van der Waals forces increases. From heptadecane (17), the alkanes are solids (parafins). Their melting and boiling points rise as a function of the number of carbons in their chains.

Alkanes burn readily. When they do burn, carbon dioxide and water are the products. With increasing chain size, alkanes, given the same amount of oxygen, burn less easily, so that more carbon soot (elementary carbon) is formed with increasing chain size. In alkane molecules, all bonds are said to be saturated. For this reason, alkanes are not very reactive. They do tend to form compounds with halogens.

Van der Waals Forces

Because molecules carry a partial charge, there are forces and attractions between neighbouring molecules. These forces between molecules are very small, but they are big enough to hold the molecule together. The longer the carbon chain of a molecule, the more atoms can take part in these mutual forces, and the greater the resultant attractive force. If the inner forces in smaller alkanes are small, they may not be strong enough to hold the molecule together at room temperature. With increasing carbon chain size, however, these intramolecular forces do increase. At a chain length of 17 carbon atoms, the van der Waals forces are so strong that the individual molecules are held together in the solid state of matter.

Alkenes

Alkenes (olefíns) are unsaturated compounds of carbon with hydrogen which contain one or two double bonds between atoms of carbon. They burn to form carbon soot and carbon dioxide and water. They are more reactive than alkanes because of the fact that they contain double bonds.

Multiple bonds (double, triple bonds) are energetically less advantageous for atoms than corresponding single bonds. For this reason, the atoms in a compound will attempt to break multiple bonds to form single bonds, which are more advantageous energetically. This explains why compounds which contain double and triple bonds are so much more reactive than those which contain single bonds. The alkenes include ethene: C2H4, propene: C3H6, butene: C4H8 and pentene: C5H10. Up to butene, the alkenes occur as gases. Up to hexadecene (C16H32) they are liquids, with higher alkenes found in the solid state of matter. Their general chemical formula is CnH2n.

Alkynes

Alkynes (acetylenes) are unsaturated necyclical hydrocarbons which contain one or more triple bonds between atoms of carbon. When they burn, they tend to form carbon soot. When oxygen is present during burning, high temperatures can be reached. The general formula for alkynes is CnH2a-2. Among these are acetylene: C2H2, propyne: C3H4 and butyne:C4H6.

Alkenes and Alkynes, Unsaturated Hydrocarbons

The carbon atoms of hydrocarbons can be arranged in circles. These cyclical hydrocarbons with single bonds are called cycloalkanes. Benzene and its derivatives, however, are called aromatic hydrocarbons. They contain double bonds. Benzene (first called benzol) was discovered in 1825 by M. Faraday. The name benzol was coined by J. von Liebig. Because benzene is not an alcohol, we call it benzene, not benzol. Benzene is a colourless liquid which refracts light and has an aromatic odour. This characteristic smell was the reason why benzene's group is called the aromatic compounds. Benzene is less dense than water and does not mix with water. On the other hand, it does mix with, or dissolve in, non-polar solvents. Benzene can itself dissolve fats, resins and rubber. Its boiling point is 80.1° C, lower than that of water. At 5-6° C, benzene solidifies and begins to crystallise. When it is burned, benzene releases carbon soot. In its pure form, benzene can be dangerous for human health. If humans are exposed to benzene for long periods of time, their livers, kidneys and bone marrow can be harmed. Benzene is a carcinogen, but it is a useful material in chemistry, serving as a reactant in the synthesis of a number of organic compounds.

Cyclic Hydrocarbons

Cyclic hydrocarbons can be differentiated from aliphatic hydrocarbons. The cycloalkanes, which are composed of multiple CH2 groups and have no double bonds, form a homologous group of compounds. The first member is cyclopentane. The same as the next member cyclohexane, it is very unstable. Because cycloalkanes are saturated compounds, they, like linear alkanes, are not very reactive. They also share a number of properties. The aromatic hydrocarbons are derived from benzene. Group members have six free valence electrons which are distributed in a circle in the form of a charged cloud. Because of the presence of these valence electrons, we can predict that the reactivity of these aromatic compounds will be similar to other unsaturated hydrocarbons. This time, however, our prediction is incorrect: Benzene is much less reactive than other unsaturated hydrocarbons. Only at high temperatures and in the presence of a catalyst can benzene take on another hydrogen atom. When it does, cyclohexane is the resultant product.

The Molecular Structure of Benzene and Cyclohexane

Benzene (benzol), which was discovered as early as 1825, was described by A.F. Kekule von Stradonitz for the first time in 1865. According to Kekule's description, benzene was a circular compound with six atoms of carbon. The benzene circle contained three double bonds which alternate with three single bonds. Kekule believed that these double bonds were fixed in one place in the molecule. He thought that there were two isomeres of benzene which existed side-by-side.

Modern models of benzene's structure show that each carbon atom has associated with it one unpaired electron, a free electron. These unpaired electrons are divided among the circle in the form of a charged cloud. They do not have one certain position in the formation of double bonds. This strange electron arrangement is called mezomeric. It is the reason why benzene is not as reactive as we might expect as compared to other compounds which contain double bonds.

Cyclohexane belongs to the cyclic hydrocarbon family of single-bonded compounds between carbon atoms. It is made of six carbons, each having two hydrogens associated with it.

Noble Gases, Halogen-Substituted Alkanes

The noble gases are found in Group VIII of the main group elements, the A groups. They have a full outermost electron shell and are therefore nearly unreactive. The lighter noble gases do not form compounds at all, and the heavier ones form very few, these being able to be formed and exist only under certain conditions. The elements of the noble gas group include: helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe) and radon (Ra). All occur in the gaseous phase of matter. It is possible to produce them through the distillation of condensed air (at temperatures of around -200° C).

The noble gases are not flammable. Helium is used in hot air balloons and other balloons, because it is lighter than air. Radon is the product of the fission reaction of the radioactive element radium. The other noble gases are used in numerous types of lighting because they do not react (light bulbs, neon tubes).

Halogens are found in the seventh main group of elements. They have seven electrons in their outermost electron shell. They can react with other elements and form covalent bonds as well as being able to react to form ionic bonds. They occur in nature in compounds. Smaller halogens, the ones at the top of the periodic table, are more reactive than the halogens in the lower portion of the table, so the smaller halogens can take the place of larger ones in compounds, replacing them or substituting for them. All halogens are poisonous. The halogens are: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I) and astatine (At). Fluorine and chlorine are gases at room temperature. Fluorine corrodes and attacks almost all other materials, including glass. Chlorine is highly poisonous. Other halogens are either liquids or solids at room temperature, based on their size, where the largest halogens are solids. In the gaseous form all halogens are highly poisonous.

Substitution Generally

The substitution of halogens with alkanes is another way besides burning that they can react. In a substitution reaction, one atom of hydrogen is replaced by one atom of a halogen. This type of reaction is called a halogenation. The halogenation of alkanes occurs in the presence of light, making it a photochemical reaction.

Methane (C2H4) reacts with chlorine (which occurs as a two-atom molecule Cl2) in the presence of light to produce methyl chloride, CH3Cl, and hydrogen chloride (HCl).

These compounds can be differentiated according to various criteria, including:

1. The type of halogen, for example fluoro-, chloro-, bromo-, and iodo-.

2. The type of carbon chain: open, closed, aromatic, saturated, unsaturated.

3. The number of atoms in the halogen: mono-, di- and poly halogen compounds.

The name of the compound is based on the number of carbon atoms present, and where the substitution of a halogen for a hydrogen atom has taken place. Before the name of the hydrocarbon the names of the substitued halogens are given, in alphabetical order if possible. Each carbon atom is assigned a number so as to place the substituted halogen at as low a number as possible. Then the number of the carbon which has been substituted is placed before the halogen prefix. For example:

The carbon chain is always numbered in such a way so that the substituting groups are assigned the lowest numbers. If, however, there are multiple substitutions or some larger group has been substituted, a functional group, that is, it is assigned the lowest possible number.

Fluorine is the first of the halogen group, which means that it is able to substitute for all of the other halogens in a chemical bond. For this reason, hydrocarbons containing fluorine are very stable, non-flammable, and are not poisonous. They are used as an ingredient in aerosol sprays or as the refrigerant liquid in refrigerators, and as a solvent. Their use has become less popular in recent years because of the damage they do in the atmosphere to the ozone layer.

Chemistry - Alkenes to Alkanes

Friday, April 13, 2012

Globalisation And Primary Education Development In Tanzania: Prospects And Challenges

1. Overview of the Country and Primary Education System:
Tanzania covers 945,000 square kilometres, including approximately 60,000 square kilometres of inland water. The population is about 32 million people with an average annual growth rate of 2.8 percent per year. Females comprise 51% of the total population. The majority of the population resides on the Mainland, while the rest of the population resides in Zanzibar. The life expectancy is 50 years and the mortality rate is 8.8%. The economy depends upon Agriculture, Tourism, Manufacturing, Mining and Fishing. Agriculture contributes about 50% of GDP and accounting for about two-thirds of Tanzania's exports. Tourism contributes 15.8%; and manufacturing, 8.1% and mining, 1.7%. The school system is a 2-7-4-2-3+ consisting of pre-primary, primary school, ordinary level secondary education, Advanced level secondary, Technical and Higher Education. Primary School Education is compulsory whereby parents are supposed to take their children to school for enrollment. The medium of instruction in primary is Kiswahili.

One of the key objectives of the first president J.K. Nyerere was development strategy for Tanzania as reflected in the 1967 Arusha Declaration, which to be ensuring that basic social services were available equitably to all members of society. In the education sector, this goal was translated into the 1974 Universal Primary Education Movement, whose goal was to make primary education universally available, compulsory, and provided free of cost to users to ensure it reached the poorest. As the strategy was implemented, large-scale increases in the numbers of primary schools and teachers were brought about through campaign-style programs with the help of donor financing. By the beginning of the 1980s, each village in Tanzania had a primary school and gross primary school enrollment reached nearly 100 percent, although the quality of education provided was not very high. From 1996 the education sector proceeded through the launch and operation of Primary Education Development Plan - PEDP in 2001 to date.

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2. Globalization
To different scholars, the definition of globalization may be different. According to Cheng (2000), it may refer to the transfer, adaptation, and development of values, knowledge, technology, and behavioral norms across countries and societies in different parts of the world. The typical phenomena and characteristics associated with globalization include growth of global networking (e.g. internet, world wide e-communication, and transportation), global transfer and interflow in technological, economic, social, political, cultural, and learning areas, international alliances and competitions, international collaboration and exchange, global village, multi-cultural integration, and use of international standards and benchmarks. See also Makule (2008) and MoEC (2000).

Globalisation And Primary Education Development In Tanzania: Prospects And Challenges

3. Globalization in Education
In education discipline globalization can mean the same as the above meanings as is concern, but most specifically all the key words directed in education matters. Dimmock & Walker (2005) argue that in a globalizing and internalizing world, it is not only business and industry that are changing, education, too, is caught up in that new order. This situation provides each nation a new empirical challenge of how to respond to this new order. Since this responsibility is within a national and that there is inequality in terms of economic level and perhaps in cultural variations in the world, globalization seems to affect others positively and the vice versa (Bush 2005). In most of developing countries, these forces come as imposing forces from the outside and are implemented unquestionably because they do not have enough resource to ensure its implementation (Arnove 2003; Crossley & Watson, 2004).

There is misinterpretation that globalization has no much impact on education because the traditional ways of delivering education is still persisting within a national state. But, it has been observed that while globalization continues to restructure the world economy, there are also powerful ideological packages that reshape education system in different ways (Carnoy, 1999; Carnoy & Rhoten, 2002). While others seem to increase access, equity and quality in education, others affect the nature of educational management. Bush (2005) and Lauglo (1997) observe that decentralization of education is one of the global trends in the world which enable to reform educational leadership and management at different levels. They also argue that Decentralization forces help different level of educational management to have power of decision making related to the allocation of resources. Carnoy (1999) further portrays that the global ideologies and economic changes are increasingly intertwined in the international institutions that broadcast particular strategies for educational change. These include western governments, multilateral and bilateral development agencies and NGOs (Crossley & Watson 2004). Also these agencies are the ones which develop global policies and transfer them through funds, conferences and other means. Certainly, with these powerful forces education reforms and to be more specifically, the current reforms on school leadership to a large extent are influenced by globalization.

4. The School Leadership
In Tanzania the leadership and management of education systems and processes is increasingly seen as one area where improvement can and need to be made in order to ensure that education is delivered not only efficiently but also efficaciously. Although literatures for education leadership in Tanzania are inadequate, Komba in EdQual (2006) pointed out that research in various aspects of leadership and management of education, such as the structures and delivery stems of education; financing and alternative sources of support to education; preparation, nurturing and professional development of education leaders; the role of female educational leaders in improvement of educational quality; as will as the link between education and poverty eradication, are deemed necessary in approaching issues of educational quality in any sense and at any level. The nature of out of school factors that may render support to the quality of education e.g. traditional leadership institutions may also need to be looked into.

5. Impact of Globalization
As mentioned above, globalization is creating numerous opportunities for sharing knowledge, technology, social values, and behavioral norms and promoting developments at different levels including individuals, organizations, communities, and societies across different countries and cultures. Cheng (2000); Brown, (1999); Waters, (1995) pointed out the advantages of globalization as follows: Firstly it enable global sharing of knowledge, skills, and intellectual assets that are necessary to multiple developments at different levels. The second is the mutual support, supplement and benefit to produce synergy for various developments of countries, communities, and individuals. The third positive impact is creation of values and enhancing efficiency through the above global sharing and mutual support to serving local needs and growth. The fourth is the promotion of international understanding, collaboration, harmony and acceptance to cultural diversity across countries and regions. The fifth is facilitating multi-way communications and interactions, and encouraging multi-cultural contributions at different levels among countries.

The potential negative impacts of globalization are educationally concerned in various types of political, economic, and cultural colonization and overwhelming influences of advanced countries to developing countries and rapidly increasing gaps between rich areas and poor areas in different parts of the world. The first impact is increasing the technological gaps and digital divides between advanced countries and less developed countries that are hindering equal opportunities for fair global sharing. The second is creation of more legitimate opportunities for a few advanced countries to economically and politically colonize other countries globally. Thirdly is exploitation of local resources which destroy indigenous cultures of less advanced countries to benefit a few advanced countries. Fourthly is the increase of inequalities and conflicts between areas and cultures. And fifthly is the promotion of the dominant cultures and values of some advanced areas and accelerating cultural transplant from advanced areas to less developed areas.

The management and control of the impacts of globalization are related to some complicated macro and international issues that may be far beyond the scope of which I did not include in this paper. Cheng (2002) pointed out that in general, many people believe, education is one of key local factors that can be used to moderate some impacts of globalization from negative to positive and convert threats into opportunities for the development of individuals and local community in the inevitable process of globalization. How to maximize the positive effects but minimize the negative impacts of globalization is a major concern in current educational reform for national and local developments.

6. Globalization of Education and Multiple Theories
The thought of writing this paper was influenced by the multiple theories propounded by Yin Cheng, (2002). He proposed a typology of multiple theories that can be used to conceptualize and practice fostering local knowledge in globalization particularly through globalized education. These theories of fostering local knowledge is proposed to address this key concern, namely as the theory of tree, theory of crystal, theory of birdcage, theory of DNA, theory of fungus, and theory of amoeba. Their implications for design of curriculum and instruction and their expected educational outcomes in globalized education are correspondingly different.

The theory of tree assumes that the process of fostering local knowledge should have its roots in local values and traditions but absorb external useful and relevant resources from the global knowledge system to grow the whole local knowledge system inwards and outwards. The expected outcome in globalized education will be to develop a local person with international outlook, who will act locally and develop globally. The strength of this theory is that the local community can maintain and even further develop its traditional values and cultural identity as it grows and interacts with the input of external resources and energy in accumulating local knowledge for local developments.

The theory of crystal is the key of the fostering process to have "local seeds" to crystallize and accumulate the global knowledge along a given local expectation and demand. Therefore, fostering local knowledge is to accumulate global knowledge around some "local seeds" that may be to exist local demands and values to be fulfilled in these years. According to this theory, the design of curriculum and instruction is to identify the core local needs and values as the fundamental seeds to accumulate those relevant global knowledge and resources for education. The expected educational outcome is to develop a local person who remains a local person with some global knowledge and can act locally and think locally with increasing global techniques. With local seeds to crystallize the global knowledge, there will be no conflict between local needs and the external knowledge to be absorbed and accumulated in the development of local community and individuals.

The theory of birdcage is about how to avoid the overwhelming and dominating global influences on the nation or local community. This theory contends that the process of fostering local knowledge can be open for incoming global knowledge and resources but at the same time efforts should be made to limit or converge the local developments and related interactions with the outside world to a fixed framework. In globalized education, it is necessary to set up a framework with clear ideological boundaries and social norms for curriculum design such that all educational activities can have a clear local focus when benefiting from the exposure of wide global knowledge and inputs. The expected educational outcome is to develop a local person with bounded global outlook, who can act locally with filtered global knowledge. The theory can help to ensure local relevance in globalized education and avoid any loss of local identity and concerns during globalization or international exposure.

The theory of DNA represents numerous initiatives and reforms have made to remove dysfunctional local traditions and structures in country of periphery and replace them with new ideas borrowed from core countries. This theory emphasizes on identifying and transplanting the better key elements from the global knowledge to replace the existing weaker local components in the local developments. In globalizing education, the curriculum design should be very selective to both local and global knowledge with aims to choose the best elements from them. The expected educational outcome is to develop a person with locally and globally mixed elements, who can act and think with mixed local and global knowledge. The strength of this theory is its openness for any rational investigation and transplant of valid knowledge and elements without any local barrier or cultural burden. It can provide an efficient way to learn and improve the existing local practices and developments.

The theory of fungus reflects the mode of fostering local knowledge in globalization. This theory assumes that it is a faster and easier way to digest and absorb certain relevant types of global knowledge for nutrition of individual and local developments, than to create their own local knowledge from the beginning. From this theory, the curriculum and instruction should aim at enabling students to identify and learn what global knowledge is valuable and necessary to their own developments as well as significant to the local community. In globalizing education, the design of education activities should aim at digesting the complex global knowledge into appropriate forms that can feed the needs of individuals and their growth. The expected educational outcome is to develop a person equipped certain types of global knowledge, who can act and think dependently of relevant global knowledge and wisdom. Strengths of the theory is for some small countries, easily digest and absorb the useful elements of global knowledge than to produce their own local knowledge from the beginning. The roots for growth and development are based on the global knowledge instead of local culture or value.

The theory of amoeba is about the adaptation to the fasting changing global environment and the economic survival in serious international competitions. This theory considers that fostering local knowledge is only a process to fully use and accumulate global knowledge in the local context. Whether the accumulated knowledge is really local or the local values can be preserved is not a major concern. According to this theory, the curriculum design should include the full range of global perspectives and knowledge to totally globalize education in order to maximize the benefit from global knowledge and become more adaptive to changing environment. Therefore, to achieve broad international outlook and apply global knowledge locally and globally is crucial in education. And, cultural burdens and local values can be minimized in the design of curriculum and instruction in order to let students be totally open for global learning. The expected educational outcome is to develop a flexible and open person without any local identity, who can act and think globally and fluidly. The strengths of this theory are also its limitations particularly in some culturally fruit countries. There will be potential loss of local values and cultural identity in the country and the local community will potentially lose its direction and social solidarity during overwhelming globalization.

Each country or local community may have its unique social, economic and cultural contexts and therefore, its tendency to using one theory or a combination of theories from the typology in globalized education may be different from the other. To a great extent, it is difficult to say one is better than other even though the theories of tree, birdcage and crystal may be more preferred in some culturally rich countries. For those countries with less cultural assets or local values, the theories of amoeba and fungus may be an appropriate choice for development. However, this typology can provide a wide spectrum of alternatives for policy-makers and educators to conceptualize and formulate their strategies and practices in fostering local knowledge for the local developments. See more about the theories in Cheng (2002; 11-18)

7. Education Progress since Independence in Tanzania
During the first phase of Tanzania political governance (1961-1985) the Arusha Declaration, focusing on "Ujamaa" (African socialism) and self-reliance was the major philosophy. The nationalization of the production and provision of goods and services by the state and the dominance of ruling party in community mobilization and participation highlighted the "Ujamaa" ideology, which dominated most of the 1967-1985 eras. In early 1970s, the first phase government embarked on an enormous national campaign for universal access to primary education, of all children of school going age. It was resolved that the nation should have attained universal primary education by 1977. The ruling party by that time Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), under the leadership of the former and first president of Tanzania Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, directed the government to put in place mechanisms for ensuring that the directive, commonly known as the Musoma Resolution, was implemented. The argument behind that move was essentially that, as much as education was a right to each and every citizen, a government that is committed to the development of an egalitarian socialist society cannot segregate and discriminate her people in the provision of education, especially at the basic level.

7.1. The Presidential Commission on Education
In 1981, a Presidential Commission on education was appointed to review the existing system of education and propose necessary changes to be realized by the country towards the year 2000. The Commission submitted its report in March 1982 and the government has implemented most of its recommendation. The most significant ones related to this paper were the establishment of the Teachers' Service Commission (TSC), the Tanzania Professional Teachers Association, the introduction of new curriculum packages at primary, secondary and teacher education levels, the establishment of the Faculty of Education (FoE) at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, the introduction of pre-primary teacher education programme; and the expansion of secondary education.

7.2. Education during the Second Phase Government of Tanzania
The second phase government of Tanzania spanning from 1985 to 1995, was characterized by new liberal ideas such as free choice, market-oriented schooling and cost efficiency, reduced the government control of the UPE and other social services. The education sector lacked quality teachers as well as teaching/learning materials and infrastructure to address the expansion of the UPE. A vacuum was created while fragmented donor driven projects dominated primary education support. The introduced cost sharing in the provision of social services like education and health hit most the poorest of the poor. This decrease in government support in the provision of social services including education as well as cost-sharing policies were not taken well, given that most of the incomes were below the poverty line. In 1990, the government constituted a National Task Force on education to review the existing education system and recommend a suitable education system for the 21st century.

The report of this task force, the Tanzania Education System for the 21st Century, was submitted to the government in November 1992. Recommendations of the report have been taken into consideration in the formulation of the Tanzania Education and Training Policy (TETP). In spite of the very impressive expansionary education policies and reforms in the 1970s, the goal to achieve UPE, which was once targeted for achievement in 1980, is way out of reach. Similarly, the Jomtien objective to achieve Basic Education for all in 2000 is on the part of Tanzania unrealistic. The participation and access level have declined to the point that attainment of UPE is once again an issue in itself. Other developments and trends indicate a decline in the quantitative goals set rather than being closer to them (Cooksey and Reidmiller, 1997; Mbilinyi, 2000). At the same time serious doubt is being raised about school quality and relevance of education provided (Galabawa, Senkoro and Lwaitama, (eds), 2000).

7.3. Outcomes of UPE
According to Galabawa (2001), the UPE describing, analysis and discussing explored three measures in Tanzania: (1) the measure of access to first year of primary education namely, the apparent intake rate. This is based on the total number of new entrants in the first grade regardless of age. This number is in turn expressed as a percentage of the population at the official primary school entrance age and the net intake rate based on the number of new entrants in the first grade who are of the official primary school entrance age expressed as percentage of the population of corresponding age. (2) The measure of participation, namely, gross enrolment ratio representing the number of children enrolled in primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official primary school age population; while the net enrolment ratio corresponds to the number of children of the official primary school age enrolled in primary school expressed as a percentage of corresponding population. (3) The measure of internal efficiency of education system, which reflect the dynamics of different operational decision making events over the school cycle like dropouts, promotions and repetitions.

7.3.1. Access to Primary Education
The absolute numbers of new entrants to grade one of primary school cycles have grown steadily since 1970s. The number of new entrants increased from around 400,000 in 1975 to 617,000 in 1990 and to 851,743 in 2000, a rise of 212.9 percent in relative terms. The apparent (gross) intake rate was high at around 80% in the 1970s dropping to 70% in 1975 and rise up to 77% in 2000. This level reflects the shortcomings in primary education provision. Tanzania is marked by wide variations in both apparent and net intake rates-between urban and rural districts with former performing higher. Low intake rates in rural areas reflect the fact that many children do not enter schools at the official age of seven years.

7.3.2. Participation in Primary Education
The regression in the gross and net primary school enrolment ratios; the exceptionally low intake at secondary and vocational levels; and, the general low internal efficiency of the education sector have combined to create a UPE crisis in Tanzania's education system (Education Status Report, 2001). There were 3,161,079 primary pupils in Tanzania in 1985 and, in the subsequent decade primary enrolment rose dramatically by 30% to 4,112,167 in 1999. These absolute increases were not translated into gross/net enrolment rates, which actually experienced a decline threatening the sustainability of quantitative gains. The gross enrolment rate, which was 35.1% in late 1960's and early 1970s', grew appreciably to 98.0% in 1980 when the net enrolment rate was 68%. (ibid)

7.3.3. Internal Efficiency in Primary Education
The input/output ratio shows that it takes an average of 9.4 years (instead of planned 7 years) for a pupil to complete primary education. The extra years are due to starting late, drop-outs, repetition and high failure rate which is pronounced at standard four where a competency/mastery examination is administered (ESDP, 1999, p.84). The drive towards UPE has been hampered by high wastage rates.

7.4. Education during the Third Phase Government of Tanzania
The third phase government spanning the period from 1995 to date, intends to address both income and non-income poverty so as to generate capacity for provision and consumption of better social services. In order to address these income and non-income poverty the government formed the Tanzania Vision 2025. Vision 2025 targets at high quality livelihood for all Tanzanians through the realization of UPE, the eradication of illiteracy and the attainment of a level of tertiary education and training commensurate with a critical mass of high quality human resources required to effectively respond to the developmental challenges at all level. In order to revitalize the whole education system the government established the Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP) in this period. Within the ESDP, there two education development plans already in implementation, namely: (a) The Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP); and (b) The Secondary Education Development Plan (SEDP).

8. Prospects and Challenges of Primary of Education Sector
Since independence, The government has recognised the central role of education in achieving the overall development goal of improving the quality of life of Tanzanians through economic growth and poverty reduction. Several policies and structural reforms have been initiated by the Government to improve the quality of education at all levels. These include: Education for Self-Reliance, 1967; Musoma Resolution, 1974; Universal Primary Education (UPE), 1977; Education and Training Policy (ETP), 1995; National Science and Technology Policy, 1995; Technical Education and Training Policy, 1996; Education Sector Development Programme, 1996 and National Higher Education Policy, 1999. The ESDP of 1996 represented for the first time a Sector-Wide Approach to education development to redress the problem of fragmented interventions. It called for pooling together of resources (human, financial and materials) through the involvement of all key stakeholders in education planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (URT, 1998 quoted in MoEC 2005b). The Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP) provided the institutional framework.

Challenges include the considerable shortage of classrooms, a shortage of well qualified and expert teachers competent to lead their learners through the new competency based curriculum and learning styles, and the absence of an assessment and examination regime able to reinforce the new approaches and reward students for their ability to demonstrate what they know understand and can do. At secondary level there is a need to expand facilities necessary as a result of increased transition rates. A major challenge is the funding gap, but the government is calling on its development partners to honour the commitments made at Dakar, Abuja, etc, to respond positively to its draft Ten Year Plan. A number of systemic changes are at a critical stage, including decentralisation, public service reform, strengthening of financial management and mainstreaming of ongoing project and programmes. The various measures and interventions introduced over the last few years have been uncoordinated and unsynchronised. Commitment to a sector wide approach needs to be accompanied by careful attention to secure coherence and synergy across sub-sectoral elements. (Woods, 2007).

9. Education and School Leadership in Tanzania and the Impacts
Education and leadership in primary education sector in Tanzania has passed through various periods as explained in the stages above. The school leadership major reformation was maintained and more decentralized in the implementation of the PEDP from the year 2000 to date. This paper is also more concerned with the implementation of globalization driven policies that influence the subjectivity of education changes. It is changing to receive what Tjeldvoll et al. (2004:1; quoted in Makule, 2008) considers as "the new managerial responsibilities". These responsibilities are focused to increase accountability, equity and quality in education which are global agenda, because it is through these, the global demands in education will be achieved. In that case school leadership in Tanzania has changed. The change observed is due to the implementation of decentralization of both power and fund to the low levels such as schools. School leadership now has more autonomy over the resources allocated to school than it was before decentralization. It also involves community in all the issues concerning the school improvement.

10. Prospects and Challenges of School Leadership

10.1. Prospects
The decentralization of both power and funds from the central level to the low level of education such as school and community brought about various opportunities. Openness, community participation and improved efficiency mentioned as among the opportunities obtained with the current changes on school leadership. There is improved accountability, capacity building and educational access to the current changes on school leadership. This is viewed in strong communication network established in most of the schools in the country. Makule (2008) in her study found out that the network was effective where every head teacher has to send to the district various school reports such as monthly report, three month report, half a year report, nine month report and one year report. In each report there is a special form in which a head teacher has to feel information about school. The form therefore, give account of activities that takes place at school such as information about the uses of the funds and the information about attendance both teacher and students, school buildings, school assets, meetings, academic report, and school achievement and problems encountered. The effect of globalization forces on school leadership in Tanzania has in turn forced the government to provide training and workshop for school leadership (MoEC, 2005b). The availability of school leadership training, whether through workshop or training course, considered to be among the opportunities available for school leadership in Tanzania

10.2. Challenges
Like all countries, Tanzania is bracing itself for a new century in every respect. The dawn of the new millennium brings in new changes and challenges of all sectors. The Education and Training sector has not been spared for these challenges. This is, particularly important in recognition of adverse/implications of globalisation for developing states including Tanzania. For example, in the case of Tanzania, globalisation entails the risks of increased dependence and marginalisation and thus human resource development needs to play a central role to redress the situation. Specifically, the challenges include the globalisation challenges, access and equity, inclusive or special needs education, institutional capacity building and the HIV/aids challenge.

11. Conclusion
There are five types of local knowledge and wisdom to be pursued in globalized education, including the economic and technical knowledge, human and social knowledge, political knowledge, cultural knowledge, and educational knowledge for the developments of individuals, school institutions, communities, and the society. Although globalisation is linked to a number of technological and other changes which have helped to link the world more closely, there are also ideological elements which have strongly influenced its development. A "free market" dogma has emerged which exaggerates both the wisdom and role of markets, and of the actors in those markets, in the organisation of human society. Fashioning a strategy for responsible globalisation requires an analysis which separates that which is dogma from that which is inevitable. Otherwise, globalisation is an all too convenient excuse and explanation for anti-social policies and actions including education which undermine progress and break down community. Globalisation as we know it has profound social and political implications. It can bring the threat of exclusion for a large portion of the world's population, severe problems of unemployment, and growing wage and income disparities. It makes it more and more difficult to deal with economic policy or corporate behaviour on a purely national basis. It also has brought a certain loss of control by democratic institutions of development and economic policy.

Globalisation And Primary Education Development In Tanzania: Prospects And Challenges

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Corruption: How to Stop

Corruption is a universal social phenomenon that exists in any culture and thrives in any type of society. Many countries claim to have eradicated corruption. By the same token many people believe that corruption can only flourish in bureaucratic societies or post-communist countries where every single matter is controlled by the corrupt government. Even though such a belief is very popular, the reality does not support such an argument. Corruption is all-pervasive and cannot be eradicated completely and irrevocably. It exists everywhere in every stratum of society. However, most people associate corruption with the government, police, legal system and other entities that are somehow related to the control and allocation of public resources. The police are one of such public authorities that are responsible for maintaining order and justice in a society. A police department is very similar to other governmental bodies such as a court of law, or tax collection service, etc. It is a common belief that such organizations tend to be corruption-ridden for one simple reason. All theses public structures receive and distribute the tax-payers' money, in other words there is no person totally interested in controlling the flow of funds like in a big corporation. A privately owned business is very different in terms of its ownership structure. There is a certain clearly defined group of people who own the business. It would be reasonable to assume that they are very much interested in controlling the monetary resources they invested in the business. Thus, there is a clear incentive to control the flow of resources in that kind of organization. A public organization that is not owned by any private entity is very different. It is very similar to a communist country where there is no clear line of command and responsibility. Even though the structure of the organization such as a police department generates favorable soil for corruption to flourish, the society must devise clearly outlined strategies in order to tackle this social vice that is definitely responsible for generating losses for the society and undermining the notion of justice, order, social equality and democracy.

To begin with it is necessary to identify the nature of corruption in general terms. Corruption seems to be inherent to any social structure. Also, it seems to be inherent to human nature since the cultural or social setting does not exert any influence on the possibility for corruption to thrive. Corruption exists in democratic countries like the United States of America or European countries. By the same token, corruption is present in post-communist societies and countries such as Indonesia, or Colombia. The similar thing among all those countries is that corruption is not restrained by geographic, political or cultural boundaries. However, the difference among the aforementioned societies lies in the level of corruption that a given society is willing to tolerate. It is no secret that countries like Indonesia are virtually ridden with corruption. A foreign businessman cannot open a store without paying bribes to local government officials for taking care of the paperwork and the local police for so-called security services. In case our imaginary businessman refuses to pay the police, his brand new store is very likely burn to the ground the very next day. Therefore, cultural and social aspects virtually define the role of corruption in a given social organization.

Mass Mutual

Corruption as a social phenomenon is especially salient in organizations like the police. The reason police are so susceptible and exposed to corruption is because of the organization structure of a police department. To illustrate, a police department does not generate any revenue and there is no private owner. The police are totally subsidized by the government. The government officials estimate the amount of funds that would spent by the police and create a budget based on those estimates. Therefore, a police department is a consumer of tax-payers money rather than a contributor to the state's budget. The people who work in the police force are only motivated by financial incentives that come from the government in a form of salaries. People who stand on the various levels in the organizational ladder receive a very similar type of financial incentive. Thus, the head of a police department is only motivated by the salary that the government sets forth in exchange for the service. There is usually no additional motivation resulting from better and more diligent work. Therefore, if you work in the police it usually does not matter how hard and how diligently you work, because the salary is rarely affected by that quality of work factor. Therefore, low salaries and the absence of external motivation contribute to the spread of corruption. Police officers are motivated to accept bribes in exchange for more lenient treatment. Criminals who bribe the police are also better off eventually, because that way they escape punishment that they would have to accept otherwise. There is a clear mutual gain that is generated as a result of such a relationship. However, there is a clear cost that offsets the gain derived by the two parties as a result of such a transaction. The cost is associated with the credibility and significance of the law that is undermined and eventually annihilated by corruption. The state cannot exist without the law and justice; as soon as those two components are ruled out the society turns into a chaotic crowd. Therefore, it is the government's responsibility to control the level of corruption and make the police render a service to the society.

Corruption: How to Stop

Obviously, there are two issues that must be addressed in order to control corruption among police officers. The first essential component is legal restrictions and regulations that should be designed specifically to prevent the police from engaging in any of such transactions with criminals. There should be an anti-corruption department the task of which is to observe the operations of the police officers. This anti-corruption department should enforce the government's policies concerning corruption. Those policies must be very strict and clear in determining the appropriate punishment for the police officers spreading corruption. The disciplinary actions may range from fines to expulsion from the police, even though some other punishment may be deemed appropriate depending on the situation. The bottom-line is that punishment must be clear and strict, so that people are aware of the potential severe consequences that such behavior can lead to. That is a basic technique that should be implemented in virtually every police department. Even though such a program may turn quite costly for the government, the result that it can potentially yield is obvious. The members of anti-corruption committee should be paid handsomely so that there is no sense for them to engage in corruption. Another strategy to control corruption is to increase the salaries of all police officers thus providing them with additional motivation. As it can be seen, all these techniques involve capital expenditures, and it is quite clear that corruption cannot be eradicated. The bottom-line is to control it at a certain acceptable level where the potential harm that corruption can do to a society is low.

Corruption: How to Stop

Sunday, April 8, 2012

A New Strategy on Diversity: Aligning Leadership and Organizational Culture

The Diversity Initiative

Speaking at a National Naval Officers Association Conference, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Mullen stated "diversity continues to be a leadership issue and critical to the Navy's future success." Everyone is familiar with the traditional challenges of diversity. However, concepts of diversity have evolved from inclusion and tolerance, to managing diversity, and recognizing the link between diversity and the emerging complexity of organizations such as the Navy. "A complex environment is one characterized by multiple critical elements that differ significantly." Complexities such as joint collaborations, emerging technology, and globalization contribute to the challenges of organizational diversity within the Navy. Culture is not created by declaration; it derives from expectations focused on winning. We can only have a culture that encourages performance if we recruit the right people, require them to behave in a way that is consistent with the values the Navy espouses, and implement processes that will allow the Navy to be successful.

Mass Mutual

Differences of any kind make the task more complex. Differences such as proficiency in the use of technology or differences among warfare communities (i.e. Supply Corps, Aviators, Surface, etc.) will contribute to organizational complexity. If the Navy wishes to remain competitive in this complex environment, we must adopt "complex managerial strategies" drawn from multiple strategies.

A New Strategy on Diversity: Aligning Leadership and Organizational Culture

If we accept that the leader's job is to inspire and support the collective responsibility to create a better future for the Navy, then what are the tools to effectiveness? What characteristics must naval leaders have for this mission? There are key principles we must consider while striving to improve leader-follower relationships. First, organizational design affects culture which in turn impacts strategy formation. Second, leaders must have an understanding of their organization's culture in order to identify the obstacles to effective leadership. Finally, by aligning the Navy's organizational design and diversity strategy with culture leaders can modify their behavioral styles for desired outcomes by utilizing tools that engage sailors. In summary, I will identify obstacles to diversity and measures of effectiveness that commanders can implement to manage diversity.

IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN ON DIVERSITY

The task of managing diversity in today's rapidly changing environment is becoming progressively more difficult. Of course increasingly dissimilar kinds of people are entering the Navy and demanding different treatment. But some underlying forces are also present and pushing toward needed unity. Some of the reasons that spurn the need for diversity management include: "misunderstanding or distortion of affirmative action requirements," the expectation that "only one group needs to change," or an "appearance of 'political correctness' that can put off those with differing views."

Though the increased existence of cultural differences within the Navy is a fact, there is also a culture that is already present. The Navy is a subculture of identifiable traditions and a strong national culture. This cultural foundation forms a viable base for mutual action, trust and support. It can help commanders build unity among their sailors. "The reporting relationships, business practices, policies, and even the physical structure of any workplace are based on the cumulative experiences of that organization." The culture we know today is a result of the people who have made up the Navy over time, the larger culture they have created, and the total context in which we operate.

Leadership for diversity is an integrative activity that proposes one value system, one culture, around which many people can gather to accomplish useful results. "[Diversity management] requires the ability to think and act in certain ways, and that is what ensures that it is doable." The Navy must accept the good values and reject those values and behaviors that are undesirable. Many cultures include values, ideals or behavior that work against effective, coordinated performance. While most would agree in that understanding the role of culture and other variables is important in a range of arenas.

However, in practice people often report that they experience "great discomfort when confronted with the need to discuss these issues and even greater discomfort when the discussion leads to an examination of the social inequities that are associated with membership in certain groups." For example, American society typically does not accept cultural values that regard punctuality as unimportant or that condone nepotism; nor does it condone bribery, child labor or a host of other determined values or behaviors. These examples of unacceptable values are inimical to efficient interpersonal relationships.

As more people are entering the Navy with different cultural backgrounds, the pressure is on the corporate culture of the Navy to change. "In an effort to recruit and keep top-tier employees of all races and both genders, Fortune 500 companies have begun to address diversity issues in the workplace." Established business expectations, rites and rituals will have to be altered for the new but different sailor; and some of the present cultural systems may need to be discarded. Navy leaders have a special responsibility with regards to diversity. "Not only must you develop yourself to handle the many diverse situations that occur in the workplace, you also are called upon to be a diversity leader-- to help create a climate that values diversity, fairness, and inclusion." As the Navy continues its transformation into the 21 century, leaders must consider how diversity will affect our strategic planning and policies.

IMPACT OF DIVERSITY ON STRATEGY FORMATION

The most important attribute of any planning team is its diversity. This diversity, however, is not about being politically correct or sensitive to a broad representation of sailors. The impact of diversity on strategy formation is not just to avoid age or gender discrimination lawsuits. Successful strategic planning depends on the team's ability to ask new questions, perceive new insights, and imagine new solutions. It's difficult for a group of individuals who share similar backgrounds, thinking styles, and experiences to think new thoughts. "Strategy innovation is a creative process, with a goal to identify markets, products, and business models that may not yet exist."

"A lack of genuine diversity may be the biggest obstacle to improved performance within the [Navy]." If wardrooms are full of too many similar people, from similar backgrounds, who have ascended through similar routes then our diversity strategy is bound for failure. "The best ways for any organization to affirm that it has sufficient diversity is to ensure that the top management team is comprised of individuals with varied sets of skills."

ALIGNING STRATEGY & DESIGN WITH CULTURE

The Navy must create a new value system that supersedes values that are now inappropriate due to increased diversity. Of course all Americans should be open to new values and alternative ways to behave. But we need to match these alternative prospects with what we have now and only change when we are sure the change will add to the organizational design - new visions and values should not take us away from clear societal goals. Naval leaders must be in the vanguard of this change. They shape new cultures and redefine what's acceptable within the Navy and for their sailors.
The goal of the Navy's new Diversity initiative is about drawing the best talent from all aspect of American culture.

The Navy's diversity initiative provides a strategic framework that is broken down into four areas; recruiting - who the Navy brings in; training and development - how the Navy instills values; organizational alignment - how the Navy continues the momentum of cultural change; and communications - how the Navy informs the fleet of where we're headed. Admiral Mike Mullen's address during the Total Force Diversity Day made it clear that the importance of diversity at every level in the Navy is a "strategic imperative" and reminded the attendees that the Navy is engaged around the globe. His efforts remind us that the Navy's diversity strategy rests on the shoulders of our leaders and will only be as strong as their capacity to strive for successful results.

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS FOR DESIRED OUTCOMES

Two Scholars on leadership, James Kouzes and Barry Posner, conducted research on follower expectations by surveying thousands of business and government executives. They asked open-ended questions such as "What values do you look for and admire in your leader?" Four characteristics have consistently stood out among the rest: honesty, vision, competence, and inspiration. Leaders need to develop skills in accepting and using different people and methods to add to the Navy's capacity to survive in a growing and increasingly complex world. We need to suppress feelings of fear and antagonism and increase the capacity to accept differences. Most importantly, we need to be proactive in seeking leadership training in situations of cultural diversity.

Honesty

"It's clear that if people anywhere are to willingly follow someone - whether it be into battle or into the boardroom, the front office or the front lines - they first want to assure themselves that the person is worthy of their trust." Creating and maintaining a culture conducive of trust is becoming more difficult today. The character of the Navy is changing: becoming more diverse and less harmonious. The people coming into our organizations enter with different values and customs. These cultural differences in the people making up the Navy pose major problems in developing a culture of trust. Diversity itself makes the task of developing leadership more difficult.

Every sailor must put off falsehood and speak truthfully, "for we are all members of one body." Honesty is achieved through Discretion and truthfulness. Discretion keeps our minds and focus on sound judgment, giving serious attention and thought to what is going on. It will carefully choose our words, attitudes, and actions to be right for any given situation, thus avoiding words and actions that could result in adverse consequences. Truthfulness means being straight with others and doing what is right. "It's after we have contemplated our own actions, measuring how they align with our values, intentions, and words, that we are most likely to make a contribution of integrity to the world."

Forward-Looking

From an organizational perspective, "leaders need to continually put the vision and mission (related to the purpose) in front of followers." Sailors must understand the organization's vision and know their role in support of the mission. Sailors expect leaders to have a "sense of direction and concern" for the future of the Navy. The leader's role is to build a team out of different individuals. We distinguish leaders by the fact that they provide the vision around which group consensus can be sought. Leaders can lead only united, compatible colleagues who, in essence, volunteer to accept the leader's values and methods. This is contrary to the prevalent view that a consensus-seeking process can ascertain vision. Common visions result from articulation by one person of ideals that the larger group can come to accept. The growing diversity in the Navy challenges the leader's ability to lead "unless he or she can induce increasingly diverse people to accept common values, one vision and similar perspectives."

Competence

Leadership is more than commanding authority and giving orders, it is people who understand and practice the art of listening and who make building trust a priority. In order to assure a productive work environment where sailors take responsibility, Navy leaders must posses and effectively demonstrate competence. Competent leaders have the ability to bring out the best in others. To enlist in another's cause, sailors must believe that the person is competent and able to guide us in the right direction. "We must see the leader as capable and effective."

Inspiration

Inspiration is the psychological feature that arouses someone to take action toward a desired goal. "Inspiring Leadership speaks to our need to have meaning and purpose in our lives." Stimulation of the mind (spiritually and emotionally) to a high level of feeling or activity can only be accomplished through inspiration. Commanders can inspire sailors by relying not on their own understanding but rather on something greater than themselves. As the Apostle Paul declared "... we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

Commanders inspire commitment by looking inward first, becoming aware of how they feel, and communicating a personal vision of the future based on personal knowledge of the past and realistic experience in the present. Focusing on the themes of your own consciousness should be what really drives leaders. "Leaders who develop their message only on the basis of what others might want invariably play to others and only try to please them." Reactions to leaders will be different depending on the focus of the communication. If leaders only perform to others' standards, sailors may be entertained, but if leaders communicate with authentic passion, sailors will respond with excitement and grasp a new and real possibility from an authentic experience.

Dynamics of Diversity

The success of the Navy's increased efforts in diversity will require a firm understanding of the dynamics of diversity. Many diversity strategies are successful because they take into account the 'Dynamics' that contribute to the need for diversity management programs. The merging of job ratings, problems with co-workers, and technology can contribute to dynamics.

Technology, for example, allows the Navy to operate globally with coalition forces, but the sailors must become adept in dealing with cultural differences without non-verbal cues provided by face-to-face communications received by liaison officers. The relevance of diversity management initiatives also affects these dynamics. Different corporate or social cultures must co-exist - such as one group with the same functional expertise of a merged job rating seeks dominance of those who are skilled in other fields, resulting in talent mass exodus. The dynamics of diversity has made it increasingly important for the Navy not only to "minimize cultural errors but also to understand and work with people of various backgrounds."

Champions of Diversity

Because of the nature of hierarchy and use of power and authority within the Navy, the process of managing diversity must begin at the top. Seeing a direct relationship between diversity and mission readiness, former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark expanded the traditional Navy's focus of diversity beyond race and gender, and folded in a "Sailor's creativity, culture, ethnicity, religion, skills and talents." As managing diversity moves to the forefront of the Navy's organizational development, processes must be developed that allow the commitments to become institutionalized within the organizational structure. Efforts devoted to education and awareness must be closely followed by processes that create systematic change. One recommended model is "champion of diversity model". Under this model, the Navy would identify the elements of the culture and climate that leads to the development of an educated, committed, and systematically supported group of Navy leaders of the diversity change process. Whether it is education, training, or simple awareness Navy leaders have to 'champion' diversity.

MEASURE WHAT MATTERS

Diversity Management is about how we make decisions in situations where there are critical differences, similarities, and tensions. Roosevelt Thomas, author of Building on the Promise of Diversity, identified three critical questions that will help any organization in the journey towards diversity. First, what is a quality decision? A "quality decision", according to Thomas, is one that helps to accomplish three important goals: mission, vision, and strategy. Second, what constitutes significant differences, similarities, and tensions? Another way of asking this question is how do leaders know what mixture if diverse? Are we concerned about race, gender, ethnicity, geographic origin, religion? How do leaders know what level of diversity is right for their organization? We can't tell just by looking at people. We must first specify which dimensions we consider significant. And for every significant dimension, the first core question should be how different or similar are the members of the mixture? Leaders must know what mixture they currently have and identify which dimensions are important. The third question Thomas suggested is: Where could we use "strategic diversity management?" Once leaders have identified the potential gaps, they can then begin to recruit to fill them.

The Chief of Naval Personnel stood up the "Fleet Diversity Council" which meets semi-annually to discuss the diversity strategy for our sailors and civilian employees. It provides a forum for unfiltered dialogue about diversity related initiatives and issues and whether or not they are working. The council provides feedback to the Chief of Naval Operations as well as communications to the fleet. Throughout this I've made it clear that diversity is a leadership issue. This is largely due to both the wide variety of diversity that there is in the Navy, and the impact that diversity can have on so many aspects of organizational and individual behavior. However, this does not remove the responsibility from individual sailors nor the requirement for life long learning.

We've Still Got a Lot to Learn

My experience of diversity training has often been that people attend such training with the view that there is little that they can learn about diversity. So there is a challenge to us all to assess what we still have to learn about diversity and to meet that challenge with openness and a willingness to learn. "People will only effectively learn about diversity if they are prepared to take risks in their learning." It is not a comfortable feeling to learn that we have prejudices we need to deal with. It is not easy to find that our own view of the world is just one of many, and those other views are equally valid. We all have a great deal to learn about diversity. Not just a better understanding of the reality of diversity in the Navy, but also the issues that this raises. If our Navy is to be a reflection of our society, then naval leaders must strive to understand the reality of diversity in our society as well.

_______________________________________________

1. Chief of Naval Operations (August 12, 2005)on "Diversity is a Leadership Issue." 33rd annual National Naval Officers Association (NNOA) Conference in New Orleans LA. Chief of Naval Operations Public Affairs http://www.news.navy.mil/local/cno/

2. Thomas, R. R. (1996). Redefining Diversity. New York, NY: AMACOM Books. p. 192.

3. Hamm, J. (May 1, 2006). The Five Messages Leaders Must Manage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Article. p. 3.

4. Thomas, (1996) "Redefining Diversity": p. 192.

5. Karsten, M. F. (2006). Management, Gender, and Race in the 21st Century. Lanham, MA: University Press of America, Inc. p. 96-103.

6. Cross, E. Y. and White, M. B. (1996). The Diversity Factor. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. p. 25.

7. Thomas, R. R. Jr. (2005). Building on the Promise of Diversity: How We Can Move to the Next Level in Our Workplaces, Our Communities, and Our Society. Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM. P. 103. Retrieved July 9, 2006, from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/regent/Doc?id=10120209&ppg=121.

8. Robinson, John D.(Editor). (2003). Diversity in Human Interactions : The Tapestry of America. Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press, Incorporated. P. 8.

9. Pollar, Odette. (1994). Dynamics of Diversity: Strategic Programs for Your Organization. Boston, MA: Course Technology Crisp. P. 9.

10. Lieberman, Simma. (2003). Putting Diversity to Work: How to Successful Lead a Diverse Workforce. Menlo Park, CA, USA: Course Technology Crisp. P. 38.

11. Johnston, Robert E. (2003). Power of Strategy Innovation: A New Way of Linking Creativity and Strategic Planning to Discover Great Business Opportunities. Saranac Lake, NY: AMACOM. p. 86.

12. Stern, Stefan (2006). A Vigorous 'Human Audit' is Good for the Top Table. Financial Times, June 26, 2006. p. 79.

13. Weinzimmer, Laurence G. (2001). Fast Growth: How to Attain It, How to Sustain It. Chicago, IL, USA: Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company. p. 134.

14. Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Mullen addressed a packed audience at the Naval Air Systems Command Total Force Diversity Day June 29, 2006 at Patuxent River, MD. CNO Calls "Diversity a Strategic Imperative." from Chief of Naval Operations Public Affairs http://www.news.navy.mil/local/cno/

15. Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (2002). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. p. 24.

16. Kouzes, "The Leadership Challenge": p. 27.

17. Holy Bible (1985). King James Version Study Bible. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan. Ephesians 4:25.

18. Sherman, Stratford (2003). Rethinking Integrity. Leader to Leader, No. 28

19. Winston, Bruce (2002). Be a Leader for God's Sake. Regent University, School of Leadership Studies. Virginia Beach, Virginia.

20. Kouzes, "The Leadership Challenge": p. 28.

21. Fairholm, Gilbert W. (1998). Perspectives on Leadership: From the Science of Management to Its Spiritual Heart. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated. p. 103.

22. Kouzes, "The Leadership Challenge": p. 29.

23. Kouzes, "The Leadership Challenge": p. 31.

24. Holy Bible (1985). King James Version: I Corinthians 2:13.

25. Pearce, Terry (2003). Leading Out Loud: Inspiring Change through Authentic Communication. San Francisco, CA. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 16.

26. Karsten, Management, Gender, and Race in the 21st Century: p. 100.

27. Suich, K. (2004). Navy Diversity Directorate Formed. Navy Personnel Command, Public Affairs. Story Number: NNS040625-20. Retrieved Electronically 24 June 2006 http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=13469.

28. Cross, "The Diversity Factor": p. 57.

29. Thomas, (2005). "Building on the Promise of Diversity": p. 103 - 105.

30. In support of the CNO's Strategy for our People, the Chief of Naval Personnel has stood up the Fleet Diversity Council. It will provide a forum for unfiltered feedback to the CNO about diversity related initiatives and issues, and how they are working or not working in the fleet. http://www.npc.navy.mil/CommandSupport/Diversity/Fleet+Diversity+Council.htm

31. Clements, Phillip Edward. (2006). Diversity Training Handbook: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Changing Attitudes. London, GBR: Kogan Page, Limited. P. 100.

A New Strategy on Diversity: Aligning Leadership and Organizational Culture

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Never Put Your Money in a Unit Trust

Along with credit cards and ATMs, unit trusts are probably one of the best financial innovations of the last sixty years. Unit trusts have been described as 'a breakthrough in financial democracy' because they have enabled ordinary savers to get access to professional financial management at very low cost. Before the development of unit trusts, most of us would have had to buy shares in individual companies if we wanted exposure to stock markets. Unit trusts removed much of the hard work and uncertainty for us as we no longer had to analyse companies' performance or the advantages and disadvantages of different bonds before deciding where to invest - the fund managers and their staff did this for us.

The ease and low cost of putting money into unit trusts has encouraged many people to save. In fact, for possibly the majority of savers, unit trusts have long been the most sensible, productive and efficient way to grow their money. However, what started as a breakthrough which has benefited tens of millions of savers may now have become a huge and immensely profitable colossus that no longer works in our interests.

Mass Mutual

The unit trust industry has seen enormous growth. In the US (where they're called 'mutual funds'), there were only about four hundred mutuals in 1970 managing around billion. Now there are over six thousand funds with more than trillion invested in them. In Britain, another six thousand or so funds manage in excess of 500 billion of our money.

Never Put Your Money in a Unit Trust

Now we are in an almost ludicrous situation where there are more funds than there are companies for them to invest in. By 2012 there were around 6,300 funds based in the US of which about 3,840 were domestic funds channelling US savers' money into just 2,900 stocks listed on the NYSE. There are around 6,300 funds operating out of Britain. Of these we can choose from more than 3,200 to put money in only about 2,600 companies on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and Techmark markets. Globally there are in the region of fifteen thousand companies which attract unit trust and mutual fund money and yet we have over eighteen thousand funds competing for our cash to invest in those fifteen thousand companies. This means that many funds are forced to buy the same shares. If you look at the prospectuses from, for example, the main UK unit trusts, their top ten investments are mostly in the same companies - HSBC, Aviva, GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone, Centrica, AstraZenica, Tesco and so on.

At first sight, the unit trust costs of two to three per cent that individual savers pay may appear quite modest. But funds manage such huge sums that their charges aggregate up to massive amounts of money taken from our savings each year. In the US, where charges are slightly lower, savers pay in the region of billion to billion a year to mutuals - 6 million to 4 million a day - to look after their investments. In Britain we cough up 10 billion to 15 billion a year - 40 million to 60 million a day. This 40 million to 60 million a day comes directly from our savings and has a terribly destructive impact on any returns we are likely to get.

Perhaps the most worrying development in the unit trust industry is how it has moved away from being a business where a limited number of funds tried to provide effective, low-cost financial management and has instead become more akin to consumer mass marketing where all that seems to matter for thousands of funds is getting in as much investor money as possible to maximise profits for fund management firms.

Many unit trusts follow a similar life cycle. A fund is started with say twenty or thirty million pounds or dollars or euros. Because it is managing a small amount of money, it can flexibly pursue the best investment opportunities and so tends to outperform older, larger and less flexible funds. Moreover in the early stages of their life, the key priority for most funds is to demonstrate rapid growth as this is what will draw in more savers' money.

Gradually the unit trust attracts more funds as financial advisers recommend it to their clients and its assets grow to maybe a hundred or two hundred million. A year or so later, the management company takes out big press adverts trumpeting the fund's extraordinary success. This attracts a flood of new money as ordinary savers pile in, completely ignoring the legally compulsory warning, 'Past performance is no guide to the future'. Studies have repeatedly shown that most new investor money goes into the top-performing funds, particularly those advertised in the press and investing publications. Soon the fund may have five hundred, seven hundred or even a billion pounds, dollars or euros under management.

Now growth becomes a bit more difficult. It's generally accepted that any new information about a company is known to all the main players in a market within less than an hour. When a unit trust just has thirty or fifty million under management, it can sometimes achieve high returns by spotting the occasional opportunity. But when it has five hundred million or more, there simply aren't sufficient opportunities for such large sums and it increasingly has to buy the shares of the larger companies in each country - exactly the same shares that are held by many other trusts. As a trust grows, its flexibility declines and, if it has experienced high growth in the past, its performance will tend to fall back to the average of its sector. This means we are often putting our savings in the wrong unit trusts at the wrong time and are probably not going to get anything near the returns that we assume from the past performance boasted in the unit trust brochures and advertising.

Moreover, there is a direct conflict of interest between ordinary savers and their fund managers. We would make better returns if our funds remained small and nimble. But managers want to attract as much money as possible to increase their earnings. If unit trusts used their growth to decrease their fees as a percentage of their holdings, then investors would at least get some benefit from their funds' growth. However, most trusts keep their fees constant, or even increase them, as they become more popular. So growth is hugely beneficial for the management company, but does nothing for investors. In a perverse way, unit trust investors end up paying for marketing and advertising which will most likely dampen the trust's performance potential and thus damage their investment returns, while enormously increasing the fund's profitability for the fund management company.

What most savers should do is use unit trust investment managers' knowledge without giving them our money. For example, it's easy to find the best performing unit trusts in any sector. Then you can look on those unit trusts' websites and see which are the main shares they hold. Once you know that, you can buy the same shares directly yourself. You'll save the initial 5% cost of buying into a unit trust. You'll avoid paying 2% to 3% in annual charges. And you'll avoid losing the 5% difference between the price you buy units and the price you can sell them. Over five years you'll have about 20% more than if you'd put your money in a unit trust and you'll probably get the same performance.

Never Put Your Money in a Unit Trust

Monday, April 2, 2012

International Trade - The Principle and Significance of Comparative (Cost) Advantages

The theory or principle of comparative cost advantage states that countries derive mutual benefit from trade when they specialize in the production of those commodities in which they have greatest comparative cost advantage over others and exchange them for other commodities which have comparative cost disadvantage. This principle was propounded by David Ricardo in the 19th century and can help a nation to utilize its resources and as well channel more effort in the production of the actual goods bringing income to it through export.

A country should produce for export those commodities it can produce more cheaply and import those which it can only produce at higher costs. A country has a comparative advantage over others in the production of a commodity (take not that it is comparative and not absolute) in which it has the lowest opportunity cost than others. Therefore, it is the real cost of producing a commodity (in terms of other commodities foregone) that is taken into consideration. Take note that this principle of comparative cost advantage is based on the following assumptions:

Mass Mutual

1. There are only two countries
2. Only two items are produced with the available resources
3. There is free flow and mobility of factors of production
4. There is no transport cost
5. Constant costs prevail
6. Technology is constant
7. Labor is the only factor of production.

International Trade - The Principle and Significance of Comparative (Cost) Advantages

In relation to the above assumptions, Brazil and United States of America (USA) for example, are producing and consuming rice and wheat. The pre-specialization production position is shown below.

Brazil- Rice (100 bags); Wheat (50 bags)
USA- Rice (50 bags); Wheat (100 bags)
TOtal- Rice (150 bags); Wheat (150 bags).

Now, lets evaluate an estimated opportunity cost of producing the two commodities by the two nations.

Brazil, (Rice) 50/100= 1/2. i.e, 1 bag of Rice =1/2 bad of wheat. (Wheat) 100/50=2. i.e, 1 bag of wheat=2 bags of rice.
USA, (Rice) 100/50=2. i.e, 1 bag of rice=2 bags of wheat. (Wheat) 50/100=1/2, 1 bag of wheat =1/2 bag of rice.

By law of comparative cost advantage, Brazil should specialize in the production of rice while USA should specialize in the production of wheat. So total world output after specialization, i.e, Brazil=Rice, USA=Wheat, using all available resources when increase in output of both rice and wheat is 50 bags each would be:

Brazil rice (200), Wheat (0)
USA, rice (0); wheat (200)
Total Rice (200); wheat (200), which is more than the first analysis of Rice (150); Wheat (150).

The plus of this principle is that: there is an increase in total world production; there is better and effective utilization of resources, there is increased consumption of commodities e.g, rice and wheat, there are innovations, resourcefulness and improved technology; there is increase in interdependence between nations of the world and there is reduction in the prices of goods due to mass production.

Finally, the comparative cost advantage has limitations, which are: there are more than two commodities int eh world and the presence of many commodities makes the principle impracticable; there are also more than two countries in the world, all countries of the world do not have equal efficiency of labor, let alone other factors of production; there is no free transport between the countries of the world; there are other factors of production other than labor e.g, capital, land and entrepreneur; all countries of the world can never have equal availability of labor; the cost of production of the world can never be constant and the trade imbalance between countries of the world also makes the principle unworkable. So practically speaking, this principle is simply an abstract one.

International Trade - The Principle and Significance of Comparative (Cost) Advantages